I know I'm lazy. Sorry. I've been more apt to writing blogs on my Myspace page if you’re ever really jonesing for some bitter sarcasm from someone who obviously watches a lot of television. Just search for my profile under Mogan. Anyway, despite the fact that it’s currently Feburary 6th and the Superbowl is starting, I still need to reflect on the past year and now is the time I’m getting around to it. Besides, TIVO is currently taking better care of me better than my own mother ever did, so if Paul McCartney whips his dong out during half time, I’ll be able to catch it at my leisure. Ok, lets do this.
Top Ten Records of 2004
10. My Chemical Romance- Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
This record is buried at number 10 because it’s definitely a guilty pleasure, despite the fact I don’t want to admit to it. When I first hear about them (long before actually hearing their music) I figured they were a bunch of posers who only signed a major label deal because other Warped Tour flavors of the week The Used kept name dropping them and they seemed way more into bragging about how fucked up their singer was and how they liked horror movies than their actual ability to write songs. I was pretty surprised to find out that a band who tried to seem like Interpol sounded a whole lot like NOFX from their first single (with added Wyld Stallions solo). When I grabbed the promo of this album out of the freebie bin at work, it was mainly to prove my own theory, but over time I found this record stuck in my CD player more and more often and I was singing along a lot during my drives home. All in all, this does hold up to the hype, despite the fact that most of their fans are 15, female and apt to standing outside TRL with a sign exclaiming their devotion. That and every track on the record sounds completely different than the others, and the whole concept album thing is pretty cool, despite the fact that it seems like a pretentious bid for credibility. Their fans may fuck up the Warped Tour, but they actually are good enough to have got themselves where they are. Just don’t tell anyone I said that.
9.Head Automatica- Decadence
Another potential strike towards pretension, but a great record nonetheless. The singer from Glass Jaw starts this as a side project that becomes way better than the band that got him to a place where Dan the Automator would return his phone calls, then stabs his band mates in the back by deciding he doesn’t need it or them and living it up like a rock star (albeit a rock star who can’t tour that often because he has a disorder that makes him poop his pants). But all pretension aside, I really like this album, with it’s hip hop meets punk beats, and the overall funkiness of it. Mix that with an appearance from Tim Armstrong, and me likey.
8.The Living End- Modern Artillery
Not as good a follow up as I was expecting to Roll On, but still better than most of the other records that came out. I just love this band so fucking much that they could still do a whole lot worse and they’d still be on this list. “Whose Gonna Save Us” and “Short Notice” were two great songs that never did anything on radio in America, but would have pushed them far if they would have spent more time touring over here as well. Maybe in a few more years, they’ll be as big as they should be in the Northern Hemisphere, but until then they’ll be my own little forgotten secret.
7.Handsome Boy Modeling School- White People
Dan the Automator can’t really do anything wrong, hence him showing up twice on this list. These guys (Dan and Price Paul) really make the type of Hip Hop I enjoy; no bling, no braggin, just a couple of dudes dicking around with samples, beats and rhymes. That plus appearances from all sorts of people ranging from the Rza and Del Tha Funky Homosapien to the Mars Volta and Tim Meadows as The Ladies Man, defiantly make this my token Hip Hop entry to this list, despite the fact it would make it on regardless.
6.The Explosion- Black Tape
Another record that didn’t live up to what I was hoping for in a long over due follow up, but it’s still something that got a lot of play. Better than your average street punk, this band just captures fun rock and roll, and despite slick production (i.e. Matt’s voice sounding all pretty), the raw Les Paul and Marshall vibe just rings through and hopefully this band won’t be lost among the hustle of the majors.
5.Alkaline Trio-Split with One Man Army
These five songs (just the AK3 ones, the OMA songs are skipable) nearly surpass the greatness of the album the band put out less than a year before. Usually a split like this would be just a few leftovers from previous recordings, simply tacked together on a release just to have something to sell. But this band gives us some of their best songs ever written their career, despite the fact that most casual fans probably missed it. If these are any indication of what their forthcoming record is going to be like, I’m definitely excited.
4.Danger Mouse-The Grey Album
Despite the fact that this record was over praised, never officially released, isn’t really a new record, I don’t own any Jay-Z or Beatles albums or that I didn’t hear this until mid January 2005, this thing is fucking amazing and belongs where I put it. I guess the basics are just here; take some of the best pop songs ever written and use them to back the vocals of the highest selling Rapper of today and you have musical genius. This is definitely one of my favorite Rap albums since Paul’s Boutique, and it’s probably due to the recognizable samples. I’m really looking forward to what Danger Mouse brings us with the next Gorillas album due this year.
3. Descendents- Cool To Be You
They invented pop-punk and are still doing it better than anyone, despite the fact they only put records out when they get around to it and don’t really plan on touring (I’m praying that changes). This record picks up where Everything Sucks left off eight years ago, just not as rough. It’s still angry, just songs that used to be about hating girls and their parents are now about forming a trusting bond with a very young step daughter and feeling sorry about not being able to make amends with the same Dad who sucked back in 1983 before he passed away. These guys prove that love songs don’t need to be about cheesy high school puppy love, and that guys in their early 40’s can just as easily write a song about choosing family over punk rock or just hanging out and watching TV with your wife can be a pure form of happiness. That and I’m convinced that if these guys would have made a video for “Nothing With You,” it would have ruled MTV and commercial radio as the song Blink-182 could never pull off.
2.Rise Against- Siren Song of the Counter Culture
Damn I needed this. This record was my outlet for all the gamuts of anger I went through this last year, whether it be with personal relationships or my frustration with what’s been mislabeled as punk, or is trying to wrongly attach itself to the scene that raised me. These guys brought the emotion to their music that we need right now, in the era where kids in bands care more about fame and pussy (sic) than the music they’re playing. Hopefully this band will make the impact they’ve set out to make in the coming year.
1. Green Day-American Idiot
These guys were the first band that got me into punk rock 11 years ago, and while I would not have liked this record at all had I heard it back then, they’ve matured and I’ve matured with them and what a difference 11 years has made. Despite the fact that the songs “American Idiot” and “Letterbomb” are two of the most punk songs they’ve ever written, this album, as a whole is more a rock record. The structure of it and these songs just baffle me, and they really do take the listener on a journey through a story. A lot has been said for this being a very specifically political record, despite the fact that names aren’t specifically named and fingers aren’t directly pointed. While it is called “American Idiot”, I see it more as being sociological than political, instead taking a look at our Nation as a whole instead of the individuals who are in charge. And I don’t care what Billie Joe said specifically in interviews about the President, they do a better job at being subtle and metaphorical about things than NOFX did by being blunt and literal last year with their record, which was definitely sub par. This record is hands down album of the year and helps me to see why Green Day are definitely my favorite band of all time.
Worst Records of 2004
1. Interpol-Antics
This band isn’t bad per se, I’m just sick of their hype and bullshit. I’m sick of their pretentiousness that music journalists mistake for talent, sick of the fact that their bass play who just plays bass thinks he’s evil offspring of Morrissey and James Dean (he’s not), and how I keep hearing that they’re the best and most original band ever. These fuckers are pretty much a faded copy of Joy Division, but have more in common with The Darkness than New Order. However, while like The Darkness, Interpol seem to be a throwback to something of days gone by and have built themselves as being such, The Darkness take their influences from all over the genera, from Queen to Diamond Dave era Van Halen, while Interpol are pretty much stuck on the late Ian Curtis. I wonder how writing and recording this record went; do they wear their suits in the studio or are the doors locked so people won’t see them wearing shorts and sweats? Does the singer do scratch vocals in his normal speaking voice or do they have a guide track of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” or the Benedict Monks’ Chant to help him nail what’s obviously not natural for him (can you imagine him at a niece or nephew’s birthday party singing happy birthday? That’s gotta be some scary shit.)? These guys may write some good songs, but it’s the package it’s delivered in that I can’t stand.
