Favorite Albums of 2011

(Here is the link to the previous post where I listed my favorite CD's from the first half of 2011).

I know its a little late for this kind of 2011 retrospective, but if they can stretch the college bowl games out until January 9th, I can do a year end music review on January 3rd.

Here are my favorite CDs from the second half of 2011(these are records that were released from July 1 - November 30 or that were from earlier on the year, but I didn't get them until after I already composed the earlier list).  Since 11/30 is always the cutoff date that I use in order to give me time to come up with the list, The Black Keys' El Camino and The Roots' Undun both are missing.  They will be on the 2012 list (which is a guarantee because both are fantastic).  I know my early 2011 list had 15 discs, but there were more records from that part of the year that I liked than there were in the 2nd half, so I am sticking with 10 this time. 

10.) Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
9.) Los Campesinos! - Hello Sadness
8.) Low - C'mon
7.) Wilco - The Whole Love
6.) Yuck - Yuck
5.) The Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
4.) Loney, Dear - Hall Music
3.) Fruit Bats - Tripper
2.) Feist - Metals
1.) Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne

The last few times I have tried to write a post on music rankings, I have had a pretty hard time, and I think its because I am just not very good at articulating my music critiquing.  Everything comes out as "This was really good" or "I just didn't care for this" - I know what I like, but have a hard time coming up with words to describe WHY I like it.  So, I think I am just going to stop (surprisingly, I have a much easier time critiquing movies and TV, so I will keep up with that).  I believe that is one of the reasons that posts related to music take me so long to put together, and then I fall behind on what I want to write about.  Going forward, I am going to limit my music related posts to, "Ok, HERE is some music I like", and maybe throw in a few anecdotes or personal experiences related to whatever music I am writing about and leave it at that. 

Here is my overall Top 10 album list for 2011:
10.) The Raveonettes - Raven In the Grave
9.) Vivian Girls - Share the Joy
8.) Bill Callahan - Apocalypse
7.) Loney, Dear - Hall Music
6.) Fruit Bats - Tripper
5.) Wye Oak - Civilian
4.) Feist - Metals
3.) PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
2.) TV On The Radio - Nine Types of Light
1.) Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne

THERE!  That closes the book on 2011.  I had thought about also writing a year end TV recap like I did last year, but I really don't watch that many current TV series, so a Top 10 list would pretty much just be the shows I watch regularly.  I don't really watch any shows that are only ok  - ALL my shows are good and I  believe are the top shows of the year.  So, I think instead I will be expanding my weekly TV reviews beyond just Thursday night.  I will definitely add recaps for Justified and Mad Men when they premier, plus anything else I like that is coming back soon. (I am also going to make a real effort to come up with more posts that are not just reviews, like I did back when I started this blog, but I may have made that promise before, so we'll see). 

Top 25 Favorite Songs of 2011

This was an incredible hard list to put together.  I had already decided on my top album list for the year before I attempted this list, and that was so much easier on which to decide.  I guess that means that I loved a lot more individual songs this year than I loved albums that I heard.  I had originally only wanted to pick 20 for the list, but after agonizing just to get it down to 25, I couldn't find 5 more songs that I could eliminate.  So, I decided to just say screw it and stick with 25.  Also, other than the top 3, I am not actually ranking the songs - I had a hard enough time just coming up with these songs, let alone ranking them.  Away we go!

1.) Jay-Z and Kanye West - "That's My Bitch"
  The best song from one of the best hip hop albums I have heard in along time (granted I don't listen to a lot of new hip hop, but still) - even better than Kanye's record from last year.  I could have probably put 2/3 of the songs from Watch The Throne on this list if I wanted to.

2.) TV on the Radio - "Repetition"
  TV on the Radio continues to be one of the most unique sounding bands out there.  This song is rocking and funky all at the same time.

3.) PJ Harvey - "The Words That Maketh Murder"
  This CD came out in the early part of 2011 and it remained one of my favorites all year.  This is another disc that could have the majority of its songs on this list.

Here are the rest (in alphabetical order) with occasional thoughts:

Beastie Boys -"Long Burn The Fire"
  While "Make Some Noise" was the song from Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2 that got the Beasties the most notice this year (and rightfully so for its epic, 30 minute video), this is the best song from that CD.  It has a great grinding kind of beat and it's amazing that these guys are still doing it like this in 2011.

Beirut - "Vagabond"

Bon Iver - "Towers"
  Yes, "Holocene" from this record earned Bon Iver a Grammy nomination.  And that is a very good song, but I just like this one better.  "Holocene" almost made this list as well, but it was a last minute cut (and will be on my "Honorable Mention" list.


