Yeah Right

Yeah Right Best of 2012 Picks

Album of the Year: What a year for music. This award, as well as Concert of the Year, were very hard to pick since there was so much good material to choose from. After thorough consideration, six albums stand out to me as top notch this year: Alabama Shakes' Boys and Girls, Santigold's Master of My Make-Believe, Brandi Carlisle's Bear Creek, Gotye's Making Mirrors, Of Monsters and Men's My Head Is An Animal, and Django Django's self-titled album. I'm tempted to give the award to Alabama Shakes, but their songs are exponentially better live. So I'll pick Santigold for putting together a splendid studio album. In any other year the following albums would easily be in consideration for a top spot, but the competition in 2012 was too tight: Jack White's Blunderbuss, Best Coast's The Only Place, The Corin Tucker Band's Kill My Blues, Metric's Synthetica, Passion Pit's Gossamer, Titus Andronicus' Local Business, Sleigh Bells' Reign of Terror, and Beach House's Bloom.

Music Video of the Year: The clear winner for me this year is the band/art mash-up that Django Django put together for their fab song "Default":

Cover of the Year: The best cover that I saw in person was Ozma taking on The Rental's "Friends of P" during the last show on the Weezer Cruise. As for stuff I didn't see live, I enjoyed The Polyphonic Sprees's take on Neil Young and Trampled by Turtles take on Arcade Fire. But the best cover of the year has to be Grouplove's brilliant take on Andrew W.K.'s "Party Hard."

Cover Album of the Year: It seems unfair to make it compete with the songs above, because some ambitious Weezer fans re-created the infamous lost album Songs from the Black Hole in it's entirety (aka the rock opera that would later get scrapped with some parts making it onto Pinkerton or becoming popular b-sides like "Devotion").

2012 Playlist: 

Alabama Shakes - "Hold On"

Of Monsters and Men - "Little Talks"

Santigold - "The Riot's Gone"

Linkin Park - "Burn It Down"

Brandi Carlisle - "Raise Hell"

The Corin Tucker Band - "No Bad News Tonight"

Best Coast - "The Only Place"

Django Django - "Default"

Jack White - "Love Interruption"

Sleigh Bells - "End of the Line"

Titus Andronicus - "Ecce Homo"

Passion Pit - "Carried Away"

Song That Got Played to Death But Was Truly Spectacular: Sure, you heard Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" a ba-gillion times this year, but it's an amazing song. The whole album is fab and he puts on a great live show. So I won't hold the over-exposure against him (though if we are going to complain for a second -- the context of the use of the song on Glee was criminal).

Concert of the Year: This was even harder to pick that Album of the Year. I finally got to see Garbage and Jeff Mangum live and they didn't disappoint. Gotye's highly technical and stylized album translated surprisingly well to a live show. Alabama Shakes killed their set at Virgin Mobile Free Fest. Corin Tucker and Those Darlins put on high energy shows at small venues. Laura Stevenson and the Cans and their opener The Wild made me instant fans with their show at the Black Cat. Santigold had awesome dancers, as always, but also a dancing horse. But my favorite concert of the year was Ben Gibbard's solo show at 6th and I. His new solo songs sounded much better stripped down to just guitar or piano, he did a ridiculously good (and unexpected cover) of Minor Threat, and jammed through his long and impressive repertoire. It was something very special.

Best Thing Ever: I can't fairly compare the Weezer Cruise to anything else. It was the best. Great concerts. Great people. Great activities and contests. And I got to go snorkeling with Rivers Cuomo. So, forget best whatever of the year...the Weezer Cruise was the Best Thing Ever.

Guilty Pleasure of the Year: This year I loved me some "Call Me Maybe" and Honey Boo Boo. Though I’m not too guilty about either.

Internet Meme of the Year: Ecce Homo and McKela Isn't Impressed made me chuckle, but Lucille and Mitt made me cry from laughing so hard.

