20) Miley Cyrus - “Party in the U.S.A.” (Hollywood)
I could share my various reasons for why this song is on the list (it’s an extremely catchy, well constructed, well produced pop song, co-written by the same guy who co-wrote Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone”), but I think it would be more entertaining to see what you wrote about it. So click here for the unedited comments that streamed forth on Facebook under my status update after I decided to stir things up one Tuesday morning.
19) Lily Allen - “The Fear” (Capitol)
Lily Allen became quite the tabloid fixture in the UK (and a bit here too) because of her run-ins with paparazzi—and their tendency to get photos of Allen topless. (Note to self—only do a Google image search about her at home.) All the hubbub overshadowed the fact that Allen’s debut album Alright, Still was a brash and entertaining mix of her straightforward lyrics about guys fucking the girl next door and tales of her pothead brother with poppy ska and reggae influenced tracks. The Allen on It’s Not Me, It’s You returns to her take no prisoners lyrical attitude (especially on “Fuck You,” where she practically giggles through the chorus “fuck you, fuck you very very much) except for “The Fear.” In this song Allen takes a tongue-in-cheek look at celebrities who are famous just for being famous, yet strikes an ominous tone in the chorus: “I don't know what's right and what's real anymore/I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore/When we think it will all become clear/'Cuz I'm being taken over by The Fear.” It’s an intriguing step forward for someone who seems to have a very interesting career ahead of them.
18) Sean Kingston - “Fire Burning” (Epic/Beluga Heights)
Since I was about 12 years old I’ve had bouts of insomnia. It comes and goes with no reason. (Of course, I didn’t have to worry about it when I worked overnights back in the early ’90s.) This year has not been that bad in the sleep department, except for one particularly brutal stretch during the summer. I usually try to stay in bed even if I’m wide awake as I hope against hope that I will drift off into slumberland. One night I gave up at 1:00 a.m. and decided to head to my living room to circle through the channels. Around 4:15 I came across MTV Hits and stopped when I saw heard this kid singing “Somebody call 911! Shawty fire burning on the dance floor, whoa!” over a typical R&B/dancehall track. I laughed out loud at how stupid this line was and decided to watch the whole clip. By the end of it, I couldn’t stop humming that “Somebody call 911” line. I finally fell asleep around 5:30, woke up at 8—and that line was still in my head. I downloaded it when I got to work because I need to hear it again to cleanse my sonic pallet. It didn’t work. So I spent a couple of sleepless days and nights with “Somebody call 911!” popping in and out of my brain. It got me to thinking—maybe it wasn’t that stupid. To get burrowed that deep in my skull, the song had to be worth something. And when my insomnia broke and I still enjoyed thinking “Somebody call 911!,” I knew “Fire Burning” needed a place on this year’s list.
(Or that I need to start taking valium before bed. One or the other.)
17) Neko Case - “People Got a Lot of Nerve” (Anti)
Back in mid-May I could not escape this song. Between listening to the New York NPR adult alternative station WFUV and my usual morning stop in Starbucks, I heard it four out of five mornings one week. I have always thought of Case as a great singer of other people's material (i.e., everything she's sung in New Pornographers). But I've never been a fan of her own originals until “Nerve.” The way she sings “I’m a mana mana mana mana maneater” makes me think she has a tiny bit of experience in that department. I could be wrong. And I wouldn’t think of asking her since she’s posing with a sword on her album cover. Nice Neko, nice Neko….
16) The Figgs - “Casino Hayes” (Peter Walkee Records)
I love gambling. I love The Figgs. Bringing these two interests together in the service of one song? Why didn’t this happen sooner?!!?
15) Phish - “Backwards Down the Number Line” (JEMP)
When I interviewed Phish singer-guitarist Trey Anastasio back in the fall he told me that the band’s reunion started with “Backwards Down the Number Line.” The lyrics came as an email on his birthday from his writing partner Tom Marshall. At that point the two hadn’t spoken in over a year (due in part to Anastasio’s court-ordered rehab). Looking at Marshall’s words, I can see why Anastasio was touched and instantly inspired by his longtime friend:
“Happy happy oh my friend
Blow out candles once again
Leave the presents all inside
Take my hand and let's take a ride
Backwards down the number line
You were eight and I was nine
Do you know what happened then
Do you know why we're still friends
Laughing all these many years
We’ve pushed through hardships
tasted tears
We made a promise one to keep
I can still recite it in my sleep
Every time a birthday comes
Call your friend and sing a song
Or whisper it in to his ears
Or write it down just don't miss a year”
The lyrics are (in my opinion) the best ever in a Phish song. Anastasio told me he quickly wrote music for the words, added a chorus and did a four track demo all in the same afternoon. And the band rose to the occasion, playing with a verve and clarity that they haven’t displayed in many years. Anastasio’s guitar solo practically sings with joy, as if he’s making up for all those wasted (sometimes literally) years in some furiously focused notes. Happy birthday indeed.
14) Wilco - “You Never Know” (Nonesuch)
After my first listen to Wilco (The Album), it seemed obvious to me that “You Never Know” had to be the first single take from the disc. It was Jeff Tweedy's catchiest song since “Heavy Metal Drummer” and had a slicker than usual sound for the band. After I listened to the album a few more times I woke up one morning with “You Never Know” in my head. And it dawned on me why it was so catchy—it was an out and out homage to the Traveling Wilburys. The wall of strummed guitars and the descending piano riff during the chorus? Straight from Jeff Lynne's production handbook. The chord progression those acoustic guitars are bashing out? It could be mistaken for “Won’t Last Long” from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers highly underrated 1999 album Echo. The dual slide guitar parts in the solo? George Harrison patented those with the Wilburys and his solo career. Those massive backing vocals? I swear you could hear a mix of Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan in there. Normally I’d be a bit dismissive of someone so closely aping someone else's style. But this was done so well (and sounds like so much fun) I'm sure Tweedy and company knew exactly what they were doing in paying tribute to one of the best supergroups of our time.
13) Norah Jones - “Chasing Pirates” (Blue Note/EMI)
I've never really had that strong of an opinion one way or another about Ms. Jones and her hugely successful career. Her first three albums were cut from the same mellow cloth (which I believe can be bought at Ikea). Her latest disc The Fall sees Jones shaking things up a bit by dropping her long time band and recording with a bunch of L.A. session guys, including uber-drummer Joey Warnoker. Jones also crafted songs that are a bit darker (no likely inspired by her breakup with her boyfriend/bassist Lee Alexander) and at times a bit funkier. “Chasing Pirates” has a bit of that funk and is the catchiest song she's ever written. I listened to it a few times before interviewing her in October and I found myself humming the chorus the rest of the day. When I listened to the entire album for the first time in November, "Chasing Pirates" crept back into that part of my brain that randomly repeats song lyrics over and over again.
(Oh, and it doesn't hurt that she’s, um, kind of attractive.)
12) Chairlift - “Bruises” (Kanine/Columbia)
Yes, this is the song that was in that iPod nano commercial last Christmas. (The one with the female singer cooing “I tried to do handstands for you” in a cute voice.) Yes, I most likely never would have heard it if it wasn’t for that commercial. But no, I never bought a Snuggie, so I’ve got that going for me.
11) Monsters of Folk - “Say Please” (Shangrila Music)
This 21st century Traveling Wilburys—consisting of M. Ward, My Morning Jacket's Jim James and Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis—did a pretty good show in November at the Beacon Theater. With such expansive back catalogs to choose from each artist, as well as their self-titled collaborative album, these guys could have easily played six hours together instead of just close to three. This first single from Monsters of Folk is a song these guys could probably write in their sleep. But it’s so damn catchy and a great show opener that I can easily ignore the by-the-numbers writing approach here. I kept wishing they would play it again during some of the more somber numbers they broke out.
10) Jay-Z Featuring Alicia Keys - “Empire State of Mind” (Atlantic)
I would like to note that I thought this was the best Jay-Z track since “99 Problems” long before it became associated with the New York Yankees playoff run. Even the performance before Game 2 of the World Series didn’t damper my enthusiasm for it. And then when Jay-Z was in the Yankee parade celebrating their 27th championship, I, well, um…
(Pardon me. I need to go light my eyes on fire. I think we should all move on to number-nine.)
9) Noisettes - “Never Forget You” (Mercury)
I must admit—when “Never Forget You” came on WFUV one morning this spring, I thought Amy Winehouse had finally put the crack pipe down and snuck out a single without anyone knowing. The snappy vocal delivery, the swelling string section, the chicka-chicka of the old school R&B guitar—it sounds tailor made for her. But Noisettes singer-bassist Shingai Shoniwa has pipes that put Winehouse’s to shame. The snarl she puts behind the opening line “What you’re drinking, rum or whiskey” makes me think she could probably do a shot of rum—and then a shot of whiskey. The rest of the Noisettes album Wild Young Hearts sounds nothing like “Never Forget You.” But if the band fully embraced this neo-soul sound, the competition might inspire Winehouse to get back to work.
8) Kelly Clarkson - “I Do Not Hook Up” (RCA)
I love how musical fates love to screw around once in awhile. As much as I dislike “I Kissed a Girl” and the amount of pain American Idol caused me the first time I ever watched it (which was this year for work), I’m surprised that I would like a song co-written by Katy Perry and A.I. judge Kara DioGuardi. In the hands of another singer, “I Would Not Hook Up” could come across as a pretty cold and calculated hit song. (Find the Katy Perry demo version on YouTube and you’ll hear exactly how robotic she can be.) In the hands of a decent singer (check), one that could actually deliver genuine emotion behind lyrics she didn’t write (check again) and one that can sound comfortable with a wall of guitars behind her (indeed)…well, it could be fantastic. Clarkson sounds totally impassioned and invested in “I Do Not Hook Up.” I believe she’s been that woman, the one whose man who loves the bottle more than the awesome woman in front of him. I think what I like about Clarkson is that even though her career got started on a TV show, she seems more genuine and down to earth about every aspect of career than any other female pop singer today. (Can I get a “you go girl,” here? Ah, thanks.)
7) Pearl Jam - “The Fixer” (Ten Club)
“The Fixer” is Pearl Jam’s most commercial sounding single from one of their albums since, well, I'd say Ten and “Alive.” (“Daughter” and “Better Man” were not technically singles.) It's also one of their most optimistic sounding songs in a long time. When Eddie Vedder sings the first verse, I'm inclined to believe he can do this entire laundry list of tasks:
“When somethings dark, let me shed a little light on it
When somethings cold, let me put a little fire on it
If somethings old, I wanna put a bit of shine on it
When somethings gone, I wanna fight to get it back again”
Add in the production touch of Brendan O’Brien (strategically placed handclaps, a tiny piano part, guitars that sound like ’80s synths, or perhaps actual ’80s synths) and you've got one great 2:55 song.
(Sidebar: Why has Brendan O’Brien made other acts—the E Street Band, cough cough—sound so muddled, yet this PJ track has the treble all the way up? Weird.)
6) Death Cab for Cutie - “Little Bribes” (Atlantic)
Dear Death Cab For Cutie,
This song, this gorgeous gem, this two minute, forty seven second slice of intelligent, poppy, indie rock, wasn’t good enough to be on your 2008 album Narrow Stairs? Seriously? A song that is better than all of the tracks on it (save “No Sunlight”) couldn’t fit in? Guys, are you fearful of getting more popular? (Wait, you did a song for The Twilight Saga: New Moon soundtrack, so I think I know the answer to that question.) Seriously, the next album you make, let me pick the track listing. Okay?
Thanks,
sr
5) Ingrid Michaelson - “Maybe” (Cabin 24 Records)
I've written about Ms. Michaelson in the past on the blog and the RT 20 about how she’s such an entertaining interview subject. I spoke with her once again for her latest album Everybody. And for someone who's so witty and charming in an interview (and afterwards) as well as on stage, it’s still surprising to me that she writes some of the darkest songs about relationships of any artist I've come in contact with the past few years. Everybody is—lyrically at least—one downer of an album. Michaelson told me that Everybody is an album about how “love is not enough to keep a relationship going.” She wasn’t kidding, as song after song is about relationships getting blown apart. “Maybe” closes the album on a kind of uplifting note (which was by design to soften the blow of all the bummers that come before it). It’s perhaps her slickest production yet, and that's probably why I found myself humming it over and over again. Upon further reflection, a chorus that goes “maybe in the future you're gonna come back” ain’t so uplifting. But at least it’s got a mass of Michaelsons singing the chorus. She does an incredible job of harmonizing with herself. I could listen to her do harmonies all day. Actually, could I watch her record those harmonies all day too? Thanks for making that happen, mystical fake music god.
4) Grizzly Bear featuring Michael McDonald - “While You Wait For Others” (Warp Records)
I was surprised that the indie rock blogging portion of the Internet didn’t explode and fry servers from coast to coast on August 31st when word got out that Michael “‘What A Fool Believes’ is Still a Great Song, Fuckers” McDonald sang lead on the B-side version of “While You Wait For Others.” I especially enjoyed what Pitchfork wrote that day:
“He’s not doing backup vocals you can barely hear or whatever—dude takes the lead on this version in every possible way. Even in the realm of stunt-y, generation-crossing collaborations, this is fucking weird. McDonald's soul holler could not be more different than original singer Daniel Rossen’s troubled warble.”
They are right—the original vocal is pleasant enough, but this is a good song that needs a great singer to bring it to the next level, and McDonald delivers the goods. It’s absolutely stunning. Add in McDonald harmonizing with the rest of the band on the backing vocals, and you have a recording that makes the original album version obsolete. I now skip the original when I’m listening to Veckatimest. I’ll give props to Grizzly Bear bassist Chris Taylor (who made the McDonald connection through his ex-girlfriend, whose dad knew the former Doobie Brother) and singer Rossen for seeing (or better put, hearing) what could make their art greater and not letting their egos get in the way.
3) Brendan Benson - “A Whole Lot Better” (ATO)
Dear Brendan,
I know you like playing in The Raconteurs, that band with your pal Jack White. And I know the band’s popularity has gotten you into bigger venues than you could have ever imagined. I also know that you’ve co-written some really great songs (“Old Enough,” “Hands”) with Jack. And I was a fan of both Raconteurs discs and that bluegrass remake of “Old Enough” you cut with Ricky Skaggs.
But for goodness sake, four years is far too long to wait for a power-pop gem like this.
Seriously.
Rock on, and I hope we only have to wait two years next time,
sr
2) The Lonely Island featuring T Pain - “I’m on a Boat” (Universal Republic)
I must admit that the videos this SNL trio cooks up run hot (“Dick in a Box,” “Jizz in My Pants”) and cold (“The Space Olympics,” “Ras Trent”) for me. But this song and its corresponding clip are the only reason why I DVR every new episode.
This track works on three levels:
1) It's fucking funny. I can't stop laughing when T. Pain (who is totally in on the joke, but plays it as if it’s just another one of his hit songs) sings “motherfucker” and “I fucked a mermaid” or when Andy Samberg raps “I got a nautical themed pashmina afghan.”
2) It's damn catchy. It’s just as slamming as most hip-hop I’ve heard in the past year.
3) It’s totally weird. Somehow they worked in a reference to Kevin Garnett’s very odd TV interview just after the Boston Celtics won the 2008 NBA title (“everything is possible”).
1) The Avett Brothers - “I And Love And You” (American/Columbia)
I love how music creates dialogue between people. I wrote this back in September on the RT 20 blog: “Two months ago I heard this song on WFUV. It stopped me in my tracks when I heard this line: ‘Brooklyn, Brooklyn, let me in/Are you aware the shape I’m in/My hands they shake, my head it spins/Brooklyn, Brooklyn, let me in.’ I was instantly sold.”
After that I went to Austin for the Austin City Limits Festival and stayed once again with my friend Stacy and her boyfriend John. There I saw the Avetts for the first time, and they impressed the heck out of me. After I returned back to New York, John chimed in on the blog: “Steve, I was caught by the 'Brooklyn, Brooklyn' business too - the first time I heard it. But it came to seem almost manipulative to me then, mostly I think given the cache of being part of a band, and therefore part of that specifically hip community in Brooklyn. But the clincher is the title phrase, which goes deep into the heart of schmaltz - no?”
I responded: “I can understand your trepidation about the ‘Brooklyn, Brooklyn’ line, but I had never heard the band until that one morning on WFUV. So I didn’t have that critical awareness going in. And sometimes I like being able to enjoy music on a pure gut level.”
I should have added that the title phrase definitely could lead into the heart of schmaltz, but the song doesn’t cross that line because it neatly dissects the powerful meaning those three words can have. (Of course, this is coming from a guy who thinks Paul McCartney’s “My Love” isn’t schmaltzy, so what the heck do I know?)
