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.
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