Did you notice the followup article on the page? It appears that Pink Floyd won the case. I suspect that this suit may have been prompted by commercial reasons, rather than artistic ones. If you allow listeners to download individual tracks, you might sell only a couple from a given album, generating only a couple of dollars revenue. If you force them to buy the whole album, you can charge ten bucks or so. Sure there are some who will choose to buy nothing rather than buy the whole thing, but in the case of a well-established group like Pink Floyd, it may be that they would make more money by insisting on a larger packaging.

Interesting issue Kyle, though I'm surprised the Floyd'ers seem to be in as good a spot, legally speaking, as they are. I say that only because traditionally artists have tended to lose power over the distribution and selling of their music in dealing with record companies. Sounds like they had a savvy lawyer throwing in that clause to protect them, even if this circumstance per se was unforeseen - ie ipods and their evil power to commoditize music.

Not to play both sides of the fence, but I do feel like PF (or their lawyer) is being a little holier than thou in trying to stop the selling / downloading of individual songs. I love the band but there are certainly numerous songs that are not part of a bigger whole, that stand alone perfectly well, and are no less brilliant because of it. Arguably there greatest records are made up of great songs - Piper, Dark Side, Wish You Were Here. And it's not like they were the only band making concept music in the late sixties, seventies / eighties - I mean, the Who, Led Zeppelin, in fact almost every self-respecting rock band and most embarrassing imitations were doing the same thing at that time - I think of the Sweet, for example (who for the record I actually kind of dig). And, final point now, if you can download individual tracks from a Mahler symphony, or a Mozart opera, than surely Us and Them can't be sacred?

Interesting court case intiated by Pink Floyd against EMI, to prevent the label from selling their songs as individual downloads instead of as an entire album. Apart from the legal merits of either side (though it seems to me that EMI's on shaky ground when it contends that an album is something physical so downloads don't count) there's a broader question of whether you believe the artist or the music fan who gets to decide how a work is experienced. Do you think it's reasonable for a band to stipulate that its fans have to buy the whole work, because each song is part of that greater whole and can't really be understood or appreciated on its own? Or do fans have a legitimate right to pick and choose from the works of an artist they admire?

Perhaps I'm not framing the questions correctly but I think you get the gist of what I'm asking. Interested in getting your thoughts.

My take is that technology and file sharing renders the question academic anyway, given that I can easily download any individual Floyd tracks I want within seconds, and actually did so back in January in order to have a digital copy of "Fearless" to share during one of my better rounds in the Clash of the Decades. But I can appreciate where Pink Floyd is coming from; if any band is an 'album' band, it's them. Just wondering if it's reasonable, given that people are able to access pieces of the whole, that they insist on only selling the whole. Not sure.

Second the shoutout on Willis, Bri. A great use of 6 of my 9 remaining emusic credits this month. And a bonus badass mofo cover ; Samuel L. has nothing on this guy.

Update: Actually, the more I look at the cover, the more I'm reminded of a certain member of TV on the Radio.

well you guys have blunted what I had hoped to be a really funny self deprecating blog about Newsome... Notwithstanding my comments last week I actually bought the dam thing that same day... It was at soundscapes and I loved it on first listen, totally different from the last one, not to mention the racy photos inside...dam it really is worth the 2 1 bucks just for that...
Very accessible, she tones down the warble considerable, even has some good uptempo songs and its still growing on me as an album....
thanks for the larry willis tip Bri

No classical recs but I did locate another site where you can download new interesting music legally at http://www.rcrdlbl.com/.

As for Newsom, I'm one listen in and I tend to agree with Mike. It's much better than the previous album, both in terms of what she's doing, and maybe not doing, with her voice, and the strength of the songs, which stand on their own, as well as being part of the bigger whole. The songs on her previous disc tended to frustratingly meander all over the place. For those who really dig/dug Kate Bush, I'm thinking this is a home run. Not sure that I fall into this category. I appreciate what she's doing but I'm not sure if I'm terribly into it. Will give it a few more spins. Have closed my office door with the hopes of getting some work done on an important RFP and will try this as background music, which sometimes helps me focus on writing, not sure if others find this to be the case.

Ah the power of critics....it's got us all chasing and really working hard to understand an artist whom none of us (Derek = possible exception) really like.

Still looking for some classical recommendations...or have you all been too busy listening to Joanna Newsom.

"Have One on Me" is also available on Grooveshark, where you can listen to it as many times as you want. I've listened to some of it, but I'm still sorting out my opinion of it. I like it better than her previous material (which I've only sampled briefly) - both the voice and the lyrics are more mature here.

You don't have to resist. You can listen to the whole album here.

I gave it a listen in its entirety, as the Slate article suggests you do, on Friday evening and on first listen thought it was at the very least a good disc. Will obviously need to listen to it more often to really sink my teeth into it and that will require a purchase of the CD I suppose as they won't stream it for free indefinitely. So go ahead and give it a spin.

The new Gorillaz disc which I listened to on the Guardian's website (but is also available at the NPR site) also has some pretty good moments. Stick with it as I found the first 2 or 3 tracks the weaker ones on this album.

Continued praise for Newsom. Can you resist?

Yes indeed, the combo of 'pics and my annoyingly over-full life is keeping me from enjoying many of the finer things in life - like new music. On that note, in the eternal balance between pop, jazz, and classical music, I have definitely skewed towards the first in the past six months, and expect the pendulum to swing back over the next little while, likely first towards some good old-fashioned symphony music. Any recommendations (doesn't just have to be orchestral) of faves - recent recordings to throw at me? Failing that, jazz (old or new)?

Stu I recall you looking for some good electro fusion last year or so ago - I recently came across a great recording from 1972 or so by Larry Willis called "Inner Crisis". Give it a listen (it's on emusic) if you're still in the market for some nice energized e-jazz.

Re sports themes, the one that springs to mind for me (credit to Oliver as he loves this song) is We Are the Champions. Bit of a lighter-waver but still, not bad. Another one, "Hey Hey Hey - Kiss Him Goodbye" by Steam. I hope to be singing one or both of those at about 5:45 tomorrow.

eerily quiet here. it's as if there were an international sporting event spanning 17 days were somehow preoccupying your thoughts. hmmmn.

well then, gearing up for tonight's big match up against swede.....what's that...slovakia...no! really? (okay, but i'm still gonna be nervous), i can't help but wish the games were over, if only so i don't have to hear various versions ctv-themed 'i believe' song weaving its way through the background of every broadcasted competition like a lingering case of flatuence. which brings me to my question for the week (music- and not fart-themed):

what pop songs do you most associate with sporting events?

my personal fave of the past 15 years or so is blur's "song 2", which packs a nice big carthartic punch with its simple, 'woo hoo' chorus but there must be others. the gary glitter song still gets played quite a bit in the US, though his nasty personal predilections and arrests have mostly dampened enthusiasm for 'rock and roll pt. 1 and 2'.

least favourite: that damn ole ole ole song they sing at habs games. grrr.

fun times last night at the Wild Beasts show, even though they were neither wild nor beastly (discuss).

for those of you wondering how it is that joanna newsom continues to get glowing reviews, i invite you to continue to bang your head against the wall.

marc and mike, sorry you both couldn't make the show last night but thought you'd be interested in sampling some of the music from the opening band we saw last night, Still Life, Still, which I think we all kind of dug.

Hey Mike, belatedly, I love that Beatles link. I don't know about the rest of you but I can obsess at that level. Looks really well researched. And can you think of another band where you know every song so well, so that reading the detailed analysis doesn't leave you mystified? Other than the Smiths, Derek? Other than Bob Dylan, Stu? Other than John Denver, Mike?

Congrats, Bri! And welcome to late 2004. The good news: The Argos have just won the Grey Cup. The bad news: 4 more years of W.

I downloaded a podcast! I downloaded a podcast!

You actually have a very good memory Marc. As Kyle pointed out to me last night the 5 of us did indeed go to the Rex several years ago but we didn't stay too long as the band was quite bad and we headed off to the Rivoli.

No worries Stuart re Sunny Day in Glasgow. I hadn't realized that the Japandroids and the Sunny Day concerts were on consecutive evenings. Having picked up Japandroids tickets for Kyle and I this past weekend I might have had to bail on the other show regardless so I'm relieved to see you haven't purchased those tickets.

As for the Wild Beasts I picked up 5 tickets on the weekend $16/per and that show is 2 weeks from tonight at the Horseshoe.

the april 2 show ( sunny day glasgow) is the friday of the easter weekend, alas I can no longer make it...same w the japandroids, so its just the beasts for me.... Can someone else organise the tickets for glasgow show (if anyone is still interested.).. otherwize derek if you can still grab me a ticket just for the W. beasts Ill pay you the night of the show...
tks
s

Derek, where did we all go the evening we went out to Midi before a gig? ...was it just the Rex or was it something at the shoe? ...atrocious memory for such details ...and yes, i'd like to check out both shows, thanks for making arrangements guys.

