Just wanted to get a post up to see if the blog still worked. We are working on gathering out best of the year lists which will be posted here by the first week of 2010. Looking forward to see what the taste makers have been up to this year.

I’ve been plagued by thoughts of what will happen to my music collection in 2008. I think I’ve lost my musical roadmap. I wonder if there is a musical GPS I can buy to get back on track? It used to be that I followed the historical branches and roots of rock n roll to guide my purchases and that has led me to collect a very healthy music library (first on lp then on cd) that can take you on a trip from the “Georgia Pot Lickers” to “Radiohead”. So where do I go from here? That is what is keeping my awake at night.

Do I….

• Buy another round of remaster / reissued / bonus tracked titles that I already own? That cul du sac of collecting is getting a bit old for me. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve purchased “My Aim Is True”. I will say that I’d be first in line for remastered Bruce Springsteen and Beatles catalogs since they now sound compressed and flat compared to current production standards. But I’m bored buying the same title again and again.
• Save all my money to buy the long rumored Neil Young rarities box set? Maybe as a protest I’ll not buy another release until Neil’s. I’ll withhold my rock n roll dollars and force the industry to release it as they see their revenues plunge by my bold stance.
• At what point do I stop buying physical cds and go straight download? If I go straight digital download then I’ve essentially turned my cd collection into a mere back ups. That seems to devalue their status as my collection.
• How many hard drives to you need to feel safe that your entire collection will not just disappear in a computer crash
• What is the music format of the future? Is the cd dead? Will we now either download music or buy it on a flash drive for loading on to our computers?

No wonder I can’t sleep at night. I think I’ll go have a nap.

2007 Music for old complaining guys who already own too many cds

1. Patty Griffin – Children Running Through
An engaging blend of soul, country, rock and folk. Combining all the facets of Griffin’s career into one defining statement. An early release that just hung around in my cd player.
2. Bruce Springsteen – Magic
A focused pop opus and possibly the best E-Street album since Tunnel of Love. A welcome return to what Springsteen does best.
3. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
A band coming into it’s own just two albums into their career. Challenging, mystifying but in the end a satisfying ride that needs to be heard start to finish.
4. Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
After diving into the deep end of experimental pop Wilco returns to a more organic country / folk sound and hits it out of the park.
5. Robert Plant | Allison Krauss – Raising Sand
On paper this should have been a complete mess. But under the guidance of T-Bone Burnett this is the year’s most pleasant surprise, a set of American gothic folk tunes that sound like some kind of “old weird country” classic rediscovered.
6. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings – 100 days, 100 nights
Sure Winehouse got the press but Sharon Jones has the chops. Backed by the band that propped up Winehouse, Jones cuts loose with the real deal. Accept no substitutes.
7. The White Stripes – Icky Thump
Back with what they do best blending the blues, country and garage rock into giant Jack White riffs that are best played at “11”.
8. Richard Thompson – Sweet Warrior
Thompson aims his superb guitar attack on the theme of war via the battleground of relationships and the battles in Iraq. The best anti-war album of the year.
9. The Red Button – She’s About To Cross My Mind
Pure pop bliss. Attention fans of brit pop, the Monkees and 60’s AM radio this is the release for you.
10. Grinderman – Grinderman
Pure noise bliss. Big, angry and taking no prisoners Nick Cave’s Grinderman is a love it or hate it affair. It’s the sound of not going quetly into the night. Rage on.

Near misses, cool cuts and ipod worthy releases:
11. Radiohead – In Rainbows
12. Ian Hunter – Shrunken Heads
13. Mavis Staples – We’ll Never Turn Back
14. The National – The Boxer
15. Bettye LaVette – The Scene of the Crime
16. Patti Scialfa – Play it as it Lays
17. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Is Is (EP)
18. Josh Rouse – Country Mouse City House
19. Rilo Kiley – Under the Blacklight
20. Amy Winehouse – Back to Black
21. Tori Amos – American Doll Posse
22. Lori McKenna – Unglamorous
23. Mary Gauthier – Between Daylight and Dark
24. Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals – Lifeline
25. Lily Allen – Alright, Still

Rear-view mirror release of the year:
Warren Zevon – Stand in the Fire
One of the greatest live albums of all time makes to CD and stands the test of time.

Gram Parsons with the Flying Burrito Brothers – Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969

Box Set
EmmyLou Harris – Songbird

Best single that radio didn’t give a shit about:
Bruce Springsteen – Radio Nowhere

Overrated all the way to the bank award
Feist – The Reminder – sure it’s a pleasant enough release and has that damn catchy 1-2-3-4 single but over all I don’t hear why the critics are falling all over this.

Blues – once again a slim year for the blues as the SRV clones continue to suck the life out of the genre.
Tab Benoit – Power of the Pontchartrain
Coco Montoya – Dirty Deal
Tommy Castro – Painkiller
Koko Taylor – Old School
Various: 10 Days Out: Blues From The Backroads

Questions for 2008:
CD or Digital download?
Digital download or CD?

They say if you put an infinite number of cranky old ex-record store guys in a room full of typewriters, they’ll eventually come up with a top ten list that includes a Bob Dylan album and at least one obscure release by some artist they found out about by reading the reviews in some snobby music magazine – even if the list has nothing to do with music! Well, we did that and once again proved the theory to be pretty much true. Then we put an infinite number of young Internet downloading junkies in a roomful of typewrites and they had no idea what an album was or what to do with a typewriter. But they did recognized Dylan from his iPod commercials.

 

Welcome to this years best of the year list