Friday, December 22, 2006
2006
I forgot to do this last year. Won't make the same mistake again.
Roughly:
Top Ten Albums......
1. The Flip Scoldjah - Nazgul Please!
Whew. Mind blown. Flip blew his awesome first record out of the water. What the hell is this? Prog-pop-rap? The recording quality and songwriting went through the stratosphere. The main instrument is... scratching!? Every time I listen to this I think the run of tracks 1-5 is utter perfection. But then I realize there's nothing wrong with track 6, or ANY of the other tracks. Awesome shit.
2. The Bats - At the National Grid (2005)
This might be in consideration for album of the year, but I can't let a 2005 record take that slot. I know this is supposed to be 2006, but I love this record too much and jammed it too hard this year not to include it. I first got into the Bats in when I was 14. I had a few of their late 80's albums and loved them, but then I kind of lost track. They never broke up, but this does feel like a reunion of sorts. After being together for over twenty years, they break out their best album yet. Holy shit. It completely captures the New Zealand ultra-catchy, maybe a little sloppy, totally endearing vibe that I'm a sucker for. They also brought some serious guitar jamming to the table this time around. I hope their next record's even better.
3. Elf Power - Back to the Web
Their best album, hands down. Elf Power goes lush and somehow more dark at the same time. The instrumentation and textures on this carry the record. Lots of psych droning and bits of Automatic For the People-organics. With this cohesive beast, it's no wonder Rykodisc picked them up.
4. Love Is All - Nine Times That Same Song
Pretty rad album title. Fast, rowdy, jubilant tunes. Groove to it.
5. Mahogany - Connectivity!
I'm really surprised this isn't getting the pitchfork jack-off treatment. Hmm. This is really hard to describe, but imagine a ultra fleshed-out Young Marble Giants who love to fiddle with heaps of old electronics and shoegazey guitars and cellos and melodicas and minimal drums on top of the drum machine. Or maybe a more experimental-sounding Stereolab crossed with Crispy Ambulance. I've followed this band for a long time and with this album they've finally honed all of their ARP-synth experimentation into pop music.
6. Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's Block
Three Swedes writing a batch of cool tunes and arranging the hell out of them to get maximum bang for their buck. Let's start a song with shaker/bass/drums and whistling. Alright, let's have some singing. Alright, let's have some female guest singing, but fade in some organ while that's happening. Chorus? Okay, add in some dramatic guitar chords and bongos. Hit song (see top ten songs list).
7. Konono No.1 - Congotronics (2005)
Dudes in Africa make their own electrified thumb pianos and send 'em through handmade amps. Percussion out of car parts. Singing into handmade microphones. Some of the hardest jamming ever. Listen to it.
8. Excalibrah - Excalibrah & the Poon-Tang Clan volume 1.9
Funniest thing I've heard all year. Most quoted thing amongst friends (only quoted thing?). Best party record since Tittania.
9. Human Television - Look At Who You're Talking To
A little dissapointing after their excellent debut ep, but this has some gems on it. Fast, light, 80's-era indie pop a la C86/Wedding Present/early REM.
10. Futureheads - News & Tributes
I don't know why I have this so low, because as a whole I like this better than their first album. On their first album every song sounded the same- fast and catchy as fuck with harmonies exploding off every inch of song. For this one they expanded their palette, slowed it down sometimes, and basically matured. I'm interested to see what they do next.
Honorable mentions:
Islands - Return to the Sea
Liars - Drum's Not Dead
Old Band I Really Got Into in 2006:
Steely Dan, duh
Top Ten Tunes of the Year:
1. Islands - Rough Gem
2. Futureheads - Skip To The End
3. Elf Power - Peel Back The Moon, Beware
4. Excalibrah - Things Brah Created To Keep The Earf Awesome
5. The Bats - Bells
6. Excalibrah - Have You Ever Been This Gangsta?
7. Peter Bjorn And John - Young Folks
8. The Flip Scoldjah - Welcome To My Opus
9. Human Television - In Front Of The House
10. Love Is All - Busy Doing Nothing
Top Concert
1. McDan - Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA
1a. The Bats - The Rickshaw Stop, SF
That's it. Let's see some more.
I forgot to do this last year. Won't make the same mistake again.
Roughly:
Top Ten Albums......
1. The Flip Scoldjah - Nazgul Please!
Whew. Mind blown. Flip blew his awesome first record out of the water. What the hell is this? Prog-pop-rap? The recording quality and songwriting went through the stratosphere. The main instrument is... scratching!? Every time I listen to this I think the run of tracks 1-5 is utter perfection. But then I realize there's nothing wrong with track 6, or ANY of the other tracks. Awesome shit.
2. The Bats - At the National Grid (2005)
This might be in consideration for album of the year, but I can't let a 2005 record take that slot. I know this is supposed to be 2006, but I love this record too much and jammed it too hard this year not to include it. I first got into the Bats in when I was 14. I had a few of their late 80's albums and loved them, but then I kind of lost track. They never broke up, but this does feel like a reunion of sorts. After being together for over twenty years, they break out their best album yet. Holy shit. It completely captures the New Zealand ultra-catchy, maybe a little sloppy, totally endearing vibe that I'm a sucker for. They also brought some serious guitar jamming to the table this time around. I hope their next record's even better.
3. Elf Power - Back to the Web
Their best album, hands down. Elf Power goes lush and somehow more dark at the same time. The instrumentation and textures on this carry the record. Lots of psych droning and bits of Automatic For the People-organics. With this cohesive beast, it's no wonder Rykodisc picked them up.
4. Love Is All - Nine Times That Same Song
Pretty rad album title. Fast, rowdy, jubilant tunes. Groove to it.
5. Mahogany - Connectivity!
I'm really surprised this isn't getting the pitchfork jack-off treatment. Hmm. This is really hard to describe, but imagine a ultra fleshed-out Young Marble Giants who love to fiddle with heaps of old electronics and shoegazey guitars and cellos and melodicas and minimal drums on top of the drum machine. Or maybe a more experimental-sounding Stereolab crossed with Crispy Ambulance. I've followed this band for a long time and with this album they've finally honed all of their ARP-synth experimentation into pop music.
6. Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's Block
Three Swedes writing a batch of cool tunes and arranging the hell out of them to get maximum bang for their buck. Let's start a song with shaker/bass/drums and whistling. Alright, let's have some singing. Alright, let's have some female guest singing, but fade in some organ while that's happening. Chorus? Okay, add in some dramatic guitar chords and bongos. Hit song (see top ten songs list).
7. Konono No.1 - Congotronics (2005)
Dudes in Africa make their own electrified thumb pianos and send 'em through handmade amps. Percussion out of car parts. Singing into handmade microphones. Some of the hardest jamming ever. Listen to it.
8. Excalibrah - Excalibrah & the Poon-Tang Clan volume 1.9
Funniest thing I've heard all year. Most quoted thing amongst friends (only quoted thing?). Best party record since Tittania.
9. Human Television - Look At Who You're Talking To
A little dissapointing after their excellent debut ep, but this has some gems on it. Fast, light, 80's-era indie pop a la C86/Wedding Present/early REM.
10. Futureheads - News & Tributes
I don't know why I have this so low, because as a whole I like this better than their first album. On their first album every song sounded the same- fast and catchy as fuck with harmonies exploding off every inch of song. For this one they expanded their palette, slowed it down sometimes, and basically matured. I'm interested to see what they do next.
Honorable mentions:
Islands - Return to the Sea
Liars - Drum's Not Dead
Old Band I Really Got Into in 2006:
Steely Dan, duh
Top Ten Tunes of the Year:
1. Islands - Rough Gem
2. Futureheads - Skip To The End
3. Elf Power - Peel Back The Moon, Beware
4. Excalibrah - Things Brah Created To Keep The Earf Awesome
5. The Bats - Bells
6. Excalibrah - Have You Ever Been This Gangsta?
7. Peter Bjorn And John - Young Folks
8. The Flip Scoldjah - Welcome To My Opus
9. Human Television - In Front Of The House
10. Love Is All - Busy Doing Nothing
Top Concert
1. McDan - Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA
1a. The Bats - The Rickshaw Stop, SF
That's it. Let's see some more.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Best of '06 shiz...
Time to start getting those lists in folks. Over the next week or two all of us should be posting out best of the year lists. If any of you have already compiled them, we can use this thread to start making fun of all the crappy records we like. As Jeezy likes to say "Let's Get It"
Time to start getting those lists in folks. Over the next week or two all of us should be posting out best of the year lists. If any of you have already compiled them, we can use this thread to start making fun of all the crappy records we like. As Jeezy likes to say "Let's Get It"
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
last radio of the year
Mesmerization Eclipse, WZBC 90.3 FM, 3 to 5 pm.
Typical end-of-the-year best-of bullshit.
Mesmerization Eclipse, WZBC 90.3 FM, 3 to 5 pm.
Typical end-of-the-year best-of bullshit.
Sunday School christmas show...
Hey folks...Sunday the 24th I'm going to be doing a Christmas edition of Sunday School and I need your help with recomendations of dope ass songs for the holidays. For example today I found The Knife's "Christmas Reindeer"...perfect. Stuff like that. You can post sugesstions or email me at egarstin@gmail.com. If you've never had the chance to listen to the show you can check out some of the playlists here. Kinda in that vein. That means no Jandek 25 minute christmas epics (darkness i'm looking at you). Thank you in advance.
Holla,
Elliott
Hey folks...Sunday the 24th I'm going to be doing a Christmas edition of Sunday School and I need your help with recomendations of dope ass songs for the holidays. For example today I found The Knife's "Christmas Reindeer"...perfect. Stuff like that. You can post sugesstions or email me at egarstin@gmail.com. If you've never had the chance to listen to the show you can check out some of the playlists here. Kinda in that vein. That means no Jandek 25 minute christmas epics (darkness i'm looking at you). Thank you in advance.
Holla,
Elliott
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Rafael is cool but crude
So, yeah, an awesome trade. Shit, even if Soriano's arm explodes on the first day of spring training it would still look good, as Ramirez maybe would've been non-tendered anyway.
Speaking of non-tendering, they better not do that to Giles. I don't understand why they can't get something of value for him; despite his down year, he's pretty obviously a better player than any of the 2b free agents around, except maybe Mark Loretta.
ALSO: this trade proves that any rumors concerning the Braves should not be taken too seriously. The last two days all you heard was LaRoche to Pittsburgh or maybe Anaheim. I didn't read a word about a Ramirez-for-Soriano deal until it had already been agreed upon. There's already rampant speculation that the highly publicized LaRoche for Mike Gonzalez offer was never serious on Atlanta's part, and played up to the media primarily to coax Seattle into fasttracking the Soriano deal. This is why, if LaRoche, Giles, Hudson, or Andruw do get dealt this off-season, I'm sure it won't be in any of the deals that've been rumored about thus far.
Also, Chuck James for Rocco Baldelli would be a good trade, but not necessarily for the Braves as currently configured. Yeah, they need to improve left-field, but unless it precipitates an Andruw deal I'd think this trade would damage the rotation more than it would help the line-up. I have no idea why the Braves would do it unless it led directly to Andruw going elsewhere.
So, yeah, an awesome trade. Shit, even if Soriano's arm explodes on the first day of spring training it would still look good, as Ramirez maybe would've been non-tendered anyway.
