"100 million people have been wrong before."

"Thirty One Today" by AIMEE MANN: Just added! Had to toss this one into tonight's post after discovering an email from one of Mann's publicists announcing the release of this new track from Aimee's hilariously titled June album, @#%&! SMILERS (any guesses on the cuss word? "Motherfucking?"). While still mining somber subject matter on "Thirty One Today," Mann sounds absolutely bubbly this time around. Smilers is Mann's first album of original material since 2005's boxing themed The Forgotten Arm (I'm not counting her holiday album, obviously). I've already addressed both my crush on Mann (she was even in The Big Lebowski, for fuck's sake!) and her songwriting genius here before, so I'll just leave you with this, a link to her website, where you'll find all kinds of bio info, an extensive discography, and links to listen to some of her work.

"Heart it Races" by DR. DOG: Yeah, almost every post I've made this year references Dr. Dog. What of it, punk? Here's their oft-blogged cover or Architecture in Helsinki's "Heart it Races." I'm probably in the minority, but I think this version blows the original right off the map.

"Elevator Love Letter" by STARS: Music has just been piling up on my hard drive for years now, and I have had little time to hear most of it, which leads to awesome moments like the other day when this song came on in my car. Hearing it spurred me to get back to posting here, and it took me three posts to finally get this one onlnine.

"One Slight Wrong Move" by ARCHERS OF LOAF: Speaking of random songs in my car, this Archers classic (from White Trash Heroes, their final hurrah) crept up from the depths on me this afternoon and kicked my entire boring day in the ass. So funky, so dissonant. It was also the perfect lead-in for what followed. . .

"Editions of You" by ROXY MUSIC: I can attribute an entire decade delay in my love of Roxy Music to the father of a childhood friend, who constanly played "Love is the Drug" in his car when he was driving us anywhere. Since this guy's record collection consisted of a lot of Don Henley and Jimmy Buffett, I chalked RM up to being just another group of coked up assholes with no talent. I guess I was right about them probably being coked up, and probably being assholes, but 66% is still a failing grade in my book. (A few years ago, I had my brother in stitches when we pulled up next to a car blaring Jimmy Buffett and I leaned out to their open window and screamed, "BUFFETT CAN STUFF IT!" Fuck that guy.)

"Sport" by LIGHTNIN ROD
"Superfly" by CURITS MAYFIELD
"Egg Man (demo)"
"Egg Man" by BEASTIE BOYS: The deconstruction/reconstruction of a hip-hop masterpiece. Of course, the Beastie Boys' classic "Egg Man" probably features dozens of other samples (including music from "Jaws"), but Lightnin Rod's "Sport" and Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly" are the two pillars the rest of the song stands upon. The last book I read for recreation, before this semester got a grip on me, was the 33 1/3 series entry about the making of the B Boys' Paul's Boutique. I highly recommend it, even though it was dying for a footnote section listing as many possible samples used on the record as possible. If you're looking for more, do a Google search on The Beastie Collection compilation, which is packed with original songs sampled for that and a few other B Boys records.

"There's a Wrinkle in Our Time" by 1984: Sweet mother of fuck! There's a wrinkle in my duodenum, and it got there through the 1984-sized boot in my ass.

Ship of fools. . .

Get it? 'Cause it was April Fools Day?

Is this thing on?

"Like a Fool" by SUPERCHUNK

"I'm a Fool" by ETTA JAMES

"Foolin'" by DEF LEPPARD

"Foolish Fool" by DEE DEE WARWICK

"What a Fool Believes (Intro)" from YACHT ROCK
"What a Fool Believes" by THE DOOBIE BROTHERS
"What a Fool Believes" by SELF

"You Were the Fool" by WEEN

"Old Fools" by THE MAGNETIC FIELDS

"Fool's Life" by DR. DOG

Coming up for air. . .

While I may be barely living, I assure you. . . I'm alive.

Just a few more weeks until I get a break. I have to admit, a small part of me so dearly wants to put this blog to bed. Just a bullet to the back of the head, and then watch it drop into a watery grave. A larger part of me, unfortunately, can't deal with that ending.

Thanks to anyone who still comes by here every once in a while to see if I'm still kicking. I know I'll never win a blog award behaving like this, but I hope you'll still think of me when you're jamming out to shit like this:

"Consolers of the Lonely"
"Five On the Five" by THE RACONTEURS: Every Spring I search for -- NEED -- some kind of rock gem to help dig me out of the snow and the cold. The Raconteurs' Consolers of the Lonely is that very record. Even the acoustic numbers wind up packing a punch. Nothing groundbreaking, but another stellar album from Jack White, Brendan Benson and company.

UPDATE!!! Raconteurs links removed by request of "Web Sheriff". Wow, for the first time in the history of Pimps of Gore, I've pissed off a record label. Although, I have to admit, they were pretty nice about it all. See Comments section for their note. Sorry folks, getcher Raconteurs tracks elsewhere!

"Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?"
"Change Is Hard" by SHE & HIM: While I confess to an insane crush on Zooey Deschanel that dates as far back to her turn as the smart ass cosmetics clerk in The Good Girl (and of course, the sister in Almost Famous, I have to admit that this album, a collaboration with M. Ward, sideswiped me a bit. I tried to resist it, and then one afternoon a few days ago, that resistance was busted apart by the two songs presented here today. Ward and Deschanel cover a ton of ground in just over 36 minutes, including classic girl group pop, old school country and even a couple of decent covers of The Beatles and Smokey Robinson classics.

"Lost Verses" by SUN KIL MOON: From the newly released April, the first proper record from Mark Kozelek's post-Red House Painters band since the absolutely classic Ghosts of the Great Highway (really, that Modest Mouse covers album should have been considered a Kozelek joint, since it was so dominated by him and an acoustic guitar). There are so many songs from this album I wanted to share with you. . . the crushingly dark "Heron Blue," the Crazy Horse-ian "Tonight the Sky," the Will Oldham-backed "Unlit Hallway." It's a breezy, delicate and yet sometimes heavy work of art. "Lost Verses" pretty much captures it all, and I think you're gonna love that moment that comes at the 8 minute mark, when the fuzzy electric guitars butt in and make themselves known.

In closing, here are a couple other favorite Kozelek tracks from a number of different projects throughout the years. I've posted about the dude a few times before, so I'll try to keep from repeating previous tracks:

"All Mixed Up" (Cars cover, live in San Francisco, 2004)
"Dramamine" (Modest Mouse cover)
"Around and Around" (John Denver cover, which I'm dedicating to my best friend Sarah P.)
"Michigan" (live)
"Rock 'n Roll Singer" (AC/DC cover)
"Wop A Din Din" (7-inch version)
"Drop"

2007: Favorites (plus, some ill Bill)

It's strange, what sometimes inspires me to get my shit together and write on this blog.

I've had my "Best of 2007" list of 10 made for well over a month now. Thing is, I'm not really a fan of "best of" lists. I'm especially not fond of -- if making such a list -- ranking a bunch of albums against each other. I think the old cliche of "it's like comparing apples and oranges" truly applies here, when you're talking about things like art, which should ideally be dealt with in as subjective a manner as possible.

Who am I to say the ten albums on my list are the absolute "best" that came out in 2007?

When I do make up such lists, I typically only do so by being prodded by some outside influence. I've written a couple for magazines over the years. I did one last year for a foreign website collecting Top Ten lists from as many music bloggers as possible. That turned out to be a decent read, actually.

I did one this year because of a music newsgroup to which I'm subscribed. The guy who has taken over the duty of compiling the stats for the group's top 100 choices uses a point system to rank every member's submitted list. First place gets the most points, with a decreasing amount going from 2nd to 10th.

This year, I wanted Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings' 100 Days, 100 Nights to earn as many points as possible. Such a fantastic, timeless album. So, I submitted my list, which I intended to mirror here.

Then, I got really lazy. I went home to visit the family. I took many naps. I drifted off for a while.

What snapped me back, at least as far as this place is concerned, was what always snaps me back: hearing (or, in this case re-hearing) something magnificent. On that aforementioned music newsgroup, the subject of Bill Withers arose, and I got to once again spout off about how much I love the man and his music. As a bonus to my rant, I added links to four Withers songs, two of which I've posted before on Pimps, and two that I hadn't been struck by until a few nights ago.

Those two songs:

"Hope She'll be Happier": Wow. Just. . . crushing. This like soul music made by Radiohead or something.

"Don't You Want to Stay": "Hi, I'm Bill Withers, and I'm a fucking stone pimp." Much in the same way Wes Anderson initially wanted to use only music from The Kinks for the soundtrack to Rushmore, I want to make a dark indie comedy using only Bill Withers.

With those two new favorites showing up in my headphones, I finally felt the inclination to complete that post on my favorite records of 2007. Not even including the dozens of great records I never even got to hear this year, the dozens of records I bought were virtually impossible to narrow down to ten. Just look at some of the stuff I had to leave out: Arcade Fire's Neon Bible! Aesop Rock's None Shall Pass! Andrew Bird's Armchair Apocrypha! Dethklok's Dethalbum! Feist's The Reminder! Plus, tons of others from the likes of Modest Mouse, The White Stripes, Matt Pond PA, Les Savy Fav, the Shout Out Louds, Pinback. . . even the soundtrack to I'm Not There. In any other year, all of these would be in contention for the top spots.

Damn it all. Here's the ten I went with, no longer in any particular order:

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings 100 Days, 100 Nights
Sharon Jones is for real. 100%. I made a mention of 100 Days a couple of months ago (along with posting a couple of tracks), but it's probably a record I should have championed more at the time of its release. I've never prided myself on posting about the most currently released music. That's not what this site is for, and there are thousands of places to go if you're waiting to see what's next. This place is more reserved for the stuff that may have slipped through the cracks, or that just doesn't get discussed enough. Hopefully, 2008 will be Sharon Jones' year and I won't have to blog about her anymore because she'll be more popular than R Kelly.

Since I already posted two tracks from this record, here's a bonus track from the digital version:
"The Collection Song"


Kings of Leon Because of the Times
Maybe I didn't read enough music rags this past year, but this record seemed to get totally slept on. There seems to be an undercurrent of hipster hatred for these guys, which is funny, because a lot of the hatred seems to be aimed at the fact that they come off as hipsters. Why cut off your nose to spite your face? Me, I think it's pretty much the best thing they've done yet. "McFearless" (posted here previously) is absolutely one of the best songs of the year. (What, now I'm speaking in absolutes?)

"McFearless"
"True Love Way"


Band of Horses Cease to Begin
You get it at this point, I'm sure: I love Band of Horses. I practically dedicated an entire month to them here, so I'm not going to carry on too much more about this record. While I'm doing you the favor of brevity, let me also be sure to include a link to "Detlef Schrempf," the song I posted about but did not include in my rave review of Cease not so long ago.

"Detlef Schrempf"
"Islands on the Coast"


Eddie Vedder Into the Wild
Another album I've covered here already. The perfect soundtrack for the subject at hand, and an incredibly humane film by Sean Penn. The track I'm including tonight, "Guaranteed," which just last night won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song, is actually two versions of the same song (the second take is instrumental, and comes after a chunk of silence following the vocal version).

"Guaranteed"


Wilco Sky Blue Sky
While nowhere near my favorite Wilco album, Sky is still pretty stellar, and would probably be a career best for any other band besides Wilco. Hell, just writing something as delicate and poignant as "Either Way," "What Light," or "Impossible Germany" would be enough to get by.

"Either Way"
"Hate it Here" (from bonus live DVD)


Rogue Wave Asleep at Heaven's Gate
I didn't see a lot of shows last year (school and work are pretty much devouring the hours of my life at a wicked pace), but one of the best times I had was at Rogue Wave's show at Omaha's Waiting Room on a quiet sunday night. While the turnout was disappointingly small, the band and the crowd were appreciative of each other's company. It felt really good to see drummer Pat Spurgeon smiling and playing his heart out after going through a second kidney transplant not long ago. It felt good to support a band full of obviously decent guys who came armed with an endless bag of hooks and harmony. Asleep at Heaven's Gate is, in my eyes, their third flawless record in a row.

"Harmonium"


Dr. Dog We All Belong
I think to truly appreciate Philadelphia's Dr. Dog, you have to trick yourself into forgetting these guys are around right now. Imagine you're listening to a record that was made 35 to 40 years ago. It isn't hard to do, especially when the opening song on the record sounds like a mixture of The Band, Roxy Music and Village Green-era Kinks. Further exploration in the grooves of this album will net comparisons to Mercury Rev, The Beach Boys, Of Montreal, The Beatles. . . you know, all the best shit ever.

