Just a reminder that this thursday the 7th is the cd club at my house ........I assume that you are all still coming , please let me know if you cannot make it....

though a part of me wants to reach for the standard laissez-faire axioms that imply a sophisticated attitude of economic realism in the face of group sentimentality--they didn't make any attempt to adapt their business to their changing market, they should have seen the writing on the wall, etc.--i must confess: i'm sad to hear of sam's demise.

i used to enjoy their saturday morning door-crasher sales and cursed the fact that i rarely had a chance to do the boxing day sales thing (stupid family holiday commitments). what i remember most about record shopping at sam the record man in the mid to late 1980s was not so much the records that i bought but the records that i longed to buy and couldn't because i was only a teenager with a part-time job and limited disposable cash. i always enjoyed flipping through a band's ouevre, pulling out the occassional japanese import or marvelling at the coloured vinyl records featuring interviews of the band. when i did make a purchase, it was only after an hour of making my way through the entire pop alphabet, and at least another half hour of gut-wrenching decision-making.

as for the future, agree that it's just a matter of time before the hmvs of the world reformat or go away entirely. it's likely that any music buyer interested in physical media will have some option to create customized discs of music available in digital form or even load up memory sticks from a selection of songs from a kiosk (like starbucks began doing a few years ago in select stores in the los angeles area). the days of retailers holding onto large or any quantities of music, on the off-chance that passersby may stroll in to browse or even buy their wares is long gone.

and while searching through an online database of downloadable music is so convenient, there's something to be said for communal inconvenience of standing in a crowded, poorly renovated (in the mid-1990s, sam's must have redesigned their store a half dozen times, to little improvement of traffic flow or navigation) and picking out a treasure to take home.

also with the past, as you may well know, it was 40 years ago today that a certain album was released by a certain band. i recall reading all the articles in 1987 that began with a quote from the first two lines from the opening song on this album and thinking, "in 20 years time, will i look back at any of the albums of 1987 with the same type of nostaglia?" now that 2 decades have passed, i can safely answer, "yes".

1987 is, in fact, one of my favourite years in music. it was the year that the smiths released their last studio album, 'strangeways here we come', as well as 'louder than bombs', a compilation of previously released singles and older tracks. another greatest hits type collection was released by new order in the form of 'substance' a two record (cassettes released months apart in white and blue covers) album that helped me and my friends catch up with all their earlier hits as well as appreciate the new ones, 'true faith' and '1963'.

depeche mode released the single for winningly danceable/singable 'strangelove' in the spring of that year, as well as one of their best songs, imho, 'never let me down again' later that summer in advance of the october release of 'music for the masses', one of their best. the cure's 'kiss me kiss me kiss me', which on initial listen seemed to contain a few gems and a lot of very rough patches, seems more of an accomplishment with each passing year. instant hits like 'just like heaven', and 'why can't i be you' still sound great, quieter tracks like 'catch' and 'one more time' stand out as pretty testaments to robert smiths' lyrical abilities, and the noisy operatics of 'the kiss' and 'like cockatoos' lend a sense of the epic while foreshadowing the broody soundscapes of 1989's 'disintegration'.

possibly my favourite r.e.m. album, 'document', , came out that fall, as did 10,000 maniacs 'in my tribe', which may have been their first and is their best, for me. though they only had two albums, the housemartins figured prominently on my stereo in the 1980s and their second release, 'the people who grinned themselves to death' also came out in 1987 (though several members of the band came out years previously). and another of my favourite bands, echo & the bunnmen released an impressive, eponymously titled album which featured 'lips like sugar', 'lost and found', and 'all my life'.

even bands that were becoming more commercial some great moments--inxs's 'kick', pet shop boys 'actually', the cult 'electric' , prince's 'sign of the times', (though this was definitely not one of his more mainstream albums, it's one of his most varied and interesting).some of the first hip hop that i really listened to--like eric b. and rakim's 'paid in full' and public enemy's 'yo bumb rush the show' also were 1987 albums.

no doubt there are some others i'm missing but you get my long-winded point, which is two-fold: 1) 'it was 20 years ago today' isn't just a nostalgic touchstone for boomers and 2) i love the music of 20 years ago.

vive 1987!

By coincidence I happened by Sams late last week for the first time in months maybe more. I went up to the jazz section looking for a particular Brad Meldeau cd and guess what i found.........They had ONE cd by meldeau, not the one I was looking for.... I mean if you have only 1 disc of one of the most important current jazz artists from huge back catalogue of god knows how many cds, its bloody rediculous....Christ, they couldnt even get it up to have multiple copies of the one disc they had...

Further to my post at the beginning of this month forecasting the demise of brick and mortar record stores most of you have probably heard by now that Sam the Record Man will be closing up shop on June 30th. The writing certainly seemed to be on the wall when I went up to the second floor several weeks back and the entire jazz and blues section had been squeezed down into the same space as country, international etc. This was hardly a surprise given how thin their jazz collection had become over the last 12 months. Where they used to have 10-20 records for the bigger names in jazz that had dwindled to in most cases a couple of discs. Very sad given how they used to be the standard bearer for finding jazz in this city.

According to Bobby Sniderman who seemed to be on every radio station yesterday the closure is a result of downloading and big box stores. The impact of iTunes, Limewire etc is understandable but how the crappy selection of music at places like Best Buy pushed Sams out is baffling. I think these days if you plan to sell music from a storefront you have to specialize in specific genres of music and work that angle harder and with more informed personnel that give you value for your buck. Just like the good old days when record stores sold records and not DVDs, magazines etc. Who wants to guess how long before we see HMV depart or at least reappear on a much smaller scale.

sorry lads, since I hadnt heard anything at all from you guys I accepted invitations eleswhere for both the 15th and the 16th (just yesterday) ....bad luck ....

Hey gents, I'm likely not good for that weekend having been out twice already that week. I'd be better the week after or even the one after that but don't change your plans for me, since I know Stu will be looking to get his groove on.

I should be available for either June 15th or 16th. Preferably at a venue that has a no Chili Pepper policy.

though i've never been a red hot chili peppers fan, i have to give them props for their prophetic words 'What I've got you've got to get it put it in you'. given that i was single and on the prowl in 1991 when the song was released (requisite pithy double entendre acknowledgment), i really should have been paying more attention.

on what i cannot stress enough is a completely unrelated note, are we still up for a going out for beers/music night out the weekend of june 15th/16th? my preference is for the saturday night but i believe i am available for either.

timely post, stu. i listened to a few of the tracks at emusic yesterday and was, to put it mildly, not impressesd. i'd heard the junior boys remix of 'sleep tonight' a few weeks ago on definitely not the opera and the only effect it had on me was to pine for the beauty of the original.
gotta say that i love, schaedenfraudically, the way the pitchfork dudes express their distaste for the whole project, in particular the dissing of owen pallet's contribution as an "audition to be Jon Brion's film-soundtrack intern".

i don't necessarily dismiss the remix in general. kcrw, for example, seemingly plays nothing but non-album versions of songs on their various shows, and their selections are usually quite stellar. but yeah, it's probably safe to say that the majority of remixes are garbage. for any one ep containing 6 or 7 remixes of a song, there may be 1 that is actually decent. and if you're not actively employed as a disc jockey, there's no excuse for owning such an ep.

The rant I gave a few weeks ago about remix albums, seems to be felt by more then just us...Check out this pitchfork rant on the stars remix album

Actually Brian the weekend of the 15th and 16th Yvette will be out of town w the kids, so if you or anyone else are on for that weekend, I am in...

Good suggestions Kyle, but I'll likely be more up for something in the third week or after of June....I'll have just finished my exam and should spend some catch up time with the family for the first week or so. For my two cents worth, I think the National might be a little too droney in a live setting (variety is not what they do best), whereas I hacve a feeling that the Clientele will come to life a bit - I do enjoy them, but their deliberate emotional understatement eventually wears on me, perhaps less so on this new record where they have some really pretty music. Or, maybe it will be the other way around.

Finally got around to listening to the new Dino Jr record last night and it sounds pretty fantastic.

two upcoming concerts that i may be interested in are the national, who play the opera house on june 5th and the clientele/beach house show at lee's on june 4th. of course, these two days--tuesday and monday--are not always ideal for seeing a concert but there's also something to be said for spicing up an otherwise dreary first half of the week.

sunshine beckons. think i'm gonna head home, fix me a wry & ginger, and get my long weekend on.

apologies, Brian, your response must have vbeen in cyberspace somehow, while I was giving my typically rye comment below....looks like maybe a jazz cd club night theme may be in order at some time shortly...

Clearly , you are so stunned at my dynamic list Brian that you cannot respond, so I will move on to a solicitation to any out there to find a decent live show to see. I have been looking and nothing that really interests me has shown up, is there anything that interests you lot??

Power to the People is an amazing record - I picked it up after you blogged on it and have been listening to a steady diet of it. Despite my mixed feelings about the electric piano (which I can enjoy on occasion but the lack of pedaling makes it a very one-dimensional instrument for me) and particularly the electric bass, which I normally just despise in jazz, I think PttP may be Joe's best record (pardon the Stuart-like hyperbole). Gorgeous subtlety to the arrangements and the playing is outstanding.

Re similar early seventies electro-jazz, I figure the big name ones, which you may already know and own, are Chick Corea's band Return to Forever which I own few tracks by and quite enjoy, the first couple of Weather Report (Zawinul, Shorter, etc) records, and for a little more "rock" in your jazz-rock, maybe McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra stuff, particularly the first couple (based on my own limited experience). Of course all of the Miles stuff from that period was fusion-esque as well. I loathed this music with a white hot passion when I was growing up....it seemed to represent everything that is ego-driven, flaccid, and meaningless about jazz (or what I thought jazz was at that point in my life...truth is jazz in 1975-80 was probably at its lowest creative/commercial point ever....remember Montreal based band UZEB....rrggghhghghg (me shuddering)), versus folk, pop, or punk. Interestingly, I've been re-visiting it carefully over the past few years and can stomach some of it, and even quite enjoy the really good. I think the key for me was coming at it through a more chronological process, learning about jazz's roots, through the bop and free periods, understanding the personalities and progression of the key players (Miles, Shorter, Corea, Zawinul etc) and then electric / fusion suddenly made sense.

Paul Bley did some early work with synths in the late sixties and is well worth tracking down. My man Bill Evans even made a record on which he played electric piano (hey, it was the seventies, elec piano just came along with the cocaine, blow jobs, and transcendental meditation) - not bad either (called The Bill Evans Album).

Segue into Chet Baker discussion, since the opening chords on "Alone Together" from Chet are heartbreakingly rendered by none other than Bill again. The man was everywhere. I agree with your comments about Chet as a trumpeter (I'm a huge fan so I'll lend some of my stuff over time and save you some dough), and about the album "Chet" - it's fantastic after hours music, featuring BE on paino and the great (but under-recognized) Pepper Adams on baritone sax. Chet the singer is also well worth lauding - he created a new sub-genre of jazz vocal in my view, which fit the same moods he captured on his horn so beautifully. I'll blog later on fave Chet B records.

bit of new , but mainly my old stuff, of which ,I am getting much more familiar thanks to my ipod....
new,
henderson power to the people, ( great early 70's sound, I am trying to get more stuff from that era), tatum and ben webster classic 56 session, mellow , but I love websters understated but heartfelt easy style, Molvaer, Khmer, thanks to marc, modern cold , sort of the opposite to Webster, but good for late at night...
old stuff,
Alice Coltrane, Ptah, thanks to you Brian, i love the repeated grooves , it sort of errupts and then holds off , plus whoda thunk a harp would work, plus great band ( whoever they are...thats the drawback when listening on ipod, hard to quickly see whos playing what) and chet baker , 2 albums , Chet and New York.....I ve been thinking a lot about that talk we had last fall and how I dont really focus on the instrument playing, but rather on the somgs and albums as a whole, and in that light, he would be on my list of favorite trumpet players in that he can be sad and mournful like no other check out "alone together" from "Chet"my favorite Baker album...I think it equalls some of miles' game here, but I may be inciting some of you yobs now...

I'll bet the farm on it being a phase Stu....but since you mention it which jazz have you been listening to lately?

I think we are in agreement with much of that Brian, and thanks for the tips to all....I guess part of my problem is I am listening to 70% jazz 20 % classical and 10% pop now...so i am not buying much of it, but I truly love pop still so it may just be a phase....I hope...

I feel relatively guilt free on this as well. My current fave new ones (may not be 07 but close enough) are The Broken West, Midlake, and also Besnard Lakes (thanks to Derek and Kyle for this one)...it's all about the Lakes in 07. Broken West is a fantastic summer groovy power pop record for those of you who don't remember its unveiling at the last CD club.

I would argue that if anything there is a tendency to put too much emphasis on finding something "new", and therefore discount bands' second, third, or fourth releases. How much time do spend talking about the latest from The Shins, Arcade Fire, etc? Despite loving their previous releases.

Finding new music can be akin to a sugar high, where the latest is the greatest and nothing else matters. I defintiely play this game so mea culpa....but from another perspective (a) I think each generation produces only a few great artists (Bjork is one of them in my view - I can see a list question coming up), and a few times greater number of strong contributors (say, Built to Spill for ex) , and it makes perfect sense to chase down each artistic step from these few and/or check in on the others (b) Great bands get better over time, not worse, so I'm pretty comfortable with following their progress to see if they continue to grow (or not). (c) Great music is great music whether the artist is cool, young, and British, or 72, Jewish and has no teeth, or in the case of Elliot Smith, dead. To me it's always about finding the great music - or so I tell myself, and so try. And I know you believe this too Stuart so I'm not trying to convince anyone.

agree with your observation, stu. like you, i am probably buying more from artists with whom i'm already quite familiar, like sea & cake, clientele, dino jr., arcade fire, shins, panda bear, the national to name a few. however, i am able to meet your challenge in coming up with three new bands that i've discovered in 2007 that i'm digging. these include:

-the previously blogged about The Besnard Lakes, whose "The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse" continues to delight with each listen. The first couple of tracks are, as noted, airy and Beach Boys-like, but others seem to veer deeply into early 90s shoegazer territory, at times reminiscent of early Catherine Wheel and Ride but not as out and out derivative as the Mahogany disc that I brought to the last meeting

-the Comas "Spells" quite possibly the best pop/rock record i've heard this year, though jangly and rocking, the songs are all quite well structured, smart lyrics, and there's a layer to the sound; a little too produced at times but still a treat

-Explosions in the Sky "All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone" a band from Austin, TX are similar to bands like Tortoise and godspeed you black emperor!, and their album a collection slow-building instrumental epics

all of these were purchased from emusic, btw.

whether that means you are an old fart is for you to decide. or perhaps for the rest of us to decide, in a dramatic vote, with consequences/punishments should you be found guilty.

Guilty as charged unfortunately. I can only come up with one disc that falls under the guidelines that you set out Stuart and even though the disc came out in 2006 I didn't pick it up until a few months ago. The album is "Don't Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up" and the artist is Cortney Tidwell who has a voice that reminds me very much of Harriet Wheeler of the Sundays. Tidwell's music however covers a lot more territory than the Sundays and I'm still discovering new things with each listen.

Reading through the last weks worth of email, it seems to me that we are all a little guilty (myself included) in not finding new pop artists. I too am a little tired of some of the new releases lately, but I too am looking more at artisit I am familiar with then fresh faces....could it be that we are all getting a little old and boring.....god forbid... but answer this one lads...What is the best 3 new pop discs bought in 2007 from artists you had no other previous music from .....downloading a handfull of tracks does not count as a new disc purchase
of course, if you have all done this then I am the only boring old fart (in terms of pop music)...

The few snippets that I've heard from the Elliot Smith disc are quite good, if similiar to the Either/Or disc. I do hope that this is the final release of his material, though, and not the first of a string of Tupac-like studio releases.

And speaking of "everything old is new again", the "new" Elliott Smith is out and available on e-music. I have d/loaded it but haven't listened yet. I'll admit to being quite pleased to see he had some unreleased music coming up, but will leave it there until I hear it.

Despite suggesting that I would do so, I have not yet picked up the new Feist disc. I did 'acquire' the Bjork album earlier this week upon its release and three listens in, I'm wondering what the fuss is about. Of both discs, this review opines: Don't Believe the Hype.

Not sure if 'Volta' is as bad as DeRogatis and the folks at Pitchfork, who'd played a part in hyping it, suggest. And it's probably not possible to give a disc a fair assessment after only 2 full days in release. But still, wasn't expecting to be this underwhelmed.

Of course, it's possible I'm just getting nearing artist fatigue. I also downloaded the latest Clientele and Sea and the Cake discs this week, and while they seem to be up to their usual high standards, I can't help but think, I've heard all this before.

What say you on 'The Reminder', Deeman?

aside from the eye-candy, marc, how was the performance? as is usually the case, when i find myself in the city for a week with no travel plans and start looking for things to do, the play or performance that seems most interesting is closing--their last performance was saturday, yes?

I think you missed one Derek.

I had the pleasure of attending Opera Atelier's staging of Orfeus and Eurydice on Friday and we had second row centre seats. I found the performance wonderful, but Tafelmusik's violinist, Julia Wedman, was to say the least, just a little distracting!

m.e. and i have set our travel plans for the end of May and will therefore be seeing youal at our next get together.

My initial impressions of the first disc were that it was too sweet, lacking some kind of edge, but that she had a pretty great voice. Kind of grew on me with repeated listens. I never bought the album but would hear it while dining at nicer restaurants and think, "This is nice".
Might be interesting to play some of this album and contrast it with the Lily Allen or Amy Winehouse discs. Alternately, we could just trade pictures of attractive female singers/musicians and see if they elicit the presumed pavolian response in herr watson.

Just watched the video and....well....not for me would be a nice way to say it. "yuck" would be another.

she has had a h=uge spread in the new york times that says just that Kyle, pitchfork and the toronto papers all did about the same....the hype machine is howling, but perhaps it will be good..the funny thing is that I was a huge early fan of the first disc and I find it gratingly sweet now and I have not been enjoying it for some time....

Feist song is catchy, in a Sesame Street kind of way. Thought she sounded a lot like Olivia Newton-John on the first album. Apparently, this time around she's going for visuals to match. According to my sources (ie. Reuben, who works at Six Shooter Records around the corner from my house) this new disc will be the one that launches her into the big time. Perhaps I'll pick up a copy as well.

Despite the comment previously about the death of brick & mortar record stores I will be venturing forth this weekend to pick up the new Feist disc. Have heard a few tracks now and looks like its a keeper. Still scared though to see it front and centre in Starbucks. Didn't seem to do much for Sean Lennon's career. Check out this video for the song 1234 which could be the song of the summer here in the big city.

right on, stuart! and should the friday hangover prove painful, a few laughs at some terrible album covers will get you through the day.

know that other sites have posted some truly awful covers and that we discussed the koolaid-influenced bjork record a few weeks back but these covers put all others to shame. or i should say, they hog all the shame for themselves.

thursday the 7th it is and in the words of the late Ray Curtis...." come on you can always get through a friday"...

thursday the 7th it is and in the words of the late Ray Curtis...." come on you can always get through a friday"...

Can somebody bring the Don Cherry to the cd club? Think it was a recent Peter Robinson novel where Banks was listening to Cherry while sipping his brother's fabulous wine stash that made me want to hear some of his stuff. Thursday is close enough to the weekend for all of us to bring our weekend game.

Should we go for the 7th then? What if I promise to bring my "weekend" game even though it's only a Thursday? eh?

Re Don Cherry, thanks for the recommendation. I've never explored Don Cherry's sessions as a leader - not in the sixties anyway....I really just know him as Ornette's pocket trumpet guy from that period. Looked up the Symphony on-line and it sounds pretty magnificent, as do a number of others from the same period. Cool.

Glad to hear the new National sounds good. I liked but didn't love their last release - something about the singer's approach to the lyric (oh so whiskey laden cigarettey gravel) sounds contrived, to me despite the apparent torturedness of the songs. Musically though I think they're pretty groovy.

hey kids. heavy travel week otherwise would have posted earlier.
thursday june 7th works for me. 8th, 9th and 10th are out as i'm away for the weekend for sarah's birthday (good memory d-man). the only other date that won't work would be the following june 14th, which will probably be the book club date.

as for soundscapes, i confess i haven't been in a long, long while, partly because i'm just not in that part of town as often as i used to be, and partly because, like derek, i get most of my stuff online. kind of sad because i do like supporting stores like soundscapes which, attitude aside, really seems to care about and promote good music, which i agree is increasingly rare in this day and age. there's a great little canadian music store around the corner from my house on queen, where i like to shop and talk with the staff but since i can get most of these releases on emusic for a few dollars, i seldom buy a lot anymore.

the last time I was in hmv, i got the similar impression that the cd business is headed for its last days. even when i'm at home, i find it just as convenient to plug in an ipod to the stereo as i do to throw in a disc into the changer and with the latter, i can create a multi-hour playlist that will last me well into the night. still like the cd but my buying preferences will likely help kill it.

speaking of new music that isn't available on emusic, i'm enjoying the new National disc, courtesy of Sarah's brother, who somehow snagged an advanced copy. Do grab a listen when it comes out...very carthartic drumming, which I quite enjoyed on their last disc.

sorry for not responding stu, i've been tied up on a small reno job in Riverdale ...should be done by some time in July though, just kidding Bri. Any day is fine with me except for this Friday. M.E and i are talking about travelling in May or June but have not as of yet made any plans. Unfortunately vacation trumps cd club in my daytimer and i apologize for not being able to make a commitment at this time but holidays only come around once a year for me and cd club comes around 4x ...so that's the way it is. btw, a very belated birthday to you Stuart.

I hate to keep speaking for other bloggites but I know that Sarah's birthday is June 9 and that would probably mean Kyle and sa femme would be heading out for dinner.

Back to the music for a moment does anyone else own "Symphony for Improvisers" by Don Cherry? It's just two extended tracks of about 20 minutes each and although it can get quite raucous at times it never loses complete control in the way that say an Albert Ayler session can. Just popped it on for the drive home from Hamilton and it is quite a gem of a record in its own meandering, loose limbed way. I think its available at a discount price and is well worth picking up if you want to check out some jamming free jazz from the mid 60's.

I would rather do a friday or saturday...how about the 9th

May not work as we are likely having V's brother over for his birthday. I could do the 7th?

how about friday june 8 cd club date ...

Hey Stu - I definitely cannot do the 25th of May. Anytime after June 2 is better, though we have a book club on the 14th.

Thanks Derek, I will wait to hear from people before changing the date, just in case Brian and others can still make it....I can always shift it to june if its a bad date...So Brian? Kyle ? Marc? hellooooooooooo out there...
Re Soundscapes;
I was pondering that thought a little while back and my take on it is that they can still survive if
they maintain an edgy selection of music on the listening booths and in the store...
because many people cannot spend the time researching for the music they like as we do, and since commercial radio is getting so bad that even passive music fans are tired of it, stores like soundscapes fill a gap for people who walk in off the street and want a recommendation for a decent disc...granted younger people typically will go online, but as they age and you have kids and what not its still easy to drop by that store on a weeknight and pick somethibng up quickly... It will still be hard work for stores like this and I wouldnt plan on making millions if I was Greg....

Sorry Stu I have been remiss in my postings of late. That date works plenty good for me but I know that Brian is writing his CFA exam on Saturday June 2 and would quite likely be m.i.a on that particular date. Can't speak for the rest of the crew so I will shut up now.

I paid a visit to Soundscapes 2 weekends ago for the first time since September 2006 and came out of the store with absolutely nada. Seems to me that the age of the brick and mortar record store has come and gone. Nearly every indie rock record I'm interested in is available on e-music and the hard to find classical or jazz is either on hand at Gregorian or is nowhere to be found in the city. Not sure what a hard working store like SS would need to do to earn back my hard earned money but their displays of new music a few weeks ago didn't inspire me in the least.

gosh metabeats really is struggling for respect these days....since no one has listed bad dates, I propose friday may 25 at my place for the next cd club...please let me know if this works for you, if you cant bring yourself to type a response on metabeats, just nod or give a wink...

I have been a little buried as of late....apologies... 40 songs that changed the world, what the hell does that mean if your list includes whole lotta love by led zep and louie louie , god only knows...
If it is just great songs then the list is shiit, if its songs that had a geopolitical impact on the world then the list shows a limited amount of global awareness ( ie i want to hold your hand...baby one more time)
in short I think the list is just out there to annoy people like me who actually care about music and thus it could generate blog discussions ( sort of like Tim Perlicks reviews )
In short , its so stupid I cant be bothered to respond to it ( except for this lengthy response of course)
ps I think it may be my turn for a cd club event, I am thinking May ...I will post a date shortly, so if there are any of you away mid may let me know

Yeah, the Run DMC/Aerosmith selection tells you what Rolling Stone is attempting to do with its selections from the last twenty years: pinpoint the time that a hip/hop song hit the radar of an aging white boomer magazine. Apparently, it only took another 5 years and and another rap group collaborating with a group of white musicians to rock the RS world once again, with Public Enemy's 'Bring da Noise' another selection on their list. Having been thus twice introduced to the concept of rap, they then get kinda cocky, dropping even the salutory 'Dr.' for Dre in their next hip-hop entry, another selection which falls way short of being earth moving.

Not to suggest that the good folks at RS are racist, just clueless. What's irritating with lists like these is the presumptive employment of the personal plural: we were all moved by these songs, weren't we? No, actually, anybody who was listening to music at the time would have figured out rap as a musical phenomenon far earlier than 1986.

btw...got a new ipod, 4x the size of the previous one. and while i'm unconvinced that anybody needs to walk around with 15,000 songs in their hand, it's good to have options.

Sorry for the lack of bloggin'....speaking of which, do you remember Stuart? He was a pretty good bloke eh?

Some epochal non-negotiables for me would be

The Who - My Generation
The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man / Eight Miles High
The Clash - London Calling
Elvis Costello - Watching the Detectives

I could easily remove half of what they've listed....it is a TERrible list in my view. Run DMC Aerosmith? Bloody baffling.

I can't explain (which reminds...why no Who song?) why 'Just Like Heaven' would be one of those ground breaking songs because I don't think it's a ground breaking, or world changing song in any sense of the word, I just think it's a beautiful song, which takes me back to my adolescent days, when lyrics like "And found myself alone above a raging sea/that stole the only girl I loved/and drowned her deep inside of me" seemed sad, poetic, and profound. I'd go further to say it isn't even the Cure's best song, an honour I think you'd agree goes to 'In Between Days'. Still, it was nice to see that some other group of people dig 'Just Like Heaven' as much if not more than me.

Lists like this obviously say a lot more about their creators than they do about the artists referenced therein. I'm sure that a Pitchfork list would contain equally annoying selections, but mostly because they'd go out of their way to highlight the most obscure songs released in the past 4 decades. The Rolling Stone list confirms to me that they probably stopped being relevant as a music publication is the mid-1980s.

Glad you can hum the Black Flag song, though. I'd like you to do so at some point in the near future.

On an unrelated sad note, my ipod, which I've had for 3+ years, is gone. Sometime between early Sunday morning, when I arrived in Dallas, and yesterday afternoon, when I discovered it was missing, I either misplaced it, left it somewhere, dropped it, or allowed someone to take it from me. No matter, it is gone. And while I will eventually (or maybe even soon) get a new, sleeker, shinier, smaller one with a bigger hard drive and more bells and whistles, I will miss it. I can honestly say that I've listened to more new music, tolerated many long stretches of travel, and blocked out hours of inane cellphone banter on the streetcar, because of that device. Goodbye my little shiny white plastic and chrome friend. I hope that your new master enjoys you as much as I did.

You might wish that you had never asked the question re Black Flag as I am a horrible singer by any standard but I do know the TV Party song quite well as it was on the Repo Man soundtrack which I bought after seeing the movie twice at the local Hamilton rep cinema back in the day. Not that I'm saying it's a groundbreaking song by any means. Although the movie certainly had a notable effect on my direction in cinema viewing.

As for the egregious omissions that is a mugs game isn't it? The songs that changed my life over the last 40 years bear little if any resemblance to this list and I'm sure each of you would say the same. If I had to choose specific tracks here that would fall into that category then let's go with tracks 5, 12, 15, 23, 24, 26, 27, 30, 36, and 37.

I remember hearing "What Difference Does it Make" by the Smiths and it certainly wasn't their most popular ditty but it was the first song I'd ever heard by the band and I was absolutely floored. Here was a song that spoke directly to me and changed the world as I knew and experienced it. And I think that's the key for any "life changing" song and it has little to do with lists or what the critics think or even what any of you think.

As a final note as much as I love the Cure song perhaps Kyle you can explain to me how it would fall into a "songs that changed the world" category. Can't see how it changed the music scene in any significant way and it was getting close to the best before date for the Cure as a band.

Listless these days? Perhaps it's because we've been listless here for so long.

No more! An invitation to comment on Rolling Stone's list of 40 songs of the past 40 years which "changed the world" (quotes theirs, of course).

While thrilled that one of my (if not the) favourite songs of all time--"Just Like Heaven" by the Cure--makes an appearance, I can't help but think that any list that also includes a song by Britney Spears or Guns and Roses forfeits any and all credibility. What say you all?

I'll admit, I haven't read the rationale for any of these picks so I have no idea why "Strawberry Fields Forever" somehow edges out "Hey Jude" or "Day in the Life" in the life-changing department or if anybody on this esteemed blog panel can hum me a single bar from Black Flag's "TV Party" and the question 'Where are the Pixies?' can be heard at scream-level decibels in my head but....I'll let you lot come up with some more egregious omissions.

I laughed quasi-maniacally for about five minutes when I opened that up, after taking a second to realize you had posted it. Very funny my man.

So, sorry, I've been way too stressed out at work to consider an entry, though as you surmise I have checked a few times (cause that's easy). I even have quite a thing for Ms. Gainsbourg but haven't been able to find the energy to comment. Plus she's married to Yvan Attal which is pretty cool. So...the music sounded pretty good in a French chanteuse way but I'm not sure that I wasn't influenced by those sexy photos with her hair covering her face.

And who in God's name is Grinderman?

Keep up the good posts.

that was an interesting entry, kyle. i think i'd like to listen to it a little bit. yes, she is kind of sexy, but not in the way you typically think of somebody being sexy. i have thoughts about grinderman too but i kind of just feel like keeping it to myself for now. also, i'm really busy right now but keep up the good posts kyle.

far better than listening artists or watching films with 'grind' in the title would be to a listen to a nonconventionally sexy english/french actress sing pretty, cool ballads. you can listen to the charlotte gainsbourg album here or download one of the tracks from the disc. with song titles like 'jamais' and 'tel que tu es', comment pouvez-vous resister?

Stuart, make sure you paste the entire link over the text that appears in the link box (http://). If you paste it after this text, the link includes the http:// twice (the one from your link as well as the one in the box). Alternately, you can just select 'www...' onwards from the page you are copying from and paste it after the http:// that appears in the link box. Just don't duplicate it and it should work fine.

Now that I've bored everyone else, a question, similar to those I've asked of late, which are preoccupied with getting value for my download dollar: Has anybody heard the much-ballyhooed Grinderman disc? The few snippets I've heard online suggest to me that it is a piece of s-h-i-t but critics seem to believe otherwise. Thoughts?

With respects to other artistic projects featuring 'Grind' in the title, may I advise you, if you were contemplating seeing it, to avoid the Tarantino-Rodriguez films released last week. Think ticket buyers for once had it right last weekend. I'll spare you the (literally) gory details but just say that 80 minute movies that could do with 30 minutes of editing really shouldn't be released in the first place.

ok.......now someone is messin w my head.....the link I simply pasted in seems to work...in the past that has never worked for me...AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

i give up!!!! sometimes it works , sometimes it doesn't ...what am I doing wrong...step 1)
highlight a chosen word ...step2) hit the icon like cufflinks...step3) paste in the web link...
here is the web link I was trying to make work
http://www.ckln.fm/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=76&Itemid=236

god damn it....one flight up

thats it Marc...Colin Smith...One flight up.....which is the name of a Dextor Gorden album from the 60's I believe.. it is only one morning a week tuesday...you have to check it out to believe it...its pretty great
s

I believe the show you are referring to is Colin Smith's "one flight up" ... the first few years i was listening to the show i actually thought it was called "one flat up" because the guy's accent is so thick! ...but he has a great show if you can stick it through the slow pace of his babble ...who am i to talk about slow babble!

gosh i really do struggle with this link system...lets try again henderson

to sidestep the babes issue ........I picked up Joe hendersons Power to the People the other day after hearing some tracks off this jazz DJ with the greatest voice...Colin??? on 88.1 FM (you have top hear this impossibly low voice talking about jazz) .....anyway back to .....shttp://http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4791DDF4AA47720C0803E53C0BA74E006D14EC59D0A354B47C8953E46C30C7FE352BB8A92ECB628EC30D2FD47E11043D7D5EF54E3DE663D3AC1EFA46A383B4102003525FD&sql=10:kxfixq9gldae
After that ill fated electric jazz show at the REX I was surprised by how much I love this disc...Granted it has only occasional electric piano and the rest is pretty well acoustic, but I love that early 70's dig it baby groove...I only have weather report type fusion stuff from this era , so it was great to get into something new , for me anyway....anyone else have something they love in this vein??

more laughs, on a wednesday, which feels like a thursday. figured this would be a good primer for stuart on picking up hot classical babes in bars.

I forgot to mention how hard I laughed at your Kool Aid post last night Derek. I was studying time series analyses for CFA (major fucking yawn) and on a "rare" break - and that was a much needed guffaw.

So where is the apparently newfound sense of absurd humour coming from my friend? I'm theorizing either (a) your sister, who is really funny, is posting for you this week while you organize Ciaran's room, or (b) the new-parent sleep deprivation has finally kicked in, yielding a new, nuttier Derek.

take your point about anything that resembles 60s dream-pop automatically being labelled 'wilsonesque' or 'pet sounds like' or 'some other reference to the bb -ish' but in the case of the panda bear disc, the similarities are striking. compare the opening track 'comfy in nautica' (link accomplished, btw, by highlighting the text i want to make a link, clicking on the little globe-with-chain-link-on-top of it icon above this text box' then pasting the link into the URL field and clicking okay) on 'perfect pitch' with say, 'god only knows' or 'wouldn't it be nice' from 'pet sounds' and you'll see (hear?) what i mean.

bang on with procol harum and pink floyd in b.lakes. is it too referential? i've kind of struggled with this question with a few albums released this year that go beyond 'influenced by' to 'striking imitations of'. not sure that the b.lakes fall into the latter category for me, but bands like mahoghany (cocteau twins, joy division), and bloc party ('boys don't cry'/'seventeen seconds' era cure) certainly do. even one of my favourite songs from this year, 'roscoe' from midlake (which you brought to my attention at the last cd club, much obliged) is essentially a perfect meshing of fleetwood mac's 'dreams' with ian thomas' 'painted ladies'. i guess i'm leaning towards the conclusion that if it's done well, who am i to complain? if win butler can channel springsteen, then i guess everybody's doing it, yes?

derek, i knew i'd seen the bjork cover somewhere before. thank you for jogging my memory. does this mean that she'll be busting through walls in that getup every time a group of children starts demanding icelandic pop music? part of me thinks it's an extended april fools joke...surely the web-graphic department at pitchfork generated hoax, yes?

Speaking of BW and his pop legacy, there was quite a nice release by a local band called The Bicycles last year that I came across on a couple of allmusic posts recently which is primo 60's-inspired pop. Really very good. As usual I'm 9 months behind so you've probably all heard this music, either (a) dismissing it as light and trivial or (b) liked it, researched their history, found solo recordings and demos from the bass player they kicked out before they "went big", and Stuart has dated the (presumably female) lead singer.

I was going to link it like the rest of you do, but I've forgotten how, and can't seem to find the toolbar that we had on the old (obviously inferior) version of blogger. Feel free to help me with this one of you techno-competent folks.

Here is the url allmusic that you can cut and paste. How 2002.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0cfrxqudldke

Just listened to Besnard Lakes all the way through for the first time, and am really enjoying it too. It's a darker, more emphatically psychedelic form of the (popular) psych pop genre. Simple song structures benefiting from rich and varied arrangements - and while there is definitely more than a hint of Da Boys (of Beach), I hear a lot more Moody Blues (on Rides the Rails for ex), Procol Harum, and even some Pink Floyd. Only concern for me (one listen in) is does the music stand up on its own, or is it too referential?

Love the BB's in small doses but think that BW gets a bit too much credit as the touchstone for all dream and psych-pop music of today.

Bjork, god love her, can spout all sorts of drivel about 10,000 years of womanhood, 13 moons etc but the first thing I thought of when I saw this godawful cover was something you only need put your mind back 30 odd years for. Can you say pending lawsuit?

if you thought her choice in oscar apparel was bad...bjork reveals the artwork for her new album. makes me glad i'm getting most of my music electronically these days.

btw, update on last week's downloads:

panda bear 'person pitch': very much digging this release, much more so than 'young prayer' or even the animal collective's 'feels'. that most of it sounds like brian wilson leading a church choir through a series of joyful ovations in a room down the hall detracts not from its hypnotic yet catchy charms.

besnard lakes 'the besnard lakes are the dark horse': also channel brian wilson but in a different way (more guitar for one). also digging large after only two listens.

The Rex actually. I meant Mahler's Fifth, but you knew that. I've got to get more sleep, and spend less time thinking about work.

Wagner's 5th? Did you just get back from Church and Richmond?

I was lucky enough to see Batiashvili in the afternoon and then later that evening see Hilary Hahn play with the Concertgebouw. Quite the fun filled day. I've been very lax on seeing anything in a classical vein lately. Any suggestions from you lot? Any interest in seeing something. I'm off for the next two weeks and wouldn't mind getting out a couple of nights.

Batiashvilli eh? Nice. She's the clear winner for me. Is she the one you saw play Wagner's fifth symphony a few years back at a matinee?

In some semblance of order they are Magdalena Kozena, Naida Cole, Nicole Benedetti, Shauna Rolston, Veronique Gens, Anna Netrebko, Danielle de Niese, Helene Grimaud, Janine Jansen and Elisabeth Batiashvili.

For those keeping track 4 vocalists, 2 pianists, 3 violinists and a cellist. Still looking for a good looking conductor or composer of music.

Freakin' hilarious....but now I'm curious who all of them are.

i'm pretty sure at least two of these women are pilates instructors and not musicians. sadly stu, i don't think any are your type.

ok......10 out of 10 for that, I actually laughed out loud at the office....
well done....

Was trying to keep the level of conversation on this site at a bare minimum level of intelligence but why fight popular opinion. If it's babes you want it's babes you'll get. My top 10 in no particular order:

Why you want a list of household classical pianists , (when a list of best looking babes of classical music would be much more usefull), is a mystery to me.... but given that I would say your list is good Derek though I only know about 3/4's of them , but Radu Lupu , and Lief Ove Andsnes might be added , but frankly who cares....now Helene Grimaud, lets talk about that for a while.....top ten wines she likes, top ten cdclub members she wants.....

Clearly I have to start visiting more households in which classical musical is played and appreciated as well as listening to more classical music myself. At present, I'd only be able to come up with Anton Kuerti and Keith Jarrett on a list of classical pianists and the latter is probably as equally well known (if not more so) for his jazz recordings. Is is safe to assume, though, that Grimaud is the only one on Derek's list for whom Stuart pines (a much nicer verb than the obvious).

Far be it from me to comment on your jackassedness (I'll leave that for Stuart) but Kyle might be right when it comes to asking whether Ashkenazy is a household name in our mp3 age even though I agree Brian that he is probably the biggest name when it comes to the piano. Here's a list off the top of my head of 10 other still living and high profile pianists:

Angela Hewitt, Alfred Brendel, Yvgeny Kissin, Marc Andre Hamelin, Murray Perahia, Martha Argerich, Helene Grimaud, Mitsuko Uchida, Lang Lang and Emanuel Ax. There might be others who are better known that I have left off this list but is it possible to say that any of these are household names? Even mentioning the grand old man of classical music Rostropovich, who turned 80 the other day, would only pull quizzical looks from most people.

As for the poncy music played by Sharon Bezaly she is actually a flautist not a violinist and while we're on the topic of things poncy, a rock band named Bee and Flower?

Well I'd have to say, that, yes Vlad Ashkenazy is a household name, if you're into classical. He's been around for forty years, he conducts, plays piano beautifully and across many periods. etc. Probably made 100 recordings, yadda yadda. If not Ash, then who would qualify as a household name among contemporary pianists....Am I being a jackass?

Re downloads, I was going to suggest the new Bee and Flower disk, which is kind of cool, but looks like I missed out. Ayway I'm sure Derek's poncy Scandinavian violin music is lovely.

check on Field Music and Besnard Lakes, which I've got but have yet to play. As Bezaly's Nordic disc featuring Aho, Thomasson, and Lindberg auspiciously contains the exact number of tracks i had remaining this month (13), i've downloaded it as well. thanks for the suggestion.

on the topic of classical music, did anybody read REG's Globe column on Monday about boxed sets? apparently, canada is the cheapest place in the world to buy classical music. evidence in favour:

A complete Mozart set from Brilliant Classics has sold more than 300,000 copies worldwide since its launch last year. That 170-cd box sells for about $130, less than a buck a disc.

i take the point that discs featuring bigger name conductors and musicians may set them aside from the usual naxos recordings but is Vladimir Ashkenazy really a household name? i imagine that if i mentioned this name in any household that allows me to cross its threshold, i'd either receive blank stares or a tongue-in-cheek 'gezundheit' but perhaps i know too many philistines.

Don't know about the Apples in Stereo disc as I've heard nary a track but it's getting good reviews across the board. Still 24 tracks is a bit of a waste of your allottment especially compared to the Panda Bear disc. In the rock vein I would recommend the new Field Music, Rock Plaza Central or Besnard Lakes (the last two of which are Canadian outfits).

But if you want to veer off the rock path you should check out some pretty great classical discs that are now available on the e-music site. Some of these came to my attention via the emusic dozen which has a terrific selection of albums. I would suggest the Scarlatti keyboard sonatas with Yevgeny Sudbin on the piano or Debussy's Piano Music Vol.3 with Noriki Ogawa on piano. One of the artists mentioned in the emusic dozen is flautist Sharon Bezaly. They showcase her Mozart CD but I would go instead for her more modern collection of works by Nordic composers Aho, Tomasson and Lindberg. Modern music in a very good vein.

has anybody downloaded/bought/stolen or at least listened to the latest Apples in Stereo? If so, is it worth getting? At 24 tracks, if it's crap i don't want to waste my monthly allotment of mp3s from emusic.

i'm experiencing my monthly nearing billing with downloads remaining dilemna and am spending far too much time mulling over my options for 13 tracks, which i realize only works out to $2.50 but still...it's the principle that counts. i don't want crap.

just grabbed the new panda bear disc, which at 7 tracks and 45 minutes, certainly offers bang for the buck. not sure how i feel about it yet.

any suggestions for an album with a dozen or so tracks?

re: joe cocker. link is fixed so you can read more about it. interesting list of songs but why does grace slick adorn the cover?

coda to the covers discussion;
I was just listening to a freshly remastered version of Joe Cockers 1st album ( which sounds much better then my old vinyl) and it has that version of "with a little help from my friends " that I had included on my list and I must say there are so many fantastic covers on this record that it must be the definative and final statement on the covers "album" Not all songs are covers , but most are and it really is a fantastic record , if some of you are not familiar with it....http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4791DDF4AA47720C0803E53C0BA74E006D14EC59D0A354B47C8953E46C30C7FE352BB8A92ECB628EC30D2FD47E11043D0D5EC54E3DE663D3AC1EFA46A3B3941030D3525FD&sql=10:nx6m962o3ep7
in particular check out Dylans jjust like a woman and traffics feeling all right.....also note the whos who of musicians on the disc...

Inspired by last night's jazz performance, I vow to learn to play the key-tar. Good call on the resto, Marc and, um, nice legs. Music at the Rivoli was fantastic as usual....some followup notes:

The song I was trying to identify and incorrectly pegged as a Goo Goo Dolls song is 'Shimmer' by Fuel ("She calls me from the cold/ Just when I was low/feeling short of stable....chorus: too far away for me to hold/too far away"). Also, for those who give a crap, the band whose name I recalled as having the word 'Poppies' in it was actually 'The Lilac Time', who were around in the late 80s, early 90s and fronted by Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy who had a bigger solo hit in the mid-80s with 'Kiss Me' ("...with your mouth/your love is better than wine..."). Oh, and they never did a version of 'Love Vigilantes' by New Order. The correct answer there was: Radiogram.

The compilation series I was thinking of was titled, Indie Top 20, an example of which can be seen here. The discs I had are listed here and here but there are sadly no photos of the covers, which were cool.

PS ....Kyle I am with you on the Junkies.....though i also love the original....

Ok I admit it.....Vanilla Fudge you keep me hanging on .....I really love it....I think it is the most baroque of all 60's tunes, but somehow it really works, great call Brian.. Also the red house painters , much better then the original, Kozalik also does a cover of John Denvers - Im sorry -which is also pretty good to0....but I may be leaving myself exposed to ridicule on this...

OK last one. For now. The Pretenders "Stop Your Sobbing". Love the Kinks but this is somehow better.

And early nominee for worst cover ever, thinking ahead now - how about Vanilla Fudge's incredibly pretentious and ponderous cover of "You Keep Me Hanging On"? Strangely I quite like it but I'm sure to be in the minority. If that one really works for you they also tackle "Eleanor Rigby", "She's Not There", and "Ticket to Ride" on the same record (their eponymous first from 1967 or so). Over 25 minutes of downer-inspired trippy sludge for those four songs alone. Available in delete bins across the city.

Great choices. I meant to put the Cash one down but forgot - it's unbelievable. Another fantastic one (perhaps my favourite of all) is Red House Painter's "All Mixed Up". Goygeous.

The Hendrix is amazing, but in fairness was on the list. Black Magic Woman and I Fought the Law are primo...so are your other choices (Little Help...fer sure). The only one I would argue is the CCR - give me the Marvin Gaye version.

Cool picks, both of you. Particularly like 'I Fought the Law','Hurt', and 'Superman'. And good for calling out KD's version of 'Hallelujah' for derision. CBC djs seem to love this recording, out of a misguided loyalty to all things kd, but it completely sucks. And other than Joe Cocker's 'With a Little Help...' surely there cannot be another Beatles song that is done better by another artist? And no tongue-in cheek references to 'Lucy in the Sky' by Captain Kirk.

I also prefer your version of 'Ricki...' Bri. My friend Daniel sang in a band in the late 90s and I enjoyed his version of 'Better Man' by Pearl Jam far better than the original, mostly because his version sounded grittier whereas Eddie V. always seemed lacadaisical on that one.

To the list of better than the original, I'd add Mehldau's cover of Everything in its right place', Coltrane's 'My Favourite Things' (take that Julie Andrews) the Pogues' 'Dirty Old Town', 'Alabama Song' by the Doors (more of a Kurt Veil standard so not sure if this counts), Jimi's version of the Leaves 'Hey Joe', 'Don't Leave Me this Way', the Communards, 'Step On' by Happy Mondays, 'Sweet Jane' by the Cowboy Junkies (sense a fight about to break out), 'Tainted Love' by Soft Cell....can't come up with anymore.

Some covers which come close by can't quite top the original include Nouvelle Vague's version of Depeche Mode's 'Just Can't Get Enough', Yo La Tengo's take on William DeVaughn's 'Be Thankful for What You've Got', and Siouxsie's version of 'Dear Prudence' (I said close).

Worst covers ever go to :
-Van Halen's cover of the Kinks' 'You Really Got Me', which takes a song that is brilliant in its original delivery and adds a series of annoying guitar solos and grunts
-Gun's and Roses 'Knocking on Heaven's Door', like most songs sung by Axel Rose, make me want to bash his head in with a rock, if only to shut him up
-Orgy's cover of New Order's 'Blue Monday', which does nothing to distinguish itself from the original--why both?
-Mick Jagger and David Bowie covering 'Dancing in the Streets', the video for which premiered at Live Aid in 1985 and was supposed to help raise $$ for the cause. Don't remember it? I envy you.
-No Doubt's butchery of 'It's My Life' by Talk Talk

See ya'll tomorrow night.

I am with you on Hey Jude Brian, and most of your choices, and I always thought Time is on my side was a stones original...shocking... i dont like their choices at all ( of course) for me
there are 2 songs that tie for first for me
1) All along the watchtower - Dylan says he feels he is doing a hendrix cover when he plays it...and Hurt - Johnny Cash version....actually brings tears to my eyes , but i always was a wuss...
then in no particular order are
- Black magic woman -Santana
-heard it thru the grapevine -CCR
-me and Bobby McGee- janice
-I fought the law - the clash
-Wonderwall- Ryan Adams ( you should check this out)
- With a little help from my friends - Joe Cocker
-Halleluhjah- jeff Buckley ( definately not the kd lang version)

Thanks - fun article and they hit on some really good ones, though I take exception to ANYone's version of Hey Jude (I know the much ballyhooed Wilson Pickett version but not Elvis', which simply cannot be better than the Beatles', I'm sorry, which to my ears is still truly extraordinary).

Having spent a lunch discussing it, though I would have benefited from having one or more of you there to spur on the convo, I would add a few (interestingly in each case the original is a fine performance as well).....like The Byrds' Mr. Tambourine Man, REM's Superman, possibly Manfred Mann's Blinded by the Light, possibly the Pixies' Winterlong, possibly Egolillys' Ricki Don't Lose That Number (OK, OK), Blondie's Hanging on the Telephone, The Beatles Twist and Shout, The Stones Time is on my Side (haven't heard the original by Irma Thomas, but am hoping/trusting it's not as good); and Nina Simone's To Love Somebody.

And Stu, I was hoping to join you for a a bite tomorrow but V has a doctor's appointment at the end of the day so I am on kiddy pick up etc. See y'all at The Rex at 8:30 or so.

Don't think that I linked to the avclub article before....here it is.

Hey Kyle, like the list-making exercise re covers, and spent most of my lunch at McV's today coming up with possibilities. Can't link into your list though...can you re-attach?