Much like The Simpsons (at least back when I watched it) music plays a very significant role in Bob’s Burgers. In fact, it plays an even more significant role, given the singing propensities of multiple characters in the Belcher family. This album collects the featured songs from the show, as well as a few covers …
Month: November 2017
Den brysomme mannen (2006, Jens Lien)
Imagine a dryer, less quirky, less fantastic Brazil and you get some faint idea of what this Norwegian film is like, a dystopian fantasy dark comedy which acts either as a critique of materialism/consumerism or as a horrible vision of the afterlife. (I’m not 100% sure which.) SPOILERS (I realize I already spoiled something for you. …
Morning Phase (2014) by Beck
Beck and the critics both seem to agree this is some kind of spiritual sequel to Sea Change. Now, I’m not sure I would have set what I’m going to say had I not read that, but I suspect I would have.
The Second Annual Report (1977) by Throbbing Gristle
What do we do with this, the official debut of one of the most important industrial bands ever?
Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome (1977) by Parliament
So i didn’t love Clones of Doctor Funkenstein at all. In the interim, I don’t know if I’ve changed (I think I am more accepting of the general zaniness of P-Funk now than I was) or maybe this is just a lot better.
Slowhand (1977) by Eric Clapton
At some point during Clapton’s recovery from heroin addiction, his style of music changed rather drastically. He still played the blues but a lot of the fire and rawness of that playing was gone. His solo records from the ’70s (excepting the first one) all have a similar pop blues style, even if the individual …
All n All (1977) by Earth Wind and Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire are yet another one of those bands I have preconceived notions about, due to over-exposure to a couple of hits songs. Let this be the nth reminder to never judge a book by its cover.
Saturday Night Fever Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1977)
I don’t like disco so you can imagine that when I found out this was a double album I was… unhappy.
Rocket to Russia (1977) Ramones
What do you do with a band like the Ramones if your a music fan who sees artistic evolution as an essential part of greatness? I have thought about this for years and still never figured it out.
The World is a Ghetto (1972) by WAR
All I knew of this band was “Low Rider” and “Why Can’t We Be Friends?”. Despite the evident commercial success of this record I had never even heard the title track or the successful single from this record. I had literally no idea what I was getting into. But this is great stuff: the majority …
Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972) by Steely Dan
My understanding is that this full-band debut album is not really canon or at least is looked as an immature effort by fans of the band’s later music. But I must say that I think I like it more than their other music.
Budrus (2009, Julia Bach)
This should be an inspiring documentary a village banding together to stop an oppressive foreign government from building a wall through their land. I say “should” because between when this film was released and when I watched it, 8 years later, the Israeli government did indeed succeed in building the wall around Budrus, though maybe …
American Vandal (2017)
The best pop culture satires and parodies manage to combine a scathing critique of their target genre or conventions with a true enough adherence to those conventions that you actually end up scaring while you enjoy the critique. American Vandal is an excellent, note-perfect satire of true crime series like Making a Murderer that somehow manages to …
Murder on the Orient Express (1974, Sidney Lumet)
I think there are two things to talk about when discussing this film adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express: there’s the success of the film as an adaptation of the novel and then there’s the source material, the novel itself. SPOILER ALERT
Dick (1999, Andrew Fleming)
This is a very silly but very amusing film with the high concept premise “What if Deep Throat was really two teenage girls?”
Easter Everywhere (1967) by The 13th Floor Elevators
The 13th Floor Elevators’ debut album is viewed as a trailblazing psychedelic masterpiece by people who have apparently never heard Revolver but I can’t say I’ve ever been that impressed by it; vaguely psychedelic folk rock to my ears, significantly abetted in its psychedelic vibes by that electric jug, an utterly unique instrument, but only …
The Amboy Dukes (1967)
In some circles this record has a reputation as a bit of a lost classic as there is a certain type of person who just loves this kind of vaguely psychedelic rock music from the late ’60s.
Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City (2013) by Russell Shorto
When I was in high school and even when I was in university we learned liberalism like this: The Magna Carta invented “responsible government” Thomas Hobbes invented the liberal constitution but his king had too much power John Locke took the Hobbesian constitution and paired it with better institutions and gave us liberalism Then the …
Brute Force (1947, Jules Dassin)
This prison escape film has dated rather horribly in the ensuing years and so I can’t really recommend it, though there is nothing particularly bad about it (for the most part).
Brooklyn Castle (2012, Katie Dellamaggiore)
Brooklyn Castle is a film about a year in the of a particularly successful junior high school chess team. The film follows a few of these students of different ages as they compete in chess tournaments. At first glance, it feels like one of the innumerable “kids competing” documentaries that spread up in the wake …
“Luciferian Towers” (2017) by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
I think it’s easy to listen to GY!BE and think that all their albums sound (somewhat) the same. I get that at some level. (I think it’s wrong, but I get it.) Rise and fall, rise and fall, rise and fall. The pattern of their compositions is certainly familiar even if the music within them …
Mogwai Young Team (1997)
By 1997, post rock had existed for some time but I think you could make a compelling case that the sounds we most associate with post rock were still not that common within this horribly named genre, which is really a bunch of different genres. The grandeur and epic scale of much post rock was …
Joya (1997) by Will Oldham
Though I have heard far from all – not even half – of Will Olham’s music, I think it’s safe to say that Oldham is one of my favourite songwriters to debut in the 1990s. He may be my favourite. Something about his lyrics connect we me, even though I don’t always recognize his situations, …
Around the Fur (1997) by Deftones
Whenever I first heard the Deftones, I thought they were Nu Metal. I thought that because a) they were definitely marketed as part of that moment in time by the music video channels and b) I wasn’t one who was going to discern – it was all noise to me. Later on, I read some …
nimrod. (1997) by Green Day
People tell me this is Green Day’s diverse, experimental record. There’s some humour there in that description but from everything I’ve read, it is relatively diverse compared to their other ’90s albums. (I myself have only ever listened to Dookie.)
So Much for the Afterglow (1997) by Everclear
I don’t know this band save for “Wonderful” so I cannot tell you whether the Beach Boys-esque opening to the title track is a giant left turn or not. If it is, that’s brave of them. But, for those of us who do not know this band, it’s the wrong note to start the album. …
Liar (1992) by The Jesus Lizard
I love Goat so much that the first time I listened to this, I was severely disappointed. Why? Well, because it’s not Goat. We often get into this weird position when we love a record and it’s the only record we’ve ever heard by a band, where everything else seems to pale in comparison.
Robbie Robertson (1987)
When I was growing up my dad had a Robbie Robertson album, I don’t remember which one. When I discovered the Band, I had a hard time reconciling the memories I had of his solo music with The Band’s music – they seem to have been made by two totally different people, or at least …
Cowboys and Indians (2011, Jon Favreau)
Many years ago, in my teens, I had a habit of writing down every movie idea I had, as I dreamed I would one day be a filmmaker. One such idea was a western film in which aliens showed up part way through. However, a key part of the idea – perhaps the key part …
The 10 Best Neil Young Songs of All Time
See the Top 50 Neil Young Songs | Or, to read the introduction to this list, see the Top 100 Neil Young Songs I agonized over this Top 10 list of the Greatest Neil Young Songs. Every one of these songs would likely be in my Top 15 or Top 25 if I did it …