pitchfork’s top 100 (and some suggestions)

I was looking through the Pitchfork list of top 100 songs and I thought the ones considered the best were pretty accurate. For example, amongst them are Animal Collective’s My Girls, Dirty Projectors’ Stillness is the Move, Phoenix’s 1901, Bat for Lashes’ Daniel, Grizzly Bear’s Two Weeks, and Big Boi + Gucci Mane’s Shine Blockas. With the few exceptions of some rappers and known figures in the hip-hop scenario, I’m pretty amazed at the great majority of indie bands listed as the best of the year – things weren’t always like this, really. I mean, I may be totally off of it, but way back then, indie bands were actually mostly underground, and people were still obsessing over Oasis instead of trying to find the most unknown independent artist they could and claim to love him.

Anyways. I don’t have a lot to post right now, and I’m addicting myself to Animal Collective’s EP Fall be Kind too much to focus on new stuff out there, so I’m just going to post about three different things rather than just music. :)

song: what would I want? sky – animal collective [mp3 here]

another example of animal collective’s brilliance: beautiful in all its originality, requires every bit of attention to be listened to, and definitely ranks amongst the best tracks of the band thus far (mostly composed of merriweather’s tracks). I always pay attention to the lyrics the most, and these are definitely gorgeous as hell, with thought-sparking catch-phrases like “i should be floating  but I’m weighted by thinking”.

movie: broken embraces – pedro almodóvar [trailer here]

it’s obviously not almodóvar’s best movie yet, but for those of you that are a fan of his films, this is definitely worth a watch. not only does it include the superb acting of Cruz (who’s way better here than in Volver), but it also has somewhat of an interesting plot, with all those common themes of love and betrayal that are not yet clichés, regardless of what people like to say.

book: looking for alaska – john green [excerpt here]

it may not be amidst the greatest pieces of literature ever written, or anywhere even near that. however, I almost feel the need to admit that I’m enjoying it more than I did Catcher in the Rye, though it obviously does not reach the significance of the latter in schools and colleges even up to today. I do have a weird taste in literature, though, and tend not to like those books that are so-called classics, with, of course, exceptions. I know it’s nothing special, and that the writing doesn’t even border exquisite, but by the middle of the book, you’ve already related to some of the characters and it IS an extremely engaging read.

oh, and check out this pinhole website.