Goodish Shit from 2005

by Mike D'Ariano

Okay, I hate top 10 or 20 or 100 lists. They drive me crazy. The people that write them invariably either miss really important stuff, or pick the right stuff for the wrong reasons. That said, this isn't that. That's a fucking great sentence by the way for those of you that just read us for the high caliber literary muscles we flex time and again, let's try it again . . .

That said, this isn't that.

No, there will be no top tening from me. Instead, there will be this rolling, tumbling, ramblin', jamblin' . . . jamblin'? (what the fuck is jamblin'?) collection of things that happened musically in 2005 that I found amusing or interesting, or worth mentioning again, or in some cases for the first time. I put no sequence to any of this stuff. It's just what it is: goodish shit.

Let's see . . . well the night me and the fellas saw Flogging Molly and Gogol Bordello at the House of Blues in Atlantic City was hands down the best "holy shit this is SOOOO much better than I expected it to be" moment of the year. I know it was the best such moment because it was the only such moment for me in the past year. Every other show was either as good as I expected it to be or kinda disappointing. Flogging Molly and Gogol, just blew the doors off that night, and made me a fan for life.

My favorite live music of the year that wasn't a surprise had to be the three nights I spent with the Allman Brothers Band back in March – is it ever bad? No, it's not. Has it ever been better than watching Trey Anastasio walk out on stage with them, blow the place apart, then get outdone by Derek, who then gets completely destroyed by Warren all in a twenty-something minute version of "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed"? If it has, I wasn't there!

Also damn good as expected were the 2005 Jammy Awards at Madison Square Garden: three way bass-off between Phil Lesh, Les Claypool and Mike Gordon…need I say more on that? The Rolling Stones, still kicking ass on the Bigger Bang World Tour which I checked out in not one, not two, but three states, was excellent . . . maybe not $200+ per ticket worth of excellent (but really, do you think I paid?) Oh and Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard and Amos Lee at the Beacon were great too.

Disappointing big shows: The Black Crowes on Easter, Green Day in a football stadium, and Motley Crue anywhere, though they were still better than Dio was last year. I heard that King Diamond sucked too . . . but I knew enough to skip that one.

I fucking live by the Hellcat Records Give 'Em The Boot DVD. I've watched it more times than any music home video I've ever owned, and I listen to at least part of the bootleg audio version I made of it pretty much every single day. If I was a listing kind of guy this would be at the top.

The Les Claypool DVD 5 Gallons of Diesel, which covers all of Les' bands that aren't Primus – Frog Brigade, Oysterhead, Col. Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains, Sausage, and others – is also a must own . . . if for no other reason than watching Trey, play a fucking antler during the Oysterhead section.

Bad DVDs: I don't have much to say here . . . uh . . . Best Buy, you dropped the ball with your exclusive holiday box set . . . how do you go from the Rolling Stones (2003) and Elton John (2004) to fucking Usher this year. Jesus, Ringo would have been a better choice.

1.	"Oh No," "Start Wearing Purple," "Not A Crime" – Gogol Bordello
2.	"King For A Day/Shout (Live)" – Green Day
3.	"That long fucking thing that takes up the whole second side of the Mars Volta Album" – The Mars Volta
4.	"Aqua Teen Hunger Force" – Danger Doom
5.	"No Good Here" – Tim Fite
6.	"Walk Like A Zombie" – Horrorpops
7.	"Paint It Black" – The Unseen
8.	"Iraqi Vice" – The Ratchets
9.	"The High Road" – Betty LaVette
10.	"Back in the Ground" – The Dreadful Yawns
11.	"The Auld Triangle," "Captain Kelly's Kitchen," "The Walking Dead," "Sunshine Highway," "Wicked Sensitive Crew" – Dropkick Murphys
12.	"Freeze the Saints" – Stephen Malkmus
13.	"Not Today" – The Transplants
14.	"Funny How Time Slips Away" – B.B. King and Bobby Blue Bland
15.	"A Kiss Before I Go" – Ryan Adams
16.	"Let There Be Love" – Oasis
17.	"Oh No Not You Again," "Rough Justice" – The Rolling Stones
18.	"Gasoline" – The Bloody Hollies
19.	"Attractive Today," "Everything Is All Right," "When You're Around," "Let's Get Fucked Up and Die," "Together We'll Ring in the New Year" – Motion City Soundtrack
20.	"Dead Red Roses" – Left Alone
21.	"The Joke's On Me" – Reel Big Fish
22.	"The Harder They Come," "Sitting in Limbo" – Willie Nelson
23.	"My Doorbell," "I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)" – The White Stripes
24.	"Farewell Ride" – Beck
25.	"Only" – Nine Inch Nails
26.	"Beverly Hills" – Weezer
27.	A few songs off the Sage Francis album if it actually came out this year . . . might have been late 04 – Sage Francis

You should listen to that stuff. I'd make you a CD but it wouldn't all fit . . . and who am I to give away the record company's hardly earned money?

Okay, not in order, my five favorite albums of 2005 are:

"The Mouse and the Mask" – Dangerdoom

"The Warriors Code" – Dropkick Murphys

"Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike" – Gogol Bordello

"Commit This To Memory" – Motion City Soundtrack

"Francis the Mute" – The Mars Volta

Other good stuff to grab would include any album that one of the above songs came off of, anything by The Pogues, Flogging Molly, Guns N Roses, Rancid, The Streets, The Benny Goodman Trio, or Robert Johnson . . . none of whom put out jack shit this year but all of whom continue to inspire and just fucking sound good.

Stay away from the crap you know you should – Springsteen, U2, Biggie Smalls dueting with other dead people. You're not dumb. You'll figure it out.

In closing, I lost two of my heros in 2005: Dr, Hunter S. Thompson and Richard Pryor. Other folks that also kicked off include the guy who played Gilligan (Bob Denver), the guy who played the Riddler (Frank Gorshin), the guy who did the voice of Inspector Gadget (Don Adams) and the woman who wouldn't give up her seat on the bus (Rosa Parks). May they all rest in peace . . .

As for 2006 . . . onwards.

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