Listomania! - 2001

2001 was not a space odyssey. Bush Junior became President in the States and inaugurated a new era of mean-spirited smugness, especially after September 11. I could delve deeper into my feelings about these events, but I would not only bore you the reader, but myself as well. This being a music blog, I'll try to keep it on topic. Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but I've been doing 2-a-days at the dog park since we became a 2-car home again and haven't felt all that inspired to post. Not to worry, I feel fine - it's just that I despise typing and it requires about 4 hours for me to do 1 post. so, today I decided to quit being such a procrastinator and get this thing going again. Here's what I was listening to while Bush was plotting world domination:

Top 10 Of 2001

10. Plug-In Baby - Muse

This song rocks hard. Taken from this English band's 2nd album, Origin Of Symmetry, it is a melodic but fierce tune, dominated by the falsetto voice and crazy guitar sonics of leader Matthew Bellamy. I love this song and I like a lot of their songs, but they can grate on me a bit. I find the sound they have unique, but also quite repetitive. This tune has a driving urgency to it that charges up one's blood when listening, causing some thrashing and flailing of limbs. It is heavy on gimmicks and effects and must be hard to reproduce live, but it does sound great when turned up loud. "My plug-in baby crucifies my enemies, when I'm tired of giving." This machine kills fascists.....

9. Lowdown - My Morning Jacket

This band's 2nd album, At Dawn, solidified them as a real force in modern music. Their sound is often described as Alt.-Country or Jam Band, but they really have no specific sound. There are touchstones in their songs, such as singer Jim James' distinctive tenor, but I appreciate them for having a varied style. This song is very laid-back, with a pretty melody which gives the song an almost early 1960s feel. The lead guitar is played in that style as well, with nary a power chord in sight. The tune has their trademark expansive sound, like it was recorded in a big auditorium, with an echo-ish sound on the vocals. This is the sound of a band growing more confident and starting to hit their stride. "Lowdown, cheatin', ain't no need for repeatin'. So love, dawg, can't ya see that you never gotta fight with me?" Why you lowdown dirty dawg.......

8. Last Good Day Of The Year - Cousteau

Apparently, this is an English group. Other than that, I can't tell you much about them. This song is from their self-titled debut album, so there's some info for you. I first heard this when I got the digital package for my TV and with it came all those Galaxie music channels. I just stumbled across it while surfing the channels one day and it stuck with me. It is the best Burt Bacharach song that the man himself didn't write. It has a great melancholic melody and the piece de resistance is the brilliant Herb Alpert-sounding trumpet which winds its way through the whole song. This is just a great listen on a rainy day. "When the summer's light is fragrant with scents of returning, you relent, you resent, now you're burning for nothing to change." New perfume: Eau de Returning......

7. Last Nite - The Strokes

Hype, hype, then a little more hype. These guys caught on in the U.K. first, even though they are from New York City. Trade rags like the NME had them on the cover right off the bat and tapped them as the new saviours of Rock. I didn't believe the hype, but I did like this debut album lots. This is the standout track, all lo-fi churning guitars, coupled with a simple melody set to simple lyrics. Singer Julian Casablancas had the bad-boy looks to help get the band some TV exposure as well. My biggest question concerning these guys was whether they would have any staying power. Well, it is 10 years on and they have just released their 4th studio album and first in 5 years called Angles. It may well be the best thing they have ever done, so get it and play it as soon as possible. "See people, they don't understand. No girlfriends, they can't understand. Your grandsons, they won't understand. On top of this, I ain't ever gonna understand." Understand?

6. Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground - The White Stripes

Taken from their breakthrough 3rd album, White Blood Cells, this song cements Jack White as a bonafide Rock Guitar God. Just take a listen to the opening riff alone. On headphones, it blows your hair back like the old Maxell ad. The chunky punch of the chords after the verses just kick ass too, all feedback-drenched hellaciousness. Drummer Meg is quite awful, but her primitive style fits perfectly with the bare-bones rawness of their sound. Undoubtedly, Jack White has the blooz man and in him lives the ghosts of several legendary axe-men. You can hear the passion he has for music in every note of this great tune. "I didn't feel so bad 'til the sun went down. Then I come home, no-one to wrap my arms around." Don't let the sun go down on me......

5. The Three Great Alabama Icons - Drive-By Truckers

The Truckers' 3rd album was an extremely interesting and well thought out concept record called Southern Rock Opera. They weren't on my radar at all until this album, mainly because I had shied away from most Southern rock for years. This song deals with singer/guitarist Patterson Hood's personal feelings and opinions about Alabama's past and its heroes, Governor George Wallace, football coach Bear Bryant and singer Ronnie Van Zant. Hood doesn't sing in this tune, instead, he talks along with the sparse backing instruments in the finest ballad tradition. This is a fantastic history lesson for those who weren't aware or alive back then. "And me, I was one a’ them pussy boys… cause I hated football, so I got a guitar… but a guitar was a poor substitute for a football with the girls in my high school." A guitar is much harder to throw too....

4. Burn Baby Burn - Ash

These guys hail from Northern Ireland, which would lead one to surmise that they would sing about political issues like U2, but that is not the case. For their 3rd album, Free All Angels, the band added guitarist Charlotte Hatherley to help round out their live sound. This led to their biggest selling record and made them huge in the U.K. This song is fast, loud, melodic and energetic, with buzz-saw guitars and machine gun drumming. Guitarist/vocalist Tim Wheeler sings with sincerity and the band's noise is a joyful one indeed. Tap your foot, sing along, or leap around the room like a crazed beast - whatever you choose, you will not be able to just sit and listen to this. The NME readers voted it Single of the Year for 2001. "Look into my tired eyes, see someone you don't recognize. Binds that can't be untied, oh yeah, this is slow suicide." No, Gord, this is not Blink 182....

3. Sister Surround - The Soundtrack Of Our Lives

We go from a one syllable band to these long- monikered Swedes. Behind The Music was their 3rd release, but the first to make any waves in North America, mostly because of this hook-laden gem of a tune. Singer Ebbot Lundberg has a casual delivery and cheerful disposition and he looks nothing like your classic frontman. Starting off with a throbbing bass line and 4/4 beat, the Who-like guitars come chiming in and away we go. The sound is big without being over-produced. This is Rock 'N' Roll in its purest form. The band sounds like they are having fun letting loose and the listener is drawn into this song full of classic hooks. Another song that you must sing with! "You're a book out of nowhere, being read all the time." Everyday I write the book....

2. New York, New York - Ryan Adams

Taken from his 2nd album, Gold, this is the song that made Adams more famous than ever as it was adopted as the unofficial anthem of the city after 9/11. The video for the song was filmed 4 days before the attacks and in it, the Twin Towers are clearly visible. MTV played it to death in those days and it pushed sales of the album much higher than they normally would have been. It has a great shuffle rhythm, similar to Steve Forbert's 1979 song Romeo's Tune, which is why Martina loves it so much. It is Adams' love song to his adopted city, with a catchy melody and several interesting twists, like the sax solo near the end, a sort of tip of the cap to the city's rich Jazz heritage. Benmont Tench of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers plays a wicked Hammond organ on this tune as well, adding colour and soul to the proceedings. "I remember Christmas in the blistering cold in a church on the Upper West Side. Babe, I stood there singing, I was holding your arm, you were holding my trust like a child." Now if I could only get Martina to apply to the Times......

1. Pyramid Song - Radiohead

Radiohead went into the studio in late 1999 to record the follow-up to the brilliant OK Computer and came out with 2 albums worth of material, 2000's Kid A and this album, their 5th called Amnesiac. These were a huge departure for the band, highly experimental in nature and very different sounding to their previous stuff. i'm not a huge fan of these records, but this particular song might just be my favourite by them. The arrangement is sparse, led by a piano. When the band comes in, the orchestration is gorgeous, steeped in sadness and a wistful tone of longing. it washes over the listener in waves, with the accompanying jazzy drums giving a crispness and clarity to the song. Thom Yorke's aching voice ties all the elements together and I am constantly left speechless by the sheer beauty and magnificence of this tune. Amazing!

"I jumped in the river and what did I see?
Black-eyed angels swam with me
A moon full of stars and astral cars
All the things I used to see
All my lovers were there with me
All my past and futures
And we all went to heaven in a little row boat
There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt."