Well, I suggest you check out the culture and music (even if it's 40 years old) before you start listening.

quote:

Originally posted by Pulque:

quote:

Originally posted by crazed:
Cool! I'll make a favorite surf albums of '06 list and post in the best of 2006 forum, somewhere.

That'll be great, crazed. My exposure to surf music consists of "Wipeout"

Out of interest, would you consider Midnight Oil's "Wedding Cake Island" a surf instrumental?

I haven't heard "Wedding Cake Island", I don't recall it being on the Midnight Oil albums I have.

There are two Australian surf bands that come to mind immediately- the Atlantics and GT Stringer. The Atlantics began in the '60s and their style is somewhere between the Ventures and the Surfaris. They released a new and brillant album a few years back. GT Stringer's sound is a mix of jazz and space with the adventuresome side of traditional surf. Stringer's first two albums are amazing, instant classics.

quote:

Originally posted by mark f:
Well, I suggest you check out the culture and music (even if it's 40 years old) before you start listening.

Mark, happy to do so (after I watch that Neil Young DVD and check out McCartney's post-Beatles stuff ) but what you suggest is a pretty tall order. How about a few hints?

quote:

Originally posted by crazed:
I haven't heard "Wedding Cake Island", I don't recall it being on the Midnight Oil albums I have.

There are two Australian surf bands that come to mind immediately- the Atlantics and GT Stringer. The Atlantics began in the '60s and their style is somewhere between the Ventures and the Surfaris. They released a new and brillant album a few years back. GT Stringer's sound is a mix of jazz and space with the adventuresome side of traditional surf. Stringer's first two albums are amazing, instant classics.

crazed, "Wedding Cake Island" appeared on a 4-track vinyl EP called Bird Noises(1980). I'd be surprised if it hadn't found its way onto CD somewhere.

Thanks for the recommends. I had no clue that surf music was such a vibrant genre. I had this misguided idea that it disappeared after the 1960s.

I made it from this list of albums/grades:

A+

Dixie Chicks - Taking The Long Way
The Corrs - Home
The Charade - A Real Life Drama
Alison Ray - Downside Up
Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country
The Essex Green - Cannibal Sea
The Format - Dog Problems
Nina Gordon - Bleeding Heart Graffiti
Barenaked Ladies - Barenaked Ladies Are Me
Damone - Out Here All Night
Thea Gilmore - Harpo's Ghost
The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
Neil Young - Living With War
Hem - Funnel Cloud
Indigo Girls - Despite Our Differences
Candice Accola - It's Always The Innocent Ones
Belle And Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife

A

Bonnie "Prince" Billy - The Letting Go
Slumber Party - Musik
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
The Randies - Knocked Out
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
Those Transatlantics - Knocked Out
Ellery - Lying Awake
Tilly and the Wall - Bottoms of Barrels
Lillix - Inside The Hollow
The Weepies - Say I Am You
Shawn Colvin - These Four Walls
Veruca Salt - IV
My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
Libby Johnson - Annabella
Alexz Johnson - Songs From Instant Star 2
Elton John - The Captain And The Kid
The Lemonheads - self-titled
Margot & Nuclear So & So's - Dust of Retreat
Josh Ritter - Animal Years
The Long Blondes - Someone To Drive You Home
Mojave 3 - Puzzles Like You
Ripley - Outtasite!
Cat Power - The Greatest
Pete Yorn - Nightcrawer
Gomez - How We Operate
Rosanne Cash - Black Cadillac
Susan Cagle - The Subway Recordings
Ingrid Michaelson - Girls & Boys
Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope
Leigh Nash - Blue On Blue
The Cardigans - Super Extra Gravity
Jennifer O'Connor - Over The Mountain...

A-

Pearl Jam - self-titled
Melissa Chester - Honeybee
Beth Waters - This Little Piggy
Kasey Chambers - Carnival
Holly Brook - Like Blood Like Honey
Guster - Ganging Up On The Sun
Lisa Palleschi - Released
Amy Millan - Honey From The Tombs
Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Evanescence - The Open Door
Pink - I'm Not Dead
Mindy Smith - Long Island Shores
Allison Moorer - Getting Somewhere
Tom Petty - Highway Companion
Dirtie Blonde - self-titled
Rainer Maria - Catastrophe Keeps Us Together
Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
Paul Simon - Surprise
Some Girls - Crushing Love
Ane Brun - A Tempoary Dive
Sonya Kitchell - Words Came Back To Me

B+

Mary Lee's Corvette - Love, Loss & Lunacy
Magneta Lane - Dancing With Daggars
Cheyenne Kimball - The Day Has Come
Built To Spill - You In Reverse
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
Goldfrapp - Supernature
The Killers - Sam's Town
The Sounds - Dying To Say This To You
The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
KT Tunstall - Eye To The Telescope
Beyonce - B'day
Taylor Hicks - self-titled
Rhett Miller - The Believer
Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
Blue October - Foiled
Jewel - Goodbye Alice In Wonderland

B

Joanna - This Crazy Life
Morningwood - self-titled
Jolie Holland - Springtime Can Kill You
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose
The Who - Endless Wire
JoJo - The High Road
Teddy Geiger - Underage Thinking
The Long Winters - Putting the Days to Bed
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians - Stranger Things
Zero 7 - The Garden
Beck - The Information

B-

Goo Goo Dolls - Let Love In
Yellowcard - Lights And Sounds
Dresden Dolls - Yes, Virginia
Thom Yorke - The Eraser
Golden Smog - Another Fine Day
McFly - Just My Luck
Bianca Ryan - self-titled
Train - For Me It's You
Fergie - The Dutchess
Beth Orton - Comfort Of Strangers
Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
Sia - Colour The Small One
Christina Aguilera - Back To Basics (disc 1)

C+

Taking Back Sunday - Louder Now
Gwen Stefani - The Sweet Escape
Fantasia - self-titled
John Mayer - Continuum
Drake Bell - It's Only Time
Emily Haines - Knives Don't Have Your Back
Alice Peacock - Who I Am
Sandi Thom - Smile.. It Confuses People
Gin Blossoms - Major Lodge Victory
Keane - Under The Iron Sea
Smoosh - Free To Stay
Morissey - Ringleader Of The Tormentors

C

Elefant - The Black Magic Show
The Vines - Vision Valley
David Gilmour - On An Island
Jessie Daniels - self-titled
Daughtry - self-titled
Scissors Sisters - Ta Dah!
Hoobastank - Every Man For Himself
Bob Seger - Face the Promise
Bananarama - Drama
Nelly Furtado - Loose
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I Am
Angels And Airwaves - We Don't Need To Whisper
Badly Drawn Boy - Born In The U.K.

C-

Christina Milian - So Amazing
Jet - Shine On
Jessica Simpson - A Public Affair
Daniel Powter - self-titled
Damien Rice - 9
Joanna Newsom - Ys (probable)

D+

Hawthorne Heights - If Only You Were Lonely
The Subways - Young For Eternity
Nick Lachey - What's Left Of Me
Kidz Bop Kids - Kidz Bop 9

D

Jesse McCarthy - Right Where You Are
Brooke Hogan - Undiscovered
Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
Placebo - Meds

D-

Rock Star Supernova
Scott Walker - The Drift (probable)

F

Paris Hilton - Paris
Kevin Federline - Playing With Fire


Country
-------

A

The Wreckers - Stand Still, Look Pretty
(Probable A or A+) Vince Gill - These Days

A-

Julie Roberts - Men And Mascara
Taylor Swift - self-titled
Sugarland - Enjoy The Ride

B+

SHeDAISY - Fortuneteller's Melody

B-

Toby Keith - White Trash with Money

C+

Danielle Peck - self-titled
Kellie Pickler - Small Town Girl

C

Dierks Bentley - Long Trip Alone
Shannon Brown - Corn Fed
Josh Turner - Your Man

C-

Rascal Flatts - Me and My Gang
Lonestar - Mountains
Darryl Worley - Here And Now
Emerson Drive - Countrified
Shooter Jennings - Electric Rodeo

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MattD,

Good question...
I don't have a "best-of" list so much I have a favorites list. (I don't pretend to know what is "best" but I know what I like.) What I buy or download via eMusic is heavily influenced by critics, KEXP and forums like this since I don't listen to the radio at all. My final list is mostly based on what I listened to the most throughout the year - adjusted for albums released later in the year. Lastfm is great for that because it keeps track of what you listen to. As I listen to new music, I drop the good ones into a text file grouped more or less in order. As the year goes by, the order changes. I also copy individual songs I especially like into a separate folder throughout the year, also sorta in order. I don't really try to put any songs or albums in numbered order until Novemeber or December. Usually around the last week of the year, I try to order albums and songs, but, frankly, the order is more than a little arbitrary. I'm always changing the order as I listen to new stuff and moving earlier releases up or down when I listen again, so however things are ordered when the year ends is how it ends up. When I go back and look at past year's lists, there's always a few things that I don't like so much 1-2 years later and others that have much more staying power as the years go by. More subjective than scientific... But it sorta works...

I'm no critic. I just love music. (Or, in some cases -- e.g., Deerhoff and J. Newsom, ahem -- not.)