There was more good stuff in 2008 than just music; there was some good TV, some good things on the internet, and actually some good movies. I calls ‘em like I sees ‘em so here they are:

TV
Heroes- A lot of people gave this season hell, but I have enjoyed it for the most part. I thought Parkman was better developed this time around, they seemed to have started paving the way for some closure for Claire and HRG, and they started to introduce villains (even if most of them sucked). All in all, I wasn’t as upset about it as most.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia- This show has never let me down and it hasn’t given me any reason to think that it ever will. I can’t praise this show enough. If you haven’t seen this before, go check it out on hulu.

Spaced- A British sitcom that was finally released on DVD this year. Staring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson (who played Yvonne in Shaun of the Dead) , directed by Edgar Wright, and with Nick Frost in a supporting role this show is the beginning of a fantastic professional relationship for this group. If you enjoyed Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, you really should see this show; it’s only 14 episodes.

Movies
Comic Movies
Everyone is going to talk about the Dark Knight, so I am not going to (other than to say I loved it).  The Incredible Hulk came back with a bang this year, destroying the previous attempt to sully his good name with an honest and sympathetic view of Bruce Banner and his attempts to deal with his alter ego of Hulk. If you hated the first film, do yourself a favor and see this one.

Iron Man- This series started out right, hitting hard and fast with an unexpectedly delicious taste of Tony Stark’s world of high technology, expensive booze*, and sexy women. I was blown out of the water by this one.

*not only in price, but in sheer quantity consumed by the currently most hated man in comics. Maybe it’s time for the ink and paper version of the character to start drinking again.

The Spirit- Cheesy as fuck, sexy as hell, and some of the most fun I have had all year. See it.

Read the rest after the jump!

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As a whole, 2008 was a pretty good year for me musically. I got to go to Pitchfork Music Festival which, as I mentioned before, is a hipster mecca; I saw some amazing acts locally and I heard some fantastic albums. It was also a year of change for my musical tastes. I started to really get into electronic music, which was something I had previously only dabbled in.  Hardcore and Metal started to move onto the back-burner and were replaced by Folk-Punk as my angry music of choice, and my focus shifted from the quirky fun of twee pop to expressive and powerful musical prowess of post rock and math rock. Here is my list of top records, which may or may not represent the statements above.

Top 5 Records of 2008:

5 Girl Talk- Feed the Animals
4 Lil’ Wayne- The Carter III
3 Frank Turner- Love, Ire and Song
2 Fleet Foxes- S/T
The Dodos- Visiter

Top 5 Singles of 2008:

5 Architecture in Helsinki- Like it or Not
4 Gym Class Heroes- Cookie Jar
3 Frank Tuner- Long Live the Queen
2 Lil’ Wayne ft Bobby Valentino and Kidd Kidd- Mrs Officer
1 The Dodos- Red and Purple

Top 5 groups or artists I discovered in 08 that I feel silly for waiting this long to find and love:

5 The Pipettes
4 Lil Wayne
3 Elf Power
2 Blueprint
1 Frank Turner

Sometimes I get in the mood to talk about music, so I write a nice little article and no one comments. Other times, I want to share music and make a mixtape. This is one of those times. Check it out; it’s a dance mix Ian-style. I hope you all take the time to download this, as there may be fun stuff you haven’t heard before.

1 Animal Collective Peacebone
2 !!!- Heart of Hearts
3 The Apples in Stereo- Signal in the Sky
4 Death from Above 1979- Sexy Results
5 Lil’ Wayne- Let the Beat Build
6 Jay Reatard- Greed Money Useless Children
7 The Blood Brothers- Red Blooded American Girls
8 Bong Ra- Suicide Speed Machine Girl Proper
9 Talib Kweli, Mick Boogie, mc chris- Screamin (Idle Warship)
10 Architecture in Helsinki- Heart it Races
11 The Violent Femmes- Gone Daddy Gone
12 Islands- Don’t Call Me Whitney, Bobby

Click here to Download

Punk Rock has almost died many times only to be revived by an influx of idealistic, angry, young people discovering and breathing new life into the movement. Despite this, they eventually only become jaded and heartbroken. For evidence, see post-punk in the early 80’s, hardcore in the mid 80’s, post hardcore, pop punk, and ska punk from the early 90’s, emo in the mid 90’s. The late 90’s brought ska-punk back, and beginning in about 2002, folk punk has been immensely changing the world of punk rock. As I write this though, the coffin is being built. Hopefully, though, you guys can enjoy some of this optimistic, somewhat aggressive, and overall highly enjoyable genre before it nearly dies as well.

