2000 - Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun

Agaetis Byrjun

2000 was a great year for music. From the unstoppable “Kid A“, the unassuming warmth of Yo La Tengo’s – “And Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out” and the artfully deep concept album “The Hour of the Bewilderbeast” by Badly Drawn Boy, among the most aggressive, brave and compelling debuts in popular music. But, somehow it all came back to which album I experienced the most. “Byrjun” takes the genre of  Atmospheric music and propels it into a place of priority and extravagance. No longer great background music but the preferred anthem of road-trips and wedding processionals.

2001 - Prefuse 73 - Vocal Studies / and / Appleseed Cast – Low Level Owl

Vocal Studies

Low Level Owl

I feel picking Prefuse is a bit hypocritical as I really didn’t stumble upon this album until my good friend Simon Poultney showed it to me in 2003. It stacks up high amongst a meek year for for music (in comparison to having 00 and 02 as its bookends) elevating itself above Radioheads “Amnesiac“, “Mass Romantic” by The New Pornographers, Les Savvy Fav, The Beta Band and a heroic effort from the Strokes who sarcastically debuted “Is this It?” from within a boiling pot of critical expectations and intrigue.

Prefuse is a band that creates an overwhelming electric symphony of emotional highs and lows. They are your quiet nights and your daring ambitions. “Vocal Studies” pushes a unique style within an overwhelmed field of music and somehow makes it all crisp again.

Usually when bands reinvent themselves however slight, they leave behind a willingness to hold on to what was or an adaption of the past emotion or basic sound. Appleseed Cast break free from their previous efforts leaving behind the shackles of their emo stereotype and hardcore ambitions falling into a more thoughtful and melodic persona. There are touches of early Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine and drum-fills that would be at home on the Smashing Pumpkins double album. The instrumentals that bookend this album alone could create the pedestal for which it sat within critical review. “Low Level Owl” is a deep and full flavoured prog-rock album that sets itself apart in the genre and the era.

2002 – Beck – Sea Change

Sea Change

Just assume that I already know the majority will think this a poor pick, so much so that it might ruin the entire list for them.

I am aware that 2002 is one of the best years for music this decade or any other and that it saw Interpol declared kings of the NY indie scene, McLusky’s brilliantly absurd “Mlusky Do Dallas”, veteran rockers Sonic Youth, Wilco, Flaming Lips, Sleater-Kinny, and Tom Waits reclaiming their youthful graces and the genius of the Genius – GZA. I am aware.

2003 – The Decemberists – Castaways and Cutouts/ and / The Wrens – The Meadowlands

Castaways and Cutouts

The Meadowlands

2003, an impossible year. I was 23 and I was immersed in the wave of music that was emerging from all scenes. 03 saw “Hail To The Theif“, another thoughtful gift from the most talented band of the last 20 years. “One Word Extinguisher” from Prefuse 73, arguably better then their previous album that sits as no.1 on my list of 01. A massive leap from Manitoba dropping “Up In Flames” several miles from their debut and winning us all. This was also the year of Broken Social Scene “You Forgot It In People” (which although ranking high on Pitchfork had to have been given the worst nonsensical review I have ever read in my life) and the new revelation of The Postal Service.

For me none of those match up to the folk whispering and thoughtful twang of the Decemberists or the lazy, yet calculated, dry rock of The Wrens “The Meadowlands“.

2004 – Arcade Fire – Funeral

Funeral

“Funeral” protruded from the indie world in a way that no other album or artist could during the 2000’s. It sat atop critical and popular lists alike as an unfamiliar sound, something that would have fit comfortably anywhere in the last 40 years but didn’t clearly fit a genre the way most chart toppers do. In all honesty what is the point of reviewing this album? You’ve heard it, you probably own and even if you don’t like it….who am I kidding you liked it.

Where do I even start with this one. The first film, Planet Terror, is about a virus that is found and processed as a biological weapon by the US govt. The virus leaks out and zombifies a small town outside of Austin Texas. It is up to go-go dancer Cherry and her ex lover El-Wray to lead a group of survivors to safety.

Rodriguez has an incredible insight into any genre he gets his hands on and in a relatively untouched brand like the underfunded and straight forward slasher films that used to grace the Grindhouse theaters he is in a league of his own. Rodriguez brilliance comes out in the character Cherry Baby played to perfection by Rose McGowan. Cherry is a gorgeous yet extremely flawed character. She seems carved to be the victim rather than the hero and in the opening scene of the film Rodriguez shows his writing depth as he paints her as a girl who has been the victim her whole life. Rodriguez uses the relationship between Cherry and El-Wray to turn that all around. The worse things become for Cherry the stronger she finds herself alongside the lover she left years ago. Planet Terror is an intricate movie with a simple premise but amazing character depth, interaction and dialogue.

Everywhere in this film Rodriguez has his stamp, from the writing, to the cinematography, to the editing, and even the music. Rodriguez is a director who has elevated his game in a genre without much room for critical analysis. The further you dig in this movie the more impressive Rodriguez becomes.

The second, and my favorite of the two, is Death Proof. Death Proof is a revenge thriller about a psychotic stunt man who hunts down young girls with his reinforced stunt car (at first a 72 Chevy Nova and then a 68 Dodge Charger -the same year and model as Steve McQueen’s car in Bullit). Unbeknownst to stunt man Mike McKay he has picked on the wrong girls. Professional stunt woman Zoe Bell (Kill Bill, Xena, Catwoman) plays herself and along with a professional stunt driver and a ‘70 Dodge Challenger (Vanishing Point) the girls beat McKay at his own game.