British Sea Power - "Living Is So Easy"

Death Cab For Cutie - "Doors Unlocked & Open"


The Decemberists - "Dear Avery", "January Hymn", "Rox in the Box"
  I said earlier that I could have put multiple selection on this list from Jay-Z & Kanye and PJ Harvey, but I was able to limit myself to 1 song each since the 2 I selected were far and away the top songs on those discs.  That was not the case with The King Is Dead by The Decemberists.  When I got down to these 3 songs, I couldn't see eliminating any of them, so I just kept all 3.  Hell of a comeback year for The Decemberists after how crappy The Crane Wife was.

Destroyer - "Chinatown"

Feist - "Anti-Pioneer"

The Fruit Bats - "You're Too Weird"

Kurt Vile - "Jesus Fever"

Loney, Dear - "What Have I Become?"

Low - "Especially Me"

My Morning Jacket - "Holdin' On To Black Metal"

The Mountain Goats - "Age of Kings", "Beautiful Gas Mask"
  This was another case where I couldn't see picking one song over the other, so I didn't.  Maybe I need to be more decisive next year, but if I did that this year, this post would be coming out in January...

The Raveonettes - "Forget That You're Young"

Vivian Girls - "I Heard You Say"

Wilco - "I Might"

Wye Oak - "Holy Holy"

Yuck- "Get Away"

Since I can post an actual playlist from Spotify to go along with this blog, I decided not to say something about each song in an effort to get this damn post finished.  If you are curious about any of these songs, they'll be on the playlist that I am posting on Facebook.

Coming Soon: I will post an "Honerable Mention" playlist of the songs that just didn't quite make the cut.  Then, more year end blogs, including the top albums of the 2nd half of 2011 and the overall album list.

Thursday Night TV Roundup 12/1/11

After a few weeks off, the return of the Thursday night TV reviews!

Community
Community has really been on a roll the last half of the season, which means it is really hitting it's stride just as it will be going off the air for an indefinite amount of time (expect next week's TV Roundup to be almost entirely about Community).  Since it was announced that it was going on hiatus 2 weeks ago, the show's ratings have been slowly going up, which I hope is a good sign for when it returns.  New (or returning) viewers were treated to a very funny episode last night, and one of the few this year to make really good use of Shirley.  Pairing her with Jeff in the foosball plot made for some hilarious situations, from their frenzied game that transformed into anime to they way they showed up the crazily over the top (ind crazily funny) German foosball fanatics.  The anime sequence showed that Community can still have their bits of pop culture lunacy in the course of a "normal" episode without devoting the whole thing to the subject.

However, I am not sure that any episode that involves Abed, dressed as Batman, using a grappling hook (a Christmas present from Troy, of course) to repel out the window to confront the landlord.  This plot, while silly, was worth it alone just for the return of Abed's "Christian Bale" voice, and the debut of Annie's (which was excellent).  I can't believe there is only one more episode left...
Grade -> A-

Parks & Rec
This was such a fantastic episode, full of so many great little bits, that I didn't even miss that Adam Scott was only in it a little bit (I really like his character a lot on this show, but, honestly I love all of them).  I love the episodes where the whole staff rally together to help Leslie out for whatever reason.  It usually allows to them to do something good, while at the same time being their usual insane selves, and most of the insanity revolved around their testimony at the trial.  Ron was hilarious in his attempts to not have his cabin's location entered into the record.  April of course acted just like Janet Snakehole as she accused the stenographer (Ethel Beavers from the 4th floor!) of being guilty.  And, of course, poor Jerry, who it turns out is really named Gary. 

We finally got closure on the storyline that has been going on since last season - Leslie and Ben can now be together without getting in trouble.  I am looking forward as to what new job opportunities they will come up with for Ben - my vote is for shoeshine partner with Andy...
Grade -> A


The Office
SIGH.  I have resigned myself now to the fact that the best I can hope for in an episode of The Office are a few scenes to make me laugh amidst a mediocre episode.  This episode wasn't the worst, I just expected more than they gave guest star Maura Tierney as Mrs. California.  She proved on NewsRadio that she can do comedy very well, she just wasn't given much to work with.   Thinking back on last night, there were things that I enjoyed - Robert's frantic order not Andy not to hire his wife and his profane outburst when Andy spilled those beans to his wife.  Jim's rolling away exit.  Dwight thinking that Darryl wants to impress Val Kilmer (silly but made me laugh).  On a whole, though, just another bland episode.
Grade -> C

