charlieTunes
So I burned a two-disc set of my 28 favorite songs of 2003 the other day (28 was not an arbitrarily selected number, it just came out that way) for Christmas gifts for my "friends" (or "people I like, but not enough to spend money on"). Editor Steve will be getting one, once I get a current mailing address, provided he trusts me after that whole "is it anthrax or talcum powder?" incident.

I figured, why not send a little breakdown of the songs prior to the arrival of the CD to:

1. whet Editor Steves appetite and
2. shamelessly promote my website (www.charlieontheradio.net) on Newmoanyeah?

Here are the tracks, in order, if you start with Disc One, as any sane person would.

1. STEVE BURNS - "MIGHTY LITTLE MAN" from SONGS FOR DUSTMITES
   The original host of Blues Clues (no shit!) releases a CD that sounds like the last Moby CD (18), if the last Moby CD had been any good.

2. THE TWILIGHT SINGERS - "TEENAGE WRISTBAND" from ... SING BLACKBERRY BELLE
   Former Afghan Whigs frontman ditches the spacey trip-hop production of Fila Brazilia and releases an excellent chill-out CD.

3. THE CRYSTAL METHOD - "BORN TOO SLOW" from LEGION OF BOOM
   The Method failed to get the memo that techno was over (just ask Eminem), but one cannot resist the Wes Borland slide-guitar riffs and screechy vocals of Kyuss frontman John Garcia.

4. DAVID BOWIE - "NEW KILLER STAR" from REALITY
   Okay, so it's not great, but it's David-fucking-Bowie...

5. VENDETTA RED - "SHATTERDAY" from BETWEEN THE NEVER AND THE NOW
   Live, Vendetta Red lead singer Zachary Davidson channels Roger Daltrey frighteningly well, blonde afro, mic-swinging and all. The tribute doesn't come through quite as clearly on the CD, but the influence is there. This song should have been a nationwide New Rock smash, but alas...

6. BLUR - "CRAZY BEAT" from THINK TANK
   Produced by Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim), it's Song 2, 2003 (or would it be Song 3?)!

7. THE FIRE THEFT - "CHAINS" from THE FIRE THEFT
   Sunny Day Real Estate is back together again for the third time after solo stints, gigs with the Foo Fighters and Jesus, oddly enough. Less Sunny Day, more Radiohead. Moody, dark, a clear favorite.

8. THE WHITE STRIPES - "BALL AND BISCUIT" from ELEPHANT
   Yeah, I chose the longest, bluesiest, most inaccessible song on the CD. Wanna fight about it?

9. LIZ PHAIR - "EXTRAORDINARY" from LIZ PHAIR
   I know, I know, I know, Liz Phair "sold out". The album's still, well, okay. But this song is good, Matrix and all.

10. THE FAGS - "THE LIST" from THE FAGS E.P.
    How not to get played on the radio, Lesson One: "Name your band something inherently offensive, such as "Fuck" (a real band), "The Queers" (also a real band) or "The Fags"". One of the best (yet most poorly produced) songs of the year from an unfortunately named band. All indications on the packaging are that the band is named after cigarettes, not the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy guys. (Sidebar: I'm having major déjà vu right now. I don't know how that affects you reading this, but I am.)

11. RADIOHEAD - "2+2=5" from HAIL TO THE THIEF
    I don't know how necessarily true this statement is, but if Radiohead had released their new album, and it was this song plus 12 tracks of Thom Yorke breaking wind and projectile vomiting onto a suspended blue tarp, I probably still would have been pretty happy.

12. THE NETWORK a.k.a. GREEN DAY - "ROSHAMBO" from MONEY MONEY 2020
    One of the more interesting rock stories of the year, this is an unacknowledged Green Day side project. The rumour is that Green Day submitted this as their album for 2003. The label shut it down, so Billie Joe released it on his own label. Think Strokes meets Blink-182. And any song referring the act of kneeing someone in the nutz is okay with me.

13. OUTKAST - "HEY YA!" from THE LOVE BELOW
    The number one song in the country as of 12/5/03, for obvious reasons. A brilliant double album from two of the most exciting individuals in music today. This song renders a winter coat unnecessary.

14. SPIRITUALIZED - "HOLD ON" from AMAZING GRACE
    J. Spaceman may be a one-trick pony, but it's a really good trick! He recorded the basic tracks in less than a week, then left the album with the producers to flesh out. Amazing. Graceful. Hence the title.

15. THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS featuring THE FLAMING LIPS - "THE GOLDEN PATH" from SINGLES 93-03
    Maybe the key to breathing new life into the techno non-revolution is teaming up with hipsters. Wayne Coyne lends his quasi-religious lyrics to this little nugget of electro-funk. Thanks guys!

16. BRAND NEW - "THE QUIET THINGS THAT NO ONE EVER KNOWS" from DEJA ENTENDU
    Besides the long title that is annoying to type out in a review, this is a song I loved long before I knew that two acquaintances of mine shot and produced the video, then placed themselves in it as crime-scene detectives, which couldn't be further from reality.

17. SLOWRIDE - "PANTHER 2" from BUILDING A BUILDING
    My favorite "Panther" from the album. There are three. Numbered "1", "2" and "4". I don't know where "3" went, either, so don't ask.

18. ELECTRIC SIX - "DANCE COMMANDER" from the DANCE COMMANDER CD SINGLE
    White-boy slam-funk straight out of Detroit, with some of the best lyrics I've heard in a while: "It would be awesome, if we could dance!". A great reason to have a 13-minute party.

19. THE STROKES - "12:51" from ROOM ON FIRE
    So they released the same CD twice. It's still good!

20. COHEED & CAMBRIA - "IN KEEPING SECRETS OF SILENT EARTH 3" from IN KEEPING SECRETS OF SILENT EARTH 3
    Rush for the 21st century. Dark, twisting, scary. Not a CD to listen to while sitting in a dark room really, really high.

21. ANDREW W.K. - "NEVER LET DOWN" from THE WOLF
    The king of party anthems gets sensitive on this one track. The rest of the CD is party anthems, though. You may breathe again.

22. ALIEN ANT FARM - "GLOW" (ACOUSTIC)
    One of my favorite songs of the year made all the much sweeter by the fact that I recorded this live, acoustic version myself. You may download it from my website, free of charge, just don't change the ID tags is all I ask.

23. R.E.M. - "BAD DAY" from IN TIME: THE BEST OF R.E.M.
24. Arguably not a "Best Of" without the IRS years, but they threw us a bone with two new songs, "Animal" and "Bad Day". This song did not get a fair shake at any radio format, as there really is no format for R.E.M. currently.

25. DESERT SESSIONS featuring PJ HARVEY - "CRAWL HOME" from DESERT SESSIONS VOLUMES 9 & 10
    Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age holes up a bunch of his musician buddies in a studio in the desert every year or so and records. Dark and angry, this track is PJ at her sexiest.

26. VAUX - "SWITCHED ON" from THERE MUST BE SOME WAY TO STOP THEM
    Loud, drummy and angry, perfect for a trip to the gym or rush-hour commute.

27. BEN LEE - "CHILLS" from HEY YOU, YES YOU
    Sometimes I get angry that Ben Lee gets to pork Claire Danes and I don't, then I hear a sweet, sensitive-man song like this one and realize why Ben Lee gets to pork Claire Danes and I don't.

28. HOOBASTANK - "OUT OF CONTROL" from THE REASON
    See: VAUX - SWITCHED ON

29. ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES - " BELIEVE I CAN FLY" from TAKE A BREAK
    The kings of inappropriate punk-rock covers, this one works on so many levels:
    1. it's an R&B track
    2. it's a song for middle-school choirs
    3. it's a song probably expressly written for middle-school choirs, by a man who coincidentally likes middle-schoolers, preferably in choir form, R. Kelly. Zing!

On the web: Charlie's web site
Also on the web: Listen to Charlie weekday mornings on Richmond's Y101