Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Polly Wolly Doodle (Day 72)

Deerhunter - "Providence"
Tindersticks - "Her"
Los Lobos - "No Puedo Mas"
Jeff Tweedy - "I Got You (At The End Of The Century)" (live)
The live, acoustic version of this great song of Being There actually comes from a very cool recording I got from the blog I Am Fuel, You Are Friends. Despite her Pearl Jam obsession (sorry, could never get beyond thinking of them as grunge-lite), this avid music fan manages to get her hands on some cool live recordings (and if you don't already know about the site, it's definitely worth checking out). The set that this song is from was actually a benefit concert that Jeff performed in someone's living room! The whole thing was for charity, and the lucky winners actually got the Wilco frontman to play a great long set for an intimate gathering of friends (for only $17,500!). Besides some interesting acoustic versions of Wilco songs, there's also a lot of great banter between Jeff and the small crowd. And at the end of this song he starts talking about his wife and what a great musician she is. Also, remember the "Box Full of Letters Video"? About halfway through the clip there are some women dancing in some grainy footage on a TV. According to Jeff the woman in front is actually her. Take a look.



Jen Lekman - "Sky Phenomenon"
The Stills - "Fevered"
Brightback Morning Light - "Star Blanket River Child"
Dan Zanes - "Polly Wolly Doodle"
Viva Voce - "Bill Bixby (An Interlude)"
Pavement - "Ed Ames"
Feist - "Past in Present"

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 11

Total minutes of music (approx.): 51
Song with the most previous plays: "Polly Wolly Doodle" - 25
Yes, this song's whopping 25 plays can be attributed to my daughter (and one fateful car trip). It's the second most played song on the iPod, after, naturally, Dan Zanes' "Bushel And A Peck". First non-Zanes song? The Flaming Lips' "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song," with 24 plays. Guess I went through a phase...
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: I dropped off some dry cleaning on the way in. Why is this noteworthy? Well, because I hardly ever drop off dry cleaning. In other words, my work attire does not require dry cleaning. That's right, I'm not an investment banker! Got that, Flacouto?

10 comments:

comoprozac said...

Regarding the Flaming Lips phase...I think it all went downhill after The Soft Bulletin. I know that I wanted them to be great again and latched on to the "Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" but couldn't commit to the album.

Anonymous said...

I never thought of you as an investment banker. I'm guessing graphic designer/journalist... like me. Am I right?
Are you going to solve this "big mistery", or you wanna play these games? Since I'm (god knows why) actually curious, I ask you to please send me (flacouto@edpeixes.com.br) an e-mail solving this mistery, so we can move on to other (more interesting) subjects.
Sincerely, Fla Couto

Uncle E said...

I don't think the Lips went downhill after the Soft Bulletin, but I do think they peaked with their next one, Yoshimi. At War With The Mystics contained some classic stuff, but it was about half as good as the previous two. I ope they get it back...

comoprozac said...

Ooh, Fla Couto, I know what GE does (or at least where he works). And it should be disclosed that we've never met nor have I received any emails regarding the subject.

The Lips topic is a very similar conversation to one I had a couple of years ago about U2. We were debating whether they peaked with The Joshua Tree or was that the beginning of the end. Any thoughts?

Anonymous said...

Fla Couto said...
Oh, Comoprozac, you silly boy! The important part of my comment is not the "solving of the big mistery" thing. It's the "e-mail me so we can move on to other (more interesting) subjects" that really matters.

Anonymous said...

Fla Couto said...
and concerning the U2 subject: they never peaked. They always sucked.

pcup said...

I think the Joshua Tree is certainly their peak, but not the beginning of the end. I think this is a case that reminds me of GE's discussion of Ryan Adams: it's often hard to separate disliking the artist (or, say, the lead singer) from being able to enjoy and assessing the music. I'm definitely not saying that anyone who dislikes the music, like Fla (if i may you call you just Fla), is basing that on a dislike for Bono. But i think there is a lot of that around.

comoprozac said...

Joshua Tree for me is the end. The sad part is that is about the time I got into U2. I later searched out pre-JT material and found profoundly moving. Of course, I've since grown out of that stage as well. So, maybe Fla is right: U2 just sucked.

The thing that makes U2 so perplexing is that they may have recorded their best song after Rattle and Hum. "One", in my humble opinion, is their greatest achievement. However, it was written and recorded in the midst of their great decline.

Angry John Sellers said...

Two things: 1) "Ed Ames" is the best song ever written (one of hundreds). 2) U2 definitely peaked at The Joshua Tree, although lots of people would argue that Achtung Baby is their finest moment (and those people would be very wrong, although I completely agree with Comoprozac that "One" is the best song they ever wrote).

Now, regarding GE's overly dismissive assessment of the Edge's guitar playing -- wow. For better or worse, no other guitarist sounds like him, unless you count Jonny Greenwood or the dude from Coldplay. While he's not a technically excellent guitarist in the way that Page, Clapton and other noodlers are, he's a complete original. Now, you might think that his originality sucks; that's your cross to bear. But yeah, Rolling Stone picking "Where the Streets Have No Name" as one of the top 100 greatest guitar songs was stupid; if they had to choose a U2 song for that list (which they shouldn't have), I would have gone with "Sunday Bloody Sunday" or "Desire" or "I Will Follow." Dumb-asses.

comoprozac said...

May the debate continue...