Tag: Hottest 100

Warmest 100 – 2013

Tomorrow is of course Hottest 100 day. As happened last year some clever souls have – despite the best efforts of Triple J to stop their fun – scraped the net for vote data and compiled a list of predictions, which can be viewed here.

Last year’s predictions were pretty accurate, as shown by my overly obsessive analysis. I have stuff to do this weekend, so I doubt I’ll be live blogging/live calculating as I did last year, but I’ll certainly be keeping an ear out for how well they do. I am mildly surprised that they have Royals by Lorde at number 8, I thought it was a good contender for number 1, but statistics don’t lie. Riptide by Vance Joy (whatever the hell that is) is the predicted number 1, so we’ll just have to see.

Concerning my own votes, three songs don’t make it into the prediction. I’m particularly surprised about Birds of Tokyo, but then it did come out early in the year and people have short memories these days…

Lanterns – Birds of Tokyo
Jessica – Major Lazer
Lazer Gun Show – Hey Geronimo

As for the rest of my choices they’re clustered around the 20’s, which is pretty damn good!

31: Your Body is a Weapon – The Wombats
29: Tennis Courts – Lorde
25: Gun – Chvrches
24: Young and Beautiful – Lana Del Rey
22: The Wire – Haim
19: Pizza Guy – Touch Sensitive
15: Get Lucky – Daft Punk

Roll on the countdown!

PS: Oh, so this is Riptide. Yeah, that’s not bad.

Hottest 100 – 2013

It’s that time of the year again when I vainly try and hold on to both any kind of musical relevance and my rapidly vanishing youth by voting in Triple J’s Hottest 100.

I went into assembling my shortlist without any great enthusiasm. Looking back, 2013 seemed like a rather flat year for music – I couldn’t think of any real standout songs. But once I trawled through the lists I discovered a surprising number of sleepers that – while not mind-blowingly awesome – were good, solid tracks. There were enough of these that I had some real trouble winnowing them down to only 10. Nonetheless after much girding of loins and grinding of teeth I produced the following list which has been duly submitted as of this morning…

Tennis Courts – Lorde

There’s an excellent chance that Royals by New Zealand’s own Lorde is going to take the number one spot, which is annoying as I can’t stand it. Tennis Courts though is a great song, and popular enough that may well come in at around the 20-30 mark (shame the video clip is so rubbish).

Young & Beautiful – Lana Del Rey

Does anyone actually like Lana Del Rey anymore? I’m certainly not a fan, apart from this song, and I can’t even explain why I like it so much. It’s certainly nothing to do with it’s association with The Great Gatsby, a movie that I haven’t bothered to see.

Lanterns – Birds of Tokyo

Lanterns is kind of embarrassing because its sounds like something written to capture the “Class of 2013” demographic. You know, like Friends Forever or Good Riddance. Sadly I’m a sucker for that kind of rubbish.

Jessica – Major Lazer

This song is a real sleeper. It didn’t do anything for me the first time I heard it, but then couldn’t get it out of my head. Smoothly insidious.

The Wire – HAIM

Oh Lord, how to pick just one HAIM track? They’re all so good! After much torment I narrowed it down to either The Wire or Don’t Save Me and The Wire got through by a hair’s breadth. Go and listen to HAIM everyone! Now!

Your Body Is A Weapon – The Wombats

The Wombats just keep on delivering – presumably via their backwards facing pouches. Who’d have ever thought that a bunch of cubic-poo producers would make such great music?

Lazer Gun Show – Hey Geronimo

This makes me think of good old Bill Shakespeare and his full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. But it’s really good sound and fury!

Pizza Guy – Touch Sensitive

A laid back electronic track that sounds like it escaped from the set of Miami Vice. The TV series that is, not the movie.

Get Lucky – Daft Punk

I really didn’t want to vote for Daft Punk, because everyone will be voting for them. But Get Lucky is fun and catchy, and as such I had no choice.

