High Party (Day 71)

The Fiery Furnaces - "My Egyptian Grammar"
It may just be the result of having a few days away from listening to music on my iPod, but this first song this AM sounded fantastic. I mean, sonically. I've actually been meaning to revisit The Fiery Furnaces most recent LP, Widow City, especially after since Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon recently told the Times "it's really good driving music." She also, echoed my own thoughts about the band in general adding, "It's almost annoying and irritating to listen to, but it's also compelling." But, back to the sound. The recording is excellent and the programmed beats of this song (I'm pretty sure their beats are programmed) and the many digital flourishes are as dense as the lyrics (in a good way). By the way, I've never mentioned it but I use Etymotic ER 6-i Isolator headphones while listening to music on my way to work, which I'm a huge fan of. (Hey, Etymotic folks - - how about a nice new pair of ER 4's for this unsolicited plug?) They cancel out all that subway noise (including service updates that would have informed me the train is skipping my stop, unfortunately), and sound true and crisp. Now you know a bit more about my equipment...
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - "Song Of Joy"
Elvis Presley - "I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine"
Belle & Sebastian - "Family Tree"
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - "High Party"
Since it's today's Song With The Most Previous Plays, and since I don't think I've really mentioned him on this blog, I think it's time to praise Ted Leo. He's a real grower. The first time, I heard Ted it sounded to me like average pub rock. But over time I've really come to love his unique combination of punk, pop, guitar rock, soul and Irish folk. This is another great song from the awesome album Hearts Of Oak. Today's artist fun fact courtesy of Wikipedia: Ted Leo is a strict vegan. And yet I still like him.
Sloan - "Are You Giving Me Back My Love?"
Norah Jones - "Not My Friend"
Charlie Louvin - "Grave On The Green Hillside"
Johnny Cash - "Wayfaring Stranger"
The National - "The Geese Of Beverly Road"
Usually as striking as The National's music are the band's lyrics. But there's something a bit strange about hearing Matt Berninger repeatedly sing the line "We'll run like we're awesome" in this song. The word "awesome" is too pedestrian, or something. Maybe I'm just being sensitive. I actually think I say that word too much. It's, like, totally, like, a crutch or something.
Sonny Rollins - "Just Friends"
The Beatles - "I've Got A Feeling"
Gerry Mulligan & Thelonious Monk - "Decidedly (Take 5)"

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 13
Total minutes of music (approx.): 53
Song with the most previous plays: "High Party" - 9
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: I saw someone wearing this T-shirt.



















It's funny on face value, but I made a mental note because it was obviously based on some bit of pop cultural ephemera I should know about. A quick search revealed it's from the Simpsons - - awesome. [UPDATE: See, I just re-read this and I can't believe I used "awesome" in a blog entry where I mentioned I say "awesome" too much. Not awesome.] I always kinda wish I knew this show better. Obviously I think it's hilarious, but I haven't seen every episode, and I certainly can recite quotes. Am I culturally deficient?

Separate Ways (Day 70)

*Note: WILTOMWTWT is off for the next few days. I have a family wedding to attend over the weekend in Minnesota (a.k.a. Land of 10,000 Lakes). So, stop back next week....please. Also, I apologize for being so tardy today. It's been a crazy day at work, with a lot of loose ends to sew up before the long weekend. I wanted to blog quickly, but I also wanted to leave you with something to chew over while I'm gone. For that reason, I present WILTOMWTWT's first ever All-Video post. If it's shite, I won't hear about it until next week. Later!

Richard Buckner - "Numbered"
Not the same song, but you'll get the idea.



Rilo Kiley - "More Adventurous"



Tony Scherr - "Boxcar"
Again a different song, but here's Tony.



Violent Femmes - "Gone Daddy Gone"
Nice.



The Shins - "Caring Is Creepy"
She loves nerds.



Emmylou Harris - "Here I Am"



Coleman Hawkins - "You Never Know"
Different song, cool video.



Magnetic Fields - "I Don't Want To Get Over You"



Teddy Thomspon - "Separate Ways"



Dan Zanes - "How Do You Do?"
Cover your kids' eyes, it's Dan Zanes first rock 'n roll incarnation, The Del Fuegos.



Ryan Adams - "Why Do They Leave?"



Neil Young - "Love In Mind"
I love Uncle Neil.



