“Oh Shit” – The Libertines
One of the first songs I bought from the iTunes Music Store back in 2004 after I bought my first iPod was The Libertines “Can’t Stand Me Now.” They’re still making decent music.

“Like A Lesson” – Pillow Queens
I can never get it through my head that these ladies are all Irish. I hear 2010s Brooklyn way more than Dublin in their music.

“Party At Monster Lake” – Strand of Oaks
Timothy Showalter’s new album comes out in June. Based on the first two singles, it promises to be another wildly eclectic piece. I did not like the first offering, while this one is pretty good.

“The Lines” – From Indian Lakes
Finally someone takes the sound of the shoegaze resurgence in a different direction.

“I Can’t Escape Myself” – The Sound
Twitchy, unsettling postpunk from 1980. There’s a lot of Joy Division influence, which is a little strange as they were contemporaries.

“Waiting For Stevie” – Pearl Jam
There’s a segment of music fans who have been complaining since 1994 or 1995 about “Why can’t Pearl Jam just sound like their first two albums again?” Well, they finally did it. And they pulled it off.

Stone Gossard’s main riff sounds like an electrified version of his riff from “Black.” Eddie’s wail is in Hall of Fame form. Matt Cameron plays drums closer to Dave Abbruzzese’s style than he ever has. And Mike McCready pulls off a solo that recalls several of his most famous ones while still sounding new. It all comes together without seeming like either parody or as sad old men trying to recapture their youth. One of the best PJ songs of the new millennium.

The title? Yes, it’s that Stevie. Eddie and producer Andrew Watt created the bones for this song while they waited nearly seven hours for Stevie Wonder to arrive to track his harmonica part for the song “Try” on EV’s solo album.

“The Reflex” – Duran Duran
DD’s biggest song – it would spend two weeks at #1 – cracked the Top 40 in just its second week in the Hot 100. The band wanted this to be the lead single from the Seven And The Ragged Tiger album, but their record company thought the warbling vocals in the “Why don’t you use it?” section would turn fans off. Shows what record companies know. Also, the single was re-mixed by Niles Rogers, which helped.