It's Always Sunny
This has been a very up and down season of Sunny.  Any season with both the Chardee MacDennis episode and the episode with Frank's brother can't be described any other way.  Last night's episode was somewhere in the middle.  It wasn't the funniest this season, but there was a lot that I did like.  I especially enjoyed the continuation of the subplot that Dennis is basically a rapist.  I also liked Frank trying to explain the gang's shenanigans to the horrified tourists.  Although, I think my favorite scene involved Mac and the motorcycle.  Anytime a character encounters a motorcycle in an action film, they automatically know how to ride it.  Not poor Mac (I also enjoyed that he continued to wear the helmet long after he had to abandon the bike). 
Grade -> B

Beavis & Butthead
There were 2 episodes last night!  And they were both were very funny.  B&B episodes really don't lend themselves well to analysis, as they are basically made up of the boys wandering around and saying funny things.   Needless, to say, I enjoyed their antics last night.  I especially enjoyed the new segment where they acted like Siskel & Ebert and analyzed The Human Centipede.  I hope that segment comes back, as it was well done. 
Grade -> B+

The Winner of the Night... Parks & Rec!

Winter Beers

Ok, after a nice little break to get over my blog fatigue brought on by my Halloween horror movie insanity, I decided to come back and write about something I don't think I have written about yet: BEER!  Winter beers to be exact.  Much like the Christmas holiday season, winter beers seem to show up on the scene earlier every year.  However, unlike the seething rage I experience whenever I first see the Christmas decorations at Target in the next aisle over from the Halloween decorations, the appearance of the first winter beers in October this year brought me joy.  Here are a couple of my favorite winter beers.  This is by no means an all-inclusive list - they are just the beers that I have already had this year that came to mind when I decided to write this post.

Columbus Winter Warmer
Lets start things of with a local brew from the Columbus brewing company.  This beer is an English style winter warmer with caramel malts, ginger and cinnamon. The best winter warmers do exactly that - on a cold night the spices help warm you up from the inside out, and this is a pretty good warmer.  The best part is that it is usually only $8.99 a six pack, and you can find it in most stores. 

Goose Island Mild Winter/ Christmas Ale
Goose Island is one of the few breweries that does more than one winter beer each year.  The Mild Winter is, unsurprisingly, an American mild ale.  It's in the lighter side of medium bodied, which helps mellow out the rye spices a little bit.  Mild Winter is a good starter winter ale for people who are not quite sure they can handle the spices that are in most winter beers. 

The Goose Island Christmas Ale follows a tradition used by many brewers with their holiday beers - they change the recipe up every year.  Goose Island always brews a brown ale, but they use different hops and spices each year.  With the 2011 version, you get hints of molasses, brown sugar and gingerbread, but not too overpowering.  I found this year's offering to be pretty tasty.

Bell's Winter White/Christmas Ale
Like Goose Island, Bell's Brewery has 2 winter offerings.  However, unlike Goose Island, whose 2 beers are similar in style, Bell's brews two radically different beer styles.  The Winter White is a Belgian style white ale, very light in color and lower in alcohol (5%).  While they do not use any actual spices, it still has a nice clove flavor that reminds you it is a winter beer.  Incredibly flavorful.

Bell's Christmas Ale also does not have any spices.  They instead opt for a toffee-like flavor and a toasted barley hint that add up to a delicious combination.  Bell's is one of my favorite breweries and I really like the direction they went with their 2 seasonal offerings to set them apart from most other winter beers.

Anchor Brewing Christmas Ale
Anchor is another brewery that changes the formula of their Christmas Ale (also called "Our Special Ale") every year.  However, unlike most breweries that have been playing with their formulas for just a few years, Anchor is on their thirty-seventh different version!  I discovered their Christmas Ale in 2009 I learned that many people cellar this beer to compare the different vintages.  I made sure to set some aside each year since, so this Christmas, I will be able to compare the 2009 and 2010 to the excellent 2011.  This year's version tastes of dark fruit (cherries and raisin I think) and there is also some nice piney flavors from the hops.  Absolutely delicious.

Great Lakes Christmas Ale
Finally, for this part of the country, we have the Holy Grail of winter beers.  As in, good luck finding much of it.   The demand for it is so high that there is little chance you will find any of this in the stores (although some places will have it on tap longer) much past the beginning of December (unless you are like me and you buy and extra sixer of it as soon as you see it and sit on it until Christmas). Great Lakes' beer is the same formula every year - its a winter warmer style brewed with honey, cinnamon and ginger.  Now, I think this beer is pretty damn good, but the hype for it has gotten out of control: some stores are limiting you to 1 six pack at a time.  Luckily, like I said, I have a sixer in the cellar for Christmas day.

