vain, selfish & lazy's top 20 tracks of 2005.
1 r. kelly - "trapped in the closet (chapters 1-5)"
2 bloc party - "banquet"
3 richard hawley - "coles corner"
4 futureheads - "area"
5 maximo park - "going missing"
6 roll deep - "the avenue"
7 the pipettes, "dirty mind"
8 elbow - "forget myself"
9 the clientele - "since k got over me"
10 sugababes - "red dress"
11 robbie williams - "tripping"
12 levy - "on the dancefloor"
13 lady sovereign - "hoodie (alternative medasyn radio mix)"
14 girls aloud - "biology"
15 trembling blue stars - "helen reddy"
16 the go! team - "hold yr terror close"
17 british sea power - "like a honeycomb"
18 the game ft. 50 cent - "hate it or love it (g-unit remix)"
19 art brut - "good weekend"
20 the faders - "no sleep 2night"

top 10 albums.
1 the go! tearm - thunder, lightning, strike (repeat winner!)
2 richard hawley - coles corner
3 maximo park - a certain trigger
4 art brut - bang, bang, rock & roll
5 the go-betweens - oceans apart
6 kanye west - late registration
7 british sea power - open season
8 m.i.a. - arular
9 pernice brothers - discover a lovelier you
10 the new pornographers - twin cinema

favorite live album : kraftwerk - minimum-maximum
favorite reissue : orange juice - the glasgow school
favorite best of : the beta band - best of beta band
favorite bonus disc : lcd soundsystem - s/t
favorite back catalog purchase : lloyd cole & the commotions - rattlesnakes
favorite it's-about-time purchase : the byrds - the essential byrds
favorite i-would-never-have-thought-so-a-year-ago : maria callas - the very best of maria callas
favorite rediscovery : thelonious monk
biggest disappointment : franz ferdinand - you could have it so much better
i loved it, but, wow, not for long : kaiser chiefs - employment
yeah, i bought : coldplay - x & y
get well soon : edwyn collins.

happy new year everyone!

loud family - "nice when i want something" (from the attractive nuisance lp, currently out-of-print.)

i never listened to game theory either.

i knew the name loud family, but for some reason free association led me to "sunny day real estate," which might not be so wrong considering that i don't know all that much about them either. but a check at amg reminded me that loud family is the project of scott miller, formerly of game theory. game theory : the mention of that band's name--and, indeed, of the album the posted track comes from--reminds me that, despite my own studiousness, intelligence--or, rather, knowledge is never something i actively look for in a band. i made that distinction b/c bob dylan came to mind, who is intelligent, but probably doesn't know a lot about optimality.

scott miller does, though. let's make it clear : i don't hold such things against him. stephin merritt probably knows a whole lot of junk, too. only his references are couched in things i do actively look for in a band, like song structure and melody, things that any fan of power pop, as i understand miller is, should be well-versed in. yet several listens to "nice when i want something" give me v. little to grasp on to--no hooks, no choruses, nothing but a whole lot of guitar noodling, and if i want that, i'll go listen to some other big star fans, teenage fanclub. there are probably intelligent things being said, things learned from reading books, but i'd rather hear a song about reading books, like many belle & sebastian songs, not about the things found in them, and esp. not things found in law books, otherwise i'd have gone ahead w/ law school.

after what i've said, it should at least be clear that i don't want anything from the band, though i would have preferred if i could have said nice things about them. after all, jonhope is a good fellow and a friend to this site; i hope he can forgive me for what i say about loud family, or at least balance out his ire w/ thanks for posting the track. and, you know, maybe this song isn't representative of the band; maybe i'd quite like another of their songs, it being my belief, after all, that every band is capable of writing at least one great song; and maybe i should listen to some game theory. but the statistical probability of that is low.

so i've straightened out the loud family, and that's all settled. ... but who is hunters & collectors?

foreign born - "we had pleasure" (from the we had pleasure single, available for purchase here.)

foreign born, as the band name might indicate, are one of those american bands signed to a uk label that brit crowds seems to like more than the band's native population. they are exactly the kind of band that anglophiles like yours truly are always suspicious of. it's a territorial thing, you see.

that said, i can happily report that the only thing i dislike about this single is the word "pleasure." we all have words that we all find personally abhorrent, and "pleasure" is such a word for me. (so too is "lover.") otherwise, it's all mostly to the good, "we had pleasure" could have been released in 1981 by a bunch of brits w/ funny hair and no one would be the wiser. of course, you'd be the wiser if you give it a listen ...

slowdive - "catch the breeze (peel session)" (from the just for a day reissue, import available for purchase here.)

correct me if i'm wrong, but few bands have their career-spanning retrospectives named after a song from an ep released before their debut record. this peel version of "catch the breeze"--the song's first airing, predating both the holding our breath ep and just for a day, available only i believe on that recently reissued lp--how intuitive that anthology's compilers were. "catch the breeze" is the template; often, the band would match, rarely would they better it. the diaphanous, keening guitars give one the impression of refuse borne aloft, naturally, by the breeze; the closing maelstrom, perhaps the band's peak, sees that breeze roused to a gale. the listener finds himself stuck in a moment he's in no hurry to get out of, and the bonus material found on the new reissues allows him to tarry awhile.

wedding present - "california" (from the hit parade 1 lp, available for purchase here.)

i do three impressions well. none of them, it could be said, are really requested, but the least requested is my david gedge.

it has been requested, though, that i write about, or perhaps just post, the wedding present's "california." "california," released in june 1992, was the sixth single released in the weddoes' single-a-month project, compiled on hit parade. it's a a refreshing track, both musically and thematically, coming after the career zenith (and heavygoing) seamonsters. the band have been described as "the smiths on motorcycles," and that's a perfect description of much of their music, including seamonsters; "california," though, like the later "gazebo," is more like the smiths on mopeds, driving along the seaside. it's more acoustic strumming than highspeed riffing, while gedge's vocals are less strained--less, that is, gedgy--and more breathy.

and the lyrics! a discussion i like to have--and, again, there are few takers--is whose ex is the bigger bitch, gedge's or bobby wratten's? "california," though, is hopeful and wide-eyed. after an afternoon romp, gedge pleads for his girl not to get dressed so quickly; he'd like that image to remember the day by. of course, it wouldn't be a weddoes' song if there weren't some clouds on the horizon, even in sunny california. there's the suggestion that his girl might say "no" to his california trip, just as she may one day say "no" to him when he wants to get back together. melodramatic? an unwarranted leap of logic? yes, but that's precisely why one listens to the wedding present in the first place.

... and when i said "requests," i meant to say "reposts." so if something expired before you had a chance to hear it, do let me know and i'll re-up it.

but! i'm glad i misspoke b/c i quite like the idea of requests, and i've had a few. i esp. like the idea of writing about things i've never heard before, so by all means request away.

east river pipe - "i'll walk my robot home" (from the what are you on lp, available for preorder here.)

some things i know about f.m. cornog: 1) we have the same first name 2) we were both raised in morris county, nj 3) lambchop have recorded his songs 4) he used to record for sarah records

what i didn't know was that he still made records; i must have lost touch w/ him along the way. but there's reason to become reacquainted, for he'll have a fine new record out in january. "i'll walk my robot home" is my favorite : it's a bit like xtc, ca. "the disappointed" (and, so, the beach boys); and since it mentions human / robots, i.e. robosexuals, i feel obligated for some reason to mention the flaming lips. no, the sum total, as indie calculus dictates, isn't clouds taste metallic, but rather something a whole lot less forced, much more affecting, and uniquely f.m. cornog.