1. Dr. Dre - Detox
2. The Coup � Pick A Bigger Weapon
3. Ghostface Kilah - Fishscale
4. The Game � The Doctor�s Advocate
5. Rhymefest � Blue Collar
6. OutKast � Idlewild Soundtrack
7. Obie Trice � Second Round�s On Me
8. Raekwon - Cuban Linx II
9. NaS � NASDAQ Dow Jones
10. Redman � Red Gone Wild
11. Scarface � The Product
12. The Roots � The Game Theory
13. Rakim � Oh My God
14. Scarface � My Homies II
15. The Fugees � TBA
16. Saigon � The Greatest Story Never Told
17. Kanye West � Good Ass Job
18. Styles P � Time Is Money
19. OutKast � 10 The Hard Way
20. The Clipse � Hell Hath No Fury
21. Joe Budden � The Growth
22. Juvenile � Reality Check
23. Cee-Lo + DangerMouse � Gnarls Barkley
24. MF Doom + Ghostface Killah � Swift & Changeable or Doomer Face
25. Pharrell � In My Mind
26. Busta Rhymes � The Big Bang
27. E-40 � My Ghetto Report Card
28. Bubba Sparxxx � The Charm
29. Lil� E � Prince of Compton
30. Immortal Technique � The Middle Passage
31. Chino XL � Poison Pen
32. Cannibal Ox � TBD
33. Cam�ron � Killa Season
34. Planet Asia � The Sickness
35. The Alkaholics � Firewater
36. Remy Ma � There�s Something About Remy
37. Foxy Brown � Ill Na Na II: The Fever
38. Jean Grae + 9th Wonder � Jeanius
39. Pharoahe Monch � Innervisions
40. Planet Asia � The Medi Cali trilogy: The Sickness, The Diagnosis, & The Medicine

What’re yours?

Cock Rock Disco is releasing its 2006 artist compilation as a free download. Get it here:

http://www.cockrockdisco.com/free.zip

Tracklist:

1. Food For Animals - Elephants 01:45
2. About - Think Niles Drink 03:32
3. Duran Duran Duran - Ralez 04:27
4. Dev/Null - Scary 03:57
5. Next Life - Red Stone 02:02
6. Stunt Rock - I’ve Really Lost It Because This S**t Is Starting To Sound Like Washed-Up, Half-Assed Fatboy Slim Ripoff With A Twelve Year Old’s Sense Of Humor. 01:50
7. Slepcy - With Charles Bukowski On The Ride 05:23
8. Audiogarde - Mardi Gras 04:27
9. Don Augusto - The House Denominator Factor 02:53
10. Drumcorps - Saddest 01:17
11. Vorpal - Gymnopedie_v1.01 03:17
12. Terminal 11 - Counter Clockwise Chant Pattern 03:41
13. Doormouse - Dizzay 03:14
14. Pisstank � Punching�Til It Bleeds 04:49
15. The Assdroids - Stravinsky’s “Rite Of Spring” Cover Song (Rehearsal Version) 10:31

Metric has just announced its US tour dates for this spring. Before then, they’ll have two especially exciting shows opening for the Rolling Stones:

January 18: New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden (with The Rolling Stones)
January 20: New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden (with The Rolling Stones)

March 7: Boston, MA @ The Roxy
March 9: Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
March 10: New York, NY @ Webster Hall

March 11: Philadelphia, PA @ Starlight Ballroom
March 12: Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
March 13: Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club & Ballroom
March 15: Dallas, TX @ Gypsy Ballroom
March 16: Austin, TX @ Cedar Street Courtyard (SXSW)
March 17: Austin, TX @ Stubb’s (SXSW)
March 19: Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theatre
March 21: San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
March 23: Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theatre
March 24: San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
March 26: Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
March 27: Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
April 10: Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
April 12: Madison, WI @ The Annex
April 13: Chicago, IL @ Metro
April 14: Cincinnati, OH @ Bogarts
April 15: Detroit, MI @ St. Andrews Hall

Get your messy grind on as the Post Office Gals cross the States:

01/02/06 @ Caf� Metro - Wilkes-Barre, PA w/ AN ALBATROSS
01/03/06 @ Bernie�s - Columbus , OH
01/04/06 @ Mac�s Bar - Lansing , MI
01/05/06 @ The Studio - Chicago, IL
01/06/06 @ Parkland Theater - Cincinnati , OH
01/07/06 @ tba - Nashville, TN w/ THE TONY DANCE EXTRAVAGANZA!!
01/08/06 @ tba - Athens/Atlanta, GA
01/09/06 @ The Sociall - Myrtle Beach, SC

01/10/06 @ Shogun Hideout - Charlotte, NC w/ NETWORK OF TERROR &
THUS SPOKE!
01/11/06 @ tba - Chapel Hill, NC
01/12/06 @ Sweet Caroline�s - Virginia Beach, VA
01/13/06 @ Warehouse Next Door - Washington, DC
01/14/06 @ University of Delaware - Newark, DE
01/15/06 @ The Red & Black - NYC, NY w/ Battletorn

I first heard �Since U Been Gone� last December, which is why I was kind of wary of putting it on my ‘05 list; because I knew that it came out in ‘04, and I thought that just because I slept on it then didn’t give me an excuse to put it on my list now (although, sure enough, I was on �Mr. Brightside� in ‘04, and now it’s appearing on ‘05 lists). So, about a year ago to this day I first heard this track, driving with a friend across the floating bridge over Lake Washington in Seattle. And this song comes on the radio after Usher/Alicia Keys or Nelly/Tim McGraw or whatever they were playing at the time, and I think, “What? Why is pop radio playing indie rock?” � because even though I’ve long come to terms with my fondness for mainstream pop, I remain an indie kid at heart. And I mean that in terms of liking semi-obscure/indie label guitar bands, rather being a snobby elitist bitch. Pop radio was playing my music and I had no understanding as to why.

And my friend asked me what I thought of the track, which I soon found out was Kelly Clarkson, and I said warily, “Yeah, I really like the verse, but the chorus is just way too overblown.”

Because the verse was great. A few days later, I went to New York, and with my iPod accidentally wiped clean, my only source of music was the listening booths at the Times Square Virgin, and every night I’d go there and listen to the first verse of “Since U Been Gone,” because it was absolutely incredible. It really sounded like the Strokes were playing backup to American Idol; the clean palm-mute guitar and the drum-machine beat underneath Clarkson’s half hyper-emo and half Casablancas-bored vocal. And then the second verse was even better, because it added a chiming guitar to the mix that built on the already perfect opening sequence, as well as a synthy-guitar thing that continued the Strokes sound, like an alternate melody for “12:51.” It was as if all those songs that indie purists describe as “perfect pop” actually were being played on the radio and selling like fuck.

And, cutting out my gradual acceptance of the chorus, because personal experience is a really bad way of reviewing a track, and I’ve already done way too much of it, I eventually came to love the whole thing. It really is a tightly coiled 3 minutes of everything right about contemporary music � pop and indie. It’s like every single second of the track was carefully designed to be perfect, but Kelly Clarkson let loose with a devastating emotional spontaneity over it anyway. The chorus bursts out of the verse in exactly the right way, the track’s momentum builds and fades just as it is meant to, the guitar solo nods to those who know the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but is also entirely unique to the track, so it’s enjoyable without the meta qualities, which aren’t that apparent anyway because it is the musical translation of the song’s emotional cleansing theme. And then after it has all faded, the opening guitar-chug and drum machine combo returns as a coda, a sort of calm after the storm. Excuse the clich�.

I have no idea how anyone who likes something like the New Pornographers, for instance, could fail to like this track. It pushes every button that “All For Swinging You Around” pushed, and though I don’t want to seem the reactionary “pop is automatically better than indie� sort, it does push those buttons even better than Neko Case et al did.

Jim James of My Morning Jacket will be sidelined for a while due to health complications related to pneumonia. The group will have to cancel an upcoming show on New Years Eve as well as their European tour that was to begin on January 18th, 2006. The plan is to re-schedule the tour dates, but of course James’s health is of top concern.