"Spiders are singing in the salty breeze ... spinning out webs of deductions and melodies"

Precursor Ramblings To Bobby B's 50 Albums of the Decade...

It's hard to believe that we're already 10 years into this millennial decade. It seems like only yesterday we were all in fear of Y2K and all of the nonsense associated with that. I always assumed that by this time I'd be flying around in my fuel efficient time machine Delorean, paying $400 for a Coke and fighting intergalactic battles with Wilma Deering by my side. It was 100 years ago that Ottawa won its first Stanley Cup as the Ottawa Senators and it was also that same year when the first commercial flight took place. We're just shy of two years away from the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's massive sinking and just four years away from the 100th anniversary of WW1. We're currently also about 51 years away from Halley's Comet's next appearance.

But random wikipedia stalkings aside, at this here blog it's all about the music, and the internet age of this last decade has seen music become more and more accessible to the masses, as the general public is finally in a position where they get to choose for themselves what they're going to listen to. Sadly, the large majority still hasn't taken advantage of this newfound freedom, opting to put money in the pockets of all of the Theory of a Nickelcreeds and Taylor bleedin' Swift's out there, but I don't think that we'll be seeing that for too much longer. The foul stench of the music industry's rapidly decaying corpse is becoming stronger than ever, and the public will soon have no other choice but to look to podcasts, blogs and other independent sources to feed their musical appetite which means gaining recommendations from people who actually enjoy music. What a novel idea! We're inching that much closer to an era where the important thing will no longer be what a singer's midrift looks like or what music some stuffed shirt has slapped into the pretty person's teen drama of the moment, but it will finally depend on the actual sounds coming through your speakers. OK, maybe I'm dreaming, but when has dreaming ever hurt anybody?

Still, in the meantime, for those who actually care, we have access to more music than ever before, which means that, to my ears, music has never sounded better. I'm sure that hundreds would disagree with me, but I feel that the "oughts" have been the best decade for music since the 1960's, and I've found it downright impossible to keep up with every band, genre and artists that appeals to me; a problem I've never encountered before. However, this is a fun problem to have as I've been spending the last couple of months revisiting all of the music that I've been introduced to since the year 2000 in an effort to compile a list of my favorite albums of the decade. And I'm happy to say that, by George, I think I've got it!

Starting tomorrow, I'll be taking you on a two week journey through my top 50 albums of the decade. I don't think that there'll be a huge ton of surprises, especially for those who have been following my blog at all over the last few years. I worked hard to be as objective as I can be though, not allowing myself to be swayed by popular opinion or common thoughts on what is "hip" or "cool" or (ugh) "indie." There are a few choices that are pretty much exclusive to my own personal list, not because these albums are that much better than everyone else's, but more because I've grown a personal attachment to them. Of course, there are other albums that are making all of the "decade end" lists simply because they deserve it, and you're gonna find these ones on my list too. (Yes, of course Arcade Fire made my list because I'm not an idiot, but it's not number one nor is it in the top ten.)

So I hope you enjoy my ten day foray into self indulgence (eleven days if you include this wordy rambling) as I will have album's 50 - 46 posted early tomorrow morning.

The title lyric is from the song 'Spiders (Kidsmoke)' by Wilco (pictured above), an artist that makes a couple of appearances on the list.

And The Verdict Is Guilty....Pleasures, That Is.

Every music snob has a guilty pleasure. Or two. Or fifty. And every music snob secretly loves that guilty pleasure. However, if you were to ask said snob about such a thing, they will either flatly deny ever liking it, or their admission will be done so sheepishly that you'd think that they've just admitted to bombing a country or something. Yes, we take music very seriously, oftentimes a little too seriously. I say it's time to embrace these so-called guilty pleasures and just fess up already. What makes a pleasure guilty anyway? Boston's "More Than A Feeling," for example, has become a guilty pleasure for many. Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," however, is cool. Yet, if you listen to the songs back-to-back, there are several striking similarities. The funny thing is, that the so-called guilty pleasures that we have such a hard time admitting to liking, are actually often the songs that we like best. A friend of mine, when asked about his favourite band, will often say that Pavement is his favourite, but then add that his ACTUAL favourite is Fleetwood Mac. As for myself, I love the new Spoon CD, but I will likely never have it memorized to the extent that I've memorized Rick Springfield's "Working Class Dog" album. I've also mentioned several times the fact that there was way more bad music to come out of the 80's than there was good music. But you should see me tear up the dance floor when "The Safety Dance" is played. (Not that my dancing is any good, but my enthusiasm is apparent. If you like my dancing, then there's your guilty pleasure my friend.)

I think the greatest testament to me, concerning the level of enjoyment that can be had by simply succumbing to your guilty musical pleasures, was at a little gig my friends and I performed at recently. The band covered songs by Sloan, Jimmy Eat World, Peter Bjorn & John as well as several others. Many people enjoyed listening to these songs but, since this was an outdoor event, there were also many others that were playing basketball and volleyball and generally paying very little attention to what was taking place onstage. However, we did play a cover of the truly obnoxious song "Grace Kelly" by Mika. Yes we did. And when I hit that crazy falsetto during the chorus, why, the sports fanatics in the area immediately dropped what they were doing. Wild jungle animals bounded out of the forest, clouds parted and the deaf were suddenly able to hear again. And although my voice is far from magnificent, the crowds responded with thunderous applause. I was on a high that is truly unequaled. Yes, that guiltiest of pleasures was many people's highlight of the evening. Couple that with the flocks of people that have dished out money to see Mamma Mia! and we have proof that everybody loves a guilty pleasure. And if that's the case, do we really need to feel THAT guilty about it?

Therefore, at the risk of completely shattering any ounce of music snob credibility that I may have left, (not that there's a whole lot of that kicking around anyway) I present to you, the Quadb Top 20 Guilty Pleasures List (along with some links to the delightfully cheesy videos that were once used to promote these clips):

1. Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield mp3 / video
2. Steal My Sunshine - Len video
3. Informer - Snow video
4. Heart Attack - Olivia Newton-John video
5. Photograph - Def Leppard video
6. Bad Blood - Neil Sedaka (couldn't find a proper video for this one, but here's some dude lip synching it on youtube.)
7. Shake You Down - Gregory Abbott video
8. Waterloo - ABBA video
9. Come Sail Away - Styx video
10. Sk8ter Boi - Avril Lavigne video
11. Celebration - Kool & The Gang video
12. Don't Stop Believin' - Journey video
13. The Safety Dance - Men Without Hats video
14. Most 80's nouveau progressive rock like Marillion, Asia or Dream Theater
15. Do You Believe In Love? - Huey Lewis & The News video
16. The Final Countdown - Europe video (or does Arrested Development make this one OK now?)
17. Anything by The Carpenters
18. Mandy - Barry Manilow video
19. Respect Yourself - Bruce Willis video (My name is Bob and I once owned a Bruce Willis album *sobs, I need help...)
20. Since You've Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson video

Wow. I'm likely to need a little bit of therapy after this admission. However, to soften the blow (and make me look a little less lame,) make sure you check out the upcoming compilation "Guilt By Association", coming out on Engine Room Recordings on August 28th. Many of our favourite indie rockers are covering some of their own guilty pleasures.Go to Pitchfork to read about it, and hear Devendra Banhart singing Oasis, and Petra Haden covering Journey. Pretty cool stuff.