New Music from Matthew Ryan

One of my favorite indie artists Matthew Ryan will officially release his next album entitled I Recall Standing As Though Nothing Could Fall on July 26th. However, for 24 hours (June 22, 3pm to June 23, 3pm, central time, I think) Ryan is allowing people to purchase the album digitally for just $5 from his bandcamp site. How cool is that? You can also stream it on the bandcamp site (or below) so you can preview what you are buying (everyone, that is, except me, because my work computer blows). The album itself can be preordered via Ryan's online store. The CD will also contain a bonus disc of outtakes and demos. That's a lot of music, for just $15. Or $5 digitally in the next 24 hours!

Like New Year's Day

My main man Matthew Ryan collaborates with Hammock on an ambient/electro/rock New Years EP. This will cure your hangover, or something.

Buy (Amazon mp3): Like New Year's Day (2011)

My Favorite Albums of 2010

My normal year-end favorite albums list usually tends to favor the bands/artists who I saw live in that year. This is only somewhat true for 2010. While The Hold Steady, The National, Drive-by Truckers, and Justin Townes Earle all had killer live gigs in Toronto this year, I just couldn't get into their 2010 releases (I didn't write a review of The National at Massey Hall on June 8 because every other blogger in Toronto did). Turns out that I tended to like some of the opening acts better than some of the headliners, which makes me sound like an even bigger music snob than I already am. And this list makes me sound worse! Only three pseudo mainstream indie records made the cut. I also noticed that the albums I favored this year leaned towards the Bruce Springsteen/Tom Petty-style of rock. I'm not sure why, but that's just what tickled my fancy, or something, in 2010. If I could, I supplied links to buying the albums directly from the band's/artist's web site (more $ for the band). Go buy these records! Most have cheap shipping, and it's only like $1-2 more to ship to Canada. All of these records are worthy of being in you collection.

1. The Fox Hunt - Long Way to Go

This modern bluegrass quartet out of Martinsburg, West Virginia, put out the best album in 2010. From my original review posted in September: The band has two primary songwriters, John R. Miller and Matt Kline, who both cover a range of human emotions in their music. Women, sinning, drinking, misery, temptation, you know, the happy subjects, are covered in depth in their lyrics. Their music is mostly uptempo country/folk, filled with vocal harmonies, and lots of banjo and fiddle, rounded out with acoustic guitar, mandolin, and upright bass. And the musicians frequently rotate instruments and share lead vocals. Now that's talent!

Long Way to Go spans an entire range of roots music, with a mid-tempo opening track called "Screw Me Up" which is about a woman messing with a dude's head. Later, a snappy song called "It Suits Me" which is ostensibly about a one night stand (the instrumental outro kills me). One of the best songs on the album, "Four Horses" is a slaying meditation on life and death. "No one said that life was easy. No one said that life was fair." Gulp. One of my favorite songs on the album, "I'll Drink Cheap," is about breaking the bank to please your lush of a woman. I listened to and enjoyed this album more than any other record released in 2010. You should be doing the same.

Third runner up to song of the year:
Four Horses.mp3
Buy: Long Way to Go

2. Glossary - Feral Fire

Remember when The Hold Steady released their first few albums and everyone, including me, said they were the second coming of Thin Lizzy? Wrong! Ladies and gentlemen, I present Glossary. Feral Fire is such a killer rock album. It takes its name from a line in the Cormac McCarthy book, The Road. Apparently this is their sixth album, but I am just hopping on the bandwagon now. Can't wait to listen to their back catalog, some of which is free on their web site. If you like Bruce Springsteen/Tom Petty/Drive-By Truckers kind of rock, then get this album pronto.

Second runner up to song of the year:
Save Your Money for the Weekend.mp3
Buy: Feral Fire


3. Matthew Ryan - Dear Lover (electric and acoustic)

I got a copy of Matthew Ryan's Dear Lover back in October 2009, and I have been dying to put it on my top 10 list for the last fourteen months. From my original review from February: The entire record revolves (evolves?) around the theme of a romantic relationship. Relationships are complicated, wonderful, confusing, stressful, exhilarating, scary, empowering, and even lonely, sometimes all at the same time. "I could be your super hero. I could be your biggest disappointment." Ryan is telling stories in his songs, but the stories are vague enough where each listener can interpret the song in his/her own way. The mark of a great songwriter is the ability to let his audience decide what the song is about, and Ryan thrives in this aspect of musicianship.

