See How They Are

Last week was nuts. Tuesday night show at the Vogue - the incredible X!! I was totally blown away, expectations be-damned. An hour and a half of LA Punk by the granddaddy's of them all. Exene's voice was great. Billy Zoom is completely alien. (and somewhat creepy quite frankly) They didn't play Los Angeles or The Unheard Music, but it didn't really matter. hats off to John Doe, Exene, Billy Zoom & DJ for keeping it real. Evan and Gary were on board and we all left with a beautiful memory.

Thursday night show at Conseco Fieldhouse - The Boss. First time to see Bruce and once again I was toppled. Didn't expect to be dancing in the dark with 10,000 other people, but I did. Great to hear "Because the Night." I'm very impressed with the sound at that arena. Both The Who last year and the Boss sounded great. Had great seats for both shows though, still would hate to be up top.

WHOA!!!! Five Months Have Gone By & Car Tunes Year End List

No apologies or excuses from this dude. I'm just lame when it comes to keepin up on this. So here's the year-end 2007 breakdown on the Car Tunes. This is the music I listened to this past year, not necessarily released in 2007.

Top 20 (no particular order)
Buffalo Tom - Three Easy Pieces
Robert Pollard - Coast to Coast Carpet of Love
Jesse Malin - Glitter in the Gutter
Josh Ritter - The Animal Years
Portastatic - Be Still Please
Peter Case - Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John
Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga
Tommy Womack - There, I Said It
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Grinderman - Grinderman
John Doe - A Year in the Wilderness
Will Kimbrough - Americanitis
Half Japanese - Charmed Life
Bobby Bare Jr - The Longest Meow
Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
Tim Armstrong - A Poet's Life
Circus Devils - Sgt. Disco
Nick Lowe - At My Age
Born Again Floozies - 7 Deadly Sins
Gore Gore Girls - Get the Gore

As I look back at this list, must've been a bad year for chicks. I listened to the Gore Gore Girls quite a bit , so I changed it to 21!

Here's a bunch more that I listened to and really enjoyed. Many of these probably made other folks top 20:

Robert Pollard - Standard Gargoyle Decisions
Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
Gogol Bordello - Super Taranta!
Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil
Dwight Yoakam - Dwight Sings Buck
Rilo Kiley - Under the Black Light
Robbie Fulks - Revenge
Robyn Hitchcock - Ole Tarantala
Steve Earle - Washington Square Serenade
Thurston Moore - Trees Outside the Academy
Solomon Burke - Nashville
Elizabeth Cook - Balls
Lemonheads - Lemonheads
The Glands - The Glands
The Clean - Anthology
Dinosaur Jr - Beyond
Geraldine Fibbers - Butch

I hope if you see this that you'll take my cue and pick some of these up if you haven't already.

I must also mention that 2007 was a year where I fell in love with the music of Half Japanese. I'd heard Calling All Girls somewhere a long time ago but had never pursued them. By chance I watched the Half Jap documentary, The Band That Would be King on the Documentary Channel. I instantly bought into the idea of Jad and David had been the epicenter of punk rock without really knowing it. Releasing a 3 lp box set as their debut kinda makes you smile and watching them go for $300 on ebay makes you curse and smile. Of course that led me on endless ebay searches trying to find their records (cds & lps). I had some success and my life is better for it. Pick up Greatest Hits or even better, Charmed Life if you can find it. Its a masterpiece.

It was also the year of the Ramones for me as well. Mostly due to watching End of the Century, the Story of the Ramones. Of course I had listened to them for a long time, but this film helped me understand their true impact on music history. I pulled out a couple of the lp's I had and bought a couple or more and listened to them on vinyl all summer. I fell in love with some of the lesser known songs and re-connected with the hits. Worth doing if you haven't listened to them lately.