Delayed Reaction: Moxy Fruvous, Thornhill

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Every so often, I feel inclined to dip back into the wellspring of the music of my childhood (or early adulthood, as the case may be) and revisit something I used to listen to until my ears fell off. The Moxy Fruvous album Thornhill is one such trip.

It all started Thursday night when one of the songs off the album, “My Poor Generation,” came up on shuffle on the ol’ iPod. I thought to myself, “Man, haven’t heard this song in ages! Why don’t I listen to these guys more?” ‘Cause seriously, there was a period of about three or four years there (in college and into grad school) where I listened to them constantly. My computer was full of illegally-downloaded tunes by the Canadian quartet, I had their website bookmarked, and I was deeply disappointed that they went on “indefinite hiatus” around the same time I really got into them. It was like the cosmos was laughing at me.

Thornhill is one of those “mature” records that arists sometimes make. Moxy Fruvous was always a little goofy and silly, what with writing songs about European monarchs on the lam and bandit fish and all. But Thornhill was a fairly serious, adult affair: sure, there were still jokes, but they weren’t the focus of the songs. Rather, the melodies, the harmonies, and the personal stories were front and center. And these guys can sing and write a lovely pop song, lemme tell you. The album is chock-full of perfectly-balanced pop songs with clever lyrics, layered vocal harmonies, and a folky, jangly sound that I could just listen to for days on end.

Do I love this album as much now as I did back then? I dunno. It’s aged well, I know that. Some of the songs rely too much on their clever wordplay to try to get them through (“Hate Letter” in particular), and a couple of songs really drag down the back half of the record (“Independence Day” and “Downsizing,” the two most doggedly serious songs on the record, spring readily to mind here), but most of the album is still great. Well over half of the tracks on the album have a five star rating on my iPod, so that speaks pretty clearly to how much I still enjoy this music.

You want comics? I got yer comics right here!

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Another week, another batch of comics! Small set this week, but let’s jump in, shall we?

Joe the Barbarian #1: A rather slow, sedated start to a comic from a writer who usually jumps headlong into the action from panel 1, but with art this beautiful, who am I to complain? And the fact that it looks to be such an interesting story (diabetic kid goes into hypoglycemic shock and has to make it to some food before he, y’know, dies, and oh he happens to be hallucinating something fierce on the way) is gonna go a long way to helping me feel good about picking up this 8-issue miniseries. Plus, hey, first issue was only $1. Thank you, Vertigo!

Incredible Hercules #140: The Assault on New Olympus continues with some nice twists, great moments between Herc and Amadeus Cho, and the as-usual awesome sound effects. This series is consistently awesome and you should all be reading it, even if it is slated for cancellation in the very near future.

Also picked up the latest Captain America trade, Road to Reborn. Brubaker writes a very compelling Cap, and I’m half-tempted to start following this one in single issues instead of just trades (probably not, though. It’s one of those stories that just reads better in large chunks).

Comics Ahoy!

| xeyeti

Another week, another collection of sequential art storytelling magazines! Get ready, it’s comics time!

Secret Six #17: Picking up where last week’s Suicide Squad #67 left off, we basically get a great big fight scene. Or a series of fight scenes. But very nice fight scenes, and with plenty of clever dialogue and some great character moments. I swear, Gail Simone could be writing a comic book about paint drying and I’d still read it.

Invincible Iron Man #22: Matt Fraction not only writes an awesome Iron Man, but he’s got the voice and character of Doctor Strange down perfect, too. Will someone get this man writing a Strange ongoing now, please? I mean, sure, he’s already doing Iron Man, X-Men, and (if I’m not mistaken) about to take on Thor as well, but surely he’s got enough time to do another title, right?

Batman: The Widening Gyre #4: This feels an awful lot like a middle of the miniseries issue, which is exactly what it is. Kevin Smith does a decent job with the characterization and the different relationships he’s juggling in this book, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a conflict in the story to really drive the plot. There’s just two issues left, so I’ll just follow it through to the end, but I can’t help wishing there was something more happening.

Kicking Television

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So, what with a move and having to wait for the Verizon people to come set up the cable at the new place, the wife and I basically went a couple of weeks without watching any TV. Now that everything’s up and running again, we’ve got the DVR recording all sorts of interesting stuff for us. Let’s see what’s on!

Turns out we’re kind of addicted to BBC America. Granted, this is largely because of Doctor Who. I was pleased with the first part of the two-part Tenth Doctor finale, The End of TIme, but felt rather let down by the second part. Honestly, the last twenty minutes especially felt rather unnecessary (especially since all of those characters had already received perfectly good send-offs in earlier seasons, like, y’know, season 4). But honestly, I find it kinda hard to blame Russell T. Davies and David Tenant for doing a little victory lap like that.

But even beyond Doctor Who, there’s some fun stuff on BBC America. We’re rather addicted to a show called How Clean is Your House? It’s basically a couple of British women going to visit people whose homes are incredibly filthy and helping the folks get their act together. They come back a couple of weeks later to check up again, and we’ve yet to catch an episode where the people didn’t maintain the cleanliness, which is heartening.

We’ve also been watching lots of stuff on Discovery (Mythbusters!), and the wife seems to be infatuated with Animal Planet. And Food Network. Now that I think about it, maybe letting her program the DVR wasn’t the best idea.

Slightly-Belated Comics!

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So yeah, Wednesday was new comics day, so here’s my (rather meager) haul:

Doom Patrol #6: A pretty cool way to reconcile the numerous reboots, revisions, and reimaginings of a character (The Negative Man) that’s been around since the ’60s. Giffen does a good job of tying everything together and making it seem at least semi-coherent, and the almost complete lack of dialogue actually works pretty well. And the Metal Men co-feature is, as always, fantastic. I’m really sad the co-feature won’t be around for much longer.

Suicide Squad #67: The first of a two-part Blackest Night tie-in with Secret Six, this issue hits all the right notes and doesn’t feel like a cash-grab event tie-in. It helps that John Ostrander and Gail Simone do such a fantastic job with the writing and that Calafiore’s art fits perfectly with the story, and that the Suicide Squad has done in so many characters over the years and thus has a rather sizable collection of characters to resurrect as Black Lanterns. Can’t wait to follow this up next week with the next issue of Secret Six.

Also picked up the trade of Frank Miller’s Daredevil story Born Again, one of the best Daredevil stories ever. Really looking forward to readin that this weekend.

The Top 25 Most-Played Songs for 2009

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I always reset the play count on all the songs in iTunes at the beginning of a new year, but first I like to look back at the songs that received the most play over the course of the year. Here they are, along with the final play count for 2009.

1. The Replacements, “Alex Chilton” – 38
2. Steve Earle, “More Than I Can Do” – 37
3. The Gaslight Anthem, “Say I Won’t (Recognize)” – 36
4. Jakob Dylan, “Will It Grow” – 33
5. A.C. Newman, “Like a Hitman, Like a Dancer” – 32
6. The Gaslight Anthem, “Senor and the Queen” – 32
7. Daniel Lanois, “Where Will I Be” – 31
8. Elvis Costello, “Pump It Up” – 29
9. The National, “So Far Around the Bend” – 29
10. Bon Iver, “Skinny Love” – 28
11. Neko Case, “People Got a Lotta Nerve” – 28
12. Death Cab for Cutie, “The Sound of Settling” – 26
13. Statler Brothers, “Flowers on the Wall” – 26
14. Creedence Clearwater Revival, ” Wrote a Song For Everyone” – 25
15. The Grass Roots, “Temptation Eyes (Original)” – 25
16. Modest Mouse, “Satellite Skin” – 25
17. Band of Horses, “The General Specific” – 24
18. The Submarines, “You Me and the Bourgeoisie” – 23
19. Talking Heads, “Once in a Lifetime” – 22
20. A.C. Newman, “Take On Me” – 21
21. Bruce Springsteen, “All the Way Home” – 21
22. Michael Andrews & Gary Jules, “Mad World” – 21
23. Bellamy Brothers, “Let Your Love Flow” – 20
24. Bon Iver, “Blood Bank” – 20
25. The Envy Corps, “Story Problem” – 20

The Strangest Damn Dream…

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I had the weirdest dream. First, that’s odd because I rarely remember my dreams.

