December 2004

Grandpa's Music 2004

Unlike 2003, when I was hella cash-strapped, 2004 promised to be a good year for buying new music. My job looked steady, and the Princeton Record Exchange sells a used version of just about every album out there. By and by, I found record stores in NYC with bigger and better deals. At the end of the year, my collection recovered some much-needed credibility. When you include the ridiculous number of CD's provided by Evil Robots DeLuxe Audio, I've grown fat on music.

New Music: Franz Ferdinand sent me for a loop. I heard 'em on BBC Radio1 in January, bought their album in April, and saw 'em in concert in June. With all due respect to Godzilla's favorite new band, Arcade Fire, FF simply kicked more ass. Even Modest Mouse, who's album, 'Good News for People Who Love Bad News', I loved, falls short of being my overall best of the year because of their lack of the pure, boner-inducing, energy of FF. No one can resist 'Darts of Pleasure'!

Latest Releases: Interpol, the Polyphonic Spree, Stereolab, and Air (to name a few) released new albums that I anxiously waited for this year. Out of them all, Interpol and Air stood head and shoulders above the rest. Interpol's 'Antics' is an extremely strong showing that more or less impressed me from the get-go. Air's 'Talkie-Walkie' did not initially strike me as noteworthy, but the albums cohesion and beauty has won me over completely.

Pop Music: My secret pleasures this year came from buying poppy-rock music from time to time. Dogs Die in Hot Cars, Snow Patrol, the Ordinary Boys, the Zutons, and Keane satisfied my need for instant gratification music. On the whole, I did not fuck up in getting stuff by this group of bands. The Zutons absolutely blew me away, and are the one band I would most like to see live as soon as possible. Save the Zuton album, the common feature of each is being incomplete. Some of the albums are front-loaded, and one may have only three songs that don't make me want to punch myself.

I am pleased with myself, however, for waiting for their second or third single to be released before I purchased their album. Doing this prevented me from buying monumental stinkers by the Killers. 'Mr. Brightside' is one long request to be kicked in the jimmies.

Manchester and Glasgow: Thanks to weekly encouragement by the late John Peel, I spent a large part of this year discovering music from Manchester, England. I purchased multiple albums by Joy Division, the Fall, the Passage, Happy Mondays, and New Order (although not in that order.) I cannot say that they were part of some larger "Manchester" sound, things just worked out that way. Next on my list is Wire, which should make my current journey somewhat complete.

Glasgow, Scotland came in a close second this year because of Franz Ferdinand, Sons and Daughters and Camera Obscura. This triumvirate, of course, represents new music. Unfortunately, older Glasgow bands, such as the Jesus and Mary Chain, do not come with as much company.

Rio Karma: Now that I have this new digital music player, I can create play lists with Black Sabbath, Ween and John Coltrane. This could be the end of my brain.

The Pet Shop Boys: I don't care what you say, I still love those guys.