The past 350+ days have been a fine year for new music releases, but its also been a pretty solid year for music releases that aren't new music per se. This would be the catch-all category that includes compilations, live albums, reissues and the like. Since these sorts of releases are very plentiful each year, this list isn't believed to necessary be exhaustive, but each of these listed are pretty great.

Bruce Springsteen - The Promise

Its not terribly hard to imagine a collection of unreleased material originally written and mostly recorded around 1978 during Darkness on the Edge of Town being great. The opening track, an alternate version of "Racing in the Street", unfolds over 6 minutes and makes the listener completely ready for the remaining 20 tracks over two discs. Across this many songs, there are plenty of opportunities to hear Springsteen's varying styles that have revealed themselves over the years. As good as his last few studio albums with the E Street Band have been, its nice to hear that older sound return to the forefront on this release, including the interesting cover of Patti Smith's "Because the Night".

John Prine - Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows

This is undoubtedly the best tribute compilation of the year. It's John Prine songs, which are already great, performed by a range of musicians that mostly reside in the indie folk/alt-country/bluegrass realm. This includes My Morning Jacket, Josh Ritter, Justin Vernon, Conor Oberst, Avett Brothers and others. This compilation accomplishes what most compilations does not, it actually lends itself to listening start-to-finish. The Lambchop contribution, "Six O'Clock News" kinda plods and Those Darlins' "Lets Talk Dirty in Hawaiian" is almost too kitschy, but these are minor issues with an otherwise excellent release.

The Weakerthans - Live at the Burton Cummings Theatre

The Weakerthans are not the sort of band that seems to necessitate a live album and, honestly, this one might not actually be necessary. Thing is, it sounds warm and fresh, giving that feeling that you might have even been there. The on-stage banter and witty anecdotes are included sparingly and the audience noise isn't distracting or disruptive. The recording was made in Winnipeg (Manitoba, that is), the band's hometown, so there's a certain added effect of reverence and pride, even when the entire room sings aloud in agreement that "The Guess Who Sucked", "The Jets were lousy anyway" and "I hate Winnipeg". It just wouldn't have been right for these sentiments to be immortalized if it were recorded anyplace else.

Weezer - Pinkerton

Do you know where you were on Tuesday, September 24, 1996? If you were laying in the backseat of your mom's car riding home from Magic Platter record store listening to the mysterious follow-up to Weezer's debut breakthrough, you do. There's always something special about buying an album the day it is released, or at least there used to be, before the days of leaks and iTunes (face it, the idea of rushing to your laptop to download an album on Tuesday isn't quite the same as making a special trip to the record store). Tuesdays were almost like a holiday each week and some Monday nights turned into an opportunity to sit in a parking lot until midnight waiting for the next big release. This big release ultimately tanked in sales and reviews, but now, 14 years later, it has been remastered, repackaged and rereleased. Not to worry, though, it is just as brutally honest and brutally uncomfortable as ever.

Rolling Stones - Exile On Main Street

This was probably the most-publicized reissue of the year. There's not a ton to say here other than its always been a great album and now its sound has been brought forward about 40 years. For a great commentary on this release, check out NPR's episode of All Songs Considered featuring Don Was.

Pavement - Quarantine the Past

In the indie rock universe, 2010 was the year of Pavement, despite the band not releasing any new music, be it an album or even a single song. They did, however, tour across the country and the globe playing songs that were all at least 10 years old to legions of fans, old and new. Twenty-three such songs were compiled on this "Best of" album that rolls the songs out in no particular order or theme. That's probably an apt sequence for the band, who somewhat unceremoniously wrapped up their reunion tour (not counting a couple of subsequent South American shows in November) at Matador 21 in Las Vegas on October 1 with sound problems and annoyance. Regardless of the inconsistencies of the record and the band, even 23 old songs were a welcome addition to 2010.

Addendum:

Nada Surf - If I Had A Hi-Fi

It's hard to decide if it is harder to believe that Nada Surf are still releasing albums in a relevant manner or that Nada Surf were once MTV darlings complete with rock-solid "one hit wonder" cred. Regardless, they have managed to navigate past the latter and put together several great albums. That said, they are entitled to put out something like an album of covers. One of the highlights is a rendition of "Enjoy the Silence" by Depeche Mode in full blown Nada Surf mode, but there's also covers of songs by Spoon, Kate Bush, The Moody Blues and a great track by Mercromina sung in Spanish. Maybe there should be an album of other bands covering "Popular" just to take it full circle?

Addendum 2:

Girl Talk - All Day

Simply put, this is good for listening to at the gym. It's interesting and makes for fun while picking out all the different songs mashed up within. That's about as far as it goes since all components of the songs are songs that have already been written, performed and released. It can't really be judged by the same standards as new music, hence its presence here.

