In recently trying to fill in a friend on what I'd spent the last year or two listening to, I realized that my personal taste tends to gravitate towards some element of either Folk form (any hint of hill-folk finger-pickin' or Ozark/Appalachian melancholy and I'm in), Psychedelia or the tendency to extend a theme for a good long jam (a category in which I include a lot of the Jazz that I like), or just a great, funky groove.

With those qualifiers in place, the following is a year by year review of the last decade which somehow got past me with out noticing it. I mean, really?!! 2010?!!!  I didn't see it coming: 

2000: Album of the Year

Air's enjoyable and wacky Moon Safari had been on the decks for a couple years before they contracted for the soundtrack to Sofia Coppolla's Virgin Suicides. The resultant score is absolutely sublime and marked the French electronauts as contenders to watch.

For myself, it was the defining sound of the millennium's new year.
















Shelby Lynne released a killer country-soul gem, I Am Shelby Lynne, that echoed early material from the likes of Bonnie Raitt. Thinking that it was a brilliant debut from a talented 32yo unknown, I was eventually shocked to find that it was her 6th album. I listened to it for months.

Starting off with some nice homemade cover art, Bowie never looked finer. I absolutely love the red drawing below; the details are awesome. Dude is drinking f**king Alize! The Ric Ocasek scrawl is priceless, unlike his solo efforts which are priced low. Sorry, couldn't resist that one...


A couple of Beach Boys afters and befores. The Sharpie drawings were over the original shrink wrap; I really dig Mike Love with huge black eyebrows.


How many different GGW Lps are there? I'm not sure, but this is a one of a kind, as is the Grim Reaper pic found inside. Bobby Vinton looks to have had a bit of an accident. The Elsa Lanchester 10" is rare on its own, the drawing must add...oh...a 80% deduction to the value. Unless of course, she drew it, which is a possibilty. The Decline record is too good to be true-- could it have been El Duce himself who defaced poor Darby?

Alice turned me on to this amazing collection of peeping tom themed covers...


Although he's not really hiding, the idea of looking out your window on a rainy night and seeing Glen Campbell looking at you like this is very scary...



a couple of attempts at paradise that kinda of give me the creeps...





I know your every movement say Joe Walsh...



and finally...



Now look, I'm no Raffi hater.  I know from experience that kids love his music and he's a really great guy- it's just that guy Ken back there peering at you from behind the bushes has to go...

    HAPPY    ALL    HALLOWS    EVE


OK, so the day has finally arrived...All Hallows Eve...Devils Night...So my final three suggestions for listening pleasures this wicked evening are here as well...

First, I'll break ranks and suggest a compact disc.  Not just a compact disc but a compact disc single, CD5, whatever...In 1997, the visionaries @ K-Tel came up with the idea to release a novelty single for the Halloween season by none other than Chubby Checker...Maybe they had seen his half-time extravaganza with the Rockettes back in '88 and, that being pretty scary, they thought he could pull of the Halloween thing. The tracks- Doin' The Zombie, House of Horror, The Twist, & Screams From Beyond rival the Fat Boys collaboration on the scare-o-meter (of course none of these tracks come close to the Fat Boys collaboration that the Beach Boys did, or worse yet Mike Love's "Rock n Roll Again" LP where he helps butcher some older songs...check out "Walk Away Renee" by the Association, Midi/Yamaha DX7 frights from hell...anyhow I digress)