Death Proof has been seen as the lesser of the two movies. Its pacing is slow and varied. Like most Tarantino films the dialogue is a tribute to the pop culture that surrounds and even defines the characters. Death Proof is a window into the lives of the female characters and allows the audience to seep in, and become attached enough that we feel for the girls when McKay attacks with his deadly vehicles. Death Proof is written much like most of Tarantino’s films, with a significant highlighting of characters and a dialogue aimed at creating a feel of “cool” throughout. For some reviewers, specifically Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle, Tarantino’s style of filmmaking is seen as immature and is an example of how Tarantino hasn’t grown as a filmmaker. I think for Tarantino these should be taken as words of praise. Other directors who have undergone the same kind of treatment in their early years, John Ford, Clint Eastwood, and even Martin Scorcese.

You need to look at Tarantino like you would an architect. As you gaze at his buildings there will always be elements that are unmistakably his. As the visions of Tarantino leap from his mind to the page they pull the small things that make up Tarantino with them. This is not a sign of immaturity as much as it is a strong sense of vision from a writer/director who knows the end product as well as the frame by frame process.

The Grindhouse was the ultimate theater experience but the DVD looks to be amazing as well. The SXSW winning trailer “Hobo With A Shotgun” will be included and both Death Proof and Planet Terror will have an additional 20 plus minutes of footage.

THE OPENING ACT

It is not so rare that a person finds themselves in a bar watching a band. The crowd flocks to the stage as the first chord is struck and conversation dies down momentarily. It is obvious that only a lucky third of the people here actually know who is sitting in front of them. Forcing my way through to the edge of the stage I am reminded of the fortunate few who went to see Rick James and the Mynah Birds in Toronto and were greeted by a 20 year old Neil Young, recently free of the Squires and forming a sound that would help shape the best music of the next decade. That was 1965 but the unexpected realization of what I was seeing would have to be comparable. Within a few notes of “White Winter Hymnal” there is a hush drawn over the crowd.

Frontman Robin Pecknold sits on his stool jolted back as he emphatically carols every note through the long hall of the Media Club. Pecknold is a young Bob Welch, a more tailored David Crosby (Byrds Crosby more than “If I Could Only Remember My Name”) or a near perfect collaboration of Brian Wilson and Woody Guthrie. It is obvious to me now that the feeling of awe that has come over me was sent out amongst the crowd like a river as 21 year old Skye unleashed the mind-lodging riff that foreshadows the songs main verse.

It is so rare that a person finds themselves in a bar listening to a band and feels a part of history. To romanticize one show in a dingy Vancouver club seems folly in type. It lacks the reactionary faces of the unassuming club-goers who clamoured outside after the set to congratulate the band as they loaded up their u-haul. This serves as prelude to an indie movement that is growing increasingly strong and the minor labels are bringing in the harvest. Asthmatic Kitty, SubPop, Frenchkiss, Arts and Crafts, here is where my future dollars lie.

The self titled Fleet Foxes disc that debuted before the arrival of incredible harmonist and current bass-player Christian Wargo finds itself eclipsed with a new richness and direction of Sun Giant. The full length Ragged Wood (which can be found online) is set for a mid June release through Sub Pop.

When it comes to science the path to acceptance is extremely slow. Ideas are destroyed by unrelenting scrutiny and are torn apart using the tools and formulas we currently understand. Real scientific breakthrough often lies under dust for decades until someone with imagination comes along and asks “what if?”.

Are we living through such an era of marginalized exploration? Absolutely. When millions of dollars of funding are involved and a life’s work is put into question science enters an arena of vicious politics. An imaginative, yet simplistic view of the universe is currently under the boot of the scientific arena but, where most concepts fail the Electric Universe Theory is pushing through.

The Electric Universe Model is simply this: Electricity plays a much larger role in the cosmos than is understood using the current gravitational model where electricity is thought to have little to no effect on the cosmos.

Electric Universe theorists claim that by repositioning the importance of electricity in space we can solve many of the major holes in the current gravitational model. Including the need for “dark matter”, an unobserved phenomenon theorized to explain observed and unexplained gravitational anomolies.

Recently Electric Universe theorists caught the attention of the scientific community when they used the Electric model to predict the result of NASA’s Deep Impact striking the comet Tempel 1 with an 820 pound copper shell. The chain of events predicted by the Electric Universe scientists were noticeably more accurate than the expectations of NASA.

For visible proof of the Electric Universe Model, ELM scientists point to comets. Comets are currently understood to be made up of ice. As the comet flies the ice vaporizes creating the glowing tail we can see from earth. ELM scientists claim that comets are negatively charged asteroid rocks that glow from electric discharge when they pass through postively charged solar winds. July the 4th 2005 ELM scientists gained a major victory in credibility as their predictions based of the model were proven correct.

Today, virtually all financial and experimental resources in cosmology are devoted to big bang studies. Funding comes from only a few sources, and all the peer-review committees that control them are dominated by supporters of the big bang. As a result, the dominance of the big bang within the field has become self-sustaining, irrespective of the scientific validity of the theory.*

*From an Open Letter To The Scientific Community; Published in New Scientist, May 22, 2004
Signed by 218 scientists, engineers and institutions as well as 187 independent researchers.

For more info on the Electric Universe Model visit www.thunderbolts.info

The most merciful thing in the world … is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents… The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but someday the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality… That we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.� - H. P. Lovecraft