2. The Used- In Love and Death
When will these posers go back to Utah and stay there instead of tricking little girls into thinking they’re as good as they think they are and letting their singer date rape them in the back of his bus? Woohoo Burt McCracken, you play up the whole fucked up thing. Sorry, I think the thing you’re doing is a little more Courtney Love than Kurt Coban, because he never sought out attention or bragged about it and mostly shyed away from attention, unlike the wife who liked to flash people on TV and hang out with the Osbornes in search of relevance. Your record is more like a 3rd rate Solid State release, and the whole hearts this is pretty played out from 3 years ago. Have fun headlining over My Chemical Romance this spring and watching three quarters of the audience leave after their set.
3. Good Charlotte- The Chronicles of Life and Death
Hey, another Hot Topic favorite using life and death in their title. Damn their label spent a lot of money on trying to make these midgets sound good. The production sounds more like DC Talk than MXPX, and the Justin Timberlake dance hit shows what these kids are all about; a quick buck before they have to go back to their jobs as grave yard cooks at Sonic.
4. Ashlee Simpson- Autobiography
I kinda feel sorry for this girl. I’ve been sucked into watching the serialized infomercials for her record, and despite the fact that she’s just a pawn to sell a product, she seems like a sweet girl who’s been pushed into something that she’s not so her Dad can make a return investment on having more than one kid. It’s not her fault that she can’t sing but they’re making her fake it anyway and she truly doesn’t identify with or understand the counter culture that they’re trying to associate her with, and therefore bastardize. I think she’d be better off just doing her thing and being someone else’s normal sister than Ashlee spelled with an Anarchy sign (side note; what the fuck are they thinking? She’s got an Anarchy symbol on her drummer’s kit. So she’s for the abolishing of all forms of government and laws and for the end of Capitalism? I’m sure that’s what her Bush supporting Manager/Dad who watches her every move had in mind.) She, along with William Hung proves that you don’t need talent to manufacture records, just a personality that people like. And in her case, a huge rack.
5. The Killers- Hot Fuss
What’s with all the Mormons pretending they’re badass? You act all swaggerly and pompous on stage, but we all know that you still aren’t allowed to drink soda and have to call your Dad Sir when you have to miss shows to go home for family event night. I don’t know, I just never really like this band when they were called Duran Duran, and their song “Mr. Brightside” actually induced me to experience a series of panic attacks that continued over a course of several months. True story. Thanks Mormons!
Personal Plans of Action for 2005
-Find My Purpose
-Find a Real Job
- Be Able To Tell Who My Real Friends Are
-Be Super Awesome
Thanks For Readin’!
Top Ten Records of 2004
10. My Chemical Romance- Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
This record is buried at number 10 because it’s definitely a guilty pleasure, despite the fact I don’t want to admit to it. When I first hear about them (long before actually hearing their music) I figured they were a bunch of posers who only signed a major label deal because other Warped Tour flavors of the week The Used kept name dropping them and they seemed way more into bragging about how fucked up their singer was and how they liked horror movies than their actual ability to write songs. I was pretty surprised to find out that a band who tried to seem like Interpol sounded a whole lot like NOFX from their first single (with added Wyld Stallions solo). When I grabbed the promo of this album out of the freebie bin at work, it was mainly to prove my own theory, but over time I found this record stuck in my CD player more and more often and I was singing along a lot during my drives home. All in all, this does hold up to the hype, despite the fact that most of their fans are 15, female and apt to standing outside TRL with a sign exclaiming their devotion. That and every track on the record sounds completely different than the others, and the whole concept album thing is pretty cool, despite the fact that it seems like a pretentious bid for credibility. Their fans may fuck up the Warped Tour, but they actually are good enough to have got themselves where they are. Just don’t tell anyone I said that.
9.Head Automatica- Decadence
Another potential strike towards pretension, but a great record nonetheless. The singer from Glass Jaw starts this as a side project that becomes way better than the band that got him to a place where Dan the Automator would return his phone calls, then stabs his band mates in the back by deciding he doesn’t need it or them and living it up like a rock star (albeit a rock star who can’t tour that often because he has a disorder that makes him poop his pants). But all pretension aside, I really like this album, with it’s hip hop meets punk beats, and the overall funkiness of it. Mix that with an appearance from Tim Armstrong, and me likey.
