Metapollism

The results in the 2006 Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll came out today, and Bob Dylan's Modern Times was the winner. Dylan has won the P&J poll every year that he's made an album in the past decade.

This year the Voice's authority as the poll of record was challenged by the idolator blog and their own Jackin' Pop poll. I like that term "jackin' pop" because one of its double meanings is a great euphemism for end-of-year critics polls.

It's hard to determine which poll is more authoritative because they both had around 500 voters, and the consensus from both polls were nearly identical, with eight of the ten albums in their top tens being the same.

Idolator 2006 Jackin' Pop Critics Poll (497 voters)

1. Return To Cookie Mountain by TV On The Radio
2. Fishscale by Ghostface Killah
3. Boys And Girls In America by The Hold Steady
4. Hell Hath No Fury by Clipse
5. Ys by Joanna Newsom
6. Modern Times by Bob Dylan
7. St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley
8. Silent Shout by The Knife
9. Fox Confessor Brings The Flood by Neko Case
10. The Life Pursuit by Belle & Sebastian

Village Voice 2006 Pazz & Jop Poll (494 voters)

1. Modern Times by Bob Dylan
2. Return To Cookie Mountain by TV On The Radio
3. Fishscale by Ghostface Killah
4. Boys And Girls In America by The Hold Steady
5. St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley
6. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not by Arctic Monkeys
7. Hell Hath No Fury by Clipse
8. Fox Confessor Brings The Flood by Neko Case
9. Ys by Joanna Newsom
10. Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards by Tom Waits

Hard to tell which poll has more pull. I've always thought that the best way to determine the critical consensus "best albums of 2006" would be to feed a bunch of polls into a database, with the albums that show up highest ranked in the most polls being the best by consensus.

Metacritic does something like that, but their "best-reviewed albums of the year" tend to be more things that a small number of reviewers liked a lot rather than the albums liked by the most reviewers. I think the ideal way to find a critical consensus would be to treat metacritic's individual critic's top-ten lists like electoral votes in the "hot rox metapoll" a poll of polls to determine which albums appeared in the most polls with the highest rank.

Luckily, metacritic does all the leg-work by putting together all these top-ten lists in a readable format, so all you need to do is cut and paste that into a text file and write a little perl script to parse the file and determine the votes and rankings. Since this is an electoral vote, I restricted the list to American polls. One of the reason the colonists dumped all that tea in Boston Harbor was so the Arctic Monkeys wouldn't top our album polls 230 years later!

The scoring is based on the loud-fans poll, with each vote counting as 11.01 - (ranking), so each #1 gets 10.01, each #2 gets 9.01, etc. By that scoring system, here were the most awesome albums of 2006 by virtue of appearing in the most polls.

2006 Hot Rox Metapollism Top Ten

1. Return To Cookie Mountain by TV On The Radio (182.23)
2. Ys by Joanna Newsom (117.21)
3. Fishscale by Ghostface Killah (106.18)
4. Boys And Girls In America by The Hold Steady (93.15)
5. St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley (80.11)
6. Modern Times by Bob Dylan (69.12)
7. Hell Hath No Fury by Clipse (62.11)
8. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not by Arctic Monkeys (61.08)
9. Fox Confessor Brings The Flood by Neko Case (58.14)
10. The Life Pursuit by Belle & Sebastian (57.11)

This critical electorate consensus is nearly identical to the Pazz & Jop and Jackin' Pop top tens, having a 9/10ths overlap with each poll. Turning the poll inside out, we can determine which polls are the most "normal" (statistically speaking) with their top-tens being the highest ranked among the consensus. Ranked by normalcy, the Village Voice has a slight edge over Idolator.

Most Normal Polls in the 2006 Hot Rox Metapoll

1. Village Voice Pazz&Jop (852.38)
2. Idolator Jackin' Pop (841.39)
3. Spin (700.09)
4. Pitchfork (687.11)
5. PopMatters (669.02)
6. Rhapsody (662.09)
7. Rolling Stone (630.01)
8. Tris McCall Report (621.03)
9. Shaking Through (618.04)
10. Stylus (606.98)

The 182.23 points for TV On the Radio in the 2006 poll is still short of the consensus best album of 2005, Illinois by Sufjan Stevens. Sufjan was on 3/4ths of the polls in 2005, and dusted the competition with 208.30 points. Illinois is the most acclaimed album of the 2000s!

