top 25 everything

Top 25 Occurrences from this Weekend

2010-08-22T18:20:00.000-07:00

1) Andy Harp really wanted to ride the merry-go-round

2) Forget the Double Down... this burger has two Krispy Kreme donuts for a bun.

3) These little piggehs were snorgling in the swine barn.

4) Indiana is pretty.

5) Little kitteh versus big doggeh

6) This character from Sherman's March

7) Making completely dairy-free banana honey sorbet with dark chocolate and raspberries

8) Finding my middle school year book

10) And a collection of cartoons I drew in high school. Good to know it wasn't all self-flagellation and bad poetry, as I remember it.

11) Locking my keys in my car with the engine still running. This kindly DePauw police officer who jimmied the lock-- and who, I would like to point out, refused to give me a hug afterwards.

12) Seeing Cho-baby and realizing that she's still as grubby a baby as ever

13) Kappas being put up in the Walden Inn for two weeks while the house is cleaned of an amount of black mold sufficient to declare the place uninhabitable.

14) Shannon's decoration of Laura's door. This may have been the best part of the entire weekend.

15) Making it a Mike's Hard kind of night

16) Pillow talking for hours with the sweetest baby ever to walk on two legs (Baby Snuggle)

17) Watching Robin Hood

18) William Wegman won't stop popping up in conversation

19) Swimming in the Crick with Baby Snuggle

20) These strong young pups who were undertaking acrobatic feats to bathe their enormous dog in the agricultural runoff that is the Crick

21) Finding this little guy in the sand

22) Alex Thompson's swim trunks

23) My muffler falling off in the middle of 465

24) Eating Pizza Hut bread sticks while I contemplated how I would resolve that snafu

25) Momma having an Extreme Chocolate Blizzard ready for me when I finally arrived home from this entire fiasco of a weekend (and the ensuing stomach ache)

Top 25 Albums of the Decade

2010-08-08T17:32:00.001-07:00

1) Beulah - The Coast Is Never Clear
A lot of nostalgia here. But I still think that the lyrics to this album are excellent... god, I love every second of this thing.
2) Of Montreal - Aldhil's Arboretum/Satanic Panic in the Attic
I had way too intense of a love affair with Of Montreal to choose just one of these. So "Aldhil's" because it was the first Of Montreal album I ever listened to (a gift from my bubby along with a mess of other Elephant 6 gems!) and "Satanic Panic" because I think it is from my favorite era of oM's evolution. Super poppy, super complicated melodies (but not totally erratic like they started off and drifted into with "Hissing Fauna" and after), FUN AS HELL. One of my very favorite live shows was "Satanic Panic"/"Sunlandic Twins" era.
3) Spoon - Gimme Fiction/Kill the Moonlight
Again, I can't choose. "Gimme Fiction" as an album is so cohesive, but "Kill the Moonlight" has some standout killer tracks.
4) Erykah Badu - Baduizm
Duh. So sexy, so good.
5) The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
This is another coming-of-age album for me. I still absolutely love it, love the highly literate lyrics, love the poppiness.
6) Junior Senior - Hey Hey My My Yo Yo
Is there a track on this album that doesn't make me shake it? Nope. This really is my go-to album when I need a pick-me-up.
7) Belle and Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
I'm not sure how much this has to do with "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" being the first B&S album I really got to know, but it's still my favorite.
8) The Blow - Paper Television
I hit this shit hard for about two years straight. Seeing her live was one of the top ten happiest moments of my life (context counts). I want to be the Blow.
9) Beck - Guero
10) Harlem Shakes - Technicolor Health
11) Panda Bear - Person Pitch
12) Radiohead - Kid A
13) Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
14) Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
15) Wolf Parade - Apologies to Queen Mary
16) M.I.A. - Kala
17) Eels - Souljacker
18) jj - No. 2
19) The Concretes - The Concretes
20) Talib Kweli - Beautiful Struggle
21) The New Pornographers - Electric Version
22) Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
23) Elephant Parade - Bedroom Recordings
24) Alphabeat - This is Alphabeat
25) Chromeo - Fancy Footwork

God that was hard. I guess I can't really commit to the order at all, and I still feel bad that Devendra, Sigur Ros, and J Dilla didn't make the cut. Twenty-five really isn't that much when you're talking an entire decade, but a blog name's a blog name.

2009, no really.

2010-08-02T20:23:00.000-07:00

1. Harlem Shakes - Technicolor Health

Not sure why this didn't get more hype, but I think it's perfectly-crafted sunshine pop. Super literate lyrics, totally addictive hooks, and pretty imaginative melodies. It's too bad the Shakes broke up after releasing this album; I was really looking forward to both seeing them live and hearing more out of them.

2. jj - jj no 2

This music is lovely. Simple, a little ethereal, and riddled with drug references. People like to get their panties in a twist over the live show that jj puts on, but I was personally tickled by it. First of all, I was impressed that her voice is as clear and pitch-perfect live as it is recorded. Second of all, I was impressed that he didn't break anything. I would use pre-recorded beats, too, if I were relying on someone who was totally drugged out to back me up. "From Africa to Malaga" and "Things Will Never Be the Same Again" remain two of my favorite songs of the whole year.

3. Taken By Trees - East of Eden

Didn't think I'd ever like Taken By Trees-- or anything, for that matter-- more than The Concretes, but this album blew me away. I guess for me, at this point in time, the only way to really improve on what Victor Bergsman has always done is to pair it up with some vaguely Afro-Caribbean drumbeats.

4. The xx - xx

This album took some time to grow on me. I thought it was too simplistic and too hyped. But damn, their voices are sexy as hell. These songs are just dripping with sex, and they're not even about sex. On top of that, they give an amazing live performance.

5. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Uh, did you know that I didn't really like this album until I saw the P.S. 22 chorus sing "Lisztomania?" I still like their rendition better, but this was such a great soundtrack to the first sunny days of spring. It's high-quality music, original, and catchy like crazy.

6. Washed Out - EP

My personal favorite from the chillwave craze, maybe because of the R&B sensibilities that come through it. It's a short EP, but it packs a strong punch, and it is wonderful background music for warming up social settings. It's laid back enough not to overshoot the mood of pre-party mingling, but energetic enough to create a sense of anticipation for the night to come.

7. The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa

I've been sold on the Radioclit + Esau Mwamwaya pairing from the beginning. This music is just so warm and exuberant. By the way, Ezra Koenig's vocals on the title track: totally impressive.

8. God Help the Girl - God Help the Girl

Stuart Murdoch's songwriting + some chanteuse that I know nothing about = a Broadway show I actually want to see.

9. Slow Club - Yeah, So

Adorable. Of course I love it.

10. Thunderheist - Thunderheist

A LONG TIME COMING. I'm not sure if anything could have lived up to the hype that "Sueños Dulces" has created for me since... what was it, 2005? 2006? But this did a pretty good job. "Jerk It" might break my top 10 for songs to shake it to.

11. Handsome Furs - Face Control

Maybe it's because I spent more time with this album from the beginning, maybe it's because of the time of year it came out, but I love this way more than Plague Park. I just love the Handsome Furs' aesthetic-- not just because they're totally hot on stage, but because for some reason their music just sends me mentally into 1980's East Berlin or something. Not that I know what that was like, but there is something about the intensity and coarseness of his voice over these rudimentary (but equally intense and coarse) electronic beats that make me think of Eastern Europe.

12. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

I've never been a huge fan of Animal Collective, but I actually love about half the songs on this album. I'll let everyone else dissect this album and compare it to previous Animal Collective stuff, but I'm guessing it's because these songs are less glitchy and more intelligible.

13. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

14. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

A sweet group of people with a cute and fun live show. Very Brooklyn-y, very young, very early 90's.

15. Major Lazer - Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do

Everything I ever needed Solly to spin during my last semester of college.

16. Chromatic Flights - Sunset Bell

17. The Sandwitches - How to Make Ambient Sadcake

The song "Fire." Complete love-hate (mostly love) relationship with it. Why?

18. Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon

19. Florence and the Machine - Lungs

20. Metric - Fantasies

21. Discovery - LP

Crazy as hell! This shit is my dream music... but the melodies even get too nutso for me after a while.

22. Lee Fields and the Experience - My World

23. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

24. Telekinesis - Telekinesis

25. La Roux - La Roux

Every gay man's jam. And that includes me.

a day late, a dollar short

2009-03-06T21:07:00.000-08:00

This year was a rough one, wasn't it? I can't commit to the ranking of any of these, really. Think of the first five as being the top tier, the second five being second tier, and the rest just filling in the blanks. I couldn't even think of twenty-five to list. Yikes!

1) Alphabeat - This Is Alphabeat

I don't care what you haters say. This does NOT nauseate me, but it does fill me with unbridled joy every single time I listen. There are a couple of songs that I skip when I listen, but the rest make up for it.

2) Esau Mwamwaye and Radioclit are The Very Best - The Very Best Mixtape

No words. This is just so good.

3) Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

What's not to love? One of the only artists that I've seen live without being familiar first and actually enjoyed-- nay, loved.

4) The Walkmen - You + Me

I listened to this with Chuck this summer on one of our many lazy days about the apartment. I kept looking up in delight, and then masking my interest when he would say from behind his blag-machine, "I mean, it's a Walkmen album." Quickly became one of my favorites in the fall and winter.

5) Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours

How can there be this many good and kitschy songs on one album? My body is saying yes, but my heart is saying no. Sitting in a two-hour long traffic jam on the way back from our XXXTREME WEEK: PIZZA PARTY DOES GREAT AMERICA trip, emotionally exhausted from risking my life on the Double Helix and the Pirate Ship (no, really, I cried), this came on very softly from Cait's Clubwagon speakers. AND MY HEART SAID YES YES YES. And I probably cried again.

6) Little Joy - Little Joy

At first I was doubtful. I thought it sounded like a middle-aged band playing at a faux Copacabana luaua or something. I mean, I was really skeptical. And now look at me.

7) Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules & Love Affair

It took some warming up to, but "Blind" is such a wild song to hear late at night, by oneself, in a DJ booth. The cover art, of course, won me over immediately.

8) Thao with the Get Down Stay Down - We Brave Bee Stings and All

I love this voice and folkish sass.

9) Santogold and Diplo - Top Ranking

Even better.

10) The Dodos - Visiter

Jangly gems, for the most part. A lot of hot Chicago nostalgia involved, too.

11) The Cure - 4:13 Dream

Duh.

12) Okkervil River - The Stand-Ins

I never thought it would make it, but here it is in the upper-middle eschelons of my list. Way to suck, 2008. Actually, I really like this album, I just am not used to loving Okkervil River. I usually leave that to my bro.

13) Lykke Li - Youth Novels

Good, and she has too many good videos of her dance moves on YouTube to pass her up.

14) Hot Chip - Made In The Dark

Up here for being a pretty good album; down here because I've been comparing it to other Hot Chip albums.

15) Santogold - Santogold

So many good remixes. Santogold is almost my fantasy woman, too.

16) M83 - Saturdays = Youth

Another one lucky to be born in 2008. Sorry, guys, this just isn't my bag, although it is wonderful background music. Like, really beautifully crafted background music.

17) Jamie Lidell - Jim

I can't believe that Sinowitz bought this album when I told him how much I liked it. It still makes me blush. There is no way he could have listened to it all the way through.

18) Air France - No Way Down

Another Chicago nostalgia. Alex Miller would always sing that one song... and by sing, I mean repeat "It's sorta like a dream... no, better," over and over. For seven minutes.

19) Lindstrom - Where You Go I Go Too

Won a lot of brownie points when it lulled me to sleep in El Salvador while I was experiencing Montezuma's revenge. There was a chicken trying to sit on the tin roof, but it kept sliding down noisily. There was just no hope for me until I slipped this baby on.

20) Deerhunter - Microcastle

Chuck listened to this enough that it stuck.

21) MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

22) HEALTH - Disco

Duh. I used to walk around Humboldt Park listening to this. I tried to run to it, which failed for a number of reasons: a) Glass Leg b) Sloth c) Getting distracted by how gooooood these mixes are.

23) TV On The Radio - Dear Science,

I don't know. Just trying to fill space. I list this because I was one of the only people I know who didn't take a big fat dump on the album when it came out.

5-1

2007-12-28T08:10:00.000-08:00

5) The National - Boxer

4) Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

3) Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala

2) Calvin Harris - I Created Disco

1) Panda Bear - Person Pitch

2007-12-28T08:06:00.001-08:00

Somebody take a closer look at my numbers. I'm totally losing it-- they're wiggity wack.

1-5 go up after I figure it out.

10-6

2007-12-27T08:47:00.000-08:00

10) Dan Deacon - Spiderman of the Rings

9) Los Campesinos - Sticking Fingers Into Sockets EP

I've been waiting for this for maybe a year and a half.

8) Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Is Is EP

7) Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon

I liked this more after seeing him live-- the hopping, hair-massaging couple, all the bandannas ever sold in Philadelphia, and that small patch of pubic hair peeking out over Devendra's pants. What's not to love, I guess?

6) Daft Punk - Alive 2007

15-11

2007-12-26T18:46:00.000-08:00

15) The New Pornographers - Challengers

Bloomington >> Greencastle:
good driving music

14) Caribou - Andorra

13) The Honeydrips - Here Comes the Future

Greencastle>>Bloomington:
good driving music

12) Yelle - À cause des garçons

You'd have to be out of your god-damned mind not to love this. Karen O plus Pipettes? Maybe?
(Charm meets edge)

11) M.I.A. - Kala

20-16

2007-12-26T18:34:00.000-08:00

20) Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam

19) Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

18) LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

17) The Brunettes - Structure and Cosmetics

Do you think this is too gimmicky?

16) Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals

25-21

2007-12-23T17:55:00.002-08:00

I just don't have much to say this year. Sometimes I just like things and don't care to analyze why, you get me?

25) Gruff Rhys - Candylion

It seems like this got a week of blog-buzz and then fell off the face of the earth. Cute, fun enough to listen to, etc.

24) Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

At some point this year, Michael mentioned that with every album, oM moves farther and farther away from him (or something. Sorry I didn't mentally catalog that one better, d00). I'm inclined to agree, but I can't lie-- I still really like this album, except for "Faberge Falls for Shuggie" and "Labyrinthian Pomp," which I've disliked from the start, despite efforts to warm up to them.
Sometimes you're jazzed up on whatever-it-is and writing paper after paper and you're listening to this through headphones while nobody else has any idea why you're acting so god-damned victorious. Unreal.

23) Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil

To be heard at 2 a.m. in a dimly-lit studio. Which decade am I even living in?

22) The Silver Seas - High Society

Poppy (but not very poppy), coherent, in tune, great driving music for a sunny day.

Favorite tracks: "The Country Life," "Catch Yer Own Train"

21) Muscles - Guns Babes Lemonade

I'm mostly terribly in love with this.

Top 25 Foods of 2006

2006-12-16T22:50:00.000-08:00

01) Mango sorbet
02) Salad with black olives, sundried tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar
03) Pasta with tomato sauce
04) Graham crackers with milk
05) Peaches and cream oatmeal
06) Pineapple
07) Apples
08) Bananas
09) Raisin bran
10) Sweet potato casserole with whole cranberries
11) Cherry fruit on the bottom yogurt
12) Asiago bagel, toasted with butter
13) Dried mango
14) Baby carrots
15) Pita chips
16) Blue corn chips
17) Vegan Rice Krispie treats from the hub
18) Chocolate truffles from Trader Joe's
19) Naughty style eggs and pasta
20) Canned peaches
21) Blueberry bagel, toasted with butter
22) Dark chocolate
23) Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with apricot jelly
24) Chocolate chip bagel
25)Chocolate chip granola bars

Favorites of 2006

2006-12-12T19:51:00.000-08:00

Here's my disclaimer on this list: I scrounged it together in the past eight hours, and a few popular albums of the year won't get mentioned because I haven't heard them completely. That includes Joanna Newsom, Ratatat, Spank Rock, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Young and Sexy, Whitest Boy Alive, Califone, Ghostface, Okkervil River, and Neko Case. So whatever. I like the following albums, in any case, but probably not in this order. I don't know.

01. Hot Chip – The Warning

I don't feel like I really need to explain this one, if that's okay.
Oh, except for the fact that I'm immediately won over by spelling out words a la Mickey Mouse Club. That probably has something to do with my never having participated in the school spelling bee (thanks to various technicalities and brown nosers), but until we know for sure, I'll listen to "Over and Over" over and over. Yeah, I'm sure that pun hasn't been made yet.

02. Kite Flying Society – Where is the Glow?

First of all, when I got this album in the mail, the envelope had a personal message written on it: "We like your name. Hannah Harp. Lovely! -KFS." Needless to say, I was won over immediately, as I am also partial to my name (thanks mom!). Second of all, I had already heard and fallen in love with "6000 Shipwrecks," the soft and poppy indie sea anthem that totally gives away the fact that KFS are landlubbers. I can detect that sort of thing quite readily since I'm a n00b when it comes to all things maritime. But this song actually made me kind of wish that I was on a boat feeding popcorn to seagulls or something. The rest of the album is full of innocent acoustic guitar riffs and winsome harmonies. Sometimes I wish that Jim were a little more dysfunctional so that I didn't feel weird about having put "If I Could Split" on a mix for him. I mean, it's heart-wrenching and beautiful and all of that, but I don't think Jim's ever done downers, nawmean?

03. Love is All – 9 Times That Same Song

This album is magnetic; I want to dance and make out/fall out/make up, which may be useful to someone someday. The thing that does it for me is that the background sounds in "Used Goods" kind of remind me of Marble Madness.

04. Cat Power – The Greatest

I kind of want to smoke a cigarette with Chan Marshall, you know?

05. MSTRKRFT – The Looks

I am intoxicated by this fat/phat synthy repetition that morphs into something new and hypnotizing at precisely the right moment. Do what you will, MSTRKRFT. Do what you will.

06. Sunset Rubdown – Shut Up I am Dreaming

It's all about balance: distressed vocals, engaging melodies, literate lyrics. Maybe it has limited accessibility, but I'm pretty sure that is why I love this album. I am personally concerned with its well-being and I take tender, tender care of it.

07. The Pipettes – We Are the Pipettes

I feel like such a GIRL when I listen to this album. I feel like wearing stilettos and red lipstick and kissing boys and making them cry. Anyone who knows me knows that these are pretty foreign sensations to me, but I don't think any girl would feel any differently about We Are the Pipettes. This album is especially significant because it marks the beginning of my tolerance of female vocalists who lack mind-blowing talent. I'm not bitter towards the Pipettes for being successful female musicians. As far as I'm concerned, they kick ass, and I'm content just to listen to this one. Also, I would never make this kind of music, which is another reason I'm not bitter. That is, however, why Elephant Parade is further down on this list, those bastards. Take that, EP (lolzjklylas).

08. The Concretes – In Colour

So I'm mildly chagrined that my original #8 was Channelizing Paradise by Los Super Elegantes, an album that was released in 2002. Mislabeling is the bane of my existence. But if you want to check out a punk-mariachi-hip hop outfit from L.A. that sings in Spanish, English, and sometimes clumsy French, then that's the way to go. That's okay though, because now I can tout one of my favorite Swedish tweepop groups. The Concretes are back with In Colour with a more diverse (but still sugary) song list. My beef with this album is that you can usually tell what they're saying. Their unintelligibility has got to be at least half of the charm of former albums. But anyway, another largely guileless and charming album from The Concretes. Surprise.

09. Black Bear – The Cinnamon Phase

The Cinnamon Phase is designed specifically for abstract-sequentials like me. Sam gave us liner notes in such meticulous detail that it's difficult NOT to love this earnest lo-fi synthpop album. The songs are arranged from January to December, with the other ten months in order between those two. God, I love things that are in order. The first song is about a BLACK BEAR. There is whistling, spoken word, and a reference to Back to the Future. I don't really know what else to say about that. It does get tiresome after awhile, but until it does, it's pretty awesome.

10. Elephant Parade – Bedroom Recordings

Let's remember that this is Hannah's Top 25, not yours. Objectively this album may not be too hot, but it's so naked and honest and adorable and recorded in various bedrooms in NYC that it survived five straight days in my car's CD player, which is a considerable achievement for a twenty minute album or however long this is. "For You" is basically the kind of song that I compose extemporaneously and sing over the phone.

P.S. This is what my voice sounds like: a small child. For more information about why this isn't further up (because I absolutely adore this album), see #7. I'm trying to be vindictive and it's not working.

11. The Rapture – Pieces of the People We Love

12. Eef Barzelay – Bitter Honey

13. Shout Out Out Out Out – Not Saying/Just Saying

14. CSS – Cansei de Ser Sexy

15. TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain

16. Liars – Drum's not Dead

17. Junior Boys – So This is Goodbye

18. Beirut – Gulag Orkestar

19. Maritime – We, the Vehicles

20. Grizzly Bear – Yellow House

21. Voxtrot – Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, and Wives

22. The Knife – Silent Shout

23. The Lovely Feathers - Hind Hind Legs

24. Anathallo – Floating World

25. Girl Talk – Night Ripper