Stuff of the Year – John’s Picks
In years to come, I’ll look back fondly on 2009 as having some great films, albums, and games, but also as being an all-around good year personally. 2009 was the year I knocked up my wife for the second time and the year my first son started becoming a miniature human, capable of interacting and making me laugh with his great sense of humor. It was the first year I felt even remotely like a musician in nearly a decade and the year that our website and podcast really took shape in the way in which we always intended. So let’s take a look back at the stuff in 2009 that gave me a tingly-in-the-pants feeling.
The Music: Two of my favorite bands put out albums this year. Pearl Jam started off with Backspacer, a tight, rapid-fire album that proved they are still among the best – if not the best – rock and roll bands in existence. They managed to stay relevant after nearly twenty years, outlasting the grunge fad and the dark period of the late 90s and early 00s when musicians were cast aside for pop-star-douchebaggery, and come out better than ever.
And then there’s The Flaming Lips. What can I say about these crazy bastards other than I love them? First, they released an amazingly psychedelic double-album Embryonic, encased in a fuzzy, almost pubic-hair-like material, and then, with hardly any notice, they put out an album covering Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Both are challenging and hypnotic listens and both are among my favorite albums of the year.
Speaking of the Lips, Stardeath and White Dwarfs, a band fronted by Wayne Coyne’s nephew, released their first album, which was a great return to the psychedelic garage band rock that I grew up playing and loving.
But my favorite album of the year was Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective. I have never heard anything quite like the “Phillip Glass meets The Beach Boys” (via Hilden) sound of this album, and it kept me entranced for weeks. They also released the EP Fall Be Kind later in the year.
And finally, there was the debut album by Spinnerette. I only heard of this album because the band includes my all-time favorite drummer, Jack Irons, but I was pleasantly surprised by how great the tunes were. Singer Brody Dalle put together a fun, punchy album that proves chicks don’t need to put out candy-pop shit to be successful these days.
Other albums I dug in 2009 include Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest, Sonic Youth’s The Eternal, and The Mars Volta’s Octahedron.
The Movies: There were actually a lot of really great movies put out in 2009, and much to my surprise, I found myself wanting to head to the theater nearly every month.
The best movie I saw all year was Inglourious Basterds. Christopher Waltz was brilliant, Brad Pitt was hilarious, and the rest of the cast created memorable characters that I’ll be thinking of for years to come. I mean, Hugo Stiglitz? Fucking awesome!
I know it’s fashionable to slam Tarantino as a hack or whatever, but here’s what matters: every time I see one of his films, I come out of the theater thoroughly entertained. Whether you like his dialog or find it too wordy, whether you think his action scenes are brilliantly crafted or bloody messes, QT entertains the shit out of me. I don’t care about the homage/ripoff arguments or any other issues people bring up when discussing his films. The bottom line is, every movie he’s ever made has put a smile on my face. And for that, he’ll always get my money. Now let’s go kills some gnatzies.
But let’s not forget about District 9, the most original sci-fi movie I’ve seen in years. I saw both this and Basterds on the same day; probably the best double-feature I’ve ever experienced. There was so much to District 9; so many brilliant aspects. The inspired choice of setting, the fact that the “protagonist” was an unlikable paper-pushing douche who got what he deserved, which turned out to be a good thing for him and the audience. And yes, the movie perfectly sets itself up for a direct sequel – District 10 – and I’ll be there on opening day.
I feel like I need to mention Watchmen based purely on what Zack Snyder achieved. Despite the minor nitpicks, he pulled off a completely watchable and entertaining adaptation of one of the greatest and most complex graphic novels I’ve ever read; a story with no recognizable characters and no frame of reference for newcomers. He changed the ending into something that made sense for filmgoers, and turned Jackie Earle Haley into a fucking star. If nothing else, he placed Dr. Manhattan’s giant blue dong into the public conscious. Bravo, sir!
And then there’s Star Trek. Revoke my geek card if you want, but I don’t know who JJ Abrams is, and I never watched much of the original Trek series. I saw this movie at a late-late showing after putting my kid to bed and kissing my wife goodnight. I sat in the theater alone, mouth agape, and was introduced to an amazing universe. The very next day, I went out and bought the original series season one on Bluray and have been in love ever since. It’s not that I never watched Nimoy and The Shat kick space ass before, I just never fell so hard for it. So I guess that Abrams guy is pretty good, eh?
2009 also saw the release of the best original zombie movie in years, Zombieland. Seriously, this movie was fucking brilliant from start to finish and Woody Harrelson is now among the great zombie slayers of all time. Don’t forget the rules!
Other movies I loved this year were Taken (ass-kickingly awesome from start to finish), Coraline (can you believe this was my introduction to Neil Gaiman?), Friday the 13th (a brilliant boot in the ass for a struggling franchise), I Love You, Man (I’ll watch Paul Rudd and Jason Segel in anything), Observe and Report (you either loved this movie or didn’t get it), Up (you’ve seen it), The Hangover (just as funny as advertised), Public Enemies (Fucking brilliant. What’s with the hate?), Funny People (Not-so-funny, but a really great story), and World’s Greatest Dad (Bobcat Goldthwait and Robin Williams surprise the shit out of me with a brilliant dark comedy).
