Photo: MTV News

On The Record: The 20 Best Albums Of 2007

This is not a perfect list, because this was not a perfect year. I think the general consensus is that something big happened (or is happening) in 2007, but no one seems to be able to agree on just what that "event of monumental import" was. Maybe it was In Rainbows, the OiNK bust or the defections of several high-profile artists from the major-label stables. Perhaps it was none of those things, and it's all still business as usual, but I sort of doubt it.

There's definitely a movement afoot, though. And these 20 albums were all part of it — some because they changed the flow of the industry, others because they were simply released in 2007. Below, you'll find game-changers, weirdo-folk, not-punk punk albums, expansive-yet-minimalist electro — and absolutely no Neon Bible. And, like I said, you'll probably find some faults with my list (I probably should've included Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and Bruce Springsteen's Magic, for starters) but I'd like to think that's also why it's also a pretty good one: After all, there was no clear-cut choice for Album of the Year in 2007, just a whole lot of efforts that could possibly lay claim to the title (or couldn't, depending on who you asked). If we learned anything, it's that practically everyone could agree on positively nothing. And if that's not a pretty accurate assessment of the past 12 months ... well, then I don't know what is.

Also, I'd love to hear your feedback and read your lists, so feel free to e-mail me at BTTS@MTVStaff.com.

20. The Go! Team, Proof of Youth
The sound of the blog bubble bursting, complete with '70s guitars, double-dutch cadences, thunderous drumming, glorious fuzz and a cameo by Chuck D. Unfairly abandoned by pretty much everyone who loved the Go! Team's 2004 debut, Thunder, Lightening, Strike (because it's basically the same record), Proof of Youth stands as an example of the inherent stupidity of today's fast-moving blogosphere, and a cautionary tale to bands like the Black Kids and Vampire Weekend. If only all failures sounded this good.

The Best Of 2007 The Top Albums: MTV News Staffers Pick Their Top 10 Albums The Biggest Arrests: Paris Hilton, T.I. And More Had An Arrest-Ing 2007 The Hottest Couples: 50 Cent And Ciara And More Smoking-Hot Couples For the rest of MTV News' year-end top 10s, check out our Best of 2007 page, where you'll find the hottest hip-hop, catchiest singles and more.

19. Black Moth Super Rainbow, Dandelion Gum
Stuff a vocoder in your mouth. Strap a pair of Casio keyboards to your feet. Wander the Mojave Desert for a month. Do the Black Moth Super Rainbow. Gleefully psychedelic, completely nonsensical, unbelievably sunny folk-tronica from the wilds of Pittsburgh. Every bit as WTF as the name implies.

18. Patrick Wolf, The Magic Position
A guy who looks like an extra from "The Legend of Zelda" releases the year's most melodramatic album — 40 minutes of gilded, whimsical, overly indulgent Baroque-pop, full of stabbing violins, synthesizers that pop like fireworks and chiming church bells; becomes even more flamboyant (if that's possible); establishes himself as a sex symbol on both sides of the aisle; has onstage meltdown in NYC; threatens to quit the music industry via a messageboard post; recants his threat days later; then starts a feud with fellow balladeer Mika over "authenticity." And you thought you had a busy year.

17. The Shins, Wincing the Night Away
Not only is this album better than you remember, it's also probably the only thing on this list that the dude in the cubicle next to you owns (well, this or Kanye). Packing away the sunny, strummy indie-pop for darker, nocturnal mood music, the Shins crafted a weird winner that somehow managed to debut at #2 on the Billboard albums chart (despite leaking to the Internet like three months early), and finally get them out from underneath the shadow of that dude from "Scrubs." Hopefully.

16. Kanye West, Graduation
The swagger is nothing new. Neither is the lack of humility. But never have both sides of Kanye co-existed so successfully on one record (maybe Daft Punk helped broker the peace). On Graduation, West reveals the complexities contained within himself, looking back while moving forward, slowing down a step — really, there's nothing on here that grabs you with the immediacy of "Jesus Walks" — to bask in his successes, while still holding his competitors in check and keeping one eye toward the future. A truly accomplished, truly human album that still manages to work in a song based around a Steely Dan sample. And that's much harder to do than it looks.

15. Okkervil River, The Stage Names
World-weary, scruffy rock from the weariest, scruffiest band in Austin, Texas, Stage Names is beautiful, tear-in-yer-beer stuff, but it's also probably the most self-aware album released this decade (either this or Panic! at the Disco's A Fever You Can't Sweat Out) full of too-smart references to the Beach Boys, Marcel Duchamp artwork, Paul Simon and Nena's "99 Luftballons." It's meant to be a concept record of sorts, about the exploration of high art and low art, which sort of explains the tender ballad about the death of porn star Savannah. Sort of.

14. Jens Lekman, Night Falls Over Kortedala
Sumptuous, swirling pop from Sweden's finest troubadour. Sonically, it's all over the map: booming orchestral numbers, sparkly samba, morose Northern soul, all sung in Lekman's sleepy, mahogany-rich baritone. Also, "I took my sister down to the ocean/ But the ocean made me feel stupid" is probably the most emo line of the year. Deep, man ... deep.

13. LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver
Just last week, I named James Murphy's "All My Friends" as "the best song of 2007," and the album is nearly as good. Building on the, well, dancey-but-not-dance roots he's been laying down for a few years now, Silver is the record in which Murphy puts electroclash (remember that?) to bed for good and establishes himself as a truly important artist: the kind of guy who's not afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve (check "All My Friends" or "New York, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down"), or get funky in really goofy ways, or record a 45-minute exercise track for Nike. And we need guys like that.