8.The Living End- Modern Artillery
Not as good a follow up as I was expecting to Roll On, but still better than most of the other records that came out. I just love this band so fucking much that they could still do a whole lot worse and they’d still be on this list. “Whose Gonna Save Us” and “Short Notice” were two great songs that never did anything on radio in America, but would have pushed them far if they would have spent more time touring over here as well. Maybe in a few more years, they’ll be as big as they should be in the Northern Hemisphere, but until then they’ll be my own little forgotten secret.
7.Handsome Boy Modeling School- White People
Dan the Automator can’t really do anything wrong, hence him showing up twice on this list. These guys (Dan and Price Paul) really make the type of Hip Hop I enjoy; no bling, no braggin, just a couple of dudes dicking around with samples, beats and rhymes. That plus appearances from all sorts of people ranging from the Rza and Del Tha Funky Homosapien to the Mars Volta and Tim Meadows as The Ladies Man, defiantly make this my token Hip Hop entry to this list, despite the fact it would make it on regardless.
6.The Explosion- Black Tape
Another record that didn’t live up to what I was hoping for in a long over due follow up, but it’s still something that got a lot of play. Better than your average street punk, this band just captures fun rock and roll, and despite slick production (i.e. Matt’s voice sounding all pretty), the raw Les Paul and Marshall vibe just rings through and hopefully this band won’t be lost among the hustle of the majors.
5.Alkaline Trio-Split with One Man Army
These five songs (just the AK3 ones, the OMA songs are skipable) nearly surpass the greatness of the album the band put out less than a year before. Usually a split like this would be just a few leftovers from previous recordings, simply tacked together on a release just to have something to sell. But this band gives us some of their best songs ever written their career, despite the fact that most casual fans probably missed it. If these are any indication of what their forthcoming record is going to be like, I’m definitely excited.
4.Danger Mouse-The Grey Album
Despite the fact that this record was over praised, never officially released, isn’t really a new record, I don’t own any Jay-Z or Beatles albums or that I didn’t hear this until mid January 2005, this thing is fucking amazing and belongs where I put it. I guess the basics are just here; take some of the best pop songs ever written and use them to back the vocals of the highest selling Rapper of today and you have musical genius. This is definitely one of my favorite Rap albums since Paul’s Boutique, and it’s probably due to the recognizable samples. I’m really looking forward to what Danger Mouse brings us with the next Gorillas album due this year.
3. Descendents- Cool To Be You
They invented pop-punk and are still doing it better than anyone, despite the fact they only put records out when they get around to it and don’t really plan on touring (I’m praying that changes). This record picks up where Everything Sucks left off eight years ago, just not as rough. It’s still angry, just songs that used to be about hating girls and their parents are now about forming a trusting bond with a very young step daughter and feeling sorry about not being able to make amends with the same Dad who sucked back in 1983 before he passed away. These guys prove that love songs don’t need to be about cheesy high school puppy love, and that guys in their early 40’s can just as easily write a song about choosing family over punk rock or just hanging out and watching TV with your wife can be a pure form of happiness. That and I’m convinced that if these guys would have made a video for “Nothing With You,” it would have ruled MTV and commercial radio as the song Blink-182 could never pull off.
2.Rise Against- Siren Song of the Counter Culture
Damn I needed this. This record was my outlet for all the gamuts of anger I went through this last year, whether it be with personal relationships or my frustration with what’s been mislabeled as punk, or is trying to wrongly attach itself to the scene that raised me. These guys brought the emotion to their music that we need right now, in the era where kids in bands care more about fame and pussy (sic) than the music they’re playing. Hopefully this band will make the impact they’ve set out to make in the coming year.
1. Green Day-American Idiot
These guys were the first band that got me into punk rock 11 years ago, and while I would not have liked this record at all had I heard it back then, they’ve matured and I’ve matured with them and what a difference 11 years has made. Despite the fact that the songs “American Idiot” and “Letterbomb” are two of the most punk songs they’ve ever written, this album, as a whole is more a rock record. The structure of it and these songs just baffle me, and they really do take the listener on a journey through a story. A lot has been said for this being a very specifically political record, despite the fact that names aren’t specifically named and fingers aren’t directly pointed. While it is called “American Idiot”, I see it more as being sociological than political, instead taking a look at our Nation as a whole instead of the individuals who are in charge. And I don’t care what Billie Joe said specifically in interviews about the President, they do a better job at being subtle and metaphorical about things than NOFX did by being blunt and literal last year with their record, which was definitely sub par. This record is hands down album of the year and helps me to see why Green Day are definitely my favorite band of all time.
