From "lip-stinking" to iPod envy, this past year was another whirlwind of technology gone wild and taste often misplaced. Bob Dylan went from hawking Victoria's Secret to his new signature wine, Planet Waves, and while perhaps better suited to sponsor a line of rolling papers, the Doobie Brothers followed suit with their own private label, Doobie Red. Joe Perry of Aerosmith is fighting for shelf space for his own line of hot sauce, under the Rock Your World Boneyard Brew label.

The most satisfying delight of the year? Discovering the next generation of file-sharing karma, with sites such as (http://www.easytree.org) serving up live music, demos, and rarities as fast as your high-speed Internet access can download them. Using new, sophisticated compression/transmission formats including .shn and .flac, these "torrent traders" are the ultimate secret stash, where fans upload live concerts days after their performance and share them with the world. Just as thrilling is the concept of "liberating" bootleg recordings that fans used to have to pay ridiculous sums of money for, now free for the taking (and burning onto 10-cent blank CDs). Musicians seem overwhelmingly nonchalant over the concept, with the home-taping/home-spreading mania not just centered on Grateful Dead or Phish tapes. From complete collections of Beatles' Christmas singles, R.E.M.'s fan-club releases, Rutles outtakes, and comedian Bill Hicks' final gig, the thousands of shows and bootlegs being shared are mind-numbing, often complete with downloadable graphic files to print and insert into an empty jewel case. In this Boston Tea Party for the music industry, in which live CDs are made available to the public (for sale) at the end of the very concert you just witnessed, these digital children are now set free for everyone with the stroke of a keyboard. In a world gone mad, broadband is getting faster, storage mediums are getting larger and cheaper every day, and the digital cat will never get stuffed back in the bag. Welcome to the new world.

Top Three Albums of 2004

Graham Parker - Your Country (Bloodshot) Once a pub-rock contender for the title of "angry young Brit" but overshadowed by contemporaries such as Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, and Nick Lowe, Parker remains one of the best-kept secrets of master songwriters. With this, after more than 20 killer albums of smart spittle and razor-edged lyricism, Parker goes country with magnificent results. Every track is perfect, perched from the wisdom of maturity and salved anger. Highlights include his duet with Lucinda Williams on "Cruel Lips," and his "revisited" remake of "Crawling from the Wreckage" - a hit he originally penned for Dave Edmunds and Rockpile. One cool cover is included as well under the down-home sun: Jerry Garcia & Robert Hunter's "Sugaree."

The Holmes Brothers - Simple Truths (Alligator) Already a nominee for a handful of Handy best-of-the-blues awards, this one gets more magnetic and powerful with every play. Putting the seasoned trio's signature stamp on new originals and cover selections, this sweet jewel turned me on to what I believe is the theme (sadly) of the year - with a loving rendition of Gillian Welch's "Everything Is Free" from 2001, a stirring indictment of file-sharing in a copyright slippery world. Another "I've got to hear that again and again" song is "We Meet, We Part, We Remember," the ultimate post-breakup salve for the memories of love lost. I challenge you to slip into the warm waters of this tender, groovin' masterstroke, and not get lost in its magic.

The Mooney Suzuki - Alive & Amplified (Columbia) Energetic and thick with layers of power-pop bliss, this one struts like a cosmic superstar of rock-and-roll glee, punchy and bright. Mixing all sorts of British, Detroit, and Los Angeles musical touchstones into their wailing trance, these "School of Rock" lads open up the garage doors and rock the block. Turn it up, turn on, and get lost in the buzz! Lost the rock? Set yourself free to this high-energy revival meeting and become born again in this aural halleluiah! Each track steps harder on the gas, pitching and hunchin' with bombastic delight, whipping up an "amen!" frenzy that's simply undeniable (unless you're dead). Louder! Louder! Louder, please!

Saturday Night Loud-and-Proud Albums of Year

The Zutons - Who Killed ... The Zutons (Deltasonic/Epic) A nominee for Britain's Mercury Prize, this Liverpool quintet mixes funky horns, jazzy swirls, and psychedelic sway into a hypnotic nervousness akin to sweating through a feverish dream. Think Sly & The Family Stone meets The Fall, with a sweet, heady 1960s R&B soul. Melodic and packed with bursts of perfect moments, this one is why repeat buttons were invented.

Le Tigre - This Island (Strummer/Universal) Hyper-kinetic and crackling with electricity, this pop-punk electro-funk sizzler bristles with seductive sexuality. Don't be surprised if even Grandma breaks into robot-poppin' herky-jerky capitulations under the spell of this slap-in-the-face head-snapper. Pacemakers beware - these three young ladies rock like the Human League on crystal meth.

Pleasure Club - The Fugitive Kind (Brash) The sophomore album from this new band fronted by James Hall, formerly of the sonic assassins Mary My Hope, is a real rock grinder. Overflowing with huge riffs, hovering leads, and an overdriven, snarling wall of sound that grabs one by the neck and shakes it with Big Easy gothic madness, this shadowy monster sneers like Jane's Addiction candle-lit churn and Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie glam.

Easy Like a Sunday Morning Albums of Year

Girlyman - Remember Who I Am (Daemon) Laid way back in harmonic sleepy-time lullabies, this two-girls-and-one-boy threesome will certainly pull comparisons to the sound of the Indigo Girls - one of whom, Amy Ray, is the label's owner. Soaring within their softness, when all three pitch their voices together in unison, the lonesome back-porch pine is to die for, radiating like the blue rays of a full moon. Cover enthusiasts will dig their arrangement of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord," as it slow-dances in angelic rolling bliss.

Todd Snider - East Nashville Skyline (Oh Boy) From the "slacker and enjoying it" side of the tracks comes this bluesy collection of songs inspired by real people, showing Snider's oft-stellar songwriting skills. Taking a clever snicker from Merle Haggard's "Okie from Muskogee," his wicked cowboy lament of "Conservative Christian, Right Wing Republican, Straight, White, American Males" is a real hoot as he praises "tree huggin', peace lovin', pot smokin', porn watchin', lazy-ass hippies like me." Three terrific covers find new revelation under Snider's wicked smile - Fred Eaglesmith's "Alcohol & Pills," Billy Joe Shaver's "Good News Blues," and the Great Depression-era nugget "Enjoy Yourself" - a winner of the 1934 Academy Award for the best song in film.

Polly Paulusma - Scissors in My Pocket (One Little Indian) Skipping and floating over the same pastoral folk landscape of Nick Drake, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, Melanie, and Turin Brakes, this timeless debut leaves pixie footprints in the morning dew. A Ph.D. candidate and novelist, Paulusma has crafted a breathy, acoustic gem that slowly spins in its own lost, pensive grace.

Holy Sons - I Want to Live a Peaceful Life (FILM guerrero) Sparse, haunting, and beautiful, this fourth album from Emil Amos of the Grails is an Americana masterpiece in the vein of Neil Young's On the Beach. Playing all the instruments in this one-man project, the fragile nature is intimate and lush with melancholy mystery. The songs are loose with sadness, floating in and out of the silences like smoke and secrets, rolling and tumbling deeper and deeper into a tender, waking dawn, with delicate vocal lines trapping themselves in my mind like snapshot memories.

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