Ya Leil (Day 41)

Superchunk - "Marquee"
Miles Davis - "Blues For Pablo" (Alternate Take)
The Rolling Stones - "Bitch"
Frank Black - "It's Just Not Your Moment"
Sufjan Stevens - "Ya Leil"
Since this is today's Song With The Most Previous Plays, I want to stop and give it a bit of attention. To be honest, with its sitar-tinted Middle Eastern or maybe Indian sound I thought this might have been an instrumental from the Darjeeling Limited soundtrack. I forgot about Sufjan's multi-ethnic explorations on the A Sun Came album - - and that's where it's from. I'm assuming the title is Arabic, but I couldn't find out what "Ya Leil" means. Only reference I could find was an album (and song) called Habeit Ya Leil by a Lebanese singer named Nawal Al Zoghbi. Not sure if there's any connection. It's a pleasant enough instrumental, that underscores Sufjan's seemingly limitless musical talent. He apparently played 14 different instruments on this record. Crazy.
Radiohead - "Airbag" (live)
Holy synchronicity, Batman! The iPod has grown a brain - - or, at the very least, extra sensory perception. Because the moment this song came on, I was reading the first sentence of this review. I kid you not, it's a write-up of Radiohead's first gig on their new tour from the Times. Not only that, another Radiohead song came 'round on the shuffle a few minutes later! You may be thinking, big deal. But around here, at What I Listened To On My Way To Work Today Headquarters, this is something special. A sign. Kismet. Okay fine, it's just an easy topic for today's blog. We'll take it. Radiohead does not need my love, but if you must know I enjoy the new album, even if it does veer dangerously close to sounding a bit like U2 in parts (IMHO, natch). And yes, I did see them live once (August 26, 1997 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC) and it was mind-altering fun. Although clearly they are still working out this kinks this time around, as Ben Ratliff reports:
"It was a limbering-up show. Jonny Greenwood’s loops and digital machinations weren’t particularly arresting, and the group appeared to hit a bump in “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,” one of the strongest songs on its most recent album, “In Rainbows,” with Phil Selway’s steady, stiff motor rhythm as its I-beam. The band stopped for 20 seconds or so, and started again from the middle. (“Ve obviously did not practice dis one enough,” Mr. Yorke said afterward, feigning a taskmaster’s voice.)"
The other interesting thing in this article is Thom Yorke's comments from the stage about the song "Faust Arp." Apparently he told the crowd it took 5 minutes to write the music for the song and a year-and-a-half to write the lyrics. Wow.
Gang Of Four - "At Home He's A Tourist"
Clem Snide - "Let's Explode"
The Raconteurs - "The Switch And The Spur"
Radiohead - "Everything In Its Right Place" (Alternate Version)
Ry Cooder - "There's A Bright Side Somewhere"

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 11
Total minutes of music (approx.): 56
Song with the most previous plays: "Y Leil" - 4
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: Sorry, this is a bit New York-centric of me to mention, but I already wanted to go to Momofuku Ko, before I read this. And now I really can't wait.