This Year's Model
Good Evening Blogizens!
We spent a holiday party at a friend's and I spent most of the afternoon
taking pictures of their four children. They're all kind handsome, charismatic
kids, but their daughter Teagan just steals my heart.
She's one of those quiet, dark Irish beauties that speaks with her eyes.
Just gorgeous. Though I think the sketch came out nice- it does her no justice.
Anyways- I wanted to open up the comment board to something cool.
My old bandmate Jimmy sends me a list every year of his co-workers'
Music Polls- Basically a top ten of the best shit you've heard this year.
You should list them in order of relevance.
I was invited to post mine this year and here's what I came up with:
1) Gnarls Barkley , St. Elsewhere
2) Beck, The Information
3) Sean Lennon, Friendly Fire
4) Keane, Under The Iron Sea
5) The Decemberists, The Crane Wife
6) The Raconteurs, Broken Boy Soldiers
7) John Legend, Once Again
8) Snow Patrol, Eyes Open
9) Lily Allen, Alright, Still
10) Wolfmother, Wolfmother
But I recently heard the Hold Steady album "Boys and Girls in America"-
and think it probably bumps Wolfmother off the list.
Normally bands that get Springsteen comparisons are
not my cup of Teagan, but the sing-along lyrical brilliance
and the bombastic anthemic rock are hard to resist.
Worth a listen.
So lads & lasses- Did I forget anyone? Feel Industrious?
Why not drop your top ten albums of '06 in my comment box-
Give us something to talk about...
Ribbit!
P.S.- If the Shins had released their latest three weeks ago i,t would've been
in the top 5 fer shure. "Wincing the Night Away" dropped this week.
Lovely stuff....
posted by Glenn Byrne @ 8:07 PM
25 comments
25 Comments:
dang! I thought I woulda at least from Justin by now!
I thought the same thing...I thought he would of been the 1st post...but ya know he probably had to go through "zillions" of the albums of 06..with his collections...so he's probably sifting through them as we blog. and i don't have a list.......
Dudes! Ha...Sorry, man..I haven't kept up with my buds blogs the last few days I guess... and I just saw this post! (it's Friday the 26th, @ 6:34pm)...I will definitely post my Top Ten soon as I figure it out..but I can tell ya right off the bat that at least 40% of my list is the same as yours!
I'll Hollah back soon!
PS nice sketch...'natch!
Alllrght! Went thru the purchaes from the last year...amazing how fast a year goes by, but it still feels like a while ago that I picked up some of these..anyways...here goes:
TOP 12 (ok, I cheated)
1 - THE BEATLES - LOVE
This kinda blew me away the first time I heard it..it's the familiar Beatles tunes for the most part, but all mashed together with bits and pieces from other Beatles tunes..really making these songs sound fresh..all with amazing sound quality (get the DVD 5.1 ver!).
2 - SEAN LENNON - FRIENDLY FIRE
There are some simply drop dead melodies on this album...it's short, but sweet.
3 - KEANE - UNDER THE IRON SEA
More greatness from one of the best bands of recent days.
4 - THE RACONTEURS - BROKEN BOY SOLDIERS
Flat out rocks..great vocals from former solo artist Brendan Benson and the White Stripes' Jack White. A great video, too for 'Hands'.
5 - ROGER JOSEPH MANNING JR - THE LAND OF PURE IMAGINATION
There's a mouthful for ya..and you'll get an earful in return...loads of sweet pop melodies, all kinds of harmonic richness and keyboard tweaking and frillery from one half of the Jellyfish songwriting team. (more on Andy Sturmer, the other half, below!).
6 - WOLFMOTHER - S/T
Did I say The Raconteurs disc flat out rocks? Well, this album FLAT OUT MOTHER FUCKING ROCKS!! Evoking Sabbath, Zep in points, but definitely unique..bigtime fantasy and mythological feel to the song titles and lyrics...along with epic prodcution and arrangements. Great!
7 - PAUL SIMON - SUPRISE
The guy's still got it..working with Brian Eno who is credited for 'sonic landscape', Simon's tunes are still basically the same, classic Simon songwriting, augmented with some more electronic beeps and ambient sounds and beats. Some really nice tunes here.
8 - JET - SHINE ON
This one satisfied my need for some total aural enjoyment..the arrangements and production are big, thick and layered in guitars and harmonies..lush is the word..the piano, the vocals are upfront...great tunes...from the grungy rockier stuff to the beautiful piano ballads. I'm a sucker for this shit!
