I'm hoping that this post serves its intended purpose in that it will reignite this blog rather than drive the nail into the coffin. That, and I hate seeing the Killers list every time I devolve into one of my pseudo-Aspberger-syndrome bookmark click-fests.
Dan's Top 5:
1. Laziness - I think everyone knew this was coming at #1. It's like trying to list best rock bands of all time or something - there's no question that the Beatles will be at the top of every non-moron's list. Nowadays - especially since I passed the PhD candidacy exam - I have adopted a particularly "meh" attitude to putting forth a lot of effort to anything. Especially things on the Internet.
2. Social Life - I'm not ashamed to proclaim that I have a girlfriend now. What I am ashamed of is proclaiming it to random people on the street who clearly don't care, and as a result tend to get annoyed with me. And by posting this on the Internet, I'm effectively doing the same to any readers we may have. (Sorry, but you're really asking for it.) But it's true - I'm a happy guy.
3. Pop Culture Sucks - I can't really piece together a moderate list of good things related to pop culture that I've experienced since February. Sure, I saw a pretty cool concert, and got a decent album. I thought Star Trek was a fun movie. But the bare minimum for this site is five - kind of like the opposite of an express checkout lane. There's just not enough good stuff out there - or if there is, it sure isn't making itself obvious.
4. Lack of Cynicism - I never thought this would be true, but I guess it is. You know how, when you ask someone how they're doing, they might say something like "fine"? No matter how true it is, it sounds hollow and lifeless. Well, I'm doing fine right now, which has naturally eroded that biting wit and cynicism that it takes to be funny. Not that I ever was funny, but at least I pretended to be witty and cynical enough.
5. The Year of the Ox - According to the Chinese Zodiac, it's been the Year of the Ox since January 26th. I have no idea what that's supposed to mean from an Eastern astrological point of view, but considering that a huge percentage of all the crap I own has doubtlessly been manufactured in China, I feel there's no reason why it can't be the fault of their ancient calendar. Some sort of collective spiritual force conspiring against me. Man, the Rat was a lot better for my work ethic.
Honorable Mention: Hulu.com
Tim's Top Five:
1. I got married. - Basically, the months of April-early June involved me doing the final wedding planning and then spending the last few weeks with my wonderful wife before she left the country. That meant every weekend was spent with her, which leaves little time for sniping at random things via passive-aggressive blog posts.
2. I have a job. - I also had one weekend off between mid-February and my wedding. One out of about...ten. Again, not much time there.
3. I'm a passive follower. - I am way better at following others' lead when it comes to this blog. I've not been focused on generating lists since I've been busy at work, and with no one else to lead the way, I've been slacking.
4. Esoteric topics - the topics that I've considered for my top fives are all things that I know no one else would have a basis to contribute to, which largely defeats the purpose of posting them.
5. Laziness - Yeah, I'm guilty also.
Ryan's Top Five:
1. Work - I have definitely overextended myself this year at work. I spent way too much time creating curriculum, and then spent a good deal of June working, or at very least, having to be up at a morning time and going to things. I am eager for the biggest perk teaching has to offer: summer vacation--which begins on Thursday.
2. House - We bought a house. That took five months and required lots of red-tape work beforehand, and lots of physical labor afterward.
3. The Combination of 1-2 - Lots of Stuff To Do happened as a result of the intersection of 1-2, stuff that wasn't always unpleasant but definitely mitigated my ability to sit down and rank things.
4. Dearth of Topics - I think as a result of 1-2, Top 5 topics generally haven't come to me. I mean, the last good idea I had was Top 5 Wes Anderson characters, and this was a result of sitting down and watching Bottle Rocket. Before that, the last legitimately good idea I remember having was Top 5 Cover songs.
5. Lack of laziness - I've actually been doing more stuff this year--movies, concerts, reading, and generally spending as much time with Cortney as possible. (This, almost certainly, was a concerted effort to combat the prevalence of 1-2).
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Top 5 Songs by The Killers
Tim's Top 5:
1. "All These Things I've Done" from Hot Fuss - The solo vocal, followed by the drums leading into the guitar, which leads into the bass and fades back. The lyrics do a lot to commend the song because they accent the music so perfectly -- listen to the hard k's in "back of my broken hand" or the line "I'm so much older than I can take" -- the delivery just hits with genuine force. And like several of the songs on this list, it's got a lot of real variation to it -- the first half of the song (perfectly timed) is really just a prelude to the "I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier" transition which adds a real gospel feel to the song as it builds and transitions back into the first segment except with just a touch more vocal distortion this time. And the song title couldn't be placed better as a denouement into the quiet conclusion.
2. "Bones" from Sam's Town - This is in that rarest of categories, a song that induces a complete endorphin dump. If I hadn't taken up running, I'd probably never really know, but if you reach a point of physical exhaustion and have been dehydrating...trust me, there's nothing better than this song to drop your body temperature about three degrees. The lyrics keep it from being number one, they're really quite silly -- the Tim Burton video does nothing to commend it either, but the horns are perfect. The chorus increases with intensity as the song progresses and
3. "Sam's Town" from Sam's Town - I wouldn't have ever imagined that I'd come around on this album. When I heard it for the first time, it was depressing how bad it was. A few months passed, I heard it again, and it wasn't so bad. And really listening to the album, it's kind of easy to see why it took so long to grow on me. This song is the epitome of why -- it's got about eight songs crammed into 4:06, like the Who recording "A Quick One While He's Away" in 3:18. It goes from rapid to frenzied to leisurely and it's synthesizer-heavy. From the opening swell, it drops suddenly, goes into a ludicrously enunciated spoken word call to arms for Brandon Flowers, then explodes into the closest thing the song has to a chorus of "So why do you waste my time?", it drops back into a middle eight "have you ever seen the light?" and loops itself around again until it reaches the double-tracked sing-along "I've seen London..." Amazing. But not readily accessible -- the first time, it just sounds like a mess. Nope -- masterpiece.
4. "Losing Touch" from Day & Age - I've already christened this with new classic status. Deal. I'm a sucker for horns on Killers songs, clearly, and it makes the songs following it better...hearing Human in the absence of this song leading in...not something I want to experience again. And the amount of spite this songs carries for the people, like me, who just wrote off Sam's Town as worthless or as an attempt to be David Bowie.
5. "Change Your Mind" from Hot Fuss - I'll admit it, Casey Blake using "Read My Mind" as his batting song actually reminded me that it's a great song also, but The Killers are good with songs involving the word Mind. To me, it's probably the best vocals that Brandon Flowers has done on a song, perfectly matching his near monotone to the tone of the song.
Honorable mention: "Mr. Brightside" is just an amazing song, it's a shame it got largely overlooked for "Somebody Told Me", which is one of the least essential songs in the canon. The distorted vocals segueing into the crisp vocal-heavy wraparound, the swell of the drums into the chorus, which is so blissfully ironic that I have to love it.; "On Top" - very simple, but great production all around; "Why Do I Keep Counting?" - it starts slow, but once it gets into it, it's well worth the wait, even if it is a ludicrously simple song compared to the others; and of course, my favorite police interrogation set to music "Jenny Was a Friend Of Mine" which probably wouldn't even warrant mention if it were not about a police interrogation. Although there may be something on Sawdust worthy of mentioning here, my pick would probably have to be "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town", and the way I phrased this topic...it's not eligible. I guess "Move Away" is a top 10 consideration.
Dan's Top 5:
1. "Mr. Brightside" (Hot Fuss) - This song was the highlight of the summer of 2005 for me. I was in Ireland, and one of my principal occupations was burning a copy of Hot Fuss for everyone, because this song was everywhere in the UK at that time. The hook-laden chorus in this song is perfect, and the lyrics are rather enigmatic while still having a fairly clear subject. The epitome of The Killers.
2. "Read My Mind" (Sam's Town) - The highlight of this album for me, the vocal line is perfectly complimented by the backing chord progression. There's also a great contrast between the softer verse and the harder chorus, though no one in the band is overplaying. The song could benefit from a bridge section or a more interesting guitar solo, but I'm not going to complain.
3. "Jenny Was a Friend Of Mine" (Hot Fuss) - The narrative is the best aspect of this song, but it's impossible to ignore the outstanding quality of the bass line. It feels like it was stolen from Peter Hook himself. This probably the best attempt that the band made at recapturing that 80's feel, though the subject makes it feel much darker and more modern than anything you would have heard back then.
4. "When You Were Young" (Sam's Town) - This is probably the reason I was so originally disappointed with their sophomore album now that I think about it. It was the leading single, and as a result, I was expecting all the songs to be this good. Wonderful sonic textures exist in this song - a subtle use of bells, a tone-dulled organ, strings, etc. Again, though, it suffers from a lack of variety as the song progresses - no bridge or interesting instrumental breaks.
5. "All These Things That I've Done" (Hot Fuss) - This one actually placed pretty low for this list, but that's because it's already been mentioned. It has a lot of internal variations, and all I can really do is echo Tim's praise. He's really put a lot more thought into analyzing this song than I ever have.
1. "All These Things I've Done" from Hot Fuss - The solo vocal, followed by the drums leading into the guitar, which leads into the bass and fades back. The lyrics do a lot to commend the song because they accent the music so perfectly -- listen to the hard k's in "back of my broken hand" or the line "I'm so much older than I can take" -- the delivery just hits with genuine force. And like several of the songs on this list, it's got a lot of real variation to it -- the first half of the song (perfectly timed) is really just a prelude to the "I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier" transition which adds a real gospel feel to the song as it builds and transitions back into the first segment except with just a touch more vocal distortion this time. And the song title couldn't be placed better as a denouement into the quiet conclusion.
2. "Bones" from Sam's Town - This is in that rarest of categories, a song that induces a complete endorphin dump. If I hadn't taken up running, I'd probably never really know, but if you reach a point of physical exhaustion and have been dehydrating...trust me, there's nothing better than this song to drop your body temperature about three degrees. The lyrics keep it from being number one, they're really quite silly -- the Tim Burton video does nothing to commend it either, but the horns are perfect. The chorus increases with intensity as the song progresses and
3. "Sam's Town" from Sam's Town - I wouldn't have ever imagined that I'd come around on this album. When I heard it for the first time, it was depressing how bad it was. A few months passed, I heard it again, and it wasn't so bad. And really listening to the album, it's kind of easy to see why it took so long to grow on me. This song is the epitome of why -- it's got about eight songs crammed into 4:06, like the Who recording "A Quick One While He's Away" in 3:18. It goes from rapid to frenzied to leisurely and it's synthesizer-heavy. From the opening swell, it drops suddenly, goes into a ludicrously enunciated spoken word call to arms for Brandon Flowers, then explodes into the closest thing the song has to a chorus of "So why do you waste my time?", it drops back into a middle eight "have you ever seen the light?" and loops itself around again until it reaches the double-tracked sing-along "I've seen London..." Amazing. But not readily accessible -- the first time, it just sounds like a mess. Nope -- masterpiece.
