one decaffeinated copy editor (“the new guy”) made a suggestion: “The Believer CD should be composed of eight a.m. music/breakfast-substitute jams, like that commercial from a while back with the guy who gets out of bed over and over again while ELO plays over his morning routine. You should tell all of the bands to write/contribute songs worth listening to within three minutes of waking up.”
So, without a theme, they just asked artists for some great songs. There’s one or two tracks written especially for the disc (Sufjan Stevens, Lightning Bolt). There’s a couple B-sides. There are some wildly noisy raucous songs: and three of them come from duos! No Age offers a very noisy blast of feedback. Magik Markers play a super-fast distortion-fueled rocker, and Lightning Bolt play 5 minutes of noise noise noise. Oh, and there’s even a rap (Aesop Rock)!
Tracks 3-7 are just about the 5 best songs in a row on any compilation. Oxford Collapse plays a catchy and wonderfully angular song with “Please Visit Your National Parks.” It’s followed by a song from Sufjan Stevens that sounds NOTHING like Sufjan Stevens, it’s a noisy distorted guitar blast of indie punk. I’m from Barcelona follows with a supremely catchy horn driven song that would be huge on any college campus. Aesop Rock comes next with a fantastic song. I’d heard a lot about Aesop Rock but had never heard him before, and he raps the kind of rap that I like: cerebral and bouncy. This is followed by Reykjavik! with a crazy, noisy surf-guitar type of song. It reminds me of some great college rock from the early 90s.
Of Montreal, a band I’ve been hearing about a lot but who I’ve never heard (and didn’t think sounded like this) plays a wonderfully catchy two minute love song that sounds ironic, but which likely isn’t. The melody is straight out of the Moody Blues’ “Wildest Dreams,” and yet it is still fun and quirky.
There’s a couple instrumentals as well: The Clogs do a cool, mellow instrumental and Explosions in the Sky do one of their typically fantastic emotional tracks. Also on the disc, The Blow contribute a delightfully witty song and Bill Fox, a singer I’d never heard of (but who has a great article about him in the magazine), really impressed me with his Bob Dylan meets Nico delivery. The disc ends with an alternate version of a song by Grizzly Bear.
This is definitely my favorite Believer disc thus far. See the full track listing here.
[READ: Throughout 2009] Schott’s Miscellany 2008
This year’s edition of Schott’s Miscellany is very much like last year’s edition (see that review here). I mean, it is an almanac after all. However, it is a wondrous testament to Schott that even though I read every word of the 2008 edition, I was able to read every word of the 2009 edition and not feel like I was duplicating myself very much.
Obviously the news, facts and events of 2008-09 are different from last year. And since Schott’s writing style is breezy and fun with a hint of sarcasm and amusement thrown in, you don’t get just a list of facts, you get sentences with subtle commentary on the facts. And it’s a fun way to re-live the past year. Plus, the Sci, Tech, Net section discusses science stories that sounded really impressive and important which I can’t believe I didn’t hear about at the time.
Obviously, there are some duplications with last year. The States & Presidents section provide the same basic information (statistics about states and deceased presidents haven’t changed). But it is an almanac after all, so he can’t leave the stuff out! Plus, with updated news and events, it casts a new light on these same stats.
But what I was delighted with was that so many of the sections that could have had duplications were not. The Money section has different information about currencies. The Form & Faith section had different statistics and categories. So, while the categories are the same, the bits and pieces are different.
So, yes, check out the previous year’s post for the general information about the almanacs.
I am concerned, though, that there is no mention on Amazon of a 2010 edition! His website lists the 2010 Almanac, but it appears to be only the UK edition (gasp!).
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