December 2009
Tankboy’s Top Tunes of 2009. As is customary in these parts, you will find a huge honking ZIP file of 61 of my favorite songs that were released in 2009. These are the tunes that I just haven’t gotten tired of, and the ones that this time next year will probably still be in reasonably heavy rotation. I looked back on 2008’s list to see how it held up, and it has done so...
Rockin' My Turntable In 2009: Tankboy
This is the year where, in my opinion, a lot of good music was unleashed but very little great music was created. We’ve hit a stasis point it seems, where the music scene has become so varied and so wild that the end result is a homogeneity that makes it very difficult for anything truly astounding to surface. Sure, loads of critics laud the efforts of Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear,...
The mammoth year-end list of my favorite music is DONE. My big ol’ list of favorite albums and songs of 2009 is up! Read it and let me know what you think. And check back tomorrow for a link to all my favorite songs so you can soundtrack your own Tankboy Party at home.
Mich: A little follow up/background on the...
When Tankboy and I started dating, I had been to his house a few times and wondered where all his music was. Sure, there was a pile of CD’s on the end table, but that’s nothing for someone who has supposedly been writing about music for 15+ years. Then one day he opened the door to the “extra room” that I didnt realize was there. The room was FILLED with boxes, and stuff,...
The End of the 00s: Chains of Fools, by Maura K....
Tower Records. The most painful capsizing of all, occasioned by some completely dunderheaded corporate decisions, Big Music’s brief, ruinous love affair with serving as electronics stores’ loss leaders and a tanking economy for recorded music. The chain’s last days were characterized by carcass-picking of cheap discs that had once been priced at $18.99 and higher, which only...
The decade. I’ve seen it much argued, and I can totally understand both sides’ arguments, so I’m not decisively swayed by either stance. So I ask you, dear reader, do you mark the decade as ending at the end of this year or at the close of 2010? Further, and this seems to me to be simple common sense, how is it possible to construct a “best of the decade list” without...
“I will say from the perspective of someone who has been close friends with...”
– A comment that came in on my F2K writeup of Nicole Scherzinger’s “Puakenikeni” today that I’ve been thinking about a lot. On the one hand, he’s right; obviously the (brief) triumph of acts like the Pussycat Dolls is as much about the executives in charge of things as it is about the artists. And...
Beagle update! Longtime readers are familiar with the nightmares Betty the Beagle put me through the last time I moved into a new building She barked fro hours, scratched at the door, opened and ransacked our refrigerator, and just was a general terror. We eventually found workarounds to all her issues but man was she difficult to deal with at times. Sine she didn’t do all of this stuff when...
Not feelin’ it. Just not into Christmas this year. GalPal is visiting her family out of town, part of my own family is in Canada, most of my friends are out of town and those that are here are, duh, hanging with their families. I hung out and had a good time with some fellow holiday orphans last night, and tonight is the annual Christmas at Liar’s Club and that’s always a blast,...
It’s Christmas Eve, and we are fortified against the cold. The title is slightly misleading. We are fortified against the cold, but in Chicago it’s actually reasonably warm right now. Everything is wet and slushy after last night’s ice storm but steadily rising temps have at least taken the non-stop peril out of walking a few blocks. The local liquor store was out of...
I love this because it's such a tangible awesome...
Fact: this entire neighborhood is run by the high school kids. This isn’t a joke. Every place you go into, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting some 16-year-old girl in sweatpants rolled at the hips, a ratty McAuley t-shirt, faux-Ugg boots and her hair sloppily piled on top of her head. I’ve been aware of this fact for some time, as Glin’s vet is down here, and all the girls who work the...
If you ever want your music written about… …here is an important piece of advice. Rip it to a reasonable (at least over 160 kbps) bitrate and include a link* to it when soliciting music writers. I understand you spent a lot of time on the physical CD, and probably sweated the details of the artwork to no end, and I don’t mind if you want to send me actual, tangible proof of...
Isosceles Cheese
via lenkendall.posterous.com Len finds some of the funniest stuff… Posted via web from Tankboy’s posterous | Comment »
Ahem, new Flaming Lips? Yes. Please. The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs With Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing The Dark Side of the Moon came out today. I like it lots.
Rockin' Our Turntable: The Flaming Lips Do Pink...
Count on a band like The Flaming Lips to top off a year in which they challenged their fans to find even the newbies were up for the challenge by suddenly releasing The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs With Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing The Dark Side of the Moon. The title pretty much tells the whole story, but don’t worry … Rollins doesn’t do any singing. ...
Subtle afflictions of manly pride? Can’t sleep. I’m one of those guys that often falls asleep on the couch — last night I was so lame it was Conan’s second guest that did me in — and this morning once I finally crawled into the bed the cats decided to go bonkers. I gave it an hour or so, but sleep just wasn’t coming. So here I am, getting an early start to my...
Rather obvious, if you really think about it. [via …etc]
It seems the "writers" at Prefix have stopped even...
Muse is slowly starting to threaten Radiohead‘s status as one of the biggest British rock bands in the world, and their new album, The Resistance, has only confirmed their ever-growing stature. via prefixmag.com Hey, I like Muse a whole lot, but they are nowhere near Radiohead status. Also, their latest album kind of blows … though if you can, go see them live because they put on a...
Scattershot recollections and random observations. Monday? Really? REALLY? My first set for 1994 night at The Burlington was a blast. I was supposed to close the night after Flosstradamus’ set but I am really glad they decided to just keep going since there was NO way I really wanted to follow their super-fun set.
