Fuck the BCS! Are you shitting me? Utah goes undefeated, beating four ranked teams, and has to sit second fiddle to a one loss and probably a two loss team! They're undefeated! They crushed Alabama who, let's not forget, was ranked NUMBER ONE for FIVE WEEKS!!! FIVE WEEKS! The only reason Florida is playing for a championship is because they managed to squeak by Alabama - who got demolished by the UNDEFEATED UTES. Florida lost to Ole Miss. Did we forget? Oklahoma lost to Texas who just barely beat a two loss (now three loss) Ohio State team from a pathetic Big Ten conference. Do you think either of those schools deserve a national title over an undefeated squad from Utah? USC, by the way, who never miss an opportunity to gripe unless they're in the title game, lost to Oregon State. You know who dismantled Oregon State? The same team that lost to Iowa and got smeared by USC in the Rose Bowl. So, Pete Carroll, really? You guys deserve to be National Champs over a team that never lost to anyone nearly as pathetic as Oregon State?
Of course Rick Reilly is much more eloquent on the matter
here, but my little rant was, I think, an adequate summary. Fuck the BCS. Make a playoff system now! Unfortunately, the only ways I see this happening are A.) a majority of Americans boycott the Bowl Season, or B.) Obama muscles the House of Representatives to examine the BCS, which is actually already being scrutinized by a few lawyers for violating anti-trust laws. I probably read that in the Reilly piece, as well. I hope you're not coming to the Static for original material.
Anyway, I don't see either of those options happening, and I would be particularly pissed if option B actually took place, even though it's a thousand times more plausible than option A. The congressional hearings on Baseball doping were an embarrassment - government has a place and the athletic world is not even in the same solar system.
This year was a pretty lame year for movies and music. There was definitely some enjoyable stuff but I can't think of much, musically or cinematically, that really stood out.
Let's start with music:
If you haven't yet heard it, I highly highly recommend you take a listen to the Walkmen's
You & Me. Critically, it was pretty universally loved but didn't really elicit much discussion, which is a shame, although rather typical of the Walkmen who, with this album, have not only returned to form after a couple awkward missteps, but actually surpassed expectations to create one of this year's truly beautiful albums. It's hazy and dark and nostalgic, emoting an ocean of yearning, not just for all that was, but often for all that could be. With songs like On the Water, In the New Year, and Red Moon, vocalist/guitarist Hamilton Leithauser manages to peg that innate sense that has permeated all of 2008; a sense that we're in limbo and kind of lost, not all satisfied with where we are, not sure, really, that we have anything to look forward to, and not all that anxious to look behind us, to examine the damage we've wrought. Just a stellar album and a payoff of their intrinsic promise.
Another album that I got in 2008 that blew my hair back and created quite an obsession for me was Bon Iver's
For Emma, Forever Ago. As the story goes, he broke up with his girlfriend and left his band in North Carolina to move back to his home in Wisconsin where he locked himself in his family's cabin in the middle of the woods and recorded this album in the dead of winter. The album reflects all of this, as Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), sweeps each song up in his lonely falsetto, layering vocal on top of vocal to create this haunting and addictive masterpiece. To be fair, he released it independently in 2007, but it wasn't released commercially until Jagjaguwar picked it up in February. So I'm counting it as a 2008 release.
Portishead reunited after an 11 year hiatus with
Third. It is, without question, an excellent album, one in which Portishead reinvented themselves to make an album that doesn't sound like anything we've heard from Portishead before, but doesn't sound like anyone else, for that matter. Still, this album left me underwhelmed and I think it was considered great (mainly by Pitchfork) based on expectations. Reunion albums are usually busts, and this was anything but. However, except for a few songs, especially The Rip, the album's songs were particularly cold. It seems the band focussed more on making their songs challenging than enjoyable. Therefore, it's an album that's a lot of fun to examine and pick apart, but maybe not so fun to actually listen to. (Again, not including The Rip, which is a fucking awesome song.)
As far as albums that are fun to listen to, I can't think of many that rival Cut Copy's
In Ghost Colours. Cribbing from the electronic dance, pop, and new wave music of the 80s, Cut Copy manage to infuse exciting energetic compositions with borderline euphoric melodies. Remember how much fun it was to listen to early Madonna, a la "Get into the Groove," or, say, Depeche Mode, or New Order, for that matter, regardless of whether or not you were dancing? That's about how much fun it is to listen to Cut Copy's newest. No matter what you're doing, this album is a shitload of fun.
Pitchfork bestowed their Number 1 album of the year on brand newbies Fleet Foxes, so I really don't need to say much about them. I will say this is a beautiful folk album with songs that belie the age of their composers.
So, apparently, TV on the Radio is starting to reach American Radiohead status. Each of their last two albums have made most critics year end top ten lists, with 2006's
Return to Cookie Mountain topping many, and this year's
Dear Science coming very close again. I remember when I couldn't find a copy of their first album,
Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, because most record stores hadn't heard of them. I remember specifically going to see them open for The Faint in Detroit and being one of about 10 people standing up for their set, while the rest of the hipsters sat, and being one of the extremely few who sang along to every song. It seem so long ago now that they're indie rock royalty. I really enjoyed
Dear Science, "DLZ" is one of my favorite all time TV on the Radio songs. Their mining of Prince-ly guitars was especially exciting. But ultimately, this one never really blew my hair back. As a matter of fact, my hair stayed stiffly gelled. I can't say anything bad about the album. I really liked it. I highly recommend it, especially if you've never heard TV on the Radio before. I just hope, as good as the critics seem to think this album is, that we can expect more in the future. Maybe that's a lot to ask. I hope not.
Grouper's
Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill is one of my new favorites. It has an atmospheric, ethereal quality unmatched in any album I've heard...ever. Probably because this is the first Grouper album I've ever heard. Apparently Liz Harris, from Portland, turned down the fuzz box on this album allowing at least some of her lyrics to shine through the haze, but no matter because you really can't make out most of what she's saying and it really doesn't matter. Each song is achingly beautiful, arching in and out of the mist of billowing acoustic compositions that seem to temporarily lift each song out of the darkness before plunging them back into shadow. Of particular note is the second track, "I'd Rather Be Sleeping" which has the sweetest, most addictive chorus on the album.
I already wrote about M83's
Saturdays=Youth, but everything I said still stands. It sounds less like an album paying homage to the 80s, than album ripped right out of the 80s. It's sweet and nostalgic and totally John Hughes.
Now, unfortunately I'm not any kind of paid critic - I criticize for free, some call that being an asshole - so I haven't listened to anywhere near all of the albums I should have, or wish I had.
But I did just pick up Deerhunter's
Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. and, while I haven't listened to it enough to give it a solid rundown, I must say that its combination of noise and melody, rock and psychedelia is pretty exciting.
Also, I went to a listening party for Animal Collective's new
Merriweather Post Pavillion and picked up vinyl copy. The CD comes out on the 20th. While I haven't found a song on the album I like as much as "Fireworks" on
Strawberry Jam or "Grass" on
Feels, it is without question my favorite Animal Collective album as a whole. They've eschewed a lot of the ambient experimentation for an album-full collection of catchy, exciting, enjoyable songs.
OK. I'm going to stop there. We'll talk about movies tomorrow...
