Year ending and I notice that everyone and their mother has a best of list. Shit yeah, I have an opinion, and you may have missed some of the great music during this tumultuous time in the music industry.

In no particular order:

1. Fiest “1234″
2. Justice “D.A.N.C.E (Benny Blanco mix Feat. Mos Def and Spank Rock)”
3. Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof Soundtrack
4. Northern State, Can I Keep This Pen? 5. Earl Greyhound “Back and Forth”
6. Tegan and Sara “Soil Soil”
7. M.I.A “Paper Planes”
8. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, 100 Days, 100 Nights
9. Just Jack, Overtones
10. Aja West and Friends, Total Recall 2012
11.The Magic Numbers, Those The Brokes
12. Mark Ronson, Versions
13. Cinematic Orchestra, Ma Fluer

Feist “1,2,3,4″- If you own a television you have seen this video. If you worked in my office during February 2007 you probably cursed me for emailing this video company wide “just to brighten peoples day” True story . I became that guy.

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Justice “D.A.N.C.E (Benny Blanco mix Feat. Mos Def and Spank Rock)” - The title of this track has everything you need to know. It all adds up to mean good fucking time. There were far too many remixes for this track this year and the lot of them were sub sub sub par. However this track that was an exclusive for rcrdlbl the recently launched ad and label supported, free music download site. They set the bar pretty high with this offering.

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Smith “Baby It’s You”,The Coasters ” Down In Mexico”, Davy Dee,Dozy,Beaky,Mitch and Tich”Hold Tight” - None of these songs are originally from 2007 however all of them appeared on Quentin Tarintino’s Death Proof soundtrack. This guy can put a soundtrack together that will make even the most seasoned music supervisor feel like program director at KISSFM. Every time I hear these songs I ask “How have I not heard these before?” Admittedly in the context of the film these songs are presented during scenes of lusty girls getting drunk in a bar and one really bad traffic infraction. Once you get past all that there are really deep tracks here.

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Northern State “Can I Keep This Pen” - Like the NBC show 30 Rock, I am the only one who has heard and/or appreciates this record. No really. It gets no love. Which is too bad because it’s one of the last bastions of fun hip hop left. On the ladies 3rd full length album there is more singing. much more but don’t let that sway you because the beats and the rhymes are so dope. And where else in hip hop will you get metaphors like ” I’ll be your Bela Karosi to your Mary Lou?” That’s just some kind of genius.

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Earl Greyhound “Back and Forth” - Actually I like this entire record (Soft Targets) but this song still stands out right now. Primarily due to they are a trio and sound HUGE. The music incorporates all the retro rock influences Lenny Kravitz is always attempting to hide. The upside being, not dealing with Lenny Kravitz. No video for “Back and Forth” Below is “S.O.S”

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Tegan and Sara “Soil Soil” - I am not sure if this is the sister’s 3rd lp, I think it is but Canadian, lesbian, twins…what are you not going to like about that, nothing. The song kills though. Short, clean and to the point ( the song, not the girls). It reminds me of when I discovered how great Cat Stevens music is.Beautiful

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M.I.A “Paper Planes” - I know everyone is on Maya’s dick cause she’s from England via Shrilanka. And yes, while that is exotic if you look at it she is one of the few champions of true hip hop left. We are outsourcing hip-hop people!! C’mon America!

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Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings”100 Days, 100 Nights” - This record reminds me that we are all small. insignificant. People complain that there is no real music today. Popular music sucks, digital downloads are destroying the very fabric of the industry, television is leading our children down a moral sewer blah blah.. Then you stumble upon a $100 dollar bill as you look down on the floor in a bar and think ” oh shit…I almost missed this”.

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Just Jack, Overtones - Meet the 2007 version of Moby or Fatboy Slim or The Streets. Its the British version of Hip-Pop. Whatever call it a guilty pleasure. I picture being in a club somewhere in Manchester very early in the morning pretending that nobody is noticing me grind my teeth.

