Hoboken Rock City - The Official Blog Of DJ Mike C.

DJ Mike C.'s Heartfelt Holiday Message (and December gigs)

2009-12-10T12:20:00.002-05:00

It's December, the holidays, that special time of year when...we're all running around like crazy people because we're all so busy. Here at DJMC HQ, we understand that. And we suggest you shake off your holiday angst by rocking with us.

As my 10th anniversary year as a DJ winds down, I do declare it's been a strange and eventful year. My seven-year residency at The Goldhawk ended when the bar closed down in July. As fall approached, the timing was perfect to start a new residency, and it's been a great first few months at Northern Soul. The place is cozy, and it's fun to watch the transformation as it becomes a local music destination spot. Thursdays now feature live music booked by Dave Entwistle, host of that former staple of The Goldhawk and now Maxwell's, The Peoples' Open Mic.Rob Nicholas, Dave Calamonari, and Karyn Kuhl--all Hoboken favorites--are playing at Northern Soul tonight, starting at 8:30.

I'll carry so many amazing memories of 2009: spinning big bashes for Broadway's "Rock Of Ages," DJing Lisa Loeb's wedding, producing and releasing an '80s compilation, writing liner notes for two Elvis Presley box sets, finally seeing Leonard Cohen and the Pixies, and being at Yankee Stadium when my beloved Evil Empire won the championship. It's actually hard to believe there are still three weeks left in this calendar year, not to mention this decade of the '00s, which we never did come up with a name for before it ended. Strange days indeed.

I appreciate all of you for your support. Seriously. It's humbling. Thank you. I'll keep slinging tunes as long as you all want to hear them. I will send one more reminder to local peeps about New Year's a few days prior. To anyone I don't get to see, have a fun holiday season, and let's rock in 2010!

-----

Beat Surrender
Friday nights at Northern Soul

DJ Mike C.
spins '80s '90s indie oldies punk glam
groovy rock & soul & more

10 p.m. till late

This Friday, December 11
Next Friday, December 18
Thursday, December 31 - New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve: champagne toast, party favors, and rockin' tunes to ring in the new. Advance tickets available at the bar. $15 each, group discounts available.

Northern Soul
557 First St.
Hoboken, U.S.A.
no cover, 21+

-----

Previously on Beat Surrender

We closed it with a tribute to Eric Woolfson, lead singer of The Alan Parsons Project, who died earlier in the week. It was a very solid Friday at Northern Soul, to the tune of...

10:00
Shake Appeal - IGGY & THE STOOGES
All's Quiet On The Eastern Front - RAMONES
Pumping (My Heart) - PATTI SMITH
Spanish Bombs - THE CLASH
Pretty Green - THE JAM
Pretty Girls - JOE JACKSON
6' 1" - LIZ PHAIR
Rudderless - LEMONHEADS
Holy War - MATTHEW SWEET
Fuckin' Up - NEIL YOUNG
Refugee - TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS
When My Baby's Beside Me - BIG STAR
Substitute - THE WHO
Good Enough - DODGY
Somethin' Hot - THE AFGHAN WHIGS
I.O.U. - THE REPLACEMENTS

11:00
Juicebox - THE STROKES
Hash Pipe - WEEZER
Uprising - MUSE
Lucid Dreams - FRANZ FERDINAND
Animal - MIIKE SNOW
Soft Shock - THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS
Malibu - HOLE
My Party - KINGS OF LEON
Wolf Like Me - TV ON THE RADIO
Where Did All The Love Go? - KASABIAN
No Cars Go - THE ARCADE FIRE
Spread Your Love - BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE BLUB
Morning Glory - OASIS
Death - WHITE LIES

12:00
Spaceman - THE KILLERS
That's Not My Name - THE TING TINGS
1901 - PHOENIX
North American Scum - LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
Enola Gay - ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK
Space Age Love Song - A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS
Friday I'm In Love - THE CURE
Atomic - BLONDIE
Message In A Bottle - THE POLICE
11th Dimension - JULIAN CASABLANCAS
Bulletproof - LA ROUX
Kids - MGMT
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - DAFT PUNK

1:00
DARE - GORILLAZ
Once In A Lifetime - TALKING HEADS
He's A Whore - CHEAP TRICK
Candy-O - THE CARS
Charmer - KINGS OF LEON
She Sells Sanctuary - THE CULT
Dominoes - THE BIG PINK
Night By Night - CHROMEO
The Fear - LILY ALLEN
Strangelove - DEPECHE MODE
Lips Like Sugar - ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN
Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before - THE SMITHS
A-Punk - VAMPIRE WEEKEND
Daylight - MATT & KIM
Lust For Life - GIRLS
Lust For Life - IGGY POP
Sympathy For The Devil - THE ROLLING STONES

2:00
Houses Of The Holy - LED ZEPPELIN
Hush - DEEP PURPLE
Magic Carpet Ride - STEPPENWOLF
A Girl Like You - EDWYN COLLINS
Wonderwall - OASIS
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - QUEEN
Do Ya - ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA
Da Doo Ron Ron - THE CRYSTALS
I Only Want To Be With You - DUSTY SPRINGFIELD
Happy Together - THE TURTLES
Don't Answer Me - THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT

The Goldhawk Final Night Set List

2009-08-05T12:30:00.004-04:00

They put a parking lot on a piece of land
Where the supermarket used to stand
Before that they put up a bowling alley
On the site that used to be the local palais
That's where the big bands used to come and play
My sister went there on a Saturday

Come dancing
All her boyfriends used to come and call
Why not come dancing
It's only natural

Most venues have a life cycle. For every Carnegie Hall or McSorley's, places that continue to thrive while barely changing after more than a century in business, countless more music halls and bars open up, do well for a while if they're lucky and they know what they're doing, and eventually close or evolve into something completely different.

The Goldhawk was both a bar and a live venue. After eight years in business, its reputation was firmly established on both counts. As a venue, it was home to the coziest, most inviting back room performance space and lounge that I've ever known, and I've been to a few. As a bar, it was Cheers to many regulars, with an eclectic crowd. Business was a little off during this time of economic downturn, as it has been at most places, but to most people who frequented the place and knew it well, it did not seem like The Goldhawk was done.

That's probably why the bar's closing hurts so much. When CBGB closed after more than thirty years, it was the end of an era, but the place was long past its prime. The club wisely prolonged its closing into a seemingly never-ending marketing event that both burnished its reputation and made them quite a bit of dough while they already had one foot out the door.

The Goldhawk Bar & Lounge did not at all seem to be on its last legs when it was announced on June 11 that it would close up shop in exactly thirty days. To the owners' credit, that month's notice was appreciated by all who were affected by the impending closing. Many of the key artists who had performed there often did farewell shows during the final weeks. The last several days were a blur: the weekly Tuesday open-mic night was jammed beyond capacity, the live bands had great crowds all week, and virtually every person I talked to there expressed a bit of sadness and disbelief that a place so vibrant and unique was about to disappear.

So the place lasted a hair more than eight years, and I was a resident DJ there for all but the first 10 months of that time. I'm proud to have been associated with such a special place for so long. I'm humbled that owners who really, really know their music entrusted me with the tunes for so many special occasions. Thank you Fran, Al, and Mike for the opportunity.

And I'm thankful I got to run the party at what may go down as the greatest event in the history of The Goldhawk, its closing night. Kerry, Butch, Justin, Andy, and especially Margaret kept the bar working smoothly all night long, despite an alcohol stock that was rapidly depleting. There was a fun but bittersweet vibe in the air. A little like New Year's Eve, except that the moment we were anxious about was not midnight, but last call.

The day they knocked down the palais
My sister stood and cried
The day they knocked down the palais
Part of my childhood died, just died

When last call came, I had time for two more songs. Of course I knew in advance what they would be. The Specials' "Enjoy Yourself" was one of the bar's unofficial theme songs from the start, and its advice to "Enjoy yourself--it's later than you think" was all too appropriate. To close it out, in the town of Frank Sinatra's birth, and the bar run by the singer of Skanatra, it was practically preordained that it had to end with "My Way."

There's more I want to write about the place, and hopefully soon I will have time to share some other memories. Keep a look out on my home page for future gigs at new and different venues. For now, enjoy the playlist. Goldhawk, we miss you already.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

9:00
Rock And Roll Music - THE BEATLES
You Only Live Once - THE STROKES
When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What's Still Around - THE POLICE
My Ever-Changing Moods - THE STYLE COUNCIL
Cruel To Be Kind - NICK LOWE
Oliver's Army - ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS
Don't Do Me Like That - TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS
Don't Look Back - THE REMAINS
Good Times Bad Times - LED ZEPPELIN
Summertime Blues - THE WHO
Vehicle - IDES OF MARCH
Rockin' In The Free World - NEIL YOUNG
Salute Your Solution - THE RACONTEURS
4 Songs & A Fight - THE SOUNDS
We Are All Made Of Stars - MOBY
Take Me, I'm Yours - SQUEEZE
Roll With It - OASIS
Radiation Vibe - FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE

10:00
Pop Song 89 - R.E.M.
There's No Other Way - BLUR
Atomic - BLONDIE
Heads Will Roll - THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS
Head On - PIXIES
Good Enough - DODGY
Just Got Lucky - JOBOXERS
Sole Salvation - THE ENGLISH BEAT
Sherry Darling - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
The Bulrushes - THE BONGOS
Black And White - THE dB'S
Starry Eyes - THE RECORDS
Mr. Brightside - THE KILLERS
The '59 Sound - THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM
Alex Chilton - THE REPLACEMENTS
Way Down Now - WORLD PARTY
Sympathy For The Devil - THE ROLLING STONES

11:00
I'm A Man - THE SPENCER DAVIS GROUP
Move On Up - CURTIS MAYFIELD
That Lady (Part 1 & 2) - THE ISLEY BROTHERS
Doing It To Death - JAMES BROWN
Don't Stop Till You Get Enough - MICHAEL JACKSON
1999 - PRINCE
Mercy - DUFFY
Girls & Boys - BLUR
Get Myself Into It - THE RAPTURE
Time To Pretend - MGMT
Daylight - MATT & KIM
Young Folks - PETER, BJORN & JOHN
Monday Morning - THE FUNDAMENTALS

12:00
Is It Any Wonder? - KEANE
Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night In The Week) - FRANK SINATRA
United States Of Whatever - LIAM LYNCH
Surrender - CHEAP TRICK
We're An American Band - GRAND FUNK RAILROAD
Roadrunner - MODERN LOVERS
Vacation - THE GO-GO'S
Sheena Is A Punk Rocker - RAMONES
This Charming Man - THE SMITHS
Inbetween Days - THE CURE
Don't You Want Me - THE HUMAN LEAGUE
Cruel Summer - BANANARAMA
The Look Of Love (Part 1) - ABC
DARE - GORILLAZ
The Seed (2.0) - THE ROOTS FEATURING CODY CHESNUTT
The Way You Move - OUTKAST (BIG BOI) FEATURING SLEEPY BROWN
Sir Duke - STEVIE WONDER
Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin) - SLY & THE FAMILY STONE

1:00
Twenty-Five Miles - EDWIN STARR
Love Child - SUPREMES
Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground) - THE JACKSONS
Low Rider - WAR
Give It To Me Baby - RICK JAMES
Let's Go - THE CARS
Your Love - THE OUTFIELD
Rock The Casbah - THE CLASH
Faith - GEORGE MICHAEL
Breakout - SWING OUT SISTER
Surfin' Bird - THE TRASHMEN
You Never Can Tell - CHUCK BERRY
Burning Love - ELVIS PRESLEY
Right Back Where We Started From - MAXINE NIGHTINGALE
More Today Than Yesterday - SPIRAL STARECASE
Car Wash - CHRISTINA AGUILERA & MISSY ELLIOTT
SexyBack - JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE

2:00
Changes - 2PAC
Regulate - WARREN G. FEATURING NATE DOGG
Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta - GETO BOYS
Superstition - STEVIE WONDER
Freedom 90 - GEORGE MICHAEL
* Matt Azzarto speech: "We raised the bar" *
Ooh La La - FACES
Baba O'Riley - THE WHO
Silly Love Songs - WINGS
Our House - MADNESS
Come Dancing - THE KINKS
Town Called Malice - THE JAM
Enjoy Yourself - THE SPECIALS
My Way - FRANK SINATRA

With A Little Help From My Friends: The 10th Anniversary Show

2009-05-19T11:43:00.002-04:00

It was ten years plus one day since my first-ever public DJ gig--I add the word "public" because, hey, I'd been playing DJ at home since around age four--and I wanted to make sure the music was great.

Even for a good DJ, this can be harder than it sounds. For all your good intentions, so many factors can derail your plans: if you don't get your usual crowd, or it's more crowded than expected, or less crowded than expected, or equipment doesn't cooperate, or...anything. Spinning for a crowd is completely different than on the radio or the net, of course. In most live situations, the worst thing a DJ can do is plan a full set and stubbornly stick to it. The best way to DJ for a crowd is to go in with a plan, but to be ready to chuck that plan, or at least large portions of it, as needed.

I DJ all over the place, but for the past seven years, my home base has been my a tremendous local bar in my neighborhood, The Goldhawk. I've DJed more than 500 gigs--maybe closer to 600--and this comfy two-room bar/lounge run by true music lovers has been home to probably more than 50 percent of them. Yet each night brings something new in terms of crowd, vibe, and surprises. Though no dance parties broke out on this last Friday before Memorial Day weekend, many of those in attendance seemed enthusiastic about my choices.

I started an hour early, at 9 p.m., since my first gig ten years ago had also been a 9:00 start. This gave me an extra hour to get my ya-yas out, and in that first hour I didn't play anything newer than 1999, to approximate an hour of what could have been a set I'd played a decade ago. In that first hour and throughout the night, I sprinkled in some of my favorite segues I've ever come up with (I'll leave you all to guess which ones) and as many songs and artists that were important to me as I could.

Even with an extra hour, there was a lot I wish I'd gotten to in the course of the night. Really wanted to play "Praise You" because it was the biggest song going around the time I started DJing; it woulda fit in around midnight when I was playing the likes of Stereo MC's and Deee-Lite, but I didn't want people walking in at the peak of the night to think that we were playing a mix tape from 1999. Meant to throw on "Buffalo Stance" because I remember it being a hit at my first gig. Wanted to play Elvis Presley but didn't. The list goes on.

New stuff was pretty well represented, with Phoenix, Metric, Matt & Kim, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, White Lies, and a fine new Green Day album--less than a day old!--all supplying great energy toward the middle of the evening. Love T. Rex, but wouldn't have predicted they'd be the only band I'd play twice this particular night--there was a "Jeepster" request after 1 a.m. and even though I'd already played "20th Century Boy" a couple hours earlier, there was no reason to say no. (Sticklers will note that I played both New Order and Joy Division as well, also hours apart.) Wish I played The Stooges, but at least I got to The Dictators and The Damned; those who remember my Neat Neat Neat nights at Manitoba's a few years ago can connect the dots there. Didn't get into a proper '60s/'70s soul set either; James Brown, Sly, Stevie, and The Supremes all shoulda been in there. Oh well. As Steven Wright said: "You can't have everything. Where would you put it?"

Why did I close with "With A Little Help From My Friends" by Joe Cocker? So many reasons. Because in ten years of slinging discs, I'm pretty sure I'd never played it before. Because it was written and originated by my favorite band of all time, and in some ways echoes the nearly two years early on in my career when I closed nearly every night with "Hey Jude." Because it was lyrically and thematically appropriate. Because it was performed by a group of high-school kids in some sort of show during evening rush hour at the Port Authority Bus Terminal the day before, and their performance was good enough to make me stop in my tracks and listen. Oh, and because it kicks ass.

So this is how my second decade of DJing began. Many set lists don't look as good on paper as they sounded in person, but I couldn't be happier with the way this one sounded and how it looks.

Thanks to all the bartenders, barbacks, doormen, managers, owners, promoters, and everyone else in the nightclub world for so much support over the years. And of course, special thanks to anyone who's ever called themselves a fan. Lots more to come, of course. Upcoming dates at both The Goldhawk and NYC's Motor City Bar will be announced soon. Check the home page for details as they become available.

9:00
I'd Love To Change The World - TEN YEARS AFTER
A Hard Day's Night - THE BEATLES
Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere - THE WHO
Local Girls - GRAHAM PARKER & THE RUMOUR
Girls Talk - DAVE EDMUNDS
All Of The Good Ones Are Taken - IAN HUNTER
Talk Of The Town - PRETENDERS
Regret - NEW ORDER
Awful - HOLE
The Emperor's New Clothes - SINEAD O'CONNOR
Ladyfingers - LUSCIOUS JACKSON
You Get What You Give - NEW RADICALS
A Girl Like You - EDWYN COLLINS
Babies - PULP
The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get - MORRISSEY
Becoming More Like Alfie - THE DIVINE COMEDY
I've Got A Flair - FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE

10:00
Better Things - THE KINKS
The Static Age - GREEN DAY
Them Kids - SAM ROBERTS
Every Summer (Remix) - U.S. ROYALTY
Island In The Sun - WEEZER
You Only Live Once - THE STROKES
Head On - PIXIES
Stay With Me - THE DICTATORS
Gates Of The West - THE CLASH
20th Century Boy - T. REX
Stay Positive - THE HOLD STEADY
The '59 Sound - THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM
Alex Chilton - THE REPLACEMENTS
Desire - U2
Cruel To Be Kind - NICK LOWE
Superman - R.E.M.
Use Somebody - KINGS OF LEON
Death - WHITE LIES

11:00
The Step And The Walk - THE DUKE SPIRIT
Lights Out - SANTOGOLD
I'm Shakin' - ROONEY
Vacation - THE GO-GO'S
Ever Fallen In Love? - THE BUZZCOCKS
Neat, Neat, Neat - THE DAMNED
Mirror In The Bathroom - THE ENGLISH BEAT
Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3 - IAN DURY & THE BLOCKHEADS
Heaven For The Weather - THE STREETS
Crying - TV ON THE RADIO
Girlfriend - PHOENIX
Daylight - MATT & KIM
Sugalumps - FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS
Time To Pretend - MGMT
Sick Muse - METRIC
Heads Will Roll - YEAH YEAH YEAHS
The Look Of Love (Part 1) - ABC
Friday I'm In Love - THE CURE

12:00
1999 - PRINCE
Get Myself Into It - THE RAPTURE
Groove Is In The Heart - DEEE-LITE
Step It Up - STEREO MC'S
Lucid Dreams - FRANZ FERDINAND
Beggin' (Pilooski Edit) - THE FOUR SEASONS
Groovy Train - THE FARM
Only Love Can Break Your Heart - SAINT ETIENNE
Ms. Jackson - OUTKAST
Heartless - KANYE WEST
The Seed (2.0) - THE ROOTS FEAT. CODY CHESNUTT
Paper Planes - M.I.A.

1:00
That's Not My Name - THE TING TINGS
Love Will Tear Us Apart - JOY DIVISION
Don't You Want Me - THE HUMAN LEAGUE
Somebody Told Me - THE KILLERS
Crimson And Clover - JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS
Unchained - VAN HALEN
I Wanna Rock - TWISTED SISTER
Highway To Hell - AC/DC
Sympathy For The Devil - THE ROLLING STONES
Jeepster - T. REX
The Jean Genie - DAVID BOWIE
Rockaway Beach - RAMONES
United States Of Whatever - LIAM LYNCH
Any Way You Want It - JOURNEY
Surrender - CHEAP TRICK
Somebody To Shove - SOUL ASYLUM
Girlfriend - MATTHEW SWEET
Your Love - THE OUTFIELD

2:00
Heat Of The Moment - ASIA
867-5309/Jenny - TOMMY TUTONE
Jessie's Girl - RICK SPRINGFIELD
Steal My Sunshine - LEN
Cruel Summer - BANANARAMA
Touch Me - THE DOORS
Daydream Believer - THE MONKEES
Spirit In The Night (Live 1975-85 version) - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND
With A Little Help From My Friends - JOE COCKER

10 Years Of Rock, 5 Big Nights!

2009-04-30T09:55:00.003-04:00

Hey, I'm celebrating my first ten years of DJing with five big nights of rock & roll!

The world-famous legend of DJ Mike C. started at an Irish pub in Hoboken on Friday, May 14, 1999. It was a seasonable spring night. iPods and YouTube didn't exist. Fatboy Slim and Moby were huge, and Len's "Steal My Sunshine" was poised to become the hit of the summer. The Yankees were reigning World Series champs and about to win two more in a row. These were simpler, better times.

The first song I played was The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night," and it went off without a hitch. But I didn't properly cue up the second song I wanted to play, The Kinks' "Till The End Of The Day," so I ended up with "You Really Got Me." First oops. The first request was "She's A Beauty" by The Tubes--an '80s MTV hit I've always dug, but which I didn't even have at the time. Second oops. Nothing terrible resulted, of course, but within the first three minutes I'd learned that, to be a great DJ, I'd always have to stay on my toes. I've lived, I've learned, and what can I say, I think I've rocked.

Ten years and more than 500 gigs later, the beat goes on. Thanks to everyone for your support during this first decade. If you've ever heard me spin, thank you for being there. Even if you never have, or haven't in a long time, it's gratifying to know so many people appreciate the rock & roll I provide for the community. Because, yes, I do this for the community.

In the past six months, I've DJed at the opening night cast party for the new hit Broadway musical "Rock Of Ages" (soon to be a major motion picture from New Line Cinema), singer/songwriter/reality TV star Lisa Loeb's wedding (as seen in People), and Lucky magazine's Lucky Shops event (as seen on Style Network). It's been a good year, and I'm gonna keep it going.

To mark the end of my first decade and the start of my second, there are no places I'd rather celebrate at than two of my favorite local bars. Please join me at one of these five cool nights in May. There's a big Thursday at NYC's Motor City Bar. And there are four fun weekend nights at my local, The Goldhawk in Hoboken--including a 10th Anniversary Show where, yes, we're gonna party like it's 1999. Don't you wanna go?

DJ Mike C.
10 Years Of Rock, 5 Big Nights!

NYC:

at Motor City Bar
127 Ludlow St.
between Delancey St. & Rivington St.

NEXT Thursday, May 7
10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Featuring bartender Julie Black!

NJ:

at The Goldhawk
936 Park Ave. at 10th St.
Hoboken, USA

THIS Saturday, May 2
Friday, May 8
Saturday, May 9
10 p.m. to close

and
DJ Mike C. - The 10th Anniversary Show!
Celebrating 10 Years Of DJ Mike C.
Friday, May 15
9 p.m. to close

Featuring the best bartenders in Hoboken!

All nights are no cover, 21+

Follow me, friend me...

"She's A Beauty" - THE TUBES
"Steal My Sunshine" - LEN

I Used To Rule The World: Mike C.'s Favorite Music Of 2008

2009-02-26T18:29:00.006-05:00

Top 10 Albums

1. COLDPLAY - Viva La Vida, Or Death And All His Friends (Capitol)

2. SANTOGOLD - Santogold (Downtown)

3. THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM - The '59 Sound (Side One Dummy)

4. THE ALUMINUM GROUP - Little Happyness (Minty Fresh)

5. TV ON THE RADIO - Dear Science (DGC/Interscope)

6. THE KILLERS - Day & Age (Island)

7. KINGS OF LEON - Only By The Night (RCA)

8. ESTELLE - Shine (Atlantic)

9. THE HOLD STEADY - Stay Positive (Vagrant)

10. FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS - Flight Of The Conchords (Sub Pop)

Top 10 Songs

1. THE KILLERS - Human (Island)

2. COLDPLAY - Viva La Vida (Capitol)

3. ESTELLE FEATURING KANYE WEST - American Boy (Atlantic)

4. THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM - The '59 Sound (Side One Dummy)

5. SANTOGOLD - L.E.S. Artistes (Downtown)

6. CHRIS BROWN - Forever (Jive)

7. NE-YO - Miss Independent (Def Jam)

8. DUFFY - Mercy (Mercury)

9. DAVID BYRNE & BRIAN ENO - Strange Overtones (Todo Mundo)

10. STUDENTS OF THE RON CLARK ACADEMY - You Can Vote However You Like (no label)

I know, I know. Coldplay. Freakin' Coldplay. Surely you think I've gone crazy, or worse, soft.

First off, I never bothered to acquire the band's third album X&Y and still don't have it. Second, I resisted Viva for most of the year. Didn't buy it until the special Prospekt's March version came out during the holiday buying season. I was indifferent to the title track at first, but over time in this historic election year, its resonance was unshakable.

U2 is a band I like as much as the next guy, but they never were among my favorites. So it's odd that this Eno-produced ersatz U2 would ring true to me. But in one of the most unpredictable and wild years of my life--professionally, politically, personally--it was this band, Coldplay, the band whose "Yellow" was the first song I ever possessed in MP3 form, that somehow crafted the best album I heard all year.

It must be noted that, as a result of vast changes in my life, I didn't hear as much new music in 2008 as I would have liked to. Didn't dig as deep as I usually do this past year; time and professional circumstances just didn't allow it. These lists are always fluid over time, anyway, so I'm less afraid of what I might have missed than I might have been in previous years, when I fretted a good deal more over whether a particular album merited, say, a placing at number seven or number eight.

I still maintain that every year is a good year for music. The more time that goes by, the more 2008 music I'll find that I missed during the 366 particular days that comprised the actual year. The future's so bright...

One other note. These lists are me with my "critic's hat" on. They're not much of a reflection on what I play when I DJ out at bars and clubs, and certainly not at private events. Sure, I've been playing The Gaslight Anthem like crazy for months, and some of the more Top 40ish material has gotten spins when warranted by the crowd on certain nights. But a playlist consisting of just these artists probably would sound like a train wreck. Hail hail rock and roll!

12 Artists I Wanna Play Tonight

2009-02-19T11:28:00.003-05:00

I still need to post my Yankee Stadium wrap-up (saving it for the start of this season)...my best of '08 list...and I haven't written about the great experience I had DJing at Lisa Loeb's wedding a couple weeks back...but I have a cool NYC gig tonight, so I'm adapting a Facebook meme (I know, I know) and posting this up.

So I've got me this big little rock & roll DJ gig tonight at Motor City Bar, one of the coolest bars in downtown NYC. And you know that's saying something, 'cause there are more than a few of those types of establishments around.

When you're DJing, you never know what any given night might bring. A safe bet for tonight, though, is a whole lotta rock and a whole lotta fun with a hint of Detroit edge. I certainly can't give away the playlist before it happens--especially because I don't work from a set playlist. But here, in no particular order, are 12 totally kick-ass artists who I wanna play--and who, odds are, I will play tonight.

1. Ramones
It begins and ends with them. Not the set list in any literal sense. And chronologically, obviously not. But no one really ever rocked more, or better. Gabba gabba hey.

2. Electric Six
As Chuck Klosterman said of their debut, "You will like this album if you like the notion of Van Halen more than you liked any of their actual albums." And they've only gotten better. Probably the most unique-sounding band of the last decade, and not in any highfalutin, pretentious way; they just rock. Bonus: from Detroit!

3. David Bowie
More than anyone, a rock & roll man for all seasons.

4. Devo
Punker than you might remember.

5. The Donnas
They started as Ramones wannabes, morphed into a female Kiss/Mötley Crüe kinda deal, and they do the best covers (Priest, Kiss, Billy Idol) in the known universe.

6. AC/DC
It's a rock night, so it's almost certain that Bon Scott will be in the house.

7. Little Richard
The only artist Bob Dylan thanked by name at his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is one of the architects of the genre, and his raucous recordings rock just as much now as they did 50+ years ago.

8. Thin Lizzy
As the brilliant Hamell On Trial quipped, "Tonight there's not gonna be a jailbreak SOMEWHERE in the town...it's gonna be at the JAIL!"

9. The Gaslight Anthem
Keeping alive an unforgettable fire lit by everyone from Miles Davis to Bruce Springsteen, while sounding like a more literate Soul Asylum, they made THE rock album of 2008. And they're from my college town of New Brunswick, N.J. to boot.

10. The Supremes
Of all the Motown groups of the '60s, no one's songs sound fresher, sharper--more swinging, more sexy--than these original divas.

11. The Raconteurs
With more than a little help from his friends, Detroit's Jack White has been reinventing himself on records that seem to give more--and rock more--every time you hear 'em.

12. The Stooges
A tip of the cap to the Detroit combo--and their recently deceased guitarist Ron Asheton--who took rock to a whole new level of scary and great.

DJ Mike C.
Tonight! Thursday, February 19
10 p.m. till late

at Motor City Bar
127 Ludlow St. (at Delancey St.)
NYC

F train to Delancey St.
no cover
21+
Rock!

Time Keeps On Slipping

2008-12-10T10:07:00.005-05:00

Years end a lot earlier than they used to. End-of-year retrospectives are such a marketable hook for a story that every media outlet, from the major networks to your friend's Twitter feed, wants to stake its claim to importance by declaring what was best this past year, thus proclaiming the still-breathing year to be dead.

At the risk of congratulating myself too heartily, I will continue my campaign to resist this trend. There are 21 days left in 2008, and they all count. Sure, when the topic is best albums and songs released during the year, it's possible to look at release schedules and see there almost everything that's seeing a 2008 release is already out. Hell, Chinese Democracy even has seen the light of day--an event so unlikely that it did manage to delay itself until after this country had first elected an African-American president. This is unlike the news media's abhorrent choosing of the year's most compelling news stories when the year has several weeks to go, a practice that really bit every news organization in the ass in 2004, when the deadly Indian Ocean earthquake struck on December 26. The stakes are lower when it comes to music, which makes it all the more ridiculous that we rush to stick a fork in the year when there's still plenty of time left on the clock.

It still pains me a little to turn in my top 10 albums and singles of the year to The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll while the year is still living and breathing. Ballots are due Christmas Eve. I get it; it takes a long time to compile the votes and create compelling features that make sense of them. All credit where credit is due for the hard work they do. It's just a shame that these decisions have to finalized in the midst of December madness, when everyone's scrambling to finish holiday plans and purchases, when the airwaves are dominated by Christmas music (which I love, in a measured way), and when the year is still living and breathing.

Per custom, my picks will appear here about a month into the new year. They probably won't be as detailed as my 2004 or even 2006 summaries, but last year's quick line listing was an anomaly. A lot did go down this year, and I don't just mean electorally--although, let's face it, that has to figure in the analysis. There's a lot to say, and I'll be saying it. Until then, I'll be sneaking in listens to Captain Sensible's "One Christmas Catalogue" between spins of albums and songs in the running for my top tens; I'll finish the lists (from numbers 11 on) in January.

There's plenty of year left. Get out and enjoy it.

When It Began

2008-08-28T10:14:00.006-04:00

It was a total bummer when news broke this week that Steve Foley died of an apparent accidental overdose on prescription drugs. He was 49.

The Replacements introduced me, sideways, if you will, to punk. The first time I saw The Replacements, they were opening up for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers at Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford. It was the summer of 1989, I'd just gotten my driver's license and I was on a major arena-concert jag. I was two years away from discovering the pleasures of small club shows (thank you, Fishbone at the Palladium), so I spent some special nights that summer seeing some of my classic rock idols at the two Meadowlands venues and the Garden State Arts Center. Petty didn't quite earn idol status, but I was a fan. The fact that the opener was The Replacements, about whom I'd read enough good stuff that I'd bought their new album Don't Tell A Soul, was a huge bonus.

So much for that; they sucked. Sure, it was cool to see them--I was 17, and it was cool to see anyone I liked live--but they were sloppy. This was their reputation, sand you just had to go with it. I did, although most of the rest of the audience was less than impressed. I was sufficiently sold on the band's 'tude and tunes to investigate further, buying the previous album Pleased To Meet Me a few months later. That was a couple days before New Year's, and I remember it was the last CD I bought during the '80s.

Pleased pleased me enough to that I officially considered myself a full-fledged fan. By early '91, I'd acquired their new one, All Shook Down, and when it was announced the band was coming to play a gig at the College Avenue Gym, just a five-minute walk from my dorm room, I dove into the back catalog to prepare. The show was on a Saturday night, and my 19th birthday to boot, and I couldn't have been more pumped.

The show was everything the arena appearance wasn't: generous, focused, reasonably tight. The set list was great, as were the ad libs. I recall a verse and chorus of "All Right Now" for no good reasonre. A friend of a friend remarked, "They were drunk, but they weren't that drunk," and it seemed like they'd struck the right balance. Still one of the best shows I've ever seen, and for sentimental reasons, in my many ways, my favorite ever.

Before that final Replacements tour started, founding drummer Chris Mars left the band. I'm glad I saw the 'Mats with Mars once, even if it was at that Petty performance. I became a fan--probably one of the biggest fans, in fact--of Chris Mars' subsequent solo work, sending one of the few fan letters I ever wrote to him after the release of his fine 1992 debut Horseshoes And Hand Grenades. He responded with a nice note scrawled on a small publicity pic. After four albums, Mars decided he was done with music and has concentrated on painting. Every once in a while, a postcard promoting one Chris' art shows will show up in my parents' mailbox.

At the Rutgers show, it was replacement Replacement Steve Foley keeping a solid beat behind the kit. It would be a lie to say the bespectacled Foley was a magnetic presence on stage. But for a band notoriously unable to keep itself together in a live setting, it was satisfying to watch them do just that. And anyone who's ever picked up a pair of sticks knows how crucial the drummer is to such an endeavor. The new guy seemed to fit in just fine.

The band played their last show ever a few months later in Chicago's Grant Park, and that was that. Foley was part of Tommy Stinson's solid but short-lived post-'Mats band Bash & Pop, but he was inexplicably not included when Stinson and Paul Westerberg recorded two new tracks for a compilation a couple years ago. It's especially odd in light of the fact that Mars, though on friendly terms and willing to participate, could and/or would not play drums, so session pro Josh Freese was used. Foley did keep busy with other musical projects post-Replacements, though Rolling Stone notes he also logged some time selling cars.

Bob Seger's wrong; sometimes rock & roll does forget. Here's one small voice noting for the record that there are those who will always remember.

The iPhone: One Month In

2008-08-24T14:37:00.002-04:00

My Razr was old. No, it wasn't just old, it was pathetic and slow. I'd managed to resist the BlackBerry all this time, but I knew I wanted and needed mobile email. Leaving Verizon, the only mobile provider I'd ever had, wasn't a proposition I looked forward to, but as an Apple loyalist, the writing was on the wall: my next phone had to be an iPhone.

Being first on your block is fine, as long as that oh-so-lofty status comes easily. (The Dead Kennedys said it best: give me convenience or give me death!) If it means camping out with a lawn chair and the complete works of J.K. Rowling to pass the time, don't you know that you can count me out. Plus, it was virtually guaranteed there would be a few technical glitches out of the box, and it turned out there were. So I waited till the hailed new device had been on the market for about 12 days, and only then did I finally go to Apple's Fifth Avenue store to make my move.

At that point, the store had a new system that--true to the company's usual form--worked. Instead of making everyone wait on a seemingly endless line, you could stop by and get a voucher stamped with a time of day to come back and get on line. On a Tuesday, I swung in around 12:30 p.m. and got a voucher for 5 p.m. Perfect. I waited about 45 minutes on a line inside the store, and then the purchase and transfer of my phone number took another 20 minutes. I was in business. Now it's been a month and here's what how my iPhone has been treating me.

WHAT'S GREAT:
• The App Store. Nicely complimenting the built-in programs like the surprisingly great Maps are the add-ons available at the iTunes store. Though there are at least as many misses as hits, such handy free downloadables as Urbanspoon (for restaurant suggestions), Baseball (stats for every pro team for every year since the late 1800's), and a simple Spanish phrasebook are incalculably cool. On the paid side, the iTrans PATH application which tells you when the next train is coming in each direction at each station--truly a quality-of-life issue when it's late and the trains are few and far, far between--is probably the best $4 any Hoboken or Jersey City resident could spend.
• The on-screen keyboard. What seemed like a potential downside has actually proved to be one of the easiest features to use. It only took a couple days to get used to the little QWERTY keys that pop up.
• Voicemail. Can't beat the convenience of choosing which voicemails to listen to and in which order.

WHAT'S SO-SO:
• The camera. Takes quick and good quality snaps, but there's no zoom or flash.
• Push email. Great if it works for you. Not-so-great for my main email account, for which I had no idea I'd need to switch to a new provider in order to get push email.
• The iPod. Oh yeah, it has an iPod.
• AT&T. More bars in more places my ass.

WHAT'S SO HORRENDOUSLY AWFUL, TO THE POINT WHERE IT BOGGLES THE MIND THAT THERE HASN'T BEEN A WORLDWIDE INVESTIGATION:
• Text messaging. It's so scandalously bad it's hard to know where to begin. Other than the lack of picture messaging, I knew nothing about the iPhone's SMS limitations when I signed up for this thing, and they are legion: in addition to the lack of picture messaging, you can't send a text to multiple recipients, you can't forward a text, and you can't save a text in draft. I mean, it's 2008. There is no excuse.

THE VERDICT:

It's a great device. Once the text messaging debacle is fixed, it will be the ultimate device. For now, it's still a major upgrade from my old phone.

P.S. Regarding a recent blog post, looks like I'm already back to using Oxford commas...

We haven't had that spirit here since 1956

2008-08-18T12:28:00.003-04:00

Moose gives up three runs in the first inning and you're instantly deflated; the Yanks come back and score 10 runs before making four outs (for the first time since 1956, I learned afterward) and you're on your way to a rollicking good time at the stadium. Jerry Stiller looked like hell when he pulled the countdown clock lever with his son Ben--when did he become elderly?--but it was a fine summer day and another Yankee win in what's now an improbable 11-1 season at the stadium for me.

I Give A Blank About An Oxford Comma

2008-08-05T00:05:00.001-04:00

As a journalism major, I was taught that the serial or Oxford comma—the one that separates the word "and" and the last of three or more items in a series that follows it—was optional, but preferable. Chicago and most other style guides advise its use, but not the Associated Press.

I've always found it to be helpful to use the comma, my logic being that it doesn't slow down the reader much, and has the significant added benefit of making many sentences easier to understand, reducing ambiguity for more often than it creates it. So I've consistently used it in my writing ever since, but consciously not used it when writing for employers or publications other than my own.

My personal views haven't changed, but given how often I have been working on magazines and other projects where the house style is to omit serial commas a la AP style, I am going to make a conscious effort to not use them, at least for a little while, and see if I can live peacefully without them. Don't be surprised if I change right back at some point. But you only live once, so I'm giving this crazy new lifestyle a whirl.

Conveniently, Vampire Weekend have a new song and video tangentially about this type of comma, to ensure that this post isn't a total bore.

Weekend At Willie's...And Xavier's

2008-08-04T09:18:00.001-04:00

When you're a Yankees Sunday season ticket holder, you get tickets to every Sunday home game, plus two other special games: Opening Day and Old Timer's Day. Since Old Timer's Day is always held on a Saturday and teams never travel in the middle of a weekend, that means there's one weekend a year when you get tickets to games on consecutive days. For many people, the modus operandi is to attend Old Timer's Day, then sell or give away the Sunday tickets. This being Yankee Stadium: The Final Season, I've been determined to go to all 15 games on my slate, and anyway I liked the idea of commuting out to the stadium on consecutive days (something I'd already done once this year, when Opening Day was rained out on March 31 and played the following night).

I was rewarded with a pair of wins. The Yankees have been wildly inconsistent this year, but somehow, of the 11 games I've attended, they've won 10. Saturday's nostalgia fest was almost too inclusive—seeing Mickey Klutts and Wayne Tolleson doubtfully changed anyone's lives (other than, perhaps, their own)—but since this whole drawn-out, season-long pilgrimage of mine is all about reliving those glory days that'll pass you by, I can't imagine not having been there for this.

So yes, Yogi in full uniform on that field for the last time, Reggie and Tino and Winfield and you name 'em, they were there, 'cept of course Donnie Baseball, and Bernie and some others. It was fun but also bittersweet, the widows of Phil Rizzuto, Thurman Munson and a few other dignitaries being rightfully honored, and on the 29th anniversary of Munson's death. Ouch. The big spirit-raising surprise of the day was the presence of Willie Randolph in a Yankee uniform for the first time since the Mets gave him the unceremonious canning of all unceremonious cannings. Too bad Jeff Nelson struck him out during the one-inning exhibition game. Great to catch Keith Olbermann co-announcing the Old Timer's game too, even if a few ignoramuses felt it necessary to boo the only unabashedly liberal host on prime time cable news television. (I mean, seriously, we can't even have one?)

The actual (not Old, not officially, anyway) Yankees won the actual game, too, Mike Mussina pitching a very strong seven innings of two-hit ball as the Bombers defeated the Angels 8-2. The Sunday game wasn't pretty, but it was exciting; after erasing a five-run deficit, the Yanks held a three-run lead until Mark Teixeira hit a grand slam off Edwar Ramirez to make it 9-8 in the 8th. Somehow, the Yanks scratched out six runs in the bottom half of the inning to steal a split of the four-game series with the team sporting the best record in baseball. When all was said and done, new Yank Xavier Nady had six RBIs for the first time in his big-league career. Not bad. I have four games left, start spreading the news.

Closing Our Eyes And Saying Goodbye To Gypsy Angel Row

2008-08-01T20:33:00.003-04:00

You either love him or you don't. The bottom line is not just that Bruce Springsteen owns the stadium where the Super Bowl champions play their home games, but that he deserves to.

There were only three shows at Giants Stadium this time, an impressive showing of modesty from a guy and his band who packed the place ten times in a row the last time they blew through there, five years ago. These concerts were announced in December of last year; I made the decision to catch opening night and anted up on StubHub for a pricey pair of floor seats all of five hours before showtime.

Verdict? Great call. I never saw The E Street Band before their 1999 reunion; I'd seen Bruce run through a couple Beatles songs as a surprise guest at Ringo Starr's 1989 show at the Not-Yet-Corporately-Sponsored-At-That-Point Garden State Arts Center. Caught him with "The Other Band" at the then-still Brendan Byrne Arena in '92, and was lucky enough to witness a solo acoustic rehearsal show on the Tom Joad tour at, of all places, The State Theatre in New Brunswick in 1995.

Scoring a pair of free ducats for two of the 15-night homecoming at the arena in 1999 was a true coup, and the show blew me away, with the sprawling band owning on a Sunday night in July. It's a damn good thing the show was amazing, too, since my acquisition of the tickets for it led to me giving away the Yankee tickets I had for that afternoon--which I'm glad were enjoyed by my father and my brother, because David Cone only threw a perfect freaking game that day. The experience of seeing Bruce with the band proper was redeeming and memorable, a piece of my own imagined history I didn't know if I'd ever get to see.

The one show I caught during the 10-night stadium stand underwhelmed me. No, it was far from bad, but it also wasn't transcendent. Blame it on mezzanine seats the full length of the stadium away, blame it on the fact that I wasn't a huge fan of The Rising or "Light Of Day." It was with moderate trepidation that I contemplated the band now, five years farther down the line, with Danny Federici gone, no less. You can't ask a Bruce fan how the recent shows have been, because most of them will just say it was amazing. But I'd been tracking the set lists online since last fall; they were good and getting better, and the shows were getting longer again. After working like a dog all summer, it was time to take one last chance to make it real.

Real it was. Reeling off "Spirit In The Night," "Growin' Up," "Brilliant Disguise," "Lonesome Day" (The Rising's only transcendent moment), "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" and the revamped (a la The Seeger Sessions Band version, which more than borrows from The [latter-period] Band's brilliant reinvention thereof) "Atlantic City" within the first ten songs sealed it as a classic show. In the end, there was only one misstep, the obligatory 942-hour cornball version of "Mary's Place." And, criminally, there was not a single song from The River, which conveniently is the Bruce album I've gravitated toward the most for the last year or so, and is probably my favorite if you don't count Live 1975-85. Bruce rubbed salt in this little wound by playing no less than five River songs the following night.

But with "I'll Work For Your Love" mid-set, brilliant versions of "Tunnel Of Love" and "Long Walk Home" on the tail end, and an all-world encore that included "Summer Clothes" and "Jungleland" and "Bobby Jean" and "Dancing In The Dark" AND "Rosalita," well...really, after three hours and 20 minutes of dancing in said Jersey dark, to ask for more just wasn't fair. The new football stadium under construction about 18 inches west of the current Giants Stadium is set to open in 2010, and if last night's performance of "Rosalita" was the last time that utilitarian venue where I've screamed my head off for many memorable football and concert moments plays host to the bard of New Jersey and crew, the send-off was a proper one. And if there's another run of "farewell" shows before they tear down the home of Big Blue (and for no good reason, but that's another post), I'll see you there.

Ed Harcourt At Maxwell's

2008-07-22T10:25:00.002-04:00

The Rufus Wainwright comparisons don't quite nail it--he's too British, not to mention heterosexual--but they're as good a place as any to start with Ed Harcourt. The Sussex musician hit Maxwell's last night as one of the last stops on his current U.S. tour, which apparently featured a show in Woodstock the previous night where there were "about 10 people," according to the artist's own on-stage account. There were maybe 60 people in the back room for this 100-or-so-minute performance on a Monday night, most of whom seemed to thoroughly enjoy his sometimes Tom Waitsian tales of hope and woe.

After a few rough spots early on, Harcourt hit his stride about a third of the way into the show. From there on out, his voice soared, his band (guitar, bass, drums, and trumpet joining him on keyboard for most songs) congealed, and the "God, if only Coldplay were this good" tunes just killed. His bitter British humo(u)r may have been largely lost on the room, but the songs were most definitely found.

A quick post-show chat with the man revealed him to be a chatty, good-natured, but no-b.s. type of bloke with a penchant for drink and Dennis Wilson. Truly a class act.

[I snapped a couple pics during the show, but I need to set up a new online photo sharing account. Hopefully I'll get a chance to post a pic soon. In the meantime, enjoy this video from a 2006 show.]

The Long Goodbye, Bronx Style

2008-07-21T12:46:00.001-04:00

For the first time since 2001, this year I sprung for a Sunday ticket package at Yankee Stadium. You get the same seats for every Sunday home game, plus Opening Day and Old Timers' Day. It's become increasingly harder to get tickets every year, and with this being the last year of the original Yankee Stadium, I wanted to soak it in.

They're making a big deal about the 85 years of history the place has witnessed, and fair enough. Babe Ruth opened up the joint in 1923, and though the house he built was completely gutted and remodeled in the mid-'70s--Yogi Berra has said of the current stadium: "I didn't play here"--it's the only home park I've ever known for my favorite team.

A traditionalist when it comes to the Yankees, I was originally horrified that a new ballpark was being built across the street. I've gone through all the stages of mourning already and have come close to acceptance at this point, though the last regular-season home game--now less than two months away, amazingly--is bound to be emotionally challenging.

Having attended all nine games on my slate so far--and sporting an 8-1 record at them--there are six left. I'm going to try to make an effort to chronicle my take on the remaining ones here.

This past Sunday's game was a neatly played 2-1 win over the A's that was over in a breathtakingly brief two hours and 26 minutes; I'm sure Michael Kaye thought it was manageable. Andy Pettitte was dealing, fanning nine with no walks on four hits over eight innings. Mo pitched the ninth for the save. I believe he's pitched in eight of the nine games I've attended this year, excepting only the Sunday night drubbing the Mets gave them in May.

Metallica doesn't do a whole heck of a lot for me most of the time, but there's really no moment of anticipation more exciting in sports than hearing the initial guitar strains of "Enter Sandman" cueing 50,000 fans to applaud while the greatest relief pitcher in the history of baseball jogs from the bullpen to the mound. I stand and clap in awe every time.

A Place For My Stuff

2008-06-23T09:05:00.005-04:00

Lenny Bruce was before my time, and though George Carlin's edgiest work was accomplished while I was an infant, it was his HBO specials in the '80s that taught me what edgy stand-up is.

Carlin was the people's comedian because he never put on airs and pretended to be above his audience. His observations were revelations, but he shared them in a down-to-earth way that made everyone believe, "Hey, I could've thought of that," even if you couldn't have. He showed us all what genius sounds like, without ever making any of us feel dumb.

"A Place For My Stuff" made a huge impression on me at age 12 and still resonates. It starts at 9:09 here in this clip from the 1984 special Carlin On Campus and continues here. Timeless...stuff.

Brains, Looks, Money

2008-06-17T01:35:00.005-04:00

What better way to get back into writing about music than by, yes, writing about music. Here's what's rocking my world, circa...now.

My Morning Jacket
Evil Urges
(ATO)
Every recording by My Morning Jacket is weird, but they keep their audience engaged—and expanding—by flaunting a different layer of weirdness each time out. On Evil Urges, producer Joe Chiccarelli gives this Kentucky five-man electrical band a level of slickness that feels like the right fit for a somewhat more funkdafied, less rootsy-sounding set of songs.

MMJ is good for one or two punchy, uptempto tunes suitable for bar/club DJ play per album, and "Aluminum Park" fits the bill just fine. Their finest moments, though, are usually more esoteric songs like the title track here. Singer Jim James explores his voice's highest registers for a dreamy creation that takes previous Radiohead comparisons to their apotheosis. Elsewhere, "Highly Suspicious" is awfully good for a track that sounds like a Korn-inspired "Weird Al" song, and will probably become unlistenable forever if it somehow manages to becomes a rock radio hit. "Sec Walkin" and the two parts of "Touch Me I'm Going To Scream" are standouts as well.

(Having been involved on the editorial and marketing side of the band's four RCA releases myself [two studio albums, one live album/DVD, and an EP], of course I was dying to hear what they'd do next; I'm not disappointed.) Live is where they excel most. They're playing Radio City Music Hall this Friday, and we should all be thankful that Mr. James is an upstanding guy, because if he were to hand out Kool-Aid during the encore, thousands of takers just might line up with Dixie cups.

Santogold
Santogold
(Downtown)
Everyone's comparing this Pennsylvanian new wave singer to Sri Lankan sensation M.I.A., and it's true there are a few worldy (world-y?) influences to be detected on her debut album. But despite forays into reggae-ish territory, this is pretty damn far away from third world–influenced hip-hop. There's more than a little Lene Lovich and Annabella Lwin in the vocals on the must-have opening track "L.E.S. Artistes" and many of the album's other stark songs, and Debbie Harry clearly made her impression as well.

Her take on The Jam's "Pretty Green" (not present here) was arguably the highlight of Mark Ronson's 2007 covers collection Version, and this debut album seems like that recording's more thoughtful extension. This is mostly straight-ahead rock sung by a non-white female, and that tends to throw some people off. What we may have on our hands here is this year's Kenna.

Flight Of The Conchords
Flight Of The Conchords
(Sub Pop)
The New Zealand folk-parody duo's exploits in New York on their HBO series were way too funny to not take seriously. Amazingly, most of the songs stand up on their own and are worth many more repeat listenings than anyone might suspect. Whether channeling The Pet Shop Boys ("Inner City Pressure"), Barry White ("Business Time") or French pop of the '60s ("Foux da Fafa"), their cleverness always amuses without going over the top. Though it's disappointing that not every essential song from season one of the TV series appears here—"If You're Into It" is only on last year's The Distant Future EP, and the brilliant "Sello Tape" is inexplicably still unreleased—this is surprisingly necessary listening.

Sometime To Return

2008-06-12T09:47:00.007-04:00

The short version is that I've been busy.

This blog began some years ago as an outlet for my writing after Yeah Yeah Yeah, the Trouser Press-inspired indie-rock zine to which I'd dedicated blood, sweat and years, finished its eight-year run. I needed a new outlet, and for a while this was perfect.

Time wore on and my DJ career got busier. Then my full-time music biz job got more intense. It became increasingly more challenging to find the time for epic pieces like my annual best-music-of-the-year roundup, my exclusive interview features, or even my informative-type tidbitty affairs.

So I took a break. It turned out to be a long one. As I've recently made the almost obligatory transition from full-time staff to consultant status, my time has become more flexible, and I'm starting to pursue my rock journalism dreams once again. The best part is that I have more than enough consulting work to keep me busy while I find my way.

Frankly, I now contemplate the next phase of my career with more optimism than I would have guessed was possible or even sensible, given the state of the economy in general and the health of big record labels and big music publications in particular. I've already conquered one "dying" business; here's to vanquishing another.

On with the show, this is it.

Dreamworld: Mike C.'s Favorite Music Of 2007

2008-02-01T12:01:00.007-05:00

Permalinks: albums • songs

Top 10 Albums

1. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - Magic (Columbia)

2. AMY WINEHOUSE – Back To Black (Universal)

3. TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS - Living With The Living (Touch & Go)

4. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM – Sound Of Silver (DFA/EMI)

5. MIKA - Life In Cartoon Motion (Casablanca)

6. BAND OF HORSES – Cease To Begin (Sub Pop)

7. EDWYN COLLINS - Home Again (Heavenly/EMI [import])

8. RILO KILEY – Under The Blacklight (Warner Bros.)

9. JUNIOR SENIOR - Hey Hey My My Yo Yo (Ryko)

10. KANYE WEST – Graduation (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)

Top 10 Songs

1. AMY WINEHOUSE – Rehab (Universal)

2. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – I'll Work For Your Love (Columbia)

3. RILO KILEY – Dreamworld (Warner Bros.)

4. TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS – Rappaport's Testament: I Never Gave Up (Touch & Go)

5. THE ALUMINUM GROUP – Headphones (Minty Fresh)

6. PETER, BJORN & JOHN – Young Folks (Almost Gold)

7. THE SHINS – Phantom Limb (Sub Pop)

8. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM – Someone Great (DFA/EMI)

9. MATT & KIM – Yeah Yeah (Flosstradamus Remix) (iheartcomix.com)

10. ROONEY – Believe In Me (Geffen)

Build A Taj Mahal On Vacation Time: Mike C.'s Favorite Music Of 2006

2007-02-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

Permalinks: albums • songs • reissues • live shows

Top 50 Albums

1. PERNICE BROTHERS – Live A Little (Ashmont)

This would be much easier if it were 1966. Revolver would by my favorite album of the year. It would top all the critics' polls, if such polls had existed. It would be one of the biggest sellers of the year, you'd know what it sounds like, and there's a good chance you'd already own it and love it too.

Alas, your TV no longer has just three networks, your phone no longer has just numbers, and your record store no longer...well, your record store probably no longer exists, so maybe that’s not the best example. The point is, most pop culture is not universal. And that's ok. The fall 2006 release of Live A Little, the fifth Pernice Brothers album, was not widely heralded as an event of major cultural significance outside of the worlds of a few thousand dedicated fans. And while some may label me an elitist snob for naming a fairly obscure independent release that has sold about 5,000 copies to date as my favorite album of the year (whilst others who have heard it, and find it too boring or slow might just think I'm overrating it), the selection of a personal favorite that spoke to me is what seems most meaningful. The category I've set up is "favorite album of the year," not "favorite album of the year that most people have already heard of."

Even in a more tightly focused culture where mass phenomena were easier to create—think Elvis or The Beatles on Ed Sullivan—there still is almost no chance that the Pernice Brothers, the band that inspired me the most in 2006, would achieve enormous sales or fame. It's been years since I listened to any new album as much as I've listened to Live A Little, and while I am close to this music, I can step back from it and admit that its appeal is not universal. It rocks a bit in spots, but by and large it is a collection of quiet, poignant stories that probably are not likely to resonate with everyone.

But Live A Little is special. It is album of songs about travels by foot, car, plane, and within the human imagination. It makes smart lyrical nods to Tommy James, The Shirelles, The Clash, and numerous authors without obnoxiously calling attention to how clever those references are. It adheres to a sonic worldview in which The Smiths, Pretenders, and New Order are filtered through The Zombies as well as early Wilco. It has songs like "Zero Refills," which sounds like the mature adult offspring of The Eagles' "I Can't Tell You Why," and "Cruelty To Animals," in which the Meat Is Murder author calmly sings "Alouette, gentille alouette" while seeking shelter from the storm of barbarism that begins at home. It also has, inconspicuously located at track number seven—meaning it would lead off side two of this 12-song collection if you had to flip the thing over after 20 minutes to hear the rest—quite possibly the best song created by anyone in the last 20 years. Live A Little bursts with brutal honesty, and passion, and humor, and thoughtfulness of the kind not so commonly heard on an indie rock record. Seems like without tenderness there’s something missing.

Even the album title is perfect. Of course it is meant in the typical, encouraging sense of the phrase: go on, have some fun, live a little. But in typical Pernicean fashion, there is no way not to also interpret in it a second, sarcastically funny meaning: as in, to live only a little, to not be living quite enough. Laughing in the face of pain and sadness, and conquering ennui with a deep breath and a clever pun, is the central theme of Pernice's art. Though none of his previous work has been less than excellent, Pernice's realistic but not pessimistic worldview has never shown itself as fully flowered as it does here.

Critical overstatement is a danger. Grand, sweeping declarations are often regretted by the author soon after they are printed or posted. But hang it all; if I've ever wanted to write a rave, this is it. To posit that Live A Little is a work of such originality, genius, and beauty that it is unlikely to be matched this decade in its power and achievement by any work of art, not just in music but in any medium—literature, film, painting, glass-blowing, collage, mime, skywriting, sand sculpture, anything—is not hyperbole. It is understatement.

2. BELLE & SEBASTIAN – The Life Pursuit (Matador)
After a couple of middling albums in a row, the foremost purveyors of Scottish twee return to their form with their finest album since their 1997 breakthrough If You’re Feeling Sinister. The songs are sharp musically and lyrically, and for once, they even sound like they’re having a bit of fun. That fun rubs off on this engaging collection that does not contain any songs that are less than excellent.

3. SMART BROWN HANDBAG – Harry Larry (Stonegarden)
A designation like “most underappreciated band on the continent” is awfully difficult to quantify definitively, but Smart Brown Handbag might really be it. We’re talking about a band that has recorded and released ten full-length albums in ten years but has never reported SoundScan sales of more than 102 copies of any of them. Granted, they probably have sold more than 102 of at least some of their albums at merch tables during shows—not that they’ve toured in years—but it is probably accurate to say that there are unsigned bands playing junior high school dances who have sold more albums than Smart Brown Handbag.

What’s staggering about SBH’s inability to find an audience is that their sound is so accessible; they do not engage in avant-garde musical wankery. Nor, it’s perhaps not obvious enough to avoid stating, do they suck. Their MySpace page—on which I appear proudly as one of the band’s 59 friends, as of this writing (and I'm in their Top 12, but I swear I've never even met them)—pegs their sound accurately by listing The Smiths, Prefab Sprout, and Death Cab For Cutie under the “sounds like” tab. But as they sagely state in the “influences” box, “After ten years we are our own influence.” I would add that there’s more than a dash of the mellower side of early R.E.M. in many of their songs. As stated in this space two years ago, and as put forth by one of the more brilliant American music reviewers of the last decade, Glenn McDonald, the continued anonymity of Smart Brown Handbag is truly one of the great musical conundrums of the indie rock era. The craziest thing about it this band is that they keep getting better. Harry Larry is one of their best.

4. JENNY LEWIS WITH THE WATSON TWINS – Rabbit Fur Coat (Team Love)
Is this where I congratulate myself for waiting until number four before ranking an album that was both ecstatically embraced and backlashed upon by the musical hipster cognoscenti? The Rilo Kiley frontwoman takes a countrified vacation that shouldn’t have surprised anyone who paid attention to the acoustic numbers on the band’s last album, and hate it or love it, there really wasn’t anything else out there this year that sounded quite like this.

5. BEN KWELLER – Ben Kweller (ATO)
Lacking a potential monster hit single like his first two solo efforts, this album nonetheless coheres as a piece of work better than anything else the former teenage leader of Radish has done. Playing all the instruments himself and benefiting from smart production by Gil Norton, this album shows Ben’s songcraft taking a step up to the next level.

6. BUTCH WALKER – The Rise And Fall Of Butch Walker And The Let’s-Go-Out-Tonites (Epic/One Haven/Red Ink)
This collection of smart rock songs that oughta be hits might strike some as a tad slick—Butch has produced Avril Lavigne—but there are plenty of tattooed love girls and boys who believe the former frontman of Marvelous 3 (a band I never cared about) is more than just a cooler Bryan Adams. What puts this effort over the top is not the T. Rex homage “Hot Girls In Good Moods” or any of the other upbeat rockers, but the versatility he demonstrates in the trio of ballads that anchor the album. A sleeper that I never expected to make my top 10.

7. NEW YORK DOLLS – One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This (Roadrunner)
Speaking of sleepers, what were the odds that, despite three-fifths of this seminal NYC pre-punk band’s original members being dead, their third-ever studio album—and first in 32 years—would be such a vital collection of music? David and Syl carry the torch admirably for fallen dolls Johnny, Jerry, and Arthur, with David writing some of the year’s best lyrics this side of Joe Pernice. Read the Christgau piece.

8. GOLDFRAPP – Supernature (Mute)
The British synth-rock duo led by Allison Goldfrapp continues to evolve in fascinating ways. Band most likely to unleash a masterpiece at some point.

9. THE HOLD STEADY – Boys And Girls In America (Vagrant)
Third time out for these Brooklyn hipsters whose shit-stirrer of a native Minnesotan frontman has been known to talk up the Twins in front of NYC area audiences. Their neo-Springsteen/Lynott schtick still sounds pretty fresh.

10. HUMA – We Are Here For You (Cult Hero)
Cool bands continue to spring from my old college town of New Brunswick, N.J., despite the loss of the established live venues, dance clubs, and record stores of yore. The finest one I’ve heard in the last few years, the coed trio Huma, make post-space-age twee tunes of the most smile-inducing variety on their full-length debut. Most genuinely heartfelt album title of the year.

11. RHETT MILLER – The Believer (Verve Forecast)
This dashing gent somehow seems so much cooler without his alt-country bandmates from The Old 97’s. Or maybe it’s just that he tries harder when he’s on his own, resulting in more compelling songs. Though there are one or two skippable tracks, and it’s a slight notch down from his earlier solo effort The Instigator, there’s enough here to keep fans of smart straight-on rocknpop feeling groovy.

12. THE SOUNDS – Dying To Say This To You (New Line)
At their best, Maja Ivarsson and her Swedish cohorts evoke a perfect hybrid of Blondie and Depeche Mode. These moments don’t sustain the album all the way through, but they’re transcendent enough.

13. TRIS MCCALL – I’m Assuming You’re All In Bands (Jersey Beat)
The de facto poet laureate of Hudson County, Tris McCall finds inspiration for most of his writing—both as a composer of music and a copious writer of prose—close to home. As militantly pro-Jersey as they come (this side of me, anyway), McCall ventures just a few miles east off the mainland, two skinny little rivers over to planet Brooklyn, for a concept album about the indie rock culture of New York City’s self-proclaimed hippest borough. Though Jersey still permeates the spirit of the mostly bouncy, hyper-literate songs (one is even titled “Princeton Can Use A Man Like Joel,” and the hidden bonus track is a gorgeous paean to the county Tris calls home), this is a dandy day trip—and rest assured that McCall does not take the easy way out now. Not that he ever would.

14. ED HARCOURT – The Beautiful Lie (Heavenly/EMI import)
What Coldplay might sound like if they were fronted by Rufus Wainwright. Oh, and if they were actually cool.

15. HOT CHIP – The Warning (Astralwerks)
A late entry onto the list, and the only one of these 50 albums that I did not actually hear until January 2007. Might have ranked higher if I’d gotten my hands on it sooner and had more time with it. This is startlingly good electronic pop that often sounds eerily similar to the dance album The Aluminum Group has been threatening to make for years. Detached, understated vocals mixed with sharp beats and a vague sense of alienation permeating the proceedings. Pretty great.

16. THE DIVINE COMEDY – Victory For The Comic Muse (Parlophone)
That most debonair Northern Irish lad (cad?) Neil Hannon trots out his baroque wit (pith?) on a charming album that amounts to a realization of its title, which may or may not be tongue-in-cheek (tongue-in-chic?).

17. THE COUP – Pick A Bigger Weapon (Epitaph)
The only 2006 hip hop album I have listened to more than once in its entirety. That’s clearly my loss, but the genre was a natural victim of my curtailed music listening during the past year. The group whose 2001 album Party Music caused quite a stir due to an album cover that showed the twin towers on fire—and it was released before 9/11—keeps up its fierce politics on songs like “Baby Let’s Have A Baby Before Bush Do Something Crazy.” Guests Talib Kweli and Black Thought help make “My Favorite Mutiny” the year’s best funk workout, a moment worthy of the finest work of Lyrics Born. Has a few weak moments (especially the lame skits) but does reward repeating listenings.

18. HAMELL ON TRIAL – Songs For Parents Who Enjoy Drugs (Righteous Babe)
Not the strongest set of songs from the one-man punk-folk rebel rouser, but even his trifles are worthy of many a spin. Read the Christgau piece on him, too.

19. THE ROBOCOP KRAUS – They Think They Are The Robocop Kraus (Epitaph/Ada)
The Nürnberg five-piece synth-and-guitar attack of the year. Surprised some of these tracks weren’t bigger talk of the MP3 blogs and indie dance club hits. The beat of the songs is so martial that they could only be German, yet they also sound like they’re having more than a bit of fun.

20. THE KILLERS – Sam’s Town (Island)
The band everyone wanted to hate in 2006 acquitted themselves reasonably well on an album that didn’t get tons better with repeated listenings, but certainly didn’t get worse. The cringeworthy, Vegasy moments are admittedly bad, and at times the performance and production coalesce into fleeting seconds of unlistenable histrionics, but even these flaws are forgivable when the songwriting’s this good.

21. THE EARLY NOVEMBER – The Mother, The Mechanic, And The Path (Drive-Thru)
In which an unknown south Jersey indie band that’s too offbeat and mellow to truly be considered emo feels gutsy enough to release a triple album. The first two discs are straightforward rock songs, and the third is the true “concept album” portion. I probably never would have heard about this had it not been for a lengthy, intriguing review by Tris McCall (yes, he of this year’s number 13 album, he’s also quite the critiquer of music). Still, I probably would not have bought this CD if I hadn’t stumbled upon it at the Greenwich Village location of Tower Records in December, priced to move at 70 percent off list, four days before the storied retailer went out of business. Life is a series of coincidences.

22. PRIESTESS – Hello Master (RCA)
This is rawk, 2006.

23. ELECTRIC SIX – Switzerland (Metropolis)
Maybe they threw this one together a little too quickly? The third album from this MC6 (there are indeed a half-dozen of them, and they are from Detroit) is a solid notch down from their first two albums, which were virtually flawless in their hybridization of “hard” rock and disco. There still are some moments here, but the band just sounds tired.

24. THE STROKES – First Impressions Of Earth (RCA)
It’s too bad you only get one chance to make a first impression, because many peoples’ initial take on these guys was that they were too cool for school and not worthy of the hype. Three albums in now, they haven’t taken over the world, but instead carved out a niche. It’s a nice niche with a lot of good stuff that anyone who can’t help but slag them is missing out on. You only live once.

25. GNARLS BARKLEY – St. Elsewhere (Downtown)
How nice of this Barkley fellow to make an entire album about my mother’s favorite TV show of the 1980s.

26. BOB DYLAN – Modern Times (Columbia)
I love Bob Dylan’s music so much, he’s the one person in music who I would actually be scared to meet. An album this highly praised by an artist I admire so much, but which I’m so highly ambivalent about, could only land right smack in the middle of the countdown. Others have pontificated elsewhere more eloquently about this than I feel inspired to do right now. If this is what getting old sounds like, it doesn’t seem quite so bad. Then again, most old people are not as rich and famous as Dylan.

27. THE RAPTURE – Pieces Of The People We Love (Mercury/Universal)
Last night a band saved my dj life. DJs like me need more hipster dance rock with grooves this tight and choruses this hooky; no really, we do.

28. ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE VENUS 3 – Olé! Tarantula (Yep Roc)
Still mostly obtuse, except for the album-closing tear-jerker dedicated to the late New York Doll bassist Arthur “Killer” Kane,” this is more upbeat, if five percent less engaging than his last stellar effort, Spooked. Great fun, though, with Peter Buck along for the ride on lead guitar. Anyone who knows what Robyn’s on about in his lyrics is hereby pledged with the duty of sharing that knowledge with the world.

29. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (Columbia)
It’s all well and good, but he could have done so much more with this. Look, you’re doing an album of old folk songs by a left-wing musical deity, and you’ve already publicly expressed your disgust with the president and his extremist agenda, so Bruce, why are you wasting your and our time with “Froggie Went A-Courtin’” when you could be doing “The Torn Flag” or some other, bolder political statement? Ok, Dan Bern just did something with that one a couple years ago, but how many people heard it? You’re Bruce, you have a huge audience. There’s nothing wrong with this album, it’s just not as meaningful as it could have been.

30. ALBERT HAMMOND, JR. – Yours To Keep (Rough Trade)
The solo Stroke has some mighty catchy tunes to offer. A cool little surprise.

31. MORRISSEY – Ringleader Of The Tormentors (Sanctuary)
Morrissey, so much to answer for. Hopes were high in the wake of the return to form on his last album, You Are The Quarry. Though nowhere near as bad as his worse solo moments—when was the last time you spun Kill Uncle or Maladjusted?—this has to rank as something of a disappointment. As demonstrated on the album’s longest track, the semi-epic “Life Is A Pigsty,” he is still capable of unbridled greatness. Still thrilled to have one of the gods back and productive, and looking forward to the next one.

32. THE RACONTEURS – Broken Boy Soldiers (V2/Third Man)
The stock I put into this record rose and fell more times than, um, a really volatile stock. (Can you tell I don’t play the market?) In the end, it’s a solid rock album with a few memorable tunes by a whole that manages to be a little less than the sum of its impressive parts.

33. THE FRATELLIS – Costello Music (Universal import)
Fun British ‘70s glam ripoff artists.

34. JOHN LEGEND – Once Again (Columbia)
The title implies more of the same as what was on the debut, but while there’s no standout track a la Lifted’s minor classic “Ordinary People,” this may actually be a stronger effort in toto. I honestly expected less, but the beats and melodies are just too good to dismiss.

35. MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE – The Black Parade (Reprise)
I don’t think Queen got enough respect in their day, either. The band that catapulted from headlining The Loop Lounge in Passaic Park to a perennial top 10 MySpace search term nationally does north Jersey proud on their second major-label set. If you’re from Jersey and you don’t root for this band, then the terrorists have already won.

36. PRIMAL SCREAM – Riot City Blues (Columbia)
These Scottish-based vets have reinvented their sound many times through eight albums in 20 years, and here they take the back to basics approach, leaving the more electronica-flavored stylings of their last two efforts behind in favor of a blues-rock sound that suits them well. They even had the biggest U.K. hit of their career with album opener “Country Girl.” Right on.

37. EDITORS – The Back Room (Kitchenware)
It would take a British band to out-Interpol Interpol, of course, and here it is, with songs that even boast a memorable hook or two.

38. YEAH YEAH YEAHS – Show Your Bones (Interscope)
Cool attitude? Sure. Songs? Sadly, only in spots. Worthwhile? Yes, but only to a point.

39. MAGNET – The Tourniquet (Filter)
40. LLOYD COLE – Anti Depressant (One Little Indian)
They write the songs that don’t make the whole world sing, but those are rarely the most meaningful songs anyway...so who cares?

41. NEKO CASE – Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (Anti)
She’s good here, but she’s so much better in her role as occasional lead singer of The New Pornographers. This does have some very strong moments.

42. ARCTIC MONKEYS – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (Domino)
It's good, really, it's good. It's just not great. Worth having in your collection if you have everything else of this ilk. You know how I know I’m not going to be listening to this in two years? I’m not even listening to it now.

43. WILLIE NILE – Streets Of New York (Reincarnate)
A solid comeback by one of those mostly forgotten late ‘70s/early ‘80s singer/songwriters a la Steve Forbert, the kind of guy a lot of Springsteen fans tend to like. If not for the return of the Dolls, this would win the New York City Album Of The Year Award.

44. BADLY DRAWN BOY – Born In The U.K. (Astralwerks)
The unpredictable British rogue Damon Gough takes his obsession with the ‘70s in general, and the Bard of New Jersey in particular, to new heights with this, his most listenable work since his debut.

45. WE ARE SCIENTISTS – With Love And Squalor (Virgin)
46. PHOENIX – It’s Never Been Like That (Astralwerks)
Hipster rock that didn’t totally suck, volume 2006.

47. KEVIN FEDERLINE – Playing With Fire (Reincarnate)
48. “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC – Straight Outta Lynwood (Zomba)
Two classic quotes uttered by Alan Alda’s megalomaniacal film director character Lester in Crimes And Misdemeanors come to mind. One: “If it bends, it’s funny; if it breaks, it’s not funny.” Two: “Comedy equals tragedy plus time.” Federline and Yankovic both bend. And do the math: each offers music of comparable sincerity and absurdity. That they did not tour together was one of the year’s great missed music marketing opportunities.

49. JOHNNY CASH – American V: A Hundred Highways (American)
For a while, I actually forgot that I had bought this. Not that it’s terrible—not by a longshot—but like the Nirvana Unplugged album, it’s a little depressing to hear such a mighty talent more or less dying on tape. There are probably at least 30 other, better Johnny Cash albums everyone should own before they get this one.

50. THE SLEEPY JACKSON – Personality (One Was A Spider, One Was A Bird) (Astralwerks)
And that’s the way I like it, that’s the way I like it.

Also Worthy
PETE YORN – The Nightcrawler (Red Ink/Columbia)
VARIOUS – My Old Man: A Tribute To Steve Goodman (Red Pajamas)
ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO – The Boxing Mirror (Back Porch)
THE LEMONHEADS – The Lemonheads (Vagrant)
DAMONE – Out Here All Night (Island)
MAGNET – Hold On Tour EP (Filter)
KEANE – Under The Iron Sea (Interscope)

Perhaps Worthy
SCISSOR SISTERS – Ta-dah (Universal)
OUTKAST – Idlewild (LaFace/Zomba)
THE STILLS – Without Feathers (Vice)
JULES SHEAR – Dreams Don’t Count (Mad Dragon)
DIXIE CHICKS – Taking The Long Way (Open Wide/Columbia)
THE FUTUREHEADS – News And Tributes (StarTime)
THE HORRORS – The Horrors (Stolen Transmission)
THE FLAMING LIPS – At War With The Mystics (Warner Bros)

Likely Worthy, But I Didn't Hear Them In Full
JARVIS COCKER – Jarvis (Rough Trade import)
DAN BERN – Breathe (Messenger)
ASHFORD BREAKS – Traitor EP (no label)
THE THERMALS – The Body, The Blood, The Machine (Sub Pop)
PEACHES – Impeach My Bush (XL)
MATES OF STATE – Bring It Back (Barsuk)
TOM WAITS – Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (Anti)
GOLDEN SMOG – Another Fine Day (Lost Highway)
PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS – Stepfather (Red Urban)
EAST RIVER PIPE – What Are You On? (Merge)
THE LONG BLONDES – Someone To Drive You Home (Rough Trade)
THE RAKES – Capture/Release (V2 Intl)
CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy (Sub Pop)
STEPHIN MERRITT – Show Tunes (Nonesuch)

Not Worthy
THE STREETS – The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living (Vice/579/Atlantic)
MEAT LOAF – Bat Out Of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose (Virgin)
DONALD FAGEN – Morph The Cat (Reprise)
MATTHEW SWEET/SUSANNAH HOFFS – Under The Covers Vol. 1 (Shout! Factory)
CAM’RON – Killa Season (Asylum/Diplomats)
TAPES N’ TAPES – The Loon (XL)
BILLY JOEL – 12 Gardens Live (Columbia)

Top 100 Songs

1. PERNICE BROTHERS – B.S. Johnson (Ashmont)
A two-minute and 22-second masterpiece. The story of experimental British author B.S. Johnson, who committed suicide in 1973, resonates in this appropriately too-short song about someone who never fit into neat societal or artistic categories. Perhaps Pernice feels some kinship with the misunderstood and underappreciated author. Maybe he just admires his talent.

It’s the song’s narrative twist near the end that puts it over the top, making it one of the best pop song lyrics ever written by someone other than Lennon, McCartney, Dylan, Wonder, King, Wilson, Robinson, Simon, Mitchell, Hynde, Townshend, Morrissey, Stipe, Phair, Cash, Gaye, Springsteen, Taupin, or [insert last name of the amazing songwriter of your choice here]. After quickly laying out what it meant to be Johnson in a series of hypothetical present-tense commands (“Write a book of debt everyone must pay,” “Build a Taj Mahal on vacation time”), the songwriter imagines the futility felt by the author who was “jammed into a plot where you never would fit” and “dead by 42.”

Then he takes it a step further, drawing a connection between himself and the author in the continuum of history, it dawning on him that while B.S. Johnson was suffering the inner torment that ended in his own untimely demise, a young Joe Pernice was being put to bed by his mother after taking a bath, blissfully unaware of the existence of the author and his angst—indeed, perhaps young enough to be oblivious to all angst beyond the injustice of an early bedtime. At that exact moment, the song becomes not just the tragic story of one man’s struggle to cope with the pressures of life, it is universalized into every human being’s experience of innocence lost. With a formal but urgent mid-tempo arrangement of mostly understated electric guitars, bass, occasionally swelling piano and organ, perfectly played drums, and swelling strings, the song broadcasts its importance not through ferocity but by its tone. It is stately, but far from stodgy.

“B.S. Johnson” is a landmark recording of such depth and beauty, the likes of which has not been created in quite some time. It is by far the best song to date of this decade—and so, by extension, of this young century.

2. THE RAPTURE – Get Myself Into It (Mercury/Universal)
A dance-floor no-brainer, this is the band’s previous club classic “House Of Jealous Lovers” on the perfect dosage of antidepressants.

3. NEW YORK DOLLS – Dance Like A Monkey (Roadrunner)
When in doubt, start with the classic garage rock beat a la “Lust For Life.” Add lyrics that smartly mock creationism and fine musical performances all around, and you have one of the more memorable comeback singles in rock history.

4. BELLE & SEBASTIAN – We Are The Sleepyheads (Matador)
Haircut 100 with a darn good Hendrix understudy on guitar.

5. NELLY FURTADO & TIMBALAND – Promiscuous (Geffen)
The best Top 40 radio song of 2006 sounded an awful lot like it could have been a chart-topper in 1986. While the mid-‘80s were hardly a great time for R&B production-wise, somehow Timbaland made that era sound cooler now than it actually was then.

6. THE SOUNDS – Hurt You (New Line)
More or less “Don’t You Want Me” turned on its head—and in a similar synth-pop vein—it’s a duet where the male lead is the dumper instead of the dumped.

7. GNARLS BARKLEY – Crazy (Downtown)
Shine on you crazy diamond.

8. THE COUP FEATURING TALIB KWELI & BLACK THOUGHT – My Favorite Mutiny (Epitaph)
The tempo of this deeply funky hip hop track seems faster than it actually is, which says a lot about the power it wields.

9. BUTCH WALKER – When Canyons Ruled The City (Epic/One Haven/Red Ink)
It's funny how mistaken notions can influence your experience or understanding of a song. As someone who walks among the corporate canyons of the midtown Manhattan skyscrapers on a daily basis, this album-closing ballad resonated as a postcard from the future, from someone who'd either seen those mighty buildings tumble literally—something we've seen around here—or seen their import diminished somehow. A close reading of the lyrics reveals something entirely different: a byzantine soap opera of characters desperate for fame in the Hollywood hills. It doesn't make the song less powerful, just more personal.

10. HAMELL ON TRIAL – Father’s Advice (Righteous Babe)
The saddest song written since Lou Reed’s 1992 wrist-slasher (literally) “Harry’s Circumcision,” but this one is more subtle because it has a relatively rockin’ tempo. Only Ed Hamell could spin the true story of his father’s murder-suicide into a song both this good and this listenable without being sensationalistic. A brutal punch to the gut.

11. PERNICE BROTHERS – Somerville (Ashmont)
12. PERNICE BROTHERS – Cruelty To Animals (Ashmont)
13. PERNICE BROTHERS – Zero Refills (Ashmont)
14. NELLY FURTADO – Say It Right (Geffen)
15. PERNICE BROTHERS – Grudge Fuck (2006) (Ashmont)
16. BUTCH WALKER – We’re All Going Down (Epic/One Haven/Red Ink)
17. HOT CHIP – And I Was A Boy From School (Astralwerks)
18. JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE FEATURING T.I. – My Love (Jive)
19. THE STROKES – You Only Live Once (RCA)
20. MORRISSEY – Life Is A Pigsty (Sanctuary)
Two (count ‘em) Nelly Furtado songs in the top 14; if Teena Marie had sung these songs, they’d already be considered classics. Another beautiful Butch ballad, a couple danceable electro-jams, a Strokes highlight, and one of The Mozzer’s better (and longer) solo compositions. And have I mentioned these Pernice Brothers?

21. SMART BROWN HANDBAG – Harry Larry (Stonegarden)
22. NEW YORK DOLLS – We’re All In Love (Roadrunner)
23. ED HARCOURT – Revolution In The Heart (Heavenly/EMI import)
24. KEANE – Is It Any Wonder? (Interscope)
25. PETE YORN – Splendid Isolation (Red Ink/Columbia)
26. SHE WANTS REVENGE – Tear You Apart (Geffen)
27. JENNY LEWIS WITH THE WATSON TWINS – Rise Up With Fists!!! (Team Love)
28. JOHN LEGEND – P.D.A. (We Just Don’t Care) (Columbia)
29. HAMELL ON TRIAL – Coulter’s Snatch (Righteous Babe)
30. BOB DYLAN – Workingman’s Blues #2 (Columbia)
The Handbag album’s title track is already like a comfy friend the first time you hear it. The track that kicks off the Dolls’ record is a corker. Harcourt makes you dream. Keane makes you marvel at the best-produced rock song to hit the radio all year. Yorn improves on a Warren Zevon chestnut. She Wants Revenge brings the early ‘80s all back home, Jenny brings the story of the hurricane, Legend lays lady lay, Hamell’s simple desultory dissection of odious Ann and the outright lies she perpetrates exposes that blonde really isn’t blonde, and Dylan sounds like tonight he’ll be staying here with you. In that order.

31. YEAH YEAH YEAHS – Honeybear (Interscope)
32. THE FRATELLIS – Chelsea Dagger (Universal import)
33. THE RACONTEURS – Store Bought Bones (V2/Third Man)
34. ALBERT HAMMOND, JR. – In Transit (Rough Trade)
35. PRIMAL SCREAM – Country Girl (Columbia)
36. RIHANNA – S.O.S. (Def Jam)
37. NEKO CASE – The Needle Has Landed (Anti)
38. ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE VENUS 3 – N.Y. Doll (Yep Roc)
39. JARVIS COCKER – Black Magic (Rough Trade import)
40. BEN KWELLER – Magic (ATO)
The Y3’s album’s only memorable rocker, a Sweet/Slade-esque glam stomper, some taut rock, a jangle-synth high, Soft Cell walks into the wrong nightclub, a decent pun, a lighters-out moment, and never believe it’s not so. (N.B. I did not get the full Jarvis album yet, so I’m reserving the right to vote for it on my 2007 albums list, provided it receives a proper U.S. release sometime this year.)

41. KEVIN FEDERLINE – Lose Control (Reincarnate)
42. EDITORS – Fingers In The Factories (Kitchenware)
43. TRIS MCCALL – Not Another Song About You (Jersey Beat)
44. SMART BROWN HANDBAG – Clearing The Slate (Stonegarden)
45. PERNICE BROTHERS – Automaton (Ashmont)
46. ASHFORD BREAKS - Exposure (no label)
47. EDITORS – Munich (Kitchenware)
48. THE KILLERS – When We Were Young (Island)
49. BUTCH WALKER – Dominoes (Epic/One Haven/Red Ink)
50. THE ROBOCOP KRAUS – You Don’t Have To Shout (Epitaph/Ada)
Get up, get into it, and get involved.

51. EDWYN COLLINS – Leviathan (no label)
52. PRIESTESS – Everything That You Are (RCA)
53. BELLE & SEBASTIAN – For The Price Of A Cup Of Tea (Matador)
54. HUMA – Start To Realize (Cult Hero)
55. GOLDEN SMOG – Corvette (Lost Highway)
56. “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC – White And Nerdy (Zomba)
57. BELLE & SEBASTIAN – Song For Sunshine (Matador)
58. BUTCH WALKER – Hot Girls In Good Moods (Epic/One Haven/Red Ink)
59. THE DIVINE COMEDY – A Lady Of A Certain Age (Parlophone)
60. GOLDFRAPP – Fly Me Away (Mute)
A voice suspended in time, Montreal Rock City, something cheap, a neuron burst, if you can get a fast car, a room full of white people, blissed out summer, the club on a good night, dignity, and escapism.

61. THE HOLD STEADY – Stuck Between Stations (Vagrant)
62. NEW YORK DOLLS – Punishing World (Roadrunner)
63. RHETT MILLER – I’m With Her (Verve Forecast)
64. GNARLS BARKLEY – Smiley Faces (Downtown)
65. ED HARCOURT – You Only Call Me When You’re Drunk (Heavenly/EMI import)
66. THE SOUNDS – Tony The Beat (New Line)
67. TRIS MCCALL – An Ass Of U And Me (Jersey Beat)
68. THE COUP – Baby Let’s Have A Baby Before Bush Do Something Crazy (Epitaph)
69. BEN KWELLER – Run (ATO)
70. PRIESTESS – Run Home (RCA)
Stalling, suffering, sweating, smirking, shrieking, sashaying, supposing, sssex, striding, and sweating sweating sweating more.

71. ELECTRIC SIX – Slices Of You (Metropolis)
72. THE RAPTURE – Don Gon Do It (Mercury/Universal)
73. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – O Mary Don’t You Weep (Columbia)
74. THE RACONTEURS – Steady, As She Goes (V2/Third Man)
75. BEN LEE – Catch My Disease (New West)
76. BADLY DRAWN BOY – Welcome To The Overground (Astralwerks)
77. PERNICE BROTHERS – High As A Kite (Ashmont)
78. ARCTIC MONKEYS – Riot Van (Domino)
79. CHRISTINA AGUILERA – Ain’t No Other Man (RCA)
80. PHOENIX – Napoleon Says (Astralwerks)
The first cut is the deepest, don’t do me like that, baby stop crying, solid as a rock, sick again, get along Kid Charlemagne, one toke over the line, police on my back, my only love, and everybody wants to rule the world.

81. PARIS HILTON – Stars Are Blind (Universal)
82. KEVIN FEDERLINE FEATURING YA BOY – Dance With A Pimp (Reincarnate)
83. MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE – Dead (Reprise)
84. THE HOLD STEADY FEATURING ELIZABETH ELMORE & DAVID PIRNER – Chillout Tent (Vagrant)
85. WILLIE NILE – Asking Annie Out (Reincarnate)
86. WE ARE SCIENTISTS – This Scene Is Dead (Virgin)
87. PERNICE BROTHERS – Conscience Clean (I Went To Spain) (Ashmont)
88. ARCTIC MONKEYS – I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor (Domino)
89. THE RAKES – Strasbourg (V2)
90. CAM’RON – Weekend Girl (no label)
Paris and Kevin aren’t nearly as bad as you wish they were—musically, anyway; as human beings, of course, they are reprehensible. My Chem defines screamo, The Hold Steady and company detail a festival mishap, denial is a river in Egypt, We Are Prescients, tabula rasa, if I looked all over the world and there’s every type of girl, Europe is our playground, everybody wants a new romance.

91. THE THERMALS – A Pillar Of Salt (Sub Pop)
92. THE 303’S – Waves And Generation (Cult Hero)
93. RHETT MILLER – Help Me, Suzanne (Verve Forecast)
94. THE STREETS – Hotel Expressionism (Vice/579/Atlantic)
95. GOSSIP – Standing In The Way Of Control (Kill Rock Stars)
96. THE COUP – I Love Boosters! (Epitaph)
97. SCISSOR SISTERS – Oooh (Universal)
98. THE DIVINE COMEDY – Diva Lady (Parlophone)
99. OK GO – Here It Goes Again (Atlantic)
100. THE BEATLES – Drive My Car/The Word/What You’re Doing (Capitol)
You get the idea.

Top 10 Reissues, Compilations & Historical Releases

1. THE BEATLES – Love (Capitol)
There were no Pernice Brothers reissues in 2006, preventing them from being the first-ever winners of the Mike C. Music Quadruple Crown. So, in all their remixed and mashed-up glory, here they are, The Beatles!

2. THE BEATLES – The Capitol Albums, Vol. 2 (Capitol)
Duh part deux.

3. PRETENDERS – Pretenders (Sire/Rhino)
By far the greatest debut album in the entirety of rock & roll history gets its due with the long-overdue remastered double-disc treatment.

4. R.E.M. – And I Feel Fine: The Best Of The I.R.S. Years (2-disc version) (I.R.S./Capitol)
A thoughtful compilation of their best stuff up till ’87, but for fans the real action is on disc two, a fascinating treasure trove of rarities and previously unheard delights. Yet another reminder why they were the best American band of the ‘80s, period.

5. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – Hammersmith Odeon ’75 (Columbia)
Rock and roll future when it was rock and roll present.

6. BEE GEES – The Studio Albums 1967-1968 (Reprise)
The first three BG albums—1st, Horizontal, Idea—in stereo and mono versions, and an enlightening disc of rarities accompanying each one. These are the albums where Barry, Robin, and Maurice wanted so, so badly to be The Beatles, and on many songs they might as well have been. A truly perfect reissue set.

7. MATTHEW SWEET – Girlfriend (Volcano/Legacy)
Wow, do I still love this album. And wow, does the fact that it’s now 15 years old make me feel ancient. My fawning summary of Girlfriend was one of the first record reviews of mine ever to appear in a publication that was printed somewhere other than the copy machine at my father’s office, and though I haven’t read it in a while, I’d probably stand by damn near every word of it today. So if you need to know more, consult the spring 1992 archives of The Rutgers Review. Still one of the 10 best albums of the ‘90s.

8. HEAVEN 17 – Penthouse And Pavement (Virgin import)
A lush British synth-pop classic of the ‘80s. Yummy.

9. THE BYRDS – There Is A Season (Columbia/Legacy)
They’ve been through the reissue mill more times than most, so it’s a great to hear there was some luster left to be added to the sonic reproduction of these timeless recordings.

10. BOW WOW WOW – We Are The ‘80s (RCA/Legacy)
As definitive a comp as we’re likely to ever get by this odd little early ‘80s media creation that actually managed to be a good band.

Top 25 Live Shows

1. PERNICE BROTHERS at The Mercury Lounge, NYC, December 8
2. THE AVENGERS at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, September 9
3. NEW YORK DOLLS at South Street Seaport, NYC, August 18
4. PRIESTESS at The Mercury Lounge, NYC, May 11
5. P.M. DAWN at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, August 2
6. THE HOLD STEADY at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, November 24
7. MY MORNING JACKET at Roseland, NYC, November 30
8. ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE VENUS 3 at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, November 8
9. BEN KWELLER at Webster Hall, NYC, October 20
10. JESSE MALIN and MATT AZZARTO at The Goldhawk, September 8

11. HAMELL ON TRIAL at Comix, NYC, November 29
12. RAY LAMONTAGNE at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, August 27
13. MAGNET at The Living Room, NYC, March 21
14. SCREEN TEST at Shifty’s, Syracuse, N.Y., July 21
15. HOPE AND ANCHOR at Flicker, Athens, Ga., June 17
16. ROONEY at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, July 17
17. STEVE GOODMAN TRIBUTE SHOW (VARIOUS ARTISTS) at The Living Room, NYC, June 7
18. RHETT MILLER at Webster Hall, NYC, April 13
19. THE KILLERS at Webster Hall, NYC, September 22
20. TRIS MCCALL & THE NEW JACK TRIPPERS and CHARLES BISSELL at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, June 24

21. PEELANDER-Z and THE WATERFRONT DUO at Maxwell's, December 12
22. CJ RAMONE & DANIEL REY WITH WALTER LURE, HANDSOME DICK MANITOBA’S BAND, and LENNY KAYE at The Continental, NYC, September 17
23. RYE COALITION, GROUP SOUNDS, and SHELBY at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, January 13
24. SOUL ASYLUM at Irving Plaza, NYC, August 3
25. FOO FIGHTERS and FRANK BLACK at The Beacon Theater, NYC, August 23

Also Worthy
THE FAVE at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, December 1
BILL MCGARVEY at Hoboken Arts & Music Festival, Hoboken, September 17
BEDSIT POETS at The Goldhawk, Hoboken, February 8

Penelope Houston’s new Avengers bring out a version of the punk ethos at its best, one that seeks to create good more than to destroy evil. The Dolls repeated the same set they’d done at the Seaport a month later at the Hoboken Arts & Music festival, and not only was the city show a hair better, it also lacked Sylvain’s asinine comment introducing the band’s song “Trash,” to the effect that the its title was “no reflection on this town.” Gee, Syl, thanks so much for feeling the need to state outright that Hoboken is not trash. Funny, I don’t think any of the thousands of people in attendance needed such a clarification. Whatever.

P.M. Dawn was the weirdest show I’ve seen at Maxwell’s since a February 2002 set by Brian Jonestown Massacre, an oddly similar, sprawling, three-hour mess that was equal parts euphorically great and offensively horrible. Months later at the same venue, it was amusing to see Peter Buck of the Venus 3 standing near the merch table to catch a few minutes of an opening band, while no one approached him. Jesse Malin absolutely owned a hushed back room at The Goldhawk, and Ray LaMontagne did the same a few short blocks away. The gentle brilliance of Hope And Anchor was a highlight of my first-ever night in Athens. Steve Goodman’s sly songs stand the tough test of time.The Killers live show has improved drastically in the space of two years.

Peelander-Z and The Waterfront Duo both must be experienced to be believed, and even then it's not unreasonable to momentarily question how they could both be so brilliant. On the last night of live music at The Continental, Handsome Dick’s declaration that that punk rock was gonna be ok, even with the closing of that venue and CBGB, felt reassuring. A lonely Frank Black, on a Beacon stage that seemed way too large, played an inspired acoustic set that very few people bothered to witness. And yes, those stunning Pernice Brothers outdid them all.

November Reign

2006-11-20T18:26:00.000-05:00

It's been one heckuva busy stretch lately over at Hoboken Rock City studios. Wedding gigs, softball season (yes, games extend into November), and all other sorts of insanity have made for a jagged DJ schedule for me at my rock & roll home base, The Goldhawk. I'm happy to report that for the next six Saturdays in a row--the final six weekends of 2006--I will be in the rock & roll driver's seat, otherwise known as The Goldhawk DJ booth.

Here are some news items and updates, in easily consumable bullet-point format!

• Re-stating the obvious, I'm DJing at The Goldhawk each of the next six Saturday nights. The rock starts at 10 p.m. and goes till last call.

• Mike C.'s 5th Annual Xmas Party will kick off the Dec. 23 gig. That night starts early, at 8 p.m. Join me for a couple hours of strictly seasonal songs, from the Jackson 5...to the Ramones...to Perry Como! To obscurities ranging from Martin Mull to Archers Of Loaf, too. When the time is right, the night will switch into regular rock mode for the rest of the evening, with more holiday tuneage sprinkled throughout.

• Thanks to all who supported Neat Neat Neat, the series of nights I did at Manitoba's in NYC. It was fun, but it ran its course. Taped to the inside of the DJ booth at Manitoba's are these words of wisdom all bar patrons would do well to heed: "26. If there is a DJ you can request a song only once per night. If he doesn't play it within half an hour, do not approach him again. If he does play it, do not approach him again." This pithy brilliance gave me a smile every time I dug into the Manitoba's booth, and it wasn't until a few days ago that I Googled it and discovered the source.

• New photos of yours truly at by the incomparable Michael Waring, who I think achieved something astonishing: he actually made me look sort of cool. Thanks, Michael!

• All 10 episodes of my Hoboken Rock City podcast from 2005 are still downloadable from the home page, but only for a limited time. The podcast files will be removed on or around December 15. If you do not have these shows or you need to download them again, please do so now. Thanks to all who have listened.

• For about six months there, I got lazy about posting playlists on the website. That has been remedied, and while looking back at six months worth of lists makes me realize there are a bunch of songs I've been beating to death and I need to give them a rest, the curious or obsessive can view said playlists.

• Can't say the same about this here blog. Despite this post, it's still pretty much dormant. Perhaps one of these days I'll pick it up again.

• Recommended DJ night other than my own: Pat Pierson at The Iron Monkey, this Wednesday, Nov. 22. 10 p.m. till late, no cover. 97 Greene St., Jersey City, NJ.

• Recommended NYC show #1: Hamell On Trial at Comix 3, Wednesday, Nov. 29. 53 West 14th St., Be there or be square.

• Recommended NYC show #2: Pernice Brothers at Mercury Lounge, Friday, December 8. Be there or be square--squared!

• Stay tuned for details about a possible New Year's Eve gig.

• You can always find my DJ schedule up to date on the home page or over on you-know-what-space.

HOBOKEN ROCK CITY
DJ Mike C. spins rock & roll
Every Saturday night
for the rest of 2006
Nov. 25
Dec. 2, 9, 16, 23* & 30

10 p.m. till late
at The Goldhawk
936 Park Ave. (at 10th St.), Hoboken
no cover, 21+

*Special event:
Saturday, December 23
Mike C.'s 5th Annual Xmas Party
Holiday rock and more
8 p.m. till everyone's sick of Xmas music!

Spirit Of '92

2006-11-07T14:35:00.000-05:00

Listen to Automatic For The People today. And vote!

My first liner notes: A Flock Of Seagulls

2006-07-18T09:16:00.000-04:00

Ok, so it's not a book. Still, I'm proud to announce that today marks the commercial release of the first CD featuring liner notes I wrote.

A Flock Of Seagulls We Are The '80s is in stores today. This Jive/Legacy release features 13 digitally remastered tracks by the new wave group from Liverpool that unfairly has gone down in history as a one-hit wonder joke band. Yes, their singer had probably the worst hair in the history of popular music. Get past the hair, though, and you'll find a band with several solid songs that epitomized their era.

Don't get me wrong, they're no Psychedelic Furs. But as mentioned in the essay I wrote for this CD, A Flock Of Seagulls made music far more relevant than their much maligned reputation would indicate. Robert Christgau hit the nail on the head a few years ago in The Village Voice when he declared the Flock was "so much better than Duran Duran."

If you are in a position to commission me to write liner notes for CDs, let me know and I will get you a free copy. Everyone else who's not a blood relative or a SONY BMG employee, please buy it at your local record store or purchase the physical CD online; don't buy it from iTunes, or you'll miss out on 750 of the proudest words I've ever written.

Here is the link if you wish to purchase the CD from Amazon, where today it is #132,042 on their music chart!

All revved up and ready to go

2006-05-17T00:21:00.000-04:00

I'm spinning another Thursday night of raucous rock at Manitoba's this week for the latest installment of my little rock party Neat Neat Neat. Playing the East Village's definitive punk shack is always exciting, but this week it's a little more so. See, this week I'll be musically honoring the memories of Joey and Dee Dee and Johnny Ramone on the night leading into what would have been Joey's 55th birthday.

I'll be playing your Ramones requests all night along with fan faves, rarities, original versions of songs they covered, kindred spirits, and other hot and heavy hits from the rock, punk, indie, and oldies spectrums (spectra?). If you've been to Manitoba's before, you know it has more NYC punk cred than just about any other bar in the city, with all due respect to the once-mighty CBGB. If you have never been there, come for the music and stay for the intimate environs, the classic punk photography and memorabilia, and the $3 cans of Pabst. We accept you.

NEAT NEAT NEAT
DJ Mike C. spins rock & roll gold

at MANITOBA'S
99 Avenue B (at 7th St.), NYC
no cover, 21+

May 18: Ramones tribute
Celebrating Joey Ramone's birthday

The Name Of This Site Is Mike C. Music; The Name Of This Blog Is Hoboken Rock City

2006-05-15T08:55:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the new mikecmusic.com! The biggest changes are cosmetic, with a new color scheme and site design. Nearly all of the previous site's features are still here. The seldom-used Writings page has been replaced by a Clients page, where I will highlight professional clients I have worked for. The Home page, Playlists, Reviews, Interviews, Biography, and the Contact form have not changed in any significant ways. Links, instead of being divided into the dopey categories I had previously designated, are now one big alphabetical listing.

The Blog page, such as it is, is the one section where this website's original name, Hoboken Rock City, will be maintained. In other words, this website is now called Mike C. Music. However, the blog is Hoboken Rock City Blog. If you have links that go to the hobokenrockcity.com domain, it would be best if you could direct them to mikecmusic.com instead, although the old ones will continue to work for some time to come. Still with me?

As for said blog, it began in November 2004 as a forum for my writings on music and politics, and Hoboken life. Obviously, I have not been keeping up with those angles; for the last many months, this space has become a place where I alert people to my upcoming DJ events, more and more of which are happening in Manhattan these days. All I can say is that I hope I can make the time to write about shows I've been going to, music I've been listening to, and Republicans who have been pissing me off when I can. That said, I can guarantee you the next post I make here will be about my big Ramones tribute event at Manitoba's this Thursday.

Huge thanks to my web guru Jim Romaine for his pristine work, and to my graphic designer Robin C. Hendrickson for expert logo and color design. Excellent work, gentlemen.

April Gets Twice As Neat

2006-04-10T09:13:00.000-04:00

Good news for Neat Neat Neat fans. The party's moving from one Wednesday a month to two Thursdays a month. For anyone who doesn't feel like doing the math, that's twice as much rock & roll, and on a sexier night.

We're not wasting any time, either—it starts up next week on Thursday, April 20. For this first Thursday edition of Neat*3, I'll man the decks all night.

Starting in May, look for guest DJs and tribute nights where I'll be playing extra heavy doses of your favorite bands. It's gonna be fun. Thanks to all who were there last week. And huge props to DJ Catskillz for her inspired guest stint; I hadn't heard that Afghan Whigs version of "Lost In The Supermarket" in years. Pics here.

NEAT NEAT NEAT

1st & 3rd Thursdays of the month
10 p.m. till stupefyingly late

at MANITOBA'S
99 Avenue B (at 7th St.), NYC
no cover, 21+

Thursday, April 20
DJ Mike C. spins punk / post-punk / indie / garage / glam / mod / more

$3 PBR

More April gigs...

CORROSION

Saturday, April 29
10 p.m. till 11:30 p.m. - Mike C. set
Party rocks till 4 a.m.

The darker 80's & beyond
Host: DJ Mister X
Early set April 29: DJ Mike C.

at LUKE & LEROY
21 7th Avenue South (at Leroy St.), NYC
no cover, 21+

I'm rocking another set at this weekly '80s party hosted by DJ Mister X. I'll spin dance rock & new wave faves from 10 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. The party happens every Saturday, but get there early on April 29 for my rare appearance.

