A little jam

My sister came up with the piano part, and I improvised a solo/beginning of a melody on top. We were interrupted by our dad, but we will record a complete version eventually. I was starting to build to a faster section, I need to go back and memorize what i played. The sound is a little wanky/over-dramatic for my tastes, but it's still pretty damn smooth.

itunes on shuffle

One of my favorite AV Club features is "Random Rules," where they take a musicians or entertainers' ipods and hit the shuffle button. It's then up to the (occasionally horrified/sometimes relieved) subject to discuss the track. So here is my random shuffle on itunes. I didn't cheat, I promise. Currently I have 8656 songs on my itunes, so this is a total crapshoot. I have a bunch of beloved albums sitting over in Ruckus that can't be included in the shuffle for obvious reasons.

Keller Williams - Lightening
I haven't really listened to Keller Williams since high school. He tours around on the jam band circuit. I do still enjoy his goofy blugrass/folk. It makes me want to go camping. "Lightening" has a banjo and upright bass get-and-up-and-go shuffle, with Keller's typically easy going vocals.

The Presidents Of The United States Of America - Puffy Little Shoes
Haha, dammit. I haven't really listened to the Presidents since grade school, but they will always hold a special place in my heart. This is off their second album. I only really listened to their first one, but I'm a completist, and if I have one of their albums, I have to have them all. I wish "Dune Buggy," "Feather Pluckin" or any of the other tracks from their first disc that sound tracked my days on the playground would have popped up.

Thelonious Monk - In Walked Bud
I won't pretend to know more than I do. This has some dude singing on it. I usually like Monk's solo piano stuff the best. The singing is a little grating until he starts scatting, but as usual, Monk's piano puts you in a different place than before.

Eric Clapton - Milkcow Calf's Blues
This is from his disc of all Robert Johnson covers. Their really isn't anything left to say about Eric Clapton or Johnson. I really liked this CD in high school, before I liked my blues a little grimy and scuzzier, but I will say "Me and Mr. Johnson" is a bazillion times better than "Ridin' With the King" and "Back Home," two of Clapton's other recent pieces of work. "Back Home" is one of the laziest, most over-produced piles of pseudo-blues ever burned to CD.

Eels - Good Old Days
This is from "Shootenanny," one of the most underrated Eels albums. Its a shot of condensed Eels to the arm, recorded after a few zigs and zags into sunny-on-the-surface pop and growling alterna rock. It's pretty safe, but "Good Old Days" is a perfectly fine track.

MC5 - Kick out the Jams
Kick out the jams, motherfuckers. MC5 is one of those punk-on-accident, before-their-time bands. They were introduced to me by Rage Against the Machine, I think. Everyone does, or should know this song, so this will stop here.

Sublime - Rivers of Babylon
This is turning into Ed's high school mix. Moving on. Wait, I do remember learning how to play this on guitar and being really "stoked."

Green Day - Minority
See above.

Gourds - Gin and Juice
This is that Snoop Dog cover that seemingly everyone on the Internet has mislabeled as Phish.

Blind Melon - Holy Man
I dunno.

Nirvana - Pennyroil Tea
This has always been my least favorite Nirvana song. My least favorite on "Unplugged," my least favorite on "In Utero," this is the demo version from their rarities box set "With the Lights Out."

Tom Waits - Metropolitan Glide
This is Tom Waits in growl mode, over some dissonant screams and plucked guitars, and his "boom-boom-bat" beat yelled into the mic. From the album "Real Gone."

Otis Redding - I Can't Turn You Loose
I think I must have the Stax sound stamped into my DNA from watching the Blues Brothers so many times as a little kid. Some of Jake and Elwood's backing band were originally in Booker T and the MGs, the Stax house band, famous for their one instrumental hit "Green Onions." More importantly, they are the band you hear in all the old Redding and Sam and Dave tracks, among others. A couple years ago I just felt a need to listen to old Memphis soul from out of nowhere. The impulse has probably been gaining momentum ever since the first time I watched the Blues Brothers on WGN at my grand parents' house.
Otis Redding has the best voice of all time, great for soul, but he also could have been a show stopping rock and roll singer, he could shout it like James Brown, croon and seduce or just knock you down. Go listen to his version of "Change Gonna Come" and I dare you not to think of fireworks, baseball diamonds, summer, life's fucked up turns, life's good moments, sad moments, the world getting better/worse, everything...

Smashing Pumpkins - Love
Apparently I own a lot of '90s music. This is from "Melancholy and the..." great night time driving music. There's really not a bad song on the album.

Kongar-ol Ondar & Paul "Earthquake" Pena - Ondarnyng Ayany (Ondar's Medley)
This is a bizarre CD my Uncle recommended. Its a western blues guitarist playing with this Chinese guy that sings in some mountainous, droning style that is traditional for the region. Ondar creates all these different tones that almost sound like a bag pipe.

Nick Drake - River man
His voice is fucking devastating, so sad yet reassuring, so thoughtful but wandering. This is off "Way to Blue."

Radiohead - House of Cards
This is my favorite track off "In Rainbows." Cleanish guitar, swirling, echoing backing vocals and clear lyrics from Thom.

Pearl Jam - All Those Yesterdays
From back in the day, but this song still gets regular spins. Also another simple song on the guitar that was fun to learn. I always put "All Those Yesterdays" on my Pearl Jam mixes. It's a nice down tempo break, with some surprising low-key horns thrown into the chorus.

Pink Floyd - Learning to Fly
I fucking hate this song.

Belle and Sebastian - Roy Walker
I don't really know this song, so I'll blog some initial thoughts as it plays. Apparently it's up-beat, harmonies sound like Uncle John's Band or any other Grateful Dead song well-known enough to put on a greatest hits disc. But then it goes all bat shit crazy with whistles and circus noises, harmonica and a electric guitar. Ima go back and listen to this one again soon.

Wyclef John - Wish You Were Here
I used to put this song on a lot of mixes. It samples the Pink Floyd tune of the same name. At first Wyclef sings it like a straight cover over a hip-hop beat, but then he rhymes and all that rip-roaring hip hop music takes over and trunks rattle, etc.

Blink 182 - Waggy
eh?

Lupe Fiasco - Real Recognize Real
This is off his debut, which is great. The odds were good a Lupe songs would appear on this list. Last year a friend of mine was generous enough to give me a thumb drive full of every Lupe mix tape alive. Lupe might be the only mainstream emcee I care about anymore, 'cept Kanye.

Eels - The Other Shoe
Eels have released a lot of fucking music.

Pearl Jam - Help Help
I get it , I get it, itunes shuffle sucks. 35 gigs of music and I keep getting the same fucking bands.

Cat Power - Lived in Bars
This is from "The Greatest." I always liked the beginning of this album, her smoky voice, easy going, southern instrumentation, etc. But I'd usually get bored by about track six. This is only track three, so I know it pretty well - starts slow, lingers around a while, then with a minute left it picks up the pace unexpectedly. Nice.

Grateful Dead - Dark Star
Well, the most popular Dead cover band is named after this track, moving on.

The Black Keys - Strange Times
This is the first single their newest album. "Strange Times" has the production sound of their older self-produced stuff, Danger Mouse's touch isn't anywhere to be found here. This is better than 80 % of the other rock and roll out there today, but not up to par with past Keys' releases. I liked the Keys grimy and fuzzy and deep fried and all that. Oh well.

Pearl Jam - Soon Forget
WTF? Honestly. itunes' shuffle is fucking horrible. Maybe they are trying to tell me to quit.

OK, I'm quitting. This was actually a little bit of a let down. I did my part, itunes shuffle kind of fucked up their end of the bargain. It didn't play anything I've bought within the last year or two, and didn't discover anything truly embarrassing. Oh well.

A Picnic Table and Possible Bonitis: The Bloody Saga

Yesterday my parents tasked me with the seemingly innocuous job of dismantling and breaking down our rusted picnic table in the back yard.

My hand slipped while using the crowbar and slammed itself right into a jagged piece of rusted metal. The only thing that stopped its unforgiving path through my skin was the thumb bone. If I had used just a slightly different angle it could have quite possibly sliced through all the arteries in my wrist. Instead, blood just started squirting out of my thumb. Conversely, if I had been operating the crowbar with my feet, I would have definitely castrated myself. Or, even more scary, if I had been using my mouth to operate the tool, I most surely would have been decapitated. Back to the thumb. Since we live in a wonderful country that doesn't believe in keeping health care costs down, or forcing health insurance companies to offer reasonable plans, I didn't go to the emergency room, because the ER, stitches, cleanup and the necessary shots would have come out of pocket. So instead I have a pile of bandages keeping together a small but infinitely deep wound.

Tetanus is a concern with any rusty stab wound, which brings us to the picture above. My friend Jamaster Jay Miska advised me to look up pictures of people that have died from tetanus. The disease makes all your muscles constrict, creating an arched back and horrifying grin as you die. Like the "'80s guy" from Futurama that died of "Bonitis." I don't know the last time I had a tetanus shot, so I drove across town to the Illinois Department of Health for the $10 punch in the arm. The DoH is like the DMV only with friendlier employees. I got to sit and wait for a half an hour listening to toddlers named Destiny and Serenity scream and yell while their parent(s) sat idly like no one else is in the room. My only salvation were awesome posters such as this jem, "Some of your most valuable shots take place off the court. Vaccinations... they work!"

If the waiting room wasn't tourture enough, I now have a sore shoulder to go along with my useless thumb. Fuck you, picnic table.

Ode to Dr. Dog's new album, "Fate".

I first heard Dr. Dog at Bonnaroo three years ago. My response was a simple, "that was kinda good, a bit odd though..." I didn't know any Dr. Dog songs, I think my cousin and I picked the show out of the dozens playing that day because the name sounded weird and we didn't have a clue what they would sound like. They had shaggier hair then, bright-orange sun glasses and a decidedly lo-fi, tape-warped spin on their Abbey-Road-era-Beatles sound. In nearly every review of Dr. Dog's CDs, the writer either quickly caves and just calls them Beatlesesque, or spends a paragraph talking about how only lazy critics call new bands Beatlesesque - how the phrase has almost no meaning since most pop/rock has some roots in the Beatles, etc, - and then ends up calling them Beatlesesque anyhow. I didn't think much else about the Bonnaroo show until two years later when I saw them open for the Black Keys. I still didn't know any of the songs, but the new ones were even better than the old ones, and ever since each new release has been pre-ordered.

Dr. Dog's early records didn't sound like a band ripping off the Beatles, more like a bunch of Philadelphia kids with ear infections who grew up listening to the Beatles on a mono stereo. I heard someone say, and I co-opted the phrase, that their last album "We All Belong" sounds best on broken car speakers. It's a compliment. Dr. Dog's albums make you feel like a little kid, getting a ride home from the swimming pool in a station wagon without air-conditioning. AC would feel good in a Mercedes, but in a wood paneled Chevy Malibu wagon I'd rather have the windows down. Essentially, Dr. Dog's CDs turn me into a nostalgia whimpering puppy.

The band features two songwriters who alternate singing responsibilities. Toby Leaman has a gruffer/edgier voice and his songs are moving a little darker with each album. Scott McMicken's voice is the more warbly of the two, and his songs typically tend to be more hopeful. Released on Tuesday, "Fate" removes a lot of the dissonant tones and sloppy-is-a-virtue aesthetic of the early albums. It's a decidedly cleaned up effort. Almost too glossy in spots for my liking, this album sounds best on fully-functioning car speakers. But the strength of the band has always been in their melodies and harmonizing, not the gimmicky production and charming idiosyncrasies.

It starts out simple enough. Opening track "The Breeze" is mostly a one guitar, one voice affair, with some maraca mimicking the sound of a locomotive in the background, "chica-chica-chica-chica." The back of the liner notes fold out to a b/w picture of the band standing in front of an old train and overgrown tracks. Much of "Fate" deals with what the album title would suggest. Time passing, things fading, arriving at our final destination. On "From" the band actually sings about a "choo-choo train," a phrase no post-adolsecent should use, but I'm a sucker for the band, and their playfulness makes it work. Most of the other songs have the layered guitar lines, tinkering piano, bass and vocal harmonizing we have come to expect from a Dr. Dog album. "The Beach" might be the loudest/darkest song by the band to date - trash can drums, horror house organs, shouted vocals by Leaman and guitar with dirty style. Like any other Dr. Dog relase, "Fate" isn't flawless. Occasionally all the climbing background vocals and escelating melodies can become a bit irritating, but those moments are few and before long Dr. Dog returns to its old ways.

A film (or more) for every year

I can't help myself, I had to do a list for movies also. I'll probably keep updating it as my mind changes, or remember things I forgot. The first listed under each year is my favorite, and then the others are runner ups.

1985 Back to the Future
Classics often ignored - Better off Dead, Brazil

1986 Ferris Bueler's Day Off
Stand By Me
Aliens
Platoon
Classic often ignored - Blue Velvet

1987 Full Metal Jacket
The Princes Bride
Raising Arizona
The Untouchables
Robocop
Spaceballs
Lethal Weapon

1988 Die Hard
Big

1989 Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Major League
Batman

1990 Goodfellas
Miller's Crossing
Total Recall
Home Alone
Edward Scissorhands
Classic often ignored - Wild at Heart

1991 Terminator 2
Barton Fink
Slience of the Lambs
Cape Fear


1992 Reservoir Dogs
Wayne's World
Alladin

1993 Nightmare Before Christmas
Jurassic Park
Groundhog Day
Classic often ignored - True Romance

1994 Pulp Fiction
Shawshank Redemption
The Professional
Classic often ignored - Ed Wood

1995 Se7en
The Usual Suspects
Get Shorty
Toy Story

1996 Fargo
Trainspotting

1997 L.A. Confidential
Jackie Brown
Boogie Nights
Austin Powers
Goodwill Hunting
Lost Highway

1998 The Big Lebowski
Saving Private Ryan
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Dark City
American History X

1999 The Matrix
Office Space
Fight Club
Being John Malkovich
Magnolia
American Beauty
Classics often ignored - Eyes Wide Shut, Election

2000 O brother, Where Art Thou?
High Fidelity
Reqium for a Dream
Classic often ignored - American Psycho


2001 Memento
Mulholland Drive
Donnie Darko
Royal Tenenbaums
Classic often ignored - Ghost World

2002 The Pianist
Adaptation
City of God

2003 American Splendor
21 Grams

2004 Oldboy
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Incredibles
Mean Girls


2005 A History of Violence
Capote
The 40-Year-Old Virgin

2006 Pans Labyrinth
The Prestige
Little Miss Sunshine
V for vendetta
Borat
Classic often ignored - Children of Men

2007 No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Zodiac
Ratatouille
Superbad

2008 The Dark Knight
In Bruges

An album for every year (before my time)

This is the follow up post to “An Album for Every Year.” It named my favorite album of each year I have been alive. While constructing that list, all I really wanted to do was go back and pick my favorite albums from some of the classic rock and early punk years. In the previous entry, I had some troubles with the mid-‘80s, but this 1962 – 1984 span creates the opposite problem – too many great albums.
These lists can prompt you to think about artists and albums in totally different ways, and eras in general. Looking back at some years like 1996, I was too little to appreciate how much great and diverse music was released. Or how different Radiohead and Beck were from everything else when they hit their respective creative strides.
I regret that so many of the same artist dominate each year, but its my "favorite" album list, and not my "best" album list, because I have too many listening gaps to even attempt to canonize two decades ... and it would be arrogant.

1962 Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan

1963 Bob Dylan – The Freeweelin’ Bob Dylan

1964 Nina Simone – The Best of Nina Simone
Honorable mention – The Kinks - Kinks

1965 Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisted
Close Second - Otis Redding - Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul

1966 Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde
Honorable Mentions - Otis Redding – The Soul Album
John Mayall - Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton

1967 The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club band
Honorable Mentions - The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground and Nico
Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced?
Van Morrison – Blowin’ Your Mind

1968 The Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet
Close Second - The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle
Honorable Mention - Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison

1969 Led Zeppelin – II
Close Second - The Beatles – Abbey Road
Honorable Mentions - Led Zeppelin – I
Rolling Stones – Let it Bleed
Neil Young – Everyone Knows this is Nowhere

