this is what i think
why? -alopecia is the best album to come out in the last 5 years.
-kp
-kp
Year's List
Hola livejournal, its been a while
Okay so this years list was extremely difficult to compile for me because there wasnt really 1 album that was clearly better or that i liked more than the rest, and in subsequent years that has definitely been the case so Im going to do my best. keep in mind this is a list of my favorite, not necissarily what i consider to be the best, albums of the year.
20 Crystal Skulls: Outgoing Behavior - good album, really like both albums, havent got a chance to listen to much, but every time it comes on im a little happier
19 Gnarls barkley: St. Elsewhere - I can't deny my love for these songs, even the singles, you may hate me for it but these are some hot tracks
18 Cornelius: Sensuous - I've just started listening to this, and thats why it is so high up the list. I put it here though, because I already really really like it and Im sure it would be way higher up if I had heard it earlier, it sounds like blackjetmask if it was really really really good.
17 Liars: Drum's Not Dead - so awesome! also havent listened to this enough, but something about it is super cinematic and i love that. one of the best examples of an album that works extrememly well all together from front to back, it works so well the songs really lack out of context of the whole, listen to it! (ps one of the few albums that pitchfork got right... also note Joanna Newsom)
16 Black Heart Procession: The Spell - solid great album, nothing fancy about this other than its just more happening than their previous albums and its dark. i dig the dark.
15 Don Caballero: World Class Listening Problem - really awesome, though i haven't listened to it in a while, i like old don cab but i really enjoyed the newer style, fun listen and good album.
14 Mono: You are There - mono is probably the best live band i've ever seen, as far as stripping all elements of showiness in shows (lights fog and shit) they just performed amazingly, and they played this album from front to back, quite the experience.
13 Thom Yorke: The Eraser - super good. served well enough as a new radiohead ablum to me. i didnt actually listen to it that much though, but it is really good and deserves the spot it has
12 Mew:And the Glass Handed Kites - really awesome danish or dutch or whatever music very similar to their older album, but definitely moving in a direction which is nice. not quite as memorable or as good as their first, but still very nice. defintiely some more interesting things on this album but it lacks just the goodness of some of the more straight forward pop songs on the first.
11 Hanne Hukkelberg: Rykestraße 68 - I dont think this comes out in America for a while, but it is out in Norway, so it counts for this year. Very natural progression from Little Things (her last album) and I just freakin adore that neo jazz norway sound especially with Hanne's gorgeous birdlike 1920s voice. check this out I know alot of people will love this or her older album who havent heard it before.
10 TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain - every now and then you need to hear music with just a little more soul in it, and this is totally freaking perfect for that. tv on the radio totally grows on you, so give it a few chances, or go see them, great great show.
9 Envy: Insomniac Doze - envy was pretty much the only thing i listened to this summer and its weird to think this came out this year. but it was extrememly good. they are heading in new directions which i totally love, alot more post-rock type stuff here and i think it fits with their normal heavy stuff extremely well. i see envy as a band who has absolutely perfected simplicity.
8 Some girls: Heaven's Pregnant Teens - I've listened to this a whole lot. in the same way that envy has perfected simplicity, i feel like some girls is not at all concerned with being showy or doing crazy shit to impress people, but their songs have absolutely everything they need and nothing more, and the ability to draw the line on a song is a pretty skilled one i think. pretty perfect punk rock.
7 Converge: No Heros - 2004's list was topped with their album "you fail me" and if you know me you should know that converge is one of my absolute favorite bands. this album defintiely did not dissapoint, it just was necissarily as good as those listed below. still super awesome, same converge style with probably best and heaviest sounding production ever. can't lose
6 Mogwai: Mr. Beast - It's weird to think this came out this year, I feel like i've been listening to it forever. Although this got alot of shit pretty much ONLY because the songs were shorter, this album is extrememly great. mogwai is getting better at figuring out how a song should sound. it doesnt even sound like their writing this stuff, rather that they are just playing these amazing musical things that have already existed. check it!
