My Favorite Pop Culture of 2013!

Movies
Of the 32 movies I watched this year, only six were 2013 releases: Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, Don Jon, Jackass Presents Bad Grandpa, This Is the End, Sound City and Star Trek Into Darkness. The Big Star documentary was great; the others ranged from pretty good to meh... I still wanna see Anchorman 2, Frances Ha, Inside Llewyn Davis, Nebraska, The Punk Singer and some others... As for older movies, I rediscovered Blade Runner, and watched its myriad versions multiple times.

TV
Bob's Burgers became a new favorite. I plowed through all five seasons of Parks and Recreation in a few weeks, and kept current with the latest seasons of Louie and Mad Men. I watched Breaking Bad all the way up through its finale, and while I saw some of the final-season episodes of Eastbound & Down, I haven't yet caught the end. I still watch Saturday Night Live fairly religiously, as I have for the last 25-odd years, mostly out of habit. It's still topical and unpredictable, if not consistently funny.

Rock 'n' Roll
The only 2013 album I regularly played start to finish was David Bowie's The Next Day (unless you count Best Coast's seven-song EP/mini-album thing Fade Away). This led me to revisit all of Bowie's back catalog, which I listened to pretty extensively for much of the year (I played "Station to Station" dozens of times in the car)... Disappointing were new releases by the Pixies, the Strokes, the Replacements and Iggy & the Stooges... However, the 'Mats and the Stooges kicked ass at the Toronto Riot Fest; the only other show I went to this year was a Mudhoney in-store on April Fool's Day... As for older stuff, I sprang for Bob Dylan's 47-disc Complete Album Collection: Vol. One ($197 on Amazon -- that's $4.19 per disc!)... The one album I listened to far more than any other was 1980's Pleasure by Girls at Our Best!. Since I couldn't find the lyrics anyplace, I took a shot at transcribing them here... Other 2013 albums/songs I like:
Camera Obscura -- "Do It Again"
Neko Case -- "Madonna of the Wasps"
Dead Ghosts -- "B.A.D."
Grant Hart -- "Morningstar"
Melvins -- Everybody Loves Sausages, Tres Cabrones
Mudhoney -- Vanishing Point
Thee Oh Sees -- Floating Coffin
Those Darlins -- "Optimist"
Wooden Shjips -- "Ruins"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- Mosquito

Books
Jeez, did I only read two books this year? Yep. Those would be Bebe Day by Day by Pamela Druckerman and Jim Gaffigan's Dad is Fat. Both are related to parenting, which makes sense -- in January I became a first-time dad to twin girls (which also explains why I've been even further out of the pop-culture loop this year)... The Replacements: Waxed-Up Hair and Painted Shoes: The Photographic History looks terrific, though I haven't actually read the text yet. Same with Fan Interference, which is also gathering dust on my nightstand.

Comics
Didn't read many comics either, other than Peter Bagge's Reset, Allie Brosh's Hyperbole and a Half, and A Matter of Life by Jeffrey Brown. All good.

For those keeping score, here are my favorites from 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006 (movies and music).
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Happy 25th, Sub Pop!

The venerable Seattle label hits the big two-five today, at least according to Sub Pop. Wikipedia says otherwise -- a lame April Fool's joke?

Toeing the company line, Mudhoney frontman Mark Arm mentioned today's 25th anniversary during tonight's in-store show at the West Seattle Easy Street Records. A good performance, and afterwards I went into total fanboy mode: I had all four band members shake my hand and sign my free Ed Fotheringham poster, and I even got a photo with Mark Arm himself, one of my all-time rock 'n' roll idols...

 

Sub Pop was the shit in late-'80s/early-'90s Seattle, when Mudhoney was king (tho' soon dethroned by lesser label-mates Soundgarden and Nirvana). While Sub Pop worked with heaps of cool acts, my other all-time favorite band to record for the label is Girl Trouble.

Looking forward to July's Sub Pop Silver Jubilee...
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Happy 25th, Mudhoney!

My favorite hometown band -- and my third-fave band ever, behind the Stones and the 'Mats -- hits the big two-five today. Long may they rock.
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My Favorite Music, Movies, Video & Books of '12!

Movies
The Dark Knight Rises
I'm Now: The Story of Mudhoney
Searching for Sugar Man
Notes: Of the 19 movies I saw this year, eleven of which were 2012 releases, and just these three of those I deemed list-worthy... I got myself all psyched for The Amazing Spider-Man, but it turned out to be a proverbial turd in the punchbowl... And the less said about Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, the better.

Video
Breaking Bad: Season 4
Eastbound & Down: Season 3
Get a Life: The Complete Series
Louie: Season 2
Notes: This doesn't include stuff from the "Movies" list above, just TV shows... Still need to see season five of Mad Men, released this year... Can't wait 'til the latest seasons of Breaking Bad and Louie are out on video, hopefully in 2013.


Songs
Best Coast - "Mean Girls"
Dum Dum Girls - "I Got Nothing"
Bob Dylan - "Pay in Blood"
Ben Gibbard - "Ichiro's Theme"
Japandroids - "The House That Heaven Built"
King Tuff - "Bad Thing"
Melvins - "Let Me Roll It"
Bob Mould - "The Descent"
Public Image Ltd. - "One Drop"
The Rolling Stones - "Doom and Gloom"
Soundgarden - "Been Away Too Long"
Bruce Springsteen - "We Take Care of Our Own"
TacocaT - "Cat Fancy"
Thee Oh Sees - "Lupine Dominus"
Jack White - "I'm Shakin'"
Notes: I just don't get into new albums as much as individual songs anymore, though the exception this year would be Best Coast's The Only Place... A couple older acts I became obsessed with in 2012 are the Beach Boys and Hüsker Dü (the first rock concert I ever saw was the Beach Boys, at the Puyallup Fair in 1981 or '82, and I regret not seeing them on their 50th anniversary tour this year; I saw Bob Mould open for the Pixies in '89 (and thought he sucked)... I'm also bummed that I again missed the original Dinosaur Jr. lineup when they came through town... Otherwise, I saw some classic rock bands for the first time (Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Heart) as well as a couple new favorites (Best Coast, Dum Dum Girls), plus some old standbys (Girl Trouble, Melvins, Young Fresh Fellows).

Books
The Art and Making of The Dark Knight Trilogy
Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman
The Obamas by Jodi Kantor
Everybody Loves Our Town by Mark Yarm
Notes: I didn't read much this year. The other ten books I did read were either published in previous years (the best of which was Duff McKagan's It's So Easy (And Other Lies)), or comics...

Comics
The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist by Alvin Buenaventura
Batman: Earth One by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank
Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland by Harvey Pekar
New York Drawings by Adrian Tomine
Notes: I still wanna read Chris Ware's Building Stories.

For those keeping score, here are my favorites from 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006 (movies and music).
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Mudhoney Beer!

Brought one of these home from QFC the other night, mostly 'cause of the killer Charles Peterson photo -- way better than any Jones Soda label I've ever seen. It tasted good too, and I certainly didn't mind its relatively hefty 7% ABV.

Link.
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My 100 Favorite Songs of the '00s!

Against Me! – Thrash Unreal
Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Audioslave – Cochise
The Baseball Project – Pastime
Beastie Boys – An Open Letter to NYC
Beck – Girl
Belle and Sebastian – Sukie in the Graveyard
Beyonce – Crazy in Love
Black Lips – Can’t Dance
Boss Hog – Monkey
Caesars – Jerk It Out
Camera Obscura – Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken
Johnny Cash – Heart of Gold
The Chesterfield Kings – Up and Down
Danger Doom – El Chupa Nibre
Dead Moon – It’s a Long Way to the Top
Detroit Cobras – Hey Sailor
Devo 2.0 – Uncontrollable Urge
Dinosaur Jr. – Almost Ready
The Dirtbombs – Chains of Love
The Donnas – Hot Pants
The Dutchess and the Duke – I Am a Ghost
Bob Dylan – Workingman’s Blues #2
The Fall – Sparta 2XX
FannyPack – Cameltoe

Feist – 1234
The Fiery Furnaces – Tropical Ice-Land
Fischerspooner – Mega Colon
The Flaming Lips – Do You Realize??
Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal
Flight of the Conchords – Foux de Fafa
Foo Fighters – All My Life
Girl Trouble – Rockin’ Good Way
Gnarls Barkley – Crazy
Gorillaz – Feel Good, Inc.
Guided by Voices – The Best of Jill Hives
Neil Hamburger – Three Piece Chicken Dinner
The Hives – Hate to Say I Told You So
Hot Hot Heat – Running Out of Time
Iron & Wine – The Devil Never Sleeps
Mick Jagger – God Gave Me Everything
Jay Z – Empire State of Mind (featuring Alicia Keys)
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Point of View
The King Khan & BBQ Show – Waddlin’ Around
Kings of Leon – Molly’s Chambers
Kiss – Say Yeah
Komeda – Nonsense
Loretta Lynn – Portland
The Mekons – The Olde Trip to Jerusalem
Melvins – A History of Bad Men

The Minus 5 – Wicked Annabella
Mitch & Mickey – When You’re Next to Me
Modest Mouse – Float On
The Monkeywrench – In the Days of the Five
The Mooney Suzuki – A Little Bit of Love
Mudhoney – I Saw the Light
Neko Case – Star Witness
The New Pornographers – Mass Romantic
The New Strychnines – Psycho
New York Dolls – Runnin’ Around
Nirvana – You Know You’re Right
Pearl Jam – The Fixer
Prince – Fury
Peter Bjorn and John – Young Folks
Pink – Get the Party Started
Pixies – Bam Thwok
PJ Harvey – Good Fortune
Robert Plant & Alison Kraus – Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)
Iggy Pop – Little Know It All
The Raconteurs – Steady, As She Goes
Joey Ramone – Maria Baritomo
Reigning Sound – Funny Thing
The Replacements – Message to the Boys
The Rolling Stones – It Won’t Take Long
RTX – Balls to Pass

Santogold – L.E.S. Artistes
The Shins – New Slang
Sleater-Kinney – The Fox
Sonic Youth – Jams Run Free
The Sounds – Rock ‘n Roll
Bruce Springsteen – Waitin’ on a Sunny Day
Stereo Total – Villaines Filles, Mauvaises Garçons
Tommy Stinson – Something’s Wrong
The Strokes – Last Nite
Tenacious D – The Road
The Ting Tings – That’s Not My Name
TV on the Radio – Wolf Like Me
Vitamin C – Vacation
Vivian Girls – Tell the World
The Von Bondies – C’mon C’mon
The Walkmen – The Rat
Ween – Bananas and Blow
Weezer – Hash Pipe
Paul Westerberg – Pine Box
White Stripes – Fell in Love With a Girl
Wilco – Heavy Metal Drummer
Amy Winehouse – Rehab
Wolfmother – Dimension
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Date With the Night
Young Fresh Fellows – Gotta Get the First Plane Home
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Eight Movies, Eight Bands

Black Sabbath
The movie (1963). Mario Bava's Italian horror anthology starring Boris Karloff.
The band (1969-present). Ozzy & co. named their song "Black Sabbath" after the movie, then named the band after the song, and then named their debut album after, um, I guess all three.

Destroy All Monsters
The movie (1968). Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra and eight other Japanese monsters attack cities around the globe.
The band (1973-1985). A Detroit "anti-rock" combo featuring songstress Niagara, Stooge Ron Asheton, and the MC5's Michael Davis, among others.

Honeymoon Killers
The movie (1970). A swarthy Romeo and his hefty Juliet scam various lonely hearted ladies.
The band (1984-1993(?)). Frontman Jerry Teel and a rotating cast of damaged-blues New Yorkers (including Jon Spencer, Russell Simins and Cristina Martinez) specialized in noisy, sloppy originals and covers of the Stones, Zeppelin, and Blue Öyster Cult's "Godzilla."

King Kong
The movie (1933). Giant ape climbs the Empire State Building.
The band (1989-present). A trio of Drag City recording artists, best-known for the 1995 album Me Hungry.

Mudhoney
The movie (1965). Russ Meyer's rural, Depression-era boobtacular.
The band (1988-present). The best Northwest band of all time.

They Might Be Giants
The movie (1971). George C. Scott plays a guy who thinks he's Sherlock Holmes in early-'70s New York.
The band (1982-present). Cult favorites who never really did much for me, except for "Ana Ng," "Don't Let's Start" and "Hey, We're the Replacements."

Untamed Youth
The movie (1957). A Mamie Van Doren rock 'n' roll prison camp flick, later given the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment.
The band (1988-1995(?)). Highly regarded but rarely heard garage rockers from Missouri.

White Zombie
The movie (1932). Bela Lugosi stars in what is believed to be the first-ever zombie horror film.
The band (1985-1998). A horror-image-heavy metal band, whose leader was named, by astonishing coincidence, Rob Zombie. They suck.
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