Let's get right to it... Before the new year (mercifully) rings in.
(you'll have to click through for numero uno...)
3. Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes
So there I was singing Blackbird with Brian Wilson and I thought how many millions of other better singers could've been there at that moment and how much I would've cherished hearing any one of them. But, alas, it was me.
I had mentioned The Beatles tune in jest, really. We were on the topic of songs about birds and I thought it would be cute to bring up the band who Wilson famously tried to one up. But, I was talking to him after Smile had been completed and he seemed more than ready to forget about all that and break into song. And, when I heard him start - "Blackbird singing in the dead of night" - I wished (you have no idea how much) that I could carry a tune.
And even though I knew all the lyrics (which he liked), he wasn't going to take the duet seriously once he heard what came out of my mouth.
And, somehow this name dropping story brings me to Fleet Foxes and the most gorgeous album of the year.
And, if I liked Pet Sounds more than Nevermind (I don't, but it's close), then White Winter Hymnal would be the best song of the year (see album #2). I think I've played it so much that this beautiful song, full of harmonies, has grown a little tired for Mrs. Prophet. And, for that, I apologize. It should never have been that way. There simply wasn't much else to listen to.
White Winter Hymnal
2. No Age: Nouns
Remember the first time you heard Smells Like Teen Spirit? I do.
A few days after I tore up my parent's living room, my older brother came home from college break and I remember flipping through the radio dial on our '88 Buick La Sabre trying to find this new, unbelievable song on the drive back from the train station.
If you remember any of that, go out and listen to Nouns by L.A.'s No Age. Go now.
Listen to Eraser. Or as I like to call it, the best song of the year. Let me repeat, the best song of the year! I tore up my living room.
I expect big things from these kids. Big things.
And boys, it's not good to let prophet down.
Eraser
Can you believe there's no way to embed their music video without using an MTV link with a commercial for the Notorious movie? So, instead, here's their performance on Craig Ferguson's show. Before they play, Ferguson notes the minor controversy that broke out when guitarist Randy Randall was asked to take off his Obama t-shirt for the performance.
1. The Walkmen: You & Me
After an absolutely horrendous show at The Bowery Ballroom in support of their disappointing 2006 album A Hundred Miles Off, I had all but written off what was once my favorite New York band. Let's just say Mrs. Prophet left the show in tears, literally.
It's, therefore, hard to imagine anyone is more surprised than I am to see The Walkmen reappear at the top of one of my year end lists. Bows and Arrows - perhaps the finest hard rock album of the decade - landed in the top spot in '04.
Interestingly, You & Me sounds like it would've been a natural, and welcome, follow up to their '02 debut Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone. It doesn't rock nearly as hard as Bows, but was the deepest album I heard this year and, perhaps, their best work.
And, to think, I ignored this album for the first month it was out.
I can't believe it. I honestly don't know what to write.
Listen for yourself.
It's good, it's really good.
However, I still don't think I'm ready to go back to a concert.
Ah, your top 3 put the other 7 to shame. And your absurdly gratuitous name-dropping puts everyone to shame (this from a prodigious name-dropper). But a cool story nonetheless.
I'm definitely going to check out No Age and liked Fleet Foxes too. The Walkman are a longtime favorite of mine, as well as their precursor, Jonathan Fire*Eater. I saw their Bows & Arrows show at Irving Plaza. Sounds like it was a lot better than the show you saw, but they're certainly not a concert band.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Federal election officials say John Edwards owes taxpayers more than $2.1 million in public matching funds improperly received after he dropped his 2008 run for the White House, yet disclosure reports show his failed campaign is still spending freely.
Edwards’ hopes for the Democratic presidential nomination imploded in a sex scandal four years ago that left him facing criminal charges. But reports filed last week show his 2008 primary campaign spent $836,712 in 2011 on airfare, hotel rooms, cell phones and other expenses [....]
News came hours after police surrounded the US consulate in Chengdu prompting rumours of an attempted defection
By Tania Branigan in Beijing, guardian.co.uk, 8 Feb., 2012, 07.30 EST
A high-profile Chinese official is receiving "vacation-style treatment" for stress, officials have announced – hours after police surrounded a US consulate, prompting widespread speculation of an attempted defection.
The rumours around Wang Lijun's sudden disappearance from public life are an unwelcome development for his patron, Chongqing's ambitious party secretary, Bo Xilai. Bo has been widely tipped for promotion when a new generation of leaders takes power in China this autumn [....] rumours of a split between the men emerged when Wang was abruptly moved to a non-police portfolio last week [....]
Joe Arpaio is called the 'America's toughest Sheriff', but Maricopa County is not so tough if you are white, booked on suspicion of 8 felonies, caught with stolen items in the home of your grandmother who is trying to kick you out, along with body armor, guns and drug paraphernalia. The Maricopa County Attorney's office, headed by a Republican, released the suspect with no charges being filed, just weeks before two grisly murders, because of the need to 'develop evidence' (like, maybe Grandma stole the motorcycle, owned the drugs, guns and body armor?) If the 8 felony suspect was Latino, would he have been set free so easily?
The individual involved was later arrested with four others, for the crimes of robbing and killing a wealthy Paradise Valley Arizona couple whose burned bodies were found bound in their destroyed house. The Jaguar automobile of the couple was found burned at another location.
MIAMI – A former Ecuadorean newspaper columnist who faces prison and millions of dollars in fines for his criticism of President Rafael Correa requested asylum Wednesday in the U.S., claiming he is the victim of persecution aimed at stifling free expression. Emilio Palacio, 58, said in an asylum application that a criminal libel judgment against him in his homeland shows he "is being severely punished in Ecuador for expressing legitimate opinions and subjective interpretations of factual events."
A four-hour, closed-door hearing was held Wednesday in Miami [....]
The Inter-American Press Association, for example, called the president's actions "a systematic and hostile campaign to do away with the independent press." Similar claims have been leveled against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an ally of Correa's [....]
By David M. Herszenhorn and James Gorman, New York Times, Feb. 8/9, 2012
MOSCOW — In the coldest spot on the earth’s coldest continent, Russian scientists have reached a freshwater lake the size of Lake Ontario after spending a decade drilling through more than two miles of solid ice, the scientists said on Wednesday.
A statement by the chief of the Vostok Research Station, A.M. Yelagin, released by the director of the Russian Antarctic Expedition, Valery Lukin, said the drill made contact with the lake water at a depth of 12, 366 feet. As planned, lake water under pressure rushed up the bore hole 100-130 feet pushing drilling fluid up and away from the pristine water, Mr. Yelagin said, and forming a frozen plug that will prevent contamination. Next Antarctic season the scientists will return to take samples of the water [....]
The need to prevent even the slightest contamination of the lake is acute. Its environment is comparable to conditions on the moons of Jupiter, which are among the candidates for extraterrestrial life. If life exists in Vostok, it may well exist on Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter [....]
Ah, your top 3 put the other 7 to shame. And your absurdly gratuitous name-dropping puts everyone to shame (this from a prodigious name-dropper). But a cool story nonetheless.
I'm definitely going to check out No Age and liked Fleet Foxes too. The Walkman are a longtime favorite of mine, as well as their precursor, Jonathan Fire*Eater. I saw their Bows & Arrows show at Irving Plaza. Sounds like it was a lot better than the show you saw, but they're certainly not a concert band.
It was a weak year, so filling out a top ten wasn't easy. These three really stuck out as being a cut above.
Always loved that Give Me Daughters tune by Jonathan Fire*Eater.
I also put a link up about the controversy with No Age and an Obama t-shirt on Craig Furguson
And yeah, the name drop was totally gratuitous.