PUBLIC ENEMY IN 2012 - THE ARGUMENT

Last year, I included Public Enemy among the artists who I thought should have been voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. Actually, I'm not sure they were eligible: I think their first single came out 25 years ago, but their first album didn't come out until 1987, so I think should have been on the ballot next year. To me, Public Enemy are one of those bands, like U2 or The Clash, that should just go to the head of the class and be inducted in my opinion.  They shook the world.

I know some people feel that hip-hop doesn't belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. To me, they are heavier than most metal bands, and more punk rock than most punk rockers. They are badass, they have a message, they get black and white folks to rock together.  They are rock and roll.

When their second album, 1988's It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, came out, they were the most badass, scary, in your face band out there, it did not matter that they were using turntables and samplers instead of guitars.

LIke reggae, country music and jazz, hip-hop figures strongly into the fabric of rock and roll. With the possible exception of Run-DMC, no band influenced more rock bands than PE. And none scared your parents the way PE did (not even N.W.A.).

I don't want to make it seem like it is only about that album, though. Their debut, 1987's Yo! Bum Rush The Show is pretty great. Nation's follow-up, 1990's Fear Of A Black Planet, is also a classic. And the next year's Apocalypse 91: The Enemy Strikes Black, is the most underrated albums ever. And speaking of underrated, their 2005 album New Whirl Odor had some great songs (particularly the collaboration with Moby, "MKLVFKWR"). At it was criminal that more people didn't hear their latest album, 2007's How Do You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul? 

Chuck D and Flavor Flav may not have been the best MCs - they would probably admit that Rakim and KRS-One were better - but the entire unit of Public Enemy had a power that no one else had.  They toured with Anthrax, with U2, with Sisters Of Mercy. I don't know any rock bands that appeal to all of those artists.

PUBLIC ENEMY AND THE DRIVE BY TRUCKERS: THE CONNECTION

That headline might be a bit misleading: the connection between Public Enemy and The Drive-By Truckers I am referring to is in my mind, but follow me for a second here.


I really, truly believe that one of the most important things music can do is make you see something from someone else's point of view. It doesn't have to do that, of course. It rarely does. But I think it is great when it happens.

When I was in college, I came upon Public Enemy's 1988 classic, It Takes A Nation Of Millions to Hold Us Back. I had already been listening to hip-hop for a while: I was not a hard core fan, but I enjoyed it. I had Run-D.M.C.'s King Of Rock when I was in high school. I didn't really understand where they were coming from, exactly, I just knew I liked the music. I liked LL Cool J and a few other artists. But It Takes A Nation Of Millions just blew my mind. That's an overused phrase, but it was true. I never heard anything like it before (fair to say, neither had anyone else). The lyrics made me think about things that I hadn't thought about before: namely, what it was like to be black in America in the '80s. When you put together all the songs it really tells a story. Not just the "hits" like "Don't Believe The Hype" and "Bring The Noise." I'm talking about "Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos," "Rebel Without A Pause," "She Watch Channel Zero" and "Night Of The Living Baseheads." These songs informed me about the lives of people who lived less than 30 miles away from me, but who I never met and wasn't likely to. That's pretty valuable, and very few art forms are able to do this.

Nation saw Chuck D rebelling against the system, as it were: he did this brilliantly in "Black Steel" where the main character goes to jail for refusing to be drafted, and then escapes. But he didn't shy away from pointing the finger at his own community, as he did in “Night Of The Living Baseheads” (about the effects of drugs and dealing drugs). Without having anything to "check" the album against, I felt it was a, uh, fair and balanced album.

Much more recently, I got into The Drive-By Truckers, thanks pretty much to the great SIRIUS XM channel Outlaw Country. I'd heard of them before listening to the channel, but hadn't really paid them much mind. I'd read that 2001's Southern Rock Opera was considered to be a classic. But after hearing the band frequently on the channel, I realized that this is a great American band, so I started getting their albums. I am a big fan, and Southern Rock Opera is straight-up incredible.

I kind of pride myself on being able to get along with people from different cultures and sub-cultures, and I like learning about them. I'm not trying to appropriate or claim anything, I just like learning about different people and what they like and what their lives are like. In the past decade or so, I have been realizing just how different the south is to where I grew up in New Jersey. I've been trying to understand it, but nothing has ever explained it to me as well as Southern Rock Opera. "Ronnie and Neil" - about Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman Ronnie Van Zant and Neil Young - says a lot about what Drive By Trucker Patterson Hood called "the duality of the southern thing." Young famously called out some racist stuff that took place in the south in his songs "Alabama" and "Southern Man," and while Van Zant was a fan of Neil's, he sang in "Sweet Home Alabama" that "I hope Neil Young will remember, a southern man don't need him 'round anyhow." "Ronnie and Neil" touches on the sensitivity that southerners feel when they think they're being judged by someone who isn't from there. But still, Hood concludes, "to my way of thinking, us Southern men need both of them around." He explains a lot in "The Three Great Alabama Icons" (they are Van Zant, Bear Bryant, George Wallace) and later in "Wallace" (sung from the perspective of the devil, waiting for George Wallace). He kind of sums it up in "The Southern Thing" where he sings "Proud of the glory, stare down at the shame, the duality of the southern thing." The album isn't political per se, it's more about how people are affected by the times that they live in. And the album isn't just about that. "Let There Be Rock" (not the AC/DC classic, but it quotes it) is as much a rallying cry for rock and roll as "Bring The Noise" is for hip-hop. They both take great pride, without reservation or cynicism, in their music.

