MRML'S TOP TWENTY SONGS of 2012

Year-end lists (Best Singles/E.P.'s HERE, Best Under-Appreciated Albums HERE) can be a bit ludicrous but please suspend your disbelief in the comprehensiveness of this blogger's listening and enjoy some ripping tunes. And ripping it must be, since we here at MMRL crave music that, regardless of genre, >> moves >>

Unlike the Best Under-Appreciated Albums and the Best Singles/E.P.'s lists, neither acclaim nor success are a factor here (though no one release can be on more than one list)  - this time it's strictly about the songs!

So while I considered only releases not covered on my previous lists, I still chose to rank my choices for song of the year according to their importance. However, this is not meant  to be The Most Important Songs of 2012, intriguing idea as that is, but rather my narrow, retro-biased 2012 playlist ranked in order of importance, as I saw it. So I'm not trying to  freight my choices with deep significance, only arguing that music is not just an app or an add-on but a force of history.


20.  The Haddonfields  - When She Left (listen)
Slow and steady be damned - the race goes to the swift!
If you play fast enough you can finish a song a three-minute pop song in 1:37!


19.   Dot Dash  - The Past is Another Country (watch)
Lack of recognition is no reason to quit anything!
A buncha guys who've been knocking around the musical underground for thirty years have formed a rocking alliance, which spits out both moodier pieces and fiercer ones like "The Past is Another Country".


18.  Green Day  -  Let Yourself Go (watch)
Sometimes amidst the refuse, there's something redeeming. 
Three albums in a row? For fuck's sake, grow up Green Day ("Fuck you, Tom Selleck!"). Were there enough songs as propulsive and catchy as "Let Yourself Go" to create one strong album? Probably, but even I, a devout fan, couldn't make it past Dos!


17.  Air Traffic Controller  -  Hurry, Hurry (watch)
The past is another country but the border is undefended.
Indie-pop band Air Traffic Controller get accused of ripping off They Might Be Giants and Talking Heads a lot but band leader and real-life US Navy ATC, Dave Munro has already developed his own distinct voice.


16.   Bob Dylan  -  Dusquene Whistle (watch)
As their age advances some musicians becomes more like magicians.
Okay, Tempest got more than its share of praise but in "Dusquene Whistle" Dylan has pulled out of his hat a clear, standout single something he hasn't really done since "Things Have Changed".


15.    The Big Pink  -  Oh Superman (watch) 
Sometimes the memory of a thing is better than the thing itself.

A British synth & guitar duo on 4AD (hello, mid-80's!) pays tribute to Laurie Anderson's "O Superman".


14.   Bob Mould  - The Descent (watch)
Every generation anoints an avatar of their angst.
Sure, sure we can all admire Contended Disco Bob but it's Angry Distorted Bob, on display on "The Descent", that we need.


13.  Gaslight Anthem  -  45 (watch)
Metaphors, even anachronistic ones, still hold their power in this modern age.
Hand-Written was a clear let-down - Pearl Jam worship is no basis for a sustainable new direction - but there were still a few of those timeless moments, like "45".


12.  Die Toten Hosen  -  Rock Me Amadeus (watch)
Music, like a fist in the face, is an international language.
Due to their usual commitment to sing in their native tongue Germany's Die Toten Hosen are superstar's in their homeland and unknown in most of the rest of the world (who only notice them when they do English-language covers, like "Rock Me Amadeus").


11.  Don Williams  -  Better Than Today (watch)
Old dogs are too smart to need new tricks.
We've lost some of the best country singers in this century -  Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Porter Wagoner - so appreciate country vet Don Williams' defiant and unsentimental optimism, knowing that he didn't come by it cheaply.


10. Classics Of Love  - Castles in the Sky (watch)
You can always go home again, in fact, you may have never really left.
Operation Ivy/Big Rig/Common Rider front-man Jesse Michaels' return to active duty in Classics of Love proves he still has the fire in eyes and in his belly!


