Top Whatever 2010 Year End Music List

Here we are again at the end of another great musical year. In no particular order...


Albums:


Anberlin - Dark Is The Way, Light Is The Place

After the meh-tastic-ness of their major label debut, New Surrender, some of my favorite Orlandoans come back with a great mix of power, melody, and heart on their fourth album.



Fake Problems - Real Ghosts Caught On Tape

I've only listened to this a couple times in the month that I've had it, and at first I wasn't thinking much of it, but then I started waking up with the catchiness of "Soulless" and "ADT" in my head. I think I'm starting to get it now.

The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang

I see why people didn't really like this, but it grows on you and is full of good rock songs to listen to while driving down forgotten roads.



The National - High Violet

This is more indie greatness from mopester galore, The National. Nice Winter music.



Look Mexico - To Bed To Battle

After 2007's stellar This Is Animal Music and 2008's Gasp Asp EP/7 Inch, I was highly anticipating one of my favorite band's return this year, and To Bed To Battle was somewhat of a letdown. It's still a great relatively straight forward indie record, but I miss the jazzy, American Football-style guitars and fun. Now I know why Josh, the old drummer, left because of the style change.



Comeback Kid - Symptoms + Cures

Comeback Kid is back to being a great hardcore band again. Their last album, Broadcasting, was good for what it was, but this is the best they've sounded since Scott, the original singer, left the band.



The State Lottery - When The Night Comes

It's punk, it's indie, it's saxophone-y. I'm not exactly sure how to describe this, but they are one of the best relatively unknown bands around right now, and you can get this for free from If You Make It.



Vampire Weekend - Contra

Alot of people hate this band, but I bet it's for dumb reasons that have nothing to do with the music. They continue their fun, indie tunes with some new synth and keyboard wrinkles.

Selfish Whales - Enjoy The Weather

It's folk, indie, somewhat political, somewhat spiritual, and great lyrics all encapsulated together for a wonderful album. My wife said their lead male singer sounds like Aaron from mewithoutYou which is a great compliment. Another one you can get for free from If You Make It.



Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

Folk, bluegrass, and indie from a bunch of kids from London? Sounds like a bad sitcom or something, but this band is pretty darn amazing especially considering this is their full length debut. I dare you to not sing along to "The Cave" or "Little Lion Man." Can't wait to see what they do next.



Hans Zimmer - Inception Soundtrack

If you saw the movie, you know why this is here, and if you haven't seen the movie, you should, and then get this. Zimmer continues to be one of my favorite film composers.



Everyone Everywhere - Everyone Everywhere

They became a new favorite this year with their blend of 90's emo, noodle-y guitar work, and nerdy, somewhat obscure lyrics. Belting out "I've got bigger fish to fry" never felt so good.



Rocky Votolato - True Devotion

One the best singer/songwriters of my generation forges ahead in keeping himself in that league of extraordinary men and women. Seeing him live twice this past year doesn't hurt either. He's seemed to embrace some form of higher power (Jesus maybe?), and I think you can really feel this new spiritual side of Mr. V. "Instrument" is one of the best songs he's ever written, and my wife and I love singing along to it.



Mixtapes - Maps

A bunch of Ohio kids that have come out of nowhere (being that they've only been a band barely a year). They blend folk pop and pop punk with male/female vocals in a non-cheesy or too cutesy way which is not always easy. Great sing along music.


Honorable Mentions:

Crime In Stereo - I Was Trying To Describe You To Someone, Alkaline Trio - This Addiction, It's A King Thing - Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo, Against Me! - White Crosses


EPs/Demos/7 Inches/Splits:


The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die - Formlessness



Jonesin' - The Dream Is Dead



No Trigger - Be Honest

Caravels - Floorboards



Mixtapes - A Short Collection Of Short Songs



Junior Battles - Junior Battles



Direct Hit! - #5



Mixtapes - Thought About Growing Up



Mixtapes/Direct Hit! - Split 7 Inch


Still Haven't Heard Because Getting Married Was More Important Than Buying Music:

RVIVR - LP, Grown Ups - More Songs, Titus Andronicus - The Monitor, Kid Cudi - Man On The Moon II: The Legend Of Mr. Rager, Iron Chic - Not Like This, Bars Of Gold - Of Gold, Castevet - The Echo & The Light, The Gamits - Parts, Make Do And Mend - End Measured Mile, Killing The Dream - Lucky Me, Johnny Cash - American VI: Ain't No Grave, John K. Samson - Provincial Road 222, None More Black - Icons, Jonsi - Go, Daniel Romano - Workin' For The Music Man, The Hold Steady - Heaven Is Whenever, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Let It Sway, Sufer Blood - Astro Coast, The Wonder Years - The Upsides, Hightide Hotel - Nothing Was Missing, The Riot Before - Rebellion, Jimmy Eat World - Invented, Adam Haworth Stephenson - We Live On Cliffs, Forgetters - Forgetters, The Menzingers - Chamberlain Waits

Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3 - of 5

There was a lot of anticipation for this one as my girlfriend kept reminding Toy Story 3 was coming soon after we first saw the teaser about 6 months ago. We both think Toy Story is a classic and Toy Story 2 was a great addition so we were both hesitant and excited for the third (and hopefully final chapter) of Woody, Buzz, and the gang.

