1.Saturday Looks Good to Me-All Your Summer Songs (and
they were…the soundtrack of summer 03)
2.High Llamas-Beet, Maize & Corn (Warm welcome back
after drifting off course with a couple of albums of
vapor pop.  Sounds like the missing link recording
between the bucolic “Hawaii” and “Cold & Bouncy.”)
3.Aislers Set-How I Learned to Write Backwards-(short,
slanting, sweet and sad)
4.Fleshtones-Do You Swing?  (Instant party fun factor
and “Are you Ready for the Mountain?” shoots this one
near the top.  The vanguard ‘80s garage revival bands
(i.e., Fleshtones, Cynics and Chesterfield Kings) have
come back with a vengeance in the last couple of
years.  Are the Swingin’ Neckbreakers ready to step to
the plate for the ‘90s bands?)
5.Thanes-Downbeat and Folked Up (sounds like Lenny
Helsing has been listening to some Freddy Fortune
records!  Their Sandy Coast cover of “I’m a Fool”
gives me the chills, it’s that good and jangly.)
6.Singles-Better Than Before (I have read Sire-era
Flamin’ Groovies comparisons, but they sound more
between a less indie Chisel, a less psych Resonars and
less punk Hi-Fives). 
7.FM Knives-Useless & Modern
8.Outrageous Cherry-Supernatural Equinox (“If You Want
Want Me” Song of the Year? Yes!) 
9.Riverdales-Phase Three (“I Believe in You and Me” is
stripped-down, look-up brilliance.)
10.The Apricots-Swingin’! Smilin’!
11.Ted Leo & the Pharmacists-Hearts of Oak (This TL is
frequently compared to Thin Lizzy, but notice the
similarities in the travelogues of “The Ballad of a
Sin Eater” and Frank Black’s “Calistan.”)
12.Woggles-Ragged but Right ("Collector Of Broken
Hearts," could be the best in their canon.)
13.Fondas-Coming Now (Sounding somewhere between the
Detroit Cobras, Ko and the Knockouts, Gore Gore Girls
and the early Pretenders.)
14.All Girl Summer Fun Band-2
15.Thermals-More Parts Per Million (Play loud)
16.Cuts-2 over Ten (It’s all so wrong with those
Cars-esque vocals, but somehow it sounds almost right
17.Hidden Cameras-Smell of Our Own (If they cut down
on their lengthy lengths of their songs, they could be
the new Chills.)
18.Chargers Street Gang- Through the Windshield (Not
the breakthrough of their debut, but still a
palimpsest of guys trying to make it through the bleak
Midwestern muck.)
19.Thrills-So Much for the City (If only they didn’t
parrot chunks of songs by the Carpenters and Nancy
Sinatra.)
20.Visqueen-King Me

*Still need to hear new 2003 releases by the
Chesterfield Kings, Playmates, Treeberrys and the
Volebeats.  Also getting the Roger Maris asterisk
treatment is The Wigged-Out Sounds of Freddy Fortune
and the Four-Gone Conclusions, which was my favorite
record of 2003, but has a 2002 release date:   

http://www.gethip.com/new/lp/gh1110.html


Lastly, the Model Rockets surprised me by supplanting
their usual power chords with jangle (e.g., the
wonderful “A Notice to Everyone”) on their solid 2002
platter “Tell the Kids the Cops are Here” which I
didn’t hear until 2003. 

Honorable Mentions (i.e., records that didn’t excite
me like previous releases and/or didn’t meet their
hype, but still good to hear):

April March-Triggers, Dressy Bessy-s/t, The Chains-On
Top of Things, Ladybug Transistor-s/t
Subsonics-A Lot to Forget, Ron Ron Clou-Second Runner,
Tyde-Twice, The Undertones, The Briefs-Off the Charts,
Duvall-Volume and Density (sounds like AOR/Arena rock
from ex-Smoking Popes)


Best reissues and reissue collections:
1.The Sonic Adventures of Zekley & Grady (Retro ZG)
2.The Last-L.A. Explosion (Bomp)
3.V/A-Byrds Won’t Fly Today (Misty Lane)
4.The Spectors-Cockfights & Cakefights 92-96 (Get Hip)
5.Lolas-Silver and Gold (Snap Records-Espana)
6.Deep Six-s/t (Revola)-They could have competed with
the We Five if the female vocals of Dean Cannon had a
place of their own instead of sharing space with all
those guys.  
7.Five Americans-The Best of the Five Americans
(Sundazed) Nice reissue with the usual superb Sundazed
design, but what happened to the individual album
reissues?
8.Honeyrider-All Systems Go!

Best Comps:
For a Few Guitars More: A Tribute to Morricone's
Spaghetti Western Themes
Carnivals, Cotton Candy and You: Orange Sky Records

Best EPs:
 Aerospace-In a Place Of Silver Eaves
 Ted Leo-Tell Balgeary, Balgury is Dead
 The Amber Smith- From Upper Lip To Lower Hip
 The Young Tradition-California Morning
 The Out Crowd-Go On, Give a Damn

Best self-released: 
The Lost Patrol-Off Like a Prom Dress
The Bippies-ep 
Bangers & Mash-“Why Do They Laugh at our Hair?” 
Joe ‘N’ Mike (Nolte of the Last)“acoustic” collection 
The Autumn Reign-Demo


Looking forward to 2004 releases by:  The Now People,
KO and the Knockouts, MTX (version 15.3?), Palomar,
Denise James, High School Sweethearts and the Muffs

Best Magazines and Zines:
Misty Lane, Garage and Beat, Dagger, Scram, Ugly
Things, Uncut (Byrds issue only), Shredding Paper,
Dream, The Continental

Most anticipated publication of 2004:

Dumb Angel Gazette #4

Best Live: Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone (Tucson), Ko
and the Knockouts (Tucson), Ladybug Transistor
(Tucson),  Ted Leo (Phoenix), All Girl Summer Fun
Band, Saturday Looks Good to Me, Thermals (triple
crown bill in Phoenix), Nancy Sinatra with Clem Burke
on drums (a casino in Maricopa, AZ) Palomar (Phoenix),
Gore Gore Girls (Tempe) and  Dear Nora (Tempe-record
store)


Best performance on TV:
The Seekers on the PBS program The Folk-Rock years. 
They got me up dancing around the room—they were that
good and Judith Durham lives in a time of her own. 
She looks like she found the hidden door between 1966
and now!!

Saddest Music Event: Phil Spector

Old albums/groups/songs newly discovered:
The Kitchen Cinq-Everything But, Orchids (“Mr.
Scrooge”), Index, “Like the Seasons” –The Turtles,  
Twice as Much, Search Party, Fun & Games, the Golden
Dawn-Power Plant, Don Ellis-Indian Lady, Feminine
Complex, McKinleys, the Summer Sounds, the Thomas
Group, Five Americans-“Disneyland” 13th Floor
Elevators-Easter Everywhere, the Razorcuts,the Witch
Hazel Sound, Kim Jung-Mi, Colin Blunstone-One Year,
Chuck and Mary Perrin
http://www.chuckperrin.com/closeup.php?v=7

Old favs-sounding better than ever:
The Feelies, ‘60s Sergio Mendes, Zombies Heaven Box
Set, Velvet Underground 3, Yellow Balloon, the
Ronettes, the Searchers, the Modern Lovers-Precise
Modern Lovers Order, Los Shakers, the Lemon Drops
Outsiders (Holland), Powder, Hollyridge Strings-Beach
Boys Song Book, the Housemartins, WCPAEB, the High
Llamas

Big return of an all-time favorite web site:
The (Unofficial) Jonathan Richman Chords page
http://homepage.mac.com/ramonrempel/JoJo/index.html

What happened to the Quadrajets?  They were five years
before their (revival) time.

Favorite on-line radio stations and programs:
WFMU
WPON
Radio Rumpus Room
Reel Radio
Shredding Radio

Ted
Tucson, AZ

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