Thursday Night TV Roundup 11/3/11

One day late but better than never...

Community
While not quite as good as the last 2 stellar episodes, this was still very funny.  I always appreciate when they give Chevy Chase the spotlight, and he doesn't disappoint.  His condemning, then embracing, then condemning of the gay popularity of his family's Hawthorne wipes was hilarious.  Probably my favorite Pierce line of the night came when he was asked by the organizers of the Greendale "Gay Bash" what kind of cookies he wanted (chocolate chip or peanut butter) and he responded, "Rainbow, bitches!"

I also really liked the subplot with Troy and John Goodman's air conditioner repair school dean.  I had a feeling that Goodman was going to reappear once Sweeps month started.  The air conditioning initiation ceremony was as ridiculous as you would expect from Greendale.  I hope that Troy and the Vice Dean's cat and mouse game continues the rest of the season.

Overall, my two favorite moments were both Troy and Abed related: when they did impersonations of each other and the credits scene where they were attacking Jeff as Inspector Spacetime characters (I love that they continue to be obsessed with that show).
Grade -> B+

Parks & Rec
I love episodes of Community that showcase how insane most of the town is.  Throw in an off the hook final Tom and Jean Ralphio party and you have a very funny episode.  I will miss Entertainment 720, but I am sure they will find other ways to allow Tom to showcase his ridiculous party sensibility. 

Since the crazy Reasonableist cult (followers of Zorp, who was coming back to melt their faces off) was proclaiming doomsday, the Parks characters spent a lot of time contemplating the end of the world even if they knew the cult was wrong (they make a habit of this every few months).  The best was Andy, who decided to do everything on his bucket list in one night.  The 2 highlights: his chance to be an action hero in his own home (with the expected appearance of Burt Macklin, FBI and Janet Snakehole, and the unexpected appearance of Jerry!) and, upon arriving at the Grand Canyon, Andy remarks "Where all all the faces?  You know, the presidents?"  Classic Andy...
Grade -> B+

The Office
There were things about The Office that I liked, and things that I didn't.  I guess at this point that is about all I can hope for at this point.  The things I liked: once again, pretty much everything involving Robert California, the staff's struggle not too make any mistakes (and the way that Erin marked off each mistake with an "X" on her desk, Jim's futile attempts to play squash.  The things I didn't like: the whole idea of Dwight's "doomsday" device (why would Andy ever agree to that?  why would Dwight want everyone to get fired, including himself? - he loves working at Dunder-Mifflin), how ridiculously stupid they made Kevin seem once again (really? he thinks paper is made by the man trees and their penises?  SIGH).
Grade -> C+

It's Always Sunny
The return of Dr. Mantis Toboggan!  Even if it was only for a second or two, that was a nice call back to the "D.E.N.N.I.S System".  I didn't enjoy this episode as much as last weeks, but I think "Chardee MacDennis" may have been one of the all time classics, so that's no knock against this episode.  Frank's inability to grasp that the Gang wanted to make a viral video and not a virus video was really funny, as was Dennis and Charlie's half of the quest to find the shusher.  Mac and Dee's half of the quest wasn't as funny, but it still had its moments (Mac's attempts to find out the right "Ex-Girlfriend" porn site and the revelation that Dee has sent her hair to  man online who turned out to be a woman were both highlights).
Grade -> B+

Beavis & Butthead
I enjoyed the season premiere more than this episode, as I thought it was more consistently funny.  This was still a good episode though.  I particularly enjoyed B&B's takedowns of "16 and Pregnant" and whatever that other show was involving the "psychic".  I continue to be surprised how MTV allows this show to so savagely mock its other programming.  Maybe the network executives actually have a sense of humor (unlike at the E! Network, where Joel McHale is expressly forbidden to make fun of Kim Kardashian's sex tape on The Soup, although maybe that will change now...).
Grade -> B

New feature - The Winner of the Night (I will pick which show was my overall favorite):

Based on how much I had to say about it compared to the rest, the winner is... Community!

2011 Horrorfest - The Finale

In order to get this wrapped up today, I am just going to list out the remaining movies about which I had not written in order to get to the finale:
Claw of Terror (1973), Madhouse (1974), Don't Torture a Duckling (1972), Unhinged (1982), Dementia 13 (1963), Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971), Mark of the Devil (1970).

As usual, I stuck to classic films for the finale:


The Wolf Man (1941)
I have seen this film a few times - I thought it would be good to start off the day with a classic black and white monster film.  The one thing I can never figure out - why did Lon Chaney, Jr.'s character always change his clothes into the same outfit before he became the werewolf?



Creepshow (1982)
It has been a long time since I have seen this.  The mix of horror and humor still holds up pretty well after all these years, in 3 out of the 5 segments at least.  "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verril" and "They're Creeping Up On You!" both still aren't very good, but I liked the other segments.  The particular highlight is Leslie Nielsen's portrayal as the psychopath in "Something To Tide You Over".



Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
This is the most disturbing film I have ever seen.  I expected that going in, as this is one of the most notorious horror films of all time (the director was arrested after its release, as it was thought this was an actual snuff film).  However, it wasn't any of the human violence depicted that disturbed me so much (I have become pretty desensitized to that in movies).  It was the fact that they actually kill several animals in the film (the giant turtle was the worst) that bothered me so much.  This was a film that I felt I had to see as a film buff, but I will never watch it again.



Suspiria (1977)
After about 40 minutes, the disc wouldn't play anymore (it was scratched all to hell).  Thankfully I have already seen this great film.  I should probably look into get my own copy.  To fill the whole in  my schedule, I decided to watch 3 episodes of The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror: season 2, 3 and 5.  All classics (I needed to make up for how bad this season's episode was).



Alien (1979)
I have of course seen this film many times, but for this viewing I chose the 2003 Director's Cut, which  hadn't watched since I bought the blu ray earlier in the year (by the way,  the blu ray for this and Aliens looks FANTASTIC!).  The main difference with the Director's Cut is the inclusion of a new scene where Ripley stumbles upon two of the characters cocooned by the alien on her way to the escape shuttle (which was something that we originally didn't learn they do until the sequel).  One of the all time great horror films.




Night of the Living Dead (1968)
After watching 2 of Romero's later zombie films, Survival of the Dead and Land of the Dead, I decided it was time to rewatch the original.  I started this one right after Trick r Treating was done.  It was a good choice.



Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
The almost silly way Freddy was portrayed in the later Nightmare movies (he even did a rap song with The Fat Boys, for god's sakes) has obscured for a lot of people just how great and creepy he was in his original appearance.  Freddy was truly scary.



Halloween (1978)
The best of them all...





And... we're done.  That was a lot of horror films over the last month.  Time for a break...

2011 Horrorfest Pt. 11

Land of the Dead (2005)
This was so much better than Survival of the Dead. The story was much better, there was much more zombie action, and the use of CGI didn't stand out as badly as it did in Survival.  Plus it had Dennis Hopper!  I still have one more Romero zombie film to check out - the middle film of his second trilogy, Diary of the Dead - and I hope it leans more towards this one than Survival. 



Dead Men Walk (1943)
It wasn't until I was halfway through this movie that I realized I had already seen it. Oh well.  It is a nice little twist on a vampire story - an evil man is murdered by his twin brother, but, because of his involvement in the occult, he finds a way to be resurrected as a vampire-type creature to get his revenge.  The effects at the end when the twins are fighting are kind of bad, but the rest of the film was decent, if not anything outstanding.



Blood and Lace (1971)
Until the very end of this movie, there was nothing about good that even comes close to recommending it, other than the fact that it stars Uncle Leo from Seinfeld!  ("Jerry!  Hello!"). This was supposed to be a slasher-type flick, but honestly not a whole lot was going on.   HOWEVER, the last 5 minutes are so batshit crazy insane that I was laughing out loud at the utter ridiculousness of it.  Totally made the whole movie for me.



Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus (2009)
This is the ultimate bad movie for a "Bad Movie Night".  The acting by the cast, including the "Electric Youth" herself, Deborah Gibson, is terrible.  The sets are cheap.  The special effects are laughable.  Yet, I still enjoyed it.  It contains one of the most ludicrous scenes I have ever seen - the mega shark jumps out of the water and attacks an airliner.  It is fantastically bad.

(Instead of a trailer, I am posting that scene, as it is awesome...)


Hands of the Ripper (1971)
This is a Hammer film, one of the few that I have seen that didn't involve vampires, mummies, Frankenstein or werewolves.  I enjoyed this film a lot.   Its about Jack the Ripper's daughter who is possessed by his spirit after his death.  Whenever someone tries to kiss her, his possession of her is triggered and she kills.  The film was pretty gory for the seventies, and had a nicely tense climax.