Top Top Ten Lists for 2008

The “I WORK IN THE INDIE ROCK INDUSTRY” Top Ten of 2008 List:
1. Tallest Man on Earth – “Shallow Grave”
2. Born Ruffians – “Red, Yellow and Blue”
3. Dr. Dog – “Fate”
4. Dutchess & The Duke – “She’s The Dutchess, He’s The Duke”
5. Vivian Girls – “Vivian Girls”
6. Kanye West – “808’s & Heartbreak”
7. Jay Reatard – “Matador Singles ‘08”
8. Spiritualized – “Songs in A & E”
9 . Throw Me The Statue – “Moonbeams”
10. Young Rival – “Tour EP”

The “HEY LOOK, WEIRD/OLD STUFF” Top Ten of 2008 List:
1. John Baker “The John Baker Tapes Vol. 1 & 2”
2. Rodriguez – “Cold Fact”
3. Natural Snow Buildings – “The Snow Bringer Cult”
4. Fennesz – “The Black Sea”
5. The Shop Assistants – “Will Anything Happen”
6. Porter Wagoner – ‘The Cold Hard Facts Of Life/Soul Of A Convict”
7. Chico Magnetic Band – “s/t”
8. All Those LPs I Bought on Mississippi Records esp. “Fight On Your Time Ain’t Long”
9. Scott Walker “’Til The Band Comes In”
10. Wavves “Wavves”

The “BEST FORMAT IS THE 7”” Top Ten of 2008 List:
1. The Barbaras – “Summertime Road” b/w ”Day At The Shrine” & “Flow”
2. Wounded Lion – “Carol Cloud” b/w “Pony People”
3. The Strange Boys – “Woe Is You & Me” b/w “Baby Please Don’t Go”
4. Ruben & Lacey – “Jackson” b/w “Let The Good Times Roll”
5. Times New Viking “Stay Awake EP”
6. Sexy Kids – “Sisters Are Forever” b/w “Drown Me”
7. Jacuzzi Boys – “Island Ave.” b/w “Dream Lion” & You Should Know”
8. caUSE Co-MOTION – “I Lie Awake” b/w “You Don’t Care” & “Cry For Attention”
9. Demon’s Claws – “Fucked on Ketamine” b/w “Always Be My Friend”
10. Dirtbombs “Sherlock Holmes” b/w “Nothing To Do”

The “REALLY REAL” Top Ten of 2008 List:
1. Girls
2. Beers
3. Records
4. Friends
5. Voting
6. Sleeping
7. Not Sleeping
8. Internet
9. Puppy Cam!
10. Fun

"Hey, what's going on? Nothing much. Just chillin'."

I can never get sick of looking at this photo. That dog embodies everything good about this world.

Nobunny on Chic-a-go-go

Seriously, his show at the Funhouse in January can't some soon enough.

Records Purchased 120708

Ursula Bogner Recordings 1969-1988 CD (Faitiche)
Wavves s/t LP (Woodsist)
Nobunny Love Visions LP (1234 Go! Records)
Svarte Greiner Man Bird Dress LP (SMTG Limited)
Thee Headcoatees Girlsville LP (Hangman Records)
The Intelligence Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long b/w Shitty World 7" (Plastic Idol)
Demon's Claws Fucked on Ketamine b/w Always Be My Friend 7" (Rob's House)

Jarvis 4 Eva

I make no real qualms about Jarvis Cocker being my hero. Between him and Brian Eno the two represent the perfect way to be a gracefully aging rocker. People who remain as relevant as ever without popping up on VH1 and humping their legacy.

Jarvis had his pop moment with Pulp only after toiling away in the harsh salt mines of obscurity (aka Sheffield England) for about ten years. What always stuck me as amazing is that while Pulp were at the height of their fame in England, Jarvis was about in his mid thirties. So while we has caught in all this swirling fame he had this knowing, older brother style air about him. Which of course just served to make his sly observational songwriting style all that much more authentic. He had been there and seen that and was here to tell you all about it.

So, like a good little fan boy I ate up the semi-recent 2CD reissues of the three major Pulp albums (His & Her's, Different Class and This is Hardcore). But as a very good fanboy, I noticed that even with an entire extra disc of bonus tracks, there were still a couple of things missing.

First of which is the "Complete and Utter Breakdown Version" of "The Fear", the opening track off of This is Hardcore. Its essentially just the same as the album version, but with an extra guitar solo thrown in. But good none the less.

The second though is one of my favorite Pulp moments. "Duck Diving" is from a BBC session that the band cut circa their final album, the Scott Walker produced We Love Life (which perhaps explains why it wasn't included with the aforementioned reissues). It's a very charming bit of English-ness. I always love when Jarvis breaks into straight up spoken word mode and this is certainly one of his finest stories.

And of course I was SUPER PLEASED to find this little treasure on You Tube the other afternoon. A FIVE PART interview with Jarvis broadcast by the BBC around the time of the release of his brilliant solo album. He shows you his favorite spots in Paris, plays some songs live, talks about Pulp and offers a thoughtful explanation of the cover art for that solo LP. Here's part one of that interview:

Wounded Lion "Pony People"

I love this song deeply and bizarrely. Probably my favorite single of the year.

Fucking great pile of weird in the video too.

Something Else Mix #3

This was going to be a simple "this sounds like this" post about the similarities between 80's/90's pop group The Shop Assistants and the new dirty garage pop group Vivian Girls. But the more I listened to the two groups the more I realized that there are a hell of a lot of new bands that sound a hell of a lot like classic C86 groups (not to mention the shambolic glory of The Modern Lovers).

And then the news came this morning that the Shop Assistants singles collection Will Anything Happen is FINALLY getting reissued. And so, in a fit of productivity, I got this mix together.

Tracklist:
1. Love is All "Wishing Well"
2. The Modern Lovers "I Want To Sleep In Your Arms"
3. 14 Iced Bears "Come Get Me"
4. Orange Juice "Love Sick"
5. The Close Lobsters "Just Too Bloody Stupid"
6. Josef K "Chance Meeting"
7. Fire Engines "Candyskin"
8. caUSE Co-MOTION! "Who's Gonna Care?"
9. The Shop Assistants "I Don't Want To Be Friends With You"
10. Vivian Girls "Where Do You Run To"
11. Black Tambourine "Black Car"
12. Kurt Vile "Freeway"
13. The Honeydrips "I Wouldn't Know What To Do"
14. Tallulah Gosh "Tallulah Gosh"
15. Loft "Why Does The Rain"
16. Crystal Stilts "Converging in the Quiet"

It should be noted that many of the older tracks on this mix come from the wonderful CD86 compilation.

Download Something Else Mix #3 (M4A version for iTunes with artwork and chapter titles) here.

Download Something Else Mix #3 (MP3 version with artwork) here.

The Joy of "Tags"

"The Walkmen Are An Indie Rock Band"

YACHT "Summer Song"

YACHT - Summer Song from Jona Bechtolt on Vimeo
Nothing like a little frame story to enable you to get away with a real low budget video. Also, for some reason, I find the guy who plays the "video company boss" or whatever to be oddly charming. Someone get him in a bit part in a Wes Anderson film.

Serge Gainsbourg "La Javanaise"

I've had this song sitting on my computer desktop, waiting to post for about two months. So, here it is...one of my favorite early Serge songs. A great mix of chanson and a early 60's girl group, doo-wop sound.

Lyrically the song seems to be about Serge's of the letter "V." The letter, and it's sound, dominate the song. I did a bit a Googling and found one reference to the song being about a trend amongst French teenagers to add additional v's to words. A bit like a few years back when everyone was adding "-izza" to everything.

Watch serge sing the song, hold the cigarette, but never smoke it. Amazing. I'm pretty anti-smoking, but I'll be damned if he doesn't make it look so fucking cool.



Download Serge Gainsbourg "La Javanaise"

Squeeze "Argybargy"

In honor of Squeeze's impending "reunion" (only a sorta reunion...its only Glen Tillbrook and Chris Difford...no Jools Holland...sigh) show at the Showbox on September 16th, I purchased the painfully excessive double disc version of their finest album Argybargy.

But why a TWO DISC version of an LP that is 3.99 or less in every Half Price Books in the US? Quite simply because it's the ONLY version of this album on CD, a fact that is fully absurd. Can't get an LP on yr iPod...well, okay, you CAN. But I can't.

There are probably no better pop singles of the era than "Pulling Muscles (From a Shell)", "Another Nail in My Heart" and "If I Didn't Love You", the latter of which contains on of my favorite lyrics of all time ("Singles remind me of kisses/Albums remind me of plans"). Some of the other tracks can be a bit clunky, but on the whole I find the album quite a bit more charming than the "singles and filler" clusterfuck that was Cool For Cats or the Argybargy follow-up, East Side Story.

This expanded edition of the album has a cracking live show on the bonus disc (if you want it you'll just have to shell out the bucks for it...not everything in life is free internet-mooch), which has me fully excited to see the band in just under a month. Well, not too excited. I know better than to get my hopes up lest I be shocked into a coma when gaggle of middle-aged men lurch onto stage. But, if they play "Vicky Verky", I'll probably scream.

Download Squeeze Argybargy Disc #1 (Original Album + Bonus Tracks)

Joki Freund "Yogi Jazz"

I don't like jazz much, as a rule. And the jazz that I do like tends to fall into two distinct categories.

The first category includes reocrds that go "Bomp BOMP Zing WHIZZZZZZ HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOnKKKKKKKkkKkKkkK! Shhhuuuuuuuuufffflelele SSSSSSsssSSShuuuuufflffflffle...Crack Crack Crack BANG!" You know, the kind of thing you listen to once and then file away in the iTunes only to have it either #1. pop up unexpectedly; scaring the crap out of you while you are trying to read or #2. pop up unexpectedly while you are doing the dishes and mix really well with the sounds of the wet dishes clinking together.

The other category is what I like to call "Charlie Brown" jazz. Basically light jazz that wouldn't sound out of place in an animated film about 1950's Paris.

So why in the world I own this piece of rare 1960's German jazz? Quite simply, it comes down to one factor: Jonny Trunk.

Jonny Trunk operates a small cult record label in London called, appropriately enough, Trunk Records. I adore this label and feverishly gobble up everything it releases, from horror film soundtracks to BBC Radiophonics to airy folk. But my most treasured records from the label tend to be these odd bits of British Jazz that toe the line right in between my two favored schools of jazz. Sort of like if Pig Pen played the piano in the Peanuts band instead of Schroeder.

This album was featured on Trunk's "Recommended" page in April with the following praise: "There is no way on earth I am ever going to get a real one of these Lps, so when I heard the Japanese had issued it on compact disc I went and got one. And very pleased I am too. Not only does it have one of the great, iconic jazz sleeves but it has to be one of the great, faultless sessions ever recorded. It's the unexpected rhythms that get me here."

And, as it was the only one of his recommendations that month that I could easily find, I bought it. And here it is.

RE-UPPED HERE: Download Joki Freund Yogi Jazz

Download Joki Freund Yogi Jazz

Something Else Mix #2

A unique and decidedly mopey mix featuring: "OMGZ THAT ZOMBIES SONG FROM THAT RUSHMORE-GUY'S MOVIE ABOUT BEING UNDERWATER!", a maybe more beautiful version of an already beautiful song, my favorite vocalist of all time, a song of calm, groovy 60's country, one of Dylan's simplest and most elegant lyrics rendered with a bit of soul, a Spiritualized song that repeats the same thing over and over and over an what's with that because it gets better everytime, a song deceptively simple from my favorite record as a child, "I heard and old girlfriend/has turned to the church/she's trying to replace me/but it will never work", a great song with a better title, soul/lounge explosion (or as much as something like that can explode), my 100&, all-time favorite "loser" song, the best song on my least favorite B&S album, and a song displaying an almost depressing level of devotion.

Tracklist:
1. The Zombies "The Way I Feel Inside"
2. Jens Lekman "A Little Lost" (Arthur Russell Cover)
3. Scott Walker "Duchess"
4. Bill Fay "Be Not So Fearful"
5. Porter Wagoner "Lonely Comin' Down"
6. Rod Stewart "Mama, You Been On My Mind" (Bob Dylan Cover)
7. Spiritualized "Baby I'm Just A Fool"
8. Harry Nilsson "Think About Your Troubles"
9. Pulp "Bad Cover Version"
10. Beulah "My Horoscope Said It Would Be A Bad Year"
11. The Sapphires "Let's Break Up For A While"
12. Frank & Nancy Sinatra "Somethin' Stupid"
13. Belle & Sebastian "Don't Leave The Light On Baby"
14. Eef Barzelay "I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire" (Live) (Ink Spots Cover)

Download Something Else Mix #2 (M4A version for iTunes with artwork and chapter titles) here.

Download Something Else Mix #2 (MP3 version with artwork) here.

R.I.P. Solzhenitsyn

By reading One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in the 11th grade I learned about the limitless tenacity of the human spirit and that I can write a 15 page essay in one night if I have to.

Thanks man.

Half-Marathon

I'm going to post this here so I can't weasel out of it later.

I'm going to join a gym soon and run a half marathon in November.

It will be like that movie Run Fatboy Run but probably way funnier.

I Met The Walrus

An elegant, charming and wonderfully literal piece of animation based upon a 14-year-old Beatles fanatic's interview with John Lennon about peace.

Delia Derbyshire Gives Aphex Twin The Two-Fingered Salute.

This sort of stuff never ceases to amaze me. The existence of 267 tapes of the electronic music of Delia Derbyshire, the woman responsible for the electronic realization of the theme to Dr. Who, was just confirmed by an archivist at the BBC. Amongst those tapes was at least one "experimental dance" piece that sounds pretty much exactly like an Aphex Twin song. Only it was recorded in 1969!

Read the article and check out some terrific sound clips here.

And if you don't know who Delia Derbyshire is, click here.

Hockey Night in Canada

The CBC lost its rights to play the Hockey Night in Canada theme this year so they are holding a contest where people upload their own themes and then the top rated/voted song will become the new theme.

This is currently the highest rated theme:

Click here to hear "a beautiful theme encompassing the heart of hockey"

The gun shots and foghorn at the end really seal the deal....

Orange Juice "You Can't Hide Your Love Away Forever"

This record seems almost genetically created to fit into the "Things Eli Likes" catagory. Let's just see what we have here: Warblely, almost obnoxious vocals. Fey, heart-on-the-sleeve lyrics. Huge poppy hooks. Pasty white band members. Sly, Beatles-referencing album title. Yup. Pretty much just what I like.

This was Orange Juice's first proper full-length after a run of increasingly amazing 7"'s on the Postcard label. The released version is substantially different from the version that was re-issued as part of the The Glasgow Schoolby Domino in 2005. While that version was scrappy and raw, this proper version sparkles with a weird disco sheen that hints at the slightly yucky, white-bred funk that the band would adopt in it's subsequent releases.

But as far as I'm concerned, this is Orange Juice is all of its nervous, awkward glory. Members of both Franz Ferdinand and Belle & Sebastian have said that this band was a huge influence of their musical endeavors and, frankly, Orange Juice sound like the perfect amalgam of both those bands.

Download: Orange Juice You Can't Hide Your Love Away Forever

Two Songs. Same Subject.

Topic: No Homo Man-love.

The Sincere Version:
Of Montreal "Tim, I Wish You Were Born A Girl"

The Funny Version:
Flight of the Conchords "Bret, You Got It Going On"

Sub Pop 20 Weekend

Hey! Sub Pop turned twenty this weekend! They even did a thing about it on Evening Magazine! John Curley talked about Wolf Parade! And they listed Patton Oswalt's name as "Oswalt Patton!"

I was lucky enough to know someone who is important enough to be invited to the super fancy party at the top of the Space Needle on Thursday night (yeah, I'm bragging a bit...so what?). The party was pretty great. Free foods. Free drinks (if you were willing to stand in line for about 20-30 minutes to get one). Bands played (Death Vessel, Sera Cahoone, Kelley Stoltz). Bands were there (SHINZ!). I went with Sarah from Hardly Art and she took some pictures...but she seems to think its 1968 and took them with real film, so we'll see if i ever get a gander at them.

I also went to the Sub Pop comedy show at the Moore Theatre. Everyone was pretty great (Todd Barry, Eugene Mirman, Kristen Schaal) except David Cross, who was clearly having an off night or something, and Patton Oswalt who was the funniest person ever in the history of time. Patton came out and did an ENTIRELY NEW 40 minutes of material. And, as my good friend Joan pointed out to me, it takes most comedians at least a year to write that much new, hilarious stuff. This guy is like the filthy Bill Cosby. A comedy machine.

Now is a probably a good a time as any post my most favorite, least talked about Sub Pop release.


Download: Zumpano Look What The Rookie Did

Released during the dizzy ascent of "alternative" music, Look What The Rookie Did's gawky, nervous pop music was part of Sub Pop's shift away from being a "grunge" label. This is pretty much the standard template for almost every pure pop band for the last 14 years. Sentimental, self-deprecating, straight-forward and a wee bit quirky. You know, all the things I like. This record also features the songwriting talents of one Carl Newman who would later go on to staggering success with The New Pornographers. But, honestly, I think this record is better than at least half of the New Porno's stuff.

Everything's Comin' Up Eli!

Looks like all that laziness is finally paying off...

Women Prefer Men With Stubble.

Trident Wrappers and What They Say About Me

I thoroughly cleaned my apartment the other day. I moved the couch and swept under it. I moved the entertainment unit thingie and swept behind it.

While doing this I found 17 Trident gum wrappers.

What This Might Say About Me As A Person:
1. I'm a litterbug.
2. I don't care about the cleanliness of my apartment.
3. I often black out and hide gum wrappers around the apartment in an attempt to frustrate myself.

What This Actually Says About Me As A Person:
1. I chew a lot of Trident gum
2. I often keep the wrappers with the intention of spitting the gum out into them but am far more likely to just do something gross like reach into my mouth and pull the gum out.
3. My pockets are bad at holding Trident gum wrappers.
4. I don't want to throw my wrappers just anywhere.

What I Should Do With 17 Trident Gum Wrappers:
1. Save them. Put them in a special place. Save the rest of my Trident gum wrappers for the rest of the year. At the end of the year, send all my Trident gum wrappers to the Trident Gum Works and ask for a sponsorship.

What I Will Probably Do With 17 Trident Gum Wrappers:
1. Throw them away.

Related: Can You Eat The Wrapper From Trident Gum

Something Else Mix #1

Here it is. A mix that I totally made with my bare hands. On a computer. I've never used GarageBand to make a mix before, so it might seem a little rough as I'm still figuring everything out.

The mix itself must be pretty great because I listened to it about 10 times while putting it together and I don't hate it. It's mostly comprized of stuff from the Nuggets boxsets and some new, like minded bands. It's also all one continuous track which I like because it sort forces the listener to listen to every single song without skipping around. And that makes me feel a bit like a supervillian who controls people's iTunes. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Tracklist:
1. Coconut Coolouts "(Please Don't Break Me Out Of) Party Jail"
2. Van Morrison "I Can Only Give You Everything"
3. The Move "I Can Hear The Grass Grow"
4. Count Five "Psychotic Reaction"
5. Reigning Sound "Your Love Is A Fine Thing"
6. 13th Floor Elevators "You're Gonna Miss Me"
7. The Sonics "The Witch"
8. The Deadly Snakes "Closed Casket"
9. King Khan & The Shrines "Land of the Freak"
10. We The People "Mirror of Your Mind"
11. Chocolate Watchband "Sweet Young Thing"
12. The Monks "Complication"
13. Pop Levi "Sugar Assault Me Now"
14. April March "Chick Habit"
15. King Khan & BBQ "Too Much In Love"
16. The Black Lips "Boomerang"
17. Jay Reatard "Always Wanting More"

Download Here

Miracle Fortress "Five Roses"

Last year everybody made a really big stink about that Panda Bear album. It was pretty poppy and kinda weird and it was made by one of the guys in Animal-Collective, who are the official "band-that-everybody-likes-for-no-explicable-reason."

But everybody was so busy jumping on that bandwagon (pun!) that no one bothered to mention that the Panda Bear album has exactly TWO (okay, maybe THREE) actual living/breathing/pleasurable-to-listen-to songs on it. The rest of it consists of a guy hitting a drum while turning some knobs and hooting and hollering into a toilet paper tube. Don't, get me wrong, I love a toilet paper tube hollering session as much as the next guy, but is this really ALBUM OF THE YEAR stuff?

That's where Miracle Fortress comes in. Miracle Fortress is the Beach Boys to Panda Bear's...um...less good Beach Boys. I suppose it's really more of a yin/yang thing. Panda Bear is the wild, unshaven artist and Miracle Fortress is still unshaven but at least he combed his hair and buttoned his shirt.

Five Roses was one of my favorite records of 2007 and I really can't think of a better new-ish album to be listening to when it's sunny out.

Oh, and if you live in the Seattle-area and watch television, you probably hear the song "Maybe Lately" about 20 times a day because it's in an advertisement for the Clean Forest and Rivers Initiative or something similarly Northwest-y.

Download the album here

Wall-E

Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E
Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E Wall-E!!!!

Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!!Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!! Wall-E! Wall-E!! Wall-E!!!

It was awesome! And there was a new Peter Gabriel song at the end!

New Genre Alert: French-Vanity-Dub

Well, okay, maybe there's only one French-Vanity-Dub album, but it's a doozy. In 1979, probably wacked out of his mind on a little more than just fame, Serge Gainsbourg hopped a plane to Jamaica to make a reggae album.

He enlisted the services of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, probably the greatest reggae rhythm section of all time, and the I-Threes, Bob Marley's female back-up trio. Gainsbourg thoroughly offended right-wingers by snarling and moaning his way through his country's national anthem, with the non-French-speaking I-Threes piping an offhand "Aux armes--et cetera" at the chorus.

The whole affair sounds pretty much as confounding as you'd imagine it. It's reggae, but with Serge piping his slightly unnerving, nicotine stained croak on top. I, personally, find the entire record kinda hard to listen to in one sitting. But one track at a time it's a perfect audio nightmare.

Download the song "Aux armes et caetera" here

The Kinks > The Beatles > The Rolling Stones

The Kinks are, quite simply, the greatest band ever to walk the face of the Earth. They could make "Powerman" the National Anthem and somehow this band would still be under appreciated.

It's tough to say exactly why The Kinks aren't given the same kind of massive respect that seems to be reserved solely for The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. By my count, The Kinks wrote just as many genre-defining anthems as either of those bands. Sure, they weren't as attractive as The Beatles, or as delightfully sleazy at The Rolling Stones (but they were, generally, more attractive than the Stones and sleazier than the Beatles. Although, it would arguably be harder to NOT be sleazier than the Beatles).

My infinity for The Kinks might stem from my overwhelming, unwavering and unabashed love for The Beatles. From about 6th through 10th grade I listened virtually exclusively to The Beatles. I think the only other music I took in at the time came from Seattle's only oldies station (unless you count KIXI, which I don't) the sadly re-formatted 97.3 KBSG. And at a certain point things that once seemed shocking and innovative, just seem, well, dull.

The Kinks touched on subjects that other bands of the time seemed to just gloss over. Without being overly preachy or heavy-handed, they crafted touching odes to an England that had never fully rebuilt itself after World War II. They had plenty of songs that went "yeah, yeah, I love you, yeah." But they also had songs like "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" and "Get Back In Line" which touched on deeper topics like personal isolation and the startling number of British people who were facing the day to day embarrassment of being "on the dole."

This is a two CD "best of"-ish collection. The first disc handles the generally poppier material and has all the singles that you are likely to know. And the second disc highlights the obscure gems and odd music-hall pieces.

Here's some tracklistings and download links:
Disc #1
1. You Really Got Me
2. Everybody's Gonna Be Happy
3. Tired Of Waiting For You
4. Who'll Be The Next In Line
5. Well Respected Man
6. Dedicated Follower Of Fashion
7. You're Looking Fine
8. Sunny Afternoon
9. Party Line
10. Dead End Street
11. David Watts
12. Love Me Till The Sun Shines
13. Waterloo Sunset
14. The Village Green Preservation Society
15. Do You Remember Walter
16. Picture Book
17. Animal Farm
18. Victoria
19. Drivin'
20. Lola
21. Powerman
22. 20th Century Man
23. Muswell Hillbilly
24 Celluloid Heroes

Download here

Disc #2
1. Just Can’t Go to Sleep (Mono)
2. Stop Your Sobbin’ (Mono)
3. Nothin' In The World Can Stop Me From Worryin' 'bout That Girl
4. Don't Ever Change
5. The World Keeps Going Round
6. I'm On An Island
7. Holiday In Waikiki
8. Too Much On My Mind
9. Fancy
10. I'm Not Like Everybody Else
11. A House In The Country
12. This Is Where I Belong
13. Lazy Old Sun
14. Death Of A Clown
15. Autumn Almanac
16. Starstruck
17. People Take Pictures Of Each Other
18. Johnny Thunder
19. Days
20. She's Bought A Hat Like Princess Marina
21. Get Back In Line
22. Strangers
23. This Time Tomorrow
24. Apeman
25. Skin & Bone
26. Alcohol
27. Sitting In My Hotel

Download here

(Note: Unfortunately the only way I could get iTunes to export these playlists was in .XML format. So...just load the MP3s into your iTunes like normal...then...choose FILE and then IMPORT from the top drop down in iTunes...and then...choose the .XML file. That should plop the playlist into your iTunes. If you don't have iTunes...um...good luck...)