Xoxobra's Best Albums of 2008

Xoxobra's Best Albums of 2008
Here we go for the third and final part of the best of 2008: the albums. I had the opportunity to listen to over 100 albums this year (109, to be exact) from many genres and many decades, and these are the ten that I spent the most time with. Release year wasn't a factor in determining this list, so to find out my ten favorite albums that actually came out in 2008, just subtract the older releases in my real top ten and add the albums listed as honorable mention, and there you go.

Unless there's some special circumstance, this will be my final post of the year, and it's been a good one. But I'm going to take a little bit of a break to enjoy the holidays, recharge myself, and make some decisions on where I want to take this blog next year. I'll resume updates in early January. Until then, happy holidays and all that jazz.

10) Nas - Untitled (2008)

This may have fallen short of being the scathing, Curtis Mayfield-style protest album that I was hoping it was going to be, but it was still pretty good. Nas may be one of the more hypocritical rappers to make a conscious album, but if more conscious rappers would follow his example, focus a little more on presentation, and stop falling back on jazz beats and discussions of "real hip-hop", then maybe "conscious" wouldn't be a dirty word in the rap community, continually ignored unless your name is Common, and banished to the doldrums of college radio playlists.

9) Boris - Smile [Japanese version] (2008)

Coming off a somewhat high profile release in Pink, Boris probably recorded with more pressure and anticipation than they ever have. Smile isn't the band's best record by any stretch, but even so, it's still good enough to be one of the best albums of the year. If fellow Japanese noise/post-rockers Envy made this exact album, it would've been the best thing they've ever recorded.

8) Liars - Drum's Not Dead (2006)

This is one of those perplexing albums in which a few weeks or even a few months of listening seems too inadequate a time frame to fully phrase and explain what I'm hearing. All I can state with absolute certainty is that I like this album. How much I like it has yet to be determined. I like it enough for it not to feel right to exclude it from a part of the ten best albums I've heard this year. But I also don't put it past exceeding even those heights. Check back with me in a year or so, I may consider this the greatest album of the decade by then.

7) Bohren & der Club of Gore - Dolores (2008)

After the somewhat disappointing Geisterfaust, Bohren are back on their game with Dolores, their sixth album. While they haven't broken any new ground with this release, they have managed to refine the slightly softer, semi-funeral dirge they attempted with Geisterfaust and presented them in better composed songs with more digestible lengths. I kind of miss the creepy, sax and bass heavy sound of their earlier work, but it's hard to be mad at them when they're still releasing quality material like this.

6) The Bombay Connection Volume 1: Funk from Bollywood Action Thrillers 1977 - 1984 (2006)

James Brown and Sly Stone might have created and innovated the funk music scene, but even they probably couldn't have imagined how India would've interpreted it. The Bombay Connection is a compilation of songs from Bollywood action movies that gives us the answer. This is probably the most I've laughed at music that was taking itself completely seriously and still ended up liking what I was hearing.

5) Exuma - Exuma (1970; 2003 reissue)

I'm not sure how an album that mixes together sounds of freak folk, soul, reggae, African rhythms, and a seance, while an eccentric and slightly insane-sounding Bahamian man sings about zombies and voodoo and other stereotypically cool-sounding shit managed to elude my attention for so many years, but I'm really glad the reissue made it easier for me to stumble upon this. This is lightning in a bottle; the very definition of an underground treasure.

4) The Stooges - Raw Power (1973)

Iggy Pop meets David Bowie, reforms the Stooges, and the band take a long enough break from their persistent heroin addictions to record one of the greatest records of all time; single-handedly fathering punk-rock in the process. The chaos surrounding this recording shows through in the epic guitar riffs of James Williamson, making it seems as if the band are doing all they can to contain the energy -- the raw power, if you will -- that's so potent that it's all the band can do to keep it from spontaneously combusting into a cacophonous clusterfuck. They succeed. Barely. Which is all for the best because, really, have you ever tried getting pieces of raw power out of your hair? It's a bitch.

3) Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full (1987)

It would be a mistake to dismiss Rakim as just another braggadocio rapper who's favorite topic to address is how much better he is than you when it comes to rhymes. Realize that this was 1987 and that kind of thing wasn't yet played out. Also realize that Rakim wasn't just bragging, he was speaking the truth. Before him, it was harder to defend that rap was more than just some dude talking over a beat. But after his complex rhyme schemes, metaphors and Five Percenter allegory, anyone making that claim just sounded increasingly ignorant. His status as the greatest rapper of all-time is well deserved.

2) Nadja - Truth Becomes Death (2005)

The best music to come out of Canada since...Celine Dion, obviously. Truth Becomes Death is one of those albums that makes you understand the potential of a genre. Just like Lightning Bolt's Hypermagic Mountain opened my eyes to the potential of noise rock, Truth Becomes Death has helped me understand what drone doom metal, in all it's heavy, suffocating glory, is capable of.

1) Dungen - 4 (2008)

Four. That was the number of years ago that I discovered an album called Ta Det Lugnt from this Swedish band who were starting to make a little noise. I still consider that album one of my all-time favorites. Dungen topped my best albums list that year, and here they are again with another classic. The essential difference between Dungen and other psychedelic bands is that other bands seem to pay tribute to the heyday of the psychedelic era. Dungen, however, seem to have been born into it. They continue to evolve it and innovate it 40 years later.



Honorable Mention
(subtract the older release from my top ten and add these to get my top ten of 2008 albums that were actually released in 2008)

Ancestors - Neptune With Fire (2008)
Neptune With Fire is a stunning debut by Ancestors. So powerful in execution that not even cheesy lyrical themes and my least favorite Arik Roper cover art can hold it back from greatness. 37-minutes, 2 soaring stoner rock epics, both pretty killer.

