"Emily" - Adam Green
"Rasputin" - Boiled in Lead
"Divine Hammer" - the Breeders
"Sing Out" - Cats Laughing
"Fly With the High" - Curve (I know, I know, but really.)
"Death of Glory" - the Clash
"Laugh, love, fuck" - the Coup
"Iron woman" - Devin Davis
"Right around the corner" - Detroit Cobras
"My best Friend" - Hello Saferide
"Thick as Thieves" - the Jam
"When I See That Girl Of Mine" - The Kinks
"The Laws Have Changed" - the New Pornographers
"I like a boy in uniform (school uniform)" - the Pipettes
"Don't Stop the Music" - Robyn
"Don't go away" - the Runaways
"0-60" - Sally Crewe and the Sudden Moves

And possibly the entire new TV on the Radio cd. I didn't even dare to think about Motown/Stax.

Jon, thanks!

Hi, folks. Long time, no post. Trial's finally over & I'm starting to dig out from all the other stuff that piled up. May even get some unpacking done with two long weekends coming up. Woo and hoo.

Just read through the backlog of posts & saw Tina's request for harmonica solos. I just sent "Mellow Down Easy" to Buffistarawk. It was the first Little Walter tune I heard & remains a favorite. The comp I heard it on is available at bargain prices. It's a great record, a steal at any price short of a Velvets' acetate. If I finally get my turntable up & running I can send more of it.

As for Christgau, don't start me to talkin'... (that's a little Sonny Boy Williamson reference, to continue the harmonica theme.) Seriously, no time to pontificate, which I'm sure will please at least some of you, but I wanted to post the links to the intros to seventies and eighties Consumer Guides. The essays include decade overviews as well as explanations of his criteria which I find interesting and useful. (The latter because he's pretty self-aware and -reflective. He addresses a lot of the misgivings he and others have about his enterprise, but doesn't let them stop him from getting on with the task.) I'd also like to note that 1970 was the big year for A+ records with 6, & that 5 of them are in the top 13 of his top 40 for the decade. Oddly, his top album from 1971, Miles Davis's Jack Johnson (he puts them in order in the book; they go in alphabetical order within the grade on the website) isn't on the list even though There's a Riot Goin' and Every Picture Tells a Story are. (I assume that since all of the Ray Charles compilation that was second or third on his 1971 list predates the seventies that's why it wasn't on the seventies' top 40.) Anyway, time for some Xmas shopping. I hope to be less of a stranger in the coming year.

Mr. Boucher!

don't start me to talkin' (that's a little Sonny Boy Williamson reference, to continue the harmonica theme.)

And a Dolls reference. Smooooth.

I'd also like to note that 1970 was the big year for A+ records

It really was a great year for music. '78 and '79 have more A records, but if I had to live with just one year I'd take '70 for the variety.

Strum Dudes Go Ape

Ooh, I'm on my Mom's computer right now, so I can't download Sleigh Ride, but the good thing about Buffistarawk is that the link doesn't go bad. :-)

We love the long lived links.

Fun article with Andy Partridge.

I think he speaks for us all here: “I love packaging! I’m a complete packaging slut!” he exclaims. “I love it all. I lay there with my legs in the air, saying, ‘Fill me with packaging!’ ”

Eeep! Stupid fucking engineer!

While he was in the studio last summer, an engineer accidentally blasted his ears “at full volume with the sound of a snare drum or two” — which caused severe tinnitus, or ringing in the ears.

Partridge says that the initial weeks after the incident — when he had a constant “screaming feedback sound in my head” — were the only time in his life he’s ever had suicidal thoughts. But he somehow “blundered” into the fact that sitting in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber could suppress tinnitus; daily treatments have reduced it to around 40 percent, although he’s unsure if further therapy will help. Plus, “to scrape the violin a little bit more,” as he puts it, Partridge “busted” the tendon in his left ring finger and couldn’t play guitar for six months.

What songs give you an unadulterated happy?

shrift, I answered this for you elsewhere as well, but wanted the chance to pimp this song to y'all, which is possibly my favorite song of the year: "I Hear the Bells" by Mike Doughty, which is just so simple and joyous and perfectly-crafted that I can't help busting out into a huge smile every time I hear it.

Mike Doughty's Haughty Melodic might be my record of the year, actually. (I know, it's a 2005 release, but I didn't pick it up until this summer.) Either that or Begin to Hope by Regina Spektor, but that one starts to fizzle a bit around the 2/3 mark, whereas Haughty Melodic ends as well as it begins. I didn't know Doughty could be so unabashedly poppy, but oh, he does it marvelously.

I didn't know Doughty could be so unabashedly poppy, but oh, he does it marvelously.

When I was researching the bubblegum book, I had some great quotes by Doughty about bubblegum and the Spice Girls. He's well versed in the pure pop.

Mike Doughty

Former lead singer for Soul Coughing, yes?