Speaking of non-tendering, they better not do that to Giles. I don't understand why they can't get something of value for him; despite his down year, he's pretty obviously a better player than any of the 2b free agents around, except maybe Mark Loretta.
ALSO: this trade proves that any rumors concerning the Braves should not be taken too seriously. The last two days all you heard was LaRoche to Pittsburgh or maybe Anaheim. I didn't read a word about a Ramirez-for-Soriano deal until it had already been agreed upon. There's already rampant speculation that the highly publicized LaRoche for Mike Gonzalez offer was never serious on Atlanta's part, and played up to the media primarily to coax Seattle into fasttracking the Soriano deal. This is why, if LaRoche, Giles, Hudson, or Andruw do get dealt this off-season, I'm sure it won't be in any of the deals that've been rumored about thus far.
Also, Chuck James for Rocco Baldelli would be a good trade, but not necessarily for the Braves as currently configured. Yeah, they need to improve left-field, but unless it precipitates an Andruw deal I'd think this trade would damage the rotation more than it would help the line-up. I have no idea why the Braves would do it unless it led directly to Andruw going elsewhere.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
winter meetings day the second
Talks supposedly continue between Baltimore and Atlanta. When the Hudson-to-Baltimore rumors started a couple of weeks ago, one of the first players I thought of was Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts. It's known that the Braves are looking for a prototypical lead-off hitter, and, with the almost certainty that Marcus Giles will be dealt, second base should be wide open. Roberts would fill both holes ably. Of course he's arbitration eligible the next two years, and should probably earn more than Giles in at least '07. The Baltimore Sun reports that the Braves have offered Giles and Adam LaRoche for Roberts and pitching prospect Hayden Penn. Penn's been well-regarded for a while, and looked good during a brief spell at Triple-A, but was absolutely awful in six starts for Baltimore last year. He's only 22, still has a ton of potential, and would be a welcome addition to the club. I wouldn't be thrilled about this deal, though. I find it unlikely that LaRoche will match or build on his seocnd half from last year, but that deal as constituted would basically be taking one step forward and two steps back. Sure, they'd find their lead-off hitter, and replace Giles with a proven second baseman, but they'd be losing a good amount of power without immediately improving their pitching, which should remain the focus. If they could get Roberts and Penn for Hudson and Giles, flip LaRoche over to Pittsburgh for a reliever or young starter, and then use the Hudson savings to sign or trade for another starter, first baseman, or reliever, then I'd be happy.
Talks supposedly continue between Baltimore and Atlanta. When the Hudson-to-Baltimore rumors started a couple of weeks ago, one of the first players I thought of was Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts. It's known that the Braves are looking for a prototypical lead-off hitter, and, with the almost certainty that Marcus Giles will be dealt, second base should be wide open. Roberts would fill both holes ably. Of course he's arbitration eligible the next two years, and should probably earn more than Giles in at least '07. The Baltimore Sun reports that the Braves have offered Giles and Adam LaRoche for Roberts and pitching prospect Hayden Penn. Penn's been well-regarded for a while, and looked good during a brief spell at Triple-A, but was absolutely awful in six starts for Baltimore last year. He's only 22, still has a ton of potential, and would be a welcome addition to the club. I wouldn't be thrilled about this deal, though. I find it unlikely that LaRoche will match or build on his seocnd half from last year, but that deal as constituted would basically be taking one step forward and two steps back. Sure, they'd find their lead-off hitter, and replace Giles with a proven second baseman, but they'd be losing a good amount of power without immediately improving their pitching, which should remain the focus. If they could get Roberts and Penn for Hudson and Giles, flip LaRoche over to Pittsburgh for a reliever or young starter, and then use the Hudson savings to sign or trade for another starter, first baseman, or reliever, then I'd be happy.
Monday, December 04, 2006
winter meetings
Last Thursday I worked on a baseball post for about an hour, putting forth what I hoped John Schuerholz would do this off-season. I didn't post it because I wasn't quite done with it, and then Glavine's resigning with the Mets on Friday completely ruined the very foundation of my post. So yeah, screw you, too, buddy.
The winter meetings started this morning, and tons of sites are updating regularly throughout the day. There've been a few rumors concerning the Braves, but none of them are exciting. The Giles for Linebrink deal won't go away, of course, and if that ever happens we'd hopefully get more than just one fading reliever. Linebrink was excellent in '04 and '05, but he's reaching his mid-30's and had his worst season in years in '06. If that's the best Schuerholz can do I'd hang on to Giles and see what happens between spring training and the trade deadline.
Tim Hudson talks have seemingly gone south. I was strongly in favor of flipping Hudson for a solid reliever and a good prospect last week, and using the savings to resign Glavine; since that's not possible, I'd be less interested in dealing him. If the Braves could get a young player who could make an impact with the major league club next season, like say Adam Loewen or Chris Ray or Nick Markakis from Baltimore, then I'd be all for making the deal. But the main Hudson rumor today involves him going to Seattle for Richie Sexson, which makes very little sense for Atlanta. There seems to be a decent chance that Adam LaRoche will get dealt, which I'm fine with, but there's no reason that should lead to a Sexson acquisition. We don't need aging, oft-injured sluggers at both ends of the infield, and the money saved in such a deal would be insubstantial.
Speaking of Adam LaRoche, I think him replicating his second half performance from 2006 is about as likely as Chipper playing 162 games next year. Still, a 27-year-old first baseman coming off a 32-homer, .915 OPS season should fetch a nice return. Pittsburgh has supposedly inquired into LaRoche's availability, but balked at sending over their closer, Mike Gonzalez. I realize relief is at a premium right now, and that it happens to be the Braves' greatest need, but I'd hope Atlanta could pull more than just Gonzalez in exchange for LaRoche. Yeah, the closer had a nice season last year, but he missed all of September with shoulder problems, and doesn't have a substantial track record of success. Granted LaRoche doesn't either, but his gradual improvement the last three seasons, and the fact that he's entering his year-27 season, should make him, theoretically, a surer bet to maintain his production than Gonzalez. I say "theoretically" because, as noted above, I have little faith in the man.
Anyway, assume these rumors come true, and no other moves are made. That'd give them the following line-up:
C: Brian McCann
1B: Richie Sexson
2B: Willy Aybar / Martin Prado / Kelly Johnson
SS: Edgar Renteria
3B: Chipper Jones
LF: Ryan Langerhans / Mike Diaz / Kelly Johnson
CF: Andruw Jones
RF: Jeff Francoeur
I'd assume that Aybar would bat lead-off, if he gets the starting job. Johnson, with his high on-base percentage, could be a decent option. Follow that up with Renteria, Chipper, Andruw, Sexson, McCann, Francoeur, and Langerhans. I don't think this is really any weaker than their 2006 line-up.
Now, the rotation:
John Smoltz
Mike Hampton
Chuck James
Kyle Davies
Horacio Ramirez
They'll definitely upgrade here, somehow; this conjectured rotation is no better than last year's subpar group. There's no way they trade Hudson without getting another pitcher they can rely on more than Davies or Ramirez. They could also plug Lance Cormier or Oscar Villarreal in, if it comes to that.
And options for the bullpen:
Bob Wickman
Mike Gonzalez
Scott Linebrink
Chad Paronto
Macay McBride
Tyler Yates
Oscar Villarreal
Lance Cormier
Blaine Boyer
Tanyon Sturtze
Those last two are returning from injury, but could play a role at some point. This would be the one clear area in which the team would be improved. Gonzalez could ably fit in for Wickman if he gets hurt, and perhaps even make Wickman expendable in a July trade if the team's out of the race.
Anyway, let's hope this possible future never comes to pass.
