Best of 2009 now ready

Get Lucky: Steve’s Best of 2009: Disc 1

Welcome to my Best Of offerings web site. This is the ninth set I’ve produced since 2001. This year, I'm posting the liner notes included with my CDs here, so click on a song and see what comes up. If something strikes your fancy, please support the artist by buying the album or downloading a song or two from your favorite music store. Meanwhile . . .

Some songs just “feel” right, and “Soft Pedals” by the impressive Modern Skirts hooked me from first listen and leads things off . . . Montreal-based The Stills continues to put out the kinds of material that sounds fresh, yet they’ve been recording for about 10 years now. “Snow in California” is off the Oceans Will Rise album . . . First time I heard Mayer Hawthorne’s “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out,” I thought it was a remake of Eddie Kendricks or some other ‘70s R&B soul artist. But Mayer’s a 30-year-old white guy from Ann Arbor and a DJ and arranger in a former life. His debut album, A Strange Arrangement, is full of songs you’d swear you heard before, but they are all Mayer’s, and to me, the most listenable album of the year. . . . . It’s been awhile, but Toni Childs is back with a stunning album, Keep the Faith. “Dream That We Dream Of” will take you to another place and time . . . . You have to dig around some to find any info on Toronto-based The Dunes. But it’s worth the digging. Their second album, Subject to Change, is full of rock ballads and feel-good tunes, like “Thinking of You.” . . . The irrepressible Lily Allen was all over the place in the early parts of 2009. At first she may sound like a million other young Top 20 singers in the Britney Spears mold, but the difference is the irreverence and self-mockery of her lyrics, and of course the great hooks. “The Fear,” off It’s Not Me, It’s You is the best of a very good batch of tunes . . . . I loved “The Ghost in You” when the Psychedelic Furs did it in the early ‘80s and I really love the haunting play Duncan Shiek gives it here. Shiek’s score for the Tony-winning musical Spring Awakening (which played in Sacramento in November) and his rendition of “Ghost” will really stay with you . . . Great seeing Chris Isaak out with a new album in 2009. We had the pleasure of seeing him from the second row at the Dixon May Fair. “We Lost Our Way” off Mr. Lucky is classic Isaac, plus I’m a sucker for songs with California references . . . Metric’s lead singer, Emily Haines, also works with Broken Social Scene on occasion, and Metric’s 2009 release, Fantasies has a BSS feel, but more dreamy, shown by “Collect Call” . . . I always look forward to anything new from the Raveonettes and 2009’s In and Out of Control didn’t disappoint. The album was filled with catchy tunes, and “Breaking Into Cars” really shows off the group’s trademark surf guitar sound . . Schuyler Fisk, the daughter of actress Sissy Spacek, was the show I didn’t get to see. Schuyler was slated to play with Ben Taylor at Sacramento’s Harlow’s nightclub, but was a last-minute no-show for unexplained reasons. Oh well, I loved her debut The Good Stuff, and especially “Who Am I to You” . . . You may recognize the voice of Dolores O’Riordan, but not the name. Dolores headed the 90s band, The Cranberries, who won fans with several one-word tunes (“Linger, Dreams, Zombie”) and on her second solo album, No Baggage, she scores with “Stupid” . . . New York’s The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (that is their name) hit the indie jackpot in 2009, on the strength of its debut album, A Teenager in Love. The band deserved the accolades. . . Y O U only had a five-song EP, The Long-Playing EP, to its credit in 2009 (the band’s third offering since 2005), but it was enough for me to hook onto “Going Down Swinging,” as good a underdog rally song as you’ll find . . . Mindy Smith consistently releases well-written, hook-laden pop songs that I can’t seem to ignore. There may be a million female singer-songwriters out there, but she always stands out. In 2009, she released Stupid Love, and I picked “Couldn’t Stand the Rain” out of a solid bunch . . . Camera Obscura teeters that fine line between today’s Indie pop and the girl-groups of the ‘60s, but it teeters it well, thanks to singer Tracyanne Campbell. My Maudlin Career was one of my favorites of the year, lead by “French Navy” . . . The Hermit has been putting out sporadic songs since the early 200s, but Turn Up (the Stereo) was my first exposure and I really liked what I heard, especially “Head Case,” which had some very Fleetwood Mac-ish harmonies . . . Hailing from Australia, Empire of the Sun’s Walking on a Dream featured a peppier, more danceable synth-pop version of the 70s Flash and the Pan. The album’s title track is included here . . . Closing out Disc 1 is the cool sound of AM’s “It’s Been So Long,” off Future Sons & Daughters. It’s a nice, mellow way to ease into Disc 2 . . .

