Jeong+Joo+H106

EAR CANDY compiled by Jeong S. Joo

Track list (in alphabetical order by artist)

1. La Femme D'argent - Air (Moon Safari) The quintessential chill-out song

2. The MP - Album Leaf (One Day I'll Be On Time) Solo project by San Diego-based Jimmy Lavalle...one of the more accessible post-rock acts around today...

3. Like Foxes Through Fences - American Analog Set (Know By Heart) this Austin act were regulars at South by Southwest long before it was promoted on MTV...

4. It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career - Belle & Sebastian (The Boy With The Arab Strap) Jack Black may have badmouthed these Scots on Hi-Fidelity but any Smiths fans will approve of these guys

5. Let's Get Out Of This Country - Camera Obscura (Let's Get Out Of This Country) mesmerizing vocals, one of my top picks for best albums of 2007

6. Another Point Of View - Cornelius (Point) this Japanese musical genius' stuff on CD doesn't measure up to the quality of his live performances...he hasn't lived up to his expectations as I pegged him as the future of rock back in the late 90's...should appeal to most fans of electronica at least...

7. Spirit Ditties Of No Tone - Deerhoof (The Runners Four) finally getting some critical acclaim that's long overdue...fans of the raw, unpolished sound (i.e. early sonic youth, pavement) should enjoy...

8. Happiness - Elliott Smith (Figure 8) anchored the Kill Rock Stars label for few years before he broke through with Miss Misery from the Good Will Hunting soundtrack...known for his dark material but this is one of the few tunes in his catalog that doesn't have a depressing feel...

9. Your Hand In Mine - Explosions In The Sky (The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place) best if listening while on other task...and this instrumental band will provide a great background... not for the impatient...

10. Tout Doucement - Feist (Let It Die) Leslie Feist sounds great covering this 1957 Blossom Dearie jazz number...the rest of the pre-1234 album is pretty good too...

11. Panther Dash - Go! Team (Thunder, Lightning, Strike) This multi-genre, multi-ethnic band is one of the most exciting bands to emerge this decade...hard to pinpoint their influence but this particular song sounds like it should be a theme song to a 70's animated show

12. American English - Idlewild (The Remote Part) If R.E.M. were Scottish, they'd sound something like this...unfortunately their follow-up albums since this have been disappointing...

13. Music When The Lights Go Out - Libertines (The Libertines) known mostly for the garage-rock style but this is my favorite by the now defunct Brit-rock group...thanks to Pete Doherty's inablility to stay sober for more than few minutes, this was their second and last album...

14. Tiger Lily - Luna (Bewitched) it's too bad lot of people missed out on this Velvet Underground-influenced dream pop group in the 1990's...

15. 10 Dollar - M.I.A. (Arular) Before Paper Planes, M.I.A. had at least a dozen great tunes including this one...British-accented rap with Sri Lankan rhythms makes a surprisingly great combination

16. Uninvisible - Medeski Martin And Wood (Uninvisible) The hours of jam-band-fan BO stench I had to endure watching this band headline festivals with jam bands was all worth it...not much dead moments in their tunes...rare band that can appeal to both jazz fans and jam band fans...

17. Cut Your Hair - Pavement (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain) After REM's Green and Out of Time albums, picking up a copy of Crooked Rain was the most significant purchase I ever made...one of the albums that rescued me from the dull world of mainstream pop to indie rock...and opened my ears to great music...

18. Amsterdam - Peter Bjorn & John (Writer's Block) overshadowed by Young Folks (featured in Gossip Girl) on the album...but very catchy and addicting...

19. Common People - Pulp (Different Class) The Bowie-esque classic from the Britpop frenzy of the mid-1990's...if your only exposure to Brit-pop then was to Oasis and Blur, you need to check out more from Jarvis Cocker and company...

20. Bonnie & Clyde - Serge Gainsbourg (Comic Strip) I didn't discover Gainsbourg until I heard the Luna cover of this song...easy to hear how his stuff influenced lot of the hip acts today...

21. Svefn G Englar - Sigur Ros (Agaetis Byrjun) hypnotizing in sort of an extraterrestrial way...sung in a combination of Icelandic and made up nonsense, it sounds like it's from another planet...the quintessential exam-time song in Joo-Chem class...

22. Schizophrenia - Sonic Youth (Sister) Sonic Youth members are in their 50's now and they're still off the charts on the hip scale...their live shows deliver time after time and there's no deterioration in quality of their material...of their 400+ songs in their catalog, this one from their earlier years, is my favorite...

23. Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space - Spiritualized (Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space) another tune that won't be making the Jock Rock compilation any time soon...the ultimate chill-out song...

24. San Diego - Starlight Mints (Built On Squares) probably the most obscure band on the CD...nothing groundbreaking...I just like it because it reminds me of the good ol' days in my college town...

25. Parsec - Stereolab (Dots And Loops) If you've heard even just one song by Stereolab, you've heard them all...but I still love them for providing hours of good background music for the gatherings with the artsy crowd...I could have picked any one song from their enormous catalog....

26. Elephant Stone - Stone Roses (The Stone Roses) before Oasis, Blur, and Pulp, there were these guys...my favorite track from one of the greatest Brit-pop albums ever...it's hard to believe the same band released the sad-excuse-for-an-album The Secone Coming five years later...

27. TNT - Tortoise (TNT) another post-rock favorite from the Thrill Jockey label...might be too abstract for some but may appeal to some jazz fans

28. Autumn Sweater - Yo La Tengo (I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One) the band members may have fallen off the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down...but that's about the only ugly thing about this superb indie rock band...