Alive and Amplified--an awesome garage band goes into the studio with the guys who produced Avril Lavigne's album and Liz Phair's big sellout. Recipe for disaster, or recipe for complete balls-out hard rockin' awesomeness? The latter! The title track alone has not one, not two, but three fake endings! The subject matter varies from sex to the awesome power of rock and back to sex. Subtlety is not the order of the day--"Loose and Juicy," "Messin' in the Dressin' Room" and "Naked Lady" are three of the songs--but it's all tremendous fun.
The Mooney Suzuki - Loose N' Juicy
Have Mercy is also a great record-- a little quieter, a lot more musically diverse, and packed with great songs from start to finish.
The Raveonettes--Pretty In Black
The mutant offspring of Phil Spector, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and The Everly Brothers, the Raveonettes here produce a bunch of gorgeous, slightly twisted, and somewhat haunting pop songs.
The Strokes--First Impressions of Earth--The album where the Strokes really came into their own. That Casablancas guy stopped hiding behind annoying vocal effects, and the lyrics, especially in "On the Other Side," turned out to be really good.
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists-- Shake the Sheets-- If Billy Bragg were American and fronted The Minutemen, it might sound something like Ted Leo's music. There's a lot to love here, but here's what I love best--Ted Leo sounds like he's doing this not because he wants to, but because he has to. Like if he didn't get to perform this music, it might just kill him. That's a prety rare kind of passion...
U2--All That You Can't Leave Behind. Hipsters love to hate on U2. I understand the logic. It goes like this: most people are idiots with horrible taste. Therefore, if a band is popular, it proves that they suck. Like I said, I get the logic, but I don't agree with it. Not everything that's popular is crap, and this band is still a viable, interesting band after 30 years. Compare that to any other band--Most flame out before 10 years have elapsed, while others, like the Stones and Van Halen, stagger on for years or even decades after they've lost their mojo.
People also hate on Bono because he thinks about stuff and has the temerity to talk about stuff, and we like our rock stars brain dead, drug-addled, and dead.
Well, the hell with all that, I say. This is an album for adults that happens to rock, and Bono's lyrics have just gotten better and more interesting as the years have gone by.
Joey Ramone was listening to "In a Little While" when he died. You think you're cooler than Joey Ramone? Well I don't.
The White Stripes-- Elephant. The White Stripes put out 4 great records in the oughts. Jack White does his best work with Meg, and his songs are smart, funny, and often rock your socks off. I give the nod to Elephant because I think it's the most consistently good, but you could make the argument for Red Blood Cells, Get Behind Me Satan or Icky Thump too.
Wilco--Yankee Hotel Foxtrot--Yeah, the radio transmissions and noise interludes are self indulgent and incredibly annoying, but this album is every bit the masterpiece people say it is. (My theory--Jeff Tweedy makes fantastic music as long as there's a guy named Jay in the band.)
