ALBUMS OF NOTE
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#1 JAPANDROIDS – CELEBRATION ROCK – the kind of album I’ve waited to be written since I was old enough to love music and really, really, really like girls.
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#2 KENDRICK LAMAR – good kid, m.A.A.d city – fact: suburban white kids from the east coast are infatuated with California and gangsta rap almost as much as they are with guitars and heartbreak. Almost.
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#3 FANG ISLAND – MAJOR – have you ever wondered what it would sound like if the Fucking Champs got a vocalist and said vocalist was Lindsay Buckingham? No? So you have a limited frame of reference for that comparison? Well, now, THAT’S unfortunate.
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#4 FATHER JOHN MISTY – FEAR FUN – as a teenager, I worked at the rectory in Fishkill. A certain priest used to jam out tunes by Mountain on my acoustic guitar (usually during the latter portions of my shifts). This album is almost as good as that. Also, that particular priest may have had a drinking problem.
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#5 JOEY BADA$$ – 1999 – in 1992, my brother’s friend once made a rap mixtape (supra white kids and rap) that featured the talents of Black Sheep, Naughty By Nature, Cypress Hill, Too Short, the Ghetto Boys, and much more. This album takes me back to that mixtape, and thankfully, does not include the sporadic boners of 6th grade.
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#6 CRAIG FINN – CLEAR HEART FULL EYES – purposely sparse and unfairly ignored, a Hold Steady record it ain’t (but that don’t mean it ain’t good). They actually put that sentence on stickers and affix them to the record in Texas.
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#7 METZ – METZ – two Canadian bands already in my top ten? You know what this means? Sorry, Carly Rae…
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#8 THE DIRTY PROJECTORS – SWING LO MAGELLAN – if I knew more about metaphysical poetry and less about “Dawson’s Creek,” this album would probably be higher on my list.
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#9 WINTERLONG – FIVE SONGS EP – well orchestrated atmospheric rock from Hudson Valley’s finest power-trio (Philip the Meatbox is a four-piece, right? Just checking)
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#10 DUMB TALK – DUMB TALK – when someone first told me about this band, I thought their name was “Dumptruck.” I also thought that was a terrible name for a band. Happy to be wrong, I was (and shall always remain).
#11 FIDLAR – DON’T TRY EP – not everything that only lasts seven minutes is disappointing, ladies
#12 GRIZZLY BEAR – SHIELDS – this is just a good record
#13 EL-P – CANCER FOR CURE – Fantastic Damage came out 11 years ago? Seriously? 11 years? Goddammit.
#14 DIIV – OSHIN – I suggested this record to a friend and when he asked what it sounded like I said, “less melancholy shoegaze with a slight garage feel.” He replied, “that’s my favorite kind of music!” I had no idea that description was its own genre.
#15 THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH – THERE’S NO LEAVING NOW – did you know he’s only like 5’5”? He plays live shows like he’s at least 5’10” though.
FAVORITE SONG OF 2012(Sentimental Winner)
Craig Finn – “Rented Room” – serving as a softly strummed reminder that there needn’t be a neon vacancy sign or limited linens to make where you lay your head feel far removed from home. Sometimes all it takes is change, and sometimes all change takes is time. Time and a really fucking sad song.
FAVORITE SONG OF 2012 (Non-Sentimental Winner, But Still Has Sentimental Value)
Japandroids – “The House That Heaven Built” – there are nights we are meant to wallow, and there are nights we are meant to live – belting out exclamations with strangers and friends, with sweat and purpose, with elation and sorrow. It’s in this catharsis we find clarity, and even if it’s fleeting, you know the feeling will eventually make its way home to your headphones and, more importantly, to your heart.
Poop 2012 Mixtape
Side A | Side B |
New Friend Jesus – Craig Finn | m.A.A.d city – Kendrick Lamar (feat MC Eiht) |
Grown Up – Danny Brown | Sisterly – Fang Island |
Song for Zula – Phosphorescent | Bad Girls – MIA |
Stay Useless – Cloud Nothings | Feels Like We’re Only Going Backwards – Tame Impala |
We Are Never Getting Back Together – Taylor Swift | The Full Retard – EL-P |
Werkin’ Girls – Angel Haze | Keep On Movin’- King Tuff |
Under The Westway – Blur | Goldie – A$AP Rocky |
Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings – Father John Misty | Fire’s Highway – Japandroids |
Offspring Are Blank – Dirty Projectors | Drag Queen Racer – Dumb Talk |
Call Me, Maybe? – Carly Rae Jepsen | Cheap Beer – FIDLAR |
This Summer – Superchunk | |
Yet Again – Grizzly Bear | There’s No Leaving Now – The Tallest Man on Earth |
2012 Movies of Note
1) The Master; 2) Bernie; 3) Moonrise Kingdom; 4) Django Unchained; 5) Looper; 6) The Raid: Redemption; 7) Francine; 8) Sleepwalk with Me
Top Two (2) Things I Could Not Get Into That Other People Loved (or Also Loathed)
1) Grimes – Oblivion – I’m just not that into you
2) “The Newsroom” – this is just the most self-serving piece of shit ever to operate under the guise of “entertaining television.” I imagine Sorkin watches every episode pants-less, surrounded by tissues and his Emmys; his left hand clutching his Oscar with a kung fu grip as he furiously congratulates himself at every line of Jeff Daniels’s cantankerously misogynistic dialogue that he, yes he, King Sorkin so expertly crafted. Seriously, fuck that guy. The Social Network was dope, though.
keep us floating up above the things that make us nervous.
Don’t hurt us…
Kevin Falahee
Astoria, NY