4. "Losing Touch" from Day & Age - I've already christened this with new classic status. Deal. I'm a sucker for horns on Killers songs, clearly, and it makes the songs following it better...hearing Human in the absence of this song leading in...not something I want to experience again. And the amount of spite this songs carries for the people, like me, who just wrote off Sam's Town as worthless or as an attempt to be David Bowie.
5. "Change Your Mind" from Hot Fuss - I'll admit it, Casey Blake using "Read My Mind" as his batting song actually reminded me that it's a great song also, but The Killers are good with songs involving the word Mind. To me, it's probably the best vocals that Brandon Flowers has done on a song, perfectly matching his near monotone to the tone of the song.
Honorable mention: "Mr. Brightside" is just an amazing song, it's a shame it got largely overlooked for "Somebody Told Me", which is one of the least essential songs in the canon. The distorted vocals segueing into the crisp vocal-heavy wraparound, the swell of the drums into the chorus, which is so blissfully ironic that I have to love it.; "On Top" - very simple, but great production all around; "Why Do I Keep Counting?" - it starts slow, but once it gets into it, it's well worth the wait, even if it is a ludicrously simple song compared to the others; and of course, my favorite police interrogation set to music "Jenny Was a Friend Of Mine" which probably wouldn't even warrant mention if it were not about a police interrogation. Although there may be something on Sawdust worthy of mentioning here, my pick would probably have to be "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town", and the way I phrased this topic...it's not eligible. I guess "Move Away" is a top 10 consideration.
Dan's Top 5:
1. "Mr. Brightside" (Hot Fuss) - This song was the highlight of the summer of 2005 for me. I was in Ireland, and one of my principal occupations was burning a copy of Hot Fuss for everyone, because this song was everywhere in the UK at that time. The hook-laden chorus in this song is perfect, and the lyrics are rather enigmatic while still having a fairly clear subject. The epitome of The Killers.
2. "Read My Mind" (Sam's Town) - The highlight of this album for me, the vocal line is perfectly complimented by the backing chord progression. There's also a great contrast between the softer verse and the harder chorus, though no one in the band is overplaying. The song could benefit from a bridge section or a more interesting guitar solo, but I'm not going to complain.
3. "Jenny Was a Friend Of Mine" (Hot Fuss) - The narrative is the best aspect of this song, but it's impossible to ignore the outstanding quality of the bass line. It feels like it was stolen from Peter Hook himself. This probably the best attempt that the band made at recapturing that 80's feel, though the subject makes it feel much darker and more modern than anything you would have heard back then.
4. "When You Were Young" (Sam's Town) - This is probably the reason I was so originally disappointed with their sophomore album now that I think about it. It was the leading single, and as a result, I was expecting all the songs to be this good. Wonderful sonic textures exist in this song - a subtle use of bells, a tone-dulled organ, strings, etc. Again, though, it suffers from a lack of variety as the song progresses - no bridge or interesting instrumental breaks.
5. "All These Things That I've Done" (Hot Fuss) - This one actually placed pretty low for this list, but that's because it's already been mentioned. It has a lot of internal variations, and all I can really do is echo Tim's praise. He's really put a lot more thought into analyzing this song than I ever have.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Top 5 Cover Songs That Are Better Than The Original Versions
Pretty self-explanatory; the topic came up when we were at a bar and someone said that "Crimson and Clover" by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts was the best cover song ever. A-haha.
Ryan's Top 5:
1. "Everybody's Talkin'" - Harry Nilsson - This is definitely one of my favorite songs of all-time, so you bet your ass it's my favorite cover song. Fred "Not Harry Nilsson" Neil apparently performed a version of this song that pre-dates this one. Go figure!
2. "All Along the Watchtower" - Jimi Hendrix - This is the quintessential example, for me; nothing wrong with the Dylan version, but the Hendrix rendition is iconic rock.
3. "I Fought the Law" - The Clash - Once again, I like older versions of the song, but The Clash definitely knows how to amp up the ass-kickery. I'm fairly sure The Clash could cover anything and I'd like it better.
4. "I Will Survive" - Cake - Cake does the song in their own particular styling. Notably, they amend this lyric: "I should have changed my fucking lock / I would have made you leave your key." See that? They added the word "fucking." Brilliant!
5. "Stand By Me" - John Lennon - This narrowly defeats Van Halen's cover of "You Really Got Me," which loses points because The Kinks are one of my favorite bands. Anyway, I guess it's not a given that this version is incredibly superior--if you're a big R&B fan--and I'm not--so in the end this wins. Also, I like John Lennon. A lot.
Dan's Top 5:
1. Aretha Franklin - Respect (orig. by Otis Redding) - This is the only instance I can think of where the song's meaning is essentially transformed. When Aretha sings it, her womanhood is an essential element of the song.
2. Johnny Cash - Hurt (orig. by Nine Inch Nails) - Easily the newest original on the list to be covered, and by a man who was a living legend. If the Man In Black wants to sing your song, you know it's good.
3. Cream - Crossroads (orig. "Cross Road Blues" by Robert Johnson) - OK, I haven't heard the original, but "Crossroads" is my favorite Cream song.
4. Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower (orig. by Bob Dylan) - While I agree almost 100% with Ryan's selections, I've allowed myself one overlapping listing. This is it, because Jimi rocked and Dylan's got plenty of other good songs. He can spare one.
5. The Dropkick Murphys - The Fields of Athenry (orig. recorded by Danny Doyle) - Gains the quality of being much more easily adapted to sports scenarios.
Honorable Mention: Van Halen - You Really Got Me (orig. by The Kinks), Gnarls Barkley - Reckoner (orig. by Radiohead) - only omitted because it's not been released, Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends (orig. by The Beatles), Creedence Clearwater Revival - Heard It Through the Grapevine (orig. by Gladys Knight and the Pips) - omitted because it's too damn long.
Tim's Top 5:
1. If Not For You – George Harrison - The slide guitar on If Not For You works so magically, I don’t even know how to explain it. I think this is one of the greatest love songs ever recorded, not that you’ll be able to tell from that recording. And as much as I love Bob Dylan, his version of his own song just doesn’t measure up. It sounds like he was borrowing some of Hendrix’s work from All Along the Watchtower and makes it a fluff pop song. Harrison’s recording is a sincere and plaintive cry, almost an elegy in advance. The fact that it also works so well on All Things Must Pass means it would be sacrilege to put any lower down the list.
2. Hard to Handle – Black Crowes – I am a fan of Otis Redding’s version, but it’s not even a close contest. The Black Crowes completely reinvent this song and make it sound completely current (both for 1990 and 2009) and I was in disbelief when I actually opened the liner notes of Shake Your Moneymaker and saw that Otis Redding wrote the song. It’s the quintessential Black Crowes song, the best on what is an absolutely phenomenal album, and this song works blissfully well with the country-tuned sounds that they bring to the table on the album.
3. Slut – Big Star* - I include it solely because it’s on a released album, the inaptly titled “Columbia – Big Star Live at Missouri University” album that is inaptly titled, since 1) it’s not really Big Star (hence the asterisk -- it’s the second iteration of Big Star -- Alex Chilton, Jody Stephens, and two members of the Posies (Auer/Stringfellow), since Chris Bell had died long before the “reunion” show), and 2) there is no such thing as Missouri University. Nice try. But it is a phenomenal performance overrun with exuberance that far outpaces the comparatively turgid and horribly produced Todd Rundgren original. A faster tempo and the less enunciated voice of Alex Chilton prove the key here. If I ever put together a band, there is absolutely no way we would not cover this song in the style Big Star does. “S-L-U-T…she may be a slut, but she looks good to me.”
4. Do Ya – Matthew Sweet – Another live cover, this one is documented on Live From 6A, a compilation CD of recordings from Late Night with Conan O’Brien. It’s the lone track on the album that wasn’t actually performed on the show; they did the track as the sound check before the show. It’s a song that’s uniquely Matthew Sweet, perfect for his voice and unassuming tone and captures the superb musicians that he always surrounded himself with for his albums and tours. ELO isn’t a great band, but they are made to create good covers (OK Go almost made the list for covering “Don’t Bring Me Down,” but it’s hard to say their version is definitively better than the original. No such problem here.)
5. I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better – Tom Petty – There’s nothing quite so ironic as getting on this list by covering a band who made their career by covering other people’s songs. But it worked for Tom Petty, who included this version of a Byrds hit on Full Moon Fever. The cleaner digital production is 99% of the reason that this song improves upon the Byrds song, which is one of their best. But the recording is dated, tinny, contains a heavy tambourine and sounds like a hit song played on an AM radio (unsurprisingly). Petty’s song is a much clearer recording and seems a note higher, matching the song more closely with its lyrics.
Honorable mention: 99 Problems – Jay-Z – I exclude this because it’s not really a cover, even though it takes its title and chorus from Ice-T’s cut of the same name. But if it were a cover…oh, it’s on the list; Harvey Danger – Save It For Later – Harvey Danger was way too good a one-hit wonder band to burn out as fast as they did; Draggin’ the Line – R.E.M. – this one-note performance is on the Austin Powers: the Spy Who Shagged Me soundtrack, and is easily the best thing about that horrific movie. Why more people don’t cover Tommy James songs is well beyond me. They’re a guaranteed success – Mony Mony and I Think We’re Alone Now were both hits for later artists, this song is awesome, and Crimson and Clover just begs to be covered (although apparently the Joan Jett fan Ryan mentioned already thinks that job's done); All Along the Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix; It Ain’t Me Babe – The Turtles, Quinn the Eskimo – Manfred Mann - I lump these in because they’re all Bob Dylan covers. Covering Bob Dylan is obvious, but only a few stick out as real successes. The Turtles capture a sardonic taunting tone to a song that Dylan left untouched, Hendrix simply created a new song, and Manfred Mann recorded a ludicrously catchy but still inexplicable song.