2005 Hot Rox Metapollism Top Ten

1. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (208.30 points)
   
2. M.I.A. - Arular (133.20)
3. Kanye West - Late Registration (113.18)
4. Antony & The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now (93.16)
5. My Morning Jacket - Z (86.13)
6. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods (76.12)
7. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema (74.12)
8. Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine (73.12)
9. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (67.11)
10. The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan (66.12)

By the way, the term "metapollism" doesn't google, so I may have just invented a new word!

Forty years younger than yesterday

This week marks forty years since the release of Gene Clark With the Gosdin Brothers (aka Echoes), the first country-rock record ever according to wikipedia.

This was Clark's first solo album after leaving the Byrds, and features Chris Hillman on bass and Michael Clarke on drums, as well as future Byrds Clarence White and Doug Dillard, so it sounds like a close cousin to the Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday (which was also released forty years ago this week).

As the title suggests, the album was a collaboration with the Gosdin Brothers (Vern and Rex), who added guitars and harmonies and brought Gene's Byrdsy folk rock to the country, more than a year before Sweetheart of the Rodeo or the International Submarine Band brought "country-rock" into the vernacular.

Since it came out the same week as Younger Than Yesterday, and featuring such a novel sound, Gene's album got lost in Columbia's promotional shuffle for the Byrds and didn't have a chance on either the country or pop charts. Back in 1967, there weren't Americana or even FM-rock stations to play albums like this, and alt-country was still decades away from being "invented" by Uncle Tupelo, so this album was a masterpiece without an audience.

One of the standout tracks on Gene Clark With the Gosdin Brothers is "Tried So Hard", which was later covered by Fairport Convention, the post-Gram Flying Burrito Brothers, and Yo La Tengo (on their Fakebook album) . Besides Clark/Byrds diehards, most people know this song from the cover versions, but here's an alternate take of the original, from the long out-of-print 1990 Epic/Legacy reissue of the album. This site gives a good writeup of the recording for this album, and is a great resource for Gene Clark and Byrds info.

Gene Clark With the Gosdin Brothers - Tried So Hard [mp3]

Super Dull

Geez, wasn't that the dullest Super Bowl in the last decade? The only one that might come close was the Bucs-Raiders debacle, but this one was down there with the worst of them.

Back when halftime entertainer Prince was at the height of his popularity in the mid-80s, all the Super Bowls were bad games, but there's been a run of good games for the past few years. This one was badly played at both ends by both teams, and helped me realize why NFL football doesn't hold the same allure for me that it once did.

Even the commercials were boring. I watched the game time-shifted on my DVR, but kept watching the ads anyway hoping for someone to make good use of their $3M worth of ad time. I liked the K-Fed Nationwide ad, and a few others, but when the best Super Bowl commercials are the Letterman and Craig Ferguson , it's a bad year for advertisers too.

But congratulations to the Colts for finishing what Mrs. O'Leary's cow started and putting away Chicago. Instant karma's gonna get you, Bears fans. And Prince's halftime show rocked. Performing "Purple Rain" in the rain. Pure genius. That's why he's Prince, and we're just us.

Two more for the Groundhog

Because Groundhog Day should be Groundhog Week!

The Sneetches - Flying on the Ground Is Wrong [mp3]

During their decade together, the Sneetches were the kings of the cover tune. Besides this cover of the Buffalo Springfield's "Flying On The Ground", they also covered Colin Blunstone ("Caroline Goodbye"), the Easybeats ("Pretty Girl"), the Monochrome Set ("He's Frank"), The Left Banke ("She May Call You Up Tonight") , and the Raspberries ("I Wanna Be With You" w/Shoes). And that doesn't count their contributions to those tribute albums that were all the rage in the early 90s (Zombies, Bee Gees, Hollies).

This cover of "Flying On The Ground Is Wrong" was chosen because it came up in an iTunes search for "ground". It's from a 1990 single on the Bus Stop label, and sounds like it was recorded live. I have it on an import cd called Obscureyears, which collects all their non-LP singles.

The songs the Sneetches chose to cover, both on disc and in concert, were integral in expanding my musical universe as a young adult. For example, I'd never heard of the Monochrome Set before the Sneetches covered "He's Frank". And all I knew the Left Banke, and the Easybeats, and the Buffalo Springfield were the one or two songs they played on oldies radio. There was an earlier cover of "Flying On The Ground" by Kendra Smith & David Roback on the 1984 paisley underground compilation Rainy Day, but I heard the Sneetches version first.

And I kept discovering new things via individual Sneetches after the band broke up. A few years ago I saw Mike Levy play a cool song called "Caroline" at a solo show that he said was by a band called the Magic Moles (or that's what I heard). I looked up that on the internet, and couldn't find anything on the Magic Moles. Turns out it was by Robert Wyatt's post Soft Machine band Matching Mole. How did I go through my whole life without hearing that band?

The Sneetches broke up in the mid-90s, but have reunited a few times since for one-off gigs. Matt Carges moved away from the Bay Area in 2000, but the other three are still around. Mike Levy still plays the odd solo gig. Daniel Swan plays in a bunch of local bands. And Alec Palao plays in a band called The Magic Christian with erstwhile Flamin' Groovie Cyril Jordan.

The Sneetches' band name came (of course) from Dr. Seuss, and I think its extra cool that if you want to convert this Sneetches mp3 to flac or ogg/vorbis, just run it through the sneetchalizer!

Flying Color - I'm Your Shadow [mp3]

Flying Color were another San Francisco band from the late 80s who had one member in common with the Sneetches (a bassist/guitarist who did time in both bands before heading out on his own. He didn't appear on records by either band, so his identity makes a good trivia question). Anyway, I consider this a groundhog song because the title is "I'm Your Shadow", and if the groundhog doesn't see his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter. Flying Color was an anachronism in the Bay Area scene of the late 80s with their paisley shirts and jangly guitars, but their music still sounds fresh and new twenty years later. This self-titled LP (their only one) was reissued on CD by Munster Records in Spain in 1996, but it's way out of print in the US, and should be reissued.

Just The Songs:
The Sneetches - Flying On the Ground (from the CD Obscureyears)

Flying Color - I'm Your Shadow (from the LP Flying Color)

What if it doesn't work?

Thursday: You notice this review on Pitchfork for a new album by The Broken West called I Can't Go On, I'll Go On. It's kind of a so-so review (6.7/10), but the first sentence grabs you: "Power pop is easy to do, but difficult to do well." A power pop band! Sounds promising. You scan the review for the other bands mentioned: Big Star, Cheap Trick, Matthew Sweet. Worth checking out. You notice that it's on Merge, and figure it's probably on emusic so you click on Pitchfork's download from emusic link.

The first sample you check out is "So It Goes", wondering if it's a Nick Lowe cover, but it isn't. You sample a few more songs, but there seems to be a whole lot of not much going on in them. You click on an album comment that takes you to this review on The Fire Note and notice the first sentence "The Broken West represents everything that is right about quality music." You sigh and go on to other things, noticing that the Broken West album is reviewed in the latest SF Weekly. Someone must want you to discover this band. This review tells you to give them another chance.

The band's sound is a retro confection cooked with five parts Big Star, three parts Byrds, and a pinch of Flamin' Groovies, stirred with an unscuffed Rickenbacker..

5 parts Big Star, 3 parts Byrds, and a pinch of Groovies. If it was stirred with a scuffed Rickenbacker you'd be sold, and even an unscuffed one merits further exploration. Off to AMG. Their Broken West review also mentions the Byrds and Big Star as influences. How does every review namecheck the same bands? They list three track picks: "So It Goes","On The Bubble", and "Hale Sunrise"). Back to emusic for more sampling.

You've already heard "So It Goes", so you try "On The Bubble". Is that a keyboard? This song couldn't sound any less like Big Star if it tried! Your last chance to click is "Hale Sunrise". The singer sounds like the guy from the Thrills trying to sound like Jeff Tweedy. More keyboards. Not a jangling Rickenbacker to be heard. You're just about ready to give up.

Friday: The next day you notice this Broken West writeup at Idolator. It mentions Wilco, but also "effervescent Spectorisms with handclaps and sunny falsettos". One of the comments says of the Broken West

These guys sure nail that Bay Area Big-Star-Loving Pop thing. Kind of like a Braff-friendly Game Theory.

You're so jazzed to see Game Theory namechecked in a cool indie-rock blog that you don't eve wonder what a "Braff-friendly" GT would be. And how have you lived in the Bay Area and loved Big Star for nineteen years without even knowing there was a "thing" associated with those two traits?

Luckily there are full-length mp3s so you can listen and make up your own mind.. Maybe one of the other songs is the one that sounds like the Byrds and Big Star. Or even better, a Braff-friendly Game Theory!

The Broken West:
On The Bubble (mp3)
Brass Ring (mp3)

Two For The Groundhog

Today is Groundhog Day, so I'm continuing my Friday On My Mind tradition another week by including two groundhog-themed songs of sorts. Anyone who's ever tried to put together a Groundhog Day mix tape or CD (that would be me) soon realizes that it isn't a very sung-about holiday. With that in mind, here are a couple of "underground recordings" (aka bootlegs) with some connection to Groundhog Day.

