Thurston Moore - "Altar Boy, Church Basement" (mp3)

Sonic Youth - "Turquoise Boy" (mp3)

I've spent probably hundreds of hours of my life listening to Thurston Moore play guitar, but I can count on one hand the number of times I've heard him play an acoustic guitar (the ones that come to mind at the moment being SY's disastrous Bridge Benefit performance in 1991, and the Experimental Jet Set session that resulted in "Winner's Blues," "Razorblade," and "Compilation Blues," but I'm probably forgetting a couple others). Around 1998 there were some murmerings of Thurston doing a few solo acoustic performances of a song or set of songs referred to as "Dream Investigations," and at one point I think it was suggested that it might be released as part of the SYR series, but that never happened. Whether related to that material or not, Thurston played a solo acoustic instrumental in between improv sets with Wally Shoup and Toshi Makihara at a show in 1999 that was released later as the album Hurricane Floyd. It's a really fantastic track and kinda makes me wish he did more acoustic stuff. There's a new item on the official SY site that says that Thurston recently performed 2 solo acoustic songs on BBC radio, I'm curious what he played.

Various riffs and melodic elements from that Hurricane Floyd track, "Altar Boy, Church Basement," have since cropped up on at least one song from each on the past three Sonic Youth albums: "Rain On Tin" from Murray Street, "New Hampshire" from Sonic Nurse, and now "Turquoise Boy" from the upcoming Rather Ripped. The first two were my favorite tracks from those respective albums, so I was pretty excited recently when someone on the ILM thread about Rather Ripped pointed out that one of the songs on the new album, which I hadn't heard any of yet, continued that thread. I still haven't heard Rather Ripped aside from a handful other tracks that popped up on websites and the band's MySpace page, but I had to track this one down, and it is pretty promising, definitely my favorite of the tracks I've heard so far. I probably won't get to hear the whole album until the June release date, though, so I'll have to make an effort not to burn myself out on this song until then.

Labels: mp3, Sonic Youth

This week in Stylus, I contributed to the Non-Definitive Guide to the Artist-Run Label feature, writing the last 2 label profiles for Roc-A-Fella Records (nothing that people don't really already know about in there) and Smells Like Records, who are close to my heart and considerably more obscure. I don't have every release on Steve Shelley's label, and I don't love all of the ones I've heard (the Mosquito album is one of the rare instances in which I took a CD back to the store after one listen for reasons other than scratches on the disc). But it's still probably my favorite tiny indie vanity label ever, and means way more to me than just any old Sonic Youth side project. Here are some of my favorite selections from their catalog:

La Lengua Asesina - "Hotel Opera" (mp3)
For anyone who's ever wondered about the origin of my AOL e-mail address, it's this, the brief slide guitar instrumental title track from Hotel Opera, the 1998 album by La Lengua Asesina, a side project of Tim Foljahn. Foljahn's main project is Two Dollar Guitar, my favorite Smells Like band, who I'll talk more about tomorrow. It kind of amazes me that I've had that e-mail address since shortly after this record came out, almost 8 years ago. Man, that makes me feel old.

Chris Lee - "Mount Venus" (mp3)
One of the most memorable introductions I've ever had to an artist via a live show would have to be when Chris Lee played a Smells Like label showcase in 2001. He opened his set with an amazing solo rendition of Tim Buckley's "Song To The Siren," and then played with the same backing band from his self-titled first album (including Andrew Barker, who I've barely heard anywhere else but might be one of the greatest drummers I've ever seen/heard). Chris Lee is a soul singer with a voice like Steve Perry from Journey with a little Southern twang added in, which might look terrible on paper, but he's made some really good, slept on records, in addition to playing with The Sands. And the best of his 3 solo albums is the one he did for Smells Like, 2001's Chris Lee Plays And Sings Torch'd Songs, Charivari Hymns & Oriki Blue-Marches. His official site has mp3's of some of my favorite songs from him, but here's another that's real quiet and pretty, and is kinda long because there's a hidden instrumental track at the end that sounds pretty awesome awesome..

Scarnella - "Release The Spring" (mp3)
Carla Bozulich's official site has mp3's from throughout her entire career, including some of my favorites by The Geraldine Fibbers ("Lilybelle," "Dragon Lady," "Butch") and Ethyl Meatplow ("Ripened Peach"), but the selection from Scarnella, the wonderfully bizarre 1998 album with Nels Cline, "Death By Northwest," is one of my least favorite tracks on that record. For a record that was made entirely by 2 people in a short span of time, it really does cover a pretty wide range of their abilities, from aggressive noise improv to torch ballads to giddy punk. I'll have to go with "Release The Spring," though, partly for the timeliness of the selection, and partly for that amazing spidery opening guitar riff, and the way Nels stomped on a bass drum to keep time during the song the one time I saw them play as Scarnella, opening for The Boredoms in '99.

Cat Power - "Rockets" (mp3)
I'm of the minority that was only really feeling Cat Power on those first 3 albums with Shelley/Foljahn backing where Chan Marshall's voice really cut through those muddy lo-fi riffs. Moon Pix, while about half really good, was the beginning of the end, as far as smoothing out her sound for a Garden Stateified fanbase that would actually put up with the bullshit she calls a live show.

Christina Rosenvinge - "Green Room" (mp3)
This tune has a somewhat convoluted history, from being penned by Tim Foljahn and originally released as "Chambre Vert" (the title translated to French, although the lyrics were always in Engligh) on the La Lengua Asesina album, and then recorded by Two Dollar Guitar for Weak Beats & Lame Ass Rhymes with Christina Rosenvinge guesting on lead vocals, and then recorded again by pretty much the same personnel (but with a slightly softer, less rock'n'roll arrangement) for Rosenvinge's Frozen Pool album. Plus there's a full band TDG version with Foljahn on vocals that they played on tour, which might be my favorite.

Note: In light of the end of Stylus in 2007, I decided to archive the text of all my reviews for the site on this blog for posterity, since I don't what the future holds for the Stylus domain:

Smells Like

Started: 1992

How It Started: Sonic Youth is an almost an indie cottage industry unto itself, with its various side projects and noise improv one-offs spreading out over countless homegrown labels. Meanwhile, drummer Steve Shelley has quietly gone about building a catalog of of rootsy, down-tempo lo-fi that owes a greater debt to Neil Young than the band's post-punk influences with his Smells Like Records label, over the course of 15 years and a few dozen releases.

Smells Like's first release was a 7-inch by Lou Barlow's Sentridoh, and true to those origins, the label's become something of a haven for side projects, including Dump (Yo La Tengo bassist James McNew), Mosquito (Half Japanese frontman Jad Fair), and Scarnella (a stunning and experimental 1998 collaboration between Carla Bozulich and Nels Cline of the Geraldine Fibbers). But Smells Like is more than just a vanity label for sidelines by estalished indie lifers, having signed a number of young unknowns including The Clears, Nod, and New York crooner Chris Lee, whose 2001 sophomore album stands out as one of Smells Like's finest moments.

Smells Like has also fought to keep cult heroes in print, including a 1994 EP by the reunited Raincoats. But perhaps the label's most ambitious project has been a 1999 campaign of reissues of solo albums by iconoclastic 70's pop songwriter Lee Hazelwood, including his first new album in decades. But Smells Like might still be best known as the home of the SYR imprint, which has issued Sonic Youth's series of experimental EPs, beginning with 1997's SYR1.

Where They Are Now: Smells Like still occasionally takes on new artists, most recently issuing debut albums by Ursa Minor and Tony Scherr. And they continue to foster long-term relationships with new albums by Christina Rosenvinge, Nod, and Fuck frontman Timothy Prudhomme, while Tim Foljahn has been hinting at a new Two Dollar Guitar album for years. The SYR series is still going strong with this year's SYR6, and Smells Like has handled the vinyl releases of Sonic Youth's more recent major label albums and its latest spate of reissues, including the long-awaited repressing of their 1981 debut EP.
[Al Shipley]

Roc-A-Fella

Started: 1995

How It Started: Hip-hop has virtually redefined the business model for artist-run labels, with nearly every up-and-coming MC now aiming for the ownership of their own company. And although Master P's No Limit Records set the standard for the independent grind in the South, no label has been more influential in popularizing the artist-run major label imprint than Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Records.

Founded with business partners Damon Dash and Kareem "Biggs" Burke after they had no luck getting him signed to a major label, Roc-A-Fella issued Jay's earlier singles, including "In My Lifetime," before getting distribution from Priority Records for his debut album, the 1996 classic Reasonable Doubt. It wasn't until 1998 when Roc-A-Fella partnered with Def Jam that Jay-Z was propelled to multi-platinum status, however.

It's to the credit of Jay-Z's marketing skills that he made Roc-A-Fella a recognized brand name despite being one of its only successful artists for several years. Aside from DJ Clue's two platinum mixtape albums, no non-Jay-Z release sold a million copies until Cam'ron's Come Home With Me in 2002. By that point, Roc-A-Fella had only modest sales to show for Philly hardcore rapper Beanie Sigel, Jay's Brooklyn crony Memphis Bleek, and the flop debut by female rapper Amil. But together, they presented a unified front as one of the most feared crews in the rap game.

The 2000 album Dynasty: Roc La Familia, stuffed with posse cuts, went a long way toward establishing the brand. But what really solidified Roc-A-Fella as a sound all its own was Jay-Z's 2001 album The Blueprint, which made in-house producers Just Blaze and Kanye West the hottest beatmakers in the game overnight, and brought soul sampling back in vogue in hip-hop. And in 2004, just months after Jay-Z announced his retirement from hip hop with The Black Album, West became the label's second multi-platinum franchise with his debut as a rapper, The College Dropout.

In recent years, Roc-A-Fella haphazardly expanded its roster, signing countless artists who never ended up releasing an album, including questionable choices like ex-Spice Girl Victoria Beckham and several underutilized veteran rappers. M.O.P. was on the label for years before moving onto a new deal with G-Unit, and Ol' Dirty Bastard passed away while working on an album for the label. Meanwhile, rumors swirled of a growing rift between Jay-Z and Dame Dash, which they denied adamantly right up until their partnership was dismantled.

Where They Are Now: Def Jam were so impressed with Jay-Z's business acumen in running one of the company's most successful labels that in 2004, he was offered the job of President of Def Jam. But the terms of the deal included Jay-Z, Dash, and Burke selling their remaining 50% share of Roc-A-Fella to Def Jam, effectively ending the partnership that the label had started. Dash has moved on with the unsuccessful Damon Dash Music Group, and one of the artists he brought to Roc-A-Fella, Cam'ron, left Def Jam and dissed Jay-Z on record. Aside from Kanye West's sophomore album, the continued success of Roc-A-Fella has yet to be seen, with meager sales of recent albums by Memphis Bleek, the Young Gunz, and Teairra Mari.
[Al Shipley]

Labels: Carla Bozulich, Chris Lee, mp3, Nels Cline, some shit I wrote, Sonic Youth, Stylus, Two Dollar Guitar

Last month I bought a new computer and for the first time finally have a CD burner. The first CD I burned was a mix that I gave to J.G.'s brother John as a Christmas gift:

1. Fugazi - "Song #1"
2. Medications - "Safe And Sorry"
3. The Dismemberment Plan - "The Ice Of Boston"
4. Apollo Sunshine - "Ghost"
5. Sonic Youth - "Teen Age Riot"
6. Superchunk - "Detroit Has A Skyline"
7. Brendan Benson - "I'm Easy"
8. Private Eleanor - "Estimated Distance"
9. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - "No Action"
10. Spymob - "It Gets Me Going"
11. Bob Dylan - "Simple Twist Of Fate"
12. Jeff Buckley - "Grace"
13. Lake Trout - "Pill"
14. Ted Leo/Pharmacist - "You Always Hate The One You Love" (mp3)
15. The Geraldine Fibbers - "Lilybelle"
16. Bruce Springsteen - "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)"
17. The Posies - "Song #1"

The Ted Leo track was the first thing I ever heard by him, way back in 2000 when I reviewed a crappy indie comp for Pitchfork that it was on, and it slowly had me hooked by the time Tyranny of Distance came out. In a way it's still one of my favorite songs by him and I kinda wish he'd do a whole record like that, solo and lo-fi but still energetic and song-driven.

Labels: Apollo Sunshine, Baltimore music, Brendan Benson, Bruce Springsteen, Dischord, Dismemberment Plan, mixtapes, mp3, Sonic Youth, Spymob, Superchunk, Ted Leo, The Geraldine Fibbers, The Posies

With links to things I wrote about them at the time on here or Gov't Names or in the City Paper. For the most part I'm only going to name the band I went to see and enjoyed seeing, and if it's more than one than I'll name them in the rough order of who I enjoyed the most, regardless of who opened or headlined.


1. Apollo Sunshine and Lake Trout @ The Ottobar, Baltimore, September 15th


2. Grand Buffet @ The Ottobar, Baltimore, August 16th


3. Karmella's Game @ the Talking Head, Baltimore, April 28th


4. The Posies @ The Black Cat, Washington, D.C., September 26th


5. System Of A Down @ the 1st Mariner Arena, Baltimore, August 22nd


(photo by Dawn Mercurio)
6. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists @ The Ottobar, November 22nd


7. Bossman, Skarr Akbar, D.O.G., Dirty Hearts and Q @ The Ottobar, Baltimore, October 16th


8. The Travis Morrison Hellfighters @ the Ottobar, Baltimore, February 22nd


9. Dinosaur Jr. @ the 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., July 11th


10. Noise Against Fascism: To Live And Shave In L.A., Mirror/Dash, Magik Markers, Nautical Almanac @ the Black Cat, Washington, D.C., January 20th


11. Elvis Costello & the Imposters with Emmylou Harris and Larry Campbell @ Wolf Trap, Virginia, July 31st


12. Grand Buffet @ the Ottobar, Baltimore, March 27th


13. Sonic Youth @ The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, April 15th


14. Apollo Sunshine and Lake Trout @ the Ottobar, Baltimore, April 23rd


15. Ogun, Ammo, Profound, Tyree Colion and Diablo @ Club 429, Baltimore, August 9th


16. Our Lady Peace @ The 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., September 22nd


17. Private Eleanor @ Current Space, Baltimore, August 27th


18. Ted Leo/Pharmacists @ The 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., June 23rd


19. Enon @ the Ottobar, Baltimore, March


20. The Evens @ The G-Spot, Baltimore, May 17th

Labels: Apollo Sunshine, Baltimore music, concerts, Dinosaur Jr., Dischord, Elvis Costello, Enon, Grand Buffet, hip hop, lists, Sonic Youth, Ted Leo, The Posies, Travis Morrison

top ten:

1. DJ Rod Lee - "I Got Problems (Dance My Pain Away)"
2. R. Kelly - "Trapped In The Closet (Chapter 2 of 5)"
3. String Tribute to Sonic Youth - "Wish Fulfillment"
4. Amerie - "Come With Me"
5. Beanie Sigel f/ Freeway and Young Chris - "I Can't Go On This Way"
6. Third Eye Blind - "Graduate"
7. Brendan Benson - "Them And Me"
8. Tweet - "Turn Da Lights Off" (RJD2 remix)
9. Jay-Z - "Dear Summer"
10. David Banner - "Play"

Labels: Baltimore music, Brendan Benson, Jay-Z, lists, R and B, R. Kelly, Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth - The Notorious Rockin' Lee

side 1:
1. Skip Tracer
2. Eric's Trip
3. Genetic
4. Paper Cup Exit
5. Pipeline/Kill Time
6. Karen Koltrane
7. Karen Revisited (aka Karenology)
8. Lee Is Free

side 2:
1. Mote
2. Hoarfrost
3. Hey Joni
4. Saucer-Like
5. Wish Fulfillment
6. In The Kingdom #19
7. Rain King
8. I Dreamed I Dream
9. NYC Ghosts & Flowers

Last summer I made this tape of (almost) every SY song with Lee Ranaldo on lead vocals (Lee and Thurston both sing on "Unwind", which I couldn't fit on). The title of the tape comes from the Goo demo track "Lee #2", which was retitled "The Notorious Rockin' Lee" on the Blow Job bootleg (the demo is instrumental but there's supposedly a live recording out there of a version with Lee singing on it). And "Lee Is Free" is an instrumental but included for obvious reasons as end-of-side filler.

Labels: mixtapes, Sonic Youth

Recently there was an amusing ILM thread about the reactions of UPenn's student body to the news that Sonic Youth had been booked for their spring concert. Of course, probably every school complains about their spring concert no matter who it is. I know mine does. This year my school got Third Eye Blind, and I think a lot of Towson students were just happy that for once it wasn't a hip hop act. Go figure. But what occurred to me in the course of the thread was that it was the closest show to me of the round of shows SY are doing this week, and in all likelihood my best chance to see them live until the next album and tour. The starter of the thread, Maria, offered to pick up tickets for non-students, so I took her up on it and went to the show on Friday.

I've only really been in Philly a handful of times and the last time was over 2 years ago, so I never really have a firm concept of how long it takes to get there and how to get around. So I ended up getting on the road way later than I should've to meet up with Maria. In fact, I got there a good hour late, and then it took me nearly another hour to confirm that I could not find the meeting place and find a working payphone to get in touch with her (this is the part where my friends and family once again chide me for still not having a cellphone). So it was a pretty ridiculous comedy of errors. But Maria was cool about it and left my ticket at will call. She tried to give me a description so I could spot her in the crowd, but I had no luck with that, so I never got to meet up, which was a bummer.

The openers were Cat Power and Citizen Cope. I got into Cat Power back in the mid-90's when it was just another band that Steve Shelley played in and I liked those records, but then I liked each record after that less and less and the whole weird cult that developed around her and her notorious live shows just turned me off. So I always kinda prided myself on the fact that I never saw Cat Power live. But since she was at this show and I got there early enough, I ended up seeing most of her set. It was actually kind of cool to walk through all these old buildings on the UPenn campus and into this little clearing full of purple light coming from a stage surrounded by not that many kids with a woman playing these quiet simple songs on piano. So her set was kind of pleasant and relaxing after driving and walking around Philly for a few hours. I didn't recognize many songs, since I never bought her last album and then got a promo of it a while later and could barely listen to it. She never broke down or did anything weird, just switched from piano to guitar and back a few times and barely said anything and ended her set abruptly.

The less said about Citizen Cope the better. All his songs seemed to be about guns and jail and homeless people and crazy people and were sung in some kind of ridiculous affected bluesman voice.

Sonic Youth's setlist: I Love You Golden Blue / Stones / Pattern Recognition / Unmade Bed / Eric’s Trip / Bull In The Heather / Dude Ranch Nurse / Paper Cup Exit / New Hampshire / Rain On Tin / Teenage Riot

Overall a pretty similiar set to what I saw them do last summer at the 9:30 Club, although a little sloppier, which is understandable since that was during a full-on tour and this was a shorter series of gigs. But I kinda went in expecting that, and even hoping for a lot of stuff from Sonic Nurse, which I liked to begin with but it's actually grown on me in the past few months to the point that I've decided I like it better than Murray Street (although "Rain On Tin" is one of my favorite SY songs ever and I'm pretty happy that it's remained in their set). Thurston forgot to sing at the beginning of "Rain On Tin", which is kinda funny considering the whole song only has like 8 lines, so Kim reminded him and they started it over. "I Love You Golden Blue" had a longer noise intro than I remember it having last time. "Stones" was one of my least favorite songs on Nurse but it's one of the best songs live. I'm still bummed that they never seem to play "Dripping Dream", though. "Eric's Trip" is never as good live as it should be, although "Teenage Riot" was maybe the best live version I've ever heard, and ended with a long long noise finale. At the end Thurston came down on the ground in front of the crowd and jammed his guitar in between the bars of a metal girder in front of the stage, and a roadie had to go get it out after the show.

Labels: concerts, ILM, Sonic Youth

in my stereo:

Beanie Sigel - The B.Coming
DJ Quicksilva - The Hot Boy Volume 1
Dinosaur Jr. - Bug
Brendan Benson - The Alternative To Love
The Pretenders - The Pretenders
Bossman - Charm City's King, Mixtape Vol. 2
Enon - Lost Marbles and Exploded Evidence
Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse
Blink 182 - Blink 182
Trick Daddy - Thug Matrimony

Labels: Baltimore music, Brendan Benson, Dinosaur Jr., Enon, In My Stereo, Sonic Youth, The Pretenders, Trick Daddy

Here's a decent little essay by Thurston Moore about mixtapes and cassette culture, a topic near and dear to my heart. Apparently it comes from a book on the subject edited by TM that's coming out in May, which is the kind of thing that gets me excited. I'm feeling especially sentimental about it right now since just a couple weeks ago the record button on my stereo's tape deck stopped working and I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that it makes more sense to finally get a CD burner than buy a new tape deck, which means that I may have already made my last mixtape. Sigh.

Labels: mixtapes, Sonic Youth

About 2-3 years ago I was hanging out a lot with a friend of mine named Chris in York, PA and playing drums in his band (I live a half hour from the MD/PA border so it's not a long drive). Chris strummed really slowly on an acoustic guitar and ran it through a bunch of effects and delay and I just played along and sometimes we had a keyboardist and/or a bassist and/or a violinist. Chris was a cool guy, I liked hanging out with him, although I wasn't really on the same wavelength with him musically at all. I don't think he was at all aware of how indifferent I was about some of his favorite bands (Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, etc.). But in a way I'm more cool with people like him who are kind of naively enthusiastic about their generic indie taste than cynical or really trying to be cool. Anyway, I kind of regarded it as a fun challenge to play slow, pretty shoegazey music, even if that's not really the kind of thing I actually listen to. Actually, come to think of it, all 3 of the bands that I've played in for a significant amount of time and accomplished something with (i.e. play in front of an audience and/or record original material) have all been rock subgenres that I don't really listen to (my last band was a metal band and in high school I played in I guess you could call it a 'screamo' band, although again I know nothing about that stuff). That's kind of the gift and the curse of being a drummer, though; you can have a completely different background than everyone else in the band and it doesn't matter if you can keep a beat. But it also means you rarely get to play what you really want to play. This is pretty much the reason why I'm taking a break from playing drums in other people's bands to make a solo record so I can actually figure out what kind of band I really want to play in by making one up.

Anyway, where was I? The band in York...Nice folks, although everyone I knew up there seemed to be a morbid alcoholic, and to this day my general impression of York is that it's this really depressing little college town where everyone drinks too much, although for all I know that's just the people I hung out with there. But Chris was a nice dude, I haven't seen him in a while and keep meaning to hang out again. At one point while we were doing the band thing he asked me to make him a mixtape, and I kinda tried to go for some of that slow pretty guitar music he likes, but from some indie-ish bands that I like (plus the Built To Spill stuff because he was really into them). I think it came out pretty well.

side 1:
1. The Posies - "Coming Right Along"
2. Ted Leo - "Parallel Or Together?"
3. Shudder To Think - "Red House"
4. The Geraldine Fibbers - "Outside Of Town"
5. Ben Folds Five - "Twin Falls"
6. Built To Spill - "By The Way"
7. Cat Power - "Rockets"
8. Jeff Buckley - "Mojo Pin"
9. Death Cab For Cutie - "Styrofoam Plates"
10. Sonic Youth - "Rain On Tin"

side 2:
1. Lake Trout - "Holding"
2. The Dismemberment Plan - "The Face Of The Earth"
3. The Minutemen - "No Exchange"
4. The Minutemen - "History Lesson - Part II"
5. Ted Leo - "Biomusicology"
6. Ken Stringfellow - "Your Love Won't Be Denied"
7. The Geraldine Fibbers - "Butch"
8. The Posies - "Every Bitter Drop"
9. The Posies - "Fall Song"
10. Chris Lee - "Dixie's Door"
11. Two Dollar Guitar - "Stones Vs. Zep"

Labels: Baltimore music, Mike Watt, mixtapes, Sonic Youth, Ted Leo, The Geraldine Fibbers, The Minutemen, The Posies, Two Dollar Guitar

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 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

Last night I went to the Noise Against Fascism thing at the Black Cat. I was a little wary about driving into downtown DC on the night of the inauguration, but by the time I got down there around 9pm, traffic wasn't heavy at all and the only difference was a slightly higher volume of cop cars than usual. Although it was pretty obvious what the occasion of the concert was, given the timing and the location, I was thankful to not be confronted with too many Fuck Bush-type messages throughout the night. Not that we should be apolitical or complacent just because the election's over, just that I don't really feel like thinking about it that much right now. But there was definitely something pleasingly cathartic about standing around and listening to a bunch of shapeless noise be performed at insane volumes. Plus it gave me a chance to observe the noise dude in their natural environment that I've heard so much about on ILM's pickle bar. I've never seen so many beards on people under the age of 30 in my life.

I missed the first handful of bands, but the ILM thread contains a pretty complete recap of the show. Mirror/Dash (Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, respectively, a la their pseudonyms going all the way back to the Sister liner notes) were the 2nd or 3rd band that played after I got there, and their set was short and kind of underwhelming. Kim played an electric guitar, and Thurston had an acoustic and just kind of made a nice feedback hum with it. Kim strummed some nice sounding stuff and did her weird repetitive mumbly poetry style, mostly saying "hey cowboy, what's your name?" and "hey cowboy, what's your game?" over and over. I kept waiting for Thurston to reply "I'm hunting for little Mexican girls". But after a while, Kim let loose and did some wild feedback and flailing around, which was kind of cool to see since at Sonic Youth shows she usually is the first to stand off to the side or leave the stage while Thurston and Lee go off on noise tangents. Actually, it kind of looked like she was doing an impression of Thurston.

After that was Nautical Almanac, who are from Baltimore, and I've seen a couple of those people participate in High Zero shows before. They kind of epitomized the very enthusiastic and cheerful approach to avant noise that dominated the whole night. In between sets a couple times there was this weird pair of DJs wearing shapeless elephant man-style cloth masks with eye holes and making really brutal noise by distorting old vinyl and Led Zep riffs. One of my favorite sets of the night was by a drums/sax duo, Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty. They didn't really do anything out of the ordinary for a skronky improv noise combo, but they were really good at what they did, especially the drumming. Something I've realized is that while I'll always prefer structure over chaos in music, I can get with chaos too if it's intense enough to hold my attention. I don't have a lot of time for the minimalist stuff, but if you make a lot of noise and get in a ton of notes, it can be fun to listen to even if I can't tap my foot or hum to it. Plus they were pretty much the only act of the night that didn't make noise with any electric/electronic instruments, so they were kind of refreshing in that context. They got such a strong response from the audience they actually kind of came back for an encore. Magik Markers were alright. It was during their set that it occurred to me that almost every single I saw that night included at least one fairly attractive woman. So much for the noise dude stereotype!

The evening climaxed with the last band, To Live And Shave In L.A. I wasn't really familiar with them before, and I'm still not sure what their deal was, but their lineup, for this show at least, was: Don Fleming, Thurston Moore, Andrew W.K., Tom Smith, Ben Wolcott, Mark Morgan and a guy who goes by the name of Rat Bastard. Rat Bastard was the MC of the evening, introducing and talking between bands, sometimes just drunkenly rambling for several minutes at a time, and he kind of talked like and resembled a Darrell Hammond character from SNL. At one point, something vaguely beat-driven was being played on the PA, and he got off on a long rant about how industrial music is dead, and that DC needs to sever its connections with "mid 80s industrial shit" because "Al Jourgensen is a Miami Cuban, and he's a pussy", and that they should play Can or the Silver Apples instead. Whoever was in control of the sound responded to this by playing the Monkees.

Oh yeah, so anyway, To Live And Shave In L.A. They were awesome. 7 mostly 40ish-looking guys, making the most extreme, sloppy, punishingly loud noise: 3 of them on guitar, one hollering incomprehensible syllables in a strange oafish voice, 2 making sounds by pressing buttons on metal boxes, and one on drums (Andrew W.K., who at one point tried to get people to clap along in time to his thumping, tribal beats, but it never caught on). Almost every other band played for 15-20 minutes at most, but TLASILA played for something in the neighborhood of an hour. I was so close to the speakers that it became kind of an endurance test, but it remained pretty entertaining throughout. At the end of their set, Thurston grabbed a mic and started yelling about how it was time to fight and started asking various members of the audience directly in front of the stage, "hey beard, are you ready to fight?" and handing them the mic to reply. "Hey flannel, are you ready to fight? You, little beard, are you ready to fight?"

Labels: Baltimore music, concerts, music, Sonic Youth

New weekly feature for the new year here on Narrowcast! I could've gone for the more alliterative day of the week, but I avoided it out of respect for Shaheem Reid's weekly dispatch from the streets, Mixtape Monday, which is pretty damn thorough for MTV News. Basically this is a celebration of the sad fact that I still listen to and make mixes on cassettes, and am probably one of the only people I know (at least in the realm of music nerds who own computers) who still hasn't made the jump to CD burners. It kind of sucks that hardly anyone even seems to have a tape deck anymore. I'm basically eager to make mixtapes for anyone who has something to play them on (so if anyone wants to trade, get at me). But I still make mixes to listen to in the car all the time (my car radio died a couple summers ago so I keep a boombox in the passenger seat). Anyway, this week's selection, a best of 2004 mix:

side 1:
1. Twista - "Get Me"
2. Bossman - "Openin' Arguments"
3. Cam'ron - "Bubble Music"
4. Cee-Lo f/ Pharrell - "The Art of Noise"
5. Trick Daddy - "I Wanna Sang"
6. Kanye West - "We Don't Care"
7. Nas - "Getting Married"
8. Talib Kweli f/ Jean Grae - "Black Girl Pain"
9. Jadakiss - "Still Feel Me"
10. T.I. - "Prayin' For Help"
11. Fabolous - "In My Hood"

side 2:
1. Beauty Pill - "The Western Prayer"
2. Elvis Costello and the Imposters - "Bedlam"
3. Mike Watt and the Secondmen - "The Angels Gate"
4. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "The Angels' Share"
5. Spymob - "National Holidays"
6. Travis Morrison - "Che Guevara Poster"
7. Sonic Youth - "New Hampshire"
8. Ken Stringfellow - "Any Love (Cassandra et Lune)"
9. Elliott Smith - "A Distorted Reality Is Now A Necessity To Be Free"
10. The Nels Cline Singers - "He Still Carries A Torch For Her"

That's by no means a list of my favorite songs of 2004, most of which I probably don't even own hard copies of. That's just a favorite song each from a bunch of albums I copped last year, and not all necessarily my favorite albums, since a lot of those are the one song I like from otherwise weak albums (like the Watt and the Cee-Lo). I feel kinda lame for segregating genres for the 2 sides of the tape, but I have no illusions about the fact that my album purchases are pretty evenly split between indie rock and mainstream rap (actually, it's been like that with me for a long time, since at least the late 90's), so it makes sense to give each its own side. With the hip hop side especially I made a point to avoid singles and features and go for just straight album tracks that I liked, and I noticed that a lot of my favorite songs are moody, topical midtempo songs. With some songs with children singing added for good measure. And on the rock side I seemed to pick the more rocking, rambling, jammy songs from each album, especially with the first few selections. I think those patterns say more about my mood lately than my taste over the course of the entire year, though. But I don't really know what it says anyway.

Labels: Baltimore music, hip hop, mixtapes, Nels Cline, Sonic Youth, Spymob, Ted Leo, The Posies, Travis Morrison

This could've been a top 10, but I didn't really see nearly as many shows as I have in other recent years. I've only had the advantage of both living in/around Baltimore and having my own car for the past 3 years, and I took full advantage of it and went to probably 30 shows each in '02 and '03, compared to maybe a dozen this year. I just worked a lot this year and had less and less time and energy for standing around for a few hours at the end of a long day just to see some live music. This year was the first time I found myself passing on a lot of shows I wanted to go to and could've. My passion just dwindled a little, mainly because I've seen all my favorite live bands one too many times or spent too much time at all the local venues. But I still saw some good ones:

The 92Q End of Summer Jam @ the Towson Center, 9/10/04
The acoustics were terrible, the performances weren't always top shelf, but a bill full of some of the year's biggest hitmakers (Jadakiss, Fat Joe, Nina Sky, Ciara, Shawnna and local hero Bossman) and a hyped crowd made it a memorable occasion (my Gov't Names post about it).

Travis Morrison / Karmella's Game / Beauty Pill @ the Talking Head, 11/9/04
2 of the artists from my top 10 albums list in better form than when I saw them at seperate shows earlier in the year, and a surprisingly good local band fronted by a girl who I didn't realize until a week later that I met once a few years ago (my Narrowcast post about it).

Kanye West / Young Gunz / Paula Campbell @ the UMBC Field House, 4/22/04
The man of the year right at the crest of his wave, album still in the top 10, great energetic set of back to back hits, with ok labelmates and another local hero (my ILM thread about it).

Jonathan Richman @ the Ottobar, 6/8/04
Not quite as consistently smile-inducing as his show at the same place a couple summers before, but still there's maybe noone I'd rather see perform with an acoustic guitar.

The High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music @ the Theatre Project, 10/3/04
I'm not in general a huge fan of noise music and improv, but I'm proud that such a rare kind of festival has been able to establish itself here in Baltimore (6 years and running!), and so I make a point to check out at least one night of it every year. And the last night of this year's festival was no disappointment, especially with Andrea Parkins doing amazing things with an accordian and effects pedals.

Honorable mentions to people I see almost every year who did some decent shows in '04: Ted Leo, Sonic Youth and Cex.

Labels: Baltimore music, concerts, hip hop, lists, Sonic Youth, Ted Leo, Travis Morrison

Making these lists is always weird for me. I remember in high school I was way more hyped about it, maybe because I was just younger and less self conscious about my taste than I am now. It seems like I've dreaded the listmaking time of year ever since 2000, the year that I briefly worked for Pitchfork. I was real broke that year and didn't buy many albums at all, and they wanted a top 20 albums list from everyone (they didn't have the singles poll yet), and I don't think I even had 10, which was one of the reasons I was more relieved than anything else when they fired me shortly before doing the year-end poll. And this year they asked for a top 50 from their staff! Holy shit! I mean, I'm sure if I downloaded constantly or had a steady stream of promos being mailed to me or made more than $7/hr, I'd have a lot more albums to put on my list. But as it stands, I heard less than 30 albums this year, and more than half of them were by artists that I'm loyal to and bought in good faith and was disappointed by (including, to some degree, some of the artists in the top 10). I just happened to digest music in a lot of different ways this year, through radio, through mixtapes, especially writing for Government Names (though I did manage to cough up my top 10 hip hop albums for the GN poll). But I still do listen to albums all the time and I'm a big nerd about the sanctity of the album form (I never skip tracks, etc.) And this year did have some albums I really enjoyed. So without further ado, here's the 10:

1. Kanye West - The College Dropout

I feel a little corny putting this at the top, because it's kind of become this year's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, the token hip hop album that people who aren't really up on it rally around, while a lot of people whose opinions I respect have hated on it, or have chosen to damn it with faint praise, slipping it in the lower half of their lists or not at all. But fuck it, I love this shit. In 2003 Kanye went from being one of my favorite producers to becoming one of my favorite MCs too. I collected every single mixtape he dropped, every track that leaked, following every release date delay, knowing that with Roc-A-Fella's release schedule it might never come out at all. I figured that if it ever did drop, it would get some nice reviews and sell modestly, like all super producer pet projects. As much faith as I had in Kanye, I didn't expect multi-platinum sales and hit after hit single and 10 Grammy nominations. It's not a perfect album (I tend to find reasons to leave the room during the block of three (three!) skits surrounding "School Spirit), but there's far more good than bad or played out. He did it. And I was there first, and I've got bragging rights, so fuck you, he earned his spot at the top.

2. Spymob - Sitting Around Keeping Score

Spymob got screwed. Most people have only heard of them because of N.E.R.D., and they were mainly resented for their role in the inferior 'live' version of In Search Of. Then they kept getting mislabelled as "funk metal" or whatever because of that and the unrepresentative song on the Clones comp. And, like all Neptunes-affiliated artists, label troubles hounded Spymob, to the point that this album (which was recorded mostly before they even met Pharrell) kept getting delayed until long after any residual interest in them from N.E.R.D. had dried up, and the album was finally released in April of this year, quietly, 3 years after it was recorded, and not on Star Trak (although, oddly enough, on another rap label, Ruthless Records). But it's hands down the best rock albums I heard this year. Alt-rock records with a total absence of any resemblence to indie rock tend to do one of 2 things these days: either get some VH1 exposure and sell a ton like Maroon 5, or go absolutely nowhere, like Spymob. The most flattering comparison that's popped up in most reviews has been Steely Dan, and while that's maybe too kind and a little misleading, it does a good way toward understanding their appeal. There's an element of perverse humor here, like "It Gets Me Going", which is written from the perspective of a dog, but there's also "National Holidays", which is the catchiest and most touching song I've ever heard about child custody battles. I really can't reccomend this album enough to people who aren't too cool for it.

3. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Shake The Sheets

Ted Leo is the kind of singer/songwriter whose essentially meat-and-potatoes punk and rock is informed by a diverse enough set of influences that it seems like he's in constant danger of the inevitable slide into either dreaded 'maturity' or hopelessly indulgent experimentation, determinded to make his own Sandanista. But, knock on wood, that hasn't happened yet, and instead he continues to deliver his 3rd solid rock album in a row, and it's the most no-frills and straight-ahead yet, stripping away the touches of keyboard and violin from the last one and narrowing his pallette down to just the core power trio, which his biggest recording budget yet for the wonderful hi-fi sound that Hearts of Oak's songs deserved instead of that horrible fuzz bass and weak drum sound. By comparison, this record stomps, especially on "Little Dawn", which begins with a spiraling guitar figure that reminds me of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck", and builds to a glorious crescendo before winding down with Ted repeating the hypnotic mantra of "it's alright" 151 times (I counted). The first 5 songs are maybe his best run since the first 5 songs on The Tyranny of Distance (he has a tendency to frontload his records with the good stuff), but "Walking To Do", ends the record beautifull with some perfectly executed a-little-bit-softer-now, a-little-bit-louder-now dynamics.

4. Trick Daddy - Thug Matrimony: Married To The Streets

Daddy Dollars has always had a gruff papa bear voice, and he's been running it long enough now to be an elder statesman of the new South. But he doesn't just sit back and collect features and follow the new style. There's some crunk, yeah, but there's also his classic mix of bass, sex jams, and tough guy songs, along with a block of songs to reaffirm that Trick luvs the kids, especially the wonderful "I Just Wanna Sang". Six albums deep and he's still deeper than anyone in the deep South.

5. Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse

I'm a bigger fan of SY's output over the last 10 years than most, but after the nadir of NYC Ghosts & Flowers, even I was caught off guard by the low key grace of Murray Street, after which the almost as good Nurse feels a little anticlimactic. Steve Shelley is about as slept on as a member of such a canonical band can be, and he's the biggest reason that the ever mellowing tempos of the aging Youth aren't a bummer. He may not pummel the toms like he did on Sister or bring thunderous fills like on Dirty, but he's got a way with those relaxed midtempo grooves that just kills me. Much has been made of Kim doing something other than screeching or mumbling nursery rhymes for the first time in too long (although there's still the Mariah screed, which is slightly less annoying than the Britney screed from the last album, but still essentially just a sluggish version of Dirty-era Kim jams). But as far as I'm concerned, it's all about Thurston's creaky hippie vox (although I can do without some of the "electric guitar strings buuuuury flowers" lyrics) and long instrumental midsections. I'm very happy with the fact that "Wildflower Soul" seems to be the blueprint for most of his songs on the past couple albums. I really do want Sonic Youth to keep making albums like this of varying quality for as long as they're physically capable, and there aren't many artists I can say that of.

6. Travis Morrison - Travistan

Pitchfork shat on Travistan from atop the same perch from which they once praised the Dismemberment Plan to the heavens, and the backlash followed elsewhere without much opposition. Albums like this don't have fans, they have apologists, but I'm more than happy to be in that camp. I kind of have to forget my sentimental attachment to the Plan (and ignore how much better the Plan versions of "Angry Angel" and "Change" were) to really enjoy this, but it's far from the disaster it's often cast as. Breaking with the D.C. indie/punk tradition of strident politics and sloganeering, Travis uses and humor and warmth while taking shots at white male privelege ("Born In '72") and the liberal impulse (the amazing "Che Guevara Poster") while everyone else spent the past year firing off witless "fuck Bush" tirades (all respect due to Ted Leo, who made a better record with political commentary, but all I hear when I listen to him is the hooks and riffs and vocabulary-enhancing lyrics, whereas Travis is doing something much more interesting than preaching to the converted). It's just a shame that he didn't package some of the best lyrics of his career in an appealing spazz-dance-punk package to make the kids listen.

7. Beauty Pill - The Unsustainable Lifestyle

Like Travis, Chad Clark is the ex-frontman of a 'weird' 90's D.C. post-punk band (Smart Went Crazy) who's moved onto something gentler, if not kinder. His increasingly delicate, homespun production style and naggingly memorable melodies are wrapped around maybe his most barbed lyrics and jaundiced worldview yet. And while the languid tunage is more appealing than some of Travistan's downright awkward attempts at similiar terrain, Travis's lyrics have a sense of purpose and viewpoint that gets lost in some of Clark's cheap gags and cheaper cynicism. But when he gets properly fired up, talking about Mark David Chapman or "those countries where they come up and starve right in your face", his black humor becomes black anger and Beauty Pill's pastoral tones become much more compelling. At first the album registered as a disappointment, but I don't think there's any other album I reached for more often late at night throughout the year.

8. Nas - Street's Disciple

Complaints about how it's not Illmatic or it could've been better as a single album are wasted breath. If you're listening to a new Nas album, you have to be up for all of it, the less than ideal beats, the weird pretentious song concepts, the gross sex talk. So if you can deal with that, you'll get a huge, comprehensive statement from one of the most opinionated, hypocritical, greatest motherfuckers of all time. God's Son did a lot of the same things, but the sheer bulk of this gives it more force. There's a bunch of songs for his wifey, a bunch of songs for his family, a bunch of songs dissing other rappers and the industry, a bunch of songs paying tribute to the old school, hitting everything he wants to talk about from multiple angles. And like Trick Daddy or Jadakiss, Nas's voice gets better every year, thickening and deepening into a grandpa voice to match all his "back in my day" rants.

9. Cam'ron - Purple Haze

I loved last year's Diplomatic Immunity, which was an absurd statement of epic proportions from Cam's crew, and as Cam's next album continued to be delayed for over a year, my passion for it slowly dwindled, figuring that all the best tracks were the ones that had already leaked to mixtapes ages ago. But then, a couple weeks ago, it finally dropped, and I was blown away with how consistent it is. Label complications and bad single choices will probably stop it from being the peak it was hyped up to be, but the album itself is fire.

10. The Nels Cline Singers - The Giant Pin

Nels Cline's stock as a hired gun may have shot up this year with his drafting into Wilco, but he's not one to build his sideman resume at the expense of chasing his own muse. So 2004 saw yet another windfall of his own projects as a composer, collaborator and improviser, chief among them the 2nd album from his latest stable touring unit, the Nels Cline Singer. While I still carry a torch for the original 90's incarnation fo the Nels Cline Trio and have been slow to warm to the Singers, this album gradually won me over with a cohesive collection of lovely ballads and effects-pedal-crazy noise workouts.

Labels: hip hop, lists, Nels Cline, Sonic Youth, Spymob, Ted Leo, Travis Morrison

My 15 Favorite Albums In The Nels Cline Discography (well, not all necessarily most favorite but what I think is his best work)

1. The Nels Cline Trio - Ground (Krown Pocket)
2. Mike Watt - Contemplating the Engine Room (Columbia)
3. Thurston Moore & Nels Cline - In-Store (W.D.T.C.H.C./Father Yod)
4. Destroy All Nels Cline - Destroy All Nels Cline (Atavistic)
5. Scarnella - Scarnella (Smells Like Records)
6. Nels Cline / Gregg Bendian - Interstellar Space Revisited: The Music of John Coltrane (Atavistic)
7. Nels Cline - The Inkling (Cryptogramophone)
8. Carla Bozulich - Red Headed Stranger (DiCristina Star Builders)
9. The Geraldine Fibbers - Butch (Virgin)
10. Nels Cline / Andrea Parkins / Tom Rainey - Out Trios Volume 3: Ash and Tabula (Atavistic)
11. Mike Watt - Ball-Hog or Tugboat? (Columbia)
12. The Nels Cline Singers - The Giant Pin (Cryptogramophone)
13. Gregg Bendian's Interzone - Myriad (Atavistic)
14. The Nels Cline Trio - Sad (Little Brother)
15. Nels Cline & Devin Sarno - Buried On Bunker Hill (Ground Fault)

Labels: lists, Mike Watt, Nels Cline, Sonic Youth

This weekend hopefully I'll get to hang out with Mr. Cibula while he's passing through Baltimore. If I wasn't doing that, though, I'd probably be in D.C. tomorrow night checking out this, "an evening of conversation with New Yorker music critic Alex Ross and Sonic Youth". I have no idea what that all is exactly about, but I'd probably find it interesting.

Labels: Sonic Youth