hypnopomp and circumstance

47 Greatest Albums: Destiny's Child - 'Destiny Fulfilled'

2008-09-10T10:10:00.000-07:00

The first stutter of the marching band snares that skitter along underneath 'Lose My Breath' acts like some magic elixir on me, dressing me up in a tuxedo and dropping me right into an old screwball comedy. I am Cary Grant and I don't mean I'm a gorgeous movie star I mean I'm a naive professor who can't quite wrap his head around the fact that there is a woman in a silky evening gown standing ever so close.

Then 'Cater 2 U' kicks in and whatever machinations she has undertaken to get me away from my important work on particle phsyics have worked. Through some sequence of mishaps and little white lies we are alone in a fabulously appointed hotel room. I've bumped my head and must lie down. She sits next to me, rustling the fabric of that shimmering dress, and presses a poultice to the only lump the code will allow her to acknowledge.

But, being the clumsy minx that she is, she spills a champagne bottle all over me and my throbbing tuxedo. Just then Destiny's Child start cooing 'T-Shirt' and we've got to get out of these wet things!

The screwball reasserts itself as we're flushed out of the hotel room by an overeager bellhop. In the lobby in nothing more than my skivvies I implore the young lady to simply leave me alone, why is that so hard for her to do? Just then my fiancee (fiancee, I'd completely forgotten!) sweeps through the lobby on her father's arm declaring that the grant I'd expected to complete my work has now been taken off the table. Destiny's Child ask, 'Is She The Reason?' on behalf of the wet minx who now views me as something of a cad.

She has a quick conversation with a maid. 'Girl' underscores the scene as the two commiserate in thwarted love.

Our wet heroine then flees the lobby and sits at the hotel bar sipping then gulping cocktails at an alarming rate. Through Destiny's Child she tells herself to break this 'Bad Habit'. I'm still shell shocked in the lobby in my underpants, too shaken up by the loss of my potential academic future to realize that the woman of my dreams is a mere yards away and under the happy spell of martinis.

A quick kick in the rear by the aforementioned bellhop brings me to my senses and I rush in to tell her I could care less about that silly grant and even less about that horrible woman I was engaged to only moments before. Can't she see I've changed? She is deep into intoxicated grief however and rebuffs me, telling me why through the mournful lilt of Destiny's Child 'If'.

In a fit of desperate invention, I rush into the convention being hosted by my ex-fiancee and her war profiteer father! Wrapped in a bathrobe monogrammed with the initials of the swanky hotel I bum rush the stage and begin a rambling explanation of my research. My findings are shocking indeed but when combined with my declaration of undying love for the young lady hiding in the back of the hall they elicit a rousing cheer, as Destiny's Child declares me 'Free'.

My poor sexy ex-fiancee spikes her heels into the plush rug, whips the fur stole further around her neck, and along with Beyonce, declares herself 'Through With Love' until she collides with the bellhop in front of the marble staircase. He breaks her fall with a kiss.

My tuxedo restored I dance cheek to cheek with my new fiancee, the right one, who not only loves me dearly and is sexy as all get out, but is also an heiress bent on funding research that she can feel passionate about. Destiny's Child sings 'Love' as we are revealed to be in the lobby of the hotel where we have just gotten married and decided to live.

Is this an album review? I'm not sure. But when Beyonce asks, 'Can you keep up, baby boy?' and then puts her foot down and says, 'Put it on me deep in the right direction' that is what happens to me. I'm scandalized in all the best ways.

48 Greatest Albums: Frank Sinatra - 'Sings The Select Cole Porter'

2008-08-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

Oh baby this one kills me. Kills me like an olive at the bottom of a glass. Like a broad in a strapless gown and high heels. Like a cigarette on a balcony. Like I hold the world in the palm of my hand.

I am classifying 'Sings The Select Cole Porter' as an album even though it is essentially a compilation of recordings from the 1950's. The collection was gathered and released in 1966 and pays tribute to the collaboration between Frank Sinatra, Nelson Riddle, and Cole Porter.

Nelson Riddle is essentially the George Martin to Frank's Beatle. Riddle surrounded Sinatra with a fantastically lush landscape. This civilised beauty offered a perfect counterpoint to the tough brawl of that voice, which was simultaneously cultured and savage.

Cole Porter seems English but is actually as American as apple pie. Haughty, snobbish, superior, fabulous apple pie. Throw his burnished sophistication into this cauldron and you've got quite a bitches brew. When folks call him America's greatest songwriter it is not bias but matter of fact. This particular collection showcases him to such a degree that they are almost duets.

Just to clarify, this list is in no particular order but if beginning to end listens were the gauge this album might be # 1. I can sing every line. I practice singing to this album.

I still vividly remember the moment that I discovered Frank Sinatra. As a punk child of the 1980's, thinking about Frank Sinatra was like thinking about Teddy Roosevelt. There just wasn't much call for it. I'd seen 'Guys And Dolls', heard 'New York, New York', heard 'My Way', but I truly had zero idea of who he was or what he did.

I'd just come back from a year in France and I'd been hired as an actor with a childrens theater in Providence. I moved into an apartment right near Roger Williams Hospital (which would come in handy 8 months later when my appendix would burst). I was dating a girl I'd met that summer doing a summer stock production of 'South Pacific' at Theater By The Sea in Matunuck. She was a crazy Phillipino art student at RISD who was spotted waiting tables by the producer of the play and tabbed to play the island goddess. Talented, yes. Sane? No.

Anyway, she lived right over near The Coffee Exchange on Wickenden Street, a legendary part of that lovely city. Wickenden is that street packed with strange little stores, vintage and otherwise, that seem to be entirely populated by the artistic set. One of these shops was right around the corner from her rooftop studio.

I'd come to pick her up and she was having a violent reaction to some psychedelic mushrooms that she'd taken in the hours before we'd agreed to meet. Thanks for thinking of me, sweetheart. I held her hair in the bathroom, made her some tea, and then strolled out into the fall air to while away my time.

A particular vintage shop caught my eye and I ducked in. Old gas station attendant jackets, flapper hats, ruby red slippers, erotic silverware, and one tiny shelf of used LP's. I flipped through and found a Sinatra album that had his version of 'Ol' Man River'. Hmmmm. Sinatra. I'd been a dyed in the wool punk for as long as I could remember. If there was any day to try something new it was this one, with my time to myself and the girl I was dating incapacitated.

I brought it back to my bare room, popped it on the record player (!!!) and proceeded to have my mind blown fourteen ways til Sunday.

Now, 'Ol' Man River' wasn't written by Cole Porter and it isn't on this particular album. In fact, I don't have a digital version of the song at all.

But when Ol' Blue Eyes hit the lowest note I'd ever heard on 'Get a little drunk and you lands in jail' and didn't make me roll my eyes at 'here we all work while the white folk play' I felt as if I had finally left my childhood behind. Within a month I would meet the woman who would be the mother of my child. Who I would ultimately divorce. You don't get any more adult than that.

Like I said, baby. This one kills me.

49 Greatest Albums: Fugazi-'Steady Diet Of Nothing'

2008-08-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

Indignation and social criticism do not often make for compelling music if you ask me. For every 'Straight Outta Compton' there are 15 Arrested Developments rhyming every '-tion' in the book (emancipation, resignation, disinformation, reputation, etc. etc.). If you are preaching to the converted you should simply preach and drop the music. Strong moral centers reacting to modern society might be great fodder for research papers but it rarely ROCKS.

Fugazi are the exception to this rule. I've not yet been able to put my finger on why and I've been listening to Fugazi from the moment they came into recorded existence back in 1987.

Context is everything so in order to understand 'Steady Diet Of Nothing', today's entry in the O'Malley Pantheon of Greatness, you must return to the scene of the crime. Released in 1991, 'Steady Diet' was their third album. They had risen out of the ashes of several DC hardcore bands in '87, released their debut '13 Songs' in '89, and followed that up with 'Repeater' in '90.

Desert Storm was raging in Iraq. We were spectators to war for the first time. CNN exploded. The Internet was still a gleam in Al Gore's eye. It is hard to look back at this as a time of innocence. But as we stare down the barrel of a Post-9/11 world even the chaos of Bush the First seems quaint in comparison.

