Working at Level 3 was turning to sh|t pretty quick. I was given incomplete specifications to a third party vendor and developed to those specifications, leaving not the most well-rounded application. In 2007 again, there were monthly layoffs from January through July. In good news, the company bought out its rival competitor it had to low-ball prices against to remaining competitive with. However, now they were tasked with incorporating that "other" company's business (plus a couple of other little companies bought) in line with Level 3. Specifically, they sought to streamline the physical and virtual inventory of both companies. This massive project did not sound like fun. The technical aspects didn't seem to work up to my strengths. Regardless, i was plucked out of the VOIP/e911 world into this massive project which had even-changing focus and scope as it went along. At a couple points, the development work was fun. (i created an API for the third party Java application software and i learned a lot of TIBCO designer stuff.) But for the most part, our team's main task was debugging a third party application we bought to manage that physical and virtual inventory. Two-thirds of the application ran on Windows, so you KNOW that it had to be buggy and not that scalable. (True and true.) Even though there were a ton of platforms to test on, this buggy third party application was almost always broken on all platforms, and broken in different ways, causing multiple debugging and software-patching efforts. It was a joke, and it didn't feel funny stuck in the middle of the mess. A couple of other times they had me messing with Excel spreadsheets. (Oy.) My talents were being wasted and i wasn't having fun at all. Around December of 2007, i decided to start looking for a new job.

Our neighbors were starting to annoy the sh|t out of us. One neighbor, we called "the texans", were constantly surveying the borders of "their land" for whatever reason, sometimes messing with the border-delimiting stakes. Due to a lot of puddling of standing water back where our "houses" met, kellie was able to push the HOA to build french drains in between our "houses" to help the water run off and away from our foundations. Smart plan. It took a lot of effort to finally force the HOA to do it. On the day they were starting their effort, "the texans" called the police. IDIOTS. You're going to call the police to stop an effort to improve the drainage around your house to help maintain the value and solid foundation of your house?? Another neighbor was surprised our cat shredded her arm when that neighbor picked up our cat in the presence of her dog. (!) Ugh. Then there were the psycho-religious neighbors who were religious-snob-jerks to my wife constantly, including blasting religious talk radio whenever she was in earshot, to the point where i created a "f*ck god" playlist and jammed it everytime i came home. (Our garage was right by their driveway where they often hung out during the daytime.) i gave them a lot of dirty looks and attitude that said "quit f*cking with my wife or i'm gonna start f*cking back". Of course, prior to this was the winter with a ton of snow in which kellie helped them shovel out their driveway out of kindness to help the religious chick who was pregnant with twins.

Those neighbors represent just ANOTHER example fortifiying my opinion that i'm fine with religion and its beliefs and might share those beliefs, but i have a BIG PROBLEM with religious PEOPLE. It's how people express their religious beliefs that pisses me off. They have no right to bomb abortion clinics and force bible readings in public schools and blunt stem cell research in the name of their intepretation of religion. Stay the f*ck out of my face, wackos. I don't have the bible memorized but i'm pretty sure killing another person is a sin and that God generally preaches "do unto others as you'd have them do unto you". Basically, God says be respectful of others. The book of revelations even covers the need for separating church and state! You have a right to believe in your God as others have a right to believe in theirs, or none at all. Don't force Jesus or the bible on me. Don't shove racism in my face under the guise of stating one people don't have it any worse off than another. Most likely, JESUS CHRIST WAS BLACK, or dark-skinned. Back then, around Africa and the Mesopotamian region, most people's skin was tanned dark by the scorching sun. I'm also sick of politicians (like that f*cker Dumya) shoving their agenda in my face in the name of our country and its (religious) beliefs when the truth is he's after the almighty dollar waging war in the middle east. God is about Love, not about hating or disliking someone because of how they express their beliefs (or lack thereof). i also like those contradictory religious zealous, like those staunchly opposed to abortion because it's killing life yet war is a necessary evil. But i digress -- don't force your nonsense on me. If you believe in God or Buddha or another or none, express those beliefs around me as you will and that's fine and maybe expect a corroborating or dissenting opinion and discourse out of me. But don't tell your kids with a "better than thou" attitude that they can't play with my kid while blasting your jesus sneezes on the radio. nobody is better or worse than anyone else unless they commit crimes worthy of long prison stays. Your christian belief is based on an old book which has been retranslated many times over time, a book which was a journal by various authors.

What really pisses me off about the religious nutjob neighbors and their look-down-their-nose bullsh|t with Kellie is that Kellie went out of her way multiple times to help them. From digging them out of a big snowstorm while the neighbor was pregnant with twins to babysitting her kids in a pinch. That b|tch had no concept of being grateful. On short notice, i tried to help her dumbass husband cram a semester's worth of algebra/trig into a couple hours of pumping out the semester's test. Forget about not doing that for many years, what the f*ck was he thinking?? Then the nutjob chick asked that i help him with his computer, not telling me until i was upstairs with their daughter in my face THAT THE DAUGHTER HAD CHICKEN POX. This was just before a significant operation of mine. WHAT THE F*CK WERE THEY THINKING??!! Just of themselves of course. (i don't think that's taught in the bible.)

With neighbors like that, living in that Redleaf suburb seemed pointless. i was bound to run into some of these freaks while taking Sawyer to the playground. i don't want that psychological BS infecting my boy. Since early in 2007, we were trying to move out of that subdivision, which also made me wonder why i should go out of my way to be nice to some around there. There was always some drama with a neighbor. One was a religious neighbor sympathizer, so she was often a snob against Kellie (and Sawyer by extension). The religious neighbor chick really spread her BS across the neighborhood, basically attacking Kellie. She's not that smart either. She began to send Kellie religious (spam-like) emails and i've continually over time offered Kellie my services to spam the sh|t out of that nutjob -- i could throw an email bot out on a unix platform and loop that b|tch hourly or every minute and make her email UNUSABLE. But Kellie never took me up on it. One neighbor couple influenced by the religious f*cknut chick often acted distant around me. Then there was cement park, an ill-conceived "park" consisting of a bunch of cement rings amidst a lake of little rocks. Whose dumbass idea was that?? Sure, most of the park was open green space, but still, WTF? Yeah, let's have a bunch of little kids play in a lake of rocks decorated with big, weighty cement rings. OK.

So Broomfield was wearing thin on me. Our house was becoming increasingly small with a growing baby starting to crawl around the place. There were no neighbors to hang out with, myself or with kid in tow. The subdivision was dull. Broomfield was dull. The job grew increasingly more annoying and less challenging. Ontop of that, we (mostly Kellie) showed the house a lot with really no bites. All that constant cleaning was excruciating for me helping after work and on weekends, so Kellie must've been tortured cleaning the place for people that never showed interest. We made investments to help sell the place, like some patio-styled landscaping off our "porch". We eventually replaced the carpet. (thank you cats.) Broomfield was boring and wasn't drawing any takers. (duh) In hindsight, i'm glad we didn't sell our place in Broomfield because we would've probably bought another place in Broomfield (and that wouldn't've worked out come 2008 [*teaser alert*]). Broomfield is that pleasant, somewhat well-to-do and nice unattractive chick standing by herself in the corner with minimal personality and prospects.

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Only went to one concert, the debut year for the Monolith festival to see the Decemberists. i don't know what was up with Colin. We had good seats arriving around 2pm and holding our seat for the duration of main stage performances. I'm guessing he must've been drunk on the wine he was carrying around with him on stage because he forgot his lyrics on multiple occassions, needing to restart a song because he had a lyric brain freeze, only to restart with the same INCORRECT lyrics, he wandered a lot on stage, and talked too much heavy-handed politics during one song. Really don't know what his deal was that night. Jenny looked annoyed at times. Overall, the performance was good, but with all of these wine-induced scatterbrain moments, it was nowhere near as tight a set as that first Fox Theater show. Also caught Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! (slightly muddled delivery) and Kings of Leon (who came off like a rockin' interpol -- i really dug their performance and can see why the LCD crowd is into them). (LCD = lowest common denominator)

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Music-wise, 2007 was the year of THE BIG, LAST-MINUTE, SURPRISE RELEASE.

The year's first big contender for album of the year was released in March, from !!! called myth takes. I heard an "early" internet release in January and bought the expanded editition when it came out. myth takes was the first dance punk album i LOVED. Tracks #1-#6 are non-stop killer dance-rock party action. It sounds like a rockin' electronica album but all those instruments are organic. In my 2006 post i mentioned how the new, significant shift in my music listening preferences was an inclination to the more freaky side of indie music. I also postulated that maybe the new shift is actually more of an aversion to house/dance/idm/electronic music. Well, !!! combined both worlds and really catalyzed the momentum of both style interests. The albums starts "It only takes a little bit of glamour glimmer / only just a little bit of shake-or-shiver / nothing never matters 'til it's shattered / smothered and covered splattered all over manhattan / sha, sha, sha sha sha-doobie / sometimes it's really just like the movies" with a mellow, near muffled-talking delivery atop bass backbone. The song, and much of the album, has the feel of an electronica song; but it's all "organic" -- all real instruments going on -- guitar, bass, keys and drums. "all my heroes are weirdos" is one of three great songs on the album (along with "must be the moon" and "heart of hearts"). i like the "a capella" (with drums) about 2/3 of the way through and the delivery of "weirdos" at the chorus. Fun song, as is "must be the moon" with powers in with guitar & drums (but sounds like a dance tune) all about a hot one night stand stating " kissing in the cab on the way back cross the bridge / she said "love is love but a fuck is what it is" / "and what's that?" she must have read my mind / cuz she looked in2 my eyes and she said "a good time" ". It must be the moonLIGHT (and cool FX to close the song). I wish songs like this were played at the church & vinyl in all those years of clubbin'. "heart of hearts" is one of the multi-section songs i love. it creeps up slow, threatening to kick your arse, and then slowly does. the high-pitched guitar lurking in the background carries the song musically. The whole song churns with delight. It's simple lyrically, but a ton o' fun. The stammered "heart of hearts" eventually rolls into part 2 of the song and the musical spazz out. i love how the "heart of hearts" stammer ends in silence then that high-pitched guitar kicks the song back in. i love how the drums fight the guitars at the end. The first 6 songs kick arse (through "sweet life" and its "ABCD" alphabet soup chorus which was a mini-fav with bean & i) but with a little party reprieve at "yadnus"(god DID rest on the 7th day, right?) before one last top jam "bend over beethoven". i like the higher-register chorus of "a new name". Almost has a franz new wavey attitude with the guitar during the chorus and is so danceable, especially at the end of the song.

Arcade Fire's neon bible also came out in March, but !!! had a 2 month lead thanks to the internet leak. However, by the end of August, i decided i prefered neon bible to myth takes. The album sounds like it's near-bursting at the seems but remains restrained out of some sort of claustophobia. "black mirror" is a nice start to the album, with its building resentment of the black mirror, and "my body is a cage" is a nice dramatically gripping ballad (with church organ rising to "set my body free"), but the album's bookends are the car songs, "keep the car running" and "no cars go". Both have anthemic tendencies with rousing choruses and rousing build-up to the choruses, like "They know my name ‘cause I told it to them / But they don’t know where and they don’t know when / It’s coming" in "keep the car running". The rousing exhaltation reaches a climax at the climax of "no cars go". Interesting how such a simple song sounds so uplifting and anthemic. The church organ doesn't make a grand entrance until "intervention", the backbone of that song's procession, but there's some nice cascading guitar which pitches up amidst lyrics and vocals that attempt to uplift the soldier, the family man, the everyman, who is obviously under peril: "Every spark of friendship and love / Will die without a home". (Against, nice female backing vox.) Some more shimmering/cascading guitar in "ocean of noise". Outside of the car songs, my next favorites are "black wave / bad vibrations", with its split personality and female LEADING vox (they need more of this), and the run to from the memories before the split personality takes over into "bad vibrations", and "(antichrist television blues)" with its "god fearing man" struggling to do what is right. i love the finality of "bad vibrations" part with the deep drum and lyrics "Nothing lasts forever / That's the way it's gotta be / There's a great black wave in the middle of the sea". (Again, nice haunting background female fox.) The tough call was choosing which album i liked better, funeral or neon bible. At the time, it was neon bible. But now, i think funeral has the edge because it feels more expansive and experimental. The church organ does neon bible well, but also limits their instrumental palette a bit. Not a clunker on either album though -- can't wait for the next one!

As i reaffirmed my opinion of neon bible being my favorite album of the year through the month of September, October approached and some out-of-nowhere music news shocked the internet and my eyes. THE BIG, LAST-MINUTE, SURPRISE RELEASE? On October 1st, Radiohead announced they'd release a new album on October 10th called in rainbows, available as MP3s on the internet (by the way of "name your own price")!!! WTF OMFG??!!! This album is PACKT. My theory is they had to know the "name your own price" could overshadow the music and put that much more effort into this puppy, because in rainbows is the best radiohead since kid amnesiac. The album starts off with an engaging drum riff and bass that jazz out with fidgety energy not heard of in a radiohead opener before -- "15 step" is the best opening radiohead song ever, all building to the chorus that started the song off of "How come I end up where I started? / How come I end up where I went wrong / Won't take my eyes off the ball again / You reel me out and you cut the string." (And the kids cheering is a fun touch.) And then they hit me with "bodysnatchers" and that churning guitar riff introducing more fear and paranoia from Thom ("I am trapped in this body and can't get out"). If it weren't for the lyrics, I'd swear this was a happy radiohead for a happier age based on the energy of the first two tracks. Then they drop "nude", also known as "big idea" to long-time radiohead fans, a song they've been kicking around since around "ok computer". They slow this version down and make it a bit eerie, which works well. I just wish Thom added a little more nervous tension delivering line "you'll go to hell for what your dity mind is thinkin'". But his intensity building to the high note makes up for that. I first heard "weird fishes / arpeggi" on a radiohead internet boot and i like the studio version better. i love the drumwork (which is pretty good throughout the album) and the mystic "pyramid song" quality to thom's vocals and lyrics ("in the deepest ocean / bottom of the sea / your eyes / they turn me"). "all i need" slows it down and, for radiohead, sounds like a love song ("I am in the middle of your picture / Lying in the reeds") in that tortured, stalking tradition (ala police's "every breath you take"), but when the piano kicks in and thom exalts in high notes, the song goes from good radiohead song to majestic, if only for that near-minute. "faust arp" is this album's segue, pensive and beautiful with its strings and thom's soft delivery. "reckoner" is another radiohead song that's been around a little while and i think, while it's a beautiful song, they played it too conservative. This one could've been more fierce. However, "house of cards" is the only song i'd truly rework and is a comparative lull after a stellar opening 7 tracks. (i'd replace this song with "down is the new up" from the bonus CD.) But "jigsaw falling into place" snaps us back into energetic radiohead mode and is probably my favorite track on the album. Everything they do great on this album can be summed up by "jigsaw" -- upbeat song with great energy, fine drumming, strong bass in back, a strong song lyrically with the usual fear/paranoia (everything seems fine until "comatose"), great energy and delivery from thom (who manages to match the energy by the band throughout the album). i love the foreboding in the last song. Nice closer. Not as great as the radiohead holy trinity, but a very good album and has a good shot at top 10 of the 00s.

So basically Arcade Fire was robbed at the last minute by Radiohead, the first artist to score a #1 dellrock album with an album released AFTER the first week of July since i've been keeping track (since radiohead's ok computer). Arcade Fire should sue. In happier news, if Arcade Fire puts out another very-good-to-great album, then they'll secure a spot in my top 5 favorite current artists, currently topped by...Radiohead.

EFS 666: Won my 2 games fairly handliy with 471 points. I'm now 11-0 and have a few points lead in the $100 battle for top team points prize. Next-closest division rival is 7-4. Next-closest team in the league is 9-2. I play 6-5 div rival Liberty Vultures next in my first game without top-2 TE Owen Daniels, who is out for the year. I'm now glad i did not trade Heath Miller for Santonio Holmes and a pick. (We couldn't agree on a pick.) This makes my Heath-for-a-#3 trade just before the season started look that much better as Heath was about 4ppg behind Owen before Owen went down. I have Greg Olsen then Pettigrew behind Heath.

EFS 1000: Split my games to go 5-5-1. i'm about 1.5 games out of 1st in my division, but he has a 3-0 div record where i have a 1-2 div record; meaning that i'll need to sweep my remaining 3 divisional games & he needs to lose all 3 to have a good chance. Otherwise, he needs to lose 3 more games than me somewhere in the next 7 games. Doubtful. I'm probably not going to make the playoffs in 2009 in year #4 of my ORC experiment. The only good news to that is that i have my own 2010 picks.

EFS 12: Lost against div rival Hegemon. He's first in the division. We've split our 2 games so far with 1 left to play. Right now i'm seed #6. If i just beat all the teams i should beat, i'll make the playoffs. But i am a little worried as my team's scoring has fallen flat often this year. Most likely i'm looking at an opening wildcard loss.

EFS 7: Split my games. I'm 5-6 and most likely missing the playoffs. (Probably would've missed the playoffs even if i didn't have inactive guys in week 1 vs Dem Bones.) Starting a fire sale to pick up value before the week 10 trade deadline. The good news is that i've improved this team about 30ppg in one season. With the EFS regular season about 2/3 done, i'm not that excited about this orphan pickup. This doesn't have to do with the team performance but more to do with league activity, which was fairly non-existent until the season started (outside of the draft).

