The Dunce Cap: Week of Dec. 19, 2011

in: heavy rotation

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 40: You were right about the stars. Each one is a setting sun. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks or play above)

1. “Young Pilgrims” – The Shins
2. “Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam” – The Vaselines
3. “Sketchy Metal” – The Hold Steady
4. “Jesus Christ” – Brand New
5. “Jesus Christ” – Big Star
6. “Jesus, Etc.” – Wilco
7. “Shine On, Sweet Jesus” – The Flaming Lips
8. “Superbowl Jesus” – The Hood Internet
9. “God Only Knows” – The Beach Boys
10. “Me and Jesus Don’t Talk Anymore” – beulah
11. “Jesus the Mexican Boy” – Iron & Wine
12. “Doubting Thomas” – Nickel Creek
13. “I’m Not Jesus” – The Ramones
14. “Above the Waves” – The Jealous Sound
15. “Chocolate Jesus” – Tom Waits
16. “God’s Comic” – Elvis Costello
17. “I Have Forgiven Jesus – Morrissey
18. “Jesusland” – Ben Folds
19. “Let It Be” – The Beatles
20. “Spirit in the Sky” – Norman Greenbaum

Tebow-kily dokily, folks! I’ve spent the day in the throes of full Tebow fandom, a fact I am not embarrassed to share with the whole of the Interwebs, or, y’know, Jen and Bryan, but this slow-movin’ dino-computer has kept me from sharing my thoughts with the world. I’ve been wrestling with a new 8tracks uploading interface for the last four hours, and I’m a bit ornery with technology, so instead of continuing to attempt to post something, I’ll leave you guys with this. This playlist should whet your appetite for what is to come, namely a discussion of Tim Tebow, faith, religion and history’s favorite son.

For this playlist, I’ve chosen twenty superb songs about god, religion and/or lackthereof, none of which are considered “gospel” – unless you count Norman Greenbaum’s fantastically catchy, “Spirit in the Sky,” which I always remember from that one John Travolta movie, “Michael,” where he plays an angel. There were so, so many songs to choose from, and this smattering represents some of my favorites. The Hold Steady, in particular, employs a great bit of biblical imagery (see: “Citrus,” “How a Resurrection Really Feels“), so if you’re looking for more, I suggest you check there first. There were a few honorable mentions (Bright Eyes, “When the President Talks to God,” Butch Walker, “Closer to the Truth and Further From the Sky,” R.E.M., “Losing My Religion“) I would also recommend, but this is a decent place to start.

I’m still having some trouble with the 8tracks interface, and I’m about to crush the computer screen in frustration, so I will attempt to make the edits in the morning, with the promised post forthcoming.

For now, and as always, happy listening.

The Dunce Cap: Week of Oct. 23, 2011

in: heavy rotation

HEY, YOU GUYS.
8tracks finally created embedding for WordPress, and, while I missed the announcement, I’m thrilled to be able to begin using it.

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 38: And you will love me for all the reasons everyone hates me. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks – or just play above!)

1. “Dolly” – The Fruit Bats
2. “Damn These Vampires” – The Mountain Goats
3. “Honey Bunny” – Girls
4. “Papa Hobo” – Ezra Koenig
5. “All Day Day Light” – The Morning Benders
6. “Good” – The Dodos
7. “Funeral Music” – Actual Tigers
8. “Coast of Carolina” – Telekinesis
9. “If You Want It” – TV Girl
10. “Milkshake” – Yuck

So, I obviously made this mix awhile back but never quite got to blogging it. Hope you enjoy it. I’m still in California with a host of experiences, anecdotes and recommendations to share, but that’ll have to wait until Thanksgiving break. For now, and as always – happy listening.

The Sunshine House, Or Musical Retirement

in: the grave

I like a lot of songs. And I just so happen to really, truly like a lot of bad songs. Glimpse my iPod on BART, or use the elliptical next to mine at the gym, and you’re sure to catch some fairly embarrassing things. I admit to still occasionally partaking in a little pop-punk (ask me about that rediscovery sometime) and even some pure ’60s sugar, and I find that, sometimes, the unsubstantial can be comforting. But not every song has redeeming qualities. Some are fraught with disquieting memories, and others are so bad they hit bad-good and simply wrapped back around. And those are the ones I’ve finally begun saying my good-byes to. That’s where my newest feature, The Sunshine House, comes into play.

The Sunshine House, which is a nod to the daycare center of the same overly cheery name, is my way of bidding songs a proper adieu. There are more than enough tracks to serve as proper fodder for this sort of feature, and I think it can make for fun, short entries.

To kick things off, I created a mix on 8tracks of twenty-five love songs that are ripe for retirement.

The Sunshine House Collective: track listing below (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks)

I’ve spent about ten years composing calculated mix CDs for the boys for whom I harbor intense crushes, and I’ve learned there are only so many times Ben Gibbard can coo that he’ll follow me into the dark without it becoming insincere. Certain songs get old fast. Don’t get me wrong – I have intense relationships with a number of love songs, include these tracks I’ve included on The Sunshine House Collective, from “This is the Sweetest Little Song” by Butch Walker and the Let’s-Go-Out-Tonites to Wilco’s “I’m the Man Who Loves You.” And not all of these songs are bad or overwrought or overplayed, but love songs are a complicated sort. Like every girl shaped by cinema, I form unbreakable associations between people and songs, and so many of these tracks are forever tainted by these associations. “Treehouse” was Duck’s song, while “Thirteen,” “Sixteen, Maybe Less” and “First Day of My Life” were all about being sixteen and positively infatuated with the first boy I ever thought I loved. Some love songs are timeless; “Everlong” will never lose its luster, while the early Beatles pop songs will always perfectly describe the careful build-up of a love story. But some of these tracks can never be applied to another chapter in my romantic life. I’ve liked a lot of boys, and a lot of songs are headed to this musical graveyard, but, for now, we can get started with these twenty-five. Suffice to say, these tracks won’t be making any mixes for the foreseeable future.

The the line-up’s below. I can’t promise I’ll be back in full force just yet; I know I’ve been away a long time, but I’m sans computer currently, and it’s hard to promise regular blog posts without one. I am living in San Francisco currently, and that’s looking like a more permanent thing, so hopefully I’ll be able to carve out a more regular post schedule soon. But, for now:

The Sunshine House Collective:

  1. “Every Thug Needs A Lady” – Alkaline Trio
  2. “This Is The Sweetest Little Song” – Butch Walker & The Let’s-Go-Out-Tonites
  3. “The Tension and the Terror” – Straylight Run
  4. “The Scientist” – Coldplay
  5. “Mixtape” – Butch Walker
  6. “Intoxicating” – David Crowder Band
  7. “I’m A Fool” – American Hi-Fi
  8. “Thirteen” – Ben Kweller
  9. “16, Maybe Less” – Iron & Wine/ Calexico
  10. “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” – Death Cab For Cutie
  11. “Treehouse” – I’m From Barcelona
  12. “First Day of My Life” – Bright Eyes
  13. “This Year’s Love” – David Gray
  14. “The Luckiest” – Ben Folds
  15. “Calling You” – Blue October
  16. “Happy Together” – The Turtles
  17. “The Promise” – When In Rome
  18. “More Than a Feeling” – Boston
  19. “I Want You to Want Me” – Cheap Trick
  20. “Everytime We Touch” – Cascada
  21. “So Contagious” – Acceptance
  22. “Crash Into Me” – Dave Matthews Band
  23. “Oh, It’s Love” – hellogoodbye
  24. “I’m the Man Who Loves You” – Wilco
  25. “Beating Heart Baby” – Head Automatica

The Dunce Cap: Nov. 8, 2010

in: heavy rotation

 

1898 Photos of Toulouse-Lautrec

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 26: You can’t remember someone else’s story. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “Basement Parties” – Matt Pond PA
2. “House Fire” – Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin
3. “Relator” – Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
4. “No Time” – Good Old War
5. “How a Resurrection Feels” – The Hold Steady
6. “Microphone” – Coconut Records
7. “Borderline” – The Flaming Lips
8. “Dear Prudence” – The Beatles
9. “This Boy” – I’m From Barcelona
10. “Every Moment” – Rogue Wave

Look at this classy photo series! These are photographs of famed painter Henri Toulouse-Lautrec poopin’ on a public beach. So excellent. [Buzzfeed]

What do you mean funny, funny how?

