Dot Dash (free download)

Dot Dash, one of UHM's perennial faves, have created a five song sampler (one song from each of their releases), and the generous souls have made it available for a free download on Soundcloud! Jump on it, then support the band by picking up one or all of their albums. My personal fave is Earthquakes & Tidal Waves, but they're all of an amazingly high quality. We're barely two months into the new year, and I'm already anticipating whatever they do next - definitely a band to watch!

5/5/5

1. The Infinite
2. Satellite (Far Out)
3. Broken Halo
4. Live To Tell
5. Learn How To Fly

Searchlights (2016)
Earthquakes & Tidal Waves (2015)
Half-Remembered Dream (2013)
Winter Garden Light (2012)
spark>flame>ember>ash (2011)

A Tragic Sampler

Last week, the Tragica11y Hip's last show snuck up on me. I don't mean that I didn't know it was coming; I mean I didn't fully realize the magnitude of meaning the event would have on me. As the show began, I told my girlfriend (who is American) that I didn't know much of the band's music, and explained that for me they were like Pearl Jam or REM: all long-lived bands that followed their own peculiar muses with little consolation to the mass market and earned my respect more than my fandom. Nothing wrong with any of them, but I'm not getting the tattoo. And then, as the concert continued, I realized how many of the songs weren't just songs I knew, but songs that seemed part of my DNA.

This will not be a mix for Canadians. These songs most will already know all too well. These songs are the reason the band's final concert was such a big deal it facillitated the national broadcaster to postpone their coverage of the Olympics to air the entire show, uninterrupted and sponsor-free. These songs are why an entire nation was forced - relunctantly, tragically, and ultimately jubilantly - to come to terms with their own mortality as vocalist Gord Downie faced his own grim diagnosis so valiantly. These are the tracks that your typical Canadian will roll their eyes at while complaining that I forgot "Blow at High Dough" or "Nautical Disaster" or "place favorite Hip song here."

But these are also the songs that will be revelatory to people who are new to the band and remain kinda confused by it all - and that's who it's aimed at. If you find nothing here to like, then go no further. If, on the other hand, you find an entry point or two, then there's a 30 year discography to dig into. Take it slow and - as an entire nation learned so profoundly - enjoy every fleeting minute while you do.

One Nation Under Gord

1. Small Town Bringdown
2. Last American Exit
3. New Orleans is Sinking
4. Boots or Hearts
5. Little Bones
6. Long Time Running
7. Courage
8. Locked in the Trunk of a Car
9. Grace, Too
10. Ahead by a Century

Tracks 1, 2 from self-titled EP (1987)
Tracks 3, 4 from Up To Here (1989)
Tracks 5, 6 from Road Apples (1991)
Tracks 7, 8 from Fully, Completely (1992)
Track 9 from Day For Night (1994)
Track 10 from Trouble At The Hen House (1996)

12 by You Am I

Popular in their home country of Australia yet puzzlingly obscure everywhere else, You Am I occupy that gray area in the UnHerd universe. A populist band whose only sin was to favor those heralded virtues of the past: melody, hooks, guitars, and passion packed into the 3 minute glory shot. They combined go-for-broke rock & roll with wit and wounded romanticism in a way that's comparable to the Replacements, with front man Tim Rogers equally liable to pen a heart-on-the-sleeve confessional ballad as a raging slab of punk insolence. That unclassifiable range, of course, might be the aspect that kept them from the larger audience they so clearly deserved - but it's also what turned me into such a fan. Their last transmission as a band was in 2010, so let's hope this story isn't finished yet.

Hit Me Hard and Hit Me Low

1. Baby Clothes
2. If We Can't Get It Together
3. Heavy Heart
4. Radio Rumble
5. ...And Vandalism
6. Kick a Hole in the Sky
7. One Cent Coins
8. Deliverance
9. Crash
10. Gunslingers
11. Givin' Up and Gettin' Fat
12. We Hardly Knew You

Tracks 1, 2 from Hourly, Daily (1996)
Tracks 3, 4, 5 from You Am I's #4 Record (1998)
Track 6 from Dress Me Slowly (2001)
Track 7 from Damage EP (2000)
Track 8, 9 from Deliverance (2002)
Track 10 from Convicts (2007)
Track 11 from Dilettantes (2008)
Track 12 from You Am I (2010)

Greatest Songs in the History of the Universe

There are a number of songs that I keep returning to throughout my life, and they act as a sort of re-set, a yardstick for all others to be measured against. If there's a brand spankin' new fave tune in 2014, for example, it has to stand against "Sweet Jane" in order for me to comprehend where it belongs in the great rock & roll continuum. So I had this notion to compile those songs on a single mix. It seemed do-able at the time.

What I neglected to take into account was the sheer amount of stone cold classics I would be dealing with. That might seem like an obvious oversight - it's certainly obvious to me now.  So then it became a matter of defining exactly what basis I'd have for including a track on the mix, and then attempting to remain consistent. What I ended up doing was focusing on the songs that are my bedrock. These are the songs that created my music preferences, for better or worse, and I can project forward or back from all of these songs to account for pretty much everything I like. Obviously I had to make some harsh omissions: there's barely anything from the 50s and 60s, there's no reggae, no soul or R&B or girl groups or anything recorded within the past 30 years. But like I said, all of those genres and eras are referenced directly or indirectly somewhere in these 22 tunes.

There's some odd choices, for sure. Out of the entire Stiff Little Fingers discography, I picked an obscure deep cut over "Alternative Ulster" or "Roots Radicals Rockers and Reggae" - and the only explanation I can offer is that I just fuckin' love "Silver Lining." Ditto picks from the Stones and the Ramones. And what's a Michel Pagliaro track doing on here? I dunno, man. That song just spears me between the ears. Sometimes it's just the little details in the arrangement that push a song over the top for me. I've been listening to Mott the Hoople's "All The Way From Memphis" for over 40 years now, and I still get shivers during the instrumental coda when Mick Ralphs' guitar shoulder-checks Andy MacKay's sax outta the way and rides the song home. That stuff is magic. It's alchemy. It's catching lightning in a jar. And each of these tracks caught it.

And yeah, I'm sure I've missed many of your favorite tracks, so leave a comment telling me which one(s). I'd love to read them, plus they might force me to compile a second (or third) volume.

Look Out Honey 'Cuz I'm Using Technology

1. Ve1vet Underground Sweet Jane
2. Mott the Hoop1e All The Way From Memphis
3. Chaap Trick Southern Girls (Albini mix)
4. Big Star September Gurls
5. Ro11ing Stones Sway
6. The Sex Pisto1s Holidays in the Sun
7. The Beat1es Revolution
8. The Undertones Teenage Kicks
9. The On1y Ones Another Girl, Another Planet
10. Genya Ravan Jerry's Pigeons
11. The Saints Know Your Product
12. Bruce Springstaen Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
13. Pretanders Precious
14. Iggy & the Staoges Search and Destroy
15. The Heartbreakers Born to Lose
16. The New York Do11s Personality Crisis
17. The Ram0nes Swallow My Pride
18. A1ice Cooper Under My Wheels
19. Stiff Litt1e Fingers Silver Lining
20. Pag1iaro Time Race
21. Faces Ooh La La
22. Patti Smith Gloria

Re-ups

Diamond Dogs - samples two decades worth of rockers & rave-ups from the extensive Diamond Dogs discography

River City Rebels

This is a story of a band doing something that I personally find courageous, which is to stay true to itself even in the face of overwhelming commercial failure. The River City Rebels followed their own muse and ended up at a point they probably could never have predicted when they started the journey.

Looking back from here, it's hard to believe that journey started with an album called Racism, Religion, and War (2000). The lack of subtlety in the title is carried through in the music - it's fairly generic Oi-derived punk with a 3rd wave ska horn section that only slightly raises it above a thousand other bands of this ilk. By their very next album a year later the band was already expanding on that sound, and by their third album, No Good, No Time, No Pride (2002), they'd taken that tack as far as it could go. Many consider this the band's apex - and if your preference is for buzzsaw energy with gang chant choruses you could do far worse than tracking down a copy of this album - but for me this is when the band finally starts to get interesting.

It took two years for them to return with Hate To Be Loved (2004), which represents an enormous turning point. The album was produced by Sylvain Sylvain (of personal faves the New York Dolls), and it's as if he sat the boys down and explained the deep rhythm & blues roots of punk rock to them. It sounds like a lightbulb suddenly flickered to life, because as much as the album maintains the gang chants and punk spirit of past songs, it also possesses a much more varied sonic palette. A song like "Glitter and Gold" could have been played by the Dolls themselves (and the album's version of R&B chestnut "Don't Mess With Cupid" actually was). Beyond that glam rocker there were ballads and straight up rock 'n' roll, a grab bag of genres spilling out amid the more familiar Rebel moves. The band handicapped themselves by equipping the record with puerile cover art, and the fans of their first three albums were probably in an outrage over a perceived sell-out - but Hate To Be Loved was the sound of a band finally recognizing its own path.

Three years later they appeared with Keepsake of Luck, and to say it was a bold departure is something of an understatement. It was a quantum leap forward. Its reach far wider than anyone - maybe even the band themselves - might have anticipated, incorporating a rootsy Springsteen/Van Morrison influence that opened the Rebels to strains of both soul and folk. At the same time, there's a new-found sincerity in Dan O' Day's vocals that evoke the softer side of the Clash, a band with a similar (if grander and more dramatic) growth towards diversity and eclecticism. Despite of - or maybe because of - the wide range of musical influences, this is where the River City Rebels actually forge their own unique sound.  The album is a monster at 16 songs, and while not all of them rise above their derivations enough of them do to make this the band's crowning achievement.

Tragically and predictably, Keepsake of Luck was soundly ignored by almost everybody. By the time of the next album, 2008's In Love/Loveless, the band was down to its two core members, Dan O' Day and Brandon Rainer. Somewhat surprisingly, the River City Rebels continued to push their sound forward. Sonically, there's almost no trace of their punk past here, but instead there are echoes of practically every strain of American music this side of country & western.

