CJ Marsicano
BEST ALBUMS OF 2011: #1: FOO FIGHTERS “Wasting Light”
Wasting Light
(Roswell/RCA)
Available on CD, LP, iTunes, AmazonMP3, eMusic, and Spotify
While I’ve been inconsistent in my buying of Dave Grohl’s efforts since his first Foo Fighters album dropped in 1995, to be honest, listening to this album made me regret it immensely to the point where I turned around and filled in the considerable holes in my collection. And Pat Smear’s back in the band while Bob Mould and Krist Novaselic join in on the fun? Yes, please.
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BEST ALBUMS OF 2011: #2: MORNING MUSUME “Fantasy! Juuichi” and “12, Smart”
Fantasy Juuichi
(Zetima)
Available on CD, CD/DVD combo, and iTunes
12, Smart
12, Smart
(Zetima)
Available on CD, CD/DVD combo, and iTunes Japan
Looking back, both of these albums represent two parts of a transitional period for the band. Eri Kamei, Qian Lin and Li Chun were about to depart the band when Fantasy! Juuichi dropped, while Ai Takahashi had already taken her bows before 12, Smart‘s release. The next album and the singles that precede it with the tenth generation involved should prove interesting, even if that first single A-side is too much of an anime theme for most people’s likings.
By the way, this ranking isn’t any kind of slur on Morning Musume – far from it. It’s just there’s one album that seemed to get played just a little more than both of these… Which album was that? Check in after midnight…
BEST ALBUMS OF 2011: #3: KYARY PAMYU PAMYU “Moshi Moshi Harajuku”
Moshi Moshi Harajuku
(Warner Bros.)
Available on CD and iTunes
It’s warped, it’s ridiculously sugar-coated and electrionic-heavy… and it’s one hell of a guilty pleasure. And it’s not annoying from the second play onward like most of the American female pop singers foisted on us in recent years…
BEST ALBUMS OF 2011: #4: SCANDAL “Baby Action”
Baby Action
(Epic/Sony Japan)
Available on CD, CD/DVD, and iTunes
The Osaka Four are still unstoppable. This album is just more proof of why that is so. And the whole SCANDAL album catalog is on US iTunes now? No more excuses, folks – pay your $9.99 apiece and see what I’ve been raving about for the past four years!
BEST ALBUMS OF 2011: #5: THE BLACK BELLES (self-titled)
(self-titled)
(Third Man)
Available on CD, DVD, and iTunes
For whatever reason, there’s a serious air of mystery – intended or not – surrounding what is apparently the current flagship act on Jack White’s Third Man label. So be it. But the attention he’s giving their collective career is justified and the album is a solid debut release. The only complaint? At 29 minutes and six seconds, you’re left wanting more.
GROOVE MUSIC LIFE VIDEO: Happy Holidays From The Groove Music Life!
We’ll start with, appropriately for this blog, Morning Musume’s legendary 60′s Christmas Medley:
…Followed by something to match the other focus of this blog from punk legends The Dickies. Trans-Siberian what?
A Tom Waits-ian take on “We Three Kings”, courtesy of Mojo Nixon, and done up for YouTube by this author, WPIX Yule Log style:
And speaking of Tom Waits, what would the holidays be without a Christmas card from a hooker in Minneapolis?
Here’s a skewed, ahead-of-its-time view of a commercialized Christmas from legendary pianist/satirist Tom Lehrer:
Here’s another number I’ve shared before, but with a different performance (the original SNL performance keeps getting kicked off of YouTube):
And as long as I’m digging in the crates, let’s hear from Yossi, Gocchin and Yasuda-chan:
Since we’re in the middle of Hanukkah this year, we’d be remiss to not play this little number:
…and finally, in the further interest of equal time, one for the Scrooges out there:
Happy Holidays, everyone!
BEST ALBUMS OF 2011: #6: MISFITS “The Devil’s Rain”
The Devil’s Rain
(Misfits Records/Red Ink)
Available on CD, LP, iTunes, AmazonMP3 and eMusic
By the way some people talk, the Misfits should have been written off a long time ago. The American Psycho lineup imploded thanks to the ego problems and lack of work ethic caused by the vocalist Jerry Only and company had chosen to take Glenn Danzig’s place, and after Jerry regrouped with Dez Cadena (ex-Black Flag) and Marky Ramone in tow for the band’s 25th Anniversary tour and subsequent “side project” album Project 1950. But now that the lineup is finally stabalized, the Misfits have come back not just swinging, but driving a stake in the hearts of naysayers who thought the band wasn’t worth shit without Danzig.
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday to…
Former Morning Musume vocalist Eri Kamei (damn, she’s been out of the band for a year already?)
She’s 22!
…to alternative icon Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, seen here channeling Husker Du circa Zen Arcade:
He’s 47!
…and to guitar hero Adrian Belew (of King Crimson, Frank Zappa, and Talking Heads fame):
He’s 62!
BEST ALBUMS OF 2011: #7: KODA KUMI “Dejavu”
Dejavu
(Rhythm Zone/Avex)
Available on CD, CD/DVD combo, and iTunes Japan
With Kuu-chin now off the market and one of the latest J-Pop MILFs to be, this album (and her forthcoming next album, due a month from now) are definitely going to be looked at in a different light. After last year’s 8th Universe, Kumi moved in an almost completely non-organic direction as if she were out to challenge Lady GaGa (whom she would later meet, furthering my hypothesis that GaGa was already a Kuu-chin fan) on her own musical turf. Artistically, she didn’t disappoint, save for the misstep of the faux-Shania Twain-wreck “Bambi”. If this is officially the last album of her bacherorettehood (it’s probably safe to say she got involved with her new fiancee after the album’s release), so be it.
BEST ALBUMS OF 2011: #8: JAMES DURBIN “Memories of a Beautiful Disaster”
Memories of a Beautiful Disaster
(Wind-Up)
Available on CD, iTunes, AmazonMP3 and Spotify
This guy had my attention from the moment he opened his mouth at the American Idol auditions earlier this year, and in the back of my mind I knew this kid was going to go far. While the Wal-Mart-shopping latecomers to the AI10 season picked an immature kid with Randy Travis’s voice and Alfred E. Neuman’s face (and a shameless tendency to lipsync at most of his post-Idol personal appearances) over James, the succeeding weeks after the tour ended and their respective albums dropped proceeded to prove that America fucked up back in May when they voted James out of the Top 4. No matter – there’s plenty of time for those people to repent by grabbing the debut of The Man Who Should Be Idol.