The songs on Dear Lover are power pop anthems, indie rockers, soft ballads, and electro/synth tracks you could hear in a Manhattan martini bar. Some people may be turned off by the ambient/electro-sounding songs, but I think they really add to the overall feel of the album and show Ryan's willingness to experiment with diverse sounds. In fact, one fan called Dear Lover "Matthew Ryan's synth/techno/electro Nebraska."

Later in 2010 Ryan released Dear Lover as an acoustic album, with a different track order, and one new track, which makes it a completely different album. I haven't heard of an artist doing this before, except in the context of a live album or something. This approach may be a new way for indie/DYI artists to get more mileage out of one record. Screw that iTunes "exclusive" or iTunes "sessions" crap. I may be old school, but I like the physical disc in my hand, in both electric and acoustic forms.

City Life.mp3
City Life (acoustic).mp3
Buy both: City Life (electric and acoustic)

4. Joe Pug - Messenger

I saw Joe Pug open for Justin Townes Earle back in March, and I was totally taken with Pug. At the time I didn't own the album Messenger, but after subsequent listens I was enamored with his work. This is a solid singer/songwriter folk-ish, country-ish album, with brilliant lyrics and great storytelling. I don't have a lot to say about this album. The music speaks for itself.

Fourth runner up to song of the year:
Not So Sure.mp3
Buy: Messenger

Pug has a free EP out right now. You can download it for the cost of your e-mail address.

5. Tim Barry - 28th & Stonewall

I had the pleasure of seeing Tim Barry in concert twice this year: once opening for Chuck Ragan in February and once opening for The Gaslight Anthem in July, both times solo acoustic.

Barry is intense, and pissed off, but also deeply sincere and forthright. He has deep convictions, and he stands by them. You don't fuck with Tim Barry. You also don't fuck with his album 28th & Stonewall, an intersection in Barry's home town of Richmond, Virginia. I would love to know about the significance of this particular corner. This album continues with Barry's style of simple storytelling about complicated people. The characters in Barry's songs are presumably semi-autobiographical: they are fucks-up who are trying to do the right thing, but keep stumbling into people who are constantly letting them down. In addition, he's also very self-deprecating and self-aware. 28th & Stonewall is Barry's most well-written solo album, with vibrant lyrics boosting his powerful voice. But, this album is not for the timid. You may be offended by some of the content, but Barry doesn't give a shit, and neither do I.

(Memento Mori).mp3
Buy: 28th & Stonewall

6. Two Cow Garage - Sweet Saint Me

The fact that Two Cow Garage hasn't cracked the indie rock glass ceiling completely baffles me. Sweet Saint Me is their fifth album, and as I said in my November review, this album as a whole is their strongest one yet. Sweet Saint Me is nearly a pure rock album, but this time the lead singers, mostly Michal Schnabel with a few tracks by Shane Sweeney, seemed to have really concentrated on honing their songwriting technique. The entire album seems more mature and focused. But don't worry, "mature and focused" can also kick fucking ass! Take my favorite track, "Lydia;" "Lydia, you're much too young to have your teeth on the tip of my tongue. If your lips were just a little bit older…" I heard through the twittervine that when Schnabel premiered "Jackson, Don't You Worry" at SXSW, a song dedicated to Sweeney's baby son, grown men were weeping. Indeed, I took a hard gulp the first time I heard it. And I'll be damned if Schnabel didn't steal the "Insolent Youth" lyric "just because you can doesn't mean you should" from me, cause I've been saying that for years. Sweet Saint Me is peppered with hard rock anthems ("My Great Gatsby"), love songs ("Closer to You"), and stories ("Lucy and the Butcher Knife"), with the occasional lyric borrowed from Bruce Springsteen, Townes Van Zandt, and Bob Dylan. To paraphrase my reader Ron from Buffalo, Two Cow Garage has written better individual songs ("No Shame," "Swingset Assassin," "Humble Narrator," "Mediocre," "Saturday Night," "Come Back to Shelby") but this album is solid everywhere.

