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I've organised this in alphabetical order. By the way, I'm aware that the piano keys above aren't laid out correctly. I tried to make them proper, but they looked funny, so I gave up correctness. Click here to see my list of music CD's, and some lyrics for those. Top Ten Albums High Fidelity gave me this idea. These are not in order of preference, but rather, alphabetical order by band. It seemed easier. This list changes often, though. I wrote this particular incarnation of it on Friday, April 27th, 2001. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band : the Beatles the Beatles (aka the White Album) : the Beatles If You're Feeling Sinister : Belle and Sebastian Ben Folds Five : Ben Folds Five Up : Great Big Sea Marcy Playground : Marcy Playground Live Noise : Moxy Fr�vous John Henry : They Might Be Giants Then: the Earlier Years : They Might Be Giants Eternal Nightcap : the Whitlams Barenaked Ladies Well half my friends are crazy and the others are depressed And none of them can help me study for my math test - Grade 9 That line is perfectly descriptive of my experience of the ninth grade. We used to put our books on our heads and hope that we just absorbed the knowledge before the exam. It seemed to work - at least, I never failed the exams. Barenaked Ladies are a Canadian band who released their first CD, Gordon, in the early '90's. Their latest CD is the not so good Maroon. There are five members in the band, who play a decent blend of pop rock. the Beatles Lots of people who have complained about us receiving the MBE received theirs for heroism in the war - for killing people. We received ours for entertaining other people. I'd say we deserve ours more. Wouldn't you? - John Lennon I would have said, before I read that, that perhaps the war veterans did deserve it more than a bunch of musicians. But when I read that, I agreed with Lennon. Now I can't understand how I ever saw it any other way. The lads from Liverpool - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr - are four of the smartest men ever. Brilliant sense of humour, great harmonies, lots of sharp social commentary, and truckloads of pure ingenuity. Utter disbelief at their obscenely enormous amounts of talent is probably my strongest feeling for the Beatles. Every time I put one of their albums on, I'm blown away again by it. They were together for seven years, during which time they wrote many excellent songs and released them on terrific albums. They also grew their hair. In addition to this, they made some films. A Hard Day's Night is a must see film even if you're not a fan of the Beatles. Even my sister loves that film. I read a quote somewhere once about the Beatles, which basically said: they had a wonderful quality - not innocence, but like they were only just finding out about the world and trying to make sense of it. That's a perfect description. Their explorations of the world, through their music, helps you to make your own sense of the world. There's not many bands - or many people in any career, for that matter - who can make you rearrange your view of the world. And I'm not sure if what I just wrote makes any sense, but I can't really work out how to say what I mean. To me, the Beatles are always associated with childhood memories, even though my parents weren't really fans. I remember Dad used to sing Strawberry Fields Forever to me when I was little. With A Little Help From My Friends always brings back memories of watching Wonder Years re-runs on the school holidays. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds reminds me of the twelve hour long car trips we used to take to visit my grandmother - we had to go through the mountains to get there, and the only radio station you could get played the song every time, without fail, as we approached the top of the mountain - strange but true. I suppose that Ringo's narration the children's show Thomas the Tank Engine may have had something to do with those memories as well. My brother was born in 1994, when I was ten, and since then, children's shows have been a permanent fixture in the house. The soundtrack of my life for the my first few teenage years was a mixture of Sesame Street, PlaySchool and Thomas the Tank Engine, because it was always on when I got home from school. Thomas, Percy, the Fat Controller and the rest are on every afternoon, and when the television's on, I go and watch it just to hear the wonderful accent. Ringo's underrated. Belle and Sebastian He doesn't understand and he doesn't try He knows there's something missing and he knows it's you and I We're the younger generation, we grew