Didn’t know Miranda July was a “chick.”
Download the latest episode of ON PATROL - it’s a big one (it’s always a big one)! Professor/Author DAVID McGLYNN is in-studio to discuss his new book A DOOR IN THE OCEAN, talk religion, death, and love, and drink water from a mysterious studio cup! Tragedy strikes as Peter’s toothbrush is thrown into the toilet by a jerk in his dorm! Intern Will gives his Top Ten Albums and Songs of 2012, and talks about what song makes him “melt”! Peter vs. Crossword Puzzles! Laundry Tease! And more! Download now!
Tonight! ON PATROL is live from 7-9 PM CST on WLFM! We’ve got in-studio guests, calls, stories, and Intern Will! Tune in! Click through the picture to listen!
New dorm poster.
NEVER FORGET
Download the latest episode of ON PATROL - the first of the term! ADAM LISAGOR aka LONELYSANDWICH calls in to discuss his love of Taco Bell, Paul McCartney’s hair, and his top five films of last year! Peter talks about Law & Order: SVU’s predicable plots, Picasso’s painting titles, and the first line of D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers! ISABELLE SKOOG and LIZ BARENHOLTZ are in-studio with their New Years resolutions, tales of stinky feet abroad, and to get the lowdown on the freshmen! Intern Will gives a complaining Asian girl his playlist! Pilates, people as ketchup, and committing to not saying hi! And more! Download now!
Tonight! ON PATROL returns from break with an explosive episode! ADAM LISAGOR aka LONELYSANDWICH will be calling in! Tune in to WLFM from 7-9 PM CST for fun and games! Do it!
Click through the picture to listen!
TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2012
Right on time, here’s the definitive list of best albums of 2012. One a day, for twenty days. Not as ambitious as last year’s 46, but well, who’s got time for that - the world is ending soon. Enjoy!
1. The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver of The Screw And Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do - Fiona Apple
Admittedly, Fiona Apple is crazy, and she’d probably be the first to admit it. But much like other infamous performers before her in previous years (see: Sufjan Stevens, Kanye, Girls’ Christopher Owens), much of the majesty of her music is thanks to her bizarre personality. Seeing her talk, or even perform live, is a bit scary: you never know exactly what she’s going to do, and if she’s going to continue on. She’s not particularly well spoken, or personable - she seems to ramble and say a lot of things, like someone who’s maybe meeting a celebrity or only has minutes left to live. But in her music, something clicks, and a lot of it is owed to that alarming personality she’s got. The Idler Wheel… is, for lack of a better term, fantastic. If there was ever a moment to doubt Apple and all her hijinks, that doubt is now gone: she is a completely fantastic singer-songwriter. The Idler Wheel… gets everything right, and in the best way possible: it’s a less ambitious album than her previous ones, and one that relies more on her voice and simplistic instrumentals than anything else - there’s no masking her talent here, which Extraordinary Machine seemed to do on a certain level. Lyrically, it’s an astounding album full of emotion and rawness, and compositionally it knocks it out of the park. Even the closer, “Hot Knife,” which seems to fly into a flurry without digging into the same emotions as the previous tracks, is a welcome one full of voice and clarity. Songs like “Werewolf” and “Daredevil” seem to be ripped straight from the heart, and if there were ever songs we need more in 2012, I’ll be damned if I can find them. Probably most triumphant, however, is the track “Anything We Want,” which seems to singularly show what is great about Apple: she’s got a lot to say, she’s trying to find a way to say it, and the expression is so pure and amazing that anyone in its path is bond to feel her power. The Idler Wheel is where artist strive to get to, and Apple did it by toning it down, turning it up, and letting down all the walls.
TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2012
Right on time, here’s the definitive list of best albums of 2012. One a day, for twenty days. Not as ambitious as last year’s 46, but well, who’s got time for that - the world is ending soon. Enjoy!
2. Twins - Ty Segall
Ty Segall’s trilogy of albums in 2012 almost strikes me as scary, and Twins is the scariest. It doesn’t have the inescapable charm of Melted and Goodbye Bread before it, it’s grimy and dark and even on lighter tracks like “Would You Be My Love” there’s an ominous feeling behind the music, like a later period artist truly would, sinking deeper and deeper into the trenches as his career continues. Twins has that immediate feeling, despite the raging rocker “You’re The Doctor,” which I would call his best song to date: it’s fierce, it lunches at you, it’s lyrically inviting, and more than anything, it fucking rocks. I could listen to a whole album of shit like this is Segall would let us, but instead he moves in and out of feelings and emotions, like the creepiness present on “Inside Your Heart,” the triumphant nature of “The Hill,” the tragic backlash of “Ghost,” the action-packed “They Told Me To,” and, in the end, the apocalyptic “There Is No Tomorrow.” Like the albums previous, Twins doesn’t exactly live up to expectations on its second half, but that might be because a Segall album is more exhausting than we realize it is - probably the only strength that Slaugherhouse had over this record is that from start to finish (discounting “Fuzz War”) it was all out bloodbath: Twins, on the other hand, tires and jolts into an awesome Irish shandy track “Gold On The Shore” - I’d call it Segall’s most bizarre song. These are negative aspects of Twins, but that doesn’t necessarily make it bad: it’s just makes it a mystery. The album isn’t even 40 minutes and I’m scared to death of it. But even though I’m scared, I haven’t stopped listening. If this is the new Segall, then who knows what comes next.
TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2012
Right on time, here’s the definitive list of best albums of 2012. One a day, for twenty days. Not as ambitious as last year’s 46, but well, who’s got time for that - the world is ending soon. Enjoy!
3. Putrifiers II - Thee Oh Sees
Something is immediately striking about the latest Oh Sees album, and that’s coming from someone who really only appreciated the title track on their last album before Putrifiers II. What “Putrifiers II” actually means, I’ve got no clue - and what the album art means, I’ve got no clue - but there’s something magical about the album that makes it not only listenable a multitude of times, but also makes it develop as you listen more and more. Probably the best song on the album is the title track, a winding six-minute ode that feels purposeful in every way, which hasn’t always been a strong suit for Thee Oh Sees. On previous albums, things have come out rather rough, a collection of like-minded songs built for a rocker audience: but this time around, things seem to be working towards something greater, especially on songs like “So Nice,” which feels like a nod to The Velvet Underground in every way, and “Will We Be Scared,” both slower tracks with just as much power as you’d expect from Thee Oh Sees. The louder tracks, like “Flood’s New Light” and “Lupine Dominus” are welcomed as well, an obvious maturity present from previous work. But, for me, it’s all in “Putrifiers II” itself: the clanging guitars, the long build up, the intense lyrics. Just feels so right.
TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2012
Right on time, here’s the definitive list of best albums of 2012. One a day, for twenty days. Not as ambitious as last year’s 46, but well, who’s got time for that - the world is ending soon. Enjoy!
4. Swing Lo Magellan - Dirty Projectors
Categorizing a Dirty Projectors album is a difficult task, considering the face of the band is David Longstreth, who makes about as much sense as his short film Hi Custodian, which premiered earlier this year - essentially taking clips of Swing Lo Magellan’s songs and putting bizarre footage to them. The film ends, however, with Longstreth walking down an empty street, playing the joyful title track of the album - probably one of the album’s best. And this track is particularly telling of Swing Lo Magellan: beneath the levels of complexity and bizarreness, there is simply a man playing songs that as catchy as they are relatable. “About To Die” makes use of a offbeat bongo-esque sound for its enduring four minutes, “Dance for You” finds itself moving in and out of hand claps, violins, bass lines, even more, “Unto Caesar” is a carefully crafted mistake, featuring female singers saying, “That doesn’t make sense” - and yes, maybe it doesn’t make any sense. That line is particularly telling of the album: Longstreth’s mind might make little sense, but Swing Lo Magellan is the most raw expression of that mind to date. It lacks the immediacy of 2009’s Bitte Orca, but adds a certain character: “There is an answer/I haven’t found it/But I will keep dancing ‘till I do,” Longstreth sings on “Dance For You,” which is the album’s focal point, a moments calm from the rush of songs like “Gun Has No Trigger” and “Unto Caesar.” The quieter moments weave in and out, like “Swing Lo Magellan” or “Impregnable Question,” before finally settling on “Irresponsible Tune,” probably the album’s best track both lyrically and musically. “Irresponsible Tune” makes it seem like maybe it’s all too much for Longstreth and co., but he has no intention of stopping: “Life is pointless, harsh, and wrong,” he sings, “In my eyes, a world crooked, fucked up and wrong… Sing all day/record and play/drums and bass/and a violin…” It is an ode to the effort Swing Lo Magellan takes while still leaving him possibly unfullfiilled. Much like Girls’ Father Son Holy Ghost, Swing Lo Magellan feels more like a portrait of a man than an album, and nothing is more welcomed from Dirty Projectors.
TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2012
Right on time, here’s the definitive list of best albums of 2012. One a day, for twenty days. Not as ambitious as last year’s 46, but well, who’s got time for that - the world is ending soon. Enjoy!
5. Shut Down The Streets - A.C. Newman
A.C. Newman has a bit of a record of producing relatively good albums, but ones that didn’t attract me much I would have liked - and this is coming from someone who was listening to The Slow Wonder in 2006. But over time, he’s obviously honed in on his skills - as witnessed on the most recent New Pornographers’ album Together - and especially on Shut Down The Streets, which he calls his first real personal album. Maybe that’s the extra ingredient he needed, but his most recent work is his best, an amazing triumph that recalls his instrumental talent while also calling to mind his voice, which is second to none. Shut Down The Streets is an album that doesn’t ask for a lot, whether you’re listening to it for the first time on the fiftieth, but one that slowly reveals itself to you more and more: for me, the standout was “Strings” (sample lyric: “All the reasons I always dreamed of school/I just dropped out and left them there” = so good) and then branched off into “You Could Get Lost Out Here” and “The Troubadour,” before finally settling on the title track and finale, which feels like a victory lap that you want to watch over and over again. Shut Down The Streets draws on all types of genres and feelings, while still remaining an intimately personal Newman album a Newman I hope will continue to reveal himself in this way as he continues his already elaborate and impressive career.
If I made a doctor appointment for 11, why am I sitting in the waiting room at 11:20? If I wanted to sit in the waiting room for 20 minutes, I would’ve made an appointment for 11:20 and gotten here at 11.
TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2012
Right on time, here’s the definitive list of best albums of 2012. One a day, for twenty days. Not as ambitious as last year’s 46, but well, who’s got time for that - the world is ending soon. Enjoy!
6. A Wasteland Companion - M. Ward
M. Ward’s style and precision in songwriting hasn’t changed much in the years he’s been in the business, to the point of which A Wasteland Companion didn’t get due praise when it came out - I would argue, however, that it’s his best album to date. Sure, it’s simplistic and lacks the grandiose gestures of, say, “To Go Home,” but as an overall statement about his talent, it’s effect is enormous. A Wasteland Companion does, to a certain extent, feel like a wasteland companion: it’s sparse, lonely album, and even in its moments of theatrics, there still seems to be a level of solitude present in each note and chord - it’s an album that only can be made my someone who has narrowed in on what they want to sound like and what they want to be. A Wasteland Companion feels like a college essay, a statement about all that M. Ward is about: there are songs that weave in and out of reality, like “Watch The Show,” and songs that come down to simple emotions and touch you more than you’d expect, like “Wild Goose” and “There’s A Key.” And then, of course, there’s the incredible “I Get Ideas,” a cover but an M. Ward track all the same. Maybe the most important track, however, is the self-titled one, which hears the background of a crowd while Ward plucks away at a guitar, while we wait for something to happen. But what you realize after listening enough times is that it’s already happening, and it’s been happening all along.
