Highlights of the Year So Far

 

Lou Reed (Duh).

Seeing as we are nearly two-thirds through 2008, I thought it apt to publish a few of the musical highlights so far.  Read on:

 

• Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi Birgisson sang a song in English (!?!?) on their latest album, “Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust”, proving himself to be the most strikingly incoherent singer since Darby Crash, though considerably more melodic.
• The Mars Volta took enough hits of acid to believe that a Ouija board was both possessed AND worthy of a seventy-five minute album.
• Nurse With Wound combined smooth jazz and light classical, two supposedly relaxing musical forms, into a record, Huffin’ Rag Blues, that made you want to kill yourself. Not because of any avant-garde neo-dada tape experiments, just because it was so incomprehensibly bad.  
• Lou Reed released a concert film, “Lou Reed’s Berlin”, possibly starting down the path that will lead to “Metal Machine Musical” opening on Broadway.  
• Suicide released a SIX-CD set of live performances from 1977-78.  Who said they’d never make it? 
• Girl Talk sampled Twisted Sister (We’re Not Gonna Take It), Jimi Hendrix (Purple Haze), Aphex Twin (Girl/Boy Song), the Cure (In Between Days), and nearly everyone not sampled on Night Ripper to create one of the most cohesive albums of the year.  Well, I liked it.
• Throbbing Gristle planned to release their new record, a cover of Nico’s Desertshore.  They didn’t, but if Nico’s voice is deep and hypnotic, Genesis P-Orridge’s could be likened to HAL on downers.
• The Magnetic Fields released a pretty good homage to the Jesus & Mary Chain.  They titled it “Distortion”, proving themselves for the third time in a row to have the most unimaginative titles since Jackson Pollock.
• Coldplay’s new look proved once and for all Sgt. Pepper was the worst thing for fashion since corsets. 
• ZE Records celebrated their 20th anniversary, kind of strange seeing as the label actually dissolved for a while in the eighties and nineties.  But who doesn’t like parties?
• Teenage Jesus & the Jerks reunited to give me tinnitus for three days after the concert.  
• Madonna refused to accept she was getting old, and chose to attempt to look younger by dressing as a cheap whore on the cover of her new record.  The music wasn’t so hot either.
• Flight of the Conchords released their debut record, which was funny, but more so if you’d ever seen the show.  Or just searched them on YouTube.