2010 Year in Review Playlist

Here's the CD that sums up the year. You guys are dropping like flies. Any volunteers to join the club? Anyway, hints to why these got picked:

1. Sushi / Kyle Andrews - Because you have to kick things off with an upbeat track. It was a year of whistling and hand claps and moments.

2. The Ghost Inside / Broken Bells - Hostels in Scandinavia, Danish festival goers, open windows and iPods. Dance party.

3. Crash Years / The New Pornographers - Try not singing along to this one.

4. Heaven Can Wait / Charlotte Gainsbourg - Sexiest woman alive and a break dance champ.

5. Sunlight / Harlem Shakes - How do I explain? "We won't dance, we won't sing, we won't talk" and a Williamsburg wedding ending in a tawdry parking lot.

6.I Wanna Go Surfing / The Drums - Because I really do want to go surfing.

7. Say La La / Keegan Dewitt - la la la la la la la la

8. Could You Please Crawl Out Your Window? / The Hold Steady - You gotta lotta nerve to say you are my friend if you won't come out your window. Also the crazy cover slot.

9. Out of Place / Slackstring - I am too old to go to festivals.

10. Fire & Water / Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes - Sometimes "heartbreaking" is the best adjective in the whole world. I want to park in a car and make out to this song. Maybe even with that trumpet player.

11. Congratulations / MGMT - Trippy and beautiful

12. Rollin' in the Deep / Adele - Motown lives. Sing it, girl.

13. In Sleep / Lissie Just hot. And it is no surprise that the singing reminds me of someone.

14. Aphorism / Collin Herring - I don't think he's from North Carolina; which makes this the first ever year-end mix without boys from NC represented. Wow. Yet, kinda, they still are.

15. Ahead of the Curve / Monsters of Folk - It isn't any trouble, if you want to come with me. I know it's out of the question, but I sure could use the company.

16. I'm Coming Home / Kathleen Braun Beautiful. Thank you, Robert.

17. Beauty in the World / Macy Gray Let's keep it real. Always.

18. Fafa / Vieux Farka Toure For my old transvestite friend from the L.E.S. and her immortal words.

Golden Ale, Summer-y Psychedelic Pop, and One Big Whale

Three things rocking my world right now:

1. Moby Dick by Herman Melville- Yes I am finally starting my March project, reading this rather large, rather famous book. It's worth the wait and I am sure I will have much more to say on the topic as I continue reading.

2. Oro de Calabaza Golden Ale by Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales- This is my go-to weekend beer ever since I discovered I could buy it locally (and on sale!) It is really a complicated-tasting beer with a nice sour taste. Jolly Pumpkin uses open fermentation and bottle conditioning to make some really great beers. They had them temporarily at our Whole Foods before they ran out and claimed that they couldn't get it anymore. It's great that a few local places carry it now, because it truly is a great beer to be experienced.

3. Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective- What can I say. I know this was a 2009 album, but I think it's going to carry me right through summer 2010. This album is absolutely infectious and it makes me unbelievably happy. I highly recommend it, if you need something a little different to carry you down the road with a smile on your face.

I've also become a slightly obsessed yoga-holic...but more on that later...

2009 in Review Playlist

Here's the CD that sums up the year. I got some flak for seeming too negative (this happened in 2007, too). So here's the inspiration behind the choices.

1. Secondhand News / Fleetwood Mac - If you weren't at SLC Baccanalia in 1999 to see the world's best FM cover band, well this choice probably makes no sense to you. If you were..? 2009 was not only the anniversary of Woodstock, people!

2. The Rising / Bruce Springsteen - The inauguration and the We Are One HBO concert. It was great and if you didn't see it you can only hope HBO does something with the license to all those great performances.

3. Midnight Train to Georgia / Gladys Knight - Sometimes you gotta choose: "if you'd rather live in his world, or live without him, in yours..."

4. Wild Wild Life / Talking Heads - Because I made it up to Seattle and got to renew an old friendship, thus leading to many, many, happy phone conversations.

5. Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong / Michael Franti and Spearhead - The feel good song of the summer might have been their hit, but this song is just fabulous.

6. Perfect Timing / Drive-by Truckers - It is like Dinosaur Jr., Neil Young, and Steve Earle mushed into one sound. Love it and had to put something on this year's playlist. "here I am again...perfect timing..."

7.Casino Queen / Wilco - Simple. Show at The Joint in Vegas. Played this song, just for me.

8. Like a Rolling Stone / Bob Dylan - Simple. Show at The Joint in Vegas. Played this song, like it had never been played before.

9. Different Drum / Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet - Because I randomly found their cover albums and they are like candy.

10. Helpless / Neil Young and The Band - Because of The Last Waltz. What else can I say? Go watch it again.

11. Sheena is a Punk Rocker / Ramones - Everyone needs to be schooled by Joey Ramones every once in a while. In 2009, I needed it.

12. Sentimental Heart / She & Him - I love, love, love She & Him. So, this is year 2 of inclusion on the playlist. Just a good sound.

13. The New Love Song / Joshua James - The new 2009 find for the sensitive boy singer slot. Catchy.

14. Niteclub / Old 97's - Because we are 2567 miles from Manhattan.

15. Take Me Home Country Roads / Jason and the Scorchers - The crazy cover song slot. I have been way into John Denver in the last half of 2009.

16. Kick Drum Heart / Avett Brothers - Added this one because it's happy and upbeat and I love the Avett boys.

17. True Love Will Never Fade / Mark Knopfler - A sweet cinematic song, lovely and a nice message to end the year with.

I'll Be Your Baby, Tonight

Bob Dylan (1965) / Richard Avedon
Originally uploaded by shihlun

Rock and roll lives.

Yes, Las Vegas is probably one of the worst places in the country to follow live music. The clubs are big and corporate. The fans are more concerned with pyrotechnics and celebrity sightings than what type of guitar the musician is playing. There is more security than Fort Knox. Beer is outrageously expensive and of course you can't smoke.

But, one thing Vegas does well, is throw money around and The Joint at the Hard Rock is nothing if not state-of-the-art. It's probably a treat for musicians to play at (though the huge plasma screen TVs are a downer for some), and the sound is an audiophile's dream come true.

So Bob came to town and we went to see him. We braved the high ticket prices, the pitfalls of parking, the crappy tap beer, and the iPhone maniacs trying to sneak videos all night long while big scary security guards shined flashlights in their faces. (Really adds to the mood, thanks guys!)

No stranger to Dylan concerts, loyal fans know that no Dylan show is the same as the last Dylan show you saw. Sometimes he's bluesy, sometimes he's kinda country, and other times he's just surly and never even shows his face to the audience. It's okay. He's a legend. He's allowed to do whatever the hell he wants.

But this concert was different. Dylan always reinvents his work in his live shows, rarely faithfully reproducing th hits the way some fans yearn for him to do. In fact, he seems to take some pleasure in remaking these songs from our subconscious into new and unfamiliar pieces that become less touchstone and more a nagging sense of deja vu. But Dylan outdid himself. He was back and he was, well, he was hot. I don't purely mean sexually alluring, although I am sure some in the audience were pleased to see him make some moves for a change. I mean that from the first note, the whole place was electrified and Dylan himself radiated, yeah, it looked like he was totally enjoying himself. Not only, did the band (including Charlie Sexton) rock, but Dylan rocked, the audience rocked, we all rocked. Together, like in the shared artistic experience that only live performance can provoke. It was Dylan covering Dylan and making the old new and the new new-er and remaking us as an audience in the process.

Of particular note, were the songs; Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat, Don't Think Twice It's Alright, Ballad of a Thin Man, Highway 61 Revisited, All Along the Watchtower, and a version of Like a Rolling Stone that was genius. (Yeah, the version you are thinking of is genius, but this reinterpretation was simply amazing. The song lost none of it's intellectual profundity, but gained teeth - and an unforgettable beat.)

The Las Vegas paper may have called Dylan's voice a "croak" and his fans the "middle-aged office crowd", but I prefer to go gentle on the ignorant journalists of this city (one mis-referenced the seminal Dylan album as Blonde AND Blonde). For us, as the brave, clever, lucky few that got to see Dylan this weekend, we saw an artist - at 68, no less - play one of the best shows of his career.

Shhhhh...it's a secret....Rock is not dead.

It just blew my mind.