We were not disappointed! Pixar has done it again! I won't go into plot points because I think you should go in fresh, but see this movie. If you haven't seen the other Toy Story movies watch them and then immediately see this one. It was funny, heart warming, dark, scary, sad, and back to funny and heart warming all while appealing to adults and kids alike.

I got a bit teary-eyed at the end, and I'm not afraid to admit that. Pixar just knows how to get the audience's emotions involved. It was a great end to a wonderful set of characters so that entwined with my own feeling of lost childhood wasn't going to allow me to hold that inside. Growing up and being responsible is still lame (just kidding Mom and Dad).

Go see it. It's wonderful. I can't wait to have the trilogy.
Where's my toy chest?

Inception - Teaser Trailer

My Christopher Nolan fanboy nerddom continues with Inception. It looks extremely amazing. I think Nolan has tapped into something with smart action movies. He's put together a great cast as well. Dicaprio, Gordon-Levitt, Caine, and Page all within Nolan's writing? I'm there. I'm posting the teaser trailer because I think the full trailer shows too much.

Anyone else excited about Inception? Thoughts on Nolan?

An Education

An Education - of 5

An Education is a look into the life of a sixteen year-old girl coming of age in early-60's London. Based off of Lynn Barber's memoirs, Nick Hornby's Oscar nominated adapted script is witty at times, often emotional, and fully engaging. Lone Scherfig's direction seemed to find the perfect tone for the film, and John de Borman's cinematography was beautifully shot with superb locations in London, Oxford, and Paris. The music is also outstanding and enjoyable blending jazz, rock 'n' roll, and the orchestral score flawlessly.

Carey Mulligan plays Jenny who is finishing her last year of high school and preparing for her Oxford education. But all her studying (much of it from her Father pushing her) has left her bored and wanting more from life. She dreams of exploring Paris, speaking French, going to jazz clubs, etc. Really, she longs for adventure. Mulligan channels Audrey Hepburn's ghost at times in the film, and that's not a slight. She was very deserving of her best actress Oscar nomination. She held together a certain subtlety within all the emotions felt throughout the film until a breaking point. I believe that is very hard to portray and not everyone picks up on it.

Jenny meets a much older businessman in David (a strong performance from Peter Sarsgaard) when he sees her in the rain with her cello. He offers her a ride in the hopes of not ruining the cello. This leads to a few more random meetings, and David brashly asks Jenny to an orchestral concert. David says he'll work it out with her parents. We quickly learn that he has a way with words.

The film really starts to move as you really don't know what to think of David. He seems innocent, but there's also a weird "What's going on here feeling?" as this thirty-something year-old man pursues this young girl. His charm does win you over, and as he helps Jenny to live the adventures she longed for, you begin to root for them even though their romance is unexpected and wrong in most people's eyes (mine included).

I can't go into much more detail as the movie begins to reveal more and more about David as Jenny learns about him, and our emotions are tugged every which way. Let's just say An Education is the perfect title for the film because there is a lot more learned than just in a school/university sense.

An Education deserved it's Best Picture nomination, and I recommend it. Be prepared for some tough scenes, but it is all tastefully done (refreshingly no gratuitous sex scenes or anything exploitative). It won't go on my "to buy" list, but I think I would like to revisit it from time to time. One last thing, keep an eye out for Carey Mulligan. She could really harness her young talent into an entertaining and promising career.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs - of 5

Employing the voice talents of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, and Andy Samberg, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs was a fun little movie that could've been great if it wouldn't have gotten kind of weird at the end. The first half of the movie is quite funny at times, but it tends to taper off as the movie delves into more action/adventure territory.

Flint Lockwood (Hader) is an inventor that never seems to get his inventions to work right, and his father (Caan) is wanting him to join the family business bait shop. Flint never gives up on his dreams and accidentally builds a machine that somehow manipulates weather into making food fall from the sky. Incidentally, this saves the town Flint lives in as it's a tourist destination that had been dying in recent years.

