A couple of years ago I met Courtney at a Damien Rice Concert in Louisville. In the parking lot after the show (where we got to eat birthday cake and chat with Damien, Vyvienne, etc.) we exchanged some CDs - I gave her a mix CD I had made for one of my friends and she gave me a Live Sondre Lerche recording.

I went to visit her after that and brought up Court Mix 1 - the first in a series of Mix CDs that I made for her. Traditionally, I would not include track lists and she would call me excitedly about tracks that struck her fancy. There is nothing more gratifying than getting feedback on a Mix CD!

However, I was saddened to hear that the last CDs in the series (the first ever double disc Court Mix 11) was hardly listened to! Ouch!

So, with Court Mix 12 I am calling Courtney out! For the first time ever I am posting the track list online. After a few listens I invite Courtney to post a review of Court Mix 12, here at Music Bath! Will she take the challenge?

Continue reading "Court Mix 12"

These are my choices for the 2006 Best of Awards. Please feel free to list your own choices in the comments section!

Best Opening Song: Guster - Lightning Rod (Runners Up: The Damnwells - Assholes, Guillemots - Sake)
Best Closing Song: Islands - Renaud
Best Country Song: Amy Millan - Baby I
Best Rap Song: P.O.S. - P.O.S. Is Ruining My Life
Best Song Under a Minute: Guillemots - Sake
Best Debut Album: Margot and the Nuclear So & Sos - The Dust of Retreat
Best Sad Song: Amy Millan - Baby I
Best Love Song: Regina Spektor - Samson
Best Angry Song: Damien Rice - Rootless Tree
Best Sexy Song: Bob Schneider - The Tiger and the Lamb
Best Instrumental Song: The Album Leaf - The Light
Best Dance Song: Dangerous Muse - The Rejection
Best Live CD: Jump Little Children - Live at Dock Street
Best Song For Clapping Along: Tilly And The Wall - Bad Education
Best Single: Margot and the Nuclear So & Sos - Quiet As A Mouse
Best Video: Ok Go - Here It Goes Again
Best CD artwork: Anathallo - Floating World
Best Song Title: Moneen - Don't ever tell Locke what he can't do

A top 10 albums list doesn't allow the opportunity to really showcase the music that rocked my world in 2006. With that said, I decided to compile a list of 100 songs that were at the top of my list this year, in no particular order.

The Weepies - World Spins Madly On
Tilly And The Wall- Bad Education
Tilly And The Wall - Coughing Up Colors
Thom Yorke - Black Swan
Thom Yorke - Atoms For Peace
Teitur - Don't Want You To Wake Up
Sondre Lerche - Dead End Mystery
Small Sins - Stay
Hot Chop - Over and Over
Simple Kid - Serotonin

Simple Kid - Lil King Kong
Simple Kid - The TwentySomthing
Sandres Bohlke - Lovesick Misery
Ryan Auffenberg - Missouri in the Morning
Ryan Auffenberg - Under All The Bright Lights
Ryan Auffenberg - Waiting For You
Regina Spektor - Fidelity
Regina Spekto - On the Radio
Regina Spektor - Samson
Ray LaMontagne - Can I Stay

Phoenix - Long Distance Call
Phoenix - Consolation Prizes
Office - Wound Up
Michael Stipe - In The Sun (With Chris Martin)
Mat Kearney - Nothing Left to Lose
Margot and the Nuclear So & Sos - Quiet As a Mouse
Margot and the Nuclear So & Sos - Vampire In A Blue Dress
The Lovely Feathers - Rod Stewart
The Lovely Feathers - The Only Appalachian Cornfield
Landon Pigg - Sailed On

Keith Varon - Safe Escape
Jump, Little Children - Forget My Loss (Live)
Jolie Holland - Crush in the Ghetto
John Mayer - Slow Dancing In a Burning Room
John Mayer - Waiting On the World to Change
Joe Purdy - The City
Joe Purdy - Meteor City
Joe Purdy - Suitcase
Joe Purdy - Can't Get it Right Today
Alexi Murdoch - All My Days

Jeremy Messersmith - Beautiful Children
Jeremy Messersmith - Novocain
Islands - Swans
Islands - Volcanoes
Islands - Renaud
Islands - Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby
Imaad Wasif - Whisper
The Hidden Cameras - Builds the Bone
Guster - Lightning Rod
P.O.S. - P.O.S. Is Ruining My Life

The Guillemots - Sake
The Guillemots - Trains to Brazil
The Swell Season - Drown Out
The Swell Season - This Low
The Frames - People All Get Ready
The Frames - Falling Slowly
The Format - Time Bomb
The Format - Dog Problems
The Format - Matches
Ray LaMontagne - Within You

David Mead - Fighting For Your Life
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife 3
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife 1 & 2
The Decemberists - O Valencia!
Damien Rice - Dogs
Damien Rice - 9 Crimes
Cat Power - The Greatest
Camera Obscura - Country Mile
Camera Obscure - Llyod, I'm Ready To Be Heart Broken

Band Of Horses - The Funeral
The Arctic Monkeys - Mardy Bum
The Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor
Sia - Breathe Me
Anathallo - Dokkoise House (with face covered)
Amy Millan - Baby I
The 1900s - Bring the Good Boys Home
Rose Melberg - Cast Away the Clouds
What Made Milwaukee Famouse - Hellodrama
Tapes N' Tapes - Insistor

Tapes N' Tapes - Omaha
The Racounters - Steady as she goes
Submarines - Vote
The Flaming Lips - The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
Josh Rouse - Summertime
KT Tunstall - Silent Sea
The Elected - Fireflies in a Steel Mill
Jenny Lewis - Handle With Care
Asobi Seksu - Thursday
Annuals - Brother

The Album Leaf - The Light
Laura Viers - Tiger Tattoos
The Knife - Silent Shout
Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
Snow Patrol - Hands Open
Beach House - Apple Orchard
Frida Hyvonen - I Drive My Friend
Junior Boys - In The Morning
Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancing
The Shins - Phantom Limb

The one thing that I hate most about making a top 10 best albums list is that in the back of my mind I know there are tons of CDs that have come out that I haven't had the chance to hear (or listen to at any length) that would probably take the place of CDs on the list. Here are 25ish CDs (if one artist had multiple releases in 2006 I count them as one) that I haven't listened to that are at the top of the list of 2006 CDs that I still want to hear.

Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther/Milkmaid Grand Army EP
Sound Team - Movie Monster
The Guillemots - Through The Windowpane
The Magic Numbers - Those The Brokes
The Hidden Cameras - Awoo
Joe Purdy - Only Four Seasons, Paris in the Morning, You Can Tell Georgia
Emily Heines & The Soft Skeletons - Knives Don't Have Your Back
Mojave 3 - Puzzles Like You
The Rapture - Pieces of People We Love
The Kooks - Inside In/Inside Out
M Ward - Post-War
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Josh Ritter - The Animal Years
The Killers - Sam's Town
Voxtrot - Mother's, Sisters, Daughters & Wives/Your Biggest Fan EP
Sunset Rubdown - Snake's Got a Leg
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Band of Horses - Everything All The Time
Calexico - Garden Ruin
Mates of State - Bring It Back
Cameron McGill - Street Ballads and Murderesques, The Company of Great Thieves EP
Beach House - Apple Orchard
The Scissor Sisters - Ta-Dah
Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

I was anticipating a lot of CDs coming into the new year - many of these CDs, however, didn't make it into my top 10. Here are 10 of those CDs:

Guster - While it had my favorite opening of a Guster CD yet, as well as a fantastic closing song, "Ganging Up On the Sun" just didn't grab me like "Keep It Together" did. The first have of the CD has grown on me, but it just didn't make it to the top 10.

Josh Rouse - "Subtitilo" was a good album and it even had a couple of songs that would make it onto a personal "Best of Josh Rouse" compilation if I decided to make one (Quiet Town, Summertime). But that is a far leap from how obsessed I was with Nashville and 1972.

Ray LaMontagne - I loved loved loved "Trouble," and the first Ray show I saw still ranks as one of my favorite concerts ever. Until the Sun Turns Black just didn't do it for me though. It has a couple of songs I liked, and I was glad to finally have a studio version of "Can I Stay" but otherwise it is a background listen for me.

Keane - "Hopes and Fears" was one of my top CDs the year it came out, but I just didn't love "Under the Iron Sea." I really didn't like the single "Is It Any Wonder?" and the songs seemed flat live. Maybe I just was tired of the guitarless format of their music? The lead singer made me uncomfortable to look at, sweaty and with an air of pompousness that infected the music. I was not surprised when he went into rehab. But I think the real problem was that even the best of the songs on the CD (Hamburg song comes to mind) doesn't come close to my favorite songs from H&F or even many of their b-sides (including my alltime favorite Keane song, "The Way You Want It" which I still have yet to see live.

The Killers - Like with Keane, The Killer's "Hot Fuss" was one of my favorite albums of the year. It transcend the hype and was track for track one of the most fun CDs in my collection. I'm not sure how I feel about "Sam's Town" as I haven't even listened to it yet. I look forward to trying it out though.

Top 10 CDs of 2006:

1. Margot and the Nuclear So & So's - The Dust Of Retreat

Ok, so this is a bit of cheating - this CD was actually released in 2005, and then rereleased in 2006. I debated whether I should include it on the list, but then decided to say screw it - it was my favorite CD of the year so it stays. It was also the first CD I wrote about in the New Tuesday's section of my blog, so it has a special place in my heart. And from the sounds of the new Margot material they have been playing at concerts, their next CD will top the list in 2007!

2. Tilly and the Wall - Bottoms of Barrells

I didn't think that Tilly and the Wall would be able to follow up Wild Like Children, but they did. The CD is wonderful - a perfect follow up to their debut. Bad Education of course stands out, but the whole CD is amazing. Other stand outs are Sing Songs Along and Coughing Colors. Along with that, Jamie and Derek got married and cutie Mason joined the group. A good year for Tilly!

3. Islands - Return to the Sea

From the ashes of the Unicorns comes Canada's Islands. Founded by the Unicorns Nick and J'aime (who has since left the band) Islands delivers a diverse indie pop album without a bad song. The opening track, Swans, is one of the best openers of the year. The CD ends with the depressingly beautiful hidden track Renaud. And all of the songs in between are close to perfect. Highlights are the hilariously titled "Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby" the hip hop flavored "Where There's A Will There's a Whalebone" and my personal favorite "Volcanoes" a prophetic apocolyptic song introduced by Oscar - a man who was killed in 1936 by his brother and is now a demon who predicts the world will end in 2007.

4. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife

The Decemberists CD is less sea-worthy than their previous endeavours, but just as good. This time around they base their CD on the Japanese tale of the Crane Wife. The tale is basically of a poor man who fines an injured crane and nurses it to health and releases it. Then a woman appears at his door and they fall in love. She offers to make beautiful clothes to sell for money, as long as he promises never to enter the room she is sewing in. The clothes make a lot of money and the richer the man gets the more he demands of his wife - her health begins deteriorating. Eventually the man look into the room and weaving the clothes is the crane, plucking out her own feathers to make the fabric. She flies away. The CD is filled with this type of stories - from the star-crossed lovers modern Romeo and Juliet of O Valencia! to the creepy lullaby of The Shankhill Butchers, based on the actual Northern Ireland serial killers. These factors all lead The Crane Wife to be the most intelligent CD of the year, and the best complete package. The CD flows from song to song perfectly and get stuck in your head.

5. Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope

Most of the year I was so enthralled with the first single, "Fidelity" that I didn't give any consideration to the rest of the CD. Only in the last few months of 2007 (ahem...2006. Thanks Kramer, ya douche) did I delve into the rest of the CD, and since then it has been the only thing I've wanted to listen to. "On the Radio" has possibly my favorite line in any song of the year:

"This is how it works - you're young until you're not, you love until you don't, you try until you can't, you laugh until you cry, you cry until you laugh, and everyone must breath until their dying breath. This is how it works - you peer into yourself, you take the things you like, then try to love the things you took, and then you take that love you made and stick it into someone else's heart, pumping someone else's blood. Then walking arm in arm, you hope it don't get harmed, but even if it does you'll just do it all again."

I love the line so much I can even overlook the glaring pronoun agreement error! Samson might be the most wonderfully bittersweet love ballad of the year and just try to listen to "That Time" without wanting a box of tangerines. It has been a great winter CD, but I feel like it would be an equally great, if not better, summer CD.

6. We Are Scientists - With Love and Squalor

How can you not love an album which features the band members holding adorable kitties? This CD is just good fun, in the vain of the Killer's "Hot Fuss." In the words of the band, they play "rock music of the thoughtful, sometimes epic, often loud, vaguely danceable, implicitly humanist variety." And the lead singer's not too shabby looking.

7. Amy Millan - Honey From the Tombs

2006 was the year for some of my favorite women to release solo albums - and Amy's was my favorite (I prefered her CD to Jenny Lewis' although I have yet to hear Emily Haines' CD). Amy sounds like a young Loretta Lynn in this beautiful album. Baby I is the clear stand out of the CD, a heart-wrenching lament to lost love and moving on, but it is far from the only good song on the album. "Come Home Loaded Roadie" makes me want to tear my soul out and I can relate to "He Brings Out the Whiskey In Me" so much it makes me want to drown my sorrows at the bottom of a glass - which is saying a lot since I don't drink. The whole CD has a great sad bastard, get drunk and mope vibe to it.

8.Damien Rice - 9

This CD has been many years in the making, and while I don't like it as much as "O" it still is a relief to finally have it! The CD starts out perfectly with 9 Crimes - and I have to give a lot of credit to Damien for starting the CD with Lisa's beautiful singing. Many of the people who found their way to my blog this year got there by googling "Rootless Tree" and that track ended up on the album as one of its most passionate and stirring - with an intense chanting of "fuck you" that really hits home. But it is my favorite track on the album, "Dogs" which was also the biggest suprise - a radio ready pop song that I wasn't expecting. Lovely!

9.The Lovely Feathers - Hind Hind Legs

It took seeing this band live to make their CD click for me, but it clicked. Quirky and weird, like the band members, and just as energetic. Now this was the perfect summer CD. This CD narrowly beat out the Arctic Monkey's CD for this slot, but they are a good pair.

10. The Frames - The Cost/The Swell Season

Glen's main act, The Frames and his other project, the Swell Season, both released CDs this year - they even shared some songs. In both cases these are songs that are best suited to be heard live - as always with Glen. That said, it is great to have them on CD finally (after having heard many of them live). And as always with Glen's music, these songs will, without a doubt, grow on me through repeated listens.

Ok, so I didn't REALLY get you an ohmibod. But I got you something even better! An actual post! And more to follow!

Expect to have a whole series of holiday updates in the next couple of days. And if you are really lucky, they might just vibrate between your legs in time with the music!