White Russians Are for Saturday Afternoons

2011 Year End Review

2011-12-17T10:17:00.005-07:00

Let's talk 2011 for a moment. Usually as I stop and ponder all that happened during the course of a year, I'm left with the nagging suspicion that it really was nothing to separate it out from the previous 2 or 3 or 5. I worked a job that I really didn't give shit about, worked with people I hated and was making little to no money etc. Those years just blend together and the only thing that separates them out is what annual conference you attended. 2006? Cancun. 2005? Dublin. One would think that seeing some international locations would be pretty amazing and I'd be lucky to have done so. Well, you'd be 100% right. It was great, but that was a 5-7 days out of 365. Do the math and calculate a happiness quotient from those numbers. 2011 turned out to be one of those years that will be extremely easy to remember. I got a new job, one that (a) I like and (b) I'm good at. One doesn't get those two in balance very often so at this point, I'm ready to destroy lives in order to protect. Also, I bought a house and by house, I mean a domicile that is not sharing a wall with some piece of shit I'd rather see in a gas oven that outside my step. Does that sound harsh? Fifteen years of living near students and associated scum has elevated a loathing in me previously suspected but never realized. This probably sounds a bit elitist and perhaps I consider myself to be "better" than them. Well, once again you'd be 100% right. But I digress, that is slipping into the remote past and 2011 is near past and will be fondly recalled. The photo above is the fire that threatened my beloved domicile last month. 2011 will not be soon forgotten.

What about music? For the second year in a row my year end album list is populated largely by Canadian artists. This was, once again, not intentional but wholly welcome. My favourite album of 2011 is from Regina's Library Voices Summer of Lust is 32.35 minutes of pop perfection. Would this be my album of the year if I wasn't in a better place so to speak? It's a gloriously happy record or at least that's the affect it evokes, strongly I might add. 'Anthem for a New Canadia"? It rivals Martha & the Muffins' 'Echo Beach' for the elicitation of that aforementioned emotion. I love this record.

What about the others? A few highlights: Dirty Beaches' Badlands is the soundtrack for a very dark night, literal and figurative darkness. It's the soundtrack for planning a murder, but this is a murder of necessity and not desire. 'Lord Only Knows' sounds like something I've heard before in a THC induced hallucination where I depersonalized and stared out a window for probably 2 min but it felt like 2 hrs.

Cam Penner's Gypsy Summer is another absolutely wonderful record. 'Driftwood' might be my favourite Neil Young song not written and performed by Neil Young. 'It's gonna get worse before it gets better…'. That's a universal truth if there ever was one. He recorded it here in southern Alberta and you can kind of feel that in here. This is beautiful country, so I'm not surprised it inspired a beautiful album.

I heard Imaginary Cities on CBC3 at some point in 2011 and immediately bought the record. It's another nearly perfect pop album. This band and LIbrary Voices just decided to nail the pop song this year and write some great melodies, amazing hooks and keep it under 4 min 99% of the time. They're like Navy Seals, they're in, they're out and it's over before you even realize it, leaving double taps of pop shrapnel in our brains.

I should probably mention all the Attack in Black alums on the list as well. Shotgun Jimmie, Daniel Romano and Marine Dreams all released some stellar albums as well. Sleep Beneath the Willow feels like it sprang fully formed from the late 60s country. Two artists immediately spring to mind for me when i hear this record and that's Don Williams and Bobby Bare. The latter in particular. At one point I half expected to hear "(Margie's At) The Lincoln Park Inn". A stunning record. To turn a previously used comparative point, I'd say Shotgun Jimmie released one of my favourite Pavement albums not released by Pavement. Actually if it was a Pavement album it would be up there with Slanted & Enchanted. Marine Dreams released a minimal album that recalls something I've heard before but I can never really put my finger on completely. Is it old R.E.M.? No, that's not it. It's definitely feels from that early 80s college rock but that doesn't quite work either. I don't think it really matters actually. It's just good stuff.

Shuyler Jansen, Sunparlour Players & The Gertrudes. These three artists seem to straddle an area where Spoon meets My Morning Jacket, where power pop rubs elbows with country and folk. This is a fine area to be in.

And finally, 2011 also brought me a new Manvils EP with more on the way. The only thing that disappoints me about it is that since the boys moved to T.O., they won't be coming through town as much and thus will be able to see these songs get fleshed out in the Slice. I saw a couple of them played during their last swing through town and they were already great. 'Lions of a Lost Tongue' & 'Black Tornado' are a couple of my favourite rock & rolls songs of the year. Speak of the rawk, let's raise a glass for the motherfuckingly great Monster Truck. Let's all get as much as we can from Monster Truck before they get locked up for mass murder. No one who plays music like this can have much of a prefrontal cortex left. There's nothing inhibited, it's all out there. Also best song title of the year is hands down "Righteous Smoke".

Cheers to 2011.

30 Albums

LIbrary Voices - Summer of Lust
Cam Penner - Gypsy Summer
Tom Waits - Bad as Me
Butch Walker - The Spade
The Strokes - Angles
Dirty Beaches - Badlands
Imaginary Cities - Temporary Resident
Shotgun Jimmie - Transistor Sister
The Two Koreas - Science Island
Sloan - The Double Cross

Memphis - Here Comes a City
Arkells - Michigan Left
Marine Dreams - Marine Dreams
Daniel Romano - Sleep Beneath The Window
Shuyler Jansen - Voice from the Lake
Sunparlour Players - Us Little Devils
The Gertrudes - Til the Morning Shows Her Face to Me
No Gold - No Gold
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
One Hundred Dollars - Songs of Man

American Babies - Flawed Logic
Little Foot Long Foot - Oh Hell
Wilco - The Whole Love
My Morning Jacket - Circuital
My Son The Hurricane - You Can't Do This
Drive By Truckers - Go Go Boots
The Luyas - Too Beautiful to Work
Yep - Once
The Darcys - The Darcys
Braids - Native Speaker

EPs

The Manvils - Black Tornado
Monster Truck The Brown EP
Mother's Children - Are You Tough Enough?

25 Canadian Songs from 2011 Plus Butch Walker & The Strokes

Why 25 songs by Canadian artists AND Butch Walker AND the Strokes? Because he's Butch Walker and he must be recognized for his unique genius, damnit!! And well the Strokes are just because. And while all the mixes I post I enjoy but this one in particular gels really, really nicely.

Summer of '89 - Butch Walker
(Baby You Ain't) Tough Enough - Mother's Children
Under Cover of Darkness - The Strokes
Get In Or Get Out - Matters
Disco-Slave Songs - The Two Koreas
Good Day at the Races - Hollerado
Book Club - Arkells
Kill January - Shuyler Jansen
Apocalypse Pop Song - Memphis
Are You Gonna Waste My Time? - Zeus
Weird Week - No Gold
If Raymond Carver Were Born in the 90s - Library Voices
Hummingbird - Imaginary Cities
Unkind - Sloan
Runner - Sunparlour Players
Driftwood - Cam Penner
Derby Girl - The Gertrudes
Ties That Bind - One Hundred Dollars
How Late How Long - The Sheepdogs
King of Kreuzberg - Shotgun Jimmie
We'll Get Her Back in Your Arms - Marine Dreams
Edmonton to Purgatory - The Darcys
Neko Case Hate Fucks Kurt Cobain - Little Foot Long Foot
Righteous Smoke - Monster Truck
Black Tornado - The Manvils
Sweet 17 - Dirty Beaches
Dr. Ruin-Yer-Life - King Khan Experience

Sweet 17 or 25

2011-05-31T17:23:00.004-06:00

Sweet 17 because soon enough I'm going to be married for 17 years and am feeling sentimental about that. 25 because, I've got 25 songs to share and they're sort of sweet, I guess. Call it semi-sweet, better than baker's chocolate at least. But back to the 17 thing again. 17 has always been a very pleasant number for me. According to this numerology site (which I don't subscribe to but I always find it interesting how people can pull patterns) there is an incredible number of associations for the number 17 and it's variations (seriously, check it out. That was ONE number). Example, the ancient Greeks, 17 represents the number of consonants of the alphabet; it is divided in 9 (number of the dumb consonants) and in 8 (number of the semivowels or semi-consonants). These numbers were also in relation with the musical theory and the harmony of the spheres. Pretty cool, eh? And that's just the Greeks. For myself, I've always just liked the number. It felt harmonious. And also, who doesn't love the age of 17, Janis Ian excepted of course. The truth for a guy at 17 is that you can pretty much get away with anything and your constitution is superhuman. I can't speak of anything magical about the 17th marriage anniversary yet but then I've got weeks to go still.

But anyway the music, the semi-sweet 25 songs I gathered from the year 2011. It's kind of coherent, bunch of white folks playing guitars and drums (save for Dirty Beaches), but genre-wise it's a bit more varied, some indie pop-rock, some country-fried Stonesy rock & roll, and then some new wavey-inspired pop. More or less split into a side 1/side 2, so dump what you hate and keep what you love. There's a metaphor there I'm sure. Special props to The Two Koreas (track 17) for branding my new favourite subgenre name: Glacier Garage. Doesn't that sound cool, literally and figuratively? It even rolls off the tongue (17 muscles in the tongue, by the way) nicely. And Matters? Release the album already, the song is on repeat in my head constantly and it needs to be replaced.

25 from 2011

1. Stomp & Holler - Hayes Carll

2. Old Gin Road - Ponderosa

3. Kick Me Where It Hurts - The Booze

4. I Don't Get By - The Sheepdogs

5. Sunshine Love - Bing Ji Ling

6. The Rain Song - Yep

7. Time Spent in Los Angeles - D*wes

8. Alabama Pines - Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit

9. Cry Cry Cry - Nicole Atkins

10 Creep Me Out - Ruby Coast

11. I've Gotta Know - Sloan

12. King of Kreuzberg - Shotgun Jimmie

13. Tornado '87 - The Rural Alberta Advantage

14. Work - One Hudred Dollars

15. Holdin' Onto Black Metal - My Morning Jacket

16. Red Hunting Jacket - Little Scream

17. Disco Slave-Songs - The Two Koreas

18. Get In or Get Out - Matters

19. Baby Don't Dance - Mother Mother

20. Under Cover of Darkness - The Strokes

21. I Want the Lights On After Dark - Memphis

22. Never Speak of It Again - The Holiday Crowd

23. Sad Song - The Cars'

24. Never Saw the Point - Cults

25. Sweet 17 - Dirty Beaches

The Last of the Unplucked Gems

2011-02-08T19:24:00.003-07:00

This is something I've thought about putting together for awhile now. Let's face it, if you love the Tragically Hip and are looking to fix, you're grabbing Up to Here, Road Apples or Fully Completely. I'm not immune either, I've got every single album the band has put out along with a very healthy collection of boots and I still grab for one of those three because they're goddamn solid rock and roll and are also woven into the fabric of probably a thousand collective memories. Particularly those latter two albums; my god, if you were at a Canadian university in the early 90s those albums were inescapable, never mind just a few singles. And yes it is superbly great rock and roll, but lyrically how fucking odd that may of these songs became anthems? 'Locked in the Trunk of a Car' sure, when Gord is screaming 'LET ME OUUTTTTTTT', you're there with him, but it has always struck me as bizarre that '50 Mission Cap' also became one of the most beloved (and anthemic) songs. I mean, sure it's about hockey and, more specifically, the Leafs but still, when Gord just matter of factly lays out the song for you 'Bill Barilko disappeared, that summer..' and let's you know he stole the information from a hockey card, it's just great and everything that makes the Hip such a uniquely wonderful Canadian institution. They've also continued to put out some really great albums over nearly a quarter century. Sure some are better than others (no one really says 'hey, time for Trouble in the Henhouse!', not even me), but goddamnit, they have been consistently interesting, lyrically and musically, but for one reason or another, their rabid fanbase dropped off, pretty precipitously after Day for Night. I kind of considered this mix to be the first part in an Hip re-discovery for anyone interested (I'm also putting together a greatest songs you've never heard of post-Day for Night songs). I put together a mix recently of some lesser-known Hip tracks that I think are worth checking out, covering all of their albums. I kind of cheated on throwing 'Pigeon Cameras' on here, being that it's on Fully Completely it's still pretty well known, but I wanted to represent everything. I guess it's not really that surprisingly when you hear this because it tends toward low and mid-tempo moody introspection. Keep it for late at night and enjoy.

The Hip Low Mix

Impossibilium Day for Night

Coconut Cream Trouble at the Henhouse

Opiated Up to Here

Freak Turbulence Music@Work

Gus: The Polar Bear From Central Park In Between Evolution

Chagrin Falls Phantom Power

Pigeon Camera Fully Completely

Rules Phantom Power

Pretend World Container

The Last Of The Unplucked Gems Road Apples

Scared Day for Night

Killing Time The Tragically Hip

Butts Wigglin Trouble at the Henhouse

Are We Family In Between Evolution

Toronto #4 Music@Work

Queen of the Furrows We Are The Same

The Dire Wolf In Violet Light

Stay Music@Work

Throwing Off Glass In Violet Light

World Container World Container

2010-12-18T12:19:00.004-07:00

I had every intention of doing a better job on boots and comps in 2010. But I got a real job which was going swimmingly until about June, then it all went to hell along with my mood and capability of feeling enthusiasm for anything except for red wine and codeine. But, I think things are going to look up in 2011. Seriously, that's not optimism but rather the result of a lot of hard work and Machiavellian scheming. So anyway, we're down to the wire on this year in music and it was definitely the best year in Canadian music (for me anyway) in a very long time. A particularly large appreciation and shout out to the city of Hamilton for birthing Young Rival, Cowlick, Huron and (sort of) Luke Doucet. They also own the rights to the magnificent Forgotten Rebels and Teenage Head. I can truly say that it is the first time I've ever uttered the words "I wish I lived in Hamilton". So without further ado, here's my Top 50 albums of 2010 and a Best-Of Canadian music compilation. Technically, there's one track (Christmas in Hell by NQ Arbuckle) that's from 2005 but I just heard it this year so what the hell. So once more I've got to give it up for Cowlick for releasing my favourite album and song ("Wires") in 2010, also let's face facts, its kismet that they released a track called 'White Russians' to boot. Cheers!

Top 50

01. Cowlick - Wires

02. Young Rival - LP

03. Sweet Thing - Sweet Thing

04. Gertrudes - Dawn Time Riot

05. Luke Doucet & The White Falcon - Steel City Trawler

06. Huron - Huron

07. The Beauties - The Beauties

08. Slowcoaster - Darkest of Discos

09. The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack

10. Kings of Leon - Come Down Sundown

11. Mother's Children - That’s Who!

12. Spoon - Transference

13. Zeus - Say Us

14. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

15. The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever

16. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh)

17. Flash Lightin'- Flash Lightin'

18. The High Dials - Anthem for Doomed Youth

19. Elvyn - The Decline

20. Drive-By Truckers - The Big To Do

21. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today

22. PS I Love You - Meet Me At the Muster Station

23. Macy Gray - The Sellout

24. The Dead Weather - Sea of Cowards

25. Kathryn Calder - Are You My Mother?

26. The Black Keys - Brothers

27. The Roots - How I Got Over

28. The Paperbacks - Lit from Within

29. The New Pornographers - Together

30. Izzy Stradlin - Waves of Heat

31. Spoon River - Kingdom of the Burned

32. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record

33. The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang

34. Marah - Life is a Problem

35. C'mon - Beyond the Pale Horse

36. The National - High Violet

37. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast

38. Via Audio - Animalore

39. Happy Birthday - Happy Birthday

40. Neil Young - Le Noise

41. The pack AD - We Kill Computers

42. Land of Talk - Cloak and Cipher

43. The Whigs - In the Dark

44. Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart

45. 7 Walkers - 7 Walkers

46. Drink Up Buttercup - Born and Thrown on a Hook

47. The 88 - The 88

48. Proud Mary - Ocean Park

49. 1973 - Bye Bye Cellphone

50. Electric 6 - Zodiac

Canadiana Mix Part 1

1. Wires - Cowlick

2. Chase Scene - Broken Social Scene

3. Big World - The Novaks

4. Those were the Days - Elvyn

5. Teenage Love Made Me Insane - The High Dials

6. Lazy Susan - Sweet Thing

7. You Got a Mouth - Flash Lightnin'

8. Quarry Hymns - Land Of Talk

9. King and Country - Huron

10. Fashion Blues - The Beauties

11. Fool - Spoon River

12. Dirty, Dirty Blonde - Luke Doucet & The White Falcon

13. Crash Years - The New Pornographers

14. Shaky Sue - Mother's Childre

15. The Ocean - Young Rival

16. Darkest of Discos - Slowcoaster

17. How Does It Feel - Zeus

18. Illness As Metaphor - The Paperbacks

19. Castor and Pollux - Kathryn Calder

20. Something Else - Diamond Rings

21. 2012 - P.S. I Love You

22. Sailor - Gertrudes

Canadiana Mix Part 1

1. Change of Seasons - Sweet Thing

2. Marching Through Your Head - Zeus

3. Lotta Lies - Elvyn

4. Your Hands (Together) - The New Pornographers

5. Forced to Love - Broken Social Scene

6. Chinese Boxes - The High Dials

7. B.Y.O. Life - Slowcoaster

8. No Sympathy - Flash Lightnin'

9. Bad Side of Town - Mother's Children

10. Patron Saint of Atheists - The Paperbacks

11. Ghost In the Park - Young Rival

12. Ronnie Hawkins - Gertrudes

13. Emmanuel - Spoon River

14. The East Wind - Gord Downie And The Country Of Miracles

15. Sooner or Later - The Novaks

16. A Day Long Past It's Prime - Kathryn Calder

17. Sex - Cowlick

18. Corktown - Huron

19. Love and a Steady Hand - Luke Doucet & The White Falcon

20. You and Me - The Beauties

21. Christmas In Hell - NQ Arbuckle

Canadiana Mix Part 2

Gimme Danger

2010-10-03T12:23:00.002-06:00

The lack of posts has not only been pure laziness but also a disastrously boring bootleg group on Usenet. I'm serious, unless you're a Uriah Heep or a Stevie Ray Vaughn fanatic there's been very little interesting recordings to be had. SRV falls into that category where those who love him, love him A LOT and then post everything he's ever done and eat up the bandwidth with boring blues. Then I found this sweet soundboard recording of the first reunited Iggy and the Stooges show in Sao Paulo, Brazil from 2009. Considering that James Williamson hadn't played a gig in 35 years, I think he sounds pretty great. While I previously tended to favour Funhouse above all others, I've come to really love the Raw Power era band and frankly Kill City is the best non-Stooges record he ever made. Also, Iggy's vocals have barely changed in 40 years. Compare and contrast the voice and also his physique with many of his other contemporaries. The old adage 'Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger' while usually completely false is clearly appropriate here.

