More Moments In Magazine Reader Fail

Yesterday, it was Rolling Stone’s readers and their inexplicable devotion to Green Day. Today, it’s SPIN’s readers and their downright confusing reader’s poll.

Apparently, 2009 was the year of Pearl Jam and music writers all over the world simply missed the memo. Backspacer, the PJ album the readers chose as the year’s best, is currently moldering as the 56th most acclaimed album of the year (according to Acclaimed Music). In fact, SPIN magazine itself didn’t even have that album in their Top 40 of 2009. Even stranger is “Unthought Known” getting voted the year’s best song, despite the fact that it wasn’t even a single off the album. Either Eddie Vedder’s been stuffing the online ballot box or a few SPIN readers got way too zealous. There’s just no way tens of thousands of fans arrived at that conclusion independently.

Either way, it seems like there’s a major disconnect between SPIN and their readers. Just look at their little graphic at the top of the reader’s poll page. They’ve got Green Day, the Dead Weather and Bat For Lashes on display, despite the apparent mandate for more Pearl Jam by their own readers. Meanwhile, the magazine’s choice for Artist of the Year, Kings Of Leon? Nowhere to be found. Awkward…

Ten Thousand Green Day Fans Can't Be Wrong...?

We live in a country that values giving “the people” a voice. However, those people and their voices can often say some very, very stupid things.

We learned that in two different places today. On one hand, the Baseball Writers Association of America embarrassed themselves (again) by only electing Andre Dawson to the Baseball Hall of Fame, despite the presence of at least half a dozen other deserving players on the ballot. However, this isn’t a sports blog. This is a music blog. Therefore, it’s with great sadness that I present you with this link.

Did you catch all that? Rolling Stone’s readers elected Green Day to be the best musical artists of the past ten years. They also thought that Green Day’s American Idiot was the best album of the decade and that “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams” was the top single. Needless to say, I’ve got more than a few problems with this. I refuse to believe that two overblown concept albums, fueled by sloganeering, reductive politics and just plain ignorance, qualify a band to be the best of the decade. Oh, and Warning, which no one bought. No matter who you feel deserves a title as awkward as “Best Artist of the Entire Decade,” you should have someone higher on the list of nominees than Green Day.

However, this is apparently what people want. Democracy in action, folks. We live by it, we die by it. And, today, Green Day have won some undeserved accolades by it.

The Best Albums of the 2000s, Pt. 2

Here's the second half of the list I started yesterday. Once again, these are alphabetized by artist, not rank ordered in any way.

Artists M-Z

Arular, M.I.A.
Madvillainy, Madvillain
Blood Mountain, Mastodon
Crack The Skye, Mastodon
Leviathan, Mastodon
The Moon & Antarctica, Modest Mouse
Absolution, Muse
Boxer, The National
Abattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, Of Montreal
Stankonia, Outkast
Person Pitch, Panda Bear
Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, PJ Harvey
A Woman A Man Walked By, PJ Harvey & John Parish
Third, Portishead
XTRMNTR, Primal Scream
We Love Life, Pulp
Lullabies To Paralyze, Queens Of The Stone Age
Songs For The Deaf, Queens Of The Stone Age
Accelerate, R.E.M.
Amnesiac, Radiohead
Hail To The Thief, Radiohead
In Rainbows, Radiohead
Kid A, Radiohead
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II, Raekwon
Game Theory, The Roots
Rising Down, The Roots
The Drift, Scott Walker
( ), Sigur Rós
Sonic Nurse, Sonic Youth
Songs In A&E, Spiritualized
Girls Can Tell, Spoon
Kill The Moonlight, Spoon
Original Pirate Material, The Streets
First Impressions Of Earth, The Strokes
Is This It, The Strokes
Illinois, Sufjan Stevens
Shut Up I Am Dreaming, Sunset Rubdown
Mezmerize/Hypnotize, System Of A Down
Toxicity, System Of A Down
The Eraser, Thom Yorke
Dear Science, TV On The Radio
Return To Cookie Mountain, TV On The Radio
Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?, The Unicorns
Elephant, The White Stripes
White Blood Cells, The White Stripes
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco
Apologies To The Queen Mary, Wolf Parade

