Hoboken Rock City - The Official Blog Of DJ Mike C.

DJ Mike C.'s Heartfelt Holiday Message (and December gigs)

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:20:00 -0500

It's December, the holidays, that special time of year when...we're all running around like crazy people because we're all so busy. Here at DJMC HQ, we understand that. And we suggest you shake off your holiday angst by rocking with us.

As my 10th anniversary year as a DJ winds down, I do declare it's been a strange and eventful year. My seven-year residency at The Goldhawk ended when the bar closed down in July. As fall approached, the timing was perfect to start a new residency, and it's been a great first few months at Northern Soul. The place is cozy, and it's fun to watch the transformation as it becomes a local music destination spot. Thursdays now feature live music booked by Dave Entwistle, host of that former staple of The Goldhawk and now Maxwell's, The Peoples' Open Mic.Rob Nicholas, Dave Calamonari, and Karyn Kuhl--all Hoboken favorites--are playing at Northern Soul tonight, starting at 8:30.

I'll carry so many amazing memories of 2009: spinning big bashes for Broadway's "Rock Of Ages," DJing Lisa Loeb's wedding, producing and releasing an '80s compilation, writing liner notes for two Elvis Presley box sets, finally seeing Leonard Cohen and the Pixies, and being at Yankee Stadium when my beloved Evil Empire won the championship. It's actually hard to believe there are still three weeks left in this calendar year, not to mention this decade of the '00s, which we never did come up with a name for before it ended. Strange days indeed.

I appreciate all of you for your support. Seriously. It's humbling. Thank you. I'll keep slinging tunes as long as you all want to hear them. I will send one more reminder to local peeps about New Year's a few days prior. To anyone I don't get to see, have a fun holiday season, and let's rock in 2010!

-----

Beat Surrender
Friday nights at Northern Soul

DJ Mike C.
spins '80s '90s indie oldies punk glam
groovy rock & soul & more

10 p.m. till late

This Friday, December 11
Next Friday, December 18
Thursday, December 31 - New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve: champagne toast, party favors, and rockin' tunes to ring in the new. Advance tickets available at the bar. $15 each, group discounts available.

Northern Soul
557 First St.
Hoboken, U.S.A.
no cover, 21+

-----

Previously on Beat Surrender

We closed it with a tribute to Eric Woolfson, lead singer of The Alan Parsons Project, who died earlier in the week. It was a very solid Friday at Northern Soul, to the tune of...

10:00
Shake Appeal - IGGY & THE STOOGES
All's Quiet On The Eastern Front - RAMONES
Pumping (My Heart) - PATTI SMITH
Spanish Bombs - THE CLASH
Pretty Green - THE JAM
Pretty Girls - JOE JACKSON
6' 1" - LIZ PHAIR
Rudderless - LEMONHEADS
Holy War - MATTHEW SWEET
Fuckin' Up - NEIL YOUNG
Refugee - TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS
When My Baby's Beside Me - BIG STAR
Substitute - THE WHO
Good Enough - DODGY
Somethin' Hot - THE AFGHAN WHIGS
I.O.U. - THE REPLACEMENTS

11:00
Juicebox - THE STROKES
Hash Pipe - WEEZER
Uprising - MUSE
Lucid Dreams - FRANZ FERDINAND
Animal - MIIKE SNOW
Soft Shock - THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS
Malibu - HOLE
My Party - KINGS OF LEON
Wolf Like Me - TV ON THE RADIO
Where Did All The Love Go? - KASABIAN
No Cars Go - THE ARCADE FIRE
Spread Your Love - BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE BLUB
Morning Glory - OASIS
Death - WHITE LIES

12:00
Spaceman - THE KILLERS
That's Not My Name - THE TING TINGS
1901 - PHOENIX
North American Scum - LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
Enola Gay - ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK
Space Age Love Song - A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS
Friday I'm In Love - THE CURE
Atomic - BLONDIE
Message In A Bottle - THE POLICE
11th Dimension - JULIAN CASABLANCAS
Bulletproof - LA ROUX
Kids - MGMT
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - DAFT PUNK

1:00
DARE - GORILLAZ
Once In A Lifetime - TALKING HEADS
He's A Whore - CHEAP TRICK
Candy-O - THE CARS
Charmer - KINGS OF LEON
She Sells Sanctuary - THE CULT
Dominoes - THE BIG PINK
Night By Night - CHROMEO
The Fear - LILY ALLEN
Strangelove - DEPECHE MODE
Lips Like Sugar - ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN
Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before - THE SMITHS
A-Punk - VAMPIRE WEEKEND
Daylight - MATT & KIM
Lust For Life - GIRLS
Lust For Life - IGGY POP
Sympathy For The Devil - THE ROLLING STONES

2:00
Houses Of The Holy - LED ZEPPELIN
Hush - DEEP PURPLE
Magic Carpet Ride - STEPPENWOLF
A Girl Like You - EDWYN COLLINS
Wonderwall - OASIS
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - QUEEN
Do Ya - ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA
Da Doo Ron Ron - THE CRYSTALS
I Only Want To Be With You - DUSTY SPRINGFIELD
Happy Together - THE TURTLES
Don't Answer Me - THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT

The Goldhawk Final Night Set List

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Wed, 5 Aug 2009 12:30:00 -0400

They put a parking lot on a piece of land
Where the supermarket used to stand
Before that they put up a bowling alley
On the site that used to be the local palais
That's where the big bands used to come and play
My sister went there on a Saturday

Come dancing
All her boyfriends used to come and call
Why not come dancing
It's only natural

Most venues have a life cycle. For every Carnegie Hall or McSorley's, places that continue to thrive while barely changing after more than a century in business, countless more music halls and bars open up, do well for a while if they're lucky and they know what they're doing, and eventually close or evolve into something completely different.

The Goldhawk was both a bar and a live venue. After eight years in business, its reputation was firmly established on both counts. As a venue, it was home to the coziest, most inviting back room performance space and lounge that I've ever known, and I've been to a few. As a bar, it was Cheers to many regulars, with an eclectic crowd. Business was a little off during this time of economic downturn, as it has been at most places, but to most people who frequented the place and knew it well, it did not seem like The Goldhawk was done.

That's probably why the bar's closing hurts so much. When CBGB closed after more than thirty years, it was the end of an era, but the place was long past its prime. The club wisely prolonged its closing into a seemingly never-ending marketing event that both burnished its reputation and made them quite a bit of dough while they already had one foot out the door.

The Goldhawk Bar & Lounge did not at all seem to be on its last legs when it was announced on June 11 that it would close up shop in exactly thirty days. To the owners' credit, that month's notice was appreciated by all who were affected by the impending closing. Many of the key artists who had performed there often did farewell shows during the final weeks. The last several days were a blur: the weekly Tuesday open-mic night was jammed beyond capacity, the live bands had great crowds all week, and virtually every person I talked to there expressed a bit of sadness and disbelief that a place so vibrant and unique was about to disappear.

So the place lasted a hair more than eight years, and I was a resident DJ there for all but the first 10 months of that time. I'm proud to have been associated with such a special place for so long. I'm humbled that owners who really, really know their music entrusted me with the tunes for so many special occasions. Thank you Fran, Al, and Mike for the opportunity.

And I'm thankful I got to run the party at what may go down as the greatest event in the history of The Goldhawk, its closing night. Kerry, Butch, Justin, Andy, and especially Margaret kept the bar working smoothly all night long, despite an alcohol stock that was rapidly depleting. There was a fun but bittersweet vibe in the air. A little like New Year's Eve, except that the moment we were anxious about was not midnight, but last call.

The day they knocked down the palais
My sister stood and cried
The day they knocked down the palais
Part of my childhood died, just died

When last call came, I had time for two more songs. Of course I knew in advance what they would be. The Specials' "Enjoy Yourself" was one of the bar's unofficial theme songs from the start, and its advice to "Enjoy yourself--it's later than you think" was all too appropriate. To close it out, in the town of Frank Sinatra's birth, and the bar run by the singer of Skanatra, it was practically preordained that it had to end with "My Way."

There's more I want to write about the place, and hopefully soon I will have time to share some other memories. Keep a look out on my home page for future gigs at new and different venues. For now, enjoy the playlist. Goldhawk, we miss you already.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

9:00
Rock And Roll Music - THE BEATLES
You Only Live Once - THE STROKES
When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What's Still Around - THE POLICE
My Ever-Changing Moods - THE STYLE COUNCIL
Cruel To Be Kind - NICK LOWE
Oliver's Army - ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS
Don't Do Me Like That - TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS
Don't Look Back - THE REMAINS
Good Times Bad Times - LED ZEPPELIN
Summertime Blues - THE WHO
Vehicle - IDES OF MARCH
Rockin' In The Free World - NEIL YOUNG
Salute Your Solution - THE RACONTEURS
4 Songs & A Fight - THE SOUNDS
We Are All Made Of Stars - MOBY
Take Me, I'm Yours - SQUEEZE
Roll With It - OASIS
Radiation Vibe - FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE

10:00
Pop Song 89 - R.E.M.
There's No Other Way - BLUR
Atomic - BLONDIE
Heads Will Roll - THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS
Head On - PIXIES
Good Enough - DODGY
Just Got Lucky - JOBOXERS
Sole Salvation - THE ENGLISH BEAT
Sherry Darling - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
The Bulrushes - THE BONGOS
Black And White - THE dB'S
Starry Eyes - THE RECORDS
Mr. Brightside - THE KILLERS
The '59 Sound - THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM
Alex Chilton - THE REPLACEMENTS
Way Down Now - WORLD PARTY
Sympathy For The Devil - THE ROLLING STONES

11:00
I'm A Man - THE SPENCER DAVIS GROUP
Move On Up - CURTIS MAYFIELD
That Lady (Part 1 & 2) - THE ISLEY BROTHERS
Doing It To Death - JAMES BROWN
Don't Stop Till You Get Enough - MICHAEL JACKSON
1999 - PRINCE
Mercy - DUFFY
Girls & Boys - BLUR
Get Myself Into It - THE RAPTURE
Time To Pretend - MGMT
Daylight - MATT & KIM
Young Folks - PETER, BJORN & JOHN
Monday Morning - THE FUNDAMENTALS

12:00
Is It Any Wonder? - KEANE
Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night In The Week) - FRANK SINATRA
United States Of Whatever - LIAM LYNCH
Surrender - CHEAP TRICK
We're An American Band - GRAND FUNK RAILROAD
Roadrunner - MODERN LOVERS
Vacation - THE GO-GO'S
Sheena Is A Punk Rocker - RAMONES
This Charming Man - THE SMITHS
Inbetween Days - THE CURE
Don't You Want Me - THE HUMAN LEAGUE
Cruel Summer - BANANARAMA
The Look Of Love (Part 1) - ABC
DARE - GORILLAZ
The Seed (2.0) - THE ROOTS FEATURING CODY CHESNUTT
The Way You Move - OUTKAST (BIG BOI) FEATURING SLEEPY BROWN
Sir Duke - STEVIE WONDER
Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin) - SLY & THE FAMILY STONE

1:00
Twenty-Five Miles - EDWIN STARR
Love Child - SUPREMES
Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground) - THE JACKSONS
Low Rider - WAR
Give It To Me Baby - RICK JAMES
Let's Go - THE CARS
Your Love - THE OUTFIELD
Rock The Casbah - THE CLASH
Faith - GEORGE MICHAEL
Breakout - SWING OUT SISTER
Surfin' Bird - THE TRASHMEN
You Never Can Tell - CHUCK BERRY
Burning Love - ELVIS PRESLEY
Right Back Where We Started From - MAXINE NIGHTINGALE
More Today Than Yesterday - SPIRAL STARECASE
Car Wash - CHRISTINA AGUILERA & MISSY ELLIOTT
SexyBack - JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE

2:00
Changes - 2PAC
Regulate - WARREN G. FEATURING NATE DOGG
Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta - GETO BOYS
Superstition - STEVIE WONDER
Freedom 90 - GEORGE MICHAEL
* Matt Azzarto speech: "We raised the bar" *
Ooh La La - FACES
Baba O'Riley - THE WHO
Silly Love Songs - WINGS
Our House - MADNESS
Come Dancing - THE KINKS
Town Called Malice - THE JAM
Enjoy Yourself - THE SPECIALS
My Way - FRANK SINATRA

With A Little Help From My Friends: The 10th Anniversary Show

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:43:00 -0400

It was ten years plus one day since my first-ever public DJ gig--I add the word "public" because, hey, I'd been playing DJ at home since around age four--and I wanted to make sure the music was great.

Even for a good DJ, this can be harder than it sounds. For all your good intentions, so many factors can derail your plans: if you don't get your usual crowd, or it's more crowded than expected, or less crowded than expected, or equipment doesn't cooperate, or...anything. Spinning for a crowd is completely different than on the radio or the net, of course. In most live situations, the worst thing a DJ can do is plan a full set and stubbornly stick to it. The best way to DJ for a crowd is to go in with a plan, but to be ready to chuck that plan, or at least large portions of it, as needed.

I DJ all over the place, but for the past seven years, my home base has been my a tremendous local bar in my neighborhood, The Goldhawk. I've DJed more than 500 gigs--maybe closer to 600--and this comfy two-room bar/lounge run by true music lovers has been home to probably more than 50 percent of them. Yet each night brings something new in terms of crowd, vibe, and surprises. Though no dance parties broke out on this last Friday before Memorial Day weekend, many of those in attendance seemed enthusiastic about my choices.

I started an hour early, at 9 p.m., since my first gig ten years ago had also been a 9:00 start. This gave me an extra hour to get my ya-yas out, and in that first hour I didn't play anything newer than 1999, to approximate an hour of what could have been a set I'd played a decade ago. In that first hour and throughout the night, I sprinkled in some of my favorite segues I've ever come up with (I'll leave you all to guess which ones) and as many songs and artists that were important to me as I could.

Even with an extra hour, there was a lot I wish I'd gotten to in the course of the night. Really wanted to play "Praise You" because it was the biggest song going around the time I started DJing; it woulda fit in around midnight when I was playing the likes of Stereo MC's and Deee-Lite, but I didn't want people walking in at the peak of the night to think that we were playing a mix tape from 1999. Meant to throw on "Buffalo Stance" because I remember it being a hit at my first gig. Wanted to play Elvis Presley but didn't. The list goes on.

New stuff was pretty well represented, with Phoenix, Metric, Matt & Kim, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, White Lies, and a fine new Green Day album--less than a day old!--all supplying great energy toward the middle of the evening. Love T. Rex, but wouldn't have predicted they'd be the only band I'd play twice this particular night--there was a "Jeepster" request after 1 a.m. and even though I'd already played "20th Century Boy" a couple hours earlier, there was no reason to say no. (Sticklers will note that I played both New Order and Joy Division as well, also hours apart.) Wish I played The Stooges, but at least I got to The Dictators and The Damned; those who remember my Neat Neat Neat nights at Manitoba's a few years ago can connect the dots there. Didn't get into a proper '60s/'70s soul set either; James Brown, Sly, Stevie, and The Supremes all shoulda been in there. Oh well. As Steven Wright said: "You can't have everything. Where would you put it?"

Why did I close with "With A Little Help From My Friends" by Joe Cocker? So many reasons. Because in ten years of slinging discs, I'm pretty sure I'd never played it before. Because it was written and originated by my favorite band of all time, and in some ways echoes the nearly two years early on in my career when I closed nearly every night with "Hey Jude." Because it was lyrically and thematically appropriate. Because it was performed by a group of high-school kids in some sort of show during evening rush hour at the Port Authority Bus Terminal the day before, and their performance was good enough to make me stop in my tracks and listen. Oh, and because it kicks ass.

So this is how my second decade of DJing began. Many set lists don't look as good on paper as they sounded in person, but I couldn't be happier with the way this one sounded and how it looks.

Thanks to all the bartenders, barbacks, doormen, managers, owners, promoters, and everyone else in the nightclub world for so much support over the years. And of course, special thanks to anyone who's ever called themselves a fan. Lots more to come, of course. Upcoming dates at both The Goldhawk and NYC's Motor City Bar will be announced soon. Check the home page for details as they become available.

9:00
I'd Love To Change The World - TEN YEARS AFTER
A Hard Day's Night - THE BEATLES
Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere - THE WHO
Local Girls - GRAHAM PARKER & THE RUMOUR
Girls Talk - DAVE EDMUNDS
All Of The Good Ones Are Taken - IAN HUNTER
Talk Of The Town - PRETENDERS
Regret - NEW ORDER
Awful - HOLE
The Emperor's New Clothes - SINEAD O'CONNOR
Ladyfingers - LUSCIOUS JACKSON
You Get What You Give - NEW RADICALS
A Girl Like You - EDWYN COLLINS
Babies - PULP
The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get - MORRISSEY
Becoming More Like Alfie - THE DIVINE COMEDY
I've Got A Flair - FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE

10:00
Better Things - THE KINKS
The Static Age - GREEN DAY
Them Kids - SAM ROBERTS
Every Summer (Remix) - U.S. ROYALTY
Island In The Sun - WEEZER
You Only Live Once - THE STROKES
Head On - PIXIES
Stay With Me - THE DICTATORS
Gates Of The West - THE CLASH
20th Century Boy - T. REX
Stay Positive - THE HOLD STEADY
The '59 Sound - THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM
Alex Chilton - THE REPLACEMENTS
Desire - U2
Cruel To Be Kind - NICK LOWE
Superman - R.E.M.
Use Somebody - KINGS OF LEON
Death - WHITE LIES

11:00
The Step And The Walk - THE DUKE SPIRIT
Lights Out - SANTOGOLD
I'm Shakin' - ROONEY
Vacation - THE GO-GO'S
Ever Fallen In Love? - THE BUZZCOCKS
Neat, Neat, Neat - THE DAMNED
Mirror In The Bathroom - THE ENGLISH BEAT
Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3 - IAN DURY & THE BLOCKHEADS
Heaven For The Weather - THE STREETS
Crying - TV ON THE RADIO
Girlfriend - PHOENIX
Daylight - MATT & KIM
Sugalumps - FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS
Time To Pretend - MGMT
Sick Muse - METRIC
Heads Will Roll - YEAH YEAH YEAHS
The Look Of Love (Part 1) - ABC
Friday I'm In Love - THE CURE

12:00
1999 - PRINCE
Get Myself Into It - THE RAPTURE
Groove Is In The Heart - DEEE-LITE
Step It Up - STEREO MC'S
Lucid Dreams - FRANZ FERDINAND
Beggin' (Pilooski Edit) - THE FOUR SEASONS
Groovy Train - THE FARM
Only Love Can Break Your Heart - SAINT ETIENNE
Ms. Jackson - OUTKAST
Heartless - KANYE WEST
The Seed (2.0) - THE ROOTS FEAT. CODY CHESNUTT
Paper Planes - M.I.A.

1:00
That's Not My Name - THE TING TINGS
Love Will Tear Us Apart - JOY DIVISION
Don't You Want Me - THE HUMAN LEAGUE
Somebody Told Me - THE KILLERS
Crimson And Clover - JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS
Unchained - VAN HALEN
I Wanna Rock - TWISTED SISTER
Highway To Hell - AC/DC
Sympathy For The Devil - THE ROLLING STONES
Jeepster - T. REX
The Jean Genie - DAVID BOWIE
Rockaway Beach - RAMONES
United States Of Whatever - LIAM LYNCH
Any Way You Want It - JOURNEY
Surrender - CHEAP TRICK
Somebody To Shove - SOUL ASYLUM
Girlfriend - MATTHEW SWEET
Your Love - THE OUTFIELD

2:00
Heat Of The Moment - ASIA
867-5309/Jenny - TOMMY TUTONE
Jessie's Girl - RICK SPRINGFIELD
Steal My Sunshine - LEN
Cruel Summer - BANANARAMA
Touch Me - THE DOORS
Daydream Believer - THE MONKEES
Spirit In The Night (Live 1975-85 version) - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND
With A Little Help From My Friends - JOE COCKER

10 Years Of Rock, 5 Big Nights!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:55:00 -0400

Hey, I'm celebrating my first ten years of DJing with five big nights of rock & roll!

The world-famous legend of DJ Mike C. started at an Irish pub in Hoboken on Friday, May 14, 1999. It was a seasonable spring night. iPods and YouTube didn't exist. Fatboy Slim and Moby were huge, and Len's "Steal My Sunshine" was poised to become the hit of the summer. The Yankees were reigning World Series champs and about to win two more in a row. These were simpler, better times.

The first song I played was The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night," and it went off without a hitch. But I didn't properly cue up the second song I wanted to play, The Kinks' "Till The End Of The Day," so I ended up with "You Really Got Me." First oops. The first request was "She's A Beauty" by The Tubes--an '80s MTV hit I've always dug, but which I didn't even have at the time. Second oops. Nothing terrible resulted, of course, but within the first three minutes I'd learned that, to be a great DJ, I'd always have to stay on my toes. I've lived, I've learned, and what can I say, I think I've rocked.

Ten years and more than 500 gigs later, the beat goes on. Thanks to everyone for your support during this first decade. If you've ever heard me spin, thank you for being there. Even if you never have, or haven't in a long time, it's gratifying to know so many people appreciate the rock & roll I provide for the community. Because, yes, I do this for the community.

In the past six months, I've DJed at the opening night cast party for the new hit Broadway musical "Rock Of Ages" (soon to be a major motion picture from New Line Cinema), singer/songwriter/reality TV star Lisa Loeb's wedding (as seen in People), and Lucky magazine's Lucky Shops event (as seen on Style Network). It's been a good year, and I'm gonna keep it going.

To mark the end of my first decade and the start of my second, there are no places I'd rather celebrate at than two of my favorite local bars. Please join me at one of these five cool nights in May. There's a big Thursday at NYC's Motor City Bar. And there are four fun weekend nights at my local, The Goldhawk in Hoboken--including a 10th Anniversary Show where, yes, we're gonna party like it's 1999. Don't you wanna go?

DJ Mike C.
10 Years Of Rock, 5 Big Nights!

NYC:

at Motor City Bar
127 Ludlow St.
between Delancey St. & Rivington St.

NEXT Thursday, May 7
10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Featuring bartender Julie Black!

NJ:

at The Goldhawk
936 Park Ave. at 10th St.
Hoboken, USA

THIS Saturday, May 2
Friday, May 8
Saturday, May 9
10 p.m. to close

and
DJ Mike C. - The 10th Anniversary Show!
Celebrating 10 Years Of DJ Mike C.
Friday, May 15
9 p.m. to close

Featuring the best bartenders in Hoboken!

All nights are no cover, 21+

Follow me, friend me...

"She's A Beauty" - THE TUBES
"Steal My Sunshine" - LEN

I Used To Rule The World: Mike C.'s Favorite Music Of 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:29:00 -0500

Top 10 Albums

1. COLDPLAY - Viva La Vida, Or Death And All His Friends (Capitol)

2. SANTOGOLD - Santogold (Downtown)

3. THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM - The '59 Sound (Side One Dummy)

4. THE ALUMINUM GROUP - Little Happyness (Minty Fresh)

5. TV ON THE RADIO - Dear Science (DGC/Interscope)

6. THE KILLERS - Day & Age (Island)

7. KINGS OF LEON - Only By The Night (RCA)

8. ESTELLE - Shine (Atlantic)

9. THE HOLD STEADY - Stay Positive (Vagrant)

10. FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS - Flight Of The Conchords (Sub Pop)

Top 10 Songs

1. THE KILLERS - Human (Island)

2. COLDPLAY - Viva La Vida (Capitol)

3. ESTELLE FEATURING KANYE WEST - American Boy (Atlantic)

4. THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM - The '59 Sound (Side One Dummy)

5. SANTOGOLD - L.E.S. Artistes (Downtown)

6. CHRIS BROWN - Forever (Jive)

7. NE-YO - Miss Independent (Def Jam)

8. DUFFY - Mercy (Mercury)

9. DAVID BYRNE & BRIAN ENO - Strange Overtones (Todo Mundo)

10. STUDENTS OF THE RON CLARK ACADEMY - You Can Vote However You Like (no label)

I know, I know. Coldplay. Freakin' Coldplay. Surely you think I've gone crazy, or worse, soft.

First off, I never bothered to acquire the band's third album X&Y and still don't have it. Second, I resisted Viva for most of the year. Didn't buy it until the special Prospekt's March version came out during the holiday buying season. I was indifferent to the title track at first, but over time in this historic election year, its resonance was unshakable.

U2 is a band I like as much as the next guy, but they never were among my favorites. So it's odd that this Eno-produced ersatz U2 would ring true to me. But in one of the most unpredictable and wild years of my life--professionally, politically, personally--it was this band, Coldplay, the band whose "Yellow" was the first song I ever possessed in MP3 form, that somehow crafted the best album I heard all year.

It must be noted that, as a result of vast changes in my life, I didn't hear as much new music in 2008 as I would have liked to. Didn't dig as deep as I usually do this past year; time and professional circumstances just didn't allow it. These lists are always fluid over time, anyway, so I'm less afraid of what I might have missed than I might have been in previous years, when I fretted a good deal more over whether a particular album merited, say, a placing at number seven or number eight.

I still maintain that every year is a good year for music. The more time that goes by, the more 2008 music I'll find that I missed during the 366 particular days that comprised the actual year. The future's so bright...

One other note. These lists are me with my "critic's hat" on. They're not much of a reflection on what I play when I DJ out at bars and clubs, and certainly not at private events. Sure, I've been playing The Gaslight Anthem like crazy for months, and some of the more Top 40ish material has gotten spins when warranted by the crowd on certain nights. But a playlist consisting of just these artists probably would sound like a train wreck. Hail hail rock and roll!

12 Artists I Wanna Play Tonight

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:28:00 -0500

I still need to post my Yankee Stadium wrap-up (saving it for the start of this season)...my best of '08 list...and I haven't written about the great experience I had DJing at Lisa Loeb's wedding a couple weeks back...but I have a cool NYC gig tonight, so I'm adapting a Facebook meme (I know, I know) and posting this up.

So I've got me this big little rock & roll DJ gig tonight at Motor City Bar, one of the coolest bars in downtown NYC. And you know that's saying something, 'cause there are more than a few of those types of establishments around.

When you're DJing, you never know what any given night might bring. A safe bet for tonight, though, is a whole lotta rock and a whole lotta fun with a hint of Detroit edge. I certainly can't give away the playlist before it happens--especially because I don't work from a set playlist. But here, in no particular order, are 12 totally kick-ass artists who I wanna play--and who, odds are, I will play tonight.

1. Ramones
It begins and ends with them. Not the set list in any literal sense. And chronologically, obviously not. But no one really ever rocked more, or better. Gabba gabba hey.

2. Electric Six
As Chuck Klosterman said of their debut, "You will like this album if you like the notion of Van Halen more than you liked any of their actual albums." And they've only gotten better. Probably the most unique-sounding band of the last decade, and not in any highfalutin, pretentious way; they just rock. Bonus: from Detroit!

3. David Bowie
More than anyone, a rock & roll man for all seasons.

4. Devo
Punker than you might remember.

5. The Donnas
They started as Ramones wannabes, morphed into a female Kiss/Mötley Crüe kinda deal, and they do the best covers (Priest, Kiss, Billy Idol) in the known universe.

6. AC/DC
It's a rock night, so it's almost certain that Bon Scott will be in the house.

7. Little Richard
The only artist Bob Dylan thanked by name at his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is one of the architects of the genre, and his raucous recordings rock just as much now as they did 50+ years ago.

8. Thin Lizzy
As the brilliant Hamell On Trial quipped, "Tonight there's not gonna be a jailbreak SOMEWHERE in the town...it's gonna be at the JAIL!"

9. The Gaslight Anthem
Keeping alive an unforgettable fire lit by everyone from Miles Davis to Bruce Springsteen, while sounding like a more literate Soul Asylum, they made THE rock album of 2008. And they're from my college town of New Brunswick, N.J. to boot.

10. The Supremes
Of all the Motown groups of the '60s, no one's songs sound fresher, sharper--more swinging, more sexy--than these original divas.

11. The Raconteurs
With more than a little help from his friends, Detroit's Jack White has been reinventing himself on records that seem to give more--and rock more--every time you hear 'em.

12. The Stooges
A tip of the cap to the Detroit combo--and their recently deceased guitarist Ron Asheton--who took rock to a whole new level of scary and great.

DJ Mike C.
Tonight! Thursday, February 19
10 p.m. till late

at Motor City Bar
127 Ludlow St. (at Delancey St.)
NYC

F train to Delancey St.
no cover
21+
Rock!

Time Keeps On Slipping

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:07:00 -0500

Years end a lot earlier than they used to. End-of-year retrospectives are such a marketable hook for a story that every media outlet, from the major networks to your friend's Twitter feed, wants to stake its claim to importance by declaring what was best this past year, thus proclaiming the still-breathing year to be dead.

At the risk of congratulating myself too heartily, I will continue my campaign to resist this trend. There are 21 days left in 2008, and they all count. Sure, when the topic is best albums and songs released during the year, it's possible to look at release schedules and see there almost everything that's seeing a 2008 release is already out. Hell, Chinese Democracy even has seen the light of day--an event so unlikely that it did manage to delay itself until after this country had first elected an African-American president. This is unlike the news media's abhorrent choosing of the year's most compelling news stories when the year has several weeks to go, a practice that really bit every news organization in the ass in 2004, when the deadly Indian Ocean earthquake struck on December 26. The stakes are lower when it comes to music, which makes it all the more ridiculous that we rush to stick a fork in the year when there's still plenty of time left on the clock.

It still pains me a little to turn in my top 10 albums and singles of the year to The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll while the year is still living and breathing. Ballots are due Christmas Eve. I get it; it takes a long time to compile the votes and create compelling features that make sense of them. All credit where credit is due for the hard work they do. It's just a shame that these decisions have to finalized in the midst of December madness, when everyone's scrambling to finish holiday plans and purchases, when the airwaves are dominated by Christmas music (which I love, in a measured way), and when the year is still living and breathing.

Per custom, my picks will appear here about a month into the new year. They probably won't be as detailed as my 2004 or even 2006 summaries, but last year's quick line listing was an anomaly. A lot did go down this year, and I don't just mean electorally--although, let's face it, that has to figure in the analysis. There's a lot to say, and I'll be saying it. Until then, I'll be sneaking in listens to Captain Sensible's "One Christmas Catalogue" between spins of albums and songs in the running for my top tens; I'll finish the lists (from numbers 11 on) in January.

There's plenty of year left. Get out and enjoy it.

When It Began

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:14:00 -0400

It was a total bummer when news broke this week that Steve Foley died of an apparent accidental overdose on prescription drugs. He was 49.

The Replacements introduced me, sideways, if you will, to punk. The first time I saw The Replacements, they were opening up for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers at Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford. It was the summer of 1989, I'd just gotten my driver's license and I was on a major arena-concert jag. I was two years away from discovering the pleasures of small club shows (thank you, Fishbone at the Palladium), so I spent some special nights that summer seeing some of my classic rock idols at the two Meadowlands venues and the Garden State Arts Center. Petty didn't quite earn idol status, but I was a fan. The fact that the opener was The Replacements, about whom I'd read enough good stuff that I'd bought their new album Don't Tell A Soul, was a huge bonus.

So much for that; they sucked. Sure, it was cool to see them--I was 17, and it was cool to see anyone I liked live--but they were sloppy. This was their reputation, sand you just had to go with it. I did, although most of the rest of the audience was less than impressed. I was sufficiently sold on the band's 'tude and tunes to investigate further, buying the previous album Pleased To Meet Me a few months later. That was a couple days before New Year's, and I remember it was the last CD I bought during the '80s.

Pleased pleased me enough to that I officially considered myself a full-fledged fan. By early '91, I'd acquired their new one, All Shook Down, and when it was announced the band was coming to play a gig at the College Avenue Gym, just a five-minute walk from my dorm room, I dove into the back catalog to prepare. The show was on a Saturday night, and my 19th birthday to boot, and I couldn't have been more pumped.

The show was everything the arena appearance wasn't: generous, focused, reasonably tight. The set list was great, as were the ad libs. I recall a verse and chorus of "All Right Now" for no good reasonre. A friend of a friend remarked, "They were drunk, but they weren't that drunk," and it seemed like they'd struck the right balance. Still one of the best shows I've ever seen, and for sentimental reasons, in my many ways, my favorite ever.

Before that final Replacements tour started, founding drummer Chris Mars left the band. I'm glad I saw the 'Mats with Mars once, even if it was at that Petty performance. I became a fan--probably one of the biggest fans, in fact--of Chris Mars' subsequent solo work, sending one of the few fan letters I ever wrote to him after the release of his fine 1992 debut Horseshoes And Hand Grenades. He responded with a nice note scrawled on a small publicity pic. After four albums, Mars decided he was done with music and has concentrated on painting. Every once in a while, a postcard promoting one Chris' art shows will show up in my parents' mailbox.

At the Rutgers show, it was replacement Replacement Steve Foley keeping a solid beat behind the kit. It would be a lie to say the bespectacled Foley was a magnetic presence on stage. But for a band notoriously unable to keep itself together in a live setting, it was satisfying to watch them do just that. And anyone who's ever picked up a pair of sticks knows how crucial the drummer is to such an endeavor. The new guy seemed to fit in just fine.

The band played their last show ever a few months later in Chicago's Grant Park, and that was that. Foley was part of Tommy Stinson's solid but short-lived post-'Mats band Bash & Pop, but he was inexplicably not included when Stinson and Paul Westerberg recorded two new tracks for a compilation a couple years ago. It's especially odd in light of the fact that Mars, though on friendly terms and willing to participate, could and/or would not play drums, so session pro Josh Freese was used. Foley did keep busy with other musical projects post-Replacements, though Rolling Stone notes he also logged some time selling cars.

Bob Seger's wrong; sometimes rock & roll does forget. Here's one small voice noting for the record that there are those who will always remember.

The iPhone: One Month In

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:37:00 -0400

My Razr was old. No, it wasn't just old, it was pathetic and slow. I'd managed to resist the BlackBerry all this time, but I knew I wanted and needed mobile email. Leaving Verizon, the only mobile provider I'd ever had, wasn't a proposition I looked forward to, but as an Apple loyalist, the writing was on the wall: my next phone had to be an iPhone.

Being first on your block is fine, as long as that oh-so-lofty status comes easily. (The Dead Kennedys said it best: give me convenience or give me death!) If it means camping out with a lawn chair and the complete works of J.K. Rowling to pass the time, don't you know that you can count me out. Plus, it was virtually guaranteed there would be a few technical glitches out of the box, and it turned out there were. So I waited till the hailed new device had been on the market for about 12 days, and only then did I finally go to Apple's Fifth Avenue store to make my move.

At that point, the store had a new system that--true to the company's usual form--worked. Instead of making everyone wait on a seemingly endless line, you could stop by and get a voucher stamped with a time of day to come back and get on line. On a Tuesday, I swung in around 12:30 p.m. and got a voucher for 5 p.m. Perfect. I waited about 45 minutes on a line inside the store, and then the purchase and transfer of my phone number took another 20 minutes. I was in business. Now it's been a month and here's what how my iPhone has been treating me.

WHAT'S GREAT:
• The App Store. Nicely complimenting the built-in programs like the surprisingly great Maps are the add-ons available at the iTunes store. Though there are at least as many misses as hits, such handy free downloadables as Urbanspoon (for restaurant suggestions), Baseball (stats for every pro team for every year since the late 1800's), and a simple Spanish phrasebook are incalculably cool. On the paid side, the iTrans PATH application which tells you when the next train is coming in each direction at each station--truly a quality-of-life issue when it's late and the trains are few and far, far between--is probably the best $4 any Hoboken or Jersey City resident could spend.
• The on-screen keyboard. What seemed like a potential downside has actually proved to be one of the easiest features to use. It only took a couple days to get used to the little QWERTY keys that pop up.
• Voicemail. Can't beat the convenience of choosing which voicemails to listen to and in which order.

WHAT'S SO-SO:
• The camera. Takes quick and good quality snaps, but there's no zoom or flash.
• Push email. Great if it works for you. Not-so-great for my main email account, for which I had no idea I'd need to switch to a new provider in order to get push email.
• The iPod. Oh yeah, it has an iPod.
• AT&T. More bars in more places my ass.

WHAT'S SO HORRENDOUSLY AWFUL, TO THE POINT WHERE IT BOGGLES THE MIND THAT THERE HASN'T BEEN A WORLDWIDE INVESTIGATION:
• Text messaging. It's so scandalously bad it's hard to know where to begin. Other than the lack of picture messaging, I knew nothing about the iPhone's SMS limitations when I signed up for this thing, and they are legion: in addition to the lack of picture messaging, you can't send a text to multiple recipients, you can't forward a text, and you can't save a text in draft. I mean, it's 2008. There is no excuse.

THE VERDICT:

It's a great device. Once the text messaging debacle is fixed, it will be the ultimate device. For now, it's still a major upgrade from my old phone.

P.S. Regarding a recent blog post, looks like I'm already back to using Oxford commas...

We haven't had that spirit here since 1956

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:28:00 -0400

Moose gives up three runs in the first inning and you're instantly deflated; the Yanks come back and score 10 runs before making four outs (for the first time since 1956, I learned afterward) and you're on your way to a rollicking good time at the stadium. Jerry Stiller looked like hell when he pulled the countdown clock lever with his son Ben--when did he become elderly?--but it was a fine summer day and another Yankee win in what's now an improbable 11-1 season at the stadium for me.

I Give A Blank About An Oxford Comma

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Tue, 5 Aug 2008 00:05:00 -0400

As a journalism major, I was taught that the serial or Oxford comma—the one that separates the word "and" and the last of three or more items in a series that follows it—was optional, but preferable. Chicago and most other style guides advise its use, but not the Associated Press.

I've always found it to be helpful to use the comma, my logic being that it doesn't slow down the reader much, and has the significant added benefit of making many sentences easier to understand, reducing ambiguity for more often than it creates it. So I've consistently used it in my writing ever since, but consciously not used it when writing for employers or publications other than my own.

