New Wave for the New Week #52

Fellow vinyl enthusiasts well know that joyful rush that comes only when you finally track down a particular record you've been looking for since forever, and manage to find it at a fraction of the cost you should have paid for it. It doesn't happen often, but we who spend hours digging through crates of $1 and $2 vinyl in thrift shops, junk shops, and record conventions, or who stay up all night doing web searches with slight misspellings hoping to find that orphaned eBay listing where the seller mistakenly put his "Misftis" singles up for auction at a 99-cent starting bid, do occasionally uncover a gem or two among the endless boxes of crap.

I got that rush last week. After years and years of searching and passing up on copies with three-digit price tags, I finally snagged a copy of Cristina's impossibly rare 12-inch single "Is That All There Is?" Thanks to an eBay gift card hanging around from Christmas, my out of pocket cost was under $10 for a piece of New Wave vinyl that often fetches fifteen times as much!

In the late-'70s New York underground scene, the violent, atonal No-Wave blurtings of groups like Teenage Jesus & the Jerks and The Contortions were evolving into the much more melodic "mutant disco" scene. The skronky horns and flat, off-key vocals of No-Wave, melded with Punk Rock nihilism and driven by a mid-tempo 4/4 beat, were wrapped in the trappings of the Studio 54 scene to create a sound and image that was at once too polished and danceable for the scruffy CBGB's crowd and too artistic and intelligent for the Disco crowd. Of course, the artists making this music wished to be part of neither crowd, often ignoring the punks and viciously skewering the club set.

Onto this stage stepped Cristina (born Cristina Monet), a 23-year-old Harvard dropout with a moneyed pedigree, a razor-sharp wit, and a perfectly affected persona for the scene: she was alienated, condescending, and icy. She was gorgeous and unattainable, and oh-so-bored with everything. Her biography on the Ze Records website notes Richard Strange's spot-on assessment of her: "In a sassier, zestier, brighter, funnier world, Cristina would have been Madonna."

She entered the music business by marrying Michael Zilkha, who would shortly thereafter found Ze Records. Her first musical foray (also Ze's first release as a label) was an incredibly biting, sarcastic single, "Disco Clone," which featured additional vocals by an uncredited and then relatively unknown Kevin Kline. Her next single would seal her status as a New Wave legend: a take on Peggy Lee's 1969 hit "Is That All There Is?" that viciously ripped the entire New York club scene to shreds and so appalled the song's writers, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, as to have them bring about a lawsuit to have the record withdrawn within weeks of its release and all unsold copies destroyed.

Cristina had rewritten the lyrics of the song to update it a bit, describing the "bored-looking bankers dancing with beautiful models" and "boys with dyed hair and spandex t-shirts dancing with each other" that populated NYC nightlife, and declaring her love for "James" who "beat [her] black and blue," but she would still "kill for that guy." On her final turn through the chorus, she changed the line "let's bring out the booze and have a ball" to "let's bring out the 'ludes and have a ball." It was all too scandalous for 1980, and the record was yanked despite being one of the most requested singles on legendary Los Angeles radio station KROQ. Despite the controversy and the record being pulled, the song was included on the first Rodney On The ROQ compilation album (noted only as "Surprise!" on the record label), which was the only place it could be found for many years.

A couple more singles followed, along with two outstanding albums. Her 1980 debut lp, Cristina, was written and produced by August Darnell and Coati Mundi (both founding members of Kid Creole & the Coconuts); four years later she enlisted Don Was of Was (Not Was) to produce the incredible Sleep It Off (and co-wrote that albums stunning single, "Ticket To The Tropics," with Doug Fieger of The Knack)...and then she quit.

Both albums were reissued on CD in 2004, with Cristina being retitled Doll In The Box and including the early singles - including the much sought after "Is That All There Is?" However, both CDs have since gone out of print and now fetch a pretty penny themselves, although the music can be downloaded at much more reasonable prices from Amazon.com.

But, since I finally found an original vinyl copy of the "Is That All There Is?" single at a bargain price, I have chosen it to be this week's NW4NW entry. No video clip was ever made, of course, but a fan kindly posted a clip with the cover art and lyrics on YouTube for us to enjoy. Cristina did make a promo clip for 1984's "Ticket To The Tropics," which I have seen exactly once in my life and cannot be found online anywhere to my knowledge...oh how I would LOVE to see that one again. As a bonus, however, I'm including an audio-only clip of that wonderful song as well. See how long it takes you to figure out what she's really singing about...

New Wave for the New Week #51

The Saints via last.fm

"Rock music in the '70s was changed by three bands: The Sex Pistols, The Ramones and The Saints." -Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats

When and where did Punk Rock get its start? Depending on who you ask, the answer may vary from the UK around 1976-77 with bands like The Sex Pistols and The Damned, to New York City circa 1975 with bands like The Ramones, The Heartbreakers and Richard Hell & The Voidoids, to Detroit in 1969 with The Stooges and The MC5. Strong cases can be made for all three, but I'd like to offer a fourth possibility: Australia in 1974, when Chris Bailey, Ed Kuepper and Ivor Hay came together to form The Saints.

Coming out of the same Australian scene that was contemporaneously spawning Radio Birdman and would eventually give rise to The Fun Things, The Saints were all energy and chainsaw guitars when the trio first hit the Australian circuit. While not quite as minimalistic as The Ramones (who were also just getting started a world away in NYC), The Saints' sound was every bit as primitive and loud.

By 1976, Kym Bradshaw was added on bass, and The Saints' first single, "(I'm) Stranded,", was causing major waves both in their homeland and abroad (The UK-based Sounds magazine famously hailed "(I'm) Stranded" as "the single of this and every week!"). An album with the same title followed shortly thereafter, and remains one of the finest slabs of Punk Rock vinyl you'll find anywhere - check out my post from last February, 15 Albums That Changed My Life, to take a listen.

With the coming of their second album, Eternally Yours, in 1978, The Saints expanded their sound beyond the slash-n-burn guitar attack of that first album. Most notably, a horn section (!) created a fuller, more commercially agreeable sound. Still, the snarl was evident in Bailey's voice and the band's fury was not diminished.

A third album, Prehistoric Sounds, followed a year later, and moved the band even further from their initial sound. Dabblings of jazz and R&B left fans scratching their heads a bit, and internal dissension between Bailey & Kuepper regarding musical direction was evident. It would be the final album by the original lineup.

Kuepper left to form The Laughing Clowns, who continued to follow the jazz/punk direction. Bailey kept The Saints alive with a revolving door of musicians, and evolved the band to a more commercial sound. 1987's All Fools Day saw The Saints reach their high-point here in the US with considerable airplay on both college radio and MTV for the singles "(You Can't Tamper With) The Temple of the Lord" and "Big Hits (On the Underground)." The Saints have continued to release albums as recently as 2006.

This week's NW4NW pays tribute to the early Australian Punk Rock version of the band, the classic original lineup of Bailey, Kuepper, Hay and Bradshaw, with a clip for the scathing single from Eternally Yours, the wonderful "Know Your Product":

31 Years Ago Today

The Boomtown Rats via last.fm

On January 29, 1979, a 16-year-old from San Diego, CA named Brenda Spencer took the rifle her father had given her as a gift that Christmas and fired it into the playground of Cleveland Elementary School, killing two and wounding nine. Her stated motive when questioned by police became the inspiration for and title of The Boomtown Rats' most well-known song: "I Don't Like Mondays":

The Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays
Uploaded by UniversalMusicUK. - See the latest featured music videos.

Goodbye Franny, Zooey, and Holden

Image via Wikipedia

"I'm afraid of people who like Catcher in the Rye.
Yeah, I liked it too, but someone tell me why
People he'd despise say 'I feel like that guy'?
I don't wanna grow up, because I don't wanna die..."
- "William Holden Caulfield" by Too Much Joy

J.D. Salinger passed away today at the age of 91. Best known as the author who gave the world its most emulated anti-hero, the character Holden Caulfield, in the classic Catcher in the Rye, Salinger's writings included a second novel (actually a splicing of a short story and a novella), Franny and Zooey, a collection of short stories (Nine Stories), and Raise High the Roof Beam, which collected two more novellas into one book. Considered one of the greatest short-story authors in American history, his entire output was published between 1941 and 1965. Becoming famously reclusive and shunning publicity and celebrity at all costs, Salinger admitted in a rare interview in the 1980s that he had written at least another fifteen books which existed only in manuscript form in his home, because he wrote only for himself.

Salinger's style, a very stream-of-thought narrative through the eyes of his characters, gave his works a voice that could be heard and understood by generation after generation, even though the vocabulary and phrasing he relied upon were very much of the time in which they were written. Catcher in particular has been poured over by students year after year for decades, with Holden Caufield's naive rebelliousness both propelling and handicapping his attempts to find meaning and purpose in life over a three-day binge in NYC. Written as though we are hearing Caulfield's thoughts, the story connects on a visceral level with an adolescent reader, although Salinger was writing for an adult audience.

At various points in time, Catcher has been both the most taught and the most censored book in American public schools (the frank language and adult themes are upsetting to some). Despite it's placement by Time Magazine among the most important books written in the twentieth century, the book's reputation suffers from the perception that everyone who fancies himself a rebel of some sort names it as a favorite, yet if everyone loves it so, how can they be rebels? (Ironically, the very type of conundrum Holden Caufield would mull over for a chapter or two!)

Franny and Zooey, his other full-length work, is perhaps not as universally known and revered - and sadly so. Our first introduction to members of the Glass family, who would become recurring characters in Salinger works, the story of Franny's emotional and spiritual breakdown as she seeks enlightenment through ceaseless prayer, and her eventual epiphany reached through the help of her brother Zooey, is every bit as captivating and "real" as Holden Caulfield's story. While I love both books, I may actually be among the few who prefer Franny and Zooey.

Indeed, in many ways, reading (and re-reading, and re-reading) Salinger is a large part of what made me want to begin writing. Those who know me know that I am, overall, not huge fan of fiction (I do, however, voraciously read non-fiction). Salinger is an exception to that rule, I think because his writing does ring so true to life. What I would give to be able to read those manuscripts of his that never saw the light of day!

Salinger was 91 years old when he passed away this morning of natural causes at his home in New Hampshire.

New Wave for the New Week #50

Comprised of original Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock, future Ultravox frontman Midge Ure, future founding member of Visage Rusty Egan, and drummer Steve New, who would go on to play briefly in Public Image, Ltd., Rich Kids were one of the first "supergroups" on the Punk/New Wave scene. With that much talent in one group, their first record was eagerly anticipated by fans and music journalists alike.

Their first album would turn out to be their only album, but oh what a record it is! Ghosts of Princes in Towers landed on store shelves in the summer of 1978, its grooves fairly bursting with energy, its tracks ranging from simply very good to stunning. Unfortunately, for as good as the music was, the recording sounded terrible. Mick Ronson had been brought on board to produce the album, and the resultant recording was a muddied rumbling mix that thoroughly disappointed everyone from critics to fans to the band alike.

Still, there's no hiding talent. From the title track to the eponymous first single to cuts like "Marching Men," Rich Kids blasted out a punky power-pop vibe with a little tinge of '60s mod sounds a la The Small Faces (whose "Here Come the Nice" they covered as an early b-side). The songs are well worth the audiophile's nightmare to listen to. Years later, CD re-issues of the album would try to improve the sound through remastering, with fair to middling results, but we vinyl junkies are stuck with Ronson's folly.

After that fiasco, Rich Kids went their separate ways. Supergroups seldom have a long shelf-life anyway, but it sure would have been nice to hear what these guys would have come up with as a sophomore effort.

This week's NW4NW entry is a clip of Rich Kids performing their debut single "Rich Kids" on Top Of The Pops. Enjoy!

New Wave for the New Week #49

Australians Harry Vanda and George Young have an interesting musical pedigree. In the '60s, Vanda played lead guitar and Young rhythm guitar (and both provided backing vocals) for The Easybeats, best known for their one-hit wonder "Friday On My Mind."

When that band broke up in 1970, Vanda and Young continued writing songs and recording under various pseudonyms including Paintbox and Grapefruit, and also got involved in writing and producing for other performers. Most notably, they produced several early albums for a band you may have heard of that George Young's brothers Angus and Malcolm put together called AC/DC (from 1975's High Voltage to 1978's If You Want Blood You've Got It). They also had a worldwide hit in the mellow soft-rock genre, writing and producing "Love Is In The Air" for the unrelated John Paul Young in 1978.

With successes in '60s pop, and '70s hard rock and soft rock, why not dabble in early New Wave as well? Vanda and Young began a side-project studio collaboration that soon blossomed into a nearly ten-year run as the wonderfully named Flash 'n' the Pan.

Beginning with the outstanding "Hey St. Peter" in 1977, Flash 'n' the Pan released a steady stream of inventive, enjoyable records that were heartily embraced both in their Australian homeland and throughout most of Europe. Their sound, a keyboard-propelled loping melody beneath heavily compressed spoken-sung vocals, was easily identifiable, and their ability to write catchy tunes saw them score overseas hits with "Media Man," "Welcome To The Universe," and "Waiting For A Train."

By the mid-80s, Vanda and Young had slowed down drastically, although they have never completely stopped working together. Occasional albums sporadically appeared under the Flash 'n' the Pan moniker up through the mid-90s, although many were repackaged "hits" collections. They are one of those bands that just might have been different enough to catch on in the US had they been given a even chance here (of course, conservative radio programmers wouldn't play their records back then - they sounded too "weird"). Most people I introduce to Flash 'n' the Pan find that, once they get used to the vocals, they really enjoy them. You might too.

This week's NW4NW entry is the clip for that first single, "Hey St. Peter." It remains one of my favorite songs of the era. Enjoy!

Lima Beans for My Birthday

My brother and I each have somewhat bizarre senses of humor, as anyone who knows either of us can attest. Anyone who knows both of us can tell you that putting us together results in a combined humor that is odder than the sum of its parts. But there are few out there who would fully understand how a bag of frozen lima beans had us both in tears laughing this weekend.

There are only two vegetables I will not, cannot, eat: brussel sprouts and lima beans. I know that they are good for me, packed with nutrients and antioxidants and vitamins and a bunch of other good things. Unfortunately, when Mother Nature packed all that healthiness into them, she found no room left to add things like flavor, enjoyable texture, or anti-gagging qualities. Any other vegetable you put in front of me, I'll eat happily. Asparagus, spinach, turnips, peas, corn, carrots, collard greens - all yummy in my book. Heck, I'll even eat okra and smile (I did live in the South for a while)!

My brother has considerably lower tolerance for vegetables than I, so lima beans are high on his "will not eat" list as well. In fact, this whole story begins with him sharing his dislike for the little green horrors with his in-laws, declaring them so vile that, at Christmas, he'd rather find a lump of coal in his stocking than lima beans! Sure enough, come Christmas day, his in-laws, who have become accustomed to his odd sense of humor over the years, delivered to him a Christmas stocking containing a bag of frozen lima beans.

After the merriment had subsided, he suddenly realized he was stuck with a bag of lima beans! He certainly didn't want them, his wife wouldn't eat them, his in-laws didn't want them back. Who in their right mind would? The things are atrocious! Over the next week or so, he asked friends and neighbors if they wanted the lima beans. Everyone responded the same way: "EWWWWW! YUCK!!!" Resigned to his fate as owner of the lima beans, he put them in his freezer, where they would still be had I not opened my big mouth.

Because my brother's birthday is Christmas Day and mine is January 6, and because our parents are divorced and Dad lives about an hour away, it has become tradition that we signal the end of the holiday season with a combined Christmas/New Year/both of our birthdays celebration with Dad. This year, it turns out that this holiday celebration was not the last of the festivities; a combined birthdays dinner with Mom will close out the holidays this time around. But, Sunday was Dad's day, and since I do not drive, my brother and his wife were going to be picking me up to head west to Dad's place.

The phone rang around 11:30 Sunday morning. "We're on our way to get you," my brother reported.

"Alright, I'm ready!" I replied.

"Do you want us to wait until our birthday dinner with Mom, or should we bring your birthday presents along today?" he asked.

Sensing an opening for one of our standard phone routines, I again replied, "Alright, I'm ready!" In fact, as chance had it, that phrase perfectly answered another question or two that he asked, so I declared "Alright, I'm ready," the most handy phrase imaginable; that it could be applied just about anytime.

"OK," he smirked, "how about if I bring you a bag of frozen lima beans?"

I paused for a moment, and then, not knowing that he actually HAD a bag frozen lima beans (Why would he? He hates them as much as I do!), I foolishly decided to call his bluff: "Alright, I'm ready!"

I should know better. I really should. When we were kids still living at home, there was the day he triumphantly marched into my room proudly carrying a shoebox containing somewhere around $35 in assorted coins and dollar bills. "This is all the money I've won off of you in the past year!" he grinned. As brothers often do, we'd bet on things - a quarter here, a dollar there, oh-come-on-double-or-nothing - but whereas the money I would occasionally win would be soon spent on baseball cards or candy or something, he won more often, and had been saving everything he won from me solely for the enjoyment of rubbing my face in it A YEAR LATER! This was no rookie I was dealing with.

I lost this bet, too. Amongst my birthday presents sat a bag of frozen lima beans.