People are rather apt to say that punk rock has saved their life, which is a little melodramatic for my tastes, but I can see why it’s an appealing statement. The punk rock community is often about much more than music; when I was active, it was about trying to change your world and finding a place for you and your friends as the world currently was. Most importantly, it was about experiencing as much as you could. I got into the community in about ‘01 during a resurgence of hardcore*, and I couldn’t have had as happy of a time in high school without it. I had a family outside of my own–which was often stressed and fractured due to my father going off to war and other random deployments–where I could let out everything in a pit where I sang along to bands that loved nothing more than to play to 50 people. It was intimate, it mattered to us all, and it felt as if nothing was being sold to us.

Read the rest of the article after the jump!

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Lil’ Wayne has been doing a hell of a lot of drugs over the last few years, and it has yielded a strange, dance-able, and unique album. Over the years he has been arrested for weed, X, and coke–but one can assume there was a cocktail of hallucinogens flowing through his blood during the making of this record. I don’t have a lot of history with the rapper, so I won’t be able to offer a lot on insight into where he came from to get here, but I am glad this is where I finally got on the bandwagon.

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It’s been a while Gallery readers, so I thought I would come back with a revisit of the shit Ian likes blog, this time with individual albums instead of bands. I don’t really feel like giving a long introduction so lets just hit it.

The Poison Control Center- A Collage of Impressions

Somewhat static-y, extremely poppy, and really fun Poison Control Center is a great way for a power pop fan to get exposed to Indie. There is a strong influence from the Violent Femmes present on the whole record, although it took me a few listens to place it. I highly recommend this one.

More after the jump!

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I am a little younger than most people who write for this place so my main memories of Isaac Hayes are based around South Park, where he played perhaps my favorite character of the first few seasons, Chef. This is a shame because he was a pretty amazing musician as some of you all can attest. I know his hits, Shaft, Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic and Lets Stay Together but I just haven’t given him a chance like I should have. I will correct this tonight, but for now I will just mourn the loss of this great musician and man.

News story here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26125699/

At about 10 a.m., I woke up groggy and sore. Rousing my compatriots, I wolfed down some Applejacks. We made it to the train and headed to Union Park. It was Day Two of Pitchfork. We got there just at the end of Titus Andronicus’s set, only sticking around for the first song (a cover of Pulp’s “Common People”). Although this was pretty good, we decided to walk around the park and see the plethera of awesome–little booths representing both local Chicago stores and favorite companies of the organizers, such as Whole Foods, Mozilla, and The Onion. Walking from from the booths, I made away with a tote-bag made out of tinfoil and a polyester lining, various buttons, and the best free t-shirt of a jellyfish playing a synthesizer ever. Eventually, I made my way to the Firefox booth, where I met the most awkward people at Pitchfork–a feat hard to accomplish, but leave it to Mozilla, I guess.

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Last weekend, I went on a pilgrimage. I didn’t walk barefoot to Vatican City or go on a Hajj. Instead, I got in a car with two other awkward dudes while our far less awkward girlfriends and one of their friends followed in an attempt to reach Hipster Holy Ground, Pitchfork Music Festival.

Pitchfork Music Festival is really just a park filled with uncomfortable people dressed ironically, drinking beer, eating ethnic food, and listening to both flavour of the month darlings and iconic heroes of the ironic dead. It was definitely a place where we could fit in and relax.

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I like comics. A lot. It just seems that I can’t get what I enjoy with paper comics anymore. Most of them are tie-ins to tie-ins to Super World Changing Story Lines. My favorite Capes have been re-made every six months for the last couple of years, and I just can’t do it anymore. Planet Hulk is one of the best examples of this. Hulk needed revamping; he had gotten boring. By sending him to another world where he could be allowed to grow and develop, they gave him the ability to move leaps and bounds beyond his stagnated persona. Until Marvel decided, of course, to fuck all of this up with World War Hulk. They blew up the people Hulk had grown to care about and sent Hulk back to earth, just to start breaking things again. I can’t stop loving comics just because my heroes are being poorly written. My solution instead was to start reading different comics. I have been reading webcomics for years, but after I stopped reading print comics regularly, I jumped in head first. I figured I’ve forced my opinions on music down your throats enough; let’s try reading material! So, here it goes:

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