The Black Keys -- Brothers

  F*ck this jock rock lame ass poser wanna be the White Stripes piece of sh*t band The Black Keys.  Do I need to say more!? 

John Martyn -- Solid Air

  John Martyn sits right between James Taylor and Nick Drake (whom the title track was written for), part cheesy folk with hints of dark awesomeness.  Although Martyn's real contribution to music history is his effects drenched psychedelic folk finger tap palming jazz technique (sounds like a rad kung fu move), I'm still not sure how he does it, at first I wanted him to have done the whole album in that style, but lets face it that would be way too overwhelming.  Solid Air is a great well rounded album showcasing Martyn's multifaceted talents as an artist.

Fear -- The Record

  Lead by troubadour weirdo Lee Ving, Fear were the outlaws of the artsy-fartsy LA scene, but let's face it, this band is a basic one trick pony, with some legendarily hilarious Saturday Night Live footage, destroying the studio set with a mosh pit of hardcore luminaries and John Belushi, otherwise the one album would have been enough.

Neil Young -- Comes A Time

  Another Country Folk masterpiece by the legendary Neil Young.  Man this album brings me back to a happier or even happiest time in my life, when things felt certain and I somewhat had my sh*t together.  I had a beautiful almost wife and she had two kids that I adored, this music (except for the song Mortorcycle Mama it's a piece of crap and doesn't belong on the record at all) represents our golden times, when life was filled with love and there was no fear of the unknown.

Prince And The Revolution -- Around The World In A Day

  Ok yeah I sometimes have a soft spot for Prince, but it's either hit or miss ... and to be honest I didn't even listen to this album at all, I tried, not very hard mind you, but I couldn't get past the first five seconds of the putrid 80's funk stink of track one side one, and let's face it if you goof that the chances that I'm going to listen to the rest are slim to none!

The Allah-Las

  What was a seemingly impressive Surfy Animals-esque Garage Revival outfit turned out to be way more of a powerful and interesting band than I expected ... what I found was not only their 60's influence but they've got also a sort of lazy day Jangly Shoegaze kick to their sound, making this album a must hear!

Bonnie Prince Billy -- I See A Darkness

  This is the ultimate in sad bastard music and became the soundtrack for my decent into holiday depression.  This year was a mega rough one, I won't go into the gory detail but this mellow, finely produced piece of Indie Folk was perfect for a person writhing in daily mental malaise.  As much of a bummer as I make it sound there is a glimmer of hope in his dark writing, and no it's not a light at the end of the tunnel, it's a sense of acceptance of who and what he is ... which like me ... is a depressed weirdo ... if you don't like it, big deal, neither do I and I'm ok with that!