Goodnight, And Good Luck

So, I guess we have a bit of an announcement to make, and probably long overdue, although I suppose the deafening silence over the past month has been something of a clue to some of you, and this won't come as much of a surprise. (Thanks to those of you who wrote us offline to ask what the hell was up. We're touched that we were missed.)

As we approached our first anniversary a couple of weeks ago, Rich and I started talking about whether we really wanted to keep this thing up. We've loved the ride that we've been privileged to take over the past year, and it's been a tremendous amount of fun sharing music and ideas, building a readership (ultimately about 10,000 folks a week, from every corner of the globe) and realizing that many of you came to visit regularly, or even every day. That's more humbling than we can ever express. But in the end, I think it's fair to say that TTT ended up being way more of a time commitment for both of us than we ever reckoned it would be -- we always said that we'd do this right, and update regularly, or not at all -- and as 2007 came to a close, and work and other life demands pulled on both of us, we independently started to question whether we still had the time or energy to do justice to the site. By the time we actually had the conversation over the holidays, it didn't take long to figure out that we had both reached the same decision -- that it's time to retire TTT, at least for the foreseeable future.

So, that's what we're going to do. We'll leave the site up for as long as we can (hey, it'll be like a time capsule for music in 2007), we'll keep all the links and downloads active for at least another couple of months (grab those Classic Bootlegs while you still can!), and who knows, maybe at some point one or both of us will catch the bug and start posting again. But with the turn of the new year, we find that we have other priorities that deserve our attention a little more than a music blog does. Each of us has two young children. Rich is thinking about writing a novel, and I hope he will, because I love to read anything he writes. And as of a few months ago, I've gone and fallen hopelessly in love, with the most beautiful, amazing woman I've ever met in my life. And there's some damn fine music in that, let me tell you.

That's the story. Our thanks to everyone who ever visited, commented or threw us a link, to the other bloggers who reached out and befriended us over the past year, and of course, to all the great artists that we got to write about. And my personal thanks, one more time, to everyone who responded with such kindness and generosity after my house was robbed last summer -- I still get a little overwhelmed when I think about that.

This was so much fun. Again, we thank you all for a great run.

Merry Christmas, Y'all!

Merry Christmas everyone, if indeed that's what you celebrate. I'm happy to report that Rich's house is in full-on X-mas mode, but before 2007 finishes circling the bowl, there's still time for a post or two from me. I had originally intended to develop some sort of a response to Frank's predictably stellar year-end list. We typically have only about 50% overlap, which I thought would give me entry to discuss those records that, in my opinion, he'd inexplicably left off. But I have to say that he pretty much nailed the three-point landing this year, so rather than simply stand by nodding, I thought I'd pull together a list of my favorite "under the radar" records of the year. So, without further adieu, here's Rich's Top Ten Favorite Off-The-Beaten-Track Records of 2007 (in no particular order):

Joe Strummer - The Future Is Unwritten
Sadly, 2007 was yet another year that Britney Spears was allowed to walk the earth, while Joe Strummer continues not to. One small consolation against that unexplainable set of circumstances was the release of Julian Temple's brilliant documentary Joe Strummer - The Future Is Unwritten (the trailer of which is here). Even if you already own everything Joe and The Clash ever released, this soundtrack is still a must-have. It's filled not only with Clash and Mescolaros music, but with music that influenced Joe, like Elvis, Eddie Cochran, Bob Dylan, MC5, and Nina Simone. As a bonus, many of the songs are introduced and described by Strummer himself. MP3: The Clash - "White Riot" (Alternate Demo Mix)

M.I.A. - Kala
I wrote about M.I.A.'s 2007 release Kala here. This is a record with worldly beats, political aspirations, feminine power, and punk rock attitude. M.I.A. is a reporter from a Third World CNN street beat bringing the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes from the world over right into your living room. You hear it straight from the people; from the aboriginie kids in "Mango Pickle Down River" to the Indian villagers in "Bird Flu." M.I.A. is the real deal. MP3: M.I.A. - "Bamboo Banger" from Kala

Burial - Untrue
My initial take on this record is here, which has held up: "With skittering electronic beats, ghostly keyboard washes, and soul vocal samples manipulated near the point of torture, Burial's Untrue sounds like some kind of aural missive from the next world, crackling and popping in the rain. This music is both haunted and haunting." MP3: Burial - "Near Dark" from Untrue

Blonde Redhead - 23
My earlier post on this record was entitled "The Sound of Dreaming," I think because the sound of this record feels like racing through some fever dream landscape where everything is familiar yet somehow disorienting. I can never quite grasp exactly what the lyrics are about, but that hardly seems to be the point. This is impressionistic territory, and it is a beautifully curious amalgam of guitars and whispered vocals. MP3: Blonde Redhead - "23" from 23

