Clicky Clicky Music Blog: Favorite Tracks of 2007 [Imeem Playlist]

If you're like us, you can't be arsed to read all of those year-end lists. We don't even like to read our own. But we think the whole list thing can be greatly improved with the addition of some on-demand audio streams. Lo and behold, music social networking play Imeem has stepped into the breach -- and allowed us to use all these hackneyed phrases -- by soliciting lists from various and sundry bloggerati, present company included. And so we present below our favorite tracks of 2007. As with our albums list, inclusion in the list was based solely on amount of plays each track earned in our ITunes. Only one track per band was allowed, which is one of the reasons there are some tracks here not from our best records list. There are others, but they are not interesting. Two final notes: you can check out Imeem's amalgamation of a whole mess of lists right here, and we can't believe the Dntel's "Breakfast In Bed" featuring vocals by Conor Oberst is not in this list. That's a hell of a track. But ITunes doesn't lie.

Sleeping In The Aviary And The Perfect "Pop Song" [MP3s]

When you title a song "Pop Song" you'd best know what you are doing. Fortunately, we can think of three examples where bands surpass the expectations set by being cheeky. Certainly R.E.M. succeeded swimmingly with "Pop Song '89," a tune far less generic than its tongue-in-cheek name evokes. And Tullycraft's "Pop Songs Your New Boyfriend's Too Stupid To Know About" takes R.E.M.'s meta-queries on interpersonal relations and fashions them into twee means for defeating a romantic rival. Even so, while the cut is long on cleverness, it doesn't rock. This is not a problem with Sleeping In The Aviary's "Pop Song." The 83-second blast of verses, choruses and yeahs is second for second the best power-pop jam of 2007 to date.

The four-year-old trio based out of Madison, Wisconsin has brevity on the brain, as its recently released Oh, This Old Thing? clocks in at a lean 20 minutes. A second winner from the set is "Another Girl," an MP3 of which we've posted below along with "Pop Song." Sleeping In The Aviary just completed a tour in support of the record, which included a local date at the Abbey Lounge in Cambridge a couple weeks back we missed because we had to work late. Those with a yen to see the band make the rock sounds in person have a few opportunities later in the spring and summer. We've posted the few currently confirmed dates below. Oh, This Old Thing? was released Feb. 6 on Science Of Sound. We're also posting a link to an album stream that we recommend.

Sleeping In the Aviary -- "Pop Song" -- Oh, This Old Thing?
Sleeping In The Aviary -- "Another Girl" -- Oh, ThiS Old Thing?
[right click and save as; full album stream here]
[buy Oh, This Old Thing? from Science Of Sound here]

Sleeping In The Aviary: InterWeb | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

06.07 -- Rancho Relaxo -- Toronto, ON
06.29 -- King Club -- Madison, WI
07.14 -- Mad Planet -- Milwaukee, WI

Today's Hotness: Mendoza Line, Smashing Pumpkins, Built To Spill

>> And we're back. We're so far behind that we're not sure where to begin. Let's just set 'em up and knock 'em down shall we? In addition to this round-up, keep your eyes peeled in the coming days for track reviews for The Mendoza Line (in the meantime, check out the mother lode of information about the tumultuous state of the band -- yikes! -- in the comments to Frank's Chromewaves post today) and Sleeping In The Aviary as well as our show review of the Fields/Blonde Redhead gig Wednesday night.

>> NME reports here that Smashing Pumpkins 3.0 (or is it 4.0? There was someone before Auf Der Mar but after D'Arcy, wasn't there? The '90s all start to blend together after a while) will include bassist Ginger Reyes and guitarist Jeff Schroeder. We don't know either of them by name, but Schroeder plays with Lassie Foundation, who we've heard good things about from our guy at Rhapsody. Anyway, NME cites reports in the Chicago Trib and MTV News while also reporting that nothing is confirmed by anybody. Smashing Pumpkins will release the (attempted comeback) record Zeitgeist July 7. And if it is anywhere near as good as Gish we'll eat one of our many hats.

>> Pantsfork reports here that three Built To Spill records will get reissued on vinyl in limited editions of 2,000. Unfortunately, none of these records is the band's high water mark and sophomore set There's Nothing Wrong With Love. Instead, Built To Spill's major label releases Perfect From Now On, Keep It Like A Secret and You In Reverse get the nod. The trio will be released by Warner Brothers as double LPs. The band will play at Boston's Avalon nightclub, assuming that the club isn't shut down for the renovation and remodeling of the property described in this Boston Globe article.

>> Quick ones: Ride's not reforming; our senior year we had Sun Ra Arkestra and Cub; Qui, the trio newly expanded to include David Yow, actually signed to Ipecac; the Operation Ivy reissue we've mentioned here and here previously is delayed again, this time until an unspecified date in the fall; the forthcoming Photon Band release has also been delayed [scroll down to comments], unfortunately for an indefinite period of time; Last.FM is adding videos to its music and social networking service; a preview of the forthcoming Dinosaur Jr. DVD and clips of J Mascis playing live at VPRO in Holland.