Technicolor

Best of 2011

jvalentphotos — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 09:47:00 -0800

Music:

5. Radiohead - “the King of Limbs“

I called Adam Ball after hearing this record, and talked about how it was one of the most unlistenable records I had heard. It’s obvious that you have to spend time with a Radiohead record, but after several listens I kept wondering what the hell they were doing here. I left it alone for a few months, and then came back to it and it hit me. I still stand by the fact that this record sounds as like it is 100% driven by Thom Yorke as opposed to all five members, and the least attainable Radiohead record to date. But tracks like “Little by Little” continue rhythmic explorations that even the biggest hater wishes they had thought up, or at least wrapped their head around in the first place. Best Tracks: “Little by Little”, “Feral”

4. MODESELEKTOR - “Monkeytown”

Monkeytown is their most fluid record to date. This type of bang your head record doesn’t need to flow conceptually, but MODESELEKTOR just killed it with this record. There’s a not a lot to cover in a review for this, but in the current world of contrived electronica (see: DeadMau5, Skrillex) MODESELEKTOR is just killing it. Best Tracks: “This (feat. Thom Yorke)”, “Berlin Clap (feat. Miss Platnum)”

3. Drake - “Take Care”

I really should have started listening to hip-hop about 15 years ago. And I don’t mean playing songs on the radio, I mean really listening. Back then, things were still in somewhat of an interesting state, but these days hip-hop is just about all I listen to. And these days just aren’t that great for the culture. So, it’s a steady dose of Jay-Z, Tribe, and Eric B. and Rakim in my headphones right now. I can’t put my finger on exactly what hip-hop is missing today…maybe some real consciousness, not just consciousness for the sake of a checklist. I think a lot of it is just taking risks.

808s and Heartbreaks took risks a few years back. In retrospect, it’s the weakest of Kanye’s releases, but please thank him for taking a risk he wanted to take.

Drake’s second record is not a record that makes you reassess your day-to-day. It’s not a hip-hop wonder. For that matter, it really doesn’t have a place in a single genre. But what Take Care embodies is risk. For a mainstream artist, this is a genre-bending release that the artist wanted to make, without seeming interference with a record label. It lives mostly in the realm of r&b, with nods to hip-hop and dubstep, but mostly in an area of study all its own. I’ve spent a lot of time listening to this recently. I can’t say it’s an perfect record that you absolutely need (honestly, Drake doesn’t have an amazing flow), but I applaud the risk Drake took on a second album…hip-hop needs more of these risks. Best Tracks: “Crew Love (feat. the Weeknd)”, “Over My Dead Body”

2. M83 - “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming”

A double LP concept record that is basically Where the Wild Things Are in space? Awesome. Helmed by the only person who can nod to the ’80s without it being ironic? Check. This is no Before the Dawn Heals Us, but it’s a great addition to their discography. I’ll admit that I was honestly wanting something more with this record. Conceptually, it’s excellent, but I would love some of the fat trimmed off. My friend Ben just loves the track “Racone-Moi Une Histoire”, but this is the one place I have to disagree with him on. I have to skip this little girl’s song every time I play this. Even still, I’ve been jamming this all year, and it’s an excellent record. Best Tracks: “Midnight City”, “Steve McQueen”

1. JAY Z & Kanye West - “Watch the Throne”

I could write a dissertation on how great Watch the Throne is. It’s a masterpiece, and I’m sure you’re laughing when you read that, but it is just that. It was hard making a top list this year, because this is the only record I truly was in awe of.

I was so excited when I had first heard about the plans for this. Not arguably, but the best artists in hip-hop today who have such a mutual history and love for one another are doing a collaboration record? Battle record—not a, but the (and I’ll admit a huge bias for me as I’m an obsessed Jay-Z fan). What originally was supposed to be an EP turned into a full record in a comment by Jay last year. I couldn’t wait.

And when I first heard it, I remember thinking “are they serious…this is it??” It sounded cheap. It was over the top, and all over the place. But yet I had to keep listening to it. I had to keep listening. I had to keep listening.

Then I got it. So what do we have? A gold cover designed by an italian fashion designer. Non-stop self-referential one-ups and praises. Samples from Blades of Glory. A video including a blowtorch and a Maybach. And in the height of the Occupy Wall Street movement this year, Jay and Yeezy got blasted for making a record about over indulgence and wasted wealth. ”This is the wrong time for this record”, and “Irresponsible”. Are you serious?

Are you fucking serious? Have you ever listened to hip-hop? To quote Jay, “this is black superhero music”…this is a celebration and a battle. If you want to make the world a better place more power to you, but this type of record is not the forum. Remember, this is the Throne.

This is it. This is the top of their game. This is not Jay’s best record, and it’s not Kanye’s best record. This is a record that literally guards the metaphorical throne.

Personally, I’ve had some big internals struggle this year. Nothing earth shattering…first world struggles…whatever, everyone is struggling. But at the height of anxiety, this record made me feel like I could do anything when I sang with Jay, “if you escaped what I escaped, you’d be in Paris getting fucked up, too.” The world is struggling. But if you’ve worked your ass off and made it out alive, you have to celebrate. Whoever you are. Be humble, be thankful, stay hungry, and remember where you came from, but if you escaped what I escaped, you’d be in Paris getting fucked up, too.

What else? Hooks. This record is one giant chain of hooks.

Luxury rap / the Hermes of verses / sophisticated ignorance / I write my curses in cursive

Ball so hard motherfuckers want to fine me / but first they gotta find me

Cock back snap back / see my cut through the holes

Last week I was in my other other Benz

Photoshoot fresh / lookin’ like wealth / I’m about to call the paparazzi on myself

I repeat / my religion is the beat / my verse is like church

Graduated to the MOMA / And I did all of this / without a diploma / graduated from the corner / y’all can play me / for a motherfuckin fool if ya wanna / street smart / and I’m book smart / could have been a chemist / cause I cook smart

And I’ll never let my son have an ego / he’ll be nice to everyone, wherever we go / I mean I might even make ‘em be Republican / so everybody know he love white people

Cause the n*gga that said he’ll… / blast for ya / is now… / blastin’ for ya / that’s an assassin for ya / these n*ggas got a shot they’ll shoot / please lord / forgive him / for these n*ggas / not know / what they / do

Caeser didn’t see it so he ceased to exist / so the n*gga that killed him had keys to his shit / am I my brother’s keeper?

I don’t even know what to say.

My girlfriend’s amazing siblings got me tickets for Christmas to the final night of the LA dates. I was there when they infamously played N*ggas in Paris 10 times. Friends kept saying to me, “that must have just been annoying. Why would they do that?” Because they can. And because we loved it. And because if you escaped what I escaped, you’d be in Paris getting fucked up, too. Best Tracks: “Gotta Have It”, “N*ggas in Paris”

Honorable Mentions:

Bon Iver - “s/t” (by rights, it should be in the top 10, but I couldn’t solidify a full top 10, so this got bumped)

YACHT - “Shangri-La”

Pictureplane - “Thee Physical”

Rihanna - “Talk That Talk”

Beirut - “the Rip Tide”

the Weeknd - “House of Balloons”

Cults - “s/t”

Washed Out - “Within and Without”

Biggest Disappointment:

Justice - “Audio, Video, Disco”

Live Shows:

Archers of Loaf - 6/2 & 6/3 - Troubadour - Los Angeles, CA

Watch the Throne -12/13 - Staples Center - Los Angeles, CA

Films:

3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II

2. Terri

1. Super 8

Archers of Loaf Reunion

jvalentphotos — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 09:17:00 -0700

The fact that I’m writing this is a dream come true. I’ll try not to be corny, but I feel like a kid at Disney World writing this. The first time I listened to Archers of Loaf was when I bought “White Trash Heroes” on a whim in 1998. A few months later, they came through to Orlando, and I didn’t go. Of course—they then broke up. As time goes on, I become enamored with Archers of Loaf. I was amazed with their sound, and would just listen to their records over and over. In a still formative age for music, I felt like I had found the real sound I had been looking for for a long time (you know, that new sound I was lookin’ for…).

So for the past 12 years, I had always said that I just wanted to see them once. Hearing something to the effect that they were no longer on speaking terms, I had understood it that seeing them would just never happen.

At a party about a year and a half ago, the question came up, “If there is one band that you could have reunite, who would it be?” Brian Quain and I unanimously said Archers of Loaf.

So last month, I heard they were getting back together. And I’ve seen My Bloody Valentine, and some other bands who have gotten back together. But this was completely different. This was the holy grail.

Archers of Loaf were everything I had hoped they would have been live. Seeing them at the Troubadour in Hollywood (which couldn’t have been more appropriate) was (all hyperbole aside) a dream come true. Each night was 25 songs with two encores, but they played hard. They played like they had been waiting for 12 years to play together, and with the same excitement that I had built up since the first time I heard the beginning note of “Fashion Bleeds”.

