I realized this year that I just don’t like “new” music anymore. I still like the same old stuff I always liked, and anything that sounds like the same old stuff I always liked. I have become an old curmudgeon. Just go through the old lists. You’ll see what I mean. About half way through the year, I got tired of trying to find new stuff that sounds like the old stuff. As a result, my music obsession morphed from old school reggae to Zappa and the Grateful Dead. Go figure. I am pleased to report that my son Declan’s…

Well 2010 is done, another year gone by, no pet monkey attacks occurred this year so that was a positive note overall. I started out with a list of 20 that I narrowed down to a core set of 10 albums that I came back to repeatedly throughout the year. Now on to the PoOP. Albums of 2010  Buy New or Used via Amazon 1. High Violet: The National Hands down my favorite album of the year, listened to over and over again, in the car, on the iPod, around the house, could not get enough of these tracks. This…

  Buy New or Used via amazon 01. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings – I Learned The Hard Way (Daptone)  Buy New or Used via amazon 02. Vic Godard & Subway Sect – We Come As Aliens (Overground)   Buy from Vic 03. Vic Godard & Irvine Welsh – Blackpool EP (Gnu)  Buy New or Used via amazon 04. Orange Juice – Coals To Newcastle (Domino)   Buy New or Used via amazon 05. Edwyn Collins – Losing Sleep (Heavenly)   Buy New or Used via amazon 06. Paolo Conte – Nelson (Universal)   Buy New or Used via amazon…

Top Ten for 2010 What a year it has been. I actually have more stuff downloaded on my hard drive this calendar year than all years put together, mostly thanks to my brothers ENDLESS CHRISTMAS COLLECTION. Yet, my BEST OF 2010 comes complete with howling guitars, a few jazzbos with one or two twang thangs, so here I go…  Buy New or Used via Amazon 1) The Black Keys – BROTHERS This is the album my brother and I could have made if he would only have let me sing. HOWLIN’ FOR YOU is cool while BLACK MUD has so…

In Memoriam to Jack Goldberg! Proprietor of Jack’s Rhythms and an all around mensch. I give my condolences to his family and friends. We disagreed on baseball. He was a Red Sox fan, me a Bronx Bombers fan. But he loved baseball and I think more then music? That was his passion, I am glad he got to see his team win twice toward the end of his life. Even if it was at the expense of my team. Did I mention I miss the guy? I do! Top 10 New Releases for 2009 This list is in no particular…

Transmissions from the Ovulation Station – Best Releases of 2009   Ltd. Ed. (22 copies!) from Taalem 1.) V/A – Naoshimabox (Taalem, 2009) The stories of people who have undergone near-death experiences are so similar that we have all come to know about that “big, bright light” to which people have been drawn after slipping away from the physical realm. A universal theme is recounted to those around the survivors of death should it somehow be determined that it is not their particular time to go and they regain the consciousness to share their wild tale of life beyond the…

Hello world.  Time to wake up again, cram as much music into my brain for a few days and put some ramble on paper and pretend I have immersed myself in music this year.  Truth be told, I find most of my time is spent listening to old Stevie Wonder records.  Perhaps I should just review those?  Nonetheless, I did find a few items that stood out. Surprisingly, or not, much of my “new” music was either compilations (limited attention span?) or reissues.  Anyway, to quote the late, great George Michael (from The Machine, not Wham): “Let’s go to the…

Sweet Sixteen   Buy New or Used through amazon Amadou & Mariam – Welcome to Mali   Buy New or Used through amazon White Denim – Fits  Buy New or Used through amazon Lily Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic Passion Pit – Manners   Buy New or Used through amazon Dave Perkins – Pistol City Holiness   Buy New or Used through amazon Riverside – Anno Domini High Definition   Buy New or Used through amazon Sarah Jarosz – Song Up in Her Head  Buy New or…

The women in Poughkeepsie / Take their clothes off when they’re tipsy But in Albany, New York / They love the filthy way I talk – Elvis Costello, Sulphur to Sugarcane TOP TEN 1 Jeb Loy Nichols tie Jeb Loy Nichols & Ian Gomm Parish Bar AND Only Time Will Tell 2 Michael Hurley & Ida Ida Con Snock 3 Various Artists Fire in my Bones Raw + Rare + Other-Worldly African-American Gospel [1944-2007] 4 Mary Anne Hobbs & various Dubstep artists Wild Angels Wild Angels 5 Various Skull Disco w/ Shackleton, Appleblim Skull Disco – Soundboys Gravestone Gets Desecrated…

POO9 …a communique from the front… this is a declaration of WAr. their reign over our humanity, over our minds aand spirits is at an end. no longer will we be their consumers, their worker s, their voters, for we will no longer clean the trash fromm their gutters. we will atttack their systems, culture, government and all they build up, we will tear down. our soldiers are alreadyin their homes and schools, crouching in the dark corners near jukeboxxes in bars, behind the counters of local stores, pouring out into the streets of cities. everywhere. our bulllets are words,…

Another year, another list, eh? Well, I have to say that on the verge of my 40th year, I may have finally reached the age of the curmudgeon. I don’t know if I’ve just lost my taste for new music, or if, as I suspect is true, new music really is just getting worse. Of course, there will always be good new music out there; it just seems it’s getting harder and harder to find. As the year wore on, I found less new music that interested me, and so I retreated back into a long forgotten love … reggae…

I thought that 2008 was probably one of the best years in music over the past decade and judging from a lot of other people’s comments, I was just about the only one who felt that way. I’m not sure what people thought this year, but for me 2009 was a year of great expectations and equally great disappointments although maybe I’m just generalizing from everything else that has been happening. Oh well, here it goes:   Buy New or Used through amazon VARIOUS ARTISTS – The Soul of Spanish Harlem: Superb collection of songs recorded in NYC between 1967…

  Buy New or Used through amazon   OR   @ eMusic 1. ANIMAL COLLECTIVE : Merriweather Post Pavilion (early entry in ’09and loved it all year)   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic 2. GRIZZLY BEAR : Veckatimest   Buy New or Used through amazon   OR   @ eMusic 3. DIRTY PROJECTORS : Bitte Orca (all of the above from Brooklyn NY … what’s in the water? )   Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic 4. YO LA TENGO : Popular Songs   Buy New or Used through amazon 5….