Tracklisting

------------

01 (4:25) Raw Power

02 (2:30) Kill City

03 (4:23) Search & Destroy

04 (4:02) Gimme Danger

05 (3:08) Cock In My Pocket

06 (3:15) Shake Appeal

07 (2:44) Sax Solo

08 (3:30) Loose

09 (5:00) 1970

10 (7:12) Funhouse

11 (1:38) Night Theme

12 (3:31) Skull Ring

13 (2:59) Johanna

14 (3:32) I Gotta Right

15 (4:51) I Wanna Be Your Dog

16 (5:09) Five Foot One

17 (5:14) The Passenger

18 (4:47) Death Trip

19 (4:05) Lust For Life

20 (3:46) Interview

Playing Time : 79:41

Total Size : 142 MB

Perpetual Autumn

2010-08-14T14:21:00.003-06:00

Here's a mix loosely inspired by my growing dislike of the season known as 'Summer'. I don't know when it happened exactly but I think it occurred when I stopped drinking beer. Well, it's not that I've "quit" drinking beer; I still occasionally consume and enjoy it, particularly the 3rd beer buzz but I think I've largely outgrown its charm. I just don't feel the desire anymore. I think maybe it's conditioning because once I left academics for a permanent position in the health care industry, I lost the freedom to come and go as I please at the lab. Gotta be at work 5 days a week and keep my hours, no more knocking off early to find a patio and well, drink beer. So what I'm basically driving at is if I'm not sitting around a patio, goldbricking and drinking beer, I hate summer. Makes sense to me, I'm a very linear man. Also my house retains heat like a fucking green house. I should install solar panels. Anyway, I'm sick of summer, the heat, the bugs, sweating, I'm done. The mix below is loosely inspired by this feeling. It leans a little heavy on CDN artists from the last couple of years, largely CBC3-kind of artists. Here's to perpetual autumn, cool, dark evenings and and pitch black early mornings with cupped hands, visible breath & broken leaves under feet.

01. Science Comes First

02. Eighteen - Lions in the Street

03. Don't Tell Mom - Mother's Children

04. Ghost in the Park - Young Rival

05. Young Hipster - Little Foot Long Foot

06. Echoes Of My Sins - Anders Osbourne

07. Soft in the Center - The Hold Steady

08. Settin' The Woods On Fire - Ronnie Spector

09. I Went To Heaven In A Dream Last Night - Daddy

10. For a Few Dollars More - The Manvils

11. Fashion Blues - The Beauties

12. Something About the Bedroom - Cobra Verde

13. Me and Your Ghost - Sarah Borges & The Broken Singles

14. Officer Down - Carolyn Mark & NQ Arbuckle

15. It's Not the Liquor I Miss - Luke Doucet

16. I Got A Life - Dojo Workhorse

17. Perpetual Autumn - The Paperbacks

18. Our Little Secret - Art Bergmann

19. Forced to Love - Broken Social Scene

20. Anyone's Ghost - The National

21. Huntsville Affair - NQ Arbuckle

22. Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 2 - My Morning Jacket

2010-07-01T13:10:00.001-06:00

All right, here's my semi-annual favourite songs of the year mix. If you're a listener of modern indie type music then it's extremely likely you'll have heard some of the songs and artists in the mix (e.g. The Dead Weather, The Hold Steady, The New Pornographers, Spoon). Hopefully they're are a few you haven't heard (e.g. Elvyn, Via Audio, Spoon River and Flared). It's pretty upbeat so throw it on late afternoon, pour some libations and enjoy.

25 Songs from 2010

01 Hundred/Million - The Whigs

02 Rest Sniper, Rest - Dirty Sweet

03 Bushwick Blues - Delta Spirit

04 C'mon - The Soft Pack

05 Written in Reverse - Spoon

06 Those Were the Days - Elvyn

07 Blue Bood Blues - The Dead Weather

08 Protection Racket - Fionn Regan

09 Marching Through Your Head - Zeus

10 Denise - Clem Snide

11 Look Around You, Part II - Flared

12 Babies - Via Audio

13 Can't Hear My Eyes - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

14 The Diamond Church Street Choir - The Gaslight Anthem

15 Lonely Is a Town - Glossary

16 The Weekenders - The Hold Steady

17 Lunch In Field Four - Adam Arcuragi

18 Within The Spirit Sagging - Marah

19 Buried In the Sun - Spoon River

20 I Don't Wanna Know - Peter Wolf

21 We Are the Foolish - General Fiasco

22 Your Hands (Together) - The New Pornographers

23 Every Light - Shabby Rogue

24 Somewhere By Now - Sime Nugent

25 Girls Who Smoke - Drive By Truckers

Can't be a Has-Been When You Never Was.

2010-06-11T14:53:00.006-06:00

If you've never had the chance to hear Tommy Womack, I implore you to do so and I'm here to meet you halfway. If you like it honest and real, if you like Dylan, Steve Earle, CCR, southern rock, roots rock, Americana etc. you're probably going to love Tommy Womack. Actually if you're a carbon based form of life with an intact IQ with both hemispheres firing, you're probably going to love Tommy Womack. He's been around for awhile and if you want to learn more about him, check out his website here. I was introduced to him via the obner board where there was a massive mix project (the "tenner" series, put together 10 tracks from some of your favourite artists as for an introduction to their work) and this fellow put together one for Tommy. I think after I played it a single time I was immediately in love with this dude's music. I immediately went and bought everthing he'd released as a solo artist and then from the Bis-quits. I've never been able to track down anything from Government Cheese but from what I can gather, this fall we'll see some re-releases of those older records. And in my opinion, he's getting better over time. His last record may be my favourite (There I Said It), which contains possibly the greatest song in the history of the universe. 'Alpha Male and the Canine History Blood'. A wise man said, once this songs starts you HAVE to let it finish the whole way through. Also, I also liked what he has to say in general, from interviews that I've read. This quote speaks volumes, when he was pressed if he felt screwed over by the record industry in a Nashville interview:

“If anybody has not been screwed over by the music industry, it’s me. I've had chance after chance, one at-bat after another. Nobody ever twisted my arm and made me get drunk before going onstage. No one made me do a show stoned. No one made me run at the mouth at the microphone not knowing what my point was. And, in the long run, I never gave the music industry a song it could use. Commercial is not a bad thing. The Sermon on the Mount is commercial. But what did I do? I gave the machine an eight-minute-long song about The Replacements.”

Hell yeah! So I've bundled a 10 of my favourite Tommy Womack songs here and added one bonus track from Daddy (Will Kimbrough & Tommy Womack), which Tommy had been performing solo before appearing on Daddy's For a Second Time album. Check them out, I practically guarantee a better mood because of it. And then hit iTunes and buy the goddamn albums, there's plenty more good stuff to here from him solo or as part of Daddy.

1. Betty Was Black (and willie was White)

2. If That's All There is To See

3. Tough

4. The Highway's Coming

5. 25 Years Ago

6. You Could Be At the Beach Right Now

7. I'm Never Gonna Be a Rock Star

8. The Replacements

9. I Want A Cigarette

10. The Ballad of Martin Luther King

11. Alpha Male & the Canine Mystery Blood

Over & Out of Control

2010-04-02T09:08:00.005-06:00

The Manvils are my probably my favourite band right now. Stating this comes as a bit of a surprise as the immediate realization of this fact didn't initially come from me. It happened at the Slice in Lethbridge before seeing The Manvils last month. I was there with my friend Crystal, ridiculously early as usual, drinking way too much considering how many hours we were gonna log that evening. As our server dropped off the second of about 27 pitchers of Keith's she asked us if we were staying to see The Manvils and Crystal said "Oh yeah, they're like his favourite band in the world'. And I thought "well I don't know about favourite..." and then after the first set ended with an absolutely blistering 'Buried Love' I thought "Goddamn, they probably ARE my favourite band in the world!". And that's really difficult for me to state for multiple reasons. Firstly, I had to qualify the acknowledgment with 'probably' because as science type guy I have difficulty with absolutes. You cannot really know anything with a 100% certainty, there's always an unknown factor. For example, out the population of current rock & roll bands currently roaming the planet, I've only heard a small sample. Maybe there's a Ukrainian version of the Manvils that I might like even MORE than the Canadian version but because they're unsigned and never leave the old Bloc I'll never hear them. Plus, "favourite" is an overused word to begin with, people are always saying "oh that's my favourite blank" "Oh really, seriously your favourite?" "Well, no, not my absolute favourite..." Ahhhh, I see, so you just like it then. That's great. Also as a bit of a music obsessive, I probably listen to a lot of artists relative to the average person. Like a lot. So picking a favourite out of a large sample is tough. And how does one realize they have a favourite? I think it's kind of like when you realize you're in love. Do you get excited when that special person walks in the room? Yes? How about after the millionth time you watched them walk in the room? Is that excitement still there? It's probably love. It came to me recently after playing their debut Buried Love and their eponymous 2009 album for probably the billionth time. When I throw The Manvils are the turntable and put the needle on the record, I still get excited to hear Mikey sing the first line "Not a delicate staaaaarttttt..." from 'Good Luck Club'. It's gotta be love. And like the ineffable love, the sound of The Manvils it's hard to verbalize for me. It's simple but it ain't. Of course, it's only rock & roll and therefore not terribly complicated. But this isn't left hemisphere business, sir; this is ALL right brain. The right brain can't tell you a damn thing, but it just knows. The Drive By Truckers, who I also love, have a sound that is pretty easy to nail. Of course they play straight up rock & roll too but clearly they got a southern vibe they don't stray from (thankfully). The Manvils are just classic, but not classic rock. They're high energy but not fast. They mine the same musical vein as The Clash and The Jam and Raw-Power era Stooges. It's just rock & roll, done right.

So check out the sample mix and then be good to yourself and pick up their LPs, Buried Love (2007) and The Manvils (2009) along with the Strange Disaster EP, all available on iTunes. And for the love of god, if they're even in the remote vicinity of your town go catch them live, they're fucking incredible. I've even toyed with the idea of not drinking the next time I see them because I don't want to miss a moment. Of course, that's the ledge I'm going to have crawl onto because the drinking and their rock & roll show is pretty much the best combo going. If I could somehow combine my Peter Jackson menthols and the rest of the carnal pleasures in there, I'd be in heaven. I've seen them twice now here in Lethbridge and like I said, halfway through the last show I threw all caution to the wind and declared them my favourite band. I hope more folks hear & see them in 2010. They're that good.

1. Good Luck Club

2. Pretty Bleed

3. The Stoker

4. Strange Disaster

5. Missing You

6. Turpentine

7. Between the Lashes

8. Buried Love

Caught in a trap.

2010-02-27T12:41:00.003-07:00

How over the course of a year, Elvis managed to do the 1968 television special to the Vegas stage is nothing short of sad and bizarre. But I guess that's Elvis. And drugs. And poor management. But still Elvis. Stepping onto a Vegas stage which should be the end of the line in terms of a performer's cultural impact, but this was Elvis' next act and probably most iconic. The suits, the hair, the belts, the karate, the drug-hazed monologues. That would all come later, but for now this is his debut performance at the International Hilton on July 29th 1969. One last trip, long way down.

Are You Satisfied with the Life You're Living?

2010-01-19T17:33:00.004-07:00

It seems logical that my first post of the new year and the first in nearly a month's time should definitely be about a genre of music I know practically nothing about. I'm ignorant of almost everyone but the artist everyone identifies with this genre. Like the worst white devils, I heard Bob Marley first on the most popular career compilations ever in the history of the world, Legend. As I've grown to dislike most compilations in favour of actual albums I sought out a bunch of his albums with the Wailers and the songs that aren't on there are just as brilliant as those very famous ones. However, what really ratchets up the intensity are the live albums. The insanely great Babylon by Bus taken during the Kaya Tour in 1978 is probably one of the hottest live albums ever. So much to my delight, I recently snagged a soundboard recording of their stop in Rotterdam, Holland at the Ahoy Club. When I first heard it, I put down what I was reading and just listening to the damn thing, transfixed actually. There are times when even I feel like getting up and dancing. And that is saying something. Part of my plan for 2010 is to get better acquainted with this genre.

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2009

2009-12-17T06:11:00.002-07:00

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2009

1. Who Fingered Rock 'n' Roll - Cornershop

2. Baby You're A Star - Gidgets Ga Ga

3. Turpentine - The Manvils

4. This Is Our Perfect Crime - The Von Bondies

5. Duke Hat - One Hundred Hurricanes

6. Smoke - Lucero

7. Where the Hell is Henry - Chuck Prophet

8. Hang You From the Heavens - The Dead Weather

9. I Know What I Am - Band of Skulls

10. The Fixer - Pearl Jam

11. Not S'pose to Call - The Dudes

12. Without You - Sour Jazz

13. Morning Glory - Ike Reilly

14. Why Modern Radio Is A-Ok - Roman Candle

15. The Long Way - The Bottle Rockets

16. Soul and Skin - The Clarks

17. It's A Shame - Deadstring Brothers

18. In Spite of All That Happened - The Evening Rig

19. You And I - Wilco

20. Morning Moon - The Tragically Hip

21. Cheap Ain't Cheap (For Crying Out Loud) - Scott Miller

22. Everybody Loves Me (But You) - The Junior League

23. Love In A Bottle - Daddy

24. Oh My - Gin Wigmore

25. Why My Light Comes Shining - Rich Hope

1. I don't think this Cornershop's Judy Sucked a Lemon for Breakfast has even been released in Canada but I will buy it as soon it is. A great album, reminds of the fun of their '97 album When I Was Born for the 7th Time. One of the best singles of the year, 'Who Fingered Rock 'n' Roll?'.

2. Listening to Gidget Ga Ga's album The Big Bong Fiasco I realized I have to amend one of my earlier complaints regarding artists' desire to try and fill up a compact disc (74 min in length) with their new releases. Too often they just fill up the album with junk and you have an album that is 60 min long when it could have been half as long. HOWEVER, there is a caveat to that. You can fill up an hour's worth of music, you just make sure you don't write any shitty songs that suck. Gidget Ga Ga do that and manage to still not have a single song clock 4 min in length so even the moderately okay songs are over quickly. 'Baby You're a Star', which is not a Prince cover although that would be cool as well.

3. I saw the Manvils here in Lethbridge this past October, got to meet the fellas in the band and took in a fantastic show. Their second album The Manvils is one of my favourites of 2009, quick and fast rock and roll done well. The video for 'Turpentine' features John Savage from movie The Deer Hunters, where he beats someone to death with a crystal ashtray. Everyone should have a really nice ashtray whether they smoke or not. Someone told me that once. Anyway, 'Turpentine's la-la-la-la's will stay with you the rest of the day.

4. The Von Bondies Love, Hate And Then There's You is great and somewhat late follow-up to Pawn Shoppe Heart. There's nothing inherently special about what they do, but it must be done well because I kept coming back to it over the whole year. Granted that could be a slam on me and my shitty taste but I prefer to think it's because the Von Bondies made an entertaining rock & roll album.

5. 'Duke Hat' is the opener off the debut from One Hundred Hurricane's 60 Years Under The Stars, is an extremely catchy, Strokesy tune that's so effortless those actual Strokes guys should take note of how it's done.

6. Lucero jumped up a notch on 1372 Overton Park, I mean they're always pretty great but they like the transition from liquid to gas, something mysterious happened from the last record to this one. It's the horns for one, but the music itself is more of a united whole and smacks of devil-dealing. 'Smoke' is one of many killer tracks on this album.

7. More Chuck Prophet, he hit again in 2009 with Let Freedom Ring!. Like I said earlier about many of his songs, they just seem so effortless and loose. I struggled whether to put 'Where the Hell is Harry' or 'American Man' on here, but went with the former as it just seemed to fit better. Both are damn catchy tunes.

8. And more Jack White, this time via his latest band The Dead Weather, 'Hang You From the Heaven's from Horehound. It's a bit more of a challenging album, not quite as polished as the latter-day Stripes and Raconteurs. A bit dirtier and minimal. I quite like it, but not as much as his other work.

9. This is basically the White Stripes done by a new UK group called Band of Skulls, so it's kind of derivative of an already derivative band. Which is also kind of redundant, but when the songs are catchy like 'I Know What I Am' from Baby Darling Doll Face Honey who really cares? Also, this is the White Stripes if Meg came to forefront more often.

10. I don't think Pearl Jam have sounded this good or at least not as serious in quite a few years as they do on Backspacer. They honestly sound like they're having fun here. 'The Fixer' is a great example, Eddie can still bring it going on their 20th year together.

11. The Dudes are a pretty basic guitars-out-front band from Calgary, that vary from some interesting kind of indie rock that remind me of Spoon to some not so interesting bland rawk that remind me of The Matt Mays. Can't recall how I first heard of them this year, but based on a few previews I picked it up. And while it's not all great I end up liking it in spite of the weak spots, they have written some foot stompers like 'Not S'pose to Call'. The chorus really hangs with me once the song is over. 'I'm gonna save my quarters for the laundromat' is kind of dumb but I like it. From Blood Guts Bruises Cuts.

12. 'Without You' is pure Iggy goodness from Sour Jazz's American Seizure 'I'm havin' a good time, drinkin' the red wine, I'm goin' out of my mind, without youuuuu'. This is a late comer to the 25 of 2009, but I've played this approximately 257 times in the last 48 hours.

13. Speaking of late comers to the best of 2009, Ike Reilly's Hard Luck Stories is one of my favourites of the year. I love Ike's pleading here on 'Morning Glory'. Who can't identify with this guy?

14. Up there for my song of the year, 'Why Modern Radio is A-Ok', from Roman Candle's Oh Tall Tree In The Ear. Impossible to dislike.

15. The opening chords of the Bottle Rocket's 'The Long Way' from Lean Forward reminds me of some song but I cannot for the life of me come up with it, but it's something I like so it's all right, it just kind of bugs the hell out of me. It's tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, where I can nearly grab it and then I just end up singing 'The Long Way', which is all right because it's an awesome tune.

16. The Clark's 'Soul and Skin' from Restless Days reminds me of old Blue Rodeo, in fact I can almost hear Greg singing this. I shouldn't necessarily say 'old' Blue Rodeo because they're still doing it and doing it well, but this song reminds me of something from the 90s. 'You ripped a fault line into my soul and skin' is a great line.

17. I'm a big fan of the Deadstring Brother's southern-styled Bandisms, even if a lot of others have staked out this area more successfully. I slept on their Sao Paulo album for a good chunk of 2009 and put it on recently and was singing along in no time. They mine a heavy Stones vibe for 'It's a Shame'.

18. The pedal steel right off the top of the Evening Rig's 'In Spite of All that Happened' hooks me every single time, mixed with that shuffling beat also brings forth a Blue Rodeo vibe. This song sounds great cruising the highway at night.

19. 'You and I' from Wilco's Wilco (The Album) is a schmaltzy 70s AM radio duet between Jeffy Tweedy and Feist. I love this.

20. The Tragically Hip's We Are The Same is probably the best of the late period Hip records and that it has come in 2009 delights me to no end. Strong from start to finish, this is 'Morning Moon', it's fine country opener.

21. 'Cheap ain't cheap but it is when it's free'. Love this track, 'Cheap Ain't Cheap (For Crying Out Loud)' from Scott Miller's For Crying Out Loud. It's full of The Truth.

22. This is another of those 'I can't get the song out of my head' moments, 'Everbody Loves Me But You' from the Junior League's Smile Shoot Smile, some nice harmonies here, country-fried powerpop with a splash of Beach Boys.

23. We haven't had a new Tommy Womack album in a couple of years since he's been working with Will Kimbrough in Daddy. Fortunately, he's as great as ever as evidenced by a nice Dire Straits kinda groove on 'Love In a Bottle' from their 'For a Second Time' album. As he says we ALL should be drinking Diet Mr. Pibb and jammin' on an 8-track of Made in the Shade.

24. 'Oh My' by Gin Wigmore. She sounds at times like a white Macy Gray and I mean that in the best way possible. Sexy as hell.

25. I saw Rich Hope open for the Manvils when they came through town. I saw him wandering around the bar with a big pompadour and an oversized leather coat. A little dude too. He took the stage alone with a single guitar and backed only by a drummer. And the clatter he made with that guitar was out of this world. When he ended his set with this song 'Why My Light Comes Shining' I was awestruck. He was walking around on the tables and had a crowd of people around him singing and chanting 'Gonna STEP ON UP!!!' like some demented preacher gathering the crowd around him to testify. It was really something. My favourite song of the year on one of my favourite albums of the year Whip It On Ya!.

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2008

2009-12-16T14:29:00.004-07:00

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2008

1. Constructive Summer - The Hold Steady

2. Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution - The Black Crowes

3. 3 Dimes Down - Drive-By Truckers

4. Riot in the Foodcourt - Cobra Verde

5. Knuckleheads - Izzy Stradlin

6. Raise A Holler - Diamond Dogs

7. Rest of My Days - Gentlemen Jesse & His Men

8. The '59 Sound - The Gaslight Anthem

9. Los Angeles - Counting Crows

10. No Redemption Song - Jason Collett

11. Drunken Poet's Dream - Hayes Carll

12. In Our Talons - Bowerbirds

13. Empty Ring - Paul Weller

14. Blue But Cool - Marah

15. Hippy's Son - Dirty Pretty Things

16. You Could Make the Four Walls Cry - The Zutons

17. Terminal Boredom - The Cute Lepers

18. I Love This Dirty Town - The Quireboys

19. Bedspring Symphony - Stevie Klasson

20. Before the Candle Burns Blue - Sulo

21. Bogchiel Rain Blues - The Moondoggies

22. Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 2 - My Morning Jacket

23. The Stoop - Little Jackie

24. Dancing Choose - TV On the Radio

25. Why Do These Parties Always End the Same Way? - Benji Hughes

1. The Hold Steady released another great if not essential album in 2008, Stay Positive. This was the lead off track and I instantly feel better after listening to it, as it jump starts the memory train. Maybe it's only guys in their 30s who can hear this and wish you were back at that point 20 years ago, although in all honesty it might be cool for maybe a night, but to relive it all, no thanks. Still, "Me and my friends are like 'double whiskey, coke no ice'/We drink along in double time; might drink too much, but we feel fine/we’re gonna build something, this summer''. The only thing we ever built was tolerance.

2. I never stopped playing the first three Black Crowes albums. They're still in regular rotation, but in the latter 90s after Three Snakes & One Charm, I kind of lost interest though, and wasn't the only one as their label dropped them and then the lost interest in themselves and went on hiatus. They got back together in 2008 and released the very good Warpaint album and managed to release another (great) new one in 2009. The opening track reminded me of the old Crowes I haven't heard in long time 'Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution'.

3. Last Drive-By Truckers of the decade or more accurately, last album of new material of the decade as they've released a live record and an album of rarities in 2009. This is '3 Dimes Down' from the double album Brighter Than Creation's Dark , one of the more upbeat tracks on an otherwise fine mid-tempo album.

4. Again, after reviewing albums and songs while putting these mixes together, I'd have to say that Spoon and Cobra Verde were among the most consistently underestimated in terms of memory, where I tended to think less of their records for some reason. Cobra Verde's ''Riot in the Foodcourt' from Haven't Slept All Year is a massively fun tune with hooks galore. It's always good to revisit some bands.

5. I love that Izzy Stradlin keeps cranking out the albums every single year while it took that nimrod Axl Rose nearly 20 years to release a middling piece of shit called Chinese Democracy. Artists used to do that, rather than waiting for 5 years between albums while inspiration builds. They're not all classics, but steady journeyman rock & roll. He did it with Concrete here, and a classic Izzy tune, 'Knuckleheads'.

6. Some more Diamond Dogs, from It's Most Likely this is 'Raise a Holler', more great rock and roll from these Swedes.

7. Gentlemen Jesse & his Men do classic 80s power-pop and they do it really, really well. From their self-titled debut, their anthem of loserdom, 'Rest of My Days'.

8. One of my favourite songs of 2008 is from my favourite album of 2008, the title track from The Gaslight Anthem's The '59 Sound. The song demands to be played ridiculously loud. Check out the youtube clip of them dueting on this song with the Boss himself (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atmGYUsbahw). 'Young boys, young girls, ain't supposed to die on a Saturday night.'

9. Of course, the same ringing indictment that I threw at Axl Rose above can be rightly directed to Counting Crows. For Christ's sakes guys, you're not creating a fucking opera, you can drop more than two albums in a decade, and if you're waiting that long between records, you better be bring some REALLY impressive songs to the table. Alas, they only brought a few good to great tunes on the wonderfully titled Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings. I quite like 'Los Angeles' a lot, I wish I like the whole album as much.

10. This was really my first exposure to Jason Collett, on his Here's To Being Here. I can't recall how I first heard it but I'm a sucker for the vaguely Gordon Lightfootish 'No Redemption Song'. Simply hearing ol' Jason namecheck Highway 401 is as close to that road as I like to get.

11. I'm genetically programed to like an song titled 'A Drunken Poet's Dream'. Hayes Carll does it perfectly here from Trouble in Mind.

I got a woman she's wild as Rome

She likes to lay naked and be gazed upon

She crosses a bridge and then sets it on fire

Lands like a bird on a telephone wire

Wine bottles scattered like last nights clothes

Cigarettes, papers, and dominoes

She laughs for a minute about the shape I'm in

Says, "You be the sinner honey, I'll be the sin."

I'm gonna holler and I'm gonna scream

I'm gonna get me some mescaline

She brings me roses and a place to lean

A drunken poets dream

12. The first time I heard the Bowerbird's 'In Our Talons' was from one of my oldest friends, Adam Makarenko who did the cinematography for their video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiqhuYe_Z70) and I have subsequently been unable to get the deet-deet-deet out of my head since then. Great, insideous song from their Hymns For A Dark Horse album.

13. I'm not sure exactly why I like Paul Weller's 'Empty Ring' so much. I think it's the music, there's something implicitly pleasant about it and vaguely festive. From his 22 Dreams double album.

14. Marah's 'Blue But Cool' always makes me think of Christmas, it's kind of got that melancholy end of the night at the Christmas party vibe, it's 245am and we're still up nursing our drinks. Also probably having the words 'blue and 'cool' in the title help a bit, but really it's because I got the leak of Angels of Destruction in December '07 and played the hell out of during the holidays. Love the lyrics too, "Ooooh now kiddo, it's all cannons and bells, two heartsick fools drinkin' beer on the kitchen stools, yeah we're blue...but cool."

15. Dirty Pretty Things' 'Hippy's Son' from their Romance at Short Notice record is a wonderful mix of that Libertines quality with some Beatles for the 'hush hush my love' chorus. Love it, they need to release more albums or just reconvene with Pete.

16. The previous song is a perfect segue into this one, The Zuton's 'You Could Make the Four Walls Cry'. I actually didn't know when the last one ended and this began when I first played the mix through. Love this song, great album too You Can Do Anything, great UK rock and roll. I also just love the song title, the idea of making an inanimate object like a wall cry is interesting and reminds of how some believe that emotions can be etched into discrete space-time regions.

17. Great pop-punk from the Cute Lepers from their Can't Stand Modern Music, 'Terminal Boredom'. Sadly I think these guys are finished after one of their members got killed this year. Too bad, they were fun.

18. 'I Love this Dirty Town' from the Quireboys is basically a rewrite of '7 O'Clock' and that's a GREAT thing, this is classic 70 blooze rock. And if you're gonna rip yourself off, pick a great one to do so. (Note to Aerosmith, cribbing your old choruses is not enough). From their Homewreckers and Heartbreakers album.

19. Former guitarist for The Diamond Dogs, Stevie Klasson released a great record in 2008, Don't Shoot the Messenger, which was basically exactly like what you'd expect from someone who played with the Diamond Dogs, 70's glam & sleaze. 'Bedspring Symphony' is a sexy duet with Jenny Schyttberg. There are moments here when I think this is what all music should sound like this all the time. When she sings "Well I was up last night with a bedspring fever..." oh man.

20. And now we have the current singer for Diamond Dogs, Sulo who also dropped a solo album in 2008, called Hear Me Out. Insanely infectious chorus here on 'Before the Candle Burns Blue'. I love Sweden so very much.

21. Here's a band that slipped my memory that had no reason to, The Moondoggies, tap into a handclapping, southern dixie groove with shades of The Band and The Grateful Dead with 'Bogchiel Rain Blues' from their debut Don't Be a Stranger. I look forward to more from these guys.

22. Holy cripes, I had forgotten how much My Morning Jacket's Evil Urges album messed with my head. When they released Z you started getting an idea that they were going to go places other than theirs and their fan's comfort zones (i.e. Americana, southern jam). They went over the top with this record, but in a good way. 'Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt 2.' is Princely soul meets Southern groove mixed with some Pink Floyd spaciness. Awesomely weird AND nearly 9 min long.

23. Little Jackie's 'The Stoop' from their self-titled debut falls into that How Can You Not Like This? category. La-la-la-la love this song, it's all gooooooood.

24. When I first heard TV on the Radio's Dear Science I thought it was okay and left it alone, then went back and played it again. It's now one of a handful of albums that I usually play twice through, always. It's like a buffet of interesting music and you keep going back for more. This is 'Dancing Choose'.

25. Benji Hughes' A Love Extreme I actually heard in 2009 but had I heard it in 2008, it would have been a Top 10 album. Usually I really hate confident people, well, maybe hate is a poor choice of word, but I usually wish confident people the worst luck, like I want them to fail. I'm not sure why, but I'm sure it's a poor reflection upon myself as a human being. That being said, it takes a VERY confident person to release a double album as their debut. I don't hate Benji, I can't hate this joyous music. Plus he looks like he should be in the Allman Brothers circa 1970, yet his music is a weird fusion mix of Beck and Prince.

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2007

2009-12-16T14:26:00.004-07:00

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2007

1. Missing You - The Manvils

2. The Lucky Ones - Pride Tiger

3. Brianstorm - Arctic Monkeys

4. The World Was a Mess But his Hair Was Perfect - The Rakes

5. Junior's Song - Izzy Stradlin

6. Wake Up - Tim Armstrong

7. Dashboard - Modest Mouse

8. Stuck Inside a Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again - Cat Power

9. Maybe Tonight - Nicole Atkins

10. K To Be Lost - Sister Vanilla

11. Don't You Evah - Spoon

12. Impossible Germany - Wilco

13. Unstookie Titled - Babyshambles

14. Meanest Man in the World - John Doe

15. Down Time - Chuck Prophet

16. The Thunderer - Dion

17. Way Down in the Hole - Steve Earle

18. Town Called Heartbreak - Patti Scialfa

19. Knocked Up - Kings of Leon

20. Ain't No Hidin' Love - Deadstring Brothers

21. Keep the Car Running - The Arcade Fire

22. Johny Guitar - Grant Lee Philips

23. Before the Money Came (The Battle of Bettye LaVette) - Bettye LaVette

24. Icky Thump - The White Stripes

25. Alpha Male & The Canine Mystery Blood - Tommy Womack

1. Vancouver's The Manvils was recommended to me (thanks Rads) and I quickly cottoned to it, as it hits all the right notes, high energy rock and roll, with a mild punk and psych-blooze swagger. 'Missing You' is one of many killer tracks on Buried Love. They followed up even more solidly this year. Highly, highly recommended. Highly.

2. Another band from Vancouver, Pride Tiger boasts another one of my favourite singles from the decade, the title track from The Lucky Ones. They're channeling Thin Lizzy and thankfully aren't even subtle about it. And that's a good thing. This is pure joyous rock and roll. Sadly Pride Tiger are no more, dammit.

3. The Arctic Monkeys blew out 2006 with a great debut and a follow-up EP. They followed quickly with Favourite Worst Nightmare in 2007. The lead single was the charging and vaguely surfy 'Brianstorm'. They may have the goods to stick around for awhile, longer than most overhyped UK bands.

4. Contemporaries of Bloc Party and Franz Ferndinand, The Rakes didn't get quite the press. Probably because they weren't as good, but they weren't completely void of charm as evidenced by 'The World Was a Mess But His Hair Was Perfect' from Ten New Messages. This tends to crawl inside your brain and wiggle around until it pains you. Not unlike an earwig, I imagine.