Girls - Broken Dreams Club EP

EPs are not usually significant relative to their full-length counterparts, but this is another great effort by San Francisco band that released Album in 2009. The mood of this EP is noticeably restrained and morose, even employing a slide guitar on the title track.

As you may already know, Sporcle has to be the best time waster on the internet these days. Even their tagline, "Mentally Stimulating Diversions", indicates such. That probably does not go far enough, though. There is seriously a quiz for almost everything you can think of. Most of them are actually fairly interesting and challenging in an enjoyable way, to boot. Well, one of this week's new entries has to be one of the most interesting yet. It deals with naming countries that are the world-leader in fairly random categories on a per-capita basis.

Some of the most interesting results:

-Luxembourg has the highest per capita alcohol consumption rate in the world, 15.6 liters per person per year. That doesn't seem like an extreme amount, but bear in mind, this isn't referring to alcoholic beverages. This is the actual alcohol in those drinks itself. So if an average drink (adjusted for differences between regular beer, liquor and wine) has 10% alcohol by volume, that would be 156 liters of alcohol-containing beverages per person per year. That's over 41 gallons, or 5200 ounces. So yeah, 5200 ounces would be 433 12-ounce beers per person per year, or about 1.2 per day. It definitely adds up.

-If you only consider beer, the Czech Republic is the leader of the world with 158.6 liters per person per year. The math works out roughly similar to the calculations above, except most Czech beer does not come near to 10% ABV. It's closer to half of that, 5-6% (think pilsner, pale lager, etc). That means that an average Czech has about 2.5 beers per day. When you adjust for demographics to exclude children and those adults that don't drink (if such thing exists), the actual average is probably more like 4+ per day. That's pretty strong, especially since most people would probably assume the English, Irish or Germans to drink more beer in the first place.

-If various forms of alcohol are particularly appealing to the Luxembourgers and Czechs, coffee is particularly appealing to...the Fins. The average person in Finland consumes 12kg, or about 24.5 pounds. This is kinda hard to put into practical terms since nobody really quantifies their coffee consumption by weight, but by volume, or number of cups. According to one (of many, many, many) estimations, one pound of coffee can make 2.25 gallons. So, that would seem to indicate that Fins drink over 55 gallons of coffee a year. This number isn't vastly different than Czech Republic's beer consumption, but it stands to reason that, despite Starbucks' best efforts, a cup of coffee is typically smaller than a serving of beer. If an average cup of coffee is defined as 6 ounces, the Fins have 1,173 cups of coffee a year, or over 3 a day. Again, this number doesn't seem too extreme, but not everyone drinks coffee, so among coffee-drinkers, the number is probably at least 4 or 5. That starts to get pretty intense.

-Just for a quick comparison's sake, the leading tea drinkers are the Turks, who consume an average of 2.1 kg (4.4 lb) a year. Apparently 2.5 grams of tea makes a 6 oz. cup, so an average Turk has just shy of 800 cups per year, or about 2.2 a day.

-From a technology standpoint, there are some pretty impressive numbers. Residents of Switzerland, Malta and United Arab Emirates have an average of 0.86 computers, 0.77 televisions and 1.7 cellphones per citizen, respectively. That means an average person in UAE is more likely to have two cellphones than one and a family of 4 in Switzerland has at least 3, but more likely 4 computers among them. Does this mean a poor Swiss family only has 2 computers at home? Of course, these numbers include computers in the workplace and such, but obviously not everyone has a computer at work, so the difference has to come from somewhere. The UAE cellphone numbers seem quite bizarre, though. Based on personal experience, it seems like pretty much everyone has a cellphone and probably some kind of phone number associated with their job, even if they share it with others. However, this is talking only about cellphones, which are largely used by only one person each and not shared among groups. With the average in UAE being 1.7 and there having to be a few people without even one, that means it is not uncommon to see people there with 3 or more each. The Malta television numbers don't really jump out since even the idea of one person having 2 TVs isn't that crazy (right???) this day in age. A television almost seems like standard equipment in a house, like a sink or toilet. The necessary distinction is that Malta has 0.77 TVs per person, not per home.

For the sake of brevity (ha!), here's a quick rundown of some others:

-An average Greek smokes over 3,000 cigarettes a year, or about 8.25 a day.
-The Republic of Georgia has 16.335 library books per resident.
-One in every 690 Argentinians are psychologists.
-One is every 86.2 Norwegians are millionaires (in US dollars).

Hmmph.

So, apparently only one kind soul got the memo about writing in your picks for the best album of 2010. This either indicates that:

(a) You thought 2010 was an awful year for music
(b) Nobody actually reads this
(c) You're scared
(d) All of the above

Even after all that, its funny how things just have a way of working themselves out sometimes...

