Andy Gapin

Last night was the last normal edition of The Playlist for the year. The next two weeks will be retrospectives on 2007.

There comes a time at the end of each year when we must reflect on what was important to us over the past 12 months. And I think the most important part of this reflection is the music that was released. Trips we may have taken, relationships that we may have started or ended, movies we may have seen, things we may have experienced, none of it matters as much as the music we heard. At least for me anyway. When I think back to everything about this year (and most years), music was either directly responsible for it or indirectly a part of it. Music is a catalyst for a lot of things in my life. And for the things that it wasn’t directly responsible for, it was there as an accent or to bring everything together.

By my count, I’ve heard somewhere between 1500 and 2000 new albums this year. Picking just 25 was really hard, but I think I’m happy with my list. These are the albums that have had some sort of an impact on me throughout the year or that I think will continue to stay relevant to me. Either that or I just couldn’t stop listening to them.

1. Against Me! – New Wave
2. The Gaslight Anthem – Sink or Swim
3. The Sundowner – Four One Five Two
4. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
5. Jens Lekman – Night Falls Over Kortedala
6. Bruce Springsteen – Magic
7. NOFX – They’ve Actually Gotten Worse Live
8. Maritime – Heresy And The Hotel Choir
9. Black Francis – Bluefinger
10. Georgie James – Places
11. The Copyrights – Make Sound
12. Minus The Bear – Planet of Ice
13. Bright Eyes – Cassadega
14. Shellac – Excellent Italian Greyhounds
15. Radiohead – In Rainbows
16. Rilo Kiley – Under The Blacklight
17. Eisley – Combinations
18. Tim Fite – Over The Counter Coulture
19. Rufus Wainwright – Release The Stars
20. Porter Wagoner – Wagonmaster
21. The Polyphonic Spree – The Fragile Army
22. The Pipettes – We Are The Pipettes
23. Laura Veirs – Saltbreakers
24. The Weakerthans – Reunion Tour
25. Feist – The Reminder

And a few honorable mentions (in no order):

• Frank Smith – Heavy Handed Peace and Love
• Ian Moore – To Be Loved
• Mary Timony Band – The Shapes We Make
• Andrew Bird – Armchair Apochrypha
• Bears – Shortest Day of the Year
• This Is Me Smiling – This Is Me Smiling
• Okkervil River – The Stage Names
• Chuck Ragan – Feast or Famine
• Idlewild – Make Another World
• Jimmy Eat World – Chase This Light
• Band of Horses – Cease to Begin

So there it is, my personal soundtrack of 2007.

On my radio show on 12/26, I will do a countdown and play one song from each album. Yay!

Edit: It took me ten minutes to think of two albums I didn’t even think about. They only make it to the honorable mentions though.

I don’t know why, but I never talk about TV shows on this blog. It’s really weird too because about the same time that I started this blog is when I actually started getting back into TV again. Since starting this blog, I’ve discovered Scrubs, The Office, 30 Rock, Heroes, Freaks and Geeks, How I Met Your Mother, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Some older, some newer, but I wasn’t really much of a TV person since early high school…with the exception of The Simpsons, Futurama, and Arrested Development.

***if you watch Heroes and didn’t see the finale for Volume 2 yet, you probably want to stop reading here since there are a bunch of spoilers***

Just got around to watching the finale and I definitely liked it better than the one from the first volume. I had no idea how they were going to tie things together since this volume has been all over the place and most of the characters hadn’t really crossed paths yet. They did a really good job with it though and didn’t make anything seem that forced.

I was really glad that Niki died since her character has been nothing but annoying since the pilot, but I wouldn’t have complained if Monica died with her as well. I wish that Maya would have stayed dead though. Her and Alejandro were the worst character additions. Their stories were completely pointless and just plain boring. But I guess Maya needs to survive long enough for Syler to get her power.

I don’t really expect Nathan to stay dead. With the last couple episodes being all about how they can bring people back with Claire’s blood, it’d be silly for them to leave Nathan dead. My guess for his killer is Bennet, but that seems a bit too obvious so maybe not?

Hiro leaving Adam in the casket underground was amazing. Didn’t see that one coming at all. I actually thought he was going to travel like a thousand years into the future and leave him there or something, but I guess putting him in the coffin underground leaves the character available to come back.

Since Volume 3 is called “Villains,” I’m assuming there are going to be a ton more of them and therefore Adam will probably come back. I wonder if they will all join forces or stay as separate villains. I do think that Elle will eventually turn good though. You can see a lot of inner struggle developing as she learns more about how terrible the company and her father are. I think that this will lead her more to helping take down the company rather than joining up with Syler to destroy the world.

Not the best show in the world. CD player 1 decided to start giving me some problems so I started using CD player 3 which for some reason was set to repeat. That was interesting.

I was listening to Jawbreaker’s Etc last night and instantly fell in love with Into You Like A Train. I’ve heard this song tons of times, but something about it last night just really clicked with me and I got way more into it than I’ve ever been.

I always find it fun to have a new found love for an old song by a band that you’ve been into for years.

I also was reminded of just how much Sea Foam Green singlehandedly accomplishes everything that Alkaline Trio has taken five albums and two collections discs to do. Not to knock on Alkaline Trio, they are one of my favorite bands, but seriously, the band’s entire existence rips off a single Jawbreaker song. And the Jawbreaker song does the whole morbid and gruesome lyric thing without sounding cheesy and forced.

A ’63, 10,000 miles.
What was I thinking?
I drove myself insane.
No small getaway.
Asleep with both hands on the wheel.
White knuckle weekend.
Chewing ephedrine.
Going to an unnamed end.
Unending…

We met in rain, you asked me in.
Seemed like a good sign.
Now I need a guillotine
to get you off my mind.
I brush my teeth until they break.
Until I start bleeding.
So when I smile I’ll know
I’m almost good enough for you.
And would you…

Follow me to the end of the dare.
Raise your eyes, return the stare.
Become your words. Your words so becoming.
On any Sunday I’ll be there.

I tried to drink you off my mind.
I just got wasted.
It only made the pain
that much more acute.
But cute isn’t strong enough a word.
Unintentionally gorgeous.
An accidental charm.
A graceful drinking arm.
Disarming…

Follow me to the end of the dare.
Raise your eyes, return the stare.
Become your words. Your words so becoming.
On any Sunday I’ll be there.

I was listening to Jawbreaker’s Etc last night and instantly fell in love with Into You Like A Train. I’ve heard this song tons of times, but something about it last night just really clicked with me and I got way more into it than I’ve ever been.

I always find it fun to have a new found love for an old song by a band that you’ve been into for years.

I also was reminded of just how much Sea Foam Green singlehandedly accomplishes everything that Alkaline Trio has taken five albums and two collections discs to do. Not to knock on Alkaline Trio, they are one of my favorite bands, but seriously, the band’s entire existence rips off a single Jawbreaker song. And the Jawbreaker song does the whole morbid and gruesome lyric thing without sounding cheesy and forced.

A ’63, 10,000 miles.
What was I thinking?
I drove myself insane.
No small getaway.
Asleep with both hands on the wheel.
White knuckle weekend.
Chewing ephedrine.
Going to an unnamed end.
Unending…

We met in rain, you asked me in.
Seemed like a good sign.
Now I need a guillotine
to get you off my mind.
I brush my teeth until they break.
Until I start bleeding.
So when I smile I’ll know
I’m almost good enough for you.
And would you…

Follow me to the end of the dare.
Raise your eyes, return the stare.
Become your words. Your words so becoming.
On any Sunday I’ll be there.

I tried to drink you off my mind.
I just got wasted.
It only made the pain
that much more acute.
But cute isn’t strong enough a word.
Unintentionally gorgeous.
An accidental charm.
A graceful drinking arm.
Disarming…

Follow me to the end of the dare.
Raise your eyes, return the stare.
Become your words. Your words so becoming.
On any Sunday I’ll be there.

I loved the first part of the Tin Man miniseries that aired last night. Mostly, I was interested to check it out because Zooey Deschanel is in it and I have a completely (un)healthy crush on her.

I really liked the story that they are going with, it’s such an awesome and dark take on the Wizard of Oz. The first half was a little boring, but the visuals are really nice. Once they got going with some back story though, it really took off.

It is a little annoying the way that they say “in the O.Z.” throughout and some of the acting could be better, but it’s really entertaining so far.

The Sundowner on Saturday night at the Knitting Factory was awesome. As much as I don’t like the trek there, I love that venue so much. It provides a pretty intimate experience while still holding a decent number of people.

The Sundowner played everything I wanted to hear and sounded really good. It was kind of nice to see Chris by himself instead of with a couple other people providing musical support. I think my favorite thing about him is his voice. He can do a higher pitched voice in addition to a deeper one.

I also think that his version of Boatless Booze Cruise blows the Lawrence Arms version away.

The thing I don’t like though is that he stops after every song to talk, but it is pretty cool when he talks about what the songs are about or gives some background on the lyrics.

Chuck Ragan was really good for what we watched. I had never heard his solo stuff before, but I was never a Hot Water Music fan. I kind of wish that I knew the songs though because I really liked them a lot.

Good times!

This weekend was super awesome. I think I’m going to make a bunch of individual posts for some of the stuff though.

I spent way too much money though, but chilling in NYC on Saturday night was a lot of fun, despite how cold it was. Waking up to snow on Sunday was awesome!