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Aja West and Friends ” I Don’t Need Love” - I am not real sure how this got on to my ipod yet, there it is. Until I looked it up on AMG I thought this record was from 1972. It is not. What is outstanding about this track is how seemlessly the violin fits in a hip hop track. Not a first, I did see a hip hop violinist on the A-Train last week. Although he sucked I applauded him for the effort ( not literally ).

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Magic Numbers Those The Brokes - Do you remember the Mommas and the Poppas? The drugs, the sex, paisley and really really big ties? 4 part harmonies then more sex and drugs. That’s what I hope the Magic Numbers world is like off stage.

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Mark Ronson Versions - Admittedly not a strong as his debut effort. However Mr. Ronson gets mad props for 1) Resurrecting my man Dirty. 2) Covering ” The Only One I Know”.

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Cinematic Orchestra - Ma Fluer - This is just a pretty chill out record. It’s like all the records Sigur Rios attempt to make without being deadly boring. The interesting thing about the version of the record that was sent to me was that it came with 99 track ids. Each song had 10. Fortunately, someone was kind enough to stitch them together to make it possible to enjoy the music. WTF was with that. Please do not do that again Cinematic Orchestra.

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This is a partial list. For some reason I have plenty to say this week.

Thank you for contradicting everything that everyone says about the state of real music today. I do apologize for not having my camera with me yesterday at the Virgin Mega Store record release. So to make up for it ( in my mind) I paid full retail for your record. Not disappointed.

I’m also real sorry very everyone who claims to “love music” or be experts in one field or another but have not got hip to this shit.

Real people playing real music… think about it.

The band is playing at the Apollo Theater this Saturday October 6th. Too Bad for you it’s sold out.

Good news is there seems to be a shitton of tour dates in the near future. So this would be a great excuse to go to Europe.

Sharon Jones - 2007 Tour Dates
Oct 6 - The Apollo Theatre New York, New York
Oct 16 - Theatre Du Vigean Bordeaux
Oct 17 - Sala Apolo Barcelona, Barcelona
Oct 18 - Ninkasi Kao Lyon
Oct 19 - L’elysee Montmartre Paris
Oct 20 - Nancy Jazz Pulsations Nancy
Oct 23 - Alter Wartesaal Koln
Oct 24 - Ancienne Belgique Bruxelles, Belgium
Oct 25 - Paradiso Upper Hall Amsterdam, Zuid-Holland
Oct 26 - Mandarin Kasino Hamburg, Germany, Hamburg
Oct 27 - Bohannon Soul Club Berlin, Germany, Berlin
Oct 30 - Schlachtof Weisbaden
Oct 31 - Supersonic Festival Vienna, Wien
Nov 2 - JazznoJazz Festival 2007/ Theatre Gessnerallee Zurich, Zurich
Nov 3 - Theatro Lino Ventura Nice
Nov 9 - Middle East Underground Cambridge, Massachusetts
Nov 10 - Higher Ground Burlington, Vermont
Nov 11 - La Tulipe Montreal, Quebec
Nov 13 - Lees Palace Toronto, Ontario
Nov 14 - Magic Stick Detroit, Michigan
Nov 15 - Park West Chicago, Illinois
Nov 16 - First Avenue Minneapolis, Minnesota
Nov 17 - Turner Hall Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Nov 18 - The Vogue Indianapolis, Indiana
Nov 20 - Beachland Ballroom Cleveland, Ohio
Dec 1 - Belly Up Tavern Solana Beach, California
Dec 4 - El Rey Theater Los Angeles, California
Dec 5 - Bimbo’s 365 Club San Francisco, California
Dec 7 - Doug Fir Lounge Portland, Oregon
Dec 8 - Neumo’s Seattle, Washington
Dec 9 - Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, British Columbia
Dec 10 - The Nightlight Bellingham, Washington
Dec 15 - Black Cat Washington DC, Washington DC

Here is some video I found of the in-store: