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.

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

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.

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?

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

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.