Worst Records of 2004
1. Interpol-Antics
This band isn’t bad per se, I’m just sick of their hype and bullshit. I’m sick of their pretentiousness that music journalists mistake for talent, sick of the fact that their bass play who just plays bass thinks he’s evil offspring of Morrissey and James Dean (he’s not), and how I keep hearing that they’re the best and most original band ever. These fuckers are pretty much a faded copy of Joy Division, but have more in common with The Darkness than New Order. However, while like The Darkness, Interpol seem to be a throwback to something of days gone by and have built themselves as being such, The Darkness take their influences from all over the genera, from Queen to Diamond Dave era Van Halen, while Interpol are pretty much stuck on the late Ian Curtis. I wonder how writing and recording this record went; do they wear their suits in the studio or are the doors locked so people won’t see them wearing shorts and sweats? Does the singer do scratch vocals in his normal speaking voice or do they have a guide track of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” or the Benedict Monks’ Chant to help him nail what’s obviously not natural for him (can you imagine him at a niece or nephew’s birthday party singing happy birthday? That’s gotta be some scary shit.)? These guys may write some good songs, but it’s the package it’s delivered in that I can’t stand.
2. The Used- In Love and Death
When will these posers go back to Utah and stay there instead of tricking little girls into thinking they’re as good as they think they are and letting their singer date rape them in the back of his bus? Woohoo Burt McCracken, you play up the whole fucked up thing. Sorry, I think the thing you’re doing is a little more Courtney Love than Kurt Coban, because he never sought out attention or bragged about it and mostly shyed away from attention, unlike the wife who liked to flash people on TV and hang out with the Osbornes in search of relevance. Your record is more like a 3rd rate Solid State release, and the whole hearts this is pretty played out from 3 years ago. Have fun headlining over My Chemical Romance this spring and watching three quarters of the audience leave after their set.
3. Good Charlotte- The Chronicles of Life and Death
Hey, another Hot Topic favorite using life and death in their title. Damn their label spent a lot of money on trying to make these midgets sound good. The production sounds more like DC Talk than MXPX, and the Justin Timberlake dance hit shows what these kids are all about; a quick buck before they have to go back to their jobs as grave yard cooks at Sonic.
4. Ashlee Simpson- Autobiography
I kinda feel sorry for this girl. I’ve been sucked into watching the serialized infomercials for her record, and despite the fact that she’s just a pawn to sell a product, she seems like a sweet girl who’s been pushed into something that she’s not so her Dad can make a return investment on having more than one kid. It’s not her fault that she can’t sing but they’re making her fake it anyway and she truly doesn’t identify with or understand the counter culture that they’re trying to associate her with, and therefore bastardize. I think she’d be better off just doing her thing and being someone else’s normal sister than Ashlee spelled with an Anarchy sign (side note; what the fuck are they thinking? She’s got an Anarchy symbol on her drummer’s kit. So she’s for the abolishing of all forms of government and laws and for the end of Capitalism? I’m sure that’s what her Bush supporting Manager/Dad who watches her every move had in mind.) She, along with William Hung proves that you don’t need talent to manufacture records, just a personality that people like. And in her case, a huge rack.
5. The Killers- Hot Fuss
What’s with all the Mormons pretending they’re badass? You act all swaggerly and pompous on stage, but we all know that you still aren’t allowed to drink soda and have to call your Dad Sir when you have to miss shows to go home for family event night. I don’t know, I just never really like this band when they were called Duran Duran, and their song “Mr. Brightside” actually induced me to experience a series of panic attacks that continued over a course of several months. True story. Thanks Mormons!
Personal Plans of Action for 2005
-Find My Purpose
-Find a Real Job
- Be Able To Tell Who My Real Friends Are
-Be Super Awesome
Thanks For Readin’!