'Steady Diet Of Nothing' is a voice crying out in the wilderness. Far from being didactic or preachy, the album is simply a mirror held up and left too long in front of an unwilling public.

Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto trade off singing their own compositions. The interplay between their vocal styles is a giant part of the appeal of the band. MacKaye is gruff and staccato, barking his manifestos like a hybrid of a carnival barker and a drill sergeant. Picciotto is mellifluous and nasal, stretching out notes to their breaking point and beyond. The two singers also spar with their guitars. Sputtering and spitting and grinding each other up they create an interlocking cry of anguish.

The rhythm section is precise to the point of danger. They bring to mind a POW running at top speed along a fence of barbed wire. Occasionally a spotlight brings them to a dead halt and you can hear the fear in the silence. Then they are off and running again, leaping right back to full speed and volume.

There are no declarations of right and wrong. They are as leery of solution as they are fatigued by misdirection. In 'Stacks', MacKaye goes beyond politics and into the realm of linguistics.

Language keeps me locked and repeating
Language keeps me locked and repeating
Language keeps me locked and repeating
America is just a word but I use it

I type those words out and it hits home just how powerful the music is. Upon hearing this song you will feel a strange connection to the uneasy Roman at the height of the Empire, thinking that there couldn't possibly be a day when Rome wouldn't rule. But deep down they were all Nero waiting with a fiddle.

I could go track by track but to be honest my articulation fails. Just know this. When I think of the Gulf War I think of Ian MacKaye in 'Nice New Outfit' bellowing the following...

You're number one with a bullet
That's money well spent
Your mouth plastered like poster
Address yourself success
You can pinpoint your chimney
And drop one down its length
In your nice new outfit
Sorry about the mess

The SCUD missile has become just another fashion accessory to a public CONSUMING the war. The illusion of boundary has fallen away and we are merely the tribe you fear.

This album is not well-loved by Fugazi fans. Perhaps it is rigorous to an almost fascistic degree. Perhaps every sing-along makes you feel like a part of a blood crazed mob. Perhaps it hits too close to home. Most political music allows you the pleasure of superiority, be it left or right. Toby Keith and Bruce Springsteen are two sides of the same coin. But that is still the coin of the realm.

With this album, Fugazi somehow project us into a world where the United States is merely an idea, a communal projection. And that isn't some idyllic community broadcasting its best self for the world to see. It is a place slaves built. It is a place the poor go to die. It is a place you do not want to be late at night.

No rhymed combination of -isms or -tions can keep the slouching beast from roughing us up. Hey Nero, we've got 250 million fiddles, can we come up on the hill with you and watch ourselves burn?

50 Best Albums: Miles Davis' 'Sketches Of Spain'

2008-08-26T10:05:00.000-07:00

In no particular order I am going to lay down the O'Malley gauntlet of greatness. I was talking with my cousin Mike about what the heck I was going to do next on my blog and he said I should review my favorite 50 albums. Well, what could I do? Once something like that is out there it has to be done.

As I readied myself for the bus ride this morning I immediately thought of The Replacements album 'Let It Be' which is probably the album I'd have on a deserted island, an island with an iPod and electricity. But I have wanted this blog to be a constant source of challenge. I'll get to 'Let It Be' but I thought I'd start with something I barely have a vocabulary to cover...

Jazz.

I have vivid memories of making my sister Sheila howl by imitating a person I call a 'jazz douche'. I won't go too far into what makes up a 'jazz douche' but I will give a quick distillation of what truly bothers me about the die-hard jazz fan.

The die-hard jazz fan is deluded and angry. They feel that jazz is a superior form of music and they can't quite wrap their beret laden brains around the fact that the majority of the populace prefers just about any other genre. I'm all for passion and interest but when that starts to calcify into prejudice and snootiness, count me out.

According to the die-hard jazz douche, my love of the three minute pop song with repeated verse/chorus/verse structure is evidence of my inferior brain. I also am a slave to marketing because if I could only throw off the shackles of the corporate jailer I would instantly abhor anything so bourgeois as MELODY.

So. Never been a fan of the jazz fan. For decades this kept me from exploring even the slightest bit in the genre.

Then I was cast in 'Side Man'. It had won the Tony a year earlier and was now being done around the country in regional theaters. I'd scoffed and rolled my eyes at the NY Times review that compared it to a jazz ensemble. My hatred of the prejudice of the jazz fan caused me to hold this play in contempt. When I got the sides from my agent I barely took the time to read them, so deep was my scorn.

I went to the audition and came out thinking, "I'll probably book this stupid jazz-douche play, you watch." Sure enough, I booked it.

Once I read the whole play however, I was forced to admit that it was not merely the ravings of a beret-topped, handlebar mustache wearing, microbrew in the garage, stamp collecting, jazz douche. It packed a fierce emotional wallop and the writing was fantastic.

This pierce in my armor allowed me to take a chance on listening to some jazz in order to better understand the milieu. I figured Miles Davis wouldn't be a bad place to start.

Thus 'Sketches Of Spain'.

How did I decide to buy this album? Deep research? Asking a true jazz douche? Nope. I liked the cover. Stately, mysterious, violent, gorgeous.

Now a real jazz douche would be able to say, "They recorded this album entirely live with each instrument filtered through copper and brass pipes which gives the album its trebly overtones. Frank 'Bubbles' Harrington produced the album and he was greatly influenced by Ferdinand the Bull and gallons of homemade sangria. So when you listen to these tracks, man, you got to let the grapes take you away and sit down on that bee and let Miles bite you in the ass."

But alas, I am not a jazz douche. I know nothing of how this was made. I only know how it sounds to me. Track by track...

1. 'Concierto De Aranjuez (Adagio)'

A strange percussion types away while horns seem to fly in over tiled roofs. Men in white shirts and black pants held up by lengths of rope roll slowly out of hammocks, blinking away the rice and wine that led them to their sleep. The smell of blood can be sensed coming from the arena at the heart of the town. A bullfight.

2. 'Will O' The Wisp'

Her dark hair falls over her full lips. The basket she has prepared sits on a brightly colored blanket. Birds chirp and call your eyes up to the horizon. The town is far away. No one will see you. You know she wants you to kiss her but you've waited so long to be alone with her that you prolong the conversation, drawing your voice lower and lower until the talk can't get any smaller. Her eyelashes flutter as she laughs and suddenly your mouths are meeting as closely as your minds.

3. 'The Pan Piper'

The children are afraid. The man with the knapsack and flute has them gathered by the church. He's told them that they will see their parents again if they are very very good. They like music, don't they? If they like music, they should raise their hands. They don't want to raise their hands even though they like music. They feel like if they start doing what he says they'll never be able to stop. The sun tries to reach them from beyond the church spire but the clouds are gathering. Horse hooves pound from around the corner of the wall and suddenly the flute is silenced and the man on the horse is bringing them back to their houses trying to keep them from seeing the blood on his sword.

4. 'Saeta'

The learned men must hide their knowledge. Superstition rules the hour. If the Church has the ear of the King then the people must give over their mouths. Practical men reconcile this hypocrisy quite easily but dreamers are compromised to an almost maddening degree.

5. 'Solea'

Aren't the ships in the harbor beautiful? They await their orders. The beach goers lounge and converse. The bells in the tower peal on the hour. All of a sudden a cannon booms and a flurry of activity ensues on the decks of the warships. Word spreads until recreation seems inappropriate and the sand is quickly vacated. War has come to Spain.

6. 'Song Of Our Country'

Fists pounded on the thick table cluttered with pewter mugs. National identity emerges from each man's mouth louder than the one before. Loaves of bread are ignored. So are women, until later. Minutiae rules the day.

7. 'Concierto De Aranjuez (Part One)

The bull has swords hanging from every part of his hide. Breasts heave in corsets ringed with lace. Screams fall short of the sun. Pride holds the matador still beneath his cape, withholding the death blow for maximum drama.

8. 'Concierto De Aranjuez (Part Two Ending)'

The arena is empty. The sand is stained here and there with the blood of the bull. The setting sun casts darkness into the stands. How could such brutality end in such peace?

I guess there is a little jazz douche in everyone.

