Personal update

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks.

Christmas was very nice. Michael and I spent the weekend with our friends in Tucson again. He got me the Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man DVD (in exchange for which I agreed never to make him watch it) and a book collecting all of the artwork from the complete output of Factory Records, i.e., albums, singles, promotional materials, etc. I gave him a DVD player (to replace the one that died a few months ago) and two seasons of Will & Grace. I also bought a copy of Vellum for a friend and one for myself, finally. I kept getting it through interlibrary loan and running out of time before I had finished reading it.

I have registered for three online classes, two about music and one on reflective writing, for the Spring semester. The latter will count toward the Journalism/Mass Communication degree and the first two are for my personal fulfillment. I plan to pay my tuition tonight - a whopping sum of $68. Needless to say, I love my employee tuition waiver.

Additionally, I am taking a class called Supervisory Academy for work. This will count as a full year of supervisory experience when I apply for the Library Supervisor position that will open up after my boss finishes her M.A. and departs for greener pastures.

I'm also planning to take my GRE (finally) before February 1st. I keep procrastinating and missing deadlines. The absolutely final day I can apply for U of A's MLS program for the summer is April 1st. This will give me time to receive my GRE results, write my C.V. and letter of intention and gather up two letters of recommendation. I think four months to prepare my application is a realistic goal.

I am way behind on my end-of-the-year project, so it's unlikely that I will get caught up by Monday. However, I am going to see it through until the bitter end, hopefully sometime in January. The podcast will reappear shortly thereafter.

Finally, here is a photo of the first two grilled cheese sandwiches I ever made, strangely enough. I took the photo in the midst of eating them. I didn't burn down the kitchen, to my roommate's relief, though he did derive some amusement from my clumsy efforts. They did taste good, though.

My recommendations 2006:Palo Santo by Shearwater

Shearwater: Palo Santo
Misra 5/9/2006

Available at Emusic

Shearwater is Okkervil River's quieter, more introspective alter ego, with Jonathan Meiburg taking the frontman's reins from Will Sheff. As is often the case with those that suppress anger, Shearwater is slow to come to a boil but lashes out forcefully, often with a sincere expression of disappointment, rather the disgust displayed on Okkervil River's Black Sheep Boy (a superb album in itself). Palo Santo represents an alternate perspective, another way of reacting to the same affronts. Shearwater illuminate a darker, perhaps more slippery path to catharsis, every bit as tranformative as the one traveled on Black Sheep Boy.

My recommendations 2006:Serena-Maneesh by Serena-Maneesh

Serena-Maneesh: Serena-Maneesh
Playlouderecordings 5/9/2006

Available at Emusic

A lot of people are needlessly hung up on the supposed virtues of originality, many to the point of giving glowing reviews to unlistenable albums that happen to be weird and giving bad reviews to gorgeous ones that tread familiar territory. On occasion, an album like Serena-Maneesh comes along that does little more than rehash a done-to-death genre, i.e., shoegaze, but does it so well that critics are tripping over themselves trying to explain why they love it, all the while making excuses for its familiarity. Frankly, all I care about is whether it's enjoyable - and in this regard, Serena-Maneesh is a superb album. After all, shoegaze is really hard to fuck up - one part reverb, one part feedback, two parts soft male/female vocals buried in the mix - and in competent hands, it can still be stunning. Despite a few rough edges, Serena-Maneesh have shown that they are at worst great imitators, and at best potential innovators.

My recommendations 2006:Pieces of the People We Love by The Rapture

The Rapture: Pieces of the People We Love
Universal 9/12/2006

Most assume that The Rapture make dance music with rock instrumentation. I disagree. I think they make rock music that's danceable. When I listen to Pieces of the People We Love, I hear similarities to The Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division, Gene Loves Jezebel and The Cult, reimagined through the lens of Peter Brown's "Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me?" and Giorgio Moroder. It seems that The Rapture's mission, as their name would suggest, is to subvert gloomy and cerebral musical paradigms into something joyful and visceral. Though The Rapture lament that nobody's dancing, they manage to get even the most cynical feet moving.

My recommendations 2006:We Are the Pipettes by The Pipettes

The Pipettes: We Are the Pipettes
Memphis Industries 8/29/2006

Available at Emusic

This could have been terrible, and conventional logic dictates that it should have. After all, when is the last time a female pop vocal group did anything interesting? The Supremes, ca. 1967? While The Pipettes are every bit as manufactured as The Spice Girls, the former's aim is to elevate public tastes to their own threshold, instead of pandering to existing standards. Rather than blindly (blandly) resurrect a long-dead genre wholesale, or even inflecting modern indie pop with Phil Spector-esque production, The Pipettes inhabit the overlapping portion of the Venn diagram of both. Instead of presenting an artificial fusion, We Are the Pipettes is completely organic, as if from an alternative timeline in which the Shangri-Las segued directly into Iggy & The Stooges.

My recommendations 2006:Writer's Block by Peter Bjorn and John

Peter Bjorn and John: Writer's Block
Wichita 6/29/2006

2006 has been an excellent year for Swedish bands, intriguing uses of rhythm sections and songs with whistling. Peter Bjorn and John's Writer's Block is (so far) my favorite example in all three of these categories. While Writer's Block isn't this trio's first album, it might be considered a debut of sorts, as it represents a radical reorganization of the band. Peter Bjorn and John have abandoned the hierarchical order of a conventional band, in which one or two members control the creative direction. For their latest album, they have promoted all three members to principal singer and songwriter. This is manifest in the astonishing diversity of the songs. Despite the seemingly random directions they take, the songs still exhibit a consistency that proves that Peter Bjorn and John share similar creative visions and ambitions. Much like the cover suggests, their combined talents shown on Writer's Block completely dwarf most of their peers.

My recommendations 2006:Fundamental by Pet Shop Boys

Pet Shop Boys: Fundamental
Rhino 6/27/2006

When I am burned by a band I love, it's very difficult for me to trust them again. Take, for example, Pet Shop Boys. The release of Very coincided with my coming-out at the age of sixteen. I fell in love with that album and it came to represent that period of my life in my memory. I soon had all of their albums and EPs. Bilingual took some time, but I warmed up to all but one or two songs. Then they followed it up with the absolutely abysmal Nightlife, which contained about a dozen of their worst songs ever, one decent single and a perplexing duet with Kylie Minogue. Since then, I have largely ignored their output for fear of being subjected to something even worse. However, the past two years have been marked by a series of return-to-form albums by artists I had given up on years ago, so I felt intuitively that I should give Fundamental a chance. I'm glad I did. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have finally made maturity work for them, drawing upon the strengths of their first four albums and innovating musically as well. Almost every song ranks among their best early material, easily making Fundamental their best album since Very.

R.I.P., Peter Boyle

I just learned from CNN that Peter Boyle passed away due to heart problems last night at the age of 71. Most people will remember him from Everybody Loves Raymond, but my fondest memory of him will always be his role in Young Frankenstein. May he always be remembered for making us laugh for more than thirty years.

My recommendations 2006:Now You Are One of Us by The Paper Chase

The Paper Chase: Now You Are One of Us
Kill Rock Stars 6/6/2006

Available at Emusic

The Paper Chase is a deceptively benign name for a band that makes such creepy music. Paranoid and macabre, Now You Are One of Us could easily replace any of Goblin's scores for Dario Argento's giallo flicks. Man-eating houses and body-snatching aliens stalk the listener at every sonic turn, while the unnervingly familiar reanimated corpse of a Cat Stevens melody gorges itself on your temporal lobes. Now You Are One of Us is among the most twistedly imaginative albums of the year.

My recommendations 2006:Ys by Joanna Newsom

Joanna Newsom: Ys
Drag City 11/14/2006

Available on Emusic

Unless you have been living alone deep in a subterranean cave for at least a month, you have probably already heard everything there is to know about Ys, so I'll just give an executive summary. Joanna Newsom is a classically-trained harpist and a San Francisco native (her cousin just happens to be one of my personal heroes, SF mayor Gavin Newsom). Her 2004 album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, turned quite a few heads upon its release and expectations were high for the follow-up. While writing the songs for Ys, Newsom realized that she would need a string sections, so she recruited Van Dyke Parks to handle the arrangements. Ys lives up to the praise it has received and then some. Newsom weaves five lengthy musical parables, all based on actual events from one year of her life. I have seen several reviews that describe Ys as difficult on the first few listens, but I disagree. These five songs are immediately lovely and shimmering and gorgeous and any number of other adjectives along those same lines. Ys is not just a phenomenal album, but it is a beautiful experience that everyone should seek out at least once, like the ocean or the auroras.

Education news

I have been accepted to the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU to pursue a second B.A. in Journalism with an emphasis in Media Analysis and Criticism. I am going to start out in the pre-professional program to get started on some of the lower-division requirements. If I can use my tuition waiver at both ASU and U of A, I will also pursue a M.A. in Information Resources and Library Sciences at U of A.

I think that this will hedge my bets between landing my dream job one day (music critic) and having to settle for a job that is practical but nonethless immensely enjoyable (librarian). Also, and more importantly, it will allow me to defer my student loans a bit longer.

Movement

Matthias Davies (formerly of Titus Knew and threedogheads) has relocated and retitled his blog. Check it out.

My recommendations 2006:Dial 0 by My Robot Friend

My Robot Friend: Dial 0
Soma 5/29/2006

Available at Emusic

My Robot Friend, aka Howard Robot, offers fun and frivolous electronic dance music. Nobody could credibly accuse My Robot Friend of taking itself too seriously, as the subject matter vacillates from the sublime to the absurd and back in the same breath. Drugs, orgies, break-ups, bears (of the large, hairy, gay variety) and the decline of Western civilization are some of the most prominent topics tackled on Dial 0. Like many John Waters films, Dial 0 handles these subjects deftly with a perverse, and often juvenile, sense of humor.

My recommendations 2006:Bring Me the Workhorse by My Brightest Diamond

My Brightest Diamond: Bring Me the Workhorse
Asthmatic Kitty 9/7/2006

Available at Emusic

Classically trained multi-instrumentalist and Sufjan collaborator Shara Worden is likely to find her way into my pantheon of singing goddesses, among the likes of Neko Case, Nina Simone and Alison Moyet. Her vocal style and range have both been described as operatic, and for good reason; she studied opera at the University of North Texas. The influence of opera is easily seen in her songwriting as well. The songs are theatrical and histrionic (in a good way.) Bring Me the Workhorse will surely appeal to fans of Sufjan Stevens, Antony & The Johnsons and Nine Simone.

My recommendations 2006:The Looks by MSTRKRFT

MSTRKRFT: The Looks
Last Gang 7/18/2006

I was saddened by the news that Death From Above 1979 had split this past August. Though it was a little too harsh for me at first, 2004's You're a Woman, I'm a Machine grew on me and was in heavy rotation on my iPod by the end of 2005. Its abrasiveness, the very aspect which had originally put me off of it, became its most endearing quality. The same can be said for The Looks, the debut album of MSTRKRFT, DFA1979's partial reincarnation. Though MSTRKRFT create dance music, as opposed to DFA1979's noise-rock, they still sound as if they are felling redwoods. The Looks is reminiscent of the Ibiza-via-Manchester acid house of Technique-era New Order, and even The DFA (despite the well-publicized acrimony between The DFA and Death From Above 1979 over forcing the latter to change its name).

My recommendations 2006:The Fountain: Music From the Motion Picture by Clint Mansell

Clint Mansell: The Fountain: Music From the Motion Picture
Nonesuch 11/21/2006

About a month ago, I posted about my excitement about this collaboration between Clint Mansell (formerly of The Pop Will Eat Itself), Kronos Quartet and Mogwai. As high as my hopes for this score were, the end result surpassed my expectations. I went to see The Fountain with a friend two weeks ago and I was so impressed by how well the music complemented the emotional arc of the story and the visual palette that I immediately downloaded the score upon arriving home. Kronos Quartet are, as usual, adept at conveying the protagonist's grief, while Mogwai illustrate his desperation. This is a definite must-have if you are a fan of either. My only gripe is that the Antony Hegarty vocal version of "The Last Man" is not included. For now, you can hear it on Clint Mansell's Myspace page.

Back to business

Okay, it's been ten days since my last post, but I've been thinking about posting. As they often say this time of year, it's the thought that counts, right?

I am way behind on my end-of-the-year project. I have about ten recommendations queued up and waiting to be posted; I have the the album art and links to artist and label websites saved in my drafts. I just need to write the darn things. The problem is that the longer I procrastinate, the harder it is to remember what I wanted to write. So now I have to take a couple of days to listen to each album again and write the review immediately thereafter. I still plan on having this project done before the end of the year.

Paleunderweight podcast 30, as I mentioned before, will be available before the end of the year also.

Later today, I will have updates of a more personal nature regarding my educational direction.

My recommendations 2006:Ringleader of the Tormentors by Morrissey

Morrissey: Ringleader of the Tormentors
Sanctuary 4/4/2006

When I was a horny, depressed teenager, I had an enormous crush on Morrissey. He was everything I wanted in a man: he was sexy, English and bordering on suicidal. At night, in bed, I would stare at my Smiths posters and dream of the day that I would break Morrissey's celibacy and he would be mine. Now, long after I had given up hope, somebody seems to have finally accomplished what I had fantasized about all those lonely nights. Morrissey is now confident, mature and liberated from sexual frustration. His famous gallows humor is still present, all the better now for not taking himself so seriously. Ringleader of the Tormentors is probably the most well-rounded of his solo albums, now that he has outgrown being masturbation fodder for drearily clad adolescents.

My recommendations 2006:The Obliterati by Mission of Burma

Mission of Burma: The Obliterati
Matador 5/23/2006

Available at Emusic

With The Obliterati, Mission of Burma seems to have beaten the reunion curse - not just once, but twice! ONoffON was a fantastic, if only slightly scattered, record, but The Obliterati is better. This time around, Mission of Burma has harnessed the focus that was missing on their first reunion album. It almost seems a little unfair to the pack of post-punk bands that have emerged in the past five years. Imagine if you had grown up listening to Vs. and Signals, Calls and Marches, which inspired you to form a fairly decent band of your own. Then your idols return from the grave after a hiatus of more than twenty years and drop a record like The Obliterati, which is ten times better than anything you could have come up with in a million years. I'd be kind of discouraged. It's a good thing I'm not in a band; I'd hate for my own inadequacy to interfere with my enjoyment of such a fine album.

My recommendations 2006:And the Glass Handed Kites by Mew

Mew: And the Glass Handed Kites
Sony 7/25/2006

The problem with most bands is not that they shamelessly rip off the bands that preceded them; it's that they don't rip off enough bands that preceded them. Mew could never be credibly accused of having too few influences, and they aren't ashamed of it. On their official website, they namecheck virtually everyone who has mattered in music in the last thirty years or so: Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., M83, Prince, My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins and, weirdly enough, Aqua. Mew describe their music with elaborately nested and modified noun phrases, such as "ecstatically icy space ballets" and "bombastic medieval madrigal space opera." I can't find fault with any of these descriptions; they certainly illustrate the quailitied of Mew's songs, which are just as elaborately nested and modified as their metadata suggest. It's safe to say that if you love music at all, you will find something about And the Glass Handed Kites to enjoy.

My recommendations 2006:Tears of a Clone by Icy Demons

Icy Demons: Tears of a Clone
Eastern Developments 10/31/2006

Available at Emusic

If you have been paying attention, you may have noticed that I have a strong affinity for outsider music, freak folk and weirdo pop. The last three years have been incredibly fruitful for artists such as Man Man, Xiu Xiu and Antony who combine musical ecclecticism and theatricality to create the most vivid and visceral experience possible. Icy Demons certainly inhabit this space as well. What Icy Demons manage to accomplish (and what most of their contemporaries have not) is to make their habitat seem habitable for oxygen-breathing creatures. The cover of Tears of a Clone demonstrates this quality - the surreal illustration could not be any more over-the-top, yet bright pink tears over the spilt white blood of what appears to be a Wookie anchor the visual fable in raw human emotion. Icy Demons weave together the strange elements of outsider music with thread spun from pure pop, at moments evoking the ska punk of early XTC, the restrained cacophony of Boredoms, or the sugar-and-caffeine-fueled hyperemotionality of Polysics. While the strange worlds of Icy Demons are inhabited by weeping albinos and dying furries, their denizens seem more approachable than one's own parents.

Check out Miniluv

Miniluv is a blog and a project devoted to sending a copy of George Orwell's 1984 to everyone in the House and the Senate who voted for the Military Commissions act. I have added a link to my "Other Blogs of Note" sidebar. Check them out and donate a book for the cause!

What does a terrorist eat?

Does he prefer the chicken or the fish? Does he require a low-sodium meal? Does he ask for orange juice, diet soda or a bloody mary? Does he ask for a second bag of nuts? Does he like to sit in a window seat to watch the mountains go by beneath him? Does he try to engage his neighbor, who is obviously trying to read, in conversation? Does he read a Grisham novel or the in-flight magazine? Does he ask the flight attendant for aspirin because of the screaming kid in the row behind him who won't stop kicking his chair? Does he use the air sickness bag? Does he giggle at the stupid Jim Belushi sitcom rerun they show in flight? Does he try to convince his girlfriend to meet him in the lavatory so they can join the "mile-high club"?

The fightening thing is that Homeland Security thinks that questions like these have answers. Worse, they believe they know the answers. They are so confident in their expertise that think they can assign you a score based on, among many other things, which meal you order on the flight and this score tells them whether or not you are a terrorist. Your score is so useful that Homeland Security intends to keep it on file for forty years and so accurate that there is no need to let you know it has ever been assigned to you or to let you challenge it in a courtroom.

Of course, we all know that the middle-aged Caucasian Southern Baptist from Arkansas will never be given a high score, despite his connections with a group responsible for shooting a doctor in Houston because she has performed abortions and burning down a gay bar in Atlanta with many patrons still inside. Instead, an Iranian man, a physician who has been honored for his volunteer work at a pediatric burn unit in his community, a married father of four with pro-Western sympathies, will switch seats on a flight from Paris to Boston because another passenger has had four cocktails and has become obnoxious. This innocent move will cause his arrest and detention by Homeland Security upon arrival at his destination because he just happened to move to a seat above the wing. He will never see an attorney or a judge. He will never know why he is being detained or tortured. He will never see his family again because he thinks the only way to end the torture is to confess to something he never did. They will never know what happened to him. All because he committed the crime of FWM - Flying While Muslim.

I would laugh at the irony of this, except it isn't funny. The real story here isn't the arrogance of federal officials who think they can apply a mathematical formula to expose terrorists; it's the fact that Americans have remained complacent while their nation gradually turned into a fascist state. We were all taught it could never happen here because of our precious Constitution. We have now learned the hard way that our civil rights are like potted plants: they shrivel up and die if they aren't nurtured. After 9/11, we were duped into believing that we needed to temporarily give up some rights so our government could protect us. Then, they said it wasn't enough; we needed to give them more power to protect us. By the time we got wise to the ruse, we had already allowed the passage of the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act. These two laws, more than any other, have gutted the Constitution.

It seems, though, that we may have stopped it in time. We still have the right to vote and we exercised that right a few weeks ago by affecting regime change at home. Had voter turnout been much lower, perhaps we would have lost the power to elect our representatives in government, too. There but for the grace of God, indeed.

Now we, as Americans, have the responsibility of keeping the Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate on their toes. We must remind them frequently that we want our civil rights back. We mustn't get complacent and trust someone blindly just because he or she has a 'D' by their name. After all, many Democrats have been complicit in the attacks on our Constitution over the past five years. Many are already working to reverse the erosion on our civil liberties, but they will need all the help the can get. Help them by writing to commend them when they defend the Constitution and criticize them when they fail to protect it. Help them by calling for the resignation of any Democrat found to be corrupt, even when you have supported them in the past. Help them by making them work for you. Otherwise, the Democratic Party won't be able to improve anything. I don't want to see the country's power divided between two parties that aren't different at all, because that would by the last nail in the coffin.

Tom Waits ♥... Missy Elliott!

In an interview with Pitchfork, Tom Waits professes his love for Missy Elliott. "I'm crazy about her," he said. This is one of only a handful of situations in my life in which I have been simultaneously surprised and not surprised. It's an odd sensation. It's a bit like déjà vu.

Do not be alarmed by any other strange sensations you experience while reading the interview. Unless your left arm suddenly goes numb and you smell vanilla. Then, you may be having a stroke. Or it could be your reaction to Waits' list of strange laws from around the country. Either way, seek immediate medical attention.

HOA update

Courtesy of Wil Wheaton, whose link has been woefully absent from my sidebar until today, we have an update on the peace sign wreath situation.


Long story short, reason prevailed. The resident will be allowed to keep the wreath and all fines have been reversed. This goes to show that civilization gradually progresses toward truth, though it can be a painfully slow and bumpy process.



Speaking of Wil, I need to start reading his blog more often. He is a very intelligent individual with great tastes in the finer things in life, such as Heroes on NBC. Also, his role as Wesley Crusher on ST:TNG jump-started my puberty.

Another reason to abolish HOAs

A Denver HOA has ordered a resident to take down a Christmas wreath in the shape of a peace sign because some of her neighbors have taken offense to it.

Now, how could a reasonable human being object to a universal symbol of peace, one of the central values of their own religion? Well, a reasonable person wouldn't. Only a stupid person would.

Their stupidity is confirmed by their reasons for taking offense to it. Some neighbors have confused it with a pentagram, which they have confused with a pentacle, which they erroneously believe is a symbol of Satanism.

If you are under this pernicious delusion, please take a note of the differences between the three symbols in this handy diagram:

As you can see, there are pronounced differences between the symbols. So there goes that argument.

Of course, if you want to get technical, even if she had displayed a pentacle or pentagram, it couldn't be considered an explicitly Satanic symbol because both symbols have been used by many cultures to represent God or some concept associated with God. The star of David is an example of a pentacle (the etymology of which has nothing to do with the number five, despite common misconceptions). Early Christians displayed pentagrams to respresent the wounds that Jesus suffered on the cross. It's not really necessary to go into all of this to refute the arguments of the peace sign opponents, but it does illustrate their ignorance of the history of their own religious traditions.

The other reason neighbors cited for objecting to the peace sign is that it expresses opposition to the war in Iraq, in which some of their sons and daughters are fighting. Here they are making rash assumptions about her reasons for hanging the wreath. Let's ignore the issue of whether the war is legal or morally right and focus on the meaning of the symbol. Again, a little history lesson will illuminate the matter. The peace sign was created for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1958. The symbol is derived from the semaphore symbols for 'N' and 'D'. So the peace sign is nothing more than a stylized acronym for "Nuclear Disarmament." Of course, the peace sign became a symbol for the movement against the Vietnam War. Beyond that, it has become a symbol for the ideal of world peace, something that real Christians wouldn't object to. The peace sign has no explicit connection to the war in Iraq, and one would think that opposition to the Vietnam War is no longer a hot-button issue. Once again, the HOA's reasoning has been proven fallacious.

Having established that our heroine was, in fact, explicitly supporting the abstract notion of world peace and not necessarily intending to express a stance on the current war, let's turn our attention to why the concept of peace should not be controversial.

There are numerous references to the ideal of peace in the New Testament. For example, Matthew 5:9 says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." James 3:18 says, "Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness." There are also numerous associations between peace and Christmas in folk tradition, especially in carols. On famous example is in "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", written by Charles Wesley in 1739. "Peace on earth and mercy mild" are lauded as the consequences of the coming of the Messiah. If the offended neighbors intend on singing this particular carol this year, in public or in private, they have no leg to stand on in their objections.

However, there is reason to believe that the campaign against the peace wreath has more to do with the personal ambitions of the HOA president. The architectural control committee voted to allow the wreath in accordance with the HOA's rules. The president, however, was dissatisfied with the result of this vote and fired all five committe members.

This goes to the center of why HOAs should be abolished or, at the very least, heavily regulated. They frequently go way beyond protecting property values and abridge the civil rights of homeowners without due process. There is no way the presence of a peace sign wreath, controversial or not, can severely affect neighbors' property values. This is entirely about trying to control what fellow Americans think and say, which is the very definition of un-American. I hope that the new Democratic majorities in both houses will make limiting the power of HOAs part of the 2007 legislative agenda.

R.I.P., H. Donald Wilson

H. Donald Wilson, creator of LexisNexis, one of the most kick-ass research tools used by libraries, passed away November 12th at the age of 82.

If you have never used LexisNexis, you should definitely try it. Unfortunately, I didn't know about it for most of my undergrad. I wish I had because it would have been useful. I went to a staff training for LexisNexis last year and I really enjoyed using it.

LexisNexis provides full-text access to federal court cases, campaign finance contributions, Congressional proceedings, census statistics and many other useful data sources. If you are affiliated with a university, you probably have access to LexisNexis. If not, you can contact public libraries in your area to find out whether they subscribe. Check it out if you get a chance.

My recommendations 2006:The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast by Matmos

Matmos: The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast
Matador 5/9/2006

Available at Emusic

In the film Barbarella, the matmos was a source of energy that fueled various forms of evil in the city built upon it. Ironically, very little of the activity that Jane Fonda's title character witnessed in the city in search of Duran Duran (yes, the band also got their name from this film) could really be called evil. Hedonistic, certainly. And hedonism is one aspect of gay history that is manifest on Matmos' The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast, a concept album about notable gay figures from history. Each track commemorates one person who has made his or her distinctive mark on the world and is played in a manner that evokes that individual's influence. For example, for Valeria Solanas, the lesbian who shot Andy Warhol, a cow uterus is played like a wind instrument over a reading of her anti-male manifesto. For William S. Burroughs, it's a typewriter. For The Germs' Darby Crash, Matmos recorded the sound of cigarettes burning human skin. And for erotic photographer James Bidgood, human semen was splashed while Antony gently cooed and chanted. This is easily among the strangest and best albums of the year.

My recommendations 2006:Youth by Matisyahu

Matisyahu: Youth
Sony 3/7/2006

Okay, I know what you're thinking. Matisyahu? Isn't he the rapping rabbi novelty dude?! I know that Pitchfork panned this record mercilessly, but Sean Fennessey seemed more concerned with Matisyahu's lack of legit reggae credentials than anything about the music. Plus, Fennessey's review was factually inaccurate on every count. For the record, Matisyahu was born and raised Jewish. But that doesn't matter anyway. Let's talk about the music. I wanted desperately to not like this album, but despite my own considerable prejudices, I have to admit it's pretty darn good. Perhaps if I was into the misogynistic, homophobic reggae of Beenie Man I would think Matisyahu pretty tame in comparison, but as far as reggae goes, I haven't heard anything as effortlessly enjoyable as Youth. If you need more convincing, consider the producer of this record: Bill Laswell. Yes, that Bill Laswell. The same Bill Laswell who played on Eno and Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, founded Material and The Golden Palominos, and produced Swans' The Burning World. The production on Youth is easily some of Laswell's best work of the decade. While Youth gets a little preachy at moments, it's otherwise a surprisingly great album.

My recommendations 2006:Six Demon Bag by Man Man

Man Man: Six Demon Bag
Ace Fu 2/21/2006

Did I mention that I love weirdos? Well, I do. And I absolutely adore the idiosyncratic sideshow music of Man Man. Critics frequently compare them to Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits, only because those are the only artists that have a similar magnitude of weirdness. Six Demon Bag doesn't quite match the over-the-top gorgeousness of their criminally underrated debut, The Man in a Blue Turban With a Face, but it's still really quite amazing. This should be required listening for anyone who loves music or even claims to.

My recommendations 2006:It's a Feedelity Affair by Lindstrøm

Lindstrøm: It's a Feedelity Affair
Smalltown Supersound 11/21/2006

Lindstrøm's Feedelity label website describes his sound fairly accurately: "...without any knowledge of dance music whatsoever, he entered the scene rather freed from any preconceived notions of style and trend parameters." This may be somewhat of a redundancy when describing any artist in an electronic genre - who gets a B.A. in microhouse from Juilliard anyway? - but in Lindstrøm's case, it's doubly true. He constructs house music from real, organic instruments as well as synths. If you were not given this information ahead of time, you might never figure it out because Lindstrøm blends organic and synthetic elements so seamlessly that the distinction seems meaningless (because it really is).

My recommendations 2006:Drum's Not Dead by Liars

Liars: Drum's Not Dead
Mute 3/21/2006

Not long ago, critics conveniently grouped Liars in with the DFA-style dance punk that was emerging in New York at the time, if only because of geographic proximity. Then it seemed necessary to reevaluate this categorization; Liars were apparently drifting closer to trends in noise. However, it seems now that Liars are beginning to stumble upon something completely novel. Angus Andrew's description of the ethic of Drum's Not Dead that most succinctly summarizes Liars' sound: "It's the idea of dealing with loss or change, how do you recover from that, and what that recovery can lead you to." Drum's Not Dead tells a story of two characters: Drum and Mt. Heart Attack. They symbolize both the creation/destruction dichotomy and the often turbulent history of the city Liars now call home, Berlin. The album reminds me of early Einstürzende Neubauten, both in style and in philosophy.

My recommendations 2006:Rabbit Fur Coat by Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins

Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins: Rabbit Fur Coat
Team Love 1/24/2006

There is an elusive quality in a flawless female voice that I have always loved. I have always been drawn to this particular kind of voice. I heard it in Alison Moyet's performance on Yaz's "Midnight", when it sounded as if her head might explode from the pressure. I heard it throughout all three This Mortal Coil albums from various women who have contributed their voices to the project. Now, I hear it all over Jenny Lewis' solo debut, Rabbit Fur Coat. Co-produced by Lewis and M. Ward, Rabbit Fur Coat is more country-rock than alt-country, so its twang might be a little off-putting at first. However, a little patience and open-mindedness pays off, as Lewis' voice, as well as the Watson Twins', is completely beguiling. Despite my prejudices against the particular genres explored on Rabbit Fur Coat, I must admit that any other format would have been a less perfect showcase for Lewis' vocal abilities.

My recommendations 2006:45:33: Nike+ Original Run by LCD Soundsystem

LCD Soundsystem: 45:33: Nike+ Original Run
Nike 10/17/2006

I was ambivalent about whether to recommend this release. In particular, I felt uneasy about the ethical implications of LCD Soundsystem's relationship with Nike. For one thing, Nike's human rights record is infamously abominable. They have refused to guarantee a minimum wage for their factory workers and to allow independent inspectors to tour the factories to ensure safe and sanitary working conditions. They have also been caught making false statements about working conditions in their factories and had the gall to argue in court that they actually have a First Amendment right to lie in their ads because it's political speech. On the other hand, they have been vocal advocates for the gay community in recent years, supporting domestic partnership benefits and anti-discrimation and hate crimes legislation. Then I remembered that this is about the music. On the basis of the music alone, this is a fantastic album. 45:33 is a single, continuous track of slowly shifting disco. I hope that LCD Soundsystem expands some of the sections into proper songs on future releases because they are really quite remarkable. So, if you are comfortable with downloading this album despite Nike's human rights record, I highly recommend it.

My recommendations 2006:Silent Shout by The Knife

The Knife: Silent Shout
Mute 7/25/2006

In high school I wrote a paper proposing that Scandinavian geography and climate created conditions that favored greater interpersonal dependence than in other European cultures, which resulted in some cultural phenomena that Americans might find peculiar. It was utter bullshit; I pulled it completely out of my ass without actually having done any research to back it up. Nonethless, I got an A on the paper, probably because my thesis was completely plausible. One look at the history of pop music in Scandinavian countries and one might swallow my theory wholesale. The Knife is a brother-and-sister duo from Sweden that serves as an example of this. The Olof and Karin Dreijer seem to have created a private language of cultural symbols, which the use to create a bizarre form of technopop. Or maybe it just seems weird because of my American cultural biases. Perhaps the Dreijers find Jack and Meg White incomprehensibly eccentric.

My recommendations 2006:Xan Valleys EP by Klaxons

Klaxons: Xan Valleys EP
Modular 10/17/2006

Available at Emusic

As you may be able to tell from previous posts, I am perhaps overly fond of weirdos and genre-hoppers. Klaxons definitely fall into both categories. Their sound is kind of like post-punk, grime, house and everything else that has been revived in the UK in recent years. Beyond that, their sound is very difficult to describe. Let's hope their debut album lives up to the promise of this charming EP.

My recommendations 2006:So This Is Goodbye by Junior Boys

Junior Boys: So This Is Goodbye
Domino 9/12/2006

Junior Boys' debut, Last Exit, was declared by many to be the one of the greatest albums of the 21st century so far. I liked it, but I didn't fully appreciate how amazing they were until I saw them live last year. I had gone to the show primarily to see Caribou, but I was completely taken aback when I saw Junior Boys. I was astonished at how just two musicians could create such a sublime sound. From that day forward, Junior Boys became one of my favorite new acts. It was hard to imagine how they could top Last Exit, especially considering the departure of Johnny Dark, who had been responsible for much of their sound. Somehow, with So This Is Goodbye, they did it. So This Is Goodbye is much tighter than Last Exit, much of whose appeal came from the sensation that it might fall like a soufflé if one did not take care to tread lightly in its vicinity. You could throw So This Is Goodbye against a wall without fear that it might crack. Junior Boys' sophmore album is much less blue-eyed soul and significantly more 1989 Ibiza house-inflected New Order than its predecessor. It seems that Jeremy Greenspan found an even more suitable collaborator with Matthew Didemus to expand upon Junior Boys' unique sound.

Update

You may have noticed that I haven't posted a new podcast in while. Don't worry; the podcast is just on a short hiatus. I will record and post paleunderweight podcast 30 before the end of the year. I think that it will be posted in several parts over several days. This will be a special podcast commemorating the music of 2006.

I am also going to launch another blog in the next few days. It will not replace this one; I will maintain both blogs simultaneously. The second blog will be focused on a narrower subject matter than this one is. Right now, I'm just playing with the format. I will post an announcement when the new blog is ready to be seen.

My recommendations 2006:Welcome to My World by Daniel Johnston

Daniel Johnston: Welcome to My World
High Wire 4/18/2006

Available at Emusic

Everything I've ever read about Daniel Johnston makes a point if mentioning his lifelong struggle with mental illness. Having heard this anthology of his recordings, I wonder which is his bigger problem: his bipolar disorder or just not receiving love and support from those he is supposed to be able to depend on. Johnston is frequently self-referential, and it's obvious that he's talking about himself even when speaking in the third person. His songs frequently tell stories of an anguished artist, discouraged by friends and family from doing what he loves who call him a bum. I can relate to this experience very well. At the age of thirteen, a psychiatrist told me that it was unlikely I would ever be able to function in society, hold down a job, succeed in school, etc. He told me I would probably end up killing myself, living in an institution or worse. Later, my mother tried to discourage me from going to college, saying, "Why bother? You'll just fail anyway." Sometimes, as Johnston and I both can tell you, people are just wrong. Johnston's recordings are often rough around the edges, but frequently brilliant. He continued to record despite his family's reservations and eventually influenced the likes of Tom Waits, Beck, Robert Pollard and TV on the Radio. Thanks to Johnston's determination and reliance on his own abilities, he amassed a vast body of work over many years. This anthology, as well as my graduation from college only weeks after its release, proves that mental illness need not be an insurmountable obstacle to success.

My recommendations 2006:IBM 1401, A User's Manual by Jóhann Jóhannsson

Jóhann Jóhannsson: IBM 1401, A User's Manual
4AD 10/24/2006

Available at Emusic

Jóhann Jóhannsson's father, while working as a technician on early IBM copiers many years ago, discovered that the machines emitted radio waves during their normal operations. He managed to record some the music he composed on the machines. Jóhannsson discovered the tapes years later, which inspired him to compose this symphony based on those recordings. Considering that these pieces were composed as an ode to a machine, they sound surprisingly pastoral. It just goes to show that the machines created by man reveal hidden patterns in nature. With IBM 1401, Jóhannsson shows how capable his is at interpreting these patterns.

My recommendations 2006:Silver EP by Jesu

Jesu: Silver EP
Hydrahead 4/11/2006

Critics have attempted to pigeonhole Jesu into various categories, usually some kind of subgenre of metal. Perhaps critics are unwilling or unable to see Justin Broadrick's new band in any other light because he was in Napalm Death and Godflesh. To me, Jesu sounds more similar to dark ambient acts of the mid 90s than any metal I've ever heard. Like Lycia, as well as every other band signed to Projekt in the 90s, Jesu uses slow, grinding drones to form the foundations of melodies. Unlike Black Tape for a Blue Girl and their sound-alikes, however, Jesu does it without becoming monotonous. I suppose this is because, despite how slowly the songs unfurl, there are distinct verses, bridges and choruses - all absent from most dark ambient. As much as I loved that kind of music ten years ago, I could only take so much of it, even then. Jesu, on the other hand, leaves me wanting more.

My recommendations 2006:Return to the Sea by Islands

Islands: Return to the Sea
Equator 4/4/2006

Available at Emusic

In the aftermath of The Unicorns' baleful and silly breakup, one couldn't have been blamed for thinking that the members' individual careers were over. One bizarre news story after another emerged about their questionable decisions, such as Nick Diamonds' and J'aime Tambeur's announcement that they were making a foray into hip-hop as Th' Corn Gangg. And while it was well received, The Unicorns' debut, Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?, was so ramshackle it gave little hope of longevity. In spite of all indications to the contrary, Diamonds' and Tambeur's debut as Islands, Return to the Sea, establishes both as enduring presences in indie rock that are likely to hand around a while, in one form or another. Return to the Sea is every bit as strange as The Unicorns' album, but nowhere near as childish or silly. Who Will Cut Our Hair was not a fluke; Diamonds and Tambeur have shown they are capable of controlling their creativity. Though Tambeur has already left the band, Diamonds insists that "Islands are forever." Let's hope so.

My recommendations 2006:The Warning by Hot Chip

Hot Chip: The Warning
Astralwerks 6/13/2006

I was worried about Hot Chip's signing to Astralwerks. Frequently, signing to a major label can spell doom for an indie band. Loss of creative control and incompetent representation could have destroyed what was special about Hot Chip: amateurish but deceptively danceable tunes overflowing with narcissism and bravado. I was partially right; Hot Chip did lose their amateurishness. Now, they make well-crafted and forthrightly danceable tunes, still overflowing with narcissism and bravado. There were moments on their debut that were grating simply because they were unaccustomed to using their own equipment. These moments are gone on The Warning. What Hot Chip lost has been replaced by something even better: competence.

My recommendations 2006:Boys and Girls in America by The Hold Steady

The Hold Steady: Boys and Girls in America
Vagrant 10/3/2006

Available at Emusic

In a climate of unabashed artsy weirdness, it's suprising that The Hold Steady are held in such high regard by critics. The don't play glockenspiels, they write verses and choruses, and their songs are about the present day. Perhaps it's the literary quality that pervades their songs, then, that indie hipsters are atracted to. The Hold Steady write stories more than songs; they have a stable of characters they put into challenging situations, usually drug-related. Or perhaps critics and fans love them because they are good at what they do. Their songs are frequently celebratory and anthemic - easy to love whether you have ever overdosed at a concert or not.

My recommendations 2006:Black Ships Ate the Sky by Current 93

Current 93: Black Ships Ate the Sky
Jnana 5/1/2006

Available at Emusic

Current 93 is one of the most dependable and constant things in this world. David Tibet is long past finding himself. Consequently, Current 93 has a well-defined sound that is unlikely to change. For most bands, this would be a liability. However, Tibet has a vast cadre of collaborators, each bringing their own perspective to the apocalyptic folk sound that Tibet pioneered. So each album sounds a little different. Black Ships Ate the Sky returns to the same epic format of Thunder Perfect Mind and All the Pretty Horses. This time, Tibet brings in more vocalists than we have seen on any previous album, including Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Antony Hegarty, resulting in seven versions of "Idumæa". These versions give the album a hub-and-spoke structure, the album returning periodically to the same reference point. Most of the rest of the songs include Tibet's distinctive vocal style in oscillates between chanting and speaking, but almost never singing. All of Tibet's favorite themes are reprised: Gnosticism, Louis Wain, Louis Wain and the Roman Empire. Longtime fans of Current 93 such as myself will find it a welcome return to form, while the uninitiated might enjoy Black Ships Ate the Sky enough to start exploring their vast back catalogue.

My recommendations 2006:Harmony in Ultraviolet by Tim Hecker

Tim Hecker: Harmony in Ultraviolet
Kranky 10/17/2006

Available at Emusic

Brian Eno once said, "'Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting." If Tim Hecker agrees with this approach, then Harmony in Ultraviolet is a success, but if you aren't paying close attention, then you are missing a lot of what is great about it. I suspect that the allusion to George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" is intentional; Harmony is every bit as complex but much more subtle, hence the Doppler blueshift into the ultraviolet. It's almost as if the Gershwin tune were left out in the elements for a few centuries, subjected to erosion and corrosion, leaving it so weathered that only an archaeologist has the eye to recognize it as a human artifact.

My recommendations 2006:From the Cliffs EP by Guillemots

Guillemots: From the Cliffs EP
Fantastic Plastic 3/14/2006

There are times when it's a real drag living in the United States. Not only do we have the shitty political climate of the last six years, but we also have to wait for albums that the rest of the world gets to enjoy months before they are released here. I have been drooling over a number of such albums that are not schedules for domestic release until early 2007: Lily Allen, Jarvis Cocker, I'm From Barcelona and Guillemots. Luckily, while I'm waiting for Guillemots' debut, Through the Windowpane, to arrive stateside, I have this lovely EP to tide me over. Guillemots go big on everything, so big in fact that all their song titles should be written with exclamation points. Not since Wham! have we seen such opulent and over-the-top arrangements from a pop band with so few members. Even The Polyphonic Spree, with its billion or so members, come up short in terms of both grandeur and quality when compared to Guillemots.

If you don't buy the new Tom Waits album, you will go to Hell.

Okay, I exaggerate. But Orphans is pretty damn phenomenal, even for Tom Waits. Buy it! You won't be sorry.

Stolen bicycle

I was going to use this evening to catch up on music recommendations, but I'm not really in the mood now. In fact, I'm positively livid.

It turns out that my roommate has known since Saturday that my bicycle was stolen out of the backyard but neglected to mention it to me until just a few minutes ago. Apparently, he came home Saturday afternoon to find the door to the from the garage into the backyard open (we have an open garage facing the street which leads right into the backyard). He found that my bicycle and his tile saw had been stolen.

He says he didn't say anything to me because he assumed I already knew. It's just common sense that if I knew, I would have said something. He also assumed that the police couldn't or wouldn't do anything about it. I guess it didn't occur to him that bicycles and power tools have serial numbers that are traceable. Had he called the police on Saturday, we might have been able to recover the stolen items. Now, who knows? I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can get the serial number for my bike from the shop that sold it to me and it's not too late to file a police report.

Maybe I will get one or two recommendations done tonight, but I wouldn't count on it.

Mark your calendars...

...because Dec. 22nd is the first annual Global Orgasm for Peace!

For most of my readers, this won't involve doing anything you don't do everyday anyway. But if an orgasm isn't a normal part of your daily agenda, make sure to reserve adequate time in your Outlook calendar. Don't forget to send invitations to your partner(s) using evite or some other service. More gregarious individuals may want to consider inviting everyone in their Myspace friends list.

My recommendations 2006:Color Wheel by Growing

Growing: Color Wheel
Troubleman Unlimited 4/11/2006

Color Wheel is often lumped in with the work of Growing's contemporaries in noise such as Excepter, Wolf Eyes and Death From Above 1979. However, this doesn't tell the whole story. Color Wheel is more similar to Brian Eno's Discrete Music in its elegance and breadth. Rarely does noise overshadow the ponderous drones. Fuzzy, cacophonous bits of detritus float past one another on a sea of pure tones. The overarching theme is balance; rhythms throb unchangingly over periods of up to twenty minutes to give stability to the compositions, while random flares of noise break up the monotony.

My recommendations 2006:Yellow House by Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear: Yellow House
Warp 9/5/2006

It's great to see that Warp Records is finally diversifying their portfolio. For years, their catalog was all IDM all the time: Autechre, Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, etc. While these acts are all great, what will Warp do when IDM falls out of favor? It seems that they are beginning to hedge their bets, and wisely so. Last year they released Maxïmo Park's great (though overhyped) debut, a skittering, spastic post-punk album that was similar in ethic, if not in style, to their established artists. Now, they have released Grizzly Bear's sophmore effort. Yellow House continues the trend of postmodernist genre recombination that some of the year's best albums have exhibited. Americana, psychedelia and post-rock are the primary sources used for constructing Grizzly Bear's sound. If Warp is wise, they will make Grizzly Bear the flagship band of a new cadre of artists, more eclectic and diverse than the label has ever had.

My recommendations 2006:The Tragic Treasury: Songs From a Series of Unfortunate Events by The Gothic Archies

The Gothic Archies: The Tragic Treasury: Songs From a Series of Unfortunate Events
Nonesuch 10/10/2006

I believe that fifty years from now, music historians will look upon Stephin Merritt with the same affection that they do Cole Porter now. Like Porter, Merritt is extremely prolific, having released hundreds of songs under his various guises: The Magnetic Fields, The 6ths, Future Bible Heroes and The Gothic Archies. Also like Porter, Merritt can write a flawless pop song seemingly without effort. The Tragic Treasury is full of such songs, all overflowing with the dark, twisted wit of their creator. This gallows humor, which is used only sparingly on other Merritt endeavors, comes out in full force here, as over-the-top and tongue-in-cheek as he can get away with. Listening to The Tragic Treasury is like eating a birthday cake with your hands in the dark by yourself when it's not your birthday; you enjoy it though you get a sense that you shouldn't. This is, after all, a song cycle inspired by a series of children's books written by Merritt's former bandmate (Lemony Snicket was once a member of The Magnetic Fields). However, this is not children's music. This is a mature highbrow lowbrow kind of album - not inappropriate for a child, per se, but it was obviously intended for an adult intellect.

My recommendations 2006:Lunático by Gotan Project

Gotan Project: Lunático
XL 4/11/2006

Available at Emusic

This joint Argentine/French/Swiss project aims to revitalize tango music and stimulate interest in the genre by infusing elements of electronic forms. When I read something like this, I immediately think of the Starbucks impulse-buy area next to the counter where they sell vapid and sanitized "world" music. However, even if it does end up being sold at Starbucks, it certainly doesn't sound boring or watered down. Gotan Project manage to sound authentic to tango tradition and innovative simultaneously - a true feat when trying to meld two or more disparate genres. It's not likely to inspire me to sign up for tango lessons at the local Arthur Murray studio, but it has opened my mind to the potential of tango in hands as capable as Gotan Project.

My recommendations 2006:Supernature by Goldfrapp

Goldfrapp: Supernature
Mute 3/7/2006

Goldfrapp seems to have finally hit their stride. Their previous albums, Felt Mountain and Black Cherry, had some great tracks but were marred by some lackluster songs as well. Not so on Supernature. Nearly every song is as catchy and thrilling to warrant being released as a single. There are a few tracks that exhibit the signature combination of glam and electronica that we have all come to expect from Goldfrapp, but they seem to be growing as well. Supernature demonstrates that Mute is the perfect label for Goldfrapp. They fit in well with classic Mute acts such as Depeche Mode, Yaz and The Normal, while displaying influences from Mute's Grey Area reissues of Can, Throbbing Gristle and SPK. This is an album can be easily enjoyed by indie snobs like myself and musical philistines alike.

My recommendations 2006:St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley

Gnarls Barkley: St. Elsewhere
Downtown 5/9/2006

It seems that Danger Mouse is everywhere these days. Only three years ago, he was completely unknown, and then his controversial Beatles/Jay-Z mash-up The Grey Album made him a household name, among music hipsters anyway. Since then, he became a member of Gorillaz on their Demon Days album, collaborated with MF Doom as DangerDoom, resold altered copies of Paris Hilton's album's packaging with a clandestine remix CD-R inside, and is now working with Cee-Lo Green as Gnarls Barkley. Cee-Lo is a great choice for a vocalist, because he is indeed a soul machine as his last solo album suggests, as opposed to Doom, who may enjoy being called a soul-crushing machine. St. Elsewhere has some of the best the both artists bring to the table: Danger Mouse's wicked humor and even more wicked beats coupled with Cee-Lo's strong and soulful vocals, resulting in a solid album, start to finish.

My recommendations 2006:Night Ripper by Girl Talk

Girl Talk: Night Ripper
Illegal Art: 5/9/2006

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that Night Ripper is going to be at the top of many critics' lists this year. Greg Gillis, AKA Girl Talk, constructed Night Ripper entirely out of samples of popular songs. Some would argue that this is completely unoriginal, but that would be completely untrue. Unlike a lot of other mash-up artists, who combine two or three similar songs to highlight their similarities, Gillis takes pieces of dozens of very different songs to create something completely original. It's clear that Gillis loves music. He uses the most energetic and climactic chunks of songs - a great bassline, an infectious chorus, an effortlessly flowing rap verse - to show his audience exactly what there is about music to love. Night Ripper is something you can listen to over and over again in succession and never get tired of it, tapping your foot and bobbing your head the whole time.

My recommendations 2006:In the Maybe World by Lisa Germano

Lisa Germano: In the Maybe World
Young God 7/18/2006

Available at Emusic

Considering that Young God Records was created to reissue classic Swans albums and the solo projects of Michael Gira and Jarboe, the label has had remarkable success at launching the careers of new artists that Gira has discovered: Devendra Banhart, Larsen, Windsor for the Derby, Akron/Family, Mi and L'au, etc. Now, YGR is trying to reinvigorate the career of an established artist who has been tragically overlooked: Lisa Germano. Germano is a phenomenal violinist, pianist and songwriter. After having worked as a session musician for the likes of John Mellencamp, David Bowie and Indigo Girls for many years, she released come critically acclaimed albums that sold poorly, both on major and indie labels. Somehow, despite her talent, she has been criminally ignored by the indie rock crowd. In the Maybe World is a great example of her abilities as a musician and songwriter, but if the lukewarm reviews of this album are an indication, Germano and Young God Records are in for an uphill battle to get her the attention she deserves.

My recommendations 2006:Shattered by The Exploding Hearts

The Exploding Hearts: Shattered
Dirtnap 10/31/2006

Available at Emusic

Shattered is a tragically appropriate title for this posthumous (in more than one sense of the word) album. In April 2003, The Exploding Hearts released their superb debut album, Guitar Romantic, which was received very well by fans and critics alike. The following July, their tour van flipped over on an interstate, killing everybody inside except guitarist Terry Six and manager Rachelle Ramos. Shattered collects all of their recordings that were not included on Guitar Romantic. It shows that their debut was no fluke; every track is an example of the astonishingly catchy and well-crafted post-punk/power-pop that made Guitar Romantic one of the best albums of the decade so far. It's just one more reason to mourn the destruction of The Exploding Hearts and to hope for the best for Terry Six and his new band, The Nice Boys.

My recommendations 2006:He Poos Clouds by Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy: He Poos Clouds
Tomlab 6/13/2006

Available at Emusic

Musicians that work alone, such as Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett, have the luxury of being able to write and record in their own peculiar way, without the compromise inherent in group settings. This isn't always a good thing; independence often leads to overindulgence, as Cex has shown, or to a lack of diversity, such as Kieran Hebden's most recent ouput as Four Tet. Pallett, on the other hand, seems to have the ability of self-restraint, too rare in indie musicians these days. He lets his lap pop/chamber pop compositions roam but knows when to rein them in. His best ideas are allowed to flourish but he doesn't do them to death. He Poos Clouds is humorous, strange and clearly the result of a singular vision, but not so insular as to be soulless. In fact, these songs are often quite poignant. As much as I enjoy this album, I think his next two or three albums will be increasingly better, as Pallett hones his ability to balance independence and empathy.