31st Dec2010

402′s Worst Reviews of the Year

by nickwan

We have some scathing reviews on this website sometimes. Maybe we’re angry about something. Maybe we’re talking about something not related to music whatsoever. Most of the time we’re on topic when we’re angry about music. And usually it becomes somewhat enjoyable if you are not on the receiving end of the message. Here are my five favorite bad album reviews we had from this year.

Feel free to click on the album art to link to our full review of the album!

How to Dress Well – Love Remains

Genre: below-fi
Why it was bad: recording quality = horrendous.
Quote from the article: “It sounds as if someone took a microphone, hooked it up to a laptop, wrapped the microphone in plastic bags, placed that inside a sleeping bag, put that in a dumpster, hit record and started singing down an alley.”

Best Coast – Crazy For You

Genre: Indie surf, bro
Why it was bad: Boring
Quote from the article: “I actually caught myself checking to see why there was a 3 second silence in the middle of a song, only to find that it was in fact a new song all together.”

Less Than Jake – TV/EP

Genre: Seriously? It’s Less Than Jake. Did you not go to high school?
Why it was bad: Lack of creativity
Quote from the article: “This concept could be great if not executed in the most literal and asinine way possible… but Less Than Jake had to drive directly to the corner of Literal Street and Asinine Way and set up shop”

We Were Promised Jetpacks – The Last Place You’ll Look

Genre: Post-something
Why it was bad: There are countless other albums that can be listened to in place of this album
Quote from the article: “People who would like this album: boring people.”

Jordan Bolton – Jazz Hands

Genre: Uh…
Why it was bad: No continuity throughout the album at all
Quote from the article: on Jazz Hands being considered an album: “That does not make an album. That’s like taking a blurry photograph of a squirrel’s genitalia, a time lapse video of a taco shell molding, and a preschooler’s crayon drawing of a horse, and calling it a debut art series just by placing them in the same room.”

–

And there you have it. Hopefully you aren’t on the receiving end of these kind of articles, but remember that although we’ll poke and prod if you’re horrible this is all for you to get better. Or something. I mean, you can’t go anywhere but up from here. Or something.

Happy new year everyone, stay safe and hopefully we’ll see all of you on 402 Reviews next year!

Category : Record Reviews
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0 Comm
30th Dec2010

Comcast: My own personal Hell II

by nickwan

If you have followed me on Twitter or have read my previous experiences with Comcast, you might be wondering How the hell is this guy still with Comcast???! Well, there is a very easy answer to that: I am and I am not. We were getting TV and internet from them at my apartment, but now we have cancelled the TV service because we have 1) found a better deal and 2) do not want to give them any more money than they should have. Unfortunately, there are no other cost-effective internet options in my town, so I am actually stuck with Comcast cable. They actually came out and fixed the lines for us so that we haven’t have a problem with it since September… but this is not about the internet anymore. This is about billing and customer service. For a company that seems to pride themselves on customer service, there is little to no follow through with anything they do.

Comcast is charging us for services we cancelled

First off, we cancelled our TV services back in October. It’s December and I’ve had to call them every month to tell them our bill is wrong. The bill they keep sending me is a bill which includes the TV services (which we cancelled and have not used since we’ve switched), which more than doubles the bill we are supposed to be receiving. They give me the same excuses every time I call them, citing that it’s a computer error or a billing error and that it will be corrected on the 7th of next month (aka on the next billing cycle). Then, as I receive my bill for the next month, I receive the SAME EXACT BILL. Over double what we’re supposed to be paying and now they insult us with a warning that we haven’t paid our last bill. Seriously? SERIOUSLY?? Has it occurred to the pride of Comcast, the customer service representatives, that the reason we haven’t paid our last bill is because it’s wrong? Why would I pay a bill that is double what I would have to pay normally if the person on the other side of the phone said not to worry and that it would be fixed next month. What about this month? What about every other month I’ve called??

Comcast has yet to fix my bill, even though I have called about a problem with their services MONTHLY since I’ve got Comcast

Second off, after calling and speaking to these Comcast representatives I’ve noticed that they can jot down notes and see past encounters with me and my account services. Just a thought: while looking at all the snarky notes next to my name how about FIXING MY BILL? It literally took four weeks to install the internet correctly, and that was work split between four Comcast people over the internet and three in-house visits. Not to mention, two reach-outs from quality assurance representatives via Twitter and this website, as well as a very touching and caring message from one Hermann James, some sort of executive something from Comcast’s Northern California branch. Well, Hermann James, way to do your job. Your shit still hasn’t flushed yet. I’ve worked customer service jobs where we can take notes as to what went wrong (and what went right) next to people’s account names. In this case, because I’ve literally had a nonstop nightmare with Comcast since I’ve moved into my new apartment, I doubt there are many good things next to my account. Another idea: FIX THE SHIT THAT IS WRONG. Like my bill.

