Coleman Hawkins - "In A Mellow Tone"
The Mountain Goats - "Moon Over Goldsboro"
Kinds of Convenience - "The Girl From Back Then"
Los Lobos - "Little Things"
Pavement - "So Stark (You're A Skyscraper)"
I (heart) Pavement. It's not an unusual or original statement. But I suddenly feel like I've jilted my longtime loves. Hearing this song - - a somber thing of beauty - - and not being able to recite release date, album, lyrics etc, made me sad. Circa Slanted and Enchanted's release in 1992, I would have renounced all worldly possessions to be able to listen to that record 24/7. (Quick aside, I think I bought it after being clued into the buzz that in those days was generated by record stores clerks and a few 'zines - - but I can't remember the details. I will say this, I hadn't actually heard their music when I bought the CD. And here's a full disclosure that I've never told another living soul: The album cover almost scared me off. Not the DIY scrawl or blood-red color - - the floating piano keys. I worried that somehow the piano was going to be central to their sound. Phew.) Anyway, fast-forward through the years and Pavement, in my opinion, continued to make good on their promise (unbeknownst to them) to be one of my all-time favorite bands. But by the time the recent reissues had come out, I'd lost the time/verve/ability to be able to cite every song and every album. 'Tis a pity. Hearing "So Stark (You're A Skyscraper)" today, (a B-side to the "Trigger Cut" single, btw, re-released on the Slanted and Enchanted [Luxe and Reduxe edition]), has made me realize there are now Pavement songs that are new (to me). That's a pretty exciting notion. I don't have six stoned hours in my dorm room to spend pouring over every one, but I do have my commute home...
The Wrens - "Strengthless/Decided Girl"
Sufjan Stevens - "Flint (For The Unemployed And Underpaid)"
Wilco - "I Must Be High"
The Rolling Stones - "Rocks Off"
Right before this classic rocker started playing, I spied a guy on the subway wearing a Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah concert t-shirt. It's been a while since I picked up a concert tee, after years of basically wearing nothing else. (The last one, I think, was a Yo La Tengo shirt bought in 1997.) But seeing the CYHASY shirt reminded me that I basically used to buy one at almost every concert I went to, sometimes with utter disregard for style. For example, after seeing The Stones at Shea Stadium on the 1989 Steel Wheels Tour, I bought this:
But it was actually even lamer, because it was the same boring pattern (the Steel Wheels album cover I think), only on a white T-shirt. Ugly. But then again, who am I to judge, I also owned this:
And then I got to work.
Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 10
Total minutes of music (approx.): 43
Song with the most previous plays: "Flint (For The Unemployed And Underpaid)" - 8
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: I wanted to take a picture of the Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah t-shirt guy, but he was totally on to me and I wound up with nothing more than a shot of his sneakers, which were also kinda cool.
2 comments:
Ah yes, Pavement. I like them too, so much so that I blog about their songs from time to time.
I'm still buying concert t-shirts...mostly because I have to replace the ones I keep retiring. At one time I wanted someone to put them together in a quilt, but they just sit in a plastic tub, waiting for my spawn to dig them up one day and wear one for a smock in art class.
"Dude, what's 'Archers of Loaf'?"
It would have been fun to keep them all, but I have a hard enough time convincing my wife I have to hold on to all my vinyl!
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