Albums of the Year: #8. Grinderman - Grinderman

Grinderman could have just been another album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (the band includes most of the Bad Seeds). Had it been released ten years ago, it would have made perfect sense. But as Nick Cave has gotten older, his albums started to get softer. After 1996's Murder Ballads, Cave began writing ballads and love songs, seen primarily in The Boatman's Call (influenced by his breakup with PJ Harvey) and his last album, the two-part Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus. Grinderman represents a middle-age crisis sort of record; Cave learned to play guitar, and the result was a jerky, loud collection of garage-rock songs.

Video: "No Pussy Blues" (live on Later... with Jools Holland)

Albums of the Year: #9. M.I.A. - Kala

Despite the atrocious album cover, M.I.A.'s Kala is fantastic. It's also as complicated as Maya Arulpragasam is herself. It transcends genres, going from world music to hip-hop to electronica. It's political, bashing the West at the same time it asks for acceptance. The production is huge, at times sampling Bollywood and disco in the backing tracks, juxtaposing gun shots and cash register ca-chings, and featuring guest spots from Afrikan Boy and Timbaland. It's tough, natch, to categorize M.I.A. and her music; her American audience is more indie-rock inclined, probably because, compared to other hip-hop artists, her themes are so political and worldly. Seeing her last month in Chicago was surprising; I'll be the first to admit I don't see many hip-hop shows, and, as I expected, the mostly-white audience seemed to be filled with people who would be just as likely to attend any other indie-rock show. Her following aside, M.I.A. manages to produce post-Colonialist hip-hop, finally making Edward Said's Orientalism relevant to a jaded, superficially political hipster culture.

Video: "Bird Flu"

Albums of the Year: #10. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones wrote in a controversial article that today's indie-rock bands lack good, old-fashioned rhythm, using bands like Grizzly Bear and Arcade Fire as examples. In my opinion, it's kind of a ridiculous article; he's just as bad as any of the bands he criticizes for having a style that lacks what he's looking for. Sure, Grizzly Bear doesn't take a lot of inspiration from Motown or '70s funk, and Arcade Fire sounds more like Springsteen than Sly and the Family Stone. And while that may not be Jones's preference, it's silly to think that all bands should sound like Spoon, a top-notch band that sounds like what Jones is jonesin' for, despite their absence from the article.

Spoon has always sounded a little like a throwback to the soulful bands of the '70s, back when white dudes mixed guitars with a horn section. And on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, one of the band's strongest albums to date, they seem to play on that idea with their song titles, particularly the album-closing "Black Like Me." The white guys from Austin, Texas have had a soulful sound for their last few albums, and while this new one isn't much of a departure from that niche, they're certainly not in any hurry to fix something that isn't broken.

Video: "The Underdog"

Albums of the Year, Honorable Mention: Magnolia Electric Co. - Sojourner

Magnolia Electric Co.'s box set is, without a doubt, my favorite release of the year. Comprised of three LPs (Nashville Moon, Black Ram, and Shohola), one EP (Sun Session), and a DVD (The Road Becomes What You Leave), Sojourner features music from four recording sessions from which Jason Molina compiled his last album, Fading Trails. My biggest complaint with that album was that it seemed more of a compilation than a true album, and the release of this box set is magnificent. You can clearly see the vision Molina had for the three separate LPs, which were recorded and mixed by different producers at different locations. It's an A++ collection.

Video: "A Little At A Time"

All Of My Opinions Are Right: My Least-Favorite Albums of 2007.

Before I go crazy with my end-of-the-year list of my favorite albums, I have a short list of albums that I didn't like. And - surprise! - they're all from artists that I like a lot.

Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
Adams had a great year in 2005 (29 notwithstanding) when he released two albums with The Cardinals: Cold Roses and Jacksonville City Nights. I thought he had gotten out of the Rock N Roll slump. I was excited to hear Easy Tiger, a third collaboration with The Cardinals (although they are mysteriously absent from the billing), but I felt like it was nothing new or interesting. The best songs were "Two," a duet with Sheryl Crow (meh), and "Halloween Head," which starts out with Ryan singing, "Here comes that shit again, I got a Halloween head." Whaaa?

Tori Amos - American Doll Posse
I know, I know. But I used to really love Tori Amos, but she hasn't produced anything worth listening to since Scarlet's Walk, a similar concept album where she followed a single character across post-9/11 America. Here she goes after five different characters (similar to her covers album Strange Little Girls). It's an interesting concept, which works great live (Tori opened for herself on her last tour as one of the different characters), but this album is a mess. She keeps going after a mom-pop/rock production, forgetting that she makes great music when it's just her and a piano. And, frankly, she's much more entertaining when she's being herself.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Living with the Living
I love Ted Leo, but I just couldn't get into this one. The songs were just as political as his previous offerings, but the production was to the point that I couldn't listen to them. Sure, "Bomb. Repeat. Bomb." may have a great message, but I can't sit through it. And then there was that song that sounded like a Dropkick Murphys cover. No thank you.

Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight
I love "Silver Lining," but that's about it. This album sounds like a big change in direction for the band; there's less folk / country sensibility (which I guess Jenny Lewis covered on her album with the Watson Twins) and more big, pop sounds. It's just a personal preference; I like the old stuff.

I think the Grammy Awards are stupid and this is why.

Both Amy Winehouse and Feist were nominated for the Best New Artist award.

This category is a misnomer.

Amy Winehouse's nomination comes for her second album. Her previous, Frank, was released in 2003. Feist's nominated album is her third; Let It Die was released in 2004, and Monarch in 1999.

This is almost as ridiculous as when Shelby Lynne won in 2000 for her sixth album, I Am Shelby Lynne.

Conservatives, perverts, and conservative perverts read my blog.

It's been a while since I've shared my recent Google statistics, right?! Well, this is how people have been finding my blog today:

Do you think there's an overlapping demographic there?

I know because it was there.

I saw I'm Not There on Saturday and absolutely loved it. Read my review on This Recording.

It is certainly not too early for Christmas songs.

It's December 4th, which means that most of us have been hearing goddamn Christmas music on the radio for a month already. But, like every year, I never get to hear my favorite Christmas song: "Fairytale in New York" by The Pogues. I guess ClearChannel doesn't like Christmas carols featuring the words "slut" and "faggot." It's a shame.

Here's a special video of Shane McGowan's jacked up teeth and Kristy MacColl singing it on, um, St. Patrick's Day (oh, the Irish!):


Of course, I enjoy the nice, clean, poppier version, covered by Canadian band Pilate. I'll share the MP3 with you because I'm full of Christmas spirit (and just figured out how to do it!). Download!

And as a special treat, I'll share with you my new least-favorite Christmas song, which I discovered this morning. It's called "CHRISTMAS IN FALLUJAH." Billy Joel wrote it, and some dick named Cass Dillon recorded it. I am not making this up:


Who's drunker - Shane or Billy? It's a tough one.

Please excuse me while I gloat.

My boss was in town for the last week. I worked my first four days here without seeing him because he was in Paris for a lecture. I spent those four days with nothing to do. I sat at my desk, stared out the window, played with my Macbook, and thought for eight hours a day, "I can't believe I'm getting paid so much money to do absolutely nothing here. I can't even find anything to put a label on anymore."

Then, on Tuesday, I went to Evanston because my boss was back in town and he works from that office twice a week so he can meet with students who are based on that campus. And all hell broke loose. He decided to go to Singapore this week, which required a lot of planning, especially since next week he'll be in Vienna and Holland for two other meetings. My supervisor told me that it was baptism by fire: I was training myself to do this job by starting with an incredibly complicated assignment. For the next three days, I was insanely concerned that I couldn't do it. Suddenly, for the first time ever, really, I was honestly stressed out about a deadline. It was like I was in finals week, only that instead of doing assignments so that I could pass all of my classes, I was doing them all for someone else, which made me more nervous.

I called and made hotel reservations. I called a travel agents. I made a reservation for a limousine. I emailed people in Austria and Germany. I discovered that the two meetings in Europe were incorrectly on my boss's calendar and were actually occurring on the same day. I called another hotel. I made more reservations. I found out how long it took to drive from Dusseldorf to Vaals.

Amazingly, by Friday afternoon, I was completely fine. I realized that even though I was spending a good chunk of my days (specifically the hours before I managed to find time to heat up leftovers for lunch) running around a maze of a science building tracking down grad students and professors and creating itineraries for a ten-day global trip, I was finishing each day with the satisfaction that I, indeed, could do this job. And on Friday, when I had to fix the middle part of the trip that had unexpectedly blown up in our faces, my supervisor, who wasn't even at work that day, seemed really thrilled that I was in good spirits at noon. My boss, who drove me from the Evanston campus to Chicago in the nicest Mercedes I've ever seen, seemed to think he made the right decision in hiring me.

I've noticed already that as soon as my boss leaves the country, things quiet down immensely. For the first time in a week I can get back to my routine - checking Gakwer (btw, sadness), Jezebel, Facebook, and having the occasional GChat - for a few minutes while I juggle the administrative tasks I need to perform while he's away.

I initially thought that being someone's assistant was going to be pointless and boring, that it'd be menial tasks like taking messages and getting coffee. But my job hasn't been any of that, and I'm kind of enjoying it so far. I feel like I've added so much to my resume in the last week and a half than I did the entire two years since I've graduated college, and I'm so goddamn happy that I can finally prove to someone, maybe even just myself, that I can actually do this.

It took me a year to get here. I had about eleven interviews, signed up with six staffing agencies, and sent out countless resumes. I spent most of my Sundays depressed, a combination of hangovers and dread of going back to work or starting a new job search. I called my parents and cried. I kicked myself because I didn't know what I was doing wrong. I compared myself to people I knew who landed into positions with a little bit of luck. I considered moving away from Chicago, either starting fresh somewhere else or returning to school. I spent a year coming up with rational and irrational plans and, in the end, didn't really have to follow through with any of them. I suppose every successful job search involves a little bit of luck, which with luck like mine, I hope you won't think me too vain for being really fucking pleased with myself right now. I finally managed to get a job with an interview: I wasn't placed here, and didn't use any connections to get it. Sure, there are some cons; I don't get to wear jeans on Fridays, it can get pretty stressful, and, as of right now, I don't have insurance until HR gets it act together. But it pays a lot more than I ever expected, and I can get a degree from a damn fine university for a very sweet price, and I actually feel happier about what I'm doing with my life.

So, in conclusion, I think I'm going to stay here a while.