Here's my set of choices ranked 5 to 1:



5.  Embrace - Urbandub
- I've listened to this record this year at an average of about once a week.  Gabby and his posse of musicians are really great with arrangements.  They've matured much since Influence--and that album was already damn good as well.  The only thing probably keeping this record from going all the way, IMO is the production work.  It's been too compressed on tracks like Frailty, which needs that higher threshold to get the full effect of the bass frequencies.

Endless, A Silent Whisper (live) - Urbandub

Everyone's got lists.  I get really sour when some of my choices aren't in there.  A lot of the blogs seem to be into Joanna Newsom or Arctic Monkeys, which I personally don't get.  A lot has been overlooked for the year like The Beautiful Newborn Children's debut, Portland shoegaze/dreampoppers The High Violets, and the Bay Area's Film School.  They will be getting love from this blog for the year.  My selections ranked 5 to 1 will be posted soon after this one.



10. Film School - Film School
- Buzzsaw guitars and that menacing baritone, along with Joy Division-like hypnotic beats, this album was an easy winner in my book as one of the best of the year.  Oh, I'd also like to mention that they suffered from having their gear stolen last spring and were eventually helped out by Musicares to procure new equipment and carry on with their tour.

On and On - Film School




9.  Rabbit Fur Coat - Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins
- Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis goes further into the world of roots rock with this effort and is helped out by The Watson Twins to deliver an album that recalls a time when upright bass and acoustic guitar were more dominant instruments in music.  It's only direct competition in the same category would have been Neko Case's Fox Confessor Brings The Flood.

Download Tracks From Rabbit Fur Coat here




8.  The Beautiful Newborn Children - The Beautiful Newborn Children
- This self-titled debut is less than a half hour long and delivers short, sharp, and deliberate angular puuuuuuunk!  Think The Strokes after they've ingested copious amounts of speed and Red Bull, and that would be a rough approximation of their attitude and their music.  Screw The Arctic Monkeys.  These guys should've been the ones that made it big.  If you need a soundtrack to your night of debauchery, this should fit the bill.

Do The Do - The Beautiful Newborn Children




7.  Five On The Floor - Sandwich
- Deservedly so, this has been one of my favorites of the year.  Raimund Marasigan and his crew have steadily been perfecting their craft at making songs that appeal to Filipinos that don't care much about mushy sentimentality, the bossa nova trend, or comedic novelty.  A lot of people have also been playa hatin' on Myrene's bass playing skills and garnering a NU 107 Rock Award this year for her instrument category.  I guess to the haters, they think that shredding on bass should be a prerequisite to winning. Whatever.

Sunburn - Sandwich




6.  To Where You Are - The High Violets
- One of Portland's best right now.  This gang of four know how to rock it 80's style by bringing back the ethereal in dreampop the way Lush or The Cocteau Twins brought it on back in the day--yeah, they're that good.  Seeing them live this year at The Comet Tavern was also quite the revelation.  They achieve this massive sound by using the most basic stuff in terms of amps and pedals.  They won me over all the more after that live set.

Love Is Blinding - The High Violets


Just missed it by a hair department: 
Here are some albums that almost cracked my top 10.

Isang Ugat, Isang Dugo (One Root, One Blood) - Rivermaya
The Life Pursuit - Belle And Sebastian
The Greatest - Cat Power
Soul Up! - Juan Pablo Dream
Alright, Still - Lily Allen
Ringleader of The Tormentors - Morrissey

The Hardest Working Man In Showbusiness rests.  You will be missed, sir.

We borrow a line from a song off The Eraserheads' ambitious concept album Fruitcake.  Although given a cold reception when it was first released (perhaps because there weren't any Filipino-language songs), this effort came to be a testament that the band was at its creative peak.  All the songs center around a little girl's search for the true meaning of Christmas in a world rife with materialism and hypocrisy.  Her search led her to visit Fruitcake Heights and meet characters like Bobo The Wiseman, The Carol Kings, The Fabulous Baker Boy, The Motherpackers, and many others with vivid detail.

In today's song, this is the part of the story where Frannie Wei wakes up from her slumber to discover that it's Christmas day.  She says goodbye to Shadow and all her dream friends in that Oz-like city.  She faces the cold, hard reality that Christmas "in the real world" is still about consumerism and temporary joy.  She holds it close to her heart though that maybe one day, she hopes, everyone will realize that Christmas is more than just about gifts.  She also wishes that everyone could persevere and be Christmas-like happy in spite of all the ugliness we face each day.

This song never fails to move me emotionally and is perhaps one of the best ever written by anyone.  We can use a bit of optimism in this jaded world.  For that alone, The Eheads hold a special place in my heart of hearts. 

