Favorites/decade - "Hippie" music

Really, these are just favorites of mine from this decade that feature acoustic guitar. That, and whenever I play these, I get good and mellow. If you need to wind down, the songs on this list are a good place to start:

"Girl You Have No Faith In Medicine" by the White Stripes. It's the exception to the rule with this list. It's the fuzzy, bluesy, looped guitar licks that get me feeling kinda psychedelic.

"Drive" by Incubus. They have put out more mellow, trippy music (Morning View) and much rougher, crazier music (A Crow Left of the Murder), but this song is the one that stops me, begs me to sing along. I really love the lyric: "Would you choose water over wine/Hold the wheel and drive"

"Bad Education" by Tilly and the Wall. Flamenco-style tap dancing, folk song harmonies and brass instrument loops. It really stands out from the crowd of other songs on my "favorites/decade" list.

"Banana Pancakes" by Jack Johnson. It takes me all of 30 seconds to picture a King-sized bed with a giant comforter on top, big pillows all over the head of the bed, a gentle, tropical rain and Jack Johnson bringing banana pancakes with piping hot Kona coffee to me whilst I lie in bed. What Jack does from there is best left to your imagination . . .

"The Sound of Settling" and "Soul Meets Body" by Death Cab for Cutie. This decade has been really great for this band and their unique blend of high-polish production and mellow, hippie style music.

"Do You Realize" by The Flaming Lips. I'll even add their movie "Christmas on Mars" to this list. Between these two contributions to our cultural society, Wayne and the boys really cannot top themselves. I still well up with tears trying to sing along and this past week's second screening of the movie made me fall in love with that movie even harder.

"Wild At Heart" by Gloriana. Best of the bunch as far as production goes - very slick sounding pop with country flairing. The vocal band is at its best when all four harmonize -- I can't help but evoke The Mamas and The Papas when I hear that harmony.

Try watching this video and I defy you not to tap your toes, slap your hands on something or otherwise groove along with this song.

Favorites/decade - Right songs, wrong place

The best music, as is the case with any art form, should evoke emotion that one was not prepared to feel. This decade had a few examples of this. I've even added an entire band to this list -- one whose songs continue to dominate my MP3 player

"Angels on the moon" by Thriving Ivory. Their debut album was released in the middle of last year and this song, as its first single, seemed to take its time in gaining popularity. The singer has a unique-sounding voice, the song was well produced and is a great representative of the rest of the tracks on the album. I cannot figure out why it was not more popular. On the other hand, the band appears to be back in the studio to record a follow-up album. The next decade should show whether Thriving Ivory becomes a (sort of) one-hit wonder or sticks around for a while.

"The Fear" by Lily Allen. Nifty techno-pop with lyrics that don't sink in until after the song is done. I get stuck on the lyric that goes "And I'll take my clothes off and it will be shameless / 'Cuz everyone knows that's how you get famous" Unapologetic lyrics and seemingly more than happy to shock. NOTE: The music video includes a few curse words not bleeped out.

"Bodies" by Drowning Pool. An amazingly powerful, angry, mosh-pit instigating song which was released -- yikes -- a couple of months before September 11, 2001. Fearing that the images painted with the lyrics would alienate listeners, the song quickly disappeared from playlists. They spent the rest of the decade putting out albums, videos, etc. In spite of the poor timing and a tragic loss within the band less than 12 months later, they have managed to power through and are doing quite well these days. Anyone's guess how their career would look now if "Bodies" was permitted to continue its ascent in popularity.

A band which has purposefully pushed the envelope with every album it releases, Rammstein had a pretty darn good decade, ending in the release of their latest album "Liebe ist für alle da" (love is for everyone else) a few months ago. Three of their songs from this decade that I cannot play enough were "Ich will" (I want), "Benzin" (gasoline) and "Donaukinder" (Danube children). They go from loud and gruff to techno to children chorale backed slow tempo tunes with creepy lyrics.

"Not Ready to make Nice" by Dixie Chicks. A pretty clear steering toward pop music waters, this song and its video pack a pretty strong punch in response to the reaction they received when lead singer Natalie made an off-handed comment on stage in London, England regarding George W Bush.

For this lone comment, all manner of chaos reigned for the three women. Like carbon being turned into diamonds, the stress and strain of the fallout after the comments were made made for a terrific album and a stinging retort about the necessity of a true artist to express their feelings. If artists feel they cannot speak from their heart, any manner of art they produce is ultimately muted.

Nothing muted about this song. While they lost fans in the years leading up to the release of "Taking the long way " (a great title track, btw), they gained a whole new set of fans afterward -- myself included.

Favorites/decade - If it ain't loud, it ain't right

I love rock, hard rock and metal (even some of that with the "cookie monster" style vocals, though a little goes a long way). Where'd you think my moniker came from, anyway?

Here's some of the closer-to-pop rock tunes that never quite left my MP3 this decade:

"Headstrong" by Trapt. Good production, especially that roar leading into the chorus. Fun to roar along to the chorus in the car.

"Bring me to life" by Evanescence. So freakin' cool to hear a strong women's voice in rock. But only two albums this decade? The new one can't come soon enough!

"Take It Off" by The Donnas. I've posted this song on the blog before. 'Nuff said.

"Land of Confusion" by Disturbed. Yeah, it's a remake from the 80's. But, like Billy Idol did with "Mony, Mony", if you're going to remake a hit song, make it your own. Disturbed did just that with David nearly-trademarked growl punctuating the song throughout.

"Juicebox" by The Strokes. The last really big hit from the Strokes until singer Julian finishes up the whole solo project thing. Fun video, great production on the song and the song hasn't gotten old to me in all of these years.