Lydia.mp3
Buy: Sweet Saint Me

7. The Sadies - Darker Circles

A few months ago I was listening to a podcast of the CBC radio show Q where the host was interviewing The Sadies lead guitarists/singers/songwriters brothers Dallas and Travis Good. One of them said that after their mom listened to Darker Circles she called them to make sure they were OK. You know you've made a good album when you freak your mom out.

Per my May review: Darker Circles is a very different album from their 2007 release New Seasons, although both were produced by Jayhawks member Gary Louris. Darker Circles is, well, much darker than New Seasons, with lyrics like, "it won't be long 'til all your hopes and dreams are dead and gone," ("Another Year Again"), and "I turn to oblivion night after night," ("Tell Her What I Said"). The songs have themes of isolation, regret, remorse, and ponderances of "what could have been." There is even a country-rock killin' song ("Violet and Jeffrey Lee," not quite a murder ballad). The entire album has a very psychedelic feel to it, like a 2010 version of The Byrds. Especially my favorite track "Postcards," (listen below) which sounds like it could be straight out of Roger McGuin's 1960s catalog.

This is not an album that will cheer you up on a bad day, but it is a killer country-rock psychedelic folk bluegrass record (its damn impossible to categorize The Sadies). As my friend Whiskey Devil said, "Dark Sadies might just be the best Sadies."

Postcards.mp3
Buy (Maple Music): Darker Circles
Buy (Amazon): Darker Circles

8. The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang

I was apprehensive about The Gaslight Anthem's newest release until I saw them live back in July. They totally lived up to the hype. Blew me away actually. They blasted into the title track "American Slang" and never looked back.

American Slang and The Gaslight Anthem are filling in a much needed niche in music right now: they are a solid rock band. They don't fart around with pretentious new sounds, or have weird outfits, or feel the need to do namby-pamby acoustic folk songs (and I like namby-pamby acoustic folk songs). American Slang is essentially following the same Tom Petty/Bruce Springsteen rock formula that they have been using since their 2008 debut album Sink Or Swim, except that they have become better singers/guitarists/musicians in general. I'm hoping that the Gaslight Anthem will get today's teenagers interested in rock and roll. God knows that popular music needs it.

Stay Lucky.mp3
Buy: American Slang

9. Kasey Anderson - Nowhere Nights

Nowhere Nights came out in early 2010, and as I predicted in February, it set my standard for the year in rock music. It contains eleven tracks of solid rock songs: some slow, some fast, some you can dance to, some that will make you think, and some that will just make you rock out.

Anderson's rock influences are all over this album. You can hear Tom Petty in "Sooner/Later," Bruce Springsteen in "Leavin' Kind," and Mike Cooley-penned Drive-By Truckers songs in "All Lit Up." "Real Gone" is an obvious nod to Tom Waits, but it also seems like it could be Anderson's "Desolation Row."

"I Was a Photograph" is the song of the year. Anderson wrote this song about Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller after reading an article about the Iraq veteran in Rolling Stone. You can read Anderson's thoughts on the song on a post he did for Ninebullets.net.

While the album is largely autobiographical, the themes and stories easily resonate with everyday folks (in other words, me). Two songs specifically hit home for me. The first track, "Bellingham Blues," reminds me of never feeling at home in the town where you grew up. Similarly, the song "Home" reminds me of my home town. I'm assuming that this song is also about Bellingham, a city similar in population to my home town. "That's how it goes in a town this small. You either play your hand a little closer to the vest, or you don't play at all." Great lyrics, and so true.

Song of the year, easily:
I Was a Photograph (Blake's Song).mp3
Buy: Nowhere Nights

10. The Black Keys - Brothers

The Black Keys do it again with a killer blues-based rock album called Brothers. This album makes me want to tap my feet, shake my ass, and drink hooch like an old blues man on Maxwell Street. Some have compared The Black Keys to The White Stripes in terms of a blues-based rock duo, but The Black Keys has a deeper, more restrained and disciplined sound, as opposed to blues-spaz-rock and bizarre lyrics that sometimes spews from Jack White. For Brothers itself, the recording is raw and uncomplicated, but you can also hear a bit of punk rock and hip-hop influences throughout the record. The songs are catchy, fiery, and sexy, and will get stuck in your head. This is a good thing.

Brothers also has the worst/laziest album art of 2010.

Apparently The Black Keys are driving some of my US peeps crazy because several of songs are licensed for TV commercials. But those licenses didn't reach Canada, so I can't complain!

Next Girl.mp3
Buy: Brothers

Rocktober 29th and 30th

On the 29th day of Rocktober Matthew Ryan gave to me....a rockin' little number about being pissed off at your father.

Matthew Ryan - Fd29yrblues.mp3
From: Dissent from the Living Room (2002, out of print)

Dissent from the Living room was self-recorded on a four-track in Ryan's home, and sold exclusively over his website. If you do a little Googling you can find the album in digital format. Or you can ask me nicely! Also, Rocktober 29th is my mom's birthday. She spent the day playing golf, which is not so trivial in late October in Wisconsin. Happy Birthday Rockstar Mom!


On the 30th of Rocktober The Skeletons gave to me....a little hard labor rockabilly!

The Skeletons - Thirty Days in the Workhouse.mp3
From: In the Flesh (1988, out of print)

There are a ton of different bands named The Skeletons. This one formed in Springfield, Missouri, in the late 70s and frequently toured with Dave Alvin. They released three albums in the 90s. I can't find any current info on whether they still record and tour.

Music and Misery #20-18

"What came first – the music or the misery? Did I listen to music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to music?" - Nick Hornby, High Fidelity (1995)

Back in January Forbes came out with a list of the 20 most "miserable" cities in the US (minimum population of 245,000), and came up with a "misery index" based on violent crime rates, unemployment, inflation, local sales tax, weather, local political corruption, and sucky sports teams. Some of the cities on the list have been miserable a long, long time, while others are somewhat debatable in their misery.

I've always had this thought that misery leads to good music. I can think of a few artists that created tremendous music while they were depressed or miserable, and then when they became happy, they really started to suck. For instance, Bob Dylan's 1975 classic Blood on the Tracks, which is one of my favorite albums of all time, was written while Dylan was going through a separation from his wife. Then look at Dylan's 80s output. Not so hot.

Since I have been pretty miserable lately, I thought I would run down the Forbes misery list and match the city with musicians who came out of or are currently living in that city, regardless if the artist is miserable or really fucking happy.

20. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
City of Brother Love. 5th largest city in the US with a metro area of 5.8 million people. 10.6% unemployment. Ranked 15th most violent city the US in 2009. $600-$800 million city budget deficit. 7% sales tax. Cold winters. Except for the 2008 World Series won by the Phillies, the city has not had a sports championship since 1983. And the fans are notoriously loyal, but surly - they boo freakin' Santa Claus!

I know that Philly has a tremendous hip-hop/rap scene. And jazz legend John Coltrane was born there. But I am going to focus on some punks that made my miserable teenage years a lot more bearable.

The Dead Milkmen - Life is Shit.mp3
Buy: Beelzebubba (1988)

19. Gary, Indiana
On the southern end of Lake Michigan, population around 100,000. (I guess there is a metro area to qualify it for this list, but I can't find its population. I always figured that Gary was practically a suburb of Chicago.) Unemployment rate of 15.5%. Was second in homicides per capital in 2008. 6% sales tax. $34 Million in city debts. Friggin cold winters with wind blowing off Lake Michigan, and lots of smog blowing in from Chicago and other industrial pollution in the summers. Do they follow Chicago sports? One word: Cubs. Or Notre Dame football? Miserable. At least there is the Colts to the south.

The only musician I can come up with from Gary is Michael Jackson, and the rest of the crazy Jackson family. I don't have any Michael Jackson or Jackson 5 mp3s at my disposal. And then there's that crappy "Gary, Indiana" song from The Music Man, which I had to play in high school.

Although this musician is from Virginia, here is a bad-ass song about hard times in Gary's state.

Scott Miller - Sin in Indiana.mp3
Buy: For Crying Out Loud (2009)

18. Youngstown, Ohio
Where you stop to pee on your road trip from Chicago to New York. 570,000 residents in the metro area (Youngstown has a metro area?). Trying to reinvent itself since the steel industry collapsed in the 1970s, and still working on it. 14.1% unemployment. 6.5% sales tax. Can't find much data on recent crime rates, but in the past it wasn't good. And according to Forbes, "Youngstown's favorite son, former Congressman Jim Traficant, is considering running for Congress again after serving seven years in prison on bribery, racketeering and tax evasion charges. Needless to say Youngstown ranks high on our corruption metric." Being close-ish to Cleveland, I'm assuming they cheer for such miserable teams as the Browns. Though the Cavaliers are a hell of a team, and Ohio State to the east isn't so bad either.

Holy crap! I just learned that Dave Grohl was born in Warren, OH, part of the famous Youngstown metropolitan area. Fuck yeah!

Foo Fighters - Good Grief.mp3
Buy: Foo Fighters (1995)

Here's a track from a compilation of songs about the history of America, complied in part by supreme court justice Janet Reno (no shit). Matthew Ryan (not from Youngstown) delivers a brilliantly bleak vocal performance in describing the misery of the post-World War II rust belt.

Matthew Ryan - Youngstown.mp3
Buy: Song of America (2007)

Edit: thanks to reader Tualla for telling me that the song "Youngstown" was originally written by Bruce Springsteen and is from The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995).

Album Review: Matthew Ryan, Dear Lover

A few years ago a friend of mine gave me a bunch of MP3s and said, "You have to check out this guy. He's the next Paul Westerberg." Of course, this immediately made me extremely skeptical. Especially after I realized that my jackass friend had given me dozens of MP3s tagged as "unknown artist" and "track 8" and so on. I had to do a mess of MP3 archeology until I finally discovered that I now had a wide range of tracks by Matthew Ryan spanning eight albums from 1997 to 2004.

While I enjoyed the Matthew Ryan sampler from my friend, it wasn't until I head Ryan's 2008 album, Matthew Ryan vs. the Silver State, that his songwriting skills really hit me. I loved this album, and named it one of my top ten of 2008. Then I went back to my sampler MP3 collection, and really started to understand and appreciate his immense talent, and in the process I filled in my Ryan collection with what I could find on eMusic. Maybe I'm old school or something, but I needed to hear his music in the context of an album before I could really get into it.

Ryan is officially releasing this twelfth album Dear Lover on Feb. 16, but I pre-ordered it and have had it in my hot little hands since October. I really wanted to put it on my Best of 2009 list - that's how good it is. Patience is not my virtue, but at least I held out until early 2010 to review the album.

Dear Lover is completely different from MRVSS, and this is one of its major strengths. In true Westerberg DIY style, Ryan recorded the entire album in his home studio, and is releasing it on his own record label. Although Ryan's music has been published on major and indie record labels in the past, according to a lot of interviews that I have read, this album is something that Ryan wanted to do by himself. The gloss of a professional studio may be missing, but Dear Lover sounds the way he wanted it to sound.

The entire record revolves (evolves?) around the theme of a romantic relationship. Relationships are complicated, wonderful, confusing, stressful, exhilarating, scary, empowering, and even lonely, sometimes all at the same time. "I could be your super hero. I could be your biggest disappointment." Ryan is telling stories in his songs, but the stories are vague enough where each listener can interpret the song in his/her own way. The mark of a great songwriter is the ability to let his audience decide what the song is about, and Ryan thrives in this aspect of musicianship.

Unlike MRVSS, which is largely a rock album, the songs on Dear Lover are power pop anthems, indie rockers, soft ballads, and electro/synth tracks you could hear in a Manhattan martini bar. Some people may be turned off by the ambient/electro-sounding songs, but I think they really add to the overall feel of the album and show Ryan's willingness to experiment with diverse sounds. In fact, one fan called Dear Lover "Matthew Ryan's synth/techno/electro Nebraska."

Ryan is also one of the only artists that I follow who excels at using social media to promote his music. He interacts with fans on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. I've seen him take requests for new videos and for songs for upcoming gigs on Facebook. On Twitter he announces streaming radio shows and new gigs, plus promotes fan reviews and fan blog posts. He had fans help him make the video for "City Life," which I posted back in November. He recently posted three "raw" videos on YouTube, two of which he filmed in his living room. Two of the raw videos are songs from Dear Lover, and one is a fan request for the song "Guilty," which is from his 1997 album May Day, and which was also included in the original groups of MP3s my friend gave me.

Here is a great article from Tech Dirt that discusses musicians who embrace the changing business side of music. The article doesn't mention Ryan, but he is doing everything, if not more (albeit, with a way smaller budget and fanbase), than the Trent Reznors and Amanda Palmers of the music world.

Ryan's Dear Lover tour just started yesterday. Check his website to see if he is coming to your town. Sadly, no Canadian dates have been announced (yet?).

The Wilderness.mp3
Buy: Dear Lover (2010)
CD available from retailers on Feb. 16, or from his website now. Download from iTunes, Amazon.com, or eMusic NOW!
The entire album is streaming on MatthewRyanOnline.com.

Remembrance Day

Its Remembrance Day in Canada, Veteran's Day in the US. Having lived in both countries, Canadians take Remembrance Day very, very seriously, much more so than in the US. Perhaps it is because Canada doesn't have a formal Memorial Day like the US does. November 11 is recognized internationally as Armistice Day commemorating the formal end of World War I in 1918.

Most people in Canada don bright red poppies on their left jacket lapel, above the heart. Many will read the poem In Flanders Fields written by Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae in 1915 after witnessing the death of one of his friends. In Toronto, after the formal remembrance ceremonies, people will place their poppies at the war memorial in front of old city hall, similar to the above photo.

Here are a half dozen song about veterans. The first song may be one of the best songs of the year. Kasey Anderson wrote this song about Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller after seeing an article about him in Rolling Stone. Anderson wrote a short essay on why he wrote the song, which was posted on NineBullets.net in July. NineBullets also posted the lyrics today.

Kasey Anderson - I Was a Photograph (Blake's Song).mp3
Buy: Nowhere Nights (2009)

I find this Jason Isbell track to be so remarkable because it tells a story of the realities of war without being judgmental or opinionated. This version is a bootleg from when Isbell was still with the Drive-By Tuckers. I found it on the Truckers message boards. It was recorded live during a Truckers show in fall of 2006 (I think). To me the solo acoustic version is more powerful than the recorded version.

Jason Isbell - Dress Blues (bootleg).mp3
Buy: recorded version appears on Sirens Of The Ditch (2007)

This song isn't all about veterans, exactly. I think its actually more about blue-collar family holidays in general, be it Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc. I saw James McMurtry do this song live in winter of 2007, just him and an acoustic guitar. He did the last verse a capella, and you could have heard a pin drop. It was seriously one of the most moving musical moments I have ever witnesses. Here are the lyrics to the last verse:

Departing Chicago at 9:52
In clean desert camo all baggy and loose
Sits an Iowa Guardsman alone by the gate
The place sure looked different, in 1968
When he traveled with mom, first time on a plane
To visit some kin, he’s forgotten their names
But he remembers the soldiers, still in their teens
In their spit polished boots and their pressed army greens
With the creases so sharp, and their faces so smooth
But their eyes looked so heavy, he wondered how they could move
Now he’s got that same look, like his insides are black
He’s in his mid forties and he has to go back
And he can’t even smoke while he waits for his plane
The uniform’s different, but the mission remains
To do like they tell you, don’t make a fuss
Why’s not an issue, so don’t think too much
Just do what you have to, shut up and drive
If you come apart later, well at least you’re alive
You can get you some help, you can deal with it then
And life will be better, ‘til it happens again

‘Cause there’s something inside us that won’t let us be
In stalks through our days ‘til it’s too dark to see
And it’s damn near as deadly as Texans on ice
Lord don’t they beat all
Y’all have a nice holiday

Gulp!

James McMurtry - Holiday.mp3
Buy: Childish Things (2005)

Ben Nichols of Lucero frequently writes about the experiences of men in the military. In the below song he writes from a perspective of a 19-year-old joining the World War II effort in 1943, and the trials that he goes through, and the regrets that come with war. Also check out "One the Way Back Home" (the narrator sleeps in his car so that his buddy on leave from the army can get laid), and "Joining the Army" (the narrator doesn't feel that playing guitar lives up to his grandfather's accomplishments, presumably in WWII).

Lucero - The War.mp3
Buy: Nobody's Darlings (2005)

In this song Matthew Ryan contemplates how the decisions of rich politicians who have never been in the military effects the families of the men who risk it all.

Matthew Ryan -Veteran's Day.mp3
From: Hopeless to Hopeful (2002, out of print)

My main man Johnny Cash sings from the perspective of a Vietnam vet trying to live in everyday society. He remembers being scorned when returning to the US from the war, tells how he still has nightmares from the 'Nam jungle, and wishes that he could explain his feeling and experiences to his children.

Johnny Cash - Drive On.mp3
Buy: American Recordings (1994)

Matthew Ryan Video: City Life

A few weeks ago Matthew Ryan sent out a facebook message asking his fans to participate in his upcoming video. After e-mailing the posted address, I received a little jpg "Paper Ryan" (see left). Unfortunately for me, the color printers at home and at work were both broken, so I had to print B&W Paper Ryan. And I couldn't get any good Toronto-centric shots as it was raining and cold the entire week preceding the deadline. Regardless, two of my photos made the cut! Whoo-Hooo! The video for the song "City Life" came out today.

Ryan's latest album Dear Lover came out last week. You can listen to it streaming on his web site, or order it directly from his web site. Mine just arrived a day ago (lousy international shipping) and I haven't had a chance to fully digest it yet, but so far I like what I am hearing.



And here's one of my photos that didn't make the cut. Understandably, as its sort of obnoxious. Its me vaccinating Paper Ryan against the H1N1.

Fun With Last.FM

Last.FM is one of my favorite things on the internet. It is a social networking music service which tracks what you are listening to through your computer or iPod. It connects you with other people who like the same kinds of music that you like, and it recommends songs by artists that you like or by artists who have a similar styles to the artists that you like. You can also write about the music that you like, recommends songs or artists to other people, update information on your favorite artists Wikipedia-style, and look at the events calendar to see which artists are performing in your area. Everything except the Last.FM radio service is free.

Last.FM works by “scrobbling” the songs that you listen to. Scrobbling means that once you listen to a song, that song will be added to your music profile. Importantly, Last.FM tracks every artist, album, and track that you scrobble. I can go back through my music profile, or my friend’s profiles, and see my top tracks, artists, and albums from the last week, last month, last three months, last year, or overall. The geek in me really loves this feature.

You can add a “Scrobbler” plugin to most computer media players so that it can track your plays. I use Media Monkey which uses a Winamp plugin. The Scrobbler plugin also works great with Windows Media Player, iTunes, and even Pandora. It works on Macs, PCs, and Linux systems. Unfortunately it does not work (or work well anyway) with the Zune media player (see footnote 1). Last.FM can also track plays from your iPod, but at the moment cannot tracks music from other MP3 players.

The Last.FM main offices are based in London, England, with another office in New York. Last.FM is available in 12 different languages. According to The 2008 Social Network Analysis Report, roughly 55% of the users are male, and roughly 25% of the users are between the ages of 34-44 (my age demographic). The report does not break down the membership by country, but it does seem that Finland has a large portion of its population that uses Last.FM. My guess is that greater than 60% of users are from Europe.

A few weeks ago Last.FM released its Best of 2008 lists. The Probability and Statistics Department of My Aimz is True is proud to present its analysis of what Last.FM users have been listening to for the last year.

How to Read These Graphs: the first Y or vertical axis in blue on the left hand side measures the number of plays or “scrobbles” for each album or song. The second Y axis in red on the right measures the number unique listeners. For example, on the first graph, tracks from Katy Perry’s debut album One of the Boys were listened to approximately 4 million times (blue bar) in 2008, by about 600,000 different listeners (about 6 and a half tracks scrobbled per user). Likewise, the Fleet Foxes self-titled debut was listened to about 3.5 million times by about 650,000 unique listeners (about 5.4 tracks per user).

I have to admit that I am not down with the cool kids and I have not listened to anything by the top three new artists in 2008. MGMT is hipster-speak for “management,” and they are tagged as “electronic” by Last.FM users. Their debut album Oracular Spectacular has been lauded by many critics but it’s not really my style of music. According to Last.FM, my top new artist of 2008 was Justin Townes Earle and his debut album The Good Life, and I listened to tracks from this album 14 times (see footnote 2).

Justin Townes Earle – Hard Livin’.mp3
Buy: The Good Life (2008)

Not surprisingly, Coldplay comes in at number one with their mediocre release Viva La Vida. And I didn’t even know that Nine Inch Nails released an album this year. I guess it didn’t suck as 1.3 million different listeners played tracks from it 8 million times (about 6 plays per listener). Also not surprisingly, my top album of 2008 was Stay Positive by The Hold Steady (112 plays), followed by Drag the River’s You Can’t Live This Way (63 plays), and Two Cow Garage Speaking in Cursive (53 plays).

The Hold Steady – Slapped Actress.mp3
Buy: Stay Positive (2008)

Drag the River – Caleb’s Grave.mp3
Buy: You Can't Live This Way (2008)

Two Cow Garage – Swingset Assassin.mp3
Buy: Speaking in Cursive (2008)

Last.FM users listen to way too much Coldplay. Seriously people, get out a little more! Or at least mix up the tunes a bit. My Last.FM top songs of 2008:

1. Matthew Ryan – “Drunk and Disappointed” – 11 plays/scrobbles
1. The Hold Steady – “Constructive Summer” – 11
1. The Hold Steady – “Navy Sheets” – 11
1. Drive-By Truckers – “A Ghost to Most” -11
5. Drive-By Truckers – “3 Dimes Down” – 10
5. The Hold Steady – “Magazines” – 10
5. The Hold Steady – “Sequestered in Memphis” – 10
8. Chris Mills – “Such a Beautiful Thing” – 9
8. The Hold Steady – “One for the Cutters” – 9
10. Drive-By Truckers – “Home Field Advantage” – 8
10. Kathleen Edwards – “Oil Man’s War” - 8
10. Matthew Ryan – “American Dirt” – 8
10. Chris Mills – “Calling All Comrades” – 8
10. The Hold Steady – “Stay Positive” – 8
10. Kathleen Edwards – “Alicia Ross” – 8
10. The Hold Steady – “Slapped Actress” – 8

Matthew Ryan – American Dirt.mp3
Buy: Matthew Ryan Vs. Silver State (2008)



Footnote 1: Microsoft is trying to set up their own community for Zune users which they call “The Social.” Here is how “The Social” compares to Last.FM.

1. Last.FM keeps a list of the order of the last 1500+ tracks that you listened to. The Social only tells you the last 24.
2. Last FM shows you your top artists overall, for the last year, last 6 months, last three months, and last 7 days. The Social only gives you the top artists overall.
3. Last FM shows me my top 400+ artists, The Social, only top 5.
4. Last FM shows me my top 400+ tracks, The Social only 15.
5. Last FM shows me my top 300+ albums. The Social doesn't have this feature at all.
6. Last FM is very accurate. The Social, not so much. According to my profile, I have listened to the song "For Real" 50 times. According to my Zune software, I have listened to it 7 times. Sometimes The Social said I added 100 plays when I know I added none, other times it does the opposite.
7. Last FM doesn't care if you listen to bootlegs, live albums, special releases, whatever. It categorizes everything the same way. The Social only categorizes items that are in the Zune market place. For example, on my Social profile, Okkervil River is my number 1 and number 2 artist. The second Okkervil River is the same band, but since these tracks are not in the Zune Marketplace, they are recognized as a different band entirely.
8. Last FM is open to everyone, regardless of player type. It works with iTunes, Media Player, Media Monkey, Creative Labs, etc. The Social only works with Zune.
9. You can tag the genre of the track on Last FM, you can't tag anything on The Social.

Footnote 2: Last.FM only tracks what I listen to on my computer when my computer is online. I listen to a lot more music on my Zune (see footnote 1) and on CD than on my laptop, so the Last.FM tracking is not completely representative of my listening trends. But it still is damn fun!