My personal views haven't changed, but given how often I have been working on magazines and other projects where the house style is to omit serial commas a la AP style, I am going to make a conscious effort to not use them, at least for a little while, and see if I can live peacefully without them. Don't be surprised if I change right back at some point. But you only live once, so I'm giving this crazy new lifestyle a whirl.

Conveniently, Vampire Weekend have a new song and video tangentially about this type of comma, to ensure that this post isn't a total bore.

Weekend At Willie's...And Xavier's

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Mon, 4 Aug 2008 09:18:00 -0400

When you're a Yankees Sunday season ticket holder, you get tickets to every Sunday home game, plus two other special games: Opening Day and Old Timer's Day. Since Old Timer's Day is always held on a Saturday and teams never travel in the middle of a weekend, that means there's one weekend a year when you get tickets to games on consecutive days. For many people, the modus operandi is to attend Old Timer's Day, then sell or give away the Sunday tickets. This being Yankee Stadium: The Final Season, I've been determined to go to all 15 games on my slate, and anyway I liked the idea of commuting out to the stadium on consecutive days (something I'd already done once this year, when Opening Day was rained out on March 31 and played the following night).

I was rewarded with a pair of wins. The Yankees have been wildly inconsistent this year, but somehow, of the 11 games I've attended, they've won 10. Saturday's nostalgia fest was almost too inclusive—seeing Mickey Klutts and Wayne Tolleson doubtfully changed anyone's lives (other than, perhaps, their own)—but since this whole drawn-out, season-long pilgrimage of mine is all about reliving those glory days that'll pass you by, I can't imagine not having been there for this.

So yes, Yogi in full uniform on that field for the last time, Reggie and Tino and Winfield and you name 'em, they were there, 'cept of course Donnie Baseball, and Bernie and some others. It was fun but also bittersweet, the widows of Phil Rizzuto, Thurman Munson and a few other dignitaries being rightfully honored, and on the 29th anniversary of Munson's death. Ouch. The big spirit-raising surprise of the day was the presence of Willie Randolph in a Yankee uniform for the first time since the Mets gave him the unceremonious canning of all unceremonious cannings. Too bad Jeff Nelson struck him out during the one-inning exhibition game. Great to catch Keith Olbermann co-announcing the Old Timer's game too, even if a few ignoramuses felt it necessary to boo the only unabashedly liberal host on prime time cable news television. (I mean, seriously, we can't even have one?)

The actual (not Old, not officially, anyway) Yankees won the actual game, too, Mike Mussina pitching a very strong seven innings of two-hit ball as the Bombers defeated the Angels 8-2. The Sunday game wasn't pretty, but it was exciting; after erasing a five-run deficit, the Yanks held a three-run lead until Mark Teixeira hit a grand slam off Edwar Ramirez to make it 9-8 in the 8th. Somehow, the Yanks scratched out six runs in the bottom half of the inning to steal a split of the four-game series with the team sporting the best record in baseball. When all was said and done, new Yank Xavier Nady had six RBIs for the first time in his big-league career. Not bad. I have four games left, start spreading the news.

Closing Our Eyes And Saying Goodbye To Gypsy Angel Row

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Fri, 1 Aug 2008 20:33:00 -0400

You either love him or you don't. The bottom line is not just that Bruce Springsteen owns the stadium where the Super Bowl champions play their home games, but that he deserves to.

There were only three shows at Giants Stadium this time, an impressive showing of modesty from a guy and his band who packed the place ten times in a row the last time they blew through there, five years ago. These concerts were announced in December of last year; I made the decision to catch opening night and anted up on StubHub for a pricey pair of floor seats all of five hours before showtime.

Verdict? Great call. I never saw The E Street Band before their 1999 reunion; I'd seen Bruce run through a couple Beatles songs as a surprise guest at Ringo Starr's 1989 show at the Not-Yet-Corporately-Sponsored-At-That-Point Garden State Arts Center. Caught him with "The Other Band" at the then-still Brendan Byrne Arena in '92, and was lucky enough to witness a solo acoustic rehearsal show on the Tom Joad tour at, of all places, The State Theatre in New Brunswick in 1995.

Scoring a pair of free ducats for two of the 15-night homecoming at the arena in 1999 was a true coup, and the show blew me away, with the sprawling band owning on a Sunday night in July. It's a damn good thing the show was amazing, too, since my acquisition of the tickets for it led to me giving away the Yankee tickets I had for that afternoon--which I'm glad were enjoyed by my father and my brother, because David Cone only threw a perfect freaking game that day. The experience of seeing Bruce with the band proper was redeeming and memorable, a piece of my own imagined history I didn't know if I'd ever get to see.

The one show I caught during the 10-night stadium stand underwhelmed me. No, it was far from bad, but it also wasn't transcendent. Blame it on mezzanine seats the full length of the stadium away, blame it on the fact that I wasn't a huge fan of The Rising or "Light Of Day." It was with moderate trepidation that I contemplated the band now, five years farther down the line, with Danny Federici gone, no less. You can't ask a Bruce fan how the recent shows have been, because most of them will just say it was amazing. But I'd been tracking the set lists online since last fall; they were good and getting better, and the shows were getting longer again. After working like a dog all summer, it was time to take one last chance to make it real.

Real it was. Reeling off "Spirit In The Night," "Growin' Up," "Brilliant Disguise," "Lonesome Day" (The Rising's only transcendent moment), "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" and the revamped (a la The Seeger Sessions Band version, which more than borrows from The [latter-period] Band's brilliant reinvention thereof) "Atlantic City" within the first ten songs sealed it as a classic show. In the end, there was only one misstep, the obligatory 942-hour cornball version of "Mary's Place." And, criminally, there was not a single song from The River, which conveniently is the Bruce album I've gravitated toward the most for the last year or so, and is probably my favorite if you don't count Live 1975-85. Bruce rubbed salt in this little wound by playing no less than five River songs the following night.

But with "I'll Work For Your Love" mid-set, brilliant versions of "Tunnel Of Love" and "Long Walk Home" on the tail end, and an all-world encore that included "Summer Clothes" and "Jungleland" and "Bobby Jean" and "Dancing In The Dark" AND "Rosalita," well...really, after three hours and 20 minutes of dancing in said Jersey dark, to ask for more just wasn't fair. The new football stadium under construction about 18 inches west of the current Giants Stadium is set to open in 2010, and if last night's performance of "Rosalita" was the last time that utilitarian venue where I've screamed my head off for many memorable football and concert moments plays host to the bard of New Jersey and crew, the send-off was a proper one. And if there's another run of "farewell" shows before they tear down the home of Big Blue (and for no good reason, but that's another post), I'll see you there.

Ed Harcourt At Maxwell's

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:25:00 -0400

The Rufus Wainwright comparisons don't quite nail it--he's too British, not to mention heterosexual--but they're as good a place as any to start with Ed Harcourt. The Sussex musician hit Maxwell's last night as one of the last stops on his current U.S. tour, which apparently featured a show in Woodstock the previous night where there were "about 10 people," according to the artist's own on-stage account. There were maybe 60 people in the back room for this 100-or-so-minute performance on a Monday night, most of whom seemed to thoroughly enjoy his sometimes Tom Waitsian tales of hope and woe.

After a few rough spots early on, Harcourt hit his stride about a third of the way into the show. From there on out, his voice soared, his band (guitar, bass, drums, and trumpet joining him on keyboard for most songs) congealed, and the "God, if only Coldplay were this good" tunes just killed. His bitter British humo(u)r may have been largely lost on the room, but the songs were most definitely found.

A quick post-show chat with the man revealed him to be a chatty, good-natured, but no-b.s. type of bloke with a penchant for drink and Dennis Wilson. Truly a class act.

[I snapped a couple pics during the show, but I need to set up a new online photo sharing account. Hopefully I'll get a chance to post a pic soon. In the meantime, enjoy this video from a 2006 show.]

The Long Goodbye, Bronx Style

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:46:00 -0400

For the first time since 2001, this year I sprung for a Sunday ticket package at Yankee Stadium. You get the same seats for every Sunday home game, plus Opening Day and Old Timers' Day. It's become increasingly harder to get tickets every year, and with this being the last year of the original Yankee Stadium, I wanted to soak it in.

They're making a big deal about the 85 years of history the place has witnessed, and fair enough. Babe Ruth opened up the joint in 1923, and though the house he built was completely gutted and remodeled in the mid-'70s--Yogi Berra has said of the current stadium: "I didn't play here"--it's the only home park I've ever known for my favorite team.

A traditionalist when it comes to the Yankees, I was originally horrified that a new ballpark was being built across the street. I've gone through all the stages of mourning already and have come close to acceptance at this point, though the last regular-season home game--now less than two months away, amazingly--is bound to be emotionally challenging.

Having attended all nine games on my slate so far--and sporting an 8-1 record at them--there are six left. I'm going to try to make an effort to chronicle my take on the remaining ones here.

This past Sunday's game was a neatly played 2-1 win over the A's that was over in a breathtakingly brief two hours and 26 minutes; I'm sure Michael Kaye thought it was manageable. Andy Pettitte was dealing, fanning nine with no walks on four hits over eight innings. Mo pitched the ninth for the save. I believe he's pitched in eight of the nine games I've attended this year, excepting only the Sunday night drubbing the Mets gave them in May.

Metallica doesn't do a whole heck of a lot for me most of the time, but there's really no moment of anticipation more exciting in sports than hearing the initial guitar strains of "Enter Sandman" cueing 50,000 fans to applaud while the greatest relief pitcher in the history of baseball jogs from the bullpen to the mound. I stand and clap in awe every time.

A Place For My Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:05:00 -0400

Lenny Bruce was before my time, and though George Carlin's edgiest work was accomplished while I was an infant, it was his HBO specials in the '80s that taught me what edgy stand-up is.

Carlin was the people's comedian because he never put on airs and pretended to be above his audience. His observations were revelations, but he shared them in a down-to-earth way that made everyone believe, "Hey, I could've thought of that," even if you couldn't have. He showed us all what genius sounds like, without ever making any of us feel dumb.

"A Place For My Stuff" made a huge impression on me at age 12 and still resonates. It starts at 9:09 here in this clip from the 1984 special Carlin On Campus and continues here. Timeless...stuff.

Brains, Looks, Money

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:35:00 -0400

What better way to get back into writing about music than by, yes, writing about music. Here's what's rocking my world, circa...now.

My Morning Jacket
Evil Urges
(ATO)
Every recording by My Morning Jacket is weird, but they keep their audience engaged—and expanding—by flaunting a different layer of weirdness each time out. On Evil Urges, producer Joe Chiccarelli gives this Kentucky five-man electrical band a level of slickness that feels like the right fit for a somewhat more funkdafied, less rootsy-sounding set of songs.

MMJ is good for one or two punchy, uptempto tunes suitable for bar/club DJ play per album, and "Aluminum Park" fits the bill just fine. Their finest moments, though, are usually more esoteric songs like the title track here. Singer Jim James explores his voice's highest registers for a dreamy creation that takes previous Radiohead comparisons to their apotheosis. Elsewhere, "Highly Suspicious" is awfully good for a track that sounds like a Korn-inspired "Weird Al" song, and will probably become unlistenable forever if it somehow manages to becomes a rock radio hit. "Sec Walkin" and the two parts of "Touch Me I'm Going To Scream" are standouts as well.

(Having been involved on the editorial and marketing side of the band's four RCA releases myself [two studio albums, one live album/DVD, and an EP], of course I was dying to hear what they'd do next; I'm not disappointed.) Live is where they excel most. They're playing Radio City Music Hall this Friday, and we should all be thankful that Mr. James is an upstanding guy, because if he were to hand out Kool-Aid during the encore, thousands of takers just might line up with Dixie cups.

Santogold
Santogold
(Downtown)
Everyone's comparing this Pennsylvanian new wave singer to Sri Lankan sensation M.I.A., and it's true there are a few worldy (world-y?) influences to be detected on her debut album. But despite forays into reggae-ish territory, this is pretty damn far away from third world–influenced hip-hop. There's more than a little Lene Lovich and Annabella Lwin in the vocals on the must-have opening track "L.E.S. Artistes" and many of the album's other stark songs, and Debbie Harry clearly made her impression as well.

Her take on The Jam's "Pretty Green" (not present here) was arguably the highlight of Mark Ronson's 2007 covers collection Version, and this debut album seems like that recording's more thoughtful extension. This is mostly straight-ahead rock sung by a non-white female, and that tends to throw some people off. What we may have on our hands here is this year's Kenna.

Flight Of The Conchords
Flight Of The Conchords
(Sub Pop)
The New Zealand folk-parody duo's exploits in New York on their HBO series were way too funny to not take seriously. Amazingly, most of the songs stand up on their own and are worth many more repeat listenings than anyone might suspect. Whether channeling The Pet Shop Boys ("Inner City Pressure"), Barry White ("Business Time") or French pop of the '60s ("Foux da Fafa"), their cleverness always amuses without going over the top. Though it's disappointing that not every essential song from season one of the TV series appears here—"If You're Into It" is only on last year's The Distant Future EP, and the brilliant "Sello Tape" is inexplicably still unreleased—this is surprisingly necessary listening.

