And now...My Favorite Movies of 2020

The year winds down and i struggle to pick out 10 movies i loved most of all...so i picked 11.  I know i'm leaving some great stuff out.  I know i haven't even seen a lot of films that would be right up my alley.  But this is what i've got.  Some were a surprise.  I went in with 0 expectations for Underwater and really, really dug it.  Some are flawed.  I probably could have selected Soul instead of Onward, but if you want to see me cry, Onward is the way to do it.  Anyway, i loved all these movies, even the ones that were a little bloated and uneven (Mank, i'm looking in your direction), so i'm not going to rank anything. Except for The Vast of Night.  I'm pretty sure that was my favorite movie this year.  Check 'em out.

Underwater

Bill and Ted Face the Music

Anything for Jackson

Relic

Possessor

Host

Palm Springs

Onward

Mank

Color Out of Space

The Vast of Night

So it looks like you've got your New Year's Eve planned now huh?  Watching all of these wonderful movies.  Catch you guys in 2021.

And now...My Favorite First Time Viewings of 2020

What have you done during the pandemic?  Apparently, i've watched movies.  Like, a shitload of movies.  Scanning over my Letterboxed account, i'm fast approaching 500 movies watched since our offices closes back in the middle of March.  Congratulations to me i suppose.  Anyway, with this influx of home viewings, there are a lot more first time watches than in years past.  So rather than limit myself to 10 films like a normally do, i'm going to post 20 instead, divided into 2 parts: 10 movies that might be considered more "high-end cinema," and 10 movies that embody the stupid bullshit freaks like me are into.  I loved all of these movies, and while i am recommending them, i understand that mileage may vary, and that many of you out there would hate some of these and would be baffled as to why i would want you to watch it (Singapore Sling i'm looking in your direction).  Anyway, check 'em out if you dare

.

1. The Abominable Dr. Phibes

Over the top Vincent Price madness with undying love, booby traps, and kills galore that's oh so wonderful.

2. Danger: Diabolik

Over the top Technicolor riff on '60s spy movies with a Morricone soundtrack from the same people who brought us Barbarella.

3. The Devils

A Ken Russell masterpiece that has never received a physical release...probably because of the nun orgy.  It's the nun orgy right?  Put this out on Blu Ray you cowards!

4. Kiss Me Deadly

Superb film noir that totally influenced Tarantino.  You'll know exactly what i'm talking about when you watch it.

5. Kwaidan

Positively gorgeous from start to finish, haunting and entrancing.  I don't know why it took me so long to sit and watch this wonderful movie.

6. Shogun Assassin

Pop art fusion of East and West bathed in bright red blood.  The filmmakers repurposed and edited a couple of Lone Wolf and Cub movies together and then added a cool synth score and English dubbing that actually works.  Delightful.

7. Singapore Sling

Wow.  I went in knowing nothing, and holy moly.  The Greek film has a film noir vibe with a whole lot of weird sex stuff.  I'll just leave it at that.  Do what you will.

8. Sorcerer

Probably William Friedkin's best film, and he's made a lot of great ones.  A tense movie full of existential dread and ruminations on the almost nihilistic nature of fate.

9. Until the End of the World

At just hair under 5 hours, the director's cut is kind of an endeavor, but ultimately a very rewarding one.  A romantic, sci-fi road movie spanning 4 continents and beyond, it left me mesmerized with its meditations on the human condition.  Wim Wenders is a treasure.

10. Wild at Heart

I really don't know why i only just now got around to watching this one.  David Lynch never disappoints.

And now for the B-role...

1. American Rickshaw

One of those beamed in from another dimension kind of movies, often incoherent, goofy, and bafflingly bugshit crazy, but something you immediately want to make your friends watch afterwards.

2. Anguish

There's a kind of meta movie within a movie thing going on here that's actually pretty cool, and i am here for creepy Zelda Rubenstein.

3. Body Snatchers

I didn't realize until this year that this '90s take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers was directed by Abel Ferrara, so i jumped on it quick.  It's kind of mean spirited but totally rules.

4. Freaked

Bobcat Goldthwaite voices a man with a sock puppet for a head.  That is all.

5. Gwendoline OR The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak

Cocaine.  I don't know how to explain this movie other than cocaine.  An over the top erotic adventure movie with a great score, and lots of scantily clad warrior women.

6. Hack-O-Lantern

Just completely on its own wavelength.  Is it any good?  Probably not.  It is entertaining?  You're damn right it is.

7. 9 Deaths of the Ninja

Just maybe the best opening title sequence of all time.

8. Prison

Very cool haunted house in a prison '80s movie by Renny Harlin with a then unknown Viggo Mortensen.

9. R.O.T.O.R.

Positively, gloriously stupid.  I am ROTOR.  You are guilty.

10. Superstition

There are parts of this movie that don't make any sense and some bizarro narrative choices that are...something.  But the practical gore effects are top notch, there are some genuinely creepy moments, and the overall bugfuck nature of the whole thing makes it worth the watch.  Total Drive-In fuel.

Well, there you go.  These are your assignment for the Christmas break.  I'm done with the Year-End lists for a couple of weeks, but will be back with one more (Favorite Movies of 2020) before 2021.

And now...My Favorite Album Art of 2020

I was going to list 5-10 pieces of album cover art here.  I really intended to do that.  But really there was only ever going to be one album cover from 2020 to make the list.  Maybe i should have just listed it 5-10 times.  It stands head and shoulders above the rest.  Had i stumbled across it in a store, i would have bought it up without listening to a single note.  Bask in all its splendor...

1. Donny Benét - Mr. Experience

I trust we're all in agreement here.  Be back tomorrow for a bunch of non-2020 movies that watched for the first time this year and adored.

And now...My Favorite Songs of 2020 That Didn't Come Out in 2020

Every year i inevitably come across a bunch of old songs that are new to me that get just as much listening time as all the new stuff that comes out.  This year was a little different as i didn't get to do much crate digging (which is where i sometimes find pure gold), and had to rely on YouTube excavations, random listens, and one film score from a bonkers '80s movie starring Tawney Kitaen that i'm totally obsessed with now.  Here's 10 songs from the last few decades currently in the regular rotation.

1. Pierre Bachelet - "A Pikao"

2. Mariangela - "Alone with the Day"

3. Diastereomer - "Place"

4. Magnetic System - "Escape"

5. Carol Rich - "Computered Love"

6. Satya Sai Maitreya Kali - "Ice and Snow"

7. Ann Boleyn - "Illya"

WiredForSound · Ann Boleyn - Illya (Mammoth 445-A)

8. Piero Umiliani - "Nostalgia"

9. Rowland S. Howard - "Dead Radio"

10. The Love Children - "Where Is All the Love"

Here's to discovering old sounds.  Be back tomorrow for some cool 2020 album cover art.

And now...My Favorite Songs of 2020

Here's 100 songs i bugged my wife and kids with all year.  It's hard to pick an absolute favorite as that varies from day to day, hour to hour, but i love them all.  Check 'em out.

1. Zeal & Ardor - Vigil

2. Jack Name - I Came to Tell You in Plain English

3. Special Interest - All Tomorrow's Carry

4. Orion - Higher

5. Record Setter - An Impression

6. Sea Oleena - Lost Song

7. Sadness - Capturing

8. VOWWS - Stay Where You Are

9. The Black Lips - Rumbler

10. The Paranoyds - Pet Cemetery

11. White Flowers - Katy Song

12. Salem - Starfall

13. Benny Yurco - Moss Roads

14. Big Blood - Ave Mariea

15. First - Restless

16. Small Black - Tampa

17. STAR - Last Star

18. Offermose - Korrupt Tradition

19. Tony Jay - Castle of Dreams

20. Art D'Ecco - I'll Never Give You Up.

21. Washed Out - Time to Walk Away

22. Wolf Parade - Against the Day

23. Laurel Halo - Hyphae

24. Local H - Turn the Bow

25. Bambara - Miracle

26. BOYO - Backseat Driver

27. Winter - Say

28. Cindy Cane - Be My Nightmare

29. King Dude - Full Virgo Moon

30. Porridge Radio - Don't Ask Me Twice

31. Big Cheese - Heartbreak Ball

32. Danzig - You Were Always on My Mind

33. Monophonics - Chances

34. Hallows - Subtle

35. The Cowboys - The Beige Collection

36. Sven Wunder - Magnolia

37. Tan Cologne - Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico

38. Kompromat - Niemand

39. Alex Rex - Funeral Music for Alex Rex

40. Clouds Taste Satanic - Funeral for a Friend

41. Marissa Nadler - Nothing Else Matters

42. Infant Island - Content

43. Chromatics - Toy

44. Banshee - Livin' in the Jungle

45. Rose McGowan - Green Gold

46. Trees Speak - Shadow Circuit

47. Paint - Ta Fardah

48. Powerplant - A Spine

49. Circles Around the Sun - Babyman

50. Khruangbin - Time (You and I)

51. Angel Bat Dawid - Transition East

52. Spectres - EVOL

53. Mrs. Piss - Knelt

54. Archers of Loaf - Street Fightin' Man

55. Ela Minus - They Told Us It Was Hard, But They Were Wrong

56. Nick Sadler & Tobias Grave - Autoluminescent

57. Unrighteous Brothers - Unchained Melody

58. Sault - Strong

59. Run The Jewels - Walking in the Snow

60. Clipping - Say the Name

61. Annie - American Cars

62. Kelly Lee Owens - On

63. Donny Benet - Mr. Experience

64. Flesh of Morning - Death Becomes Bitter

65. Jaga Jazzist - Spiral Era

66. Sungaze - Amarillo

67. WOW - Falene

68. Zetra - Beyond Death

69. Death Valley Girls - The Universe

70. Ora Cogan - Sleeping

71. Frank Ene - I've Studied You

72. Conway The Machine & The Alchemist - The Contract

73. Vile Creatures - Apathy Took Helm!

74. Privacy Issues - Privacy Issues

75. The Flaming Lips - Flowers of Neptune

76. Mothermary - Give It Up

77. New War - Bang On

78. Becky & The Birds - Do U Miss Me

79. Nick Hakim - Qadir

80. Fiona Apple - Cosmonauts

81. Angel Olsen - All Mirrors (Johnny Jewel Remix)

82. Gorillaz w/ Peter Hook & Georgia - Aries

83. Klack - Distancing

84. Oranssi Pazuzu - Uusi Teknokratia

85. Discovery Zone - Blissful Morning Dream Interpretation Melody

86. Chelsea Wolfe & The Dillinger Escape Plan & Mutoid Man - Crazy Train

87. Young Ejecta - Canyon Cactus

88. Hum - Waves

89. The Rentals - Shake Your Diamonds

90. Brigid Dawson & The Mothers Network - Is The Season for New Incarnations

91. Cut Worms - Unnatural Disaster

92. Marie Davidson - Renegade Breakdown

93. Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - Killing Floor

94. Nothing - In Blueberry Memories

95. MJ Guider - Quiet Time

96. Rupert Lally - The Indian Burial Ground (Pet Sematary, 1983)

97. Kairon; IRSE! - White Flies

98. Ana Roxanne - Suite Pour L'invisible

99. Cindy Lee - Just for Loving You I Pay the Price

100. I Break Horses - Turn

There ya go.  Be back tomorrow for 10 more songs that i loved this year that didn't come out this year.  Golden oldies and what not.

And now...My Favorite Albums of 2020

We've got just over 3 more weeks of 2020 to go.  Cross your fingers that we make it.  This year has been hard, for me, for you, for everyone.  Let me tell you, figuring out how to work from home while also getting a 7-year old to learn via remote schooling, and entertaining a 4-year old, while all the while there's no place for you to go is for the birds.  And i had relatively easy.  I have a job that transitioned to home work without too many hiccups.  My son is in a school district that does it's best to do the right thing and a campus that has worked really hard to make remote learning viable.  I actually accomplished a ton of goals during "lockdown," ranging from installing a ceiling fan to organizing and selling off a bunch of comic books to fixing faucets, sinks, and toilets galore around the house to writing a whole album's worth of new songs.  I've read a half dozen books, watched like 400 movies, gotten my son to ride a bike without the training wheels, and homebrewed a summer beer.  None of us has gotten sick.  Of my friends who have contracted the virus, they all seem to have weathered it for the time being.  And for now, we're able to just keep chugging along.

But there are millions and millions who are not and have not been so lucky, lost income, lost homes, lost lives.  It's hard to even fathom.  As the death toll rises and rises, it seems to be lost on more and more of the American populace, an icy statistic rather than the absolute tragedy that it is.  It's ignored.  It's scoffed at.  Just like the rampant systemic racism that drives so many of this country's institutions, a kind of original sin that's finally coming home to reap.  Right in the middle of a global pandemic, a force of righteous civil unrest we haven't seen in decades.  State sponsored violence.  A symptom of something far worse.  The erosion of everything.

I fear that we live in a deeply corrupt and deeply stupid country.  Everything that's just inherently rotten about our whole system has been laid bare in all its ugliness by the Coronavirus pandemic, an oligarchy that enriches and engorges itself on the blood of...well...just about everyone.  And we feel powerless to fight it.  Or we're gleefully ignorant of it.  Or we just simply do not care.  Be it the oligarchy, or the endless corruption at every level of government, the encroaching and fascist authoritarian state, the endless wars, the housing crisis, the poverty, the stagnant wages, police beating people in the streets with impunity, bodies piling up in refrigerated trucks outside of hospitals, and the sheer, repugnant indifference to it all that could make someone refuse to do something so minute as to wear a goddamn mask.

It's the apathy.  It's the selfishness.

And then i think about the oncoming climate crisis.  And i look around at everyone.  And a very deep and very real existential dread falls over me.

It's really hard to fight that feeling and the inclination to throw in the towel, especially when you feel like the fight is already lost.  But i'm trying my best to stay positive.  I'm trying my best to stay in the fight.  When i look at Ash and Robbie, i try my best to keep my despondent feelings for their future at bay and instead get really, really pissed off at the people in power who won't fix it now.  Let the rage outweigh the despair.  I'm not ready to lose all hope.

Like every year, music somehow makes me feel better, even if just for the fleeting three minutes of a pop song.  And while we were all locked away watching the world come undone, quite a few great albums still surfaced, a bubbling aural respite.  Here are 25 records that helped me get through it all this year.  Let's get to them (in alphabetical order), but first:

ABOLISH ICE!

DEFUND THE POLICE!

MEDICARE FOR ALL!

RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE!

TAX THE RICH!

WEAR A MASK!

1. Annie - Dark Hearts

Sometimes it feels like nobody does pop like Norwegians do pop.  Annie's first new album in over a decade is icy cool and cathartic, instantly hummable, a grooving soundtrack for a night time drive.

2. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters

I don't know if this is my favorite of the year, but i do think it's the best album of the year, the whole thing somehow capturing that early pandemic vibe, like it was conceived and created right then and there, just timely and timeless.

3 The Black Lips - Sing...in a World That's Falling Apart

I can't think of a more apt album title than this one, an eerily prescient forethought of what 2020 was going to be.  It also finds The Black Lips channeling all of their old school country music inclinations into one hell of a fun record.

4. Cindy Lee - What's Tonight to Eternity

A handful of albums in, and Cindy Lee's lo-fi churn of melancholia and noise has yet to disappoint, just achingly beautiful.

5. Conway The Machine & The Alchemist - LULU

Not to be confused with the Lou Reed and Metallica album, the "LULU" EP from Buffalo rapper Conway The Machine and producer The Alchemist is an entrancing and stoned ride of perfect hip-hop.  And while it might not be quite the fascinating disaster of that other album, it rips.

6. The Cowboys - Room of Clons

Indiana rock n' roll band The Cowboys are fast becoming one of my favorite and dependable go-tos, whether they're grooving on post punk, psych pop, or just good old fashioned rock.

7. Cut Worms - Nobody Lives Here Anymore

An expansive and ambitious collection of bedroom pop songs that wades the waters of folk, country, doo-wop, and so much more, a kind of Americana masterpiece.

8. Marie Davidson & L'Œil Nu - Renegade Breakdown

Absolutely the most pop thing that Marie Davidson has ever made, and i am here for it.

9. Ela Minus - Acts of Rebellion

Just kind of stumbled on Brooklyn artist Ela Minus by accident, but was immediately hooked by the chilly techno beats and dreamy aesthetic.

10. Frank Ene - No Longer

I probably listened to the "No Longer" EP more than anything else this year.  Frank Ene goes for a kind of Nick Cave/Barry Adamson vibe that would cause most to fall flat on their faces, but totally nails it.

11. First - First

I live for discovering new darkwave synth to inject straight into my veins.

12. Hum - Inlet

So, 2020 gave us a new Hum album, and it was awesome.  Maybe the year wasn't a complete dumpster fire?

13. I Break Horses - Warnings

Holy Moly do i love the new I Break Horses album.  Just pitch perfect dreampop from wonderful start to wonderful finish.

14. Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi

I can dig on a lot of black metal, but when it goes as weird as Finland's Oranssi Pazuzu, it's utterly divine.

15. Kelly Lee Owens - Inner Song

"Inner Song" is Kelly Lee Owens' sophomore effort, but it feels like the work of an artist that's been at it for decades, drawing from the best of everything that's come before.  It's one of the best electronic albums i've heard in years, an all-timer.

16. The Rentals - Q36

One of the things that made 2020 easier to endure was Matt Sharp and The Rentals releasing a new track every couple of weeks in the buildup to the summer's "Q36."  Sharp has always been a great songwriter and he uses his powers to create a melancholy and fun space rock opus that's maybe my favorite of the year.  Maybe?

17. Run The Jewels - RTJ4

You'd be hard pressed to find a more timely release, this year or any, than Run The Jewels' fourth LP, "RTJ4."  Landing right in the center of this summer's social and political upheaval, it spoke of and to the movement in a way few could have ever predicted.  That it's really fucking good certainly didn't hurt either.  Killer Mike and El-P have gotten better with each successive release, so i am now anxiously awaiting the inevitable "RTJ5."

18. Salem - Fires in Heaven

Were you expecting a new record from witch house originators Salem this year?  Me neither.  But it's here.  And it's great.

19. Sault - Untitled (Black Is) & Untitled (Rise)

For the second year in a row, mysterious UK project Sault releases not one, but two amazing sister albums that i'm absolutely flabbergasted at, they're just so good.  Soul and blues and R&B and world beat and dance music and so much more, these two records served as a good back drop to this summer's protests, just as much as "RTJ4" did but in a completely different way.  Where "RTJ4" felt like a mission statement or an angry call to action, Sault's "Untitled" duo felt more like a celebration of blackness.  Just amazing stuff.

20. Sea Oleena - Weaving a Basket

Looking for something to soothe your soul and send you off to dreamland, look no further than the gentle, but sometimes sad, sounds of Sea Oleena.  The album is a mix of folk, ambient tones, and drone, and is perfect background music for...anything really.

21. Tan Cologne - Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico

I do love me a dusty, dreampop and Americana infused desert vista, and New Mexico duo Tan Cologne provide.

22. Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

I can't think of a more perfect collaborative pairing than Emma Ruth Rundle's darkened, gothic folk and Thou's ambitious and expanding sludge metal.  My prediction upon first hearing of this record certainly came true: it rules.

23. Sven Wunder - Eastern Flowers

A little bit of a cheat since this album actually came out overseas at the end of last year, but it's new to these American ears for 2020, and its infectious and funky world psych is hard to beat.

24. Zeal & Ardor - Wake of a Nation

These guys have yet to release anything under par, but this year's EP hit on a deeper level than anything prior.  "Vigil," the album's opening track, actually made me cry when first listening to it.  Powerful stuff, in line with everything that was going on this summer.

25. Zetra - With Your Demons Vol. 1 & Vol. 2

Starting with last year's 3-song demo, UK duo Zetra have become probably my favorite band these last two years.  There's just something about their lo-fi mix of darkwave synth pop, industrial noise, gothic melodies, and black metal aesthetic that speaks to my soul.  Love.

Well, those are my favorite albums of the year.  Some really good stuff just missed the cut too (Porridge Radio, Infant Island, etc.).  I'll be back tomorrow with 100 songs that i loved this year too, and hopefully without the morose intro.