My name is Hyatte and this is the Midnight News.
My name is Matt and I'm an alcoholic.
My name is Matt and this is my column.
Wait a minute, my name is Matt and this is my column. Here's all you need to know:
1) I am most definitely not the dude from South Park.
2) I love music, yet ironically hate about 98% of the bands I see.
3) I'm in bands myself and a musician, albeit a hack, and therefore am an awesomely huge hypocrite.
4) I like beer and whiskey. Jameson and Old Style.
5) In all honesty, it's more like 99.9%.
I thought I would toss my hat in the ring before the new year and give you my personal mini-"Best Of" in it's own form, since I'll be spending the first few columns of 2007 tackling some of the artists listed below. Come 2007, I'll be regularly contributing to this site as a columnist, getting behind the music (not in that VH1 way though) and bringing some recognition to good artists that have fallen out of the spotlight yet are still out there producing great music. So, without further ado...
The Album of the Year
The Killers - Sam's Town
Probably the reason I do not wish to review CD's on a regular basis; I may have been the only person in the country that not only enjoyed this album but thought it was miles above their first effort and a great sign of what this band can become. Despite the blasts at Brandon Flowers' lyric writing ability and the sappy Springsteen-esque "The River is Wild" the album packs a strong musical punch that carries itself the whole way through without a misstep.
Honorable Mention
Twilight Singers - Powder Burns
I didn't know Dulli was capable of music this strong. The moods are set and the vitriol and venom are spewed so smoothly you don't know if you have been complimented or burned. Extra credit goes out to the title track, which has about the most beautifully constructed and arranged chorus I've heard in a long while.
Burden Brothers - Mercy
If you ever liked rock music, wait, you remember rock, right? You know, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Aerosmith, Danzig, Thin Lizzy...the bands that play on your local classic rock station during FOURTH OF JULY ROCKIN FOURPLAY FIREWORK WEEKFEST brought to you by WROK, the hooome of everything...... that ROCKS (ocks ocks ocks). Well, welcome back.
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Once I found out Gnarls Barkley involved Cee-Lo it required a pick up. "Crazy" is a beautiful piece of work. Their ability to make the Violent Femmes seem more awkward was also a plus.
The Song of the Year
For Reasons Unknown - The Killers
Note to songwriters: Any song that follows the chord progression into the pre-chorus on this song will win points with me. Any chorus that is melodic will win points with me. Any time a verse drives so hard into the chorus that it seems like a harmony has to spontaneously combust out of the song or it will go down in flames, I'll be sitting in the car with "repeat one" on the CD player for a solid month.
Honorable Mention
Crazy - Shawn Colvin
Yeah, I praised Gnarls Barkley above yet didn't put the original version of the song here. What's it to you? Fumbling upon Prairie Home Companion a month or two back while driving around Chicago, I came across this version of the song and fell in love with it. Sadly, the only way to listen to it is to use RealMedia player on the NPR site. Ick.
Sexyback - Justin Timberlake
1) I defy you to tell me this song isn't cool.
2) I defy you to tell me the Neptunes can't make even you dance a little bit*.
3) I defy you to tell me Justin Timberlake is not becoming a legitimate artist.
* You know, I'm not really 100% sure that the Neptunes or Pharrel are involved on this track, but given the beat and general mood of it, I'm willing to bet, oh, let's say an old school Big Boss Man action figure that I'm right.
Best Non-Music Yet Music Thing of 2006
DETHKLOK
Ok, so technically Metalocalypse, but if you are a music and/or a metal fan, you have to watch this show. If you are a rock fan, yeah, watch this show. If you are the only other person besides me that watched Home Movies, watch this show. The humor is twisted, the concept is utterly unbelievable, but the mythology of Dethklok is one for the ages and the music on the show is just fantastic. Mind you, they are singing about topics like metal for fish, mermaid murder, getting sewn back together wrong, Duncan Hills coffee and other nonsense, but you can tell that co-creators Tommy Blaha and Brandon Small are genuine fans of the music. Extra bonus points to the cartoon characters accurately playing the riffs. According to a podcast with Small, if you pause the show on either guitarist during the songs, you will be able to learn the riffs to their songs. With much interest I look forward to the DVD and CD release coming Summer '07.
That's it for this week. Auf.
