Programming Note

I'm taking tomorrow off. No work. No blog. See you on Monday.

In the meantime, it's Bon Iver...in town the other night. Bet it was great.

Clementine (Day 96)

Broken Social Scene - "Pitter Patter Goes My Heart"
Uncle Tupelo - "Nothing"
fIREHOSE - "From One Cums One"
Fugazi - "And The Same"
This little Fugazi, fIREHOSE block had me totally flashing back to New Jersey c. 1990. I think technically the fIREHOSE album If'n came out in 1987, but Fugazi's 13 Songs was definitely from 1990. Or as I like to call it, the year before I left town for college and basically drove around and listened to music when not hanging out with friends and listening to music. I know, it was a tough life - - but those were some very formative musical years, people! If I wasn't listening to cassettes, or a Discman, which I lovingly strapped to a tiny pillow on the floor of the car under the dash to avoid skipping, I probably had the radio tuned to the Jersey Shore alternative station 106.3. It was actually a great station they may very well have played either of these songs. Matt PInfield was one fo the DJs. Remember him? He wound up on MTV's 120 Minutes. That was another great source for new music in the mid-90s, but check out this interview he did with Sebadoh. It's hard to believe this kind of thing ever aired on TV. From Matt's less-than-stellar interview skills to Lou Barlow and Co's awkward uncomfortableness. Classic.



One other related thing: If you don't know the story of fIREHOSE, it's worth recounting. Both Mike Watt (bass) and George Hurley (drums) were headed towards cross-over stardom in the Minutemen when frontman D. Boon was killed in a car accident. The remaining members were totally crushed and not sure what they were going to next when a 22-year-old Minutemen fanatic named Ed Crawford found Watt's number and called him up out of the blue saying he wanted to play with them. The balls! They liked the guy and formed a new trio, fIREHOSE. Incidentally this is one of the best live bands I have ever seen.
Gnarls Barkley - "The Boogie Monster"
Outkast - "She Lives In My Lap"
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - "Heart In the Hand Of The Mat"
Billy Bragg and Wilco - "Feed Of Man"
Wilco - "Dreamer In My Dreams"
Bob Marley & The Wailers - "So Much Things To Say"
O'Death - "Jesus Look Down"
Flight Of The Conchords - "A Kiss Is Not A Contract"
Taj Mahal - "Blind Boy Rag"
Destroyer - "Thief"
The Decembrists - "Clementine"
The Moldy Peaches - "Goodbye Song"

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 16
Total minutes of music (approx.): 52
Song with the most previous plays: "Clementine" - 12
How I Rate Today's Playlist (1-10): 6
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: The humidity was 998% (approx.).

Silver And Gold (Day 95)

The Arcade Fire - "Neon Bible"
Television - "See No Evil"
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - "We Call Upon The Author"
Ryan Adams - "Don't Ask For The Water"
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - "Jungleland" (live)
Silver Jews - "Sometimes A Pony Gets Depressed"
Today's best song title, no? A weird one from Pavement pal David Berman's band off of 2005's Tanglewood Numbers I think this was the album where the band jumped the shark (or is it nuked the fridge?) for me. I think they even have a new album out that I've uncharacteristically totally ignored. American Water is the pinnacle.
Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs - "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"
Neil Young - "Families"
Neil Young - "Homegrown"
It's two-for-Tuesday (on Wednesday!). The iPod got a little Neil-happy this morning. "Families," is actually one of the better songs of Living With War, a record that suffers from being way too topical. Although with the state of the world hardly improving over the past year it doesn't look like it's going to really be out-of-date any time soon. And "Homegrown" closes the 1977 album American Stars 'n Bars. Here's your fun fact about that album (best known for the song "Like A Hurricane"): The cover was designed by actor Dean Stockwell. In case you're not familiar with it, this is what it looks like:


















Yes, that's a plastered Neil with his face pressed against the glass. And the woman with the red heels is producer David Briggs' girlfriend, Connie Moskos, who reveals, in Shakey: Neil Young's Biography, "They put me in some horrible dance-hall outfit. I called my mom. She said, 'Just tell me one thing – you have panties on.'" Good thing this album wasn't recorded in 2007 and the producer was dating Lindsay Lohan...
Tony Scherr - "While I Was Gone"
Joe Strummer - "Silver And Gold"
Papercuts - "Found Bird"
Kings Of Leon - "Black Thumbnail" (live)

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 13
Total minutes of music (approx.): 52
Song with the most previous plays: "Silver And Gold" - 11
How I Rate Today's Playlist (1-10): 5
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: It was pleasant and uneventful.

