Hey! I did it! 365 songs for 365 days, babies! Each one lovingly plucked from the Interwebs for you to enjoy. What you don’t hear is all of the songs I listened to and did NOT post! You see, that’s the time consuming part, and why I am a filter, a subjective valuer of content, a deejay, call it what you will, I am SuperFan, hear me roar. I love music so much, and the mainstream music biz is still in the toilet, reduced to karaoke talent shows. So my little contribution this year was to feature the best undiscovered or under-discovered tracks I could find, from rock to hip-hop and anything else I fancied. There’s even a classic from Chuck Berry in the mix.

And ya know what? It’s been so much fun, I’ve decided l do it again in 2010.

Closing 2009 with a ferocious track with a worthy message from España’s hardcore worshipers of rock, Tokyo Sex Destruction. Happy new year, music lovers!

Tokyo Sex Destruction
“Power to the People” (mp3)
from “The Big Red Box For the Syndicate of Emotions”
(BCore Disc)

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The Marvelous Darlings‘ single “I Dont Wanna Go To The Party” rocks for two minutes and thirty seconds in a rush of pure and I mean PURE punk pop abandon. Very favorable comparison to Ramones, Clash, Cheap Trick and The Knack. Full on power pop angst-bliss! I love it I love it.

The Marvelous Darlings
“I dont wanna go to the party” (mp3)
from “I Don’t Wanna Go To The Party”
(Deranged Records)

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Ah, sweet power pop. Here we have some well crafted guitar chord bashing and vocal hooks that owe as much to Nirvana as to Cheap Trick. Ultimate Fakebook made a lot of noise for a three piece band from Manhattan, Kansas operating during the darkest days of the music industry. Here’s another neglected gem. In 2009 I have found and posted a bunch of ‘em here. Have a surf around, it beats the heck outta the your local corporate poo radio station, I guarantee you that much. But wait, Dorothy, there’s a Manhattan in Kansas? Now we know.

Ultimate Fakebook
“Wrestling Leap Year” (mp3)
from “Open Up and Say Awesome”
(Initial Records)

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On the subject of “Fools Want Noise” by Oh My God, I have to start by simply saying, they’re right. These lyrics are brilliant – kind of a “Satisfaction” updated for the Idiocracy. Celebrate the downward spiral into high decibel mindlessness? Or rage against it? Can we do both? This song is loud, fast and brash, but unlike the cultural Twinkie-filler it confronts in horror, this is actually very smart. And it rocks, too. Damn fine work.

Oh My God
“Fools Want Noise” (mp3)
from “Fools Want Noise”
(Split Red)

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Rock is not dead. It is brain dead. The Sons Of Hercules understand the power of not understanding. The subtle genius of retardation. The mastery which flows from lobotomous guitars, beer soaked vocals, and swaggering drum beats. As The Stooges demonstrated in the late 60’s, for a certain kind of rock, dumb is smart. From their “A Different Kind of Ugly” album, I give you, The Sons Of Hercules from San Antonio, Texas, performing “Brain Dead”. Gr8 stupid fun.

The Sons Of Hercules
“Brain Dead” (mp3)
from “A Different Kind of Ugly”
(Saustex Media)

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Southern California’s beloved surf punker pioneers Agent Orange have rocked for over three decades, and they continue to tour and deliver a gr8 live show. This song from their brilliant 1981 album “Living in Darkness”- recently re-released digitally by Posh Boy Music – is a good taste of their innovative guitar work and unique collision of power pop, surf and punk. The lyrics to “Everything Turns to Grey” are brilliant, at once idealistic and resigned. A classic song from a classic LP. Surfs up!

Agent Orange
“Everything Turns to Grey” (mp3)
from “Living in Darkness”
(Posh Boy Music)

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“Like boots or hearts, when they start, they really fall apart,” sings Grady. Excellent lyric. Add grit-swallowing, gut-churning, soul-vomiting guitar work, and some damned to sh!t wicked sexadelic southern rawk vocals, and, well, I’m diggin’ it. I think you will too. Tha’s wha’m here fer! Enjoy with Jack and Coke or similar. As eclectic Texas music vet Gordie ‘Grady’ Johnson Gordie Johnson puts it, “This record really is the byproduct of the musical environment we live in. Cowboys, metalheads, rednecks and punk rockers all congregate around us. Someone actually described us as ’shredneck’ which of course brought gales of laughter.” Makes sense when you hear it. This track is killer. That’s all.

Grady
“Boots Or Hearts” (mp3)
from “Good As Dead”
(C12 Records)

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The Tits? Why yes, Dorothy. Raw rock n’ roll from a garage of grease and sweat in Nashville? But yes again! Though Nashville does have a lesser known  history of gr8 rock and roll, it is certainly not the music the city is most famous for. The Tits sound more like a motor city post-MC5 muscle car fueled teenage outburst than anything from the Grand Ole Opry of old or new.  This rocks balls. And it needs to be said, forgive me.. MORE COWBELL!!

The Tits
“Get Up!” (mp3)
from “Jesus Says Relax”
(SPAT! Records)

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October. Hottest month of the year in Cali. Appropriate then that Fun Fun Fun Recordings would release the digital debut of the long rumored but seldom heard Sex 4 Moderns album, in fall of ‘09. The single “I’m Frying” sizzles and bursts, as singer-songwriter John Hanes intones in his sexy bass voice, like “an underground nuclear blast.” Hanes, you see, is like Lou Reed meets Barry White on an overdose of Love Potion Number Nine. Nearly every song on this record is a poetic ode to sex. I bought the album from the iTunes store and can’t get enough. “Swallow,” “Candy Dish” and “Penetrating Love Ray” are highlights, plus the highly original “Mr. Ed” – a personal identity revelation built around the 1950’s television talking horse – is a stunner.  Lead guitarist Steve Kirk’s angular, explosive riffing lends an urgency to the solid rhythm section work on every track. Add producer Matthew King Kaufman’s power pop sensibilities and Michael Rosen’s thunderous engineering work, and the sum is this Gr8 undiscovered rock album. I’m proud to share it with you here.

Sex 4 Moderns
“I’m Frying” (mp3)
from “Sex 4 Moderns”
(Fun Fun Fun Recordings)

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With a vocal yowl favorably reminiscent of Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs and Robert Plant, and music in a neighborhood stalked by the likes of T-Rex, Hot Snakes, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and even Turbonegro, The Cassettes love their hard rock and love it well. Soaring guitar work, solid rawk drumming, and an ornery, sincere ferocity all add up to a brilliant sonic outburst. Cool lyrics, GR8 sound.

The Cassettes
“Countach” (mp3)
from “Countach”
(Carcrash Records)

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One band that has really caught my attention this year is the correctly named SuperHeavyGoatAss. They play heavy metal like it’s heavy, not like a spastic speedy hair-spray and spandex fireball, but more like a seething, boiling crater of lava. To a man, SHGA are virtuoso players, and their combo work has that beyond-tight quality that happens when an artistic vision is shared passionately by everyone in a band. No surprise, I guess, for as their myspace bio points out, they recently got off a 60,000 year tour. Their songs are unpretentious yet deep, fun yet apocalyptic, original yet familiar. Long may they rock.

SuperHeavyGoatAss
“Lasting Kind” (mp3)
from “60,000 Years”
(Arclight Records)

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Oh my. Do we find songs that sound like the Dead Kennedys and King Crimson having Tourettes attacks at GWAR’s house every fine morning? No we do not, Dorothy. This mp3 delivers what one would want from a band called Bad Acid Trip. “Symbiotic Slavery” is dangerous and subversive and should not be played under any circumstances. Return to your cubicle and listen to Michael Bolton. Nothing to see here. My arms turn to eels as the fax machine spits hot lava, singing Wagner. Perhaps I will go to Burning Man this year after all.

Bad Acid Trip
“Symbiotic Slavery” (mp3)
from “Symbiotic Slavery”
(Serjical Strike Records)

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Remember 90’s “alternative” rock radio? That last gasp when anyone cared about commercial rock radio at all? The saga of Nirvana’s great triumph and heartbreaking demise? The flood of soundalikes whose metal 80’s glam hair had barely been swept off the barbershop floor as they tried to jump on the careening, burning bandwagon? That might not sound like much of an endorsement, but in fact, some of those bands had some really fine moments. Here is a song that seems to take that troubled yet exciting era of dashed ideals and nauseating saturation airplay, and reprise some of its saving graces. I like this, I really do.

