Jimmy E's Music List Mania

For an introduction, see the "Best of 2008" entry. Battles - Mirrored I find it difficult to describe exactly what it is about rock bands that aren't straightforward, especially without using the word "quirky". Quirk-rock, how's that for a genre name? Anyway, what are some words and phrases I can use for Battles? Experimental. Keyboards. Maths? Odd sounds. Off-kilter. A drummer who is a machine in a man's body and yet wears a collared shirt to play gigs (Mike Portnoy and Danny Carey wear vests, but then the old jazz drummers wore full suits back in the day.) If it's a successful experiment does that mean it's not an experiment anymore? This is not beautiful music to shed a tear to late at night, but it is jolly good fun to listen to, especially with others. Between the Buried and Me - Colors I've quoted it before and I'll quote it again, but BTBAM are the "thinking person's hardcore band". Hardcore because it has...

Nostalgia's big right now. Has been for a while. But I'm quite a nostalgic person anyway. With mixed results - replaying old Zelda games (Ocarina onwards) rarely fails to bring me pleasure, and I even enjoyed Wind Waker and Majora's Mask more the second time through, but then as good as Breath of the Wild was, it didn't ultimately feel like a Zelda game to me and I wouldn't rate it in my top few. And I have a bit of a weird thing about Christmas, daydreaming about it from Spring onwards, being really sad when it's over, never quite enjoying it as much as I wanted to, or did when I was a materialist little child in the snow. I keep a few traditions - munching my way through all the Christmas sandwiches, the Radio Times double issue, celebrity University Challenge, a ritual listen of AFI's the Art of Drowning (even when it doesn't snow) and Tool's Lateralus (a Christmas present from my sister), rewatches of The Nightmare Before Christmas (no explanatio...