I guess I got a little too passionate. Around Christmas, it came to light that Spin magazine, certainly the paramount authority on all things music (cough, cough), put Against Me! 's comedy record, New Wave , at the top of the list for the best of 2007. Deputy Editor, Steve Kandell , wrote a small blurb that more or less built up New Wave as "a beacon," and supplied them ample kudos for their "crowd-pleasing tendencies." While praising Against Me!'s willingness to be as radio-friendly as possible, Kandell also went so far as to sort of jab Nirvana , ( Butch Vig produced New Wave ), for trying to escape the more poppy aspects of Nevermind , as if trying to stay legitimate to your influences was a bad thing. I know it's an opinion, in this case an opinion printed in an inconsequential pop music mag that probably made somebody some green. But I was so thoroughly offended by this record that I sort of let my fingers fly over the keyboard and came up...

I'm on a couple different mailing lists for specialty music shops and collectors networks. Not being a huge collector necessarily, at least not in the philistine sense of the word, (I'd much rather just own the music than have an over-priced first edition of whatever that loses its value once you throw the needle on its out-of-print groove), I'm fascinated at the items that are still out there, begging to be owned for the cost listed on one astoundingly appraised price tag. You can imagine three or four generations of a family passing these records on and on and on until their worth is just shy of a baseball team or a mansion in Beverly Hills. Anyway, one such site is Esprit , which is a British site that specializes mostly in rare music collectibles. I've found a lot of hard to find Rollins Band and obscure Black Flag vinyl through them, so I like to keep track of their inventory. But, because it's a collectors site, sometimes they bumrush my inbox with drool...

Hello all, These lists are never easy to pull together. Knowing how I felt about some of the “Year End” lists that I’ve been combing through since mid-December, I’m aware that it’s always dangerous, and sometimes redundant, territory to summarize what you thought made the biggest impact this year, that year, so on, so on. And, for me, the albums that made the most impression weren’t necessarily albums that any rock-rag or critic thought much about. But, I guess it’s not always about societal impact, so much as it is about personal impact. I mean…it really does always come down to how an album makes you feel, because its impact truly starts with ONE set of ears. Eventually, other ears are touched, moods swing, cultures shift, the stars realign and thus a new era has risen with the sun, shedding new light on all of us. Wouldn’t that be great? Anyway, not that this will necessarily cause cultures to shift, but these are my favorite picks for 2007. Comments are always welcome. A co...

Ween La Cucaracha Rounder Released 10.23.07 Rating: 6.75 out of 10 Philistines, it’s as if I’m one of you. It pains me to scribe words of discontent regarding a band that has been cited more than once as “genius,” especially since I finally get it. I’ll admit it: Ween ’s bus was one that I avoided many, many times. And why? “Push The Little Daisies” put me off my food. I was probably fifteen or sixteen when that rather unpleasant little ditty broke through into then alterna-heavy MTV and it wasn’t something I wanted any part of. Consequently, I missed out on Chocolate And Cheese , The Mollusk , White Pepper …eee tee see. And now after taking a month or so to absorb the back catalog, I see the error of my ways and admit that I should’ve been a little more open to what they were doing. However, it’s too bad that La Cucaracha , Ween’s latest foray into cross-genre copycatting, is almost making me revert to past opinions. This time of course, I’m better informed. It’s not that the ...

So, the finishing touches are such: Radiohead – “Backdrifts (Honeymoon Is Over)” From Hail To The Thief . Aside from the fact that this is just a very pretty piece of music, it’s fitting that the track is subtitled, "Honeymoon Is Over.” The Beatles – “Blackbird” I always considered this song to be more of a lullaby than anything else. It seems fitting. Talking Heads – “Stay Up Late” David Byrne 's little ditty about keeping the cute little baby "up all night" isn't necessarily conducive to what I see as the perfect situation, which would probably involve a baby that sleeps more than I do. But, seeing as my wife and I are going to be up 5 times a night for months, awoken from dead sleep by loud cries of "change my diaper" or "feed me," we may as well try and convince ourselves that “yeah, we WANT this kid to be awake all the time.” The Monkees – “Porpoise Song (Theme From Head)” The Monkees were my first favorite band, my first conc...

“Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read.” You would have been 67 today. Despite what you thought about those that write ABOUT music as opposed to WRITING music, you are part of the reason that I am as passionate as I am about music. The first time I heard Joe's Garage , it was for me an epiphany of the most epic proportions, altering my narrow perception of things and allowing me to find those lines that I'm supposed to read between. Thanks for blowing minds, namely mine. Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead