I guess it's been on newsstands for a while now, but I'm always behind on reading my mailing lists so I just found out that Nels Cline is on the cover of the March issue of Guitar Player magazine. Which is crazy. I love that dude. I mean, I could see him being on the cover of The Wire or something, but Guitar Player? That's nuts. I guess it shouldn't come as such a surprise with his heightened profile after joining Wilco, but for some reason this is more surreal to me than all the other stuff it's brought in the past year, like Nels playing at Madison Square Garden and on Letterman and the SpongeBob movie soundtrack. More power to him, though. I'm kind of uneasy about the idea of feeling obligated to buy the next Wilco album, but it sounds like a mutually beneficial partnership and I have no problem with anything that involves one of my musical heroes getting some overdue recognition and financial stability. The article is pretty good, too (and the online version features mp3's of 2 of my favorite songs on The Giant Pin).

Labels: Nels Cline

Quote of the Day:

Whores like this song.....and I'm not one to openly disagree with whores on the weekend...

- from a message board discussion of Daddy Yankee's "Gasolina"

Labels: comedy

I'm thinking I might take that new chick from logistics. If things go well, I might be showing her my O face.

Labels: comedy, R and B

Today, I got an e-mail from my friend Joey O, with links to a few news stories about his employer, Y100. It seems that just 6 weeks after the DC/Baltimore area lost WHFS, Philly is now losing their alt-rock station, although some ex-employees have already set up a website to protest and petition the switch. I dunno, though, the whole alt-rock format feels pretty doomed at this point, at least in its current incarnation. I'm definitely bummed out for Joey more than anything else. I always mean to find out when he's going to be on the air when I'm driving through PA, and almost tuned in last weekend to see if he was on, but it always slips my mind. At least he's got a job at FMBQ to fall back on (incidentally the very trade publication that broke the news).

Labels: radio

Quote of the Day:

if the bloodhound gang came out with that song today "doing it like the discovery channel" would mean "build or modify a gas powered vehicle"

- my brother Zac

Labels: comedy

Last night I went to see Travis Morrison open for the Panoply Academy Legionnaires at the Ottobar, kind of on a whim. I didn't even realize he was playing there until the day before the show, and decided to go out and kill a couple hours and avoid studying for midterms. I'd seen Travis twice in the past 6 months and wasn't in a rush to see him again, figuring it'd be pretty much the same show I already saw. But it wasn't at all. His new backing band is a 4-piece that, aside from the drummer, is a completely different lineup from 5-piece he had back in November. And where the old band was guitarless and comprised of nothing but keyboards and percussion, now Travis is back on guitar. And aside from "Song For The Orca" (probably my favorite song on Travistan), their set was pretty much entirely new songs, probably about 8 or 9, none of which I recognized from previous shows. I didn't catch any song titles except for the one he introduced as "I Do". And wow are these new songs good. I liked Travistan more than most, but this stuff is way better and more rocking, and could probably win back some disaffected Dismemberment Plan fans. The new band already sounds pretty tight and the songs sound complete, hopefully it won't take them long to record them and put out a new record. If he puts out an album of those songs the way they sounded last night by the end of 2005 it'll be a lock for at least my top 5 of the year. I stuck around for Panoply Academy Legionnaires, but they were pretty boring so I left after a few songs.

Labels: concerts, Travis Morrison

This week's selection is another one that did not make but received (also it's a CD, not a tape). Over the weekend J.G. and I went to her winter formal (she goes to a small private all-girls college, so dances and stuff like that are a bigger deal there than at other schools). We got dressed up all fancy, it was fun. Every year they have some kind of trinket or piece of memorabilia they give out to people who attend the dance. Last year it was glass with an engravement on it, this year it was mix CD's, which was widely regarded as a disappointment and a cheap ripoff. Next to each track is the name of the person who picked it (or in some cases, a group, such as "Psychology Dept." or "Class of 2007"). Mixes that are done by committee are always interesting, usually in kind of a trainwreck way. That's pretty much the reason why I haven't really considered getting involved in ILMiXor yet, it's just a weird idea, still not sure about it. Anyway this is the CD that everyone got a copy of at the dance:

1. Toploader - "Dancing In The Moonlight"
2. Frank Sinatra - "The Way You Look Tonight"
3. The Beach Boys - "God Only Knows"
4. Outkast - "Hey Ya!"
5. John Lennon - "Imagine"
6. Sheryl Crow - "One Less Bell To Answer"
7. White Stripes - "You're Pretty Good Looking"
8. The B-52's - "Love Shack"
9. Joni Mitchell - "Blue"
10. James Taylor - "Your Smiling Face"
11. The Mamas and the Papas - "California Dreamin'"
12. Lenny Kravitz - "American Woman"
13. Black Eyed Peas - "Hey Mama"
14. Rick James - "Superfreak"
15. The Grateful Dead - "Women Are Smarter"
16. Lit - "My Own Worst Enemy"
17. Cassidy featuring R. Kelly - "Hotel"

Of those songs, I think I wouldn't mind never hearing 4, 5, 11, 12, 16 and 17 ever again. I like 2, 3, 9 and 14 enough that I'm glad to have a copy of them on CD. And I love 8 but already have it on CD. I like the single version of 13 ok but the version on the mix is different, I guess the album version, and I don't like it as much. Also, Sheryl Crow singing Bacharach and David is something I don't think I needed to hear.

Labels: ILM, mixtapes, R and B, R. Kelly, The B-52's

On Thursday I took my friend Kelly out for dinner and a movie for her birthday, almost 2 weeks after the fact. Which is okay, because it was 3 weeks after my birthday when she took me out last month. The movie she picked was A Very Long Engagement, which I didn't really know anything about before seeing, I hadn't even seen Amelie or any of that stuff. It was really visually impressive, especially for a non-American film, I really wonder what kind of budget they made it on. Well done gore, too, probably as real-looking as anything in Saving Private Ryan, but not nearly as hard to look at because of the lightness of the overall tone throughout. Also, the phrase "doggie fart, gladdens my heart" is now burned into my brain.

For dinner we went to the Helmand, which I'd been meaning to check out forever, friends are always reccomending it to me. Afghan food is good! I need to go there again, or at least have Indian more often. As far as I'm concerned, that whole region has its shit together, culinary-wise.

Labels: food, movies

Cheers to the fact that Craig Ferguson sings his own theme song on the Late Late Show. It's not particularly good, but strangely endearing. Actually, that pretty much describes him as host, too.

Jeers to those interstitials that MTV has been using for at least a year now during video blocks with that skinny guy acting like a spazz. Why the fuck do they have to keep showing those things over and over? Can't they come up with something that's easier to bear during the 10 second wait to see what the next video is?

Cheers to Comedy Central running a Ron White standup special all weekend. I can take or leave the other Blue Collar Comedy Tour guys, but that dude is hilarious. In their whole Kings Of Comedy-type thing, he's definitely the Bernie Mac. Plus he's the only one who had the sense not to do their crappy sketch show.

Jeers to having to wait 2 and a half weeks for my dishwasher to get fixed. The maintenance people were hard to get ahold of in the first place, and then it took them like 3 tries to actually get results. I mean, I'm no stranger to handwashing, the house(s) I grew up in didn't have a dishwasher. But for the past couple weeks it always seemed like the solution was around the corner, I just kept letting the dirty dishes pile up that whole time until they stunk up the whole apartment.

Labels: television

Inevitably I read about a lot more music and musicians than I ever get around to actually hearing, and I try not to make any hard and fast judgements about anything based just on what I read, but sometimes I just can't help hating a band without ever hearing them, especially if it's a local band I'll probably never hear anyway and don't particularly want to. I think the "we don't want to be Radiohead, we want to DANCE and have FUN!" line is more tiresome at this point than the "we want to be Radiohead" line ever was. Also: "Down in the Dirty South, if you will, people just get crunk a lot harder, and drop it like it's hot."

Labels: Baltimore music

(thanks to Mike for the link)

Labels: comedy

Since I'm already on the topic of Kanye (so you can skip this one, Mat, and wait for the next post) and he's just about at the end of his long, rocky awards show cycle and is getting ready for a new album, here's a mix I made shortly after The College Dropout finally came out, compiling some of the best of the many tracks he put out on mixtapes and/or were on early bootleg versions of the album but didn't make the final version, along with some favorite freestyles and collabos. I might've posted this once on Gov't Names too.

Kanye West - The Album Dropouts

side 1:
1. "You Know" f/ White Boy, John Legend and Belo of Do Or Die
2. "Wow"
3. "All Falls Down" (live snippet) f/ John Legend
4. "Self Conscious" (original version of "All Falls Down") f/ Lauryn Hill
5. "Changing Lanes"
6. "Wack Niggas" f/ Talib Kweli
7. "Wack Niggas" (remix) f/ Talib Kweli, Common and Consequence
8. "Better Than Yours" ("Milkshake" freestyle) f/ Common
9. "Dream Killers" aka "Gossip Files"
10. "Finally Got It Right" aka "Peace"
11. "I Need To Know"
12. "Stand Up" freestyle
13. "Heavy Hitters" f/ GLC
14. "Out The Game" f/ Consequence and John Legend
15. "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" f/ Consequence
16. "Electric Relaxation" freestyle f/ Consequence
17. "Yeah"
18. Akademiks Vol. 2 intro v/ Miri Ben-Ari

side 2:
1. "Keep The Receipt" f/ Dirt McGirt aka Ol' Dirty Bastard
2. "Nothin's Gonna Stop Me"
3. "Livin' A Movie"
4. "Roommates" f/ Consequence
5. "Take It As A Loss" f/ Consequence
6. "Arguments" f/ Martin Lawrence and John Legend
7. "Drop Dead Gorgeous" f/ Murphy Lee
8. "About An Angel (Got Nowhere)" f/ John Legend
9. "My Way"
10. "Home" f/ John Legend
11. "Apoloize"
12. "Hey Mama"
13. I'm Good intro
14. "Through The Wire" (remix)

It's not all top shelf material, but there's some great stuff on there (I was pretty pissed at the time that "Keep The Receipt" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" got cut from early versions of the album, but "Hey Mama" and maybe some others will make it onto Late Registration). All through 2003 I collected every mixtape and every outside production and every morsel of music I could find with Kanye's name on it, and as much as he likes to remind people, I don't think everyone realizes what an underdog he really was at that point. His album got delayed for nearly 2 years. I remember when he put snippets of the beginning of "Jesus Walks" on no less than 4 mixtapes, none any longer than 50 seconds, and on one of them he introduced it as "my new single -- what I want to be my new single", and you could tell by his tone that Roc-A-Fella wasn't wild about the idea. I never really got into that song, actually. After all those snippets, when I finally heard the whole thing all I could think about was the fact that he rhymed "Jesus" with "Regis".

Labels: hip hop, Kanye West, mixtapes

So, the Grammys... I was pretty happy about the fact that Kanye got a few big awards (best rap song, best rap album), but not too many, and for the latter, gave a really good acceptance speech. It was pretty clear that he'd had a lot of time to think about his fuckup at the AMA's and all the other shit people are holding against him. And his speech was pretty much the perfect response to all of that. On the Grammys thread on ILM, Michael Daddino described his speech as managing "total arrogance and near teary-eyed humility simultaneously." Which is actually a pretty good description of Kanye's entire career, and one of the reasons I've remained a Kanye booster while everyone else has become allergic to the hype; he was like that all along, and that was kind of what I liked about him to begin with. But most importantly, he thanked Rhymefest in his speech, which means hopefully that B*ron Cr*wford can finally shut the fuck up now.

On MTV's red carpet pre-show thing, they showed a pre-taped segment about Kanye working in the studio with John Mayer, and played a few snippets of their collaboration "Bittersweet", which will appear on Late Registration. It wasn't very good. They did another track together, "Go", which is going to be on the new Common album, I hope that one turns out better. Mostly I just want John Mayer to be a part of something really unexpected and undeniably good so that people have to be embarrassed to admit it's good. But aside from that, the segment was almost as funny as John Mayer Has A TV Show. John and Kanye openly pondered the question "why do black people like John Mayer?" and compared the price of their jewelry. After realizing that his watch cost twice as much as Kanye's Jesus piece, John smiled and said "go back and listen to 'Daughters', bitches". The only way that moment could have been more classic is if they had shown that clip in lieu of an acceptance speech when "Daughters" won the award for song of the year. (EDIT: here's the MTV.com link for the text of that Mayer/West segment)

Other Grammy thoughts, many of them self-plagiarized from posts to the ILM thread:

- do you think old guys like James Brown ever get tired of being called on to appear with current artists as a symbolic gesture of "passing the baton" onto them? He must think to himself, "what, Usher is the new me now? Didn’t I just proclaim that Hammer guy the new me a few years ago?"

- There were a lot of really odd combinations of presenters throughout the night, but the best was Tyra Banks and Hoobastank because it seems like they just got paired up because their names rhyme.

- Is it just me, or did Kevin Bacon look exactly like Stewart Copeland? Seriously, it looks like he's getting ready to shoot a Police biopic.

- my friend Joey made the excellent suggestion that during Green Day's performance they should've cut to a shot of Gretchen Wilson in the audience during the lyric "I'm not a part of the redneck agenda"

- What was with the all-star singalong for charity being "Across The Universe"? Are they just picking Beatles songs out of a hat for these things?

Labels: hip hop, ILM, Kanye West, R and B

Trace Adkins - "Songs About Me"
Trace gets seated on a flight next to a bespectacled intellectual type, who notices and inquires about the fact that his carry-on is a guitar case. After Trace explains that he's a country singer, the short-haired yuppie type scoffs at our ponytailed hero that he doesn't care for "that twang and trains and hillbilly thing". In the chorus, Trace offers the defense that he sings "songs about me, and who I am, songs about lovin' and livin' and goodhearted women and family and" -- wait for it -- "God". I like the livin'/women rhyme, but I kinda wish he had kept it on a more narcissistic angle: "naw, I don't sing about all those other hillbillies, just me!" Trace offers the young urban professional tickets to the show, and by the end of the 2nd verse, the formerly country-hating hipster is in the front row and concedes "man, you were right, it was like you were singing those songs about ME!" The first time I saw the video I was thrown off by Trace's lead guitarist's passing resemblence to the stranger on the plane, and after realizing that wasn't the case, I wished they'd gone all the way with the fantasy and taken it in that direction: the ex-C&W-hater is so thoroughly convinced that he jumps onstage and joins the band for a scorching solo! But no.

Sawyer Brown with Robert Randolph - "Mission Temple Fireworks Stand"
I can't quite decide whether this is as bold and colorful as it wants to be, or if it's just the video that accomplishes this effectively. Nor am I sure whether this is the sort of thing that could reach across borders and grab the ears of the kind of people who usually turn a blind eye to pop country but lost their shit for Big & Rich (or ride planes with Trace Adkins), or if they'd ignore it or sniff it out as trying too hard right off the bat.

Josh Gracin - "Nothin' To Lose"
The follow up to my 4th favorite country single of 2004 finds Gracin in fast talking mode, racing through syllables and inanely rhyming "Miller time" with "breaker breaker one nine". Twista he is not.

Martina McBride - "God's Will"
There should be a special circle of hell reserved for lyricists who would both employ shameless wordplay in such a way that a song with this title is about a pious young boy named Will, and make it this overwrought and dramatic. It's also kind of hilarious how the bookend lyric that she wrings a ton of emotion out of at the end is "I met God's Will on a Halloween night, he was dressed as a bag of leaves". The "I've been searchin', wonderin', thinkin'" part is a big juicy hook, but it deserves a better, less treacly song to be a part of.

Labels: country music, singles, video

I used to get pretty annoyed when Anthony would dismiss Kanye on the trivial basis of the weak, bloodless way he says "c'mon" on one of his singles. Then I realized the other day that I've dismissed Franz Ferdinand on the very same grounds. But then, of all the things that Kanye has been inaccurately praised or marketed as, "sexy dance party!" is not one of them. That song is like a real time progression of corny indie taste: Strokesy chug, then wait, it slows down to a sluggish bomp-bomp-bomp that I guess is somebody's idea of disco. Oh well, at least someone Kanye has already publically endorsed won something that could've gone to him so another outburst is unlikely. Ah, who am I kidding, does anyone who's up for a gazillion Grammys care about P&J?

Check out these numbers:

2004 Albums 10 Danger Mouse The Grey Album www.djdangermouse.com 904(82)

2003 Albums 13 Jay-Z The Black Album Roc-A-Fella 618(62)

Also, for good measure, and because I like "Faint/Jigga What" more than anything on The Grey Album:

2004 Albums 856 Jay-Z and Linkin Park  Collision Course Warner Bros. 13(1)

Not that I'm crying for Jay; he's made plenty better albums than BA that've gotten much less critical love. But maaan. I caught some flak on ILM for (somewhat jokingly) making a remark along the lines that I hate the internet for the role it played in the high placement of The Grey Album and M.I.A./Diplo. I mean, I guess I'm in favor of the power of the web and blogs and stuff to put mp3/bootleg phenomena on that kind of pedestal in theory, but I'm not a fan of it in practice if it means color-coded novelty 'mashups' and weak-voiced faux dancehall over played out Timbaland/Neptunes beats and obscure/exotic dance music from Brazil and, um, Baltimore. And can we dead all the "world music" chatter when we're talking about someone who's lived most of their life in London and is tight with fucking Elastica?

Something else of note was that even in a banner year for southern rap on national radio (well, '03 was the real breakthrough, but '04 was the saturation point), the dubious "crunk'n'b" offshoot showed it up both commercially and critically, with both "Yeah!" and "Goodies" in the top 40 singles with the otherwise highest southern hip hop being "Rubber Band Man" down at 47. And the rest of the top 40 rap singles entries were being held down by non-southerners (the obvious Kanye/Twista/Eminem/Snoop) and especially the NYC old guard of Jay/Nas/Fab/Fat Joe/Jada. Granted, my taste is still fairly NY-centric too as far as rap is concerned, but that's just me, I'm an east coast kid. The zeitgeist is another story.

Labels: ILM, Jay-Z, Kanye West, lists

As I mentioned in last week's installment, I've made many tapes for J.G. over the years and have converted her to several artists, but mostly people that are fairly accessible to begin with, like Ted Leo or Brendan Benson or Jeff Buckley. So I was kind of surprised when she asked me recently about what Sonic Youth albums are good and if I could make her a tape or something. They're pretty much my favorite band of all time, but I never really tried to sell her on them, just because they're kind of an acquired taste and a good bit more out there than the aforementioned artists. But she saw something on TV about them, I think a VH1 list show (the only one I've ever seen them on was the greatest hard rock bands of all time), and was intrigued. So I made her a tape:

side 1:
1. Teenage Riot
2. Skip Tracer
3. French Tickler
4. Purr
5. Kool Thing
6. 100%
7. JC
8. Dirty Boots
9. Beauty Lies In The Eye
10. Mote

side 2:
1. Schizophrenia
2. Eric's Trip
3. Sugar Kane
4. Kissability
5. Sunday
6. Bull In The Heather
7. Candle
8. Shadow of a Doubt
9. Genetic
10. Diamond Sea [single edit]
11. Kotton Krown

It was kind of hard to put their catalog in enough perspective to really pick out the right songs. I mean, last summer I went through a phase of making tons of tapes to listen to in the car, and I made 5 themed SY mixes (all of Lee's songs, or all instrumentals, etc., I'll probably post some of those eventually), and a lot of the songs on this tape weren't on any of those 5 tapes. I've never really disliked any of those songs (except "100%", which was the first song I ever heard by them and I always hated it), I just don't feel the need to put, say, "Kool Thing" on a tape for myself. So it was nice to revisit some of the (ahem) hits in order to give J.G. a fitting introduction, along with some of my favorites. It's not a very complete picture, though, obviously; nothing before '86 or after '98 (although I'm a bigger fan of the later stuff than many), and an emphasis on Sister through Dirty. You really can't go wrong with that stuff, at least when you're trying to show how good they can be at being a rock band. The eventual best-of of the DGC years will make a pretty great stocking stuffer.

Labels: mixtapes, Sonic Youth

my 200 favorite singles of the first half of this decade:

1. Twista f/ Kanye West and Jamie Foxx - "Slow Jamz"
2. Ludacris - "What's Your Fantasy?"
3. The Clipse f/ Pharrell - "Grindin'"
4. Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz f/ Ying Yang Twins - "Get Low"
5. Ja Rule f/ Lil Mo and Vita - "Put It On Me"
6. Missy Elliott - "Get Ur Freak On"
7. R. Kelly - "Step In The Name Of Love" (Remix)
8. Nas - "One Mic"
9. Bone Crusher f/ Killer Mike and T.I. - "Never Scared"
10. Joe Budden - "Pump It Up"

11. Jay-Z f/ Pharrell - "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)"
12. Sisqo - "Thong Song"
13. System of a Down - "Chop Suey!"
14. Avril Lavigne - "Complicated"
15. Talib Kweli - "Get By"
16. R. Kelly - "Ignition"
17. Monica - "So Gone"
18. Dr. Dre f/ Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg - "The Next Episode"
19. Memphis Bleek f/ Jay-Z and Missy Elliott - "Is That Your Chick?"
20. Trick Daddy f/ Trina, Co and Duece Poppito - "Shut Up"

21. Juelz Santana f/ Cam'ron - "Dipset (Santana's Town)"
22. N Sync - "Girlfriend"
23. Baby f/ The Clipse - "What Happened To That Boy?"
24. Vanessa Carlton - "One Thousand Miles"
25. Jay-Z f/ Beanie Sigel and Memphis Bleek - "Change The Game"
26. Outkast - "B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)"
27. M.O.P. - "Ante Up"
28. Nivea f/ R. Kelly - "Laundromat"
29. Kylie Minogue - "Love At First Sight"
30. Britney Spears - "Toxic"

31. Linkin Park - "Faint"
32. Toby Keith - "I Love This Bar"
33. U2 - "Beautiful Day"
34. Christina Aguilera - "Beautiful"
35. Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz f/ Mystikal and Krayzie Bone - "I Don't Give A Fuck"
36. Sugar Ray - "When It's Over"
37. Eminem - "Without Me"
38. Sum 41 - "Fat Lip"
39. Coldplay - "Clocks"
40. Usher - "U Don't Have To Call"

41. Jagged Edge f/ Nelly - "Where The Party At?"
42. Jadakiss f/ Styles P. - "We Gonna Make It"
43. Cam'ron f/ Juelz Santana - "Oh Boy"
44. Limp Bizkit - "My Way"
45. Pharrell f/ Jay-Z - "Frontin'"
46. Carl Thomas - "I Wish"
47. Lil Mo f/ Fabolous - "Superwoman" (Remix)
48. Sean Paul - "Like Glue"
49. Jay-Z - "99 Problems"
50. Freeway f/ Peedi Crakk - "Flipsides"

51. Da Band - "Bad Boy This, Bad Boy That"
52. Big & Rich - "Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)"
53. T.I. - "Rubber Band Man"
54. Wayne Wonder - "No Letting Go"
55. Terror Squad - "Lean Back"
56. John Mayer - "Clarity"
57. Da Brat - "That's What I'm Looking For"
58. Lloyd Banks f/ 50 Cent - "On Fire"
59. Justin Timberlake - "Rock Your Body"
60. R. Kelly f/ Jay-Z - "Fiesta" (Remix)

61. Jimmy Eat World - "Sweetness"
62. Mya - "Case of the Ex"
63. Sunshine Anderson - "Heard It All Before"
64. Madonna - "Don't Tell Me"
65. J-Kwon - "Hood Hop"
66. Nas - "Made You Look"
67. Trina f/ Ludacris - "B R Right"
68. Bow Wow f/ Jagged Edge - "My Baby"
69. Bubba Sparxxx - "Ugly"
70. Young Gunz f/ Rell - "No Better Love"

71. Juvenile f/ Soulja Slim - "Slow Motion"
72. Wacko & Skip f/ Juvenile - "Nolia Clap" (Remix)
73. Fabolous f/ Nate Dogg - "Can't Deny It"
74. Faith Evans - "You Gets No Love"
74. Justin Timberlake f/ The Clipse - "Like I Love You"
75. Big Tymers - "Get Your Roll On"
76. R. Kelly - "Ignition" (Remix)
77. Busta Rhymes f/ Pharrell - "Light YOur Ass On Fire"
78. Jay-Z - "Hey Papi"
79. Twista - "Overnight Celebrity"
80. Aaliyah - "More Than A Woman"

81. Nelly f/ St. Lunatics - "Air Force Ones"
82. Red Hot Chili Peppers - "By The Way"
83. Anthony Hamilton - "Charlene"
84. Jadakiss f/ Anthony Hamilton - "Why"
85. Mannie Fresh - "Real Big"
86. P. Diddy - "Bad Boy 4 Life"
87. Kelly Clarkson - "Since U Been Gone"
88. Musiq - "Halfcrazy"
89. Mystikal - "Bouncin' Back (Bumpin' Me Against The Wall)"
90. Alicia Keys - "You Don't Know My Name"

91. Jennifer Lopez f/ Ja Rule - "Ain't It Funny" (Remix)
92. Lostprophets - "Last Train Home"
93. Ludacris f/ Mystikal and I-20 - "Move"
94. Mario - "Just A Friend 2002"
95. Nappy Roots f/ Jazze Pha - "Awnaw"
96. Christina Aguilera - "Fighter"
97. Foo Fighters - "Times Like These"
98. Amerie - "Why Don't We Fall In Love?"
99. Isley Brothers f/ R. Kelly and Chante Moore - "Contagious"
100. Phantom Planet - "California"

101. Memphis Bleek f/ Jay-Z - "Do My"
102. Youngbloodz f/ Lil Jon - "Damn!"
103. Beenie Man f/ Sean Paul and Lady Saw - "Bossman"
104. Brandy - "What About Us"
105. Janet Jackson - "Someone To Call My Lover"
106. Craig David - "Fill Me In"
107. Lil Mo f/ Fabolous - "4Ever"
108. Green Day - "Waiting"
109. Alien Ant Farm - "Movies"
110. Daniel Bedingfield - "If You're Not The One"

111. N.O.R.E. f/ Pharrell - "Grimey"
112. Wu Tang Clan - "Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)"
113. Lil Wayne f/ Hot Boyz - "Shine"
114. Beyonce f/ Jay-Z - "Crazy In Love"
115. Petey Pablo - "Raise Up"
116. Joe f/ Mystikal - "Stutter" (Remix)
117. Aaliyah - "Come Over"
118. B Rich - "Woah Now"
119. LL Cool J - "Luv U Better"
120. No Doubt - "Bathwater"

121. Sarai - "Ladies"
122. Westside Connection f/ Nate Dogg - "Gangsta Nation"
123. Kelly Rowland - "Can't Nobody"
124. Liz Phair - "Why Can't I?"
125. Outkast f/ Killer Mike - "Land of a Million Drums"
126. TLC - "Girls Talk"
127. Ginuwine - "There It Is"
128. Tank - "Maybe I Deserve"
129. Kelly Clarkson - "Miss Independent"
130. Limp Bizkit - "Rollin'"

