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Music “scenes” have always interested and intrigued me. Each major city I’ve lived in or spent large amounts of time in seems to have a separate and distinct “vibe” to it. Whether it be the streets, the businesses, the neighborhoods or where they lay on the map, the DNA of the city finds its way into a musician’s personality. Add in a nearby college and/or an open-minded and established club willing to foster homegrown talent, and the seeds of a scene have been firmly planted. Still, you need a number of memorable acts to really make the scene have…

I had a week-long vacation and as things go, I bought some CDs throughout my vay-cay. I tend to go for bargains so I hit all the used CD/book stores, pawn shops, or the bargain bin of my fave record stores. Thus, I tend to pay a lot less on average, and only really will buy something if it's an artist I really like, which explains the first CD. I will also put how much I paid for each disc, just so you don't think I'm spending all my moolah.

Wilco – Sky Blue Sky ($12)
System of a Down…

I'm not sure why, but a lot of times my AudioScrobbler will count songs 3 or 4 times when I play them but once. So that's why the anniversary of my 10,000th song crept by rather quietly, as I doubt highly I've reached that esteemed number yet.

In other news – and so I have at least something to link to, the new Idlewild album Make Another World is a worthy addition to their catalogue. A lot of people bemoan them for abandoning their noisy punk roots, but to me, it's all about the song, and Roddy Woomble and company…

Rather than bombard the last.fm blogosphere with yet another survey or a self-examination on my "mainstreamness" as compared to others, I thought I'd write a bit on a music book I just finished. Being both a music nut and a bit of a history buff, I tend to gravitate towards music books. It's interesting to learn about the artist, or to discover the inspirations behind certain songs or albums. One of the most written acts are The Beatles, and it's little surprise why. Their contributions to music and culture from the 60s onward simply cannot be understated. So naturally,…

Before we complete our look back at 2006, let's have a quick look at some honorable mentions and also bring up a concept I call "the Halo List."

HONORABLE MENTIONS…

* Broadcast - The Future Crayon AND Stereolab - Fab Four Suture

I really hate to lump these two groups (groops?) together as most people lazily do, but both came out with albums I listened to a lot. Unfortuneatly, both were compilations. For Stereolab, it was a smattering of vinyl singles released throughout 2004 and 2005; for Broadcast, it gathered together most of their non-album tracks found on EPs, compilations,…

OK, so now you know HOW I tabulate my top 15 lists accurately (see my Dec 31 blog) , here's the countdown of the list proper. Between my part time job and an overall better financial situation, I seemed to have listened to a lot more new stuff this year than in the past few years… by my count I heard forty-eight albums released in 2006. I guess I have to give a thumbs up to my local public libraries, which allowed me access to around a third of them – so support your local libraries, people! OK, let's count…

If you've been following this music blog for a while or scan my page now and then, you know that I love music, and lots of it. So I'm always intrigued by end of the year music lists, and how other people feel – or DON'T feel – about the music I liked in the calendar year. While I don't get paid to pontificate about music and thus have no means to generally exhibit my lists to the public, it is still something that I think about quite a bit. But a ways back while compiling my list, I came…

Man, I wish I still had access to one of those dream analysis books I read back in the day, because I'd sure love to figure out why I dreamt what I dreamt last night (other than I am a hopeless music geek)…

OK, so it wouldn't be the first time I had a music related dream, but it certainly would be the most mundane and thus, the strangest. Basically, I had a dream where I listened/watched a box set. That's right, very little action, just me sitting on a couch and listening to one CD after another. What box…

I don't know about the rest of you, but I do read quite a bit about music, either through music-oriented websites like pitchforkmedia.com or magazines, running the gamut of mega-popular (Rolling Stone) to more obscure publications(Skyscraper). So about a week ago, I was at the Barnes and Noble in Madison, looking for a few new music magazines to read through. All I have to say is whoever is handling press junkets for The Decemberists should be given a raise or something, because they currently appear on the cover of no less than ***3** different magazines (that'd be Filter, Under the…

This is the first in a series of essays where I will investigate some musical artists whose level of success never quite equalled their talent and vision. I have no real set schedule or anything, just typing them up as
they come into my head.

I first heard of the Boo Radleys through MTV's 120 Minutes, which my friend Jason was nice enough to tape for me as my folk's house was too rural to get cable until 1996. It was a video for "Lazy Day" from their 1992 major label debut Everything's Alright Forever. It sounded like the…