Beth Orton – Comfort of Strangers (+bonus disc) : missing a critical *something*
Calexico – Garden Ruin : less desert, more pop/rock
Flaming Lips – At War With The Mystics : moments of brilliance, others dull
Craham Coxon – Love Travels at Illegal Speeds : enjoyably bland
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan – Battle of the Broken Seas : nice duo album
Kelley Stoltz – Below the Branches : not for me, but some great hooks
Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood : fabulously textured and rich
Nelly McKay – Pretty Little Head : good, but a bit thin
Nightmares on Wax – In a Space Outta Sound : perfect in the right *ahem* mindset
Th’ Legendary Shack*Shakers – Pandelirium : shticky
The Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not : propulsive and angular
Adam Green – Jacket Full of Danger : fair, but not compelling
Film School – Film School : **flashback** good mid-80’s album
Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins – Rabbit Fur Coat : the upbeat is nice, the mellower yer basic dull
Josh Rouse – Subtitulo : excellent sun-shiny pop
Tosca – Souvenirs : classic Tosca, easy-to-groove down-tempo
Belle & Sebastian – The Life Pursuit : decent, but fairly ho-hum
Cat Power – The Greatest : home-run. damn great
Ladies – They Mean Us : very interesting; prog-pop?
The Minus 5 – The Gun Album : awesome, diverse pop-rock
TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain : weird and difficult, but some greatness
Two Gallants – What the Toll Tells : raw, simple, powerful- a classic
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones : less edginess, to great effect
Destroyer – Rubies : wonderful to listen to
The Elected – Sun, Sun, Sun (+bonus) : uneven, but great fun to listen to
Mudhoney – Under A Billion Suns (+bonus) : they keep bringin’ it
Robert Pollard – From A Compound Eye : short, punchy, brilliant
The Soda Pop Kids – Write Home : great modern pop-punk
Tapes n’ Tapes – The Loop : nothing mindblowing, but nice
The Tyde – Three’s Co. : excellent Cali-pop, as expected
Be Your Own Pet – Be Your Own Pet : interesting, solid punk
US Bombs – We Are the Problem : 15 versions of the same song?
The Vines – Vision Valley : 50% decent, 50% god-awful
Built To Spill – You in Reverse : great guitar-rock album
KT Tunstall – Eye to the Telescope : at times compelling, but hollow as hell
Loose Fur – Born Again in the USA : some interesting folk-rock pieces
Mates of State – Bring It Back : mellow and textured, fun to listen to
Ms. John Soda – Notes and the Like : interesting laptop-pop
Rainer Maria – Catastrophe Kees Us Together : a big ol’ bore
Snow Patrol – Eyes Open : bah
The Living End – State of Emergency : fun pop-punk
Stardeath and White Dwarfs – Stardeath and White Dwarfs : freaky, but not compelling
Asobi Seksu – Citrus : drenched in feedback and reverb
Deadboy & the Elephantmen – We Are Night Sky : fantastic in it’s freaky swampiness
Gotan Project – Lunatico : swanky and sexy
The Grates – Gravity Won’t Get You High : peppy, poppy, interesting and fun
Live – Black Mountain : surprisingly excellent, if overwrought
The Radio Dept. – Pet Grief
The Little Killers – A Real Good One : a raw and raucous bar boogie blast
Pearl Jam – Pearl Jam : sounds like Pearl Jam
Phoenix – It’s Never Been Like That : great modern pop album!
Prince – 3121 : mildly funky, minimally interesting
Radio 4 – Enemies Like This : decent dancey-rock
The Riverboat Gamblers – To the Confusion of My Enemies : decent punk-rawk
Sonic Youth – Rather Ripped : nothing new or special here, move along
The Terrible Twos – If You Ever See An OwlÖ : cute
Boris – Pink : super-heavy stoner-drone rawk
The Divine Comedy – Victory For the Comic Muse : nice symphonic brit-pop
The Fleeting Joys – Despondent Transponder : not bad, but why not just listen to MBV?
Howie Gelb – Sno Angel Like You : fantastic mix of desert-shuffle and gospel-revival
Islands – Return to the Sea : fantastically goofy and fun
The Delays – You See Colours : horrible
Neil Young – Living With War : eh, whatever…
Idle Sons – Sixteen Seasons : uneventful AND uneven
Boyracer – A Punch Up The Bracket : very confusing …
As Fast As – Open Letter to the Damned : nice mellow rock album, if a bit hollow
The Raconteurs – Broken Boy Soldiers : fine, simple, rock album
Jon Langford – Gold Brick : definitively unoffensive
Secret Machines – Ten Silver Drops : fairly excellent arena-psychedelia
Jack Johnson – Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies For the Film Curious George : new album, same song
Soledad Brothers – The Hardest Walk : with a broke-down, dirty-swamp swagger
Twilight Singers – Powder Burns : this is the rock
Bellrays – Have a Little Faith : awesome punk-soul with a great singer
Buckcherry – 15 : bleck
Danielson – Ships : wonderfully freaky pop, under a cloud of folk
Low Skies – All the Love I Could Find : music to die to
Matthew Sweet & Suzanna Hoffs – Under the Covers : fair covers of great songs
Angels and Airwaves – We Don’t Need To Whisper : interesting, but trying way too hard
Eagles of Death Metal – Death By Sexy : fun rolicking groovy hipster-ness
The Futureheads – News & Tributes : fun and interesting, very uneven
Giant Drag – Hearts and Unicorns : fun combo of shoegaze and attitude
Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere : decent faux-authentic pop-soul
King Biscuit Time – Black Gold : awesome eclectic soundscapes
The Stills – Without Feathers : a few glittering gems here
The Walkmen – A Hundred Miles Off : very well put together and executed
Yo La Tengo – Yo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics : junk fun
Black Heart Procession – The Spell : layered, complex bleakness
The Aggrolites – The Aggrolites : 60’s style reggae, updated
The Bobbyteens – Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’ : gritty chick garage/doo-wop
The Booby Traps – The Booby Traps : crunchy, soulful bar boogies
Camera Obscura – Let’s Get Out Of This Country : good high-points, but too uneven
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint – The River in Reverse : sorta sounds like Elvis Costello
Hot Chip – The Warning : very repetitive electro-disco
Jhelisa – A Primitive Guide to Being There : ho-hum neo-soul
Keane – Under the Iron Sea : the least-manly release in years
Marked Men – Fix My Brain : nice, quick pop-punk (running time 28 mins)
Mind Controls – Mind Controls : fun fuzzy punk
Neurotic Swingers – Sexy and Mysterious : very fun .fr rock-n-roll
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium : eh – I miss the real RHCP
Sioux City Pete & the Beggars – Necro Blues : good roots-blues, but tooooo dark
SSM – SSM : very cool organ-based garage ‘supergroup’
The Witnesses – Black Eyes and White Lies : nice garage ethic workin’
Duels – The Bright Lights and What I Should Have : eh. interesting moments
The Feeling – Twelve Stops and Home : agonizingly horrid
Josh Ritter – The Animal Years : decent, easy Americana
Lovely Feathers – Hind Hind Legs : wacky but totally incoherent
Portastatic – Who Loves the Sun (soundtrack) : excellently instrumental
Scotch Rocks – Scotch Rocks : solid middle of the road jangle rock
Tom Verlaine – Around : nice mellow atmospheric guitar
