I have always been a “list” person. In fact, if you’ve ever read Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity (or seen the movie starring John Cusack) you will understand when I say that I’m a clone of that “Rob”, at least when it comes to list-making. I’ve been putting together “Best-Of’s” for friends annually since I was a teenager and decided this year to share a few of my 2014 faves with a wider audience.
Albums
Beck: Morning Phase
Interpol: El Pintor
Lana Del Rey: Ultraviolence
Dum Dum Girls: Too True
Parquet Courts: Sunbathing Animal
Songs
Mac Demarco: Passing Out Pieces
Anna Calvi & David Byrne: Strange Weather
The Soronprfbs: I Love You All
Hamilton Leithauser: Alexandra
Ariana Grande: Problem
Concerts
Sky Ferreira, Music Hall of Williamsburg
Slowdive, Vic Theater in Chicago
Beach House & Friends, No Other (The Songs of Gene Clark), Union Transfer in Philadelphia
Peter Hook & The Light, Trocadero in Philadelphia
Katy Perry, Consol Center in Pittsburgh
Britney Spears, Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas
Movies
Birdman
Under the Skin
Book
Ben Horowitz: The Hard Thing About Hard Things
What Am I Reading?
I’ve been slowly moving through this book, which has topped several other lists this year and really like it. Yet another dystopian novel, it’s an extremely warm, human look at, among many characters, a troop of traveling actors performing Shakespeare in a post-disease-ravaged world.
