I just need to share: if you read the above sentence quickly (and you are me), it reads as "Chuck Mangione."

Ha!

Mr. Broom: Eh, sorry, I'm predisposed to dislike Chuck K's work. His stance (which boils down to "most indie rock is a pose; Real Americans embrace radio pop and metal") just chafes me. It's a topsy-turvy, Bush-friendly celebration of mediocrity, which is why I wasn't even amused by the notion of a mean on the bell curve of music. Me Hate Him.

I thought there was a lot of good music in 2004, but you needed to keep your ear to the ground. In the two weeks or so since I posted my draft Top Ten on another board (I posted one here, too, a few days later), I've gotten copies of Panda Bear - Young Prayer, Oneida - Secret Wars, Comets on Fire - Blue Cathedral, and Cul De Sac & Damo Suzuki's Abhayamadra, all of which rocked my world.

Panda Bear's album is abstract folk (which makes sense 'cause he's a member of Animal Collective) centered around wordless vocals, acoustic guitar, and analog ambient noise. I hear it as a mournful song cycle about the death of his father. I'm sure there are other interpretations, because it's basically Abstract Expressionist indie-folk.

Oneida is krautrock-influenced drone-and-groove music with a sense of humor. I'd first heard them on a split EP they did with the Liars a few years ago, but this is the first full album of theirs I've heard. They have a great melodic sense, which plays well with the noisy krautrock-ish rhythms.

Comets on Fire play swollen guitar-heavy psychedelia, as if the 13th Floor Elevators hooked up White Light/White Heat-era VU for an echo chamber orgy.

Finally, the Cul de Sac & Damo Suzuki album sounds, very simply, like slightly more out-there live Can (with a bit of Court of the Crimson King thrown in for good measure).

My Top Ten list was:

1. Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat. This is the wildest album of the last ten years, full of mini-operas that tell Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead part-stories over the most inventive music composed by ADHD indie rockers ever. Hyperbole? I'll tell you next year.

2. Wilco - A Ghost Is Born. This is Tweedy's Sister Lovers album, as raw a view into his soul as conceivably possible. Somewhere between the direct lyrics of his first three albums and the abstract lyrics on YHF, this one is a fur coat full of hidden razor blades. Those who call it boring probably hated The Wild Bunch, too. And might kick kittens, I'm not sure.

3. Animal Collective - Sung Tongs. P-sychedelic, DAMN! What do these guys sound like? Honestly, they sound like what went on in my head when I used to do drugs. References? Lessee: a bit o' the Godz, some SMiLE-era Beach Boys, Faust, Simon & Garfunkel, Os Mutantes (also a big influence on the Fiery Furnaces, whowoulddathunkit?), Holy Modal Rounders, Flaming Lips, Spacemen 3, I give up. They wack.

4. Mike Watt – The Secondman’s Middle Stand. Post-punk's standard-bearer goes prog. Watt cuts the guitar from his trio and adds a Hammond B-3 organ, then tells the story of his illness and near-death from a burst perineum with constant allusions to the Divine Comedy. Did I mention that it's funny as hell? This guy should be on the dollar bill.

5. Liars – They Were Wrong, So We Drowned. That's right, two concept albums in a row. If you count Blueberry Boat, Milk Man, and A Grand Don't Come For Free (not to mention the extra-special category for SMiLE), 2004 was The Year Of The Prog for me. This one is a creepy, electronica-heavy concept album about Walpurgisnacht as told by both villagers and witches. And it's good! Again, bucking the odds here.

6. Mission of Burma – ONoffON. Why, yes, I do like rock music for its own sake, too. MoB deliver the goods, despite their brief (23 year) hiatus.

7. Deerhoof - Milk Man. A concept album (again!) about a dream monster, as delivered in Deerhoof's traditional avant-rock meets (continued...)

( continues...) Japanese pop stylings. This is the catchiest Deerhoof album ever. I hated it at first, but found myself unable to sleep at night without getting a small fix. It's a gateway album.

8. Will Johnson – Vultures Await. With too much piano for a proper Centro-Matic release, this sleepy, pointed album had to come out under Will Johnson's own name. Beautiful stuff.

