My Top 10 Minnesota Albums of 2005 and more

You can feel it in the air, and taste it in your mouth, and you can't turn on the radio or open a newspaper without hearing about it. It's that top this and top that season again, the time of year we are reminded that it's not the stuff in our lives that counts, it's the lists we compile of that stuff. And the more lists, the merrier, right?

Obviously, any top 10 album list compiled by anyone not familiar with each possible selection in the sample is going to be biased in favor of those actually heard; but the Star Tribune's conservative estimate is that at least 112 albums surfaced in Minnesota in 2005, so it's hard to have listened thoroughly to each one. (See below for the complete list with the albums I own bolded. Not bragging, just publicly disclosing the deficiencies of my own collection in the hopes that even more CD's will come to the HowWasTheShow P.O. Box in 2006.)

So, I'm really only picking from 39 of the 112 (actually 40, after last night's visit to the Triple Rock -- Thanks Marty Dosh!) And though I've certainly heard selections from the others on the radio and the internet and seen many of the other bands live, keep in mind, my votes below represent a sampling of only 36% of the total offerings, and of that sample 25 made the top 10.

My Top 10 Minnesota Albums of the Year for 2005:

1. Vicious Vicious - "Don't Look So Surprised"
2. Divorcee - "Music for Cleanup Men, Breakdown and Inbetweens"
3. Tapes N Tapes - "The Loon"
4. Robert McCreedy - "It Might Kill You"
5. Fitzgerald - "Raised by Wolves"
6. Ashtray Hearts - "Perfect Halves"
7. Dallas Orbiter - Magnesium Fireflies"
8. Belles of Skin City - "Ha Ha Boardrooms Think Tank Tantrums"
9. Big Ditch Road - "Suicide Note Reader's Companion"
10. Chris Koza - "Exit Pesce"

Top 5 Songs of the Year:

1. Castaways - Vicious Vicious
2. I Can Breathe Under Water - Fitzgerald
3. Ghosts - Big Ditch Road
4. Your Little Hoodrat Friend - Hold Steady (still feels local to me even if they're from Brooklyn!)
5. I Can't Live Without My Radio - Halloween, Alaska (LL Cool J cover)

Top 5 Live Acts of the Year for 2005:

1. Belles of Skin City
2. Vicious Vicious
3. Revolver Modele
4. Fort Wilson Riot
5. Ouija Radio

2 Signs the local music scene was alive and well in 2005:

1. Renovated and re-opened dive bars and theaters becoming hip, happening music venues (Varsity Theater, Nomad World Pub, 331 Club.)
2. The great lighting at the Varsity (deserves its own line item.)

And here's the list of 2005 Minnesota CD's as compiled by the Star Tribune (And yes, I realize it's not complete - for one, it left off the 2005 Voltage: Fashion Amplified CD compilation that I produced. If you notice any other omissions from this list, please leave them in the comments.)

