Monday, December 31, 2007

Music Of 2007

Ok, this was hard. An almost impossible task of placing the music I've coveted & cherished, the sounds that permeated my ears the past 12 months, in an order, least to greatest, just know that you're all winners in my book. So without further adieu, here is a countdown of my 99 favorite albums of the year. Most of them are brand new, released this year, possibly this month, while some are older, classics, maybe classics-in-the-making. Either way, if you wanna know what I been listening to, this is pretty close. But only up to 99 albums worth, because 100 is just way too many.

99. Architecture In Helsinki - Places Like This
98. Bryan Scary - The Shredding Tears
97. Papercuts - Can't Go Back
96. The Berg Sans Nipple - Along The Quai
95. Celebration - The Modern Tribe
94. Monomen - s/t
93. Eluvium - Copia
92. The Snake The Cross The Crown - Cotton Teeth
91. Busdriver - Roadkill Overcoat
90. Klaxons - Myths Of The Near Future
89. Asleep In The Sea - s/t Ep
88. Feist - The Reminder
87. SoftLightes - Say No! To Being Cool, Say Yes! To Being Happy
86. Menomena - Friend And Foe
85. Elevado - Occidental/Oriental
84. Thunderbirds Are Now - Make History
83. Dirty Projectors - Rise Above
82. Rivers Cuomo - Alone: Home Recordings
81. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
80. Dan Deacon - Spiderman Of The Rings
79. Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
78. The Finches - Human Like A House
77. Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music For Airports
76. The New Pornographers - Challengers
75. Dog Day - Night Group
74. Loney, Dear - Loney, Noir
73. Cornelius - Sensuous
72. Young Galaxy - s/t
71. Ellen Allien & Apparat - Orchestra Of Bubbles
70. Acid Mothers Temple - Monstrel In The Galaxy
69. The Cinematic Orchestra - Ma Fleur
68. Hubcap City - Superlocalhellfreakride
67. Elvis Perkins - Ash Wednesday
66. The Go Team - Proof Of Youth
65. Frog Eyes - Tears Of The Valedictorian
64. Prints - s/t
63. Explosions in The Sky - All Of The Sudden I Miss Everyone
62. The Long Blondes - Someone To Drive You Home
61. Björk - Volta
60. Welcome - Sirs
59. Shapes & Sizes - Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner
58. Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City
57. The Phoenix Foundation - Pegasus
56. Late Of The Pier - Zarcorp Demo
55. The Dears - Gang Of Losers
54. Ennio Morricone - Il Grande Silenzio
53. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
52. Lightspeed Champion - Falling Off The Lavendar Bridge
51. Do Make Say Think - You, You're A History In Rust
50. White Rabbits - Fort Nightly
49. Christopher Willits - Surf Boundaries
48. Interpol - Our Love To Admire
47. Minus Story - My Ion Truss
46. Hallelujah The Hills - Collective Psychosis Begone
45. Jimmie Spheeris - The Dragon Is Dancing
44. The Fleet Foxes - s/t
43. The Velvet Teen - Cum Laude
42. Deerhunter - Cryptograms
41. Mason Proper - There Is A Moth In Your Chest
40. Fields - Everything Last Winter
39. The National - Boxer
38. Travis - The Boy With No Name
37. Apostle Of Hustle - National Anthem Of Nowhere
36. Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls
35. A Northern Chorus - The Millions Too Many
34. Guillemots - From The Cliffs
33. Black Kids - Wizard Of Ahhhs
32. Harlem Shakes - Burning Birthdays
31. Titán - A Raining Sun Of Light & Love For You & You & You
30. Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests Of...
29. The XYZ Affair - A Few More Published Studies
28. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Some Loud Thunder
27. Asa Irons & Swann Miller - s/t
26. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
25. Owen - At Home With Owen
24. Bound Stems - Appreciation Night
23. Tomàn - Perhaps We Should Have Smoked The Salmon First
22. Okkervil River - The Stage Names
21. Holy **** - s/t

20. Blonde Redhead - 23
20

19. The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns And Fifteen Winters
19

18. Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
18

17. Sigur Rós - Hvarf/Heim
17a17b

16. +/- - Let's Build A Fire
16

15. Noisettes - What's The Time Mr. Wolf?
15

14. Akron/Family - Love Is Simple
14

13. Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
13

12. Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover
12

11. Alex Delivery - Star Destroyer
11

10. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
10

9. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
9

8. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer
8

7. Woods - At Rear House
7

6. Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
6

5. Radiohead - In Rainbows
5

4. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
4

3. Mystery Jets - Making Dens
3

2. Battles - Mirrored
2

1. The Most Serene Republic - Population
1

Ah yes, I could write bundles about each album, but what fun is that. You're gonna have to listen to them and hear for yourself. And unfortunately this is just the tip of the iceberg. It was quite a productive year for me, as far as collecting music goes. Now I just have to find the time to listen to it all. Maybe next years list will be closer to 1,000.

Photos Of 2007

I had this grand idea to post all our favorite photos from 2007 but once I got started collecting them we had over a hundred before I was out of January. So instead I'm just gonna post a few sporadically chosen ones. Some are favorites, some random memories, some are just photos from 2007 really, like the title, jeez.

(020) eating fast

(02) fran in the trees

(55) spaghetti junction

(027) he likes

(131) deerhoof

(27) fran in the produce section

(03b) on his head

(05) proud papa

(13) kinda serious

(114) sunbathing

(071) yayoi

(02) the sky at home

(17) rabbit on a post

(58) madison with butterfly eyes

(11b) fran & the muscle system

(03) birds in the trees at the overlook

(21) fran beating the bushes with a broom...

(268) dancing

(27) mango glazed duck

(38) dents & fran

(29b) travis down in the wine aisle

There now wasn't that fun?

2007 Recap

How to sum up a year? Not an easy thing, nor is it something you can do by writing or reading a silly post on an equally silly blog, but nonetheless, here it is, and there you are.

2007! Lot's happened. To start, I overcame my extreme hatred for water. For some reason I just didn't care for it, in any form. But now, I drink like 5 glasses a day. I actually went swimming (not in a public pool I ain't crazy). I went kayaking, I went on a boat, I went tubing and spent more than my fair share of afternoons strolling along a beach. And I'd like to announce that I now shower daily as opposed to bi-weekly. Look...
(45) water bullet
(117) ...this photo
(167) land ho
(228) trying to stand
dscn7756

You want some figures? Ok how about the number 9. That's the number of ice cream cakes we ate. Next year we're going for double digits.
(15) ugly cake

We visited 19 states. That's actually kinda low.

But Fran rode 2 motorcycles.
(036) vic & fran go for a ride
(01) biker fran

We watched all 53 episodes of Arrested Development, for the third and definitely not the last time.

We saw 21 bands.
We climbed 4 mountains, saw 3 plays, and moved twice (I can't put up photos for all this, we'll be here all day). We took 22,071 photos & uploaded 58,256 songs to iTunes.

We got married once.


Let's see what else. We toured an ice cram plant. Dream come true. We went house hunting, pumpkin picking, tree cutting, leaf peeping, wine tasting, road tripping, antiquing, flea marketing, whale watching, I finally got Fran into NYC during Christmastime, one of my alltime favorite things to do, ever anywhere. We also got (re-)acclimated with sports, mainly MLB & NFL. Look out for my fantasy leagues in the '08.

Not bad for a year. It's barely noon tho so we still got like 12 hours.