Sometime To Return

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:47:00 -0400

The short version is that I've been busy.

This blog began some years ago as an outlet for my writing after Yeah Yeah Yeah, the Trouser Press-inspired indie-rock zine to which I'd dedicated blood, sweat and years, finished its eight-year run. I needed a new outlet, and for a while this was perfect.

Time wore on and my DJ career got busier. Then my full-time music biz job got more intense. It became increasingly more challenging to find the time for epic pieces like my annual best-music-of-the-year roundup, my exclusive interview features, or even my informative-type tidbitty affairs.

So I took a break. It turned out to be a long one. As I've recently made the almost obligatory transition from full-time staff to consultant status, my time has become more flexible, and I'm starting to pursue my rock journalism dreams once again. The best part is that I have more than enough consulting work to keep me busy while I find my way.

Frankly, I now contemplate the next phase of my career with more optimism than I would have guessed was possible or even sensible, given the state of the economy in general and the health of big record labels and big music publications in particular. I've already conquered one "dying" business; here's to vanquishing another.

On with the show, this is it.

Dreamworld: Mike C.'s Favorite Music Of 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Fri, 1 Feb 2008 12:01:00 -0500

Permalinks: albums • songs

Top 10 Albums

1. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - Magic (Columbia)

2. AMY WINEHOUSE – Back To Black (Universal)

3. TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS - Living With The Living (Touch & Go)

4. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM – Sound Of Silver (DFA/EMI)

5. MIKA - Life In Cartoon Motion (Casablanca)

6. BAND OF HORSES – Cease To Begin (Sub Pop)

7. EDWYN COLLINS - Home Again (Heavenly/EMI [import])

8. RILO KILEY – Under The Blacklight (Warner Bros.)

9. JUNIOR SENIOR - Hey Hey My My Yo Yo (Ryko)

10. KANYE WEST – Graduation (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)

Top 10 Songs

1. AMY WINEHOUSE – Rehab (Universal)

2. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – I'll Work For Your Love (Columbia)

3. RILO KILEY – Dreamworld (Warner Bros.)

4. TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS – Rappaport's Testament: I Never Gave Up (Touch & Go)

5. THE ALUMINUM GROUP – Headphones (Minty Fresh)

6. PETER, BJORN & JOHN – Young Folks (Almost Gold)

7. THE SHINS – Phantom Limb (Sub Pop)

8. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM – Someone Great (DFA/EMI)

9. MATT & KIM – Yeah Yeah (Flosstradamus Remix) (iheartcomix.com)

10. ROONEY – Believe In Me (Geffen)

Build A Taj Mahal On Vacation Time: Mike C.'s Favorite Music Of 2006

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Mon, 5 Feb 2007 09:00:00 -0500

Permalinks: albums • songs • reissues • live shows

Top 50 Albums

1. PERNICE BROTHERS – Live A Little (Ashmont)

This would be much easier if it were 1966. Revolver would by my favorite album of the year. It would top all the critics' polls, if such polls had existed. It would be one of the biggest sellers of the year, you'd know what it sounds like, and there's a good chance you'd already own it and love it too.

Alas, your TV no longer has just three networks, your phone no longer has just numbers, and your record store no longer...well, your record store probably no longer exists, so maybe that’s not the best example. The point is, most pop culture is not universal. And that's ok. The fall 2006 release of Live A Little, the fifth Pernice Brothers album, was not widely heralded as an event of major cultural significance outside of the worlds of a few thousand dedicated fans. And while some may label me an elitist snob for naming a fairly obscure independent release that has sold about 5,000 copies to date as my favorite album of the year (whilst others who have heard it, and find it too boring or slow might just think I'm overrating it), the selection of a personal favorite that spoke to me is what seems most meaningful. The category I've set up is "favorite album of the year," not "favorite album of the year that most people have already heard of."

Even in a more tightly focused culture where mass phenomena were easier to create—think Elvis or The Beatles on Ed Sullivan—there still is almost no chance that the Pernice Brothers, the band that inspired me the most in 2006, would achieve enormous sales or fame. It's been years since I listened to any new album as much as I've listened to Live A Little, and while I am close to this music, I can step back from it and admit that its appeal is not universal. It rocks a bit in spots, but by and large it is a collection of quiet, poignant stories that probably are not likely to resonate with everyone.

But Live A Little is special. It is album of songs about travels by foot, car, plane, and within the human imagination. It makes smart lyrical nods to Tommy James, The Shirelles, The Clash, and numerous authors without obnoxiously calling attention to how clever those references are. It adheres to a sonic worldview in which The Smiths, Pretenders, and New Order are filtered through The Zombies as well as early Wilco. It has songs like "Zero Refills," which sounds like the mature adult offspring of The Eagles' "I Can't Tell You Why," and "Cruelty To Animals," in which the Meat Is Murder author calmly sings "Alouette, gentille alouette" while seeking shelter from the storm of barbarism that begins at home. It also has, inconspicuously located at track number seven—meaning it would lead off side two of this 12-song collection if you had to flip the thing over after 20 minutes to hear the rest—quite possibly the best song created by anyone in the last 20 years. Live A Little bursts with brutal honesty, and passion, and humor, and thoughtfulness of the kind not so commonly heard on an indie rock record. Seems like without tenderness there’s something missing.

Even the album title is perfect. Of course it is meant in the typical, encouraging sense of the phrase: go on, have some fun, live a little. But in typical Pernicean fashion, there is no way not to also interpret in it a second, sarcastically funny meaning: as in, to live only a little, to not be living quite enough. Laughing in the face of pain and sadness, and conquering ennui with a deep breath and a clever pun, is the central theme of Pernice's art. Though none of his previous work has been less than excellent, Pernice's realistic but not pessimistic worldview has never shown itself as fully flowered as it does here.

Critical overstatement is a danger. Grand, sweeping declarations are often regretted by the author soon after they are printed or posted. But hang it all; if I've ever wanted to write a rave, this is it. To posit that Live A Little is a work of such originality, genius, and beauty that it is unlikely to be matched this decade in its power and achievement by any work of art, not just in music but in any medium—literature, film, painting, glass-blowing, collage, mime, skywriting, sand sculpture, anything—is not hyperbole. It is understatement.

2. BELLE & SEBASTIAN – The Life Pursuit (Matador)
After a couple of middling albums in a row, the foremost purveyors of Scottish twee return to their form with their finest album since their 1997 breakthrough If You’re Feeling Sinister. The songs are sharp musically and lyrically, and for once, they even sound like they’re having a bit of fun. That fun rubs off on this engaging collection that does not contain any songs that are less than excellent.

3. SMART BROWN HANDBAG – Harry Larry (Stonegarden)
A designation like “most underappreciated band on the continent” is awfully difficult to quantify definitively, but Smart Brown Handbag might really be it. We’re talking about a band that has recorded and released ten full-length albums in ten years but has never reported SoundScan sales of more than 102 copies of any of them. Granted, they probably have sold more than 102 of at least some of their albums at merch tables during shows—not that they’ve toured in years—but it is probably accurate to say that there are unsigned bands playing junior high school dances who have sold more albums than Smart Brown Handbag.

What’s staggering about SBH’s inability to find an audience is that their sound is so accessible; they do not engage in avant-garde musical wankery. Nor, it’s perhaps not obvious enough to avoid stating, do they suck. Their MySpace page—on which I appear proudly as one of the band’s 59 friends, as of this writing (and I'm in their Top 12, but I swear I've never even met them)—pegs their sound accurately by listing The Smiths, Prefab Sprout, and Death Cab For Cutie under the “sounds like” tab. But as they sagely state in the “influences” box, “After ten years we are our own influence.” I would add that there’s more than a dash of the mellower side of early R.E.M. in many of their songs. As stated in this space two years ago, and as put forth by one of the more brilliant American music reviewers of the last decade, Glenn McDonald, the continued anonymity of Smart Brown Handbag is truly one of the great musical conundrums of the indie rock era. The craziest thing about it this band is that they keep getting better. Harry Larry is one of their best.

4. JENNY LEWIS WITH THE WATSON TWINS – Rabbit Fur Coat (Team Love)
Is this where I congratulate myself for waiting until number four before ranking an album that was both ecstatically embraced and backlashed upon by the musical hipster cognoscenti? The Rilo Kiley frontwoman takes a countrified vacation that shouldn’t have surprised anyone who paid attention to the acoustic numbers on the band’s last album, and hate it or love it, there really wasn’t anything else out there this year that sounded quite like this.

5. BEN KWELLER – Ben Kweller (ATO)
Lacking a potential monster hit single like his first two solo efforts, this album nonetheless coheres as a piece of work better than anything else the former teenage leader of Radish has done. Playing all the instruments himself and benefiting from smart production by Gil Norton, this album shows Ben’s songcraft taking a step up to the next level.

6. BUTCH WALKER – The Rise And Fall Of Butch Walker And The Let’s-Go-Out-Tonites (Epic/One Haven/Red Ink)
This collection of smart rock songs that oughta be hits might strike some as a tad slick—Butch has produced Avril Lavigne—but there are plenty of tattooed love girls and boys who believe the former frontman of Marvelous 3 (a band I never cared about) is more than just a cooler Bryan Adams. What puts this effort over the top is not the T. Rex homage “Hot Girls In Good Moods” or any of the other upbeat rockers, but the versatility he demonstrates in the trio of ballads that anchor the album. A sleeper that I never expected to make my top 10.

7. NEW YORK DOLLS – One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This (Roadrunner)
Speaking of sleepers, what were the odds that, despite three-fifths of this seminal NYC pre-punk band’s original members being dead, their third-ever studio album—and first in 32 years—would be such a vital collection of music? David and Syl carry the torch admirably for fallen dolls Johnny, Jerry, and Arthur, with David writing some of the year’s best lyrics this side of Joe Pernice. Read the Christgau piece.

8. GOLDFRAPP – Supernature (Mute)
The British synth-rock duo led by Allison Goldfrapp continues to evolve in fascinating ways. Band most likely to unleash a masterpiece at some point.

9. THE HOLD STEADY – Boys And Girls In America (Vagrant)
Third time out for these Brooklyn hipsters whose shit-stirrer of a native Minnesotan frontman has been known to talk up the Twins in front of NYC area audiences. Their neo-Springsteen/Lynott schtick still sounds pretty fresh.

10. HUMA – We Are Here For You (Cult Hero)
Cool bands continue to spring from my old college town of New Brunswick, N.J., despite the loss of the established live venues, dance clubs, and record stores of yore. The finest one I’ve heard in the last few years, the coed trio Huma, make post-space-age twee tunes of the most smile-inducing variety on their full-length debut. Most genuinely heartfelt album title of the year.

11. RHETT MILLER – The Believer (Verve Forecast)
This dashing gent somehow seems so much cooler without his alt-country bandmates from The Old 97’s. Or maybe it’s just that he tries harder when he’s on his own, resulting in more compelling songs. Though there are one or two skippable tracks, and it’s a slight notch down from his earlier solo effort The Instigator, there’s enough here to keep fans of smart straight-on rocknpop feeling groovy.

12. THE SOUNDS – Dying To Say This To You (New Line)
At their best, Maja Ivarsson and her Swedish cohorts evoke a perfect hybrid of Blondie and Depeche Mode. These moments don’t sustain the album all the way through, but they’re transcendent enough.

13. TRIS MCCALL – I’m Assuming You’re All In Bands (Jersey Beat)
The de facto poet laureate of Hudson County, Tris McCall finds inspiration for most of his writing—both as a composer of music and a copious writer of prose—close to home. As militantly pro-Jersey as they come (this side of me, anyway), McCall ventures just a few miles east off the mainland, two skinny little rivers over to planet Brooklyn, for a concept album about the indie rock culture of New York City’s self-proclaimed hippest borough. Though Jersey still permeates the spirit of the mostly bouncy, hyper-literate songs (one is even titled “Princeton Can Use A Man Like Joel,” and the hidden bonus track is a gorgeous paean to the county Tris calls home), this is a dandy day trip—and rest assured that McCall does not take the easy way out now. Not that he ever would.

14. ED HARCOURT – The Beautiful Lie (Heavenly/EMI import)
What Coldplay might sound like if they were fronted by Rufus Wainwright. Oh, and if they were actually cool.

15. HOT CHIP – The Warning (Astralwerks)
A late entry onto the list, and the only one of these 50 albums that I did not actually hear until January 2007. Might have ranked higher if I’d gotten my hands on it sooner and had more time with it. This is startlingly good electronic pop that often sounds eerily similar to the dance album The Aluminum Group has been threatening to make for years. Detached, understated vocals mixed with sharp beats and a vague sense of alienation permeating the proceedings. Pretty great.

16. THE DIVINE COMEDY – Victory For The Comic Muse (Parlophone)
That most debonair Northern Irish lad (cad?) Neil Hannon trots out his baroque wit (pith?) on a charming album that amounts to a realization of its title, which may or may not be tongue-in-cheek (tongue-in-chic?).

17. THE COUP – Pick A Bigger Weapon (Epitaph)
The only 2006 hip hop album I have listened to more than once in its entirety. That’s clearly my loss, but the genre was a natural victim of my curtailed music listening during the past year. The group whose 2001 album Party Music caused quite a stir due to an album cover that showed the twin towers on fire—and it was released before 9/11—keeps up its fierce politics on songs like “Baby Let’s Have A Baby Before Bush Do Something Crazy.” Guests Talib Kweli and Black Thought help make “My Favorite Mutiny” the year’s best funk workout, a moment worthy of the finest work of Lyrics Born. Has a few weak moments (especially the lame skits) but does reward repeating listenings.

18. HAMELL ON TRIAL – Songs For Parents Who Enjoy Drugs (Righteous Babe)
Not the strongest set of songs from the one-man punk-folk rebel rouser, but even his trifles are worthy of many a spin. Read the Christgau piece on him, too.

19. THE ROBOCOP KRAUS – They Think They Are The Robocop Kraus (Epitaph/Ada)
The Nürnberg five-piece synth-and-guitar attack of the year. Surprised some of these tracks weren’t bigger talk of the MP3 blogs and indie dance club hits. The beat of the songs is so martial that they could only be German, yet they also sound like they’re having more than a bit of fun.

20. THE KILLERS – Sam’s Town (Island)
The band everyone wanted to hate in 2006 acquitted themselves reasonably well on an album that didn’t get tons better with repeated listenings, but certainly didn’t get worse. The cringeworthy, Vegasy moments are admittedly bad, and at times the performance and production coalesce into fleeting seconds of unlistenable histrionics, but even these flaws are forgivable when the songwriting’s this good.

21. THE EARLY NOVEMBER – The Mother, The Mechanic, And The Path (Drive-Thru)
In which an unknown south Jersey indie band that’s too offbeat and mellow to truly be considered emo feels gutsy enough to release a triple album. The first two discs are straightforward rock songs, and the third is the true “concept album” portion. I probably never would have heard about this had it not been for a lengthy, intriguing review by Tris McCall (yes, he of this year’s number 13 album, he’s also quite the critiquer of music). Still, I probably would not have bought this CD if I hadn’t stumbled upon it at the Greenwich Village location of Tower Records in December, priced to move at 70 percent off list, four days before the storied retailer went out of business. Life is a series of coincidences.

22. PRIESTESS – Hello Master (RCA)
This is rawk, 2006.

23. ELECTRIC SIX – Switzerland (Metropolis)
Maybe they threw this one together a little too quickly? The third album from this MC6 (there are indeed a half-dozen of them, and they are from Detroit) is a solid notch down from their first two albums, which were virtually flawless in their hybridization of “hard” rock and disco. There still are some moments here, but the band just sounds tired.

24. THE STROKES – First Impressions Of Earth (RCA)
It’s too bad you only get one chance to make a first impression, because many peoples’ initial take on these guys was that they were too cool for school and not worthy of the hype. Three albums in now, they haven’t taken over the world, but instead carved out a niche. It’s a nice niche with a lot of good stuff that anyone who can’t help but slag them is missing out on. You only live once.

25. GNARLS BARKLEY – St. Elsewhere (Downtown)
How nice of this Barkley fellow to make an entire album about my mother’s favorite TV show of the 1980s.

26. BOB DYLAN – Modern Times (Columbia)
I love Bob Dylan’s music so much, he’s the one person in music who I would actually be scared to meet. An album this highly praised by an artist I admire so much, but which I’m so highly ambivalent about, could only land right smack in the middle of the countdown. Others have pontificated elsewhere more eloquently about this than I feel inspired to do right now. If this is what getting old sounds like, it doesn’t seem quite so bad. Then again, most old people are not as rich and famous as Dylan.

27. THE RAPTURE – Pieces Of The People We Love (Mercury/Universal)
Last night a band saved my dj life. DJs like me need more hipster dance rock with grooves this tight and choruses this hooky; no really, we do.

28. ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE VENUS 3 – Olé! Tarantula (Yep Roc)
Still mostly obtuse, except for the album-closing tear-jerker dedicated to the late New York Doll bassist Arthur “Killer” Kane,” this is more upbeat, if five percent less engaging than his last stellar effort, Spooked. Great fun, though, with Peter Buck along for the ride on lead guitar. Anyone who knows what Robyn’s on about in his lyrics is hereby pledged with the duty of sharing that knowledge with the world.

29. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (Columbia)
It’s all well and good, but he could have done so much more with this. Look, you’re doing an album of old folk songs by a left-wing musical deity, and you’ve already publicly expressed your disgust with the president and his extremist agenda, so Bruce, why are you wasting your and our time with “Froggie Went A-Courtin’” when you could be doing “The Torn Flag” or some other, bolder political statement? Ok, Dan Bern just did something with that one a couple years ago, but how many people heard it? You’re Bruce, you have a huge audience. There’s nothing wrong with this album, it’s just not as meaningful as it could have been.

30. ALBERT HAMMOND, JR. – Yours To Keep (Rough Trade)
The solo Stroke has some mighty catchy tunes to offer. A cool little surprise.

31. MORRISSEY – Ringleader Of The Tormentors (Sanctuary)
Morrissey, so much to answer for. Hopes were high in the wake of the return to form on his last album, You Are The Quarry. Though nowhere near as bad as his worse solo moments—when was the last time you spun Kill Uncle or Maladjusted?—this has to rank as something of a disappointment. As demonstrated on the album’s longest track, the semi-epic “Life Is A Pigsty,” he is still capable of unbridled greatness. Still thrilled to have one of the gods back and productive, and looking forward to the next one.

32. THE RACONTEURS – Broken Boy Soldiers (V2/Third Man)
The stock I put into this record rose and fell more times than, um, a really volatile stock. (Can you tell I don’t play the market?) In the end, it’s a solid rock album with a few memorable tunes by a whole that manages to be a little less than the sum of its impressive parts.

33. THE FRATELLIS – Costello Music (Universal import)
Fun British ‘70s glam ripoff artists.

34. JOHN LEGEND – Once Again (Columbia)
The title implies more of the same as what was on the debut, but while there’s no standout track a la Lifted’s minor classic “Ordinary People,” this may actually be a stronger effort in toto. I honestly expected less, but the beats and melodies are just too good to dismiss.

35. MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE – The Black Parade (Reprise)
I don’t think Queen got enough respect in their day, either. The band that catapulted from headlining The Loop Lounge in Passaic Park to a perennial top 10 MySpace search term nationally does north Jersey proud on their second major-label set. If you’re from Jersey and you don’t root for this band, then the terrorists have already won.

36. PRIMAL SCREAM – Riot City Blues (Columbia)
These Scottish-based vets have reinvented their sound many times through eight albums in 20 years, and here they take the back to basics approach, leaving the more electronica-flavored stylings of their last two efforts behind in favor of a blues-rock sound that suits them well. They even had the biggest U.K. hit of their career with album opener “Country Girl.” Right on.

37. EDITORS – The Back Room (Kitchenware)
It would take a British band to out-Interpol Interpol, of course, and here it is, with songs that even boast a memorable hook or two.

38. YEAH YEAH YEAHS – Show Your Bones (Interscope)
Cool attitude? Sure. Songs? Sadly, only in spots. Worthwhile? Yes, but only to a point.

39. MAGNET – The Tourniquet (Filter)
40. LLOYD COLE – Anti Depressant (One Little Indian)
They write the songs that don’t make the whole world sing, but those are rarely the most meaningful songs anyway...so who cares?

41. NEKO CASE – Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (Anti)
She’s good here, but she’s so much better in her role as occasional lead singer of The New Pornographers. This does have some very strong moments.

42. ARCTIC MONKEYS – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (Domino)
It's good, really, it's good. It's just not great. Worth having in your collection if you have everything else of this ilk. You know how I know I’m not going to be listening to this in two years? I’m not even listening to it now.

43. WILLIE NILE – Streets Of New York (Reincarnate)
A solid comeback by one of those mostly forgotten late ‘70s/early ‘80s singer/songwriters a la Steve Forbert, the kind of guy a lot of Springsteen fans tend to like. If not for the return of the Dolls, this would win the New York City Album Of The Year Award.

44. BADLY DRAWN BOY – Born In The U.K. (Astralwerks)
The unpredictable British rogue Damon Gough takes his obsession with the ‘70s in general, and the Bard of New Jersey in particular, to new heights with this, his most listenable work since his debut.

45. WE ARE SCIENTISTS – With Love And Squalor (Virgin)
46. PHOENIX – It’s Never Been Like That (Astralwerks)
Hipster rock that didn’t totally suck, volume 2006.

47. KEVIN FEDERLINE – Playing With Fire (Reincarnate)
48. “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC – Straight Outta Lynwood (Zomba)
Two classic quotes uttered by Alan Alda’s megalomaniacal film director character Lester in Crimes And Misdemeanors come to mind. One: “If it bends, it’s funny; if it breaks, it’s not funny.” Two: “Comedy equals tragedy plus time.” Federline and Yankovic both bend. And do the math: each offers music of comparable sincerity and absurdity. That they did not tour together was one of the year’s great missed music marketing opportunities.

49. JOHNNY CASH – American V: A Hundred Highways (American)
For a while, I actually forgot that I had bought this. Not that it’s terrible—not by a longshot—but like the Nirvana Unplugged album, it’s a little depressing to hear such a mighty talent more or less dying on tape. There are probably at least 30 other, better Johnny Cash albums everyone should own before they get this one.

50. THE SLEEPY JACKSON – Personality (One Was A Spider, One Was A Bird) (Astralwerks)
And that’s the way I like it, that’s the way I like it.

Also Worthy
PETE YORN – The Nightcrawler (Red Ink/Columbia)
VARIOUS – My Old Man: A Tribute To Steve Goodman (Red Pajamas)
ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO – The Boxing Mirror (Back Porch)
THE LEMONHEADS – The Lemonheads (Vagrant)
DAMONE – Out Here All Night (Island)
MAGNET – Hold On Tour EP (Filter)
KEANE – Under The Iron Sea (Interscope)

Perhaps Worthy
SCISSOR SISTERS – Ta-dah (Universal)
OUTKAST – Idlewild (LaFace/Zomba)
THE STILLS – Without Feathers (Vice)
JULES SHEAR – Dreams Don’t Count (Mad Dragon)
DIXIE CHICKS – Taking The Long Way (Open Wide/Columbia)
THE FUTUREHEADS – News And Tributes (StarTime)
THE HORRORS – The Horrors (Stolen Transmission)
THE FLAMING LIPS – At War With The Mystics (Warner Bros)

Likely Worthy, But I Didn't Hear Them In Full
JARVIS COCKER – Jarvis (Rough Trade import)
DAN BERN – Breathe (Messenger)
ASHFORD BREAKS – Traitor EP (no label)
THE THERMALS – The Body, The Blood, The Machine (Sub Pop)
PEACHES – Impeach My Bush (XL)
MATES OF STATE – Bring It Back (Barsuk)
TOM WAITS – Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (Anti)
GOLDEN SMOG – Another Fine Day (Lost Highway)
PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS – Stepfather (Red Urban)
EAST RIVER PIPE – What Are You On? (Merge)
THE LONG BLONDES – Someone To Drive You Home (Rough Trade)
THE RAKES – Capture/Release (V2 Intl)
CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy (Sub Pop)
STEPHIN MERRITT – Show Tunes (Nonesuch)

Not Worthy
THE STREETS – The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living (Vice/579/Atlantic)
MEAT LOAF – Bat Out Of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose (Virgin)
DONALD FAGEN – Morph The Cat (Reprise)
MATTHEW SWEET/SUSANNAH HOFFS – Under The Covers Vol. 1 (Shout! Factory)
CAM’RON – Killa Season (Asylum/Diplomats)
TAPES N’ TAPES – The Loon (XL)
BILLY JOEL – 12 Gardens Live (Columbia)

Top 100 Songs

1. PERNICE BROTHERS – B.S. Johnson (Ashmont)
A two-minute and 22-second masterpiece. The story of experimental British author B.S. Johnson, who committed suicide in 1973, resonates in this appropriately too-short song about someone who never fit into neat societal or artistic categories. Perhaps Pernice feels some kinship with the misunderstood and underappreciated author. Maybe he just admires his talent.

It’s the song’s narrative twist near the end that puts it over the top, making it one of the best pop song lyrics ever written by someone other than Lennon, McCartney, Dylan, Wonder, King, Wilson, Robinson, Simon, Mitchell, Hynde, Townshend, Morrissey, Stipe, Phair, Cash, Gaye, Springsteen, Taupin, or [insert last name of the amazing songwriter of your choice here]. After quickly laying out what it meant to be Johnson in a series of hypothetical present-tense commands (“Write a book of debt everyone must pay,” “Build a Taj Mahal on vacation time”), the songwriter imagines the futility felt by the author who was “jammed into a plot where you never would fit” and “dead by 42.”

Then he takes it a step further, drawing a connection between himself and the author in the continuum of history, it dawning on him that while B.S. Johnson was suffering the inner torment that ended in his own untimely demise, a young Joe Pernice was being put to bed by his mother after taking a bath, blissfully unaware of the existence of the author and his angst—indeed, perhaps young enough to be oblivious to all angst beyond the injustice of an early bedtime. At that exact moment, the song becomes not just the tragic story of one man’s struggle to cope with the pressures of life, it is universalized into every human being’s experience of innocence lost. With a formal but urgent mid-tempo arrangement of mostly understated electric guitars, bass, occasionally swelling piano and organ, perfectly played drums, and swelling strings, the song broadcasts its importance not through ferocity but by its tone. It is stately, but far from stodgy.

“B.S. Johnson” is a landmark recording of such depth and beauty, the likes of which has not been created in quite some time. It is by far the best song to date of this decade—and so, by extension, of this young century.

2. THE RAPTURE – Get Myself Into It (Mercury/Universal)
A dance-floor no-brainer, this is the band’s previous club classic “House Of Jealous Lovers” on the perfect dosage of antidepressants.

3. NEW YORK DOLLS – Dance Like A Monkey (Roadrunner)
When in doubt, start with the classic garage rock beat a la “Lust For Life.” Add lyrics that smartly mock creationism and fine musical performances all around, and you have one of the more memorable comeback singles in rock history.

4. BELLE & SEBASTIAN – We Are The Sleepyheads (Matador)
Haircut 100 with a darn good Hendrix understudy on guitar.

5. NELLY FURTADO & TIMBALAND – Promiscuous (Geffen)
The best Top 40 radio song of 2006 sounded an awful lot like it could have been a chart-topper in 1986. While the mid-‘80s were hardly a great time for R&B production-wise, somehow Timbaland made that era sound cooler now than it actually was then.

6. THE SOUNDS – Hurt You (New Line)
More or less “Don’t You Want Me” turned on its head—and in a similar synth-pop vein—it’s a duet where the male lead is the dumper instead of the dumped.

7. GNARLS BARKLEY – Crazy (Downtown)
Shine on you crazy diamond.

8. THE COUP FEATURING TALIB KWELI & BLACK THOUGHT – My Favorite Mutiny (Epitaph)
The tempo of this deeply funky hip hop track seems faster than it actually is, which says a lot about the power it wields.

9. BUTCH WALKER – When Canyons Ruled The City (Epic/One Haven/Red Ink)
It's funny how mistaken notions can influence your experience or understanding of a song. As someone who walks among the corporate canyons of the midtown Manhattan skyscrapers on a daily basis, this album-closing ballad resonated as a postcard from the future, from someone who'd either seen those mighty buildings tumble literally—something we've seen around here—or seen their import diminished somehow. A close reading of the lyrics reveals something entirely different: a byzantine soap opera of characters desperate for fame in the Hollywood hills. It doesn't make the song less powerful, just more personal.

10. HAMELL ON TRIAL – Father’s Advice (Righteous Babe)
The saddest song written since Lou Reed’s 1992 wrist-slasher (literally) “Harry’s Circumcision,” but this one is more subtle because it has a relatively rockin’ tempo. Only Ed Hamell could spin the true story of his father’s murder-suicide into a song both this good and this listenable without being sensationalistic. A brutal punch to the gut.

11. PERNICE BROTHERS – Somerville (Ashmont)
12. PERNICE BROTHERS – Cruelty To Animals (Ashmont)
13. PERNICE BROTHERS – Zero Refills (Ashmont)
14. NELLY FURTADO – Say It Right (Geffen)
15. PERNICE BROTHERS – Grudge Fuck (2006) (Ashmont)
16. BUTCH WALKER – We’re All Going Down (Epic/One Haven/Red Ink)
17. HOT CHIP – And I Was A Boy From School (Astralwerks)
18. JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE FEATURING T.I. – My Love (Jive)
19. THE STROKES – You Only Live Once (RCA)
20. MORRISSEY – Life Is A Pigsty (Sanctuary)
Two (count ‘em) Nelly Furtado songs in the top 14; if Teena Marie had sung these songs, they’d already be considered classics. Another beautiful Butch ballad, a couple danceable electro-jams, a Strokes highlight, and one of The Mozzer’s better (and longer) solo compositions. And have I mentioned these Pernice Brothers?

21. SMART BROWN HANDBAG – Harry Larry (Stonegarden)
22. NEW YORK DOLLS – We’re All In Love (Roadrunner)
23. ED HARCOURT – Revolution In The Heart (Heavenly/EMI import)
24. KEANE – Is It Any Wonder? (Interscope)
25. PETE YORN – Splendid Isolation (Red Ink/Columbia)
26. SHE WANTS REVENGE – Tear You Apart (Geffen)
27. JENNY LEWIS WITH THE WATSON TWINS – Rise Up With Fists!!! (Team Love)
28. JOHN LEGEND – P.D.A. (We Just Don’t Care) (Columbia)
29. HAMELL ON TRIAL – Coulter’s Snatch (Righteous Babe)
30. BOB DYLAN – Workingman’s Blues #2 (Columbia)
The Handbag album’s title track is already like a comfy friend the first time you hear it. The track that kicks off the Dolls’ record is a corker. Harcourt makes you dream. Keane makes you marvel at the best-produced rock song to hit the radio all year. Yorn improves on a Warren Zevon chestnut. She Wants Revenge brings the early ‘80s all back home, Jenny brings the story of the hurricane, Legend lays lady lay, Hamell’s simple desultory dissection of odious Ann and the outright lies she perpetrates exposes that blonde really isn’t blonde, and Dylan sounds like tonight he’ll be staying here with you. In that order.

31. YEAH YEAH YEAHS – Honeybear (Interscope)
32. THE FRATELLIS – Chelsea Dagger (Universal import)
33. THE RACONTEURS – Store Bought Bones (V2/Third Man)
34. ALBERT HAMMOND, JR. – In Transit (Rough Trade)
35. PRIMAL SCREAM – Country Girl (Columbia)
36. RIHANNA – S.O.S. (Def Jam)
37. NEKO CASE – The Needle Has Landed (Anti)
38. ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE VENUS 3 – N.Y. Doll (Yep Roc)
39. JARVIS COCKER – Black Magic (Rough Trade import)
40. BEN KWELLER – Magic (ATO)
The Y3’s album’s only memorable rocker, a Sweet/Slade-esque glam stomper, some taut rock, a jangle-synth high, Soft Cell walks into the wrong nightclub, a decent pun, a lighters-out moment, and never believe it’s not so. (N.B. I did not get the full Jarvis album yet, so I’m reserving the right to vote for it on my 2007 albums list, provided it receives a proper U.S. release sometime this year.)

41. KEVIN FEDERLINE – Lose Control (Reincarnate)
42. EDITORS – Fingers In The Factories (Kitchenware)
43. TRIS MCCALL – Not Another Song About You (Jersey Beat)
44. SMART BROWN HANDBAG – Clearing The Slate (Stonegarden)
45. PERNICE BROTHERS – Automaton (Ashmont)
46. ASHFORD BREAKS - Exposure (no label)
47. EDITORS – Munich (Kitchenware)
48. THE KILLERS – When We Were Young (Island)
49. BUTCH WALKER – Dominoes (Epic/One Haven/Red Ink)
50. THE ROBOCOP KRAUS – You Don’t Have To Shout (Epitaph/Ada)
Get up, get into it, and get involved.

51. EDWYN COLLINS – Leviathan (no label)
52. PRIESTESS – Everything That You Are (RCA)
53. BELLE & SEBASTIAN – For The Price Of A Cup Of Tea (Matador)
54. HUMA – Start To Realize (Cult Hero)
55. GOLDEN SMOG – Corvette (Lost Highway)
56. “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC – White And Nerdy (Zomba)
57. BELLE & SEBASTIAN – Song For Sunshine (Matador)
58. BUTCH WALKER – Hot Girls In Good Moods (Epic/One Haven/Red Ink)
59. THE DIVINE COMEDY – A Lady Of A Certain Age (Parlophone)
60. GOLDFRAPP – Fly Me Away (Mute)
A voice suspended in time, Montreal Rock City, something cheap, a neuron burst, if you can get a fast car, a room full of white people, blissed out summer, the club on a good night, dignity, and escapism.

61. THE HOLD STEADY – Stuck Between Stations (Vagrant)
62. NEW YORK DOLLS – Punishing World (Roadrunner)
63. RHETT MILLER – I’m With Her (Verve Forecast)
64. GNARLS BARKLEY – Smiley Faces (Downtown)
65. ED HARCOURT – You Only Call Me When You’re Drunk (Heavenly/EMI import)
66. THE SOUNDS – Tony The Beat (New Line)
67. TRIS MCCALL – An Ass Of U And Me (Jersey Beat)
68. THE COUP – Baby Let’s Have A Baby Before Bush Do Something Crazy (Epitaph)
69. BEN KWELLER – Run (ATO)
70. PRIESTESS – Run Home (RCA)
Stalling, suffering, sweating, smirking, shrieking, sashaying, supposing, sssex, striding, and sweating sweating sweating more.

71. ELECTRIC SIX – Slices Of You (Metropolis)
72. THE RAPTURE – Don Gon Do It (Mercury/Universal)
73. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – O Mary Don’t You Weep (Columbia)
74. THE RACONTEURS – Steady, As She Goes (V2/Third Man)
75. BEN LEE – Catch My Disease (New West)
76. BADLY DRAWN BOY – Welcome To The Overground (Astralwerks)
77. PERNICE BROTHERS – High As A Kite (Ashmont)
78. ARCTIC MONKEYS – Riot Van (Domino)
79. CHRISTINA AGUILERA – Ain’t No Other Man (RCA)
80. PHOENIX – Napoleon Says (Astralwerks)
The first cut is the deepest, don’t do me like that, baby stop crying, solid as a rock, sick again, get along Kid Charlemagne, one toke over the line, police on my back, my only love, and everybody wants to rule the world.

81. PARIS HILTON – Stars Are Blind (Universal)
82. KEVIN FEDERLINE FEATURING YA BOY – Dance With A Pimp (Reincarnate)
83. MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE – Dead (Reprise)
84. THE HOLD STEADY FEATURING ELIZABETH ELMORE & DAVID PIRNER – Chillout Tent (Vagrant)
85. WILLIE NILE – Asking Annie Out (Reincarnate)
86. WE ARE SCIENTISTS – This Scene Is Dead (Virgin)
87. PERNICE BROTHERS – Conscience Clean (I Went To Spain) (Ashmont)
88. ARCTIC MONKEYS – I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor (Domino)
89. THE RAKES – Strasbourg (V2)
90. CAM’RON – Weekend Girl (no label)
Paris and Kevin aren’t nearly as bad as you wish they were—musically, anyway; as human beings, of course, they are reprehensible. My Chem defines screamo, The Hold Steady and company detail a festival mishap, denial is a river in Egypt, We Are Prescients, tabula rasa, if I looked all over the world and there’s every type of girl, Europe is our playground, everybody wants a new romance.

91. THE THERMALS – A Pillar Of Salt (Sub Pop)
92. THE 303’S – Waves And Generation (Cult Hero)
93. RHETT MILLER – Help Me, Suzanne (Verve Forecast)
94. THE STREETS – Hotel Expressionism (Vice/579/Atlantic)
95. GOSSIP – Standing In The Way Of Control (Kill Rock Stars)
96. THE COUP – I Love Boosters! (Epitaph)
97. SCISSOR SISTERS – Oooh (Universal)
98. THE DIVINE COMEDY – Diva Lady (Parlophone)
99. OK GO – Here It Goes Again (Atlantic)
100. THE BEATLES – Drive My Car/The Word/What You’re Doing (Capitol)
You get the idea.

Top 10 Reissues, Compilations & Historical Releases

1. THE BEATLES – Love (Capitol)
There were no Pernice Brothers reissues in 2006, preventing them from being the first-ever winners of the Mike C. Music Quadruple Crown. So, in all their remixed and mashed-up glory, here they are, The Beatles!

2. THE BEATLES – The Capitol Albums, Vol. 2 (Capitol)
Duh part deux.

3. PRETENDERS – Pretenders (Sire/Rhino)
By far the greatest debut album in the entirety of rock & roll history gets its due with the long-overdue remastered double-disc treatment.

