The Look Back

One work week left before my Christmas break. It will be a much deserved week away from the office and not thinking about the things that have started to depress me more and more. More important that even that will be my 4^th annual Crappy Christmas Cartoon Festival tomorrow night, December 15^th. I look forward to this party more than any other party I throw throughout the year. This year there will even be snow in Orange County.

PS. Don’t forget to check out my amazing Top 40 of 2007 list.

Black Lips – Stranger

This is the version from their “Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo” live album from earlier this year. Recorded in Mexico of all places by a group from Atlanta. I keep hearing a lot about the live experience and this song really seems to make that praise more apparent than ever. The banter at the end is also an added bonus and one of the only reasons I ever bother to listen to a live album. It’s nice to also see a “live” album that was put out by a band that wasn’t just trying to put out one fluff record to appease their record label and squeeze some extra cash out of the general public.

Battles – Leyendecker

Battles really snuck up on me to the point that I listen to their album “Mirrored” once a week. I think seeing all the live clips of these guys doing the festival circuit this year gave me an even greater appreciation for what they are doing. I thought that most of the sounds you hear on the album were all controlled by a laptop and ProTooled to hell. In actuality they use very few computer effects and most everything you hear is being done through a keyboard and various guitar pedals. Pretty cool how that works.

Beach House – Gila

This is a new one that has taken the blog world by storm this week, similar to “Foam Hands” last week. I missed seeing them live last year with Valerie but I heard it was a good show. Not exactly the high energy experience you may be thinking but it is a good show. This doesn’t deviate very far from the album they released last year but that again isn’t a bad thing.

Patsy Cline – I Fall to Pieces

I am back to the old school country music. One of the standards from Patsy Cline from 1960’s. I think she has one of the more unique voices in Country music and something that most everyone can distinguish even if they aren’t a fan. A typical cry me a river song for the era I think can still be a lively little song for a Friday afternoon.

Okkervil River – Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Christmas

This is a gorgeous song by my favorite artist of 2007. Originally released on the “Don’t Fall in Love With Everyone You Meet” EP a while back the band just released a live version this week on their website as well as a few other cover songs. A very nice accompaniment to “The Stage Names.” This song really brings up a lot of Christmas feelings I get from time to time. That longing for the old times to come back even though if you think about it more you realize they weren’t anything THAT special. I constantly pull up the most mundane images from my childhood Christmas such as the back porch at my grandparent’s house being lined with rain boots. Simple, “stupid”, but for some reason that is a happy thought. Even as I remember back to a couple Christmases past and thinking that they weren’t the same and that it wasn’t as special I now look back on those Christmases and think about how great they were. I need to think more about the present than the past in this respect…but never forget.