The 11 Best Songs By Bloc Party

Lance Armstrong is getting stripped of his Tour De France titles.  It's like Santa stripping off his clothes and it turns out he's a little Jewish boy down the street named Ira Goldstein.  It's like getting punched in the stomach and the back at the same time, then are told to run 5 miles in the rain uphill with rabid sharks chasing you.  And just for your information, rabid sharks run really fast...much faster than normal sharks.  He was found guilty of blood doping, which is like Al Capone being found guilty of tax evasion.  But cheating is cheating.  His excuse?  It's not like he was using performance enhancing drugs...

We expect our heroes to be flawless.  So, with that incredible burden...they cheat their image to be greater than they really are in order not to let us down.  Sometimes being human and failing is okay.  It's empathetic. It's good for us to see our heroes go through the same struggle and every day strife we are going through.  Trying your hardest and failing is much more admirable than cheating your fans in order to win.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Bloc Party:

1. Flux (Intimacy)
2. Banquet (Silent Alarm)
3. Biko (Intimacy)
4. Kreuzberg (A Weekend In The City)
5. This Modern Love (Silent Alarm)
6. Version 2.0 (Another Weekend In The City)
7. Positive Tension (Silent Alarm)
8. Helicopter (Silent Alarm)
9. The Prayer (A Weekend In The City)
10. Secrets (A Weekend In The City)
11. Ion Square (Intimacy)

Buy Bloc Party's new album, Four, now!

The 11 Best Songs By Bloc Party

I'm back from vacation.  Well, I wouldn't call driving up and down California for 10 days in a car with a whiny 5-year-old and attention-starved 2-year-old much of a vacation.  I didn't I find sleeping in 5 different strange beds very restful.  Nor, did I enjoy the endless supply of grease-filled foods at the roadside rest stops.  And most importantly, nothing was more pain-inducing than listening to the same Dora the Explorer album...50 times in a row.  I'm just glad to be home so I can finally get some rest.

I know I'm a bit behind on my lists.  Kele Okereke, lead singer of Bloc Party, has a solo album out.  Go buy it.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Bloc Party:

1. Helicopter (Silent Alarm)
2. Two More Years (Silent Alarm B-side)
3. Positive Tension (Silent Alarm)
4. The Once and Future King (Another Weekend In the City)
5. Hunting For Witches (A Weekend In the City)
6. Banquet (Silent Alarm)
7. Flux (Intimacy)
8. Halo (Intimacy)
9. Song For Clay (A Weekend In the City)
10. Version 2.0 (Another Weekend In the City)
11. I Still Remember (A Weekend In the City)


Buy Kele Okereke's new solo album, The Boxer...now!!

The 111 Best Albums of the 00s (89-99)

Here are the the 111 Best Albums of the 00s (89-99):

89. Missy Elliott - Under Construction (2004)
- Her 4th album was by far her best...not that the others are too shabby. She may easily be the best female rapper of her day...if not of all time. This is her at the peak of her game.

90. Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker (2000)
- Adams' first solo album is actually a fairly tame start to the massive amount of music he would unleash on the public in the decade to come.

91. Cat Power - You Are Free (2003)
- Is it folk, it punk, is it indie, is it alternative, is it chamber music? Chan Marshall's massive seductive voice finds its groove on her 5th and best release, setting the stage for a steady impact of other stellar releases in the years to come.

92. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm (2005)
- A blast of 80s retro energy, Silent Alarm was a reminder of how much fun alternative music could be. Even Ferris Bueller would have taken the day off to listen to this. (This Modern Love)

93. The Roots - Phrenology (2002)
- The 00s were littered with hip-hop artists testing the genre of what the boundaries were. The Roots had been pushing those boundaries for years...but on this release, they merged some heavy rock groves giving birth to one of the funkiest albums of the decade. (Complexity)

94. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem (2005)
- This album was a like a rocket on the club scene, reminding the world what it was like to dance to actual music instead of mind-numbing pulsating electronic dial tones. The white boy dance movement was born on this puppy. (Tribulations)

95. N.E.R.D. - In Search Of... (2002)
- Now there are two versions of this album. The regular old hip-hop version with computerized beats...and the awesomely 70s throwback version with a full band. I'm referring to the latter. It sounded like something Stevie Wonder would have jammed on with the Jackson 5 had they shared a dorm room in college...had they gone to college. (Run To The Sun)

96. Sigur Ros - Takk... (2005)
- A rich rebound from their second more mellow release. It was giant leap forward in songwriting style, crafting epic musical pieces over plain old pop songs. They also proved that you didn't need to sing in English to captivate an American audience...or that Bjork was the only talented one out of Iceland.

97. Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights (2002)
- It had been a good ten years since some sounded as dark, depressed and moody as Interpol sounded on their debut. Ironically, the brooding din was a bright spot in the otherwise morbid landscape of alternative nu metal.

98. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest (2009)
- The band debuted in the Billboard top 10 with this year's addition. An unheard of achievement for an indie rock band. And the album doesn't disappoint. It's like the band is breathing fresh life into their music on this glowing release. At times it sounds like they managed to harness the sound of the wilderness into a harmony. It only grows more interesting with every listen.

99. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American (2001)
- Emo music was behind the 8-ball from the start. You can thank Dashboard Confessional for that. But if more of the releases sounded like JEW's refined pop brillance, the genre would have been much more tolerable. Instead, in its wake, we got Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco. (A Praise Chorus)

Buy these albums now...Best of the 2000s.

The 11 Best Albums of 2008 (Part 3)

Maybe I'll just make this a trend...every day I'll screw up my list a little bit further adding another new entry to the list. Today finds Peasant (#24) slipping in after downloading the album off Emusic last night. Check out their session on Daytrotter...his bare bones style is quite mesmerizing.

The 11 Best Albums of 2008 (Part 3):

23. Kings of Leon - Only By the Night (Use Somebody - SNL)
24. Bloc Party - Intimacy

24. Peasant - On The Ground
25. Ezra Furman & The Harpoons - Inside The Human Body
26. Cold War Kids - Loyalty To Loyalty

27. Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
28. The Killers - Day & Age
29. Tapes N Tapes - Walk It Off (Hang Them All - Daytrotter)
30. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - Cardinology
31. Hot Chip - Made in the Dark
32. Travis - Ode To J. Smith
33. Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark

Another reminder to visit my Amazon Store...I get a percentage...a very small one. but if I can make enough off it...I'll invest in a better archiving site than savefile...so we all benefit.

The Unknown: Bloc Party - Another Weekend In the City

Bloc Party made a surprise release this week...digitally selling their new album, Intimacy, a full two months before the street date. Most media outlets are surprised by this turn...but this has become a rather common place event over the past couple of years (Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails). What no one is mentioning, is that this release is actually the second digital release by the band. The first release was Another Weekend in the City (named by and artwork by I Guess I'm Floating)..a companion album to last year's A Weekend in the City. Another Weekend In The City is a compilation of B-Sides and special edition tracks released alongside the release of A Weekend. The tracks come together to form a very strong cohesive onslaught in the style of Silent Alarm. For the casual fan, A Weekend was enough...coming with usually a couple random bonus tracks. But for the rabid fan, if you searched hard enough, you were rewarded with a second disc of equally strong songs. At the time, many bloggers were actually bigger fans of Another Weekend.

Now the setlist for the album has always been in dispute, but after a few listens to the various editions, this has been the song order I've found to work the best.

Here is Bloc Party - Another Weekend In the City

1. Version 2.0

2. The Once And Future King

3. Cain Said To Abel

4. Secrets

5. Selfish son

6. Vision of Heaven

7. We Were Lovers

8. Rhododendron

9. Atonement

10. England

11. Emma Kate's Accident

Please Buy Bloc Party's new album for instant download now....Intimacy. Support the artists, we have the power to shape the future of the industry. We want more of this...and less of the box store labels.

The 11 Best Bloc Party Songs:

Back from hiatus!