And finally, let me thank the Robot Panic contributors for turning me on to great films this year like The Brothers Bloom, It Might Get Loud, Drag Me to Hell, and (500) Days of Summer.
The Games: I’ll be quick about this as we’ve already gone over it ad nauseum on the podcast, but shit…some of this stuff is worth mentioning again.
Demon’s Souls was the best fucking game of the year. There is no way around it. I’ve haven’t played a more original, inspired, immersive, fascinating game in years. Nor have I seen a game inspire so much thoughtful conversation in recent memory. As we mentioned on the podcast, Atlus and From Software took a game that should have only appealed to the smallest group of gamers, and through word of mouth turned it into one of the biggest hits of the year. Bravo!
But this year wasn’t just about new games for me. I also played through older titles like Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest IV (almost to completion, if my kid hadn’t lost the cart), and had one of the greatest gaming moments in my life on – you guessed it – the Turbo Duo with – you guessed again – Bonk’s Revenge. I spent a few evenings playing through every Bonk title on the Turbo and Revenge in particular provided an amazing finish with me knocking out King Drool with only one sliver of energy left. I love sweaty-palm gaming moments.
I failed to mention Shadow Complex on the year-end podcast, so here’s a good spot to throw in a plug. Yes, it’s like Super Metroid crossed with Uncharted, but hey, that’s not a bad combination. I have yet to finish the game, but it always gets the nod when I need something to sit down and play for a half hour.
The Comics: Alright, I haven’t done much in the way of book-readin’ this year due to my growing comic obsession (thanks Hilden, you bitch), and I hardly regret it at all. And I say this now without hesitation: Ed Brubaker is the single greatest writer in comics. Sorry you other guys (not you, Bendis – you can fuck right off), but nobody entertains me as consistently as Brubaker. From Criminal: The Sinners to Incognito to Captain America to The Marvels Project to Daredevil, I’ve done my best to pick up everything Brubaker has written, and I’ve loved it all.
But this is also the year that DC seemed to gain some ground on Marvel. The Batman books have been fucking amazing this year (mostly), with Dick Grayson totally kicking ass in Bruce Wayne’s absence and Tim Drake busting balls as the single-minded Red Robin. Now if only they can whip little Damien into shape as Robin (though him being an obstinate prick is half the appeal). But if Bruce Wayne’s “death” has served any purpose, it has been to give the Batman lore a bit of much-needed fresh air and excitement.
Furthermore, Blackest Night has been a great time and DC has shown those dicks at Marvel (I’m looking at you, Bendis) how to do a big event series properly.
The Rest: TV was mostly great this year with Curb Your Enthusiasm being the absolute pinnacle. The Seinfeld reunion was handled brilliantly, and while I was sad to see the Blacks go, I’m glad Leon got to stick around. Funniest character on television. Community has been a nice addition to my weekly lineup, and The Office continues to be one of the best comedies of the decade. Meanwhile, True Blood and Weeds gave me a reason to keep my cable bill absurdly high. Thanks, assholes.
The local sports scene here in Minnesota was as it always is…almost. Despite the fact that we live in perhaps the worst sports town in the country, we managed to drum up a bit of excitement when the Holy One himself, Brett Favre signed with the ViQueens shortly after training camp. I was in favor of this all along since I’m in favor of anything that’ll give people something to talk about and it sure beat another season of complete boredom and mediocrity. The Timberwolves ownership finally found and burned those incriminating photos that Kevin McHale had and thus were able to fire his incompetent ass after driving an already subpar franchise deeper and deeper into the dirt. Enter David Kahn, the new Wolves GM. The guy is alright by me (for now), and I’ve liked just about all of his moves so far; first and foremost with the firing of McHale. And yes, he did the smart thing by drafting Rubio. Fuck you. I’m right. And because I don’t give a shit about hockey and only care slightly more about baseball, that’s all for sports.
In political and social news, last year’s “hope” and “change” themes gave way to some of the ugliest, blatantly idiotic behavior I’ve seen in my adult life. It was disappointing to see vile, mindless pigs like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin become figureheads for legions of angry,sweaty, zombie-like bigots everywhere, but I can’t say that I’m surprised. I just hope we can come out the other side of it better than when we started. And I hope the crazed masses find reason and thoughtfulness a better alternative to hate and ignorance. But I’m not holding my breath.
The Website: Well I’ll be damned. This little experiment seems to be working out for us. Last year, we changed the name of the site, the name of the podcast, and we blew up the forums. Turns out it wasn’t a complete disaster; at least in our opinion. I love coming to this site, I love doing the podcast, and I love interacting with the people who hang out here. We’ve built a nice little community here and I’m proud of that.
We’re also overwhelmed by the support you guys have given to the ZomBOOsical! It’s been downloaded far more than we ever anticipated and as a result, we’re sitting here ass deep in lobster dinners. Okay, not really. But it is nice that the site is actually going to pay for itself this year, rather than having to convince our families that this ridiculous project is worth spending money that could otherwise be used to clothe and feed our kids. So our children thank you for the diapers.
Here’s to a good 2010!
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Tags: stuff of the year
January 4th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
Nice! Did you catch TV on the Radio ‘s album Dear Science? I got turned on to them and Animal Collective around the same time. Also, if you want to try some more Gaiman, the book “American Gods” is pretty awesome.