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Saturday, Dec. 21, 2002 - 10:26 p.m. I know that you have waited for this for a long time, but� I just spent the last hour talking to an old friend, and I now have his email address! After several years of wondering about his state of mind, I now can see how his family and he are getting along! Yeah! I might link him down the road, but for now�� I will leave you with my infamous �Top Ten Albums of the year 2002� list! Like you really wanna read my rambling on music� Since all of the magazines are cranking out their �Top Ten Goat Cheese Recipes of 2002� and �Top Ten Sexual positions of 2002� issues this time of year, I figure I better hurry up and drop my album list on you now. I didn�t want to even READ Rolling Stone or Spins list before I worked on my list. Not that I agree with either mag on what is good, but I didn�t want to read anything they might have had to say about a album I also included on my list . In the past 12 months, I have bought more new, factory sealed albums than I have in any other year since I was in high school. That would be 1979, for those keeping track. I have also picked up many more used and promo cds from auctions on eBay, and from purchases at Half.com. Add to that the few albums I burned from files I downloaded off of the Internet, and you can see I have had much music to digest and enjoy this year. Since this is MY list, I make the rules. Some of the rules I bend are: The albums DON�T have to have a �2002� copyright on them. If it came out late last year, I didn�t pick it up until 2002. Good enough for my list. Top Ten? Nah�..I came up with a �Top Eleven�, plus a list of �Best of the Rest! You want perfection? Not gonna find it here. I put a link for EVER album that will lead you to either CDNow, or a bands home page. I did that in the hopes that you might want to actually LISTEN to sound clips, to see why I love the music. It�s optional, of course, but it�s there if you have a few minutes to spare�.. So, without further adieu, here are my favorite albums of MY 2002 : Weezer..�Maladroit� (2002-Interscope Records) The second fine album from Rivers Cuomo and company in less than a year. This time out the music leans towards the hard side, with nods towards 70�s arena rock without coming off as imitators. Queens of the Stone Age��Songs for the Deaf� (2002-Interscope records) I have been a fan of Q.O.T.S.A.�S leaders Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri�s music since they were members of the �Stoner � rock band �Kyuss�. I haven�t been disappointed by the music they have made under the �Queens� moniker, either. The addition of Foo Fighter Dave Grohl on drums only added to the range and power of their music. Not for the week-of-heart. Great for a day when you want to stay angry (I mean that in a good way). Foo Fighters.. �One By One� (2002- RCA Records) Speaking of Mr. Grohl�. I may be in the minority of music fans who enjoy his new band more than his old band (heresy!), but I think he writes and performs some of the best Power Pop (heavy on the �power�) music made in the past 20 years. He is such a perfectionist, he scrapped this album once it was almost finished, went on tour with Q.O.T.S.A all spring and early summer, and then returned to fix what he didn�t like. Might be my favorite Foo Fighter album yet. The Hives��Veni Vidi Vicious� (2000, released in America 2002-Burning Heart Records) My favorite of all of the �The� bands that popped up like mushrooms in early spring last summer, Howlin� Pelle Almqvist burst onto the American music scene like a retro Mick Jagger, prancing and pouting onstage with more energy than anybody has in years. �Hate to Say I Told you So� is my favorite single since, oh, I guess the Knack�s �My Sharonna�. That�s saying something�.. Cody Lee.. �Living Stereo� (2001-Stompbox Records) This album is hard to categorize because it covers new territory. Lee has a deep respect for 1970�s pop in the vein of Gilbert O�Sullivan , but ads fuzzy, distorted guitars and heartfelt lyrics to the mix. Lease can�t figure out why I love this one, but I also love Matthew Sweet and she can�t figure that one out either. Now that I think about it, Lee�s harder-edge songs are somewhat like Sweet at his best. Click on the link and listed to the song �3d� and �Flight 303� to get a feel for his sound. (Came out in late 2001, discovered in late 2002) Psoma..�Fear the Penguin!� (2002-Amherst House Records) A band you probably never heard of, Psoma is a California-based pop-rock band that plays hard Power Pop (there I go again, looking for hard Power Pop music) with a sense of humor. If you have never heard them, click on the link. It takes you to their home page, where you can download songs and watch videos. Worth the time to find them�. Breaking Benjamin.. �Saturate� (2002-Hollywood Records) Codeman made me a copy of this album after he fell in love with it, and I can see why he did. Very hard edged, melodic in the same way that the music of Staind can be, and doesn�t wear thin as quickly as some in this genre. Unfortunately, there are no song clips available on CDNow. The song �Home� is my current favorite: Beginning with the �I�ll get you, my pretty! And your little dog, too!� clip from the Wicked Witch of the West (do I need to tell what that is from?), the heavy bass line kicks in immediately. The lyrics allude to the Wizard of Oz movie, which brought a smile to Lease�s face when I played it for her recently. Just good, hard rock. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.. �The Last DJ� (2002-Warner Brothers) Nice to see that the old man can still get angry at the system. Petty put together a full album that attacks the music business for all of it�s abuses of artists and manufacturing of plastic pop music, and does it with some of his best music in years. The fact that several of the �corporate� radio conglomerates wouldn�t add the single �The Last DJ� to their top 40 stations� rotation in protest of his lyrics cracks me up. It proves his point, too. Injected. �Burn It Black� (2002- Island Records) If all you did was look at a photo of the members of this band, you would think they were another one of those �Boy Bands� that have polluted the airwaves the past few years. You would be wrong. This group of young men play a very catchy version of heavy-alternative rock (think Stone Temple Pilots before heroin ruined Scott), mixing up styles along the way. One song even has a jazzy-riff at the beginning before a wall of sonic guitars crashes down on you. The AMG compares them favorably to another of my favorite bands, Local H. I hadn�t thought of that before I read it, but it�s true. Hard, yet very melodic. No wonder I like it so much. OK GO.. �(self titled)� (2002- Capitol Records) You will be hearing about this band in the near future. Coming out of Chicago with sounds familiar yet fresh, OK GO are the latest band to try to reinvent Power Pop (there I go again) into their own style. If you want songs about bad parents or suicidal thoughts, stay away from this album. The main goal these guys seem to have is getting laid (isn�t that what rock started out to be, back in the 1950�s?), with songs titles like �You�re So Damn Hot� and �C-C-C-Cinnamon Lips� telling you what they are thinking. For an old man like me, I can hear the various influences (J. Giles Band here, The Cars there, and, naturally, Cheap Trick), but they don�t sound like they are just aping the other bands. Very catchy music: the chorus for the first single �Get Over It� is running through my head as I type this review. caomes with the fall.. �the year is one� (2001- Untramad Music) I havewritten about this great band before here at D-land, so I won�t ramble on here again. I will tell you this much: I still love this album. Earlier this week, I was playing some of my favorite new music to the tech assistant (San-D), and I dropped this cd into my player for the first time in a few months. The vocals still hit me deeply, the guitar and bass work is still nearly perfect, and I can still say here that you MUST by this album if you love good music. (came out in late 2001, discovered in spring 2002) �Nuff said�� Best of the Rest! The Vines .. �Highly Evolved� .If the lead singer isn�t found dead in a parked car from a drug overdose, they could become something great. The White Stripes.. �White Cell Count� Wore thin with repeat playing, but still a musical adventure. (Came out in 2001, but didn�t break out until this year.) Moby.. �18� The mystical one does it again (and laughed at Triumph the Comic Dog, unlike a bleached-blond rapper who�s name I won�t mention here) Peter Gabriel.. �Up� As creepy as ever, but still writes beautiful, haunting music. Joe Satriani .. �Strange Beautiful Music� More great guitar instrumental work from the master. Phantom Planet.. �The Guest� Forget the fact that the drummer Jason Schwartzman is related to the Coppalas (and is an actor in his own right), this band rocks! Dana Glover.. �Testimony� Beautiful woman, beautiful voice (gospel/blues/rock styling with powerful piano playing). Adam Schmitt.. �Demolition released in 2001, discovered in early 2002. Great rock album by a man from central Illinois? I�m sure I am forgetting a few more. Like I said: this has been one great year of music (for me, at least). Too bad all you have heard from the record labels is how much music they are loosing this year. Maybe if they pushed more good music, and stopped trying to make us love �pretty people� who aren�t real musicians they wouldn�t be in such deep red ink��
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