Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Top Ten:Wapsipinicon Flood Blues

If anybody would lives here knows, if you live next to a river in the springtime, the river tends to claim back what it once theirs when we get way too much rain and way too much water in the basement.  Personal to Bob Schneider of Olin, usually floods are typical in Olin and if you live there, you'll going to have a few more friendly visits from the Wapsi.  You may want to consider cutting back on your beer and cigarettes and get some flood insurance.  I love the Wapsi as much as anybody else, but enough to have it visit my basement in the springtime.

And if you see houses for sale for 7 thousand dollars in Independence with a scenic river view, think twice before buying.  Or keep your valueables on the highest floor.  Amazingly I managed to start listening to some new tunes and revisit old reliables.  The weather is nice today but guess what, we got the same shit storms coming this weekend again.  Ridiclous.

1.  Closer To Free-Bo Deans 1993  For a band that has been around for over twenty years, this is the only thing they ever came close to cracking the top ten and they gave this song to the Party Of Five TV show but I find this song is fun to sing along with.  And sometimes in this day and age of trails and tribulations, we all need something to sing along with.

2.  I Go Crazy-Paul Davis 1978  This was number one on the local charts for a whopping five weeks and actually for a MOR song it is pretty catchy and pretty emotional.  I know this song figured in my teen years while walking home alone after a saturday night high school dance.   For such a mellow song, this was sung by one of more uglier guys, long hair and a odd beard to boot.  Davis would touch the top ten a couple more times before concluding his career with 65 Love Affair, which was played a lot at Super Skate.  Another story for another time.

3.  Drop The Gun-Kings Of The Sun 1990  Oh goodness I love this band.  They made two albums here and one that didn't make it but the song that came off this album Full Frontal Attack, that album had the be the most sloppiest but most rockingist album of that year.  Made my best record of the year of 1990.

4.  Doctor Gee-Len Price 3 2007  Little Steven loves these guys enough to put out a album of theirs last year.  One good thing about the Underground Garage Show is that Little Steven continues to find these garage rock acts that play music as if 1966 never ended.  No disco, no grunge, no new wave, nada.  These guys love the sounds of the early Who, Creation, early Kinks, and Easybeats. Like The Stabilizers, LP3 celebrates their influences and they do it great.  Too damn bad that Best Buy hasn't supported the Wicked Cool artists like they did last year.  Last year we have four volumes of Coolest Songs In The World, this year we still waiting for the next volume.  I know I know, Mariah Carey is gonna save rock n roll.  Pfffffffft.

5.  Golden Light-Georgia Satellites 1986  B side to Battleship Chains, this song didn't much play on my player till I rediscovered it the other night.  And proves that Dan Baird is one of the great lost songwriters of the era.

6.  Beautiful Goodbye-Jennifer Hanson 2003  In a different era, this song would have fitted on lite rock radio but she did have a sizable hit with this on country radio.  But her label screwed around with her and six months she had this on and off the charts Capitol finally got around putting her album out.  Five years later, Hanson hasn't had a followup and her new label Universal South is doing the same thing Capitol did, lose momentium by not releasing anything except a video of a new song.  On a side note,  Little Big Town has signed with Capitol after getting their career back on track with two independent releases.  Before that, they made a album for Sony/Monument that died since the major label didn't promote it.  Some bands never learn.  But who knows, Capitol got lucky with Lady Antebellum's new album hitting number one on the contry charts.  We'll see where this goes.

7.  Thank You Girl-The Beatles 1963  Over the weekend I did pull out the VHS of I Wanna Hold Your Hand, a funny 1978 movie about 1964 era Beatlemania and a bunch of girls who wanted to crash the Fab Four's motel room.  Who could forget Nancy Allen's getting a big O, while holding Paul McCartney's bass when she got into the room.  I have no idea if this is out on DVD but I did get this on VHS a few years ago.  Makes me wish I could have been there with Beatlemania.  Or good music stations.  Unlike today.

8.  Outskirts-James McMurtry 1989  Jimmy Mack's latest is a classic but we go back to when he was just starting out and John Mellencamp helped him along the way by granting him studio time and his backing band to boot.  A tale about a guy trying to visit a love lost in a icestorm.  Hmm, he must have been living in Iowa eh?

9.  The Devil's Right Hand-Steve Earle 1989  I seen that Universal has reissued this as a overpriced two cd Definite Edition to which the second cd has a 1996 show which I'm sure is great but as I keep telling people, I get a little bit tired of rebuying definite albums only to see them reissued with bonus tracks or a bonus cd or DVD.  For 28 bucks, I'll keep my original copy but then again if I come across this used somewhere for 16, i'll then make the purchase.  This is one great song you can't mess up....unless you're Marah Carey or some American Idol warbler.

10.  The Rip-Portishead 2008  And finally, we end this on a strange note.  These guys sound like Kraftwerk, Neu!, Tangerine Dream and Throbbing Gristle with Beth Gibbons sounding lots like Kate Bush.  They make the sound their very own and really their new album is a strange listen, even to all the above mentioned songs, this sticks out like a sore thumb.  I think P3 is their most definite statement, but in the era of the album non existant that's not saying a lot if people can't hear or rather steal it online.  This also doesn't mean that while P3 is their best to date, like Throbbing Gristle or Sonic Youth, that I'm going play it everyday.  Especially when you're cleaning up the basement three weeks in a row.  For that I tend to pull out Yummy Yummy Yummy to get me out of my fowl mood.  This documents that I have listened to it and made a note of it and like the song enough to include it.  And to let the buyer decide wether or not to check it out.

My top tens are never bad songs.  If they were they wouldn't be included here.

Like Mariah Carey.