I was a doubter, a hater, a shaker of the head. When Peter King and a few other NFL analysts said the Colts had a reasonable shot at the playoffs last August, I wondered what they had ingested that had so altered their judgement. This was a team that won 2 games last year! How in the hell did people think they would win 9-10 games and have a shot at the post-season?
I finished 2012 with two books about two of my favorite teams ever. Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever - Jack McCallum. This is a perfect accounting of the perfect team: the 1992 US men’s basketball team. The long-time Sports Illustrated NBA writer goes into the history of international basketball, how pros were approved to play in the Olympics, how the Dream Team came together, and then their epic two months as a functioning unit.
2012 was an interesting year for me, reading-wise. For the first time since I can recall, I struggled to read. I went an entire calendar month - April - without finishing a book. Where I normally went from one book straight to the next, I had a hard time picking books to read. For the previous four summers I spent a lot of time with a book on the deck or in the driveway, keeping one eye on the girls while they played.
Top 10 artists for 2012, based on my Last.fm stats, which sadly, aren’t necessarily a full representation of what I listened to. Close enough for blog purposes, I suppose. Wussy - 250 The Clash - 220 The White Stripes - 219 Japandroids - 188 Jack White - 184 Frightened Rabbit - 169 Radiohead - 150 Pearl Jam - 145 Dum Dum Girls - 118 School of Seven Bells - 115
Each year, when I post something around New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day, I make the joke that it’s the Xth straight good year in my life. I say it’s a joke because let’s face it, any year where you’re still upright at the end is a good year. You can go through mistakes and missteps, tragedy and loss, but if you’re still breathing at midnight, odds are you can find a way to call it a winner.
It was a pretty memorable Christmas for the B’s. Not because there were any super special presents, although we’re having trouble forcing the girls to stop playing with their Barbie Dream House. It wasn’t because of a surprise visitor, although we did have some fun guests. Nope, it was the anticipation of the Blizzard of 2012 that really added something special that set this year apart. So a quick review of the past few days.
“The House That Heaven Built” - Japandroids Here it is, the big one! This, my friends, is a great fucking song. It is a song that, the first time I heard it, I knew would be in the running for song of the year. I’ve listened to it countless times since that first play in April, and it has never gotten old. Each listen is just as good, if not better, than the original.
“Season In Hell” - Dum Dum Girls The Dum Dum Girls topped my favorites list last year with “He Gets Me High.” They nearly repeat with this, perhaps their finest song yet. Over the past two years lead singer Dee Dee Penny’s life has been a whirlwind. Her mother got sick and then died. Her band immediately blew up, becoming critical darlings as they released an excellent album and two EPs.
“Myth” - Beach House Because there is always a difference between reality and our deepest desires, even the best relationships are based, in part, upon a myth. When that gap is exposed, heartbreak is inevitable. Here Beach House explore the moment that gap becomes evident, and the overwhelming desire to bridge it. Your heart can’t help but break a little when you hear Victoria Legrand plead, “Help me to make it…” because all of us have wanted to continue the myth at some point.
I’ve written at least 2000 words about Newtown, but none of them have felt right to share here. I may yet post some thoughts about it, but for now let’s focus on more enjoyable stuff. So, holiday notes! Any home with girls in it will have a higher than normal amount of random glitter. Stuck to furniture, in the laundry, and just floating in the air. But this time of year, there seems to be even more.
“Serpents” - Sharon Van Etten Ms. Van Etten has a wonderful ability to create dramatic tension in her music. Her best songs, like this, build to an emotional peak early, then sustain it for the remainder of the song without either letting up or resolving it. It’s a tough trick to pull off, but time-and-again she does it.This song is full of ache, longing, regret, disappointment, and a touch of fear.
“Sinful Nature” - Bear In Heaven Chillwave takes a lot of heat, much of it with good reason. The sub-genre, which is heavily reliant on computers for its sound, often produces sound-alike music that just isn’t that good. But when the artist does it right, it can produces amazing songs. Example: last year Washed Out’s “Eyes Be Closed” was my 10th favorite song of the year. And here is another epic Chillwave track.
“The Rifle’s Spiral” - The Shins There are a lot of smart guys making smart guy music these days. Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie. Colin Meloy of The Decemberists. But no one does it better than James Mercer of The Shins. Mercer shut The Shins down for seven years and did other things. But when he got them back together, it was like they had never left. They can still make brilliant pop.
“Endless Shore” - Melody’s Echo Chamber A warm summer day evening, sun just beginning to set. A drink in your hand. Reclined in a chair on a deck or perhaps lying in a hammock. You just relax and let the world spin. Because at that moment, everything is perfect.
“Wrist Rocket” - Wussy One of the great, under appreciated bands in American rock music. Like so many of their songs, this is a highly literate, wonderfully crafted song about the angst that appears when your lover loves someone else.
“Sixteen Saltines” - Jack White It’s been three years since Jack White appeared on my year-end list. Which is significant because he appeared on my favorites list, one way or another, every year from 2003 to 2009.1 His first solo album, Blunderbuss, is excellent, and it was difficult to pick a track to represent it. In the end I went with the most White Stripes-y song of the bunch.2 This was also a song that garnered White a fair amount of criticism, as some suggested the lyrics were indicative of some serious lady issues by White at best or were anti-woman at worst.
The Favorite Songs countdown will continue over the weekend. I admit it’s hard to write after today’s events in Connecticut. I’ve never been so happy to be annoyed by my kindergartener as I am right now.
December is a big music month. There is the putting together and sharing of my favorite songs and albums of the year lists. There’s the flood of Christmas music. Combined I spend even more time than normal thinking about tunes. A few notes from the first few weeks of December. I was driving C. home from a birthday party a couple weeks back when RUN-DMC’s “It’s Tricky” came up on the iPod.
“Watch The Corners” - Dinosaur Jr The guitar solo is a lost art, rendered less meaningful as music split into a million sub-genres. Sure, you’ll hear the occasional solo, but often it’s some heavily produced, saccharine regurgitation of Eddie Van Halen’s solo for “Beat It.” So when you hear a real guitar solo, one that gets into your skull and works its way down your spine, it really stands out.
“State Hospital” - Frightened Rabbit Frightened Rabbit have released full-length albums in 2008 and 2010. Each year they nabbed the top spot on my favorite songs list, with “The Modern Leper” doubling as my favorite song of the last decade. So this is a bit of a disappointment for them, I’m sure. In their defense, this was the title track of a five-song EP, with their third LP set for release in February.