Gun – Chvrches

Chvrches were another group where I had problems choosing a track. Gun won my vote for no apparent reason – If I’d put my votes together tomorrow I may well have voted for Recover instead. Lots of twinkly electronic sounds to tickle the ears.

So there we are. Artists that just missed out on a place include Bliss N Eso, Horrorshow, Owl Eyes and Tiger Town. Better luck next year guys!

Triple J’s Hottest 100 of the Last 20 Years – Part 2

Welcome back to the second half of my highly opinionated live blog of Triple J’s Hottest 100 of the last 20 years. We’ve jumped back in at 50 with Pearl Jam’s Better Man from 1995 – which came in at 39 in 2009’s Hottest 100 of All Time in 2009. A good start.

Oo! The lovely Florence Welsh at 49 with Dog Days are Over. Excellent! First song from 2009 and another one for the UK.

By the way, it appears my stats are off, because Triple J is saying that the majority of the songs so far have been Australian with the USA in second place. Presumably I’ve screwed up somewhere. Better go back and double check them all. sigh

The Strokes, Last Night. I have no objection.

So far, the most recent song in the countdown in Alt-J’s Breeze Blocks (how did that get in?) and the oldest are the awesome Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden and Berlin Chair by You Am I from 1994.

Ha. The Offspring with Self Esteem. That’s OK. Another song from 1994.

OK, I’ve gone through my stats again, and I still reckon songs from the USA are dominating. Don’t know how JJJ are doing their counting.

Nick Cave’s classic Aussie love song Into My Arms at number 45. I wonder if we’ll be seeing more of Mr Cave? I sure hope so.

I wonder if the other classic Aussie love song will show up? You know the one I mean.

Modest Mouse, Float On. Not bad. Not bad at all.

More Daft Punk. Looks like I didn’t have to feel bad about leaving them off my list after all!

The John Butler Trio were kind of inevitable weren’t they? Better Man at number 45.

Urgh. Matt Freakin’ Corby. People seem to love him, but to me he just sounds like a Wookiee.

Heh. It was all yellow! Another inevitability.

We’re 60 songs in and my approval is at 73.33%. Nothing to complain about! There’s already been a big upswing in songs that were featured in the 2009 all time countdown, with 6 of the last 10 being on both lists. Funnily, only one of the four that didn’t make the cut in 2009 has come out since then – people’s opinions of the Offspring, the Strokes and Flo and the Mac have obviously risen in the last four years.

I couldn’t figure out what this was until the vocals cut in. Oh! That one! Nine Inch Nails, Closer.

Nirvana finally show up with Heart Shaped Box. As the first song from 1993 this is now the oldest song in the countdown. It’s obviously a proxy for the Nirvana songs that were ineligible because of the 20 year cutoff – it didn’t make it into the 2009 countdown of all time at all.

What the hell is this? Oh, the Temper Trap. OK, moving on.

Ducked out for a minute and missed the Beastie Boys’ Sabotage, and Jeff Buckley’s cover of Alleluia. A massive fall for the latter, which came in at number three in the 2009 all time countdown, and is now relegated to 36.

Karma Police. I suspect we’ll be hearing more from Radiohead soon…

Ben Folds Five, Brick. The review of it in Tom Reynolds’ I Hate Myself and Want to Die is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read.

1994 and 1997 are turning out to be incredibly strong years with 6 songs apiece.

ZAH-OM-BIE! ZAH-OM-BIE! ZAH-OM-BIE! A sixth country enters the countdown, with the Cranberries and dair tanks and dair bomms and dair bomms and dair gones.

Ah Tool! They’ll tell us what to do!

Alright! Massive Attack, Teardrop! I am somewhat surprised to learn however (courtesy of Bernard Fanning) that the opening lyric is “Love, Love is a verb, that’s a doing word”. I could never figure out what it was, but I thought it was less inane than that.

