dannymoney

[dannymoney]

Books 2024

Here are some notable books I read in 2024.

Tier 1 fiction: EL SUPREMO, MASTERPIECE-CALIBUR:

The Loser by Thomas Bernhard

Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

The Karamazov Brothers by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Ignat Avsey

American Tabloid by James Ellroy

A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul

H.M.S. Surprise by Patrick O'Brian

Tier 2 fiction: TOP-NOTCH, EXCELLENT:

The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry

Smiley's People by John le Carré

The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgaard 

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez

Godwin by Joseph O'Neill

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Recommended non-fiction:

The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act by Isaac Butler

The Path to Power, Means of Ascent by Robert Caro 

The World Is What It Is by Patrick French

A Sorrow Beyond Dreams by Peter Handke

An Area of Darkness: A Discovery of India by V.S. Naipaul

A Thread of Violence by Mark O'Connell

Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith by Mark E. Smith

[dannymoney]

Favorite Albums of 2024

2024 was an especially excellent year for music, best in a while. This top ten is pretty stacked. So, without further ado...

I say a prayer and rank 'em.

The Hard Quartet by The Hard Quartet

Absolute Elsewhere by Blood Incantation

Rack by The Jesus Lizard

Giant Beauty by [ahmed]

If I don't make it, I love u by Still House Plants

You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To by Knocked Loose

Cool World by Chat Pile

Passage du Desir by Johnny Blue Skies

The Healer by Sumac

Love Changes Everything by Dirty Three

Flight b741 by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

Death Jokes by Amen Dunes

As It Happened: Horse Lords Live by Horse Lords

Only God Was Above Us by Vampire Weekend

In E by Water Damage

You Never End by Moin

plastic death by glass beach

Free Energy by Dummy

Wild God by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

Frog In Boiling Water by DIIV

Total Blue by Total Blue

Antenna by Antenna

SMILE! :D by Porter Robinson

EELS by Being Dead

Bleed by The Necks

Vertigo by Wand

Guided Tour by High Vis

Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace by Shabaka

Žaltys by Raphael Rogiński

life till bones by oso oso

Hovvdy by Hovvdy

Final Summer by Cloud Nothings

BLUE LIPS by ScHoolboy Q

Norther by Ex-Easter Island Head

A Dream Is All We Know by The Lemon Twigs

What Is Not Strange? by Tashi Wada

Tristwch Y Fenywod by Tristwch Y Fenywod

Ghosted II by Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin

Spectral Evolution by Rafael Toral

The New Sound by Geordie Greep

Spot Land by Gnod

Box for Buddy, Box for Star by This is Lorelei

Two Star & The Dream Police by Mk.gee

Wall of Eyes by The Smile

Endlessness by Nala Sinephro

My Anti-Aircraft Friend by julie

The Crying Out of Things by The Body

Night Palace by Mount Eerie

All Life Long by Kali Malone

Queda Livre by Caxtrinho

[dannymoney]

Books 2023

Here are some notable books I read in 2023.

Tier 1 fiction: EL SUPREMO, MASTERPIECE-CALIBUR:

2666 by Roberto Bolano 

In the Heart of the Country, Foe, Life and Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee

Pan by Knut Hamsun

The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

My Struggle: Book 6 by Karl Ove Knausgaard

Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe 

Tier 2 fiction: TOP-NOTCH, EXCELLENT:

Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt

Upon Some Midnights Clear by K.C. Constantine 

Quarantine by Greg Egan

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis 

When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut

The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré

The Counterlife by Philip Roth 

Favorite non-fiction: 

Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams-the Early Years, 1903-1940 by Gary Giddins

God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning by Meghan O'Gieblyn

We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland by Fintan O'Toole

Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan by Alex Pappademas and Joan LeMay

The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions by Jonathan Rosen

[dannymoney]

Favorite Albums of 2023

I bite down on a piece of soft plastic and rank my shit.

Dead Meat by The Tubs

Dancing on the Edge by Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band

Moving on Skiffle by Van Morrison

Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling by Slaughter Beach, Dog

Peace Loving People by Pardoner

Everything Harmony by The Lemon Twigs

The Enduring Spirit by Tomb Mould

Erotic Probiotic 2 by Nourished by Growth

UK GRIM by Sleaford Mods

Suntub by ML Buch

Cartwheel by Hotline TNT

Everyone's Crushed by Water From Your Eyes

Become EP by Beach House

Bridge Underwater by Club Casualties 

The Beggar by Swans

Isn't It Now? by Animal Collective 

softscars by yeule

Again by Oneohtrix Point Never

Ganger by Veeze

Cousin by Wilco

This Stupid World by Yo La Tengo 

10,000 gecs by 100 gecs

Javelin by Sufjan Stevens

i/o by Peter Gabriel

Formal Growth in the Desert by Protomartyr 

Blue Lake by Sun Arcs

Zach Bryan by Zach Bryan

The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored by Hayden Pedigo

Jelly Road by Blake Mills

Western Cum by Corey Hanson

Lados B by Daniel Villarreal

Travel by The Necks

Tracey Denim by bar italia

First Two Pages of Frankenstein by The National  

New Blue Sun by Andre 3000

Détwat by HiTech

Heaven is a Junkyard by Youth Lagoon

Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning by Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah

Shady Favorites by TRAYSH

Maps by billy woods, Kenny Segal

Empty Country II by Empty Country

My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross by ANOHNI 

Burning Desire by MIKE

Talàn by Raphael Rogiński

Ἀντιτιμωρουμένη by Ὁπλίτης

Work of Art by Asake

Reset in Dub by Panda Bear, Sonic Boom, Adrian Sherwood

Teghnojoyg by Babe, Terror

I Killed Your Dog by L'Rain  

Infinite Psychic Depths by Outer Heaven

[dannymoney]

Favorite Albums of 2022

I place my wallet in my mouth.  I bite down and rank ‘em.