One of the things taken away from you as a parent is the ability to go to a movie theater and see a new release. You can do it...but you run the risk of your newborn breaking into a hysterical tanrum, yearning for a taste of boob. Not that that's not a good reason to go into a tantrum but it doesn't necessarily amuse the people around you, like the 6'8" biker who stopped into the air conditioned theater to get away from the summer blaze. So, you're left to cable and Netflix, hoping that if you move a movie to the top of your queue you run a better chance of getting it before everyone else. (you don't) But some theaters have reached out to new parents and have introduced "mommie movies." Once a week in the morning, some theaters will show movies for parents with kids only...so it's an entire theater full of screaming babies...and they charge you full price. But if you're itching for a fix...it's really the only choice you have. My wife and I went to see Tropic Thunder last week. I was disturbed. Not to see Robert Downey play a black man. Not to see Tom Cruise play a fat bald Jew. But that the woman next to me was feeding her six month old child...Coca-Cola. I sat there the whole movie, glancing to back to see if it was really true. And every time...I was more and more angered. the only thing that kept me from getting out of my seat and ripping the baby away from that crack dealer was to convince myself that she was only giving the child...Diet Coke. That worked. Because if you're going to give your kid soda...at least teach them good dieting habits at the same time.

Here Are The 11 Best Bloc Party Songs:

1. Helicopter (Silent Alarm)
2. Two More Years (Silent B-side)
3. Positive Tension (Silent Alarm)
4. The Once and Future King (Another Weekend In the City)
5. Hunting For Witches (A Weekend In the City)
6. Banquet (Silent Alarm)

7. Secrets (Another Weekend In the City)
8. Waiting For the 7.18 (A Weekend In the City)

9. Version 2.0 (Another Weekend In the City)
10. I Still Remember (A Weekend In the City)

11. Flux (A Weekend In the City)

Buy bloc Party's new album, Intimacy Now!!!

The 11 Best Albums of 2007

Okay, yes, I own a calendar. I know it's only February. But just yesterday, I was talking to a friend of mine who said 2007 was the worst year in music he's ever lived through. Granted I thought he was talking out his ass and was accidentally saying 2007 when he really meant 2006. But he didn't. He claimed that usually by February there has been at least 2 or 3 great records released. This year, the best thing he heard was the new Shins and he hates the Shins. He challeneged me to come up with the 11 Best Albums so far this year...so, for Zack...here you go.

1. Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City - It's not as commercial as their debut but that's what makes this album so good. Scoping musical tracks push the band's sound in way that makes you think that these guys will surely outlive the 80s revival trend.
2. Bloc Party - Another Weekend in the City - Their internet only album is every bit as digestable as their debut. If that's the Bloc Party you want, then hunt this puppy down.
3. The Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future - A new generation of dance rock has been born. And these guys are leading the way. Think of them as the opening act for the new LCD Soundsystem out in March.
4. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? - It's not a dance record but it sure as hell moves like one. Stuck somewhere between Beck and the Flaming Lips, it's one helluva good time. Helluva? I sound like a freaking teenage girl.
5. Explosions in the Sky - - 10 years after the math rock trend was in it's last throws, EITS re-invents the genre by mashing it with emo grooves.
6. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Some Loud Thunder - Not as delicious as their first album but ten times more mature. It's like the band concentrated more on making interesting ever-evolving music rather than 3-minutes pop ditties.
7. Vietnam - Vietnam - They sound like a stoned version of Kings of Leon. Vietnam reminds of the cool guy at all the high school parties who would always share his weed with you.
8. The Good, The Bad, And The Queen - The Good, The Bad, And The Queen - No, I didn't just pick them because of their clever band name (well, sorta). A supergroup, featuring memebers of Blur, The Verve, The Clash, and Danger Mouse. The album sounds like a cross between Blur and Verve, but seriously, were you expecting it to sound differently?
9. The Frames - The Cost - If you're a fan of Damien Rice or Jose Gonzalez, this might be the record for you. A beautiful lo-fi acoustic journey with soft vocals that will melt your ice cream on the coldest of winter days.
10. America - Here & Now - Everybody's likes America, if you don't, then you're a terrorist. The soft rock kings make a pretty hefty comeback with an album produced by James Iha of the original Smashing Pumpkins and Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne . If that's not enough cool cred for you, Ryan Adams and Jim James of My Morning Jacket make guest appearences.
11. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away - If you haven't heard of this record then there's no reason to even be talking to you in the first place.