Doug's Top 60 albums of the decade

This wasn't easy and I tried to make it 50 but ended up with 60... My criteria for the most part was mostly based on simply what I thought was the best and what I listened to the most (when I wasn't listening to Zeppelin, Hendrix, Marley, or the Stones etc.). I kind of tried to put them in order but the order isn't exact. I didn't want to overrepresent too many bands either unless I was forced to. For example Echo And The Bunnymen released 3 great albums in the 2000's but I just couldn't justify putting all three of them on the list, whereas there was absolutely no denying all three of the last three Gov't Mule albums. These clearly aren't the only great albums of the decade, just thought it would be fun to put a list together of some of my favorites. Enjoy...

1. Gov't Mule - High & Mighty

2. Ice Cube - Laugh Now, Cry Later

3. The Secret Machines - Now Here Is Nowhere

4. The Allman Brothers Band - Hittin' The Note

5. Black Sabbath (Heaven And Hell) - The Devil You Know

6. New Order - Get Ready

7. The White Stripes - De Stijl

8. The Church - Untitled #23

9. The Greyb0y Allstars - What Happened To Television?

10. Wolfmother - Wolfmother

11. Porcupine Tree - In Absentia

12. Prince - The Slaughterhouse

13. The Beastie Boys - To The 5 Boroughs

14. Queens Of The Stone Age - Lullabies To Paralyze

15. Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam

16. Gov't Mule - Deja Voodoo

17. Tool - Lateralus

18, Radiohead - Kid A

19. The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan

20. Porcupine Tree - The Incident

21. Slayer - Christ Illusion

22. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

23. Gov't Mule - By A Thread

24. The Church - Forget Yourself

25. Beck - The Information

26. Tool - 10,000 Days

27. Early Man - Closing In

28. Dio - Magica

29. Noctorum - Offer The Light

30. Pearl Jam - Backspacer

31. Beck - Sea Change

32. Jerry Cantrell - Degradation Trip

33. Stone Temple Pilots - Shangri La-Di-Da

34. The White Stripes - Icky Thump

35. The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely

36. R.E.M. - Accelerate

37. Ice Cube - Raw Footage

38. Foo Fighters - One By One

39. Kings Of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak

40. Metallica - Death Magnetic

41. Echo And The Bunnymen - Siberia

42. Spirit Caravan - Jug Fulla Sun

43. Tom Petty - Highway Companion

44. Prince - 3121

45. Beck - Modern Guilt

46. Jane's Addiction - Strays

47. The Cure - Bloodflowers

48. Queens Of The Stone Age - R

49. John Mellencamp - Cuttin' Heads

50. Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue

51. Kings Of Leon - Because Of The Times

52. The Church - Uninvited, Like The Clouds

53. Depeche Mode - Sounds Of The Universe

54. The Derek Trucks Band - Songlines

55. New Order - Waiting For The Sirens' Call

56. Nada Surf - Let Go

57. Filter - The Amalgamut

58. Paul Westerberg - Mono/Stereo

59. Ace Frehley - Anomaly

60. Brad - Welcome To Discovery Park

Farewell and R.I.P. - a surreal week

I hope this post coincides with a brief respite from celebrity deaths... this week has been surreal to say the least and I've got a few thoughts.

Michael Jackson - I am a little perplexed by the extreme bombardment of coverage of Michael Jackson's death. Yes I am bummed by it a little, and yes I was a huge fan as a kid. But I will say what has to be said - I knew he would not grow old. Now that doesn't make it any less sad, but it certainly does make it less surprising. I am not in shock over this just because I always had a really bad feeling it would not end well for Michael. His whole life was a tragedy in many respects and he was clearly abused as a child - he had an impossible fantastical life that never let up - it's hard to blame him for not turning out to be perfectly well adjusted. And while the freakshow his life became fascinates people (okay I admit it's a little fascinating), it's the "King of Pop" references and the "millions of fans" who are in mourning etc. etc. etc. that I don't get. Fans of what in recent terms? The guy has made 2 1/2 albums of crap in the last 18 years since Dangerous and that's it! He hasn't been relevant as a current artist in an entire generation. I'll give him that Thriller was the biggest selling album of all time and for a few years he was indeed the biggest star on the planet. The Jackson 5 was great and the Jacksons produced some great music here and there as teenagers, but let's break it down on the "King" as a solo artist. Off The Wall - borderline masterpiece - about 5 absolute classic tracks. Thriller - masterpiece all the way around. I don't really break it out and listen to it often, but I won't deny it's a bonified classic masterpiece. Bad - Good. Okay maybe very good. Do you really love that album all the way through? Really? Like one of your favorites? "Leave Me Alone", "Another Part Of Me", "Just Good Friends", "Liberian Girl" - are these great songs? I don't know.... Dangerous is a damn good album - actually better than Bad. That's where it ends. Maybe this isn't fair I don't know, but Prince as an example has produced no fewer than 20 albums better than everything other than Off The Wall and Thriller, with a few being the equal of either of them. And Prince wrote ALL the material on ALL of those albums and played guitar and in some cases plenty of other instruments on ALL of those albums. Was Michael Jackson a musician? Did he write even the majority of stuff on the couple of albums he made that really mattered?