As I picked it up and realized what it was, my brother just started laughing. What else could I do but laugh as well. Dad looked at both of us as though we were crazy, but once the story was explained, he had to laugh too.

So, the bag of lima beans now resides in my freezer, and I am resigned to be their keeper for the time being, until I can find either a willing recipient or an unwitting soul to pass them along to.

Any of you out there have birthdays coming up?

Friending Me on Facebook: You're Doing it Wrong (5 Tips For Networking On Facebook)

I've mentioned in previous posts that I am a firm believer that social media should be just that: social. While I understand and respect those who choose to limit their friend lists to those people with whom they have interacted in some way in the real world (former classmates, ex-coworkers, family and friends, etc.), I also feel they are missing out on one of the great joys that social media offers.

The ability for the average person to meet and converse with people from all across the world at the touch of a keyboard simply didn't exist a short few years ago. Now, thanks in large part to sites like Facebook, there is little difference between "across the street" and "across the globe." While this has been a boon for the professional networking crowd, it's also a chance for anyone to expand their horizons beyond their physical location. The people that you can connect with online and who become "cyber-friends" are the 21st century equivalent of the pen pal, without having to wait weeks to receive replies in the mail.

I have met and built friendships with many wonderful folks on Facebook who I will likely never have the chance to meet in person due to the distance between our physical locations. I have connected with folks as far away as Indonesia, India, France and the UK, networking both for business purposes and out of shared interests discovered through common Facebook groups or other online interactions. I tend to keep an open-door policy when it comes to accepting friend requests, as I am always interested in meeting new people. However, in the interests of safety and sanity (there are some real wackos online!), there are some basic guidelines I use in determining whether I'm going to accept that request. These are guidelines I also follow when I am extending a friend request to someone.

Last week, I received a friend request from someone who broke almost every one of these guidelines. I had to chuckle to myself as I hit the "ignore" button, as this person was clearly unskilled at the most basic concepts of networking, which happen also to be the foundation for these guidelines:

1. If We Haven't Met, Introduce Yourself. Facebook offers an option to include a personal message when you send a friend request. If you are reaching out to someone you have not met before, take a moment to add a sentence or two explaining why you're reaching out. Something like, "Hi, I noticed that you and I have several mutual friends here," or "I saw your profile and we are both fans of _____," or even "I am interested in meeting people from your part of the world." Something that gives me an idea why you are reaching out to me, so you're not mistaken for some weirdo stalker type.

2. If We Have Met, Don't Assume I Remember Who You Are. Especially if the only place we've met is another online service. (Twitter folks, I'm looking at you!) Whether we've talked on Twitter, met at a social function hosted by a common friend, or have interacted briefly in a business context, it helps a great deal to see a note saying, "I'm @twittername," "We met at John Doe's house last week," or "I work for XYZ Inc, and would like to add you to my contacts." Trust me, not everyone's memory is as superb as yours may be. This also applies if you are reaching out to someone from your past - a simple "I sat behind you in history in 8th grade," may make the difference between your request being accepted or tossed into the "ignore" bin.

The person who sent me the mystery request that inspired this post included no personal message, so I all I got was a name that rang no bell with me whatsoever. Had I ever met this person before, anywhere? If not, why was I being invited to join his Facebook circle?

3. Fill Out Your Profile Page, And Make Sure your Settings Allow Me To See It. If I don't know you well - or at all - believe me, the first place I'm going is to your profile page and the "about me" section. I want to know if we do have interests in common, or if there is something especially interesting about you that sells me on adding you as a friend. Be honest, but be creative - have a little fun with your profile page. Let your personality come through your words; this is one of those times when it is better to write the way you talk rather than stick to stodgy rules of composition. This is your first impression, and first impressions count!

Also, make sure you've got your privacy settings structured so that at least your basic "about me" info is viewable. The mystery person last week had his entire profile set to private, so again all I had was a random name. Even without the explanatory message, an interesting or unusual profile might have sold me.

4. Use A Photo Of Yourself As Your Profile Pic. That profile picture is extremely important! Some folks' memories are better jogged with a visual than anything else. Yet so often I get friend requests with no picture - or, worse yet, a meaningless picture. Use a picture of yourself. Not your family. Not your dog. Not your car. Not Bob Hope. Yourself. Preferably a head shot - remember, the pics aren't that big to begin with, so if the picture is of you rappelling down a rocky cliff, you're going to look like a shadowy smudge on my monitor.

Keep in mind that your profile pic can also work against you. The mystery friend request last week included a picture of a car (I assume owned by the person who sent the request), a high-end, high-dollar sporty number. All that told me was that this person either a.) is so materialistic as to believe others are going to be impressed by his wealth, or b.) is so shallow as to believe it important to project that image. In either case, that's a direct ticket to the "ignore" bin in my book.

5. Be Willing To Engage In Conversation Before I Decide To Accept. If I've got nothing else to go on, and I'm in a gregarious enough mood, I'll take one final step before hitting "ignore": I'll send a message to the person asking for some help in figuring out who they are. This can be done politely enough.

In the case of my mystery request, since all I had was a random name, no info, no profile, and a meaningless picture, I sent a message saying, "Forgive me, but have we met? If not, what made you choose me as someone to send a friend request to?"

Well, I never got a response from the mystery requester. In fact, in short order the friend request itself disappeared - had I scared this person off by asking such a basic question? Or, had I in fact successfully filtered a wacko? I'll never know for sure. If he was trying to network, he certainly was not doing it well!

By the way, if you would like to friend me on Facebook, feel free. Just make sure, please, to give me some idea of who you are!

New Wave for the New Week #48

There came a point, about the middle of 1983, when the standard in music videos changed from the early shoestring-budget chromakey clips of bands singing their songs amid various cheap-o video effects to high-minded "concept clips" that told a story. What was once a three-minute promo clip for a song became twice as long, with some sort of scene played out using the band as actors before getting around to the song itself.

Usually, only the big-name major-labels had the budgets to create these mini-movies, but in early 1984 a little-known indie label out of North Carolina, Dolphin Records, created one for their band-of-the-moment in hopes of gaining a slot in MTV's airplay rotation and the national exposure that came with it.

Although the clip was timely (a take on the Indiana Jones saga so popular at the time) and well done, and although the song was fantastic and the band local cult heroes in Durham, NC, "Change Gotta Come" by The X-Teens never received the airplay that was hoped for.

Kitty Moses (vocals and bass), Robert Bittle (guitar), Ned Robie (drums), and Todd Jones (keyboards) formed The X-Teens in 1980 and immediately released their first of three excellent records, ...big boy's dream. Mixing ideas and sounds gleaned from Elvis Costello, Pylon, and The B-52's into a twitchy, poppy blast, The X-Teens found an eager audience in the early '80s North Carolina New Wave scene.

Two more albums would follow: X-Teens in 1983 and Love and Politics in 1984; but the band was getting frustrated that their regional success was not translating into a wider fan-base. When "Change Gotta Come" failed to break them big, the band split up.

The X-Teens remain well-known in their home state, and are often pointed to as forerunners of what would become known as "The Chapel Hill Sound" of the mid-to-late '80s as defined by NC bands like Let's Active, The Connells, and The dB's. Indeed, all three of The X-Teens records were produced by Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, whose trademark sound practically defined that subgenre. All three records are well worth your efforts in finding, but for now, here's our first NW4NW entry for 2010 (and a fitting title as we enter a brand new year with hopes of better days than 2009 left behind!), "Change Gotta Come" by The X-Teens. Enjoy!

My 20 Favorite Songs of the First Decade of the 2000s (Part Two)

Loving the feedback I've been getting on Facebook and Twitter for the first half of the countdown - now if only I could get you guys to actually comment HERE...

But enough of my whining, let's finish up this countdown, shall we?

#10 - "Because I'm Awesome" by The Dollyrots (2007)
Kelly Ogden and her band The Dollyrots actually are awesome, and so is this song, which was the title cut from their second album (which also includes a killer cover of Melanie's "Brand New Key"). Getting national attention via airplay on Little Steven's Underground Garage, The Dollyrots have had their music turn up on TV shows ranging from CSI: NY to Ugly Betty. About time for a new album from them (pleasepleaseplease...)


#9 - "Lighten Up, Morrissey" by Sparks (2008)
A perfect example of what makes Sparks such an amazing band: an inherent sense of what a pop song should sound like coupled with an adamant refusal to write pop songs, and subject matter that no one else ever thought to tackle (here, the tribulations of dating a girl who is WAY too into the former Smiths singer) handled with some of the most brilliantly clever lyrics ever written. Recording since the early 1970s, Sparks show no signs of slowing down, thankfully. You can find this on last year's Exotic Creatures of the Deep album.


#8 - "Fell in Love with a Girl" by The White Stripes (2001)
Hard to believe this song is almost ten years old already! The White Stripes' brand of minimalistic lo-fi exhuberance is easy to spot, although the duo of Jack White and Meg White (who have claimed to be brother & sister, boyfriend & girlfriend, husband & wife, and divorced couple at various times throughout their career - they actually have been three of the four) have tried their hands at a number of genres. This, from White Blood Cells, is easily my favorite thing they ever did.


#7 - "Maneaters (Get Off the Road)" by Josie Cotton (2007)
Yep, the same Josie Cotton who had an underground hit back in the early 1980s with "Johnny, Are You Queer?" She's made something of a comeback this decade, releasing two albums. Most recent was Invasion of the B-Girls, from which comes this wonderful cover of the theme song from Herschell Gordon Lewis' 1968 cult classic She Devils on Wheels. Out-frickin'-standing!


#6 - "Too Bad About Your Girl" by The Donnas (2002)
It's easy to spot that these girls grew up listening to The Ramones, AC/DC and Kiss; it's also clear that they studied their Joan Jett records. Although they get lumped into the Punk and Alternative category, what The Donnas do is really just good ol' rawk 'n' roll with no apologies. Gotta love that! Annoyingly, they are also the band that I have had the most chances to see live but haven't yet seen - something always comes up! I will get to see them eventually; until then, their records, such as Spend the Night (where this song can be found), will have to do. Oh, and major props for the PJ Soles cameo in the clip!

Watch more Spend the Night videos on AOL Video

#5 - "Hot Night Crash" by Sahara Hotnights (2004)
If The Donnas represent the musical fruition of the seeds Joan Jett planted, then Sweden's Sahara Hotnights evolved directly from Suzi Quatro: a litle glammier, a little poppier, but every bit as tough. This song, which boasts one of the catchiest damn choruses of the decade, is one of those "any time it comes on the volume MUST be turned up" tunes. Pick up the Kiss and Tell album to hear more!


#4 - "Extraordinary Machine" by Fiona Apple (2002/2005)
First thing you'll notice here is that there are two years given for this song. This represents the three-year wait that we had to endure before Fiona Apple's label would officially release the Extraordinary Machine album. Early (and, I believe, superior) demo versions of the album were leaked online and a grassroots "Free Fiona" campaign helped to finally get the songs released in some form. What was officially released was, of course, something closer to the polished, shiny radio product that the label wanted. But you cannot hide pure talent, which is what Fiona is. Here's hoping we don't have to wait so long or fight so hard for the next record!


#3 - "Maps" by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2003)
Majestic, soaring, hypnotic..."Maps" exploded onto college and alternative radio playlists in 2003, and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have never looked back. Led by the fascinatingly exotic Karen O, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have released three albums of amazing music, ranging from tuneless shrieking to beautiful washes of melody, all of it demanding your attention in much the same way Karen herself does onstage. This, from their debut, Fever to Tell, remains their most awesome creation.


#2 - "Science Genius Girl" by Freezepop (2000)
It's hard to tell sometimes whether Bostonians Liz Enthusiasm, The Other Sean T. Drinkwater, and The Duke of Pannekoeken (collectively, Freezepop) are being serious or are doing a deadly-sharp parody of '80s synthpop. They've got the playbook down pat, and certainly are capable of writing great songs, but when those songs include odes to former Growing Pains star "Tracy Gold" and trendy '80s mall store "Chess King," you have to wonder how hard they're laughing while you're dancing. "Science Genius Girl," from their debut album Freezepop Forever, is a perfect example: catchy, undeniably danceable, but all done with a coy wink. Hmmm...


#1 - "Terminal Boredom" by The Cute Lepers (2008)
Ordering this list was difficult; picking the #1 song was easy. The Cute Lepers' Can't Stand Modern Music has seldom left my CD changer in the last year or so, and this song is the standout on that excellent album. No new ground being broken here - it's good ol' punk rock done the right way: power chords, a healthy dose of snarkiness, and chant-along lyrics about there ain't being nothin' to do. It's great from start to finish, a wonderful musical time machine. Perfect!


So there you have it - my picks for the Top 20 songs of the decade. I'm sure you have comments, or your own lists. Bring 'em on!

And, wherever or however you are celebrating New Year's Eve this year, please be safe, and have a happy, healthy, and joyous 2010!