Sports Event of the Year: While I appreciated the humor of a badminton scandal at the Olympics and the arrival of Peyton Manning to my Denver Broncos. But duh, my Chelsea FC won the Champions League in dramatic fashion and that was one of the best sports moments of my life, let alone the year.

Celebrity Moment of the Year: While I love the fact that Flava Flav thought Miley Cyrus was Gwen Stefani, I have to give the award to Tom Hanks for his epic Full House slam poetry:

Movie of the Year: I didn't see a ton of movies this year, but Safety Not Guaranteed was probably my favorite. Moonrise Kingdom was also good.

Best TV of the Year: For my money, Parks and Rec remains the funniest show on TV. As for new shows, I got sucked into Girls and Veep.

2013 Pop Culture Moment that I'm Most Looking Forward to: Could it be anything other than the return of Arrested Development? Of course not. COME ON!

Get Excited

YR’s Best of 2012 picks are coming on Monday. For a sneak preview of what you are in store for, check our last year’s picks here.

Best of 2011

Album of the Year: 2011 was a great year for music. Bon Iver, Foo Fighters, Yuck, The Drums, The Strokes, Florence + the Machine, Dum Dum Girls, Mates of State and Lykke Li all put out solid albums. But three albums stood out from the pack this year. In third place, the Jay-z/Kanye collaboration The Throne was everything I expected it to be and more. I limited myself to just putting one of the WTT songs in my top ten list below, but I easily could have included a few more like "No Church in the Wild." First and second place was an extremely close race between the Civil Wars's Barton Hollow and Wild Flag's self-titled debut. As you'll see below, the same bands duked it out for Concert of the Year honors as well. I ended up giving Wild Flag the nod for best concert and the Civil Wars the nod for best album. The Wild Flag songs are a little better live, while the Civil Wars' tracks stand up recorded a bit better. But it was a very close race. So you should check out both albums if you haven't already.

Music Video of the Year: Gaga had a lot of videos this year, of which "Judas" was my favorite. I also appreciated Wild Flag's "Electric Band" and Laura Stevenson and the Cans' "Master of Art." But it was hard to top the celebrity-filled short film that the Beastie Boys put out for "Make Some Noise":

Best Cover: I really like the covers that Lissie busts out live, the best of which is clearly "Pursuit of Happiness" by Kid Cudi. But I have to give this one to Wild Flag's rendition of Patti Smith's "Ask the Angels" during their encore at the Black Cat in March. It nearly melted my face off.

Songs of the Year:

Wild Flag - "Future Crimes"

The Throne - "N****s in Paris"

Typhoon - "The Honest Truth"

Dum Dum Girls - "Wasted Away"

Yuck - "Operation"

The Strokes - "Machu Picchu"

Meredith Bragg - "Next Time"

Beastie Boys - "Lee Majors Come Again"

The Drums - "Book of Revelations"

The Civil Wars - "20 Years"

Commercially Successful Song that Deserved Every Bit of Praise It Got: Adele all the way.

Concert of the Year: Lots of great concerts in D.C. this year. The Civil Wars played an intimate show out at Jammin' Java before they blew up. The Go! Team, Yeasayer, and Lykke Li all rocked the 9:30 Club. The Drums were great at the Black Cat and Typhoon had a great show with Lady Lamb the Beekeeper at 6th and I. I was also pleased to finally see Soundgarden at the Patriot Center on my birthday this summer. But great as all those shows were, there can only be one winner, and that was clearly Wild Flag's first D.C. show at the Black Cat in March. They didn't even have an album out yet but the energy of the sold out crowd was through the roof and Carrie, Mary, Rebecca and Janet put on a blistering performance including the aforementioned best cover of the year. Their return show to the Black Cat in the fall was a bit of a letdown, mostly because it would be near impossible to top their performance in March.

Guilty Pleasure of the Year: I love me some "Gucci Gucci" by Kreayshawn.

Internet Meme of the Year: I greatly enjoyed Hipster Little Mermaid and Feminist Ryan Gosling. But I own two honey badger t-shirts, a stuffed animal honey badger, and named my pub trivia team 'Honey Badgers', so obviously this is my favorite meme that caught fire this year:

Sports Event of the Year: Let's just say that I'm enjoying Tebow Time. A lot.

Celebrity Moment of the Year: Hint: he has one speed and he does a drug called 'Charlie Sheen'.

Movie of the Year: I didn't see as many movies this year as I normally do. And I've been especially bad about making it out to the films that have gotten rave reviews. Of the stuff I did see, I enjoyed Crazy. Stupid. Love. Probably more than I should have. But as for movie parodies, I do have a clear favorite -- Wes Anderson's Scream:

Best TV of the Year: For my money, Parks and Rec remains the funniest show on TV. As for new shows, I got sucked into Game of Thrones. I can't wait til it returns in April. Winter is coming...

2012 Pop Culture Moment that I'm Most Looking Forward to: The pending return of Garbage and the Stone Roses!

2011 Pop Culture Moment that Made Me Super Sad: Rilo Kiley broke up.

Allison's 2010 Picks

Album of the Year: 2010 was a fabulous year for music. In any other year Janelle Monae, Surfer Blood, and The Soft Pack could be winners. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Broken Bells, Yeasayer, The Like, Best Coast, The Corin Tucker Band, She & Him, and Kanye West would all be close runners up. Unfortunately for all of those acts, this was the year that Sleigh Bells released Treats. It's not even a contest. This is a Treats landslide victory. I haven't been this excited about an album in 10+ years. It redefined what I mean by "loud" (and this is coming from a girl who spent a good chunk of high school going to hardcore punk concerts) while still maintaining excellent melodies.

Music Video of the Year: It's hard to beat "This Too Shall Pass" from OK Go. I also enjoyed the "Thieves" video from She & Him. But I have to give a shout out to the artsy "70 Million" by Hold Your Horses:

2010 Playlist:

Surfer Blood - "Floating Vibes"

The Corin Tucker Band - "Doubt"

Cee-lo - "Fuck You"

Best Coast - "Crazy for You"

Tim Kasher - "I'm Afraid I'm Gonna Die Here"

Janelle Monae - "Cold War"

Yeasayer - "Ambling Alp"

The Chapin Sisters - "Palm Tree"

The Soft Pack - "C'mon"

Wye Oak - "I Hope You Die"

Sleigh Bells - "Tell 'Em"

The Like - "Fair Game"

The Love Language - "Heart to Tell"

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - "Mama Don't Like My Man"

Best Concert: This is a hard one. Soft Pack certainly wins for "best concert at a Potbelly." Amanda Blank put on the best show at the Rock 'n Roll Hotel. Janelle Monae put on the best performance at the 9:30 Club (with a close second place to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros). But nothing can match the surreal awesomeness of getting to see Roger Waters perform The Wall. It was like a dream come true. So I've got to give the award to Mr. Waters.

Best Cover: The best live cover I witnessed (twice) was the Chapin Sister's cover of Britney Spear's "Toxic." Weezer included a fabulously unexpected cover of "Unbreak My Heart" on Death to False Metal. Motion City Soundtrack threw down a good Pavement cover with "Cut Your Hair." But my favorite cover came from Mates of State with "Laura" by Girls. I disliked the rest of the covers album it was included on, but that song is more than good enough for me to forgive them for the others.

Best of the Internet: Nothing comes close to the bed intruder song by the Auto-tune the News guys. I might be able to sing the whole song...:

Best Movie: This is a toss up between Inception and The Social Network. I enjoyed them both, but I rated Inception higher in my original YR review, so I'll let that be the tie-breaker.

Best TV Moment: I actually liked the LOST finale, so sue me. My favorite new show of 2010 was The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret on IFC. And the best overall show for me was Parks and Recreation. It really hit a stride in its second season.

Best Music-Meets-TV Moment: I loved the pop-art inspired performances that Kanye West busted out this year on a few shows, particularly SNL.

Worst TV Moment: How did Mondo lose Project Runway? How?!?

Best Sports Moment: The Broncos certainly aren't doing anything for me at the moment, so I have to turn to the other football. Luckily, my preferred team in that area, Chelsea Football Club, had the best season in team history winning the historic "double" in May (meaning that we were both FA Cup and Premier League champions). I also enjoyed the drama of the USA/Canada Olympic hockey showdown, so that can take home the runner-up award.

Best Celebrity Moment: Four words: Kanye West joins Twitter. Hilarious, egotistical, and otherwise rambling statements in 140 characters or less. Here are some highlights.

LarryK's 2010 Picks

I suppose every year is a mixed bag culturally, but for me 2010 shakes out this way:  good year for sports, pretty good for music, and bad - very bad - for movies.  But I'm still hopeful about the Christmas/late season releases, some of which look intriguing.

Best Album

My pick for best album is The ArchAndroid, Janelle Monae’s ultra-ambitious, full length debut.  This CD is all over the map, going from classical to hip-hop to psychedelia to cabaret jazz and back again.  It all works, though, with Monae’s lovely, expressive voice and sister-from-another-planet persona holding everything together.

Two other, very different CDs also stood out for me.  American Slang by Gaslight Anthem breaks out of the gloomy, Arcade Fire-ish murk of their last outing.  Not uniformly excellent, but when it’s good it’s very good.

Robinella’s Fly Away Bird sailed under the radar but shouldn’t have.  She’s a first-rate singer (I sometimes think of her as the Mary Lou Lord of Tennessee) who unfortunately is semi-reclusive and doesn’t record often.  Her latest has one foot in Americana and the other in cool jazz, and somehow she makes that unlikely combination work.      

Best Music Video

Tightrope by Janelle Monae.

2010 Songlist

1.  King of Spain – The Tallest Man on Earth

Galloping guitars, eclectic lyrics and a few Dylan references (reportedly “The King of Spain” is Dylan himself) make this pretty irresistible.

2.  Spirit of Jazz  - Gaslight Anthem

My current favorite on American Slang.  A great engine starter, and smart too.

3.  Wondaland - Janelle Monae

Pure ear candy.  Not exactly “typical” of the CD, but then again there is no typical.

4.  The Mama Papa – Plants & Animals

Good, silly fun – and I don’t have a clue what it’s about.

5.  Goodbye Sweet Dreams – Roky Erickson with Okkervil River

For something completely different…a dark song from someone who’s experienced some dark times.

6.   East Jefferson  - Ben Weaver

Ben Weaver’s Mirepoix and Smoke is reminiscent of Bon Iver’s debut album, since both were partly inspired by a breakup and written in a remote house in the middle of nowhere.  “East Jefferson” is my favorite from a CD that grows on you.

7.  The Hitchiker  - Neil Young

The twisted, autobiographical tale of Neil Young’s tortured relationship with fame – and drugs.  Some might hate this song, but I think it’s fascinating, because Young has written entire albums on drug abuse, so this song extends a theme in his music that goes back almost 40 years. 

8.  Put Out Your Fire – Somebody’s Darling

No type of pop song is probably more unloved than the power ballad (think Journey or REO).  Somebody’s Darling mixes in a little twang and shows how to do a power ballad without making it sound cheesy. 

9.  You Are Not Alone – Mavis Staples

I learned about this song from this very website.  I downloaded it, and now I can thank AK later.

10.  & 11: Something from both sides of Robinella’s latest CD.  These Dreams of Mine is probably my favorite of the country-ish tunes.  Fly Away Bird reflects the dominant, jazzier vibe.

12.  Billie Jean – Robbie Fulks

A bonus track, because the song itself obviously isn’t from 2010, but Robbie Fulks’ long-delayed MJ tribute album was finally released last year.  And who can deny this is a worthy interpretation of a very familiar tune?

Best Concert/Tour

I didn’t see nearly as much live music in 2010 as I wanted, but on one blissful afternoon/evening did happen to catch Corey Chisel, The Fruit Bats, Alejandro Escovedo, Jeff Tweedy and She & Him.  Only Escovedo was sub-par.  I’ve been a fan of Corey Chisel’s for a while, but had never seen him, and he was funny and entertaining.  Also the first time I saw She & Him; Zooey was as adorably awkward as I expected, but M. Ward really surprised by busting out a couple smoking guitar solos (not something you hear on She & Him CDs).  Their whole show was also much more grand and elaborate than I would have thought.

The real star, though, was Jeff Tweedy.  I’ve seen him several times now - alone, with Wilco, and even back in the day with Uncle Tupelo.  This was his best performance I’ve seen.  And as he pulled all kinds of choice nuggets from his 20+ year career (e.g. “New Madrid,” “Passenger Side”) I realized just how deep and distinct his song catalog is.  It’s hard to describe, but there really is a “Jeff Tweedy” song. 

Best Movie

“The Social Network”:  a great (although incomplete) story told well.  It even made Justin Timberlake look good. 

Guilty cinematic pleasure:  “Kick Ass.”  Much more stylish and quirky than it had to be.

Best Sports Moment

Two interconnected moments, that bookend a great season.  Roy Halladay of the Phillies threw a perfect game early in the Spring, then threw a second no-hitter in the Fall post-season (only the second post-season no-hitter in league history).   Hard to top that.

Worst Celebrity Moment

Part of me wants to give this to Snooki, who went from zero to Lohan in record time.  However, nothing compares to the series of drunken, taped tirades that Mel Gibson left for his ex-girlfriend.  What a nasty piece of work.

Best Television Moment

One night on the road, I was flicking through the TV channels looking for something tolerable, and came upon this episode of Anthony Bourdain eating and drinking near the China-Russia border.   He was in Harbin China, but evidently there is a large Russian community there, and whenever there are Russians there will be vodka.  Much vodka was consumed at one dinner and, the next morning, Anthony had an ice fishing date with a Chinese bar owner and his girlfriend.  Needless to say, he was nursing a brutal hangover and the incredibly cold temperatures (just over the border was Siberia) took the discomfort to a whole other level.  His narration of this absurd event was perfect (“I’ve been praying all morning for God to kill me…an icy death sounds good right now”), and eventually the Chinese bar owner admitted that even though he loves to ice fish, he never actually catches anything.  That was unacceptable for TV, so they brought out a (dead) ‘stunt fish,’ put it on the end of the line, dropped it in the water, and filmed the fish being pulled from the frozen lake.  Everyone applauded and pretended it was some great victory, just so they could go home and get out of the cold.  Probably the funniest thing I saw all year.  

Tomorrow:  Allison's picks!  Will there be Weezer?  Gaga?  Check in to see!

BATMAN's Picks of 2010

Album of the Year:  Superchunk's grand comeback, Majesty Shredding, might just be their best record ever.  It's not what you expect after a nine-year hiatus from your favorite band.   I posted a more detailed rave here.  

Movie of the Year:   I tend to agree with PJTV's Poliwood that this was perhaps The Worst Year for Movies Ever (and my Friday night viewing of Black Swan did nothing to change that opinion).  But I did enjoy Social Network a lot, so it may win my fave of the year honors by default. 

Music Video of the Year:  While the video I watched the hell out of was certainly the OK Go stuff that Allison posted and that my 3 year-old adores, I'll repost this one by Firekites that I was smitten by at midyear.   (Though following on my Superchunk love expressed above, you should really also check out Digging for Something which is pretty funny.)

Best Sports Moment:   I'm torn.  It's gotta have been THIS near-Cinderella story or THIS near-Cinderella story or maybe just the slow destruction of Brett Favre's legacy that began here.  

Best TV:   Who woulda thought I'd be content to sit around and watch people picking through and trying to unload garbage via American Pickers and Pawn Stars?  Am I the only one weird enough to enjoy those?

Best New Web Trend:  I'm a fan of Next Media's animated new stories that are produced in Taiwan but find their way around the Web.  Usually they're irreverant and funny, but this one is actually rather touching - it's about Liu Xiaobo who was not present to receive his Nobel Peace Prize this past Friday because he remains in a Chinese jail cell.   (Methinks we're on the brink of "interesting times" again in China...)

Best Thing About Pop Culture in 2010:   As much as the sane Batman fears the Palin bandwagon will continue to role for two more years and right into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (when there are much better standard-bearers for the Repubs) -- it was pretty damn funny to see the outrage as Palin-supporters kept voting Bristol all the way to the DWTS finale.

Second Worst Thing About Pop Culture in 2010:  Housewives.  Housewives.  Housewives.

Worst Thing About Pop Culture in 2010:  RIP Alex Chilton.

My 2010 Playlist:

• "I Don't Wanna Hear It" - J Roddy Walston & the Business
• "I Can Change" - LCD Soundsystem
• "Down in the Valley" - The Head and the Heart
• "My Gap Feels Weird" - Superchunk
• "Baby Lee" - Teenage Fanclub
• "Glitter" - No Age
• "Fuck You" - Cee-Lo Green
• "The Ghost Who Walks" - Karen Elson
• "Burning Stars" - Mimicking Birds
• "The Poet" - Ryan Bingham
• "I Hate the 80s" - Vaselines
• "You & Me" - Elizabeth & the Catapult
• "Palaces Of Montezuma" - Grinderman
• "Don't Do It" - Sharon Van Etten
• "Good Intentions Paving Co." - Joanna Newsom
• "Friendly Fire" - Drew Grow & the Pastors' Wives
• "Laredo" - Band of Horses
• "Lead in our Lungs" - Adam Stephens

Get Excited

Next week the Yeah Right staff will be sharing our "Best of 2010" picks. The fun starts on Monday December 13th. You can check out last year's picks here to get a sense of what is coming your way.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

OK, so what would you get if you got out your movie-blender, threw in a lump of Kill Bill, a cup of Indiana Jones (but with pre-WWII-era Imperial Japanese troops instead of Nazis), a huge dollop of classic spaghetti westerns and added a dash of Austin Powers?  You'd get something like The Good, The Bad, The Weird, a late 2008 Korean film that just hit Netflix within the last couple of weeks.  Even for those that don't much cotton to foreign films, this is a slick, fun, (and sometimes goofy) action/treasure hunt flick that should appeal to just about anyone --  and which eclipses almost everything Hollywood has churned out in the time since its release.  An easy four stars.

For those who want to sample more of the surprisingly strong films that Korean studios have been putting out over the last decade or so, I'd also recommend 2003's Memories of Murder.  Be aware, though, that despite the fact it also stars the exceptional Kang-Ho Song, its story about the search for a rural Korean serial killer is much darker and more disturbing than The Good, The Bad, The Weird.

Roll 1d20 To See If You Bathe.

At the acknowledged risk of pushing my already-high YR nation geek-rating through the roof, I will tell you that I'm having difficulty figuring out how to keep my order from these guys to a reasonable level.

I mean, do I go with Tetra-soap for tub-time play...  

 

Cylon soap with 'glow in the dark eye'...   
  

Dharma soap to wash away memories of the series finale...  

or perhaps the "Dishonored Dwarf Shaving Kit" to get my inner Gimli on?   

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe I'll just roll some cucumber-melon scented  dice-soap and consult my online purchase charts.  

 

 
  

2009 Is Almost Over...

which is a shame, as it was a great year for pop culture (particularly music, imo).  As a recap, here are the Yeah Right staffer picks for the best moments of the year:

Batman's 2009 picks
Allison's 2009 picks
Larry's 2009 picks
Isangeles' 2009 picks
Whitney's 2009 picks

Let's hope 2010 gives us many more moments to appropriately rank at this time come next year.