5. I generally dislike humour in songs, at least in my rock and roll. Most of the time it just seems dumb and corny. If I want musical comedy, I'll go and listen to an old Smother's Brothers clip. And for someone who generally isn't known for the funny is Izzy Stradlin, ex-Guns 'N Roses guitarist, a serious, quiet loner kind of dude who plays masterful Stonsey rock and roll. 'Junior's Song' from his excellent Concrete album is all kinds of hilarious and always cracks me up. JUNIOR!! GET OFF THE SHED! GET OFF...GET OFF THE GODDAMN SHED, JUNIOR!!!

6. I find it really hard to listen to the ska and reggae vibe on Tim Armstrong's A Poet's Life with snow on the ground. It's just got that awesome lazy vibe that seems to sound best when the sun in shining and the beer flowing freely. So I'll play 'Wake Up' and imagine it's not 20 below with 20 feet of snow.

7. The addition of ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr to Modest Mouse was a great move, particularly for those of us who like The Smiths sound meshed up with Modest Mouse. 'Dashboard' from We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank showcases him perfectly.

8. I am not a fan of Cat Power. I get why people like her, but I just don't connect with her at all. I appreciate her in a technical sense, but when I heard her cover of 'Stuck Inside a Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again' I kind of started to like her because on album of Dylan covers on the I'm Not There soundtrack, she stood out over a huge pack of talents.

9. Nicole Atkins came off like a female Rufus Wainwright on her Neptune City album, which may or may not be everyone's cup of tea. The girl has an incredible voice and belts these songs out like 'Maybe Tonight' like nobody's business.

10. I'll crib the bio right from allmusic, "Sister Vanilla" was a nickname given to Linda Reid by her older brothers William Reid and Jim Reid -- better known to music fans as the leaders of the pioneering noise pop band the Jesus and Mary Chain." They released only one album to date Little Pop Rock and need to get it together and release another because this was a great album. When I heard The XX this year, I was reminded of Sister Vanilla. This is ''K To Be Lost'.

11. If there's one thing putting together these mixes have taught me, it's that I'm actually a huge Spoon fan in some weird denial twist. These guys are great, 'Don't You Evah' one of ten nearly perfect pop songs from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. I kind of wanted to put the echoey 'The Ghost of You Lingers' but went with the pop goodness.

12. 'Impossible Germany' is kind of a quintessential latter day Wilco song from their Sky Blue Sky, I could see this branching out in jam live. Having been listening to nothing but the Grateful Dead for nearly 2 straight months I hear them everywhere now, but none more so than Wilco, at least in the last couple of albums. This is a good thing, for me anyway. It will likely cause others to want to kill Jeff Tweedy.

13. Pete Doherty surprised everyone by not dying with an arm full of soot and released another great Babyshambles album Shotter's Nation. For this I was thankful. This was my favourite album of 2007, from it, 'Unstookie Titled'.

14. Aside from his work with X, I'd lately come to know John Doe more for his acting than his music. My favourite was his role as the ex-husband of Amber Waves in Boogie Nights ("My wife is sick woman, your honour..."). His Year in the Wilderness album is fantastic, particularly the 'Meanest Man in the World'. "He never thought of himself as cruel, he never thought of himself at all, kindness was always outside his grasp...he was the meanest man in the world".

15. Chuck Prophet creates these mid-tempo grooves so effortlessly, I don't know how he his songs aren't better known. This is 'Down Time' from Soap and Water.

16. Dion (yes, that Runaround Sue/Wanderer guy) has been steadily releasing these blues and country-folk albums for years now. These old guys, like Al Kooper, still manage to keep dropping interesting music and touring, it's just too bad more people don't get to hear it. This is 'The Thunderer' from Son of Skip James.

17. This is as close to Tom Waits as I like to get (aside from the occasional Chuck E. Weiss album). Steve Earle's cover of 'Down in the Hole', probably better known as the theme song of HBO's The Wire, also known as The Greatest Television Show Ever.

18. Mrs. Bruce Springsteen aka Patti Scialfa released a great album in 2007 called Play It As It Lays. Another one I'd highly recommend checking out, mining the Bonnie Raitt blues here with 'Town Called Heartbreak'.

19. I like that Kings of Leon opened up Because of the Times with a 7 min song called 'Knocked Up' because it started to mentally prepare the fans of the first two albums that they were likely going places we might not want to go. That's not to suggest this is radical, experimental stuff. It's still basic Kings of Leon, it's just that the first song here is approximately 23% as long as their previous two LPs that were clocking in around 30 min apiece. So yeah, they were letting the fans know, you're probably going to start hating us now.

20. Deadstring Brothers play a great mix of alt-country and Southern-fried rawk, the latter best exemplified on 'Ain't No Hidin' Love' from Silver Mountain. In fact, this could be an outtake from Humble Pie's debut, which once again, may or may not be a good thing depending on one's taste. It's great for me.

21. The Arcade Fire's Neon Bible was not quite as lauded as their debut, which is surprisingly because not only is it pretty much on the mark with what they accomplished with Funeral, it extends and they incorporate a bit of Springsteen on a couple of tracks, most notably 'Keep the Car Running'. I look forward to hearing what they do next in 2010.

22. 'Johny Guitar' from Grant Lee Philips' Strangelet is channeling Marc Bolan from the 8th dimension. It's practically perfect.

23. 'Before the Money Came (The Battle of Bettye Lavette)', written by Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers and Bettye Lavette for her Scene of the Crime album is an awesome dark, groove of a tale. Great record, I love the Truckers for their music, but I really appreciate how they back up these old soul greats, like Bettye and this year with Booker T.

24. The White Stripes' Icky Thump is tougher, less immediate album but still full of good stuff, you just need to wade in and hang out a bit longer. I mean, he started playing around with mariachi sounds on this record, so you know he's kind of running down ideas for fun. This is the stomping title track.

25. This may be one of the greatest songs ever and requires no comment other than listening to ever single word Tommy Womack says on 'Alpha Dog & The Female Mystery Blood' from There I Said It.

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2006

2009-12-09T12:47:00.003-07:00

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2006

1. The View From the Afternoon - Arctic Monkeys

2. Wolf Like Me - TV on the Radio

3. I Can Get Us Out of Here Tonight - Lucero

4. Closest I Ever Been to Memphis - Diamond Dogs

5. Tearstained Letters (feat. Joan Jett) - The Heart Attacks

6. Bethamphetamine (Pretty Pretty) - Butch Walker and the Let's Go Out Tonites

7. Deadwood - Dirty Pretty Things

8. Dance Like a Monkey - The New York Dolls

9. Girl from the Ghetto - Ronnie Spector

10. The Funeral - Band of Horses

11. Gravity's Gone - Drive By Truckers

12. Evening Gown - Jerry Lee Lewis

13. Bubbles in My Beer - Willie Nelson

14. I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink - George Jones with Merle Haggard

15. God's Gonna Cut You Down - Johnny Cash

16. Gold Lion - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

17. I'm Not Dead (I'm in Pittsburg) - Frank Black)

18. Massive Nights - The Hold Steady

19. Oceans - The Format

20. In View - The Tragically Hip

21. Kelly - Van She

22. Get Myself Into It - The Rapture

23. The Perfect Crime 2 - The Decemberists

24. Steady, As She Goes - The Raconteurs

25. Fear of Sleep - The Strokes

1. One of my favourite opening tracks of the 00's is 'The View from the Afternoon', from the Arctic Monkey's debut Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not. Awesome energy, love the lyrics, 'Anticipation has a habit to set you up/for disappointment in evening entertainment but/Tonight there’ll be some love/Tonight there'll be a ruckus yeah, regardless of what's gone before'. Bear that in mind tonight.

2. I've grown into a big fan of TV on the Radio and I don't even know how. It was actually the last album Dear Science that got me slightly addicted and I've come around on this one from 2006, the unfortunately titled Return from Cookie Mountain (unfortunate because it's stupid). The song 'Wolf Like Me' is imperative, the beat, the vocal delivery, lyrics like 'We could jet in a stolen car but I bet we wouldn't get too far before the transformation takes and bloodlust tanks and crave gets slaked'. I'm nearly always in jeopardy of a speeding ticket when I hear this.

3. I really friggin' love Lucero's 'I Can Get Us Out of Here Tonight' from Rebels, Rogues and Sworn Brothers. The delivery is spot on, emotionally resonant like the best songs about escape, you feel like you've just tuned into a movie already in progress with the first lines 'Jenny lights her cigarette/wonders how she got in this mess/Saturday night/Wrong side of town.' And you've got a protagonist who's gonna save the day. 'Don't look back don't hesitate/Car's outside and we can't wait/Sunday morning is coming down...'

4. A little more Swedish garage for you courtesy of Diamond Dogs, a nice Mott the Hooplish track called 'The Closest I Ever Been to Memphis' from Up the Rock. They make this sound so effortless you wonder why anyone else can't do it. Swedish efficiency in action.

5. The Heart Attacks are an Atlanta garage/glam band who pull off a brilliant duet with Joan Jett herself, 'Tearstained Letters' from Heartless and Hellbound. Man, she sounds great here like she hasn't aged at all.

6. If you don't feel even slightly better in terms of mood after hearing Butch Walker's 'Bethamphetamine (Pretty Pretty), I don't know what to tell you. I suggest a bit of transcranial magnetic stimulation over the left prefrontal because that's all I can prescribe to cheer you up. From his The Rise And Fall Of Butch Walker And The Let's-Go-Out-Tonites!.

7. After the dissolution of the Libertines, we got Pete Doherty's Babyshambles and then Caral Barat's Dirty Pretty Things. The latter might be a tinge closer in sound and perhaps spirit to the former band, so you know it's pretty goddamn great Clashy rock and roll. This is 'Deadwood' from Waterloo to Anywhere

8. As all music fanatics probably know, the New York Dolls were a Very Important Band and unfortunately, they didn't last very long. Two albums of brilliant music, but an indifferent audience mixed with lots of booze, drugs and a communist conversion (sort of, Malcolm McLaren could fuck up a cup of coffee) kind of shut them down, understandably too. Sometimes the world isn't ready for this kind of thing. Two original members of the remaining New York Dolls reconvened in 2006 for a lackluster album One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This that didn't besmirch the legacy because the whole are greater than the sum of the remaining parts and dead men can't be held accountable for bad decisions. But, these New New York Doll's did release a fun single called 'Dance Like a Monkey'.

9. Ronnie Spector's 'Girl from the Ghetto' from her barely released and appropriately titled Last of the Rock Stars is a remake of sorts, a one-hit originally titled 'Girl from the Gutter' from an artist named Kina. Knowing Ronnie's history, it's not too puzzling who she's likely seeing about, particularly the stinging and somewhat gleeful 'I hope your cell is full of magazines and every page you'll see a big picture of me, and under every picture the caption will read 'not bad for a girl from the ghetto like me'. I read someone say they though this was a spiteful and mean spirited song, to which I say the person who said that probably wasn't a woman married to a psychopath like Phil. So it's probably not mean spirited enough actually. It always makes me happy to hear, probably because I'm spiteful and mean-spirited. Plus she sang 'Be My Baby' so she probably could get a pass for almost anything.

10. I wanted to like Band of Horses more than I actually do, but I find the songs never deliver the payload for me. Except 'The Funeral' from Everything All the Time. If could pull out more songs like this, I'd be in love.

11. 'Gravity's Gone' from Drive-By Truckers' A Blessing and A Curse is yet another appearance by one of my favourite bands (and still one more to go), and this is up there with the best of them, lyrically probably at the top for this alone, '...So I'll meet you at the bottom if there really is one/They always told me when you hit it you'll know it/But I've been falling so long it's like gravity's gone and I'm just floatin''

12. It seemed that 2006 was a year for the old guys to come back for another kick at the can. One of my favourites is Jerry Lee Lewis' Last Man Standing, and his duet with Mick Jagger on 'Evening Gown'. Just a dynamite song from two monsters. This song sounds immeasurably better when you've had approximately just enough to just maybe a bit too much. Also, this is for the 4th wind at around 230am.

13. As does this song from Willie Nelson, his album of covers You Don't Know Me: The Songs Of Cindy Walker, a nod to the old-timey Texas swing era. This, 'Bubbles in My Beer' is a great saloon song with incredibly gloomy lyrics paired with upbeat rhythm (e.g. "I know that my life is a failure and I've lost everything that made life dear/And the dreams I once dreamed are empty/ As empty as the bubbles in my beer.")

14. George Jones and Merle Haggard got together for another album of duets Kickin' Out The Footlights...Again where they share a couple of songs and cover each other's tunes. Here's is George singing Merle 'I think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink'. This album is a must for alcoholics and addicts of all kinds.

15. Posthumous release by the late JR Cash, the spare and slightly scary 'God's Gonna Cut You Down' from American V:A Hundred Highways. It's scary because when you hear the voice sing those words, you kind of believe it.

17. I saw Frank Black touring behind and it ranks up there with my favourite live shows. Small club, he played well, hit everything you'd want to hear, plus the new music he was touring behind, from FastMan/RaiderMan, was a double-album that for my money was all great and still counts up there with my favourite Frank Black records. Love this tune, 'I'm Not Dead (I'm in Pittsburg)'.

16. 'Gold Lion' from the Yeah Yeah Yeah's Show Your Bones. I don't know what the hell this song is about but I love Karen O and her high pitched 'ooo ooo's' here over a great beat.

18. This is one of my favourite songs of 2006, from what is likely my favourite album of the decade or at the least I'd wager it's the most played, The Hold Steady's Boys and Girls in America. Again, I could have picked ANY song from this record, but went for the always fun 'Massive Nights'.

The guys are feeling good about their liquor run

The girls are kinda flirting with the setting sun

We all kind of fumbled through the jitter bug

We were all powered up on some new upper drug

and everything was partying

Everyone was pretty

and everyone was coming towards the center of the city

The dancefloor was crowded, the bathrooms were worse

We kissed in your car and we drank from your purse

I had my mouth on her nose when the chaperon said we were dancing too close

We had some massive nights

We got the songs just right

And all I want is time

19. The Format's Dog Problems has got some pretty great pop songs, my favourite 'Ocean' kind of soars. Nothing to this, sounds great when it's sunny and warm, and it's even got some Sha-la-la-las in it.

20. The Tragically Hip's 'In View' is their most poppy tune in my opinion, and it's done just right. The video is awesome to boot. Gord running for his life after stealing someone's cell phone to call his girl. One of those tracks that always cheer me up. I saw them live on the World Container tour, this was great live as well.

21. A bit more pop here, from a band I know nothing about, Van She and their self-titled EP. Evidently they're an 'electropop' band from Australia but I can't for the life of me remember how I got their EP but I do love this completely accurate 80s throwback. It reminds me of Boys Brigade's 'Melody' at times. Make me feel like I'm watching some terrible yet very literal video from that time period. I'm watching it on Edmonton's ITV and eating Old Dutch potato chips on a lime-green sofa. Good times.

22. I shouldn't like this but I do. The Rapture were one of those early '00 bands (see also Interpol, The Stills) that were aping the post-punk sounds of the early 80s. The Rapture's first album was largely forgettable, but their second Pieces of the People We Love had some insinuating songs especially 'Get Myself Into It'. I hate it but I can't stop putting it on mixes alongside the Happy Mondays.

23. Here's another band I really don't like very much: The Decemberists. I largely find them incredibly boring but I heard this 'The Perfect Crime #2' (I've never heard #1) somewhere along the way and it always sneaks in a mix from time to time. From The Crane Wife.

24. Jack White's 2nd of three bands this decade is The Raconteurs released their debut album Broken Boy Soldiers in 2006. Great stuff from Jack et al., 60s guitar pop done the White way, with a bit more smoothed out edges compared to the White Stripes.

25. We all wanted a new Strokes album by 2006 and we got one but it came with baggage. First Impressions of Earth is one of those overly long albums that I complain about. It's practically the same length as their first two albums put together. When we want long 60 min albums we can find them, when we want short, punchy rock and roll we want some Strokes doing it in 30 min or less. Still, it had some great songs like 'Fear of Sleep'.

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2005

2009-12-04T14:34:00.004-07:00

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2005

1. 4th of July - Shooter Jennings

2. Last Night in Town - Lucero

3. Joy - Bettye Lavette

4. I'm In the Band - The Hellacopters

5. I Wanna Holler (But the Town's Too Small) - The Detroit Cobras

6. Little Sister - Queens of the Stone Age

7. Your Little Hoodrat Friend - The Hold Steady

8. Til' The Bleeding Stops - Deadstring Brothers

9. Walt Whitman Bridge - Marah

10. Celtic New Year - Van Morrison

11. Prairie Wind - Neil Young

12. Let It Ride - Ryan Adams & the Cardinals

13. I Burn Today - Frank Black

14. Mornings Eleven - The Magic Numbers

15. What A Wonderful Man - My Morning Jacket

16. Jackie, Dressed in Cobras - New Pornographers

17. 7/4 (Shoreline) - Broken Social Scene

18. The Fallen - Franz Ferdinand

19. Spit It Out - Brenden Benson

20. Like Eating Glass - Bloc Party

21. 32nd of December - Babyshambles

22. I Turn My Camera On - Spoon

23. The Denial Twist - The White Stripes

24. Your Ex-Lover is Dead - Stars

25. I'll Believe in Anything - Wolf Parade

1. As I've mentioned it several times already, clearly driving across the country by yourself affords one the luxury of spending some quality time with a lot of albums, and given the emotional intensity one may (or may not be feeling), these songs are gonna get bound to that particular space-time event. I picked up a few albums in the weeks before I left on this trip, one of them being Shooter Jennings' unfortunately named Let's Put the 'O' Back in Country (unfortunate because it's stupid). Fortunately, it's got some pretty great Southern Rock songs and Shooter's got a deep baritone like his daddy, enough to make the album good but not great. However in that car it sounded like the best goddamn thing in the world, in particular, '4th of July' featuring George Jones himself. 'Wh-when we all gon' get paid for this?'

2. Lucero have definitely gotten progressively more interesting over the decade. They just started writing better songs. This is a great example, 'Last Night in Town' from Nobody's Darlings. Speaking of good country-rawk, or Southern rock or alt-country or Americana or whatever genre this fits into. It's just goooood shit. And this song segues so perfectly into the next one, it's almost like 'No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature'.

3. I love hearing old soul singers come back and, not reinvent themselves, but re-emerge as themselves into a new musical terrain. Solomon Burke is a great example of this, as is Bettye Lavette. The voice is the showcase, and here is no exception. This is kind of scary, dark funk with a heavy groove. They took her 'Joy', she wants it back, from I've Got My Own Hell to Raise.

4. More Swedish garage rock. 'I'm in the Band', a jaunty tune about..well, being in a band. It's not hard to understand. From Rock & Roll Is Dead.

5. Another great rock & roll song from The Detroit Cobras, 'I Wanna Holler (But the Town's Too Small)'. Originally a song by Gary 'US' Bonds, this swings and stomps with the sentiment that everyone who's ever grown up in a small town can identify with. If they haven't already, they need to cover 'Quarter to Three'. From Baby..

6. I remember playing the hell out of Queens of the Stone Age's Lullabies to Paralyze while writing my thesis, particularly cranking out 'Little Sister' at ear bleeding volume.

7. Man, I'm glad I came around on The Hold Steady and the first album I'd heard from them, Separation Sunday. At first it seemed so stupid in terms of delivery. The music was heavily Sprinsgteen by way of bar band, the kind I like over almost all else. But the vocals were half-spoken, where too many words seemed crammed into an inadequate temporal frame and delivered in an awkward cadence. I remember walking around the University of Saskatchewan campus listening to this and occasionally wondering 'WHY I am listening to this?' and then I'd come back to it after awhile and think it was okay but after they got magnificently awesome in 2006, I'd come to appreciate it a bit more. One standout from that album is here, 'Your Little Hoodrat Friend'.

8. Another favourite band and album for 2005 was the Deadstring Brother's Starving Winter Report, again with the alt-country/Americana in the style of the Band, right down to a decent cover of 'Get Up Jake'. They do it well here with 'Til The Bleeding Stops'.

9. Only one more Marah to go after this track, from probably my favourite album of theirs, If You Didn't Laugh, You'd Cry. Crazily, this record reminds me a LOT of an Canadian band's, The Lowest of The Low, specifically their album Shakespeare My Butt, lyrically they're kind of similar, lots of songs about white people drinking their troubles away, but the Low were kind of goofy and Marah isn't, a bit maudlin and cliched but that's what's good about it. But musically, it's rousing pub music for Thursday nights. This is the 'Walt Whitman Bridge', which totally could be a title from the Low.

10. Van Morrison has managed to churn out some great albums during this decade, his 2009 Astral Weeks live album notwithstanding. His original material has been pretty great actually though I doubt anyone will compare this favourably to his greatest work in the 60s and 70s, and really, how could you? It's a goddamn insane benchmark that anyone, let alone someone who's been performing in five decades and has more than a few classic albums under his rather significant belt. But Van's Magic Time in 2005 is damn good, particularly his 'Celtic New Year', which seems like it's tailor made for December.

11. In contrast to Van Morrison, Neil Young has been kind of hit or miss when delivering albums this decade. Overall, in terms of the greater whole, they're clearly not in the same league as his earlier albums, even from the 90s. BUT, when he's on the mark he's still peerless. Prairie Wind is almost all hit no miss. For myself, there's not a clunker on the album and it was hard to choose what to put on here, but I went with the title track.

12. Another album from the cross-country trip, Ryan Adams & The Cardinals Cold Roses, I picked up as I left London. I hit HMV, Petro-Canada and was gone. This was my Grateful Dead album before I was really into the Grateful Dead. 'Let it Ride' is toe and finger tappin' driving tune.

13. Frank Black friggin' dominated this decade for the indie music fan. He was all over the place, with excellent, rockabilly surf rock or more to his more countryish leanings here on Honeycomb. I was lucky enough to see him in 2006 (more on that later). This is one of his more memorable songs 'I Burn Today'.

14. The Magic Numbers are some 60s-70s influenced folk- pop-throwback with a splash of Belle & Sebastian. I confess, this is another album I haven't played in awhile so it speaks somewhat to it's essential listening, but sometimes I do forget about albums when I get caught up in whatever. Anyway, I got a refresher and damn do I love the song 'Mornings Eleven' from their self-titled debut.

15. This is a bit of a transitional album for My Morning Jacket. While still firmly in the southern rock/jam, they started to get a bit of the Princely funk that we would see more of later on Evil Urges. Admittedly, Z was a bit tougher to get into for me as I'm emotionally attached to the previous work, but it's grown on me over time more so after being so horrified by their changes on Evil Urges and then embracing it. Anyway, this is 'What A Wonderful Man', from Z.

16. Putting these mixes together, most of the time I don't need a refresher to see if there's a standout song as most of the albums in my collection have been spun enough times for me to recall, but others get a few plays and then sit idle for sometimes quite awhile. New Pornographers' Twin Cinema was one I hadn't played in awhile, as when I need my New Pornographers' itch scratched I typically grab for their first two albums. YET, sometimes as I've just noted, I'm just forgetful. This is another case. There were so many great tunes to pick from on this record. I ended up picking 'Jackie, Dressed in Cobras' because the title is great and Neko sounds likewise. Also since I've played it, I haven't been able to get it out of my head. It's been three days. Jackie's dressed in cobras, Jackie's dressed in cobras...

17. Broken Social Scene's self-titled release in 2005 was practically a double album if you count the bonus EP that came with it. Now I stress, practically because it wasn't a double, just a really, really long regular LP. Now, that's the fucking problem. If you're going to go long, go the whole way and release a double album. I love getting a 30 min single LP from an artist, because it's usually a tight listen that leaves me wanting more, but at the same time, I also love big ol' double albums because I'm also interested in hearing if the artist's vision can actually deliver that much music (Wilco, Frank Black, Blue Rodeo have done this, effectively giving us two 'single' albums spread over two discs). But for some reason sitting down and listening to a single LP over 60 min is just excessive and I end up resenting the artist's inability to edit themselves because they're so enamoured with all the weight of their genius. Why on earth do I listen to Broken Social Scene then? I don't. It's too fucking long and not good enough, but I do like '7/4 (Shoreline).

18. For two years in a row, we got a couple of Franz Ferdinand albums, 2004 and 2005 and then...nothing until 2009, it was a long break. 2005's You Could Have It So Much Betterwas as good, if not slightly better than the debut, with loads of great pop tunes like 'The Fallen'. Music for Saturday night.

19. I grabbed this Brenden Benson album, The Alternative to Love a few years ago, perhaps precognitively sensing his future Jack White connection for their band, The Raconteurs. This has a truly spectacular power-pop opener in 'Spit it Out'. Goooood stuff.

20. Bloc Party are another band who were destined to disappoint because there's no way that they could possibly meet the expectations of those who truly believed that they were really that good. Silent Alarm was an impressive debut, and 'Like Eating Glass' is one of my favourite singles of the year, but it really was just Britpop in the end, and the expiration date already set for a year after the debut. When they finally released their follow-up (which I like more) Weekend in the City in 2007, the decline was set in motion.

21. When Libertines finally dissolved in a druggy, mess courtesy of Pete Doherty who was breaking in to his bandmates' houses to feed his drug habit one probably could not have expected him to bounce back some brilliantly with Babyshambles. I know some think this album is too goddamn long, and technically this violates my early remarks about Broken Social Scene but it's one of those records that I feel aren't long enough. It could be that one sensed that this guy could literally die anytime and you just want him to hang on a little while longer. This is the 'The 32nd Of December' from Down in Albion.

22. If there's one thing putting these mixes together has solidified in my mind, is that I am a Fan of Spoon. There's I've said it. I've had a psychic block about being a fan I think. Gimme Fiction continued their winning ways. This is the ever slinky 'I Put My Camera On'.

23. I love me some White Stripes. They keep doing Do No Wrong (in my mind anyway) with Get Behind Me Satan, which is not quite as perfect as Elephant but it's up there. So many great songs on the album, one of my favourites is 'The Denial Twist'.

24. It's funny how live music can put a band or album you merely thought was okay into one you really quite like a lot. When I saw them in Saskatoon, they put on a really great show in a small club at the university and I grew pretty fond of their album Set Yourself on Fire. Technically this was an '04 release in Canada but the album is '05 in the US and since my iTunes has the '05 date and since I saw them in '05, here they be. This is 'Your Ex-Lover is Dead''.

25. And speaking once again of live acts improving an otherwise mild impression of an album, Wolf Parade's Apologies to the Queen Mary was pretty much all right with me until I saw them open for the Arcade Fire. And then it was one of my favourite records of the year. When they played 'I'll Believe in Anything' for their final number it was staggeringly great, loud and intense.

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2004

2009-12-02T10:26:00.005-07:00

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2004

1. King of The Rodeo - Kings of Leon

2. Vaccination Scar - The Tragically Hip

3. C'mon C'mon - The Von Bondies

4. #1 Summer Jam - Butch Walker

5. Me and Mia - Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

6. But Julian, I'm a Little Bit Older Than You - Courtney Love

7. Can't Stand Me Now - The Libertines

8. Mr. Brightside - The Killers

9. Rebellion (Lies) - The Arcade Fire

10. Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand

11. Tame the Tiger - Marah

12. (I Believe In) Travelling Light - Belle & Sebastian

13. One Evening - Feist

14. Tears All Over Town - A Girl Named Eddy

15. Portions for Foxes - Rilo Kiley

16. Carl Perkin's Cadillac - Drive-By Truckers

17. You Did (Bomp Shobby Dooby Bomb) - Chuck Prophet

18. The Good Times Are Killing Me - Modest Mouse

19. Portland Oregon - Lorretta Lynn

20. The Furnace Sun - Preston School of Industry

21. Let's Make History - The (International) Noise Conspiracy

22. Empty Heart - Sahara Hotnights

23. Blinded By the Lights - The Streets

24. Unmade Bed - Sonic Youth

25. Spiders (Kidsmoke) - Wilco

1. The day I left on the Big Road Trip of '05, saying goodbye to London and Ontario, the album I put on first was Aha Shake Heartbreak because it's a fantastic road album and one of my favourites of the decade. For this, it was either 'Rememo' with the awesome refrain "drippin' beards, cold as hell and the motherfucker's gonna go to jail, this rememo is set for home, it's personal, but they need to know" or 'King of the Rodeo'. 'Me and your cold, drivin' in the snow, let the good times roll, let the good times roll.' It was a good time to roll on.

2. The Tragically Hip have continued to put out consistently good to great albums during this decade, save for Music@Work, which I can honestly say is a dud. In Between Evolution has some dynamite tracks, and choosing them was a difficult choice as I'd rank a few of these up with my all time favourites from the band. I went with 'Vaccination Scar' by a hair over 'It Can't Be Nashville Every Night'. Both of these songs absolutely kill live, best found during their 2005 live dvd That Night in Toronto.

3. 'C'mon C'mon' may be best known as the theme song to Denis Leary's FX show Rescue Me. It's a good fit I think for the show with it's "With my teeth locked down I can see the blood/Of a thousand men who have come and gone/Now we grieve cause now is gone/Things were good when we were young..." Pawn Shoppe Heart is a decent album of modern Detroit garage worth checking out. They finally followed it up in 2009.

4. There are a handful of artists/producers I feel the need to check out nearly any project that they're associated with (e.g Jack White). Butch Walker fits this criteria, although I tend to be less than interested in his productions (lots of modern pop) and mainly in his own work with Marvelous 3 and solo albums. They all tend to be delicious pop greatness. The guy has an ear for the Big Hooks. Perfect example is '#1 Summer Jam' from Letters.

5. I was a bit of a late comer to Ted Leo & the Pharmacists. Lots of great energy, fantastic songs. This is 'Me and Mia' from Shake the Sheets. Gets dem feet a tappin.

6. Is there a better villain than Courtney Love? She's fake and a fraud (doesn't write songs has other famous men do so, i.e. Cobain and Corgan for Live Through This and Celebrity Skin), a mentally ill drug addict who fucked her way to the middle, just the way we love our villainous females. Evil, vindictive, crazy, corrupting all those around her, a black hole of mediocrity and vicodin. I sometimes wish there was quantifiable proof came out that she was, in fact, the real genius behind Nirvana and the sole songwriter of In Utero just to see what the haters would find to despise about her next. There's no doubt that she's a mentally ill, drug addict but that type has got to be a dime a dozen, I think she's just louder than the rest. I almost wish she could have bagged Julian Casablancas. That would have been sweet. Alas, this is 'But Julian I'm a Little Older Than You' from her thus far only solo album America's Sweetheart. Like the singer, it's short, loud and obnoxious.

7. From their self-titled great and final album (to date) The Libertines' 'Can't Stand Me Now' is fantastic and never fails to put a smile on my face. One of the best songs from 2004.

8. Like 'Hey Ya!' from 2003, it was hard to avoid 'Mr. Brightside' in 2004. From Hot Fuss album, it's pretty damn infectious pop music. I have to say I somewhat admire these guys for their attempts to branch out from the synthy 80s inflected pop that made them friggin' huge and take a chance on the Americana Springsteeny-U2 of Sam's Town in 2006. It hasn't largely been successful, but they're still cranking it out.

9. The Arcade Fire's Funeral is up there as well with my favourites of the 00's. I'd hadn't ranked it that high initially but came around after seeing them live in the fall of 2005. They played nearly the whole album and was hooked after that. It was a spectacular show and the songs really took off live. This is 'Rebellion (Lies)'.

10. Franz Ferdinand's self-titled debut album is chock full of danceable, groovy tunes, possibly none more so than their biggest single 'Take Me Out'. Also pretty damn infectious pop music. Unlike The Killers, they're thankfully still churning this style out in 2009.

11. Marah are probably competing with the Drive-By Truckers, the Hip and good ol' Ryan Adams for most appearances over the decade mixes. I don't understand how anyone can not like these guys. This is 'Tame the Tiger' from 20,000 Streets Under the Sky back to form from their Oasis dalliance, but not quite back to the Springsteenian garage yet. This is a gently funky track with lots of handclaps and acoustic guitar. They also released a surprisingly awesome Christmas album in 2004 that I highly recommend.

12. I actually got the leak of Belle & Sebastian's Dear Catastrophe Waitress far before it's street release and '(I Believe In) Travelling Light' was originally on that album. Much to my chagrin, it was scrubbed from the original release and put on the I'm a Cuckoo EP. It was my favourite song on the album, but since it was released in 2004, it's on here. Good tune.

13. Feist's 'One Evening' from her debut album Let It Die. I have an insane love of this downtempo , bossa nova kind of thing. As someone with a bit of an anger problem, this is like a delightful opiate. I miss Esthero or at least the Esthero of Breath From Another. I don't listen to a lot of this music but around this time of year it sounds great.

14. In a similar vein, A Girl Called Eddy's 'Tears All Over Town' from her self-titled debut, sounds more than a bit like Feist, so what I said about her applies here too. I don't think she's released another album since this one, which is too bad. Good AM listening for late in the year.

15. Rilo Kiley's 'Portion for Foxes' from More Adventurous. I can't remember where and when I heard this tune for the first time. I must have read about it somewhere and picked it up. Not a bad record, decent indie pop with the slightest nod towards alt-country at times. Big choruses abound, especially here'. I'm actually surprised this didn't get picked up by the abstinence crowd as an antislut anthem. 'Talking leads to touching and the touching leads to sex and then there is no mystery left....and I'm badnewwwwwwws'. Sex is dirty, cover up.

16. More Drive-By Truckers for y'all. 'Carl Perkin's Cadillac' from The Dirty South. Tells us the story of Sam Philips, famous producer of Sun Records roster of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and of course, Carl Perkins. Great song and hilarious too:

'If Mr. Phillips was the only man that Jerry Lee still would call 'sir'

Then I guess Mr. Phillips did all of y'all about as good as you deserve

He did just what he said he was gonna do and the money came in sacks

New contracts and Carl Perkins' Cadillac'

17. I think I played this record about a billion damn times in 2004, so much that I haven't played it in awhile. Would I have cared as much to hear Loretta Lynn in 2004 if Jack White hadn't produced (and played) on Van Lear Rose? Probably not, although I'd still have heard it anyway just wouldn't have picked it up on the first day of release (see Wagoner, Porter: Wagonmaster). Loretta's duet with Jack White on 'Portland Oregon' is great fun, "Next day we knew last night got drunk, but we loved enough for the both of us, in the morning when the night had sobered up, it was much too late for the both of us in Oregon.'

18. "I got a letter this morning, who put the bomp" in the bomp-shooby-dooby-bomp? Who put the "ram" in the rama-lama-ding-dong?

You did...Chuck Prophet. From Age of Miracles

19. 'The Good Times Are Killing Me'. Great closer from Modest Mouse's Good News for People Who Love Bad News. Love some of the lines from this song, particularly the 'Enough hair of the dog to make myself an entire rug'. That's a lot.

20. Preston School of Industry is the new band from Scott 'Spiral Stairs' Kannberg, formerly of Pavement. I was surprised how much I liked Monsoon, the last album ever released under this moniker. Too bad because it was a hell of a lot of fun. This is 'The Furnace Sun'. Nice and loose.

21. Another entry is the Sweden Produces Great Music would be The (International) Noise Conspiracy, for this 60's garage inspired romp 'Let's Make History' from Armed Love. Produced by (and another entry in The I Always Pay Attention To This Person) Rick Rubin, it was his association that first tipped me towards these guys. These commies know how to rock & roll.

22. More great Swedish New Wave from Sahara Hotnights. This is 'Empty Heart' from Kiss & Tell. Delicious, big hooky choruses.

23. Hard to pick a single track from The Streets' A Grand Don't Come For Free as it really is a "concept" album about the day in the life of this epileptic layabout. All the songs really bleed into each other, but 'Blinded By the Lights' is as close to a standalone there is on the record. Just Mike standing alone in the club waiting for his buzz to kick in, getting impatient and swallowing more booze and drugs. We've all been there, damn no buzz yet, let's double down and push things forward. Uh oh...

24. Sonic Youth's Sonic Nurse album made me sit up and pay attention again. It doesn't make much sense, because everyone continually loves them, the critics and steady fans at least. I counted myself among them but started to find them to be not quite essential when it came to hearing new releases, pretty much since Washing Machine. I think I downloaded this for a taste and was pleasantly surprised to find how much I enjoyed it, reminding much more of their older material circa Evol, particularly this track 'Hidden Bed'.

25. See, it songs like this that should be the dividing line between those who like the old Wilco and those who do not care for their shift in sound quality. 'Spiders (Kidsmoke)' from A Ghost is Born clocks in at nearly 11 minutes and is a cross between Neu! and Crazy Horse. I've never been a huge fan of the album, but I've always liked this song a lot, probably because I do like Neu! (and Stereolab which this song sounds a bit like as well) and Crazy Horse a lot.

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2003

2009-11-27T10:26:00.004-07:00

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2003

1. Welcome to the Monkey House>We Used to Be Friends - The Dandy Warhols

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.

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2002

2009-11-25T18:36:00.012-07:00

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2002

1. Float Away (All Of The Streets Are Lonely) - Marah
2. A Day At The Races - Jurassic 5
3. Two Months Off - Underworld
4. Weak Become Heroes - The Streets
5. Sacrifice - The Roots
6. Cause = Time - Broken Social Scene
7. Concrete Sky - Beth Orton
8. 7 Months, 39 Days - Hank Williams III
9. Sweet Lullabye - Stewboss
10. The Golden Age - Beck
11. Hard Candy - Counting Crows
12. Black Letter Days - Frank Black & The Catholics
13. N.Y. - Doves
14. NYC - Interpol
15. Back To The Life - Spoon
16. Oh! - Sleater-Kinney
17. No One Knows - Queens Of The Stone Age
18. Alright Alright - Sahara Hotnights
19. This Town - Hot Hot Heat
20. Death On The Stairs - The Libertines
21. Hurt - Johnny Cash
22. The Darkest One - The Tragically Hip
23. War On War - Wilco
24. Summertime Thing - Chuck Prophet
25. The Replacements - Tommy Womack

1. I spent a week in Ottawa with Marah's Float Away With the Friday Night Gods. The opening track 'Float Away (All Of the Streets Are Lonely)' is the first indication that someone replaced Marah with some weird American version of Oasis, which depending on your personal taste, could have you vomiting blood. As a fan of said English group, it was kind of cool to hear Marah reach for the Big Rock Sound and while it's not quite a massive success, it's still an interesting album. It paired well with walking alone around the market in our nation's capitol at night.

2. In a scene straight out of a movie, I bought Jurassic 5's Power in Numbers after hearing 'A Day At the Races' in a record store. Not a bad album, a tad longish which is a common and valid criticism of modern albums. Just because you have about 75 min to fill a CD does not mean you have to. Anyway, I dug the energy of this track and still pop this in occasionally when I feel the need for a more modern groove. One of a handful of hip-hop albums I bought from this decade.

3. 'Two Months Off' from Underworld's A Hundred Days Off. I literally used to loop this song over and over and over when I crunched my EEG data. The energy is great and builds and builds over 9 min. It keeps one going when you're dealing with the tedium of looking at digitized brain electrical activity.

4. Speaking of hip-hop, I've never once considered The Streets' Original Pirate Material to fit in that genre at all. Musically, it doesn't sound like what we think of when the generic term is applied. I've always just called it UK dance music because it's a much easier classification instead of whatever sub-sub-splinter genre it best represents during that point in time. Lyrically it isn't really important either, but that's not to say it isn't enjoyable. I remember the first time I heard 'Turn the Page' and thought "did he just say he's 45th generation Roman?". It's just kind of an odd thing to state, and why 45? This is 'Weak Become Heroes', the name's European Bob, pleased to meetcha, likewise, a pleasure. We all sing.

5. Now I know I played The Roots' Phrenology a lot in 2002, but I'm nearly certain it wasn't in the car very much, occasionally maybe, but not a staple. But strangely it's one album that brings up that ineffable feeling of place memory and for whatever reason when 'Sacrifice' comes on, I'm in my car on Wonderland Ave. in London, near a mall. No emotional connotation, nothing important happened but as clear as a bell I can see the headlights in front of me as I head east. Also it's in the fall, maybe October or November. It's really weird but oddly comforting.

6. I don't honestly understand why Broken Social Scene became popular enough that someone wrote a goddamn book (This Book Is Broken) about them. I mean come on, they've released three fucking albums. If you want to quickly illustrate why people hate the band, there it is. Plus they're from Toronto. And they're a collective, not a band and there's like 43 of them who are all up on stage at some point. If you live in Toronto, you may in fact be a member of Broken Social Scene. You Forgot It in People is a decent album but holy hell it's just indie rock. This, again, is not life changing. So why am I adding a song of theirs to the mix? Because some of the songs like 'Cause=Time' are pretty catchy. Sometimes a song is just a song and not a badge of affiliation.

7. As I've mentioned artists who have gotten better or worse over time, Beth Orton has remained fairly consistent I think. The only slight change would be moving away from the subtle beats on Trailer Park to more traditional singer-songwriter alt-country or folk leanings but she's still maintaining. She always reminds me of a British Mae Moore. From her third album Daybreaker 'Concrete Sky' is a duet with, who else, good ol' Ryan Adams. Who is clearly a consistent variable thus far on all these mixes.

8. How does one become their own man as an artist and human being when their grandfather was Hank Williams Sr. and father is Bocephus himself, Hank Williams Jr? Well, either go off in a different direction and become a Franciscan monk or just go with family tradition and do country the best you can. He went with the latter and while it's not going to significantly shift Music itself like his father and grandfather, it's still worth a listen. This is '7 Months, 39 Days' from Hank Williams III off Lovesick, Broke, Driftin'.

9. The title track of Stewboss Sweet Lullabye is by the numbers "regular" rock in the alt-country/Petty/Replacements kind of vibe. A lovely mid-tempo song, with nothing particularly remarkable about it but neither is every sunset but we'll still take a look at it when it comes by every night.

10. I like the first four songs on Beck's Sea Change. I included 'The Golden Age' here, and only because of those first songs do I still own this. I believe I've played the record a handful of times since I bought it. I think because Beck always slipped in a couple of slow numbers per album it was all right here and there because you knew he'd eventually pick up the tempo. However, a whole album is just too much for this guy. Also his Scientological leanings started to get on my nerves. I'm not even going to even pretend that I can overlook it. I'd respect him more if he just made up his own belief system called Beckology or Odelayism instead of following someone else's made up religion. Oh well, it's a pretty song.

11. Counting Crows, I did not think I would hang here with you over all these years. And even though you released only Hard Candy and Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings in 10 long years, I'm still with you. Frankly I'm surprised as you are. I like Duritz's lyrics, because he seems like a overly sentimental drunk who really believes what he's saying. Here's 'Hard Candy'.

12. Frank Black & The Catholics kept cranking them out this decade, consistently good to great in my opinion. This is the title track from Black Letter Days.

13. 'N.Y.' from Doves' The Last Broadcast. I have just always liked this song.

14. "The subway is a porno, the pavements they are a mess, I know you've supported me for a long time, somehow, I'm not impressed". I used to wonder if he was singing about the sandwich shop being a porno or the train itself. And were the sidewalks supporting him, structurally speaking, but he's not impressed because they're all cracked and broken? And is this why he's not impressed, because like his poor, depressed ass he's falling down because of the lack of support? And is this why he pleads to the world to turn on the bright lights??? These are the New York cares? 'NYC' by Interpol from Turn On the Bright Lights. Baffling as always.

15. There is nothing baffling about this song. 'Back to the Life' from Spoon's Kill the Moonlight album. Simple, delightful goodness. When I mentioned previously my thoughts about Spoon, I need now to add a brief coda. When I actually sat and listening to Kill the Moonlight I wanted to add practically the whole album to my Great Songs of 2002 list before I widdled it down. When I'm not actively listening to Spoon I always think they're less than I think, however whenever I actually hear it, it's much much more. In that way, Spoon are like sushi.

16. 'Oh!' Yes! Sleater-Kinney's One Beat. They channel the Go-Go's here fairly clearly, only if the Go-Go's really, really emulated X instead of merely playing with them. Love this song.

17. It's kind of impossible to not get into Queens of the Stone Age's 'No One Knows' from Songs for the Deaf, probably for biological and anthropological reasons. It's got an incredibly brain entraining beat courtesy of Dave "I'm Always Joking!" Grohl.

18. Somewhere, I think it was 2005 or thereabouts it was clear that I needed to pay attention to whatever was coming out of Sweden in terms of rock & roll. Diamond Dogs and Backyard Babies had been doing it for awhile but then you had these Swedish broads in Sahara Hotnights step up and crank out some fucking awesome tunes like 'Alright Alright' from Jennie Bomb. Play dis von lout.

19. Although decidedly "retro" in the guise of 80s bands like XTC and Joe Jackson and therefore destined to be derided 'Hot Hot Heat's Make Up the Breakdown is a fun, and fortunately brief 30 minute affair so you're wanting to just flip the tape and play it again. Another album chock full of tunes I could have easily mixed in here. Here's 'This Town'.

20. In contrast, we have here a band also channeling a retro vibration courtesy of The Clash et al., yet the Libertines Up the Bracket gets the critical "Important Album" tag. Why? I don't know, this record is no less fun truthfully, but there's that rock & roll danger that courses through it thus adding a certain validity as well. However, it's still a pop album cut by a band emulating other Important Bands. Clearly Pete Doherty is a Real Rock Star, cut from the same dirty, blood cloth as Keith Richards. But, all snarkiness aside, Up the Bracket is a fantastic AND an Important Album that folks will likely reference as a standout from the 00's where the previous selection will most likely be completely forgotten. Once again, I could have literally picked any of the 14 songs on this album, and went with 'Death on the Stairs'.

21. Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' 'Hurt' on American IV: The Man Comes Around is just bleak and depressing, the video even moreso. "I will let you down...I will make you hurt". When he delivers that line, it's like Moses delivering the word from on high. A very disturbing song and powerful cover.

22. "Come in, come in, come in, come in, from thin and wicked prairie winds... come in".. Tough to segue from the last song into this one but the Hip's 'The Darkest One' from In Violet Light is the best choice I think. One of my favourite songs from their latter day era. I love the video which is probably the Canadianist anyone has seen in awhile (Trailer Park Boys, Don Cherry, wintertime, booze, dollar bills, and uh Tragically Hip).

23. It's always seemed kind of weird that this is the decisive Wilco album where one fell on the pre-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot side of things or the other post,-YHF. Still sounds like Wilco to me, and the same kind of thing they started previously on Summerteeth which continues today. 'War on War' could be on their 2009 album in my opinion. Nice, jaunty pop song.

24. If there is a single more delightful pop song on here, I can't find it. 'Summertime Thing' from Chuck Prophet No Other Love album. Slightly painful to hear in November, as the waves roll in as the song begins, unless of course you live way, way down south. Lazy and happy groove throughout.

25. There is no better song to close out the mix than Tommy Womack's 'The Replacements' from Circus Town. This is another artist I feel the need to proselytize about. He's basically a genius, a storyteller extraordinaire in the guise of a mentally disturbed failure musician. I wish there were about 100 failures like him. He is a true credit to the gene pool.

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2001

2009-11-20T08:30:00.005-07:00

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2001

1. What a Drag! - The Kim Band

2. Hey Sailor - The Detroit Cobras

3. Bullet - Frank Black & The Catholics

4. The Other Man - Sloan

5. Everything Hits At Once - Spoon

6. Know Your Onion! - The Shins

7. Lowdown - My Morning Jacket

8. Jacksonville Skyline - Whiskeytown

9. Good Souls - Starsailor

10. Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk - Rufus Wainwright

11. I Might Be Wrong - Radiohead

12. Dead Leaves & the Dirty Ground - The White Stripes

13. Glad Girls - Guided By Voices

14. Short Skirt/Long Jacket - Cake

15. Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi - Jim White

16. Boo - Macy Gray

17. In the Waiting Line - Zero 7

18. Digital Love - Daft Punk

19. Hip Hop Thighs #17 - Ike Reilly

20. New York, New York - Ryan Adams

21. Life on a Chain - Pete Yorn

22. Affection - Lost Boys

23. It's Raining (4AM) - The Bicycle Thief

24. Weekend Monster - Diamond Dogs

25. Shut Up and Get On the Plane - Drive By Truckers

1. ‘What a Drag!’ from Girology by the Kim Band. This album was recommended to me by a good friend of mine who was not a fan of the same kind of music I was (“I like angry white guy music, man”). I remember playing him The New Pornographer’s Mass Romantic and he was just horrified I liked it and recommended I check out the Kim Band if I wanted to continue to listen to crap. I did and still do. Thanks Ian!

2. The Detroit Cobras ‘Hey Sailor’ from Life, Love & Leaving is just great rock & roll. Either you like this kind of thing or you don’t.

3. I used to be one of those people who was adamant that Frank Black’s solo career, despite being tremendously longer and richer than that of his former (and current, I guess) band, Pixies, was still inferior. As such I used to give his solo albums only a cursory listen and then move on, until I actually listened to the plaintive arguments of some who strongly argued otherwise. Glad I listened finally. ‘Bullet’, one of many awesome songs from Frank Black and the Catholics’s Dog in Sand.

4. Sloan’s ‘The Other Man’ from Pretty Together is like an anthem for the cuckolder. There are probably hundreds of songs written by the cuckolded male bemoaning his cheating wife or girlfriend, but you don’t get many songs written from the other man's perspective. And here he expresses this behaviour honestly and without explanation or justification: ‘I know he’s a standup guy, but that’s none of my concern’. Okay pally, don’t get killed.

5. Spoon fascinates me. They play deceptively simple music that initially seems hardly worthy of their (relative) fame within the indie music community. There are other bands who do this kind of thing yet are not as fawned over by critics and fans. So what gives? I’m still trying to figure it out actually because it is deceptively simple, but there’s something about it that draws you back when one might like to dismiss it. There’s a spare quality they have, kind of an anti-Broken Social Scene, where they leave out more than they put into a song and that somehow makes it more satisfying overall. It’s also decidedly unemotional, in my opinion. They observe and report. ‘Everything Hits At Once’ from Girls Can Tell is a great tune and I count them among the bands that have become progressively more interesting over the past decade. Although I still find them a bit baffling, I will still listen.

6. Who would have ever thought that some annoying vegan actress could help make such an overwhelmingly bland band like The Shins kind of a Big Deal? This certainly doesn’t sound like life-changing music, but if one was to imagine such a thing, how a song or band could Change a Life, I believe the power of the universe would dictate that it should be HUGE, much like a cataclysmic natural event, a hurricane, a tornado, an earthquake take your pick. This isn’t huge music, but not without some small charms, kind of like a piece of chocolate. Not great chocolate either, a Hershey’s Kiss maybe because the songs are short. From Oh Inverted World, 'Know Your Onion!'.

7. I just flat out love My Morning Jacket. One of my favourite artists from this decade and right at the top of bands I need to see in a live setting. 'Lowdown' from At Dawn is a lovely tune. It isn’t one of my favourite records from their oeuvre, if only because it’s a significant undertaking to sit and take in during a single sitting. It’s a Big Album and in my mind can at least gracefully enter that sphere of possibility “Life Changing”. ‘Lowdown’ is a wonderful song. “Chancin', glancin', sho nuff mood for romancin'”.

