2011's Top 20 Singles

20) The Jayhawks - “She Walks In So Many Ways” (Rounder)
The reunion of The Jayhawks’ Tomorrow the Green Grass (that LP will come up again later) lineup produced a decent album in Mockingbird Time. (It’s probably my #21 album this year.) “She Walks in So Many Ways” is far and away the best song on that album. It’s two minutes and 36 seconds of great harmonies from Gary Louris, Mark Olson, Karen Grotberg and Tim O’Reagan, jangly Byrds-like guitars and a passel of lyrics about…well, I’m not sure who she is, but she seems to like to walk a lot. Especially in clouds for some reason. Maybe she has a hot air-propelled weather balloon that she bought with credit card points or something.

19) They Might be Giants - “Can’t Keep Johnny Down” (Idlewild/Rounder)
This song—like 127% of They Might Be Giants catalog—is extra catchy. The chorus is something you can sing along to within one listen. And it had two great videos made for it—one by a fan about a guy quitting his job and going nuts, the “official” one starring Rip Torn as, well, an insane Rip Torn street-fighting people kids 50 years younger than himself. Lastly, time and time again I have been impressed by these opening lines. “Outnumbered a million to one/All of the dicks in this dick town/Can't keep Johnny down.” Way to go Johnny!

18) The Figgs - “The Central Stumble”/”All The World Will Fall” (Q-Dee)
This double A-sided single is just a teaser for a double album coming out in 2012 to mark the band’s 25th anniversary. (Crap, which also means 25 years since I graduated high school. Dammit.) Pete Donnelly’s “All the World Will Fall” is a jaunty mid-tempo number that sounds great driving along a country road. (Yes, I did just that back in October.) “The Central Stumble” has an opening line that slays me each with each listen: “Jimmy’s sweating/looks five days dead/like Rod Stewart decomposing/in his bed.” It’s one of my favorite lines Mike Gent has penned in the past decade. This single is part the Q-Dee Rock and Soul Series and was recorded at the label’s Q Division studios. There must be something in the microphones there, because anything that comes from that studio sounds exceptional on the technical side of things. It’s like the high end of my hearing has returned, without that pesky 10K tone ringing in my ears.

17) Gomez - “Options” (ATO)
I love songs that have false starts. You know, a guitar starts playing, and then abruptly stops as the person playing it realizes the rest of the band isn’t ready. (Or perhaps they weren’t really ready to record.) The Replacements (“Waitress in the Sky”) Neil Young (“Downtown” with Pearl Jam), The Gentlemen (“Sour Mash”), Green Day (“Good Riddance”), Matthew Sweet (“Divine Intervention”) and Fugazi (“Waiting Room,” sort of) have all done it. Every time it happens I’m hooked. It’s some bizarre pavlovian reaction. “Options” begins with a false start. Once I heard that, I knew I’d be playing this song over and over again.

(I should mention that in the throes of my writer’s block I asked Facebook nation for some false start songs, and people chimed in with over 50 examples in a couple of hours. Yay thing that steals my personal information! My favorite one came from my bandmate Paul Gil, who wrote, “Almost every song by Bunnie England and the New Originals.” Our guitarist Paul Crane followed that up with, “For the record, the only Bunnie songs that have a false start are the ones I start....which are about 96.64287% of them.”)

16) Sleeper Agent - “Get It Daddy” (Mom + Pop)
Sleeper Agent is a bunch of kids (yeah, I called a bunch of folks in their early 20s kids) from Kentucky that make music that sounds like a cross between Southern rock and The White Stripes. The trading off of vocals between Alex Kandel (she's 18, for goodness sake) and Tony Smith is like nothing else that's on the radio these days. I say that because it's the first time in ages that a band I was supposed to interview for the hard/alt rock part of my job appealed to me personally.

15) The Strokes - “Under Cover of Darkness” (RCA)
Hey, remember when The Strokes put out that great single from their solid fourth album in 2011? Yeah, me neither. If I didn’t build this list throughout the whole year, adding tracks and albums to it as I hear them, I would have totally spaced on “Under Cover of Darkness.” Great little song. I especially love how the guitars of Albert Hammond Junior and Nick Valensi sound just slightly out of tune with another when they play the intro part the second time around. It makes my neck tense up every time I hear, yet in a kind of good way. (The bad way would be the random neck spasms I had about an hour before I wrote this paragraph. Huzzah for getting old!)

14) Mastodon - “Curl of the Burl” (Reprise)
I honestly don’t know much about Mastdon. I hadn’t heard any of their music until 2009’s Crack the Skye. All I do know is that “Curl of the Burl” is the ballsy song on this list. It’s a song designed to get you to put your devil horns up and to put a kink in your neck. Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher summed up “Curl of the Burl” best in an interview with my colleague Dave Schulps—“It’s a tongue-in-cheek just kind of goofy song. It kind of sounds like Queens of the Stone Age, a little Black Sabbath-y.” He’s right, and it’s an excellent combination.

13) BOAT - “(I’ll Beat My Chest Like) King Kong” (Magic Marker)
So you’re going to stop your rather catchy tune about love and being domestic with a 12 second sample from the original 1933 version of King Kong? Why yes, I’d like to hear that repeatedly. Also, your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

12) Dawes - “Time Spent in Los Angeles” (ATO)
I saw Dawes perform this song twice before their second album Nothing Is Wrong was released, and each time I thought to myself, “Damn, this song has a great chorus and a great buildup in the third verse. This would be a good single.” Usually I’m horrible picking out singles from album and I would actively tell any band that I would be a career-killer if you went with my choice. Fortunately for Dawes, they never knew what I thought and picked a great song about life on the road and how it can really ruin relationships with the opposite sex. Especially if the other person has “a special kind of sadness.” (I think that’s code for, “She lit all my records on fire.”)

11) Cults - “Go Outside” (ITNO/Columbia)
Technically this song was on the web (and blogged about incessantly) in 2010. The buzz scored the duo of Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion (yeah, probably not his real last name) a deal with Columbia Records. However, I first heard it on the radio this year, so I’m going to count it as a 2011 single. (Hey, at least I’m not like the Grammys and nominating Bon Iver for Best New Artist three releases into a career.) Follin has a timeless voice (I could imagine her being in a ’60s girl group) and her way of singing “I really want to go out/I really want to go outside and make it light all day” would make anyone want to firebomb their cubicle and lounge in Central Park when its that first spring day where there’s not a cloud in the sky and the temperature just peaked at 70 degrees.

10) Lady Gaga - “The Edge of Glory” (Stream/Konlive/Interscope)
  9) Katy Perry - “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” (Capitol/EMI)
I had to pair these two songs together—I mean, it is an ’80s sax double shot. You might be asking yourself, “WTF,” as the kids’ lingo (or the name of a podcast I love) goes these days. Yes, I bought Born This Way. IT WAS 99 CENTS ON AMAZON PEOPLE. Seriously, how much of a risk is it to buy a digital download of an entire album when it's that cheap? It’s not a great album by any standard, but it does have some excellent moments. The half-sung in German "Scheiße" is a hoot and the Madonna-ripping title track is decent. But holy cow, “Edge of Glory” is the best 1986 song that I've heard since, well, 1986. Imagine a single from a sports-themed 80s flick like Vision Quest or Rocky III with the final sax solo by the E Street Band's Clarence Clemons. You have just created this song in your mind. I, without any irony whatsoever, love it.

