Endorsement: Apples

They're fantastic these hard skinned sweet fruits. They clean your teeth when you eat em and they got vitamins or something(I assume). they're red and green and smell fantastic. Yum. Apples! I had two today, I got em at the farmer's market in Union Square. You should do the same sometime, it's good for you soul.

Endorsement: Little Children

The best movie I've seen all year is a taught, tense, occasionally funny, often disturbing movie about adultery and child molestation. It stars Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson (whom I don't recall ever seeing in anything else to be honest), the kid from the Bad News Bears, and Jennifer Connely(who seems to play something of a fifth lead to Kate Winslet's ample and oft exposed bust, hough that may just be my perception).

The film is by Todd Phillups who made In The Bedroom, a movie I've never seen. You know looking at all of this I don't even know why I walked into the theater. I'm thrilled I did though. I encourage everyone to see this movie before Borat comes out on Friday and makes every movie out irrelevent.

Endorsement: Annuals 'Be He Me'

Don'tcha just love indie-rock. No, not that hyphinated catch all that in some circles includes everything from Rilo Kiley to Animal Collective. I mean indie-rock. Missionary position indie-rock. The kind that has that certain melodic sense, a certain sort of guitar tone. A certain kind of series of almost undefinable things that make something "indie-rock."

Annuals are an "indie-rock" band proper. Culling jittery synth moves of a (let's say) Dismemberment Plan, combined with a fragmented wistful melodic sense remanisant of (how about) Broken Social Scene, the agravated guitar jolts of (maybe)Built To Spill, with occasionally Pixies(had to happen, didn't it?)esque yelping behind it's more melodic vocal lines. That kind of "indie-rock."

However, this has all been pretty reductive thus far. What makes the Annuals so loveable is the ability to take all of these reference points and make them seamless, timeless, fresh, and undeniably distinct. It all seems impossible and yet it's the thing that keeps people like me (like you?) coming back to these sorts of bands over and over again.

Be He Me is one of the sharpest straight indie albums this year and people are begining to agree. Stylus made them recomended and Pitchfork has them on their Infinite Mixtape, still I worry that sanz-Best New Music placement or some always valued OC play an album like this can get lost in the release avalanche. So check them out on My Space. And perhaps check them out at Other Music where they will be playing for free this Friday at noon.