• Rolling Stones Exile On Main Street [Deluxe Edition]
  
  Back in 1972, The Stones released what is now regarded as one of the greatest albums in recorded history [at least in the eyes of some critics and many fans]. In May of this year, they re-released the album with a bonus CD containing ten additional songs, five of which were unreleased from the Exile sessions. “Plundered My Soul” is true to form from those days and stays very close to the sound and style of the album. This new release is well done and is close to the 1994 Virgin remastered version.
• Broken Bells
  
  A friend bought this album and had me sit down and listen to it, from start to finish. It’s now become one of my most played albums this year. The genius of James Mercer from The Shins and Brian Burton [aka Danger Mouse] has created an incredible musical work that anyone may just fall in love with. Songs like “Ghost In Me” and “Vaporize” are wonderful and complete.
• LCD Soundsystem “This Is Happening”
  
  James Murphy is nothing short of cool. He’s this guy that creates synth sounds and makes them into 6-7 minute songs that are ultra repetitive. But not the kind of repeat you want to shut off. The kind that you want to play over and over. I saw his band open for Arcade Fire in 2007 and was instantly hooked. This latest album was highly anticipated by many, myself included. I had heard the songs “Drunk Girls” and “I Can Change” before the album was officially released and the rest of the songs are just as great.
• Arcade Fire “The Suburbs”
  
  Unlike LCD SS, I knew the work of Arcade Fire with their stunning debut Funeral and their pretty good sophomore release Neon Bible. But perhaps one of the albums I was waiting for with baited ears was their third release. Tracks like “Month of May” and “Suburban War” have taken their place along their other great works. My only regret this year was not being able to see them perform these songs live.
• Miniature Tigers “F O R T R E S S”
  
  My daughter loves this band. And I can see why. With this follow up to 2008′s Tell It To The Volcano, this band led by Charlie Brand and Rick Schaier takes an island-like sound and turns it into something very cool. “Bullfighter Jacket” is an instant classic with it’s sing-a-long “Yi Yi Yi Yi Yi Yi” chant. and the lead off single of “Gold Skull” is no slouch, either. I finally got to see these guys live a few weeks back and the songs hold up just as well live.
• Mumford & Sons “Sigh No More”
  
  “Bluegrass gone alternative” is what I wrote some weeks ago in my praise of this album from an obscure UK band. It’s not normally something I would like in a music style, but obviously I do. Tracks like “The Cave” and the tongue-in-cheek “Little Lion Man” have become regular plays on my iPod.
• Neon Trees “Habits”
  
  And yet another band my daughter turned me on to. A local band from Provo, UT, they went big with their hit single “Animal” and then went even bigger, becoming better known to the rest of the world outside Utah. They recently were on the new Conan show and have sold quite a few copies of this debut album. It’s only eight tracks long, but I’ve added “Girls And Boys In School” and “Your Surrender” as favorites. I expect big things from their sophomore release, which I understand they are working on.
• Iron Maiden “The Final Frontier”
  
  Since the days when Number Of The Beast became well known, I’ve been a big fan of Maiden’s work. I have pretty much every album they’ve released since and this year’s ten-track effort did not disappoint. I quickly latched onto songs like “Mother Of Mercy” and “Coming Home” I still have yet to see them live and it’s one of my goals to do that before they call it a day. Up The Irons!
• Vampire Weekend “Contra”
  
  A small band that got popular and then got even more exposure to the mainstream. You’ve heard their songs like “Horchata” and “Cousins” all over the radio. Now you can hear “Holiday” in the most recent Honda commercial. But don’t label them as sell-outs. They just have catchy tunes that everyone likes. And if you ever get a chance to see them live, do it. The energy and effort is incredible to experience.
• Kanye West “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”
  
  My selection of hip-hop artists that I like is small and narrow. But I’m telling you, this Kanye album is growing on me very quickly. Diverse, bold and quirky, each song has a different but similar feel to it. Just listen to “Gorgeous” “Monster” or “Lost In The World” and you might get hooked as well. Plus, you might also see why the major music rags picked it as their favorite of 2010.
• Weezer “Hurley”
  
  Since the days of the Blue Album, I’ve been a Weezer fan, although, not everything they’ve done has impressed me [last year's "Ratitude" could have been better]. But this new release with tracks like “Trainwrecks” and “Hang On” bring them back into the favorite fold of my music collection. Rivers Cuomo is a proven songwriting expert.
• Cee Lo Green “The Lady Killer”
  
  This isn’t Gnarls Barkley, but it’s the singer from that rock/pop duo. I raved about the “Fuck You” single here a few weeks ago and I can say that the rest of the album is pretty good. I didn’t have a lot of time with this album, but it’s grown on me quickly with songs like “Old Fashioned” and “Bodies” It’s a lot of vocals… and throwback-like sound. Very jazzy and soulful. Cee Lo kills it in a good way.

Just Out Of Reach

• Stone Temple Pilots
  
  Anyone who knows me and my love of music will have heard me rave about STP at some point in their career. I’ve got every album, regularly listen to their albums from start to finish. I’ve seen them live several times and they do not disappoint. So I had high expectations for this first album of theirs since 2001′s Shangri-La Dee Da. It was good, but I expected more. Oh well. I’m still a big fan, so-so album or their great work from 1992-2000.
• Ratt “Infestation”
  
  This is my favorite of all the hair metal bands. I finally got to see them when they opened for Poison a few years ago. So when I heard them talk about their new album on the Eddie Trunk show, I was jazzed. I went out and bought it and listend to it non-stop for a couple of weeks. It’s the classic Ratt sound and the tracks are really good, it just wasn’t good enough to make my top list. I also saw them live this year and their level of performance was just ok. Maybe I should have seen them in their hey day.
• KoRn “Korn III: Remember Who You Are”
  
  KoRn has had a lot of ups and downs in the last ten years. They lost one of their key guitarists to Jesus. Their original drummer left. And their experimental sound wasn’t what their loyal fans were waiting for. Then they announced they were working with the original producer who made their first two albums awesome. Sound wise, it was familiar, but the excitement wore off quickly. Not sure what it was, other than maybe they were trying to capture something great and failed. I’m not trashing this album by any means, it’s just not as good as what I was waiting for.

In Memorium

He might have been small in stature, but had a big and powerful voice
Original photo found on LA Times

Ronnie James Dio lost a short term battle to stomach cancer in May of this year. The entire metal and hard rock world mourned a loss of a great vocalist and frontman. Long time fans of Ronnie knew him as the voice of Elf and Rainbow. And then us Black Sabbath fans praised his work on the re-birth of that band’s career with the 1980 album Heaven and Hell. He created a monster with his own band Dio, who had hit after hit that rocked the radio waves. And then just when you thought he was taking a breather, he re-united with the same crew that made the Dehumanizer album and the band Heaven & Hell came alive. They toured, made an album and injected heavy metal back into the mainstream of rock.

His work stands today as some of the best known in the world of metal. He will surely be missed but always remembered.

Your Picks for 2010

So what do you think? I’m sure there are some I left off, but this list are the ones I heard and embraced.

What are your picks for best albums this year?

Scooter Sunday Captured Ep. 006 from Marty Mankins on Vimeo.

For the YouTube version, click on this link: Scooter Sunday Captured Episode 006

Minor Formatting Change

All of my previous posts have had some form of formatting to them. I used a SPAN tag that formats the text to a Verdena font. It seemed to work ok, but there’s some feed readers and browsers that had an odd display to it. The formatting looked like there were tons of space between paragraphs [I am still using the < p > tags for each paragraph]. So the last post and all posts from here on out will not be using the SPAN tags. It appears to format the text better, at least from what I’ve seen. Let me know if you see any difference.

How Many More Episodes?

I’ve had a couple of people ask me how many more video episodes of Scooter Sunday Captured will I be doing this year. Well, that all depends on the weather here in Utah. So far, it’s been cold in the mornings, but warm during the day. We had a cold snap last weekend with some snow, but this weekend has been very nice… in the low 70′s. Perfect for scooter riding. But as I’ve mentioned before, cold weather is just around the corner. So enjoy the videos while I still have scooter-friendly weather. Once I’ve put the scooter away for the season, I’ll still be making videos… just something that’s more winter-friendly. I’ll post the details on that soon.

And now to start things off, I give you the list of the top nine albums that I have listened to so many times, that if CDs and MP3s had grooves, I would have worn deep cuts in them. And back in the day, with the LP and cassette, I did wear out some after being played so much and so often. These albums also have some significant part of my life, where they just make me feel good and take me back to that time and place burned into memory.

