Category: Underrated

Best Music of 2014

What a horrible year for new music.  There were quite a few albums I was looking forward to (The Antlers, Fanfarlo, St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Lily Allen, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Beck, Lykke Li, Wooden Wand, How to Dress Well, The Rentals, Alt-J) that just completely disappointed me.  Especially you, Wooden Wand.  Get it together.  You were going to be my new favorite band.

These are the albums that I enjoyed. There is no order, because none of them were outstanding enough to be given a rank:

Andrew Bird – Things Are Really Great Here, Sort of… – This is an album of covers of Handsome Family songs.  It’s an Andrew Bird country album.  I like Andrew Bird, and I’ve been going through a big country phase, so I enjoyed this.  It also led me to explore the Handsome Family’s albums, which I just couldn’t get into.

Slow Club – Complete Surrender – I hadn’t been a big fan of Slow Club in the past, but this is very nice and R&B-like.  I’m pretty sure this is not what their other albums sounded like.

Allo Darlin’ – We Come From the Same Place – I liked Allo Darlin’s last album too.  This is more of the same.  They have a really good bassist, and that goes along way with me.

Chet Faker – Built on Glass It took me awhile, but I found my sexy album for 2014.  This is what How to Dress Well could sound like if they decided to focus on melody.

Sturgill Simpson – Metamodern Sounds in Country Music – Every best of list has this one on it.  It’s pretty good.  It’s edgy enough that you can listen to country music without feeling like you are listening to country music.

Benjamin Booker – Benjamin Booker – I think DP would like this album.  It’s aggressive bluesy rock n roll.  This guy can yell, and sometimes you need that.

LVL UP – Hoodwink’d – This gets a mention just because the lyrics reference the Silver Jews.  At first I thought that the album was supposed to be all cut up, but now I think my copy is just bad.  Anyway, I’ve got at least 7 songs that are whole, and I like pretty much all of them.  It’s got a nice 90s sound.

Sun Kil Moon – Benji – Now everyone who knows me knows that I love sincerity in my pop music.  If the lyrics are so sincere that you just want to cringe yourself into a ball, then I am right there.  Sun Kil Moon is like the indie Counting Crows.  This guy is pouring his heart out there on every song.  He likes to make mention that he’s the kind of guy who writes songs and goes on tour and connects with his audience.  There’s even a song about the Newtown massacre, that gets stuck in my head sometimes.   I’m cringing just thinking about it.

You knew it was coming

Raheem Brock of the Colts posted this on this twitter feed, then quickly took it down, saying he was hacked:

Bring it on.  We’ve seen worse.  We heard it all after Katrina.

Remember Chicago, 2006?

I was pissed off about that then.  Now, I’ve just grown used to it.  I heard all the “Why rebuild in a flood zone?” idiots in Atlanta.  I let it eat me up inside.

Not anymore.  You want to taunt us with the Federal Flood?  Go right ahead.  We took it for the past five years, and we will keep on taking it.  In that typical New Orleans way, we will wear it with pride:

In other news, I am so fucking excited about the Super Bowl that I am totally mentally crippled.  Can’t focus, can’t concentrate, can’t sleep.  I just sit and think of new things about Saints football.

PS: Raheem Brock, go fuck yourself.  Thanks for the motivation.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Continue reading IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

Joey’s Back on the Market!

Joey The Falcons released elbuzzard.com’s favorite quarterback on Wednesday.

For an entire year, I hoped that I would get the chance to see Joey out and about in Atlanta, but no luck. i was going to tell him to keep his chin up. Now that chance is gone…

I know a team who’s in the market for a backup QB. The Saints were looking at almost dead Trent Green. Stay away from Green and give Joey a spot on the bench!

Backpack

I discovered a very cool little webtool the other day: Backpack.

It’s a neat little website that lets you organize to-do lists, notes, and reminders online, and then (the really cool part) lets you share them with other people. Leslie and I use it to keep a to-do list of what needs to get done around the house. We both can edit the list, check things off as done, and leave notes. I use it at work with other people who are working on the same projects as me. It’s also got an RSS feed option.

It’s like having a dry-erase board that you can access anywhere. I don’t know how many of you are surrounded by computers all day, every day, but for those of us that are, Backpack is incredibly useful.

In defense of Bob Stoops

Bob Stoops immediately transformed an Oklahoma program coming off an 3-win season to a national power. The Sooners have been to four BCS bowls in five years, including a national title and three appearances in the national championship game.
Currently, he is leading a team to a bowl game that has played more freshmen than any other team in the nation. The Sooners’ three losses have come against TCU, UCLA and Texas. Those teams have lost two games combined.
Not only is Stoops a top-10 coach, he’s probably in the top five.