So I recieved a text message from my best friend Jeff Shropshire the other day telling me to read the wikipedia page for The Noid. You remember The Noid right?
The part we were focusing was about Kenneth Lamar Noid "On January 30, 1989, Kenneth Lamar Noid, a mentally ill customer who thought the ads were a personal attack on him, held two employees of an Atlanta, Georgia, Domino's restaurant hostage for over five hours. After forcing them to make him a pizza and making demands for $100,000, getaway transportation, and a copy of The Widow's Son, Noid surrendered to the police.[3] After the incident had ended, police Chief Reed Miller offered a memorable assessment to reporters: "He's paranoid."[4] Noid was charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault, extortion, and possession of a firearm during a crime. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity."
We laughed about this particular situation, I specifically like that he forced them to make him a pizza. But Finally Jeff started to speak.. and when Jeff speaks you listen, because it's normally something brilliant... this time was on exception:
"The Noid makes me realize that the Josie and the Pussycats movie wasn't too far off. Kids are dumb and will buy anything if you market it correctly. Seriously, how did a generation allow not one, but TWO games based on an advertising character get released. That shit's ridiculous. However the biggest injustice is that the Noid conned us into allowing him to have two games while the Kool Aid Man only got one."
Today Geekscape released it's Top 10 Albums of 2010 and if you read it that you saw my list (I assume I'm at the end of the article like secret after-thought). I did this Last Year and people seemed to like it (Editors Note: by People Matt means of course himself) (editor's Note on Editors Note: Matt is his own Editor this is a bizarre multiple personalities thing, Matt should be committed)
ANYWAY I know you're all waiting so here are the TOP 10 ALBUMS FROM 10 YEARS AGO (2000 Edition):
10. The Dandy Warhols: Thirteen Tales from urban Bohemia
The Dandy Warhols have always been a bit of the go-to Hipster band. Regardless on however “overrated” you may find them; their third album is their masterpiece. All the tracks flow into each so wonderfully that it almost feels like one long song. The stand-out track is their hit single “Bohemian like you” with such catchy tongue-in-cheek lyrics like “Hey, I wait tables too/No I haven’t heard your band, but you guys are pretty new”. Other tracks became TV show theme songs. One inparticular (Solid) became the them for Undeclared one of the greatest TV shows ever.
9. Soul-Junk: 1956
The first time I ever heard of Soul-Junk it was seeing them open up for Five Iron Frenzy. They were completely out of place, the show consisted of 2 pop punk bands, 2 ska bands and then soul-junk a strange hip-hop/experimental/electronica group. I picked up their double album 1955 and was frankly disappointed. The fun dancy hip-hop was almost nowhere to be seen except a few tracks here and there. However, I was obsessed with the song Ill-M-I which I found on an old 5 Minute Walk Comp. Eventually I tracked down a copy of 1956 and was blown away, here was the Soul-Junk I knew. Not as religiously explicit this album focused more on just having good catchy jams, interesting beats and sweet ass rhymes. The stand-out track is Sea Monsters & Gargoyles featuring Pigeon John possibly the most under-appreciated hip-hop rapper ever.
8. Dilated Peoples: The Platform
Dilated People’s debut album is the definition of game changer. While hip-hop was demonated with mostly violent and misogynstic gangster rap; the Dilated Peoples came from the Alternative Hip-hop/Native Tongue style of hip-hop of telling detailed stories that were emotionally driven. Did these album ever really change the face of hip-hop? Not completely, but you can’t help listen to it and start to miss the days of hip-hop where Emcee’s had DJs who were turntablists instead of just a guy who played beats from his computer.
7. Del Tha Funkee Homosapian: Both Sides of the Brain
Del is most famous for being Ice Cube’s cousin and the rap vocals on the first Gorillaz album. This is a shame since Del is tight as fuck rapper. This album is so deliciously perfect that you can easily find yourself listening to it on repeat for days at a time. Be it his cautionary tale of the dangers of drunk driving (Skull & Crossbones) or his gamer bragging rights (Proto Culture) one thing is obvious, Del is a bad-ass emcee, who’s still down to earth.