Perry’s “Last Friday Night” I didn’t have to pay to download (thanks Clear Channel). This track is a total mash-up: music of 2010 + a pinch of 2005 (the “T.G.I.F” chant cribs the breakdown in Gorillaz’ “Feel Good Inc.”) + a sax breakdown from 1987 + lyrics that are quite possibly a sequel to Lit’s “My Own Worse Enemy” = an enjoyable pop treat.

  8) Snow Patrol - “Called Out in the Dark” (Polydor/Fiction/Geffen)
The album this track is taken from, Fallen Empires, isn’t out into January. “Called Out in the Dark” is another entry in the disturbing trend of releasing a single six months before an album is released. It’s one thing to put out a single in November when your album isn’t out until January. It’s just plain odd to put that single out in late August. (Alright, enough complaining about record company strategies.) I first heard “Called Out in the Dark” in its entirety driving in Austin one night. The bouncy synths and weird whispered vocal hook had me bobbing my head as I drove over the road they call Mopac. And the line “Show me now/Show me the arms aloft” seemed rather appropriate since I had just spent three days in a park with people raising their arms to the sky.

  7) Amos Lee - “Windows Are Rolled Down” (Blue Note/EMI)
This breezy mid-tempo track from Philly area singer-songwriter Amos Lee sounds like a natural road trip companion. There’s strummed acoustic guitars, a touch of pedal steel, a swell of piano and organ during the bridge and a drumbeat that clicks like your tires on a road that has equidistant gaps in the pavement. Lee’s collaborators Calexico certainly know how make the atmospheric conditions right for a road trip track. Wait a second, is the first chorus really “Windows are rolled down/Sun is setting high/Windows are rolled down/I'm fixin' to die?” Is this a road trip song that ends like Thelma and Louise? Crap.

  6) Foster the People - “Pumped Up Kicks” (Columbia)
One hit wonder. For real. Did you see/hear them on Saturday Night Live? Gosh, they’re awful live. This song sounds especially bad without the studio trickery. With it, it’s glorious. I can’t see them going anywhere after this album dies out. Oh well, every generation has its own Primitive Radio Gods.

  5) The Head and the Heart - “Lost in My Mind” (Sub Pop)
Since I already proclaimed my love of their album a few pages ago, let me explain how entranced I was with this song. In March I was driving back upstate in my aunt’s car with our dog Aurora in the back. She was sleeping the entire 2 1/2 ride back to her home, so I could comfortably have the radio on the whole way. I was listening to WDST out of Woodstock when the lyrics “Put your dreams away for now, I won’t see you for sometime/I am lost in my mind” came on over a simple set of chords. I turned up the volume, trying to identify it. Then at a minute and 25 seconds, when the drums kicked in, I slowed down, dug my iPhone out of my left pocket, unlocked it, and scrolled through my apps until I got to Shazam. I tapped the app and then held the phone up in there air, praying that I would get a decent recording and that the AT&T service would hold out so the app could identify the song. Thankfully it did. And I didn’t drive off the road. (I told Jonathan and Josiah from the band that story, and they were honored and a bit scared of me, all at the same time.)

  4) Jay-Z & Kanye West - “Niggas in Paris” (Def Jam)
This track is crazy, from the Blades of Glory samples to that little keyboard riff I’ll hear in my sleep for the next decade. It also inspires people to do crazy things, such as this lyrical interpretation by Parks and Recreation’s Aziz Ansari (who appeared in Kanye and Jay’s “Otis” clip) and buddy Matthew Shawver using the emoticon template app Emojis...


  3) Kelly Clarkson -  “Mr. Know It All” (19/RCA)
I think it is official—I have a new celebrity crush. It’s Miss Clarkson. And that was clinched when I first heard this song and I got to the end of this verse: “Mr. know it all/Well ya think you know it all/But ya don't know a thing at all/Ain't it something y'all.” Y’all? And not in a country song? Sung by someone from Texas that seems like they’d drink Lone Star and do karaoke with you? Swoon.

  2) Foo Fighters with Bob Mould - “Dear Rosemary” (Rosewell/RCA)
I've listened to this duet between Dave Grohl and Bob Mould close to 100 times this year. And I still can't get enough of it. It's the best Foo Fighters song since "Monkey Wrench" in my opinion. (That’s most likely because it sounds like a long lost Sugar song.) I loved “The Pretender” from their last album, but damn, this is just amazing. I tweeted back in February one day that this song gave me goosebumps. It's still doing that.

  1) Adele - “Rolling in the Deep” (Columbia)
I’ve read so much about this song and Adele’s tremendous year that I’m wary of adding anything to the critical mass of critics spinning theses about it. Fuck, heartbreak has rarely sounded this great. I really hope she recovers from her vocal cord surgery and can take a well-deserved victory lap in 2012.

Compilations, Reissues, EPs, Soundtracks, Etc.

10) Joe Jackson Trio - Live Music: Europe 2010 (Razor & Tie)
All the stylistic changes Joe Jackson has undergone throughout his career have led to him doing very different tours each time he hits the road. He always uses changing lineups of musicians and comes up with rather interesting rearrangements of songs from his catalog. He started documenting these changes in 1988 with Live 80/86, which featured three different arrangements of “Is She Really Going Out With Him?”  Live 80/86 is one of the best live albums ever released, and the three live albums Jackson released since then have been just as outstanding. Live Music: Europe 2010 continues that trend, showing Jackson playing a mix of songs from four different albums along with covers of songs by The Beatles, David Bowie and Ian Dury. Jackson’s underrated piano playing comes to the fore on this cross section of material done with his original rhythm section, especially on Night and Day tracks like “Chinatown” and “A Slow Song.” And the guitar-less “Sunday Papers” takes on a swinging jazz vibe that shows once again that Jackson is the best reinterpreter of his own material

  9) Foo Fighters - Medium Rare (Rosewell/RCA)
Foo Fighters know how to do covers right. They usually put enough of their own spin on a song so it doesn’t sound like a carbon copy, yet they retain what made you like a song in the first place. Sometimes they do it so well that they end up having a radio hit, such as Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street” (one of the Top 20 covers of all time, I believe) and Prince and the Revolution’s “Darling Nikki.” Medium Rare collects those tracks and 11 more the band has recorded over the years—and puts them only on vinyl. And since I usually only listen to vinyl at my house, it was a must-have when it was released on Record Store Day this year. It was worth buying just for the two previously unreleased covers—Thin Lizzy’s “Bad Reputation” and The Zombies wedding staple “This Will Be Our Year.” If this collection had been released on CD, I could see the Foos version becoming a standard at nuptials pretty quickly. (If vinyl isn’t your thing, the compilation did come out on CD in the UK. Good luck finding it, suckers.)