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas Morning - The Eraserheads

There are holiday tunes, and there are true holiday tunes.  What better way to celebrate that time of year when everyone seems to have a smile on their face?  May I suggest by listening to a northern-soul influenced track from Manila?  Here's Juan Pablo Dream's take on the season of cheer.

Christmas Time - Juan Pablo Dream

Would you like a Radio Dept bootleg?

Here's the band that had a few songs on the Marie Antoinette soundtrack kicking it onstage in South America.  Enjoy!

The Radio Dept Live In Peru (10/28/2006)


Track List:

01 It's Personal
02 Deliverance
03 Pet Grief
04 Ewan
05 Lost and Found
06 I Don't Like It Like This
07 The Worst Taste In Music
08 Where damage Isn't Already Done
09 I Wanted You To Feel The Same
10 Bus
11 1995
12 The City Limits
13 This Past Week
14 Messy Enough
15 (Encore)
16 Why Won't You Talk About It?

Let's add one more download with the inclusion of a remix of I Wanted You To Feel The Same.

I Wanted You To Feel The Same (Devolve's Marble House Edit) - The Radio Dept

The Crocodile Cafe will play host to Harvey Danger as they play two shows on December 31st.  Catch part-time staffer to The Stranger Sean Nelson and his merry group of musicmakers bang it out as we chase the bad spirits of the old year away.  If you're really good, you may even get a chance to hear them play Flagpole Sitta.

You can download all tracks from their latest album, Little By Litte by clicking on the link below.

Little By Little (full album) - Harvey Danger

Yup.  It's the end of the year and we know it.

KEXP is sponsoring a couple of evenings with former Sunny Day Real Estate vocalist Jeremy Enigk who plays at Chop Suey on Saturday and Sunday, December 30 and 31.

I frankly hadn't followed Jeremy's career since SDRE's breakup.  This may be a great opportunity for everyone (myself included) to acquaint themselves with his new effort, World Waits.

If you want to hear more stuff from him, here's a link to a past AOL podcast.

Jeremy Enigk on The Interface

Allow me to go off-tangent for a while.  We lost electricity last night right about when Matt Hasselbeck passed a ball which was supposed to be a touchdown pass but was instead an interception by the 49ers.  It was a critical play that was one of the factors to the Seahawk loss last night.  I probably didn't mind if the water was coming down in sheets if it was an advantage for Seattle to win the game.  Too bad things calmed down weather-wise for the folks from the Bay Area to eke out a win. 

If things don't change, I may be unable to catch the Battlestar Galactica season finale tonight as well (*booo...*).

Anyway, since it's Christmastime and people are eager to hand their billfolds over to enterprising capitalists, I thought a song by former Yano frontman Dong Abay on consumerism would be appropriate.  It reminds me a bit of REM's It's The End of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) in terms of lyrical wordplay.

Bombardment - Dong Abay

Stranger Than Fiction has got to be one of the best films I've seen all year long.  It tells the story of IRS agent Harold Crick (played by Will Ferrell).  He's lived a life made comfortable by creating a daily routine.  One day that shred of comfort got turned upside down as he came to the realization that he's only been a character in author Karen Eiffel's (Emma Thompson) fiction.  Getting into philosophical territory, aren't we?

Woody Allen-esque ironic twists come into play as the story progresses and we witness events unfolding in both Karen's and Harold's lives.  We also get to meet colorful characters like literary professor and lifeguard Jules Hibbert (Dustin Hoffman), plucky pastry chef Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and Karen's personal assistant with a stiff upper lip Penny Escher (Queen Latifah). 

I enjoyed this movie so much.  The performances are top notch.  Ferrell gets to play down the wild man angle and shows his range as an actor.  Sorry to dissapoint if you're looking for Frank The Tank because you won't see any of that in this film.  I don't have to tell you about the other cast members since they've always turned in Oscar-worthy acting in the past.  This isn't an exception.  The camera-work and cinematography serves to tell part of the story with the way each shot is so angled with sharp corners and drab hues throughout most parts of the first act.  As the film progresses and Harold loosens up, we gradually see softer, curved shapes and brighter colors.  The last thing that gets me sold on the movie is the excellent work that Spoon's Britt Daniel did to score the film.  Instrumental versions of tracks from Kill The Moonlight and Gimme Fiction are littered throughout the picture in addition to some original music as well as songs by The Jam and the brilliant use of Wreckless Eric's Whole Wide World in one key scene.

I think what really got me about this movie is the reminder that we should all treasure each moment that we've got.  No matter how trivial one would think any event would be, it later fits into a grander scheme of things which makes up what we are irrevocably.

Here's that great Wreckless Eric song (c/o who killed the mixtape?)

Whole Wide World - Wreckless Eric