up fast All the others did drugs, they're taking it out on us - Me and the Major Belle and Sebastian are a brilliant band from Scotland. None of them are named Belle or Sebastian. They named themselves after a book by Madame Cecile Aubry called Belle et Sebastien, which was also made into a cartoon series. I remember watching the cartoon when I was little, I used to like it. Anyway, back to the band. They're from Scotland, and don't do a lot of publicity or tours. They play introspective, beautiful music. The melodies are beautiful, the lyrics are sharp, they're all you'd want in a band. Stuart Murdoch's beautiful voice leads most songs, with a lot of harmonies and a few lead vocals done by Isobel Campbell. There's also some amusingly Trainspotting-like spoken word done by Stuart David. Ben Folds Five I feel like a quote out of context withholding the rest So I can be for you what you want to see - Best Imitation of Myself I can proudly say that the first CD I ever brought was Ben Folds Five's self-titled album. This is still one of my top five albums. The trio (no, not five) are made up of the piano man Ben Folds, the drummer (and Turkish gong hitter) Darren Jessee and the bassist Robert Sledge. They've released four CD's, and I heartily recommend all of them. They certainly mellowed out with their latest CD, the Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner, which was made up primarily of the ballady type songs, but it still leaves most bands in the dust. Sadly, they broke up in late 2000. They used to put on a really good live show, which I can testify to because I've seen them twice (yes, I'm bragging). I used to maintain a website called Coming Up For Air that was dedicated to them, but when they went to way of the dinosaurs I handed it on to another fan for safekeeping. The address is http://fly.to/drpyser/ . Ben Folds has gone on to release the average Rockin' the Suburbs, but I've heard little of the other two since the split. Built to Spill I know it's sad but don't feel bad They knew they had it coming After a while it hurts to smile And when you laugh it's just a typical miracle - Stop the Show I first heard of this band because of the Ben Folds Five cover of the beautiful song Twin Falls. Curious to hear the original [*], I sought out a copy of There's Nothing Wrong With Love on which it appears. Built to Spill have good lyrics. The lead singer, Doug Martsch, has a strange voice with a sort of painful quality to it. I sometimes wish I could cut out the long guitar jam bits, because frankly that sort of thing bores me, but then other people love them for it, so what can you do? [*] I prefer the Ben Folds Five version, actually. Counting Crows Step out the front door like a ghost into the fog Where no one notices the contrast of white on white And in between the moon and you the angels get a better view Of the crumbling difference between wrong and right - Round Here A bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, they are. Simple, solid rock/pop stuff with all the spirit of MTV. And I don't need to be told that they're only ripping off R.E.M., who're ripping off Neil Young, and so forth. They may well be derivative, but hey, Adam Duritz has a nice voice and cool hair, and what more do you want? Plus Dave McKean, famed for the Sandman covers, designed the art for This Desert Life, so there's cool for you. Ani DiFranco Tell me who is your boogieman? That's who I will be You don't have to like me for who I am But we'll see what you're made of by what you make of me - Willing to Fight I guess Ani's best described as a political folk rock chick [*]. I always mean to go and buy her new albums but somehow never get around to it, so I only own three. I'm not really one for the hugely feminist perspective, but I like a lot of Ani's other ideals. I saw her play at the Concert Hall in Brisbane (February 2000), and I really liked what she was saying. I don't really recall what she played, but I do remember what she talked about. She spoke about the things we're taught when we're young. Like when the teacher showed you a picture of three apples and an orange and asked you, "which one is different, which one is wrong?". It was really interesting to hear her talk about that sort of thing, that we're taught from a very young age that different is wrong. I also remember one other thing she said, after stating some really obvious facts she explained that her theme for the evening was "stating the obvious" and what she said after that kind of stuck in my mind - "I set my goals low and then impress myself." I liked the theory. [*] Probably just alienated all the "righteous babe" types by using the