I dreamt I was at school teaching, except it wasn’t the school where I work now, it was the school I taught at last year. But the students were from my current school. And the building was the building that my elementary and middle school was in. I had taken a PE class out for a walk first period(which isn’t when I have PE), and was so late getting back to class that I missed half of 2nd period. One of my students from that class was in the principal’s office but also sitting in the classroom. And to top it off, one of my coworkers from the old school was a student in my class.

I dunno if the lack of sleep or something I ate at the New Year’s party last night just didn’t agree with me, but that dream was weird as hell.

Albums of the Year

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Every year, I find my favorite albums and make a list of ’em, like roughly 99.9999% of the blogosphere. I’ll forgo the whole Best of the Decade thing that so many are doing, because honestly I have a difficult time remembering everything that came out that I liked this year, let alone ten years ago (besides, I was a mere slip of a thing ten years ago; what the hell did 19-20 year old me know?). You’ll notice that I tend to favor enjoyable music to challenging music (which isn’t to say challenging music can’t be fun, but you won’t see much noise or art rock on my list, and I really can’t abide by Animal Collective). Also, The Beatles box set was not eligible on account of it being totally unfair and there only being ten spots on the list, not 14 (13 albums plus Past Masters). Anyway, in a rather particular order, here’s my top ten albums of 2009…

10. Wilco, Wilco (the album): The winking smirk of the album title and the opening track (“Wilco (the Song)”) are a great indicator that this is a band that’s having some fun. With great tunes such as “Sunny Feeling” (my favorite on the album; just listen to that slide guitar) and the lovely “You and I,” it’s clear that Wilco has found their comfort zone and could churn out warm, lovely songs for the next ten or fifteen years easily without changing a thing. And I’d buy every single album they released.

9. Works Progress Administration, Works Progress Administration: I’ve always had a soft spot for anything related to Glen Phillips (he of Toad the Wet Sprocket), and throwing a few members of the progressive bluegrass mainstays Nickel Creek into the mix always works out well. This is a mellow, folky record that’s just fun to listen to; you can tell the musicians had a blast recording these songs, and shouldn’t music be fun?

8. Monsters of Folk, Monsters of Folk: I also have a soft spot for the Supergroup (the Traveling Wilburys will always be my favorite, of course). While this folkie indie supergroup isn’t the second coming of the Wilburys or anything, it’s still a lot of fun. It may not be a challenging listen, but it’s definitely a fun one.

7. Modest Mouse, No One’s First and You’re Next: It’s only an EP, but it was a damn good one. There’s not a bad song on here, and the opener, “Satellite Skin,” is one of my favorite songs of the year. They’re not doing anything all that different than what they’ve done on their past couple of full-length albums, but they’re doing it really well, so I won’t complain.

6. Neko Case, Middle Cyclone: Case sounds like she’s finally recording the sort of songs she wants to, a nice balance of country, indie pop, and traditional roots rock that fits right alongside what’s come before but is also a step away from her earlier sound. “This Tornado Loves You” is like a theme song for my home state of Oklahoma, I swear; who else would have the chutzpah to personify a tornado?

5. Iron & Wine, Around the Well: An odds-and-sods collection shouldn’t be this good, but Around the Well is. Looking at the leftovers and castoffs usually strikes me as a good time, and this collection is pretty rewarding in that respect. Plus, really awesome covers of the Flaming Lips’ “Waitin’ for a Superman” and the Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights.” Awesome.

4. The Flaming Lips, Embryonic: Noisier and messier than anything they’ve recorded in the past fifteen or maybe even twenty years, Embryonic sounds a lot like the record the Lips have been wanting to record their whole career. Warm and cathartic and amazing when played live, the songs from this album are great, and the loose thematic organization helps them hang together really well.

3. Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca: Remember how I said I prefer fun to challenging? I also said that you could have both at once, and this album fits that. These guys and gals are clearing having a blast on this record, and making some music that is both thought-provoking and fun to just sit back and listen to.

2. Bob Dylan, Together Through Life: Dylan continues his late-career renaissance with an album that incorporates a whole lot of accordion and a heaping helping of his rusty, 40-of-whiskey-and-two-packs-a-day voice. This is also funny Dylan, as he cracks jokes, snarks a lot, and generally sounds like he has a smirk on his face the whole time. Favorite line: “I’m listening to Billy Joe Shaver and I’m reading James Joyce/Some people tell me I’ve got the Blood of the Lamb in my voice.” Classic.

1. A.C. Newman, Get Guilty: Usually, in a year that features not one but two Dylan albums (Christmas in the Heart being the second, which almost made the list for sheer bizarro-ness), the top spot would be Dylan. But that is not the case this year, and not because Dylan wasn’t deserving (hey, #2 ain’t bad). No, the simple fact is that A.C. Newman’s Get Guilty was the best album I’ve heard all year. I came out back in the beginning of the year (January, I think), and I’ve been listening to it pretty much constantly since then. And there’s not a bad song on the record: everything from “Like a Hitman, Like a Dancer” to “Prophets” is a perfect slice of bouncy, energetic power-pop that you can’t help but shout along with. Newman has a McCartney-esque way with hooks and melodies, making them sound effortless and obvious, but he’s also got some great lyrics to go along with the tunes. Definitely my favorite album of the year, and probably one of my favorites of this decade.

Honorable Mentions: M. Ward’s Hold Time, Dark Was the Night (a great compilation featuring a who’s who of indie guitar rock), Bob Dylan’s Christmas in the Heart (bizarre and awesome), The Minus 5’s Killingsworth (getting back to the 5’s earlier, more countryish sound), The Decemberists’ The Hazards of Love, The Dead Weather’s Horehound, Elvis Costello’s Secret, Profane, and Sugarcane, and Yo La Tengo’s Popular Songs.

Comics Cavalcade

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Yesterday was New Comics Day, the greatest day of the week! Get ready!

Detective Comics #860: The completion of the origin of Batwoman. This was definitely a stronger story than the opening arc, and seeing Kate Kane’s motivation for becoming Batwoman really made a lot of sense and felt pretty good. JH Williams III continues to knock it out of the park artistically, coming up with amazing page layouts and fantastic little details (the subtle changes in Kate’s physical appearance to the more jarring changes, such as her pallid skin and the dark circles around her eyes) make this book a pleasure just to look at. I’m sad this issue ends his run on the title, but there’s apparently hope of further collaboration on the character between Williams and Rucka in the near future (yay!). Rucka’s writing is pretty solid; this is the kind of story he can write in his sleep. And the Question backup was lots of fun, too, which is what I want out of a wise-cracking faceless crimefighter comic.

Incredible Hercules #139: The Assault on New Olympus isn’t going well as we finally find out what Continuum is. This title continues to be pure, distilled awesome (favorite sound effect: Maceindaface!), and I’m glad that I’ve started following it on a monthly basis instead of just waiting for the trades. The Agents of Atlas backup fits in well, and is appropriate considering the Agents are attempting to infiltrate New Olympus themselves for their own ends.

Wonder Woman #39: I heart Gail Simone. Her taking on this title was the whole reason I started following any comics on a monthly basis instead of just trade-waiting everything, and she hasn’t disappointed (neither has Secret Six. Damn, that’s an awesome comic!). We finally see why her bracelets have been acting all wonky, Alkyone gets the smackdown she’s been deserving, and the Amazons prove why they’re awesome. Also, Zeus apparently gets a little humility and does some stuff he should’ve done ages ago (and those weird space suits the Olympian gods have been wearing since their return are explained finally). Good stuff.

Trades I picked up: Incredible Hercules: Dark Reign (I love me some Herc), Agents of Atlas: Dark Reign (there’s like a pattern here or something), and the More Than Complete Action Philosophers! (one of the most awesomest titles ever). Seriously, with one floppy and two trades by Mr. Fred Van Lente, it was definitely Van Lente Week around here!