Yeah, yeah, I should’ve mentioned this about, erm, 7 months ago. Nevermind, the best album of a whole year is still going to be pretty damn awesome even a half year later, right?

I did actually make a Top 15 of 2008 list, but never got around to posting it. Things get crazy around the holiday time, and then it’s too late to bother. Everyone’s already forgotten those ancient 2008 albums and moved on to predicting the big bands or albums of 2009.

Anyway, what with all the news today about the Dodos‘ forthcoming (more so than expected) album Time To Die, I was reminded that Visiter was my 2008 #1 but I never told anyone. (For anyone curious, the others in my top 3 were Conor Oberst’s Conor Oberst and The Kills’ Midnight Boom.)

Dodos caught me little by little. I’m a big fan of the iPod’s shuffle function, especially when I’m not sure what I feel like listening to. I hadn’t heard Visiter yet, but every time a song from it came around, I’d sit up and take notice, making sure to check who it was. Every song that really grabbed me was them. I’m pretty sure it’s the drums what did it – those drums seriously blow my mind. It didn’t take long for it to become The Album That Couldn’t Leave My Pod, and still can’t, and I’m really looking forward to the new one. Some people already hate it, it seems, and some love it – I had a quick half-listen to the stream (at timetodie.net), but I just can’t judge something that quickly. I’ll wait out the two weeks and listen to it properly when it’s out (digitally) on the 27th of July.

The Bean may have just vomited in her mouth a little bit. Klaus Meine may be insanely short. The outfits the band wore 20 years ago look out of place anywhere outside the Blue Oyster Bar (Google it). I care not. If you were in your late teens or early twenties in 1991, then you remember “Wind of Change” – a power ballad extraordinaire that captured the sentiment of political and social change in Eastern Europe between 1989-1991.

I graduated from high school in 1991 and was ready to study history at university. How fortunate was I to be living and aware in such a momentous time. Even from the limited perspective such a young age affords, you couldn’t misinterpret how fantastically gargantuan the changes going on around us were. Scorpions captured the feeling perfectly, as only a band formed by members of the first post-War generation of Germans and Europeans could, finding their feet in the midst of the Cold War in the heartland of Europe.

You may not like power ballads. You may not like Scorpions. But, listen to the song. Think of the excitement driving it. The relief that change has finally come. Only then can you truly appreciate the strength of the “Wind of Change” and rock hard.

Cornershop is one my most beloved bands and it’s been far too long since we last heard from them. In honor of their first full-length album in seven (7!) years (Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast, out on July 27th), have yourself a listen to my very favorite Cornershop jam, “Topknot”.

Like most Cornershop releases, “Topknot” (the A-side to a one-off single back in 2004) kind of came out of nowhere, and (also like most Cornershop releases) was totally under-appreciated. I can’t find out anything about the elusive Ms. Bubbley Kaur – not even a photo – but her voice is magic. I also have no idea about the song itself (a quick search for lyric translation brings up nothing) – she could be singing about absolutely anything. But it sounds like sunshine, doesn’t it?

You may have asked yourself where the folks from 100b went? I mean, heck, the apartment has been empty for more than a month. You tried ringing the doorbell. You checked with the super. Their mail has been spilling out of their mailbox. Well, I can say we’re back and any squatters in the apartment are just gonna to have to get out.

The folks in 100b were busy throughout June. Then, we, again, took stock, and discussed how we run things here in our favorite little corner of Music Land. In the end, the Bean, Tamboosh, and I all think we have come up with a schedule and way of posting that’ll be both more enjoyable and easier to manage for three adults with stuff to do when we aren’t hanging out in 100b.

As for myself, I stopped buying new music a while ago. I was just accumulating so many CDs and individual tracks that I could listen to something new or rarely listened to for months without stopping. So, my new plan is to begin digging through music I already have and music sent to 100b HQ and let people know all the good stuff out there they may have missed. That should get aDawgg out of his 100b funk.

To kick it off, though, I’ve got a favorite underground hip hop track, “Off The Books” from The Beatnuts’ 1997 album Stone Crazy. “Off The Books” marked the first time Big Pun alias Big Punisher alias Christopher Rios appeared on a recording in his short music career and life.

We’re baaack …

I haven’t been this excited about a new band in a while! I came across London three-piece The Loveburns earlier today and was immediately hooked. This band has a truly unique sound which they call “zombie lullabies for the darleck dancing generation”. They certainly know their way around a rockabilly beat, but manage to sound like they’ve rediscovered the early incarnations of punk tucked away in the corners of an abandoned haunted house turned electro art pop venue … Yeah, you know what, they already described their tunes best so my sad, abstract attempts and everything else that comes after the zombie lullabies quote can be ignored. Before you do that, let me say one more thing, run on over to iTunes, Amie Street, eMusic, or Amazon for their debut single “Detector”. It’s deliciously dark, dirty and bluesy, but be sure to go to their MySpace and listen to “Reality Land”, “Profit Margin” and the hypnotizingly weird “Adoration”. These songs made me drop whatever I was doing and write up this fuzzy little post.

In the 1960s a string of romantic comedy musicals came out known as the Beach Party films. They’re aimed at teens (yeah, it’s teen week at 100b) and starred Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon. Frankie and Dee Dee’s (Annette) adventures were so popular they made seven of these movies! The plot never really changes and, come to think of it, neither do a lot of the characters, but why mess with a winning formula? Recently, I watched the sixth movie in the series called How To Stuff A Wild Bikini. It’s so bizarre I cannot believe somebody dished out the money to make this movie, but I’m glad they did. There’s a cameo by Samantha from Bewitched and they even managed to convince Mickey Rooney and Buster Keaton to join the cast. The songs in the movies define poptastic. They took all the popular genres at the time put em in a big hat, added a pinch of California surf and voila!

I think they must have gotten sick of each other, because Frankie and Annette hardly share any screen time in this movie. Frankie is on naval reserve duty in Tahiti and faithful little Dee is back home waiting for her man. Frankie is frolicking around with the local girls, which makes him wonder whether Dee Dee is staying true to him. The only logical thing to do is seek out a witch doctor (played by Buster Keaton), and have him send a bikini-clad siren to steer off Dee Dee’s potential suitors, while spying on her through a cauldron or something, I dunno – that’s where they lost me.

The witch doctor character is so offensive it’s funny. His accent is incredibly cringeworthy, but at one point he actually says “white man make heap good fire water” … it was a joke, but still … it wasn’t good. I love it when they take fake walks on the fake beach by fake moonlight, but my favorite part has to be the invisible girl in the bikini scene that prompted the title song. Again, it’s a bit offensive to women, but once you get over the ‘times sure have changed’-aspect it’s just a very, very silly, but oh so entertaining movie. So if you get the chance, do check ‘em out, they’re so bad they passed good and moved way up to fricking genius.

One of these days I’m gonna write up a post about the long list of things targeted at kids, I – technically not a kid – enjoy way, way too much. For now, I’ll start with one of my favorite, new-ish cartoons 6teen. If you like the movie Mallrats, you’re gonna love this show! It’s a Canadian cartoon about a group of sixteen-year-old friends. They hang around the lemonade stand where one of them works, and get into the zaniest adventures, but all within the confines of the mall. I think the dialogue is often brilliant and the storylines are silly and fun, yet approach teens in a respectful and utterly uncondescending way with a wicked sense of humor.

The six main characters are Jen Masterson – the sensible, studious one, Jude Lizowski – the skater dude, who in real life would totally be a pothead, Nikki Wong – the cool, cynical, Daria type, Jonesy Garcia – the macho, wannabe ladies-man who gets fired from a different job in every episode, Wyatt Williams – the arty, sensitive folk musician and Caitlin Cooke – the ditzy shopaholic, straight from the set of Clueless. My favorite characters are the supporting roles, like “Darth” the Star Wars fanatic, his girlfriend Julie the Taco Girl, and Ron the Vietnam veteran turned paranoid, bitter mall cop. At first glance, the characters and the very PC representation of every race may seem a bit banal, but during the course of the show we find there’s so much more to them, kind of like a modern day Breakfast Club. On top of all that, it looks beautiful and unlike any other cartoon I’ve ever seen. And it happens to have a ridiculously catchy theme song.

I bet every high school has a group of quirky, creative, arty, barefoot, nature girls that even the popular cliques observe with envy. Their seemingly carefree, unique ways and disregard of trends, only to start their own, give them an air of cool – not that they would care about a silly little thing like that. They wouldn’t look out of place in Haight-Ashbury circa 1967, but it seems they would make themselves at home wherever you’d plop them down.

The Half Sisters, the self-proclaimed busking queens of Brighton, are that group of girls. Their music and personal style is quirky and sweet, yet outrageous. They’re three sisters from Brighton who play guitars, the ukulele, the flute, and a vast array of objects that’ll function as percussion. They play light-hearted, fun and catchy songs that are perfect for the summer. “Our Dancing Skeletons” is the song that drew me in on their MySpace, but the still “Untitled” song on youtube is the one that made me love them so. As far as I can tell they haven’t released anything yet, but you can catch them playing their hearts out on the mean streets of Brighton.

Listen to “Our Dancing Skeletons”:

Check out the lovely “Untitled” song:

Today is a special day here at 100b, because today we celebrate the birth of our own Mighty Tamboosh. It’s tradition ’round these parts to post a little something for each other’s birthdays, but Tamboosh is just too damn good at it. There’s no way on earth I could top the raw power of Saxon.

So instead, my dear Tamboosh, here’s a very special edition of 10 Random Facts just for you.

1.) Cool people who share your birthday: Joey Ramone, Malcolm X, Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca!), and Jenny Berggren of Ace of Base. Nice.

2.) On this day in 1960, just 21 years before Tamboosh (BT), the Drifters recorded their classic “Save The Last Dance For Me”.

3.) The No. 1 single in the UK on the very day you were born was Adam and The Ants’ “Stand And Deliver”.

4.) The No. 1 single in the US was Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes”.

5.) Kim Carnes also topped the overall top spot for 1981. The second highest-selling single of that year was Lionel Richie and Diana Ross’ “Endless Love”. Kenny Rogers’ “Lady” came in third, John Lennon’s “(Just Like) Starting Over” was fourth, and Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl” rounded up the top 5.

6.) The top-grossing movie of 1981 was Raiders Of The Lost Ark (coincidentally, a movie that I saw for the first time with you, approximately 25 years after its release).

7.) Sadly, Raiders Of The Lost Ark did not win the Oscar for Best Film in 1981, although it was – surprisingly – nominated. That honor was awarded to Chariots of Fire.

8.) On May 19th in 1965, 16 years BT, the FBI (lead by the ever-wise J. Edgar Hoover) visited Wand Records to investigate the lyrics of The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie”. Parents had complained about the lyrical content of the song, and the FBI was tasked with determining whether it violated obscenity laws. The Kingsmen had nothing to worry about though, because the FBI eventually decided that they couldn’t tell what The Kingsman were singing, so couldn’t rule one way or the other.

9.) On the very day of your birth in 1981, Sting was named ’songwriter of the year’ at the 16th Ivor Novello awards. Oh well – they can’t all be good.

10.) On your birthday in 1962, 19 years BT, the lovely Marilyn Monroe sang her famous rendition of Happy Birthday to President Kennedy in New York. And what better way to wish our Tamboosh the best birthday ever?

A song can enter The Poptastic Zone when it’s referenced in other popular media, such as television shows. The Bean and I were rewatching the second season of Ally McBeal and I finally had to pause the Biscuit to listen to the full version of the bells he hears when he’s pumping himself up for some serious legal shenanigans.

Tamboosh has already posted the Rocky theme. But, as many Ally McBeal fans will know, those bells actor Peter MacNichol hears are from (the possibly more poptastic) “Going The Distance” – the Bill Conti score for the battle between Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed in the original movie. A song of heavy drama unfairly shackled by corny 80s sequels.

But, poptastic or not, I still get goose bumps at the combination of horns, strings, and drums. If it’s good enough to inspire the Biscuit, then it’s good enough for me. Awesome!