Buy new or used through Amazon 1. INTO THE WOODS – SLEATER KINNEY These ladies build a sound then crash right through it. An exhilarating ride if you take it. And some solos you can actually like. Land ho!!!   Buy new or used through Amazon 2. I’M WIDE AWAKE, IT’S MORNING – BRIGHT EYES When I finally stopped being impatient and got to the end I realized what I had been missing. A talent to be reckoned with. “No one ever plans to sleep out in the gutter. Sometimes that’s just the most comfortable place.” This could…

The following is not a top ten, but just a list of some records that I enjoyed enough to listen to several times. It’s also not in any particular order.     Buy new or used through Amazon Jess Klein: Strawberry Lover     Buy new or used through Amazon Kathleen Edwards: Back to Me     Buy new or used through Amazon Ryan Adams: Cold Roses     Buy new or used through Amazon Arcade Fire: Funeral     Buy new or used through Amazon Kaiser Chiefs: Employment     Buy new or used through Amazon Cyndi Lauper: The…

Favorite Things ~ ALBUMS    Buy from Amazon B.J. Nilsen ~ Fade to White (Touch). Amazingly, the first new CD I bought in 2005 turned out to be the finest. January’s door had just opened, and here was the perfect soundtrack, one that remained in my CD player until the final frost and returned with the first flakes. “Fade to White” is an apt title for this masterpiece of sampled snow and devastating drones, whipping winds and white-out conditions. As the white noise builds to a tumult, the listener can easily imagine being snowed-in; the final icicle-thin pings sound like…

   Buy new or used through Amazon M.I.A. – Arular (XL/Beggars) Dunno what I can add to all the column inches already dispensed on this. It’s just so wondeful a mix of beats, samples and musics that I feel like listening to it right now. It’s just sooooo….. fuckin’ good.     Buy new or used through Amazon    Buy from Amazon VA – Run the Road 1 (Vice Records USA) VA – Run the Road 2 (679 Records UK) Best comps to get in on the UK grime scene. Almost all of the biggest names from the last 2…

I will be the first to tell you I have no musical taste. I leave that to the experts and those who know so much better then me. That being said, I do love music and I enjoy and here is what made me smile in 2005. I played Franz Ferdinand a lot and they almost made it to number 1. But I decided to give it to Bright Eyes for having 2 albums I thoroughly enjoyed plus making one of the best protest tunes of the past 20 years with “When The President Talks to God”, as well as…

In order to begin, we must first know that while many of these bands & artists seem familiar to most of us…is it my fault that THEY are THE ONE’S who are putting out quality material? I think not. Hence they are simply voted into the crucial, the essential, the masterful, the chosen few, the coolest of the cool, the best, quite simply THE POOP! While there are quite possibly 10 records that I could list this year, I am only coming up with 6 GEMS. Now I will mention a few at the end (that I was not fortunate…

What I listened to in 2005 (approximately)   As ever, in no order, at least that I can discern:       Buy from Not Lame Recording Co. Terry Anderson and the Olympic Ass Kickin’ Team  –  Terry Anderson and the Olympic Ass Kickin’ Team Drunkin’ Rockpile. Songs about drinking, driving, drinking and driving and (did I mention) drinking. Delivered with delightful abandon.       Buy new or used through Amazon Kronos Quarter and Asha Bhosle –  You’ve Stolen My Heart – Songs from RD Burman’s Bollywood The name says it all. A collaboration between the eclectic quartet and the…

Well, it’s that time of year again. The holidays have come and gone, the cookies and nog have settled permanently in my waistline, and the resolutions have been made. Then the voices in my head start talking; “Mark’s going to be in touch soon, start on the list, don’t put it off, don’t put it off …”. Unfortunately, I’m able to listen to myself about as much as I listen to other people (which is not much, obviously, except for my wife and son). So once again, at the last minute, I’ll try to meet Mark’s deadline and stay in…

Buy from Amazon iron & wine & calexico – in the reins   Buy from Amazon francoiz breut – une saison volee   Buy from Amazon jeb loy nichols – now then (& the october ep on cd at last)   Buy from Amazon ana d – morning becomes eclectic   & that about does it. the new brian eno has its moments as does the new benjamin biolay. the daniel lanois is cool but i prefer his pop song stuff. the bertrand bergalat was worth it for a few songs & a wonderful animated video that was inspired by…

