Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2009

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

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

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

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'.