2005 Minnesota CD's (CD's I own are bolded):

• James Apollo, "Good Grief"
• Ashtray Hearts, "Perfect Halves"
• Atmosphere, "Headshots" reissue
• Atmosphere, "You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having"
• Auto Body Experience, "Forgotten Lots"
• Renee Austin, "Right About Love"
• Belles of Skin City, "Ha Ha Boardrooms Think Tank Tantrums"
• Big Ditch Road, "Suicide Note Reader's Companion"
• Big Jess, "Good Clean Fun 2"
• Birthday Suits, "Cherry Blue"
• Blame, "Red Eyes & Sincerity"
• Omaur Bliss (self-titled)
• Brother and Sister (self-titled)
• Captain Yonder, "Mad Country Love Songs,"
• The Cardinal Sin, "Oil and Water EP"
• Chariots, "Congratulations"
• Cloud Cult, "Advice From the Happy Hippopotamus."
• Dear Machine
• The Deaths, "Choir Invisible"
• Desdamona, "The Ledge"
• Dessa, "False Hopes"
• Divorcee, "Music for Cleanup Men, Breakdown and Inbetweens."
• Pat Donohue, "Profile"
• Martin Dosh, "Power Horn"
• Dropping Daylight, "Take a Photograph EP"
• Charley Dush, "Highwood Hills"
• Falcon Crest, "Taste the Thunder Raise the Flag"
• Fat Kid Wednesdays, "The Art of Cherry"
• Fitzgerald, "Raised by Wolves"
• Fog, "10th Avenue Freakout"
• Frank Brownstone & Associates
• Front Porch Swingin' Liquor Pigs, "Last Album"
• The Gleam, "The Chisago County E.P."
• Jeff Hanson (self-titled)
• Halloween, Alaska, "Too Tall to Hide"
• Happy Apple, "The Peace Between Our Companies"
• Nachito Herrera. "Bembe en Mi Casa"
• Phil Hey Quartet, "Subduction"
• Hockey Night, "Keep Guessin'"
• House of Mercy Band, "Blesses/Curses (or Songs From the Blood-Washed Band)"
• Idiedaily, self-titled
• I Self Devine, "Self Destruction"
• Dan Israel, "Dan Israel"
• Joanna James, "Desire,"
• Jayhawks, "Live From the Women's Club Vol. 2" (Don't own it, but I was at the show!)
• Matt Jennings, "Two Become One,"
• Jistoray, "Footsteps"
• Gordy Johnson, "Trios v. 3.0"
• Kurt Jorgensen Band, "Dance"
• Lonesome Dan Kase, "Leave Here Walkin' "
• Kill the Vultures (self-titled)
• Lonnie Knight, "Better Days"
• Chris Koza, "Exit Pesce"
• Ryan Lee, "The Pride Before the Fall"
• Sherwin Linton, "Dakota Railroad Town Centennial"
• Low, "The Great Destroyer"
• Dean Magraw (with John Williams), "Raven"
• Mandragora Tango Orchestra
• Robert McCreedy, "It Might Kill You"
• Melismatics, "Turn It On"
• Paul Metsa, "Texas in the Twilight"
• Midnight Evils, "Breakin' It Down."
• Mint Condition, "Livin' the Luxury Brown"
• MoodFood, "Ice"
• Mood Swings, "Come On Tell Me"
• Motion City Soundtrack, "Commit This to Memory"
• Mulligan Stew, "Cookin' at the Hot Summer Jazz Festival"
• Mike Nicolai, "God Fatigue in the Post Atom Age"
• Nothing Static, "Surround"
• Dallas Orbiter , "Magnesium Fireflies"
• Orkestar Bez, "Nice Driveway, Vol. 1: Tales From the Land of Freeze"
• Peter Ostroushko, "Minnesota: A History of the Land"
• Peter Ostroushko, "Heartland Holiday" (live disc)
• Cecil Otter, "False Hopes"
• Reynold Philipsek, "25"
• Polara, "Green Shoes + 4"
• Ernie Rhodes, "The Orbital Effect"
• Robotboy, "And There Was No Future"
• Becky Schlegel, "Drifter Like Me"
• Sicbay, "Suspicious Icons"
• Skywynd, "Escape Plan"
• Soviettes, "LP III"
• Spittin' Cobras, self-titled EP
• SP Style, "The Sounds E.P."
• The Stnnng, "Dignified Sissy"
• The Pines, "The Pines"
• Prince Jabba, "Loverman"
• Redstart, "So Far From Over"
• Reticence, "ReMedial"
• Robert Robinson, "Inspiration"
• Sicbay, "Suspicious Icons,"
• Sims, "Lights Out Paris"
• Robert Skoro, "That These Things Could Be Ours"
• Skywynd, "Escape Plan"
• Slug (with Murs), "Felt 2: A Tribute to Lisa Bonet"
• Small Towns Burn a Little Brighter, "Mortality as Home Entertainment."
• Stnnng, "Dignified Sissy"
• Tapes N Tapes, "The Loon"
• Terramara, "Four Blocks to Hennepin"
• Various, "The Bootlegs: Celebrating 35 Years at First Avenue"
• Various, "Twin Town High, Vol. 7"
• Various, "TC Electropunk"
• Various, "Best of Smoke-Free Saturday Nights"
• Various, "Art Hear"
• Various, "The Music of Here. Now."
• Various, "Minnesota All-Stars: Great Accordion and Concertina Performances from the Northstar State"
• Vicious Vicious, "Don't Look So Surprised"
• White Iron Band, "Take It Off the Top"
• Paul Westerberg, "Besterberg"
• Jake Wisti and the Centurions, "Stonefaced on Mars"
• Luke Zimmerman, "Twilight Waltz"