12. The National, Boxer
The sound of sepia. Sad like the photos you see pinned to the walls in really old bars. Beautiful like being drunk on a rooftop in Brooklyn, the city twinkling in the distance. Painful like the hangover the following morning. The songs on Boxer are all of those things, often at the same time. A remarkable record.

11. Feist, The Reminder
Sure, there's the song that sold the iPods, but there's also the churning, torch-y "My Moon My Man," the heartbreaking "The Park" and the slinky "Brandy Alexander," to name just a few. Intimately performed, expertly arranged indie balladry, with Leslie Feist's voice weaving through it all: lithe, supple, sexy and undeniably powerful. Probably — OK, undoubtedly — the breakthrough album of 2007.

10. Yeasayer, All Hour Cymbals
What world music would sound like if it was played by a bunch of hipsters from Williamsburg. Hints of African guitars, drone-y Eastern European notes, Celtic rhythms, plus chants, chimes and handclaps, all whirled together into a heady sonic brew. In a thousand years, when they excavate Bedford Avenue, they'll probably discover copies of Cymbals and think we were a much more evolved society. Either that or really big fans of Forest for the Trees.

9. Deerhunter, Cryptograms
If you believe the rumors (and given the generally terrifying WTF-ness of Deerhunter, I do), Cryptograms is really two albums in one: the first half — from "Intro" to "Red Ink" — was recorded in one manic session, on a single reel of tape, with frontman Bradford Cox still battling the lingering effects of walking pneumonia. The second half (starting with "Spring Hall Convert" and ending with "Heatherwood") was recorded in another one-day session, on another reel of tape. That the two halves are so sonically disparate — one murky and atmospheric, the other luminous and relatively straightforward — not only lends credence to those rumors, but also speaks volumes about the ever-evolving talent of the band itself, and makes Cryptograms an experience unlike most you'll hear this decade. And given that Deerhunter are currently on hiatus, that experience might — unfortunately — only be a one-time thing.

8. Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
Not as accessible as Good News for People Who Love Bad News, not as good as The Lonesome Crowded West (or The Moon & Antarctica, for that matter), We Were Dead represents Modest Mouse at the great divide: On one side, the past. On the other, the future. So, accordingly, the album borrows equally from both, packed with rambling, shambling guitar exercises and (relatively) straightforward radio rock. There was even a slow number or three. That the album debuted at #1 on the Billboard albums chart seemed to be the most amazing thing of all, and it only gave MM the validation they deserved. No matter where Isaac Brock and company decide to go from here, they've already won.

7. Panda Bear, Person Pitch
Like the Animal Collective that begat him, Panda is less about making music and more about stringing together atmosphere, creating pockets of sound as big as entire universes. Here, he collects the wooshes of subway cars, the crunch of gravel under boots, wind, water (and a bunch more), and combines them with some really beautiful vocal harmonies, a little acoustic strumming and the occasional odd "woo-hoo" to create an album that's warm like an old blanket but also chilly like a snowdrift. Bizarrely accessible, sort of spooky, and really all you could ask for from so-called "experimental rock."

6. The Field, From Here We Go Sublime
A masterwork of techno (do people still even use that word?) both minimal and maximal, Sublime — the handiwork of Swedish DJ Axel Willner — recalls cellular division, slowly melting ice caverns and fields of blossoming sunflowers, often in the same song, and often using little more than a bass line, a kick-drum and a looped sample. Devastating in its simplicity and scope, it's more intelligent dance music than Intelligent Dance Music, which may not make sense, only it does. You get me?

5. Tegan and Sara, The Con
An album of beautiful complexity and brutal honestly, The Con covers all manners of love, loss and heartbreak, and does it all with a restraint and a maturity that belies the Quin sisters' age. W-a-a-y more confident and ballsy than any "follow-up to a breakthrough" album should be, yet still self-effacing and full of enough doubts to fill 1,000 diary pages. Expertly helmed by producer Chris Walla, it's a record that unfurls gradually, revealing just a bit more with each listen. For some reason, it reminds me of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, though I can neither explain nor condone that statement.

4. The White Stripes, Icky Thump
To some, it's just another example of Jack White's ever-expanding ego. To others, it's another addition to his "guitar god" résumé. I think I fall somewhere in between. Sure, there's parts of Thump that are a bit much — mainly the bagpipes that drag down the middle of the record — but there's also plenty of great moments, too: the fret-melting majesty of the title track, the delightfully silly vaudeville of "Rag and Bone," and straightforward, floor-pounding rock of "Bone Broke." For the first time, White also drops the whole "magical bluesman" shtick and opens up a bit, and — surprise — he seems just as conflicted and unhappy as you or I. Which only makes him, and the entire album, that much more likeable.

3. Radiohead, In Rainbows
The album that changed everything, only it probably didn't (though it's nice to oversimplify sometimes). When all the smoke surrounding its release strategy cleared, fans were left with an album that either enthralled or mystified ... there really was no in between. For me, it was the former: Radiohead put away the electronics on this one and just decided to play, making beautiful, intricate songs about decidedly human things — failing relationships, infidelity, whatever the hell "15 Step" is about. It's the album that sounds like the next logical step, and while some didn't want to hear Radiohead slip gracefully into their 40s, that's what they got. And I'll take AARP Radiohead over almost any other band on the planet. They may sound old, but, dude, they are old. Except Jonny Greenwood. He's apparently a vampire.

2. Against Me!, New Wave
The massive choruses. The even more massive hooks. The major label. The big-name producer. The boy/girl duet. The protest song that made fun of protest songs. There probably wasn't a more unapologetic record made this year — seriously, New Wave might actually redefine the word "unabashed" — and Against Me! are totally aware of this, and they don't care what you (or the majority of their old fans) think, which is why Against Me! are awesome, and why this album totally rules. Punk rock is probably dead already, but if it isn't, well, this is the album that killed it off forever. Good riddance.

1. Wilco, Sky Blue Sky
When all is said and done, the sky is still falling and the rivers continue to run red with BitTorrent. The industry is dead, except that it's probably not. We are living in the future, only no one seems to realize it, because we might just be living in the past. You are part of the problem, and the solution, all at the same time. And none of this really matters. What cuts through the fog and the noise is simplicity. And on the surface, Sky Blue Sky is the most simple record of the year: straightforward like Summer Teeth, sparkling in execution, bravely unflinching in subject. It resonates because it's true and beautiful and seemingly not of this era. But it's also unfathomably complicated: a record about relationships, about being so in love and wanting to make it work so bad, about giving of yourself and taking from someone else about being back to back, in the foxhole — impossible Germany, unlikely Japan — against overwhelming odds, but determined to fight until the bitter end. No one said simplicity was ever easy.

• Radiohead
• Kanye West
• The Shins
• Feist
• LCD Soundsystem

Kanye West and 50 Cent at the 2007 VMAs on Sunday
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

Ladies and gentlemen, at long last, your 2007 New Releases main event:

While they were quiet enough onstage when they appeared together at Sunday night's VMAs — Kanye, after the show, not so much — both rappers have said their piece about the widely anticipated matchup between 50's Curtis and Kanye's Graduation. Fiddy recently insisted to MTV News that "I will be #1 on September 11," while the confident 'Ye has said the face-off was his idea in the first place.

But while each MC is probably envisioning himself as the chart-topper, how's the betting line shaping up? Let's take a look:

50 Cent:

· Fif's 2003 debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin', has sold a hefty 7 million copies to date; the 2005 follow-up, The Massacre, has moved 5 mil.

· His initially leaked Curtis songs weren't so well-received, and first single "Ayo Technology" has only peaked at #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 — even though the track features another superstar, Justin Timberlake (and a rapping super-producer, Timbaland, to boot).

· 50 has hit a few obstacles lately: His pre-VMA poolside concert was cut short after it nearly became an underwater concert. In August, he trashed the G-Unit offices in New York after his Robin Thicke collaboration "Follow My Lead" was leaked. And, after promising to stop writing music if West beats him, he later got wet feet and reneged.

Kanye West:

· 'Ye's 2004 debut, The College Dropout, has sold 2.5 million copies; 2005's Late Registration has moved roughly the same number. Yeah, Fiddy definitely has 'Ye's "number" in terms of album sales.

· But on the other hand, West has done a much better job tearing up the charts lately. His first Graduation single, "Stronger," is sitting comfortably at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Barry Bonds," which was leaked in August, has also been getting strong reception.

· Apparently Graduation is both "whiter" and "blacker" — talk about expanding your demographic!

Well, no matter what happens, after all is said and done, it's good to know that the MCs are willing to put aside their differences for the good of hip-hop. And this week is certainly going to be good for hip-hop.

Song Title of the Week:

"Peter Lorre Overture" from World/Inferno Friendship Society's Addicted to Bad Ideas

Album Cover of the Week:

Tie between Modeselektor's Happy Birthday! and Gang Gang Dance's Rawwar

Other Notables:

The Black Lips' Good Bad Not Evil
Notorious for spewing fluids from multiple orifices, the Lips have been a part of way-underground garage-rock labels Bomp! and In the Red but are dishing up their new album on the red-hot Vice Records. The psych-garage freaks have come up with a perplexing new song, "Katrina," which was written the night the band learned that a hurricane of the same name had destroyed New Orleans. The jangly, cheery track only has a handful of lines, including: "O Katrina, why you gotta be mean?/ You saw a highway down in New Orleans/ I can't believe what I saw on the TV screen/ O Katrina, why you gotta be mean?" The subject matter on the rest of the album, while delivered with the band's patented "flower pop," is equally bleak: Songs deal with one bandmember finding his mother's body, juvenile-detention centers and a fatal car accident, which is captured in "How Do You Tell a Child That Someone Had Died."

The Good Life's Help Wanted Nights
While the Lips actually enlisted a local Atlanta bartender to help produce their fifth effort, this Nebraska crew also went the boozy route for their fourth one. Main man Tim Kasher based the songs — including first single "Heartbroke" and "You Don't Feel Like Home to Me" — around a small-town bar and had been intending to use them as the soundtrack to a screenplay he didn't finish until recently. The Saddle Creek album was produced by — who else? — label regular Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, the Faint).

Pinback's Autumn of the Seraphs
And there's just no keeping Rob Crow down. The indie-rock guru — who put out a solo album, Living Well, earlier this year, despite his myriad other projects — has tossed together another installment in his best-known band's oeuvre. The San Diego band's fourth album, recorded in its home studios, features drumming by former Rocket From the Crypt and No Knife members and features "How We Breathe," "Subbing for Eden" and "Blue Harvest." The initial run will come with a bonus disc featuring three additional new studio recordings.

New Releases:

· 40 Cal. - Broken Safety 2 (Koch)
· 50 Cent - Curtis (G-Unit/Interscope)
Read: "50 Cent Explains Last Week's Blowup, Says 'I Will Be #1 On September 11' "
· Akron/Family - Love Is Simple (with DVD; Young God)
· Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam (Domino)
· Axe Riverboy - Tu Tu to Tango (Minty Fresh)
· B5 - Don't Talk, Just Listen (Bad Boy)
· Baby Elephant - Turn My Teeth Up (Godforsaken)
· The Birthday Massacre - Walking With Strangers (Metropolis)
· Bizzy Bone - Trials & Tribulations (Real Talk)
· Black Francis - Bluefinger (Cooking Vinyl)
· The Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil (Vice)
· Eugene Blacknell - We Can't Take Life for Granted (Luv N Haight)
· Kenny Chesney - Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates (RCA)
· Vic Chestnutt - North Star Deserter (digipak; Constellation)
· Cloak/Dagger - We Are (Jade Tree)
· C.O.C.O. - Play Drums + Bass (K)
· Alberta Cross - The Thief & the Heartbreaker (Geffen)
· The Deadly Syndrome - The Ortolan (Dim Mak)
· Ani DiFranco - Canon (Righteous Babe)
· Dirty Projectors - Rise Above (Dead Oceans)
· Downchild - Live at the Palais Royale (Linus/Koch)
· Enuff Z'nuff - Tonight, Sold Out (Crash)
· Eulogies - Eulogies (Dangerbird)
· Figurines - Where the Deer Wore Blue (Control Group)
· Film School - Hideout (Beggars Banquet)
· Gang Gang Dance - Rawwar (EP; Social Registry)
· Giacomo Gates - Luminosity (with DVD; DoubleDave)
· The Go! Team - Proof of Youth (Sub Pop)
· The Good Life - Help Wanted Nights (Saddle Creek)
· Grand National - A Drink & A Quick Decision (digipak with bonus tracks not featured on digital release; Recall)
· Grayskul - Bloody Radio (Rhymesayers)
· Ha Ha Tonka - Buckle in the Bible Belt (Bloodshot)
· Hatesphere - Serpent Smiles and Killer Eyes (EP; Steamhammer)
· Joe Henry - Civilians (Anti-)
· Hot Hot Heat - Happiness Ltd. (with DVD; Reprise)
· Jenny Hoyston - Isle Of (Southern)
· Icarus Witch - Songs for the Lost (Cleopatra)
· Jupiter Rising - Electropop (Chime)
· Kane, Welch, Kaplin - Kane, Welch, Kaplin (Compass)
· Kenna - Make Sure They See My Face (Interscope)
· Sander Kleinenberg - This Is Sander Kleinenberg (Ultra)
· Le Loup - The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly (Hardly Art)
· Devin Lima & the Cadbury Diesel - Mozart Popart (111)
· Scott Matthews - Passing Stranger (Republic)
· Modeselektor - Happy Birthday! (BPitch Control)
· Oakley Hall - I'll Follow You (Merge)
· Orange - Escape From L.A. (Hellcat)
· Adrian Orange and Her Band - Adrian Orange and Her Band (K)
· Para One - Epiphanie (Naive/Ryko)
· Picastro - Whore Luck (Polyvinyl)
· Pinback - Autumn of the Seraphs (Touch and Go)
· Pitch Black - Revenge (Travio)
· Emma Pollock - Watch the Fireworks (4AD)
· Qui - Love's Miracle (Ipecac)
· Raging Speedhorn - Before the Sea Was Built (SPV)
· Rainman - Bigga Than Life (Chime)
· Red Stick Ramblers - Made in the Shade (Sugar Hill)
· Johnathan Rice - Further North (Reprise)
· Shakra - Infected (Locomotive)
· Shout Out Louds - Our Ill Wills (Merge)
· Simian Mobile Disco - Attack Decay Sustain Release (Interscope)
· Taken by Trees - Open Field (Eleven Music)
· Chris Volz - Redemption (Rock Ridge)
· X-Press 2 - Makeshift Feelgood (Tommy Boy)
· Kanye West - Graduation (Roc-A-Fella)
Read: "Kanye West And Lil Wayne Counting On 'Barry Bonds' For A Hit Single"
· Wiley - Playtime Is Over (Big Dada)
· Ann Wilson - Hope & Glory (Zoë/Rounder)
· Wooden Shjips - Wooden Shjips (Holy Mountain)
· World/Inferno Friendship Society - Addicted to Bad Ideas (Chunksaah)
· Michael Yonkers Band - Grimwood (De Stijl)
· Zoroaster - Dog Magic (Southern Lord)
· Various artists - Choices EP II (Ubiquity)
· Various artists - Grey's Anatomy - Original Soundtrack 3 (Hollywood)
· Various artists - Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of the Rolling Stones (Baby Rock)
· Various artists - Sowing the Seeds: The 10th Anniversary (two CDs; Appleseed)
· Various artists -- "Dedication" soundtrack (Commotion/Koch)

Notable Reissues and Archival Material:

· Joan Baez - Carry It On (Vanguard)
· Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True - Deluxe Edition (two CDs; Hip-O/UMe)
· Ani DiFranco - Canon (Righteous Babe)
· Genesis - Turn It on Again: The Hits - The Tour Edition (two CDs; Rhino/Atlantic)
· June Panic - Songs From Purgatory: The Complete Recordings of June Panic - 1991-1996 (Secretly Canadian)
· Mono - Gone: A Collection of EPs 2000-2007 (Temporary Residence)
· The Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Deluxe Edition (two CDs; Island)
· Sonny Rollins - The Sound of Sonny (Riverside)
· Billy Joe Shaver - Storyteller: Live at the Bluebird 1992 (Sugar Hill)
· Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - Seven Miles Out of Town (Varèse Sarabande)
· Trisha Yearwood - Greatest Hits (MCA Nashville)
· Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth and the Collected Works of Young Marble Giants (three CDs; Domino)
· Various artists - Cinematic: Classic Film Music Remixed (Six Degrees)
· Various artists - The Commitments - Deluxe Edition (two CDs; Geffen)
· Various artists -- Four Decades of Folk Rock (four-CD box set; Time Life)
· Various artists - I'm Beginning to See the Light: Dance Hits From the Second World War (Legacy)
· Various artists - Monster Ballads Xmas (Razor & Tie)
· Various artists - The Pop Parade: Hits of the '40s, '50s & '60s (three CDs; Shout! Factory)
· Various artists - Sentimental Journey: Hits From the Second World War (Legacy)
· Various artists - When Rhythm Was King (Heartbeat)
· Various artists - "The War: A Ken Burns Film" soundtrack (four-CD box set also includes I'm Beginning to See the Light; Sentimental Journey and Songs Without Words: Classical Music From the War; Legacy)

Music DVDs:

· Mindless Self Indulgence - "Our Pain Your Gain" (Metropolis)
· Lionel Richie - "Live in Paris" (deluxe edition comes with CD; Island)
· Sublime - "The Ultimate Bundle for the Ultimate Sublime Fan" (two CDs and one CD; MVD Visual)
· U2 -- "PopMart Live from Mexico City" (limited edition comes with bonus DVD; Island)

Digital Releases:

· A.I. - Sex & Robots (A.I.)
· Marie Digby - Start Here (exclusive iTunes EP; Hollywood)
· Karmina - The Kiss (CBS)
· Louis XIV - The Distances From Everyone to You (EP; Atlantic)
· Meisterfakt - Down on My Ass (Kitty-Cuts)
· Mew - Live Session (exclusive iTunes EP; Columbia)

Coming Attractions:

September 18:
· Chamillionaire - Ultimate Victory (Motown)
Read: "Chamillionaire Ditches Bad Attitude; Hooks Up With Snoop, Busta For LP"
· Mya - Liberation (Motown)
Read: "Mya Gives Up Grudges And Ego, Picks Up Relationship Wisdom On Liberation"
· KT Tunstall - Drastic Fantastic (Virgin)

September 25:
· Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (RCA)
Read: "Dave Grohl May Be Fond Of String Quartets, But Foo Fighters Haven't Gone Soft"
· PJ Harvey - White Chalk (Island)
· Hell Rell - For the Hell of It (Koch)

October 2:
· Dashboard Confessional - The Shade of Poison Trees (digipak; Vagrant)
· J. Holiday - Back of My Lac (Capitol)
· Soulja Boy - Souljaboytellem.com (Interscope)

• Kanye Lectures On The Importance Of Graduation

• Pamela Anderson And Tommy Lee's Whirlwind VMA Weekend

• 50 Cent
• Kanye West
• Black Lips
• The Good Life
• Pinback

Kanye West at Lollapalooza 2006
Photo: Getty Images/Roger Kisby

CHICAGO — With the temperature a fraction cooler than last year's triple digits and attendance more than doubling — to an estimated 170,000 people checking out 130 bands on nine stages over three days — Lollapalooza seems well on its way to establishing itself as one of the premier destination festivals in the country.

(Click here for photos of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kanye West, Panic! at the Disco and more of your favorites at Lollapalooza 2006.)

Organizers doubled the size of the festival — which took place along the lakefront here in Grant Park — during its second year as a non-touring fest. The two main stages were set up three-quarters of a mile apart on either side of the festival grounds, with the space between featuring seven smaller stages (including ones dedicated to comedy and kids' music) and a social-responsibility area focused on environmental issues. There was plenty of room for the crowd, which ranged from newborns passed out in strollers to teenagers and their parents sprawled out on blankets.

Lollapalooza featured more hip-hop this year than last (with Common, Lady Sovereign, Lyrics Born and Blackalicious joining headliner Kanye West) and plenty of indie-rock and jam bands spread out over each day's 10-hour schedule, making it nearly impossible to see it all, but we tried. Here's a diary of the highlights. ...

Day 1

11:26 a.m. As the gates open for the festival's first day, a clutch of fans sprint toward the far end of the grounds to get up front for Panic! at the Disco's set, some three hours later. They succeed, beating out four friends from Chicago who have been following the band all summer.

11:56 a.m. Walking past the Kidzapalooza stage, a sunshiny song called "Scrub a Dub" by the band ScribbleMonster bleeds out onto the midway, to the confusion of the kid-less throngs walking by.

12:06 p.m. Dax Riggs, singer of the twisted blues duo (augmented by a touring bassist) Deadboy & the Elephantmen, seems to be challenging Panic to a makeup throwdown with his heavy dark eyeliner.

12:27 p.m. Texan techno-punk duo Ghostland Observatory have the festival's best look so far, thanks to keyboardist/beatmaster Thomas Turner's flowing powder-blue cape.