HOBOKEN ROCK CITY

Saturday, April 15
Don't tax your lungs—it's the first smoke-free night in NJ bars!

and 2 special Fridays, April 21 & 28

10 p.m. - 2:30 a.m.

at THE GOLDHAWK
936 Park Ave. at 10th St., Hoboken
no cover, 21+

Drink specials all night

April Shower Of Hits (Mikes On 45)

2006-04-04T09:08:00.000-04:00

Hot on the heels of this past weekend's two-fisted rock & roll action at The Goldhawk on Friday and Saturday, the big April shower of hits rolls into the big city this Wednesday at Manitoba's for Neat Neat Neat. It's another installment of rock & roll night school, and this time DJ Catskillz will be putting her own stamp on the night with a special guest set.

There's four more Goldhawk nights to go this month, as well as another set at Luke & Leroy for the Corrosion '80s party on Saturday, April 29. All pertinent info follows.

NEAT NEAT NEAT

Wednesday, April 5
10 p.m. till ?

at MANITOBA'S
99 Avenue B (at 7th St.), NYC
no cover, 21+

DJ Mike C. spins raucous rock
with guest DJ Catskillz

$3 Pabst

CORROSION

Saturday, April 29
10 p.m. till 11:30 p.m. - Mike C. set
Party rocks till 4 a.m.

The darker 80's & beyond
Host: DJ Mister X
Opening set April 29: DJ Mike C.

at LUKE & LEROY
21 7th Avenue South (at Leroy St.), NYC
no cover, 21+

I'm rocking another set at this weekly '80s party hosted by DJ Mister X. I'll spin dance rock & new wave faves from 10 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. The party happens every Saturday, but get there early on April 29 for my rare appearance.

HOBOKEN ROCK CITY

Saturdays, April 8 & 15
Fridays, April 21 & 28
10 p.m. - 2:30 a.m.

at THE GOLDHAWK
936 Park Ave. at 10th St., Hoboken
no cover, 21+

Drink specials all night

Mike C.'s Second Annual Yankee Preview

2006-04-03T08:17:00.000-04:00

They gotta stop choking eventually. Law of averages. Subway series, anyone?

This Corrosion

2006-03-10T09:28:00.000-05:00

Every Saturday night, DJ Mister X hosts Corrosion, a night of "the darker '80s and beyond" at Luke & Leroy's. At tomorrow night's event, I'll have the privilege of spinning the opening set from 10 p.m. until 11:30 or so.

Dying to hear that '80s synthpop song you can't hear anywhere else? Come request it while I'm DJing, and I just might make your every '80s dream come true. There's no cover, a big dance floor, an upscale lounge and, from what I'm told, sexy people.

Corrosion started up in early last year on Tuesday nights. Soon after the Saturday night MisShapes shenanigans moved from Luke & Leroy's to Don Hill's, the Corrosion party moved from Tuesdays to Saturdays. Saturday is the new Saturday!

My set will be mostly '80s with a couple new things thrown in. Mister X takes the party through the night with new wave, synthpop, electro, industrial, indie, and more. This week's party is also a Duran Duran tribute night, so expect to hear plenty from the law firm of LeBon, Rhodes, Taylor, Taylor & Taylor. And just as a head's up, next week's party on March 18 will feature a Depeche Mode tribute as well as a release party for the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs CD.

In other NYC party news, the March edition of Neat Neat Neat at Manitoba's went great. Thanks to Pat Pierson for an inspired guest DJ set and to Yep Roc Records for providing vinyl and other goodies that were lapped up by appreciative partygoers. The next Neat^3 will be Wednesday, April 5 at Manitoba's. More details soon...

I Got Nothing 'Gainst The Press, They Wouldn't Print It If It Wasn't True

2006-02-23T09:07:00.000-05:00

On page 84 of this week's Time Out New York, there is quite a nice one-paragraph write-up about the next NEAT NEAT NEAT party, which I'm hosting at Manitoba's next Wednesday, March 1 at 10 p.m. (The write-up is not available online.) Though the bar's clientele has evolved in recent months to the point where the "tattooed crowd of ruffians" Time Out suggests hang out there no longer dominate the scene, the place's punk rock spirit is very much intact.

Next week's gig should be a lot of fun. Not only will I be DJing, but my compadre Pat Pierson of WRSU (Tuesdays 4-6 p.m.) and Yeah Yeah Yeah magazine will be guest spinning as well. The nice folks at Yep Roc Records gave me a bunch of cool stuff to give away—vinyl, t-shirts, etc.—so that stuff will be free for the taking while supplies last. It's also my very own (early) birthday party. Full details about the night—as well as my upcoming opening set at the weekly '80s party Corrosion on Saturday, March 11—are on my home page.

On the topic of press coverage, I also must mention the really nice podcasting story Lani Buess wrote for Exit Weekly, the newest and probably best free northern New Jersey entertainment paper. Though my Hoboken Rock City podcast is still on possibly permanent hiatus, it was fun to share some thoughts on the burgeoning medium and see some of them (as well as a stunning action photo of me spinning records in a club) make it into print. Sadly, this article, much like this week's Time Out blurb, is not available online. Hey, you wanna keep up with me, you gotta kick it old school and read some dead-tree media. All 10 Hoboken Rock City podcasts are still available for download on, yeah, the home page

Anyway, Exit beats the piss out of the longstanding Jersey club guide Steppin' Out simply by offering, like, actual editorial content. Their new website is pretty kick-ass, with useful features like searchable events listings. You can grab the print version of Exit at orange boxes all over Hoboken and North Jersey as well as fine locations like my Hoboken "home office away from home" The Goldhawk. Exit's MySpace page even has a full list of locations where you can get the mag in each New Jersey town where it's distributed. Pretty cool.

All That Pazz

2006-02-03T09:02:00.000-05:00

After I published my Favorite Music Of 2005 lists last week, it came to my attention that Common, the rapper whose album Be was my favorite of the year, is a pro-lifer and a homophobe. Who knew?

Seriously, Common is an artist who's been on my radar screen since his 2000 major-label debut Like Water For Chocolate, but I do not own and have never listened to any of his previous albums. I had not followed his career closely at all.

Why did I even buy Be? Because I saw the "Go!" video in a co-worker's office and was blown away by the groove, I knew Kanye had produced the album, and I'd read a couple positive reviews. I'm usually hopelessly behind the curve when it comes to hip-hop; I think the only rap album I ever bought during the week it was released was Doggystyle. I took a gamble and bought Be, and it became my iPod fave for months.

Maybe I didn't parse every word of the lyrics as closely as I thought I did, but I don't hear any messages of hate on the record. Some lazy meanness here and there, yes, but nothing crazy. The Chronic, which is probably my favorite rap album of all time, has a lot of a lot more meanness at its core, and I have managed to not stop listening to that pretty regularly for more than a dozen years.

I'm a political kind of guy, but politics can go out the window once the stereo is turned on. Though generally I can't get into music that advocates war, class division, or religious fervor, I can separate a piece of music from the person or people making it and even, often—as weird as this might sound—its own lyrics.

Hey, I'm not a celibate gay vegan, but I sure do love Morrissey's music. Hell, Morrissey is not necessarily celibate (he's reportedly had at least one relationship since The Smiths broke up), not necessarily gay (although probably, but he's never quite said so), and not necessarily vegan (the man who hugged cows in the "Suedehead" video does occasionally wear leather), and I bet he likes his own music. Then again, he's such a misanthrope that maybe he doesn't.

Simliar to what I noted last year, it amazes me that there are albums and songs in my top tens that were not singled out for mention by any of the other 794 Pazz & Jop critics. There was zero fanfare and almost as few sales for my #2 album, Pitty Sing's self-titled debut (and swan song, as they split up before 2005 was out), so it's not shocking that I was the only one to cast a ballot for them. On the singles side, I was the only critic to give votes to Manhead's cover of The Godfathers' "Birth, School, Work, Death" and Dave's True Story's elegant ballad "Blue Nile."

For the sixth consecutive year, Glenn McDonald has published a statistical analysis of the voters, ranked by the average number of other voters who voted for each of their picks. If you follow that. In other words, this year I came in an embarrassingly high #112 out of 795 voters. That means 111 critics had ballots that reflected the consensus more than mine, and 683 of them reflected the consensus less than I did.

I can console myself about coming in 506 spots ahead of the legendary Greil Marcus (whose politically charged singles ballot included Led Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks" and more than one blues song released in the 1920s) with the fact that Eric Weisbard finished 15 notches ahead of me. Hell, the mighty Ann Powers came in at #9. Last year I was #211 of 793, for the '03 survey I was #467 of 726, in '02 I was #459 of 692, and in 2001—the first year I voted—I was #281 of 617. From a strict statistical standpoint, this means I followed the herd more this year than any of those previous years. Did I not dig deep enough in 2005, or is it just a coincidence that I found stuff that was more popular to be closer to the cream of this year's crop? Ah, unimportant rhetorical questions.

Voters in the The Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll are encouraged but not required to send in commentary to be printed along with the survey's results and a few other essays. As I mentioned here the other day, my one-sentence take on neighbor Kanye made it to print this year. Below are the rest of the comments I submitted that were not published. The M.I.A. bit is the only part I recycled in my best-of piece.

Dear Kanye,
Welcome to Hoboken! Apparently you've been here in the neighborhood for a couple years, but the papers on this side of the river are kind of slow to pick up on this sort of thing, and the national media's in denial that the most critically acclaimed artist of the past two years is a Hoboken resident. Haven't run into you yet at Maxwell's or any of the fine local Italian delis, but I guess you've been pretty busy. Listen, when you get around to making Unmatriculated, Provost's Pet, or whatever you're calling your third album, might I suggest you look to your adopted hometown for inspiration. Stand up for us underdogs, the much maligned "bridge and tunnel" crowd who keep the great big island city afloat, and who Manhattanites care about roughly as much as George Bush cares about black people. You are one of us now; don't misrepresent.

Artistic merits aside, feminism is in serious trouble if Common and Kanye are congratulated for saying "bitch" but not "ho."

I had to leave M.I.A. off my top 10 because I don't trust the fact that I like her. Not because she isn't great; she clearly is. But as someone who's not big on hip-hop most years, doesn't dig much "world" music, and can't stand dancehall reggae, I'm awfully suspicious that I could like an album that fuses all three. Sometimes the most restrictive stereotypes are the ones we give ourselves.

If I point out that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are merely ok, do I have to shut down my blog?

When I saw not one but two young black male singing hopefuls croon "Ordinary People" in separate sets at a randomly selected Amateur Night at The Apollo in June, the song already sounded so classic that it was hard to imagine a time when it hadn't existed. When my world was rocked at that same venue two months later in a political benefit where Stevie Wonder showed he's lost none of his charm and almost none of his voice, part of me almost hoped he'd do the song too. If Stevie's new album had even one song half as good as this, I might have listened to it more than once so far.

For those of us too young to understand disco the first time around, and too busy listening to Corey Hart to "get" new wave in its heyday, James Murphy creates magical mystery hybrids of epic dancehall importance.

This year The New Pornographers benefitted from "makeup syndrome," in which the critical herd, not unlike Grammy or Oscar voters, compensates for ignoring an artist's vital, early work by overly praising later, lesser efforts. It's regrettable, but we've all done it, and it couldn't have happened to a nicer band.

"Finding Out True Love Is Blind" is just rude enough to be dangerous and just silly enough not to be threatening. Wait, that doesn't make any sense. Why did I vote for it again? Oh yeah, it rocks--something not many other rock bands heard by anything close to a mainstream audience did this year.

Art Brut: because Art Teen Spirit smelled too much like Nirvana.

Three Times A Punk Rock Bar

2006-02-02T18:32:00.000-05:00

My December gig at Manitoba's was pretty much a bust attendance-wise, thanks to the transit strike. The one in early January wasn't much better, coming the week after New Year's, when everyone's tired, broke, and way out of the party mood.

Last night, the third time charm rule was in effect. Neat Neat Neat #2 was a lot of fun. In addition to our fine bar staff of Henry at the door and Kryssy pulling the taps, there was a sizable crew of rockin' folks I didn't know. And there were so many of my favorite people in the room: old friends, ex-roommates and ex-classmates, former post-college Hobokenites, co-workers past and present, my DJing mentor, a fellow Jersey music blogger, an insanely gifted jazz pianist, a kick-ass rock & roll violinist, a talented singer, and a gifted actress. If I hadn't been ruling the speakers with an iron fist, we could have had one hell of a jam session. I was humbled and honored.

Neat Neat Neat #3 is a go for Wednesday, March 1, 10 p.m. at Manitoba's. That one will be my birthday party, and will almost certainly feature a guest DJ. Stay tuned for details.

Happy Groundhog Day, kids. Don't party too hard tonight.

"I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met a girl. We ate lobster and drank piña coladas. At sunset we made love like sea otters. That was a pretty good day. Why couldn't I get that day over and over and over?"

Tonight: Punk Rock & Cheap Beer

2006-02-01T07:39:00.000-05:00

I spin the tunes. Kryssy gets you drunk on $3 domestic bottled beers. To ask for anything more would just be greedy.

What kind of tunes will you hear tonight at Neat Neat Neat? A bumrush of the familiar and the obscure. Lately I've been digging deep in the rock & roll vaults to come up with some fun surprises, and I think I found a few rarely heard gems to play.

The night focuses on unk, glam, garage, post-punk, and new wave, but ultimately it can be whatever strikes my rock & roll fancy. Stuff like The Damned (from whom the night gets its name), New York Dolls, Ian Dury, 999, Pretenders, Bloc Party, Elastica, The Stooges, Los Beatles, T. Rex, Thin Lizzy, Stevie Wonder, Art Brut, do ya get the idea? If ya don't believe me, peep last month's playlist.

The party starts now! Well, at 10 p.m., but close enough. It's all happening at the true home of punk rock in New York city, Manitoba's.

NEAT NEAT NEAT
First Wednesday of the month

Wednesday, February 1 - TONIGHT
10 p.m. sharp till late
no cover, 21+

at Manitoba's
99 Avenue B (bet. 6th & 7th)

Thanks to FreeNYC, a fine resource for free and cheap events in the city, for listing the event. Extrawack! shows love, too.

Thanks also for this listing from Terre T. of The Cherry Blossom Clinic, the kick-ass rock & roll show everyone should listen to on Saturdays from 3 to 6 p.m. on WFMU. You can listen to Terre's show anytime you want on the internet, thanks to the streaming archives.

Those of you on the mainland can catch me spinning this Saturday, February 4, at 10 p.m. at The Goldhawk.

And a hearty thank you to everyone who read and commented on my Favorite Music Of 2005 lists. For me, the best part about making and publishing those lists are the conversations they start and the music that others prompt me to check out based on them.

In more "best of" news, The Village Voice Pazz & Jop results are up. They were nice enough to print one pithy sentence I wrote about Hoboken's most famous current resident in one of the commentary sections (page 84 in the print edition). And for a fascinating Jersey-based survey with a smaller sample size—but at more than one-seventh the size of the ever-growing Pazz & Jop population this year, not so small anymore—read Tris McCall's Critics Poll.

Hate It Or Love It: Mike C.'s Favorite Music Of 2005

2006-01-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

The permalinks are here: albums • reissues • songs • live shows

Can I talk my shit again?

It's become an annual tradition. Sometime in late January or early February, weeks after best-of roundups have been published by major media outlets and even most bloggers and amateur pundits, I finally get around to mine. Those extra few weeks give a little extra perspective on the year, some more time to make sense of it all, and just maybe a fighting chance to stand out among all the other lists out there. My lists could be revised and re-revised to death, so around this time of the new year feels like a good point to cut it off. When I watch a movie, I stay until the last credit has rolled; similarly, I can't fairly comment on the best cultural offerings of a year just passed until all 365 or 366 days have indeed finished parading by.

Last year I ranked my 100 favorite albums. I would have liked to repeat that ostentatious number this year, but I only feel strongly about 75 or so records this time out. It seemed wiser to concentrate on the good stuff rather than pad it out just the sake of reaching a bigger, rounder number. So, a special note to everyone whose record is toward the end of these 50, or who made the "also worthy" list: realize that you did quite well. This is not like being awarded the "Participant" ribbon at 6th grade field day. Hey, this year you made the list and The New Pornographers didn't. And if this were last year, there would be plenty of records on behind yours on the list. This truly is the creme de la creme of the chess world in a show with everything but Yul Brenner.

Though this year I plan to launch another website, mikecmusic.com, at this time my web activities are based out of Hoboken Rock City. HRC is where you can find my blog, podcasts, reviews (soon to be updated with 2005 entries), and a bunch of other rock & roll fun.

Disclaimer: In addition to being a frequent DJ and a sometime critic, I am also a full-time employee of one of those big, bad major record labels. Though some people may feel that last bit disqualifies me from being able to credibly write opinions about music, the fact is I would have nothing much to gain by letting personal or professional self-interests influence the opinions I express about music. Anyone who’s interested in knowing my business or personal relationship with any of the artists on these lists is welcome to ask.

UPDATE 01/30/06
For more a more democratic take on the year in music, Tris McCall's Critics Poll began posting its results today. Tomorrow, The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop goes up. What a fun week for music nerds!

Thank you, and rock on,
Mike C.

50 Favorite Albums Of 2005

1. COMMON - Be (Good/Geffen)
For the first time since Guru's Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 in 1993, a hip-hop album tops my list. This is noteworthy, considering that I spend relatively little of music-listening time on hip-hop, that my DJ gigs at the Alphabet City punk haven Manitoba's in NYC (where I'm spinning punk rock tunes next Wednesday, Feb. 1, 10 p.m.) are strict celebrations of rockism, and that when I do spin hip-hop at gigs it's usually at the insistence of certain members of the staff of a certain Hoboken bar (where I can usually be found spinning on Saturdays). Given these truths, Common's album landing at #1 on my list has to rank as a surprise development.

The first time hearing Jazzmatazz was an impressionable event for a 21-year-old about-to-be-college-senior. I was hanging out after-hours in an office in the Rap Promotion department of EMI Records on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, visiting a friend and classmate who was interning there. Fully forty floors below in the same building, I was interning in the editorial department of a well-known national entertainment magazine. I'd grown up within a half-hour drive of New York City, but it was not until this two-day-a-week intern gig in the summer of '93 that I first felt like I was a part of the city. My internship wasn't bad, but my classmate's gig at the record label seemed more exciting. It wasn't just that she could hook me up with free CDs at will, though that certainly was part of the allure; free CDs are a big deal when you're used to paying for them. There was something about the energy of that office, even after two-thirds of the staff had left for the day, that gave me a charge and made me want to be a part of it. When it came time to do another internship during the second half of senior year, I signed right up with a record company, putting my journalistic dreams on the back burner where they have simmered since.

Guru's first Jazzmatazz got mixed reviews, but I fully bought the hype about its fusion of hip-hop and live jazz played by Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers, and others ushering in a new era for hip-hop. Of course, despite (or perhaps because of) the popularity of Arrested Development, Digable Planets, and L.L. Cool J's appearance on MTV Unplugged, the so-called rap enlightenment was not televised, because it never materialized. Alongside Jazzmatazz, the other rap album that captured my imagination that summer was Dr. Dre's The Chronic, a diametrically opposed work in many ways which, in retrospect, has withstood the test of time a hell of a lot better than the efforts of Guru and his cavalcade of guest jazz cats and soul vocalists.

With all this in mind, why on earth did I gravitate to Be more than any other album I heard in 2005? Oh, Common and Be's producer Kanye West are hardly paragons of virtue insofar as their lyrics are concerned. Fine, their misogyny is watered down more than many of the most popular rappers, and they don't glorify drug use or gang violence. But their edge is intact; this really isn't PC stuff. The key is that they don't get by solely on edge, the crutch of too many rappers; any gangsta sentiment (and there isn't much on this album, although the cry of "When this bitch did the crime!" on "Testify" is awfully mean spirited, even if it's just part of the narrative) leavens the relatively placid soundscapes and creates a dynamic tension on top of which Kanye's flawless production shines.

Thematically it's a little all over the map, veering from sexual fantasies to the life aspirations of small children, but no one's asking for a concept album. Be is not overly focused so as to be boring, and it's not insularly defined as to be predictable. It's short enough to be savored and understood without having to devote hours and hours of one's time to it, yet not so simple when you dig a little deeper. It has zero bad songs and is a flawless work.

2. PITTY SING – Pitty Sing (Or)
The biggest nouveau new wave album of 2005 was...The Killers' mid-2004 release. Sigh. While the pace of technology increases and the means of distributing music to the public are the fastest they've ever been, the lethargy with which the industry is content to milk product continues unabated. Hot Fuss was my favorite album of 2004, and I think it still stands up well a year later, but come on, enough already.

The charts in the trade mags and the playlists on terrestrial radio barely change from week to week, and it's no secret why. The industry long ago figured out that it's cheaper and easier to sell four million copies of one release than to sell one million copies each of four separate releases. Hence the present era of mega-hits or bust. The Killers actually got some traction in the mainstream as 2004 went on, so they were shoved down everyone's throats for all of 2005. It helped sales of their record, but it's doubtful it'll build a lasting career. That's just not how things work, historically. If you want an artist's fan base to grow organically, you let them do their thing at their own artistic pace, you don't overexpose them, you embrace the concept of artist development.

How things would have played out for Pitty Sing, we'll never know. The New York quintet whose self-titled full-length debut, a January 2005 release teeming with at least a half-dozen radio-friendly singles, succumbed to their own apparently enormous egos and disbanded before the year even ended. Maybe the singer sounded a little too much like Morrissey in spots—he was born in Manchester—and we all know how well the Mozzer went over with mainstream America during The Smiths' heyday.

But I don't totally buy that excuse for their lack of success. The lyrics aren't any worse than what Brandon Flowers & Co. came up with, and much of the music is catchier. Why such a near-perfect pop album molded into a mainstream-friendly form got zero hype and limped its way to 4,700 copies sold while their labelmate Matisyahu has sold 52 times that amount and counting with a live album of Hasidic reggae that was the talk of the music blogs from here to Hungary is a mystery that ought to be showing up on one of those Law & Order knockoffs like Cold Case in a few years.

3. ELECTRIC SIX – Señor Smoke (XL)
Chuck Klosterman compares them to Van Halen, Anthony Miccio compares them to The New York Dolls, and I think they're both onto something. Flamboyant, inherently ridiculous, hard to take seriously, undeniably indelible. The Detroit masters of the disco-rock hybrid were rewarded for improving on their debut by having this even better album held back from U.S. audiences for a full year; an early 2005 release in Europe, this puppy doesn't hit U.S. stores until February 7, 2006. Talk about inherently ridiculous.

4. BRENDAN BENSON – The Alternative To Love (V2)
In the mold of Matthew Sweet's magnum opus Girlfriend, this is the type of album that people who don't immerse themselves in the music press, or the web, or satellite radio, or a network of musically obsessed friends will claim no one makes anymore. If you like white male singers in the power-pop tradition with great lyrics about relationship angst, The Alternative To Love is your album of the year.

5. KANYE WEST – Late Registration (Roc-A-Fella)
Though his greatest and most admirable achievement of 2005 was speaking truth to power on national TV in a day and age when hardly anyone has the guts to do so, Hoboken's favorite son—yes, he lives here, he's ours now, sorry Chi-town—actually bested his debut with an even more engaging second album.

6. MY MORNING JACKET – Z (ATO/RCA)
From behind the haze of echo emerges a cohesive, restrained (ambition-wise, not emotionally) batch of 10 memorably good songs.

7. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - LCD Soundsystem (DFA/EMI)
A multi-disc dance extravaganza a la Saturday Night Fever, except it's all basically one guy, and you won't hear it at weddings 25 years from now. How well James Murphy's electro-disco will fare over time remains to be seen; my Fatboy Slim CDs which were indispensible when I started DJing seven years ago aren't exactly in heavy rotation now. But boy, anyone who likes to work a little vibey electronic dance pop into their DJ sets had to view this collection of recent dance floor faves with a disc of solid new material as a hell of a godsend. To pretend that this music foretells a new golden age of electronic pop conquering the mainstream is to believe it's still the 20th century, but to ignore the obvious charms within here would be equally short-sighted. Get up, get into it, and get involved.

8. ART BRUT – Bang Bang Rock & Roll (Fierce Panda)
Sincere, bratty, but not mean-spirited English punk album of the year. A pleasantly consistent surprise of an album from a band whose debut single "Formed A Band" b/w "Bad Weekend" could have easily been a flash in the punk rock pan.

9. SUFJAN STEVENS – Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty)
I find it almost embarrassing that Pitchfork's pick for best album of the year made my top 10; hell all of their top 4 (Sufjan plus Kanye, Art Brut, and M.I.A.) made my top 11. Just because Pitchfork's condescending "indier than thou—and cooler, too, punk" stance makes their record reviews literally unreadable doesn't mean they can't occasionally be right. For those unfamiliar with this, this is quasi-Christian folkie Stevens' second album dedicated to one of the fifty states; the first one—which I've yet to hear—was a meditation on Michigan. Overlong and perhaps overly ambitious, an album eerily similiar in spirit to last year's Fiery Furnaces effort Blueberry Boat. The chief difference between the two, and the reason why this album made the top 10 while that '04 Furnaces record checked in at #66, is that Illinois contains actual songs.

10. PERNICE BROTHERS – Discover A Lovelier You (Ashmont)
So subtly brilliant that they can be easy to miss, even a relatively minor effort like this one is a major event when it's a band this good. It's difficult to gauge what the future holds for this group once based in Massachusetts, then New York City, before its members scattered to the far corners of the continent. Main man Joe Pernice is now living in Toronto, and he grew the beard to prove it. Hopefully the group and its malleable lineup will continue to perform under this name. Either way, it's as fine a collection of '60s-meets-'90s influenced pop as could be hoped for, just another 40 or so minutes of brilliance that will enrich anyone whose path it crosses.

11. M.I.A. - Arular (XL)
I had to leave M.I.A. out of my top 10 because I don't trust the fact that I like her. Not because she isn't great; she clearly is. But as someone who's not big on hip-hop most years, doesn't dig much "world" music, and can't stand dancehall reggae, I'm awfully suspicious that I could like an album that is fusion of all three. Sometimes the most restrictive stereotypes are the ones we give ourselves.

12. KATE BUSH – Aerial (Columbia)
The Village Voice really screwed Kate Bush this year. Nothing against the Voice, whose annual Pazz & Jop poll is as close to a definitive survey of the year in music as exists in the U.S., but their deadline for top 10 lists was really early this year: December 27, in fact, four days before the year allegedly being evaluated even friggin' ended. Album releases may indeed be more predictable than natural disasters, which is the only reason why it's slightly less offensive that critics were asked to rank the top albums and singles of a year that wasn't quite over yet as opposed to mainstream journalism outlets, who routinely run "top 10 news stories of the year" lists sometime around the second week of December, leading to farces like lists of the "top 10 news stories of 2004" that did not include the December 26 tsunami.

Anyway, the first album in 12 years by Kate—who, through no fault of her own, happens to share a surname with the leader of what was referred to as "the free world" until Bill Clinton left office—is a "grower," the sort of album that takes time to reveal its many layers of genius. I had this album before December 27, I liked it before December 27, and I was in love with its lush final two tracks before December 27. But I wasn't consumed with it like I am now. Perhaps it's my fault for not spending more time with this album in the waning months of 2005. Since the top 10 spots on my albums and songs lists had to be finalized on December 27 for the Voice's purposes, Kate finished out of the money on both lists. For reasons of consistency, I'm unwilling to change my top 10 as I publish the unexpurgated versions of my lists now, nearly a month later. Sorry, Kate.

13. THE TEARS – Here Come The Tears (Independiente)
There are probably fewer than 50 people in the world who think Suede's best work was done after guitarist Bernard Butler left the glammy Brit rockers to fend for themselves, but I am one of them. So Butler's first collaboration with singer Brett Anderson in a decade surprises not because it picks up where the two left off with Dog Man Star, but because it sounds like the fraternal twin of the first album Suede Mach II made sans Bernard, and by far my favorite of the band's career, Coming Up.

14. SAINT ETIENNE – Tales From Turnpike House (Sanctuary)
A quietly brilliant sketch of a London apartment building from the city's electro-tinged pop trio, replete with two or three songs that would fit in just fine on U.S. Top 40 radio if singer Sarah Cracknell's last name were Clarkson, Lohan, or Duff. Oh well, more for us.

15. BLOC PARTY – Silent Alarm (Vice)
If you're the kind of person who reads these kinds of lists, you probably already know if you like this, and odds are pretty good you do. Like the first Franz Ferdinand album, a thoroughly solid work that will be awfully tough to follow up.

16. ELKLAND – Golden (Columbia)
Straight-ahead no-bull synth-pop album just like they used to make back in the good old days. Fitting that they opened all 10 shows of Erasure's stay at Irving Plaza. If this album were released in 1988, it would have been all over alternative radio stations like WLIR, and after burning up the dance floor at Aldo's and The Loop Lounge for months, "I Need You Tonight" might have crossed over and became one of the biggest pop songs of the year.

17. IVY – In The Clear (Nettwerk)
The American Saint Etienne—both groups are trios with two male instrumentalists and a female singer, both based in their respective country's most obvious metropolis, both at it since the early '90s, both masters of glamorous pop with a rock & roll edge—nail it again. They're less prolific than Ms. Cracknell & Co., at least in part because one of them splits his time between this band and Fountains Of Wayne, who sound nothing like this band. The relative sparseness of their offerings makes each one all the more luscious to savor.

18. THE HOLD STEADY - Separation Sunday (Frenchkiss)
Casual sexism aside, this is faux Thin Lizzy/early Springsteen at its absolute best.

19. OCEAN COLOUR SCENE – A Hyperactive Workout For The Flying Squad (Sanctuary)
In which a band leftover from the '90s Britpop explosion—one of the few I never cared for much, in fact—comes out of nowhere to make a career-defining opus full of vibrant pop. If a tree falls in the forest...

20. RODNEY CROWELL – The Outsider (Columbia)
Wordy, world-weary, but not wishy-washy country-influenced singer/songwriter stuff. One of the best albums in a career full of good ones by a man whose ex-father-in-law was Johnny Cash. Emmylou Harris and John Prine guest, and if they mean anything to you, you'll go nuts for this. If they don't mean anything to you, do something about that first.

21. TSAR – Band-Girls-Money (TVT)
A primer by which punk-pop ought to be redefined.

22. FEIST – Let It Die (Interscope)
Short on songwriting, long on style, ambience, and cover song choices--can't go wrong with the Bee Gees or Ron Sexsmith. As a debut album from this sexy-voiced Canadian songstress and Broken Social Scenester, we'll take it.

23. TIM BURGESS – I Believe (Koch)
On his solo debut, the Charlatans UK frontman goes the Paul Weller route, with a breezy, easy-to-please collection of upbeat pop moments that sounds very little like his old group in terms of production and instrumentation. A welcome surprise.

24. THE BRAVERY – The Bravery (Island)
Hate it or love it, yeeeeeeah. No one with any credibility on the topic of 21st century new wave is supposed to like this, but if you can ignore the fact that these guys pretty much are poseurs, you'll find that a good two-thirds of the songs on their debut are well-constructed pop machines, and their lyrics aren't any worse than anyone else's in the genre. May stand the test of time better than anyone suspects.

25. THE WHITE STRIPES – Get Behind Me Satan (V2)
I've learned not to ignore them, but I still don't love them. Their most stylistically varied work to date is, if not their best album, certainly their most enjoyable listen. Their continued popularity relative to other bands doing a similar type of thing amazes me to no end.

26. LYRICS BORN – Same #$*& Different Day (Quannum)
Remix wins again. The best remix album in a year of some good ones (Bloc Party, even Death From Above 1979) recasts tunes from the Japanese rapper's 2003 effort Later That Day... alongside gems like the Stereo MC's Rattlesnake Mix of "I Changed My Mind," which is only the best five minutes of funk unleashed in this solar system in the last ten years, and has really never left heavy rotation at my gigs or in my life since it was released in 1999.

27. SHOUT OUT LOUDS – Howl Howl Gaff Gaff (Capitol/Bud Fox)
28. LOUIS XIV – The Best Little Secrets Are Kept (Atlantic)
Just like you can't have a picnic unless somebody brings the ants, you can't have a party unless somebody brings the rock.

29. THE GO! TEAM – Thunder, Lightning, Strike (Columbia/Memphis Industries)
Poppy? Yes. Hipper than thou? Oh yeah. Songs? Kinda. Cool production? Totally. Ephemeral? Likely. Temporarily indispensible? Shit yeah.

30. RENO’S MEN – Step Up To The Stereo Slider (Quagmyre Shagpile)
Wither Reno's Men. The best live crew to come out of New Jersey since the change was made uptown and the Big Man joined the band, these Scottish expats never failed to enthrall at their theatrical club gigs at The Loop Lounge, Brownie's, The China Club, and everyplace else that had them. These four lads, cruel victims of music biz ageism who would have been signed to a good indie label in a late-'90s heartbeat had they been a few years younger, melded several generations of punkfunktriphopglam and more into a synthesis that by all rights never should have worked yet always did.

Though recordings passed around among friends and fans (including WFMU's Glen Jones) but never truly "released" did hint at their greatness, it was not until Step Up that frontman James Murphy (no relation to the LCD Soundsystem guy) and his gang of three properly captured their essence on disc. Which makes it all a bit sadder that the album's release coincided with the band's decision to cease performing. If Reno's Men had re-recorded the 10 or 12 best songs in their repertoire with this production quality, it would easily be the best album of the year, if not the decade.

31. HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEARTS – Heels N’ Wheels (Get Hip)
Meanwhile, fellow Jerseyites the Sweethearts similarly call it quits by releasing their finest-ever recorded work as their swan song. There's nothing classier than going out at the top of your game. This is garage-grrrl rock (with farfisa) at its finest.

32. DAVE’S TRUE STORY – Nature (Bepop)
David Cantor is one of the wittiest writers in New York City, which makes this subtle but noticeable shift toward less kitschy or humorous material a surprise. Still, the songs are all strong, as are their arrangements, not to mention their delivery by the inimitable chanteuse Kelly Flint.

33. THE PONYS – Celebration Castle (In The Red)
Darker, less obvious, and less memorable than their debut (my #5 album of 2004), but not without its moments. Someday, when I finally learn an instrument for real and/or get the cojones to sing for real, I hope to have a "difficult second album" this good.

34. MARJORIE FAIR – Self-Help Serenade (EMI)
Only the world. A transporting kind of record for fans of Red House Painters, Low, and Brian-in-the-sandbox era Beach Boys. Brought to you by Hackensack-bred Californian Evan Slamka. Yes, that's all you get for your money.

35. CHRIS MILLS – The Wall To Wall Sessions (Ernest Jenning/Powerless Pop)
Recorded and mixed live to two-track with no overdubs—no easy feat when the songs are this quirky and a horn section is involved—Mills' fourth album is a smile-enducing if lyrically self-deprecatory "Huh, sometimes they do make 'em like they used to" good time.

36. FRANZ FERDINAND – You Could Have It So Much Better (Epic)
And we did, on the first album. Far from godawful, and far from godhead. And "This Boy" would be a #1 smash in a more open-minded world.

37. MAXIMO PARK – A Certain Trigger (Warp)
Solid, angular British rock & roll a la Joe Jackson's first album. Great singles, unmemorable album tracks. Very similar to The Futureheads (#26 last year) and yet slightly more derivative. Does that make them The Pastheads?

38. STEREO TOTAL - Do The Bambi (Kill Rock Stars)
German kitsch-dance fun.

39. STARS – Set Yourself On Fire (Arts & Crafts)
Canadian indie pop with an underlying sweetness that's never sickly.

40. THE PILLCRUSHERS – Welcome To The World (Itsaboutmusic.com)
New York power pop of the less slick, old school variety (think Big Star) as opposed to the smoother sheen of the new school variety (think Weezer). Nice nice nice.

41. METRIC – Live It Out (Last Gang)
As per last time, three or four must-hear, all-world tracks of urgent girl-fronted post-Elastica rock, and not much else. Fair enough; I look forward to more of the same in another two years.

42. TOM VEK – We Have Sound (Star Time)
New-wave/post-punk dance party stizz, I believe the kids call it.

43. TRUE LOVE – Wings (Not Lame)
Hoboken power pop manna.

44. BEDSIT POETS – The Summer That Changed (Bongo Beat)
The dynamic, delicate duo of Edward Rogers and Amanda Thorpe collaborate for a baroque pop treat.

45. THE GIRAFFES – The Giraffes (Razor & Tie)
As much as I love loud guitars, when a band starts veering toward metal they tend to lose me. If these guys weren't local, I probably wouldn't've bothered to give this album the spins it deserves. The record Queens Of The Stoneage should have made, and the heavy rock album of the year.

46. MYLO – Destroy Rock & Roll (Breastfed/RCA)
Scottish sample-a-delic dance party.

47. THE JESSICA FLETCHERS – Less Sophistication (Rainbow Quartz)
Gabba gabba garage.

48. PETRA HADEN - Sings The Who Sell Out (Bar/None)
Too clever by two-thirds but ultimately irresistible, Ms. Haden's note-for-note a capella rendering of The Who's best album is more party favor than party fodder, but it's never boring.

49. R. KELLY – TP.3 Reloaded (Jive)
Don't you hate it...when you go to the bathroom...and there's no toilet paper?

50. THE VANITY PROJECT – The Vanity Project (Flagship)
Steven Page—who, aw hell, we'll say it out loud here, is more or less the frontman of Barenaked Ladies, although his bandmate Ed Robertson pens about 40 percent of the band's material was the sole composer of "One Week"—steps outside his longtime band for a full album of songs co-written with The Lilac Time's Stephen Duffy. As skilled Page is as a vocalist, it comes as a major shock and disappointment that the talented Duffy does not sing lead on a single one of the tracks. Good, though, good. Will remind fans of the Ladies' first two albums why they liked them in the first place.

Also Worthy
THE LOST PATROL – Lonesome Sky (no label)
SHELBY – The Luxury Of Time (Gigantic)
THE 88 – Over And Over (Mootron)
LADYTRON – Witching Hour (Rykodisc)
SLEATER-KINNEY – The Woods (Sub Pop)
IMOGEN HEAP – Speak For Yourself (RCA Victor/Megaphonic)
DAVE’S TRUE STORY – Simple Twist Of Fate: DTS Does Dylan (Bepop)
BLOC PARTY – Silent Alarm Remixed (Vice)
PERNICE BROTHERS - Nobody's Watching/Nobody's Listening (Ashmont)
THE MULTI-PURPOSE SOLUTION – How Can A Man Be Tougher Than The World? (Mustache/Diwad)
LITTLE BARRIE – We Are Little Barrie (Artemis)
BOB MOULD – Body Of Song (Yep Roc)
THE BLUE VAN – The Art Of Rolling (TVT)

Perhaps I Should’ve Spent More Time With
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – Devils & Dust (Columbia)
SPOON - Gimme Fiction (Merge)
HOT HOT HEAT – Elevator (Sire)
MADONNA – Confessions On A Dance Floor (Maverick)
STEVIE WONDER – A Time To Love (Motown)
OUTRAGEOUS CHERRY - Our Love Will Change The World (Rainbow Quartz)
THE CAPITOL YEARS – Let Them Drink (Burn & Shiver)
PEELANDER-Z – Dancing Friendly (Eat Rice)
DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979 – Romance Bloody Romance: Remixed & B-Sides (Vice)
THE RAVEONETTES – Pretty In Black (Columbia)
BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB – Howl (RCA)
MORRISSEY – Live At Earls Court (Attack/Sanctuary)
EMILIANA TORRINI – Fisherman’s Woman (Rough Trade)
OASIS – Don’t Believe The Truth (Epic)

Probably Worthy Of Consideration, But I Didn't Hear Them In Their Entirety
LIZ PHAIR – Somebody’s Miracle (Capitol)
NADA SURF – The Weight Is A Gift (Barsuk)
CAM'RON - Purple Haze (Interscope)
OUT HUD - Let Us Never Speak Of It Again (Kranky)
BUCK 65 - This Right Here Is Buck 65 (V2)
BLACKALICIOUS – The Craft (Anti)
ED HARCOURT - Strangers (Heavenly/EMI)
JENS LEKMAN – Oh You’re So Silent Jens (Secretly Canadian)
DOVES – Some Cities (Capitol)
ESTHERO – Wikkid Lil’ Grrrls (Warner)
MICHAEL FRANTI/SPEARHEAD – The Lost Sex Singles & Collectors’ Remixes (Liberation)
IDLEWILD – Warnings/Promises (EMI)
SUPERGRASS – Road To Rouen (Capitol)
MUNDY – Raining Down Arrows (Camcor)
ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS - I Am A Bird Now (Secretly Canadian)
ROGUE WAVE – Descended Like Vultures (Sub Pop)
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS - The Sunset Tree (4AD)
THELONIOUS MONK QUARTET WITH JOHN COLTRANE – At Carnegie Hall (Blue Note)
EMMA BUNTON - Free Me (19/Universal)
VAN MORRISON – Magic Time (Geffen)
SHELBY LYNNE – Suit Yourself (Capitol)

Wish I Had Heard In Their Entirety, Imports Still Eligible For 2006 List Because They're Coming Out Domestically This Year
GOLDFRAPP – Supernature (Mute)
JUNIOR SENIOR – Hey Hey My My Yo Yo (Crunchy Frog)
EDITORS – The Back Room (Kitchenware)
THE SUBWAYS – Young For Eternity

Overrated, Uneven, Disappointing, And/Or Lame
THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS – Twin Cinema (Matador)
BECK – Guero (Interscope)
NEIL DIAMOND – 12 Songs (Columbia)
DANGER DOOM – The Mouse And The Mask (Epitaph/Ada)
QUEENS OF THE STONEAGE – Lullabies To Paralyze (Interscope)
GORILLAZ – Demon Days (Virgin)
50 CENT – The Massacre (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope)
FIONA APPLE – Extraordinary Machine (Epic)
CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE – Plans (Atlantic)

20 Favorite Reissues, Compilations & Historical Releases Of 2005

1. ORANGE JUICE – The Glasgow School (Domino)
The Scottish post-punk quartet Orange Juice's debut You Can't Hide Your Love Forever was a rock-solid album, but the earlier recordings of its songs that comprise The Glasgow School amount to no less than the great lost Scottish post-punk masterwork of the early '80s. Lovingly mastered and packaged, with testimonials from Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos and Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch stickered to the front cover, this prequel to the brief but brilliant career of Edwyn Collins' first band is the finest release ever by the winsome, jangle-friendly band who didn't suffer fools gladly but always tempered their anger with humor and hooks. The first twee album? Maybe. Its often soothing tones offered infinite solace when this album was reissued a few months after Edwyn suffered a cerebral hemmorhage; his slow but steady recovery is being chronicled by his wife Grace on the message board of edwyncollins.com.

2. THE STOOGES – The Stooges (Rhino)
Overstating the greatness and importance of the first Stooges album is literally impossible. I'll save the hyperbole and stop there.

3. BOB DYLAN – Live At The Gaslight 1962 (Columbia/Legacy)
Forgive whoever was working the tape recorder for pausing on cue every time a song ended, just because the performance preserved provides a unique early glimpse of the artist as a barely-legal young man. These are not the oldest Dylan recordings that have now been released, but they are fascinating, and the restored sound is a heck of a lot better than any version of The Beatles' Live At The Star Club, an amateur bootleg recording from around the same time.

4. IAN DURY – New Boots And Panties (Fuel 2000)
The smiling, sneering side of the punk ethos.

5. VARIOUS – Children Of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The Second Psychedelic Era 1976-1996 (Rhino)
6. VARIOUS – The Sexual Life Of The Savages: Underground Post-Punk From São Paulo, Brasil (Soul Jazz)
Go to school.

7. PATTI SMITH – Horses/Horses (Arista/Columbia/Legacy)
The somber, meditative side of the punk ethos.

8. CHARLIE POOLE [& VARIOUS] - You Ain’t Talkin’ To Me: Charlie Poole And The Roots Of Country Music (Columbia/Legacy)
9. BOB DYLAN – No Direction Home: The Soundtrack – The Bootleg Series Vol. 7 (Columbia/Legacy)
You know the good old days weren't always good and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems—especially if the best stuff from the good old days keeps getting released in the future.

10. THE INSECT TRUST – Hoboken Saturday Night (Atco/Collector’s Choice)
An oddball collective that began in Memphis and ended up in Hoboken in time to make this forgotten gem of an album in 1970. Full of ramshackle, genuinely bohemian noise, each song seems out of step with the next, yet not one is truly out of place. Singer Nancy Jeffries glides her way through material with suitably hippiesque titles like "Our Sister The Sun" and "Reincarnations" accompanied by a hot four-piece group and guest contributions on drums by no less than Elvin Jones and Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. A group that sounds like a latter-day Lovin' Spoonful that never existed or a more boogie-oriented, Bizarro World version of Canned Heat with a female singer. One song's lyrics were lifted from Thomas Pynchon's book V. Jeffries went on to an A&R career, signing Suzanne Vega. Reed player Robert Palmer (the late author and New York Times critic, not the late auteur of "Some Like It Hot") went on to write Deep Blues and die of liver failure in his early fifties. Two of the other three principles are dead; the other survivor besides Jeffries, Luke Faust (harmonica/banjo/electric guitar/fiddle), still lives in Hoboken, running a yoga studio and teaching tai chi. These stories and more in the liner notes Robert Christgau wrote for this reissue, which has scanned 441 copies since it was released 51 weeks ago. Totally wild stuff.

11. DION – The Essential (Epic/Legacy)
Falls short of definitiveness by omitting "A Teenager In Love" and his other six Top 40 hits with The Belmonts, but at least a well-mastered single-disc compilation with all his solo hits now exists.

12. DONOVAN – Try For The Sun (Columbia/Legacy)
If you don't have 'em, get 'em here.

13. FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE – Out Of State Plates (Virgin)
More b-sides, covers, and rarities than you can shake a stick at. I mean, if you go around shaking sticks at CDs. And finally, a legit release for their version of "Baby, One More Time."

14. GEORGE HARRISON – The Concert For Bangladesh (Capitol)
Those who forget their history...

15. DR. DRE – The Chronic (Death Row)
Still as sonically intoxicating as it was when it came out.

16. SLOAN – A Sides Win: Singles 1992-2005 (Koch)
You don't need to hit a home run every time you step up to the plate; here's a singles band doing what they do best.

17. DAVID ALLAN COE – Penitentiary Blues (Hacktone)
The other side of Folsom Prison: this is essential early '70s outlaw country from an actual ex-con.

18. SCRITTI POLITTI – Early (Sanctuary)
No "Perfect Way" here, but "Sweetest Girl" is among the memorable tracks on this appropriately titled collection of early work.

19. MARC BOLAN/T. REX – Born To Boogie (Sanctuary)
They're not quite the Spiders From Mars, but they had their glam moves down and dirty.

20. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – Born To Run (Columbia)
Docked some points because the packaging lists the remastered CD of the original album as disc three of the set, giving billing prominence to the two bonus DVDs. As great as they might be—I haven't watched them yet; who has the time?—the importance should always be on the music.

100 Favorite Songs Of 2005

1. THE GAME FEATURING 50 CENT, TONY YAYO, YOUNG BUCK & LLOYD BANKS – Hate It Or Love It (G-Unit Remix)
I pretty much hate 50 Cent. I state this not to invite the wrath of the G-Unit posse but merely to illustrate just how amazing a song 50 is associated with has to be in order for me to deem it the very best song of the year. "Hate It Or Love It," all smooth bravado and flow over a perfectly nicked Trammps sample (a Trammple?), charmed in a way that no other song did in 2005.

2. KELLY CLARKSON – Since U Been Gone
Here's the thing.

3. DOVES – Black And White Town
Dusk on a late October evening. The moment you hit the club on Friday night and the joint's just starting to jump. That moment when you just don't know what to do with yourself. There are so many things that can be read into "Black And White Town," so many times and places it can evoke. But ultimately, the lyrics insist on it as a song about that moment when it's all starting to happen, or when you wish it would. The old tension and release never sounded so good. This from a band that I'd nearly given up on—and I still haven't picked up the album yet.

4. BRENDAN BENSON – Cold Hands (Warm Heart)
Oh yeah, "taking a break" from the relationship; that always works.

5. ELECTRIC SIX – Future Is In The Future
The most danceable track of 2005 also had the best lyric: "I'm a man, not a disco ball." To say nothing of the "We'll karaoke all night long/we'll Macarena till the break of dawn" chorus. Oops, just did.

6. JOHN LEGEND – Ordinary People
Ordinary people generally make for uninteresting songwriting fodder, unless they're being skewered a la "A Well Respected Man." The one timeless track on Mr. Legend's debut album is the exception that proves the rule, with a stripped-down arrangement for solo piano and voice that gives the words—none of which are of the $10 variety—precedence. One of the best ballads Stevie Wonder never wrote.

7. MANHEAD – Birth, School, Work, Death
Dark, danceable electro-take on The Godfathers' classic nihilist anthem. Come on, get happy!

8. LOUIS XIV – Finding Out True Love Is Blind
Glam-grunge crunch: like a rock & roll granola bar, hold the granola.

9. DAVE’S TRUE STORY – Blue Nile
Won't you let me take you on a sea cruise.

10. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM – Tribulations
Possibly ephemeral but nonetheless temporarily perfect dance floor angst/bliss.

This year, the other 90 best songs speak for themselves...

11. KATE BUSH - Nocturn
12. KATE BUSH - Aerial
13. KENNEDY - Your Mama
14. FEIST – Inside And Out
15. ELECTRIC SIX – Dance Epidemic
16. ELKLAND – I Need You Tonight
17. GORILLAZ – Feel Good Inc.
18. KANYE WEST - We Major
19. PITTY SING - Anyway
20. GROUP SOUNDS - Things Fall Apart

21. SAINT ETIENNE – Stars Above Us
22. ANNIE LENNOX - Why (Live at Live8)
23. CAM'RON FEATURING KANYE WEST & SYLEENA JOHNSON - Down And Out
24. MY MORNING JACKET - Wordless Chorus
25. STARS – Ageless Beauty
26. LES BREASTFEEDERS – Ostrogoth-a-gogo
27. COMMON – Be (Intro)
28. ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS - For Today I Am A Boy
29. KYLIE MINOGUE - Lovin' You
30. LITTLE BARRIE – Move On So Easy

31. TSAR - Wrong
32. ART BRUT – Emily Kane
33. M83 - Don't Save Us From The Flames
34. SUFJAN STEVENS – Decatur
35. M.I.A. - $10
36. MAXIMO PARK – Apply Some Pressure
37. THE PILLCRUSHERS – All Of The Time
38. BLOC PARTY - So Here We Are
39. THE JESSICA FLETCHERS – Summer Holiday & Me
40. PITTY SING – Bleeding Hearts

41. SHOUT OUT LOUDS – The Comeback (Big Slippa Mix By Ratatat)
42. COMMON - Go!
43. FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE – Maureen
44. THE TEARS – Refugees
45. KANYE WEST FEATURING LUPE FIASCO - Touch The Sky
46. IVY - Thinking About You
47. PERNICE BROTHERS – There Goes The Sun
48. HUMA - I Can't Sleep In Silence
49. HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEARTS - Cherry Hi-Way
50. CASIONAUTS - Up On Colours

51. THE MOTHER HIPS – Red Tandy
52. DEEP DISH FEATURING STEVIE NICKS - Dreams
53. THE HOLD STEADY - Banging Camp
54. TIM BURGESS – Say Yes
55. THE BRAVERY – The Ring Song
56. CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH – Heavy Metal
57. MATES OF STATE - Goods
58. MADONNA – Hung Up
59. MY MORNING JACKET – Anytime
60. BLOC PARTY - Helicopter

61. OCEAN COLOUR SCENE – Free My Name
62. LYRICS BORN FEATURING E-40 AND CASUAL – Callin' Out (Remix)
63. LIZ PHAIR - Lazy Dreamer
64. BRENDAN BENSON – Alternative To Love
65. LADYTRON – Destroy Everything You Touch
66. PITTY SING - Telephone
67. PITTY SING - CTWYL
68. BECK – Girl
69. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
70. RENO’S MEN – Phantom Power

71. FRANZ FERDINAND – This Boy
72. METRIC – Handshakes
73. SUFJAN STEVENS - John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
74. FEEDER - Pushing The Senses
75. LIL' KIM - Lighters Up
76. GWEN STEFANI - Hollaback Girl (DJ Zax "Word Up" Remix)
77. IDLEWILD - As If I Hadn't Slept
78. BAUMER - How The West 1
79. FIONA APPLE - Tymps (The Sick In The Head Song)
80. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - Never As Tired As When I'm Waking Up

81. ART BRUT - My Little Brother
82. RODNEY CROWELL - Beautiful Despair
83. NEIL DIAMOND - Delirious Love
84. THE GIRAFFES – Wage Earner
85. M.I.A. - Bucky Done Gone
86. ROYKSOPP – Go Away
87. THE TEARS - Lovers
88. SHELBY – The Golden Boy
89. IVY – Keep Moving
90. THE CAPITOL YEARS - Mounds Of Money

91. MARJORIE FAIR – Waves
92. TOM VEK – I Ain't Saying My Goodbyes
93. THE WHITE STRIPES – My Doorbell
94. THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES – Bigtime
95. NEW ORDER – Krafty
96. THE PONYS – Get Black
97. GOLDFRAPP – Number 1
98. JUNIOR SENIOR - Itch U Can't Skratch
99. TED LEO/PHARMACISTS - Suspect Device
100. THE CRIBS - Hey Scenesters!

20 Favorite Live Shows Of 2005

1. STEVIE WONDER at The Apollo Theater, August 11
2. ABC at The Canal Room, September 9
3. ROBYN HITCHCOCK at Maxwell’s, March 26
4. HAMELL ON TRIAL at Fez, January 15
5. LES PAUL & HIS TRIO at Iridium, February 21 (late show)
6. BOB DYLAN & HIS BAND and WILLIE NELSON at Yogi Berra Stadium, Montclair, June 24
7. THE WRENS at Maxwell’s, March 12 (early show)
8. THE RASPBERRIES at B.B. King’s, July 24
9. DAVE’S TRUE STORY and TRIS MCCALL at Brennan Courthouse, Jersey City, June 17
10. STEVE WINWOOD at Bowery Ballroom, September 20

11. GROUP SOUNDS and THE HEAD SET at Pianos, August 17
12. DUNGEN at Maxwell’s, July 14
13. FRANZ FERDINAND at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, October 17
14. MOTEL CREEPS and THE PILLCRUSHERS at Luna Lounge, February 18
15. DAN BERN at Maxwell’s, June 2
16. KINGS OF LEON at Webster Hall, February 23
17. PAT DINIZIO at The Goldhawk, April 15
18. THE dB’S at Maxwell’s, September 19
19. JEN URBAN & THE BOX and LD & THE NEW CRITICISM at The Frying Pan, May 15
20. PITTY SING at Rothko, January 25

Even if it's a benefit show with guest artists and political speakers, there's no beating a full-voiced, good-repertoire-choosing Stevie Wonder at The Apollo. There just isn't. If you're ABC, you might sound great and play "Poison Arrow" twice—because why wouldn't you?—and if you're Robyn Hitchcock you might do a few Dylan covers and a disco medley. You might be older than God and still play guitar like a virtuoso if you're Les Paul, or you might reinvent yourself on stage every night like Bob Dylan or The Wrens. Your songs might be quietly brilliant like Dave's True Story and Tris McCall, you might be bringing back a retro sound you helped create like The Raspberries or Steve Winwood, or one you're too young to remember like Dungen. You might craft a perfect-sounding rock club set like Group Sounds, The Head Set, Motel Creeps, or The Pillcrushers, fill a mega-theater like Franz and the Kings, or make every audience member a friend like Dan Bern, Pat DiNizio, The dB's, Jen Urban & The Box, LD & The New Criticism, or Pitty Sing. You might do any number of wonderful things, things that are wonderful on their own merits and worthy of much praise. But unless you brought "If You Really Love Me" and "Sir Duke" into the world and can still sing and play them and sound like you did the day that you wrote them, you did not do the best show of 2005. Your best hope for 2006 is that Stevie doesn't tour.

Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Love Monkey

2006-01-18T09:21:00.000-05:00

Spoiler alert: if you, like, TiVoed Love Monkey last night, and don't want to know any of the plot details, stop reading now.

As the son of a lawyer, I was often amused as a kid that my father never watched TV shows about lawyers. He always insisted the shows weren't realistic, and that bothered him. I had no reason not to believe him. After working some years in the music business, I became convinced that any show about the music business would similarly fall short of anything close to capturing the realities of the job.

And it's probably true of just about any profession, and just about any show, including (perhaps especially?) reality shows. It holds that the more you know about a topic, the greater the chance you will find fault with anyone else's account of said topic. If you've ever read a story about your neighborhood, your company, yourself, or whatever in a newspaper, blog, or any outside source, you can easily point out any factual errors, of which there are likely to be many. This isn't because journalists are not doing their jobs, though some of them obviously may be careless; it's because it's really hard for any person not intimately involved with a situation, organization, or personality to grasp the entirety of something they're not really familiar with.

It's with these low expectations that I watched the premiere episode of Love Monkey last night. The new hour-long CBS comedy stars Tom Cavanagh of Ed as an A&R executive in New York City. I don't watch a whole lot of prime time network TV, but I enjoyed the first season of Ed, and not just because the bowling alley the show was centered around was a 15-minute drive from where I grew up in North Jersey.

In Monkey, Cavanagh's character—either conveniently or confusingly also named Tom, depending on your point of view—is more or less a mix of his previous titular Ed and of John Cusack's Rob Gordon, the protagonist in the film version of High Fidelity. So Tom can recall Sid Vicious' real name at the drop of a hat, he offers a misplaced testament to the greatness of Metallica's Ride The Lightning in mixed company, and and professes such a penchant for Bob Dylan that he gives his sister (who's married to a character played by Jason Priestley) a copy of The Essential Bob Dylan as a baby shower gift (in a double-jewel case, when the actual dual CD was packaged in the slimmer 2-CD "brilliant box" as we who peddle CDs call it), all the while mugging away with his "aw shucks ain't I a hard-luck yet happy-go-lucky kinda fella."

Not long into the episode, Tom gets fired from his A&R gig at Goliath Records for proclaiming naively idealistic sentiments about art taking precedence over business at a meeting run by the presumptive boss, played in a guest role by Eric Bogosian. Though clearly dramatic, this turn of events does hold some ring of truth; anyone asinine enough to pull such a stunt in an attempt to upstage the boss—in any corporate atmosphere—actually would run the risk of getting canned. Soon after, Tom gets dumped by his girlfriend, a singer whose music he never really liked.

By the end of the episode, poor ol' Tom lands on his feet. He gets hired as head of A&R for an indie label where he can work with a young singer/songwriter he had tried to sign to Goliath, and he instantly develops a flirtation with an attractive woman who works in the office. Ah, if only things were so easy for the many friends of music business friends mine who have lost their jobs and their girlfriends/boyfriends/spouses.

At least some of the show was shot on location in New York. One scene takes place on the island in Times Square between 43rd and 44th Streets, with the Viacom building clearly visible a block northwest. The Chelsea Hotel is The Chelsea Hotel. A gig that takes place at The Slipper Room was indeed filmed there, I've been informed—I initially wrote that it didn't look authentic to me. But TV lighting has a way of making the real seem fake.

The opening montage featured a few predictable and reasonable locations as establishing shots (e.g. CBGB) but also included the likes of Terra Blues—an untrendy Bleecker Street blues/folk joint that is not likely to produce a major-label signing anytime soon. The music in the show, at least some of which was chosen by consultant Nic Harcourt of KCRW (he's also listed as a producer of the series), was pretty good, if far from risky—early Talking Heads during Tom's visit to CBGB with the prospective artist he's courting, "Mr. Brightside" for the closing shot of Tom and the new office hottie pretending not to check each other out in an elevator.

Final verdict, after one viewing: a reasonably entertaining, watchable show. The writing is passable, there are some potentially interesting characters (some more interesting than others), and ultimately, despite the ham-fisted "cool music" references a la Gilmore Girls, the music business angle is mere window dressing for a show about a single thirtysomething guy lookin' for love in all the wrong Manhattan places. It's far from a "can't miss" show and one that, much like Ed, is bound to run out of steam pretty quickly. If you're home on a Tuesday at 10 p.m. and you don't feel like watching Anderson Cooper 360 or SVU, it's not the worst way to waste an hour of your life. You'd probably be better served by shutting off the set and reading a good book, but that's generally the case.

My site, MySpace, and my calendar

2006-01-17T18:16:00.000-05:00

As previously stated, I plan to have a new site, hopefully soon, at mikecmusic.com. At present, that address mirrors this site. That site will focus on private DJ gigs and music consulting, while Hoboken Rock City will continue to offer its unique blend of...stuff. Minor site tweaking is planned, and I aim to provide more new content than I have been offering for the past three months.

Coming next week right here: my best of 2005 music picks. Though this year's write-up will be a little shorter than last year's, check out my '04 picks so you know what you're in for next week.

When we were all flocking to Friendster in 2003, I took a quick look at MySpace too. At the time, it seemed awfully clunky, junky, and juvenile. When Rupert Murdoch bought the damn thing last year, it didn't make me feel like I was missing anything. Alas, I have succumbed. Creating a meaningful MySpace profile was something I put off forever, but forever ended recently. Friends can peep, holla, or add me here.

A calendar note... Instead of the usual Saturday, this week I'm spinning at The Goldhawk on Friday. DJ Pat Pierson holds it down this Saturday. He likes The Raspberries. I'm back at the 'hawk to close out the month on Saturday, January 28.

A few nights later, Wednesday, February 1, I'm back in NYC at Manitoba's. One of the few bars left in Alphabet City with its punk rock reputation still intact, Manitoba's is like an actual Hard Rock Cafe minus the sterile fixtures, the hapless tourists, and the crappy food. The bar is a cozy, no-frills space on Avenue B, its walls lined with an impressive collection of classic punk photography.

The place bears the imprimatur of proprietor Handsome Dick Manitoba. The voice of the legendary Dictators--the '70s punk pioneers who influenced generations of New York bands from The Ramones to The Beastie Boys--Handsome Dick can also be heard weeknights from 8 p.m. to midnight on Little Steven's Underground Garage channel on Sirius satellite radio.

Join me Wednesday, February 1 as I play some of my favorite punk rock, garage, glam, indie, '60s, '70s, and '80s tunes in this classic setting. Spread the word and bring friends. There's no cover, and cocktails are available for purchase at popular prices.

The next post to this blog will be neither personal nor self-promotional. No, really.

Third Uncle Was Eno And Bauhaus; First-Time Uncle Is Me

2006-01-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the world, Gianna!

Bookends

2005-12-29T15:06:00.000-05:00

I sincerely regret that this space has devolved into little more than a forum for self-promotion over the past couple months. It's not that I have nothing to say, it's more that I'm having trouble making the time to say it.

The Xmas party last week was a bust, due mostly to the transit strike. These things happen. I have higher hopes for the next two gigs, this Saturday's New Year's Eve shindig at The Goldhawk, and next Wednesday's launch of Neat Neat Neat, my new monthly night at Manitoba's.

My annual long-winded take on the music of the past year will appear here in January, just like last year's. In the meantime, enjoy Tris McCall's pithy Pop Music Abstract, Extrawack!'s star-studded year-end roundup from the likes of Alexi Lalas, Esthero, and a guy in a band called The Long Winters (whose statements rubbed me the wrong way, as you'll see in the comments, but it's all good, and I tried to let him have the last word), and the best and worst of everything in 2005, gathered by Fimoculous (a blog I do frequent, but this post was first brought to my attention by Mister Snitch!).

Oh yeah, shameless self-promotional details below.

DJ Mike C. in NJ

NEW YEAR'S EVE
Saturday, Dec. 31
9:30 p.m.

$75 includes:
• Top shelf open bar for five hours, 9:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.
• Hot/cold buffet dinner
• The obligatory champagne toast at midnight
• Party favors
• Free parking up to 5 hours
• A night of rock & roll fun with DJ Mike C.

Call 201-420-7989 for advance ticket info.

at THE GOLDHAWK
936 Park Ave. at 10th St., Hoboken

DJ Mike C. in NYC

NEAT NEAT NEAT
Wednesday, Jan. 4
10 p.m. till late

Downtown rock & roll kicks. Oldies, newies, and goodies.

at MANITOBA'S
99 Avenue B between 6th & 7th St., NYC

Go Christmas Crazy!

2005-12-06T09:04:00.000-05:00

Mike C.'s 4th Annual Xmas Party

Wednesday, Dec. 21
8 p.m. till late
no cover

at MANITOBA'S
99 Avenue B between 6th & 7th St., NYC

Christmas music is an odd beast. It fascinates me to no end that an entire musical genre exists around our culture's most pervasive holiday. There is so much good Christmas music, and the fact that the window to listen to it each year is a fleeting few weeks makes it all the more precious. Many stores and radio stations fire up the Christmas tuneage in mid-November, but I think playing Christmas music before December 1st is just gauche. I'm a huge fan of the genre, yet I don't even really get in the mood to hear the stuff until around December 10th. But when the fever hits me, I go overboard, and no musical holds are barred. That's why I take it to the bars.

For the fourth consecutive year, I am hosting a party at which I will be spinning nothing but holiday tunes. Oh, I've established some wiggle room for myself, widening the boundaries enough in order to play a few tunes that don't include sleigh bells—songs with the words "holiday" or "Jesus" in the title are fair game—but this party is all about good music and the radical juxtaposition thereof. You might hear Julie Andrews and Foghat back to back, or The Dead Kennedys segued into Perry Como. It's unscripted, so the sky—and the audience's tolerance for a spectrum of music ranging from The Mormon Tabernacle Choir to King Diamond—is the proverbial limit.

This year I'm doing something different by bringing the party, which has had a great run the past three years at The Goldhawk in Hoboken, into the rock & roll confines of Manitoba's in Alphabet City. It's gonna be an honor and a privilege to bring some Xmas love to one of the definitive downtown rock & roll joints. Get there early for candy canes and other fun crap; stay late to indulge in the comforting warmth of musical blasphemy.

Never leave the stream of warm impermanence

2005-12-05T19:47:00.000-05:00

Those of you who are on my email list received a note today that I have a new email address at a new domain, mikecmusic.com. (Well, anyway, you should have. If you are on my mailing list or would like to be, and you did not receive my change of address note today, drop me a line.)

There will be a new site to go along with that domain, and it will be similar to the existing Hoboken Rock City in many ways. Until mikecmusic.com goes live, you will be auto-forwarded to hobokenrockcity.com when you access mikecmusic.com.

Just want to let everyone know that I'm not going away, and I will continue to have a web presence. It's just that that presence will take a slightly different form. It will certainly be recognizable to anyone who is familiar with me and/or this site.

Those of you nice enough to follow this blog have noticed a dearth of posting to it lately, and there are many reasons for that. Life, work, an unprecedented number dj gigs (6 gigs in 12 days at one point) including some private engagements, a new obsession with Kate Bush's "Cloudbusting," the Giants actually having a good season, and the death of the best cat I've ever known have all been factors, but the retooling of my internet presence has also contributed toward my dereliction of blog duties.

I'm still around. Stay tuned.

The Mike C. College Tour Fall 2005, Part II

2005-12-05T19:23:00.000-05:00

Though I didn't quite go back to school Dangerfield style, I did have fun giving my first college lecture last week at the University of Pennsylvania. As a guest speaker in my friend Professor David Grazian's Popular Culture class, the topic for the day was the music business. With the industry in transition in so many ways, it's not an easy lecture to give, but I gave the best overview that I could.

The students in the 300-seat lecture hall asked a lot of questions, which teacher types tell me is a good indicator of attentiveness, and there's already a talk of an encore performance. Unfortunately, if you're a Penn undergrad and want to take the class next semester, you're already shut out if you didn't pre-register; they're moving the class to the university's biggest lecture hall, and still every spot is filled. Thanks to the Penn sociology department, and I look forward to a return engagement. Plus, it'll get me down to Philly, which I don't do often enough.

Oh yeah, this

2005-11-27T12:02:00.000-05:00

Sorry, still busy.

Danika 1987-2005

Striving For Better at Rutgers SLAMfest

2005-10-17T18:16:00.000-04:00

Jukebox jury, L-R: Michael Caplan (Or Music), me,
Doug Drohan (MTV), Brian Pacris (The Syndicate)

Striving For Better, a young five-piece rock group from Williamstown, South Jersey, won the Battle Of The Bands at Rutgers' first annual SLAMfest Friday. Though still in need of some seasoning, the band's brand of emo-pop resisted cliches with guitar riffs that (probably unintentionally) recalled Tom Scholz, Angus Young, and Alex Lifeson. Lead singer Justin, 18, is still in high school, and his performance style was a strangely compelling emo version of Morrissey crossed with David Lee Roth, though he looks and sounds nothing like either of those consummate frontmen.

It was fun being a judge. We steered clear of Cowellisms and kept the criticism constructive. Some of the band members were overheard grumbling outside that we had said negative things about them. A Rutgers staffer said he put it in perspective for them, noting that any young band should consider themselves lucky to have a captive audience of music business professionals giving them a free critique. That apparently cheered them up some.

It was the last of a stretch of dreary rainy days, but it was still fun to walk around the personal time machine that is the College Avenue Campus. It's weird to see what's changed and what's remained, but the memories that are triggered just by being there are always quite a kick.

Before getting on the train to leave town, I had my first-ever Fat Darrell, one of the many riduculo-sandwiches that was spun off from the ever-popular Fat Cat at the famous grease trucks some time after I graduated in the mid-'90s. It wasn't altogether awful, but it's surely the sort of sandwich that must taste far better if you're drunk. One wonders how much Maxim had to drink before they selected it the best sandwich in the nation last year.

Pics of the bands, the fashion show, and more on the SLAMfest site. Attendance was disappointing, but it was a new event, it had been raining all week, the location had been moved, it was the day after Yom Kippur, and it probably started a little too early in the day. Hopefully they'll have it again next year with a better turnout, because it's a cool idea.

Note to the technically inclined: this is my first post using Flickr. I'm tired of random strangers eating up bandwidth by poaching photos I've posted to my ftp site on their MySpace pages and whatnot.

The Mike C. College Tour Fall 2005, Part I

2005-10-12T00:31:00.000-04:00

If you're a member of the Rutgers community, you can witness my debut as a Battle Of The Bands judge this Friday afternoon at SLAMfest.

Yeah, I was asked to be one of the "record industry executives" judging the competition in which five Jersey bands will each play one original song and one cover. We will have microphones and have been encouraged to make rude comments in our best faux British accents. The winner of the battle will get to play a short set before the headliners, New Jersey ska stalwarts Catch 22, who go at 6 p.m. There's also a fashion show and a screening of Batman Begins (to which I keep wanting to say, Batman Begins To What?).

It's all going down at the new Sport Club Field on Busch Campus. If it rains—a 60 percent chance as of now—the whole shebang will be at the venerable College Avenue Gym, a place where, as an RU student in the early '90s, I saw shows by the likes of The Replacements, Fishbone, Concrete Blonde, and Penn & Teller. It's also the place where I saw Radiohead open up for Belly, and if memory serves, I took a final exam there once. Get yer SLAMfest info here. As far as I know, this event is only open to Rutgers students, teachers, and administrators.

UPDATE, OCTOBER 13: Due to all the rain this week, the event will be at the College Avenue Gym. I feel bad for the RU Recreation Department because they clearly wanted to show off their new facility, but keeping this thing on College Avenue can only help attendance, not to mention affording an aged alumnus like myself more time to stroll around the grounds of the campus where I spent 99.44 percent of my time at the multi-campus university. I could probably count the number of times I went to Busch Campus on my fingers and toes; maybe I'd need one extra hand or foot.

On a perhaps unrelated note, the Playlists page is now up to date, including all four gigs from my recent "four gigs in eight days" run. Perhaps one day I will add more old playlists, but in the meantime, the page documents playlists from the vast majority (though not all) of the gigs I've done since 2003.

And oh, do I have gigs coming up. At The Goldhawk here in town, I'm doing two of the next three Saturday nights, Rocktober 15 and 29 (the latter is the second half of a doubleheader) plus Friday, Nov. 4. The first half of the Rocktober 29 doubleheader will be that afternoon at Tory Burch. And they're some weeks away but worth marking on your (or at least my) calendar pronto: three big Ding Dong dates on Tuesday, Nov. 1; Friday, Nov. 18; and Thursday, Dec. 1. Full details on the Hoboken Rock City homepage.

We All Shine On

2005-10-09T14:03:00.000-04:00

John Lennon would have been 65 today. Just saying.

Animal Rescue In Louisiana

2005-10-09T13:36:00.000-04:00

My friend, former roommate, and to-this-day Hoboken neighbor Keith is in Louisiana with his friend Kambri Crews, volunteering for a week with Pasado's Safe Haven, an animal rescue organization from Washington state that has set up a huge operation on a donated farm outside of New Orleans.

Judging from the updates on Kambri's blog, they're cleaning up a lot of poop—surely Triumph is chuckling—and having a challenging but rewarding time.

They're obviously working their tails off, but Kambri is posting to her aforementioned blog when time allows, and there are updates on the organization's progress on their news page. Not all the news is good, of course, so be warned that some of the stories and images are upsetting. To make up for that, here's where you click for photos of three-week-old kittens slurping formula.

The Hold Steady: An Unsolicited Review

2005-10-05T18:40:00.000-04:00

Until some changes are made to Hoboken Rock City's infrastructure, comments will remain inoperative on blog posts. I'd like to enable them, especially since I'm too busy to generate new content on this site as frequently as I would like to. Until this blog becomes comment-friendly, I encourage you to send feedback via the handy contact form.

One enterprising reader of this site used said form to send me a brief review of The Hold Steady's sold-out Maxwell's show last Friday. I really dig the band's new album and would have liked to see the show if I hadn't been simultaneously under the weather, booked to DJ for ten hours the next day, and obsessed with what last week was New York Yankee Pennant Race Baseball (and which has now, of course, transitioned into New York Yankee Playoff Baseball). Onto the mailbag:

Basically, after hearing the well-produced CD, Separation Sunday, I thought I would see rock n' roll's redemption, instead, a false prophet it crashed and burned. They need an agent to control the lead singer's drinking and slobbering, and a sound person to make his voice discernable. The band behind him was generally tight and played well. They won't rocket to the top, but if they straighten out the vocals, they could begin a nice east coast following.

- Mark

Variety Is The Spice Of Life

2005-10-04T18:50:00.000-04:00

The whole "four gigs in eight days" thing went great, except that I had a nasty cold the entire week. Thankfully, the fog of sickness broke on Saturday, the double-header gig day. All four playlists will be posted when there's time to type.

Thanks to Johnny at the Ding Dong for letting me cut out early to nurse my cold (and to Dexter from Hoboken for stopping by!), to the whole Tory Burch staff for their hospitality and good vibes, and to the Goldhawk crew for allowing the official Rock City iPod to DJ for me in absentia during the part of the gig where I went around the corner to Maxwell's so I could catch most of the ferocious Gefkens reunion set.

I'm back at the 'hawk this Saturday at 10 p.m., as is the custom, and don't be surprised to see and hear me at both of those other two venues again soon.

DJMC Music Marathon

2005-09-22T18:31:00.000-04:00

It's the first DJMC Music Marathon. No badge required!

Four gigs in eight days: September 24 and 27, and two—two—on Rocktober the first. Are you ready to do the bus stop?

ROCK CITY
Tuesday, September 27
NEW EARLY TIME!
9 p.m. till...

at
929 Columbus Ave. between 105th St. & 106th St., NYC

Tipsy Tuesday specials all night: $4 cocktails, $3 draft beers, $2 Rheingold bottles.
Hitchhike, bus, or yellow cab it. Or take the 1, B, or C to 103rd St.

BLOODY MARY BRUNCH
Saturday, Rocktober 1
12 noon - 6 p.m.

at TORY BURCH
257 Elizabeth St. at Houston St., NYC

Mike C.'s long-awaited retail debut!
Sip Bloody Mary tasters and dig the threads at this boutique clothing shop.

HOBOKEN ROCK CITY
Saturday, September 24 & Rocktober 1
10 p.m. till...

at
936 Park Ave. at 10th St., Hoboken

Mods and rockers welcome.
Rocktober 1: The Gefkens afterparty. Get tix for their reunion show at Maxwell's.

Sis-Sis-Sis-Saturday Night (Not Sus-Sus-Sussudio)

2005-09-21T09:29:00.000-04:00

You have no weekends left in your summer share in Beach Haven, so you have no excuse not to rock out somewhere this Saturday.

I'll start with the obvious: I'm spinning quality rock & roll tunes at my regular Saturday haunt, Hoboken's own Goldhawk, starting at 10 p.m. As always, no cover, friendly bartenders, and far less B.S. than pretty much any other Hoboken bar.

If you find yourself on the other side of the river, kick it old school at the last-ever Tiswas at Don Hill's. A venerable club night that began at the height of the Britpop craze in the mid-'90s, when it was rare for anyone to dance in a New York City club if the DJ was spinning anything other than hip-hop or some form of techno, Tiswas reminded an entire generation that it was ok to shake your groove thing to guitar-based rock & roll like Blur, The Clash, The Beatles, early Stones, The Spencer Davis Group, Pixies, and Pulp.

Apparently the club night founded and still run by DJ Nick Marc will live on, but this Saturday is the last one at the Don Hill's locale where it's been a staple for so many years. I usually DJ myself on Saturday nights, so it's been a couple years since I've made a Tiswas night, but I never had anything less than a ton of fun at one. It may have been eclipsed for hipster cred by newer nights like Misshapes, but Tiswas is the club night that paved the way for rock & roll to be cool again in NYC clubs. For that, it deserves eternal respect.

Back on the mainland, this Saturday also sees the return of Tris McCall to the Brennan Courthouse, 583 Newark Avenue in Jersey City. This time, he's bringing fellow Jersey rock kids Crayon Rosary and Joe Condiracci with him to make it a killer bill at the courthouse. Cover is $8, show's at 8 p.m. Insert your own "take no prisoners" joke here.

And on the topic of Saturday nights, set aside the following one, October 1, for the first live show in years from one of the definitive Hoboken bands of the '90s, The Gefkens. The original three members will be recreating their groovy power-pop magic at Maxwell's on a bill that also boasts Marjorie Fair and The Redwalls. It's a 9:30 show, and another bargain $8 cover. Get yer ducats at Ticketweb. After the show, walk all of one block downtown and three blocks west to The Goldhawk for the band's afterparty, where yours truly will spin music that's got a backbeat you can't lose it.

The dB's at Maxwell's

2005-09-20T18:25:00.000-04:00

So, that was fun. Chris Stamey, Gene Holder, and Will Rigby look like older versions of themselves, but if it weren't for the voice I'd swear that the guy with the mustache and shaved head standing where Peter Holsapple was supposed to be wasn't him. Not that I'm one to talk; some people I haven't seen in years have had trouble recognizing me since I shaved my head, too. Peter doesn't look bad at all, he just looks way different. Aside from that mildly surprising visual aspect, The dB's neither shocked nor disappointed in their triumphant return to Hoboken last night.

Opening with "Ask For Jill" and "Big Brown Eyes" and leaning heavily on material from their classic first two albums, Stands For Decibels and Repercussion, the boys soldiered gamely through sound problems that got so bad that at one point they threatened to take a break just five or so songs into the set. Things improved, and though there seemed to be some tentative moments onstage, by the time they closed the set proper with "Neverland," they were locked in. Disappointingly, nothing from the classic Holsapple/Stamey album Mavericks made it into the set. Of the three new songs they played, the two in the encore set "That Time Is Gone" and "Something Real" really stood out as strong material. Photos here (not mine; my digital cam broke) and a great fan review here.

Set list (via A Penny's Worth):
Ask For Jill
Big Brown Eyes
Happenstance
Black & White
Hang Around With You (new Stamey)
Purple Hose
Lonely Is As Lonely Does
If And When
Molly Says
She’s Not Worried
Living a Lie
Dynamite
Cycles Per Second
World To Cry
I’m In Love
Love Is For Lovers
Neverland

encore:
That Time Is Gone (new Holsapple)
Something Real (new Stamey)
Amplifier

If I Wanted To Read, I'd Go To School

2005-09-19T19:09:00.000-04:00

The CMJ Music Marathon is a great idea, but I couldn't bring myself to go to any of the shows this year. I've had too many bad experiences at CMJ shows in the past—inattentive and overly loud audiences, crowded venues, problems at the door—that it's just not worth bothering unless there's a band playing that I just have to see. Call me crazy, but I didn't see any of those among the hundreds playing this year's fest. Surely I missed out on some great shows, but I can live with that. For those of us who sat it out, My Blog Is Poop's CMJ Awards is the only summary anyone needs. Via Brooklyn Vegan, who of course did a thorough survey himself. Extrawack! was there, too.

Speaking of Brooklyn, the planet responds: two bands I've played on my show, Secaucus' beloved Wrens and NYC's Harlem Shakes, join They Might Be Giants, Tony "24 Hour Party People" Fletcher, and more at Katrina benefits at Southpaw this Wednesday and Sunday. Very generous entertainment value for a $15 cover each night.

Power-pop gods The dB's, with all four original members in tow, return to Maxwell's tonight and tomorrow for their first shows in their spiritual homebase of Hoboken in several centuries. The shows are sold out, but the band's website has a free download of the new track "World To Cry." And get their cover of the Motown classic "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted," with proceeds going to Katrina relief.

Edwyn Collins update: he's made major strides since his two brain hemorrhages in February, but his wife Grace's latest report is that he's still battling physical and mental difficulties—he can't move his right hand, he has trouble expressing his own thoughts and comprehending the words of others, and he has memory loss. The message board on Edwyn's site is the best place for up-to-date info, but this BBC profile back in August was good. What better way to wish Edwyn well than by purchasing the spiffy new reissue of his old band Orange Juice's early recordings, The Glasgow School, as well as the fine debut album by Little Barrie, which Edwyn produced.

An update on Lookout! Records in the wake of the Green Day pullout. Of note is this story's mention that Bloomfield, N.J.'s own Ted Leo is apparently financially aiding the label that ought to be paying him. Via Velvet Rope.

Can't quibble with too many of Stylus' top 50 basslines of all time, but where the heck were The Jam's "Town Called Malice," Steely Dan's "Peg," "Cannonball" by The Breeders, "Rain" by The Beatles, and The "Barney Miller" Theme? Joe Jackson's "Got The Time" and Pretenders' "Mystery Achievement"? Anyone, anyone, Bueller?

"Bet You Didn't Think Stereogum Would Be The Place To Tip Me To A New Republic Article Department": some thoughts on rock snobbery in the iPod age. I need to read this again before I decide how much I agree with it.

Pandagon's Jesse on The Thirty-Five Percent Rule: "When Democrats agree with 65% of America, they are no longer hyperpartisan, traitors, dangerous idiots, or anything else that can be found on the cover of an Ann Coulter book. Thirty five percent makes you an ideological minority, and insulting the overwhelming majority of American people really isn't a smart idea."

Go Yanks!

Letter Of The Week

2005-09-16T16:14:00.000-04:00

Please, Please add a new show to Itunes. The best show I have found so far. As you are aware there is a majority of "Corp" crap out there. Help

I am listening from Sacramento CA. After spending an exorbitant amount of time sampling Itunes podcasts and wading through the crap;I stumbled across your show. I listen to Little Steven's underground garage on the internet. Your show has that same cool enthusiasm for real music with a soul. I have your show on my mp3 player, and am able to listen(loud)in my car, and at work. Thanks Mike It gives me faith in humanity that there are others who appreciate independent music.

- Thomas, Sacramento, CA

If y'all keep it up, maybe I will bring the show back...

ABC at Canal Room

2005-09-13T00:39:00.000-04:00

New Order, Erasure, and Duran Duran have all played New York City in 2005, and all have gotten rave reviews. I missed each one of those '80s new wave icons, but I more than made up for it by catching a scintillating set Friday night by one of the genre's most notable groups and a personal favorite, ABC. It was their first New York show in more than 10 years.

Formed in Sheffield, England when the '80s were knee-high to a grasshopper, ABC's goal was to fashion transcendent, danceable pop music by melding the ideals of New Romanticism and post-punk with disco and R&B. Singer and lyricist Martin Fry openly embraced gods of punk like The Clash and The Sex Pistols as well as soul standard-bearers Smokey Robinson and Earth, Wind & Fire. It was an uneasy musical alliance that defied easy categorization, and with the racist, homophobic "Disco Sucks" movement still very much alive in 1982, it's a wonder that ABC's debut album The Lexicon Of Love did as well as it did; this is but one testament to its brilliance.

A formidable song cycle of desire and heartbreak worthy of the finest moments of Roxy Music, Lexicon stands tall as one of the most fully realized albums of the first half of the 1980s, if not all pop history. It's also among the very best debut albums in rock history, with perhaps only the first Pretenders album rivaling it for supremacy in that category. Like The Human League's Dare, which came out a matter of months before Lexicon, the album was a sterling example of the pop side of what my good friend Pat Pierson calls "1981 and a half"—that fleeting moment when post-punk and new wave collided and transcended time and space to create some of the best and most exciting music of the rock era, right before the now-clichéd later-'80s trends toward over-production and cheesiness sapped so much out of the musical landscape. Lexicon is its parts, the sum thereof, and a dance floor full of more, more, more.

Alas, an album so iconic is hard to follow up. ABC did make many worthwhile songs as their career progressed, but they never matched the all-encompassing fabulousness of their debut. Their biggest U.S. hit actually came five years later, when the well-intentioned but rather corny soul tribute "When Smokey Sings" went to #5. Members of the original five-piece band left gradually, with guitarist Mark White lasting alongside Fry until the early '90s. Now with original drummer David Palmer back in tow, a nine-city U.S. tour just completed, and the first new album in eight years promised to be on the way, on at least some level ABC is back.

Walking past the venue a half hour before the doors opened, about 25 fans were already lined up outside the velvet rope of Canal Room, a few clearly hoping to land autographs as they clutched their precious vinyl copies of Lexicon and How To Be A Zillionaire. The club is cozy, intimate, and refreshingly devoid of the worst NYC club clichés; given what goes on in so many clubs of this sort in the city, it was downright startling not to get hassled at the door, at the bar, or by the bathroom attendant. This is the sort of place where you hand over a $20 bill for a bottle of Heineken and a glass of domestic merlot and are actually pleasantly surprised when you receive $4 change.

The room was lively and energy ran high just before the band took the stage, but the show wasn't sold out, so it was pretty easy to move to within the first five or six rows of standing-room fans in the general-admission setting. Classic soul and disco set the mood well; Chic's "I Want Your Love," probably one of the ten best disco songs ever and a song that surely influenced ABC, led off a mix that also ran through "Car Wash" and some obligatory Smokey ("Going To A Go-Go"), misstepping only by including the shop-worn "Respect" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)." Lights went down, symphonic music reminiscent of the opening strains of Lexicon filled the room, Palmer and four ringers took the stage, and the debonair Martin Fry made his grand, grinning, elegant entrance.

Fry, looking for all the world like a perfect combination of Bryan Ferry, Simon LeBon, and James Bond, swaggered in his white sport jacket, but not arrogantly. The band—guitar, bass, two synths, drums—were in the pocket, and though standing so close to the stage and a huge speaker made it difficult to pick out individual sonic elements in the mix at times, overall the sound was very crisp, and so was Fry's voice.

The well-paced 75-minute set featured all the hits and key album tracks any fan could reasonably expect to hear. Fry was a gracious host for the evening. When one fan passed him a homemade poster with various photos of him and the band, Martin wistfully said, "That's the story of my life there!" and said he'd be happy to sign it for the fan later; at the end of the show, he did.

He introduced "Poison Arrow," only to have a technical problem with one of the keyboards cause the start of the tune to be delayed by about a minute, somewhat sapping his introduction of its impact; the crowd predictably rallied as soon as the song finally began, indiscriminantly dancing with themselves and each other and providing the evening's first en masse singalong. In the lead-up to the chorus, Fry curiously left out the reply "That's stupid!" which comes after the line "You think you're smart" on the recorded version, and it seemed like a pointed omission. Does he now view that as an unnecessarily nasty line?

Aside from such miniscule vocal tics, nearly every song was arranged faithfully to the original versions, with the notable exception of the band's best post-Lexicon song, 1985's "Be Near Me." An extended but hardly indulgent keyboard intro laid down the song's chords at a subtly but nonetheless significantly slower tempo than the hit version. The originally bouncy pop number was not quite turned into a ballad, but the already unabashed love song became even more poignant with this slight rearrangement.

In all, six of the nine full-length songs from The Lexicon Of Love were performed, with the ballad "All Of My Heart" fitting perfectly as the penultimate song of the set proper. Martin said it was time to go, "But we have to do one more song." Thus began a stirring live rendition of the greatest song in the history of pop music, "The Look Of Love (Part One)." (I realize that both Stevie Wonder's "If You Really Love Me" and The Five Stairsteps' "O-O-H Child" were mentioned as candidates for the honor of "best song ever written" just a couple posts ago—and they still are. But my "greatest song of all time" designation has continuously rotated among a dozen or so songs over the last 10 to 15 years, and this week "The Look Of Love" is the winner. Deal.)

A singular-sounding production with lyrics that straddle the fine line between clever and stupid and a musical-emotional buildup that begins with the song's almost-tentative opening notes and explodes in an urgent, crazy, messy climax three and a half minutes later, simulating a fast and furious orgasm, minus the heavy breathing. That's what "The Look Of Love" is, and that is exactly how it felt when the song was played at this show.

People freaked. I freaked. It was insane. Hearing that song performed live was an experience that in some ways I had been waiting for since I was 10 years old. Oh, I adored most of the English synth-pop MTV played around that time, though I was sadly clueless as to how to find it on the radio; tragically, WLIR eluded me. I got distracted by Huey Lewis before diving into classic rock worship as a full-time high school occupation, and it wasn't until toward the end of college, around '93, that I was able to admit I really liked this music. So it's not as if seeing ABC has been on my to-do list since age 10, but "The Look Of Love" is a song I never stopped loving, and it's immensely gratifying to know its singer and composer can still belt it out.

If I'm not mistaken, both the set and the encore began with new songs, another smart move, and I'll tell you why. Fry introduced most of the songs by name, but opening the sets with these songs that weren't quite familiar yet still sounded very much like ABC avoided the dreaded "This next one is a new song" that often prompts people to head for the bar or the toilets. After opening the encore with a new one, Fry told the audience that he didn't think the performance of "Poison Arrow" was good enough, and the rabid audience ate it up when he cued the band to strike up the song again. A funny, unexpected, bold, and therefore rock & roll moment. Who says disco sucks?

inexact set list:

[new song]
Show Me
Poison Arrow
How To Be A Millionaire
That Was Then But This Is Now
The Night You Murdered Love
Date Stamp
Be Near Me
Tears Are Not Enough
One Better World
Rolling Sevens
When Smokey Sings
All Of My Heart
The Look Of Love (Part One)

encore:
[new song]
Poison Arrow (again!)

This Is Not America

2005-09-03T17:35:00.000-04:00

So now we all know the dirty and horrific truth is that our government has no effective plan to deal with a major domestic catastrophe.

If it did, thousands of National Guardsmen would have been paratrooping into New Orleans and the rest of the worst-hit areas by Tuesday morning, each one with a case of bottled water and a bag of Happy Meals strapped to his back. The Bush administration's failure of leadership has been so catastrophic that even right-wing hacks like Tucker Carlson and Joe Scarborough have pointed their fingers at Washington and more or less said, "What the fuck?"

I know I'm not the first to vent, and I'm certainly not the most eloquent. But as someone who lives a few blocks away from the Hudson River, who travels through the Lincoln Tunnel twice a day, who works in midtown Manhattan, and who stood at the Hoboken ferry dock and watched with my own eyes as the first tower collapsed four years ago next week, I feel less safe than ever. Clearly, the Homeland Security Department is not prepared to deal with a worst-case scenario like this.

The fact that the Bush administration cut funding that could have protected New Orleans from this, and that Speaker Hastert has publicly wondered aloud whether we should even bother to rebuild the place, and that the FEMA head dude who couldn't even hold down a job running the International Arabian Horse Association had no clue about the thousands of refugees at the Convention Center until a member of the press mentioned it to him...ok, I'm out of breath already. Most of you know all of this, if you are the sort of person who would care to. Here are the numbers, if you haven't seen them. Though he softened his stance somewhat after some help finally began to materialize, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's Thursday night comments stand as the most courageous and honest statement anyone has made in the wake of all this.

Anyway, yes, give to the Red Cross, despite the fact that it's an organization formerly run by Elizabeth Dole. Or give to Oxfam America, or maybe even the at-least-formerly-corrupt United Way; I don't know. That's probably the best most of us can do in the short term.

Though it won't immediately help anyone stranded on the roof of their apartment complex or standing barefoot in a pile of human feces outside the Superdome, music business sage Bob Lefsetz has a better idea, one that makes a whole lot of sense for our society moving forward.

Bob is a no-bullshit veteran of the rock & roll industry whose mailing list is read by most of the biz big shots, as well as some of its worker bees, like me. His numerous columns on the changing nature of the music business boldly challenge the record labels to think in new ways, particularly to embrace online file-sharing and simply monetize it. He also often writes about rock & roll new and old with a passion and personal touch rarely read in most modern music mags. He doesn't dabble in politics all that much, but when he does, he usually gets it right.

In a message to his mailing list Friday night, Lefsetz called out this administration for its inability to take responsibility for this tragedy, pointing out that Bush's plea for Americans to contribute to charities misses the point. We don't need charities; as Bob says, "We need a government." With Mr. Lefsetz's kind permission, I reprint his Friday night column here in its entirety.

Driving in Santa Monica earlier today I heard George Bush on the radio. He said to send cash. To the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

I want to send cash. But I want to send it to the government.

The head of FEMA took the right wing position yesterday. He blamed the predicament of those in New Orleans on themselves. They just didn't follow instructions. They needed to LEAVE when warned.

But it's not easy to leave if you're dirt poor and have no transportation. I was just about ready for some Republican to tell those in New Orleans to HELP themselves. Isn't that their position? Your life situation is of your own doing? And you should prepare for the inevitable disaster? By saving?

That's not very Christian.

My understanding is Christianity is about being compassionate, helping your brother.

Although I share those values, I don't happen to be a Christian. So, I'm not exactly happy with placing all charity in the hands of a religious organization. I'd rather place my faith in the government.

We need a government. That's what the tragedy and lawlessness in New Orleans evidences. We need a police force. And services.

Services. They don't come free. You've got to pay for them. And you do this through TAXES!

The Republicans have succeeded in making "tax" a dirty word. To the point where nobody can run for office on a platform of increasing individual financial liability to the government. What do they say? It's YOUR MONEY? We don't want to take it from you?

Well, why don't they then say you now won't get services. That's what taxes give you, a government that renders services.

I'm gonna let you in on a secret. You can't spend money without wasting it. It can be simple. You can buy the wrong paper for your printer, one that doesn't render the proper finished product. But does that mean you should shut your business down, stop printing, because you blew $3.50?

If the government begins a program, money will be wasted. It's INHERENT in the process. But that doesn't mean we should eliminate all programs. We should do the best we can to eliminate waste, but we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The individualist philosophy that has invaded out country has lowered our quality of life. Let's not pay for education in the inner city, we don't live there. Then again, who ends up doing the work in your neighborhood, the stuff you don't want to do?

I've been paying insurance on my domicile for THIRTY YEARS! I've never collected once. But I keep paying, fearful a disaster COULD take place. That's how reasonable people run their lives. We think about consequences. But we can't protect against ALL disasters. I don't have a stockpile of groceries in my house, of medicines, if an earthquake occurs, I'm counting on the government to take care of me, at least get me through. That's why I'm paying income taxes and taxes on a whole host of other things.

I'm happy to pay a percentage of my earnings for services, for protection against disaster. It's an insurance policy just like the one I have on my house.

I want to drive the streets knowing that potholes will be filled in a reasonable time.

I want bridges inspected so they don't collapse when I'm on them.

I want education funded so people can get reasonable jobs and not become drug addicts and a scourge on society. Making me fearful every time I leave my house.

I want to pay for not only law and order, but a better place for ALL of us to live. I want to know there's a safety net for those hit by misfortune that is unforeseeable, whether it be a hurricane, earthquake or medical problem.

Contrary to what the rich believe, flying in private aircraft, vacationing in private enclaves, living in spacious apartments with doormen, we're all in this together. And if the poor people weren't buying your product, you wouldn't HAVE these creature comforts.

Screw collecting for charity. Raise taxes tomorrow. On ALL of us. Because we're all going to be affected by this tragedy. Just watch the price of gasoline.

To subscribe please visit lefsetz.com

Tipsy Tuesday

2005-08-30T09:45:00.000-04:00

No, I didn't die. Did spend the most (only?) beautiful week of the summer in cool Cape May, which I might have time to write about if I ever get my home computer working again.

Anyway, hope you're thirsty. Tonight I'm spinning tunes from 9:30 p.m. until whenever at the Ding Dong Lounge, and all drinks are happy hour prices all night long. They also generously offer 5 bottles of Rheingold for a Hamilton. Make it an uptown Tipsy Tuesday.

ROCK CITY
Mike C. at DING DONG LOUNGE
929 Columbus Ave. between 105th St. & 106th St., NYC
TONIGHT, Tuesday, August 30
9:30 p.m.

Stevie Wonder, Secretary Of Fine Arts, at The Apollo Theater

2005-08-17T19:53:00.000-04:00

I can die now.

That's about the most Bangsian statement I can make after seeing Stevie Wonder and his band play a blistering set of soul classics at The Apollo Theater on Thursday, August 11.

For every rough and tumble funk jam he's authored, he's pumped out two mid-tempo ballads that sound at home on Lite FM, yet there's something a little bit punk about this musical icon. Maybe 'cause he's blind, maybe 'cause he's black, maybe 'cause he's political. Mass-appeal punk, surely, as the sound of the melodies he has written, sung, and played on his piano and keyboard and harmonica and damn near every other instrument are a permanent fixture of American culture. Despite missteps ("I Just Called To Say I Love You") and a low profile the last two decades (his soon-to-be-released new album A Time To Love will be only his second new full-length non-soundtrack work in the last 18 years, though he did play Live8), Stevie's star has continued to shine as the Jamiroquais and D'Angelos of the world have tried to imitate his style and new generations have gravitated toward his timeless artistry.

From the front row center seats of the first mezzanine at The Apollo, the bird's eye view was of one of the foremost artists in the hair-over-a-hundred-year-old history of recorded popular music doing his thing. In the second of two rare performances to benefit and raise awareness about The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (peep a good review of the first show here), some provisions of which are set to expire before the next presidential election, Stevie Wonder mastered two tasks; for the program's first hour, he served as the personable and often hilarious host of a symposium on the meaning of the Voting Rights Act while introducing guest artists and teasing the crowd with a couple of his own numbers. For the rest of the evening, he dug in behind the piano and keyboards and set about redefining the phrase "tour de force" with a 100-minute show of powerhouse musicality and showmanship.

Rarely does an artist receive a standing ovation just for walking onto a stage to speak, but of course Stevie got just such a reception from the crowd as he was escorted onto the Apollo stage by his assistant Brian. Once the house quieted down and Wonder began to speak, a few people in the crowd blurted out "We love you!" and other terms of endearment, but most fans were well-behaved as Stevie explained the reasons for the two benefit shows. I confess I had no idea that some of the provisions of the 1965 law passed by Congress to protect everyone's right to vote in this country are, alarmingly, set to expire in 2007. The Motown legend sat at the piano and played "Heaven Help Us All," a somewhat forgotten #9 hit from 1970. The song fit in with the lingering tone of religion in the air (Jesus apparently supports The Voting Rights Act) but also transcended it.

A long sports jacket couldn't hide the fact that Stevie has put on some pounds, and the hairline that leads to the famous mane of long, straight braided hair has receded to mid-head; yet somehow, Stevie could not have looked more resplendent. When he opened his mouth, it was awe-inspiring to hear how he's lost virtually nothing off his voice over the decades. The range is still there, all the fullness, the rich texture, the sweetness. You could tell from that first song that the vocals were going to be spot-on all night. He was that good.

He began "Heaven Help Us All" solo on piano, but offstage instruments joined in toward the end of the song, making it clear that a full band would be rocking the place for the evening. When the curtain came up, that band—I don't have their names, but the lineup was guitar, bass, drums, percussion, keyboards, sax, and four backup singers (three female, one male)—accompanied guest performer Chuck Jackson on his signature song, "Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird)" (#23 in 1962). Chuck looked and sounded great. Stevie brought him back onstage for a quick a capella run through some of Chuck's other Top 40 hit, "I Don't Want To Cry."

Jersey City's own Richie Havens was the evening's other major musical guest. Seated and accompanying himself on his trademark acoustic guitar, he sounded fine doing Jackson Browne's "Lives In The Balance" and the Woodstock classic "Freedom," despite breaking a guitar string during the first song. Stevie called Richie back onstage and basically insisted that he play "that George Harrison song"—"Here Comes The Sun"—which Richie seemed sheepish about doing. His stool was summoned back onstage and while Havens sat, Stevie held a mic up to his mouth for the duration of the song. It was a cool, clearly spontaneous moment, but at the same time, I was almost pissed. No disrespect to Mr. Havens, but I'd already seen him before, at The Hoboken Arts & Music Festival a few years back. I'd paid a lot of money to see Stevie; it was Stevie I came to see.

When the guest stars were done and the speeches were over, Stevie Wonder sat at the piano bench. "Love's In Need Of Love Today." Yes! Have 29 years really passed since this was released? Aside from concerns about the singer's voice, the other great musical fear that plagued me in advance of the show—that the arrangements would somehow grate, with cheesy keyboard tones or inappropriate guitar or background keyboard fills—also was never realized. A full horn section would have made a big difference, but live sax plus backup keyboardist doubling up the parts sounded strangely ok. There were a few fleeting moments when the sax player hovered near Cheeseville, but just when you thought the song would go off a cliff and do a Thelma & Louise-style crash into Smooth Jazz Land (which is neither smooth nor jazz, discuss), the band would pull back and restore the proper essence of the song. Collective sigh.

Most of the sold-out crowd was at rapt, respectful attention, when they weren't dancing fools When requests were yelled, Wonder acknowledged them but remained solidly in control of the proceedings. "Let me do my thing," he said, and the people did. There was one moment in the show when Stevie asked what Al Sharpton's favorite Stevie Wonder song was, and apparently Rev. Al wasn't in the room at that time. Someone called out, "He likes 'Isn't She Lovely'" and Stevie quickly shot back, "Don't speak for the reverend!" Mentioning his new album, the release of which has been delayed several times already, Wonder spoke to Motown head Sylvia Rhone and Universal honcho Doug Morris, who were both seated somewhere on the floor, and kicked around the idea of a September 20 or 27 release date. It was odd, but also in keeping with the somewhat loose, intimate nature of the night.

That looseness found its way into the set, too. Not in a technical sense; the musicians were on point, and except for flubbing the first two lines of "Sir Duke," Stevie's vocal delivery was perfect. (At the beginning of the song, he started singing the second verse ["Music knows it is and always will..."] instead of the first ["Music is a world within itself..."]) The loose vibe manifested itself in the way Stevie and the band segued from one song to the next, sometimes stopping to throw in a verse or two of a song without playing the whole thing.

It's part of the R&B tradition that medleys are an intrinsic part of most live shows. Sadly, Stevie did not entirely buck this convention. Sure, it's kind of cool that he did a verse of "Rocket Love" while transitioning from one song to another and a quick stab at "Where Were You When I Needed You" (but not "Superwoman") at one point as well, but it's also frustrating as hell. It was kind of like when I saw Prince last year. I'd gladly sacrifice hearing parts of five or six songs I love in exchange for hearing one or two songs I love in their entirety. Maybe that's just the formalist in me, or the completist. It was bad enough that "If You Really Love Me" (which, incidentally, is Stevie Wonder's best song, by a head and a neck and a shoulder, and perhaps even the best song ever written, with the possible exception of "O-O-H Child") and "My Cherie Amour" (easily one of his 10 best, and this is a competitive list, mind you) were truncated. Only about two-thirds of each was performed, though that was enough to register as close to a full performance of those songs.

Many of the most important songs—the "Sir Dukes" and "You Are The Sunshine Of My Lifes"—were delivered in their full glory. "All I Do" was a juicy slab of funk-pop. "I Wish" was an instant party. "Superstition" and "Higher Ground" might as well have been lifted from the type of vintage performances you see in commercials for a Time-Life compilation CD. Hey, who brought the time machine?

After I saw both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in 1989, George Harrison stood alone atop the list of "living musical artists I've never seen who I'd most like to see." I never got to see him; I believe his only U.S. live appearance in the last 20-plus years of his life was when he sang "Absolutely Sweet Marie" at Bobfest at Madison Square Garden in 1992, a show I couldn't afford a ticket for as a college student. Funny, Stevie was there too.

When George died in November 2001, Mr. Wonder assumed that lofty title of Favorite Artist I've Never Seen. I figured I'd get my shot at seeing Stevie eventually, but I imagined it would be at Radio City Music Hall at best; at worst, Madison Square Garden. I never dreamed I'd be in the center of the front row of the first mezz at the cozy Apollo, looking down at a mere eight rows of seats between me and the stage, with an unobstructed view of Stevie's hands as they moved up and down the keys of a grand piano.

Hopefully I'll get to see Stevie again, though topping this Apollo experience is basically impossible. The fun part is that now I get to name a new Favorite Artist I've Never Seen and set about seeing him or her or them. Among the all-time legends, who do I need to see now—Brian Wilson? Neil Young? The Cure? Sonny Rollins?

Partial set list, incomplete, not exact order:

Heaven Help Us All
Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird) - Chuck Jackson
I Don't Want To Cry - Chuck Jackson
Uptight (Everything's Alright)
Lives In The Balance - Richie Havens
Freedom - Richie Havens
Here Comes The Sun - Richie Havens
Love's In Need Of Love Today
Higher Ground
Master Blaster (Jammin')
If You Really Love Me
My Cherie Amour
Rocket Love
All I Do
Sir Duke
I Wish
You Are The Sunshine Of My Life
Superstition
How Will I Know (with Aisha Wonder)
Isn't She Lovely
Ribbon In The Sky
Where Were You When I Needed You
Send One Your Love
Overjoyed
Do I Do
Did I Hear You Say You Love Me
So What The Fuss
As

If you're not familiar with Stevie Wonder's major albums, go buy Music Of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale, Songs In The Key Of Life, Hotter Than July, and a good collection of the '60s hits. Now. If you can, do yourself a favor and find Where I'm Coming From, the criminally overlooked 1970 masterwork that sold a paltry 7,833 copies in the U.S. after SoundScan was instituted in 1991, and is now out of print, awaiting reissue.

If you are familiar with this music, the set list speaks for itself.

And The Home Computer Has Me On The Run

2005-08-17T09:12:00.000-04:00

My computer and I are having issues. We'll leave it at that. I have written a treatise of sorts on the amazing Stevie Wonder show I saw at The Apollo last week, and said "issues" have kept me from finishing it to date. I hope to have it up here soon.

In the meantime, go see two bands I've played on my show, The Head Set and Group Sounds, playing back-to-back tonight at Pianos, starting at 8:30 p.m. And go read Tris' new blog.

Catching Up With Hoboken, Weehawken, Jersey City, Brooklyn Blogs*

2005-08-08T00:45:00.000-04:00

Jersey City's Tris McCall is hard at work on his next album. Can't wait to hear what he'll come up with next. In the meantime, he's now offering free MP3 downloads of some of his music, putting a new tune online each week. The first offering is a great unreleased song, "Not Just Anyone," and the second one "I Know What Happens Next" is from his old band The Favorite Color. Tris is also recently published some music-related reviews for the first time in a while, which is great news because his music criticism is required reading. The new twist is that this time he's reviewing videos at Music Video Press. (*trismccall.net, of course, is a website, not a weblog.)

One of my favorite online finds of late is fellow Jersey-based music blogger Extrawack! Was nice to see his Nike Run-Hit Wonder piece got picked up by Brooklyn Vegan.

Speaking of BV, he posts so often that keeping up with him is a challenge, if a rewarding one. Recent highlights include a list of upcoming CMJ performers and a whole lotta CBGB updates.

Though Jim Testa made some pointed remarks earlier this summer about CBGB's lack of vitality in recent years, he does believe New York City just would not be the same without the club, and his Jersey Beat is a co-sponsor of this Thursday's installment of the month-long series of benefit shows there. Testa is performing along with High Speed Chase and many others. I'd be all over that if I hadn't spent about $9 million for tickets to see the greatest of all living musical legends who I have never previously seen, Stevie Wonder, that night at The Apollo.

Vegan also touched on the situation at Lookout! Records, the legendary California punk rock label that let go its entire staff this past week because of Green Day's decision to take ownership of their first two albums. The band's action will leave the cash-strapped indie label without a steady income flow. At first glance, this may seem callous of the band, especially with their renewed popularity since the release of last year's American Idiot. One could argue Lookout! put Green Day on the map, then again one could argue the reverse. Either way, the group has been owed royalties on those records for years. Lookout! has a few cool current artists on its roster, but they haven't had any breakout hits, and they relied too heavily on royalties from two early-'90s Green Day records to keep themselves afloat. Coolfer's got a good summary of the situation.

Lookout!'s very sweet radio promo person helped me out a lot with my podcast, and sadly she is among those who lost their jobs in the wake of all this. Another potential bummer of particular local concern is that Lookout! is the label of one of New Jersey's current musical treasures, Bloomfield's own Ted Leo. Wonder if there will be a place for him at the new Lookout!, which will be run by the label's three owners. Moreover, you have to question whether it would be a good idea to stay at a label that will surely have limited resources to promote him.

Shout outs to Hoboken and Jersey City bloggers who are less obsessed with music than I am...

Where Is The Remote? has done some spectacular work lately. His pieces on the surveillance cameras at The Madison, the Willow Autobahn, and the Jesus statue thing (the local story of the last two weeks, which I've managed not to mention until now) are all must-reads. Particularly impressive is the Jesus post, which contains an audio interview with Julio Dones, owner and curator of the statue over in Hoboken's fourth ward that allegedly opened its eye, obviously signifying a true blue spectacle, I mean a miracle.

Can we all chip in and lure Remote?'s Row away from his Fortune 500 job so we can have his type of thoughtful writing at The Hoboken Reporter? Surely he could come up with better front-page headlines than "Finger And All." It also bears mentioning that the Reporter needs to put at least a one-year moritorium on headlines that end in question marks. Such weak construction should make any self-respecting second-year journalism major cringe.

Hoboken video blogger Bullemhead has done some neat work, including the video where he took a camera into the voting booth during this spring's election, a piece I should have linked to ages ago. One recent post is not a piece of original work, but a handy link to the full video of Robert "Giant Douchebag" Novak's on-air meltdown last week, "bullshit" included. Hey, it's Bullemhead's nickname for Mr. Novak, not mine. We report, you decide.

Back over in Jersey City, New York's Sixth reviews J.C.'s slim supermarket pickings and continues to follow local architecture and city planning.

Dojo Mojo (Dojo is shorthand for Downtown Jersey City) is fast becoming another valuable local resource. Recent features included photos of Jersey City's Bolivian parade, an electrical explosion in town, and The Waterbug Arts Festival.

Here in the Rock City, Mister Snitch is busy as ever, both as meta-blogger and as o.p. (original pundit). The more Snitch reveals about his politics, the less I agree with him—but I can't stop reading. His blog is a fine synthesis of smart writing, quality design, useful linking, and good neighborhood vibes. One of the best local resources on the web, Snitch was the first to hip me to New York's Sixth, Where Is The Remote?, and the new NJ Weblogs.

In a densely populated area whose media saturates us with coverage of the big city we're near but neglects the smaller neighboring cities where thousands of us live, the explosion of local blogging is one of the big stories of 2005. Many compare the current blogomania with the dot-com boom of the mid-'90s, but even if this is just a fad or a stage, a lot of information and entertainment is being spread all over, and much like cornbread, ain't nothing wrong with that. We're going glocal with this thing, baby!

Thanks, But I'd Rather Not Be Sedated

2005-08-07T20:00:00.000-04:00

It was fun to spin some tunes at the Ding Dong Thursday. I alternated between vinyl and iPod, a method of DJing I had never tried before, and there weren't many hiccups. The crowd was mostly appreciative. I especially liked the guy who came up during The New Pornographers' "Letter From An Occupant" and said in a very Zen/Yogi Berra/Buckaroo Banzai kind of way: "I wanted to hear this song! I didn't know I wanted to hear it until I heard it!" The set list came out well. It was cool time. They're having me back there again at the end of the month, on Tuesday, August 30.

The dog days are still here. Next Saturday, August 13 will be my last Saturday night at The Goldhawk until after Labor Day, so I can attend to summer madness. I'm back there September 10. August highlights at The Goldhawk include Ben Arnold on Thursday, August 18 and AJ Azzarto & The Hoboken 5 on Tuesday, August 23.

Been having some, shall we say, irregularities with the home computer of late. It may or may not have been a memory problem; I installed a new piece of RAM but it's still acting funny. I tried it in different slots, even. Dunno what's up. If it keeps telling me there's 5.5 gigs free on the internal hard drive, or 6.9 gigs, or 7.2 gigs (each time I restart it's different), does that mean that after five years, my G4 Cube's hard drive is finally dying?

So Many Records My Arm Damn Near Fell Off

2005-08-04T11:33:00.000-04:00

Well, at least it isn't hot today! Otherwise, bringing my LP case and other gear into the city would've been a real pain!

Hey, I'm so used to DJing a couple blocks away from my apartment that it's good to have to earn it a little. I detest vinyl snobbery and make no bones about the fact that I usually DJ using CDs, but I'm looking forward to playing mostly LPs tonight. I'm bringing a few CDs, but I'm going to stick to the records as much as possible, with a little help from my iPod, which I almost never use at gigs. It's good to mix it up. Hopefully it'll get me to play some different tunes.

See ya tonight.

ROCK CITY
Mike C. at DING DONG LOUNGE
929 Columbus Ave. between 105th St. & 106th St., NYC
TONIGHT, Thursday, August 4
9:30 p.m. - 2 a.m.

Mike C. Takes Manhattan

2005-08-01T00:57:00.000-04:00

As someone who straddles the Hudson on a daily basis, working and playing in both Hoboken and Manhattan, there is one constant refrain I hear from my many wonderful New York City friends: "I wish you would DJ in the city!"

Well, my many wonderful New York City friends, this Thursday at 9:30 p.m. your "Oh, I'd love to come but it's in Jersey" line just isn't going to cut it. Yes, I'm coming to your town and I'll help you party down, and I'm doing it at Ding Dong Lounge.

Ding Dong is an oasis of punk rock cool on Columbus Avenue between 105th St. and 106th St., a decidedly ungentrified block of Morningside Heights. Allegedly the site of a former crack den, Ding Dong is run by a former owner of the late, great Motor City Bar downtown. The atmospheric joint has a gang of classic punk posters on the walls, a pool table, and—I shit you not—hula hoops.

There's no cover. Arrive thirsty and enjoy a bucket of Rheingolds: 5 beers for 10 bucks. The music has been totally kick-ass every time I've been there, and I'm primed to live up to the high rock & roll standards they abide by. Take the 1 train to Broadway & 103rd or the B/C to Central Park West & 103rd. Or get a freakin' taxi.

I'm also doing my usual weekend rockfest at The Goldhawk this Saturday at 10 p.m., so you can rock on whichever side of the river you prefer.

ROCK CITY
Mike C. at DING DONG LOUNGE
929 Columbus Ave. between 105th St. & 106th St., NYC
Thursday, August 4
9:30 p.m. - 2 a.m.

HOBOKEN ROCK CITY
Mike C. at THE GOLDHAWK
936 Park Ave. at 10th St.
Hoboken, USA
Saturday, August 6
10 p.m. - 2:30 a.m.

Stop by say hi!

Bad News First...

2005-08-01T00:16:00.000-04:00

It pains me terribly to do this, put the Hoboken Rock City Podcast is back on hiatus, now indefinitely.

Many of you are aware that I am a full-time employee of a major record label. I guess you all are now. Regardless of what I might personally think about the RIAA's policies and attitudes toward legal grey areas like podcasting, MP3 blogs, and P2P sharing—and keeping in mind that any opinions I express here about those issues (and anything else) are solely mine and have nothing to do with my employer (who I have never actually mentioned anywhere on this site anyway, and by the way I really like my job)—I have been doing this above-board all along. I have received permission to use the tracks I played in each podcast from either the record labels or the artists themselves.

The legalities of podcasting music have not yet been sorted out, but in the meantime the best way to cover one's ass is to do this sort of outreach and get permissions. In the process of doing that, I have made some pleasant new contacts and acquaintances, corresponded with some artists I admire, and been turned on to some new music along the way. All that is awesome, but it takes time, and that's what I am lacking right now.

I hope the day comes soon when I can just fall out of bed and do a show without having to worry about clearing all the tracks with the owners of the respective master tapes; no such permissions are required on terrestrial radio. Until I can operate in a way that at least somewhat resembles regular radio, then, I just don't have the time or the resources to put into making any new podcasts right now. If there were no limits on what I could play, I could easily do a show every week and fill it with cool new stuff and classic faves. But that's not the case right now.

So, sorry. All I can say is wait and see, and I hope it's not too long until I'm doing a show again. In the meantime, this website and this blog live on. I'm still gigging and doing everything else I've been doing, just minus the show, for now anyway. And if anyone wants to, oh, I don't know, organize a letter-writing campaign to get me a show on Jersey City's own WFMU, well, gee, who am I to stand in anyone's way?

Raspberries at B.B. King's

2005-07-26T18:38:00.000-04:00

Treating an adoring room of fans to a generous two-plus hours of visceral, pop-driven rock & roll, vocal melodies that sounded like they were lifted straight from records cut more than three decades ago, and musicianship that propelled a sturdy, shimmering bunch of songs to a new level of explosiveness, the original lineup of The Raspberries triumphantly kicked ass this past weekend in their first New York shows in more than 30 years.

Combining Beatles and Beach Boys style harmonies with sharp mod riffs a la the early Who and Kinks anthems, the 'berries scored four Top 40 hits from 1972 to '74 before the band fell apart and singer Eric Carmen pursued Adult Contemporary stardom with more than a little success. The band's breezy pop confections, especially the hits "Go All The Way" and "I Wanna Be With You," had few peers when they were released outside of the semi-popular Todd Rundgren and the super-obscure Big Star. Splitting the difference between Cheap Trick and (some people will give me hell for this comparison, but I swear it's apt and, moreover, nothing to be ashamed of) Meat Loaf, the band was just a few years ahead of its time.

Featuring all the hits and most of the key album tracks, and garnished with covers of '60s classics the boys cut their teeth on in their early days, The Raspberries' current stage show is the rare nostalgia fest that doesn't feel hokey, forced, or lame. Dignitaries in attendance Sunday included Jon Bon Jovi and Jeopardy! king Ken Jennings, as well as Hudson County rock glitterati like Maxwell's owner/booker Todd Abramson and WFMU DJ Joe Belock. Sweet.

Set list:
I Wanna Be With You
I Can’t Explain
Play On
Hard To Get Over A Heartbreak
Tonight
Should I Wait
Nobody Knows
Makin' It Easy
If You Change Your Mind
Party’s Over
Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)
I Can Remember
It Seems So Easy
Let’s Pretend
Last Dance
It’s Cold Outside
Ecstasy
I Don't Know What I Want

first encore:
Please, Mr. Postman
You're Gonna Lose That Girl
Twist & Shout
I’m A Rocker
Go All The Way

second encore:
Slow Down
Roll Over Beethoven

You Are Blind As A Bat And I Have Sight

2005-07-20T18:21:00.000-04:00

Everyone's aware that Passaic's own Joe Piscopo will be in our midst tomorrow, right? Joe's performing "A Tribute to Hoboken's 150th Anniversary" Thursday night at 8 p.m. at the St. Ann's Italian Festival. It's unclear how much of that tribute will involve music, or comedy, or bodybuilding. Surely there'll be some Sinatra schtick.

The St. Ann's feast is also famous for booths of good, often cheap Italian food. There's this one booth I've been to in past years with some of the best meatballs I've had this side of mom's. If I find them this year, I'll point them out. I recall another booth offering small servings of penne vodka for a buck, which is notable if only because it's a buck.

Another potential entertainment highlight of the festival, which starts tonight and runs through next Tuesday, is Tavares ("It Only Takes A Minute," "More Than A Woman," "Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel") on Sunday. Original members? Who knows, but it was always a family act—the five Tavares brothers (Ralph, Antone, Feliciano, Arthur, and Perry)—so there's hope. They're on Sunday night at 8.

Then Monday it's Beginnings - A Tribute To Chicago. Since I've already had one friend ask whether the Chicago in question was the band, the city, or the musical, I'll give you a hint: it's the one that used to feature Peter Cetera. Let's hope Beginnings' name is indicative of the period of Chicago®'s music they'll draw upon most heavily for their set.

You can probably find the festival if you follow the noise, the pedestrians, and the smell of zeppoli—but in case you can't, it's located on the blocks surrounding 7th & Jefferson in Hoboken.

Dungen at Maxwell's

2005-07-15T09:28:00.000-04:00

It was one of those shows where you crane your head around the room, look into different people's faces for a split second, and think with more than a little bit of amazement, "That person is here to see Dungen. Cool."

You wonder where these people come from. How did they find out? Who hipped them to this? Where do these people live? And why aren't more of them coming to my dj gigs?

Sure, there are always some people in the place who are just along for the ride, willing to accompany their friend who can't stop raving about this Swedish "dude that is a band/band that is a dude" who plays melodic psychedelic stoner rock like Steppenwolf crossed with Todd Rundgren. But the vast majority of the hipsters in the sold-out back room of Maxwell's—the ones who pumped their fists during the chorus of "Ta Det Lungt" and nodded their heads to "Festival"—all caught the buzz somewhere, clearly.

It started last year on the big MP3 blogs; I first heard about Dungen from a Stereogum post. Pitchfork had embraced them, lending instant cred among people who still cared what Pitchfork deigned to say in its CD reviews. (I only read Pitchfork for the release dates and tour news—honest.) When it was still an import on Swedish label Subliminal, I bought the CD Ta Det Lungt (which apparently translates to Take It Easy) at Kim's and was fairly blown away. I played them a couple times on my podcast. Rutgers grad and former Yeah Yeah Yeah scribe Brandon Stosuy interviewed the man behind the band, Gustav Ejstes. Kemado Records picked up for domestic release. Next thing you know, Gustav, backed by three musicians capable of reproducing his one-man rock attack, is selling out small clubs and playing at indie rock festivals sponsored by Pitchfork and The Village Voice.

He did all the key songs from Lungt and a few others that were unfamiliar to most. There were a couple long instrumentals. Gustav was mostly on guitar, but he played keys on a few tunes, including some longish psychedelic instrumentals. He busted out the flute on one song. The crowd could even see his face behind his long hair, most of the time anyway.

You can see him Saturday in Coney Island at the Siren Festival, along with a hunka hunka buncha other hip acts. Catch him while he's in the neighborhood. There's no telling when he'll be back.

Surfin' Safari

2005-07-14T09:32:00.000-04:00

Nice to see Music Cherry digging The Lost Patrol after hearing them on this month's Hoboken Rock City Podcast. They also conveniently point out that you can purchase The Lost Patrol's latest CD High Noon at CD Baby, which is the sort of info I usually try to include in my show notes but neglected to do this time.

The Vegan links to this fine piece on music bloggers versus music journalists by Jason Cherkis in Washington City Paper.

The Daily Pomposity gives love to Jersey bloggers—well, sort of. I'll note here for the record that the politically conservative bent of many of the sites that comprise The Carnival Of The New Jersey Bloggers is the main reason I'm not setting up a booth in that otherwise-well-intentioned roadshow. Via Snitch, who scored two mentions in the Times story.

While we're talking about conservative bents, Greg at The Talent Show succinctly pinpoints that what makes Fox News completely unwatchable is not so much its right-wing bias (though that's annoying enough); it's the smug condescension of the channel's anchors. Gotta see if Shepard Smith will own up to that the next time he stops by The Goldhawk for a drink; it's been months since he was spotted bending an elbow there.

And sure, it's like shooting fish in a barrel, but Greg's latest Rove post is also money.

Rock & Roll All-Star Break

2005-07-13T00:35:00.000-04:00

I'm the type of guy who always stays at the game until the last out is made. Like Yogi said, "It ain't over till it's over."

So when it comes time to wrap up the year and make those annual best-of lists, I tend to lag behind much of the crowd. Certainly it's more forgivable to tally the 10 best albums of the year a few weeks before New Year's than it is to choose the top 10 news stories of the year before December is out; witness last year's tsunami. But even when it comes to rating and ranking music as us geeks love to do, I hold out a little longer than most, certainly always until the time period being evaluated has completely elapsed.

No matter how long I wait to make any top-however-many list, I know I'll end up wanting to change its order and contents within months after making it. Despite that knowledge, I'll always delay the submission of any such lists as much as I can, usually until right before the deadline. So it's not out of character that it took me until mid-July to get around to a short and informal mid-year list, a solid couple weeks after estimable peers like Brooklyn Vegan, Anthony Is Right, and Rajeev and Jason at One Louder offered their interesting takes on the best of the first half of 2005.

I want to add to the conversation, but it feels too early for me to put forth a ranked list of favorites from the past six months. Oh, I have a super-tentative top 5 in my head, but I'm just not ready to spill that onto the screen. Besides, I'm saving up a year's worth of wit and wisdom for my annual January roundup. What I will share now is a fast and dirty listing of 2005 albums I haven't heard yet but that I want to hear.

Every year I keep a running list of CDs I want. I keep buying them, and nice publicists and industry friends send me them, but more new ones come out every damn week. The futile truth is that there are always dozens of albums still on that list at the end of every year. Some I'll get eventually, some I won't. Hey, I listen to a lot of stuff—already close to 100 albums and reissues released in 2005 so far—but there's always more out there.

The current fantasy is that making this list at the mid-year point will motivate me to wrap my ears around these particular records in the next five to six months. I'm restricting this list only to albums that were released before the end of June, though though not all of them have hit shelves yet in the U.S. These may not be the five best albums of the year I haven't heard yet, but they are the five I'm most interested in hearing. And so...

Mike C.'s Top 5 Albums Of 2005 I Haven't Heard Yet

1. Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock & Roll (Fierce Panda)
The almost-shambolic-sounding South London five-piece's debut album begins with "Formed A Band," their classic Fall-esque first single that I probably underrated when I ranked it the 14th best song of last year. But other than the "Band" b-side "Bad Weekend," I haven't heard any of the other tracks on their first full-length effort, which came out in the U.K. in late May.

2. The Vanity Project - The Vanity Project (Flagship)
Barenaked Ladies co-frontman Steven Page and The Lilac Time's Stephen Duffy have been writing songs together on an occasional basis for more than a decade now, but this is their first album as a duo. I'm hoping the collaboration that gave birth to "Jane," "Everything Old Is New Again," and "I Live With It Every Day" returns to form here. (Also peep the hyper-literate Page's "Music You Should Hear" on Amazon.)

3. Esthero - Wikkid Lil’ Grrrls (Warner)
Her Breath From Another was one of the most tuneful trip-hop albums of the late-'90s, but she's barely been heard from since. Guests here including Andre 3000, Cee-Lo, and Sean Lennon hint that this may be a rather different sounding affair.

4. Idlewild - Warnings/Promises (EMI)
Like Glenn McDonald said, there is absolutely no good reason why this has not been released domestically yet.

5. The Chemical Brothers - Push The Button (Astralwerks)
I figured these guys were done, but the single with Q-Tip and the many word-of-mouth recommendations I've gotten on this record have me thinking I gave up on them too soon.

Bonus: 10 More I Need To Hear

Shelby Lynne - Suit Yourself (Capitol)
The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree (4AD)
Mundy - Raining Down Arrows (Camcor)
Ed Harcourt - Strangers (Heavenly/EMI)
Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm (SuperEgo)
Eels - Blinking Lights And Other Revelations (Vagrant)
Buck 65 - This Right Here Is Buck 65 (V2)
Emma Bunton - Free Me (19/Universal)
Fischerspooner - Odyssey (Capitol)
The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday (Frenchkiss)

Harmonic Convergence Of "The Fifth R.E.M.": dB's And Posies At Maxwell's

2005-07-12T18:20:00.000-04:00

The reunited dB's are playing Maxwell's on September 19 and 20, a Monday and Tuesday night. (Via Pitchfork.) Get yer tickets for this Hoboken homecoming that's gonna sell out faster than $10,000-a-plate seats to Karl Rove's farewell roast.

The following week, The Posies play the same venue. This means that Peter Holsapple (dB's) and Ken Stringfellow (Posies), the two guys who have most prominently filled the role of "the fifth R.E.M." as an extra touring member of the band, will be playing in town just a matter of days apart. Weird.

Electric Six, who to my knowledge have never been referred to as "the sixth R.E.M.," are also playing there in late September (and I really should be back at school) too. Damn. The hits just keep on coming.

Faces Of Rock

2005-07-12T00:07:00.000-04:00

Or, Catching Up With Mike C.'s Camera. Finally had the chance to go through the photos from shows I've been to over the last month. All apologies for not getting these up sooner.

AJ Azzarto and The Hoboken Five at The Goldhawk, Hoboken, July 6

Frank Sinatra's granddaughter fearlessly tackles The Great American Songbook with aplomb, backed by her smart quintet. The intimate back room of The Goldhawk suits her style to a T, so it's good that she plays there pretty regularly. Unmissable, every time.

Hamell On Trial at Satalla, Manhattan, June 29

"I'm rockin' like The Clash/It's acoustic kinda meanery/I'm as bad as Nine Inch Nails/Except I don't need machinery."

Dave's True Story at The Brennan Courthouse, Jersey City, June 17

Hey Webster's, put this photo next to your definition of "cool."

Tris McCall at The Brennan Courthouse, Jersey City, June 17

All the news that's fit to sing.

Skanatra at Sinatra Park, Hoboken, June 11

The rockingest rock-steady beat of Hoboken.

You might forget your manners: Erni "The Other Kid From Hoboken" Contri gets into the act with the Skanatra boys.

Calling London

2005-07-11T23:15:00.000-04:00

Would've written this immediately, but I would have almost felt selfish. Now that's it been a few days, I'd like to humbly ask any Londoners who read the blog or listen to the show to send a quick note and let me know how you're doing.

Music For The Masses

2005-07-06T19:34:00.000-04:00

Still trying to figure out how to listen? If you have iTunes version 4.9, this is all you need to do. Mondo thanks to Mr. Snitch for the kind encouragement, and for creating this handy visual.

Hoboken Rock City - Show #10 - July 2005

2005-07-06T00:19:00.000-04:00

Brendan Benson, The Ponys, Pernice Brothers, American Watercolor Movement, The Lost Patrol, The Jessica Fletchers, True Love, Tall Days, The Figurines, Lip Service, Permer, and Smart Brown Handbag come back, baby: Hoboken Rock City never forgets. At long last, it's Show #10 - July 2005.

iTunes users: Subscribe for free at the iTunes Music Store. Let's get Hoboken Rock City into iTunes' Top 100 Podcasts chart.

Everyone else: Download the show right here.

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Summer Holiday & Me - THE JESSICA FLETCHERS
Less Sophistication, Rainbow Quartz, 2005
The five-piece Norwegian rock band kicks off summer in the Rock City. They're just finishing a U.S. tour with Dressy Bessy in support of their just-released second album, Less Sophistication, which features one of the imaginative CD booklets of all time. I'm not giving away the secret here—you'll have to buy it and see for yourself.

Get Black - THE PONYS (pictured above)
Celebration Castle, In The Red, 2005
On the heels of my #5 album of 2004, The Ponys are already back with a fine Steve Albini-produced album that includes this "summer in the city" song. They're playing Rothko in NYC on Friday, July 15, and this year's Chicago-only version of Lollapalooza on July 24.

There Goes The Sun - PERNICE BROTHERS
Discover A Lovelier You, Ashmont, 2005
Joe Pernice and Co. had been based out of New York City for the last few years, but with the band members recently scattering to various corners of the continent, I was surprised to hear they had a new studio release coming out this June. The group whose last album Yours, Mine And Ours topped my 2003 albums list has never disappointed, and they don't this time out either. Their tour starts July 15 in their original Massachusetts stomping grounds. They play the North Star Bar in Philadelphia on Friday, August 12 and NYC's Bowery Ballroom the following night, Friday, August 13. Also check out Joe Pernice's Indie Rock Cribs.

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Cold Hands (Warm Heart) - BRENDAN BENSON
The Alternative To Love, StarTime/V2, 2005
An album has to stand the test of time before it's fair to call it a masterpiece, but Brendan Benson's The Alternative To Love may prove worthy of the title. This album has dominated my CD player and iPod more than any other over the last six weeks. Benson is playing The Village Voice Siren Festival in Coney Island on Saturday, July 16, and some west coast dates later in the month.

Love Song - THE FIGURINES
Demo, no label, 2005
An unsigned five-piece out of NYC, featuring the songwriting and vocal talents of SooJin Yi. See them at Lit Lounge on Thursday, July 28 and at The Cutting Room on Thursday, August 25.

Hello - THE LOST PATROL
High Noon, no label, 2004
An unsigned Central NJ four-piece who should appeal to fans of Cowboy Junkies, 10,000 Maniacs, and Mazzy Star. Playing the NJPAC in Newark on Thursday, July 21 at 5:30 p.m. for the Sounds Of The City Festival. Also playing at Triumph Brewing Company in beautiful New Hope, Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 30.

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JERSEY ROCK CITY SET

That's The Kind Of Love - AMERICAN WATERCOLOR MOVEMENT
web exclusive, no label, 2005
The Jersey City art-rock band will have a new album out soon. Here's a new song of theirs that I'm told will be downloadable from their website. They play Maxwell's on Wednesday, August 3 and Pianos in NYC on Friday, August 19.

Mr. Sad - TRUE LOVE
I Was Accident, Not Lame, 2003
Hoboken-based trio who rose from the ashes of Shake Appeal. Recorded at The Pigeon Club in Hoboken. Yeah yeah yeah!

Remember When - LIP SERVICE
Lip Service, no label, 2005
Brooklyn does not have a monopoly on the post-punk with attitude vibe; Lip Service rock straight outta Union City. Catch 'em at The Loop Lounge in Passaic Park this Friday, July 8 and again on Friday, August 12.

Be Somebody - TALL DAYS
Long Time No Talk, Snack Music, 2004
Like an all-male White Stripes, this Essex County duo of Graham Hartke and Joe DeAngelus crafts a fine, rockin' sound on their EP. They play frequently at places like Don Hill's and CBGB in the city, The Loop Lounge and The Court Tavern on the Jersey side, and at The Hook in Brooklyn. They're already working on their next CD.

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Summer Can't Come Soon Enough - SMART BROWN HANDBAG
Little Things Are Everything, Stonegarden, 1999
Summer lovin', had me a blast. Or, maybe not. I've said it before, I'll say it again: Smart Brown Handbag is the most criminally overlooked rock & roll band on the planet.

Summerday - PERMER
Summerdays Attract The Pain, Hidden Agenda, 2002
To close out this month's show, it's another Scandinavian summer song, this one from Sweden. Permer is currently working on the next album by his band Waltz For Debbie.

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Hoboken Rock City is produced with the cooperation of the artists and record labels whose recordings appear on the show. Thanks to all.

New fans, old friends, and artists yearning for Hoboken Rock City airplay: send me a note.

Thanks, and I'll see all y'all in August for Show #11...

New Show Tomorrow

2005-07-05T09:18:00.000-04:00

So tired, tired of waiting, tired of waiting for Mike C. The first new Hoboken Rock City podcast in more than two months, Show #10, will be here tomorrow. All I have to do is, um, record it. Here's hoping I can marshal enough of my strength and my voice, both of which were severely challenged by a fun but draining holiday weekend of sleep-deprived Vermont campfire singalongs.

Hate It Or Love It: iTunes 4.9

2005-07-01T08:05:00.000-04:00

Apple brought podcasting into the mainstream this week, and some podcasters can't come to grips with the good fortune this has delivered to them.

