Bon Voyage 2006 Pt. 1

I'm heading to Europe in about 2 hours, Amsterdam to get my head straight, Paris to give me inspiration. I also need some time away to compose my year end lists (a hard feat considering it was a mediocre year for music). In the meantime I thought I'd part by giving thanks to some things that made the year quite bearable.

-- My re-re-discovery of Tropicalia started with the amazing Soul Jazz comp. But delving deeper I've come to find that Mr. Caetano Veloso made perhaps the greatest three albums of the 70's. A Little More Blue, Transa, and Joia, are the roots of freak-folk, just ask Devendra.

-- Matador's continual re-issue series. Never thought I'd own Wowee Zowee on four different formats, but now I do. The packaging alone is worth giving Pavement another $13 of my money. Plus there's the Chavez complete recordings. My 2007 wish? A deluxe version of Bettie Seveert's Palomine, on vinyl no less.

-- Tom Lax, owner of Siltbreeze Records, moonlights as Roland Woodbe on his enlightening Siltblog. Here he rants and raves about albums you've never heard of, and might probably never find, but wraps his criticism in hilarious anecdotes about his whirlwind life. Roland alone, has turned me on to some of my favorite records of 2006, namely Sapat, Wooden Shjips, and Ex-Cocaine. Look for Siltbreeze to be very busy in the coming year.

-- Borat. So dead-on I went twice and forced my parents to come along.

-- Stylus, for giving a poor boy like me a fighting chance.

-- And my favorite part about the holidays? It gives me an excuse to listen to this song over and over again. The best song about Ethiopia ever.

See you in a week.