Pop Talk

“Should I put their album on my ‘best song of 2k8′ list just because I think I am supposed 2 appreciate it?” - HRO

This is something I try to avoid while making my list, so note the lack of Deerhunter and TV on the Radio (“Dancing Choose” may be my least favorite song of the year, the rest of the album is alright). My list is a list of my favorite albums of the year, not the best. I don’t exactly have the credentials to decide what albums were the best, and plus, I would think you would rather read what albums I enjoyed anyways. So, without further ado, here it is: My Favorite Albums of 2K8.

As eclectic as this list is with respect to genre, there is an underlying connection between each of these albums.  Every single one of them had a moment, if only one, where I experienced a new way to feel happy through their arrangements.  These moments triggered the desire to listen to the rest of the album with a little more attention than before, and I discovered other subtle ways in which the music brought about more listening pleasure.  By the end of 2008, countless hours of playlist time had been dedicated to these albums in particular, and a good chunk of that was spent twirling around my apartment teaching my cat how to enjoy dancing because the best music just makes me want to move!   Let the listing begin!

Time is a funny thing.  When you want it to pass quickly, it moves at a snail's pace.  When you want it to slow down, it zips by, and before you know it tomorrow is today and today is yesterday.  Now, depending on how you look at it, both scenarios can be positive.  Nate Ruess of The Format would have you believe that "snails see the benefits, beauty in every inch," while Ben Rispin of The Saint Alvia Cartel would insist that he "don't wanna wait forever." 

On April 20th, 2008, PopZap!Music officially celebrated its first birthday.  This past year has come and gone rather quickly; yet oddly it feels as though we've been doing this for much, much longer. To celebrate our anniversary, we've been secretly (aren't we sneaky?) developing this brand new layout, with tons of great new functionality.  The launch date for the layout was originally meant to coincide directly with our April 20th celebrations.  Unfortunately, sometimes things don't always work out as planned, and thanks to a slew of roadblocks, the launch was pushed back a week.  Here we are, a week later and (somewhat) ready to go.  But it hasn't just been a week, this has been a work in progress over the last year.  So with that in mind, let's take a trip down memory lane...

Let's talk about music.

Rather - let's talk about how I'm a twenty five year old male who wakes up every day and doesn't understand the world I live in. About a year ago I finished University, attaining a BA in Filmmaking (if there were a more useless BA, I'd like to see it). Turns out the only thing a BA gets you when you are looking for a day job is sideways glances. You see, to do the things I want to do (write, take photos, play music) I have to have a day job. What kind of day job can a guy get when said guy only knows about three things (music, film and women)?

As kids, we all aspire to some sort of career. Some of us want to be firefighters, presidents, doctors, or rock stars. And some of us want to be record executives. Ok, well, maybe just one of us...

Can we be the generation who acts upon the solutions we have for the environmental crisis we are facing?

I began this article during Earth Hour surrounded by only tea light candles and – get this – using a pen and paper to compose my ideas. It felt like I was returning to the roots of my writing which began with the journals of my early teenage years.

When you think of the best music scenes, two cities usually come to mind: LA and New York. Chicago probably comes in as a close second; maybe London as well. Austin, Texas, on the other hand, doesn’t usually occur to people. Yet Austin is supposedly the “Live Music Capitol of the World.” Sure, we may not be as fancy as LA, as cultured as New York, as raw as Chicago, or have awesome accents like you Londoners; but we sure can fill a room night after night, at one of our many venues, with the best up and coming and well-known bands.

A Curt Baker & Scott Olstad Compilation:

While not all of us may be able to dance, it is a safe bet that all of us have or desperately wanted to. The following is a list of all of the recent danceable albums that are most likely to have us groovin in the car, our computer chair, or while plugged into our iPods on the bus. There is just no denying the booty-shakin’ allure of the following ten albums. If you have ever tapped a single toe for half a second, or even if you haven’t and wanted to, the following records are must haves.

Total music sales for 2007 were down by 9.5% in comparison to 2006, digital downloads included. The music industry as a whole has been in a state of decline in the years previous. The discussion on music piracy’s hand in this, and the music industry in general, is one of the most divisive and frustrating to be a part of this side of debates on health care reform and foreign policy. On one side, you have the RIAA – as expected, much of the information is true in a certain context, though not the context in which it’s presented. On the other hand, a host of people who are only united by their general opposition to the music industry or its representation in some aspect; whether it be the aforementioned RIAA press releases saying the sky is falling when it just might be a bit lower than it used to be, disdain for the status quo of the label, producers, and engineers getting paid before (and often more than) the artist in the end, or the more wobbly argument that torrenting is not, by definition, “stealing”, and therefore not wrong. Regardless, in the end, like all complex discussions, this is one where people can agree with more than one point of view, or none at all. It starts to make the “9/11 Conspiracy” debate look simple in comparison.

Alpha) Matthew Good – Hospital Music

Many fans who stuck through the dropping of the Band from Matthew Good’s title also frequent his site enough to know about the personal demons he’s battle for the last two years. For many, it was information that was sometimes uncomfortable to read about. If anything has been obvious about Matt, though, it’s that honesty trumps all with him, whether you want to hear it or not. For those who weren’t able to take his confessionals in stride, consider Hospital Music your chance to hear some of those same threadbare commentaries in a more palatable way – to some of his best post-band work yet. For possibly the first time in his career, this album starts off with one of the album’s strongest songs (“Champions of Nothing”), throwing away his previous habit of having a “warm-up” before the album proper starts. From there, anything goes – his sociopolitical commentary is slightly less sarcastic and more sardonic, with more of an apparent “take this to heart when you turn this album off” elbow in the ribs than he did with White Light. The music of some of his keystone songs almost sound more country-folk playful than in recent memory, but is done with such an incredible sense of the subjective effect that one can almost see him winking at you as he breaks himself and others down (mainly one specific other person, of course). One could mistake the album for almost being lethargic at times, but don’t be fooled; the medicated warmth pervading songs like “99% Of Us Is Failure” is calculated with such precision as to slow your tongue, your brain, your movement until you’re unable to do anything but fill the spaces in the sparseness of the track with only the sounds and images that you ever could (his admissions of “I know it’s real slow” seem, in the moment, to ask you to understand the importance of the composition of the song in every way).