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….

TW – POOP LIST FOR CALANDER YEAR 2009 – COMPILED and SPEIL-BEDECKED 1/20-7/2010   Buy New or Used through amazon   OR   @ eMusic  Buy New or Used through amazon   OR   @ eMusic 1/ Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix 2/ Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion It is with a slight spine-shiver of embarrassment that I present this pair of perennial year end front runners as my Top Two. I would love to cover my tracks and affect some contrarian shtick to keep up appearances (by the way, has anyone else noticed that some versions of Word…

Ramble site LIVE #1. Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble Which was even more exciting than i had assumed it’d be. Hours of non-stop music and what a venue too, the barn is so inviting and the sound is perfect, a great home to this event! My favorite moments were when Levon was singing! The Organiks and Donald Fagen were the special guests. Fagen did King Harvest, it was great! Ronnie’s Site LIVE #2. Ronnie Spector At the Bearsville Theater. WOW, just WOW. the show was called " Beyond the Beehive" she read from her book over a great slide show interspersed…

  Buy New or Used through amazon  OR   @ eMusic Major Lazer – Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do A collaboration between Diplo and Switch and a whole bunch of others (Nina Sky, Ricky Blaze, Prince Zimboo). This was my favourite by far this year. A completely mad mix of Jamaican dancehall, techno, cheese, judiciously applied Auto-tune (yes, yes, I know, I know) and other assorted flotsam and jetsam of dance music from the last 5 years. Diplo has been at the top of the game for the last five years at least here he combines it all into…

THE BEST OF 2009   Buy @ amazon  OR   @ eMusic 01. The Reigning Sound – Love and Curses   Buy through amazon   OR through eMusic  02. Black Hollies – Softly Towards The Light  Buy New or Used through amazon  OR  through eMusic 03. Wau Y Los Arghhhs!!! – ¡¡¡Viven!!!   Buy through amazon   OR   through eMusic 04. The A-Bones – Not Now!   Buy through amazon   OR   through eMusic 05. King Khan & The Shrines –What Is?!  Buy through amazon   OR   through eMusic 06. Ty Segall – Lemons   Buy through…

  Buy from amazon  OR   @ eMusic Ray Barbee meets the Mattson 2 – s/t   Buy New or Used through amazon The Embassadores – Coptic Dub   Download from eMusic Emilie Proulx – La Lenteur Alentour   Buy through amazon  OR @ eMusic Lhasa De Sela – Lhasa   Buy New or Used through amazon Lay Low – Farewell Goodnights Sleep   Buy through amazon  OR   @ eMusic John Doe & The Sadies – Country Club   Buy through amazon  OR   @ eMusic Ceu – Vagarosa   Buy through amazon  OR   @ eMusic Jeb Loy…