Sappysuperunknown10's Journals

Christmas Playlist

Do Christmas carols annoy anyone in here? They annoy me that’s for sure. And there are only so many times I can listen to my father’s Natalie Cole Christmas CD without wanting to end my life. So out of frustration because it's impossible to go to the supermarket without hearing the same xmas carols in a loop about 3783 times, I made a little playlist of Christmas rock songs (most of which are full of lulz), that do not include Jingle Bell Rock, however. As that song is annoying as well, unless it’s Mean Girls style of course.

Manic Street Preachers - Ghost of Christmas

The Killers – Don’t Shoot me Santa

John Lennon - Happy Christmas (War is Over)

The Ramones - Merry Christmas (I don't Want to Fight Tonight)

Smashing Pumpkins – Christmastime (look at that video. It's HILARIOUS)

Sufjan Stevens - That Was The Worst Christmas Ever (so emo, I know)

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Deck the Halls (best vocal ensamble everrr)

That's it. Hope you like, at least a bit more than effing carols. :)

Top 20 Albums of 2009

This was by far one of the best years in music of this decade. It just seemed like every single band I love released an album this year. Well, except for the ones that no longer exist. No, fuck that, even the ones that no longer exist re-united just to release albums this year. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE? Last year I didn't make one of these because I could find honestly, about 5 truly worthy albums. That No Air wankery was my favorite song from 2008. Go figure. But this year is so good. Apart from the bands I list in here, an insane amount of amazing bands released amazing albums; Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Air, Sufjan Stevens, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, múm, Porcupine Tree, Peaches, The Flaming Lips, The Most Serene Republic, Kasabian, Zero 7, Metric, YATCH, The Dead Weather, the list is endless. I could make a top 40, I swear. But I'd bore everyone so, here's my top 20 instead.

20. Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs

I think the only word I can use to describe this album is enjoyable. This is by far one of the most enjoyable albums of this year and of Yo La Tengo's career overall, in my opinion.

19. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

Bitte Orca is fucking amazing, DP are a really really good band, don't be turned off by the hipster dramaz that seems to be their burden. Or the cover Beyoncé's sister did of their fab single "Stillness Is the Move". Yeah I know, Beyonce's sister listens to the Dirty Projectors, what is happening to the world?

18. Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures

Oh god. Oh god. John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and Dave fucking Grohl of Foo Fighters/Nirvana. OH MY GOD. How can such awesomeness be contained in one single album, I don't know.

17. Indochine - La République des Meteors

I am a happy girl, Indochine hadn't released any new stuff since 2005 which is fucking ridiculous, so of course, this new album made my little fangirl heart squeal with joy. Of course, it's not their best, not nearly, but my god this band has been playing for what? 30 years? And they put out some quality stuff, it's amazing.

16. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

This album is great. This band is great. What can I say? I love them so much and I couldn't be sadder I've lost them to twatlight now.

15. Jónsi & Alex - Riceboy Sleeps

This is a side project of Sigur Rós lead singer Jónsi Birgisson and his partner Alex Somers, guitarist of Parachutes. Like, the Icelandic post-rock Parachutes, not the Warped Tour Parachutes. They make the most amazingly sublime music ever together. My love for these two guys is immense.

14. Mew - No More Stories Are Told Today, I'm Sorry, They Washed Away...

I jumped on the Mew bandwagon too late (only a year ago). How the fuck could I live so long without their music?

13. Florence + the Machine - Lungs

Shhh. I love her. ILY FLORENCE WELCH. EVEN WHEN YOU SING BEYONCE COVERS.

12. Morrissey - Years of Refusal

MORRISSEY. Every year Moz decides to grace us with a new album is a good year.

11. Sonic Youth - The Eternal

Uhh, it's Sonic Youth. Nuff said.

10. Placebo - Battle for the Sun

This album is not really good.

