Best Albums of 2011

After a few years with very little (in my eyes) in the way of great, or even good, music, I was pleasantly surprised with all the great stuff that came out in 2011. There was great stuff from The Naked & Famous (yay for Kiwis!), The Aquabats! (they require exclamation points!), Childish Gambino, The Roots, The Bosstones, Screeching Weasel (yes, BW is a douche, he still makes great music though), Tune-Yards, and many more. However, there are 2 that come to the top of my mind as my favorites from the year. I present them in no particular order:

Kanye West & Jay-Z - Watch The Throne

Kanye and Jay's wonderful tribute to narcissism. I have never heard anything so self-absorbed in my life and it is tremendous. I think a lot of my enjoyment of this stems from the pure (unintentional?) comedy of the whole affair. If you can listen to "H.A.M." and not laugh you are an odd individual, that's all I can say. But beyond that, Ye's production here is nearly impeccable. He truly is at the top of his game with samples and beats and all. In most people's hands "Otis" would be a complete mess, but here it is one of the best tracks on the album. Plus, you need to watch the video just for Aziz Ansari's dance moves (at about 2:30). This needs to turn into the next "Macarena" or something. I still think Jay-Z is overrated as a rapper (sacrelige to rap fans, I know, but it's true), but his shortcomings seem to be minimized here. As most people know, I'm not a big rap guy to begin with, but this album is fantastic.




The Get Up Kids - There Are Rules

After a few years off (hiatus/breakup), the Get Up Kids are back and as good as ever! If you are looking for "On A Wire"-style campfire singalongs, look elsewhere. This is TGUK at their most vibrant, energetic, and experimental. If Matt Pryor's voice weren't so distinctive, you'd almost swear that this couldn't be the Get Up Kids. The biggest difference between this and the last few TGUK albums, though, is that it sounds like they are excited to be a band again. Towards the end of their first go-round, it almost seemed like they were going through the motions. Case in point, in the "On A Wire" days I saw them live and they were ok, but nothing special. Caught them again a year or two ago (after the reformation) and it was like a whole other band. Energetic, excited, and engaging - and this album is an extension of that. This is a truly great album, right up there with "Something To Write Home About". Check it, yo. Now if we can only talk James into a new Reggie or Fluxuation album...



I almost forgot! I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention the plethora of great comedy albums that came out in 2011. My runners up for Comedy Album of the Year are "Hendersons and Daughters" by the Sklar Bros. and "Potty Mouth" by Doug Benson. Both hilarious and highly recommended. They also both do great podcasts (Sklarbro Country and Doug Loves Movies respectively). But comedy in 2011 really belonged to Louis C.K. (and if you haven't gone to his website and bought his new special for $5 you are missing out). "Hilarious" is just that. Certainly not for kids, but Louis is certainly on the top of his game. If you need a laugh, this should be your first stop.

Music Stuff

I have recently trying to re-backup some stuff from my old college computer (basically condensing the tons of backup CDs I burned onto DVDs) and I came across an old video that I hadn't seen in ages, but is, as the Aquabats would say, "serious awesomeness!"

New America from Bad Religion on Vimeo.

Good old Bad Religion. On a side note, in looking for a copy of this video online, I found out that they are recording a live "album" of sorts that they will be sending out for free if you join their mailing list at badreligion.com.

Anywho, that got me thinking of old videos that I hadn't seen in a while, and then up comes "Peppyrock" by BTK on itunes. This video has some many great old-school Sesame Street references, my favorite being the B-Boy "one of these things is not like the other". This video also makes me miss Muchmusic to an insane degree. For the uninformed, Muchmusic is basically Canadian MTV, except they play music (so maybe Canadian MTV circa-1990). Good stuff. Anyway, here's the video for that:


On a related note, here's an old Sesame Street moment. They don't quite make them like this anymore; can you imagine a pseudo-drug dealer on a kid's show today???


Which brings me to my favorite music video of all-time. So incredibly, amazingly, and wonderfully stupid! If you don't already know what one it is, I won't spoil it, but I will give you a hint: it involves fruit and ninjas. It's also not available for embedding so follow this here link!

In addition to all the video goodness, I realized that I promised (months ago) to get a top albums of 2009 list together. I also realized that it hadn't happened yet. So with a little thought and plenty of half-assedness, here's my picks:

Honorable mention:
Lady Sovereign - Jigsaw
Weird, wacky beats and presentation are the hook here. Lady Sov is as odd as ever, but I think the music has improved. She's also added some songs that are oddly confessional, for her and for rap in general. And a sample of the Cure's "Close To Me"? Good stuff.

Matt and Kim - Grand
Wikipedia lists them as "dance punk". I'd call them more "electro indie" (yes, I did just make that up). Either way, this is a fun album that I have enjoyed a LOT more than I expected. If you watch "Community", and you should, it has gotten excellent, you may remember this one. While you're at it, check out a cover someone made with Mario Paint, holy crap!

Runner-Up:
Flight of the Conchords - I Told You I Was Freaky
Great album. This was close to getting up to number one, but a couple "meh" moments drag it down (notably "Demon Woman" and especially "Fashion is Danger"). Oddly, I liked the first season of the show more, but enjoyed the album of the second season more. And when the songs here are good, they are REALLY good. "Hurt Feelings" (home of the classic line, 'I feel like a prize asshole/no one even mentions my casserole') and "Sugalumps" are both amazing. And then, of course, there is the all time classic "Too Many Dicks (on the Dance Floor)". AMAZING. And where else would you hear 'Too many dicks/too many dongs/too many schlongs/now sing this song'? FOTC singlehandedly make New Zealand awesome.

Best Album of 2009:
Fight Like Apes - You Filled His Head With Fluffy Clouds and Jolly Ranchers. What Did You Think Was Going to Happen?/...And The Mystery of the Golden Medallion
First of all, before I get into anything, these guys are incredible. Go here right now and download their free concert mp3s and then mosey over to amazon where you can get their full album for $7 in mp3. Now with that out of the way, a little explanation as to how two titles take the top spot. "You Filled His Head..." is actually a sampler EP for the US market (FLA is Irish) that, despite what amazon says, was released here prior to the full album. It is mainly cuts from ATMotGM with an extra song or two. ATMotGM was actually released overseas in 2008, but seeing as how I'm not overseas, I am going by the American release, which was well into '09. With explanations out of the way, let's discuss the music. It's wild and (at times) sloppy and random and punky and dancey and filthy and funny and catchy, as well as sugar and spice and everything nice (or is that girls?). They categorize themselves as "karate rock", which is about as good a description as any. I could try and single out some songs, but they are all great. Some of my current favs include "Something Global" ('hooks are for wimps/and choruses for gays' is right up there with the FOTC line), "Do You Karate?" (unfortunately the lyrics are edited in this video, but what can you do?), and the wonderful "I'm Beginning To Think You Prefer Beverly Hills 90210 To Me" ('you're fired/SUPLEX! SUPLEX! SUPLEX, BACKBREAKER!', genius.). Although Bret and Jemaine put forth a valiant effort, MayKay and the boys from Fight Like Apes just plain put out a classic album. Honestly, they are by far the best band I have discovered in YEARS, and oddly enough, I discovered them when they were mentioned in a small blurb on the wikipedia homepage. Who knew that that was the place to find new music? Congrats, Fight Like Apes!

Finally, in closing, I'd like to present you with something completely unrelated that will become your new favorite thing to say post-defecation: "Boy, that's a load off my anus!"