(There's a few links below to click on, if you wanna find out more or hear some stuff...)
Administration Shock Him - 39:03 (blissed out post-rock) The Atomic Bitchwax - The Local Fuzz (one excellent long-ass stoner-rock riff-a-thon) Cave - Neverendless (weird + krautrocky) Charts and Maps - Dead Horse(crazy time-signatures + saxophone-infused math-y post-rock) Clouds as Oceans - Tides (some dreamy instrumental post-metal with lots of shoegazer-y washes of sound) Danava - Hemisphere of Shadows (sooooo full of crazy-insane riffs... 70's-worshippin' stoner metal at its finest)
Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light (intense + introspective spaghetti-western metal) Empire Express - Valleyland (excellent filmic post-rock) Eternal Tapestry - Beyond the 4th Door (kooky space rock - like Hawkwind trying to play Meddle-era Floyd) Felipe Arcazas - Induction to the Subconscious (desert rock very reminiscent of some of Brant Bjork's solo stuff... tasty guitarij) Fire Spoken by the Buffalo - Hiatus (intense guitar-heavy post-rock) Garage a Trois - Always Be Happy, But Stay Evil (freaky-ass post-rock meets jazz... with vibraphones! And the same drummer as Critters Buggin, if you're old like me...)
Giants - s/t (guitar-driven post-rock with some very pretty moments) Gillian Welch - The Harrow and the Harvest (absolutely wonderful strippt-down American roots music... Thoroughly recommended!) Grails - Deep Politics (some of the best trance-inducing space rock ever...) Long Distance Calling - s/t(amazing post-metal, with top-notch bass + drumwerks; even the songs with vocals are good...) Lunar Dunes - Galaxsea (future-retro space jazz... this'll be the music playing in the waiting room for your robodoctor in a coupla years) Mastodon - The Hunter (...it's less proggy than the last one; more heavy, shorter songs... good stuff)
Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (typical Mogwai, with epic highs + tender lulls + bashing, crashing, angelic choruses of layered + effected guitars... some truly apotheotic stuff, esp live) Psychic Ills - Hazed Dream (space rock done right... loads of delay, reverb, sorta-tribal toms... downright psychedelic from git to go) Radar Men from the Moon - Intergalactic Dada + Space Trombones(instrumental Danish band with a sound that lands somewhere near classic Kyuss; bounces from heavy to brokedown in the best ways) Riding the Diplodoc - Dilettantes Like Lions (instrumental math-rock at its most frantically spastic...) Russian Circles - Empros (a departure of sorts, more bass-heavy - + the bass more fuzzy - than previous releases; still a great album, but with the band accessing a bit more noise than in the past, at least on record... seen em get rather noisy live + hope to again soon) Sonic Youth - Simon Werner a Disparu (this is the soundtrack to some Frenchie movie... but the band put the score together using outtakes from the Daydream Nation sessions, so I perceive this as really more of a bonus disc of those sessions, since it's unlikely that I'm gonna watch the film. If you like Daydream Nation, you should get this right away, cuz it's very much of that same tone, particularly regarding the guitar tones + tunings)
Tommy Guerrero - Lifeboats and Follies (another collection of tasty grooves from our favorite skater-hero... the basswerk is - as usual - ultra-tight + funky) U.S. Christmas - The Valley Path (another single, album-length track... not as directly stonerific as TAB's new one, but more of a psychedelic journey. Good, but it hasn't snagged me as viscerally as their earlier releases) White Hills - H-p1 (fucking rawk! trippy + wild + heavy + dripping with effects + incredible!!!)
So, here's a handful of recent EPs, singles + demos that I found to be particularly interesting...
And So I Watch You from Afar
7 Billion People All Alive at Once
:: This single remix of one of the better songs off the newest ASIWYFA Gangs, gets into a very trip-hoppy synth-heavy spot early on, but shifts to a more Errors-style mix of synth-pop + electronica + post-rock. Neat, but only a must-have if you already have + like the full-length... which you should give a listen.
Arms and Sleepers
Digital
::
A Man, A Plan, A Canal: Panama
:: A pair of EPs of sumptuous sorta-loungy trip-hop. The full-length - The Organ Hearts - is really tasty + perfect for coming down...
