http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2008/08/strange-sounds-earth-bloop-hum-mistpouffers/

Listen to her album The Turning (her fourth album, 1987) released when she was still Leslie Phillips and I think you’ll see that Sam Phillips is a true predecessor of the female singer/songwriters of the 1990s — anticipating Tori Amos, Alanis Morrisette, Sarah McLachlan, etc. Boneheaded record company execs tried to sell her back in the 1980s as the next Cyndi Lauper when, really, she was an original.

So, yes, she’s been underrated for years now. More than 20.

Jim

I like the second suggestion — it would be like watching election returns on CNN! Every year we try to improve this poll a little bit, so maybe that’s an idea we try to work in for 2009.

And how’s this for indie: she walked away from a development deal with RCA because they wouldn’t let her record her own songs!

Sony? No thanks. RCA? No thanks. I’d rather make the record I want, the way I want, and release it on an indie label. Those suckas had to grovel, back the money truck up to her door, and STILL let her do it her own way. That friends, is independent. And now she’s independently wealthy.

So yeah, she has since benefited from the machine, but she showed up before it did. The machine works for HER now.

The first record nonetheless feels not quite baked to me, but the second is the real deal. She’s a more mature writer and her voice is more pleasant to listen to now that she’s turned…uhm, 19.

(Bonus points for being taller than most male performers. Look up to THIS, fools.)

Agreed Joe: if anybody could write good pop songs, they’d all be good. Based on the empirical evidence, writing a good pop song may be the most difficult task in the musical universe.

2) Dude, you get a top 20 and we were stuck with TEN? What’s up with that? Next year, we get 20 too. Get a web database jockey to build the form right and — so I’m offering this Christmas wish — you’ll never touch Excel again. Running tallies would get updated every time somebody hits the Send button.

I know you’re trying to create stickiness by making people come back to the site a dozen or two times to watch the editors list unfurl and then the member list. So how’s THIS for sticky: get a Flex whiz to build the database for you, and have the results update in REAL TIME in Flash. Have the top 5 results on the front page, then a link “Click here for real time results of the top 100 vote.”

Dude, we’d be hitting the reload button to see updated election results like lab monkeys trying to earn their next dose of crack.

Imagine how that changes the discussion.

Yancey: Joe, early returns favored Gaslight Anthem, but we’re watching it slip lower FAST.

Joe: That’s right, Yancey. Even though editor polling put it in the top spot, it’s clear that members feel that it barely deserves to be in the top 50.

Amishi: That’s because they listened to it, then listened to a bunch of other records that were much, much better. In just a few minutes, we’ll be interviewing some voters to see how it wound up on the member list AT ALL. You won’t want to miss it, so stick around. We’ll be right back after this break.

And then, while watching the results update in real time, we’d see THOUSANDS of choices pass before our eyes instead of merely 100. Click, click, click. Sample, sample sample. Save, save, save, Download all, download all, download all OUT THE WAZOO.

Mmmm. I’m a monkey. Yummy yummy crack. Indulge.

I think I may actually prefer The Stand-Ins to The Stage Names. I feel like I want to revisit more of the songs on The Stand-Ins. Although, the first album drags in the middle and ends with a punch (favorite Beach Boys reference ever), but the second album stays strong all the way through and then has a weak ending track, so I understand how the emotional impact of the first may be greater.

I’m definitely going to post my list tomorrow — I’m thinking one album a day, for 25 days, to build up suspense for my No.1 one of the year, which will hit mid-January or so…..IT WILL SHAKE THE WORLD