A highly arbitrary list, mixing old and new that are on my computer, in my car and in my headphones this Xmas... The fruit of many hours skipping through the discard bins at record stores, paging through Amazon's mp3 lists, and bugging friends for songs...10. Tom Waits - Sight for Sore EyesA classic by a classic, opening with a piano tinkling out Auld Lang Syne and becoming a bittersweet story of
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Posts by Launce
My Christmas Top Ten for 2008
REM wake up
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Being an olds, I can still remember vividly the first flush of "that-is-fucking-genius" feeling that I heard on Murmur and the Chronic Town EP. REM over the last three decades - Geebus, can it be that long? - has consistently issued some of the best, sweetest, saddest, and occasionally hip-groovin' sounds out there. Which is absolutely amazing for a ROCK band of that age.I've seen the band three o
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Gogol Bordello's Nose Raises a Stink in Vegas
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Vampire Weekend
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OK, I am, or try to be resistent to hype - but in this case, these guys deserve it.I saw the video a while back. Thought it was one of the better crop. The album, though, is great. Just really, really strong - in the same way that Amy Winehouse's Back to Black was two years ago.Most highly recommended for anyone who likes Yo La Tengo, the Lefte Bank, the Specials. The influences are kind of divers
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American Airlines and Paste
I flew American Airlines to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands in early February, and I was pleased to see that the marriage between music mag Paste and American has been consumated. Paste essentially has about 30 songs on one of the airline's in-flight music channels. I like Paste, but it's not exactly a radical trend-setter in contemporary music. Nonetheless, its list - which echoes the CDs in
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Heath Ledger is dead
Most memorable for his searing work in Brokeback Mountain, he recently appeared in the new Dylan fantasy bio-pic thingy. Police, media accounts are hinting that it was a suicide. All I can say is - what a waste.
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Year's Best, Etc.
Here we are well into 2008, and the hordes of those in-the-know hepcats are still clamoring for my annual list of favorite albums, shows and whatnot. How can I disappoint my fans? Wherever they are?The National’s Boxer made it onto a lot of lists this year, and deservedly so. Our common roots in the Great State of Ohio notwithstanding, the band, now based in New York, has that sort of wimpy, hyp
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Steve Earle Rules
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Steve Earle's new love letter to New York, Washington Square Serenade, is another in a long line of very strong, post-sobriety milestones.This album is very, very good.
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