9. July Talk  -  Paper Girl (watch)
There are always combinations yet untried.
This Toronto indie-blues-pop band raised a few hackles for their odd juxtaposition of styles but it sure makes for a striking sound on this single.


8. Titus Andronicus  -  My Eating Disorder (watch)
Discretion is not always a part of valour.
By dropping the grand, historical ambitions of The Monitor and focusing on the smaller and the more personal  (hence, Local Business) Titus Andronicus have done some wrenching work of which "My Eating Disorder" is the perfect example.


7.  Charlie Peacock  -  Let the Dog Back in the House (watch)
It's never too late to peak
Charlie Peacock, known more these days for producing bands like The Civil Wars then for his own extensive discography, has crafted a career peak in an album that sounds like what would have happened if T-Bone Burnett had produced Graceland. "Let the Dog Back in the House is his duet with the Ghana-born, Nashville-based singer Ruby Amanfu and it shows off how three-dimensional his production work can be!


6.  Tim Barry - 40 Miler (watch)
One man, one guitar and locomotion are eternal values.
Itinerant folk-punk Tim Barry can't stand "songs about writing songs, albums over  minutes forty long and broke-up bands on their third reunion tour" but he's happy as hell to tell you that "music should sound like escape not rent."


5. First Aid Kit  -  Emmylou (watch)
History has hooks.
What do a pair of young Scandanavian women know about country music? Listen and learn...

4. Cloud Nothings  -  Stay Useless (watch)
Great music still yearns for something, even if it's something not clearly understood.
Attack on Memory deservedly made a slew of Best-Of lists, even though to me nothing on the album was as trans-fucking-cendant as this paean to empty moments.


3. Redd Kross  -  Stay Away from Downtown (watch)
Youth will be served, at least by the time they hit middle age.
How did a band who've been recording since they were teens put out their greatest song (and surely their best album) thirty years into their career?!?


2. Joey Ramone  -  What Did I Do to Deserve You? (listen)

Better to be loved after you're dead, then never loved at all.
With three out of four of the original Ramones dead, the world had to take notice of Ya Know, a posthumous musical scrapbook, with some amazing songs like "What Did I Do to Deserve You?", curated by Joey Ramone's brother, Mickey Leigh.


1. Bruce Springsteen  -  We Take Care of Our Own (watch)
Music is a tie that binds.
When Obama finished his victory speech, "We Take Care of Our Own" came on over the loudspeakers and you knew that Springsteen, who campaigned for McGovern in '72, railed against Reagen in '80 and stumped for for both Kerry and Obama had done his most important political act by creating this fiery statement of purpose.



DON'T LET SILENCE OFFER THE FINAL WORD -
LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

Please consider leaving a COMMENT: 

A)  TELL US IF WE MAYBE GOT YOU TO LISTEN TO SOMETHING NEW!
B)  TELL US WHICH GREAT SONGS YOU HEARD THIS YEAR!!

MRML TOP 22.1 SONGS of 2011

Sure I love doing year-end lists (best non-albums releases HERE, best under-appreciated albums HERE and my want list is HERE)  but making one for songs-of-the-year list is sheer folly in light of thousands of songs released over any given twelve moth period. So let us suspend our disbelief in the comprehensiveness of this blogger's listening and enjoy some ripping tunes. And ripping it must be, since we here at MMRL crave music that, regardless of genre,  >  moves  >

Unlike my unappreciated albums list, neither acclaim nor sales (or the lack thereof) are a factor here - and crossover betwixt the two lists is discouraged - this time it's strictly about the songs!

Here, in no particular order, order are the songs, each of which contains a hyperlink to allow you to hear and/or see the song.

1.  Greg MacPherson:   "Party at Greg's House"   (from Disintegration Blues)
Winnipeg singer/song-writer/community activist/label head MacPherspon (more HERE), has his own way to rock but goes anthemic here to intoxicating effect.

2.  The Spazzys:   "Divorce"   (from Dumb is Forever)
Comeback of the year for these Australian queens of pop-punk (more HERE), after they survived a tortuous legal battle to release their second album, with kick-off/kiss-off single.

3.  Ben Jones:   "I Wish I Was the Person I'm Pretending To Be"   (from Echobox)
Self-loathing never sounded so hummable, as it does on this track from the excellent solo debut from the leader of British power-pop band, The Lovedays.

4.  Paul Simon:   "Rewrite"    (from So Beautiful, So What)
Of course every writer of lists got pulled into Simon's narrative about a damaged Vietnam vet who works at the car wash while endlessly revising his screenplay, because we all sympathized a bit too much, it didn't hurt that the song is just beautiful.

5.  The Generators:   "You Against You"   (from Last of the Pariahs)
These long-running former Schleprock-ers (more HERE), never get the respect they deserves for their Social Distortion-meets-Bad Religions punk sound but they perservere.

6. The Front Bottoms:   "Flashlight" [or "Maps"]   (from Self-Titled)
To get this New Jersey indie-punk band, sort of a mixture of The Weakerthans and mewithoutYou, it helps if you love songs that put the heart-breaking narratives up high in the mix.

7.  Houseboat   "Quivering"   (from Thorns of Life)
I already regret leaving this off the "Best Albums of the Year" list what with Grath unloading one of his best batch of "pityscapes" with catchy tunes and endlessly clever lyrics on us.

8.  Buffalo Tom:   "Guilty Girls" (from Skins)
It's funny how I've always admired the commitment and intelligence of nineties alt-rocker Bill Janovitz but never fell in love with one of his songs till this infectious number.

9.  Mates of State   "Palomino"    (from Mountaintops)
Sure, maybe it's just a 21st century kind of pop but if you love soaring hooks and alternating male/female vocals you can find some unguilty pleasure herein.

10. Night Birds:  "Bad Biology"   (from Fresh Kills)
This ultra-ultra-ultra catchy ripper by NJ surf-core band featuring at least one ex-Erg is originaly from 2009 but finally saw wide release on this 2011 singles collection.

11. Tommy Stinson    "All This Way for Nothing"   (from One Man Mutiny)
Replacements advocates, like yours truly, are often left grasping at straws when trying to explain how, if the band was such a crucial part of the eighties, why so little great things have come from the band's members in the twenty years since their break-up. Well  this Stones-y album from bass player Tommy Stinso ain't gonna settle a thing but at least it gives us a replacement Replacements track in, "All this Way For Nothing".

12. The Decemberists:   "The Calamity Song"   (from The King is Dead)

Somewhere between Bad Religion and The Band (well no one but me would read them that way, exactly) lie this widely-praised beloved Portland indie-folk-rock band, who I've always found pleasant but never so much as on this album packed with finely-written acoustic pop songs!

13. Will Hogue:     Goddam California  (Hogue discusses the song HERE)
Glad to have a country song make the list, this wouldn't have got any mainstream radio play but that's just because of the cursing and not because Hogue couldn't lay waste to a lot of today's' country elite in song-to-song combat




14. Teenage Bottlerocket:   "Mutilate Me"   (from Mutilate Me 7")
Wyoming's finest rock n' roll band spit out another trashy but catchy punk tune from their sole release of the year.

15. Wild Flag:   "Romance"   (from Self-Titled)
This song is catchier and more fleshed-out then any I remember from Sleater-Kinney

16. The Smoking Popes:   "Still in a Punk Band"   (from This is Only a Test)
An improbable nineties come-back tale by this band who sound a little like a Morrissey-fronted Weezer, which now that I think of it might be a goad career move for all concerned.

17. The Copyrights   "Crutches"   (from North Sentinel Island)
Y'know some bands get praised for their consistency and other bands, like the Copyrights get damned for it, as if the band making a prog-metal concept album based on Bartleby the Scrivener or having Kenny G play with them on national television would be more worthwhile then another slab of jackhammer pop songs.

18. 1/2 Man 1/2 Biscuit   "Left Lyrics in the Practice Room"     (from 90 Bisindol)

While it's no Achtung, Bono, the new 1/2 Man 1/2 Biscuit (whom BBC DJ Andy Kershaw called "the most authentic British folk band since The Clash") album still offers even more proof  that Nigel Blackwell is, like Roy Harper or Robyn Hitchcock, one of those Englishmen so particular in their eccentricities, that their appeal becomes (sort of) universal.

19. Canon Bros.   "Out of Here"    (from Firecracker/Cloudglow)
This track puts this Winnipeg duo's guitarist, Allanah Walker, on lead vocals, where she excels, and lets her winningly chant “Hey Let’s get out of here, I hate it here!” until you want to reach through the speakers and help her escape.

20. The Valkyryans (ft. TV Smith):   "Gary Gilmore's Eyes"   (from Punk Rocksteady)
These Finns have by no means made a perfect album but this collection of punk covers, Jamaican style,  does overcome its novelty appeals by proving just how the malleable the punk rock canon is.

21.  Cold Warps:   "Stupid Tattoos"   (from Self-Titled cassette)
This lo-fi punk-indie band's cassette was a strong contender for non-album release of the year list but Brushback only told me about it last week!

22. Okkervill River:   "Wake and Be Fine"   (from I Am Very Far)
Yup, they are one-time indie darling (though ones who recorded an album with Roky Erickson) and yup, they have bearded members but this songs is strong and the band perform it with a real jump in their step.


oh...


22.1 I Am Chimp!    "Old Men in Coloured Trousers" (from "I Am Chimp EP)
The best :21 second song of the year, bar none!


Y'know our last two lists generated less COMMENTS than usual...

So,
please leave a COMMENT: 

A)  TELL US IF WE GOT YOU TO TRY SOMETHING NEW!
B)  TELL US WHICH GREAT SONGS WE MISSED!!

AND, OF COURSE, IF YOU LIKE THE MUSIC - SUPPORT THE DAMN BANDS!!!

MRML TOP 33 SONGS of 2010

A best songs of the year is inherently ridiculous when you consider the sheer number of songs released over a twelve moth period. So let us suspend our disbelief in the comprehensiveness of this blogger's listening and enjoy some ripping tunes. And ripping it must be, for this list is tightly bound by my taste for the punchy over the swishy, the pounding over the lilting, the catchy over the fancy and for just the relentless pursuit of relentlessness.
Unlike my unappreciated albums list, neither acclaim nor sales (nor the lack thereof) are a factor here - and no crossover betwixt the two lists is allowed - this time it's strictly about the songs!

In no particular order...

1. The Biters Hang Around
Races like an Exploding Heart!


2. Bad Religion The Devil in Stitches
Those melodic songs with the maddeningly allusive lyrics of Mr. Brett are always the highlight of a Bad Religion album.
Listen here

3. Frank Turner I Still Believe
I fuckin' love Rock N' Roll Retrenchment songs!


4. OFF! I Don't Belong
Really, you could pick any song at random from the The First Four 7"'s and lay waste to much of the contemporary music landscape.


More here

5. Graham Parker: First Responder
GP still knows.


6. Len Price 3 I Don't Believe You
Mod-punk lives in the UK!
Listen here

7. Candy Hearts: Don’t Go Blocking the Sunshine
Indie-twee-punk-pop!


More here

8. Leatherface My World Ends
By rule of custom and law all staff of The Big Takeover must adore Bad Religion, Teenage Fanclub, The Buzzcocks and Leatherface - well I'm batting .750...


9. Rev Peyton: Clap Your Hands
If every generation gets the white bluesman they deserve, perhaps the millennials will anoint Warp Tour vet Reverend Peyton (whose new album, The Wages, was produced by former Zero Boy Paul Mahern and released on Side One Dummy) their Delta man.


10. Varsity Weirdos: Why I Didn't Like August '93
Pop-punk band covers 90's East Coast indie-rock band Elevator to Hell: Goodness ensues
Listen here

11. Miniboone "Cool Kids..."
Indie gets some of it's rock n' roll back.

More here

12. Sleigh Bells Infinity Guitars
Sure hype is toxic but you just need to minimize your contact with it to avoid the ill-effects.


More here

13.Butch Walker: She Like Hair Bands
No matter his twisted history, Walker cuts a fine and clever power-pop line between Marshal Crenshaw and Fountains of Wayne.
Listen here

14. Mark Bates: Death Sucks
Catchy folk-rock song full of desperately clever lines.
Listen here

15. Vampire Weekend: Ruby Soho
Contra was a fine follow-up but I always loved the way the hipsters didn't realize that they were digging a ska band and that the band was unashamed to show it (by say, covering a Rancid song!)
See here

16. Justin Townes Earle: Harlem River
A little of his Dad, a little of his namesake, a little of the Freewheeelin' Dylan and something altogether different.
See here

17. Van Buren Boys Told You So
"I know it's only rock n' roll..."
See here

18. NoMeansNo Something Dark Against Something Light
There's still a some twisted, dark little secrets in the NMN formula.


19. The Dahlmans: Holiday Road
Lyndsey Buckingham (and Chevy Chase) move over, this song has a brand new owner!
See here

20. The Queers: Back to the Basement
Yup, the new Queers album does represent a return to "1-2 Fuck You" sorta punk rock but Joe King has a way with a tune that all the snottiness in the world can't hide.
See here

21. The Lanskies: Bank Holiday
Franco-British Cure-Meets-Futureheads goodness.


More here
22. World Inferno/Friendship Society: Paul Roebson
Ya really can't nail this band down, I mean who guessed they were holding back an A Capella e.p. recorded back in 2005?


23. The Contrast: Coming Back To Life (or "Caught in a Trap")
Such retro-sixties-ness is blatant Little Steve's Underground Garage bait but we're all the richer for it.


24. Superchunk "Crossed Wires"
A nineties resurgence I never expected
Listen here

25. The Alarm Direct Action
Mike Peters has beaten cancer and an unpleasant mid-career gulch (much of the 1990's) to hit a sustained career high in the aughts.


More here

26. Houseboat DC Showcase Presents: Inferiority Complex, Volume 420
As they warn, "You want novelty? Innovation? Vicissitude?!? You're outta luck!"


27. Betty & the Werewolves: Paper Thin
Twheeeeeeee!


More here

28. Forgetters Vampire Lessons
Blake Schwarzenbach is bach.
See here

29. Magic Kids Super Ball
C'mon that's adorably ridiculous...


30. Article of Faith Back with a Vengeance
Another unexpectedly furious surprise reunion.


31 Wavves King of the Beach
"Noise-pop" is what Nathan Willliams's work gets labeled, as if The Velvet Underground, The Buzzcocks, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Pixies and Jay Reatard were all reference points, which they kinda are but with more Beach Boys (noise-surf?)



32. The Rags "Love is a Lie
Smart Irish guitar-pop.

THE RAGS - LOVE IS A LIE from The Rags on Vimeo.
More here

33. Less Than Jake TV Medley
I admit that the novelty factor and the visuals (and not the dreadful run-though of the That 70's Show theme*) got these long-running ska-punks on the list. * Yes, I know...





Well...


LEAVE A COMMENT:
A) TELL US IF WE GOT YOU TO TRY SOMETHING NEW!
B) TELL US WHAT YOU THINK SHOULD BE ON THE LIST!!
C) TELL US WHAT SHOULDN'T HAVE MADE THE LIST!!
D) Level with us now, is thirty-three songs too damn much? (This was kinda back-breaking work and part of me wonders if I shouldn't scale it back for everybody's sake.)

AND, OF COURSE, IF YOU LIKE THE MUSIC - SUPPORT THE DAMN BANDS!!!

The MRML Twenty-Two (Best of 2009)

What percentage of songs that came out this year in the Western world (to say nothing of the REST of the world) have you heard? Even for most music fanatics (takes one to read one), the number is not only single digit, it's probably a count-on-your-little-piggies digit. So the MRML Twenty-Two makes no claim to enumerate the GREATEST song of this calendar year, just ones I heard that shouldn't languish in that >95% mass of missed music.

The list is tightly bound by my taste for the punchy over the swishy, the pounding over the lilting, the catchy over the fancy and the relentless pursuit of relentlessness. When I say punchy, pounding, catchy and relentless, you'd think punk and you wouldn't be wrong but the lifeboat's got room for folk, country, power-pop, ska, the much-maligned (by me anyway) indie-rock and perhaps a 450 pound Royal Bengal tiger.

1. Manic Street Preachers "Jackie Collins Existential Question Time"
While Journal for Plague Lovers is not as immediate to me as Send Away the Tigers, this track with it's refrain of, "Oh, mommy, what's a Sex Pistol?" is as good of a smack-in-the-face as anything they've done.


2. Radio Faces "Slippin' Back With You
Milwaukee-ite Nato Coles 2nd best album of the year (see the next list) could be given a ridiculous genre like "bar-punk" or "honky-punk" but songs like this are just rough-hewn, mid-western rock n' roll played like the final closing time is nigh.
Listen here

3. Pugwash "Monorail"
If I was Australian (where this Irish band had a huge hit this year) I'd hate this song but since it's a novel obscurity with cool keyboards, a lyrical list and, befitting the album's name, Earworm, a chorus that slithers into your ear like Kahn's mind-controlling eels and just takes over it'll fit here.
See here

4. Teenage Bottlerocket "Skate or Die
The fact that Teenage Bottlerocket (and their kin, The Lillingtons) so often resemble an old-school hardcore band as much as a pop-punk band is their secret strength.



5. Classics of Love "Slow Car Crash"
I've a bit of weakness for survivors, like ex-Operation Ivy/Common Rider singer Jesse Michaels but he's still a all-out performer with a knack for wise, sharp-eyed lyrics and choruses that a crowd of sweaty kids can yell along to instantly.
Listen here
6. The Bomb "Space Age Love Song"
Despite the abundance of ripping rockers ( "Haver", "Integrity") on Speed is Everything that sees Chicago punk legend Jeff Pezzatti (of the fearsome Naked Raygun) giving the kids hell, I chose this mid-tempo, post-punk ballad because it hearkens back to "Holding You" a longing ballad from the neglected album Raygun, Naked Raygun.
Listen here

7. Two Hours Traffic "Territory"
The pride of Prince Edward dish out sprightly power-pop with a dollop of wussiness.
See here

8. Frank Turner "The Road"
Poetry of the Deed was a bit of a let-down but this song is not only a clear-eyed statement of Turner's philosophy of itinerance, it's also a grand, booming song whether played solo or with the band.
See here

9. Shonen Knife "Ramones Forever"
I'm a sucker for a heartfelt tributes to great bands and for Osaka's Shonen Knife.
Listen here

10. The Methadones "Gary Glitter"
I'm also a sucker for savage put-downs like this one from Dan Vapid formerly of Chicago's Kings of Pop-Punk, Screeching Weasel.
Listen here

11. Said the Whale "Camillo (the Magician)"
With "Camillo" Said the Whale prove that while there may be not be any good band names left to pick there's still a near-inexhaustible supply of power-pop hooks as yet uncast.
See here

12. Dear Landlord "I Live in Hell"
Pop-punk schleps Adam and Brett from Chicago's the Copyrights name their sideband after a Dylan song and rock like hell.
Listen here
13. Roman Candle "Why Modern Radio is A-OK With Me"
A little alt-country is good for what ails you, especially when it's astute, tuneful and not too studied.
See here

14. Carbon Silicon "What's Up Doc?"
While I wish that Mick Jones and Tony James would remember that songs can be over in 2 minutes fifty-nine, you gotta love a rip-snorting rocker like this:


15. Grant Hart "You're the Reflection of the Moon on the Water"
A hummable zen-noise-pop song from the former Husker Du man and members of Godspeed You Black Emperor.


16. Dr Frank "Bethlehem"
The doctor must need to write catchy pop-punk songs with clever lyrics and quirky bridges since he keeps recording music despite his massive literary success (calling the sequel to his best-seller King Dork, King Dork Approximately is a sly Dylan reference).
Listen here

17. Tinted Windows "Kind of a Girl"
Okay, the classic super-group paradox (the whole is less than the sum of the parts) kicked in for this Cheap-Trick-Smashing Pumpkins-Fountains-of-Wayne-Hanson aggregation but, fittingly, the single was a grand-scale pop song.
See here

18. Ida Maria "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked"
As I've said before, the hype, or lack thereof, is irrelevant, if the song (in this case one by a sexy Norwegian) makes you want to sing along or air drum than you've got a winner.


19. Jeffrey Lewis "Whistle Past the Graveyard"
New York cartoonist and anti-folk standard-bearer Lewis tries on his cow-punk boots then contemplates eternal life and zombies.
See here

20. Oak Ridge Boys "Seven Nation Army"
Stop using that word novelty like it's a bad thing, as if this White Stripes classic didn't always need some gnarly country veteran going bom-bom-bom-bom-bom in the background.
Listen here

21. Dan Magann "Tina’s Glorious Comeback"
As a singer and song-writer I'd slot Vancouver's Magann somewhere between the Violent Femme's Gordon Gano and the Weakerthan's John K. Sampson and while some of Nice, Nice Very Nice is occasionally a bit hushed or precious, when his cleverness and tunefulness come together it's impressive.
See here

22. Bob Dylan "It's All Good"
Together Trough Life was not a great record by any stretch but this song is one of those "Foot of Pride" style attacks on the world's ills that even a half-assed, strangulated Dylan pulls off well.
Listen here

(Bonus: Bryan Scary and the Shedding Tears will confuse the hell out of everyone with Queen-like piano-punk song, "Andromeda's Eyes".)

Okay, MRML Readers, leave us a comment on our choices and then tell us your picks for the great songs of '09

For the entire playlist click here and please remember to delete any material downloaded for education purposes from your computer within 48 hours.
And on a less legalistic note go to please got to Interpunk, Amazon or even (shuddder) iTunes and buy some music!

The MRML Top-Twenty-Two (2008)

(Thanks to Charles Schultz and WMFU's Beware of the Blog for the image)

To add to the saturated market of best of list's, I'll add one more dose of subjectivity, with the following caveat:
- I chose, smart, catchy and driving songs from 2008, or thereabouts*, scrupulously avoiding songs that could be be described as, delicate, hushed or ethereal.

1. Away From Here* (The Enemy) Did I ever tell you about that customer at the music store, back in the 90's who told me how he bought Black Crowes' albums, "To keep up with what's happening in music " and how I sneered at him? and yet who's here now claiming that retro-Jam worshipers like the Enemy represent some type of modernity. Damn me to hell. (Local Boy by The Rifles is more retro-Jam but it dates back to 2006.)
2. Don't a Hear a Single (The Major Labels). Everything good about power-pop, from the kitsch-obsessed lyrics, to the layered vocals to those the busy arrangements full of verses, choruses, pre-choruses, bridges and whoknowswhatelse.
3. Gimme More (The Peacocks) Sometimes a shot of psychobilly is what you need.
4. Out of Ideas (Copyrights) In a disappointing year for pop-punk the Copyrights' sole lapse was not surpassing their previous album. That said, all of Learn the Hard Way - especially this song with it's "We're gonna roll with a punch-drunk love song" refrain - rips.
5. Cupidity (Dopeamines) The Great White Hope of pop-punk ("We peaked with our demo") didn't quite deliver a full-length classic, though some raging pop songs did ensue.
6. Bad Kids (Black Lips) An album's worth of this? Maybe not. But by its lonesome this is a novelty song with enough garage-rocking heft to have staying power. (Not be confused with I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You by the Black Kids which is actually a pretty fair retro-80's tune).
7. Ladies of Cambridge (Vampire Weekend) "Overrated" is a weak word – it defines the quality of a work strictly based on a perceived level of popularity or esteem, both of which are, strictly speaking, beyond the artist's control. I added this b-side from the "Mansard Roof" single not only for the bringing the ska to the lethargic genre of indie-rock but because, unlike say, "A-Punk", fewer people will have rated it.
8. What the Fuck (Carbon/Silicon) I think therefore I backtrack; yes, The Last Post is far better than The Clash Mk II's Cut the Crap - that being said, I know which album I will have played more times by the time I die from Mp3 poisoning.
9. Boots of Chinese Plastic (Pretenders) Chrissy does Dylan.
10. Who's Gonna Build Your Wall? (Tom Russell) Even if you think the designation "protest song of the year" isn't worth a pinch of shit this tex-folk broadside should not be missed.
11. Add Me (Chumbawamba) Most people remember "Tubthumping", but I remember "Picture of Starving Children Sell Records" and this track, a savage but hummable attack on Generation Text. (Plus it's got the nastiest punch line of the year.)
12. You’re Getting’ Married*(The Replacements) A gritty old ballad, newly revealed - like a lost Dylan masterpiece.
13. Most of the Time*(Bob Dylan) In the hyperbole race critics have fought over Dylan these last few years, few hit the mark quite like, "Dylan throws away more masterpieces than most artists ever record". So, while Tell-Tale Signs is essential for Dylan appreciators and fanatics for the insight it gives us into his post 80's revival (and it keeps the vastly underrated Under the Red Sky in the narrative) perhaps two full CD's would be of less interest to casual listeners. Speaking of Dylan obscurities, check out Wagon Wheel, a re-write of a Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid outtake by Old Crow Medicine Show.
14. I Dreamed I saw Billy Bragg (Yuri Gordon and the Goods) Billy gets added to a dream list that includes Joe Hill, St. Augustine and Phil Ochs but here, rather than being a ballad, it's done in double time.
15. '59 sound (Gaslight Anthem) The single from what is certainly a contender for Album of the Year, if just for its anthemic choruses and the deliberately dated references - Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis and Mary-Lou - that comprise the lyrics. Unfortunately, I compile an "Underappreciated albums" list, a category into which the album does not fall.
16. Three Sevens Clash (The Alarm) As mentioned in the Songs about Strumming post, this may be the best song the Alarm (who already have a passel of them) ever wrote.
17. On the Clock (Methadones) A catchy, 1 minute and fifty-nine second "Goddamn Job" song from veteran Dan Schaefer which fuses Screeching Weasel punk with Bram Tchaikovsky pop.
18. Never Miss a beat (Kaiser Chiefs). This band gets slagged for being a singles band - the CCR of whatever Britpop's being called at this second ("Indie landfill"?). Wake up Britain, the time has long since come time to bury the brothers Gallagher.
19. I Wanna be the One (Yum-Yums) Pop-punk Beach Boys songs, with "Wanna-Wanna's" and "Whooo-ooohs" fill an ungluttable market.
20. Children of the Lord (Slim Cessna) Gospel-punk anyone?
21. Texas Cops (Tim Barry) Avail, after a stunning and original debut, got stuck in a conservative-holding pattern (Fat Wreck-Chords in a a nutshell) but lead singer Tim Barry escaped that trap by adopting a hard-travellin' folk-punk persoane.
22. Furr (Blitzen Trapper)- To these ears, this sounds like 90's Canadian jangle-rockers, the Skydiggers covering John Wesley Harding era Dylan. And that's mighty good, even if they're sorta indie-rock. After all, to avoid all Pitchfuck kinda bands would merely be reverse snobbery.

Comments and counter-offers are strongly encouraged.

P.S. Hope you didn't miss "McLaughlan Groove"Andrew W.K.'s greatest contrition to humankind