Ultimos Van Dragon

Ultimos Top 100 Albums of the 00's - 2002

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - Source Tags and Codes


When Source Tags and Codes came out, Pitchfork (a website I wouldn't know about for years) gave it a perfect score. They have since (supposedly) taken back this opinion. I think it was worthy of this high praise - it's absolutely perfect at what it attempts to do. This is epic, guitar music for people who aren't into metal. Source Tags and Codes reminds me of Daydream Nation, not just in sound, but in execution. Good shit.

Bad Religion - The Process Of Belief


Hard to imagine that a band that's been around for 22 years not only writes easily one of the best songs of the decade, but a killer album around it.

Beck - Sea Change


Beck got dumped or something, and went complete outside of his normal already awesome style, and made an accoustic album. And he did a damned fine job.

Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People


Such a good album. One of the true testaments of this decade's greatness. Stars and Sons is one of my favorite songs ever.

Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head


2002 - 2003 was the last time that I regularly listened to the radio. I worked in a small room with another person, counting money. I fucking loved this job. Anyway, instead of torturing my coworker into listening to the Strokes OVER AND OVER AGAIN, I'd listen to the radio. We didn't get the station I wanted to listen to (The Edge) inside that room, so I'd instead listen to The Zone - a top forty rock station. I'm glad I did - this is how I discovered Coldplay. I loved the song Clocks so much that I bought the album. It's a great album, and it takes me back to a great time in my life.

Death Cab For Cutie - The Photo Album


Hey look, two totally uncool bands right in a row. DCFC is great at what they do, and I love this album!

Eminem - The Eminem Show


Man 2002 was the year of my favorite songs of the decade. My Dad's Gone Crazy! Seriously I fucking hated Eminem until I really listened to his music. He's just that good.

The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots


The Flaming Lips hit an amazing peak in the late 90's with Zaireeka and The Soft Bulletin. They came down a little here, but it's still great shit. I'm glad that such an off the wall, expirimental group has been able to make music as long as I've been alive.

Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights


I'm not sure how to define this album. Wiikipedia lists the genre as "Post Punk Revival". That's a pretty good explanation of why I like it.

Max Tundra - Mastered By Guy At The Exchange


One of the defining albums of the decade. It's got blips and beeps and guitars and anything else and just defies classification. This is the music created by a generation raised playing video games. FUCKIN MBGATE


Spoon - Kill The Moonlight


Spoon is the Indie band that could. They were good, but relatively unknown in the highly competitive 90's "alternative" scene. I don't think anyone would have guess they'd rape the shit out of the 'aughts. This shit rules.

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot


So apperently there was a lot of hype and shit surrounding this album when it was released. I was busy playing Game Cube at the time, so I didn't know anything about it, and just picked it up later after hearing it praised a couple times. It's one of those albums that I knew was great right away, but it took a while to grow on me personally. It's really good, and I'm totally cool with it being considered one of the top albums of the decade.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966)

I haven't seen many Westerns. In fact, I really have no interest in Westerns. Then again, neither does my dad, who highly recomended this movie to me. So I finally watched this movie last night.

Holy shit what a great movie. It's seriously amazing. It's about 3 guys (described in the title of the movie) who are after some hidden gold. And it's just awesome. These three dudes are so fun to watch. You can tell this movie is influential - had this come out today by Tarantino, Rodriguez, or the Coen Brothers, it'd seem totally natural. You can tell that these amazing directors of today owe a lot to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

This movie isn't a "tradional" Western - it was Sergio Leone's (an Italian) own interpretation of the genre. I think this is part of where a lot of the charm of this movie comes from. These three guys aren't rednecks or any other kind of stereotypes - they're very real, ineresting guys.

I highly recommend this movie to ANYONE. It won't disapoint.


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Recently saw Cage The Elephant live (again). They were awesome. Their singer just has so much energy. It's fun as hell to watch him jump and stand all over the audience. He's just so into it. I can't get over how much better their live performance is than their comparatively boring studio album.

