Hey white boy, you rock!

#22 - Guero (Beck)

This album might be the most recent (2005) to grace my top 25, but it's easily the "most funnest" album in my collection, too. Love the beats, the variations, the risks, the falsetto's. It's a Beach Boys dance album in a Brazilian time warp. And, believe it or not, it's the only Beck album I own (until The Information). Three years from now this might crack the top 15, or higher...
Top Tracks include Girl, Earthquake Weather, Emergency Exit, and Rental Car ('70's?), but the highlight has to be Scarecrow. Love the harmonica...

#20, JOE CHRISTMAS - north to the future

There's something rad about the exciting and the new
There's something rad about getting to know you
You don't need a reason, its always in season.
Stay out all night long, rockin to the same old song
stayin out til night turns into dawn...

Probably the most influential band of my early recording stuff. Probably the most influential band of my early-to-now artworkery. Why has it been so long since I've listened to this?

Oh, and if you've never seen the full 12" album artwork for this...you haven't lived my friends.

Am I buggin' ya? Don't mean to bug ya.

# 21 - Rattle and Hum - U2

Self-important? Yep. At times, self-righteous? You betcha. Blockbuster movie? Ehhhh...

To judge the album because of the movie would be to miss out on some enduring U2 favorites. Rattle & Hum enters as my #21 because it was the first U2 CD I owned. The mix of old songs, new songs, and sermonizing made it interesting enough for me to check out "The Joshua Tree" and really the rest is history.

It has a heavy dose of Memphis flavor to it with "Angel of Harlem" (recorded at Sun) and "When Love Comes to Town" with BB King.

[Side note: The torch-bearer of the "Memphis sound" is now Academy-Award winning Three-Six Mafia. I heard a local radio spot for Three-Six in September, hyping their appearance in Jackson, and the ad said, "Doors open at 10 PM for Oscar award-winning Three-Six Mafia!!!" Pretty awesome.]

Rattle and Hum includes new songs "Desire" and the classic "All I Want is You" - best if enjoyed at the end of "Reality Bites."

Live versions of "Pride (In the Name of Love)," "Bullet the Blue Sky," and the soulful "Still Haven't Found (What I'm Looking For)" with gospel choir are really great recordings. (The film version of this song is actually better, but WAY pretentious with the unidentified producer wearing shades in church while "directing" the choir. Even more hilarious is watching Adam Clayton sway to the angelic offering!)

It's not a cool pick, but Rattle and Hum referenced Memphis, had BB King (whom my dad loves), ends with an awesome ballad, and dropped a nice, hearty F-bomb in "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" on the movie version. I couldn't ask for much more.

Favorite track: Tough call, but because "Silver and Gold" doesn't appear on any other U2 album I'll go with it. "This song was written in a hotel room in NYC right about the time a friend of our's, Little Steven, was putting together a record of artists AGAINST APARTHEID."

Okay Edge, play the blues.

Ahh Nostalgia

Album: Indigo Girls, Indigo Girls
Ok, now that I'm in, I'm going to have to do the inevitable and mention them. I found out that I still have a place in my heart for their folk-y, angry melodrama. Jangly guitars, growling vocals, beautiful harmonies. It's wondrous in spite of their still unbearable haircuts. (Many a male glam rocker has one up on the fashion stylings of these two.) I haven't listened to them in years, but all those high school/early college memories come flooding back with a listen. (If only Shawna were here, I think I could get some affirmation.) So, this album was checked out of the public library by a homeschooled girl who snuck it into the inner sanctum of the Pack household. I think the reasoning was that if it were a library cassette, it couldn't be that harmful. I remember singing along till I was hoarse to Kid Fears (featuring Michael Stipe) as I sped around in the family minivan. "Are you on fire/ From the years/ What would you give for your kid fears" Or, with choruses like these - "Blood and Fire/ are too much for these restless arms to hold/ And my nights of desire are calling me/ back to your fold/ and I'm calling you from ten thousand miles away/ won't you wet my fire with your love, babe?" So much drama that any young girl would love! It makes me think of my friend Susan, who was sassy, refused to wear girly clothes, and smoked in high school, but now is a mother of three, lives in one of those McMansion homes, and attends church every week. It makes me think about the first boy I kissed. (Sorry honey.) Side A on cassette was the stronger of the two, but I can still sing along to every track after almost 15 years. Weird.
Aside to Justin - if I can work Proxis, Rock This into one of these posts, I'll be fairly impressed with myself.

"Don't fall in love with me yet, we only recently met"

#21 69 Love Songs Vol. I , The Magnetic Fields, Merge, 1999

I have a confession: I kinda sorta have a like for musicals. There. I said it. I'd like to think I can blame this on my mother's habit of playing the soundtracks to Oklahoma! or The Sound of Music in the house when I was a kid. Or the fact that I was taken to performances of Man of La Mancha in Jr. High. Or the fact that we played the soundtrack to Les Miserables for our half-time music not one, but two different years when I was in high school marching band. (Now that I've revealed I like musicals and was in high school band, please don't leave me, Sarah.) So, you could say the cards were stacked against me. In my defense, I have never ever liked the visual part of musicals: the melodrama, mixed with moments of breaking out in song and dancing with multiple persons and/or animals, always embarrassed me. But there's no denying the power of the hooks and progressions utilized by the great musical writers - they've been successful because of their ability to bend people's ears, not because of dance numbers with peasants. Plus, the clever rhyming schemes and witty way conversations are often worked into the mix have always interested me.

Stephen Merritt is perhaps the best composer for a musical who doesn't do musicals (though that may change in the future) that I've ever heard. Not only can he write clever, exquisitely rhymed narratives into his pieces, he can do it in a prolific manner. Merritt's bands include The 6ths, The Gothic Archies, Future Bible Heroes and, coming in at #21 with a bang, The Magnetic Fields. My first introduction to Merritt's songwriting came through that immortal vehicle for musical discovery that can only exist on magnetic tape: the mixtape. My friend Bowman had sent me a tape my junior year in college that introduced me to many incredible bands not available in the hills of Appalachia in a pre-internet world (the Promise Ring, Modest Mouse, and Cat Power to name a few). A song entitled "I Don't Believe You" on the tape struck me the first time I heard it - it was like a bizarre musical number, complete with weird synth to boot. And the lyrics were amazingly witty and well-timed: "Say you love quote unquote me/well stranger things have come to be/but let's agree to disagree/because I don't believe you."

With this introduction, I decided the next Magnetic Fields record that came out would belong to me. But how to get it? After graduation in May '00, Sarah and I headed out to California for a pre-grad school summer fling including an appearance at her oldest brother's wedding. We camped out in San Jose for a bit and, while driving around, we came across a massive Rasputin records. For me, it was like a dream come true: a warehouse-sized store dedicated totally and completely to music, and especially to indie rock (For those who care, meaning no one, this was also the place where I purchased my #26, Depeche Mode's Violater, for what it's worth). I had read in Alternative Press that The Magnetic Fields were releasing a massive concept trilogy of records all about love. It was to be called 69 Love Songs (wink nudge wink giggle nudge hiccup) and would actually consist of 69 complete songs all about, oh I don't know, cancer. Anyway, when I came across the three disc box set in the store, it wasn't a matter of whether or not to buy it, but more of a matter of how fast I could get out of the store, into the car, and begin listening to the records and devouring the massive booklet including commentary on every single song from an interview with Stephen Merritt by Daniel Handler (a man the world would soon come to know as Lemony Snickett). Over the rest of our trip, and the rest of the year, there wasn't ever a week that one of the discs wasn't being played. And, during this time, many of you reading can remember getting tracks from this epic trilogy on mixtapes from yours truly (that's how I, and Haley Joel Osment, pay it forward).

While Vol. II and III are solid, I kept coming back to Vol. I.* Every single song of its 23 tracks is not only listenable but engaging and witty (OK, maybe not "Punk Love," but you have to have at least one concept song on a concept record, right?). Musically, Merritt creates the best kind of multi-instrumentality - synths meet strings meet banjo meet accordion meet flute meet percussion meet piano in the best possible, and most importantly listenable, way. Plus, the addition of three different lead vocalists that appear besides Merritt stave off vocal boredom. Genre boredom is also averted with Merritt's successful utilization of the sounds of '50s drama ballads ("Sentimental Melody"), country jams ("A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off"), dance floor numbers ("Sweet Lovin' Man"), A Capella ("How Fucking Romantic") and, of course, the musical ("Nothing Matters When We're Dancing"). Lyrically, Merritt is masterful in his comedic and compelling genius (cf "A pretty girl is like a violent crime/If you do it wrong you could do time/but if you do it right it is sublime" from "A Pretty Girl is Like..."). The narratives that appear are both hilarious and original: "Absolutely Cuckoo" chronicles the confession of a neurotic lover driving away a potential mate before they can even get started, "Come Back from San Francisco" places a female vocalist pleading with her lover not to let pretty boys in discos distract him from his novel writing, "I Think I Need A New Heart" queries the true meanings behind a lover's sweet nothings, "The Book of Love" imagines a metaphysical tome from which springs all things love-related, "The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side" places the ugly owner of a convertible into the limelight with the ladies because of his car, and "Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits" talks about, well, ahem, "doin' it." By the time the 56-minute record ends, you've crossed a gamut of genres, endured repeated plays on words, and found yourself laughing countless times. And you still have two more records to listen to. If you want.


* While I purchased the records as a set, they were not released that way but came out individually over the course of the fall and winter of '99/'00. Thus, I am not pulling a section from a whole, but rather focusing on one album that goes with two others. You can say it's hair-splitting, but I made this blog and by God I can take you off it.

this is why i always whisper...

i wont go into a lot about why i love this record, especially since the entry below for number 20 is so extensive. i will just say this: this record solidifies my love for nina persson. the songs here are produced with a warm love for delicacy, crafted around nina's stunning vocal abilities.

#21

A CAMP-a camp
RELEASE DATE: August 23, 2001
LABEL: Universal/Polydor

==========================
i have this nasty little habit. i admit it. it's not a good idea. but i do it anyway. all. the. time. what is this secret hunter is going to spill here, you might be pondering. i'll tell you straight up: i sometimes buy records just because the cover art calls to me.

there. i said it.

casually glancing over my list, i notice that four of the twenty-five records that made the cut were purchases made this way. some that appear on other peoples' lists were made the same way (the godspeed record that papa shoegaze referenced is one, as is the ep, At The Doorway Again, that pre-curses Bavarian Fruit Bread by hope sandoval-papa shoegazes #21-which i noticed you can pick up on amazon for a mere $30 these days.)

my girlfriend was stressed out. that much i could tell. its easy to spot a stressed out girlfriend; just look for the boy thats taking the brunt of hostility, aggression, and anger spurred by some outside force but directed towards him. after all, girlfriends cant yell at their professors or the thriving theatre communities in college towns. and that anger has to go somewhere, right? but i digress.

my girlfriend was stressed out. and something had to be done. i wandered down to the local plan 9 records, a store famous for the best music around with the worst service (one of the employees modeled his working behavior after jack blacks douche-bag of a character in Hi Fidelity. this i know for a fact). i had, on occasion, asked the person behind the register which were the newest and coolest records out this week, in hopes that were i to make a purchase based on their opinion or recommendation, maybe he/she would attend my bands next local gig (they didn't) or maybe they'd give me a discount (nope). the salesman pointed to a stand labeled new arrivals and kept trying to get me to pick up the new record by some then-unknown emo outfit called fall out boy. but the record seated next to the one he said would be the next big thing (he was WAY off, yes?) had this cover that just called to me. a beautiful girl staring off into nothing. her name set in a typeface in a manner that screamed "i am not a rock record. i am something special". "what about this?" i asked the sales-jerk. "eh, it's alright," he said. (it turned out to be amazing) "it's new" (the copyright info revealed it was almost 2 years old) "and its kind of like ani defranco" (it wasnt).

but i purchased it blindly, or deaf-ly i should say, as a present for my girlfriend. she was stressed out. two weeks later, as we were driving somewhere. she asked if she could plug in her iPod to play me some music. i agreed, thinking maybe she would play me the life-changing music i purchased her.

she played me the new ani record i had failed to notice had just come out.

"what about the record i gave you?" i asked, trying not come off as a cry-baby. "oh. it was very sweet of you to get me a gift. it did put me in a much better mood. but it isnt my thing," she said as she scrubbed through her surf green iPod to play me the 2 tracks she felt were worth the 5mbs of iPod space they took up. she got a little frustrated at me when i asked her to put those two songs on repeat. "you can have it if you want it."

SCORE! my keen sense of cover art to song quality ratios payed off again. this album is like finding the small little coffee house around a corner. the one that makes the best coffee and youre afraid to tell your friends about it because if everyone starts showing up, it wont be yours anymore. its folky, but not simple. it's orchestrated, but not arrogant. it's everything i like about hope sandoval, but french (this was her first solo english-language work since her band lady & bird). it has the arranged intelligence of a brian wilson or van dyke parks record, but with a soft, hushed, feminine touch. it's everything i like about belle & sebastian, without the sebastian. its so perfectly timeless. its just perfect. i havent brought myself to pick up her new record, or her listen to the records that predate this for fear of the exposure altering my perception of this one.

i must admit, i think i might have given away papa shoegazes christmas surprise here.
#20

KEREN ANN-not going anywhere
RELEASE DATE: November 25, 2003
LABEL: Blue Note Records

#21, GREEN DAY, dookie

Was it possible to be in your early teens and not love this album? "She" is still genius.

# 42 "Riding a Rainbow" by The Kids from C.A.P.E.R.

(This predates Levar Burton's show btw.)

Gosh, I probably wore this record out. The song was the B-Side to the single, "Like a Hurricane." It was one of the first times I remember sitting and listening to a record over and over again. One time I was in New York and ran into Paul Shaffer (band leader for David Letterman, etc) and told him that this song was one of my favorites growing up (Paul was the arranger on this song) . It was such an old and obscure reference that I was sure Paul was impressed that my knowledge of his career was so extensive. Uh, yeah.

The Kids from C.A.P.E.R was a Saturday morning show that answered the question, "What if the Bay City Rollers were undercover crime fighters?" Sort of a less wacky more sophisticated version of The Monkees, maybe. I don't know. I just know I loved the show and this song.

See and hear the hit single below Rita Wilson (aka: Mrs. Tom Hanks) apparently is the woman in this video....it must have been painful to have shot those close-ups:

# 13 Slow Dance anyone?

7th grade, or somewhere thereabouts...I remember being nervous and a little embarrassed. Glad that dances were always in darkened gyms. It took so much guts to ask Sara Collins to dance with me, but we were in Tahlequah, OK at the AGEHR convention and we'd all had such a good time. I can't believe she said yes and then what? Oh, stick out your arms, hands on her waist - careful now - and shuffle back in forth until the song is over. And please, no eye contact - that's more than you can handle. So this is dancing huh? Heaven.

#17 God Said No by Dan Bern

(insert pronoun of choice)Love this song. Not much else to mention about this, but the song does mention Kurt Cobain at some point. Plus, I love Dan Bern's delivery. I imagine he'd be a great voice for the audio book version of Nicholas Wolterstorff's Lament for a Son, or Elie Wiesel's holocaust books.

"If the little boy really wanted a puppy, his mother said, he should get down on his knees and ask God to give him one. Night after night, before going to bed, the boy besieged heaven, praying for a puppy, praying fervently and long, confident that God was hearing him. But at Christmas there was no puppy under the tree. As the boy played contentedly with the toys that he did get, his mother said, "I guess God didn't answer your prayers." "He answered me," the boy told her. "He just said no." (excerpt from IMAGE journal #51)

#22. NIRVANA - mtv unplugged

It's a common feeling among 'vana fans that this is the least-best of their albums. In fact (true story), when I told the little wife that this was my #22, she said "that's probably my least favorite of their albums." So, I challanged her by saying, "Right. Then, which is your favorite?" And shheee said "nevermind." so's I says, "yeah, which exactly is your favorite song off that." and she's all like "uh...all apologies?" and I'm like, "busted! that's In Utero, sista!" and then she's like, "doh!"

Sorry.

Anyway, back to me. I was an insomniac in high school, and listened to this album with two others (later to be posted) nonnnn stopppp while drawing at night.

Heart of Glass

#21 The Kronos Quartet performs Philip Glass (Nonesuch, 1995)

This record is on here primarily for Glass’ Quartet #5. Quartets 4, 3, and 2 are also on here, and are very enjoyable. But it’s the #5 that is the first classical piece I grew to love, and not merely find good. (And the list is still pretty short – Bach’s cello suites, Shostakovich quartets, Satie).

Glass is evidently ‘minimalist’ composer, which, as far as I can tell, means in part that short lines and motifs are used and reused, often without a whole lot of change between repetitions. This probably makes it sound boring, but I swear it’s not (I also get the sense that it is not a minimalist as others of Glass’ works). I like to think of the repetitions here as waves crashing on the beach, and the quartet #5 has a similar kind of meditative yet propulsive energy.

I’ll wisely avoid attempting a play-by-play, but the climax in the fifth movement of the quartet is worth talking about. Shortly after beginning, it moves forward toward its crescendo, but moves at an almost unsustainable pace. The waves crash faster and pile up onto one another until they chaotically stumble upon one another and ultimately collapse into silence. The quartet then picks up again, starting over, and the process repeats. Again the breakers break, and once again they totter on the edge of chaos, only this time to resist the collapse and resolve into what my rockist mind can only describe as a huge and beautifully stupid riff. Ideas and themes seemingly discarded earlier then reenter and bring the whole piece into a stunning resolution. I find this quartet very powerful and emotional. Maybe missing out on ‘serious’ music earlier in life made me never understand the idea that modern music is supposed to be difficult, cold, and unlistenable. Thank god for that.

Forgive the bombastic writing, please. I’m just trying some things out – and where else can one experiment, if not on a blog with 15 readers?

I Went To John Jay University...

::20::

RunDMC
Down With The King

"I'm takin' the tours, I'm wreckin' the land--I keep it hardcore because it's dope man--these are the roughest toughest words I ever wrote down--not meant for a hoe like a slow jam, check it-sucka emcees could never swing with D--because of all the things that I bring with me--only G-O-D could be a king to me--and if the G-O-D be in me, then the king I be."

Truer words have never been spoken. Pure poetry. Don't turn your back to me, B. You know you can recite the whole song. For everyone else.

Tracks of Note:
Down With The King, Ooh Watcha Going To Do, Come On Everbody

Burn Your Wicked...

::21::

Stone Temple Pilots
Core

I'm finding out that the majority of my favorite albums came out between the years of 1991 through 1997. It's crazy to think that the height of my musical enjoyment took place in high school. Sad.

Tracks of Note:
Creep, Plush, Dead & Bloated, Wicked Garden

Best When Played:
Four-wheeling in a Nissan Truck.

an Urbane Hmns sponsored show in Johnson City

Josh, you might want to check this out. I'm "jules and jim" the opening act.

Now! That's what I call Soul!!

# 22 Maxwell - Now

D'angelo had his naked video. R. Kelly had record sales...and his own naked video (with a minor). Maxwell is just good, old-fashioned solid soul music. His 2001 release "Now" has been the last we've seen of him, but if it happened to be his swang song then it wasn't a bad way to go. Two dance tracks bookend Now: "Get to Know Ya" and "Now/At the Party," but the Kate Bush cover "This Woman's Work" seals this album as a very strong album. Though not as flashy or troubled as his contemporaries, Maxwell is far more talented, deftly offering the best of dance and "slow jams" (I love that phrase)than one could find on a greatest hits compilation of D'Angelo, R. Kelly, Nate Dogg, Clay Aiken and others.

In 1997, Maxwell made an MTV Unplugged appearance (who didn't?) and covered NIN's "Closer." The end result sounds something like a funked-out Gospel number. Strange, I know, but clearly indicative of Maxwell's creativity and limitless influences.

Best Track: "This Woman's Work"