My albums of the year 2008

1. Black Moutain - In The Future
Throwback rock that is completely derivative but completely fresh at the same time. Do I sound like a real critic when I toss around words like derivative?

2. Beck - Modern Guilt
More throwback, but in a completely different vein. I love how every Beck album is so completely distinct, but yet undeniably Beck.

3. Max Tundra - Parallax Error Beheads You
Kind of a Commodore 64 pop album with some guitars. This album is so mind-numbingly awesome that I hate having it all the way down at #3. Seriously, if you haven't ever heard this (chances are you haven't), you need to at least check out a few tracks.

4. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
2008 was a good year for over the top pop music. If you like bands that aren't afraid of synthesizers and big, fat melodies, you'll like this band.

5. Alex Moulton - Exodus
Daft punk meets Vangelis. Hilariously awesome album.

6. Torche - Meanderthal
Metal for indie kids? I have never heard anything by this band I didn't like, and this album didn't disappoint in the least.

7. M83 - Saturdays=Youth
You might see this one hovering near the top of a lot of "professional critic" lists, next to TV on the Radio. However, as opposed to TV on the Radio's release, this album is actually awesome. Huge, lush musical textures and killer production.

8. Clark - Turning Dragon
Dirty, nasty electronics with an unrelenting beat. Best Warp Records release of the year (Flying Lotus is close but no cigar)

9. Girl Talk - Feed The Animals
Mashup of the century. ANYONE would love this album. Seriously, if you haven't listened to this, do it now. Starts off with Gimme Some Lovin' (think Blues Brothers), 45 seconds later into the Cupid Shuffle, and then a minute later into Twisted Sister?!

10. Ratatat - LP3
Not sure what to say about this one other than that I really enjoyed it. Catchy electronic songs, kind of video game influenced, with melodies that stick in your head.

Runner-ups: Squarepusher - Just a Souvenir; Deerhunter - Microcastle; Portishead - Third; Flying Lotus - Los Angeles; Adventure - Adventure

Gas

For those of you not in the Southeast, you may be interested to know that we are going through a bit of a crisis at the moment. In a sad commentary on the state of our national infrastructure, various cities throughout the Southeast have been running almost completely out of gas for the last few weeks, in the wake of Hurricane Ike. Last weekend, it was reported that 85% of gas stations in Nashville and its surrounding suburbs were out of fuel. This week, it appears to have spread to Charlotte.

The gas station across the street from our home has been mostly out of fuel for the last week or so. This morning, they received a new delivery. Within 20 minutes, there was a line for about a half mile down the road of people waiting to fuel up. After an hour, the line stretched to a mile. Police had to be called in because some people were filling up multiple containers of gas, and other drivers were screaming at them, apparently causing altercations. The gas station employees, who I just talked to, were scared for their safety because some drivers were threatening them about the people filling up extra containers.

Yes, panic has completely set in. Every station I have seen in the last few days is out of gas, and nobody knows what to do. School is likely to be canceled next week because buses cannot find diesel fuel. This is ugly, folks.

I thought this might be an interesting tidbit for those of you elsewhere, that still have plenty of gas. How is it that our infrastructure is so poor that we, more than two weeks after the hurricane, are completely unable to get a more even distribution of fuel throughout the country? This also serves as a telling illustration of this country's absolute reliance on fuel for our everyday lives. Not that we didn't know that already, of course.

Jeopardy

Man, I haven't written in here in forever.

I think that it is awesome that even though the Olympics are on, the Charlotte NBC affiliate sees to it that Jeopardy STILL comes on at 7 PM. One does not fuck with Alex Trebec.

Pat Sajak on the other hand...well, apparently one does in fact fuck with him.

Pathetic

Audrey is gone this weekend. She left Thursday morning, and doesn't get back until tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon. Allow me to sum up how I have spent my holiday weekend while she has been gone:

• 2 nights of excessive binge drinking
• 2 days wasted working off hangovers
• Watched "Star Wars V" and "First Blood" back to back
• Spent roughly 14 hours sitting on the computer bored out of my mind (mostly because of the hangovers, but still)
• Turned house into a complete trainwreck
• Today I have eaten 3 eggs and 2 biscuits, instead of cooking a nice dinner for myself like I had planned
  
• I have accomplished none of my not-too-ambitious goals for the weekend, including getting at least one long bike ride in, fixing the garbage disposal, and doing laundry
  

It is a damn good thing she is around, because my life would be frighteningly and dangerously pathetic if she wasn't.

That doesn't really say a whole lot for me, does it?

5:55

About 4 or so months ago I downloaded the latest Charlotte Gainsbourg album named 5:55 on high recommendation from a music forum that I frequent. This was the description that ultimately sold me:

"Air wrote and played the music, the lyrics were written with Jarvis Cocker and Neil Hannon, and it was produced by Nigel Godrich with string arrangements from Beck's dad."

I am a huge sucker for Air, Jarvis Cocker is a killer writer, Nigel Godrich has produced some of the very best sounding albums of the '00s (including Radiohead, Beck, etc.), and Beck's dad I don't really know aside from the fact that he wrote all of the string arrangements on Beck's Sea Change, which remains one of my absolute favorite albums.

In any case, this Charlotte Gainsbourg album is just astoundingly good. It actually exceeded my expectations, even given all of those people that worked on it. But the weird thing is that the number 555 seems to pop up all the time in random places. I will buy a meal and it is $5.55. I will accidentally wake up at 5:55 AM. A few weeks ago I just glanced at my bike odometer and it hit 555 miles for the year. It is just strange.

I know that all of this probably happened before, but now I notice it just because of the song name. But now every time I see it, the song gets into my head. Which isn't a bad thing, because it is a great song.

Commercials

Hell yeah.

Dream

Slept in a hotel last night. Just woke up about 5 minutes ago. Terrible night of sleep; only got about 4 hours of actual sleep, since I was waking up every 45 minutes thinking it was time to get up. Terrible.

Had a dream that I was Barack Obama. I was at a gas station with my wife (Michelle I guess? Wasn't clear..) filling up the tank, then we drove to some party on a yacht that also featured John McCain. But the highlight, for me at least, was that somehow Raymond Watts (of KMFDM and PIG fame) was on the yacht with a more important and politically connected lady. I was very excited and started telling him that I was a huge fan. Then I realized that maybe this wasn't very politically savvy.



No hat or sunglasses in the dream, for what it's worth. He was definitely rocking the eyeliner though.