Ye Olde Hit Parade: Do I Wanna Know?

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

2013: Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?

It was a hell of a year, that 2013. Same sex marriage became legal in a number of states throughout the year. Edward Snowden was charged with espionage for leaking secrets. Notable deaths included Lou Reed, Margaret Thatcher, Peter O'Toole and Jonathan Winters.

The morning of April 15 started off on a good note. I went in to Wellesley to volunteer along the Boston Marathon course, handing out water at mile 12, just before the midpoint of the race. I was with a group of folks from my running club and we set up, handed out cups of water and then cleaned everything up after the last runner had gone through. I was a half-mile from my house just before 3 p.m. when I heard on the radio that there were explosions at the marathon finish line. The next few days were spent watching the coverage of the marathon bombings, which killed three people and injured 250 others. I knew people who were in the vicinity when the bombs went off, and obviously it was a difficult time for the city and the running community. The hunt for the bombers was at first full of red herrings as suspects were falsely identified on social media at first. Finally, the city was essentially on lockdown for a day or two while police tracked and caught the two brothers (one was killed) who committed the bombing.

On the work front, we had an interim CEO trying to get the company ready for sale. I spent most of the year editing 15 monthly newsletters, which was an insane amount of work, but it was work and I was glad to have it. By the end of October, we were sold to another publisher. It was good news, but it was still a painful transition as a bunch of folks were let go after the sale. My department was luckily kept intact and we continued on. Also around the same time, Deb and I got to attend the clinching game of the 2013 World Series at Fenway Park, when the Red Sox took out the Cardinals. It was mayhem afterwards, with drunken idiots tipping over cars and causing general mayhem. We ended up walking a couple of miles to Boston Common before we could get to a subway stop that wasn't overrun with revelers.

We had a couple of vacations, going to Toronto for a week in July and Hilton Head, S.C., in August. After we got back, I started up yet another side activity (I began doing a podcast in '06 and writing a column about running for the local paper in '08). A friend and former co-worker had moved to San Francisco and was starting up an online radio station called Best Frequencies Forever, or BFF.fm. She needed some content to launch the station with and asked if I would do a pre-recorded show, so I began doing Stuck In Thee Garage, a two-hour program focusing on indie rock, in September. Almost seven years later, BFF.fm is a thriving force on the SF music scene with a full complement of in-house DJs, but I'm still doing my show and loving it.


Musically, I was getting into the local indie rock scene a lot more thanks to my good buddy Jay, who was documenting it for his fine blog Clicky Clicky Music. I was digging bands like Soccer Mom,  The Hush Now, Krill, Speedy Ortiz and Ovlov (from Connecticut, but close enough to be local). There were good new albums from Queens of the Stone Age, Kurt Vile, Superchunk, David Bowie, Savages, Future of the Left and Iceage.


Concerts attended included Mission of Burma, Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven, Titus Andronicus/Palma Violets, Drive-By Truckers, Living Colour, Soccer Mom/Golden Gurls, Obits/Pile, Earthquake Party/Hush Now/Soccer Mom/Kurt Heasley, Lucero/Titus Andronicus and the Smithereens.    




But for me, the standout song of the year was "Do I Wanna Know?" from Arctic Monkeys, a band that had taken a lot of turns since its 2006 debut album. It had explored hard rock, stoner rock and on this record, embraced more of a groove and pop sensibility. "Do I Wanna Know?" was especially catchy, as was "R U Mine?" and several others on the album. The former even ended up getting licensed to be in commercials, which I guess is a decent revenue stream given the general decline in record sales. The band has continued to evolve, not always successfully, but this was a particularly good document of a band hitting its stride.
 
Honorable mentions: Parquet Courts - "Borrowed Time"; FIDLAR - "Cheap Beer"; Iceage - "In Haze"; David Bowie - "The Next Day"; Grant Hart - "Morningstar"; Barrence Whitfield and the Savages - "The Corner Man"; Pearl Jam - "Mind Your Manners"; Mudhoney - "Douchebags on Parade"; The Night Marchers - "All Hits"; Obits - "Taste the Diff"; Kurt Vile - "KV Crimes"; Swearin' - "Echo Locate"; Arctic Monkeys - "R U Mine"; Savages - "Husbands"; Future of the Left - "Donny of the Decks"; Calories - "DMT"; Los Campesinos! - "What Death Leaves Behind"; Arcade Fire - "Normal Person"; The National - "Demons"; Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "We No Who U R"; Queens of the Stone Age - "I Appear Missing"; Yo La Tengo - "The Point of It"; Speedy Ortiz - "Tiger Tank"; Krill - "No Joke"; Idiot Genes - "Puke"; Ovlov - "Where's My Dini"; Deer Tick - "The Curtain"; Mikal Cronin - "Weight"; Thee Oh Sees - "Maze Fancier"; Mind Spiders - "They Lie"; Superchunk - "Me & You & Jackie Mittoo"; Diarrhea Planet - "Separations"; Lorde - "Royals"