- With the tragic madness of the current war and the overwhelming feeling that many of America's leaders are totally irresponsible, greed ridden rats, 2004 thus saw some of the most inspired artistic endeavors in my lifetime. I found myself relating to and supporting more new Music this year than ever before. Rock and Roll has always thrived when it had something obvious to rebel against. Arcade Fire's record, Funeral, is my choice for this year. An awesome first record with interesting composition and a beautifully eerie way of calling out to and rallying the love brigade with lines like "the power's out in the heart of man, take it from your heart put it in your hand."
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| Favorite Live Performance of 2004 |
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Lightning Bolt at Mass Art in Boston, Broken Social Scene at The Mercury in Austin during ACL Music Fest, and MUM at The Museum of Fine Arts.
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| Favorite On-Stage Moment/Show of 2004 |
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Our show at Shibuya-O East in Tokyo was about as surreal my life gets. The Japanese promoters always create a full scene for us on-stage that makes me feel much cooler than I am. This time they shot a video of us (the slip and Japanese singer Ua who performed with us) shaking some demented little paper meshed puppets, and when we took the stage, they played the video at triple speed, turned the bubble machines on high and let the sound of the little shaking puppets create a Sinatra to our entry. I never would have thought to do that.
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| Classic Album or Artist You Rediscovered This Year |
- I had a long car ride with Keith Jarret's live record called Fort Yawuh, rediscovered Van Morisson's Astral Weeks, and finally bought Cash's Folsom Prison.
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| Best New Gadget You Can't Live Without |
- My new electric shruti box.
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| New Hobby Discovered This Year |
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| Guilty Pleasure of the Year |
- Listening to that Maroon 5 song on the radio all the way through more than once.
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| The Retro Comeback You're Hoping for in 2005? |
- World Peace. and those cat clocks where the eyes move back and forth.
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| Selection for Person of the Year |
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Elvin Jones, the great jazz drummer, passed on to other dimensions this year. He played his last few shows hooked up to a respirator, and still came on like a force of nature, conjuring up storms of rhythm like only he could do. Rest in Peace Elvin.
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| A Memorable Moment From the Road in 2004 |
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Of course the music is always interesting, but it is sometimes more interesting to see how one band mate reacts when he accidentally drinks another band mates bottle of urine on the tour bus.
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