Holiday Buying Guide: Music

By: Brett Hickman

Thursday December 13, 2007

2007 Shopping Suggestions
The holiday season is upon us again. And with less than two weeks before Christmas left, you may be scrambling to get that music fan in your life the perfect gift. Well fret no more as Static Multimedia are here to help you out. We've assembled some of the best CDs, box sets, DVDs, books and whatnot that the music enthusiast will be asking for this season.

So spike the egg nog and pour a cup, sit back and enjoy Static Multimedia's Music Holiday Buying Guide for 2007!


CDs:

First things first, I have to plug some albums from 2007 that I feel are must owns: Wilco's Sky Blue Sky, Kanye West's Graduation, Division Day's Beartrap Island, The Autumn Defense's self-titled release, Film School's Hideout, Shout Out Louds' Our Ill Wills, M83's Digital Shades Vol. 1, The Polyphonic Spree's The Fragile Army, Amy Winehouse's Back To Black, Arcade Fire's Neon Bible, Bright Eyes' Cassadaga and Rogue Wave's Asleep at Heaven's Gate. Proof that choosing a top ten best of the year is going to be next to impossible. And I haven't even heard Lupe Fiasco's The Cool (out December 18th) yet!

For the old school, gangster rap fan, N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton (20th Anniversary Edition);Eazy-E's Featuring Eazy-E and Westside Connection's The Best Of Westside Connection: The Gangsta, The Killa and The Dope Dealer are all great ideas.

For the rocker, there's the remastered edition of Pink Floyd's The Piper At the Gates Of Dawn (we suggest getting the 3-disc version);U2's The Joshua Tree (2-CD/1-DVD), which is getting a 20th Anniversary release; Led Zeppelin fans have two things to rejoice about as the band has released yet another greatest hits compilation: Mothership comes in 2-CD or 2-CD/1-DVD (Limited Edition) sets and there is also a new edition of the soundtrack to their concert film The Song Remains the Same (see also: DVDs); Gorillaz may be over but the money train is still running full steam ahead with D-Sides, a two-disc collectors set featuring remixes of the band's material (spring for the box set with stickers, buttons and more if you're a fan); Daft Punk's Alive 2007 is a must for the dance music fan, especially after catching them this summer at Lollapalooza.

The Killers' Sawdust is better than both of the Las Vegas' studio albums combined and features some great cover tunes (Dire Straits' "Romeo and Juliet", Joy Division's "Shadowplay"), a killer tune with Lou Reed ("Tranquilize") and a song about "Indie Rock 'n Roll" that just be the best thing the band's done; Sigur Ros' Hvarf/Heim is a fantastic two-disc collection of the band reimagining their material, stripping it down in most instances to its essence to transcendent effect; Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo has put out Alone - The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, a collection of demos hes has made over the years; and finally, if you have a modest Eric Clapton fan, or if you yourself have just a passing interest in "Slowhand" then pick up Complete Clapton, a 2 disc set of the guitar hero's most known songs, but once you get past the first few songs on Disc 2, you'll find your interest fading fast.

And my favorite album of last year, Justin Timberlake's Futuresex/Lovesounds is available now in a deluxe edition featuring the original album on one disc and the second disc features videos, live footage as well as making ofs and behind the scenes.

Box Sets:

The two must have box sets, in my opinion, to get this year are both from Rhino (theirs are usually the best). The first, Heavy Metal, features 70 classic tracks tracing the evolution of metal through its first golden age, 1968-191 as well as essays from Ronnie James Dio and Lita Ford and a detailed history of metal by Nick Wall; The Brit Box: UK Indie, Shoegaze and Brit-Pop Gems of the Last Millenium is a 4-CD set featuring New Order, Elastica, Blur, Oasis, My Bloody Valentine, Pulp, The Primitives, Spaceman 3, The Bluetones and much, much more and comes in a brilliant recreation of a British telephone booth replete with band stickers.

Nick Drake's Fruit Tree, a 3-CD set of the legendary folk artist's three albums, a DVD of A Skin Too Few, a BBC Documentary and a premium booklet all in one box; Sony-Legacy has put together David Bowie's Outside, Earthling, 'hours...', Heathen and Reality CDs together in one box along with discs containing mixes, remixes, edits, special versions, alternate takes, outtakes and rarities; Capitol/EMI have decided to put out full catalog box sets by both Pink Floyd and Radiohead, but whereas some real care and thought was put into Floyds' 14-CD set Oh By the Way (including all of the band's 14 studio albums in mini-vinyl wallets with all of the original extras), Radiohead's 7-CD set is simply the band's six studio albums and one live release without any remastering or special bells and whistles to entice those who already own everything the band has put out...oh wait, there is the clunky, 4-GB USB stick that comes with it and which includes the same albums only digitally ... big whoop.

MVI (Music Video Interactive)

James Blunt captivated the world with his debut album, Back to Bedlam, released in 2005.  The biggest debut in the UK since the Beatles, Back to Bedlam has sold 10 million copies worldwide, 2.6 million in the US alone. James Blunt also picked up two MTV Awards, five Grammy nominations and two Brit awards. All of these accolades may be summed up in one outstanding accomplishment: James Blunt is the #1 artist of the last two years.

Blunt's sophomore album, All The Lost Souls, displays a huge musical growth from the smash hit debut, Back to Bedlam. These new, more mature songs, recall the sounds of Elton John, Cat Stevens, and Neil Young. In addition to being an excellent album, All The Lost Souls is packed with singles. Early response to the first single has been extraordinary.

Matchbox 20, one of the successful bands to emerge from the last decade, lead by chart topping solo singer Rob Thomas has released a new studio album, Exile on Mainstreet. The album package includes six new songs overseen by Steve Lillywhite combined with an eleven of the band's greatest hits including "How Far We've Come, "Push," "Bent," and "Unwell."

DVDs/Digital:

Even though it's a comedy DVD and perhaps deserves placement over in Film, I still have to give a big plug to The Ultimate Johnny Carson, an expansive 12-disc collection featuring the King Of Late Night at his best (and it features some music) and shows how bad late night TV has gotten since his passing; in stores this coming Tuesday is Vicarious by the prog-metal band Tool, the long-awaited video from the band's platinum-selling 10,000 Days which includes a documentary that details Adam Jones' visual effects work and the process and people involved in the creation of the band's all CGI video for the DVD's title track as well as featuring audio commentary of the video by comedian David Cross; The Beatles' Help! is available now in digitally restored regular two-disc form or deluxe two-disc box set (with a reproduction of Richard Lester's original annotated script, 8 lobby cards, a poster and a 60-page book with rarely seen photographs and production notes from the movie), view the DVD's trailer here: http://emicat.edgeboss.net/wmedia/emicat/beatles/help_trailer_us.wvx; Capitol/EMI Music Marketing and iTunes have released John Lennon Video Album (redeemable cards can be found at Starbucks locations and through iTunes) and features 21 of Lennon's music videos.

Nirvana: Unplugged in New York is truly a treasure, with the seminal MTV acoustic show finding its benchmark with the grunge band's ear-turning renditions of their classic material scant months before frontman Kurt Cobain's untimely passing; Oasis' Lord Don't Slow Me Down is a two-disc set that features a documentary tour film and a Q&A session with the band's Noel Gallagher on Disc One and a full concert of the band's at Manchester Stadium from 2005 on Disc Two; Justin Timberlake's Futuresex/Loveshow from Madison Square Garden (originally aired on HBO Labor Day weekend) features a spellbinding performance by the mega-pop star; HBO's Flight of the Conchords is one of the best half-hours on TV this year and Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie are breakout stars as two New Zealand singer-songwriters trying to break into the music business in America (favorite episodes include the one where Jemaine sings of "sweet, weekly love" on the tune "Business Time", the spirit of David Bowie motivating Bret and SNL cast member Will Forte as an actor playing the part of a big record label executive hired by the duo to impress their manager Murray); Sigur Ros' Heima is simply one of the most visually stunning, emotionally captivating music film releases ever, the band lacks the usual artist selfishness and lets the music and their homeland of Iceland do most of the talking; Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same has been trotted out on DVD in different forms; the Australian hard rockers Wolfmother throw themselves into the DVD fray with Please Experience Wolfmother, which captures the raucous band in their best setting: live; but the must have DVD for any music fan or especially the musician you know is Fred Armisen Presents Jens Hannemann: Complicated Drumming Technique wherein the Saturday Night Live member tackles the inherent absurdity of those How-To videos at your local music shop to hilarious ends (but the funniest thing about the DVD is the ludicrously over complicated music sheets inside the case).

Fred Armisen Presents Jens Hannemann: Complicated Drumming Technique:



Books:

Sure, the obvious thing to do would be to get Eric Clapton, Slash or Ronnie Wood's autobiographies for the music fan in your life, but let's be real, they don't want that shit. And, though it probably deserves to be placed in Print, Steve Martin's Born Standing Up is still a must-have for any fan of the comedian's work; it's not available until after Christmas, but the Sex Pistols admirer in your life would sure love a gift card from your local book store to purchase Metal Box: Stories from John Lydon's Public Image Limited when it does come out; but the ultimate book you need to buy any music fan in your life would have to be Jim Walsh's The Replacements: All Over But The Shouting, a thrilling oral history on the great rock band from Minneapolis, MN who seemed to make sure they never really got anywhere and played as if every moment could be their last, it is a fantastic piece of journalism on the part of Walsh, who was there from the very beginning with the band. As the press releases says about the book and the band: The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting lays down the gripping oral history behind the little band that could -- but didn't." Perfect.

Bob Dylan:

This is a big year for Dylan fans out there and you'll have a nice amount of choices when buying for them. Though I've yet to see it, the 2-disc soundtrack to I'm Not There, the Bob Dylan film, is quite an extraordinary achievement featuring the likes of Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, The Hold Steady, Cat Power, My Morning Jacket's Jim James with Calexico (doing a superb "Going To Acapulco") and Yo La Tengo (making the best music they've ever made); Dylan is a career-spanning retrospective of the iconic singer/songwriter's work, with the 3-CD deluxe version coming in a red cloth covered box with a magnetic hinged lid with a 40-page booklet and 10 limited edition postcard lithograph prints focusing on pivotal moments in Dylan's career; the DVD release of The Other Side of the Mirror: Live at Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965 marking that moment in time when Dylan shocked his fans by (gasp!) plugging in!; and finally, in case they don't have it yet, Martin Scorsese's excellent 2-DVD documentary No Direction Home is a must-have for any Dylan afficianado.

Have fun shopping! And, if you want to get me something, just send me an e-mail. I'll be happy to give you my list, too!