Tuesday, November 30, 2004
np: beth orton - central reservation
well, the j's indie/rock mayhem top 25 albums of 2004 is starting to take shape. i've compiled a master list of 57 albums to choose from. i'm not done compiling, necessarily, but it is quite a list to work with. it really is the advantages of having a blog for the show. last year i had to hope that i remembered the large bulk of records that came out. this year, i simply read back through every radio show i had and listed. the odds that something really fantastic came out and i didn't play it on my show are slim to none. so it's quite a list to say the least.
let me remind those of you who listen to my show/read the radio blog that this list is entirely based on what i've been listening to this year. there will be a handful of ghastly omissions i'm sure. i don't hear everything that comes out and neither do i have the money to do so. when i was a music director at WQFS, i listened to tons of new music and it was a treat to hear it all. now, it's based solely on the new things i hear out of rotation at WQFS, album reviews from places like pitchfork media, all music, the onion a.v. club, no depression magazine and so on. and when it comes to hip-hop, generally my friend michael is my main source of information. otherwise i never would have heard the excellent album by the maroons that came out a month or so ago.
it's always fun to compare my list with other year-end lists. (generally i have more in common with the onion's reviewers than i do pitchfork, but that makes sense on the whole.) when i see a record that i spent all year championing in one respect or another (2002: nicolai dunger's soul rush, josh rouse's under cold blue stars and paul westerberg's stereo/mono; 2003: fountains of wayne's welcome interstate managers, josh ritter's hello starling, drive-by trucker's decoration day and the immaculate kathleen edwards' failer) get called out for its merit on the national stage, i certainly feel vindicated.
--
jay loaned me a copy of all in the timing, a collection of plays by the writer david ives. talk about inventive theatre. plays about variations on the death of leon trotsky, phillip glass purchasing bread, three monkeys typing shakespeare and a story where two characters get every chance in the world, thanks to a toning bell, to get off on the right foot with eachother. i simply have to type a sample of that. this is from sure thing by david ives:
Bill: This is my first night out alone in a long time. I feel a little bit out to sea, to tell you the truth.
Betty: So you didn't stop to talk because you're a Moonie, or you have some weird political affiliation -- ?
Bill: Nope. Straight-down-the-ticket-Republican.
(Bell.)
Straight-down-the-ticket-Democrat.
(Bell.)
Can I tell you something about politics?
(Bell.)
I like to think of myself as a citizen of the universe.
(Bell.)
I'm unaffiliated.
Betty: That's a relief. So am I.
Bill: I vote my beliefs.
Betty: Labels are not important.
Bill: Labels are not important, exactly. Take me, for example, I mean, what does it matter if I had a two-point at --
(Bell.)
three-point at --
(Bell.)
four-point at college? Or if I did come from Pittsburgh --
(Bell.)
Cleveland --
(Bell.)
Westchester County?
Betty: Sure.
Bill: I believe that a man is what he is.
(Bell.)
A person is what he is.
(Bell.)
A person is...what they are.
Betty: I think so too.
Bill: So what if I admire Trotsky?
(Bell.)
So what if I once had a total-body liposuction?
(Bell.)
So what if I don't have a penis?
(Bell.)
So what if I spent a year in the Peace Corps? I was acting on my convictions.