1970 Led Zeppelin – III
Honorable Mention - Creedence Clearwater Revival – Cosmo’s Factory

1971 David Bowie – Hunky Dory
Close Second - Led Zeppelin – IV
Honorable mentions – Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
Allman Brothers Band – Live At Fillmore East
Pink Floyd – Meddle
The Who – Who’s next
Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On
The Faces - A Nod is As Good As a Wink to a Blind Horse

1972 Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street
Honorable Mentions - Neil Young – Harvest
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly

1973 Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
Close Second – Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy
Honorable Mentions – Randy Newman – Sail Away
Bob Marley – Catch a Fire
Bob Marley – African Herbsman

1974 Tom Waits – The Heart of Saturday Night
Honorable Mention - Bob Marley - Natty Dread

1975 Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
Honorable Mentions - Bob Marley – Live!
Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy

1976 Thin Lizzy – Jail Break

1977 Elvis Costello – My Aim is True
Close Second – Pink Floyd – Animals
Honorable Mention – Talking Heads – Talking Heads 77
Television - Marquee Moon

1978 Elvis Costello – This Year’s Model
Close Second - Tom Waits – Blue Valentine

1979 The Clash – London Calling

1980 Joy Division – Closer
Honorable Mention - Talking Heads – Remain in Light

1981 Rolling Stones – Tattoo You

1982 Michael Jackson - Thriller
Honorable Mention - Elvis Costello – Imperial Bedroom

1983 Talking Heads – Speaking in Tongues

1984 U2 – The Unforgettable Fire

An Album for Every Year

This is an interesting excercise that has been making the blog circles. Pick the best album from every year you have been alive. The 2000s and '90s were easy.
But my '80s music knowledge is pretty spotty. I know the albums by my favorite groups and the pop and new wave singles, but as for what was then called "College rock" I don't know more than few songs by The Jesus and Mary Chain, Cure, Smiths, Pogues, Nick Cave, Pixies, Husker Du, etc. Same goes with some of the critically acclaimed pop artists like Prince and Paul Simon, who supposedly have solid albums to back up the singles. I only have two ears, and it takes plenty of energy keeping up with all the new stuff, let alone continue to educate my self on the '80s.
If only I could write this list going back to the 70s and 60s, I could have a more informed selection.
The next installment will be an album for every year before I was born.


1985 Talking Heads - Little Creatures

1986 Beastie Boys - License to Ill

1987 REM - Document

1988 N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton

1989 Black Crowes - Shake your money Maker
Close Second - Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
Honorable Mention - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother's Milk

1990 A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

1991 Nirvana - Nevermind
Close Second - Pearl Jam - Ten (of course)

1992 R.E.M. - Automatic for the People
Close Second - Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
Honorable Mention - Eric Clapton - Unplugged

1993 Wu Tang Clan - Enter the 36 Chambers
Close Second - Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Honorable Mentions - Nirvana - In Utero
Pearl Jam - Vs.
Snoop Doggy Dog - Doggystyle

1994 Weezer - (Blue Album)
Close Second - Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
Honorable Mention - Beck - Mellow Gold

1995 Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Close Second - Radiohead - the Bends
Honorable Mention - Ben Folds Five - Ben Folds Five

1996 Beck - Odeley
Close Second - Eels - Beautiful Freak
Honorable Mentions - Cake - Fashion Nugget
Wilco - Being There
Weezer - Pinkerton
Rage Against The Machine - Evil Empire

1997 Radiohead - OK Computer

1998 Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Honorable Mentions - Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Beck - Mutations

1999 Wilco - Summerteeth

2000 Deltron - Deltron 3030
Honorable Mention - Radiohead - Kid A

2001 Spoon - Girls Can Tell
Honorable Mention - Ryan Adams - Gold

2002 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Close Second - People under the Stairs - O.S.T.
Honorable Mention - White Stripes - White Blood Cells
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Black Keys - Big Come Up
Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow

2003 White Stripes - Elephant
Close Second - The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Honorable Mention - Kings of Leon - Youth & Young Manhood

2004 Black Keys - Rubber Factory
Close Second - Wilco - A Ghost is Born

2005 My Morning Jacket - Z
Honorable Mentions - Kings of leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak

2006 Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Honorable Mentions - The Black Angels - Passover
Tapes n Tapes - The Loon
Decemberists - The Crane Wife

2007 Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Honorable Mentions - Radiohead - In Rainbows
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

2008 Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes