I never.

First things first: I heart Jenny Lewis. Blogger cliche? Yup. And I take full responsibility. The new album? I like it a lot, especially when listened to all the way through (I think the big picture works better than the singles).

That said my heart sank a little when I read this New York Times profile. Says Miss Lewis: "I find most modern country virtually unistenable."

I hate that snobbery. I've mentioned before that I loathe the old "I like all music except for country" trope; of course, that line doesn't really work anymore, what with the recent (and largely deserved) hagiographic treatment of Johnny, Loretta, and Dolly. So now the new line is "I like country music, just not modern country music."

For one, I don't buy for a second that Jenny Lewis has spent any real time listening to modern country radio. (Full admission: I haven't really either, but I'm not the asshole making dumb blanket generalizations.) I'm guessing that this is based on the indie-kid notion that modern country music is encapsulated wholly by what's played on the radio. Can we count Lyle Lovett, Alison Krauss, Old 97's, Gillian Welch*, Nickel Creek, and Lucinda Williams as contemporary country? Or would their inclusion screw up Lewis's/indiedom's tired snobbery?

But let's forget about those KCRW/Starbucks-approved singer/songwriter types and get a little more radical: contemporary country that's played on the radio isn't all shit. I know. Stunning. An example: the first time I listened to Lewis's new record, I was struck by a lyric that goes "When you're sleeping with someone who doesn't get you / You're gonna hate yourself in the morning." It's impeccably delivered, but I couldn't help but think of Lee Ann Womack's "I May Hate Myself In the Morning," wherein our heroine makes a drunk dial, fucks an old boyfriend, and concludes "I may hate myself in the morning / but I'm gonna love you tonight." Womack's song is not only smarter and bolder, it was a huge country radio hit. (I'm not the only one who made this connection.)

Want more? You can't tell me that you wouldn't take Miranda Lambert's "Kerosene," a country hit about getting over heartbreak via arson, or Brad Paisley's "Alcohol," a radio staple about a love/hate relationship with getting drunk, over one of the approximately 9,732 solipsistic dirges that Ryan Adams released in 2005**. So there are three of the biggest country hits of 2005, all of them expertly crafted and immensely entertaining. And that's just based on my cursory, passing knowledge of current commercial country music; I bet there are dozens of songs that are in the same league. (And the list expands greatly if you include the aforementioned KCRW/Starbucks types.)

Don't get me wrong, should Ms. Lewis be in the market for a nice, Jew-friendly goy, I'm more than willing to overlook this bout of snobbery.

Oh, and go buy Rabbit Fur Coat. It really is an excellent collection of Nyro'd-out country. (And, yes, I even like that Traveling Wilburys cover featuring grumblegrumblegrumble Bright Eyes.)

* Have you heard Gillian's raw take on Radiohead's "Black Star"? If not, get over to the iTunes store and shell out the 99 cents.
** MEMO TO RYAN ADAMS: please, please, please reform Whiskeytown and write songs like you did circa 1998-2000. Thanks.

Transmission.

Hola amigos.
Not dead, just, you know, stuck doing dumb stuff. Trust me, I'd rather be blogging about my newfound love for Mouse Hunt (no, really... for real... I hella loved it) or joining in the Caché chats over in Girishberg or Trixville (Aaron Hills is killing it over there).
Whatever, you'll get your Mouse Hunt love soon enough.
I'll leave you with a blast of candid radness from Lou Reed: "I read [the Factory Girl] script. It's one of the most disgusting, foul things I've seen - by any illiterate retard - in a long time. There's no limit to how low some people will go to write something to make money."
(For the record: I don't really know anything about Factory Girl, I'm just a fan of sound bites from celebrities that haven't been bludgeoned by publicists.)

For real?

Can somebody tell me if either of these suckers are legit? Thanks.




(via I Love Music.)

Update: They have a friend at the LA Weekly etc etc etc blah blah blah:
OFFICIAL COACHELLA LINEUP

April 29: Depeche Mode, The Strokes, Portishead, Franz Ferdinand, Fatboy Slim, Massive Attack, Infected Mushroom, Royksopp, Kings of Leon, Doves, Sufjan Stevens, Broken Social Scene, Atmosphere, Blackalicious, Super Furry Animals, The Buzzcocks, Primal Scream, Supergrass, Ladytron, DJ Peretz, The Shins, Dieselboy, Tortoise, Sleater Kinney, Richard Hawley, Grooverider, Death From Above 1979, Yesterdays New Quintet, The Walkmen, Son Volt, Will Oldham, The Clientele, Lightning Bolt, Cage, The Crimea, OK Go, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, John Kelly

April 30: The White Stripes, Roxy Music (featuring Brian Eno), The Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Boards of Canada, Underworld, Ween, Death Cab for Cutie, Armin Van Buuren, Built to Spill, De La Soul, Big Star, Iron & Wine, Uberzone, Happy Mondays, Dinosaur Jr, TV on the Radio, Elbow, Eagles of Death Metal, The Tears, Esthero, T. Rauschmiere, Cat Power, The New Pornographers, Carl Cox, Grandaddy, Calexico, Explosions in the Sky, The Wedding Present, Andy C, Fatlip, DJ Icey, The Notwist and Themselves preforming as 13 & God, Devendra Banhart, The Coral, Stateless, 65 Days of Static

Dear Focus Features Marketing Dept.,

I know you're getting a lot of love because you've taken a nice, old-fashioned weepie that's remarkable only because it's, er, gayer than usual and turned it into an Oscar sureshot. Propers to that, but that's not why I'm writing. Nope, I'm writing re: your promotional efforts for Brick.

I'd never heard of it until today. (Somehow I missed its triumphant 2005 Sundance win for "Originality of Vision"--God bless those batshit Sundance juries and their fancy awards--and haven't really been keeping up with Lukas Haas's career.) Then I came across these two posters for the film:

Guys, bravo. Bra-vo. Based on those beautifully-executed suckers, I immediately downloaded the trailer. Guess what shot way up on my most-anticipated-in-'06 list? Yup, your little movie that I'd never heard of until today. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it looks like you actually have a good film on your hands, making the whole promotion thing a little easier. Plus, the fact that I'm in the midst of a full-on Veronica Mars, uh, fixation*--which your film bares a striking resemblance to**--probably makes me an easy sell. Regardless, the posters are excellent, the trailer is one of the best of I've seen in ages, you made my day.

Your admiring pal,

Ben

PS: Double/triple bonus points for (a) reading my blog and (b) tracking down my work address and sending me a bunch of Brick posters. That kind of homework is clearly why Brokeback is going to win Best Picture.

*Sigh. That admission makes me sound like one of those sad Buffy fans that used to annoy the hell out of me.
** Minus Kristen Bell (alas) and with the Twin Peaks allusions pumped way up (always fine in my book).

Tivo alert.

You know how I'm forever prattling on about Bernardo Bertolucci's difficult-to-track-down The Conformist? Well, you lucky people, set those Tivos and/or VCR/DVDr/whatever- contraptions because TCM is airing it this Friday, January 20, at 11:30 p.m. (That's 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning for you east coasters.) Even better, it's subtitled and letterboxed. For those who need a refresher: Bertolucci's obscenely entertaining political-pop masterpiece has never been released on DVD and when found on VHS it's usually a dubbed/pan-and-scan copy, so this TCM screening is a rare treat.

You can't say I'm not looking out for youse.

Finally.

I'm guessing this means the earliest we'll be seeing There Will Be Blood is Fall '07; At least there's something official:

Scott Rudin, who is transitioning from Paramount to Disney, is getting back into business with his old home.
Rudin will exec produce "There Will Be Blood," a period drama loosely based on the 1927 Upton Sinclair novel "Oil!," for Par Classics and the new Miramax.

Daniel Day-Lewis and director Paul Thomas Anderson will team this spring on the pic.

It is the first major project for John Lesher since he left Endeavor to take the top post at the classics division, which will soon be renamed.

Rudin is transitioning from Paramount to Disney, and one of his priorities will be to make prestige projects for Miramax.

The 50/50 partnership formula will be used on several pictures Rudin will put together this year. Some of those titles will be distributed domestically by Miramax, with Paramount taking foreign.

Lesher's unit will handle domestic distribution rights, while Daniel Battsek's Miramax will distribute internationally.

Anderson wrote the script and used as his basis Sinclair's expose of the seamy side of the drilling business in Southern California when it became the equivalent of the gold rush.

Day-Lewis will play a prospector who buys the oil rights to a family's ranch, and then hits a major pocket of crude. The story then turns into a tale of greed and faith, as the prospector realizes the American dream and is destroyed by it.

Pic will be produced by Anderson and Joanne Sellar, with Rudin exec producing with Eric Schlosser, the author of "Fast Food Nation." Shooting will begin mid-May, in Texas and New Mexico.

Lesher was Anderson's longtime agent, and knew the project well because he tried to set it up independently last year. Day-Lewis was already doing his research on his character and the oil business, but the project's summer 2005 shoot stalled because of problems raising the budget Anderson felt he needed. The agency and Day-Lewis' reps, Gene Parseghian and Victoria Belfrage kept pushing and Day-Lewis didn't take another acting job.

The wait was worth it, as the package allows them to make a large-canvas picture for a budget just north of $20 million.

Thursday night links.

• LynchNet has pictures from Mr. Lynch's upcoming Inland Empire.
  
  
• Suggested Listening: Mark Romanek's keynote address at ResFest L.A. (Among questions finally answered: how did they get Joni Mitchell to provide a commentary track on Mark's compilation DVD.)
  
  
• Your weekly Armondism:
  "Fans of Match Point should confess that they are indifferent to brutality, having sunk to the same level as extreme-horror punks. Surely those scandalous Abu Grahib photos can be viewed with the same delectation as stills from Hostel and Johansson’s various fuck-me postures."
  Yup, he went there.
  
  
• Suggested Listening, Part 2: Diplo remixes Bloc Party.
  
  
• Aw fuck it, you know you want one more Armondism. Here it is:
  "[T]he Farrellys’ radical humanist philosophy is so cheerful that, despite what Entertainment Weekly says about Brokeback Mountain, The Ringer is the revolutionary film of the moment."

Happy almost-Friday.

Dear John Powers,

Thank you for making my Sam Mendes hateration look like child's play:

After the latest tarted-up flop from director Sam Mendes — and to think people gave Marisa Tomei grief for her Academy Award — he returned to England declaring that we Yanks just can’t handle a neutral movie on the subject of gulf war. Which is like an American returning to Iowa and claiming the dull-palated Brits can’t grasp the culinary refinement of a corn dog. Call me a hard-ass, but I don’t need any more war movies by some London theater director for whom Marines might as well be Martians.

(The rest of the article is pretty damn great.)

Your pal,

Ben

There's always someone younger and hungrier coming down the stairs after you.

I was going to do one more Showgirls-related post before the proverbial lights of the Stardust go dim. It was going to be a compendium of the best Showgirls characters and their defining quotes... and then I saw Eric's post. How can you compete with that? Not only is it hilarious and super tech-savvy (the screen captures lead to mp3s!), it's thorough. I thought my coup de grace was going to be the inclusion of the little-discussed-but-personally-beloved Latina Personnel Woman (Irene Olga Lopez) and her supremely depressing interaction with Pol Nomi. It's clear to me that Eric misses nothing. (For the record, my definitive quote from that exchange was going to be Lopez's empathetic "Deceased?")

However, that doesn't mean that I can't still post my ghetto-ass screen-capture of my pick for the number one Showgirls quote:

Don't speak French? Head over to Eric's and listen to it for yourself. (He ranks it at Number 3.)

On loving Showgirls.

In which your humble author writes an introduction to a day of Showgirls-related posts as part of the Showgirls blog orgy...

Ten years ago I rented a laser disc copy of Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls for the tits. I'm not going to lie, I was lured in by that shiny new NC-17 rating and its unspoken promise of wall to wall nudity and debauchery of the highest caliber. (In case you were wondering the NC-17 is actually for "nudity and erotic sexuality throughout, and for some graphic language and sexual violence.") Ten years, two home video formats, and dozens of viewings later I'm over the wall-to-wall nudity but I'm not over the film. Here are a couple of reasons why.

For one, it's an enormously entertaining and wicked satire of the star system and Hollywood via Vegas (or Vegas via Hollywood, or Hollywood and/or Vegas, etc.). Yes, bad-to-horrible acting abounds and Joe Ezterhas's script/intentions might just be questionable... But can we get past that? Can we try? If that's possible, I think you might just be able to see it as a prequel of sorts to Mulholland Drive, with Verhoeven opting to tell the story as an oversexed melodrama rather than using the abstract-dream-film idiom that Lynch employs. I think people get wrapped up, uptight, and offended by Showgirls when they take it as some sort of literal docudrama and not as the brash poison valentine that it is.

I also suspect part of Showgirls's longevity (and much of its camp appeal) springs from how committed the people in front of and behind the camera are to the material. When Elizabeth Berkley literally throws herself into her role (Did you see her slam herself into that car? Did you see her attack that ketchup bottle?), I find it next to impossible to resist. And it's my sneaking suspicion that those involved take it so seriously because, well, it's deeply personal and-- fuck it, I'll say it, it's autobiographical.

Consider: the ingenue so hungry for her big break that she's licking poles and risking serious back injury via aquatic sex romps all in the name of some very dubious "art"; the hard-ass director of the project, oblivious to the fact that the material isn't so much erotic as it is crass, announcing "I'm erect, why aren't you erect?"; the reliable older star who knows she's wallowing in big budget shit--hey it's glitzy, but it's still shit--but doing it with charm and a wink; the backer of the show, convinced he's doing something classy, has deluded himself into thinking that Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul (circa 1995) would be willing to take part in it.

Need I go on? I'm not implying that Elizabeth Berkley actually fucked her way to the role of Nomi (er, well, maybe I am) but it's a thin line that separates Berkley '95--fresh off Saved By the Bell and ready to be the next Sharon Stone--and Nomi Malone.* And could there be a better line than "I'm erect, why aren't you erect?" to illustrate the chasm between Verhoeven and the initial audience? And do you doubt that executive producer/writer Joe Ezterhas thought he could get A-list stars (i.e., Janet and Paula) for the project? (Apparently Madonna and Drew Barrymore were the first picks for Cristal and Nomi.) That's a long-winded way of saying I think that the autobiographical connections seep into the film, grounding some of the melodrama and adding an over-the-top ferocity to the rest.

And just as the actors and their roles blur, I think that we, the audience (or at least the appreciative, receptive audience), blur with the Goddess audience. As much as you try to fight it, that tawdry, shitty, profoundly vulgar spectacle sucks you in through sheer will and makes you like it. Yup, that neon is garish and David Stewart's synth-score is all bombast and Cristal emerging from that papier-mâché volcano is silly, but goddam is it effective; Verhoeven and Ezterhas have got their hands all up in your id and they're not letting go.

Leave your inhibitions at the door, the show's about to begin.

*Need more? How 'bout this: "We were filming the scene where Nomi's about to go into her audition at the Stardust and she's saying 'I can't do this.' And suddenly I thought, I can't. I can't do it. I looked up and saw the sign that said CRISTAL CONNORS IS GODDESS, and for a second I saw ELIZABETH BERKLEY STARRING IN SHOWGIRLS, and it was so emotional." (As found in the Taschen Director's volume on Paul Verhoeven.)

Discoveries '05.

Mmmm... more lists. This time I'm posting my favorite "old" films that I saw for the first time in 2005.

• The Birds (Hitchcock, 1963)
  I'm cheating right off the bat. I'd seen The Birds years ago, but my second viewing was such a completely different experience that I might as well've been seeing it for the first time. I was completely unprepared for how truly frightening and complex and smart it really is. The bold narrative loop-de-loops (it begins as a romantic comedy morphs into family drama then into a slowburning thriller and finally an outright horror film) coupled with that saturated Technicolor palette and Tippi Hedren's mutant variation on the Hitchcock blond in the lead... Bliss.
  
  
• The Conformist (Bertolucci, 1970)
  The best film I saw all year and one of the greatest I've ever seen. In a year where critics are fawning over the pop-politics of Syriana and Crash, Bertolucci puts them to shame decimates them.
  
  
• The Devil Thumbs a Ride (Feist, 1947)
  I randomly Tivo'd this nasty bit of noir-bile when it was shown as part of TCM's night of hitchhiking movies. I loved every delicious/evil moment. A word of advice: if you've had one too many to drink and Lawrence Tierney asks for a ride back to Los Ang-el-eese, don't do it.
  
  
• Elevator to the Gallows (Malle, 1958)
  Français refroidissez à une crête tôt.
  
  
• The Fallen Idol (Reed, 1948)
  A criminally overlooked film from Carol Reed (via a Graham Greene short story) that manages to be both an unsentimental look at childhood and an unbearably tense thriller.
  
  
• Fanny & Alexander (Bergman, 1982)
  One word: thunderous. One more: perfect.
  
  
• Pickup on South Street (Fuller, 1953)
  This is what struck me about South Street: it's a hardboiled procedural, but Fuller infuses it with such heart and empathy that you forget how nasty it can be.
  
  
• Le Samourai (Melville, 1967)
  Suddenly the zen-pulp of Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog doesn't seem so special considering Melville perfected it thrity years prior.
  
  
• The Small Back Room (Powell & Pressburger, 1949)
  Alcoholism and post-war paranoia as refracted through the Archers's prism; smaller in scale when compared to P&P's Technicolor masterpieces, but no less epic.
  
  
• Spider (Cronenberg, 2002)
  You know how everyone feels about A History of Violence? That's how I feel about Spider. It's a brainy and ice-cold bit of stunt-filmmaking anchored by the superb Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Richards in a shattering performance that's a career highpoint.

Moments '05.

Are you bored with year-end lists yet? I'm mixing things up and rather than doing a top ten with commentary, I'm presenting some of my favorite movie moments from 2005. Here they are in no particular order:

• Early in 2046, a jittery android (Faye Wong) stands in front of a cyber-tree(?--a digital phonograph?) and, like a melancholy melody emerging from memory, Mr. Chow says, "In the old days, if someone had a secret they didn't want to share, they went up a mountain, found a tree, carved a hole in it, and whispered the secret into the hole. Then they covered it with mud. And leave the secret there forever."
  
  
• Joaquin and Reese singing the hell out of "It Ain't Me, Babe." (Walk the Line)
  
  
• Charles Hatton (Ben Kingsley in a bad white wig): "Today, you will travel back in time 65 million years to hunt the greatest predator the world has ever known!!! [he emphatically punches his hand to make his point]" (A Sound of Thunder)
  
  
• The confrontation that follows the recital in Look at Me.
  
  
• Kyle Cooper's breathtaking topographical opening credit sequence for The New World.
  
  
• Anne Hathaway's face (and that single heart-stopping cutaway) during her phone conversation at the end of Brokeback Mountain.
  
  
• Tony Kushner's speech for Golda Meir. (Munich)
  
  
• Don Johnston's dinner chez Laura and Lolita. (Broken Flowers)
  
  
• Tilda Swinton as the Angel Gabriel (via Ziggy Stardust) in Constantine.
  
  
• Johnny desperately trying to tape a PBS special on meerkats for Ashley. (Junebug)
  
  
• Kitten and her soldier slow dancing. (Breakfast on Pluto)
  
  
• Kong and Anna atop the Empire State Building (and the aerial ballet that follows). (King Kong)
  
  
• Batman's bumpy Gotham City debut. (Batman Begins)
  
  
• Cronenberg having the brass balls to show les soixante-neuf in The History of Violence.
  
  
• "It's for my dowry." (Me And You And Everyone We Know)
  
  
• Kim Gordon in Last Days.
  
  
• Truman Capote's "folks have thought they had me pegged" speech. (Capote)
  
  
• Hogwarts' Winter Formal. (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)
  
  
• Thomas's piano lessons with Miao. (The Beat That My Heart Skipped)
  
  
• Vince Vaughn's speech in Wedding Crashers that culminates in "Maybe play a little game called 'Just for a second, just to see how it feels...'"
  
  
• Noah Baumbach's use of School House Rock's "Figure 8" in The Squid & The Whale.
  
  
• "We are both bourgeois!" ( A tout de suite)
  
  
• Tom Cruise and family, emerging from the basement, finding an obliterated neighborhood. (War of the Worlds)
  
  
• Sarah Jessica Parker getting loaded and letting loose in The Family Stone.
  
  
• Miss Prissy's dance-off in Rize.
  
  
• Sarah Silverman's version of THE JOKE in The Aristocrats.
  
  
• Rachel McAdams. (Red Eye, The Family Stone, Wedding Crashers)

And since you twisted my arm, here's my actual list:

1. Munich
   
2. Los Angeles Plays Itself
   
3. 2046
   
4. Look At Me
   
5. Broken Flowers
   
6. The Squid & the Whale
   
7. Last Days
   
8. Pride & Prejudice
   
9. Breakfast on Pluto
   
10. The New World

A productive Friday morning at work.

Reprinted from an earlier IM conversation:

Me: Drudge just can't wait for Sharon to kick it. Sigh.

Morgan: I think someone should make a buddy comedy wherein he and Arafat are assigned to be roommates in Heaven/Hell/The Afterlife. You know, once he's dead.

Me: man, that sounds like some Benigni stizz.

Morgan: OH GOOD CALL! Then, in Act III, when they finally learn to like one another, they can come back to earth to broker true peace. They can be roommates in LIMBO!

Me: ha

Morgan: And the only way they can get assigned to singles in HEAVEN is to:
1. Become friends.
2. Broker Mideast peace.
Starring Danny Glover as Arafat.
And Willem Dafoe as Sharon.
It'll be based on THE ODD COUPLE.
Glover/Arafat is Matthaeu.
And Dafoe/Sharon is Lemon.
Sharon gets to limbo and Arafat has made a mess of the place and is all, "ARIEL! SO GOOD TO SEE YOU!"
And Sharon is having none of it.

Me: I might have to blog this.

That or maybe you made a really boring movie.

"Fundamentally, Jarhead disobeys all the laws of American movies, and not just the political laws of American movies right now which demand on some level to tell us which side they're on. In Europe, there's a sense this film comes from the tradition of absurdist war movies about the futility of conflict. It has more in common with BECKETT, SARTRE and BANUEL [sic*] than it does with OLIVER STONE. In America, they assumed I was trying to make an Oliver Stone movie and that I'd failed."

--Sam Mendes. (Link via goldenfiddle.)

I'm really hoping that steaming pile of bullshit is one of those entirely fabricated entertainment stories being peddled by the British tabs (a la Boogie Nights 2: Rollergirl Returns!). I know Sam Mendes is a douche-- but that big of one? Is he really trying to equate "Welcome to the Suck" to Godot? Nice try but no. Krapp?** Maybe.

*Unless he's referring to an unknown absurdist/avant garde author named Banuel, I'm guessing he was name-dropping Buñuel and the writer botched it.
**Zing!

History repeating.

Despite my status as one of exactly three dissenters (Hello, Timmy! Holla at ya, 'Trix!) in the glowing critical consensus regarding David Cronenberg's A History of Violence, I would never wish this box-art on it (or any other film for that matter):

Ouch.

I suppose now is a good time to mention that I watched AHOV a second time during my Christmas vacation and... still no dice. Over at the Village Voice Year End Free-for-all (too lazy to find the link right now), a critic argues that AHOV should be read like Todd Haynes's Far From Heaven-- as a film in quotation marks. But Haynes's film works purely in/as the genre that it deconstructs, whereas I don't think Cronenberg's does and that's why the film ultimately falls apart. Yes, there are some pulpy thrills and perfectly executed "fight sequences"; Yes, I appreciate the subtextual games and gallows humor. However, in making an amalgam of a genre picture and a Cronenbergian art film, a rhythm is never established, the performances go haywire, and the narrative crumbles. (Shane Black's fussy-but-fun Kiss Kiss Bang Bang works better as a pulp-thriller in quotation marks.)

Related:
Charles Taylor makes me laugh: "How do you take seriously a movie where William Hurt turns up looking like the world's biggest leprechaun?"

New York London Paris Munich / Everybody talk about... etc.

I avoided compiling a list of my favorite music of 2005 because there's so damn much I didn't hear. Then Girish dropped a request in the comment section and I opted to compile a list of my favorite tracks of the year. (I guess that one could say it's a singles list, but, uh, many of them weren't proper singles and I heard very few of them on the radio.) Eschewing the sacred album format would have been unthinkable to me in college; thankfully the interweb/iTunes has loosened me up a little.

Here, in alphabetical order by artist, are fifty of my favorite tracks of the year. (I'm sure I'm missing dozens; these were the first fifty or so that popped into my head and were high on my iPod play count.)

1. !!! "Take Ecstasy With Me"
   
2. Tori Alamaze "Don't Cha"
   
3. Fiona Apple "Not About Love (Jon Brion Version)"
   
4. Fiona Apple "Tymps (Sick in the Head Song)"
   
5. Basement Jaxx "U Don't Know Me (JaxxHouz Klubmix)"
   
6. Beck "Ghettochip Malfunction (Hell Yes)"
   
7. Beck "Broken Drum"
   
8. Black Dice "Smiling Off (DFA Remix)" / "Smiling Off (Luomo Remix)"
   
9. Mary J. Blige and U2 "One"
   
10. Bloc Party "The Pioneers (M83 Remix)"
    
11. Boards of Canada "Chromakey Dreamcoat"
    
12. Kelly Clarkson "Since U Been Gone"
    
13. Common f/ John Mayer "Go"
    
14. Bob Dylan "Don't Think Twice It's Alright (Demo Version)" [No Direction Home]
    
15. Missy Elliott f/ Vybez Cartel and M.I.A. "Bad Man"
    
16. The Go!Team "Feelgood By Numbers"
    
17. Goldfrapp "Number 1"
    
18. Goldfrapp "Ooh La La"
    
19. Gorillaz "DARE" / "DARE (DFA Remix)"
    
20. Kronos Quartet & Asha Bhosle "Take Another Toke (Dum Maro Dum)"
    
21. Lady Sovereign "Random"
    
22. Bettye LaVette "How Am I Different?"
    
23. LCD Soundsystem "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House"
    
24. LCD Soundsystem "Great Release"
    
25. Aimee Mann "I Was Wishing I Could Clean Up for Christmas"
    
26. Miranda Lambert "Kerosene"
    
27. Jamie Lidell "Multiply"
    
28. Paul McCartney "Fine Line"
    
29. Brad Mehldau "Knives Out"
    
30. M.I.A. "Bucky Done Gone"
    
31. M.I.A. "10 Dollar"
    
32. Moby "Blue Paper"
    
33. New Order "Krafty"
    
34. New Pornographers "Sing Me Spanish Techno"
    
35. Nine Inch Nails "Only" / "Only (Richard X Remix)"
    
36. Sinead O'Connor f/ Sly & Robbie "War"
    
37. Michael Penn "Walter Reed"
    
38. Sia "Breathe Me (Four Tet Remix)"
    
39. Sigur Rós "Glósóli"
    
40. Nina Simone "Lilac Wine (The Album Leaf Remix)"
    
41. Gwen Stefani "Cool (Richard X Remix)"
    
42. Gwen Stefani "Hollaback Girl"
    
43. Sufjan Stevens "Chicago"
    
44. Sun Kil Moon "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes"
    
45. Kanye West "Hey Mama"
    
46. Kanye West f/ Consequence and Cam'ron "Gone"
    
47. The White Stripes "My Doorbell"
    
48. The White Stripes "Walking with a Ghost"
    
49. Lee Ann Womack "I May Hate Myself In the Morning"
    
50. Ying Yang Twins "Wait (The Whisper Song)"