"Alaska"
"I Hope There's Love"


Radiohead In Rainbows
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone has this in his or her Top 10 this year. Well, there's a reason for that, sucka. Somehow, they made an organic record that sounds every bit as electronic and trippy as their past couple of albums. Radiohead allowed fans to pay whatever price they wished for the music (I paid about $8), but no matter what the cost, it was worth every penny. ("Bangers & Mash," included here, comes from the bonus disc, released with the deluxe version of In Rainbows.)

"Jigsaw Falling Into Place"
"Bangers & Mash"


Dinosaur Jr. Beyond
The only thing more amazing than Lou Barlow and J. Mascis kissing and making up was the fact that they got the old Dinosaur Jr. back together and made an album that actually rocks just as much as any of their earliest stuff! Do you honestly think when Led Zeppelin finally get around to recording the expected "reunion album" that all reunited bands are expected to record, it's going to kick as much ass as anything on the first Zep album? Not bloodly likely, friend.

"Crumble"
"This is All I Came to Do" (J, in a live solo acoustic radio performance)


The Shins Wincing the Night Away
The album that time forgot. I almost left this on my list because it came out so near the start of 2007, but I spent a good chunk of the beginning of the year hypnotized by this record. I listened to it so much that I found an undeniable correlation between the ending guitar drone of "Turn on Me" and the post-extraneous-solo guitar of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper." Now that winter has struck Omaha, I've returned to this melancholy little gem. So many good songs on this record. The Smiths-ian "Australia." The Sea Change-era Beck sound of "Sea Legs." Any album that kicks off with something as uplifting as "Sleeping Lessons" can count on my vote.

"Sea Legs"
"Nothing At All" (bonus track)

"Stood Up" on New Years: RICK NELSON

Well, since we're on the subject of early rock n' roll "teen" stars who definitely don't get the respect they deserve, let's talk for a moment about RICK(Y) NELSON. While this post may seem out of the blue, it's unfortunately quite timely. Unfortunate because it was 22 years and one day ago, December 31, 1985, when Rick Nelson died alongside his fiance and band in a plane crash on his way to a New Years Eve concert in Dallas, Texas.

Rick Nelson's early career on his family's radio and television program (the massively popular The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) did nothing in the long run to help legitimize his music career. Nelson's musical performances on the television show did a great deal to bring rock n' roll into mainstream households and make the form palatable to conservative parents who may have been fretting where the younger generations obsessions were heading (remember, this was the generation who were frightened of Elvis's pelvis).

Sadly, Nelson's boy-next-door persona and insane good looks would pigeonhole him as one of rock's first "teen idols." This, paired with the fact that his father refused to let Nelson peform any one of Ricky's dozens of hits on any other show but his own, put the figurative shackles on his musical career.

It must have been perplexing for Nelson to deal with having so many hit singles and yet receiving little respect in his lifetime for being one of rock's earliest stars. While posthumous, his induction into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame in its second ever induction (by John Fogerty) was a fitting tribute just a year after his death. Not long afterward, he was also inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Too little too late, perhaps, but respect is respect in my book.

"Stood Up": (Previously posted here in October 2005) A staple of my old DJ sets, "Stood Up" was usually played as the last song of the night, as a little joke to all those sad bastards still hanging around the bar trying miserably to arrange that last-minute hook-up. If I owned a bar, this is how I'd announce closing time every single night.

"Travelin' Man"
"Hello Mary Lou": How many great singles did Nelson have? So many that "Hello Mary Lou" was the frigging b-side to "Travelin' Man," and both were massive hits!

"Poor Little Fool": Written by Sharon Sheeley, the fiance of Eddie Cochran who - along with Gene Vincent - was one of the other passengers present in the car crash that would result in Cochran's death.

"I Will Follow You": Originally recorded under the title "Chariot" by Petula Clark, and then covered as "I Will Follow Him" by 14 year old Little Peggy March, who had a #1 hit with the song the same year that Nelson recorded it, 1963.

"Lonesome Town": Whether or not you'd like to admit it, appearing on a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack can go a long way to re-igniting interest in an artist's career. I probably wasn't 18 years old the first time I heard "Lonesome Town," but I'm pretty sure catching it on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack sparked a newfound interest in this guy I'd always assumed was as square as Pat Boone.