Last Thursday I worked on a baseball post for about an hour, putting forth what I hoped John Schuerholz would do this off-season. I didn't post it because I wasn't quite done with it, and then Glavine's resigning with the Mets on Friday completely ruined the very foundation of my post. So yeah, screw you, too, buddy.
The winter meetings started this morning, and tons of sites are updating regularly throughout the day. There've been a few rumors concerning the Braves, but none of them are exciting. The Giles for Linebrink deal won't go away, of course, and if that ever happens we'd hopefully get more than just one fading reliever. Linebrink was excellent in '04 and '05, but he's reaching his mid-30's and had his worst season in years in '06. If that's the best Schuerholz can do I'd hang on to Giles and see what happens between spring training and the trade deadline.
Tim Hudson talks have seemingly gone south. I was strongly in favor of flipping Hudson for a solid reliever and a good prospect last week, and using the savings to resign Glavine; since that's not possible, I'd be less interested in dealing him. If the Braves could get a young player who could make an impact with the major league club next season, like say Adam Loewen or Chris Ray or Nick Markakis from Baltimore, then I'd be all for making the deal. But the main Hudson rumor today involves him going to Seattle for Richie Sexson, which makes very little sense for Atlanta. There seems to be a decent chance that Adam LaRoche will get dealt, which I'm fine with, but there's no reason that should lead to a Sexson acquisition. We don't need aging, oft-injured sluggers at both ends of the infield, and the money saved in such a deal would be insubstantial.
Speaking of Adam LaRoche, I think him replicating his second half performance from 2006 is about as likely as Chipper playing 162 games next year. Still, a 27-year-old first baseman coming off a 32-homer, .915 OPS season should fetch a nice return. Pittsburgh has supposedly inquired into LaRoche's availability, but balked at sending over their closer, Mike Gonzalez. I realize relief is at a premium right now, and that it happens to be the Braves' greatest need, but I'd hope Atlanta could pull more than just Gonzalez in exchange for LaRoche. Yeah, the closer had a nice season last year, but he missed all of September with shoulder problems, and doesn't have a substantial track record of success. Granted LaRoche doesn't either, but his gradual improvement the last three seasons, and the fact that he's entering his year-27 season, should make him, theoretically, a surer bet to maintain his production than Gonzalez. I say "theoretically" because, as noted above, I have little faith in the man.
Anyway, assume these rumors come true, and no other moves are made. That'd give them the following line-up:
C: Brian McCann
1B: Richie Sexson
2B: Willy Aybar / Martin Prado / Kelly Johnson
SS: Edgar Renteria
3B: Chipper Jones
LF: Ryan Langerhans / Mike Diaz / Kelly Johnson
CF: Andruw Jones
RF: Jeff Francoeur
I'd assume that Aybar would bat lead-off, if he gets the starting job. Johnson, with his high on-base percentage, could be a decent option. Follow that up with Renteria, Chipper, Andruw, Sexson, McCann, Francoeur, and Langerhans. I don't think this is really any weaker than their 2006 line-up.
Now, the rotation:
John Smoltz
Mike Hampton
Chuck James
Kyle Davies
Horacio Ramirez
They'll definitely upgrade here, somehow; this conjectured rotation is no better than last year's subpar group. There's no way they trade Hudson without getting another pitcher they can rely on more than Davies or Ramirez. They could also plug Lance Cormier or Oscar Villarreal in, if it comes to that.
And options for the bullpen:
Bob Wickman
Mike Gonzalez
Scott Linebrink
Chad Paronto
Macay McBride
Tyler Yates
Oscar Villarreal
Lance Cormier
Blaine Boyer
Tanyon Sturtze
Those last two are returning from injury, but could play a role at some point. This would be the one clear area in which the team would be improved. Gonzalez could ably fit in for Wickman if he gets hurt, and perhaps even make Wickman expendable in a July trade if the team's out of the race.
Anyway, let's hope this possible future never comes to pass.
Friday, December 01, 2006