Happy Inauguration Day!

How exciting to welcome in a new era! I'll be raising a glass as we try to look forward, with hope, to the future. The festivities and events have begun in Washington, D.C. and over the next few days I hope we can all enjoy the excitement of this historic event.

Just had to add that the HBO "We Are One" concert was absolutely amazing and awesome. And yes, Pete Seeger is totally my hero. And Garth Brooks ain't all bad, either! With a feel-good concert like this I can see why some are calling it Obama-stock!

Missing XM Radio X-Country Channel 12

So this month XM Radio merged with Sirius to form some hybrid mutation mega-satellite radio channel with new programs, added news content and Howard Stern. It took me a while to download the channel guides and decipher which channels changed names and numbers, and figure out where my personal favorites were repositioned.

What a shock it was to turn on my radio and see "Outlaw County" replacing my much-loved XM Channel 12, "X (Cross) Country. I quickly searched the dial to see where they relocated X-County, but lo and behold, it was gone. I looked up the guide for the new channel and saw that several of the same artists that I like were listed on the page (Steve Earle, Johnny Cash, David Allan Coe, etc.) and I thought I would give it a chance.

This past weekend I spent several days in the truck driving around California and had a chance to really listen to the music. This is a different channel altogether. First of all I noticed that there are radio "hosts" that actually make comments and talk a lot more than any of the folks on X-Country (Do I really need to listen to Shooter Jennings pontificate on the new kanye West and Guns and Roses albums? And then do I really need to listen to the new Guns and Roses track? No!).

Secondly, the music is different. One morning, on the way to work I heard one favorite (The Gourds version of "Gin and Juice") but the rest of the day I didn't hear much. I ended up listening to Bluegrass Junction instead. On the long weekend, my husband and I listened to the channel almost exclusively and as much as I like and respect Outlaw Country artists, this is not the same as alternative country. Gone are the songs by Uncle Tupelo and the whole No Depression movement. Gone is the wry, political music of Todd Snider and Jack Ingram. Gone is are the crossover artists that defy any classification like the Be Good Tanyas and Chip Taylor. Instead there seems to be a focus on playing "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother", in one weekend I heard it three times; not that it is a bad song...

I will greatly miss the shows that I grew to love. Especially "Rogue Calls" the call-in request show. I seriously could listen 24/7 to nothing but the request show because X-Country listeners had good taste! There is a reason why I subscribe to XM- and it is because people need a place to learn about new music. iTunes is not, and will never do this for me. I fill up my iPod with music I read about, or hear on X-County, through No Depression magazine, and through friends. Losing my beloved channel 12 is a sad, sad thing.

But, other folks have noticed and are upset, too.

Go to this web site to sign a petition to Bring Back XM Channel 12.

And this great blog post sums up what I've been thinking perfectly.

Come on XM/Sirius, don't alienate your users! Aren't there enough numbers on the dial for you to add in one more? Alternative country deserves it. Bring back X-Country and do it now!

The Magazine of Alt-Country (Whatever That Is)...Reborn

After the sad demise of No Depression, an independent publication that I love and respect, due to rising costs of publishing a paper-based, subscription-only periodical; I thought I might have to start listening to Top 40 or start researching what Celine Dion replacement was on their way to a three-year contract on the tawdry Vegas Strip...but no! Not only did No Depression transfer existing subscriptions to a surprisingly interesting mag called Paste, but they also vowed not to let down their loyal followers and to launch a new, sleek, yet satisfying online publication.

And they have delivered on the promise with the new, beautifully designed No Depression web site. Looks great and will save me from major withdrawal from good writing and new music. Check it out!

Watch This!

I'm Not There (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

by Todd Haynes

Maybe if you don’t recognize Bob Dylan as a singularly important musician and artist, then maybe you wouldn’t get much out of this film. But I sat down and thought about it and I don’t really take anyone’s opinion too seriously who falls in that category.

So, for the rest of you…Get this movie and watch it. It is so smart that you will ask yourself, what the heck have I been watching the whole rest of the time? The film asks a question and then proceeds to challenge you to answer it. Who was Dylan? Well, who do YOU think he was? The impact of your answer and everyone else’s answers makes up the meat of the film. Of course, the music is great and the acting is awesome. Cate Blanchett is incredible and the movie is worth seeing just for her performance. Mostly, I think people should see movies, every once in a while, that mess a bit with your head and stick with you. I’m Not There is one of the rare films that fits the bill.

See more about I'm Not There (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

Rocking Out with the Old Crow Medicine Show

So, as most of you know, I complain a lot about living in Las Vegas. But this post is not going to say one darn bad thing about Sin City because I got to see one of my most favorite bands in the entire world live for the first time, right here!

Last night was the show, and after calling all the hard core bluegrass junkies I know (unlike Denver, in Vegas that is basically two people), we made plans to meet at the Canyon Club at the Four Queens Resort and Casino on Fremont Street.

We walked around the casino, but we weren't in the mood for slots, so the club itself seemed like the nicest place to be. We settled into a table and ordered dinner and beer. Lots of beer. The place was dead for the first hour we waited at the bar before the show, so we got primo seats with a great view of the stage. There was this slightly crazy cocktail waitress that waited on our table and kept asking us repeatedly every time she brought our beers, "Are you mad at me?"

It was merely odd at first. Then, I got some cash out at the ATM (in Vegas your choices are $5000, $2000, $1000, or $500 at a time- unless you try hard to find the $20 screen. Even so, I still never get used to the fact that if you ask for $100 you get one bill) and I paid for a round of drinks. The waitress took 30 minutes to come back with my change! I think she honestly thought she might just "tip herself" with that big bad Benjamin. She couldn't have been too bright though, people in a club in Vegas who choose to drink Pabst Blue Ribbon are not the types to forget about their change!

At 8:00 the lights dimmed and the band came on. They started off with "Big Time in the Jungle", which got the crowd going strong right out of the shoot. Then they played a bunch of new songs and hits like "Down Home Girl" and "Tell It to Me". I think they were jazzed on playing in Vegas and kept riffing on the casino/Vegas/Gram Parsons theme during the between-song banter. They played two full sets and it was obvious after the first break, that they would be going out with a full on bluegrass mosh pit. These guys could ROCK! With the exception of a couple Modest Mouse shows deep in my memory, I have never seen a band play so fast! It was awesome.

The place was packed after the intermission with all varieties of rocks root weirdos, alternative cowpunks, and crunchy granola types. Where did these people come from? It's not like you seen these folks on the Strip or shopping at Prada! Apparently, they might have all been from out of state because Aaron determined that the couple next to us flew all the way from Billings, MT just to see the show.

So, bottom line is that I have satisfied one of my life goals by hearing "Wagon Wheel" performed live and I actually had a really fabulous time hanging out with friends in Las Vegas. Amazing. If you haven't been here before, I highly recommend Fremont Street. It is the Strip alternative and it is the Old Vegas. The Canyon Club was a good venue, the tickets were affordable, and the band was in fine form. Yes, I bought a t-shirt to commemorate my first OCMS performance and it is a gem! (Plus, I had a lovely hangover today, as an additional souvenir)

What are you waiting for? Go download some music!

Just a Thought

Is it just me or is Elton John the single most over-used artist when it comes to soundtrack music? I swear the last three movies and at least two or three TV programs have featured various tunes by the guy. What exactly does "Bennie and the Jets" trigger in our collective unconscious?

BTW...I just finished watching the movie adaptation of Augusten Burrough's memoir Running With Scissors, which I highly recommend if you don't mind your comedy a bit dark.Here's the synopsis from the library (it's a bit hard to describe):

Running with scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her unorthodox psychiatrist who bore a striking resemblance to Santa Claus. The story of an outlaw childhood where rules were unheard of, and the Christmas tree stayed up all year round, where Valium was consumed like candy and if things got dull an electroshock-therapy machine could provide entertainment. The funny, harrowing and bestselling account of an ordinary boy's survival under the most extraordinary circumstances.

I'll keep pondering the Elton John thing while I reserve a couple of Burroughs' other books from the library....

Currently playing

Big Iron World

by Old Crow Medicine Show

I thought my love affair with the Old Crows was going to be passionately centered on their first album forever.

It was love at first sight (listen) when I intially heard Wagon Wheel driving home from Madison on a snowy night, and to this day that song makes me weak! On Big Iron World, I feel the same way about James River Blues...can it get any better? This music conjures walking dirt roads in the South, closing bars you shouldn't be in while drinking Old Grandad bourbon, new shiny belt buckles, and basically the whole populist history of the country. I don't know how I ever lived without it and this love affair just keeps getting better!

Why radio is better than the iPod

1927 Radio
Originally uploaded by YlvaS.

I think satellite radio is the neatest thing since sliced bread. I know...you already have cable, and Netflix, and a cell phone, and a iPod. What do you need to pay another monthly fee for?

Well I like radio better than my iPod. In fact, I never even wanted an iPod. I had an iRiver Mp3 player first and I would have stuck with that except it was no longer being supported. Even now that I've been seduced by my lovely 30 Gig sleek little iPod (Best Buy exchange for the outdated iRiver), I can' get into the whole iTunes thing, and the massive cult-like assault of iPod accesories. Maybe the problem is that there is just too much "I" in all of the Mp3 player crap.

A while back I read an article in the Utne Magazine entitled, "Hell is Other iPods: the aural loneliness of the long-distance shuffler". It is a great article about how the iPod culture isolates us from each other and I have to say I totally agree.

"In an age of atomization and social fragmentation it reinforces solipsism and places the individual and that dreaded value "choice" at the heart of experience; it suggests connection -- always the implicit promise of the digital age -- while enforcing separation; it encourages people to "tune out" while they're occupying social space with others, as if the others were mere irritations; and it reduces the experience of music, which in my view is an inherently social and collaborative art and medium, to a preselected relationship with the self."

I love radio and I love tuning into local stations as I drive long miles across the country. I love to hear oldies, farm reports, local weather, and regional accents. I even love the seredipity of coming across a song that you would never download onto your iPod for the shame of it...the guilty pleasure song! You can't really embrace the guilty pleasure when you are confined to your ultra-cool and masterfully selected iPod collection.

True, satellite radio is a sadder substitute to what the ideal would be for real radio. But I defend it. I actually get turned onto new artists. I actually listen to things outside my normal comfort zone. And I can get NPR anywhere, anytime. I can even eavesdrop on the trucker's channel. It rocks. And it rocks because it makes me feel less alone.

So maybe I'm not sharing mix tapes as much as I used to. Maybe I like being able to download one track at a time from an online retailer. And I am addicted to the Shuffle button- I admit it! But it doesn't substitute for that first joyous glimmer of recognition, that feeling of "what is this and where can I get a copy?" It's discovery; closely followed by the need to share with everyone you know. So I am going to keep my radio subscription and keep listening to Jack Ingram's American Music hour on XM radio religiously. I will also keep listening to Prairie Home Companion. And I do check in to Last.fm when I get a chance. Because music should really be doing more than filling the time. it should be bringing people together.

In the words of Nanci Griffith, "When you can't find a friend, you've still got the radio..."

Papa Was a Rodeo

Rodeo Guys Support Rodeo Gals
Originally uploaded by amiev.

The Kelly Hogan and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts reference is to a great song written by Stephen Merritt (Magnetic Fields) that I highly recommend and before you get bored with the name-dropping, self-referential nonsense--I declare that I do have a point!

For the first time in seven months, for the first time since I moved to Las Vegas...I finally feel at home. And this is all due to the fact that it is Rodeo Time. Most Las Vegans dread this time of year as a mess of parking snafus and aromatic odors. But not me! The National Finals Rodeo takes place right on the UNLV campus, literally in the athletic fields across from the library and I LOVE it. There are cowboy hats spotted all over the place, the billboards advertise Jack Daniels, and there are horses and cows within in spitting distance of my parking spot. It is great.

Maybe it was growing up in Denver with the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo every winter, or having horses as a teenager, or maybe it is just that the best and most interesting musical acts since Vegoose are here in town, but I am totally digging it. Last Friday I went and saw Shooter Jennings at the Hard Rock and Jack Ingram did two nights at Mandalay Bay's House of Blues.Even more exciting: there is cheap beer in every casino and the dress codes include jeans. So, I thought I would share my joy and say: "Long live the Rodeo!" I can't wait until next year, I am going to get front row tickets!