Although five more days remain in this, the Two Thousand and Eighth Year of Our Lord, I’m jumping the gun and doing my Year End Best Of music list right now. And owing to my laziness our ongoing economic nosedive, this one won’t be 30 items long like last year’s. How about a Top 10?

In another break with Ghosts of Lists Past, this one is also unranked. I just couldn’t choose a final order, and there wasn’t one dominant album that I favored above all rivals. These are just the ten cd’s I found myself playing more than all other new releases in 2008.

You’re welcome.

The Black Keys - Attack & Release
After reaching the stylistic limitations of the guitar/drums garage rock duo, the guys must’ve sensed things were getting stale. So they brought in Danger Mouse to produce, and he threw the kitchen sink at it: keyboards, banjos, samples, bass (finally!) The band responded by bringing their best songs to date. The result is their magnum opus.

TV on the Radio - Dear Science
These guys have the hardest job of anyone on the list: following up a masterpiece. The awe-inspiring Return to Cookie Mountain might just be the best damn album of this entire decade. Dear Science doesn’t quite scale those rarefied heights, but it’s very good nonetheless. “Golden Age,” in particular, might be the single of the year.

Metallica - Death Magnetic
Yeah, I’m as shocked as you are. After releasing a series of classic albums (and one genre-defining masterpiece) in the 80’s, Metallica went on a 20 year losing streak: from The Black Album on, every release was worse than the one before it. They tried new styles, haircuts, albums with gobs of sperm on the cover, group therapy, and finally, nu metal. All were unmitigated disasters. I gave up on them for good…and then Rick Rubin dialed the clock back to 1986, and suddenly Metallica rock again.

Q-Tip - The Renaissance
We’ve been waiting almost ten years for this, the second solo album from the former Tribe Called Quest leader. It was totally worth the wait: relaxed, confident, catchy, and optimistic, with just enough sonic curveballs to keep it from getting boring or predictable. Hip hop for grownups! What a concept.

The Aliens - Luna
The late, lamented Beta Band may be long gone, but three quarters of its former lineup press on as The Aliens. While the Betas mixed their psychedelia with trip hop and electronic elements, their progeny ditch modernity and go straight for the Sgt. Pepper at the Gates of Dawn vibe. And truth be told, Beatlesque space rock sounds pretty fresh in 2008.

Eagles of Death Metal - Heart On
Here’s your party album of the year. Josh Homme’s side project to Queens of the Stone Age has gradually taken on a life of its own, now on its third album of sleazy, smarmy, tongue-in-cheek Stones-worshipping boogie. This time around, they’ve mixed bits of new wave, glam, and even funk in with their cock rock. This is the album that Chinese Democracy could and should have been, if only Axl Rose wasn’t such a flaming douchebag tortured artist.

Opeth - Watershed
What Metallica was to the 80’s, Opeth are to the 00’s: a band that towers over all others in their genre and remakes it in their own image. On this release, they’ve toned down the death metal portion of the folk rock/death metal hybrid they created and perfected. There’s quite a bit less growling than on previous efforts, but it’s still heavy as hell. Just don’t expect a quick listen: tracks average over nine minutes each.

The Roots - Rising Down
Here’s another group attempting to follow up their masterpiece. This one is quite a bit darker than 2006’s transcendent Game Theory. The raps are angrier, and the classic soul samples have largely disappeared. But it’s informed, articulate anger, the anger of people who want the world to be better — now.

Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life
Once upon a time, punk rock was dangerous. Then, Green Day and Rancid and Sum 41 and their countless followers shat onto the scene, and punk instantly became safe and sucky. Fucked Up aims to make it dangerous and angry again. In the process, they’ve managed to invent their own genre. I don’t even know what to call it: “prog-punk?” This might be the first punk album ever to open with a flute solo, and it still rocks like eighty seven bastards.

Black Mountain - In the Future
Twenty-something Canadian kids mixing equal parts Pink Floyd and Pavement. What could be better?

The best of the rest:

Flogging Molly - Float
The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
The Melvins - Nude With Boots
Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation’s Dark

(another lazy, shameless cross-post)

Just call it “Progressive Music List Bloat:” my first Best Of list, covering the 1960’s, contained all of ten albums. The 70’s list was 20 items long. By the time the 80’s rolled around, I had expanded to 25 titles. Wellsir, for the 1990’s, we’ve blown it all the way out to thirty five.

It’s the curse of familiarity. After all, I wasn’t alive in the 60’s; I was a preteen in the 70’s; and I went to high school in the 80’s. By the dawn of the 90’s, I was Officially An Adult, a college student with a job and disposable income to spend…which I did, on music, music, and more music (a debilitating habit that continues to the present day.)

More music means more trouble narrowing down. Throw in the 90’s alt-rock explosion, which irrevocably split popular music into zillions of new genres, sub-genres, sub-sub-genres, and micro-genres, and winnowing the damn thing down becomes well nigh impossible.

Yadda, yadda, yadda. Here’s the list. As always, positioning is in no way indicative of rank.

Nirvana - In Utero
The Beastie Boys - Check Your Head
Radiohead - OK Computer
Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley
Dr. Dre - The Chronic
The Beta Band - The 3 EP’s
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
Uncle Tupelo - Anodyne
Fishbone - The Reality of My Surroundings
Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Ragged Glory
The Roots - Things Fall Apart
Sugar - Copper Blue
Alice In Chains - Dirt
The Black Crowes - The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion
Dr. Octagon - Dr. Octagonecologyst
Radiohead - The Bends
Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun
PJ Harvey - Rid of Me
Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
Opeth - Still Life
Masters of Reality - Sunrise on the Sufferbus
Grant Lee Buffalo - Mighty Joe Moon
Johnny Cash - Unchained
Tool - Undertow
Faith No More - Angel Dust
The Melvins - Stoner Witch
Wilco - Being There
Beck - Mellow Gold
Portishead - Dummy
Rage Against The Machine - S/T
Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
Ol’ Dirty Bastard - N***a Please
Lo-Fidelity Allstars - How to Operate With a Blown Mind

(crizz-oss pizz-ost)

Ok, so here’s where I expect things will get testy. I’m guessing that most of the readership of this blog hadn’t been born yet in the 60’s, so it was hard to get too worked up about that list. And while many (or most) of us may have been alive during the 70’s, we hadn’t yet reached that age when obsessive music listening grips one.

But most of us passed through our formative rock and roll years in the 80’s (or possibly 90’s.) Those choices stay with one longer and often shape the rest of one’s music-listening life. It’s harder to be neutral and objective about those years.

Take me, for instance. I hated most of the popular music during the 1980’s, the decade in which I spent my teens. With the notable exceptions of REM, The Police, and U2, none of the acts listed below were multi-platinum. (Several bands on the list did go on to huge sales during the following decade, but during the 80’s, they were cult favorites at best.)

You will also note the total absence of any music from Prince. Since absolutely everyone I know worships and adores Prince and thinks the sun shines out of his ass, I expect this will elicit some anger. Look, people, I get it: he’s a genius. He must be, because everybody says so, and everybody is never, ever wrong. His shit just never clicked for me, ok? It’s not a crime, you know.

There is, however, another Neil Young album, just like there were Neil Young albums in the 60’s and 70’s lists, and just like there will be at least one in the 90’s list. Why? Because Neil Young has been around for a very, very long time, and he’s fucking awesome. That’s why.

Anyhooo….

Jane’s Addiction - Nothing’s Shocking
Husker Du - Zen Arcade
Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
Metallica - Master of Puppets
The Police - Synchronicity
Celtic Frost - Into the Pandemonium
U2 - War
Guns N’ Roses - Appetite For Destruction
REM - Document
The Pixies - Doolittle
Motorhead - Ace of Spades
The Pretenders - Learning to Crawl
Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell
Slayer - Reign in Blood
The Replacements - Let it Be
Neil Young - Freedom
Faith No More - The Real Thing
Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey
Living Colour - Vivid
The Beastie Boys - Paul’s Boutique
Camper Van Beethoven - Key Lime Pie
The Dead Milkmen - Beelzebubba
AC/DC - Back in Black
Ultramagnetic MC’s - Critical Beatdown
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine

Cross post from my blog…

By now we’ve all heard the song “I Kissed A Girl.” I can only imagine the throngs of adolescent boys casually slipping this song into their ipod for their girlfriend to listen to in desperate hope: “See, SHE kissed a girl and she LIKED it.” It has to be a sign of progress (?) in this country when the majority of responses to this song are the following  “this song is so awesome, i love it, i mean, come on, half the chicks here have to have kissed a girl once, even if it was just on the cheek or whatever… so yea, its pretty cool” –Courtesy of the youtube comment feed.

Remember when the first same sex kiss appeared on Melrose place? It was May 18, 1994, edgy gay character, Matt, shared an intimate moment through a kiss near the pool with guest-star boyfriend Rob — except it was only implied because a threatened advertiser boycott forced Fox to shy away from the actual lip lock. Wading into same sex kissing waters in the 90’s was quickly picked up on by recently outed “Ellen” (liplock between Ellen and best friend Paige ), the super square “Party of Five” (Julia Salinger engages in a short-lived lesbian affair with a professor ), and most hideously: “Ally McBeal” ( In a much-watched episode in 1999, Ally McBeal and fellow lawyer and co-worker Ling Woo (Lucy Liu btw) engage in a 21-second-long kiss). By the way, did ANYONE like Ally McBeal? I HATED that show.

I merely bring up television because, well, one has greater chance of seeing a same sex kiss by accident in the convenience of their own home versus screening themselves away from it via movies. For example: Don’t wanna see hunky Heath Ledger (R.I.P.) get all gay in Brokeback Mountain? Don’t go to the movie. Television, however, is so accessible that when it comes to truly liberating same sex kissing, you can thank the boob tube. And, luckily, there have been some really legitimate same sex kissing on TV, you know, for political and personal reasons (not just voyeuristic). In “Will & Grace “: An episode in the 2002-2003 season featured Will liplocking with his best friend Jack while “The Today Show’s” Al Roker and the rest of the New York crowd and TV audience look on. While researching the pop culture same sex kiss phenomenon I also learned about the controversial “Dawson’s Creek” smooch in 2000 — It’s considered the first romantic gay kiss between two men on TV. After a season of teenage angst and longing, Jack McPhee, who came out the previous season after briefly dating Joey Potter (a nubial young Katie Holmes), shares an on-screen kiss with former friend now turned boyfriend Ethan.

It’s been over 15 years since “Melrose Place” introduced an openly gay character to their cast of angsty, twenty-something, beautiful people–AND let him join in on the action (because really, “Melrose Place” ended up being so trampy, why get all huffy over a little same sex lovin?) Now we have same sex SNL characters dressed up in drag smooching each other in semblance of hetero love. We have entire sitcoms based on gay characters (thank you very much, “Will and Grace”). So getting back to my point: How in the world is the song “I Kissed A Girl” even relevant? And can I say for the record: Who hasn’t? I mean, really…ladies if you haven’t gone out and smooched your best friend drunkenly at a party then please go out and do so before you die. This is such a small measure of edginess these days, a valuable part of coming of age, and, thankfully, it’s become an acceptable part of our society. Oh sure, there are conservative Christians out there who shudder at the thought, but c’mon…most women I know have lapsed into same sex curiosity somewhere a long the line. Some of them were just ‘tri in college” (I’ll ‘tri’ anything), some of them were lost and looking for answers, and other’s were legitimately gay.

I know that female on female action is widely more accepted then male same sex kissing (despite the “Melrose Place” debut). If Katy Perry was, say, a man, I doubt her song would have the same ring. The fact that she’s writhing around with a tube of cherry chap stick in her music video certainly lends to the sexual exploitation of the whole sensationalizing of a pretty accepted behavior.
Is Katy encouraging social experimentation? Is she merely perpetuating a sexist, female on female, porno-type expectation? Is she opening the hearts and minds of a new generation with her encouraging bisexual lyrics? Will she dwindle into the One Hit Wonder category? Perhaps we’ll simply associate Katy Perry with other goofy songs that resulted in silly outrage. Like Joan Osbourne when she sang “What If God Was One of Us” (What?! How dare she say that God is a slob!) or the “Thong Song” by Sisqó (What?! Thong undies are so uncomfortable, why would anyone sing about them?!). Either way, I’m not impressed.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted my favorite albums of the 1960’s. The self-imposed limit of 10 albums, however, caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth, especially when I immediately thought of at least that many good or better albums approximately three seconds after I clicked “Publish.” Accordingly, for the 1970’s installment, I’ve expanded the list to 20. This way I feel free to include more than one release by an artist. Because let’s face facts, folks: Zep and Floyd were the most important white people of the 70’s, and Stevie and George were the most important black people. They all deserve to be represented more than once.

You’ll further notice that nary an appearance is made by such 70’s staples as Fleetwood Mac, Peter Frampton, Meatloaf, or anyone remotely connected to the Saturday Night Fever or Grease soundtracks. Fuck them. And as for the Eagles…well, why don’t we just let The Dude tackle that one.

So, yeah, here’s the list. As before, placement in no way indicates rank. Numbers are square, baby.

Led Zeppelin - IV
Iggy & The Stooges - Raw Power
Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon
Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove
The Clash - London Calling
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Stevie Wonder - Talking Book
Bob Marley and the Wailers - Live!
John Lennon- Plastic Ono Band
David Bowie - The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly
The Who - Who’s Next
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
The Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols
Pink Floyd - Animals
Janis Joplin - Pearl
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
AC/DC - Highway To Hell
Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps

(Yet another shameless crosspost)

Being an inveterate music list maker, I’d already started putting together my “Favorite Albums of the Oughts” list. I was all set to publish it, but decided that doing so would be premature, given that this decade obviously isn’t over yet. So instead, why not satisfy my jones by making lists for all the rock n’ roll decades which are over?

We’ll start with the 60’s. Yes, rock and roll technically started in the mid 50’s, but “albums” as we currently think of them didn’t exist in the 50’s (they were just collections of previously released singles.) Also, much like Chuck D, I don’t give two shits about Elvis.

So, the 60’s it is. Granted, I wasn’t alive during the decade, but why should that stop me? Feel free to tell me how wrong my picks are, and/or offer alternate titles. I probably won’t agree, but what are Teh Interwebs for, if not a good argument?

Here’s the Top 10. The order of the list should in no way be construed as conferring rank. In true hippie fashion, everybody’s equal. Now, let’s all join hands and sing “Kumbaya…”

The Rolling Stones - Let it Bleed
The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
The Beatles - S/T (ie, “The White Album”)
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
The Band - S/T
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica
Led Zeppelin - S/T
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited

With The Red Album dropping on Tuesday, I thought it’d be a good time to list (alphabetically) my 20 favorite Weezer tunes… What are yours?

• Across the Sea
• Dope Nose
• El Scorcho
• The Good Life
• Getchoo
• Island in the Sun
• Keep Fishin’
• Knock-Down Drag-Out
• Love Explosion
• My Name is Jonas
• No One Else
• Pink Triangle
• Photograph
• Say it Aint So
• Slave
• Surf Wax America
• Tired of Sex
• We are All on Drugs
• The World Has Turned and Left Me Here
• Undone (The Sweater Song)

Bonus.. The wicked awesome video for “Pork and Beans” off The Red Album… Enjoy!

Amy got me a $25 iTunes gift card for my birthday, and I’ve got some ideas on how to spend it… But I’m open to suggestions from y’all. Here’s what I’m thinking of:

Bob Mould’s District Line

Anything by Guided by Voices that I don’t already have

Everyone’s favorite guilty pleasure: Stone Temple Pilots

Any new stuff y’all think I’d really like?

Excuse me, a muxtape. It’s a show of my love and affection.

Here.

The new R.E.M. is streaming on iLike in advance of its release on April Fool’s Day… Let’s yak about it!

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