Slim Cessna's Auto Club - Cipher (2008)
Slim Cessna's Auto Club are an enigma. Cipher seems to be an analysis of faith in America, possibly a celebration, but shit, you just never know with this band. They often tell stories of salvation and damnation. They praise religious folk before they mock them. Pray to God before cursing him. But listening to that internal struggle is what's so appealing about them. It helps that Jay Munly, one of the most fucked-up and interesting songwriters I've ever heard, is co-leader of the band. He's good enough to make me forget that this is essentially a country/bluegrass album and that my brain had been preconditioned to reject that genre. I'm working on it.

Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard - The Dark Knight (2008)
The best film of the year also has arguably the best soundtrack. The dark, brooding feel of the film owes a great deal to the compositions that Zimmer and Howard created, which make excellent use of aggressive string sections, forceful drumming and, as my fiancèe brilliantly put it, "epic brass". The back-to-back combo of the opening track, "Why So Serious?", and "I'm Not A Hero", is an especially jaw-dropping 15-minutes of music.

Caïna - Temporary Antennae (2008)
There's a new wave of black metal going on, and Caïna is one of the more unsung participants in the movement and evolution of the genre. Maybe that has to do with his increasing level of distance from it. Whereas his previous album, Mourner, was more black metal with the occasional post-rock and folk element, Temporary Antennae is more post-rock with the occasional black metal element. But discussion over where this music belongs (I found it in the pop/rock section in the record store, after a few wasted minutes of looking for it in the metal aisle) shouldn't overshadow the fact that this is a solid release for a young, diverse musician who's maturing at a rapid pace.

Harvey Milk - Life...The Best Game In Town (2008)
Sludge, sludge, sludge.

Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday (2008)
Post-rock with a little eastern influence.

Xoxobra's Best Other Stuff of 2008

Xoxobra's Best Other Stuff of 2008
In part two of the Best of 2008, I'll focus on the random categories. Tomorrow, I'll post my picks for the Best Albums.


Best Cover Art
Boris - Smile
A metal band makes an album with a bright yellow foam package encased in soft plastic with the front cut out in the shape of a heart. Nothing else even had a chance to top this. Not even close.



Best Music Video
"Toe Jam" by The BPA (Brighton Port Authority) [dir. Keith Schofield]
It may not be the most dynamic music video but the concept is pretty genius. Get a bunch of hot, young people to run around naked in a shag-carpeted house reminiscent of a 70's porn flick and make such creative and funny use of the censor bars that it actually makes you forget that a bunch of hot, young people are running around naked (kinda not safe for work, of course).



Best Debut
Ancestors - Neptune With Fire
They wore their Kyuss influence on their sleeves a bit, but that doesn't mean the album didn't rock. They managed to combine equal parts psychedelic rock, stoner metal, and post-rock. I'm anxious to see how many genres I like they can cram into their sophomore release. Bollywood, maybe?

Best Concert
Sigur Ros - 9/30/2008 at the Marquee Theatre (Tempe, AZ)
Yeah, so this was one of only three concerts I went to this year, but that doesn't mean it wasn't awesome. It was good enough to reestablish my faith in the band, which was wavering a bit as I had begun to realize that their last truly great album came out six years ago. They're still a good band on album, but when it comes to the live show, they're better than they've ever been. Three cheers for gratuitous confetti.



Most Disappointing Album
TV On The Radio - Dear Science
The fact that this album produced two of my favorite songs of the year shows how good TVOTR can be when they go out of their comfort zone. Unfortunately, for the majority of Dear Science and their previous album (Return to Cookie Mountain), they didn't stray from that zone often. This band annoys me, because they're so fucking talented and they've got what it takes to truly innovate music, bust through genre's at will, and dominate any form of music they attempt, but instead they waste their time pigeonholing themselves within the fickle realm of indie rock. They can be so much more than that.

Worst Album
Scott Walker - The Drift
I didn't pay money for this. It was actually at my local library and I checked it out because I remember it being one of the more acclaimed albums of 2006. I'm glad that I heard this under those circumstances, because that means I didn't have to waste anything but my time to listen to it. I'm not sure if there exists an analogy that properly explains how shitty this is. It's just one pathetic failed experiment. When it tries to be brooding and atmospheric it ends up being boring. When it tries to be dramatic and scary it ends up being utterly laughable, like some prepubescent crackly-voiced teenager in a cheap mask that jumps out at you and growls during any number of shoddy "haunted house" productions that go up around town during Halloween, except I have no incentive to hold in my laughter so as not to make the kid feel bad. I mean, at least he tried. I'm not sure if I could even say that much for Walker.

Weirdest Album
Scott Walker - The Drift
Did I mention the part in the middle where it sounds like someone's beating a piece of partially thawed meat with a stick? I think it's supposed to be artistic or some shit, making me contemplate the fragility of life. Or maybe aggressive masturbation, I don't know.

Best Movie
The Dark Knight
I guess if this movie proves anything, it's that I'm way less indie than I thought I was, and also that my Batman fanboy phase is determined to last well into adulthood thanks to Chris Nolan. But who cares if this was the biggest, most hyped movie of the year when it so emphatically lived up to the hype? Even the introduction and brief, awkward ending to the Two Face saga wasn't enough to derail it, and Two Face is one of my favorite villains.
Runner up: Milk
This could've been a really sappy tearjerker but it wasn't. The saddest thing about this movie is that I didn't know that Harvey Milk was an actual person until I heard this was coming out (I was familiar with the band, obviously, but I never thought to look up the origin of their name). He's pretty much the Martin Luther King, Jr. of the gay rights movement. It's baffling to me why gay rights advocates don't use his image to their advantage.

Best Book
Hokkaido Highway Blues (re-released in the US as Hitching Rides With Buddha)
A travel writing book by a Canadian-born writer who made a living teaching English in Japanese high schools, and later, inspired by Alan Booth, decided to hitchhike the country from one end to the other and document his travels. Very funny, insightful and well-written. I read a number of books on Japan this year, and this was one of the few written by a Westerner that analyzed the culture without making broad generalizations or portraying the Japanese in a condescending manner, as if the writer were viewing some sociological experiment featuring some lesser species. As a result, I feel like I learned more about the culture than anything Lonely Planet has ever put out. And on top of that, I laughed out loud more times than I can count; more than any book has managed to do in recent memory. This was one of my favorite passages, when he's reflecting upon the origin of the sometimes perplexing use of English in Japanese pop culture:

"My students in Japan were determined to reduce English to mathematical dictums that could then be reassembled...When I ran into one [of them] out of uniform in a t-shirt that read ENJOY MY BROTHER!, I challenged him to explain the phrase. It was a wager, really, because I promised him ten thousand yen if he could do it. This young man was our top student, destined for one of Japan's finest universities, and he took up the challenge with confidence. "Enjoy is the verb," he said, "my is a possessive pronoun and brother is the object. The subject is understood to be you, which makes the sentence a command phrase. The exclamation mark adds urgency." He then held out his hand for the money. "But what does it mean?" I said. He looked at me, utterly baffled, and said "Enjoy is the verb, my is a possessive pronoun, brother is the--" Needless to say, I didn't pay him the ten thousand yen and he is still bitter about it. In his mind, he did explain it and all I did was welsh on a bet."

Best Website
Rate Your Music (www.rateyourmusic.com)
The design might not be attractive, and it's not going to drop recommendations into your lap à la LastFM or Pandora, but those people who really like to dig for music will find no better tool than this user-supported database. If it's not the place where I find out about a new artist, it's the first place I go to learn more about them.


Stay tuned for the best albums list!

Xoxobra's 22 Best Songs of 2008

Xoxobra's 22 Best Songs of 2008
It's that time of year again, when music fiends worldwide start sharing opinions on the best stuff they've heard all year. I'm no different. For the next few days I'll post my picks for the best music that I've heard in 2008; emphasis on the words "I've heard". Like most music fans, a lot of good music I hear in a given year could range from 4 weeks to 40 years old, give or take. So I pile them all together regardless of release date. Today, I'll discuss the songs.

As I was working on this list, I listened again and again to the songs that made the greatest impact on me this year. The ones that blew me away, and demanded repeated listens. When it was all said and done, I had twenty-two songs, and was left with somewhat of a dilemma: I could add on a few more songs and post my twenty-five favorites of the year, or I could subtract a couple and post my twenty favorites. After giving it some thought, I felt adding songs that were merely good but not memorable would compromise the integrity of the list (I like to think that my opinions have integrity), so I chose to subtract. But then I had another problem: I just couldn't find it in myself to rid of any two of the tracks below. They all deserve to be there. So fuck it. Here's my top 22 Songs of 2008:



22) "Goliath" by The Mars Volta [from The Bedlam In Goliath]

The Mars Volta haven't sounded this good and made a song this tight since 2003. It plays like a homage to those fans who got fed up waiting for another De-loused In The Comatorium. Makes me feel like I'm in college again (but in a good way).

21) "Who You Think I Am?" by MF Doom (featuring King Ceasar, Rodan, Megalon, Kamakiras & Kong) [from Operation: Doomsday]

Okay, yeah, so it's pretty much a "Protect Ya Neck" for 1999, but doesn't it deserve credit for even reaching those heights? I say so. It shows how great a group rap track can be when done well.

20) "Ema Kowa Iasa Ile Wa" by Mono Mono [from Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6]

Cruising music. Through Nigeria, I imagine. It's quite a smooth ride despite the fact that it's interrupted by distant chanting and a guitar solo midway through. But no matter, when all that ends, it just picks up right where it left off, as if nothing happened. I feel cooler when listening to this.

19) "Crying" by TV On The Radio [from Dear Science]

TVOTR summons the ghosts of 1980's R&B, as performed by the Commodores, and make a song that's as modern sounding as it is a throwback.

18) "Thirty One Today" by Aimee Mann [from @#%&*! Smilers]

A theme song for every unhappy, direction-less woman in their 30's. I'm not in that demographic, but this song almost makes me wish I was so I could declare this the soundtrack to my life.

17) "The Wrong Coat for You Mt. Heart Attack" by Liars [from Drum's Not Dead]

This song sounds so transparent and ghost-like. I guess "haunting" is the word. Cliche but appropriate, as this song doesn't seem of this world, existing only on a subconscious level.

16) "Deshominisation (I)" by Alain Goraguer [from La Planète Sauvage]

It's like funk music as played in your dreams, in outer space, while high on something. You could almost call this sexy if it weren't so damn weird instead.

15) "My Melody" by Eric B. & Rakim [from Paid In Full]

On the first track of Paid In Full ("I Ain't No Joke"), Rakim told me how great he was. On the second track ("Eric B. Is On The Cut"), Eric B. demonstrated the same. After "My Melody", the third track, they had me convinced.

14) "The Natural Man" by Grails [from Doomsdayer's Holiday]

It seems to tell a story not with words, but with acoustic guitars, airy layered flutes, and spacious atmospherics. The story varies depending on the listener, but the soundtrack is pretty badass.

13) "Fredag" by Dungen [from 4]

They've already proven their ability to write pop songs and demonstrated their mad jam session skills. Now they're just about the groove. Look beyond the hypnotic guitar and piano in the foreground, when that bass shows itself it shouldn't be ignored.

12) "Roses" by Harvey Milk [from Life...The Best Game In Town]

A deceptive title, a deceptively tender opening piano melody, followed by an onslaught of sludge so dirty and thick that even Mike Rowe wouldn't want anything to do with it.

11) "Reality Check" by Binary Star [from Masters of the Universe]

Takes it's time getting started. A simple beat plays over the piano intro, the piano drops out, and then, very calmly, One Be Lo drops one of the best verses I've heard in the relatively short history of rap music. "You ain't never heard an MC speak like this." You probably have, yet you still believe him somehow.

10) "DLZ" by TV On The Radio [from Dear Science]

The dark side of "Staring At The Sun". Ominous and brooding atmospheres replace hope, but hot shit the soul, emotion, and immediacy are still present.