  8) The Jayhawks - Tomorrow the Green Grass: Legacy Edition (American/Legacy)
Any serious Jayhawks fan needs to get this reissue. The 19 previously unreleased demos on this collection show the songwriting chops of Jayhawks frontmen Gary Louris and Mark Olson really starting to take flight. The two amazing things about these “Mystery Demos”—as they were dubbed when bootlegs started circulating in 2002—is that 1) half of them were recorded before the band’s 1992 album Hollywood Town Hall was released, and 2) these comprise less than half of the 46 tracks Louris and Olson demoed in 1992. This batch of songs has resonated through their careers. They ended up being distributed to the original Tomorrow the Green Grass album; a couple of Olson’s post-Jayhawks solo efforts; the 2007 Louis/Olson duo album Ready for the Flood; two Golden Smog albums; the Jayhawks anthology that was released two years ago and this Legacy Edition. I’m surprised they needed to even write new songs for The Jayhawks reunion album Mockingbird Time that was released this fall. 

  7) R.E.M. - Lifes Rich Pageant: 25th Anniversary Edition (Capitol/EMI)
As I write this I’d say that Lifes Rich Pageant is my favorite R.E.M. album. (That might change by the time you get this in the mail, who knows.) So I was rather intrigued to hear the second disc in this package that has 19 demos R.E.M. made in Athens, Georgia before they went to record in the spring of 1986 with producer Don Gehman in Belmont, Indiana. As demos go, these are some rather polished recordings. The most fascinating part is hearing how Michael Stipe’s lyrics changed and how much more to the forefront his vocals became on the completed album. The remaster of the original album on the first is definitely an upgrade upon the original CD I bought during my first week of college in 1987. And it includes a reprint of a poster I totally remember seeing in someone’s dorm room in college—a black and white picture of the band, looking like they’re ready for a fall day, with the their name and the words “Walked. Swan. Hunted. Danced. Sang.” in blue lettering right above their heads. Ooh, such sweet, sweet nostalgia.

Life’s Rich Pageant is the album that saw R.E.M. began their takeover of mainstream rock. They did this, simply enough, by making a mainstream rock album. Producer Don Gehman made John Mellencamp’s finest albums, and that rock solid sound is all over here. Gone are the mumbles, but not the odd lyrics (“Bury Magnets/Swallow the Rapture”…huh?) from Michael Stipe. Peter Buck turns up the guitar a bit more, while Mike Mills and Bill Berry just thrash on songs like “Begin the Begin” and “These Days.” And Berry’s drums punch through with a clarity that was lacking on Murmur and Reckoning. Pageant also has my favorite R.E.M. song of all time, “Fall on Me,” which should have been their breakthrough hit, instead of “The One I Love” the following year. And how could anyone not like an album that closes with a cover song as goofy as “Superman?” The little twangy musical bridge in it still makes me giggle today.

  6) Pearl Jam - PJ Twenty Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Monkeywrench/Columbia)
I was glad I saw Pearl Jam Twenty in a theater, because the performances director Cameron Crowe chose are pretty great and worth hearing cranked up rather loud. (As for the other parts of the film, I thought there were some things—like the revolving drum throne—that needed to be covered more thoroughly.) This soundtrack wisely collects 14 of those performances, including the great collaboration with Neil Young on his Le Noise song “Walk With Me.”  The second disc of rarities, some of which are in the film, give a good sense of how the band has expanded its’ sonic palette over the past two decades. Crowe knew what he was doing in putting together this Pearl Jam mix. I just wish he’d taken better care of what he chose to cover in the film itself.

  5) The Rolling Stones - Some Girls: Deluxe Edition (UMe)
Let me get the bad part about this reissue out of the way first, in big bold print:

THIS IS THE WORST REMASTERING JOB I’VE HEARD FOR A CLASSIC ROCK ALBUM BY A MAJOR LABEL!!!!

Holy shit, the volume on every instrument is pushed up so loud it sounds like things clip off in songs like “Miss You” and “Respectable.” Artists, do not let Stephen Marcussen and Stewart Whitmore remaster your albums. Never ever. I decided to keep my original rip of Some Girls—from a CD I bought in 1991, I believe—in my iTunes because I don’t fear that it’ll distort and sound like shit. I may have to pump up the volume to match other things in my library, but I’d rather have “Far Away Eyes” not sound like as though it was recorded using a blender.

On to the good stuff. The 11 tracks on second disc are some of the finest Stones leftovers yet. I’m a sucker for when Mick Jagger lets his country side hang out, and that’s on full display on tracks like “Claudine,” “No Spare Parts” and the Hank Williams cover “You Win Again.” And unlike the Exile on Main Street Deluxe Edition tracks, these aren’t over-produced and don’t seem to feature too many current day overdubs. (Although John Fogerty doing handclaps on “Tallahassee Lassie” has to be from today, right?) If Jagger overdubbed any new lead vocals, he did a good job of sounding like himself from 1978. (That is something I would not try to do. I can’t imagine trying to replicate the 1978 me singing along to “Macho Man” or “Calling Dr. Love.”)

  4) Superchunk - Here’s Where the Strings Come In (Merge)
 
  3) Superchunk - Foolish (Merge)
These are the first two Superchunk albums I owned, and save for last year’s Majesty Shredding, they’re still my favorites in their rock solid catalog. I’d never thought I’d say this about the remastering of albums only 16 and 17 years-old, yet I have to admit these CDs sound better than the originals I bought way back in the day. There’s more depth and warmth to them, which I didn’t think was possible. Both albums come with a great way of delivering bonus material with reissues—card inserts with a password to download all the tracks digitally. Strings has some cool demos and Foolish comes with some B-sides—and both have more installments in the band’s Clambakes live series. Strings gets a bizarre show from 2003 when they band was promoting their rarities collection. Foolish gets a hysterical show from Minneapolis where guitarist Jim Wilbur jokingly insults his bandmates and the audience. I’ve given Foolish a higher rating not on the musical content but due to the great liner notes from one of the funniest people I know (in or out of rock) Jon Wurster. His take on getting courted by major labels before Foolish was recorded is a must read.

  2) Ben Folds - Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective Deluxe Edition (Epic/Legacy)The one disc version of this compilation serves up a fine sampling of Folds’ solo career and his time with Ben Folds Five. But the three disc Deluxe Edition is a must have for anyone that’s been a fan of The Sing Off judge. The three new Ben Folds Five recordings are excellent and give a taste of what their reunion album might sound like. Add in the variety of live recordings (touching upon venues and bands of all sizes) and funny rarities and you have a decent package. What sets Best Imitation above the field is the time Folds took in penning the liner notes. I honestly felt I learned a great deal about him as a person and a musician as I read through the lengthy track-by-track descriptions. (Short version—Folds has a ton of issues, is hugely self-critical of his own work, really was pissed when his second marriage ended and can’t help but tell people where he stole parts of other folk’s songs to shape into his own.) When I do my own Greatest Hits package, I’m hiring Folds to curate it and do the liner notes.