9 - L.E.O. - ALPACA'S ORGLING
Boston singer-songwriter-rocker, Bleu joins forces with a bunch of his power-pop friends to put together this ode to E.L.O..not a tribute album, it's a totally new album with songs put together to sound like long lost E.L.O. outtakes! Andy Sturmer (he of the other half of Jellyfish!) shows up to lend some co-writing and singing credits to 2 tunes...other notables helping out in various capacties are John Fields, Mike Viola (the Candybutchers), Matt Mahaffey of Self, and Hanson! In the end it does sounds like E.L.O. in parts for sure, but ultimately it sounds like a great Bleu album!
10 - MATTHEW SWEET & SUSANNA HOFFS - UNDER THE COVERS VOL. 1
More aural ear candy...Two great voices sounding great together, singing classic 60's pop. Stuff I can't get tired of.
11 - RHETT MILLER - THE BELIEVER
More great countried power pop from the former lead singer of the Old 97's. One great tune after another..with some of those tunes that can just stop time and make you feel like all is right with the world for 3 minutes.
12 - McFLY - JUST MY LUCK
Yeh, this is the album that went along with their appearence in the Hilary Duff...or was it Lindsay Lohan?? movie of the same name..these are British kids in thier late teens, early twenties at most, who happen to be amazing songwriters and vocalists in the Beatles vein..they're huge in Britain. Great power-pop.
HONORABLE MENTIONS/OTHER STUFF BOUGHT LAST YEAR
(btw everything on this list I own as an actual store purchased CD!!)
MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE - THE BLACK PARADE
Totally over the top production with multiple guitars, vocals, harmonies, horns and strings with Queen firmly in mind...I'm still working on it..it's ALOT to take in..many multiple listens are required...but even still with all the bombast, clear, pop songwriting still shines thru! Awesome James Jean cover and booklet art.
PUFFY AMIYUMI - SPLURGE
Andy Sturmer and Bleu get together again to help out the cutey Japanese girl duo...total pop heaven, but with some crunchy rock guitars..some English, but of course alot of high pitched Japanese female vocals. If ya like that sorta thing!
ELTON JOHN - THE CAPTAIN AND THE KID
Still haven't really given it the proper Ipod time..there are definitely some nice melodies here..he can still do it after all these years, but overall the first few impressions haven't brought me back to it yet many times.
THE LEMONHEADS - S/T
Again, more listening time is required, but I was a bit disapointed to not hear the great melodies I was expecting from Evan Dando...it's a bit punkier..I think with time I'll come to appreciate it a bit more...maybe!
TENACIOUS D - THE PICK OF DESTINY
Not up the level of the greatness of the first album, nor as funny, but some good stuff here...once more, more listens required!
Besides all that I downloaded a huge amount of rare and live music from www.dimeadozen.org, a bit torrent site..loads of Raconteurs shows, Amazing early Tom Waits, and just a shitload of classic and new stuff....obviously more than I'll ever get to listen to!!!
Lou post up your list bro!
There will be no mocking of anyone's picks
There's no musical snobbery here...(Shakira! Shakira!) It's just a Poll...
Justin thanks for the liner notes as well as the list...I miss those every three month disc drops we used to have...wouldn't mind hearing that Matthew Sweet album....what about you Jesse?
Whatcha got?
Nice drawing, Frogdaddy.
The only ones that I can come up with off the top of my head as far as new albums are:
1. Tom Waits- "Orphans"
-There's some surprisingly good songs on this one; too bad most people won't buy it because it's a triple-album and costs more than $30. The die-hard fans like me have to have it, though.
2. Beck- "The Information"
-Ultimately not as good as "Guerro", but still better than most. Some interesting lyrics and dynamic music.
3. The Raconteurs- "Broken Boy Soldiers"
- Although mainly derivitive, good rock is good rock,and you can't go wrong with Jack White in any form of a band. At least they mix it up so that each song sounds like a different band. The songs are still great, though.
Sorry, that's all I got.
I'll go with
The Decemberists
SNOW PATROL!!!!
Lily Allen
JOHN LEGEND
let's toss in FIONA APPLE, great album!
(Extraordinary Machine)
THE RACONTEURS: the albums is good from start to finish!!!!!
Badly Drawn Boy, : they are playing in March, at webster hall. (nice new album
I dont know if the eels have anything new, but a good friend introduced them to me this year, and they are fantastic!
Haven't heard the new lemonheads album, but I bet I might just like it.
Beautiful sketch frogdaddy
Hey Dan-much obliged-I'll take a top 3,
top 5, whatever ya got...always liked Tom Waits...a triple album? that's sick!
Hey Bex- we've been trading music all year, so it's no surprise our lists are so similar!
I forgot about Fiona- but that album is awesome!
Hey Glenn, that sketch of Teagan is beautiful, dude. You did her just justice, bro. Along with your Kenna sketches, I think you've got a whole toddler portrait niche developing here, bud. Now, onto that top 10 list. Mine, as always, runs the gamut, so bear with my choices:
1. Robin Thicke - The Evolution of Robin Thicke - Holy shit, you've gotta get this album! Ironically enough Louis Narcisse hipped me up to it. This is Alan Thicke's son (yeah, Growing Pains dad, Thicke, if you can believe it) and he's amazingly soulful and very talented. He channels Prince, Brown, Barry White, Smokey, Gaye, you name it, this guy's the real deal. No two songs sound alike and his instrumentation is on point. I firmly believe he's our new Smokey Robinson of our generation. Go and buy this now!!! Or have me burn you a copy, whichever you'd like.
2. Muse -Black Holes And Revelations - If you've never heard/heard of this band, you're missing out on some really good shite! It's a Rush/Moby/Rentals/Bowie/Depeche Mode Jambalaya of good rolicking fun! I highly recommend it.
3. TV On The Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain - These guys are just weird and eclectic enough for my eccentric tastes. Go buy it! NOW!!!
4. The Information - Beck - OF COURSE!!! But still, Guero is by far my favorite Beck album right alongside Odelay, 'natch.
5. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere - This album is awesome!!! AWESOME!!!
6. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers - Dare I say I like them better than White Stripes? I know there's no comparison (Justin!!!), but Jack's more unhinged on these songs and the production's much more slicker.
7. Beyoncé - B'Day - Love this girl's voice...and music...and-and-nd...her. :D
8. Evanescence - The Open Door - This girl can sing her ass off! She reminds me so much of Ann Wilson of Heart but with less chops and more edge.
9. Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass! - C'mon!!! That's the stupidest most attention-grabbing title ever, right? How can you not buy this based solely on the title? No really, I'm not kidding...alright, I didn't buy it, but somebody passed it to me and I couldn't resist listening to it. Not bad at all, actually...
10. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds - Again, didn't purchase it, but, I'll be danged if it's not a catchy, poppy, foot-tapping little ditty! Get a copy today, dammit!
...and there are more that I just copied from other people (and maybe not from 2006) that were just as groovy:
Prince - 3121
The Decemberists - Castaways And Cutouts
Paul Simon - Surprise
Sean Lennon - Friendly Fire
Wolfmother - Wolfmother
Chris Daughtry - Daughtry
N.E.R.D. - In Search Of...
Oh yeah, and Fiona Apple's new one, Extraordinary Machine, how could I forget that one?!??! I love this album! Man, I know I'm gonna remember others like this now. Oh well, I'm gonna have a lot of posts, Glennito! :)
Jesse- as always- you're ecclectic tastes surprise me...you're telling me Alan Thicke has a son that sounds like Smokey Robinson? I keep visualizing Kirk Cameron singing "I Second That Emotion" for some reason...that Evanescence/Heart connection is so on-point...My brother is still trying to turn me onto Cookie Mountain-
but it's so out-there that I have a hard time sittin through it...and this is from a Ween lover who normally gives out-there stuff a chance....
great list man! Thanks to everybody who's participating-this is awesome to a music nut like myself....
Who's left out there- Charlie?
C'mon Man -I know Jerry Cantrell didn't release an album this year, but there had to be something you were listening to besides "The Wiggles"....hola back Chuck!
LOL!!! Dude, believe me, Robin Thicke is THAT GOOD! Really, you'll totally dig him, I know your tastes and mine pretty much gel about 90% of the time (c'mon, ABBA? Can I get a hollah?!?!?) so I know you'll be into it. The album is awesome from beginning to end. And TOTR is a pretty weird and a little too mellow for me sometimes but they're really good. Give 'em another chance, you'll fall like me. In the beginning I was reticent as well, but, I caved eventually. Thanks for the list, bro! You made me think and research all my purchases for the year and I found stuff I had buried I hadn't listened to or ignored for a while there. If you want me to burn you a copy of the Thicke cd, just say so and I'll bring it by your place and stick it in your mailbox sometime during the week.
OK, so crap. If it's new and good, I have to defer to Rachel.
Wasn't this the year of the Arctic Monkey?
Yeah, I guess I spent the year rediscovering my own music collection. It's been all iPod all the time. So it's been Neil Young, Rolling Stones, Jack Johnson, The Who, and I found my old Sidewinders CD. Oh, and we discovered the Blushin' Roulettes at a coffe house in Ft. Bragg and bought their CD. Folky. And they have a banjo player.
Raconteurs, Badly Drawn Boy, Modest Mouse, and all of those, well, I heard them when Rachel's iPod played in the car. And I dug what I heard when I heard it. But I haven't really invested the time in listening to the albums.
But all that's going to change. She burned me some CDs this weekend and I've got a trip coming up.
I did buy a bunch of books. And I even read some of them. And I'm deep in to Pynchon's Against The Day right now.
Come to think of it - I think Neil's Hawks and Doves came out last year. No wait - it was Living With War. By far his best album of 2006.
Oh, and J. Davis Trio - great rhymes, hip hop over jazz. They're coming up. Might even break out this year. Or they could just fade away. I'll burn you a copy of my CD, Glenn.
aka jason quinones...yo glenn! yeah,i jumped on the bloggin bandwagon this year! my address is jasonsartblog.blogspot.com. easy to remember! as far as playlists well i got a list on my blog on the side bar but most of it is old stuff. as far as new heavy rockin shit. i'm all about mastodon! their albums leviathan and remission are kick ass! i also agree with jess on tv on the radio! big into bloc party too. i know it's not in list form but whaddaya want from me , i'm supposed to be workin !!
jay
Jesse -
Good call on the Muse disc! Great band!
I'm sure we'll have a disc trade-off soon, Jess...you don't have to do no drive-bys
Hey Eric-your wife's got great taste in music
Phred and Chele have been making mixtapes to each other their whole lives...how can we top that? Hey Jason-a band with a name like Mastodon must rock sweaty & heavy! Like man boobs on a treadmill. I'm gonna check your blog right now! Hey Justin- no adding on!
Ribbit!
Okay, i'll play. This has been a hard year to find
good music because not much appeals to me like it used to. However this is what has caught my ear:
• Daughtry- Yeah, he sounds like a dozen other rockers but i heard him on Idol once and he won me over!
• Akon- C'mon guys!!! the guy is criminal!!!
• Breaking Benjamin- solid rock album.
•Three Days Grace- a few of their songs have grown on me.
• Tenacious D- *see Justin's comments.
• Godsmack- they picked up where Alice in Chains left off.
• Evanescence- for the obvious reasons.
Otherwise, i find myself listening to ALOT of OLD
stuff. You know, back when things were more original...
.... Re: Robin Thicke-- Where's that Hasselhoff pic when you need it!!!!
LOL!!!
Hey Charles, don't knock it 'til you try it, bro! Can someone say, um, Hall & Oates??? Yeah, thought so!
Justino, I love that album.
And you all should go check out Jason Quiñones's blog, the kid's doing some amazing artwork over there. Go show him some love, y'all!
Jessito signing off...
LOL!!!
Hey Charles, don't knock it 'til you try it, bro! Can someone say, um, Hall & Oates??? Yeah, thought so!
Justino, I love that album.
Glennito, wasn't planning on it, trust me. I'll wait 'til I see you on the subway again. :)
And you all should go check out Jason Quiñones's blog, the kid's doing some amazing artwork over there. Go show him some love, y'all!
Jessito signing off...
I don't know why, but I can totally see you jammin to "Smack Dat"...kick it like Tai Bo! Thanks for including your list Charlie!
and even though I said no mocking earlier-
that Hasslehoff comment gave me a laff...
I feel like I'm sitting between you two dudes again like the old days, when I reads ome of these comments! Good Times....*sigh!*
Damn you, Jesse-- callin' me out with the Hall & Oates!!!! Ah, well... that's STILL more respectable
than Robin Thicke!!!
All i hear is that GROWING PAINS theme....
I'm sooooo outta da loop musically these days, I probably haven't bought 10 new cd's in the past 2 1/2 years.
However of the few new things I have bought recently, I'm really lovin' Colorblind by Robert Randolph & The Family Band...a very kool funky, bluesy album.
Also, though not new in general, but new to me, I recently discovered Let's Go Classics by Takeshi Terauchi & The Bunnys...classical music performed, surf-guitar-style by Japanese guitarist Takeshi Terauchi, originally released in the late 60's. Much, much fun!
Beyond that...[shoulders drop...exhales] I have nothing to contribute.
But please get back to me, when it's time to discuss our 10 Favorite Fast Food Sandwiches of '06!
thanks for stopping by Rob...
you stay classy, Kramer!
Helo!
Very, very, good.
Tank you
Many Thanks David!
I apreciate you stopping by!
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