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Top 10 Headlines I Hope I Don't Write in 2010
1) In the wake of Madonna’s death, every car and bar in Brooklyn plays only her music for six months straight.
2) Susan Boyle’s follow up her chart-busting debut album with track by track cover of Goat’s Head Soup.
3) Chris Brown is dating Erin Woods. (What, too soon?)
4) Lady Gaga is ensnared in a steroids scandal, caught with the same drug Manny Ramirez used when his testosterone levels were also low.
5) Kanye West interrupts President Obama's news conference and proclaims, “I’m a gonna let you finish O, but I gotta say the Reagan Iran-Contra press conference was the dopest one ever. And I mean dopest because he was probably on some sort of dope. Whoa!”
6) After Randy Jackson decides to leave American Idol, FOX decides to hire Brian from Family Guy as a new judge. His catch phrase is “Yo, what up human?”
7) Battling brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher finally finish their arguing the old fashioned way—a duel at dawn.
8) T Pain accidentally spills a 40 into the autotune at his studio. Then pours a 40 out in its honor and retires.
9) Taylor Swift continues singing. 15 year olds keep buying Fearless and don’t realize they could sing better than her at karaoke.
10) Limp Bizkit release new album and start a U.S Tour. (Aw, fuck me. That one is happening.)
2) Susan Boyle’s follow up her chart-busting debut album with track by track cover of Goat’s Head Soup.
3) Chris Brown is dating Erin Woods. (What, too soon?)
4) Lady Gaga is ensnared in a steroids scandal, caught with the same drug Manny Ramirez used when his testosterone levels were also low.
5) Kanye West interrupts President Obama's news conference and proclaims, “I’m a gonna let you finish O, but I gotta say the Reagan Iran-Contra press conference was the dopest one ever. And I mean dopest because he was probably on some sort of dope. Whoa!”
6) After Randy Jackson decides to leave American Idol, FOX decides to hire Brian from Family Guy as a new judge. His catch phrase is “Yo, what up human?”
7) Battling brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher finally finish their arguing the old fashioned way—a duel at dawn.
8) T Pain accidentally spills a 40 into the autotune at his studio. Then pours a 40 out in its honor and retires.
9) Taylor Swift continues singing. 15 year olds keep buying Fearless and don’t realize they could sing better than her at karaoke.
10) Limp Bizkit release new album and start a U.S Tour. (Aw, fuck me. That one is happening.)
Compilations, Reissues, EPs, Soundtracks, Etc.
10) Bee Gees - Odessa (Rhino/Reprise)
This three disc reissue replicates the original packaging with the entire box covered in red felt. (Ooh, so soft.) I must admit to having never heard this full album before I scored this deluxe edition. I only knew the single “First of May” (which has been on a couple of Bee Gees compilations) and the cut “Melody Fair” because Young Fresh Fellows covered it. I must say that after a few listens I could see why it’s grown in critical stature over the years. The original double album is stacked with as wide a range of songs as (danger, danger—bold statement coming) The Beatles’ White Album. The title track incorporates the orchestral progressive rock sounds of the Moody Blues, “Melody Fair” and “Lamplight” are exquisite ballads that are placed next to country-flavored tunes like “Marlery Purt Drive” and the Dylan-esque bluegrass number “Give Your Best.” Pair that up with strange, offbeat rock tunes like “Edison” and “Whisper Whisper” (which at 2:27 switches from a odd little rock song into a horn-inflected workout that could be on the soundtrack to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and then wraps up with a drum solo…huh?) and you have one weird piece of work. You also have what has become my favorite Bee Gees album, non-disco edition. The outtakes and alternate versions on the third disc show that the Brothers Gibb made the right choices for the album mixes while providing an interesting glimpse into their studio work.
9) The Jayhawks - Music From the North Country: The Jayhawks Anthology (American/Legacy)
This collection is a gift and a curse for a hardcore Jayhawks fan. The gift is the huge serving of great rarities on the second disc and the videos (many of which I never saw) on the DVD. The curse comes from the fact that a hardcore fan would probably feel compelled to seek out the Best Buy version, which came with a bonus disc with three previously unreleased songs. And some crazier fans in Brooklyn (cough, cough) might even download the five extra tracks on the Amazon MP3 version. Thankfully seeking out all these extras is worth it because it’s a treasure trove of worthy songs. Highlights include “Old Woman from Red Clay,” which later became “Two Angels” on Hollywood Town Hall; “Stone Cold Mess,” which Gary Louris rewrote for Smile’s “A Break in the Clouds;” the goofy B-side “Get the Load Out” and a rocking alternate take on “Tailspin.” North Country’s best feature is it shows just how prolific the band was in trying to create a commercial breakthrough on Smile and its more stately follow-up Rainy Day Music. Each of those sessions contribute eight tracks apiece to the three different rarities discs/downloads. I know of many bands that would kill to have songs on their albums that are as great as these outtakes. Oh, and I almost forgot—the main disc has every great Jayhawks song save two. That’s a pretty fine best of package you’ve got there Jayhawks. Now how about a few East Coast reunion shows in 2010?
8) WarChild Presents Heroes (Astralwerks)
The concept behind this benefit album for WarChild (which helps orphans in war-torn countries around the world) is pretty simple—great veteran artists pick great young artists to cover songs from their catalogs. Bob Dylan tapped Beck, who does a decent version of “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat.” Paul McCartney picked Duffy, who does a passable take on “Live and Let Die.” And Iggy Pop chose Peaches to, well, destroy “Search and Destroy.” This compilation makes the list only because of two artists’ picks—Bruce Springsteen selecting The Hold Steady and U2 choosing Elbow. Springsteen’s tapping the Hold Steady is no surprise, as the band wears their love of his music on their sleeves. And The Boss was on hand at his own 2007 Carnegie Hall tribute when the band stole the show with a jaw-dropping take on “Atlantic City.” Their version on Heroes is just as powerful. I still wonder if U2 knew just how good Elbow would be taking on The Joshua Tree’s “Running to Stand Still.” Elbow singer Guy Garvey has a majestic voice (I’m thinking if you looked up "majestic voice" on You Tube, you’d get about 1000 clips featuring Elbow) that is very restrained during the first two verses and then takes off into the atmosphere during the bridge and the final verse. It’s a goosebump-inducing cover, which I never thought was possible for anyone to do with any U2 song.
7) The Bears - The Bears (PMRC/IRS/EMI)
Oh, I love when a holy grail is finally available. I've been wanting to get The Bears self-titled debut album in any form for about 14 years now. The “hit” single “Fear Is Never Boring” is one of my favorite songs of the 1980s (and maybe ever). Yet it's been out of print for a long, long time. Finally EMI dug through their vaults this year and released a bunch of out-of-print stuff from I.R.S. Records digitally. So you better believe I marked down on my calendar the exact date this album was going to be available on iTunes. (Actually, I bought it on Amazon, but who’s counting.) And it's just as much of a pop masterpiece as I remembered. Singer-guitarists Adrian Belew and Rob Fetters create some excellent harmonies, and both lay down some fantastic solos in the context of these great pop tunes.
6) Minus 5 - Butcher Covered (Book Records)
This tour-only release collects 17 covers Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck and company have recorded over the past 15 years or so. It’s a pretty diverse lineup of artists they paid tribute to over the years, including Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Kinks, Guided By Voices, MC5 and The Modern Lovers. Some of these songs are done very faithfully (MC5’s “High School,” Neil Young’s “Revolution Blues,” Lennon’s “Power to the People”) and others are just, well, kind of fucked up. (The take on Skynyrd’s “That Smell” is, well, kind of creepy and taps into the song’s drug message more than Ronnie Van Zant ever did.) The best part of this collection? I don’t have to search out the rest of the tribute albums the Minus 5 are on anymore. That’s probably going to save me about 50 bucks, which I am very grateful for Mr. McCaughey. Very grateful.
5) R.E.M. - Live at the Olympia (Warner Bros.)
In last year’s RT 20 I tabbed R.E.M.’s show at Madison Square Garden on June 19th as the best concert of 2008. It was a capping point to a creative resurgence for the band that included their best album (Accelerate) and single (“Supernatural Superserious”) since Bill Berry departed in 1997. Live at the Olympia shows where those creative flames were reignited. Drawn from five shows billed as “rehearsal” gigs at the Dublin, Ireland venue, this two-disc set shows the band working up the songs from Accelerate in front of an audience and diving into their back catalog with a fervor not seen in many years. Tracks from Reckoning (“Harborcoat,” “Second Guessing,” “Letter Never Sent”) Chronic Town (“Carnival of Sorts,” “1,000,000”) and Fables of the Reconstruction (“Maps and Legends,” “Kohoutek,” “Auctioneer”) were played for the first time in well over two decades. The in between song chatter from Michael Stipe and Mike Mills proves that the band wasn’t too sure if they could pull off all these gems from their past. The Dublin audience doesn’t care, as they give a raucous reception to almost all of the older tracks and many of the new ones as well. The album is worth skipping the download and buying in CD form, as Peter Buck wrote in depth liner notes about each track. His honesty about their past songs (“Second Guessing”—“I don’t know why we stopped playing it”) and the newer tracks is a great window in the band’s creative process. Live at the Olympia is (Stupid pun alert! Stupid pun alert!) an R.E.M. document worth having.
4) The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses: Collector’s Edition (Silvertone/Legacy)
In the grasping at straws mentality the record industry has specialized in over the last decade, one of their grandest schemes has been to repackage new albums months after their initial release and call them “special editions.” And when that doesn’t con people to buy the same album twice, they’ve started doing “deluxe editions” that come out the same day as the standard album. And then to make things even more confusing for the consumer, the industry has started making even “harder to find” packages (usually with a t-shirt, a DVD and some other stupid item) and called them “collector’s editions.” It’s enough to make a 40 year old guy to steal all his music off the internet. Fortunately for the record industry I haven’t gone down that road yet. One reason is the work Legacy Recordings has done with their catalog over the past decade. And they really nailed it with this reissue of The Stone Roses debut album. The Legacy Edition contains a remastered version of this great album, a disc of demos and a DVD with all their videos and a live concert. But the download version of Collector’s Edition is the one to pick up, as it adds all of the singles and b-sides from that era. Those non-album tracks are just as good as what made the cut in 1989. (And in the case of “One Love” and “Something’s Burning,” better than anything on the album.) As much as I enjoyed what the Collector’s Edition has to offer, I mentioned the download version for a very specific reason—the physical copy of the Collector’s Edition costs 150 bucks and is quite insane. Does anyone really have use for a huge box that includes a 48 page book, three vinyl LPs, artwork from a band member and a lemon shaped USB drive that adds five backwards tracks and producer John Leckie's personal home movie Up at Sawmills: The Making of Fools Gold? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
3) Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy (Deluxe Edition) (Shout Factory)
When you look at the new 2009 Music Critics Bible of Clichés (coming soon to Amazon Kindle), next to the definition of “star-studded tribute album” there is a picture of the cover for Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy. Don’t let memories of other crappy tribute albums scare you away from this fantastic collection. Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, The Pixies’ Frank Black and Juliana Hatfield are not phoning it in here. Proceeds from the album will go to the former Miracle Legion and Polaris frontman, who lost his wife suddenly last year and is raising their young twins by himself. It’s obvious that every artist appearing here has a great love for Mulcahy and his body of work. I suggest grabbing the deluxe iTunes version, even though it bulks up the album to 41 tracks. There’s not a bum cover in the bunch, and the extra cuts include great work by Buffalo Tom, Laura Veirs, A.C. Newman, The Autumn Defense (John Stirrat and Pat Sansone of Wilco) and the best of the entire lot, "Closer to the Wall” by The Gravel Pit. It’s the first new recording from the Boston favorites in eight years and it features everything I love about the Pit—masterful drum and bass work from Pete Caldes and Ed Valauskas, muscular guitar playing from Lucky Jackson and Jedidiah Parish's bigger than life voice. As a matter of fact, I’m going to listen to that song again right now. I encourage you to go do the exact same thing.
2) Big Star - Keep An Eye on the Sky (Rhino)
Big Star is, quite simply, one of the best power pop bands to appear on this planet. If you’ve never heard them before, you must put down the list and go listen to them now. Go ahead, I’ll wait right here.
(Waiting.)
(Still waiting.)
You done? Good. Big Star released only three (amazing) albums during their initial lifetime. (And one of those, Third/Sister Lovers, was issued three years after it was recorded—and never had a so-called “official” track listing until 1992.) Creating a box set this good out of just three albums is an impressive feat. The remastering of the original album versions are a sound for sore ears. Ballads like “I’m in Love With a Girl” and, um, “The Ballad of El Goodo” come off crisper, while rockers such as “O My Soul” and “September Gurls” are more powerful than the initial CD versions of the first two albums. The numerous demos of songs like “Jesus Christ,” “Thank You Friends” and “Downs” are enlightening looks at pop gems in their purest form. The fourth disc, Live at Lafayette’s Music Room, is notable not only for the great live performances by the trio edition of the band but by the indifferent audience. The only time the band gets a rise out of the crowd is when Alex Chilton announces that the headliners, Archie Bell and the Drells, will be on soon. This utter lack of caring seems appropriate for an act criminally unacknowledged during their own time. The inclusion of the Chris Bell’s pre-Big Star bands Icewater and Rock City and Bell’s solo single “I Am the Cosmos” present a full picture of an essential act that probably launched a thousand bands.
1) Neil Young - Archives Volume 1 (1963-72) (Reprise)
When Neil Young’s Archives Volume 1 (1963-72) was finally released after years (well, decades) of delay, the majority opinion of fans on Young message boards and blogs is that a) it was too expensive, b) Neil was robbing his fans because the set contained two concert albums that were previously released and c) that there was a shocking lack of unreleased material.
I think all those fans can, well, go fuck themselves.
They’ve completely missed the point. Young’s Decade didn’t have a ton of unreleased material—it was Young trying to make a portrait of his career so far. Archives is driven by the same principle, on just a slightly bigger scale. Okay, a stupidly bigger scale. The eight CD set includes over 40 rare and unreleased tracks. The previously released material has never sounded better. (I did a bit of comparison with my older CD pressings, and the sonic upgrade on songs like “Harvest” and “After the Gold Rush” is totally noticeable.) The DVD version (which I own) has a multitude of goodies—a leather bound book with scores of old newspaper articles and detailed track info, hidden songs, tons of unreleased performance footage, video and audio interviews, Young’s original lyric sheets and (my favorite part of the whole set) a short film of Young going to a record store to buy up his own bootlegs. It is an expansive and at times overwhelming set. But this guy has had an expansive and at times overwhelming career. I’m so happy that he decided to document it as obsessively as a fan would.
This three disc reissue replicates the original packaging with the entire box covered in red felt. (Ooh, so soft.) I must admit to having never heard this full album before I scored this deluxe edition. I only knew the single “First of May” (which has been on a couple of Bee Gees compilations) and the cut “Melody Fair” because Young Fresh Fellows covered it. I must say that after a few listens I could see why it’s grown in critical stature over the years. The original double album is stacked with as wide a range of songs as (danger, danger—bold statement coming) The Beatles’ White Album. The title track incorporates the orchestral progressive rock sounds of the Moody Blues, “Melody Fair” and “Lamplight” are exquisite ballads that are placed next to country-flavored tunes like “Marlery Purt Drive” and the Dylan-esque bluegrass number “Give Your Best.” Pair that up with strange, offbeat rock tunes like “Edison” and “Whisper Whisper” (which at 2:27 switches from a odd little rock song into a horn-inflected workout that could be on the soundtrack to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and then wraps up with a drum solo…huh?) and you have one weird piece of work. You also have what has become my favorite Bee Gees album, non-disco edition. The outtakes and alternate versions on the third disc show that the Brothers Gibb made the right choices for the album mixes while providing an interesting glimpse into their studio work.
9) The Jayhawks - Music From the North Country: The Jayhawks Anthology (American/Legacy)
This collection is a gift and a curse for a hardcore Jayhawks fan. The gift is the huge serving of great rarities on the second disc and the videos (many of which I never saw) on the DVD. The curse comes from the fact that a hardcore fan would probably feel compelled to seek out the Best Buy version, which came with a bonus disc with three previously unreleased songs. And some crazier fans in Brooklyn (cough, cough) might even download the five extra tracks on the Amazon MP3 version. Thankfully seeking out all these extras is worth it because it’s a treasure trove of worthy songs. Highlights include “Old Woman from Red Clay,” which later became “Two Angels” on Hollywood Town Hall; “Stone Cold Mess,” which Gary Louris rewrote for Smile’s “A Break in the Clouds;” the goofy B-side “Get the Load Out” and a rocking alternate take on “Tailspin.” North Country’s best feature is it shows just how prolific the band was in trying to create a commercial breakthrough on Smile and its more stately follow-up Rainy Day Music. Each of those sessions contribute eight tracks apiece to the three different rarities discs/downloads. I know of many bands that would kill to have songs on their albums that are as great as these outtakes. Oh, and I almost forgot—the main disc has every great Jayhawks song save two. That’s a pretty fine best of package you’ve got there Jayhawks. Now how about a few East Coast reunion shows in 2010?
8) WarChild Presents Heroes (Astralwerks)
The concept behind this benefit album for WarChild (which helps orphans in war-torn countries around the world) is pretty simple—great veteran artists pick great young artists to cover songs from their catalogs. Bob Dylan tapped Beck, who does a decent version of “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat.” Paul McCartney picked Duffy, who does a passable take on “Live and Let Die.” And Iggy Pop chose Peaches to, well, destroy “Search and Destroy.” This compilation makes the list only because of two artists’ picks—Bruce Springsteen selecting The Hold Steady and U2 choosing Elbow. Springsteen’s tapping the Hold Steady is no surprise, as the band wears their love of his music on their sleeves. And The Boss was on hand at his own 2007 Carnegie Hall tribute when the band stole the show with a jaw-dropping take on “Atlantic City.” Their version on Heroes is just as powerful. I still wonder if U2 knew just how good Elbow would be taking on The Joshua Tree’s “Running to Stand Still.” Elbow singer Guy Garvey has a majestic voice (I’m thinking if you looked up "majestic voice" on You Tube, you’d get about 1000 clips featuring Elbow) that is very restrained during the first two verses and then takes off into the atmosphere during the bridge and the final verse. It’s a goosebump-inducing cover, which I never thought was possible for anyone to do with any U2 song.
7) The Bears - The Bears (PMRC/IRS/EMI)
Oh, I love when a holy grail is finally available. I've been wanting to get The Bears self-titled debut album in any form for about 14 years now. The “hit” single “Fear Is Never Boring” is one of my favorite songs of the 1980s (and maybe ever). Yet it's been out of print for a long, long time. Finally EMI dug through their vaults this year and released a bunch of out-of-print stuff from I.R.S. Records digitally. So you better believe I marked down on my calendar the exact date this album was going to be available on iTunes. (Actually, I bought it on Amazon, but who’s counting.) And it's just as much of a pop masterpiece as I remembered. Singer-guitarists Adrian Belew and Rob Fetters create some excellent harmonies, and both lay down some fantastic solos in the context of these great pop tunes.
6) Minus 5 - Butcher Covered (Book Records)
This tour-only release collects 17 covers Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck and company have recorded over the past 15 years or so. It’s a pretty diverse lineup of artists they paid tribute to over the years, including Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Kinks, Guided By Voices, MC5 and The Modern Lovers. Some of these songs are done very faithfully (MC5’s “High School,” Neil Young’s “Revolution Blues,” Lennon’s “Power to the People”) and others are just, well, kind of fucked up. (The take on Skynyrd’s “That Smell” is, well, kind of creepy and taps into the song’s drug message more than Ronnie Van Zant ever did.) The best part of this collection? I don’t have to search out the rest of the tribute albums the Minus 5 are on anymore. That’s probably going to save me about 50 bucks, which I am very grateful for Mr. McCaughey. Very grateful.
5) R.E.M. - Live at the Olympia (Warner Bros.)
In last year’s RT 20 I tabbed R.E.M.’s show at Madison Square Garden on June 19th as the best concert of 2008. It was a capping point to a creative resurgence for the band that included their best album (Accelerate) and single (“Supernatural Superserious”) since Bill Berry departed in 1997. Live at the Olympia shows where those creative flames were reignited. Drawn from five shows billed as “rehearsal” gigs at the Dublin, Ireland venue, this two-disc set shows the band working up the songs from Accelerate in front of an audience and diving into their back catalog with a fervor not seen in many years. Tracks from Reckoning (“Harborcoat,” “Second Guessing,” “Letter Never Sent”) Chronic Town (“Carnival of Sorts,” “1,000,000”) and Fables of the Reconstruction (“Maps and Legends,” “Kohoutek,” “Auctioneer”) were played for the first time in well over two decades. The in between song chatter from Michael Stipe and Mike Mills proves that the band wasn’t too sure if they could pull off all these gems from their past. The Dublin audience doesn’t care, as they give a raucous reception to almost all of the older tracks and many of the new ones as well. The album is worth skipping the download and buying in CD form, as Peter Buck wrote in depth liner notes about each track. His honesty about their past songs (“Second Guessing”—“I don’t know why we stopped playing it”) and the newer tracks is a great window in the band’s creative process. Live at the Olympia is (Stupid pun alert! Stupid pun alert!) an R.E.M. document worth having.
4) The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses: Collector’s Edition (Silvertone/Legacy)
In the grasping at straws mentality the record industry has specialized in over the last decade, one of their grandest schemes has been to repackage new albums months after their initial release and call them “special editions.” And when that doesn’t con people to buy the same album twice, they’ve started doing “deluxe editions” that come out the same day as the standard album. And then to make things even more confusing for the consumer, the industry has started making even “harder to find” packages (usually with a t-shirt, a DVD and some other stupid item) and called them “collector’s editions.” It’s enough to make a 40 year old guy to steal all his music off the internet. Fortunately for the record industry I haven’t gone down that road yet. One reason is the work Legacy Recordings has done with their catalog over the past decade. And they really nailed it with this reissue of The Stone Roses debut album. The Legacy Edition contains a remastered version of this great album, a disc of demos and a DVD with all their videos and a live concert. But the download version of Collector’s Edition is the one to pick up, as it adds all of the singles and b-sides from that era. Those non-album tracks are just as good as what made the cut in 1989. (And in the case of “One Love” and “Something’s Burning,” better than anything on the album.) As much as I enjoyed what the Collector’s Edition has to offer, I mentioned the download version for a very specific reason—the physical copy of the Collector’s Edition costs 150 bucks and is quite insane. Does anyone really have use for a huge box that includes a 48 page book, three vinyl LPs, artwork from a band member and a lemon shaped USB drive that adds five backwards tracks and producer John Leckie's personal home movie Up at Sawmills: The Making of Fools Gold? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
3) Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy (Deluxe Edition) (Shout Factory)
When you look at the new 2009 Music Critics Bible of Clichés (coming soon to Amazon Kindle), next to the definition of “star-studded tribute album” there is a picture of the cover for Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy. Don’t let memories of other crappy tribute albums scare you away from this fantastic collection. Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, The Pixies’ Frank Black and Juliana Hatfield are not phoning it in here. Proceeds from the album will go to the former Miracle Legion and Polaris frontman, who lost his wife suddenly last year and is raising their young twins by himself. It’s obvious that every artist appearing here has a great love for Mulcahy and his body of work. I suggest grabbing the deluxe iTunes version, even though it bulks up the album to 41 tracks. There’s not a bum cover in the bunch, and the extra cuts include great work by Buffalo Tom, Laura Veirs, A.C. Newman, The Autumn Defense (John Stirrat and Pat Sansone of Wilco) and the best of the entire lot, "Closer to the Wall” by The Gravel Pit. It’s the first new recording from the Boston favorites in eight years and it features everything I love about the Pit—masterful drum and bass work from Pete Caldes and Ed Valauskas, muscular guitar playing from Lucky Jackson and Jedidiah Parish's bigger than life voice. As a matter of fact, I’m going to listen to that song again right now. I encourage you to go do the exact same thing.
2) Big Star - Keep An Eye on the Sky (Rhino)
Big Star is, quite simply, one of the best power pop bands to appear on this planet. If you’ve never heard them before, you must put down the list and go listen to them now. Go ahead, I’ll wait right here.
(Waiting.)
(Still waiting.)
You done? Good. Big Star released only three (amazing) albums during their initial lifetime. (And one of those, Third/Sister Lovers, was issued three years after it was recorded—and never had a so-called “official” track listing until 1992.) Creating a box set this good out of just three albums is an impressive feat. The remastering of the original album versions are a sound for sore ears. Ballads like “I’m in Love With a Girl” and, um, “The Ballad of El Goodo” come off crisper, while rockers such as “O My Soul” and “September Gurls” are more powerful than the initial CD versions of the first two albums. The numerous demos of songs like “Jesus Christ,” “Thank You Friends” and “Downs” are enlightening looks at pop gems in their purest form. The fourth disc, Live at Lafayette’s Music Room, is notable not only for the great live performances by the trio edition of the band but by the indifferent audience. The only time the band gets a rise out of the crowd is when Alex Chilton announces that the headliners, Archie Bell and the Drells, will be on soon. This utter lack of caring seems appropriate for an act criminally unacknowledged during their own time. The inclusion of the Chris Bell’s pre-Big Star bands Icewater and Rock City and Bell’s solo single “I Am the Cosmos” present a full picture of an essential act that probably launched a thousand bands.
1) Neil Young - Archives Volume 1 (1963-72) (Reprise)
When Neil Young’s Archives Volume 1 (1963-72) was finally released after years (well, decades) of delay, the majority opinion of fans on Young message boards and blogs is that a) it was too expensive, b) Neil was robbing his fans because the set contained two concert albums that were previously released and c) that there was a shocking lack of unreleased material.
I think all those fans can, well, go fuck themselves.
They’ve completely missed the point. Young’s Decade didn’t have a ton of unreleased material—it was Young trying to make a portrait of his career so far. Archives is driven by the same principle, on just a slightly bigger scale. Okay, a stupidly bigger scale. The eight CD set includes over 40 rare and unreleased tracks. The previously released material has never sounded better. (I did a bit of comparison with my older CD pressings, and the sonic upgrade on songs like “Harvest” and “After the Gold Rush” is totally noticeable.) The DVD version (which I own) has a multitude of goodies—a leather bound book with scores of old newspaper articles and detailed track info, hidden songs, tons of unreleased performance footage, video and audio interviews, Young’s original lyric sheets and (my favorite part of the whole set) a short film of Young going to a record store to buy up his own bootlegs. It is an expansive and at times overwhelming set. But this guy has had an expansive and at times overwhelming career. I’m so happy that he decided to document it as obsessively as a fan would.
Concerts
10) Big Star, Masonic Temple, Brooklyn, NY 11/18
I first saw the reconstituted Big Star back in November 1995. My memory of that show is a bit hazy now, yet I know for certain it didn’t approach the heights of this year’s show in the gymnasium-like Masonic Temple in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood. There were points where drummer Jody Stephens felt a bit out of step with his bandmates (especially on the intro to “September Gurls”), yet he recovered rather quickly. I’ve seen Alex Chilton be magnificent and maddening (during the same song) during solo shows. On this outing he was on his best behavior, singing with gusto on opener “In the Street” (that song you know as the theme to That ’70s Show) and “Don’t Lie to Me” and bringing out the aching loneliness in “Thirteen” that probably had couples clutching each other. (I couldn’t see any couples in front of me because of the dude that was twice my size just to the right of me. I think his body absorbed most of the high end from the speakers.) The Posies’ Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow did a great job filling the shoes of the late Chris Bell and the retired-from-music Andy Hummell. Auer’s vocal on “I Am the Cosmos” (the Big Star-ish track from Bell’s only solo album) was particularly breathtaking, leaving my friend Vanessa stunned by his talent. The night would have been a complete success if I hadn’t caught Vanessa’s cold.
9) Change Begins Within (featuring Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Friends) Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY 4/4
I really couldn’t leave a concert where Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr perform together off this list. I mean, it is two Beatles…on stage at the same time. How often are we going to get to see that again? Even though it was only three songs, I am pretty sure I will never again see that many phones in the air, taking picture after picture, at any Radio City show I attend for the rest of my life. The two of them sharing the mic for “With A Little Help From My friends” was pretty damn magical. (As was watching Starr bash away on the drums during “I Saw Her Standing There.”) McCartney and his crack band (seriously, the guys he’s had the past decade are his best post-Beatles band, by far) were in great form before Starr ever hit the stage, ripping through “Band on the Run,” “Jet” and “Can't Buy Me Love” as if only a couple of years have passed since McCartney recorded them. Yet even with all this history, the highlight of the night had to be Ben Harper and Relentless Seven along with Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder covering the Queen and David Bowie collaboration “Under Pressure.” It’s one of my favorite songs from the early ’80s and I’ve heard (and one time during Dick Swizzle karaoke at Union Hall, was a part of) some atrocious covers of it. This version was so passionate and unexpected that had to watch it multiple times on YouTube just to confirm I didn’t imagine the whole thing. If I didn’t have to sit through painful and inane conversation from David Lynch (whose foundation benefit from the concert) and Laura Dern and a cringe-worth appearance from Mike Love, it would have ranked a bit higher. (Oh, and fuck Mike Love.)
8) Nada Surf, The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY 4/15
Let’s see…seeing Nada Surf for the first time in my hometown…in my favorite venue to see bands…with two of my favorite Brooklyn people (Moria the concert pal, Vanessa the bartender)…one of whom had never seen them before (Vanessa)…with one of my friends working the bar so the free beers were coming around with a bit of frequency (thanks, Josh)…yeah, this was pretty awesome. I even tried to run up on stage when people started dancing during “Blankest Year.” Wisely the nice security guy stopped me before I made a mess of it all. Wow, what a night of fun.
7) Boris the Sprinkler, Insubordination Fest, Sonar, Baltimore, MD 6/26
I had heard one Boris the Sprinkler album before heading down to Baltimore. It was called (well, still is called) Mega Anal. The disc is enjoyable and I always got a kick out of how after the album ends it starts over again, with the songs in alphabetical order (and some of them in slightly different versions). That’s the way to use the space on a CD. I was not prepared for how much fun is contained in the Boris the Sprinkler live experience. Frontman Rev. Norb started the set in a hot pink spandex outfit, complete with a mask that covered his face and almost choked him. His in between song banter—delivered almost as fast as that guy from those Fed Ex commercials from the 80s—was as over the top as his outfit. And this lineup of the band, which hadn’t played together since the release of Mega Anal, was a non-stop punk rock machine. Every song was crisply delivered and combined with a ferocity that was admittedly surprising for a bunch of guys older than me. Kudos for the Insubordination Fest masterminds for convincing this band to get back together. (See item number-two on this list for more on that.)
6) Wilco, Yo La Tengo, Keyspan Park, Brooklyn, NY 7/13
I’ve seen so many Wilco shows how that it’s almost hard to separate them from one another. What makes this one special is 1) that it was (up until a few days later at the Wappingers Falls concert) the longest Wilco set I’ve ever seen, clocking in at 2:20 spread over 26 songs (Wappingers Falls had 29 songs over 2:30); 2) It featured the most guest appearances of any Wilco show I’ve attended. Feist was on stage for four songs, including a beautiful version of “You and I” from Wilco (The Album), and Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste chipped in on three tunes. Their contributions were exceeded then by all three members of Yo La Tengo (who did their own fantastic opening set), as they joined in on a “this is what the end of the world should sound like, unless it’s directed by that dbag who did 2012 and Godzilla” version of “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” that clocked in at 16 minutes. And 3) seeing the Mermaid Avenue tracks “California Stars” and “Hoodoo Voodoo” performed just blocks from where Woody Guthrie penned the lyrics it was as if Jeff Tweedy and company were bringing those songs home.
5) The Baseball Project/Minus 5/Steve Wynn Four, Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY, 9/23
Two sets of songs from Scott McCaughey and Steve Wynn from all of their respective projects; new songs from McCaughey and Wynn’s collaboration The Baseball Project; Peter Buck grabbing the 12 string to replicate the psychedelic thrill of early Dream Syndicate songs; and a guest appearance by Steve Wynn and the Miracle Three guitarist Jason Victor to close the first set with the Minus 5 rocker “Lies of the Living Dead” and the Wynn guitar workout “Amphetamine?” Holy crap, I could watch that every night for a month and not get enough.
4) The Posies, The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY 6/12
3) Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3, The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY 6/11
I must give a shout out to my pal Jack McFadden (a.k.a. Skippy) for booking such great back-to-back nights of rock at The Bell House. First was a stellar set from Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3. The next day it was The Posies performing their great 1993 album Frosting on the Beater in its entirety. What joy each of these nights brought me. It was the fourth time I've seen Hitchcock and the Venus 3, and it was by far the best. I don’t know if was the extra attentive crowd or the magic the venue seems to have, but even the band seemed to realize that it was a great show. (I saw bassist Scott McCaughey afterwards and he said to me, “Wow, what a great show. That was by far the best of our tour. Wow!”) I hadn’t seen The Posies since 1996 at Coney Island High on St. Mark's Place in Manhattan. (And Coney Island High has been gone for a decade, which just makes me feel older.) When the Beater set was over, Ken Stringfellow, Jon Auer and company came back and did a great mini-set of songs from their other albums—and they played every single one of my favorites from their catalog (save the production heavy “Golden Blunders.”) Oh, power pop heaven, how I love thee.
2) Egghead., Insubordination Fest, Sonar, Baltimore, MD 6/27
In 2007 my friends in Egghead. reunited after a decade long split at the urging of the folks who book the Insubordination Fest in Baltimore. They played a show in Brooklyn to warm up for their festival appearance, which was guaranteed to be the biggest audience they ever played to in their career. And just as the trio was to hit the stage in Baltimore, the power went out. And it didn’t come back. The promoters scrambled to find a place for some of the bands to play later that night, but their opportunity for a triumphant return was lost. Two years later the people that ran the fest invited them back. And to make up for their doomed set they gave them a slot on the main stage at Sonar (capacity in that room is 1400 people) at 7:00 p.m. on a Saturday. I’d never seen my friends Mike Faloon, John Ross Bowie and Johnny Reno look nervous before a show, yet this time it was coming off of all of them loud and clear. Fortunately the power stayed on and the guys used their nervous energy to deliver a set that was, well, I think well received doesn’t cover it. The crowd (which I estimate had to be about 450 to 500 people) ate up every moment they were on stage. It was a sight to behold, watching three of my best friends in the world getting to experience all that a large crowd had to offer. When I saw complete strangers singing along to almost every song, well, let’s just say I was one happy man.
1) Steely Dan, Beacon Theater, New York, NY 8/10
Click here.
I first saw the reconstituted Big Star back in November 1995. My memory of that show is a bit hazy now, yet I know for certain it didn’t approach the heights of this year’s show in the gymnasium-like Masonic Temple in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood. There were points where drummer Jody Stephens felt a bit out of step with his bandmates (especially on the intro to “September Gurls”), yet he recovered rather quickly. I’ve seen Alex Chilton be magnificent and maddening (during the same song) during solo shows. On this outing he was on his best behavior, singing with gusto on opener “In the Street” (that song you know as the theme to That ’70s Show) and “Don’t Lie to Me” and bringing out the aching loneliness in “Thirteen” that probably had couples clutching each other. (I couldn’t see any couples in front of me because of the dude that was twice my size just to the right of me. I think his body absorbed most of the high end from the speakers.) The Posies’ Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow did a great job filling the shoes of the late Chris Bell and the retired-from-music Andy Hummell. Auer’s vocal on “I Am the Cosmos” (the Big Star-ish track from Bell’s only solo album) was particularly breathtaking, leaving my friend Vanessa stunned by his talent. The night would have been a complete success if I hadn’t caught Vanessa’s cold.
9) Change Begins Within (featuring Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Friends) Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY 4/4
I really couldn’t leave a concert where Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr perform together off this list. I mean, it is two Beatles…on stage at the same time. How often are we going to get to see that again? Even though it was only three songs, I am pretty sure I will never again see that many phones in the air, taking picture after picture, at any Radio City show I attend for the rest of my life. The two of them sharing the mic for “With A Little Help From My friends” was pretty damn magical. (As was watching Starr bash away on the drums during “I Saw Her Standing There.”) McCartney and his crack band (seriously, the guys he’s had the past decade are his best post-Beatles band, by far) were in great form before Starr ever hit the stage, ripping through “Band on the Run,” “Jet” and “Can't Buy Me Love” as if only a couple of years have passed since McCartney recorded them. Yet even with all this history, the highlight of the night had to be Ben Harper and Relentless Seven along with Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder covering the Queen and David Bowie collaboration “Under Pressure.” It’s one of my favorite songs from the early ’80s and I’ve heard (and one time during Dick Swizzle karaoke at Union Hall, was a part of) some atrocious covers of it. This version was so passionate and unexpected that had to watch it multiple times on YouTube just to confirm I didn’t imagine the whole thing. If I didn’t have to sit through painful and inane conversation from David Lynch (whose foundation benefit from the concert) and Laura Dern and a cringe-worth appearance from Mike Love, it would have ranked a bit higher. (Oh, and fuck Mike Love.)
8) Nada Surf, The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY 4/15
Let’s see…seeing Nada Surf for the first time in my hometown…in my favorite venue to see bands…with two of my favorite Brooklyn people (Moria the concert pal, Vanessa the bartender)…one of whom had never seen them before (Vanessa)…with one of my friends working the bar so the free beers were coming around with a bit of frequency (thanks, Josh)…yeah, this was pretty awesome. I even tried to run up on stage when people started dancing during “Blankest Year.” Wisely the nice security guy stopped me before I made a mess of it all. Wow, what a night of fun.
7) Boris the Sprinkler, Insubordination Fest, Sonar, Baltimore, MD 6/26
I had heard one Boris the Sprinkler album before heading down to Baltimore. It was called (well, still is called) Mega Anal. The disc is enjoyable and I always got a kick out of how after the album ends it starts over again, with the songs in alphabetical order (and some of them in slightly different versions). That’s the way to use the space on a CD. I was not prepared for how much fun is contained in the Boris the Sprinkler live experience. Frontman Rev. Norb started the set in a hot pink spandex outfit, complete with a mask that covered his face and almost choked him. His in between song banter—delivered almost as fast as that guy from those Fed Ex commercials from the 80s—was as over the top as his outfit. And this lineup of the band, which hadn’t played together since the release of Mega Anal, was a non-stop punk rock machine. Every song was crisply delivered and combined with a ferocity that was admittedly surprising for a bunch of guys older than me. Kudos for the Insubordination Fest masterminds for convincing this band to get back together. (See item number-two on this list for more on that.)
6) Wilco, Yo La Tengo, Keyspan Park, Brooklyn, NY 7/13
I’ve seen so many Wilco shows how that it’s almost hard to separate them from one another. What makes this one special is 1) that it was (up until a few days later at the Wappingers Falls concert) the longest Wilco set I’ve ever seen, clocking in at 2:20 spread over 26 songs (Wappingers Falls had 29 songs over 2:30); 2) It featured the most guest appearances of any Wilco show I’ve attended. Feist was on stage for four songs, including a beautiful version of “You and I” from Wilco (The Album), and Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste chipped in on three tunes. Their contributions were exceeded then by all three members of Yo La Tengo (who did their own fantastic opening set), as they joined in on a “this is what the end of the world should sound like, unless it’s directed by that dbag who did 2012 and Godzilla” version of “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” that clocked in at 16 minutes. And 3) seeing the Mermaid Avenue tracks “California Stars” and “Hoodoo Voodoo” performed just blocks from where Woody Guthrie penned the lyrics it was as if Jeff Tweedy and company were bringing those songs home.
5) The Baseball Project/Minus 5/Steve Wynn Four, Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY, 9/23
Two sets of songs from Scott McCaughey and Steve Wynn from all of their respective projects; new songs from McCaughey and Wynn’s collaboration The Baseball Project; Peter Buck grabbing the 12 string to replicate the psychedelic thrill of early Dream Syndicate songs; and a guest appearance by Steve Wynn and the Miracle Three guitarist Jason Victor to close the first set with the Minus 5 rocker “Lies of the Living Dead” and the Wynn guitar workout “Amphetamine?” Holy crap, I could watch that every night for a month and not get enough.
4) The Posies, The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY 6/12
3) Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3, The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY 6/11
I must give a shout out to my pal Jack McFadden (a.k.a. Skippy) for booking such great back-to-back nights of rock at The Bell House. First was a stellar set from Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3. The next day it was The Posies performing their great 1993 album Frosting on the Beater in its entirety. What joy each of these nights brought me. It was the fourth time I've seen Hitchcock and the Venus 3, and it was by far the best. I don’t know if was the extra attentive crowd or the magic the venue seems to have, but even the band seemed to realize that it was a great show. (I saw bassist Scott McCaughey afterwards and he said to me, “Wow, what a great show. That was by far the best of our tour. Wow!”) I hadn’t seen The Posies since 1996 at Coney Island High on St. Mark's Place in Manhattan. (And Coney Island High has been gone for a decade, which just makes me feel older.) When the Beater set was over, Ken Stringfellow, Jon Auer and company came back and did a great mini-set of songs from their other albums—and they played every single one of my favorites from their catalog (save the production heavy “Golden Blunders.”) Oh, power pop heaven, how I love thee.
2) Egghead., Insubordination Fest, Sonar, Baltimore, MD 6/27
In 2007 my friends in Egghead. reunited after a decade long split at the urging of the folks who book the Insubordination Fest in Baltimore. They played a show in Brooklyn to warm up for their festival appearance, which was guaranteed to be the biggest audience they ever played to in their career. And just as the trio was to hit the stage in Baltimore, the power went out. And it didn’t come back. The promoters scrambled to find a place for some of the bands to play later that night, but their opportunity for a triumphant return was lost. Two years later the people that ran the fest invited them back. And to make up for their doomed set they gave them a slot on the main stage at Sonar (capacity in that room is 1400 people) at 7:00 p.m. on a Saturday. I’d never seen my friends Mike Faloon, John Ross Bowie and Johnny Reno look nervous before a show, yet this time it was coming off of all of them loud and clear. Fortunately the power stayed on and the guys used their nervous energy to deliver a set that was, well, I think well received doesn’t cover it. The crowd (which I estimate had to be about 450 to 500 people) ate up every moment they were on stage. It was a sight to behold, watching three of my best friends in the world getting to experience all that a large crowd had to offer. When I saw complete strangers singing along to almost every song, well, let’s just say I was one happy man.
1) Steely Dan, Beacon Theater, New York, NY 8/10
Click here.
Co-Discoveries of the Year
Avett Brothers
I’ve already written a couple of trees worth of words about this band in this year’s RT 20. But here’s a few more. I was reading up on the band recently and I saw a very apt description of their sound—Americana with attitude. The way they mix folk, country, hillbilly, and blues, and view it through the prism of rock and a touch of punk is something that I’m still amazed never crossed my radar before. This trio seems tailor made for the way my musical tastes have grown over the past decade. Any band that can write a song called “The Ballad of Love and Hate,” whose opening line, “Love writes a letter and sends it to Hate,” is one that will have me as a fan for life. As my dear friend Jodie emailed me after I sent her some Avetts music, “I didn't know I could enjoy the banjo so much.”
The Move
One night at my favorite tapas bar Sample (okay, the only tapas bar I ever go to) this song came on and had me hooked within 30 seconds. I thought it was the Faces, but quickly realized it wasn’t Rod Stewart singing. Then I thought it could have been the James Gang, but that wasn’t Joe Walsh either. I thought, “Who the hell is this? And how many distinct parts does this song have?” So I grabbed my trusty iPhone and opened up the Shazam app, which using…well, I really don’t know what it uses, black magic perhaps. That’s not important. Well, I suppose it is if the Shazam app unloads some voodoo curse on me. Anyhoo, Shazam can identify songs if you hold up the iPhone’s mouthpiece near the speaker. After doing its magic (well, you get what I’m saying) it told me that it was The Move’s “Feel Too Good.” Now I had heard of the Move because I knew Cheap Trick cited them as huge influences (and did a great cover of Move founder Roy Wood’s “California Man”) and that Jeff Lynne was in the band before starting Electric Light Orchestra. I had no idea that the band created such over the top rock songs. “Feel Too Good” went on for nine and a half minutes, and by the time it was over I wanted it to go for another 10. The Monday after I heard it I asked my friend (and head of the department I reside in at work) Ira Robbins if he could bring in some Move albums. Within a few days I had listened to virtually everything the band released in their brief six year existence. And holy shit, they did everything in that time. The breath of range in their catalog is incredible. And I kept mentally slapping myself in the head for not investigating this band further the very first time someone told me “Do Ya” was not first done by ELO. Duh.
I’ve already written a couple of trees worth of words about this band in this year’s RT 20. But here’s a few more. I was reading up on the band recently and I saw a very apt description of their sound—Americana with attitude. The way they mix folk, country, hillbilly, and blues, and view it through the prism of rock and a touch of punk is something that I’m still amazed never crossed my radar before. This trio seems tailor made for the way my musical tastes have grown over the past decade. Any band that can write a song called “The Ballad of Love and Hate,” whose opening line, “Love writes a letter and sends it to Hate,” is one that will have me as a fan for life. As my dear friend Jodie emailed me after I sent her some Avetts music, “I didn't know I could enjoy the banjo so much.”
The Move
One night at my favorite tapas bar Sample (okay, the only tapas bar I ever go to) this song came on and had me hooked within 30 seconds. I thought it was the Faces, but quickly realized it wasn’t Rod Stewart singing. Then I thought it could have been the James Gang, but that wasn’t Joe Walsh either. I thought, “Who the hell is this? And how many distinct parts does this song have?” So I grabbed my trusty iPhone and opened up the Shazam app, which using…well, I really don’t know what it uses, black magic perhaps. That’s not important. Well, I suppose it is if the Shazam app unloads some voodoo curse on me. Anyhoo, Shazam can identify songs if you hold up the iPhone’s mouthpiece near the speaker. After doing its magic (well, you get what I’m saying) it told me that it was The Move’s “Feel Too Good.” Now I had heard of the Move because I knew Cheap Trick cited them as huge influences (and did a great cover of Move founder Roy Wood’s “California Man”) and that Jeff Lynne was in the band before starting Electric Light Orchestra. I had no idea that the band created such over the top rock songs. “Feel Too Good” went on for nine and a half minutes, and by the time it was over I wanted it to go for another 10. The Monday after I heard it I asked my friend (and head of the department I reside in at work) Ira Robbins if he could bring in some Move albums. Within a few days I had listened to virtually everything the band released in their brief six year existence. And holy shit, they did everything in that time. The breath of range in their catalog is incredible. And I kept mentally slapping myself in the head for not investigating this band further the very first time someone told me “Do Ya” was not first done by ELO. Duh.
2009's Top 10 Visual Aids
10) 30 for 30 (ESPN)
HBO has had a stranglehold on the title of best sports documentary producers for at least a decade now. They're always well written. The wide cross range of people they speak to (athletes, sportswriters, fans) usually have interesting things to say about the chosen topic. And each doc has the dulcet tones of Liev Schreiber as your not-voice-of-god-but-kinda-close narrator. It’s a winning formula, and whenever a new one debuts I make sure to record it. This year THE sports network woke up and decided, “Hey, we can do just as good a job as them—and much better than our SportsCentury series.” So ESPN ran with the suggestion of doing 30 films to mark the network's 30th anniversary from an employee who knows about connecting with sports fans—“The Sports Guy,” Bill Simmons. His idea of 30 different directors picking topics that haven't been told to death was inspired. What are the chances we'd get an entire hour on Jimmy the Greek without Simmons’ brainstorm? (I’d lay odds on it in tribute to the NFL Today linesmaker, but I lay off gambling when I'm writing the list each year.) 30 for 30 grabbed some excellent directors (Barry Levinson, Peter Berg) who tackled fascinating topics (the Baltimore Colts marching band after the team left town, Wayne Gretzky being traded to Los Angeles) and spun them into some great work. Two of the 30 for 30 films, Without Bias and Muhammad and Larry, are almost painful to watch. In one you see someone’s potential snuffed out in one fateful night and in the other you witness the downfall of a great champion who should have not been in a ring in 1980. (Watching Ali train in that film compared to six years earlier in When We Were Kings is especially troubling when you see how his speech and movement had slowed down during that time. No wonder his fight doctor, Ferdie Pacheco, quit Ali's corner in disgust in 1977.) 30 for 30 continues in 2010 and is a must see series for any sports fan.
9) Ace of Cakes (Food Network)
This year I found myself going off the beaten path cable network-wise. It was my desperate attempt to be entertained on weekend afternoons in that annoying time after football playoffs end and before spring training games. One Sunday afternoon I stumbled upon the Food Network and a show called Ace of Cakes. What I saw was this huge cake that looked like it must not be a cake. (I can’t recall exactly what it was, but it had to be about four feet tall.) I was memorized by this tasty treat in front of me and I watched the rest of the episode. I started watching the Sunday shows even when baseball season began. And when the new season debuted in July, I was totally hooked. I can even ignore the fact that “reality” show about Charm City Cakes in Baltimore has a writer listed in the credits each week. What makes this “reality” show better than most is that the people at Charm City cakes don’t look like they’re from central casting. The head chef, Duff Goldman, is a big dude with a shaved head and an infectious laugh. The sous chef Geof is a soft spoken guy with a knack for creating exact representations of famous buildings—and perhaps the driest wit of any person on TV not working for The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. Obviously all the bad and mundane things that happen at the bakery are left on the cutting room floor. And yet the final product doesn’t seem too manufactured. These people look like they actually enjoy working with each other and being in front of cameras all the time hasn’t transformed them all that much. Oh, and it’s a SHOW ABOUT CAKE! How could I not love it?
8) Robyn Hitchcock: I Often Dream of Trains in New York (Sundance/Yeproc)
In the fall of 2008 Robyn Hitchcock did a tour performing his 1984 album I Often Dream of Trains in its entirety. For some stupid reason I cannot recall, I passed on going to this show when it played at Symphony Space in Manhattan. After I saw this documentary on the Sundance Channel this summer, I literally slapped my forehead in disgust for being so stupid. It’s hard to believe that almost 25 years after its release, Hitchcock sounds better singing these songs now than he did on the original recording. All the performances are stellar and he even throws in a great new song (“Up to Our Nex”) at the end. What moves I Often Dream of Trains in New York above the standard concert film are the interview segments with Hitchcock. He talks—in a way only he can—about the songs, their meanings and a bunch of other topics that are fascinating and head scratching at the same time. And he does it all on an Amtrak train from Washington, D.C. to New York. It’s the best press Amtrak has gotten since…well, it’s the only good press Amtrak has ever gotten. Of course, if the director John Edginton wanted to capture a true Amtrak trip, he would have gotten Hitchcock on a morning train from Chicago to New York that’s probably running 3 hours late as I write this. Fucking Amtrak.
7) The Lost Son of Havana (ESPN)
After making the film festival rounds for six months, ESPN picked up this documentary to air after a Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers Monday night game. Being that it was an American League game, it was no surprise it stretched to almost four hours and pushed the start time of the film back to almost 11. It’s a shame that The Lost Son of Havana wasn’t aired in primetime on the East Coast because a story this compelling deserved a wider audience. The film focuses on Red Sox legend Luis Tiant, who left his native Cuba for pro baseball in 1961 and hadn't been back in 46 years. In 2007, after diplomatic finagling through back channels, Tiant and director Jonathan Hock got to fly into Cuba under the guise of a baseball team looking to play some exhibitions. (Hock and his crew posed as part of a ball team and played against Cubans during the trip.) Tiant’s return is a bittersweet affair, as the reunions with his surviving relatives are emotion-filled moments where they’re happy to see him and talk glowingly about his accomplishments and at the same time upset that he never returned sooner. The Lost Son of Havana is a look at Cuba most of us have never seen before and is well worth seeking out on Netflix even if you’re not a baseball fan.
6) Community (NBC)
The best new show of the 2009-2010 season (sorry Glee fans) is—shockingly—on NBC, the network that’s acting like it doesn’t want to be a network. I was hooked on this comedy set at the fictional Greendale Community College from a moment in the pilot when sleazy and smooth-talking lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) talks about how he got professor a DUI acquittal by connecting it to 9/11. “You did seem less into integrity the day that I convinced 12 of your peers that the day you made a U-turn on the freeway and tried to order chalupas from the emergency call box, that your only real crime was loving America.” The professor (played by Daily Show correspondent John Oliver) insists, “Well, I do love America. I love it very much. I love chalupas.” And from that hilarious start, Community has only gotten better with each episode. And this is a show that co-stars Chevy Chase. And he’s good. Seriously. The writing staff has played off of Chase’s rep as a prick by making that an essential part of his character Pierce, who boasts of having invented an “award-winning moist towelette.” And they’ve also worked in his talent for pratfalls and made them funny. It’s a transformation to behold. Danny Pudi is the biggest discovery in the rest of the mostly unknown cast, as his Abed has no internal censor and says whatever comes into his mind. Abed also has the biggest pop culture knowledge of any character on TV, which allows the writers to come up a multitude of gags that recall everything from The Breakfast Club to An American Tail. (Seeing two of the characters singing “Somewhere Out There” to find the mouse from their lab experiment is the funniest thing I’ve seen on TV this year. Well, it’s almost as funny as Kanye bum-rushing Taylor Swift.) Discovering Community makes me glad the band doesn’t have gigs on Thursday nights any more.
5) Lost (ABC)
With just one more season to go (oh, I can’t wait for February 2nd) Lost’s fifth season continued the creative rebirth that started at the end of season three. The whole time travel aspect was a bit mind-fogging at times, yet it gave us a compelling pairing of characters with Sawyer and Juliet shacking up to play house in the 1970s. The on-screen chemistry between Josh Holloway and Elizabeth Mitchell was tremendous and makes me wish that (spoiler alert) that Juliet didn’t die when the a-bomb went off in the season finale. I’m going to miss my favorite show of the oughts when it ends in May. I guess I’ll have to pick up the DVDs then and relive it over the summer.
4) Taking Chance (HBO)
Taking Chance is a tearjerker, no doubt about it. I’m not one to usually watch this type of film, but Kevin Bacon’s performance (and the simple and spare way the story is told) made it hard to turn it off. Bacon plays Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, a Marine veteran whose journal served as the basis for the script. Strobl served in the first Gulf War but had worked a desk job throughout the current war in Iraq. Feeling guilty over being at home while so many servicemen were risking their lives, he volunteered to escort the body of Lance Corporal Chance Phelps to his final resting place. The film covers every part of that journey, from Dover Air Force base to Wyoming, with stops in Philadelphia and Minneapolis along the way. Taking Chance is filled with details of this trip (like a shook up flight attendant who thrusts a gold crucifix into the hands of Strobl or former Air Force pilot announcing to the passengers on his Northwest flight about the honorable soldier they’ve been carrying) but really Chance and Strobl are just representatives of the thousands of service members we've lost and the men and women who carry them home. The point that every lost service member is treated with this kind of respect is shown during an extended sequence at the Dover mortuary. It shows the attention to detail that goes cleaning, restoring and dressing each body, and then the salutes given to each departing hearse, not just by the service members but by any civilians who happen to be there that day. And if the scene where everyone at the Minneapolis airport stops and salutes the coffin doesn’t grab the heartstrings, then you’re probably Dick Cheney. Perhaps best of all, Taking Chance has no political agenda. No one in the film is for or against the war. But in presenting what happens when our soldiers and Marines killed over there come home, it serves as a powerful reminder that their lives indeed mattered.
3) Flight of the Conchords (HBO)
I usually feel kind of ticked off when a show I love ends seemingly before its time. But I’m not angry about the early December announcement that Flight of the Conchords would not go into a third season. At the end of their second season the duo was deported back to a New Zealand sheep ranch, and manager Murray was either deported as well—or he simply joined them because he has to keep managing the band. It’s a fitting (and very funny way) to close out a show that upped the quality of its writing its second year. Brett McKenzie and Jermaine Clement seemed to have a better grasp on what they wanted out of the show comedy-wise; the secondary characters were more sharply drawn and were much funnier; and even when the songs weren't that memorable, the quality of the videos was significantly higher. (The Michel Gondry video for “Carol Brown” is by far the best they ever did.) On the other hand, the songs were the weakest part of this season. (Which makes sense, as the duo admitted that they’ve plowed through their back catalog for the show.) I could see how coming up with new songs and new scripts at the same time could be too much to bear. I'd love to watch it a couple more seasons, but I don’t want the quality to drop off a cliff. There’s something to be said for knowing to quit while you’re ahead.
2) Burn Notice (USA)
Burn Notice is one of those rare shows that has, with all apologies to Bill Simmons and his Book of Basketball that’s taken me forever to get through because of the 7,809 footnotes, made “the leap.” It started as a summer diversion, moved into the steady viewing realm with the first half of its second season, and then became essential with its’ stunning second season finale and the almost as good third season summer finale. The choices Michael Weston (the amazing Jeffery Donavan) has made in trying to recover his spy career have felt, well, for lack of a better term, epic. The killing of the show’s villains from the past two seasons (Carla the “handler” from season two, Michael’s sleazy intelligence contact Strickler in the summer finale) have raised the stakes for all the characters in a way I couldn’t have imagined watching the first season in 2007. And again, any show with Bruce Campbell and his chin will always be worth watching.
1) Chuck (NBC)
As with Burn Notice, Chuck made “the leap” in its second season as well. Perhaps it’s the fact that both shows dove deeper into their mythology (Burn Notice with the far reaching plot of Michael being burned, Chuck with who created the intersect in Chuck’s head) that made them seem more essential. There are programs on TV that are more complex, have much tighter plots, and are better as strict comedies, but none of them are this much fun. Any season finale that features a climactic shootout set to two characters covering Styx’s “Mr. Roboto”…at a wedding…well, that will be saved on my DVR until the damn thing melts down on top of my TV. If Chuck was just a slapdash collection of in-jokes and ’80s references, then it would be Family Guy. (Without the talking dog.) But what makes Chuck special—and inspired thousands of fans to go to Subway on one day in May it hopes of spurring its renewal—is that beneath all the references there is a warmth and humanity. You can tell that this group of fine actors have the utmost love and respect for their characters, which makes the jokes that much more satisfying, the action cooler, and the Tron and Rush references more enjoyable. So let me wrap up the Visual Aids list by making a plea for you to watch it when it has its season premiere January 10th. It’s not too late to jump in on the best show on NBC.
HBO has had a stranglehold on the title of best sports documentary producers for at least a decade now. They're always well written. The wide cross range of people they speak to (athletes, sportswriters, fans) usually have interesting things to say about the chosen topic. And each doc has the dulcet tones of Liev Schreiber as your not-voice-of-god-but-kinda-close narrator. It’s a winning formula, and whenever a new one debuts I make sure to record it. This year THE sports network woke up and decided, “Hey, we can do just as good a job as them—and much better than our SportsCentury series.” So ESPN ran with the suggestion of doing 30 films to mark the network's 30th anniversary from an employee who knows about connecting with sports fans—“The Sports Guy,” Bill Simmons. His idea of 30 different directors picking topics that haven't been told to death was inspired. What are the chances we'd get an entire hour on Jimmy the Greek without Simmons’ brainstorm? (I’d lay odds on it in tribute to the NFL Today linesmaker, but I lay off gambling when I'm writing the list each year.) 30 for 30 grabbed some excellent directors (Barry Levinson, Peter Berg) who tackled fascinating topics (the Baltimore Colts marching band after the team left town, Wayne Gretzky being traded to Los Angeles) and spun them into some great work. Two of the 30 for 30 films, Without Bias and Muhammad and Larry, are almost painful to watch. In one you see someone’s potential snuffed out in one fateful night and in the other you witness the downfall of a great champion who should have not been in a ring in 1980. (Watching Ali train in that film compared to six years earlier in When We Were Kings is especially troubling when you see how his speech and movement had slowed down during that time. No wonder his fight doctor, Ferdie Pacheco, quit Ali's corner in disgust in 1977.) 30 for 30 continues in 2010 and is a must see series for any sports fan.
9) Ace of Cakes (Food Network)
This year I found myself going off the beaten path cable network-wise. It was my desperate attempt to be entertained on weekend afternoons in that annoying time after football playoffs end and before spring training games. One Sunday afternoon I stumbled upon the Food Network and a show called Ace of Cakes. What I saw was this huge cake that looked like it must not be a cake. (I can’t recall exactly what it was, but it had to be about four feet tall.) I was memorized by this tasty treat in front of me and I watched the rest of the episode. I started watching the Sunday shows even when baseball season began. And when the new season debuted in July, I was totally hooked. I can even ignore the fact that “reality” show about Charm City Cakes in Baltimore has a writer listed in the credits each week. What makes this “reality” show better than most is that the people at Charm City cakes don’t look like they’re from central casting. The head chef, Duff Goldman, is a big dude with a shaved head and an infectious laugh. The sous chef Geof is a soft spoken guy with a knack for creating exact representations of famous buildings—and perhaps the driest wit of any person on TV not working for The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. Obviously all the bad and mundane things that happen at the bakery are left on the cutting room floor. And yet the final product doesn’t seem too manufactured. These people look like they actually enjoy working with each other and being in front of cameras all the time hasn’t transformed them all that much. Oh, and it’s a SHOW ABOUT CAKE! How could I not love it?
8) Robyn Hitchcock: I Often Dream of Trains in New York (Sundance/Yeproc)
In the fall of 2008 Robyn Hitchcock did a tour performing his 1984 album I Often Dream of Trains in its entirety. For some stupid reason I cannot recall, I passed on going to this show when it played at Symphony Space in Manhattan. After I saw this documentary on the Sundance Channel this summer, I literally slapped my forehead in disgust for being so stupid. It’s hard to believe that almost 25 years after its release, Hitchcock sounds better singing these songs now than he did on the original recording. All the performances are stellar and he even throws in a great new song (“Up to Our Nex”) at the end. What moves I Often Dream of Trains in New York above the standard concert film are the interview segments with Hitchcock. He talks—in a way only he can—about the songs, their meanings and a bunch of other topics that are fascinating and head scratching at the same time. And he does it all on an Amtrak train from Washington, D.C. to New York. It’s the best press Amtrak has gotten since…well, it’s the only good press Amtrak has ever gotten. Of course, if the director John Edginton wanted to capture a true Amtrak trip, he would have gotten Hitchcock on a morning train from Chicago to New York that’s probably running 3 hours late as I write this. Fucking Amtrak.
7) The Lost Son of Havana (ESPN)
After making the film festival rounds for six months, ESPN picked up this documentary to air after a Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers Monday night game. Being that it was an American League game, it was no surprise it stretched to almost four hours and pushed the start time of the film back to almost 11. It’s a shame that The Lost Son of Havana wasn’t aired in primetime on the East Coast because a story this compelling deserved a wider audience. The film focuses on Red Sox legend Luis Tiant, who left his native Cuba for pro baseball in 1961 and hadn't been back in 46 years. In 2007, after diplomatic finagling through back channels, Tiant and director Jonathan Hock got to fly into Cuba under the guise of a baseball team looking to play some exhibitions. (Hock and his crew posed as part of a ball team and played against Cubans during the trip.) Tiant’s return is a bittersweet affair, as the reunions with his surviving relatives are emotion-filled moments where they’re happy to see him and talk glowingly about his accomplishments and at the same time upset that he never returned sooner. The Lost Son of Havana is a look at Cuba most of us have never seen before and is well worth seeking out on Netflix even if you’re not a baseball fan.
6) Community (NBC)
The best new show of the 2009-2010 season (sorry Glee fans) is—shockingly—on NBC, the network that’s acting like it doesn’t want to be a network. I was hooked on this comedy set at the fictional Greendale Community College from a moment in the pilot when sleazy and smooth-talking lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) talks about how he got professor a DUI acquittal by connecting it to 9/11. “You did seem less into integrity the day that I convinced 12 of your peers that the day you made a U-turn on the freeway and tried to order chalupas from the emergency call box, that your only real crime was loving America.” The professor (played by Daily Show correspondent John Oliver) insists, “Well, I do love America. I love it very much. I love chalupas.” And from that hilarious start, Community has only gotten better with each episode. And this is a show that co-stars Chevy Chase. And he’s good. Seriously. The writing staff has played off of Chase’s rep as a prick by making that an essential part of his character Pierce, who boasts of having invented an “award-winning moist towelette.” And they’ve also worked in his talent for pratfalls and made them funny. It’s a transformation to behold. Danny Pudi is the biggest discovery in the rest of the mostly unknown cast, as his Abed has no internal censor and says whatever comes into his mind. Abed also has the biggest pop culture knowledge of any character on TV, which allows the writers to come up a multitude of gags that recall everything from The Breakfast Club to An American Tail. (Seeing two of the characters singing “Somewhere Out There” to find the mouse from their lab experiment is the funniest thing I’ve seen on TV this year. Well, it’s almost as funny as Kanye bum-rushing Taylor Swift.) Discovering Community makes me glad the band doesn’t have gigs on Thursday nights any more.
5) Lost (ABC)
With just one more season to go (oh, I can’t wait for February 2nd) Lost’s fifth season continued the creative rebirth that started at the end of season three. The whole time travel aspect was a bit mind-fogging at times, yet it gave us a compelling pairing of characters with Sawyer and Juliet shacking up to play house in the 1970s. The on-screen chemistry between Josh Holloway and Elizabeth Mitchell was tremendous and makes me wish that (spoiler alert) that Juliet didn’t die when the a-bomb went off in the season finale. I’m going to miss my favorite show of the oughts when it ends in May. I guess I’ll have to pick up the DVDs then and relive it over the summer.
4) Taking Chance (HBO)
Taking Chance is a tearjerker, no doubt about it. I’m not one to usually watch this type of film, but Kevin Bacon’s performance (and the simple and spare way the story is told) made it hard to turn it off. Bacon plays Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, a Marine veteran whose journal served as the basis for the script. Strobl served in the first Gulf War but had worked a desk job throughout the current war in Iraq. Feeling guilty over being at home while so many servicemen were risking their lives, he volunteered to escort the body of Lance Corporal Chance Phelps to his final resting place. The film covers every part of that journey, from Dover Air Force base to Wyoming, with stops in Philadelphia and Minneapolis along the way. Taking Chance is filled with details of this trip (like a shook up flight attendant who thrusts a gold crucifix into the hands of Strobl or former Air Force pilot announcing to the passengers on his Northwest flight about the honorable soldier they’ve been carrying) but really Chance and Strobl are just representatives of the thousands of service members we've lost and the men and women who carry them home. The point that every lost service member is treated with this kind of respect is shown during an extended sequence at the Dover mortuary. It shows the attention to detail that goes cleaning, restoring and dressing each body, and then the salutes given to each departing hearse, not just by the service members but by any civilians who happen to be there that day. And if the scene where everyone at the Minneapolis airport stops and salutes the coffin doesn’t grab the heartstrings, then you’re probably Dick Cheney. Perhaps best of all, Taking Chance has no political agenda. No one in the film is for or against the war. But in presenting what happens when our soldiers and Marines killed over there come home, it serves as a powerful reminder that their lives indeed mattered.
3) Flight of the Conchords (HBO)
I usually feel kind of ticked off when a show I love ends seemingly before its time. But I’m not angry about the early December announcement that Flight of the Conchords would not go into a third season. At the end of their second season the duo was deported back to a New Zealand sheep ranch, and manager Murray was either deported as well—or he simply joined them because he has to keep managing the band. It’s a fitting (and very funny way) to close out a show that upped the quality of its writing its second year. Brett McKenzie and Jermaine Clement seemed to have a better grasp on what they wanted out of the show comedy-wise; the secondary characters were more sharply drawn and were much funnier; and even when the songs weren't that memorable, the quality of the videos was significantly higher. (The Michel Gondry video for “Carol Brown” is by far the best they ever did.) On the other hand, the songs were the weakest part of this season. (Which makes sense, as the duo admitted that they’ve plowed through their back catalog for the show.) I could see how coming up with new songs and new scripts at the same time could be too much to bear. I'd love to watch it a couple more seasons, but I don’t want the quality to drop off a cliff. There’s something to be said for knowing to quit while you’re ahead.
2) Burn Notice (USA)
Burn Notice is one of those rare shows that has, with all apologies to Bill Simmons and his Book of Basketball that’s taken me forever to get through because of the 7,809 footnotes, made “the leap.” It started as a summer diversion, moved into the steady viewing realm with the first half of its second season, and then became essential with its’ stunning second season finale and the almost as good third season summer finale. The choices Michael Weston (the amazing Jeffery Donavan) has made in trying to recover his spy career have felt, well, for lack of a better term, epic. The killing of the show’s villains from the past two seasons (Carla the “handler” from season two, Michael’s sleazy intelligence contact Strickler in the summer finale) have raised the stakes for all the characters in a way I couldn’t have imagined watching the first season in 2007. And again, any show with Bruce Campbell and his chin will always be worth watching.
1) Chuck (NBC)
As with Burn Notice, Chuck made “the leap” in its second season as well. Perhaps it’s the fact that both shows dove deeper into their mythology (Burn Notice with the far reaching plot of Michael being burned, Chuck with who created the intersect in Chuck’s head) that made them seem more essential. There are programs on TV that are more complex, have much tighter plots, and are better as strict comedies, but none of them are this much fun. Any season finale that features a climactic shootout set to two characters covering Styx’s “Mr. Roboto”…at a wedding…well, that will be saved on my DVR until the damn thing melts down on top of my TV. If Chuck was just a slapdash collection of in-jokes and ’80s references, then it would be Family Guy. (Without the talking dog.) But what makes Chuck special—and inspired thousands of fans to go to Subway on one day in May it hopes of spurring its renewal—is that beneath all the references there is a warmth and humanity. You can tell that this group of fine actors have the utmost love and respect for their characters, which makes the jokes that much more satisfying, the action cooler, and the Tron and Rush references more enjoyable. So let me wrap up the Visual Aids list by making a plea for you to watch it when it has its season premiere January 10th. It’s not too late to jump in on the best show on NBC.
20 for 20: Albums That Changed My Life Over the Past Two Decades
As the end of 2009 crept upon us, every publication started dropping their “best of decade” lists. I certainly could have done that with this year’s RT 20. Yet I wanted to mark my 20th anniversary with something a bit more wide ranging. So I hatched the crazy idea to make another radio special (the CDs that came with the print version of the RT 20) to discuss albums that were life-changing for yours truly. Now these aren’t what I consider the best albums of the past 20 years (that list might feature a couple of the same albums), just the ones that had a big impact on what I listened to, what I saw, and sometimes, how I could feel on a certain day. I talk about these albums during the special, but I figured a little bit of extra explanation never hurt.
Young Fresh Fellows - Hits From the Break Up Album (ESC Brand)
Year Released: 1991 Track Featured in Special: “Two Guitars, Bass and Drums”
Nirvana - Nevermind (DCG)
Year Released: 1991 Track Featured in Special: “On a Plain”
Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Perspex Island (A&M)
Year Released: 1991 Tracks Featured in Special: “Oceanside,” “So You Think You’re in Love”
1991 was a pretty interesting year. I graduated from college, I had a radio job, had it revoked when I showed up for the final interview, I moved home for another radio gig, hated it, quit and then moved back to the city where I went to college—all in the space of five months. I did a whole heck’uva lot of driving those few months. The one cassette that got a lot of car play during that time was Perspex Island. John Cooper of PYX 106 (still one of the best on air talents I’ve ever heard) gave it to me during my last week at the radio station. I was a fan of Hitchcock before Perspex Island was released, but this album connected with me more than any of his other releases during my time in college. Perhaps it was because listening to it made me feel like I was still in college. Or maybe the fact that it was the slickest thing he had done to date. Producer Paul Fox had worked on XTC’s 1989 album Oranges and Lemons and he knew how to make pop songs soar. Perspex Island had a vegetable basket full of them. I dove head first into the Hitchcock catalog in the months after I got that cassette, and have remained a big fan ever since.
Young Fresh Fellows’ Hits From the Break Up Album came out in May of 1991, but I didn’t track down this very limited box set of singles until eight years later. Yet just like Perspex Island, the Break Up Album changed me from a casual fan into a hardcore one. The set is made up of five singles the Fellows released from the fall of 1990 through the winter of 1991. My college station played three of those singles, and all three of them quickly became my favorite Fellows songs. It’s not only the music of the Break Up Album that set me down the path to being a insane Fellows fan who owns almost everything they’ve done. (Which, trust me, is a lot.) The idea of a band putting together the singles in a box with special artwork, a huge poster with liner notes explaining the whole project and a random romance novel appealed to the collector in me. These guys not only how to make great music, they knew how to make a great presentation of that music. I suppose that’s why I have over 315 Fellows songs in my iTunes—and it still doesn’t seem like enough.
And what can I say about Nevermind that hasn’t already been said? The way those 42 minutes and 30 seconds of music (not counting the hidden track) changed the music industry and radio is undeniable. Alas, in hindsight, what came after the trio’s breakthrough isn’t that pretty. Massive signing bonuses for watered down bands; alternative stations in markets that probably couldn’t support the format; Gavin Rossdale. Oy. Maybe Kurt Cobain saw it coming and just couldn’t handle that responsibility. (Or Courtney Love had him killed, whatever.) I listened to Nevermind all the way through for the first time in ages while writing the above paragraphs. And I must say that, just like me, it hasn’t aged well. The Andy Wallace mix seems a bit over the top now and locks the sound completely into the late ’80s/early ’90s. I can say that the songs that haven’t been played to death on the airwaves (“Stay Away,” “On a Plain”) can still bring back some of that initial power I felt back in the fall of 1991. It was a feeling that anything can happen. Alas, real life has a way of derailing those feelings.
The Jayhawks - Hollywood Town Hall (Def American)
Year Released: 1992 Track Featured in Special: “Waiting for the Sun”
Los Lobos - Kiko (Slash/WB)
Year Released: 1992 Tracks Featured in Special: “Dream in Blue,” “Reva’s House”
I worked on air in Ithaca for the first eight months of 1992 on Q104, which was a softer mainstream rock station that dropped in a few “modern rock” bands as a nod to the huge student population in town. I remember reading about the new Los Lobos album and couldn’t wait to hear it. The PD at Q104, Mimi Griswold, gave me an extra copy of the disc she received right after it hit stores. I quickly became fixated on the sound of Kiko and listened to it almost every night (or day, once I switched to working overnights full time) before I went to bed. I wrote a piece in Go Metric #22 in 2008 that sums up my thoughts about it pretty well:
“This was a far cry from the commercial heights of La Bamba. Kiko sounded like nothing before it—and perhaps nothing since. Percussion tracks could resemble someone stumbling through a bunch of trash cans after a night of getting wrecked on Pabst. Guitar tones eerily imitated crying voices. Woodwinds were stacked upon woodwinds, creating combinations that sound neither like a sax or a flute. The lyrics didn’t always tell full stories—they hinted at what happened, letting the listener’s imagination take hold and come to their own conclusion. Kiko is the album that turned this writer from a Los Lobos fan to a fan.”
In the fall of 1992 I moved on to work at 94 K-Rock in Utica, and once again Mimi was the PD. She gave me all the “modern rock” albums that came in for the alternative show I did on Monday nights called 94 Minutes. One of those discs I received was Hollywood Town Hall. I hadn’t heard the term alt-country at the time, but I sure knew great harmonies and Neil Young-inspired lead guitar when I heard it. I didn’t know what it was an “alternative” to, but I sure knew I liked it. As you’ll see as this list moves on, I fell hard for alt-country bands. And it started all right here.
Buffalo Tom - Big Red Letter Day (Beggars Banquet/East West)
Year Released: 1993 Track Featured in Special: “Suppose”
Pearl Jam - Vs. (Epic)
Year Released: 1993 Track Featured in Special: “Dissident”
In 1993 I discovered one could wear a tape out in a car deck. That album was Big Red Letter Day. I still have that cassette for sentimental reasons (even though the oxide started peeling off). Buffalo Tom (and Bill Janovitz in particular) showed me that modern rock bands could be just as soulful as the classic rock bands I listened to in high school. And I’m pretty sure that this was the album that made me raise the bar for what I thought was worthy enough to make the RT 20 over the years.
I am still the biggest Pearl Jam far I know. I don’t know anybody who owns more than a couple of Pearl Jam official bootlegs. I have over 100. And it all started in 1993. I thought 1991’s Ten was an okay album. But I liked all the b-sides and non-album tracks that came out during Ten’s mega-commercial run more than anything on the album itself. So I guess those cuts were priming me for a more muscular and rawer sounding Pearl Jam. And oh my do they deliver on Vs. I never thought I would become a hardcore fan of such a popular group. And I never imagined I would still be one 15 years later.
Weezer - Weezer (DGC)
Year Released: 1994 Track Featured in Special: “Say It Ain’t So”
The Figgs - Low-Fi at Society High (Imago)
Year Released: 1994 Tracks Featured in Special: “Ginger,” “Shut”
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (Matador)
Year Released: 1994 Tracks Featured in Special: “Silence Kit,” “Gold Soundz”
1994 was a damn fine year for music. I think one of the best in my entire life, quite honestly. And out of all that quality music, these three albums had the longest lasting impact on my life. I’ve typed enough words about The Figgs as this point to probably write a book about the band. I can’t imagine my life without them. I can imagine my life now without Weezer because, my oh my, their last three albums are such pieces of crap. But The Blue Album will always hold a special place in my musical heart for introducing me to a band I couldn’t get enough of for a decade. And Pavement’s impact on my life is pretty wide ranging, as I think they were a gateway for me to a lot of what is now known as indie rock. They were weird, but just catchy enough for me to dig them. And I dig them enough to buy a ticket for one of their reunion concerts a year before it happens. Which is downright insane.
Wilco - Being There (Reprise)
Year Released: 1996 Tracks Featured in Special: “Monday,” “Outtasite (Outta Mind)”
Whiskeytown - Stranger’s Almanac (Outpost)
Year Released: 1997 Tracks Featured in Special: “Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight,” “16 Days”
Old 97s - Fight Songs (Elektra)
Year Released: 1999 Tracks Featured in Special: “Jagged,” “Nineteen”
The Bottle Rockets - Brand New Year (Doolittle/Slipdisc/Mercury)
Year Released: 1999 Tracks Featured in Special: “Gotta Get Up,” “Love Like a Truck”
As I wrote above in The Jayhawks entry, I really got into alt-country. If Hollywood Town Hall opened the door for me into that genre of music, these four albums issued over three years blasted that door away, threw me into the house and set me up at the kitchen table so I could sink its teeth into its bones. (And yes, it is dinner time right now, how did you ever guess? And yes, Being There is truly more than alt-country.)
Just like The Figgs, I can’t imagine my life without Wilco. And the first two singles from this double disc, “Outtasite (Outta Mind)” and “Monday,” never fail to make me feel better. I got to see the band for the first time a month after Being There was released, and it was such a cathartic and joyous experience that I’ve only missed five of their New York shows over the past 13 years. Wilco have made better records since, but they’ve never made an album brings me as much child-like joy as this one.
Whiskeytown’s Strangers Almanac might be the best depressing album since Blood on the Tracks. What I wrote five years ago (in the “15 albums I missed” list) still holds true: “The songs on this first half of this album are so depressing that listening to it when I came home unhappy made my own shortcomings seem less imposing. Pining for that girl that lives thousands of miles away? Put on the opening track, ‘Inn Town.’ Upset that your moves on a certain girl didn’t work at a party? Skip directly to track two, ‘Excuse If I Break My Own Heart Tonight.’ Can’t get a certain person to fall for you after a concert, despite the mounting evidence that the two of you would be a good couple? Try track five, ‘Everything I Do.’ I like a full-service depression effort.”
Old 97s and The Bottle Rockets also fit snugly in the world of alt-country, but come at it from different angles. Old 97’s approach it with a pop ear, as singer Rhett Miller writes gems about unrequited love and broken hearts with a perfect balance of hooks and country twang that warms the cockles of my heart. The Bottle Rockets approach it from, well, the beer side. Brand New Year is an album that rocks. And when I say rocks, I mean it’s one of those stupid, big riff-filled, pounding a six pack of beer to, ROCK in capitol letters type of albums that came out in the ’70s. It’s like a Molly Hatchet or Outlaws record, but done by people who have talent. Singer Brian Henneman spits out lyrics like someone stole the last shot of whiskey he ordered (and back then, before he quit drinking, that might have been the case). Both of these albums inspired me to seek out each of their respective catalogs, and I’ve been rewarded ever since.
The Gentlemen - Ladies and Gentlemen (Hearbox/QDivision)
Year Released: 2000 Tracks Featured in Special: “Off With Its Head,” “Through With You”
I could probably write an entire RT 20 about the various reasons I’ve needed to listen to this album over the past nine years. Except I couldn’t do that while listening to it, because I lose focus whenever I hear the opening notes to “Sour Mash.” It took me 10 minutes to write that first line because when the disc started, I just sat at my keyboard, not typing, enjoying the AC/DC-meets-Elvis Costello-crossed-with-The Faces sound of Ladies and Gentlemen. How did this album change my life? I’m not sure. But I know that my life wouldn’t be as good without it.
Bright Eyes - I’m Wide Awake Its Morning (Saddle Creek)
Year Released: 2005 Tracks Featured in Special: “First Day Of My Life,” “We Are Nowhere And It’s Now”
Josh Rouse - Nashville (Rykodisc)
Year Released: 2005 Tracks Featured in Special: “It’s the Nighttime,” “Carolina”
Spoon - Gimme Fiction (Merge)
Year Released: 2005 Tracks Featured in Special: “My Mathematical Mind,” “Sister Jack”
Nada Surf - The Weight is a Gift (Barsuk)
Year Released: 2005 Tracks Featured in Special: “Do It Again,” “Blankest Year”
2005 was one of the momentous years of my life. I discovered a new way to listen to music (the iPod), became good friends with someone whose enthusiasm about music rubbed off on me and inspired me (the concert pal, Moria Miller) and I discovered the awesomeness that is being the front guy for a band (Bunnie England and the New Originals). If I hadn’t gotten emotionally screwed over so much, it would have been the best year ever. And just like 1994, 2005 is certainly in the running for the best year of my musical life. These four albums had a huge influence on what I’ve listened to in the past four years. I ended up getting the entire catalogs of all four acts and made sure to see them at almost every performance they’ve done in the New York area. And I can honestly say that if I had to narrow these 20 years to down to just five albums (like on the RT 20 podcasts), The Weight is a Gift and Nashville would be in there. Both albums are stepped in heartbreak but find a way to turn that negative into a positive. That’s a talent I wish I could master.
Okkervil River - The Stage Names (Jagjaguwar)
Year Released: 2007 Tracks Featured in Special: “Plus Ones,” “Unless It’s Kicks”
The Stage Names helped me rediscover how fulfilling a set of great lyrics can be. Exhibit a, “Plus Ones.” On the surface it seems like a typical picking apart of a failed relationship. Then one look at a lyric sheet shows just how incredible this song is:
“You would probably die before you shot up 9 miles high
Your eyes dilated as light plays upon the sight
Of TVC16 as it sings you goodnight.
Relaxed as hell and locked up in cell 45,
I hope you're feeling better.
The 51st way to leave your lover, admittedly,
doesn't seem to be as gentle or as clean as all the others,
leaving its scars all in the after hours of some Greenpoint bar”
Will Sheff has a way with words as good as any songwriter of the past decade. And he might be the only songwriter that makes me feel smarter after listening to one of his albums.
Young Fresh Fellows - Hits From the Break Up Album (ESC Brand)
Year Released: 1991 Track Featured in Special: “Two Guitars, Bass and Drums”
Nirvana - Nevermind (DCG)
Year Released: 1991 Track Featured in Special: “On a Plain”
Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Perspex Island (A&M)
Year Released: 1991 Tracks Featured in Special: “Oceanside,” “So You Think You’re in Love”
1991 was a pretty interesting year. I graduated from college, I had a radio job, had it revoked when I showed up for the final interview, I moved home for another radio gig, hated it, quit and then moved back to the city where I went to college—all in the space of five months. I did a whole heck’uva lot of driving those few months. The one cassette that got a lot of car play during that time was Perspex Island. John Cooper of PYX 106 (still one of the best on air talents I’ve ever heard) gave it to me during my last week at the radio station. I was a fan of Hitchcock before Perspex Island was released, but this album connected with me more than any of his other releases during my time in college. Perhaps it was because listening to it made me feel like I was still in college. Or maybe the fact that it was the slickest thing he had done to date. Producer Paul Fox had worked on XTC’s 1989 album Oranges and Lemons and he knew how to make pop songs soar. Perspex Island had a vegetable basket full of them. I dove head first into the Hitchcock catalog in the months after I got that cassette, and have remained a big fan ever since.
Young Fresh Fellows’ Hits From the Break Up Album came out in May of 1991, but I didn’t track down this very limited box set of singles until eight years later. Yet just like Perspex Island, the Break Up Album changed me from a casual fan into a hardcore one. The set is made up of five singles the Fellows released from the fall of 1990 through the winter of 1991. My college station played three of those singles, and all three of them quickly became my favorite Fellows songs. It’s not only the music of the Break Up Album that set me down the path to being a insane Fellows fan who owns almost everything they’ve done. (Which, trust me, is a lot.) The idea of a band putting together the singles in a box with special artwork, a huge poster with liner notes explaining the whole project and a random romance novel appealed to the collector in me. These guys not only how to make great music, they knew how to make a great presentation of that music. I suppose that’s why I have over 315 Fellows songs in my iTunes—and it still doesn’t seem like enough.
And what can I say about Nevermind that hasn’t already been said? The way those 42 minutes and 30 seconds of music (not counting the hidden track) changed the music industry and radio is undeniable. Alas, in hindsight, what came after the trio’s breakthrough isn’t that pretty. Massive signing bonuses for watered down bands; alternative stations in markets that probably couldn’t support the format; Gavin Rossdale. Oy. Maybe Kurt Cobain saw it coming and just couldn’t handle that responsibility. (Or Courtney Love had him killed, whatever.) I listened to Nevermind all the way through for the first time in ages while writing the above paragraphs. And I must say that, just like me, it hasn’t aged well. The Andy Wallace mix seems a bit over the top now and locks the sound completely into the late ’80s/early ’90s. I can say that the songs that haven’t been played to death on the airwaves (“Stay Away,” “On a Plain”) can still bring back some of that initial power I felt back in the fall of 1991. It was a feeling that anything can happen. Alas, real life has a way of derailing those feelings.
The Jayhawks - Hollywood Town Hall (Def American)
Year Released: 1992 Track Featured in Special: “Waiting for the Sun”
Los Lobos - Kiko (Slash/WB)
Year Released: 1992 Tracks Featured in Special: “Dream in Blue,” “Reva’s House”
I worked on air in Ithaca for the first eight months of 1992 on Q104, which was a softer mainstream rock station that dropped in a few “modern rock” bands as a nod to the huge student population in town. I remember reading about the new Los Lobos album and couldn’t wait to hear it. The PD at Q104, Mimi Griswold, gave me an extra copy of the disc she received right after it hit stores. I quickly became fixated on the sound of Kiko and listened to it almost every night (or day, once I switched to working overnights full time) before I went to bed. I wrote a piece in Go Metric #22 in 2008 that sums up my thoughts about it pretty well:
“This was a far cry from the commercial heights of La Bamba. Kiko sounded like nothing before it—and perhaps nothing since. Percussion tracks could resemble someone stumbling through a bunch of trash cans after a night of getting wrecked on Pabst. Guitar tones eerily imitated crying voices. Woodwinds were stacked upon woodwinds, creating combinations that sound neither like a sax or a flute. The lyrics didn’t always tell full stories—they hinted at what happened, letting the listener’s imagination take hold and come to their own conclusion. Kiko is the album that turned this writer from a Los Lobos fan to a fan.”
In the fall of 1992 I moved on to work at 94 K-Rock in Utica, and once again Mimi was the PD. She gave me all the “modern rock” albums that came in for the alternative show I did on Monday nights called 94 Minutes. One of those discs I received was Hollywood Town Hall. I hadn’t heard the term alt-country at the time, but I sure knew great harmonies and Neil Young-inspired lead guitar when I heard it. I didn’t know what it was an “alternative” to, but I sure knew I liked it. As you’ll see as this list moves on, I fell hard for alt-country bands. And it started all right here.
Buffalo Tom - Big Red Letter Day (Beggars Banquet/East West)
Year Released: 1993 Track Featured in Special: “Suppose”
Pearl Jam - Vs. (Epic)
Year Released: 1993 Track Featured in Special: “Dissident”
In 1993 I discovered one could wear a tape out in a car deck. That album was Big Red Letter Day. I still have that cassette for sentimental reasons (even though the oxide started peeling off). Buffalo Tom (and Bill Janovitz in particular) showed me that modern rock bands could be just as soulful as the classic rock bands I listened to in high school. And I’m pretty sure that this was the album that made me raise the bar for what I thought was worthy enough to make the RT 20 over the years.
I am still the biggest Pearl Jam far I know. I don’t know anybody who owns more than a couple of Pearl Jam official bootlegs. I have over 100. And it all started in 1993. I thought 1991’s Ten was an okay album. But I liked all the b-sides and non-album tracks that came out during Ten’s mega-commercial run more than anything on the album itself. So I guess those cuts were priming me for a more muscular and rawer sounding Pearl Jam. And oh my do they deliver on Vs. I never thought I would become a hardcore fan of such a popular group. And I never imagined I would still be one 15 years later.
Weezer - Weezer (DGC)
Year Released: 1994 Track Featured in Special: “Say It Ain’t So”
The Figgs - Low-Fi at Society High (Imago)
Year Released: 1994 Tracks Featured in Special: “Ginger,” “Shut”
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (Matador)
Year Released: 1994 Tracks Featured in Special: “Silence Kit,” “Gold Soundz”
1994 was a damn fine year for music. I think one of the best in my entire life, quite honestly. And out of all that quality music, these three albums had the longest lasting impact on my life. I’ve typed enough words about The Figgs as this point to probably write a book about the band. I can’t imagine my life without them. I can imagine my life now without Weezer because, my oh my, their last three albums are such pieces of crap. But The Blue Album will always hold a special place in my musical heart for introducing me to a band I couldn’t get enough of for a decade. And Pavement’s impact on my life is pretty wide ranging, as I think they were a gateway for me to a lot of what is now known as indie rock. They were weird, but just catchy enough for me to dig them. And I dig them enough to buy a ticket for one of their reunion concerts a year before it happens. Which is downright insane.
Wilco - Being There (Reprise)
Year Released: 1996 Tracks Featured in Special: “Monday,” “Outtasite (Outta Mind)”
Whiskeytown - Stranger’s Almanac (Outpost)
Year Released: 1997 Tracks Featured in Special: “Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight,” “16 Days”
Old 97s - Fight Songs (Elektra)
Year Released: 1999 Tracks Featured in Special: “Jagged,” “Nineteen”
The Bottle Rockets - Brand New Year (Doolittle/Slipdisc/Mercury)
Year Released: 1999 Tracks Featured in Special: “Gotta Get Up,” “Love Like a Truck”
As I wrote above in The Jayhawks entry, I really got into alt-country. If Hollywood Town Hall opened the door for me into that genre of music, these four albums issued over three years blasted that door away, threw me into the house and set me up at the kitchen table so I could sink its teeth into its bones. (And yes, it is dinner time right now, how did you ever guess? And yes, Being There is truly more than alt-country.)
Just like The Figgs, I can’t imagine my life without Wilco. And the first two singles from this double disc, “Outtasite (Outta Mind)” and “Monday,” never fail to make me feel better. I got to see the band for the first time a month after Being There was released, and it was such a cathartic and joyous experience that I’ve only missed five of their New York shows over the past 13 years. Wilco have made better records since, but they’ve never made an album brings me as much child-like joy as this one.
Whiskeytown’s Strangers Almanac might be the best depressing album since Blood on the Tracks. What I wrote five years ago (in the “15 albums I missed” list) still holds true: “The songs on this first half of this album are so depressing that listening to it when I came home unhappy made my own shortcomings seem less imposing. Pining for that girl that lives thousands of miles away? Put on the opening track, ‘Inn Town.’ Upset that your moves on a certain girl didn’t work at a party? Skip directly to track two, ‘Excuse If I Break My Own Heart Tonight.’ Can’t get a certain person to fall for you after a concert, despite the mounting evidence that the two of you would be a good couple? Try track five, ‘Everything I Do.’ I like a full-service depression effort.”
Old 97s and The Bottle Rockets also fit snugly in the world of alt-country, but come at it from different angles. Old 97’s approach it with a pop ear, as singer Rhett Miller writes gems about unrequited love and broken hearts with a perfect balance of hooks and country twang that warms the cockles of my heart. The Bottle Rockets approach it from, well, the beer side. Brand New Year is an album that rocks. And when I say rocks, I mean it’s one of those stupid, big riff-filled, pounding a six pack of beer to, ROCK in capitol letters type of albums that came out in the ’70s. It’s like a Molly Hatchet or Outlaws record, but done by people who have talent. Singer Brian Henneman spits out lyrics like someone stole the last shot of whiskey he ordered (and back then, before he quit drinking, that might have been the case). Both of these albums inspired me to seek out each of their respective catalogs, and I’ve been rewarded ever since.
The Gentlemen - Ladies and Gentlemen (Hearbox/QDivision)
Year Released: 2000 Tracks Featured in Special: “Off With Its Head,” “Through With You”
I could probably write an entire RT 20 about the various reasons I’ve needed to listen to this album over the past nine years. Except I couldn’t do that while listening to it, because I lose focus whenever I hear the opening notes to “Sour Mash.” It took me 10 minutes to write that first line because when the disc started, I just sat at my keyboard, not typing, enjoying the AC/DC-meets-Elvis Costello-crossed-with-The Faces sound of Ladies and Gentlemen. How did this album change my life? I’m not sure. But I know that my life wouldn’t be as good without it.
Bright Eyes - I’m Wide Awake Its Morning (Saddle Creek)
Year Released: 2005 Tracks Featured in Special: “First Day Of My Life,” “We Are Nowhere And It’s Now”
Josh Rouse - Nashville (Rykodisc)
Year Released: 2005 Tracks Featured in Special: “It’s the Nighttime,” “Carolina”
Spoon - Gimme Fiction (Merge)
Year Released: 2005 Tracks Featured in Special: “My Mathematical Mind,” “Sister Jack”
Nada Surf - The Weight is a Gift (Barsuk)
Year Released: 2005 Tracks Featured in Special: “Do It Again,” “Blankest Year”
2005 was one of the momentous years of my life. I discovered a new way to listen to music (the iPod), became good friends with someone whose enthusiasm about music rubbed off on me and inspired me (the concert pal, Moria Miller) and I discovered the awesomeness that is being the front guy for a band (Bunnie England and the New Originals). If I hadn’t gotten emotionally screwed over so much, it would have been the best year ever. And just like 1994, 2005 is certainly in the running for the best year of my musical life. These four albums had a huge influence on what I’ve listened to in the past four years. I ended up getting the entire catalogs of all four acts and made sure to see them at almost every performance they’ve done in the New York area. And I can honestly say that if I had to narrow these 20 years to down to just five albums (like on the RT 20 podcasts), The Weight is a Gift and Nashville would be in there. Both albums are stepped in heartbreak but find a way to turn that negative into a positive. That’s a talent I wish I could master.
Okkervil River - The Stage Names (Jagjaguwar)
Year Released: 2007 Tracks Featured in Special: “Plus Ones,” “Unless It’s Kicks”
The Stage Names helped me rediscover how fulfilling a set of great lyrics can be. Exhibit a, “Plus Ones.” On the surface it seems like a typical picking apart of a failed relationship. Then one look at a lyric sheet shows just how incredible this song is:
“You would probably die before you shot up 9 miles high
Your eyes dilated as light plays upon the sight
Of TVC16 as it sings you goodnight.
Relaxed as hell and locked up in cell 45,
I hope you're feeling better.
The 51st way to leave your lover, admittedly,
doesn't seem to be as gentle or as clean as all the others,
leaving its scars all in the after hours of some Greenpoint bar”
Will Sheff has a way with words as good as any songwriter of the past decade. And he might be the only songwriter that makes me feel smarter after listening to one of his albums.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 25: Moria Miller
The last podcast before the 20th edition of the RT 20 hits the mail is with my good friend Moria Miller. I met her at the end of 2004 through a bartending friend Drew, who has since fallen out of touch. She had just moved down here from Boston and we discovered we knew some of the people from the music scene up there. I quickly realized that we also had the ability to shoot the shit via email like nobody's business. I estimate we sent about 1000 emails back and forth in the first six months we knew each other. And about 80% of those were about music. Her enthusiasm about acts that I knew but didn't pay attention to (Josh Rouse), knew one song from (Spoon) or thought I hated (Bright Eyes) or ones I already loved (Weezer) inspired me to take chances on new music more than ever before. When I got an iPod in March of '05, she was the first person I emailed because I knew she would understand why I was so excited. I probably would have gotten an iPod that year anyways, but I don't think I would have started exploring the Internet for new bands like I did that year without getting to know her. It was
Moria was also instrumental in getting me off my ass to go see shows again. And holy crap, did I see a ton of great music in 2005. That year I saw as many shows as I had in the previous four combined. It was refreshing to see new (well, new to me) acts throughout that year (The Shins, Rilo Kiley, White Stripes, Eisley) after falling into a rut where only the band I would always see was The Figgs. And I felt happy I was able to take her to see some of my favorites she had never seen before (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Paul Westerberg).
She's probably embarrassed by the above paragraphs. But I felt that I needed explain just how much her friendship did for my life that year, and the years since. So thanks, MM. I will miss having a concert pal once you leave town. (Which I know is true because she's not fated to live in Brooklyn forever like yours truly.)
To download through iTunes click here. To download (or stream) the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Moria was also instrumental in getting me off my ass to go see shows again. And holy crap, did I see a ton of great music in 2005. That year I saw as many shows as I had in the previous four combined. It was refreshing to see new (well, new to me) acts throughout that year (The Shins, Rilo Kiley, White Stripes, Eisley) after falling into a rut where only the band I would always see was The Figgs. And I felt happy I was able to take her to see some of my favorites she had never seen before (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Paul Westerberg).
She's probably embarrassed by the above paragraphs. But I felt that I needed explain just how much her friendship did for my life that year, and the years since. So thanks, MM. I will miss having a concert pal once you leave town. (Which I know is true because she's not fated to live in Brooklyn forever like yours truly.)