Even though I’ve talked to fifteen Comcast representatives over the past four or five months, Comcast still seems to get something disastrously wrong

Thirdly, did I mention lack of follow through? They say they will fix this stuff right there, and you hear typing in the background and they give you a round-about way of logic as to why it’s wrong (it usually ends up with me asking them if they believe what they have told me is a good system and them saying “it’s the system that’s in place”. Way to have a backbone, assholes). After the phone call, you would hope it would be the last I would have to make. And yet. Like clockwork. Like a birthday. Like twelve Christmases. Each month around the 7th, I find myself having to sonically curb stomp some unlucky Comcast representative because their coworker couldn’t do their job correctly. And yet, every month I’ve had the coin flip against me. And yet, I’ve used more minutes calling Comcast than I have talking to all my friends and family COMBINED. Run and tell that, home boy. Solutions to “thirdly”: DO YOUR JOB. You have a computer. You have access to adjustments of my bill. You have notes next to my name saying I’m a very angry customer. Your job is to serve me. I have only been served a dish of shitsicles with a side of douchery. So far, I’m not looking forward to the next course.

Solution? Avoid Comcast as much as possible.

And with that, the verdict: never use Comcast. Seriously, a nightmare within a nightmare. If this were a movie, it would be the hybrid movie of Inception meets A Serbian Film. Most literally, this is The Nightmare After Christmas, and I’m Jack Skelington but instead of happily finding a winter wonderland I’ve found a worse version of Hell than the one I currently reside in. I mean, it was bad that we weren’t getting services we were paying for initially… but now we are getting charged for services we cancelled. I am most likely going to hate cancelling Comcast altogether it seems, since they’ll probably charge me quadruple what I actually owe right now for the rest of my life. See you in small claims court, assholes!

Category : Complete Miscellany
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2 Comm
25th Dec2010

Best Albums of 2010? A Look at Other Lists

by nickwan

I could talk for ages about all the nitty gritty correlations I’ve found between all of these magazines, but rather than write a thesis paper’s length post on a site that gets as much traffic in a single week as any single post on any one of these sites I’ll keep it to a five most interesting correlations.

Below is the list of the top 20 albums of the year, ranked by the averaged score compiled from the six music press websites I’ve chosen to sample from.

RankAlbumSpinRolling StoneNMEStereogumSpinnerPitchforkAverage
1Arcade Fire –- The Suburbs34225114.50
2Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy11NR1314.67
3LCD Soundsystem -– This Is Happening410413726.67
4Beach House - Team Dream171733157.67
5Vampire Weekend - Contra116NR7NR612.00
6Deerhunter -– Halcyon Digest2NR2010NR312.83
7Robyn -– Body Talk1014NR5131513.00
8The National -– High VioletNR1511162NR14.33
9Jamey Johnson - The Guitar Song55NRNRNRNR15.67
10The Black Keys - BrothersNR2NRNR11NR16.17
11Titus Andronicus -– The Monitor15NRNRNR121016.67
12Big Boi -– Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Song Of Chico Dusty13NRNRNRNR416.83
13Janelle Monae - The Archandroid6NRNRNRNR1217.00
14Joanna Newsom -– Have One On MeNRNRNR11NR717.00
15Yeasayer - Odd Blood12NR1514NRNR17.33
16Best Coast - Crazy For You14NRNRNR6NR17.33
17Sleigh Bells -– TreatsNRNRNR6NR1617.67
18These New Puritans – HiddenNRNR1NRNRNR17.67
19Grinderman - Grinderman 27NR16NRNRNR17.83
20Drake – Thank Me Later167NRNRNRNR17.83

A little explanation for the table: NR means “not rated”, which makes sense since not all magazines will be ranking all of the same albums. Also, I know some of these sites released a list larger than 20 albums (for example, Pitchfork had a top 50 albums list this year but I just analyzed their top 20). So, a rank of NR just means they didn’t rank the album in their top 20. It’s very possible that an album may be ranked somewhere between 21 – 100, so if you feel so inclined then please check out their individual lists to see where some of the not rated albums might have ended up (links are provided below).

Now, five points to discuss about the average between these rankings.

Arcade Fire’s album, The Suburbs, was not ranked #1 by any of these lists

And yet, they averaged out to be ranked #1 based on every magazine/blog ranking them in their top 20. It should really be noted that no magazine ranked it #1, but was consistently on almost everyone’s top list from this year (including individuals, says Best Ever Albums). Some explanations that might explain this: many magazines and blogs might have had to consider whether Arcade Fire (primarily a rock band) or Kanye West (a rapper) would have taken #1; the wide array of other rock albums that were considered top 20 quality (e.g. Deerhunter, The Black Keys, etc) might have saturated the impact of how great The Suburbs really was in the eyes of reviewers and editors; and it’s always possible that Arcade Fire’s album just wasn’t as good as Kanye West’s album… but it was good enough to be ranked very high.

Kanye West’s album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, was ranked #1 by 4 out of 6 magazines/blogs and yet came in second place

This is primarily due to NME not ranking My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy at all. If NME chose to rank Kanye’s album at 20th, then Kanye would actually have tied (and claimed) the first place position. If NME ranked Kanye’s album anything higher than 20, then MBDTF would actually be #1 with no tiebreaker necessary. Just as well, if Spinner ranked MBDTF any higher than #3, Kanye’s album would have been #1 right now. Just to dissect NME a bit, NME made a name for itself as the UK’s best selling music magazine. To a more specific extent, it made headway in reviewing and becoming close to the punk rock and post-punk music scene in the UK by way of The Sex Pistols, Joy Division, and others. Rooting themselves in this sort of culture, and now realizing the extent of Kanye’s influence, it’s very easy to say that Kanye West’s album doesn’t have the international reach as Arcade Fire has. Rather, West’s album may be promoted primarily through hype and gossip rather than through musical prowess and production. Think of it like a high school presidential election. Student A and Student B are both pretty good candidates, but Student A is vastly more popular amongst the student body for his exploits at parties. In this case, I would guarantee Student A to be elected over Student B. As such, this model seems to find it’s way throughout various subjective-over-objective elections.

Spin Magazine has the most accurate list whereas NME has the most inaccurate

This is based on how many of their top 20 albums actually made it on the top 20 list. Spin had 15 out of 20 albums in their top 20 on the top 20 list whereas NME had only 8 out of 20. This isn’t to say Spin has the most reliable and accurate magazine out of all of them, but rather just a correlation that could be completely coincidental. This is also not to bash on NME at all, since the reasoning could be completely something regional or political or something we can’t really extrapolate towards. One thing is for sure, the power of the #1 album of the year from any of these lists go a long way. Case and point, NME’s #1 album of the year by These New Puritans, Hidden, came in at #18 even though not a single other magazine ranked Hidden in their top 20.

Out of the top 10 albums, 9 of them are indie rock/pop bands and 1 of them is Kanye West

In the land of rock dominated albums, the Kanye is king. I suppose. This is somewhat resonating of the first point, but it begs to be seen in another light. This year was somewhat lackluster in the quality of many albums. Some newer artists seemed to wow with their freshness (Fang Island, James Blake, Local Natives) whereas other albums from veteran bands seemed to fall short (matt pond PA, jj, Ratatat). It seems that the veteran bands that did release albums this year that were enjoyed ranked in most people’s top albums list. Case and point, The Black Keys had a huge year releasing what many fans would consider their best album, Brothers. This is now their sixth studio release which has struck a very definitive chord for many blues-rock lovers. Already considered one of the best bands around by rock gods like Jimmy Page and Kirk Hammett, they are finally digging into the music scene in influential ways and commercial ways. The flip side to The Black Keys’ success is the not-so-successful vet albums that have been released. On sheer press reviews alone, only a handful of bands received great praise, such as TBK, whereas other recently-hyped bands like Spoon have not been so fortunate, even though Spoon’s album Transference was a great testament to their experimental indie-pop nature. Far and few separates many releases this year, but those that are warranted with a thumbs up seem to be saturating the pool. In this case, it’s hard to tell whether or not The Black Keys’ Brothers is truly the best album of the year, or any other album, until a few years down the line. The album people refer to the most as “still listened to” and “inspired by” will most likely be the true album of this year. With that in mind, as well as the idea that new artists and bands have exploded onto the scene this year as well as very timely albums from veteran artists and bands, it’s hard to know which of these will stand the test of time in the short term and long term.

Adam Finley is our most accurate album ranker

This is yet again based on the top five albums he chose compared to the ones ranked on the top 20 albums average list. Adam Finley’s #1 choice is Sleigh Bells‘  Treats which ended up being  #17 on average. He also chose Joanna Newsom’s Have One On Me (His pick #5, avg. #14) and The Black Keys’ Brothers (His #4, avg. #10). Our overall list had no albums rank in the averaged top 20 list, and the second most accurate album ranker was myself, who chose Brothers at #5. Although this really bares no true correlations to anything in particular, it would raise a good point that some of the albums we review on this site, may it be not so popular the month it is released, sometimes ends up surprising all of us at the end of the year. Joanna Newsom had a good run of press early on but no one really seemed to carry her on in press outside of her album release. Sleigh Bells received tons of press and hype after they were featured on a Honda commercial. The Black Keys (at least here around San Francisco) exploded on the airwaves as well as on the main stage, being nominated for a Grammy for their album. So, for future bands out there looking to make a mark, sometimes… you just time it right and explode.

If you’re interested in checking out the lists from these sites, check the links below! Happy New Year everyone!

Spinner’s top 30 albums of the year

Spin’s 40 best albums of the year

Rolling Stone’s 30 best albums of the year

Stereogum’s top 50 albums of the year

NME’s 75 best albums of the year

Pitchfork’s 50 best albums of the year

Category : Interviews/Misc., Music
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0 Comm
21st Dec2010

2010: Albums That Sucked

by tambo

THESE ALBUMS SUCK

There were many albums that sucked in 2010. Here are three that sucked a lot:

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

3. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

The most narcissistic man in America released an album this year that most reviewers have shit over. It’s really disheartening as a producer, listener, and overall lover of music to see how easy it is to spin shit into gold. Andre 3000 once said that roses really smell like poo poo and he’s right. Just because Kanye West has the biggest ego in the world and presumably can’t take criticism of any kind doesn’t mean that objectivity should be ignored when listening to his album. It seems that everyone isn’t reviewing this album critically because they’re afraid Kanye will tweet a million “FUK U MAN”‘s or other nonsensical crazy person jargon (“Yeezy reupholstered my pussy” is a lyric from the album), ruining their blog-cred or whatever-the-fuck-cred exists on the internet. This album is not his personal best and while bits and piece are good, it doesn’t even come close to the mindfuck that it is made out to be. OMG BUT HE USES AFRICAN INSPIRED BEATS AND TWELVE COLLABORATORS ON ONE SONG. “We Are The World” had thirty or forty collaborators on that pile of diapers and one could contend that all music stems from Africa. All I am saying is that it has been done before. It’s 1. rap and 2. egoMANIACAL. If I wanted to listen to someone flow about how awesome they are and how they are driven by all of the haters and demons they had to fight for an hour I would go to an Alcoholics Anonymous accomplishments meeting. Those people deserve to feel righteous and they certainly talk a lot less about how sweet their dick is. On Kanye’s previous albums, his lyrics have been driven by actual pain i.e. the loss of his mother, his debilitating car accident and other actual tragedies that were turned into powerful, flowing rhymes. On this album, he’s created the tragedies he’s pretending to overcome while boosting his already exospheric ego into outer space. He rhymes well, as always, but the content is boring. The more frightening thing about this album is that people honestly think that this is the best thing to come out of music in a long time. If that’s true, I was born on the wrong planet.

The Morning Benders - Big Echo

2. The Morning Benders – Big Echo

From a band that appears to consist of fairly talented musicians, it is very disappointing to see such talent go to waste on archetypical and lowest-common denominator “indie” music. Mix all of the terrible Pitchfork flavors of the week into one super group of mediocrity and you get this album. Attempts to come across as Bay Area-commune Mission-district vegan drum-circlers, as showcased in their Yours Truly video, pandered to such a crowd and ultimately seemed desperate and lame. If they do have one thing going for them, it is the fact that they are more talented than:

BEST COAST AND WAVVES CAN SUCK MY FUCKING NUTSACK

1. Wavves/Best Coast – Everything That Either Group Has Ever Released

So much undue hype was lauded to the sorriest excuses for bands from 2010 and really from any hyped shit I’ve heard in the past several years. There are so many terrible things that I could say about these clowns but I think the music speaks for itself. I’ve wasted too much time questioning the universe and how bands like this could achieve success in any way, shape or form and the only conclusion that I can come to is that my generation is fucked and full of morons. You co-wrote a CHRISTMAS song for a fucking Target compilation? AND YOU DON’T CRY YOURSELF TO SLEEP? Apparently touring with Weezer gives you Rivers Cuomo syndrome wherein you forget what it’s like to have a soul/make meaningful music (not that Wavves/Best Coast has made anything meaningful) and start embarrassing yourself with the most formulaic and banal pop I’ve heard since the last four Weezer albums. Literally nothing positive can be said for these bands and it’s long past the time when the hype should finally die and the music should be judged for what it actually is: bullshit. Your music isn’t worth the fucking wires it travels through. Please stop making whatever it is you think you’re making.

Well, now I’m angry. Happy New Year.

Category : Record Reviews
2 Comm
19th Dec2010

Album Reviews: Jordan Bolton – Jazz Hands

by Finley

Pertinent facts about Jordan Bolton, gleaned from backreading emails between Jordan and my editor, and also from a pandering Soundlab review: Jordan is from Manchester, is in college, and released his first four-song EP this year. Every song is in a completely different genre, it is named Jazz Hands, and it has no cover art (that’s Jordan’s myspace pic up there).

Download It For Free (Thanks Jordan!!)

Jordan Bolton – Jazz Hands EP

A series of logical questions arise: Why would anyone name their debut album Jazz Hands? Why would someone call a random collection of songs an album? Who makes an album without cover art? And what kind of a jackass compares a young Brit who may not be old enough to drink in this country to Bob Freaking Dylan, based on a 4-song sampler? That’s like comparing your daughter to Julia Child for perfectly toasting a Pop-Tart.

The Pros

Jordan obviously has talent. The production on Jazz Hands is beyond solid, and Jordan did it all himself. He wrote all of the songs himself, and there are bright moments in most of the tracks. Jordan also played every instrument on the album, save drums. That’s extremely impressive– that’s virtuoso shit. But the virtuosity stops there.

The Cons

Simply put, the album fails at being an album.

According to the most accurate encyclopedia on Earth, “An album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public”.

Jazz Hands fails because it’s not an album. It’s a 4-song demo of unrelated tracks posted on last.fm. That does not make an album. That’s like taking a blurry photograph of a squirrel’s genitalia, a time lapse video of a taco shell molding, and a preschooler’s crayon drawing of a horse, and calling it a debut art series just by placing them in the same room.

That Soundlab review said Jazz Hands “shows great diversity… with the songwriter dabbling with different genres of music, whil [sic] making a case of being able to pull off all of them.” I actually agree with part of that statement. There are varied genres here, but they don’t sound to me like an artist who has mastered multiple crafts. They sound like an artist trying hard to show that he can sound like anyone rather than trying to sound like himself.

The Verdict

Jazz Hands sounds more like a tryout for a composition job at a marketing firm than a serious album. I can see Jordan’s interview now:

“So, ‘Carnival Blues’ is like Tom Waits meets Westside Story at Mardi Gras. You ever seen Mr. Peanut dance around New Orleans? Just close your eyes and imagine! ‘Sun Sun Sun’ is like Beach Boys meets Beach House. So, like, Beach-House Boys. Sounds cool, right? If they ever bring back The OC, this could be on the soundtrack. Now, ’123′ is my more sensitive side. It could be used in a Starbucks ad, or like a Volkswagen commercial where the driver looks at the baby sleeping in the back and smiles at the safety of German engineering. And ’4′ could play over the opening credits of a show like ‘Parenthood’. It’s friendly and warm and pretty much everything the 28-40 demographic wants in a theme song. Think about it.”

This might sound harsh, but this isn’t a judgment on Jordan’s level of talent with regards to composition, musicianship, or even (in part) songwriting. These aren’t great songs, but they are a start. They just really should have remained a start– something to include on an odds-and-sods collection ten years down the road once Jordan has made a few actual albums with unifying themes or sounds or (gasp!) album art.

Category : Record Reviews
Tags : , ,
4 Comm
18th Dec2010

Weekly Digs #12 (12/18/10)

by Finley

The year is winding down. Album Of The Year has been named. And it’s cold as penguin balls in most parts of the country. Here’s what Nick and I listened to while trying to stay warm in NYC and Seattle, respectively.

Finley’s Picks:

Animal Prufrock – congratulations; thank you + i’m sorry

Not sure how I even stumbled across this, but “Animal” from Bitch And Animal signed with Ani DiFranco’s label and put out a solo album of ridiculous, enjoyable songs with titles like ‘Cosmic Tranny’ and ‘Emotional Boner’. Imagine Tegan & Sara meets Jill Sobule meets Baggy Time. I think I just made Nick’s head explode.

Jonsi – Go

So my AotY picks were not spot on with the rest of the crew, but my decision to not vote for Jonsi wasn’t a reflection of my feelings about the album– I just liked Sleigh Bells and Bad Books better. Since my colleagues repped this so hard I decided to go back and listen a few more times, and they are right: Go deserved the spot I gave to Black Keys or Joanna Newsom. My bad, ya’ll!

Buckethead – Shadows Between The Sky

Consumate weirdo Buckethead puts out 1-4 albums per year, and this one– his first of 3 from 2010– is a nice relaxing journey that doesn’t sound too far off an Explosions In The Sky album.

Nick’s Picks:

Cloud Cult – Light Chasers

This is the best album for these cross country flights I’ve been on.

The Human Era – Modern Mirage

Really can’t get enough of this album. Definitely looking forward to whatever the next release is.

Brett Detar – Bird in the Tangle

Although Adam Haynes doesn’t quite enjoy the slide guitar, I personally love it.

Category : Record Reviews
Tags : , , , , , , ,
0 Comm
13th Dec2010

The Best Albums (and more) of 2010

by nickwan

This year was not the strongest for album releases in a whole. Out of the 88 albums we reviewed this year, 22 albums were considered bad. That’s 1 out of 4 albums that aren’t worth your time. However, 17% of the albums we reviewed were nominated for album of the year. Of course, only five get to be chosen as album of the year. Here’s the list! Feel free to click on the album to check out the full album review.

5. Minus the Bear – Omni

Michelle DeVries on Omni: This is the kind of album that I’ll be listening to for years, and then a decade down the line I’ll bust out the album and be like “Ooooooh my gooooood! I remember these guys! Geeeeez, remember when I had to make that top 5 list for 402 Productions? Man, those were the days.”
4. Jonsi – Go

Nate Pavlot on Go: From start to finish, listening to this album puts me in a dreamlike state. While definitely retaining some similarities to Sigur Rós, Go offers a much lighter and whimsical sound, and with Sigur Rós on an indefinite hiatus, I am anxiously awaiting more from Mr. Birgisson.

3. Fang Island – Fang Island


Nick Wan on Fang Island’s self titled: When putting together a “best of” list for myself, the biggest question I usually ask first is what album haven’t I stopped listening to since I got it? This is definitely one of them.

2. Cloud Cult – Light Chasers

Nate Pavlot on Light Chasers: What an album. I can’t even begin to describe how much I’ve become enamored with Light Chasers. Making creative use of a vocoder, French horns, and violins — Cloud Cult’s Light Chasers hooked me from the very first listen. Built as a concept album, the LP really deserves a full listen, but even still almost all of the tracks shine individually. Overall, this is the most complete album that I’ve heard this entire year, hands down.

1. Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz

Adam Finley on The Age of Adz: To be perfectly honest, I’ve always been on the fence about Sufjan and, unlike many, I don’t think Illinois is the greatest album ever.  But The Age of Adz blew my away and gave me an entirely new perspective on Sufjan, from his ability to pluck a guitar and whisper a song that Elliott Smith would have died to write to his ability to layer 327 sounds and scream “I’m not fucking around!” over it and have it actually sound organic.

