I GIVE UP (ALMOST)

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, FUCK, PLEASE PUT OUT A GREAT RECORD THIS YEAR?

Let us take stock. Not good records I might have cared about from 2005:

Beck- Guero
The Decemberists - Picaresque
Hot Hot Heat - Elevator
311 - Don't Tread On Me
And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
NIN - With Teeth
and, this night Death Cab For Cutie - Plans

These albums are unbelievably depressing. And yet I continue to go out at midnite, hope in hand, only to end the night trying feeling that the listening experience was a relative success if I don't want to never listen to music again. A few tracks in to this records I find myself rooting for the band - "Come on, guys! You can do it! I've heard you do it before! Get it together!" And nothing happens.

Now there are some exceptions:

M. Ward - Transistor Radio
Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
Stephen Malkmus - Face The Truth
System of a Down - Mesmerize
Architecture in Helsinki - In Case We Day

And still, the only of these records that I think is better than just pretty good is the M. Ward, which is terrific, but in the most traditional way, which makes it hard to get excited about the vibrancy of contemporary music.

Likewise, none of the new bands whose praises have been sung on the various hipster or popular music sites have excited me.

There is hope still for 2005, if pre-release singles are any sign:

Broken Social Scene
Animal Collective
Sigur Ros
Devendra Banhart
Deerhoof
The Joggers

So this could be a back-stacked year. But, still, where's the exciting, out-of-nowhere and deserving success stories from this year ala Joanna Newsom, Broken Social Scene etc.

Of course, this frustration with the sonic way of the world is only intensified by making music that you really believe in and think is good, but can't get anybody to care about. We're working on it. We think we have a really special record on the way. I hope others agree.

Six Feet Under is a rare reminder that people can still make good art this year.

And now, to watch some Coupling.

Anyone see HBO's Rome? How was it?