Friday Playlist #3

justin Friday Playlist, Music Leave a Comment

Well, it’s Friday again, and that means more freakin’ music from me. I know I’ve been extra slacky this week, but that is, indeed, my prerogative (and I don’t mean the Bobby Brown kind).

This week’s offering leans a little more towards the fast and dirty. I’ve basically been cooped up all week, so that almost always gets reflected in the music I listen to. There are some real gems this week and maybe even some surprises from bands you thought you knew.

1. Stiff Little Fingers – Wasted Life
It often seems the case that with punk; older is better. Stiff Little Fingers is the perfect case and “Wasted Life” is the perfect song. This tune just oozes 1977 UK youth revolt.

2. Strike Anywhere – The Promise
Let’s jump almost 30 years into the future and more into the modern political realm of bands like Anti-Flag. While still throwing down some good “smack-yourself-against-your-friends” tunes, Strike Anywhere actually has something to say. And, in my opinion, they do it quite well.

3. Supersuckers – Born With a Tail
Damn I love me some Supersuckers. It is always hard as hell for me to pick out my favorite tracks when it comes to this band of Arizona transplant miscreants, but “Born With a Tail” is just about as good as it comes. Besides, who really doesn’t want a prehensile tail?

4. Manic Hispanic – Tijuana Must Fall
I first saw Manic Hispanic on one of the tiny side stages at Warped Tour about six or seven years ago. My first thought is that they had a seriously genius idea and some really good musical chops to pull it off. Any band capable of consistently pulling off “Chicano” conversions of well known punk songs without sounding like a sped up El Vez clone deserves some attention.

5. Whole Weat Bread – Old Man Samson
Another band I stumbled upon, I first saw Whole Wheat Bread open for Big D & the Kids Table at a tiny, odd little BYOB place in Lewisville, TX. Having learned that they described themselves as “Dirty South Punk Rock,” I was quite curious to see this moderate combo of rap and punk and was pretty damn happy with the outcome. “Old Man Samson” is more like a Dropkick Murphys song; not at all what you’d expect from a predominantly African-American band.

6. The Germs – Lexicon Devil
Probably one of the most iconic songs from an iconic band, Lexicon Devil is one of the first punk songs I got my hands on as a youngster. Even after 30 years, it’s still good. Here’s some trivia, for the single recording of this song, Pat Smear didn’t have an amp, so he plugged directly into the mixing board. Who knew?

7. Millions of Dead Cops – Chicken Squawk
MDC is proof that Texas was in on the American punk movement as early as those East and West coasters. Rather than pick an obvious tune like “I Remember” or “John Wayne Was a Nazi,” I opted for “Chicken Squawk.” No slight to the other songs, but Chicken Squawk is damn funny and really shows off the Austin roots.

8. Balzac – Break Fuckin’ Yourself
I can blame Balzac for a lot of things. It’s Balzac’s fault I spend too much damn money on imported toys, it’s Balzac’s fault that I still pay attention to the Misfits and it’s Balzac’s fault that I get a kick out of hilariously bad Japanese theme bands. For the uninitiated, Balzac are pretty much the Japanese analog of the Misfits (though probably better than the Misfits ever were). Many of their songs are sung in English (like this one), but one would never know from listening.

9. Rocket From the Crypt – Savoir Faire
Rocket From the Crypt is one of the greatest rock bands of all time. During their tenure they always brought new and exciting energy to each release and put on some of the sickest live shows I’ve ever seen. I am always surprised at the number of closet RFTC fans I run into who have one story or another about a live show or other RFTC experience. I’ve got a couple of my own, but you’ll have to buy me beers to get them out of me.

10. The Vandals – N.I.M.B.Y.
Despite all the legal hubbub surrounding the Vandals, I still love these goofballs. Who else would write a song condemning G.E. Smith from moving into their neighborhood?

11. Really Red – I Was A Teenage Fuckup
Ahh, more old-school fun, and another Texas band to boot! Really Red ran their course from the late 70’s until 1985, dropped just a couple of records and toured with a crapload of influential bands, but their pinnacle is really bringing the punk scene to Houston and probably a lot more of Texas. For this, they should always be remembered

12 Peter & the Test Tube Babies – Banned From The Pubs
Not much to say about this one other than it’s core UK punk and has probably influenced many a young tosser. “Banned from the Pubs” has the distinction of being one of the most normal Peter & the Test Tube Babies titles ever.

13. Nina Hagen – Zero Zero U.F.O.
Nina Hagen is German and scary. Despite listening to a lot of her stuff, I really don’t get it. That doesn’t mean that I don’t like it, but I put it up there with Diamanda Galas and Yoko Ono. It’s art and to be appreciated, but it may give the dog diarrhea.

14. Fear – Let’s Have A War
Ahh, good ol’ Fear. Listen to this song and think about how most of you know Fear front man: Lee Ving. Give up? He was Mr. Boddy in the old Clue movie. Sure, he was also the stripclub owner in Flashdance, but what’s the fun in remembering that?

OK, that’s it for the week. My brain hurts and I’m tired of writing. Suck it up.

I’ve got your artistic talent right here…

justin Art, Awesomeness, Popular Culture, Tattoo Leave a Comment

I think often about getting out of the Information Technology business. As I sit here typing this out today, my left hand is, once again, trussed up like a Victorian strumpet thanks to mysterious wrist pain.

Too many video games? Too much masturbation? No, I think this actually came from working; and by work I mean typing out hundreds of lines of code.

I think I’d much rather do something more creative. I’ve expressed a wee tiny bit of creative talent that, with proper nurturing and education, could develop into something “real.” I get all jazzed up and try doing my little illustration projects that take tons of effort with minimal result and then I get the proverbial “smack in the face” by looking at other people’s creative work. Work that looks beautiful and effortless and comes with that incredible natural talent that, seemingly, cannot be taught.

Joby Cummings is just the latest artist to make me feel this way. I first was drawn to Joby’s work in tattooing (he’s out at Freak Chic in Los Angeles for those in the area), but then found his design and illustration work.

Holy crap he makes me ill. Take the image I stole from him for this post (available as both a printand a kickass shirt on his website). Have you figured it out yet? Those filigreed ribbons don’t just make a skull, they also spell out the classic seven deadly sins. How sick is that? You know you have to have one of those.

Joby’s even got a hotshot solo show at EM & Costarting up this week. I’d love to go to the opening reception on Thursday night, but my Learjet is in the shop. Plus, I think the Pope may swing by my place on Thursday to get his ass kicked at Wii.

I’ll just take my crayons and go cry in the corner.

Stalin’s got nothing on me

justin Popular Culture, Ravings, Vice, Vinyl 2 Comments

I’m a hoarder. I’ve mentioned it before and I totally own up to the fact that I probably have a pathological problem.

The thing is, I don’t give a rat’s ass. I enjoy my behavior. In fact, I can’t even bring myself to watch the crazy Hoarders show on A&E because it depresses me that packrat behavior is the new disease of the week.

Part of my natural cycle as a hoarder is occasional periods of purging. I get tired of the piles of crap around me and want new piles of crap. Over the years I’ve attempted to steer these periods of pseudo-asceticism towards a definable goal: be it the digitization of my massive music collection (an effort in grand fail) or, my current purge, “redefinition” of my toy collection.

I’ve got a metric crapload of toys. More importantly, I’ve got a metric crapload of toys from a company that has pissed me off with their practices and quality (read this; it almost mirrors my feelings). Therefore, I am dumping Western vinyl like crazy.

This is a good thing. I’m sure I’ll fill up just about the same amount of space with Eastern counterparts, but at least (I hope) I’ll be able to make a transition.

It’s actually a fun exercise. It’s like going into your house and saying, “Everything blue has got to go!”

Change is good.

Friday Playlist #2

justin Friday Playlist, Music Leave a Comment

So I’ve been a little lax this week.  Truth be told, it’s been the week from hell and I really didn’t feel like venting via blog. It’s much easier to punch people in the face than spout invective about them online. That’s the power of action, people.  Remember that.

So, here we are with the second installment of a weekly playlist. I’d like to say I spent the week pouring over my archives looking for wonderful music to share with you, laugh about, cry about, etc.. That just isn’t the truth.

In my fury of hatred-laced annoyance, I spent my week switching back and forth between the Jay-Z disc of my Presenting DJ Hero Renegade Edition double CD set and the Original Cast Recording of Wicked.  No lie. Don’t judge.

Being that I’ve been on the verge of either depression or anxiety (maybe it’s just gas) all week, this little playlist should be a doozie. I think I even might just write a blurb with every song (even though I said I wasn’t going to do that) just because I fucking feel like it.

1. The Avett Brothers – The Perfect Space
Looks like I can’t start one of these without an Avett Brothers song. Despite the really really hokey middle part, this song really touches in a non-dirty way.

2. Red House Painters – Song for a Blue Guitar
Despite being on one of the happiest RHP albums released, this song, for some reason, breaks me up. I’ve seen this song played live eight times and have cried every time. If that’s not proof I’m not an android, I’m not sure what is.

3. Shallow – The Strangest Thing
This song reminds me of my old grad-school roommate. He introduced me to shallow when we were undergrads and I can always imagine him awkwardly bobbing and squeaking to this song.

4. Pleasant Grove – Only A Mountain
Probably the best song to ever come out of a Dallas band. Ever! Disagreements with that statement will be met with fists of fury. It still takes me back to the first time I saw PG live opening for the Old 97’s at Trees.

5. Jay-Z – Brooklyn Go Hard
See, I wasn’t lying. I can’t say exactly why, but this song just strikes me as very divergent of Jay-Z’s typical rhythm and cadence. It pays homage to a lot of classic styles and even makes a pasty white kid like me feel a bit gangsta (did I seriously just fucking write “gangsta?”).

6. The Weird Sisters – This Is the Night
Best song by a fictional band made up of some of the best bands the UK has offered us. This is the Pulp song that I always waited for in response to just about all of the content of Common People, but never happened.

7. Aimee Mann – Ballantines
Ever since Magnolia I can’t see or hear Aimee Mann without thinking about a rain of frogs. Hell, I was even listening to one of Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden books that had a rain of frogs and I thought “Gee, an Aimee Mann song would be appropriate here.” This “chippy” tune wraps up her Smilers album and is probably the best track on the album.

8. Arcade Fire – Intervention
I swear these guys must have gone to college with me. This song sums up the way I felt about a lot of people I had to share the Baylor University campus with. I swear the only reason I ended up in Political Science was that I was afraid of all of the other people around me ending up running the world.

9. The Cherry Cokes – Bullet For Vapid Beer
OK, how awesome is this for a band concept: Japanese Irish Folk. No shits, these guys are Japanese and sing Irish folky-punk on par with the Flogging Molly. With most songs I can’t tell if they are singing in Japanese or English, but that sure as hell wouldn’t stop me from throwing back an Asahi Stout (do they even make that?) with these bastard-sans.

10. Wilco – Box Full of Letters
When Wilco first got going, I actually managed to insult Jeff Tweedy at a post-live show interview by saying both that this new incarnation wasn’t as good as Uncle Tupelo and that it sounded a lot like Cracker. Box Full of Letters summed that up for me, despite still being one of my favorite Wilco songs. I’m not saying I had any influence, but notice just how different Being There is from A.M.. I’m just sayin’.

11. 25%Toby – Skin Cancer
If you haven’t seen 25%Toby play live then you have truly missed out on one of the best treats to ever come out of Dallas. Toby Halbrooks is so insane on stage that they pretty much can’t play at many venues in Dallas anymore: due to equipment damage. I saw 25%Toby before I knew Toby really well and was seriously shocked by what transpired on stage. After getting to know Toby, I’m surprised anyone let him on stage in the first place.

12. The Germs – Richie Dagger’s Crime
This song always makes me want to hit things. Not people, mind you, just things. Actually, I’d really like to wreak havoc all over the produce department of a supermarket while this song blares over the P.A. system. I’m not sure why, but it sounds like a good idea.

13. The Warlocks – It’s Just Like Surgery
This is one of the ultimate mysteries of my music collection. Last week I see this band name on my iPod that I didn’t recognize, so I pop it on to see what it’s like. Out of the ether comes a band that is 85% Jesus and Mary Chain, 15% Placebo. Want it to be weirder? Apparently, I saw this band open for The Sisters of Mercy a couple of years ago. I own this CD and have no idea where it came from, but now I’m pissed that I haven’t been listening to them for the past couple of years. Hard living will do that to you.

14. Helium – Superball
Helium was one of those ultra-cool bands from my undergrad that made me and my friends give each other high-fives for knowing about. We were underground and cool because we thought Mary Timony was hot and sang edgy stuff and played with those guys who used to play with Mary Lou Lord after she got all acoustic-purist and would play the street corners along 6th Street in Austin during SXSW. Yeah, we were proto-hipster.

15. Transplants – Diamonds and Guns
Aside from reminding me of shampoo commercials, this song makes me feel way more hardcore than any old-school punk ever does. I think it’s the fact that it’s basically Rancid over some samples and crunchy guitars topped off with Skinhead Rob yelling about stuff. It’s like punk Gorillaz and a damn fine way to end a mix.

What? No cheat codes? WTF?!?!?!

justin Popular Culture, Ravings, Video Games Leave a Comment

Generally I’m a pretty stressed out person. I’m not sure how that is different than anyone else living in modernity, but at least I’m aware that I’m usually pretty jacked up on a day-to-day basis. What’s worse is that I understand that the amounts of stress I consider myself under is not all that healthy; and that stresses me out more.

I’ve tried lots of things over the years to alleviate my stress, but what seemed to work best was alcohol, cigarettes and soccer.

Welcome to my new era. I’ve cut my drinking way back (still not sure if that was the best idea), the smoking has slowed down significantly (but not stopped entirely and that causes even more stress), and the soccer team is on hiatus. That leaves me with the option to implode or to find another outlet.

In the past several years I have noticed that if I don’t get a degree of physical activity during the week, I’m a real basket-case. This was really noticed during a stint where rain halted my soccer season for four straight weeks. Not being able to shake all the aggro out on the pitch for a month made me a not-so-fun person to be around, so this current soccer hiatus thing was a real concern. So concerned, in fact, that I even considered joining a gym (shudder).

While the thought of scaring people at the gym with my glow-in-the-dark pasty skin and total lack of coordination sounds rather entertaining, I was more than willing to try a couple of other things before going to that extreme.

Enter Wii Active from EA.

I’ve not been the biggest fan of the fitness-related games for the Wii. I was an early adopter of the Wii Fit and it did not much more than piss me off. I’m not the best at standing still and having to stand on a little plastic platform while a little Mii version of a Japanese guy berated me for missing days and gaining weight was not my style of motivation.

Wii Active has taken a much gentler approach to attacking my general state of sloth.

Sure, the trainer prattles on constantly about how my cadence is good and dedication and blah blah blah crap, but that actually does a good job of distracting me while I am actually getting some decently led exercise.

I’m currently in the first week of a 30 day regiment on Wii Active that even tells me which days to rest and not bother firing up the machine to work out. Any workout that has built-in lazy days is definitely something I can get behind.  Aside from some issues with the stupid sensors not sensing that I’m in that damn lunge and it had better pull up soon before I start breaking things, the Wii Active does a good job of working with my pace and giving me motivation enough to keep it up day after day. I can honestly say that I would recommend this “game” to anyone remotely thinking about starting (or continuing) a fitness regiment.

Granted, if I never have to do another one of the Wii Active’s rollerblading exercises I will die a happy man, but I do recommend it.

Friday Playlist #1!

justin Friday Playlist, Music Leave a Comment

Not that you people asked for it, but I made an executive decision that I, starting today, will share with you, my loyal minions, a playlist of music that you should already be listening to on each Friday. The genres will clash, tempos will vary wildly, but I don’t give a good goddamn. That’s how Friday works! I have at my disposal a vast array of music (more bad than good) and I will take the burden upon myself to pick out a variety of tracks that I feel will better enlighten your weekend and give you hope and promise throughout the week to come (vom).

OK, let’s get to it. Oh, before you start asking, no, I will not be providing MP3s of the music I put in my playlist unless the artist specifically asks me to. And, since I’m lesser than a relative nobody when it comes to these things, I seriously doubt any artists will be contacting me to say it’s alright to share their work. Another thing, I’d like to make the playlist such that it fits on a single audio CD, but I’m flyin’ by the seat of my pants today, so that bet is off. I’ll try and approximate it, but don’t get your hopes up.

As with everything else I do, there is probably no rhyme nor reason to the order I put things in, I just list these things out as they fall out of my nose.

1. The Avett Brothers – Kick Drum Heart

2. The Apples in Stereo – Skyway

3. The Briefs – Knife

4. Guttermouth – Perfect World

5. Gorilla Biscuits – Start Today

6. The Dead Milkmen – Brat in the Frat

7. Sugar – A Good Idea

8. Placebo – Nancy Boy

9. One Man Army – SOS

10. Murder City Devils – Boom Swagger Boom

11. Modern Lovers – Roadrunner

12. The Replacements – I Will Dare

13. Magazine – A Song From Under the Floorboards

14. Flipper – Ha Ha Ha

15. Ben Sollee – Panning for Gold

I thought about writing a blurb about each track, but that seems like more work than I’m willing to put in at this point. Listen to the music, it should pretty much explain itself. Wasn’t that profound?

Bloggo-rollo

justin Awesomeness, blogs, monkey, Popular Culture Leave a Comment

As a semi-human who sits in front of a computer for the better part of my time awake each day (and another good part while I’m asleep), I peruse a lot of blogs. I used to try and limit the number of sites I’d hit in a given day because I just don’t have that good of an organization system. That was all before Google Reader.

Now I’m in compartmentalized heaven; and I wanted to share some those compartments. Sometimes I have a method to my organizational madness, but I’m not even going to come close with the following list other than these are the blogs that I hit on a religiously several times a day.

Badder Homes & Gardens
I check for new posts on this blog at least four times a day. I’m a little biased in that I know the lovely ladies that create the content and helped them get their current incarnation of the site together, but their posts are top notch bitchery. That whiny daughter of Martha Stewart has nothing on these three.

Pearls Before Swine
I’m a huge fan of Stephen Pastis’ bizarre daily comic strip, but that doesn’t come close to holding a candle to his blog rants. This crap is the true definition of LOL and ROFL. If nothing else, read through his chronicle about visiting Iraq with a passel of other cartoonists. You’ll never look at Family Circus the same again.

Super Punch
Super Punch is relatively new to my list of daily reads, but it seriously seems like it was written expressively for me. I think I have favorited more posts from Super Punch in the last three months than all of my other favorite blogs combined. Video games, comic book geekery, toys, art: a little bit of everything can be found at Super Punch.

Vinyl Abuse
It’s a well established fact that I am a toy junkie. Helping to feed that need is Vinyl Abuse. I honestly feel that I would have missed out on more than one exclusive release if it weren’t for the constant feed of posts from Vinyl Abuse. I also love that they cover a wide range of customs and showcase artists who don’t get a lot of exposure, but probably should.

The Original Winger
Like Super Punch, TOW seems custom made for my tastes: soccer, art, music, etc.. TOW doesn’t provide the most indepth soccer info, but it does a pretty damn good job of getting all that is happening in the world of footie while keeping me up to date on which kicks I should be wearing.

The Offside Rule
I find The Offside Rule to be similar to The Original Winger, but more heavy on the footie content. They seem to be loosely related, but manage to not step on each others’ toes in their coverage. I tend to find the writing at The Offside Rule to be a bit more humorous than at TOW, but I may just have a jaded sense of humor.

NOTCOT
What can I say, NOTCOT is like an online museum of the purely awesome. I’ve never been able to tell if NOTCOT is a design blog, a gadget blog, or even a culture blog, but it’s got a funky format and enough tidbits posted twenty-four hours a day (no lie) to keep me coming back many times a day to see what they might be offering. I get lots of ideas whilst perusing NOTCOT.

I Can Has Cheezburger?
I’m a total sucker for stupid cat pictures and Cheezburger is the king. I’m pretty sure awkward pictures with big text overlay captions began with them and I’m a staunch supporter.

OK, that’s enough for you to digest in one sitting. Get out there, do some good reading, and let me know how genius I am for exposing you to some seriously good online content. That is all.

Grrr, cold.

justin monkey, Ravings Leave a Comment

I was reminded of something a short while ago when I went to fill my car up with gas: I freakin’ hate the cold!

Sure, I’ve never lived anywhere where it was lovely and semi-tropical all the time, but I have a great appreciation for such climes. Today, as the “arctic chill” (not a new flavor of Gatorade) descends upon us over here in North Texas, I have to stop and think about just how much I really hate being cold.

Mind you, me being truly cold doesn’t happen very often. My metabolism is such that I generate an almost constant amount of heat regardless of external temperatures or levels of activity. As a result, when squeezle is bundled up under three blankets, flannel jammies, a sweatshirt and at least two kitties while still shivering, I’m traipsing around in soccer shorts and a t-shirt.

Thanks to my own personal tropical environment, when I get cold it is honestly a miserable experience.  Take my gas station experience. My car’s thermometer said that it was 46°F, seven degrees warmer than when I came into work this morning. I’m not sure if my morning meetings destroyed that much of my will, but it felt a good fifteen degrees colder out there than the 39°F I wandered through at 7:30AM.

I want to know where the hell all this supposed “global warming” (read that with “air quotes” for added effect) is that we’ve been listening to scientists/politicians/radicals/etc. about for the past umpteen years.  I could really go for some nice 70°F winter days outside of coastal California.  All cold weather is good for is bringing on my grumpus.

I can’t feel my hands, I get a grumpus.

Arctic tendrils of wind rip right through my hefty jacket, I get a grumpus.

Texans driving six miles an hour over a bridge that last saw preciptation while the World Series was going on, I get a grumpus.

I think you can see the trend.

Is it Spring yet?

My childhood just got old

justin Cartoons, Movies, Popular Culture, Ravings, Television Leave a Comment

I noticed a quite disturbing trend the other day when I was wasting time at my local big box electronics store: the “25th Anniversary” trend in DVDs.

Everywhere I looked, the stuff that was cool as shit in my formidable years was suddenly celebrating a quarter of a century of existence. I realize that I’ve killed enough brain cells to honestly have a missing year or two, but this is scary.

Remember The Last Starfighter? It’s freakin’ 25 years old and they’re putting it out on Blu-ray! Now you can see spaceman Harold Hill in 1080P! If that doesn’t scare you enough, then pick up Cujo because it’s 25 years old as well. I’m not even going to go into how depressing it is that movies like The Blues Brothers and Pink Floyd – The Wall are pushing 30 this year. That’s just too depressing.

If aging movies aren’t enough, think about the television of your (meaning mine) childhood and how it’s faring.

The Bill Cosby show and it’s awesomely awful sweaters is 25. Have you seen Rudy lately? She’s gone from the sweet baby of the family to now (apparently) playing some reformed con artist. That’s just plain sad.

Even though Optimus Prime is kicking it in living color on the big screen (with a newly-found mouth at that), the original Transformerscartoon is celebrating 25 years this year. That tells me that GoBots, Thundercats, Dungeons & Dragons, Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling and M.A.S.K. are all that old. Hell, by 1985, He-Man was already off the air!

I’m going to go curl up and cry at my childhood now.

Apparently some music came out in 2009

justin monkey, Music, Popular Culture, Ravings Leave a Comment

I really thought I was going to take the opportunity of having some free time over the past couple of weeks to do some writing, but, true to my slacker nature, I sat on my ass and didn’t do a damn thing.

Now, 2010 is upon us and zipping itself along to becoming as much a memory as 2009. Since changeovers of decades are such a big deal for traditional media outlets, I’ve been seeing and hearing a lot of “top-of-’09” and “top-of-the-decade” lists. The particular lists I rather enjoy are the “top songs of ’09.” You can tell a lot about a person by what they pick as great for the entire year. A little perusing will tell me if this person really thought about the list the entire year, or, if they just grabbed the CD stack nearest them when given a deadline of the first week of January.

I’ll admit, for years I’ve been guilty of being in the latter category; my only defense being that there was usually a good smattering of music from the entire year because I’m often too lazy to pull a disc after it’s gone in my player.

Now, of course, everything has gone digital and, therefore, should be much easier to manage. I should be able to look in the “number of times played” column in iTunes and be able to determine what I liked this year. Apparently not so much.

So, here’s my painstaking list of songs I loved in 2009. For you splitting hairs types, some of this stuff may not have been released in 2009, but I found it then and that freakin’ counts in my books. Get bent if you think otherwise. As usual, these aren’t in any particular order; just rolling out as my bingo cage of a brain drops them. Also, I’m listing these things out artist – album – track if any of it seems confusing.

Mr. Gnome – Heave Yer Skeleton – Vampires
Mr. Gnome is one of the absolutely best live bands in the entire world. I shit you not. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Sam Meister play drums: it’s about as close to actual visual magic as one can muster. While both of their two full length albums are pretty spectacular, Vampires pretty much sums up the entire Mr. Gnome feel. I really also want to include the track after Vampires, Cleveland Polka, since they flow together (in my head) like the Pixies’ Palace of the Brine and Letter to Memphis, but I won’t.

The Airborne Toxic Event– The Airborne Toxic Event – Papillon
The Airborne Toxic Event is one of those bands that actually seems to really enjoy what they are doing. Granted, a lot of their stuff is practically made to be the not-so-background music to pivotal moments in some CW television show, but that doesn’t stop them from being enjoyable. Papillon is just plain stupid fun. It may not be recognized as such, but Papillon is pure hipster anthem.

Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – Lasso
Despite being cheese-eating surrender monkeys (nothing against the French, I just always wanted to put that in a blog entry), Phoenix are quite the talent. They obviously have the commercial acumen to get Cadillac under their thumb early on, so kudos to them. What I like about Lasso is that it is actually a very simple song. There isn’t a lot of sound layering like in so many songs these days, and it’s just got an addictive beat that carries all the way through.

Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3 – D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)
What can I say, I’m a Jay-Z fan. I waited in anticipation for The Blueprint 3 to drop and wasn’t disappointed in the least. While The Blueprint 3 dropped in September, Jay-Z released D.O.A. as a leading single in June pretty much dropping the gauntlet to the prevalent trend in hip-hop. Only Jay-Z could have balls that big.

Green Day – 21st Century Breakdown – Murder City
I just figured American Idiot was going to be as good as Green Day got. It really wouldn’t be too much to not expect them to just phone in a pop-punk record after that effort. Surprise, surprise, 21st Century Breakdown is just as screwed up a story as American Idiot. It was hard for me to isolate one track from this album since I think of it as a single freakishly long song, but Murder City sticks out to me as reminiscent of much older Green Day: I’m talkin’ pre-Dookie.

The Lonely Island– Incredibad – Boombox
I really really wanted to pick I’m On A Boat for my track from this record, but Boombox is honestly a better song. I realize that The Lonely Island is pretty much just a comedy record, but it counts. I’ll kick you in the jeans if you say otherwise.

Matt & Kim – Grand – Cinders
This is another record where there are just so damn many good tracks, and, therefore, I find myself trying to isolate one to be my fave. I picked Cinders because it’s psychotic. In terms of the whole record, it’s a breather in the third quarter, but it really works for me. Synth and drum, what else is needed?

Rancid – Let the Dominoes Fall – The Highway
I’ve got a serious soft spot for Rancid (actually several thanks to being in pits at their shows), but I really wasn’t excited about this record. Unlike the other records, Lars Frederiksen does more vocal duties on this album than past ones and this recording marks the first album without the “classic” Rancid lineup. Over the past couple of years, however, Rancid has really proved their chops by doing a smattering of acoustic tracks and The Highway highlights some of the great raw talent that still exists with these guys.

The Reverend Horton Heat – Laughin’ & Cryin’ – Ain’t No Saguaro in Texas
Every time the Rev puts out a new record I either love it or feel it to be “meh.” Laughin’ & Cryin’ hearkens back to the Sub-Pop days of the Rev: riffing on random stupid Texas stuff and embracing the true glory of drunken music. It’s quite beautiful and Ain’t No Saguaro in Texas is right up there with the best of the drunken Rev songs. Jim has proven that he’s still got it.