Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

The trees lean in the hazardous downpour, soaking up life-giving water like a thirsty woman gulping the last breath of tainted air. The rain is heavy on my back; the air is electric with the dampening light of midmorning, misting until the dampened t-shirt is a boon companion. "Here we go," I mutter to myself, soaking in my surroundings. I'm going in, not coming out. The morning hike is medicinal, cleansing. This is a rehabilitation, a divining, a benediction. Here I go deeper into the forest. I won't return until night. 

5. Simone Felice - Strangers (Dualtone) Felice's second solo album is as uncomplicated as its cover art, uncluttered by most of the tropes of post 70s songwriting. Replete with melodic piano lines, the rare, tasteful horn section, and a flair for the understated, Strangers is a jubilant visitation with modern characters and places shone through a prism of classicism. Yet the album feels more like a natural progression of his work with The Felice Brothers, especially in the many sing along choruses that pop up in every song. Felice makes great use of literary wordplay that makes allusions to other songwriters. In "Molly-O," he sings "It's you and only you baby blue that can bring out the gypsy in me" and "Our Lady of the Gun" sounds suspiciously like The Felice Brothers' "Frankie's Gun," although that might just be the title -- the subject matter is a knowing exploration of school shootings. The record is quiet and contemplativ...

10. Afghan Wigs - Do To The Beast (Sub Pop) I'll be the first to admit that I was late to the party with the Afghan Wigs, missing out on Greg Dulli's soulful vocals and the dark subject matter that makes the band original until long after they broke up. So I was waiting with bated breath for new material. Like Mark Lanegan, Dulli is a masterful singer who knows how to shine in any given situation and adeptly takes control of the mood and the tone of any song he sings. Do To The Beast sounds fuller than the older records, relying on more instrumentation to give the record a punchy, full feel, but the band's gritty vibe remains intact. "Parked Outside" comes on strong and powerful, a ferocious salvo that takes your breath away. "Matamoros" contains electronics but they don't take away from Dulli's clever phrasing and expressive yowl, although the violins make the track feel even more seasick. "Algiers," the first single off the record...

It's been another slow year at Snobbin'. As much as I tried, the posts have come fewer and farther in between. Hopefully that will change in the new year, but for now I want to present my top records of 2014. The list was really hard to determine this year because there were a lot of great records, but there was also less variety in what I had time to listen to and what came out. For example, Metal and Punk records didn't make the list like they have in recent years because I didn't hear that much that really rewarded repeat listens. The list has become more of a singer-songwriter, Americana sort of exercise. That's just the way I've been heading the last few years. I also decided to shorten the list as I think last year's was a tad extreme. 20. Sun Kil Moon - Benji (Caldo Verde)   Sun Kil Moon's Mark Kozelek can be an ornery, irascible cuss. This year alone he called out fans at a show as hillbillies and started a tongue in cheek fight wi...

15. Panopticon - Roads to the North (Bindrune) Panopticon is the project of Kentucky native Austin  Lunn and combines elements of traditional folk music with Metal, yet never seems like a Black Metal retread as it relies heavily on American musical folk styles. Panopticon's songs are an atmospheric reinvention of where folk and metal might intersect. Some, such as "The Echoes of Disharmonium" are thrashy, guttural metal numbers, while "The Long Road Part 1: One Last Fire is a distortion free traditional bluegrass fiddling interlude that merges with "The Long Road Part 2: Capricious Miles," a seven plus minute melodically epic track more easily than one would suspect. Panopticon makes these transitions look simple, merging heavy music and several American folk forms, including traditional Native American flutes and even banjos with startling clarity. Roads to the North builds on their earlier records and reflects the growth of this interesting amalgamati...

A much younger version of myself got the Coming Out Of Our Shells tape as a free Pizza Hut giveaway (I always wanted to be part of Book It, but my school didn't participate) and proceeded to play it far too often even though it was arguably awful. I always used to listen to music and play video games, and I cranked that tape on many days while I played Super Nintendo, going through Super Mario World , Donkey Kong Country , and innumerable game rentals listening to those ten songs over and over again. It was only later when I started listening to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and a bit later when I discovered Punk and switched over to NOFX, Operation Ivy, and indie stalwarts such as Pavement that the tape fell by the wayside only to be revisited again in a quest for nostalgia twenty years later. The tape is an unsung pop-cultural artifact that was released at the cusp of 90's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesmania when everything that was even tangentially turtles-related sold like hotcakes...

I've previously written on my obsession with Iron Fist, and I plan to continue my foray into analysis of later comics in that franchise, taking a look at how they changed with the introduction of Marvel's answer to the Blaxploitation genre, Luke Cage. Before that I want to explore the strange milieu of Marvel's earlier martial arts hero, Shang-Chi, the "Master of Kung Fu." He made his first appearance in Special Marvel Edition #15 in December 1973, six months before Iron Fist appeared and is one of the first heroes of the martial arts comics boom. Created by the interestingly weird team of writer Steve Englehart and artist Jim Starlin to cash in on Marvel's recent acquisition of Sax Rohmer's Dr. Fu Manchu and their rights to the Kung Fu television show, he paved the way for future martial arts heroes. Shang-Chi is a Wushu master, skilled in both hand to hand combat and and weaponry. He uses both, unlike Iron Fist who tends to just use his hands and fe...