Do you agree with this list? Rolling Stone's Top 50 albums of 2005.

TIME FOR MY TOP 10's!

Here goes my Top 10 list for 2005 Albums (in order)

1. Kanye West - Late Registration (Def Jam)
2. Nada Surf - The Weight Is A Gift (Barsuk)
3. Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger (Warp)
4. Queens of the Stoneage - Lullabies to Paralyze (Interscope)
5. Greg Dulli's Amber Headlights (Infernal Recordings)
6. Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better (Domino/Epic)
7. Spoon - Gimme Fiction (Merge)
8. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Howl (Red Ink/RCA)
9. Talib Kweli - Right About Now (Sure Shot Recordings)
10. New Buffalo - The Last Beautiful Day (Arts & Crafts)

* I wanted to put Feist on there BUT I put it on my 2004 list when it came then in Canada...and I bet that the Wolf Parade album and the Rogue Wave albums would have made the list but I have not heard either of those albums yet...oh well.

And here are my 10 fave singles of the year:

Tom Vek "I Ain't Saying My Goodbyes"
Gwen Stefani "Hollaback Girl" ZAX Word Up Remix
(a mash up with Cameo's Word Up very cool)
Madonna vs. M.I.A. "UR Hung Up" DJ Monster Mo remix
Busta Rymes "Touch It"
Missy Elliott "Lose Control"
Kanye West "Golddigger"
Franz Ferdinand "Do You Want To"
Greg Dulli "So Tight"
Broken Social Scene "7/4 Shoreline"
Foo Fighters "Best Of You"

What music moved you this past year??

Anyone seen this commercial starring The Blisters on TV?

If you are a fan of the band WILCO then take note Spencer Tweedy is the drummer. He is the son of Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy. And he's 9. And that's his younger brother Sammy in the front. Got to love it! The Blisters also play covers of The Ramones and The Flaming Lips. Too cute.

A great overview on rock music scenes of late

I was reading an excellent story on how Portland might very well be the next indie rock city on the map...and there was this excellent summary at the end...they even mention HALIFAX and SLOAN!! Check it out:

San Francisco
(1965-70) Haight-Ashbury Psychedelia

Scene: Bohemian fuelled by doses of LSD; attracted drifters, dropouts and peaceniks. Freakville, USA. Landmark venues were the Winterland and Bill Graham's Fillmore.

Heard: Roots-based music evolves into jazzier hypnotic rock performed by the Charlatans, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Carlos Santana.

Record label: Autumn Records.

Essential listening: Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow (1967); Moby Grape's self-titled debut (1967).

Today: The music thrived well into the seventies, but now the city produces nothing remarkable.

New York
(1974-80) Punk/New Wave

Scene: Shabbily attired youths flocked to CBGBs, a graffiti-splattered club in the Bowery.

Heard: Glammy punk precursors, the New York Dolls; accelerated, deafening, power-chord rock from the Ramones and Television; poetic rock from the Patti Smith Group; sleek pop from Deborah Harry-led Blondie; and quirky, smart pop from the Talking Heads.

Essential listening: 1976's self-titled debut from the Ramones; Talking Heads: 77 (1977).

Today: Johnny Ramone is dead, and CBGBs is dying.

Athens, Ga.
(1977-83) College Town Alt-Rock

Scene: Small, liberal college town outside Atlanta was the unlikely setting for quirky indie-rock outburst. Venues range from house parties to the smallish Tyrone's and the 40 Watt Club.

Heard: Campy rompers the B-52's; jangly guitar rock from R.E.M.; brooding dance rock from Pylon and Love Tractor.

Record label: DB Records (actually based in Atlanta).

Essential listening: R.E.M.'s Murmur (1983); the B-52's Time Capsule: Greatest Hits (1998).

Today: Bohemian underground scene still alive, though not much has been heard from Athens since oddball singer-songwriters Vic Chesnutt and Jack Logan emerged in the 1990s.

Manchester
(1980s) Madchester

Scene: Grimy working-class city where a career as a pop musician was an appealing alternative to factory work. Epicentre for the late dance-rave era was the Hacienda Club.

Heard: Melancholy new-wave pop (Joy Division, the Smiths) gave way to trippy dance music from Happy Mondays and Stone Roses.

Record label: Factory Records.

Essential listening: Joy Division's Closer (1980); Happy Monday's Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches (1990).

Today: Factory records shut down in 1992; the Hacienda, 1997. But the town is a continuous source of bands, recently producing Oasis, Elbow, the Doves and Badly Drawn Boy.

Seattle
(1990-94) Grunge

Scene: Pleasant coffee-drinking city overwhelmed by flannel-wearing punk-rock enthusiasts.

Heard: Loud, fuzzy punk-based rock 'n' roll played unsmilingly by Screaming Trees, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

Record label: Sub Pop.

Essential Listening: Nirvana's Nevermind (1991); Soundgarden's Superunknown (1994); Pearl Jam's Ten (1991).

Today: By the time Nirvana's Kurt Cobain killed himself in 1994, record labels were already looking for the Next Seattle.

Halifax
(1993-95) The Next Seattle

Scene: After local grunge-pop group Sloan signed with Geffen Records in 1992, record labels descended on the misty Maritime town looking for Nirvana sound-alikes. Venues were the Double Deuce nightclub and Club Flamingo.

Heard: Grungy Beatlesque power pop from Sloan; harder rock from Thrush Hermit; Jale; Eric's Trip.

Record label: DTK Records.

Essential listening: Sloan's One Chord to Another (1996).

Today: Sloan moved to Toronto years ago, but the Haligonian pop scene carries on with less outside interest.

Detroit
(1998-2003) Garage Rock Revival

Scene: Long a musical hotbed, the Motor City was a breeding ground for rhythm and blues in the 1950s, Motown's soul-pop in the '60s, punk rock in the '70s, and techno in the '80s. The more recent garage-rock revival draws on all those musical influences, except for the dance-orientated techno sounds. Key venue is/ was the sprawling Magic Stick complex.

Heard: Blues-based low-fidelity guitar rock from the White Stripes, Von Bondies, Detroit Cobras, Soledad Brothers, and Dirtbombs.

Essential Listening: White Stripes' White Blood Cells (2001) and the Dirtbombs' Ultraglide in Black (2001).

Today: Still thriving, though the media buzz has waned a bit.

Rock and roll never dies!

Check out the photo of Beth and I at the Mick Rock party at the Soho Grand the other night.