"Slither" by Velvet Revolver. Scott Weiman's the reason to watch the video. Impossibly skinny but, like many a front man before him, impossible to ignore. A nice crossroads of 80's and 90's rock and roll royalty here.

"Nerve" by Soilwork. This band is my own "who the heck are those guys" band of this decade. The band/artists seemingly only you enjoy and no one else gets. It's not the singer or the guitar that grabbed me. Just tune out all of that and listen to the drums. That's what keeps me coming back to this song and this band over and over.

"Follow" and "The Diary of Jane" by Breaking Benjamin. I'm still getting caught up on this band's music in the last six months, but I'm loving them more and more as I keep listening. Very sharp production, just angry enough lyrics and ridiculously catchy. And the singer's easy on the eyes, too!

"American Idiot" by Green Day. Every other music fan (even those classical/baroque music ones) have listed this album and/or song on their "best of the decade" lists, so why not join in with the gang on this one? If you were a fan of Green Day before "American Idiot" came out, this song built a nice bridge from their old material to the music on this album and their latest "21st Century Breakdown". I'm voting for a return to some of their older material for their next album, but there's no denying that your toes are tapping, your head is bobbing or your fist is shaking when this song starts up.

"What I've Done" by Linkin Park. Fans of the group may not think this song is their best of this past decade. There will be purists that will point back to "Hybrid Theory" and go "what the heck happened?" and plenty of 13 year-old girls that can't play "New Divide" enough on their own MP3s. As this is my list, I'm picking this one because, like "American Idiot", there is something to bridge the music from "Hybrid Theory" and "Meteora" over into a more introspective and experimental side of this truly hybrid band. The song does a great job of expressing regret, frustration and a little bit of hope for the future. Whether you love "Minutes to Midnight" (I did) or not, this song represents what is possible from this band and an idea of what's to come in their new record next year.

Rays of sunshine on the Boulevard today

When I stepped out of my cubicle and onto Hollywood Boulevard late this morning to take one of three brisk-paced walks I take each day to clear the cobwebs out of my head, I was greeted at the corner by a young woman (who is hidden behind the folks standing at the sidewalk's edge) with a bright orange flyer full of talking points.

The photo I snapped of the 10 or so young people from across the street doesn't give the best view of all of their homemade signs. You might make out the partial phrase on a bright blue poster board saying "HoNK 4" or the green letters on black background to the far right reading "Stop Ha . .".

These folks had chosen a popular intersection to try raising awareness and to get some horns a-honking in support of defeating legislation pending in Uganda to make homosexuality a crime with much more severe penalties. The bright orange flyer I received pointed out on the bottom that the punishment of death for engaging in homosexual behavior had since been modified "..because of immense international disapproval."

Sadly, the bright orange flyer had no website referenced and, thanks to my superior(?) storage skills, the flyer just could not be scanned so I could post it here. However, one of our local papers did post a brief "story" about today's mini-rally, so I could tell that the students who gathered this morning made quite a trek to get to Hollywood this morning.

As horns from cars, trucks and tour buses blasted off in support of the student gathering and I continued on my quick walk after snapping the photo above, I had to bite the inside of my lip a bit to stop from crying a bit. It gets way too easy to sink into cynicism over how apathetic we as a country seem to others in need outside of the U.S. There are certainly plenty of places and people here which could use our attention, but it is far too easy to think that just one person cannot make any difference, so why bother?

I can tell you ten teenagers made a difference in my life. If only for today. Anyone's guess who else might have noticed this happening today as well.

Favorites/decade - Wrenching

After seeing this year's whoop-and-cheer, ooh-and-aah movie earlier today, I need to bring things down a couple of notches. When I've been in the mood for something sobering, here's what caught my ear this past 10 years:

"I've Seen It All" by Bjork. Whether I hear the version with Thom Yorke or see it in the movie "Dancer in the Dark", I always remember the scene in the movie at which this song is sung (it was also nominated for an award - remember Bjork's outfit that year?) as the "feel good" moment in a very dreary, sad musical. Definitely bucks the tradition of peppy tunes in a peppy musical show!

"Life is Beautiful" by Sixx:AM. One man's journey through and out of heroin abuse and this song tells of his arriving clean on the other side. Most of the other songs in the album are dark and, as a recovering alcoholic myself and a big fan of Nikki Sixx's original band, this song makes me glad to be alive.

"The Little Things Give You Away" by Linkin Park. The lyric which talks about being six feet under water and looking up to "you" is the most haunting in this uniquely dark song in an album full of well-produced rage.

"Laughing With" by Regina Spektor. A list of incidences where no one laughs at God with a light twist in her practically trademarked yodel/yelp and a slaying last line of lyric.

"Dirty Little Secret" by The All-American Rejects. One of my favorite types of pop tunes - a toe-tapping beat in an easy-to-miss sad and dark lyric. One of the coolest videos of the decade for this song, btw. Really, anything that steers people to postsecret.com is cool by me.

"Rehab" and "You Know That I'm No Good" by Amy Winehouse. She has become the epitome of sad and dark in the lead-up to the award-winning album and her life in the years following that sudden fame. While "Rehab" is hook-filled 60's Motown-style pop, the other song of hers sounds the most to me like self-examination.

"Hurt" by Johnny Cash. If, indeed, there was a musical category called "wrenching", this version of Nine Inch Nails' morose ballad would be the godfather of this genre. Knowing Mr. Cash was so very close to the end of his life and career makes this song all the more . . uh . . wrenching. Cash, like the writer of this song, went through his own struggles with substance abuse. It's hard to think of any other perfect marriage of singer and songwriter, though both are all at once quite different and remarkably the same.