4. R.E.M. – And I Feel Fine: The Best Of The I.R.S. Years (2-disc version) (I.R.S./Capitol)
A thoughtful compilation of their best stuff up till ’87, but for fans the real action is on disc two, a fascinating treasure trove of rarities and previously unheard delights. Yet another reminder why they were the best American band of the ‘80s, period.

5. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – Hammersmith Odeon ’75 (Columbia)
Rock and roll future when it was rock and roll present.

6. BEE GEES – The Studio Albums 1967-1968 (Reprise)
The first three BG albums—1st, Horizontal, Idea—in stereo and mono versions, and an enlightening disc of rarities accompanying each one. These are the albums where Barry, Robin, and Maurice wanted so, so badly to be The Beatles, and on many songs they might as well have been. A truly perfect reissue set.

7. MATTHEW SWEET – Girlfriend (Volcano/Legacy)
Wow, do I still love this album. And wow, does the fact that it’s now 15 years old make me feel ancient. My fawning summary of Girlfriend was one of the first record reviews of mine ever to appear in a publication that was printed somewhere other than the copy machine at my father’s office, and though I haven’t read it in a while, I’d probably stand by damn near every word of it today. So if you need to know more, consult the spring 1992 archives of The Rutgers Review. Still one of the 10 best albums of the ‘90s.

8. HEAVEN 17 – Penthouse And Pavement (Virgin import)
A lush British synth-pop classic of the ‘80s. Yummy.

9. THE BYRDS – There Is A Season (Columbia/Legacy)
They’ve been through the reissue mill more times than most, so it’s a great to hear there was some luster left to be added to the sonic reproduction of these timeless recordings.

10. BOW WOW WOW – We Are The ‘80s (RCA/Legacy)
As definitive a comp as we’re likely to ever get by this odd little early ‘80s media creation that actually managed to be a good band.

Top 25 Live Shows

1. PERNICE BROTHERS at The Mercury Lounge, NYC, December 8
2. THE AVENGERS at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, September 9
3. NEW YORK DOLLS at South Street Seaport, NYC, August 18
4. PRIESTESS at The Mercury Lounge, NYC, May 11
5. P.M. DAWN at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, August 2
6. THE HOLD STEADY at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, November 24
7. MY MORNING JACKET at Roseland, NYC, November 30
8. ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE VENUS 3 at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, November 8
9. BEN KWELLER at Webster Hall, NYC, October 20
10. JESSE MALIN and MATT AZZARTO at The Goldhawk, September 8

11. HAMELL ON TRIAL at Comix, NYC, November 29
12. RAY LAMONTAGNE at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, August 27
13. MAGNET at The Living Room, NYC, March 21
14. SCREEN TEST at Shifty’s, Syracuse, N.Y., July 21
15. HOPE AND ANCHOR at Flicker, Athens, Ga., June 17
16. ROONEY at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, July 17
17. STEVE GOODMAN TRIBUTE SHOW (VARIOUS ARTISTS) at The Living Room, NYC, June 7
18. RHETT MILLER at Webster Hall, NYC, April 13
19. THE KILLERS at Webster Hall, NYC, September 22
20. TRIS MCCALL & THE NEW JACK TRIPPERS and CHARLES BISSELL at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, June 24

21. PEELANDER-Z and THE WATERFRONT DUO at Maxwell's, December 12
22. CJ RAMONE & DANIEL REY WITH WALTER LURE, HANDSOME DICK MANITOBA’S BAND, and LENNY KAYE at The Continental, NYC, September 17
23. RYE COALITION, GROUP SOUNDS, and SHELBY at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, January 13
24. SOUL ASYLUM at Irving Plaza, NYC, August 3
25. FOO FIGHTERS and FRANK BLACK at The Beacon Theater, NYC, August 23

Also Worthy
THE FAVE at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, December 1
BILL MCGARVEY at Hoboken Arts & Music Festival, Hoboken, September 17
BEDSIT POETS at The Goldhawk, Hoboken, February 8

Penelope Houston’s new Avengers bring out a version of the punk ethos at its best, one that seeks to create good more than to destroy evil. The Dolls repeated the same set they’d done at the Seaport a month later at the Hoboken Arts & Music festival, and not only was the city show a hair better, it also lacked Sylvain’s asinine comment introducing the band’s song “Trash,” to the effect that the its title was “no reflection on this town.” Gee, Syl, thanks so much for feeling the need to state outright that Hoboken is not trash. Funny, I don’t think any of the thousands of people in attendance needed such a clarification. Whatever.

P.M. Dawn was the weirdest show I’ve seen at Maxwell’s since a February 2002 set by Brian Jonestown Massacre, an oddly similar, sprawling, three-hour mess that was equal parts euphorically great and offensively horrible. Months later at the same venue, it was amusing to see Peter Buck of the Venus 3 standing near the merch table to catch a few minutes of an opening band, while no one approached him. Jesse Malin absolutely owned a hushed back room at The Goldhawk, and Ray LaMontagne did the same a few short blocks away. The gentle brilliance of Hope And Anchor was a highlight of my first-ever night in Athens. Steve Goodman’s sly songs stand the tough test of time.The Killers live show has improved drastically in the space of two years.

Peelander-Z and The Waterfront Duo both must be experienced to be believed, and even then it's not unreasonable to momentarily question how they could both be so brilliant. On the last night of live music at The Continental, Handsome Dick’s declaration that that punk rock was gonna be ok, even with the closing of that venue and CBGB, felt reassuring. A lonely Frank Black, on a Beacon stage that seemed way too large, played an inspired acoustic set that very few people bothered to witness. And yes, those stunning Pernice Brothers outdid them all.

November Reign

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 18:26:00 -0500

It's been one heckuva busy stretch lately over at Hoboken Rock City studios. Wedding gigs, softball season (yes, games extend into November), and all other sorts of insanity have made for a jagged DJ schedule for me at my rock & roll home base, The Goldhawk. I'm happy to report that for the next six Saturdays in a row--the final six weekends of 2006--I will be in the rock & roll driver's seat, otherwise known as The Goldhawk DJ booth.

Here are some news items and updates, in easily consumable bullet-point format!

• Re-stating the obvious, I'm DJing at The Goldhawk each of the next six Saturday nights. The rock starts at 10 p.m. and goes till last call.

• Mike C.'s 5th Annual Xmas Party will kick off the Dec. 23 gig. That night starts early, at 8 p.m. Join me for a couple hours of strictly seasonal songs, from the Jackson 5...to the Ramones...to Perry Como! To obscurities ranging from Martin Mull to Archers Of Loaf, too. When the time is right, the night will switch into regular rock mode for the rest of the evening, with more holiday tuneage sprinkled throughout.

• Thanks to all who supported Neat Neat Neat, the series of nights I did at Manitoba's in NYC. It was fun, but it ran its course. Taped to the inside of the DJ booth at Manitoba's are these words of wisdom all bar patrons would do well to heed: "26. If there is a DJ you can request a song only once per night. If he doesn't play it within half an hour, do not approach him again. If he does play it, do not approach him again." This pithy brilliance gave me a smile every time I dug into the Manitoba's booth, and it wasn't until a few days ago that I Googled it and discovered the source.

• New photos of yours truly at by the incomparable Michael Waring, who I think achieved something astonishing: he actually made me look sort of cool. Thanks, Michael!

• All 10 episodes of my Hoboken Rock City podcast from 2005 are still downloadable from the home page, but only for a limited time. The podcast files will be removed on or around December 15. If you do not have these shows or you need to download them again, please do so now. Thanks to all who have listened.

• For about six months there, I got lazy about posting playlists on the website. That has been remedied, and while looking back at six months worth of lists makes me realize there are a bunch of songs I've been beating to death and I need to give them a rest, the curious or obsessive can view said playlists.

• Can't say the same about this here blog. Despite this post, it's still pretty much dormant. Perhaps one of these days I'll pick it up again.

• Recommended DJ night other than my own: Pat Pierson at The Iron Monkey, this Wednesday, Nov. 22. 10 p.m. till late, no cover. 97 Greene St., Jersey City, NJ.

• Recommended NYC show #1: Hamell On Trial at Comix 3, Wednesday, Nov. 29. 53 West 14th St., Be there or be square.

• Recommended NYC show #2: Pernice Brothers at Mercury Lounge, Friday, December 8. Be there or be square--squared!

• Stay tuned for details about a possible New Year's Eve gig.

• You can always find my DJ schedule up to date on the home page or over on you-know-what-space.

HOBOKEN ROCK CITY
DJ Mike C. spins rock & roll
Every Saturday night
for the rest of 2006
Nov. 25
Dec. 2, 9, 16, 23* & 30

10 p.m. till late
at The Goldhawk
936 Park Ave. (at 10th St.), Hoboken
no cover, 21+

*Special event:
Saturday, December 23
Mike C.'s 5th Annual Xmas Party
Holiday rock and more
8 p.m. till everyone's sick of Xmas music!

Spirit Of '92

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Tue, 7 Nov 2006 14:35:00 -0500

Listen to Automatic For The People today. And vote!

My first liner notes: A Flock Of Seagulls

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 09:16:00 -0400

Ok, so it's not a book. Still, I'm proud to announce that today marks the commercial release of the first CD featuring liner notes I wrote.

A Flock Of Seagulls We Are The '80s is in stores today. This Jive/Legacy release features 13 digitally remastered tracks by the new wave group from Liverpool that unfairly has gone down in history as a one-hit wonder joke band. Yes, their singer had probably the worst hair in the history of popular music. Get past the hair, though, and you'll find a band with several solid songs that epitomized their era.

Don't get me wrong, they're no Psychedelic Furs. But as mentioned in the essay I wrote for this CD, A Flock Of Seagulls made music far more relevant than their much maligned reputation would indicate. Robert Christgau hit the nail on the head a few years ago in The Village Voice when he declared the Flock was "so much better than Duran Duran."

If you are in a position to commission me to write liner notes for CDs, let me know and I will get you a free copy. Everyone else who's not a blood relative or a SONY BMG employee, please buy it at your local record store or purchase the physical CD online; don't buy it from iTunes, or you'll miss out on 750 of the proudest words I've ever written.

Here is the link if you wish to purchase the CD from Amazon, where today it is #132,042 on their music chart!

All revved up and ready to go

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Wed, 17 May 2006 00:21:00 -0400

I'm spinning another Thursday night of raucous rock at Manitoba's this week for the latest installment of my little rock party Neat Neat Neat. Playing the East Village's definitive punk shack is always exciting, but this week it's a little more so. See, this week I'll be musically honoring the memories of Joey and Dee Dee and Johnny Ramone on the night leading into what would have been Joey's 55th birthday.

I'll be playing your Ramones requests all night along with fan faves, rarities, original versions of songs they covered, kindred spirits, and other hot and heavy hits from the rock, punk, indie, and oldies spectrums (spectra?). If you've been to Manitoba's before, you know it has more NYC punk cred than just about any other bar in the city, with all due respect to the once-mighty CBGB. If you have never been there, come for the music and stay for the intimate environs, the classic punk photography and memorabilia, and the $3 cans of Pabst. We accept you.

NEAT NEAT NEAT
DJ Mike C. spins rock & roll gold

at MANITOBA'S
99 Avenue B (at 7th St.), NYC
no cover, 21+

May 18: Ramones tribute
Celebrating Joey Ramone's birthday

The Name Of This Site Is Mike C. Music; The Name Of This Blog Is Hoboken Rock City

noreply@blogger.com (Mike C.) — Mon, 15 May 2006 08:55:00 -0400

Welcome to the new mikecmusic.com! The biggest changes are cosmetic, with a new color scheme and site design. Nearly all of the previous site's features are still here. The seldom-used Writings page has been replaced by a Clients page, where I will highlight professional clients I have worked for. The Home page, Playlists, Reviews, Interviews, Biography, and the Contact form have not changed in any significant ways. Links, instead of being divided into the dopey categories I had previously designated, are now one big alphabetical listing.

The Blog page, such as it is, is the one section where this website's original name, Hoboken Rock City, will be maintained. In other words, this website is now called Mike C. Music. However, the blog is Hoboken Rock City Blog. If you have links that go to the hobokenrockcity.com domain, it would be best if you could direct them to mikecmusic.com instead, although the old ones will continue to work for some time to come. Still with me?

As for said blog, it began in November 2004 as a forum for my writings on music and politics, and Hoboken life. Obviously, I have not been keeping up with those angles; for the last many months, this space has become a place where I alert people to my upcoming DJ events, more and more of which are happening in Manhattan these days. All I can say is that I hope I can make the time to write about shows I've been going to, music I've been listening to, and Republicans who have been pissing me off when I can. That said, I can guarantee you the next post I make here will be about my big Ramones tribute event at Manitoba's this Thursday.

Huge thanks to my web guru Jim Romaine for his pristine work, and to my graphic designer Robin C. Hendrickson for expert logo and color design. Excellent work, gentlemen.