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.

CANON BLUE: Free EP!

No time to post anything new tonight, but I am going to redirect your attention to some free music elsewhere on the interwebs.

If you recall from a few months back, I posted a couple of songs from CANON BLUE's debut CD. At several thousands of downloads, those tracks went on to become a couple of the most downloaded songs in the history of Pimps of Gore, coming in only slightly behind a handful of Lee Hazelwood songs and a couple of 70s cock rock anthems from Mountain and Aerosmith (note to prospective bloggers: if you ever want to drive traffic to your site, include a lot of songs people might be too embarassed to buy with a credit card).

Needless to say, I was definitely pleased with the response. I was even more pleased to find this email from Canon Blue's Daniel James in my email box a few days ago:

hi dylan!

how are you man? i'm not sure if ever replied to your previous email (editor's note: he had),
so if not im terribly sorry! i hope you are in good spirits and good
health.

anyway, i just wanted to let you know that i'm giving away the new
canon blue ep 'halcyon' for free at this link:

CANON BLUE EP AT RUMRAKET.COM

you can also hear some of the songs and see the art at:

www.myspace.com/canonblue

happy holidays!

Thanks, Daniel.

Okay, what are you guys still doing here? Go enjoy that EP. . .

Pimpcast Volume 2: "They're Dying on the Dancefloor"

I was driving home from a long all-nighter of studying last week, and on the way back, my iPod decided that it wanted to join an LSD-fueled motorcycle gang. These songs are in exactly the order they popped up. The sole exception is the podcast closer, "In n' Out of Grace," which made the 'cast simply because when I think of biker gangs, that song automatically pops into my head.

And now, the Podcast:

"They're Dying on the Dancefloor"

Sunday (SONIC YOUTH)
Love's Lost Guarantee (ROGUE WAVE)
Transfiguration (SCREAMING TREES)
Outside My Door (CAN)
The Life I Live (Q'65)
Jumble, Jumble (THE WHITE STRIPES)
Starship - snippet (THE MC5
In n' Out of Grace (MUDHONEY)

NOVEMBER - 34 Songs. . . Well. . . Now.

I'm in the middle of writing a paper and studying for finals, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to meet my deadline here. Get ready for it, y'all, because I'm just going to be puking music all over you tonight.

Thanks to everyone who offered kind words, donations and bids on my Ebay auctions. I'm going to try and post a few more things next week after my tests are over. My auctions went incredibly well. . . just over $400 for about 18 items. That should definitely help.

Anyway, enough about me.

For those of you who don't like to read, tonight's going to be a treat for you. Sorry I don't have time to elaborate and pontificate. My mind is elsewhere. I'm going to be all over the map tonight. Folk. Punk. Hip-hop. All over the map. Let's get to it, eh?

"Ceremony"
"The Headmaster Ritual" by RADIOHEAD:
(Thanks to Stereogum.com for posting these a few weeks ago.) In case you missed it, Radiohead recently did a suprise online "gig" from their studio, apparently just for shits n' giggles. In between individual bandmembers DJing some of their favorite tracks and playing some nutty video footage, they performed a few new songs along with a couple of incredible covers as tributes to some classic British bands of old. The former track is a JOY DIVISION cover, while the latter is a classic by THE SMITHS. Oh, and in case you hadn't heard from just about every online media outlet under the digital sun, Radiohead's new album In Rainbows is awesome.

"Civil War"
"Trampoline"
"Stop" by JOE HENRY:
Joe Henry is an amazing songwriter who has a new album out, Civilians. "Civil War" is from that album, and is a blueprint for his style of songwriting: well written, typically dark songs with incisive lyrics that cut to the bone, no matter the topic. Dude writes some of the best breakup songs out there, and "Trampoline" (from the album with the same name) is one of those songs. "You once kissed me not to hear me speak / and loved me just so you could leave / every bit of life wrung out of me." Dude is like Raymond Carver with a guitar instead of a typewriter. I could have sworn I'd posted that one before, and the follow-up track, "Stop." Oh, he also happens to be Madonna's cousin. "Stop" might sound familiar to some of you because she wound up covering it and making it into a big old hit (and a massive paycheck for him). Naturally, his version rules.

"It's Only Life"
"Let's Go"
"Dancing Barefoot"
"Paint It, Black" by by THE FEELIES:
Any loyal readers out there want to prove to me that I haven't posted these songs before? Because I could swear I had. Not having done so until this point is pretty criminal. What's also criminal is that The Feelies' records are out of print. Some awesome blogger out there posted their cover of PATTI SMITH's "Dancing Barefoot," which I bring you tonight, along with my two favorite original tracks and a second cover, THE ROLLING STONES' "Paint It, Black."

"Molly" by EUX AUTRES:
The Portland-via-Omaha brother/sister duo of Eux Autres have a new record, Cold City, coming out on Tuesday. I highly recommend it, especially to those of you who took a shining to their previous album or heard a couple of their tracks on Pimps of Gore last year. Out on Happy Birthday to Me Records, this album has the same great songwriting with more solid (but not too slick) production and a ton of great melodies. Plus, Nick and Heather are two of the nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, so rest assured your hard earned record dollars will be going into hands that deserve it, unlike Scott Stapp or Daughtry or some other lunkheaded dickweed. Not that your record dollars were headed there. . .

