Because blasting "Whoomp! There it is" from the car stereo just isn't cool anymore.

There once was a time when I was familiar with new music. And not just the popular top 40 tunes - though as a DJ that's a majority of what I played when my boss was around to listen, when he was out of range it was a completely different story - but the good music. The up and coming artists that few had heard of but whose reps were trying so desperately to get air play for.

Hey Bossman. Remember that time you wouldn't let me add that new group to our playlist? What were they called? Oh yeah, right. Belle and Sebastian. You were right, they were never going to catch on.

And I wonder if he remembers when he first hired me out of college how I had to fight him on this little album from a relatively unknown Virginia band - Crash. Yeah, that Dave Matthews Band. No future ahead for them, huh?

Dumb ass.

Back then I had music reps throwing CDs at me. We were a teeny, tiny radio station that barely got any play outside of our front door, we barely had enough wattage to power a hair dryer, but we had a decent relationship with most of the major and minor record companies. They felt charitable and, hey, even if only five people listen that's still five more potential buyers of their bands' albums.

Today is a long way from then. Light years. Today I have no idea who half of the bands are on everyone's year end lists. So many lists! So many opportunities to feel like a musical dumb ass. My christ, I'm turning into my old boss.

So please help a woman out. What were your absolute favorite albums, artists or bands of 2007? And please tell me why. I could go to Rolling Stone and start downloading their faves off of iTunes but I'd bankrupt myself. I want to hear from real people, not music critics, why you love these songs. Let's face it, some music critics are - um - influenced in ways. The way I see it, if you paid for the album and continued to love it whether or not anyone was waiting for you to write something positive about it then those are the albums I want to know about.

I do have some requirements:

- The songs must be suitable for playing in front of my two year old since I do the majority of my listening in the car or while I'm making dinner/cleaning the house. She doesn't have to like them, but every other word can't be "f*ck this" or "c*cksucker that". Know what I mean? That pretty much leaves rap out.

- Do not, and I really mean DO NOT, recommend anything from the country charts. It's not going to happen. I'm intrigued by Lucinda Williams' latest album, and I suppose she could be labeled as country, but she's Lucinda Williams. 'Nuff said if you ask me.

- If you're wondering where my musical tastes lie these days, a few of my favorite downloads from this year were from Iron and Wine, the new Robert Plant/Alison Krass album, and the music from the movie "Once". Especially that last one. Those are some pretty mellow examples but I'm fairly mellow these days (see the first requirement). However, if you have an opinion on the new Linkin Park album I would like to know about that.

- The music doesn't have to be radio-friendly. I like the indie stuff. It makes me feel young and hip. (I don't want to hear that no one who is truly hip actually uses the word "hip". They probably don't use the word "groovy" either. Lalalalalala.)

My credit card thanks you.


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Due to the holidays and my general laziness the ROFL Awards are being postponed this month and will be picked up again next month. That means you get to nominate funny posts from either December or January! I'll be bugging you all about that again later. Oh yes, there will be bugging.