Thursday, December 31, 2009

I’m Not in Love with the Modern World (but I Do Enjoy Writing about Music) - BLOGGER BIO.

Nick Young
I never did like Rolling Stone…


Say what you want to say (and hang for your hollow ways!), but the reason I can dismiss America’s largest music magazine so freely and without a guilty conscience lies rooted in Rolling Stone’s disturbingly exceptional ability to spread ignorance among teenage music geeks and generationally biased adults everywhere. Their followers think they’re still reading about the greatest music being put out today, but the truth is that the magazine that claims to be printing “all the news that fits” is too goddamn nearsighted and confident in their tunnel-vision reporting antics to catch most of what’s relevant about the last twenty years of music. Still, I have to give them credit for compiling their mammoth “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list. It was pretty ballsy of them. Okay- maybe it was a wee bit arrogant, but it was the kind of Wayne-Coyne-covering-Dark-Side-of-the-Moon-ballsy-arrogence that I like (the kind that makes Werner Herzog cream himself).


I was drawn to this project because like Mike Natale I’m a little obsessed with lists. However, I tend to side with the film critic / recently converted Blog enthusiast who I abnormally obsess over, Roger Ebert*, when it comes to organizing them.


I too am a sophomore film major at C.W. Post who like any self-effacing acid-gobbling punk rocker with too much free time happens to enjoy feeding my brain music until it feels as though it’s going to burst. I made my picture the album cover of Wolf Parade’s "Apologies to the Queen Mary" in an effort to kill my ego. It was either that or a picture of Wayne Coyne’s face covered in blood. God bless the Lips.

*I have a problem when it comes to gushing over Ebert. I’m sorry but I really respect how fair the guy is. He believes a good list, whether it contains movies or albums, should be a celebration of the selected titles (as opposed to a competition). For that reason, I enjoy shamelessly violating the age-old custom of numbering lists in an arbitrary effort to claim one album is “better” than another. I think it’s ridiculous to say an album is more a #1 than a #2 or #3.The point is that the album is great and it deserves notice. Mike and I would like to think we’re filtering Rolling Stone’s list through our own critical lenses, which you in turn can filter through your own. Your feedback is more than welcome.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Listening Schedule for January 2010

For those of you who can't identify all the album covers on the calendar, here's the listening schedule for January 2010:


January 1st, 2010: #156: Paul’s Boutique- The Beastie Boys
January 2nd, 2010: #385: Pretzel Logic- Steely Dan
January 3rd, 2010: #128: Marquee Moon- Television
January 4th, 2010: #154: The Low End Theory- A Tribe Called Quest
January 5th, 2010: #176: Rocks- Aerosmith
January 6th, 2010: #280: Folk Singer- Muddy Waters
January 7th, 2010: #29: Led Zeppelin- Led Zeppelin
January 8th, 2010: #339: The Heart Of Saturday Night- Tom Waits
January 9th, 2010: #471: Heaven Up Here- Echo & The Bunnymen
January 10th, 2010: #178: The Byrds’ Greatest Hits- The Byrds
January 11th, 2010: #241: Black Sabbath- Black Sabbath
January 12th, 2010: #96: Tommy- The Who
January 13th, 2010: #326: Disintegration- The Cure
January 14th, 2010: #144: Straight Outta Compton- N.W.A.
January 15th, 2010: #397: Raindogs- Tom Waits
January 16th, 2010: #118: Stand!- Sly And The Family Stone
January 17th, 2010: #8: London Calling- The Clash
January 18th, 2010: #468: Elton John- Elton John
January 19th, 2010: #216: The Queen Is Dead- The Smiths
January 20th, 2010: #194: Transformer- Lou Reed
January 21st, 2010: #330: In The Jungle Groove- James Brown
January 22nd, 2010: #359: Stankonia- Outkast
January 23rd, 2010: #269: Some Girls- The Rolling Stones
January 24th, 2010: #129: 40 Greatest Hits- Hank Williams
January 25th, 2010: #204: Dirty Mind- Prince
January 26th, 2010: #499: Born Under A Bad Sign- Albert King
January 27th, 2010: #232: Mr. Tambourine Man- The Byrds
January 28th, 2010: #493: That’s The Way Of The World- Earth, Wind & Fire
January 29th, 2010: #361: Substance- New Order
January 30th, 2010: #54: Electric Ladyland- The Jimi Hendrix Experience
January 31st, 2010: #492: Vitalogy- Pearl Jam

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Please Allow Me To Introduce Myself (Blogger Bio)



Mike Natale


Mike Natale finds it incredibly narcissistic to talk in third person.

I’m in my sophomore year at C.W. Post in New York as a film major. I play in a band called Wotef, and write for whoever wants me.


I have an addiction to lists, and decided to use this blog as an outlet to make my need to listen to all 500 albums a little productive. I hope this blog can encourage you all to discover some music you would have never found otherwise.

Well, thanks for coming by to check out 500 Days Of Singers, and I hope you let us know what you think.


Laying Out The Plan.

Well, for those of you who stumbled upon our humble blog, I feel it ought o be explained what exactly we intend to do here. As you can see the blog is titled (500) Days Of Singers, which is an obvious play on the title of the film (500) Days Of Summer, which means the title is not a terribly good example of our originality.

The purpose of this blog is that I, and my partner on this expedition Nick Young, will listen to one album a day off of Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Albums list. If you are unfamiliar with this list, it can be viewed in full here.

We intend to write reviews of each album, whether it be a critical review or just anecdotal factoids, and post it at 9 am on the day scheduled for the album to be listened to (to better facilitate the listening pleasure of those of you playing along). Rather than go from top to bottom or vice-versa (which would result in too much Beatles all at once, and that kind of awesome ought to be spread out) the albums have been scheduled in a random order, with certain albums placed to coincide with significant days (i.e. A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector on Christmas, etc.) The schedule for each month will be posted in picture form at the bottom of the page, and posted as a blog post at the end of every prior month.

Well, we start January 1st, and we hope some of you will follow along as we traverse through 50 years of rock & roll.

-Mike