From: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org (idealcopy-digest) To: idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Subject: idealcopy-digest V7 #375 Reply-To: idealcopy@smoe.org Sender: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk idealcopy-digest Saturday, January 1 2005 Volume 07 : Number 375 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [idealcopy] Yet another 2004 list ["Keith Knight" Subject: [idealcopy] Yet another 2004 list More new music has crossed my path this year than possibly ever before - a combination of 50 quid blokeism, free CDs with virtually every magazine, friends, libraries, internet, this list. And it continues to flood in, so a list of favourite albums is a bit premature as there is undoubtedly stuff which hasn't fully registered yet. But it is that time of year and one has to draw the line somewhere: LPs 1 Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes - TV on the Radio. Shaping up to be the idealcopy album of the year. 2 Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus - Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. Whenever I listen to this I can't believe it's not my album of the year, but then I hear TV on the Radio again. Possibly a career high. 3 These Were The Earlies - The Earlies. 4 Misty's Big Adventure and their place in the Solar Hi-Fi System - - Misty's Big Adventure. It's possible that this needs to be heard after seeing them live as on its own it probably just sounds like a load of funny catchy tunes. But I had the great fortune of seeing them live first. 5 Micah P Hinson and the Gospel of Progress - Micah P Hinson. The sister album to The Earlies and a tribute to the Texas / Burnley axis that has somehow come about. Great songs wonderfully sung and produced. 6 A Grand don't Come for Free - The Streets. I'm entirely with Mr Grant on this one. Impossible to listen to without being impressed and moved. And a social document from the day of release. 7 Hymns of the 49th Parallel - k d lang. Whaaatt? I have no interest in k d lang and only borrowed this from the library because Word magazine had just rated it in their top ten. It's almost entirely a covers albums of fellow Canadian artists and even included stuff I never thought I'd need to hear covered again (like Cohen's Hallelujah). But it's stunningly sung and she covers two Joni Mitchell songs - A Case of You and Jericho - brilliantly. The whole effect is one of a concept superbly realised and it's knocked me over. 8 La Maison de Mon Reve - CocoRosie. CocoRosie are two sisters who allegedly recorded this album for fun in a bath in an unheated Paris apartment. They sing in strangled falsetto while bringing various stuff lying around the flat into play as percussion. Which would be interesting but inconsequential if the songs weren't so strong and the effect so bewitching. A bit like off-kilter child-voiced harpist Joanne Newsom but nothing like as irritating. 9 Now Here is Nowhere - Secret Machines. Occupying a space somewhere between Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Rush and MBV this is the sort of album that feels like a classic before you've even finished listening to it such is its confidence - song after song power their way into your consciousness. The only band on this list likely to be mega. 10 Bluffer's Guide to the Flight Deck - Flotation Toy Warning. Not a great year live for me and FTW - one no-play due to equipment malfunction and one play which they should have cancelled such was the equipment problems - but that shouldn't take away from this fine album which, although containing a fair amount of stuff from the two eps has enough beguiling new material to stand out from the pack. A singular band who may now find themselves in a cul-de-sac. So, no space for The Fiery Furnaces (has anyone plumbed Blueberry Boat yet? Talk about singular bands) Brain Wilson, FF, Ella Guru and The Shins and albums by Wilco, Motormark, Lali Puna and Sufjan Stevens arrived too late to have a big impact. And the Bjork and William Shatner albums are going to need a LOT more listens. SINGLES 1 Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand. Released virtually in Week 1 and in Week 52 it's been pumping out of my son's Playstation game. And still I'm not sick of it. Wonderful but in a way it derailed the FF experience for me as none of their other material comes close. 2 Milkshake - Kelis. Fabulous Neptunes production and as catchy and sexy as syph. 3 Fit but you Know It - The Streets 4 Long Time Coming - Delays. The album was something of a disappointment but they released two cracking singles this year, reinforcing the theory that an Ash career trajectory awaits. 5 You are the Generation that Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve - Johnny Boy. Mentioned here before. 6 Followed the Waves - Auf der Maur. Crashing power chords and a catchy chorus. What's not to like? 'I wanna shuffle his deck clean'. 7 Assessment - The Beta Band. A song that sounds like it came from the Beta Band's early period. Certainly nothing else on the album came close. 8 She Wants to Move - N.E.R.D. The more I heard this song as the year progressed, the more I liked it. 9 Strict Machine - Goldfrapp. Admittedly influenced by the 'horses tails' performance at Glastonbury - surely the TV pop moment of the year. 10 Lost in a Melody - Delays. COMPILATIONS / REISSUES Mighty River of Song - The Watersons. Vast boxed set of mostly unreleased material from the 60s On the Box - Wire A Lifetime of Temporary Relief - Low More to come. Another the Keith ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 16:45:02 -0000 From: "Keith Knight" Subject: [idealcopy] Yet another 2004 list Part 2 The second part: LIVE (all London bar # 12) 1 Brian Wilson - RFH 27 Feb. Hugely emotional and epic. A very happy occasion. 2 The Magic Band  Garage 28 Jun. Incredibly difficult dance music played by very old men and an impersonation of Don van Vliet that was uncanny. I never thought I would hear this live. Could say that about Brian Wilson as well mind. 3 KaitO  ICA 10 Jan. A privilege to be in the presence of a band this good, KaitO were at the top of their very considerable game this night. 4 The Earlies  Borderline 19 Aug. Eleven people crammed onto a stage and having a jolly good time with a batch of wonderful songs. 5 Mistys Big Adventure  Arts Cafi 28 May. Seven people crammed onto a stage and having a jolly good time with a batch of wonderful songs. And a dancing bloke in a costume made of rubber gloves. One of those occasions when a band second on the bill with no expectations just bowls you over. 6 Sparks  RFH 12 Jun. Not even Mr Astburys praise of Lil Beethoven prepared me for quite how good it was. And as for Kimono My HouseThe most unexpected treat of the year. 7 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds  Brixton Academy 10 Nov. The new albums revealed in their live glory, making the old material almost superfluous. 8 P J Harvey  Somerset House Courtyard 14 July. A superstar performance. 9 Peter Hammill  QEH 8 Oct. The first UK post-heart attack gig was in places almost unbearably emotional as the songs revealed death references all over the shop. 10 TV on the Radio  Garage 21 Sept. Somehow reproducing the album live, they looked and sounded fabulous, harmonies overlapping and glasses glinting. 11 Jeffrey Lewis  Windmill Brixton 16 Sept. Deserves a mention for The History of Punk on the NY Lower East Side 1963-77 alone, the most brilliant new song I heard all year. 12 Alasdair Roberts  Green Man Festival 22 Aug. Headlining a day which included The Earlies, Ella Guru, Gravenhurst and proceeded immediately by a ceilidh band who kicked up a storm, Alasdair Roberts somehow managed to bring on board an audience who didnt necessarily want to hear traditional a capella Scottish folk songs but by the end he had the marquee humming (literally). Great performance. FILMS 1 Before Sunset  I fell in love with Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Paris and Richard Linklater watching this film, and I see no reason why I shouldnt watch it dozens of times in the years to come. On the evidence of this, Waking Life and School of Rock, Linklater is now the most interesting director in America and I cant wait to see what he does with Philip K Dicks A Scanner Darkly 2 The Incredibles  whats not to like? 3 Elephant  Kubrickian visuals and brilliantly made. Gus van Sant back on form. 4 Open Range  a genuinely great western which seems to have been almost completely ignored. Costner deserves plaudits for making this. 5 Touching the Void  haunted me for weeks afterwards. How Joe Simpson survived this still seems incredible 6 The Pianist  didnt see this when it came out as I thought Polanski had shot his bolt. I was wrong. 7 American Splendor  superb adaptation of Harvey Pekars frame of mind. One of the great trends in American film in the last few years has been the appropriation of the American comic book underground. 8 The Return  spooky Russian film about two boys being taken on a fishing trip to the country. Possibly. The uncertainty levels build and build and the performances are top notch. 9 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind  P K Dick by any other name. Moving and odd. 10 The Sorrow and the Pity  I finally caught up with Marcel Ophuls great documentary about occupied France. BOOKS  Pattern Recognition  William Gibson. A blinding return to form and possibly his best book. Not SF although somehow it reads like it. And I got huge pleasure from Ian MacDonalds posthumous book of music essays, The Peoples Music, which was mainly about people and bands I have not much time for but through the quality of its writing insisted I should. On the strength of this book I have bought albums by Laura Nyro, Dylan and The Band. TV Difficult to look beyond Big Brother, which was gripping and amusing all summer. The John Lydon Im a Celebrity was also compulsive, mind. In drama, for a network series ER was prepared to take remarkable risks in its African storyline  tremendous TV, as was Romanos demise. Deadwood was jaw-dropping, especially Ian McShanes performance. Shameless was the only British drama to come close. In comedy there was no need to look beyond the wonderful Curb Your Enthusiasm, although the last season of Frasier was something of a return to form. Another the Keith ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 19:44:58 +0000 From: "Jason Rogers" Subject: [idealcopy] RE: Another the 2004 List A few basic favorites... Top Ten Albums: 1. Interpol - Antics 2. The Church - Forget Yourself 3. Windsor For The Derby - We Fight Til Death 4. The Cure - The Cure 5. Mission Of Burma - OnOffOn 6. U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb 7. On!Air!Library! - On!Air!Library! 8. Morrissey - You Are The Quarry 9. The Arcade Fire - Funeral 10. Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse Favorite Movies (released here in the U.S. in 2004, anyway): Open Water Infernal Affairs The Return Ju-On: The Grudge Dawn Of The Dead (2004) Shaun Of The Dead Hero Touching The Void Collateral Books...didn't read many 2004-published books, but at least I have the completed Stephen King Dark Tower series. The 2003 novel, Tom Franklin - Hell At The Breech is quite impressive...I didn't get around to reading it until 2004. Jason Now Playing: Run D.M.C. - Raising Hell ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 04:14:22 -0500 (EST) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: [idealcopy] Another the 2004 List On Wed, 29 Dec 2004, Keith Astbury wrote: > TOXIC - Britney (Sneer all you like, boys'n'gals, Britney has delivered > a pop classic here. Admittedly, even I - who knows little shame when it > comes to pop music - had to put away a few prejudices before I could > make this purchase!!) I love this song. The lead-in to the chorus is a full measure of nothing but a buzzing noise! And oh, that inappropriate surf guitar. I wish the rest of the album had been nearly as good. I do find it interesting that both Britney and JC Chasez released albums with a song about how much they love to masturbate. a ------------------------------ End of idealcopy-digest V7 #375 *******************************