6. Marilyn Manson: Holy Wood
Manson’s fuck you to critics is possibly the best album of his career. After the terrible columbine tragedy, Manson kinda hide himself from public eye, this album shows him attacking the very media that attacked him. With his on going motto of Guns, God and Government Manson intelligently presents to the listeners ways in which the Bible and Government & News Stations promote violence in a much more dangerous way than Manson does.
5. Eminem: The Marshall Mathers LP
Marshall Mathers is a man with A LOT of problems. While Slim Shady LP was a funny and witty album poking fun at celebrities, drugs, violence and Eminem himself. Marshall Mathers is a diary of a darky haunted man. Taking his own name in the albums title is just the beginning of this auto-biographical story of a boy who comes from nothing, can’t handle his fan-base or fans and thinks about murdering his wife and mother constantly. Is it dark? Yes Is it Twisted? Yes Is it Beautiful? Yes… conclusion fuck you Kanye West… THIS album should have been called My Dark Twisted Beautiful Fantasy.
4. Our Lady Peace: Spirtiual Machines
Inspired by the futuristic novel The Age of Spiritual Machines, Our Lady Peace went from being “that Canadian band that sounds like Smashin Pumpkins” to a rock group worthy of our attention. It wasn’t that the band was releasing bad records before this, but none of their albums gripped our attention quite like this one. Mixing readings from inventor Raymond Kurzweil’s book and hopeless and dark lyrics Our Lady Peace shows us a vision of Dystopia that we can only pray never actually comes.
3. Outkast: Stankonia
Stankonia came out of nowhere and left the whole world confused as to what we just heard… and it did it in a good way. Blending damn near every genre with hip-hop Outkast created the most unique and original hip-hop album of the decade and possibly of all time. From the heavy metal influenced Gasoline Dreams, to the bluesy Ms Jackson to your in your face club bass-n-drum beats of Bombs over Bagdad this album has something for everyone. On to of it all, it contains various skits that are actually funny (a rarity in rap music).
2. Eels: Daisies of the Galaxy
Mark Oliver Everett is one depressed but hopeful dude. However unlike most musicians he’s earned the right to be this depressed. After losing his sister and his mom being diagnosed with cancer he penned “Electro-Shock Blues” (one of the most beautiful albums ever recorded). His follow-up Daisies of the Galaxy continues where Electro-Shocked left off. At this point Mark (Stage Name E) was the last surviving member of his family blood line. That loneliness is the main driving force in this album and each track is sadder than the one before. “It’s a Motherfucker” is a vulgar but heartfelt song about the pains of missing a loved one (I assume it’s in reference to his mother).
1. Jurassic 5: Quality Control
Jurassic 5 took the Jazz influenced Alternative hip-hop created by groups like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest and completely perfected it’s sound. There’s not a single track on Quality Control to NOT like. Using such creative samples as James Brown, The Barbershop-y HiLos or the funky Blowfly the whole album is practically a “how-to” guide to making incredibly catchy and perfect hip-hop. Make sure you check out the closing track the instrumental sample-heavy Swing Set.
The December Mix is Up and Ready for you to Listen to; a few stand-out tracks include:
When We First Met by Hellogoodbye I needed to put on this mix because after being disappointed by Hellogoodbye's debut album, their new CD is a complete change of direction and it works perfectly!
After reading Stephen King's The Body there was no way I couldn't put Ben E. King's Stand by Me
I already spoken heavily about how much I loved mc chris goes to hell; the song 006 is without a doubt the standout track.
