I also use You Control, but I only use it for quick access to ratings. It has some cool feaures though. For quick track control, I use what I think is the single best 3rd party mini application ever written.
X-Tunes:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/15557
Hold a hotkey to bring up a floating control window. Use arrow keys to skip, ffwd, rew or change volume, and return key to pause. Then release the hotkey and the window fades away.
It hasn't been updated in a while, but everything still works except for the total track length display. The day this application dies, I will cry. I've never found another app that does the same thing.
Edit: GimmeSomeTune looks like it may have some of that same functionality. I'm going to check that out when I get home. Thanks for the heads up!
Message was edited by: Evan Warner