2004: absolutely unecessary

This past year was not a great one for music. Sure, it was the year that "indie" became a marketing classification, but there were many dissapointments, like underwhelming efforts from Wilco, Old 97s, !!! and Interpol and the continued dominance of mall-punk in both boy-band and pop tart forms (really, is there anyone who would disagree that Good Charoltte are just N'Sync in eyeliner? Well, that and Good Charlotte are fat.)

That said, there were some gems this year and so, for no one's consideration, here's my picks for the best albums of 2004.

10)Stars- Set Yourself on Fire
9) Kasabian-s/t
8) Camera Obscura-Underacheivers Please Try Harder
7) Bloc Party- s/t (EP)
6) Felix da Housecat-Devon Dazzle and the Neon Fever
5) Le Tigre-This Island
4) The Futureheads- s/t
3) The Streets-A Grand Don't Come For Free
2) The Organ-Grab That Gun
1) Franz Ferdinand-s/t

Up a tree

It just wouldn't be the holiday's without me getting some kind of bronchial ailment. I was up half the night coughing up a lung and ended up sleeping (fitfully) on the couch so as not to disturb my girlfriend with my freight-train volume hacking. It's pretty awesome. Thankfully, there's nothing going on this weekend so I can take it easy and let my bronchial tree heal a bit. Thank goodness for Grand Theft Auto.

This is a job that people die for.

My current level of satisfaction with my employment situation can be summed up by the "To-do" list that hangs on my bulletin board, the singular item of which reads "#1. Kill self."

Jihad

Attention: stop calling the Killers "indie rock". The band has never put out an indie release. They are signed to megacorporation Universal Music. They get airplay on mainstream rock radio. Now, I'm no indie purist (far from it), but I hate to see the label "indie rock" abused so shamelessly, especially in the service of such a shitty band.

Franz Ferdinand? Indie (Domino Records).
Interpol? Indie (Matador).
The Killers? Shite.