HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE! PAR-TAY!
Tags: Video of the day
I know, I know. I already wrote about this once, and said I couldn’t really put together a definitive “best of” list. But I’ve done more research, much more reading, and I’ve come to conclude that I can! And have! This list builds on that old one—you can just ignore that post, in fact, and consider this one the superseder…..
The best cover of the year appears at right.
For the rest of the list . . .
Hit the break!
Tags: Best of 2010, Boobies, Comic books, Filthy Muties, Punisher, Spider-Man, The Caped Crusader, Thor, Zombies
Seattle’s Volcano Diary may fool you. What they’re doing here is clearly indie rock, but you’re going to hear strains of pop and classic rock: Think Melissa Etheridge, without a ballsy voice, or Edie Brickell, with a ballsy band. Alicia Dare, the singer/songwriter who serves as the frontperson for the band has a wickedly good voice–the kind you’d expect to hear on Buffy the Vampire Slayer–and she’s no slouch with a moody hook, either.
Tags: Indie rock
Julie the Band’s new EP, “Wild As the Sky”, is, put simply, terrific. It’s a tightly crafted amalgam of indie rock, indie soul, and Americana. And there’s no Julie to be found. It’s an all-male team from SoCal who sound like they’ve been playing, singing, and writing together for years. On Baby Bird records.
I totally dig it.
Check it out.
Here’s a vid.
Tags: Americana, Indie rock
Okay, maybe the worst is too harsh. For my last 2010 list, I’m digging into the albums that should have been much better than they were–either because of hype or expectation based on past performance. So they’re not worse than Justin Bieber or that kinda nonsense but, really, guys–if this was the best you could scrape together, you shoulda kept digging. Sometimes the crap that comes out of your head does not need to be said. Or sung.
10. Vampire Weekend-Contra. I almost didn’t put this on here ’cause it seemed like such a “gimme,” but at least their debut was a little crisp. This is soggy. Stale, soggy, David Byrne backwash.
9. Christina Aguilera-Bionic. You might be surprised to hear I expected better from her. At least give us one good single!
8. M.I.A.-Maya. See above.
7. Man on the Moon II – Kid Cudi. What’s the appeal? It’s like B.O.B. without the bounce, and Kanye without the creativity. At least it wasn’t as bad as Drake. This one is on my list for being way too overrated and overvalued by the interspheres.
6. Hole – Nobody’s Daughter Continuing her slow, steady slip into the land of mediocrity. This entry on the list could easily be switched with the latest Ice Cube album.
5. Interpol – Interpol. Last year’s “Julian Plenti” album was far, far better. This one just sounds like all the others that came before it. Only it’s derivative of them. And frankly, as much I enjoyed their first two albums, they themselves owed quite a bit to late 1980s Eurowhinerockers Joy Division.I am huge fan of Interpol. They have produced some of the best albums of the past decade with ‘Turn on the Bright Lights’, ‘Antics’ and ‘Our Love to Admire’, so you can understand just how much I was anticipating their new album this year. What an utter disappointment. I had to listen to this album about ten times to truly understand how horrible it really is. I thought just maybe it was one of those albums that sounds horrible at first listen, but after repeated listens it gets better and better…no…hell no…after repeated listens this album actually got worse and worse. When ‘Lights’ came out as a free download a month or so before the album came out I kind of figured we were in trouble. With Lyrics like
4. Rhymefest-El Che. ‘Fest has brought some of the most interesting, innovative cuts around on recent albums. Not this one. A snoozefest. Too bad.
3. Nas and Damian Marley. How do you take two of the most talented, influential and genre-breaking artists in the hip hop/reggae spheres and make them boring? Simple! Have them go over how bad history was for the black man like they’re giving a college lecture over beats you’d swear you’ve heard before.
2. Brandon Flowers-Flamingo. True, the quality of The Killers’ albums has gone down exponentially with every release, but how did Mr. Flowers sink this low? I actually laughed out loud when I heard this album.
1. Plastic Beach-The Gorillaz. One of my all-time favorite major label bands comes out with something that is . . . Plastic. Perfect name. Artificial, lacking in soul, easy to break and entirely forgettable.
Tags: Best of 2010
This will be my last post of comic book news of the year, and I’m going out with a big one. You’ve probably heard some of this before, but even if you have, it bears repeating. I’ll probably bring this “news” feature back next year, but I’m undecided for sure. Do you all enjoy it?
IRON MAN 3 LOSES A DIRECTOR. By now you all probably know that Jon Favreau walked away from Iron Man 3, and instead is signing on to make a movie based on Disney’s Magic Kingdom ride. Is this an example of Disney raiding Marvel Studios? Perhaps. They’ve also snagged David Fincher for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Guillermo Del Toro for Haunted Mansion. None of which sound even 
remotely interesting, but I imagine they bring with them a significant paycheck. I’m probably in the minority here, but I think this could be a good thing for Tony Stark. Iron Man 1 was terrific, but the actual action sequences were just okay—it was Robert Downey, Jr., who made the film so good. And Iron Man 2 was pretty humdrum, even with the addition of War Machine. I’d rather see IM3 attach a fresh voice with new ideas, especially since it will be the first Marvel Studios film to follow The Avengers. If it turns out that Marvel Studios cultivates talent and Disney snatches it away, that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing: It will mean that up-and-comers will be treating their Marvel movies as auditions for a big paycheck, which means more of the film budget will be on the screen and that the talent will really be trying their best.
X-MEN FIRST CLASS. The “official” plot has been press-released, and it says that the movie “Charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga, and reveals a secret history of famous global events. Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop Armageddon. In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.” Rumors abound that this is code for the Apocalypse saga, but that story is so continuity-heavy and confusing that I doubt it’s true. After all, this has to be the story of how they all come together. Plus, we all know that Kevin Bacon is signed on to play Sebastian Shaw, leader of The Hellfire Club (a school for muties that competes with Xavier’s own school). Wonder if they’ll even bother to try to fit it into Wolverine/X-Men movie continuity? I wish Marvel Studios still had this property, although, if they did, we probably wouldn’t be getting the movie out next year since MS has its hands full already.
THE FLASH. Screenwriter (and comic-book writer) Marc Guggenheim has revealed that Flash (probably Barry Allen) will be a CSI guy. Way too many of those these days. He also indicates that the show will be “dark,” referencing Se7en and Silence of the Lambs. Look, I’m not a big D.C. guy and I’m sure not a Flash fan, but isn’t he supposed to be kinda funny?
JUDGE DREDD. Bits and pieces, snatches and still-shots are leaking all over the place—I’ll let you find ‘em yourself—and they look (gasp) good! I’ve always been a Dredd fan, so much so that I can actually stomach the Sly Stallone version. Barely. But I’ve always felt it would make a much better cartoon than movie—something along the lines of the original Spawn or Afro Samurai.
SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK. Is sold out through April 2011. And I would have bet money it wouldn’t have lasted more than four weeks beyond previews.
T.V. news at the break, including a link to a very very cool Walking Dead video.
Tags: Captain America, Comic books, Filthy Muties, Iron Man, Spider-Man
Tags: Picture of the day, X-Mas