R.E.M. - "I Got You Babe" [mp3]
from the Mad Hatter in Athens, GA 09/30/1983

In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray keeps experiencing the same day over and over, and what's worse, every morning at 6am, he gets awakened by Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" on the clock radio. Here's a cover of "IGYB" by R.E.M. from a September 1983 show in Athens, GA. It's a loose and lubricated hometown performance, which this writeup from Bullz-Eye sums up best (though I'm not sure what it means for a bootleg to be "out of print").

Don’t bother looking for this in your local Wal-Mart; not only is it a bootleg, but it’s long since out of print. But if you do, by some slim chance, happen to stumble across an opportunity to hear this Sonny and Cher cover, take advantage of it, because you’ll never, ever forget it. They’re drunk, they don’t know the words (I’m pretty sure there’s no lyric where Sonny says, "I’ve got you to wash my clothes"), and they’re sloppy enough to make even the late, great Bob Stinson go, "Damn, man, ya’ll sound pretty rough". It’s complete and total shit and yet, you can’t help but grin all the way through it. Michael Stipe has become such a pariah over the years that it’s somehow comforting to hear this and remember that, once upon a time, he was just another guy fronting a bar band.

Note: Speaking of shit, this song was ripped from a 20 year old audio tape copied from an even older vinyl bootleg then transcoded to mp3, so rather than complaining that this recording sounds "a little rough", just be happy that it makes any noise at all.

The accompanying photo shows pariah Stipe singing "I Got You Babe" with Cher in 2002. It was part of some award show when Michael was presenting some award to U2's Bono ("Longest Tenure In An Irish Rock Band Without Losing Your Hair?) and gave the standard award show intro: "A singer, a statesman. A who truly needs no introduction.. Bono, this song goes out to you", then launched into "I Got You Babe", joined mid-song by Cher. It was the end of the world as Jim DeRogatis knew it.

"I Got You Babe" is my birth song, and I've always wanted to get someone willing to do a karaoke duet with me. Maybe Cher would sing it with me if I asked her?

The Loud Family - "Just Gone" [mp3]
from WCBR FM, Chicago, 09/13/1996

One look at the title of this blog should be enough for anyone to realize that I consider Interbabe Concern by the Loud Family to be one of the greatest audio sound recordings of the 20th century. "Just Gone" is one of the highlights of that album, and should be a Groundhog Day standard.

That's last year there
Still around in February
Doesn't see his shadow, baby
Doesn't know to leave

I'm not normally one to analyze lyrics, but this is one of Scott Miller's most direct songs, so I can probably tackle it. Imagine the couple from "I Got You Babe" ten years after that song, when they're older, and their Vegas nightclub act and hit television show can keep them from worrying about not paying the rent, but they're now stuck playing a happy couple on stage and screen when they can't stand the sight of each other. And that, as a groundhog would say, is "Just Gone" in a nutshell.

Everyone probably knows the recorded version, so this is a September 1996 live performance from Chicago radio station WCBR (which doesn't seem to exist anymore. c'est la radio!), complete with a minute of DJ chat at the end that I'm too lazy to edit out.

The Songs:
R.E.M. - I Got You Babe (Athens GA, 09/30/1983)
The Loud Family - Just Gone (WCBR radio, Chicago, 09/13/1996)

Note about the songs: These are hosted on an external site called esnips, which is aiming to be another youtobe. They don't let you directly download the songs (right-click save-as) so just click the link to launch the player, then click the download button if you want to save the song, but I'm pretty sure no one will want to listen to these more than once. Leave a comment or email if you can't download. And don't forget to have a Happy Groundhog Day.

Only the ball was orange

Another entry to keep the "sports" tag and blog heading accurate.

A big part of the pre-Super Bowl XLI (being born in 1965 means always knowing which Super Bowl it is) coverage is the discussion about two African-American coaches, Tony Dungy and Lovey Smith, will be coaching against each other for the first time ever.

That happened 32 years ago in the NBA. Our local paper had an article yesterday about the 1975 NBA Finals, when Al Attles led the Golden State Warriors to a four game sweep over K.C. Jones' Washington Bullets. There wasn't much media fuss then about two black coaches facing off for a championship. This was the year I became a Warriors fan (winning titles does that to kids), and I don't remember anyone mentioning anything about Al Attles being black.

I mostly remember that the Warriors only had two white players that year, but one of them was their biggest star. I still shoot free throws underhanded because Rick Barry did. And because I really suck shooting them overhanded.