So beginning in 1988, my music tastes have gone through a significant change approximately every 6 years. In 1988, i started listening to a lot more rap/r&b/hip-hop. In 1994, i let the alternative music scene flood in. Around 2000, i started delving much deeper into the world of indie music. So for 2006?

Well, the change in 2006 was a lot more subtle than previous years. Beginning even a few years earlier, i started delving more into the freaky side of indie music. I started listening to artists like the Unicorns (then the Islands), devendra banhart, why?, of montreal, deerhoof, animal collective, tv on the radio and !!! and a bunch of other artists further out from the center of "typical indie rock/pop". Albums by artists like these haven't really turned up in these retrospective reviews (except for the Unicorns and Of Montreal), but a few songs turn up in the 2006 top singles chart and my appreciation for these indie freaks have grown over time to where they've recently challenged for overall #1. Give a listen to the songs on my countdown from deerhoof, clap your hands say yeah!, tv on the radio and islands to know how "out there" my music tastes were(are) headed.

Buuuuuut, i'm not thoroughly convinced right now that the significant music change around 2006 had to do with heavier leanings on freaky indie music. The brit new wavy stuff of the killers, white rose movement, franz ferdinand, bloc party, maximo park and razorlight brought new emphasis to another genre that started to grow with me -- dance punk. All of those artists have a dance element to their indie rock grooves. Combined with artists like interpol and the stills, then filtered through artists like the rapture and !!!, my indie/IDM/house/dance/electronic preferences became stronger, to the point where the dellrock countdown experienced its FIRST dance album at #1 in 2008 [*teaser alert*].

So i'm not sure if the "6 year music shift" is as applicable for 2006. I think part of the problem is that it's still so fairly recent that i don't have proper (personal) historical perspective yet. Or maybe there is no significant shift anymore. As of 2006, my biological career eclipsed 35 so maybe there's no more room for musical appreciation growth anymore.

But for all the new weird music that's present on the top songs of 2006 countdown, there's still a lot of tame indie pop stuff like jenny lewis with the watson twins, ben kweller and belle & sebastian. 2006 saw the last huzzah for depeche mode and the debut of artist like we are scientists, islands, voxtrot and panic! at the disco, among many others.

I noticed that there were a handful of songs that weren't from my favorite albums of 2006. A few retrospective years ago, a lot of songs on my singles countdown were plucked one-at-a-time because of my eligibility rules that had yet to be modified to reflect more current tastes. By 2006, i had been working my countdown under those new eligibility rules for a few years, and by that time with so many new albums passing through my ears, a lot of songs from those indie albums became eligible. Thus, this resulted in a lot of singles making my end-of-year chart that weren't necessarily from my favorite albums of the year (or year before). Pretty Girls Make Graves, while they put out a good album, fall into this category with two hot singles on my 2006 chart.

A lot of these songs remind me of Broomfield, for good and bad; mostly listening to these songs while exercising walking pushing Sawyer on the stroller around the subdivision. Oh Broomfield, the quaint little Denver/Boulder overflow with a generally-nice populace but no true identity or scene to make it much fun.

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Since i recoded my dellrock application from cold fusion to ASP, i used a separate popup window to list out the "top eligible debuters" for my weekly singles countdown. However, the list of songs to review often eclipsed 30, sometimes 40 songs. This was a ton to keep track of outside of my weekly top 10. I intended to remember which songs were my favorites "just outside of the top 10" week-to-week, but to keep track of 40 songs was a little much. As a result, i decided to expand the number of songs i kept track of from a weekly top 10 to a weekly top 20. This would keep track of those 10 songs 11-through-20 which were just outside of the top 10. In keeping an accurate account of songs 11-through-20, i soon decided that i could now use the top 20 to determine my favorite songs of the year. And so i started doing so. For the sake of the top 36 songs in this post, i stayed consistent with all the other posts from 1984-on and only counted the weekly top 10s of 2006. (the weekly top 20 -based end-of-year countdown has the top pretty girls make graves song as the 2006 #1.)

i also expanded the albums airplay weekly top 20 to not only be consistent, but because the # of albums new to my years had expanded to about one-a-day. it was nuts how much new-to-my-ears music i was listening to. about 75% of that was new music.

dellrock's top 36 singles airplay of 2006:

Pos.	Title	Artist	Total
1.	another sunny day	belle and sebastian	111
2.	gone	kanye west	110
3.	pyrite pedestal	pretty girls make graves	91
4.	handle with care	jenny lewis with the watson twins	90
5.	girl in the war	josh ritter	88
6.	insistor	tapes 'n tapes	86
7.	i will follow you into the dark	death cab for cutie	81
8.	o, valencia!	the decemberists	80
9.	parade	pretty girls make graves	75
10.	take a chance	the magic numbers	75
11.	the only difference between martyrdom and suicide is press coverage	panic! at the disco	73
12.	hold on, hold on	neko case	66
13.	wolf like me	tv on the radio	64
14.	touch the sky	kanye west	63
15.	your biggest fan	voxtrot	62
16.	white collar boy	belle and sebastian	62
17.	starlight	muse	61
18.	this isn't farmlife	the essex green	53
19.	apply some pressure	maximo park	52
20.	she doesn't get it	the format	52
21.	the charging sky	jenny lewis with the watson twins	49
22.	crooked teeth	death cab for cutie	46
23.	rough gem	islands	45
24.	turn out the light	the new amsterdams	44
25.	in the crossfire	starsailor	44
26.	nobody move, nobody get hurt	we are scientists	44
27.	cheated hearts	yeah yeah yeahs	43
28.	a pain that i'm used to	depeche mode	42
29.	penny on the train track	ben kweller	40
30.	you are what you love	jenny lewis with the watson twins	39
31.	the blues are still blue	belle and sebastian	38
32.	is this love?	clap your hands say yeah!	37
33.	letter to bowie knife	calexico	35
34.	my favorite mutiny	the coup	35
35.	rrrrrrright	deerhoof	35
36.	the island / come and see / the landlord's daughter / you'll not feel the drowning	the decemberists	35

Going back to the decemberists, once kellie became a big fan and i told her about the great concert at the Fox Theater, she wanted to see them. We went to the paramount downtown, where i last saw Ryan Adams about 12 rows back from stage. The audience (around me) was so respectful that i never had to stand to see Ryan -- sat to enjoy the whole show. The Decemberists show didn't go the same way -- everyone was standing from the moment it seemed like the group was coming on stage. Kellie, in heels, thought she'd be able to sit, so that sucked for her. Then, Colin pulled up lame with laryngitis, cutting the show short. He was rasping through all the songs and it was apparent he was struggling, but to give up on a show?? Kellie & i left disappointed.

In my first full year out of denver, i was psychologically out of the used CD element. i don't think i went to a cheapo disc (one closed) or twist and shout (which moved to colfax) once. I missed those stops if just to browse the music looking for the occassional gem. Used CD stores were replaced by ebay and half.com, emusic.com and the occassional best-buy-rewards-gift-certificate-funded new CD. That trend has basically carried on to today.

2006 is when i decided to "formally" ditch paladisiac.com and start posting to a blog. i tried blogger.com and this livejournal thing (and another that escapes me now) and never considered "myspace". (rupert murdoch is republican swine.) i tried out a couple posts on each to assess how well each site could capture what i wanted to post. In the end, livejournal's editor was easier to use to post standard HTML. But i wasn't that impassioned to do the blog thing and left the site alone for over a year (or more).

The coincidental trend of my favorite albums of 2006 was multiple associations to animals. From the crane wife to rabbit fur coat to foxes and dogs and fishes and goats and the bird on the calexico cover and the loon, i'm wondering if the eff bee aye put me on a watch list thinking i joined ALF.

Please forgive me for the more-brief album reviews this time around. I had the swine flu all last week, missing work, and don't have the usual time and energy for these reviews. Speaking of reviews, here's the rest of the best of 2006...

down with wilco was a pretty cool album for the minus 5 and, given my swelling love of wilco, i didn't think they'd be able to top it. But in they came with their self-titled album, referred to as the gun album (because of the gun on the cover). They start off classy with "rifle called goodbye" before laying into the banger "aw shit man", their most balls-out rocker yet. "out there on the maroon" is witty fun starting "i had 6 white russians tonight / and 2 of them were people / it's not pretty when your best friend is a saloon / and you're always out there on the maroon". haha. "my life is a creep" is a piano jaunt with a more serious take on the same wit where there's "no film crew for my life as a creep" (and the guy's "not supremely evil"). "with a gun" is an upbeat, acoustic piece where "i'll kick your sister's ass / i'm gonna take your brother's face and smash it in the grass / it's no wonder i'm spiral-bound / i just want to be around". A big part of the selling point of down with wilco and this album is the subtle lyrical humor, delivered atop a bed of indie-laden acoustic jams. It's like hanging out with some funny musician friends after hitting the bars for a couple hours that are serious about their careers but have the humor and self-deprecation to have a little fun at their own (and the people around them) expense while jamming during some after-bar drinks at their apartment. It's kinda like if the barenaked ladies focused a little more on their musicicianship and perfecting song structure and did less cornball ham-ups. "cemetery row" breaks through the entire album for a number of reasons. The song sounds simple and elegant. The lead vocals are handled by Colin Meloy (of the decemberists) seemingly singing in the lyrical context of a decemberist tune but without the houghty air. He delivers the song in earnest and the song has that much more power (ala beauty in darkness) because of it. This would be a standout track on a decemberists song, even with its simple song structure and slide guitar. i like how the backing vocals are handled. "cemetary row isn't such a bad place / don't you wanna go?" Wonderful choice in Colin to sing this song and he contains himself for a beautifully, understated performance (for him). (If his vocal affectations put you off, he holds those back too.) In "twilight distilliery", the additional harmonies ("we're gonna be there soon") help punctuate the sing-along nature of this otherwise plain indie-rocker. "cigs, coffee, booze" is all you need in one song where "your mama knew it and now i know it too" (more slide guitar). Some more subtle humor: "i never want to let you go / and that's why i bought a rope" (song = "bought a rope"). haha. With "leftover life" being the only "slow/filler" moment on the album, i'd still state this as the #3 album from 2006. Given the group's r.e.m. tie, i find it interesting that this group has flourished at about the time where r.e.m. took to the AC sh|tter. (r.e.m.'s up in 1998 was the beginning of the end...the first album for the minus 5 from there was down with wilco...)


The rabbit fur coat album from jenny lewis with the watson twins (that jenny lewis from rilo kiley) is a very understated, yet witty cross-in-cheek album exploring religion, its pursuers and false idols. "rise up with fists!!!" is the early centerpiece telling little synopses tales "Like when you wake up behind the bar / Trying to remember where you are / Having crushed all the pretty things / There but for the grace of God, go I ". The watson twin harmonies are like her conscious or maybe angels from heaven who've almost hung around earth long enough (see "city of angels") that they're numbed to our plight. Same religious tussle on "the charging sky". going to church because "it's a surefire bet I'm gonna die / So I'm taking up praying on Sunday nights / And it's not that I believe in your almight / But I might as well as insurance or bail" (like a lot of old people). There are a couple of songs in a row that'll warm your heart's cockles, ending with "you are what you love" (and "not what loves you back"), a song about fighting feeling all alone, sung as "Because we live in a house of mirrors / We see our fears and everything / Our songs, faces, and second hand clothes / But more and more we're suffering / Not nobody, not a thousand beers / Will keep us from feeling so all alone" and i like the chorus of "I'm in love with illusions / So saw me in half / I'm in love with tricks / So pull another rabbit out your hat". haha. There's even a good cover of the Traveling Wilburys "Handle With Care" featuring guest spots from ben gibbard, conor oberst and m.ward. Jenny Lewis is quite charming hear and brings the wit and topicality you'd find on a rilo kiley album, but strips the songs away to their base content and her pretty voice, then adds on watson twin harmonies in just the right places to give me a surprise 2006 find.

Josh Ritter's the animal years starts off with a girl in the war" crying "paul said to peter 'you gotta rock yourself a little harder' / pretend the dove from above is a dragon and your feet are on fire". That sets the tone for the whole album. There are some beautiful lines on this one song alone, like this closing sentiment: "Paul her eyes are like champagne / They sparkle bubble over and in the morning all you got is rain ". There's a weight to even scanning through the (am?) radio on "monster ballads" -- "Out on the desert now / I'm feeling lost The bonnet wears a wire albatross / Monster ballads and the stations of the cross / Sighing just a little bit / Smiling just a little bit ". "thin blue flame" has the weight of a closing album (or concert) track, with its cymbals and piano crashing in near the middle leaving 2:30 at the end to restretch the song and close with piano & cymbals and "only a full house". It's all singer-songwriter, indie (folk) rock with ballads and upbeat numbers (see "lillian, egypt" and "good man") galore. It's a very, subtley sweet album. Beginning late in 2006 or sometime in 2007, i began adding neighborhood walks to my exercise regimen, pushing sawyer along ahead of me in a stroller. This was probably the first album i played in full. This album will always remind me of those walks and that Broomfield subdivision. Song "good man", with its upbeat trot to a chorus that sums the song up as "Babe we both had dry spells / Hard times in bad lands / I'm a good man for ya", was a good song to walk fast too. But it's more an album of chilling at home and playing cards with family than an exercise album. Wish i could've seen this guy perform somewhere between 2006 & 2007.

If blacklisted tried to seduce you, then neko's fox confessor brings the flood tries to speak to your mind. Of course, it's that voice that i keep coming back for and by the time "hold on, hold on" kicks in, my mind's mush. It's the devil she loves, singing "I leave the party at three a.m. / Alone, thank God / With a valium from the bride / It's the devil I love" with a place in her heart for strangers. (i'm coming, neko!) There are some beautiful, echoing self-provided harmonies (like on "a widow's toast") that give more credence to her producer's claim that she's one of only 2 he's worked with (neko & nelly furtado) that have never used any form of auto tune. She has a majestic voice that can just as easily swoon you into bed as it can pile-drive a knee into your groin. The desparation is shallow, but palpable when she sings "I don't care if forever never comes" holding out for "that teenage feeling". "john saw that number" is a jaunty little number with an actual chorus-sounding bit about an angel sent from God to check on John the Baptist: "So he flew from the pit with the moon round his waist / Gathered wind in his fists so the stars round his wrists / Cryin' holy, holy to the lord ". Other highlights include "dirty knife" and the beautiful "maybe sparrow" ("Maybe sparrow / It’s too late / The moonlight glanced off metal wings / In a thunderstorm above the clouds / The engine hums a sparrow’s phrase "). I prefer the passion of blacklisted or the energy she brings to the first 2 new pr0n albums, but this album's pretty good too.

i've described listening to the format by dog problems as a fun day at the carnival, with its ferris wheel of easy pleasure and cotton candy and (beanbag) games that are more about playing than winning. "matches" musically kinda sounds like a carnival opening or walking into a baseball game. That subtle track segues nicely into the procession in "i'm actual", laying out himself singing "Can we take the next hour and talk about me?" "time bomb" is worth it just for the catchy chorus and drumwork alone. "she doesn't get it" has the air and exhaltation of a warm, breezy summer day. Hints of big star in "pick me up". There's a common feeling across songs that things didn't work out but i still hope to see you again, remaining happy throughout, as on "oceans". "snails" is the catchy centerpiece simply declaring "Snails see the benefits / The beauty in every inch / Oh why, why, why, why, oh, why / Are you quick to kiss?". Okay, i take that back -- "the compromise" is the fuzz beat master. "inches and falling" sounds like it's closing the big top ceremoniously loving love and loving being in love.

