Best song about Irene?
My favorite version:
The Leadbelly original:
Photo by Leah732
Monday, January 30, 2012
The Best Thing I Heard this Week-Peter Bjorn & John
Most will remember the song "Young Folks," the hit from their 2006 record Writer's Block.[1. Please note that the preceding track on that album, "Objects of My Affection," was just as good, if not better.] I'm guessing that far fewer people have listened to PB&J's [2. Yeah, that's an unfortunate acronym.] 2011 release, Gimme Some. Which is unfortunate, as Gimme Some is a more consistent, listenable, and well-rounded album than anything they've done before.
This album is not complicated, so this post will not be either. This is the best power-pop record you're going to hear this year (unless something ridiculous happens in the next couple of months). The lead track, "Tomorrow Has to Wait" is a microcosm of the rest of the record--fast, strong, and tight. Even when things get a little darker on tracks like "Down Like Me," the music doesn't take a break for the lyrics. It's not as creative as some of the stuff done by bands like the New Pornographers, but it doesn't need to be. There's not a bad moment on this record. Go listen to it now.
Photo by Daniel Morrison
Volume 3: Rolling Stone Lists
I was back at my parents' house a few days ago, and as they often do, they asked me to clean out part of my old room (my dad has designs on putting in some sort of movie theater in there). So this time, I'm cleaning out my closet (what the fuck am I going to do with all of those baseball cards? Seriously.), and I stumble upon a stack of magazines. Many are worthless, but there's a few copies of The Rolling Stone that catch my eye. Namely, the ones with those altogether absurd and worthless but fun lists. You know the ones--500 greatest songs of all time, 100 greatest artists of all time, the 47 greatest bass solos, and so forth.
The Best Thing I Heard this Week-Gillian Welch
Eight years. Eight years! It was eight years between albums by Gillian Welch, a time period so long that a whole generation of music has come and gone in the time between. Of course, with music as soulful and reverent as The Harrow and the Harvest, eight years is but the strum of a chord. While Welch told the Onion A/V Club that most of the time was spent being unable to craft songs that she and collaborator/virtuoso David Rawlings felt were up to snuff, each track here sounds like it was painstakingly developed over eight years. Created and refined to the point of perfection, The Harrow and the Harvest is likely the closest thing to a flawless album that we will see in 2011.
The Best Thing I Heard this Week-Chris Bathgate
I am a sucker (or perhaps an enthusiast) for great first tracks. As I say this, it seems so overly obvious that it shouldn’t be stated--rather, who isn’t enthralled by a great first track?** Well, years ago, the answer was probably no one. Now, however, I don’t think the answer is quite as obvious. Seemingly, more of the public listens to one or two tracks from an album that they like, and either dismisses the rest of the record or never bothers to hear it in the first place. This is by now not a new phenomenon, but one that has been going on for more than ten years I would imagine. Which is a long-winded way of saying that having a great first track only matters to people who listen to whole albums, and not the track that randomly gets posted on their Facebook wall or that they hear on the radio. I am one of those people, Chris Bathgate’s Salt Year is one of those albums, and the first track, “Eliza (Hue)” is one of those great openers that only comes around every so often.
Volume 2: A few words on Settlers of Catan Strategy
A few words on Settlers of Catan Strategy
Let me qualify this: I am by no means a statistical expert, nor do I play in board game tournaments. I have played quite a few games of Settlers of Catan though, and in an attempt to clarify some things and perhaps start a discussion, I have enumerated...A couple pieces of BASIC Settlers strategy:
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