The Best Music of 2005 Our Section 3 Regulars Have Made Their Lists
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18 CHICAGO READER | JANUARY 6, 2006 | SECTION ONE Jones continued from page 17 suring formula and startling sub- visiting from the city (Emily tics. The film is well-paced and Best animated: Howl’s Moving ( West Beirut) is set in a dilapidat- ject matter. The main story is a Blunt), much to the displeasure has an impressive historical Castle, Corpse Bride, Wallace ed Paris suburb, where a quiet, sweet screwball romance between of the country girl’s older brother sweep, though Giordana gener- & Gromit: The Curse of the gifted Moroccan teenager a lonely performance artist (July) (Paddy Considine), who’s ates that broad perspective Were-Rabbit. (Mohammed Khouas) is drawn and a hapless shoe salesman returned from prison a sancti- through intimate observation of Best general-interest docs: into a secret romance with a white (John Hawkes), but woven into monious evangelical Christian. the many characters’ everyday March of the Penguins, neighbor (Vahina Giocante). Her this conventional fare are sub- This small-scale British drama lives. The film was produced as a Murderball, Tell Them Who exquisite beauty and sexual bold- plots that boldly explore the nar- by Pawel Pawlikowski was pro- TV miniseries but rejected by the You Are , Up for Grabs. ness make her a walking powder rowing sexual divide between moted for its lesbian romance, Italian state network and ulti- keg in the poor, largely Arab com- children and adults. July handles but despite all the idyllic after- mately released in theaters, Best music docs: Fallen Angel: munity, and a conflict involving this taboo material with a dis- noons on rolling hills, it’s a story where it screened in two three- Gram Parsons, Moog, The the hero’s leering buddies leads arming frankness and simplicity, of brutality and betrayal. hour segments; a DVD release is Nomi Song, Rock School, We both lovers to the brink of absorbing it into her main con- scheduled for February 7. Jam Econo: The Story of the tragedy—and to genuine love. cern—the joy of discovery, be it 8. A History of Violence . In David Minutemen. sexual, romantic, or creative. Cronenberg’s harrowing crime 10. The Devil’s Rejects. Who’d Best political docs: Enron: The 4. Grizzly Man. German master drama, some people are born to have thought that Rob Zombie, Smartest Guys in the Room, Werner Herzog finds a uniquely 6. Palindromes. Todd Solondz kill, others are born to be killed, the freaky-looking dude who The Future of Food, The American focus for his career- dives headfirst into the abortion and at the end a small-town fam- once fronted the metal band Protocols of Zion, Wal-Mart: long fascination with man and controversy with this heartbreak- ily gathers at the dinner table, White Zombie, would conjure The High Cost of Low Price. nature: Timothy Treadwell, a ing moral comedy about a young united and stained by this awful up the most frightening movie self-invented grizzly-bear expert girl who is forced to have an abor- knowledge. This was adapted since The Blair Witch Project? Best movies I couldn’t jam into who became a media personality tion, runs away from home, and from a hard-boiled graphic Moving like a bat out of hell, this any of the above categories: before a grizzly devoured him in falls in with a born-again family novel, and Cronenberg, despite tale of a murderous family on the The Ballad of Jack and Rose, Alaska in 2003. Working with of deformed children. Dividing his own history of Grand run from a vengeful sheriff taps The Beautiful Country, more than 100 hours of video the main character among eight Guignol, honors the form with a into the same fear of backwoods Breakfast on Pluto, Brokeback footage Treadwell left behind, actors, each chosen for her inno- remarkably spare narrative. crazies that’s powered the genre Mountain, Capote, Charlie Herzog fashions an unnerving cence, was commercial suicide, since Two Thousand Maniacs! and the Chocolate Factory, portrait of a troubled man whose but it was also typical of a 9. The Best of Youth. This six- and the original Texas Chain- Crash, The Constant Gardener, congress with the grizzlies was filmmaker who acts more from hour family saga by Marco Tullio saw Massacre . Good Night, and Good Luck, Kontroll, Layer Cake, Millions, both religion and death wish. pure feeling than common sense. Giordana traces a middle-class Best noirs: The Ice Harvest, A Munich, Nine Lives, Purple Italian clan from 1966 through Tout de Suite. 