MY FAVORITE SONGS OF 2012 (OR, THIS IS WHERE I MENTION FRANK OCEAN)

Over the past few days, I've posted about some of my favorite albums of the year. But there were a lot of great songs that weren't on any of them, so I'm gonna do one more quick list. Ready?  Here we go:

Frank Ocean - "Thinkin' 'Bout You": I kind of feel like I have to justify why Ocean wasn't on my top albums of the year.  So here it is:  I really wanted to like his album. A vote for him seemed to equal a vote for a world where being gay is no big deal. I'm all about it. But I just don't love the album, it doesn't keep my interest at all.  And that said, "Thinkin' 'Bout You" might be the best song I heard all year. It's so moving, it gets me every time.  Just based on this song, I'll pick up his next album.  The guy is clearly talented as hell.

Solange - "Losing You": My boss turned me on to this song, and he's a tough crowd, so I checked it out. What an amazing song.  If it's possible for her to get out of her sister's shadow, this is the song that should be able to do it.  

M.I.A. - "Bad Girlz": Unfortunately, the headlines M.I.A. made in 2012 were all about her little moment of  giving the finger to the camera at the Super Bowl. It was dumb and goofy.  But at least she put out a great song, and the video for this was pretty cool too.

Santigold - "Disparate Youth": She's always interesting. This song is a bit more "new-wave-y" than her prior songs.  It actually reminds me of New Order for some reason.

The Chris Robinson Brotherhood - "Let's Go Let's Go Let's Go": I'm not very familiar with Chris Robinson's solo stuff, although I have certainly enjoyed his music with The Black Crowes. But wow, what a great song, it sounds like something that would have been on a Sam Cooke record or a very early Motown single.

Ryan Shaw - "Morning Noon And Night": Actually, I need to check out his album.  I heard his song in Starbucks, Shazam-ed it, and downloaded it.  It's one of the best things I've heard all year and also kind of Sam Cooke-ian.

Leonard Cohen - "Going Home": I can't really get into entire Leonard Cohen albums, but I do love some of his songs, and this one is a classic.

Willie Nelson - "Just Breathe": I liked Willie's album, Heroes, but not enough to include it in my top albums of 2012.  But this Pearl Jam cover was incredible.

The Beach Boys - "That's Why God Made The Radio" I'm fascinated that it even got made. And I love the fact that there's no acknowledgement of anything current.  This is a 100% authentic Brian Wilson creation.

Van Halen - "Stay Frosty": This was also an unlikely, and solid, reunion.  David Lee Roth had lots of great lines, Ed Van Halen sounds inspired and Alex and Wolfgang are solid. This song is the highlight, and actually can stand up next to some of their earlier stuff. 

The Rolling Stones - "Doom And Gloom"/"One More Shot": Basically, they kicked everyone's ass with these songs.  

Led Zeppelin - "Good Times Bad Times (live)": I could have picked any song from Celebration Day, really.  But this is the first song on the album and the excitement is tangible.  I have to do a separate post about this album, I can't believe how great it is. 

Aerosmith - "Oh Yeah": I wish I liked their album, Music From Another Dimension, more than I do.  We had to wait so long for it! But "Oh Yeah," which Joe Perry wrote, is 100% classic Aerosmith. 

Paul McCartney/Dave Grohl/Krist Novoselic/Pat Smear - "Cut Me Some Slack": Rocking.  

The Wallflowers featuring Mick Jones - "Reboot The Mission": Basically a Clash tribute.  In the best way. 

Joey Ramone - "New York City": It holds up to the greatest Ramones songs.  I love it. 

Gaslight Anthem - "45": I thought this should have been the song to bring them to the "next level." 

Iggy Pop and Bethany Cosentino - "Let's Boot And Rally": a great song from True Blood, written by the show's music director, Gary Calamar. Calamar wrote the song for them, and he told me about it. And this is where I get to include Best Coast (the band Ms. Costentino sings for; I like them, but not enough to include them on this list). 

JOE PERRY'S AEROSMITH SPIN

In a new interview with Reuters, Joe Perry says that Steven Tyler is "stronger than ever" after a(nother) stint in rehab, which is great to hear. A cynic would say, "Of course he'd say that!" But the fact is, Joe and the other guys from Aerosmith were essentially kicking Tyler out of the band, so the fact that they took him back must mean something. The problem with this interview is that he also says that Steven "didn't really leave the band" and that "The press kind of twisted it around to sell papers, but you know the bottom line is I just knew things were going to work themselves out." I don't really belive that, but whatever.  I'm glad that they are doing a European tour and that they are playing Fenway this summer with The J. Geils Band. Tickets sold out really quickly: now I have to figure out how to get a pair of them! Hopefully they'll add a second date.