The girl talk albums, like 2006's night ripper, are difficult to critique. The guy just uses a computer and music samples from a wide array of pop to create new song (mixes). (i guess there are a few drum fills.) Then there's the choice of samples, here theres a bunch of 90s/00s hip hop with 70s/80s pop. There are the mixes themselves, like when Gillis mixes notorious big with elton john's "tiny dancer" or mixing the "i love you" part of "silly love songs" against 2 live crew's chorus to "we want some pussy" (!). Some of those mixes are quite inspired. Then there's discussion as to the definition of songs, why they exist and if this would've simply've been best served as one long party jam a la prince's lovesexy. Then there's discussion as to liking this music is more being fond of the underlying samples and reminiscing on the underlying music, as opposed to attributing worth to the end result. Then there's dicussion about how much talent it takes to weave these jams. You don't need to know how to play an (traditional) instrument or sing. You need some good software, good talent for that software, and a very good ear. (i tried making my own mixes unsucessfully, inspired by girl talk -- it's not easy!) Is the sum of the parts a collage of the parts are a brand new whole? These are a lot of topics to wade through to determine how much i like this album compared to the other stuff of 2006 because it's simply not a "typical album". One way to answer is that since 2006 girl talk has been, between this and his 2008 release, one of my most-listened to artists (thanks last.fm). It's party music. It's time capsule music. It's a dj mix. It's an amalgam of different pop styles that create a new pop style/genre. But most of all it's fun, and in those rare times the mixes aren't that good, they're over in seconds. This is the music of the mp3 generation; take that as you will.

get lonely is probably my favorite album from the mountain goats. Most of his albums are fairly fascinating character sketches, but get lonely feels like more of a personal tale; there's a lot more introspection amidst the loneliness, as on "wild sage" where "somebody stops to pick me up, / but he drops me off just down the block. / and along the highway where the empty sprits breathed, / wild sage growing in the weeds." Nothing but Darnielle and open road desolation. Title track sums up the content -- "I will get lonely and gasp for air.". In "moon over goldsboro" Darnielle does "spend all night in the company of ghosts, always wake up alone". Darnielle chronicles the first day after a breakup in "woke up new" confessing "on the morning when I woke up without you for the first time, / I felt free. / and I felt lonely. / and I felt scared." and "the first time I made coffee for just myself, / I made too much of it. / but I drank it all, / just 'cause you hate it when I let things go to waste." in an "everyman" post-breakup morning after, very human and believable and sympathizable. The other "hit"-sounding song is the third track "half dead" starting "it was raining outside, so I cleaned house today. / spent half of the morning throwing old things away." in the remnants of a break-up later singing "what are the years we gave each other ever gonna be worth?" There's a wolf at the door in "if you see light" where our narrator confides "when the villagers come to my door, / I will hide underneath the table in the dining room" With John Vanderslice co-producing, if you like John's stuff think of Mountain Goats as a little more lo-fi, acoustic version. But it's not that simple -- the songs here (and on other mountain goats albums) permeate a worldliness not found on a Vanderslice album. He's been on a good run from 2000's the coroner's gambit and on, and if you like get lonely, there's a good chance you'll like the rest of his albums in that timespan.

the essex green provide precious indie pop with on cannibal sea as heard on the best 2 hits found at the beginning, "this isn't farmlife" and "don't know why (you stay)". it's a male/female paradigm where they take turns leading. "rue de lis" and "uniform" ("Of all that can hurt in a uniform / Why do yourself when you could do worse?") are two more fun songs with uniform. This music doesn't really stand out but is pretty good on its own. They sort of remind me of the rosebuds.

ghostface killah (of wu-tang clan fame) announces his arrival on fishscale from "shakey dog" on, with its triumphant synth-horns opening the way for ghost to spit "Fasten your seat belts, I'm a take y'all on some real shit". I'm not much into rap and i've wondered, when i am into a rap album, exactly why is it? With Ghostface i think it's the tough-as-a-barking-pitbull lyrics and samples and accompanying bravado. He also brings some hilarious ideas like on "kilo" and "the champ". "kilo" has some background honies telling you "a kilo is a thousand grams, easy to remember". it's a pro-drug, pro-dealin' song served levity by the female vox interspersed throughout the song as raekwon tells you "You know your ammo better be heavy 'cause soon kids is coming in camo / Protect your land daddy, I'm an announcer / you get caught with an ounce and its over / matter 'fact they takin you down, son". "The champ" starts off with a Rocky sample setting up ghostface for a comeback saying he hasn't "been hungry since supreme clientele" bringing the pre-boxing party atmosphere while trying to fortify his rep: "Revenge is my arts is crafty darts / While y'all stuck on Laffy Taffy / Wonderin' how y'all niggaz get past me / I been doin this before Nas dropped the Nasty". I find the "bad mouth kid (skit)" pretty funny. "whip you with a strap" is old-school parenting, and "back like that" is new-school r&b inflected featuring ne-yo. i like the synth sound in "jellyfish" ("she must be a special ladieeeeeeeeeeee"). Back to the question of, why am i into THIS rap album? The attitude, the samples and some of the rhymes. In retrospect (as is part of the purpose of all these blog posts), i'm not as big on this album now as 2006. Maybe part of the appeal was the "new album" factor.

garden ruin is calexico's least-instrumental album (there are no instrumentals!), keeping the same latin-inflected musicianship they've become known for, focusing more on song that orchestrating songs, garden ruin is probably the most pop-accessible. I call this alt-mariachi. I agree with allmusic.com that they've moved more into wilco or iron&wine territory on this album, incorporated more "pop" elements into their msuic. On "cruel", with trademark calexico horns, the world's so cruel that "Birds refuse to fly / No longer trust the sky / Drifting out beyond the signals / Even the horizon is gone / Weather flees underground". "bisbee blue"'s warm melody gives the song a lazy summer day. "roka" is an inviting dance of death ("Just close our eyes / Pretend we forget / North country dreams / Twist this dance of death"), partially sung in spanish. i love the harmonies in "lucky dime". These songs feel well-worn and ragged yet strikingly pretty, like a flowering cactus on the side of a hot, old, dusty road. Most songs are somewhat hushed, especially vocally, but "letter to bowie knife" brings the roaring mustang down that old, dusty road with the closest thing to a catchy chorus ("it's too late") and guitar riff on the album. "deep down" also brings the rock as does the storm of "all systems red" ("When the dread is flowing down my veins / I want to tear it all down and build it up again").

With tapes 'n tapes the loon, this is indie pop with college-age sensibilities. There's a lot of compressed fuzz and feedback on this album. "insistor" is the charging BOMB ("And when you rush I'll call your name / Like Harvard Square holds all inane / And don't you know I'll be your badger") while "crazy eights" is a chugging, distorted hum-along. "cowfire" comes with spitfire atop a fast-strummed acoustic number. Despite the short review, this is a good album.

white rose movement's kick is not to be confused with the one from inxs. this album is in the brit new wave mold. They remind me of an 80s synth-pop band with a touch of gloom. Maybe naked eyes meets the cure filtered through franz ferdinand. (a couple times on this album i want to start singing "promises, promises, do you never keep?") Listening now, i think they don't take the best of that amalgamation. Some backing music is eerie but doesn't take on a life of its own -- the music is the most engaging when they ratchet up the guitars. The lyrics are pretty non-specific, like in "deborah carne": "Passer by don't catch her eye / Just leave her on her own". There's a good air of energy on this album buoyed by the new wavey sound making this a good album (and that's it).

"to go home" is a good place to start with m. ward in general and post-war in specific. He plays indie folk/rock, singer-songwriter material that tugs equally at the head and heart. The production's a little gritty and his vocals are a little down in the mix, emphasizing the musicianship. But the lyrics are mostly upbeat, like in "to go home": "God, it's great to be alive / takes the skin right off my hide / to think I'll have to give it all up someday". "chinese translation" has a funky groove and, if it weren't performed so understatedly, this song could easily have been a "radio hit" with its singable "what do you do with the pieces of a broken heart?" chorus. It's a good album, but not remarkable enough to merit this 2006 review...

I didn't care much for the eraser by thom yorke when it first came out. I mean, i liked it, but the eraser just seemed like a bunch of kid amnesiac outtakes. It's very synth and computer-process heavy, outlining bleak landscapes as you'd imagine on either kid a or amnesiac but also allowing for some openness not found on those radiohead albums. Some of these songs do remind me of a simplified "like spinning plates" or "pyramid song", which is the ultimate compliment. Listening to these songs now, they're pretty good by themselves. Check the bass in "black swan" or the mood of "the clock". i like the driving, spectral gloom of "and it rained all night". This album presents a consistent, and sometimes overwhelming mood.

dellrock's top 13 albums airplay of 2006:

Pos.	Title	Artist	Total
1.	the life pursuit	belle and sebastian	384
2.	the minus 5	the minus 5	294
3.	rabbit fur coat	jenny lewis with the watson twins	191
4.	late registration	kanye west	173
5.	the crane wife	the decemberists	173
6.	the animal years	josh ritter	143
7.	fox confessor brings the flood	neko case	134
8.	jacksonville city nights	ryan adams & the cardinals	124
9.	dog problems	the format	105
10.	kick	white rose movement	86
11.	fishscale	ghostface killah	77
12.	the loon	tapes 'n tapes	77
13.	cannibal sea	the essex green	72

EFS 666: Narrowly won against the last division rival. I've beaten all three. I'm 9-0 and the next-closest divisional team is 6-3. At the halfway mark, i like my chances of making the playoffs. I still have improvements to make, most notably at RB where i'm relying on LDT. Otherwise, my team's pretty solid.

EFS 1000: Lost my divisional game, now about 3 games out of the div lead. It's looking more and more like i should be planning on a good draft pick out of my original first round pick. My problems have been quality and depth at DE, QB and WR. With a good shot at having the overall #1 pick next year, i think i'll address not ever having a true franchise QB in this league since my rookie experiment began in the 2010 draft.

EFS 12: split my 2 games. I'm on schedule to make the playoffs as wildcard seed #5 or #6. Based on who i've lost against, i'm going to need some luck and good matchups to do anything once the playoffs begin.

EFS 7: Lost again. I'm 3-6 with little chance of making the playoffs. This team is still too weak at DE, LB, TE and WR to have a shot, even after my pickup of Randy Moss. I could sell out the team's draft picks to make a run of the second half of the schedule, but it'd take a lot of pieces. I'm inclined to work with what i have, maybe pick up some good bargains at the trade wire, maybe trade away some spare parts for picks, then see what 2010 holds. (i'm still planning on letting this team go to the orphan bucket and saving my $ since EFS doesn't reimburse me anymore.)

What hasn't been said about the impact of one's first child? Gamechanger, life-changer, diaper-changer, etc. I'm sure anything that i would add would add nothing to what has already been stated billions of times. Phrases like "nothing is like it" and "your life will never be the same" are both quite true.

Across the 9 months, Kellie only had about 1 week where she didn't feel terrible for some pregnancy-related reason. Part of the reason was explained by bean's full head of hair on birth.

Unfortunately for Kellie, Sawyer didn't want to leave. On the day we scheduled, Sawyer just wouldn't come out after hours of being induced. Stubborn kid (still is!). Finally, kellie called "C" and the bean was born. "Sawyer WR Rockey", nicknamed "bean". (Not stating his whole name, just in case.)

I was in love with him the first moment i saw him (and all of his dark hair). After i cut the cord and they cleaned him off, i met the bean at what i call the incubation waiting room -- walled-off glass (?) cribs with a heat lamp on top of each to keep babies warm. Kellie was still being sewn up. i just talked to the newly-born bean, taking some pictures.

The first few weeks and months were a struggle just to wake up every 3 hours (kellie & i took "shifts") and it was tough watching him because he had to be watched for every -little- thing. (Were the pillows TOO soft?? How warm is that milk?) At first, we kept him beside our bed. Eventually, he had a room (and crib) all his own.

But the bean was an equal part joy & scare. He really wanted to skip crawling and just stand up, eventually compromising by climbing the stairs whenever he wanted to. He skipped "sippy cups" and went straight to a regular cup-and-straw. Always had to remember to pull up the crib wall (Forgot sometimes.) Needed to keep a constant quantity of bottles ready. Certain amount and duration of naps a day. ... My favorite part was probably the end-of-day rock-to-sleep (although it didn't always manage to put him to sleep). I'd walk him upstairs after. If not asleep, i'd rock him in my arms singing some baby song by the window.

Kellie bought me some "baby books", and while they were good for information, they generally didn't cover all the nuances, like kissing a baby on the lips as he vomits, or bean's tendency to talk with himself for a while after waking up from an afternoon nap. All of those naps.

We were told early on that kids don't develop humor for a while, but Bean was telling his own jokes soon enough, saying "something" then thinking it was funny. He is a very happy kid. It's tough for me to write about the Bean "of 2006" without think of him now. He's still plenty young.

So i'll talk about the Bean of now. His favorite color is still purple. He loves cars (plus Cars TM). He has the most adorable, warm, brown eyes. He gives the best hugs (when he's handing them out). He's currently in swimming and spanish classes (at age 3). I asked him about 4 months ago what he wanted to be for halloween and it's always been "a fireman". It took him forever to potty train, but when he did, he basically drop-kicked his mini-potty after only a couple days, using ours most of the time thereafter. He now loves to ride his tri/bike around our house. He loves it when i sit and watch cartoons with him. He used to love brocolli, now doesn't. He's always disliked lettuce and rice. He loves playing cars with me, having me push him on the swings and playing "throw and catch". These are are simple, common, ordinary things you've heard a billion times before. But speaking as myself from the P.O.V. of myself, these things i now cherish. With my affliction, i don't know how many hugs & kisses and ball-tosses are left, so i try to cherish each one. Sure, he can be frustrating. But at the end of the day, i see my sleeping bean possibly dreaming of all he has before him and i pull a cover up on him if he needs it. That's what he means to me.

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The surprise winner of 2006's "album of the year" went to the ultra indie-pop of belle & sebastian. On the life pursuit, they perfected everything they did well on dear catastrophe waittress. Every song seems riddled with a broad smile and a wide ray of sunshine. "act of the apostle" is an elegant introductory number singing "Oh, if I could make sense of it all! / I wish that I could sing / I'd stay in a melody / I would float along in my everlasting song / What would I do to believe?" at the chorus. "another sunny day" is the song you take your girl by the hand and skip out to the park to, singing "Another sunny day, I met you up in the garden / You were digging plants, I dug you, beg your pardon / I took a photograph of you in the herbaceous border / It broke the heart of men and flowers and girls and trees" with some pretty harmonies as if a couple singing together. "white collar boy" sounds like the more-serious fallout from DCW's "step into my office, baby" running from the law with "dirt in your pants / She got egg in your hair / You got spit in your chin". "the blues are still blue" is a soothing, laid-back number basically saying "i'm cooler than cooler" because my "blues are still blue". "sukie in the graveyard" and "we are sleepyheads" are two other fun upbeat numbers, as in "She had a slut slave and his name was Dave / She said ‘Be my photo bitch and I'll make you rich'" (in "sukie"). "funny little frog" seems like a song written by a grade-schooler, except it just so warm and fun, especially that muted-shimmering guitar, singing "Honey, lovin' you is the greatest thing, / I get to be myself and I get to sing, / I get to play at being irresponsible, / I come home late and love your soul". The start of "the act of the apostle ii" reminds me of r.e.m.'s "nightswimming" before slowing down into its intimate acoustic number gone piano number then slipping into something more of a 70s elton john experience in the final minute. Not a dud on the album, if you're into this sort of twee. If "your cover's blown" was released on this album instead of an in-between albums EP, then this would be a great album. Otherwise, it'll be tough to top.

Part of the surprise was that the decemberists's the crane wife didn't run away with "album of the year" following achieving that feat with previous album picaresque. the crane wife, MY wife's favorite decemberists album, was a natural extension of the grand vision of picaresque, taking on its own "concept album" hijinx with 3 parts to "the crane wife" and a lot of mayhem in-between. It's a very good album, but i denied it #1 because the songs central to the "crane wife" theme (man finds chick who can basically spin $ from "air", really feathers in this case, and loses the money and woman when he breaks his promise not to check on her while in the $-making process) weren't (IMO) strong/fully-developed enough, at least lyrically. BUT i was definitely taken by "the island", which reminded me of 70s-era genesis (especially at 8:30 through the song culminating in that mello/organ). And the rest of the album's pretty cool too, from the fleetwood-funk of "the perfect crime #2" to the sadistic lullaby of "shankill butchers" ("if you don't mind your mother's words / a wicked wind will blow the ribbons from your curls") to closer "sons & daughters", a very good concert closer. "sons & daughters" works as a good campfire sing-along in the tradition of "row row row your boat" with partitioned singing parts between the band. It's also an anti-war song, about our bringing home all our at-war sons & daughters, ready to "hear all the bombs fade away". If you heard any song, it's either the repetitive funk of "perfect crime #2" or "o, valencia!". In "valencia", ill-fated lovers (are there any others on this disc?) must run away under the cover of night, her waiting for a rock tap at her window, because of her family not liking the boyfriend. They must sneak out. "perfect crime #2" sort of reminds me of a more literary version of genesis's "whodunit?" with its own crime mystery: "Five and twenty burglars by the reservoir / A teenage lookout on the signal tower / The mogul's daughter in hogtie / The mogul fingers the wrong guy, all lies". in seemingly-sweet "yankee bayonet (i will be home then)", we come to find our lad is in post-death denial "Soldier: Look for me when the sun-bright swallow / Sings upon the birch bow high / Girl: But you are in the ground with the voles and the weevils / All a-chew on your bones so dry", apparently lost to war. Loving this album along with my wife, its sentimental value has grown over these few years and the crane wife could easily creep above the life pursuit when i re-compile a "best albums of all-time" or compile a "best albums of the 00s" list.

ok, so my boy & i came down with that swine thing. First flu i've ever had (not that i've had many) where there was no vomiting involved (although it can be a symptom). i've been laid out for nearly a week. Yesterday was my first full day UNDER 99.7. i'm going to try to keep that to around 98.6 today, but i don't know much voodoo. Bad time to be republican, as i'm sure i could hit up some liberal democrats for some "herbal" remedies.

Overall, i had a good week, going 5-2.

EFS 666: Started out sorta bad. I was in wyoming mostly AFK (i had a couple minutes to check my teams on saturday) and didn't know that jason spitz was inactive until i returned home. add to that a questionable decision to start lesean mccoy (2 points) over LDT (15pts) and i was worried i'd lose at least 1 game. However, the footballshop quartet of champ bailey, quentin jammer, dj williams and vincent jackson gave me more than enough points to pull off my FIRST SWEEP of legend and zdevil (with 461 points) en route to an 8-0 record. in light of my wins, i still need some depth/help at tackle and running back.

EFS 1000: Scored 475 points to win 2 games (with ray rice giving me 50 points himself) putting back in the outskirts of the playoff hunt at 4-3-1 as current seed #9. Right now i think i have a shot at both the division and wildcard, but at only 415ppg, i'll need to catch some breaks. One bad break i might catch is the demotion of jason campbell, my only starting qb. to counter that loss, it looks like vince young could take over as the starting qb any week now.

EFS 12: Lost to perfessur again, probably blowing my chance at winning the division. My DBs and matt forte let me down. Despite the loss, i'm now 5-3 and would be shocked if i didn't at least capture a wildcard spot come december.

EFS 7: i sucked scoring only 343 points, but caught a break playing someone who sucked worse. I'm now 3-5 (I SHOULD BE 4-4 DAMNIT!), 2 games behind seed #6. (good luck.)

There were a bunch of things i missed about living in Denver. One particular point of fun was that twist and shout records was on my drive back from Qwest. i'd stop there every-other-week checking out the used section and "exclusives" rack for fun stuff. Somewhere around 2003 i severely cut down on buying new CDs, buying mostly used CDs or mp3s via emusic. I still had fun with the hunt for, and discovery of, CDs i'd been trying to find for a while or relatively new albums i had yet to buy on sale used for $6.99. There was also a cheapo discs on the way home near downtown.

Outside of emusic, i was finding a lot of new singles online as freebies at sites like cmj.com and insound.com, able to sample from a wide variety of artists across the alt/indie spectrum. Inside emusic, they had/have a "free song of the day" which invariably is from a new album. With the internet, the possibilities, legal and otherwise, grow exponentially daily.

There are a few artists on 2005's top singles chart that i probably wouldn't've considered listening to 5 years (or so) earlier. First-time charting artists like Why? and Clap your hands say yeah! are quite batsh|t nuts in delivery and content. Their songs that made my chart are of their "tamer" variety. But they (along with the Unicorns) were at the beginning of a movement that would take full-force within the next couple years. [*2006 teaser alert*]

The chicks once dominated my chart and now can barely be found -- ladytron's the only majority-filled female artist around. Sure, rilo kiley and neko case (probably my new favorite female artist by this point) exist within group form, but gone are the (poppier) days of janet and jewel and jlo. My interest in rap waned a bit as well as there are only 2 true rap songs on the chart (and one HILARIOUS "b|tches ain't sh|t" rap cover by ben folds, lounge-style with g-funk keyboard in back for part).

The album-oriented singles chart trend that began with new song eligibility rules continues to trend here. arcade fire, the decemberists and new pr0n abound near the top of the chart. Other new entries (not covered above) came from josh rouse, stellastarr*, the game, the mountain goats, ladytron, the magic numbers, ed harcourt and ted leo and the pharmacists, whose song "me and mia" is the song i most attribute to driving the frontage road aside highway 36 and the railroad tracks on the way to and from Level 3. the opening verse of rilo kiley's "it's a hit" seems like a dumya-swipe: "Any chimp can play human for a day. / Use his opposable thumbs to iron his uniform / and run for office on election day / fancy himself a real decision maker / and deploy more troops than salt in a shaker."

I don't recall the magic numbers much at all and decided not to listen to their album for this year's dellrock albums retrospective, but after hearing the two songs that made this chart (i love the female vox of "looks like it all went wrong" in "forever lost"), i gave that album a listen. Survey says? I was right to downgrade it -- outside of the couple hits and 1-or-2 other songs, it's just "okay".


dellrock's top 33 singles airplay of 2005:

Pos.	Title	Artist	Total
1.	let it ride	ryan adams & the cardinals	143
2.	me and mia	ted leo and the pharmacists	108
3.	chicago	sufjan stevens	101
4.	the sporting life	the decemberists	100
5.	rebellion (lies)	the arcade fire	99
6.	come on! feel the illinoise! - part I: the world's columbian exposition / part II: carl sandburg visits me in a dream	sufjan stevens	96
7.	heard 'em say	kanye west	94
8.	neighborhood #3 (power out)	the arcade fire	85
9.	we both go down together	the decemberists	85
10.	the hardest part	ryan adams & the cardinals	79
11.	the engine driver	the decemberists	74
12.	sweet troubled soul	stellastarr*	67
13.	destroy everything you touch	ladytron	62
14.	heavy lifting	ambulance ltd	61
15.	use it	the new pornographers	61
16.	forever lost	the magic numbers	60
17.	sing me spanish techno	the new pornographers	59
18.	easy/lucky/free	bright eyes	58
19.	born in the 70's	ed harcourt	52
20.	first day of my life	bright eyes	50
21.	pressure point	the zutons	50
22.	evil	interpol	49
23.	i want you to stay	maximo park	48
24.	hate it or love it	the game	47
25.	encore	eminem	47
26.	bitches ain't shit	ben folds	46
27.	it's a hit	rilo kiley	44
28.	it's the nighttime	josh rouse	42
29.	love me like you	the magic numbers	39
30.	this year	the mountain goats	39
31.	this is the last time	keane	38
32.	is this love?	clap your hands say yeah!	36
33.	gemini (birthday song)	why?	34

A new job and a new address wasn't the only news of 2005 nor the biggest news -- we found out in May that we had a baby on the way! "we had been trying" (put in quotes because it always feels weird to hear the phrase knowing the base implication of the statement...i'll not be crude here) since around our wedding the year before so we were starting to wonder if mr. & mrs. potatohead had better odds of popping out a little french fry. Just as you've heard from other (grown up) kids, the news was all surprising, glorious and scary for all the reasons you've heard from other kids. It was fun following along with him with purchased baby books. It was a relief (not that i was worried since it wasn't a hereditary thing) to see he had all normal organs. He never really had any problems at all except for.

PROBLEM: Kellie & i went to a couple Bronco games together since we met. One we went to was the Philadelphia game that year. It was still allergy season and the day was cold and wet and became worse as the game went on. Between allergies and the weather and kellie's asthma and years of smoking and being about 6 months pregnant, she had to go to hospital having problems breathing. She was in there nearly a week. There was mild concern for the baby -- mostly for Kellie who was nearly inhibated -- but she eventually pulled through. Not worth mocking "Donut Van" McNabb over. (Nowadays i make a point to mow the lawn and make a fuss about buying cigs for her.)

2005 was financially tough. After we made some coin selling the old place, we had bean on the way and decided we could afford Kellie a new (used) car. A month after signing up for her TP cruiser, i met a deer at 85 MPH. (Last song i remember hearing was a Decemberists song. Maybe it should've been Kanye's "drive slow"!) i pulled a 180 on the interstate eventually sliding into a guard rail. Guy behind me who was nice enough to drive me to the next trucker's stop said he was surprised i didn't flip over. Bent the frame just behind the back, right tire, which to the insurance agency means it was TOTALLED. :-( Moorea, my first car ever, died at the still-young age of just under 11 years (and under 100k miles, although the total escapes me now). That really sucked, forcing me into buy a new car years before i wanted to. Ended up with a brand new toyota camry. Then my brother's summer wedding came. Then there were the hospital bills including Kellie's near-inhibated stay. The only thing that started saving us were the Level 3 "stock option" awards that i started cashing around year's end. However, we still had rolling credit card debt from around April into 2006.

In some sense, i believe that whatever entity that exists that watches over everything, from God to Buddha or some vibrational energy permeating throughout the universe down to the billiions of atoms that make living things, wanted to force my hand to buy a bigger car knowing that a baby was on the way. It was less than a month after i crashed moorea that we found out our bean was on the way. I've had other coincidences like that in my lifetime, so looking back i wasn't surprised.

Not to be outdone by Ryan Adams, Bright Eyes kicked off January with TWO separate albums of his own, one was an IDM-collaboration a la The Postal Service called digital ash in a digital urn, and the other was more of an alt/folk/country album called i'm wide awake, it's morning.

i'm wide awake, it's morning is the better album of the two because it's more consistently good, feels more personal and therefore the songs feel more "real" to Conor (or his character), and the song ideas are generally better if only by simplicity (versus the electronic layers on the other album). The album starts off with the ONLY "intro" piece that i actually like and want to listen to of all of his Bright Eyes albums, which segues into "at the bottom of everything", a fun, upbeat song which is actually a fully-sounding (from music to lyrics) HAPPY song as in this sentiment " (in)to the caverns of tomorrow with just our flashlights and our love / We must plunge". The gist of "we are nowhere and it's now" can be summed up by "Why are you scared to dream of God / When it's salvation that you want?" -- the best part of the song is the backing vox of emmylou harris. She appears again on "land locked blues", probably the album's best song, a sad, touching song about walking away from where you're stuck with this humorous bit: " there's kids playing guns in the street / and one's pointing his tree branch at me / So I put my hands up I say: / 'Enough is enough, If you walk away I walk away.' (and he shot me dead)" culminating in "You'll be free child once you have died / from the shackles of language and measurable time / And then we can trade places, play musical graves / till then walk away". She also appears on upbeat-but-dark "another travelin' song", where the narrator states "I dream the dark on the horizon / I dream the desert where the dead lay down / I dream a prostituted child touching an old man in a fast food crown". "first day of my life" shares the optimism and light, upbeat nature of the opening track, with simple acoustic guitar as the song's backbone and lines like "This is the first day of my life./ I'm glad I didn't die before I met you. / But, now I don't care, I could go anywhere with you / And I'd probably be happy." which fit in with my mood then. "Lua" was the lead single, and it's a quiet, personal-yet-trivial account of love that will never be, where Conor sings "I know you have a heavy heart, I can feel it when we kiss / So many men stronger than me have thrown their backs out trying to lift it / But me I'm not a gamble, you can count on me to split / The love I sell you in the evening by the morning won't exist". Overall, the complex and tumultuous narratives of Lifted aren't present here, but there are still lines like "I'm a single cell on the serpent's tongue" ("poison oak") and "Well I could have been a famous singer / If I had some one else's voice / But failures always sounded better / Let's fuck it up boys, make some noise!" (from closer "road to joy" which evokes Lifted while seeming auto-biographical) that permeate throughout the album.

Bright Eyes's digital ash in a digital urn is Conor's take on electronica. There seemed to be a bunch of these indie-songwriter-meets-IDM after the success of the postal service. (See last year's Neon Neon.) Conor's lyrical style doesn't mesh 100% with the musical style, which keeps this from flowing as well as his other 2005 album (or Lifted, for that matter). Best songs = "take it easy (love nothing)" (a tale of exploration, as in "First with your hands, then with your mouth / A downpour of sweat, damp cotton clouds / I was a fool, you were my friend / We made it happen") and "easy / lucky / free" (great closer). When he hits the mark, it's because his lyrics don't overweight the FX and the FX don't overwhelm the song, like on the two best songs or "light pollution", which sounds like a typical bright eyes song just given some not-so-usual backing "instrumentation". "easy / lucky / free" is the perfect marriage of the IDM with Conor's narrative over how the end of life is the easiest (luckiest and freest) part of living, singing "Sometimes I worry that I've lost the plot / My twitching muscles tease my flippant thoughts / I never really dreamed of heaven much / Until we put him in the ground / But it's all I'm doing now" and showing how actual living is chaotic enough "I set my watch to the atomic clock / I hear the crowd count down til the bomb gets dropped / I always figured there'd be time enough / I never let it get me down" with backing FX of people's hysterical screaming. "There is nothing as lucky, as easy, or free". One of his best songs. When Conor doesn't hit it, you have a cluttered "time code" (with the usual annoying intro) and "" the jumbled message and unnecessary outro of "i believe in symmetry" (which sounds more like it's backed by a NIN-light band than an IDM guy) or the crying baby segments of "ship in a bottle". But for the most part, this album is closer to "hit" than "miss", but not as consistently-good as anything from fevers and mirrors to i'm wide awake, it's morning. And with the recent ear-shot, i'm not as high on this bright eyes album either now vs. 2005.

Riding high on the brit-wave in 2005 was Bloc Party and their silent alarm. "like eating glass" is a rousing opener with an urgent sense of desparation, where one's house is so inhabitable that it's "Like drinking Poison, like eating glass " (with rapid drumming). i hear franz ferdinand in the guitar of the opening of the next song, "helicopter" ("are you hoping for a miracle?"), with some fine, intricate strumming to close it out. "positive tension" sounds like its title, building up to "the reckoning" described as "something glorious is about to happen", with a "run run run" chorus that reminds me of some 80s song. They even rock in a blur-sorta-way (unlike Franz) like on "banquet". They go a bit political in the charging "price of gas". It's a pretty good album for its genre. There's no one song i absolutely love, but it's pretty solid through "luno" (with the last 2 tracks middling).

Spoon's always funky. You wouldn't know it by their lead single "the beast and dragon, adored" from gimme fiction, their most complex song to-date. Spoon's into the funky, catchy, short single format -- leave 'em wanting more routine. While "beast" is a good song, it's not as representative of their usual indie pop/rock groove funk that they bring on the rest of this album (and all their other albums that i own). "two sides / monsieur valientine" is a song black sheep boy would've made for the stage names if they were trying to hit early 80s pop instead of mid-70s prog rock. "i turn my camera on" brings THA BASS and is probably tied for the best track with "sister jack" and "i summon you". For Spoon, it's more about the pure, unadulterated, make-the-beatles-want-to-reform simple pop gems than lyrics (like other artists i often quote for these retrospective reviews). Like on "i summon you" and that simple acoustic guitar lick and soft drum; the lyrics just roll off effortlessly as another fabric of the song as a whole ("you got the weight of the world coming down like a mother’s eye / And all that you can / All that you can give is a cold goodbye"). They brings some tricks too, like the reverb/gate of "sister jack" or they xylophone-like FX of "the infinite pet". I always have a blast putting on a Spoon album, but for the record: kiss the moonlight > girls can tell > gimme fiction.

John Darnielle of the mountain goats is the preacher before the dawn, telling intricate, interesting tales of characters giving abandon to hope and hope to hopelessness. As he said in a recent interview (paraphrased), his characters are like a good friend who's also a chronic liar. The Sunset Tree probably contains my favorite mountain goats song of all-time, "this year", which i first heard during my "bad luck cycle" of late-2004-to-late-2005, with a more-than-appropriate chorus of "i am going to make it through this year if it kills me" sung with conviction and testament of having a bad year, starting with abandon singing "I broke free on a saturday morning. / I put the pedal to the floor. / headed north on mills avenue, / and listened to the engine roar." (i LOVE singing the line "there will be feasting and dancing in jerusalum next year!" for some odd reason.) i hear that sentiment again on opener "you or your memory" where Darnielle's character reaches for some courage singing "down there in the dark i could see the real truth about me, / as clear as day, / Lord if i make it through tonight / then i will make my ammends and walk the straight path to the end of my days:". Other major highlights for me are "pale green things", "dilaudid", ""lion's teeth" and "love love love". "dilaudid" continues the abandon (and recklessness?) of its characters, almost daring "We won't pass this way again. / So kiss me with your mouth open. / Turn the tires toward the street. / And stay sweet. " "doing things our bodies weren't meant to". "up the wolves" looks for ghosts in closets confessing "there'll always be a few things...that you're going to find really difficult to forgive" but "there's gonna be a party when the wolf comes home". "lion's teeth" aggressively owns up to the truth and confrontation ("in come the cops / they blow torch the doors. / I start wailing. / the lion roars./ there's no good way to end this.") knowing the outcome might not be good ("I am going to regret the day that I was born"). Violins punctuate the tension and ease while the combatants hold on. Dirty deeds go down for love on "love love love" as summed by the chorus "some things you do for money and some you do for love love love" revisiting kurt cobain's final moment to punctuate "some moments last forever, but some flare up with love love love". (Prime candidate for a revisited "beauty in darkness" compilation.) "pale green things" notes how life goes on after the loss of a father remembering "got up before dawn / went down to the racetrack. / riding with the windows down / shortly after your first heart attack" noting "and that morning at the race track was one thing I remembered. / I turned it over in my mind / like a living chinese finger trap. / seaweed and indiana sawgrass ... pale green things". Easy to imagine this person just staring down at the sidewalk at the track remembering his father. "dance music" is upbeat, drowning out familial chaos. There's impending near-apocalyptic tragedy everywhere, from "magpie" ("shore up the crucifixes / above the archways and the doors. / the magpie will come at midday./ and you will go down on all fours.") to acceptance of such tragedies on "song for dennis brown" ("on the day that dennis brown's lung collapsed, spring rain was misting down on kingston" and "and when the birds come home in spring, / we will fill them full of buckshot. / and jets of contaminated blood / will cloud the rivers and the lakes.") because life & loss go hand-in-hand on "the sunset tree", quite aptly named. Most of the songs are brief and to the point, which benefits the songs' urgency and bluntness. I'm drawn to really strong songwriters, and Darnielle fits that description. I'd enjoy the mountain goats for many albums after (and a couple before).. This album will probably receive the greatest post-2005 bump up.

More unassuming introspection for John Vanderslice on pixel revolt with undercurrents of distress. Again he sounds affected by 9/11. Scenes of senseless death ("plymouth rock") and actual images of 9/11 ("exodus damage") are all over the place. "exodus damage" calls for revolution amidst images like "So the second plane hit at 9:02 / I saw it live on a hotel T.V. / Talking on my cell with you / You said this would happen / And just like that, it did", not sick enough to guess what comes next. That and "trance manual" -- inviting senseless destruction in lines like "come to me now / you are warming weather...the kind that comes with / sandbags along the river" -- are the best songs on the album. Upbeat songs like "peacocks in the video rain" and "dear sarah shu" dwell on loneliness and surviving. "new zealand pines" reads like a fun trip at golden gate park save the chorus "You were my proof / You were my wetsuit / I will be okay / If i can keep / The things i love at bay". "continuation" is a murder mystery with suspenseful strings and synth eventually chasing the killer chasing him. "angela" finds the epiphany at the heart of all the characters' plights -- "maybe those last days of freedom were the best of his life". John Vanderslice and Darnielle are similar in their perspectives, if you haven't figured that out for yourself(ves)...

"you're what happens when two substances collide". haha. This line from "a nervous tic motion of the head" off Andrew Bird's the mysterious production of eggs is pretty indicative of the album. He brings intelligence, a good vocabulary, fun turns of phrase and a bit of kooky wit under the guise of his indie folk/pop. i just love the moment in "tables and chairs" where he announces "we're gonna live on our wits / we're gonna throw away survival kits, / trade butterfly-knives for adderal / and that's not all / ooh-ooh, there will be snacks there will". haha, an hor de vours table at the end of the world. "fake palindromes" is as raucous as folk rock touched with violins and xylophone can be,, with crazy scenes like "she says i like long walks and sci-fi movies / if you're six foot tall and east coast bred / some lonely night we can get together / and i'm gonna tie your wrists with leather / and drill a tiny hole into your head ". The album's beautifully-sweeping at times like witnessing a lightly-breezy, sunny day across a grassy knoll, like on "masterfade", but IMO, this quality is his weakest strength. Turns of phrase are his strong suit, like "Today was supposed to be the day / Molecules decide to change their form / Laws of physics lose their sway / Youthful indiscretion now is suddenly the norm / With the good kids sprouting horns" in "opposite day". and remember, there will be snacks!

a certain trigger from maximo park is in the mold of franz ferdinand or bloc party, some more of that new wavey brit-rock i was in to at the time. The hits are "apply some pressure", ""i want you to stay" and "the coast is always changing", but the whole albums pretty rockin'-solid after the opening track. There are two sections to "apply some pressure" where the second ("what happens when you lose everything / you just start again / start all over again") vaults you to the conclusion of applying pressure via backing harmonies. Cool song. "nothing works around here" without the chick desired in "i want you to stay". In "the coast is always clear", "age doesn't make a difference until you open your mouth" (haha) summed up at the chorus of "We look out upon the sea, / The coast is always changing, / I'll bring my camera out to sea, / My heart is always changing". "postcard of a painting" find some semi-organ-sounding keys backing sentiments like "I wrote my feelings down in a rush, / I didn't even check the spelling, / Enclosed the postcard of a painting / You are just another thing that I have yet to fathom". "limassol" featured a compressed synth effect (think genesis "lurker") droning on behind the action. "the night i lost my head" was obviously a poor night to meet. "acrobat" is one of those spoken/sung pensive numbers (that i think pearl jam has done well). In "kiss you better" the singer's "beliefs will make you drown" where the recipient is "so scared [she's] gonna let it happen". Hey now. Good song, good album.

i quick-skipped through okkervil river's black sheep boy just for this thread because, although it's not ranked within the top 16 of the year, i have a fond remembrance for it. Plus, that opening performance for the decemberists was pretty tight. It's earthy, indie rock, glowering yet indignant. I'd recommend starting out with tracks "for real" or "black".

dellrock's top 13 albums airplay of 2005:

Pos.	Title	Artist	Total
1.	cold roses	ryan adams & the cardinals	330
2.	picaresque	the decemberists	255
3.	i'm wide awake, it's morning	bright eyes	232
4.	illinois	sufjan stevens	211
5.	funeral	the arcade fire	190
6.	good news for people who love bad news	modest mouse	172
7.	twin cinema	the new pornographers	147
8.	nashville	josh rouse	138
9.	digital ash in a digital urn	bright eyes	130
10.	shake the streets	ted leo and the pharmacists	106
11.	jacksonville city nights	ryan adams & the cardinals	100
12.	a certain trigger	maximo park	92
13.	encore	eminem	91

So i'm skirting 0.500 again, going 3-2.

EFS 7:Lost big. I need an overhaul at WR. If i miss the playoffs because of my opening week loss where i started 2 inactive players and lost by about 15 points, i'm gonna be TICKED. >:-|

EFS 12: Won both games fairly easily against sucky DIV 2 (except for Liberty). Chad Henne looked good for me filling in for Aaron Rodgers. I'm tied with Hegemon 1 game behind the leader. Given the makeup of the league, there'll be 4 teams vying for 3 playoff spots at the end. I just need to survive as one of those 3.

EFS 1000: Scored in the 330s and lost. My DL and receivers need the most work. Of course, i only build my team on ORC, so that'll be tough to pull off as i won't want to sell out my future picks. I'm 2-4-1 now and will need to go on a winning streak to have a shot at the playoffs. The only good news is that if i miss the playoffs, my pick looks better...and my other 2010 #1 is currently the overall #1.

EFS 666: Beat my division rival by almost double, scoring ~446. I'm now 6-0 for the first time ever in this league. My first super-tough double week comes this week against Legend and Zdevil. I have NEVER beaten both of them before. I've split most times and was swept one year. I would LOVE to go 8-0. Even if i don't, if i can just go 0.500 the rest of the way, that's a 12-6 record and that should be good enough for the playoffs.

Broomfield, Colorado is a suburb of Denver...or a suburb of Boulder... or maybe it's more accurately both. Broomfield, Colorado is urban sprawl, with a bunch of new-ish residential areas all over the place, some strips of businesses, its own airport and big-ass shopping mall. There are still some farms, which are slowly trickling away to the housing sprawl. The main road through Broomfield is a highway. It really has no mainstreet or its own "scene" -- for that you need to drive up to Boulder or down to Denver. It's relatively quiet with about 15 reported crimes a week. (i read the local paper on-and-off for a while.)

We moved to Broomfield within a month after i started working at Level 3. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time living outside of the city. We found a house (technically a condo because of its proximity to the other "houses") in the sprawl to shorten my commute to Level 3. The drive was relatively short mileage and time-wise. (The biggest delays to my trip were a result of being stuck behind a train. YOU READ THAT RIGHT.) So Broomfield wasn't that happenin'. Our big hangout was a mexican restaurant (until it closed down). The biggest highlight for me was a best buy located within a mile from work. With new housing for blocks and blocks, there wasn't really anything nearby except a big park where they shot off fireworks on The 4th.

Level 3 was a-happenin' though. Projects lifecycles were fast-paced. Requirements became outdated soon after they were written. When i arrived into the voip-911 group, 2 contractors just left leaving the group lead and another contractor, who left within a month after i joined. Soon after i joined, i was going to weekly department-level release meetings in place of the group lead. i was thrown a lot right away. At Level 3, you're given a lot of stuff to work out and you have to figure a lot of it out on your own on deadline. The project lifecycle aspect was pretty intense. Always high possibility for high stress levels. It was assumed that you were "doing your job" / "meeting expectations" by putting in more than 40 hours a week. At first i loved it coming from the slow-moving, check-every-process-checkmark US/Qwest. The facility was pretty nice. Employees were encouraged to look into all the latest technologies to improve the software. Great for experience -- and i don't just mean "items on a resume". I learned a TON at Level 3 -- probably the most intense learning experience in regards to bolstering my career as a software engineer of any job i've ever had.

But Level 3 had its problems. Their stock was once $80+ a share. I think it was around $2 when i showed up. Soon after i started, 3-or-4 months after, there was talk of layoffs. I figured they wouldn't let me go just after i arrived, but found that a bit odd needing to fire people after hiring a few folks. This went on into the summer, then subsided. However, there were always layoffs at Level 3, typically from the beginning of year (when the big exec crunched the year's budget to figure out how many plebs they could afford) until late summer. Always like that. It sucked. If you worked there for say 5 years, then you probably didn't worry about it. But i was new so lack of knowledge of the business equaled worry. That, plus the long hours (40+ hour work weeks often) and monthly weekend releases (that changed to bi-monthly), sucked too. And the releases often had problems where most teams had to stick around for just in case it involved them. There were a few lost Saturdays in 2005 where i might've been needed for a couple hours but stuck there for 8 (or more).

Soon after we moved to Broomfield, i was able to talk friend Bizzount into going to a Decemberists concert (Mar 29, 2005), at the Fox Theater up in Boulder, with me. i liked their first two albums and decided to take a shot for about $15+fees/ticket. Their album came out the week before, but the concert sealed the deal. That was the best non-Radiohead performance i've seen before-or-after, not even counting the pretty good opener Okkervil River. The theater shook during their performance of "the Mariner's Revenge song". They picked a lot from new album Picaresque but sprinkled in some of the better stuff of their first two albums. Colin had his usual dry & oblique humor. All the individual performances were spot-on (unlike Colin's messed-up lyrics years later). Audience participation was fun. And Bounty & i only had to content with 1 annoying fan. Near-perfect in all regards. I've seen Colin every year since and he (and the Decemberists) haven't reached the same pinnacle. (i'll go into later shows in later year posts. [*teaser alert*])

Somewhat coincidentally, Picaresque is my favorite album from the Decemberists, besting TWO albums from Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, the favorite to take my #1 spot heading into 2005. It starts off with a muted tribal horn i often blast before the drums beat in with Colin narrating the premise of "the infanta": "Here she comes in her palanquin / on the back of an elephant / on a bed made of linen and sequins and silk / all astride on her father's line / with the king and his concubines / and her nurse with her pitchers of liquors and milk / and we'll all come praise the infanta". The charging literature of the song is finely offset by the quieter, pensive, recharging bridge. The lyrics on "infanta" are the best decemberists lyrics yet (and i love intelligent lyrics), replete with high-point scrabble words like "palanquin", "pachyderm" and "folderol", tied with another picaresque tune, the epic "mariner's revenge song", probably my favorite decemberists song of all-time. "mariner's" starts in flashback mode "in this belly of a whale" recalling a "rake and a rastabout" who moved in on the narrator's mother when he was 14 "Leaving my mother A poor consumptive wretch" with a killer-yet-frail chorus delivered by Jenny wisping "Find him, bind him / Tie him to a pole and break / His fingers to splinters / Drag him to a hole until he / Wakes up naked / Clawing at the ceiling / Of his grave". The narrator later was hired in a priory "But never once in the employ / Of these holy men / Did I ever once turn my mind / From the thought of revenge" hearing about a captain known for "wanton cruelty", the man who left his mother destitute in death. There's even a pensive instrumental passage as the narrator contemplates commiting a "wicked deed" (to kill that captain) which nails the sound of the old sea (as only the Decemberists can!). Then "And then that fateful night / We had you in our sight / After twenty months at sea / Your starboard flank abeam / I was getting my muskets clean / When came this rumbling from beneath" as the whale rose from beneath which chews up all but our two antagonists. Marvelous storytelling and delivery including an energized ending. All tunes have the feel of tales of centuries ago, classic stories charles dickens or herman melville would be proud of, full of motorcars and muskets ablaze. "we both go down together" is a tale of a couple who commit suicide knowing their families will never allow them together ("Meet me on my vast veranda / My sweet untouched Miranda / and while the seagulls are crying / we fall but our souls are flying"). That Colin can make such wordsmithy, sea shanties so catchy and endearing is a testament to his intelligence and ability to tap the human condition. Like on "eli the barrow boy", the soliloquous epitaph of a loved one, singing "Would I could afford to buy my love a fine robe / Made of gold and silk Arabian thread / But she is dead and gone and lying in a pine grove / And I must push my barrow all the day". Or the humorously playful "the sporting life": "I fell on the playing field / the work of an errant heel / the din of the crowd and the loud commotion / went deafening silence and stopped emotion" . The instrumentation on this album kicks arse too, from the fiddle on "together" to the organ and horns on "16 military wives" to the accordion on "mariner's revenge song". The slower numbers work well too, from the crime scene buildup of "the bagman's gambit" ("On the lam from the law / on the steps of the capitol / you shot a plainclothes cop on the ten o'clock") and literally lost love "from my own true love (lost at sea)", to what i feel is Colin's first love song "of angels and angles". Beautiful acoustic guitar prefaces simply-felt lines like "there are angels in your angles, there's a low moon caught in your tangles", the perfectly understated closer to offset the literary bombast of "infanta". The sentiment is as saddening-sweet on "the engine driver" with a chorus pleading "and if you don't love me, let me go", and even on the lyrically-simple-life-of-a-male-prostitute of "on a bus mall" illustrating "here in our hovel we fuse like a family, / But I will not mourn for you. / So take off your makeup / And pocket your pills away. / We're kings among runaways / On the bus mall." . There's even a jab at politics in "16 military wives": "Cheer them on to their rivals / Cause America can, and America can't say no / And America does, if America says it's so". This is probably in my top 2 for albums released since 2005 (inclusive), maybe #1.

Speaking of Ryan Adams, he actually released THREE albums in 2005, two with The Cardinals and one solo album. My favorite of the three is Cold Roses, a double-CD showing off Ryan and the band doing their best Gram Parsons impression, with some pneumonia-era whiskeytown and faint hints of CSNY thrown in. (Being the driving creative force) This is his best stuff since Gold offering his best "magnum-opus" work "magnolia mountain" (near 6 minutes), this album often sounds like 70s country rock, and one of the best songs, including "sweet illusion" (still-in-love-post-breakup-song), "beautiful sorta" (i sing "beautiful soda"), "mockingbird", "easy plateau" and "let it ride" (the hit!). The lyrics are usual Ryan Adams fare, ranging from the earnest & near-poetic like "If the morning comes, will you lie to me / Will you take me to your bed / Will you lay me down / Till I'm heavy like the rocks on the riverbed" (magnolia mountain) or "no one leaves the lights on in a house where nobody lives anymore" (when will you come back home) to cheekily-witty like "Everything you ever touched, the fingerprints like / Crime scene evidence undisturbed in dust / I don't dare touch anything of yours, because it's evidence of us" (now that you're gone) or "Sleepyhead, come on let's take a ride / To the easy plateau in the back of your mind / Up through the alley, take the door under the stairs / My head ain't feeling nothing but cats and rocking chairs" (easy plateau). Ryan Adams works the quickest for you if you're in love or just out of love, like on "cherry lane" where Ryan sings "i can never get/be close enough (to you)" repeated through to the empassioned ending yearn. There's an earned assuredness here, like in "dance all night", a simple, straight-ahead, midtempo acoustic number you could swear you've heard Ryan do before, but he brings renewed feeling to singing "I ain't lonely now / Yeah, I've got someone I love / Someone I think about / Someone for me to take care of " with lovely harmonies. Of course, his upbeat rockers are pretty damn good too, from "beautiful sorta", to "if i am a stranger to, "let it ride" a.k.a. THA HIT, continuing a trend dating back to gold (and "new york, new york") of starting an album off with an upbeat first release ("so alive" was just my #1 of 2004!). It's a bar-room, foot-tapper, where ryan adams sings "Let it ride / Let it rock me in the arms of strangers, angels until it brings me home / Let it ride / Let it roll / Let it go" at the chorus. Strong return to form that'd be continued with his next album. [*in-thread teaser alert!*] The non-Kan is complimentary, from The Game on "crack music" to the backing vocals on "roses". But that just pushes Kanye's game, as on "roses": "You know the best medicine go to people that's paid, / If Magic Johnson got a cure for A.I.D.S. / And all the broke muthafuckers passed away / You tellin me if my grandma was in the N.B.A. / Right now she'd be ok?".

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals's next 2005 album (1CD), Jacksonville City Nights, continues in the Gram Parsons vein. You'd convince me if you said they recorded both albums at the same time. Highlights include "a kiss before i go" ("breath all heavy and slow / a shot, a beer and a kiss before i go" ooh baby), the mid-tempo hit jam "the hardest part", "hard way to fall" (in love, of course) and "trains". "the hardest part" could've easily been just as upbeat of a rocker as his other opening-album hits, and feels like it despite the slower cadence, with fun semi-sensical stuff like "Promises don't pay cash at the bank / If they did I'm bidding your word / They couldn't pay me for the time that it took to write a check / To buy a babydoll for my girl" with chorus "The hardest part is loving / Somebody that cares for you so much". Other fun moments include the moments in "the end" where ryan tries to stuff some extra lyrics into the verse ("The waitress tries to give me change I say, \"Nah, it's cool. Just keep it"\"), and "games" ("You ain't but a fire on my sad estate / Burning my house to the ground"). The only song i'd chop would be "dear john" featuring norah jones -- it ambles on nowhere with a cliched premise. That segues into slow-burn "games" followed by slow-burn "silver bullets". Two-of-three good songs, but makes for a lull in the middle of this album. "peaceful valley" is a slow one too, but sounds weary and ravaged and a welcome breath of discontent. "my heart is broken" recalls 70s country w/ slide guitar. Overall, i'm not as impressed as i was in 2005.

(The third Ryan Adams album, 29, was quite uneven in its dark brood, and my least-favorite Ryan Adams album yet.)

Since 2005, one album has been able to vault over the then-#2 of 2005 Cold Roses -- that being Kanye West's Late Registration. Kanye brings all the skills from the first album and amps up the lyrics, samples and gives it all a more "natural" sound via Jon Brion, even the skits are less annoying. Brion brings some string arrangements to back Kanye's flow and it works well and Kanye summons a ton of guests from Nas and Lupe Fiasco to the Maroon 5 guy (seriously) and Brandy (seriously). It all works starting with backing vox of Adam Levine from Maroon 5 on "touch the sky" ("They say, people in life are seasons / And anything that happen is for a reason / And niggas gun clapping and keep to squeezing / And Gram' keep praying and keep believing") a wiser-than-his-years song about cherishing today. Kanye shuffles back-and-forth between sincerity and braggadacio as shown in the next song "touch the sky" ("Back when Gucci was the shit to rock / Back when Slick Rick got the shit to pop / I'd do anything to say I got it / Damn, them new loafers hurt my pocket") but always staying grounded ("Before anybody wanted K-West beats / Me and my girl split the buffet at KFC"). "gold digger" is DUH BOMM, with jamie foxx doing his best ray charles, kanye spittin' "Now I ain't sayin' she a gold digger / But she ain't messin' wit no broke niggas" at the chorus. In "Bring me Down" he raps "It's funny how these wack niggaz need my help / Wasn't around when I couldn't feed myself / Dog, If I was you, I wouldn't feel myself / Dog, If I was you, I'd kill myself / Made a mill myself and I'm still myself". (Brandy's lackluster vocals are the only middling point on this album.) With some catchy backing light guitar lick, he asks "What's your addiction? Is it money? Is it girls? Is it weed?" then "Roll up the doge, henny and c-c-c-cola, then I'm c-c-coming over / Cuz its ne-never over" on "Addiction" before closing the song stumbling into requesting his chick for a 3-way at the end. There are two versions of "diamonds" on here (sampling the james bond song, one version featuring jay-z) -- really, it's like an extended song split in two -- and they both work well without wearing out the backing sample welcome. It's the album's centerpiece. He bemoans the true price of diamonds "I thought my Jesus Piece was so harmless / 'til I seen a picture of a shorty armless" while Jay-Z drops a syqk rhyme, later boasting "R-r-r-right here stands a-man / With the power to make a diamond with his bare hands". Really Doe (really?) starts off "we major" with "I can't control it, can't hold it, it's so nuts / I take a sip of that yak, I wanna fuck / I take a hit of that chronic, it got me stuck" (with a funny delivery) before Kanye states "Feeling better than some head on a sunday afternoon / Better than a chick that say yes to soon / Until you have a daughter, that's what I call karma / And you pray to god she don't grow breasts too soon.". Haha. "hey mama" is sweet, reminiscent of 2pac's "dear mama", from the perspective of a middle-class geek boy instead of a thug in-and-out of prison, remembering "Cuz a nigga cheatin, telling you lies, then I started to cry / As we knelt on the kitchen floor / I said mommy Imma love you till you don't hurt no more / And when I'm older, you aint gotta work no more / And Imma get you that mansion that we couldn't afford" praising "My mama told me go to school, get your doctorate / Somethin to fall back on, you could profit with / But still supported me when I did the opposite". "Gone" sounds like it has another ray charles impersonator and with its opening tinkly piano reminds me of an old-school ray tune, sprawling but not a moment wasted. Same for the album. Not that i listen to a ton of rap, but late registration would land in my top 5 rap albums of all-time.

Another album with a shot at the #2 spot is Sufjan Stevens and his Michigan follow-up, illinoise. A couple of nice-sounding "intro"-type of tunes start us off before hitting us with the epically-massive, vince-guaraldi-evoking "come on feel the illinoise!..." which sounds parts Belle & Sebastian and peanuts soundtrack and just plain odd, but yet still one of the best tracks of the decade. With lyrics like "Chicago, the New Age, but what would Frank Lloyd Wright say? / Oh Columbia! / Amusement or treasure, these optimistic pleasures / Like the Ferris Wheel!" and "I cried myself to sleep last night / And the ghost of Carl, he approached my window / I was hypnotized, I was asked / To improvise / On the attitude, the regret / Of a thousand centuries of death " you'd be wise to suspect what's going on here, but it's a cute, great tune. especially at the introspective close singing "Even in his heart the Devil has to know the water level / Are you writing from the heart? " The horn-to-guitar-to-strings segue in-between is nice too. The song sounds like the coolest parts of someone's life's journey. The piano of "john wayne gacy, jr." is sad-beautiful, telling a sad tale: "His father was a drinker / And his mother cried in bed / Folding John Wayne's T-shirts / When the swingset hit his head " with goosey-bumps rising at "Rotting fast in their sleep of the dead / Twenty-seven people, even more / They were boys with their cars, summer jobs / Oh my God ... Are you one of them?", and how about this for creepy -- "He took off all their clothes for them / He put a cloth on their lips / Quiet hands, quiet kiss / On the mouth "? Sufjan does a great job burrowing into JWG's mind. Then he sings a bouncy tale called "jacksonville" with banjo somewhere back there singing "I'm not afraid of the black man running / He's got it right, he's got a better life coming" (which sounds faintly prophetic now). "decatur..." is folksie-fun, with lines like "Our step mom we did everything to hate her / She took us down to the edge of Decatur / We saw the lion and the kangaroo take her / Down to the river where they caught a wild alligator". "chicago" has a whirlwind-harmonic-singalong-chorus about a drive to chicago. "casmir pulaski day" feels like a pleasant picnic with a good college band in the distance. "the man that steals our hearts" rocks at times (as much as Sufjan can rock). Sufjan's humor is sly and obvious. Sly, and yet touching, like "the predatory wasp of the palisades is out to get us!" where he describes a puppy-love encounter cut short by a rude wasp ("Oh how I meant to tease him / Oh how I meant no harm / Touching his back with my hand I kiss him / I see the wasp on the length of my arm " and "Terrible sting and terrible storm / I can tell you the day we were born "). Obvious, as on "come on feel the illinoise!" or "they are night zombies!! they are neighbors! they have come back from the dead!! ahhhhhh!" (haha) with its foreboding piano intro and lyrics like "We are awakened with the ax / Night of the Living Dead at last " and "We see a thousand rooms to rest / Helping us taste the bite of death " with an absurdly, confoundedly catchy chorus of "Logan, Grant, and Ronald Reagan / In the grave with Xylophagan / Do you know the ghost community? / Sound the horn, address the city " amidst the spelling of the state name. "The Seer's Tower" is haunting. This album's enormous in both its scope and its accomplishments.

The New Pornographers returned in 2005 with Twin Cinema, another ultra-catchy album where most songs have choruses to spare. I'll go over the highlights, "use it", "the bleeding heart show", "sing me spanish techno" and "star bodies", first. "use it" musically feels in perpetual, hip flux, offering "heads down thumbs up / two sips from the cup of human kindness / and im shit faced, just laid to waste" and "you had to send a wrecking crew after me / i cant walk right". (i love hearing neko talk dirty -- "use it tonight", indeed.) Playful piano and drumwork too. That's followed by "the bleeding heart show", sort-of-cryptic lyrics for the porn. "I leapt across three or four beds into your arms / Where I had hidden myself somewhere in your charm / Our golden handshake has been smashed into this shape. / It's taken magic to a primitive new place / Watch 'em run, although it's the minimum, heroic ", in a song (with fine backing neko vox) that builds to a bleeding heart climax with A.C. ("we have arrived") and neko ("too late to play the bleeding heart show") dualing above the "hey la"'s. "sing me spanish techno" might be my favorite though, and it's killer-seductive chorus (with neko!), "Traveling at godspeed over the hills and trails / I have refused my call pushin' my lazy sails / Into the blue flame I want to crash here right now / The hourglass spills its sand if only to punish you" plus second chorus "listening too long to one song / sing me spanish techno". haha. "star bodies" is another neko vs. A.C. vocal duel, which neko wins at one of the choruses singing "for you there's not any warning / and love is 5 in the morning " besting A.C.'s introducing "there's a shake with the shock / and a gift off with them / they carry the dust of the failing wisdom " and following side-chorus-chorus "now take me to where your sister lives " (?). As i've said before, you need to hear this for yourself to know how completely catchy these songs are. (And if you don't, neko won't have sex with you.) Elsewhere, opener "twin cinemas" offers fuzzed-out guitar around the bridge and stop-start verses. Neko takes lead (mrrrrrOWWW) on "the bones of an idol" AND "these are the fables" ("You hear the voice rise / In one wave /And crash on your doorstep / Making the circle here perfect, complete"). "jackie, dressed in cobras" is bejar at his most playful. "stacked crooked" turns into a rousing closer. If you listen close, you'll notice the tempos aren't as energetic as the first two albums. A couple numbers that end upbeat (like "fables" and "falling through your clothes" and "stacked crooked") actually start slow. This would be indicative for the future of A.C.-related endeavors... Still, a very solid indie pop album.

Remember a couple of years ago when i'm plucking nearly every song one song at a time via iTunes to make my singles playlist? Well, now that i changed the eligibility qualifications in 2003, only a couple of the below top 33 didn't come from one of my favorite albums of 2004. And that's the phenomenon the new rule presented -- now that my favorite alt/indie albums could be dipped into for multiple singles eligible for my countdown, my countdown since 2004 has been dominated by album tracks and not "singles" in the retail and made-for-airplay definition. Thus, there are multiple tracks from the shins, the stills and wilco on my 2004 singles ariplay list where there might've been ONE song on my list without the new eligibility rules in place. So the advent of the internet and P2P, while supposedly killing the album format for the RIAA, basically helped me appreciate the album, many more albums at a time than before..

Whether it is because i found my true love or became so immersed in indepedent music or some other reasons, i don't know; however, 2004 was the beginning-of-the-end for the female pop star on dellrock. i just didn't enjoy that stuff anymore. The closest i came to fem pop pap was scissor sisters and belle & sebastian. i guess i was looking for more depth or irony or something more than dirrry talk (christina).

Another trend that begin in 2003 was my psychological shift in music feel and message preferences. Now that i found love, i've been generally happier and more content with the world at large. So 2003 brought the upbeat "so alive" by ryan adams as my #1 song (happier) and another song that reflected my new mood for my 2004 #1 (contentment). So there's a lot of fun stuff like the stills, belle & sebastian, razorlight and keane.

Compiling this list, i've been surprised at the longetivity of u2. Even though i didn't think as much of their albums since achtung baby, i've been surprised to find about 1 song a year since then on my countdown as i've been reviewing the dellrock past. i -believe- "vertigo" was their last dellrock gasp.

Other notes: my entire top 12 singles are TIGHT; meaning, 2004 was a good year for single servings. But since most songs came from albums i really liked, there are few notable "one offs". The main one is by a group called rilo kiley off an album called more adventurous. There were 2 really good songs from that album, one charts here. The lead singer, jenny lewis, would show up in greater strength in 2006 [*teaser alert*].

2004 also marked the year where i became big into the "multi-sectional" pop song. There are few of these to ever exist, but a bunch occurred in 2004 and soon after. Examples = the killers "all these things i've done" and belle & sebastian's "your cover's blown". What i mean by "multi-sectional" is a song that is going one way for a while, then takes a significant left turn for another portion of the song. When all sections kick arse individually also working well as a whole, that makes the whole even more amazing/fun. (Sufjan Stevens's "Come on feel the illinoise" song also comes to mind. [*2005 teaser alert*]) If i could re-order this list today, razorlight's "vice" would be #1.

dellrock's top 33 of 2004:

Pos.	Title	Artist	Total
1.	float on	modest mouse	171
2.	vice	razorlight	122
3.	hysteria	muse	118
4.	lola stars & stripes	the stills	107
5.	bend and break	keane	107
6.	all these things that i've done	the killers	104
7.	somebody told me	the killers	100
8.	mr. brightside	the killers	92
9.	love and death	the stills	78
10.	changes are no good	the stills	77
11.	take me out	franz ferdinand	69
12.	your cover's blown	belle & sebastian	65
13.	burning photographs	ryan adams	64
14.	saint simon	the shins	62
15.	step into my office, baby	belle & sebastian	60
16.	vertigo	u2	58
17.	ocean breathes salty	modest mouse	53
18.	stumble & fall	razorlight	53
19.	still in love song	the stills	52
20.	theologians	wilco	51
21.	roses	outkast	48
22.	everybody's changing	keane	48
23.	somewhere only we know	keane	47
24.	i'm a cuckoo	belle & sebastian	46
25.	muzzle of bees	wilco	44
26.	golden touch	razorlight	44
27.	take your mama out	scissor sisters	43
28.	the world at large	modest mouse	42
29.	I'm a wheel	wilco	39
30.	through the wire	kanye west	34
31.	so says i	the shins	34
32.	it's a hit	rilo kiley	34
33.	bury me with it	modest mouse	33

Being a packer fan, Brett Favre is now evil, playing for the enemy. However, in fantasy football, he can still be my boy.

EFS 666: BARELY by ONE POINT won a high-scoring dual, winning both of my games, going to 5-0 thanks to BRETT FAVRE. i had 3 other players, but Favre gave me the bulk of the points with his 45. And to think i've been trying to trade him since august...

EFS 1000: Lost both of my games scoring JUST under 400.

EFS 12: BARELY won by TEN points mostly thanks to Aaron Rodgers and his 49 points. I'm now 3-2.

EFS 7: Split my games scoring over 400 for 2 weeks in a row. I'm now 2-3 (but should be 3-2 if i would've swapped out inactive players in week 1).

Animal collective's merriweather post pavilion has been my favorite album pretty much all year. While Andrew Bird has a shot at that title, i figured the only real contenders that could knock AC down were then-upcoming releases from why?, monsters of folk and the mountain goats. After giving why? and monsters of folk, both released 09/22, more than 3 ear shots apiece, it's now down to the mountain goats to topple AC. why? is too dour and not lyrically-flavorful enough like alopecia was and monsters of folk, while a good album too, doesn't seem to give me the high highs that the best of merriweather post pavilion has to offer.

So it's up to john darnielle's mountain goats to break a trend i noticed that goes back to 1997. Since 1997 and ok computer, no artist has landed a dellrock #1 album of the year released after the first week of July. The ONLY exception since then has been Radiohead (again) with their "we're going to release a new album in 10 days" surprise in October of 2007. in rainbows has been the only exception since ok computer. the mountain goats are pretty good, and landed in my top 5 last year with heretic pride, but since they're not radiohead the odds are against them. i'll find out beginning 10/06/2009.

The suckiest part of 2004 was the confirmation of my lack of faith in the general public. In 2000, the American people voted for Al Gore. However, the court system intervened and handed the victory to Dumya Bush leaguer. Four years later, after failed economic policies (that eroded his popularity pre-9/11) and lack of a complete and focused war strategy, people still were split between him and John Kerry. Dumya versus a pine tree should've wound up in a pine tree LANDSLIDE, but the republican attack machine threw everything at John Kerry -- axes, forest fires, pine beatles -- and he narrowly lost on regional party lines. That was a complete and utter disaster for the country, as i predicted way back then. Dumya was clueless and the republican machine was only looking to maximize their profits. Dumya had a republican congress for SIX years handing us the worst financial crisis since THE GREAT DEPRESSION. Duh. For all you Qwest republicans i worked with -- I F*CKING TOLD YOU SO!

That was an awful night watching the results come in on T.V. i knew that my bad luck cycle had kicked in in earnest that night. It was so depressing. i vowed to keep my kerry sticker in my back window until 2008 to let everyone know i wasn't one responsible for the tragedy that was about to pass. And it did. Iraq had no exit strategy. There was a housing crisis. Dumya (and all aspects of government, including the guy he appointed to FEMA) responded poorly in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. Then there's our current financial crisis. (Don't let media fool you -- there's still a heavy crisis lurking.) The only positive from the Bush legacy is responding quickly to the terrorist attacks and toppling Saddam. (i think Gore would've taken more time to formulate a counter-attack strategy which might've irked many Americans.) However, he shouldn't've been going after Saddam in the first place. I've used another post to outline Dumya's legacy, so i'll stop here. But to close, I F*CKING TOLD YOU SO!

John Vanderslice's cellar door sounded like a post-09/11 internal response to that tragedy and the ensuing dumya-incubated nightmare. The internal response is externalized obviously allowing us brutal insight with brutally-dirty guitars and spare-as-bones drumwork and sorta-lo-fi production, where his "friend is based in afghanistan / he goes from cave to cave and pulls the trigger / at the first sight of a man". "pale horse" starts "from the haunts of daily life / where is waged the daily strife / common wants and common cares / cuts the human heart with tears". His delivery seems like it's less a 1st-person account but more of an impassioned journalist covering the "apocalyptic sound", the final moments on earth before the "armageddon"[movie]-like tidal wave hits. You can see the end everywhere, even with the birds -as on "up above the sea" -- "everyday the bluebird comes down / and stares at me for hours / can't figure out if he brings me luck / or if he's trying to tear me down" -- or as you lose people dear to you along the way as on "wildstrawberries" -- "left you on the hood of a rented ford / I looked back, it was the last time / I saw you alive". On "white plains" he sings "the old devils, they found me in my hut / they poured through the windows, they cornered me", recalling vietnam . "they won't let me run" feels claustrophobic ("from 1909 / my family's run the town / you step out of line, poor sap / family council will sit you down") against spacious guitars. That foreboding, dirty guitar appears often (like on "my family tree"), carrying a serious weight with it. His albums are understated, not flashy, which leads me to forget just how much i like his stuff. (This and "pixel revolt" are my favs of his.)

Kevin Barnes is nuts in his own looneyverse, as is the rest of of montreal. Their album satanic panic in the attic propelled them to my ears as a constant enjoyment in 2004 (and after). Such eccentricies can make for inconsistent albums, but on satanic (and gay parade another following album), those eccentricies make for a rich, magic carpet ride of bowie-tinged psychedelia. With 2 claps it starts in "disconnect the dots", a very catchy almost-all-chorus acid wash of warm beauty recalling 70s peace, love & drug happiness. "lysergic bliss" false-starts before a chirpy guitar-line and barnes delivery floats breezily by with the same dizzy happiness. Almost every track will flower itself in your ears, from the harped-chorus of "will you come and fetch me" to seemingly-nonsensical choruses like "chrissie kiss the corpse" and the background harmonies of "your magic is working". Top tracks are "disconnect", "chrissie", "rapture rapes the muses" , "eros' entropic tundra" (pining undefeatedly for love, singing "All I ever get is sad love / feeling incomplete and below being loved / I don't know why it has been so hard to find love") and "spike the senses". There are no dull spots or clunkers, the closest you'll find is a semi-sweet ballad like "city bird", only because it's a contrast to the love party found on most of the rest of the album. It's going to be tough to rank this album because i feel razorlight and franz have better singles but "satanic" is the better overall album concept.

The of montreal album is one that i clued into as a result of handful of online music "magazines", most notably pitchfork. The reviews they were publishing read like a bunch of stuff i wanted to check out. So i did. In came of montreal, ambulance limited and ceelo green, to name a few in this music review post. Pitchfork started off fairly unique in its sometimes personal, sometimes oblique reviews, but is a more "normal" music news and review site like most. Others i've enjoyed over the years include coke machine glow and tiny mix tapes (which has kept a lot of the attitude that's now missing from pitchfork reviews). Another site i check is metacritic which polls music reviews from many different sources. A few times i availed myself of emusic RIYLs. This is how i've found out about (new) music ever since. This has become the new paradigm.

Most Wilco fans say the Wilco "holy trinity" was: being there, summerteeth and yankee hotel foxtrot. But i don't have -as- high of a regard for being there and believe that a ghost is born is just as good for different reasons. Whereas being there showed off tight americana pop song structures, a ghost is born flourishes in spreading out its pop/rock sound, experimenting in rock aesthetics. They start out quiet and plaintive on "at least that's what you said". The lyrics are short and bare ("When I sat down on the bed next to you / You started to cry / I said, maybe if I leave, you'll want me / To come back home ") and when Tweedy's case is made to his ex/lover, the band performs the relationship's denouement for the next 3+ minutes, uneasy and tense and at times calamitous. (Check out that guitar & drumwork!) From there, the piano based "hell is chrome" softly sings the song's premise "When the devil came / He was not red / He was chrome, and he said / Come with me ". It's another plaintive number, almost happy in his descent, closing "come with me" with repeated longing. "spiders (kidsmoke)" is one of two songs (over 10 min each) on the album with extended guitar play, "less than you think" (the other) comes with about 12 minutes of slowly-building guitar *feedback*. Inherently, along with the lack of any major hooky songs like previous albums, that makes for more of a "grower" of an album, one which requires a little patience, which could be a turn off for a lot of people. But i think there are a lot of payoffs if you wait for them. Leroy Bach's guitar work is quite minutely-technical and art-flourishy often in the same song, like on "spiders". In a way, "a ghost is born" is wilco's "kid a" -- there's an anxiety of a new age that permeates across the album. In "spiders" it's the trailing guitar licks (see -5:35) and lyrics like "Why can't they just say what they mean / Come clean, listen and talk / Hello private callers, IDs blocked ". The love story in "muzzle of bees" reaches a point where Tweedy's "assuming you got my message / On your machine / I'm assuming you love me / And you know what that means " romantically recalling sharing sunny days and warm breezes. "hummingbird", one of the better tracks on the album, claims "His goal in life was to be an echo / The type of sound that floats around and then back down / Like a feather " only wanting to be remembered. "handshake drugs" ("i was chewing gum for something to do" and its own fuzzed-out ending), (rollicking) "i'm a wheel" ("1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 / Once in Germany someone said, 'Nein' " ha ha), "theologians" ("Inlitterati lumen fidei / God is with us everyday / That illiterate light / Is with us every night") and (the possibly self-referential?) "the late greats" ("The greatest singer in rock and roll / Would have to be Romeo / His vocal chords are made of gold / He just looks a little too old "), are the other highlights. i love the delivery of the chorus of "company in my back" and its "Holy shit there's a company in my back ". Assuming i can always hit the "skip" button once the feedback of "less than you think" kicks in, this is a very good album.


keane "won" "dellrock's best new artist" of 2004 with hopes and fears. i count this as 3rd generation radiohead via piano. The choruses are majestic. The statements are more simple (than radiohead). 4 of the first 5 songs are grand, knockout pop songs -- "somewhere only we know", "this is the last time" ("you fall on me for anything you like"), "bend and break" ("If only I don't suffocate / I'll meet you in the morning, when you wake ") and "everybody's changing" ("Trying to make a move just to stay in the game / I try to stay awake and remember my name / But everybody's changing / And I don't feel the same."). But the rest of the album is good too. The desparation at the chorus of "we might as be strangers" feels palpable in a melodramatic way. i love the tinge of beautiful sadness in "she has no time". "bedshaped" is a powerful (for them) closer (although some of the effects they employ at the bridge are annoying).

The Killer's hot fuss is PACKED with early-duran-duran-meets-mid-blur brit-wavey hits in the first half (tracks 1-7). You've heard the non-stop 80s synth pop onslaught on hits "mr. brightside" (with cheeky non-rhyme wordplay "now they're going to bed / and my stomach is sick / and it's all in my head / but she's touching his..chest" and its wall of guitar/synth) and (the exciting energy of) "somebody told me", but you possibly haven't heard the best track from that album. "all these things i've done" is as epic as a pop song can be. "jenny was a friend of mine" (which sets the album tone with its guitar & bass quite reminiscent of duran duran, then the synth dance at the end), "andy, you're a star" and "on top" are no slouches either, in the same mold as the hits. If it weren't for the second-half album drop-off, i'd rank this ahead of razorlight and franz ferdinand. But the other tracks aren't slouches, making their debut their best release.

A.C. Newman's slow wonder will appropriately remind you of the new pornographers, Carl Newman being the primary writer/ringleader. with nearly every song as catchy as the last, full of guitar hooks and overabundant choruses. The album obviously feels like its eminating from one voice, but outside of the absence of neko ("replaced" by sara wheeler), it's a little more of a personal, more multi-instrumental stamp on the new porn sound he helped found. A couple of the tracks on here are slower numbers; not necessarily ballads, but slower-paced than the majority of new porn material. This would be a harbinger of things to come.

Ambulance ltd's LP starts off with a sexy, guitar churner "yoga means union" showing enough skill to let you know you should take these guys seriously, before sliding into one of the best tracks "primitive (the way i treat you)" and its snide-yet-caring "relax, don't think about / the way i treat you (believe me)". The best track is "heavy lifting" and its steady, dreamy indie rock stream singing "I'm taking it easy if it comes to fate / But for the time i've gotta wait". The album comes off as unremarkable, but it's pretty good indie pop/rock sometimes reminding me of andrew bird, sometimes BSS, sometimes spoon ("sugar pill") and sometimes the thrills. They carry sage-weighed vocals on the chorus of "stay where you are". "young urban" stretches out well to close with a nice velvet underground cover "the ocean" at the end.

i discovered the "nu-" william shatner (versus the artist of 1969) through his pairing with ben folds on "in love" (i think it was called) on a CMJ disc. There's a childish seriousness to ben folds music and shatner's air of wisdom and levity matched nicely with mr. folds. Shatner was able to parlay that combination, with ben folds producting and playing piano, on his album has been. The album is cluttered with guests, but shatner makes this album work, often tongue-in-cheek with a more thoughtful, rounded grounded-nutjob performance he merely hints at on those Priceline commercials. He brings a been-there-done-that gravitas to the pulp cover "common people", bringing weight to lines like "Laugh along although they're laughing at you / and the stupid things that you do / because you think that poor is cool". He brings an album equal parts sincere humor and comical earnestness, like on "you'll have time" (the perfect party killer i've found out), a song about your (and shatner's) eventual demise which is hilarious in its truth ("By the time you hear this I may well be dead / And you my friend might be next / 'Cause we're all gonna die") and how shatner delivers that truth. Then there's "that's me trying", a beautifully, sincere song about trying to reconnect with an estranged daughter ("if we never had a problem then that's what life would be like / Easy, uncomplicated, cool"), perfectly produced by ben folds. The song would've made "beauty in darkness" if i remade it -- the song brings some tears now'n'then. "real", a plaintive song about how shatner's human like everyone else despite his star status, tries for the same territory and mostly hits, with lyrics like "while there's a part of me / In that guy you've seen / Up there on that screen / I am so much more" and brad paisley (?!) providing the guitar & chorus (and it works well regardless of my disdain for pop country). On the other side of the spectrum are songs like "i can't get behind that", a hilarious stream-of-consciousness tirade on the petty little things people do, ranted in duet form with henry rollins (like "I can't get behind the Gods, who are more vengeful, angry, and / Dangerous if you don't believe in them / Why can't all these Gods just get along? / I mean, they're omnipotent and omnipresent, what's the problem?"), and "has been" with its faux "gunsmoke" soundtrack poking fun at himself finally concluding "Has been implies failure. Not so. Has been is history. Has been was. Has been might again". One song, "what have you done" , overestimates the song's poetic "reach". But songs like "together", which breezily captures its poetic qualities, easily make up for it. This is one of those albums i never expected to like as much as i did.

Like a number of albums in these dellrock retro 2000s, the unicorns really came out a year prior, but i most likely stumbled upon them via P2P before buying them on emusic. Their album who will cut our hair when we're gone? is NUTS. 10 years earlier (maybe 5?) i wouldn't've given an album like this a shot. The best tracks, "i don't wanna die" ("I predict: i die in a plane crash / I see it now, i die in a car on tour "), "tuff ghost" ("The tuff ghost is invincible / No guts came out when he bled"), "sea ghost" (and its pseudo-flute intro into an aquatic tale of host & parasite), "jellybones" (an incurable bone condition? say it ain't so!), "les os" and "child star" really make this album. Warped (via production) vocals, warped delivery, warped lyrics all centered around stardom and death, and warbly vid-game-esque synths. Crazy sh|t. So bat-sh|t crazy that its "concept album" properties are heavily obscured in the insanity. Going back to my favorites list, "jellybones" is uproariously insane and yet still cocaine-addictive, especially once that distorted guitar kicks in at "jelly,jelly,jelly,...jellybones". And "child star" is the centerpiece with its sullen guitar intro lamenting the life of a child star sung from both the star and fan's point of view. Sing's star: "Is there a photo of me on your wall in short short-shorts / Or zipped down jeans?". Fan responds his fanmail was "returned to sender" entering in a back-and-forth with the child star who's in denial about his declining stardom and fanbase devolving in a wonky, almost-giddy, laid-back hate-fest.

ceelo green...is the soul machine. I agree, he IS the soul machine. This is new-school r&b soul wrapped up in a little funk flava. This is what outkast's the love below aspired to. He's soul-jam-funky on "the art of noise". "The One" is a celebratory, smooth hip-hop number. There are a lot of soulful numbers on here (like "i'm selling soul"). George Clinton's one inspiration (see "glockappella").


i find it interesting how much i've come back to the basement jaxx. a friend at Qwest really dug 'em but i wasn't as gung-ho. i attended a concert of theirs with him but wasn't overly impressed. (it WAS a fun party mix.) Highlights on kish kash are "good luck" (featuring lisa kekaula), "lucky star" (featuring dizzee rascal) and "plug it in" (featuring jc chasez from n'sync). This album benefits from the guest spots and could be my fav from them. (i don't have rooty yet.) All the songs run on the same basic flavor of their debut but add a lot of other ingredients, including all the guest singers. (Each time i write about the basement jaxx i think of how i should probably be including some daft punk albums into the mix of my favorites of these 2000s-years, seeing as those two artists laid the foundation for IDM/dance this decade, but i've only been listening to the daft punk more in the last couple years, so it might be a couple more years yet until i like them enough...)

Here are a couple of albums that just missed the re-listen review cut:

bjork's medulla was a very interesting and successful experiment. There are almost NO instruments on this album. Almost all beats on this album are human-organic, and it sounds just like an instrumental (or computer beat-boxed) recording, not like your 10 year old kid brother spitting loudly into his cupped hands. There are 3-or-4 wonderful tracks on here with the rest just okay. This was my favorite bjork album since post though.

the grey album by dj danger mouse was the first seriously good mashup of this computer age. dj danger mouse mixed the beatles white album with an acapella version of jay-z's black album. There are 3 or 4 tracks where he NAILS it, like "99 problems" (with "helter skelter" headbanging) and "dirt off your shoulder". The rest are interesting adventures in what most people would think unthinkable -- melding the beatles with rap.

dellrock's top 13 albums airplay of 2004:

Pos.	Title	Artist	Total
1.	good news for people who love bad news	modest mouse	372
2.	logic will break your heart	the stills	271
3.	chutes too narrow	the shins	257
4.	a ghost is born	wilco	250
5.	absolution	muse	241
6.	hopes and fears	keane	198
7.	franz ferdinand	franz ferdinand	174
8.	up all night	razorlight	136
9.	college dropout	kanye west	126
10.	speakerboxxx / the love below	outkast	115
11.	the meadowlands	the wrens	110
12.	dear catastrophe waitress	belle & sebastian	83
13.	rock n roll	ryan adams	57

Week 3 gave me my first undefeated week of the 2009 fantasy season. (if it's a fantasy, was i really undefeated?) I improved to 8-4-1 overall.

EFS 666: 486 points in my first divisional game. My cornerbacks and defensive tackle didn't do much, but that's the way it is with CBs.

EFS 1000: 456 points! Bout time i start scoring with this team. (Jason Campbell won't always score 49 points though.) I'm now 2-0-1.

EFS 12: Won by *FOUR* points in a high scoring game (and i had HFA). I'm now 2-2, barely in the playoffs.

EFS 7: Scored 405 points with this team which is a miracle by itself. But i won, too. I'm now 1-2 and hope i can keep the scoring up as i try to resurrect this orphan.

The view from the Stanley Hotel, especially in the winter time, can be pretty amazing. Kellie and i took the ghost tour of the hotel when we ran away together in Feb. 2003. It's a short drive up from the main interstate intersection entering the town. We stopped by there a couple times in 2003 and we both pretty much decided after she accepted my proposal that we would tie knots there. We married on her birthday, One of my top 5 favorite days of all-time (and a heavy contender for #1, strongly challenged 3 years later [*teaser alert*]) I wasn't really nervous until i first drove up from the main Estes intersection looking up at the Stanley. It was cool to have my mom & brother and a lot of my friends there. The scene was obviously gorgeous. Musically, she walked out to Norah Jones and i to a Moby song. We walked in to the reception to the Rocky theme song, hand-in-hand with our arms in the air and our first dance was Ben Fold's "the luckiest".

My friend doug, we slept together for a month during the 48 state trip, was my best man. He asked what kind of speech he should put together. I told him whatever he wanted. Asking for context, i said the maid of honor wasn't planning a speech. That changed. The maid, Shannon, ended up putting together a length, eloquent speech that made people laugh and let out some "awww"s. As she was giving her speech, i caught a bunch of "i can't believe what spot you have me in" looks from doug. He didn't prepare a speech and came up with his on the spot.

For the reception, i created a CD-R dance mix (i couldn't fully-trust my Archos post-48-state-trip), tracklisting included below. I tried to combine old stuff that a lot of people would like with newer stuff that'd be fun for the fogies. I compiled the mix by going through all my music at the time looking for any contenders, then whitling the list down with Kellie. I was surprised with how taken she was with my "first dance" candidate "the luckiest". We've played this playlist every few months since.

kellie & rockey's 2004 wedding reception music:

01 ben folds "the luckiest" [first dance]
02 james brown "i got you (i feel good)"
03 the beatles "birthday" [it was kellie's birthday, after all]
04 abba "dancing queen"
05 curtis mayfield "what a wonderful world" [on my first date at her place we watched two movies, the second was "good morning vietnam"]
06 the bangles "hazy shade of winter" [kellie's a big simon & garfunkel fan and we both grew up in the 80s]
07 prince "delirious" [we're both big prince fans, but maybe we should've chosen "let's go crazy" ?]
08 dead or alive "you spin me round" [tough to find a non-mix out there]
09 elton john "can you feel the love tonight?" [the only song i could do without]
10 norah jones "turn me on"
11 diana ross & the supremes "stop! in the name of love"
12 the beatles "love me do"
13 kool and the gang "celebration"
14 outkast "hey ya!"
15 prince & the new power generation "gett off" [both big fans of this song that we'd later perform together in a karoake bar]
16 soft cell "tainted love"
17 captain and teinille "love will keep us together" [thought of my mom with this one]
18 billy joel "just the way you are"
19 barry manilow "can't smile without you" [both big fans of his early stuff]
20 dee-lite "groove is in the heart"
21 bee gees "stayin' alive"
22 kenny loggins "footloose"
23 they might be giants "birdhouse in your soul"
24 simon & garfunkel "loves me like a rock"
25 yellow "oh yeah" [you know it from "ferris bueller's day off]
26 prince "kiss"
27 cracker "eurotrash girl" [dedicated from kellie to her euro-visiting friends]
28 kool and the gang "jungle boogie"
29 ryan adams "so alive"
30 the beatles "i want to hold your hand"
31 lyle lovett "she's no lady" ["i pronounce you 99 to life / she's no lady, she's my wife"]
32 eddie rabbit "i love a rainy night"
33 culture club "i'll tumble 4 ya"
34 blur "girls and boys"
35 michael jackson "rock with you"
36 everclear "the honeymoon song"
37 smashing pumpkins "today"
38 postal service "such great heights"
39 duran duran "perfect day" [more upbeat than the lou reed version]
40 smashing pumpkins "17"

i think the party petered out and headed over to our presidential cabin (where lisa marie presley once stayed! OMFG!) after track #35 (which i sort of expected, back-loading the mix with newer songs). i think it was a fun playlist that satisfied most people young and old. My only problem with the mix was that i wished i had an ipod or better cd-r burning software back then -- some songs abruptly ended/begun and could've used some fading and the whole mix could've used some normalization. I would've used my Rio, but i wanted to make sure the music-playing process was easy for whoever manned the box. Some songs are peculiar choices for a wedding reception mix, like "i love a rainy night" or "tainted love", but in those cases (except the cracker choice, which was all kellie & her girls) we both thought it'd be fun to play and dance to regardless of, and because of, the setting and family/friends involved. But the acoustics in the Stanley Hotel piano room were pretty optimal.

We flew to maui for our honeymoon. If it wasn't for the lackluster state economy, i'd consider moving to maui if i were rich. Love the weather and the environment. Even in a torrential downpour, it still feels nice to hang outside wearing nothing but shorts. We went scuba wading, drove half-around the main mountain, caught a local play, checked out a luau and basically hung out at the beach. We stayed in a shore-side cabin, and while the cabin itself wasn't that spectacular, it was cool to go from the cabin to the beach in less than a minute's walk. So please, someone give me a few million so my wife & i can contemplate such a move. Thank you very much.

---

Here's a strange event from 2003 that impacted my 2004 at work. My boss from 2001-2003 was always a strange duck. Some of my friends at work were leery of him for various reasons. (i just thought it was strange that i never saw him in the men's bathroom EVER, something a co-worker pointed out.) For my end-of-year review in 2002, he subtracted some points from my overall score because of my sense of humor. No, seriously, because of my sense of humor! I had a smaller bonus because of that (probably only $500 post-tax, but still). That kinda pissed me off. So from there i decided: a) to cut down on my nutty humor at work from thereon just in case, and b) to not be too close to the guy. A number of other co-workers in my group were friends with him and i figured i should distance myself from them too in a social way. i didn't want any of my off-prism humor to affect my job performance appraisals -- who knows what joke i'd tell after work at the bars (or wherever, as i don't think he drank) would be used against me?

In 2003, there were some new laptops making the rounds at work. He offered me one to use at home, but i declined, mostly because i didn't want to be tempted to bring my work home with me. His other cohorts already had laptops and they were allocated new ones. Whatever, i didn't care. Well, one day i showed up to work in the morning late in 2003 to find bossman & cohorts not there. 1 or 2 should've been in but i didn't think anything of it at first. Then a couple hours passed and none of them showed up for work. I didn't even catch word of an explanation until the next day. It seems that bossman had been ripping off the company for years -- cycling new hardware in to the group to replace old hardware, then selling that old hardware at a used PC shop. He was never charged, so i'm guessing they didn't have concrete proof, but they had enough proof to let him go instantly...along with his cohorts who had no idea that they were being played in his scheme. All of them were laid off because they unwittingly participated in bossman's tom-thievery. At that moment, i was even more glad i refused a laptop...

So i changed groups in 2004 in an economy had tightened post-Y2K/09/11. My new group had a lot of roosters already. There were 2-or-3 leads in the bunch and they'd been working together for a while. This resulted in me not receiving much interesting work. And the #1 dog was a strong republican who sat beside a co-worker republican friend, and they, like a lot of republicans, liked to spread their dogma. They did so almost on a daily basis during election year 2004. So i was pretty bored even when i had stuff to do AND was tortured by these guys. Did i mention that it was an XP-style work environment, with everyone working on long tables in the same room, computers back-to-back, co-workers facing each other across the table? Wasn't really that much fun for me and given that the company had "refined" their work-force, there weren't many opportunities for transfer. Plus, all my work friends except Sachin, including Jennifer, had left Qwest (and Sachin was going back to India when his contract expired).

To cope, i jammed a lot at work. In an XP environment, that was a little awkward, but i didn't care not really liking my job much at that point. I came in early when i could in order to jam for at least 30 minutes without all the meeting room glaring lights and republican nonsense. My favorite albums that year were: the arcade fire funeral, modest mouse good news for people who love bad news, kanye west college dropout, razorlight up all night and the franz ferdinand debut.

the arcade fire's funeral has constantly grown in my esteem over the years. Initially, i liked the mouse better (see below) with funeral landing at #10 of the year, but funeral is such an artistic statement compared to the newly-hollowed mouse, that it's my favorite 2004 album today. The "neighborhood" suite kicks arse, beginning with "neighborhood #1 (tunnels)" saying "if the snow buries my, / my neighbourhood. / And if my parents are crying / then I'll dig a tunnel / from my window to yours" and "You change all the lead / sleepin' in my head to gold, / as the day grows dim, / I hear you sing a golden hymn, / the song I've been trying to sing" beautifully as it builds to its haughty climax. In the second "neighborhood" (laika) song drives out "Alexander, our older brother, / set out for a great adventure. / He tore our images out of his pictures, / he scratched our names out of all his letters" with charge and aggression of family turmoil allowing neighbors to dance in "police disco lights". Respite "une annee sans lumiere" reflects in the dark "Hey, your old man should know, / if you see a shadow, / there's something there" (hoot), coming in from the dark in celebration at the end. Which preludes the energetic, guitar-chugging, drum-stomping "neighborhood #3 (power out)" singing "I went out into the night. / I went out to pick a fight with anyone. / Light a candle for the kids, / Jesus Christ don't keep it hid!" with xylophone and lovely accompanying female fox in tow. (Crazy neighborhood.) "neighborhood #4" creeps like a lullaby, starting "I am waitin' 'til I don't know when, / cause I'm sure it's gonna happen then. / Time keeps creepin' through the neighborhood, / killing old folks, wakin' up babies just like we knew it would. " The "crown of love" is elegant and beautiful. "wake up" roars with discontent ("Children wake up, / hold your mistake up, / before they turn the summer into dust") until levity breaks up near the end ("With my lightnin' bolts a glowin' / I can see where I am goin' to be / when the reaper he reaches and touches my hand.") "haiti" is a very good, unassuming song with keyboard fx with lovely, but as unassuming lead female vocals. i love the nervous intensity of the backing piano as she sings "In the forest we lie hiding, / unmarked graves where flowers grow. / Hear the soldiers angry yelling, / in the river we will go.". "rebellion (lies)" sounds like a celebration of lies or a celebration of knowing the truth beyond them with lyrics like "People say that you'll die faster than without water, / but we know it's just a lie, scare your son, scare your daughter". "rebellion (lies)" and "neighborhood #3 (power out)" are probably the best songs on the album, but i can see an argument made for most. No clunkers -- most of it very good stuff. A very happy surprise find in 2004.

"the horn intro" blasts modest mouse's good news for people who love bad news into your ears offering promise of a bigger sound than the often-paranoid and unsettled moon & antarctica, and it delivers on that front, but what still stands out to me is that it's just a pretty good album from modest mouse in comparison to their previous, masterful concept album work. This is the album diehard mouseys thought they'd bring after they signed up to a major. Well, even though it's no moon & antarctica, screw the diehards. This is a fun, indie-rockin' treat. "the world at large" ("Ice-age heat wave, can't complain. / If the world's at large, why should I remain?") eases you in to the laid-back catchy hit "float on". i LOVE the jangly guitar intro to the song and would've loved if they stuck with that throughout the song. It's not a deep song, but it captures the pathos that "don't worry, be happy" bludgeoned you with and is just as catchy. "ocean breathes salty" is pretty fun too, evoking the philosophical conundrums of their aforementioned masterpiece with lines like "you wasted life, why wouldn't you waste death?", "You missed when time and life shook hands and said goodbye. / When the earth folded in on itself." and "you wasted life, why wouldn't you waste the afterlife?" i love the unfocused rage in "bury me with it" ("we were "), the unrestrained, stupid-fun, dance-anarchy of "dance hall" and the careless abandon of "the good times are killing me" ("Fed up with all that LSD. / Need more sleep than coke or methamphetamines. / Late nights with warm, warm whiskey. / I guess the good times ain't wrong, just killing me. ") (which shares a leisurely feeling with "blame it on the tetons"). "bury me with it" might offer the mousey's attitude to the precedent they set, singing "We were aiming for the moon, we were shooting at the stars / But the kids were just shooting at the buses and the cars" -- they aimed high with their previous album, now it's time to have fun and screw around like kids. Most of the rest of the songs are pretty fun too (god's a control freak on "bukowski" and the horn reprise of the sinful "this devil's workday" where "all those people that you know are floating in the river like logs" and the spaz-march of "the view" restates the hit's purpose), but fair or unfair, i remain critical of this album in comparison to moon & antarctica. (Radiohead's really the only artist this decade i can think of that followed up a great album with another great album -- a feat obviously difficult to achieve.)

I was quite happy with my kanye west find in 2004, not that i had to look far. the college dropout is a very good rap/hip-hop album and one of my favorites of the genre. You can say he's the new m.c. hammer. This is mostly upbeat, feel-good rap music. Unlike hammer, Kanye brings a "been-there" perspective, has a wry, tongue-in-cheek humor that prevails across the album and a capacity to bring in other genre sounds into his. Like on "all falls down" with its acoustic guitar strumming backbone rapping "they make us hate ourself and love they wealth / That's why shortys hollering "where the ballas' at?" / Drug dealer buy Jordans, crackhead buy crack / And a white man get paid off of all of that" and "we all self-conscious, i'm just the first to admit it.". He uses samples masterfully, like on "spaceship", "slow jamz" or "jesus walks", where the samples sound like backing contributions from the artists themselves. Part of reminded me of hammer was "jesus walks", as hammer would often sprinkle in one-or-two spiritual/religious-inflected raps on each album. "jesus walks" is more heavy-hearted than what hammer put out, starting with spoken word "we at war with terrorism, racism, and most of all, we at war with ourselves". The song's a force with a chorus pleading "God show me the way because the Devil trying to break me down" and "But if I talk about God my record won't get played Huh? / Well let this take away from my spins / Which will probably take away from my ends / Then I hope this take away from my sins". "never let me down" is cool hand loke with swagga masta jay-z guesting, a fine segue out of "jesus walks" still carrying its weight offering "I get down for my grandfather / Who took my mamma / Made her sit in that seat / Where white folks aint want us to eat" and reflecting about his near-early demise (car accident) relating to the deaths of left-eye and aaliyah. That's followed by the fun of "get 'em high" and hilarious "new workout plan" ("1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and get them sit ups right and / Tuck your tummy tight and do your crunches like this / Give head, stop breathe, get up, check your weave" and "That's right put in work, move your ass, go berserk / Eat your salad, no dessert / Get that man you deserve") where one girl claims "since listenin' to Kanye's workout tape / I been able to date outside the family". ha ha. Or the funny on old-skool-leaning "slow jamz", "I told her to drive over in your new whip / Bring some friends you cool with / I'mma bring da cool whip, then I want you to strip", which features probably the fastest rapping by twista on a made-for-radio song ever. The lead single gem, "through the wire", comes near the end written "in the same hospital as biggie died" while kanye was rehabbing from his car accident and his mouth wired shut. With eminem failing exponentially with encore and outkast going their separate ways (even on love below/speakerboxxx), kanye made the case to be my favorite rapper. The main negative is all the skits which lose their entertainment value after the first listen, and last track "last call" (which itself is a good song) drags on at the end with his auto-biography, but with a "skip" button all is forgiven.

Razorlight's up all night and its brand of old-school-meets-indie-rock is made by the hits -- "rock'n'roll lies", "vice" (great rock song), "golden touch" and "stumble and fall". The rest of the album is rollicking-good fun too, especially "rip it up", "get it and go" and "dalston". But when Razorlight sing "L.O.V.E., i'll see ya later" in "vice", they R.A.W.K. tha howse. This is such simple, rocking fun i almost feel like docking it for it's "simple" and (old school) "rock" qualities. Maybe it's the passion that brings me back, from the strained "come back to me" in "dalston" to the chorus "And IIIIIIII get over the brrrreaks / And sometiiiiiiiiiiiimes stumble and fall" or the chorus of "get it and go". These guys can write a catchy, rock jingle, like in the just-mentioned "stumble and fall" (love the guitars) and "golden touch" (the guitar and lengthy chorus trailing "they'll never do the things they wish that they could do so well"). You can keep your strokes -- i'd rather have albums like this (even if they never came close to an album this good again). Album trails off a little in last 4 songs, but "fall, fall, fall" is a pleasant, closing ballad.

franz ferdinand's debut, along with the razorlight album, were indicative of a genre of music i was interested in around 2004, along with the killers and bloc party. It's that new new wave indie rock possibly spawned this century by the strokes (but i'm only lukewarm on them). Franz crashed onto their scene with their gimmicky "take me out", reminiscent of radiohead's "creep" to me the way the guitar interrupts in an unexpected way. In "take me out", the guitar completely changes the cadence of the song from a straight-forward rocker, to a laid-back charmer. They come out on this album, guitars a-blazin' spawning many more fun tunes than "take me out", the squirmy guitar of retro "tell her tonight", the roller-coaster carnival of "the dark of the matinee", the female-preoccupied "auf achse", "darts of pleasure" ("words are poison darts of pleasure / and so you die") and the urgent pace of "michael". Or how about "this fire" which is "out of control -- and we're gonna burn this city!" just as it starts.

I think of razorlight and franz ferdinand in the same thought process because of their similar simple indie rock by new wave approaches and that they never released as good of an album since. Neither album is great but each is very solid and each spawned a huge hit with me that i don't tire of today. For that they both have a good shot at the top XX albums of the 00s yet neither can be considered a lock.

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Because of my situation at work, i began looking for a new job by April. The job search was the toughest ever. Sure, coming out of college, i had "no" work experience (which wasn't entirely true with my work in the on-campus off-campus M.I.O.), but there are always a good amount of entry level positions. They're cheap for companies and if the employee doesn't work out, there's always next year's crop. But in 2004 i had experience, a bunch of experience in a lot of different areas. However, i didn't have enough experience for most companies to see me as "senior" level. I had a bunch of interviews between April and August with minimal luck. (One company wanted to hire me on as a contractor, but it was a 6 month thing and i wanted more financial stability than that being married.) Half the time i knew i didn't have a shot by the way the interview was going. I bet if i interviewed for senior-level equivalents of those same jobs with those same companies now, i'd receive bites at least half the time. But i wasn't the best interviewer back then.

I eventually formulated a way to interview better. I decided to approach an interview like a comp sci final exam. Sure, i knew how to do what employers wanted from a prospective employee, but i often stumbled on terminology. Based on the type of job i was looking for, i had a good idea of the basket of questions that'd be thrown my way. Therefore, i created a "studying cheat sheet" to prepare for interviews. After that, i nailed every-other interview. Soon, i had a good job offer for a job that seemed cutting-edge and highly challenging and interesting. The catch? The job wasn't in denver but in broomfield, about a 30+ minute commute out of town.

I accepted the job and we put the condo up for sale. I gave a notice at work and my last day would be mid-December. I didn't start at Level 3 until the first work day of January, so i had time off. For the most part, i relaxed and enjoyed the time; however, having two weeks without a job made me paranoid and i couldn't wait to start at Level 3 just to assuage fears of them changing their mind and leaving me stranded. I was able to negotiate a Dec 31 start date which allowed me health insurance coverage from day 1 (which is important for my situation).

As a supplement to my 2002 post, i've found my online photo albums covering the 48 state trip taken that year. Enjoy.

The rock and roll hall of fame really doesn't mean much anymore. There are so many good artist that haven't made it in now and most likely won't make it in the future due to the continuing irrelevancy of the rock and roll aesthetic itself, that the rock and roll hall of fame is quickly becoming a joke. (Madonna? Does she even play an instrument (well)? Induct her into the pop hall of fame instead.) But finally, FINALLY, Genesis, one of the best artists IMO with a career spanning from the 60s to tours this century have finally, FINALLY, been...nominated. i don't hold out much hope that they'll be voted in, but at least some people finally had some sense to vote for an artist which was both one of the most artistically gifted of all-time as well as one of the most popular (in a pop world) of all-time (IMO!).

The main reason i'm excited isn't because they'll be voted in to the long-staid hall, but rather because this might coerce all main members of genesis to reunite, if only for the hall concert show, bringing gabriel and hackett back to join collins, rutherford and banks. That'd be totally tubular! And if they did tour all as one unit, i'd think about shelling out the $### per ticket, hopefully performing songs across the entire range of their career, from "the knife" to gabriel singing over the gabriel-soundalike songs from their last album.

But first, genesis, now FINALLY nominated, will need to make the cut down to the final 5. Then maybe they'll all reunite before they start dying off.