LITTLE STEVEN'S END-OF-DECADE CHARTS

Little Steven has just posted his top albums and songs of the decade on his website. Some really great stuff there: I immeadiately made a rockin' ipod mix based on his songs list. Well, a slightly altered version, but "best of" lists are subjective, right?  And, sorry, Kelly Osbourne didn't have one of the best garage rock songs of the decade. Aerosmith may have: but it wasn't "Girls Of Summer."

The coolest song of the decade?  Joey Ramone's "Maria Bartiromo." Good pick. Rounding out the top ten: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band's "My Lucky Day" (great underappreciated song from Working On A Dream), Oasis' "Lyla" (really underrated, I'd only heard it on Underground Garage) and at number 4, Mick Jagger's "Too Many Cooks (Spoil The Soup)," produced by John Lennon. I would call foul on that one, as it was obviously not recorded this decade, but in the '70s.  But it was only released on the 2007 The Very Best Of Mick Jagger collection, so OK. At #5, one of my personal favorites, Foxboro Hot Tubs with "Stop, Drop and Roll." At #6 is Locksley, one of those bands I would never ever ever have heard of if it wasn't for Little Steven.  Cool band: the song he choose was "There's A Love." At #7 is another personal favorite of mine, The Cocktail Slippers with "Don't Ever Leave Me" from my second favorite album of 2009, Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. And that's another band that I would never have heard if not for Steven. Thank you Little Steven! The top ten was rounded out by Cheap Trick's "If It Takes A Lifetime," Primal Scream's "Dolls" and Tinted Windows' "Nothing To Me" (Bun E. Carlos makes the top 10 twice!). I don't know if I would have choose that Cheap Trick song, or even Tinted Windows, but that's what I'm talking about!

Other entries included legends: Aerosmith, Iggy Pop (a collaboration with Sum 41!), The Pretty Things, Steve Earle, Ray Davies, Neil Young, one-time Underground Garage DJ Joan Jett, Les Paul with Jeff Beck and Sam Cooke, John Fogerty, The New York Dolls, Pearl Jam, The Go-Go's, The Dictators (featuring Underground Garage DJ Handsome Dick Manitoba), The Buzzcocks, U2 and The Rolling Stones.  But there's also younger acts too: The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Tegan & Sara, Noisettes, The Breakers, The Grip Weeds, The Red Button, The Catholic Girls, The Urges, The Forty-Fives, The Hives, The Len Price 3 and The White Stripes.

The albums chart was a bit rigged. Well, not rigged, but The Beatles In Mono box set was the #1 "album." Not fair. Then at #2 was the Nuggets II box set.  Come on, that's tough to compete with! So the best album that actually contained music that was new during the past decade was Bruce Springsteen's Magic. which is one of my favorite albums of the decade as well. Some people may complain about Bruce placing so high in both charts when Little Steven is a member of the band, but hey, in the Underground Garage, Steven is the boss! #4: The Chesterfield Kings with Psychadelic Sunrise #5: Primal Scream's Riot City Blues #6: Tinted Windows #7: Foxboro Hot Tubs' Stop Drop and Roll!!! #8: The Cocktail Slippers' Saint Valentine's Day Massacre #9:  Iggy Pop's Skull Ring and at #10: Ray Davies' Other People's Lives. Most of the same bands on the singles chart were on the albums chart, which also featured the One Kiss Can Lead To Another box set, of classic girl groups music.

I always check out the year and decade end charts in all the magazines, but I like Steven's the best, even when I disagree with them. (Where was King Khan & The Shrines???)