Two Thousand Six Encomium

Right, end of year/looking back type of activity... coming right up. Lists? Sure, if we must. Just before midnight we'll pin our lists to the wall and see which has the biggest cock. So, first some things about the year that was 2006:



Rock album you missed this year but really shouldn't have:
The Darkness One Way Ticket To Hell... And Back
Should have been HUGE in '06. This band made me believe again.





Concert of the Year:
Cactus @ B.B. King Blues Club,
Saturday June 3rd
This show found the fourteen year old boy inside of me, brought him out in the open for a hug, and then proceeded to blow his little mind all over Times Square. Guitarist Jim McCarty is one of my original guitar heroes and he certainly still holds court with much pimpdom. Then later he shook my hand and everything, just like he was one of us mortals... Craziness.



Box Set of the Year:
Richard Thompson The Life and Music of Richard Thompson (Free Reed Records)
Five discs of live, alternate, and unreleased RT, a mail-in card towards a sixth disc for initial purchasers, and a booklet - no, book really, that is easily worth a chunk of the purchase price in itself. This is one of those releases that you just know ahead of time is going to kick ass, and then when it does come out it's so very much better than you ever imagined it could be.



Runner-up for Concert of the Year:
Petra Haden & the Sell Outs @ Tonic, Friday October 27th
Petra is like an angel. This show felt like an event, like you wanted to hold your breath until each song ended.
















Laziest Attempt at Creativity: Beck with the artwork for his album The Information Just give the kids some graph paper and some stickers, they'll be fine.








Continually offending the eleven year old inside of me: Prince I know you can still kick ass, I just know it...










And in the "Are they kidding themselves or what?" area:
The Darkness, or what remains of The Darkness, seem to believe they can still carry on as a group without lead singer Justin Hawkins. Yeah, we'll see you in '07 boys...

Finally, some records I listened to a bunch in '06:


Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
Juliana Hatfield - Made in China
Wolfmother - s/t
The Tom Collins - Daylight Tonight
The Darkness - One Way Ticket To Hell... And Back
Joe Kennedy - Van Cortlandt Park
Humbert - Plant The Trees Closer Together
Mr. Rudy Day - Duty
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
Tom Verlaine - Songs And Other Things
Jamie Lidell - Multiply
Nutria - Metronome
Richard & Linda Thompson - Pour Down Like Silver (the Island reissue version)
John Frusciante - Inside Of Emptiness and Curtains (not new releases, but never not fresh)
Les Paul - Crazy Rhythms, The Legendary Fred Waring Broadcasts, and California Melodies (Les is the king)

See y'all in the '07...