The "Best of" the "Best of"

Quote of the week:  "Hey, you guys want to hear a great way to see the bottom of your testicles?" -- Overheard at Tobias' 2nd grade lunch table which is, needless to say, all boys.

Lovdy and Mark have been busy:  [Cue the "Eight is Enough" opening theme]  The Grossmans are expecting again.  It's weird.  When I knew Mark back in college, he was a lovable, cross-dressing soon-to-be music mogul (anyone remember Those Who Dig?) who was in love with Marky Mark.  I would have never thought he would have come this far?  This will be number 2 on the way to 11.

The Foo!: A lot have written to ask about my experience with the Foo Fighters.  I must warn all of you that I'm not a fan.  I must also say that their music is trite and formulaic.  All that said, those dudes awesome!  Wooooooo!  Dave Grohl rocks my world!  Foo!  Foo! Foo!  FF kicks ass!  Okay, okay, I screamed like a teenage girl.

Battle Royal for "Best of"
The New Year is a glorious time for me.  Not because of its renewing powers -- the idea of starting all over again and having a clean slate to make (and break) personal vows like abatement in alcohol consumption, not yelling at the dog, etc. -- but because it's the time of year where my more musically minded pals send me their "Best of" CDs.

It ends up being a bit of a pissing match between the music aficionados and the self proclaimed music professionals.  Surprisingly, some of the best stuff came out of the novices of the group.  Take, for example, Will Paradise.  Will is a friend who has sequestered himself and his wife Ani and his daughter atop a place called Hurricane Hill in Colorado.  Yet, with all this seclusion, the man named after the Milton poem, found some of the coolest tunes.  For example, check out "And Never Look Back" from Matthew Ryan (another standout was Kevin Devine's "Stay"):

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A song that must have been in the collective consciousness was LCD Soundsystem's "North American Scum" Riemenschneider from Minneapolis, Becsey from NYC, Allen from Portland).  While this song would not be well received in my newfound flag-waving section of the country, the rest of the booty-shaking parts of the US will love it:

Wilco was on a lot of people's lists, but Corder (Austin) picked the only good song off of the new album: "Either Way".  I will spend a sentence on Corder's "Best of" because I usually hate (hate!) his choice of music.  He and I rarely see each other during SXSW and, when we do, we spend time giving each other crap about the band the other is about to see.  This year, however, his disk was good:  The Detroit Cobras, Bryan Ferry and Spoon.

The one surprise for me is that no one gave Kimya Dawson (formerly of the Moldy Peaches, most recently of "Juno" fame).  While the movie was a bit of a mediocre VW commercial (convincing us that driving a VW Touareg could actually make us cool), the soundtrack was pretty amazing.  That said, I leave you with my one song "Best of":