Hate to say I told you so

It's Sunday so that means I buy a shit ton of CDs and hope that I find a new gem. I combed through the "Best of" 2009 lists and realized that I skipped over many hyped albums: Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion, Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Miike Snow's self-titled, and Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca. Honestly, I wasn't planning on hearing any of these albums but curiosity got the better of me, especially since three of these album have made every list I've read: but so did Bradford Cox and I hate him. For no apparent reason, too.

But these four bands had inadvertently fallen on my "For No Apparent Reason" list and once you've been FNAR'ed, it's hard to fall back on my good side. Usually it'll take an act of God. I once hated the Arctic Monkeys until I heard "Teddy Picker" in my friend's car. Instant love afterward. Now they reign supreme on my list of "Favorite Bands from Sheffield." In fact, they could be number one.

So when I come across a song that really piques my interest, there's some self-loathing involved as well. Because I wish I could have gotten rid of that prejudice and given the band a try in the first place. Oh well, better late than never.

So Phoenix, I salute you for reigning me with Liztomania. Barely three seconds into the song, I said to myself "Fuck, this is a good song." And all I heard were two repeated notes during those three seconds.

Animal Collective: You're alright. Way too overhyped, but alright with me.

Miike Snow and the Dirty Projectors, I'm still on hold with you because I haven't heard your album yet. But I will as soon as iTunes finishes downloading.

Bands on the FNAR list:
the Dirty Projectors (I'm really forcing myself to listen to Bitte)
Deerhunter/Atlas Sound/Bradford Cox
St Vincent
The Pain of Being Pure at Heart (one song in and I realized they ripped off the Field Mice, who I don't particularly care for because it's lo-fi shoegaze)
Au Revior Simone (I saw them in 2006 and was not impressed, annoyed in fact.)
Wilco (Yankee Foxtrot Hotel, ehhhhhhhh.)
CSS
Neon Indian (okay, this is legit hate because I don't care for this current fad of lo-fi moog electropop)
La Roux
Annie
Uffie
Julian Casablancas
Paul Banks/Julian Plenti (which is weird because I love Interpol)
Son Volt
Devandra Banhart
Volcano Choir

...should I stop there? Okay, part 2 will come when I'm too lazy to type up a review/praise of my new favorite band.

Rural Alberta Advantage at the Bootleg Theater Tuesday night. I'm going to shout out Neutral Milk Hotel songs and see if one of them gets covered. It's the closest I'll get to hearing that band live, unless I listening to a live recording. Tomayto, tomahto.