  1) Neil Young - A Treasure: Archives Performances Series 09 (Reprise)
If Neil Young ever gets to the 1980s with his Archives series of box sets (and I’m doubtful of that happening now that he’s writing an autobiography—and I’m sure he’ll go way past the publisher’s deadline on that one), he’ll be hard pressed to top the quality of A Treasure. Drawn from two separate tours (and a TV appearance) with his country band The International Harvesters, this live album has a mix of incredibly strong unreleased material and some fantastic reworkings of songs from Young’s catalog. Tracks like “Amber Jean” and “Nothing Is Perfect” would have given Young a strong follow-up to Old Ways, the 1984 country album that caused Geffen to sue him for making “uncommercial albums.” (Instead, he made an electronic rock record with the guy that wrote Don Henley’s “All She Wants to Do Is Dance.” Go figure.) Some of the first Neil Young bootlegs I bought at Desert Shore Records in Syracuse were from the International Harvesters tour, and I remember their take on Buffalo Springfield’s “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” being masterful. Thankfully A Treasure has a version of that track, and I’m grateful it doesn’t sound like it’s a 4th generation tape. Or smell like patchouli.

Concerts

10) Skrillex, Austin City Limits Music Festival, Zilker Park, Austin, TX 9/17
I know how to use the Interwebs, so I looked up the definition of “dubstep” on Wikipedia:

“A genre of electronic dance music that originated in south London, England. Its overall sound has been described as ‘tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals.’’

I don’t know, to me it sounds like techno from 1997. I am hardly an expert in dance music trends, so I guess I’ll trust Wikipedia…wait, wait, that might not be a good idea. In any case, Skrillex is one of the leading purveyors of this type of music in the U.S. Well, I guess he’s sort of doing this type of music, as Wikipedia says he’s best known for “brostep.” Definition please, ye old Wiki:

“Brostep is a post-dubstep trend that has recently received increasing exposure, with the American producer Skrillex becoming something of a figurehead for the scene. In September 2011 a Spin Magazine EDM special referred to brostep as a ‘lurching and aggressive’ variant of dubstep that prevails in the United States. Elsewhere it has been described variously as ‘dubstep with more anger to it’ and ‘Americanized, garbage dubstep.’”

Um, okay, it’s dance music for folks that like Limp Bizkit then?

I’m not here to slam what Skrillex does—I’m here to praise how he can work a crowd. This dude had about 10,000 people jumping up and down and going crazy with every switch of beat or sound or tempo he did while mixing songs. It was fun to listen to and even more fun to watch as people just lost their fucking minds. I don’t see it lasting more than a couple of years, but during that time these kids are going to have fun destroying their knee cartilage.

  9) Nicole Atkins & the Black Sea, Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY 2/9
Nicole Atkins has a powerful and sultry voice that many female vocalists would kill to have. Well, maybe not kill; perhaps just maim someone enough to steal their vocal cords. This release show for her new album Monde Amore showed off another side to Atkins—her funny personality. She joked with the crowd, her band members (and the enormous amount of guests that tripled the amount of musicians on stage) and even flirted with the old man featured on the album cover. (And she knew when it was time for him to leave the stage as he was creeping out some folks just sitting there, drinking some booze.) And my goodness, that voice. When she broke into “The Way It Is” there was actual goosebumps all over my arms. What a stunning performance.

  8) Delta Spirit, Austin City Limits Music Festival, Zilker Park, Austin, TX 9/16
I first saw Delta Spirit at the ACL Festival in 2008 on the second smallest stage at the venue. That show set me on the path to being the fan that I am today. So I based my entire first day at ACL on staking out a good spot to see them play at the biggest stage in Zilker Park. And they didn’t disappoint. Frontman Matt Vasquez and guitarist Will McLaren (who I had not seen play with the band since he joined in late 2010) commanded the big stage, running all over to get the crowd involved by clapping and singing along. If they could transfer their concert prowess into one radio hit, they could be headlining that stage in the near future.

  7) Electric Six, The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY 6/2
This show took place on the night Mitt Romney officially announced his candidacy—and Electric Six frontman Dick Valentine made note of it by making cracks about the power of Richard Nixon; the power of rock; and the power of nearby drinking establishments. (A Brooklyn only note—he said that their star-studded afterparty was at Jackie’s 5th Amendment. I almost choked on my beer. Those not in Brooklyn—picture the saddest dive bar you can, the one that opens for regulars at 8:00 a.m., and you’ll have an idea of what Jackie’s is like.) In short, Valentine was just as goofy and charismatic as he’s been throughout the band’s career. I’m not sure how Tyler Spencer (Dick Valentine’s offstage name) can continue to pull off this act night after night. He has a knack for speaking off the top of his head about various topics that never fails to make me laugh—or shake my head in puzzlement. He’s one of the Top 5 frontman working today, and his stage banter is surpassed only by one of the artists in the next entry.

  6) Robyn Hitchcock/Minus 5/John Wesley Harding, The Bell House 11/19
When this doubleheader show was announced, I figured it would be a long night of music. I didn’t anticipate five plus hours of standing. Shows like this, my friends, are where my body feels much older than its 42 years. That being said, it was a great five hours of standing. Hitchcock did his 1990 solo acoustic masterpiece Eye in its entirety (along with some of the album’s bonus tracks from various reissues) and his in-between song banter was as puzzling and entertaining as ever. The tone of collaborations was set for the evening when ex-Harvey Danger singer Sean Nelson came out to supply gorgeous harmonies on “Cynthia Mask.” The Minus 5’s Scott McCaughey came on later in the set to play piano “Clean Steve,” a track that people at my college station WICB jokingly said was about me. (It’s not. My kitchen floor is a shining example of that.) Hitchcock’s set closed out with Nelson, McCaughey on bass, Peter Buck on guitar and The Decemberists drummer John Moen for a great version of “Madonna of the Wasps.”

John Wesley Harding and The Minus 5 (this time out The Decemberists minus frontman Colin Meloy) had a tough act to follow after that. McCaughey’s two mini Minus 5 sets were really diverse as he threw in songs he rarely gets to play on tour. And Harding and this lineup recorded an album—The Sound of His Own Voice—that’s enjoyable, but I found his acoustic set of newer songs even more entertaining. The evening closed out with some fine covers, two of which really stood out. First Harding and the Minus 5 finished their set with Roky Erikson’s “If You Have Ghosts,” a song I had totally forgotten. Harding’s cover was released on 1990's Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye and we played the hell out of it at WICB. I had to dig out that album after the show and made sure to rip in a few tracks into iTunes. After a brief break, Ted Leo came out and led the Minus 5 through a blistering take on Paul McCartney's "The Back Seat of My Car." Leo originally recorded it for the 2009 WFMU benefit album called Tom, which was a track by track cover of Macca's Ram. As great as that was, it wasn’t the best performance I’ve seen this year by Leo…

  5) Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, South Street Seaport, New York, NY 7/9
Ted Leo is one of the few musicians that I've been turned onto during the past decade that I respect even more for his non-music deeds. The man is very hysterical (but at times, deadly serious) tweeter. He wrote an incredibly honest essay about how hard it is to survive as an indie musician that made a lot of bloggers think. He also made one of the best videos of the past five years with “Bottled in Cork.” Leo increased my respect for him even more with his pre-show prep for this July concert. He announced that the Pharmacists were going to play their 2001 album The Tyranny of Distance in its entirety at their free South Street Seaport show. Sure, lots of bands have done this “entire album to mark its 10th anniversary” gig. But Leo explained his reasons for it better than any other act I've seen tackle this album performance gimmick and shared some great tour stories and photos about the experience on his website. His writing about the Tyranny tour genuinely got me excited for the show—and he and the band delivered the goods. It was, in a word, outstanding. And the epic “Stove to a Whale” had me bobbing my head so much I think I pulled a muscle.

  4) Bob Mould, The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY 11/3
Here’s a phrase I never thought I’d use when I first heard Hüsker Dü’s “Hardly Getting Over It”—Bob Mould can be really funny. Seriously. During this singing-slash-reading appearance I laughed a whole lot. And it wasn’t a “he’s reading dark passages from his autobiography that make me uncomfortable so I need some sort of tension breaker soon” kind of laugh. Mould found a lot of humor in poking fun at certain parts of his own life. I was really impressed how he could transition from lighthearted moments like that to blistering, soul-crushing performances of songs like “Brasilla Crossed With Trenton” or Sugar’s “Hoover Dam.” This was the first time I’ve seen an author-musician do a show like this, and I can’t imagine anyone else doing it this well.

  3) Superchunk, Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY 3/8
Jeebus I was so excited to see these guys (and gal) again. It had been a full decade since I’d seen them perform and even being far back in such a large venue I was reminded of just how great this band is when on stage. Jon Wurster’s powerhouse drumming; Laura Balance’s deadly combination of bass playing and pogoing; Jim Wilbur and Mac McCaughan’s intertwined guitars came through loud and clear (and usually drowned out the kids behind us who were whining about their seats and waiting for headliners Bright Eyes to come on.) I’m sure I looked odd jumping up and down in my seat, and I totally didn’t care.

  2) The Figgs, Bastards of Melody, The Rock Shop, Brooklyn, NY 4/16
Let’s see, it’s a show with my favorite band and the original project of my Bunnie England bandmates on the same bill? Was there any doubt it would be on this year’s list the moment it was announced? The Bastards did a great set and won over a bunch of hardcore Figgs fans. As for Mike Gent, Pete Donnelly and Pete Hayes, they made it an massive night. In 2 hours and 40 minutes they touched upon almost everything in their catalog, debuted new songs, did an acoustic set, played some covers and jumped off stage into the audience to play. It was an epic, draining (in a good way, like a Springsteen show) night. And I was so happy that I wasn’t the only one that felt that way. During his solo acoustic set that ended the night, Gent told the crowd, “It sounds so good I could play all night.” I was inclined to agree with him.

1) Middle Brother, Dawes, Deer Tick, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 3/5
In July 1986 I saw Bob Dylan and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers perform together at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC, as those in the Capital District call it) in Saratoga Springs. It was not only the first time I drank vodka; it was the first concert I attended that was hyped up because of the promised crossover between the two artists. Alas, the vodka robbed me of remembering much of the first few songs. What I can recall is that it didn't mesh as well as I had expected. That's the problem with many high profile collaborations and “supergroups”—they never live up to our expectations.

I had a belly full of fried chicken, not vodka, when I went to the Middle Bother/Dawes/Deer Tick show. This was a show that outpaced all my expectations. Middle Brother, Deer Tick's John McCauley, Dawes's Taylor Goldsmith and Delta Spirit's Matt Vasquez, These three singer-songwriters crafted an album that equals and at times surpasses the work of their main bands. The relaxed and friendly vibe of their self-titled debut carried throughout the night, as Deer Tick and Dawes delivered outstanding performances that proved the buzz behind both is well deserved. Vasquez's bandmates were back in California working on Delta Spirit's next album, so he delivered a miniset backed by Deer Tick. Vasquez is one of my favorite new frontmen of the past 5 years. He’s got stage presence by the truckloads, and when he led the band through a fast-paced and raucous take on Bruce Springsteen's “Racing in the Street” I wanted to jump for joy. (Alas, that chicken kept me grounded.)

After that miniset almost the entire roster of musicians came out to perform a passionate and fun take on Sam Cooke’s “Bring It on Home to Me.” I thought they couldn't top that the rest of the night, yet I was mistaken. Deer Tick delivered for the rest of their set, obviously energized by the on stage collaboration. Dawes was just as good as when I first saw them at last year's ACL. And the Middle Brother set was just a ball. Everyone on stage was in good spirits (and drinking good spirits) and that vibe was infectious. The only downside of the night came when country parody act Johnny Corndawg did a mini set with Dawes that ground the momentum to a halt. Yet that misstep couldn’t detract from the best show of this year.

The 2011 AV Files

(Note: as part of my attempt to break the crippling writer’s block, I decided to not break down the visual and audio list into a numbered Top 10. I decided to find a thread that linked all these disparate programs together. I’m not sure I succeeded in making it work, but at least it helped get me typing.)
 
In March of this year I joined the 21st century—I purchased an HDTV. I didn’t buy one of those 56” models that cost as much as three months rent. I bought a pretty basic 32” one at Best Buy (the “Insignia” brand that they sell) and waited for Cablevision to send an HD box over. After a couple of missteps (the first box was missing the DVR, the second box died almost immediately) I was finally able to settle into the glorious world of watching programs in widescreen. And the impact was rather quick upon my television watching habits. Any sort of sporting event became a whole new visual world. Baseball fields looked gloriously green; a hockey puck was easier to follow; and I even found myself watching the NBA playoffs because seeing the whole court made that game feel more exciting.

After my initial sports fix, I started getting into the channels beyond your basic cable fare that were in HD— videos and concerts on Palladia; Universal HD with their odd mix of old shows (TJ Hooker at 3:00 a.m. makes William Shatner even more insane) and, most importantly, all nine of the HBO channels showed virtually every program in HD. I found myself drawn to that block up in the 300’s when I wasn’t watching some other show on (and not on) this list. One program that I caught a snippet of during those trips up the channel tree was The Curious Case of Curt Flood. The last 10 minutes about the former St. Louis Cardinal who challenged baseball’s reserve clause was compelling enough for me to search when it was airing again and DVR it. (Have we gotten to the point where DVR can be a verb, like Tivo? I hope so.) The entire film is a very even-handed portrait of a very complex man. Flood was a great player but, at times, not that great a human being. He totally disappeared after he was out of baseball, leaving his wife and kids high and dry. He painted portraits of people, but it was later revealed that he had contracted out many of the paintings. He was, quite simple, a ball of contradictions. And Curious Case captures all of that, as well as the total bungling of the reserve clause case when it was brought to the Supreme Court. HBO’s sports documentaries are almost always excellent—this film is one of the best.