You could feel the ferver in the room. Everyone sang at the top of their lungs, and a week later my voice is still recovering. The band could feel everyone’s excitement, and played as hard as they could while beaming smiles. I mean, for 2011, I can’t honestly say how relevant their sound is; theirs is a very mid-90s sound that lived somewhere between Pavement and Nirvana. We’re now gearing up for the apocalypse, and our current sound barely allows for the Archers to exist. So going into this I was a little nervous. Were people going to be excited? Were they going to sell this out?

Playing all of the “vs the Greatest of All Time” EP, and heavily tapping from “Icky Mettle” and “Vee Vee”, we still got some key tracks from “All the Nation’s Airports”.

I’m still a kid on cloud 9 thinking back to last weekend, and thanks to my incredible girlfriend, I have the videos below to go back and watch over and over. Setlists are below, and accompanied videos from both nights are linked within.

6.3.11 Set list:

1. Step Into the Light
2. 1985
3. Fabricoh
4. Harnessed in Slums
5. Worst Defense
6. Attack of the Killer Bees
7. Greatest of All Time
8. Lowest Part is Free!
9. Freezing Point
10. Dead Red Eyes
11. You and Me
12. Web in Front
13. Revenge
14. What Did You Expect?
15. Might
16. Nostalgia
17. Audiowhore
18. Slow Worm

Encore 1:

19. Scenic Pastures
20. Form and File
21. Bacteria
22. Wrong

Encore 2:

23. Plumb Line
24. Vocal Shrapnel (???)
25. All Hail the Black Market

6.4.11 Set list:

1. Audiowhore
2. Lowest Part is Free!
3. Freezing Point
4. Revenge
5. All Hail the Black Market
6. Harnessed in Slums
7. Dead Red Eyes
8. Acromegaly
9. Scenic Pastures
10. Form and File
11. Let the Loser Melt
12. Plumb Line
13. Nostalgia
14. You and Me
15. Might
16. Web in Front
17. Wrong

Encore 1:

18. Strangled by the Stereo Wire
19. 1985
20. Fabricoh
21. What Did You Expect?
22. Greatest of All Time

Encore 2:

23. ???
24. ???
25. Bacteria

(mislabeled as Friday night)

The following photos were shot by my girlfriend from the second night. I actually can’t take credit for many of these photos—I was too busy shouting until my voice popped:

Listen to Crocodiles. 619 represent.

jvalentphotos — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:02:35 -0700

Listen to Crocodiles. 619 represent.

meaghano: nevver: Laws of Attraction Part 1 what who why no...

jvalentphotos — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 14:32:45 -0700

meaghano:

nevver:

Laws of Attraction Part 1

what who why no fair

thesistatement: thedailywhat: Tee of the Day: Justin Bieber /...

jvalentphotos — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:22:24 -0700

thesistatement:

thedailywhat:

Tee of the Day: Justin Bieber / Black Flag mashup tee by Josiah Hughes.

We’ve got nothing better to do / than watch Disney, and have a couple of Dews.

[josiahhughes.]

FINALLY! Time to go back to my Beach Boys/Black Flag icon.

I had this!!! imremembering: Fisher Price Airport

jvalentphotos — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:23:36 -0700

I had this!!!

imremembering:

Fisher Price Airport

t0kk: crystal castles - celestica

jvalentphotos — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:06:25 -0700

t0kk:

crystal castles - celestica

I can see this entire situation unfold. Soo good. meaghano: I...

jvalentphotos — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 10:16:11 -0800

I can see this entire situation unfold. Soo good.

meaghano:

I opened the cab door and saw this and yelled WHAT THE FUCK?! in front of like 10 people and the cabbie was like CHILL OUT WERE GONNA DO THIS and opened it up and I was like HEY SWEET RIDE and he was like YEA LOTS OF LEG ROOM and I was like WELL I DONT HAVE LONG LEGS SO and he said THATS OKAY! and I said THANKS!

the Magnetic Fields - Los Angeles, CA - 3/2/10

jvalentphotos — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:09:00 -0800

the Magnetic Fields - Wilshire Ebell Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, 3/2/10

Set List:

1. Lindy-Lou (the 6ths)

2. You Must Be Out of Your Mind

3. the One You Really Love

4. Interlude

5. You and Me and the Moon

6. Better Things

7. Falling in Love with the Wolfboy

8. I Don’t Want to Get Over You

9. I’m Sorry I Love You

10. Acoustic Guitar

11. the Nun’s Litany

12. I Don’t Know What to Say

13. Night Falls Like a Grand Piano (the 6ths)

14. Falling Out of Love with You (the 6ths)

Intermission

15. Kiss Me Like You Mean It

16. We are Having a Hootenanny

17. All the Umbrellas in London

18. Wi’ Nae Wee Bairn Ye’ll Me Beget

19. the Dolls’ Tea Party

20. I Don’t Really Love You Anymore

21. Walk a Lonely Road

22. Always Already Gone

23. Movies in My Head (the 6ths)

24. Fear of Trains

25. Summer Lies

26. From a Sinking Boat

Encore

27. I’m Tongue Tied

28. 100,000 Fireflies

Shirley Simms, Claudia Gonson, John Woo, Sam Davol, and Stephin Merritt.

The Magnetic Fields live is an exhibition. You are there to watch them, and they are not there to entertain you. And if you’re a fan, you don’t mind that one bit. This having been my fifth time seeing them, there were no surprises as they ran through 28 songs, many of which rarities as far as a live catalogue goes. Stephin and Claudia exchanged playful banter between songs, while the audience waited held their breath for a new song to begin.

I happened to have seats in the next to last row of the balcony, though with a 1200 seat capacity the beautiful Wilshire Ebell Theatre had no unfavorable seats in the house.

It was great to see my old friend Mike and his wife Emma again. Please support them (www.michaelfuscodesign.com / www.emmastraub.net / www.m-plus-e.com). They are the sweetest, and I will be forever indebted to Emma as she got my ukulele signed by Stephin Merritt:

Laurie and I hung out at the merch booth for a bit only to realize we should hang around longer to watch the door…after all, we were in celebrity heaven. In attendance that night were Molly Ringwald, Patton Oswalt, Zooey Deschanel, and Ben Gibbard, though alas we did not see any of them. Trust me, I was dying to run up like a fan boy to Patton. Patton, if you should read this please know I’m not a crazy motherfucker, but I would really like to hang. Me and you and some zombie time?

Though, we did see Christina Hendricks and her husband, and so my first taste of Hollywood was a success.

We spent four hours in Hollywood before the show, eating at Kitchen 24, and spending time rummaging Amoeba. I was like a kid in a candy shop, looking at all the stars on Hollywood Blvd. I don’t think I’d ever live in L.A., but I can’t wait to go back and explore more. Los Angeles, you’re a town I think I could really like.

I realized that I have now seen the Magnetic Fields in nearly all corners of the country—NYC, Atlanta, Orlando, and Los Angeles. I now need to see them in Seattle to beat the game. In time…

timanderic: Um, I’m sorry, was that even a question?

jvalentphotos — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:45:30 -0800

timanderic:

Um, I’m sorry, was that even a question?

How to fix "The Marriage Ref"

jvalentphotos — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:42:52 -0800

1. Remove the host. Yesterday.

2. Make the panel consist of 3 people—static Alec Baldwin and Jerry Seinfeld every week, and then a third changing celebrity guest every week.

3. Remove the America’s Funniest Home Videos production.

Do these things, and you can actually make this show pretty decent. Alec Baldwin’s facial expressions are priceless, and Jerry Seinfeld is always classy—short and sweet is his shtick. The host is atrocious and makes my ass hurt.

Yeah, man! My girlfriend found me a copy for Christmas a few...

jvalentphotos — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:34:28 -0800

Yeah, man! My girlfriend found me a copy for Christmas a few years back. Such a great rekkid!

fuckyeahtheboss:

dirtywordsonadirtywall:

i am really not sure why this album was never repressed.

bruce springsteen - the rising 2xLP

i also picked up the live box set. for whatever reason, the insert for darkness was in there, too.

meaghano: brightwalldarkroom: WOODY ALLEN WEEK(S) IS...

jvalentphotos — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:33:08 -0800

meaghano:

brightwalldarkroom:

WOODY ALLEN WEEK(S) IS OFFICIALLY OVER!

Thank you so much to all our contributors and everybody who read, commented on, or emailed us about the essays. We had a lot of fun putting this together - and with 15 essays in all, there was a lot to put together - and we hope you had a good time taking a journey through Woody Allen’s filmography with us.

Just in case you missed any of the pieces, here’s a link to each one of them:

Matt Wyatt on Take the Money and Run (1969)

Ed Herro on Bananas (1971)

Sarah Vucurevich on Sleeper (1973)

Karina Wolf on Love and Death (1975)

Meaghan O’Connell on Annie Hall (1977)

Sherwyn J. Spencer on Interiors (1978)

Christopher Cantwell on Manhattan (1979)

Erin Crumpacker on Stardust Memories (1980)

Anais Escobar on Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

Anna P. on Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

Chad Perman on Husbands and Wives (1992)

Danielle Lee on Everyone Says I Love You (1996)

Elizabeth Wilcox on Sweet and Lowdown (1999)

Logan Antill on Match Point (2005)

Erica U. on Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

Damn, ya’ll.