Flak Magazine: Wayne Lewis' 2002 annotated mix CD, 01.31.03

A friendly benediction from Canadian rockers Sloan — the world-beating opener to a record otherwise heavy on well-executed schlock. Here we have a big verse, a bigger chorus, and a two-guitar search for the one true Guitar God: Angus Young, James Williamson, Mick Ronson or Keef Richards. (It's a four-way tie. Or maybe just a four-way.)

2. "I Hate The Kids" | Hot Snakes | Suicide Invoice | Swami | 3:09

San Diego stalwarts Speedo and Rick Pitchfork are reunited and it feels so good. Serious ass kicking and a rallying cry for every 30-something rocker, "The older you get the less you're worth... I hate the kids."

3. "Pretty Girls" | Neko Case | Blacklisted | Bloodshot | 3:26

Neko dumped Her Boyfriends for an infusion of Calexico desert air on this year's wonderfully mournful solo set. We can't all be pretty girls, but it'd be consolation enough just to have a goddess in a reverb tank telling us "chin up."

Spoon main man Britt Daniel duets with himself as chanteuse and 808. Hott.

A bunch of New York haircuts reportedly so insufferable they can't even stand to be around one other, Interpol dropped a debut that was like the Cliffs Notes on '80s British guitar music as Rorschach test — listen long enough and you'll hear a copped texture or riff from your favorite moper. Nonetheless, the album is good listening, long on mood if short on personality, and its apex, "NYC," is a moment of subtle genius.

Atypical of these Chicago anti-heroes, yet almost everything there is to love about them: wildly pretentious, murky, tuff, beautiful and brilliant.

See the main mix.

7. "Karen Revisited" (edit) | Sonic Youth | Murray Street | Interscope | 3:13

I have as much affection for 10-minute noize jams as the next guy, but for our listening pleasure the Karenology has been pared down to the "song" part, a screeching pop nugget that's my favorite of the year.

I can say honestly and without a shred of self-pity that '02 kinda kicked my ass, with all the car wrecks, heartbreak, rejection and disappointment one could hope for. And Kim Deal is the only one who knows how I feel. Your average Chan, Mick and Britney is vulgar enough to exclaim, "'Cause you see I'm on a losing streak." Kim just leaves it at, "Yeah, we're movin'."

9. "Sitting In The Park" | Quix*O*Tic | Mortal Mirror | Kill Rock Stars | 2:25

This, on the other hand, has the refreshing summer-night front-porch lemonade vibe we all need once in a while. Any band who covers Sabbath clearly rules, but Quix*O*Tic's stripped down roots-pop take on this old chestnut is absolutely the highlight of their record.

More pop and more fizz. See the main mix.

11. "Underneath The Leaves" | Jon Vanderslice | The Life and Death of an American Fourtracker | Barsuk | 4:02

You gotta dig a song that has what sounds like a dying cell phone as its hook.

The record's about Texas, but it turned out to be the perfect soundtrack for a lovelorn oaf driving around the streets of Hollywood, no particular place to go, crying and singing along at full shout. Thus, my favorite of the year.

See the main mix.

A brilliant mind in love with language running through free-associative meditations on man's relationship with divinity, nature and, well, language itself. OK, it's hard to make this sound as amazing as it is. Even the clunkers sound like koans sometimes.

These Texas rabble-rousers' first crack at the major leagues mostly serves to remind us how much we'll miss Unwound. But when bassman Neil Busch takes a rare turn at the mic, the result is a gloriously sassy glam romp overlayed with enough Oly Wash. squall to render the lyrics mercifully incomprehensible. Not a Peter Laughner cover, but that would've been cool.

15. "Venus Stopped the Train" | Jay Bennett & Edward Burch | The Palace at 4 a.m. | Undertow | 5:01

A sparse, slow-burning Yankee Hotel Foxtrot leftover gets layered with some Summerteeth candy gloss by a disgruntled Wilco castoff. Could it be a coincidence that Bennett's twanged baritone occasionally recalls Jay Farrar, Wilco boss Jeff Tweedy's former compatriot/competition from the days of Tupelo honey? Methinks not.

16. "Fight Test" | The Flaming Lips | Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots | Warner Bros. | 4:14

I'll always have a soft spot for the Lips' inspirationals, no matter how hokey my rational brain tells me they are. "There are things you can't avoid/ you've gotta face them/ when you're not prepared to face them." Preach on, Brother Wayne.

17. "It's Not" | Aimee Mann | Lost In Space | SuperEgo | 3:27

Working her familiar territory of elegant, wistful pop, Aimee Mann is trying to break your heart, and it's working.

18. "Day Of The Deadringers" | McLusky | McLusky Do Dallas | Too Pure/Beggar’s Group | 3:02

Is there a worse band name than McLusky? Never mind though, 'cause these Welshman rock the Pixies-worship with greater abandon than anybody this side of Les Savy Fav. Key ingredient: delirious, unhinged, what-is-he-on songwriting. When the frontman says, "In the midst of all the touching and the kissing/ we forgot the penetration," I don't believe him.

Finally, something good comes out of Florida.

See the main mix.

20. "You Are Still Evil" | Radar Brothers | And the Surrounding Mountains | Merge | 3:01

Graying Hell Lay homeboys bring the mellow gold and gentle menace.

21. "Sex Is Boring" | Ballboy | Club Anthems | Manifesto | 4:24

Now Ballboy — there's a band name worse than McLusky. Sounding like the demon spawn of a Belle/Sebastian coupling, Gordon McIntyre bah humbugs all over this tender strummer.

E-mail Wayne Lewis at capsighs@pacbell.net.