Top 15 Albums of 2007

1. Panda Bear - Person Pitch

2. Radiohead - In Rainbows

3. White Stripes - Icky Thump

4. Lil Wayne - Da Drought 3

5. Menomena - Friend and Foe

6. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam

7. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

8. Battles - Mirrored

9. Kanye West - Graduation

10. Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends

11. Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover

12. Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare

13. Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris

14. Justice - †

15. M.I.A. - Kala

BQE

I got a chance to check out Sufjan Steven's new orchestral arrangement at its premiere last night. It was really good in some parts and lacking in others. Ironically (if you pay attention to what the dude has been saying lately), the high points were when the orchestra toned it down and the rock band side amped it up. In fact, the high point of the night was after "The BQE" and after the intermission. This, of course, is when he came back out and played his "rock" material (heavy on the Illinois and highlighted by "Majesty Snowbird"). No matter what you think of his music -- or his hipster-anointed Second-Coming status -- I think you have to respect his creativity. And his love for hula hoops.

My Best of Shoutmouth

My 40 Albums That Rolling Stone Got Wrong was "made popular" on Digg. So was my 25 Bands That Should Reunite (that one was also recognized by Vh1 and Largehearted Boy). My Overrated and Underrated Bands lists made some waves, too, and Sports Illustrated/CNN linked to my 40 Nerdiest Names of Musicians. A story I did on Vanilla Ice was linked to on Maxim.com and another I did on baseball closer songs was linked to on Sports Illustrated/CNN again.

Besides "generating traffic" (which is, admittedly, not really one of my personal goals), I have reported on the Pitchfork Music Festival (1,2,3), Lollapalooza (1,2,3), and Austin City Limits (here). I've also conducted interviews with everyone from Great Lake Swimmers to Illinois, Dan Deacon to Panda Bear. My interview with Panda Bear was picked up by stereogum, Paper Thin Walls, and Largehearted Boy. And, in true 21st century fashion, I felt validated when my interview was quoted in the Animal Collective Strawberry Jam Wikipedia entry.

These videos (1,2,3) are good for a laugh, too.

Please let me know if you'd like to see more of my clips; I've got over 3,000.

Lil Wayne Does Not Suck

This guy is blowing my box right now.

Pinkberry Sucks

This has gone on long enough. What is with this crap? Stinkberry get outta my face!

I think I'm just going to use this blog to talk about stuff that sucks from now on.

Shoutmouth is live!

Check it out at www.shoutmouth.com. My alter ego is NeutralMilk, so go ahead and see what I've been up to for the last couple of months.

Sorry I told you to come here because I haven't written anything recently...

but I will really soon, I swear. Check back.

Update

I have a full-time job writing now, so the posts on the blog will have to wait a bit. Be sure to sign up now to be a member of our website before the launch in February:

http://www.shoutmouth.com/