Click below for Jim Meyer’s rather elegant .pdf     PoOP

Hey, kids, is this starting to feel too much like work? Would you like fries with that opinion? This mound of music and plastic is turning into Stonehendgeand I need smething to sacrifice. I would do a ritual dance, but I have clacium in myankles. Same truth different day…. I’ll go on … it’s Becketts world, the rest of us just live in it. Translation available on request.    Buy new or used through Amazon 1. Mat Sweeney / Bonnie Prince Billie – “Superwolf” Will grows up, his voice stops cracking and now sounds like… Stephen Stills? And somehow that’s…

   Buy from Amazon John Prine – Fair and Square After nine long years, Prine returns stronger than ever. Bush bash song of the year ‘Some Humans Ain’t Human’. Even his July appearance at The Palace was primo Prine.      Buy from Amazon The Kennedys – Half a Million Miles Nary a year goes by without Pete and Maura on my list du POop. High harmonies, sparkling folk pop and ‘Namaste’. I daresay it won’t get much better, given the current musical clime.      Buy from Amazon Bob Dylan – No Direction Home And do I daresay that…

Welcome to another new year. Hope is well with everyone. Surely you are awaiting the choice as remembered by the one and only me.       Buy new or used through Amazon JOHN COLTRANE “ONE DOWN/ONE UP” Two NYC dates recorded in the last year of the true “power” quartet. This “fab four” was cooking. The first cut catches ‘em in a full jam, Garrison working the strings, Elvin, McCoy, and then John….Double set…live…what mo’ do ya need.       Buy new or used through Amazon PETRA HADEN “ Sings THE WHO SELL OUT” The mo’ ya listen,…

   Buy new or used through Amazon M.I.A. – Arular (XL/Beggars) Dunno what I can add to all the column inches already dispensed on this. It’s just so wondeful a mix of beats, samples and musics that I feel likelistening to it right now. It’s just sooooo….. fuckin’ good.     Buy new or used through Amazon    Buy from Amazon VA – Run the Road 1 (Vice Records USA) VA – Run the Road 2 (679 Records UK) Best comps to get in on the UK grime scene. Almost all of the biggest names from the last 2 years…

2005, In My Humble Opinion Favorite Albums:  Buy new or used through Amazon Twin Cinema – New Pornographers How do they do it?!? They start with an entire Brill Building’s worth of pop hooks and soaring harmonies. Add monster drumming and intellectual lyrics. And round it out with rocking guitar and keyboard play. All in one little Canadian band! The diversity of offerings and overall quality ofthis record is astounding. At certain points, like when the New Pornos start “Hey La Hey La”ing towards the end of “The Bleeding Heart Show,” it is pure musical rapture.  Buy new or used…

Webster defined best as, “excelling all others”. That’s why I have such a hard time writing these supposed “best of” lists, as I am under no illusion that I have the “best” taste in anything, let alone music. My choices in pop culture have been called into question so often over the past year that I wonder why I even bother. That being said, Antony & the Johnsons suck. A lot. And so it goes…       Buy new or used through Amazon 1. Alkaline Trio – “Crimson” The power trio at its finest. A little Misfits meets a…

Buy new or used through Amazon AKRON FAMILY – Angels Of Light   Buy new or used through Amazon AKRON FAMILY – self-titled   Buy new or used through Amazon BRIGHT EYES – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning   Buy new or used through Amazon NICK CAVE – B-sides   Buy new or used through Amazon DIRTBOMBS – If You Don’t Already Have A Look   Buy new or used through Amazon THE DRONES – Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By   Buy new or used through Amazon ONEIDA – The Wedding…

  Buy new or used through Amazon Bruce Springsteen –Devils & Dust – Great songwriting will never go out of style. The title song ‘Devils & Dust’, ‘Jesus Was An Only Son’ and ‘The Hitter’ are as good as anything Springsteen has ever written. This record has been compared to Tom Joad but it’s far more musically rewarding. The love songs, ‘Leah’, ‘Maria’s Bed’ and “Think About You’ have an irresistible up tempo groove. Soozie Tyrell takes every song she plays on to another level. Best sounding record I’ve heard all year.    Buy from Mindy Jostyn site Mindy Jostyn…