It's filled with horrible, unchallenging, poorly written lyrics. That either repeat the same word over and over and over again, or the same sentence over and over and over again. Or have like, fucking choruses in Spanish, which is fucking CHEESY. The rhymes are weak and lacking in creativity. The melodies are repetitive and bordering on tiring. The singles they chose are tragic. Some songs are actually quite good, some are actually quite great, some are weird as fuck but work for some reason, but mostly, the album is just a bundle of clichéd, motivational, happy-go-lucky, "redeeming" crap. And fuck you's towards the ex-drummer.

And you know what?

I love it. I LOVE IT.

OH MY GOD WHY.

Failcakez, I love this clusterfuck of nonsense. I know all the lyrics. It makes me cry, it makes me sing, it makes me wanna do air guitar and a stupid little dance in my seat. Shoot me now. I fucking love this band.

So yeah, like I was saying, THIS ALBUM RULES.

9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!

It's a bit poppier, and more synth-oriented than the older Yeahs albums but it's still fucking brill.

8. Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse - Dark Night Of The Soul

You guys HAVE to listen to this. Stop whatever you're doing. Danger Mouse (member of Gnarls Barkley, producer of Gorillaz and Beck, mash-up artist extraordinaire) and Mark Linkous (aka Sparklehorse) wrote a set of 12 AMAZING songs that feature vocalists of the likes of Frank Black, Iggy Pop, Julian Casablancas, The Flaming Lips and Suzanne Vega amongst others. Due to problems with EMI (yeah, what's new?) he album itself is not available for purchase, BUT you can buy the book that was meant to accompany the album, which is, get this, 100+ pages of original photos taken by David Lynch which are a "visual narrative" of the album. HOLY SHIT HOW AWESOME IS THAT? Also, with the purchase of this you will get a blank CD where you can basically record the illegally downloaded mp3's. So yeah, in a nutshell; THIS IS AWESOME. SO AWESOME.

7. The Gossip - Music for Men

I was never really into the Gossip before this album came out. I have to admit it was the uber catchy Heavy Cross that caught my attention, but I listened to the rest of the album and was so very pleasantly surprised. Why had no one told me Beth Ditto has the most amazing voice evar? Damn you all.

6. Muse - The Resistance

*BRB. Face melting*

5. Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor

Many people bitched and moaned about how this was seeew different from Patrick's older stuff (especially the single, Vulture) but fuck it, I love that the guy re-invents himself with every album. Also, have you seen that video? Holy moley so wrong. And so right. And so wrong. But mostly so right.

4. Bat for Lashes - Two Suns

Oh god I just wanna be Natasha Khan when I grow up. She is so amazing.

3. Chris Cornell - Scream

jk, jk.

LOLOMGWTF. I can't get over how bad this is.

*weeps*

3. John Frusciante - The Empyrean

I may be alone here, but I think John Frusciante's latest solo album is better than the last 3 albums of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He's just an amazing creative force that can't and shouldn't stick to one single genre. I always loved Fru's solo stuff, it's much more imaginative and experimental that anything the Chili's have done in the last 10 years. This album is a testament of that. Oh and did I mention Johnny Marr plays in two songs?! HOWS THAT FOR GUITAR HERO.

2. IAMX - Kingdom of Welcome Addiction

This is the best band formed during the last half of the 00's. That's it. No, don't even try to talk me out of it. They just keep getting better.

1. Manic Street Preachers - Journal for Plague Lovers

Richey lyrics. Steve Albini produces. THE WIRE SINGS A WHOLE SONG. This album is epic in so many different ways, but mostly, it's just a flat out quality album, with great songs, smart lyrics and an over-all great production. And fuck it they're the Manics, of course they had to be first. Duh.

Elliott Smith

First off, let me say, I'm glad I had a good while to make this write-up, cause evidently, trying to sum up the life, work and legacy of Elliott Smith in only a few paragraphs is a tough task. I'll start with some backgrounds. He was born Steven Paul Smith on August 6^th, 1969. Even though he was born in Nebraska and raised in Texas most of his childhood, it was the time spent in Portland when he took interest in music and began going by the name of "Elliott".

He'd written piano compositions since age 10, but started recording his compositions at age 14. He formed his first band while still in highschool, a project he named Stranger than Fiction, though his first work that gathered some sort of recognition was the band he formed with Neil Gust, who he met and befriended while they were both studying at the Hampshire College in Massachusetts, Heatmiser. They recorded three albums Dead Air (1993), Cop and Speeder (1994) and Mic City Sons (1996).

While still in Heatmiser, Elliott released two solo albums, Roman candle in 1994 and a self-titled in 1995. Both of them were an unexpected success, which created tension between Elliott and his bandmates, and that ultimately resulted in Heatmiser parting ways for good and Elliott embarking fully into a solo career.

In 1996, filmmaker Gus Van Sant asked for his permission to use some of his songs for his latest project, Good Will Hunting. He agreed, and also wrote a new song for the movie, "Miss Misery". Around that time his third solo album, Either/Or was released to great critical reviews. The next year, Smith was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Clad in a white suit and with an orchestra behind him, he performed at the Oscars ceremony, an experience he described as "strange" and "surreal".

After his newly found success, he was signed to a bigger label, DreamWorks Records, where he released his next two albums, 1998's XO and 2000's Figure 8. One year after the release of the latter, Elliott started working on his follow up album, From a Basement on the Hill, during which time he'd been struggling with his alcohol and drug addiction before ultimately agreeing checking into rehab.

Despite his earlier attempts at recovery and to surprise of friends and fans alike, Smith died on October 21, 2003, he had allegedly committed suicide after an argument with his girlfriend. From a Basement on the Hill was released posthumously in October 19, 2004 to mostly positive reviews. Various tribute albums and compilations have been released ever since, and the wall outside of Solutions Audio where he stood for the iconic cover photo of Figure 8, was turned into a memorial to him, with fans writing messages in it and leaving flowers and candles. In addition, his songs have been played in a number of movies and TV shows such as The Royal Tenenbaums, American Beauty and Paranoid Park, which proves the undeniable influence the music he created during his lifetime continues to have in present times, and probably will have for a long time.

Songs:

Needle in the Hay

Bled White

Between the Bars

Fiona Apple

Controversial, eccentric and undeniably talented, Fiona Apple is unarguably one of the most influential female singer-songwriters of the past decade. Born and raised in a family of artists, Fiona began playing piano and writing songs from an early age. At 16 she moved to New York, where she recorded a demo, which was quickly handed over to a record executive by a mutual friend.

Her debut album Tidal was released on the summer of 1996. The song “Criminal” and its video were soon on heavy rotation on MTV and the video for “Sleep to Dream” won the Best New Artist award at the 1997 Video Music Awards, the speech she gave out remains memorable to these days. She was subject of much criticism from both the media and her colleagues due to her outrageous attitude, her personal life as well as her admitted eating disorders, but the praises for the emotional honesty and maturity of her music mostly overshadowed this.

Her second album, When the pawn… was released on November of 1999. It reached the top 20 in the Billboard Modern Rock charts and spawned three singles, Fast as You Can, Paper Bag and Limp. The album also received a certain amount of attention when it got into the Guinness Book of Records 2 years later, holding the world record for the longest album title. (The entire title is a poem Fiona wrote in response to some negative readers' letters on Spin Magazine “When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing 'Fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and if You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and if You Fall It Won't Matter, 'Cuz You'll Know That You're Right”)

After years of silence, rumors began spreading in the internet that the release of her new album was being somehow truncated by Sony Music, as they were unhappy with the album. A successful fan-led internet campaign was made to support and encourage the release of the album. Finally, 3 years after its initial recording, Extraordinary Machine was released in 2005; it became her highest charting album and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album.

Songs:

Paper Bag

Parting Gift

Criminal

Suede

Undeniably a seminal band of the brit-pop scene, Suede (or The London Suede as they came to be known by American audiences) was formed in 1989 by lead singer Brett Anderson, his then girlfriend rhythm guitarist Justine Frischmann (who would later go on to become the lead singer of Elastica) and childhood friend, bassist Mat Osman. After placing an ad in the NME searching for a lead guitarist, the band came across Bernard Butler who auditioned and immediately got the part. The line-up was completed with drummer Simon Gilbert. After several personal difficulties and a break-up, Frischmann left the band in 1991 and it was then when Anderson and Butler began writing songs together, cementing the future of the band.

Packed with raving melodies and sexually charged lyrics, their self-titled debut album was released on March of 1993, with great hype from the British media, which the band (and the controversial lead singer, in particular) had been gathering for a while at that point. The album was an unprecedented success in the UK, and the band was soon praised by nearly every music magazine in the country.

By 1994, the relationship between Butler and the rest of the band was already too tense, making the process of writing and recording the second album virtually impossible. He left the band while the album was still incomplete, and was replaced by 17 year old Richard Oakes who completed the recording. Dog Man Star, while not as successful as its predecessor, was generally well received by the critics. In 1996, and with new keybordist Neil Codling on board, Coming Up was released. Including hit singles such as "Trash", "Stay Together" and "Beautiful Ones", the album reached #1 in the charts.

The following albums, 1999's Head Music and 2002's A New Morning, were poorly received by the critics and the audiences, and the band split up shortly after. In 2003 they released a Singles compilation and a new song, "Attitude". Their legacy however, is irrefutable; considered by many one of the greatest British bands of the 90's, their sound and style influenced many bands that came after them. In addition, both Butler and Anderson have released solo albums (People Move On and Friends and Lovers by the former, Wilderness and a self-titled by the latter), and in 2004 they joined forces again to form the Tears.

Songs:

PJ Harvey

Influenced by the likes of Bob Dylan, The Pixies and Television, Polly Jean AKA "PJ" Harvey broke into the music scene with her 1992 album "Dry". The raw, dark, emotionally bare sound and lyrical content of her songs became a trademark in her music, as proved by her next two albums 1993's "Rid of me" and 1995's "To Bring You My Love". The album, produced by Flood, John Parish and herself, was voted the best of the year by numerous music magazines, and contained one of her most successful singles to date, "Down by the Water".

"Is This Desire?", a heart-wrenching set of 12 songs written and recorded over the course of 2 years, was released on September of 1998. She describes the album as the best, yet more difficult record she ever made. Two years later she returned with the critically acclaimed "Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea", that went on to become the second biggest selling album of her career and won the 2001 Mercury Prize. Thom Yorke, lead singer of Radiohead, appears as guest vocalist in 3 songs.

The follow up of "Stories from the city...", was the slightly less successful but still brilliant "Uh Huh Her" in 2004. It was entirely produced by Harvey, and the instruments were all played by her, except for the drums. Her latest album "White Chalk" was a complete turn from her usual alternative rock sound. The songs are mostly piano-oriented, an instrument she didn't know how to play properly before, but the tunes still carry that gloomy aura that's unmistakably Polly Jean.

Songs:

10 Random Things About Me

AKA 10 totally random, often embarrassing, definitely unnecessary facts about moi. I was tagged by my gurl Adani, so here goes:

1. In my spare time I make ridiculous, unfunny, idiotic comics like this one

(No kidding yo, I made that shit when I was 15. It goes on for 12 pages more. It's godawful.)

2. I find Devendra Banhart strangely sexy.

3. I don't eat any dairy products, except for milk and only in shakes or cereal... when it doesn't taste like milk. I take the cheese off pizza and order my hamburgers with nothing but lettuce, onions and ketchup. (and the meat obvz duh) Not only cheese, I also hate everything else in them. I am so picky about food it's goddamned annoying.

4. In 6th grade I had an unhealthy obsession with the show Cops. Lawlz at me.

Bad boys bad boys whatcha gonna do whatcha gonna do when they come for youuu

5. Some people read the Bible when in doubt. I read Camus.

6. Twilight makes me LOL.

7. I have a massive girl crush on Adriana Lima

8. I watched this video the other day, even though I knew I wouldn't understand SHIT, but didn't care. Cause he looks so pretty he could read the phone book to me and I'd still pay attention. FML

9. I cried more during Fluke, Marley & Me and Eight Below each, than during Schindler's List, Brokeback Mountain and the Shawshank Redemption, together.

10. I always think I secretly annoy the shit out of everyone I know. For instance, all of you.

Now I shall tag: crash13, eyelinersmudge, sweetseryn, kitten76 and lev011.

Alice in Chains

Mixing the hard, guitar ridden sound of heavy metal and the edge of alternative rock, Alice in Chains proved to be one of the most iconic and successful bands of the early 90s. The original line up consisted of bassist Mike Starr, drummer Sean Kinney, guitarist and back-up singer Jerry Cantrell and legendary vocalist Layne Staley.

Formed in Seattle, Washington in 1987, Alice in Chains rose to success in 1990 with the release of their debut album Facelift, which included the hit singles "Man in the Box" and "Sea of Sorrow".

On September 1992, and after contributing to the soundtrack of Cameron Crowe's movie Singles, the band released the commercially and critically successful Dirt, which was followed by an extensive tour during the rest of 1993, and the departure of Starr, who was replaced by former Ozzy Osbourne bassist Mike Inez

After the release of chart-topping EP Jar of Flies and eponymous album Alice in Chains, they returned for their first concert in 3 years for their 1996 MTV Unplugged, followed by a long hiatus, only interrupted to record 2 songs; "Get Born Again" and "Died", both on 1998. During this time also, Staley and Cantrell got involved in side projects, Staley as the lead singer of Mad Season, alongside Pearl Jam's Mike McCready and Screaming Trees' Barrett Martin, and Cantrell releasing a solo album, Boggy Depot.

On April 19th, 2002 Layne Staley was found dead in his Seattle condominium, which he rarely ever left by that time. He'd been victim of a heroin and cocaine overdose two weeks earlier, on April 5th. This tragic loss inspired Cantrell's sophomore solo album, Degradation Trip.

These days the band has re-united, and with new lead singer William DuVall they plan to release a new studio album, the first in 14 years, later this year.

Songs:

Sneaker Pimps

The band was formed in the early 90s by former DJs and childhood friends Liam Howe and Chris Corner in Hartlepool, England. After working on several EPs, they recruited Ian Pickering, David Westlake and singer Kelli Dayton in 1996 for the release of their debut album Becoming X. Their sound that incorporated elements of alternative rock, electronica and downbeat, made the album a success in the United States and the UK, where single 6 Underground reached #9 on the charts.

Apart from their original material, they have done remixes for artists as varied as Placebo, Natalie Imbruglia, Sophie Ellis Bextor and Eagle-Eye Cherry, and they're owners of independent record company Splinter Records, which has signed acts like Robots in Disguise and the Servant.

After the departure of Dayton on 1998, the band decided to give their sound a full change, in order to avoid being stereotyped inside the fading trip-hop scene, creating a stronger, more rock-oriented sound. Guitarist and main lyricist Chris Corner then took over vocals for the next two albums, 1999's Splinter and 2002's Bloodsport, before venturing on solo project IAMX.

Songs:

Post-Modern Sleaze

Loretta Young Silks

6 Underground

All I want for Christmas

I'm probably lame for doing christmas wishlists cause I know I canâ�™t afford any of this. Itâ�™s nice to dream though.

Any tee from this website.

Preferably any of these.

These books

â�œEverything: a book about Manic street preachersâ�

â�œOf Grunge and Government: Let's Fix This Broken Democracyâ�

Comic Book Tattoo

A series of 51 graphic novels inspired by Tori Amosâ�™ songs.

All those imported albums I canâ�™t find anywhere and cost a fortune

Especially all my trip-hop, brit pop and indie fuckery

The seasons of the Mighty boosh on DVD

W00t

Am I sick for kind of wanting this?

Donâ�™t answer. LOLOLOL

A camera

A real one not the shit I have

With the Lights Out

(Itâ�™s less dangerous) yeah as if, Iâ�™d have to sell all my belongings to buy this.

Thatâ�™s all. Iâ�™m starting to feel the chrismas spirit. I hope I can actually see my family this year, cause last year I couldnâ�™t and I stayed home with mom eating cake, drinking wine and watching Greyâ�™s anatomy :(

Which reminds me, one more thing

Iâ�™m lame.