1) Flags - This Gift - Sons and Daughters

“Flags” is one of the more muscular numbers off This Gift, which is generally how I like this band. My favorite songs of theirs always have that deep, growling bass line. This track also a howling guitar solo too, which is a real bonus.

2) Docudrama - Sweet Revenge - Bangs

Guitars with slight AC/DC and Sabbath tinges, girly call and response vocals and lots and lots of handclaps. What’s not to love?

3) (I’m A) Donkey For Your Love - Let’s Drag Our Feet! - BOAT

Falsettos are funny. Animal imagery, mixtapes growing on trees, unabashed romanticism fuel this great, great pop number. Yes, the chorus really does say “I’m A Donkey For Your Love!” No false advertisement here!

4) Swimming Pools - We Brave Bee Stings And All - Thao Nguyen

Nguyen’s album isn’t particularly political, but “Swimming Pools” plays with the idea of making the world a better place for the kids that come after her: “We brave, beestings and all / we don’t dive we CANNONBALL / we splash our eyes full of chemicals / just so there’s none left for little girls” This song also a nifty banjo track.

5) “Burn, Don’t Freeze!” - The Hot Rock - Sleater-Kinney

This has always been one of my favorite, underrated S-K tracks. It’s a little puzzlebox of a song, with Corin and Carrie actually singing two completely different songs that bounce in and out of each other, complementing and counterpunching each other along the way. Extending their guitar interplay to the vocal melodies and lyrics, it’s a logical extreme that remains emotionally satisfying while being insanely complex.

6) The Same Fire - June - Bishop Allen

Bishop Allen actually cranked out an EP a month for a whole year in 2006, most of which ended up on their full length. This is one of the tracks that didn’t make it onto the album, despite it being a mainstay of their setlists. The throwaway reading of “goddamn… you were beautiful” gets me every time.

7) Autoclave - Heretic Pride - Mountain Goats

Heretic Pride is the early front-runner for my 2008 album of the year. To quote John Darnielle himself, this song is about “people whose hearts involuntary pulverize any good feelings that come within a city block of them.” It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it too… awkwardly.

8) Gardenia - Real Emotional Trash - Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks

“I kinda like the way you dot your J’s … with giant circles of naivety!” is the kind of wry, whimsical lyrical turn that Malkmus pulls off every now and then that just flips my shit. In an album full of jammy goodness, “Gardenia” is condensed hooky perfection.

9) Naked If I Want To - Jukebox - Cat Power

Stuffed onto the bonus disc of Jukebox, this is Chan Marshall’s second pass at the Moby Grape song. The sparseness of the first cover was fantastic, but I think there’s something to be said for this soulful New Chan style.

10) Bryn - Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend’s album is a bit too “college kids do world music” for me, but the trippy little guitar lick carries “Bryn” quite a ways for me, even past the singer’s goofy calypso accent.

11) Wild Mountain Nation - Wild Mountain Nation - Blitzen Trapper

The first few notes make me think I’m listing to “Signs” by The Five Man Electrical Band. I liked this Malkmus bit about Blitzen Trapper opening for them and this song in particular: “I was blown away by that (song). But then Janet’s like, ‘That song is absolutely amazing, but don’t worry, not every song on the album is that good. They’re not going to completely shred us.’ “

12) Night You’re Beautiful - Shots - Ladyhawk

Ladyhawk’s kind of the band for people that like The National and Band of Horses but think they should hunker down and just rock some ass. Great song, great album, great band. Horrible band name (and I like that movie).

13) “Aly, Walk With Me” - Lust Lust Lust - Raveonettes

The Raveonettes throw together a sexy, slightly trip-hop beat with Morricone guitar lines and a few guitar washes and make a walk through Portland sound like a 60’s spy movie.

14) Shake A Fist - Made In the Dark - Hot Chip

Who puts a 5 minute dance track at the end of mix? I do, cuz that kinda shit just wears me out and makes me tired.

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The numbers are persuasive.

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The LA Weekly has a little interview with Paul Thomas Anderson as he ruminates on the Valley, baseball and There Will Be Blood, arguably his best film to date. The most important bit though, is the secret origin of Daniel Plainview’s “I Drink Your Milkshake” monologue:

“I must admit to you where that came from,” Anderson says giddily, noting that the eccentric metaphor comes straight from the congressional transcripts of the 1920s “Teapot Dome” scandal, in which New Mexico Republican Senator Albert Fall was convicted of accepting bribes for the oil-drilling rights to public lands in California and Wyoming from several oil-industry fat cats (including Edward Doheny).

“I think it was Albert Fall, who was asked to describe drainage before Congress,” Anderson continues. “And his way of describing it was, ‘If you have a milk shake and I have a milk shake, and my straw reaches across the room…’ I’m sure I embellished it and changed it around and made it more Plainview. But Fall used the word ‘milk shake,’ and I thought it was so great. It was mad to see that word among all this official testimony and terminology — a fucking milk shake. I get so happy every time I hear that word.”

If he gets happy at just a mention of the word, he should hear my impersonation of Daniel Plainview singing Kelis’s “Milkshake.”

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