Actually, fuck it. Put me down for the Japandroids show as well. Album is starting to grow on me, especially the drums that kick off the first track.

If I've read correctly does this mean that we have all 5 long-term members of the CD club looking to attend the Wild Beasts concert on February 22nd. If that is the case has this ever happened before?

Monday might actually be better for me than the Saturday. Put me down for some Wild Beasties and I'll have to get back to you on the Japandroids.

I'm game for what ever is on the go ...always up for something that i have absolutely no acquaintance with! ...besides, i might have my head out of the dust by then and looking for some release.

I'm up for the Wild Beasts. Unusual sounding band. A bit of the Smiths meets Antony and the Johnson perhaps?

The Wild Beasts are a band from the UK and are playing the Horseshoe on Monday February 22 for $15. The Japandroids are also playing at the shoe on a more family friendly Saturday night April 3 for the princely sum of $12.

a pox on your spurious, nay, supercilious statements stu (4 pts. for alliteration). is wild beasts that montreal band with the one good song? when are japandroids playing? am in for the glaswegian gig. let me know dates/deets for the other two.

I neglected to say that I am tiring of Kyles use of multi syllabic words such as "pulchritudinous".
To me they merely reinforce his epicene nature .....

Ok , maybe you get the wild beasts tickets Derek since you are more into beasteality then i... is the show Mon feb 22 at the shoe?

I will buy sunny day tickets in a week or so for all interested so anyone joining Derek and I please let me know before then...

of course I will take your cash at the show...

As one show is only 3 weeks away (Wild Beasts) and the the other 2 months away (Sunny Day) why don't we do both for those who are interested. April seems like a long time to wait to see some live music.

the garrison is in manhatten, thats why i suggested it...
actually it is 1197 dundas st west..... see link here
I just neeed to get out so I am open to seeing the wild beasts too

The pulchritudinous goddesses. Is that a metal band?

I'm of the same mind as Kyle. All 3 bands I like but don't really need to see in a live setting. Would be more interested in seeing Sunny Day in Glasgow or even Japandroids or Wild Beasts. The Sunny Day concert appears to be only $10. Where and what exactly is the Garrison?

much as i like the clientele and beach house (and field music, for that matter), i'm not dying to see any of these bands live. the word, 'soporific' comes to mind. will there be couches? good pot? lithe, pulchritudinous goddesses feeding me grapes while i recline and the music washes over me? if yes to any of these questions, i'm in. if no, i'll have to be cajoled. as for a sunny day in glascow, maybe. how much for the tix?

also, 30 days in, a nominee for worst album cover of the year.

Clientelle w Field music @ shoe march 19
Beach House @ opera house march 30
a sunny day in glasgow @ garrison april 2

anyone interested in any of these or spotted something better...i feel the need
s

Very cool link, Mike, and potentially hours of good reading and listening. For someone lacking in musical education such as myself, it's a great overview of concepts and terminology as well. I have added this as a link on the right navigation side of the page (moving the reading links up and the 2000s lists down) for those who may want to come back to it later, as I surely will. My father in-law, who is a Beatles fanatic, has always been adamant about the fact that, although their early stuff is now dismissed as simple or cute, when compared to their later work, the arrangements were far more complex than most if not all the pop music that preceded it. The Angels, "My Boyfriend's Back", released in 1963, mere months before the Beatles appearance on Ed Sullivan, seems eras away from a song like "Love Me Do".

Hard to comment further on Pollack's work, given that I haven't even begun to get through it, but I do have to commend him for undertaking the task.

For those of you who like to be really analytical with your music:

A friend of mine sent me this link to a site that provides in-depth analysis of virtually every Beatles song. It is written by American musicologist Alan Pollack. He makes only passing reference to lyrical content, as it is primarily a musical analysis. I've only read a few of them, but what becomes clear very quickly is that even the simple Beatles songs are full of little twists and changes that make them interesting. I've often wondered whether they wrote that way intentionally, or whether they just wrote what felt right to them, unaware of the underlying musical complexity that they were creating.

stuart, i was being facetious, which is pretty much my default mode. please feel free to bring any newbie along to the next meeting. but for the love of god, get some twenty-something in your office to take a look at that computer of yours.

The emusic song samples are m3u files. My system is set up to associate m3u files with the MS Media Player. However, when I click on an emusic song sample, the music plays directly from the web page - Media Player is not invoked, and there is no visible proprietary media player that pops up either. The song simply plays "in place". My settings on the emusic site include "Embedded Song Samples: ENABLED" under "Streaming Sample Settings".

It sounds as though you've somehow gotten into a state in which your samples are playing locally with their Flash 9 player, and are also downloading to Windows Media player for some reason. My only recommendation would be to contact emusic customer support and hope that they have a technical team that can reset your account.

last shot here at my emusic woes, before i pull its plug... I still seem to have the emusic media player going at the same time as windows media.... but slightly out of sync, rendering the listening unintelligible.....
my computer at the office plays emusic via windows media only... ( not via a emusic propriatorial media player...
are you lot sure that emusic has its own media player...?
s

I had a lot of fun meeting all of you in Toronto last week - thanks for welcoming me into the event. For the record, the songs that I played were:

Jimi Hendrix: All Along the Watchtower
Buffalo Springfield: On the Way Home
Van Morrison: Into the Mystic
Tom Waits: Telephone Call from Istanbul
James: Seven
Elliott Smith: Bled White
Stars: Your Ex-Lover is Dead

I considered publishing the entire list of songs that I brought with me (to justify all of the hours that I spent compiling it, I suppose), but I've decided that I prefer to remain somewhat mysterious. Each of you should feel free to assume that the discs were jam-packed with your favorites from each decade.

I'm easy going on this one. Which probably means I get trumped. Maybe invite the Vendulander into the blog? We can subtly check him out that way :)

Derek? Brian? Marc? might I bring a newbie to the next cd club? Or do you agree w our newblood phobic colleague?
s

Stuart, while I would welcome any visitors to upcoming meetings, I believe our charter specifically forbids venezualans from attending, rock star or no. If he were Brazilian, it would be a different story. Alas....

Yeah that was a fun night. Marc, thanks for letting us invade your space and draw you (randomly) with what I believe was the toughest decade.

I had a great time and enjoyed the upsets I managed to pull off, though ultimately getting slammed in the finals was humbling. In looking at my lists the enxt day (I built eight play lists for the night to draw from, plus a list of 50 "five star" songs and fifty "four star" numbers) I did wonder if I should have pushed the boundaries of familiarity a little more to draw from some stronger material in the second half of the night. But then I remember playing "Driver 8" and "Girl Called Johnny" and getting feedback ranging from sideways glances (the nice guys) to comments like "poor choice" (the frank guys) to " who is this?" (the ..... guys).

Still, with all of that prep I thought I may as well throw out a few of my other play lists for posterity's sake. As the evening progressed I chopped up the lists and used some songs as youi'll see, though when I look at them now they might have been better as a whole. By and large this is music that I think is really strong or at the very least the best within its genre, of the time.

Round Three
Love My Way - Psy Furs
Prisoners - Rain Parade
Beds are Burning - M/Oil (used that one)
Levi Stubbs' Tears - Bragg (used it)
Major Tom - Peter Schilling

Round Four
Pair of Brown Eyes - the Pogues
Elephant Stone - Stone Roses
Wet Weekend - Big Dipper
Pale Shelter - Tears for Fears
Pink Turns to Blue - Husker Du

Round Five
Only Life - The Feelies
The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death - Housemartins
Games Without Frontiers - Gabriel
A Wave Crashed on Rocks - The Felt
The Dreg - Fleshtones

Round Six
Ceremony- New Order
Borderline - Camper Van Beethoven
Message of Love - Pretenders
Killing Jar - Siouxsie and the Banshees
Perfect Day - The The

Round Seven
Fields of Fire - Big Country
Christine - House of Love
Everything Counts - Depeche Mode
Might as Well Be on Mars - Pukka Orchestra

So great night. My one less-than-glowing comment is that iit ended up being a process of (almost) smug familiarity with music, rather than opening our ears to new (or less familiar) music. Of course that was all to do with the format. For me that familiarity was what propelled me through two rounds...so not sour grapes. And I kick myself for not punishing Mr 60's with my (lack of) votes for his choice of two Beatles and two Stones. Bastard! And thereby skipping lots of great bands. And two from the same record (Let it Bleed).

Stu has subsequently suggested we get together in the future for in depth listens oif a decade. Stu, over to you to outline your suggestion.

A good friend of mine has landed herself a venzuland rock star boyfriend who I think would make an interesting invitee to the next cd club..
He was very commercially sucessfull during the 90's and had a sound sort of like REM meets sigour ros....its interesting how he knows all the american and british bands of the 60's to 00's including obscure figures like al kooper... seems they had access to all the stuff we had up here...
anyway I am hoping you lot are more open to this since its not a special event like the decade battle but let me know...
s

Big kudos to Marc for his amazing hosting duties on Friday night for the big Decades of Music Smackdown. The food, drink, and company were, as always, excellent and very much appreciated.

