TOMORROW ON THE MORNING JOLT: POWER POP

I'm sorry that I missed being on The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick last week, I had a family emergency.  I'm back this week, and I'll be talking about some new power pop records.

First off is Matthew Sweet's new album Modern Art. Matthew's Girlfriend, Altered Beast and 100% Fun are among my favorite albums, but I haven't enjoyed many of his albums since then.  I think he has to work with other artists: I enjoyed his album as a member of The Thorns and his collaborative albums with Susanna Hoffs.  Modern Art is fine, but none of it really sticks with me.

Speaking of Ms. Hoffs, Matthew Sweet worked on the new Bangles album, Sweetheart Of The Sun. I've listened to it a bit, I think it's a solid album.  It's not as good as Different Light or Everything, but it's good.  I do think that The Bangles could still put out a classic. I wish that former bassist Michael Steele would rejoin the band: even though she wasn't a founding member, they feel off-balence to me without her.  I know they would love her to return.  I don't think she quit the band so much as she quit the country during the reign of bu$h 2.  Come back Michael!

Adam Schlesinger has been busy lately: his main band, Fountains of Wayne returned with Sky Full Of Holes, their first album in four years, and the follow-up to their very underrated Traffic and Weather. "Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart" is a great single, but I don't know if it's as good as songs like "Stacy's Mom" or "Radiation Vibe." Adam's other band, Ivy, has just released it's first album in six years, All Hours.  They are more of an electronic band, not so much "power pop," but because Adam is in the band, it has a very classic pop sensibility.  One thing that took some of Adam's time in the past few years is his other band, Tinted Windows. That group, which features Taylor Hanson of Hanson on vocals, James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins and A Perfect Circle on guitar, and Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick on drums, sounds just like... Cheap Trick.  They're great. Their 2009 self-titled debut is super underrated.

We'll also talk about the former members of Oasis: Noel and Liam Gallagher both have their own projects.

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???)

LIAM GALLAHGER'S NEW BAND

Billboard reports that Liam Gallagher is forming another band with all the other members of Oasis, except, obviously, Noel Gallagher. (Oasis split up a few weeks ago.) So who is going to write the songs? I mean, the good ones?

OASIS: DONE FOR GOOD?

Yes, it's really over, according to this interview with Oasis singer Liam Gallagher.

NOEL GALLAGHER QUITS OASIS! (for real, maybe?)

A note posted on the Oasis myspace page from Noel Gallagher says that he quit Oasis. Great band, but I don't think their recent work is as great as their earlier work. Maybe Noel will be more inspired when he doesn't have to write for Liam. The note says "It's with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight. People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer. Apologies to all the people who bought tickets for the shows in Paris, Konstanz and Milan. "

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: THE PRETENDERS, OASIS, THE CURE, LABELLE AND "QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS"

Tomorrow on OutQ, I'll be discussing new albums by some classic bands. The only one I really like, though, is The Pretenders' Break Up The Concrete. It's sort of a '50s rock and roll inspiried album. For some reason, it doesn't feature drummer Martin
Chambers - instead, Chrissie Hynde uses session legend Jim Keltner (who was in Neil Young's band when The Pretenders opened for Neil). But, The Pretenders are whoever Chrissie says is in the band.

There are also new albums by Oasis and The Cure. Neither moved me much, I'm sorry to say. Funk/disco/rock band LaBelle released their first album in 32 years, the stuff I heard sounds nice, but it didn't floor me. I'm actually most familiar with the least famous lady in the trio: Sarah Dash. I saw her in Keith Richards' backing band. She sang lead on "Time Is On My Side" and tore that s*** up.

Finally, there's the album by "Queen + Paul Rodgers." I'm more of a "greatest hits" guy when it comes to Queen than a die hard fan, so I don't take the album as personally as some die hard fans might, but it's really not good, and borders on the embarassing. I think Brian May, Roger Taylor and Paul should have come up with a different band name.