Looks like I win my dollar; Illinois is indeed Pitchfork's album of the year. I don't get the fascination with Deerhoof and the New Pornographers, but otherwise I'm quite contented by their list. Mental masturbation doesn't kill any kittens; I have no problem with anyone's list, really.


I'm listening to:
Jose Gonzalez-Veneer

I've been frustrated by my inablility to watch the Butterstick Pandacam from my Mac at home. MySpace to the rescue; their feed frees me from spending time in the numbingly windowless school computer lab.

where are the anterior horn cells?

The Utah Pathology images are usually pretty staid slides of body parts. That said, someone must think Lou Gehrig's Disease is amusing. Either that, or they're fucking with me by making me laugh:



Where are the anterior horn cells in this section of spinal cord? They are absent in a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Sickos.


I'm listening to:
Silver Jews- American Water

tops in pop

This year brought forth good albums by bands that usually make me spectacular study music- I'm looking at you, sigur ros and boards of canada. see also: MMJ. Thank goodness Serena-Maneesh was around and Jackson invented his Computer Band to keep me entertained during pathophysiology.

So for me 2005 was the Year of the Music to Which I Wanted to Dance. Tearing both my ACL and MCL made that difficult for a good part of the year, but I persevered and I'm stronger for it.

I'd like to send an extra-special buzz off to Tori-la for putting out the amazingly bad easy-listening Beekeeper without even a single redeeming song. Even the gross Scarlet's Walk had strange and Wednesday.

*sigh* and now down to business:

1. MIA- Arular I want to go on the record as saying that everything and everyone Justine Frischmann touches is gold.
2. Fiona- Extraordinary Machine
3. Spoon- Gimme Fiction
4. Cardigans- Super Extra Gravity
5. Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah-s/t
6. Bloc Party- Silent Alarm
7. Sleater-Kinney- The Woods. from chord one, deliciousness
8. Sufjan Stevens- Illinois. one of the girliest rock albums ever. so pretty
9. Gorillaz- Demon Days
10. Serena-Maneesh- s/t
11. Wolf Parade- Apologies to the Queen Mary
12. Beck- Guero
13. Common- B.E.
14. Sigur Ros- Takk... not the best study music ever, but a decent performance.
15. Amadou & Mariam- Dimanche a Bamako. Any album that namechecks the hopital Dantec across from the Score that was my only chance to walk through anything remotely Western every few weeks must crack the list. Also, it's proven lovely dinner party music
16. Ladytron- Witching Hour. In a few months this may well be bumped into the top 10
17. Broken Social Scene- s/t
18. Jackson and His Computer Band- Smash
19. M83- Before the Dawn Heals Us. worst use of samples in an album this year, most especially the lameness that is Car! Chase! Terror! (ok, those first two exclamation points are mine)
20. Bjork- Drawing restraint 9. I just can't decide when to listen to this album. As it's neither study music nor bouncing music, it has festered for quite a while.
21. Boards of Canada- campfire headphase
22. White Stripes- Get Behind me Satan. As soon as I read complaints about Meg's drumming and actually listened for it, this effort became unlistenable.
23. Clientele- Strange Geometry. I know, I complained earlier about how much this sounds like the Auteurs. Then I remembered how much I like the Auteurs and suddenly, everything was right in the world.
24. Jose Gonzalez-Veneer
25. Kaiser Chiefs- Employment
26. My Morning Jacket- Z
27. Franz Ferdinand- You could have it so much Better
128. Deathcab for a Cutie-Plans
28. LCD Soundsystem- s/t

I haven't heard the Kanye album all the way through, nor have I heard from my girlcrush Lindsay Lohan. That may also require adjustment in early 2006. On the plus side, I don't think I'm going to like the Actic Monkeys, so that should make my life that much easier.


I'm listening to:
Kraftwerk- Autobahn

on the parasites of dance halls

This here article is exactly why I should drop out of school to get a hipster job and DJ: it no longer requires any skill. It just requires the brain power not to be a self-indulgent douchebag. It is not cool to play Rod Stewart's If You Want My Body at a club on a Saturday night. It is not ironic, nor is it quirky or fun. It is, rather, the quickest way to clear the dance floor. Same for an unremixed version of Bjork's Hunter. I love that woman so much I drove four hours to see her and Matmos three summers ago. That said, that shit should not be played unless you can spin something underneath it to make it danceable. And even then, only be in one of the clubs in Cannes circa 1998.

I think that argument got away from me. I miss hearing new music on the dance floor, weird beats tricked on top of good dance music. Watching another boy at his computer wearing headphones for the style while queing the next track on his iPod/iBook is just not fun enough. If I'm taking four hours away from the gut-wretching grossness that is worm infections, I shouldn't have to listen to this crap.


I'm listening to:
Jesus and Mary Chain- John Peel Sessions
their cover of My Girl makes me want to be a boy making a mixtape for his highschool crush.

say my name, bitch

Just in case we forgot.

Hells yeah!

World Cup draw took place this afternoon.

France will face Switzerland, S. Korea, and Togo in the first round, with the hardest match first on June 13 against the Swiss. I'll grant you that we couldn't score against the Swiss a few weeks ago, but we beat them in the quarters (?) of the Euro in 2004. Togo is, of course, a no go (I'm going to regret saying that, aren't I? Because history does show that we lost the first match of the 2002 World Cup against an equally unknown West African team, by friends the Senegalese). South Korea is the team to whom we lost immediately before the last World Cup, setting off our streak of suckage. They're also the bitches that injured Zidane leading to downward shit spiral that was Japan/Korea.

Crappy luck for the US against both the Czech and Italy. Never liked them anyway. Portugal, my second favorite team, should do well against Mexico, Angola and Iran. No group of death that I can discern, but I've been on vacation from soccerness, with the exception of noting that that punk El-Hadji Diouf was pulled over for drunk driving this week. That kid has learned nothing from the blessings his feet have given him, they totally got away with petty theft in a jewelry store at the last word cup.

I'll be back on Monday with my picks and at some point later even my Top 25 albums of the year (in progress) and then songs.


I'm listening to:
The Arctic Monkeys