Cosmonauts Day
Live Demos
:: Russian space-rock-tinged post-metal. Nicely done demo tracks. Don't guess they'll be touring anywhere near the American South, though... dammit. For fans of Russian Circles + Red Sparowes.
Empty Space Orchestra
Dark Matters
:: Heavy, distorted bass... tasty guitar-figures dancing over the top of some intense + stop-laden drumparts... and a saxophone. It's heavy, it's instrumental... Musically, it's somewhere, somehow, in a strange soundscape between Pelican and Mr. Bungle... Check it out + see what you think.
Felipe Arcazas
Yardang
::
Freedom
:: Two long desert-metal tracks, stone-y + psychedelic, with some lovely neck-pickup-toned leads. If you like Brant Bjork or Kyuss, this is waiting for you to crank up while you smoke up...
There'll be some more cool musicks spotlighted here over the next few weeks as I start to put together my Best of 2011 recommendations, so peek back soon + let me know what you think of the stuff I've brought to your attention...
Lots of interesting music from an array of cool bands. Pictured are the 30 best releases of 2010 (in alphabetical order), but my personal favorites of the year are (in no particular order...):
Red SparowesThe Fear Is Excruciating, But Therein Lies the Answer
This is an incredibly beautiful record. Maybe it's just me, but I hear the influence of Animals-era Pink Floyd here. In the best of all possible ways, like Animals was a starting point now far behind them. Saw 'em live in support of this record + was completely blown away by the depth of their sound + the well-pulled-off-live intricacies of their material. Go get this, dammit!
Cloudland Canyon Fin Eaves
This weirdly-gorgeous record of poppy melodies run thru a food processor sounds like somebody found some Loveless-era MBV tracks + rerecorded them with John McEntire + Daedelus co-producing... Fucking excellent, but be careful: this record could feasibly cause hallucinations! And could definitely accompany some...
Intronaut Valley of Smoke
Intricate + involving prog-flavored post-metal, with stand-out vocals (+ harmonies!) + an outstanding fretless bass player (which'll almost always win my heart over...)
Julie ChristmasThe Bad Wife
Wow... She looks like a pretty scene-grrl, but she sings like PJ Harvey-raised-on-metal... soft + childlike + breathy shifts to wry + sarcastic melds into Satan-possesst blood-curdling murder-screams (really... a vocal + emotional range to make Chris Cornell envious - even the 1990s Chris Cornell, who could actually hit those crazy notes live...); she's one of the few female singers whose work really hits me + it hits hard. Hell, one of the few singers, period. I'd just rather not hear most people's lyrics + vocalizations, as they're too often the weakest parts of the songs... nobody complains about Tortoise's vocals or harmonies live, y'know... Anyway. Evidently, JC brings it all to the stage, too, though, so I'll definitely be checking out Made Out of Babies or Battle of Mice or her solo live show if any of em comes around the podunk Deep South...
Mugstar Sun, Broken...
Another space-rock masterpiece from mostly-instrumental Mugstar! They were way prolific this year, also releasing Lime (some crazy extended jams!!!)
White HillsWhite Hills
These folks also droppt tons of space-rock; alongside this release were Stolen Stars Left for No One + the Gnod Drop Out with the White Hills team-up with Gnod (extended spacejams, very Bardo Pond-y...)
Maserati Pyramid of the Sun
Pulsing + Kraftwerk-y, with some of the best late-night, open highway driving music in a loooooong time.
UFOMammut Eve
An EP that develops one looooong track across five movements, bringing the best aspects of stoner-metal together in a bubbling stew.
God Is an Astronaut Age of the Fifth Sun
More epic instrumental post-metal; these guys always rock; this one seems more like a soundtrack than ever...
Kylesa Spiral Shadow
Super-tasty + intelligently-composed metal with 2 percussionists! Huge + driving, with wonderfully intricate drum parts buttressing some major riffage...
the rest of the Top 30...
