The Line Of Best Fit: 2006 Playlist

A Christmas present to you all. As this will be the last post of the year I thought i'd treat you all...

The Line Of Best Fit: 2006 Playlist is a 17 track compilation of my choice picks of the year. There is something for everyone here so feel free to grab it. I hope you enjoy! Merry Christmas!

Tracklist:

01.Consolation Prizes - Phoenix
02.Black & Blue - Tim O'Reagan
03.Fire In The Sky - The Hazey Janes
04.Where Are You Go Go Going To? - Loney, Dear
05.7/4 (Shoreline) - Broken Social Scene
06.Be Good Or Be Gone - Fionn Regan
07.The Crane Wife 3 - The Decemberists
08.Low Happening - The Howling Bells
09.Eyes on the Prize - M. Ward
10.Waiting for the Time to Be Right - The Brother Kite
11.Black Swan - Thom Yorke
12.The Jeopardy of Contentment - What Made Milwaukee Famous
13.Let's Get Out Of This Country - Camera Obscura
14.There Goes My Outfit - The Dears
15.The Hope Edition - My Latest Novel
16. ABC - The Pipettes
17.Head Home - Midlake

Download it by clicking here.

A look towards next year

Theres lots to look forward to though - 2007 is already shaping upto being a great year for music with new releases from:

Air
Arcade Fire
Architecture In Helsinki
Art Brut
Andrew Bird
Bloc Party
Bright Eyes
British Sea Power
BRMC
Built To Spill
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Dntel
Doves
Explosions In The Sky
Feist
Field Music
The Go! Team
Jose Gonzalez
PJ Harvey
Interpol
Idlewild
Norah Jones
LCD Soundsystem
Ted Leo
Massive Attack
Maximo Park
Metric
Modest Mouse
New Pornographers
Of Montreal
Pinback
Polyphonic Spree
Portishead
The Postal Service
Radiohead
Gruff Rhys
Rilo Kiley
The Shins
Son Volt
Spiritualized
Spoon
Wilco
Lucinda Williams

I've heard a few of the above already and havent been dissapointed as of yet. Roll on 2007!

Yep. Its End Of Year List Time.

Its that time of year again when the best of lists come out. Bloggers and critics from around the globe spend far too much time contemplating what should go in the top spot. Does it really matter? Probably not. But I care and to start things off here is my top 25 of the year.

The Line Of Best Fit Top 25 from 2006

25. Loose Fur - Born Again In The USA
24. The Rapture - Pieces Of The People We Love
23. What Made Milwaukee Famous - Trying To Never Catch Up
22. Stars Of Track And Field - Centuries Before Love And War
21. Mystery Jets - Making Dens


20. The Dears - Gang Of Losers
19. My Morning Jacket - Okonokos
18. The Futureheads - News & Tributes
17. DFA - The DFA Remixes: Chapter Two
16. CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy


15. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
14. Fionn Regan - End Of History
13. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
12. My Latest Novel - Wolves
11. Brakes - The Beatific Visions


10. Loney, Dear - Sologne
9. Howling Bells - Howling Bells
8. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
7. Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country
6. M Ward - Post War


5. Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time
4. Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
3. The Brother Kite - Waiting For The Time To Be Right
2. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
1. Midlake - The Trials Of Van Occupanther

Other albums id like to give an honourable mention to are:
The Early Years - The Early Years
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
Josh Ritter - The Animal Years
I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends
Tim O'Reagan - Tim O'Reagan
Ben Kweller - Ben Kweller
The Elected - Sun, Sun, Sun
Calexico - Garden Ruin
Sound Team - Movie Monster
Portastatic - Be Still Please
My Brightest Diamond - Bring Me The Workhorse
Tapes n' Tapes - The Loon
Dirty On Purpose - Hallelujah Sirens
The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
Centro-Matic - Fort Recovery
The Kooks - Inside In/Inside Out
Beck - The Information
Metric - Live it Out
Forward Russia - Give Me a Wall
Lilly Allen - Alright, Still
Amy Millan - Honey From The Tombs
Cat Power - The Greatest
The Spinto Band - Nice and Nicely Done
Jarvis Cocker - Jarvis
The Strokes - First Impressions Of Earth
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Drive By Truckers - A Blessing And A Curse
The Velvet Teen - Cum Laude
Amy Millan - Honey From The Tombs
Snow Patrol - Eyes Open
Be Your Own PET - Be Your Own PET
Fields - 7 From The Village
Golden Smog - Another Fine Day
Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad Of The Broken Seas
Johnny Cash - American V
The Hazey Janes - Hotel Radio
Thom Yorke - The Eraser
Peter Bjorn And John - Writer's Block
The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
The Charlatans - Simpatico
Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
Voxtrot - Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives EP
Wolfmother - Wolfmother
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And Will Beat Your Ass
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
The Magic Numbers - Those The Brokes
The Album Leaf - Into The Blue Again

Phew!, what a year. Really any of the albums between 1 and 6 could have been my favourite. All six of them are very very special records that, if you havent already checked out you must do so and quickly!

Some other year end lists from around the globe.....
[I will edit this as more lists are released]

To start things off here is the link for Pitchforks top 25 music videos of 2006. Some pretty great ones are included such as Lilly Allen, CSS, Emily Haines and ofcourse the video that im sure will scoop lots of awards next year Ok, Go.

Watch them here

Some other year end lists worthy of posting:

Amazon.com top 100 of the year
NME top 50 albums
NME top 50 singles
More Cowbell Top 20
Bridgets' Blog Top 50
Richard Hughes of CD Times top albums of the year
Muzzle Of Bees Favourites of the year

Review: The Charlatans - Brixton Academy, London. 8th December 2006.

Its typical of The Charlatans to end the year on top of their game. Its what they've spent their entire career doing. Damning anyone and everyone who has ever stood in their way. They're survivors after all.
2006 has been a funny old year for the band. Appearing in the first half of the year with the poorly recieved 9th studio album Simpatico, its Reggae and Dub influences confused both fans and critics alike. But credit to them, they tried something new and with most experiments sometimes they work sometimes they don't. But they've always had spirit and when the new musical directions work they really work; take 2001's Wonderland for example - a pure slice of glorious Californian soul or the Dylanesque country of Us & Us Only for examples of their bloody mindedness and talent.

Who would have thought they would be ending this year in such a celebrated way? November saw the band release their second retrospective of their career, Forever contained a selection of the bands favourite and most successful singles to date and with this came a full UK tour. What a tour its been too - playing all their favourite haunts its clear the band have been enjoying it as much as their ever loyal fans. Just listen to the daily podcasts to hear Burgess and co gushing after every show. Brixton Academy has always been an important venue for the band, some legendary shows have taken place here, most recently from the 2004 show where the bands only live DVD was filmed.

As LCD Soundsystems' Disco Infiltrator booms from the PA and the curtain falls to reveal a huge Charlatans logo backdrop the atmosphere becomes purely electric and its not long until the band appear and kick in with career high Forever. Tim Burgess looking revitalised after kicking drink and drugs earlier this year, he skulks the stage in the way that only Tim Burgess can, its certainly clear he and the rest of the guys are on a mission, yet the audience didn't react in such the manic way that I was expecting and it wasn't until Cant Get Out Of Bed until the atmosphere clicked into place and the band shifted it up a notch. Love Is The Key blew the roof off, one of the many highlights of the evening Up At The Lake sounded fresher than ever and The Only One I Know, as it always does, sent the audience into a complete frenzy.

A Man Needs To Be Told calms things down slightly with Burgess introducing it as his "War Song" its plods along quite nicely but I cant help but feel they should have canned it for a more lesser heard live track. With no studio album to tour and a classic song cannon, surely this is the time to do it? But apart from the encore the set is all pretty safe, or maybe its just what the crowd want to hear. This is only a very minor complaint though, The Charlatans are still one of the only bands that can make me feel the way they do live. Everytime i've ever had the opportunity to see them there has always been a oneness between band and audience, a Charlatans army if you like. They are a band of the people, and not in a yobbish Kasabian way either. You can live your life through this band and you can tell from the audience that many people do. Every member of the crowd I look at are singing the words right back at TIm with such conviction you'd think they were the songs authors.

A sterling rendition of How High concludes and the band leave the stage. What follows is an encore that should blow the roof off Brixton once and for all but, never really takes off. Kicking off with NYC from Simpatico Tim announces that he's just figured out "We've got another half an hour left yet" they break into a classic rendition of debut single Indian Rope with Tony Rogers ressurecting the ghost of Rob Collins in a hammond solo that completely blows my mind. I cant help but think that the majority of the audience haven't even heard the song before though. Up next comes Then which is a late addition to the set and like Indian Rope just doesn't get the audience reaction i'd expect. A lackluster run through of Impossible follows and its not until classic set closer Sproston Green that the encore finally picks up pace. The crowd literally go mental as the self styled King of the Mods Martin Blunt kicks into the pulsating bass line and the rest of the band follow. Tim Burgess still skulking around zapping the audience with his imaginary gun. At this point i've nearly lost not only my glasses but my jeans and my right shoe. Tim leaves the stage and the guys wrap things up in their own time - Jon Brookes pounding the drums, as always as if his life depended on it. Mark Collins and Martin Blunt knowingly cool as fuck and Tony Rogers tearing his Hammond to pieces. A completely exhilarating 2 hour set is over, and as always the band won hands down. They always do.

The Charlatans - Sproston Green

Manchester Charity Event. Line-Up Revealed.

John Lennon ‘Imagine’ Charity Event at RNCM Manchester.
Friday 22nd December.

This event is to raise funds for the John Lennon ‘Imagine’ Trust which treats and cares for over 200,000 patients each year at The Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.

This is a one off event in which the celebrated singer songwriters of Manchester have come together to help raise funds and give the trust an amazing Christmas present. The artists who have kindly offered to perform at the event and support the charity are;

Badly Drawn Boy
Stephen Fretwell
Guy Garvey and Craig Potter (of Elbow)
Lazy Bones
Autopilot
Nomad Jones

All are here to participate in an incredible acknowledgement to the trust and play to support and publicise the charity. All the artists will be offering their services for free and all proceeds from the ticket sales will be donated to the charity.

For further information on the charity www.imagineappeal.com.

Tickets are £17.50 available at
RNCM Box office. 0161 907 5555
Piccadilly Box Office.0161 832 1111 (No booking fee applies).
or online at www.rncm.ac.uk / www.ticketline.co.uk

Signing In....

Wow - has been a month already since my last post? Time flies when youre having fun I guess. Lots of exciting stuff happening at the moment... Tomorrow sees The Charlatans play at Brixton Academy in London which I am very much looking forward to. The setlist is looking great with the band throwing in all sorts of old goodies - expect a full review at the start of next week. In the meantime though why not subscribe to the bands daily podcast - so far it been highly entertaining. Click here for more info...


Also on Friday check out the Album Chart show on Channel 4 as a band called Brinkman are making their TV debut. A few years ago under a different name - The Vessels - the band made a tiny splash with their excellent countrified debut. After losing their guitarist and bass player though, the band regrouped and changed their name, and their sound. Check out their myspace page here.

Much to many an artists frustration there have been a fair few leaks of 2007 releases in the past few weeks. Most notably LCD Soundsystems new album "Sound Of Silver" - now, im not posting any links on here but it is outthere and its bloody good. In fact, its raised the bar pretty high for new music next year - its a huge leap forward from the debut album. James Murphy isnt too pleased about it though, he spoke of the news on his forum "the leak makes me sad. I mean, I knew it was ineveitable to some degree, but I barely finished the record, and I just wanted to get through the new year without this. It sucks - I didn't leak it. It wasn't intentional. Please don't share it if you have it. please."
Now, as much as I can simpify with Mr LCD unfortuantely this is how things work nowadays - everything leaks at some point, but as ive come to realise, people will generally still buy the album anyway. Its normally the big fans who can't wait for the new material.

Other leaks available are The Shins third album "Wincing The Night Away" which contrary to what most people are saying is fucking brilliant, Super Furries head boy Gruff Rhys's second solo outing entitled "Candylion" and notably the new Field Music album "Tones Of Town".
2007 is shaping up to be a great year already!

Speaking of great music in 2007 - Wilco have finished touring for the year to finish off their new as yet untitled album due for release on Nonesuch records sometime in May. The band have been roadtesting new material for some time now, whether or not all the tracks will appear on the new album or not is to be debated but song titles include; "Let's Not Get Carried Away", "Side With the Seeds", "What Light", "Shake It Off", "Impossible Germany", "Lullaby for Rafter and Beams", "Patient With Me", "Let's Fight", "Is That the Thanks I Get?", "Maybe the Sun Will Shine" "On and On and On" and "Walken". Whats more you lucky people can sample these new tracks by wandering over to Jesse Jarnow's Frank and Earthy blog where you can download a selection of currently available songs taped at recent shows. Know one knows how long these links will be up for so go and fill yer boots quickly. Major kudos for Wilco as they have always been really cool about having their shows taped and shared on the internet.