ALBUMS Buy from amazon Mum ~ Summer Make Good. “Will the summer make good for all our sins?” After the resignation of one of its lead vocalists, Mum retreated to a remote lighthouse in Galtarviti for inspiration. The result is their finest album to date, a treasure chest of creaks and anchors, kettles and coins. “Summer Makes Good” evokes wind-chapped faces, bulky, rain-drenched sweaters, tin cups clenched by a crackling fire. We hear whistles and chirps, violins and glockenspiels, a girls’ choir recorded in a cinema basement. All this and more are embedded in a spider’s web of skittery beats….

I’ve never been the type to get a jump-start on an assignment. So naturally I find myself in cram-mode, even with something I normally find great pleasure in – pontificating about music I love. Therefore, I’d like to request a pardon this year from the PoOp overlords from my usual diatribe. Being a relatively newly minted dad (Samuel Harrison born 3/25/05) has thrown me for a loop and to be frank, I just can’t get my act together. It was year of full of major changes and adjustment; a wonderful baby boy and a drab new job and career as…

Buy from amazon Shitmat – Full English Breakfest I’m fond of saying that this sounds like a couple of 7-year olds off their Ritalin, saying “what can we fuck with next?”. But it’s more than that. The CD is wall-to-wall noise with barely room to breathe, each track propelling the next. Yes, this can seem wearing; indeed, I’d say it’s not easy to listen to (a good thing), but with not an iota of wasted sound, it’s a rarity for me today: a novelty album which gets deeper with every listen. Contents: Noise, turntables, samples, grooves, psychosis, ADHD, curiosity. Diplo…

  Buy from amazon 1. Modest Mouse – Good News For People Who Like Bad News How much do I love this album? A lot.   Buy from amazon 2. Wilco – A Ghost is Born I was a tittle put off by endless media barrage around this album and its universal coronation as a “quiet masterpiece.” But after listening to this over and over, I have to admit it’s one of my favorites this year. I like to start on “The Muzzle of Bees” and go straight through to “Theologians”, my favorite track. “Theologians, they don’t know nothing. About…

John J Stewart Jr. Favourite Albums, Singles and Things of the year for the Annual Poop List for 2004 Favourite Albums (No Particular Order other then my favourite album of the year) This was a tough 15. I had at least 40 that stood out and these are the final choices. Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand (Favourite Album) The Scissor Sisters – The Scissor Sisters Modest Mouse – Good News For People Who Love Bad News The Hives – Tyrannosaurus Hives PJ Harvey – Uh Huh Her Sonic Youth – Sonic Nurse Gomez – Split The Difference U2 – How…

Back in Ye Old year of 2004, there once lived a young lad, who told of such a fruitful and compelling yet bludgeoning story of the poop unto all poops in the land. Yet it could only be told by one certified, and thoroughly masterful poopologist from the far away land of Poopville. Alas, I digress. Hence a mere mortal with the utmost pickiest of picky ears and musical tastes, his name, none other than JEFF SCHWARTZ who resides in the enchanting Township, or Hamlet if you will of Green Brook, NJ. Let’s begin. Commonly referred to as a “TOP…

Music to have and to hold Buy from amazon 1. Lhasa, The Living Road (femme from Montreal sings beautifully in French, Spanish & English)   Buy from amazon 2. William Parker, Scrapbook Violin Trio: with Billy Bang on violin / Hamid Drake on drums/ William on bass)   Buy from amazon 3. Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues: 1945-1970 (2 CDs)   Buy from amazon 4. Rufus the Baptist Wainwright, Want Two PLUS live concert at the Fillmore in S F on DVD   Buy from amazon 5. Jeff Buckley, Grace: Legacy Edition (2 Cds and DVD)…

Buy from amazon 1. BRIAN WILSON – Smile I was fully expecting to hate this. But what could have been a very cheesy attempt to retread the past turns out to still sound quite adventurous. I guess Brian really wasn’t made for these (or those) times. Is it sacrilege to suggest that this might actually be better than the original? Probably, but the modern production values and the vision of the bandleader-whose-name-no-one-can-pronounce more than compensate for Brian (a mere shell of a Beach Boy these days) slurring the lyrics. Only heroes here, no villains.   Buy from amazon 2. STEVE…

Buy from amazon The Killers, hot fuss – “gotta, gotta be down”   Buy from amazon Jet, get born – “supersonic beats mixin up my Keds”   Buy from amazon Green Day, american idiot –   Buy from amazon The Thrills, let’s bottle bohemia   Otis Redding (1963-1967), as compiled by mark rosen – “and when you sing this song it’ll make your whole body move”   Buy from amazon Garden State Soundtrack   Buy from amazon Franz Ferdinand, franz ferdinand   Buy from amazon Modest Mouse, good news for people who love bad news   SINGLES (don’t care if…

2004: The Year Cracked Pepper Beat Cheese Whiz Buy from amazon Rock Album Of Year : Fiery Furnaces’ BlueBerry Boat Buy from amazon Rock Album of the Year: Green Day’s American Idiot Buy from amazon Hip-Hop album of Year: Madvillainy by Madvillain  

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…