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1. Junior Boys "In The Morning" 2. The Human Stain by Phillip Roth 3. Drinks for cheap at Costco 4. Mountains in Santa Monica 5. Who Wants To Be A Superhero? Tryouts in 2 weeks! 6. Matthew Barney's sack in Cremaster 4 (wtf?) 7. Of Montreal's Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? 8. NOFX! 9. Leftover pizza 10. Buying the movie Gremlins for $6. Gizmo is a badass motherfucker.
Menomena’s third full-length Friend and Foe is mindblowing, from it’s decoder-ring wheel packaging, to the music that it contains. I thought their debut I am the fun blame monster was an amazing packaging concept (It was a flip-book for chrissakes!) and album, but the three Portland-based multi-instrumentalists have really outdone themselves with this release. Friend and Foe, stylistically is not much different than I am the fun blame monster, but is so masterfully made that the difference is palpable. “Muscle ‘n Flo” is an incredible opener, full of stop ‘n go guitars, harmonies, twinkling pianos and church organs, all of which culminate in an incredibly feel-good hook-laden track without a hint of sappiness or pop sensibility. “The Pelican” follows “Muscle ‘n Flo” with a Godzilla stomp that replaces all good feelings with a solid three minutes of gleeful, downtempo destruction interrupted occasionally by choir-boy harmonies. The album’s remaining tracks are all equally appealing and transcendent, but in the end, what sets Menomena apart from the great majority of artists releasing music today (and makes them better), is their use and understanding of suspense. Each of their songs are twice as dynamic and interesting than anything anyone else is doing, from production to performance, every song is arranged to maximum effect. Although the second half of the album drags a bit, the album is great (although I have to concede that “Running” is a bit silly), and it’s great to see such attention to detail from such an exciting band.
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great review... i totally prefer a fan written review over one by an official source. then you know its BS ffree
Maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit, but here's how it looks to me:
1. Grizzly Bear - Yellow House 2. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain 3. Man Man - 6 Demon Bag 4. M. Ward - Post-War 4. Damien Jurado - Now That I'm In Your Shadow 5. Ghostface Killah - Fishscale 6. The Knife - Silent Shout 7. Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies 8. Oh No! Oh My! - s/t 9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones 10. Tapes 'n Tapes - The Loon
anyone else?
Comments
Hey gun-jumper. Grizzly Bear is def my #1 so far, but we got a month 1/2 to go. Peeps/magazines/websites like to submit their lists early, but some albums take some time (ie Joanna Newsom), so I feel that top lists shouldn't come out until after the year has ended (although they always come out before the end of the year, but most of us don't get pre-release copies, y'know?). I'd replace TVOTR with Beirut's The Gulag Orkestar on my own list, and I'd dump Destroyer and Oh No Oh My.
You pretty much got it covered though :)
MOG Meter
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this year is looking thrilling already...