One More For Old Lang

2008-08-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

For those three to six people who occasionally check in here I wish to extend my heartfelt apologies for failing to update on a regular basis. I have been unsure as to what this space was going to become so in lieu of flailing about in all different directions I thought I'd wait until I was certain of what I hoped to accomplish. Obviously that meant that I would never write again. Ahem. So today, in order to kick start the daily commitment, I'm going to revert to the iPod chronicles. Tomorrow something else will happen.

1. 'The Gutter Shit (Featuring Jayo Felony, Gangsta, & Squeak Ru) by Ice Cube from 'War & Peace, Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc)

With all of his family friendly cinematic offerings it is easy to forget just how sharp a social critic Ice Cube can be. He views all power and prestige through a jaded lens, knowing just what it takes in order to achieve it. I know that gangsta rap is seen by many as some sort of blight upon our national artistic crop but to my mind it proves the fertility of the American soil.

2. 'Valentine' by The Replacements from 'Pleased To Meet Me'

When the opening chords of this song rang out my face went in three thousand different directions at once and finally landed on a wry smile. There is something muscular and open in their crunch and you expect to be carried off into some anthemic sunset. But then the first line hits and you feel as if you are just waking up the day after your first love broke your heart. Sleep allowed you to forget just how much pain you were in. Dawn is a chore.

So you wish upon a star
That turns into a plane
Well I guess that's right on par
Who is left to blame?

3. 'Square Dance' by Eminem from 'The Eminem Show'

How does he do it? If you are one of those people who view Eminem as some sort of cheap shot vulgarian you are completely missing the point. And some of the best music ever. I feel sorry for you.

4. 'Morning New Disease' by Jets To Brazil from 'Orange Rhyming Dictionary'

If cultural anthropology had a thesis soundtrack it would be scored by these guys. Sometimes they are a bit too cerebral and the music becomes antiseptic. But this song keeps its heart beating hard up in the forefront of the mix.

5. 'Bobby James' by N*E*R*D from 'In Search Of...'

When NERD (Noone Ever Really Dies) hit the scene, Pharrell Williams was an underground/overground sensation. He'd produced hits for Britney and it didn't hurt his street cred. That's how respected his production skills were. He recorded 'In Search Of...' and decided at the last minute that it too closely resembled hits he'd produced for other people. So he kept the vocal tracks, called in a hot funk group called Spymob to replace the electronic beats with live instruments, and thus a legend was almost born. Yeah, almost. I don't know why but the whole is just a little bit less than the sum of its parts.

6. 'Bravo Pour Le Clown!' by Edith Piaf from 'The Very Best Of Edith Piaf'

It's French.

7. 'Brick Is Red' by The Pixies from 'Surfer Rosa & Come On Pilgrim'

Just another teeny tiny little rock anthem ditty from the rock world equivalent of one of Joseph Cornell's boxes. There is not a single Pixies song that doesn't feel like you were left free to roam the attic of some eccentric relative and discovered indescribably odd knick knacks in dusty old trunks.

8. 'With A Wish' by The Miracle Legion from 'Drenched'

These guys were from Connecticut so they always seemed like almost friends. Musician acquaintances knew people who knew people in the band and we all pulled for them to make it big. It never happened. But if you want a SUPREME joy of an hour, pick up 'Drenched' and get lost in it. It is like the last afternoon of your post adolescence, just before you have the cocktail that will push you from buzz to maudlin, just before you realize that you have to change everything.

9. 'A Man In Need' by Richard Thompson from 'Watching The Dark (1)'

Who's gonna cure the heart of a man in need?

If you ever need a pick me up, just take a listen to the album that this song is from, Richard & Linda Thompson's 'Shoot Out The Lights'. He writes the music and lyrics, she sings. They are breaking up. He is writing songs about the demise of their relationship. They are IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BREAK UP. She is singing his words. Seriously. You will feel like your life is not all that bad after hanging out with the Thompson's for an hour.

10. 'Speak, See, Remember' by Pavement from 'Terror Twilight'

I have no idea what this song is about but I love it anyway. You know that guy in every high school who is a math whiz, President of Debate Club, killer guitar player, excels at some mainstream sport like football or baseball but alienates all of his teammates because he is not a jock, and dates some hot girl from some town just far enough away to make you realize how sheltered and insular your life is? That guy started Pavement.

11. 'Guilford Fall Demo' by Fugazi from 'Instrument Soundtrack'

Hot punk.

12. 'Do You Want To Break Up?' by Eurythmics from 'Savage'

Annie Lennox is not afraid to be unlikeable and that makes her extraordinary. This song is a heinous mix of come-on/brush-off and aloof derision. How this song winds up being a sing-along is beyond me. And Dave Stewart's squiggly line guitar figures are creepily fun. They make my language go all haywire.

13. 'Sad Songs And Waltzes' by Cake from 'Fashion Nugget'

You know how Malcolm Gladwell talks about the tipping point, that moment when something swings from a minor moment into something larger and inexorable? Hearing this song this morning was the tipping point for me and I am fed up with Cake. The guy seems to court off-tempo snags in his vocal delivery and what promises originality comes off as stubbornly idiosyncratic and hopelessly mired in quirk.

14. 'Here I Am' by Lyle Lovett from 'Lyle Lovett And His Large Band'

See 'Sad Songs And Waltzes' by Cake RIGHT ABOVE.

What will tomorrow bring? Who knows...

iPodrudgery

2008-08-13T14:39:00.000-07:00

So I've been incommunicado for a couple of days working on a project that is going quite well. But it has kept me off the bus and out of my iPod. This morning putting the buds in my ear felt like punching the clock, further proof that the conceit of writing about the binary equation dressed up as art is ending soon. But not today.

1. 'Blown Away' by Pixies from 'Bossanova'

Something happened to The Pixies sometime after 'Doolittle' came out. The music became claustrophobic, insular. It feels like how you feel when you are trying to get through to an addict. They'll keep you involved in 87 stories about this that and the other thing so that you won't notice the empty bottles in the dumpster out back. The stories are well told and interesting but you really want DIFFERENT information from them.

2. 'Long Grift' by John Cameron Mitchell from 'Hedwig And The Angry Inch'

This might be my favorite song off of this amazing album. I love singing along to it. I love the lyrics. I love that it mixes up con-man lingo with love affair talk. Perfect.

3. 'You Ain't Me' by Frank Black from 'Cult Of Ray'

Funny, from Pixies to Frank Black. This is the sound of the addict after he's come through to the bright side of sobriety. The riff and lyrics aren't necessarily better, they're just clearer. More willing to truly communicate.

4. 'London Calling' by The Clash from 'Live: From Here To Eternity'

If The Clash were a movie star they would be William Holden in 'Stalag 17'. I've watched it 3 times in the past week and I can't get enough of it. Gruff, tough, smoking. INTEGRITY.

5. 'Jane Says' by Jane's Addiction from 'Kettle Whistle'

I know they're important and all but I usually don't care all that much about these guys. They add an intro to this live version of the song which is really interesting, though, and I find it quite telling that I like the meandering new tidbit better than the actual song. And Perry Farrell is like Crispin Glover on Letterman.

6. 'It Only Hurts When I Cry' by Dwight Yoakam from 'dwightyoakamacoustic.net'

Repeat from an earlier post.

7. 'Once You've Loved Somebody' by Dixie Chicks from 'Wide Open Spaces'

I dare you to try and resist this group. If you haven't sat down and listened to them from beginning to end than I shan't allow you to form an opinion.

8. 'Don't Do It' by The Band from 'The Best Of The Band'

If any 'band' could be 'THE' band, The Band is the band to do it. How a bunch of Canadians can sound like riverboat gamblers out of a Mark Twain novel taught how to play modern instruments is beyond me.

9. 'Sunshine On Leith' by The Proclaimers from 'Sunshine On Leith'

This album is like Stonehenge. Ancient, anonymous, specific, gorgeous, a little frightening, and sort of goofy.

10. 'On the face of it' by The Evens from 'The Evens'

I would join a militia group if Ian MacKaye started one, so I am a little surprised at how NOT into The Evens I am. I haven't really sat down to delve in so it could be I just don't get it yet but the very fact that I haven't worn it out by listening tells me something. Maybe someday.