5. Me and You and Everyone We 7. My Summer of Love. A homely the end of the century, as two Butterfly, Separate Lies, The Know . Miranda July made an orphan in rural West Yorkshire brothers are united by their Best comedies: Wedding Crashers, Squid and the Whale, auspicious feature debut with (Nathalie Press) is drawn into a affection for a mentally ill young The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Sarah Thumbsucker, Tony Takitani, this canny combination of reas- steamy affair with a posh bird woman and then divided by poli- Silverman: Jesus Is Magic. Walk the Line, Yes . v CHICAGO READER | JANUARY 6, 2006 | SECTION ONE 19 The Best Music of 2005 Our Section 3 regulars have made their lists. Even though some of them don’t believe in lists, man. Liz Armstrong I was positively, wholeheartedly obsessed with everything on this list at some point in the year, either for months or just for a few hours. I’ve put the entries in alphabetical order, because arranging them according to the amount of time I fixated on them would be silly. AIDS WOLF “We Multiply,” “Opposing Walls,” “Fuck You McLean,” “Panty Mind Extended” | MP3s on MySpace A tangled orgy of wall-to-wall shrieking in a paradise full of dirty naked people. COCOROSIE Noah’s Ark | Touch and Go Stripped bare but still lush, heart-wrenching but kind of creepy—like the songs a Jean Clockwise from left: Bettye LaVette, Spoon, Crooked Fingers, M.I.A. Genet novel would sing. analog synths to summon a hood grit, antifashion fashion, west-coast gangsta rap. The DELIA GONZALEZ & GAVIN RUSSOM vision of crows flying into a and National Geographic. Kabir Hamid Game is so hardcore I bet The Days of Mars | DFA/Astralwerks dark eternity. all the muscles he uses to Instrumental electronic art- NEON BLONDE smile have atrophied right gallery music that’s like the SAM FLAX KEENER Chandeliers in the Savannah | off his face. deeply revelatory moment in the “Backwards Fire” | MP3 at Dim Mak denouement of some trippy, grit- mindmilk.com Two of the Blood Brothers set 3. BLACKALICIOUS ty, long-lost 70s film set in a win- A transmission from Marc jazzy, ass-ripping screeching to The Craft | Anti- try New York, stretched out to Bolan’s ghost channeled by rollicking cabaret piano, spiny Not even their best, but still last a whole hour. a blond, feather-haired New guitar, and hectic beats. head and shoulders above Age twink. almost all the other hip-hop HARRY MERRY OCS this year—Gift of Gab’s inex- Well . Here’s Another Nice Mess 3 & 4: Songs About Death and haustible flow defies belief, You’ve Got Me Into! | Tocado Dying Vol. 3 and Get Stoved | 1. EDAN and Chief Xcel packs ideas Keyboard chaos and arrhyth- Narnack Beauty and the Beat | Lewis into his tracks like a guy who mic percussion, simultaneous- Like a lazy summer evening on the Edan spins a dense, claustropho- knows he won’t run out. ly giddy and desperate—the porch, tipping back warm whiskey bic matrix of 60s psychedelic music a hamster might hear with friends while some weird rock samples around his deeply 4. COMMON in its head as it tries to navi- dusty troubadour guy no one real- weird lyrics, which he delivers in Be | GOOD/Geffen gate the most elaborate ly knows sings and plays guitar. an authoritative, scissor-tongued Chicago’s native son resurrects Habitrail ever. style. The hip-hop equivalent of himself after the flop that was SSION a Salvador Dali painting. Electric Circus: his love songs INDIAN JEWELRY M.I.A. “World’s Worth” | Sound Virus to the ladies are great, and his Invasive Exotics | Girlgang Arular | XL/Interscope Sleazy Robitussin party jams fist- 2. THE GAME love songs to the street corner Shamanic badasses wield Dangerous dance music that’s fucking outrageous Vivienne The Documentary | Aftermath are even better. shadowy guitars and sinister equal parts jump-rope taunt, Westwood punk. Single-handedly rehabilitates continued on page 20 20 CHICAGO READER | JANUARY 6, 2006 | SECTION ONE Best Music 3. M.I.A. the creative process can some- tech stasis, jackin’ house, and the plus of aggression: they sound Arular | XL/Interscope times have a happy ending. nasty boom of southern bounce, it heavy, hammered, and happy. This displaced Sri Lankan art stu- meets all your needs in a single dent has more than earned every song. Asses are clapping in heaven. MARIANNE FAITHFULL overthought review with her Jessica Hopper Before the Poison | Anti- politically ambiguous agit-pop— 9. PELICAN Possibly her best since Broken and her dancehall-tinged Brit- The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon English back in 1979. She’s been continued from page 19 hop beats are so good they render the Thaw | Hydra Head working that singular voice—the 5. CAGE all that verbiage irrelevant. Lush instrumental metal that jaded older woman with her Hell’s Winter | Definitive Jux appeals equally to fans of Egg wicked wisdom—since she was One of indie hip-hop’s most 4. THE HOLD STEADY Hunt and Iron Maiden.