The Dirtbombs do their bubblegum album

There was a week once, when I was running features at Splendid, when I interviewed Mick Collins from the Dirtbombs on one day and Ian MacKaye from Fugazi (actually we were talking about the Evens) on another, maybe the highlight of my life, music features-wise. One of the things that Collins told me was that the next thing he wanted to do was a bubblegum album. After that, he said, the Dirtbombs would be done most likely. That was about ten years ago, so obviously he may have changed his mind. But in any case, he has finally made good on his threat to explore the lighter side of 1960s psych rock, with Ooey Gooey Chewey Ka-blouey, out yesterday on In the Red. Sounds pretty great to me. What do you think?

My year-end is up

Read all about it here. By the way, there's a button you can press to listen to music from my list while you're reading. It obviously doesn't work on dial-up (what does?) but if anyone wants to try it and tell me what it's like, that'd be cool.

Or, skip the words, and just check out the list:
1. Skull Defekts, Peer Amid (Thrill Jockey)
2. Psychic Paramount, II (Important)
3. David Kilgour, Left by Soft (Merge)
4. King Creosote and Jon Hopkins, Diamond Mine (Domino)
5. Dirtbombs, Party Store (In the Red)
6. Gem Club, Breakers (Hardly Art)
7. Mogwai, Hard Core Will Never Die But You Will (Sub Pop)
8. Sidi Toure, Sahel Folk (Thrill Jockey)
9. UV Race, Homo (In the Red)
10. Bonnie Prince Billy, Wolfroy Comes to Town (Drag City)
11. Veronica Falls, Veronica Falls (Slumberland)
12. Bats, Free All the Monsters (Flying Nun)
13. Sole and the Skyrider Band, Hello Cruel World (Fake Four)
14. Demdike Stare, Tryptych (Modern Love)
15. Get Help, The Good Green Earth (Midriff)
16. Arrica Rose and the Dot, Dot Dots, Let Alone Sea (PopRock)
17. Sam Phillips, Solid State (Littlebox)
18. Emperor X, Western Transport (Bar/None)
19. Ty Segall, Goodbye Bread (Drag City)
20. Bad Sports, Kings of the Weekend (Dirtnap)

Dirtbombs

Picked up Party Store over the weekend and it's a good one. I had been a bit leery of it because I knew it was all DEtroit techno covers, but damn, there's something about the way the Dirtbombs (rough, warm, dirty) play this kind of material (cool, stylized, precise) that makes it extra fun. And, you know, who doesn't want to hear Mick Collins try on a German accent ("Sharevari")?

Clearly, though, the best track is "Good Life"


And here's the original, by the Inner City

My year-end essay is up...

Check it out here

Year-end mix

Here are some songs from my favorite albums of this past year...as usually, I've screwed it up, at least slightly. I forgot to put any Man Man on, and also Roy Harper, both highlights...oh well.


It's in two parts, here's the first

The second is somewhat weirder and less homogenous, if that's even possible.


Tracks
Big Dipper "Faith Healer"
Alejandro Escovedo "Golden Bear"
Ian Matthews "Desert Inn"
Thalia Zedek Band "Green and Blue"
Wovenhand "Not One Stone"
Gutter Twins, "Idle Hands"
The Dirtbombs, "Leopardman at C&A"
Human Bell "Ephaphatha (Be Opened)
Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron "You Swan Go On"
Karen Dalton "Katie Cruel"
Experimental Aircraft "With a Gun"
Jay Reatard "Flourescent Grey"
Giant Sand "The Desperate Kingdom of Love"
Bon Iver "Skinny Love"
Lights "At Midnight"
Kelley Stoltz "I Nearly Lost My Mind"
Steve Wynn "Wait Until You Get To Know Me"
Calexico "El Gatillo"
Boston Spaceships "Still in Rome"

Part 2
King Khan and the Shrines "No Regrets"
The Starlite Desperation "I Lost My Bees"
Fabulous Diamonds "Untitled" (They're all untitled, this one is track 4)
Mahjonggh "Tell the Police the Truth"
The War on Drugs "Taking the Farm"
Pontiak "Dome Under the Sky"
Retribution Gospel Choir "Destroyer"
Stars Like Fleas "I Was Only Dancing"
The Accidentals "I Can Hear Your Voice"
Michael Chapman, "A Stranger's Map of Texas/The Twisted Road"

They'll be up for seven days...I might re-up the whole thing when my year-end essay runs. But first I have to write it.