Filter just released their top ten album list for 2009 and this is what it looks like
1. Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
2. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Glassnote)
3. Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest (Warp)
4. Miike Snow, Miike Snow (Downtown)
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It’s Blitz! (Interscope)
6. Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Elvis Perkins in Dearland (XL)
7. Cass McCombs, Catacombs (Domino)
8. Passion Pit, Manners (Frenchkiss)
9. The Antlers, Hospice (Frenchkiss)
10. White Rabbits, It’s Frightening (TBD)
While I agree with many of their selections I can’t get past two errors:
1) Not slotting The Antlers at number one. (OK it is official -They should go ahead and process that restraining order now.
2) Leaving off the XX.. The XX’s debut record is an amazing album that deserves a top ten slotting.
I don’t want to define this as a travesty against humanity because we should save that word for the abomination that is MTV’s Jersey Shore. Instead let us simply call this an oversight. Allow me to correct these mistakes now with my rushed top ten.
Now that Summer is officially over and done with (and to clarify we mean the season, not Eric) and Fall is upon us we have decided to take a look back at our summer (the good, the bad, and the ugly) and have asked some friends to do the same. We will see September off with some End of Summer interviews over the course of the next couple of weeks.
Kicking that series of interviews off is our Q&A with local band Robotanists. We first came across Robotanists in early 2008 and quickly became fans of their music and asked them to participate in our Childhood Observed: Toys for Tots Benefit (alongside Automatique, Automatic Music Explosion, Beatmo, Maggie Malyn, Voices Voices, The White and the Writing, and You Me and Iowa) that has yet to reach fruition but you can watch a teaser video of here. They spent a day with TRAffIK photographer Jessy Plume and video producer Byron Turk at the LA Zoo getting kicked off of Merry-go-Rounds and being embraced by the Pinwheel Palace. Check out their feature here.
Speaking of Jessy and Byron…
Our “Photographist” Jessy Plume managed to remain cooler than most of us will ever be, while managing to juggle a multitude of projects. We’ll soon be collaborating to bring you some more fun photos. Who knows what our Creative Pow-Wows will bring you. In the meantime please enjoy her photography of bands that participated in our Childhood Observed themed photo shoots that we’ll be bringing you in next couple of weeks. Also her photo of L.A. band Voices Voices for this same project is currently included in the latest issue of Filter Magazine.
Byron is currently in the swamp lands of Louisiana bonding with the ‘gators and all of the other inhabitants of these murky waters working on a top secret film project. The new season of his show Storm Chasers will air on Discovery Channel Oct.18. In the meantime you can read about their storm chasing adventures here.
I’ll bring you some of my Summer Adventures w/ Lady Di very soon. Maybe we can even convince Brandy (“BB” – pictured left with TRAffIK StopperHeather Ellis) to share some of her own. We’ve got a lot of great fashion and style content as well as features lined up for you in coming weeks including one on Super-girl Espree Devora.
Last of all in the coming months you will see a few changes hit the TRAffIK site. We’ll be adding some fantastic new writers, new columns, and we have also been working on making the site a little easier to navigate. Stay tuned.
We hope you all had a great adventurous season of fun in the sun.
(feel free to listen to the songs from this week’s column via the above music player)
After reeling from another kickass episode of “Lost” last week I let the TV lag and spill into “Life on Mars“. The show opened with a long montage set to Lou Reed’s “Satellite of Love“. That song and Michael Impeiroli’s badass stache were almost enough to keep my interest. I avoided temptation. I just can’t add another TV show to my dvr. Mind you I will make an exception for whenThe Duel 2 comes on MTV in April. Hearing the song reminded me of a conversation I had recently. Not counting Stillwater’s “Feverdog” or Steel Dragon’s “Stand Up (and shout)” I asked someone to come up with a list of songs that they discovered through the power of the movies. Personally for me Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day“, as heard in Trainspotting, is a perfect example of a song I was unaware of till it was featured in a film. I ran out and bought that album immediately after seeing the movie and was pretty floored by its quirky charms. I’d like to say the same thing occurred after I watched St Elmo’s Fire and heard “Man in Motion“…but, as you people know, that album is not as awe inspiring. Hell of a theme song though. With a click glance at my DVD collection I give you:
My top 5 song discoveries through film (eat it, Facebook!)
5. Almost Famous: Thunderclap Newman “Something in the Air“. The easy answer is “Tiny Dancer”, but I’ve always liked this song better. Pete Townshend played bass on this one hit wonder led by a Who roadie. Who knew!? (No pun intended. Seriously)
4.Boogie Nights: Night Ranger - “Sister Christian.” Boogie Nights was so chock full of music that it required two discs. This was a new song to me. Thank you, PT Anderson. He took the cue from Tarantino and tried to fill his soundtrack with as many lost gems as possible. On the flip side I noticed the soundtrack to The Girl Next Door might be the laziest soundtrack ever. Here are some highlights:
All great songs. All have appeared in countless movies already. You are a lazy man Mr. Wolfgang Amadeus. Nope, I’m not making that name up. You made a mix tape of your favorite songs from movies. Shame on you, Wolfgang. Can I have your job please?WhatThe Girl Next Door lacked in musical creativity it made up for with its underrated humor and a semi clad Kim Bauer.
3.Napoleon Dynamite: When in Rome - “The Promise”. If I happen across this movie and it’s close to the end I’ll leave it on and embrace this song and imagine playing tether ball and drawing leigers for my own Deb.
2.Trainspotting: Lou Reed – “Perfect Day.”
1. Donnie Darko: Echo and the Bunnymen – “The Killing Moon”. I was hip enough to see this film opening night, but not hip enough to have known this amazing song. It was instant love. Since then Richard Kelly released a director’s cut which removed “The Killing Moon” from the opening and replaced it with “Never Tear Us Apart” By INXS. If that wasn’t proof positive that Richard Kelly is a loose cannon who can’t be trusted, go rent Southland Tales. What a mess of a film. Justin Timberlake lip syncing The Killers on the Santa Monica Pier? Yeah, let’s green light that bad boy. Even after that bloodbath of a film turd I’m still looking forward to his next film, The Box, simply because The Arcade Fire will be providing the original score and bombastic and preachy is exactly how I take my scores. Thank you, Win Butler.
