Tops of My Pops for 9/17/06

A weekly look at what I'm listening to, from my Last.fm user stats:

Top Artists for the week ending Sept. 17, 2006
1. Mogwai
2. Ze Frank
3. Laraaji
3. Junior Boys
5. Speedy J
5. The The
5. Kanye West
5. Thom Yorke
9. DJ Krush
9. Massive Attack

My stats accuracy is in question this week, as Apple's iTunes 7 release seems to have broken iScrobbler's ability to report to Last.fm. I'm sure Damaged will have an update out soon to fix the issues, but in the meantime Tops of My Pops is gonna be kinda hosed. Inconvenience aside, I really like the enhancements that Apple's made to iTunes this time around -- particularly it's addition and enhancement of CoverFlow, the Little Indie App That Could.

Things that stand out for me in this week's list are the discovery of a (stale) Mogwai podcast from around the time of their full-length before last, Happy Songs For Happy People. Several live performances were included in it, as well as a few early rarities. Wish they were still updating it. Likewise, I caught up on the Thom Yorke video podcast eminating from XL Recordings. Had some interesting and suitably abstract stuff to tease the fans leading up to his excellent solo release.

Last and by no means least, I spent some quality time with the Junior Boys new In The Morning EP, showcasing their mighty musical leap forward coming up on their new album. Loved all the tracks here and can't wait to dive into the full-length.

See also:
The 'Tops of My Pops' archives

Tops of My Pops for 9/10/06

A weekly look at what I'm listening to, from my Last.fm user stats:

Top Artists for the week ending Sept. 10, 2006
1. Boxcutter
2. Amon Tobin
3. David Bowie
3. Public Enemy
5. Massive Attack
5. Beck
5. Primal Scream
5. Jurassic 5
5. Josh Rouse
10. Autechre

Nothing too deep to report this week, just doing lots of background listening while working. Did give Boxcutter a solid listen and enjoyed it, but everything else was pretty much existing favorites.

Haven't picked up the latest Primal Scream yet because I'm afraid of it's "return to the honky tonk" nature – definitely not my preferred flavor of Bobby Gillespie madness. Also yet to grab the new releases from J5 and Josh Rouse, although I'm pretty excited about both. I should probably do something about that....

See also:
The 'Tops of My Pops' archives

Gnarls Barkley: "Canon-making in action"

This entertaining and insightful piece by Jody Rosen in Slate looks at what exactly it is about Gnarls Barkley's “Crazy” that makes it the pop standard of 2006.

Crazy for “Crazy” – Highly recommended reading!

Tops of My Pops for 9/3/06

A weekly look at what I'm listening to, from my Last.fm user stats:

Top Artists for the week ending Sept. 3, 2006
1. OutKast
2. J Dilla
3. Shriekback
4. David Bowie
4. Public Enemy
4. Meat Beat Manifesto
4. Pop Will Eat Itself
4. Spoon
9. Foo Fighters
9. Burial

I'm going to try to start posting these weekly again (here for the first time). I used to do this on my old LiveJournal blog, but I haven't for more than a year.

This week was about checking out new/old discs I've picked up from la la. Haven't heard the new Outkast but I'm doing my best to catch up on ATLiens, Aquemini and Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, all older albums I hadn't really heard before. I've also been checking out J Dilla with some encouragement from mrkvm. Donuts has been fun so far, but no individual track really seems to stand out for me. Also just snagged a copy of Public Enemy's New Whirl Odor and have been enjoying it, but not as much as the first album of their “indie era”, There's A Poison Goin' On.... Needless to say, they're never gonna release another one as good as It Takes A Nation Of Millions....

Burial is another one mrkvm turned me onto, and he's completely obsessed. They represent my first knowing foray into dubstep, and so far I'm liking it despite the minimal presence of anything I'd think of as dub technique. I wonder, is all dubstep dark or is that just Burial's particular take on it?

See also:
The 'Tops of My Pops' archives

BKV in NYT

Nice little feature in the New York Times today on Brian K. Vaughan, writer/creator of Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways and many more.

The piece focuses on the imminent release of Pride of Baghdad, his new original graphic novel beautifully illustrated by Niko Henrichon. In addition to Pride, it turns out he's just finished the screenplay adaptation of Y, and is about to begin working on the same for Ex Machina.

I suspect it's an interesting time to be BKV.

The new tv season is upon us...

I remember growing up (back when there were three networks plus public television, and we had to walk barefoot 10 miles uphill in a snowstorm – each way! – to get to school) that the new season started on the same September day on every channel, and by the end of that one week you had all the new series you were going to get until January at the earliest. Nowadays the new fall lineup takes at least two months to roll out, and you need a scorecard and the power of the internet just to keep track. Luckily, TiVo has been kind enough to put it all together for us in one comprehensive list. Behold!

Of course I'm fired up for the season premiere of Lost (October 4th?!?) and the return of My Name Is Earl and The Office. This might even be the season that I finally start watching Grey's Anatomy (I know, I know). But there are two new shows that I really have my eye on: Heroes and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Heroes is constructed as an ensemble serial drama seemingly not unlike Lost meets M. Night Shyamalan's brilliant and underrated Unbreakable. There's an “official/unofficial” website for the series with a well done comic book feel to it, which is a nice counterpoint to the hyper-realistic feel of the series. Writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale are both directly involved in the show, so I'm expecting good things.

Studio 60 is Aaron Sorkin's first new show since leaving a magnificent four year run on The West Wing back in 2003. The man has had some well-publicized personal weaknesses, but he's a titan when it comes to writing. Combine that with the show's top-flight ensemble cast (Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, Bradley Whitford, Steven Weber, and Timothy Busfield to name just a few) and you've got a strong formula for success. Personally I don't care much about the backstage happenings at Saturday Night Live, but if Sorkin's interested then it's gonna be the smartest show on television.

“Good evening godless Sodomites!”

Watch John Stewart and Stephen Cobert bring the funny at the 2006 Emmy Awards.