Worst of 2008, in alphabetical order:

• Coldplay – If I Could Fly, Live on SNL
• Guns and Roses – Chinese Democracy
• Jack White, Alicia Keys – Quantum of Solace Theme “Another Way to Die”
• The Killers – Human, Live on SNL
• Kings of Leon – Sex On Fire, Live on SNL
• Metallica – Death Magnetic
• Smashing Pumpkins – 2008

Of course it goes without saying that “letdown” was a significant factor in the creation of this list. I’m reminded of my favorite Doug Stanhope quote, “Don’t ever say I died to soon.”

Any you want to add?

The Walkmen – Donde Esta La Playa

Via Comfort Music:

The Walkmen deliver a messy, atmospheric brand of indie rock on their 2008 release, You & Me. I found myself swept up in the “everything old is new again” feeling of the record, which had me imagining I was listening to distressed vinyl. It’s a strange kind of heartfelt, and it works. I’ve never heard their older records, but I’ll be looking for them.

I’m really digging their tune “Donde Esta La Playa.” Last FM requested it be disabled for embedding so click on the link above to watch der youtube.

On an unrelated note I upgraded to Wordpress 2.7 tonight. I went smoother than I remember last time and I’m having a blast with all the new features. Now I just have to make sure all my plug-ins are still working.

Lou Reed – Coney Island Baby

The other morning I awoke with the fading memory of a dream. It was a rather odd experience as I rarely remember any of my dreams at all any more. In this dream I was a teenager sitting in my favorite stairwell from high school and playing an acoustic guitar. It was “Old #3,” so called because it had been designated so in permanent marker across the label on the inside by the school. I always used #3. On my back was my old New York Giants jacket, the one with the off white faux leather sleeves. The last details of the closing scene included trying to once again to murder Stairway to Heaven and having the Economics teacher come out and tell me I was disturbing her class playing so loud.

So that started my day off thinking about a ratty classical guitar I played in guitar class some 15 years ago. It also dredged up an obscure memory of my guitar teacher, Bruce Yaw, telling me he’d played with Lou Reed on tour in Europe in the 70’s. Yes, that Lou Reed, from the Velvet Underground. I think I was mangling the chord progression to Sweat Jane–I believe that was the 1969: The Velvet Underground Live version that was en vogue due to the Cowboy Junkies cover featured in Natural Born Killers–when he came over and casually mentioned it.

It was an impressive thing then. And now? Well, all the more. After remembering the conversation I decided to do what we denizens of the Internets do…Google:

Artist: Everyman Band

The New York state-based fusion group the Everyman Band began their existence in the late ’70s as the backing band to Lou Reed. Featuring David Torn (guitars), Marty Fogel (saxophones), Bruce Yaw (bass), and Michael Suchorsky (drums), the group released their eponymous debut in 1982. Featuring Torn’s unique and heavily processed style of playing, the Everyman Band toured Europe to acclaim. They returned with the more experimental Without Warning in 1985. ~ Geoff Orens, All Music Guide

Lou Reed’s 1975 World Tour and the 76′-77′ “Rock and Roll Heart” Tour. Listed as playing acoustic bass and electric bass on the albums Coney Island Baby and Rock and Roll Heart. Something tells me I should look up Mr. Yaw. See what yarns he has to tell. That and remember my dreams more often.

As BDR reminds me, Motel de Moka is one of the best music blogs out there. The latest post, “Electronica 2008. The Age of Grand Unraveling,” is pure sonic pleasure. It brings back the days of burning the night away in my favorite clubs in Germany, MACH>1 in Nuremberg and the Airport in Wurzburg.

Growing up my musical influences were the Salt Creek Show, Willie Nelson/Johnny Cash, and Sergei Prokofiev. As I grew older and reached what is now called the “tween” age I started listening to the local college station and was subsumed in a deluge of new influences, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, The Pixies, Nirvana, Jane’s Addiction, Dinosaur Jr. and so on and so on. And so I read the latest by our dear Captain Capitulation a bit wincingly:

I want to give you the ethical paradox at the heart of disco. Disco culture was, in my view, just mindlessly disgusting. Remember Studio 54? Idiot snobbery of the rope line, combined with an inversion of all values: vice as virtue, promiscuity as love, decadence as redemption, cocaine as enlightenment. This shit ate people alive, and by the time it did, they richly deserved it. Disco was a mirror of a disillusioned or actually nihilistic consumerism, and like I said vis-a-vis the funk, hedonism hurts. On the other hand, the songs listed below are made with consummate, meticulous craft. You can’t be a completely brainless buggerer and make records like Giorgio Moroder or Nile Rogers. Someone spent weeks in the studio getting every tiny sound exactly right. They positively shimmer with devoted making, which is actually the heart of their glamour. At the center of all this mindless sin, there is a Shaker ethic of devoted making.

Every point made about disco could easily be applied to Rock & Roll and all it’s derivatives. I’m starting to understand his criticisms of “space oddity” by David Bowie, “. . . it’s hard not to notice the utter gutlessness of the melody, the meaningless claptrap of the words.” The song is hardly gutless by the standards of the time, and Bowie’s metaphor for the detachment–drug induced or otherwise–one can feel from the rest of the world can hardly be characterized as meaningless, unless you yourself…

Anyways, I consider the House/Techno/Trance I listened to heavily from 99′ thru 03′ as much a direct descendant of Disco as Rock & Roll is of Country/Rhythm and blues, which I’m sure was looked on by it’s predecessors as “unnatural: artificially-produced frankenstein music, a disgusting simulation of music as a sheer consumer object.” You know, Elvis shaking his hips to misceginated gospel, rockabilly, and all that. I listened to that music, I danced in the clubs, I had the time of my life. The whole point was once you got out on the dance floor all the nihilistic consumerism and shitty meaninglessness of life was pounded away with every beat. The faceless DJ spinning anonymous tunes had none of the ego of a frontman like Scott Weiland or David Lee Roth, both who better embody the above critque of Disco than any of the artists at the eye of the storm of the culture around them in the 70’s.

Ya, we don’t have a name yet. And the singer didn’t show up for rehearsal. Which is good in a way, because someone stole our PA, mixer, and speakers, along with the mic and mic stand…so. Ya. But we finally got the video working without swamping the mic on the camcorder. Tomorrow I’m off to my Mecca, the House of Guitars. I need a noise gate and a delay pedal. Maybe we should call ourselves the Dirt Merchants…

1. Pink Floyd – Us and Them (R.I.P. Richard Wright)
2. The Sutras – Ballrooms on Mars
3. Metallica – Blackened
4. Conor Oberst – Cape Canaveral
5. Helmet – Wilma’s Rainbow
6. The Rolling Stones – Dead Flowers
7. Donna The Buffalo – Positive Friction
8. Mazzy Star – She’s My Babe
9. Pantera – Cemetery Gates
10. Toots & the Maytals – Pressure Drop
11. Lemonheads – My Drug Buddy
12. Led Zeppelin – Bron-Yr-Aur
13. AC/DC – Have A Drink On Me
14. White Stripes – Rag and Bone
15. Janis Joplin – Turtle Blues
16. The Cure – Fascination Street
17. Dinosaur JR – Outta Hand
18. Nirvana – Negative Creep
19. Grateful Dead – Sugaree
20. John Brown’s Body – 33RPM
21. Sublime – Bad Fish
22. Placebo – Pure Morning
23. Nada Surf – Blonde on Blonde
24. Johnny Cash – Cocaine Blues
25. Silverchair – Slave

Go forth, and pass it on…Agi, Culture Ghost, TAFKA PB, NavySwan, and Lew.

Already got the first part down…

A tip of the hat to David, my rhythm guitarist, and soon to be featured guest posting guy.