O' Day and Rainer reconvened again in 2010 with Done With Love. Perhaps more reflective and introspective than any of their previous efforts, it still sounds far from defeated. Conveniently, perhaps symbolically, this album appeared almost exactly a decade after their first. Those ten years, hard fought and most likely filled with frustration, manifest themselves in the depth of the music, while tracks like "Gone Forever" and "Here Today, Dead Tomorrow" suggest this may be the end of the journey. Let's hope not.

It Ain't So Bad Down Here

1. Religion
2. Gotta Get It
3. Aborted
4. I'm So Vain
5. Dreamy 17
6. Glitter and Gold
7. Nothing Makes You Hard
8. All The Flowers
9. Sick Kids
10. I've Seen
11. Bright Rays
12. It's Still There Now, Dear
13. Josie
14. One Sheet
15. One More Dance

Track 1 from Racism, Religion, and War (2000)
Track 2 from Playing to Live, Living to Play (2001)
Track 3 from No Good, No Time, No Pride (2002)
Tracks 4, 5, 6 from Hate To Be Loved (2004)
Tracks 7 - 11 from Keepsake of Luck (2007)
Tracks 12, 13 from In Love/Loveless (2008)
Tracks 14, 15 from Done With Love (2010)

14 Songs by Bob Forrest

The strangest aspect of Bob Forrest's career trajectory - from leader of the anarchic Thelonious Monster to semi-celeb counselor on Dr. Drew's rehab series - is just how perfect he's been in both roles. As a counselor he emanates empathy and a hard-won wisdom that has little tolerance for bullshit, while in his previous career as a band leader/songwriter he'd turned those same traits on himself, minus the empathy, which resulted in a sort of public self-flagellation for all his perceived failings as a human being. That probably contributed to a difficult existence for Mr. Forrest, but it made for some astounding music.

Thelonious Monster debuted in 1986 with the album Baby... You're Bumming Me Out In A Supreme Fashion on the then fledgling Epitaph label. Their following two albums, Next Saturday Afternoon and Stormy Weather, saw the band refining their sound, with Forrest's lyrics transcending mere cynicism by mining his own psyche with an unflinching, near-masochistic honesty. The band's major label debut in 1992, the aptly titled Beautiful Mess, was predictably a commercial disappointment. That was the height of the grunge era, and even if Forrest's sensibility wasn't far removed from Kurt Cobain's, the music certainly was - the album incorporated whimsical folk rock, Joan Armatrading covers, and a barroom lament featuring Tom Waits.

That was the end of Thelonious Monster... sort of. They reunited 12 years later and released the awesome California Clam Chowder album, consisting entirely of songs titled after bands that influenced the sound of each particular song (ie: "The Elton John Song", "The Joy Division Song", "The Beck Song" - there was even one called "The Thelonious Monster Song"). Naturally, that album didn't make a dent anywhere. I'm sure I'm probably on some F.B.I. watch list for buying it.

In between go-rounds with the Monster, Forrest formed the short-lived band The Bicycle Thief and put out the excellent You Come And Go Like A Pop Song (first released in 1999, but more widely re-released with different tracks in 2001). It's included on this blog's Best Of the 00's mix and is arguably the finest release of Forrest's career, featuring a selection of uniformly strong songs and (finally) a sympathetic production.

Since then, he put out a single solo album in 2006 called Modern Folk and Blues: Wednesday, which is mostly acoustic cover versions of unlikely songs, such as Guns 'n' Roses "Welcome to the Jungle" and Springsteen's "Born To Run". The few original songs are typically excellent. He also had a song featured on the I'm Not There soundtrack, and he continues to release music on his website (you'll find piles of Forrest solo stuff there as well as Thelonious Monster tracks).

And, lastly, I've got to add that Forrest's appearance on those Dr. Drew shows represents, to me, the triumph of the underdog. He has been an artist I've always followed, always respected and supported, and the fact that he can probably pay rent these days means we can score one more for the good guys.

This Is Not A Song For the Clear-Skinned Blondes

1. So What If I Did
2. Sammy Hagar Weekend
3. Anymore
4. I Live In A Nice House
5. Adios Lounge (w/ Tom Waits)
6. Bus With No Driver
7. Max, Jill Called
8. It's Rainin' (4 am)
9. Cereal Song
10. The Bob Dylan Song
11. The Rolling Stones '77 Song
12. The Curtis Mayfield Song
13. Memphis
14. I'm Going Republican

Tracks 1, 2 by Thelonious Monster from Stormy Weather (1989)
Track 3 by Thelonious Monster from Next Saturday Afternoon (1987)
Tracks 4, 5, 6 by Thelonious Monster from Beautiful Mess (1992)
Tracks 7, 8, 9 by The Bicycle Thief from You Come And Go Like A Pop Song (2001)
Tracks 10, 11, 12 by Thelonious Monster from California Clam Chowder (2004)
Tracks 13, 14 by Bob Forrest from Modern Folk And Blues: Wednesday (2006)

Slow: a Family Tree

For the uninitiated, Slow was one of the greatest, most chaotic bands to ever stalk the Earth. They're also quite possibly ground zero for what would later be known as grunge, but I'm sure the band themselves would sneer in disgust at such an accusation. But the fact is back in '85 there really was nothing else that sounded like them. This was punk rock, played with the genre's typical fuck you attitude, but Slow extended that fuck you to include punk itself by simultaneously embracing rock 'n' roll past while pushing the envelope into the future and the needle deep into the red. They only released a single and an EP in their short existence (oh, and a perverse Christmas tune on a Zulu flexi disc - check out my Xmas '09 mix if you're interested), but they tore shit up every step of the way.

As befitting a legend, 25 years later stories of the band are still told (usually complete with factual errors or exaggerations). The Vancouver Expo '86 debacle is the best known, but anyone who saw them probably has their own story to tell. The above picture, for example, comes from their show with the Cramps in the summer of '86. My girlfriend at the time brought a friend of hers along to the gig. The friend had never experienced anything like this. She turned up wearing an evening gown, and the most recent concert she'd attended was Kool & The Gang. We arrived at the show just as Slow hit the opening chord to "Looking for Something Clean", so loud I felt my hair blow back. The band was dressed in bloody nurses uniforms complete with surgical tubing (I'm not sure why, other than they encored with a cover of "Pills", aided by Buck Cherry of the Modernettes on guitar). Anyway, the friend never spoke another word after that first chord. Didn't speak after the show. Didn't speak in the car home. And when we dropped her at her place, she wordlessly opened the car door and sprinted to her apartment. We never saw or heard from her again. Such was the power of Slow.

When Slow inevitably exploded they splintered into a small handful of equally interesting bands. Singer Tom Anselmi and guitarist Christian Thorvaldson formed a unit they insisted only be known as ©, and they were signed to Geffen on the basis of a truly awesome demo tape that made the rounds locally (I've never owned a copy, so if anyone out there can hook me up I'd appreciate it - it's become my personal holy grail). © did everything they could to piss off Geffen, until Geffen responded with complete vitriol: they only pressed 7,000 copies of the album (produced by John Porter, who'd helmed albums by the Smiths and the La's) and buried © with the full muscle of a major corporation. That was 1991; it took six years before the band crawled out from under the legal battle, and by that time everything had changed. It's a tragic story, and not merely because the © album was easily one of the best of the decade, but also because I remember seeing them at the Penthouse Gentlemen's Club just before the album was released and they were BETTER than Slow had ever been. They really seemed ready to take over the planet. And for years after that, they'd play gigs with outstanding, immediately striking new material that ultimately never saw the light of day.

When they finally reappeared it was as Copyright, and the album Love Story was a huge disappointment. It felt over-baked, polished to the point of lifelessness, and lacked the invention and originality of the years of gigs that preceded it. There's no mystery about it either: the time Copyright needed to put out two albums was equal to the time the Beatles needed to go from Meet The Beatles to their break-up. An entire band's lifetime and development, in other words, was never recorded. Copyright took another kick at the can in 2001, but the less said about that album the better. Let me put it this way: © is undoubtedly one of the best albums in my collection, The Hidden World ranks among the worst.

Slow's other guitarist, Ziggy Sigmund, formed the Scramblers. They were almost as good as ©. I remember dragging friends to gigs in the early 90s with the promise that "it's like seeing the Stones in '63" (not that I saw the Stones in '63, but hey, sometimes you need a little bit of hyperbole on your side). Fronted by the ultra cool Howard Rix, the Scramblers seemed like they were about to blow up on an international scale - the timing seemed perfect for their style of raw punk mated with Guns 'n' Roses old skool rawk moves - but they made the mistake of signing with Bruce Allen's Penta label, who probably never quite understood why they didn't want to sound like Bryan Adams. Penta screwed the band royally, and they never released anything other than demo tapes while they were a going concern. It took until 2005 before they managed to put out a cobbled-together collection of tweaked demos and live cuts - the rest apparently lost forever or simply non-existent.

Of all the Slow splinter bands, the one that sounded closest to Slow was probably bassist Stephen Hamm's Tankhog. Oddly, that same fact rendered it the least interesting as well. Tankhog was a lumbering beast of a band that really made overt the connection between Slow and grunge - if Hamm's unit had been in Seattle instead of two hours north they may have found themselves with the same sort of reputation as Mudhoney. But instead they wailed in futility for a while, although their cover of the Partridge Family's "I Woke Up In Love This Morning" was a moment of perverse brilliance.

Hamm also put together Jungle, a band that blatantly went against the prevailing trends of the time by fully embracing '70s AM rock. Jungle looked like they might beat the odds, but on the eve of their record release party vocalist Mark Kleiner announced he was heading back home to Saskatchewan to dedicate himself to the church. Or something. He reappeared just over a year later heading the Mark Kleiner Power Trio. Regardless, Jungle was done.

Since then, Hamm has been around in a few bands, possibly most notably (if that's the right word) as one half of Canned Hamm. Christian Thorvaldson played with the Matthew Good Band. Ziggy Sigmund hung around with Econoline Crush for a while and more recently started his own band called Zigmund (can't wait to hear it!). Tom Anselmi has a project called Mirror that, as far as I know, further mines his interest in Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht.

A Broken Ladder

1. Slow I Broke The Circle
2. Slow Have Not Been The Same
3. Slow Looking For Something Clean
4. Slow Against The Glass
5. Tankhog I Woke Up In Love This Morning
6. © The Climb
7. © Dust
8. The Scramblers Ain't That The Truth
9. The Scramblers Outta Sight, Outta Mind
10. The Scramblers Solitary Man
11. Copyright The Flesh Is Weak
12. Copyright A Frame
13. Jungle It's So Fuck'n Great To Be Alive
14. Jungle Long Time No See
15. Copyright Into The Light

Track 1 from I Broke The Circle single (1985)
Tracks 2 - 4 from Against The Glass ep (1986)
Track 5 from Tankhog House of Beauty (1994)
Tracks 6, 7 from © (1991)
Tracks 8, 9 from The Scramblers Good Gone Bad (2005)
Track 10 from Last Call: Vancouver Independent Music 1977-1988 (1991)
Track 11 from Copyright Love Story (1997)
Track 12 unreleased
Track 13 from Jungle It's So Fuck'n Great To Be Alive ep (1997)
Track 14 from Jungle Long Time No See (1999)
Track 15 from Copyright The Hidden World (2001)

15 songs by Luke Doucet and Veal

One of Vancouver's best kept secrets, it's hard to do justice to Veal in any simple description. Terms like power-pop or post-punk are as inevitable as they are inaccurate, although a quirky, genial mix of the two is right on target. Starting with 1996's Hot Loser they managed to release three albums that obstinately followed their own slack muse through balladry, gloom, boogie, pop, and anything else that fell off the table the night before. At the heart of it all was leader Luke Doucet, who put a stake in the beast after 2003's Embattled Hearts and moved on to Toronto and a similarly quirky (though considerably less rockin') solo career.

Luke Doucet has never been for everybody, and thank god for that. His influences and ambitions range far too wide to be funneled into a previously existing mold. As a singer/songwriter he's among the best of the decade, but he's also a fairly spectacular guitarist (but not in that wanky deedly deedly geetar flash kind of way - Luke's more about melody and finding the emotional core of the song). For an example of exactly that, give "Cleveland" a listen at the end of this mix. The collection also offers a quick run-through of some old Veal highlights, something from each of his studio solo albums, as well as a taste of Doucet's new release Steel City Trawler, which is available right now on i-Tunes. Nab that thang, people.

Hot Loser

1. Monkeys
2. Skid
3. Centre of the Universe
4. Underground
5. Everybody Wants More Cocaine
6. Girlfriend
7. Judy Garland
8. Vanessa
9. Leroy
10. It's Not The Liquor I Miss
11. One Too Many
12. Vladivostok
13. The Commandante
14. Dirty, Dirty Blonde
15. Cleveland

Tracks 1, 14 from Steel City Trawler (2010)
Tracks 2, 3, 4 by Veal from Tilt O'Whirl (1999)
Tracks 5, 6, 7 by Veal from Embattled Hearts (2003)
Tracks 8, 9 from Aloha, Manitoba (2001)
Tracks 10, 11, 12 from Broken (And Other Rogue States) (2005)
Tracks 13, 15 from Blood's Too Rich (2008)

15 songs by Thin Lizzy

Okay, bear with me on this one. In fact, let me explain myself right off the top. I'm not a big Thin Lizzy fan - and I'm sure this mix will annoy the band's most ardent supporters - because a great deal of Lizzy traffics in the sort of riff-based butt rock that I've never appreciated. But - and this is a big but (not unlike your mother's BAM!) - there's another side to this band that largely gets ignored. And that side ties them dramatically to the exact same set of influences of soul/rhythm 'n' blues as the likes of Van Morrison and (early) Bruce Springsteen. In fact, leader Phil Lynott sounds most at ease when he's letting that freaky soul flag fly. This mix concentrates entirely on those moments. This is Thin Lizzy at their most mellow, most melodic, most soulful, and, don't say I didn't warn you, least rawkin'. I've included their admittedly overplayed hit "The Boys Are Back In Town" at the end of this thang, because playing it after the 14 songs that precede it allow that tune to be heard in a new context. Works for me, anyway.

Ode to a Black Man

1. Freedom Song
2. Wild One
3. Fighting My Way Back
4. Silver Dollar
5. For Those Who Love To Live
6. Running Back
7. Fight or Fall
8. Buffalo Gal
9. Chatting Today
10. Here I Go Again
11. She Knows
12. Cowboy Song
13. Southbound
14. Dancing In The Moonlight
15. The Boys Are Back In Town

Tracks 1 - 5 from Fighting (1975)
Tracks 6, 7, 12, 15 from Jailbreak (1976)
Tracks 8, 9 from Shades of a Blue Orphanage (1972)
Track 10 b-side of the "The Rocker" single (1973)
Track 11 from Night Life (1974)
Tracks 13, 14 from Bad Reputation (1977)

15 songs by the Yum Yums

It's almost impossible to describe this band in a way that accurately conveys their genius. The term "pop punk" doesn't do it - it's been marred by a couple decades of whining, tin-eared careerists - and to simply say they sound like the Ramones mated with the early Beach Boys gives short shrift to all three points in the equation. The Yum Yums come from a galaxy (Norway, actually) where nothing matters other than melody, momentum, and bright, fuzzy powerchords. It seems like an easy recipe, but it's only easy until you hear the 9,999,999 bands out of 10 million that fail at it. I can't explain it, but singer/songwriter Morten Henriksen and his fellow Yum Yums just get it. To me, this is the sound of pure, unbridled joy. I can barely imagine a summer without them. Not a good summer, anyway. This is a 15 song sampler from a number of their releases. Take 'em for a test drive and see if you can resist. "It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum!"

15 Songs by the Yum Yums

1. I Wanna Be The One
2. It's Gonna Be A Hit
3. Let's Rock and Roll
4. Come On Come On
5. Twenty Four Seven
6. Shake Some Action (Flamin' Groovies cover)
7. Rock and Roll Tonight
8. Here Comes Summer
9. Forever
10. Miss You Baby
11. Out of Luck (Pointed Sticks cover)
12. Be With Me
13. Chewy Chewy (Ohio Express cover)
14. Too Good To Be True
15. 9,999,999 Tears

tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 14 from Whatever Rhymes With Baby (2008)
tracks 2, 4, 8, 9 from Blame It On The Boogie (2002)
tracks 10, 11, 12, from Sweet As Candy (1997)
track 6 from Come On Come On single (2002)
track 13 from Singles 'n' Stuff (2001)
track 15 from Funzone ep (2001)

12 Songs by Link Wray

How bad-ass was Link Wray? His song "Rumble" was banned from radio play in the 50s for inciting teen violence - and it was an instrumental! That particular piece of rock history was also honorably footnoted for inventing the power chord and inspiring Pete Townshend to pick up his first guitar. A run of ripping instros followed "Rumble", and although most people associate Link Wray with that era, the man's most enduring work may have been waxed in the '70s. On a series of (mostly ignored) albums in that decade, Link pursued a much deeper, more personal sound, influenced equally by Dylan, the Stones, and a wealth of American blues, folk, and country. Link's guitar playing could still be as aggressive as ever, but he could also tap into new layers of subtlety. Most surprising of all, the one-time instrumentalist had found a soulful vocal style that sure as hell didn't sound like it was emanating from a man with only one lung. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that bit about only having one lung. Bad. Ass. Anyway, this is a compilation of tracks from a few of those '70s albums, ending with his downright spectacular cover of Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" from 1979's Bullshot.

12 Songs by Link Wray

1. Backwoods Preacher Man
2. La De Da
3. Southern Lady
4. Black River Swamp
5. Take Me Home Jesus
6. Crowbar
7. Juke Box Mama
8. Fallin' Rain
9. God Out West
10. Fire and Brimstone
11. It Was A Bad Scene
12. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

track #1 and 11 from The Link Wray Rumble (1974)
track #2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 from Link Wray (1971)
track #3 from Stuck In Gear (1975)
track #12 from Bullshot (1979)

13 Songs by Artful Dodger

Ever since the Beatles stopped performing live, it's usually been a mark of commercial doom for a band to get tagged as "power pop", and there's no better example than Artful Dodger. Like a perfect cross between the Raspberries and the Faces, this was the ultimate coulda-shoulda-woulda band. Passionate, energetic, unafraid to rock, and armed with a songwriting team (vocalist Billy Paliselli and guitarist Gary Herewig) that tossed off classic singles almost effortlessly, Artful Dodger dropped their self-titled debut in 1975. It boasted concise, hook-filled gems like "Think Think" and "Wayside", but that was the year that Frampton Comes Alive sold a bajillion copies, so let's chalk that one up to bad timing.

In '76 they followed up with the even stronger Honor Among Thieves (with songs by Gary Cox rivalling the Paliselli/Herewig axis). The band was certainly gaining a cult audience, but nothing big enough to impress the bean counters at the label. Possibly due to the exhaustion of touring, possibly due to desperation for sales (probably both), Artful Dodger's next move was disastrous. Coming out in 1977, at the height of the punk explosion, Babes On Broadway was exactly the wrong album at the wrong time. The mix was mainstream and dull, the band sounded tired, and, worst of all, the songs just weren't up to the gold standard this band had set for itself.

It looked like a tragic end - and it would have been - except that 3 years later, in 1980, they returned for one last stand. Against all odds and all reason, they created the album of their lives: the self-produced Rave On was by far their best work. It burned with an energy and desperation, like the band knew it was a final shot. The song "Forever" could be read on one level as a love song, but it's clear its real meaning is much more a statement of purpose - put simply, the band meant everything to these guys, and you can hear it in every note of Rave On. Unfortunately, even the flawless single "A Girl (La La La)" couldn't find a toe-hold in the trendoid new wave/disco days of 1980, and the life of one of my fave bands came to a close (but at least they did it in heroic fashion).

This collection is compiled chronologically. Three songs each from their first two albums, two songs from Babes on Broadway, and four from Rave On. The tracks from the latter are upped from a vinyl source, as I don't think it's ever been released on CD (and if it has, please do the band a favor and buy it - you won't be disappointed). As an added bonus, I've started the mix with an early version of "Long Time Away" from back when the band still called themselves Brat.

Artful Dodger

1. Long Time Away (Brat)
2. Wayside
3. Follow Me
4. Think Think
5. Honor Among Thieves
6. Remember
7. Dandelion
8. Can't Stop Pretending
9. Mistake
10. She's Just My Baby
11. Now Or Nevermind
12. Forever
13. A Girl (La La La)

#1 from Yellow Pills: Prefill - A Power Pop Prescription
#2 - 4 from Artful Dodger (1975)
#5 - 7 from Honor Among Thieves (1976)
#8, 9 from Babes On Broadway (1977)
#10 - 13 from Rave On (1980)

20 songs by the Diamond Dogs

There's just no getting around it, the Diamond Dogs sound like they should have emerged out of the 70s. But hey, at least they cherry-picked the greatest parts of that maligned decade. This band takes the sloppy, booze-fueled, wounded soul of the Faces and pairs it with their own healthy obsession with the Stones of Exile On Main Street. Punked-up Chuck Berry riffs, raspy vocals, honking sax, gospel-style back-up singers, and lyrics straight out of an ESL rhyming dictionary - they're all piled on top of each other in the true spirit of '70s excess. The result is the kind of good time rock 'n' roll that sounds like it should have always existed (even though it really didn't until these guys came along). It's a stroke of minor genius, a testament to the transcendental power of 3 chords and a bad attitude, and exactly the sound any worthwhile weekend needs. This mix is compiled chronologically, and it includes a few songs from two of lead vocalist Sulo's solo albums.

20 songs by the Diamond Dogs

1. Lovestoned Again
2. Honked!
3. Black As Sin
4. Bite Off
5. Every Little Crack
6. Passing Through My Heart
7. From Now On
8. I'll Drink To Ya
9. Lift It Up
10. Gotta Be Gone (It's Alright)
11. Scunthorpe Avenue
12. Yours Sincerely
13. You've Got A Song To Sing
14. Generation Upstart
15. Down In The Alley Again
16. I Love You Baby, Sing Me A Song
17. Soul Folks
18. Make It All Up To You
19. Cold Blue Summer
20. Chimes Of Love

#1 - 3 from Honked! (1994)
#4 from Among The Non Believers ep (2000)
#5 from Too Much Is Always Better Than Not Enough (2002)
#6 from Shortplayer ep (2002)
#7,8 from That's The Juice I'm On compilation (2003)
#9,10 from Black River Road (2004)
#11 from Atlantic Crossover split with Jeff Dahl (2004)
#12,13 from Sulo's Just Another Guy Tryin' (2005)
#14,15 from Up The Rock (2006)
#16, 17 from Sulo's Hear Me Out (2008)
#18 - 20 from It's Most Likely (2008)

Spoon - B-Sides and Rarities

For my money, one of the best bands of the past decade. Deceptively simple, incredibly melodic, hook-filled, groove-based, and cool as fuck. Their detractors sniff that they're just straightforward rock. They're wrong. And they're right. And they're missing the point entirely. There's something much deeper going on than just catchy songs - and, anyway, when did catchy songs become a point of embarrassment?

This compilation collects 22 non-album cuts. It's not comprehensive; there's plenty of odds 'n' ends left off. But all of it is high sound quality and, at the very least, filled with interesting additions to the Spoon catalogue.

Spoon - B-Sides & Rarities

1. Got Nuffin
2. Revenge!
3. Stroke Their Brains
4. My First Time, Vol. 3 (Light Version)
5. Carryout Kids
6. Well-Alright
7. Monkey Feelings
8. It Took A Rumor To Make Me Wonder, Now I'm Convinced I'm Going Under
9. I Turn My Camera On (John McEntire remix)
10. Sunday Morning, Wednesday Night
11. I Could Be Underground
12. The Underdog (demo)
13. Deep Clean
14. Bring It On Home To Me
15. The Book I Write
16. Shake It Off
17. Irrigation Man
18. If You Say So
19. You Get Yours
20. Let The Distance Keep Us Together
21. Is This The Last Time
22. In The Right Place, The Right Time