Vetiver – To Find Me Gone : quite-nice dose of country-psych-folk
The Adored – A New Language : milquetoast punk
The Album Leaf – Into The Blue Again : very lush and warm atmospherics
Andre Williams with Diplomats of Solid Sound – Aphrodesiac : funky and raw, with a touch of raunchy
Boards of Canada – Trans Canada Highway : basic(ally boring)
Eef Barzelay – Bitter Honey : interesting and wry
Johnny Cash – American V: A Hundred Highways : oh man, is this poignant
The Little Willies – The Little Willies : norah jones makes me homicidal
The Milky Ways – The Milky Ways : fair attempt at lo-fi garage rock
Nelly Furtado – Loose : holy crap is popular music bad…
Peaches – Impeach My Bush : punky, punchy, politicized
Persephone’s Bees – Notes From the Underworld : psych-pop that’s crunchy AND sweet
Screamin’ Eric – Shake It! : kick-azz garage-punk-blues
Juana Molina – Son : fine and dandy
Thom Yorke – Eraser : amateur hour
ESG – Keep On Moving : fuckthisshit
Gasoline Heart – You Know Who You Are : 12 decent songs – that sound exactly the same
Halleluja Chicken Run Band – Take One : African fun
Holiday Parade – Two Cheers For Tuesday : a dull, drab disaster
Muse – Black Holes and Revelations : decent Brit rockers
The Long Winters – Putting the Days to Bed : high-level pop-craft
Sam Roberts – Chemical City : solid throwback rocker set
Birdmonster – No Midnight : fairly rawkin
Brand New Heavies – Get Used To It : the return of N’Dea = better than expected
Spencer Dickinson – Spencer Dickinson : good ol’ JSBX swagger and shtick
Brazilian Girls – Talk To La Bomb : fairly bland
Audioslave – Revelations : reasonably interesting knuckle-head rock
Essex Green – Cannibal Sea : a pleasure to listen to
Gin Blossoms – Major Lodge Victory : (eh)
Hotel Lights – Hotel Lights : mellow, with decent highlights
In Flight Radio – In Flight Radio : boring ‘adult’ rock
The Minders – It’s A Bright Guilty World : great, diverse pop
Pete Yorn – Nightcrawler : nice, but same-as-it-ever-was
Starlight Mints – Drowaton : quirky, diverse and very fun
Blue October – Foiled : takes crappy to a whole new level
Brightback Morning Light – Brightback Morning Light : mostly just boring
Captain – This is Hazelville : sappy AND crappy !!
Comets on Fire – Avatar : over-the-top macho
Daniel Wylie – The High Cost of Happiness : as jangly as jandle-pop gets
Echo Helstrom – The Veil : fairly good mellow symphonic “rock”
Glen Phillips – Mr. Lemons : feeling so very sleepy…
Gomez – How We Operate : strong, well-crafted pop artistry
Hawthorne Heights – If Only You Were Lonely : very ‘green’ with interesting components, one to watch
Head Like A Kite – Random Portraits of the Home Movie : moments of great, but very scattered
ILikeTrains – Progress*Reform : boooooring
La Rocca – The Truth : mmmeh, nothing to see here, move on …
Lemonheads – Lemonheads : impossible not to hate E. Dando, still good
Marble Index – Watch Your Candles Watch Your Knives
Seafood – Paper Crown King : bah, a big ol’ bore
Sean Lennon – Friendly Fire : the apple apparently fell FAR from the tree
Shearwater – Palo Santo : yet another boring record, sigh
Stars of Track and Field – Centuries Before Love and War : decent Radiohead-lite
Tom Petty – Highway Companion : solid, as always
Pink Spiders – Teenage Graffiti : fun and punk-pop-y, if lightweight
The Black Keys – Magic Potion : dirty, raw blues – a tad restrained?
Bob Dylan – Modern Times : decent Dylan with a modern sound
Jerry Lee Lewis – Last Man Standing : a not terrible money-grab
Solomon Burke – Nashville : everything he sings sounds great
The Decemberists – The Crane Wife : layers of prog with great hooks
Yo La Tengo – I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
Bill Frisell, Ron Carter, Paul Motian – Bill Frisell, Ron Carter, Paul Motian
Los Lobos – Town and the City
The Mountain Goats – Get Lonely
Beck – The Information
-live-
Calexico – Berlin, Germany – A living room 01-04
Belle & Sebastian – Gideon Coe, BBC Radio 01-20
Robert Pollard – The Independent, SF CA 02-25
The Black Keys – Agora Theater, Cleveland OH 02-25
The Silver Jews – 40 Watt Club, Athens GA 03-10
Britt Daniel – SXSW, Austin TX 03-16
Neko Case – 9:30 Club, Washinton DC 04-09
The Flaming Lips – Circus, Stockholm SWE 05-02
Tilly & The Wall – Maria am Ufer, Berlin 05-08
Islands – Neumo’s, Seattle WA 05-10
Twilight Singers – The Paradise, Boston MA 05-29
Beck – Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz CA 05-30
dEUS – Pinkpop 2006, Landgraaf, Holland 06-04-06
The Raconteurs – Amoeba Records, SF CA 06-08
The Mountain Goats – Bottom of the Hill, SF CA 06-13
Calexico – Rio Theatre, Santa Cruz CA 06-15
Juana Molina – Bimbo’s, SF 06-17
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint – Paramount Theatre, Oakland, CA 06-20
Twilight Singers with Mark Lanegan – KEXP, Seattle WA 06-22
Neko Case – Bimbo’s 365 Club, SF 06-25
Islands – Accelerator 2006 , Amiralen, Malmˆ, SWE 07-03
Belle & Sebastian – Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood CA 07-06
Asylum Street Spankers – Lafayette Tap Room, Buffalo NY 07-09
Tilly & The Wall – Paradox Theatre, Seattle WA 07-11
Lyle Lovett – Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA 07-12
Sonic Youth – Fillmore, SF CA 07-14
dEUS – Piazza Castello, Ferrara, ITA 07-16
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint – House of Blues, NOLA 07-18
The Long Winters – KEXP, Seattle WA 07-21
The Mountain Goats – KEXP, Seattle WA 08-03
The Raconteurs – KCRW, LA CA 08-03
The Bellrays – Corner Hotel, Melbourne, AUS 08-04
Olivia Tremor Control – Orange Twin, Athens GA 08-05
The Long Winters – Mercury Lounge, NYC 08-08
Lambchop – Grosser Sendesaal des Radiokulturhaus, Vienna 08-08
63 Crayons – Little Kings, Athens GA 08-10
Sleater-Kinney – Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR 08-12 [final show]
Of Montreal – 40 Watt Club, Athens GA 08-19
The Mountain Goats – Amoeba Records in-store, SF CA 08-22
TV on the Radio – Live on KCRW 09-22
The Decemberists – Live on KCRW 09-25
M Ward – Live On KCRW 09-28
Frank Black – Greek Theatre, Berkeley CA 09-29
The Sadies – The Earl, Atlanta GA 10-03
Heavy Trash – The Earl, Atlanta GA 10-03
Beck – Live on KCRW 10-04
David Barbe & the Quick Hooks – 40 Watt Club, Athens GA 10-05
Sufjan Stevens – Crystal Ballroom, Portland OR 10-13
The Elected – Paradox Theatre, Seattle WA 10-17
The Tyde – Neumo’s, Seattle WA 10-23
The Raconteurs – Vegoose, Las Vegas NV 10-28
The Shins – Live on KEXP, NYNY 11-03
Islands – Crocodile CafÈ, Seattle WA 11-06
-re-release/comps/mixes-
Putumayo Presents Brazilian Lounge : great party disk
Stereolab – Fab Four Suture : standard Stereolab
The Beastles – Let It Beast : skip this one, see below
The Kleptones – 24 Hours : outasight!!
Massive Attack – Collected (2cd) : a few gems
DFA Remixes, Chapter 1 : whateva
Alright, This Time Just the Girls, Vol. 2 : great genre/gender-busting garage collection
Q Magazine: Best of ’96 – ’06 : wholly uninspiring covers collection
Brian Eno & David Byrne – My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (remaster) : if only this were in 5.1 …
Thievery Corporation – Versions : OK dubby remixes
Ursula 1000 – Here Comes Tomorrow
CafÈ Lounge : Iced Lemon Tea : fun international-flavored comp
Matthew Sweet – Girlfriend/Goodfriend (Legacy Ed.) : an ALL-TIME classic
Silicon.Summer.2006 : dub-ilicious
New York Noise, vol 2 : what the huh?
The Sadies – In Concert, Volume One : versatile virtuosity
The Beachles – Sgt. Petsound’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
-singles/EPs-
Colin Melloy – Sings Shirley Collins : nice tour-only EP
Michael Stipe & Friends – In the Sun EP : awful
Arctic Monkeys – Who the Fuck are Arctic Monkeys EP
The Black Keys – Chulahoma EP : great versons of great songs
The Flaming Lips – The W.A.N.D. single
Stereolab – Winter 2006 Tour 7″
Mooney Suzuki – The Maximum Black EP