The 11 Best Death Cab For Cutie Songs of the 00s

The one harsh reality about illegal downloading is the songwriter really does get screwed.  I don't feel bad for the record labels that much.  They've ripped off the customers for years and fucked over the artists even more.  Labels are nothing more than bully distributors who charge a ridiculously large fee for use of their toll roads.  The internet killed the label's monopoly over the rivers of distribution.  Now any one can be bought and sold, and they don't need a poorly-structured contract to do that.  Bands really do deserve our money.  They spend months, even years, creating music for our pleasure and they ask for so little in return.  Especially now that two big releases this week are selling for a meager $5 (Death Cab & MMJ), that's really just some spare pocket change for two of the best albums of the year.

Here are the 11 Best Death Cab For Cutie Songs of the 00s:

1.  I Will Follow You Into the Dark (Plans)
2.  Title Track (We Have The Facts)
3.  Soul Meets Body (Plans)
4.  Title and Registration (Transatlanticism)
5.  405 (We Have The Facts)
6.  The Sound Of Settling (Transatlanticism)
7.  Someday You Will Be Loved (Plans)
8.  Grapevine Fires (Narrow Stairs)
9.  Why You'd Want To Live Here (The Photo Album)
10.  Marching Bands of Manhattan (Plans)
11.  Bixby Canyon Bridge (Narrow Stairs)

Buy Death Cab For Cutie's new album, Codes and Keys now.  (Only $5 for a limited time)

The 11 Best Songs By Pedro The Lion

This week, the media is pushing the biggest music release of the year…the new Lady Gaga album.  Is this the biggest release of the year…or is it the biggest release because the media is calling this the biggest release?  Sure, Gaga has stuck like lightning and been everywhere…and sold millions of albums in a dead market.  That certainly makes her marketable…but how much of it is based on actual merit and how much of the hype is specifically manufactured?  Gaga’s music is okay for what it is.  But how did she become this uber-star.  To me she is style over substance.

This outrageous dress is nothing new for pop/rock music.  David Bowie, Elton John, Kiss, Gwar have all been there and done that. But they had real solid music behind their glamour.  If you stripped everything away from Bowie and just left him with a mic and guitar, he could perform.  Elton and a piano could blow you out of the water.  I haven’t seen Gaga do anything without 50 dancers and lip sync track.  At a certain point your bite needs to be stronger than your bite.  Maybe Gaga will last…maybe she will be one of the greats.  But when real musicians are out there bleeding their souls on stage to entertain us, it’s hard for me to take an artist like Gaga seriously when people talk more about the sexual innuendos in her outfit than the quality of her music.  At least people are talking about her...even me.

On that note, get the new Lady Gaga album for only .99 cents.  Today only.  Yeah, I’m a whore.

Here Are the 11 Best Songs By Pedro The Lion:

1.  Simple Economics (Winners Never Quit)
2.  Rapture (Control)
3.  Penetration (Control)
4.  A Mind of Her Own (Winners Never Quit)
5.  When They Really Get To Know You (It's Hard To Find A Friend)
6.  Magazine (Control)
7.  Start Without Me (Achilles Heel)
8.  I Am Always The One Who Calls (The Only Reason I Feel Secure)
9.  Never Leave A Job Half Done (Winners Never Quit)
10.  Of Minor Prophets and Their Prostitute Wives (It's Hard To Find A Friend) 
11.  Big Trucks (It's Hard To Find A Friend)

Buy David Bazan's new solo album, Strange Negotiations.

The 11 Best Songs By She Wants Revenge

The last Oprah to women is like the last Seinfeld to men.  Both shows had the power to get people to look at their lives in entirely new ways that transformed our lives.  Men do like Oprah but watch it to understand or appease the women in their life.  Women liked Seinfeld because it helped them figure out what they hell their boyfriends were doing.  Oprah inspired people to school and college and make better people of themselves.  Seinfeld inspired people to bring lip-readers or Korean speakers to places to discover if people were talking about them.  It taught you how to behave in a soup line or how to remember the names of the women who watched Oprah whose names rhymed with a female body part.  Most importantly, both shows got to the root of what everyone thinks deep down inside and let us know that we all are thinking the same things...but we may not have the courage to fight our inner addictions or know how to wear a puffy shirt.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By She Wants Revenge:

1.  These Things (She Wants Revenge)
2.  Tear You Apart (She Wants Revenge)
3.  It's Just Begun (This Is Forever)
4.  Sugar (Save Your Soul)
5.  I Don't Want To Fall In Love (She Wants Revenge)
6.  Broken Promises For Broken Hearts (She Wants Revenge)
7.  Hazy Shade of Winter (Christmas Single)
8.  Walking Away (This Is Forever)
9.  Out of Control (She Wants Revenge)
10.  Replacement (This Is Forever)
11.  Red Flags (She Wants Revenge)

Buy She Wants Revenge's new album, Valleyheart...now!!!

The 111 Best Songs By Bob Dylan

Happy 70th birthday, Bob!  Thanks for all the great tunes.

Here are the 111 Best Songs by Bob Dylan:

1. Hurricane (Desire)

2. Don't Think Twice, It's Alright (Freewheelin' Bob Dylan)

3. My Back Pages (Another Side of Bob Dylan)

4. It Ain't Me Babe (Another Side of Bob Dylan)

5. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (Bringing It All Back Home)

6. Lay, Lady, Lay (Nashville Skyline)

7. Knockin' On Heaven's Door (Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid)

8. Masters of War (Freewheelin' Bob Dylan)

9. A Hard Rain's A-Going Fall (Freewheelin' Bob Dylan)

10. With God On Our Side (The Times They Are A-Changin')

11. Like a Rolling Stone (Highway 61 Revisited)

12. Things Have Changed (Wonder Boys Soundtrack)

13. Tangled Up In Blue (Blood on the Tracks)

14. Wedding Song (Planet Waves)

15. Ballad of a Thin Man (Highway 61 Revisited)

16. Stuck Inside of Memphis with the Mobile Blues (Blonde on Blonde)

17. Baby, Let Me Follow You Down (Bob Dylan)

18. I Want You (Blonde on Blonde)

19. Desolation Row (Highway 61 Revisited)

20. Precious Angel (Slow Train Coming) 

21. The Times They Are A-Changin' (The Times They Are A-Changin')

22. Tombstone Blues (Highway 61 Revisited)  

23. You Ain't Going Nowhere (Basement Tapes)

24. Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest (John Wesley Harding)

25. Bob Dylan's Dream (Freewheelin' Bob Dylan)

26. Simple Twist of Fate (Blood on the Tracks)

27. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll (The Times They Are A-Changin')

28. Only A Pawn in Their Game (The Times They Are A-Changin')

29. Absolutely Sweet Marie (Blonde on Blonde)

30.  Subterranean Homesick Blues (Bringing It All Back Home)

31. All Along the Watchtower (John Wesley Harding)

32. Love Sick (Time Out of Mind)

33. North Country Blues (The Times They Are A-Changin')

34. You're No Good (Bob Dylan)

35. Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands (Blonde on Blonde)

36. Tonight, I'll Be Staying Here With You (Nashville Skyline)

37. Blowin' In The Wind (Freewheelin' Bob Dylan)

38. Girl From North Country (Freewheelin' Bob Dylan/Nashville Skyline)

39. Maggie's Farm (Bringing It All Back Home)

40. Visions of Johanna (Blonde on Blonde)

41. Dignity (Greatest Hits 3)

42. Just Like A Woman (Blonde on Blonde)

43. One More Night (Nashville Skyline)

44. Most of the Time (Oh, Mercy)

45. He Was a Friend Of Mine (Bootleg Series Volume 1)

46. Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts (Blood on the Tracks)

47. Bob Dylan's 115th Dream (Bringing It All Back Home)

48. Boots of Spanish Leather (The Times They Are A-Changin')

49.  You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Blood on the Tracks)

50. Most Likely You'll go Your Way and I'll Go Mine (Biograph)

51. Going To Alcapulco (Basement Tapes)

52. Love Minus Zero/No Limit (Bringing It All Back Home)

53. Jokerman (Infidels)

54. Not Dark Yet (Time Out of Mind)

55. Political World (Oh, Mercy)

56. Highway 61 Revisited (Highway 61 Revisited)

57. Mississippi (Love and Theft)

58. Idiot Wind (Blood on the Tracks)

59. Quinn The Eskimo (Self Portrait)

60. One More Cup of Coffee (Desire)

61. It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train To Cry (Highway 61 Revisited)

62. Going Going Gone (Planet Waves)

63. The Ballad of Hollis Brown (The Times They Are A-Changin')

64. Shelter From The Storm (Blood on the Tracks)

65. Honest With Me (Love and Theft)

66. All I Really Want To Do (Another Side of Bob Dylan)

67. Changing of the Guards (Street Legal)

68. When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky (Empire Burlesque)

69. Fixin' To Die (Bob Dylan)

70. Forever Young (Planet Waves)

71. You're a Big Girl Now (Blood on the Tracks)

72. If You Ever Go To Houston (Together Through Life)

73. Million Dollar Bash (Basement Tapes) 

74. Highlands (Time Out of Mind)

75. On A Night Like This (Planet Waves)

76. Lily of the West (Dylan)

77. Tell Me That It Isn't True (Nashville Skyline)

78. Just Like Tom Thumb Blues (Highway 61 Revisited)

79. She Belongs to Me (Bringing It All Back Home)

80. Highway 51 Blues (Bob Dylan)

81. I'll Remember You (Empire Burlesque)

82. As I Went Out One Morning (John Wesley Harding)

83. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (John Wesley Harding)

84. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (Bob Dylan)

85. Sweetheart Like You (Infidels)

86. Nobody 'Cept You (Bootleg Series Volume 2)

87. Standing In The Doorway (Time Out of Mind)

88. Covenant Woman (Saved)

89. Mozambique (Desire)

90. To Ramona (Another Side of Bob Dylan)

91. If You See Her, Say Hello (Blood on the Tracks)

92. In Search of Little Sadie (Self Portrait) 

93. Sara (Desire)

94. Blackjack Davey (Good As I Been To You)

95. Thunder On the Mountain (Modern Times)

96. Chimes of Freedom (Another Side of Bob Dylan)

97. Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee (Love and Theft)

98. Emotionally Yours (Empire Burlesque)

99. Series of Dreams (Bootleg Series Volume 3)

100. Tears of Rage (Basement Tapes)

101. If Not for You (New Morning)

102. Talkin' World War III Blues (Freewheelin' Bob Dylan)

103. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? (Biograph)

104. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) - (Bringing It All Back Home)

105. World Gone Wrong (World Gone Wrong)

106. From A Buick 6 (Highway 61 Revisited)

107. I Shall Be Free (Freewheelin' Bob Dylan)

108. I Threw It All Away (Nashville Skyline)

109. Caribbean Wind (Biograph)

110. Buckets of Rain (Blood on the Tracks)

111. Ain't Talkin' (Modern Times)

This is a re-post...with some slight changes.

The 11 Best Albums by Danger Mouse

One of the signs that a band or artist is truly unique is if it is impossible to cover their songs and do the material justice.  Artists like Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Guns N Roses, even the Beastie Boys have such distinct styles that are so-intricately infused with their personalities that is it virtually impossible for another artist to come along and mirror that originality.  I think this is a sign of a truly great artist.  To create your own voice that is so distinct, you know a song or a voice the instant you hear it.  Today’s pop music is so bland, that there is no difference between the artists.  The singers are interchangeable with the music.  Lady Gaga could swap songs with Justin Bieber and there would be no difference in the quality of the recordings.  Even an artist like Danger Mouse that doesn’t even sing, has a style so unique and distinct, his vision is felt on every song he touches, proving that being original still matters.

Here are the 11 Best albums by Danger Mouse:

1.      Jay-Z/The Beatles - The Grey Album

2.      Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere

3.      Danger Mouse and Jemini - Ghetto Pop Life

4.      Beck - Modern Guilt

5.      Gorillaz - Demon Days

6.      The Black Keys - Attack and Release

7.      Sparklehorse and Danger Mouse - Dark Night of the Soul

8.      Martina Topley-Bird - The Blue God

9.      The Good, The Bad, & The Queen - The Good, The Bad, and the Queen

10.  Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple

11.  Danger Doom - The Mouse and the Mask

Buy Danger Mouse & Danielle Luppi's new album, ROME.  now!!


Fun Fact:  In 2006, Danger Mouse and famed  graffiti artist, Bansky, secretly replaced 500 copies of Paris Hilton’s dance album “Paris” on record shelves with a mock album featuring one 40-minute song filled with Paris Hilton sound bites.

The 11 Best Songs By The Elected

Today at work the TV was on behind me.  I was loosely listening while doing my real work.  I heard a singer come on the TV.  It sounded like they were talking about American Idol.  But the singer on the TV sounded like a joke...like it was someone spoofing an American Idol singer.  And I wasn't the only one in the room thinking that.  In fact, it was a finalist for American Idol.  It was the country guy.  He was horrible.  I don't even get American Idol anymore.  It just pisses me off that this is what passes for music today.

I heard Beavis and Butthead are returning this fall.  Hopefully it's not too late, maybe they can actually save this generation.

Here Are the 11 Best Songs By The Elected:

1.  Not Going Home (Sun, Sun, Sun)
2.  7th September 2003 (Me First)
3.  Would You Come With Me (Sun, Sun, Sun)
4.  Greetings In Braille (Me First)
5.  It Was Love (Sun, Sun, Sun)
6.  Sun, Sun, Sun (Sun, Sun, Sun)
7.  Waves (Me First)
8.  My Baby's A Dick (Me First)
9.  Desiree (Sun, Sun, Sun)
10.  San Francisco Via Chicago Blues (Lagniappe)
11.  The Bank and Trust (Sun, Sun, Sun)

Buy The Elected's new album, Bury Me In My Rings, now!!!

The 11 Best Songs By Moby of the 00s

In the 90s, Moby was a stud.  He basically owned the underground club scene, re-inventing rave culture with every new release.  Then in the mid-90s, when rave culture crept into the mainstream dance clubs, Moby dominated with his epic release after release.  He ruled soundtracks and scores, even re-imagining the iconic James Bond theme.  He had one misstep with his ill-advised rock album...but even that produced a college radio hit with the cover of "That's When I Reach For My Revolver."  Moby left the decade on top with is critical and mainstream masterpiece, Play.

The 00s were more miss and less hit for Moby.  After Eminem's dissing of Moby for really no reason, Moby struggled to recapture the rabid audience he used to have.  But like his earlier career, he never settled with one specific sound.  He was all over the map, experimenting with new sounds, old sounds, and everything in between.  And what I loved most about Moby is how with each new album, he would release a companion album, filled with either new music or re-interpretations of the album.  Hotel and Wait For Me had ambient albums to accompany them.  18 had a b-sides album and Last Night featured a Remixed album.  Though this decade was much quieter for Moby, he made just as much noise as he ever had.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Moby of the 00s:

1.  Sunday (The Day Before My Birthday) - (18)
2.  At Least We Tried (18)
3.  Raining Again (Hotel)
4.  Shot In The Back of the Head (Wait For Me)
5.  Lift Me Up (Hotel)
6.  Extreme Ways (18)
7.  Everyday It's 1989 (Last Night)
8.  Where You End (Hotel)
9.  Mistake (Wait For Me)
10.  In This World (18)
11.  Disco Lies (Last Night)

Buy Moby's new album, Destroyed, now!!

The 11 Best Songs By Ben Harper of the 90s

On another note from my car trip this weekend, I've been exploring the numerous XM/Sirius stations that come free with my new car for three months.  I noticed that there are about 25-30 rock stations but only about 5 pop stations.  With the constant media announcements that rock is dead, why would you have so many stations playing rock if no one wants to hear it?  This is just another of the long list of examples of the disconnect between what the record industry is pushing down our throats and what we actually want to listen to.  America crowds around the TV to watch American Idol and vote on their favorites...then as soon as it's over, they switch the channel to their favorite classic rock station.  I'm not suggesting there should be an American Rock Idol...the exact opposite actually.  You can't manufacture music.  It doesn't work.  There's a reason people return to rock music.  There's something real and authentic to it.  There's a real connection to it.        People love American Idol for the competition aspect...not the music.  If people truly love the singers...Clay Aiken would have been the next Michael Jackson...not the next Mike Reno.

Real musical artists have real careers.  Twenty years into his career, Ben Harper shows no signs of slowing down.  And he didn't need to win a popularity contest to be successful.