11. 'The Ghosts Of Saturday Night' by Tom Waits from 'The Heart Of Saturday Night'

Gina's pasties burn her nipples but her mind's not on that, not tonight. She's dreaming that old dream again, the one where she's living high off the hog with some smart fella footing the bill, his name is Bill in fact, and that's part of his charm. The music keeps her moving up there between the Poles but her Equator's cooling fast so she's got to find a place to land that's warm and sweet. The dollar bills gather at her feet and wait to be spread out on her kitchen table later under the long ash of her cigarette and the scratchy little pencil she uses to add up the spoils that have not gone to the winner.

Oh, I'm sorry, did you want a SONG?

12. 'New Killer Of America' by Bomer-B (aka Brendan O'Malley) from 'Out Of Charactor, Act 1: Id City'

Now that I've just trashed Tom Waits let me turn that critical eye upon myself and say that I love this song. I tried to program a drum beat, the 1 wound up the 3 so you can't tell when the hell to dance, a Bob Dylan harmonica drifts along over the incoherent skitter of percussion and a keyboard tries to hold everything together. I wrote this a year before 9/11.

New Killer Of America

I'm the New Killer of America
Got more giants locked up than Comerica Park
In San Francisco Sisqo the Kid singing 'The Thong Song'
I don't know what I'll do
If I don't get my groove on soon
I'm tired of this country
That's why I been to the moon
That's why I been to the moon
That's why I been to the moon

I'm the New Killer of America
Manifest destiny, Ha!
I'm just makin' the best of me
'Coz that's the only way this freedom's worth the waste of my time
I'll give you every last sandwich
You can have every dime
'Coz motherfuckers come from all over the world just to die here
And I ain't gonna let 'em down by freezin' in the headlights
Like a deer
Like a deer

I'm the New Killer of America
I'm the New Killer of America
I'm the New Killer of America
I'm the New Killer crazy like Magilla
Like Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'
Is that not killer?

I'm drinkin' Miller
It's less-a-fillin'
Still need a million

13. 'Julianne' by Ben Folds from 'Ben Folds Five'

I hadn't heard Ben Folds when I bought this album. I'd read something about him somewhere and it talked about how hard it was to tour little clubs and lug a real piano in and out. I remember thinking it was pretty damn cool that someone was applying piano playing to the punk aesthetic. Finally. He seems like such an institution now but back when he first hit the scene there was NO SUCH THING as young piano playing male rock bands. There still isn't if you think about it.

14. 'My Blue Tears' by Dolly Parton from 'Little Sparrow'

She has her own theme park. You would never know it by listening to this song. You'd think you'd just discovered the next great country singer. And you'd be right.

15. 'Pow' by The Beastie Boys from 'Check Your Head'

Repeat from an earlier post.

16. 'Little Blue Number (Previously Unreleased - Live) by Richard Thompson from 'Watching The Dark'

I prefer his slow tunes. On the fast ones everything gets all muddied up. When he has a long slow drumbeat going behind him he is unstoppable.

17. 'Karma Man' by David Bowie from 'Bowie At The BBC (Disc 1)'

Forgettable.

18. 'Good Love Never Dies' by Liz Phair from 'Liz Phair'

Again, read 'Who Said Life Wasn't Phair?' on this blog to hear what I have to say about this gorgeous hot mom.

Hmmm...sometimes going through the motions is fun!

Icarus Licorice

2008-08-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

So I swore off the shuffle model yesterday and today I go back on my word. And it is all thanks to John Cameron Mitchell, or to be more specific, Hedwig.

To the uninitiated, Hedwig And The Angry Inch is a musical that tells the story of a German boy who undergoes a sex change operation at the request of an Army Sergeant stationed in Berlin. The operation doesn't fully 'take' however and Hedwig winds up neither here nor there and is plopped down into Middle America the ultimate outcast.

I won't go on too long, I'll only say that the iPod chose 'Midnight Radio' to open things off for me this morning and to say I love that song is to reach a pinnacle of understatement.

1. 'Midnight Radio' by John Cameron Mitchell from 'Hedwig And The Angry Inch'

I am one of the lucky hordes who can say they saw John Cameron Mitchell perform this most post-modern of musicals. My cousin Mike was going to be in New York City for a weekend very near his birthday. He knew it was unlikely that he could see everyone he wanted to see in the limited time he had. So he buys 30 or so tickets to see 'Hedwig' and invites everyone he wants to see. Selfish, I know, but we accept these minor faults in those we love.

The buzz had been building to a massive crescendo and the possibility of an anticlimactic response seemed probable. But just the opposite occurred. What I'd heard could never have prepared me for the emotional impact this evening of entertainment delivered. I remember laughing until my spleen came out of my nose and then instantly being wrenched into a sob.

This song serves as the cigarette lighter waving impetus to end the fictional concert we've just witnessed. Who dares to write an epic rock and roll song to bring a real crowd to the point of worship at the feet of a fictional star? The gall!

The word 'genius' gets thrown around quite a bit these days. Occasionally it applies.

2. 'Gary's Got A Boner' by The Replacements from 'Let It Be'

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

People, I can't stress enough how quickly you need to own this album. At first listen you'll probably wonder what I'm going on about.

Imagine you are driving down a deserted highway. All of a sudden you come across cars on opposite sides of the road. One has crashed and a man sits cross-legged weeping. The other has a couple in the back seat humping. Which one do you look at?

3. 'Sale Or Return' by Bis from 'Social Dancing'

I've got to go through my iPod and delete some stuff is all I'm saying.

4. 'Fatman' by G. Love & Special Sauce from 'G. Love & Special Sauce'

Having seen G. Love in person before ANYONE knew who he was, I have to say I thought I'd still be obsessed with him at this point. There is something disappointing about him and I'm not sure what it is.

5. 'Popemobile To Paraguay' by The Fatima Mansions from 'Lost In The Former West'

The Catholic Church secretly aided members of the NAZI party in their escape to South America. Hence this song.

6. 'Ash And Earth' by Velvet Crush from 'In The Presence Of Greatness'

Sometimes it looks and sounds like a rat but it ISN'T a rat, you know what I'm saying? Something is off here and I'm not sure what it is. Every note is in place but the sum is less than the whole of its parts.

7. 'Only Son' by Liz Phair from 'Whitechocolatespaceegg'

This song kills me. This album began the whole 'Liz Phair' sells out bullshit that started to plague her. For some reason her supposed 'fans' wanted her to remain the same chick who recorded 'Exile In Guyville'. Whenever I hear ANYONE talk about an artist selling out I want to strangle them. People who TRY to sell out fail. Liz Phair has chased her muse. Period.

8. 'The Interview' by Lenny Bruce from 'The Lenny Bruce Originals - Volume 1'

I have no idea what this is about and it made me laugh.

9. 'I Love You Because (Alternate # 3)' by Elvis Presley from 'The Sun Sessions CD'

To hear this guy fucking around in the studio when NOBODY is listening is the way to hear him.

10. 'Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy' by Queen from 'Greatest Hits'

If Queen were what surrounded Eskimos they'd need thousands of words for 'awesome'.

11. 'No More No More' by Aerosmith from 'Toys In The Attic'

This might be my favorite Aerosmith song. Yep, it is.

12. 'Anything Goes' by Frank Sinatra from 'Sings The Select Cole Porter'

Perfect arrangements, perfect singing, perfect songs, perfect album.

13. 'Mood For Moderns' by Elvis Costello & The Attractions from 'Armed Forces'

More perfect pop condensed.

14. 'Boogie Boy' by Iggy Pop from 'American Caesar'

No.

15. 'By Design' by Rites of Spring from 'End On End'

There is something a bit too fuzzy about the songs here, as if Guy Picciotto's passion were so deep that it affected the actual recording to the point that the edges were lost. It would take Fugazi's precision to truly demonstrate the scope of his writing.

16. 'Sex In The Summer' by Prince from 'Emancipation (Disc 2)'

We're not talking sticky uncomfortable either, we're talking perfect bikini, sweat at the end of the act and not before, and no sand in your underpants.

17. 'Groove Holmes' by The Beastie Boys from 'Check Your Head'

Instrumental goodness.

