Friday, the 13th

In honor of Friday the 13th, and in imitation of Morrissey, here are the 13 greatest albums I know of (though I'm sure I'm forgetting something):

1. The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come
2. Ramones - Ramones
3. Ramones - Leave Home
4. Nirvana - In Utero
5. The Clash - London Calling
6. Smoking Popes - Destination Failure
7. XTC - Skylarking
8. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
9. Ramones - Rocket to Russia
10. The Go-Betweens - Oceans Apart
11. Lloyd Cole - Music in a Foreign Language
12. Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight
13. Material Issue - International Pop Overthrow

Number Ones!

I joined a site called Last.fm because I like to see a record of the music I listen to. A secondary benefit it discovering new music. You can see my profile here.

I have 34 last.fm "friends." Twenty-eight have been active recently, and I've compiled their respective number one tracks: the favorite songs, more or less, of some serious music fans.

I thought about trimming it down to an album-length mix, but I wanted the list to be authentic. I even changed Nepthys' contribution from The Smiths' "This Charming Man" (2:41) to Morrissey's "The Teachers Are Afraid of the Pupils" (11:15) when the latter overtook the former in her charts during my mix-making process. Phenomenalcat5 had two songs at number one, and they're both here. And when it became obvious that I wouldn't be able to fit the songs on to one disc I took the liberty of adding my number one track to the top of the playlist.

There is some great stuff here - some tracks I have known and loved and others I am just getting to know. Let me know if you count any as genuine discoveries.

Each track is labeled at the end with the last.fm username of the contributor. You can download part one here, and part two here.

Part one
1. Jack Lee - Middle of the Night (3:32) - jessesamuel
2. New Order - Procession (4:26) - gravesendneck
3. Dead Mechanical - Sidewalks (2:01) - packagethiefnj
4. Ruiner - The Lives We Fear (2:05) - amandawhitlow
5. The Gothic Archies - How Do You Slow This Thing Down? (3:07) - christiemalry
6. Timbaland - The Way I Are (3:47) - notginger
7. The Clash - Train in Vain (3:07) - K_Baz
8. The Feelies - Raised Eyebrows (2:59) - DismantledKing
9. The Gordons - Coalminers Song (5:41) - squidexplosion
10. Sleater-Kinney - One More Hour (3:18) - grammarofskin
11. Nacho Vegas - Seronda (4:01) - DR34M
12. Miranda Warning - Si empieza a llover (3:17) - GoodyAlien
13. Morrissey - The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils (11:15) - Nepthys
14. The Beatles - You've Got To Hide Your Love Away (2:06) - Pleasedontrock

Part two
15. The Ergs! - Jazz Is Like The New Coke (2:16) - girlelec
16. B-Movie - Nowhere Girl (4:34) - reasonunknown
17. The Chameleons - Up The Down Escalator (3:56) - sweetrocks
18. Bubonic Plague - Gray Wave City (2:34) - noakillercat
19. The Church - Under The Milky Way (4:55) - OhDeanna
20. Jeff Buckley - Grace (5:20) - edwyncollins
21. Television - Friction (4:41) - phenomenalcat5
22. Scarling - Baby Dracula (3:53) - catfight1980
23. Sarah McLachlan - Do What You Have To Do (3:46) - PopuVamp
24. The Boys Club - Barracuda (2:44) - NoahWK27
25. Ringers - Grind Your Teeth (3:10) - whmaurer
26. The House Of Love - Destroy The Heart (2:39) - joisacliche
27. The Bodines - The Back Door (2:40) - icarokar
28. The Dukes Of Stratosphear - Vanishing Girl (2:59) - fleshballoon
29. The Undertones - Teenage Kicks (2:23) - phenomenalcat5

Thick Pigeon - Troglodytes

The melody is attractive but not quite hummable. The music is warm analog electronic and the beat is "dance" - that new wave shuffle that postpunkers adopted when they tried to go pop but that no one who is familiar with hip hop will dance to.

The group is Thick Pigeon, which enjoyed the participation of New Order's Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert on the Too Crazy Cowboys album (1984). The singer is the multi-monikered Miranda Dali, Miranda Stanton, Stanton Miranda, who contributed a glossy cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" to the out of print A Means to an End tribute, which is how she first came to my attention.

Early in her career Dali participated in the No Wave scene, and the other Thick Pigeon is Carter Burwell, who makes music for Cohen brothers movies. Pitchfork gave the album a 2.1 out of (ouch) 10 and called the group Yaz wannabes (ouuuch). But that just makes me like it more.

Is it just me, or is this song really catchy?

Download Thick Pigeon's Troglodytes and Stanton-Miranda's Love Will Tear Us Apart here.