"Garden Party": Nelson's biggest (only?) late-career hit, "Garden Party" tells the story of a concert in the early 70s where Nelson joined other rock legends at Madison Square Garden, and was booed after performing new material (some reports say he was covering a Rolling Stones song). While it later came to light that the audience was possibly booing some police officers in the crowd, Nelson took the incident quite personally, leaving the stage and later penning one of the biggest hits of his career. "It's all right now / I've learned my lesson well / You can't please everyone so you've got to please yourself."

"My Rifle, My Pony, and Me" (with DEAN MARTIN): In what has to be one of the most pimp musical moments in celluloid history, crooner Martin joins up with Nelson for this classic little nugget of a country song, taken from the John Wayne movie Rio Bravo.


FOR MORE ON RICK(Y) NELSON:
- His official homepage if pretty packed with info, trivia, merch and more. The gallery of old 45" picture sleeves is a particularly fun way to waste a few minutes. And if you've been confused at my usage of Rick and Ricky tonight, please note that his own site uses both names as well.
- A bunch of Nelson clips over at YouTube

THE EVERLY BROTHERS - 50 years to my ears.

So, ever since posting their version of "Love Hurts" during my K-Dilly 70s streak a while back, I've been on a bit of an Everyly Brothers kick. Since a small handful of their albums just popped up on eMusic (and they've been running a $9.99 special on Booster Pack downloads this month), I spent the other day downloading pretty much everything they had available.

I will sometimes read the user reviews for albums on eMusic to check out any recommended tracks, or to get fair warning from other users to make sure if these albums are the actual records or re-recorded versions of classic songs. It can be an annoying task, especially when someone ill-informed about the artist takes an opportunity to slag them. I remember once seeing a reviewer by the name of FartHead dis Creedence Clearwater Revival as hillbilly music, saying only "every doublewide needs a copy of this" and "yeeeeeehaaawwww" in his review.

So fucking annoying. Similar to that were the comments from "ElectroJosh" regarding one of the Everly's fantastic albums, Songs Our Daddy Taught Us. States "ElectroJosh":

The look of these fellows on the album cover says it all. This is cheese in its purest form, and I'm lactose intolerant. This album is recommended for those who: missed the sexual revolution, are ashamed of the 1960's (and every decade since), never drank anything harder than Miller, complain about "kids today," and are still to this day afraid of the Soviet Union. If "Hee Haw" is too cutting edge in your eyes, this is the album for you!

I checked out "ElectroJosh's" download history, and he seemed to have somewhat similar tastes to my own. So, what would possess him to go out of his way to review a record he obviously had never even heard? Had he listened to it, he would have seen that it's actually a pretty intense collection of classic early country songs and murder ballads. Had he known anything about the Everly's or their undeniable influence on rockabilly and early rock and roll (there's no doubt in my mind, based on their gorgeous harmony vocals alone, that "no Everly Brothers = no Beatles"), maybe he would have thought twice before hastily rapping his moronic rant out on his keyboard.

Not that I lay too much value in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but it's no mistake that the Everly Brothers were in the first round of inductees in 1986 (they were inducted by Neil Young). With an influence as far reaching on everyone from Gram Parsons to The Who, Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan and Beck, they are, in my book, above mockery. Too bad you can't see it my way, ElectroJosh. Hope you enjoy that Dane Cook album you downloaded, though. Play that William Hung album much these days? Glad to see you know funny just about as well as you know your history.

THE EVERLY BROTHERS:
"All I Have to Do is Dream"
"Bye Bye Love"
"When Will I Be Loved"
"Let it Be Me"
"Barbara Allen"
"Down in the Willow Garden"

A SMATTERING OF COVERS:
"Sleepless Nights" by BECK and EDDIE VEDDER
"Dream (All I Have to Do)" by R.E.M.
"Man With the Money" by THE WHO

FOR MORE ON THE EVERLY BROTHERS:
- The official website of The Beehive, the Everly Brothers fan club.
- Enjoy some streaming clips on the jukebox at Everly.net.
- A ton of Everly clips at YouTube
- The Everlys at the Rock Hall of Fame.