This leads to alot of fun scenes with food falling from the sky and how fantastic that could be (when controlled). My favorite scene of the movie is when he builds a jello house to impress Sam (Faris). My girlfriend and I both agreed that we wish we could play in a whimsical jello house like that.

As the movie continues, all of Flint's newfound success leads to his ego beginning to build more and more into dangerous egomaniacal territory. The moral of the story is to not let your ego get so big that you can't control hurting people around you. While I liked the lesson learned, the ending kind of went off the deep end with food fighting Flint and his friends (cooked whole chickens fighting like ninjas, etc.).

If you've read the book, I've heard the movie veers quite far away from the source material so maybe prepare yourself to watch it as a totally different story altogether so you're not too let down. In the end, it's worth a rental but unless your kids love it, I wouldn't put it on the buy list.

Surrogates - of 5

Well this certainly had an interesting premise that sucked me in right away, but the execution didn't hold me at all. This is the world (or America?) in the not so distant future, and the majority of people have surrogate robots that go out into the world so no one has to ever worry about not "being safe" anymore.

After a murder happens, the first in fifteen years or so, Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) is on the case in hopes to catch the murderer. The movie starts to derail shortly after. It just becomes another run of the mill sci-fi thriller when the premise allowed for so much more.

I got the feeling that the budget wasn't allowed to get too high on this because at times it looked like a b-movie SyFy (Why isn't it still SciFi?! Things that make you go hmmm.) would show on a Saturday afternoon. I think in the hands of a Brian Singer or a Joss Whedon with a significant budget Surrogates could be a great movie with elements of Fahrenheit 451, social technology making us less social somehow, and paronoia intertwined with the sci-fi future and society.

Anyways, if you like sci-fi, I'd say it's worth a rental, but go into it with low expectations. I heard the graphic novel of the same name is really good. I'd like to read it and see if it's better than this average movie.

Up In The Air

Up In The Air - out of 5

I am quickly becoming a Jason Reitman fan. Thank You For Smoking, Juno (if a bit too "quirky indie" at times but that's more due to Diablo Cody's writing), and now Up In The Air have all been movies I have quite enjoyed. I really like his writing style and was rather impressed with his direction and cinematography choices with cinematographer Eric Steelberg in Up In The Air.

George Clooney is Ryan Bingham, a man who is hired by companies to fire their employees so the spineless higher-ups don't have to do it themselves. Apparently this is done when a company has a big layoff, and in this American economic climate, this movie hits home all too closely. Clooney, in an Oscar-nominated lead actor role, knocks it out of the park as the charming and disconnected Ryan. He has become a man surrounded by emotions, good and bad, and the human condition but never lets it get too close to him, nor does he let his family, coworkers, or women anywhere inside.

I love how the movie explores Ryan's isolation in our constantly "connected" world and his relationships, whether it be work, romantic, or family. It is all very intriguing, as it is something I think Western culture is really starting to struggle with, if we are even allowing ourselves to be aware of it. Of course, my hope is that we can change this disconnect we all seem to be feeling and not starve our relationships so badly as all we've got is love and each other.

Okay back to the review, the movie really takes off (no pun intended) when Ryan meets Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga in an Oscar-nominated supporting role) who he starts a "friends with benefits"-type relationship with that leads to some captivating chemistry between Clooney and Farmiga. Ryan then meets his new coworker, Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick also in an Oscar-nominated supporting role), who is trying to "modernize" their profession from having to fly all over the country to fire people via skype-like technology.

These three actors all deserve their Oscar nominations, and the way they all intertwine in a scene after Natalie was dumped by her boyfriend is perfectly done. As the movie strides along, Ryan's whole "disconnected from the world" attitude continues to be challenged, and he really starts to question himself. Up In The Air could be a taken as a pretty strong metaphor for life for us all as we continue on in our shrinking world, the American economic crisis, and maybe some self reflection sometimes.

There is one scene near the end of the film when Natalie fires an older man that really hits you in the face as far as what it would feel like to give a good amount of your life (and youth) to a company just to have them throw you out on the street. It's not a slight on capitalism either, maybe more just how out of hand we have all let this get.

This was well directed, written, shot, scored, and acted. Jason Bateman, Amy Morton, Melanie Lynskey, and Danny McBride are all perfect in smaller supporting roles, and cameos from Sam Elliot, Zach Galifianakis, and J.K. Simmons are all a nice touch as well. While it's not perfect, Reitman is still getting his legs beneath him I believe, Up In The Air is funny, dramatic, and thought provoking. I'm glad it was nominated for Best Picture this year, and I would be happy to see it beat out Dances With Giant Smurfs In Space (AKA Avatar).

I will be buying Up In The Air as soon as I can. I highly recommend it. It comes out on DVD next week March 9th so check it out.