Sorry I haven’t been around much lately. I promised myself last year that I would no longer put blogging first in my life when there are other things to do. And there have been other things to do! When it rains here in So Cal–and it has rained a LOT–it’s time to put native seeds in the ground. November is prime planting time so I am pushing it a bit, but I am always sorry that I didn’t plant more so I’m going for it.

And that brings me to the theme of this week’s Contrast Podcast: GO. This week also marks the 200th podcast, and since it’s a weekly deal, that tells you how dedicated our host Tim Young and my fellow contributors are. I compiled a list of 30 songs with variations on the word “Go,” and these were at the top of the list.

I mistakenly introduced my song choice as being from my third favorite album of 2009 and only later remembered that Kabukimono was actually my fourth favorite album. I’ll excuse that error because I liked my top 5 of 2009 so much, any one of them could have been #1! I am still nuts about Rainbow Arabia’s multi-layered rhythms, Middle Eastern ululations, and microtonal keyboard riffs, and I play the album often–maybe more often than the three albums that preceded it on my Top 10 of 2009.

Rainbow Arabia - I Know I See I Love I Go from Kabukimono
MySpace | Buy

It’s hard to say anything about this except that it is gorgeous.
Ane Brun - To Let Myself Go from A Temporary Dive (2004)
MySpace | Buy

Vintage Queens of the Stone Age! Songs for the Deaf was such an amazing album. I might as well say here that I don’t get the broken light bulb mascots that QOTSA started using a couple of years ago. What’s that about?
Queens of the Stone Age - Go With the Flow from Songs for the Deaf (2002)
MySpace | Buy

Material Issue was one of my favorite bands of the 90s (I had a lot of favorite bands in the 90s). We miss you, Jim Ellison.
Material Issue - Goin' Through Your Purse from Freak City Soundtrack (1994)
Fan Website | Buy

I love how Tony Joe White drawls out ominously, “Y’all ain’t from around heah, are ya?” You just know there’s something about that swamp he isn’t telling.
Boozoo Bajou - Keep Going from Dust My Broom (2005)
MySpace | Buy

And of course, I could have selected one of my favorite songs of all time, “Go Insane.” Lindsey Buckingham is still a damn sexy guy, at least to an old lady like myself. I still love the video too.
Lindsey Buckingham - Go Insane from Go Insane (1985)
MySpace | Buy

Photo: Sky On Fire, December sunset by alt-gramma

Ryan and Rebecca Coseboom

Stripmall Architecture - Gladhander from We Were Flying Kites (2009)

MySpace | Buy and Download at Bandcamp | Also at Amazon

The Lost Highway record label debut of this great Austin, TX soul and blues band led by Joe Lewis is pretty good. The production is great and the songs are tight and jumping.
Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears - Gunpowder
from Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is!

MySpace | Buy

7. M. Ward - Hold Time

Pretty good CD, quite similar in style to his great “Post-War” CD from 2006. It’s got some really nice songs, including a very cool cover of Buddy Holly’s “Rave On”.

M. Ward - Never Had Nobody Like You
from Hold Time

MySpace | Buy

8. Leonard Cohen - Live In London

At 74 the master returns to crank out his classics live with a stellar band, and his songs never sounded better. It was quite an experience this year to see him and this great band live at Nokia Theatre in Grande Prairie, TX on April 3rd (link). I hope they go straight into the studio after their tour ends.

Leonard Cohen - Tower of Song from Live In London

Website | Buy | Leonard Cohen Concert Review

9. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl

Van reproduces his 1968 classic album in its entirety live in this 2008 concert. Musically, this live CD stays somewhat true to the original folk and jazz combination. And Van’s vocals on this are as spectacular as they were back in the Sixties. It’s a real testimony to his great talent to be able to reprise and expand upon this classic work forty years after it originally came out.

Van Morrison - Madame George
from Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl

Website | Buy

10. Iggy Pop - Preliminaires

Following his Stooges reunion and the untimely death of their guitarist, Ron Ashton, Iggy shifts gears dramatically with this cool CD of songs he wrote based on the novel “The Possibility of an Island” by French writer Michel Houellebecq. The music consists of slow ballads, jazzy numbers, and some near-rock burners. And, The Ig even croons a few songs in French (his high school French class finally hit pay dirt).

Iggy Pop - King of the Dogs from Preliminaires

Website | Buy

1. Heartless Bastards - The Mountain

This third effort is essentially an Erika Wennerstrom solo CD with great production work by Mike McCarthy (Spoon), recorded after the departure of the band’s bassist and drummer and before the latest players had been recruited. Erika emotes about relationship loss, sadness, transition, and moving forward. While the music retains this band’s signature guitar sound, other musicians were brought in to expand and sweeten many of the songs with pedal steel, mandolin, banjo, and violin. As a whole, it’s very good with Erika’s vocals at the forefront. The title song is pure magic, and there are plenty of other great moments.

MySpace | Buy

2. Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk

Really cool collaboration of M. Ward, Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Conner Oberst and Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes). Surprisingly these guys seamlessly blend together to come up with the sleeper CD of the year. The worst thing about them is their name. For a super-group of their stature, they should have spent a time coming up with a memorable name; I don’t think “James, Oberst, Mogis, and Ward” would’ve worked any better. Oh well, just enjoy the music.

Monsters of Folk - Baby Boomer from Monsters of Folk

MySpace | Buy

3. Booker T - Potato Hole

A perfect summertime CD of instrumentals by the legendary Stax keyboardist with able backing by The Drive-By Truckers and Neil Young on lead guitar. Similar to The MGs, but just a little dirtier. Excellent CD.

Booker T - Hey Ya from Potato Hole

MySpace | Buy

4. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

This vocalist force-of-nature put out her most consistent effort yet assisted by an assortment of friends (M. Ward, Calexico, Garth Hudson, etc.). The songs are about tornados, killer whales, prison girls, love, regret, and all kinds of other things.

Neko Case - Prison Girls from Middle Cyclone

MySpace | Buy

5. Wilco - Wilco (the album)

Similar in style to their last CD, the excellent “Sky Blue Sky”, this one’s also pretty consistent and good. It seems this band has reached a nice creative musical plateau as a band. And witnessing their live performance at this year’s New Orleans Jazz Festival was quite a treat.

Wilco - Black Bull Nova

MySpace | Buy

16. Alberta Cross - Broken Side of Time

If this debut full-length by Alberta Cross had been released in the late 60s, it would have stood well against music that is now considered classic. These days, due to oversaturation of the music market, it is likely to be overlooked. One problem with this album is its lack of hooks–”singalongability.” Everybody and his sister can sing “Down By the River” and “Cinnamon Girl,” but the lyrics on Broken Side of Time are mostly too unintelligible to provide that kind of familiarity. Still, the lashing guitars provide ample thrill factor.

“Rise From the Shadows” brought my attention back to this album after I found it for my Halloween mix. I love the ending, where layer upon layer of builds over Petter Ericson Stakee’s haunting wolf howls. “ATX” is another great track.

Alberta Cross - ATX from Broken Side of Time

MySpace | Buy | Alberta Cross at Coachella 2009

17. Wye Oak - The Knot

Wye Oak’s second full-length presents Jenn Wasner as she plays onstage, banging out fat, chunky chords like the ones on “Take It In.” Wasner learned well the lesson in dynamics that Jimmy Page was trying to teach in “Ramble On” (watch It Might Get Loud), and she has made those flares of distortion more melodic this time than just noisy as they were on Wye Oak’s debut If Children.

As a whole, the slow pace of the album reflects the sad subject matter of a love gone south. Pretty melodies are a front for bitter words. The best songs are “Take It In,” “That I Do,” and “For Prayer,” and my favorite “I Want For Nothing.” I love the strings and how the song pauses before swelling out to full power again. I am disappointed that I can’t understand the lyrics, which like others on the album are far more sad and angry than the melody suggests.

Wye Oak - I Want For Nothing from The Knot

MySpace | Buy | Wye Oak Concert Review

18. Freelance Whales - Weathervanes

I confess that I haven’t listened to this album very much, as it is new for me, but I do like it even though I suspect the three pretty one-minute instrumentals are filler. The rest, however, seems right up my alley, sometimes sounding like a plugged-in Paul Simon (”Location”), sometimes like School of Seven Bells playing Fleet Foxes (”Generator^First Floor”), and sometimes like the folkish side of MGMT (”Ghosting”). I think I am going to like everything even more as time goes on.

Freelance Whales - Location from Weathervanes

MySpace | Buy | Band Blog

19. Here We Go Magic - Here We Go Magic

Luke Temple turns trippy with his new project Here We Go Magic, a big conceptual departure from his previous folk tradition. “Tunnelvision” and “Fangela” are such brilliant jewels that it’s hard to remember that the rest of the album is quite good too, although I don’t care much for “Nat’s Alien.” I hope HWGM will produce another album of fine songs in the future.

Here We Go Magic - Fangela from Here We Go Magic

MySpace | Buy

20. City of Satellites - Machine Is My Animal

An entire album possessed of crystalline beauty, Machine Is My Animal by Australian outfit City of Satellites is the perfect thing for peaceful chilling out. My Thanksgiving week album review (HERE) did not get much interest; I hope to get you to give this another try.

City of Satellites - Control from Machine Is My Animal

MySpace | Buy

HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE!