Overrated / Underrated 2009
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Beard-folk: Don’t get us wrong, we have greatly appreciated the gentle pleasures derived from Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes (pictured), Bowerbirds and the like, to say nothing of how fun it’s been to watch aggressive facial hair overtake the fashion mainstream. But there’s too much going in 2010 for artists to look like they just woke up in the forest. Time to break out the razors and hit our instruments with feeling again. (Kevin P. Casey / For The Times)
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Killing genres: Over the last 10 years, we’ve heard the death knell for jazz, rock, hip-hop and cinema (to name a few), and there’s no end of the pop cultural dead pool in sight. Alarmist forecasts like these are always wrong, of course, so to avoid similar rushes to judgment we declare that the next decade should be all about the birth and rebirth of new and familiar forms. New Wave skiffle revival, anyone? (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)
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Video game machines as media players: We’ve long feared bringing a game machine into our lives because we’d never step away from EA’s Madden franchise long enough to feed ourselves. But now that both XBox and the
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Television: Now that
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Fame: While much of the hand-wringing surrounding the unscripted TV craze subsided as the genre improved, its dominance seemingly only deepened our culture’s desire for notoriety. We’re not sure how to prevent another Balloon Boy fiasco, but we can speak from experience that a good start is appreciating the internal satisfaction of an anonymous job well done.
Pictured: ‘American Idol’s’ “bikini girl” from its most recent season. (Michael Becker / Associated Press)
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Facts: In a decade where the Internet allowed anyone with a keyboard to join the news conversation, and various networks raced to align with one lucrative ideology or another, irrefutable facts became harder and harder to find. Factor in the need-it-yesterday deadlines of the digital age, and it’s going to take work to pin down what’s real over the next 10 years. The question is, are you up for looking?
Pictured: Fox News’
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The DVR (a.k.a.
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‘Friends’: Amid all the well-deserved hype “Curb Your Enthusiasm” earned over the past few months for its show-within-a-show
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Maria Bamford: Amid all of the post-Thanksgiving shopping hype, we hope you caught this L.A. comic’s series of surreal ads for a certain department store’s “
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R.E.M.’s ‘Live at the Olympia’: One of the more distressing musical developments over the last decade has been R.E.M.’s tumble into mediocrity. This live “rehearsal” doesn’t solve where Michael Stipe and Co. go next after 2008’s promising “Accelerate,” but it’s wonderful to hear them burn through deep cuts like “Wolves, Lower” like the young, hungry band we once knew. (Mark Matson / For The Times)
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>> Pop and Hiss blog:Tyler remains in Aerosmith (AFP / Getty Images)
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Enhanced CDs: We understand record companies are eager to add whatever bonus content they can to the fading CD format, but can they at least be sure it’s done correctly? We’ve been eager to listen to a number of new albums on our computers only to have them either not be recognized or crash our whole system. Weren’t these the sort of bad things that would happen if we downloaded albums illegally? (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
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Gourmet grilled cheese: Weve experienced, with equal parts gluttony and skepticism, the gentrification of burgers, cupcakes and all manner of comfort food. But gourmet grilled cheese sammies? We have to draw the line. No matter how fancy the cheese is, how artisanal the bread is or how you doll it up, its still just cheese and grilled bread. Save the $6-8 youd pay for one of these at a food truck or a fancy restaurant, buy yourself a loaf of bread and a brick of cheddar, and warm up your frying pan. It’s all you need. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
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Karen O: We came down in the middle on
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Small-plate dining: One of the side effects of our recession has been a resurgence in sampler-sized dining options for lower prices than ordinarily found on a white tablecloth. Except once all those small plates are added up, the bill winds up no different from the cost of a few large plates. We really don’t mind spending good money on good food, but let’s not call this subtle sleight-of-hand a nod to tough times. (Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times)
