I HAD TOO MUCH TO DREAM LAST NIGHT: ANGER MANAGEMENT

The premise: purple Cyclops space tigers!

They are on the moon supervising a mining project, wearing bubble helmets fitted with unicorn horns. One of them starts arguing with another space tiger. While they start getting ready to duke it out, the moon is attacked by an invasion force and taken by surprise.

The implication is that this is the fault of the space tiger who started the argument because he was supposed to be on watch, and was distracted by his petty anger.

However, it is revealed later that the invasion force had jammed communications and the scanning equipment, effectively masking their ships from detection until it was too late. So the space tiger with the short fuse would have missed it anyway.

Meanwhile, the key to the invasion seems to be a runaway autobus careening its way through town. We attempt to stop the autobus by way of virtual reality (though it’s more Tron than The Matrix).

And then I woke up.

Control yr anger,

This is dF

JUST WHAT WE NEEDED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2012 LIST: THE MUSIC

2012 is over, and musically, for my money, I have to say it was mainly a year of comebacks and disappointments – sometimes both at the same time. 

Hey-oh!

That’s not to say there weren’t some albums that didn’t completely knock me out. But it seemed like most of the stuff I bought was either underwhelming (compared to previous releases by the same artist) or more of the same (not always a bad thing, but not something that demands repeated listening).

Consequently, while the first half of the Top 20 list is pretty strong, the second half is pretty weak compared to recent years. And as usual, it seems most of the really good stuff came from bands/artists with at least 20 years of experience. There’s only one debut album in my Top 20, and several “new” discoveries have been around at least a decade.

It’s also striking how many artists who made the top 20 are close to or over 60 years old. I’m just saying.

Anyway … here we go.

DISCLAIMER: Based on music I actually bought/acquired/downloaded between December 2011 and November 2012, and therefore a useless metric for everyone else.

TOP 20 DEF LPs/EPs/DOWNLOADS OF 2012

1. Rush, Clockwork Angels (Anthem/Roadrunner)
2. Bob Mould, Silver Age (Merge)
3. Dan Sartain, Too Tough To Live (One Little Indian)
4. Off!, Off! (Vice)
5. Corin Tucker Band, Kill My Blues (Kill Rock Stars)
6. The Cult, Choice Of Weapon (Cooking Vinyl)
7. Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Americana (Reprise)
8. The Raveonettes, Into The Night (The Orchard)
9. Andre Williams and The Sadies, Night And Day (YepRoc)
10. Johnny Dowd, No Regrets (Mother Jinx Records)
11. Mark Lanegan Band, Blues Funeral (4AD)
12. The Allah-Las, The Allah-Las (Innovative Leisure)
13. Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs, Sunday Run Me Over (Transdreamer Records)
14. Best Coast, The Only Place (Wichita)
15. Rich Hopkins and Luminarios, Buried Treasures (San Jacinto Records)
16. Hedgehog, Sun Fun Gun (Love Da)
17. Donald Fagen, Sunken Condos (Reprise)
18. Calexico, Algiers (High Note Records)
19. Gossip, A Joyful Noise (Columbia)
20. Regina Spektor, What We Saw From The Cheap Seats (Sire)

( Reviews behind the cut for yr protection ... )

And there you have it. 

Same time next year,

This is dF