Mixtape 2: The Vengeance

Side B:

1. ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead -- "Wasted State of Mind" Why don't you like this band? I will make you a "best of" if you want.

2. Bloomsday -- "Blush" Remember those cd clubs back in the day--the 10 discs for 99 cents crap? Well there was a Christian one, and my gf at the time didn't know what cd to get for her 10th pick. I picked out Bloomsday's The Day the Colors Died. Probably the only good album in the whole damn catalog.

3. Califone -- "Our Kitten Sees Ghosts" I need to get some of Califone's other albums. I like the brief, ethereal nature of this song, and I find "The way you shatter/When you hit the water" going through my head all the time.

4. Jejune -- "Morale Is Low" Sort of a jarring transition... I've been digging out the old "emo" to see how it stands up now. The answer is pretty well in some cases (Jejune) and not so well in others (Braid).

5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- "Maps" I love this song. I'm not usually a huge fan of tom-heavy drum stuff, but it does it for me here.

6. Sunny Day Real Estate -- "How It Feels to Be Something On" So effing intense... Pull out this album again--it is really good.

end Side B

arrggh

I am in the midst of my student teaching experience, and it is going well so far. That explains the sporadic nature of my posts.

Beth is planning on starting a photo blog, and I am looking forward to it.

Chad and Troy are continuing the fine First Order Historians tradition.

good night.

roadhouse

Unfotunately this post is not about one of my favorite movies dealing with fisticuffs and flagons of beer and philosophical Swayzes full of feces. I just wanted to complain about how people come to the store and think they are at Texas Roadhouse.

"OOOOH PEANUTS!!!111" (I sure hope he said "peanuts")

No, dipstick. If they were for sampling/snacking, we would've placed a stack of little take 'n' go baskets for easy snacking along with a spitoon for your shells. I find shells everywhere. I've seen them hiding among the paper products and in the frozen foods section. That is a long way for those shells to have travelled. Don't touch those peanuts, man. Unless you are planning on handing over some green paper, you cheap mofo you.

Mixtape

Hey you! I'm making you a mixtape. Yeah you. Don't look around. You.

Side A

1. The Beatles -- "Golden Slumbers" Damn you Beatles and your melodies. I've had Abbey Road for quite a while, and this song just now really struck me. Strange how that happens. Go piss up a rope, "Carry That Weight." J/K you're okay, but "Golden Slumbers" will get along just fine without you.

2. The Flaming Lips -- "A Spoonful Weights a Ton" Don't forget about these guys. I had a bunch of their discs sitting on my shelf waiting to be added to the itunes rotation. Check out the reverb-icality guitar strums on the chorus. Hot damn.

3. Holopaw -- "Abraham Lincoln" John Orth writes some evocative words. Holopaw combines electronic elements and traditional instrumentation to create a delightfully nuanced song. Check it.

4. The Mercury Program -- "Sultans of El Sur" Wow... drums. Delay pedals are fun. I can deal with no vocals.

5. The Microphones -- "II. Solar System" Great subtle percussion and spare guitar here. "What stream used to flow here and now what dusty decay. Let the flash flood begin. Wash me down the canyon. Quicksand pull me in. Blow over me solar wind." This is a beautifully haunting song.

6. Red House Painters -- "Have You Forgotten" This is the first RHP song I ever heard. I was so surprised to hear the F word sung in such a beautiful manner.

end Side A

Sort of an odd assortment of groups, but I can deal with that. I'll post Side B soon.

Hammertime

Things that make you look like a tool:

-stocking cap with a little bill on it

-bluetooth ear piece when not driving (i only grudgingly added the last part)

-penis costume

I will probably add more to this list as I pad my life experience.

Best of '07

My plan for this post was to get a bunch of my friends to make lists and post them all here, but I only was really able to ask my friend Jason for his list. So here is Jason and Brenda's list as well as my list.

Jason G's Top Records

Top buys released in 2007 based on entire album played all the way through

(in no particular order)

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Metric - Grow Up and Blow Away
Stars - In the Bedroom After the War
Modest Mouse - We were Dead Before the Ship even Sank
The National - Boxer
Jens Lekman - Night Falls over Kortedala
Editors - An End has a Start
Menomena - Friend and Foe
Jeremy Enigk - The Missing Link
Pinback - Autumn of the Seraphs
Beirut - The Flying Cup Club

Brenda's input
Pipettes - We are the Pipettes
Feist - The Reminder
Iron and Wine - Shepherd's Dog
Au Revoir Simone - The Bird of Music
The Shins - Wincing the Night Away

***

Andy's Top Ten Records of 2007:

10. The Twilight Sad Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters

9. Wilco Sky Blue Sky

8. Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

7. The Sea and Cake Everybody

6. Pinback Autumn of the Seraphs

5. Battles Mirrored

4. The Arcade Fire Neon Bible

3. Menomena Friend and Foe

2. Radiohead In Rainbows

1. The National Boxer

Honorable Mention:

-The Clientele God Save the Clientele

-Apostle of Hustle National Anthem of Nowhere

-Feist The Reminder

-The Six Parts Seven Casually Smashed to Pieces

-Aereogramme My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go

-Low Drums and Guns

-Panda Bear Person Pitch

Just Purchased That May Have Made the List Had I Had More Time With Them:

-Múm Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy

-Iron and Wine Shepherd’s Dog

-Caribou Andorra

-Minus the Bear Planet of Ice

-Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement of the Decline

-Sleeping People Growing

Have a Couple Tracks That I Like, But Disappointing Overall:

-Interpol Our Love to Admire

-The New Pornograpers Challengers

-Stars In Our Bedroom After the War

-Kevin Drew Spirit If…

-Mobius Band Heaven

-Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Not Feeling As Much As Some People:

-LCD Soundsystem The Sound of Silver

-Of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

-Justice †

Also Rans:

-The One AM Radio This Too Will Pass

-El-P I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead

-Warm in the Wake Gold Dust Trail

Records From 2006 that really hit me in 2007:

-Snowden Anti-Anti

-Clipse Hell Hath No Fury