This year HBO became a staple on Friday nights at the Reynolds house with Real Time With Bill Maher. I don’t agree with all of his political leanings—and I think that has no impact on my enjoyment of his program. He (or his booker, I suppose) gets a great mix of guests that chat about the week’s events from every side of the political spectrum. Sometimes I want to stand up and applaud; at others I want to throw my sneakers at the TV. (Thankfully I don’t, because I’m sure I would cry if I lost HDTV at this point.) I’m not sure if Maher had a particularly good season or if I was just more attuned to the craziness of the political world. In either case, I found myself very entertained at the end of every work week.

One of Maher’s guests in the early summer was comedian Marc Maron. I remembered seeing Maron a couple of times when the alt-comedy boom was happening in the mid-90s, catching him a lot on Late Night With Conan O’Brien, as well as listening to him sometimes when he was doing lefty talk radio at Air America earlier this decade. He was always bitter and angry—two emotions I could strongly identify with—and most importantly, very brutally funny. Maher plugged Maron’s podcast that night, so I decided to check it out. I can say that WTF With Marc Maron has changed my life. The second half of the year I rarely listened to music on my commute. I was catching up on all the amazing conversations Maron has had with stand-up comedians, comedic actors and even prop comics. (I totally don’t want to frame Carrot Top for murder now.) In digging through his own emotional baggage, Maron has somehow convinced most of his guests to drop theirs and reveal sides to them we never knew. His talks with Chris Rock, Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, The Office’s Rainn Wilson and Community creator Dan Harmon (more on that show later) are master classes in how to get people to open up. And his chat with The Onion’s Todd Hanson should be required listening for therapists and anyone that’s had suicidal thoughts. These conversations have caused me to rethink parts of my own life and things I might want to do in the future. I would never say that to Maron if I ever met him. But I’m certain I’m not the only person that’s been impacted by his conversational style.

Maron wasn’t the only culprit to steal my precious music-listening hours this year. The Ronna and Beverly Podcast, which features Jamie Denbo and Jessica Chafin portraying the authors of You’ll Do a Little Better Next Time: A Guide to Marriage & Remarriage for Jewish Singles, has caused me to laugh out loud on the train more than anything else in 16 years of commuting from Brooklyn to midtown Manhattan. (Full disclosure: I am friends with Denbo, as she married my college friend John Ross Bowie.) Denbo’s somewhat clueless Beverly always seems to find the line when talking to people like Andy Richter, Paget Brewster and Martha Plimpton—and then blazes right through it. How Chafin can keep it together and stay in character as Ronna amazes me each and every episode.

The third podcast that has kept me company while the F train was delayed for who knows what crisis is The Poscast With Joe Posnanski and Michael Schur. Posnanski is one of the finest sportswriters working today. His blog entries and Sports Illustrated columns are some of the most creative, humorous and heartfelt takes on sports and their meaning in our lives that I’ve ever read. And those traits come through best on his podcast when he talks to Schur, the co-creator and executive producer of NBC’s Parks and Recreation. Schur ran a great sports blog called Fire Joe Morgan that dissected the blowhard tendencies of sports columnists around the country. (Alas, the blog ended when Parks and Recreation got picked up.) These two guys know their sports and truly enjoy speaking with each other— and they know how to bring intelligent humor into talking about sports. Its 180 degrees away from any sports talk you’ll hear in the Northeast. And I’m sure that any of the hosts on WFAN here in New York wouldn’t hold a fantasy draft at the end of their show where they pick best baseball books, balls and sports heartbreaks. I found these podcasts so entertaining that I decided I needed to try out Schur’s Parks and Recreation again. And sure enough, his wittiness and intelligence comes through in every episode. Amy Poelher’s Leslie Knope is one of the most fully-formed characters on TV and her romance with Adam Scott’s Ben has provided some of the funniest and most touching scenes on TV this year. And for goodness sake Emmy folk, this year please nominate Nick Offerman for his work as Ron Swanson.

Parks and Recreation shares Thursday nights on NBC with the best comedy on TV, Community. Alas, as I write this, that arrangement will only last one more week. NBC, America’s fourth place network, has decided to put the show on hiatus. In its timeslot will be going the new season of 30 Rock, which I have no problem with. What I do have a problem with is the shit show of Whitney (one of the worst sitcoms in recent memory—and that impression stuck with me only after making it through 10 minutes of its pilot) staying on the air and being paired up with Are You There Chelsea, a sitcom based upon the life of one of America’s least funniest comedians, Chelsea Handler. (Hold on, I need to slap my forehead a few times because of this injustice. Ow. Ow.) I realize TV is a business and Community’s ratings aren’t setting the world on fire. But it’s not like anything on NBC is doing much better. Their corporate cousin USA beats them some nights with NCIS reruns. Why not pitch yourself as the quality network? You have a critic’s darling on the bench, that’s plain idiotic. (Alright, I’m getting all worked up at those morons again. I better stop or my blood pressure will go up.) I will give NBC one compliment—they kept Chuck on for five seasons, and gave the producers fair warning that this fifth season would be its last. I’ve written about my love for the show over the past four lists, so I probably don’t need to waste any more ink talking about it to you.

When Comcast’s purchase of NBC Universal this year was finalized, that meant they not only got a bunch of cable networks but they also secured themselves Universal Pictures. That film studio released my favorite movie of the year, Bridesmaids. Judd Apatow finally put some of his producing muscle behind a comedy not led by goofy men, but extremely funny women. Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy were outstanding and, in my opinion, are deserving of Oscar nods for their performances. Let’s hope the success of Bridesmaids this leads to more funny and talented women having lead roles in big movies.

One of Judd Apotow’s best discoveries has been Jason Segel. His work on Apatow’s Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared was great mix of physical comedy and willing to go the extra mile to sell a joke—or a strong emotional moment. Segel has done even more of that during the past six seasons of How I Met Your Mother, giving him the perfect training to co-write The Muppets. The mixture of humor and pulling of emotional heartstrings in the film was impressive. And Segel and co-writer Nicholas Stoller really evoked the spirit of the show I loved as a kid without making it feel just like a nostalgia trip. And major props go out to Brett McKenzie for the original songs he penned for the film. The former co-star of Flight of the Conchords should be nominated for an Oscar for either the Kermit sung “Pictures in My Head” or the duet between Segel and the new Muppet, Walter, on “Man or Muppet.”  Oh heck, let’s give Chris Cooper another Oscar nomination just for playing a villainous rapper! I can’t wait to see The Muppets again in the comfort of my own home on that lovely HDTV. At least during that viewing I won’t have a crying child sitting in the aisle across from me.

Top 10 Stories I Hope I Don't Write in 2012

1) Moving on to a different sport, Kim Kardashian marries David Wright. Mets fans enact massive suicide pact.

2) After remaking Bob Dylan’s “You’re Going to Make Me Lonesome When You Go,” Miley Cyrus decides to cover Neil Young’s Harvest in its entirety.

3) LMFAO, LFO, REO Speedwagon and ELO tour together. It’s sponsored by Overstock.com.

4) Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez team up for an album of songs about the Twilight Saga. Scientific experts predict that the heads of 15,000,000 teenage girls will explode.

5) Kayne West titles his latest opus, Give This Album the Grammy for Album of the Year or I'll Kill You All.

6) Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon's baby twins sign a 10-million dollar deal with Def Jam.

7) Nickelback plays between every inning of Game 7 of the World Series. Baseball fans decide to start watching soccer instead.

8) Jay-Z samples that Lexus December to Remember theme for his new single "The 1% OG."

9) Herman Cain covers The Beatles "Revolution #9" and posts it as a free download on his website.

10) Motley Crüe decide to do a residency in Atlantic City, and accuse me of leaking that news before they can appear on the Joe Franklin show to reveal it. (Crap, that’s sort of what happened already.)

Song of the Week 12/23/11

Chromeo - "I Can't Tell You Why"



I heard this cover of The Eagles' hit from The Long Run Wednesday night on WFUV's The Alternate Side. It was so bizarre and entertaining that I waited through another song just so I could hear the host Russ Borris backsell the track. I woke up Thursday with it still in my head and downloaded the single while I was having my breakfast at my desk.

There was a point where I didn't hate The Eagles. That ran from the first time I heard "New Kid in Town" while ice skating in December 1976 up until my internship at PYX 106 in Albany when I heard "Hotel California" for the 30th time. During the era that I did like the band, The Long Run was my favorite album of theirs. Perhaps the only way my brain can take hearing a song from that album is if a Canadian electro duo covers it.

Song of the Week 12/16/11

The Beatles - "A Hard Day's Night"

1) I bought a replica A Hard Day's Night shirt at Old Navy last weekend for 5 bucks.

2) On Wednesday my bandmate Paul Crane posted this video on Facebook:



3) We decided to soundcheck our show at Littlefield with "A Hard Day's Night."

4) I got home from the gig, turned on the radio to block out the usual ringing in the ears and Big Jay Sorenson on CBS-FM played "A Hard Day's Night." He backsold it by talking about the same video Paul posted.

5) Very, very weird.

Song of the Week 12/9/11

Kelly Clarkson - "Mr. Know-It-All"



I heard this song three times last week. Each time happened while I was getting breakfast. And each was during a different hour each day. That's just weird. This song, however, is just great. I don't know why dudes keep dissing Kelly. That's kind of dumb, because she's kind of awesome.

Song of the Week 12/2/11

The Black Keys - "Lonely Boy"

I gotta say, this song has been burrowing its way into my brain the past couple weeks, and their performance on SNL this week locked it in there.

Jeebus this video is awesome.

Song of the Week 11/25/11

Macy Gray - "I Try"



Damn, it's fun hearing a bar full of women (or 90% women) sing this track.

Party Like It's 1999 11/23/11

Thanks to everyone that came out for our pre-Turkey Day gig. It was a fun and -- at times -- bizarre evening. Look for us to announce a December edition early next week!

Here's what you heard:

Cake - “Never There”
Filter - “Take a Picture”
Foo Fighters - “Everlong”
Garbage - “I Think I’m Paranoid”
Faith No More - “A Small Victory”
U2 - “Staring at the Sun”
Radiohead - “Karma Police”
Silverchair - “Tomorrow”
B.A.D. II - “Rush”
Matchbox Twenty - “Real World”
Better Than Ezra - “Good”
Everclear - “Father of Mine”
Shawn Mullins - “Lullaby”
Butthole Surfers - Pepper”
Beastie Boys - “Intergalatic”
Moby & Gwen Stefani - “Southside”
Fatboy Slim - “Praise You”
Eiffel 65 - “Blue”
Robin S - “Show Me Love”
The Cardigans - “Lovefool”
Supergrass - “Alright”
Eve 6 - “Inside Out”
Lit - “My Own Worst Enemy”
Green Day - “Longview”
Barenaked Ladies - “One Week”
L.F.O. - “Summer Girls”
Spice Girls - “Wannabe”
Ace of Base - “The Sign”
Salt-N-Pepa featuring En Vogue - “Whatta Man”
T.L.C. - “Waterfalls”
Mariah Carey - “Fantasy”
Notorious B.I.G. featuring Puff Daddy and Mase - “Mo Money, Mo Problems”
Snoop Dogg - “Gin and Juice”
2pac and Dr. Dre - “California Love”
Bell Biv Devoe - “Poison”
Boyz II Men - “Motownphilly”
Tony Toni Tone - “If I Had No Loot”
Janet Jackson - “(Love Will Never Do) Without You”
En Vogue - “Don’t Let Go (Love)”
Macy Gray - “I Try”
Alanis Morissette - “You Oughta Know”
Natalie Imbruglia - “Torn”
Des’ree - “You Gotta Be”
Arrested Development - “Tennessee”
Blackstreet - “No Diggity”
Notorious B.I.G. - “Big Poppa”
N’Sync - “Tearing Up My Heart”
New Kids on the Block - “Step by Step”
Backstreet Boys - “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”
Madonna - “Vogue”
Salt-N-Pepa - “Shoop”
Michael Jackson - “Black and White”
Dee-Lite - “Groove Is in the Heart”
La Bouche - “Be My Lover”
Vengaboys - “We Like to Party”
Britney Spears - “…Hit Me Baby One More Time”
Christina Aguilera - “Genie In a Bottle”
House of Pain - “Jump Around”
Kris Kross - “Jump”
Montell Jordan - “This Is How We Do It”
Heavy D and The Boyz - “You Can’t See What I Can See”
Ginuwine - “Pony”
LL Cool J - “Mama Said Knock You Out”
Ice Cube - “It Was a Good Day”
Prince and the New Power Generation - “Cream”
Brandy and Monica - “The Boy Is Mine”
Sugar Ray - “Fly”
John Mellencamp - “Wild Night”
Sublime - “What I Got”
Goo Goo Dolls - “Name"
Counting Crows - “A Long December”

Co-Songs of the Week 11/18/11

John Wesley Harding - "If You Have Ghosts"
Ted Leo - "The Back Seat of My Car"

Saturday night at The Bell House I somehow made it through 5+ hours of standing for an amazing double bill of Robyn Hitchcock and John Wesley Harding and The Minus 5. The evening closed out with some fine covers, two of which really stood out.

First Harding and the Minus 5 finished their set with Roky Erikson's "If You Have Ghosts," a song I had totally forgotten. Harding's cover was released on 1990's Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye and we played the hell out of it at WICB. I had to dig out that album after the show and made sure to rip in a few tracks into iTunes. Here's the bizarre video made for it:



After a brief break, Ted Leo came out and led the Minus 5 through a blistering take on Paul McCartney's "The Back Seat of My Car." Leo originally recorded it for the 2009 WFMU benefit album called Tom, which was a track by track cover of Macca's Ram. I really wished I had been filming Leo's performance. Here's the studio version:



And here's Leo doing a solo performance of it earlier this year:

Song of the Week 11/11/11

Goo Goo Dolls - "Name"



I heard this song twice in the space of 11 hours this weekend. Someone was going to attempt it at the world's most bizarre karaoke bar, Shenanigans, on Saturday night. But the track started and no one came up to the mic. That poor soul missed out on singing in front of a packed house--and the almost-brawl I got swept up into.

The following morning I heard it as I eating brunch at the local diner, a place that I waited to enter for 11 years. (Hey, it's on the other, sketchier side of McDonald Ave. I had a perfectly good reason to not be a customer there.)

Goo Goo Dolls are one of the few bands that I was a fan of for many years that suddenly stumbled upon big time success. I was stunned when "Name" hit number-one on the alternative chart, and totally flummoxed when the song became a Top 10 pop hit. I hadn't heard "Name" in a long time, and those two random plays made me remember that at one point I loved the song--and the Goo Goo Dolls

Song of the Week 11/4/11

The Carpenters - "We've Only Just Begun"




I downloaded this song for a special birthday mix, and then heard it in Foodtown days later.

I'd write more, but I don't want to think about the last time I saw Karen Carpenter on TV. She was SO damn skinny. Such a sad tale.

Song of the Week 10/28/11

Mike Viola - "Me and My Drinking"

Mike Viola has a knack for crafting great classic pop songs that have a healthy (well, perhaps unhealthy) dose of darkness to them. "Me and My Drinking" from Electro De Perfecto is another shining example of his art.

I would suggest not listening to this song in a darkened bedroom late at night if you're depressed and alone. It's not for the faint of heart, or those with booze issues.

Song of the Week 10/21/11

Wilco - "Dawned on Me"



I can honestly say that this song may have saved my life. I was upstate yesterday morning, driving to get a blood test at 6:05 a.m. I had slept about two hours the night before and couldn't have any caffeine before this blood test. I felt myself drifting off when WDST out of Woodstock started playing "Dawned on Me." I received an instant jolt of energy as well as something to focus on. That helped me when I saw that deer out of the corner of my eye. It didn't move into the road but at least I was aware enough to not under or overreact.

And it was kind of humorous That I heard "Dawned on Me" in a car for the first time just as it was dawn.

Song of the Week 10/14/11

Ryan Adams - "Ashes & Fire"



I've only listened to this new Ryan Adams album once so far, so I think it's still too early for a proper review. I can say that I never realized how distinctive Norah Jones' piano playing can be. I would hear the piano on almost every track (except this one) and think, "Is that Norah again?" I'd check the credits, and yup, it would be.

I heard "Ashes & Fire" Thursday night on WFUV, then when I listened to the album earlier today and then downstairs at Starbucks like an hour ago. So it's another obvious SOTW.

Song of the Week 10/7/11

John Denver - "Take Me Home, Country Roads"

Some times a video says it all.

Who doesn't love a road trip sing-a-long?

Party Like It's 1999 10/7/11

Wow, who knew we could get such a great turnout for a gig that didn't start until 11 p.m. Thanks again for coming out. Our next edition is November 23rd, the night before thanksgiving.

Here's what you heard last night until the wee hours.

R.E.M. - “Losing My Religion”
Cracker - “Teen Angst”
Sugar - “A Good Idea”
Paul Westerberg - “Waiting for Somebody”
Soul Coughing - “Circles”
U2 - “Even Better Than the Real Thing”
B.A.D. II - “Rush”
Fatboy Slim - “Praise You”
DNA featuring Suzanne Vega - “Tom’s Diner”
O.M.C. - “How Bizarre”
Cardigans - “Lovefool”
No Doubt - “Just a Girl”
New Radicals - “You Get What You Give”
Sister Hazel - “All For You”
Spin Doctors - “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong”
Stroke 9 - “Little Black Backpack”
Depeche Mode - “Personal Jesus”
Crystal Waters - “100% Pure Love”
Blur - “Girls and Boys”
Snoop Dogg - “What’s My Name”
2pac & Dr. Dre - “California Love”
Montell Jordan - “This Is How We Do It”
Mark Morrison - “Return of the Mack”
Notorious B.I.G. - “Juicy”
TLC - “No Scrubs”
Warren G. & Nate Dogg - “Regulate”
Destiny’s Child - “Say My Name”
Bell Biv Devoe - “Poison”
MC Hammer - “U Can’t Touch This”
Spice Girls - “Wannabe”
Mariah Carey featuring O.D.B. - “Fantasy (Remix)”
Aaliyah - “Are You That Somebody”
Mary J Blige - “Real Love”
Monica - “Don’t Take It Personal (Just One of Dem Days)”
Usher - “Nice n Slow”
Pras featuring Michel, ODB & Mya - “Ghetto Superstar”
Wreckx-N-Effect - “Rump Shaker”
Backstreet Boys - “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”
NSync - “I Want You Back”
Third Eye Blind - “Semi-Charmed Life”
Rancid - “Ruby Soho”
Green Day - “Basket Case”
Nirvana - “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
Blink 182 - “All The Small Things”
Weezer - “Buddy Holly”
No Doubt - “Spiderwebs”
Chumbawamba - “Tubthumping”
Ace of Base - “The Sign”
The Fugees - “Ready or Not”
En Vogue - “Free Your Mind”
Naughty By Nature - “Hip Hop Hooray”
Cypress Hill - “Insane in the Brain”
Coolio - “Gangsta’s Paradise”
Arrested Development - “Tennessee”
Biz Markie - “Just a Friend”
Blackstreet - “No Diggity”
Salt N Pepa - “Shoop”
Aqua - “Barbie Girl”
La Bouche - “Be My Lover”
Janet Jackson - “If”
Dee-Lite - “Groove Is in the Heart”
SWV - “Right Here/Human Nature”
R. Kelly - “Bump n Grind”
Madonna - “Take a Bow”
Duran Duran - Ordinary World”
Lisa Loeb - “Stay”

Song of the Week 9/30/11

KISS - "100,000 Years (Live)"



Over the past two years I've acquired a bunch of vinyl -- perhaps reacquired is a better word, because 90% of this as-yet-to-be fully listened to catalog features albums that I had as a kid or a teenager. I usually end up listening to these albums when I'm working on the computer in my little micro-office in the bedroom or while I'm cleaning parts of the apartment. Today while doing dishes and putting away laundry I listened to KISS Alive!, the 1975 double album that kickstarted their career. (It was the next-to-last piece of vinyl I had yet to play. The last? ELO's double-LP opus Out of the Blue.) It's the first time I've listened to it since 1976 or 1977. Back then my cousin Bob and I were big KISS fans and between us had almost their entire catatlog on (wait for it) 8-track. While I think KISS is just a goofy money machine now, when I was eight years old they were mysterious, dark and scary (especially when Gene Simmons was sticking out his tongue).

When I got to side 3, I looked at "100,000 Years" and thought, "How the hell can KISS have a track that clocks in at over 10 minutes long?" When the song started I realized exactly why -- it was the showcase for solos featuring Gene Simmons' mediocre bass skills, Peter Criss's somewhat capable drumming and Paul Stanley's annoyingly high-pitched stage banter. I stopped washing my silverware and started laughing at how ludicrious it was. And I think you should get a laugh out of it too. So here's "100,000 Years" from that 1975 tour. Seriously, this is just so stupid.