God's Country - Chat Pile

Once Twice Melody - Beach House

40 oz. to Fresno - Joyce Manor

Blue Rev - Alvvays

sore thumb - Oso Oso

Reset - Panda Bear, Sonic Boom

The Car - Arctic Monkeys

Skinty Fia - Fontaines D.C.

Heartmind - Cass McCombs

A Light for Attracting Attention - The Smile

Cruel Country - Wilco

Ants From Up There - Black Country, New Road

Most Normal - Gilla Band

Hellfire - black midi

The Ruby Cord - Richard Dawson

Pompeii - Cate Le Bon

MOTOMAMI - ROSALIA

Diaspora Problems - Soul Glo

Aethiopes - billy woods

When the Wind Forgets Your Name - Built to Spill

Sons Of - Sam Prekop, John McEntire

Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy - Jeff Parker

Comradely Objects - Horse Lords

Omnium Gatherum - King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard

Timewave Zero - Blood Incantation

Time Skiffs - Animal Collective

I Love You Jennifer B - Jockstrap

Deus Arrakis - Klaus Schulze

Fossora - Bjork

Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava -  King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard

Visitor - Empath

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe You - Big Thief

It's Almost Dry - Pusha T

Boat Songs - MJ Lenderman

Blue Skies - Dehd

Bajascillators - Bitchin Bajas

Cherry - Daphni

The 7th Hand - Immanuel Wilkins

Being Funny in a Foreign Language - The 1975

Florist - Florist

Music for Four Guitars - Bill Orcutt

Expert in a Dying Field - The Beths

Everything Was Beautiful - Spiritualized

LABYRINTHITIS - Destroyer

Makaya McCraven - In These Times

Finally, New - They Hate Change

Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky - Porridge Radio

Versions of Modern Performance - Horsegirl

Like a Fable - Shintaro Sakamoto

Warm Chris - Aldous Harding

[dannymoney]

Favorite Albums of 2021

I bite down on a wooden spoon and rank my shit.  

These are my rankings.

Spare Ribs — Sleaford Mods

The Horses and the Hounds — James McMurtry

Cavalcade — black midi

Uneasy — Vijay Iyer Trio

Henki — Richard Dawson & Circle 

Made Out of Sound — Bill Orcutt & Chris Corsano 

Promises — Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders

The Shadow I Remember — Cloud Nothings

Palberta5000 — Palberta

Chemtrails Over the Country Club — Lana Del Rey

Fire — The Bug

Pray for Haiti — Mach-Hommy

Latest Record Project Volume 1 — Van Morrison

CARNAGE — Nick Cave & Warren Ellis

HEY WHAT — Low

BLACK METAL 2 — Dean Blunt

Donda — Kanye West

Seek Shelter — iceage

Twin Plagues — Wednesday

Rắn C��p Đuôi – Ngủ Ngày Ngay Ngày Tận Thế

Half God — Wiki

Debonair — Horsey

I Know I’m Funny haha — Faye Webster

New Long Leg — Dry Cleaning 

Shade — Grouper

For the first time — Black Country, New Road 

Far In — Helado Negro

An Overview on Phenomenal Nature — Cassandra Jenkins

The Ballad of Dood & Juanita — Sturgill Simpson

Space 1.8 — Nala Sinephro

CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST — Tyler, the Creator

Vulture Prince — Arooj Aftab

Ignorance — The Weather Station

Vince Staples — Vince Staples

G_d’s Pee AT STATE'S END! — Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Infinite Granite — Deafheaven

Solar Power — Lorde

Fatigue — L’Rain

Between the Richness — Fiddlehead

Dissent — Moritz Von Oswald Trio

Bright Green Field — Squid

Rakka II — Vladislav Delay 

OK Human — Weezer

The Plugs I Met 2 — Benny the Butcher

Open Door Policy — The Hold Steady

Vol. 3 — Topdown Dialectic

Haram — Armand Hammer/The Alchemist

Life, and Another — Mega Bog

I Don't Live Here Anymore  — The War on Drugs

I’ve Seen All I Need to See — The Body

[dannymoney]

Favorite Albums of 2020

Every year I say it’s going to get easier and it always gets harder — I spend too much time on this list!  And even worse, I’m not sure it ever comes out right.  (It never comes out right.)  But what choice do I have?  A man is not a man if he does not list, and so I have listed again and found Dylan best.  He can’t be touched.  A weird, funny, and menacing album about creativity, death, and the end of the world.  Crazy, yes, and a little out of reach, but his words still manage to inspire.  We're all doing our best to get where we need to be, even if “the size of your cock will get you nowhere”.  The Nobel laureate does it again!  And how about that Kennedy Assassination, huh?  Talk about the gift that keeps on giving.

The Sturgill Simpson bluegrass album is impeccable.  It helps that the songs are culled from his entire catalogue, but it's like hearing them for the first time: this feels like the milieu in which these songs were meant to be heard.  The playing is immaculate, the vocals and lyrics feel free.  This album moves me in places unnamed except in the moments when I hear it.

And Gillian Welch and David Rawlings — I was finally unlocked to their powers through these demos.  Recorded a while back, but released for the first time in three volumes this year, Boots is staggering.  Look at all these songs.  Sturdy giants, little gnats, love letters and grain alcohol and a rocker on the porch with the rain on the old tin roof.  Casual yet precise, two voices — two people — in a congress so complete it feels entirely effortless, as natural as holding hands.