8. Listening to Whiskeytown’s Pneumonia and some of Ryan Adams’ early solo songs, you sometimes think ‘maybe he is as good as he thinks is’. Which isn't possible, but when you hear songs like ‘Jacksonville Skyline’, you can almost believe him.

9. There’s no explanation why I should still be listening to Starsailor’s Love is Here in 2009. Britpop albums usually have an expiration date that’s fairly soon after their release. I can only assume it’s something in the air over there, which spoils very quickly on this continent. (notable exceptions being Gay Dad’s Leisure Noise and the first two Oasis records). I guess the reason I’m still listening is because it really isn’t ‘Britpop’ but more of a straight English band playing kind of a jazzy and introspective pop music a la Van Morrison (disclaimer: I am not suggesting Starsailor are cut from the same cloth as Van Morrison). ‘Good Souls’, one of many great songs on this album.

10. I actually used to consume Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk regularly at work as they really were a few of my cravings. Nothing like a smoke and some milk. Rufus Wainwright has a knack for summing up those things we should probably avoid. From Poses.

11. Against all better judgement I put Radiohead's 'I Might Be Wrong' on here. Maybe because it feels like it should be on Kid A and not Amnesiac. I gave that record more than a few chances over the last near decade. I don't quite despise it, but there's more than a few occasions where I've grabbed the remote and said "why the fuck am I listening to this bullshit" and then . It doesn't happen during 'I Might Be Wrong'.

12. I remember hearing about them but for the longest time I just never got the opportunity to hear them (usenet did not provide in this case). Even when 'Fell in Love with A Girl' got popular and then backlashed enough that people would bitch about the omnipresence of the song, I still didn't know what the deal was about this band. I don't think 'Fell in Love with a Girl' is even an album highlight, it was between 'Hotel Yorba' or 'Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground', still one of my favourites from this band. Over the decade, I've pretty much decided that whatever Jack White does, I will give it a shot.

13. I think I have three albums by Guided By Voices and I'm not sure why. The only song I ever really want to hear from them is 'Glad Girls' from Isolation Drills. Good luck on emptying your brain after hearing it.

14. 'Short Skirt/Long Jacket' from Cake's Comfort Eagle. I will be honest and say that I am not one who enjoys dancing but this damn song always makes me want to get up and shake dat azz.

15. I heard 'Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi' by Jim White on a mix a few years ago. I checked out his album No Such Place. I highly recommend it for some alternative take on alternative country. Great lyrics with some sly beats courtesy of Morcheeba, which is kind of precedes Steve Earle's experiment with that on Washington Square Serenade by quite a few years.

16. I really thought Macy Gray had some bad luck with her album The Id. It was an excellent funk-soul album that had the horrendous luck to have a release date of 09/11/01. No one was really into this album that opened with 'Relating to a Psychopath', which was a shame. It was the soundtrack in the car for quite a while. This is 'Boo'. Highly recommended.

17. 'In the Waiting Line' from Zero 7's Simple Things is just one of many songs on that album that could be lifted and placed on Air's Moon Safari. It's not even subtle, as this song is basically 'All I Need', but fortunately it's all good if you don't care about those things and just love hearing 'All I Need' pt 2. Nice and chill.

18. 'Digital Love' from Daft Punk's Discovery is the odd man out here. Actually track 17 AND 18 are hard to squeeze in but anyway that's how it goes. I have an overwhelming need to derail a mix about 3/4 through. This is it. It also makes an horrible segue to...

19. Ike Reilly's 'Hip Hop Thighs #17. ' A 'play it really, really loud' kind of song, begging to be drunkenly shouted at about 11:21pm once the inhibitions are lowered to dangerous levels and anything is possible. From Salesmen & Racists, an album I somehow resisted for too long and now grab at it for a pick me up very frequently.

20. Gold is a fairly decent Ryan Adams album. Typically when I get a jones to hear him, it's this or Cold Roses I grab for. I like the idea that he's ballsy enough to cut two double albums over the course of 5 years even though overextends a bit too much and I usually don't make it through from start to finish. I still think it's pretty crazy that Ryan Adams filmed the video for 'New York, New York' in front of the New York skyline four days before Sept. 11. He may in fact be the prophet we've always feared. Kind of like Rasputin but with worse hair.

21. Ah, Pete Yorn if only you could crank out more like 'Life on a Chain' from the perfectly titled 'musicforthemorningafter', which often does hit the mark. It had a couple of great songs on it, but he's someone I wanted to like more than I ever actually did.

22. This might be one of the great songs ever. I'm serious. 'Affection' by Lost Boys, appearing on the Sopranos soundtrack Peppers and Eggs: Music from the HBO Series, and previously appeared on the unreleased album Nobody Loves and Leaves Alive. What blew me away was discovering the band is fronted by none other than Silvio Dante aka Little Steven Van Zandt. Apparently while off from the E-Street Band, he put together a garage band. I think we all need to see this album released based on the insane greatness of 'Affection'. Even the scene where it was featured in the show was fantastic. Tony Soprano is relaxing post-coitus with his current paramour Gloria Trillo. 'Affection' is playing on the radio in the background. She sensually dances to the song and before she turns it up and she asks Tony:

'You like this song?'

'It's all right.'

'I... fucking...love this song'

23. Speaking of true love, this song is also pretty much tops. It’s Rainin’ (4AM) by The Bicycle Thief. This was originally a '99 release but I have the '01 version so on the mix it must appear. This is an incredible song. First time I heard this was on a mix appropriately titled 'Slowcore Monger'. I'm not going to explain what that means.

24. Diamond Dogs are a Swedish band who play rock & roll like it never progressed past the early 70s. So you know, it's really, really great. 'Weekend Monster' from As Your Green Turns Brown is typically awesome, one of those play it loud songs that sound even better when you're getting your load on.

25. Of the 'new' bands I've come to love over the '00s, outside of My Morning Jacket, I generally try to recommend the Drive By Truckers to everyone who asks me about what new music I listen to. Of course I take into account whether they're up for a little adventure. It's not quantitatively challenging in terms of actual music, but overall it's not going to be everyone's particular brand lyrically, especially if you're not up for a heavy, heavy Southern vibe, e.g. a nearly 8 min spoken word piece on three Alabama icons on their genius double album Southern Rock Opera. I thought about putting that song smack dab in the middle of the mix, but this had to close out with 'Shut Up and Get on the Plane', 3:39 of goddamn great rock & roll.

Decade End Project: Mix from 2000

2009-11-18T08:34:00.009-07:00

So here comes my big Decade End project, trying to fit 25 songs from each year into something reasonably coherent and listenable. The latter quality is not necessarily a guarantee. In the context of music fandom, this is a decidedly “mainstream” kind of mix, but it’s not purposely so. It’s just the songs I happen to like best and also fit well together out of the 76 songs from 2000 I chose to distill into a final 25. A good many of these songs have strong nostalgic associations for me, as it represented a huge transition period personally (moving from Sudbury ON to London ON) and professional (MSc to PhD).Not surprisingly, just hearing these songs calls up more than a few episodic memory engrams.

Decade End Mix: 2000

1. After - dZihan & Kamien

2. Everything in Its Right Place - Radiohead

3. The Shining - Badly Drawn Boy

4. Beautiful Day - U2

5. Dancing In The Moonlight -Toploader

6. Gravity Rides Everything - Modest Mouse

7. Catch The Sun - Doves

8. Bohemian Like You - The Dandy Warhols

9. Black Book - Stephen Malkmus

10. Lake Fever - The Tragically Hip

11. Star Power - The Makers

12. Barstool Boys - Marah

13. Radio Havana - Rancid

14. Kathy Fong Is The Bomb - Tsar

15. Aside - The Weakerthans

16. Letter From An Occupant - The New Pornographers

17. B.O.B. - Outkast

18. Last Night - The Strokes

19. To Be Young - Ryan Adams

20. All Hands On The Bad One - Sleater-Kinney

21. Too Young - Phoenix

22. Saturday - Yo La Tengo

23. Didn't Cha Know - Erykah Badu

24. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life - The Avalanches

25. New - No Doubt

1. While I have mainly trafficked in the "classics" around here (Bruce, Stones etc.) or shared those that aspire to such terrible ideals (Four Horsemen, Quireboys), I have somehow decided to kick off the year 2000 mix with a nearly 8 min downtempo acid/jazz tune, 'After' by dZihan & Kamien from their 2000 debutFreaks & Icons. I'm not sure why, but it seemed that it had to be the leadoff track. I’ve never really been a huge electronic(a) music fan and with few exceptions I usually stay on the straight and narrow of basic rock & roll. A few albums can grab me in the right spot (Underworld, DJ Shadow, Chemical Brothers etc) but they're few and far between. I know I snagged this off a usenet group back in the day (a constant theme), and I for the life of me, cannot understand why I decided to download it but I’m glad I did. When I do data analysis, I enjoy this kind of music and so this became a staple of my PhD years.

2. Radiohead’s 'Everything In Its Right Place' from Kid is probably one of my favourite opening tracks of the last 10 years. In fact, it’s one of my favourite albums of the last 10 years. Like I said above, I'm really not a huge fan of the strange and electrostylings of some modern pop bands, the artistic experimentation, the exploring the boundaries, etc. but this appealed to me immediately, but really turned a lot of folks off and understandably so considering how far away they’ve turned from their traditional sound.This song (and album) is kind of chilly and strange but oddly comforting despite its supposed apocalyptic them. If it’s supposed to be pretentious nonsense, I’ve succumbed to its heightened artistry but was basically lost with all their other albums, save for a moment here and there.

3. Badly Drawn Boy's 'The Shining' from The Hour of Bewilderbeast was another usenet find I downloaded because of the British Beck comparisons and also on the recommendation from a friend in the UK who saw him live in a club said I would really enjoy it.I did enjoy about the first quarter of his debut album and I still like this song a whole lot.It’s a nice end of the year, AM kind of song. I like the cello.

4. U2's'Beautiful Day', from All That You Can't Leave Behind, is probably the most overplayed track on the mix, so feel free to skip it but when it comes on, I always turn it up because it still does it for me. Their return to the Big Rock sound after their electostylings in Pop. While I never really got into the album a whole lot (it’s all right, but the overall gestalt didn’t hit me), they definitely soar on this song.

5. 'Dancing in the Moonlight' is Toploader's version of the 1973 King Harvest classic. I really fucking love this song, as anyone who's spent time with me would be hard pressed not to hear this at least once over the course of an evening in the early ‘00s. A really fun song that appears on a really terrible album Onka’s Big Monka.

6. I'm a fan of latter day Modest Mouse, not caring as much for the tuneless meandering of their earlier albums and preferring actual songs like 'Gravity Rides Everything' from The Moon and Antarctica. They’ve progressively gotten more interesting and probably bland in the opinion of their real fans.

7. In contrast to my Modest Mouse opinion, while I don't mind the albums Doves have released over the last decade, none still hold a candle to songs like 'Catch the Sun' from their debut Lost Souls. This always reminds me of a conference in St. Paul.

8. Similarly it's hard to believe when I listen to the current songs from the Dandy Warhols that they could still write a catchy pop song like 'Bohemian Like You' from Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia.Compared to how much I enjoy their first three albums, I can’t fathom how they’ve become so horrible. I hope it’s calculated because I could almost respect a conscious decision to destroy themselves one album at a time.

9. Actually as I write this, I wonder if I could separate out into groups, those artists that I think have 'gotten better' and those who have 'gotten worse' over time. Stephen Malkmus' 'Black Book' is from his self-titled debut album and seems to be his most Pavementy track (and album in my opinion, it's the only one I own) and I've grown considerably weary of everything he's released since. I really like this song and a few more from this album.

10. 'Lake Fever' from the Tragically Hip's Music At Workis probably my favourite song on what I think is there weakest album, which is to say I like it a great deal but don't love it. I’m not a big ‘lyric’ guy, where the words can make or break a song. The words to 'Lake Fever' I really like though:

We can take a bit of a breather
We can skip to the practical part
We can skip to the time of neither
When we're together, even when we're apart
Tell you a story about the Lake Fever
or we can skip to the coital fury
You didn't say yes or no neither
You whispered...hurry

We can take it a little bit further
We can skip to the after-effects part
Not trying to make you a believer
Don't want a little piece of your heart
Just telling you a story about the Lake Fever
or we can skip to a neutral fury
You didn't say yes or no neither
You whispered...hurry

Wanna be a nobody without peer
Wanna be a thought that's never done
Wanna shake your faith in human nature
Wanna break the hearts of everyone
Wanna be your wheezing screen door
Wanna be your stars Algonquin
Wanna be your roaring floorboard
Wanna break the hearts of everyone
and cause discontent
Until they, ceasing their investigation
bring back the days' events,
good citizens and time well-spent
Till we're talking in whispers again
You whispered...hurry

11. One listen to this Marah’sKids in Philly and you wonder why it never caught on with people who like regular old Pettyesque rock & roll. Of the many songs one could select (Faraway You was another)I like ‘Barstool Boys’ a lot, "It’s a time clock/With a late block/Screamin’ walk that walk/Or else you’re all talk/And it’s eavesdrop/And it’s hard luck/Put ‘er in fast/And never don’t stop/Up in a weightless sky/(ooh baby) where no one flies…". I think Marah has gotten better or at least maintained the static (except for their mainstream grab Float Away with the Friday Night Gods which is weirdly awesome).

12. The Maker's 'Star Power' from their album Rock Star God is some kickin' glammy rawk and roll. Since hearing this album I've grabbed more of their albums but none hit as hard as this song (or perhaps '(I’m Just Lookin’ for a) Supergirl') from that album.

13. Rancid's 'Radio Havana' is just another excellent tune from a band that to me is impossible not to like, unless you’re one of those purists with exaggerated ideals who feel that this type of music should never be practiced outside of a certain era. Remarkably unremarkable and still hangs with you after it's gone.

14. But for hanging with you after its gone, almost nothing on this list can even remotely compare to the truly awesome power of 'Kathy Fong is The Bomb' from Tsar's self-titled debut. It's like they decided to just go for broke and cram as many hooks into a 10 three min pop songs. If you're not smiling during this song or at least semi-content with the world after hearing it, then I don't know what to tell you.

15. I think I was ignorant of the existence of the Weakerthans until 2003 or so, but better a few years late than never (thank you Janet…), I do love ‘Aside’ from Left and Leaving a lot especially the line about alcohol and irony. Also I think it's odd that this was over the closing credits of ‘The Wedding Crashers’.

16. Again in the musical geekery world when it is often ponderously debated which artists that have gotten better or worse over time, one polarizing argument is: Have the New Pornographers gotten better or worse since their debut? I tend to prefer the clatter of songs like 'Letter from an Occupant' from Mass Romantic and think the smoothing of their rougher edges over the decade has weakened them slightly but not fatally. This is yet another song I don't know if I can possibly ever get sick of hearing especially the call and response part at the end, with Neko hollering 'fortheloveofagodyousayyyyyyy' and 'notaletterfromanoccupanttttttt'.

17. All I have to say about Outkast’s ‘B.O.B.’ is that it's kind of impossible to hate or perhaps it's a perspective thing.Maybe if you really love hip-hop you're almost obligated to hate this because of the crossover appeal of Stankonia.Not being a real hip-hop fan (at least I’m not post-’95 or whenever that Master P. stuff flooded the market), I don't know. It's just a fun song with massive energy that still sounds incredibly unique at a time when that’s a rare commodity.

18. But if I had to pick an all time favourite here from 2000, it's got to be the Strokes’ 'Last Nite' from Is This It?. The album was supposed to be the biggest thing in the whole goddamn world based on the hype around their first EP (Stop the presses, NME just named it Album of the Decade…). And while it wasn't Nickelback seismic, it was a great, great record. Short, fun, punchy rock and roll.

19. Similarly, one might say the same about Mr. Ryan Adams who hasn't really delivered on his own self-absorbed genius.I'm supposing that because anyone who fires out that many albums in such a short period of time must think they're something special. HisHeartbreaker album is in fact pretty good to great. Similar to the New Pornographers, his anonymity in the real world is hilariously contrasted by his hugeness amongst the geek/hipster set (or at least it was a few years ago, the guy has slowed right down in pace and quality) who can get positively verbal regarding whether he has sucked since the demise of Whiskeytown or justHeartbreaker.

20. Sleater-Kinney were critical darlings who really didn't change stylistically all that much (perhaps why they were so critically beloved, I don’t know) except for their final grungey & Horsey 2005 albumThe Woods. Frankly, I loved 1999's The Hot Rock and their next All Hands on the Bad One. In fact when I put together some of my favourite singles in big slush pile, I had four songs from that latter album. It's good stuff. I went with the title track practically on whim, I like them all equally.

21. I can't recall precisely when I heard Phoenix's United for the first time but it was definitely in 2000 or thereabouts because I remember walking around London playing this French disco-AM pop a lot. 'Too Young' has popped up in a few movies over the years (and they couldn't be more different, 'Shallow Hal' and 'Lost in Translation'). Like that Sleater-Kinney album, I chose more than a few songs off United as my favourites of the decade, 'On Fire' was really, really hard to cut.

22. Yo La Tengo's And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out is a quiet and pretty record, 'Saturday' being one of my favourite songs from it. It's a grown-up album for sure, miles away from some of their past noisy moments. Definitely a very late in the evening or very, very early in the morning kind of album.

23. 'Didn't Cha Know' from Erkyah Badu shares both a mature similarity with the latter Yo La Tengo album, as both it and Mama’s Gun share extremely long 10 min+ closing tracks. Again, I’m not really much of a hip-hop fan but I really liked Baduizm and her work with the Roots (‘You Got Me’) and have continued to enjoy her work through to her latest releases.

24. A lot of people really, really loved the Avalanches’ Since I Left You, I think it was electro-pop album with a mixture of different styles a la Beck and Beastie Boys. The album never really worked as a cohesive whole for me, but I did love a few of the tracks on it, and it was between 'Tonight May Have to Last Me All My Life' or 'Two Hearts in 3/4 Time'. I went with the former, as I really like the Nancy Wilson piano-stylings in it.

25. The final song here is 'New' from No Doubt's 2000 albumReturn to Saturn or from what I typically associate it with, the 1999 soundtrack to Doug Limon's movie Go. I decided that since I associate it with '00 it belongs here. I really dig the song, although the actual album it’s on is a kind of a bloated mess at 15 songs. In general this band’s album are always edited kind of badly because they wear out their welcome over the course of an hour. Still, ‘New’ is good new wave fun. Also the lyrics ‘And you're consuming me violently\And your reverence shamelessly tempting me\Who sent this maniac?\'Cause I never had this taste in the past." Taste?

Live in the Shadow, See Through the Shadow

2009-10-20T05:58:00.003-06:00

This is a must hear for even a casual Stones fan, and for all the bootlegs I have from this band, it's probably the most essential. The background to this set comes from the accompanying nfo file: Necrophilia- How this title was even granted a catalog number - AB4224 - is a mystery. However the never-released album from 1971-1972, the planned follow-up to Hot Rocks was pressed on a few acetates, some of which were sold, and....surfaced on bootleg CD after a while. Much like the legendary unreleased 1966 Stones LP Could You Walk On Water?, this set was to have featured 15 previously-unreleased tracks including alternate takes or different mixes of "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby" "Heart of Stone", "Out of Time" and "Pay Your Dues" - the original version of "Street Fighting Man". Apparently Andrew Loog Oldham and Allen Klein had a major disagreement on the track selection - more specifically on the extremely vulgar "Andrew's Blues". It would have been unprecedented at the time for such a song to be released to the public, but not as far-fetched an idea by the 1980's if you consider that "Lonesome Schoolboy Blues" [aka: Cocksucker Blues] was included for a limited time in an official 1984 German albums boxed set. This title would be replaced by the friendlier More Hot Rocks but fans fear not, as nine of these selections later appeared in the 1975 LP Metamorphosis. Not surprisingly, "Andrew's Blues" has since become a popular bootleg track. As on that latter bootleg, several of the songs features Jagger, Richards and studio musicians, and not the other Stones members. Quality is perfect and artwork is included. I personally loved "Have You Seen Your Mother" which I understand hasn't been played live by the band since 1966 (?!) yet I recall from a 90s doc on the Stones that it's one of Mick's favourite Stones songs. Download this immediately particularly if you haven't heard Metamorphosis.

01 Out OF Time

02 Don't Lie To Me

03 Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow

04 Think

05 Hear It

06 Something Just Stuck In Your Mind

07 Aftermath

08 I'd Rather Be With THe Boys

09 Andrew's Blues

10 Pay Your Dues

11 Let the Good Times Roll

12 Heart of Stone

13 Each & Every Day of the Year

14 (Walkin' THru The) Sleepy City

15 Try a Little Harder

16 Blue Turns to Grey

17 We're Wasting Time

It Ain't What You Do (It's How You Do It!)

2009-10-02T05:44:00.004-06:00

"This..this is one of those groups who are going to keep it going a long, long time, they've got a great sound, the J. Geils Band!" so it is proclaimed by Bill Graham himself to begins this fantastic show from the Fillmore East in 1971. I found a blurb about this particular show from Wolfgang's Vault: "Going onstage after Mountain and before the Allman Brothers was certainly no easy task, but this set finds the J. Geils Band more than capable of rising to the occasion. According to Graham's autobiography, this group was among his favorites ever presented at the Fillmore East, and this set captures them performing with a ferocity few bands could match." Covering songs from their excellent debut album The J. Geils Band and their even better follow up The Morning After they kick the show off with a raucaus 'New York City Breakdown'and and keep up a pace that can only be described with a a few more f-adjectives, 'frentic' and 'furious' and finally culminating with an absolutely fucking killer version of my favourite song of theirs "It Ain't What you Do (It's How You Do It!). Highly recommended this be played at a near ear-splitting volume.

Tell Me Son, What's Your Kind Of Thing?

2009-09-16T10:05:00.006-06:00

The Quireboys, or the London Quireboys as I first got to know them, were one of my favourites in the early 90s. Between A Bit of What You Fancy and The Black Crowes' Shake Your Moneymaker I scarcely listened to little else circa '90-91. If one were to inspect the photographic evidence of that time period it was black jeans, untucked pin-striped shirt and jacket with the occasional headband. That album cover might have been the single most influential thing on my sense of style. Whether that was a good thing or not is certainly debatable.

This is a live set from 1990, recorded at the Town & Country in London. Quality is excellent, kicking off with an all time favourite: 'Man on the Loose'. The latter song, '7 O'Clock' and the Crowes' 'Twice as Hard' fairly accurately showcases the first few songs that started off about 800 of my mix tapes in the early 90s. They also do the Stones proud on 'Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)'. It's a fun set, good exhuberant rock and roll that pairs well with your second Jack & Coke, your third rum & coke or possibly a 4th gin & tonic. These are merely suggestions you are free to test this out with your own variations.

1. Man on the Loose
2. Whippin' Boy
3. Roses & Rings
4. Long Time comin'
5. Sweet Mary Anne
6. I Don't Love You Anymore
7. Sex Party
8. Take Me Home
9. Hey You
10. There She Goes Again
11. 7 O'Clock
12. Mayfair
13. Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
14. Please Me
15. Hoochie Coochie Man

HOWYAFEELIN?ALLRIGHT??!!!!

2009-08-26T07:48:00.004-06:00

The first time I ever heard Slade was via their early 80s comeback hit 'Run Runaway' from Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply, which still kills me and is turned up to full volume whenever I hear it. I still haven't heard that album, which I should probably remedy soon. Of course the 80s covers by Quiet Riot were also inescapable. I also like this one story about Slade from Danny Sugarman's almost certainly fictional 'autobiography' Wonderland Avenue. In it he's riding in the front of a limo to go and see Iggy Pop or something and Slade are in the back practically raping a young fan who as it turns out was Mackenzie Philips. Danny the hero tells them to knock the shit off and somehow Slade listens to them. Bullshit of course, because Slade probably would have pulled 15 year old Danny back in there and passed him around for dessert. Still, a great story. As for this bootleg from '73, it's been getting some serious play. Sound is great and the shit he yells at the crowd here is beyond belief, literally ordering everyone to MAKE..SOME..NOISE!!!! ENJOY YOURSELVES!! ALLRIGHT??? Nobody talks like that anymore, especially in the modern era, with the silent and ambivalent performer who typically ignore their audience. Not Slade. They tear it up here, some pure ol' rock 'n roll with excellent versions of "Gudbuy t'Jane" and "Mama Weer All Crazee Now".

Something's Gonna On...

2009-07-29T18:09:00.003-06:00

John Fred & his Playboys tend to be remembered mainly for the hit'Judy in Disguise', one of my favourite singles from the late '60s. Sadly ignorant of his actual albums I went looking and usenet kindly provided, as it usually does. 34:40 of John Fred, their second album, was released in 1967 (iTunes suggests it might more accuractly be titled called 34:20...) the year before he hit big with that aforementioned hit. There's a few covers on the record (Otis Redding, Animals, the Beatles), but they deliver well enough. This album was evidently a flop back in '67, which perhaps might not be too surprising considering the other notable albums released that year. This is fairly straight forward rock and roll. Highlights are 'Sun City' and 'Down To The Boogalo'. Definitely worth checking out.

Bring Me My Shotgun

2009-07-10T08:56:00.004-06:00

Bring Me My Shotgun: The Apartment Demos is an acoustic set of early recordings from the late Ron "Pigpen" McKernan of the Grateful Dead. Recorded in San Francisco in 1966, the quality isn't bad considering the home recording. Blues, gospel and soul were always Pigpen's best contribution to the band, and this is what you get here, just him and his guitar. It's not essential listening to a casual listener but fans of the Dead, particularly Pigpen's contributions, will definitely enjoy it. Pairs well with a glass of Southern Comfort and a dark room.

I Wish It Was Saturday Night...

2009-06-16T20:07:00.005-06:00

I only heard the Blasters a few years ago and was duly impressed, but to be honest it was Dave Alvin's solo songs heard on a few choice mixes that put me on the search to hear more. Lucky as usual, usenet provides and in this case, doubly so. The debut albums of both brothers, Phil Alvin's Un-Sung Songs from 1986 and Dave Alvin's Romeo's Escape from 1987. Plenty to recommend on both, the straight country that Dave has blew me away 'Every Night About This Time' could be a Don Williams song (close enough that I actually went and checked to verify), plus the basic perfection of '4th of July' makes this an excellent country rock album. Phil's album is qualitatively different but no less impressive, with the dip towards more blues, jazz and 50's style rave-ups. Not generally my thing, but damned if this didn't get under my skin, particularly 'Daddy Rollin Stone'. I mainly wish it was Saturday because this album and Dave's need to be played at around 9pm with some folks over and drinks being served. Also, Phil's album seems to demand cigarettes, lots of them. The pops of the vinyl rip seem to give a puff of sweet menthol every time.

Brand New Rock 'N' Roll

2009-06-09T19:18:00.008-06:00

Inspired by the recent country-rock discussion on the obner board, this seemed to be a logical choice. The first two solo albums from Don Everly, the self-titled Don Everly from 1970 and Sunset Towers from 1974. I believe this may be currently available as a bundled disc, but the single albums themselves are long deleted. Which is a shame because it's some first-rate country-rock. 'Don't Drink the Water' and 'Februrary 15' are both standouts from the debut album, the latter being a weird folk-rock with a surprising modern feel. 'Warming Up the Band' from Sunset Towers has a surprising near funky groove while 'Let it Rain' could easily be My Morning Jacket's best idea for a cover. Recommended for your Son Volt, Wilco and My Morning Jacket fans.

The Return of The Jack

2009-06-07T13:02:00.003-06:00

After a full year of nothingness, it's time to get back to it. I figure this is one hobby I want to recommit too. Stuff is about to happen.

I Gave You The Diamonds, You Give Me Disease

2008-06-06T18:06:00.003-06:00

After seemingly a dead serious promise to keep up with this blog, I've clearly let things bog me down to the point where I'm unable to string together a bunch of words and upload some serious records to share. Well, seeing as I'm an unreliable fuck at the best of times, this should be no surprise. But on the upside between April and now, I've accrued a lot of terrible albums to share. This was a recent gem I Give You Diamonds, You Give Me Disease: The Exile Outtakes. It's pretty much as nasty as one would expect it to be. What blew me away were the alternate takes of such signature tunes. The early 'Tumbling Dice' song 'Good Time Women' was pretty much the best thing I've heard all week. And the original is one of my all time favourite songs. The basic structure is there, that quality is present, but that relaxed heroiny groove is replaced by a more uptempo beat. If 'Hillside Blues' or 'Travellin' Man' doesn't make you want to commit war crimes, then there' just no pleasing you.

Dolled up in Neon, Strut your Wares down the Street

2008-04-11T07:40:00.006-06:00

At the risk of already becoming redundant and/or predictable, I've come back to post some more about the Forgotten Rebels, but in this case I come bearing actual albums. These are all out of print now, so I don't feel bad. The main impetus for this post was the recent acquisition of This Ain't Hollywood. I snagged it from another blog, which claimed it was a vinyl rip of their 1981 album. Now, it nearly is a vinyl rip of the album however, for some reason in place of the original version of 'Surfin' on Heroin', there is the 1986 remake that appears on The Pride and Disgrace. The remake distinguishes itself from the original by being slightly longer with some additional sound effects, namely puking. It's still great...just not the original. But every other song on This Ain't Hollywood is just as good as I remember it being. I think I mentioned earlier that it's been at least 15 years since I've heard the album in anything other than a hissy old dubbed cassette. I'd forgotten how good 'Memory Lane' with its "I won't stop and stare, I'm far away but not there..." refrain and the title track is just as fantastic as ever. Same with the pissy 'England Keep Your Stars', which is worth repeating in full:

I remember you so many years ago
What I saw in you, I don't know
I saw stars when I opened your door
They landed on our fair shores
Their novel accents made them so rich
While I'm stuck playing In a rotting ditch
Now London don't swing like a pendulum do
England keep yer starts

So won't you keep yer stars
England Keep yer stars
Won't you keep yer stars
England keep yer stars

Through Canada and America they played the biggest arena
They took money from our pocket then they got ripped off
I wanna be so bloody rich, I wanna be a snob
and make my wife a bitch
Now London don't swing like a pendulum do
England keep yer stars

Radio loves the English bands
Radio loves the American bands
Have they censored Canada to get their money from foreign lands?
Rebels like us who have it rough
Canadian radio will not play our stuff
Now New York don't swing like a pendulum do
England keep yer stars

So in honour of getting this long awaited album I thought I'd put up their debut In Love with the System and The Pride and Disgrace. I probably like the debut as much as the This Ain't Hollywood, and this version also contains some bonus tracks of their earliest songs like 'Forgotten Rebel' and 'Reich 'n Roll'. The Pride and Disgrace released in 1986 tones down the obvious glam rock of their previous album and bounds more towards straight rock and roll. You can't really call an earnest cover of the Beatles 'Rain' punk rock, although perhaps the lead-off track 'Ethiopia' with it's ragging on LiveAid (i.e. Ethiopia, forget about, Ethiopia, the whole bloody thing is a sham...what do we ignore our own poor with rich rock stars and celebrity boors) can still make a case for them being pissed off. And the rape-murder story 'Little Girl' still kind of freaks me out. ('...and you found, yes you found a brand new romance, little girl in the snow, you should have stayed home, baby it's cold out there tonight'), but these are buttressed against wonderfully goofy tracks like 'I Am King' ('I'm so great, I'm so cool I am the king and the Rebels RULE'), 'Live Strippers' and 'Underwear'. It's actually a better album than I remember.

Also, as promised in that previous post. A shot of me getting ready for the Rebels show in 1992. It is 10am.

I Ain't Gonna Worry My Life Away...

2008-03-21T15:30:00.003-06:00

Of all the urban legends in music, probably my favourite is the one about Merry Clayton. As the story goes, her incredibly incendiary performance of 'Gimme Shelter' during the Let it Bleed sessions induced a miscarriage. The funny thing about urban legends is they always seem particularly unbelievable, Rod Stewart's semen story notwithstanding, but listening to her on that song, frankly, it doesn't seem that out there. Her vocals are quite literally hair-raising, particularly the 'raaaaape, muuuurdddder' part. In addition to that notorious song, she also backed another ridiculously famous tune, 'Sweet Home Alabama'. On her solo debut Gimme Shelter she never quite burns down the house, but it's fantastic to have an entire album of her voice. In addition to her own cover on the title track, which while no way as intense as the original, there is a wholly unnecessary cover of 'Bridge Over Troubled Waters'. I fucking hate that song, so it's my problem. Others may find it lovely. Her cover of The Doors' 'Tell All the People' is, however, really good. But some of the more powerful, and near hair-raising moments are on the slower numbers like 'Here Comes Those Heartaches Again' and 'I Ain't Gonna Worry My Life Away'. I don't exactly know why Merry never took off as a major artist. It's weird how things work out.

You Can't Get There From Here

2008-03-08T13:50:00.002-07:00

I don't know if these guys really looked like this, but I hope they did. Wrapped in bullets and carrying guns. This was the only picture I could find of the band, so I assume they're all dead. I actually first found a mention of this band on Skynfan's Guide to Rock 'n Roll and while the songs were good, the actual listening experience was terrible because it was an awful rip. However, Usenet pays off again with four of their albums. If you like, for lack of a better term, 'southern rock', then you will almost certainly dig Potliquor. They don't have the epic southern mystique of the Drive-By Truckers or Lynyrd Skynyrd. They're more along the lines of Marshall Tucker Band or early ZZ Top with a bit more dixie swing. They also remind me a bit of Lucero. Anyway, this album, Louisiana Rock & Roll, has been a favourite of mine this week. Great rock & roll music, done right and clocking in around 40 min. They probably should have been bigger than they were, aside from an interesting curio from a bygone era.