The Party of the Buddies
Here's a little something I picked up for you all in France. Some folks send postcards, me, I by records, rip 'em and post them on the internet.

Anyway, this is a fabolous record. If you like kooky french pop, then this sucka is right up your ally. I highly recomend "Kiliwatch," which is a wacked out surf song. The next fav of mine would have to be "Le Twist Du Canotier." It seems that the twist craze of the early sixties made it all overseas. But the tops of this would have to be "Oh! He! Hein! Bon!" Look at that title, man!

If you dig french covers of english songs, we two of them here. "Vous Les Copains, Je Ne Vous Oublierai Jamais" is a Frenchified cover of Manfred Mann' s "Do Wah Diddy Diddy." Interestingly enough, a rough translation of the title here is "You Them Buddies, I Will Never Forget You." Weird. Also, an obligitory Beatles cover (Do You Want to Know a Secret).

Track	Song Title	Artist
1	Retiens A Nuit	Johnny Hallyday
2	Vous Les Copains, Je Ne Vous Oublierai Jamais	Sheila
4	Oh! He! Hein! Bon!	Nino Ferrer
5	Ma Biche	Frank Alamo
6	Il A Le Truc (He's Got The Power)	Les Gam's
7	Des Que Le Printemps Revient	Hugues Aufray
8	Oh Quelle Nuit (Lonesome me)	Sacha Distel
9	Pauvre Petite Fille Riche	Claude Francouis
10	N'ecoute Pas Les Idoles	France Gall
11	Si Un Jour	Robert Cogoi
12	Kiliwatch	Les Cousins
13	Garde-Moi La Derniere Danse	Maya Casabianca
14	Le Twist Du Canotier	Les Chaussettes Noires (avec Maurice Chevalier)
15	J'ai Un Secret A Te Dire (do you want to know a secret)	Lucky Blondo
16	Nadine Ou Es-Tu	Les Lionceaux
17	Sans Toi Ma Mie	Adamo

Get the whole stinkin' album here (via rapidshare)

End Of The Year
Somewhere in the rule books of music bloggery lay the premise that everyone who talks the music, must take a few minutes at the end of year to quantify what records they deem "most worthy of praise" So without further mucking about, I give you my best of 2005:

10. Jens Lekman "Oh You're So Silent Jens"
9. Boards of Canada "The Campfire Headphase"
8. Lou Barlow "Emoh"
7. Sufjan Stevens "Illinois"
6. LCD Soundsystem "LCD Soundsystem"
5. Antony and the Johnsons "I Am A Bird Now"
4. Art Brut "Bang Bang Rock and Roll"
3. Beck "Guero"
2. The New Pornographers "Twin Cinema"
1. Wolf Parade "Apologies to the Queen Mary"

Should you ignore the hundreds of other year end "best of's" out there. No, of course not. Go ahead and read them all, I strongly encourage you to do so. Why? Because, I know that when you do read those other top ten's or top 100's you'll be able to laugh silently to yourself. Safe in the knowledge that you know the True Best Of 2005.

Y'see, some of those other top ten lists rely on 0pinion and feel. Not so with this Top Ten. First, I take every single album released in 2005* and tape them to my body for three days. The albums that cause irritation to my skin are immediately taken out of the running. The remaining albums are then sorted by alphabetically by color and then resorted by producers nickname. Next, they are armed and tossed into a cage to battle it out, thunderdome style. The albums who survive are then bathed in rose oil, given tickets to amusement parks and told to "have a good time". When they return, I listen to them and determine if they are scientifically "catchy".

Please note: for any given album to be considered eligible for my top ten they have been released during the 2005 metric calendar year.

The New Pornographers

Vinyl Sharity: The Dukes of Hazzard

I though this might be kinda topical. Now that those ole' Duke boys are at it again, albeit different duke boys...no, not THOSE Duke's. These Duke's! I'll admit that I haven't seen the new version yet, but I think I might. And you know why I might? Just to see that fucking car again. I saw that Starsky and Hutch remake last year, and I wasn't expecting this, but when that sexy 76' Ford Torino came roaring on the screen...I got a little goosepimply.

Anyway, Here's something I learned from MetaFilter, the The Dukes of Hazzard are actually based on a true story! Seems, there was a feller named a Jerry Rushing whom used to run moonshine in a 58' Chrysler 300D. Anyway, this Jerry fella named his car Traveler, after General Lee's horse. Interesting!

More fun facts? Ever wonder how The General Lee would survive those death defying jumps week after week? Truth is, it didn't. In fact, each jump practically destroyed the car. All in all, over 200 of these beauties we mangled during the course of the shows run.

The shows producers would scour the earth looking for these cars, strip them down, jump them once and then it was off to the boneyard. Sad really....well, at least we still have the music...

1. Good Ol' Boys- The Hazzard County Boys
2. The General Lee- Johnny Cash
3. Laughing All The Way To The Bank- The Hazzard County Boys
4. Up On Cripple Creek- Tom Wopat
5. Cover Girl Eyes- Doug Kershaw & The Hazzard County Boys
6. In The Driver's Seat- John Schneider
7. Flash- James Best
8. Down Home American Girl- Catherine Bach
9. Duelin' Dukes- Sorrell Booke
10. Keep Between Them Ditches- Doug Kershaw & The Hazzard County Boys
11. Ballad Of General Lee- Doug Kershaw & The Hazzard County Boys

Vinyl Sharity - mp3 spread to the masses with the intent of passing on a good tunes. Mostly, out of print or really difficult stuff to get a hold of. If for legal reasons you would like any of these tunes, images, or links, removed then e-mail rabbit@runrabbitrun.net. MP3 files are only available for a limited time .

Bez Dancing Lizard DJ's
This has nothing to do with my last post (or maybe it has everything to do with my last post) but the Chemical Brothers have a hee-larious flash based game on their website. Check this shit out. It's got some lizard DJ dude doing that British dance thing. Y'know that dance those Brit boys do? where they look like their walking in place? Y'know what I'm talking about, right? Bez, from the Happy Mondays? He would do that dance...I wonder what the call that dance?

Image
Can you separate the music from everything else? The bands look, the album covers, how they're marketed, what genre, etc. Right now, I'm listening to the Grateful Dead. And I hate hippies. Is it alright to enjoy the Grateful Deads music and not like the smell of patchouli? Is ok to enjoy Jerry's guitar noodling and cringe at the sight of a dreadlocks on white folk? I would think so.

How much of enjoyment of music is the tune and how much is the "brand." The Gorillaz is a manufactured image, so are the Backstreet Boys, The Monkees started as a manufactured band and then tried to wrestle control from their creators (was their music better when they did? eh. that's depatable). Is it a band or is it a brand?...hmmmmm..that's snappy.

Anyone remember The Alarm? They were fairly big in the 80's, "Sixty-Eight Guns" was one of the songs I remember them by. Anyway, about a year ago they released a single under another name and hired a younger band to lip sync to the song in a video. The song went to the UK top 30 before anyone figured out who it really was. Do you think it would have gotten that far if folks new it was actually a song from the moldy oldy Alarm?

Clips From Live8
When I was a kid, what 15 years ago...when the hell was Live Aid? Keerist..it was 20 years ago..Anyway, when I was very young I was very excited about the Live Aid concert. I was one of probably very few people who watched the whole stinkin' thing. I may have left to take a potty breaks here and there, but that was about it. And you know what I remember? I remember how gawdawful the Led Zeppelin reunion thing was. Jimmy Page looked they exhumed his body for the show and they sounded as bad as a bad tribute band.

So know they've got this Live8 thing, which I couldn't really care about. But, maybe I should. The Pink Floyd reunion is enough to get excited about and it looks like there were some other great moments too. So, if your interested you can find nice clips from the show here. Where else are you going to see live clips from The Scissor Sisters, Snoop Dogg and A-ha? Weird..