MSN - Arcade Fire & Bruce top 2007

[Flory Days]

Its nice to see passion rewarded. Also good to see Wilco check in at #7.

http://music.msn.com/music/2007review/bestalbums?ptid=a96aa988-8169-4383-93cc-45480fb06f51&GT1=7702&mpc=2

[HeldUp]

Funny you mention Wilco. I've been playing "Dreamer in my Dreams" over and over lately -- a great piano-driven rocker.

[bobfrombob]

and I've been seriously thinking about how I get my sorry ass to this:

http://wilcoworld.net/tours/riv/index.php

Monumental!

[Daddy-O]

I didnt even have to follow that link to know what you're referring to bobfrombob. Monumental is a pretty good word to describe it. Unfortunately, I think I'm going to be out of town when tix go on sale.

Tarik- your mention of Dreamer in my Dreams made me think of the Wilco 'Being There' tour warm up show we saw. I think the album had just been released, when the band did a warm up show in a lecture hall room on a local college campus. There were only a couple hundred people there at most. It was so relaxed and so much fun. They really didn't know how much things were going to explode for them in the next year or so. The next time I saw them, IMO they were starting to act more like big time rock & roll stars and playing venues like the Vic Theater.

But this warm up show was more like a party. People were calling out requests. The band took a "pee break" in the middle of the set, right before a long song that they were going to play (I think it was an extended version of "Kingpin"). Jeff Tweedy's wife and very young son were there in the front row (the boy wore protective headphones all night) and when they had to leave early, Jeff played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to his son before they left. It started out solo acoustic, and then the band just picked up right behind him into a beautiful version of the song. It was spontaneous and inspired. A great night of music.

[Flory Days]

Great story Troy, thanks for sharing! Tarik, I don't know that song but it sounds good. I'm a late arrival to Wilco, first picking up on them with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I finally saw them in concert at the closing show of the Sky Blue Sky tour, which was Slugger Field in Louisville. Just an amazing live band. I had tickets to see them a year earlier, but had to miss the show when my son's baseball tournament went a couple of hours longer than expected. I have been listening to Kicking Television a lot, you get a nice mix of Wilco history.

Hope you get to a good deal of the February shows Troy. What a treat for the hometown fans! Wish I could get to a couple of those. The concept of doing 5 separate shows is really cool. Tweedy is genius.

[Princemyshkin]

Superb live band, if you buy SBS get the deluxe edition, the DVD is real nice. Between Son Volt and Wilco a ton of great music. I have a real nice copy of the Charlotte Wilco show if anyone's interested. I have a eye appt in the mountains the day they are playing in Charleston, I already canceled once for Bruce in Boston. Damn life get's in the way.

[EStreetJukes]

My Top 10 studio (non-compilation) albums of the year:
1. Rod Picott - Summerbirds
2. Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
3. Bruce Springsteen - Magic
4. The Nightwatchman - One Man Revolution
5. John Fogerty - Revival
6. Romantica - America
7. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
8. Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers - No More Beautiful World
9. Son Volt - The Search
10. Terri Hendrix - The Spiritual Kind

Honorable Mention: Lucinda Williams - West; Mr. D- Wings & Wheels; Michael O'Connor - Giants From a Sleepy Town; Amy Winehouse - Back to Black; Kasey Chambers - Carnival

A level below the honorable mentions: Patti Scialfa - Play It As it Lays; Bright Eyes - Casadiega

Completely underwhelmed me to the point of not caring for it: Arcade Fire- Neon Bible; The National - Boxer; Jesse Malin- Glitter in the Gutter


Artists who have albums out in '07 that I haven't listened to yet:
Joe Ely
Steve Earle
Levon Helm
Gary Louris (of the Jayhawks)
Robert Plant-Allison Krause
and many others