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I think Since I Left You might be my favorite album of the decade. It's just so damn original/good

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Speaking of The Avalanches, http://www.whosampled.com/ is the shit. You look up a song and it shows you what songs it sampled (or vice verse), complete with youtubage and what part of the song to go to. It's pretty informative. Like, did you know that Kanye West practically didn't even write Jesus Walks?

Ultimos Top 100 Albums of the 00's - 2001

Daft Punk - Discovery


These frigging robots managed to make an album that everyone seems to really dig. Every song on here is great. I've only been listening to this one for a couple months now, but it already feels like I've heard it a thousand times.

Fugazi - The Argument


Fugazi might be the definitive post punk band. It's fitting that their last album was released at the beginning of a decade that seemed to completely abandon that whole sound, but carry on its attitude. Regardless of any weird genre related coincidences, it's a solid album, and one of Fugazi's best.

Jay-Z - The Blueprint


Jay-Z's power can't be denied. It annoys me when rappers go on about how great they are, and he's very guilty of this. But it seems to be okay for him to pat himself on the back so much when he makes an album like this.

Radiohead - Amnesiac


More Radiohead goodness.

The Shins - Oh Inverted World


The Shins were an all too important part of the new decade - they lured people into this whole indie scene with their acoustic guitars and calm vocals. Luckily they were actually pretty good.

The Strokes - Is This It


This is a killer album. I rarely bought any new music back in '01, but luckily I did buy this one after seeing huminaboz rave about it. Apparently a bunch of people thought these guys were going to take over the world. Who could blame them - this album sounds like some amazing greatest hits collection.

Of course, The Strokes did not take over the world, and never really came close to Is This It, but how could they?

Tenacious D


In 2001, Jack Black and Kyle Gass finally released an album after 7 years of honing their craft. It really shows that they weren't fucking around when they finally had their chance to be immortalized. Fuck Her Gently,Tribute, City Hall - these aren't just great songs, they're some of my favorite songs by anyone. And occasional comedy bits in between some of the songs are actually kind of funny, or at the very least, they don't feel forced, which is rare.

There's just no fucking way any "comedy" album will ever top Tenacious D in terms of musical brilliance.

I'm not doing my top 100 albums of all time this year. It's become way too difficult to put together. Instead of being about what's good, it's been about what gets the boot. So this year I'm doing my top albums of the last decade. On one hand, I feel like it's way too early to try to put this together. A bunch of the stuff on my 80's list were albums I first heard in the last 4 years, 15 years after the 80s ended. On the other hand, it'll be interesting to look back and see how my view of the decade changes over the years. I'd love to see what my 90's album list would have looked like when I was 16 (or what my 80's list would have looked like when I aws 6). I'm sure it'd be a lot different than one I'd make today.

So yeah, here it is. I threw this together in about 30 minutes - I'm just going with my gut feeling on this one. Also I'm seperating it out by Year/Alphabetically.

Ultimos Top 100 Albums of the 00's - 2000

The Avalanches - Since I Left You


Music had used samples to create music decades before Since I Left You, but it never quite sounded like this. It purely is made up of hundreds (thousands?) of samples taken from obscure records, and yet somehow at the same time is one of the most original, unique albums I've ever heard.

Bloodhound Gang - Hooray For Boobies


Yes, I obsessed over this album when I was 16 or 17. Almost ten years later, I still find it totally listenable. It rides the difficult line that good comedy albums need to ride - it's hilarious, and the songs are actually good.


Modest Mouse - The Moon And Antarctica


Modest Mouse's most solid album. Good stuff.


Radiohead - Kid A


I'll be honest - I think that Radiohead's post OK Computer stuff sounds about the same. If you played me a random Radiohead song from the last decade, I probably wouldn't be able to tell you which album it's on.

I'm not sure why this is. I don't mean it as an insult though - it's all amazing stuff, and this is where it started.


Sigur Rós - Ágætis byrjun


I didn't hear this one till last month or so, but holy shit this is good stuff. I don't know how to say the name of the album (or band), I don't know how the hell to classify it, but I do know that it's one of the best albums ever made. Listen to it on a cold day.

My dad wanted to see 2012, so I saw it again. My opinion of that movie is now even lower. The main scientist dude is such an idiot. The relationship between Cusack, his ex wife, her husband and their kids is unrealistic and stupid. The most annoying thing about this movie is that the "bad guy" government dude is the only person who makes any sense at all.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

I love Wes Anderson. I greatly enjoy his style of movies. I wasn't sure what to expect out of this one. He's never made a children's movie, I've never read the book. I was afraid that this was going to mean an end to his familiar style...maybe his lack of mainstream success had led him to do something simple and safe, like a kids movie?

That's definitely not the case. This is just as much a Wes Anderson movie as any of them. It uses his camera techniques, his themes about family, his use of old music. Hell, the story itself seems like something he'd write...it's certainly just as silly a concept as Life Aquatic, or some of the crazy pranks that go on in Rushmore. The only real difference is that it's animation, and the characters aren't human.

The stop motion animation is a little weird at first. The movement of the characters seems a little akward. It quickly becomes easy on the eyes however, and is actually a nice change from the glossed over computer animated look that you always see in kids movies nowadays.

I'm not sure if this actually is a kids movie though. Yes, it is an animated movie starring animals. But it touches on adult themes like pregnancy and depression, and not in the *wink wink* kind of way that a Pixar movie would. It's right there in the forefront. I'm really not sure that this movie will find its audience, outside of anyone that recognizes who the director is and what his other movies are.


The Ultimos' Top Movies of the 00's

Requiem For A Dream (2000)


DRUGS ARE BAD.

That's the ultimate message of this movie. So is it just a long, glorified, after school special?

God no.

Requiem takes place over a year, and follows the story of 4 people. It shows the progression of addiction with amazing accuracy. Sara Goldfarb is lonely. Her husband died, her son is out of the house. She gets a phone call saying she had been chosen to be on tv as a contestant (or something), so she becomes obsessed with fitting in her red dress that she is too large for. She ends up seeing a doctor that puts her on some weight loss pills (speed). Which she ultimately becomes addicted to.

Her son Harry has a new girlfriend, who he is completely in love with. He and his best friend Tyrone decide to stop just using drugs and start selling them. This leads to them using more, and ultimately ending up in more dangerous situations as they enter the world of dealing.

On paper, the plot still sounds like an informative video or something. But Requiem is not on paper, it's a movie. And one you have to see to believe. It uses quick camera jumps to show these peoples addictions in action. Sometimes its BURN HEROIN IN SPOON; INJECT NEEDLE; DILATE EYES, sometimes it's DRINK COFFEE; PLOP DOWN IN CHAIR; HIT REMOTE. These quick displays of human addictions and rituals are sure to relate to anyone. Which makes this progression of addiction seem familiar to the viewer, making this movie even scarier.

Yes, this is a scary movie. As this movie progresses, it becomes more and more intense. The movie's music theme follows right along side this. Ultimately when Requiem reaches its climax, it's a horrible orgasm of consequence as you watch these four people suffer the worst moments of their lives. And to just make this mind fuck even worse, it doesn't even have a happy ending.

This movie has always had a happy ending for me, though - that feeling you get when you just watched an amazing movie.

Pirate Radio (2009)

When the explosion of rock music happened in the mid 60's, regular radio stations in the UK couldn't play the music of the time because it was considered immoral. Stations would broadcast music from international waters, avoiding any laws in place. Pirate Radio is about a fictional radio station during this phenomenon. It's a lot better than another recent movie about music in the 60's, Taking Woodstock. Pirate Radio doesn't take itself seriously (at all). Taking Woodstock tries to take itself seriously about half the time (and fails). Pirate Radio has a fantastic soundtrack, and is a true tribute to the music. Taking Woodstock barely has any music at all.

It's not a great movie - the plot is pretty much a joke. But I don't think it's trying to be much more than a fun tribute to these old radio stations, and it succeeds at this.

Half Nelson (2006)

Pretty boy Ryan Gosling plays a crack smoking teacher who gets caught smoking crack by one of his students. It was a decent movie about human relationships. Not as good as people seem to think though. It really annoys me that this guy is a genius teacher and just smart overall, even though he smokes crack. Sorry, but fucking smoking crack all the time destroys your brain. No shit.

It annoys me when a movie is A) Depressing and B) Has a Good Soundtrack just because that's the shit that film festivals eat up. And this one does both of these in spades - it's definitely depressing, and the soundtrack is basically entirely ripped from Broken Social Scene's legendary You Forgot It In People.

The Ultimos' Top Movies of the 00's

City Of God (2002)


This movie is fucking epic. The settings of the slums of Rio de Janeiro and the shit that goes on in them in this movie will stick with me forever. The center of the story follows the rise of a psychopathic drug lord, but the people around him (and the slums themselves) prove to be just as interesting. Maybe it's just a generational thing, but I liked this "gangster" movie more than Godfather (1&2) and Goodfellas - which are great movies.

Maybe it's because it revolves around young people, making death and violence seem more frightening. Or because the foreign environment makes it seem so damn real (it's based on true events). It's probably just because it's an amazing film.

Another Ultilist. For my top movies of the aughts, I'm not going to attempt to put them in an order or even decide on a set amount. I'm just going to go through my top movies until I feel I've covered the ones I like the most. I think it's going to be about 25 though so who knows.


The Ultimos' Top Movies of the 00's

High Fidelity (2000)


I can't think of a better place to start than High Fidelity. It came out in March 2000 - the week I started working at Harkins Theatres. This means it also was quite likely the first new movie that I saw this decade.

It's a movie I immediately identified with - the guy owns a record shop (I think this is my dream job) and just bullshits (makes lists) about music all day with his music obsessed employees. He narrates most of the story, which is all about him revisiting his past relationships, and evaluating his current one.

Just the fact that this is a good concept for a movie isn't what made this movie good. It has that unexplainable quality that makes a movie good. In fact, everyone I know that's seen this movie loved it - people that aren't record collecting freaks. The fact that this movie is respected by music nerds (it has an amazing soundtrack) and still enjoyed by the masses just shows how great this movie is.

The Men Who Stare At Goats (2009)


I don't think The Men Who Stare At Goats is as good as the people who made it think it is. Yeah it was occasioonally clever and funny, but it didn't really go anywhere...kind of like Burn After Reading. I was pretty tired and falling asleep through it so maybe that hurt my opinion of it. 2/5

2012 (2009)


Sometimes I wonder if I just don't like some movies as much as I did when I was younger just because I'm more cynical. 2012 was written, directed, and produced by the same guy who made Independence Day. I remember really liking ID4. Then again, I haven't seen Independence Day in like 10 years.

Surely though, ID4 didn't have HORRIBLE JOKES. I mean, I haven't seen it in a while, so it might, but I can't imagine it has as many as this one. The worst, most defining joke, is when a couple is in the grocery store, and they aren't getting along as well as they'd like. And the guy tells her "I feel like we're splitting apart".

I'm not even going to say what happens next. But SURELY THERE WAS NO JOKE THIS BAD IN ID4. RIGHT?

It was a decent movie overall I suppose. John Cusack is one of my favorite actors. And the special effects were enjoyable...although in retrospect, all the good shit was in the trailer. 2/5


John Q (2002)


Denzel is John Q - his son needs a heart transplant, and he is broke. His insurance won't cover it. After trying everything he can and selling all his family's belongings, he holds up a hospital, and threatens to kill people unless they put his son on the transplant list. Decent enough movie. It's a 2002 movie that brings up the topic of national healthcare, which is the big issue today. 3/5

This Is It (2009)


Micheal Jackson is not a human being. At least, I think that was my general opinion before seeing This Is It. Not to say he's a regular guy. Absolutely not. But he does have a vision when it comes to his music and videos. And that's a very human thing.

You can see this as he argues with his musicians about their playing and timing in this movie that follows the rehearsals for his final tour that never happened. You can see this when, after complaining about something, he semi-apoligizes for being so picky by saying it's "for the love".

He's a weird guy, and this movie doesn't try to hide it. You can see the frustrations of his musicians as they try to understand his vague instructions. It's a very honest movie, even if most of it is just him performing his songs. 4/5

So I randomly went through a couple old notebooks that I had lying around. When I was like...10-15 I'd do pathetic shit like write lists about music (err)

I would also draw shit. And by draw, I mean I'd draw replicas of shit from my video game magazines.

I found this one to be pretty hilarious. I did some sort of uh, advertisement for the Sonic series, highlighting the evolution of the series.



Just thought I'd share

Terminator 2 (1991)



I didn't like this one quite as much as the original - I liked how T1's story was simple and was really just two guys going at it. Not to say I didn't like Terminator 2 - it was unsuprisingly good. The T-1000 is the best part of it. He's a scary fucking bastard, and I actually remember him giving me nightmares when we rented this movie when I was a kid. Arnold's only real plan of dealing with him is to slow him down slightly with shotguns and run all the time, and I liked this.

There was a few things I didn't like about it - the kid pussifying Arnold (his senseless killing was one of the best parts of T1), Sarah's inability to kill Dyson...but I think I just was comparing it too harshly to T1, which I REALLY liked. Plus the T-1000 was seriously bas ass. 4/5

Forrest Gump (1994)


Forrest Gump creates a genuinely likable character, gives him a very interesting life story, and does a great job telling it. It famously has great special effects, and it also has an amazing soundtrack.

Jenny's an annoying bitch though. 4/5

Ed Wood (1994)


Ed Wood is a well made movie about making movies. Wood was a particularly horrible actor/writer/director that was active in the 50s and 60s. He didn't seem to have any clue that he was creating shit, and he genuinely just wanted to make films. It's hilarious watching him go from scene to scene, always only filming one take, no matter what embarassing shit happens. I really want to see one of his movies now. 4/5

I can see someone making a movie about Uwe Boll someday, since he's nuts and seems to have an interesting story. It won't be quite the same though, since I'm pretty sure Uwe knows he makes shit.

The Terminator (1984)


Officially I have never (before today) seen a Terminator movie. I did see T2 when I was in second grade or so, but I barely remember it and didn't understand it so I don't count it. I guess I never saw this because Terminator just seems like some pop culture joke or something. Turns out, Terminator is a really fucking good movie. It's entertaining from start to finish. I really can't think of anything bad to say about this movie. Also as a bonus, it sounded fucking awesome on my new headphones. 4/5

The Hangover (2009)



I am embarassed to say that I had not until recently seen The Hangover. I guess my interest in "stupid comedies" has dwindled. The Apatow crew isn't too bad, but I'm not THAT impressed with it all. Part of me just thinks that the only stupid comedies that I'll ever really like are the ones that I saw when I was younger...like you have to be a certain age or mindset to be receptive to that kind of stuff.

I don't know for sure if The Hangover is a "stupid comedy", but god damn it's a great movie. In case you haven't seen it, the movie is about a crazy fucking trip to Vegas. It is not, however, LOL LOOK AT ALL THE CRAZY SHIT HAPPENING. This would have made it a typical, less interesting comedy. Instead, it cuts from them pouring their first drinks to them waking up the next morning. Their place is all trashed up, and they basically follow various clues to try and figure out what the hell happened, and most importantly, finding the whereabouts of their missing friend that's supposed to get married the next day. It's a comedy and a mystery at the same time (a mystery that can be solved early by a clever viewer), but it also never takes itself too seriously. Best of all, it ends with one of the most satisfying endings I've ever seen.

I really loved this movie, and I'll probably actually buy it, so 5/5

Went to a Meat Puppets concert recently.


Kirkwood Dellinger was the first opening band. The name of this band is the last names of the two primary songwriters, one of them being the son of Kurt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets. These guys were really good. Their songs were catchy, and they were entertaining to watch. They'd switch instruments after just about every song, and Elmo Kirkwood was very charasmatic. I liked them a lot, and they're a local band, so I plan on seeing them again soon.

Dead Confederate were next up. They looked like a bunch of southerners. Their guitarist had this humongous beard. Their keyboardist had a bad hat and a bad moustache to match (also, this guy made ZERO noise, I swear they just let this guy pretend to play on an unplugged intrument.) Every one of them would have looked right at home sitting on a Mississippi porch drinking cheap beer. Except their singer who didn't seem to belong at ALL. He was a skinny kid with his hair in his eyes. Their music was drony and repetitive...which is the kind of thing I sometimes really like. The repetiveness got to me though, and I was mostly waiting for it to end. However, they almost completely redeemed themselves near the end and played an AMAZING cover of Sonic Youth's "Theresa's Sound-World". God I can't wait to finally see Sonic Youth live.

The Meat Puppets were awesome. Kurt and Cris are amazingly entertaining for being the same age as my dad. Cris is pretty much comic relief - he plays with the crowd, he makes hilarious country sneers when he sings, and he sometimes just hammers the top of his bass with his fists like a caveman while his brother wails away at his guitar. Kurt is on the guitar, and he sure knows how to play it. He's a weak singer, and he knows it. But the Meat Puppets exist because of this man. He is a master of guitar pedals. He's constantly tapping his foot on them. Unlike shoegazers, though, he refuses to let the pedals do all the talking, and he's all over his guitar. This combination of effect pedals and actual guitar skills create so much sound that it's easy to see why the Meat Puppets don't need a second guitarist. Kurt has become one of my favorite guitarists. Great show.

Playing Dragon Quest V for the DS. I love DQ games, but I'd yet to really play this one. It's one of the more acclaimed games in the series, and rightfully so. The story is really good. And the monster capturing system is perfect - you can absolutely have a team of slimes, and they won't suck. This goes perfectly with the wagon system, something that was in DQ4 and 6 that I didn't really appreciate until now.



Adam (2009)


Adam is a movie about a guy with Asperger syndrome. Some girl moves in to his apartment complex and falls for him. I really liked it. 4/5.

I recently watched the entire series of Battlestar Galactica as recommended by symbolic. While I didn't like it as much as the other series I watched this year (Six Feet Under), I still liked it quite a bit. I liked the story of humanity vs. machines...yes this is a theme that's been done again and again, but that's probably because IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN.

I'm realizing that my opinion of a show seems to have to do with how much I like the characters - and I liked a lot of them on this one. I really liked the older characters - Adama, the commander of the fleet; Laura Roslin, the new president of what's left of humanity; Colonel Tigh, the very flawed commanding officer. Baltar, however, the supposed genius, was annoying as hell. I also didn't like Helo, this guy who was left on the destroyed planet that managed to survive. or Keikaya, the president's aid. Or Dualla. I guess I didn't like a few more than I thought!

I'd say it's a little bit significant that I liked this show because it's pretty much the only NERDY SPACE SHOW that I've ever really gotten into. I don't really count Star Wars, and other than that I've just watched the old Star Trek shows, which are just kind of fun, not something I was majorly into.


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I haven't really listened to the Beatles much in the last ten or so years. Which is kind of funny, considering in '98 and '99 that was pretty much all I listened to. I remember wondering why the hell anyone would listen to anything else. I remember just figuring that the Beatles were and would always be the best thing in music. So it's no suprise that I burnt myself out of them little bit.

So yeah, all their shit was remastered. I of course listened to those 1988 disks nonstop, so that's all I know. But I can't help but check out these new remasters, and after several comparisons, I can confidently say that both of these remasters blow away the old cds. This has inspired me to get some headphones, so I can hear this shit up close. I haven't owned headphones in many years. I think I stopped bothering with them when I lived alone for the first time, because I figured why the fuck should I wear headphones if I have the place to myself? I somehow blocked out the fact that shit sounds WAY BETTER with them on. It's going to be my last major purchase for a long time, as I need to really concentrate on this house thing!


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Takining Woodstock (2009)


I have mixed feelings about the hippie era. On one hand, it's the period that took basic rock and roll music and expanded it in all directions in just a few short years. And I can dig the peace and love thing. However, I don't think society can work if everyone's laying around doing drugs all day, or at least not every day I mean come on!

I also have mixed feelings about this movie. On one hand, the music was good, and the second half of the movie (during the concert) was fun to watch, and seemed like it was probably true to the actual experience of Woodstock. I wasn't bothered by the fact that it (knowingly) didn't show the stage. However, the story was weak, and it just got in the way of the funner stuff. Also, while the music was good (one of my favorite Love songs was fully showcased on an acid scene), there was actually very little of it. The many scenes of dialogue usually didn't have music, or at least it wasn't memorable. I'm sure they were just saving their budget or something, but I don't give a shit, I wanted to hear a bunch of 60's music.