Mark Olson - The Salvation Blues
As described here, The Salvation Blues represented something of a return to form for former Jayhawk Mark Olson. Divorced from Victoria Williams and returned from the ensuing wilderness, Olson rediscovered his muse, and his old friend Gary Louris. The music on this record is both sad and hopeful Americana, hearkening to Hollywood Town Hall-era Jayhawks. And with Louris' contributions, these songs are more than enough to whet the appetite for the promised Olson and Louris collaboration scheduled for 2008. Hopefully, TTT will be around to blog about it when it comes out. MP3: Mark Olson - "Clifton Bridge" - from The Salvation Blues

Daft Punk - Alive 2007
One of my favorite records of 2005 was Kraftwerk's live album, Minimum-Maximum. One would not think that something as robotic and sterile as Kraftwerk would translate so well to a live recording. Daft Punk is also robot music, albeit music by robots apparently programmed for sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. Daft Punk's live shows ain't nothin' but a party y'all, and this record is instant party, just add alcohol. Daft Punk is playing at my house. MP3: Daft Punk - "Around The World/Harder Better Faster Stronger" from Alive 2007.

Beirut - The Flying Cup Club
Surprisingly young Santa Fe native Zach Condon's band, Beirut, sound nothing like its name. Beirut's music has nothing to do with Lebanon. Rather, it evokes the Balkans and Gypsy troubadours, Eastern European folk music, and Old World themes. Think ukuleles, accordions, trumpets, and melodies from another century. The prolific band's high point so far may just be this crisp release, which plays like a soundtrack from an old foreign film. Gorgeous. MP3: Beirut - "Nantes" from The Flying Cup Club

The Perishers - Victorious
Earlier, I called this "a lush pop record that is a little reminiscent of Dire Straits to my ear, with a fair amount of Blue Nile mixed in (which is always a good thing). It's a fairly romantic mainstream sound that would appeal to fans of Coldplay and Travis; a sound you might not be surprised to hear in the soundtrack of some teenage television drama, which I understand has occurred. Don't let that turn you off. It's still a mature sounding record that deserves a broad audience. Very good stuff." MP3: The Perishers - "Midnight Skies" from Victorious

The Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil
I have to give to some love to my Dunwoody homeboys The Black Lips. They have shocked New York and rocked everywhere else, and, in 2007, released the great psycho-psychedelic garage rock of Good Bad Not Evil and earned the title "Hardest Working Band at SWSX." With a live show heavy on such audience participation staples as urine, vomitus, and the odd flung beer bottle, this loud and rowdy band of brothers remind us what the spirit of rock and roll is supposed to be. Pure chaos. And since I grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I love that they ask the question, "Oh Katrina, why you gotta be mean?" MP3: The Black Lips - "O Katrina!" from Good Bad Not Evil

Lloyd Cole - Antidepressant
And last, but certainly not least, I'd like to end this post with a reference to what was the subject of not only my first post this year, but my first blog post ever, Lloyd Cole's beautiful middle-aged manifesto, Antidepressant. This is unquestionably the perfect record for those of us rockers who came of age in the '80s and refuse to admit that we're middle aged, in spite of the fact that our years, when doubled, stretch beyond the average human life span. At this point, to paraphrase Lloyd's apt lyrics, "Declining issues lead advances two to one, in slow trading." Nevertheless, we can take comfort in the perfect folk-pop of Antidepressant. "With my medication, I will be fine." MP3: Lloyd Cole - "Woman In A Bar" from Antidepressant.

So that does it, I suppose. I certainly could go on, but that's what we've been doing all year. For now, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and healthy and prosperous New Year. And thanks for stopping by TTT in 2007. I hope that it was worth your while. Thanks -- Rich

Frank's Favorite Records of 2007

Time and current life circumstances (all of 'em good) won't permit me to do anything even remotely as elaborate as in years past, but here are the 20 new records released in 2007 that I enjoyed most, in alphabetical order. If either Rich or I posted a review here during the course of the year, I've linked to it, and if we didn't, I've linked to MetaCritic or some other resource that will give you the critical lowdown. (And if I'm not mistaken, Rich will be along in a day or two with the records from his list that didn't make mine.) Music makes for great holiday giving, so get out there and support all of these magnificent artists by buying their records.

RYAN ADAMS - Easy Tiger

ARCADE FIRE - Neon Bible

THE AVETT BROTHERS - Emotionalism

ANDREW BIRD - Armchair Apocrypha

BRIGHT EYES - Cassadaga

THE BROKEN WEST - I Can't Go On, I'll Go On

FEIST - The Reminder

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE QUEEN - The Good, The Bad & The Queen

NICK LOWE - At My Age

THE NATIONAL - Boxer

THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS - Challengers

ROBERT PLANT & ALISON KRAUSS - Raising Sand

RADIOHEAD - In Rainbows

RILO KILEY - Under The Blacklight

THE SHINS - Wincing The Night Away

SPOON - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - Magic

KANYE WEST - Graduation

THE WHITE STRIPES - Icky Thump

WILCO - Sky Blue Sky

Radio Cure

Jango is a new webspace, currently in Beta testing, that allows users to set up, program and refine their own radio stations, by selecting favorite artists or genres, then share them with friends or other users. Songs stream in their entirety, the sound quality is nice, and once a user's preferences are established, the site even suggests other artists (s)he might like to try, a la Pandora. Jango is currently available on an invite-only basis, but they've given us access for the first 100 TTT readers who want to sign up (for free, of course) and give it a spin. Click here to get started, and let us know what you think in the comments. (The only major bug at this point is that the Jango player has a tendency to crash the Safari browser, so if you're a Mac user, you'll want to use Camino instead.)

Police & Thieves

I had a rough day yesterday, friends. Burglars broke into my house while I was at work and pretty well cleaned me out -- my computer, stereo equipment, my camera and iPod, my kids' Xbox 360, games and DVDs. Not to mention tons of personal information -- e-mails, passwords, tax returns, electronic receipts, web bookmarks, etc. -- that I pray isn't going to come back to bite me in the ass down the road. But the toughest loss of all, the one I'm still struggling to stomach 14 hours later? That would be the little 300GB Seagate external harddrive that contained every picture I've taken over the last 5 years -- every vacation, every kid's birthday, every concert, everything worth remembering -- not to mention every piece of music I've ever digitized, including literally hundreds of bootlegs. All of it, gone, just like that. The electronics they took is just stuff. But the contents of that harddrive, in very large measure, are irreplaceable.

So it seems that I'll be out of commission for a while, as any sort of music blogger anyway. (That whole "no computer, no music" thing does present a bit of an obstacle.) There are insurance companies to deal with, an iMac to replace, and then a mammoth music collection to start rebuilding from scratch. But I'll be back as soon as I can -- there are new releases to talk about, which I haven't been doing enough anyway, and hey, those sorry, thieving bastards didn't get everything, so the Classic Bootleg Series will be back as well. And I know Rich will continue to post when he can. So please hang with us, be patient if the content doesn't come as frequently as it has been for a little while, and give us a week or two to get back on our feet. As our patron saints, The Clash, once said, "I've been beat up, and I've been thrown out, but I'm not down, no I'm not down."

The Music Issue

Hey, we don't make the music news around here, we just report it.

More breaking music news here.

UPDATE: Marisa Miller models the iPod bikini:


Because it's a device that plays music. Too much of a stretch?

Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me

Big love to all of our readers on this Valentine's Day, and if you need some music to set the mood, three great bloggers have posted downloadable mixes for your enjoyment. Start with Heather's at I Am Fuel . . ., which includes great stuff by Otis Redding, The Postal Service, Matthew Sweet, M. Ward (his lovely cover of Pete Townshend's "Let My Love Open The Door") and The Replacements, and then link from there to the VD mixes from Some Velvet Blog and The Late Greats. A little Barry White is good for the soul today, and if you're lucky, good for something else.

And The Crooked Places Will Be Made Straight . . .

Some things are more important than music:

Check . . . One, Two . . . Is This On?

Well, after 4 years of doing a year-end "favorite records" list for friends, clients and music biz contacts (first an e-mail, then an e-mail with cover artwork, then an e-mail with a link to a compilation CD, then a one-off blog that took way too long to pull together all at once), someone finally suggested that I just start a full-time blog and write about my favorite music as and when I hear it and am actively thinking about it. A fine idea, I thought, but not something I would want, or probably have the time, to undertake alone. Luckily, my buddy Rich has excellent taste, is passionate and thoughtful about music, is almost as much of a geek about it as I am, and was game to be my partner and give this is go. As time passes, we may invite other folks to contribute as well. Our plan is to post as often as we can, and in addition to reviewing new records and classic reissues as we hear them, also talk about live shows we've seen or hope to see, link to certain music news items of interest, and generally use this as an outlet for our respective obsessions.

So welcome, all, to That Truncheon Thing. If you're interested in music even a little bit, we hope you'll bookmark us, visit often, leave comments, alert us to things we may have missed and basically make us part of your regular music info routine. Let's get to it.