Favre still sucks!

The 2006 Chicago Bears decided to finally make an appearance during the 2007 season this afternoon and win a football game. Actually, it was more like the 2005 Bears, with Orton at the helm. He played decently, but it was the old defense and special teams that came through today like they used to do regularly. The best part about it: they showed up against the ****ing Packers and made Brett Favre look like a chump, AGAIN. Da Bears!

My 2007 Albums List

1. Radiohead – “In Rainbows”
2. Dinosaur Jr. – “Beyond”
3. Adam Franklin – “Bolts of Melody”
4. Low – “Drums and Guns”
5. Wilco – “Sky Blue Sky”
6. Spoon – “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga”
7. Arcade Fire – “Neon Bible”
8. Smashing Pumpkins – “Zeitgeist”
9. Stars – “In Our Bedroom After the War”
10. Of Montreal – “Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?”
11. The Besnard Lakes – “The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse”
12. New Pornographers – “Challengers”
13. Deerhoof – “Friend Opportunity”
14. The Sea and Cake – “Everybody”

This year I could not decide on #15. My nostalgic pick would be Rush, but I'd really just be lying to myself if I said "Snakes and Arrows" belonged here. I like the Kanye West album, but I'm just not a big hip-hop fan and don't see it making much of a lasting impact on me. Here are a few other decent albums I heard, even though none of them really strike me as great or list-worthy.

Rush – Snakes and Arrows
Kanye West - Graduation
Deerhunter - Cryptograms
The Clientele – God Save the Clientele
Battles - Mirrored
Common – Finding Forever
Fountains of Wayne – Traffic and Weather
Bloc Party – A Weekend in the City
Mika – Life in Cartoon Motion

Of course there are hundreds of 2007 albums I have NOT HEARD yet. A list like mine doesn't really carry that much weight when you consider I've only heard about 30 new records this year, and they are primarily albums I sought out because I knew I'd like them. I'd like to be able to absorb everything and judge my favorites without bias towards albums I know I will like, but that's just not realistic. And there are even a few albums I wanted to hear and never got around to, like the Shins, Apples in Stereo, The National, Menomena, Ted Leo, Andrew Bird, and Baroness!

Soon I will post a track listing of my 2007 mix CD. I'll need another day or two to whittle it down to a manageable number of songs.

Hopefully tomorrow

I'm shooting for tomorrow afternoon to get my 2007 album list posted and create a Best-of-2007 Mix. I need to re-listen to the Fountains of Wayne and Deerhunter albums to see if they are any good, and check a few dates on albums that may or may not have come out LAST year, and if so, cannot be included. But I've got the day off tomorrow (and the rest of the year, actually), so I should have time to sit and ponder these things.

Yesterday I read Pitchfork's top 50 and realized I had not even heard of half their albums. Not surprised, though; hipsters have a special way of making obscure crap sound really important. Take their #1 album, for example: Panda Bear's "Person Pitch." I had read another glowing review of this album, so I tracked it down through some "underground" (read: illegal) channels and downloaded it. I don't get it. It sounds like a dude hanging out in a cave 50 yards from the microphone, making up chants and repeating melodies with no choruses. It doesn't sound like songs, yet people are calling it the most perfect album of the year. Huh?

The Songs in my Head

Hall and Oates. I would have assumed it was called, "You Make My Dreams Come True," but the title is simply "You Make My Dreams." Was someone too lazy to write out the rest, or was there not enough space on the album jacket to fit it? Can you imagine them singing the chorus and skipping the "come true" part? "YOU MAKE-A MY DREAMS -- ...yeah, that's all really."

The Songs in my Head

I've had "House of Pain" by Van Halen in my head a couple times recently, including right now. not sure why cuz I haven't listened to it lately, but I'm not complaining. "House of Pain" and "Girl Gone Bad" are kind of the forgotten final tracks from VH's 1984 album. It's a pretty neat tune, too - there are like 3 or 4 different sections to the song, probably written independently of each other, but fused together into a clever 3 minute job. The part in my head is the lead riff and chorus, but I like the sped-up middle and the back-to-basics ending as well. Some might say that the parts don't really go together that well, and that the song is kind of a mish-mash. But I tend to like songs that start in one place and go someplace so far off that by the end of the song, you've forgotten the beginning. My band Kemman has a lot of songs that do that. (We are playing tonight at the Underground Lounge.)

Wait for it...

I'm still trying to cram a few more 2007 releases down my throat before I post my list of favorite albums from the year. I've been reading lots of other people's lists and of course they are loaded with albums I've never heard, so I thought I might sample a few of them.

I picked up the new Besnard Lakes album at Hard Boiled Records on Roscoe the other day. I was a little apprehensive at first, but it's actually pretty neat. It just might crack the top 15.

One album that I have NOT seen on ANYONE's 2007 list is "Bolts of Melody" by Adam Franklin. Franklin was the singer/guitarist in Swervedriver, and lately had been making music under the name Toshack Highway. This is his first "solo" album, and it quickly grew to be one of my favorites. It's more laid back than Swervedriver, of course, but it's not boring (at least to me).

I saw him play at the Empty Bottle back in October (in fact I went there right from the Van Halen concert at the United Center.) He and his band played several songs from the new album and they sounded great. For whatever reason, I really like his song structures and vocal delivery.

Anyway, look for my list in a couple weeks.

The Songs in My Head

I almost always have SOME song in my head, and very often I don't even consciously notice it. My idea behind this series was to post whatever song was in my head at posting time. But now that I have a chance to post, I am actually listening to music, so the song in my head is the song playing right now: "Puss" by The Jesus Lizard. But it doesn't really count since it's actually playing.

So I will mention a song I had in my head recently: "For Your Life" by Led Zeppelin. The other day, that song was really stuck in there. What adjectives can you use to describe the severity of a song getting stuck in your head? It was stuck in my head real hard? It was stuck firmly? It was un-stickable? It was stuck with resounding presence? Speaking of presence, that song was stuck so thick(?), I had to listen to the entire album from which it came, Presence. A pretty underrated Zep album, it's got some great tunes on it. "Nobody's Fault But Mine" is probably the hit, I guess, but "Hots On For Nowhere" is possibly Zeppelin's most fun song, and nothing even comes close to the power of "Achilles Last Stand." What an epic tune. "For Your Life" is good, too. I dunno why it was in my head though. Just came up on my internal shuffle, I guess.

2006 Revisited

OK. Hindsight being 50/50 and all... My top 15 of 2006 does need a little re-working. I mean, I have more opinions on records than the Cubs have middle infielders (if you don't know, they have a LOT), and they change all the time. But I think this list is a little more accurate. Maybe.

While I like the Frank Black album, I don't think it's one of his best, and I honestly never listen to it anymore, so it's getting bumped. Also, even though I kind of like it, the Thom Yorke album really doesnt belong in that list. Despite my early infatuation, the Flaming Lips record was not properly ranked at number 4, and Don Caballero gets better with every listen. I added an extra album too, because, it's my list and I wanted to.

1. Yo La Tengo – "I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass"
2. Secret Machines – “Ten Silver Drops”
3. Mew – “And the Glass Handed Kites” (this might be a 2005 release overseas, but I'm counting it as 2006)
4. Phoenix - "It's Never Been Like That"
5. Don Caballero – “World Class Listening Problem”
6. Mastodon – “Blood Mountain”
7. Flaming Lips – “At War With the Mystics”
8. Belle and Sebastian – “The Life Pursuit”
9. Loose Fur – “Born Again in the USA”
10. Sloan – “Never Hear the End of It”
11. Futureheads – “News and Tributes”
12. Kooks – “Inside In/Inside Out”
13. Killers – “Sam’s Town”
14. Slayer – “Christ Illusion”
15. TV On The Radio – "Return to Cookie Mountain"
15. Robert Pollard - Normal Happiness

2006 Music

It's getting to be that time of year. No, I'm not talking about Christmas, or even winter (although I think it's pretty much here).

I'm talking about the time of year-end "Best of" lists. Specifically, music and movies. More specifically, just music. A couple of blogs have already started posting their Best 2007 Albums lists, and it is not even December. For the past two years, I have put together my own favorites lists, and I'm getting excited about this year's as well. But I've still got a lot of listening to do before my list is ready.

Here is my original list of favorite albums from 2006. I did a top 15 in order, plus a list of other notable albums that I really didn't feel differentiated themselves enough for me to order them.

1. Yo La Tengo – "I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass"
2. Secret Machines – “Ten Silver Drops”
3. Mew – “And the Glass Handed Kites” (this might be a 2005 release overseas, but I'm counting it as 2006)
4. Flaming Lips – “At War With the Mystics”
5. Belle and Sebastian – “The Life Pursuit”
6. Mastodon – “Blood Mountain”
7. Loose Fur – “Born Again in the USA”
8. Futureheads – “News and Tributes”
9. Sloan – “Never Hear the End of It”
10. Don Caballero – “World Class Listening Problem”
11. Kooks – “Inside In/Inside Out”
12. Frank Black – “Fast Man Raider Man”
13. Killers – “Sam’s Town”
14. Slayer – “Christ Illusion”
15. Thom Yorke – “Eraser”

Since making the list, however, I've caught up on some 2006 releases that I did not know well enough to include. One of these, Phoenix's "It's Never Been Like That" would clearly have made the top 15 if I had heard it in 2006. It probably would have knocked off Thom Yorke, although now that I'm looking at the list 11 months later, there might be some re-arranging to be done...

Anywho, here are some other notable 2006 albums that I liked:

Strokes – “First Impressions of Earth”
TV On The Radio – "Return to Cookie Mountain"
Keane – “Under the Iron Sea”
Built to Spill – “You In Reverse”
Robert Pollard – From a Compound Eye
Robert Pollard - Normal Happiness (better than Compound Eye, IMO)
Asobi Seksu - "Citrus"
Dragonforce – “Inhuman Rampage”
Portastatic – “Be Still Please”
Early Day Miners – “Offshore”
Silversun Pickups - "Carnavas"

Aww crap.

Ugh. I forgot my friggin' iPod and headphones at home today. I'm stuck here at work without any tunes and it's killing me. I actually do have a few CDs in my bag, which would get me through the day, listening through my laptop. But without the headphones, I'm pretty stuck. My office is very quiet, so listening to the laptop speakers is not really an option. Damnit!

I really am going to have trouble concentrating today. Do you have this problem? I've kind of theorized that the only way I can get my left-brain to do any work is if I occupy my right-brain with music. The opposite occurs when I'm on a work conference call - the informational audio is perceived by the left-brain, but I'm forced to doodle to keep my right-brain happy. If I don't have the right balance, I just shut down and do nothing.

Geez, it's only 10:30. Ugh.

Picture

The Songs in My Head

I get songs stuck in my head all the time. I'm sure you do too. I decided to start a running feature here called "The Songs in My Head" and just list whatever song is in there at the time.

Unfortunately, I've got a pretty awful song stuck in my head right now, and it's kind of embarassing that it will be the first one I post. But, this is not a blog of lies. I'm not going to say I have some particularly cool, obscure indie-rock song in my head if it's not true (indie-rock, your time will come).

No, the song right now, for no discernable reason, is Sheena Easton's "Morning Train (9 to 5)." Not the Dolly Parton song - you know, it's the super cheesy one that goes, "My baby takes the morning train / He works from 9 to 5 and then / He takes another home again / To find me waiting for him." I can't get that chorus out of my head right now. Ugh.

Mouse Arrest

Last week, I found some new mouse droppings on the back porch. Set a trap. Within two hours I had a nice dead mouse in it.

It was actually pretty artistic. The trap was on a beam slightly off the floor. The mouse had gotten caught in such a way that the trap was turned perpendicular to the beam, and the mouse was kind of standing (hanging from it), looking up. There was no blood visible on the mouse, but there was a perfect little pool of bright red blood right next to him. I almost took a photo, it was so serene. But that's kind of morbid, I guess.

I keep having dreams

For some reason, I can't think of anything better to write about than my dreams, and I keep having some interesting ones. Ever since we first had a mouse in our old apartment (like 6 years ago), I occasionally have mouse dreams. I dream of them running around, getting in my furniture, my food... And about a week ago, I found a dead mouse on my kitchen floor. Since then I've had THREE mouse dreams. Last night's dream involved other animals too.

In the dream, I was inspecting a house (not mine) for mouse droppings, and found plenty. I was sucking them up with a vacuum cleaner (because in a dream, that's just as good as washing and disinfecting). But I found some larger turds and at first I thought they were from different kinds of mice (and rats!) that had gotten in the house, but I later realized that they were from cats and rabbits and other furry friends. It actually made me feel much better knowing that I didn't have any rats.

I'm kind of freaked about rats too because over the summer I found a dead rat in my back yard. I scooped him up with a shovel and tossed him in the garbage bin in the alley. A few days later I made the mistake of checking to see if it was still there. It was. I gagged at the sight. It haunted me for a while.

Anyway, the dream didn't have much of a plot or anything. Nothing really happened. I just wish I would dream about hot chicks or something instead of mice and rats.

Birthday

I turned 21 ten years ago today. I remember I was home from college for the weekend, and spent the majority of the day driving from Chicago back to Des Moines. I think that night, once back on campus, some friends and I hung out at a coffee shop or something. Not a real wild night, but you wouldn't really expect one from me, would you?

Today will spent watching football and relaxing, then heading to my mom's for some birthday cake. OH YEAH!

Later,
Dr. C

New Stuff

I see my last post was on October 4th, which was my wedding anniversary. A pretty important date, yet the only thing I was concerned with at the time was the Cubs and my hope for a long and frutiful playoff run.

Instead, I got kicked in the nuts (by the Cubs, not my wife). Not kicked really hard, just hard enough to get to that slow drawn out ache. Ugh. Thankfully the Bears beat the Packers or I would been really depressed...

My anniversary was great, though. We went out for dinner and had a great time.

radiohead radiohead radiohead radiohead radiohead

Oops, did I just get sidetracked by the next grasp from my one-track mind? Yes, I downloaded the new Radiohead album tonight, but I'm going to avoid giving any kind of review until I give it a few listens and it settles in.

Instead, I would like to mention how I saw the new film "Lars and the Real Girl" tonight and thought it was really good. The short description would be - it's a movie about a guy who starts "dating" a life-size sex doll, and starts bringing her around town. It's very funny. But there is way more depth and emotion built into the characters and their reactions. I thought the characters were perfectly cast, and the film was well thought out and assembled. Highly recommended.

Cubs Cubs Cubs

Cubs Cubs Cubs Cubs Cubs Cubs Cubs Cubs Cubs

I like the old stuff better, don't I?

I don't know if there's any scientific evidence on this, but I'm sure you've noticed the phenomenon music when a band or artist you like releases a new album that doesn't quite live up to your opinion of the artist. For me, this happens ALL THE TIME. Every new release by a band I love is subconsciously judged against their previous work, and never quite measures up. Rarely do I ever find myself really appreciating the newest work by an old favorite.

An example of a summer 2007 album to meet this fate is the latest by Spoon, titled Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. There are some really great songs on this album ("The Underdog" "Finer Feelings"), but as a whole, I find myself kind of bored by nearly HALF of the album. Really, only 4 of the 10 tracks stand out as great tunes, while another 4 seem to drag on after promising starts, leaving 2 songs on the bubble. In my mind, this record doesn't compare with Kill the Moonlight, or my favorite, Girls Can Tell. My perception of those prior Spoon albums is that of a truly unique sound, with catchy but odd and somewhat soulful tunes. The songs Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga seem too normal to fit into the my perception.

But, who is responsible for my opinion on this album? Am I really blaming Spoon for writing a normal album? What kind of expectations can we realistically put on an artist? As a music fan, do I have a right to complain when I feel a band is straying too far from what I loved about them, and simultaneously criticize them when they simply repeat themselves? Ironically, in the case of Spoon, further examination of the new album reveals that the songs I like the most are actually the ones that are the most adventurous. In particular, I love the loose-swinging Paul Simon feel on "The Underdog" and the reverbed 60's soul sound on "You've Got Yr. Cherry Bomb."

And the rest of the album still sounds like no one else but Spoon, maintaining the uniqueness I admire in their music. So where does that leave me? Is it all in my mind? Or does it boil down to the possibility that a few of the songs are just not that good?

Sports

In sports on Sunday, the Cubs lost their fragile grip on first place, while the Bears lost their fragile grip on the football. I think the Sox lost, too, if anyone cares. When do the Bulls start?

The Stranger

I don't want this blog to become too dream oriented, but I had another strange one last night. In it, I was attending a Billy Joel concert with my wife. The concert was at some small venue that seemed more like a cafeteria room than a music hall. It held a few hundred people but there was no stage. Mr. Joel was performing on piano at ground level. I think we were seated at long tables too.

Anyway, he played some old songs, including Scene From an Italian Restaurant, and everyone was singing along and having fun. But then he played "We Didn't Start The Fire," and nobody in the audience really wanted to hear that song and everyone kind of got restless. So BJ started making up new lyrics as he went. The song is already just a rant of people, places and things (nouns, if you will), so ad libbing new lyrics was pretty easy: "Piz-za, beer bong, Jackie Chan and Tommy Chong, South Korea, Diarrhea, Who shot Mr. Burns." Then he would occasionally stop singing and hold the mic out for an audience member to sing the next line. But the audience, myself included, was not interested in singing that crappy song. Anyone faced with Bill's mic would either stare back at him in silence, or mumble some more nonsense. "Drunk drive, high five, Princess Di is still alive, Husker Du, Zen Arcade, What else do I have to say?"

After that song, Billy Joel decided he had to go pick someone up at the airport. But he was determined to continue the concert from his car (a Cadillac-ac-ac-ac), wearing one of those Madonna-style headset microphones. He urged everyone to stay in their seats, and they would still be able to hear his car performance. But many people decided it would be more fun to follow Billy in their own cars to the airport. I laughed at this idea, but wouldn't you know it, my wife wanted to drive after him, so we went. We could hear him singing through the car radio, but there were so many other concertgoers on the road, we only caught a fleeting glimpse of Billy Joel, with his own mother in the passenger seat ("don't ask me why"), sweaty and singing "Piano Man" as he sped away and merged onto the highway. After nearly 20 minutes of trying to catch up to Billy Joel, we decided it wasn't worth it and we went home. We found out later that once BJ got to the airport, he decided he didn't want to finish the concert anyway, and he went home too, leaving a few hundred people back in the cafeteria pretty pissed off.

Bacon Hater

Well, this is certainly a disappointment. I found an unmarked cassette tape lying on the ground this evening in a park near my house. I was hoping to play it and maybe hear some local garage band, or some kids freestyle rapping, or... something! I threw on Side A without rewinding, and the first thing I hear is a radio ad for the Wendy's "Baconater" burger, followed by some dance music. Not bad, but not what I was hoping for. I rewound the tape and started Side A from the beginning - and immediately my stupid free tape deck ate the tape. Ugh.

But, back to the Baconater... This sandwich has six strips of bacon, which, to me, is not enough. I mean, sure, it's a tasty amount of bacon. And yes, coupled with the double cheeseburgers, it's enough to deem the sandwich "unhealthy." But if you're going to make a sandwich like this, I say you put eight strips of bacon on it, and here's why:

1. With two burger patties and two slices of cheese, I believe that the bacon should also be applied in two layers, not just on top. Such a sandwich construction would be, from bottom to top: Bottom bun, beef, cheese, BACON, beef, cheese, MORE BACON, condiments (apparently it comes with mayo and ketchup), and finally the top bun. And if this construction were carried out, I believe that each LAYER of bacon should be four strips, because three strips of bacon just wouldn't cover enough area to make it worthwhile. Hence, eight strips.

2. Some genius already named it The Baconater. Have some fun with that name and call it The Bacon Eighter! With EIGHT mutherfunkin' strips of bacon! Just DO IT. For your ads, you can create some dweeby character called the Bacon Hater who is always getting CRUSHED by the massive power of the Bacon (sort of like the Noid from the old Domino's commercials).

Come on, Wendy's. You've made a sandwich with some balls, now make those balls a little greasier.

Renewal Dietarians

I had a dream where I was some kind of scientist or behavioralist and I defined a new eating disorder. People with the disorder were called "Renewal Dietarians" and the disorder was that they would binge and purge, and then, um, binge on the purged. Meaning, they ate their own vomit.

Who's hungry?!

In my dream, I thought I was so smart for naming this disorder. I wanted to be sure I didn't forget it, so I kept saying "Renewal Dietarians" over and over. It worked, because when I woke up, I remembered. But the name really doesn't make much sense, does it?

Flamingo

This is a busy week for me. Various friends and relatives from out of town are converging on the greater Chicagoland area, although, luckily, none of them are staying at my house. But I do have to see them all, and it is tough to get the timing just right. I'll let you know how it goes.

Now's the Time

The other night, while driving back from a darts match with my wife (yes, I play competitive darts), I realized that my car's odometer was at 99,996 miles. Nearly 100 G's. The peak of a car's lifespan. The moment of truth. The Arc de Triomphe. A "milestone," if you will. Sure, my '99 Camry, like most modern autos, has a digital odometer, designed to show a full 6 digit mileage. But back in the day it was especially neat so watch a car "rollover," where the odometer resets itself to zero. When I first got the car, it was brand new, and had only 3 miles on it. I was with that car when it hit 100, 1000, 10,000, 12,345, and all the palindromes, too. It's fun to take note of the various stages your car reaches. Well, not "fun" really, but you know...Fun-ish. Lately, however, I had kind of stopped noticing some of the fun milemarkers. I totally spaced on 88,888, and I'll always kick myself for missing 90,210. So, 100,000 was a big deal for me.

We were too close to my house to hit 100 G's just going home, but I quickly remembered my wife was taking the car in the morning for a work function. She would hit 100,000 miles on the way there, and knowing her morning state of mind, she'd probably be too tired to even notice the event, much less enjoy it properly. So I declared we were going for a 4 mile drive so I could watch my car rollover.

Unfortunately, it was not as simple as just "continuing to drive." We had to actually stop at home to pick up the dog, who had not been let out for several hours. Then we had to stop and get gas, because even 4 miles would have proved too far for the drops remaining in the tank. Finally, we set out west on Belmont Ave, looking for a suitable stretch of road to strip my car of it's 6 digit virginity. (Is this post getting too long, or what? God, I'm bored just writing it.)

We drove a couple miles and turned around. A few moments later we were greeted with 99,999. Staring at all those 9's was almost satisfying enough on it's own. I was thankful for the minimal late night traffic, because for the last mile, I barely glanced at the road, my eyes glued to the odometer. We came to a stoplight. I looked up to see a TV facing out the window of a closed martial arts building showing what looked to me like "The Little Mermaid." Interesting... Anyway, the light turned green and I re-affixed my eyes to the dashboard. Mere seconds after accelerating from the stop, all the 9's vanished, replaced by zeros, with a slender, almost sexy "1" preceeding them. It was glorious; a dream come true. My wife and I both cheered, startling the dog.

I know it's dumb. Not much of a story, really. Nothing happened on the way home. My lust for 100,000 did not lead us to any great adventure or tragedy. We just went home and went to bed. But I had a subtle smile on my face, knowing I had taken my Camry to the promised land. I can't wait for 200,000.

Welcome to Dr. Castrato's first post.

Get ready to be sick.