Gold Sounds: Peaking Lights Remixed

I’ve been pretty sporadic in my posting. Between general apathy and then being spurred on by year-end list-frenzy, I’ve neglected CFC quite a bit lately. I figure one of the best ways to re-enter the fray is with two things I love coming together in a wonderful way.

 

Best of 2011: Top 10 Films

One of the benefits of having limited resources is that I’m much more careful with that $10-15 when I approach the box office. I know there were bad films this year, like every year, but I didn’t see any of them. To some extent, that makes these lists that much harder to write. Because 2011 seemed to be an uncharacteristically great year for cinema–my numbers two and three could have been at the top in almost any other year, this list is both a labor of love and an actual labor. As I’ve written, or struggled to write, about certain films, I’ve shuffled things around, dropped them off my list, gone back and reviewed when films were easy to access–though having them streaming on Netflix doesn’t always make them accessible (nudge, nudge). So, without further ado, here are the films that resonated most strongly with me in 2011 (though I saw three of them in 2012).

 

Best Records of 2011: Top 10

I’ve already blown a couple hundred words on what a good year for music it has been. I had composed a little rant about how, despite the high quality to be found across wide-ranging genres, there really wasn’t a clear high-water mark, and then Stephen Hyden went and wrote a longer, better piece about that very phenomenon in the AV Club. So that sort of boned this introductory paragraph about how difficult it was to crown a number one without a cultural swing (whether generic or broader) to join or rally against. Enjoy this really great top 10 even if it is devoid of material which made Zeus quake or stirred fears of revolution in the late Kim Jong-Il.

 

Best Records of 2011: 20-11

Here we go, the top 20. These are the first ten albums of 20 records that got the most spins, raised my heart beat most often, or calmed me down enough to actually sleep once in a while.

 

Best Records of 2011: Honorable Mentions

I didn’t realize how good music was in 2011 until I started making my year-end lists. Though I had trouble deciding just what would make the awards podium, the wealth of remarkable material is, well, remarkable. You’ll probably notice, when it’s all said and done, there are a number of high profile omissions, that says more about the quality of music this year than what may have been “lacking” in those releases–also, I didn’t want to have 30 or 40 honorable mentions in addition to a top 20. Without further ado, let’s open the flood gates with a list of EPs, splits, and LPs that were great but didn’t quite fit in my top 20. In other words, I really enjoyed these and got tired of trying to assign numbers, but felt these in need of a spotlight. (Don’t read anything into the order, it’s all alphabetical, folks.)

 

Best of 2011: Top Comedy Albums

We’re solidly in a second stand-up comedy boom. Back in the ’80s thousands of comics rolled up the sleeves of their blazers and ushered in a wave of observational humor–almost exclusively told in front of bare, brick walls. Now, in the second decade of this new millennium, the new boom doesn’t acknowledge fashion or facades as much as it’s reliant on the ever so “democratic” internet, specifically the wide world of podcasting–and let’s not forget about Twitter, y’all.
Observational anecdotes are still the bread and butter of the industry, but the alternative wave in the ’90s, the confessional and/or ever-evolving nature of podcasts, and the bite-sized nuggets on Twitter leave us with something a bit more complex than well-written airline cracks. My top ten, alone, is wildly diverse while still adhering, primarily, to observational formats.
Without any weight in “the biz,” and without exerting a whole heck of a lot of energy, I heard something in the neighborhood of 50 comedy records this year. Almost every album had at least a good chunk, but about 20 albums really shined as not only hilarious sets, but as valuable cultural artifacts. Seriously, this year was so good I had to slide “Weird Al” Yankovic’s solid Alpocalypse down to the honorable mention section (spoiler alert!).

 

Gold Sounds: T’bone

T’bone
Mt. Trashmore
Clown Ethics Recordings

Chicago math rockers T’bone make complex grooves for the kids who just barely passed Algebra II. Mt. Trashmore tracks tend to fall into one of two categories: pulsating jams with fairly conventional structures and completely or largely instrumental exercises punctuated with bellowed non-sequiturs.  The trio–Ed Bornstein on drums, Pat McPartland on guitar, and Leland Meiners on bass–pack a lot of ideas into a song, time signature and key changes abound, but they went for the populist jugular on the lyrics.

 

Yeah, I Remember my Film Classes: Red State

This is my second post about Kevin Smith’s cinematic “swan song,” Red State. I realize I may be succumbing to the trench coat-clad director’s whims by spending so much of my time on it, but the movie practically screams out to the world “talk about me!”
I’ve already talked about the film’s uneven second half, but I’ve felt compelled to chronicle the film’s downfall. Like the collapse of the 2011 Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox, there’s something magical and fascinating about the erosion of Red State. Strap in, this is a long one (but there are also lots of pictures!).

 

Red State

I haven’t felt the desire to write much lately–as the date line on the second most recent post will indicate, but Kevin Smith‘s supposed cinematic swan song, Red State, has stirred something in me. I have a real soft spot for art with rough edges. Red State definitely fits the bill. I find the film so interesting, I’m compelled to compose two write-ups on Smith’s foray into horror: this more conventional review, and a breakdown of one of the film’s pivotal scenes; which will probably drop in a week or so.
As I’ve already implied, Red State is a mixed bag of a film. A film with a broad scope and vision without the budget to bring it to fruition, a run time without space to show it as thoroughly as needed, and an auteur without the patience to give each aspect it’s due diligence. However, what Smith has almost always lacked in technical skill, he’s usually made up for with above average to even great dialogue and an obvious love for the project.

 

First Half Awards: Token Metal Album

We’re already over halfway through 2011. I wanted to highlight a few fine records I’ve gotten into so far. I wrote up a list of my favorite Iowa City releases for Little Village Magazine already, so I won’t be rehashing that, I’ll just single out some stellar releases and unnecessarily pigeon-hole and qualify them cause, why not?

Liturgy
Aesthetica
Thrill Jockey

From about ages 13 through 16, give or take a year or two, metal and hard rock ruled my radio. Discovering Radiohead around 16, marked the beginning of a pretty precipitous decline in head-banging and a more regular move toward “the standing still.” After a violent shunning of all things stupid, loud, and crude–my dismissive stance on metal and hard rock–for the early part of college, I allowed myself to enjoy the louder things in life. I have, since my junior year of college, found a few records that really up the decibel level and also appeal to my “more refined” tastes.