A strong showing from the 90’s has pushed my approval rating up to 75.14%. The USA is still in the lead with 28 songs, with Australia on 20, the UK on 17, France on 3 (all courtesy of Daft Punk) and Iceland and Ireland tied on one each.

The Red Hot Chile Peppers finally show up at number 30 with Californication, a song with some fantastic lyrics.

Is that the Arctic Monkeys again? Ah, no! It’s Franz Ferdinand. I can never tell those two apart. Take me out, number 29.

The Chili Peppers again with Scar Tissue. Yeah, that’s OK.

YEAAAHHHH!!! FRONTIER PSYCHIATRIST!! Second of my votes to get in, at number 27!

And from the sublime to the ridiculous. System of a Down with Chop Suey at number 26.

The Pumpkins turn up for the first time at number 25 with Bullet With Butterfly Wings. I wonder if 1979 is going to put in an appearance?

Augie March with One Crowded Hour. Yawn.

KNIGHTS OF CYDONIA! The third of my votes to make it in! Yeeeeehaw!

Blur’s Song 2 at – appropriately – number 22. It’s an OK song, but Blur did so much better stuff. It’s a shame this will likely be their only entry.

Hehe, I called it. 1979 by the Smashing Pumpkins at 21. I always wonder, is that someone shouting “Turnip” in the background?

OK, with 20 songs to go my approval rating has risen to 75.25%. Not too shabby! The USA is still in the lead at 33, with Australia at 22 and the UK at 20. The most popular years are 1994, 1997 and 2000 at 7 songs each. The least popular years are 1993, 2009 and 2012 with one each. Three songs I voted for have made it in – Kids by MGMT, Frontier Psychiatrist by the Avalanches and Knights of Cydonia by Muse.

WE DON’T NEED NO ONE LIKE YOU!! TO TELL US WHAT TO DO!! The Living End storm in at 20 with Prisoner of Society! Awesome!

Dammit! Not a comment, the song by Blink 182 at number 19. Nice!

1997 has shot into the lead with 9 songs. Will it be the first to break 10?

HEY YAH!! Shake it like a Polaroid picture with OutKast at 18! Alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright alright!!

Silverchair, Tomorrow. Just as dull as it was back in 1994.

Skinny Love, Bon Iver. Urgh. And it was all going so well!

I am being patient Bon, but you’re still singing!

The Prodigy with… I dunno, everything by the Prodigy sounds the same. Good, but the same. Ah, it’s Breathe. There we go.

I have a feeling there could be a lot of Jeff Buckley coming up. Which is annoying because the only track of his I can stand has already been played.

Banjos! It can only mean Mumford and Sons, with their song about lions biting their own necks. Little Lion Man at number 14. Only the second song to make it in from 2009, alongside Flo and the Mac.

Told you there’d be more Radiohead. The first Douglas Adams reference in the countdown with Paranoid Android, making 1997 the first year to reach 10 songs!

Heart’s a Mess by Gotye at 12. Brilliant! And a much better song than that one of his that’s almost certainly coming up in the top 10…

No One Knows by the Queens of the Stone Age. I don’t know why anyone would vote for this, but here we are. Onwards into the top 10!

The scattering of mediocre music in the teens has pulled my approval rating down to 75.11%. The top year is still 1997 with 10 songs, followed by 1994 and 2000 with 8 each. The USA has an unassailable lead at 37 with Australia second at 25 and the UK catching well up at 23. Ireland, France and Iceland are unmoved at 1, 3 and 1 respectively.

Powderfinger, Radiohead, Gotye and Kimbra, Jeff Buckley, the White Stripes, the Hilltop Hoods and the Foo Fighters all seem like contenders. And maybe even Greenday for that one song…

What did I tell you? My Happiness by Powderfinger at number 10. Next please!

Told you so! Gotye and Kimbra at number 9 with Somebody That I Used to Know. I don’t mind it so much now that it’s not being played every twelve minutes…

And now, more Powderfinger. These Days. It’s an OK song, but it’s not the 8th best of the last 20 years by a long shot.