Here Are the 11 Best Songs By Ben Harper of the 90s:

1.  Another Lonely Day (Fight For Your Mind)

2.  Glory & Consequence (The Will To Live)

3.  Oppression (Fight For Your Mind)

4.  Widow of a Living Man (The Will To Live)

5.  Burn One Down (Fight For Your Mind)

6.  Jah Work (The Will To Live)

7.  Burn To Shine (Burn To Shine)

8.  By My Side (Fight For Your Mind)

9.  Will To Live (The Will To Live)

10.  Forever (Welcome To The Cruel World)

11.  God Fearing Man (Fight For Your Mind)

Buy Ben Harper's new album, Give Til It's Gone...now!!

The 11 Best Songs By Manchester Orchestra

This should have come out last week if not for Blogger's two-day hiatus.

Took a long road trip this weekend.  Started to grade music on a new scale.  The road trip scale.

I was surprised by how many of my favorite albums are not the most enjoyable to listen to while I'm driving a car.  Actually, I found myself skipping rapidly through them to get the songs I wanted to hear while avoiding the songs that were quickly putting me to sleep.  And this isn't a knock at mellow albums, I still found the melodic pace of the xx and Bon Iver to be quite entertaining.  The Cure's Wish was outstanding.  But while listening to a lot of my favorite albums, I found very little about them that I actually liked.  I struggled through DM's Some Great Reward, DCFC's Narrow Stairs, and The Killers Hot Fuss.  Oddly, I made it through Brandon Flowers solo album without skipping once.

Maybe some albums are just made with a different pace in mind.  Or maybe my frame of mind was in a different place.  Machester Orchestra's new album kept pace with me on my two-day fourteen hour trip...so they must be doing something right.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Manchester Orchestra:

1.  Wolves at Night (I'm Like A Virgin Losing A Child)
2.  Shake It Out (Mean Everything To Nothing)
3.  In My Teeth (Mean Everything To Nothing)
4.  Alice and Interiors (I'm Like A Virgin Losing A Child)
5.  The Only One (Mean Everything To Nothing)
6.  Where Have You Been? (I'm Like A Virgin Losing A Child)
7.  Everything To Nothing (Mean Everything To Nothing)
8.  Anne Louise (Fourteen Years of Excellence)
9.  This Neighborhood Is Bleeding (I'm Like A Virgin Losing A Child)
10.  Sleeper 1972 (I'm Like A Virgin Losing A Child)
11.  I Was A Lid (Let My Pride Be What's Left Behind)

Buy Manchester Orchestra's new album, Simple Math, now!!

The 11 Best Songs By The Antlers

I feel like there are two kinds of companies out there.  Companies who get it and companies who don’t.  I saw a news blurb about Google, who is out testing a driverless car.  That’s some awesome forward thinking.  On the other end, we have Warner Brothers.  WB doesn’t stream any of its movies for Netflix because they’re idiots and haven’t realized that streaming is the present while DVDs are the past.  But WB has their collective heads so far up their asses that they don’t even understand the DVD market.  On all WB DVDs they have 18 minutes of trailers.  18 minutes!!  And you can’t skip through this crap.  You have to watch the whole thing to get to the main menu.  That’s annoying the first time.  It’s worse if you take the DVD out of the player, because when you put it back in you have to re-watch the trailers a second time.  That happened to me last night.  I went to finish watching Matt Damon’s Hereafter.  After the first trailer, I didn’t have the patience to pursue watching it, so I took it out, sent it back and picked out a new movie on streaming.  Way to go, WB.  Your douche bag techniques drove me away from your product to someone else’s.  Congratulations for being giant idiots.

Here are the 11 Best Songs by the Antlers:

1.  Kettering (Hospice)
2.  Two (Hospice)
3.  The Universe Is Going To Catch You (In The Attic of the Universe)
4.  Bear (Hospice)
5.  Stairs To The Attic (In The Attic of the Universe)
6.  Sylvia (Hospice)
7.  Nashua (Uprooted) 
8.  Shiva (Hospice)
9.  In the Snow (In The Attic of the Universe)
10.  Keys (Uprooted)
11.  Uprooted (Uprooted)

Buy the Antlers new album, Burst Apart, now!!