Steve's Best of 2009-2

Get Lucky: Steve’s Best of 2009: Disc 2

Mark Knopfler, who first won my heart during the 1978-1985 classic Dire Straits years, still produces unique-sounding heart-warming classic Americana (though he’s British). “Get Lucky” is the title track off a very solid album by the same name . . . The next two songs are about as sugary pop as I’m going to get, but I love these tunes, and I never tired of them. It’s really hard to classify Donora, but the band’s debut album is infectious, to say the least. It’s only $7.99 on iTunes. Get it. . . . I have to say “Bow to the Middle,” by The Rosebuds, is the first song I can remember about square dancing. Just great fun, as is the entire album, Life Like. . . . Bruce Springsteen has done it again. “The Wrestler” was written exclusively as a favor to Mickey Rourke for the movie of the same name. The song won Best Song for the Golden Globes, then wasn’t even nominated for an Academy Award. Go figure. Anyway, when it comes up during the credits at the end of the film, you’ll understand how perfectly it captured the feel of that outstanding movie . . . . The couple from the movie and album Once -- Glen Hansard and Margita Iglova -- put out their followup in 2009, and, while no longer a real-life couple, the music on The Swell Season’s Strict Joy is as emotional as ever. Tell me you can’t feel “Two Tongues” . . . John McCauley’s throaty, beer-soaked vocals reminds me of The Allman Brothers, if Axle Rose had fronted that band. Deer Tick took over the indie-country mantle in 2009, thanks to the outstanding Born on Flag Day. . . Wilco keeps re-inventing itself on each album, but Wilco (The Album) combined a stellar career in one, highly listenable soundtrack. “Country Disappeared” stood out for me . . . I just loved Low Anthem’s second album, Oh My God Charlie Darwin, and especially “To Ohio.”. . Slaid Cleaves kinda sneaks up on you and “Cry,” off Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away is the kind of song you can’t get out of your head . . Leslie Mendelson is consistently solid, in the Edie Brickell, Rickie Lee Jones mold. “Turn it Over,” from Swan Feathers continues that trend . . . Jason Karaban isn’t exactly a newcomer, but he is to me, and I really liked Sobriety Kills, which made choosing just one song difficult. “Perfect Falling Out” is what I picked . . . Harper Simon is the son of, guess who, Paul Simon, and his debut album (though he’s in his late 30s) switches between sounding like his father, or Art Garfunkel, or a combination of both. “Berkeley Girl” stood out for me . . . And while we’re on legacies, there’s Crosby Loggins, son of Kenny. On “Time to Move” he uses John Mayer, but this is a great song off his self-titled debut album . . . Anjulie is just fun. “Love Songs,” off her self-titled debut album, shows a maturity beyond her years. . . One Last Century isn’t The Damnwells first album, but you probably never heard of them (I hadn’t). The album is full of catchy tunes, like “Like it Is” . . . Green Day returned in 2009 big with 21st Century Breakdown. The emotional, political “21 Guns” picked up right off where the monstrous American Idiot from 2004 left off . . . Landon Pigg, who scored with my selection from last year (and this year, a commercial) “Love in a Coffee Shop,” returned with “Blue Skies” off The Boy Who Never. And if you missed 2008’s “Love,” there are two versions of it on this album . . . The Avett Brothers zeroed in on the alt-country scene in 2009 and hit it big. “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise” off I and Love and You made it really hard to pick one song . . . Russian-American Regina Spektor collaborated with four different, very high-profile producers (including Jeff Lynne of ELO and Traveling Wilbury’s fame) to produce her fifth studio album, Far. “One More Time With Feeling” captures a great talent at her peak . . . The song “Fly Me to the Moon” is almost 60 years old (popularized by Frank Sinatra), but Joshua Radin made it sound as fresh as last June. I had to include it here . . . Pearl Jam returned to classic form in 2009 with Backspacer. “The End” finished off the album, and seemed a fitting finish to my 2009 collection, since it reflects on the mortality we all face. Thanks Eddie Vedder.

Steve Martarano, Dec. 2009

Check out Steve’s Best of 2009 blog at http://stevebestof.blogspot.com/

Welcome to the 2008 Edition of Steve's Best Songs

What began in the early '90s as a way to remember the music I listened to during each year has eventually grown into an annual two-disc set given to friends, family and co-workers. The two-disc giveaways -- meant to be my catch-all Christmas gift to anyone who enjoys music -- started in the aftermath of 9/11, in December 2001. About 25 people got the discs that first year, and the list has steadily grown. This is my first attempt at presenting the music online to complement the discs I'm still sending out. As always, these are my favorite songs of the year, and is a reflection of what I've played throughout the year. This was the hardest year, by far, to finalize the two discs -- there were about 8,000 albums released in 2008. I easily could have included two more CDs without diluting the quality, so maybe the "Best of" tag doesn't really apply. What puts a song on one of Steve's Best of CDs? Well, one thing all of these songs have are the ability to grab me from the first listen, and make me want to listen again and again. A good hook will do that, as will a song that is beautifully written and has stuck with me in some way. I like a wide variety of music, and I want these discs to represent my musical tastes. 

As you may have noticed, to the left are the songs from the 2008 discs. I'm able to display them online because of a new service called SonicSwap, which allows folks like me to post their entire iTunes group of playlists on the SonicSwap site, then post whatever ones I want on a personal web site, like I'm doing here. SonicSwap takes the music and videos mostly from YouTube, displaying whatever videos have been posted there for that particular song. In some cases, a 30-second clip from the Amazon or iTunes web site is displayed as well. Now, SonicSwap, because it does rely on what's on YouTube, isn't a perfect way to show playlists, but it's the best way I could find, and for the most part works great. If you go through my list of songs posted, some strange things may come up. For example, for the Dennis Wilson link to the song "You and I," a video of Dennis (who died in 1983), doing the Joe Cocker tune "You Are So Beautiful" is what is shown. Other videos not matching up with the songs earlier seems to have been fixed. One option when that happens is to click the Amazon or iTune links next to the song, and it will take you to the music store's clip of the song, and you can at least hear what it sounds like. But overall, SonicSwap is pretty cool, and if you click on the SonicSwap logo below each playlist, my page comes up, and you will be able to see all of my playlists I've allowed on the site. There's a lot. I do have over 17,500 songs on my iPod. I've also included here a playlist of every song I've put on my Best of discs from 2000 on. Go all the way to the bottom to find it.

Another thing to check out is the upcoming January issue of Sacramento's Midtown Monthly, which will carry a story by yours truly about my Best of collections over the years and also listing my top albums of the year. You can check it out at their web site at www.midtownmonthly.net. Hope that everyone enjoys the music found here as much as I've enjoyed finding it for you, and Have a Great 2009!