Give It Up for the Mile High

Back from Denver after a short weekend of visiting Mom, friends and catching Phish at Red Rocks. I miss it already.

So, two things for the 5280 on this night:

1 -Fear the horse

2 - Wave your hands from side to side

Goo!

From the comments section:

Anonymous said...

Sweet picture. My name is Colin St. John too, and there's only room for one of us on this earth, so you better start building a spaceship before I find you.

12:00 AM

Bonnaroo

They just found a dead guy down at Bonnaroo, which—if you've been—isn't really all that surprising.


I made it out of there relatively unscathed; check out my wrap-up here.

Gone Phishin'

I just went to more Phish shows than most would care to attend...and it was great.


Check out my recap of the affairs here.

Summer Concerts

We did a nice job over here in the music department for the annual summer concerts issue…if I do say so myself.


Check out the fruit of our labor here.

NY Times

Seems The New York Times caught wind of my swine flu mixtape. Pretty sweet deal.


And—this just in—so did The L.A. Times.

Man, I hope I don't get this thing.

Bo knows Bo

So, are people going to start buying Portuguese water dogs like they buy clothes from J. Crew?


Side question #1: Is it cool if we call him Bobama?

Side question #2: Is Bo Jackson pissed that he is now, officially, obsolete?

I have a new blog

It's just getting started, but I figured I'd clue y'all in first. It's about stuff that used to be cool, but isn't anymore.

Check it out here.

Pazz & Jop

Check it, check it: My Pazz & Jop ballot is now online here.

In the singles category, I am proud the be the only voter of two songs:

Chad VanGaalen, "TMNT Mask"

Wale, "The Freestyle (Roc Boys)"

Deal with it.

Top 15 Albums of 2008

1. The Walkmen - You & Me

2. El Guincho - Alegranza

3. The Black Keys - Attack & Release

4. Love Is All - A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night

5. Portishead - Third

6. Deerhunter -Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.

7. Death Vessel - Nothing Is Precious Enough for Us

8. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Lie Down in the Light

9. T.I. - Paper Trail

10. No Age - Nouns

11. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

12. Wale - The Mixtape About Nothing

13. Growing - Lateral

14. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing

15. Delta Spirit - Ode to Sunshine


Stay tuned for my Time Out wrap of the Top Ten.

For last year's 15 go here and for the Top Ten TONY wrap, here. Word!

Oh yeah...almost forgot...

FUCK YES.

CMJ

Doing some daily blogging for Time Out from the CMJ Festival in NYC. You can check out my preview of the events here.


Day 1 Blog here

Day 2 Blog here

Day 3 Blog here

More come—the rest of the posts will be under "Time Out Blog" in lower right rail.

Back from Denver

Check out the full hot order of my Democratic National Convention blogging here. I feared and loathed as best I could on the campaign trail.


While you're at it, observe Denver Post columnist (and local legend) Bill Husted's shout out to yours truly (scroll to the bottom).

Awesome Albums, Vol.4

I'm not exactly sure what they're doing here besides making a great fucking album.

Oxford Collapse - BITS

Awesome Albums, Vol.3

This album is no joke: Great singing and songwriting from a well-connected 24 year-old (with a lot of names) who makes this 25 year-old feel woefully inadequate.

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson

Awesome Albums, Vol.2

This should have been on my Top Ten from last year. I listen to it more than most of the others now, finding new sounds all the time.

Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover

Awesome Albums, Vol.1

Today I'm going to start recommending albums that kick total ass. I'm not going to give them a rating or some long, erudite review. Just listen to these fucking albums.

First one is just coming out; tight blues-rock to your face.

Black Keys - Attack & Release

What the hell is going on?

I'd say by the end of March/beginning of April last year, I had 10-15 albums that I was enthralled with, 10-15 albums that I probably could throw on a Year End list like the one below.

This year, I can't figure out what's going on. I suppose it's just the natural ebb and flow, but I only really like a handful of albums so far this year and of those few, only one approaches being flawless. And guess what? It was released in 2007. All Hour Cymbals by Yeasayer.

Other acceptable discs so far this year: Fuck Buttons, Bon Iver (also first released last year), The Dodos.

Shit better pick up soon.

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.