mediocrity..

Bettie Page died today. I didn't even know she was still alive to tell you the truth. There used to be a category on the old MTV game show "Remote Control", (which was like a pop culture jeopardy type show), that was called "Alive or Dead". They would give the name of a celebrity and then your only task was to answer whether you thought they were alive or dead.

But more specifically, I'll tell you why I never found Bettie Page physically attractive......Bangs. She had ramrod straight bangs in her hair.

S.Vincent hates bangs....."I HATES THE BANGSES' "says the S.Vincent gollum....Take note potential female suitors.......(crickets chirping).....

Why? I don't know. I just think they look stupid on everyone. To me, hair should always have the look of organized chaos. It's crazy strands of fillament protuding from your body and if you cut it too much and style it too much in an overly organized fashion, it loses its spontaniety and its life. I think hair should be like the sail of a ship. There is a control and movement to a sail, but it can never fully harnass the effects of the wild nature.

Yeah....hair should be just like sailboat, I said it.

Back to the reviews:

Three of the next 5 albums all have something in common and thus I put them in a tie at number 30. They are from artist that I love, but whose 2008 albums were under-whelming. Not bad by any sense of the word, just down a little bit from their previous works. Which is more than can be said of some of the artist who will finish above them in 2008, but will most likely only have one big album to their name.

30-The Magnetic Fields-"Distortion": The Magnetic Fields is headed up by frontman Stephen Merritt, but is composed of many seperate strong musicians. Stephen has a great baritone voice which he uses in a character that is his own amusing deeply dark and depressing persona. Reminds me of a real life Eeyore. Anyway, he doesn't do all the singing on The Magnetic Fields albums and the other band members keep him a little bit more bright and sunny some of songs. This release has some good songs on it and a lot of wait for it......distortion sounds.....but is otherwise un-remarkable.

30-My Morning Jacket-"Evil Urges": I may be making a little mistake in putting them here. I enjoy this album a good amount, but its not up to my expectations of MMJ. These songs seem a little less exotic then previous MMJ. I am not a giant fan of the band but these songs seem unexciteable to me. The MMJ I like has a large echoey cavernous sound, like they are playing in a cave or in your dreams. Very other-wordly sounding, like they are in another dimension playing on instruments that you can hear but not locate. They are echoey and dreamy but they also ROCK, and this album doesn't transfer a lot of that. I'm not turning them off, but I'm not rushing to turn this on either.

30-Nine Inch Nails- "The Slip": Another free release from Trent, so who is really going to be upset about listening to this? I like it enough, and this album received the highest rating from Pitchfork that I have ever seen. However, this album is missing the flow for me. A great NIN album has a pulse. An underlying thump that rolls ahead with a real industrial sound. This is the foundation for the unstoppable aggression and gutteral tones that Trent can deliver with his voice. Without a real deep bass line, it all seems a little soul-less. Some of the songs, like the single "discipline" have some part of this (it sounds like its from the with teeth album), but otherwise all the rest of the seems a little half-hearted or underdeveloped. I like it, but its missing some of its edge. Still NIN to me though.

29-Does it Offend You, Yeah?-"You Have No Idea What You are Getting Yourself Into": I hate that I need to type for that long to get the name of this band out, but this album is pretty decent. It's got a new age industrial electronic rock feel to it and I checked them out because they were the opening act for NIN during the summer tour. It's got some cool songs and some dud's but is otherwise a fun miscellaneus type listen. They mix a lot of random electro-rock beats togethor and is kind of mish mash sound. Sometimes they mish togethor into something new and fun, and sometimes its utterly random mash. They remind me of a less focused/mature MGMT and perhaps may release a better album in the future. There are whisps of real talent here, like on the track "Dawn of the Dead" and "Lets Make Out" when they mish togethor something good.

28- Little Joy: (Self-Titled): This is fun little small outdoor party type album. Light island like sounds with soft singing. Lots of long "ooooo's" and "ahhhh's" in the background vocals. It such a simple sounding album that it should be lost into obscurity and probably will be since it is the plight of most independent artists. You won't yearn to hear this album, but when in the background, your day will brighten. When I listen to it, I want to put my feet up, drink lemonade, and smile at a sun-shiney day and ignore my laundry and grocery shopping duties. It loses points for its simplicity because there isn't any groundbreaking anything done here or any highs or lows, but its deserves respect for nailing what it was set out to be by the artists; a side project of happy songs written in a cocktail lounge in LA.