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Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros: Upon first hearing this band fronted by glam-pop refugee Alex Ebert (formerly of Ima Robot) we loved its commune-ready exuberance. But after seeing them live, the aggressively faux-hemian look overwhelmed the music. It’s OK to dress like an acid flashback, but we’re much more engaged when it doesn’t just feel like a fashion statement. (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times)
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For The Record: An earlier version of this slide described the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as having hosted all of its induction ceremonies in New York instead of Cleveland. In fact the ceremonies were held in Cleveland earlier this year for the first time since 1997, and a 1993 ceremony was held in Los Angeles. (Jamie-Andrea Yanak / Associated Press)
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Gastropubs: This isn’t easy to say because we’re huge fans of craft beer and burgers so thoughtfully composed that vegetarians question their beliefs. But please, L.A. restaurateurs, we’re tapped out. Not that we don’t welcome sampling a pint from every new variety that sprouts up week after week, but if we keep flooding the market some great spots are going to close once this trend finally crests. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)
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Beatlemania 2.0: Okay, we’re well past 9/9/09, everyone has absorbed the remastered albums and went on to “Meet the Beatles” all over again in digital form with “Rock Band.” Their music is unfathomably influential, and the likes of them won’t likely be seen again. Now we must move on. We love them too, but if we hear any more talk about the “Fab Four’s” legacy we’re heading off to live in a yellow submarine. (Paul Ellis / AFP/Getty Images)
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Local pro football: We admit enjoying a little football from the comfort of our couches every now and then, and we just want to voice our hearty thanks to our fair city for not securing an NFL franchise. We’ve been without a pro team for nearly 15 years, anyone notice a gap in our civic pride? Spare us your seat licenses, luxury boxes and TV blackouts, NFL executives. We’re doing just fine with USC and UCLA. (Bill Sikes / Associated Press)
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Health: No, not the act of tending to one’s well-being (though we’re sure that’s great too), we’re talking about the L.A. noise-rock band that just split our heads open with the album “Get Color.” Born out of the same unhinged downtown scene that gave us No Age and Mika Miko, Health somehow blends the airy vocal melodies of My Bloody Valentine with occasional sonic blasts of a garbage truck being welded to a 747. In a very, very good way. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
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Exploding people: Looking past the idea that the alien apartheid movie
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The cocktail renaissance: Yes, we’re very excited that foodies have branched out in their beverage choices in an ongoing quest to flash some gourmet cred. But seasonal organic apricots and hand-crushed ice delivered by sleigh from Iceland don’t make a $14 drink go down any easier. The economy may be in recovery, but our untrained palates are still fine with a shot and a beer, thanks. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)
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Allen Toussaint’s ‘The Bright
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The maturing of Patton Oswalt: We’ve long been a fan of this comic’s smart, surreal wit, but his new CD/DVD set, “My Weakness Is Strong,” shows us something unexpected: growth. With frank -- and frankly hilarious -- talk about parenthood, depression and success, and a darkly dramatic turn in the upcoming film “Big Fan,” Oswalt’s developing into more than his former title as a “Comedian of Comedy.” (Jason Kempin / Getty Images)
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Sunny Day Real Estate: Before emo became synonymous with asymmetrical haircuts and guy-liner, there was this anthemic, ambitious and, yes, melancholy band out of Seattle. Torn apart by internal strife before the sound they helped forge started taking off, SDRE recently announced a reunion tour, its first with original (and current
Pictured: Sunny Day Real Estate’s Don Hoerner in 1999. (Geraldine Wilkins-Kasinga / Los Angeles Times)
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Mix-tape fetishism: It may be just us, but lately we’ve noticed a resurgence in nostalgia for homemade cassette recordings made for that special someone. Yes, CD burning and iTunes playlists have rendered these obsolete, and this is a good thing. Not only did tapes sound like rubbish, but obsessing for hours on the perfect love-tape probably isn’t the healthiest way to spend a day. Burn a mix, go outside. Everyone’s happier. (Wendy Wahman / For The Times)
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‘NYC Prep’: After the parade shows dedicated to the times and trials of wealthy “Housewives,” we shouldn’t be surprised that their children would be the next natural progression for Bravo. Regardless, witnessing shallow and privileged behavior on the part of adults is one thing, but taking the same “reality” show theory and applying it to high schoolers just fills us with more sadness than schadenfreude. (Virginia Sherwood / Associated Press)
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Trent Reznor: We’d lost track of Nine Inch Nails in recent years, but now that Reznor has announced his band -- in its current form, anyway -- is calling it quits, we’re reevaluating. Not only is 2007’s “Year Zero” a darkly barbed gem, Reznor’s been taking the idea of an independent artist in the digital age even further than standard-bearers
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This year’s summer movie crop: We loved “Up” and “
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Compact discs: Industry watchers have sounded the death knell of the CD era for years, and now we’re joining the crowd in the bell tower. After the Beatles remasters are released this year, it’s a matter of time before the other, digital-based shoe drops and people sell off their collections at Amoeba. We’re not sure where that leaves all those lovely music stores, but, hey, there’s always vinyl, right? (Tim Boyle / Getty Images)
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Our attention span: Remember the Iranian election and the green armbands? The H1N1 virus (an estimated 1 million cases in
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Multicultural TV programming: There’s something uniquely entertaining about watching the Korean quiz show “Golden Bell Challenge,” the Armenian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” or Bollywood music videos on “Namaste America” on the weekends. And if some shows don’t have English subtitles, no problem: As with most TV, it’s actually better to not understand what’s being said anyway. (Tengku Bahar, AFP/Getty Images)
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Grizzly Bear: We’re suckers for hearing the band of the moment, and the quartet’s new album, “Veckatimest,” is touted as this summer’s must-hear. Though the first single, “Two Weeks,” is an addictively airy confection, the rest of this ornate, harmony-rich album left us kind of cold. Each song is undeniably pretty but feels like an impossibly delicate construct, making us wonder whether there’s any blood underneath it all. (Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times)
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Musicians as brew-masters:
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MTV’s ‘outrageous’ moments: Now that the dust has settled from the big “Brüno” vs.
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Ed Asner: There may be no more classic yet lovable grump in entertainment these days than the former Lou Grant, so we were thrilled to see him in the crowd-pleasing “Up.” Asner did not disappoint as adventurer Carl Fredricksen. And with a little luck, he won’t have to don another Santa suit. (He’s played St. Nick four times since 1995.) (vALERIE mACON, AFP/Getty Images)
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Hipsters hating hipsters: Scratch almost every scruffy-bearded Echo Park guitarist in an American Apparel T-shirt and you’ll find someone bemoaning all those sheep smoking Parliament cigarettes and wearing vintage Ray-Bans at his local vegan diner. Enough. If you’re living in a hip neighborhood, you’re probably a hipster. And honestly, it’s OK. (Damon Winter / Los Angeles Times)
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Kid fashionistas: We’re all for precocious children, but is asking for an ascot well before one’s bar mitzvah a good thing? We don’t want to scar any preadolescents who might get misty about the Rodarte sisters or dress like a Victorian-era dandy, but we gotta say: There’s something charming about kids in hot-cocoa-stained T-shirts, not
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Wine bars: If 2008 was the year of the gastropub, 2009 is shaping up to be the year of the wine bar -- at least in Los Angeles. Combining all the aesthetic annoyances of yuppiedom with all the snobbery of vinophilia, the ever-expanding cadre of “chic, intimate, delightfully priced” wine bars just makes us want to grab a 40 of malt liquor and drink it from a paper bag. (Jim Pease / For The Times)
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Robin Thicke: Were prepared to live in a world where the son of the Growing Pains dad can become the new
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Depeche Mode: Between the absurd-in-hindsight “riot” at the
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’
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Andy Milonakis’ ‘Let Me
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M.I.A.: That’s right, we’re going there for music’s latest darling, Grammy performance and all. Look, we love her songs (especially “Kala” -- that’s just unimpeachable). But please, M.I.A., don’t coat your mainstage Coachella performance in a bunch of dissonant sound effects and grouse about wanting to be back in the tents. You’re talented, and many people want to hear your music. Isn’t that why you got into this? (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)
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‘Observe and Report’: No one loves dark comedy more than us, which is what made this film so puzzling. We for the most part enjoy Jody Hill’s cringe-inducing style of comedy, but usually there’s a heart buried somewhere inside “Eastbound & Down” and his other weird worlds. This time, it was just bad behavior by bad people that, instead of making us laugh, made us feel, well, bad. Maybe Hill needs to lighten up for a while. (Peter Sorel / Associated Press)
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Good boys: First, the
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Record Store Day 2009: Part of us fears one day this informal holiday may have as much resonance as Hug a Passenger Pigeon Day, but we’re grateful to have had Saturday to bounce from local shop to shop and pick up special releases from the likes of
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Celebrities who
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Chrissie Hynde: Whatever your feelings were about the Pretenders’ country-dusted 2008 album, “Break Up the Concrete,” the power of this frontwoman cannot be denied. Have you seen her lately? We caught a Pretenders performance on HDNet last weekend, and seriously, the woman sounds like not a day has passed since 1984. Can someone check her closet to see if there’s a photo of her aging? (Joel Ryan / Associated Press)
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The Airborne Toxic Event: Far be it from us to slag a rising local band, but after seeing its performance at
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DirecTV’s TV101: We missed
Pictured: Charlie Reid of the Proclaimers performs at the DirecTV Live showcase during SXSW (Sasha Haagensen / Getty Images)
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Scaling back on music consumption: We’re dyed-in-the-wool music nerds, so our iPod once runneth over with just about every song or album that crossed our mind. But so far our resolution to rein it in for 2009 has paid off. Remember when new music was pored over and absorbed after every trip to the record shop? Here’s to slowing down to explore and love our finds before acquiring more. (Alexander F. Yuan / Associated Press)
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Arena shows: Corporate assurances aside, the recent
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Current TV: We first dismissed this user-generated-content-crazed network as MTV’s “True Life” with cooler graphics, but lately we’ve been hooked on its view of TV 2.0. Documentaries from the network’s “Vanguard” series pulled us in with storytelling that rivaled the best of
Photo:
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Artistic integrity: We’re respectfully requesting the return of “selling out” as an insult, particularly in terms of music. Yes, times are hard, but the line must be drawn once more. We want to hear artists such as
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Self-imposed TV blackouts: We spent a recent week roughing it away from what
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The JoBros’ Grammy nomination: We rarely court teen or ‘tween anger on a Sunday, but if the
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Exclamatory choruses: We’re surely not alone on this, but Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” has been running through our heads nonstop, and it’s not because of the aggressively choreographed video -- it’s that weightless flurry of “ohs,” stickier than buckwheat honey. Let Morrissey and Andrew Bird pore over thesauri; sometimes, two letters are all anyone needs. (Kevin Winter / Getty Images)
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Crying for ‘Benjamin Button’: We’re big fans of director
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Indie 103.1: The late, lamented station seemed to have no shortage of fans, but apparently not enough to keep it going. The station wasn’t perfect -- it certainly had a playlist of songs like any other commercial radio outlet, and some of its shows didn’t hit as well as others (“Feel My Heat,” we’re looking in your direction). But we truly didn’t know what we had until it was gone. RIP, Indie. May the Internet be with you. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Inaugural celebrations: Admittedly, we hit the wall with the 24-hour
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Jon
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Tragic dog movies: We’re animal lovers to the core, but we don’t remember hearing a public outcry for new, more effective reasons to sob into our sleeves in movie houses. “
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Indie-rock couplings: Last year, we weathered the puzzling (and short-lived) pairing of Natalie Portman and freak-folker Devendra Banhart, but the inter-scene trend reached an apex with the recently announced engagement of indie-cred-tastic couple Zooey Deschanel and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie. There’s nothing wrong with like-minded people finding happiness, but is the scene really lacking its very own Brangelina that badly? (Nancy Pastor (Gibbard) ; Stephen Lovekin / Getty Images (Portman)