Kudos too to Mike, for making the trek down to the meeting, spinning some great music during the elimination rounds, and generally tolerating the drunken self-absorption of the rest of us. I hope your son doesn't hold your decision to skip his hockey game against you for the rest of your life; if so, I hope it was worth it.

Final Tally was, for those too drunk to remember:

1st Place: 1960s
2nd Place: 1970s
3rd Place: 1980s
4th Place: 1990s
5th Place: 2000s

Believe the rounds went as follows:

1. 1960s defeated 2000s
2. 1980s defeated 1990s
3. 1990s defeated 2000s (eliminated)
4. 1980s defeated 1970s
5. 1970s defeated 1960s
6. 1960s defeated 1990s (eliminated)
7. 1970s defeated 1980s
8. final round - mike's 3 choices, 4 choices from 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, votes after each round
total vote final round: 1960s: 34, 1970s: 32, 1980s: 6

Please correct if I have this wrong. More importantly, what does this tell us, beyond the fact that Stuart wins and should get some sort of prize, beyond blog-based technical support for web browser media plugins? Beyond the bitterness of say, not finishing where you would have liked your randomly assigned decade to have finished, do you ultimate agree with the final ranking?

Are we sentimental and overly nostalgic? Do we idealize the past or just require time to put the music in its proper perspective? Or, is it just that Stuart is a god?

Derek, that is...

internet explorer, windows xp , adobe flashplayer 10
thanks much Derak...
s

Let me know Stuart if you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer and which version of Windows you're running. Is it XP, Vista or 7? You shouldn't have to remove Windows Media Player.

I have the streaming samples setting correct (embedded sound samples enabled).. I also have the syn option in the emusic download manager set to default....but i have had some sucsess..
the problem is that the emusic streaming is working fine but my windows media player has for some reason started playing symultaneously, ( but 5 seconds delayed)...
I have gone into the windows media player and turned off all the file types that are automatically prompting it to be engaged...this has solved the problem sort of.."
but now when I try to stream a song I get a dialogue box each time that says "file download,"
"do you want to open or save this file" and I have to close the dialogue box each and every time I click on a track top stream....
maybe I shoiuld just remove windows media player from my computer, but I am worried that will affect other things I have or that my kids have on the computer....
seems drastic to do that,
any thoughts?????
s

Hey Stuart you should be able to simply stream tracks within e-music without the use of an external player. It may be that you have the internal streaming option disabled. Give this a try and see how yours is set up.

Go to "Your Account" and look at the Account Options on the left hand side and scroll down to the "Downloading and Streaming" option and click on "Streaming Sample Settings".

My own account is set up as follows:

• Status

  Embedded Sound Samples: ENABLED

eMusic's 30-second audio samples are set to play automatically within your browser, without launching a media player. Nice! Note that you must have Flash 9 installed in order to utilize this feature. To install Flash 9 click here.

But, if you prefer to listen to audio samples using your Media Player just click the button below. The change will not affect downloading or playback of downloaded tracks.

Let me know if you are still having trouble after checking this out.

Thanks again Marc for being a gracious host on Friday night.

When I stream tunes on emusic the song will start playing and then 5 seconds later a second version of the same song will start playing symultaneously overtop the first version making the listening indecipherable. I have tried emusic help but they are about as techincally savvy as me...any thoughts from you lot on how to correct this. Whic music player do you guys run for emusic. Is that music player what you have as a default for all streaming? help would be greatly appreciated as currently I cannot use the system at all due to this...
s

As I'm looking at my final prep for this afternoon's/evening's battle royale, my question to you is:

Are we doing 7 rounds or 9 rounds total?

Reviewing the blog postings, Derek nicely sketched out examples of each but I noticed that we hadn't made a decision on the exact number. I'm fine with either scenario, but may I make a suggestion: If we do 9 rounds, we should probably limit each round to 3 songs per decade. If we stick with 7 rounds, we can keep it at the 15 minutes.

Thoughts? Mostly wanted to clarify ahead of time as this may impact your song selection/strategy.

Would love to offer my thoughts and comments but I am completely immersed right now in the amazing musical ride that is the 1970s. I need to stay focused in order to resolve the greatest question of that era: David or Shaun?

Ok I will not bring them... No worries...
s

Yeah, normally I'm a the-more-the-merrier type but I must admit I was thinking of this event as just me and the boys ("and our 50"?, no likely not).

I do believe that invitation was extended Stuart. Having said that let me just quote one of my favourite tunes from the 70s (is this on your list Kyle?):

"Got to - keep it in the family
Learn to - keep it in the family
Have to - keep it in the family
Want to - keep it in the family"

Of course I'm just a dour Scotsman who likes the status quo.

Hey Marc, do we have a definitive start time on this for Friday?

AT a music and wine filled new years eve dinner at my place with my neighbours and Derek and May, apparently an invitation was extended for my neighbour John and his musically knowledgable friend to come to the event friday. Derek , I have little recollection of this , you may recall more detail, but the copious quantity of wine drunk that night have dulled my memory. I have told him that I will check with you lot to see if you are ok with 2 more rogue voters. I realise this involves more food marc so I am quite happy to say I will get together with them at another time. At any rate none of you should feel obligated , but perhaps you all can tell me wether you think this is ok with you or not...
s

Let's see: 7-9 rounds at 30 minutes per minimum times # of beers you can consume within each half hour = you're screwed for your course, Bri. Marc, you may want to restrict turntable selections to the start of the evening, in order to prevent damage to equipment and rare vinyl that could easily occur several beers into the proceedings. I plan to 'lay a base' by consuming a large plate of pasta every hour on the hour, along with a big glass of milk. Should get me to 9pm at least.

I should be good for a 5 o'clock start boys. Food is taken care of? Don;t go to any effort Marc if you were thinkignof it, we can just order something. I have an 8:30 start the next morning at an all day Accountign course so, while I can stay up late-ish, I better not be too hammered.

i agree w Kyle, forget the year thing...it makes things too inflexible.... plus way more work...
I am fine with a 5 or 6pm start , just let me know...
Marc I asume your turntable is working? Please confirm
s

As Marc's place is a mere two subway stops from my office, a 4:00 pm arrival is indeed doable from my perspective, though that many consecutive hours of drinking portends a bit of a ghastly hangover for Saturday morning. Given that Brian won't be available until after 4:00 pm, did we want to push the start time to 5 or 6?

As for the exact years or ranges, I vote on skipping, mostly because I think it could take away from the strategizing and decision-making that will go into what songs are played each round. Do I play a song from the beginning, middle, end of a decade in each round? Do I try to group the songs I'm going to play by genre? If so, which genre to start with? Do I lead with what I feel are the strongest songs first or do I keep some powder in the keg with the hopes of making it to the end? Going with one year or set of years will mean I'll have to come up with 3 goodies or so per year but the structure imposed kind of makes it easier for participants and really, we can't have that. Just my two cents. Certainly don't want to antagonize anyone going into a voting period.

6pm should just be about the time Brian is drawing his last competitive breath of the evening. Especially since he has nothing from 1981. That's outrageous. No less iconic 80s songs than Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough", Human League's "Don't You Want Me Baby", Soft Cell's "Tainted Love", Duran Duran's "Girls on Film", OMD's "Joan of Arc" and Pigbag's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (better known as the New Music theme) all spring from 1981.

Hope it's not all Marine Girls and Minutemen there Bri.

My plan is to pick up my son at school at lunchtime, and drive to Toronto then. So I will not be ready to go by 4pm, I'm afraid. It'll probably be after 6 before I can be there. But I'm not essential for the early round matches anyway, so you can get things rolling without me. I'll try to time a dramatic entrance just as the first decade is on the ropes.

Hey Derek, there's that knack again. We're in good hands. Funny to think what a drunken slur of an idea this on Grey Cup night.

Re the "year" idea, I'm easy going. I think it might have to be multiple years from each decade to work - perhaps four years, to accommodate the max number of rounds that each decade cn go. And how to choose the four in that case? We could go random, but in the case of the sixties that raises the specter of multiple pre-Beatle years. And I really don't think we want to sit around listening to Frankie Valli all night. And might the new format make it tougher for The Gaine-sayer to perform his crucial role?

Anyway, I've narrowed the eighties down to 75 songs - from the outstanding to the soporific, the transcendent to the sophomoric, I've got it all. Nothing from 1981 though.

Looking forward to it all. FYI I may not be available until after 4 - not 100% sure but it's scheduled to be a busy week with a bunch of things due Friday.

Dude, yuall seem to got it ALL figured out.

Ok here goes Marc I'll try and answer some of your questions. The decades will be drawn randomly but as I mentioned in an earlier post the winning decade in any particular round will not go back in to the hat but will skip being selected for one round thus avoiding the scenario you mention.

As for the minimum of 7 rounds maximum of 9 that I posted earlier take the following as an example.

7 Round Contest

#1: 60's v 70's - winner 60's
#2: 80's v 90's - winner 80's
#3: 60's v 00's - winner 60's
#4: 80's v 70's - winner 80's (70's eliminated)
#5: 60's v 90's - winner 60's (90's eliminated)
#6: 80's v 00's - winner 80's (00's eliminated)
#7: 60's v 80's for all the marbles

9 Round Contest

#1: 60's v 70's - winner 60's
#2: 80's v 90's - winner 80's
#3: 60's v 00's - winner 00's
#4: 80's v 70's - winner 70's
#5: 60's v 80's - winner 60's (80's eliminated)
#6: 90's v 00's - winner 90's
#7: 70's v 00's - winner 70's (00's eliminated)
#8: 60's v 90's - winner 90's (60's eliminated)
#9: 70's v 90's for the big prize

As for the 4pm start time I believe that we are deadly serious. You don't after all think this thing will run like clockwork do you. A couple of those 5 litre mini kegs should see us right.

Getting back to the other scenario re specific years. I was thinking that if we were to go that route we should be assigned specific years prior to the night in question. i.e. I show up on the 15th knowing that all the songs I play have to come from 1997 and Brian's from 1983 etc. Would be rather difficult the night of to bring along a deep list of songs for each year of your assigned decade. I still like the idea but would like to hear from the rest of the group.

The list of shameful songs is also a nice touch.

Gentlemen, Happy New Year tu yuall. (that's Texas speak i picked up last week)

I'm trying to get a handle on all the convoluted rules to the smackdown. If we are drawing the five decades out of a hat randomly is it not possible that one of the decades gets picked every time if it has not yet been eliminated and therefore might be subject to up to nine rounds? ...or are we arbitrarily saying that it can only participate in four rounds ...but if it wins those first four rounds would it not then automatically become the winner because it is undefeated and then the smackdown ends after four rounds? ...Is there something i am not understanding about the rules (as per usual!)?

Secondly, in order to declare a winner out of five decades, would we not have a minimum of EIGHT rounds with a maximum of nine? ...or again, is there something i am not understanding about the rules (as per usual!)?

Re start time and a little simple math. Stuart mentioned a 4:00pm start time in an earlier e-mail ...is this for real? Limit of 15 min per round per person times 2 plus x minutes for The Gainezer for the the save, gives us 37:30 a round, times 9 is 5:37, makes us done by 9:30? ...oh ya and then there's 2 1/2 hours of voting and arguing about the rules! ...so that's how many ml. of alcohol? I'm willing to start at 4:00 if everyone else is serious about it.

apologies, I see I may have opened a pandoras box...lets go with the original plan and we can always do a different take on it next year...ie maybe once a year in janyuary we pit 2 decades against each other so it can be more in depth... I like Kyles idea of banashing a person from marcs house ( survivor style) if they pick a song everyone hates but since I will likely through in a few Bacherach or neil diamond tunes (being the smaltz lover I am ), I would have to say a no to this..." the mornings' just another day, happy people pass my way..."
s

I like the suggestion, D. So would this mean that we'd have different years down on paper, say a 1970s hat vs. a 1990s hat and I might pull '1993' out of your hat and you'd pull '1977' so then it would be a fierce battle between songs from these two years? For example, you would play 'Two Princes' by the Spin Doctors and I would counter with 'I Just Want to Be Your Everything' by Andy Gibb? Wait, would those be good examples?

On the topic of irritating music, one additional twist I thought we could add would be to have an 'auto-disqualify' feature, whereby each attendee could write down the name of one song, from any decade, that he considers to be so goddamn awful that, if played, triggers an automatic disqualification for the person who has chosen to play it. We obviously would not disclose our choices, at least until after the end of the evening, and it lend a touch of drama and pressure to the proceedings. So if, say, Brian were feeling overconfident and decided he could get away with playing "We Built this City" by Starship, and this were written down on my sheet of paper, I could then wave it and shout, 'Disqualify' and he would automatically be disqualified from that round and any future round. The only unresolved question, in my mind, would be whether he would get to stay for the rest of the evening or would have to leave Marc's place immediately. If this sounds like I'm picking on Brian then picture one of yourselves yelling it at me, and me having to high tail it out of Marc's place, Barry Manilow's Mandy tucked against the tail between my legs.

Tend to agree with what you're saying Stuart. The only thing I could suggest, and it's only a suggestion, is that we randomly assign each person a specific year within a decade and in that way we might have a greater variety of music to listen to as it won't simply be the 10 greatest songs of a 10 year period which are probably fairly obvious to most. Would require more upfront work for each of us and would make Mike's task more difficult.

I'm easy either way but I thought I'd throw this out there.

further thought, also to Kyles question...
It would be nice if the person presenting the songs loved them to death, and still likes playing it...
the arguments about the importance historically or musically can always be tried out to sway voters......
for me the interesting songs are likely the ones just under the absoute best.... I mean i will likely trott out hey jude, because I love the song to death and still love it, but do you guys really need to hear it? I am wondering if the evening is being compressed too much... for example, I would love a whole evening playing 1960 against 1990..... we could divide up into 2 groups each armed with 100 songs and alternate what you play...ie each team member doesnt have to tell ahead of time their choice to his fellow team members...
I realise this is way to late to change the format, and I wont say any more...I promise...
maybe next year we can do a similar thing but dig deeper into the decades...

damn .....so max 4 rounds x 3 or 4 songs is 12 to 16 selections total... I am cutting from 60 and its not easy....60's are an embaressment of riches....With such a limited number of songs, I am worried we will all pick such famous songs it will be a boring night musically... I will go gamble and say i will pick on each round at least one song that is less well known, if known at all.... or at least from a lesser liked category such as country...I should still easily beat the Latvian....

Well, I've scratched a few surfaces in the 80's in the last ten days (and there are some ugly boils and blisters below that shiny skin...ha), and was planning to bring twenty to thirty songs - ie, maximum 4 rounds, each with 3 or 4 new songs. In terms of my selections, I was thinking I'd "play the room" a little bit, see what worked and what didn't as they evening wore on. I would tend to think a mix of defining and trascending, but given that we're looking for votes, was thinking that anything people had heard say, 5000 times will be difficult to get past any pre-existing biases, so try to find at least a few songs that may sound fresh to everyone's ears.

Mind you, I've got the 80's, so am feeling a bit like the Latvians at an international hockey tournament. I'm counting on Kyle for major votes.

Dreams of better lives/the kind that never hate/Dropped in the state of imaginary grace/I made a pilgrimage to save the human race/Never comprehending a race had long gone by.....

I'm sure I haven't even scratched the surface of the 70s and my list of possible songs and artists has swollen to 20...so I'll have to whittle these down to 3 or 4 songs total? Yowsa!

Beyond coming up with "good" song choices, what should we be aiming for in either evaluating songs to motivate or deciding on how to vote? Songs that define a decade? Transcend it? Posess a timeless quality while simultaneously albeit paradoxically are still very much rooted in a specific time and place? Your guidance will determine whether or not Dr. Hook makes the final cut.

Back to so-cal pretty guitar strumming, vocal harmonies, as per Derek's suggestion...

"Cause the free wind is blowin' through your hair/and the days surround your daylight there/ Seasons cryin', oh despair/Alligator lizards in the air/In the air....doo doo doo..."

Or Kyle you could just go with America sans breakfast.

As for Brian's hubris perhaps he is just now beginning to realize how much help he's going to need simply to win a round never mind reaching the final.

3 or 4 songs should be about right. Let's say we limit it to 15 minutes per person per round as we don't want Kyle getting carried away with the likes of Rush, Genesis and King Crimson that could easily see us closing in on an hour for 3 tracks.

Hoping I can locate my original copy of Breakfast in America in time....

I'm happy with the wildcard coming into play only on the verge of elimination. It'd be tough to offer more than one impassioned plea for a stay of execution for any decade.

Derek, you have a flare for organization. A couple of questions - how many songs per decade per round should we be thinking about? I was imagining three or four. And secondly, perhaps Mike would have a bit more involvement if he could jump in whenever a decade was on the ropes on a vote, and not just the second time through (thinking he might not get to play anything for the first half under that scenario)?

Gentlemen, I've done a lot of listening in the past couple of weeks. The 80's were an outstanding decade of music, and dare I say, could be the frontrunner going into the big shewdewn.

The decades involved are the 60s (Stuart), 70s (Kyle), 80s (Brian), 90s (Derek) and 00s (Marc).

Since a decade can only lose twice and then is eliminated I think that we are looking at a minimum of 7 rounds and a maximum of 9. Thus each decade will be in play for 2 rounds at a minimum and likely 4 at a maximum.

The idea behind a wildcard like yourself Mike is that if a decade has already lost once and has been voted against for a 2nd time then you could throw out several tunes from that era as a lifeline to see if that would somehow sway the vote and keep that decade alive.

CDs, Ipods, or vinyl I think we can probably accommodate any format so that will be up to each individual. Having an album cover with lyric sheets might even play a small part in the persuasiveness of the song.

Speaking of the big battle of the decades, I did get a quick introduction to the concept from Brian when he was here. As I understand it, I need to prepare some songs for each decade to attempt to reverse the outcome of each round when the voting is done. I assume that the last decade to be included is the '00s - how far back are we going? And how many rounds of competition will there be in total? How many rounds could any one decade potentially have? Finally, are we all bringing CD's with our chosen songs on them, or are we playing them from mp3 players?


Thanks,


Mike

I'm probably most interested in the new Field Music and Frightened Rabbits albums. Didn't realize that Rogue Wave, Quasi and most especially Bettie Serveert were still making music. I guess once bands lose a certain newness they just fall off the collective radar. Anyone hear anything from Ben Folds Five lately?

As for Robert Pollard I'm not sure anyone needs to hear new music from the man who doesn't have a thought that doesn't get turned in to a lyric. And I'll pass on anything new from Vampire Weekend, a band I tired of very quickly.

Looking forward to January 15th. One of the rules that came to mind is that a winning decade in any round should not go directly back in to the hat as we could select the same match-up two rounds in a row. Having said that should we avoid identical decade match-ups at least until the final round when there are only 2 decades left. My song selection will remain very top secret until the night in question although I might just run with the complete discography of Ace of Base and let all comers fall in its wake.

Out with the old, in with the new....a nice primer from pitchfork on upcoming 2010 releases. Which ones am I most looking forward to hearing? If pressed, I'd have to say Besnard Lakes but to be honest, I'm most looking forward to hearing from bands with whom I'm not presently familiar. The new stuff is what usually ends up being my faves of any given year. Perhaps you feel differently and there are some new releases for which you await with baited breath? Conversely, are there any artists who should not, iyo, put out any album this year or at any point in the future?

Also, I understand from the email flurries that we are looking at Friday January 15th at Marc's for the big meeting/showdown. Yes, Feel free to start posting rules/thoughts/song nominations, etc so we can all prepare.

final 09 roundup with lists, and one note of sadness:

Vic Chesnutt, RIP

Animal Collective article that touches on themes discussed recently w/ Bri, Derek, Stu.

Jazz Albums of year, decade.

2009 albums

10. Telekinesis - Telekinesis!

9. Bowerbirds - Upper Air

8. Bosque Brown - Baby

7. Atlas Sound - Logos

6. Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - II

5. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

4. Dark Was the Night Compilation

3. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
2. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

1. Wye Oak - The Knot

honourable mentions: Woodpigeon "La Commission Scolaire", Viva Voce "Rose City", The Big Pink "A Brief History of Love", The Dodos "Time to Die", DOOM "Unexpected Guests"

not quite there yet:

bear in heaven, the xx,

yawn:

amy millan, asobi seksu, god help the girl, volcano choir, woods, hope sandoval

songs

10. Here to Fall - Yo La Tengo

9. Catch the Light - Sin Fang Bous

8. Die A Little - Viva Voce

7. Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear

6. Lust for Life - Girls

5. Raindrops - Basement Jaxx

4. Coast of Carolina - Telekinesis

3. Stillness is the Move - Dirty Projectors

2. Seasun - Delorean

1. My Girls - Animal Collective

No time for links, more thoughts but discussion at lunch for sure. Merry Christmas to all!

Yearly schaedenfraude, this time with extra cathartic Creed/Nickelback dig. Enjoy.

Two thoughts on this. One: awesome! Two: Britons still listen to an awful lot of crap music.

Also, Derek, you recently lamented the fact that Merriwether Post Pavillion is hitting number 1 on many a critic's yearly roundup. I'm just as stumped by the ubiquitous praise for The XX, who can best be described as Stars, without guitars and seemingly, energy. Not a bad disc, and there are a few decent tracks, but despite repeated listens, it barely registers for me. Know this one charts highly on emusic so I'm wondering if any of you have listened to it and what your thoughts, impressions are?

09 list to follow shortly.

I think the strength of "My Girls" , easily my favourite of 09, along with the fact that this album is mostly joyful, almost accessible, has critics fawning. "Summertime Clothes" is a pretty great track, too, though I'll agree with you that there are many skippable tracks on the disc. To be in the top 10, if not number 1, you should at least be enjoyable all the way through. Though compared to Nickelback...

Wow. Best of the decade! Suppose I could magnanimously shrug and say, "To each his own..." but jesus h. Kind of like being told that the best restaurant of the decade is the Mandarin Buffet. I don't think I've been this disappointed in humanity since the re-election of George W. Bush.

I knew if I waited long enough I wouldn't have to think too hard about Brian's query of a week ago. Thank you Billboard magazine for nailing it for us.

I give you Canada's finest.

And just wondering. Why is everyone drooling over Animal Collective's "Merriweather Post Pavilion". I don't think I've seen a single best of 2009 list yet that didn't have this as #1. I listened to it again today at work and it still seems like a fairly mediocre album to these ears.

Annual compilation of band names courtesy of the Onion. Though I'm not in a band, I did have an idea for one on Saturday, courtesy of a Toronto Sun headline, which read, "FIRST SEX, NOW BEER". I don't know, and I don't care to know, what I was supposed to be outraged about (taxes? public officials expenses?), but I thought that would make a great name for a band (as well as a great to-do list).

Hey, someone actually read through my methodology explanation. Well done. And yes, I did divide all of the albums by six but just posted the top 30. Looking through the numbers a second time though, it seems I didn't add all of them correctly the first time. Here's (what should be the correct) totals for all albums listed with scoring:

Rank/Artist&Album/Score
1 Arcade Fire, Funeral 82.4
2 Decemberists Picaresque 80.7
3 Hour of the BewilderbeastBadly Drawn Boy 62.6
4 Sufjan Stevens – Illinoise 57.9
5 Arcade Fire Neon Bible 57.8
6 Broken Social Scene, You Forgot it in People 57.3
7 The Strokes – Is this it? 53.4
8 Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 48.4
9 Yo la Tengo And then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out 44.5
10 Strokes Room On Fire 43.9
11 Beck Sea Change 41.2
12 Radiohead In Rainbows 39.7
13 St Germain, Tourist 39.4
14 Chutes Too NarrowThe Shins 38.2
15 Kanye West Late Registration 37.9
16 Band Of Horses Everything All The Time 31.9
17 Kid ARadiohead 31.5
18 Bon Iver For Emma 29.7
19 Waltz for KoopKoop 29.6
20 Feast of WireCalexico 29.3
21 Yoshimi Battles the Pink RobotsThe Flaming Lips 29.1
22 Fox Confessor Brings the FloodNeko Case 29.0
23 TV on the Radio Return to Cookie Mountain 29.0
24 Set Yourself on FireStars 28.4
25 MIA Arular 28.1
26 Bows + ArrowsThe Walkmen 28.0
27 Sigur Ros Takk 27.4
28 Suba Sao Paolo Confessions 27.2
29 The Pernice Brothers The World Wont End 27.1
30 The Microphones – The Glow Part 2 24.7
31 Antics Interpol 24.5
32 The Electric VersionThe New Pornographers 23.9
33 Feist The Reminder 23.7
34 MadvillainyMadvillian 22.8
35 Mum Finally We Are No One 22.5
36 Elliott Smith - From a Basement on the Hill 22.3
37 Iron & Wine Our Endless Numbered Days 21.4
38 Clinic, Walking With Thee 21.2
39 Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker 20.7
40 Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head 20.5
41 My Morning Jacket - Z 20.0
42 Since I Left YouThe Avalanches 19.7
43 Grandaddy – The Sophtware Slump 19.7
44 Lilly Allen Alright Still 19.2
45 K-os Joyful Rebellion 18.8
46 The Kingsbury Manx – The Fast Rise and Fall of the South 18.6
47 Midlake – Trials of Van Occupanther 17.7
48 Jack Johnson, Thicker Than Water 16.5
49 Bruce Springsteen - The Rising 16.3
50 Antibalas, Talkatif 16.3
51 Belle & Sebastian Fold Your Hands Child .. 15.8
52 Steve Earle - Jerusalem 15.7
53 Getatchew Mekuria, The Ex and Guests, Moa Anbessa 15.7
54 Destroyer Streethawk: A Seduction 15.6
55 Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes 15.5
56 Neko Case Blacklisted 15.3
57 Tom Waits - Alice 15.3
58 Soil and Pimp Sessions, Pimp of the Year 15.2
59 Bugge Wesseltoft, Moving 15.0
60 Moby 18 15.0
61 Lyle Lovett - My Baby Don’t Tolerate 15.0
62 Guided By Voices – Isolation Drills 15.0
63 Johnny Cash American IV The Man Comes Around 14.9
64 Over The Rhine - The Trumpet Child 14.7
65 Brad Mehldau, Live in Tokyo 14.6
66 Animal Collective – Feels 14.6
67 The Grey AlbumDanger Mouse 14.5
68 New Pornographers Twin Cinema 14.5
69 Teenage Fanclub – Man Made 14.4
70 Feist - Let It Die 14.4
71 Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers 14.3
72 Decemberists Castaways and Cutouts 14.2
73 Jay Farrar Terroir Blues 14.2
74 Damien Jurado – And Now that I’m in your Shadow 14.2
75 The Lucksmiths Warmer Corners 14.1
76 Josh Ritter - Hello Starling 14.0
77 The Streets Orignal Pirate Material 13.9
78 Kings of Convenience – Quiet is the New Loud 13.8
79 Gotan Project, La Revancha Del Tango 13.8
80 Air Virgin Suicides 13.7
81 Garbage - Beautiful Garbage 13.7
82 David Gray - A New Day at Midnight 13.7
83 Matt Pond – The Green Fury 13.6
84 The Walkmen Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone 13.5
85 Franz Ferdinand 13.4
86 Death Cab for Cutie, Plans 13.4
87 Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions 13.3
88 Simple Things Zero 7 13.3
89 TV on the Radio Dear Science 13.3
90 Jack Johnson, Brushfire Fairytales 13.2
91 Speakerboxx/The Love BelowOutkast 13.2
92 Beulah – The Coast is Never Clear 13.2
93 Sigur Ros, () 13.0
94 Coldplay - X&Y 13.0
95 Figure 8 Elliot Smith 13.0
96 Clinic Internal Wrangler 12.8
97 Melody A.M. Royksopp 12.7
98 Peter Gabriel Up 12.7
99 R.E.M. - Reveal 12.7
100 King Geedorah Take Me to Your Leader 12.7
101 Beck Guero 12.6
102 Wilco, A Ghost is Born 12.6
103 John Cunningham – Happy Go Unlucky 12.5
104 Thirteen Tales of Urban Bohemia The Dandy Warhols 12.5
105 Wolf Parade Aplogies to Queen Mary 12.5
106 Destroyer Streethawk 12.4
107 Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights 12.3
108 U2 - All That You Can’t Leave Behind 12.3
109 VeneerJose Gonzalez 12.3
110 Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha 12.3
111 Okkervil River – The Stage Names 12.3
112 Patty Griffin Children Running Through 12.2
113 Dandy Warhols, Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia 12.2
114 Mountain Goats The Sunset Tree 12.2
115 Archer Prewitt – Gerroa Songs 12.1
116 The Wrens Meadowland 12.0
117 The New Pornographers, Mass Romantic 12.0
118 Pawa Up First, Introducing New Details 11.8
119 Delgados The Great Eastern 11.7
120 Cast of ThousandsElbow 11.7
121 The Decemberists - Castaways and Cutouts 11.7
122 Viktor Vaughan Vaudeville Villain 11.6
123 South, From Here On In 11.6
124 Sparklehorse It’s a Wonderful Life 11.6
125 Field Music – Tones of Town 11.5
126 Sao Paulo Confessions Suba 11.5
127 Bebel Gilberto, Tanto Tempo 11.4
128 Novillero – Aim Right For the Holes in their Lives 11.4
129 The Go Betweens Oceans Apart 11.4
130 Ivy Long Distence 11.3
131 Soil and Pimp Sessions, Pimp Master 11.2
132 Pushin' OnQuantic Soul Orchestra 11.2
133 Jolie Holland, Escondida 11.0
134 Bugge Wesseltoft, New conceptions of Jazz 11.0
135 Lil Wayne Tha Carter III 10.9
136 The Bicycles – the Good, the Bad, and the Cuddly 10.9
137 Calexico Garden Ruin 10.8
138 The Headlights – Some Racing Some Stopping 10.7
139 The National Boxer 10.7
140 The Waterboys - A Rock in the Weary Land 10.7
141 Field Music Field Music 10.6
142 Juliana Hatfield – Beautiful Creature 10.6
143 Specialist in All StylesOrchestra Baobob 10.5
144 M Ward Transfiguration Of Vincent 10.4
145 Les Savy Fav – Let’s Stay Friends 10.4
146 Sonic Youth Murray Street 10.3
147 David Pajo Pajo 10.2
148 TransatlanticismDeath Cab for Cutie 10.2
149 Bright Eyes Digital Ash in a Digital Urn 10.1
150 Dandy Warhols 13 Tales… 10.0
151 Ga Ga Ga Ga GaSpoon 10.0
152 M83 Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts 10.0
153 Movietone – Blossom Filled Streets 10.0
154 Radiohead - Hail To The Thief 10.0
155 Zero Seven, Simple Things 10.0
156 Young people – All at Once 9.9
157 Vieux Farka Toure Vieux Farka Toure 9.8
158 Echospace The Coldest Season 9.8
159 The Stills Logic Will Break Your Heart 9.8
160 New Buffalo – Somewhere Anywhere 9.7
161 Suzanne Vega - Songs In Red And Gray 9.7
162 Tapes n Tapes – The Loon 9.6
163 Nick Lowe The Convincer 9.6
164 Femi Kuti, Fight To Win 9.6
165 Post-WarM.Ward 9.5
166 The Deerhof – The Runners Four 9.5
167 Last Days of April – If You Lose It 9.4
168 Eivind Aarset, Connected 9.3
169 M. Ward The Transfiguration of Vincent 9.3
170 John Fogerty - Revival 9.3
171 The City Fembots 9.3
172 Belle and Sebastian The Life Pursuit 9.3
173 Low – Things We Lost in the Fire 9.3
174 Junior Boys So This is Goodbye 9.2
175 Person Pitch Panda Bear 9.2
176 Amon Tobin, Supermodified 9.1
177 Leisure Society – Sleeper 9.1
178 Richard Buckner The Hill 9.1
179 Land of Talk – Some are Lakes 9.0
180 The Horrors Primary Colours 9.0
181 Kathleen Edwards - Failer 9.0
182 Four Hero, Creating Patterns 8.9
183 Radiohead Amnesiac 8.9
184 The Teeth - Your're My Lover Now 8.8
185 Ladytron, Witching Hour 8.7
186 Do Make Say Think - You, You're a History in Rust 8.7
187 Foreign Exchange Connected 8.7
188 American Analog Set - Know By Heart 8.6
189 Fiery Furnaces Blueberry Boat 8.6
190 Tujiko Noriko From Tokyo to Niagara 8.5
191 Antibalas, Who is This America 8.5
192 Apples in Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder 8.5
193 Oh, Inverted World The Shins 8.5
194 Two Minute Miracles Volume II 8.5
195 Sun Kill Moon Ghosts of the Great highway 8.4
196 Imperial Teen - The Hair the TV the Baby and the Band 8.4
197 Cut Copy In Ghost Colours 8.4
198 Better Than Ezra - Closer 8.3
199 Bugge Wesseltoft, IM 8.3
200 Rachels Systems layers 8.2
201 The Life PursuitBelle and Sebastian 8.2
202 Bonobo, Animal Magic 8.1
203 Aimee Mann Bachelor # 2 8.0
204 Parc Avenue Plants & Animals 8.0
205 Lucinda Williams - Essence 7.9
206 The Antlers Hospice 7.8
207 Soil and Pimp Sessions, Pimpoint 7.7
208 Black Sheep Boy Okkervil River 7.7
209 Todd Snider - East Nashville Skyline 7.7
210 Bonnie prince Billy Greatest Palace Music 7.6
211 One BedroomThe Sea and Cake 7.5
212 Alligator The National 7.3
213 Over the Rhine - Live From Nowhere Volume One 7.3
214 Steve Earle Transcendental Blues 7.3
215 Beastie Boys, To the Boroughs 7.3
216 Outkast, Stankonia 7.1
217 Bright Eyes Cassadaga 7.1
218 Andorra Caribou 7.0
219 Cat Power The Greatest 6.9
220 Five Roses Miracle Fortress 6.8
221 Spoon, Gimme Fiction 6.7
222 The EraserThom Yorke 6.7
223 The Walkabouts - Drunken Soundtracks 6.7
224 The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse The Besnard Lakes 6.5
225 Grant Lee Phillips Virginia Creeper 6.4
226 David Gray - Life in Slow Motion 6.3
227 Do Make say Think, & Yet & Yet 6.3
228 Max Richter Blue Notebooks 6.2
229 MicrocastleDeerhunter 6.2
230 I'm Wide Awake, It's MorningBright Eyes 6.0
231 Julie Doiron Goodnight Nobody 6.0
232 Back to Black Amy Winehouse 5.8
233 Luna Rondezvous 5.8
234 Steve Earle - Just an American Boy 5.7
235 Antibalas, Security 5.5
236 James Blackshaw Litany Of Echoes 5.3
237 PosesRufus Wainwright 5.3
238 Rheostatics - Night of the Shooting Stars 5.3
239 Built to Spill, You in Reverse 5.3
240 The Long GoodbyeThe Essex Green 5.2
241 Mogwai Happy Songs for happy People 5.1
242 The White Stripes, Elephant 5.1
243 Rings Around the WorldSuper Furry Animals 5.0
244 The Rosebuds - Life Like 5.0
245 Mojave 3 Excuses For Travellers 4.9
246 Before the Dawn Heals Us M83 4.8
247 Jack Johnson, On and On 4.7
248 Max Avery Lichtenstein Tarnation Soundtrack 4.7
249 Close to ParadisePatrick Watson 4.5
250 Natalie Merchant Motherland 4.4
251 Dzihan & Kamien, Freaks and Icons 4.3
252 Nick Cave The Lyre of Orpheus/Abattoir Blues 4.2
253 Cibelle Cibelle 4.2
254 Guided By Voices, Earthquake Glue 4.1
255 Good News for People Who Like Bad News Modest Mouse 4.0
256 Peter Bjorn & John Writers Block 4.0
257 The Waterboys - Fisherman’s Blues, Part 2 4.0
258 Eivind Aarset, Electonique Noire 3.9
259 What We Must Jaga Jazzist 3.8
260 The Real Tuesday Weld I Lucifer 3.8
261 Thievery Corporation, The Mirror Conspiracy 3.7
262 From Here We Go SublimeThe Field 3.5
263 Hawaii 3.5
264 Warren Zevon - The Wind 3.3
265 Moby, Hotel 3.3
266 PhrenologyThe Roots 3.2
267 Linda Thompson Fashionable Late 3.1
268 Sergio Mendes, Timeless 3.0
269 Cease to BeginBand of Horses 3.0
270 Lloyd Cole - Anti Depressant 3.0
271 Amy Winehouse Back To Black 2.9
272 Cody Chestnut The Headphone Masterpieces 2.7
273 The Many Moods of Ben Benjamin , Vol. 1Ben Benjamen 2.7
274 Todd Snider - Happy to Be Here 2.7
275 Sam Roberts, Chemical City 2.6
276 Lust Lust Lust Raveonettes 2.5
277 Bonobo Animal Magic 2.4
278 Explosions in the Sky, The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Plan 2.4
279 DeadringerRJD2 2.3
280 Jack Johnson, In Between Dreams 2.2
281 Bitte Orca Dirty Projectors 2.2
282 Gnarles Barkley, St Elseware 2.0
283 Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to HeavenGodspeed You Black Emperor 2.0
284 The Visualz Anthology Siah & Yeshua 1.8
285 Hope Sandaval, Bavarian Fruit Bread 1.8
286 Michael Andrews You And Me And Every One We Know 1.8
287 Len Parrot's Memorial LiftBaxter Dury 1.7
288 Paul Simon - Surprise 1.7
289 Banca de Gaia, Last Train to Lhasa 1.6
290 Eminem The Eminem Show 1.6
291 Silent AlarmBloc Party 1.5
292 Snow Patrol, Final Straw 1.4
293 Scott Merritt - Detour Home 1.3
294 Vekatimist Grizzly Bear 1.3
295 Nils Petter Molvaer, er 1.2
296 In Ghost Colours Cut Copy 1.2
297 Suzanne Vega - Beauty & Crime 1.0
298 War of the Waking PhantomsThe High Dials 0.8
299 Joseph Malik, Diverse 0.8
300 Bob Geldof - Sex, Age & Death 0.7
301 Cinematic orchestra Every day 0.7
302 Manitoba, Start Breaking my Heart 0.6
303 And Yet And YetDo Make Say Think 0.5
304 Gillian Welch Time The Revelator 0.4
305 Berlin SerengetiRadio Citizen 0.3
306 The Finn Brothers - Everyone Is Here 0.3
307 Shout Out Louds, Howl Howl, Gaff Gaff (late addition not sequenced) 0.2
308 Blueberry BoatFiery Furnaces 0.2

Other stats:

Album that appeared on all 6 lists: Picaresque - The Decemberists

Albums that appeared on 5 lists: Funeral - Arcade Fire, Neon Bible - Arcade Fire, Illinoise - Sufjan Stevens

Albums that appeared on 4 lists: Hour of the Bewilderbeast - Badly Drawn Boy, You Forgot It In People - Broken Social Scene, Is This It? - The Strokes, Set Yourself On Fire - Stars

Albums that appeared on 3 lists: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out - Yo La Tengo, Finally We Are No One - Mum, Chutes Too Narrow - The Shins, Sea Change - Beck, Room on Fire - The Strokes, Trials of the Van Occupanther - Midlake, Late Registration - Kanye West, Bows + Arrows, The Walkmen, For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver, The Reminder - Feist, Arular - MIA, Kid A - Radiohead, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco

Albums that appeared on 2 lists: Tourist - St. Germain, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, Everything All the Time - Band of Horses, Feast of Wire - Calexico, Waltz for Koop - Koop, Return to Cookie Mountain - TV on the Radio, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - The Flaming Lips, Takk - Sigur Ros, The Electric Version - The New Pornographers, Antics - Interpol, Walking With Thee - Clinic, The Glow Pt. 2 - The Microphones, Madvillainy - Madvillain, The Sophtware Slump - Grandaddy, Joyful Rebellion - K-os, Our Endless Numbered Days - Iron & Wine, The Fast Rise and Fall of the South - The Kingsbury Manx, Since I Left You - The Avalanches, 18 - Moby, Sao Paolo Confessions - Suba, Let It Die - Feist, Z - My Morning Jacket, Tanto Tempo - Bebel Gilberto, A Rush of Blood to the Head - Coldplay, Feels - Animal Collective, Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand, The Stage Names - Okkervil River, The Great Eastern - The Delgados, Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes, Guero - Beck

Kyle, I always knew you had a stats nerd in you. Well done. My only question in your arcane methodology as outlined, is the step where you divide the scores of the albums that appear on multiple lists by six. If I'm getting you correctly, I think that wouldn't reward those albums for multiple recognition, unless you also divided all albums' combined scores by six (ie: with an implied score of 0 from the bloggers who didn't have them on their list). Maybe you did that.........not sure.

I missed the millennial roundup in '99, opting to spend that weekend getting high in montreal. Apparently, that was a less self-destructive road taken, if your memories of the meeting conjured up images of this.

Um, so you and Brian came up with complex contest rules and statistical formulas when you were drunk? Going to have to raise my game next time out: slurring just won't cut it.

Like your idea. Agree that it's preferable to a 'here's why i chose radiohead's ____', a superfluous undertaking at this point, surely. We'll just have to come up with a process that everyone can follow, throughout various degrees of sobriety.

Since we're talking about weighted values, let me say that I'm struggling a bit with my analysis of the lists. Would that I had paid more attention in 2nd year Statistics, a course for which I celebrated wildly upon barely receiving a passing grade, but have now retained zero knowledge.
Maybe one of you can assist.

I went ahead and ranked each list in order, then decided that the #1 entry on each list would be assigned the highest possible points in the ranking (i.e. if it was #1 of 100 entries, then it would be assigned 100, if #2, then 99, if #3, then 98, etc.), then divided the assigned number by the highest ranking and multiplied by 100. Bear with me. So the #1 entry ends up being 100.0, and #2 99.0, etc. It therefore takes into account those lists that are ordered out of say, 50, or 75 or 45.
I then added up the scores for those that appeared on the list more than once and then divided this number by 6 (the total number of lists). I then ranked these scores to come up with the resulting list of our top 30 of the 2000s, by consensus:

1) Arcade Fire - Funeral
2) Decemberists - Picaresque
3) Badly Drawn Boy - Hour of the Bewilderbeast
4) Sufjan - Illinoise
5) Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
6) Strokes - IsthisIt?
7) Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
8) Broken Social Scene - youforgotit
9) Calexico - Feast of Wire
10) Strokes - Room on Fire
11) Beck - Seachange
12) Radiohead - In Rainbows
13) Tourist - St. Germain
14) Suba - Sao Paolo Confessions
15) The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
16) Band of Horses - EverythingAllthetime
17) Radiohead Kid A
18) Koop - Waltz for Koop
19) Flaming Lips -yoshimi
20) TV on the Radio - Cookie Mtn
21) Stars -Set Yourself on Fire
22) Sigur Ros - Takk
23) The Microphones - The Glow pt.2
24) The New Pornographers - The Electric Version
25) Madvillian - Madvillainy
26) Elliot Smith - Basement Hill
27) My Morning Jacket - Z
28) Grandaddy - Sophware Slump
29) Kos - joyful rebellion
30) Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Let me know what I've done wrong (specific to above).

To follow up on Kyle's suggestion that we pick a few CDs on our decade end list and discuss at our January CD club might I propose an alternative that also takes Kyle's best of the various decades discussion into account.

While drinking with Brian a few weeks back I had the idea that instead of simply playing tracks from albums, many of which all of us are very familiar with, we should have a battle of the decades in music.

Here`s the spin: each of us picks say our 10 or 20 favourite tracks from each decade, let`s say 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 00`s. We submit our picks on this site prior to the night in question and by assigning some sort of weighted value to the ranked picks we come up with a shortlist of 10-20 tracks in total for each decade.

On the night we get together we match up decades in a pitched contest where we play 3 or 4 songs for each decade (eg 60s v 90s Verve vs. The Stones, etc) and eliminate based on a vote at the end of each round until one decade is left standing.

Yes it isn`t scientific and yes we already have built in biases (each and every one of us) but it has to be more fun than the end of the millenium cd club that disintegrated into something resembling the Bataan death march.

Your thoughts?

And remember we were rather drunk when this was discussed.

would be interesting to see if we asigned points to the albums and totalled them all up, which were the top 10 ranked albums of our cd club... For instance I was surprised that Brian only has 2 of my top 10 albums in his entire list of 50... ( I realise I am leaving myself wide open for a pot shot from him) but that really is astounding to me... There is more commonality between some of us ( those who actually have musical taste and knowledge) , but still the variety is wide and I for one will be delving into a lot of albums I did not recognise the names of... ( given we regularily meet and expose each other to music it perhaps some albums rise to the top of our lists over time and we dont opush them when freshly bought and played at the meetings)

wouldn't you know, bri, that as you entered that in, i was indeed furiously typing away in this space and also compiling all our lists into a spreadsheet for analysis. will let you know the results in the coming days and will ponder your question about musical artist of the decade.

gun to my head response: The White Stripes, who weren't my favourite, but were very profilic, always had a few interesting releases of each album, and who seem to be interesting, talented, and decent people to boot.

perhaps we could each nominate an artist/group and give reasons why.

another question for the group (the one i furiously typed out and responded to earlier) is, "How does this decade in music compare to other decades? Better? Worse?"

i'm calling it a great decade in music, possibly better than the three that preceeded it. the 90s was a very much front-loaded decade, with most of the interesting and important stuff happening from 90-94, and the rest of the decade mostly filled with music which unsuccessfully tried to appropriate and popularize the grunge, shoegaze, and indie lo-fi sound that came to define the decade. we've discussed the 80s and 70s before so i won't rehash, suffice to say that i still favour the former over the latter, though i recognize demography plays a role in this preference. i also recognize that maybe the reason why i'm so bullish on this decade is that i was able, through advances in technology, to gain access to so much of it, to an extent which would have been, if not impossible than highly improbable, given economics and time availability, in previous decades. no longer do i need to bitch and complain about the pitiful state of commercial radio in toronto (though i still do, from time to time) because i can completely bypass the dreck and find what i need online. while i may take too much direction from the likes of pitchfork, npr, and emusic, i'd argue that these are far more trustworthy and honest information brokers than television or radio. but beyond access to a larger library is the sheer quality of the music and particularly, entire albums, that were released this decade. i can't recall another decade with as many albums that i've wanted to listen to all the way through, again and again. it was actually difficult to whittle my list down to 100. anyhow, just wanted to get your thoughts/impressions overall. it would be good if we could start looking at our calendars for january to see if there's a time when we can all meet for a post-decade cd club wrapup. i'm thinking that we could maybe take a few pics from our list and explain why we selected them, as well as reasons why we didn't select others.

Excellent lists all. I leave it to Kyle (who is madly blogging away I have no doubt) to summarize them into one gooey whole. Is it possible? In the meantime my question to each of you is this "who is the musical artist of the decade"?

well I found it difficult to rank them in exact order, many could move up or down 15 spots depending on my mood at the time, but here it is....Some rank higher then you would expect (ie Belle & sebastian as it was the first time getting into that band, however late to the party I happened to be and it blew my mind so to speak... )

1 Radiohead In Rainbows
2 Decemberists Picaresque
3 Arcade Fire Funeral
4 Band Of Horses Everything All The Time
5 Belle & Sebastian Fold Your Hands Child ..
6 Strokes Room On Fire
7 Neko Case Blacklisted
8 Wilco Yankee Foxtrot Hotel
9 Johnny Cash American IV The Man Comes Around
10 Badly Drawn Boy Hour Of The Bewilderbeast
11 Sigur Ros Takk
12 Decemberists Castaways and Cutouts
13 Beck Sea Changes
14 Calexico Feast of Wire
15 Kanye West Late Registration
16 K-os Joyful Rebellion
17 Iron & Wine Our Endless Numbered Days
18 Broken Social Scene You Forgot it in People
19 Peter Gabriel Up
20 Destroyer Streethawk
21 Patty Griffin Children Running Through
22 Ryan Adams Heartbreaker
23 Bon Iver For Emma
24 Sparklehorse It’s a Wonderful Life
25 Ivy Long Distence
26 Sufjan Stevens Illinoise
27 Lil Wayne Tha Carter III
28 The National Boxer
29 M Ward Transfiguration Of Vincent
30 Yo la Tengo And Then Nothing Turned Itself…
31 Dandy Warhols 13 Tales…
32 The Stills Logic Will Break Your Heart
33 Nick Lowe The Convincer
34 Arcade Fire Neon Bible
35 Richard Buckner The Hill
36 St Germain Tourist
37 Lilly Allen Alright Still
38 Sun Kill Moon Ghosts of the Great highway
39 Rachels Systems layers
40 Aimee Mann Bachelor # 2
41 The Antlers Hospice
42 Bonnie prince Billy Greatest Palace Music
43 Steve Earle Transcendental Blues
44 Bright Eyes Cassadaga
45 Cat Power The Greatest
46 Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes
47 Grant Lee Phillips Virginia Creeper
48 Max Richter Blue Notebooks
49 Julie Doiron Goodnight Nobody
50 Luna Rondezvous
51 Radiohead Kid A
52 James Blackshaw Litany Of Echoes
53 Mogwai Happy Songs for happy People
54 Mojave 3 Excuses For Travellers
55 Max Avery Lichtenstein Tarnation Soundtrack
56 Natalie Merchant Motherland
57 Nick Cave The Lyre of Orpheus/Abattoir Blues
58 Peter Bjorn & John Writers Block
59 The Real Tuesday Weld I Lucifer
60 Feist The Reminder
61 Jay Farrar Terroir Blues
62 Linda Thompson Fashionable Late
63 Amy Winehouse Back To Black
64 Cody Chestnut The Headphone Masterpieces
65 Bonobo Animal Magic
66 Moby 18
67 Mum Finally We are No One
68 Michael Andrews You And Me And Every One We Know
69 Eminem The Eminem Show
70 Air Virgin Suicides
71 Kings Of Convenience Qiuet is The new Loud
72 Lucinda Williams Essence
73 Cinematic orchestra Every day
74 Gillian Welch Time The Revelator
75 Stars Set Yourself on Fire

Over to you, Stu. Last but not least, surely. Then, I pick apart everyone's list, starting with Derek.
Kidding, of course. I'll start with Brian.

Feels like I've spent the last two months digging back through the music I've been listening to for the last 10 years. The wierd thing is that most of the music (55 out of 60 selections) that has kept me coming back is music I own on CD. What does that say for the coming decade. Here's the list:


1 Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
2 Arcade Fire Funeral
3 Badly Drawn Boy Hour of Bewilderbeast
4 Band of Horses Everything all the Time
5 Destroyer Streethawk: A Seduction
6 Beck Sea Change
7 TV on the Radio Return to Cookie Mountain
8 Broken Social Scene You Forgot it In People
9 The Strokes Room on Fire
10 New Pornographers Twin Cinema
11 Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
12 The Lucksmiths Warmer Corners
13 The Streets Orignal Pirate Material
14 Kanye West Late Registration
15 The Walkmen Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone
16 TV on the Radio Dear Science
17 Neko Case Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
18 Sigur Ros Takk
19 Clinic Internal Wrangler
20 King Geedorah Take Me to Your Leader
21 Wolf Parade Aplogies to Queen Mary
22 Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights
23 Mountain Goats The Sunset Tree
24 The Wrens Meadowland
25 The Pernice Brothers The World Wont End
26 Yo la Tengo And then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
27 Viktor Vaughan Vaudeville Villain
28 Feist The Reminder
29 The Go Betweens Oceans Apart
30 Arcade Fire Neon Bible
31 Suba Sao Paolo Confessions
32 Decemberists Picaresque
33 Jay Farrar Terroir Blues
34 Calexico Garden Ruin
35 Field Music Field Music
36 MIA Arular
37 The Strokes Is This It
38 Sonic Youth Murray Street
39 David Pajo Pajo
40 Bright Eyes Digital Ash in a Digital Urn
41 M83 Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
42 Mum Finally We Are No One
43 Echospace The Coldest Season
44 The Walkmen Bows and Arrows
45 Radiohead Kid A
46 New Pornographers Electric Version
47 Sufjan Stevens Illinoise
48 M. Ward The Transfiguration of Vincent
49 Belle and Sebastian The Life Pursuit
50 Junior Boys So This is Goodbye
51 Madvillain Madvillainy
52 The Horrors Primary Colours
53 Radiohead Amnesiac
54 Delgados The Great Eastern
55 Beck Guero
56 Foreign Exchange Connected
57 Fiery Furnaces Blueberry Boat
58 Tujiko Noriko From Tokyo to Niagara
59 Two Minute Miracles Volume II
60 Cut Copy In Ghost Colours

Re: obvious exclusions. So you're saying, Brian, that the absence of a Pimp & Soil session disc on your list was deliberate? Say it isn't so.