This was a great year for shows. Most of the performers I've checked out was a first time experience. Bands like Jesu, CSS, Against Me!, Paramore, and The Police (a dream come true, but unfortunately were out-rocked by their younger counterparts) brought on rock music the way it's supposed to be played. Some bands I've returned to see because I knew I was expecting stellar performances. These included Blonde Redhead, The New Pornographers, and Rilo Kiley. Here's the rundown with some clips off the respective gigs.

CSS, Neumos 6/7/07


Blonde Redhead, Showbox 4/21/07


Against Me!, Capitol Hill Block Party 7/28/07


Rilo Kiley, Showbox 9/8/07
Note: this was my second RK show ever, but this was the first time that they really blew me away performance-wise.



Paramore, Endfest 9/22/07




Addendum:

How could I forget that I also saw Morrissey for the first time this year at The Paramount?  How could I forget that this was also one of the most explosive shows I've ever seen?  How?  Was it just because I went to quite a bunch of concerts this year that it got lost in the shuffle?  I'm I losing my memory?  What did I have for breakfast this morning?  I even got the man himself to wish me well for the day as I was trying to dump an extra ticket to a fan at the venue gates!  It was one of my most memorable concertgoing experiences.

One of the city's most legendary music venues closed their doors last Sunday. The Crocodile Cafe was one of the clubs that helped put Seattle in the rock music map.  There have been news pieces that followed it's recent troubles from both The Seattle Weekly and The Stranger.  It wasn't too shocking for me to find out that this happened.  I just didn't think that it would happen this soon.

I've seen quite a lot of great shows there in the past.  Some of those shows have been written about in this blog.  Here are some great memories from one of my favorite haunts that I could recall:

Snow Patrol performing in Seattle for the first time and being thankful to the locals for being some of the first fans to make Final Straw a breakout album in the US.

Seeing both Stellastarr* before releasing their debut record and The Killers performing way before their careers really took off.  I think The Killers were opening for Franz Ferdinand too (who weren't household names in the US at the time either).

The weird performance art that accompanied the music of British Sea Power.  There was lots of foliage involved.  Their drummer also went around the venue banging his portable tom.

Celebrating my 30th birthday by seeing +/- and Versus.  This was one of the best birthdays I celebrated.  I've been a Versus fan for so many years prior to seeing them for the first time that evening.

Headbanging at that size venue to bask in the awesome prog of Porcupine Tree during the first leg of the Deadwing tour.

Pete Yorn's sweaty and short set at his vanity record label's showcase.

My favorite Croc incident was standing behind Pete Doherty on the beer line at The Croc's bar after The Libertines played their set, touring for Up The Bracket.  I big-upped the guy for a great job onstage.  This was clearly before he dated supermodels and thought he was better than the rest of the band.

Don't Look Back Into The Sun - The Libertines

I had so many other memories like seeing Rogue Wave, The Lashes, Longwave, and many other groups play there for the first time.  This was when they had great bookers putting shows together for the place.  I didn't even realize that I stopped going there for over a couple of years.  Competition from Neumos and The Showbox seemed to grab my wallet's attention for live acts slowly but surely.

I'm really gutted that this had to happen and only because the venue was poorly managed.  I hope the condo developers don't get their grubby hands on that place and that it will continue to be a live venue for people to chill out to.  If this isn't the case, I'd really like to thank The Croc for all the great times either alone or with friends to see a show, the great brew, and even the great staff for making it worthwhile to visit the place.  You will be missed.

Okay, since everyone has to weigh in on their best-ofs around this time of the year, I thought I'd start out with my personal favorite pictures from 2007.  From numbers 10 until 6, I'll keep it short and sweet.  For the top 5 films, I'll expound a little bit more.  Them's the rules.


10.  300
- Come on, it was all about kicking ass, right?  Loved how visceral it was.


9. Exiled
- Johnnie To continues to be one of my favorite directors, Asian or otherwise.  He delivers again in this pistol opera.  Brilliant performance by Anthony Wong here.


8.  Talk To Me
- Don Cheadle was great in portraying one of the major players who started one of the pioneering radio networks in the US.  Plus the music mostly from the Stax label really helped portray the turmoil of the 60's.


7.  No Country For Old Men
- One name:  Anton Chigurgh


6.  Superbad
- This comedy was like the companion piece to Knocked Up which was released earlier in the summer.

 
5. Grindhouse
-  Yes, I loved both Planet Terror and Death Proof--so there!  This set of films made moviegoing a cultural event again.  It's so bad that in the age of the internet and DVD home viewing, the general public has lost their appetite for seeing pictures on the big screen.  I was fascinated and transported back to my childhood going to Baguio City's First Cinema to see double features.


4.  Knocked Up
-  Judd Apatow is one of the best Hollywood writers ever.  I've enjoyed his work since the 90's.  I'm glad the rest of the world can now see the greatness that I've been a fan of for quite a while now.  Seth Rogen played a great awkward burnout back on Freaks and Geeks.  It's also good to see that he's getting more work now doing future projects like Pineapple Express and The Green Hornet.


3.  The Host
-  This is my favorite Korean import film in 2007.  This was what monster movies were about when I enjoyed them in the old days.  It's surprising that the writers have managed to squeeze comedy into what is generally a dreadful tone in giant monster film genres.  It was also icing on the cake to have Bae Du-Na as one of the actresses playing a central role in the picture.


