October 2010 Top 10 Hit List

1. Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
2. Neil Young, Le Noise
3. Corin Tucker Band, 1000 Years
4. Leyendas de la Fania, Volumes 1-2
5. The Ultimate Rock 'N Roll & Rhythm 'N Blues Collection
6. Drive-By Truckers, Southern Rock Opera
7. Ninja Tune XX, Volumes 1-2
8. Sharon Van Etten, Epic
9. Marnie Stern
10. Gold Panda, Lucky Shiner

Andy Hummel 1951-2010

Big Star's first bass player, who checked out to go into aeronautical engineering after contributing the beautiful "Way Out West" to the brilliant second album, Radio City. He was a bassist of the McCartney-Entwistle school, getting fancy while (kind of) holding down the bottom for Jody Stephens' wonderfully manic drumming, and a creditable singer to boot. Sad to see him leave us just a few months after Alex Chilton, even if he had very little to do with the band's legacy (or with music in general) since '72.

July 2010 Top Ten Hit List

1. M.I.A., /\/\/\\//\ (sic)
2. Sleigh Bells, Treats
3. Big Boi, Sir Lucious Left Foot...The Son Of Chico DustyL'Etoile de Dakar, Once Upon a Time in Senegal - The Birth of Mbalax 1979 - 198
4. Emily Remler, East to Wes
5. Carissas Wierd, They'll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996-2003
6. Various Artists, Soundway Presents Palenque Palenque: Champeta Criolla & Afro
7. Various Artists, Unheard Ofs & Forgotten Abouts
8. The B-52s, Funplex
9. Joe Farrell, Moon Germs
10. Various Artists, Si, Para Usted - The Funky Beats of Revolutionary Cuba Vol.1
    

Barb says and Christine says that I should

start writing about tunage again. Hey, does anyone know how to cross-post to FB? I will find out.

I should set this in Comic Sans to make designers' heads explode.

TV On the Radio Dear Science (Interscope)

Though this came out a couple of months ago you feel the hope seeping up around the funky riffs ans sex-celebratory lyrics. So when I say I was touched more deeply by the melancholy and grit of Escape to Cookie Mountain, don't take it as a disrecommendation. I always preferred Exile to Sticky Fingers, Slanted & Enchanted to Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and Rid of Me to Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. But even if I like mine a little rough around the edges, in these times I'll take the joy where I find it.

Music Reflects Its Culture and Culture Reflects Its Music

Amy Winehouse, your influence is everywhere

AP's hitting the sizzurup again

Lil Wayne, 25, has been a star on the rap scene since he was a teen, but only in recent years has his star rivaled that of contemporaries like West and heroes like Lil Wayne — both of whom are contributors on his new CD.



- Nekesa Mumbi Moody, "Lil Wayne's `Tha Carter III' sells 1 million"

Lesa Aldredge, 1973

I was reading today about the creation of Big Star 3, aka Third, aka Sister Lovers, aka St. John Beale, aka The Most Depressing Record Ever Made Except For Billie Holiday's Lady In Satin. In addition to the complete craziness and dissipation that went into this masterpiece, the common thread seemed to be Alex Chilton's completely dysfunctional love/hate relationship with one Lesa Aldredge.

Lesa has always been kind of a mystery woman to those of us outside the mid-70s Memphis music scene. She sings the French part on Third's cover of the Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale" and also covers the Velvets' "That's The Story of My Life" on the It Came From Memphis anthology. But the book I was reading today, Rob Jovanovic's Big Star: The Short Life, Painful Death, and Unexpected Resurrection of the Kings of Power Pop, is a prepublication reader's copy with few pictures in it. And I wanted to see what this woman who was able to live (more or less) with Chilton during his most depressed and debased years looked like in the flesh.

So thanks to Smithsonian (by way of Google Images) for this beautiful picture by her famous second cousin, William Eggleston. I think I see what all the fuss was about now.

Oh, and guess what? Apparently, taking a break from teaching high school English in Nashville, last year Lesa participated in a reunion of her late-70s all-woman punk band, The Klitz. That's German for "pistol", in case you were wondering.

Update: The Klitz have a MySpace page, too!