The cure for Powderfinger overdose? THE KILLERS – MR BRIGHTSIDE!! WOOT!! Fourth one of my votes to get in!! Woohoo! 😀

Now what is this?… The Foo Fighters perhaps? I said they’d probably be along… Ah, yes, it’s the Foo Fighters with Everlong. Give me the Pixies Winterlong any day…

Bittersweet Symphony!? I’d written this one off. Oh well, no accounting for taste.

1997 is now at 12 songs. 1994 and 2000 could mount a challenge to equal if one of them got all four remaining tracks, but that doesn’t seem likely. Looks like 1997 was the best year for music in the last two decades!

The Nosebleed Section! The Hilltop Hoods finally make an appearance at number 4! Right on!

And here comes Jeff, right on time with The Last Goodbye. Call me a horrible human being, but would this be anywhere as popular if he hadn’t drowned? Anyway, wake me when we get to number 2….

Called it again! The White Stripes with Seven Nation Army at number 2. Number 1 isn’t going to be Greenday is it? I mean Seinfeld was popular, but not that popular surely?

940,000 votes, 20 years, and the winner is…

Wonderwall!? Freakin’ Wonderwall? Holy crap!

Well, it’s not a terrible result, just an unexpected one. Well done Australia. Overall you managed to keep the worst crap out of the countdown (Kings of Leon, Coolio and Wheatus excepted) and you’ve given this old curmudgeon something to do for a couple of days. 74.6% approval rating, which works out to between ‘OK’ and ‘I approve’, which ain’t bad. I’m gonna go grab something to eat…

Triple J’s Hottest 100 of the Last 20 Years – Part 1

I’m currently listening to the countdown for Triple J’s Hottest 100 of the Last 20 Years. I’m running my usual obsessive analysis and while so far I pretty much approve, I do have to say

GANGSTER’S PARADISE!!!??!?!?!? HAS THE WHOLE WORLD GONE MAD!??!?!?

More to follow…

Not only did Common People get in, they played the full version with the really vicious second verse. Awesome!

TEENAGE DIRTBAG!!!??!?!?!? YES THE WHOLE WORLD HAS GONE MAD!!!

I tell ya, Pretty Fly for a White Guy better not be number one again…

I’m keeping a running average of my own personal approval rating for each song. It was looking good at 82% for the first ten songs, but Coolio and Wheatus managed to knock a full 11 percentiles off in the second ten for a total of 71%. Here’s hoping it gets pulled back up soon…

Some stats – we’re at number 74 and so far there have been 12 songs from the USA, 9 from Australia, 5 from the UK and one from Iceland. The most popular year so far is 2007 with 4 songs. Following up are 1998, 2005 and 2006 with 3 songs each. With 2 are 1995, 1997, 2010 and 2011. Years with one song are 1994, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2008.

Can’t say I expected Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros to get in, but I am well chuffed!

Hmm, well, the averages were looking up until Wolfmother crashed the party, I couldn’t stand them back in ’06 and I can’t stand them now.

Aha! The Gorillaz restore some sanity! I got sunshine in a bag!

And Regurgitator fight a valiant defence to maintain the average at 71%, thirty-one songs in.

As of number 66, there have been four songs that cross over with the Hottest 100 of all time from 2009. Wolf like Me by TV on the Radio, Common People by Pulp, Bulls on Parade by Rage Against the Machine and Berlin Chair by You am I.

And a fifth country joins the list with Daft Punk.

Woohoo! The mighty Kids by MGMT at 64 – the first one of my votes to get in! 😀

Spiderbait’s Buy Me a Pony at number 62 hauls Australian artists equal to American Artists at 15 songs each.

At 40 songs in my average rating has risen to 73%. Good.

Glycerine?! I suppose grunge fans had to vote for something with Smells Like Teen Spirit out of the running.

Waitaminute – Bush are British!? You learn something every day!

Well, we’ve obviously hit the British 90’s dance section of the broadcast with Underworld’s Born Slippy followed by Fatboy Slim’s Praise You. Not bad, although did they really have to play the 20 minute long version of the former?

Urgh! One of my most hated songs of the last 20 years, the utterly dismal Sex on Fire. Limp guitars, vocals jumping from mumbling to wailing with barely a tune to be found between them, just urrrgh! Bring back Wheatus!

For a second there I thought we had Regurgitator’s Black Bugs, but no, it’s just Placebo. That’s cool.

Woohoo! More Gorillaz at 52 with some extremely creepy laughter.

And the Dandy Warhols finish up the lower 50. Let’s have a look at our stats…

My approval rating for the first 50 songs of the countdown is 73.20%, which equates to between “OK” and “I Approve”. So that’s not too bad. There were ten tracks that also appeared in the Hottest 100 of all time back in 2009, and they were heavily clustered in the lower numbers, so we can probably expect a bunch more to appear in the upper 50.

There was a good spread of songs over the 20 years, with peaks around 1996-97 and 2006. No songs rated from 1993, 2009 or 2013.

The majority of songs were American (18) followed by Australian (16), the UK (13), French (2) and Icelandic (1).

Tune in tomorrow for more inane commentary and inept statistical analysis!

Where will we be in 20 Years?

As anyone who cares about radio stations aimed at a demographic way younger than them should know, Triple J are doing another one of their special Hottest 100 polls. This time around it’s to find the hottest 100 songs of the last 20 years – a period they claim to have chosen because it’s the 20th anniversary of the first hottest 100, but have clearly actually selected to prevent Love will Tear us Apart or Smells like Teen Spirit from taking out the number one place. Again.

In a spirit of generosity not seen since Adam and Will were on air, they’ve allowed us punters not just 10, but 20 votes each! So, over the last few weeks I’ve spent many hours combing through my music collection and the lists of the previous 20 Hottest 100s to come up with some kind of list summing up the best music the world has produced over the last two decades.

Naturally I failed. So I just sat down today and threw together a collection of songs that seemed more or less acceptable, and which adequately covered the period in question. All are – of course – songs I love, but they aren’t “the best” 20 songs of the last 20 years, because such a list is clearly impossible. They’re just a representative sample.

So, here goes…

1994 – Bug Powder Dust – Bomb the Base
1995 – Girl from Mars – Ash
1995 – Santa Monica – Everclear
1996 – Frank Sinatra – Cake
1997 – The Cure – Wrong Number
1999 – Deeper Water – Deadstar
2000 – All the Small Things – Blink 182
2001 – Zak and Sara – Ben Folds
2002 – That Great Love Sound – The Raveonettes
2003 – Lighthouse – The Waifs
2003 – The Dresden Dolls – Girl Anachronism
2003 – The Mountain Goats – Palmcorder Yajna
2004 – Mr Brightside – The Killers
2006 – Knights of Cydonia – Muse
2007 – Det Snurrar I Min Skalle – Familjen
2007 – Gimme Sympathy – Metric
2008 – Kids – MGMT
2008 – Magic – Ladyhawke
2008 – Now – Mates of State (Only video with the full song I could find!)
2011 – Palaces of Montezuma – Grinderman (Couldn’t find a non-live version, so here’s one from Jools Holland)

I don’t know how many, if any, will get into the countdown, but we’ll see.

By the way, I linked to an alternate mix of Kids because I like it more than the official version. Deal with it! 😀

My Hypothesis is Ruined!

15 songs into the Hottest 100 and the Warmest 100 prediction is not doing well. The average deviation is standing at just under 21 places, and there have been five songs that weren’t included at all! Can you feel the tragedy!?

(Yes, I’m keeping stats. Deal with it :))

LATER: A quarter of the way in and the average deviation has dropped to 18.3. There are now 6 unpredicted songs.

LATER STILL: Halfway! The average deviation is 16.6 and there are now 7 unpredicted songs. For the sake of interest, the signed average deviation is almost exactly 2, which shows that the songs predicted too low are almost cancelling out the songs predicted too high. So far, the worst prediction is Internet Friends by Knife Party, which was predicted at position 94 and came in at 55, and the best is Draw a Crowd by Ben Folds Five, which was predicted at 74 and came in at 73. On to the lower 50!

LATER, AGAIN: Three quarters of the way through! The average deviation is now 14.1, there are nine unpredicted songs and only three of my selections have made it in (damnit!). The most accurate predictions so far are Gasoline by Alpine, Hold On by Alabama Shakes, Hurricane by Ms Mr and our old friend Draw a Crowd by Ben Folds Five – all came in only one off from the prediction. Internet Friends by Knife Party is holding strong as the least accurate.

At the 75% percent mark my total rating for the countdown is 2.90 – on a scale where 5 is super happy awesome and 1 is kill it with fire! Some more of my songs better make it into the top 25…

NEWSFLASH: Ballpark Music’s Coming Down has proven the first 100% accurate prediction of the countdown at number 23!

LATER: Oh Derp! I missed that the Warmest 100 actually did include Sun by Two Door Cinema Club! Oh well, it won’t have skewed the stats too much. In the meantime, here’s my thoughts on Matt Corby.

Matt Corby

LATER: And right on the verge of the top 10, two more accurate predictions. Flume’s Sleepless at 12 and Calvin Harris’ Sweet Nothing at 11. Does this mean the top ten will be completely accurate?? (I doubt it :))

IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LAST LATER: Maybe I spoke too soon. My Gun by the Rubens at number 10 – just as predicted…

IMMEDIATELY AFTER THAT: Another correct prediction – Tame Impala at number 9 with Feels Like We Only Go Backwards. How long can this streak last!?

AND AFTER THAT: Well, that was fun while it lasted. Frank Ocean breaks the chain taking number 8 with Lost.

GETTING TOWARDS THE END NOW: Down to the top five. I imagine that it’ll be a shuffling of the five highest songs left on the Warmest 100 list – Thrift Shop, Little Talks, Breeze Blocks, Holdin’ On and I Will Wait. We’ve just got to wait to see what order they come in….

RIGHT ON THE VERY TIP: So, will the Number One be Monsters and Men (Yey!) or Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (Boo!)? I have a nasty feeling thrift shopping is going to beat small talk. Also, what the hell is this “Breeze Block” thing at number three!?

THE END OF EVERYTHING: Well, there we go. Little Talks by Monsters and Men at number 2, so (barring an apocalyptic upset) Thrift Shop by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis has taken out the 2012 crown. Damnit. But on with the statistics.

The average, overall deviation for all Warmest 100 songs that made it into the countdown is 10.79 places. The signed deviation is 0.08, which means the songs that were ranked too high almost completely cancelled out the songs that were ranked too low. The worst prediction (excluding those songs that didn’t make it in entirely) remains Internet Friends by Knife Party – which was predicted for 94 but ended up 37 places higher at 55. Eight songs were predicted accurately…

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis – Thrift Shop – 1
Of Monsters and Men – Little Talks – 2
Alt-J – Breeze Blocks – 3
Tame Impala – Feels Like We Only Go Backwards – 9
The Rubens – My Gun – 10
Calvin Harris – Sweet Nothing – 11
Flume – Sleepless – 12
Ball Park Music – Coming Down – 23

The top ten songs were all predicted correctly, but the middle five were in the wrong order. The top three songs were predicted accurately.

Eight predicted songs didn’t end up in the countdown – the highest predicted position being 56 for Japandroids.

Japandroids    – The House that Heaven Built
Haim – Don’t Save Me
Kanye West – Mercy
The XX – Chained
Something For Kate – Survival Expert
Frank Ocean – Pyramids
Haim – Forever
Van-She – Idea of Happiness

On the whole I think the Warmest 100 did a great job – and at the very least gave me something to do all day 😀

The overall score as far as songs that don’t make me want to remove my brain with a spoon is 2.9 out of five – which means I could just about put up with the entire playlist. Of the songs I voted for, 8 made it in. Which is pretty good considering I never expected Euphoria to get in anyway and just voted for it out of principal. The other omission was Santigold’s The Keepers – which I’m actually very surprised about. But hey, it’s probably my best performance in years, so I ain’t complaining.

Roll on the Hottest 100 2013! (and let the whinging about how the Hottest 100 and Triple J in general aren’t anywhere as good as they used to be begin…)

Warmest 100

In this age of social media it’s hard to keep a lid on things. As such, a rather clever individual has scraped the net for people’s Hottest 100 votes, and come up with a prediction for the countdown, which can be viewed at warmest100.com.au.

He reckons to have collected about 3% of the vote, which may not sound like much, but should actually be enough to draw general trends from. I’m very happy to see that almost all the songs I voted for have ended up on his list – but I’m less happy to see he’s tipping the awful Thrift Shop for the number one spot (I’m even less happy that he’s probably right…).

In any case it’ll be very interesting to see how his list compares to the real one come Saturday.

Predicted Positions for Songs I voted for…
97 – Spiritus – Lisa Mitchell
67 – All the Rowboats – Regina Spektor
46 – Run Alone – 360
26 – Bangarang – Skrillex
20 – Same Love – Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
16 – I Love It – Icona Pop
10 – My Gun – The Rubens
2 – Little Talks – Of Monsters and Men

The Number of the J’s shall be Three

As the Earth continues its perpetual round about the sun we come once again to the Christmas season, which can only mean one thing – it’s Triple J Hottest 100 time!

(What, you thought I was going to talk about peace on Earth or something?)

While I’m increasingly too old and decrepit to comfortably fit into the Js’ target demographic, I continue to stubbornly cling to my now distant youth by voting for my favourite ten songs of the year. After all, what would Australia Day be without the Hottest 100 countdown, and the associated wailing and gnashing of teeth as yet again only two or three of my chosen songs make it in and some lugubrious piece of crap takes out the number one spot? It’s practically a tradition! So I have once again traipsed over to the Triple J website and put my vote in for ten notable audio recordings, which I present below, in no particular order, so you may mock my musical taste at your leisure.

Icona Pop – I Love It: I do love it, although I can’t quite figure out why. Perhaps it’s because I am in fact from the 70’s? (Can’t say I know any 90’s bitches though…)

Regina Spektor – All The Rowboats: Dark, spooky and thoughtful like all of Regina’s best work (apart from her best work that’s sweet, bright and catchy, obviously).

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis – Same Love: If I hear that Thrift Shop song one more time I think I’ll stab forks through my tympanic membranes, but Same Love is a magnificent and moving political statement that I wholeheartedly support.

Santigold (blegh!) – The Keepers: Every time you mention Santigold (blegh!) you have to add “blegh!” which is (of course) the sound of someone throwing up glitter. In addition to being a commentary on American culture, this is a well constructed, catchy tune, with no glitter vomit to be seen.

360 – Run Alone: It wouldn’t be the Hottest 100 without some Aussie Hip Hop. Here’s the best example from the whole year.

The Rubens – My Gun: A bluesy, countryish song that sounds like something Shivaree would record. Good stuff!

Of Monsters And Men – Little Talks: Hey! A really catchy folk-country-rock type song – hey! – that out-Munford-and-Sons Mumford and Sons. Hey! It also has possibly the best video clip of the year. Hey!

Lisa Mitchell – Spiritus: Lisa Mitchell doing the thing she does best – being small and cute and doing repetitive things to a piano.

Skrillex – Bangarang: All right, I’m going to out myself. For all the fun I poke at Skrillex and his electronically babbling kin, I actually really enjoy dubstep. There’s something about the mechanised, mathematical nature of its sound collages that meshes with my brain in a way that I’ve only previously encountered in the works of Bach and Black Francis (that stupid farming video didn’t hurt either). Mock me all you like, but I’ll take some salsa on my ball boys – sweet rowdy!

Loreen – Euphoria: I don’t know if the winner of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest is even eligible for the Hottest 100 (it’s not on the official list) but I’m voting for it anyway. Loreen’s vocals on the song are just incredible, and lift it far above the Inception horns and silly popping noises that make up the rest of the track.

So that’s my ten. Runners up included…

Ben Folds Five – Draw A Crowd
Dappled Cities – Born At The Right Time
Dirty Projectors – Gun Has No Trigger
Killers – The Runaways
Metric – Breathing Underwater
Ladyhawke – Black, White And Blue
Lupe Fiasco – Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free)
Purity Ring – Fineshrine
Missy Higgins – Hearts A Mess

Right, I’m off to buy orange juice and super glue…

Disparate Notes

Well, back to work tomorrow. Two weeks earlier than planned. At least I’ll be able to check out the Burgermeister.

The weather has been abominable for the last few days. Forty plus for most of the week. Today is meant to be a lot cooler so I’m throwing open the doors and windows to try and flush out all the warm, stale air that’s been building up.

My posts about FADADES earlier in the week seem to have enraged the FADADES fan community. Or at least one guy, who may well be the entirety of the FADADES fan community. Or maybe FADADES himself. In any case he left a very angry comment asking what’s wrong with FADADES. Not that much really, apart from his music sounding like Gollum and Donald Duck having an angle grinder fight in a firing range, and the man himself looking like Worzel Gummidge had to take a job at an S&M club to support his crack habit.

I spent Australia Day at Justin’s place helping him put up shelves in his garage. Hopefully they haven’t fallen down yet.

Ah, the Triple J Hottest 100. Gotye and Kimbra took out the number one spot, which really was no surprise. Several of the songs I voted for got in, which was nice, but overall I wasn’t terribly impressed. I guess 2011 wasn’t a fantastic year for music – or at least music that I like. Just another sign that I’m getting old I guess.

Let’s see, what did I vote for…

* Lanu/Megan Washington – Beautiful Trash – I am frankly astonished that this didn’t get in. Maybe it was released too early in the year for people to remember it.

* Seeker Lover Keeper – Even Though I’m A Woman – Got in at number 17. Good stuff!

* Luke Million – Arnold – Number 71. About where it deserved.

* Noah and the Whale – Waiting for my chance to come – Didn’t get in, although L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N did.

* Florence & The Machine – Shake It Out – Number 13. I expected it to get into the top 10, but 13 isn’t bad.

* Illy – Cigarettes – Number 35. Excellent.

* Crystal Fighters – At Home – No sign of this sadly

* Yuksek – On A Train – No sign of this either

* The Vaccines – Norgaard – Or this.

* Architecture In Helsinki – Escapee – Number 55. Not bad.

And others that I liked…

* The Wombats – Techno Fan – Number 26. Excellent!

* CSS – Hits Me Like A Rock – No sign of this.

* Stanton Warriors – Get Up – Or this.

* Jay-Z & Kanye West – No Church In The Wild – I expected this to do really well, but it didn’t turn up. No accounting for taste I guess.

* Bluejuice – Act Yr Age – Number 20. Bluejuice always do well.

So yeah. That was that.

Finally, in my wanderings around the net over the last week I stumbled across Romantically Apocalyptic – a beautifully drawn (painted?) yet completely deranged post-apocalyptic webcomic. Insofar as it can be summed up it deals with the adventures of zee Captain and his three minions in the nuclear-winter ensnared ruins of a gigantic city. Zee Captain is completely insane but has almost supernatural levels of luck, ensuring his continued survival – and the continued suffering of his erstwhile companions. There’s also some rather strange videos…

In any case, it’s well worth checking out. Even if you can’t figure out what’s going on (even I have trouble with it sometimes) the art is astounding.

That’s all I’ve got to say…

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