2. Linda Linda Linda
- My favorite music-related film of the year.  This was also the first movie I viewed in 2007.  I've mentioned about how it's hard for bands to put their live act together.  What the audience usually sees is the show itself.  Little do most of them know that there's so much drama and good times that the performers go through as they practice perfecting their set.  I find it strange that I've got a Bae Du-Na double whammy since she plays the Korean exchange student in this picture.  Y'all should just go ahead and see more of her acting on one of this year's more popular Koreanovela series Someday.


1.  Juno
-  I saw this movie yesterday and was floored.  I never thought a movie this good could shoot up to number 1 in my list of favorite movies this late in the year.  This one did it.  The fantastic directing by Jason Reitman, the witty and incisive writing by Diablo Cody, and the stellar performances by main castmembers Ellen Page and Michael Cera are reasons enough to like this film.  It's nice to see the intelligent and whipsmart kid as the center of attention in this teen film.  Most of the time, they're just the quirky friend in the background.  I think that's the underlying appeal of this picture.  Also, like Bae Du-Na earlier in the countdown, we've also got a double whammy this year from Michael Cera.  Go George Michael, go!

And because you've gone this far to read everything, I'll shortly talk about music from the film.  I enjoyed the soundtrack which features songs by Kimya Dawson, Belle and Sebastian, and even Mott The Hoople in a very pivotal scene.  I included the David Bowie rendition of All The Young Dudes for today instead of MTH's version (well at least I went with my better judgement to choose this over the Bruce Dickinson cover).

All The Young Dudes - David Bowie

I'm sold!  I think I'm down with the fairer sex fronting bands from this genre. The heart-on-sleeve lyrics are more believable to me as a listener.  Another band that's got a great female tenor on vocals is Laguna-based Effinboiche.  With their vocalist Alex Fuentes, this band would've made it much bigger in the Pinoy rock scene.  It looks like plans have changed for the group since she has now moved to the US.  Hopefully she could find a band that could use her skill and talent--I mean look at the Youtube clip below.  Singing live with that range and playing guitar for a high-octane band like that is no easy task.  I never thought there was anyone out there that could give Hayley from Paramore a run for her money.

Note: the audio on the Youtube video is very rough, so you've been informed. Download the studio version of the song to really appreciate what's going on with the band's performance.

I Don't Remember - Effinboiche

My favorite weekly broadsheet, The Stranger, is again holding the annual Strangercombie Annual Holiday Gift Auction.  Like any other year, this one proves to have something of interest to anyone with extra cash, a competitive streak, and a generous heart.  The beneficiary of this year's event will be Seattle's Farestart--a local organization that does skills training the homeless and financially disadvantaged in the community.

Some interesting items up for bid include silkscreened concert posters, an iPod shuffle filled with a playlist by Sub Pop Records head honcho Bruce Pavitt, a SIFF package, karaoke with American Idol Blake Lewis, and many others.

Cat Power fans should take note that a guitar signed by the indie chanteuse is also up for grabs.  As this is posted, it's up at $196.50.  See if you can top that.  Come on, do it for charity!  The auction ends on Friday, December 14 at 5 PM Pacific Standard Time.

So now that we've got that out of the way, here's Chan doing a cover of the Oasis classic Wonderwall on BBC's John Peel Sessions:

Wonderwall - Cat Power (at The John Peel Sessions)

I got to see the UK skinhead drama This Is England a couple of weeks ago.  It's the story of a preteen boy in the 80's trying to find sense out of his dad's death during the Falklands conflict by keeping company with a bunch of skinheads.  At first, the group was just fine with hanging out and having a good time.  Things turned sour though as one of their own got to return from prison spewing hatred--and rhetoric wasn't enough to drive the point home.

I think my expectation for this movie was going to have the same moral complexities that American History X had.  Unfortunately the film only delivers what we already know about racist factions and their self-loathing ilk.  If anything, the viewer gets to realize the way the subculture contradicts itself, especially with their music choices. I'll have to admit that the reggae soundtrack including Toots and The Maytals was what made me enjoy the film marginally.  I also did like the final scene with The Smiths' Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want playing in the background.

Here's a version of that song as covered by Deftones (since you guys and gals may already have heard the original so many times).

Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want - Deftones

This supplementary post is for all the loyal returnees suffering from music download withdrawal.

So I came across this post from I Am Fuel, You Are Friends that alerted me about what looks like a secret Green Day side-project called Foxboro Hottubs.  I never really was a GD fan perhaps partly because their rise signaled the end of the 90's Seattle sound, but whatever...I thought I'd give this thing an open-minded listen and actually enjoyed what was going on in the background.  The music has Billy Joe's usually overbearing sneering vocals only set to stun for this one.  Check out the mod-retro stylings of the group as they try to kick it retro.

The good part about all this is that the mini-album Stop Drop and Roll is available for download for free (thank you, Radiohead for starting a trend!).

They're all elements in the new Baroness video for Wanderlust from Red Album.  I've been raving about these boys for the past few months now, so here's another one to puff them up.  I know...I've been scouring Youtube for quite a bunch of stuff, thanks for the observation.

I'm melting down over the awesomeness that is Machine Girl.  Revenge plot?  Check.  Gatling-gun arm attachment?  Check.  Killer Ninja?  Check.  Drill bra (you read that correctly)?  Check.  Gratuitous violence?  Check.  If any of this is turning you on so badly, go ahead and look at the preview below.  You'll thank me later.  Put me down for a DVD or five.

Yeah, how about another post today to make up for the drought?  Here's a great video I found which reimagines Iggy and The Stooges' I Wanna Be Your Dog in peculiar fashion (yes, pun intended).