And from the upcoming Lego Movie: “Everything is Awesome” by Tegan & Sara with The Lonely Island
Strong stuff this year.
First – a runner up: Frankenchrist by The Dead Kennedys. The featured art for this post is “Landscape XX” by H.R. Giger, a poster included in the vinyl version of Frankenchrist. This is the album that helped launch the PMRC, and this is the album that put Jello Biafra on the spoken word circuit throughout the late 80s and early 90s. There’s some good music, yes. But there’s mostly notoriety. Much to my chagrin, I once held a used copy of Frankenchrist on vinyl in my hands. It was marked $4. It was 1990, I believe. To this day, I regret not buying it. The poster was neatly folded inside. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Now, the 10 best albums of 1985:
The Cure – The Head on the Door
Tears for Fears – Songs from the Big Chair
Pogues – Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash
Skinny Puppy – Bites
Dead Milkmen – Big Lizard in My Backyard
Einsturzende Neubauten – Halber Mensch
Descendents – I Don’t Wanna Grow Up
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Freaky Styley
Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy
INXS – Listen Like Thieves
I hadn’t finished up the whole decade yet, so without further ado, the 10 best albums of 1981:
The Police – Ghost in the Machine
Stiff Little Fingers – Go For It
Prince – Controversy
Agent Orange – Living in Darkness
Men at Work – Business As Usual
The Go-Go’s – Beauty and the Beat
U2 – October
Black Flag – Damaged
Stray Cats – Stray Cats
Psychedelic Furs – Talk Talk Talk
First – how’d I miss CHVRCHES until now? They are awesome and from Scotland, which is something akin to an exponential increase in coolness.
Next – The singer for this trio is a well-educated (Law degree and Journalism, pro journalist before starting the band) woman who’s not going to just “take it” when it comes to online misogyny, as she writes in the Guardian. Reminds me of Grimes being fed up as she finished her last tour.
Just had a conversation with my fantastic coworker and friend Ashley about feminism and the way it’s considered a bad word by what too often appears to be a whole generation of young women. I brought up a very weird article I read about Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill being a fan of Taylor Swift and her women-centered lyrics, even though Swift has been attacked by Camille Paglia as “killing feminism.” Swift herself has shied from the word “feminist” – and has, in fact, characterized feminism as “a guys vs. girls” thing. Jezebel and The Frisky have taken her to task for this mischaracterization.
As disheartening as it is to hear Swift misrepresent what feminism even means, and as weird as it is to hear Hanna defend her, it’s reassuring to hear Grimes and Mayberry speak out (even if it remains discouraging to think that they have to do so). I wonder what Paglia would say about these two ladies? Sadly… she’s probably never heard of them…
Paglia and Grimes agree, though – Beyonce has the right idea. In particular, Grimes links to NPR’s Fresh Air coverage of Beyonce’s new album and its sample of the TED talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on feminism:
Just caught this on Adult Swim while watching Akira.
I first saw this video on MTV in the late 1980s. It challenged me – this was pop music? This was a ska song about something more…
1918 – 2013
Rest In Peace
Holy heck, I dig this. That guy has a phenomenal voice, and this interpretation is fantastic.
JEZEBEL’s Laura Beck says Puddles is “Creepy” but I don’t see it that way. And I’m no real fan of clowns. There’s something strange, yes, about the whole scenario, but it’s not even Rasputina weird. It’s just kind of off kilter, and I like it.
And here’s his own homepage : Puddles Pity Pary.
(Don’t forget, you can buy the mp3 of that performance on iTunes.)
A little harder this time, but based on the poll (still up ’til the end of November 2013) over at Slicing Up Eyeballs, here’s my Top 10 Albums of 1989:
Energy – Operation Ivy
The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste – Ministry
Indigo Girls
The Real Thing – Faith No More
Disintegration – The Cure
Allroy’s Revenge – ALL
Mother’s Milk – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Doolittle – Pixies
Paul’s Boutique – Beastie Boys
Pretty Hate Machine – Nine Inch Nails
It was hard to decide on this one, but there are several runners-up:
Pure – Primitives
Peace and Love – The Pogues
3 Feet High and Rising – De La Soul
Start Today – Gorilla Biscuits
Rabies – Skinny Puppy
UAIOE – KMFDM
Bleach – Nirvana
“Lorelei” alone puts Peace and Love on this list, though the rest of the album (often without Shane’s vocals) doesn’t quite make the grade. It’s too bad it took Gorilla Biscuits this long to get their act together. Hardcore like this was pretty much done by the end of the 90s, and Start Today is polished in a way the older songs weren’t, but lacks some of their punch and gusto. Rabies has some excellent songs, among them one of my favorites, “Tin Omen.” But the album as a whole is tainted by Uncle Al (Jourgenson, of Ministry) sinking his fingers into everything in this genre at this time. Bleach would usually make the list, but what it came down to is this: though I hardly ever listen to it, I can tell immediately that Paul’s Boutique is a better album than Nirvana’s freshman effort.
This is the first list, since I started doing this, where I own all the albums in the actual top 10 list.
I’m not feeling this one as much as the previous, but there’s some interesting stuff going on here.
Clash Magazine
OtR
Pitchfork
RE>GEN Magazine
STEREOGUM
Digital DJ Tips
DJ Techtools
The Conversation