#1,3 - from Got Nuffin single
#2, 11 - from 30 Gallon Tank +3 ep
#4 - from My First Time, Vol. 3 ep
#5 - from Gimme Fiction bonus disc
#6 - from Dark Was The Night compilation
#7, 8 - from Sister Jack UK single
#9,10 - from Sister Jack US single
#12 - from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga bonus 7"
#13 - I-Tunes exclusive
#14 - Sam Cooke cover, from B-Sides And Demos
#15 - from Stranger Than Fiction OST
#16 - from Anything You Want single
#17, 18 - from If You Say So Motherfucker compilation
#19, 20 - from Home, Vol. 4 ep
#21,22 - from Stay Don't Go single

20 Songs by Rancid

Put away all of the preconceptions that band name might suggest (well, maybe not all of them) and give a listen with unprejudiced ears. This mix isn't meant to reaffirm the band's punk cred, it's aimed at demonstrating their amazing range - Rancid incorporate elements from punk, reggae, dub, ska, Stax R&B, rockabilly, good ol' 50s rock and roll, stolid Americana, and hardcore, and mix it all into breathtakingly perfect 3 minute (and under) pop drama. They can beat the clock with a full throttle blast like "Maxwell Murder" (which comes and goes in a mere 1:26 and still somehow manages to work in an incredible Matt Freeman bass solo), they can slow it down to the lazy summer skank of "Things to Come" and the drunken roots ballad "Civilian Ways", or they can simply pile hooks on top of hooks while they rock the rafters in honest-to-god anthems like "Roots Radicals" and "Start Now". I didn't want to be a fan at first - I'm just old enough that the punk/reggae moves and Tim Armstrong's slurred rasp made me want to jump automatically to comparisons to the Clash - but these guys forced my fandom by just being plain awesome and gave my punk snobbery the swirly it deserved. And those Clash comparisons? Man, turns out they totally work in Rancid's favor. Don't believe me? Give a listen.

RANCID

1. Maxwell Murder
2. Roots Radicals
3. Time Bomb
4. Olympia, WA
5. Bloodclot
6. Hooligans
7. Backslide
8. Radio Havana
9. Rwanda
10. Antennas
11. Axiom
12. Red Hot Moon
13. Start Now
14. Fall Back Down
15. Tropical London
16. Things To Come
17. Last One To Die
18. Dominoes Fall
19. Liberty and Freedom
20. Civilian Ways

#1 - 4 from "And Out Come The Wolves" (1995)
#5 - 7 from "Life Won't Wait" (1998)
#8 - 11 from "Rancid" (2000)
#12 - 15 from "Indestructible" (2003)
#16 from "B-sides and C-sides" (2008)
#17 - 20 from "Let The Dominoes Fall (2009)

Nothing on the mix from their first two albums ("Rancid", 1993 and "Let's Go", 1994) because the volume levels are so much lower than the later albums. So apologies to anyone who wanted "Salvation" on here.

Dom Mariani mix

Dom Mariani must be one of the most unjustly ignored rockers of the past two decades. He's been the main songwriter/singer/guitarist for (by my count) six different bands in that time, three of which are responsible for absolute classic albums (the Stems' debut "At First Light... Violets Are Blue", the Someloves' only full-length "Something Or Other", and the DM3's "Road To Rome"). Of course, none of those albums have made the tiniest ripple in North American charts, so I can only hope Mariani sells truckloads in his native Australia. After all, there's gotta be some kind of justice in this world, doesn't there?

This is a self-made mix from a number of Mariani's bands and albums. One thing that's immediately impressive throughout is Mariani's consistency. Whether in the context of the garage/psyche revivalism of the Stems, or the sweet pop of the Someloves, or the more muscular power pop of the DM3, his emphasis is always on indelible hooks. It's almost hard to believe that someone so good can be ignored for so long. If you're a fan of Big Star, Badfinger, the Hoodoo Gurus - or any ultra-melodic power pop/punk band of the last twenty years - then this collection is guaranteed to amaze you.

Dom Mariani

1. 1 Time 2 Times Devastated
2. Dead Star
3. Second Floor
4. Just Like Nancy
5. I Thought That You Were Foolin'
6. Soultop
7. Something Heavy
8. Show You
9. Far From Here
10. Homespun Blues
11. Quicksand
12. Rock 'n' Roll Boys (Rock 'n' Roll Girls)
13. At First Sight
14. Sunshine's Glove
15. Don't Talk About Us
16 TV Sound
17. Snapshot
18. When It Ends (acoustic version)
19. Cold Cup
20. The Golden Ones (DJ Moogy remix)

#1, 9 from DM3 1 Time 2 Times 3 Red Light (1994)
#2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 16 from DM3 Road to Rome (1996)
#4 from DM3 Garage Sale Vol. 2 (Italian Style) (2003)
#10, 19 from Dom Mariani Homespun Blues and Greens (2004)
#11 from DM3 Rippled Soul (1998)
#12 from the Stoneage Hearts Guilty As Sin (2004)
#13 from the Stems At First Sight, Violets Are Blue (1987)
#14 from the Someloves Something Or Other (1990)
#15 from the Someloves It's My Time (1986)
#17, 18, 20 from Dom Mariani Shell Collection (2006)