It doesn’t fell like the holidays yet. I still haven’t done any...
I am so proud of all of you. This is making me think a) Marcus’ description of me as Rahm Emanuel might prove prescient and b) I could probably actually do a good job if elected. I certainly couldn’t be worse than the current mayor…
Welcome To The New Idolator →
chainofknives:
… and there it went. Sick-making, isn’t it? At least they preserved the old content, but I’m pretty sure that the internet wasn’t invented so we could read features called “Pop or Poop”.
xoxo, michaela
ps — sorry i’ve been so quiet this week — i was am sick, and slammed with pre-holiday gunk. blah, blah, blah.
Also, Idolator says “We’ve been dying to introduce photo...
Tankboy in ‘11! The people are speaking, and I’m listening. Vote early, vote often. I will make this city great again.
I identify with Whitney on this...
This year I officially stopped being an “album person.” I hate confessing this, but it’s the truth: When I started going through my favorite music this year, I realized there were only a handful of full albums I listened to repeatedly. via content.usatoday.com Posted via web from Tankboy’s posterous | Comment »
On Big Red Coats, cats, and spectacles. Do you know how difficult it is to type at 6:22 a.m. when a cat keeps jumping in your lap and then trying to sit on your keyboard? It’s bad enough she was obviously searching for stuff online all last night — as evidenced by the “TTTTTTTTTJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ” search term in my browser’s search field, so you’d think...
“Websites with music playing. Unless your shit is w-w-w-dot-pandora-dot-com I...”
– Happiness.: Another list of things I hate: (via carolynsfebruary)
TRUTH
(via allthingsalishan)
(via robot-heart)
(via wearethedigitalkids)
Tragedy strikes! Yesterday, mere hours after I shared with you how difficult creating year-end lists could be, my tankPOD Touch randomly ate a bunch of music, including some of the songs I had been fiddling with on my songs of 2009 list. I’ve been adding and deleting tunes over the last two weeks and was nearing completion, and the list has morphed so many times I’m not 100% sure what...
Year-end listing is hard to do. I remember when I was a wee l’il music writer oh so many years ago, year-end lists excited me to no end. I loved making them and i loved reading them even more in hopes they’d uncover music I missed along the way. Fast-forward 15 or so years and the glee is gone. Partially because so much music flies at me each and every day, I very rarely come across a...
“If you were to ask me why it is I spend less time on 20sb than I did, say, a...”
– Phil, on 20SB. (via dshan)
“I am a completely horizontal author. I can’t think unless I’m lying down, either...”
– Truman Capote, The Paris Review, Issue 16, 1957 via Daily Routines (via somethingchanged) (via wearethedigitalkids)
Which reminds me, i just found the 2-disc version of Breakfast At Tiffany’s at Target this weekend for $7.50! It may be flawed but I love that film. Total score!
If You Look Young You Will Live Longer | The Awl
If You Look Young You Will Live Longer Good news for those of you who are still getting carded: “People who look young for their age enjoy a longer life than those who look older than their years, according to a study of twins.” The study focused on “perceived age,” and over a seven-year period, researchers found that the twins who were thought to look older than...
This is reason 67,980 why I love Lady GaGa. Who else would put on a performance like this for the Queen of England?! [Photo via Mail Online]
This person really doesn't like winter.
This person really doesn’t like winter. Click to view largeDownload this gallery (ZIP, undefined KB)Download full size (248 KB) via topcultured.com 7 mentions Retweet via lenkendall.posterous.com Amen, brother. Posted via web ...
An obvious progression of events. Of course this: Would spur this: And ultimately lead to this: Of course.
Is Taylor Swift Being Set Up For A Fall? - Taylor... →
chainofknives:
This was brought to my attention, and there’s really only one thing I can say to all the feminist bloggers bashing Swift: this is not a marketing construct. She really is that wholesome. And the girls who love her, the disparaged teenage girls? Many, many, many of them are that wholesome, too. Taylor Swift (tm) is not an attack on feminism; she’s not enforcing the patriarchy....
Happy birthday GalPal! Everyone, please join me in wishing the one woman on earth who can actually put up with me a happy birthday!
Borked. Technology has revolted against me today. My computer crashed and refuses to play nice. My cell is working only when it feels like it. My Sloan pictures from last night took waaaay too long to transfer so I didn’t have time to edit them. It’s been a tough day. So come see me DJ with Lizz at The Burlington tonight and tell me it’ll all be O.K.
White noise, and other stuff. My alarm in the morning is like a sonic bomb. I have the radio set between stations with the volume way up so at the desired time and abrupt explosion of static wakes me up. It’s loud, it’s crude, it does the trick. Holy hell, is that show outside? And not just a little snow? Oh well, it’s only an 8 minute walk to the train. And thank god I...
NOT cool.
Via <a HREF=http://www.dangerousminds.net/index.php/site/comments/pod_hooters_waitress/>via</a> Sent from my tankPod Posted via email from Tankboy’s posterous | Comment »
Where is 1990 - 1999? Lizz and I already have this spread hanging by our desks at work. Click the image to see the larger original page and read the high-larious descriptions.
That’s just crazy talk! Indeed. (click the image to embiggen)
Comply With the FTC's New Blogger Disclosure Rules...
via mashable.com Posted via web from Tankboy’s posterous | Comment »
