ROLL ON YOU BEARS!

Beating Stanford as a 7 point underdog at the Farm to take the Cardinal out of the Rose Bowl race?

As the commercials say, priceless.

When the Bears fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter, it looked like Cal was in for a long, long night. But once they let Toby Gerhart get that 61-yard run out of his system early, they mostly held him in check for the rest of the evening. That seems like a strange thing to say about a running back who scored four touchdowns, but trust me - it could have been a lot worse.

Cal dominated the second quarter and easily could have led 21-14 at halftime, but I felt pretty good about them narrowing the gap to 14-10. The third quarter is when they really asserted themselves, marching up and down the field and allowing Stanford very little - and it sure didn't look like that was the same offense that rang up 50 on Oregon and USC.

The fourth quarter was the kind of Big Game craziness that we haven't seen in a while, and have rarely seen at Stanford (for some reason, most of the classic games have taken place in Berkeley). On the last drive it looked as if Stanford would pull it out, but fortunately for the Bears, quarterback Andrew Card picked exactly the right time to begin looking like the redshirt freshman that he is. Interception, game over, 34-28 win, and all of a sudden Cal moves ahead of "the hottest team in the country" in the Pac-10 standings.

It was a great game; it was a great Big Game; and just maybe it taught Jim Harbaugh a thing or two about karma. And now it looks like we'll have a great Big Game rivalry for a while yet, since the Cardinal's loss probably takes Harbaugh out of the running for a "higher profile" job.

But back to the most important point - Cal beat Stanford, for the 7th time in 8 seasons.

Top 25 Bonus - Tops of the Pops, Boys Edition

“Extreme Ways,” Moby. Moby is not likely to ever make another album as great as “Play,” but his releases over the past decade were remarkably diverse and consistently good. This song may be better known as “Bourne’s Theme.”



“Lose Yourself,” Eminem. Every now and then, I think that this might just be the most exciting piece of music released in the past 10 years.



“Hey Ya,” Outkast. And then at other times, I think that this might just be the most exciting piece of music released in the past 10 years.

Don't Look Now...

...but the most exciting pitcher of our time is a guy who looks like he's 16 years old, and is currently facing a misdemeanor charge for marijuana possession.

This doesn't bother me...I just thought it was worth mentioning.

Top 25 Bonus: Tops of the Pops, Girls Edition

Some honorable mentions to keep the momentum going. Stay tuned...#12 is on the way.



“Since U Been Gone,” Kelly Clarkson. Never bought the album, but always loved the song. Still the best single to come out of "American Idol."



“White Flag,” Dido. From the excellent "Life for Rent," which struck me almost like an easy listening version of Joy Division - and I really mean that as a compliment.



“Hands Clean,” Alanis Morissette. From "Under Rug Swept." I first heard this song on Letterman; I had fallen asleep on the couch, and awoke to Alanis and the band playing the hell out of it. I was shocked at the time; I'm still surprised today to hear her pull this one off as effectively as she did.

MNF Crew II

I'm a firm believer in the adage that you learn more about an announcing team during a bad game than you do from their work on a good one (actually, I'm not even sure that's an adage - maybe I just made it up). As good as Al Michaels and John Madden were for good games, they were pretty bad on the bad ones. Before you knew it, the conversation would turn to whatever celebrity's path John's Maddencruiser had crossed that week, or the turducken, or one of Al's occasional forays into the political world.

So I'm prepared to say that last night's game - which was a real stinker, a terrible game - was the best job I've seen this year from the current MNF crew. Gruden and Jaworski never gave up on the analysis, and it was as if they were offended by what they were seeing on the field - genuinely angry, for instance, that Brady Quinn kept making the same mistake over and over again. And while there is still way too much yelling, at least I'm hopeful that the team can continue to improve and become one of the better ones on the tube - especially now that we know Gruden plans to take at least three years off from coaching. I'd almost pick them ahead of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms right now, based on their blah performance Sunday morning covering a game that was actually exciting - somehow managing to suck the life right out of it.

There was also a nice production moment last night, when they showed a picture of ex-Browns star Leroy Kelly drawn by a young Jon Gruden, who apparently was a passionate Browns fan as a kid. Nice moment.

But the best moment of the night, and the best line I've heard in a football game all season, was when Gruden, obviously still feeling the sting from the Browns leaving Cleveland for Baltimore, made the comment, with some passion behind it, "You could never have the Baltimore Ravens play a throwback uniform game, because if they did, they'd be the Cleveland Browns."

Good one, Jon.

Top 25 Honorable Mention: "Hard Candy," Counting Crows

Counting Crows were not what you'd call prolific during this decade. They released just two albums: "Hard Candy," which was their best since the amazing debut, and last year's "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings," which had its moments but overall was a disappointment.

But the highlights of "Hard Candy" were as good as anything the band has ever recorded, including the title song, which they perform in this clip.

And as many fans already know, Adam Duritz went to Cal, which is always a bonus during Big Game week. He's a huge Cal athletics booster, and on occasion has even worked as a sideline reporter during football games. You can bet your bottom dollar that he won't be wearing any red this week.

Bring It Home on Saturday!

GO BEARS!

More Handy Advice from College Coaches

Courtesy of both Urban Meyer and Nick Saban, in pre-game interviews shown this morning:

"We have to score points."

Ah...now I understand.

Top 25 Albums of the 2000s, #13 - "Fleet Foxes"

The trend of eponymously titled albums continues with "Fleet Foxes," the band's magnificent debut album, released just a little over a year ago.

Last November 3, I wrote about the album in a post I called "How Fleet Foxes Saved Me From the Presidential Campaign." It was a rant against the banality of the then-ongoing presidential campaign, and the morass into which the public discourse over that campaign had sunk (a morass that we will probably revisit next week, when Sarah Palin's book is released). But within the ranting, I also made some reasonably intelligent (or so I think) comments about the album:

"...more than any other single piece of music I’ve listened to in the past month, Fleet Foxes has provided an avenue for escape from the insanity of this campaign. Based in Seattle, the band is probably about to hit it big, because if Rolling Stone writes a feature on you, that usually means something. The band describes its music as “baroque harmonic pop jams,” and that description is as apt as anything that I could come up with. From the first strains of “Sun It Rises,” which sound like something straight out of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, to the end of “Oliver James,” the album is a perfectly realized piece of music, from a band that sounds as if it has been recording for twenty years, rather than just the few that it has been together.In the Rolling Stone article, band leader Robin Pecknold makes reference to The Beach Boys and Pet Sounds, and you can hear some of that influence on Fleet Foxes, particularly in the harmonies and the falsetto singing. On some songs, particularly “White Winter Hymnal” and “He Doesn’t Know Why,” the only way to do the vocals justice is to call them breathtakingly beautiful.

Interestingly, although the band is American, the record makes me think of some British artists of long (and even longer) ago: Aztec Camera, Big Country, and even Nick Drake.The musicianship is also extraordinary, although it may be too laid back for some – think of a tight as a drum Grateful Dead, and you get the idea. There is nary a note out of place, and that might be off-putting for some. But when you’re looking to escape a poisonous atmosphere like the one surrounding the presidential campaign, I can’t think of a better alternative. The middle section of the album – “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” through “He Doesn’t Know Why” – is probably its strongest, though right now my favorite song would have to be “Blue Ridge Mountains.”

The line I'd point to is "perfectly realized piece of music," and it's a claim that I'd stick with today. "Fleet Foxes" has that rare ability to transport the listener to another world - one where the stress and the little difficulties of everyday life just melt away. There isn't a weak song on the album, and one can only hope that the band didn't use up all the good ones on the debut. But even if that proves to be true, there will always be "Fleet Foxes" - my pick for the #13 album of the decade.

Quote of the Day

"Nothing can replace the aesthetic heft of an LP, or the sensual comfort of analog grooves being so charged by the physical friction of a diamond stylus."

- Thurston Moore, Sonic Youth

25 Years Ago Today...

...Madonna's album "Like A Virgin" was released.

Top 25 Honorable Mention: U2's "All That You Can't Leave Behind"

When I first started thinking about this list, I would have all but guaranteed that U2’s “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” would be somewhere on it. But after repeated listens, it dawned on me that this is really not a great album, but rather a very good one that has three magnificent songs – all among the band’s very best – on it: “Beautiful Day,” “Elevation,” and “When I Look at the World.” The rest isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but nor is it good enough – especially in comparison to those three – to be considered anything but high quality filler.

But – certainly good enough to merit an Honorable Mention.



“Beautiful Day”



“Elevation”

My Favorite Album Title of All Time

"The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire," mclusky

Top 25 of the 2000s, #14 - "Liz Phair"

Upon its release in 2003, “Liz Phair” was widely reviled by a vast majority of critics. And the critics didn’t stop with attacking the album – they attacked Phair herself, essentially accusing her of betrayal – betrayal of her artistic integrity, betrayal of her fans, betrayal of her debut album, “Exile in Guyville.” Some examples:

“In recent interviews, Phair has been upfront about her hopes of mainstream success, and claims full awareness that Liz Phair is likely to alienate many of her original fans. What she doesn't seem to realize is that a collection of utterly generic rocked-out pop songs isn't likely to win her many new ones. It's sad that an artist as groundbreaking as Phair would be reduced to cheap publicity stunts and hyper-commercialized teen-pop. But then, this is "the album she has always wanted to make"-- one in which all of her quirks and limitations are absorbed into well-tested clichés, and ultimately, one that may as well not even exist.”

- Matt LeMay, Pitchfork

“Now fast forward ahead ten years. Liz Phair now has a mere four albums under her belt, and today, this once-adored darling of indie rock is a mere shadow of her former self. She's left Chicago, gotten divorced, moved to Los Angeles, has taken singing lessons, and has employed some high-priced teen pop producers to help her sell albums. The resulting album, Liz Phair, is a highly overproduced, shallow, soulless, confused, pop-by-numbers disaster that betrays everything the woman stood for a decade ago, and most heinously, betrays all her original fans. In contrast to her of her infamous, audacious "flashing" cover photo for Exile in Guyvile, Phair's new album cover has her sitting, legs spread-eagled, a guitar placed suggestively between her legs, her hair stylishly tousled, looking like a cheesy Maxim photo shoot. It's an album by a woman who has completely lost touch with what made her music so great in the past; Ms. Phair has never been one to shy away from speaking her mind, and her new record is nothing more than a hearty "fuck you" to everyone who bought her first two albums, as she tries to become the next Avril Lavigne. Only, she fails at that, too, in spectacular fashion.”

- Adrien Begrand, PopMatters

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the first paragraphs of both reviews make reference to the indie success that Phair enjoyed with her debut album. That’s what really matters to both critics, and that’s why what they wrote about “Liz Phair” strikes me as so dishonest. In their own minds, they have defined what Phair was, what she stood for, and though they would probably deny it, the kind of music that she should have kept right on making. Confronted with something different (and my God, she used Avril Lavigne’s producers! Heresy!), they don’t know what to do, because ultimately the success of such a record would negate everything that they stand for.

And what’s really bullshit is the way that the latter review blasts Phair for her “stylishly tousled hair” and a “cheesy Maxim photo shoot,” when I’d be willing to be that half of the little indie punks fantasized for years about them being the ones having fun with “the blowjob queen.” The way this album was treated has always pissed me off, and it still does.

If “Liz Phair” was a crappy record, that would be one thing. But it isn’t – it’s a great record, and it can stand right alongside “Guyville” as her best work. If Phair did anything wrong, it was to stupidly say that the record would alienate her original fan base. That was like adding gasoline to the fire, and if she probably should have just stuck with something like “well, I hope they like it, but if they don’t, cool.”



“Extraordinary”



“Red Light Fever”



“Rock Me”

The other song I want to mention is "Little Digger," which Phair wrote about her young son's first encounter with her new boyfriend. How anyone in their right mind could call such a song a "betrayal" of anything is beyond me.

Believe it or not, I’m really not the only person in the world who thinks this. None other than Robert Christgau loved the album (the only major critic I’ve ever been able to find who did):

“Scandalized? How dumb. I can't explain the technical stuff, but I'd describe the Matrix's sound with Lavigne as "generalized." No matter who produced what (which since I did get all five right must mean something), that's how “Liz Phair” comes across--keybs everywhere, voice big and in tune. Only with Phair, this generalization--while definitely ambitious, tsk tsk--is also an act of love (toward Christina fans and such) and a reaffirmation of the sexual appetites she's indulged since she was exiled in Guyville, a sobriquet she devised to insult the indie world oh so long ago. Five years later, she put in quality time as a matron-artiste; now, single again at 36, she further insults the indie world by successfully fusing the personal and the universal, challenging lowest-common-denominator values even as it fellates them. You want her to express herself? She just did.”

You tell ‘em, Robert.

Top 25 Honorable Mention: Beck

I feel really bad about leaving Beck off out of the Top 25. He released five albums over the course of the decade, and they’re all of “Honorable Mention” quality. The two best are “Sea Change” and “Guero,” and in honor of those (both of which came close to cracking the list), here are my two favorite songs from each:



“Lost Cause”



“Lonesome Tears”



“Que Onda Guero”



“Farewell Ride”