18. 'Going Mobile' by The Who from 'Who's Next'

When The Who really get going they are unstoppable. I'll never forget my friend Joe telling me he thought The Who were his favorite band. This was in the mid '80's when it wasn't cool to like The Who among punk aficionados. But Joe couldn't help himself. His ardor interested me and I picked up a copy of 'Who's Next'. It is now in my 'Top Whatever' of 'Best Albums'.

So once again I am back at work having sampled a cross-section of my record collection. I still don't know what this blog will morph into but I'll let you know when I know.

The Bored Room

2008-08-06T10:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my iPod bored me to such an extent that I did not write a post. It repeated several songs it recently played, the songs it chose were not sufficiently interesting to spark my discourse, and David Mamet's 'Bambi Vs. Godzilla' overrode any musical connection those songs could attempt.

Today wasn't much better but until I figure out a new way to approach this space I am going to give it a go.

1. 'I Love A Piano' by Tony Bennett from 'Unplugged'

A promising start as Tony sings the shit out of this standard. He lives right near Columbus Circle and I almost knocked him over one day while I was working at The Hub writing my Urban Legends column as Legs Urbano. What an odd time. The internet boom in action. Corporations throwing money around like it was free bagels. Weirdos on deadline almost bumping into American legends on the streets.

2. 'Smile' by Michael Jackson from 'HIStory (Disc 2)'

Oh man. The packaging for this greatest hits schmaltztravaganza is almost too bizarre to describe. It comes across as if it is Exhibit A in some movie courtroom drama in which Michael defends himself with a speech so impassioned that world peace spontaneously occurs while his accusers rip up the incriminating evidence they have of him. Remember in 'Star Wars' when the Death Star explodes and Leia, Han, and Luke celebrate back at the Rebel base and how that should have been the end? And then there is a wordless ceremony in which Leia puts medals on Han and Luke? And Harrison Ford can barely contain his disdain? That's this whole thing in a nutshell.

3. 'Leaving' by Gregory isaacs from 'Trojan Dub Box Set (Disc 3)'

My cousin Liam recommended this compilation of dub music. I pass the recommendation on. Not being a big reggae fan, I am surprised at my reaction to dub music, mostly because these tracks are mainly instrumental. That allows them to be more surreal to me and they hit harder.

4. 'Gatorville & Points East' by John Cale from 'Walking On Locusts'

If you want to fall asleep on public transportation I suggest you listen to John Cale.

5. 'Operaman' by Adam Sandler from 'The Concert For New York City (Disc 1)'

Leave it to Sandler to rouse me from my Cale-induced coma and bring me to tears. The rest of this concert can inspire me to cynicism and a kneejerk anti-jingoism but Sandler makes me proud to be an American and proud to declare that my homeland was brutally attacked by the worst kind of scoundrel.

6. 'Cool' by Gwen Stefani from 'Love, Angel, Music, Baby'

If I were Gavin Rossdale I'd be like, 'Hey, can you stop writing songs about the bass player already?'

7. 'Lola' by The Kinks from 'The Ultimate Collection (Disc 1)'

I never liked The Kinks. I was wrong. They seem to be the most unfamous famous band of all time. Strange strange music.

8. 'I Just Can't Stop Loving You' by Michael Jackson from 'HIStory (Disc 1)'

I don't even want to know who he's talking about.

9. 'Monsters In The Parasol' by Queens Of The Stone Age from 'Rated R'

If you are unfamiliar with this album you are really missing out. Any band that can take something as patently absurd as the combination of 'monster' and 'parasol' and turn it into a great rock song is to be commended and encouraged. Also I sort of want to be Josh Homme.

10. 'Speedo' by The Cadillacs from 'Goodfellas (Soundtrack)'

This vocal figure ('Now you all can call me Speedo, etc.') just might be the combination of notes that I have hummed to myself most often out of all the songs ever written. I can't say it is my favorite or anything, just that I quite regularly find myself in the process of recreating it.

11. 'Stop Talking' by The Walkmen from 'Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone'

I almost loved this band when this album came out. Today I am more interested in what David Mamet has to say about the Ashkenazy Jew and the fact that the titans who created Hollywood all originate from a 200 mile radius in Poland.

12. 'Blood' by El-P from 'Fantastic Damage'

The antithesis of gangsta rap. This is not pleasant music. It is disconcerting to listen to, frightening to contemplate, and hard to digest. Funky as hell, as in funky as the place where bad people go to suffer forever.

13. 'Only The Strong' by Midnight Oil from '10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1'

People forget about Midnight Oil. I do too and then my iPod reminds me not to. Love this song. Love this band.

14. 'Old Brown Shoe' by The Beatles 'Past Masters Volume 2'

John, Paul, George, Ringo. Bingo.

15. 'Senior Service' by Elvis Costello & The Attractions from 'Armed Forces'

Compact pop absurdity.

16. 'Who Are Parents' by The Shaggs from 'Philosophy Of The World'

Google 'The Shaggs'. I can't explain it in any meaningful way.

17. 'Bad Show' by Soul Side from 'Soon-Come-Happy'

DC hardcore interesting because members of this band went on to form Rites of Spring and Fugazi. Not too interesting on its own.

18. 'Willing And Able' by Prince & The New Power Generation from 'Diamonds And Pearls'

Prince hit some kind of high point with this album. When I think of this album I think 'relaxation'. It might be the only time in his entire body of work that he is relaxed.

19. 'This Protector' by The White Stripes from 'White Blood Cells'

Gonna have to work harder than that, Jack.

20. 'House Where Nobody Lives' by Tom Waits from 'Mule Variations'

How sad. An empty house. I might cry. Or press fast forward.

21. 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' by Nirvana from 'From The Muddy Bands Of The Wishkah'

Nirvana live and twice as fast as the song you've heard a gazillion times on the radio. I can't help but layer the detachment Cobain must have felt deep within, the disdain he directed towards himself for winning a popularity contest. It drains the song of its energy and leaves it sounding like the kid who is still screaming and crying even though his mother has caved in and given him the candy he thought he wanted.

I've had it with this format. I may be back here or it may be time to close up shop and move on to something else. We shall see. We shall see.

Declaration Of In

2008-08-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

Last night Melody and I meandered up the PCH and got some fish and chips at Neptune's Net. The sun was huge and orange, the bikers let their bikes glint and gleam while sipping beer and eating beer-battered fish, and everything affirmed that, in spite of our flaws as a country, some good decisions have been made.

1. 'D'Yer Mak'er' by Led Zeppelin from 'Houses Of The Holy'

I first succumbed to Led Zeppelin in my fifth year of college, a year I spent abroad in France. My friends and I had access to a small studio in Paris that we could crash in while having adventures in The City of Lights. Let me be start by saying that I never visited Jim Morrison's grave and that the only classic rock conversion I underwent was due to the fact that the studio only had one set of CD's...the newly remastered Led Zeppelin catalog.

The owner of the studio traveled a great deal and had brought back from South America a giant jug of homemade rum. In this rum the moonshiners had deposited various local fruits. By the time I imbibed from the potent brew the fruit was gray. This didn't stop me. I think today it would stop me, and that is why youth is so perfectly not wasted on the young.

2. 'Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me' by Pearl Jam from 'Vitalogy'

This song disturbed me greatly while it played and I didn't know who it was. Eddie Vedder doesn't sing on the track; it is a collage of spoken word by what is either a little child or an adult voice modified to sound like a child. Due to my ambivalence about Eddie Vedder's voice, you'd think this might up my enjoyment factor. But I just wanted it to be over. Thankfully it isn't too long. By the way, the title is completely non-sequitous which is a shortcut that many mainstream artists use when they want to seem more experimental than they actually are. Pearl Jam will always be closer to Stone Temple Pilots than Captain Beefheart and that would be fine except they don't seem to think so.

3. 'Nice New Outfit' by Fugazi from 'Steady Diet Of Nothing'

In Fugazi-land this album is not considered to be a high point. Much like Foo Fighter's 'The Colour And The Shape'. But I am in the minority. I think it is their finest moment. The first Iraq war was raging and naturally Fugazi commented.

This song took on a different meaning for me last year when I performed it as part of a tribute to Fugazi. The evening was organized by a friend, a great actress/singer. She and I geeked out over Fugazi whenever we got the chance and she is really the only other fanatic that I know personally. I know they're out there but I don't know any of them personally.

My cousin Timothy and I did a wacky hip-hop version of this song which we performed. In the midst of all the hardcore sturm und drang volume our funky karaoke was, thankfully, highly appreciated. It marked our debut in live performance.

4. 'Do That Stuff' by Parliament from 'Parliament's Greatest Hits'

I know this must be a funky track but I got pretty into reading 'Bambi Vs. Godzilla', David Mamet's dissection of the film industry. But, listen, if you need me to tell you about Parliament you just aren't quite a good American yet.

Quick sideline. What the hell are they putting in the drinking water up in Minneapolis, MN? Bob Dylan, Prince, George Clinton, Garrison Keillor, The Replacements, Husker Du, Soul Asylum. Seriously. BOTTLE THAT SHIT AND SEND IT TO ME.

5. 'Red Light Fever' by Liz Phair from 'Liz Phair'

See 'Who Said Life Wasn't Phair?' from 2/25/08.

6. 'I Don't Wanna Grow Up' by Tom Waits from 'Bone Machine'

One of his best and that's saying a lot. It sounds like a 'Free To Be You And Me' song that has been dragged into a bar, force fed Pabst Blue Ribbon and pickled eggs, turned onto the joys of unfiltered Pall Malls, dropped onto a crosstown bus dressed in rags, and deposited back at elementary school with instructions to pretend none of it ever happened.

7. 'Tasted' by Brendan O'Malley from 'Rhode Island Red'

This song was actually co-written with my friend Danilo Torres who played guitar in The Mahoneys. I put words to a lick we'd played around with...he thought it should be called 'Tasted' so I wrote a song called 'Tasted'. This is months after the demise of that band, in the last summer I would spend in Rhode Island before moving to The Big Apple. I recorded some songs in the cabaret room at Theater-By-The-Sea for friends and family. They were very kind to come show their support.

All I remember from that summer is the heat and the feeling that my life was like the space in front of an air-conditioning duct that has been blocked. It ought to be cooler so you know something is wrong.

8. 'Whoa, Back Buck' by Leadbelly and The Golden Gate Jubilee from 'Alabama Bound'

Kurt Cobain introduced me to Leadbelly and I'll forever be grateful to that little asshole for that.

9. 'Last Exit' by Pearl Jam from 'Vitalogy'

See? The iPod knew it had fucked up. In revisiting the same album from Pearl Jam, it proves my point perfectly. This is a straightforward guitar cock-rock song. Pearl Jam chafes at the notion that it is as conventional as can be. But like PBJ and network television there is something comforting about the lowest common denominator. Don't fight it guys.

10. 'Mississippi' by Bob Dylan from 'Love & Theft'

When Bob Dylan says he stayed in Mississippi way too long you imagine centuries. Eons. By the end of the song you've spent that time there with him, wondering why you can't leave, what the hell is wrong with you, and why can't you find the gumption to pick your feet up.

11. 'My World Is Over' by Diane Dane from 'That Thing You Do!'

I love this movie.

12. 'Seen Your Video' by The Replacements from 'Let It Be'

Instrumental for the first half, the second half rails against MTV and phony rock and roll. Not their best song, not even the best song on the second side of this PERFECT album, but somehow this song could go into the time capsule and perfectly describe early '80's underground punk music. If you want mainstream go to Maine and find a stream.

13. 'Limp' by Fiona Apple from 'When The Pawn...'

Because one of the first things I ever heard about Fiona Apple was that she'd been raped at 12, I've never quite been able to acknowledge how sexy she is. In the spirit of the title of today's post, Fiona Apple is HOT. Triple hot. The lips, the hair, the skinny little body...sex on a stick and even the imposition of pure evil on her history can't tarnish it. Take that rapist. You failed.

14. 'Pinball Wizard' by The Who from 'My Generation - The Very Best Of The Who'

I just heard this song the other day and commented on how stupid I think it is. 'Tommy' in general I think is pretty over-rated. Give me 'Who's Next' over 'Tommy' EVERY day of EVERY week. If I were deaf dumb and blind I'd be offended. I'm not and I am.

15. 'I'm Ready To Go Home' by The Louvin Brothers from 'Satan Is Real'

Preach on brothers. The Pearly Gates will welcome you. Your belief is complete and therefore self-reflexive.

16. 'The Sprawl' by Sonic Youth from 'Daydream Nation'

Who knew the Converse and Fruit of the Loom generation had a 'Sgt. Pepper's' waiting for them? I didn't know I had a generation to be articulated until I heard this album. In one long dissonant swoop Sonic Youth killed my childhood and I reveled in the carnage.

And so we the people come to the end of our Declaration of In. See youz tomorruh.

Let It Alone

2008-08-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

A friend forced my hand. She is presenting a night of her poetry and asked me to be the opening act...sing 4 or 5 songs and set the stage. I've been frustrated musically for quite a long time, longer than I care to admit. From 1995 through 2003 I wrote roughly an album worth of material each year, sometimes a bit more, never less. The last 5 years have seen that pace slow considerably and if it weren't for the arrival of Cousin Timothy on the scene I'd almost have nothing new to show. And my collaborations with him aren't stand-alone songs, they are soundscapes that I contribute to.

So the singer/songwriter train had long since retired to the yard. Unhappily, I might add.

The invitation from my friend meant a lot to me. Oh to hell with it, it's Fielding. I swore I'd write new material for this evening. And last night I took a big step towards meeting that goal. Nothing final yet but some very viable seeds. Left me excited to hear the tunes this morning.

1. 'The Only Answer' by Mike Doughty from 'Skittish'

I was in Rhode Island again, listening to WRIU late at night again, driving home from visiting Jean who was bar tending down at the greatest bar in the world, The Ocean Mist. A song came on that stopped me in my tracks, stunned me to my core. The only problem was the boneheaded college DJ never said who sang the damn thing. All I knew was it was a voice and a guitar and it referenced the F train and Park Slope. My Brooklyn heartbreak seemed to be scraped off the pavement and reconstituted in its entirety in the most modern folk song I'd ever heard. I desperately stayed awake as long as I could to hear the DJ say who sang it but he never did. I called the radio station the next day to find out what it was but they didn't really keep records like that. I did a mad Google search typing in every possible genre/lyric/etc. I could think of. Nothing came up. Months passed and I was back in LA. I remembered the song again and rededicated myself to the Google mission. Ultimately I found it...'Thank You Lord For Sending Me The F Train'. I bought the album. 'The Only Answer' is another devastating track from the mind of the man who reached out to me with his description of what had become my hometown, Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY, USA.

2. 'STP' by Sublime from 'Robbin' The Hood'

I am not a big reggae fan and I am even less of a ska fan so I am puzzled by my infatuation with Sublime. They continually put me in a summer mood. They remind me of the hours I used to spend with sand between my toes and ocean salt all over my body, trying not to look too long at the girls on the blankets right nearby and dreaming of a day when I'd be on a blanket with them.

3. 'Ball And Chain' by Social Distortion from 'Social Distortion'

This is one of those songs that was here long before it was ever written. It lived in the Big House of Songs near 'Rock Island Line' and 'Erie Canal' and 'Red River Valley', it just never got asked to come out and play. Hundreds of years went by and finally this big lug named Mike Ness came to the Big House of Songs and saw it sitting there on the shelf. 'Hey you,' he cried. 'You and me might get along fine.' So 'Ball And Chain' said goodbye to 'She'll Be Riding Six White Horses' and exited the Big House of Songs blinking and excited to visit.

4. 'Low Side Of The Road' by Tom Waits from 'Mule Variations'

I was all ready to get my Waits hackles up, as they've been for several years now. But I found myself really liking this song in spite of how closely it hews to his i-have-no-formula formula. It's funky and weird and cool.

5. 'Downer' by Nirvana from 'Bleach'

This album was recorded for $600 but they sound like a million bucks.

6. 'Bed For The Scraping' by Fugazi from 'Red Medicine'

By this point Fugazi was like The Rolling Stones of the hardcore movement. They'd stood on the mountain top and no one even challenged them anymore. But obviously they challenged themselves. The funk is so hard, the lyrics are like ball bearings skittering around in hot grease, the unity is absolute. They have better songs, better albums, but they've never been more of a group.

7. 'Fireman Hurley' by Mike Watt from 'Contemplating The Engine Room'

A nice song about his buddy the drummer. The drummer came from a family of firemen and here Watt draws an interesting parallel between the combustible propulsion of Hurley's musicianship and his family history of putting out fires.

8. 'Sea of Secrets' by Joe Jackson from 'Night Music'

Heard it yesterday, skipped it today.

9. 'Windowstill' by Arcade Fire from 'Neon Bible'

Ugh. Shut up already.

10. 'Rock You' by The Roots from 'Phrenology'

I want to be in The Roots. I'll play the triangle, I'll be the guy who dances around and yells 'Put Your Hands In The Air!' I don't care. I want to be in The Roots.

11. 'Protection' by Graham Parker and The Rumour from 'Squeezing Out Sparks'

Odd, I listened to this album just last night as I cooked my tilapia. Then I listened to Graham Parker solo and heard this song in that version. A simply fantastic rock song. Legend has it that Graham Parker had a band before he put together The Rumour. That band had a harmonica player from The States who'd been backpacking around Europe and had settled in London and gotten mixed up in the burgeoning punk scene.

That harmonica player? Huey Lewis.

12. 'Winds of Morning' by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem from 'In Concert'

These guys bring me back to my childhood like no other artists. They are the best.

13. 'Everybody In This Town Is Drunk' by Pat McCurdy from 'Showtunes'

This live track demonstrates McCurdy's ability to engage a crowd which is almost wholly unique. If you are ever in Chicago or Milwaukee you'll probably want to see Wrigley Field, The Sears Tower, the breweries, etc. But McCurdy is as much of a landmark. Do not miss him.

14. 'The Ultimate Shit' by Pimp Fu from 'Raw Fushi...t'

Oh man he's good.

15. 'Perfect Hair' by Dangerdoom from 'The Mouse & The M...'

Head trip!

16. 'Boom Boom' by John Lee Hooker from 'Very Best Of'

This guy is a minimalist. Many of the beats are his toes tapping. You can hear the invention as it happens and that he'd never play the song the same way twice. There might be raw moments that could be improved upon but they wouldn't add up to the transcendence in the last verse. So he leaves the imperfection alone.

17. 'Cicatriz E.S.P.' by The Mars Volta from 'De-Loused In The Comatorium'

I try to resist, I swear I do. I try to be above it all, to look upon these freaks as self-indulgent deliberately obscure technophiles who are a whole lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. But ultimately I am swayed by the sheer audacity of their vision. To flout comprehension so willingly, to grate the ear with volume and shrillness, to stretch an idea twice past the limit of ingratiation...hats off.

18. 'Supa Star' by Floetry feat. Common from 'Umpg: Current And Upcoming Singles'

Supa yawn.

19. 'Cinderella's Big Score' by Sonic Youth from 'Goo'

'Goo' is in essence Sonic Youth's disco album. It never sits still, it sparkles, it leaves you likely to make bad choices in public places late at night, and it keeps pulling its skirt higher and higher and higher until...well, let's just say that when you bend down to put the glass slipper back on you get quite a show.

20. 'Pork Chop's Little Ditty' by Primus from 'Pork Soda'

Les Claypool got his hands on a banjo and PRESTO!

21. 'The Last Time' by The Rolling Stones from 'Out Of Our Heads (USA)'

Oh to be young and in The Rolling Stones! They sound like cavemen.

22. 'All Broadway Musicals Sound the Same, Especially The Baritones' by Lenny Bruce from 'The Lenny Bruce Originals - Volume 1'

A short interlude from the King.

23. 'Everlong' by Foo Fighters from 'The Colour And The Shape'

Foo fans don't seem to care for this album overmuch and I couldn't disagree more. I own no other Foo Fighters and don't care to, such is the perfection of this suite of songs.

24. 'Cleaning House' by Grandpaboy from 'Dead Man Shake'

The blues album Westerberg released as Grandpaboy is a kind of ragged perfection. Check him out.

And that is that for the day. Let it alone.

Car Crashes In My Dreams

2008-07-31T09:40:00.000-07:00

I woke after a stunning series of collisions. In one a bus sat across several lanes of LA freeway having skidded to a stop with one end in the fast lane and the other in the slow lane. A Porsche or some such stupidity smashed directly through the bus at 140MPH and continued along. The bus shattered and lay in pieces. I could only hope that no one had been inside of it but from my vantage point (the height of a traffic helicopter) I truly couldn't tell.

Needless to say, this made my bus ride this morning very interesting.

1. 'Danny Boy' by Rufus Wainwright from 'Rufus Wainwright'

It didn't help that I was near tears by the time I left my apartment. The opening strains of this song are enough to disintegrate my personality entirely. The genius of a heartbreak song sung man to man using the title of perhaps the most famous song about death is just one tiny fraction of the power of this song. His voice drips with ache. Occasionally when I hear songs about break-ups I can't help but think the person is better off, that whatever pain they're trying to sell me is hooey. Not so here.

I first heard this song in Melody's car as she drove me to the airport to send me back to the life I had to change in order to be with her. I can still see the sky, the waving trees, the burning sun hotter than seemed usual for the season...the scope of the landscape obliterated by Rufus and his heartbreak. And so forever this song sends me mine.

2. 'Sultans Of Swing' by Dire Straits from 'Money For Nothing'

I feel cobblestones beneath my feet at the opening salvo of this perfectly etched sketch of musicianship. Mark Knopfler doesn't use a guitar pick for the most part, he makes his trips up and down the neck using skin only. And it shows, for there is something smooth and softer than plastic in his playing, something human hidden in the explicit virtuosity. And was there ever a more unlikely huge MTV star than Dire Straits?

3. 'Burning Down The House' by Talking Heads from 'Stop Making Sense'

This live cut really showcases the opposing forces that somehow cohere into a vastly unsettling party. You dance, you sing along, but you also must overlook a nagging sense of fear, the vague thought that you are being condescended to, and the general idea that you've completely missed the point.

4. 'Walt Whitman's Niece' by Billy Bragg & Wilco from 'Mermaid Avenue'

This was Cashel's favorite album right around the time he learned to walk. So whenever the bouncy strains of this or any other of the songs on this great album start, all I can see is his little diapered butt bouncing up and down dancing the only way he knew how. I have video of him on all fours perking up the instant it comes on.

5. 'You Got It And I Want It' by Andre Williams from 'The Black Godfather'

See previous entry 'The Black Godfather In Amsterdam' from January 29, 2008.

6. 'Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby' by Dinah Washington from 'Verve Unmixed'

There is something to be said for the notion that this era of music achieved a level of sophistication that is unparalleled in the history of popular song. The technical advancements of the rap era are close but to hear an orchestra of human beings articulate a song to the Nth degree while Dinah Freaking Washington purrs it to death is an apex of some sort don't you forget it.

7. 'Hot Wit U' by Prince from 'Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic'

At first glance this song is just another hot little Prince number. Guitars lick the edges of keyboard trills, his voice dances around like a stripper trying to get that dollar out of your hand and into her thong, drums rear up and down as if they are cartoon horses chafing at the bit.

So just another day at the Prince office, right? Well, yes and no. Because out of nowhere Missy Elliott comes and spanks little Prince right out of his normal mode. She transforms the song and does what I'm sure countless women have wanted to do over the years (I know Melody has)...put Prince in his place. Like, yeah, you are ALL talk MOFO. You are 2 feet tall and ugly. I am in charge. Otherwise you wouldn't have asked me to sing on your song. I am Missy Elliott. In a way, it is the bravest thing Prince could do. He lets her upstage him.

8. 'T'Ain't No Sin' by Tom Waits from 'The Black Rider'

I'm sure William S. Burroughs completists cream in their crusty pen-filled jeans over this piece of garbage but I have once again had it with Mr. Waits. W.S.B. repeats a boring few lines over some mellotron filtered through a jug of iced tea or some such nonsense. Good lord this is tiresome bullshit.

9. 'Legoland' by The Fatima Mansions from 'Viva Dead Ponies'

30 seconds of instrumental weirdness. I know this album so well that the song that follows on the heels of this interlude was battering my brain in absentia.