9) "My Body Is Made Of Sunlight" by Circulus [from The Lick On The Tip Of An Envelope Yet To Be Sent]

Renaissance era-inspired folk made by a group of English hippie LARPer's who have yet to realize that it's 2008? Sure, why not. The tempo changes are masterfully handled, it's like three songs in one.

8) "Fried Chicken" by Nas (featuring Busta Rhymes) [from Untitled]

It would be foolish to let yourself be thrown off by the inherently ridiculous concept of this song: the personification of a delicious fried chicken meal as a lover. But even once you stop laughing, you'll still want to keep listening.

7) "I'm Gone" by Dead Meadow [from Old Growth]

Damn, Dead Meadow have come a long way since the meandering (though infectious) stoner epics of their past. Now they're writing acoustic folk-rock tracks so incredibly tight it threatens to cut off circulation to their weed crumb-infested fingers.

6) "Waddlin' Around" by The King Khan & BBQ Show [from The King Khan & BBQ Show]

Garage rock with soul. Really, how many songs recorded in the past few years sound like they could've come out of any decade since 1950?

5) "The First Broken Promise" by Capricorns (featuring Eugene Robinson) [from Ruder Forms Survive]

Previous attempts to remove myself from Eugene Robinson's balls were made much more difficult after hearing his guest spot in this song. A masterpiece of abstract sludge metal.

4) "Dambala" by Exuma [from Exuma]

If Exuma had put any more soul into this song it might've seeped out of your speakers and swallowed you whole. This, right here, is power.

3) "Bug/Golem" (excerpt) by Nadja [from Truth Becomes Death]

To call this heavy is an understatement. An insult almost. This is crushing; suffocating. Like the earth is in the palm of the hands of a god and he's ever so slowly forming a fist...or something of that nature.

2) "メッセージ" by Boris [from Smile]

Like a drum-driven, Japanese version of a song off the Twin Peaks soundtrack, stripped to its elements, played at a slightly higher BPM, added flourishes of wailing electric guitar, fed through badly broken speakers, and at least three minutes longer than it needs to be. Q: How does a song with failure written all over it succeed so hard? A: Duh, it's Boris.

1) "Prospectors Arrive" by Jonny Greenwood [from There Will Be Blood]

It's a rather unemotional part of the film (ya know, just prospectors...arriving), but this song gives it such a beautiful, emotional punch; foreshadowing this overwhelming sadness and tragedy. That violin part at one minute, thirty-six seconds into the song? Putting it pretentiously, I could die to that.


Stay tuned for more best of stuff in the coming days!

Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard - The Dark Knight (2008)

Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard - The Dark Knight (2008)
I can't help but find it a little amusing that the common complaint/compliment/comment about this soundtrack is that it fits the movie. For a big budget summer action flick as anticipated as The Dark Knight was, a notable chunk of that budget was sure to go to composing the soundtrack, and rightly so. The music of a scene in a film is often as important as the acting, directing, or cinematography, arguably more so. It plays its part in drawing the emotion out of its audience, letting you know how you should feel about the situation, view certain characters and/or actions. Hearing that The Dark Knight soundtrack fits the film, I can't help but recall that famous Chris Rock joke where he berates people who brag about things they're supposed to do. "I take care of my kids." "The music fits the movie." To paraphrase Rock: "[It's] supposed to, you dumb motherfucker!"

That being said...this music fits the film really well. The dark, brooding, sometimes intense feel of the film owes a great deal to the compositions that Zimmer and Howard created, which make excellent use of aggressive string sections, forceful drumming and, as my fiancèe brilliantly put it, "epic brass". The back-to-back combo of the opening track, "Why So Serious?", and "I'm Not A Hero", is such a jaw-dropping 15-minutes of music that the middle of the album seems to drag in comparison. This isn't helped by the fact that some sections throughout the album tend to build up only to transition suddenly (read: drop out entirely) to nearly inaudible sections of delicate horns and violins. It screams for corrective equalization.

The album as a whole though, played in one sitting and making indiscriminate use of gapless playback, is quite an experience. But the dilemma continues. That being that I find myself again reviewing yet another soundtrack for a film that I loved and wondering if my feelings would be the same had I either hated or not seen the film. Maybe an objective stance on the quality of this music is beyond my abilities to provide, but really, is any music review completely objective?

The bottom line is that I think that this would be a great listening experience even if it weren't attached to a film. In fact, it reminds me a lot of last year's fantastic A World In Their Screams album by the French neo-classical group Elend, which wasn't attached to a film but felt like it should've been. With both albums, the music is powerful and controls the mood effectively. The only difference between them is that one allows you create your own images in your mind and the other has already done it for you. But if the music has done its part, the source for the imagery doesn't much matter.


Score: 8/10


"I'm Not A Hero"


"Watch The World Burn"

Opeth - Watershed (2008)

Opeth - Watershed (2008)
Opeth are one of those bands that have always been recommended to me. The one that often comes up casually in conversation from excited fanboys who make the comparison of _____________(insert metal band) to Opeth and are slightly, or not so slightly, taken aback when I can't say the reference hits home for me due to unfamiliarity. They're that band whose album's have always topped year-end lists and that I've made a mental note to check out but never did for some reason...until this year.

I'll remember Watershed as the album with which I finally took the leap.
I'll also remember Watershed as the album that permanently killed any interest I had in Opeth.

This is so beyond terrible that it takes an extreme level of patience for me to listen to it in one sitting. My first go-round with it spanned over a period of three days. Two days for my second listen. The last few I've been able to manage within a day, which recently culminated with the Herculean effort of actually listening to it all without stopping. I consider this one of the hardest things I've done all year. Please keep in mind that this is the same year that I ran my first marathon, juggled two jobs, began teaching English to African refugees, proposed to my girlfriend, revealed our plans to marry to her skeptical parents and successfully convinced them I wasn't just in it for the money. Somewhere in-between all of that: Opeth.