word chick. But if you're offended by it, you can go and soak your head in a goldfish bowl. Marcy Playground A cloaking robe of elvenkind Hangs in my wardrobe behind All those things my mother said were proper for a boy - A Cloak of Elvenkind Absolutely sublime. One of my very favourite bands. They're headed up by lead singer John Wozniak, guitar is handled by Dylan Keefe while drums are played by Dan Reiser [*]. I think everyone should own their self-titled album (yes, the one with that sex and candy song). Go and buy it, you won't regret it. It's really nice music, sometimes innocent (Gone Crazy) and other times dark (Comin' Up From Behind). Wozniak's a Narnia fan, who went to a hippie school, and he's a lyrical genius. [*] Strictly speaking, drums were played by Dan Reiser, who I believe has recently left the group. I don't know who replaced him. Miles From Nowhere Everybody knows the conversation Sometimes you just don't care Telling everybody you're rainbow chasing Means you're ending up nowhere - Rainbows In My Head Miles From Nowhere are a Brisband (i.e. band from Brisbane). They've got good harmonies, and nice pop tunes. I first saw them live at Woodford Folk Festival in 1999, and I got their EP there. I saw them the next year at Woodford again as well. They're always playing around Brisbane, but I've never gotten around to going to see them. They're good fun to watch, lots of energy and good stuff. Moxy Fr�vous When you've played out as the world turns You don't need soap to clean your mind Every little child learns If you can't see dreams your eyes are blind - Fly They're a Canadian four piece sort-of-folk band. The members are Mike Ford, Murray Foster, Jian Ghomeshi and Dave Matheson. They all take turns at vocals, but I like Murray's best. Their music has lots of harmonies and other good stuff. Their CD Live Noise is the best live CD I've ever heard. They Might Be Giants D, world destruction Over and overture N, do I need Apostrophe T, need this torture? - Don't Let's Start How can you not love a band with John Linnell in it? Oh, okay, I like Flansburgh too. The Brooklyn-based two-piece (both named John) have been releasing albums since 1986. Since then, they've released a number of CD's, including the mp3-only release, Long Tall Weekend (available from http://www.emusic.com . I find that the biggest problem with TMBG is the tendency of all their songs to get stuck in your head, and they repeat incessantly until you feel like screaming. But it's okay because they're good songs. Flansburgh's released two solo CD's under the peculiar name of Mono Puff. Linnell's released a CD called State Songs, a pet project of his which involves writing songs for each American state. Not the state anthems, you understand, but songs inspired by the states. This is more fun than it sounds. the Whitlams Some say love it only comes once in a lifetime Well once was enough for me She was one in a million, yeah So there's five more just in New South Wales - Up Against the Wall Lead man Tim Freedman named the Whitlams after the legendary Gough, former Prime Minister of Australia. Their first two albums are okay, but 1997's Eternal Nightcap and its successor Love This City are terrific. Tim's got a lovely deep voice, and looks like a young Christopher Skase [*]. Tim, however, is a lot better looking than the fugitive businessman [**]. There's a political leaning to some of their songs, as you'd expect from a band with their name. "400 Miles From Darwin" encapsulates society's hypocrisy towards minorities, and "You Gotta Love This City" gives a new perspective to the Sydney 2000 Olympics. "Blow Up The Pokies" is an anti-gambling piece that actually gets airplay on commercial stations. The Whitlams are sometimes moody, sometimes upbeat, usually clever, occasionally dirty, always witty, and very very Australian. [*] I once saw a really funny interview where Dylan Lewis of Recovery fame asked Tim if he wasn't really Skasey in disguise. The look on Tim's face was priceless - bemused, amused and other -ed words. I admit it was late at night and I was tired, but I have rarely laughed so hard. [**] It's not difficult to look better than Skase, but don't let that give you the wrong impression. Tim is actually very very attractive. He was nominated for one of those "Most Sexiest Bachelor" competition. I don't have the exact quote, but when he was told about his nomination, he responded incredulously with something like: "I'm not sexy, you should see me with my clothes off". The poor boy only meant that he didn't think he had a good enough body, but it sounds like quite a proposition! Crystal Lee Cooper - http://zap.to/strawberryfields/