List With Unreasonably Specific Criteria, Grizzled Veterans Edition

Bands With at Least 10 Years Under Their Belts That Are as Awesome Now as They Were When They Debuted:

- Radiohead

- Do Make Say Think

- Super Furry Animals

- Flaming Lips

- Wilco

- Of Montreal

- Air

- Stereolab

- Yo la Tengo

- Deerhoof

- Portishead

Bands that I want to include but won't because their debut is so damned perfect and their recent work is only half-excellent: Mogwai

List With Unreasonably Specific Criteria, Leaving the Nest Edition

Solo albums by famous band members that everybody should own:

Dig it:

- Brian Wilson - Smile

- Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue

- George Harrison - All Things Must Pass

- John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band

- Paul McCartney - Ram

- David Byrne - The Catherine Wheel

- Jonny Greenwood - There Will Be Blood OST

- Jeremy Enigk - Return of the Frog Queen

- Lou Reed - Coney Island Baby

- John Cale - Paris 1919

- Nico - Desertshore

- Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs

- Paul Simon - Graceland (that mostly counts, right?)

Artists not included on account of being far more famous as a solo act than as part of their former band: Bjork, Elliott Smith, Ryan Adams, Robyn Hitchcock

Is it December ALREADY?

Hellooooooo, internetland. Is anybody still reading this?

There will be 2007 music posts forthcoming, because it seems to be a tradition for me. I'm thinking a three part series this year; a favorite songs post, a 20-11 post, and a 10-1 post. Those last two may turn into a 20-6 and 5-1, depending on how much I feel like writing about things. As they are right now, all three posts are works in progress that are being slowly worked on whenever I feel like it. I'm doing some last minute cramming with a few albums that I didn't give enough time to before, particularly by Spoon, Robert Wyatt, the Valerie Project, and the Super Furry Animals (and really, how did I snooze on THAT one?).

In the meantime, because I'm in that list-making mood, here is my modest first entry in what I hope will be a recurring series on this here blog: Lists With Unreasonably Specific Criteria.

The idea is that the unreasonably specific criteria will force me to really think, and, more importantly, focus, not to mention write about things that I would otherwise not get a chance to talk about. Today's warm-up involves more coincidence and laziness than anything else:

Best Albums With Artwork Featuring Airplane Imagery That Were Released on September 11, 2001:

1. Beulah - The Coast Is Never Clear
2. Explosions In the Sky - Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die; Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever

There you go. Ponder THAT shit.