Ryan's Top 5:
1. "Everybody's Talkin'" - Harry Nilsson - This is definitely one of my favorite songs of all-time, so you bet your ass it's my favorite cover song. Fred "Not Harry Nilsson" Neil apparently performed a version of this song that pre-dates this one. Go figure!
2. "All Along the Watchtower" - Jimi Hendrix - This is the quintessential example, for me; nothing wrong with the Dylan version, but the Hendrix rendition is iconic rock.
3. "I Fought the Law" - The Clash - Once again, I like older versions of the song, but The Clash definitely knows how to amp up the ass-kickery. I'm fairly sure The Clash could cover anything and I'd like it better.
4. "I Will Survive" - Cake - Cake does the song in their own particular styling. Notably, they amend this lyric: "I should have changed my fucking lock / I would have made you leave your key." See that? They added the word "fucking." Brilliant!
5. "Stand By Me" - John Lennon - This narrowly defeats Van Halen's cover of "You Really Got Me," which loses points because The Kinks are one of my favorite bands. Anyway, I guess it's not a given that this version is incredibly superior--if you're a big R&B fan--and I'm not--so in the end this wins. Also, I like John Lennon. A lot.
Dan's Top 5:
1. Aretha Franklin - Respect (orig. by Otis Redding) - This is the only instance I can think of where the song's meaning is essentially transformed. When Aretha sings it, her womanhood is an essential element of the song.
2. Johnny Cash - Hurt (orig. by Nine Inch Nails) - Easily the newest original on the list to be covered, and by a man who was a living legend. If the Man In Black wants to sing your song, you know it's good.
3. Cream - Crossroads (orig. "Cross Road Blues" by Robert Johnson) - OK, I haven't heard the original, but "Crossroads" is my favorite Cream song.
4. Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower (orig. by Bob Dylan) - While I agree almost 100% with Ryan's selections, I've allowed myself one overlapping listing. This is it, because Jimi rocked and Dylan's got plenty of other good songs. He can spare one.
5. The Dropkick Murphys - The Fields of Athenry (orig. recorded by Danny Doyle) - Gains the quality of being much more easily adapted to sports scenarios.
Honorable Mention: Van Halen - You Really Got Me (orig. by The Kinks), Gnarls Barkley - Reckoner (orig. by Radiohead) - only omitted because it's not been released, Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends (orig. by The Beatles), Creedence Clearwater Revival - Heard It Through the Grapevine (orig. by Gladys Knight and the Pips) - omitted because it's too damn long.
Tim's Top 5:
1. If Not For You – George Harrison - The slide guitar on If Not For You works so magically, I don’t even know how to explain it. I think this is one of the greatest love songs ever recorded, not that you’ll be able to tell from that recording. And as much as I love Bob Dylan, his version of his own song just doesn’t measure up. It sounds like he was borrowing some of Hendrix’s work from All Along the Watchtower and makes it a fluff pop song. Harrison’s recording is a sincere and plaintive cry, almost an elegy in advance. The fact that it also works so well on All Things Must Pass means it would be sacrilege to put any lower down the list.
2. Hard to Handle – Black Crowes – I am a fan of Otis Redding’s version, but it’s not even a close contest. The Black Crowes completely reinvent this song and make it sound completely current (both for 1990 and 2009) and I was in disbelief when I actually opened the liner notes of Shake Your Moneymaker and saw that Otis Redding wrote the song. It’s the quintessential Black Crowes song, the best on what is an absolutely phenomenal album, and this song works blissfully well with the country-tuned sounds that they bring to the table on the album.
3. Slut – Big Star* - I include it solely because it’s on a released album, the inaptly titled “Columbia – Big Star Live at Missouri University” album that is inaptly titled, since 1) it’s not really Big Star (hence the asterisk -- it’s the second iteration of Big Star -- Alex Chilton, Jody Stephens, and two members of the Posies (Auer/Stringfellow), since Chris Bell had died long before the “reunion” show), and 2) there is no such thing as Missouri University. Nice try. But it is a phenomenal performance overrun with exuberance that far outpaces the comparatively turgid and horribly produced Todd Rundgren original. A faster tempo and the less enunciated voice of Alex Chilton prove the key here. If I ever put together a band, there is absolutely no way we would not cover this song in the style Big Star does. “S-L-U-T…she may be a slut, but she looks good to me.”
4. Do Ya – Matthew Sweet – Another live cover, this one is documented on Live From 6A, a compilation CD of recordings from Late Night with Conan O’Brien. It’s the lone track on the album that wasn’t actually performed on the show; they did the track as the sound check before the show. It’s a song that’s uniquely Matthew Sweet, perfect for his voice and unassuming tone and captures the superb musicians that he always surrounded himself with for his albums and tours. ELO isn’t a great band, but they are made to create good covers (OK Go almost made the list for covering “Don’t Bring Me Down,” but it’s hard to say their version is definitively better than the original. No such problem here.)
5. I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better – Tom Petty – There’s nothing quite so ironic as getting on this list by covering a band who made their career by covering other people’s songs. But it worked for Tom Petty, who included this version of a Byrds hit on Full Moon Fever. The cleaner digital production is 99% of the reason that this song improves upon the Byrds song, which is one of their best. But the recording is dated, tinny, contains a heavy tambourine and sounds like a hit song played on an AM radio (unsurprisingly). Petty’s song is a much clearer recording and seems a note higher, matching the song more closely with its lyrics.
Honorable mention: 99 Problems – Jay-Z – I exclude this because it’s not really a cover, even though it takes its title and chorus from Ice-T’s cut of the same name. But if it were a cover…oh, it’s on the list; Harvey Danger – Save It For Later – Harvey Danger was way too good a one-hit wonder band to burn out as fast as they did; Draggin’ the Line – R.E.M. – this one-note performance is on the Austin Powers: the Spy Who Shagged Me soundtrack, and is easily the best thing about that horrific movie. Why more people don’t cover Tommy James songs is well beyond me. They’re a guaranteed success – Mony Mony and I Think We’re Alone Now were both hits for later artists, this song is awesome, and Crimson and Clover just begs to be covered (although apparently the Joan Jett fan Ryan mentioned already thinks that job's done); All Along the Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix; It Ain’t Me Babe – The Turtles, Quinn the Eskimo – Manfred Mann - I lump these in because they’re all Bob Dylan covers. Covering Bob Dylan is obvious, but only a few stick out as real successes. The Turtles capture a sardonic taunting tone to a song that Dylan left untouched, Hendrix simply created a new song, and Manfred Mann recorded a ludicrously catchy but still inexplicable song.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Top 5 Songs You Would Enter A Game To If You Were A Major League Closer
Tim's Top 5:
Let's be honest, a closer is only as good as his entrance music. Actually, Brad Lidge was about 45-for-45 in saves last year...and he came in to Drowning Pool. So, in fact, a closer is considerably better than his entrance music. Unless that closer would be me.
Everything I've read claims that the movie Major League is really responsible for the association of a single song with a closer...but I don't buy it, because at least at minor league ballparks, they did it before that movie came out. I remember Greg Everson coming out before Luis Encarnacion in Omaha to "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" (which is fine for a middle reliever, obviously not really a closer song).
This was a tough list, because there are songs that work until you actually listen to the substance of the lyrics (like, say, Muse's "Time Is Running Out") Oh, and I don't listen to heavy metal, which means that ... yeah, I had to be creative.
1. Pearl Jam - Save You -- Why? Well, I mean, come on, it's a little perfect. It has a great crunching guitar intro, the first guitar comes in, a second, then the drums hit before the vocals come in. And the first few lines are flawless. "I'm gonna save you, fucker (it'd be fine, you can't tell that's what he's saying)/ I'm not gonna lose you / I'm feeling cocky and strong, can't let you go / Too important to me, too important to us, we'd be lost with you")
It does have one lyrical minus -- "Why are you hitting yourself? Come on, hit me instead." This would not exactly inspire the fans' confidence...but perhaps I'm a pitch-to-contact closer along the lines of Bob Wickman and Brandon Lyon, so the fans already hate me regardless of my theme music.
It starts a little too hard, I like the escalation of #5 (and also Enter Sandman, which I think is otherwise not a good song for this purpose), but it's already taken.
2. Alice Cooper – School’s Out – This might be the perfect timing, because there’s a point at 1:14 (right before the high-pitched middle eight) where the song should be cut off by the public address announcer to announce “Your attention please…now pitching …” – if they can draw it out to 1:29, it has a hard bounceback. It’s a profoundly recognizable song, it’s just annoying enough to actually be used as a closer’s anthem.
The lyrics work, I think. Listen, you’ve had your chance to learn how to hit with the shitty pitchers in innings 1-8…school’s out, time to step up.
3. Stevie Wonder – You Haven’t Done Nothin’” – Again, the timing on this song is good here. At 1:03, plenty of opportunity for the announcer to cut in to announce the closer’s arrival. I like the funky, taunting beat and I think you just strut in from the bullpen for this one. It was meant to scorn Richard Nixon, but I think it’d work just as well on Trot Nixon. The entire thing just has a very taunting feel to it that is kind of missing with the blaring heavy metal surplusage that has led two different Drowning Pool songs to be used as closer entrance themes.
4. R.E.M. – "Circus Envy" – I love this song. The growling beginning and heavy drum and crackling distortion pedal at the beginning really cement it, the opening lyrics are pretty taunting “Here comes that awful feeling again” (though after a few blown saves…we’ll see who’s having the awful feeling). It lightens a little too much about 45 seconds into the song, but the repeating intro loop is really the key.
At 2:29, the lyrics hit their peak “If I were you, I’d really run from me”. True enough, R.E.M.
5. AC/DC - "Hell's Bells" - Trevor Hoffman already has that one, as you can see from this video ...and for a good damn reason. "Thunderstruck" is also a pretty good entrance song, so I think we've identified what AC/DC is good for -- closer songs and songs you know someone would request at a strip club ("You Shook Me All Night Long")
It’s really a shame that Trevor Hoffman never pitched for the Phillies, because if they got the Liberty Bell in center field to “ring” right as he hit the warning track for the first bell…it’d be amazing.
Honorable mention: Wagner - March of the Valkyries - Listen. It is not my fault that Wagner was anti-Semitic. This is the heavy metal equivalent of classical music, and it sounds pretty damn sinister; The Arcade Fire – Keep the Car Running - Again, I thought of this for primarily lyrical reasons, because it seems to me to be the equivalent of “trust me, we won’t be here long”; Muse – Hysteria – start the song 10 seconds in. That’s it.; Jay-Z "Encore" - the reference to Brooklyn keeps it out of the top 5 for me, otherwise I think it’s pretty spot on; Oasis - “Hello” - Start at 12 seconds. I’m not sure why I like it for this – I think it’s the “it’s good to be back” refrain that seems so apropos for a regularly-injured underdog pitcher who survives on sheer guile. You know, the one I’d be destined to be if I hadn’t sucked too much for the injuries to matter; Presidents of the United States of America – “Cleveland Rocks” – if I played for the Indians, you’d damn well better believe I’d be a lousy enough closer to pander to the home fans (all of whom are white and therefore none of them actually live in Cleveland, but they’d still pretend).
Dan's Top 5:
I have included Youtube links indicating when, precisely, I want the music to kick in.
1. Iron Maiden - Run To The Hills - A song about rampaging, murderous war by the white man against the Native Americans. Comes in especially handy when our team plays against the Cleveland Indians or the Atlanta Braves. Or the Washington Redskins, if they decide to quit football and try baseball instead.
2. Peter Gabriel - The Tower That Ate People - One of the most kickass songs that Gabriel's done, and I think it would have the added bonus of frightening little children. Downside - not very effective if you're not dressed in all black or at least wearing black sunglasses.
3. Metallica - Enter Sandman - A nod to my Virginia Tech days, when you could play Enter Sandman (our stadium entrance song) and immediately get everyone in audible range to jump up and down and go absolutely berserk. It didn't even have to be football season.
4. Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell - I will refuse to throw a pitch until the song is finished. I may promptly be demoted to the franchise's AAA team, but a man needs his Meat Loaf.
5. Rage Against The Machine - Bulls On Parade - Still my favorite Rage song after all these years. I could have gone for something a little more obscure to close out this list, but I think that fans will appreciate my taste in music. It sure will make up for the fact that I am a shitty closer and will cost our team the win.
Ryan's Top 5:
I went solely with kickass music, though part of me does want to enter to "Why Can't We Be Friends?" a la Homer's boxing intro.
1. Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast - Time-wise, this song is perfect. Start it at the normal time, then dim the stadium lights as I enter jogging; at about 56 seconds, right when I throw my first warmup pitch, Bruce Dickinson screams and the crowd goes wild. I would definitely make a point of timing this perfectly. Bonus points in that the tone of the song would ideally terrify the Bible-thumping Mike Sweeneys of the world; regrettably, it would be no deterrent to the Satan-worshiping AJ Pierzynskis of the world (though his ability to hit is a solid deterrent to begin with).
2. Sergei Prokofiev - Dance of the Knights - Probably a bit high for a classical song, but I've had this in my head all day long and have been convinced of its ass-kickery since Muse opened HAARP with it. (Youtube took down the clip, unfortunately.) Ultimately, this song beats other classical contenders ("Mars, Bringer of War," and "The Imperial March" from Star Wars).
3. Morning Glory - Oasis - As far as I can tell, you cannot go wrong with a helicopter sound effect introducing a song. (See: "The Happiest Days of our Lives," Pink Floyd.) (This is where someone cites the Kid Rock/Sheryl Crow song I'm forgetting that features a helicopter.) Lyrically, this song is sufficiently vague enough, as well: "All your dreams are made..." "Today's the day that all the world will see..."
4. Black Sabbath - Iron Man - As cliche as this song is (it's almost certainly used by some closer somewhere), it's too good for me to pass up. This song is rare in that my favorite part is about ten seconds in, when the robot voice says I AM IRON MAN. But oh well.
5. Kool and the Gang - Jungle Boogie - I have been in love with this song since Pulp Fiction. Play this, I'll throw a 1-2-3 ninth, then we cap it off with "Celebration" by the same band, bam! I rule!
Honorables: "Hell's Bells" was really written to be a sports intro theme.
Let's be honest, a closer is only as good as his entrance music. Actually, Brad Lidge was about 45-for-45 in saves last year...and he came in to Drowning Pool. So, in fact, a closer is considerably better than his entrance music. Unless that closer would be me.
Everything I've read claims that the movie Major League is really responsible for the association of a single song with a closer...but I don't buy it, because at least at minor league ballparks, they did it before that movie came out. I remember Greg Everson coming out before Luis Encarnacion in Omaha to "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" (which is fine for a middle reliever, obviously not really a closer song).
This was a tough list, because there are songs that work until you actually listen to the substance of the lyrics (like, say, Muse's "Time Is Running Out") Oh, and I don't listen to heavy metal, which means that ... yeah, I had to be creative.
1. Pearl Jam - Save You -- Why? Well, I mean, come on, it's a little perfect. It has a great crunching guitar intro, the first guitar comes in, a second, then the drums hit before the vocals come in. And the first few lines are flawless. "I'm gonna save you, fucker (it'd be fine, you can't tell that's what he's saying)/ I'm not gonna lose you / I'm feeling cocky and strong, can't let you go / Too important to me, too important to us, we'd be lost with you")
It does have one lyrical minus -- "Why are you hitting yourself? Come on, hit me instead." This would not exactly inspire the fans' confidence...but perhaps I'm a pitch-to-contact closer along the lines of Bob Wickman and Brandon Lyon, so the fans already hate me regardless of my theme music.
It starts a little too hard, I like the escalation of #5 (and also Enter Sandman, which I think is otherwise not a good song for this purpose), but it's already taken.
2. Alice Cooper – School’s Out – This might be the perfect timing, because there’s a point at 1:14 (right before the high-pitched middle eight) where the song should be cut off by the public address announcer to announce “Your attention please…now pitching …” – if they can draw it out to 1:29, it has a hard bounceback. It’s a profoundly recognizable song, it’s just annoying enough to actually be used as a closer’s anthem.
The lyrics work, I think. Listen, you’ve had your chance to learn how to hit with the shitty pitchers in innings 1-8…school’s out, time to step up.
3. Stevie Wonder – You Haven’t Done Nothin’” – Again, the timing on this song is good here. At 1:03, plenty of opportunity for the announcer to cut in to announce the closer’s arrival. I like the funky, taunting beat and I think you just strut in from the bullpen for this one. It was meant to scorn Richard Nixon, but I think it’d work just as well on Trot Nixon. The entire thing just has a very taunting feel to it that is kind of missing with the blaring heavy metal surplusage that has led two different Drowning Pool songs to be used as closer entrance themes.
4. R.E.M. – "Circus Envy" – I love this song. The growling beginning and heavy drum and crackling distortion pedal at the beginning really cement it, the opening lyrics are pretty taunting “Here comes that awful feeling again” (though after a few blown saves…we’ll see who’s having the awful feeling). It lightens a little too much about 45 seconds into the song, but the repeating intro loop is really the key.
At 2:29, the lyrics hit their peak “If I were you, I’d really run from me”. True enough, R.E.M.
5. AC/DC - "Hell's Bells" - Trevor Hoffman already has that one, as you can see from this video ...and for a good damn reason. "Thunderstruck" is also a pretty good entrance song, so I think we've identified what AC/DC is good for -- closer songs and songs you know someone would request at a strip club ("You Shook Me All Night Long")
It’s really a shame that Trevor Hoffman never pitched for the Phillies, because if they got the Liberty Bell in center field to “ring” right as he hit the warning track for the first bell…it’d be amazing.
Honorable mention: Wagner - March of the Valkyries - Listen. It is not my fault that Wagner was anti-Semitic. This is the heavy metal equivalent of classical music, and it sounds pretty damn sinister; The Arcade Fire – Keep the Car Running - Again, I thought of this for primarily lyrical reasons, because it seems to me to be the equivalent of “trust me, we won’t be here long”; Muse – Hysteria – start the song 10 seconds in. That’s it.; Jay-Z "Encore" - the reference to Brooklyn keeps it out of the top 5 for me, otherwise I think it’s pretty spot on; Oasis - “Hello” - Start at 12 seconds. I’m not sure why I like it for this – I think it’s the “it’s good to be back” refrain that seems so apropos for a regularly-injured underdog pitcher who survives on sheer guile. You know, the one I’d be destined to be if I hadn’t sucked too much for the injuries to matter; Presidents of the United States of America – “Cleveland Rocks” – if I played for the Indians, you’d damn well better believe I’d be a lousy enough closer to pander to the home fans (all of whom are white and therefore none of them actually live in Cleveland, but they’d still pretend).
Dan's Top 5:
I have included Youtube links indicating when, precisely, I want the music to kick in.
1. Iron Maiden - Run To The Hills - A song about rampaging, murderous war by the white man against the Native Americans. Comes in especially handy when our team plays against the Cleveland Indians or the Atlanta Braves. Or the Washington Redskins, if they decide to quit football and try baseball instead.
2. Peter Gabriel - The Tower That Ate People - One of the most kickass songs that Gabriel's done, and I think it would have the added bonus of frightening little children. Downside - not very effective if you're not dressed in all black or at least wearing black sunglasses.
3. Metallica - Enter Sandman - A nod to my Virginia Tech days, when you could play Enter Sandman (our stadium entrance song) and immediately get everyone in audible range to jump up and down and go absolutely berserk. It didn't even have to be football season.
4. Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell - I will refuse to throw a pitch until the song is finished. I may promptly be demoted to the franchise's AAA team, but a man needs his Meat Loaf.
5. Rage Against The Machine - Bulls On Parade - Still my favorite Rage song after all these years. I could have gone for something a little more obscure to close out this list, but I think that fans will appreciate my taste in music. It sure will make up for the fact that I am a shitty closer and will cost our team the win.
Ryan's Top 5:
I went solely with kickass music, though part of me does want to enter to "Why Can't We Be Friends?" a la Homer's boxing intro.
1. Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast - Time-wise, this song is perfect. Start it at the normal time, then dim the stadium lights as I enter jogging; at about 56 seconds, right when I throw my first warmup pitch, Bruce Dickinson screams and the crowd goes wild. I would definitely make a point of timing this perfectly. Bonus points in that the tone of the song would ideally terrify the Bible-thumping Mike Sweeneys of the world; regrettably, it would be no deterrent to the Satan-worshiping AJ Pierzynskis of the world (though his ability to hit is a solid deterrent to begin with).
2. Sergei Prokofiev - Dance of the Knights - Probably a bit high for a classical song, but I've had this in my head all day long and have been convinced of its ass-kickery since Muse opened HAARP with it. (Youtube took down the clip, unfortunately.) Ultimately, this song beats other classical contenders ("Mars, Bringer of War," and "The Imperial March" from Star Wars).
3. Morning Glory - Oasis - As far as I can tell, you cannot go wrong with a helicopter sound effect introducing a song. (See: "The Happiest Days of our Lives," Pink Floyd.) (This is where someone cites the Kid Rock/Sheryl Crow song I'm forgetting that features a helicopter.) Lyrically, this song is sufficiently vague enough, as well: "All your dreams are made..." "Today's the day that all the world will see..."
4. Black Sabbath - Iron Man - As cliche as this song is (it's almost certainly used by some closer somewhere), it's too good for me to pass up. This song is rare in that my favorite part is about ten seconds in, when the robot voice says I AM IRON MAN. But oh well.
5. Kool and the Gang - Jungle Boogie - I have been in love with this song since Pulp Fiction. Play this, I'll throw a 1-2-3 ninth, then we cap it off with "Celebration" by the same band, bam! I rule!
Honorables: "Hell's Bells" was really written to be a sports intro theme.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Top 5 Albums of 2008
Dan's Top 5:
OK, this is admittedly a bit premature, but I really don't see any part of my list changing in the last two weeks of the year. I also realize that these albums were stumbled on by myself alone, so consider these my official recommendations for the year.
1. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke - I got this album not even a month ago, and already Ladyhawke (alias of Pip Brown) has broken my top 5 on last.fm. This album summons ghosts of the 80's and never fails - it's like The Killers if they didn't go downhill after their first album. And if Brandon Flowers were even more of a woman than he already is. (Just kidding, Brandon.) There are no weak tracks at all, and it would be hard to even put together a top 5 list of tracks from this album. Look for that list in the future, because I'm all about trying to rank things that defy rankability. (Best song - "My Delirium")
2. Darker My Love - 2 - What I like about this album is that it has a wide range of influences. I can pick out a bit of early-era Black Sabbath, some U2, and even some earlier Snow Patrol. There's no single thing that makes this album particularly jump out at you, but it's solid, it sounds really good, and it has no weak tracks. If it got a bit more press, it would be one of those albums that will "save rock music." (Best song - "Pale Sun")
3. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular - This whole album is made of drugs. Then again, most of the classic albums throughout history are. But this is more like pure electro insanity. Overall, the sound is very original and fresh, and the first half of the album will just blow you away. The later tracks are a bit weak, though, which drives this album down the list. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some ecstasy to pop. (Best song - "Time to Pretend")
4. Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple - You know it's a good year in music when Gnarls Barkley winds up this far down my list. This is another sophomore release that initially failed to live up to the strength of the debut album, only to become far more listenable as time goes on. And my, how it has since rebounded in my playlist. It's good to know that these guys are not just a flash in the pan. (Best song - "Going On")
5. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend - Yeah, they're cheesy and über-white, but damn it, the music is catchy nonetheless. Though I will never forgive them for the annoying single "A-Punk," the whole album is vaguely reminiscent of Paul Simon's Graceland, Peter Gabriel, or some other African-laced 80's album. Hey, apartheid was horrible and all, but at least there was some great music to come out of it, right? (Best song - "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa")
Honorable Mention: Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak, Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, Muse - H.A.A.R.P. (Quite awesome, but easily bumped to make room for studio albums.)
Ryan's Top 5:
Once again I am reminded of how un-current my tastes are... even the new stuff I get into tends to be a year old (see M.I.A.). Anyway, here goes:
1. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke - I really can't stress enough how much I like this album. If I were growing up in the 80's and Ladyhawke was around, I'd truly have been obsessed. As it stands I'm doing my best to get obsessed now, and so far it seems to be working. She might be my biggest musical crush since Muse? Favorites: Paris is Burning, From Dusk Till Dawn, Magic, Back of the Van, My Delirium, I mean, the whole damn album.
2. Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple - A great follow-up to their debut album, and somehow they still seem to be under the radar, so their semi-underground appeal is maintained and they aren't omnipresent. Favorites: Run, Going On, A Little Better.
3. Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak - I love this album. I love this album a lot more than his last two albums. "Paranoid" might be my favorite song of the year, and it's certainly in my top 5 (list forthcoming, I'm sure, at some point).
4. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs - Not as good as previous albums, this took a little bit of time to grow on me but in the end I do enjoy it thoroughly. And, fortunately, I'll always associate this song with driving through the Rocky Mountains on our anniversary vacation. Bonus points.
5. Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords - This album's placement at #5 is probably more a sign of how little new music I listen to than its overall greatness. Don't get me wrong, FOTC is one of the best things to happen this decade, but after the show/comedy acts this album was pretty underwhelming for me. There are numerous glaring omissions (I'm Not Crying, Sello Tape, If You're Into It, Bret You Got It Going On) and this album's version of "Robots" is maybe the worst there is (still good, but the eighteen youtube versions, and of course the show version, are better). Anyway, enough being an FOTC nerd, this album still kicked ass.
OK, this is admittedly a bit premature, but I really don't see any part of my list changing in the last two weeks of the year. I also realize that these albums were stumbled on by myself alone, so consider these my official recommendations for the year.
1. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke - I got this album not even a month ago, and already Ladyhawke (alias of Pip Brown) has broken my top 5 on last.fm. This album summons ghosts of the 80's and never fails - it's like The Killers if they didn't go downhill after their first album. And if Brandon Flowers were even more of a woman than he already is. (Just kidding, Brandon.) There are no weak tracks at all, and it would be hard to even put together a top 5 list of tracks from this album. Look for that list in the future, because I'm all about trying to rank things that defy rankability. (Best song - "My Delirium")
2. Darker My Love - 2 - What I like about this album is that it has a wide range of influences. I can pick out a bit of early-era Black Sabbath, some U2, and even some earlier Snow Patrol. There's no single thing that makes this album particularly jump out at you, but it's solid, it sounds really good, and it has no weak tracks. If it got a bit more press, it would be one of those albums that will "save rock music." (Best song - "Pale Sun")
3. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular - This whole album is made of drugs. Then again, most of the classic albums throughout history are. But this is more like pure electro insanity. Overall, the sound is very original and fresh, and the first half of the album will just blow you away. The later tracks are a bit weak, though, which drives this album down the list. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some ecstasy to pop. (Best song - "Time to Pretend")
4. Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple - You know it's a good year in music when Gnarls Barkley winds up this far down my list. This is another sophomore release that initially failed to live up to the strength of the debut album, only to become far more listenable as time goes on. And my, how it has since rebounded in my playlist. It's good to know that these guys are not just a flash in the pan. (Best song - "Going On")
5. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend - Yeah, they're cheesy and über-white, but damn it, the music is catchy nonetheless. Though I will never forgive them for the annoying single "A-Punk," the whole album is vaguely reminiscent of Paul Simon's Graceland, Peter Gabriel, or some other African-laced 80's album. Hey, apartheid was horrible and all, but at least there was some great music to come out of it, right? (Best song - "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa")
Honorable Mention: Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak, Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, Muse - H.A.A.R.P. (Quite awesome, but easily bumped to make room for studio albums.)
Ryan's Top 5:
Once again I am reminded of how un-current my tastes are... even the new stuff I get into tends to be a year old (see M.I.A.). Anyway, here goes:
1. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke - I really can't stress enough how much I like this album. If I were growing up in the 80's and Ladyhawke was around, I'd truly have been obsessed. As it stands I'm doing my best to get obsessed now, and so far it seems to be working. She might be my biggest musical crush since Muse? Favorites: Paris is Burning, From Dusk Till Dawn, Magic, Back of the Van, My Delirium, I mean, the whole damn album.
2. Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple - A great follow-up to their debut album, and somehow they still seem to be under the radar, so their semi-underground appeal is maintained and they aren't omnipresent. Favorites: Run, Going On, A Little Better.
3. Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak - I love this album. I love this album a lot more than his last two albums. "Paranoid" might be my favorite song of the year, and it's certainly in my top 5 (list forthcoming, I'm sure, at some point).
4. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs - Not as good as previous albums, this took a little bit of time to grow on me but in the end I do enjoy it thoroughly. And, fortunately, I'll always associate this song with driving through the Rocky Mountains on our anniversary vacation. Bonus points.
5. Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords - This album's placement at #5 is probably more a sign of how little new music I listen to than its overall greatness. Don't get me wrong, FOTC is one of the best things to happen this decade, but after the show/comedy acts this album was pretty underwhelming for me. There are numerous glaring omissions (I'm Not Crying, Sello Tape, If You're Into It, Bret You Got It Going On) and this album's version of "Robots" is maybe the worst there is (still good, but the eighteen youtube versions, and of course the show version, are better). Anyway, enough being an FOTC nerd, this album still kicked ass.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Top 5 Movies You Saw For the First Time This Year
Tim's Top 5:
I've not seen much in the way of movies this year in the theater (I think a total of six), but by my count I've seen 37 movies for the first time this year through finally watching DVDs I own, Netflix, or going to the theater.
1. Elevator to the Gallows - Louis Malle's debut film captures the inevitability and femme fatale aspects of film noir, but spins it in an unforeseen direction. The absurdism is certainly convenient and it requires suspension of disbelief, but the whole saga seems so plagued with fatalism that it feels real. The characters are a bit stock, but the scenario feels fresh 40 years later, and the Miles Davis score is unmatched. I'm embarrassed it took me this long to watch the movie, since I'd owned it since law school.
2. The Last Waltz - To make a concert film of The Band excellent was not something I anticipated would be all that easy, I was hardly a fan of their work. So after they'd played The Weight and Up on Cripple Creek, I really didn't think there'd be any reason to watch. Not so much. It's a fantastic concert from start to finish and the segments where Scorsese interviews The Band are pretty interesting as well.
3. United 93 - If 7 years of misguided responses to September 11 seem to have robbed you of how the day felt, this movie might just reopen those wounds. It brought a lot of gut responses back to me and put me right back in the place where I had been that morning. You know how the movie will end, but it's relentless and forces you to make a serious emotional investment in its outcome. It's a triumph of a film that feels heroic and disastrous all at once, but if nothing else, serves as a reminder of one of the most gut-wrenching days in American history.
4. Once - A nearly perfect film, even if it is functionally plotless. The charm of the two leads is immeasurable and their chemistry is flawless. Add Grafton Street and some other Dublin locales that made it feel relate-able, and you've got a can't-miss film. It doesn't, either, and refuses to take the most obvious path at any point.
5. The Dark Knight - I don't know if Heath Ledger deserves an Oscar, because I haven't seen much of any movies that came out this year, but it was a transformative performance. Though it reads as a political screed as much as a film, Batman's moral ambiguity and the willingness to destroy the sequel that was seemingly being set up pays off in spades. Like Casino Royale, it breathed new life into a film series that had a chance of going too far off the rails. The bad news is that the next film is almost certainly going to be worse (hence, the middling Quantum of Solace not appearing on this list).
Honorable mention: Pan's Labyrinth - I never would have thought it possible to like this movie based on what I'd read, but it's superbly-made and plays very straightforward for what is effectively a fairy tale; Standard Operating Procedure - one of Errol Morris' weaker films, but it personalizes the Abu Ghraib saga more than I'd have imagined possible; The Battle of Algiers - a surprisingly even-handed treatment of the Algerian conflict that relates a story others should have learned from in later conflicts like Vietnam; Iron Man - if anyone is ever cast as me in a movie, I'm hoping it will be Robert Downey Jr. He carries this movie single-handedly and brings a lot of humor to what could have been an overly fawning superhero film. Jon Favreau's direction recognized the humor available in the premise and maximizes it while making it modern.
Dan's Top 5:
As far as I can tell, I've watched 60 movies this year, so this is really hard.
1. Schindler's List - I thought that I wouldn't get this movie. It's about the Holocaust, after all, to which I feel no personal connection at all. But really, this is an excellent film showcasing the essentials of human decency amidst the most senseless of human ferocity. That Steven Spielberg made it is even more astounding, since he had mainly been a director for family-friendly blockbuster movies. At least he doesn't have to worry about which of his movies will be remembered as his best.
2. The Dark Knight - Very seldom is it that I go into a movie theater expecting to be blown away. (Even Best Picture contenders lately leave a lot to be desired.) Even more seldom is the case when the film in question surpasses that already high expectation. What likely seemed a strong movie on paper was taken to a completely different level by the performance of Heath Ledger, which turned the movie into a psychological - and at times philosophical - thriller reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs..
3. Wall-E - Every time Pixar releases a movie, I end up saying it's their best yet. I was fully convinced that Ratatouille was going to be the studio's peak and that the narrative quality would start to decline. The movie manages to accomplish so much with the bare minimum of dialogue, expressing character and emotion through imagery alone. It also accomplishes the remarkable feat of getting you to think about environmental concerns and consumerism without making it some forced political message in disguise. Oh, and if Peter Gabriel doesn't get an academy award for "Down To Earth," I will probably destroy something in my apartment.
4. Network - I didn't really know what to expect of this film going in, other than it was a classic. The level of farce in the story increases ever-so-gradually from completely believable to a level of absurdity matched only by the Bush administration. Personally, I think it would make for a good stage adaptation. It remains a powerful movie even now, when there are starting to emerge people, like me, who don't even watch television.
5. Dark Days - This is, to date, the best documentary film I've seen. It follows a series of homeless people who have taken refuge near abandoned Amtrak tracks near Penn Station. All the characters are engaging and often funny in the face of very hard circumstances. The film actually follows a natural plot rather than meandering from one didactic segment to another a la Bowling for Columbine (which I did like). Most importantly, it ends up being pretty uplifting and shows you what human potential really can be. Feel free to use this movie when battling conservatives.
Honorable Mention: Juno, There Will Be Blood, Do The Right Thing, The Third Man, Into The Wild
Ryan's Top 5:
Perhaps solely for this blog, and to feed my ever-growing OCD, I should start keeping track of movies I watch. (I don't.) So these are my top 5 as best as I can recollect.
1. There Will Be Blood - As much as I disdain anything that's not a comedy, this movie was truly brilliant and veritably flawless. You don't see many true modern tragedies, but this surely was one, and a stellar one.
2. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - This movie was A) hilarious, B) heartwarming, C) well-acted with funny actors, and D) funnier than 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up (comparative as all are Apatow movies). Jason Segel and Russell Brand are particularly great. It also boasts a Dracula musical with puppets from Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
3. Wall-E - Differs slightly in tone from my choice for #1. I can't say that I circle calendar dates in anticipation of PIXAR movies, but they really deserve praise for their writing. Animation aside, they rarely make bad movies; some are better than others, sure, but have they ever made anything completely bad? I don't think so, and there have been plenty of shit-tastic 3D animation movies (that shark piece of trash that I actually saw in a theater comes to mind). Anyway, Wall-E may be their best effort to date. I don't have kids, but if I did, this seemingly would be the perfect movie to take them to.
4. The Dark Knight - I think Tim and Dan said it better than I could. I will say that when movies are talked up so much it almost always affects my reaction to the film adversely. This was not the case here, though, as The Dark Knight delivered. And for days after the film I was wiki'ing Batman and hypothesizing who would be the villain in the sequel.
5. Be Kind Rewind - Did critics dislike this movie? I guess it wasn't as funny as you'd hope a Jack Black/Mos Def movie would be, but... on second thought, wasn't it? I dunno, I loved it. Michel Gondry does not disappoint.
Honorables: Run, Fatboy, Run (probably a dumb movie, but I laughed a lot); No Country for Old Men (saw it on DVD in March or so); Dewey Cox (honorable in that I really thought it would suck and it was actually worth RedBoxing, pretty funny); W. (either I'm not smart enough or not politically-inclined enough to expound on the film's realism/lack thereof, but I enjoyed it...the press conference scenes, taken from Real Actual Life, are pretty damn painful); Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr., is one of my favorite actors, and Tim's right, this film minus him is forgettable).
Dishonorables: Semi-Pro (do not watch this film--repeat, do NOT watch this film); Strange Wilderness (I wasted money on renting this, blagghgh); 21 (classic case of I-read-the-book-first-and-therefore-this-movie-sucks, but come on, they distort reality so much it hurts); Leatherheads (should have been better/funnier than it was); Harold and Kumar Escape... (not a good movie, at all, in any sense, and I liked the first one); Made of Honor (N.B. I did not actually see this movie but I conjecture it is the worst Pile of Suck ever created, look at the fucking title and forget about it, Jesus, do not see this movie); Indiana Jones (we waited 20 goddamn years for THIS?!?!); An American Carol (see my critique of Made of Honor).
I've not seen much in the way of movies this year in the theater (I think a total of six), but by my count I've seen 37 movies for the first time this year through finally watching DVDs I own, Netflix, or going to the theater.
1. Elevator to the Gallows - Louis Malle's debut film captures the inevitability and femme fatale aspects of film noir, but spins it in an unforeseen direction. The absurdism is certainly convenient and it requires suspension of disbelief, but the whole saga seems so plagued with fatalism that it feels real. The characters are a bit stock, but the scenario feels fresh 40 years later, and the Miles Davis score is unmatched. I'm embarrassed it took me this long to watch the movie, since I'd owned it since law school.
2. The Last Waltz - To make a concert film of The Band excellent was not something I anticipated would be all that easy, I was hardly a fan of their work. So after they'd played The Weight and Up on Cripple Creek, I really didn't think there'd be any reason to watch. Not so much. It's a fantastic concert from start to finish and the segments where Scorsese interviews The Band are pretty interesting as well.
3. United 93 - If 7 years of misguided responses to September 11 seem to have robbed you of how the day felt, this movie might just reopen those wounds. It brought a lot of gut responses back to me and put me right back in the place where I had been that morning. You know how the movie will end, but it's relentless and forces you to make a serious emotional investment in its outcome. It's a triumph of a film that feels heroic and disastrous all at once, but if nothing else, serves as a reminder of one of the most gut-wrenching days in American history.
4. Once - A nearly perfect film, even if it is functionally plotless. The charm of the two leads is immeasurable and their chemistry is flawless. Add Grafton Street and some other Dublin locales that made it feel relate-able, and you've got a can't-miss film. It doesn't, either, and refuses to take the most obvious path at any point.
5. The Dark Knight - I don't know if Heath Ledger deserves an Oscar, because I haven't seen much of any movies that came out this year, but it was a transformative performance. Though it reads as a political screed as much as a film, Batman's moral ambiguity and the willingness to destroy the sequel that was seemingly being set up pays off in spades. Like Casino Royale, it breathed new life into a film series that had a chance of going too far off the rails. The bad news is that the next film is almost certainly going to be worse (hence, the middling Quantum of Solace not appearing on this list).
Honorable mention: Pan's Labyrinth - I never would have thought it possible to like this movie based on what I'd read, but it's superbly-made and plays very straightforward for what is effectively a fairy tale; Standard Operating Procedure - one of Errol Morris' weaker films, but it personalizes the Abu Ghraib saga more than I'd have imagined possible; The Battle of Algiers - a surprisingly even-handed treatment of the Algerian conflict that relates a story others should have learned from in later conflicts like Vietnam; Iron Man - if anyone is ever cast as me in a movie, I'm hoping it will be Robert Downey Jr. He carries this movie single-handedly and brings a lot of humor to what could have been an overly fawning superhero film. Jon Favreau's direction recognized the humor available in the premise and maximizes it while making it modern.
Dan's Top 5:
As far as I can tell, I've watched 60 movies this year, so this is really hard.
1. Schindler's List - I thought that I wouldn't get this movie. It's about the Holocaust, after all, to which I feel no personal connection at all. But really, this is an excellent film showcasing the essentials of human decency amidst the most senseless of human ferocity. That Steven Spielberg made it is even more astounding, since he had mainly been a director for family-friendly blockbuster movies. At least he doesn't have to worry about which of his movies will be remembered as his best.
2. The Dark Knight - Very seldom is it that I go into a movie theater expecting to be blown away. (Even Best Picture contenders lately leave a lot to be desired.) Even more seldom is the case when the film in question surpasses that already high expectation. What likely seemed a strong movie on paper was taken to a completely different level by the performance of Heath Ledger, which turned the movie into a psychological - and at times philosophical - thriller reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs..
3. Wall-E - Every time Pixar releases a movie, I end up saying it's their best yet. I was fully convinced that Ratatouille was going to be the studio's peak and that the narrative quality would start to decline. The movie manages to accomplish so much with the bare minimum of dialogue, expressing character and emotion through imagery alone. It also accomplishes the remarkable feat of getting you to think about environmental concerns and consumerism without making it some forced political message in disguise. Oh, and if Peter Gabriel doesn't get an academy award for "Down To Earth," I will probably destroy something in my apartment.
4. Network - I didn't really know what to expect of this film going in, other than it was a classic. The level of farce in the story increases ever-so-gradually from completely believable to a level of absurdity matched only by the Bush administration. Personally, I think it would make for a good stage adaptation. It remains a powerful movie even now, when there are starting to emerge people, like me, who don't even watch television.
5. Dark Days - This is, to date, the best documentary film I've seen. It follows a series of homeless people who have taken refuge near abandoned Amtrak tracks near Penn Station. All the characters are engaging and often funny in the face of very hard circumstances. The film actually follows a natural plot rather than meandering from one didactic segment to another a la Bowling for Columbine (which I did like). Most importantly, it ends up being pretty uplifting and shows you what human potential really can be. Feel free to use this movie when battling conservatives.
Honorable Mention: Juno, There Will Be Blood, Do The Right Thing, The Third Man, Into The Wild
Ryan's Top 5:
Perhaps solely for this blog, and to feed my ever-growing OCD, I should start keeping track of movies I watch. (I don't.) So these are my top 5 as best as I can recollect.
1. There Will Be Blood - As much as I disdain anything that's not a comedy, this movie was truly brilliant and veritably flawless. You don't see many true modern tragedies, but this surely was one, and a stellar one.
2. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - This movie was A) hilarious, B) heartwarming, C) well-acted with funny actors, and D) funnier than 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up (comparative as all are Apatow movies). Jason Segel and Russell Brand are particularly great. It also boasts a Dracula musical with puppets from Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
3. Wall-E - Differs slightly in tone from my choice for #1. I can't say that I circle calendar dates in anticipation of PIXAR movies, but they really deserve praise for their writing. Animation aside, they rarely make bad movies; some are better than others, sure, but have they ever made anything completely bad? I don't think so, and there have been plenty of shit-tastic 3D animation movies (that shark piece of trash that I actually saw in a theater comes to mind). Anyway, Wall-E may be their best effort to date. I don't have kids, but if I did, this seemingly would be the perfect movie to take them to.
4. The Dark Knight - I think Tim and Dan said it better than I could. I will say that when movies are talked up so much it almost always affects my reaction to the film adversely. This was not the case here, though, as The Dark Knight delivered. And for days after the film I was wiki'ing Batman and hypothesizing who would be the villain in the sequel.
5. Be Kind Rewind - Did critics dislike this movie? I guess it wasn't as funny as you'd hope a Jack Black/Mos Def movie would be, but... on second thought, wasn't it? I dunno, I loved it. Michel Gondry does not disappoint.
Honorables: Run, Fatboy, Run (probably a dumb movie, but I laughed a lot); No Country for Old Men (saw it on DVD in March or so); Dewey Cox (honorable in that I really thought it would suck and it was actually worth RedBoxing, pretty funny); W. (either I'm not smart enough or not politically-inclined enough to expound on the film's realism/lack thereof, but I enjoyed it...the press conference scenes, taken from Real Actual Life, are pretty damn painful); Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr., is one of my favorite actors, and Tim's right, this film minus him is forgettable).
Dishonorables: Semi-Pro (do not watch this film--repeat, do NOT watch this film); Strange Wilderness (I wasted money on renting this, blagghgh); 21 (classic case of I-read-the-book-first-and-therefore-this-movie-sucks, but come on, they distort reality so much it hurts); Leatherheads (should have been better/funnier than it was); Harold and Kumar Escape... (not a good movie, at all, in any sense, and I liked the first one); Made of Honor (N.B. I did not actually see this movie but I conjecture it is the worst Pile of Suck ever created, look at the fucking title and forget about it, Jesus, do not see this movie); Indiana Jones (we waited 20 goddamn years for THIS?!?!); An American Carol (see my critique of Made of Honor).
Friday, November 21, 2008
Top 5 Favorite (New) Books Read in 2008
It's looking increasingly unlikely that I will meet the 50-Book Challenge. I am mired on 37. So I think it's high time to pull the trigger on a list I've been intending to write all year.
Ryan's Top 5:
1. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut - This book blew me away. While reading this book, I constantly thought to myself, "This is the great American novel." I think, when you've read 10+ Vonnegut books and feel you have a pretty good grasp on the author, you don't expect to find an undiscovered gem. But this book has every opportunity to stand beside Mother Night and Slaughterhouse-Five as my three favorite Vonnegut books.
2. Then We Came To The End - Joshua Ferris - What can I say, I love office culture and the books, movies, TV shows, etc., regarding it. Anyway, this book is written in the first-person plural--a fact which would strike one as seeming gimmicky, but it never comes off as such while reading it. Ferris cleverly inserts the singular author/narrator into the story at key moments. This book is also pretty funny. Good stuff. Incidentally, the first book I read this year.
3. Flight - Sherman Alexie - This book should be taught in schools. And it would be, too, if I had the ability to acquire any texts I want. But alas, I do not have said ability. Anyway, every high school kid--and especially every transient-population high school kid, and especially especially every foster child high school kid--should definitely read this mug. A quick, entertaining read with a powerful and refreshingly simple message: violence blows.
4. When You Are Engulfed By Flames - David Sedaris - I don't think I will ever like this more than Corduroy or Me Talk Pretty One Day, but so what? Those books are damn good, and so is this one. Nuts to anyone who said this book was a weaker effort from Sedaris, that he was writing about lighter, less interesting material. Bullshit. Sedaris' masterful ability to coax the Funny and the Interesting from any incident--no matter how mundance--is veritably unparalleled.
5. The Year of Living Biblically - A.J. Jacobs - A fun and interesting read on modern, and ancient, Judeo-Christian beliefs. I learned more from this book than I did from 15 years (read: 15 Easters) of church.
Honorables: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Tom Stoppard; Armageddon in Retrospect, by Kurt Vonnegut; Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem; others.
Dan's Top 5:
1. Watchmen - Alan Moore - Fuck it, I'm just going to reprint my review that I gave it:
2. High Fidelity - Nick Hornby - I'm amazed it took me so long to read this book, but then again, I'm a slow reader. There's enough difference from the movie that I can say it was really worth the read, and it provided a fresh new lease on the story. I'm sort of sad and frightened at how well some guy from England knows my life story. You know, except for all the sex that was added to make it interesting.
3. When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris - One of the stories in this collection - Town and Country - made me realize just how genius that Sedaris' work is. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read the whole story and then reread the very first sentence. The circular irony - if I can call it that - takes the story beyond funny and into a realm of the-joke's-on-you that I had previously believed only Andy Kaufman was in.
4. Batman: The Long Halloween - Jeph Loeb - Another graphic novel makes the list, and this may be the best Batman story out there. It's another story that transcends - or expands - its medium. It's really a classic film-noir detective story. It should earn respect as being one of the primary inspirations for The Dark Knight, which many - including myself - are hailing as the best movie adaptation ever of the world of comics.
5. Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson - Corey Seymour - Quite a nice account of the entire life of The Doctor. I have a suspicion that there are better biographies to come, especially if they don't paint such a dreary picture of Thompson's later years, but this serves as a fantastic introduction to understanding the man for those, like myself, who missed his glory years.
Tim's Top 5:
Wow. Apparently this blog still exists. I'm at 59 books for the year, so it's odd that coming up with 5 I loved is so difficult, but so it goes. For a year I intended to plow through most of Shakespeare and Vonnegut...I've read nary a page of either. The number afterward is, of course, the number in the sequence of 59 books where the books were read. Why? Because Ryan mentioned that one book was first and I'm borderline OCD about tracking things that mean nothing. As a modest response to the other lists, I've read The Year of Living Biblically (in January) and High Fidelity (several times years ago), and will never understand people's love for David Sedaris -- nor why I keep trying to give him additional opportunities to make me understand.
1. Werewolves in Their Youth by Michael Chabon - This book is, I think, my favorite thing Chabon has ever written. Though I've yet to complete Kavalier and Clay (and that's the only thing I haven't read), from the half-book I've read, I'm going to find it an unlikely suitor to replace this collection of short stories. The title story is profoundly touching and one of the best instances in creating an offbeat narrator with whom a reader can nonetheless connect, and the remainder of the book is about on par with it. It's a fantastic work that thumps even Raymond Carver's best work when it comes to short story-writing. (#18)
2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - This is a book that I was consciously reminding myself to be skeptical toward. It's fish-in-a-barrel, right? It's not compelling to basically turn an Asperger's kid into a narrator, it's just Rain Man in book form. Right? Well, if so, it's compelling anyway. The book is emotionally compelling and manages to have a narrator who is by definition static but creates a story that simply changes the reader instead of the narrative voice. (#29)
3. The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer - The entirety of Mailer's novel seems so exceptionally odd in every way that it's hard to remind yourself that it really happened. Gary Gilmore, a perfectly ordinary petty criminal with sociopathic tendencies, became a man of huge fame solely because he wanted to die rather than linger in prison for ages. The story of him fighting for his execution while others fight to stop it and others (including Mailer himself, it turns out) fight to make money off selling the story to Hollywood is surreal and bizarre, but gripping, particularly after the first 200 pages or so. It's a good thing, since there's another 800 after that, but it's generally intriguing and a sad tale for everyone involved. It also doesn't hurt that I read much of this book in Spain and some in Morocco. I loved Spain...and enjoyed certain elements of Morocco (#20)
4. Rome 1960: the Olympics that Changed the World by David Maraniss - Both of Maraniss's books really struck me as impressive works of biography, but this one offered a reasonable biography of around a dozen people in the context of a few weeks in the Olympics. Although I'd grown up adoring the olympics, you didn't hear of 1960 -- 1968 had Bob Beamon, 1972 had Mark Spitz and terrorists, 1984 was Carl Lewis, and 1936 was Jesse Owens. 1960...1960 was nothing. Rafer Johnson wasn't a name, Cassius Clay wasn't an Olympian. Maraniss' book brings the intrigue of the Cold War and the clash of a East/West Olympics to vivid life and doesn't limit it solely to the American perspective -- though that is obviously the primary emphasis. Less emotional than Clemente, which is one of the saddest books I've read, it nonetheless carries a punch. (#40)
5. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer - Murder and religion make a compelling pair. I'm a sucker for Krakauer's book, and this one was more educational than I would have anticipated. Far from being the anti-Mormon screed that the LDS church has made it out to be, it details a lot of their history in what strikes me as a profoundly even-handed manner and constantly emphasizes the differences between fundamentalist LDS and ordinary LDS -- so much that I think it takes it really easy on LDS and its numerous withdrawals from these once-preeminent tenets of their church. (#22)
Honorable mention: The 33-Year-Old Rookie by Chris Coste (#30), Bloody Confused! by Chuck Culpepper (have I mentioned that I am enamored with Premier League soccer? Maybe I need to try Fever Pitch again) (#55), Havana Nocturne: How The Mob Owned Cuba…and then Lost It To the Revolution by T.J. English (#41), Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile (#1), Clemente: the Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero by David Maraniss (the end of this book is as upsetting as anything I have ever read) (#46), The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (#58)
Ryan's Top 5:
1. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut - This book blew me away. While reading this book, I constantly thought to myself, "This is the great American novel." I think, when you've read 10+ Vonnegut books and feel you have a pretty good grasp on the author, you don't expect to find an undiscovered gem. But this book has every opportunity to stand beside Mother Night and Slaughterhouse-Five as my three favorite Vonnegut books.
2. Then We Came To The End - Joshua Ferris - What can I say, I love office culture and the books, movies, TV shows, etc., regarding it. Anyway, this book is written in the first-person plural--a fact which would strike one as seeming gimmicky, but it never comes off as such while reading it. Ferris cleverly inserts the singular author/narrator into the story at key moments. This book is also pretty funny. Good stuff. Incidentally, the first book I read this year.
3. Flight - Sherman Alexie - This book should be taught in schools. And it would be, too, if I had the ability to acquire any texts I want. But alas, I do not have said ability. Anyway, every high school kid--and especially every transient-population high school kid, and especially especially every foster child high school kid--should definitely read this mug. A quick, entertaining read with a powerful and refreshingly simple message: violence blows.
4. When You Are Engulfed By Flames - David Sedaris - I don't think I will ever like this more than Corduroy or Me Talk Pretty One Day, but so what? Those books are damn good, and so is this one. Nuts to anyone who said this book was a weaker effort from Sedaris, that he was writing about lighter, less interesting material. Bullshit. Sedaris' masterful ability to coax the Funny and the Interesting from any incident--no matter how mundance--is veritably unparalleled.
5. The Year of Living Biblically - A.J. Jacobs - A fun and interesting read on modern, and ancient, Judeo-Christian beliefs. I learned more from this book than I did from 15 years (read: 15 Easters) of church.
Honorables: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Tom Stoppard; Armageddon in Retrospect, by Kurt Vonnegut; Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem; others.
Dan's Top 5:
1. Watchmen - Alan Moore - Fuck it, I'm just going to reprint my review that I gave it:
In the entire set of books I've read, I've only reread two. Watchmen is one of them. First, being a graphic novel, it's fairly easy to reread. However, even if it were a printed novel of more than four hundred words, I imagine I'd still be rereading it, because it's a great piece of literature.
But then, one of its key successes is what Moore tried to use it to prove - that comics can achieve things that neither film nor printed novels can. (I use "comics" out of respect for Moore, who as I understand it, didn't like the term "graphic novel.") It's easy to dismiss the whole medium of comics after associating them with superhero-based periodical magazines seemingly fueled by sugar and adrenaline, a few steps away from being printed versions of adventurous Saturday morning cartoons. Watchmen changed that and showed that comics could be used to create something great and truly artistic.
This is literature.
It is ironic then, that Moore does this by using superheroes and masked vigilantes. However, every single one of them has their own flaws and depths. Most have a chapter dedicated mainly to them, so that you can gain an appreciation for their character. By far the most popular character to try to dissect is Rorschach, the trenchcoat-clad vigilante whose journal helps narrate the book. As the plot progresses, we can see both a perception of the world that is devoid of any existence of morality and a deep-rooted desire to uphold certain values and principles at any cost.
I imagine that many people will be reading this book in the coming months as the upcoming movie adaptation is hyped amongst the circles of the book's adoring fans. With the degree of achievement that this comic represents, it is not a question of how well the movie will succeed in recreating Watchmen, but how little it will fail. It is hard to imagine a comic approaching this level of perfection again.
There will likely be some who cannot get past the concept of reading a comic and taking it seriously, thus putting it down soon after they start reading. If you've never read comics before, then this book will change your views on what they are able to accomplish, as long as you are able to check any preconceptions at the door. If you have read comics before, but you've never read Watchmen, then be prepared to drink from the Holy Grail.
2. High Fidelity - Nick Hornby - I'm amazed it took me so long to read this book, but then again, I'm a slow reader. There's enough difference from the movie that I can say it was really worth the read, and it provided a fresh new lease on the story. I'm sort of sad and frightened at how well some guy from England knows my life story. You know, except for all the sex that was added to make it interesting.
3. When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris - One of the stories in this collection - Town and Country - made me realize just how genius that Sedaris' work is. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read the whole story and then reread the very first sentence. The circular irony - if I can call it that - takes the story beyond funny and into a realm of the-joke's-on-you that I had previously believed only Andy Kaufman was in.
4. Batman: The Long Halloween - Jeph Loeb - Another graphic novel makes the list, and this may be the best Batman story out there. It's another story that transcends - or expands - its medium. It's really a classic film-noir detective story. It should earn respect as being one of the primary inspirations for The Dark Knight, which many - including myself - are hailing as the best movie adaptation ever of the world of comics.
5. Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson - Corey Seymour - Quite a nice account of the entire life of The Doctor. I have a suspicion that there are better biographies to come, especially if they don't paint such a dreary picture of Thompson's later years, but this serves as a fantastic introduction to understanding the man for those, like myself, who missed his glory years.
Tim's Top 5:
Wow. Apparently this blog still exists. I'm at 59 books for the year, so it's odd that coming up with 5 I loved is so difficult, but so it goes. For a year I intended to plow through most of Shakespeare and Vonnegut...I've read nary a page of either. The number afterward is, of course, the number in the sequence of 59 books where the books were read. Why? Because Ryan mentioned that one book was first and I'm borderline OCD about tracking things that mean nothing. As a modest response to the other lists, I've read The Year of Living Biblically (in January) and High Fidelity (several times years ago), and will never understand people's love for David Sedaris -- nor why I keep trying to give him additional opportunities to make me understand.
1. Werewolves in Their Youth by Michael Chabon - This book is, I think, my favorite thing Chabon has ever written. Though I've yet to complete Kavalier and Clay (and that's the only thing I haven't read), from the half-book I've read, I'm going to find it an unlikely suitor to replace this collection of short stories. The title story is profoundly touching and one of the best instances in creating an offbeat narrator with whom a reader can nonetheless connect, and the remainder of the book is about on par with it. It's a fantastic work that thumps even Raymond Carver's best work when it comes to short story-writing. (#18)
2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - This is a book that I was consciously reminding myself to be skeptical toward. It's fish-in-a-barrel, right? It's not compelling to basically turn an Asperger's kid into a narrator, it's just Rain Man in book form. Right? Well, if so, it's compelling anyway. The book is emotionally compelling and manages to have a narrator who is by definition static but creates a story that simply changes the reader instead of the narrative voice. (#29)
3. The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer - The entirety of Mailer's novel seems so exceptionally odd in every way that it's hard to remind yourself that it really happened. Gary Gilmore, a perfectly ordinary petty criminal with sociopathic tendencies, became a man of huge fame solely because he wanted to die rather than linger in prison for ages. The story of him fighting for his execution while others fight to stop it and others (including Mailer himself, it turns out) fight to make money off selling the story to Hollywood is surreal and bizarre, but gripping, particularly after the first 200 pages or so. It's a good thing, since there's another 800 after that, but it's generally intriguing and a sad tale for everyone involved. It also doesn't hurt that I read much of this book in Spain and some in Morocco. I loved Spain...and enjoyed certain elements of Morocco (#20)
4. Rome 1960: the Olympics that Changed the World by David Maraniss - Both of Maraniss's books really struck me as impressive works of biography, but this one offered a reasonable biography of around a dozen people in the context of a few weeks in the Olympics. Although I'd grown up adoring the olympics, you didn't hear of 1960 -- 1968 had Bob Beamon, 1972 had Mark Spitz and terrorists, 1984 was Carl Lewis, and 1936 was Jesse Owens. 1960...1960 was nothing. Rafer Johnson wasn't a name, Cassius Clay wasn't an Olympian. Maraniss' book brings the intrigue of the Cold War and the clash of a East/West Olympics to vivid life and doesn't limit it solely to the American perspective -- though that is obviously the primary emphasis. Less emotional than Clemente, which is one of the saddest books I've read, it nonetheless carries a punch. (#40)
5. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer - Murder and religion make a compelling pair. I'm a sucker for Krakauer's book, and this one was more educational than I would have anticipated. Far from being the anti-Mormon screed that the LDS church has made it out to be, it details a lot of their history in what strikes me as a profoundly even-handed manner and constantly emphasizes the differences between fundamentalist LDS and ordinary LDS -- so much that I think it takes it really easy on LDS and its numerous withdrawals from these once-preeminent tenets of their church. (#22)
Honorable mention: The 33-Year-Old Rookie by Chris Coste (#30), Bloody Confused! by Chuck Culpepper (have I mentioned that I am enamored with Premier League soccer? Maybe I need to try Fever Pitch again) (#55), Havana Nocturne: How The Mob Owned Cuba…and then Lost It To the Revolution by T.J. English (#41), Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile (#1), Clemente: the Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero by David Maraniss (the end of this book is as upsetting as anything I have ever read) (#46), The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (#58)
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