Coldplay - "Swallowed In The Sea"



And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 14
Total minutes of music (approx.): 50
Song with the most previous plays: "Separate Ways" - 8
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: Met pain lingers...

Over The Rainbow (Day 69)

The Rolling Stones - "Dear Doctor"
Outkast - "Stankonia (Stanklove)"
Low - "Pretty People"
Neil Young - "Boxcar"
The Hold Steady - "Your Little Hoodrat Friend"
Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Up Around The Bend"
The Silos - "Hook In My Lip"
Calexico and Iron & Wine - "Dead Man's Will"
Radiohead - "All I Need"
The Roots - "Here I Come"
Low - "Hatchet"
I wanted an excuse to talk about it (not just because Pcup asked) and Low has provided the perfect segue. The hatchet did indeed fall on Willie Randolph today (or should I say last night?) via a 3:12 a.m. ET press release. [Before I get into it, this is a very cool song from the Minnesota slowcore trio. It's from their very good 2007 album Drums and Guns, and it brightens the mood of what is a mostly somber anti-war album - - thematically and musically. In this case the band's plea for world peace is caged in the funny line "Let's bury the hatchet like the Beatles and The Stones."] So... as a Mets fan I am not shocked that Willie was fired. However, I am shocked at how poorly the team handled the situation. Clearly Willie was already on the hot seat after last year's historic collapse. Add to that the fact that they have sputtered in the first 60 or so games this season; and Willie's strange comments to the press about how criticism of him was race related. But letting him fly all the way to Los Angeles, manage the team for the first game out there (which he won, btw), and sending him back to the hotel only to then shitcan him and tell the world in a press release in the middle of the night?! Classless! Just a total botch job by the Mets brain trust. Now, I'm not sure if GM Omar Minaya really had total autonomy in this decision or not (we'll probably know more after today's 5 p.m. press conference), but didn't anybody realize there was a better way to go about firing the manager (who incidentally ends his tenure with the second best winning percentage of any Mets skipper)? It's just embarrassing as a fan. The Mets seem to specialize in boneheaded moves and it hurts their credibility and ultimately impacts the team on the field. Obviously nothing changed between the weekend series and last night, so why didn't they just fire him in New York? It boggles the mind. Listen, I'm not sure getting rid of Willie is such a bad idea. I mean it's ultimately the players who are not performing, but there does seem to be a culture of mediocrity over the past year that has to be shaken up. Unfortunately they guy that was named the interim manager, Willie's bench coach Jerry Manuel, is said to have the same laid back personality as Randolph. How will the Mets respond? Only time will tell. At least, they have Pedro back in the rotation. Church should be back in the lineup soon. And the bullpen can't get worse. Maybe with the distractions behind them, they can just go out and play baseball. I, for one, think they'll play well, get back in the race and finally be eliminated in spectacularly heartbreaking fashion late in September in one of the last games ever at Shea Stadium. Meet the Mets...
Dean & Britta - "Teen Angel"
Joy Division - "These Days"
Dan Zanes - "Over The Rainbow"
David Bowie - "The Jean Genie"

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 15
Total minutes of music (approx.): 54
Song with the most previous plays: "Over The Rainbow" - 15
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: I got a cinnamon raisin bagel with butter and coffee.

Jesus Was An Only Son (Day 68)

Johnny Cash - "Orange Blossom Special" (live)
Why do I love thee, Internet? This is the perfect example: The first song on today's playlist is a great tune from Cash's classic At Folsom Prison. In an effort to find out if this is an original or not, all of the sudden I was thrust into an interesting rabbit hole. (Of course, it turns out it's a cover - - I feel like I should have known this since it's referred to as the "national anthem of bluegrass" and was recorded by luminaries like Bill Monroe. But, hey, you can't know everything.) So, Wikipedia alludes to a slight controversy over the song, written by Ervin Rouse and Robert Russell "Chubby" Wise, but doesn't really deliver the whole story. They write: "The copyright holder is solely Rouse, as Wise supposedly rejected credit, saying there was no money in fiddle tunes." Intriguing. The pair wrote the song in 1939 about a NYC to Miami passenger train that began it's run in 1925, just as south Florida was beginning a development boom. But what of the credit? A quick Google search led to an interesting (and timely!) item in a North Carolina paper called the New Bern Sun Journal that claims that the song is more often attributed to Wise than Rouse. Turns out the forgotten songwriter is being honored this June 28 with a ceremony as a marker is unveiled near his house. (At the intersection of N.C. 55 and Wintergreen Road in Craven County, North Carolina... if you're in the area.) Apparently Rouse sort of faded into obscurity and it wasn't until Johnny Cash tracked him down in the 60s that he was given his due.

"Cash said in a 1994 interview in Life magazine that he tracked down Rouse and his brother in the Florida swamps in the early 1960s and performed the song with him on stage in 1964 before his recording, which gives Rouse credit. [Author Randy] Noles said Rouse's former wife told him before her death that Cash had quietly assisted the musician, who suffered from mental problems, in his late life and remembered him with flowers at his death."

It gets even better. Randy Noles wrote an entire book on the subject called Fiddler's Curse: The Untold Story of Ervin T. Rouse, Chubby Wise, Johnny Cash, and The Orange Blossom Special. My next stop was Amazon, and the full story was revealed in the book's blurb:

One of the most bizarre stories in all of popular music is the history of "Orange Blossom Special," arguably the century's best-known fiddle tune. The man credited with its ownership, Ervin T. Rouse, endured tragedy, alcoholism and mental illness. He spent his last years fiddling for tips in isolated taverns at the edge of the Everglades, and died all but unknown. The man who claimed co-ownership, Chubby Wise, achieved fame as the seminal fiddler of the bluegrass genre, but struggled to overcome personal demons and to heal the scars of childhood abandonment and abuse. Johnny Cash, the tortured superstar who made the song a mainstream hit, quietly championed Rouse and earned the enmity of Wise. This trio's disparate legacies are here told - and forever linked with the legendary diesel steamliner.

Is it me or is this just the coolest arcane musical discovery for a lazy Monday ever? Thanks, Intranets.
Magnetic Fields - "Zebra"
Beck - "No Complaints"
Bob Dylan - "Stuck Inside A Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again"
Smashing Pumpkins - "Luna"
Johnny Cash - "Delia's Gone"
Peter Sarstedt - "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)"
Bloc Party - "Where Is Home?
Bright Eyes - "Middleman"
The Shins - "Turn Me On"
Bruce Springsteen - "Jesus Was An Only Son"
Magnetic Fields - "If You Don't Cry"
Bob Willis & His Texas Playboys - "Bubbles In My Beer"

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 13
Total minutes of music (approx.): 49
Song with the most previous plays: "Jesus Was An Only Son" - 8
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: I noticed a new ad campaign on the subway for Wise snacks that features the likeness of Mets SS Jose Reyes. Now I say likeness, because it's not actually Jose, but an animated version of the in-real-life already pretty animated shortstop. Kinda strange. Perhaps Jose was too busy booting balls in the field to take the time to pose for the photos. Or better yet, maybe cartoon Jose will replace real Jose on the field sparking the Mets to a second-half surge and a deep run in the playoffs. Anyone want to bet me a case of Wise Bravos Sweet Pepper Tortilla Chips that this will actually happen? What? No takers? Not even you, animated Jose?

Sugar Magnolia (Day 67)

**Today marks a bit of a departure for the What I Listened To On My Way To Work Today blog. I did in fact listen to the following songs, but they were on the radio and not my iPod. I'm going out of town this weekend and a friend needed his car driven up north so I volunteered to take it. That means I needed to bring it into Manhattan this morning so I can head out straight after work. Now that's a lot of useless detail - - sorry - - but the basic upshot is that today's playlist comes courtesy of WFUV. It's a pretty cool public radio station from Fordham University in NYC that plays a lot of alt-country, folk and, gulp, adult alternative. (You can also listen to WFUV online. Meanwhile, they actually archive their playlists. To find out the exact names of the songs I heard this AM, all I had to do was go online and select the timeslot for a full list of the tracks. Do all radio stations do this? Amazing.)

The Grateful Dead - "Sugar Magnolia"
Love 'em or hate 'em, what a great summer song. Believe it or not, my friend's car is a convertible and this song had me wishing the top was down.
Gnarls Barkley - "Who's Gonna Save My Soul"
I really liked their Violent Femmes' cover "Gone Baby Gone" from their debut album, but I think I'm over Gnarls Barkley.
Iron & Wine - "House By The Sea"
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - "Answer Me"
This got a lot of love from the mainstream critics. Sharon has a big, bold gospel-like voice, but I'm not sure it's my cup of tea.
Chris Isaak - "Wicked Game"
Odd blast from the past. Of course, all I could think about was the video. Wonder why?



Ingrid Michaelson - "The Way I Am"
Hello, Norah Jones wannabe. Still, a very pretty song - - and she's from Staten Island.
The Subdudes - "(You'll Be) Satisfied"
Kathleen Edwards - "Six O'Clock News"

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 8
Total minutes of music (approx.): 40
Song with the most previous plays: "Sugar Magnolia" - 7
Songs I heard on WFUV that are also on my iPod: 2; "Sugar Magnolia," "House By The Sea"
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: I drove!




















And I saw this on the side of a van. What the f*@k!

Abel (Day 66)

Joe Henry - "Parker's Mood"
This is yet another gorgeous song from the painfully underrated singer-songwriter and producer Joe Henry. Trivia buffs may know him as Madonna's brother-in-law (he actually wrote her 2000 hit "Don't Tell Me"). But he's really an ever-evolving artist who was once pigeonholed as an alt-country rocker, and now creates some really timeless jazz-inflected pop inhabited by characters and themes with the same emotional heft as Tom Waits. Seriously. The entire 2007 album that this song comes from, Civilians, is great. In fact, I can't believe I left "Our Song" off my Favorite Songs of 2007 list! That tune (with the evocative opening lyrics "I saw Willie Mays at a Scottsdale Home Depot. Looking at garage door springs at the far end of the 14th row..") is sublime. In addition to his own music, and producing albums by singer-songwriters like Aimee Mann and Teddy Thompson; Henry, along with Loudon Wainwright III, composed the music for the Judd Apatow comedy Knocked Up. My man is prolific. Incidentally that movie...totally holds up after repeated viewings. And it asks the age-old question: You can get pink eye from farting on a pillow?



Bruce Springsteen - "Erie Canal"
Lambchop - "The Rise And Fall Of The Letter P"
The National - "Abel"
Bill Evans - "My Romance (Take 2)"
Beck - "We Dance Alone"
Tony Scherr - "Daily"
Art Pepper - "Valse Triste"
Blonde Redhead - "Equally Damaged"
Palace Music - "Cat's Blues"
Tortoise - "Everglade"

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 11
Total minutes of music (approx.): 53
Song with the most previous plays: "Abel" - 11
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: There was a guy on the subway that looked exactly like disgraced NY governor Eliot Spitzer. I was tempted to address him as Client No. 9.

Quarter To Three (Day 65)

Hüsker Dü - "Beyond The Threshold"
The Velvet Underground - "White Light/White Heat"
Bishop Allen - "Quarter To Three"
The Shins - "Girl Sailor"
Fugazi - "Polish"
Shelby Lynne - "Track 12"
Grandaddy - "L.F.O."
The Killers - "Interlude"
T Bone Burnett - "Blinded By Darkness"
The Beastie Boys - "Jimmy James"
"This next one, is the first song on our new album..." And so begins the Beastie's great album Check Your Head - - with this sample from Cheap Trick's At Budokon. This album, like many great albums, brings me right back to that time and place when it was basically all I listened to. It was the summer after my sophomore year in college (1992, for anyone who wants to compute just how past my prime I am) and I was living in Philadelphia with some friends. With its anti-grunge rap and funk sound, along with the fact that it's such a great party record, Check Your Head really was the perfect soundtrack to that summer. And somehow I never tired of it, even though it was played literally non-stop where I worked that summer. Where? Okay, I'll tell you, but realize this disclosure is even more embarrassing than the fact that The Killers and Shelby Lynne appeared on today's playlist. I worked here. Don't knock it, I bought a lot of flannel shirts at a remarkable discount. (Please note: This was waaaay before the ironic T-shirt was hipster couture.)
Pulp - "Bar Italia"
Jim Noir - "Eanie Meany 2"
Devendra Banhart - "Queen Bee"
This song is dedicated to my daughter. Because the "Queen Bee" is a character in an episode of Dora she has watched three straight days in a row. And because I accidentally dislocated her elbow. Don't call child services. It's a fairly common injury. She's fine.

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 13
Total minutes of music (approx.): 48
Song with the most previous plays: "Quarter To Three," "Girl Sailor" (tie) - 7
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: The humidity was only 30%!