Post-Rock:
The Album LeafA Chorus of Storytellers
Algernon Ghost Surveillance
The American DollarAtlas
Deadhorse We Can Create Our Own World
El Ten ElevenIt's Still Like a Secret
Souvenir's Young AmericaThe Name of the Snake
Trans AmThing
65 Days of StaticWe Were Exploding Anyway
IDM / Electronica:
Bonobo Black Sands
Errors Come Down with Me
Fourtet There Is Love in You
To Rococo Rot Speculation
Space-Rock:
Quest for Fire Lights from Paradise
U.S. ChristmasRun Thick in the Night
Stoner Metal + Post-Metal:
And So I Watch You from AfarLetters
Bison B.C.Dark Ages
Electric WizardBlack Masses
Gifts from Enola Gifts from Enola
Sasquatch III
And, in the Post-Hardcore/Alt-Rock genre:
Maps + AtlasesPerch Patchwork
... as well as some honorable mentions...
Negurã BungetVоrstele Pamоntului
A freaky-ass melding of Eastern European folk + death metal. Still growing on me, though, + certainly worth a listen... Their last one, OM, was outstanding + this new release continues to show the evolution of these musical weirdos!
Yakuza Of Seismic Consequence
The vocals took this one out of the running for me, though the music is (typically of Yakuza) well-done + all over the place, touching down at various times as wild iterations of brutal metal, complex ambient, + out jazz...
The Orb + David GilmourMetallic Spheres
I wanted this to be, well, fucking badass Dark Side of the Moon revisited kinda shit. It's good, but sadly falls short of its true potential...
Brian EnoSmall Craft on a Milk Sea
Held high hopes, this one did, with Eno's culling of 'songs' from hours of improvisational jams with some noteworthy musicians. It's a solid ambient record, for sure, but I'd looked forward to another sonic Eno-vation, like his work on Music for Airports or that lush effects-dripping guitar-driven production on U2's The Unforgettable Fire, + this does not cut any new musical cloth...
Monster MagnetMastermind
This is more of the same from these cats... It's really pretty good, but has too many of those drumless segments driven by Dave's 'clever' lyrics to really stay rockin' long enough for the "herbal medicines" to really kick in...
La OtracinaReality Has Got to Die (cool + heavy psychedelic rock)
Stonewall Noise OrchestraSweet Mississippi Deal (Soundgarden-y vox over some solid stoner metal riffage)
Hellas MoundsNew Heaven / New Earth (heavy + epic post-metal)
EmpiresFreshwater Reflection (also heavy + epic post-metal)
High PlacesVs. Mankind (cool afrobeat rhythms + twisty pop melodies)
Jaga JazzistOne-Armed Bandit (a giant post-rock/jazz emsemble from Northern Europe... like a more prog-estra Tortoise)
Now, naturally, we don't host any of these here, but you can certainly find some or all of em with some thoughtful searching.
As this year progresses, I find that there've already been some pretty good musick releases in 2010. After spending a good bit of time determining my Best Music of 2009 list thru that November, I worried that perhaps last year's bumper crop of kick-ass would be followed up by a dryspell. And I was - thankfully - wrong about that! Since most of my life is spent working in my underground lair or driving, I get lots of unbroken listening time without too many distractions. Some stuff you like might be missing... I might not've gotten to it yet, so lemme know what else is rockin' the One-Zero... here's what's tickled my ears so far:
POST-ROCK / ELECTRONICA:
The Album Leaf - A Chorus of Storytellers
The American Dollar - Atlas
Fourtet - There Is Love in You
To Rococo Rot - Speculation
Bonobo - Black Sands
...I'd recommend any of these to my post-rock + electronica listenin' friends, who are prob'ly already aware of each of em, as all of these artists have been releasing records for years... I'm most fond of the new ones from The American Dollar + The Album Leaf. Still top-notch for fans of the earlier werks, but with enough maturation in sound + scope (+ production) to remain compelling. Excellent music for late-night open highway driving... Download the "Second Sight" MP3, a freebie offa The American Dollar's Atlas!
...and the HEAVIER STUFF:
Red Sparowes - The Fear Is Excruciating, But Therein Lies the Answer
Consistently impressive with their ability to craft powerful tracks that develop in intensity + depth, offering up beautiful soundscapes built on the fundamental vocabulary of (post) metal (+ pedal steel) + the scope of a concept album or filmscore.
Mugstar - Sun, Broken...
White Hills - White Hills
Wow. I'd only found these bands when Trensmat released the Sonic Attack series of split 7" singles of current bands doing Hawkwind covers (late last year). Stony-as-hell space rock at its best, vocals that don't overpower the musicks... little sonic bombs 'splodin' behind my eyes. Check out the new Mugstar at Discogs! Preview the new White Hills at the ThrillJockey website!
Still on the fence about these last few, though; you oughtta give em a listen anyway + then make a case for / ag'in em here... The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis (I like this one, but it doesn't seem to be a development forward in the growth of the band's sound, just more of the same.) Dead Meadow - Three Kings (it's so no-frills that the songs either cut to the bone or fall flattr than my jokes) High Places - High Places vs. Mankind (I sure do like the drums / percussion on this'un, though... + the lovely album cover) Errors - Come Down with Me
So, now you've got a few new rekkids to listen to while you do whatever else there is to do besides listen to musick...
I’m short of ideas so I’ll just steal some of ya’ll’s and do a best-of-the-year post for a variety of areas. Except I’m indecisive so I can’t narrow things down to just one, so many of these will be multiple. Plus, my chronological-ness is always screwy and I don’t keep up with new stuff all that often, so nominees may be decades old… they’ll be eligible as thing-of-the-year if this was the year that I happened to encounter ‘em. Solipsism simplifies!
Book Of The Year I’m gonna concur with KickerOfElves and nominate Cormac McArthy’s The Road for this one. That was a seriously bleak, stark, brilliant book, and even though it’s not technically a horror novel, it had a scene that gave me bigger chills than any horror novel I’ve read in a long time (the scene were the dad’s exploring a house and finds a basement full of chained-up people and looks out the back window and sees the owners of the house returning). This book probably comes to mind more often than anything else I've read this year. McCarthy’s Child of God is also a contender, given its literary approach to corpse-fuckin’. I just started Blood Meridian, and given that there's graphic eye-gouging in the first freakin' chapter, it'll probably show up on next year's list.
Other books that rated over 3 stars in my review book this year are Gun Work by David Schow (badass, violent noir that Robert Rodriguez should option for the screen), Here Comes A Candle by Frederic Brown (freaky, experimental crime novel/psychological suspense mindfuck), A Feast of Snakes by Harry Crews (scuzzbucket portrait of life among the reddest of rednecks), A Dull Roar: How I Spent My Summer Deracination and A Preferred Blur: Reflections, Inspections, & Travel in All Directions by Henry Rollins (I always look forward to Henry’s books and can’t wait for A Mad Dash to come out this year), White Line Fever: An Autobiography by Lemmy Kilmister (was there ever any doubt this would be great?), The Terror by Dan Simmons (brilliant epic historical horror about an ill-fated expedition to the Arctic circle. Scenes from this one went through my head quite often while dealing with the brutally cold weather we’ve had this week), Sweeny Todd, Or, The String of Pearls by an anonymous author-or-authors (“penny dreadful” splatter nastiness, gotta love it), A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (not a big fan of the story, but the prose was great and was oddly the first beyond-short-story-length Dickens I've read. There will be more!), The Blue Max by Jack D. Hunter (I have a weird fascination for WWI biplane dogfights, and this one described them so well that I could literally see and smell scenes from it; just a great, great book), The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (don’t start this one if you have anything else to do for a few months, it’s good, but fuck, buddy, it’s long), The Star Rover by Jack London (this might have the #1 slot if The Road didn’t edge it out; sent me off on a London kick), and Haiku by Andrew Vachss (a bit too unfocused to be his best work, but this tale of homeless people trying to scam a place for an obsessive friend’s paperback library is still powerful stuff). Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane is also worth your time and I'm lookin' forward to the movie.
I never write in books, but if I did, Andrew Vachss would be one of those guys I’d have to read with a highligher in my hand. He’s got too many good lines, he’s like the Buddha. So, instead, I keep a slip of paper in the back of the book and write page numbers on it. Since I’ve got it handy, I’ll share some of the quotes from Haiku.
“To the unknowing, their own lack of knowledge proves there are secrets. After many repetitions, the burden shifts on its axis. An inability to disprove even the most nonsensical claim proves its truth.” - p. 32
“Years of lessons and the most dutiful attention may result in an accomplished painter. But only forces we do not understand produce a Van Gough. “All such gifts are delivered in two boxes, one inside the other. One is a grant; the other a demand. The larger box may be torn open, as if by an eager child handed a present. The smaller -- and far more precious -- box is locked. Its key is not provided; it can be located only through devotion, labor, and sacrifice. “To be gifted is inborn. It is not earned. Not all those who are gifted are worthy of their gift. That test lies not within the locked box, but in the search for its key.” - p. 41
“A man may possess the tools to build a house, yet allow them to rust on the ground he sleeps on. You are what you do.” - p. 179
“When an adversary has the ability to inflict harm from a distance, that distance itself is an adversary. A rifle that is capable of delivering death at one hundred meters is useless if the target can place himself between the tip of its barrel and the marksman holding it. “That is the essence of fear. Efforts to avoid it only magnify its power -- fear is an enemy that can be killed only at close range.” - p. 204
“Having no choice but one brings great comfort.” - p. 206
CD of the Year - Jeez, I dunno, I’m probably going to go with Lysergic Legacy by The Fuzztones, just because that’s what I’ve been listening to the most and with the most enthusiasm. And I’ve listened to so much stuff that it’s hard to remember what all I freaked on. I’m sure right after I post this I’ll go “How could I have forgotten THAT album?” and kick myself. I’ve also been digging A Taste of Honey by The Viletones (apparently I like bands that fit a “_____tones” pattern), which is some old '77 punk and sounds a lot like The Dead Boys, with all the snide snottiness that entails. Ya gotta respect the lack of pretense of any band who has a song called "Dog Style" that has a chorus of "She likes to fuck dog style," when I was expecting some kind of clever metaphor instead.
I also loved the new Slayer, World Painted Blood. This won't be popular, but what the hell, I'll admit it -- I also liked the new Metallica album, Death Magnetic, pretty well. It's not perfect, and I do bear grudges, but I give them credit for a good attempt at returning to form and hope they stay on this path. The music is solid; it's just that James can't write good lyrics anymore after he turned into Too Much Therapy Man. They verge on whiney-ass-titty-baby abstraction too much when they should be less introspective and about Hemmingway novels and Passover legends and Lovecraft and such instead, 'cuz, psssst, James, that's what you don't suck at. But, really, is this so bad, I ask you? Try for a minute to erase the hurt feelings of betrayal we all felt after the Black Album and those "load" things and be fair to it.
I say that's pretty solid stuff.
I haven't heard the new Katatonia, Night Is The New Day, yet - that crept up on me and I didn't know it was out, so I haven't gotten it in the mail yet, or I suspect it'd belong on this list. I've never heard anything from this band that wasn't jaw-dropping brilliant. Sampling the new stuff on YouTube it's pretty impressive:
Here's an old song of theirs that I liked so much that it inspired me to write an entire novel...
Anyway, I also liked the new Clutch, Strange Cousins from the West, a lot. They're reliable groovesmiths who aren't afraid to fuck up some time signatures all kinda crazy.
And their experiments with bluesiness are welcome:
The new Dax Riggs album, We Sing Only of Blood Or Love, also blew me away.
I've also been digging old stuff I discovered by The Dancing French Liberals of '48 (the hardcore band that the surviving members of The Gits formed), the re-formed Iron Cross and their new (to me) CD, Two Piece and A Bisquit -- the great vocals make that one some of the best oi I've heard in a while, brief as it is. Let me assume the persona of my favorite MaximumRockNRoll reviewer, Bruce Roehrs, for a second to tell ya about it:
Yes! You punks and skins are in luck! IRON CROSS is back to pummel you into a gelatinous mass with a new slab of working-class oi that will shrivel your ball sac so completely you'll be able to strike a match on it! You will feel the guitars plow a trench through your fucking skull as the bass and drums pound your ass like a spiteful stepchild! The bourgeoisie will crumble once and for all before blue-collar anthems like "Pride And Freedom"! Check out the lyrics to this hard-edged, uncompromising, confrontational song! "They can try to keep us down/ With promises of pain/ Let 'em know we got nothin' to lose/ And everything to gain/ Seen our brothers fall victim to/ The lies of the ruling class/ Look 'em in the eye, clench our fists, and say/ 'Shove it up your ass!' / Oi! Oi! Oi! You can never take our pride, no! / Always fight, we'll never hide, no!/ Pride and freedom are not for sale, no! / Try to beat us, you'll always fail!/ Seen our music nailed on a cross so we're takin' it to the street/ Take a punk band and then they butter 'em up/ And then they sell it on MTV/ We're still runnin' through your city streets with only one thing on our minds/ Destruction of the phonies and fakes, you and all your kind!" Those are some hard-edged truths for you punks and skins to accept! As you're trying to recover from that, they hit you with a brilliant ribcage-shattering cover of "Runnin' Riot" by CockSparrer! Fuck!! Then, mercifully, they'll soothe your bruised being with a beautiful, Nick-Cave-like ballad, "Ship of Sorrow," which may bring a tear to your swollen, blackened eye! Check out these touching lyrics: "I sailed oceans far between/ Where the birds will never sing/ And I longed for my fair maiden/ On her finger placed my ring/ But my ring was not silver/ Was not gold, but cast in ore/ Though my heart was rich in treasure/ She spurned me then, for I am poor/ She said, 'My love, you bring me pleasure/ My love, you please me well/ But I shall marry wealth and station/ Above your price I do sell/ Ya-da-dee di-ya-da-dee ya-da-dee-di-dee/ Now I sail on a ship of sorrow/ Searching for the light/ But her window's cold and empty/ And the storms grow fierce at night/ There's a place of burnin' sufferin'/ A place of wicked bleeding souls/ Who will burn with no redemption/ For forgiveness they have sold/ And I would gladly ease their suffering/ Take their burdens for my own/ To hold her again so gently, for just one night to call our own/ Ya-da-dee di-ya-da-dee, ya-da-dee-di-dee." Fuck! That is a masterpiece for you fucks! You lucky cretins need to seek out this fucking great EP at CDBaby before you are pummeled and have your gonads torn from your body and flung forth into the abyss with an oath! Order it and a truckload of holy-bejabbers-fuck will back up to the doorstep of your hovel and make a delivery of sweet-mammy-Jesus directly into your spasming colon! Until next month... see you fucks at the bar!
Sorry, I've always wanted to do that. I'm a huge Bruce Rohers fan, and it's been a compulsion I've had... believe me, it's tribute, not a mockery.
Song Of The Year - probably “Shylock” by 70’s Aussie stoner-rock band Buffalo, just because I geeked out so hard for the massive riff that drives this thing. Also, it’s one of the few songs where I’ve almost worn a clear spot in my car’s mix tape from replaying the guitar solo over and over again. Guitar solos rarely really hook me, with only a few rare exceptions (KickerOfElves’ own break that starts around 3 and a half minutes into in “Beneficial Neglect” being one of ‘em, so tip of the hat there; emotion just drips off that solo, I almost wept the first time I heard it), but this one, good lord, they are trying to hurt you, it's just pure beautiful ill-will and has that angry-dinosaur-trying-to-wallow-its-way-out-of-a-tar-pit howl that usually only Hendrix can pull off. It sounds like construction work. And that fucking riff is just the most massive, relentless, crushing thing since Black Sabbath‘s “Symptom of the Universe." It is big like a son-of-a, and it's played with some of the filthiest guitar tuning possible. And I love the way they traipse away from it a few times but then it always comes back in - sometimes a teasing piece at a time, like a threat -- like you thought it was gone but it got paroled and sought you out and now ya gotta deal with it again! One of those songs that makes me wish I’d learned guitar as a kid just so I could form a band that would cover it. Just an evil, back-alley knife-fight of a song that I never get tired of (obviously, since I won't shut up already).
Their other stuff is also good, so if you liked that, seek 'em out, especially the Volcanic Rock album. This song, "United Nations," from Only Want You For Your Body, is also vicious.
I also love this Black Keys song quite a bit and am clepping lines from it as opening quotes for a horror novel I'm writin'.
Concert DVD of the Year - Nashville Pussy, Live In Hollywood. I like this band, but I figured out that they get even better live and when you can see 'em. God damn but Ruyter Suys can play a frickin' gee-tar. And Karen Cuda ain't no slouch bassist, either.
Here's "Lazy Jesus." If you sing along, you're damned. If you dance, you're double-dog damned... especially if you're Baptist!
Also, the video has a segment where Lemmy from Motorhead interviews the band and he closes with the following dirty joke:
A man takes his wife to the doctor and says, "Doctor, something's wrong with my wife, I don't know what, but she's not acting right." The doctors take her and examine her and they come back to the man and tell him, "Well, we're not sure what's wrong with her, but we've narrowed it down to two possibilities: Alzheimer's, or really, really bad gonorrhea. So here's what we want you to do: take her home, but about a mile or two before you get to your house, stop the car and let her out. If she finds her way home, don't fuck her!
Worth the price of admission, right there.
Movie of the Year - This is too big for me to even tackle. I'll probably go with Paranormal Activity just 'cuz I got the most excited about seeing it and wasn't disappointed. I also loved [REC] but I think I saw that over a year ago. Just last week I saw a brilliant, beautiful, slow-burning throwback-to-the-late-70's-style horror movie called House of the Devil, and that'll legitimately be on DVD in about a month and ya'll need to pick that up hell yeah baby.
I was also very grateful for the Sleepy Eyes of Death (Son of Black Mass) samurai films to start making their DVD debuts; I've been impressed with those. As far as Oscar-y "art" films go, The Wrestler is a solid piece of work. Eden Lake was pretty good in the extreme-horror category. And 1969's Book of Stone was one of my favorite previously-unheard-of very creepy discoveries, which desperately needs a legit DVD release, as does 1992's Ghostwatch. Let The Right One In is also a good 'un worthy of attention.
Worst film of the year? Maybe Automation Transfusion. What a piece of shit. Don't waste a dime on that. I also thought Martyrs was a profoundly overrated, pretentious, idiot-pandering, bullshit load of diaper-stuffing, but enough other people seem to love it that maybe you should make up your own mind about it, although it gets a big accck-ptui loogie from me.
Comedy CD of the Year - Doug Stanhope's From Across The Street, with very-honorable-mentions to Greg Giraldo's brilliant "Good Day To Cross A River" and his new DVD, Midlife Vices, plus Patton Oswalt's CD/DVD My Weakness Is Strong. Much funny is to be found there.
Store of the Year - BigLots! DVDs for $3, baby! And not just shitty ones, either! Some of the things I've scored for $3 each this year have been 2001: A Space Odyssey, Superman Returns, whole seasons of The Flintstones and Huckleberry Hound, Roots miniseries-es, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Eating Raoul, Rock 'n' Roll High School, Private Parts, The Damned, Logan's Run, Poseidon Adventure, A Strangers Is Watching, The Hand... just too much cool stuff to even begin mentioning. I've driven all over the state scouring these stores (many thanks to those who go along with me to navigate, since I have the sense of direction of a toddler and would never find the city by myself, much less the store). Runner up: Hudson's Dirt Cheap, where you can find History Channel-type DVDs for as low as 59 cents... including whole season box sets of Gene Simmons Family Jewels. Deal and a half!
Fave Thing of the Year That I Got Obsessed With - those Barnes & Noble classics collections. I'm just pissed that there aren't any more to seek out (at least, not reasonably-priced ones, since they're out of print). I'm gonna have to drive back to Jackson at some point and snag a leather-bound Sherlock Holmes collection... My other fave thing this year (which was probably partially last year, but my sense of time blurs, are those Wordsworth Edition collections of old Victorian horror stories. I'm eagerly awaiting the new ones of those, although our Amazon seems to have a hard time getting them. You may also put your trust in any title from Hard Case Crime - I have yet to read a bad book from them yet.
Fave Thing I Didn't Get Obsessed Enough With - my supposed horror-novel-in-progress Daisyland, which I've been "working on" for 6 months and only have 10,000 words done. I am a lazy and unproductive tit (long-winded blog posts notwithstanding) and possibly even silly-lookin'.
Ultimate Asshole of the Year: Glenn Beck. This turd is an irresponsible scumbag whose cynical spooking of the nation's herd of hapless idiots is probably eventually going to get somebody killed, and then he'll whine that he didn't mean any harm, he was just trying to play "rodeo clown." He's the kind of desperate-for-attention loser that everybody remembers from high school because he'd shit in his pants if you gave him seven dollars. I won't say this guy's fascist, but he's certainly fasc-er than most.
Can't think of anything else, so I guess that'll do 'er. Now, onward into the new decade, with a whole new bunch of mistakes to make! Banzai!
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