To download through iTunes click here. To download (or stream) the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Song of the Week 12/11/09
Soul Asylum - "Hopes Up"
My friend Mike Schmidt picked Let Your Dim Light Shine as one of the five albums that changed his life over the past two decades for his edition of the RT 20 Podcast. Listening to the podcast on the train ride home Sunday night, hearing "Hopes Up" brought back a ton of memories about the end of the first chapter of my life (on air in upstate New York) and how it led into the second chapter (moving to Brooklyn). I'm pretty sure that "Hopes Up" and "Bittersweetheart" is my favorite double shot of the whole podcast series. Thanks for picking them, Mike.
My friend Mike Schmidt picked Let Your Dim Light Shine as one of the five albums that changed his life over the past two decades for his edition of the RT 20 Podcast. Listening to the podcast on the train ride home Sunday night, hearing "Hopes Up" brought back a ton of memories about the end of the first chapter of my life (on air in upstate New York) and how it led into the second chapter (moving to Brooklyn). I'm pretty sure that "Hopes Up" and "Bittersweetheart" is my favorite double shot of the whole podcast series. Thanks for picking them, Mike.
Monday, December 14, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 23 & 24: Lee Greenfeld, Parts 1 & 2
Lee had a big impact on my late 30s as a co-owner of the late great Magnetic Field. It was there where I met the guys in Bunnie England and the New Originals and discovered the joy of being on stage again.
(Note: Both podcasts should be up there at some point today. The second one is being tricky. I think in 2010 I'll be switching to a different server. I'll warn you when that happens so you can update the XML feed in iTunes.)
To download through iTunes click here. To download (or stream) the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
(Note: Both podcasts should be up there at some point today. The second one is being tricky. I think in 2010 I'll be switching to a different server. I'll warn you when that happens so you can update the XML feed in iTunes.)
To download through iTunes click here. To download (or stream) the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 22: Mike Schmidt
Mike and I started a band together in Utica. Alas, I left town before we ever found a drummer. You'll hear more memories like that, as well as selections from five great records, in this lengthy podcast.
To download through iTunes click here. To download (or stream) the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
To download through iTunes click here. To download (or stream) the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 20 & 21: Dev Sherlock, Part 1 & 2
(Holy crap, I can't believe I finally got these posted after three days of frustration. Stupid podcast server.)
Dev and I worked together for a number of years, coming up with a multitude of inside jokes that probably drove anyone not in our cube area completely insane. This two part podcast features the longest song in this entire series. (I think I'm pretty safe saying that, because when I continue these podcasts in January I doubt that anyone will pick "In a Gadda da Vida" or "Mountain Jam.")
To download through iTunes click here. To download (or stream) the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Dev and I worked together for a number of years, coming up with a multitude of inside jokes that probably drove anyone not in our cube area completely insane. This two part podcast features the longest song in this entire series. (I think I'm pretty safe saying that, because when I continue these podcasts in January I doubt that anyone will pick "In a Gadda da Vida" or "Mountain Jam.")
To download through iTunes click here. To download (or stream) the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 19: John Ross Bowie, Part 2
Here's the second part of one funny podcast. (And it even features a couple of songs I don't like!)
To download through iTunes click here. To download (or stream) the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
To download through iTunes click here. To download (or stream) the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 18: John Ross Bowie, Part 1
Some of you might remember John from such things as:
--His guest stint as the commercial director on Glee last week.
--Kripke on The Big Bang Theory.
--The dentist in Sex Drive.
--A dentist on Psych.
--The singer-bassist in Egghead.
--Or this guy:
I remember him from all of those, but mainly I remember the almost 20 years of friendship we've had so far.
WARNING: Both parts of this podcast are so funny, I suggest not listening to it while you're behind the wheel. I don't want any accidents on my conscience.
To download through iTunes click here. To download (or stream) the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
--His guest stint as the commercial director on Glee last week.
--Kripke on The Big Bang Theory.
--The dentist in Sex Drive.
--A dentist on Psych.
--The singer-bassist in Egghead.
--Or this guy:
I remember him from all of those, but mainly I remember the almost 20 years of friendship we've had so far.
WARNING: Both parts of this podcast are so funny, I suggest not listening to it while you're behind the wheel. I don't want any accidents on my conscience.
To download through iTunes click here. To download (or stream) the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Monday, December 07, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 17: Jonah Eller-Isaacs
Jonah is the bravest friend I have. You can find out why at Groinstrong.
He also picked some interesting tunes for this podcast, most of which I had never heard before.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
He also picked some interesting tunes for this podcast, most of which I had never heard before.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Song of the Week 12/4/09
The Figgs - "Casino Hayes"
I love gambling. I love The Figgs. Bringing these two interests together in the service of one song? Why didn’t this happen sooner?!!?
I love gambling. I love The Figgs. Bringing these two interests together in the service of one song? Why didn’t this happen sooner?!!?
Friday, December 04, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 16: Michelle Ferrara & Ben Wheelock, Part 2
Here's the second part of my conversation Michelle and Ben, which closes with a classic song.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Thursday, December 03, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 15: Michelle Ferrara and Ben Wheelock, Part 1
Today's podcast is the only podcast to feature a married couple. Michelle and Ben are the most musical couple I know. Music played a huge part in their wedding* back in April (which we discuss) and both of them are fine musicians in their own right. In fact, I became friends with Michelle because she was the singer/host of Live Band Karaoke at Magnetic Field before I joined Bunnie England & the New Originals. It took the three of us a bit to get going, but by the second part my comments are practically insane. You'll enjoy it, trust me.
(*I'm still waiting to see the picture of myself with the stupid hat on, hint hint.)
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
(*I'm still waiting to see the picture of myself with the stupid hat on, hint hint.)
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 14: Joe Savastano, Part 2
More conversation, music and laughter with my old roommate Joe.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Monday, November 30, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 13: Joe Savastano, Part 1
The amount of crazy adventures Joe and I have shared over the past two decades could probably fill up an entire book. (Or would have made a kick ass reality show.) We met doing radio in college, hung out a great deal the year after we graduated college and both lived in Ithaca, and then joined forces in 1995 when we both moved to New York. Our five years as roommates in Brooklyn supplied both of us with a lifetime of crazy (both happy and sad) memories. I couldn't imagine doing this podcast series without one of the best friends a guy could ever have.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Song of the Week 11/27/09
Miley Cyrus - "Party in the U.S.A."
Seriously.
I'm not joking.
It's been stuck in my head all week. And I guess I shouldn't be surprised since Dr. Luke, who co-wrote "Since You've Been Gone," co-wrote this one as well.
And you know what's just as crazy as me liking this teenybopper song? This video:
Seriously.
I'm not joking.
It's been stuck in my head all week. And I guess I shouldn't be surprised since Dr. Luke, who co-wrote "Since You've Been Gone," co-wrote this one as well.
And you know what's just as crazy as me liking this teenybopper song? This video:
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 12: Victor Lisle & Geoff Storm, Part 2
Here's the second part of my chat with my former radio cohorts Victor and Geoff, or, to go by their early 90s radio nicknames, The Tor-Man and Jamming Geoff. Somehow I avoided having a nickname when we worked together at K-Rock.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Song of the Week 11/20/09
Chris Bell - "I Am the Cosmos"
Big Star's show at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple was pretty damn good Wednesday night. Alex Chilton seemed invested in his own songs, Jody Stephens overcame a couple of flubs behind the drum kit, and The Posies’ Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, well, they did a great job filling the shoes of the late Chris Bell and the retired-from-music Andy Hummell. Auer’s vocal on “I Am the Cosmos” (the Big Star-ish title track from Bell’s only solo album) was particularly breathtaking, leaving my friend Vanessa stunned by his talent. The night would have been a complete success if I hadn’t caught Vanessa’s cold.
See for yourself:
BONUS: Here's the Posies Frosting on the Beater lineup tackling it. (You can find their studio version on Dream All Day: The Best Of The Posies.)
Big Star's show at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple was pretty damn good Wednesday night. Alex Chilton seemed invested in his own songs, Jody Stephens overcame a couple of flubs behind the drum kit, and The Posies’ Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, well, they did a great job filling the shoes of the late Chris Bell and the retired-from-music Andy Hummell. Auer’s vocal on “I Am the Cosmos” (the Big Star-ish title track from Bell’s only solo album) was particularly breathtaking, leaving my friend Vanessa stunned by his talent. The night would have been a complete success if I hadn’t caught Vanessa’s cold.
See for yourself:
BONUS: Here's the Posies Frosting on the Beater lineup tackling it. (You can find their studio version on Dream All Day: The Best Of The Posies.)
RT 20 Podcast 11: Victor Lisle & Geoff Storm, Part 1
My final on air radio gig was from 1992 to 1995 at a station called K-Rock that had transmitters in Syracuse and Utica in central New York. The format was active rock, which meant we played Guns n' Roses, Nirvana, Def Leppard, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne and tons of hard rock and hair metal acts all the time. (Well, except during our almost all-talk morning drive program.) The uptempo music and on air uptempo delivery worked well for the 22 to 26 year old version of me, as I got to talk over the instrumental intros of songs and sound hyper while doing it. (And I might still be doing it today if it wasn't for a certain guy who didn't like the sound of my voice. Not that I'm still bitter and wish ill upon his company. Not at all.)
Victor Lisle and Geoff Storm were two of the dearest friends I made during that time. Victor and I were briefly paired together on the morning drive show (I did overnights and then hung around to play sidekick for three hours). Then he was moved to evenings and started a kick ass night time show that was always enjoyable to listen to on the way into work. Geoff did afternoons, and then shifted to middays in 1993. He and I quickly hit it off and became roommates that year. The three of us spent some rather interesting times on air (as you'll hear in the first part of this podcast) and some, well, at times close to illegal times off air. I didn't make a lot of money those days (not much has changed, I suppose), but I did have a whole lot of fun with these guys. So one night I did a conference call with the guys that resulted in the longest podcast in this pre-list series. This podcast features the most laughter out of any of them. It was truly a thrill to hang out with these guys again, even over the phone.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Victor Lisle and Geoff Storm were two of the dearest friends I made during that time. Victor and I were briefly paired together on the morning drive show (I did overnights and then hung around to play sidekick for three hours). Then he was moved to evenings and started a kick ass night time show that was always enjoyable to listen to on the way into work. Geoff did afternoons, and then shifted to middays in 1993. He and I quickly hit it off and became roommates that year. The three of us spent some rather interesting times on air (as you'll hear in the first part of this podcast) and some, well, at times close to illegal times off air. I didn't make a lot of money those days (not much has changed, I suppose), but I did have a whole lot of fun with these guys. So one night I did a conference call with the guys that resulted in the longest podcast in this pre-list series. This podcast features the most laughter out of any of them. It was truly a thrill to hang out with these guys again, even over the phone.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 10: Erik Hage, Part 2
Here's the second part of my talk with author/professor/all around great guy Erik Hage about 5 albums that changed his life over the past 20 years.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Friday, November 20, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 09: Erik Hage, Part 1
Erik and I worked together at the beginning of this decade and kept our friendship forged over music going when he moved back upstate to mold young minds as a college professor. Erik is a fantastic writer whose work I've always enjoyed and admired. He currently has a monthly new release column for Albany's alt-weekly Metroland and also does other music-related articles for them. He was a contributor to the late alt-country magazine No Depression. And this year had his first book published, The Words and Music of Van Morrison. So you shouldn't be surprised when I say that this podcast is filled with some pretty remarkable thoughts about music.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 08: Scott Wells
I've known Scott since 1989, when he first got on the air at the Ithaca College FM station 92 WICB. He and I have shared many great radio moments over the years, so getting together again in the studio was a total treat for me. Scott and I also shared some interesting trips to see Neil Young over the years, yet we never talked about it during this podcast. Perhaps he and I will rehash those tales in another one down the road. (Yes, this podcast will continue after the list comes out on December 16th.)
(One more note--you've already heard Scott on these podcasts, as he's one of the people who I had read the sponsorships. Thanks again for a great job on those, Scott.)
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
(One more note--you've already heard Scott on these podcasts, as he's one of the people who I had read the sponsorships. Thanks again for a great job on those, Scott.)
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Monday, November 16, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 07: Ed Valauskas, Part 2
In the second part of my conversation with Ed V., we chat about a couple more albums that changed his life from the past 20 years and a great tribute album that features the first new recording from The Gravel Pit in eight years.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Song of the Week 11/13/09
Norah Jones - "Chasing Pirates"
I've never really had that strong of an opinion one way or another about Ms. Jones and her hugely successful career. Her first three albums were cut from the same mellow cloth (which I believe can be bought at Ikea). This new disc, The Fall, sees her shaking things up a bit by dropping her long time band and recording with a bunch of L.A. session guys, including drummer Joey Warnoker. Jones also crafted songs that are a bit darker (no likely inspired by her breakup with her boyfriend/bassist Lee Alexander) and at times a bit funkier. "Chasing Pirates" has a bit of that funk and is the catchiest song she's ever written. I listened to it a few times before interviewing her last month and I found myself humming the chorus the rest of the day. Last week I got the full album and listening to it put "Chasing Pirates" back into that part of my brain that randomly repeats song lyrics over and over again.
Oh, and it doesn't hurt that she's, um, kind of attractive:
I've never really had that strong of an opinion one way or another about Ms. Jones and her hugely successful career. Her first three albums were cut from the same mellow cloth (which I believe can be bought at Ikea). This new disc, The Fall, sees her shaking things up a bit by dropping her long time band and recording with a bunch of L.A. session guys, including drummer Joey Warnoker. Jones also crafted songs that are a bit darker (no likely inspired by her breakup with her boyfriend/bassist Lee Alexander) and at times a bit funkier. "Chasing Pirates" has a bit of that funk and is the catchiest song she's ever written. I listened to it a few times before interviewing her last month and I found myself humming the chorus the rest of the day. Last week I got the full album and listening to it put "Chasing Pirates" back into that part of my brain that randomly repeats song lyrics over and over again.
Oh, and it doesn't hurt that she's, um, kind of attractive:
Friday, November 13, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 06: Ed Valauskas, Part 1
I've met a lot of great musicians during the almost two decades I've been in the music industry. I've also met a lot of great people during that same time. Ed Valauskas, bassist for The Gravel Pit, The Gentlemen and Jenny Dee & The Deelinquents, as well as an in demand producer and session musician at Boston's Q Division studios, is one of the few who falls solidly in both categories. Over the past decade Ed has been a part of many of my favorite concerts and plays on two of my favorite albums in that time--2001's Mass Ave Freeze Out by The Gravel Pit, and one of the 20 Albums That Changed My Life From the Past 20 Years, The Gentlemen's 2000 debut album Ladies and Gentlemen. During this podcast Ed and I chat about that album, five albums that changed his life from the past 20 years and a great tribute album that features the first new recording from the Gravel Pit in eight years. For this podcast I was here in New York and Ed was in Boston, but through the magic of technology it sounds like we were in the same room. (Look for part two of this podcast on Monday.)
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
To download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 05: Eric Holland
For those New Yorkers subscribing to these podcasts, you might know Eric Holland as the guy who fills in on a lot of air shifts on 90.7 WFUV, the most excellent NPR Triple A station based out of Fordham University. People that went to Ithaca College will probably remember Eric from the various shifts he did on WICB and 106 VIC (including a stint on the air for 50 hours straight that got funnier as he and his co-host Mike Wallace got sleepier). I remember Eric from such films as That Time We Hosted a Countdown Show Wasted and The Only Guy I've Ever Known to Live in Hawaii--and for being a great friend. He's one of the most talented on-air guys I've ever known, has a great knowledge of all types of music--and Simpsons trivia--and is one funny guy. All of these traits are on display on this lengthy podcast.
Once again, to download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
And just a little RT20 podcast update: I goofed a bit on making the podcast schedule. So to get them all in before I publish this list I need to start running more than two a week. So look for another podcast on Friday and three to four each week before it's all done.
Once again, to download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
And just a little RT20 podcast update: I goofed a bit on making the podcast schedule. So to get them all in before I publish this list I need to start running more than two a week. So look for another podcast on Friday and three to four each week before it's all done.
Monday, November 09, 2009
RT 20 Podcast 04: Michael Boyd, Part 2
Michael and I spoke about Fugazi, The Sundays and Public Enemy in Part 1 of our podcast. Part 2 skews a bit more traditional indie and college rock. (And features rock blocks!)
Once again, to download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
Once again, to download through iTunes click here. To download the MP3, click here and then click on the MP3 button.
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