thoughtgrenade.

Yeah….we’ve reached the point in the list where the records have become such an engrained part of my existence that anything beyond “DUUUHHRRRRRR” is really hard to formulate…but we’ll see how it goes… (more…)

NEW DISCLAIMER THE FIRST: I realized while writing this section that the ranking of albums…except inside of the Top 15 maybe…are pretty arbitrary…since a lot of these records are so different from eachother that ranking them against eachother is kinda silly…but whats done is done…

NEW DISCLAIMER THE SECOND: In case you haven’t figured it out…I’m only working with full lengths for this list…however, if I wasn’t, the demo and two following EPs by Rochester’s Sakes Alive!! (AKA the nine total original songs they released this decade)would have appeared together in this post…because they totally fucking rip. (more…)

Same disclaimers as before apply. Ready and go. (more…)

Since trying to seem oh so knowledgeable and musically apt by creating a best of the decade list seems to be what all the cool kids are doing, I obviously had to throw my hat into the ring as well. First though, a few warnings about whats to come (and a bit of advice to those looking to make their own lists.)

First: I’m not even going to pretend to be objective with this one. This list is based just as much on my own personal experiences with the listed bands/records as it is the musical/theoretical attributes put forth by said bands/records. My best advice to anyone looking to tackle this somewhat daunting organizational task is to do the same: there was a LOT of good music this decade and to try and rank them based on some kind of objective rubric is inane and almost defeats the purpose of writing about an art form. Don’t be afraid to make claims only because you want to (just don’t be TOO much of a dick about it.)

Second: I’ve elected to only select one album from any given band for this one, as to level the playing field a bit. This, believe it not, was the hardest part of this whole ordeal as in many cases a given band put out more than a few quality releases over the last ten years (case in point: Mastodon.) Chances are my selection of some given album is based entirely on when I heard it in relation to it’s brethren…nothing more, nothing less. Ideally my commentary will illuminate my choices a bit though.

Got it? Good. There will be a test later. (more…)

Curious what I listened to this year? I know you are.

PREFACE THE FIRST: This is all relative and I will have probably changed my mind as to the standing of some of these records in a week.

PREFACE THE SECOND: If there was a 31st entry it would have been Somebody Loves You by Austin Lucas.

PREFACE THE LAST: I completely forgot about Wavering Radiant by Isis and am too lazy to go back and rework things. That record killed though.

Ahem… (more…)