Fever To Tell, Yeah Yeah Yeahs

The Best Albums of the 2000s, Pt. 1

As part of the new Pretzel Logic regime, I’ve vowed to stop inundating my readers with multi-part lists, featuring my favorite alterna-rock guitar heroes or whatever. That said, there’s one last list I want to subject you to. In case you hadn’t noticed, we’ve just ushered in an entirely new decade, meaning that all the music from the 2000s has been released and critics can go ballistic arguing about what the decade’s most enduring albums should be. As one last hold-over from the old Pretzel Logic, I want to share my choices for my 100 favorite albums of the past ten years. Today, you get the first fifty and the list will be completed tomorrow. I haven’t rank ordered them and I’m not going to bore you with paragraphs of praise. I’ve just alphabetized them by artist. Basically, if someone asked me “what albums from the 2000s do you think I should listen to,” my response would look something like this:

Artists A-L

Labor Days, Aesop Rock
Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective
The Crying Light, Antony & The Johnsons
I Am A Bird Now, Antony & The Johnsons
Funeral, Arcade Fire
Neon Bible, Arcade Fire
Favourite Worst Nightmare, Arctic Monkeys
Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, Arctic Monkeys
Bang Bang Rock & Roll, Art Brut
God Loves Ugly, Atmosphere
Since I Left You, The Avalanches
Sea Changes, Beck
Silent Alarm, Bloc Party
Crimes, The Blood Brothers
Untrue, Burial
The Cold Vein, Cannibal Ox
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
The Mouse And The Mask, Danger Doom
Reality, David Bowie
Picaresque, The Decemberists
Microcastle, Deerhunter
Boy In Da Corner, Dizzee Rascal
Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, Drive-By Truckers
Decoration Day, Drive-By Truckers
The Dirty South, Drive-By Truckers
Southern Rock Opera, Drive-By Truckers
The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem
Fever Ray, Fever Ray
Embryonic, The Flaming Lips
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, The Flaming Lips
Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand
News And Tributes, The Futureheads
Fishscale, Ghostface Killah
Grinderman, Grinderman
Face Control, Handsome Furs
Hercules And Love Affair, Hercules And Love Affair
Préliminaires, Iggy Pop
Turn On The Bright Lights, Interpol
The Black Album, Jay-Z
The Blueprint, Jay-Z
So This Is Goodbye, Junior Boys
The College Dropout, Kanye West
Late Registration, Kanye West
808s And Heartbreak, Kanye West
Aha Shake Heartbreak, Kings Of Leon
Silent Shout, The Knife
Sound Of Silver, LCD Soundsystem
Drum’s Not Dead, Liars
Up The Bracket, The Libertines

R.I.P. Rowland S. Howard (1959-2009)

Unfortunately, my first real post of 2010 is a tragic one. Rowland S. Howard, best known as the guitarist in Nick Cave’s early 1980s band the Birthday Party, passed away on December 30 from liver cancer. Howard was only fifty years old. However, within his all-too-brief lifespan, he became a beloved and influential figure within the alt rock canon. Traces of his visceral, jagged guitar style can be heard in several generations of guitar-led bands, including My Bloody Valentine and virtually all post-1985 goth rock. Throughout the 2000s, his music experienced a cultural revival of sorts, culminating in his exquisite Pop Crimes album, released this past October. With Howard’s passing, the music community has lost a guitar innovator and unmistakable voice.

Samples of Howard’s music:
-“Nick The Stripper”, with the Birthday Party
-“Six Bells Chime”, with Crime & The City Solution

-“Shut Me Down”, solo