If there is anything that the BE music staff can agree on, it’s that we can’t agree on anything. In fact, in compiling our lists of Top 10 albums, singles, videos and whatnot for 2006, only a handful of bands were given multiple propers. It probably won’t surprise you to learn that one of those bands is Gnarls Barkley, but the band to receive the most nods (four) is…the Damnwells. Yep, the Damnwells. Never heard of them? Your loss. They rule.
You’ll notice a couple new names on the BE staff this year. Basically, we needed someone to cover all of the screamo Cookie Monster bands (Clark), someone to show us how the hell it’s done (Giles), someone to cover the hipster bands (Eldred), and...well, we’re not sure how Preston got through the door. But when he’s not causing publicists to foam at the mouth in anger, he’s making his editor laugh out loud, so we keep him around.
Bill Clark
“Experimental, often beautiful, and massively heavy, (Mastodon’s Blood Mountain) is an album we will be talking about for years to come.”
#1 album: Unearth: III: In the Eyes of Fire
James B. Eldred
“Regina Spektor has single-handedly undone all the damage that Tori Amos has done to the ‘girl with a piano’ genre.”
#1 album: Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere
Mike Farley
“(Amos Lee’s) Supply and Demand is so good that, even though I bleed New York Giants blue, I can let go of the fact that Amos Lee is an Eagles fan.”
#1 album: Damnwells, Air Stereo
Jeff Giles
“If you’ve never had your heart broken, you’ll hear (Bel Auburn) and wish you had.”
#1 album: Lindsey Buckingham: Under the Skin
Will Harris
“Only Johnny Cash could perform Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ and bring a tear to my eye.”
#1 album: Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3, Ole! Tarantula
David Medsker
“Everyone sing with me now. Ready? Here we go: ‘No one’s gonna taaaaaake meeeee aliiiiiiiiiiiive!’”
#1 album: Muse, Black Holes and Revelations
John Paulsen
“If the New Pornographers and the Super Furry Animals had a love child, it would sound like (Belle & Sebastian).”
#1 album: The Hold Steady, Boys & Girls in America
Josh Preston
“I was too drunk to remember most of (South by Southwest), but what I do remember was brilliant.”
#1 album: Damnwells, Air Stereo
Red Rocker
(On Bob Seger’s Face the Promise) “He easily runs away with the ‘Welcome Back, Kotter’ award for 2006!”
#1 album: Jet: Shine On
R. David Smola
“(Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime II) would be on my list alone for featuring a duet between metal god Ronnie James Dio and Geoff Tate.”
#1 album: Cathy Richardson, Delusions of Grandeur
Jason Thompson
“When people complain about albums like (Paris Hilton’s Paris), yet send shitty NOW compilations straight up the charts, there’s no room to bitch about anything.”
#1 album: “Weird Al” Yankovic, Straight Outta Lynwood
Artists Picks
Ever wonder which musicians other musicians dig? See the favorite albums of members of Taking Back Sunday, Ima Robot, Starsailor and Dropping Daylight, along with Joan Jett, Tommy Shaw, Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens, right) and Matisyahu.