Nobody Stayed the Course

The Year In Music á Touring

LITTLE STEVEN'S UNDERGROUND GARAGE GARAGE IT Ili

Nobody Stayed The Course CBGB And Tower Closed, England away two of its best guys, and the best video was not on YouTube Rolling Stones, the Who, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Cheap Swung, Oz Roared Back And Even The but in the AT&T Blue Room. Trick, and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Beatles Got Remixed Other than the assassination of CBGB and the Continental Bon Jovi had to go country! And had a damn hit! stopping all music, New York had its moments with new Strokes Bob Seger and Tom Petty are both more country than main- In a year that started with our president "staying the course" and and a fabulous new album, one of the year's best, by Willie Nile, stream rock these days, so they did all right. ending with him saying the Commission on Iraq had some "good and the wonderful surprise of a great new album by New York And Bob, what can we say? points" (yeah, like screw your course, get the hell out of there, Dolls. Dylan's transcending the entire material world at this point and you momo), anything could happen. All right, I'm paraphras- Otherwise, we have reached a critical point now in our cul- heading for another Grammy. ing, but you get the idea. ture from which I fear there is no return: There is simply no And anyway, when you get down to it, how bad a year could it And how about dem majors? place in the mainstream for legends, greatness or gods. be? We got a new Beatles album! There were still four as of this writing but don't count on that They haven't been replaced, mind you, but shamefully they Play it in 5.1, turn the lights out, light some incense, get naked lasting much longer. are no longer welcome in a world where Sample Rap is king and and smoke 'em if you got 'em. The real question is, at a cost of $1 million per record release, Paris Hilton is queen. And the new year will suddenly become an invitation to the how long can they survive? Joining Ray Davies in the "legend doing quality work and in- bliss of unlimited possibility. Indie retail took a hit with Tower finally giving up. Really explicably receiving little, if any, airplay and sales" were: the See you next year. depressing. But not as depressing as CBGB getting kicked out of New York COOLEST GARAGE SONGS COOLEST GARAGE ALBU by one single landlord who defied all of rock'n'roll, the local com- munity board, petitions, local businesses, a rally, local politi- cians, tens of thousands of tourists, the mayor and the governor. Axl Rose went into his, what, 20th year of finishing a new Guns N' Roses album at a cost of probably a million per year? But why should he put it out? He passed the Guinness Book of World Records $5 million or $6 million ago for most expensive record ever, he's got no original band members left, no guns and one rose, and yet he's still headlining European festivals. He's never been bigger. Why screw it up with a record!? English audiences continued to be thrilled by their usual schizo mix of alternative/dance /rock-Arctic Monkeys, Cold - play, Franz Ferdinand, etc. -while the obvious album of the year, Primal Scream's "Riot City Blues," was ignored on both sides of the pond. Are junkies finally uncool? Then again, Babyshambles sold (in England, anyway) without a coherent song on it, so there goes that theory. All English silliness was balanced by Ray Davies' magnificent solo record "Other Peoples Lives," as well as super albums from Len Price 3 and the Stabilisers, and good stuff from the Buzz - cocks, Zombina and the Skeletones, Kaiser George and lots of fun from the Pipettes. Of course Carl Barat got the last laugh. Dirty Pretty Things No. 1 band in all of Kazakhstan! A pretty quiet year from the rock'n'roll capital of the world, Sweden. Global warming must have them all surfing instead of recording. We got a surprisingly cool package of outtakes from Soundtrack of Our Lives, but no Hives, Caesars, Maharajahs or, I missed them most of all, Sahara Hot Nights. A good Maggots, though, and a recent Nomads comp we'll be looking at soon. And COOLEST SONG IN THE oh yeah, a Teddybears with Iggy no less. If we count the Hella- WORLD DOLLS PRIMAL SCREAM RIOT CITY BLUES PRIMAL SCREAM copters '05 release, which we never stopped playing through '06, THIS YEAR Columbia Columbia it wasn't such a bad year for Sweden after all. IF IT TAKES A LIFETIME CHEAP TRICK OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES RAY DAVIES Australia came roaring back with two of its favorite legends, Big 3 Records V2 the Saints and Radio Birdman, and we've got a new Living End ALL SHE WROTE RAY DAVIES ROCKFORD CHEAP TRICK record and an almost finished Stems for a promising '07. V2 Big 3 Records It was a good year for renaissance legends receiving respect - NEVER GONNA DIE THE SHYS CHINESE BURN THE LEN PRICE 3 Ronnie Spector, Sam Moore, Solomon Burke, Tony Bennett and Sire Laughing Outlaw Jerry Lee Lewis all had records, mostly tributes and duets and EVERYONE KNOWS JOAN JETT & LOVE THE BEATLES stuff like that. I've got to go with Jerry's for the most fun. Blackheart THE BLACKHEARTS Capitol It was the first time at the rodeo for Cleveland's Vacancies, SO ROMANTIC THE CHARMS SINNER JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS Wicked Cool Blackheart San Clemente's Shys, Sacramento's th' Losin' Streaks, Geor- á ITS NOT ABOUT WHAT I WANT gia's Butch Walker and the Let's Go Out Tonites, and Los An- (IT'S WHAT YOU GOT) THE WOGGLES STREETS OF NEW YORK WILLIE NILE geles' latest contribution to our well- being- including the Wicked Cool 00:02:59 ONE DAY IT WILL PLEASE Lords of Altamont and Jimmy Freek's Teenacide graduates, EVEN THIS NEW YORK HANDS THE RACONTEURS US TO REMEMBER DOLLS Boink! and the Holograms. 8 V2 Roadrunner In Garageville, the Raconteurs blew minds, the Paybacks made WANNA THE STABILISERS LAST MAN STANDING JERRY LEE LEWIS i their best album, and the Charms and the Woggles released very Acid Jazz Artist promising tracks, boding well for '07. WISH I NEVER LOVED YOU BUZZCOCKS BROKEN BOY SOLDIERS THE RACONTEURS l Businesswise, downloads increased while cell phones became Cooking Vinyl V2 the media -of-the- moment. Radio stayed confused. Yahoo threw Little Stevens Underground Garage column Is produced exclusively for Billboard. For more information go to UNDERGROUNDGARAGE.COM

32 I DECEMBER 23, 2006 I YEAR -END DOUBLE ISSUE