"God's Zoo (Live)"
"Moya (Live)"
"The Snake"
"Red Jesus"
"Big Neon Glitter (Live)" by THE CULT:
Consider yourselves lucky; I was going to devote an entire week to some of the great, overlooked music by real-life Spinal Tap rockers The Cult, the first band I was truly obsessed with. When I was growing up, my brother gave me a copy of their classic Love album, and a copy of his cassette of the Rick Rubin-produced Electric. Those albums ignited a spark in me, and I turned into a voracious collector. One of my prized posessions was a tape of the band's debut album, Dreamtime, which featured an early concert at London's Lyceum theater as the b-side. The live album was pretty much unavailable anywhere until a few years ago, when Beggar's Banquet finally reissued it on CD. Regardless of anyone's opinion of their later work (the band pretty much became a punchline as their career progressed, with lead singer Ian Astbury going so far as briefly becoming the lead singer of the fucking Doors), their early shit is pretty great. That live album (where the first two songs come from) features several songs from the first Death Cult EP, and even a song from Astbury's previous goth-rock band, Southern Death Cult. I'm also including a couple of b-sides, the wild but a little too long "The Snake," and a later track that popped up on a single from the pretty awful Ceremony album. Probably should have stuck "Red Jesus" on the album, boys. Closing things out is an early radio performance of "Big Neon Glitter."

"Mother Sky" by CAN:
If 15-minute psychedelic freak-outs aren't your thing, I definitely wouldn't rec' clicking this link. Also, if you're on heavy acid, you might want to avoid this, as it will make you think you can fly. If you like awesomeness, step right in. Plus, it's a great lead-in to. . .

"Reign (Anagram Mix)"
"Be There" by UNKLE with IAN BROWN:
Now, I'm positive I've posted "Be There" before, so don't be too quick to download if you've been a regulare here for a while. I'm merely re-posting it in conjunction with "Reign" to show just how badass it is when the former lead singer of the STONE ROSES gets together for a collaboration with James Lavelle's UNKLE project.

"Guns Blazing" by UNKLE with KOOL G. RAP
"Streets of New York" by KOOL G. RAP AND DJ POLO:
Since we're on the subject of UNKLE, here's the opening track to Psyence Fiction, back when the extraordinary DJ Shadow was manning the wheels of steel. The song features one of my favorite old school rappers, Kool G. Rap.

"Let's Start" by FELA KUTI with GINGER BAKER:
I could have sworn I'd downloaded this whole album from eMusic a few months back, but I don't see it anywhere on my external drive. Lamentable. . . looks like I'm going to have to DL it again, because it SMOKES. This is the concert opener, and if I'd seen this go down at a club, I probably would have fainted before it was over. Trust me, you'll probably be sweating -- or wishing you were doing something that would make you sweat (wink, wink) -- by the halfway point. Unreal.

"You Never Knew (Domino Remix)"
"The Who (DJ Kool EQ Mix)" by HIEROGLYPHICS:
How do I make a jump from The Feelies to these guys in the same post? I have no idea. That's just the way my mind is working tonight.

"Nobody" by HODGES, JAMES, SMITH and CRAWFORD:
Ripped from the vinyl-only 2 LP release of DAVID HOLMES' Come Get It I Got It, which features the unmixed versions of songs from his DJ-mix album of the same name. Sexy.

"Be Easy"
"Let Them Knock" by SHARON JONES & THE DAP KINGS:
If this were 40 years ago, I wouldn't have to tell anyone that Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings new album 100 Days, 100 Nights is a monster. You'd already know. You'd be all like, "No shit it's awesome. She's the queen of soul." Instead, it's 2007 and Sharon Jones is not (yet) a household name. Get this album. Get this album for your parents for Christmas. Just don't ask them what they do when they listen to it, cuz you do NOT want to know.

"Rock Your Body" by SHAWN LEE's PING PONG ORCHESTRA:
Trick your friends. Tell them that Justin Timberlake's hit is actually a cover of this track, and that it originally came out in the late 1970s.

"God Gave Rock N Roll To Us"
"So So Sick"
"So Sick" by UNREST:
I'm not quite sure whether Unrest is making fun of the KISS (who had a minor hit with their cover of this ARGENT song) version, paying tribute to the original, or taking themselves seriously here. I don't care. It's a great take on a pretty bad song. The latter track is an alternate version of "So Sick," which appeared on the B.P.M. compilation, and was my first exposure to these long lost indie darlings. Closing things out is the original version of the track, so you can decide for yourself which one you like better.

"One True Vine" by WILCO:
So, let's be honest: I may never get my "Tweedy 100" back in the air any time soon. Hell, I may not even be doing this blog in a month or two. Let's just enjoy the Wilco I can provide while we're all here to share it, okay? This one's off the Sky Blue Sky bonus EP.

"Follow if You Can" by WE ALL TOGETHER:
Yeah, I posted this about two years ago. I'm doing it again. Skip it, or enjoy it for the first time. I've got work to do.

"My Name is Jonas"
"Say It Ain't So" by WEEZER:
I'm just finishing things off tonight with these two tracks because Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band just recently reminded me of how awesome Weezer once were.

Goodnight.