The Truckers started in 1996, and PE about a decade earlier. The Truckers' latest, The Big To-Do, is one of my favorite albums of the year so far. You don't hear much about it: the media is much more occupied with the latest indie rock band with an expensive publicist. PE's latest, How Do You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?, was incredibly underrated. The song "Harder Than You Think" is classic, and towers over whatever singles were on the hip-hop charts that year. Again, the media doesn't pay much mind: hey, soulja boy just tweeted something! These are both groups in it for the long haul, who have made several great albums (and have several important contributing members, I don't mean to diminish the importance of Flavor Flav, Mike Cooley, Terminator X, etc. just because I haven't mentioned them here). But if you trust the recommendations that I make here at No Expiration, I urge you to get these albums if you don't already have them. If you do, maybe I've helped you to listen to them in a new light.
Patterson Hood (via Bon Scott): "Let There Be Rock."

Chuck D (via, well, you know...): "Run-D.M.C first said a DJ could be a band, stand on its own feet, get you out your seat."

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: *MY* PICKS FOR THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME 2011

Last week, I said that I would be going on The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick on SIRIUS|XM OutQ on Friday instead of Wednesday.  That was the plan until I ended up on the disabled list and missing a few days of work.  Rest assured, I'll be talking about Jimi Hendrix on the show soon enough.

But this week, I'll probably be talking about this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. And also who *I* would vote for in 2011, if I were a voter. On one hand, I feel that with the long awaited induction of The Stooges, they can shut the door on the hall for a few years. On the other hand, there are lots of deserving artists, and here are a few who I would vote for. Please call in at 1-866-305-6887, or tweet @ Larry with your opinions! Below would be my ballot, with the expensive career retro, budget priced best of, and my favorite album by the artist.

First up is KISS. It's really easy to hate on them because of their crass commerciality and their marketing machine (although no one complains about Jay-Z's clothing line, sneakers, nightclubs, etc.). And because of the way Gene Simmons comes off in interviews. But I've said it before, I'll say it again: If you gave Gene and Paul Stanely a buck for every kid who bought a guitar or a drumset because of KISS, they'd double their earnings. Maybe the artists later decided that they didn't like KISS. But it was KISS that got them to start playing. That's influence.
If you have big $: Check out the The Box Set, released in 2001, which pretty much covers their entire career minus last year's surprisingly good Sonic Boom.
The best of: 2002's Greatest KISS, two discs that go through most of the non-makeup years. If you want to stick with makeup era, go with 2005's Gold (also two CDs) .
My favorite album: their self titled debut from 1974. They really had something to prove, and sounded really unified. My second choice would be 1975's Alive!

Actually, I'm not sure Public Enemy will be eligible next year: their debut album, Yo, Bum Rush The Show, came out in January of 1987, but I think a lead single may have come out in '86, which I think would make them eligible. But if anyone deserves to get in early, it's Public Enemy, and yes I know a lot of people don't think hip-hop groups should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. To me, Public Enemy is rock and roll played on different instruments. They are punk and they are metal and they are blues and they are rock and roll. In the late '80s and early '90s, everyone was influenced by them, or scared of them, or both. And by the way, they still make great records, but since those records often criticize today's hip-hop culture, hip-hop writes them off as old and out of touch. Sorry, you don't get off that easy.
There's no P.E. box set, nor a career-spanning best of, but a good compilation is 2005's Power To The People and The Beats: The Best Of Public Enemy. It covers their Def Jam years.
My favorite P.E. record? 1988's It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back. It's one of the best records of all time. But 1990's Fear of A Black Planet is amazing also, and so is Apocolypse '91: The Enemy Strikes Black, but by then hip-hop was already moving on to the next thing.

Alice Cooper. And by "Alice Cooper," I mean Alice Cooper on vocals, guitarists Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway on bass and drummer Neal Smith. When they started, it was a band, and it was a great band. People don't take Alice seriously for some of the same reasons they don't take KISS seriously: he started out as a scary badass, and later got more commerical and cartoon-like. He was on Hollywood Squares, The Muppets, and played golf. He embraced showbiz. He was scary, but fun-scary. Still, he influenced all of the early punk bands (especially The Sex Pistols and The Ramones) but also lots of heavy metal artists and rock and rollers as well.
If you have big $: get the 1999 4 CD box set The Life And Crimes Of Alice Cooper.
The Best-of: go for 2001's 2 CD set Mascara and Monsters: The Best Of Alice Cooper.
Best album: tough one, I like 1973's Billion Dollar Babies, but also 1971's Love It To Death, 1971's Killer, 1972's School's Out and the 1975 "solo" album Welcome To My Nightmare.

I've been talking about Bill Withers a bit lately, I just think he is so... maybe not "underrated" but definitely under appreciated. If you only know his big hit singles, trust me on this one. Dude has got lots of great songs, and is a great song interpreter as well. I think if he was on Motown or Stax he would have gotten more props. He's one of the great soul/R&B singers of all time. Trust me.
There's no Bill box set that I know of, but never mind that, we all need to check out the documentary Still Bill The Movie. But for a best-of, go with 1994's Lean On Me: The Best Of Bill Withers.
My favorite album would be his debut, 1971's Just As I Am, followed by the follow-up, 1972's Still Bill. Also 1973's Live At Carnegie Hall.

Tom Waits is weird, and "weird" is important to rock and roll. Not everyone is weird, and not everyone has to be. But when someone can combine "weird" with great songwriting, it's a wondeful thing. Combine that with a great presentation and a unique voice? Well, that's Tom Waits. I was late to get into Waits, and I still don't "get" all of it, but his stuff blows me away. He's the only artist I can think of who keeps getting weirder.
Tom Waits doesn't have a box set, but if you have big $, pick up 2001's Used Songs, which covers his early era on Elektra, 1998's Beautiful Maladies and which covers his middle era on Island. There's no real compilation for his latest, and really great, period on Anti-, the imprint of punk rock label Epitaph Records.
My favorite album however, is his Epitaph debut, 1999's Mule Variations. I know most people choose older albums, but that's the one that really hooked me on him. The fact that he did such an incredible album a quarter century into his career blew me away.

