Hey, would you like an awesome CD?

I just made five mix-CDs, one of which YOU could win. If you want one, leave a comment. Oh, and there are two rules: you have to live in the United States (as I cannot afford to mail things internationally), and I cannot have met you in person. (Sorry, real friends. This one is for the Internets.) (I'd probably make you one of your own if you just asked me, though.) Just leave a comment letting me know which one you want, and then email me (coatesjt at gmail dot com) with your address so I can send it your way.

CD ONE TAKEN!
1. Matt the Hoople - "All The Young Dudes"
2. The Rolling Stones - "Tumbling Dice"
3. Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere"
4. Seas - "A Million Stars"
5. Drive-By Truckers - "Home Field Advantage"
6. David Karsten Daniels - "American Pastime"
7. Magnolia Electric Co. - "Blackbird"
8. Cat Power - "Song To Bobby"
9. Marianne Faithfull - "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"
10. Grizzly Bear - "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)"
11. Hot Chip - "Made In The Dark"
12. The Mountain Goats - "In Corolla"
13. Odetta - "Another Man Gone Wrong"
14. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - "Promise"
15. LCD Soundsystem - "New York I Love You"

CD TWO TAKEN!
1. Mirah - "We're Both So Sorry"
2. Loudon Wainwright III - "The Swimming Song"
3. Andrew Bird - "Lull"
4. John Phillips - "Holland Tunnel"
5. Mira Billotte - "As I Went Out One Morning"
6. The Lemonheads - "Big Gay Heart"
7. Os Mutantes - "Baby"
8. Laura Viers - "Spelunking"
9. Marianne Faithfull - "Intrigue"
10. Marketa Irglova - "The Hill"
11. Bob Dylan - "Idiot Wind"
12. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - "And I'm Aching"
13. The Last Town Chorus - "Modern Love"
14. Belle & Sebastian - "This Is Just A Modern Rock Song"
15. The Zombies - "This Will Be Our Year"

CD THREE TAKEN!
1. Marianne Faithfull - "Broken English"
2. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - "100 Days, 100 Nights"
3. The Jesus & Mary Chain - "Head On"
4. The Pretenders - "Mystery Achievement"
5. Bruce Springsteen - "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"
6. David Bowie - "The Prettiest Star"
7. Spoon - "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb"
8. Calvin Harris - "The Girls"
9. Nina Simone - "Sinnerman"
10. CSS - "Knife"
11. Yoko Ono - "Walking On Thin Ice"
12. The Knife - "Heartbeats"
13. M.I.A. - "Paper Planes"
14. LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends"
15. Johnny Boy - "You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes (And You Get What You Deserve)"

CD FOUR TAKEN!
1. Blur - "Ambulance"
2. Johnny Thunders - "You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory"
3. Jon Brion - "Strings That Tie To You"
4. Nouvelle Vague - "I Melt With You"
5. Marianne Faithfull - "No Child Of Mine"
6. PJ Harvey - "Silence"
7. Joe Tex - "The Love You Save (May Be Your Own)"
8. Otis Redding - "Ole Man Trouble"
9. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - "People Ain't No Good"
10. Drive-By Truckers - "Danko/Manuel"
11. Magnolia Electric Co. - "Memphis Moon"
12. Neko Case - "The Virginian"
13. Neutral Milk Hotel - "A Baby For Pree"
14. New Order - "Ceremony"
15. Liz Phair - "May Queen"

CD FIVE TAKEN!
1. Magnolia Electric Co. - "In The Human World"
2. Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham - "Night Nurse"
3. Seas - "Cold Hearts"
4. Andrew Bird - "Dark Matter"
5. Jim James & Calexico - "Goin' To Acapulco"
6. Marianne Faithfull - "Incarceration Of A Flower Child"
7. Sonic Youth - "I'm Not There"
8. The Cure - "Pictures Of You"
9. Joe Strummer - "Love Kills"
10. The Jesus & Mary Chain - "Something I Can't Have"
11. Liz Phair - "Shatter"
12. Feist - "Brandy Alexander"
13. Cat Power - "I Found A Reason"
14. Netural Milk Hotel - "Oh Comely"
15. Tortoise & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - "Thunder Road"

Just how gorgeous is this album cover?

This might be my top album cover of the year. The album itself ain't so bad, either.

And, sorry. I don't have anything real to write about (again). And I'm going to try my best to write real posts instead of turning this into a Tumblr. Speaking of which: I have one.

Albums of the Year: The Rest of the Best

David Karsten Daniels - Sharp Teeth
Dean & Britta - Back Numbers
The Fiery Furnaces - Widow City
The Good, the Bad, & the Queen - The Good, the Bad, & the Queen
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Mark Ronson - Version
The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

Honorable Mention:
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - Once: Music from the Motion Picture
Various Artists - I'm Not There: Original Soundtrack

Albums of the Year: #1. Feist - The Reminder

I absolutely adore this album. I'm willing to look past Feist as a performer and a person, and the Starbucks affiliation, as well as the iPod ads, and focus solely on this collection because, in my opinion, it's an A+ record.

I've been a fan of Feist after I got a bootleg copy of Let It Die in 2004. It was her second album, and despite her work with Broken Social Scene, it was the one that gained her some indie credibility. It was a good album, but it was kind of touch-and-go. There were some stand-out tracks, like "Mushaboom" and "Let It Die," but the she had the tendency to slip into a mom-rock /soft-pop feel, which ultimately turned her off. Seeing her live, however, made me realize that she did have potential as an artist, and The Reminder solidifies that.

On a personal level, this album hit me hard. For reasons both good and bad, I'll always associate this album with what I was going through when it was first released at the end of April, when I was still dealing with a tough break-up, depressed and angry about everything. Not to mention my fruitless job search was underway, and my father had recently started cancer treatments. It was a rough couple of months, and this album guided me through it with songs like "Past in Present," "The Limit to Your Love," and "How My Heart Behaves." And there were the up-beat songs, too, like "1234," and "I Feel It All."

This album is pretty perfect, and easily shot to the number one spot in my favorites list early this year. I could care less about Feist at this point, but The Reminder will always hold a place in my heart for reminding me that I got through a shitty, shitty time and came out on top.

Video: "1234" (Duh.)

Albums of the Year: #2. The National - Boxer

I'm rather disappointed that I didn't know more about The National before Boxer was released. I'd certainly heard of them, but for some reason I was never interested in listening to them. Per Adam's suggestion, I gave this one a try, and immediately fell in love with it. It's one of the few albums this year that I've been able to listen to on a loop without getting tired of it. I can't really explain what about it is so appealing to me, but I find myself getting sucked in whenever I press Play.

Video: "Slow Show" (fan video)

Albums of the Year: #3. Bright Eyes - Cassadaga

I discovered Bright Eyes shortly after the release of Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground back in 2002. It was my first introduction into indie-rock, and it's still one of my favorite albums. Cassadaga is no Lifted, but it's pretty damn close. It features similar moments of huge orchestrations, guest-spots from other Saddle Creek band members, as well as Maria Taylor, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, M. Ward, Rachel Yamagata, and Janet Weiss. Like previous Bright Eyes records, Cassadaga focuses on both the internal and the political. "Four Winds" is an especially brilliant protest song, both musically and lyrically; it never gets too preachy, and keeps a level head in regard to its ideology. The rest of the album is brilliant, and one of Bright Eyes' best efforts.

Video: "Hot Knives"

Albums of the Year: #4. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha

Andrew Bird makes fascinating music that isn't so complicated and ambitious that you can't listen to it. He manages to layer on several instruments, samples, vocals, and whistling without overwhelming his audience. And he's got tremendous talent, which sometimes doesn't come out on his albums as much as it does when you see him live. I didn't really notice how powerful his whistling is until I saw him last year; it simply blew me away to know that it wasn't being augmented electronically. Armchair Apocrypha is ambitious in the sense that it features collaboration with Martin Dosh, who provides some gut-busting drums and a buttload of samples to compliment Bird's songs. It may not be the instant classic that The Mysterious Production of Eggs was, but I think it'll stand up on its own as Bird progresses musically. (And he gets points for having the best cover art of the year.)

Video: "Imitosis" (live in Paris)

Albums of the Year: #5. PJ Harvey - White Chalk

White Chalk is an extreme departure for Polly Jean, as she wrote the entire album on piano, which she learned while she wrote her songs. It's not the typical alternative-rock / PJ Harvey album, but it's still just as strong as her previous efforts. It's supposedly inspired by her childhood in Dorset, England, which seems appropriate as Harvey sings in a much higher register than she's used to, giving a very childlike, yet ultimately haunting, feel. In places her falsetto is wavering, yet it's impressive in others. It's a quite beautiful album, and probably ranks as one of my favorites of PJ's.

Video: "White Chalk / Silence" (live on Later... with Jools Holland)

Albums of the Year: #6. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

It seems like such a long time since Arcade Fire released Neon Bible, probably because the hype and expectations for it were huge. The sounds on the album are just as huge: it's bold and brash with gorgeous orchestrations. You can tell with this album that frontman Win Butler is heavily influenced by Springsteen (and maybe Eddie and the Cruisers?), which is alright with me. Like Springsteen, Arcade Fire's songs tend to make observations about our culture, ranging from religion, war, and pop music.

Video: "Intervention / (Antichrist Television Blues)" (BBC2 Session)

Albums of the Year: #7. The New Pornographers - Challengers

There's nothing new I can say about The New Pornographers, or Challengers. It took a while to grow on me, possibly because it's pretty similar to their last album, Twin Cinema. After seeing them live, however, I couldn't stop listening to it. They're a perfect pop-group, and this is a pretty damn good pop record (even if "pop" wouldn't be the word most would use to describe them). The group sure can blend together some beautiful harmonies and make some spunky music. And this album seems more of Carl Newman's baby than the others, even if a lot of people think of The New Pornos as "Neko Case's band."

Video: "Challengers"

Albums of the Year: #8. Grinderman - Grinderman

Grinderman could have just been another album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (the band includes most of the Bad Seeds). Had it been released ten years ago, it would have made perfect sense. But as Nick Cave has gotten older, his albums started to get softer. After 1996's Murder Ballads, Cave began writing ballads and love songs, seen primarily in The Boatman's Call (influenced by his breakup with PJ Harvey) and his last album, the two-part Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus. Grinderman represents a middle-age crisis sort of record; Cave learned to play guitar, and the result was a jerky, loud collection of garage-rock songs.

Video: "No Pussy Blues" (live on Later... with Jools Holland)

Albums of the Year: #9. M.I.A. - Kala

Despite the atrocious album cover, M.I.A.'s Kala is fantastic. It's also as complicated as Maya Arulpragasam is herself. It transcends genres, going from world music to hip-hop to electronica. It's political, bashing the West at the same time it asks for acceptance. The production is huge, at times sampling Bollywood and disco in the backing tracks, juxtaposing gun shots and cash register ca-chings, and featuring guest spots from Afrikan Boy and Timbaland. It's tough, natch, to categorize M.I.A. and her music; her American audience is more indie-rock inclined, probably because, compared to other hip-hop artists, her themes are so political and worldly. Seeing her last month in Chicago was surprising; I'll be the first to admit I don't see many hip-hop shows, and, as I expected, the mostly-white audience seemed to be filled with people who would be just as likely to attend any other indie-rock show. Her following aside, M.I.A. manages to produce post-Colonialist hip-hop, finally making Edward Said's Orientalism relevant to a jaded, superficially political hipster culture.

Video: "Bird Flu"

Albums of the Year: #10. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones wrote in a controversial article that today's indie-rock bands lack good, old-fashioned rhythm, using bands like Grizzly Bear and Arcade Fire as examples. In my opinion, it's kind of a ridiculous article; he's just as bad as any of the bands he criticizes for having a style that lacks what he's looking for. Sure, Grizzly Bear doesn't take a lot of inspiration from Motown or '70s funk, and Arcade Fire sounds more like Springsteen than Sly and the Family Stone. And while that may not be Jones's preference, it's silly to think that all bands should sound like Spoon, a top-notch band that sounds like what Jones is jonesin' for, despite their absence from the article.

Spoon has always sounded a little like a throwback to the soulful bands of the '70s, back when white dudes mixed guitars with a horn section. And on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, one of the band's strongest albums to date, they seem to play on that idea with their song titles, particularly the album-closing "Black Like Me." The white guys from Austin, Texas have had a soulful sound for their last few albums, and while this new one isn't much of a departure from that niche, they're certainly not in any hurry to fix something that isn't broken.

Video: "The Underdog"

Albums of the Year, Honorable Mention: Magnolia Electric Co. - Sojourner

Magnolia Electric Co.'s box set is, without a doubt, my favorite release of the year. Comprised of three LPs (Nashville Moon, Black Ram, and Shohola), one EP (Sun Session), and a DVD (The Road Becomes What You Leave), Sojourner features music from four recording sessions from which Jason Molina compiled his last album, Fading Trails. My biggest complaint with that album was that it seemed more of a compilation than a true album, and the release of this box set is magnificent. You can clearly see the vision Molina had for the three separate LPs, which were recorded and mixed by different producers at different locations. It's an A++ collection.

Video: "A Little At A Time"

All Of My Opinions Are Right: My Least-Favorite Albums of 2007.

Before I go crazy with my end-of-the-year list of my favorite albums, I have a short list of albums that I didn't like. And - surprise! - they're all from artists that I like a lot.

Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
Adams had a great year in 2005 (29 notwithstanding) when he released two albums with The Cardinals: Cold Roses and Jacksonville City Nights. I thought he had gotten out of the Rock N Roll slump. I was excited to hear Easy Tiger, a third collaboration with The Cardinals (although they are mysteriously absent from the billing), but I felt like it was nothing new or interesting. The best songs were "Two," a duet with Sheryl Crow (meh), and "Halloween Head," which starts out with Ryan singing, "Here comes that shit again, I got a Halloween head." Whaaa?

Tori Amos - American Doll Posse
I know, I know. But I used to really love Tori Amos, but she hasn't produced anything worth listening to since Scarlet's Walk, a similar concept album where she followed a single character across post-9/11 America. Here she goes after five different characters (similar to her covers album Strange Little Girls). It's an interesting concept, which works great live (Tori opened for herself on her last tour as one of the different characters), but this album is a mess. She keeps going after a mom-pop/rock production, forgetting that she makes great music when it's just her and a piano. And, frankly, she's much more entertaining when she's being herself.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Living with the Living
I love Ted Leo, but I just couldn't get into this one. The songs were just as political as his previous offerings, but the production was to the point that I couldn't listen to them. Sure, "Bomb. Repeat. Bomb." may have a great message, but I can't sit through it. And then there was that song that sounded like a Dropkick Murphys cover. No thank you.

Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight
I love "Silver Lining," but that's about it. This album sounds like a big change in direction for the band; there's less folk / country sensibility (which I guess Jenny Lewis covered on her album with the Watson Twins) and more big, pop sounds. It's just a personal preference; I like the old stuff.

It is certainly not too early for Christmas songs.

It's December 4th, which means that most of us have been hearing goddamn Christmas music on the radio for a month already. But, like every year, I never get to hear my favorite Christmas song: "Fairytale in New York" by The Pogues. I guess ClearChannel doesn't like Christmas carols featuring the words "slut" and "faggot." It's a shame.

Here's a special video of Shane McGowan's jacked up teeth and Kristy MacColl singing it on, um, St. Patrick's Day (oh, the Irish!):


Of course, I enjoy the nice, clean, poppier version, covered by Canadian band Pilate. I'll share the MP3 with you because I'm full of Christmas spirit (and just figured out how to do it!). Download!

And as a special treat, I'll share with you my new least-favorite Christmas song, which I discovered this morning. It's called "CHRISTMAS IN FALLUJAH." Billy Joel wrote it, and some dick named Cass Dillon recorded it. I am not making this up:


Who's drunker - Shane or Billy? It's a tough one.

Friday Poll: What song do you hate the most?!

I'm phoning it in today because I'm leaving for vacay in a few hours and I don't feel like thinking too much right now, so here's a poll.

For the record, the song that inspires the most hatred in my dark, dark soul is "Ignition" by R. Kelly. I swear to God, every time I hear that song I want to shove rusty nails down my throat and let them pass through my body (I'm trying not to be TOO scatological here) so that the pain from hearing that motherfucking song will temporarily be relieved by the prospect of getting tetanus in my intestinal tract.



UGGGGH I HATE IT.

I've been asking other people what their least-favorite songs were. Megan responded, "I've had the string section from 'Funkytown' stuck in my head all week, so, that song." Which is a good answer.



Adam has two:

[Note: This shows how stupid people actually like this song and think it's sung by Tom Petty rather than Tom Cochrane. FUCK ALL OF YOU.]



My dad also has two songs that inspire road rage on occasion:


I've seen the road rage. It's not pretty.

My mom loves to do impressions of Dolores O'Riordan's nasally voice when she hears this one:


Here's my brother's pick, which resulted from the summer where I drove him around with this song blasting on my stereo on REPEAT. Seriously. I'm sorry, David; we all make mistakes.


So, Internet, what's YOUR most-hated song?

If you interpret anything through dance around me, I will punch you in the neck.

I saw The Decemberists perform a free concert last night with the Grant Park Orchestra in Millennium Park, which was a pretty good show despite the rain and the chatty people on the lawn. The band's collaboration with an orchestra was such a good match, even though they did play about four songs on their own.

I will admit, however, that I kind of have a love / hate relationship with The Decemberists when it comes to their live shows. When I saw them a few months ago, I was very put-off by the pretentious on-stage antics. I understand that Colin and Co. have these playful personalities and they want to bring that out in their live shows, but really, we get it. We know the music, so we don't need to watch you reenact scenes from The Hobbit in the audience (because, really, not that many people can see it anyway). I'd much rather hear a band play music than see them do something crazy and kooky.

Luckily the show last night was so huge that they couldn't really do anything of that nature. And I was extremely pleased because they played one of my favorite songs, "I Was Meant For The Stage," and the performance last night may have been the second best performance of a song I've ever heard (the first being, hands down, Sufjan's Stevens singing "Romulus" at his Black Cat show back in 2004). But for every "I Was Meant For The Stage," there's at least two or three pirate-rock songs (a description Adam appropriately used to describe the band) that make me hate them a little bit. They ended their show with "The Mariner's Revenge Song," which is definitely not my favorite, especially when it's coupled with requested audience participation on Colin's part. I'm historically anti-clap- and sing-alongs, and I'm extremely against having to "scream like I'm being eaten by a whale" when instructed. No thank you, sir. What made the performance really get to me was the group of people behind us who decided to do an interpretive dance sequence to the song. As I'm watching one white guy with dreadlocks pretend to battle some meathead in a wifebeater as an indie-rock sea shanty blasted from the speakers overhead, I knew it was time to call it a night. And then I noticed that in the sea of "young people," a term I'm sure the twenty Grant Park Music Festival regulars used to describe the crowd's demographic, there were a lot of interpretive dancers looking just as stupid. The one major thought running through my head was, "This is the kind of crowd who prefers its irony on twenty-dollar T-shirts and its mix-CDs curated by Zach Braff." And that's the kind of crowd of which I want no part.

My favorite song about domestic abuse.

About a year and a half ago, when I had just seen Quadrophenia and was in my Mod phase, I downloaded a bunch of songs by Phil Spector's girl groups (The Crystals, The Ronettes, Darlene Love, etc.) and found this song called "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)." It's pretty amazing in a weird kind of way, especially when I discovered that Carole King wrote it and the man responsible for its production later shot a woman.

Here's a thirty-second preview of the song (damn copyright laws!), performed by The Crystals:


About a week ago, my friend John bought to my attention a cover of the song performed by Grizzly Bear. Since Grizzly Bear is playing Pitchfork and I've been preparing by downloading some of the bands I hadn't heard (I've been very bad at getting new music lately), I searched for the song. I'm pretty obsessed with it now, and it's one of the rare cases where a cover sounds as good - if not better - than the original. Plus, having a man taking over the vocals makes it sound even weirder, which is a good thing.

Me & My Babies

I've always said (not out loud, really - mostly in my head) that if I ever had the chance to have a threesome with a celebrity couple, I'd pick Amy Poehler and Will Arnett because it'd be hilarious. I'd be comfortable just sitting back after a while because, honestly, they so crazy. I bet there'd be funny voices and nutty faces and everything. And balloon animals. Who knows what would happen?








But last night I changed my mind after going to Borders (ick, I know. I tried Reckless but was unsuccessful) and buying Back Numbers, the new duets album by Dean & Britta (née Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham). They were both members of Luna; before that, Dean was in Galaxie 500 and Britta was the singing voice of Jem. And they make beautiful, beautiful music together. Perhaps I can score a ticket to see them at Schuba's in two weeks and suggest a trio?