1. Spank Rock, "YoYoYoYoYo"

Michael Ardaiolo, WLUW Music Director - Wednesdays 6-8AM


Shawn Campbell, WLUW Program Director - Mondays 12-2PM

10. Asobi Seksu - Citrus / Friendly Fire
9. Long Blondes - Someone To Drive You Home / Rough Trade
8. Eleventh Dream Day - Zeroes and Ones / Thrill Jockey
7. Goldfrapp - Supernature / Mute
6. Jolie Holland - Springtime Can Kill You / Anti-
5. Catfish Haven - Tell Me / Secretly Canadian
4. Doleful Lions - Song Cyclops, Volume II / Parasol
3. The Pipettes - We Are the Pipettes / Memphis Industries
2. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America / Vagrant
1. Peter, Bjorn, and John - Writer's Block / Wichita

Honorable mentions: Camera Obscura, Love Is All, Lullatone, Neko Case, Belle & Sebastian, Takka Takka, David & the Citizens, Razorlight, Oxford Collapse, Hidden Cameras


Dan Morgridge, Assistant Music Director

10.Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds - Tomlab
9.Girl Talk - Night Ripper  - Illegal Art
8.A Hawk and a Hacksaw - The Way The Wind Blows - Leaf
7.Daedelus - Denies the Day's Demise - Mush
6.Beirut - Gulag Orkestrar - Ba Da Bing!
5.Lily Allen - Alright, Still  - EMI/Regal
4.Thunderbirds are Now! - Make History - French Kiss
3.Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere - Downtown
2.NOMO - Nu Tones - Ubiquity
1.Lupe Fiasco - Food & Liquor - Atlantic

Nicole Chavas Mondays 8-10PM

10. Parenthetical Girls- Safe as Houses

09. Emily Haines & the Soft Skeletons- Knives Don't Have Your Back

08. Beirut- Gulag Orkestar

07. TV on the Radio- Return to Cookie Mountain

06. Neko Case- Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

05. Grizzly Bear- Yellow House

04. Califone- Roots and Crowns

03. Sunset Rubdown- Shut Up I Am Dreaming

02. Joanna Newsom- Ys

Emerson Dameron's Highly Subjective Top Ten Records of '06 - Wednesdays 6-8PM
No reissues, no comps.
A good life is its own reward.

1. SCOTT WALKER - The Drift
2. TIM HECKER - Harmony In Ultraviolet
3. SUSANNA & THE MAGICAL ORCHESTRA - Melody Mountain
4. SPANK ROCK - YoYoYoYoYo
5. HOWE GELB - 'Sno Angel Like You
6. CARLA BOZULICH - Evangelista
7. GNARLS BARKLEY - St. Elsewhere
8. GHOSTFACE KILLAH - Fishscale
9. POREST - Tourorrists!
10. CLOCKCLEANER - Nevermind

Chris Siuty, host of Underground Communique, Fridays 11PM-2AM

1. F***ed Up - Hidden World - Jade Tree Records/Havoc Records
F***ed up is probably the best thing going in punk and hardcore right now and with the amazing climate in the underground lately, that truly is saying a lot.  After collecting their 7"s for the last couple years, I've been anticipating the full length for sometime now.  The CD is good, but the LP looks and sounds great.

2. O Pioneers!!! - Black Mambas - Team Science/Underground Communique
Houston based O Pioneers!!! are really excited about pretty much everything.  They're a two piece (drums and guitar) creating a hybrid of 1950's rock n roll, pop punk and Braid style post hardcore.  Whenever I talk to Eric from the O Pioneers!!! via email or text message, everything ends with an exclamation point.  That's how stoked he is about everything.  Great guys, great band.  For a point of reference, their contemporaries would be Against Me!, Latterman and very loosely, the Lawrence Arms.

3. World/Inferno Friendship Society - Red Eyed Soul - Chunksaah
One of the best, most enthusiastic and charismatic bands of today.  Mixing punk, pop, Eastern European folk music, Klesmir and anarchist politics, W/IFS are hands down one of my favorite bands.  They have a cult like following and a revolving collective of contributing musicians.  Red Eyed Soul is probably their most focused album and was my summer album.  If you would have asked me about this several months ago, I would have said this was album of the year.

4. None More Black - This is Satire - Fat Wreck
Ex-Kid Dynamite, current member of Kill Your Idols.  None More Black combine so many different influences into their music and manage to grab listeners and keep them interested through out.  This album is significantly less poppy punk rock than their last and borrows melodies and themes from Hank Williams as much as "Glass Houses" era Billy Joel.  Commonly labeled by Punknews.org readers as "orgcore," they're definitely leading the pack for new and exciting pop punk bands.

5. Pedestrians - Ideal Divide EP - Wrench in the Gears
Local hardcore heroes bringing things back to the Dangerhouse Records days of past.  Somewhere between Black Flag, the Circle Jerks and the Descendents, the Pedestrians are pretty much on top of the vibrant Chicago hardcore scene.

6. Fourth Rotor - Plain - Underground Communique/Southkor e
Seriously, why isn't Douglas Ward held in higher regard around here?  I.D. Under? 8Bark?  V.Reverse?  Underdog Records?  Hello?  Anyone?  Chicago's punk and indie communities owe a lot to this man.  Everyone from Trenchmouth, to the Kinsella brothers to the Smoking Popes and Alkaline Trio.  Plain was classic Douglas Ward post hardcore.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, dig in our library and give the previously mentioned bands a  listen. 

7. Fake Problems - Spurs and Spokes/Bull > Matador - Sabot
Folky country punk from Florida.  This description covers a lot of ground these days.  Maybe a more practiced This Bike is a Pipe Bomb or a poppier, hook heavy Against Me!  This is a collection of their two EP's, the Spurs and Spokes EP and the Bull > Matador EP.  Excellent and recommended for anyone whose ever claimed to like Uncle Tupelo, indie pop or either of the two bands I already mentioned. 

8. New Bruises - Transmit! Transmit! - Kiss of Death
Straightforward pop punk band from Gainsville Florida, sounding much like Hot Water Music or Gunmoll.  This band should be on No Idea records, but for some reason haven't been picked up yet.  This record is really good and should be the standard which all bands from Florida should be judged.

9. V/A - We Shall Inherit the Earth... A Tribute to the Replacements - 1,2,3,4...Go! Records
An excellent collection of today's best punk bands covering Replacements songs.  Every single track on here is incredible.  Off With Their Heads, the Queers, Against Me!, This is My Fist, the Modern Machines, J Page and the Ergs are the highlights of this collection.  Any Replacements fan should look into this, because some of these covers are brilliant, especially the J Page cover of "Left of the Dial."  Seriously.

10. Modern Machines - Someone Take It, Please! - Dirtnap
Milwaukee, Wisconsin punk rock band.  They drink, they ride bikes, they like cheese and they listen to more Replacements records than is probably good for them.  This record isn't life changing, but it is really damn good.  The hooks are excellent and create the perfect marriage of the Ramones, Crimpshrine, Husker Du, the Replacements and "My Brain Hurts" era Screeching Weasel.  Fun stuff.

Honorable mentions - Functional Blackouts, Chronic Seizure, Drunken Boat, Latterman, Few and the Proud, xOne Wayx, Pink Razors.

Carrie Weston Thursdays 2-4PM

Mission of Burma - The Obliterati (Wow.  They just keep getting better)
Four Tet – Remixes (I just can’t get enough.)
The Brown Party –S/T (Impressive! )
Mojave 3 – Puzzles Like You (On nobody’s Top 10 seemingly, but totally charming pop that’s like crack to me.)
Serena Maneesh – S/T (I can’t wait to hear the next one…a great start for these folks.)
Sonic Youth – Rather Ripped (Back to form, praise Jebus.)
The Coup – Pick A Bigger Weapon (Badass beats and righteous rhymes.)
Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (Best. Voice. Ever.)
Justin Timberlake – Future Sex/Love Sounds (Yeah, really.)
Art Brut – Bang Bang Rock & Roll (I wish I were this cool.)

Andrew Mall / Promodept. - Fridays 11AM-2PM

1. The Decemberists, /The Crane Wife/ / Capitol
For their major-label debut, Colin Meloy and company have crafted a
record that is simultaneously simpler and more expansive than 2005’s
/Picaresque/. On /The Crane Wife/, Meloy’s songwriting has become
more
personal and immersive without losing his much-vaunted literariness,
penchant for storytelling, and folk leanings that garnered his band all
of those Elephant 6 comparisons a few years ago. The arrangements have
been scaled back, and while the music is far from skeletal, its
accessibility is refreshing after the carnival of the last record.

2. Thom Yorke, /The Eraser/ / XL
Yorke took a break from songwriting with Radiohead to put together this
minimalist record with longtime collaborator/producer Nigel Godrich.
The
result harkens back to the electronica that the band explored on
2000’s
/Kid A/ but takes it further: the programming, sampling, and looped
vocals work together not so much as songs but as soundscapes —
something
Radiohead, as a rock band, still hasn’t perfected. This music is
perfect
for driving alone late at night or watching the moon rise with a hip
flask of bourbon. It’s not timeless, but at times it feels like it
should be.

3. Comets on Fire, /Avatar/ / Sub Pop
I’ve often described Comets on Fire as a psychedelic hardcore band,
and
they’ve pretty much lived up to that moniker: insane rhythmic noise
and
polyps-inducing screams share space with phasers and meandering solos
on
their earlier records (see 2004’s /Blue Cathedral/ for the best
illustration—this record garnered my vote for Sub Pop’s noisiest
release
over Wolf Eyes’ /Burned Mind/ from the same year). On /Avatar/,
however,
they leave the hardcore at home, and appear to have listened to a fair
amount of blues, jazz, and Americana on their ride back to the studio.
This is by far their most accessible record (can anyone even stand
their
2001 self-titled debut for more than ten minutes at a time?), with
their
previous overdriven sound popping up sporadically to highlight their
new
focus on melody and atmosphere.

4. Isis, /In the Absence of Truth/ / Ipecac
Isis continues to perfect their particular brand of drone metal on /In
the Absence of Truth/. It’s hard to believe that music this heavy can
be
calm, but that’s exactly what makes Isis interesting from album to
album
— Aaron Turner and his partners in sludge somehow find ways to make
subtle sheets of distortion and crests of screaming. This is music that
won’t kick your ass so much as it will soothe your ass after someone
else has kicked it.

5. Mates of State, /Bring it Back/ / Barsuk
Mates’ first album away from longtime home Polyvinyl finds the
husband/wife duo polishing their cute-pop songcraft to a shine. Gone
are
the kitschy, jarring multi-part compositions and sudden sonic tangents;
instead, parenthood has brought with it an appreciation for maturity
and
simplicity. Of course, Barsuk is the same label that Death Cab for
Cutie
called home before their jump to Atlantic — could Kori and Jason
follow
a similar path?

6. Bruce Springsteen, /We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions/ /
Columbia
The backstory is something you wouldn’t expect from one of the most
mainstream commercial artists around: Springsteen discovered folkie
Pete
Seeger rather late in life, grew to love the songs of the folk revival
from the mid-20th century, invited a bunch of palls over to his (ahem)
mansion, and recorded two (practically) live sets, released here. The
resulting tour may have been a disappointment — he is a marquee
artists,
but these songs work better in a wood-paneled meeting hall or a smoky
bar than they do in a megamphitheatre — but the record itself is an
unexpectedly great tribute to one of the most influential artists of
the
previous generation. Take that, Dylan.

7. The Vandermark 5, /A Discontinuous Line/ / Atavistic
After cellist Fred Longerg-Holm replaced trombonist Jeb Bishop in
Chicago improvised music stalwarts Vandermark 5 following the release
of
2005’s /The Color of Memory/, Ken Vandermark threw out the band’s
songbook and started from scratch. The resulting material was previewed
in weekly installments at the Empty Bottle in December, 2005, and it
utterly blew me away with the shifting textures and the way that the
cello both works with Kent Kessler’s bass and as a solo instrument
alongside Vandermark’s and Dave Rempis’s reeds. This group just
keeps
getting better.

8. The Album Leaf, /Into the Blue Again/ / Universal
More of a sequel to 2005’s /In a Safe Place/ than a statement on its
own, /Into the Blue Again/ nevertheless continues to outshine the
output
of Jimmy LaValle’s former band Tristeza. In a year with no chamber
rock
releases from Sigur Rós or the Godspeed collective and even less from
atmospheric pop like Múm, a new record from The Album Leaf is
definitely
appreciated.

9. Mastodon, /Blood// Mountain/ / Reprise
The problem with bands like Mastodon is that unless you have a working
vocabulary of their older material (and, ideally, of their particular
genre in general), it’s hard to tell what makes a particular release
special. In this case, I can easily point to their steadfast commitment
to whiplash-inducing metal for their major label debut. But in going
further, I can also point to the subtle layers of (almost accidental)
melody and overtones that reveal themselves through repeated listens.
When there’s this much going on, it’s impossible to not find
something
new to appreciate each time you listen.

10. The Flaming Lips, /At War with the Mystics/ / Warner Bros.
While The Flaming Lips haven’t yet topped either 1999’s /The Soft
Bulletin/ or 2002’s /Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots/, /At War with
the
Mystics/ proves that they still have a lot of fight and innovation left
in them. With the Lips, treading water is equivalent to (many) lesser
bands regressing. Also, their set at Lollapalooza was the best of the
entire weekend — my new resolution is to never miss them whenever
they
return to town as long as we both shall live.

Honorable Mentions:
Adem, /Love and Other Planets/ / Domino
Belle & Sebastian, /The Life Pursuit/ / Matador
Channels, /Waiting for the Next End of the World/ / Dischord
Chin Up Chin Up, /This Harness Can’t Ride Anything/ / Suicide Squeeze
Erase Errata, /The Nightlife/ / Kill Rock Stars
The Evens, /Get Evens/ / Dischord
Joan of Arc, /Eventually, All at Once/ / Record Label
Mission of Burma, /The Obliterati/ / Matador
Mogwai, /Mr. Beast/ / Matador
Sonic Youth, /Rather Ripped/ / Geffen

Mary Nisi Mondays 6-9AM

peter bjorn and john -- writer's block
lily allen -- alright still
the whitest boy alive -- dreams
frida hyvonen -- until death comes
justin timberlake -- futuresex/lovesound
lesser birds of paradise -- space between
beirut -- gulag orcherst
lilys -- everything wrong is imaginary
camera obscura -- let's get out of this country
hot chip -- the warning

but really, for me, i got all 2002 on my....ass...and
got into music blogs. more artists are putting out
singles, and full lengths are probably going the way
of dinosaurs and the relevance of the critics at spin
magazine. so here are artists that i got really into
but may not have a full length, or maybe they do and i
was too lazy to give it a go. this list can also be
called "honorable mentions".

css, the radio dept, midlake, phoenix, bell, the
spinto band, tangiers, tokyo police club, miou miou,
bishop allen, arms, math & physics club, lupe fiasco,
lonely dear, spank rock, the gentle rain....


Kristin Marks Wednesdays 2-4PM

So the honorable mentions are:

14. Sunset Rubdown/Shut up I am Dreaming
13. Clipse/Hell Hath no Fury
12. Beach House/Beach House
11. The Brown Party/The Brown Party

And the top ten:

10. Broken Social Scene/Broken Social Scene
9. MSTRKRFT/The Looks
8. Spank Rock/YoYoYoYoYo
7. Destroyer/Destroyer 's Rubies
6. Grizzly Bear/Yellow House
5. Ecstatic Sunshine/Freckle Wars
4. Tapes'n'Tapes/ The Loon
3. Chin Up Chin Up/This Harness Can't Ride Anything
2. The Knife/Silent Shout
1. Hot Chip/The Warning

Best Shows:

Animal Collective at Logan Square
The Coup/Devotchka at Wicker Park Summerfest
Hot Chip at the Metro
Thunderbirds Are Now! At beat kitchen
Diplo at Pitchfork
Andrew Bird at Logan Square

Tony Breed - Fridays 6-9AM

1 The Decemberists / The Crane Wife
2 Spanky Wilson / I'm Thankful
3 Final Fantasy / He Poos Clouds
4 va / Plague Songs
5 Alice Smith / For Lovers, Dreamers, and Me
6 Belle and Sebastian / The Life Pursuit
7 Oneida / Happy New Year
8 The Futureheads / News & Tributes
9 Office / Q&A
10 Scritti Politti / White Bread and Black Beer

Honorable Mentions:
Tom Zé / Estudando O Pagode
Headlights / Kill Them with Kindness
Miho Hatori / Ecdysis
The Husbands / There's Nothing I'd Like More Than to See You Dead
Kimya Dawson / Remember That I Love You
Juana Molina / Son
Ojos de Brujo / Techarí
Joanna Newsom / Ys


Tom Jackson
Somebody Else's Troubles (Saturdays from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm)
New Orleans Music Hour (Saturdays at 1:00 pm)

TOP 10 from New Olreans & the rest of my musical world
1   Elvis Costello + Allen Toussaint: The River In Reverse
2   New Orleans Social Club: Sing Me Back Home
3   Anna Fermin & Trigger Gospel: Go
4   Carrie Rodriguez: Seven Angels on a Bicycle
5   Butch Hancock: War & Peace
6   Bucky Halker: Wisonsin 2.13.63
7   Chris Thomas King: Rise
8   Dirty Dozen Brass Band: What's Goin' On
9   Jon Langford: Goldbrick
10 Irma Thomas: After The Rain