9. The Streets – A Grand Don’t Come For Free. Q: Why is this here and not Madvillainy? A: I am a goober and like the same. Awkward delivery and stiff beats can't keep the narrative force of this album down. Nice stuff and thanks to Jim for the tip.

10. TV on the Radio - Desperate Youths, Bloodthirsty Babes. Freakin' great. TVOTR sing about existential crises as if they were at a Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting with passionate, insistent musical backing.

Best album of 1967 that I never expected to hear in my lifetime: Brian Wilson - SMiLE. What an amazing time to be alive, when this can see the light of day. Yeah, it's stiffer than the fragments from the original sessions, but good lord. It's like Bach deciding that he couldn't finish his Brandenburg Concertos, so he just sat on them for 40 years. If I were ranking this as a 2004 album, it would be #2 on that list above. But I'm not; this is a special case.

Other albums I considered: Mekons - Punk Rock, Iron & Wine - Endless Numbered Days, Madvillain - Madvillainy, Shearwater – Winged Life. I need to digest the Oneida, Comets on Fire, Panda Bear, and Cul de Sac/Damo Suzuki albums before really considering them for the purposes of this list.

Does Joe Boucher or anyone else have the tracklisting for his mix?

I can't find the file. I'll rewrite them this weekend. Tried doing it, but can't remember a lot of tracks without the CD as reference.

I'm not much of a Kevin Spacey or a Bobby Darin fan, but if anyone is Leonard Lopate is interviewing him about the Darin biopic. So far they've been talking about music. Why am I listening if I don't like interviewee or subject? Because I'm at work. Duh!

Heather - what was it?

The Duran Duran Tour? It was the 1987 Strange Behavior world tour. Usually there will be a trademark or copyright or something very small on the logo with the year, and I can go from there, but ugh. I had to go through every tour starting in 81 and try to match cities. See if something is autographed and has a date or a name, one of the ways to verify is to make sure they are possible. So say I have a tour program page or a tour shirt autographed by Duran Duran and the thing is signed "Simon- 1984" but it's from a tour in 87, I can be pretty sure the thing is faked.

Also? You guys should totally try to listen to this on the web. It's on right now

GLEN MITCHELL SHOW 90.1 KERA

FIRST HOUR

Topic -Anything You Ever Wanted to Know ® - Special Holiday Edition

Description-We're Broadcasting Live from the Downtown Dallas Public Library Today! C'mon down!

Anything You Ever Wanted to Know ® - Special Holiday Edition

SECOND HOUR

Topic-Brave Combo will perform live!

Guest-Brave Combo

Description- Join us at the downtown Dallas Public Library for a great conversation and live performance from North Texas polka heroes BRAVE COMBO. They're in town for a full-on show at the Sons of Hermann Hall tonight.

Joe - No need to rewrite your liner notes. I've got 'em and can scan them in, if necessary.

Hec! I found an artist I think you'd like! Nicki Jaine (warning, website FILLED with annoying Flash effects, drat it).

She sounds like the love child of Nico and Jill Tracy. My pet DJ handed me the CD at this week's Goth Night, and I really like it.

I've got 'em and can scan them in, if necessary.

Thanks, Jon! Whew. Sue, I promise I'll send the mix this weekend. Hayden, send me your address & I'll send you the mix and all the other stuff I've been meaning to send you for months.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Jon--that would be great if you could scan Joe's notes, thanks.

Current line-up for the 2005 Big Day Out festival across Australia and NZ.

Full tour
Artists appearing at all shows


BEASTIE BOYS 	
SYSTEM OF A DOWN 	
CHEMICAL BROTHERS 	
THE MUSIC 	
THE STREETS 	
SLIPKNOT 	
CARL COX 	
POWDERFINGER 	
GRINSPOON 	
JOHN BUTLER TRIO 	
CONCORD DAWN 	
THE DONNAS 	
THE D4 	
BLUES EXPLOSION 	
REGURGITATOR 	
SCRIBE and P MONEY 	
FREESTYLERS 	
LE TIGRE 	
KID 606 	
DECEPTIKONZ 	
ATMOSPHERE 	
HATEBREED

but if anyone is Leonard Lopate is interviewing him about the Darin biopic.

See, I'm looking forward to this. But I had a huge crush on Bobby Darin when I was younger.