2. Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes
3. Mexican Wine - Fountains of Wayne
4. Good Dancers - The Sleepy Jackson
5. Fools on Parade - The Jayhawks
6. Sinkhole - Drive-By Truckers
7. Joe's Head - Kings of Leon
8. That Much Further West - Lucero
9. Mahgeeta - My Morning Jacket
10. English Girls Approximately - Ryan Adams
11. Santa Cruz (You're Not that Far) - The Thrills
12. James - Josh Rouse
13. Little Eyes - Yo La Tengo
14. Reptilia - The Strokes
15. Seven Days a Week - The Sounds
16. The Rest of My Life - Sloan
17. The Laws Have Changed - The New Pornographers
18. Riot Industry - Cobra Verde
19. Memphis - Rancid
20. Modern Kicks - The Exploding Hearts
21. 99 Problems - Jay-Z
22. Man - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
23. Beat Your Heart Out - The Distillers
24. Danger High Voltage - Electric Six
25. Hey Ya! - Outkast
1. I've always liked the short opening salvo on the Dandy Warhol's Welcome to the Monkey House, "...when Michael Jackson dies, we're covering 'Blackbird'", segueing into 'We Used to Be Friends'. This is the last bit of enjoyment I've managed to squeeze out of the this band as well. The re-release of this album and single in 2009, as The Dandy Warhols Are Sound is a bit grubbier in sound. I kind of prefer the first version. Primacy reigns supreme.
2. Signs of a great album? Out of 14 songs, you still have difficulty choosing a favourite. That is the case with The White Stripes' Elephant, where even Meg's contributions rank high. I nearly put the closing 'It's True that We Love One Another' because the second I hear that song it's rattling around in my head all day long. So 'Seven Nation Army' is a good a choice as any. Such a crackerjack opening song.
3. While I'm not a huge fan of Fountains of Wayne, I really love some of their songs (the practically perfect 'Radiation Vibe' for instance). 'Mexican Wine' has such a great first line 'He was killed by a cellular phone explosion'. Any song that references electromagnetic fields AND wine is clearly going to be a favourite of mine.
4. 'Good Dancers' from the Sleepy Jackson's Lovers is great, lilting kind of song. Feels like a perfect late in the year walk in the park.
5. 'Fools on Parade' is a bit more of a rambunctious tune from the normally low to midtempo Jayhawks. It suits them actually. Too bad they didn't crack this vibe more often. Smoke some cigarettes and have some Jack and coke.
6. I can't choose my favourite song on the mix but if push came to shove I guess I'd pick Drive-By Truckers' 'Sinkhole' from one of the best albums of the decade Decoration Day. There is such a serious and menacing tone in this song, as well it should be. Songs of murder and family retribution should be heavy.
7. Speaking of murder, Kings of Leon's 'Joe's Head' has one too, albeit more of a crime of passion. Kind of the natural response when you catch someone laying with your girlfriend. And yes, people can be so cold when they're dead. The music though is kind of lively and is one of my favourite songs to hear in the truck. When you hear Youth & Young Manhood it's hard to believe how damn HUGE this band has gotten over the last year or so. I wonder if all the folks who love 'Use Somebody' dig on songs like this and 'Red Morning Light'? I suspect no.
8. In the fine tradition of CCR's 'Lodi', the title track from Lucero's That Much Further West is about a band's life on the road, loneliness, guilt, heading farther away from loved ones, geographically and spiritually. "And the west is the only sky that's blue, so Tell Katie that I'll see her soon, until then the only thoughts that I have left, are that much further west..."
9. Up there with the Drive-By Truckers in the favourite song/album category of the 00's is 'Mahgeetah'' from My Morning Jacket's It Still Moves. This album is probably my go-to when I'm driving alone, up there with All Time Best irrespective of decade. When I drove from London to Saskatoon alone, I slapped this in as I peeled out of Sudbury around daybreak, from the first lines of the album opener 'Mahgeetah', 'Sittin' here with me and mine, all wrapped up in a bottle of wine, little we can do...we gon' see it thru somehow...' to the last 'One in the Same':
'Don't think poor of me
It wasn't till I woke up...
That I could hold down a joke
Or a job or a dream
But then all three are one in the same'
10. Again with the Ryan Adams...oy vei. 'English Girls Approximately' is from Love is Hell pt. 2, the second of two EPs (Love is Hell, pt 1) and one LP (the personally loathed Rock N Roll, probably the beginning of my antipathy towards this dude). I actually quite like the EPs or more accurately the LP as Lost Highway quickly re-released it as a single entity. Kind of like Heartbreaker, I think he at first called it his Smiths album. I'm not sure why though, I guess because he got the Smiths' producer. This is a great song with vocal contributions from Marianne Faithful.
11. 'Santa Cruz (You're Not that Far)' from the Thrills' So Much For the City is a sunny song replete with rich harmonies, a 70s throwback right down to the album cover.
12. Speaking of 70s, Josh Rouse's 'James' from his 1972 album has that feeling too. I actually haven't heard much of this guy, only a few albums but this is the only one that kind of stuck with me. It's a nice morning kind of album for when you're not cranky or hungover but are feeling fine and relatively okay with the world around you. I recommend it for Thursday mornings.
13. Yo La Tengo's 'Little Eyes' mines the same vein as the above. From their Summer Sun album, just a nice tune, with maybe a tinge of melancholy about a relationship.
14. I have always been of the opinion that Is This It? from the Strokes has been a superior album to their much awaited follow-up Room on Fire. I was put off enough that I adamantly would not listen to it for the longest time, preferring to get my fix from the debut. After much cajoling by some degenerate colleagues I finally gave in and gave it a proper listen. If anything it's less coherent and focused than the debut, which I give as a compliment. The first album had many songs that really were not that varied (Last Night, Someday, The Modern Age etc). But in contrast, Room on Fire is a short, slap of displaced emotions set to a mid-tempo beat. They better ape the sounds of the first two in 2010.
15. Swedish pop, what is it about that country and their talent for delightful new wave pop? The Sounds' 'Seven Days a Week' from Living in America is a perfect example. They do it well and followed up even better in 2006.
16. Action Pact is not a great Sloan album but it does have 'The Rest of My Life' on it. Love or hate Sloan, they've got the 3 min or less powerpop nailed pretty well. 'One thing I know about the rest of my life, I know that I'll be living here in Canada'. Somewhere, I'm sure unless the call of the South beckons, then I'll venture down during the February-March doldrums. Let's face it, it's cold here. A lot.
17. Man, I friggin' love 'The Laws Have Changed' by the New Pornographers. From Electric Version, it's one song I just can't overplay. I don't know why I don't love Neko more when I hear her solo, because I hang on her every word here. Love those redheads, man.
18. Cobra Verde is another band I don't immediately think of playing when I feel like some straight up 70's inflected rock & roll, but when I hear it I get annoyed with myself for not listening more. 'Riot Industry' is straight up dynamite, all rye no cola. We all need more Cobra Verde in our lives to remind us that we forget the good stuff sometimes.
19. Rancid is another consistently good to great band with little lows to complain about. It was nice to have them back in 2009. 'Memphis' from Indestructible is them doing what they do best.
20. The Exploding Hearts managed to release one excellent album, Guitar Romantic, before a car accident killed practically the whole band. Sad, sad, sad. This is up there with the Libertines two albums for a truly excellent contemporary take on 70s punk. 'Modern Kicks' let's us know they had the goods.
21. I nearly forgot about adding Jay-Z's '99 Problems' on here because I only have the single. One of the best songs of the year and reminds how much I miss this genre sometimes. Rick Rubin, come back to hip-hop please. Like immediately and send Neil Diamond to Vegas or something.
22.' One-Two-Three GO! I gotta man who makes me wanna kill!' Karen O belts out 'Man' is less than two minutes. She's gotta man and we're all gonna burn in hell. She's awesome. From Fever to Tell.
23. I think we're supposed to all hate Brody Dalle from The Distillers but I can't remember why. There was a vague Courtney Love vibe or something. Anyway, I played the hell out of their Cobra Fang record. One of those few albums I immediately pressed play when it finished playing the first time. Always a good sign. 'Beat Your Heart Out' is one of many I could have stuck on here.
24. 'Danger! High Voltage!' is just stupid fun. "FIRE IN THE DISCO! FIRE IN THE TACO BELL!" Jack White should have had a hand in more of Electric Six instead of just this song and 'Gay Bar' but then I'm of the opinion that everything he touchs is awesome, so that's just one man's opinion. From Fire
25. I couldn't not have Outkast's 'Hey Ya!' on a list of 2003 songs. I haven't played Speakerboxx/A Love Below in years and it's still infectious.
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