Think About It, Think Think About It (Day 94)

The Beatles - "Hey Jude"
Well, from no songs yesterday to a record-breaking 24 today. What gives? I actually went to the gym this morning. I'm surprised I could even find the place considering I haven't been since well before the birth of my son (4 months). It's not close and I usually run there which takes about 10-12 minutes. Now, anyone with an iPod knows it's perfectly suited for working out. (I can still remember attempting to run with a Discman and telling myself that incessant skipping was really just part of the music...) And work out music is generally something a little upbeat, that fires you up and keeps you motivated. (I'm strangely partial to Modest Mouse during workouts. You?) But it was still morning and I wanted to keep with the spirit of the blog, so I shuffled. Ouch. Running to "Hey Jude" is not exactly like hearing the theme from Rocky and feeling like Sylvester Stallone training in Siberia to fight Ivan Drago. What, you have a different motivating movie image?
The Arcade Fire - "Black Mirror"
Oakley Hall - "Spanish Fandango"
Tom Waits - "Walking Spanish"
Again, conventional workout music it is not, but I was actually just starting to do some bicep curls and kinda digging this song off the great Tom Waits album Rain Dogs. It's a stomp with the classic Wait's sandpaper and marble delivery and interesting lyrics to boot. "Take off your watch, your rings and all // Even Jesus wanted just a little more time // He's walking Spanish down the hall." What does it mean? I assumed it was akin to "dead man walking," but Wikipedia was unhelpful. It turns out another blogger already did the dirty work. According to rockrobster23, "walking Spanish" means:

"Being forcibly carried from a place by one’s collar and belt, with one’s tiptoes scrabbling at the floor, so that the Spanish walker is being forced to go somewhere he doesn’t want to go. The expression derives from being made to walk the plank on a pirate ship."

Rockrobster23, then goes on to explain the meaning of the song in pretty good detail. Thanks, buddy, I should think about outsourcing these posts... Still, the more I thought about "Walking Spanish down the hall," the more familiar the phrase sounded to me. A bit more Googling, jogged my memory. The expression was also used in the book Then We Came To The End, by Joshua Ferris. This novel, about Chicago copywriters being laid off after the 90s dot-com boom ended, got heaps of praise when it came out last year. I read it and actually thought it was pretty good. In the book (which is cleverly written in the first person plural, as in "We did not like not knowing something"), the employees of the ad firm use "walking Spanish down the hall" to mean shit-canned. And Ferris even name-checks the Tom Waits song. Here's the excerpt -- mostly because I figured out recently how to make a screen grab. (Don't sue me Joshua. This is fair usage, right?)

Funny story about this book: My wife (or as she's drolly named herself ipodwidow) was reading it on the subway last year when a guy sitting next to her asked, "What do you think of the book?" I think she said it was okay, nothing too glowing. He then got off the train and it wasn't until she glanced at the book jacket that she realized...it was the author! Well, that's her story and she's sticking to it.
The Beastie Boys - "The Gala Event"
Kings Of Leon - "Taper Jean Girl" (live)
Flight of the Conchords - "Think About It, Think Think About It" (live)
Nurse & Soldier - "What You Wanted"
Weezer - "Miss Sweeney"
Dixie Chicks - "Lullaby"
Hey, how did this get here! Okay, I like the Dixie Chicks. Seriously, they are real musicians and if I played you this song and told you it was by critical darling Kathleen Edwards, you'd believe me. And I wouldn't look like a total loser.
Coleman Hawkins - "I Never Had A Chance"
The Flying Burrito Brothers - "Here Tonight"
Mew - "Louisa Louisa"
Nirvana - "Return Of The Rat"
Wilco - "Should've Been In Love"
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - "Stove By A Whale"
Outkast - "Toilet Tisha"
Dinosaur Jr. - "Keeblin'"
Beck - "Profanity Prayers"
Sondre Lerche - "(You Knocked Me) On My Feet"
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - "Leave"
Grizzly Bear - "Sorry For The Delay"
Colin Meloy - "Dracula's Daughter" (live)
Beck - "Static"

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 24
Total minutes of music (approx.): 102
Song with the most previous plays: "Think About It, Think Think About It," "Keeblin'" (tie) - 7
How I Rate Today's Playlist (1-10): 6
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: I bought a calamari hero at Catene's Deli in Brooklyn for lunch. Oh my, that's a good sandwich.

Behind the Curtain (Day 93)

Well, after 92 days of listing what I listened to on my way to work it was bound to happen: technical difficulties. The weird thing is I assumed the first such issue would involve battery life. But up to this point the iPod's been charged and ready to go each morning. If it wasn't a lack of juice that would shut me down, I figured some sort of massive system failure was also imminent. After all, I have one of the older generation iPods (it doesn't even show video, it might as well display the song titles in hieroglyphics!), that has actually crashed in the past. At one point I thought it was toast. Wouldn't re-set, wouldn't re-load...nada. While searching online for ways to revive it, I came upon a blog post by someone with the same model who said when his crashed he simply smacked it down on his desk and it was as good as new. Out of desperation, I slammed the thing with the back of my hand as hard as I could and it actually came back to life.

Today's problem was altogether different. Even more bizarre. I left the house this AM and began shuffling the iPod, per usual. The very first song was The Velvet Underground - "I Found A Reason." After that I was very casually listening, reading the paper, kind of in a fog, per usual. I can tell you I definitely heard a David Bowie song. (I even made a mental note about how I've never really posted much bout Bowie...) And, I think there was a Beck song...maybe. Beyond that I have no idea what I listened to on my way to work today. Obviously I don't sit there writing down each song as it plays, and some mornings (like this one), the music pretty much goes in one ear and out the other - - background music to my morning commute and newspaper reading. It doesn't affect the blog if I'm not tuning in because the iPod keeps track of what songs are played. Not today! For whatever reason, iTunes did not update the "Last Played" category this morning. The last song played, according to my iPod, was on Friday night. So now I've got nothing. No playlist! No songs to inspire interesting and informative posts. Or, for that matter, even mundane personal history based on nothing more than the name of a Smog song or some such.) Without my blog convention, what am I? Just a guy farting in the wind apparently.

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: ?
Total minutes of music (approx.): ?
Song with the most previous plays: N/A
How I Rate Today's Playlist (1-10): 6, err, I think?
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: I heard songs. I can't tell you what songs they were. So sad.

Evening On The Ground (Lilith's Song) [Day 92]

The Roots - "Criminal"
It's Friday, late afternoon and I'm busy. Sounds like a day for a quick thought on each song instead of some longer treatise. Leading things off is this track from The Roots new album, Rising Down. Groovy - - and with a socially conscious message! The Roots are one of those hip-hop groups that you can't pin down, in a good way.
Pete Yorn - "Georgie Boy"
I'm an unapologetic fan of Music For The Morning After, but the follow-up that this song comes from, Nightcrawler, was basically a dud.
Sonic Youth - "Kissability"
Who didn't fall in love with Kim Gordon a little bit after hearing this song?
Death Cab For Cutie - "Your New Twin Sized Bed"
A lot of people panned the new DCFC album, I kinda like it. This song is a Ben Gibbard twist on a classic break-up song ("You look so defeated lying there in your new twin size bed.")
No Age - "Things I Did When I Was Dead"
I'm not sure I'm on board with these SubPop newbies...
Cat Power - "Lost Someone"
Chan Marshall makes a song her own like no other. This James Brown cover is a great example.
Ray LaMontagne - "Can I Stay"
Add this to the one-hit-wonders file. I really enjoyed the album Trouble, but the follow-up Till The Sun Turns Black was a huge disappointment.
Iron & Wine - "Evening On The Ground (Lilith's Song)"
Oh man, if I had more time I see a great list here. This song is from the Iron & Wine's amazing Woman King EP - - an EP that I will confidently say is one of my 10 Favorite EPs Of All Time. Full list will have to wait for another day, but I can give you a sneak peek at Numero Uno.
Belle & Sebastian - "Nice Day For A Sulk"
No one sings the sad like Stuart Murdoch. Especially sad tinged with weird. "Nice day for a sulk // The girl smells of milk // Her horsey teeth explode around us." I hate when that happens.
Jim James - "The Bear" (live)
I just realized something horrible. I don't own The Tennessee Fire, the album this song originally appeared on! That will be remedied post-haste.
The Fiery Furnaces - "Clear Signal From Cairo"
This song opens with a riff that might make James Hetfield put on a headphones. It's kinda awesome.

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 11
Total minutes of music (approx.): 41
Song with the most previous plays: "Evening On The Ground (Lilith's Song)" - 10
How I Rate Today's Playlist (1-10): 6
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: I have to post this, because who knows how long it will last.

Time Awaits (Day 91)

Bright Eyes - "Hot Knives"
Yo La Tengo - "...Bebop"
I'm writing it here as it appears on my iPod, but really the name of this song is "Spec Bebop." Strange. I did a quick Google search to see if there was ever an alternate title, but I came up empty. I did learn something however about this 10+ minute organ jam: critics hate it! Even on what is a universally acclaimed album, this song gets the big thumbs down. Some examples:

• The venerable Robert Christgau says, "without the 10-minute organ wash 'Spec Bebop,' which gathers momentum around 8:00--I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is perfect."
• Mark Athitakis of Salon calls it, "10 minutes of self-indulgent knob-twiddling that's all texture and overtones, and it sinks the album like a rock."
• The Onion is not joking when they say "Spec Bebop" is, "a noise-powered trainwreck"
• Even Amazon users pile on. Frazernc (if that's even his/her real name) writes, "'Spec Bebop' is ten tuneless irritating minutes of the same riff, and I've never wanted to skip over an extended YLT song before."

Well, sorry, folks. You're all wrong. "Spec Bebop" is what makes Yo La Tengo - - and specifically I Can Hear The Heart Beat As One - - so awesome. It's who they are. A band that can craft a pop song as tight as "My Little Corner Of The World," and a 10-minute organ drone that leaves you on the edge of your seat. For me, "Spec Bebop" doesn't sink like a rock, Mr. Athitakis. It actually saves the album from a potential slide towards complacency and elevates it to musical genius.
Modest Mouse - "Little Motel"
The Fiery Furnaces - "Evergreen"
The Go-Betweens - "Black Mule"
Elvis Presley - "Trying To Get To You"
Destroyer - "Rivers"
The National - "Available"
The Kooks - "Time Awaits"
Magnetic Fields - "Long-Forgotten Fairytale"

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 10
Total minutes of music (approx.): 49
Song with the most previous plays: "Time Awaits" - 7
How I Rate Today's Playlist (1-10): 6
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: That guy from The Real Housewives of NYC is stalking me! I saw him again on the train.