Artifice

Okay, you, me, outside, RIGHT NOW! :rolls up sleeves:

Well I pretty much killed the Best Albums of the Decade thread by anointing Funeral, so don't blame me!

I am terrible at lists, but after much deliberation, I am absolutely certain that Funeral is the best record of the decade. After that, I'd just be listing that chunk of my CD collection in order of whatever mood I was in that day. But Funeral is absolutely superb. There's no such thing as a flawless record, but the mixture of audacity, songwriting, performance, and the timing of the record and how it reinvigorated music was absolute lightning in a bottle magic. 6 years after its release, and it holds up immensely well. I really cannot think of another record that compares. Yes, even a

I've seen most of these other bands people are listing, but never BSS. This is one of those shows that could be great, or just a clusterfuck mess. Hope it was the former... I assume Leslie, Amy & Emily all fronted BSS for their respective songs? Which ones did they play?

Does it add to the enjoyment that they tried to invent their own genre.... ... (wait for it) ... "crunkcore" Ladies and gentlemen, I rest my case.

I'm sorry folks, but none of these turds comes close to the vomit and seizure inducing awfulness of Brokencyde: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TH5ibABP4U Don't say I didn't warn you. I did. Don't blame me for your morbid curiosity, or for the fact that some things just cannot be unseen.

Ughh... Please don't do that. Both were very impressive visual expereiences. LotR had a library's worth of lore and one of the greatest works of fiction as its source material. The other was "Dances With Smurfs" (or Night Elves, for you WoW geeks). I could be even more jaded about it:

I really, really, really, really wanna hear this.

I stumbled across this a couple of weeks ago and also was in awe. Then I read some kinda snarky quote from Prince about how he had never heard the song prior to that performance. Don't believe him, and dislike his ego for having said that to build his own myth. Let your talent speak for you man. Less words, more playing.

I am physically addicted to this song. Not one to usually like the folksy, June Carter & Johnny Cash vibe, but my goodness is this superb. I'm beginning to think it's the best song of 2009. Period.

Jim James - Rainbow Connection Shared with my 3 year old son. Great moment. He loved it, though I think he prefers Kermit.

I thought Okkervil River was really good. Sheff still can't sing, and maybe he was trying too hard to ape Arcade Fire's performance, but it was still a lot of fun. Plus, I think I have a RSGF thing brewing for Lauren Gurgiolo. I like M Ward quite a bit, but I always find myself just begging him to break out of the mellow folksy rut when I see him play. Usually gravitate to his songs with fuller arrangements and a little more life in them. That said, To Go Home was not the best song in his set, so maybe he can't pull it off. St Vincent was okay. I really wanted her to do Luaghing with a Mo

Pardon Mr Grumpy here, but I liked Daniel for about a week until I bothered listening to A Forest again (BFL cover and the original). It's so copycat, and the lyrics are cheesy, which finally got to me. And that Dirty Projectors song is fingernails on a chalkboard. Gitmo material. No one should have to be subjected to it. And it probably was released in late '08, but In Ear Park is on my list, along with predictable tracks from Girls and Phoenix.

Holy crap! I guess I should thank 120 minutes for preventing me from shooting myself.

I'm kinda diggin: The Antlers - Kettering The Almighty Defenders - Cone of Light The latter one is really catchy.

How is that? Never heard of it, but I went through a Bauhaus/Peter Murphy/L&R/TonesOnTail phase from about '87-'91...

Truth!

I was browsing youtube this weekend looking for something Big Star related, and I saw a video of Chilton on French TV. Some kind of unintentionally bad Tom Jones type of thing. What an abomination. I won't even link it. As for the arguments - I guess when you make a statement like "best of", you're asking for discussion, but isn't it enough that Big Star is your favorite, or one of your favorite bands from that era?

Though I agree with everrything else you said, I just wanted to mention that I've been wearing this record out for the past 2 weeks. First heard it about 7 years ago (?) and it's not aged one bit. those first few notes of speed of sound are amazing. I have put that song on so many mix CDs that it's shameful. Was this at Centennial Park in Atlanta? I was at that show. There were about 20-30 people actually paying attention to them. It was kinda sad. I was geeked though. Had never seen Chilton before.

Remake?

Caught the Charlotte show last night at the Visulite. White Rabbits were great. I don't know that music based that heavily on percussion is my favorite (they had 3 drummers for one song!), but they were really good. I was kinda depressed because the venue is small and only about 125 people showed up for them (and that might be a generous estimate). It's awkward when the band is better than the crowd. They deserved better. Matthew & Eleanor from TFF were roaming around near the bar area during their set. I started to say hi, but I didn't wanna be that guy. They played their entire set

They might as well have named the album Lazarus. I hadn't even thought about them in a decade or more. I'm diggin' it.

I went to college with Joe. Actually, I got hired for the same job by the first newspaper that hired him, right after he was promoted. Great writer, good piece, and RIP John Hughes. Yes, his films helped define the '80s. That IMDB resume is absolutely ridiculous. Very few others have had their hands in so many classics & blockbusters. And in just over a decade. Sports analogy - it's kinda like John Wooden's run in college basketball.