List of the Week: The AV Club's Best Music of 2006

Well, it's been a week. If I'm going to stick to my resolution, it should be time for the Weekly Sidebar Update. But I don't think I'm gonna do it today. I mean, I'm still reading the same book, and I still haven't finished the same DVD collection. Also, United Airlines still sucks, and Angelina Jolie is still smokin' hot. Maybe I'll turn the Sidebar Update into a biweekly feature instead. (Wait, does biweekly mean twice a week or once every two weeks? I can never remember.)

Anyhoo, I thought I'd test run a feature I've been thinking about for a while: The List of the Week. Everybody loves lists, right? I know I love making them, and I love reading them. And if the amount of comments are any indication, this blog's visitors love poring over a good list, too.

So the plan is, each week (or possibly every other week, alternating with the Sidebar Update), I'll run a new list we can all have fun with. Sometimes it'll be one of my own devising, sometimes it'll be someone else's list, with accompanying commentary from yours truly. And we'll see how that goes over with the general public.

The first List of the Week is The AV Club's Best Music of 2006. Or, as I dubbed it when I did something similar with the AV Club's Best Music of 2005, "A Look At Tom's Musical Ignorance." It's shocking and sad how little I know about current music -- current good music, that is (according to the AV Club, anyway).

Recently, the members of the AV Club compiled their musical favorites into a list of the top 25 albums of 2006, and for the most part it frightened and confused me. Here's my own personal breakdown of those albums, and my varying degrees of cluelessness.

Never Heard Of Them

Band Of Horses, Everything All The Time
[EDIT, just to be a wise-ass: according to this list of animal group names, a group of horses can be called: Team, Harras, Stable, Troop, Stud, Rag, Rake, String, or Herd. Not "Band!" Personally, I'd suggest "Stud." Or, if you want to keep the "Band" part, you can be Coyotes or Gorillas. Or Brothers.]
The Black Keys, Magic Potion
[Is that the group with Fergie? No? Oh.]
Cold War Kids, Robbers & Cowards
The Coup, Pick A Bigger Weapon
The Dears, Gang Of Losers
Destroyer, Destroyer's Rubies
[Hey, I know that one! No, wait, I'm thinking of the KISS album, Destroyer. Never mind.]
Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat
Lupe Fiasco, Food and Liquor
Pernice Brothers, Live A Little
[I couldn't even tell you if "Pernice Brothers" refers to one person's first and last name, like Dr. Joyce Brothers, or two or more male relatives, like the Bacon Brothers.]
Phoenix, It's Never Been Like That
Rhymefest, Blue Collar
The Thermals, The Body The Blood The Machine
Scott Walker, The Drift

Never Heard Of Them, And Secretly Suspect Either The Band Name Or The Album Name Might Actually Be Made Up

Califone, Roots & Crowns
[Califone? Sounds Caliphony to me. That's right, I just went Gene Shalit on your ass!]
LCD Soundsystem, 45:33: Nike+ Original Run
[I don't buy the band name or the album name.]
Make Believe, Of Course
[Of course not! I think this band really is make believe!]
Mew, And The Glass Handed Kites
[They're on a triple bill with Woof and Baa.]
Midlake, The Trials Of Van Occupanther
[Sounds like a fictional long-lost Jethro Tull album.]
Ricardo Villalobos, Fizheuer Zieheuer
[Oh, come on! That's not even English!]

Vaguely Heard Of Them, Possibly Because Of The AV Club

The Hold Steady, Boys And Girls In America
Ghostface Killah, Fishscale

Saw Them On TV; Wasn't Impressed

The Decemberists, The Crane Wife
[Saw them on the Colbert Report's Guitar Solo Challenge, of course. Plus I've heard one or two of their songs elsewhere. So, you're telling me people enjoy this band? Like, they listen to their music voluntarily? Huh.]
TV On The Radio, Return To Cookie Mountain
[Saw them on Conan. Switched channels midway through the song.]

Actually Heard Of Them, But Have Never Heard Their Music

Neko Case, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood

Heard Of Them, And Heard Some Of Their Music

Belle & Sebastian, The Life Pursuit

Albums On This List I Own Now, Or Will Ever Own










[Sad, isn't it?]

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Okay, your turn. Tell me which of these bands I'm crazy not to be madly in love with. Or tell me which ones the AV Club is crazy for loving. Or tell me anything about these damn people! Or tell me some other albums from 2006 I should check out. Right now, the only albums released last year that I want to get, but for some reason still haven't, are the new ones from Barenaked Ladies and Me First & the Gimme Gimmes. Other than that, I'm lost. Educate me!