–

For a little more insight to how we got down to deciding our list for the year, the writers had to contribute their top five albums of the year in the order they believed them to be in. Then, we averaged the scores and ranked them based on the average scores. In the event of a tie, the album with a higher ranking from a staff member will be the tie breaker (in this case, Fang Island vs Jonsi). In the event of a no album was ranked higher in any circumstance, judgment was delivered by how much more I enjoyed one album than another (in this case, Minus the Bear vs Jonsi). Check out the table below to see what I’m talking about.

AlbumFinleyNateNick WanMichelleAverage
Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz223NR3.25
Cloud Cult - Light ChasersNR11NR3.50
Fang Island - S/TNR52NR4.75
Jonsi - GoNR3NR44.75
Minus the Bear - OmniNR4NR34.75

Some list facts and oddities: Nate was the only writer who chose all five albums of the year as his own top five albums of the year. Adam Finley chose only one album that was also chosen by another writer. Cloud Cult’s Light Chasers received the most #1 votes.

For your blog and reposting pleasures:

5. Minus the Bear – Omni
4. Jonsi – Go
3. Fang Island – Fang Island
2. Cloud Cult – Light Chasers
1. Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz

Albums that just missed the cut:

Sleigh Bells – Treats

Adam Finley on Treats: I would hope that I’ve made it clear by now as I insisted that this be added to the AotY list, but my musicscape was expanded by Treats. I’ve listened to this album easily 30 times this year and I’m not at all tired of it.

Good Old War – Good Old War

Michelle DeVries on Good Old War: This album was hands down my favorite. There’s always at least two or three tracks on an album that just don’t do it for me, but there was literally not a single track that I didn’t like, if not absolutely love. I think there have only been two or three other albums in my LIFE that have had solid tracks throughout the entire album. For this reason, and for the fact that they absolutely fucking rock, I choose them as my number one.

Our Top 5 Random Things of the Year:

Adam Finley’s Top 5 Gross Awesome Homemade Drinks of 2010

5. The Ghetto Turtle – Drink half of a Colt .45 and fill it back up with that green Ecto-Lime Kool-Aid. The resulting color resembles a dirty turtle. It also tastes like licking Splenda off a rusty bike chain.

4. Just Goon – A drink I invented out of necessity when I lived in Australia, this consists of equal parts store-bought from-concentrate juice with no nutritional value to speak of (Just Juice if you can find it), and boxed wine, which is affectionately referred to down under as ‘goon’. Makes you look classy when you’re drinking at 9am.

3. Home Loko – Now that NYC and Washington State have banned the caffeinated malt liquors, it’s necessary to get creative. This recipe involves recreating a Four Loko with stuff available at any corner store. Get a 40oz of your favorite malt liquor, pour half into an empty 40oz bottle, then fill both bottles up with equal parts Monster Energy Drink and Sprite. Finally, drop a caffeine tablet and 5 jolly ranchers of you choice into the bottle– I prefer Watermelon. Prepare to black out and fire half your staff (ahem, Nick).

2. The Orange Jack – Ever tasted a sugar cube covered in Tang and live bees? Drop a shot of Jack Daniels into a glass of Orange Crush and you’ll get as close as you’ll ever want to.

1. Brita Vodka – Still my all-time favorite homemade drink for dedication and hilarity, this one-time experiment has turned into an annual event proving that science can be delicious. This works exactly like it sounds: take a bottle of shitty grocery store vodka, get an ordinary Brita filter, and filter the vodka several times. Each time through, the charcoal in the filter absorbs excess hydrocarbons which makes the vodka taste less like the inside of a carburetor.

Nate Pavlot’s Top 5 Mustaches

5. Anthony Edwards AKA Goose

No ace pilot would be right without his wingman, and no wingman would be right without a sweet mustache. Even though Maverick is clearly the star of Top Gun, Goose and his ‘stache will always hold a special place in my heart… even if he does die.

4. Geraldo Rivera

Even if he didn’t find Al Capone’s secret stash, Geraldo Rivera knows a thing or two about ‘staches. This news buff knows how to ask all the tough questions, and his mustache has been there for all of them.

3. Wilford Brimley

If I were to make a top 5 list for Wilford Brimley, his mustache would come in at #2, only slightly behind his pronunciation of the word “diabetes”. The thing is just timeless. Wilford’s mustache says “I’ve been there, I’ve done that, and I can do it well”. Plus, he kind of reminds me of a walrus.

2. Tom Selleck

The man, the myth the legend. The Magnum himself comes in at #2 with a sick mustache hair combo that will have all the ladies saying “haaaaaay”. Even though he still rocks it today, Selleck’s mustache saw its prime in the glory days of all mustaches. I can only hope that those days will return soon.

1. Burt Reynolds

There was never any doubt in my mind as to the #1 pick. Reynolds is the king of the mustache, iconocizing the lip warmer in all of his manly glory. Looking at his mustache brings me back to a simpler time, a time where men could be men, and mustaches were not creepy at all. I often wonder what life would be like today had mustaches everywhere retained their glory.

Nick Wan’s Top 5 Ways to Not Get Press

5. Using dumbspeak

I’m not your bro, so please don’t trying to spruce yourself up by trying to level with me via inquiring how hella sick I am. In all honesty, I’m not that great of a person anyway. Especially when I reply back with something along the lines of NEVER SAY THAT AGAIN.

4. Forgetting to send something necessary for us to review you

Album art, fine. I’m sure we can scrounge something up from your website. No bio? That might be difficult to find your EPK if you haven’t sent one, but we’ll try to make due. No ALBUM? Seriously? And don’t even get me started on people who don’t mention their band’s name. I’m not Professor Xavier. I can’t locate all of your band’s info telepathically. Much less, it’s not possible to do these tasks if your band doesn’t have a website in the first place. So, try researching around a little bit to see how others have done it. Utilize the internet, people.

3. Send hate mail via your management

This one is something relatively new but impressively dumbfounding. Most management and PR people we come into contact with are really nice about us bashing one of their own in, in hopes that they’ll impress us with another one of their affiliates. Some decide it’s worth it to write threatening responses for various reasons. Some say we are horrible journalists. Some mention we have no experience listening to the music we review. Some even bash the other bands we reviewed (very, very unprofessional). Heads up clue, team: don’t be pricks.

2. Send too many emails

After about five or so, I don’t find myself very enthusiastic about piecing together this collage of data sprinkled throughout your somewhat-daily-installments of obviously-enthralling internet facsimiles. Each of the writers has some sort of threshold, and it definitely is a sliding scale. But one thing is for certain: if the reason this is happening is because of something to do with #4, then we got problems.

1. Write a poor email

Sometimes, people actually send everything and have their ducks in a row and everything seems to be perfect. Then I read the body of this email and it’s as if a third grader was just practicing his or her first sentences ever. Subjects and predicates are nonexistent. Spelling errors take over each word like zombies feasting on a catatonia ward. It’s like what a cake looks like after a food fight. Would you want to eat that cake? Could you? I didn’t think so.

Michelle DeVries’ Top 5 Things That are Green

5. The old Mighty Ducks Jerseys

4. Christmas trees

3. My cat’s eyes

2. The Emerald City

1. Avocadoes

Category : Complete Miscellany, Record Reviews
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11th Dec2010

Weekly Digs #11 (12/11/10)

by Finley

Busy weekend, but never too busy to write about the music we love. While we’re hosting the indie blogger equivalent to a Papal Conclave to decide on our Album Of The Year, please accept our recommendations for some good listens in the meantime.

Nick’s Picks:

The Get Up Kids – Something to Write Home About

A cure for the common home sick.

Tegan & Sara – The Con

One of my all time favs. Best for flights.

The Radio Dept. – Clinging to a Scheme

Really nice for train rides. I try to pretend everyone is in some sort of behavioral music video. Sometimes it works really well. Other times… I’m just listening to one of my favorite albums.

Finley’s Picks:

Athlete – Singles 01 : 10

This hits collection reminds me of why I listened to Tourist about a billion times when it came out. Fantastic band with a lot of great songs.

The War On Drugs – Future Weather EP

Secretly Canadian mainstays sneak out another quality album which has garnered strong reviews yet doesn’t seem to have a lot of momentum behind it. Regardless, a good listen.

Shwayze – s/t

Carefree backpack rap for middle class SoCal kids with enough upbeat production, cheeky humor, and catchy hooks to cover up the handful of weak spots. Nothing cures the stormy Seattle blues like humming along to this while I work. Or maybe I just miss Southern California sometimes.

Category : Record Reviews
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09th Dec2010

Album Reviews: Blackpool Lights – Okie Baroque

by nickwan


Sometimes (and what I really mean by “sometimes” is whenever I start gabbing in depth about The Get Up Kids) people ask me who is my favorite Kid. My personal preference would be Ryan Pope since I love drummers, but my gut instinct is Jim Suptic — front man of Blackpool Lights. Their initial inception came back in 2004 and became a full time gig after The Get Up Kids called it quits back in 2005. Their 2006 full length, This Town’s Disaster, was a general TGUK throwback (a la Sparta to At the Drive-in) but relatively overlooked and under appreciated. After a long hiatus, Blackpool Lights suited up again for their latest creation Okie Baroque.

Listen to it!

The Pros

All out happy. The indie-pop TGUK vibe is very alive on this album, which may or may not be a pro depending on what you’re listening to Blackpool Lights for. If you’re in it as a sort of “The Get Up Kids with more Suptic” then this will fit your fancy. If you were looking for something more elaborate now that TGUK has got back together, then Okie Baroque might just be a set of shuffle-fodder. The slightest differences do shine in contrast to This Town’s Disaster. For starters, each song is a little more poetic in character. The hooky choruses and singalong lyrics of the past seem to take a back seat to a more Kansas City indie-pop with a dash of folk identity. Musically, the arrangements seem to be much more instrumentally emotive and verging on jam-rock at times rather than the snappy power chord ballads from the other album. Maybe my favorite thing off the EP is the more elaborate lead guitar. Very Suptic-y. I’ve always wanted to hear Suptic shred it up. Not necessarily a shredder, but definitely a lot more interesting leads than I’ve heard from Jim on a single set of songs.

The Cons

Sadly, no one single song stands up and shouts. The first track sets the tone of possibly something bigger than what we’ve heard before, but we end up getting a collection of same old BPL songs from tracks 2 to 5. The last song on the album is a nice change, which cries out “Campfire Kansas” alternate, but yet again… more of the same. I was looking forward to Blackpool Lights being more of an experimental outlet for Suptic and crew rather than another “The Get Up Kids: Suptic B-sides” release. Honestly, I was really looking forward to Suptic B-sides from Simple Science.

The Verdict

If you’re a Suptic fan, this is a must. If you’re a TGUK fan, this is definitely worth a handful of listens. Don’t expect anything too fancy though, the power-pop of the past has been replaced with higher quality musicianship but lower quality catchiness.

Category : Music, Record Reviews
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06th Dec2010

Brett Detar – Bird in The Tangle

by Adam Haynes

Listen While You Read
A Little Back Story

Pennsylvania native, Brett Detar, is best know as his time spent as the vocalist for the band The Juliana Theory (TJT).  TJT formed in 1997 as a collaborative side project between Detar, Joshua Fiedler (guitar, backing vocals), Neil Hebrank (drums), Chad Monticue (bass, backing vocals) and Jeremiah Momper (guitarist).  Over next 8 years the band realeased 1 ep, 2 splits, and 4 studio albums.  The bands last release of new content was 2005′s “Deadbeat Sweetheart”.  For the next five years the world of The Juliana Theory fell silent except for the occasional rumors of reunions.  In 2010 the band performed several reunion shows that as frontman, Bret Detar, explained in a recent interview with 402 productions represent the official end of The Juliana Theory.

Fast forward to November 2010, Bret Detar unexpectedly releases a country-inspired solo album, Bird in The Tangle, for free.

The Album

I think Detar himself described the album perfectly.
“[A] heartfelt album full of American roots music.  It’s based in the traditions of old traditional country, delta blues, bluegrass, old timey music, folk, and rock.”

At first listen the twang of the steel guitar is a little off-putting but a couple tracks into the album it becomes just another part of excellently crafted songs. You can definitely hear the shift between the styles Detar described from track to track.  The lyrical are superbly put together and clearly point toward a season songwriter.

Track by Track

1. Empty House on A Famous Hill

I like this track a lot. It scared me though because it was exactly what I expected.  It’s a slow-paced country song packed with steel guitar and a slathering of twang.

2. The Devil’s Gotta Earn

Thankfully track 2 settled my fears about the album being a one-trick pony. “The Devil’s Gotta Earn” make it clear from it’s opening that Detar still remembers how to up the tempo of track.  This stands alone as by far my favorite track on the album.

3. It’s Only The Night

Back to the slowness. The opening notes of this song makes you think you may be listening to a top 40 country radio station. Luckily it quickly breaks out of this mold.  The song drags a bit too much for my taste but in the right setting could be very powerful.

4. Road to Ruin Woman

And the tempo returns. If you haven’t caught on yet the album pretty much progresses through a cycle of slow, fast, slow, fast, rinse and repeat.  With that said, this is my second favorite album on the track.

5. This City Dies Tonight

The first thing you’ll notice about this track is that the slide guitar comes in heavy.  The song screams of heavy old-time country influences.

6. Coasts

Another great track. A upbeat bluesy Johnny-Cash-esque melody is accompanied by the appropriate lyrical stylings.

7. A Miner’s Prayer

The first slow track on the album that doesn’t feel overwhelmed by steel guitar. It makes an appearance in the chorus but it plays like a beautiful layer on a touching song instead of an in your face tribute to country.  This is my favorite slow track on the album.

8. Cocaine Whiskey and Heroin

I literally had to flip over to iTunes to make sure i hadn’t somehow switched over to the O’ Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack when this song started playing. This song is direct tribute to bluegrass.  Lyrically it’s not exactly what’d you’d expect from a bluegrass song but you probably had that figured out by the title of the track alone.

9. We’re Broken But We’ll Never Be Alone

I was a little surprised it took this far into the album but with We’re Broken [...] Detar’s more rock centric past starts to bleed in.  The result is a mid-tempo track that represents one of the most radio friendly tracks on the album.

10. Caged Bird

With Caged Bird we find Detar in a soul-stirring stripped down form.  His only accompaniment on this track is an acoustic guitar.  If you’re having a bad day and want song to fit your mood this one will do.

11. This World

The album ends with a mid-tempo track played out mostly by a banjo and fiddle.  This World feels like a fitting end to the tone, pace and style of the album.

The Pros

This album is extremely brave.  “Rock” musicians who release solo folk albums are a dime a dozen these days, but that is not what this is.  This is an honest to God country/blues/bluegrass album that happens to be written and performed by a former “rock” musician.  If you can get past the heavy slide guitar the album is pretty fantastic.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it made a few album of the year lists.  While country almost never shows on my playlist I am a southern boy at heart and found the album incredibly enjoyable and for me nostalgic at many points.

The Cons

THE SLIDE GUITAR. I’m not sure most of you will make it past the slide guitar on the first few slow tracks.  It’s a little grating and actually forced me to turn down the volume a bit at one point.

The Verdict

This is a great album and, if I can convince the rest of the staff of here to go along with it, is a late add to our Album of the Year Nominee list. After this album is available 100% for free. I can’t think of a reason not to pick up this album and give it a few spins.

Get “Bird in The Tangle” Now

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