This year was pretty eventful, and surprisingly I was relatively satisfied with a lot of the releases both from new bands and bands I already knew. There were a few good surprises (Panic at the Disco, United Nations) as well as some disappointments (Weezer, which was decent but I wanted more) but overall it was a good year. Now I know the year isn’t over yet, so if something worth while does come out soon, I will be sure to mention it. Since I am not a fan of music reviewing due to the vast change in taste from person to person I will do a few Top 5’s of the year in each of a few different genres. I will try to make good recommendations based on a persons taste for similar artists, so to start I will do the Top 5 of the Indie (which I still don’t like the terminology of) and Folk genres. A word of warning, I am not a connoisseur by any means of those genres, but I do like a good amount of Indie/Folk bands. These lists are in no particular order unless noted.
Thrice - The Alchemy Index: Vols. III and IV (Possibly best of the year)
Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell (I’m surprised I liked this so much)
The Hush Sound - Goodbye Blues (Not a suprise, I’ve been a fan for a few years)
Portugal. The Man - Censored Colors (The deepest south they have gone)
Panic at the Disco (I would’ve never guessed the approach taken) - Pretty. Odd.
Next is the Top 5 Punk/Hardcore releases.
This Is Hell - Misfortune (Solid in your face hardcore)
United Nations - United Nations (Best grindcore album ever, and a great lineup)
New Found Glory / International Superheroes of Hardcore - Tip of the Iceberg / Taking It Ova’ (Great old school hardcore feel and extreme hilarity)
Be Your Own Pet - Get Awkward (A flat out fun album)
Street Dogs - State of Grace (Also fun, makes me wish I lived in Boston)
Top 5 Metalcore/Deathcore/Other various ___cores
Unearth - The March (Extreme pulse pounding, what you would expect from them)
UnderOath - Lost in the Sound of Separation (Good as always, they never disappoint)
Haste The Day - Dreamer (A surprise, but I have a bias towards them)
Bring Me The Horizon - Suicide Season (I didn’t want to like it, but I couldn’t help it)
All That Remains - Overcome (60% of the time, they rock every time)
Top 5 Pop/Punk / Poptronic / What people call Emo
The Audition - Champion (Catchy as hell, fun, poppy, but good musicianship)
Bayside - Shudder (Great release from a great band, happier than past albums)
Hit The Lights - Skip School, Start Fights (Bland, yes. Generic, yes. But fun so I don’t mind)
Copeland - You Are My Sunshine (Good, nothing surprising from them)
Forever The Sickest Kids - Underdog Alma Mater (Its ok, but this group was hard to find 5 really good albums)
Top 5 Albums That I Didn’t Want To Classify
Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs (Another solid Death Cab album, musically stands out over past albums)
The Kooks - Konk (Fun, pure and simple)
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (Great catchiness, great originality)
Foxy Shazam - Introducing… (Original, hilarious, an amazing album)
M83 - Saturdays = Youth (Great, I love M83, best electronic out there)
So there’s the best broken into genres, at the end of the year I will do the overall best. Now for some criticisms. Weezer, why make so many boring songs, Pork and Beans in great, Troublemaker rocks, the rest are boring as hell, and Rivers, your new look is ridiculous, I sincerely hope it is a joke. Radio music this year was some of the worst I have ever heard, I am at the point where I don’t know any of the popular “rock” bands, and I am glad, some of those bands make Nickelback seem like Nirvana, I mean Hinder, why the hell haven’t they killed themselves yet? And other Nickelback-esque bands who I didn’t feel like going through the trouble of looking up the names of, STOP DESTROYING MUSIC!!! This decade will be remembered as the worst radio music ever, and hopefully a decade with a true rise and increased popularity of underground music.
It seems as though recently in the Marvel Universe (or Multiverse if you want to be technical) a serious lack of extreme or badass villains. One major cause of this problem is Thunderbolts. Now I like Thunderbolts, it is pretty cool to see Normon Osborne, Bullseye, Venom and other cool villains all working together. My only issue is that all of these villains are now heroes working under the initiative, and I might not even care if they were in a cool place, however, they are stationed in goddamn Colorado!!! That is as ridiculous as putting Nick Fury, Namor, Gambit and Luke Cage on a team and then making them defend Wyoming or Alaska from the evil version of the Power Pack. I do like the whole Secret Invasion thing, it is pretty awesome, but when it is over there had better be some good villains back in action, I mean why can’t the Thunderbolts revolt? How cool would that be?!! But alas I have this fear that we will enter a villain void for a while, or at least until the next crossover event. Just for fun here is what I thought of the last few crossovers.
World War Hulk - could have been good if anything had actually happened
Civil War - really great, something I recommend Marvel beginners to read
House of M - also good, however the lack of mutants now is kind of annoying
Avengers Disassembled - good, I liked the permanent repercussions of the events
I will blog about a variety of topics including but not limited to politics, news, comics, video games, music, bullshit, stuff that’s on my mind, scene kids, assholes and beavers. Sometimes my statements will be positive (I’m not sure how often this will be) and sometimes they will be negative. I will not attempt to be unbiased because I understand as a human being that is a retarded thing to try and do, I’m not Jesus or the Invisible Pink Unicorn, so don’t expect such high expectations (hypothetical douchebag critics).
The McCain campaign says that Barack Obama is an elitist (which means he went to Harvard, oh no a Harvard alumni president, that means he will be like most other presidents!) The McCain campaign also tosses around the “S” word (S meaning socialist, not shithead) To me though the fact that they say both of these things makes no sense somehow he is simultaneously better than everyone, but wanting everyone to be the same and equal at the same time. I think I will do a daily WTF?! countdown to the election regarding things the McCain campaign, or Biden for that matter (sigh…) say or do.
That is the only picture i felt like looking for.
