Two Approaches to the Human Spirit

The human condition has one great thing that keeps it going in times of the end of things: hope. When things go bad, the human spirit kicks in and thinks of the future and hope fills us with the ability to contiune. I've read to drastically different, yet similar books in the past few weeks. One is the post-apocalyptic novel The Road and the other is the memoir's of Jean Dominique Bauby entitled The Diving Bell & The Butterfly. Both are tales of desperation with an underlying theme of hope.

After seeing the brilliant No Country For Old Men last year, I had a large interest in reading the works of Cormac McCarthy, whose novel inspired the harrowing Neo-Western. Rather than start with that book since I just saw the movie, I looked up his other novels and noticed another one was coming out this year as a film adaptation. Simply titled The Road I immediately seized a copy after reading what the novel was about. A father and his son wander the wasted and scorched world after some cataclysmic event ends civilization. Being a fan of this scenario, the post apocalypse, it sounded like something I needed to read immediately. I got it for Christmas with a lot of other books and decided to read some of the lighter books first, such as Born Standing Up, the genius memoirs of Steve Martin's short but explosive career in stand up. After some time away from reading, I picked up The Road when my mind was fully ready for it. Needless to say, all the talk and awards it recieved over the novel is rightly warranted.

Cormac McCarthy has a way of writing that really shoots you into the roles of the characters. Even the cannibals and militants and thieves of the land in a America that has nothing to look forward to have motives and feelings that you can't not but feel bad about and not disagree on some level. I know this sounds ridiculous, but something about this story shows that although some extreme measures may come in such a situation, there is only one true feeling that may shine through the animal instincts that come in human calamities and that is Hope. The way the father wants and hopes there is some sort of future out there for his son is truly moving and beautiful. A scene where the man shares a Coca Cola with his son who has no idea what it is is moving in it's simplicity. Needless to say, I'm stoked that John Hillcoat, the director of The Proposition is helming the project to bring this story to life.

The next book I read might be the polar opposite in everything except theme. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the memoirs of Jean-Dominique Bauby, is more of a beautiful tale of hope then one where only shards of light shine through. Bauby suffered a massive stroke that gave him whats called "locked-in" syndrome. All his brain functions work fine but his entire body is inert. Minus the ability to blink his eyes, he is cut off from the world entirely. Luckily, he was able to communicate in a very innovative way by blinking his eyes and we are given the beautiful and touching story of what it's like to be locked away in your own body. Unlike the last novel I talked about, I saw the film first. In it's own right, the film is unbelievable. They tell the story very true to the novel and somehow capture what it could be like stuck in your own body. Most of the film is shot in first person and with skewed vision. It's quite beautiful and it is a truly uplifting tale.

What is most important, though, is the very way this story is told. The memoir never strays into self loathing or depression, but is a glowing testament of the human spirit. It shows that you can have it as bad as it gets, but as long as the human spirit stays alive, as long as you can imagine and enjoy your thoughts, the other things in life seem a lot less important. The ultimate end of the memoir, which you know right away, is that Bauby died two days before it's official release. His hope and joy to the very last page makes it even more poignant knowing that sometimes the human spirit can outlive the human body. And this case is definitely one of those reads that just explodes of the page and lifts you out of your seat and gives you the realization that life ain't all that bad. I think this memoir should be read in every school at some point to give perspective on life and death.

Hope is a common theme in any novel. Whether it's the story of your life or the end of times. What is better for conflict than someone striving for the betterment life in general? Hope is something that anyone can attain even if the things we hope for are next to unattainable.

The Dynamic Duo Return

On David Byrne and Brian Eno’s first record in 27 years, the song “Strange Overtones” declares “this groove is out of fashion, these beats are twenty years old.” It may be a testament of Byrne showing his age and the fact that the music overall on the new album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is a delightful throwback to the poppier side of Talking Heads. When first hearing that the duo was teaming up again since their last record, the daunting and pretentious My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, I was ultimately very excited. That album from 1981 is unlike anything you’ve ever heard. World music mixed with strange samples and “found objects” like frying pans and cardboard used as instruments is something that takes a lot to digest. With 27 years behind them, things are quite a bit lighter.

The good news is, that even though two musical giants are treading no knew ground, they have created a wonderful album of pop tunes that they proclaim are “electric gospel.” This proclamation is a bit of a stretch. The titular track has a gospel feel with a dreamy chorus of Byrne’s making a delightful dreamscape of a melody over the music that Eno creates with soft synths and a percussionless atmosphere. Beyond this, the Gospel element is lost somewhere. Regardless, the album still shines past this.

The process of the album was much like that of The Postal Service with Brian Eno recording and writing the music and Byrne taking care of the vocal arrangements and lyrics.The folky opener "Home" is a beautiful sweeping track. The most funky track with the strangest style is "I Feel My Stuff." Byrne dons his silliest voice since "Swamp" from Speaking in Tongues and the overall funky beat with scattershot piano and lots of percussion sounds much like what Talking Heads would sound like today if still together. "Life is Long" and "The River" are two wonderfully crafted back to back pop anthems filled with hopefull lyrics and fun instrumentation. "Life is Long" brings some horns in for a great flavor while "The River" is one of Byrne's finer vocal outings on the record. "Strange Overtones" is by far the best song on the record with it's breezy 80's feel and it's poingant lyrics of two aging musicians going through the song making proccess again after years of inactivity together.

If anything, Byrne and Eno know how to craft great pop songs. The music as a whole is nothing new and is almost archaic in ways. Although it seems a bit dated, the retro movement of bands trying hard to sound like New Order, The Smiths or any other slew of 80s pop bands, I have no problem two giants of that decade doing what they do best. It's great that they are doing through digital download first then physical release. It's seeming to be the way that artists who don't need support from a label can get out there and release it on their own. To work on something your own and without interference from a label is what artists like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails and even Byrne & Eno should be doing at this point in their career. True artists need not be censorered.

Album Catch Up

The 25 albums list is done, but there was a lot of music I wanted to write about that I didn't get a chance to yet discuss. Here I will write a few reviews in one shot, but a little bit shorter than usual.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig! Lazarus! Dig!

Only recently have I gotten into the Bible thumping goth God. Much of Nick Cave's tales of depravity and sinners is a modern Edgar Allen Poe tale, but with less words ending in "ore" and more amazing rock music. The thing I've learned about Cave is that he loves these tales so much that over every album, he weaves essentially the same stories of those who commit these sins and the innocents who get sucked up into the kind of carnage that can come from that. On the new album, he resurrects poor Lazarus in the middle of New York City, a dingy town in the words of Cave. Most who sing about NYC don't talk about "a soup queue, a dopefiend, a slave, then prison, then the grave." It's not the kind of New York State of mind you hear about, but it's one that's all too real. "More News From Nowhere" plays like a noir version of a Dylan story song filled with ladies of the night "100 foot" men and people transfusing with panda blood. It's a long track filled with great imagery. The album is filled with less melodic vocals like some other Cave albums and is almost spoken word at points, but it's overall a good listen and another decent album in Cave's prolific career. The best part of the album is the cocky swagger of every song. I would love to hear The Rolling Stones do a rendition of "Today's Lesson."

Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends

Not gonna lie, this may be Coldplay best album. It's nothing brilliant, but it's a damn good showcase of a band who was known to recycle their own sound from Parachutes to X&Y. This time, they change it up and decide to mix in some new sounds. This may have been with the help of producer guru Brian Eno, but I think it may also have been a conscious effort for the band to show that they aren't talentless hacks. The concept is very run-of-the-mill, but the songs about revolution and romanticism are ones that are at least heart felt, if not a bit stale and cliche. Needless to say, it's a fantastic pop record. "Viva la Vida" takes a page from The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" by pouring on the melody with strings and some small backing instrumentation. Dare I say it's one of the most addictive songs I've heard this year? Yes it is. "Cemeteries of London" and "Lost!" are also two fantastic pop songs. The rest of the songs lack a bit of editing as most have to parts to them that don't fit together. Again, it's not brilliant, but it's a great pop music record that falls somewhere in the middle road of records that have come out this year. It's definitely worth taking a spin or two.

Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs

Death Cab can't write a bad album, but they can't really write a great album. And there is not a damn thing wrong with that. Narrow Stairs is a slice of pop music, just like Coldplay, but with a little bit better songwriting. Gibbard and Co. know how to write a good tune and a good lyric. They even wrote an epic! The eight-minute "I Will Posess Your Heart" swoops with grandiosity much like Wilco's "Spiders (Kidsmoke)." For those with ADD, there is a radio edit out there. My personal favorite, "Long Division" sounds like a b-side from Transatlanticism with it's hooky guitars. Then again, most of any Death Cab song would fit on any of their albums throughout there career. I think that is what brings me back. Consistency isn't something to harp on. If a band does the same thing over and over but does it well, why complain? Electric Six has been putting the same record out for years now too and do I love them? Sure do. The streamlined production on Narrow Stairs is the best thing about it. The melodies float in the air and inside your ears. They know how to write a song and they continue to write good music.

Ratatat - LP3

Instrumental music is something I've grown to love more and more over the past few years and Ratatat is one of the catchiest instrumental bands. Using synths and guitars that sound like synths and hip-hop style beats, they write these melodic songs that just make you want to dance or chill. Another great thing about Ratatat is their way of genre mixing. They have songs like "Mi Viejo" which is a mixture of electronic music and classic spanish guitar sounds. "Mirando" sounds like the back beat to a hip-hop jam much in the style of MF Doom mixed with M.I.A. It's tribal beats and funky synths seem like they could have an amazing jam written to them, however sometimes I feel like it would ruin the vibe of the track if there were lyrics. "Falcon Jab" is a personal favorite and not because of the imagery of a giant bird face punching you, but for it's Brian May sounding guitars and it's funky beat that gets my dance juices flowin'. The album as a whole is a little more diverse in tone than their bast two efforts making it stand out, but it's again the same from a band that has it's formula and doesn't entirely change it or fuck with it. It's also a band that doesn't have to change what they got. They are a unique musical act and should keep it up.

Dr. Dog - Fate

I can't not like Dr. Dog. Their music is to enjoyable, but I can hear why the critics aren't so in favor for them, or at least the ones I've heard talk about them. Their latest is a re-hash of We All Belong and the band can't seem to get past their love of Syd Barret and Rubber Soul era Beatles. And can you blame them? What's not to like about late 60s psych folk? It's fun and Philadelphia has a lot of bands with the similar vibe flourishing right now (i.e. Lemons are Louder Than Rocks, An American Chinese, etc.) Dr. Dog knows how to write great love songs and great melodies. "The Old Days" sounds perfect for a good old 8mm family video of some kids playing in the yard, eating cake or just all around silly youthfulness. I love songs with that kind of vibe. "From" is one of those excellent love songs that is filled with awesome harmony and solid musicianship. As much as Dr. Dog emulates the greats like the Beatles, they still have some vibe all their own. Their ain't nothing wrong with taking a page out of the classics book.

Be sure to check out Left of the Dial for my write up on the new Jet Age record which is fantastic. And I am currently working on another stand alone piece on the new David Byrne/Brian Eno record.

2008 is shaping up alright so far. Hopefully that Autolux record and that Secret Machines record drops soon.

All that is now, all that is gone and all that's to come

This may be the perfect album. Perfectly crafted and meant to be an album. To take a song outside of context would be murder, yet when you hear one of the songs off of this album, it's still great. At this time, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is more ceremoniously their best album than my favorite. However, it is the most memorable and probably the most influential to my life than maybe any other album. That and Tommy and maybe one or two others from this list. Floyd was a band you always heard about. They were the first band I ever heard having a "cult following." As a kid, that seemed kind of imposing and scary, but it turns out I am a part of many a cult following. Floyd especially. It's been a part of my life from day one. This really is the mother of all albums.

And day one was back in the end of Grade School. I bought the record finally after some time hearing the songs out of context and my young mind was immediately expanded and blown to bits. Just as many of the other classics discussed before getting to this one, it was just insane hearing the kind of sounds and music a band could conjure up. This album is timeless. It's of an age and place not yet seen or heard. As much as other bands tried, no other record really sounds like this one. It flows from track one to the end, minus the small break in between "The Great Gig in the Sky" and "Money" which is, of course, because the vinyl needs a flippin'. It's this constant flow of music that struck me as the most impressive. I was used to song after song rather than a continuing flow of sounds and visiuals that blur the lines of track titles and track numbers. It's the perfect album for vinyl. Obviously, the band knew how to use this medium and obviously other bands had been doing this before 1973, but this is one of those mystical records that transcends that. It's a hypnotic record.

This hypnotic nature made it perfect for reflection, night listening and just sheer headphone magic. The reflective nature of it has the best memories attached to them. One early summer after my first year of high school, a group of friends sat around on a shore front deck whilst staring out over the cool summer waters of the Atlantic and played Dark Side of the Moon and mostly were in a prayer like silence. It was a moment in my youth that I remember so well and love so much that it transcends the greatness of the music to the greatness of being. I used this in my "Nostalgia Trip" article I wrote senior year of college to set in motion some events that will make up a trance-like state and get the nostalgia juice flowin'. I spent some nights at my parents abode after both my sisters were away at college and I was in high school sitting on the back roof staring up at the night sky and listening to Dark Side of the Moon. In darkness and surrounded by minimal stars in the suburbs of Philadelphia, even then it evoked a cosmic greatness. The music just helped show the beauty and fragility of reality. It all could be taken away at any time. These moments were usually the ones I associated with headphone magic, but my mom had these amazing studiolike headphones that had the best sound and listening to the tape I made of Dark Side with other stuff on the other side of the tape was sweet greatness.

Lord knows I love the band as a whole. Listen to these guys!

To break the album track by track is almost futile, but I will say that "Time" is one of the only classic rock songs that can bring a tear to my eye. Why? Not because of some attached memory or because it has some sad subject matter, but because the music itself moves me. After the clamour of the bells and the doomy single note guitar and percussion intro, the music gives way to the main verse with it's intense vocals care of Gilmour. The chorus is laden with a choir and brilliant harmonies. Then at 3:28, David Gilmour's classic guitar work juices up the tear ducts. It's a simple solo, but one that sends shivers down my spine every time. Doesn't matter what I'm doing, this music makes this man get all watery in the eyes. Especially when the guitar hits the high notes. Warmth runs through the body and melancholy in my soul. It doesn't help that "The Great Gig in the Sky" may be the most beautiful moment on the album followed up by this song. It's the best one track into another up with "Amazing Journey/Sparks." It's a musical, spiritual and nostalgic experience that definitel redefined my life as a music lover.

This whole list, these 25 albums deserve even a little more praise. So, in usual fashion, I will be making a playlist of one song from each album (unless the double songage is needed to emote the meaningful nature behind the album.) So here it is, the final list of albums and then the playlist will be posted after careful crafting.

1. The Who - Tommy

2. Beck - Odelay

3. Television - Marquee Moon

4. Weezer - Pinkerton

5. Brian Eno - Before & After Science

6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born

7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul

8. Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home

9. Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape

10. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection

11. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights

12. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

13. Jeff Buckley - Grace

14. Warren Zevon

15. Black Mountain - In The Future

16. XTC - Skylarking

17. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

18. Nick Drake - Pink Moon

19. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple

20. The Clash - London Calling

21. Arcade Fire - Funeral

22. The Velvet Underground and Nico

23. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

24. Queen - Greatest Hits

25. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

Give out the good, leave out the bad evil cries

What young kid doesn't love Queen? Maybe a lot of them. Maybe not. Lord knows this one loved them. I was trying to figure out what album would represent my days as a youth and the only logical choice was that of Queen's Greatest Hits. I guess it's kind of a cop out to include a collection of a bands best songs, but to be honest, this list is more about influencing the way I look at music after 25 years of being a music lover. My childhood would not be the same without it. It was vital to it, I'd say. If you go back to my old grade school and take a look at my 8th grade tile, a tradition of Saint John's, you will see the Queen logo painted on it. My earliest memories of using a jukebox was to order up some Queen. It's just the kind of epic rock music and one of the 70's and 80's best. It's what true rock bombast should sound like.

Grandiosity x Velocity = Queen.

So on to some of these memories. My first jukebox selections were Queen after my young soccer leauges completion of an undefeated season. No shit! What young kid doesn't want to play "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions" after a long season of kicking some ass? I think we all have those moments. What young romantic didn't want an opera behind them singing along to "Somebody to Love?" I may have been alone on that one, but I have many memories of being a young kid thinking he wanted love or something and this amazing song was something that may have been a kind of random companion in those times. I would listen to this collection nonstop that I had to buy it multiple times. My current copy, luckily, transfered over nicely to my iPod therefore stopping my need to replace the analog copy.

It's easy to say why a greatest hits collection is amazing. It's a band showcasing the best of what they have to offer. Queen just has a way of rocketing into the psyche of a young man's mind. There was nothing like air guitaring to songs like "The Seven Seas of Rhye" or "Play the Game." If there were ever a rock and roll voice to try and emulate, that would probably be Freddie Mercury. His range was fantastic and the rock swagger in his voice, especailly on songs like "Another One Bites the Dust." I even have memories of the goofy track "Body Language." Have any of you heard this song? Ah GAHD it's just hilarious 80s goodness.

The main problem with this collection, and many others like it, is the omission of amazing Queen tracks. But something about this collection, with the forgotten-until-Shaun-of-the-Dead classic "Don't Stop Me Now" and 80s pop epic "I Want to Break Free", it was a collection of excellent tracks and some that I never heard up until this point. I've carried this record past my childhood. I have had moments at Karaoke with these songs, moments at parties dancing to Queen and sing-a-longs while running cross country to Queen. It's less about this collection and more about the band, I guess, but for me to include them on this all too important list, I must say that Queen's Greatest Hits is all too important. Even if greatest hits are for house moms.




1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before & After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
8. Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home
9. Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape
10. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
11. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
12. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
13. Jeff Buckley - Grace
14. Warren Zevon
15. Black Mountain - In The Future
16. XTC - Skylarking
17. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
18. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
19. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple
20. The Clash - London Calling
21. Arcade Fire - Funeral
22. The Velvet Underground and Nico
23. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
24. Queen - Greatest Hits

Final Album: Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon

I thought there was a virtue in always being cool

It's great hearing a band you thought was something else become something even more than you originally thought. Especially when you write them off as a one trick pony. In my younger days, I was always a huge fan of "She Don't Use Jelly" by the Flaming Lips, but then they fell off the face of the earth on alt. rock radio never again to surface to my ears. Or so I thought. Then in 2002, during my first months of Wow Video, I stumbled upon this album among the many rows of records in Tunes and figured, hell wtf I have a new income, am out of High School and ready to be more daring with my musical tastes. Why not purchase this record? Good move, Tsikitas. It was totally worth whatever amount cds were going for back in the old days of 2002 and it became the soundtrack to a summer of indifference. I say indifference because the world was changing, my life was changing, my relationships with people were changing and I was totally indifferent to a lot of these changes. Something about this record helped me forget these things and in turn, became a record that really influenced my life in a big honkin' way.

The album itself is about such indifference to many themes. Mortality, pacifism, gender roles, battling the futility of this world. That were some of the thoughts crowding my mind at the time. I was moving on to a college where I knew just a handfull of people and out of my four year comfort zone of Camden Catholic. It was a great four years, but I had no idea what was in store for the next and possibly last four years of my life as a student. Tumult all around. The only thing that was stable at that point was my dead end job as a video store clerk. At least I got free movies out of it. My love of film grew at this point, so it was no surprise that a very cinematic album would be something I was deeply interested in. I listened to this at work all the time. It definitely was the album of the year and rivals Arcade Fire & Black Mountain as the most important records of the Oughts.

It also reminds me of Noringo. Strange, yes but this was the summer of Noringo. Our songwriting was the best and our many many trips to the KFC/Taco Bell were spent with our drummer donning a bike helmet in the trunk of our bassist's SUV and blasting all kinds of shit, this included. It was a summer of outdoor shows and rocking out with new friends. Beyond these moments, Yoshimi is nothing but a mere soundtrack and a musical moment of greatness.

The album really just flows well and reminded me of a lot of 70's psychedelia that I was into. I wasn't one to experiment with mind altering substances, I just let the music do the work. And Lord knows Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is one of those mood altering, mind numbingly ether albums. A friend once said "I want to be smoking the drugs These guys are on!" And I said "I want to smoke these guys!" A song that to this day is one of those bone chilling faves is "Are You a Hypnotist??" Something about this will remind me of that time forever. Maybe it's mythical sound. "Fight Test" and "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1" are the standouts that littered the radio waves of my radio show going into college. The heartfelt ballad "Do You Realize??" is just a perfect song. Nothing about it is imperfect. It's catchy, it has beautiful melodies to it and amazingly straight forward lyrics. "Ego Tripping At the Gates of Hell" is another one of those songs that will remind me of random moments of time frozen forever to the ethereal buzz and drone of the song. It reminds me of lazy nights sitting along the Jersey shore with the breeze in my hair and a good book underneath the hot, summer sun.

This album is one that I assume will be a favorite of my kids, if I ever have one. When they look up to you and your music catalog, this is the kind of album that will transcend time and pop genre. It's like breaking out your parents records and discovering what it was like to be growin up in the Oughts. It's a great time-capsule record and a definite stand-out among many of the records of the past 8 years. I feel like it's a necessity to own this album. It's at the same time complex as it is straight forward. It has some existential elements that are poignant. "All We Have is Now" is one of those moments. Live in the moment and revel in the past, but don't be worried for the future.




1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before & After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
8. Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home
9. Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape
10. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
11. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
12. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
13. Jeff Buckley - Grace
14. Warren Zevon
15. Black Mountain - In The Future
16. XTC - Skylarking
17. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
18. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
19. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple
20. The Clash - London Calling
21. Arcade Fire - Funeral
22. The Velvet Underground and Nico
23. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

Up next: Queen's Greatest Hits

Ok, That's kind of breaking the rules, but you'll hafta wait why this compilations has to be on this list.

There's always someone around you who will call

Knowing nothing about a band before you buy their music is sometimes an amazing thing. I did it many times, but this one was different. I always had heard about The Velvet Underground and how important to rock music they were. I knew Lou Reed already, so I knew that it had to be cooler than I ever would be. When I finally decided to dive in, I dove in head first into the amazing Peel Slowly and See boxed set of CD's. Five discs. The four studio albums in full with a large amount of bonus tracks, a lot of live cuts and some various mixes of the songs as well as a disc of the early demo of their eponymous debut, The Velvet Underground and Nico. It was truly the way to do it as VU is very cumbersome at first. Especially someone who never really listened to anything as radical as this his entire life up to this point. And so, there I was with five discs of very different and interesting pop music. What to do? Where to start? Start at the beginning. And what a way to go. The familiar voices of Nico, who I only knew from The Royal Tenenbaums and Lou Reed of "Walk on the Wild Side" and "Perfect Day" (which, btw is probably my most treasured 45... A Side Wild Side, B-Side Perfect Day? SO GOOD!) Anyway, the musical journey began.

This album was probably the first album that made me realize something... I didn't really have much talent songwriting wise at all. I was in a band for almost three years when I got this disc and it kind of made me realize that anything I tried to write was just poor songwriting. Not because the songs on this record are anything super brilliant, but it showed me that I, a white suburban middle class kid had no life experience with anything worth rocking about. Not in the least. It was at this point that I knew I could never write a song again, at least lyrically. I still tinker here and there with my drum machine, but that's about all I can do. The Velvets really struck a chord in me that I wasn't meant to make music, but maybe write and talk about it nonstop. So that's what I did. I decided that I still enjoyed performing, but the thrill was really in the listening and appreciating and sharing of music. This is what The Velvet Underground and Nico did to me. It made me appreciate the art that music can be more than any other album had.

The thing that makes this album amazing is it's grit. Unlike anything else I can think of from 1967, it's just mind numbing that a band could see the future of so many sounds and styles at least ten or twenty years before these themes and sounds would come to more popularity. Without this, you don't get punk rock, noise rock, avant garde experimental music, glam rock or even grunge. To my mind, it was like finding the Garden of Eden of music. It was the life spring that so many things came from, and it was catchy as hell. The boogie piano behind the grungy guitars and tribal drums of "I'm Waiting For the Man" or the viola infused howl and drone of "Venus in Furs" are just two very stark and different songs that I had never heard the likes of before. I had heard hints of this in other styles of music, but not to this eclectic nature and sheer harrowing beauty. This is an album that bores a hole in your head and doesn't let you stop. It's not for everyone but it should be. It's like watching Citizen Cane. It's a daunting task, but it's so influential and brilliant that you have to at least appreciate if not enjoy it (I, for one, enjoy this album about 50 times more than I enjoy Citizen Cane.)

The Nico tracks on the album are the poppiest of the bunch, but her haunting German man voice is something so intense and beautiful on its own. "Femme Fatale" and "I'll Be Your Mirror" are two cutesy pop songs and "All Tomorrow's Parties" is a dirge-like pop music masterpiece. I wonder how different this album would be if Andy Warhol didn't force Nico into the fray. That's neither here nor there, really, but it is interesting to think about. The course of the album just goes into a wild frenzy by the end with "The Black Angel's Death Song" and "European Son." I never heard anything like it before and it wouldn't be until I dove head first into bands like Yo La Tengo or Sonic Youth that I would understand just how great this kind of noise rock could really be at times. It's music not fer everyday, but it's still something refreshing.

Needless to say, this was my first foray into more underground music. I stepped out of the slipstream of mainstream classic rock and found something that sounded futuristic, yet from the past. The other VU albums also are worthy of note. White Light/White Heat may be the coolest record ever made and definitely the first punk rock record. The Velvet Underground is so melancholy and filled to the brim with amazing songs that it gets shrouded by it's counterparts. Loaded is where the band finally let pop music have its way and they really should thank them for it as some of their best songs can be found here. But nothing makes the impact that The Velvet Underground and Nico does. It hits a home run of musical brilliance right into your ears.

It also lended me with the better of my two radio show names: Peel Slowly and See. This is the way I look at music. Peel back the things you know and you will see what else is under there.



1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before & After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
8. Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home
9. Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape
10. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
11. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
12. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
13. Jeff Buckley - Grace
14. Warren Zevon
15. Black Mountain - In The Future
16. XTC - Skylarking
17. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
18. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
19. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple
20. The Clash - London Calling
21. Arcade Fire - Funeral
22. The Velvet Underground and Nico

Up Next: The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

We’re just a million little god’s causin rain storms turnin’ every good thing to rust

I feel like every self respected music lover will go through a heavy phase of listening to Funeral by the Arcade Fire nonstop. It's just something I feel is unavoidable at this point. When I first heard of this band while spinning records during the Peel Slowly and See phase of my college radio career, I thought it sounded like a band I could never like. I never heard them, just heard of them. Random people I knew loved them and knowing the kind of music they liked, it was strange so I had some pre-decided idea of what this Arcade Fire sounded like. Given this prejudgement, I thought I'd never listen to the band. A friend who had his radio show before me liked them and burnt me the album along with the Mars Volta record of the time on a data disc. I quickly listened to Frances the Mute and enjoyed certain tracks and others thought were mush. The CD with this album on it slipped into my collection and took a few months to resurface. At this point, I still had no idea who or what the Arcade Fire sounded like. I figured what the hell, let's put on this Arcade Fire and hear what they are all about. Things changed forever.

Needless to say upon first listen I was hooked. Something so urgent about the record. It demanded to be listened to constantly. It had grandiose pop leanings and harsh, passionate vocals. It was beautiful and raw at the same time. It was polished and gritty. It had this strange enrapturing flavor to it that just stuck with me for months. Nothing but Arcade Fire to listen to. And nothing else seemed to matter. When I discussed this with other people I knew who enjoyed the album, they agreed 100% that it just had that effect on them. It's a maelstrom f pop music that sucks you in and begs you to stay. It's a beggar you enjoy giving your time to. Something about this record overtook me. It took me at the very end of my college career and into a relationship that went nowhere fast, but was a flash in the pan. It was the post graduate suck zone, but it was filled with beautiful music. It was an album to match the bitterness inside but the beauty outside of the world. I guess it really hit home the duality of man idea. Lord knows post-graduate life has been a duality of man fest.

It's a borderline concept album and as this list shows, I'm a sucker for concepts. I have yet to bring the concept into an idea, but the recurring title of Neighborhoods and such leads me to believe there is something going on underneath it all. The sumptuous nature of the record, the overwhelming feeling of loss yet the idea of moving on down the road after such a loss. "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" is just about as epic of an opening track as you are ever going to hear. The anthem of "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" is jsut as effecting, yet in a less grandiose and more harsh and rock infused way. It's the kind of pounding drums and harrowing guitars that get under your skin and get you moving. "Crown of Love" is a ballad for the ages and one of the new millennium's finest works of brilliant musicianship and theatrics. It's half opera and half disco epic. It's the kind of song that you hear it once and you need to hear it again because you were too busy getting caught up in the moment that it sweeps you off your feet. You miss it because that tear wells up in the side of your eye and you are too strong to wipe it away. The dance outro helps get that pesky tear rolling. "Wake Up" is about as good as it gets. The chanting chorus, the rollicking guitar riff that doesn't really change and the strings welling up near the songs midsection just sweep you off your feet. It's basically the song that defined the moment in time that I couldn't stop listening to it. "I guess we'll just have to adjust" was the kind of advice I needed to get over the fact that life was totally different now.


Funeral may just be the best album of the last 8 years of the 2000's. It's just nothing but enrapturing music. It's something ahead of it's time but rooted in the classic baroque pop of the 60's and of ages past with it's accordians and string arrangements. I could see people in France in the 1700's enjoying this music. I can see hippies dancing to this. I can see sadsacks in the post 911 age getting a great deal of hope from it's message of redemption in a time of loss. I can see a loser like myself in his post graduate life trying to figure out what the fuck he needs to do with the rest of his life in order to get some sort of happiness or enjoyment from the world. Sometimes music has this power to transcend the murk and mire of the real world. Arcade Fire got this right and gave myself and probably many others happiness in sharing their emotional landscape and ideas of life and love through beautiful, meaningful music. Maybe I think way into this album, but even if I didn't I couldn't deny it's utter magnificent beauty.

I had to add this video with Bowie joining Arcade Fire. it's just too good.




1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before & After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
8. Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home
9. Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape
10. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
11. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
12. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
13. Jeff Buckley - Grace
14. Warren Zevon
15. Black Mountain - In The Future
16. XTC - Skylarking
17. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
18. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
19. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple
20. The Clash - London Calling
21. Arcade Fire - Funeral

Up Next: The Velvet Underground and Nico

But surely your time will come, as in Heaven, as in Hell

I never could say that I was a punk rocker. Never. But something about The Clash was just too good. It was beyond punk rock. It's beyond anything, really. The Clash is almost a genre in itself. In grade school, I had a two disc set I got from BMG called The Story of the Clash. It was a great starter set to an artist. When I was younger, Greatest Hits were great ways to get into artists. I know now that albums are more important, but when you are 12 years old, you don't think that for older artists. You just want all the songs that you know and you want to listen to them non-stop. It wasn't until High School that I decided to get fully into The Clash and the first album of theirs I got was, as anyone would start with, London Calling. I bought it the same day that the Weezer Green Album came out, which of course was something I had been waiting for and was wholly disappointed in. I jumped straight to London Calling which I knew a decent amount of songs from already due to The Story of the Clash. Needless to say, it didn't take long for me to become completely addicted to that album with it taking over my sophomore year of high school as the most important record to date.

Something about The Clash really hits home for me. Every song on London Calling is great in it's own right. From the classic standards to the kooky tracks, it's got a flavor all it's own. Two LP's of phenomenal music. But something always struck me ass odd growing up and listening to The Clash. They are considered punk rock, but everything else out there that is punk rock isn't as good as this. This is more than just some punks slaying fast on the strings and screaming anger and disillusionment into the microphone. This mixed sounds from around the world into the punk formula and made it a far better genre of music. I never became a punk rocker like many youths do, but I listened to a shit ton of The Clash. Maybe that makes me a fake, but I feel more like a fan of anything that is purely rock.

"London Calling" is by far The Clash's best track, no matter what anyone says. It's ferocious, it's got a sweet ass bass line and it's probably the most punk rock song on the album. After that, we get a cover of "Brand New Cadillac" which is a sped up blues rocker. "Rudie Can't Fail" is ska brilliance and a fun song to dance to. The brooding of "Guns of Brixton" is among one of my favorite songs of all time. It's gloomy and dark and harrowing and an amazing song to listen to. Some of the more accessible songs like "Clampdown" and "Train in Vain" are radio friendly fun but still classic and singular in their variety compared to every other song on this album. I've always loved the pop, yet highly poetic "Spanish Bombs." It's hard to pick apart such a perfect album.

What The Clash had done to me as a youth was to give me yet another one of musics most important bands and give a different side of what rock and roll could be. Bands like The Clash are few and far between. Up to this point, they were just another British punk rock group. Then, inspired by whatever muses whispered into their ears, they came out with something totally different and awe inspiring without changing who The Clash was. I guess a lot of bands go through this, but being a music lover it's an amazing thing to see happen. I may not have been alive in 1980, but this music still makes me feel apart of that time somehow.

1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before & After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
8. Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home
9. Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape
10. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
11. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
12. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
13. Jeff Buckley - Grace
14. Warren Zevon
15. Black Mountain - In The Future
16. XTC - Skylarking
17. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
18. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
19. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple
20. The Clash - London Calling

Up Next: Arcade Fire's Funeral

If you should die before me ask if you can bring a friend

It wouldn't be proper for me to make this list and NOT include the first record I ever bought on my own. It was the first time I decided to use whatever allowance I was getting back in 1994 was deserved of a record. Being 11 years old, I guess this was kind of big. What would I buy first? Would it be The Offspring's Smash? Not yet. Would it be Weezer? That was second. Would it be Soundgarden's seminole Superunknown? Wrong grunge band. No, first was my old favorite band of all times sophomore anti-slump. Stone Temple Pilots' Purple. The album is beyond what I knew then what grunge was and still kind of stands above the rest of what grunge really is. It's not quite Alice in Chains or Nirvana or Soundgarden or even Pearl Jam. Some songs sound like these bands. But there is another layer to the album cuts that stood out to me and that was the bands classic/glam rock leanings on certain tracks. As a young kid, my favorite song was "Interstate Love Song" and if anything, this track reminded me of bands that my parents listened to growing up and allowed me to move out on my own and figure out what music I liked that wasn't my parents. I know I mentioned this with Beck and Odelay, but that was simultaneous to this one for the most part. But Odelay wasn't until 1996 making Purple the first album I ever owned. I still have the original CD and the cover art is on a sweet collage of CD covers I made.

As far as being a young buck liking bands, I was like any young kid and I listened to a lot of alt rock radio. WDRE and Y100 were my youth. These stations played everything from the dance music that was more popular on the Top 40 to bands like the Lemonheads or STP. It was kind of what I imagined old AM radio being only a little less off the charts amazing. There was plenty of random bands like Veruca Salt and Dishwalla to tread through (although I loved both of those band's respective hits.) To show you the sheer gravity of 1994 and it's immense amunt of amazing albums and tracks, here is a quicky list:
Beck - Loser - Mellow Gold
Beastie Boys - Sabatoge - Ill Communication
Green Day - Dookie - Longview
Weezer - Buddy Holly
Soundgarden - Superunknown - Black Hole Sun
The Cranberries - No Need to Argue - Zombie
Snoop Dog - What's My Name? - Doggystyle
En Vouge W/ Salt N Peppa - Whatta Man - Runaway Love
Nas - N.Y. State of Mind - Illimatic
Gin Blossoms - Found Out About You - New Miserable Experience
Nine Inch Nails - Closer - The Downward Spiral

That's just a smattering of awesomeness. But for me, it didn't get any better than Purple.

I can't really say why this was the one that had to be first. But I'm ever glad it was. To make things clear, I feel like STP has never gotten the kudos they deserve. This album did go 6x Platinum which I guess is kudos enough, but how come no one gives them props, yet everyone talks about PJ and Nirvana? I could put Purple song for song against any album by other grunge bands and these songs hold up better and have just as much amazing rock fervor as any. The A.V. Club over at The Onion wrote an amazing blog about how STP gets the shaft and now, with their current US Tour and maybe, God Willing, a new album and maybe a rehashing of the greatness that this band actually has in their catalog.

Take a song like "Silvergun Superman." It's an epic song that sprawls and reels with rock excess yet brilliant songwriting and musicianship that never ceases to amaze. It wasn't a radio hit, but it's a track that is just as good as "Interstate Love Song" or "Vasoline." The real masterpiece of the album was a big hit and that is "Big Empty." One of the bluesiest songs of the 90's, it's an amazing track in all it's aspects. It's even more cream inducing live, which thanks to this reunion tour I was lucky enough to see. "Meatplow" is an amazing first track and sets the tone for the rest of the record. Although this album doesn't have some of the jazzier songs that made the rest of the STP's future albums have a bit more depth, it still had a much bluesier influenced greatness to hold it's own and define the major sound of STP. That of a rock band that had a blues core buried under the intense drumming, fast paced and fuzzy guitars and funky bass lines.

Not many bands that I loved as a youngster have stayed with me this 14 years latter. One thing is for shit sure though. The first record I ever loved is still one of my all time favorite records. It's also one of the most important records on this list as it defined myself as an independent music lover (not indie but one who decides for himself what music rulez.) Rather than angsty grunge, STP was bluesy grunge. It was Grunge with deep seeded roots in the greatness of the delta blues but turned up to 11. The song "Kitchen Wares and Candy Bars" is a perfect example of this hence the selection of this track for the video portion here. I still like to think I was an awesome 11 year old for choosing Purple as the first album worth my hard earned lawn mowing money.

Oh and side note... doesn't the bass player look like Justin Theroux??



1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before & After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
8. Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home
9. Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape
10. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
11. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
12. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
13. Jeff Buckley - Grace
14. Warren Zevon
15. Black Mountain - In The Future
16. XTC - Skylarking
17. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
18. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
19. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple

Up Next: The Clash's London Calling

And I'm seeing the light in a station bar and travelling far in sin

The highlight of my young adult life was a moment during the summer of 2004. It was a Zen moment. I was standing in my Dad's hometown on a tiny island in the middle of the Aegean sea. I was standing in this town called Nisyros and the power went off. All of a sudden, the sky opened up even more than it already was and I was awash in the beauty of the night sky in total darkness on a little pebble in the middle of the sea. It was breathtaking and life changing. Something so simple and beautiful really affected me. This is the way I feel about Nick Drake's Pink Moon. Not only was it one of two CD's I had on this trip (more on that later) but it is simplistic beauty. Just Drake, his acoustic guitar and his poetic words. It's a true gem of a record and the best companion piece for a spiritual and physical journey. The haunting beauty of the recrod perfectly set the mood for the perfect trip abroad.


Going to the Motherland for the second was quite an experience and it was definitely enhanced by the music I had on the trip. Sadly, I lost a large chunck of my music library to a stupid airplane mishap. Some lucky sap in Frankfurt is listening to my CD's. I was screwed. I had only one cd with me and it was actually Neil Young's Decade Disc One, which is truly awesome and would make this list too if it wasn't a compilation. Anyway, I was determined to listen to more than just good Ol' Neil. I went to the airport store and sifted through a bunch of CD's to see what I should get to add in addition to the Neil disc and decided on Pink Moon. I had the album somewhere burnt but I figured I'd just go ahead and buy it. At first I was kind of pissed that the album was so short. I then realized that it was so perfect that I had no problem putting it on repeat. It also was the companion album to my current favorite book of all time which I read three times on this trip, Slaughterhouse 5. Random, yes, but it seemed to be just what I needed to listen to whilst laying on gorgeous beaches and soaking in the comforts of the Greek Islands.

Pink Moon also has a strange history of how I heard of Nick Drake. Some of you may remember this:




I hate that my first impression was of a commercial, but sometimes that's the way you learn about music. I then heard other Nick Drake songs in movies and became curious. Pink Moon was the first record I owned of his and it's quite a pretty album. The titular track is hauntingly beautiful with it's amazingly timed piano addition near the middle of the track. Songs like "Place to Be" and "Which Will" are mystical and metaphysical. The songs just float in the air above the ether and relax you and bring a lyrical beauty that is simple and perfect. "Things Behind the Sun" was a revelation of songcrafting with it's very intersting verse structure and moody chord progression. It has easily become one of my ten essential desert island tracks. "Parasite" would come in a close second as it is also a fantastical track.

This album is the perfect reflection record. 2004 was a time of great change in my life. I think it was the first year I started to realize that I was growing up. Although that didn't stop me from having a debaucherous year at the Sexional and Junior Year of college, I still felt like I was reflecting on ideas that were above what my immature mind had up to that point. Certain people in my life became more important than ever and others helped shaped the young adult I am now. Nick Drake's Pink Moon is that contemplative reflection of getting old and worrying about love and life. It's an album to pop on when you need to pass out and enjoy a good rest. The music is very stripped down compared to many of the records on this here list, but that said it's just as important if not more so because of that. Truly beautiful music.




1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before & After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
8. Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home
9. Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape
10. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
11. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
12. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
13. Jeff Buckley - Grace
14. Warren Zevon
15. Black Mountain - In The Future
16. XTC - Skylarking
17. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
18. Nick Drake - Pink Moon

Up Next: Stone Temple Pilots' Purple

If I could settle down, then I would settle down

I had mentioned two albums I discovered while working that dead end job at Wow Video would make this list. The first was Television's Marquee Moon and the next one was harder to pinpoint which album. Really the credit should go to a DVD and not an album, but I must pick a record out of the five that I engulfed that first summer working at Wow. Before I go into the specifics of that record, I must make brief mention of the DVD. Slow Century, a two disc set of a band called Pavement's music videos, live concerts and a documentary was something that was played regularly throughout the working days in the summer of '02. As I like to claim, I like a lot of music of th 90s and not having heard anything about this band Pavement, I am super greatful that my first exposure to Malkmus, Spiral Stairs, Ibold and crew was this amazing collection of really bad, yet perfect music videos for a band of slackers. Genius slackers, but slackers nonetheless. When deciding which album I wanted to represent, I had to pick the one that probably hit me the most through this DVD and that is their seminole record, Crooked Rain Crooked Rain. Nothing but goodness attached to it.

The videos collected on the DVD were hilarious. I had never heard the songs and it was cool ot be exposed to a band by their music videos. Especially a band that seemed to have no care for making these videos. Imagine seeing and hearing this as your first exposure of an amazing band:


Being the fan of silly things and great 90s music, it was like a treasure trove finding out about Pavement in this manner. I immediately bought their albums and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain may have been the first that really clicked. Overall, the album is their most accessible. Songs like "Range Life" and "Cut Your Hair" are such perfect examples of what slacker life in the 90s was all about. I missed that culture by about 5 years as I was just a youngin' when this record came out, but listening to it ten years after the fact, I could see how it was such a perfect example of what I call "The Pete & Pete Culture." It really feels like suburban life wrapped in melody sometimes listening to this album and as a young man growing up in Suburbia, I totally feel where the sentiment behind these songs are comin' from. Beyond the songs that had videos for them on the Slow Century DVD, Crooked Rain boasts some of the best Pavement songs in their catalog. "Stop Breathin' " is just one of those gems that was tucked away on their. The amazingly strange arpeggio guitar structure that builds into one of my favorite song outros of all time. "Unfair" and "Elevate Me Later" are as good as any of the singles from the record and could easily be up there on my list of personal favorite Pavement tracks.

I still feel this entry should be sent to either the Slow Century DVD or maybe a smattering of all of Pavement's five albums. But it's the nature of the beast. Crooked Rain also stands as one of the albums that was in constant rotation at the infamous Sexional. I finally was able to find the album on vinyl and it was a constant rotation between that and many other records, but this was almost always a next day after party clean-up album. That and O.J. with E.J. Regardless, many a Saturday morning at a soul sucking job would not have been enjoyable without the slacker pop sounds of Pavement.



1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before & After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
8. Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home
9. Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape
10. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
11. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
12. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
13. Jeff Buckley - Grace
14. Warren Zevon
15. Black Mountain - In The Future
16. XTC - Skylarking
17. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Up Next: Nick Drake's Pink Moon

Please don't pull me out, this is how I would want to go

Growing up with awesome parents who loved awesome music proved quite impressionable on this young mans mind. One of these loves was born out of a single song entitled "Dear God." This is surprising enough is that my mother, who loved this track, is curious as she is a person who believes very much in her Catholic religion. Such an exuberant and opinionated song is not one to be written off because of what it says. This shows that sometimes art and opinion can be blended into something that anyone can understand. The album that "Dear God" is found on was discovered later in life for me. XTC's Skylarking became the soundtrack for my first year in college, as did many other XTC records. This one stood out and still does as a beacon of amazing pop music goodness and brilliant song craft.

My freshman year at La Salle University was a very strange one at that. I was torn on whether I enjoyed it or no. I commuted and felt very adrift in the ways of friendship and connection to my new school. It was a strange and polarizing feeling as college was far more intriguing and fit to my sensibilities than high school could ever want to be. Somehow, Skylarking was the perfect musical replication of this life changing stage that many of us go through. The manic-depressive structure of the record kind of paralleled the thoughts and feelings that engulfed my weekly activities. Going through campus soaking in the sights yet having to drive back home to a dead end job and to total isolation living at home. Getting involved in activities that connected me to the world of college yet being robbed of the social pipeline that living on campus can afford a young adult.

These themes aren't present on the album, but the music and the song styles change and flow just like this. The hopeful dreamscapes of "Summer's Cauldron" to "Grass" show the mythical grandiosity of college. The dream before it all starts. A carefree environment surrounded by romantic visions of some sort of adult life. As much as the pop music of "That's Really Super, Super Girl" sounds all fluffy and light, the lyrics have a tongue in cheek cynicism that could identify with the false visions of situations that one comes across in life. It may be one of the best songs that sound like something it isn't. Right up there with Elton John's "I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself" or The Who's "However Much I Booze." The real cynic comes out in the oppressively beautiful "1000 Umbrellas." It's the "Eleanor Rigby" of the 80's with a very stark and poetic view of misery. "Season Cycle" also shows the cynical views of religion and institutions in general, yet with more hopeful view of life when stating when it comes to getting to heaven, "I'm already there."

Beyond the musical themes present to show the ups and downs that were paralleled in my life at that time, it also was an albm that really sprawled a whole hell of a lot of genres. The mystical "Mermaid Smiled" and the jazzy "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" showed a band that could jump around from genre to genre yet make a coherent record. I find it interesting that this album is more notable in musical circles. I find XTC to be a band that is forgotten in general and for no justification in my personal opinion. One of the more interesting 80's bands that went through many stylistic changes throughout their recording career with Skylarking being the career highlight. It's music I can identify with and lyrics that just explode with poetic greatness.

It was kind of an addiction that I went through. I think every year I discover a band that I just can't get enough of and for the year 2002-03, it was XTC. I remember imposing my love of this band on many new friends I was making and I even incorporated a song into one of my Public Speaking speeches. It makes so much sense that this record would make the list then. Beyond many plays on The Lost Tracks and many more plays while passing out to sleep at night and having dreams and nightmares of my insecure life at the time, Skylarking was the perfect soundtrack for a moment in time.

Oh and this video is kind of dumb, like most of these, but I couldn't not put the song "Mermaid Smiled" as the sampling for this record. It's just so sumptuous.



1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before & After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
8. Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home
9. Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape
10. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
11. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
12. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
13. Jeff Buckley - Grace
14. Warren Zevon
15. Black Mountain - In The Future
16. XTC - Skylarking

Up Next: Pavement's Crooked Rain Crooked Rain

Demons may be hiding in our shadows

It's hard to believe that an album not even a year old is impacting this list. That being said, it's impossible for me to not include Black Mountain's undying influence on my love of music. Even if seems irresponsible to have something that's only 6 and a half months old on my list, oh well... that shows the gravity of it's importance. In The Future is this magnificent peice of rock music that really bridges the gap that I myself created. After grade school, I had virtually stopped listening to new music minus a few specific bands. This made my love for classic rock grow immensely, but I also missed out on a lot of good new music that was released from 1998 - 2002. In college, thanks to college radio, I listened to a lot of new music. Even though I have been out of college for two years, it's no surprise that Black Mountain is a contender for one of my all time favorite bands already. It's new music that sounds like classic music! Who could ask for anything more?

My discovery of Black Mountain was actually through their self titled record that came out in 2005. Last.fm is a website that has encompassed a lot of my love of music and has streamlined what I have been listening to a lot into nice little charts. It's semi-stalker oriented, which most online forums like it are, but there is something about documenting that kind of thing that really intrigues me. This list, itself, is documenting when I listened to what kinds of music at certain times over the past 25 years and so last.fm seems to be feeding into my own love of associating music and moments. This band can be directly attached to that whole mythos thanks to last.fm suggesting them to me. Even though it wasn't this album.

That being said, when I saw Black Mountain live, it was the songs on the new album that really hit me deep where you feel it. Right in the soul. The reverberations and the aura of the songs just washed over me. Maybe it was the bourbon I was drinking all night and not the music, but if anything, the bourbon was a conductant for the sweet rocking. I immediately anticipated the release of the new album which came early as I ordered it online on wax and received the digital download instantly. That instant goodness held me over until the next concert which was also amazing and not drowned in bourbon. Same vibrations soaked through my body, into my soul and exploaded into my cortex in a musical frenzy.

The first track I heard of the new record was "Stormy High" which bellows like a loud north storm and really just rocks all out in a way that you don't hear anymore. "Queens Will Play" and "Wucan" show that Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin can still sound relevant as long as their styles aren't played in a cliche manner. And here, they are not. The real astonishing track is "Tyrants." It's a prog rockin' blend of sweeping anti-government narrative, but not shoving ideals down your throat with anti-government cliches. it's more a face-kicking good tune that can be seen as political or just as a grandiose epic. At 8-minutes, it's easily one of the best structured and best listens of the past 8 years of the new millennium. Upon hearing this track live with it's mellotron goodness and it's epic harmonies, I was sold infinitely on a band that will be taken with my to the grave.

Hearing music that emulates your favorite bands without it sounding stale and crappy is breathtaking. Someone who loves old music yet wants to listen to new bands, I find that Black Mountain does everything I ever wanted right. In The Future is grandiose, hard rocking, beautiful and dreamy (especially on the drige-like "Night Walks") and is a companion to either playing Risk with friends or driving a long distance and needing some amazing rock music. Their live act on this past tour was impressive and an experience in itself. The expectation of what might go into a new album and several b-sides to this record show that, God Willing!- Black Mountain has staked a claim in the world of epic rocking that will hopefully continue and be a part of my life for the next installment of this series.

1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before & After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
8. Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home
9. Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape
10. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
11. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
12. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
13. Jeff Buckley - Grace
14. Warren Zevon
15. Black Mountain - In The Future

Next Up: XTC's Skylarking

Don't the trees look like crucified thieves?

If one musical artist has changed my life in any way, it would probably have to be Warren Zevon. I guess this is strange since he isn't my favorite recording artist of all time. He is easily in the top five or so. Anyway, there is something mystical and honest and amazing about Warren Zevon's songwriting abilities. His sarcasm is something I can relate to and his melancholy romantic side is definitely relatable too. He may be sarcastic and cynical, but he's a romantic at heart. There is no better album to show this duality than his amazingly genius self-titled record. Warren Zevon shows so many sides of his abilities and on his first real outing as a studio solo artist that it boggles my mind that it isn't more popularly known as a work of genius.




Zevon travelled in strange circles of friends in L.A. Strange, to me, because I kind of hate everyone that worked with him. Fleetwood Mac is #1 on my least favorite bands of all time list. The Eagles are #2 on that list. Jackson Browne is on the list of least favorite solo artists. Then why the Hell should I like Warren Zevon? Because the man knows how to write a song. As he once said himself, "I'm not a musician, I'm a poet." Although he can write a great piano line and a great melody, he is more known to do with the stroke of a pen or a type of his Smith Corona what any great musician can do with their instrument of choice.


All that aside, Zevon is more than just words that I can relate to. It also reminds me of my childhood. Even though Excitable Boy was more of a childhood favorite as my dad had a cassette tape of that, it was upon discovering Warren Zevon that everything clicked. It was the desperation and romanticism in songs like "Hasten Down the Wind" and "The French Inhaler" that really hit you in the heart strings and the cynical and self-depricating "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" that makes you laugh at yourself while still realizing that not everything is so great. We all have these dark undersides that we don't share with everyone. And Warren Zevon knows how to manipulate these moments and make them beautiful and haunting. The pinnacle track, "Desperadoes Under the Eaves" is where this comes to fruition. The melodic beauty of the reprisal of the main musical parts in "Frank and Jesse James" slowed down and orchestrated is just wonderful. The track shows a man desperate, drunk and hallucinating as his life seems to wallow. But the images of "crucified theives" and the "sun looking angry through the trees" just flow with such elegance and brilliance you can't help but be stuck in the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel with Warren. Even the peppier sounding songs are sad! "Mama Couldn't Be Persuaded" and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" are just as downtrodden as the rest of them, yet more fun to listen to with their rollicking musical performances.


I listened to this album a lot in the later years of high school on and it really just works beautifully with anyone who can relate to a cynical romantic. I guess what can be said about my personality is that I see a lot of Warren Zevon's words in myself. Maybe not all the drinking and drugs and such, but the trouble and desire elements. I cna equate Warren Zevon to Hal Hartley in a way here. Their ideas of adventure and romance are drizzled in the darker parallels of trouble and desire. And who in their right mind is suspect of falling into this pitfalls throughout their lives?




1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before & After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
8. Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home
9. Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape
10. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
11. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
12. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
13. Jeff Buckley - Grace
14. Warren Zevon

Up Next: Black Mountain - In the Future

And I couldn't awake from the nightmare that sucked me in and pulled me under

At one point, a friend of a friend had stated that Jeff Buckley's Grace was my favorite album of all time. And when he said this, it was akward because I had to tell him that I had never heard Jeff Buckley but only knew of the legend and what his album Grace looked like. This to me was strange taht someoen thought something was my personal favorite from my disposition. I immediately got a copy of Jeff Buckley's debut album and would mark the first time I ever bought a record just because someone thought I liked it. Maybe the last time too. Regardless of that, it was an almost religious experience that someone would have mistakenly tapped into the essence of my being through music. I don't recall who it was that mentioned this album to me, but I know it was sometime during my radio show days at La Salle. Probably freshman year. This seemed so strange that a random person would tap into everything I liked and found a package deal of music that was phenomenally breathtaking and refreshing. Thank you, that certain person.





Grace also acted like a crutch when I was down. I wrote a long winded blog about it ages ago and broke it down about it being a loose concept album about break-up and losing that emotional attachment to someone. Looking back, that might be kind of a stretch, but it just goes to show that music can touch people in different ways. It's not a break-up album like Beck's Sea Change, but it has very emotional songs about personal loss and torment and such. Grace was also the gateway to other artists. For example, Jeff's cover of Nina Simone's "Lilac Wine" is not only an amazing cover, but led to the discovery of Nina herself. Both versions are phenomenal and any album that can lead me to more greatness pays off big time. Thinking back to that time where I listened to Grace on repeat is kind of hard so dwelling on that here isn't going to happen. However, one thing is for sure, the album is fantastic.





"Mojo Pin" is one of those unique musical moments I've ever experienced. Much like "Talking Old Soldiers" put you right in that Old West bar, "Mojo Pin" puts you in the nightmare that the lyrics are describing. The swelling of the music, the hypnotic guitar and the screaming of the vocals at the end until you awake from that nightmare. "Grace" is as epic and amazing as it can get. A song for the ages. A song of dying, of being forgotten and loss. Some of Jeff's best guitar and vocal range. "Lover, You Should've Come Over" is probably one of the greatest love songs ever written. The emotions and lyricism in that song are so powerful and imaginative that I can't help but get a bit choked up when listening to it. "Dream Brother" and "So Real" are two stand-out favorites that just can't go unmentioned although, as stated, I don't want to dwell on this too much longer.

From not knowing a damn thing about Jeff Buckley, to being thought of as a Jeff Buckley fanatic to becoming one, it was a fast transition. It was one that also was bittersweet. Knowing that he only had one alum and one posthumus release and some live stuff is kind of sucky. I wonder what he would be recording now if he was still alive. Maybe he would suck now, who knows. It makes him more mysterious and makes his music more poignant knowing that it was a flash in the pan. But still, some part of me wants more. Ah well, I guess it means it's time to pop in Live at Sin-e and soak in the massive amounts of songs that he recorded for this live concert.






1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before & After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
8. Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home
9. Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape
10. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
11. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
12. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
13. Jeff Buckley - Grace

Up Next: Warren Zevon