And so there it is - I find myself criticizing Michael Jackson's body of work in the wake of his tragic death. Not what I want to be doing right now - but I feel like the hyperbole which has been shoved down my throat every time I flip on the TV has forced me to this point. It feels like it's 24 hours a day of Michael Jackson - there are a couple of wars being fought last time I checked. I didn't feel this way the first couple days after it happened, and so let me sincerely bring it back for one last time to say rest in peace Michael and thanks for the memories.

Another case which I'm conflicted about - Steve McNair. I feel badly for his wife and children, and by most accounts he was a guy who was loved and admired by many. A guy who was tough on the field and a guy who gave back to the community. However....... what kind of guy carries on like he did with this 20 year old? Did he deserve to get murdered? Heck no. Did he put himself in a situation that could only end really really really badly for someone - him, wife, kids, mistress? Absolutely. Was he out of his mind for putting himself in a situation like this particular one? Absolutely. Do I want to be speaking badly about a guy who was just killed? No - but how can you not help thinking he played with fire and got burned? His friends are trying to deflect this and talk about how he made a mistake and they hope he will be remembered for the good he did and his play on the field. He will be remembered for those things and he should be - absolutely. Unfortunately he will also be remembered for having an affair with a screwed up 20 year old who shot him to death before killing herself leaving his sons without a dad.

Farrah Fawcett - man did I love her. I actually had "the poster" along with a second one up in my bedroom growing up, and I actually took "the poster" up to college with me and had it up in my dorm room in 1988 long after her peak as the hottest sex symbol in America. Not that she ever really cooled off. I don't think we ever stopped loving her and I will definitely miss Farrah.

Curiously enough on July 1st Alexis Arguello who was the mayor of Managua committed suicide and Karl Malden died at the age of 97... who knew? Goodbye Ed McMahon and Billy Mays too...

Adventures in Consumerland

A few recent experiences - the type I've seemed to experience many times over the years like buying a yesterday's newspaper and being asked by the clerk afterwards if I "grabbed it from the right pile" or complaining to the E.G. Nick's manager about the caked-on dried mud on my baked potato and being told "Well they do grow in the ground sir" - the list goes on and I have two more to add...

Recently at the Taco Bell in Keego Harbor I asked for a cup of water at the drive thru to go with my food and was told they can't do that because they don't have cups for water. This is horrible customer service - I just finished reading a book about word of mouth marketing detailing how the power has shifted to the consumer like never before because of blogs like the one I'm writing. Not that tons of people read this, but they just pissed off and lost a customer over a lousy 10 cent cup that they refused to put a little water in for me. Last I checked the physical properties of water were similar enough to most other digestible liquids that it doesn't require a special cup.

This one is better. I bought a surround sound system to put in our studio in West Bloomfield (Frameable Faces www.frameablefaces.com is my wife's photography studio in the Orchard Mall at Maple and Orchard Lake if you didn't know) and I got a great deal on a Yamaha floor model. The floor model came with the remote control, but when I set it up at the studio I discovered that it was in fact the wrong remote control and would not work with this system. After a couple of phone conversations with ABC and a failure for them to call me back to resolve it like they said they would I went up there with my wrong remote to get some resolution. The first person I spoke to was a guy whose name I think was Tracy. He went into the back to check for remotes but couldn't find one. The conversation then went like this:

Me: So what do I do now?
Tracy: Well when we sell the floor units they come "as is" so......
Me: Yeah but in this case "as is" included the remote control
Tracy: Well obviously it didn't because that's the wrong remote

Can you f--king believe he actually said that to me? Like I'm the dumb ass for falling for the ol' give 'em the wrong remote trick.

Me: Well the problem is it was presented to me as the right remote you see
Tracy: Well I can't help you - you'll have to talk to the manager
Me: Where's the manager

The manager hemmed and hawed, putzed around looking at their universal remote selection and then told me that he'd be willing to refund my money if I wanted to bring the system back. I told him I don't want to bring it back, I want it the way it was sold to me. He passed me off to another guy who ultimately took care of it, having me purchase the remote from a website right there in the store and then refunding the amount on my original sale so the correct remote wouldn't cost me anything. I do love the system I bought, and they did make it right eventually, but they need to evaluate and coach some of the folks they have on the floor there who deal directly with customers.

Ending on a positive note I had a coconut curry fried rice with onions and chicken at Thai Peppers tonight on Orchard Lake Rd in Farmington Hills. Interestingly enough I ordered it and then just for assurance asked if it was good, and the waitress tried to steer me away from it, saying the last person who ordered it took two bites and had enough. I ordered it anyway because A) the food is great there and has been for years even through a couple of ownership changes B) the menu description was what I wanted and C) my curiosity was now raised and I needed to know if it was really that horrible. A bit of a risky move to be sure. I can't remember the name of the dish now, but it was the 6th and last item in the fried rice section of the menu and it was AWESOME. I highly recommend it.

Real vs. Natural, Some new tunes

Stupid item (and subsequent crazed rant) of the day... I noticed while eating my bowl of Banana Nut Cheerios (which is one of the best cereals ever) that on the front cover of the box it advertises the product as being flavored with REAL Banana AND Natural Banana flavor. I'll let you ponder that for a second...


What in blazes is the difference between real bananas and natural banana flavor? So wouldn't natural banana flavor come from an actual banana which they already just told us is in the cereal? I hate the commercial food industry with its high fructose corn syrup, mass doses of sodium and blue no. 2. I love food but I hate stupid B.S. and this is clearly stupid B.S. Wow - real bananas, and as if that weren't enough, natural banana flavor added just in case the bananas they used didn't happen to have banana flavor of their own! AMAZING!!! Wait - there's more if you act now etc. etc. etc..... Did I mention I love the cereal? I'm ranting about a cereal I love and a relatively healthy one at that. Yes I need a life I suppose...


On another note I got a glimpse of what my summer will sound like with some new stuff. The new Black Sabbath - Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know and the new Church - Untitled #23. At first listen they both sound incredible. I've also picked up the new self-titled Secret Machines album and Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet. They both sound pretty good, and lastly the Raconteurs album Consolers of the Lonely is climbing back into my frequent play list as it's turning out to be more of a grower than I anticipated. What an album.

Road Trip! Music, Food, History, America.

So here is the rundown on our trip across this great country...

Thursday - We drove from West Bloomfield, MI to Horse Cave, KY and it rained buckets for the last 3 hours of the drive from Cincinnati to the hotel. Miserable. We could see the lightning off in the distance from the Skyline Chili north of Dayton. Skyline Chili http://www.skylinechili.com/ still rocks, and this began what ended up being as much of a food tour as a history tour... Pink Floyd Meddle is a great night time disc and this was a great listen. Listening to Meddle during a night time drive takes me back to the best Meddle experience I've had driving from Jerusalem to Masada in the middle of the night to get there for the climb to the top to watch the sunrise back in '94 - but I digress... We actually kicked off the trip with the 2 new Prince discs LotusFlow3r and MPLSound and these both sound great at first run through. Major potential here - 3 songs in I thought that if the first album ended right here it would already be twice as strong as Planet Earth.

Friday - We ate the complimentary breakfast at the Hampton Inn and hit the road. Thought we'd stop at a cave but it was over an hour wait and we needed to stay on course to get to Pensacola - only time for one stop, so we made it at the Hermitage just outside of Nashville. The Hermitage is Andrew Jackson's home and it is pretty impressive. http://www.thehermitage.com/ Good museum, nice grounds and the house is in great shape. They say it's one of the most well preserved presidential homes with about 90% of the furnishings, wallpaper etc. being original. Strange that I came away learning more about the actual house and history of the estate than I did about President Jackson himself. That might be my next book although I'm eyeing bios of Lincoln, Polk, and Teddy Roosevelt as well. Afterwards we got back on the road and got some Gov't Mule and Allman Brothers going for the deeper push into the South. We stopped in Bessemer, AL for BBQ at Bob Sykes. www.bobsykes.com This place is ridiculous - worth the detour if you are ever in the Birmingham, AL area. We found it on www.roadfood.com which is an awesome website. Got back on the road stuffed and ready to puke, pass out, or both. Night time driving - Porcupine Tree and The Church... rolled into Pensacola around 10:30.

Saturday - spent time with family all day and ate dinner at the Oar House - good food and live music. http://www.myspace.com/theoarhouse

Sunday - got on the road around 1 and headed to Fort Blakeley, AL. http://new.siteone.com/sites/blakeleypark.com/ Site of the last battle of the Civil War - happened later in the day after the surrender at Appomattox took place. Parts of this battlefield are really well preserved and they were having a reenactment there. Very impressive - live artillery, a full battalion assault, Union and Confederate cavalry dualing with swords on horseback. Awesome to see - like watching the Civil War happening right before your eyes. Of course got into some friendly banter with some crazy Alabama and Auburn fans. The Alabama guy was driving the bus at the park and was hardcore boy... I told him I hoped he wasn't still upset about the 2 times out of 3 that we beat them. He had respect for Michigan and didn't try to talk any SEC smack. From there we headed West and Northwest through Mobile and up to Hattiesburg, MS. Nice drive across Mobile Bay and through Mississippi. We took a little drive through the Southern Miss campus - very charming campus and a cool football stadium with Brett Farve's number retired. We ate at the Crescent City Grill http://www.nsrg.com/crescent.asp and the food was fantastic - I had the fried catfish over dirty rice smothered in crawfish etouffee and we split the New Orleans bread pudding and buttered pecan pie with a little Haagen Daaz vanilla ice cream on top. We pulled into Corinth at another Hampton Inn that night. The hotel stands on what was part of the Corinth Battlefield.

Monday - Spent the morning touring the Corinth Battlefield - more to see than I anticipated and didn't get to see it all. Horrible weather - very cold and drizzly. Drove through back country roads from there to Shiloh National Battlefield and spent a few hours there. http://www.nps.gov/shil/ Had my battlefield disc going (INXS Listen Like Thieves). Awesome battlefield. We met a man at the visitor's center whose grandfather fought in the battle. His grandfather was 18 in 1862, had this guy's dad in 1908 when he was 64, and this guy was born in 1953 when his dad was 45. It works out - you don't expect people walking around being able to say their grandpa fought at Shiloh! I suppose there could be a 90 year old walking around somewhere whose grandpa fought in the Revolution? They would have to have been born in 1919 say, to a 74 year old born in 1845 to a 73 year old born in 1772 who fought at the age of 16 in 1788... Anyway, Shiloh is perfectly preserved and totally unencumbered by commercialization of any sort. The battlefield is well marked to get a complete understanding of the fight that took place there on those two fateful days - 147 years to the day before we were standing there when it started on April 6th. The only drawback was the weather - it was freaking hailing on us! We left Shiloh and headed Northwest through beautful country roads to the Natchez Trace National Parkway http://www.nps.gov/natr/ and traveled along it for about 20 miles or so. What a scenic drive (a little REM, more Allmans and Gov't Mule), and along the way stopped at the Meriwether Lewis gravesite and monument. That evening making our way back up to Horse Cave, KY we stopped at another roadfood.com joint outside of Nashville called Sylvan Park Restaurant. Another gem - catfish, fried crab cakes, candied apples, the best mac and cheese ever, fried corn, incredible cornbread, cocunut cream pie (they threw in a couple extra slices for the road on the house) and chess pie. We had never heard of chess pie - amazing! They actually gave us their recipe so we'll be eating it again soon. http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=472

Tuesday - Took a trip over to Abe Lincoln's birthplace and boyhood home in Hodgenville, KY. http://www.nps.gov/abli/ Great visitor's center and a really impressive monument to Abe Lincoln with 56 steps for each year of his life. The actual water spring that they used for their water supply was still there and still running. From there we made one last stop in Cincinnati at William Howard Taft's boyhood home. http://www.nps.gov/wiho/ It is the only national site dedicated to Taft and it is worth the stop. I only wish we had a little more time to spend there to look through the exhibits on the upper level of the house. Roadfood directed us to the Camp Washington Chili joint in Cincinnati for the last meal of the trip. Great diner atmosphere and great 5 way chili, but while the locals might disagree with me on this one, it wasn't necessarily better than Skyline Chili.

I highly recommend taking a trip like this. You will find it incredibly relaxing, educational, and rewarding. Make the drive itself the destination and see things you normally wouldn't. The kids had a blast - it was a total adventure for them and they were exposed to so much history and culture. The people we met along the way were all friendly and helpful and we came away with a new appreciation for regions we had never experienced.

The Beatles, Chris Whitley, Gov't Mule, Metallica, Ian McCulloch

Stuff I've been listening to the last several days:

The Beatles - Abbey Road I find "The End" to be a very poignant goodbye - maybe it's me but it seems you can feel them jamming and cruising to the end knowing that they are signing off for posterity... an emotional moment in popular music history. Also way underrated is "Oh! Darling".
Chris Whitley - Live in Bremen 9-19-98 Chris Whitley was a very interesting and mostly unknown artist who sadly passed away from lung cancer in 2005 at the age of 45. This is an unreleased recording of Chris with his guitar and stomping his boot for percussion. Great bluesy stuff with Chris's unique aching vocals. Need to dig deeper into his catalogue...
Gov't Mule - High and Mighty One of my favorite albums of this decade without a doubt. I'll be road tripping this weekend and I can't wait to pop this one in again when I'm out on the open road cruising through Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi... this will be one I'll be listening to for the rest of my life guaranteed. Warren Haynes is one of the greatest guitarists of all time, one of the greatest singers on the planet, and for my money developing into one of the best songwriters in rock. I'm not exaggerating.
Metallica - Death Magnetic I'm still going back and forth on this one. It's definitely good - maybe the best since ...And Justice For All, but that alone doesn't mean it's a masterpiece since nothing they've done since Justice has been close by comparison. Not to say they've recorded a bad album, but they haven't quite been able to reach greatness again. This one seems to come close and a few tracks get there, but there are usually a few tracks that get there on each of the recent Metallica albums along with a few garbage tracks (see Don't Tread On Me, Wasting My Hate, Poor Twisted Me, The Unforgiven II, Where The Wild Things Are, Shoot Me Again etc.). So does this album approach greatness? I don't think it's going to quite get there for me, but I'm still pleased. "All Nightmare Long" is worth the price of admission alone - a classic.
Ian McCulloch - Slidling I pulled this one out the other day realizing that I had never given it a proper run through, and I was pleasantly surprised at the energy level - this album jams and the songs are strong. I was expecting a more mellow outing without Will Sergeant doing the shredding. Upon first listen this jams more than Ian's other two solo albums.

Short entry - Thomas Jefferson, Prince, Jimi Hendrix

Just finished reading American Sphinx which is one of the best books I've ever read, and Thomas Jefferson is one of the most fascinating Americans of all time. What a story! I cannot wait to get to Monticello to check out his home. This should be required reading for every American. What an idealist and a real rebel.

Sometimes in acquiring more music than I can digest I end up revisiting a disc that I overlooked and end up pleasantly surprised. This happened this past weekend with The Slaughterhouse by Prince from 2004. What a nasty burning slab of funk - crazy that he can lay down grooves like this and they never see commercial release. This one isn't easy to find - it was originally available as a download from his website... worth tracking down if you can get your hands on it. Prince churns out so much material it can be hard to keep up. This one along with The Chocolate Invasion are actually better than a couple of his latest commercial releases such as Planet Earth (maybe my least favorite Prince album ever) and Musicology.

Threw on Are You Experienced? by The Jimi Hendrix Experience as well. Man... I can't imagine what it must have been like for people to throw this on for the first time in 1967. Still amazes... as does everything he did. I need to remember sometimes when people ask me what I'm listening to these days to simply answer Hendrix, Zeppelin and Sabbath. That will never be the wrong answer.

That's all I have for now...

Dancing Wolverines, "Siriusly" annoyed, REO (don't laugh), Deep Purple, Singalong...

I'll just start by saying how awesome it is for Michigan to be back in the big dance. Sure the announcement isn't until tomorrow, but we are in - there is no doubt, and it's been a long time coming. We deserve this after all the crap we've been through with knucklehead players taking money under the not-very-watchful eyes of Steve Fisher and Brian Ellerbe, and a couple of near-misses by good guy and good coach Tommy Amaker trying to rebuild under tough circumstances. Coach Beilein has come in and established a new culture and new work ethic, and now we've got a fast growing program which is growing the right way. I'm so proud to have a team like this representing the maize and blue. Can't wait for the Big Dance!!!

I'm still struggling with Sirius/XM. Sometimes it's great and sometimes it sucks. The commercial free element is great, but the DJs still suck and talk over the beginning of songs just like cheesy terrestrial radio DJs, stations repeat songs - sometimes repeating what is obviously a programmed playlist up to three times in a 6 hour span, and they pull crap like playing the "Who Are You" radio edit on the 70's station where the track is chopped up and massacred - something you would think you had left behind when you paid to sign up for satellite.

On the plus side I also heard some great stuff today on Sirius. The original 1974 REO Speedwagon studio version of "Ridin' The Storm Out" with Mike Murphy on vocals after Kevin Cronin had been kicked out of the band - but before he had eventually rejoined the band for their eventual arena rock domination... Kevin Cronin actually was REO's second and fourth lead singer. You may think I'm kidding but Gary Richrath was a badass lead guitarist in his prime - one of the more underrated guitarists. Not sure how REO found their way into my blog for a full paragraph but some of their stuff including a few of their power ballads ("Time For Me To Fly", "Take It On The Run", "Keep On Loving You") are still guilty pleasures for me.... Check out this allmusic review of Hi Infidelity - I couldn't have said it better myself. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:d9fyxqt5ld0e

Also heard an abundance of Deep Purple which only served to remind me that they are woefully underrepresented in my catalogue. I'm familiar with a good deal of their stuff but nowhere near enough. I heard "Hush", "Highway Star", "Burn" and Dream Theater's cover of "Perfect Strangers" which I didn't know existed - that was a rush. Perfect Strangers was one of the great true reunion albums of all time and the title track is one of the coolest and downright heaviest Deep Purple tracks ever. I own that album on vinyl only and probably haven't listened to the whole thing in 20 years. I have 1972's mandatory Machine Head which is the obvious masterpiece and the place to start if you've made the mistake of overlooking the mighty Purple, Burn - a great 1974 album from the Glenn Hughes/David Coverdale era, and Nothing's Perfect - a decent live release from the 1987 tour right before the original lineup imploded again... I've got a lot of catching up to do. According to allmusic.com their last few (yes they are still releasing albums) are damn good. Sure there is no Ritchie Blackmore or Jon Lord, but the one consistent thing about Deep Purple from day one is great material from multiple eras with inconsistent lineups, so as long as Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, and Ian Paice are involved for example, I'm interested.

Also heard "Hey Jude" in the car on the way to Perry, MI for my daughter's Odyssey Of The Mind regionals today which prompted the two of us to gleefully sing the "Naaaa naa naa na na na naaaa, na na na naaaa Hey Jude" part the whole way through. Got me thinking about a list of my top singalongs - with a couple exceptions they are mostly the "na na nas" or the "la la las" with a few "woo woo woos" and even a "bam bam bam" combined with a couple "doo doo doos"
1. "Hey Jude" The Beatles then you can start to make it better better better better better better ahhh....
2. "(Don't You) Forget About Me" Simple Minds ...sir could you describe the ruckus? (okay not from the song but I couldn't resist)
3. "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" Journey now it's your turn girl to cry...
4. "40" U2 how long?
5. "Silver" Echo and The Bunnymen you're living proof at my fingertips...
6. "Miss You" The Rolling Stones sometimes I say to - to myself - sometimes I say...
7. "Temptation" New Order oh you've got green eyes...
8. "Second Hand News" Fleetwood Mac won't you lay me down in the tall grass and let me do my stuff...
9. "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" Crosby Stills and Nash I am yours you are mine you are what you are...
10. "Lola" The Kinks girls will be boys and boys will be girls...
Honorable mention goes to "Day Old Blues" by Kings of Leon - kids love to sing this one...

With The Power Of Soul Anything Is Possible - Jimi Hendrix

Stuff I've been listening to the last few days.... a few quick thoughts:


Band of Gypsies - Jimi Hendrix Is it me or is the version of "Power of Soul" which was released on Live at the Fillmore East about 3 times better than the version they picked for the Band of Gypsies album? Much more energy and the playing is just better. Buddy Miles bangs on the drums with more purpose and the solos are scorching - one of the best single live Jimi recordings. The only problem with the Band of Gypsies album is that every time I listen I end up with the "Who Knows" groove in my head for a whole day. Actually it's not a bad thing...

10,000 Days - Tool I think I've decided that Tool might be the most challenging band in the world. It literally takes years for me to "master" a Tool album, and I think they actually get more challenging with each one they make. They only release a new one every 5 years so it works out. I don't mean to make it sound like work because it's not - it's totally worth it. They are amazing, heavy as can be, disturbing, progressive and unique. No one but Tool has ever sounded like Tool.

Music From Big Pink - The Band I'm a little embarrassed to say I didn't really discover The Band until a few years ago but obviously I'm glad I did...

Because of the Times - Kings Of Leon All four Kings Of Leon albums are great. I don't find any one of the four to be better than any of the others...

Master Of The Moon - Dio After the first four Dio albums in the 80's (which I love) I started to lose interest - don't really know why but I still have never actually heard the three 90's Dio albums (not counting the 1992 Sabbath album Dehumanizer which was awesome). However, a review I read for 2000's Magica captured my attention and I got it and I think it's as good as any Dio album if not better. The next two are both pretty good as well including 2004's Master of the Moon. It's exactly what you would expect from Dio - witches, sailing away, evil, crucifixion etc. and that's exactly what makes it great. His voice is just as strong as it ever was, and I can't wait for the new Black Sabbath album coming out this year with Dio - the Mob Rules/Dehumanizer lineup.

Boston - Boston I will never get sick of this album - I can hear it a thousand times and I still love it every time.

Leviathan - Mastodon I really tried to like this album and I just don't get it. Way too busy and over the top. I just do not like this. I don't recommend it.

Play It Again Records, Spritualized, Simple Minds, The Verve

I spent a LOT of time in record stores growing up. It's something I truly miss about the "good ol' days" of the music world. The record store was a safe haven away from the "pressures" of middle school, high school, and college where nothing mattered but discovering new sounds and talking music. When I was little Record Outlet used to be THE place to buy records on Orchard Lake Rd. in Farmington Hills. Everyone who grew up in the late 70's and 80's in the area remembers big Les behind the counter and people used to line up there outside to buy tickets for every big concert. In high school though the place I used to hang out at the most was Play It Again Records in Southfield on Northwestern Hwy. I spent hours browsing and flipping through used records and I discovered a lot of stuff there. Alan Kovan was the proprietor of Play It Again - his family and mine go way back. Alan is a good dude and even though Play It Again is long gone (along with so many others since record, cassette, and CD sales have steadily dropped with the advent of the Internet), there is now a Play It Again Records tribute page on facebook and Alan is hosting "Play It Again Records Nite" at the Berkley Front on Friday April 3rd. A band which he is really high on is going to play - they are called Speck Mountain, and while I've never heard of them I am excited to see them. I've always trusted Alan's musical recommendations. I actually went through my records today to try to determine how many in my collection came from Play It Again, and today I counted about 50, and that's only what I could verify by the Play It Again Records sticker still on the album (or cassette). Some great stuff from all over the musical map - mostly what they now like to call "1st Wave alternative" stuff like Simple Minds, New Order, Joy Division, The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, Gene Loves Jezebel, The The , Jesus and Mary Chain etc., but there was some Black Sabbath, Rick James, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Shalamar, Beatles and Zeppelin in the mix as well. Ahh the good ol' days...

So I pulled out an oldie but goodie which has never been far from my frequent play list anyway and that's New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) from 1982 by Simple Minds. Simple Minds is in that category of "my bands" - an automatic buy of every thing they ever have or will release. They've never done anything I flat out didn't like, but their catalogue definitely looks a little like a bell curve to me for quality which peaked from about 1982 to 1985 with New Gold Dream, Sparkle In The Rain, and Once Upon A Time. The 5 albums before those 3 and the 7 since all have plenty of amazing moments, but those three represent their creative peak to me. New Gold Dream might be the best one of them all - a perfect moment captured right as the arty experimentalism started to give way to the grandiose dramatics they are so well known for. Gloriously spacey and very much synth driven but with plenty of great Charlie Burchill guitar work, this album is still one of my all time favorites and contains the best instrumental they ever laid down in my opinion in Somebody Up There Likes You (the earlier Theme For Great Cities from Sister Feelings Call is close).

Alan has also been hyping Spiritualized and The Verve on his facebook page, and he's right about them too. The only Spiritualized CD I own is the double live Royal Albert Hall October 10 1997 and I've had it shelved way too long. Epic, trippy and majestic like few recordings ever made (seriously), I think I'll be listening to that one for a good part of this year...

As for The Verve I am a huge fan which I mentioned before, but the one Verve album I haven't spent as much time with even though I've had it for a while is A Storm In Heaven. Alan has this disc listed as one of his top of all time so I took another run through it yesterday. I find it to be somewhat impenetrable at first but yesterday may be the first time I focused on it all the way through and there is plenty there that I am going to stick with and digest a little. Also very spacey and dense with Richard Ashcroft's vocals a little bit buried, but I was digging the vibe yesterday...

No wonder there has been no new Wolfmother album, Marty Willson-Piper, HBO

This is what I wrote about Wolfmother on 1/28/08...

...Anyhoo, if your head has been buried in the sand for the last year or so and you haven't picked up the Wolfmother CD yet, do it. Instant classic - curious to see if these guys have staying power. My guess is yes just because this album really is multilayered and while it threatens to sound like a hodgepodge of every rock influence these guys grew up with at times, it's still just so damn good (and damn heavy) that the Pink Floyd prog influences, Jethro Tull passages, Zeppelin attempted mysticism, and White Stripes ripoffs are all totally welcome, and still totally Wolfmother at the end of the day - a totally unoriginal original masterpiece...

So... I was just jamming this the other day and wondering to myself what the heck these guys were up to since it's been almost 3 years since this album debuted, and sure enough - they broke up in August. Arrgghh. Apparently the singer has recruited new members to form a new Wolfmother - we'll see how that goes I guess while the former bassist and drummer work on their own project. Soooo disappointing. One and done.

The last time Marty Willson-Piper was in town at the Magic Bag in Ferndale (amazing show by the way) I picked up both Noctorum discs (his side project with Dare Mason) along with his new solo album Nightjar at the show. Between the expansive catalogue of The Church and the output of the individual members it is hard to digest it all because it would practically require listening to not much of anything else. Sometimes I have to put their stuff "on deck" and work it in gradually. The third of the three I'm just getting to now is Sparks Lane - the first Noctorum album. There is some great stuff on here but I think the second Noctorum album Offer The Light is a little better all the way through. The best stuff on Sparks holds up just fine with the best of Offer, but Offer is shaping up to be one of my favorites in the Church expanded universe. It's got a little of everything - the standard Marty Willson-Piper jangly pop, sugar sweet ballads, some spacey stuff and a couple of jams that really rock. Nightjar is great as well but for Marty's solo work I might start with Hanging Out In Heaven. It's a tough call.

HBO continues to turn out the best shows by far - last night's episode of Big Love was insane, Flight of The Conchords continues to be hilarious, and the new one Eastbound and Down is AWESOME. I got into a laughing fit watching it last night after watching Kenny's display at the school dance. One of the funniest scenes I have ever witnessed on TV - laughed myself into a total mess. That's only happened to me like that a few times ever from a TV show.

Discovering more Porcupine Tree, Mr. Hand gets rattled

Not much music to comment on today - I usually like to discuss what I'm currently listening to and work was pretty busy the last couple of days so I didn't listen to much. I'm into my second listen of Stupid Dream by Porcupine Tree from 1999. It sounds awesome but I haven't digested it fully yet, and this is clearly a band whose complex works can take a while to digest. I suspect the rewards will be immense as they have been with In Absentia on this one though.

Meanwhile Fast Times was on cable tonight and I just noticed an underrated yet priceless detail - one of those you notice and appreciate after many repeated viewings. Kind of like the wasted dude way in the background at the moon tower party in Dazed and Confused who you see during the conversation between Mitch Kramer and his sister, or when it dawns on you that three major things that happen to Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction all happen while he's in the bathroom - for those who never picked up on that think about it for a second before you read on............ The robbery in the diner goes down while he's in the bathroom, Mia Wallace OD's snorting the heroin she finds in his coat pocket while he's in the bathroom contemplating the importance of loyalty, and Vince himself gets blown away by Butch as he's coming out of the bathroom at Butch's apartment. But I digress...only because the one I just saw that made me laugh tonight is the minor detail I picked up on in Fast Times. Everyone remembers the scene where Spiccoli orders a pizza to Mr. Hand's class - priceless. The detail that had me cracking up tonight which I never gave much thought to was how Mr. Hand gets so rattled and temporarily thrown off his game by the mere fact that Spiccoli is sitting in the front row with a huge grin on his face before the pizza delivery guy arrives. It's a minor detail but it's awesome...

Here goes... (again)

Okay. So I blogged for a couple years on mySpace before facebook pretty much took over social networking for Generation Xers like me. I still go back and take a look at the stuff I posted and chuckle... I'm an opinionated guy with a ton of uselful/useless knowledge about music, history, football and University of Michigan sports. If you aren't a Wolverine you may have to slog through some stuff to get to my music reviews/recommendations. Either way, if no one reads this it will be no less therapeutic for me to get it out of my head, and if someone does hopefully they get turned on to some music, learn something about a president or a Civil War battle, get a chuckle, or get the key to the universe. Okay so maybe not the fourth one, but either way let me know what you think. If you want to just comment to let me know I'm an a-hole, you may be right in certain respects but I will probably argue with you anyway... and I'm really not an a-hole. I'm a good guy.

Anyway, I actually listened to quite a bit of music today having the day off for President's Day - I listen to music every day but today I checked out the following:
Forth - The Verve Very good for fans of The Verve - I dig it - not necessarily their best but still damn good.
Modern Guilt - Beck Beck has that ability to cover so many different styles and vibes - sometimes all at once - and yet still sound only like Beck. This album is no exception and it's one of his best.
Uninvited, Like The Clouds - The Church This one continues to grow on me...not that there was any real question. I'll say this a thousand times that The Church is the most prolific and underappreciated band in the world. Day 5 is a totally gorgeous spacey Church classic, and Unified Field and Easy are great jangly gems. The new album Untitled #23 (apparently along with the customary multiple EPs and instrumental freakouts) is coming out with a U.S. release date of May 12.
Us - Peter Gabriel I broke out this cassette (yes a cassette - played on my once prized possession Nakamichi cassette deck I paid about $350 for in 1990 or so) tonight. I love this one. I'm not a Peter Gabriel authority per se but a good album to listen to while making dinner.
Europe '72 - The Grateful Dead This was the recording I finally discovered the Dead with very late in the Spring of 1992. Not a Deadhead but I do dig their stuff and was able to see them twice. Had it going tonight during dinner...
Also listened to a Queens of the Stone Age mix I made from the first three QOTSA albums...

That's about all I've got for now. Oh - and 24 was great tonight - this has been a great season... The Jack attack is back.