The 11 Best Songs By Iggy & The Stooges

The Stooges were commercial failures.  None of their albums charted in the top 100 on billboard.  Sales through out their careers were minimal at best.  In 40 years, they've never had an album go platinum...or even gold for that matter.  They've never had a hit single.  They've never been on TMZ (I'm guessing).  But their iconic status is legendary.  Inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame, they weren't ushered in because of their charting abilities...it was because of their pure unadulterated influence over almost every band that dared to pick up a guitar since their incarnation.  Don't believe me...Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, Green Day, The Offspring, NY Dolls, X, Wilco, Sex Pistols, Slayer, Sonic Youth, Ryan Adams, Black Keys, Soundgarden, Guns N Roses, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Ramones, and even Depeche Mode have all claimed that they were influenced by Iggy & co.  That's not a bad resume considering their albums got outsold by the likes of Edward Bear and Anne Murray.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Iggy & The Stooges:

1. Search & Destroy (Raw Power)
2. Gimme Danger (Raw Power)
3. Raw Power (Raw Power)
4. I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges)
5. No Fun (The Stooges)
6. I Got A Right (Raw Power Outtake)
7. Fun House (Fun House)
8. Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell (Raw Power)
9. Down On the Street (Fun House)
10. TV Eye (Fun House)
11. Shake Appeal (Raw Power)

Buy Iggy & The Stooges new album, Ready To Die...now!!

The 11 Best Songs By Har Mar Superstar

I've been looking for a full-time job for the past couple of months.  It's brutal out there.  I've rewritten my resume about 100 times and contacted every person I've ever known and some that I don't know.  I don't advise the latter. I keep telling myself that it's just tough out there and I have to work extra hard to get a good job.  I'm up for it.  No job's worth getting unless you have to struggle to get it.  I went for a run after a day of applying.  As I came to a stop at a red light, there was another guy standing there, too.  He had about 70% of his teeth and still hadn't figured out how to use a bath.  He was having an argument with himself about what was better, Star Trek or doughnuts.  I am not making this up.  And he was getting himself riled up.  I think doughnuts were winning and he wasn't happy about it.  Here's the kicker to the story.  He was wearing a 7-Eleven t-shirt...because he works there.  This guy has a job and I don't.  I'm not bitter...but if this guy set the bar I need to brush up on my pastry treats.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Har Mar Superstar:

1. DUI (The Handler)
2. Cut Me Up (The Handler)
3. Body Request (The Handler)
4. Dope, Man (Dark Touches)
5. Transit (The Handler)
6. EZ Pass (You Can Feel Me)
7. Girls Only (Dark Touches)
8. Almond Joy (Dark Touches)
9. Tall Boy (Dark Touches)
10. Never My Love (Whip It)
11. Cry 4 Help (Har Mar Superstar)

Buy Har Mar Superstar's new album, Bye Bye 17 now!!!

The 11 Worst Genre Changes By Musicians

The new Snoop Dogg album...ahem, I mean Snoop Lion finds him changing musical genres and attempting to make a reggae album.  Snoop is not the first artist who has changed genres.  Many have tried...many have failed.  By the massive amount of weed Snoop has smoked over the past 20 years...reggae isn't a far stretch from what he's capable of.  Others have not been as fortunate with their drastic musical changes and probably regret them to this day.

Here are the 11 Worst Genre Changes by Musicians:

1. Chris Cornell:  Grunge Rock to Pop
2. Garth Brooks' Chris Gaines: Country to Alt Rock
3. Dee Dee King:  Punk Rock to Hip-Hop
4. Jewel: indie rock to country
5. Norah Jones' El Madmo: light jazz to artrock punk 
6. Beastie Boys to Country: Hip-Hop to Country
7. Kid Cudi to WZRD: Hip-Hop to Rock
8. Lil Wayne Rebirth: Hip-hop to Rock
9. Darius Rucker: alt rock to country
10. Katy Hudson to Katy Perry:  Contemporary Christian to mainstream pop 
11. Ryan Adams' Werewolph, Orion, DJ Reggie: rock to death metal, electronic, and hip-hop

Buy Snoop Lion's new album, Reincarnated...now!!

The 11 Best Songs By Phoenix

Every once in awhile a band makes an album that's bigger than the themselves.  And they spend the rest of their career living up to that apex.  They may never come close again...which is not necessarily their fault. The Cure has Disintegration, Guns N Roses has Appetite For Destruction, The Sex Pistols have Never Mind The Bullocks...  This isn't to say these bands aren't talented enough and can't make great music anymore.  The problem is these albums are not just musical masterpieces but also cultural touchstones.  These behemoth albums aren't just a product of the band as much as they are a product of timing.  From the culture, to the audience, to the exposure, to the placement, to the other music around them...the stars have to perfectly align for this type of success to befall a band.  Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is that epic album for Phoenix.  It was a power house punch that literally came out of nowhere.  It was like an adrenaline shot to our musical playlists.  Like someone had turned our music up to 11.  At the close of a rather banal decade of music, we as music fans wanted it as much as we needed it.  Will Phoenix ever make another album this good?  We hope...but even if they don't...let's remember that they were there for us when we needed them the most.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Phoenix:

1. 1901 (Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix)
2. Lisztomania (Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix)
3. If Ever Feel Better (United) 
4. Everything Is Everything (Alphabetical)
5. Armistice (Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix)
6. Fences (Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix)
7. Second To None (It's Never Been Like That) 
8. Too Young (United)
9. Girlfriend (Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix)
10. Lasso (Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix)
11. Rally (It's Never Been Like That) 

Buy Phoenix's new album, Bankrupt! now!!!

The 11 Best Songs By Junip

It was announced this week that there are 6 new Star Wars movies coming, starting in 2015 and being released ever summer after that.  My immediate excitement was quickly quelled by the fearful thought of why?  Though I was hopeful that a team of Joss Whedon, Steven Spielberg, and JJ Abrams would turn a quality product...it's Disney.  And Disney live action movies suck.  Outside of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie...there hasn't been a good live action Disney movie since Don Knotts was in his prime.  And instead of letting these films breathe and build, they're pushing them out faster than cellphone updates.  From a studio who has brought us such wonderful cinematic piles of dump like John Carter and Prince Of Persia, don't you think they would have learned their lesson and not try to mangle creativity with profits.  And no, Avengers was Paramount and was later distributed by Disney.  Many believe this has to do with the sagging profits from the Disneyland and California Adventure expansions that didn't deliver the crowds they predicted.  So instead of learning from their mistakes from shoving something down the public's throat that didn't necessarily want...they're changing their ways by shoving more shit down the public's throat assuming maybe more is better.

Sometimes less is more.  And quality can be in the understated.  You don't need to hit people over the head with a hammer if you have something to say.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Junip:

1. Always (Fields)
2. Official (Black Refuge EP)
3. Howl (Fields)
4. Black Refuge (Black Refuge EP)
5. To The Grain (Fields)
6. The Ghost of Tom Joad (Black Refuge EP)
7. Carsick (Black Refuge EP)
8. Off Point (Fields)
9. Rope & Summit (Fields)
10. White Rain (In Every Direction)
11. Far Away (Rope & Summit)

Buy Junip's new self-titled album, Junip...now!!

The 11 Best Record Store Releases (Triple List)

I picked up so much vinyl this year...I'm not even sure how I'm going to pay rent.  And isn't that what good music is about?  Living in a van...down by the river.  There wasn't a release this year that I went in excited about...but I came out loving almost everything I purchased.  I've had the chance to listen to most of my purchases and have heard a lot of other stuff.  And the Calexico album...best release of the year...Period.

It was a crazy day...and I'm still reeling from it.  Some say Record store Day is Christmas for music fans.  It's better than Christmas...because on Record Store Day you get exactly what you want.

To celebrate such a momentousness day and with nearly 400 releases...there's no way to condense it down to a mere 11.  Instead, I've created 3 lists to give light on some on a lot of the material that you may have missed.  And by the way, many record stores still have a lot of product...so if there's something that was sold out at one store...I'd check out the store down the street...just in case.

Here are the 11 Best Record Store Day 7-inches:

1. Pornography (Ryan Adams)  - 7 Minutes in Heaven
2. Elliott Smith - Either/Or Demos 
3. Pink Floyd - See Emily Play
4. David Bowie - Drive-In Saturday Night
5. Hold Steady - Criminal Fingers
6. The Black Keys/Iggy & The Stooges - No Fun
7. Gram Parsons & The Fallen Angels - Live 1973
8. Old 97s & Waylon Jennings - Double Set
9. Superchunk - Void 
10. Iron & Wine - Next To Paradise
11. Husker Du - Amusement

Here are the 11 Best Record Store Day Reissues:

1. Orange Juice - Rip It Up
2. Porno For Pyros - Porno For Pyros (splatter vinyl)
3. White Stripes - Elephant (red, white and black vinyl)
4. At The Drive-In - Relationship in Command
5. Braid - Frame and Canvas
6. The Roots - Things Fall Apart
7. The Band - The Last Waltz
8. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts (yellow vinyl)
9. Blind Melon - Blind Melon
10. Built To Spill - Live
11. The Zombies - The Zombies

Here are the 11 Best Record Store Day Releases:

1. Calexico - Spiritoso
2. Stephen Malkmus - Ege Bamyasi
3. A Place To Bury Strangers - Strange Moon
4. Soundgarden - King Animal Demos
5. Garbage - Because the Night
6. Willie Nelson - Crazy Demo Sessions
7. G. Love and Jack Johnson - Bloodshot & Blue
8. Mumford and Sons - Live At Bull Moose
9. Grouplove/Manchester Orchestra/Frightened Rabbit - Make It To Me
10. Big Star - Nothing Can Hurt Me
11. Deftones - Live: Volume 1

The 11 Best Songs By Kid Cudi

Since us humans don't seem to be appreciating the life we have here on Earth, maybe it's time to start looking elsewhere.  This week, scientists announced they have found three new planets that could support life.  These planets are hundreds of light years away and it may take us hundreds of years just to develop travel to get us there.  But that said, it's an encouraging and invigorating story in the midst of chaos, mayhem, and destruction.  The question of course comes, if we do go to another planet and find alien life...will it look humans-like, animal-like, or Yoda-like?

See you tomorrow at Record Store Day.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Kid Cudi:

1. Soundtrack 2 My Life (Man On The Moon)
2. Simple As... (Man On The Moon) 
3. Mr. Rager (Man On The Moon II)
4. Scott Mescudi vs. The World (Man On The Moon II)
5. Up Up & Away (Man On The Moon)
6. Erase Me (Man On The Moon II)
7. Cudderisback ft. Vampire Weekend (Mixtape)
8. CuDi Zone (Man On The Moon)
9. Enter Galactic (Man On The Moon II)
10. Day 'N' Nite (Man On The Moon)
11. Make Her Say (Man On The Moon II)

Buy Kid Cudi's new album, Indicud...now!!

The 11 Best Songs By Dead Confederate

I don't know if I've ever seen a news story with as much misinformation floating around than the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing.  From how many people were killed, to the real and desired suspects, to linked bombings and even fictional sources.  The rumors grew so prevalent that law enforcement started believing in the rumors that were started by a media outlet, who said that they were using a law enforcement source (which turned out to be untrue).  Are we such a "get it now" generation that we don't have the patience to do the right thing by taking in all the right evidence before making an accusation?  I have a friend who bet me $100 that the kid's picture who was on the internet was part of the bombing.  That kid turned out to be a high school student not affiliated.  Now my friend has vanished conveniently that it's time to pay up.

Let's get one thing straight, whoever committed this horrible act is complete asshole.  They deserve no mercy and I'm not sure there's a punishment out there that truly fits the crime. But most importantly, we should make sure we find the right asshole.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Dead Confederate:

1. The Rat (Wrecking Ball)
2. In The Dark (Sugar)
3. Mob Scene (Sugar)
4. Shadow the Walls (Dead Confederate)
5. Goner (Wrecking Ball)
6. Giving It All Away (Sugar)
7. Slave to Slavery (Peyote People)
8. Sugar (Sugar)
9. It Was A Rose (Wrecking Ball)
10. We Married Money (Peyote People)
11. Start Me Laughing (Wrecking Ball)

Buy Dead Confederate's new album, In The Marrow...now!!

The 11 Best Flaming Lips Songs (Post-Embryonic)

The last official album to come out from The Flaming Lips was 2009's Embryonic.  A rich tapestry of psychedelic melodies that motivate the listener of a powerful cosmic propulsion.  In the four years since, they have been anything but sleeping on the job.  In that time, they have released 9 EPs.  Some of these EPs were distributed normally, some were released in a human skull or in a fetus made out of gummy candy...yes, really.  Along with the 9 EPs, they released a Pink Floyd cover album, a duets album, and an album of romantic songs inside a chocolate heart.  Besides distribution, song lengths wildly varied, from songs that are normal 3-4 minutes long to one that tops 6 hours...and one that takes a full 24 hours to listen to because...yes, it's 24 hours long.  The following list are the best songs of this chaotic yet creatively productive period.

Here are the 11 Best Flaming Lips Songs (Post-Embryonic):

1. Is David Bowie Dying (With Neon Indian)
2. Speak To Me / Breathe (Dark Side of the Moon)
3. Drug Chart (Gummy Song Skull)
4. Helping the Retarded To Find God (The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends)
5. Eclipse (Dark Side of the Moon) 
6. Heavy Star Moving... (With Prefuse 73)
7. I'm Working At NASA on Acid (With Lightning Bolt)
8. Atlas Eets Christmas (With Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band) 
9. Evil Minds (StroboTrip)
10. Children of the Moon (The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends)
11. 7 Skies H3 (24 Hour Song Skull)

Buy The Flaming Lips' The Terror...now!!

The 11 Best Songs By Iron & Wine

If my poll tells me anything, it's that most of you out there still don't know anything about Record Store Day...or you just don't care about records.  That's okay.  But if you love music...you should know a little something about vinyl.  See, vinyl is an exact physical representation of the sound wave.  Currently, there isn't any other replay device out there that can match the pure sound that a vinyl record can emit.  If you want to hear a song exactly how it was intended...vinyl is the way to go.  Once a year (technically twice) the music companies release extremely limited albums only on vinyl.  Not just a handful.  This year, it's somewhere around 250 releases.  Everyone participates.  From David Bowie, Pink Floyd, and the Grateful Dead to The Cure, R.E.M., and Soundgarden, all the way to The xx, Grizzly Bear, and Iron & Wine.  Some of the records are remasters, some are re-issues, some are live, some are demos, some are green, some are splattered, some are clear, some are filled with liquid, some are new recordings, some are old, some have never been released....ever.  And it's the only time of the year that thousands of people line-up all over the globe (yes, it's international, too) to buy physical music.  Something worth getting excited about.

Here are the 11 Best Songs by Iron & Wine:

1. Jezebel (Woman King)
2. Trapeze Singer (In Good Company)
3. Rabbit Will Run (Kiss Each Other Clean)
4. Cinder And Smoke (Our Endless Numbered Days)
5. Woman King (Woman King)
6. Boy With A Coin (Shepard's Dog)
7. White Tooth Man (Shepard's Dog)
8. Upwards Over The Mountain (The Creek Drank The Cradle)
9. Swans and the Swimming (Our Endless Numbered Days)
10. Resurrection Fern (Shepard's Dog)
11. Arms of A Thief (Around The Well)

Buy Iron & Wine's new album, Ghost On Ghost now!