On sites where podcasters talk amongst themselves (I'll pick a topic), there's some moaning and groaning about the new iTunes version 4.9 software that directly incorporates podcasting. In fairness, many podcasters are expressing appreciation that iTunes has already brought them bigger audiences in just a few days (I'd link to posts on Podcast Alley, but the site keeps going down for maintenance—must be swamped this week), but it's hard to believe that anyone could complain about the obvious benefits Apple is bestowing upon those of us who fancy ourselves MP3 radio stars.

iTunes' embrace of podcasting is the single greatest thing to happen to the medium in its short history. Who cares if it "dumbs down" the experience a little. The availability of podcasts like mine for free download from the iTunes store is exactly what podcasting has needed since it launched about a year ago: a more user-friendly interface. I cannot tell you how many people have expressed genuine interest in listening to my show, but found the technical aspects of it confusing. It's all pretty simple, really, as many of you did figure out. But I understand that people are busy. They have lives. While they might want to hear my show, they don't have time to spend figuring out how to download or subscribe to it.

Outside a small cadre of tech-minded geeks (like many podcasters) and those who aspire to be tech-minded geeks (like myself), most people still don't know what a podcast is, how to download one, and how to listen to one. As explained here and elsewhere, a podcast is just an MP3 file, albeit a large one. My show typically contains 12 to 14 songs, with my exciting and witty banter linking it all together. But it's not 12 to 14 files to download; all the songs and chatter are contained in one convenient file. It's portable, TiVo-esque radio in a convenient package.

iTunes 4.9, just released Tuesday, makes it all about as simple as can be. Podcast subscriptions through iTunes passed the million mark in just two days. If you're an iTunes user and you haven't downloaded version 4.9, download it this second. Be Jack Bauer about it: DO IT NOW!

There's a whole section of the iTunes Music Store dedicated to podcasts. You can get to it by clicking "Podcasts" in the Source column on the left side of your iTunes application, or you can reach it through the iTunes store.

If you go in through the Source column, click "Podcast Directory" and you'll get the iTunes Podcast home page; if you go through the graphic on the home page of the Music Store, it'll take you directly to that same Podcast home page. On that page you'll see listings for the Top 20 Podcasts and categories like "New & Notable," "Public Radio," "Indie Podcasts," etc. A lot of shows are filed in the wrong categories—they put mine under "Audio Blogs" instead of "Music," for some reason. Do a search for "Hoboken Rock City" and up will pop my show. Download all 9 episodes directly from the store. It's easy like Sunday morning. See?

Another development is that, with iTunes seemingly already taking over as the biggest source of podcasting downloads by far, it will be much easier to gauge which podcasts are the most popular. iTunes lists the 100 most popular, with the pecking order obviously determined by the number of downloads. Previously, popularity in the podcast community was measured by who had the most "votes" as cast on Podcast Alley. This was a really, really lame system, and I couldn't be more thrilled that it has been instantly rendered obsolete. Sure, downloads from Air America, KCRW, WNYC, and other established media outlets may dominate iTunes' chart right now, but indie podcast staples Coverville and Dawn And Drew are on the chart too. On Tuesday, the first day 4.9 was available, my most recent show was downloaded about ten times more than it had been any day in the last few weeks. And that's a two-month-old show.

My show's been on hiatus since late April, but that break ends this Wednesday, July 6. Hoboken Rock City Show #10 will finally be released that day, the debut of the program in its new monthly format. The plan is to release a new show on the first Wednesday of every month.

With the new iTunes software, you can download episodes of the show individually. Or, subscribe with the click of a button, and iTunes will automatically download my show for you each time a new one is released. Tell two friends who have iTunes to subscribe, and they'll tell two more, and you know how it goes.

Go on, spend the holiday weekend practicing. On Wednesday, July 6, I'll have an all-new show packed with cool indie music and Jersey rockers. You don't want to be the last one on Washington Street to hear it.

Hamell On Trial at Satalla

2005-06-30T18:02:00.000-04:00

The one-man king of Punk-Folk-Comedy-Rock (not that there's much competition), Hamell On Trial, rocked it last night at Satalla, a primarily world-music venue in the West 20's where he's in the middle of a Wednesday night residency. After carving a nice niche for himself at the late Fez, it seems like he's looking for a new place to hammer in his rock & roll stakes. Remains to be seen whether this is the right room for him or not, but then Hamell is a musical force to be reckoned with who commands the audience's full attention no matter where he plays.

In a brief chat after the show, Hamell said he has just one song left to record for his second album for Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe label, due for an October release. Ani is producing.

Hamell plays Satalla again next Wednesday, July 6 for the last night of this residency. Show is at 9:30 p.m. $12 cover at the door.

You can hear Hamell on two of my podcasts, Show #2 and Show #9. You can download these shows for free directly from the pages linked here, or from the brand-spankin'-new Podcasts section of the iTunes Music Store.

Summer Maxwell's Mania

2005-06-29T13:23:00.000-04:00

That guy from Jersey City who is nestled comfortably between Trio and Triumph The Insult Comic Dog in my iTunes library is swearing that this Saturday, July 2 at Maxwell's will be the last time he plays out until the fall. Hmmm, we've heard that sort of talk before, Tris—not that we're complaining about you gracing us with another local show. This'll be another "very special episode" of the Tris McCall Show, with local rockers Cropduster (now actually known as The Brokedowns) backing him up instead of his standard big band. Sure to be the most balls-out rockin' Tris show you'll ever experience.

Saturday's show is also another one of Andy Gesner's Artist Amplification events. Andy is a longtime supporter of the Jersey scene whose shows and compilation CDs have featured a who's who of cool Jersey rockers. For this edition of Artist Amp Live, in addition to TrisDuster, Mike Tichy is playing. Tichy's narrative style is radically different from The Mooney Suzuki, the NYC garage punkers for whom he played bass in their pre-Matrix days. (I'm not dissing The Matrix, merely explaining.) I saw Mr. Tichy do a fine set at The Goldhawk in early 2004. We talked for a few minutes that night, and the guy couldn't have been nicer. Rounding out the bill are Skyline Rodeo and Meet Me In Montauk.

Jim Testa and his legendary Jersey rock zine Jersey Beat are also putting on a big show at Maxwell's on Thursday, July 21. The most rockin' Secaucans I've ever seen, The Wrens, will headline, so you know it will sell out. Also playing are The Milwaukees, who I saw once at The Budapest in New Brunswick sometime in the late '90s, and The Amber Jets. The show is $10, and it's a Jersey Beat benefit. It's all ages, and tickets are available at the usual Maxwell's sources: Tunes (225 Washington Street in Hoboken, no website), Other Music, and Ticketweb.

And check out Testa's priceless rant about CBGB, which Gawker picked up, thanks to the eternally vigilant Señor Snitch.

Other Maxwell's hotness in the next couple weeks:

Tuesday, July 5: The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Ribeye Brothers
Rockin' Swedes I've never seen live before, and stompin' swamp rockers including some Monster Magnet guys who rocked the back room a couple months ago.

Wednesday, July 6: Barbiana Complex
I'm not going to come up with a better concise description of this Hoboken band than Chuck Eddy of The Village Voice, so I defer to him: "Thick, sprawling, psychedelic fuzz-goth with an echoing, incoherently poetic but still rather gripping Sugarcubish female voice up front."

Thursday, July 7: Bettie Serveert
Go Dutch.

Tuesday, July 12: The Spinto Band
As recently hyped by Sarah "Ultragrrrl" Lewitinn, which means they'll probably be huge in a few months.

Thursday, July 14: Dungen
Already sold out—glad I already bought my tix to see the Swedish rock wünderkind.

Friday, July 15: Holly Golightly, The Woggles
I've seen both at this venue before; I was bored by the former, awed by the latter.

The club seems to be in the final stages of its recent external facelift. Not sure how I feel about the words "bar" and "grill" on either side of the club's name, but both are technically accurate. More fitting words would simply be "rock" and "roll." I'll try to snap a pic of the new facade and get it up here soon. In the meantime, go rock there.

Grokster Update

2005-06-29T00:18:00.000-04:00

SCOTUS remanded the Grokster case back down to a lower court. The file-sharing war continues.

Brooklyn Vegan has a fine collection of relevant links, and rightly notes that Boing Boing is all over this thing. So is SCOTUSblog. Surprisingly, Lawrence Lessig hasn't weighed in about it on his blog yet.

Top 25 Most Played

2005-06-28T23:33:00.000-04:00

A recent minor computer disaster caused by RAM gone bad caused about a third of the songs in my iTunes library to disappear. That's about 4,000 songs. Thankfully the files were not lost; it was just the iTunes library file that was damaged. It took a few hours to drag and drop all the missing tracks back into iTunes, but that was infinitely easier than re-ripping them all from CD.

Thanks to a nifty $12.99 program called iPod Access, I was able to restore my Playlists, all of which were also lost in The Great iTunes Disaster Of '05. So in the end, the only data of any consequence I ended up losing were the play counts.

Play counts are one of the nerdiest aspects of iTunes, a sort of listening diary the machine keeps for you, documenting your every auditory move. It chronicles exactly how many times you played a track, as long as you let it play through to the end. You also see when it was last played. Glenn McDonald took the capability for dorkiness and customization inherent in iTunes to its inevitable nth degree, but as he quickly noted, he was mostly kidding.

I've only had my iPod for about eight months, so none of the play counts were ridiculously high, and nearly 7,000 of the 11,000 songs on my Pod had never once been played on the Pod or the computer desktop. (They have all been played on CD before being ripped into the Library.)

Since I've lost all my play counts and it's (just like) starting over, I might as well document what the 25 most played tracks were over these eight months. I wish the list were more interesting. I stand by the Pitty Sing record as one of my absolute faves of the year, but a few months from now, I don't think they'd dominate this list quite so much. But whatever.

1. Radio - PITTY SING
2. We're On Drugs - PITTY SING
3. The Mattachine Society - THE ALUMINUM GROUP
4. Keep It Warm - FLO & EDDIE
5. We Feel Good (Future's Looking Fine) - ENDGAMES
6. Cold Hands (Warm Heart) - BRENDAN BENSON
7. New Song - HOWARD JONES
8. Bleeding Hearts - PITTY SING
9. Anyway - PITTY SING
10. Telephone - PITTY SING
11. Happy Talk - CAPTAIN SENSIBLE
12. Cinnamon Park - JILL SOBULE
13. Siren Song - CRAYON ROSARY
14. Dreadlock Holiday - 10cc
15. Blasphemous Rumours - DEPECHE MODE
16. Gotta Stay High - NEW RADICALS
17. Hanging On Me - PITTY SING
18. CTWYL - PITTY SING
19. Love And War (11/11/46) - RILO KILEY
20. Hate It Or Love It (G-Unit Remix) -
THE GAME FEATURING 50 CENT, TONY YAYO, YOUNG BUCK & LLOYD BANKS
21. Tangled Up In Blue - BOB DYLAN
22. I'm On Fire - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
23. This Is What I Do - RHETT MILLER
24. You Get What You Give - NEW RADICALS
25. The Trouble With Normal - BRUCE COCKBURN

So there.

In other iTunes news, I just downloaded version 4.9 with built-in podcast support, which gives me a convenient excuse to psyche you all up for the return of my Hoboken Rock City podcast. As I've mentioned, I'm re-launching it as a monthly program. With any luck, the July show will be here and available for your downloading pleasure next week.

On another iTunes note, you gotta love Shuffle play, which will teach you that The Doobies' "Long Train Runnin'" has the same rhythm as Morrissey's "Interesting Drug."

Dylan Does Jersey

2005-06-27T22:55:00.000-04:00

Bob Dylan in concert, Friday's show in Little Falls (or was it Verona?) was probably the second-best I've witnessed, ranking only behind an incendiary December 1995 set at The Beacon Theater with Patti Smith.

His friend Jerry Garcia had died in August of that year. It's just conjecture, but after seeing Dylan's performance that night a few months later, I couldn't help thinking that Jerry's death had been some kind of wake-up call. The show wasn't Manchester Free Trade Hall in 1966 or anything, but it was intense. Granted, it had been four years since I'd caught Bob in person, so maybe he'd already found his groove somewhere between those first three times I saw him in '89, '90, and '91 and when I caught up with him again in late '95. I've seen him so many times since, though, and while none of the shows were bad, I'd never seen him that fired up again.

This past Friday, Bob came close. Focused and fierce, he unfurled a stunning set that included "Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again," which had taken over for "Tangled Up In Blue" many shows earlier as the "Bob song I've never seen him do live that I most want to see him do." Now I have to pick a new one. The fact that Friday was the closest I've ever been physically to the man and his stage also added significantly to the performance's visceral power. Standing alongside Brooklyn Vegan (who shot a boatload of cool pics of Bob and Willie) and our mutual friend Lupe (who reviewed the show on BV's site), we were 20 or so people back from the stage. The Yoge, home of the Can-Am League's New Jersey Jackals, was a great setting on an almost-too-warm Friday night.

Other highlights included a stately "Desolation Row" and a rousing "New Morning." Not a single song from the years 1971 to 1996, which is weird, but he often ignores huge whole chunks of his career in concert. Leading off the show with two love songs in a row from Nashville Skyline was unexpected but really, really cool. Bob played a lot of harp. The band rocked a lot. The Bard himself rocked the most.

Set list:
To Be Alone With You
Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Just Like A Woman
Cold Irons Bound
Desolation Row
Highway 61 Revisited
Not Dark Yet
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Make You Feel My Love
New Morning
Summer Days

Encore:
It Ain't Me, Babe
Like A Rolling Stone

Scanning their way through "On The Road Again," "Crazy," "Always On My Mind," and other hits, Willie Nelson & Family were good too. Willie's voice has hardly changed through the last three decades or so. Sadly, he didn't match the intensity of the one previous time I saw him, at Irving Plaza about five years ago. Missed the very opening song or two of his set due to directions and parking snafus, so I'm not sure if he played "Whiskey River," but he was playing that execrable "Beer For My Horses" thing as we were walking into the ballpark. Willie's still totally worth showing up for, though.

'Cause Down The Shore Everything's Alright

2005-06-24T09:48:00.000-04:00

Growing up an Italian-American boy in New Jersey in the '80s, I had to take careful precautions to avoid the dreaded Guido tag: don't grease your hair, don't listen to techno, don't drive a Camaro. Thankfully, I had no desire to do any of this, so I was never in any real danger of being lumped in with a crowd that I felt no connection to. A decade and a half ago, a site like NJGuido.com would have horrified me.

My feelings now are more complicated, or maybe just convoluted. Are these my kinda people listening to my kinda music? Probably not. I don't hang out at those places. Hell, I'm a Jersey loyalist who grew up going to Long Beach Island and Seaside Heights, but since the late '90s most of my summer house and beach time has been logged in Fire Island and The Hamptons.

That's mostly because the Strong Island beach destinations are where my New York friends go, and their gravitational pull has sucked me in. And as loyal as I try to be to Jersey, I've found a lot to like out there. In the Hamptons, every house worth renting has a pool (and if you're not too stupid, a hot tub). Fire Island has no cars and virtually no crime. Some people who've never been to these places like to make preposterous assumptions about them—idiotic thoughts like "everyone who goes to the Hamptons is a rich snob" or "Fire Island is all gay." I am living proof of the falseness of these sweeping generalizations, which are no less erroneous than any of the typical Jersey-bashing comments that most of the rest of the world seems to get a big kick out of making.

So even if the NJGuido.com scene perpetuates some stereotypes about our state, they're also celebrating their Jerseyness. For that, I stand and applaud them. Guidos, let your Jersey freak flag fly.

With a scorcher of a Jersey shore weekend on tap, now's a good time to revisit Ken Goldstein's landmark interview with NJGuido.com founder Anthony "The Moo" Moussa. Ken recently retired from The Illuminated Donkey, the Jersey City-based blog he wrote for the past three and a half years, and the web is all the worse for it.

Though it comes from a totally different angle, the presence of a promising new Jersey City blog called New York's Sixth makes it easier to let Goldstein off the hook. Sort of a Hudson County version of everybody's favorite NYC snark-a-thon Gawker, Sixth looks like it'll be a blog worth keeping tabs on.

Art House Summer Blowout

2005-06-21T18:24:00.000-04:00

A whole gang of bands are playing this Friday at Victory Hall in Jersey City for the Art House Productions Summer Blowout.

My Teenage Stride—Jedediah Smith's band, whose brilliant song "Happy Mondays" was featured in Hoboken Rock City Show #2—should be a highlight, with the ubiquitous Tris on keyboards. I've never heard any of the other bands, but American Watercolor Movement have been highly touted elsewhere. Admission is only $7, they're raising money for a multimedia theatrical show the Art House is putting on this fall, and Middle Eastern food and raffle prizes are promised.

All the more reason for you to go: to make up for the fact that I can't, because that night I'm seeing Bobby and Willie. It'll be my first Bob show in almost two years (had tickets for Hammerstein on the night of the blackout, and the show was made up the following week), and my fourteenth overall, but who's counting? Maybe the stars will align and I'll finally get "Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again." I've seen Willie once before, about five years ago at Irving Plaza, and it was one of the five or ten best things I've seen in the last ten years. We'll see how many times he plays "Whiskey River"—last time it was three, but that was a two and a half hour set.

I'm also psyched because the show's at the Yoge, a place I shamefully have never been to. I hear it gets late early there. And nobody goes there anymore because it's too crowded. And they give you cash, which is just as good as money...

Anyway, Bob and Willie are sold out, so you want details for the big party in Jersey City, right? Sure you do.

Art House Summer Blowout
Friday, June 24
8 p.m. - midnight

at Victory Hall
186 Grand St. at Marin Blvd., Jersey City
(10 min. from NYC near Grove St. PATH)

Live music by
American Watercolor Movement
Duncan Pflaster
Han Shot First
Kukurudu
My Teenage Stride

Directions to Victory Hall:
Take the PATH train towards Journal Square or Newark to the Grove Street stop. Go up the stairs and take the exit WITHOUT the escalator. Walk straight to Marin Blvd. and make a right. Victory Hall is 6 blocks down on the left, 186 Grand St. at Marin Blvd., 3rd floor.

More info: Art House Productions or call (201) 915-9911.

Weekend In Review

2005-06-19T12:22:00.000-04:00

At the courthouse on Friday, Mr. Tris McCall was brilliant and Dave's True Story were charming as ever. I have pics, too, and hopefully I'll get a few up soon.

I never even mentioned in this space that I saw my favorite "new Dylan" of the past 25 years, Dan Bern, when he was at Maxwell's a couple weeks ago. Solid show, but not amazing, and I've seen him be amazing. Either there were a lot of new songs, or he drew heavily on more recent albums like New American Language and Fleeting Days that I haven't spent enough time with. Two tunes from the classic debut album, "Marilyn" and "Too Late To Die Young." Nothing from his brilliant 2004 release My Country II: Music To Beat Bush By. Maybe it's just too depressing for him to go there, but I would've paid an extra $5 or $10 just to hear "Sammy's Bat" (as heard in Hoboken Rock City Show #2).

Surprisingly strong Saturday night crowd at The Goldhawk last night (crowds can get pretty thin around here on summer weekends). I have the next two weekends off, putting me back in the rock & roll rotation on July 9, which seems half a lifetime away.

And the geranium that the Roberts campaign left on my stoop back in April with a note saying "Happy Earth Day from the Roberts Team!" might be dying. Commentary, coincidence, or just my not-so-green thumb?

The Warden Threw A Party In The County...Courthouse

2005-06-15T09:30:00.000-04:00

So, Tris McCall. Singer, songwriter, synthesist. Proponent of all things local, specifically all things Jersey. Muckraker. Baseball fanatic. Web auteur; don't call him a blogger, he's been here for years.

Thanks to a mutual friend, I've been lucky enough to get to know Tris a bit over the past couple years. The passion he puts into all his creative endeavors—his music, his writing, his website, the multi-artist shows and festivals he has curated and booked and publicized, Lord knows what else he's scheming up while I'm writing this—is admirable. His recognition that local issues, events, and politicians affect our lives in profound ways informs his creative output, and we would all do well to emulate his positive mantra of civic engagement and responsibility.

To see the man's website morph from predominantly local indie rock reviews to in-depth interviews with Jersey City mayor and council candidates was to witness an incredible level of commitment to raising the local discourse on topics that affect everyone. Tris did all this with his trademark wit, and what he would probably agree is that uniquely Jerseyesque blend of skepticism and optimism. He is the hardest-working man in Jersey show business, and I swear his days must be more than 24 hours long. People are taking notice, too; around the time of Jersey City's municipal election last month, Tris reported that his website was getting 10,000 visitors a day. The New York Times chimed in with this nice feature (registration required) last week.

Tris' most recent CD, Shootout At The Sugar Factory (Melody Lanes), is an indie synth-pop-prog masterpiece. In retrospect, I vastly underrated it when I put it at #24 on my list of favorite albums of 2003; it should have easily finished in the top 5. Songs from Shootout are featured in Hoboken Rock City Shows #1 and #3, my first and third podcasts.

Anyway, Tris' songs often deal with local politics specifically, and usually deal with New Jersey in general. There's almost no precedent to the coolness factor, then, to the fact that this Friday, June 17, at 7:30 p.m. sharp, Tris will be playing a live set in the old Brennan Courthouse in Jersey City, at the behest of local pol and County Executive Tom DeGise. Admission is $10. There are so many layers of irony here that it would almost be insulting to spell them out for you, so suffice it to say that this is a completely bananas proposition. It promises to be a hoot.

As if that weren't enough, my longtime friends Dave's True Story are also on the bill. Though the three-piece band lacks McCall's Jersey pedigree (they're a New York City kinda vibe, dig?), their jazz-folk stylings are unique in a world where very little music earns that description. Their brand-spankin'-new CD Nature (Bepop) eschews most of the lyrical goofiness that characterized their earlier albums, but songwriter/guitarist David Cantor crafted a solid collection of gems for this record, sung with swingin' style by the always alluring chanteuse Kelly Flint, with Jeff Eyrich on bass. Around the time their album Sex Without Bodies was released in 1998, I sat down for a playful interview with Kelly and David at Fez. I featured tracks from Nature in Hoboken Rock City Shows #7 and #9, and a classic from their self-titled 1994 debut CD on Show #3.

This Friday's gig is the latest in a set of monthly folk-oriented shows presented at the old Brennan Courthouse. As Tris has documented on his site, DeGise is a big-time folk music freak, and this musical series is his way of showing Hudson County's support for the arts. The courthouse might not sound like much of a venue, but it's a grand old edifice, a masterful piece of architecture that effectively dramatizes the importance of law in a civil society. For real—they don't make them like this anymore. It should prove an inviting space for both of these artists. It is not to be confused with the current, functioning Hudson County Courthouse, an ugly-ass building right nearby it, where I've served two terms of jury duty.

Verbatim from Tris, here's how to get there: "The Courthouse is at 583 Newark Avenue. It’s a big, beautiful Federal-style building that you cannot miss. Journal Square is the next PATH stop after Grove Street on both lines. When you get out of the Journal Square PATH station, you’ll be on Kennedy Boulevard. Walk one block north to Pavonia. Make a right. Cross Summit Avenue, and make the next left on Central. You should see the Courthouse building – it's big, imposing, and unmissable, and at the top of a little grass hill. Climb up the hill and go straight inside. The rotunda is right beyond the big entrance doors."

Be there or risk a contempt of court citation.

On a side note, re the podcast, I know I promised a new show for June, but I just flat out lied. I know, I know, I suck. Early July—I promise, ok? And from there on out, I'll try to make it an ongoing monthly deal. I've collected a bunch of cool stuff to play on the next show, and it should be good summer fun. All apologies for the delay.

Roberts Wins Big

2005-06-15T09:04:00.000-04:00

No great shock. I didn't vote for him, but I'm not terribly upset that he won. Let's just hope he listens to those of us who don't want to see Hoboken turned into a collection of tall buildings rather than a set of neighborhoods. Some development is fine—the massive building boom that created thousands of new housing units in town over the last ten years has kept rents in the existing apartments from going too high, in fact. But enough is enough. So, we'll see.

You've Said It All

2005-06-10T09:49:00.000-04:00

Skanatra is playing a free show tomorrow at 3:30 on the Hoboken waterfront, appropriately at Sinatra Park. Skanatra's repertoire of course consists almost entirely of Frank Sinatra material reinterpreted in a variety of reggae, ska, and rock steady stylings. Their legendarily energetic shows are a hard-partying good time, and they're extra fun when the summer wind comes blowin' in from across the Hudson.

Of course, there is one non-Sinatra song Skanatra has been known to perform, and that happens to be the famous Budweiser jingle "When You Say Bud, You've Said It All." As fate would have it (and fate usually gets its way), said beer company is sponsoring tomorrow's events at the park, and they will be parading actual Clydesdales down River Street at 4:30. You can't make this shit up. I mean, technically you could, but it's much funnier knowing that it's real. The horses also will be "on display" at said park from 5 to 7 p.m. No word on whether petting is allowed. If you're having just way too good a time to leave, there's even a $10 spaghetti dinner and a "Sinatra open mic."

When you're done stuffing your face with spaghetti and meatballs, do like Rod Roddy would demand and "come on down!" to The Goldhawk, where I'll be spinning tuneage from 10 p.m. until I am physically restrained from doing so. That's usually around 2:30 a.m., although it could come earlier if I play England Dan & John Ford Coley or something. It happens. And as you should all know, it's a one-way door at Hoboken bars after 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights—roaches can check out, but they can't check in.

If you find yourself about a 45-minute drive farther south tomorrow night, get yer '80s groove on at The Den in Somerset (700 Hamilton St., about a mile south/west down Hamilton from the Ale & Wich). My esteemed DJ colleague Pat Pierson and former Melody DJ Peter McCabe have been hosting a totally rad '80s new wave night there on the second Saturday of every month since last summer. I never get to go because I'm usually spinning on Saturdays myself, but I hear they get a good mixed crowd (The Den is pretty much a gay bar) who appreciate the kind of music that used to be played at the late, great Melody Bar in New Brunswick in the '80s and '90s. Pat's also spinning at said Goldhawk tonight at 10 p.m. Every Thursday he's at The Loop Lounge in Passaic Park, which I hear is lovely this time of year. You can (and indeed should) listen to his Radio Boy show live streaming on the web today and every Friday from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Rutgers' own WRSU. The man likes to DJ.

And peep this cool page of Hoboken pics that Mister Snitch found.

Anne Bancroft 1931-2005

2005-06-08T00:14:00.000-04:00

Yes, yes, she was Mrs. Robinson, coo coo ca choo and all that. But in my family's house, Anne Bancroft will always be remembered best as Antoinette, sister of Dominick DiNapoli, in the 1980 comedy Fatso. It's a movie so ingrained in three generations of my family for the last 25 years that I simply cannot write about it objectively. I'm just too close to it.

In addition to co-starring, Bancroft also wrote and directed this simple story about Dominick (played by Dom DeLuise), an overweight Italian-American New Yorker who confronts the fact that he's at serious risk of dying of obesity if he doesn't give up his beloved sausage and pepper sandwiches, chocolate eclairs, and all that other good, rich Italian food. There's a love story along the way, too, but the best bits in the film are the interactions between Dominick and his family and friends, all of whom go to great lengths to get him to stop eating too much. The inevitable hilarity ensues, and the film is awash in memorable scenes, quotable dialogue, and classic Italian-American themes like food, family, passion, and guilt.

I don't think critical response to the film at the time of its release was too positive, and the fact that Bancroft died before Fatso hit stores on DVD attests to its status as a somewhat forgotten little movie. I'll admit, too, that I haven't seen it since sometime in the mid-'90s, so the mists of time may be coloring my memory in a positive way, but I think only slightly so. This is a far better than average comedy, and it is surely one of the best and most realistic films about the common (read: "non-gangster") Italian-American experience ever made. Ms. Bancroft's only stab at writing and directing a feature outshined everything her husband Mel Brooks did on film since (that's including History Of The World, Part I, and don't even talk to me about Spaceballs). Suffice it to say that you should watch this film if you or someone you love is Italian-American, if you or someone you care about has ever struggled with their weight, or if you or anyone you've ever met in your life has ever eaten a cannoli.

Righting a longstanding wrong, Fatso will be released on DVD on July 12. It's terribly sad that Anne Bancroft did not live to experience that moment.

Every Brand New Day Should Be Unwrapped Like A Precious Gift

2005-06-07T00:01:00.000-04:00

The only commercial radio station in New York City that I found to be even vaguely tolerable, longtime oldies outlet WCBS-FM, changed its format on Friday to some heinous "mix" of train-wreck segues and songs nobody wants to hear. First song I heard on the new 101.1: "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks.

If the new station were truly free-form, or had any type of artistic or creative intent behind it, there would at least be that to recommend it, but there isn't. And even if there was, it still wouldn't matter. The station "went oldies" the same year I was born, making it pretty much the only FM radio station I've known under the same format at the same frequency for my entire life (I didn't discover NPR until my twenties). Even though I hadn't listened consistently the last couple years other than for a few minutes in the morning, there was a great comfort in knowing that CBS was there.

For most of my adult life—with occasional stretches on NPR stations WNYC and WFUV, just to break things up—the Realistic brand clock radio my grandparents gave me for Christmas in 1986 has been tuned to 101.1. More often than not, my morning began with a good song. If I was lucky, I'd wake up with a "Beatles Breakfast" block; short of that, it might be "Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)" or "My Cherie Amour." Harry Harrison, whose utterance "Every brand new day should be unwrapped like a precious gift" was the closest I came to experiencing religion in the course of most days, was the avuncular a.m. host until 2003, when the 8,473-year-old Morning Mayor was relegated to the Saturday morning radio ghetto. Monkee Micky Dolenz took over the weekday morning chair some months ago and was exceedingly listenable. Just last week, I got a groggy kick out of his rap about Deep Throat, and how now the only mystery left in the world was who is the subject of "You're So Vain," a comment that naturally led into said song. Micky, Harry, Cousin Brucie, Bill Brown, and Bob Shannon all got shafted in this format switch; none got to say farewell on the air.

In the past couple years, the programmers had eliminated doo wop and pretty much all pre-Beatles music from the rotation. I was happy to not have to endure The Penguins in order to get to The Beatles and Motown, but taking out Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard was just wrong. I thought it was a big hoot that the two biggest '80s synth pop hits in the U.S., "Don't You Want Me" and "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)," had made the cut and were now officially oldies. (If anyone's keeping track, and I guess I was, the most recent songs I ever heard in regular rotation on the station, and therefore the two newest songs to be considered oldies, were two 1988 hits: Steve Winwood's "Roll With It" and Rod Stewart's "Forever Young.") Though not as adventurous as oldies stations in other markets, and not without some staple clunkers and bizarro segues of its own, WCBS was infinitely cool for playing classic pop like "More Today Than Yesterday," "Do You Believe In Magic?," and "Sugar, Sugar," along with a Beatles song every hour or so. Another station probably will come along to pick up the slack, but it won't be at that cool 101.1 frequency.

On another musical note (pun obviously acknowledged, if not premeditated), the sage Glenn McDonald's first new installment of The War Against Silence since last August is an eloquent if justifiably cranky commentary on why he, one of the last musical obsessives to resist the temptation to download music outside of officially licensed channels, finally gave in and began doing it.

First In War, First In Peace, And Last In The Political Primary Season

2005-06-06T18:20:00.000-04:00

In New Jersey, we take great, huge, heaping pride in our tied-with-Montana-for-last-in-the-nation primary date every June.

Okay, maybe not. Still, this Tuesday's the day when the state's registered Republicans will choose their party's gubernatorial nominee, and the state's registered Democrats will choose whether to vote for the Rock City's own Jon Corzine or catch up on the laundry. As one of the latter (one of the state's registered Democrats, not a laundry catcher-upper), I'll be doing the former (voting for Corzine), mostly just because I love to vote. And you should too.

If it's Tuesday night and you already put another dime in the washing machine, baby, fear not. As all registered voters of Hoboken ought to know by now, you'll get another chance to hit the booths next Tuesday for the Great Mayor & Council Runoff Election Of 2005. If you're scoring at home—or even if you're by yourself—that'll be your fourth opportunity to vote in the last nine Tuesdays, stretching back to the school board election on April 19. If that's not democracy, I don't know what is. Local campaign veteran Mister Snitch has an ongoing series of posts dissecting the original May election and analyzing the runoff.

On the national stage, I really dug The Talent Show's debunking of the myth of "moderate" John McCain.

Now He's Doing Horse, It's...

2005-06-01T01:10:00.000-04:00

Are you ready for the summer? Some links to start the new month.

Stylus' Top Ten Worst Ambassadors Of Italian Culture Via Song. Despite the fact that I've never even heard seven of these ten, this list resonated strongly for me, being a three-fourths Italian-American boy and all. Normally I'm curious to hear damn near everything, but I don't know how many of those seven I'll be seeking out. The piece's list of Italian-American musicians of note is good but could be expanded; if nothing else, Frank "Far From Over" Stallone and Joe "Honeymooners Rap" Piscopo are nowhere to be found. Hey, Joe Dolce's on the list; Joe P. is no less legitimate. And just to quickly riff off writer Dom Passantino's comments about stereotypical images of Italian-Americans in the media, the overrated Sopranos' reliance on tired Italian-related clichés never bothered me as much as the show's more egregious New Jersey-related stereotypes.

Audio and video of Lawrence Lessig's "Who Owns Culture?" dialogue with Jeff Tweedy, which I really wish I'd been able to attend when it took place at the New York Public Library in April. Via Coolfer. And speaking of Lessig, he's been in a lot of people's thoughts since the shocking, amazing New York cover story broke last week, revealing that the Elvis Of Copyright Law is leading the legal charge against a New Jersey statute that immunizes charities from negligence in order to obtain damages for a former student of the American Boychoir School in Princeton who was sexually abused there. The twist is that it turns out Lessig was subject to this type of abuse as well during his time as a student there decades ago. Insane.

The music biz would do well to heed Sasha Frere-Jones' anti-"listening session" manifesto, in which he states he will no longer review music if the only way he can hear it is in the label's or publicist's antiseptic conference room, and calls upon his brethren to take the same pledge. The man is right. Film screenings make sense for film critics, because usually you only need to watch a movie once in order to decide if it's any good. And the vast majority of movies—even many of the good ones—need not be seen more than once, unless it's Blazing Saddles. But good music demands repeated listenings. It's absurd to expect even the most seasoned critics to write an informed review after just one listening, under conditions imposed by somebody else.

Just for fun... Pickup lines: the first drafts. Link via the always-handy Twin Cities blogger Fimoculous.

'Cause when you plug Mike C., you plug yourself: after a rare two-week layoff, I'm spinning at The Goldhawk both Friday and Saturday this weekend. And look for the return of my web radio show / podcast later this month. The new plan is one show a month. That way, everyone can keep up. Especially me.