Dad's Car Radio

The Top 897 Albums of All Time

One of our local radio stations WTMD 89.7FM in Towson Maryland recently did a countdown of the top 897 albums of all time (89.7FM = Top 897 - Get it! radio people... ) anyway as a lover of lists in a list loving land I was enthralled.

The station solicited votes from listeners - we were encourage to send our top 10 albums of all time and the staffers, along with the help of a Cray XT-4 supercomputer would compile the list and Play it for us during the entire month of February.

It was a great month of radio and interesting to hear the diversity of recordings included in th list. Everything from Ella Fitzgerald to Public Enemy made the list. Here's the Top 25.

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1. The Beatles - St. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

2. The Beatles The Beatles (aka The White Album)

3. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

4. The Beatles - Abbey Road

5. The Clash- London Calling

6. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run

7. U2 - The Joshua Tree

8. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks

9. The Who - Who's Next

10. The Beatles- Revolver

11. Led Zeppelin- Led Zeppelin IV

12. Radiohead - OK Computer

13. Paul Simon- Graceland

14. Rolling Stones- Exile On Main Street

15. Grateful Dead- American Beauty

16. Beatles- Rubber Soul

17. Neil Young- Harvest

18. Bob Dylan- Highway 61 Revisited

19. Nirvana- Nevermind

20. Counting Crows - August and Everything After

21. Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue

22. Fleetwood Mac - Rumors

23. Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced?

24. Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed

25. Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers None from the 21st Century. 3 from the 1990's 2 From the 80's 12 from the 70's 7 from the 60's and 1 - Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" from the 1950's, Which, by the way, is one of the most played around my house over the past 20 years. The first 21st Century release shows up at #33 Wilco - "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot".  An album the Warner Music paid for TWICE. It's a great story. The top ranking Female artist album was at #36 "Blue" By Joni Mitchell. Now, I LOVE Joni, but I can hardly listen to those early records anymore. The air is thin up around those notes - it makes me dizzy.  Personally, I would have "Court and Spark" - #99 - ranked highest among Joni albums followed by "Heijira" and Maybe even "Hissing of Summer Lawns"  before I got to "Blue" Speaking of Women. Carole King's "Tapestry" a core element of every teen-aged girl's record collection in the 1970's  ruled the charts for months.  It show up here at number 46.  This is where this list starts to smell fishy and the gloves come off.  I'll start - Tapestry a greater album than "Tommy",  "Axis Bold as Love"  "Songs in the Key of Life" or "Hotel California"  I don't THINK So! That's the fun part, debating favorites and defending personal tastes.  Music is so personal, so powerful and so polarizing. Damn, I love it.  Apparently so does my neighbor, Guy. He runs a consulting firm and is a big music fan too. Guy, however, is much more analytical than I and he took a far more complete and detailed look at this list. Check it out HERE. It's quite impressive and insightful. ...and when you've had enough insight. Come back here for more argument!  Whaddda ya mean Devo "Freedom of Choice" is at # 876?? That is easily a Top 800 record!

Ursula 1000 Guest DJ

Hey Check this out -  Courtesy of imeem.com, I have a special Guest DJ today - It's Ursula 1000 from ESL Music. Dig the groovy sounds kids!

Virgin Mobile Festival 2008 Full Lineup Announced

The Full lineup for the 2 Day Virgin Mobile Music Festival at Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore MD was announced today.  Full details on the event at their site.

Saturday - Previously announced headliners are Jack Johnson and Foo Fighters. My favorites among the new additions are:

WILCO - I have missed this band too many times. The Recher, the 9:30 Club,  The Meyerhoff, Merriweather, no excuses this time. Woo-Hoo!

Gogol Bordello - The Gypsy Punks were on my wish list for last year - very excited to see this spectacle.

She and Him - The duo of M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel just released their first album. He is a virtuoso guitarist and you may know Zooey from the films Elf and Almost Famous among others. You can hear some of their bright and breezy music a their My Space page Some knucklehead put an auto starting video in the comments so stop that first or you'll be really confused. 

Cat Power -  Now that she has both sobered up and conquered her severe stage fright Chan Marshall AKA Cat Power is doing great shows. 

The Offspring! Are you ready to MOSH? Here's your chance.  A Tremendous live act, I will watch from a safe distance, I hurt my back, you see and the doc says no more Moshing for me.

Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings - The band that backed Amy Winehouse on Back to Black, this should be nice to groove and sway to...

Get this kids - CHUCK BERRY and the Silver Beats  Yes, it's true - Chuck Berry a founding father of Rock and Roll is not only alive, but is playing at V-Fest. Wow.

Rodrigo y Gabriela - A brilliant guitar duo - He plays fast and linear with a pick and she plays flamenco style - born in Mexico and now based in Dublin, they will astound you.

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!

Previously announced Headliners, Nine Inch Nails, Kanye West and the Re-united Stone Temple Pilots, PLUS:

Bob Dylan! - How does it Feeeeel? Pretty damn good, Bob. Thanks for asking.

Iggy and the Stooges! - The legendary Iggy Pop and the reunited Stooges were the talk of the festival circuit last summer. Psyched!

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Stomp Your feet and Clap your hands as BRMC kicks out the jams.

The Black Keys - Dynamic innovative intriguing and inspired.

Lil Wayne - Uh, he raps, I'm guessing.

Taking Back Sunday - This one's for the kids.

Citizen Cope - Local Boy makes good (Music)

The Swell Season - Duo Du Jour, as seen in the film Once.

The Go Team - OK you stumped me. They are probably great.

PLUS each Day the Dance Tent features world class DJ's including MOBY doing a set on Sunday.

Thank you again, Sir Richard Branson.

Now, Check out the Stooges Live at SXSW 2007.

Mix Tapes and MuxTape.com

Everyone loves a great mix tape. Creating a Mix Tape used to be a full evening's project. A stack of LP's or CD's a fresh cassette tape, a couple of beers and time - at least 2 hours for a 90 minute mix - often longer.  Timing the start button and needle drop to make a tight mix sometime required multiuple attempts. If you later had regrets about putting Talking Heads before The Cure instead of vice-versa, tough. These were errors one learned to live with, starting over was a just to great an undertaking. 

Now, making a Mix CD is an easy drag and drop process. You can shuffle the songs around, think about it, add and drop, tweak it and burn it.  Get a better idea tomorrow and it takes just minutes to drop a track, add a track and burn again.  It's wonderful.

The Joy of Mix has evolved yet again with Muxtape.com. Here you upload 12 songs, sequence them to perfection and invite your friends to listen. Your mix will also reach the ears of random listeners, some of whom will be amazed by your talent for putting together a perfect mix.  Browsing and listening to the mixes of others is a lot of fun. Check it out at Muxtape.com You can go directly to my latest Muxtape by clicking HERE Then let me know and I'll make sure to listen to your labor of love. Mux On!

Virgin Mobile Festival 2008 Lineup

Here we go - The first announcement for this year's Virgin Mobile Festival at Pimlico Race Track, Baltimore, Maryland on August 9th and 10th.  With many more to be announced soon - So far we will be rocking with... Drum roll Please.......

Foo Fighters

Nine Inch Nails

Jack Johnson - I hope he brings Curious George along!

Kanye West 

The suddenly reformed and touring Stone Temple Pilots - Scott Weiland was in Velvet Revolver last week... They say fired but with the STP revival, looks like it was in the works for a while. Doesn't he look like a cross between Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury in this Picture?

There is also a more, so far unconfirmed, that Charlie the Unicorn will make an appearance!

Have You Been Rick Rolled?

There is an interesting fast moving prank on the web these days called Rick Rolling. Perhaps you have heard of it. Perhaps not. It goes like this a friend sends you a message with a link that - "OMG! You have to see this!"  kind of message and the link goes HERE SO ahead click it - I'll wait...

You have now been Rick Rolled - taken against your will to a Rick Astley video from the mid 80's.  Apparently the kids think this is hilarious and on April Fools Day there was much Rick Rolling going on worldwide.

Now, whenever I hear the name Rick Astley I am reminded of Nick Lowe's song "All Men are Liars" Which features these lyrics:

Do You remember Rick Astley?

He had a big fat hit it was ghastly.

He said I'm never gonna give you up or let you down,

Well I'm here to tell you that Dick's a clown.

Though he was just a boy when he made that vow,

I'll bet it all that he knows by now...

All Men, all men are Liars..."

The video is pretty amusing - And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Nick Lowe!

You can get revenge and NICK-Roll the next person who Rick Rolls you by pointing then to This Page

Favorite Albums and Songs of 2007

New Rule: Just like IRA contributions you have until April 15th to post last year's "best of" lists.

Here is some of my favorite music from 2007.

Robert Plant Alison Krauss - Raising Sand - A great surprise and a true joy. "Please Read the Letter" was one of the finest vocal performances of the year.

Radiohead - In Rainbows - A brilliant return to form. It still isn't O.K. Computer but a heck of a lot closer than the last couple attempts.

Wilco - Sky Blue Sky - Jeff Tweedy rehabs and is happy to be alive., We're happy to hear that.

Bruce Springsteen - Magic - Two classics "Radio Nowhere" and "Girls in Their Summer Clothes"

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible - My affection for this CD rises and falls. When I love it - I REALLY love it.

The National - Boxer - Haunting brooding moody  glorious.

The Shins - Wincing the Night Away - Pain with high harmonies - what a glorious combination.

Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's Dog  Backed by Calexico this is almost trance inducing. In a good way.

Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - This band continues to grow and evolve.  Several brilliant tracks on this one.

LCD Sound-system - Sounds of Silver WOW! Unlike anything else ever. "North American Sum" is just the beginning.

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black Pray for her. This talent can not be squandered away. I hope.

Favorite Single or track

John Doe with Kathleen Edwards - "The Golden State" If it were not for Plant and Krauss THIS would have been duet of the year. Great song.

Runner Up - Band of Horses - "Is There a Ghost"

Favorite Personal Discovery - Manu Chao - It appears that the rest of the world already knew, but most of the US still doesn't. This guy is fantastic.