Tonight, a contender for the national championship of college football is playing a game. The game is being played on Friday night in Moscow in a college basketball arena. All of this is true...strange, but true.

Say hello to the Kibbie Dome, home of the University of Idaho Vandals in Moscow, Idaho.



Sorta cute, ain't it? Or maybe "quaint" is a better word. A Division I football stadium that seats 16,000 is definitely quaint. Either way, the University of Idaho is so proud of this place that it is home to their football team...and basketball team...and tennis team...and track & field team. Quite quaint and versatile, no?

Ok, this post isn't about the shortcomings of the athletic facilities at the State of Idaho's flagship and oldest university. It's a swell place and has been for 120+ years, which is fine. It is, however, a post that further demonstrates why a team cannot be given equal credence when it plays in a conference where a late-season intra-conference & intrastate rivalry road game can be played in a place such as the Kibbie Dome.

A season-opening victory over Virginia Tech is a nice win. So is an early season win over Oregon State. A late season win over Nevada will also be an accomplishment. Problem is, nobody would consider these to be great wins if they didn't show up on the schedule with opponents such as Wyoming, New Mexico State, Toledo, San Jose State, Louisiana Tech and Utah State. By beating VaTech, Oregon State and, presumably, Nevada, Boise State will be no better than the following teams, based solely on head-to-head wins: James Madison, Washington, UCLA and Hawaii. In a major conference, Boise's three "biggest" victories would be considered "getting the job done" and "having a solid season", or maybe nothing more than "halfway to being bowl eligible".

It is a simple fact that Boise State is better than those 4 teams. Look no further than the game last weekend when Boise beat Hawaii by 35. The argument is not if Boise is a good team. They are. The argument is, regardless of who they're willing to play, does Boise deserve a spot in the championship game when they've played such inferior opponents on a weekly basis that their starters don't even have to play (or play hard) beyond 10 minutes into the game? Again, it is not Boise's fault that they are able to jump out to giant leads in many of their games, but it is also not an SEC (or Pac Ten/Big Ten/Big 12) team's fault that they just so happen to be in a conference where almost every game is an absolute battle that requires maximum utilization for a full 60 minutes (or more).

Boise has proven they are capable of beating good teams from major conferences (VT, Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl) and other small conference powerhouses (TCU in last year's Fiesta Bowl). They would also have a very good chance of beating whoever they might play in this year's BCS Championship, be it Oregon (who they swept in a home-and-home series in 2008-09, as Byron Hout will remind you), TCU (see above), Ohio State (does anyone really think they're that good?) or Auburn (with or without the blameless one). However, don't let it be forgotten that TCU beat Boise to end the 2008 season and Boise lost back-to-back to Hawaii and East Carolina to end the 2007 season. Just for good measure, the only time in recent history that Boise played a game in an SEC stadium was at the start of the 2005 season and they left Athens, Georgia with a 48-13 loss. That same season, that same Georgia team that was 35 points better than Boise, lost two SEC conference games and narrowly escaped with wins in two more.

So, while their blue turf and blue jerseys can be fun to look at, these Tuesday, Thursday and Friday night games are excruciating to watch because its just further reminders of why Boise is what it is. Even ESPN, who does a LOT to promote Boise, will only give them primetime TV slots on nights that people don't even realize football is on. Football on Thursday nights has started to become more of a common thing and yet still, ESPN put the Pitt/UCONN game on last night and relegated the Potato State showdown to Friday night, when the only football people care about is being played by high schoolers, albeit often in stadiums larger than the one Boise is playing in tonight.

Bus.

Thankfully, as of 85 minutes ago (as this is typed), Conan O'Brien is back on television. It was a sad and uncomfortable past few months and this period of time will be remembered more for what Conan did off of television than what Jay Leno did on it. His tour, his musical forays, his Twitter and his entire persona transcended a late-night talk show slot, proving that there is more to life than who hosts which show and what time it airs.

Tonight's debut on TBS felt very natural and did not really seem like anything had changed. The show felt like it was truly his own, which makes sense since there's no standard to live up to. No Jay Leno, no Johnny Carson, no Steve Allen, no precedent. The comedy bits seemed to work pretty well, the guests seemed to be receptive to their roles and, perhaps most importantly, Conan seemed OK with what was transpiring. (It's amazing what millions of dollars can make you seem OK with).

Of course, as nice as it was to see Conan on the airwaves again, there always has to be a negative and that negative is George Lopez. George Lopez is painful. Painfully not funny. Painfully awful. Of course George Lopez had to name drop his predecessor and his time slot within the first 30 seconds of tonight's show, as if that would make him somehow funny by association. So far, the most substantive thing out of his mouth on this show has been that he likes Antoine Dodson's hair straight. Yep, G-Lo likes Antoine Dodson's hair straight. Sadly, Antoine Dodson is a more legitimate entertainer than George Lopez. Even sadder, a better night of television would include Antoine Dodson hosting a talk show and George Lopez being a guest that only gets a few brief minutes to be unwatchable.

A small saving grace for what TBS is doing once Conan's show ends each night is that they're repeating that night's episode again after George Lopez's thing goes off. That means two hours of Conan for one hour of G-Lo, which is a step in the right direction. At least this gives people an hour to brush teeth, have a snack and update blogs in between opportunities to see that night's episode of Conan. The only problem is, Glopez comes on again after Conan goes off again. As if you needed any more reminders of exactly how wide the gap between the haves and have nots is in late night talk shows. Mercifully, there is absolutely no reason to be awake at 1am CST, so maybe George's show will go the same route as Arsenio Hall's, Tom Snyder's (RIP), Jon Stewart's, Chevy Chase's, John McEnroe's and (cringe) Magic Johnson's. It really needs to.

Fingers crossed...

Just a reminder, this is not a football blog or a blog dedicated to any other sport, either. Most of you would probably rather read about something else, so now's your chance to be a part of the magic. Heck, your involvement could actually help create a more informative experience for your fellow readers. With that in mind, your mission is as such:

As the year 2010 draws to a close, the holidays draw near and sunlight past 5pm ceases to be a reality, there are important preparations being made. No, contrary to popular belief, an annual "BEST OF" music list does not just appear out of thin air. That said, your input is welcome here, so leave comments on this post with your suggestions for the Best of 2010. It's been a pretty solid year for new music so far and there are plenty of worthy candidates, but it'd be a shame to leave out a deserving act. Feel free to put in a few supporting words as well.

Just to get the ball rolling, here are a few appetizers...

-The Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
-The National - High Violet
-Beach House - Teen Dream

Your turn!

At this moment, what is going through the mind of the dude smoking a cigarette on the balcony across the breezeway from this hotel room? Ideas:

1. I love the beach, where visible buttcracks are much more generally accepted.

2. Tuesday is alright for fighting.

3. This cigarette is far more delicious than the one 5 minutes ago.

4. Would a Yosemite Sam or Tasmanian Devil tattoo better characterize my personality?

5. The music of Trapt and Disturbed really speaks to me.

6. I need to talk to my financial planner about a 401(k).

7. Is it still considered "domestic abuse" if your girlfriend is from another country?

8. I wonder what kind of cargo I could fill these cargo shorts with?

9. If anyone told me to put a shirt on, I'd be ready to tussle.

10. Who is this sicko that keeps glancing out his window at me?

Truer words have never come from the wall of a small barbershop from childhood:

"Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."

On average, how many times could this be said in a given day?

-There is nothing better than hearing Brent Musberger call an Alabama football game. Ok, there are about 1.9 billion things better than that. In addition to those 1.9 billion another 737.9 billion things are better than hearing Musberger call a game involving any other team. All the more reason to go to games, not watch at home.

-Well, if going to the game isn't an option because you're traveling for work, it is only fair that said work travel take you to the beach. A good beach...and on the beach.

-It's a good thing this game finally started. Watching the soggy noodle fight that was the Michigan/Notre Dame game was a waste of time. Blah. A lot of these "games" on "Monster Saturday" have been blah to say the least. A quick recap:

Michigan = blah, but Denard Robinson is quite exciting...against Notre Dame.
Notre Dame = blah, but at least its exciting when they play Denard Robinson.
Ohio State = appears to be pretty good.
Miami = uh yeah, either not good or Ohio State is better than pretty good.
Oklahoma = good, so long as not playing a team from Utah.
Florida State = ha.

-#42 for Penn State just talked trash after a hit delivered on a punt returner that called fair catch.

-This isn't going to a live-blog of the Alabama/Penn State game or anything like that, although it easily could be. However, sharing with the world (OK, a VERY small percentage of the world) the first thoughts that might come to mind while watching an Alabama game might be offensive and potentially image-destroying.

-Alabama's offensive star so far is Kevin Norwood. Alabama's defensive star so far is Will Lowery. On a team with so many big names, it is always encouraging when a couple of relative unknowns can step up against a ranked opponent in the first quarter.

-Seeing Mark Ingram chasing Trent Richardson down the sideline on a long run, then insisting on getting every last blade of grass out of Richardson's facemask after the run, is great.

-As this is typed, Tennessee is leading Oregon 6-0. For the sake of the SEC and Southern football in general, its sorta nice to see this, but not if it means Tennessee is actually going to be pretty good this year. If that's the case, let the west coast hippies beat them by 50.

-Speaking of west coast hippies, Boise State had an impressive win on a neutral field against Virginia Tech last week. Today Virginia Tech lost to James Madison on their own field. Boise is a great team and among the best in the nation, but don't make too many excuses for them.