Old favorites, new finds, albums by artists for which I had never had the time.  2020 was pretty rough, but the music released during this year of the pandemic was a joy — as it always is.  And I won’t say something like, oh, music got me through this year, even though it must be true, because it’s always been true.  Music is the shit, man.  There’s nothing else like it.  Turn off your mind, relax, and float down stream, for 2020 might be over, but 2021 ain’t no guarantee.  Except, that is, that the music will no doubt be great.

Rough and Rowdy Ways — Bob Dylan

Cutting Grass - Vol. 1 (The Butcher Shoppe Sessions) — Sturgill Simpson

Boots No. 2: Vols. 1, 2, & 3 — Gillian Welch

Albores — Dino Saluzzi

The New Abnormal — The Strokes

The Ascension — Sufjan Stevens

Pedernal — Susan Alcorn Quintent

Suite For Max Brown — Jeff Parker

Notes on a Conditional Form — The 1975

Mia Gargaret — Gia Margaret

Heart’s Ease — Shirley Collins

Shutting Down Here — Jim O’Rourke

Ambertron — Mint Mile

Workaround — Beatrice Dillon

Traditional Techniques — Stephen Malkmus

Man Alive! — King Krule

All the Good Times — Gillian Welch & David Rawlings

Alfredo — Freddie Gibbs

Punisher — Phoebe Bridgers

The Slow Rush — Tame Impala

Flowers of Devotion — Dehd

Love is the King — Jeff Tweedy

Cold Water — Medhane

2020 — Magik Markers

We’re New Again — Gil Scott-Heron, Makaya McCraven

Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase? — The Soft Pink Truth

Taken Away — Moodymann

Suddenly — Caribou

Rakka — Vladislav Delay

Silver Ladders — Mary Lattimore

Duma — Duma

Comma — Sam Prekop

American Head — The Flaming Lips

Gaslighter — The Chicks

Gold Record — Bill Callahan

The Common Task — Horse Lords

SIGN — Autechre

Live at Tubby’s — 75 Dollar Bill Little Big Band

Letter to You — Bruce Springsteen

2017-2019 — Against All Logic

Mas Amable — DJ Python

Thank You for Using GTL — Drakeo the Ruler

Apple — A.G. Cook

Hill, Flower, Fog — Emily A. Sprague

Ultimate Success Today — Protomartyr

Shrines — Armand Hammer

Mama, You Can Bet! — Jyoti

Lament — Touché Amoré

Room for the Moon — Kate NV

Who Are You? — Joel Ross

[dannymoney]

25 Novels

I draw no line between entertainment value and artistic weight because there is no line.  They are wrapped together.  These are the most effective books I have ever read.  They are still with me.  I aspire to their greatness in my own writing; they humble me when I try.

Literature from Europe has been my strongest love for many years now, mostly, I believe, because these are the authors most often operating at the smallest remove from their work, creating novels that feature narrators who represent without much obfuscation the authors themselves in an attempt to explore how memory and time forge identity.  This, as far as I am concerned, is the main prerogative of literature.  Still, there are some barn burners on here — popular literature at its finest.

Of course, there remains to be read many, many major works — I can’t wait to get to them.  And there are many I’ve read that, though in one or more ways stunning, don’t figure into a prominent position in my brain — perhaps one day that will change.  I offer these as a current standing.

There will be no apologies!

And now, without further ado, the list.

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante

Madame Bovary by Flaubert

War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans

Total Chaos by Jean-Claude Izzo

All for Nothing by Walter Kempowski

Fatelessness by Imre Kertész

11/22/63 by Stephen King

My Struggle: Book 2: A Man in Love by Karl Ove Knausgaard

The Deep Blue Good-by by John D. MacDonald

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry

Suspended Sentences by Patrick Modiano

A Personal Matter by Kenzaburō Ōe

Ten North Frederick by John O’Hara

Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon

Sabbath’s Theater by Philip Roth

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Light Years by James Salter

Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald

Zeno’s Conscience by Italo Svevo

The Door by Magda Szebó

Anna Karenina by Tolstoy

[dannymoney]

Favorite Albums of 2019

I’ll never know.  Would Purple Mountains be my album of the year if David Berman hadn’t killed himself?  It’s possible — perhaps, given the quality of this exceptionally moving and catchy record, tantamount to certain — though his death definitely affected the chemistry of my list making.  Still, the album is full of some of his best lyrics, which is saying something, as his career was built on remarkable lyric after remarkable lyric.  He is, as always, sad and funny in equal measure, and the album is played with precision, grace, and just the right amount of flourish.  These are ten solid songs crafted by a shaky individual.  And it’s as true as ever: all my favorite singers couldn’t sing. By god, I can’t believe he’s dead!

You know, I wasn’t going to slave over my list this year.  But I did.  Can’t help it.  The hardest part is finding that balance between what I find impressive (innovative?) and what I find essential (emotional resonance as evoked by melodic potency?).  When they’re both of those things, they’re in the top ten.  Sometimes, I find that I’m thinking that an album’s really, really good, but in reality I’m just super into two or three songs on it.  Now, two or three songs does not a great album make, but it does make the heart grow fond, and it’s tricky to recognize this phenomenon when it’s happening, though over time I think I usually do (I hope).

When will the day come when I don’t care about new music?  I’ve been told by my elders that you stop caring.  That you return more and more to the old, trusty music that you comfortably love.  But what I love most about music is loving new music — so why would that ever stop?  No album in 2019 blew me away, but there were a lot of gems — each of the 50 LPs on this list is one I have returned to many times.  And, as often happens, some of the albums towards the end of the list are in some ways more exciting than the albums in the top ten, though I have trouble placing an album at #1 when I have a strong feeling it won’t be in my heavy rotation in the years to come, even if I find it mysterious, exciting, sexy, and new.  Maybe I’m a coward, but I think I’m just a rock ’n roller.  

A sigh and a shrug!  Listen to every one of these albums, please.  Especially Weezer because I love them.

Jesus is Lord!

Purple Mountains — Purple Mountains

1000 gecs — 100 gecs

Anima — Thom Yorke

Ode to Joy — Wilco

i,i — Bon Iver

basking in the glow — Oso, Oso

U.F.O.F — Big Thief

Two Hands — Big Thief

Songs from San Mateo County — Tony Molina

SOUND & FURY — Sturgill Simpson

In League with Dragons — The Mountain Goats

This Is How You Smile — Helado Negro

All Mirrors — Angel Olsen

Father of the Bride — Vampire Weekend

Quiet Signs — Jessica Pratt

JESUS IS KING — Kanye West

Weezer (Black Album) — Weezer

uknowwhatimsayin¿ — Danny Brown

Hidden History of the Human Race — Blood Incantation

Eton Alive — Sleaford Mods

Export — RAP

Agora — Fennesz

ZUU — Denzel Curry

Ghosteen — Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

After its own death / Walking in a spiral toward the house — Nivhek

Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest — Bill Callahan

PUNK — CHAI

MAGDALENE — FKA twigs

Emily Alone — Florist

Life Metal — Sunn O)))

Crush — Floating Points

I Was Real — 75 Dollar Bill

Here Comes the Cowboy — Mac Demarco

Thrashing Thru the Passion — The Hold Steady

Designer — Aldous Harding

Schlagenheim — black midi

Blink 182’s “Dude Ranch” as played by Colleen Green — Colleen Green

Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? — Deerhunter

Hollywood’s Bleeding — Post Malone

Norman Fucking Rockwell! — Lana Del Rey

Groove Denied — Stephen Malkmus

A Tangle of Stars — Mary Halvorson, John Dietrich

Cartas Na Manga — DJ Nigga Fox

Loom Dream — Leif

Vol. 2 — Topdown Dialectic

Circuits — Chris Potter

IGOR — Tyler, the Creator

The Sacrificial Code — Kali Malone

Meet the Woo — Pop Smoke

Triad — Triad God

[dannymoney]

Favorite Albums of 2018

There were a lot of quality albums released this year and a lot of them didn’t make the cut.  My selections are, more or less, the LPs I enjoyed the most, but the rankings are also influenced by other factors, such as scale and scope; cultural significance; popularity; originality; degree of difficulty; and other qualifiers that are ultimately less important than pure enjoyment but inevitably influence how I listen to music.  For better or for worse — both for my psyche and for the purity of my selection — I approach this process as if my list is as important as Pitchfork’s or the New York Times, and therefore I try to keep in mind a sense of the entire playing field, proceeding like I’m not one man hunched over his laptop with a specific set of tastes but rather a group of writers with myriad preferences hashing it out in a crowded workspace, arguing over and compromising on a list they feel will best reflect the year in music as they see it, as well as shedding some light onto LPs they wished more people would hear.  Yes, I try to contain multitudes, which means certain albums are sometimes given a slight boost to push against my innate rock and roll biases because, ladies and gentlemen, if I say I’m a guitar man, then you’ll agree.  I’m a guitar man.  And this list reflects that, in the end, but I feel that I’ve come to it all honestly, without an agenda other than the promotion of the albums that made me smile, made me dance, made me think, and, maybe, made me cry, all the while knowing I must have an open mind or I might dismiss something special out of hand because it’s not “easy” for me to listen to.  There’s an idea that music shouldn't be worked for, that you should just hear a melody and be captivated immediately and for all eternity!  I don’t hear it that way, but I digress, as this is really just a long-winded way of saying that some music makes you work for its pleasures, but that oftentimes, when you do, the reward is staggering.

I’ll just address briefly the number one pick, Beach House’s 7.  There was a time when I did not care for this band; I was even more of a rockist back then, in my younger days, and had them wrongly pegged as bedroom snoozers, which they are not.  They are anything but.  7 is pretty and delicate but it is also loud, powerful, and bombastic, not without significant emotional edge.  The melodies are sweet, but they are also sharp.  7 was impressive in its listenability and its execution: an entire album of well-written and well-crafted popular music that, while it does not alienate, also isn’t afraid to skirt around the edges of difficulty, especially when considering tempo and pace — these two are confident enough to take their time letting everything unfold and the result is their best album yet.  If you’re a Beach House fan, then you know that’s really sayin’ something.

Enjoy!

7 — Beach House

Freedom — Amen Dunes

The Horizon Just Laughed — Damien Jurado

Honey — Robyn

What a Time to Be Alive — Superchunk

Million Dollars to Kill Me — Joyce Manor

Bark Your Head Off, Dog — Hop Along

Future Me Hates Me — The Beths

Ordinary Corrupt Human Love — Deafheaven

DAYTONA — Pusha T

Twin Fantasy — Car Seat Headrest

Scorpion — Drake

Aviary — Julia Holter

El Mal Querer — Rosalía

The Sciences — Sleep

FM! — Vince Staples

Last Building Burning — Cloud Nothings

Hive Mind — The Internet

WARM — Jeff Tweedy

Little Dark Age — MGMT

abysskiss — Adrianne Lenker

The Lillywhite Sessions — Ryley Walker

Some Rap Songs — Earl Sweatshirt

Gentle Leader — Peach Kelli Pop

MUDBOY — Sheck Wes

Clean — Soccer Mommy

ye — Kanye West

New Material — Preoccupations

Swimming — Mac Miller

Only Love — The Armed

Cloud Corner — Maria Anderson

Double Negative — Low

Universal Beings — Makaya McCraven

How to Socialise & Make Friends — Camp Cope

OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES — Sophie

Animal Companionship — Advance Base

Snares Like a Haircut — No Age

Beyondless — iceage

Cranberry — Hovvdy

Body — The Necks

Buck Meek — Buck Meek

Negro Swan — Blood Orange

Rausch — GAS

Konoyo — Tim Hecker

Kill the Lights — Tony Molina

Egypt Station — Sir Paul McCartney

Premonitions — Miya Folick

Virtue — The Voidz

The Whole Thing Is Just There — Young Jesus

Topdown Dialectic — Topdown Dialectic

Thanks for reading.

[dannymoney]

50 Favorite Albums of 2017

There’s no DAMN. on this list. Is Kendrick’s album good? Yes. Does it need more attention from me? No. Could it be on this list? Sure. Do I really like the album all that much? Let’s put it this way: I can’t see past the fact that his music has a real strong tendency to bore me its own indulgence. Long running times, high-concept narrations, and an especially annoying tendency to consistently hate himself while also loving himself - the schtick has worn thin, you’re of two minds, troubled, I get it.

But you know what high-concept record never bored me? Goths by The Mountain Goats. Funny, tender, sad portraits of aging men and women delivered by a tight three-piece band and all the right flourishes of strings, horns, and choirs. The song-writing is left-field, the piano tones are a lounge-rat’s dream, and Darnielle’s singing has never been better. This is a generous band at its considered peak performing songs shaped, crafted, and sung by a seasoned pro. And though it’s John Darnielle’s 16th LP, he sounds fresh as ever. His last album, Beat the Champ, felt constricted by its concept, but Goths sounds set free. Perhaps he’s more goth than wrestler, I can’t know for sure, but each of these songs holds a specific world within a larger, equally specific world and it’s somewhat hard to imagine that Darnielle hasn’t lived these lives, although it’s impossible that he has, so it must be his unshakable confidence in his material that truly allows the album to feel real, almost like pages torn from myriad diaries.

There’s also a shit-load of hooks embedded in the complex chord structures of these tunes, and all of them are not strictly musical. You’re ushered into Goths via the laid-back assertiveness of the band’s playing but you really stick around listen after listen to pick up on the jokes and references, the plot twists and character development, in addition to the sing-along choruses. It’s a testament to Darnielle’s songwriting that, having never been a goth myself, I am emotionally invested in each modern fairy-tale (fable?) featured on this very human album. We all have similar stories and, yes, death will get us all. But we might as well learn to live without worrying about dying, even if it’s a little late in the game for some of us to start. An overlooked, understated gem, Goths is an album I’ll be listening to long after I’ve listened to DAMN., forwards or backwards.

All these albums are worth your time and I suggest, humbly, that you pick one and listen to it.

1. Goths - The Mountain Goats 2. Capacity - Big Thief 3. No Shape - Perfume Genius 4. Robyn Hitchcock - Robyn Hitchcock 5. Dedicated to Bobby Jameson - Ariel Pink 6. Plunge - Fever Ray 7. Utopia - Bjork 8. Reassemblage - Visible Cloaks 9. Far From Over - Vijay Iyer Sextet 10. All the Way - Diamanda Galas 11. Black Origami - Jlin 12. This Old Dog - Mac Demarco 13. Daylight Ghosts - Craig Taborn 14. Phases - Angel Olsen 15. Out in the Storm - Waxahatchee 16. Sleep Well Beast - The National 17. Future - Future 18. The Possum in the Driveway - Mark Mulcahy 19. Nothing Feels Natural - Priests 20. Hug of Thunder - Broken Social Scene 21. Reaper - nothing,nowhere. 22. american dream - lcd soundsystem 23. More Life - Drake 24. Mirror Reaper - Bell Witch 25. Big Fish Theory - Vince Staples 26. Gnosis - David Virelles 27. Rocket - (Sandy) Alex G 28. Melodrama - Lorde 29. Ctrl - SZA 30. II - The Courtneys 31. Guppy - Charly Bliss 32. Bill Orcutt - Bill Orcutt 33. Arca - Arca 34. Soul of a Woman - Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings 35. Need to Feel Your Love - Sheer Mag 36. Sidelong - Sarah Shook & The Disarmers 37. Doris & the Daggers - Spiral Stairs 38. Hairshirt of Purpose - Pile 39. A Shadow in Time - William Basinski 40. Harmony of Difference - Kamasi Washington 41. We All Want the Same Things - Craig Finn 42. mono no aware - Various Artists 43. Unfold - The Necks 44. Near to the Wild Heart of Life - Japandroids 45. Make It Be - R. Stevie Moore/Jason Falkner 46. A Crow Looked At Me - Mount Eerie 47. No Home of the Mind - Bing & Ruth 48. Cry Cry Cry - Wolf Parade 49. In Between - The Feelies 50. Nightmare Logic - Power Trip

[dannymoney]

50 Albums of 2016

Here are my favorite albums of 2016.  My hope is that you’ll read this list and pick an album you’ve never heard of, give it an honest listen, and shoot me a text or an email or a smoke signal telling me how it went.  Remember, the world will always be a decent place if we listen to music and talk to each other about it.  I love you all.  Enjoy.

1. Teens of Denial - Car Seat Headrest 2. The Life of Pablo - Kanye West 3. Cody - Joyce Manor 4. Pretty Years - Cymbals Eat Guitars 5. We’ve Got It From Here…Thank You 4 Your Service - A Tribe Called Quest 6. blonde - Frank Ocean 7. My Woman - Angel Olsen 8. Mangy Love - Cass McCombs 9. Puberty 2 - Mitski 10. Black Orpheus - Masabumi Kikuchi 11. Stranger to Stranger - Paul Simon 12. Lodestar - Shirley Collins 13. Away With You - Mary Halverson Octet 14. A Moon Shaped Pool - Radiohead 15. My Krazy Life - YG 16. Best Summer Ever - Har Mar Superstar 17. A Sailor’s Guide to Earth - Sturgill Simpson 18. Weezer [White Album] - Weezer 19. Human Performance - Parquet Courts 20. A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke - Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith 21. Views - Drake 22. Blackstar - David Bowie 23. 22, A Million - Bon Iver 24. Freetown Sound - Blood Orange 25. Skeleton Tree - Nick Cave 26. Big Baby D.R.A.M. - D.R.A.M. 27. Centres - Ian William Craig 28. Jeffrey - Young Thug 29. The Declaration of Musical Independence - Andrew Cyrille Quartet 30. blisters - serpentwithfeet 31. Coloring Book - Chance the Rapper 32. Schmilco - Wilco 33. The Weight of These Wings - Miranda Lambert 34. Black Peak - Xylouris White 35. HERO - Maren Morris 36. EARS - Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith 37. Sirens - Nicolas Jaar 38. Blank Face - Schoolboy Q 39. Prima Donna - Vince Staples 40. The New Breed - Jeff Parker 41. Interventions - Horse Lords 42. You Want It Darker - Leonard Cohen 43. untitled unmastered. - Kendrick Lamar 44. FLOTUS - Lambchop 45. Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not - Dinosaur Jr 46. Transport - Juan Atkins & Moritz Von Oswald presents Borderland 47. Love Streams - Tim Hecker 48. Emily’s D+ Evolution - Esperanza Spalding 49. For Those of You Who Have Never (And Also Those Who Have) - Huerco S. 50. Bonito Generation - Kero Kero Bonito

[dannymoney]

Coco-Curried Loathing in Queens, NY

Sad news, ladies and gents.  Unfortunately, tragically, senselessly, there was a suicide today in aisle nine of the New York supermarket, Food Bazaar.  Dan Grgas, amateur schmuck, killed himself.  He was in the midst of an endless, maddening attempt to find fish sauce in the labyrinth that is Food Bazaar when he took his own life with a broken bottle of unsalted capers.  His records, books, and faded Steve Zissou poster survive him.  He was 29. Nah, jk.  Didn't kill myself.  But let me tell you, pacing around the aisles of Food Bazaar in vain is becoming a bit of a chore.  I might actually take up meditation.  Shopping for Asian food goods is wearing me down. Because what's with this: The supermarket has aisles dedicated to Korean and Japanese foods, so I went looking in them for the fish sauce.  Makes sense, right?  But guess what, the fish sauce wasn't there.  I searched and searched and I could not find it.  Twenty minutes later I discovered that as it turns out they have an "Asian" section elsewhere.  You know, the section for the stupid white Americans like me, where the Asian products are clearly labeled in English and not as authentic as the products in the Korean and Japanese aisles. It makes a bit of sense, I guess, but as it was happening I was super frustrated.  I mean, the search might have been bearable if the supermarket was empty but empty it was not: the place was a roaring zoo.  A zoo!  And by golly, people just don't care about other people.  I almost kinda like it.  Why not, you know?  It's comforting that other people only care about themselves; means I can do the same.  Though it is sad to think of all the people stepping over my bleeding body in aisle nine on their way to buy 5 cans of tuna for $6.99. KILL FOR THAT RADISH! CUT IN LINE FOR THAT TILAPIA! SELL OUT YOUR MOTHER FOR THE NAPA CABBAGE! DIE!  DIE!  DIE! Okay, looking back on it after cooking a successful meal, the ordeal was well worth it.  Funny even.  Ha ha.  Ha ha ha ha ha.  I can laugh, see, now that I've made and eaten my coco-curried mussels with cilantro and Serrano peppers.  I can laugh after sopping up that green curry and coconut sauce with a baguette.  I can laugh now that I've had my twelfth Coors Light and the hand gun is safely locked away.  Ha ha ha ha ha.   Now, I can laugh. And laugh I will!   Seriously though, complaints and hyperbole aside, the meal was delicious and I'd go through the hell that was Food Bazaar again and again if it meant I got to cook and eat such a satisfying meal once more. Until next time

[dannymoney]

Ramen 2016

I made ramen today because it is one of my favorite foods in the whole wide world.   But how could ramen be made by a schmuck like me?  The broth seemed too enigmatic an entity for a mere amateur to be able to conjure its intoxicating flavors in the lowly confines of his dimly lit kitchen while listening to the Bret Easton Ellis Podcast.  The noodles - oh, how they speak of the power of ramen noodles!  The alkaline within them!   The specific amount of time they need to be cooked, the immediate shocking of the noodles with ice water after removal from the boiling water - or wait, do you shock them at all? Oh, no, not me.  This is not something I could do.  I could not cook ramen.   FLASH FORWARD TO THREE HOURS LATER AND I’M SUCKING DOWN DELICIOUS HOMEMADE RAMEN AND OH MY GOD I DID IT I COULD DO IT I CAN’T WAIT TO INSTAGRAM MY BEAUTIFUL WORK SO MAYBE A GIRL WILL SEE IT AND WANT TO SLEEP WITH ME BECAUSE I MIGHT FEED HER WITH DELICIOUS FOOD OH I AM A NICE NICE MAN. So yeah, it was fairly easy. I got the recipe from Lucky Peach’s 101 Easy Asian Recipes cookbook, which called for roast chicken and, whaddayaknow, yesterday I’d roasted up a honey-soy lacquered chicken.  And then, wow this is too much of a coincidence, this morning I’d carved that bad bird up and found myself with a nice looking chicken carcass on my hands.  And, naturally you know what chicken carcass means… Broth time, baby. Ramen time, baby. Chow time, baby. But could the amateur schmuck pull it off?  Could I do it and gain the respect and love of dozens of future female suitors? Turns out if you buy all the ingredients and cook it the way they tell you to, you can; the ramen turned out fine.  The noodles were functional, the broth was tasty, and the meat - when pulled off of the carcass and laid down upon the noodles - was tender as fuck.  Add nori, bean sprouts, and a hard-boiled egg and you’re in business. Or are you? You see, the hardest part of the whole thing was in the timing because ramen depends on TEMPERATURE.  The broth must be SCALDING.  The noodles, if left too long in the broth, sitting around, will continue to cook slightly and become IMPERFECT.  Adding the toppings to the soup COOLS THE BROTH DOWN. So you can see where this is going: the ramen, while very tasty, was not HOT enough.  The last minute preparations of getting the ramen into the bowl and onto the table, that was the hardest part; it's a lot for one man to scramble to do at the last minute.  And like a game of football where points are HEAT, my end of game clock management became my downfall. No worries, though.  Practice makes perfect and the maiden voyage wasn’t too shabby an adventure at all. Until next time.

[dannymoney]

A sad Christmas song is the most truthful Christmas song.   Face it.  Though most of us indeed are or do get happy during the Christmas season, Christmas for a lot of us centers around the sharp contrast between what one wants and what one has.  And this can break your heart.  It's sad not to have what you want. You'll get gifts.  Oh sure, you'll get gifts.  This LCD Soundsystem tune is one of the best presents I got this year (hair loss prevention shampoo from my mom being #1).  But what you really want isn’t gifts.  What you want is your dead family member back.  What you want is the girl you don't have on your arm.  What you want is the Christmas experience you had as a child, but you can't because you're aging and dying.  What you want is a candidate you can trust.   And this song hits it.  From the bells at the beginning to the bells at the end, Christmas, I love you, but you're bringing me down.  It's the kind of song my dad would hear and ask, "Well, is it really a Christmas song?" and then I would roll my eyes (sorry, I'm a jerk) and say, Yes, Dad, it is.  You just might not recognize it as such since, for once, it's a Christmas song that engages the reality and not the myth. See also: "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)" - Darlene Love

[dannymoney]

"IT'S FOR A SIMPLE SCALLION SALAD!"

For Christmas this year, my mom and dad got me 101 Easy Asian Recipes by Peter Meehan and the editors of Lucky Peach. Lucky me. So today, I ventured to Food Bizarre.

If you’ve never been to or heard of Food Bazaar, it’s a New York supermarket chain that has a great selection of ingredients not usually found in most food stores. By this I mean Korean (the owner is Korean), Mexican, Japanese, Brazilian, Indian, and so on.

Myself, I love it. I love looking at weird food - or food that’s considered weird to me and you, white Americans afraid of most delicacies served everywhere and anywhere in the rest of the world, food that people take for granted as normal and delicious. It has been a goal of mine for years now to try any food that is presented to me, and to try and cook food that’s not just mac and cheese, not just a piece of salmon and some potatoes. To cook outside my white American box.

But this gets me panicky. It started last night around 1 A.M. when I thought it was a good idea to leaf through the cookbook. Bad move. Soon enough I’m worried, worried I’ll never be able to cook everything in the book; that I won’t be able to find certain ingredients; that even though all the recipes in the book are modest in scope and price, I am worried that I won’t be able to comfortably afford all of the tools and ingredients I’ll need to pull them off on a consistent basis. And I need to cook them often because I want to get better as a cook.

Though still fairly manic, I do manage to get to bed after forming a plan: a simple salad (scallion) and egg-based dish for dinner tomorrow (dashimaki tamago, basically an omelet with hondashi dissolved in it). Egg dishes are tasty and usually, compared to the flavorful reward, simple. I also plan to buy a whole chicken to marinate and then roast the day after tomorrow. Peter Meehan tells me that if I’m not roasting chickens, I should. So I will.

I put on the second half of Craig Finn’s Faith in the Future and, thankfully, increasingly rare for me these days, I am asleep within a song or two – WAIT HOW MUCH DOES A RICE COOKER COST? – okay, I’m asleep.

(What a beautiful record. I relate to the lyrics, to the sadness of the characters depicted: they seem like people I know. I think, lying in bed, I never used to know characters like these, so that must mean that I am getting old. I don’t mind that I am getting old; I mind that I am getting nowhere.)

Walking to Food Bazaar (FB from now on because I am lazy), I run through the recipes in my head. It’s so easy to forget ingredients; the more I think about the dish, the better the odds I won’t fuck the trip up.

FB is really big. I start to get panicky again. There’s so much great food! Dried fish, weird yams, gizzards, livers…I take a breath and get the vegetables I know won’t be a problem to find. They aren’t. I get them.

Next, okay, I’m looking for daikon, which is a winter radish. Like I said, FB is mad Korean: there are a lot of Korean people there, so I think they’ll definitely have the in-season radish I seek. I pass on old Korean lady contemplating a large bag of mixed frozen seafood. It is the first of many moments where I look at an Asian face and resist the temptation to ask them for help.

Just then, a large man asks me if I need help. I do need help, so naturally I tell him, No. I don’t need any help. He nods and walks away.

But then, for some reason uncharacteristic of me (what my mom would call testosterone but I call fear of being found out as stupid) I call out to him and ask if they have daikon. He looks dubious but says that yes, they do, it’s on the other side of the vegetable section.

The vegetable section itself is larger than most markets. I go over to the other side but can’t find it. Then, after about five minutes looking at stuff that I don’t need to buy, I hear someone call out, “SIR!” from across the room. I ignore it, but I know, deep down, he’s talking to me.

This is the worst.

He calls out “SIR!” again but I keep on plodding along pretending I don’t know that he’s talking to me. But then I look up from some dried herring and I see him and he sees me and he calls out, “SIR!” and I wave and go to him. I think he’s either going to give me daikon or tell me that they don’t have any. That doesn’t happen. What happens is that he says nothing. After 15 seconds, though, a Latino man comes over, dressed in supermarket whites. They chat in Spanish and then the Latin dude shakes his head sadly.

“No daikon,” he says. “No daikon.”

I thank them both and go on my way. After picking up some ingredients I am familiar with, I get to the Korean and Japanese aisle. I need a bunch of pantry stuff: oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, etc. Should be easy enough I thought. But no. It’s hard. It’s hard because all of the labels are in Korean or Japanese and, as you might guess, I can’t read Korean or Japanese. I start to sweat again. I get panicky. I’m the kind of guy that doesn’t like to look like he doesn’t know what he’s doing. That he’s lost, unseasoned. Which is crazy, because I am just that, clueless, and it’s becoming clear that I might not be able to get the ingredients I need as easily as I thought that I would.

But I wander the aisle back and forth looking at the different condiments, the pastes, the noodles, the things I have never heard of. I feel stupid. I feel like people must notice how long I have spent in these two aisles. “Hasn’t that fucking idiot found what he needs yet?” they are all asking themselves. I pass the Korean shampoo for the tenth time and sigh.

What sucks is that I always forget, in moments like these in public places, that people don’t give a shit about me, that people don’t care about anything other than themselves and what they are doing. No one has noticed or cared that I can’t find the gochugaru, an essential item in Korean cooking.

Sigh again.

I give up. I get the rest of the stuff that I need, but the gochugaru is a failure. It must be right there in front of my nose but the more time I spend wandering up and down the aisle, the dumber I feel, the more Korean eyes I imagine looking at me, all of them wondering why the fuck this white kid is trying to buy gochugaru in the first place.

“IT’S FOR A SIMPLE SCALLION SALAD!”

One day I hope to cast this feeling out from within me into the wild where it will die and never enter my body again. I am confident that after more shopping and cooking it will one day leave me and I will feel okay just waltzing into the Koren aisle and identifying the gochugaru immediately.

Leaving the store, though, I am calm. Happy. I have what I need, Korean red chili pepper flakes be damned, and now I can cook. I am far more comfortable cooking because at home, in my kitchen, I am alone and no one can see me struggle to figure out which is the dark soy sauce and which is the light. At the time of this writing, I am still not sure which soy sauce I bought. But I do know that I will make it work and it will be a good meal because I made it.

Until next time.

[dannymoney]

Top 50 Albums of 2015

2015 was defined by the size of an artist’s vision.  Whether it was the size of Young Thug’s titanic output of quality material, or the ambition of the songwriting on The Most Lamentable Tragedy or Divers, or the raw power of Hop Along’s Frances Quinlan’s gorgeous vocals, or the precision and autonomy of Grimes’s execution of her singular vision, it was go big or go home in 2015.  Even the weary wisdom of Craig Finn’s Faith in the Future seemed large in its dedication to modesty and humility. But in the end, Young Thug had 2015 on lock.  So much so that I had to cheat and include three of his mixtapes in my number one slot.  They’re all of a piece, so I don’t feel too bad about it.   Thug’s progression as an artist has been fun and, at times, baffling to watch: a mad scientist mixing potions to the tune of his own drummer.  Of all the records on my list, the elasticity of Young Thug’s approach to music defined the cutting-edge sensibility of 2015 best: create, release, and repeat, and let the listeners catch up to the music, not the other way around. Happy listening, DannyMoney The Top 50 Albums of 2015:  1. Barter 6 // Slime Season 1 // Slime Season 2 - Young Thug  2. Faith in the Future - Craig Finn  3. Painted Shut - Hop Along  4. The Most Lamentable Tragedy - Titus Andronicus  5. Simple Songs - Jim O'Rourke  6. Divers - Joanna Newsom  7. Art Angels - Grimes  8. Predatory Headlights - Tenement  9. Summertime ‘06 - Vince Staples  10. Have You Seen My Wilderness? - Julia Holter  11. If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late - Drake  12. Garden of Delete - Oneohtrix Point Never  13. DS2 - Future  14. Star Wars - Wilco  15. Stuff Like That There - Yo La Tengo  16. Are You Alone? - Majical Cloudz  17. In Colour - Jaime xx  18. Viet Cong - Viet Cong  19. No Cities to Love - Sleater-Kinney  20. The Agent Intellect - Protomartyr  21. High - Royal Headache  22. Poison Season - Destroyer  23. Four Phantoms - Bell Witch  24. To Pimp a Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar  25. E*MO*TION - Carly Rae Jepsen  26. The Epic - Kamasi Washington  27. Alone in the Universe - Jeff Lynne’s ELO  28. Pageant Material - Kacey Musgraves  29. Shadows in the Night - Bob Dylan  30. Vertigo - The Necks  31. Beach Music - Alex G  32. The Magic Whip - blur  33. Wildheart - Miguel  34. I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside - Earl Sweatshirt  35. Second Hand Heart - Dwight Yoakam  36. Vulnicura - Bjork  37. Something More Than Free - Jason Isbell  38. Bottom of the Morning - Pinkish Black  39. Universal Themes - Sun Kil Moon  40. John Howard & the Night Mail - John Howard & the Night Mail  41. Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper - Panda Bear  42. Apocalypse, girl - Jenny Hval  43. New Bermuda - Deafheaven  44. AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP - A$AP Rocky  45. I Am a Problem: Mind in Pieces - Wolf Eyes  46. Dumb Flesh - Blanck Mass  47. Free TC - Ty Dolla $ign  48. Sun Coming Down - Ought  49. A New Place 2 Drown - Archy Marshall  50. What a Time to Be Alive - Drake & Future