Exeter
“The Romantic” (mp3)
from “Grey Noise, White Lies”
(Engineer Records)

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Aussie singer-songwriter Nik Phillips wields a large palette, with which he paints fearlessly. Recklessly even, and I mean that in a good way. The starkly titled “So Alone” rips through a dark empty room, illuminating the spidery corners with a wondrous spectrum. There is light, but can anyone see it? Summer of love fluffy barefoot music this is not! Mind bending power-pop prog-rock this is. Psychedelic music with teeth.

Nik Phillips
“So Alone” (mp3)
from “Nik Phillips”
(IMI)

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Wow. Someone reached deep for this one. Whether it sprang from the voice of experience, or simply an awake songwriter, “Find Your Own Dumpster” is “Brother Can You Spare A Dime” for post-industrial America. Every line is precious. Musically, it sounds like Nirvana staggering drunk through a Hendrix record with Camper Van Beethoven in tow, howling along. Gritty, relevant work from Austin’s Bankrupt and the Borrowers. No bailout here I expect, but this is definitely too big to fail!

Bankrupt and the Borrowers
“Dumpster” (mp3)
from “Beers on the Bible”
(SPAT! Records)

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You know we likes our Heavy Metal Mondays. Not talkin’ bout that crazy post hardcore speed metal today tho, this is your low and slow grunged out post-Zep metal that sounds like a lava lamp looks when it first starts to heat up. So what do you expect from a band called SuperHeavyGoatAss? Rawk!

SuperHeavyGoatAss
“Ice” (mp3)
from “Nemesis”
(Arclight Records)

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From the “Northwest Mind Meld” comp comes this joyously defiant bit of hip swayin’ psychedelic hard rock. Perfect for a lost summer weekend.

All Time High
“Steel Sunshine” (mp3)
from “Northwest Mind Meld”
(Small Stone Records)

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Hot hot hot! Str8 up rubber-burnin’ soul-rockin’ country rock from Larry Pancake.

Larry Pancake
“Harley Ridin’ Woman” (mp3)
from “Everyday”
(9 Lives Records)

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Hell yes! If you’ve ever been a rock fan in your life (that’s most of us) and sometimes wondered if rock was “dead” (again, like most of us), all it takes is a band of young’ns to come along and own the music again – playing it like they invented it, like it never happened before, like it’s the most exciting thing in the world and there will be trouble if they are not heard. From Sonora, Mexico, Hong Kong Blood Opera is such a band. Taking their cue from synth punk and new wave, then blurting out a product that is distinctly rock, theirs is music made by fans first and foremost. You can hear their fervent passion for their medium in every breath and bar of their songs. They all have the right chops for the job, and the lead singer has style coming out the eyeballs. Long live rock!

Hong Kong Blood Opera
“Killing Joke” (mp3)
from “The Critical Paparazzi EP”
(Noiselab Records)

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If you survived the early 80’s then you remember Heavy Metal Mondays at your local beer swilling trough. The stage would be overrun by furry, speed-addled stoners named Lars and James and you’d laugh and say, these guys are never going anywhere, and wait for the sold out new wave show on Friday. Ok, well maybe you didn’t. But this artist who goes simply by the name of Carlos, I think he knows exactly what I mean. Gr8 song, Carlos, way to put it to song.

Carlos
“Heavy Metal Monday” (mp3)
from “Devil’s Slide”
(Amazing Grease Records)

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Speedloader proudly makes music your parents will hate. Loud, plowed and belligerent. Go forth and rawk!

Speedloader
“Steady Hookin’” (mp3)
from “Steady Hookin’”
(Arclight Records)

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If you’re going to have a band called Honky I hope you will have the decency to play overblown balls-out whiskey drenched cowtipping roadhouse brawling instrumental idiot rock in silly giant cowboy hats. Will you? Oh good. This rocks and it’s funny as sh!t.

