The Brute Choir (Day 18)

Beirut - "St. Apollonia"
Eleventh Dream Day - "Occupation Or Not"
This is one of those bands that I started out feeling cool for knowing about when no one else seemed to, and ultimately became angry that they weren't more famous. (Call it the indie oxymoron, or something.) I first discovered them courtesy of an acquaintance that I will call Two-In-One-Fishbone-Joe. Now I'm not calling him this to be cute or keep his identity a secret, I'm calling him this because that's what I called him and I no longer know him by any other name. (It is, of course, a nickname. The origin is hazy, but it basically revolves around the fact that he got to see Fishbone and some other great band in one night - - for one low price!) TIOFJ and I worked at Sam Goody's in the Monmouth Mall in 1989. In case you're not familiar, Sam Goody's is a record store. Take a minute to understand just how awesome a job this was for a young music fan still in high school. I spent the entire shift basically browsing and thinking about what CDs I wanted to buy that night before I went home. And buy I did. After I got paid at Sam Goody's, I basically handed them back my entire paycheck in exchange for new discs. Come Christmas time the employee discount (about 25%), was jacked up to 40% off. I went hog wild. (Although at least I paid for what I took home. A buddy just put cassettes - - yes, cassettes, I guess they were smaller - - in his underwear and waltzed out.) So TIOFJ recommended I check out the Eleventh Dream Day album Beet. Wowza. It had a raw power that touched my not-yet-18-year-old soul. But like me this Chicago band was still evolving and growing and on subsequent albums the punk propulsion gave way to ragged Neil Young-like jams courtesy of lead singer/guitarist Rick Rizzo. Rizzo's wife Janet Beveridge Bean (awesome name) played drums and the third most permanent member was Douglas McCombs (who also played with Chicago's avant-garde jazz rock outfit Tortoise) on bass. It was McCombs' Tortoise buddies that nudged Eleventh Dream Day's evolution once again, and they later Incorporated some spacey loops and noise into their sound. It all worked. Try the albums Lived To Tell or Eighth if you are checking them out for the first time. And be sure to silently thank Two-In-One-Fishbone-Joe if you do.
Outkast - "Good Day, Good Sir"
Joy Division - "Komakino"
Phoenix - "Lost and Found"
The Ponys - "She's Broken"
Alejandro Escovedo - "Sacramento & Polk"
Bonnie "Prince" Billie - "The Brute Choir"
Pulp - "Sorted For E's & Wizz"
Oakley Hall - "Living In Sin In the U.S.A."
Rilo Kiley - "Capturing Moods"
Bob Willis & His Texas Playboys - "Three Guitar Special"
The Wrens - "Dakota"
Luna - "Everybody's Talkin'"

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 14
Total minutes of music (approx.): 54
Song with the most previous plays: "The Brute Choir" - 8
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: Well, as you can probably tell from the fairly long set list, it took an inordinate amount of time to get to work. A 10-minute wait for the train was the primary culprit. The other interesting thing about my trip is that I was toting a large box (something my wife wanted me to mail). That in itself is not very interesting, but the look I got from a cop as I got on my second subway (yes, I take two), had you-seem-very-suspicious-buddy written all over it. Even worse, I started to actually feel like I was acting suspicious. I didn't know what to do with my hands. Do I reach in my pocket? Do I pick up the box? Do I leave it next to me unattended? Ultimately I decided to read the Thursday Styles section of the New York Times. No way a suspicious character would want to know who got "pink slipped" at what fashion house. (Come to think of it, who, besides people in the freakin' fashion industry, does?!)