Top 10 Albums of 2010...

Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore - "Dear Companion"
Oh yes, Dear

The Ravenna Cult - "Slight Spell"
Stark and stunning.

Spoon - "Transferance"
They're as good as ever.

Backyard Tire Fire - "Good to Be"
Catchiest southern-rock album in a decade.

Benjy Davis Project - "Lost Souls Like Us"
From Baton Rouge, with love.

Flobots - "Survival Story"
Hip-Hop handled at its finest.

The Hold Steady - "Heaven is Whenever"
Finally figuring out a formula.

Band of Horses - "Infinite Arms"
Just another stroke of brilliance.

Ryan Adams - "III/IV"
Stopped being sad, and picked up a Joe Strummer album.

Gangreen - "Gutter Water"
Hip-hop's underground supergroup is super.


***COMING SOON***
Show count for 2010
and
Top 100 albums of the decade 2001-2010.

I Can't Waits...

So I haven't gotten around to mention how TRULY excited I am that Tom Waits will be getting inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame next year (alongside Beastie Boys). I can't think of anyone that deserves it more than Waits.

This is a guy who quietly wrote a canon of material so beautifully elegant, that other artists can't help but reinterpret it over and over. The list of people who have covered Waits, is long - people like The Eagles ("Old '55"), Rod Stewart ("Downtown Train"), Pearl Jam ("Picture in Frame"), Neko Case ("Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis"), Bob Seger ("16 Shells from a 30 Ought Six"), The Ramones ("I Don't Want to Grow Up"), 10,000 Maniacs ("I Hope I Don't Fall in Love With You"), Elvis Costello ("Innocent When You Dream"), Bruce Springsteen & The E. Street Band ("Jersey Girl"), Dion ("Heart of a Saturday Night"), and Los Lobos ("Jockey Full of Bourbon") just to name a few. And while age has left some artists insipidly lame - Waits has somehow managed to remain perpetually cool (who, other than Waits, is cool enough to have Dion and The Ramones cover them?). He has an unflinching ability to remain relevant in a world that eats their idols, that alone is a Herculean feat for a singer/songwriter hatched in the post-war baby boom.

With a voice like 4a.m. cigarette he refuses to yield or compromise neither his integrity nor the integrity of his songs. A reputation that has made him the bullheaded saint of "brawlers, bawlers & bastards."

Waits continues to write heartfelt songs pining for an America that no longer exists with minstrels, vagabonds, and gamblers still roaming its streets. Listening to his gravely, forlorn voice, you can't help but long for the world he sees, a world where jukeboxes take a leak, flamingos drink from cocktail glasses, and hookers actually write Christmas cards.

So for what's it's worth...congrats, sir. Congrats.


The following video is stunning. I mean quite literally breathtaking. But for some reason the audience keeps laughing throughout it, and Waits seems as perplexed by it as I am.