Honky
“Plugs, Mugs, Jugs” (mp3)
from “Treatin’ ‘Em Right Since ‘69 – A Tribute To Handsome Joel Svatek”
(Arclight Records)

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Let there be Swag! This infectious and hyper-contemporary power pop injection has all the jagged fun of a nasty strong drink in a room full of hot happy couples when you’re single and disgusted with nearly everything. Great song off the aptly named “Grand Madness”album from these charming little guys.

Black Bikini Alpha
“Swag” (mp3)
from “Grand Madness”
(RWS Records)

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How is it no one wrote this song before? A serenade to the Suicide Girls. Of course! The sound? Somewhere between Warm Leatherettes and The Clash, Blondie and Devo. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the sexy new wave sounds of, The Love Kills Theory. This kicks ass and takes its clothes off for money.

The Love Kills Theory
“The Love Kills Theory” (mp3)
from “Happy Suicide, Jim!”
(Xemu Records)

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You know I must have my power pop. I must. Without it I shall die. This song is brill. Zero Friction in my life. From the lovely Pres’s’s of the USA who gave us the quirky hit “Lump” back in the 90’s. They keep making lovely records, and this one puts a big smile on my SuperfanFace

The Presidents of the United States of America
“Zero Friction” (mp3)
from “Love Everybody”
(PUSA Music)

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Rock and roll seems to be born again every time someone launches into it with such sincerity and wreckless abandon as this. Seething with lust and delightful garage band cacophany, dear readers, I give you, The Fresh & Onlys. This song is downright stunning. Velvet Underground meets Clash at Jefferson Airplane’s house, only more crazy. Top notch work from this San Francisco band.

The Fresh & Onlys
“Peacock and Wing” (mp3)
from “The Fresh & Onlys”
(Howells Transmitter)

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Repulsa is the nome de mayhem of one Tambre Bryant. That’s Tom Hunting, legendary double-kick monster drummer of Exodus, on the drums. Here we find the queen bitch of metal in a sensitive moment, expressing herself.

Repulsa
“Fuck Yourself” (mp3)
from “Repulsa”
(Fun Fun Fun Recordings)

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If I were to have to pick a name for an Italian heavy metal band, of course it would be The Vendetta. I mean, what else? These rockers love their Judas Priest and Metallica and bring it hard core.  This is metal – not any cookie monster poser nonsense.  Rock it loud, rock it hard.

The Vendetta
“Venomous” (mp3)
from “Demolition”
(Brutus Records)

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The Black Halos’ lead singer Billy Hopeless hurls verbal missiles that are part Lemmy, Joe Strummer, Iggy and Joey Ramone. A true rock and roll band with all the pockmarks and rusty scars of touring the hard way, they are not any pretty cleaned up pop goo vendor for the opiated masses. No. This song is fun, irreverent and rowdy, and in some inescapable way, meaningful.

The Black Halos
“Disbelief” (mp3)
from “We Are Not Alone”
(Acetate Records)

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This is music parents are afraid of. They  hear it through the bedroom walls and wonder if this is why little Bobby is failing geometry and hanging out with that girl with all the tatoos and a padlock through her septum. Outstanding, beastly metal.

Ghoul
“Maggot Hatchery” (mp3)
from “We Came for the Dead & Maniaxe”
(Tankcrimes)

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Gr8 song about the gr8est sk8rs ever. It’s funny, it’s irreverent, AND it ROCKS! Opal Book Club from Berkeley, CA, layin’ down the wizdumb.

Opal Book Club
“Tony Alva” (mp3)
from “MP3 Jackpot Winners”
(Fun Fun Fun Recordings)

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Low down and nazty blues rawk groove from East St Louis, Illinois. Heavy!  Excellent wah wah guitar and harmonica work, rock solid rhythm section, and a killer vocal.

Boo Boo Davis
“Dirty Dog” (mp3)
from “Name Of The Game”
(Black and Tan Records)

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Constantines tours are becoming the stuff of rock legend, not because of any outdated Spinal Tap antics, but for doing it right and real. Constantines’ reputation is built on one great, inspired show after another, and innovative and catchy songs. No hard feelings from this Superfan. Constantines ROCK!!

Constantines
“Hard Feelings” (mp3)
from “Kensington Heights”
(Arts & Crafts)
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