Bye Bye '06 and Mr. JB

Once again, the year ends and we turn over a new page on the calendar. Without getting too mushy, I just wanted to thank you for reading my blog- I hope it's been worth your time. As always, I'd love to write more here but there never seem to be enough hours in the day. Hopefully, I'll find more moments here and there in '07 to report on this online forum.

Right up to the last moment, I've been torturing myself about the best music of '06 and though I've voted in a few polls about this, I probably won't have a final word until I put out the next issue of my own zine at the end of January. At this very moment, it might look something like this:

Granddaddy "Just Like the Fambly Cat" (V2)
Steve Reich "Phases" (Nonesuch)
Tom Ze "Estudando o Pagode" (Luaka Bop)
Sonic Youth "Rather Ripped" (DGC)
Original Soundtrack "Dave Chappelle's Block Party" (Geffen)
Greg Dulli "Amber Headlights" (Infernal Recordings)
Exene Cervanka & the Original Sinners "Sev7en" (Nitro)
Ghostface Killah "Fishscale" (Def Jam)
Lobi Traore "Lobi Traore Group" (Honest Jon's)
Dion "Bronx In Blue" (The Orchid)

Still, I might have to find a way to replace one or more of those with Nas, the Fucking Ocean, Clipse or Lorna Doom.

And last but certainly not least, a tip of the virtual hat to Soul Brother Number One, the Godfather, James Brown who left us at Christmas but was still scheduled to do a New Year's Eve show in Gotham.



Here he is kickin' live in the 60's for teen TV, doing "I Feel Good" and showing them (and us) how to dance. It still looks and feels fresh despite being overused in 100's of movie trailers and ads.

And just for good measure, one more JB spot, this time doing "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" and other then-recent hits in a break-neck medley in 1966 on Ed Sullivan (note how he first calls him "Jim Brown" and goes through his background in gospel and cotton picking):



Thank you Godfather, for getting us all up on the one...