A Kinder, Gentler POOP 2004 Well, here it comes again … just as surely, and slowly, as in the past. It seems like it’s becoming more and more a labor of love to track down something new to fill that need for music. I’m not complaining mind you, in fact, it’s almost reassuring, comforting somehow, to earn the satisfaction from a long-sought or well-researched musical treasure. Thankfully, there were plenty of treasures this year, and I didn’t even get all the albums I wanted to! So here’s to new music, and also to new milestones in life. For those whom…

benjamin biolay/chiara mastroianni • home helena • nee dans la nature benjamin biolav • negatif earl henry brueggen • idler (ep) earl henry brueggen • cinzano & cocaine (ep) shank • do (burnt friedman project) francoise hardy • tant de belles choses luna • rendezvous stereolab • margarine eclipse difficult easy listening • (burnt friedman’s label sampler) 04.. .the french save the day. moody, slightly electro-psychedelic, folk pop…massive attack without the attitude or the tindersticks in a better mood. burnt friedman continues to proove that it doesn’t matter if adrian Sherwood is mailing it in. soundtrack re-issues or finds berto…

I’ve been absent for the last few years as mortgage payments and tuition siphoned too many funds away form my music budget and studies ate up so much prime listening time. That and a general disgust at the music I was hearing. And apathy, to be honest. Mark was kind enough, however, to keep me in the POOP loop so I feel no need to comment on stuff from the last couple of years. You’ve all heard it before and pontificated on it both passionately and eloquently. Thanks. My dormant passion began to awaken when I got… Buy from amazon…

“I’ve come to hate my body and all that it requires in this world”- The Velvet Underground   No reason, I just like that line and it makes more sense every year. Another quote: “There is no new thing under the sun.” None of these artists have reinvented the napkin. Just pleasure for 30 to 78 minutes, whatever, he sounds like Nick Drake or Marc Bolan or Tiny Tim or she sounds like Barbara Manning or Blossom Dearie. Writing straight, a devil’s bargain with myself. No drugs. This sucks. Life in all it’s clarity is a basement with no view….

Well, Ladies and Gents, the New Kid on the Block, sharing musical blur of 2003. Hope everyone packed a chute. Here we go. 1. Alegria by Wayne Shorter. Proves and artist can have the longevity and be prolific without losing a sense of fresh arrangements, tunes being executed perfectly by the cream of the crop accompanist, Mr. Shorter gives no evidence of any awareness of a Billboard Chart. 2. The Well’s on Fire by Procol Harum. Yes, these Englishmen still make records in 2003, and a good one at that. The album is stylishly distinctive, stayed in my CD carousel…

(in no particular order mind you) Buy from amazon Green Day – American Idiot Green Day jubilantly explore and explode the punk/post-punk dictionary to exhilarating effect, resulting in a ‘Who Sells Out’ / ‘London Calling’ / ‘Rocket To Russia’/ ‘Nevermind’ joyride through Red State Amerika. Buy from amazon Elvis Costello – The Delivery Man EC’s most significant release in years, period. While you’re at it, check out his Gershwinly classical disc ‘Il Sogno’, wherein he teaches many his aspiring peers – McCartney, Joel, and Joe Jackson among them – a thing or three about how this orchestral stuff works. Buy…

Having a best of list in the age of ipod is hard to do. The mini holds 1000 tunes, so each week is like my own BEST OF, with some not making the cut while others hold on for at least another week. It is truly the audio equivalent of AMERICAN IDOL. Sorry RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS , you didn’t make the cut, too pass&eacute, nothing new or original, where is REAL MEN/ COYOTES , sorry you got to go to make room for (fill in artist of the day). As usual I digress…. Here it is THE ONLY LIST…

from the Idiot to the Sweetheart, most things America, with the exception of some drunken Brit sods, a British punk chanteuse , aging Irish heroes, Swedes and a Canadian tribute. Speaking for the land of the free, we have a country legend and a country legend son, gays, ex-con, trailer park punkers, a punk poet, a tiny prophet and some posthumous pop. Tis of thee! Buy from amazon AMERICAN IDIOT – Green Day “Here they come marching down the street like the desperation murmur of a heartbeat.” An American classic. THE HEAT – Jesse Malin “Over mountains, over money, over…

Mark insists I write one of these lists this year, demanding I throw SOMETHING out there to pacify the poop list masses. I ask myself “what would Johnny Damon do?” and know in my heart he would write a poop list. I wish I had something funny to write, but I am still suffering from post election withdrawal, Doug Brien shock and seasonal affected disorder. I may have something funny to say by April. Top 22, in some particular order… Buy from amazon 1. Saturday Looks Good To Me – “Every Night” Influenced by Phil Spector and Motown as much…

Buy from amazon 1. Mark Lanegan- BUBBLEGUM Buy from amazon 2. Devendra Banhart- REJOICING IN THE HANDS Buy from amazon 3. Bonnie Prince Billy- GREATEST PALACE SONGS Buy from amazon 4. Wilco- GHOST IS BORN Buy from amazon 5. Robyn Hitchcock- SPOOKED Buy from amazon 6. Anders Parker- TELL IT TO THE DUST Buy from Amish 7. P.G. Six- THE WELL OF MEMORY Buy from amazon 8. Iron and Wine- OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS 9. Calexico- CONVICT POOL Buy from amazon 10. Tribute to Alejandro Escovedo- POR VIDA Buy from amazon 11. Joe Lovano- I’M ALL FOR YOU Reissues: Danny…

Buy from amazon 1. Bob Dylan – The Bootleg Series Vol. 6, Live 1964 Bob Dylan’s legendary performance Halloween night 1964. Some of the greatest folk music ever performed and the first hint of what was to come. Can you imagine being in the audience and hearing Gates of Eden and It’s All Right, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) for the first time! Buy from amazon 2. Michael Franti and Spearhead – Everyone Loves Music Songs from The Front Porch: An Acoustic Collection Everyone Love Music actually came out in the fall of 2003 but I wasn’t paying attention until 2004….

Despite the fact that my choices hardly ever effect the PoOP standings, I still feel it is my duty to muze and music to have a go at PoOP. I didn’t hear much that grabbed my ear musically, this year, so my list is rather subdued. I suspect that this is a symptom of the Post-Election Trauma Syndrome (PETS) that I and a lot of my friends and neighbors are experiencing as well. While I was not particularly fond of the Democratic candidate, anything promised to be better than the doofus fascist who apparently won thanks to the people in…

2004, hmmm. Well, I know I heard new music this year, but there are so few records I remember. I know, every year I start off with the same bitter rant. I’m the music nerd equivalent to the old high school jock longing for beers after the game with the guys. Indie rock of the 90’s? Now, that was when music was real. Flash back to better times, POOP 1993, 1994, doesn’t matter: Sebadoh – Bakesale; Giant Sand – Center Of The Universe; American Music Club – Mercury; David Gray – A Century Ends; Uncle Tupelo – Anodyne; Matthew Sweet…

ALBUMS Buy from amazon 20) Camera Obscura – Underachievers Please Try Harder – file under “Scottish indie rock that once again gets mistaken for Donovan” rock Buy from amazon 19) Blood Brothers – Crimes – file under “whatever heading you feel fit so long as it is followed by the word ‘core.”‘ rock Buy from amazon 18) Head Automatica – Decadence – file under “white boy dance rock” Buy from amazon 17) The Get Up Kids – Guilt Show – file under “emo for thirty somethings” \ Buy from amazon 16) Fiery Furnaces – Blaeberry Boat – file under “pretentious…

Isis – Panopticon         Buy Burnt by the Sun – Perfect Is the Enemy of the Good         Buy Old man gloom – Christmas         Buy Pig Destroyer – Terrifier         Buy Neurosis – The Eye of Every Storm         Buy Sunn 0))) – White 2         Buy Tusk – Tree of No Return         Buy These Arms Are Snakes – Oxeneers or The Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home         Buy TV on the…

Buy from amazon BRIAN WILSON- Smile: What was previously a disjointed mess is remarkably pulled together. Even taking into consideration the passage of time and new additions, it’s a wonderful snapshot of the unlimited potential that seemed to exist in 1967. Wilson apparently had visions of being rock’s answer to Aaron Copland. Pet Sounds remains the masterpiece and this probably would have been a commercial disaster in 1967 but it would have been remembered along with the best of that year. Bring on the box set! Buy from amazon GREEN DAY- American Idiot: Career album that survives the hype. Jesus…

Buy from amazon Nirvana – With the Lights Out (DGC): This unreal 3cd plus dvd box set deserves more than a mere paragraph to do it justice but let’s just say that it shows how unbelievably talented a band they were. Each disc offers stuff that has not been issued before. I have 4 different "unofficial" box sets of theirs and there are at least 20 tracks I don’t have. The highlights include an outtake of "Verse Chorus Verse" that sounds nothing like the version that is on the "No Alternative" disc…and it’s BETTER. Also the Outtake of "Old Age",…

Buy from amazon Buy from amazon TODD SNIDER – East Nashville Skyline MOUNTAIN GOATS – We Shall All Be Healed Two literate and witty songwriters. Great songs about Linda Blair, the real meaning of “Louie Louie”, and wrestling with guilt and sin. Buy from amazon GUITAR SHORTY – Watch Your Back A Texas blues journeyman puts some rock in the mix and releases his one claim to greatness – besides being related to Jimmy Hendrix. Buy from amazon DAVID MURRAY, Pharoah Sanders and the Gwo-Ka Masters . . . Gwotet The most underrated saxophone player of our time concocts a…

Buy from amazon The Arcade Fire – Funeral (Merge) In 1971, the quirky cult film “Harold and Maude” was released catapulting Bud Cort into the spotlight for his portrayal of a teenage boy obsessed with death. Cort didn’t react positively to the newfound attention and proceeded to turn downoffers left and right. Quirky director Wes Anderson rescued Cort from obscurity this year with a small role in “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”. Now why all the talk about an obscure actor? Let it be a cautionary tale to these death-mongering Montrealeans by way of Texas. They have a unique…