quoperative

Today I tried a little experiment with the amazingly simple Nicecast.  Can you say a little pirate radio? Here’s the result and the setlist:

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• (Intro) Surfin’ Blues (Part 2) – Al Casey
• Just Wanna Rock – Gorilla
• The Rocker – Thin Lizzy
• The Sun Goes All Around – Thee Oh Sees
• Ruby D – Les Sexareenos
• Bummer – Jeff the Brotherhood
• Rave ‘n’ Rock – Daddy Maxfield
• Frankie – D Generation
• Sheena’s Back – Nick Curran and the Low Lifes
• Get Found – Bass Drum of Death
• Powerman – The Kinks

Thank you and goodnight.

The intertubes provided the separated tracks from one of the Stones’ most iconic songs (and recordings) of all time. I took those and built a little player that lets you turn each individual track on and off while you listen.  Don’t like Charlie’s drums? Turn them off. Want to hear only the lead guitar? Turn everything else off.  Want to hear Mick tell Keith to go f**k himself when he flubs a note? Sorry, that’s not on this recording… or any recording that I’m aware of.

But seriously, I love the little imperfections. Just goes to show how unimportant it is to deliver a 100% flawless performance.  The little mistakes give it life.

And around the 3:00 minute mark if you isolate the two vocal tracks you can hear Merry Clayton’s voice crack (twice)… that just gives me chills. Immediately after Mick cries “Whoo!”.  Damn right, Mick.

J Roddy Walston and the Business (courtesy Codaphoto)

A bit late for a proper end-of-year list, but who really cares?  It’s all about the music, man.  This notion of “time” and your “social constructs” about “punctuality” and “appropriately-timed blog posts” are totally killing my vibe, dude. Don’t be a buzzkill, bro.

Something worth noting… I decided to shelf my CD collection and digitized the whole thing in late 2009 and early 2010.  Now I’ve got my whole music collection in iTunes and a buttload of shelf space got freed up in the apartment.  Double whammy! As a result, none (okay ONE) of these picks were bought on CD.  I’m 100% off the silver platters — I’m only buying music on iTunes and on vinyl.

So without further ado, here are my top 10… 11… 12… 13 (!) for the year.  As always, most (but not all) were released in the calendar year of 2010 and they’re in no particular order other than the order my brain retrieves them from my memory or iTunes happens to play one of them while I’m racking my mind to remember more than 6 albums I bought last year.

Let’s hear your top picks in the comments…

1. Black Keys – Brothers (Nonesuch)
   Obviously.
2. The Muggs – On With the Show (self-released)
   Released in 2008. “Just Another Fool” just might have been my “song du year” if it weren’t for this next one…
3. J Roddy Walston and The Business – S/T (Vagrant)
   I know I said these picks are posted in no order but this is hands down my album of the year and “Full Growing Man” is one HELLUVA track. Seeing these guys for the 2nd time at SXSW next month!
4. Hacienda – Big Red & Barbacoa (Alive Naturalsound)
   These guys were Dan Auerbach’s band on his solo album… and this year they did a great album of their own.  Think Tex-Mex Beach Boys.
5. Quest for Fire – Lights from Paradise (Tee Pee)
   Saw them last year at SXSW and was sold from the first fuzzed-out wall of guitar riffs.  Awesome record.
6. The Greenhornes – **** (Third Man)
   Back with a fresh platter after going 10 years since their last record, this one’s a lot deeper and more mature than their first three LPs.
7. Blitzen Trapper – Destroyer of the Void (Sub Pop)
8. Nashville Pussy – From Hell to Texas (Steamhammer)
   Named after a 1958 flick with Dennis Hopper… which is pretty bad ass. Engineered and mixed by transplanted Texan Canuck Gordie Johnson for a bit of a cleaner, stripped down and — dare I say — more mature sound.
9. Smith Westerns – S/T (Fat Possum)
   Noisy punk rock (or punky noise rock?) by teenagers… which is the only way you can properly make this kind of music.
10. Black Mountain – Wilderness Heart (Jagjaguwar)
    You’ve probably heard “The Hair Song” on your local “alternative” radio station. I saw these guys in November and daaaaamn was it loud. Even with my fancy ear plugs!
11. The Black Crowes – Before the Frost/Until the Freeze (Silver Arrow)
    I’m late to the party on this one and admit that I’ve never really been a huge Crowes fan… but this double album recorded off-the-floor at Levon Helm’s farm in front of a live audience is simply u-n-b-e-l-i-e-v-a-b-l-e.  I have huge new respect for these guys.
12. C’Mon – Beyond the Pale Horse (Independent)
    Classic, classic stuff from the grandfather of Canadian hard rawk (no, not Neil Young…) Sir Ian Blurton.  Just found out that “Mirrors”, probably the best track on the record, is on the soundtrack for that new Roommate movie.  Here’s hoping all the Gossip Girl fans start buying C’Mon records.
13. Johnny Thunders & Wayne Kramer – Gang War (Jungle)

The story behind “Gang War” (pick #13)…

I consider myself a pretty huge Dolls and MC5 fan so the fact that this one had remained under my radar until just a few months back kind of blows my mind.  In the early 80s, with Kramer fresh out of jail and Johnny Thunders still miraculously able to stand up despite being so strung out, these two legends (IMHO) briefly formed a supergroup (also IMHO) to a) get their rocks off and b) make some much needed coin.  From the sounds of it, their attempts to record and tour quickly went south with Thunders’ addiction making pretty much everything involved with playing in a band impossible.  Even still, they did manage to record some shows and even a few demo tracks.  This release is a mix of two of their shows along with some of those demos and is pretty much smack dab in the middle of the Heartbreakers and the MC5 as far as the sound goes. The guitar inter-play between these two guys is great and even with Johnny teetering on passing out the whole time he can still rip it up pretty good. Kramer’s “The Harder They Come” (which appears both live and as a studio cut) is just a straight-up great rock song.

So ends my 2010 picks… shoot me your picks in the comments!