Watching “Goodfellas” on a Monday night? So excellent. For class. Really. An essay examining the musical score of Scorsese’s film in relation to the use of popular music in “American Graffiti” and “Boogie Nights.” What a delicious assignment.

Yeah. That’s it.

But you know, I’m funny. You think I’m funny?

This is a series of ten exciting tracks I’m just lovin’. No specific reason for including any of them. Just lovable winners. Particularly The Flaming Lips cover of “Borderline.” I actually had a killer conversation this weekend about Wayne Coyne and the Lips (and their proclivity for adult themes masked beneath sing-songy childish melodies), so they’re certainly on my mind.

Oh, and P.S. Netflix clearly knows me too well. Four of my most recommended TV shows? “Freaks and Geeks,” “Wonderfalls,” “Daria” and “The Middleman.” By far four of my favorite recent-ish television shows. Check ’em all out if you haven’t.

I promise you – Real, live, excellent postings to come soon. Y’know, not just mixes. Insightful and snarky pop culture posts are on their way.

Happy listening.

The Dunce Cap: Nov. 1, 2010

in: heavy rotation

Venn: Your Grandfather (FlowingData)

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 25: I don’t think that it’s the end, but I know we can’t keep going. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “Elevator Love Letter” – Stars
2. “Lady Stardust” – David Bowie
3. “Right Moves” – Josh Ritter
4. “Lover in the Snow” – Rivers Cuomo
5. “Blue Skies” – Noah and the Whale
6. “Trouble” – Butch Walker
7. “Dreamworld” – Rilo Kiley
8. “Wake Up New” – The Mountain Goats
9. “Against All Odds” – The Postal Service
10. “At the Stars” – Better Than Ezra

I know, I know, it’s not Thursday. It’s actually Monday (barely), but I have a mix to get your week going. It’s a break up mix, sure, full of heartache and sadness, but nearly absent of regret. These are ten tracks I love – really love – about falling out of love (and sometimes falling back in it).

That Josh Ritter track, “Right Moves,” is one of my favorite tracks ever. It’s so so stellar. Give the whole thing a listen. There’s so much to be learned from love songs, especially these.

It’s my simple way of saying – I’ll love you always, but I understand too.

Happy listening.

The Dunce Cap: Sept. 23, 2010

in: heavy rotation

Punishment.

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 23: You got that kind of beauty that makes people nervous. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “Our Riotous Defects” – of Montreal
2. “Secret Meeting” – The National
3. “On Large Amusements” – Zoos of Berlin
4. “Falling For You” – Weezer
5. “It’s All Gonna Break” – Broken Social Scene
6. “Ponce De Leon Ave.” – Butch Walker
7. “Slapped Actress” – The Hold Steady
8. “If You Were Here” – Cary Brothers
9. “No One’s Gonna Love You” – Cee-Lo Green
10. “We Can Be Good” – Via Audio

It’s the long overdue return of the Dunce Cap! Welcome back to the knotty musings on all things (un)popular culture! I owe you so many apologies, passing readers. First I promised you a series, then I promised you a weekly mix and then I promised I’d be back. And I didn’t come back.

But I am back! I am back for good! And my first task? A Dunce Cap, of course!

This is, as the first title suggests, a riotous journey of joyous musical skipping! I’m a crazy girrrrrl at the start of a brand spankin’ new school year, and I’ve got lots to say. It’s going to be good.

This isn’t just a rollicking mix of high-fives and tail-shaking. This is also a hxc preview of what’s to come. There’s an of Montreal concert review for their show last Saturday at the Riviera. There’s a nice little message to the sweethearts in Zoos of Berlin. There’s a squeal-inducing Weezer announcement. There’s a Hold Steady concert preview. There’s a review of Easy A, a movie I’ve seen twice in theaters. And there’s Butch Walker. There’s always Butch Walker.

So, the Girl in the Dunce Cap is back. And I’ve got a lot to say. Let’s hope it’s all still timely when I get it up. Heh.

Happy listening.

The Dunce Cap: August 9, 2010

in: heavy rotation

My name is Simon.

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 20: New York is pretty heavy. Girl, I hope it doesn’t crush you. (listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “Open Happiness” – Butch Walker, Travis McCoy, Brandon Urie, Cee-Lo, Janelle Monae and Patrick Stump
2. “Dirty Dustin Hoffman Needs a Bath” – of Montreal
3. “Many Moons” – Janelle Monae
4. “Funny Little Frog” – Belle & Sebastian
5. “Magazines” – The Hold Steady
6. “Titus Andronicus” – Titus Andronicus
7. “When I’m With You” – Best Coast
8. “Lucky You” – The National
9. “Summer Babe (Winter Version)” – Pavement
10. “The Dress Looks Nice on You” –Sufjan Stevens

Playlist number 20 for the week of 08/09/10. Couldn’t have ended better if I’d planned it. And the countdown to Evanston has fallen now into weeks. I’ll be back in town in less than a month, and I’m pretty thrilled. Fall is always a blast in Chicago, even when the weather turns colder and then frigid. And with fall comes the onslaught of concerts which seems to ebb as the year winds down. This is a mix to celebrate the concerts headed to The Windy City in September and October which are making me antsy, excited and broke.

So far, I have tickets for The Hold Steady and of Montreal/Janelle Monae, and I’m itching to buy a ticket to The National. My bank account is cursing me with its constant reminders of dwindling funds, but it’s all worth it, no?

This Dunce Cap features the artists I’d most like to see this year, including Pavement (who will play Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion Sept. 13), Belle & Sebastian (at the legendary Chicago Theatre Oct. 11 – be sure to look out for my pal Modibo, who you may have heard in our Chicago Public Radio audio piece!) and Sufjan Stevens (his first official tour in nearly four years, I believe, also at the Chicago Theatre Oct. 15). It’s going to be quite the concert season.

And, for good measure, I included the Butch Walker-written and produced track “Open Happiness.” The song features a whole load of artists, including Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo Green, Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump and Gym Class Heroes Travis (now “Travie”) McCoy and was the basis of the Coca Cola advertising campaign of the same name last summer. It’s an incredibly hypnotic summer song fitting to close this one and welcome in autumn.

Happy listening.

(editor’s note: I’m watching Jersey Shore – no apologies – and Pauly D just said “From here on out…” His pronunciation, thought? “From hair on out.” Too funny. Also – how is Mike Posner MTV’s Artist of the Week? Unbelievable. I don’t even think I know anyone who even likes Posner.)

The Dunce Cap: August 2, 2010

in: heavy rotation

Yarmulke Poodle!

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 19: It sounds impossible but, man, it’s true. You are the bad, the bad seed of this town. (listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “All the Pretty Girls Go to the City” – Spoon
2. “The Village Green Preservation Society” – The Kinks
3. “Trouble” – Voxtrot
4. “King of Anything” – Sara Bareilles
5. “Meet Virginia” – Train
6. “Your Boyfriend Sucks” – The Ataris
7. “Amy” – Ryan Adams
8. “Sway” – The Perishers
9. “Wedding Song” – Anais Mitchell ft. Justin Vernon
10. “Tightrope (Wondamix)” – Janelle Monae ft. B.O.B. & Lupe Fiasco

My apologies for this mix coming around so late. It’s been a hectic week of work, car rides, stadium food and ultimate Braves domination. But the Dunce Cap is back with a brand new mix! Let the gasps ensue.

This is a delightfully bouncy soundtrack to the last month of summer. Or last week of summer, for you poor souls not on the magnificent quarter system! It’s full of wondrous songs by artists I adore (yes, even The Ataris!), including Spoon, Voxtrot (who very sadly parted ways in June after a small tour) and Ryan Adams (who released Orion, his first “fully-realized sci-fi metal concept album,” in May). There’s a track from Anais Mitchell‘s Hadestown, a folk-rock opera telling the tale of  poet Orpheus, featuring Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. There’s the Lupe Fiasco/B.O.B. remix of Janelle Monae‘s sing-a-long “Tightrope” (so so excited to see Monae with Of Montreal Sept. 25 in Chicago!). And then there’s Train… Not really much of a fit for this mix, but a fun song that I’ve long adored worthy of a place in a mix of songs to play at maximum volume on car speakers.

Happy listening!

The Dunce Cap: July 26, 2010

in: heavy rotation

High-end graffiti for a fast talker.

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 18: Man when I tell you she was cool, she was red hot. I mean she was steaming. (listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “The Boys Are Back in Town” – Thin Lizzy
2. “Pop Lie” – Okkervil River
3. “Violet Stars Happy Hunting!” – Janelle Monae
4. “Magick” – Ryan Adams & the Cardinals
5. “Your Magic is Working” – Of Montreal
6. “Bethamphetamine (Pretty Pretty)” – Butch Walker & the Let’s-Go-Out-Tonites
7. “American Girls” – Homie
8. “Your Little Hoodrat Friend” – The Hold Steady
9. “Bastards of Young” – The Replacements
10. “Good Will Hunting By Myself” – Ludo

I graduated from college and immediately got a great job at the largest daily paper in North Dakota’s largest city; now, this actually means I got a normal job at a tiny newspaper in a small American town. But it seemed like a big deal at the time because I was writing a high-profile column for this publication, and I suddenly became a mini-celebrity in downtown Fargo.1

1 Which is kind of like being the hottest guy in the Traveling Wilburys.
Chuck Klosterman, Killing Yourself to Live

At 1 p.m. Thursday, my weekend begins. The long and not-so-lonesome highway is deserted (by Atlanta terms, at least), and I have the freedom to take a lunch and leisurely lope my way home. For the first time, I drove at speed limit. A super-long weekend could not have come at a more opportune time; I had a drag, a lull, in my step, but there’s nothing but time ahead. And cleaning, ‘cuz the Foom is coming back to town.

I’m rereading Chuck Klosterman’s mesmerizing Killing Yourself to Live for what feels like the umpteenth time, and he writes this about driving through the Deep South (in this case, Mississippi):

As I drive away from Satan’s Crossroads1, the man on 94.1 “the Buzz” tells me it’s five o’clock, and then he says, “And you know what that means!” And I do know what that means; it means he is about to play whatever song this radio station always plays at five o’clock on Friday, which will signal that the workweek is over and it’s time for everyone to drink Corona…

1 The intersection in Clarksdale, Miss., where Robert Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the ability to play the guitar like no person before him

And Klosterman proceeds to detail the various Welcome to the Weekend songs played in various cities he’s marginally familiar with: In Cleveland, it’s Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.” Fargo, Loverboy’s “Working for the Weekend.” In Mississippi, it’s Southern Culture on the Skids, the track “Camel Walk.” In Atlanta, in Handsome Dan on a Thursday afternoon, it’s, well, Thin Lizzy. It’s Okkervil River at an ear-splitting volume (Klosterman also maintains that maximum volume on a car stereo creates a cloak of invisibility). It’s these tracks.

And, god, I love these tracks. I could write a book on how much I freaking love Thin Lizzy, first of all. Irish hard rockers with a penchant for catchy choruses? Check. Of Montreal is a band optimally designed for raucously lonely sing-a-longs. And, shit. The only reason Rivers Cuomo ever produced the track “American Girls” with Homie for the Meet the Deedles soundtrack was for the purpose of belting it out with an occasional finger-snap. Though, to give Homie and their only piece of production some credit, the band also included Greg Brown from CAKE, Matt Sharp (of the original Weezer line-up) and those two guys from Soul Coughing. That’s what I call a supergroup.

This is my soundtrack for night drives and for ghost riding (metaphorically, of course). Give it a whirl and just try to not envy me for starting my weekend so early.

Happy listening.

Oh, and for the record – Klosterman, I totally get you on the Traveling Wilburys business. I mean, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Tom Petty? Together? How I want to love them. And how I just don’t. Impossible.

The Dunce Cap: July 19, 2010

in: heavy rotation

get yer eyes checked!

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 17: The room is on fire as she’s fixing her hair. (listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “If You Find Yourself Caught In Love” – Belle & Sebastian
2. “Congratulations Smack and Katy” – Reggie and the Full Effect
3. “I Met a Girl” – Wheat
4. “Spitting Games” – Snow Patrol
5. “Down” – Blink-182
6. “Reptilia” – The Strokes
7. “Naive” – The Jealous Sound
8. “So Says I” – The Shins
9. “Amsterdam” – Guster
10. “Chicago is so Two Years Ago” – Fall Out Boy
11. “California Waiting” – Kings of Leon
12. “Mexican Wine” – Fountains of Wayne
13. “The Sound of Settling” – Death Cab for Cutie
14. “Shiny” – The Decemberists
15. “Toxic” – Britney Spears
16. “My Favorite Accident” – Motion City Soundtrack
17. “Shakin’” – Rooney
18. “Such Great Heights” – The Postal Service
19. “So Long, Astoria” – The Ataris
20. “My Coco” – stellastarr*

Four score & seven years ago…

The year is 2003. Ariel Sharon is the newly elected Prime Minister of Israel. I am only nominally Jewish. The war in Iraq has just begun. 100 people have lost their lives in The Station night club fire, as pyrotechnics from Great White’s stage show set the insulation foam ceiling alight. The O.C. premieres on Fox.

I am in seventh grade. I no longer have braces, and my hair is just growing out of its yield sign phase. I carry a tin Weezer lunchbox to school, and I still listen to Good Charlotte mostly unabashedly. This is the summer of my musical discontent, and it is, in response, the spring of my musical awakening.

Seven years ago, I was in seventh grade. I had just recently discovered that all music did not come from boy bands and teen queens, and I had also become incredibly engrossed in Josh Schwartz‘s The O.C. I was obsessed with Weezer. My taste in music was rapidly expanding, and 2003 was certainly the year my music repertoire really took shape. It was the heyday of pop-punk and my real transition into indie. In the hopes of avoiding sounding even sappier than I do now, this should suffice: 2003 was the first year I really, truly started to love music. Music by musicians with musical talent. And, man, the new material that came out of 2003 continues to astound me and occupy my iPod with some regularity. It may be a bit melodramatic to say that 2003 was the year I came into myself, as that’s an exaggeration, but it was certainly the year I began a great passion for music.

I started to make mixtapes for friends and boys, and these artists really became staples of my playlists. There was The Postal Service’s Give Up, Belle and Sebastian’s Dear Catastrophe Waitress, Death Cab’s gorgeously lush Transatlanticism, The Shins’ Chutes Too Narrow. There was the catchier-than-the-common-cold Yellowcard, a maturing Fall Out Boy, an aging Chris Carrabba in Dashboard and an Alkaline Trio album that was just melodious enough to shout out loud. There were two hilarious videos for Motion City Soundtrack’s “The Future Freaks Me Out” and Reggie and the Full Effect’s “Congratulations, Smack and Katy.”

There was a White Stripes album that nearly overshadowed the brilliance their fans had come to expect with De Stijl and White Blood Cells. There was a disappointing Saves the Day follow-up to an album (Stay What You Are) as they drifted away from a record label, Vagrant, that would come to define my early interactions with music. That’s not to mention The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Stills, The Long Winters’ brilliant photograph of adolescence, When I Pretend to Fall, or even The All-American Rejects eponymous first album, a CD I bought the day it was released.


The Long Winters, “The Sound of Coming Down”

So much of who I was in school was defined by my ownership of these and other albums. I had a fervent passion for music, and 2003 was really the year that fueled my musical ravenousness. So this is an epic tribute to the year 2003, to seven years ago, to the music of the year and the efforts that would come subsequently.

Not as interactive as the last Dunce Cap, certainly, but a fair tribute to a year that changed music – for me, at least.

And I’ve still got that Weezer lunchbox.

Happy listening.

The Stills

Alkaline Trio

Dashboard Confessional – A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar

Pete Yorn – Day I Forgot

Vendetta Red

Adam Green

The Darkness

Yellowcard

AFI

Relient K

Saves the Day

A Perfect Circle – Thirteenth Step

Story of the Year

Outkast

Kill Hannah

Jamison Parker EP

Something Corporate – North

White Stripes – Elephant

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever to Tell

The All American Rejects – Self-titled