Hundreds of albums cross my desk every year. Then I download maybe 100 more from iTunes. Here are the 10 that really stuck with me in 2006. Feel free to leave your own picks when you’re done:

1. "Game Theory" The Roots: The Philly rap vets deliver their most focused effort to date. Fueled by ?uestlove’s muscular beats and Black Thought’s stark vision of the new millennium, it plays like a cross between Public Enemy’s "Fear of a Black Planet" and Funkadelic’s "Maggot Brain." But make sure you pick up the European or iTunes versions, which include the

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Lots going on in club land as ’06 comes to a close. For starters, I stopped by JD’s Wild West Saloon last night, when the new dance club was supposed to open at 84th & Hosmer at a former Silver Dollar Casino location. But the door guy said they had to push it back to tonight because of some undisclosed glitch.

Still, I got the skinny from local club vet DJ Omar, a guy who’s spun just about everywhere in the South Sound, and whose latest gig is as JD’s resident DJ.

As the name implies,

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You probably first heard of Jeremy Enigk when he fronted influential Seattle emo outfit Sunny Day Real Estate in the ’90s. Then after multiple breakups, he went on to form the Fire Theft with Sunny Day band mates Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith.

But Friday (Dec. 29) he’ll showcase two albums worth of solo material at Hell’s Kitchen. And who knows? Maybe a couple of Sunny Day songs depending on how he’s feeling. So last week I called him before a tour stop in San Diego to catch up. And here’s what he said about …

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Renowned rock critic Robert Christgau spoke on a panel at Experience Music Project a couple of years back. And when someone asked who he thought was the greatest innovator in American popular music, he didn’t blink: James Brown — the man who laid the foundation for modern funk, hip-hop and R&B, for starters.

The Godfather of Soul died early Christmas morning. He will be missed.

While I never got to see him live, I feel fortunate to have recently caught ex-JB sax player Maceo Parker in Victoria, BC. "Pass the Peas" and "Soul Power": Timeless.

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Friday night’s Loaded show at Hell’s Kitchen is this week’s hot ticket, Loaded being Duff McKagan of Velvet Revlover and Guns N’ Roses fame’s band from college.

The show is a cancer benefit for Jerry Allen, a friend of Loaded drummer Geoff Reading, a local guy who has also played with Top Heavy Crush and American Shame. And this one-off show was also a good excuse to check in with McKagan (a Seattle boy, in case you didn’t know)and chew the fat.

Here are a few sound clips from last Friday’s conversation:

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And now for a bit of gallows humor – with all due apologies to the peeps still twiddling their thumbs in the dark and carving up fallen trees today. Here’s the official iPod mix for Puget Sound wind storm 2006. (Then again, who has power to charge their iPod today? Oh yeah! You, sitting at your computer.):

"Blowing in the Wind" Bob Dylan

"Rock You Like a Hurricane" Scorpions

“Dancing in the Dark” Bruce Springsteen

"The Wind" PJ Harvey

"Falling Tree" David Gray

"Terrible Storm" Tegan and Sara

"Cold Wind" Arcade

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You’ll soon have a new place to catch rock shows if you’re not yet of drinking age. Said all-ages venue, the Junkyard, will be open for business on Jan. 4, according to booking agent Josh Brumley, who previously ran the now defunct Hall in University Place.

The venue is basically a big warehouse located at 6402 S. Tacoma Way. Tacoma’s Don’t Tell Sophie will headline the inaugural show. A calendar for the first few weeks is already up on the Junkyard’s My Space page.

Brumley said the venue will also offer a video service

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Inspired by Montreal’s Les Breastfeeders, I wrote about dumb band names in today’s column. (Read it here.) But I was wondering what you guys think? What are the best and worst band names in pop, rock and hip-hop?

(Apologies for the late post. I blame the power outages. And, like, that huge tree that nearly took out my car last night. Scary!)

When I recently learned that the folks at Broadway Center had been using the city’s Tacoma Arts listserv to survey locals on whether they would come out to see the Decemberists, Rilo Kiley and other hip indie rock types at their Pantages and Rialto theaters, it piqued my interest to say the least.

But hold

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Found an interesting peice here about what Audioslave’s Tom Morello calls the “Wal-Martization of radio.” And the complete report mentioned in this story can be found here. This is why, since KEXP pulled the plug on Tacoma, I’ve spent more and more time listening to my iPod instead of the radio. And apparently I ain’t alone.