[kj] The Only Poll That Matters - T.B.'s Favorite Albums of '06

[TB]

IMO, kind of a so-so year for good albums. Nothing I can really say was a 
clear "Best Album" for '07. Still, I did and still do enjoy the following in 
no real order:

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadia
Raconteurs - The Raconteurs
Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam
Tool - 10,000 Days
The Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops
Wolfmother - Wolfmother
Iron Maiden - A Matter Of Life And Death
Buckcherry - 15
Motorhead - Kiss Of Death (best Motorhead album in years)

*These two following albums proved to be my biggest surprises of '07 - 
highly recommended.....
The Glitterati - The Glitterati
Demolition Doll Rods - There Is  A  Difference

Best reissues/remastered cds - the first two albums by The Pretenders

Concerts I caught in '07, all in LA except where noted:

Black Halos (Huntington Beach)
The Cult
Secret Machines
Pitbull Daycare / Revolting Cocks / Ministry
Peaches / Bauhaus / Nine Inch Nails (Irvine)
Raconteurs
The Glitterati / Circus Diablo
Groovie Ghoulies / Demolition Doll Rods / The Cramps
Guns n' Roses

Best Show:
The Cramps and Demolition Doll Rods at the Hollywood House of Blues on 
Halloween weekend followed closely by Peaches, Bauhaus and Nine Inch Nails 
in Irvine at the end of Summer make my best shows of 2006 list. I have to 
say I was very pleasantly surprised by the Guns n' Roses show I caught at 
the Universal aka Gibson Amphitheater a few weeks ago, the 2nd night of a 3 
show stand. Original Izzy Stradlin joined the band for most of the last 3rd 
of the show which was a solid 2 1/2 hours long. I was really expecting a 
trainwreck featuring the Axl Rose Ego show and it turned out to be a mostly 
solid concert with Rose in top vocal form.

Biggest letdowns:

The Panic Channel's debut album. It was almost a given it was gonna be a big 
dud. Still, I've always been a huge Jane's Addiction fan and hoped against 
hope that this would be something decent. However, I was floored that a band 
that is essentially 50% Jane's Addiction (or 75% depending on what you think 
of the Jane's "Strays" lineup) with a new singer came up with such a bland, 
boring and musically unadventurous album. Killing Joke's HFTBOH turned out 
to be a really lazy, poorly produced album which was a huge letdown compared 
to what I consider was their best album of their career in '03's self titled 
album. Other letdowns included Bruce Springsteen's "Seeger Sessions" cover 
song album which was an unfortunate turn towards outright hillbilly music. 
This guy wrote some great albums in the past but man, has he lost the plot.

T.B.