5 Joanna Newsom: Ys - this is probably the "best" album of the year in terms of just what makes an album the best of the year, but its not my fav so its number five. That doesnt make it any worse though, anyone who hasnt heard this has to listen to it. HAS TO. pretty much gaurentee if you like music you will love this or at least appreciate what is going on, so much beauty in this.
4 Subtle: For Hero:For Fool - wooo yeah, subtle puts out an album that is more hip hoppy than their last and its kicks some serious but. Presents itself as a much more fun album without sacrificing the intelligence that the previous album exuded. Its like music nerd party music and i freakin love it.
3 These Arms Are Snakes: Easter - This is so good. If you like this band listen to this because it is so good. Another one of the best live bands ever, i dont have much to say about the music, other than its the same really great groove oriented stuff but better, and extermemly good flow of the album. ahhhh this is so good!
2 Aloha: Some Echoes- aloha is quickly climbing the ranks within me towards the heralded kurt's favorite band position. this album is just really effin great, and pretty much sums up what aloha does extrememly well. check it out if youve never listened to them, and please if you can ever do me a favor ever, just give aloha a listen, because they really are a gigantic part of my life.
1 Kayo Dot: Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue - despite the afformentioned little bit about how theres a different between my favorite and what i consider the best, this probably goes against that. This album really is what I believe to be the best thing released on the musical community, and no one has heard it. those who have will know that it pretty much spans just about every single musical style i listen to, indy croning to heavy metal stuff to classical music, all while never coming off as cheezy as usually is the case with such genre shuffling groups. this is surely the best album of the year, and kayo dot is doing such terrific things for music right now i can't really say enough.
thanks for reading this if you've made it all the way through, have a happy new year and take care!
Okay so this years list was extremely difficult to compile for me because there wasnt really 1 album that was clearly better or that i liked more than the rest, and in subsequent years that has definitely been the case so Im going to do my best. keep in mind this is a list of my favorite, not necissarily what i consider to be the best, albums of the year.
20 Crystal Skulls: Outgoing Behavior - good album, really like both albums, havent got a chance to listen to much, but every time it comes on im a little happier
19 Gnarls barkley: St. Elsewhere - I can't deny my love for these songs, even the singles, you may hate me for it but these are some hot tracks
18 Cornelius: Sensuous - I've just started listening to this, and thats why it is so high up the list. I put it here though, because I already really really like it and Im sure it would be way higher up if I had heard it earlier, it sounds like blackjetmask if it was really really really good.
17 Liars: Drum's Not Dead - so awesome! also havent listened to this enough, but something about it is super cinematic and i love that. one of the best examples of an album that works extrememly well all together from front to back, it works so well the songs really lack out of context of the whole, listen to it! (ps one of the few albums that pitchfork got right... also note Joanna Newsom)
16 Black Heart Procession: The Spell - solid great album, nothing fancy about this other than its just more happening than their previous albums and its dark. i dig the dark.
15 Don Caballero: World Class Listening Problem - really awesome, though i haven't listened to it in a while, i like old don cab but i really enjoyed the newer style, fun listen and good album.
14 Mono: You are There - mono is probably the best live band i've ever seen, as far as stripping all elements of showiness in shows (lights fog and shit) they just performed amazingly, and they played this album from front to back, quite the experience.
13 Thom Yorke: The Eraser - super good. served well enough as a new radiohead ablum to me. i didnt actually listen to it that much though, but it is really good and deserves the spot it has
12 Mew:And the Glass Handed Kites - really awesome danish or dutch or whatever music very similar to their older album, but definitely moving in a direction which is nice. not quite as memorable or as good as their first, but still very nice. defintiely some more interesting things on this album but it lacks just the goodness of some of the more straight forward pop songs on the first.
11 Hanne Hukkelberg: Rykestraße 68 - I dont think this comes out in America for a while, but it is out in Norway, so it counts for this year. Very natural progression from Little Things (her last album) and I just freakin adore that neo jazz norway sound especially with Hanne's gorgeous birdlike 1920s voice. check this out I know alot of people will love this or her older album who havent heard it before.
10 TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain - every now and then you need to hear music with just a little more soul in it, and this is totally freaking perfect for that. tv on the radio totally grows on you, so give it a few chances, or go see them, great great show.
9 Envy: Insomniac Doze - envy was pretty much the only thing i listened to this summer and its weird to think this came out this year. but it was extrememly good. they are heading in new directions which i totally love, alot more post-rock type stuff here and i think it fits with their normal heavy stuff extremely well. i see envy as a band who has absolutely perfected simplicity.
8 Some girls: Heaven's Pregnant Teens - I've listened to this a whole lot. in the same way that envy has perfected simplicity, i feel like some girls is not at all concerned with being showy or doing crazy shit to impress people, but their songs have absolutely everything they need and nothing more, and the ability to draw the line on a song is a pretty skilled one i think. pretty perfect punk rock.
7 Converge: No Heros - 2004's list was topped with their album "you fail me" and if you know me you should know that converge is one of my absolute favorite bands. this album defintiely did not dissapoint, it just was necissarily as good as those listed below. still super awesome, same converge style with probably best and heaviest sounding production ever. can't lose
6 Mogwai: Mr. Beast - It's weird to think this came out this year, I feel like i've been listening to it forever. Although this got alot of shit pretty much ONLY because the songs were shorter, this album is extrememly great. mogwai is getting better at figuring out how a song should sound. it doesnt even sound like their writing this stuff, rather that they are just playing these amazing musical things that have already existed. check it!
5 Joanna Newsom: Ys - this is probably the "best" album of the year in terms of just what makes an album the best of the year, but its not my fav so its number five. That doesnt make it any worse though, anyone who hasnt heard this has to listen to it. HAS TO. pretty much gaurentee if you like music you will love this or at least appreciate what is going on, so much beauty in this.
4 Subtle: For Hero:For Fool - wooo yeah, subtle puts out an album that is more hip hoppy than their last and its kicks some serious but. Presents itself as a much more fun album without sacrificing the intelligence that the previous album exuded. Its like music nerd party music and i freakin love it.
3 These Arms Are Snakes: Easter - This is so good. If you like this band listen to this because it is so good. Another one of the best live bands ever, i dont have much to say about the music, other than its the same really great groove oriented stuff but better, and extermemly good flow of the album. ahhhh this is so good!
2 Aloha: Some Echoes- aloha is quickly climbing the ranks within me towards the heralded kurt's favorite band position. this album is just really effin great, and pretty much sums up what aloha does extrememly well. check it out if youve never listened to them, and please if you can ever do me a favor ever, just give aloha a listen, because they really are a gigantic part of my life.
1 Kayo Dot: Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue - despite the afformentioned little bit about how theres a different between my favorite and what i consider the best, this probably goes against that. This album really is what I believe to be the best thing released on the musical community, and no one has heard it. those who have will know that it pretty much spans just about every single musical style i listen to, indy croning to heavy metal stuff to classical music, all while never coming off as cheezy as usually is the case with such genre shuffling groups. this is surely the best album of the year, and kayo dot is doing such terrific things for music right now i can't really say enough.
thanks for reading this if you've made it all the way through, have a happy new year and take care!
(no subject)
last night's dream:
there was alot more to this than i remember, but obviously, i can only say what i remember. i was at this band camp thing with mr. seed but it was more of a music festival than anything else. i remember having to look in a box for a hat to where for the event, and there were a bunch of UW hats, but by the time i got there they were all gone, only dumb visors left, which is weird considering when I first sat down to look in the box they were everywhere, they just seemed to magically dissapear. Anyway, I started hearing a band playing, and it was playing really heavy music, but awesome. Then i realized it was poison the well, and I got really excited. I walked down to see them, and they were playing this colliseum looking place and i eventually found my entire family, and because for some reason my cousin who is a great runner and knows nothing of drums, but was playing drums for them, and amazingly, his family was there too. So i sat and watched and the songs were amazing, and not the ones i know. After the show of sorts, Natalie Schroeder(sp?!) kelsey, kirby, and I were going to see another show that was right past this airport downtown in whatever city we were, so we hopped on a bus. We got into this huge conversation, and started looking up the new poison the well songs on the bus' wireless internet when we completely passed where we were supposed to go, we ended up at a different airport all together. I don't really know why, but because we missed our stop, I got a super terrible feeling, and I felt super dissapointed. I woke with that feeling and it sucked.
there was alot more to this than i remember, but obviously, i can only say what i remember. i was at this band camp thing with mr. seed but it was more of a music festival than anything else. i remember having to look in a box for a hat to where for the event, and there were a bunch of UW hats, but by the time i got there they were all gone, only dumb visors left, which is weird considering when I first sat down to look in the box they were everywhere, they just seemed to magically dissapear. Anyway, I started hearing a band playing, and it was playing really heavy music, but awesome. Then i realized it was poison the well, and I got really excited. I walked down to see them, and they were playing this colliseum looking place and i eventually found my entire family, and because for some reason my cousin who is a great runner and knows nothing of drums, but was playing drums for them, and amazingly, his family was there too. So i sat and watched and the songs were amazing, and not the ones i know. After the show of sorts, Natalie Schroeder(sp?!) kelsey, kirby, and I were going to see another show that was right past this airport downtown in whatever city we were, so we hopped on a bus. We got into this huge conversation, and started looking up the new poison the well songs on the bus' wireless internet when we completely passed where we were supposed to go, we ended up at a different airport all together. I don't really know why, but because we missed our stop, I got a super terrible feeling, and I felt super dissapointed. I woke with that feeling and it sucked.
What Everyone Is Talking About
www.myspace.com/blackjetmask
(no subject)
as fuckin terric as i feel right now, about life an all, theres an obvious gap in it, and i loooooove bitching about it, its all of you reader's first guess, so what your thinking that gap is youre right. but this isnt about that, its about the things that matter right now, like aloha, and christopher moore's book lamb. these are helping me so much right now. im putting aloha - sugar on my list of best albums ever which i think only consists of 3 albums at the moment 1.bjork-vespertine 2.aloha-sugar 3.311-grassroots. thats sooo subject to change. but this post was about that, not the shit, but the stuff that gets you over the shit. woooo.
(no subject)
yesterday saw drawing restraint 9, really makes me want to say neener neener more than anything else, because hardly anyone has gotten to see this, it was weird to say the least, but gorgeous, i'll tell some about it this summer
then tonight saw mogwai. jeeeeeeesus, wow. kind of sensory overload but in a terrificly wonderful way. huuuuuge.
then tonight saw mogwai. jeeeeeeesus, wow. kind of sensory overload but in a terrificly wonderful way. huuuuuge.
(no subject)
i saw tv on the radio on friday, extrememly great
then aloha on saturday, really really effin terrific, i love this band so much! i dont know whether im happy or sad yet that so few people like them, but they were one of the better live bands i've ever seen.
then aloha on saturday, really really effin terrific, i love this band so much! i dont know whether im happy or sad yet that so few people like them, but they were one of the better live bands i've ever seen.
(no subject)
i just watched "nobody knows" (dare mo shiranai) this japanese movie, and it was probably the saddest movie i've ever seen. i mean yes, it was gorgeous, and everything, cinematically terrific, but it seemed like almost every move they made was to some way or another make you feel even worse, this effect also brought with it the ability to perk you up significantly because of super miniscule good things happening, so in that sense, it was successful in allowing the watcher to empathatically understand the importance of the each good thing in their life. tear jerker would be putting it lightly, more like a tear-ripper-out-of-clasped-hands.
this song does not stop playing! not here on this machine it doesnt!
this song does not stop playing! not here on this machine it doesnt!