If I'm being honest, I don't dislike the music on Watershed as much as I dislike the humorlessness of the music on Watershed. Opeth are exactly the kind of band, and this the exact kind of music, that shouldn't take itself seriously. But I've seen no obvious indication to the contrary. Despite how technically sound the music is, it's still being played by long-haired, bearded dudes in their 30's who's fashion sense (all black) has not matured since high school. I pity the fool who can't see the humor in that.

And on that note, here's one more reason I'll remember Watershed: it's the album that made me realize just how badly metal needs more Devin Townsend's (of metal band Strapping Young Lad fame). Meaning, a guy that plays the music, respects the music, but also realizes the music is kind of silly if you really think about it.


Score: 3/10


"Porcelain Heart"

Girl Talk - Feed The Animals (2008)

Girl Talk - Feed The Animals (2008)
You've heard Plunderphonics played in your local discotheques, but now you can bring all of the fun and excitement right into your own living room with the new Plunderphonics Trivia™: Feed The Animals Edition!!! Here's how to play:

1) Each player gets a notepad and a pencil provided in the game package. Insert the Feed The Animals music CD (also provided in the package) into your media player of choice to begin Round One.

2) The goal of the game is for each player to identify as many of the samples as they can recognize and write on their notepads the name of the recording artist and song title that the sample comes from. Points in Round One are tallied as follows:

One (1) point for correctly identifying the artist only.
Two (2) points for correctly identifying the exact title of the song only.
Three (3) points for correctly identifying both the artist and exact song title.

3) Round One ends at the conclusion of track number five, "Set It Off". Stop the CD and have each player calculate their total (refer to the master list of songs on the album's Wikipedia page. The player with the least amount of points is eliminated (assuming at least two players remain).

4) The remaining players may then begin Round Two, which starts off right where the previous round left off and ends at the conclusion of track number ten, "In Step". Points in this round are tallied as follows:

Zero (0) points for correctly identifying the artist only.
One (1) point for correctly identifying the exact title of the song only.
Three (3) points for correctly identifying both the artist and exact song title.

5) At the conclusion of "In Step", stop the CD. Have each player calculate their total for Round Two only (again, refer to the master list). As at the conclusion of Round One, the player in Round Two with the least amount of points is eliminated (assuming at least two players remain).

6) Begin the third and Final Round where Round Two left off. The remaining players will listen to each of the remaining songs on the album. Points in the Final Round are tallied as follows:

Zero (0) points for correctly identifying the artist only.
One (1) point for correctly identifying the exact title of the song only.
Five (5) points for correctly identifying both the artist and exact song title.

7) At the conclusion of the Final Round and the Feed The Animals music CD, each remaining player is to calculate their total for the Final Round. The player with the most amount of total points throughout all three rounds officially earns the title of Plunderphonics Trivia™: Feed The Animals Edition Ultimate Music Snob and is the loser of the game!!!

The winner? The player eliminated in Round One who didn't have to listen to this annoying, piece of shit album all the way through. Seriously, as "fun" as this experiment is, hearing Vanilla Ice and the Ying Yang Twins at the same time doesn't make for a great listening experience (neither does hearing them individually, for that matter).


Score: 4/10


"Still Here"


"Like This"

The Mars Volta - Bedlam In Goliath (2008)

The Mars Volta - The Bedlam In Goliath (2008)

The Mars Volta are one of those polarizing bands that I can't help but pull for to make that one album that will prove to their detractors that they're more than just fancy guitar work, precise drumming, and pretentious prog-rock wankery. For the past few years, it's been a tough sell.

Since captivating new fans and winning over a large amount of leftover At The Drive-In addicts with their 2003 debut, De-Loused In The Comatorium, the band have lost more support than they've gained. Frances The Mute, a monstrous and sometimes meandering album full of epics, threw a lot of people off the bandwagon. Amputecture didn't do much to bring them back (though I personally felt it got a bad rap). As a result, anticipation over The Bedlam In Goliath didn't reach anywhere near fever pitch, and perhaps this worked in the band's favor. Disillusioned fans of the band should take a second look: the Mars Volta have recorded their best work since their debut.

The Bedlam In Goliath features some of the most digestible song lengths and memorable melodies that the band have given us since De-Loused. It's hard to believe, but they're actually catchy again. "Ilyena" is a prime example, probably one of the finest things they've ever done with five-and-a-half minutes."Wax Simulacra", length and hook-wise, is actually radio-friendly and worthy of its recent Grammy nomination and, considering its competition, a Grammy win. "Goliath", the album's clear standout, is HUGE, reaching or even surpassing some of the most beloved songs on De-Loused like "Inertiatic ESP" or "Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)". And that's just on the first half of the album.

The second half is hard-hitting and relentless, surprisingly free of filler. "Soothsayer", with it's middle-eastern vibe, is a successful experiment that works well for the band. The stop-start dynamic of "Askepios" provides an interesting twist. "Ouroboros" is a lightning quick, thumping track that shows off new drummer Thomas Pridgen's enormous talents. Bedlam reaches a point where it's only flaw may be that it has too many such tracks, and the band didn't want to leave any of them off even if the album becomes a little overwhelming as a result.

On the other hand, I can understand how it would be hard not to want to show off Pridgen, a child prodigy-turned-virtuoso and widely respected master of his craft. It likely is his muscular drumming that's responsible for the Mars Volta's new energy. At 25, he's the youngest member of the band, and perhaps that youthfulness is what inspired the band to act and play more like their 2003 selves; kind of like what happens when a man far-removed from his college days finds himself conversing with a young student and rediscovers the joy of the random stupid an inane behavior that he thought he'd grown out of.

In that sense, The Bedlam In Goliath reminds me of my own college days, which is probably part of the reason I enjoy it. It's basically De-Loused In The Comatorium with lyrics that make sense, taking me back to those days in the summer of 2003 when my college friends and I would throw De-Loused into the stereo and rock out, singing "EXO-SKELETAL JUNCTION AT THE RAILROAD DELAYED!" without much of a care in the world (yeah, we were pretty lame). But therein lies Bedlam's most frustrating quality: it's like hearing that album's proper follow-up five years too late.


Score: 7.5/10


"Ilyena"


"Goliath"

Nigeria Special & Nigeria Rock Special (2008)

Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6
&
Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro-Rock & Fuzz Funk in 1970s Nigeria (2008)

UK record label Soundway has made a habit of digging up obscure African sounds spanning many genre's, including afrobeat, funk, highlife, blues, and psychedelic rock, among others. This year, they released a 3-part compilation of 70's Nigerian music. I picked up two of the three titles, both a mouthful to say: Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6, and Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro-Rock & Fuzz Funk in 1970s Nigeria.

The two-disk Nigeria Special is the lengthiest of the three, providing a thorough and expansive collection of quality, laid-back Nigerian blues. Because of it's sheer length (almost two hours of music between the two disks), it can be somewhat of an overwhelming listen. The afrobeat tracks also get a little difficult to separate the good from the bad if you're a relative newbie to it. It seems to be an acquired taste that I personally have not fully acclimated to, so I was left feeling somewhat neutral towards some of the songs, viewing them as decent enough filler until the standout highlife and blues tracks came along. Considering the number of such standouts, which includes Celestine Ukwu & His Philosophers National's "Okwukwe Na Nchekwube" and Mono Mono's "Ema Kowa Iasa Ile Wa", any flaws or issues I had with the album were easy to forgive.

Somewhat disappointingly, the Nigeria Rock Special doesn't quite reach the same heights. For an excellent collection of 1970's African psych rock, see Love's a Real Thing - The Funky Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa from Luaka Bop's World Psychedelic Classics series. The Nigeria Rock Special, track for track, isn't quite as good, but it does have moments from time to time. Solid tracks like "Ku Mi Da Hankan", "Cotocun Gba Gounke", or the excellent closer "Chant to Mother Earth", are often sandwiched in between sometimes meandering instrumentals, which really threw off the momentum for me during earlier listens, but that I didn't mind as much over time. Still, I feel like this could've befitted from being two to three songs shorter. The overall length isn't overwhelming or anything, especially when compared to the previously mentioned two disk Nigeria Special, it's just the inclusion of a couple of tracks seem tacked on rather than deliberately sequenced.

The third collection in this series, Nigeria Disco Funk Special: The Sound of The Underground Lagos Dancefloor 1974-79, I didn't bother to pick up for a couple of reasons. The first of which is the word "disco", a genre that fails to interest me even in my own language and country. The second and main reason, though, is because I wasn't exactly blown away by the aforementioned collections. The Nigeria Special was good enough to inspire me to further explore African music in the blues and highlife categories, but as World Psychedelic Classics has proven, these types of comps have been done better before.


Score: 7.5/10 & 6/10


"Ema Kowa Iasa Ile Wa" (from Nigeria Special)


"Cotocun Gba Gounke" (from Nigeria Rock Special)

Samothrace - Life's Trade (2008)

Samothrace - Life's Trade (2008)

For this review I'd like to quote a passage from the 1998 book Hokkaido Highway Blues by Will Ferguson, a Canadian-born writer who made a living teaching English in Japanese high schools, and later, inspired by Alan Booth, decided to hitchhike the country from one end to the other and document his travels. In the following excerpt, he is reflecting upon the Japanese people's strange way of approaching the English language, and recalls a chance meeting with a former student of his:

"My students in Japan were determined to reduce English to mathematical dictums that could then be reassembled...When I ran into one [of them] out of uniform in a t-shirt that read ENJOY MY BROTHER!, I challenged him to explain the phrase. It was a wager, really, because I promised him ten thousand yen if he could do it. This young man was our top student, destined for one of Japan's finest universities, and he took up the challenge with confidence. "Enjoy is the verb," he said, "my is a possessive pronoun and brother is the object. The subject is understood to be you, which makes the sentence a command phrase. The exclamation mark adds urgency." He then held out his hand for the money. "But what does it mean?" I said. He looked at me, utterly baffled, and said "Enjoy is the verb, my is a possessive pronoun, brother is the--" Needless to say, I didn't pay him the ten thousand yen and he is still bitter about it. In his mind, he did explain it and all I did was welsh on a bet."

This pretty much sums up my feelings about the fundamentally sound, well-performed, yet altogether unfulfilling doom metal on Life's Trade. Samothrace = the Japanese student (if that wasn't obvious).


Score: 6.5/10


"Awkward Hearts"

Digital Good Time IX

Digital Good Time IX
(Digital Good Time is a series in which xoxobra focuses on the visual side of music)

Keith Schofield, who's making a name for himself this year with videos like his raunchy "Safe For Work Porn" ad for Diesel's 30th anniversary celebration, further explores the tasteless yet creative angle with his video for the song "Toe Jam" by the BPA. The 70's-porn inspired video opens with a bunch of hot, young singles gathering in a shag-carpeted living room for a sexy party, quickly shedding their clothes and then dancing around in the nude. Don't worry, you won't have to look over your shoulders while you watch this one, because the playful creative angle *ahem*...exposes itself soon after. With the brilliant use of the black censor bars, the party goers gather into simple formations to simulate letters, smiley faces, gunfire, and even a game of Pong. It's actually pretty funny. Light on visual effects, but heavy on clever visual tricks.



Links:
Keith Schofield
The BPA

Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation (2005)

Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation (2005)

It's easy to pick up bits and pieces of rap history by listening to the music. Rhymes regarding it's birth in the Bronx, the four elements (graffiti, b-boying, DJing, and MCing), Planet Rock, anti-Reagan sentiments, gang culture, government paranoia, and William Cooper are, among other things, commonly mentioned and discussed throughout the genre's history. But you'd be hard pressed to find information on the origin of these things in one place. Thankfully, in one of the most thorough narratives of the roots of hip hop culture, Jeff Chang has written an essential book in Can't Stop Won't Stop, which should serve as required reading for both those who harbor more than a passing interest the genre to those who are skeptical of it's artistic merits.

The story of hip hop as told in this book is basically a story of rises and falls. The rise of graffiti artists from the train yards to art galleries and back to the street. The rise of b-boys from block party showcases to nationwide fad to dance instructors in the suburbs. The rise of DJ's from party hosts to the backbone of hip hop to being replaced by technology. And the rise of MC's from club entertainment to hit record makers to watered down, corporate controlled culture marketing tools. Beneath all the successes are the underlying tragedies; exploitation that led to numerous beginning-of-the-end scenario's.

But along the way there was a lot to celebrate, and Jeff Chang's love for hip hop is obvious in his writing. More than just going over the history of the music, he weaves the stories of the genre's greatest innovators (DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Public Enemy, etc.) to the social and political climate that often inspired their art. It's hard to understand the motivations of such essential artists without understanding the events that inspired their creative contributions, and Chang documents these artists and others with tireless detail, exposing them as human while at the same time making them seem even more legendary.

The book is not without it's flaws though. While the first two-thirds that document the 1970's and 80's are presented vividly, it starts to lose a little bit of it's momentum towards the end when Chang gets into the 90's, straying off topic without refocusing himself on the major theme of the book. While it was interesting to read the extended chronicle of The Source and other hip hop magazines, I couldn't help but feel that more pertinent events were being ignored. The impact of The Chronic was barely given a page. There was no mention of the New York renaissance (led by A Tribe Called Quest, the Wu-Tang Clan, and Nas). And, most surprising, there was no mention of the media's grandiose portrayal of the east coast/west coast rivalry and the related story involving the careers of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.

While I understand that there were many topics beyond the scope of one book, considering the attention given to other noteworthy artists, it's a little shocking that the genre's two most memorable stars weren't given even a sentence of recognition. It's possible that Chang ignored these events because of how well documented they already are, but one can reasonably assume that this was around the period that Chang, like so many other hip hop fans, became disillusioned by the politics of the music, affecting his motivation to carefully document much of the post "golden age" days.

Another problem I have with the book is probably on a more personal level. It's essentially an issue of proper grammar, but it's an issue that sparks a larger public discussion on race. Throughout the text, Chang continually capitalizes the words "black" and "brown" when generally referring to African Americans and Hispanics, respectively. This would normally be unremarkable, except he doesn't do the same when referring to Caucasians as "white". At the least, this is an inconsistency in grammar that should've been caught and corrected by the editor, especially because of the sheer number of occurrences, as race is discussed in-depth and throughout the book. At the most, it's a passive-aggressive insult aimed at white people, though I'd have a hard time believing that was the reason either. It was probably more innocent than that, perhaps simply a "better safe than sorry" maneuver that was made because of the book's target audience. Basically, in order to squash a controversy before it has a chance to start and distract from the main point of the book, the minority groups were capitalized when identified by color to appease the large number of minorities who would surely read this book. But even this possibility has it's flaws, because by doing that it brought even more attention to the words "black" or "white" whenever they appear on a page, especially in the same sentence. They draw attention by making it obvious that they were trying to avoid it.

But I doubt even that gets to the heart of the matter. The best I can deduce is that it's meant as a compliment to minorities. Having been oppressed in America for such a long period, the least that could be done, Chang seems to hint, is to give them respect, and therefore a level of importance, through capitalization. This is kind of bullshit, though. As a black man, I personally can't help but see the gesture in somewhat of a patronizing manor. It comes off almost like a poor and useless reparation for past injustices, as if by capitalizing these general racial classifications that those groups are getting long overdue respect for their contributions to society. That after having been displayed as inferior, here was a chance to be displayed superiorly. Or perhaps it was the author's way of showing his level of respect for these minority groups and his appreciation for them having created this hip hop culture that he has grown up with and loved so much. A noble goal, if either is the case, but is this gesture the best way to do that? Isn't his contribution to the discussion of racial inequality (and how it led to the birth of hip hop) enough by having written this book to begin with?

I would entertain the possibility that I'm making way too much out of this, except that the occurrences are so numerous and so obvious that I have a hard time believing that this was a complete non-issue when this book was about to be published. In the book, Chang mentions how Public Enemy's Chuck D had been raised on James Brown's "I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing (Open The Door, I'll Get It Myself)" and other such Black Panther-like ideologies that pushed for self-sufficiency in the black community. I suppose, in a way, I agree with those ideologies when it comes to this topic. Give me an edge by treating me equally, not by giving me special treatment. I don't need to see my skin color written in caps to feel worthwhile.

But that's just my opinion. It would be interesting to hear some discussion on the topic. For this review, however, I'll say that while I enjoyed Can't Stop Won't Stop overall, this issue did act as somewhat of a distraction. Still, it's essential reading.

Ambulance and Other Love Songs

Ambulance and Other Love Songs

Last month I posted about my upcoming wedding and how my fiancèe and I were making our own invitations, complete with a "wedding album" mix CD. It was a pretty painstaking project, but I'm happy to say that we finally finished and many of them have already been mailed out. Here are a few pictures from the process:

Here's everything that went into the envelope (minus the yarn): an invitation card, an information card, RSVP card and stamped envelope, and the CD covers. My fiancee handled the design and then I printed everything at my job on 23" x 35" pieces of thin chipboard, then cut them out by hand into individual cards: the invitation card, the information card, and the RSVP card. 150 of each. Yup, it was a pain in the ass.

(Overwhelmed fiancèe)

Here are the CD covers. We designed and printed sleeves from a template for each CD, which I burned at 8x speed one at a time on my computer over a period of days. Originally, we were going to have them duplicated professionally, but on top of being too expensive, we had copyright laws to worry about.

Here's the completed CD sleeve with burned CD, which we also designed a custom sticker for. We titled it Ambulance and Other Love Songs, to highlight TV on the Radio's track as our song. Instead of just having a boring, random mix CD, we went for a "cool love songs on the radio" theme. To make the point a little more obvious, I found a sound library online and put together a few skits that made it seem like someone was flipping through a radio station and landed on the songs here. The introduction helps introduce the radio feel, and the interlude reiterates it. The tracklist, printed on the backside, is as follows:

1) Introduction
2) "Love You So" by The King Khan & BBQ Show
3) "Love's A Real Thing" by Super Eagles
4) "Keep Me" by The Black Keys
5) "Some Unholy War" by Amy Winehouse
6) "Gimme Danger" by The Stooges
7) "All Is Full Of Love" by Björk
8) "Ambulance" by TV On The Radio
9) "Hands Of My Love" by The Quantic Soul Orchestra feat. Alice Russell
10) Interlude
11) "E.T." by One Be Lo
12) "Into The Sun" by Diplo feat. Martina Topley-Bird
13) "King Of Silence" by Cibo Matto
14) "Missile ++" by Blonde Redhead
15) "Eres Tú" by Aguaturbia
16) "Start Wearing Purple" by Gogol Bordello

And here's how it all came together: stuffed in a fat envelope and shipped off to family and friends, effectively ending the headache caused by this task so we could focus our headaches on future tasks. Success!

Aimee Mann - @#%&! Smilers (2008)

Aimee Mann - @#%&! Smilers (2008)
I've always been a fan of Aimee Mann from a distance. First having been exposed to her music by way of the movie Magnolia -- directed by her friend Paul Thomas Anderson; and also one of my favorite movies of all-time -- I came to like her brand of mature, insightful songwriting and simple but catchy melodies...from a distance. Her new albums were released and were continually met with critical praise, and I would read about them with interest thinking "Hmm, I like Aimee Mann, I'll have to pick this up", a thought that, for one reason or another, was never met with action.

@#%&! Smilers was bound to have similar fate until, as luck would have it, my part-time bookstore job was giving away a promo copy of the album after it's life as an in-store play had expired. While liking Aimee Mann and actually going out and buying her album for some reason proved too much of a task for me, liking Aimee Mann and taking home a free copy of her album was quite easy.

The album is every bit as solid as I would have expected from her. More simple but catchy ballads about life and love, beautifully sung and written with wit and wisdom. Songwriting has never been Mann's weakness, though. While her songs may strike more of a chord with a demographic I can't possibly relate to as a man in his mid-twenties, she writes them in such a way that any listener can find common ground. "Thirty One Today", for example, is a clear standout; probably one of the few modern songs that both you and your mom would enjoy equally. I imagine this would be my theme song if I were a woman in my thirties, but even now I can relate to its more general themes of disappointment and uncertainty. Her sound has expanded a bit with the use of a synthesizer, among other instruments such as horns and strings. The synth gets a little too 80's for comfort at times, as on "Borrowing Time", but typically it's not a major distraction from the composition as a whole. Overall, @#%&! Smilers is completely worth the time to listen to...as long as you can get the motivation to listen to it.

That's the thing about Aimee Mann's music: it's not really demanding of your attention. It's not remarkable or experimental. It's submissive and unoffensive enough to be played in a bookstore, obviously. Even Mann herself is kind of plain in such a way that if she took a step backward she might melt into the wall (to paraphrase Murakami). But these aren't flaws as much as they are oddly charming once you recognize them. It might've taken a stroke of right-place-right-time luck for me to finally do so, but I'm glad I did.


Score: 7.5/10


"Phoenix"


"Thirty One Today"

Bohren & der Club of Gore - Dolores (2008)

Bohren & der Club of Gore - Dolores (2008)

A loungy German jazz band who plays film noir-style music at a funeral pace that often rests below twenty beats per minute named Bohren & der Club of Gore? Sounds more like BORING & der Club of SNORE! LOL WUT!!!1

Except not at all, and even though I would have a hard time defending against their music being a complete bore to some, I still consider them to be one of my favorite bands making music today. Their dark-ambient jazz music would be an anomaly in any collection that doesn't consist of a few Angelo Badalamenti compositions and a Twin Peaks DVD box set. Those familiar with the composers work for the 1990's TV show, however, will immediately be able to point out the similarities between he and Bohren.

The band's first album, Gore Motel, played almost like a tribute; any one song feeling like a missing b-side for the Twin Peaks soundtrack. With subsequent albums, though, the band has shown real growth, which came together most brilliantly on 2000's Sunset Mission (though many would argue the same point for 2002's Black Earth), when the band beautifully integrated the saxophone and mellotron into their previously bass-driven sound. 2005's Geisterfaust felt like a bit of a misstep for those who had grown on the band's sax-led sound, myself included. Bohren had already been known for long, repetitive song structures, but without the improvisation of the saxophone on four of the album's five tracks, the songs felt longer and more repetitive than before.

It would be hard to call Dolores a new creative leap for the band, more of a return to form. What the band is able to do is take the sound they aimed for in Geisterfaust and present the songs in more digestible lengths. It's a small change that leads to a significant increase in listenability. The breaks and changes come more quickly and are easier to recognize, so it avoids getting to that "Damn, this song is still on?" moment that a few of Geisterfaust's songs reached. On top of that, there's more sax, and it's used effectively to give Dolores more mood variety than the band have given on an album since Gore Motel. While the mellotron-led tracks fashion a feeling of extreme sadness and mourning -- such as on "Orgelblut" or the fantastic opener "Staub" -- the sax songs come off as optimistic; almost upbeat at times.

Bohren have given me yet another reason to love them with Dolores. But I can't help but be continually impressed with how a band with really only one song have been able to turn that song into six full-length albums of above-average quality. One song, yeah, but it's a damn good song.



Score: 8/10


"Still Am Tresen"


"Orgelblut"