It's Always Something playlist for 12/30/05

1. Bing Crosby - Let's Start the New Year Off Right
2. Dick Kent with the Lancelots - A New Year's Dawning
3. Lex & the Hood - A Great New Year
4. Sun Ra - Happy New Year To You
5. Brian Fahey - Countdown
6. CHIN's - My New Year Rules
7. Amazing Amar - Merry Xmas Happy New Year
8. Beach Boys - Auld Lang Syne
9. Shockabilly - Happy New Year
10. BJ Dowdy - Resolutions
11. Bob Hope - New Years
12. Checkered Past - Happy New Year
13. Lou Rawls - What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?
14. Nancy Wilson - What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?
15. Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass - What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?
16. Aslum Street Spankers - What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?
17. Blind Lemon Jefferson - Happy New Year Blues
18. Rev. A.W. Nix - Mind Your Business (A New Year's Sermon)
19. Spirit of Melanesia - New Year Celebrations
20. All That Music All Star Band - The Tex-Mex New Year's Polka
21. Kukla, Fran and Ollie - Make Your New Year Your Good News Year
22. Kukla, Fran and Ollie - What Are You Doing New Year's Eve/Fran You're Beautiful
23. Woody Phillips - Auld Lang Syne
24. The Turtles - It Was A Very Good Year (Stereo)
25. The Simpsons (Homer) - It Was A Very Good Beer
26. William Shatner - It Was A Very Good Year
27. Cara Stewart with the Lee Hudson Orchestra - The New Year Song
28. Esquivel - Auld Lang Syne (Adios from Esquivel!)
29. Coolbreezers - Hello Mr. New Year
30. Sufjan Stevens - Year of the Dog
31. Great Lakes - This Will Be Our Year
32. M. Ward - One More Goodbye
33. Camera Obscura - Happy New Year

The Lovers Sub for It's Always Something - Today!

Yep, that's right! Today from 12pm-2pm, I will be hosting the last It's Always Something of 2005 with a two hour New Year's theme show that would make B.R. proud.

The Lovers' Top 25 Songs from 2005

1. Fistful of Love - Antony and the Johnsons from The I Am A Bird Now
2. Chicago - Sufjan Stevens from Illinois
3. This Year - The Mountain Goats from The Sunset Tree
4. The Mariner's Revenge Song - The Decemberists from Picaresque
5. Funny Like the Moon - Bunky from Born To Be A Motorcycle
6. I Feel Like The Mother Of The World - Smog from A River Ain't Too Much To Love
7. The Greatest - Cat Power from The Greatest/Hate single
8. Off the Record - My Morning Jacket from Z
9. An Own With Knees - The Books from Lost and Safe
10. I'm Getting Back Into Getting Into You - Silver Jews from Tanglewood Numbers
11. Grass - Animal Collective from Feels
12. One Life To Leave - Out Hud from Let Us Never Speak Of It Again
13. Glosoli - Sigur Ros from Takk...
14. Black - Okkervil River from Black Sheep Boy
15. The Music Lovers - Destroyer from Notorious Lighting and Other Works
16. Shake Our Tree - The Rosebuds from Birds Make Good Neighbors
17. Paul Simon - The Russian Futurists from Our Thickness
18. Heard Somebody Say - Devendra Banhart from Cripple Crow
19. Wishbone - Architecture In Helsinki from In Case We Die
20. We're In Business - Andrew Thompson from Egad!
21. The Modern Love (Dave P and Adam Sparkle's Makine Time Remix) - Bloc Party from Silent Alarm Remixed
22. A Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head To The Left - Andrew Bird from Mysterious Production of Eggs
23. The Comeback - Shout Out Louds from Howl Howl Gaff Gaff
24. I Turn My Camera On - Spoon from Gimme Fiction
25. Daft Punk Is Playing At My House - LCD Soundsystem from LCD Soundsystem

This Week on the Lovers - Best of 2005

Tune into today for the Lovers' Top 25 Favorite Songs of 2005.

The Lovers' Top 20 Albums of 2005

1. Sufjan Stevens Illinois
2. Antony and the Johnsons I Am A Bird Now
3. The Decemberists Picaresque
4. Architecture In Helsinki In Case We Die
5. The Dirty Projectors The Getty Address
6. Great Lake Swimmers Bodies and Minds
7. Animal Collective Prospect Hummer EP/Feels
8. Destroyer Notorious Lighting and Other Works
9. Alec Ounsworth Songs About Coming And Going (Demos)
10. Out Hud Let Us Never Speak Of It Again
11. M. Ward Transistor Radio
12. My Morning Jacket Z
13. The Books Lost and Safe
14. Okkervil River Black Sheep Boy
15. Andrew Bird The Mysterious Production of Eggs
16. Sigur Ros Takk..
17. LCD Soundsystem LCD Soundsystem
18. The Rosebuds Birds Make Good Neighbors
19. Langhorne Slim When The Sun's Gone Down
20. Headphones Headphones

(Of course, it could all change tomorrow...)

The Lovers' Albums of the Week - A Year In Review

A brief history: I started the Album of the Week feature about two months into doing the show and nearly a month after beginning the blog. At first, I had very strict criteria: it had to be an album released the week of the show and typically not an obvious choice. Of course, finding an album that met these criteria became a bit difficult during slow weeks (hence the LateNightTales entry). Still, I held to these restrictions for the first couple of months. Also, I was writing mini reviews for each album, which made me start to feel a bit like I was one of the Scenestars. But I quickly got burned out (hey, I'm not a writer), and I stopped after the thirteenth entry. Anyway, I did keep the feature going, and it seems to be one of the most popular features on the blog. I even got a polite letter from Brussels about it! So, here are all my choices of 2005. So where did I go right? Where did I go wrong?

M. Ward Transistor Radio (Added:2/27)

Eluvium Talk Amongst the Trees (Added:3/04)

Flaming Lips/Various Artists LateNightTales (Added:3/11)

Devin Davis Lonely People of the World, Unite! (Added:3/17)

The Decemberists Picaresque (Added:3/25)

Yo La Tengo Prisoner of Love (Added:3/31)

The Books Lost and Safe (Added:4/08)

The Dirty Projectors The Getty Address (Added:4/08)

Dr. Dog Easy Beat (Added:4/15)

Madvillain/Four Tet Four Tet Remixes EP (Added:4/29)

The Russian Futurists Our Thickness (Added:5/06)

Headphones Headphones (Added:5/13)

Animal Collective Prospect Hummer EP (Added:5/20)

Minotaur Shock Vigo Bay EP (Added:6/10)

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Added:6/17)

Architecture In Helsinki In Case We Die (Added:7/02)

Felix Laband Dark Days Exit (Added:7/15)

Langhorne Slim When the Sun's Gone Down (Added:7/22)

Venetian Snares Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett (Added:7/17)

Andrew Thompson Egad! (Added:7/29)

Antony and the Johnsons Hope There's Someone EP (Added:8/5)

Holopaw Quit +/or Fight (Added:8/13)

Flotation Toy Warning Bluffer's Guide To The Flight Deck (Added:8/26)

Chad VanGaalen Infiniheart (Added:9/03)

Calla Collisions (Added:9/30)

The Rosebuds Birds Make Good Neighbors (Added:10/07)

Animal Collective Feels (Added:10/21)

Great Lake Swimmers Bodies and Minds (Added:10/16)

The Clientele Strange Geometry (Added:10/23)

Bell Orchestre Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light (Added:12/03)

Jens Lekman Oh You're So Silent Jens (Added:12/09)

Bunky Born To Be A Motorcycle (Added:12/19)

My Top 10 Most Memorable Shows of 2005

Well, it's that time when everyone surveys the year and gives their humble opinions on all that they found worthy, usually organized nicely in the form of a list. So expect things like that all this week, starting with my most memorable shows of 2005:

1. Sufjan Stevens - The 2 1/2 hour line to get into the Nashville venue would have been enough to earn this a #1 slot, but thankfully, the show was just as memorable. The funniest moment was when Sufjan was introduced and everyone turned to each other and uttered, "Oh, that's how you pronounce his name!"
2. Andrew Bird - Mr. Bird had to cancel an on-air radio performance on the Lovers due to sickness, and it certainly showed that night at the HiTone. I should say it showed in his apperance but not at all in his performance. It was one of those rare nights at the Tone when the crowd was completely in tune with the artist (with many folks sitting down on the ground). And they remained in awe as Andrew moved back and forth from his guitar to his violin to that most memorable Bird whistle.
3. The Go! Team - Probably the most anticipated moment for me at the Intonation Music Festival in Chicago turned into the most memorable as the Team recruited a mass of children swimming at the public pool next door to join them on stage for a grand finale of "Ladyflash"!
4. The Decemberists - I got to see these guys at a crammed Nashville venue (Exit/In) and a packed music fest (Intonation Music Festival), and either performance would have secured Mr. Meloy and Co. a place on this list. The audience participation at the end of "The Mariner's Revenge Song," when everyone screams as if they are being eaten by a whale was quite the highlight.
5. Out Hud - Some of the most fun I've ever had at the HiTone. And that's saying somethin'! Their performance was around only 40 minutes, but I couldn't imagine it going on any longer without the members of Out Hud (and the crowd) collapsing from exhaustion.
6. Cat Power - This was another highly anticipated performance, though mostly because everyone was wondering if Chan Marshall would have another one of her freak outs. Instead, the few folks who were actually interested in the show (and not in the upcoming beer bust) were treated to a rather intimate performance on both guitar and piano, most of which was done in the dark.
7. Luv Clowns/Harlan T. Bobo (tie) - This is a toss-up: the Luv Clowns odd children's show at the Media CoOp or Harlan T. Bobo's infamous angel-wing performance at the now-defunct Glass Onion. Both winners!
8. Okkervil River - Okay, I knew that their album Black Sheep Boy was fabulous, but I wasn't expecting to be this impressed by their live performance. What I remember most was how honored the guys were to be playing in Memphis. They even covered Big Star's "O, Dana," though few people seemed to notice.
9. John Cale - A free concert from the legendary co-founder of The Velvet Underground in a small auditorium at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. Enough said!
10. Built To Spill - I had been waiting a long time to see the boys from Idaho. However, I never imagined that I would get to see them in Memphis. And I certainly never imagined that I would see them at the Young Avenue Deli! Without a doubt the most people I have ever seen in that club.

Other memorable shows: The Walkmen, Clem Snide, Fruit Bats, Richard Swift, Xiu Xiu, Smog, The Russian Futurists, Junior Boys, and Oneida

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone out there had a safe and fun Christmas...