December = Christmas... I didn't want to put an extremely holiday specific song so I went with the snarky and dark Yule Shoot Your Eye Out by Fall out Boy
And the mix ends with Ben Folds' song Belinda which is without a doubt the most beautiful song to appear on a Ben Folds album since Rockin' the Suburbs'The Luckiest
FULL TRACK LIST: 1. Van Halen - Nerf Herder 2. Hey Jude - The Beatles 3. When We First Met - Hellogoodbye 4. Little Lion Man - Mumford & Sons 5. Stand by Me - Ben E King 6. 006 - mc chris 7. My First, My Last, My Everything - Barry White 8. Carolina in my Mind - James Taylor 9. I Haven't Tried it - Piebald 10. Airplanes (f/Hayley Williams) - B.O.B. 11. Yule Shoot Your Eye Out - Fall out Boy 12. Now That You're Home - Manchester Orchestra 13. For Once in My Life - Stevie Wonder 14. Comfort Eagle - Cake 15. Friends of P - The Rentals 16. My Annie - Craig's Brother 17. Bat out o Hell - Meat Loaf 18. Belinda - Ben Folds
So I've officially hit 100 posts so that's exciting. Also it's Christmas! I'm not going to post every little thing that i got but as a movie and music fan I made a great collection today. The highlights though were the complete series of Freaks & Geeks as well as The Prisoner so I know how i"ll be wasting my week off from work haha
Anyway, I bet you thought I'd post something ridiculous as my #25 song like "I fucked Mrs. Claus" by Size 14, well you'd be WRONG (although that might make next years list). But no here is the song; the extremely beautiful and touching "Old City Bar" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It's a lovely song about the magic and miracles that can occur on christmas.
I decided before I post my song #24, I'd like to reflect on a few of my favorite christmas memories. I hope that you enjoy these memories and post some of your own.
1) I had a vhs tape my aunt made where she taped different christmas specials for me. The tape contained specifically The Claymation Christmas (which contained the California Raisins version of Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer), Pee-Wee's Christmas Special, Garfield's Christmas Special and the Muppet Family Christmas. I've watched this video every year (and even when it wasn't christmas time). I still need to watch these 4 specials every year; and every year... I cry. It's not christmas until I've listened to the muppets sing their christmas carol medley.
2) One year my mom signed up for this weird deal with Victoria Secrets. They were selling christmas albums and needed someone to put all the CDs together. They'd send a spool of CDs, empty jewel-cases and the front and back artwork. We'd put them together and box them up and send them to various stores. We'd spend most of my the night sitting watching christmas specials and putting these CDs together. I'm aware this sounds like we had a little sweat-shop going and in later years I'd discover that my mom didn't get paid nearly what she was promised; but I wouldn't trade the time we spent working as a family for anything.
3) The year that my grandfather died was a really rough one. I spent many nights online sulking. I was a very emo kid (some of my close friends just collectively went "WAS?!?"... fuck you guys). One of the people I complained to was a girl in my class, Stefanie. One christmas Eve while driving home I saw a car driving away from my house; I didn't know what it was or who the car belonged to at the time; but when I reached the top of the stairs I found a christmas bag with an inspirational card from Stefanie. I don't remember what the card said any longer, but I know that I have it somewhere. What was written didn't matter anyway; it was the thought that counted. It has and will always be the most touching christmas gift i ever received.
4) The Second most important gift I ever received was two years ago from my friend Sean. He bought me a book called "Jim Henson's Doodle Dreams: Inspiration for Living Life Outside the Lines". I loved the book, but it wasn't until recently the gift really made it's impact. I sat awake at night worrying about my move in July; when I saw the book on the shelf. Again, I don't remember the specific quotes; but I do know that it soothed me and I slept well at night.
5) My final memory is from my Freshmen year of High school. The TV studio had a holiday coffee-shop with christmas lights and an open mic. It was a total blast. At that show my friends Mike, Ant and Brian's band Franklin's Submarine performed a set, including the worst cover of "Christmas Day" by MxPx I've ever heard... at the time I'm sure I loved it. So here it is; Song #24 Christmas Day... by MxPx
Number 23 is one of my all-time favorite songs (not just christmas songs) from one of my all-time favorite movies (not just christmas movies)... "Baby, It's Cold Outside" as performed by Zooey Deschannel & Leon Redbone on the Elf Soundtrack
UPDATE: so apparently youtube has literally disabled the embedding abilities :/ so HERE is where you can hear the song on youtube in the mean time here's two other versions of the song not quite as good; but still decent
1) Will Ferrell and Zooey singing in the Actual movie
2) (this maybe my second favorite version) Selma Blair and Rainn Wilson:
