Look I know lists are dreadful but... here's MINE!

Lists! You love to hate 'em and hate to love 'em. Most mainstream music mags (even the two good ones) seem to fall over themselves to create new list-based issues alla time. I'm waiting to see one magazine's list of the best magazine lists ever, assuming that's not happened already. Not that I'd ever watch it but VH1 basically consists of the same twelve wait who the fuck are these people sub-celebs reading off teleprompters and pretending it's their own zany material on these special countdown to the greatest shows. So much of VH1 is like a long extended version of what Hollywoood Squares was in the '70s... only not nearly as good 'cause who can measure up to Charles Nelson Reilly (sp?). Anyway, my point is that I was asked by my pals at Amazon to vote in their best records of the year list, and thought it might be of interest to at least three people, so I am herewith inflicting it on you.

Speaking of lists, this is the first one I've made since really falling off of a lot of promo/ publicity lists (many of them voluntarily), so it's a pretty out of it and kinda MOR list in lots of ways. My list's lameness has even more to do with the fact that I've predominantly listened to My Bloody Valentine and gospel-blues from the '20s and '30s this year, and none of those things can make it to my list. I just really don't care to listen to the Hold Steady and the Arcade Fire or even halfway decent acts like the Bloc Party and Franz Ferdinand. I guess I really am old, now. I love Kanye and Amerie and am psyched that Mike Jones is on the radio like all the time when I switch it on. But I'm so embarassingly out of it with that stuff, it's like I'm happy to DJ it when I DJ a party-party, and songs by those folks will def make it to my VOICE list of the best singles of the year... But I'm not a music editor anymore and I only get paid to write about weirdo, indie, drone and gospel these days so that's that. I sound so apologetic but really, it's nice to not feel like I have to "keep up" anymore, you know? I just care so much more about Luther Magby's two known songs than the entire careers of most bands which might make me cranky as well as old (get off my lawn you damn kids.)

For Amazon you can't vote for reissues unless it's material that's never really been released before. I cheated a tad with the Swan Silvertones, though most of those 78s have not been on CD, and the Sublime Frequencies Golden Trianglething, well, that was only ever released on cassettes in Myanmar (Burma) so I think it's fair to say that it's getting its first release here. I also couldn't vote for a lot of great PDX music from labels like Marriage and States Rights since they don't go the Amazon way...

1 Various Artists Guitars of the Golden Triangle
2 Antony & the Johnsons I Am a Bird Now
3 Six Organs of Admittance School of the Flower
4 Swan Silvertones 1946-1951
5 Mahmoud Ahmed Ethiopiques 19
6 William Parker Sound Unity
7 The Robot Ate Me On Vacation
8 Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane
9 Jamie Lidell Multiply
10 The Clientele Strange Geometry
11 Superpitcher Today
12 CocoRosie Noah’s Ark
13 Sufjan Stevens Illinois
14 Danger Doom The Mouse & The Mask
15 Boards of Canada Campfire Headphase
16 A Frames Black Forest
17 Edan Beauty & the Beat
18 Okkervil River Black Sheep Boy
19 Amadou & Mariam Dimanche à Bamako
20 M.I.A. Arular
21 White Stripes Get Behind Me Satan
22 Animal Collective Feels
23 Bats At the National Grid
24 The Books Lost & Safe
25 Josephine Foster Hazel Eyes

Sorry to not have posted anything this past week -- I'm busy, working thirteen hour days then when my girl visits from Eugene I hang with her pretty much all that time. I did start finally going to see a naturopath specializing in Chinese herbal medicine and it's really amazing, how different I feel already and it's less than a week. I still need two surgical procedures but feel like I'm getting at some of the root causes for my health stuff.

Mostly I'm just psyched to actually be doing stuff instead of just complaining/ not doing. In the same vein, I finally took my truck in to get serviced. The "check engine" light had been on for about 15 thousand miles (no joke) but the repair bill at the amazing joint down the street was less than $108.00, for a full and total tune-up (plugs, oil filter, oil, checking out a buncha stuff, replacing a few lights, etc.) I better go before you explode form excitement or I start telling you how much I saved on groceries by going to Costco. Sheeeesh!