(no subject)
i am wicked excited for this summer. good times shall never stop rolling
(no subject)
some of the dreams i've been having
2 nights ago:
i was at this weird benefit concert being held for chris ruff (singer for kaddisfly) apparently he was being honored or something, so there was this band up on the stage that wasnt kaddisfly, and he was singing k-fly songs with them. it was pretty cool i guess, it was held in one of those giant tents they set up in the park and stuff when they hold concerts and crap in the park, but we were all getting way drunk and it was a good time. i remember my oldest brother was there too and he was getting drunk as usual. so anyway, i was sober enough to go home, and i drove a cab, and i picked this girl up on the way back, and asked her where she wanted to go, and she said she wanted to go home with me, it was some random girl who i've never met in my life, made up dream girl. so we went back to my house in bend, and i knew my parents were sleeping upstairs so i made sure we were quiet and all, then i heard the phone ring and it was my oldest brother talking to my dad, saying he was too drunk to drive home, and my dad knew that i was at the same place, so he came down and gave me tons of crap for driving drunk, and while he was talking to me i was drunken swaying around or something, which is rediculous because i wasnt before. thats about the end of that one.
last nights dream:
this one was much weirder but held very strong emotions so it felt strange. i was in a kung fu movie of sorts, and following my teacher man around, jumping really high, like almost flying high, and i couldnt talk to anyone, because i had to stay faithful to my teacher i guess, and learn my training with discipline, eventually i finished, and went to this building to find a wife or something. yeah it was weird, in this building i went to was a super fast escalator, that i almost fell off of because it was so fast, and there was white marble everywhere, but other than that i dont remember much about it. so i met this girl and we became kind of husband wifey type, it was really strange, or fledgling husband wife thing, again, very strange. so my teacher picked up a new apprentice, and he had to do all this shit work and learning while my "wife" and i jumped around all over the place, and defended the town and the new recruit and what not. the one image that has really stuck with me though, is my wife telling me over and over again that she loved me and no matter how hard i tried, i couldnt say it back. i was trying so hard, but the sound wouldnt come out of my mouth. so i got really sad and ended up crying in her amrs. yes that became really sappy and lame and sad real fast, but this is for me so i can remember these things.
2 nights ago:
i was at this weird benefit concert being held for chris ruff (singer for kaddisfly) apparently he was being honored or something, so there was this band up on the stage that wasnt kaddisfly, and he was singing k-fly songs with them. it was pretty cool i guess, it was held in one of those giant tents they set up in the park and stuff when they hold concerts and crap in the park, but we were all getting way drunk and it was a good time. i remember my oldest brother was there too and he was getting drunk as usual. so anyway, i was sober enough to go home, and i drove a cab, and i picked this girl up on the way back, and asked her where she wanted to go, and she said she wanted to go home with me, it was some random girl who i've never met in my life, made up dream girl. so we went back to my house in bend, and i knew my parents were sleeping upstairs so i made sure we were quiet and all, then i heard the phone ring and it was my oldest brother talking to my dad, saying he was too drunk to drive home, and my dad knew that i was at the same place, so he came down and gave me tons of crap for driving drunk, and while he was talking to me i was drunken swaying around or something, which is rediculous because i wasnt before. thats about the end of that one.
last nights dream:
this one was much weirder but held very strong emotions so it felt strange. i was in a kung fu movie of sorts, and following my teacher man around, jumping really high, like almost flying high, and i couldnt talk to anyone, because i had to stay faithful to my teacher i guess, and learn my training with discipline, eventually i finished, and went to this building to find a wife or something. yeah it was weird, in this building i went to was a super fast escalator, that i almost fell off of because it was so fast, and there was white marble everywhere, but other than that i dont remember much about it. so i met this girl and we became kind of husband wifey type, it was really strange, or fledgling husband wife thing, again, very strange. so my teacher picked up a new apprentice, and he had to do all this shit work and learning while my "wife" and i jumped around all over the place, and defended the town and the new recruit and what not. the one image that has really stuck with me though, is my wife telling me over and over again that she loved me and no matter how hard i tried, i couldnt say it back. i was trying so hard, but the sound wouldnt come out of my mouth. so i got really sad and ended up crying in her amrs. yes that became really sappy and lame and sad real fast, but this is for me so i can remember these things.