131. Ashlee Simpson - "La La"
132. Nelly - "Na-Nana-Na"
133. Ali f/ St. Lunatics - "Breathe In, Breathe Out"
134. Fat Joe f/ R. Kelly - "We Thuggin'"
135. Ray J f/ Lil Kim - "Wait A Minute"
136. Nelly - "Hot In Herre"
137. Scarface f/ Jay-Z and Beanie Sigel - "Guess Who's Back"
138. Cee-Lo f/ Timbaland - "I'll Be Around"
139. Tweet f/ Missy Elliott - "Oops (Oh My)"
140. D'Angelo - "Untitled (How Does It Feel)"

141. Cam'ron f/ Juelz Santana - "Hey Ma"
142. Big Tymers - "Still Fly"
143. John Mayer - "No Such Thing"
144. Eminem - "Lose Yourself"
145. N.E.R.D. - "Rock Star"
146. Jay-Z f/ UGK - "Big Pimpin'"
147. Missy Elliott f/ Ludacris - "Gossip Folks"
148. Good Charlotte - "The Young and the Hopeless"
149. Truth Hurts f/ Rakim - "Addictive"
150. Ying Yang Twins - "Naggin'"

151. Busta Rhymes - "Break Ya Neck"
152. R. Kelly - "I Wish"
153. Freeway f/ Jay-Z and Beanie Sigel - "What We Do"
154. Lloyd - "Hey Young Girl"
155. Michael Jackson - "Butterflies"
156. Jagged Edge - "Walked Outta Heaven"
157. Mya f/ Jay-Z - "Best of Me" (Remix)
158. Beenie Man f/ Mya - "Girls Dem Sugar"
159. Train - "Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)"
160. Evanescence - "Going Under"

161. Usher - "U Got It Bad"
162. N Sync - "Gone"
163. Sean Paul - "Get Busy"
164. Nick Cannon f/ B2K - "Feelin' Freaky"
165. R. Kelly - "Feelin' On Yo Booty"
166. Destiny's Child - "Bootylicious"
167. Ludacris, LL Cool J and Keith Murray - "Fatty Girl"
168. St. Lunatics - "Midwest Swing"
169. Da Brat f/ Tyrese - "What Do You Like"
170. Madonna - "Music"

171. Common f/ Bilal - "The Sixth Sense"
172. Justin Timberlake - "Cry Me A River"
173. Freeway and Beanie Sigel - "Roc the Mic"
174. Kanye West - "Through The Wire"
175. Big Punisher - "It's So Hard"
176. Good Charlotte - "Little Things"
177. Eve - "Who's That Girl?"
178. The Darkness - "I Believe In A Thing Called Love"
179. Maroon 5 - "Harder To Breathe"
180. Mario - "C'mon"

181. Faith Hill - "Cry"
182. Blink 182 - "Feeling This"
183. Jay-Z - "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)"
184. John Mayer - "Why Georgia"
185. Aaliyah f/ Timbaland - "We Need A Resolution"
186. P. Diddy - "Diddy"
187. Redman - "Let's Get Dirty"
188. DMX - "X Gon' Give It To Ya"
189. Nate Dogg f/ Fabolous, Kurupt and B.R.E.T.T. - "I Got Love" (Remix)
190. Nelly Furtado - "Turn Off The Light"

191. N Sync - "Pop"
192. N.E.R.D. f/ Lee Harvey and Vita - "Lapdance"
193. The Strokes - "Someday"
194. 112 - "Peaches and Cream"
195. Ludacris - "Saturday (Oooh! Oooh!)"
196. Ms. Jade - "Feel The Girl"
197. David Banner f/ Lil Flip - "Like A Pimp"
198. Hillary Duff - "So Yesterday"
199. Chingy f/ Ludacris and Snoop Dogg - "Holidae Inn"
200. Jay-Z - "Song Cry"

Labels: hip hop, Jay-Z, Kanye West, lists, Nas, R and B, R. Kelly, singles, T.I., Trick Daddy

my 50 favorite albums of the first half of this decade:

1. Jay-Z - The Blueprint
2. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - The Tyranny of Distance
3. Sonic Youth - Murray Street
4. Kanye West - The College Dropout
5. Ken Stringfellow - Touched
6. Cex - Being Ridden
7. Missy Elliott - Miss E...So Addictive
8. Spymob - Sitting Around Keeping Score
9. Justin Timberlake - Justified
10. The Dismemberment Plan - Change
11. Reflection Eternal - Train of Thought
12. Chris Lee - Chris Lee Plays & Sings Torch'd Songs, Charivari Hymns & Oriki Blue-Marches
13. Enon - Believo!
14. Lake Trout - Alone At Last
15. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Shake The Sheets
16. Trick Daddy - Thug Matrimony: Married To The Streets
17. Jay-Z - The Dynasty: Roc La Familia
18. Carla Bozulich - Red Headed Stranger
19. Brendan Benson - Lapalco
20. Nas - God's Son
21. Kenna - New Sacred Cow
22. Two Dollar Guitar - Weak Beats and Lame Ass Rhymes
23. Radiohead - Kid A
24. Bossman - Law & Order
25. Cex - Tall, Dark and Handcuffed
26. Grand Buffet - Pittsburgh Hearts EP
27. Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse
28. The Mercury Program - All The Suits Began To Fall Off EP
29. Blink 182 - Blink 182
30. The Diplomats - Diplomatic Immunity
31. Faraquet - The View From This Tower
32. Destroy All Nels Cline - Destroy All Nels Cline
33. Jay-Z - The Black Album
34. No Doubt - Rock Steady
35. Trick Daddy - Book Of Thugs: Chapter AK Verse 47
36. Outkast - Stankonia
37. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Hearts of Oak
38. Firewater - Psychopharmacology
39. Freeway - Philadelphia Freeway
40. D'Angelo - Voodoo
41. Pulp - We Love Life
42. Scarface - The Fix
43. Travis Morrison - Travistan
44. Amon Tobin - Supermodified
45. Tim Trees - Dalton, Vol. 1
46. Rod Lee - The Pressure EP
47. Youngblood Brass Band - Unlearn
48. The Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun
49. Grand Buffet - Cigarette Beach EP
50. Limp Bizkit - Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water

Labels: Baltimore music, Chris Lee, Dismemberment Plan, Enon, Jay-Z, Kanye West, lists, R and B, Sonic Youth, Spymob, Ted Leo, The Posies

This is the first mixtape I ever made for my girlfriend, J.G., when we first started dating in May of 2002:

side 1:
1. La Lengua Asesina - "Hotel Opera"
2. Ben Folds Five - "Philosophy"
3. The Dismemberment Plan - "The Ice Of Boston"
4. Saltine - "Reveal Love"
5. Soul Coughing - "I Miss The Girl"
6. J Mascis & The Fog - "Same Day"
7. They Might Be Giants - "First Kiss" (live)
8. Superchunk - "Hyper Enough"
9. Pavement - "Spit On A Stranger"
10. The Posies - "You're The Beautiful One"
11. The Dismemberment Plan - "Time Bomb"
12. Eels - "Ant Farm"
13. La Lengua Asesina - "Hotel Opera (reprise)"

side 2:
1. The Clash - "Train In Vain"
2. Elvis Costello & the Attractions - "High Fidelity"
3. Al Green - "Tired Of Being Alone"
4. They Might Be Giants - "Why Does The Sun Shine? (The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent Gas)"
5. Brendan Benson - "Emma J"
6. Lake Trout - "Sounds From Below"
7. Sonic Youth - "Shadow Of A Doubt"
8. The Dismemberment Plan - "Following Through"
9. Ben Folds Five - "Missing The War"
10. Sparklehorse - "Hundreds Of Sparrows"
11. Elliott Smith - "Say Yes"
12. Ted Leo / Pharmacists - "Biomusicology"
13.Jeff Buckley - "Hallelujah"

I've made her a half dozen other mixtapes since this one, but she says this one is still her favorite, and when she lost it, she requested that I make it for her again, which I did a few months ago. The only difference on the new version was the omission of "Train In Vain", which was due to the fact that I had accidently stepped on and broken the one Clash best-of CD-R I had, but it worked alright because on the original, "Hallelujah" got cut off at the end of the tape, but now there was enough room for all of it. My tastes are considerably broader (and more obscure) than J.G.'s, but I try not too pull the music snob "my girlfriend doesn't understand/needs to be educated about good music" attitude. There is a good amount of crossover between our tastes, though, so I enjoy bringing alt/indie stuff to her attention that she might enjoy. Since I made this for her, she's acquired (either bought or burnt from my copies of) albums by about a half dozen of the artists on this tape, and has accompanied me to many D Plan and Ted Leo shows.

Labels: Dinosaur Jr., Dismemberment Plan, Elvis Costello, mixtapes, R and B, Sonic Youth, Soul Coughing, Sparklehorse, Superchunk, Ted Leo, The Posies, Two Dollar Guitar