Blog

Now here's where things get interesting. Some of my choices for '00 and '01 were kind of weak, I'll admit, but it seems like 2002 things seem to solidify a bit better, even though this was the year that my favorite band from my teenage years (and I'll admit, they still are today in most regards) released the weakest album of their career. Total number of albums here only reached to twelve, but the overall quality increased exponentionally over the previous two years. Even while some of these weren't discovered until later, the ones that would remain are pretty good. I think 2002 was really the year when I started to shake off my old tastes and try something new. 2002 was when I started listening to Queens of the Stone Age, and they were a band I never would've given a chance before. And thanks to Weezer, I was giving poppier acts like Ash (who I discovered in 2002) and Nada Surf (I didn't discover them until 2004 though) and OK Go more of a try, too. Wait, how can anything be poppier than Jimmy Eat World in 2001? I guess Weezer's to thank for that, too.


1. Silverchair- Diorama


2. Nada Surf - Let Go


3. Doves - The Last Broadcast


4. Beck - Sea Change


5. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head


6. dredg- El Cielo


7. Queens of the Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf


8. OK Go - OK Go


9. Foo Fighters - One by One


10. Bright Eyes - Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground

In preparation of delivering my top [insert number here. There will probably be no more than 25] albums of the decade, I'm revisiting the previous nine years and ranking the top 10 albums of that year, if I can, to make things a little easier on me when I have to compile all of them. The rule here is that I don't pay any attention to how I ranked albums prior to now. Take #2 on my list last year. I highly doubt that when I write out my top 10 of 2008 again I will have the same album as my #2 pick. Tastes change, after all.

As you will soon see, 2000 can't even make it to ten. I'll admit that 2000 was kind of dead year for me, and it wasn't until 2001 that things started to take off a bit. Even most of my choices for the year weren't discovered until a year or more later (I might've bought that SDRE album in 2005/06). "Taking off" is a subjective term though. I'll never be able to rank 50 or more albums from a year, but anytime I got around 15-20 I knew it was a pretty okay year for the most part. Here's 2000. If anyone notices any glaring holes in the list, please point them out. Note that I didn't include Radiohead's Kid A or The New Pornographers' Mass Romantic. They are the only two other albums from 2000 that I own, but I've never given either a good enough listen. Yes, I really have never given Kid A much of my time. Believe it.


1. Deftones - White Pony


2. Cave In - Jupiter


3. Our Lady Peace - Spiritual Machines


4. Superdrag - In the Valley of Dying Stars


5. A Perfect Circle - Mer De Noms


6. Sunny Day Real Estate - The Rising Tide


7. Coldplay - Parachutes


8. Doves - Lost Souls


9. Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R

EDIT: Forgot about this one. #10 is probably an okay position for it, too.


10. On - Shifting Skin

11/11/2009 - Kings of Convenience (+ Feist): Le Bataclan, Paris
11/10/2009 - Prince : Le Grand Palais, Paris
24/09/2009 - Soirée Custom, Le Nouveau Casino, Paris (The Boxer Rebellion, Telegraphs, Are We Brothers?)
08/09/2009 - Muse : Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris
29/08/2009 - Rock En Seine, St-Cloud (Billy Talent, The Offspring, Faith No More)
14/07/2009 - Christophe Maé, Johnny Hallyday : Champs de Mars, Paris
03/07/2009 - Main Square Festival, Arras (Ace Out, Phoenix, Lily Allen, Kanye West)
02/07/2009 - Main Square Festival, Arras (Amy Macdonald, The Ting Tings, Coldplay)
28/06/2009 - The Mars Volta : L'Olympia, Paris
21/06/2009 - Keinwood & The Brain Machines : Lille
16/03/2009 - Franz Ferdinand : L'Aéronef, Lille
24/02/2009 - Chris Cornell : La Cigale, Paris
21/01/2009 - The Rabeats : Fnac, Lille
12/11/2008 - Tahiti 80 : Le Splendide, Lille
22/10/2008 - Micah P. Hinson : Caf&Diskaire, Lille
14/08/2008 - Rock En France, Arras (Gojira, Within Temptation, Metallica)
06/07/2008 - Main Square Festival, Arras (Vampire Weekend, The Wombats, The Dø, Sigur Rós, Radiohead)
11/06/2008 - Feist : Aula Magna, Lisboa
04/06/2008 - Rage Against the Machine : Bercy, Paris
29/04/2008 - José González : Aula Magna, Lisboa
05/03/2008 - The Mars Volta : L'Olympia, Paris
28/11/2007 - David Fonseca : Fnac do Chiado, Lisboa
06/11/2007 - Rufus Wainwright : Coliseu dos Recreios, Lisboa
30/10/2007 - Imbert Imbert, Cocoon, GOMM, Sharko : Bataclan, Paris
30/09/2007 - The Police : Stade de France, Paris
27/09/2007 - Incubus : Zenith, Paris
14/06/2007 - Michel Polnareff, Bob Sinclar, Nelly Furtado, Laura Pausini, Tokyo Hotel : Champ de Mars, Paris
29/06/2007 - Phoenix, Air, Etienne De Crecy, Alex Gopher : Château de Versailles, Versailles
22/06/2007 - George Michael : Stade de France, Paris
16/06/2007 - The Rolling Stones : Stade de France, Paris
15/05/2007 - Chris Cornell : Showcase, Paris
09/05/2007 - Queens of the Stone Age : L'Elysée Montmatre, Paris
05/05/2007 - Fight Burst : Le Fléau, Douai
24/04/2007 - The John Butler Trio : La Grand Rex, Paris
08/04/2007 - Deftones : Trabendo, Paris
03/04/2007 - Malibu Stacy : Boule Noire, Paris
05/03/2007 - Incubus : Pavilhão Atlantico, Lisbon
04/03/2007 - Michel Polnareff : Bercy, Paris
19/01/2007 - Sean Lennon : Fnac St-Lazare, Paris
28/11/2006 - Noel Gallagher & Gem Archer (Oasis) : Le Cabaret Sauvage, Paris
09/10/2006 - George Michael : Bercy, Paris
03/07/2006 - TMN Summer Sessions, Lisbon (G. Love, Sean Paul, Burning Spears, ...)
08/06/2006 - Red Hot Chili Peppers : Bercy, Paris
23/05/2006 - Broken Social Scene : Café de la Danse, Paris
24/04/2006 - Phoenix : Trabendo, Paris
13/02/2006 - Korn : Canal+, Pleine-St-Denis
14/11/2005 - Bloc Party : Zenith, Paris
16/10/2005 - The John Butler Trio : La Cigale, Paris
10/10/2005 - Jamiroquai : Man Ray, Paris
22/09/2005 - Syd Matters : Divan Du Monde, Paris
12/09/2005 - Dionysos : Canal+, Pleine-St-Denis
07/07/2005 - Charmers : Jardines Del Valle, Sevilla
30/06/2005 - Los Andabluses & The Lucille's Horns : Jardines Del Valle, Sevilla
29/06/2005 - Neorama : Jardines Del Valle, Sevilla
13/06/2005 - Alter Bridge : Trabendo, Paris
01/06/2005 - Jamiroquai : La Cigale, Paris
24/05/2005 - Sinsemilia : Olympia, Paris
15/05/2005 - Donavon Frankenreiter, G. Love, Jack Johnson : La Cigale, Paris
24/04/2005 - The John Butler Trio, Jude, Tété : Bataclan, Paris
07/04/2005 - System of a Down : Trabendo, Paris
18/03/2005 - Alter Bridge : Boule Noire, Paris
15/03/2005 - The Mars Volta : Elysée Montmartre, Paris
24/02/2005 - Mudvayne : Boule Noire, Paris
08/02/2005 - G. Love : Divan Du Monde, Paris
14/12/2004 - Sinsemilia : Elysée Montmartre, Paris
26/11/2004 - Festival Recall I-Mode, Elysée Montmartre, Paris
01/11/2004 - Maroon 5 : La Cigale, Paris
06/10/2004 - Anastacia : Zenith, Paris
23/09/2004 - Nosfell : Guinguette Pirate, Paris
28/08/2004 - Rock En Seine, St-Cloud (Muse, Radio 4, Auf der Maur, Nosfell, Buck 65, ...)
03/07/2004 - Placebo : Grand'Place d'Arras, Arras
04/06/2004 - Sinclair : Zenith, Paris
27/05/2004 - Incubus : Zenith, Paris
06/02/2004 - Keziah Jones : Virgin Megastore des Champs-Elysées, Paris
25/10/2003 - Jane's Addiction : Elysée Montmartre, Paris
10/09/2003 - Muse : Trabendo, Paris
30/07/2003 - Jamiroquai : Presqu'île du Gaou, Six-Fours-Les-Plages
28/07/2003 - Nice Jazz Festival, Nice (Jamiroquai)
07/07/2002 - Seat Beach Rock Festival, Ostende (Jamiroquai, David Bowie, No Doubt, ...)
06/07/2002 - Seat Beach Rock Festival, Ostende (Muse, The Prodigy, Garbage...)
23/10/2001 - Jamiroquai : Bercy, Paris

There was a time, long, long ago, when music videos mattered. In fact they even influenced my tastes and caused me to buy things, sometimes years after I had seen them.
Nowadays I only see the music videos I ask youtube to show me, or that other people ask youtube to show me.
Here are a few of the videos which made a difference for the nine or ten or eleven year old James who saw them:

Nine Inch Nails - The Perfect Drug
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0s5UOVsMDg

This video made quite an impression on me. As soon as I had that new-fangled napster thing, I dutifully waiting hours and hours to have a copy of this song.

Pulp - This is Hardcore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmP4_SC43-E

I saw this Pulp video only once - I think it suits the song very well. I found the album which bore its name and bought it. Just as the record label wished. And I don't regret any of it.

Nine Inch Nails - We're in This Together
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BTKnD4R_g8

Smashing Pumpkins - Ava Adore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTtee6c7-gw

I remember once, early in the morning, getting back from my paper route and eating breakfast in front of the TV. They played these two videos together. My fate was sealed.

Tool - Sober
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hglVqACd1C8

Another one that stayed with me. It is the entire reason I bought Undertow. Such a creepy video.

Nine Inch Nails - Hurt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFx2TmQfM-o

I remember seeing it on Much on Demand, when it was called RSVP. And they actually played videos people requested by mail. Yeah, paper with marks on it.

Queens of the Stone Age - The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret

Another one that I saw only once. I am sure there is an official video, but I can't find it on youtube. I remembered it for a long time too, and Napster'd it dutifully.

Soundgarden - Pretty Noose
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mmpaQqN_yk

Not the greatest video, but that's how I was exposed to the song.

My top 20 songs:

20. New York City Cops - The Strokes [2001]
19. Phantom Part II - Justice [2007]
18. Reckoner - Radiohead [2007]
17. All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem [2007]
16. Atlas - Battles [2007]
15. Black Math - The White Stripes [2003]
14. Wolf Like Me - TV on the Radio [2006]
13. Hard to Explain - The Strokes [2001]
12. Nude - Radiohead [2007]
11. Intervention - Arcade Fire [2007]
10. Time to Pretend - MGMT [2008]
9. Like Spinning Plates - Radiohead [2001]
8. Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes [2003]
7. New Jack - Justice [2007]
6. Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs [2003]
5. The Modern Leper - Frightened Rabbit [2008]
4. Mr. Brightside - The Killers [2004]
3. Pyramid Song - Radiohead [2001]
2. Citizen Erased - Muse [2001]
1. Ball & Biscuit - The White Stripes [2003]


My top 20 albums:

20. Untrue - Burial [2007]
19. The Midnight Organ Fight - Frightened Rabbit [2008]
18. Absolution - Muse [2003]
17. Icky Thump - The White Stripes [2007]
16. In Rainbows - Radiohead [2007]
15. Songs For The Deaf - Queens of the Stone Age [2002]
14. The Warning - Hot Chip [2006]
13. Funeral - Arcade Fire [2004]
12. Youth and Young Manhood - Kings of Leon [2003]
11. Puzzle - Biffy Clyro [2007]
10. Kid A - Radiohead [2000]
9. How The West Was Won - Led Zeppelin [2003]*
8. Origin Of Symmetry - Muse [2001]
7. Rated R - Queens of the Stone Age [2000]
6. White Blood Cells - The White Stripes [2001]
5. † - Justice [2007]
4. Elephant - The White Stripes [2003]
3. Discovery - Daft Punk [2001]
2. De Stijl - The White Stripes [2000]
1. Is This It - The Strokes [2001]

All amazing music i'm sure you'll agree ;)


*I know the live performances from this album are from 1972(i think) but it wasn't released until 2003, so i just had to include it. :P ...probably my all time favourite live album.

Well it's the end of 2009 and with it, time for a bunch of album of the year reviews. Mine is no exception. This review will be based solely on my likes, dislikes and opinions. I will present some facts and use them accordingly. I encourage anyone to chime in and let me know what they think, if I missed anything or even their top lists. Only albums that came out during the calendar year 2009 will be here. Without further hesitation, here are my top ten releases followed by the total track scrobbles per album. These are in no order.

1. Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg - 17
2. Stone Axe - Stone Axe - 247
3. Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures - 98
4. The Company Band - The Company Band - 42
5. Pearl Jam - Backspacer - 57
6. Clutch - Strange Cousins From The West - 173
7. Weird Owl - Ever The Silver Cord Be Loosed - 43
8. Truckfighters - Mania - 26
9. Throttlerod - Pig Charmer - 26
10. Sun Gods In Exile - Black Light, White Lines - 47

Honorable mentions go out to Stone Axe (for the Extended Play EP), Mother's Green, Naam, Mustasch, Nightstalker, Megedeth, Mastodon, Mammoth Mammoth, The Machine, Lo-Pan, Kamchatka, House Of Broken Promises, Fu Manchu, The Freezing Fog, Priestess, Freedom Hawk, Dogs of Winter, Devil To Pay, Dali's Llama, Cherry Choke, Chapstik, Black Water Rising, Black River, Black Pyramid, Baroness, Baby Woodrose, Alice in Chains and Admiral of Black for putting out very good albums this year. There were a lot of other bands who also put out albums this year that I listened to but didn't quite grab me like the others.

If I were to go strictly by the scrobbles then Stone Axe would walk away with the title hands down. The self titled album was released in March of this year. I've had plenty of time to play it and play it I did. I also turned a few people onto the band in the process. My initial reaction was this sounds a little like a southern Soundgarden. In some songs where Drew is singing, he does remind me of Chris Cornell. It's not a bad thing. I didn't care for Chris Cornell's solo release this year. If I were Chris I would try to tell people that Stone Axe was my other band. Of course we all know better.

Sometime in the summer of 2009 I got into this big Queens of the Stone Age kick. I never really listened to an album thoroughly until this year. during that kick it was rumored then confirmed that Josh Homme was working with Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones. I'm a fan of Foo Fighters and Led Zeppelin so I was pretty psyched. I couldn't see their first show due to a slow Ticketmaster website and then them selling out so quick. The end result was Them Crooked Vultures. They put out a self titled release and I tell you I'm hooked. I'm hooked more then I was with any Queens material and there's a lot more of it. the first two tracks are just mind blowing and the rest of the album is just as equally good. I ordered two copies of the album. The CD/tshirt combo from the band and the iTunes release with two live tracks. I can't put this album down even if I tried.

Pearl Jam's Backspacer album was highly anticipated by me. Pearl Jam has been consistently my favorite band for the last 16 years. I don't know why but it seems that every chapter in my life revolves around a Pearl Jam release. Anytime a new album comes out, something big in my life happens. Perhaps I was always finding solace in my life by listening to their music but they always got me through. Backspacer is a much slower mellower album then past albums. Maybe because their anti-Bush messages are no longer part of their music since W is no longer president. I think Eddie Vedder's solo album had a lot of influence on making this album because there are a lot of similarities in the two.

First they disbanded then they got back together with a somewhat different lineup. The end result was a good long rocking album. Wolfmother came back this year with a pretty powerful album. Of course it has its highs and lows but it's a pretty consistent album. The last album got my hooked for the first few tracks but then it faded off. I can't think of a time when I listened to the last album from start to finish without skipping songs or turning it off all together. Cosmic Egg was a good listen from start to finish.

Clutch are no strangers to making good solid hard rocking albums. Strange Cousins From The West is no exception. The album starts out hard from the get go and doesn't let go. I think they should've called the album 50,000 Unstoppable Watts, after the song of the same name because of the amount of energy in this album. Clutch easily became one of my favorite bands this year. Seeing them four times (once as The Bakerton Group) helped solidify that. Not to mention that because of Baroness dropping out of the tour in the summer, my favorite band, Low of the Low, got to open on the main stage for them when they played in Milwaukee. Being the photographer for Low of the Low I got all access to the venue and got to see the soundcheck and meet Neil Fallon. I got to talk music for a few minutes with Neil and got to talk to him about his side project which is....

The Company Band self titled. When I talked to Neil in August he had said the album was finished and was just waiting on the record company. He said about 8 weeks or so. It was more like 12 but who's counting? This album, as good as it is and as psyched as I was to hear it, was unfortunately over shadowed by the Them Crooked Vultures release. Not only did the album release on the same day, the albums were leaked on the same day as well. I came across The Company Band album first and I'm glad I did otherwise I probably wouldn't have given it a fair chance. It's a good solid album and doesn't sound to much like a Clutch album. Obviously the comparisons are going to be there due to Neil singing on both but it's the instrumentals that set the two apart. Clutch has more a southern spacey tune to the instruments whereas The Company Band doesn't have much distortion to it. The end result is a good rock album.

When I read the reviews on Weird Owl's album and read the comparisons to Neil Young and Crazy Horse I was intrigued. I couldn't have agreed more. It's good, it rocks and there is a little psychedelic to it which is probably why they are signed to Tee Pee Records. Any Neil Young fan would like this unless the only thing by the godfather of grunge you like is his acoustic material in which case you're in for a huge disappointment.

Truckfighters and Throttlerod I'm going to talk about here at the same time. I love both bands. I think very highly of both and they both put out solid albums. I wasn't overly thrilled with either and while good, it didn't exceed my expectations like other top albums did or their previous albums. Mania sounded a little to commercial compared to past albums and Pig Charmer wasn't to far off. Maybe it was the commercial radio sound that keeps me from giving it a fair chance. I don't know. Both albums are on my iPhone still and haven't been taken off yet. I haven't listened to either album start to finish in a while but tracks have come up numerous times when I hit shuffle.

The last album I want to discuss here is Sun Gods In Exile. Eye For an Eye is the opening track and it seems that is what the band is trying to do to make their mark in music. They don't disappoint. I heard the term somewhere that said the greatest southern rock not from the south. That may be true. I don't know about the greatest but great, yes, I'd agree with that. The album doesn't let up. Like Stone Axe, I've turned quite a few people onto this band.

Now that I've gone through all that onto my album of the year for 2009. Ready, the album of the year is....

going to revealed....

after these messages.

Ok, enough with the messing around. My 2009 album of the year goes to:



Enough said. Maybe it's because I'm listening to the album right now, maybe I can't put it down. I'm not sure. There were a lot of worthy candidates and a lot that I had difficulty trimming down to my top 10. It is what it is. It's a great album that will stick with my for quite sometime, perhaps well after the world ends in 2012. We shall see.

2010 promises to be another great year for music. There's a lot of good stuff in the works that will hopefully see daylight next year. Here's a list of bands working on albums that are due next year.

Venomin James
Brain Police
Five Horse Johnson
Sasquatch
Stone Axe (yes, another one, I can't wait)
Clutch (Live material)
Dexter Jone's Circus Orchestra
Dixie Witch
The Brought Low
Black Rainbows
Low of the Low
Orange Goblin

Speaking of Low of the Low, here's a video shot this past summer of a song that will be on their upcoming 2010 release.



What will my 2010 list look like? I'll see you in a year. Keep Rocking!

Przyszła dziś rano. Dostojna, w krwistoczerwonej szacie. Mowa oczywiście o debiutanckiej płycie grupy Them Crooked Vultures. Nasza polska premiera zaplanowana została, tak jak kiedyś wspominałem, na 7 grudnia, ale... na jednej z aukcji na allegro można ją kupić już teraz. Bez większego zastanowienia skorzystałem, bo dłuższe oczekiwanie doprowadziłoby mnie do grobu...
Całość do przeczytania na:
http://warsawcalling.blogspot.com/2009/11/them-crooked-vultures-them-crooked_27.html

Them Crooked Vultures
NirvanaKyussQueens of the Stone AgeLed ZeppelinFoo Fighters

Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R [Interscope, 2000]
Genre: rock
Best track: The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret




Bjork - Vespertine [One Little Indian, 2001]
Genre: bjork
Best track: Pagan Poetry




Clinic - Internal Wrangler [Domino, 2000]
Genre: rock, experimental
Best track: Distortions




D'Angelo - Voodoo [Virgin, 2000]
Genre: soul, funk, hip hop
Best track: Spanish Joint




Cat Power - You Are Free [Matador, 2003]
Genre: indie rock
Best track: Werewolf




Basement Jaxx - Rooty [XL, 2001]
Genre: electronic
Best track: Romeo




Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit [Rough Trade, 2006]
Genre: indie rock
Best track: The Blues Are Still Blue




MU - Afro Finger And Gel [Output, 2003]
Genre: electronic
Best track: Destroying Human Nature




Erykah Badu - New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War) [Universal Motown, 2008]
Genre: funk, soul, hip hop
Best track: Soldier




Autechre - Quaristice [Warp, 2008]
Genre: electronic, ambient
Best track: Altibzz




The Streets - Original Pirate Material [679, 2002]
Genre: hip hop, garage
Best track: Weak Become Heroes




Dizzee Rascal - Boy in Da Corner [XL, 2003]
Genre: grime, hip hop
Best track: Fix Up, Look Sharp




Sunn O))) - Black One [Southern Lord, 2005]
Genre: drone, black metal, experimental
Best track: It Took the Night To Believe




Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury [Zomba, 2006]
Genre: hip hop
Best track: Momma I'm So Sorry




The Avalanches - Since I Left You [Modular, 2000]
Genre: electronic
Best track: Since I Left You




Portishead - Third [Universal Island, 2008]
Genre: trip hop, industrial
Best track: Machine Gun




Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull [Southern Lord, 2008]
Genre: rock, avantgarde
Best track: Engine of Ruin




Stars of the Lid - ...And Their Refinement Of The Decline [Kranky, 2007]
Genre: ambient
Best track: Dungtitled (In A Major)




Daft Punk - Discovery [Virgin, 2001]
Genre: electronic, house
Best track: Voyager




Radiohead - Kid A [Parlophone, 2000]
Genre: alternative rock
Best track: Everything In Its Right Place