Beastie Boys' "Fight For Your Right Revisited" Ruled
Aaron recently went down a verrrrry deep Youtube rabbit hole and when he came out a couple days later he had created the Top 11 Music Videos Of 2011 for Spinner.
You can argue there were artier, more clever, or more ridiculous videos — and there’s a chance you’ll be right — but after seeing every variant of partial animation, exploitative use of child actors, famous people cameos, and use of disturbing prosthetics imaginable, we’re pretty comfortable with what’s there.
Sarah’s life as a jetset travel writer continues with the first of a trilogy of upcoming stories about Niagara Falls.
In installment number one our fair writer informs the people of what’s going down at the Falls this New Year’s Eve.
So if the idea of spending NYE in a giant indoor waterpark with a superstar DJ sounds wicked-cool, you should click here for the article at AOL Travel and find out more.
1. Archive You All Look The Same To Me
2. Cooper Temple Clause See This Through And Leave
3. Young And Sexy Stand Up For Your Mother
4. Queens Of The Stone Age Songs For The Deaf
5. Danko Jones Born A Lion
6. The Guthries The Guthries
7. Songs: Ohia Didn’t It Rain
8. Lindi The Taste Of Forbidden Fruit
9. Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
10. Burning Brides Fall Of The Plastic Empire
Looking back at my Top 10 albums of 2002 I get an almost inverse feeling about most of them compared to my 2001 list. I look up and down and clinically go, yeah, these are good records, but few of them have actually continued to stick with me. The most damning thing? Only three of the 10 I had bothered to rip into iTunes prior to doing this exercise (Cooper, Danko, S:O).
Putting Archive’s You All Look The Same To Me at #1 is kind of embarrassing to me now. It’s purely a contrarian, better-than-you choice. At the time few people knew who Archive were, and fewer had actually listened to the sprawling Pink Floyd-inspired trance rock of You All Look The Same To Me. In a way, that kind of made them all my own, and that was apparently enough to make them toppers. I don’t hate this album by any means, and it’s still a Top 10, but it’s certainly no longer a #1 in my heart and I never go back to it listening-wise.
Archive “Again”:
Cooper Temple Clause’s See This Through And Leave is another album that I rarely go back to. I must have been in a bit of a new-prog phase with them and Archive topping this list, because they pretty much sound alike.
Cooper Temple Clause “Murder Song.” This is a heavy trip:
I’m reasonably certain I’m the only person in the world who declared Young And Sexy’s Stand Up For Your Mother the third best album of 2002. Almost a decade later I don’t know why I did this. Weakness of character?
Whoo! The Rawk! Now, this album maintains. Queens Of The Stone Age’s Songs For The Deaf continues to be one of the few rare “mainstream” rock records of the last decade that doesn’t utterly suck. I don’t know if that’s the music industry’s fault, some sort of lowered expectations or what, but in my world, a great rock record’s got to at least compare to The Who’s Who’s Next? You don’t have to match it, but you at least have to try. Default records? Godsmack records? Those kinda bands, that’s not trying.
Queens Of The Stone Age “A Song For The Dead”:
I’ve always been a Danko Jones supporter, but on careful consideration I’m more of a single song fan — cherry-picking specific tracks of his that I think rule, rather than digging his albums. I know why I put Born A Lion on this list, it’s because Danko finally had an album out after so many years of dancing around the idea of doing so. Most of these songs are DNA to me, I know them by heart, and I maintain this record is house party gold. Is it #5 of 2002, though? I wasn’t certain, but as of writing this and re-listening to the record, the answer’s yes.
Danko Jones “Word Is Bond.” This shit rips:
At #6 I put The Guthries’ self-titled album. This record’s most notable in Can-rock lore because it features Matt Mays. I never go back to it, though, and hindsight is telling me I put it on the list as a better-than-you pick. I hope I don’t do that anymore.
Now, at #7 I put Songs: Ohia’s Didn’t It Rain. This record has some talking points. If I was to retabulate this list today this would be my undisputed #1 album of 2002, but at the time I was somewhat sheepish about my obvious Jason Molina fandom at the time (nowadays, if I feel “fan-ish” at all over a record I ride that wave like nobody’s business — it’s proof I’m not dead inside).
Anyway, there’s a peculiar flipside to this album. When I first listened to it I didn’t really understand it all that well. See, Didn’t It Rain is close to one of the heaviest, gnarliest, deepest gut-wrenching journeys into depression ever recorded. I missed many of these very obvious themes when I first got this record and it’s only now over the years that I’ve been able to figure it all out.
Which brings me to another point — I rarely listen to this record any more. On purpose. I’ve come to believe it’s got a bit of a mystical hold on me where if I listen to these songs I get in a sympathetic mindframe and I start feeling a little darker in the soul. It’s a subtle, toxic chemical reaction, a dangerous audio drug that one has to be most careful with.
Songs: Ohia “Steve Albini’s Blues.” Consume this at your own risk:
At #8 would be Lindi’s The Taste Of Forbidden Fruit. This would be Lindi Ortega, the now-country singer of (relative) little red boots fame. Back in 2002 she was a smoking hot cabaret minx who did songs with titles like “Naughty Little Thing,” “Lipstick Traces” and “Sweet Jezebel.” I liked this Lindi more than the one who’s taking advice on how to get her albums distributed in Wal-Marts.
I realize now why I’ve never ripped The Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots into iTunes — it’s because it had copy-protection that used to prevent doing so. Shocking how I was able to live without listening to this record for 10 years because of a minor technical inconvenience. That’s why the music industry died.
The Flaming Lips “Do You Realize??”
Filling the last spot on the list was Burning Brides’ Fall Of The Plastic Empire. I distinctly remember being undecided about whether or not to include this on the list, but I can’t remember who the other potential choice was. Which I guess means I made the right decision.
Other album lists…
2015 Top Ten — SUUNS + Jerusalem In My Heart SUUNS + Jerusalem In My Heart is #1 2014 Top Ten — Sharon Van Etten’s Are We There is #1 2013 Top Ten — M.I.A.’s Matangi is #1 2012 Top Ten — Dirty Ghosts’ Metal Moon is #1 2011 Top Ten — Timber Timbre’s Creep On Creepin’ On is #1 2010 Top Ten — The Black Angels’ Phosphene Dream is #1 2009 Top Ten — Gallows’ Grey Britain is #1 2008 Top Ten — Portishead’s Third is #1 2007 Top Ten — Joel Plaskett Emergency’s Ashtray Rock is #1 2006 Top Ten — My Brightest Diamond’s Bring Me The Workhorse is #1 2005 Top Ten — Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Howl is #1 2004 Top Ten — Morrissey’s You Are The Quarry is #1 2003 Top Ten — The Dears’ No Cities Left is #1 2002 Top Ten — Archive’s You All Look The Same To Me is #1 2001 Top Ten — Gord Downie’s Coke Machine Glow is #1 2000 Top Ten — Songs: Ohia’s The Lioness is #1 1999 Top Ten — The Boo Radleys’ Kingsize is #1 1998 Top Ten — Baxter’s Baxter is #1 1996 Top Ten — Tricky’s Maxinquaye is #1
The toughest man in the world* went to the conservation park in Lincoln, Ontario, about an hour southeast of Toronto, for a session of pre-match meditation.
Said Jones at a press conference after UFC 140, “It was really beautiful, but it was so cold out there I could only mediate for about maybe 15 minutes because I didn’t want to get sick. I’m standing next to this waterfall to the side of this like stream. It was just so cold, it was way colder by the water.
Ball's Falls lower falls (Ball drop falls?)
“I got a good 12 minutes in but the job was done. We felt really refreshed and our spirits were lifted on the ride back to the hotel. So mission complete.”
What we want to know is, was this at the scenic lower falls section? And was Jones inspired by the exposed Silurian and Ordovician rock strata he could see there? In fact, if he was so inspired, is he really a normal human? Or is he some earth elemental druid warrior who has manifested to show us the true path?
And what about the poor Conservation Authority staff? They mostly just have to deal with the bridezillas who rent out The Big Barn. What’s going to happen this summer when a bunch of pilgrims in Tapout shirts start Mecca-ing their way to Ball’s Falls to “Ommmm” under trees.
It’s all your fault Jon Jones.
* GSP’s hurt, Anderson Silva’s getting old, and Jose Aldo’s a relative runt, so yeah, Jones’ is totally the toughest, well, not counting Junior Dos Santos.
Also, Jones’ last three wins were all against ex-champs — Machida, Rampage Jackson and Shogun Rua — he’s facing top guys, not whoever’s left in the division, so that counts for something, too.
1. Gord Downie Coke Machine Glow
2. The Strokes Is This It
3. By Divine Right Good Morning Beautiful
4. The Avalanches Since I Left You
5. Ours Distorted Lullabies
6. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club BRMC
7. The Dears Orchestral Pop Noir Romantique
8. Spiritualized Let It Come Down
9. Ashley Park The American Scene
10. The Constantines The Constantines
Since I started unearthing these Top 10 lists a week or so ago this is probably the first I’ve felt close to entirely comfortable with.
My #1 album in 2001 was Gord Downie’s Coke Machine Glow and I continue to maintain it’s a brilliant Cancon canon album. I think I might have even given it a 5 out of 5 rating at the time, which is something I’ve done max 10 times in my years of music writing. What’s so special about Coke Machine Glow is it’s so guilelessly “art.” The fact that it was a solo album by the lead singer of a beer-rock arena-level band was secondary. Here, Downie dove deeply into his poetic narratives and then surrounded those stories with alternately beautiful/weird/exciting complimentary music courtesy of The Diner Is Ruined and a cast of related Can-indie veterans. This is the album that proved that Downie was definitively on the side of good.
Gord Downie “Chancellor”:
Everybody had Strokes fever back in 2001 and it was totally deserved. Is This Is? was a super-relentless dance party. It was bold and free and it’s still a great listen today, which is more than I can say for every other Strokes record. It’s funny, I got this record, Spiritualized’s Let It Come Down and Mercury Rev’s All Is Dream on the same day and I remember the V2 Records rep at the time being mad that nobody cared about All Is Dream, but why would they? There were two other nuclear bomb statement albums on everyone’s desks.
“Last Nite,” if you’ve never wildly danced to this song at a club you’ve been at the wrong clubs:
I love By Divine Right and consider them one of the under-appreciated pillars of Canadian indie rock, so I was pretty excited when Good Morning Beautiful came out. In hindsight is more “good” than “great” an album — still Top 10, but probably lower. I would’ve ranked it this high at the time because of the epic hippie jam “Hugger Of Trees.” It’s a song that can cut through all my layers of Grinch.
By Divine Right “Hugger Of Trees”:
Man, The Avalanches’ Since I Left You. Four billion samples, legal bullshit, mystery… none of which matters because if you know this album at all and I say the words “Radio,” “Flight Tonight” or “Frontier Psychiatrist” you should be experiencing an immediate Pavlovian reaction.
The Avalanches “Since I Left You”:
The voice of Jimmy Gnecco from Ours remains one of the most powerful, most chilling things I’ve ever heard. When Ours’ Distorted Lullabies came I out I was convinced they were going to become the biggest band in the world. I’m not sure why they didn’t. I suspect drugs, record company bullshit, band troubles, etc., etc. — the usual stuff — all had a hand in it. Mostly though, I’ve come to learn over the years that most people don’t actually like intense music. They can’t handle the emotional gravity of it all and just want something to hum along to. In the grand scheme that’s probably why Ours never hit it. It’s the world’s loss.
Ours “Meet Me In The Tower”:
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are the perfect rock band. They’ve got black leather jackets, their music’s kinda noisy and dangerous, and the band members themselves are often difficult mumblers. Which all makes them hella cool.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club “Spread Your Love.” I was at this “video shoot,” which wasn’t really a video shoot so much as a proper concert with pro cameras capturing everything:
This would be the second year in a row I had The Dears in the #7 spot, this time for Orchestral Pop Noir Romantique. The best thing about this EP is it gave the band an identity. Something that was theirs alone — which is extremely underrated a commodity in the music universe. This was the dangle that made people want to know more.
The Dears “Autotomy”:
At #8 was the aforementioned Spiritualized record Let It Come Down. This was supposed to be super-huge and it was. Something like 115 people worked on this record and it shows.
Spiritualized “Out Of Sight.” Fuck, this song’s big:
And in every Top 10 list there must be something you no longer care about. For this one it would be Ashley Park’s The American Scene. I remember really digging on this album when it came out, but I’ve never been back to it. And in the sign of true listener death for me — I haven’t bothered to rip the album into iTunes.
I haven’t ripped #10 into iTunes either. That would be The Constantines debut album. I feel no need or desire to revisit this record. I rode that hype train at the time, and enjoyed parts of that journey, and that’s enough.
Other album lists…
2015 Top Ten — SUUNS + Jerusalem In My Heart SUUNS + Jerusalem In My Heart is #1 2014 Top Ten — Sharon Van Etten’s Are We There is #1 2013 Top Ten — M.I.A.’s Matangi is #1 2012 Top Ten — Dirty Ghosts’ Metal Moon is #1 2011 Top Ten — Timber Timbre’s Creep On Creepin’ On is #1 2010 Top Ten — The Black Angels’ Phosphene Dream is #1 2009 Top Ten — Gallows’ Grey Britain is #1 2008 Top Ten — Portishead’s Third is #1 2007 Top Ten — Joel Plaskett Emergency’s Ashtray Rock is #1 2006 Top Ten — My Brightest Diamond’s Bring Me The Workhorse is #1 2005 Top Ten — Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Howl is #1 2004 Top Ten — Morrissey’s You Are The Quarry is #1 2003 Top Ten — The Dears’ No Cities Left is #1 2002 Top Ten — Archive’s You All Look The Same To Me is #1 2001 Top Ten — Gord Downie’s Coke Machine Glow is #1 2000 Top Ten — Songs: Ohia’s The Lioness is #1 1999 Top Ten — The Boo Radleys’ Kingsize is #1 1998 Top Ten — Baxter’s Baxter is #1 1996 Top Ten — Tricky’s Maxinquaye is #1
Risky Fuel 