(or, A Haphazard But Enjoyable Year-End Collection of Favorites
by the Writers of Dissolver Magazine)
Here are my favorites from 2005, encompassing all categories:
1. Bright Eyes ~ I'm Wide Awake, It's MorningSimply the finest artistic accomplishment of the year. I actually rememberó with vivid intensityó the very moment I first listened to it; from the opening song I knew I was hearing history. It leapt into my all-time favorite albums with an immediate fervor and I don't expect it to stray.
2. The Gypsy Sessiun at Padraig's
This summer I was lucky enough to be invited to a unique sessiun one Monday night at the fisherman's pub by the docks in Galway... and I didn't miss another the entire summer. Led by V on fiddle and Peter on guitar (two Swedes), an eclectic and ever-changing mix of musicians and music lovers gathered every Monday night in the back corner of the pub to bear witness to the most evocative, mournful and passionate outpourings of song I'll probably ever hear in my lifetime.
3. The Weekly Dig
Bought out by upscale Boston Magazine a little over a year ago, Boston's Dig could've suffered a painful castration of content and candor. Instead, with the help of its loaded older brother, the little weekly that could was artfully redesigned inside and out, financially backed, and given freedom to run amok on our tight-assed town. The fake "Hennigan Wins!" cover and accompanying story was one of the funniest (and smartest) parodies this side of The Onion. With editor Joe Keohane (one of my favorite living writers) running the ship, the irreverent, hilarious, and surprisingly informative Dig has established itself as a form of high art in my mindó something Boston can truly be proud of when we usually play second fiddle to New York in all things alternative.
4. Scarlet Johannsen
Is there a more beautiful, elegant woman in Hollywood right now?
5. 24
Unbelievably, this show has managed to keep up to its own benchmark of gripping intensity, even after four seasons all following the same real-time premise. Last year featured only one lackluster episodeó the rest required a couple glasses of wine to avert heart failure. It's the best show on television, the kind that forces you to change plans just to make sure you don't miss it.
Will Dailey's Top 5 CDs:
1. Sleater-Kinney, The Woods These girls bring the rock better than anybody else this year. The songs are amazing, intelligent and loud.Ý
2. Spoon, Gimme Fiction
3. Sufjan Stevens, Illinois
4. Bright Eyes, I'm Wide Awake It's Morning
5. Wilco, A Ghost Is Born
Joel Foster's Top 5 Overlooked Albums of 2005:
While not completely ignored, I feel the following albums did not get the proper attention when first released. Each recording was groundbreaking in its own way, yet couldnít quite break out of the small, loyal crowd of regular listeners.
1. Edan, Beauty and the Beat
Following up on his classic debut, Primitive Plus, Edan once again helms the mic, turntables and the boards, creating a fuzzed-out ode to 60ís psychedelia. The beats continue forward from the framework of the last album, mixing reference-heavy rhyming with beats even your grandfather could appreciate. Edan has the skill of making his music sound as if it were two time periods in perfect harmony with each other.
2. DaedalusExquisite Corpse
It wasnít a surprise that Daedalus wouldnít get any love. After working with virtually the whole LA underground, the Edward Scissorhands of hip hop delivers another beautiful collection of downtempo IDM. Exquisite Corpse sounds like an album made by DJ Shadowís weird little brother, the one who sits in the basement all day, drawing on sheetrock and collecting bugs.
3. Lightning BoltHypermagic Mountain
This is music to experience the apocalypse to. With nothing but a bass guitar and a drum kit, Lightning Bolt somehow recorded the most intense, crushing album of the year. From the first ten seconds, the monstrous riffs and insane drumming assaults your auditory nerves like a fire alarm; an enjoyable fire alarm.
4. Sage FrancisA Healthy Distrust
ìDance Monkeyî got airplay around Boston for a couple of weeks, but not enough to turn the populace onto the most skilled MC of the year. A Healthy Distrust tackled the political apathy which exists throughout todayís hip hop by actually saying something; 50 take note. In addition, Sageís live show was the most exciting hip hop Iíve seen in years, stealing the thunder at the stacked Coachella festival this year. Epitaph has got a great roster these days, but they still havenít figured out how to market hip hop.
5. QuasimotoThe Further Adventures of Quas
I guess this list is a bit hip hop heavy, but it seemed to be the only thing fresh this year, barring a few bands. Madlib uses his Quasimoto moniker, one of the many, to bring you possibly the most tripped-out rap music you have ever heard. If you have ever wondered what a helium-voiced MC would sound like if he rapped to obscure jazz with old Melvin Van Peebles films in the background, this is the one.
Joel Foster's Top 5 Independent Films of 2005:
While the multiplexes were packing in the crap once again, with endless sequels and rehashed fare, independent cinema provided serious moviegoers with a haven for challenging material. Here are five films that stood out from the crowd this year.
1. Me and You and Everyone We Know
In her screen debut, performance-artist Miranda July wrote and directed this odd, original comedy about connections in the age of the internet. The performances are all fantastic in their awkwardness, including John Hawkes (Deadwood) as a recent divorcee trying to form a relationship with his two sons while reluctantly being pursued by Julyís character. For fans of Wes Anderson or David O.Russell.
2. Mysterious Skin
This haunting portrait of childhood sexual abuse showed the newfound maturity found in director Greg Araki, who had previously filled the screen with incomprehensible non-sense like The Doom Generation. Based on Scott Heimís novel of the same name, the film stays true to Heimís vision with first-person POVís that you will never forget. Joseph Gordon Levitt, of TVís awful Third Rock from the Sun, gives, in my opinion, the most powerful performance of the year, or at least the least appreciated.
3. Broken Flowers
Once you get past the sluggish pacing, including five minute intervals of Bill Murray just driving, Jim Jarmuschís newest film is an extremely funny, yet subtle, comedy about past memories and future disappointments. Jeffrey Wright gives another great performance, even though he can do these kinds of things in his sleep.
4. Head On
There was a ton of great foreign films this year but I promised myself I would only include one. Fatih Akinís film is as punk-rock as anything seen in the past decade, with a very unlikable lead who enjoys random bar fights and a suicidal girl who slits her wrist in the middle of a restaurant. Needless to say, Head On was one of the great romantic movies of this year; seriously.
5. Tarnation
Iím not sure if a documentary should be included here, but this intensely personal film by Jonathan Couette is one the most poetic and truthful pieces of art I have ever seen. The film is made up of old home-movie footage from Couetteís childhood, as well as recordings and anything else revealing his twisted childhood. From his motherís insanity to Couetteís battle with a personality disorder, Tarnation is a courageous and important debut.
Bob Ham's Top 5 Movies I Saw For The First Time But Were Not Released In 2005:
1. He Walked By Night (1948, dir. Alfred Werker)This noir gem features one of the creepiest lead performances by Richard Basehart, who skillfully portrays a sociopath named Roy who spends the better part of the film avoiding capture after he killed a policeman. As to be expected by the noir appellation, the scenes with Basehart are filled with dark shadows and moody atmosphere which makes moments like Roy lovingly rubbing the side of a cabinet or slapping around a possible witness that much more eerie (which could also be evidence to the rumors of noir specialist Anthony Mann's hands behind the camera).
2. Masculin Feminin (1966, dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
Like most of Godard's films that I've seen, I can't say that I could tell you what this movie was about but I can tell you that it is a whole lot of fun. The young men and women that populate this film bounce around arguing about the nature of violence (while witnessing murders and suicides with detached gazes) and proclaiming themselves to be part of the "Pepsi generation" while the run and gun stylings of this nouvelle vague master threaten to eclipse their every word. A giddy mish mash of style and substance and the thin line that separates the two.
3. Jandek On Corwood (2003, dir. Chad Friedrichs)
If you see one documentary this year about an enigmatic and reclusive musician from Texas who has released upwards of 50 albums of near unlistenable yet strangely hypnotic pseudo-rock music and the people who are either obsessed with him or have actually dealt with him personally, make it Jandek On Corwood.
4. Castle In The Sky (1986, dir. Hayao Miyazaki)
An earlier film of Miyazaki's, this not so cleverly shaded environmentalist tract is about a group of pirates and hangers on looking for the titular castle that is hiding in the clouds over an unnamed city. What happens in the interim is as magical and breathtaking and fun as you would expect by the only true genius working in animated films today.
5. Easy Rider (1969, dir. Dennis Hopper)
Sure much has been made about the freewheeling drug intake that marks this film (not to mention its impressive use of rock music in the soundtrack) but what shouldn't be overlooked is the great acting (especially by Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson) and the equally impressive script (by Fonda and Terry Southern) that rings the death knell of the hippie lifestyle.
Jeremy Young's Top 10 South African Acts of 2005:
1. FRESHLYGROUNDBy far, South Africa's favourite musical act on the scene right now, they are even supported by the ruling political party! Their 2004 release, "Nomvula," just went platinum and this year they've toured extensively throughout Africa. These talented musicians and singers play African jazz-pop, blended with pinches of world music, acid jazz and folk.
2. ZAMAJOBE
A beautful female vocalist with one of the country's tightest assemblies of jazz musicians. Her voice is unique and soulful. Zamajobe sings R&B and Jazz, like an even younger Vivian Green.
3. FLY PAPER JET
An indie-rocking cabaret group with theatrical antics for every tune. They know exactly how to entertain a crowd with jokes, tricks, stories and skits in the middle of every song. Without these energetic additions, their music brings back the old school guerilla funk-rock that the Red Hot Chilli Peppers or Rage Against The Machine began in the 90's.
4. KWANI EXPERIENCE
A large funk ensemble from Johannesburg that has built up a local reputation to tear the roof off. In 2005, they released their debut album and began touring the rest of the country. think Greyboy Allstars or Deep Banana Blackout.
5. TUMI AND THE VOLUME
Hip hop group that often improvises in a live setting. Their hip hop is more towards spoken word and the instrumentals are organic and loose.
6. VAN der WANT & LETCHER
An acoustic guitar duo that made a comeback from their hiatus this year with a tour and a new studio recorded album, "Casual Killing." They can easily sound anywhere between Kings of Convenience or The Faint, when they venture into the world of synthesizers.
7. MALAIKA
A trio that has mastered South Africa's own style of music, kwaito. Kwaito is a house-beat driven form of hip hop that allows its instrumental melodies to stick to an African spectrum. It's played night after night in dance clubs all throughout the country.
8. LARK
Experimental drum and bass music with high flying female vocalist that works wonders with her voice acoustically and electronically. their sound is akin to Broadcast and Moonraker and are planning a collaboration with members of The Roots.
9. BENGUELA
An improvisational trio that plays ambient textures that build, think Do Make Say Think or Cinematic Orchestra. A bartender once played their 2005 album "Sui" as a film score to Un Chien Andalou and it worked perfectly.
10. CHIARO SCURO
A pop group with a very grassrootsy upbringing. The most likely comparison would be found somewhere in the wide-ranging jam band circuit of the united states. a mixture of blues and jazz but with memorable lyrics and catchy tunes.
Dexter Reed's Top 5 CDs:
This year you could really depend on the veterans to put out material that was, yet again, interesting, prolific and classic.
1. Bruce Springsteen Box Set: 30th Anniversary of Born To Run. OK, this might not count but it was the best record released this year too. I wish there was a top forty artist in 2005 that was this musical and prolific.
2. My Morning Jacket, Z
3. Paul McCartney, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
4. The White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan
5. Bruce Springsteen, Devils and Dust
Biggest Let Down: Foo Fighters, In Your Honor
Joel Foster's Top 5 Overrated Songs of 2005:
1. 50-Cent ~ "Disco Inferno"Judging by the box office returns of his movie, the world is getting sick of 50, for good reason. Everytime I hear this song pumping out of some tricked out Civic, I want to bash the windshield open like in The Big Lebowski. What I donít understand is, after all that beefing with Ja Rule about being soft, 50 chose to write these corny love/sex songs for the ladies.
2. Franz Ferdinand ~ "Do You Want To"
I love how these bands take what worked 30 years ago, wear matching outfits and theyíre considered groundbreaking. Franz Ferdinand should thank David Bowie everyday for existing because heís the only reason they are here, except that it was at least interesting in the 70ís. Maybe because they were all snorting cocaine.
3. Gwen Stefant ~ "Hollaback Girl"
I heard an acapella version of this song a while back and, if you havenít heard it, I urge you to. Strip her of all the electro bleeps, apparently stolen from Madonnaís lost B-sides, and you have vocals so off-key that it seems like a joke.
4. Rolling Stones ~ "Sweet Neo-Con"
You have to love when an aging, past-their-prime band charges $400 for a ticket and then has the balls to criticize politicians who help out the type of people who would charge $400 for a ticket. The most ironic song of the year.
5. R. Kelly ~ "Trapped in the Closet"
Iím not sure what is more of a sex crime, the golden shower incident or this song. How someone could survive 12 chapters of this tuneless, pointless drivel is beyond me. I love songs revolving around characters and stories, but the narrative here reminds me of something a puberty-stricken high school student would come up with.