1:52 p.m. It just seems like Aqualung — essentially Londoner Matt Hales — don't really belong here: The Coldplay-lite (if that's possible) sound comes off kind of limp for the chatty early afternoon crowd. Hales seems to get it, though. He thanks the crowd for cheering for a ballad about "abject misery," then busts a piano freestyle tune that turns things around. "You f---ing could be happy for all the things that are going for him ... he's English, so he's a sad bastard," Hales said. Funny, but a girl near the front still sneers, "Is that Chris Martin?" Hales finally redeems himself with a soaring cover of Queen's "Somebody to Love" (a very difficult song to pull off).

2:41 p.m. Panic! at the Disco bring it. With help from their limber, theatrical friends in the Lucent Dossier dance troupe, they take the stage with a circus flourish thanks to a made-up carnival barker and two naughty cabaret girls in lingerie and clown makeup. Guitarist Ryan Ross wins the fashion award, as usual, busting out a ruffled shirt, fancy red vest, tight black pants and dramatic spangly swirls of makeup on his cheek. The band throws in a tweaked-out cover of Radiohead's "Karma Police" and singer Brendon Urie gets a lapdance from a sexy cabaret clown during "But It's Better If You Do." Sadly, Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan doesn't make the dramatic entrance some had hoped for when Panic bust out their cover of the Pumpkins' "Tonight, Tonight."

3:25 p.m. The Blisters rock the biggest crowd at the Kidzapalooza stage all day. It doesn't hurt that they're tearing through covers of the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop," the Flaming Lips' "She Don't Use Jelly" and Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World." Oh, did we mention that the singer and drummer are Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy's sons? Proud papa Tweedy stands halfway back in the crowd with some of his bandmates, fairly anonymous in a straw hat, tinted shades and a bushy beard, mouthing some of the words to the Beatles' "Dear Prudence."

6:55 p.m. The Raconteurs make their Chicago debut in style, ripping into "Intimate Secretary" with leader Jack White wearing freaky white kabuki makeup. "Steady as She Goes" sounds so big it seems to echo off the buildings downtown, and White chops out some futuristic blues solos that send a few girls in the crowd into peasant-dress-spinning hippy dances. With only one album to draw from, the band slips in a pair of killer covers, a take on Sonny & Cher's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" and a chugging Southern-boogie version of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" that is one of the weekend's high points.

7:47 p.m. Playing one of their final shows before their announced breakup, Sleater-Kinney appear to be getting along just fine, hitting fans with some signature jagged guitar and yelping vocals on newer songs like "The Fox" and "What's Mine Is Yours" (see "Sleater-Kinney Announce 'Indefinite Hiatus,' Thank Fans For 'Passion And Loyalty' "). Guitarist Corin Tucker sings the line "Don't go away" during "Turn It On" — a sentiment fans can appreciate, with some of them chanting "don't leave us!"

8:34 p.m. Though they'd expressed awe at being one of the first night's closing acts, Death Cab for Cutie are on top of their game, drawing the day's second-biggest crowd (the Raconteurs took top honors) with wistful songs like "The New Year" and "Soul Meets Body," which serve as a nice send-off into the half-moon-illuminated night.

Day 2

12:15 p.m. This is not the best way to start the day: Be Your Own Pet singer Jemina Pearl, who spazzes around the stage during "Girls on TV" like she's stepping on an exposed electrical cord with wet feet, informs the audience that she just threw up halfway through the band's set. She blames it on heat sickness. "It wasn't that much. It tasted like watermelon," she lets the kids know. Thanks ...

12:34 p.m. Seems like Living Things singer Lillian Berlin might have changed his tune a bit since his anti-American onstage banter got him in trouble with Alter Bridge last month. During a bluesy take on their anti-war tune "Bombs Below," he yells "All hail the U.S. military!," and then he jumps off the stage into the audience and grabs a Navy seaman from the pit and throws his arms around him. A short time later, during "Bom Bom Bom," he shouts "We love America!" and, later still, "We salute our brothers and sisters in Iraq." OK, we get it. He also leads the crowd in a chant of "Peace! Peace!" Now that's more like it. ...

1:44 p.m. England's Go! Team put on a cheerleader camp for live hip-hop-soul junkies. Lead rapper/dancer Ninja bounces around in her cheer outfit during "Panther Dash" as the rest of the group swirls around her, trading off instruments, which include guitars, bass, keyboards, flute, xylophones, harmonica and two sets of drums.

2:30 p.m. Mike Patton is a freak. And between the white linen suit, the hair net and the smoothly flowing "Roll it up and smoke it" chorus of "Mojo," it's kind of hard to figure out what's going on with the former Faith No More singer's new group, Peeping Tom, a punk hip-hop/soul mash-up (see "Mike Patton's Agenda: Touring With Peeping Tom, Humiliating Mark Hoppus And Danny DeVito"). He can't quite match bandmate Rahzel's beatboxing skills (he busted out a bit of the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army"), but Patton holds his own.

2:51 p.m. The members of 30 Seconds to Mars can't take their eyes off Coheed and Cambria, who bring a rare touch of prog-metal to one of the main stages.

3:34 p.m. And then there's Wolfmother. The Aussie trio punch up the way-back machine with their Led Zeppelin-meets-Black Sabbath riffery on songs like "Dimension" and "Mind's Eye," inspiring the biggest crowd of the day so far to indulge in the first crowd-surfing of the festival.

4:31 p.m. Gnarls Barkley are known for their sartorial flair, but no one could have predicted that the group would make their entrance in fresh tennis whites. Singer Cee-Lo, swinging a tennis racket, fronts a 13-piece band that includes a string section and three back-up singers, one of whom plays a racket with a drum stick during songs like "Who Cares" and the jam of the summer, "Crazy." Seemingly paying homage to the Raconteurs, who covered "Crazy" the day before, Barkley bust out their Motown-style cover of "There Is an End," written by the Greenhornes — the Ohio band whose rhythm section is moonlighting in the Raconteurs.

6:40 p.m. A dozen dancing alien girls, 12-foot tall Santas, spacemen, another dozen booty-shaking guys in Santa suits, Superman, Batman, the Flash and Wonder Woman, 50 giant blue balloons bouncing over the crowd, confetti guns, a bullhorn spewing green smoke and a giant confetti-filled balloon exploded over the stage using a leaf blower: Just a typical Flaming Lips set. Oh, and they played crowd favorites like "Race for the Prize," "Do You Realize??" and "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song," which singer Wayne Coyne asked the crowd to dedicate to Israel as a plea to stop bombing Lebanon.

8:38 p.m. Lolla runs like clockwork, but hometown hero Kanye West is making the crowd of nearly 60,000 wait.

8:39 p.m.He finally emerges to the strains of "Diamonds From Sierra Leone," running back and forth across the stage as tens of thousands throw up the Roc diamond hand signal. Kanye's DJ A-Trak busts out some space-age scratches during "Heard 'Em Say," but it wouldn't be Kanye without drama. The rapper is thrown off by sound problems and complains about coming home after touring the world and having to deal with his vocals cutting out. "Y'all embarrass me in front of my city?" he says. "There's gonna be some repercussions!" He gets over it and brings out protégé GLC and fellow Chicago rappers Twista and Common for cameos, as well as Lupe Fiasco, who skateboards onto the stage to trade verses on his hit, "Kick Push."

9:23 p.m. West's string section runs through a cover of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" and the Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" while Kanye attends to some backstage business, returning for a triumphant shout-along version of "Gold Digger" that can probably be heard blocks away. He doesn't say, but maybe it redeems the earlier sound problems, making Kanye the prince of his city for the night.

Day 3

11:59 p.m. What a way to wake up: Mucca Pazza, the punk-rock marching band, crowds the stage with more than 25 players, who spin, jump, run and skip while playing Dixieland rave-ups and doing high-energy mime skits alongside their cheerleader section.

12:53 p.m. Lolla founder Perry Farrell does his customary mini set of songs on the Kidzapalooza stage with guitarist Peter DiStefano. He brings on surprise guest Patti Smith, who doesn't seem to get the whole "kid" part of Kidapalooza, as she goes on to tell the mini rockers that "any a--hole can play guitar." She unveils a song she says she wrote the day before about the Israeli bombing of the Lebanese village of Qana. "How would you feel if 27 [of your children] were blown away by missiles and bombs?" she asks the crowd. The new, untitled song features lyrics such as "And the dead lay in strange shapes ... limp little bodies caked in mud ... small, small hands found in the road." At least it ended on a somewhat hopeful thought for the visibly shocked crowd: "The miracle is love."

2:26 p.m. English dance group Hot Chip prove that even five guys who look like rumpled college math teaching assistants can rock if they can kick out hot jams like "Boy From School."

3:37 p.m. 30 Seconds to Mars make a dramatic entrance in all-white outfits and creepy Kabuki masks. Singer Jared Leto takes his life into his hands by scrambling up the rigging to sing a song from 40 feet above the crowd.

6:35 p.m. Wilco win the award for inspiring the oddest singalong of the weekend when the crowd enthusiastically shouts out the line, "To the handshake drugs I bought downtown" during a set that features four new songs.

7:27 p.m. And Queens of the Stone Age win the award for the loudest set of the weekend. In fact, you can hear it all the way over at the stage Wilco is playing on: three-fourths of a mile away.

8:21 p.m. Perry Farrell promises that the Red Hot Chili Peppers will "take the cork off and blow it sky high." And while the veteran punk-funk band didn't bust out any of their signature outrageous costumes (though the crazy quilt of colors and patterns on Flea's pants and shirt was close), fans ate up funky versions of "Can't Stop," "Dani California," "Scar Tissue," "Readymade," "Me and My Friends" and short snippets of the Clash's "London Calling" and Neil Young's "Needle and the Damage Done." With more than 70,000 people undulating to "Give It Away," the Peppers indeed pulled the cork on what has quickly established itself as Chicago's newest summer tradition.

For more sights and stories from concerts around the country, check out MTV News Tour Reports.

• Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kanye West And More Rock Out At Lollapalooza 2006

• Kanye West
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Panic at the Disco
• Gnarls Barkley
• Death Cab For Cutie

The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne
Photo: John Shearer

The Flaming Lips are hitting the road this summer, and they'll no doubt bring their smoke machines with them. And their giant balloons, their confetti, their fuzzy bunny costumes and as many other of their fun onstage props as they can fit into their trucks.

You'll be able to catch it all at a club near you (or an amphitheatr, state fair, whatever) when they launch a full-scale headlining tour on July 22 at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California. Acts that will accompany them at various dates include the Go! Team, Sonic Youth, Ween and Wolfmother.

The Lips will mix their headlining gigs with a string of appearances at summer festivals, including slots on the Hedgpeth Festival in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, on July 28, Lollapalooza on August 5 in Chicago (see "Kanye West, Red Hot Chili Peppers Lead Lollapalooza '06 Lineup") and Austin City Limits in, um, Austin, Texas, on September 15. The band will also jet off to Japan to play two festival dates in mid-August.

According to a spokesperson for the band's label, Warner Bros. Records, more dates will be announced in the coming weeks. The Flaming Lips' latest album, At War With the Mystics, was released last month and debuted at #11 on the Billboard albums chart — the band's highest-ever debut.

Flaming Lips tour dates, according to Warner Bros. Records:

• 7/22 - Berkeley, CA @ The Greek Theatre
• 7/23 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl
• 7/28 - Twin Lakes, WI @ Hedgpeth Festival
• 7/29 -Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
• 8/3 - Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center (92.3 K-Rock Presents Kuyahoga)
• 8/4 - Detroit, MI @ State Theatre
• 8/5 - Chicago, IL @ Grant Park (Lollapalooza)
• 8/24 - St. Paul, MN @ Minnesota State Fair
• 8/25 - Council Bluffs, IA @ Harrah's Stir Cove
• 8/26 - St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
• 8/28 - Columbus, OH @ Lifestyle Communities Pavilion
• 8/31 - Allentown, PA @ TBA
• 9/1 - Syracuse, NY @ TBA
• 9/3 - Boston, MA @ Bank of America Pavilion
• 9/6 - Atlantic City, NJ @ House of Blues
• 9/7 - Burlington, VT @ Patrick Gymnasium
• 9/15 - Austin, TX @ Zilker Park (Austin City Limits)

For lots more on the Flaming Lips, dig into the feature "The Flaming Lips: At War With Complacency."

• The Flaming Lips
• Sonic Youth
• Ween
• Wolfmother
• The Go! Team

The Go! Team
Photo: MTV News

The names dropped in the British press about the Go! Team's debut album, Thunder, Lightning, Strike, read like some sort of pop-culture all-star team: the Jackson 5, ABBA, Sonic Youth, Salt-N-Pepa, Bollywood, "Rocky," "Sesame Street," "T.J. Hooker" and Grandmaster Flash are all referenced with reckless abandon. And for the most part, all those comparisons are absolutely correct.

Describing the laundry list of influences, styles, instruments and samples present on Thunder would probably be impossible (especially the samples — the album contains so much uncleared material that it won't be available in the U.S. until late September, a full year after it was first released in the U.K.), but it's not like music journos haven't tried.

"Everyone is always trying to put us into some type of category, which just isn't possible," Go! Team frontman/mastermind Ian Parton laughed. "Sometimes our album sounds like a '60s girl group, or action-packed car-chase music ... Sonic Youth, 'Charlie Brown' pianos, it's all there. It's a mixture of clean and sickly — trashy and a bit classy."

Our thoughts exactly. Thunder starts off with the sound of an air-raid siren that quickly explodes into a barrage of crashing drums, ragged guitars and $5 car-chase horns (one can almost see '70s Caprice Classics screeching through hairpin turns or barreling through a produce stand). There are also plenty of hopscotch cadences, little-kid choirs, hand-claps, hip-hop beats, jaunty pianos, bawdy wah-wah guitars and winsome harmonicas. And that's just the first four songs.

"It should never sound like there's 11 different bands playing on the album — you should hear a song and know it's a Go! Team song. It all sort of reflects our musical tastes," Parton said. "Our soundchecks are always really complicated. We've got two drum kits and loads of other instruments: harmonicas, melodicas, keyboards. There's always plenty to go wrong, and most of the time it does. But we want to keep it that way. It always sort of feels like we're teetering on the edge."

Back in 2003, Parton was making sample-heavy tunes in his Brighton, England, bedroom when one of his creations, the bizarro cop-show anthem "Junior Kickstart" started to make the rounds on Britain's multitudinous pirate radio stations. Soon, "Kickstart" caught the attention of the Memphis Industries label, which released it as a proper single late in the year. Parton got to assembling an actual Go! Team lineup soon after, and in 2004, the label released Thunder, the band's debut LP, which became a commercial and critical hit (it's nominated alongside albums like Coldplay's X&Y and M.I.A.'s Arular for Britain's prestigious Mercury Prize).

And for a band that started on a whim by one guy messing around in his bedroom, the Go! Team have come pretty far. They've already made a big splash across the pond — they're playing the massive Reading and Leeds Festivals in England at the end of this month — and now they're preparing to launch their first major North American tour. Parton is understandably excited to take his erratic, eclectic sounds to the masses. But he's got a warning for anyone expecting an evening of highbrow entertainment: Leave your thinking caps at home, and bring your dancing shoes.

"The most important thing is for everyone to come out and dance and have a good time," he said. "We want to put on a show unlike anything people have seen before. We like the idea of being experimental, but we still want to make stuff you can shake your ass to."

Go! Team tour dates, according to the band's publicist:

• 10/14 - Houston, TX @ Engine Room
• 10/15 - Dallas, TX @ Trees
• 10/16 - Austin, TX @ Emo's
• 10/18 - Phoenix, AZ @ The Clubhouse
• 10/19 - San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
• 10/20 - Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
• 10/23 - San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
• 10/24 - Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
• 10/25 - Seattle, WA @ Showbox
• 10/28 - Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
• 10/29 - Chicago, IL @ Metro/ Smart Bar
• 10/30 - Toronto, ONT @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
• 10/31 - Montreal, QUE @ La Tulipe
• 11/1 - Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
• 11/2 - New York, NY @ Webster Hall

• The Go! Team

Woodie Awards 2005 Red Carpet

• Death Cab For Cutie
• Muse
• Matisyahu
• OK Go
• Saul Williams

Woodie Awards 2005 Performances

• Matisyahu
• Saul Williams
• Death Cab For Cutie
• Little Brother
• The Go! Team