LOVE THAT DIRTY WATER: AEROSMITH + J. GEILS BAND TO PLAY FENWAY

Tonight at Fenway Park during the Red Sox/Yankees game, Steven Tyler and Peter Wolf announced that their bands, Aerosmith and The J. Geils Band will be playing a concert at Fenway Park this summer on August 14. (It's fitting that it was during a Boston/NY game, as Tyler is from New York, and I think Peter Wolf is also). It's the first time these legendary Boston bands have done a show together.  This may call for a road trip to Boston!

AEROSMITH'S NEW SINGER: STEVEN TYLER!

Aerosmith just posted this video on their website yesterday, along with European tour dates. So, at least we know that they aren't going to "replace" Steven Tyler with another vocalist. It would never have worked. And I guess that this means that they aren't suing each other anymore.

So, you know that I'm a huge fan of the band, and I'm glad they are back together so they, and we, can celebrate their 40th anniversary in style. But Joe Perry doesn't look too comfortable in this video. He's generally a pretty reserved guy, and he gets more reserved around Tyler (who has incredible charisma). I'm sure they haven't resolved all of their personal issues, but here's hoping that this works out. (By the way, Brad Whitford isn't in the video probably because he is on a Jimi Hendrix tribute tour).

AEROSMITH - THE FULL AEROSMITH - TO PLAY DOWNLOAD?

The Download Festival is a big UK festival, and they've just announced via their website that Aerosmith will be one of the headliners this year (along with AC/DC and Rage Against The Machine). The website is very careful to specify that this won't be the Aerosmith guys with another singer: "Last playing as headliners of the Donington Monsters Of of Rock Festival in 1990 and 1994, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry et all return with their legendary juggernaut performance..." Great! I wonder if Joe Perry knows? Download takes place June 11 - 13 at Donington Park in the UK.

AEROSMITH: PLEASE RETIRE

You know if you read No Expiration often that I'm not the type to tell a band to pack it up. And when they're good, Aerosmith are one of the best bands to hit a stage, anywhere. But the band vs. Steven Tyler thing is getting ugly and embarassing. I don't blame the band: a lot of this is Tyler's fault. He's erratic, no question about it. Recently, he was heard singing over the soundsystem at Home Depot while sucking helium, and also singing at a karoke bar (he probably shouldn't be anywhere with "bar" in the name - especially while in rehab).

But they shouldn't be thinking about replacing him, it just plain wouldn't work.  Rumors have had Lenny Kravitz, Billy Idol, Chris Cornell and Paul Rogers approached by the band. I thought the other guys with Lenny could be a good band that isn't called Aerosmith. Billy Idol would be awful for them, Chris Cornell wouldn't be right, and Paul Rogers, maybe but no. Meanwhile, Tyler's new management is threatening to sue the band if they use a different singer. I think they all need to take some time off. I'm not saying who is right or wrong, but if an Aerosmith tours without Tyler, the fans should sue. Get it together, boys.

STEVEN TYLER ENTERS REHAB

Rolling Stone reports that Steven Tyler just entered rehab for "painkillers." Last time I wrote about Aerosmith, the band members were questioning his sobriety, and also questioning whether he was still in the band, even after he joined The Joe Perry Project onstage at a New York show. He says in the statement, exclusive to RS, that rumors of him wanting to take a two year break from the band are false.  Earlier this week, Tyler left his management company (which is different than Aerosmith's management company) for a different firm. It seems like he is in freefall, and probably the last straw would be if he saw Aerosmith touring to celebrate their 40th anniversary with a different singer. Here's hoping rehab "takes" this time, and he rejoins the guys in 2010. Good luck Steven.

AEROSMITH: IT *REALLY* AIN'T GOOD AT ALL

It's really sad to watch this all go down. In my last post about Aerosmith, I wrote that singer Steven Tyler's behavior is kind of classic drunk/abusive (ex-) boyfriend. I kind of wondered if he's sober at all these days; it has long been rumored that he has fallen off the wagon. Today, in a preview of a story that is being published in the next issue of Rolling Stone, the other guys from the band questioned his sobriety as well, and said they will not wait two years for him to finish his memoirs and solo album. They're going to work with another singer, at least for the time being. I'll ask the question again: would you guys go see The Stones if someone other than Mick was singing? It's a bitter pill, but one you're gonna have to try to swallow.

AEROSMITH: IT AIN'T ALL GOOD

I was pretty excited earlier this week when I posted about Steven Tyler joining Joe Perry onstage at the Joe Perry Project's NYC show. Steven claimed that he wasn't leaving Aerosmith, making lots of people happy. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, though, Joe says that he didn't know Tyler was showing up, didn't really get to talk to him much, and Tyler left right afterwards. Watching the video, it comes off like Tyler is the abusive ex-, not being respectful to Joe or his band, and referring to himself as "the motherfucking rainbow," whatever that means. Joe says that the band's troubles are far from over. I do think most of the blame for this falls on Tyler, as he seems to be acting erratically. But if he wants to take two years off from the band, but not quit, the other members should respect that. On the other hand, they're all pushing 60, I can see where they wouldn't want to wait two more years to start working again. It's been eight years since their last album of new material. But no matter what, I don't think Aerosmith should try to replace Steven Tyler.

STEVEN TYLER JOINED JOE PERRY ONSTAGE

Steven Tyler joined Joe Perry's band onstage last night, denying rumors that he is quitting Aerosmith. Billboard has more.

AEROSMITH : PLEASE DON'T DO THIS

Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry has been really prolific on twitter lately. It's cool that he is talking a lot about his tour with The Joe Perry Project, which sees him playing small clubs. But what a bummer that he is airing his grievences with Steven Tyler in such a public way.

Some samples:

"Read on line st left band to do "brand Tyler"? That's all I know but like I've said hasn't called me in months.a bit cold forget us 4 guys"

"What about fans? The people that also love him and put him where he is.after 40 years? And I gotta read it on line? I still got major jetlag"

"Last time I phoned him he hung up on me"

This one made me feel a bit better: "Aerosmith is definetly NOT breaking up. One of the members is doing his own thing and said so in the press. That's all I know" I interpreted it as, "OK, I'm doing a solo thing, so is Steven, it's all good." And then...

"Inthe meantime aerosmith is positivly looking for a new singer to work with. You just can't take 40 years of expiriance and throwitinthebin!"

and

"Aerosmith not splitting up. Promise that's the last you'll hear from me on the subject till we gear up again."

To be clear, I'm not totally mad at Joe Perry. It seems like this is caused by Steven Tyler's erracticness. It seems like maybe he isn't in a good place in his life. And it must be hard to watch this guy who you've worked with for 40 years decide that you need to "call my manager" to speak to him. Joe isn't ready to let Aerosmith go. I admit, if I was in a band like that, I wouldn't be either. But again, Joe: would you go to see The Rolling Stones if Mick Jagger wasn't the singer? It was a mistake for Aerosmith to continue on after Joe quit in the '70s, and it would be just as bad for them to try and replace Tyler and call it Aerosmith.

It's a bummer. And, OK, there are people still losing their homes, people without health insurance, and people fighting in the desert and dying every day. This isn't the most important thing to focus on at the moment. But I am curious to see what the fan reaction will be to this. It makes me wonder: what do we actually see when we look at a rock band that we've loved for decades. How invested are we, really?

AEROSMITH: NO. NO. NO.

I am a huge Aerosmith fan. I'll try not to get too emotional or crazy about this. I've written about how things aren't great in Aerosmith lately. Steven Tyler has his own manager, and is talking about a solo album. Joe Perry is on a solo tour for his new solo album. But England's Classic Rock magazine has some ridiculous news. Aerosmith just did a show in Abu Dhai, and before the show Tyler told Classic Rock that, after that concert was over, he's going to start to work on his own "brand." Aerosmith guitarist (the one that isn't Joe Perry, he's great as well though), Brad Whitford told the magazine that in a few weeks, the other four members of Aerosmith would be getting together to decide on their next move, which would possibly be without Tyler. One word: No. I'll repeat it: No. Break up the band, fine. Hiatus, even better. Don't get a new singer. And don't get the guy who sounds like Tyler who is singing in Joe Perry's solo band. None of you guys would go to see The Stones without Mick. Think about it.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: KISS, ACE FREHLEY AND JOE PERRY

Tomorrow on OutQ, I'll be talking about
some '70s hard rock legends who are still doing it today.

As I just mentioned, I enjoy the new KISS album, Sonic Boom, way more than I expected to. With KISS, it's not just about the music, but the spectacle and what kind of splash it makes. Well, the album is really good, but to make sure it gets the right push, KISS (who don't even need to deal with record labels anymore) made a deal with Walmart, f- the middleman. It's only available there, the chain is supposedly pushing it hard, and it may result in the band's first ever #1 album in the U.S. (Although as Gene will tell anyone in listening distance, "KISS have more gold albums in the U.S. than anyone, The Beatles, The Beach Boys...") I hope they get it.

Coincidentally, former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley has just his first solo album, Anomaly. The songs that I heard were pretty good. Some people don't think it is KISS without Ace, and I get that: he adds a weird quirkly element to the band, that they lack without him. Anyway, what I've heard from this album is cool, including a cover of Sweet's "Fox On The Run."

Finally, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry has a new album, Have Guitar, Will Travel. I've always been a fan of his singing voice - at least in doses - and I think it's weird that he's working with another singer on this album. The guy, whose name is Hagen, sounds a lot like... Steven Tyler. Weird. But Joe does sing on a bunch of the songs, and those are the better ones. It's cool that Joe is doing his own thing, but I hope that Aerosmith get it together. They had a disabled list that looked like a baseball team's this summer, Tyler revealed that he has a seperate manager from the rest of the band, and they ended up cancelling thier tour. Hopefully next year they will reconvene and get back with Brendan O'Brien to start working on thier next album (which supposedly will be a Columbia distributed Walmart exclusive, a la AC/DC 's Black Ice).

At my day job, I recently got to talk to Joe, who is always cool, and he told me that not only was Aerosmith planning on playing Toys In The Attic start to finish at their shows, but they were going to learn a bunch of other entire albums.

WHAT'S UP WITH STEVEN TYLER AND AEROSMITH?

Aerosmith had to cancel their summer tour but that's not the end of the bad news. Apparently a paparazzi web site has footage of Steven Tyler in a liquor store, a place an addict shouldn't be. There's always been rumors that he's fallen off the wagon, I hope that he hasn't. He discusses that in this Rolling Stone interview. He also discusses some other stuff I didn't know about: the fact that he's signed to a different management company than the rest of the band, and that he's working on a solo album.

AEROSMITH CANCELS SUMMER TOUR

It's a real bummer that Aerosmith had to cancel their summer tour. It hasn't been going well - bassist Tom Hamilton (who missed a tour a few summers ago due to chemo) was missing a few shows due to surgery, and Brad Whitford was missing some shows due to a head injury. Some shows were cancelled earlier this summer with Steven Tyler hurt his leg, but his more recent accident when he fell off the stage, injuring his shoulder and slashing his head sort of put a fork in the tour. Hopefully everyone will recover in the next few months, and the band will regroup to work on their next album. Meanwhile, Joe Perry is going to work on his next solo album.

JOEY KRAMER: GOOD GUY, SURVIVOR

Steven Tyler isn't the only guy from Aerosmith releasing a book: drummer Joey Kramer puts out Hit Hard later this month. Kramer has been through a lot: a harsh alcohol and drug addiction, a car incident where he was pretty badly burned, and a bout with depression that led to the band almost recording an album with a different drummer (thankfully they didn't do that). 

He's also celebrating his birthday at Aerosmith's June 21 show by inviting 20 soldiers who were wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan to the show as his special guests. That's something that anyone can applaud. 

AEROSMITH: MORE GOOD NEWS

Joe Perry has been saying that Aerosmith won't be playing Toys In The Attic in its entirety on their whole tour: some shows may feature Rocks instead. That would actually motivate me to see more than one show (if I could afford it). He also says that the band has been skipping Toys' last song, the great ballad "You See Me Crying," because Steven Tyler can't sing it anymore, but after a few shows, he may try to tackle it.

But in even better news, Brad Whitford may be returning to the tour soon, which is great. I got to inteview the guys from Aerosmith (except Tyler, I've never interviewed him unfortunately) a few years back, and while they were all cool, Brad was the nicest. I hope he's well.

AEROSMITH'S SUMMER TOUR: THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD NEWS.

The good news about Aerosmith's summer tour is that they are playing their classic album Toys In The Attic in its entirety. I'm always glad to hear Aerosmith pull out '70s era songs that they haven't done in a long time, so this will be pretty cool. The bad news is that guitarist Brad Whitford is going to miss a lot of dates because he is recovering from surgery. A guy named Bobby Schneck, who has apparently played with Green Day, Weezer and Slash, will be filling in.

STEVEN TYLER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler will release Does The Noise In My Head Bother You? in October. He's a great entertainer, and I'm sure that it will translate amazingly into a book. Aerosmith has an authorized band autobiography called Walk This Way, I wonder if this book will yield any other revelations about the band. Tyler and Joe Perry are like brothers, and they fight like brothers: I guess it must be sensitive to address in a book. Should be interesting.

IS TOO MUCH BLUES ROCK A BAD THING? HELL TO THE NO!

Aerosmith and ZZ Top are touring together this summer. Both bands were working on new albums. Aerosmith's is supposedly delayed because Steven Tyler is recovering from pnemonia. And ZZ Top is working with Rick Rubin on thier next one. I've said before that Aerosmith is probably not going to be considered a "current" band to young people anymore -- they had about as long of a run as any rock band ever has. So why not tour with ZZ? It should be great.