9. Rush: Hemispheres
   
   I started buying albums late in the game. Sure I had my share of Disney 78′s and some 45′s here and there, but LPs were put off till I was 14. I missed out on some good albums, but in 1978, there was Rush’s Hemispheres, which I found on sale for $3.99. Upon first listen, it was so cool to have all of side 1 be a single song, broken up into multiple segments. But turning the record over, I found “The Trees” a song whose lyrics and message cemented my interest in politics. Even today, I steer people towards this album for it’s expert songs and thought-provoking messages.

 

8. Guns N’ Roses: Appetite For Destruction
   
   I hated this album when it first came out in the middle of 1987. My ex-wife’s nephew had this album and it was all I could do to avoid hearing anything from it. Fast forward 10 years, when I re-discovered this album on an Original Master Recording Gold CD. My hate went away instantly. This remains one of the records I turn to when I need to release some aggression. Songs like “Out Ta Get Me” and “It’s So Easy” get me in a mood that makes me wish I had those 10 “hate” years back.

 

7. Stone Temple Pilots: Purple
   
   In 1992, STP hit the scene with “Core”, which is a great album. But when a sophomore release exceeds all of your expectations, then it takes its place in your “best of” list. Lyrics like “If you die before me, ask if you can bring a friend” may be cleverly cheesy, they tend to stick with you, as do the hits “Big Empty” and “Interstate Love Song.” If you haven’t heard this album in years, put it back in your iPod and maybe you’ll find yourself getting tickets to this year’s reunion tour.

 

6. Radiohead: OK Computer
   
   Other than “Creep”, the mainstream audience may have written off Thom Yorke and Co. as an odd band that had even odder songs. But it’s hard to ignore this album from 1997, even if you find it hard to get into it upon the first few listens. Give it another 10 or more spins and you’ll be humming “Karma Police” in your sleep. For me, this album inspires me to be creative and think very much outside the box.

 

5. Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
   
   I heard my first Elton John song on the radio in 1970. “Your Song” was pretty mellow, and the piano was subtle, but it stuck to me enough to want to hear more. It wasn’t until two years after it’s 1975 release that I discovered “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, with it’s 11 minute opening opus, “Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding”, not to mention “Benny and the Jets” being an oft-hummed tune. Even if you are not familiar with song titles like “Harmony” or “Grey Seal”, the tune will be familiar.

 

4. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Blood Sugar Sex Magik
   
   1992 was a powerful year in music and “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” stands as the album no one could avoid. “Give It Away” was trumped many times over by “Under The Bridge”, making Red Hot Chili Peppers a household name. I was already a fan, but this album guaranteed me following them for the foreseeable future. And who can’t enjoy a naughty little ditty like “Sir Psycho Sexy” with it’s “lady cop… trying to cop a feel” story line.

 

3. The Beatles: Revolver
   
   I have never really liked a lot of the early Beatles songs. I was always more into their experimental stage their last 4 years of recording. At the start of this stage, normally referred to as the ‘drug years’, “Revolver” kicked things off with “Taxman”, a slam against Brittan. And from that tune until “Tomorrow Never Knows”, it became one of the first albums that was good from start to finish. I’m surprised more people are not familiar with it when I talk about my favorite Fab Four release.

 

2. Mad Season: Above
   
   I’m sure there’s several of you out there that are saying, “Mad Season?? Isn’t that a Matchbox Twenty album??” But while it would be another year before Rob Thomas and his band mates would break out on the scene, a super group comprised of Layne Staley (Alice In Chains), Mike McCreedy (Pearl Jam), Barrett Martin and Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees) made a big noise with their only release “Above”. In the 13 years that I’ve owned this album, it has been played more than any other rock album I own. And with the guitar talent of Mike McCreedy on songs like “November Hotel”, it’s hard not to get into this entire album, which is meant to be played all the way through.

 

1. Depeche Mode: Violator
   
   My first experience with Depeche Mode was being on the 405 in Los Angeles on August 6, 1985 and hearing “People Are People” on the radio. From that 4 minute moment, they have been one of my favorite bands. And even after seeing them live eight times, my all-time favorite is, without question, 1990′s “Violator.” And you have to admit that no matter how many times you hear “Enjoy The Silence”, you never get tired of it. I know I never do.

 
So Many More

Picking a top list of anything for me is hard. And especially with music, one of my greatest loves in life. (along with writing) Then to try narrowing it down to the top nine is like asking me to pick between food or water. I will do another post soon with my honorable mentions, or those albums that just missed the cut off.

So what do you think of my list? Any suggestions? Rants? What The Fuck’s? Any favorites you have that I might like? Comment away.