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.