The New York Dolls, I was a latecomer to them as well. I sort of got into them via frontman David Johansen's SIRIUS radio show, The Mansion Of Fun. The Dolls influenced Guns N Roses and they influenced The Smiths. Come on! I like their recent reunion albums. But all you really need to have is their 1973 self-titled debut album.

Of course, there are so many other bands who I think should get in: The Cure, The Beastie Boys, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bad Brains, Black Flag, Warren Zevon, Emmylou Harris, LL Cool J, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, Peter Tosh, Motorhead and The MC5 to name a few. But as of this moment, the above are the artists I would vote for if I could vote tomorrow.

BEST OF THE 00s: CHUCK D

Yeah, this is my first hip-hop entry into my "Best of 00s" series, and it's not weezy, jeezy and I'll get to 'yeezy later on. It's Chuck D of Public Enemy, and like Chuck, I don't give a f*** what you think about it.

Why so defensive? Because even though I am not part of the hip-hop communtiy, I know how the genre tends to look at its legends.  Sit back, stay out of the way, don't comment on what's going on today. That ain't Chuck's way, and that's one of the many things I respect about the man. As he says in "Can You Hear Me Now" from the great 2007 album How You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?, "At the age I am now, if I can't teach, I shouldn't even open up my mouth, begin to speak." If you want to know his critiques of hip-hop, read his Terrordome posts. Or even better, pick up How You Sell Soul, and PE's 2005 New Whirl Odor. It's pretty easy for today's hip-hop artists to write Chuck off as "old," "out of touch" or "irrelevant." Yeah, go on believing that. But it lets you off the hook way to easy. 

Back to the music, both of the albums I just mentioned have classic songs.  Yeah, I said "classic."  Are the albums as classic as It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back or Fear Of A Black Planet? I'll answer with another question: if The Clash stayed together, do you think they could have topped The Clash or London Calling? Right. PE has some songs that hold up to the older stuff: "MKLVFKWR" ("make love fuck war"), produced by Moby, is one of their greatest. I hope they work together again. "Harder Than You Think" is one of my favorite PE songs ever.

I guess have to mention Flavor Flav. Without Flav, Public Enemy wouldn't be the same, and he is totally irreplacable. I love listening to Flav's parts on the PE records, and yeah, I wish he didn't enter the reality tv circus ('nuff said). That said, it has got to be challenging for Chuck to be in the band with him for all these years, but they have kept it together.

Chuck D isn't gonna go quietly.  It wouldn't suit him. Even if he stopped making records tomorrow (which I hope doesn't happen), he would still be a force to be reckoned with. He can host TV and radio shows, or write. Black or white, he doesn't let you off the hook easily. I'm glad there's someone out there with the balls to do that.

PUBLIC ENEMY FUNDRAISING UPDATE

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Public Enemy is asking fans to fund the recording and marketing of their next album, and they promise to share the profits too. So far, they have raised $50,000. I wonder how many groups from any genre would be able to pull that off, two decades into their career.

THE HARD RHYMERS DOMINATE VH1 HONORS

Public Enemy Public Enemy Video The Roots Hip Hop

I didn't catch VH1's Hip-Hop Honors (honoring Def Jam Records) because of work, but I caught the best part at VH1.com - Public Enemy performing "Rebel Without A Pause" backed by The Roots and Street Sweeper Social Club. It may have been a bit too many people on stage at once, but still powerful as ALL HELL. I know people were bummed that Jay-Z wasn't there, but I don't think he could compare. Another cool performance was Eminem and The Roots with DJ Jazzy Jeff performing LL Cool J's "Rock The Bells" (LL wasn't there - I don't think he's digging Def Jam these days).

Rollling Stone had a neat feature about eight great Def Jam records that people slept on, including 3rd Bass dude MC Serch's solo album (which featured the second appearance of "Nasty Nas," now just known as Nas), which I remember liking. I would also add Method Man & Redman's first duo album, Blackout. It did yield one huge hit, "Da Rockwilder," which they performed at the show, but the rest of the album didn't get any love, and it should have. Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again, EPMD don't get their due respect dammit!

PUBLIC ENEMY ASKS FANS TO FUND NEXT ALBUM

It was a real shame that Public Enemy's last album, the excellent How Do You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?, didn't get more attention. But for their next one, they are teaming up with SellaBand, which relies on funding from fans to put out albums (and fans then get a share of the profits). I wonder how this business model will work. I hope it works out for them. Public Enemy at one time defined hard-core hip-hop music. At some point, lighter-weight hip-hop became more of the "in" thing. PE never blinked, and didn't try to fit in with whatever the trend was. They are still a huge international touring act, but it would be cool to see them have a hit album.

NOTE TO LYOR COHEN: PUBLIC ENEMY IS STILL IN EFFECT!

One one hand, it was kind of nice of Lyor Cohen, a big wig at Warner Brothers Records, to give props to Public Enemy in a recent profile in The New York Times Magazine. Especially considering the fact that Chuck D. has slammed the dude with the "Garbage Pail Kids" type nickname "Liar Cohen," I guess due to the way Cohen treated Public Enemy in their last years at Def Jam Records. I've read interviews with Chuck where he actually refers to him as "Liar Cohen."

On the other hand, the props came in the form of Cohen listing P.E. as his favorite "defunct" act, saying that they are "what's missing in the business right now. We need Chuck D and Flavor Flav and the S1Ws. We desperately need a group that's willing to tackle thorny subjects."

So, (A): Hey, Lyor, check out their most recent album, How You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul? from 2007. It blows away nearly every hip-hop record of the past decade... even ones that sold more copies! Remember, homie, it's not about a salary, it's all about reality. Younger hip-hop artists (and the people who make money off of them) like to write them off as being "out of touch" but that just lets everyone else off the hook.

And (B): Hey, Lyor, you can maybe help change the situation and sign artists who are "willing to tackle the thorny subjects." Well, I guess you have Jay-Z, and the topic of how rich he is can be pretty thorny! I'm not very familiar with the recordings of Trey Songz and Michael Buble, but I imagine them tackling thorny subjects pretty regularly.

The picture above is from this week: Chuck and Flav performed backed by The Roots and members of Street Sweeper Social Club at this year's VH1 Hip-Hop Honors, celebrating Def Jam Records' legacy.

VH1 HIP-HOP HONORS FEATURES DEF JAM

If any label deserves its props at VH1's Hip-Hop Honors, it is Def Jam. Of course, Def Jam in 2009 has as little in common with its early roots as Motown in 2009, Rhino in 2009, Atlantic in 2009, etc. But the history of Def Jam certainly deserves to be celebrated: LL Cool J (still on the label, I think!), The Beastie Boys, Public Enemy (all of whom have been honored on their own) and EPMD (who, insanely, have not). Not to mention Method Man & Redman (seperately and as a duo), The Roots, Ghostface, and probably some others that I'm forgetting about. 3rd Bass! I hope this isn't just some way to get Jay-Z on VH1, I know they're hot for him there. The show airs on VH1 on October 13.

I worked at VH1 the first year we did Hip-Hop Honors. It was really a proud moment for me. When I started there, the channel was super white and seemingly not into hip-hop. At some point, that all changed. Hip-Hop never had a real awards show to celebrate its history, and thanks to VH1, now it did. Run-D.M.C., Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, plus 2Pac and some real founders of the artform: DJ Hollywood, DJ Kool Herc, The Sugarhill Gang and The Rock Steady Crew. I got to interview lots of cool people: D.M.C., Pac's sister, Wyclef Jean, KRS-One, Kid Rock and a few others. It's impossible to top that year's class - it's like the first class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: after you've inducted Chuck Berry, James Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis, Sam Cooke, Little Richard, Fats Domino and Ray Charles, you are only going down from there. But back to Hip-Hop Honors, I'm glad they're still doing it, and I hope EPMD get some props at this.

HANK SHOCKLEE INTERVIEW CLIPS

Public Enemy fans know Hank Shocklee - he was part of The Bomb Squad, the production team that worked on It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, among other classics. The blog DJMSP has collected a bunch of interview clips with him, it's pretty interesting. Including talking about how difficult, from a legal standpoint, it would be to do an album like Nations today, and that Russell Simmons hated PE's music. 

CHUCK D ON DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION

A decade ago, when Public Enemy left Def Jam for the digital world, some scoffed that it was just because they weren't big enough for major label attention anymore.  Well, they're still here, playing big places in the U.S. and bigger places in different parts of the world, and Domino and Montell Jordan and Warren G and whoever else Def Jam was all into back then... well, you know.  Anyway, check out this editorial Chuck D. wrote about the digital world. 

PUBLIC ENEMY GRAPHIC NOVEL TO GET MOVIE-IZED?

MTV's Splash Page blog says that the Public Enemy comic book may get turned into an animated film. As a HUGE PE fan, and a recovering comic book addict, I'm surprised that I never read the comic, but most rock and roll artists turned comic book characters don't usually make for great stories. I remember looking through issue number 1 and I wasn't super impressed, so I just left it. Even KISS, a band made for comic books, didn't have interesting comic books, and they've had numerous series with pretty much every major publisher.

PUBLIC ENEMY AND THE ROOTS PERFORM ON JIMMY FALLON'S SHOW

If you were wondering what Chuck D and Flavor Flav backed by The Roots will sound like when they perform Public Enemy's classic It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back at the annual "Roots Picnic" in Philly, check out this clip of their performance of "Bring The Noise from Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. The headline incorrectly says that The Roots backed a "reunited" Public Enemy, but the guys have been playing together pretty frequently for years now. On Sunday night, they played at B.B. King's in Times Square for Flavor's 50th(!) birthday. Lots of hip-hop legends were there, including Melle Mel from The Furious Five and Ice-T.

PUBLIC ENEMY TO PERFORM IT TAKES A NATION... WITH THE ROOTS

Billboard reports that The Roots will
back up Public Enemy, performing It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back at a special one-off show in June. It's The Roots' annual "Roots Picnic" in Philly. TV On The Radio, The Black Keys and Santigold are also on the bill. The Roots will perform two sets that day on their own.

Last year, Public Enemy performed Nation at a few UK festivals, but it's cool that they're going to do it in the U.S. And backed by The Roots, that will bring the album to a new level. ?uestlove has talked about how that album made him want to be a hip-hop artist, I bet this will be a heavy experience for him.

VH1'S HIP-HOP HONORS

I was glad to see one of my favorite groups of all time, de la soul, get their due at the Hip-Hop Honors. It took Q-Tip, Estelle (John Legend's protegee), Cee-Lo, Public Enemy with Mos Def and EPMD to pay tribute to them. The only problem was that each segment was too short (no pun intended).  It's just too bad that PE and Mos Def's collab was like, one minute long. 

And they need to honor EPMD next year! They are way more influential than some other artists who have been honored. But it was also great to see Cypress Hill and Slick Rick get honored.  I wasn't as big of a fan of Naughty By Nature or Too $hort. 

Anyway, great show, I remember working at the first Hip-Hop Honors, and there was some initial skepticism about Video Hits 1 doing a hip-hop awards show. But it was awesome, and they've done a great job on all the subsequent ones. (Although tough to beat the original lineup, which included PE, Run-D.M.C. and KRS-One). 

1988: HIP-HOP'S GREATEST YEAR?

RollingStone.com just did a cool feature on the best hip-hop albums from 1988. Indeed, it was a great year for hip-hop. RS cites Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back at #1, and I'd definitely agree. I don't know if I got into that album in 1988 - I think I happened upon it the following year - but, wow, I still remember being blown away by how awesome/different/aggressive the album was. And I'm still knocked out every time I hear it today.

At #2 was Run-DMC's Tougher Than Leather. At the time that it came out, they seemed kind of over, but when the album was reissued a year or two ago, I felt like it was a pretty good album that I "slept on."

Soon after I got into P.E., I also got into Ice Cube and Ice-T, both of whom are represented on this list. N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton is on the list, as is Ice-T's Power. Both are great, but I got into Cube from his solo debut, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, which I actually prefer to N.W.A. I know, blasphemous. My favorite Ice-T albums were The Iceberg/Freedom Of Speech... Just Watch What You Say and O.G. - Original Gangster.

The list also included great albums by EPMD, Eric B & Rakim, Boogie Down Productions and even DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. Yeah, it's easy to just say, "Yeah, hip-hop was better back then." But, it was. Still, there are great albums being put out today, look at Kanye West, Common and Nas to name three. Like the No Expiration masthead says, "There's always great new music being made."

IT (STILL) TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS...

I remember at some point last year, Public Enemy said that they were going to stop touring so much. Since then, they co-headlined the awesome Rock The Bells tour, and then did a tour of their own. Now, they've announced that in May, they're doing three dates in the U.K. as part of the "Don't Look Back" concert series, where artists recreate one of their classic albums.

It's not suprise that P.E. will be doing It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back (although I'd argue Fear Of A Black Planet and Apocolypse 91: The Enemy Strikes Black are also classics, Nation is clearly their high point).

The album just smokes almost any other album in any other genre, not just hip-hop. Hopefully, they'll bring the show to NYC. I wonder if Terminator X, who retired a few years ago to be an ostrich farmer, will be involved. P.E. will no doubt be getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a few years, so hopefully Terminator is getting ready to speak with his hands again.

ALBUM(S) OF THE YEAR

I always have the hardest time coming up with lists of the “best” song or album of the year, on account of how much stuff l enjoy listening to, and how to you compare say, Nine Inch Nails to Mavis Staples? I’ve spent a few nights agonizing over what order I put Ben Harper, Bruce Springsteen and Steve Earle. I figured, let’s just get on with it! That said, I have a list of some of my favorite records of the year in a rough order. After the list, I have explanations for each.

Ben Harper – Lifeline

Bruce Springsteen – Magic

Steve Earle – Washington Square Serenade

The White Stripes – Icky Thump

Robert Plant/Alison Krauss – Raising Sand

John Fogerty – Revival

Public Enemy How Do You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?

Mavis Staples – We’ll Never Turn Back

Alicia Keys – As I Am

I’m Not There soundtrack

Radiohead – In Rainbows

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – 100 Days, 100 Nights

Nine Inch Nails – Year Zero

PJ Harvey – White Chalk

Norah Jones – Not Too Late
Lucinda Williams – West

Common – Finding Forever

Nas – Hip-Hop Is Dead

Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace

Neil Young – Chrome Dreams II

Joan Osborne – Breakfast In Bed

Amy Winehouse – Back To Black

Arcade Fire – Neon Funeral

The Nightwatchman – One Man Revolution

Ben Harper - Lifeline

I started No Expiration around the time Ben Harper released Lifeline and I postulated that it might be the “album of the year.” For me, it pretty much is. I’m sorry that Ben doesn’t seem to be the type of guy to make critics’ top ten lists. On the other hand, I don’t think that Lil Wayne or Panda Bear or Band Of Horses will be selling out Radio City Music Hall a decade into their careers. Ben is just not on the radar of the hipsters, but the people who love him, really love him. This is one of Ben’s best albums – and even his lesser albums are better than most other artist’s best. P.S. Ben also collaborated with The Skatalites on “Be My Guest” off of the Fats Domino tribute album, Goin’ Home, and it’s an incredible version. I’d love to see Ben and The Innocent Criminals tour with a horn section. Not in a Vegas way, but with a great reggae/ska horn section.

Bruce Springsteen – Magic

You often hear people saying that they “grow out of” certain artists. With Bruce, I think people “grow into” his music. I’ve been a fan for a long time, but some of his older songs that I used to dislike, like “Hungry Heart” or “Dancing In The Dark” resonate with me now that I’m about the same age Bruce was when he wrote them. That’s one incredible thing about his appeal. Another is how he manages to address his fans after all these years, in a way that few artists his age are able to. Sometimes, he’s not shooting for the mainstream, and he knows that an album doesn’t have mass appeal: The Ghost Of Tom Joad, Devils & Dust and We Shall Overcome are examples of that. But when he really wants to address America (the country, the people and the idea), he gets The E Street Band, and swings for the fences. With both The Rising and Magic, he really connected. Is Magic as good as Born To Run or Darkness On The Edge Of Town or Nebraska? Ask me in a decade or two, when I’ve had as much time with it. All I know is that it feels like a great album for today, and I imagine that I’ll be picking it up in ten and twenty years and still loving it.

Steve Earle – Washington Square Serenade

I like when an album says something about an artist, other than “another year has passed, it’s time for a new album.” Steve Earle’s albums really tell you where he is in his life. It’s sort of a rock album, but it’s made without his longtime backing band The Dukes, because he moved to New York and they live in Nashville. And also, as he says, he “tested positive for ProTools,” allowing him to record in a more computerized way – which doesn’t take away from the soul of the album. Steve has claimed that this is a less political album, it still has “City Of Immigrants” and a big “f-you” to Lou Dobbs in the liner notes. But it’s about the fact that he’s in love – he recently married singer/songwriter Allison Moorer (whose great voice graces many of the songs). It even reflects the fact that he now has a great satellite radio show on SIRIUS (“Satellite Radio”) without pimping it too hard. I think it usually takes people a few years to get used to Steve Earle’s albums, but I loved this one the first time I heard it.

The White Stripes – Icky Thump
I don’t get why this album didn’t get more love. It’s great: “You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told)” is probably the best rock song of the year, and one of the best things Jack White has ever written. Maybe Jack White is a “victim” of the sort of Denzel Washington/Meryl Streep thing: when you’re just so consistently great, people just expect greatness every time. There’s never really a “hook” – or a “story” – to a White Stripes album. They’re not going to do the "important album," or a "big departure album," or a bad album that will necessitate a "comeback album." They just crank out great album after great album. Yes, I love this band, but I still have the ability to be critical: I didn’t love their concert at MSG this summer: I thought it was a bit self-indulgent. But their records are consistently awesome, and they seem to have handled success really well.

Robert Plant/Alison Krauss – Raising Sand
How odd that, after decades of (mostly) resisting the tempting call of Led Zeppelin nostalgia in order to be taken seriously as a solo artist and break free of Zep’s shadow, Robert Plant’s greatest post-Zeppelin work came in the year that he actually agreed to a full-on Led Zeppelin concert. This was an inspired collaboration, T-Bone Burnett was the perfect guy to produce, and I hope we’ll hear more from this duo (or trio) in the future. Yes, I’ll pay to see Zeppelin if they tour (especially after hearing how righteous their reunion concert was) but I really want to see Robert and Alison do their thing. P.S. It’s also worth mentioning that he didn’t just collaborate with Krauss and his Zep-mates this year: on the Fats Domino tribute, Goin’ Home, he also collaborated with The Soweto Gospel Choir on “Valley Of Tears,” and the Lil’ Band Of Gold on “It Keeps Rainin’,” and both of those are great collabs. Robert Plant was the man this year. Meanwhile, in 2006, Alison had a hit duet with Brad Paisley, and produced an album for Alan Jackson. Robert and Alison, stars in their own respective right, know how to collaborate.

John Fogerty – Revival
I was telling a friend about my favorite albums of the year, and he mentioned, “Wow, there’s a lot of septuagenarians on that list.” Well, what are you gonna do? There are so few contemporary rock singers who convey joy (“Don’t You Wish It Was True”) and rage (“I Can’t Take It No More”) like John Fogerty can. (I’d also point out that I’m older than Ben Harper and both White Stripes, and I think Alison Krauss is my age.) Anyway: I really try to avoid the “It’s his/her/their best album since…” statement making thing, but I do think this is his best album since his days in Creedence Clearwater Revival. It’s nice to see that he’s finally comfortable in his own skin, and he’s comfortable with his legacy. I’ve been lucky enough to interview John on a few occasions, and he often worried about sharing the artistic fate of his hero, Elvis Presley, and becoming a parody of himself. With albums like this (not to mention other semi-recent songs like “Déjà vu (All Over Again)” and “110 In The Shade) he really doesn’t need to worry about that.

Public Enemy How Do You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?
I recently wrote about the huge impact this album has had on me. Some people would look at me like I’m crazy for calling this the hip-hop album of the year, because Public Enemy are (a) “old” (b) not hot (c) don’t use current producers and required guest rappers. That’s the problem.

Mavis Staples – We’ll Never Turn Back
I’ve always appreciated The Staple Singers – the family based group that Mavis got her start in. But in recent years, I’ve become a fan of her as a solo artist: I love the duet she did with Bob Dylan, an update of his song “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking” from Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs Of Bob Dylan and her songs on the Joe Henry produced Meeting On Mission Street album which also featured soul singers like Billy Preston and Irma Thomas. Her new album, produced for the great Anti- label by Ry Cooder, is incredible. It’s just a rootsy gospel album, but it has such gravity to it. Maybe because she lived through the Civil Rights era. P.S. It’s interesting to note how much rock and roll music comes from gospel: this album has a bunch of songs that rock artists have covered, including “99 and a Half” (Creedence Clearwater Revival), “Eyes On The Prize” (Bruce Springsteen) and “Jesus Is On The Main Line” (Aerosmith, believe it or not).

Alicia Keys – As I Am
Alicia Keys has her priorities right. She wants to be absolutely huge, which is fine. But when she’s making her records, she wants them to be great. She doesn’t want to pander or follow trends, but she has no problem with success. I imagine that’s how Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye were back in the day. She just keeps getting better. This was her third album, and I can’t wait to hear her fourth one. I’ve never had a chance to see her in concert (I really regret missing her tour with John Legend a few years back), but I hope to catch her in 2008. Also, her duet with Keith Urban on The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” at Live Earth gave the event one of it’s few transcendent moments, and she was one of the only under-30 artists who seemed to know how to play to a crowd that size.

I’m Not There soundtrack
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I haven’t seen this movie yet. And it’s almost unfair to compare an album of Dylan songs from the ‘60s through the ‘90s to music from 2007. But of course, an album of Dylan songs could suck in the wrong hands, and there are certainly are many artists here that are way out of their league. But The Hold Steady rock on “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window.” “The Man In The Long Black Coat” sounds like it was written for Mark Lanegan. And Calexico should consider hiring themselves out as a backing band to Willie Nelson and Roger McGuinn (they did a great job on a collaborative album with Iron & Wine, with whom they collaborate with here as well). And it was a cool bonus to hear Dylan’s version of the never (officially) released title track.

Radiohead – In Rainbows
I just wrote about this album. Good for them for taking advantage of the good will they’ve built up with their fans, doing things their way, and putting out an album that lived up to the hype.

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – 100 Days, 100 Nights
She’s 50-something and getting her first break. Good for her: it’s all about her talent, and her great band (who are also heard on productions by super-producer Mark Ronson – he did tracks on Amy Winehouse’s album, he has a cool solo album, and he did the Dylan “Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)” remix). Anyway, she is a really soulful singer, and this album is worth way more than it costs.

Nine Inch Nails – Year Zero
I remember when Nine Inch Nails released the double album The Fragile in 1999, it had all this hype, it debuted at #1, but then fell off the charts, sold about a million copies and was seen as a flop. A few months later, in 2000, Radiohead released the very left-field Kid A, which surprisingly debuted at #1 and sold about a million copies, and was hailed as this huge victory for music. I feel like the same thing just happened in 2007. Although Trent Reznor released Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero on Interscope (famously, his last album for the label), he used the “Year Zero” alternate reality game – which his label had no involvement with, or probably even knowledge of – to get the word out. I don’t know why the album didn’t seem to have a big impact. Part of Trent’s “problem” may be that each of his first three albums were five star classics which were completely unique: Pretty Hate Machine brought a songcraft to industrial/electronic music that wasn’t really there before, Broken saw him using a heavy metal/punk band format filtered through electronic music and his tour de force, The Downward Spiral was almost Pink Floydian. Everything since then has seemed a bit like a variation on that theme. And lyrically, he’s always been the kind of angry, self-absorbed guy. What I like about Year Zero is that he’s looking outward a bit more. I hear he’s working on the followup/sequel and maybe a feature film version of it. I hope he lays off the film – if he doesn’t like the compromises of a major label, wait until he tries to make a movie.

PJ Harvey – White Chalk
I’ve already written about this album. It bums me out to kind of hear her dissing her own Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea album, which is one of my favorites from her. But anyway, this a great and daring album. I’m glad I got to see one of her few concerts promoting the record. I think she’s already working on her next one with John Parish. They collaborated on the Dance Hall At Louse Point album in 1996.

The Nightwatchman – One Man Revolution
This is a good debut from Tom Morello’s alter-ego. I think it should have come with chord charts so that anyone could learn to play these songs. He was trying to add to the Woody Guthrie tradition. His songs weren’t as great as Woody’s, but it was a good try, there are good songs, and someone needs to be doing this. I’d love to see him work with Rage Against The Machine but keep doing this. By the way, where’s that solo album, Zach de la Rocha?

Norah Jones – Not Too Late
People dis Norah because she is just so popular – and she’s popular with “regular” people, which (I guess) isn’t cool. So Cat Power, beware of crossing over too much: people are already hating on Feist! Anyway, I have always maintained that if Norah’s albums weren’t so well produced, she’s have more “cred.” On the other hand, when Dave Grohl, Wyclef, Talib Kweli, Ryan Adams, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Mike Patton and Andre 3000 all want to work with you, I think that’s about enough “cred.” I doubt any of her albums will make the impact of her debut, but that’s fine, and I’m sure it’s fine with her. Not Too Late is excellent, but we expect that of her. P.S. Norah was also on the Fats Domino tribute Goin’ Home, and does a sweet version of “My Blue Heaven.” But I loved her collaboration with Wyclef Jean on his new album, Carnival II, “Any Other Day,” which is one of her best performances. (And his).

Lucinda Williams – West
I needed a break from Lucinda after seeing her in concert in the fall of 2007, so I haven’t listened to this album for a while. But it’s a great album: “Are You Alright” is touching, “Fancy Funeral” is hearbreaking but sweet, and “Unsuffer Me” is great (despite the fact that she wrecked it in concert and not in a good way). I’ll always love Lu’s music.

Common – Finding Forever
I think that this album debuted at #1, but didn’t seem to have a huge impact. I think Kanye West is the perfect producer for Common, and this album really works. Common is definitely one of the best MCs in the game, but I think if it wasn’t for his association with Kanye and his budding movie career, people would be “over” him. Which is too bad.

Nas – Hip-Hop Is Dead
OK, technically this one is from 2006, but it came out in December. I’ve always been more into Nas than Jay-Z, but I give Jay credit for signing Nas to Def Jam. Nas (and Common) are two of the only MCs that I feel can sit on the same shelf as albums by Public Enemy, KRS-One, Eric B & Rakim, EPMD, early LL Cool J and the rest of the greats. Nas is also one of the only guys with the courage to really criticize hip-hop. People will say that he’s just doing it for the attention, which I don’t buy. Or they’ll say he’s “hating.” Which is like saying that someone who hates Bush is “unpatriotic.” It’s just that they have high expectations for something that they love.

Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
Although I complained about this album getting Grammy nominations that I felt should have gone to Bruce, it’s still a really good album. Plus, they really rocked Live Earth. Dave Grohl writes really catch songs, and he has pretty diverse influences – anything from Zeppelin and Sabbath to Bad Brains and Black Flag to Tom Petty surfaces in his music, but it always comes out sounding like the Foo Fighters. I love the song “Let It Die.”

Neil Young – Chrome Dreams II
It was cool for Neil to return to the Freedom format of having an album that wasn’t in a specific style. And you have to give him credit for releasing an unreleased 20 year-old 18 and a half minute track as the album’s “lead single.” The rest of the album is newly recorded, but many of the songs have been around for a few decades. A really solid Neil album.

Joan Osborne – Breakfast In Bed
I hate when writers refer to her as some kind of “We Love The ‘90s”/”Where Are They Now?” one hit wonder artist. It’s lazy and tasteless. She is one of the great singers of this era, period. She took a long time creating the follow-up to her breakout album, Relish, because she wanted to make something she was proud of. She just had the bad luck to do it at a weird time in the record industry. And so she fell off the pop culture radar. Anyway, she released Breakfast In Bed right on the heels of 2006’s Pretty Little Stranger, which was also really good. Breakfast has lots of covers, but so what, when Joan sings a song, it’s her song.

Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
The hype is about to outweigh this album, but I do think that it deserves the attention. She’s a great singer, and the production on this album is fantastic. Let’s hope she gets to do another one.
Arcade Fire – Neon Funeral
I know this album topped a lot of lists. I like and respect this band, but I’m not as in love with them as their fans. Some of the songs sound like a very long crescendo to me. But I really dig “Keep The Car Running” and especially “Intervention.”

I'll wrap this up by saying that there were lots of great albums this year: I'll give honorable mentions to albums by Eddie Vedder, Levon Helm, Arctic Monkeys, Mark Ronson, The Beastie Boys, Tori Amos and Ozzy Osbourne. And the Fats Domino tribute album, Goin' Home.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

Where have I been? I haven't been able to decide exactly what are my favorite songs and albums of the year, and what order they go in. At the end of every year, I put this self-imposed pressure on myself to come up with my list of the best music from said year - mainly just to make a good iTunes mix (or before that, to make a few mix tapes). Now that I have *a blog*, I have a place to share my list.

But I'm still working on it. There are a few last minute entires. I already wrote about Public Enemy's album, but I just checked out new albums by Radiohead, (ex?)indie rockers Rilo Kiley and Levon Helm (the former drummer/singer/mandolin player from The Band).

I didn't download Radiohead's In Rainbows when it was offered on their website for the bargain price of "name your own price." This is kind of lame, but I felt it was too inconvienent to go to a new site, enter my info (I would have paid for it), and plus, I have the rest of their albums on CD, so I wanted this one also. Plus, CDs have better sound than mp3s and Radiohead is the type of band where this is important, plus they always have interesting album art. And I try to go to a store that sells CDs once a week if I can. Easier just to get the CD.


I have to say, putting aside the hype of the release - the fact that they announced that it was coming out ten days before it was released, you could name your own price, there was no record label involved, etc. - it is a really good record. Could many other artists pull off a release like this? Probably, but only pretty big bands. This record was actually worth the hype.
Levon Helm's record is also really good. A friend of mine who has great taste in music said it was his favorite album of the year, so I went to iTunes and "completed" the album (I had already bought a few tracks). It's like a great Band album, and probably better than some of their last ones (and better than both of the ones that they did after the reunited sans-Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel).


I also completed my Rilo Kiley album at iTunes. I was never super into them, but when I heard "Silver Lining" a few months ago, I was knocked out by what a great pop song it was, and then ditto for "Close Call." I hear that this album has pissed off their indie fans. Whatever: it's probably the best thing they ever did. Don't hate, appreciate.


I've also been rediscovering Norah Jones' latest, Not Too Late, which came out earlier this year. But I think I'm at my cut-off point for listening to 2007 albums. I want to have my list up this week, so be on the lookout!

HIP-HOP ALBUM OF THE YEAR?

I recently asked a friend of mine who is part of the hip-hop industry about a new album by a young up-and-coming artist. His answer was that "No one cares about that album." But it is good? "No one cares." It's kind of sad: being "hot" - or "hott" - is more important than being good. It's like you can't be one without the other.

Of course, that's not true. Public Enemy - one of the greatest groups in history, and I'm talking hip-hop, R&B, rock and roll, whatever genre you want to talk about - hasn't been "hot" for a long time.

Most fans will agree that their best albums were 1988's It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back and 1990's Fear Of A Black Planet. I always felt that the next one, 1991's Apocalypse 91: The Enemy Strikes Black is also a classic. That seems to be when they stopped being "hot," though. Maybe because on their first few albums, they were scaring the crap out of white people, by criticizing the government and society in general. Adding to that, the music was appealing to lots of young, white people, despite it's pro-black message. But on Apocalypse, they started looking towards their own community, and maybe people didn't like that.

But as a long time fan, even I had to admit that the albums that came next weren't classics: Muse Sick N Hour Mess Age and There's A Poison Goin' On had moments, other albums didn't really have any songs that I loved. Then, all of the sudden, they did this collaboration with Moby, called "Make Love Fuck War," and it is one of their greatest tracks ever. The song was a one-off, but was later included on their New Whirl Odor album, which turned out to have some other great songs, like "Bring That Beat Back" and "New Whirl Odor."

But this new album, How Do You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul??? is damn near a classic. I really like the latest albums by Common, Kanye and Nas, as well as KRS-One's album with Marley Marl, but P.E.'s latest is the best hip-hop album of the year. The fact that Chuck D. and Flavor Flav are in their 50's, there are no "hot" producers, and the album criticizes materialism and fake gangsterism in hip-hop makes it commerically dead on arrival, which is just a damn shame. Do people really need to hear Jay-Z's return to his gangster roots? They'd be a lot better off with this record.

A critic from Rolling Stone magazine really summed the album up in a short review: "Young hip-hoppers respect Chuck D.'s hectoring legacy from a distance, but his moralizing conscience and increasingly uncompromising disdain for gangsta lies makes them nervous. So they claim his flow has thickened and his beats have falen off, which is just more lies." Or as Chuck says in "Can You Hear Me Now?": "At the age I am now/ If I can't teach/ I shouldnt even open up my mouth begin to speak!"

The hip-hop and R&B industry totally reminds me of the country music industry: very conservative, likes to sort of look rebellious, while not toleralting any rebelliousness. I'm starting to think of Public Enemy as the Willie Nelson or Johnny Cash of hip-hop. I guess maybe they should be referred to as "Outlaw Hip-Hop."