2/5

Inglorious Basterds (2009)


Inglorious Basterds is really fucking good, but I think everyone knows that by now. Probably my second favorite Tarantino movie next to Pulp Fiction. 4/5


District 9 (2009)


District 9 is also a good movie. It's full of plot holes, though. 3/5




So I've been shopping for houses. Out in Queen Creek, there's a bunch of people that lost their houses thanks to the plummeting prices of houses. So now there's a bunch of houses that used to cost like 250k for closer to 90k. The downside to this is that most people that lost their houses abused the shit out of them before losing them. I saw tons of houses with holes in the walls, carpet torn up, etc. I've heard that they'll even take out the AC unit and shit. Anyway I found a good one that wasn't destroyed, and I bought it! It's not final yet, and it could take a long time before I actually have it - because it was taken away from someone the bank has to go through a whole process or something.

So yeah that's pretty exciting!

The Ultimos' Top 25 Albums of the 80s

1
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation (1988)



When I first discovered Daydream Nation in 95 or 96, I didn't have the internet. I'd never heard of the album specifically. It wasn't yet considered this amazing piece of music yet, at least as far as I knew. I just loved Sonic Youth. My friend Pat got it, on tape. I remember staring at that tape. At that cover. At the font on the back. At the name of the record label on the back - it wasn't DGC, which meant it was somewhat rare, and not the re-release. I'm pretty sure I fell in love with Daydream Nation before I even heard it. It's most likely my favorite album cover of all time.

Amazingly, the music inside the cover lives up to the cover.

I like to think that everyone has a different ear for music. Everyone listens to a different combination of music throughout their lives. You heard some singing toy when you were 2, the theme song to Duck Tales when you were 7, your friend's Vanilla Ice tape when you were 9, the music of Super Mario World when you were 12. These things all add up to create your taste in music. For whatever reason, Daydream Nation's sound is exactly what my ear has been musically conditioned to hear. That's all there is to it. It's just appealing to my taste. I guess it doesn't hurt that it's some of the most amazing music ever made with guitars, and the defining point of indie music. And (for better or worse) it was very much responsible for Nirvana's signing to a major label, and subsequent rise.

Daydream Nation's position at number one of my list of the 80's was an easy one (this and number 2 were the only ones that weren't shuffled around constantly as I went up the list), probably because it's possibly my favorite album of any decade.

So that wraps up the 80s list. I can honestly say that my opinion about music in the 80s has pretty much completely reversed in the last year or so from "worst decade" to "greatest decade", thanks in no small part to this list. No matter what kind of music you're into today, you'll most likely find roots in this 80's underground scene. All of this amazing shit that wasn't on mtv was going on, underneath the radar, at a time when all of these people didn't expect fortune or fame, but were just trying to get their sounds into some ears. I think that's pretty impressive.

The Ultimos' Top 25 Albums of the 80s

2
Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes (1983)



There's a lot of albums that I listened to as a kid that I later listened to again and was less impressed, and wrote off my childhood obsession as nostalgia. R.E.M.'s Out Of Time, Violent Femme's Why Do Birds Sing, B-52's Good Stuff, the uh, soundtrack to Oliver and Company. Not to say that these are bad albums, they just aren't anything special.

Violent Femmes' self titled release is not such an example. I remember listening to this tape in the car with my mom, when she'd pick me up to go to her house on the weekends. She would always turn the sound down for a few seconds on Add It Up ("Why can't I get just one fuck?"). She would not, however, turn it down on the preceding line ("Why can't I get just one screw?"). I guess she thought I'd think he meant the kind of screw normally associated with a screwdriver. These are fond memories, and it's usually the first thing I think of when I think of my mom's musical influence on me.

Much like some of these other albums I mentioned, I picked this one up on CD some years later (probably 12 years ago or so) to see if it was as good as I'd remembered. And it is.

I happen to think that this is the most timeless album ever made. It doesn't SOUND like it was made in 1983. It sounds like it could have come out last week. Blister In The Sun is the only song that I've heard consistently on the radio for, well, my entire life (literally, I was born 4 months after it came out). I'm not exactly sure what makes it so timeless. Is it because it's about timeless subjects like war, love, being horny, and jacking off? Or is it because the only instruments they used were an accoustic guitar, bass, and a snare drum (err and a xylophone on one song)? It's probably a combination. A quick wikipedia check shows that this album peaked on the billboard chart at #171 and went platinum eight years after it was released. I'd say this is a hell of a testament of the timelessness of this music.

If you've only heard Blister In The Sun (you have), I'll just say that it's probably one of my least favorite songs on the album, and you just have to hear Kiss Off, Please Do Not Go, Add It Up, Prove My Love, and Gone Daddy Gone.

Only one more album to go. Anyone paying attention can probably figure out what it is.

The Ultimos' Top 25 Albums of the 80s

3
Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II (1983)



One of the early principles of punk rock was that you didn't have to be amazing at the guitar to make powerful music. You just played loud and hard and your emotions would create the sound. The Meat Puppets had all this...plus the amazing guitar work. A first time listener (myself included) will probably find the vocals pretty rough, because they are. They've grown on me big time though. He tones it down on his later albums, but to me it comes off as less genuine without the off-key squeaking.

The constant theme here is the evolution of punk, but I have to say it one more time just because there's no better example of this than the Puppets. This album goes in several directions - Folk, Country, Psychedelic, Low Fi. And yet it doesn't come off sounding like an experiment Instead it comes off as holy shit, these guys wrote some amazing songs. I've found myself obsessed with every song on here in the time that I've been listening to it. Plateau is one of the greatest pieces of music I've ever heard. It transcends genres, starting with a folk sound and ends with this amazing psychedelic outro, all in the span of 2 minutes and 20 seconds. New Gods fucking rocks, probably best described as loud, fast, blues punk. The last song, The Whistling Song, closes it out perfectly, with its almost eerie whistling tune.


I really do feel that Meat Puppets II is one of the great Indie/Post Punk/Underground/Whatever classics, even though it was made by desert dwelling scumbags from Arizona.

I watched every Star Wars movie with some friends for my birthday yesterday. This is something I've wanted to do since before episode 1 even came out, and it was fun to do.


There were a few inconsistencies between the two trilogies that the hardcore nerds probably have already found, but most of them can be reasoned out.

I tried to be unbiased and get a good opinion on which were the better movies and why. Unsuprisingly, 4-6 blow the new ones out of the water. There's several reasons for this, but the most glaring reason is because the characters are likable and entertaining. They're hilarious and I really care about them. 1-3's heroes, on the other hand, show no real personality. The fact that their plots revolve around space politics makes them even less interesting. 1-3 of course have better light saber battles, but that's about it.

Best: IV. As a kid I really loved RotJ, but now I really think A New Hope blows away all 5 of the other movies. It's seriously enjoyable from start to finish. (5/5)

Worst: I. The biggest problem is that this one tries over and over again to be funny. This would be fine if it didn't fail horribly at every single attempt. (1/5)

Funny People (2009)

Also saw Funny People. Don't waste your time. Adam's character is very unlikable, the chemistry between Rogan and his love interest (I guess?) is non-existant. And it seriously drags ass. If it was about half an hour shorter it might be better. It did have some decent jokes, and I really WANTED to like it but I left unsatisfied. (2/5)



The Ultimos' Top 25 Albums of the 80s

4
Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime (1984)




When I think of the 80s underground post-punk movement, I usually think of the Minutemen first. Maybe it's because they were one of the first "punk" bands to really stretch beyond the genre. Maybe it's because Mike Watt is my favorite bass player of all time. Maybe it's because their music is just feel good stuff, by a band who actually didn't hate eachother.

It's probably just because they're just so god damned good, and this 43 song double album (just one CD, amazingly) is their best work. I think the fact that an album with 43 songs is considered one of the all time greats really shows you how amazing they are. I love the Ramones, a band that also has relatively short songs, but I'm pretty sure it'd be a test of will to listen to 43 Ramones songs in a row. This album, on the other hand, is solid all the way through. I'd suggest this to just about anyone, something I don't do with most of my music.