10. 'Shake 'n' Stomp' by Dick Dale from 'King Of The Surf Guitar: The Best of Dick Dale'

Don't you wish you could honestly declare yourself the King of ANYTHING unselfconsciously and have pretty much everyone nod and say, 'Yeah, they are the King, no doubt about it.'

I bet that's fun for Dick Dale. What is even more fun is the INSANITY he slings.

11. 'I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man' by Eric Clapton (featuring Buddy Guy) from 'The Concert For New York City'

There is something Al Jolson/Blackface/Jazz Singer about the faux blues growl that Eric Clapton adopts here. Sorry, but it's offensive. And when Buddy Guy's voice comes through the microphone he puts Eric Clapton and his bullshit to shame.

12. 'If You Were To Wake Up' by Lyle Lovett from 'Lyle Lovett And His Large Band'

So you are dating this quirky girl. She's not conventionally attractive but she has a very distinct personal style. She wears flapper hats and pearl necklaces. Her purses scream Zelda Fitzgerald. She makes her mole work like a beauty mark. The patchouli she now wishes she never wore still hangs around like the Ghost of Perfume Past, layered over with something vanilla instead of the lavender she really likes. You've gone to cocktail parties instead of bars, art house films instead of blockbusters, concertos instead of concerts.

And then you snap out of it, break up with her, eat a box of doughnuts, drink a couple of beers and go see a cover band in flip flops. God, the effort of all that quirk.

13. 'Hard Row' by The Black Keys from 'thickfreakness'

Oh these boys have grown on me something fierce. The first time Melody and I listened a couple of years ago we said, 'ok, fine' and moved on without a second thought. But the iPod, combined with a live appearance on KCRW's 'Morning Becomes Eclectic' has won me over for good.

They rock, plain and simple. A nice antidote to the Lovett schmaltzquirk.

14. 'Sea of Secrets' by Joe Jackson from 'Night Music'

This music is gorgeous. But I don't know what it means.

15. 'Night Rally' by Elvis Costello and The Attractions from 'This Year's Model'

He could churn out the 2 minute pop song by the barrel back in the day. I don't think I'd heard this song in 15 years and I was singing along right quick. I'm starting to open up to Elvis again after years of holding him at arm's length.

Please don't let me down, Elvis.

16. 'For You' by Prince from 'For You'

A-Capella 19 part harmony from a skinny 17 year old Minnesota black midget. Wow. Weird doesn't even begin to describe it.

17. '111 Archer Avenue' by Mark Mothersbaugh from 'The Royal Tennenbaums'

This soundtrack works as a whole but split up it loses most of its appeal. The movie made me cry. I will go see anything Wes Anderson does first weekend and then buy it and watch it over and over again. Even if I'm not sure how much I like it.

18. '(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle' by Hank Williams from 'Lonesome Blues'

How can a 20 something man sound so weary and old? You see pictures of Hank Williams near the end of his life and he seems 69 not 29. What a shame.

19. 'Aneurysm' by Nirvana from 'With The Lights Out (Disc 2)'

This song holds a special place in my Nirvana heart seeing as it was the 'B' side of the 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' CD single I bought in the Orleans, France FNAC store. The album was sold out so I bought the single and while I loved 'Smells' this song rocks just as hard and doesn't let you off the hook with the giant easy sing-along.

And so I got to work without a Porsche disintegrating the public transportation I hope not to have to ride some day.

Carnival of Sound

2008-07-30T09:59:00.000-07:00

This morning I read Virginia Woolf's 'A Room Of One's Own' as I rode the bus and I was moved to tears several times. She encapsulates the injustice visited upon women with such clarity that at times I felt claustrophobic and oppressed. But also oddly uplifted at the same time. She is such a great writer that the thrust of the book becomes appropriate to ANYONE who struggles with their artistic self, not merely women. I am grateful for that, there is forgiveness in it for me and my kind.

1. 'Crash The Party (Live)' by Richard Thompson from 'Watching The Dark (1)'

When Thompson gets loud and boogies down I get a little bored. His playing is still ridiculous, Stevie Ray Vaughan playing jigs and reels, but the faster songs get muddy.

2. 'Tired Of Being Alone' by Al Green from 'Al Green - Greatest Hits'

The only thing wrong with this song is that you can't really imagine Al EVER being alone. I mean, he might be with the WRONG woman, or just A woman, or three or four women, but ALONE? I don't think so.

3. 'Rain Street' by The Pogues from 'Hell's Ditch'

This is a great album, produced by the late great Joe Strummer. He was sort of a de-facto member of The Pogues for a while there, replacing/standing in for Shane MacGowan. They do make you wish you were a few sheets to the wind smoking a cigarette INSIDE of a bar, yelling down to someone about the latest news, catching a football match on the telly, downing fish and chips right quick so you could get the hell out of there and go catch that band before they break up.

4. 'The Way You Look' by Damien Jurado & Gathered In Song from 'I Break Chairs'

Damien Jurado has a voice that makes you sad. For some reason he reminds me of living in Providence, dying to play my music, jaunting down to a party on the beach in Westerly that ought to have been loads of fun and actually was somehow except that this great wave of despair seemed forever ready to break and sweep me out to sea. Instead, I drank too many beers and stood too close to the fire and talked a little too loudly and probably didn't listen to anything anyone had to say.

5. 'Change It' by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble from 'Greatest Hits'

I've extolled the virtues of SRV's guitar playing (who hasn't?) but on this track it is his voice which is killing me. Somehow staccato and legato all at once his voice seems more of an instrument than a vehicle for words. The interplay between the strings he's bending and the sounds he's making with his throat is quite unique...they don't seem to agree. There is tension, odd since both sounds come from the same man. Each heightens the other.

6. 'Isla De Encanta' by Pixies from 'Surfer Rosa & Come On Pilgrim'

Not crazy about this Pixies song but they could care less.

7.'Freetempo' by Montage from 'The New Brazillian Sound'

I felt like I was doing the tango on the bus. It took me out of 'A Room Of One's Own' and dropped me right into some sweaty red lit restaurant where my plate of shrimp paella had long ago disappeared and now I'd emptied many glasses of everything but the umbrella and now my sweat was mingling with the sweat of my partner whose head is almost on the floor and my hand is on the small of her back and my face is right up against the fabric of her dress and her necklace is slowly sliding down back towards her chin and her knee is higher than both of us and my other hand is on the back of her thigh.

8. 'The Wreck Of The Beautiful' by The Divine Comedy from 'Absent Friends'

The jewel of the British Navy has been consigned to the yard, destined to be torn apart and reattached to a thousand other lesser ships. It crossed my mind that this might be some convoluted metaphor for a lost relationship (get it, ship) but the funny thing is the song is saddest when taken quite literally. You feel all the work that went into building the ship, sailing the ship, mending it, keeping it afloat and firing on all cylinders. To see it slowly dismantled tied to some dock is to be reminded of our own status as temporary vessels, sailing a one way voyage.

9. 'Jackson' by Lucinda Williams from 'Car Wheels On A Gravel Road'

This album is a road movie.

10. '100,000,000 MPH' by Brendan O'Malley from 'Act 2: Americana Subversive'

Strange to see oneself come up randomly from 8,000 options. Another love letter to Melody. I wanted to write something in which each line could stand on its own without any help from its predecessor or follower. Judge for yourself...

100,000,000 MPH

You go 100,000,000 MPH
I stand so still I watch you fly so high
When you'd stop I'd feel like I was dying
Now I've started and I feel alive

You are a splash way out above the horizon
I squint my eyes before I know you're seen
I shut my eyes so I can see you better
I fall asleep so I can send you dreams

I fall asleep so I can send you dreams
I shut my eyes so I can see you better
I squint my eyes before I know you're seen
You are a splash way out above the horizon

Now I've started and I feel alive
When you'd stop I'd feel like I was dying
I stand so still I watch you fly so high
You go 100,000,000 MPH

11. 'Run Chicken Run' by Link Wray from 'Rumble! The Best of Link Wray'

Link Wray is THE MAN. So raw, so rough and tumble, so fucking cool. He makes Elvis Presley look like an actor. And I love Elvis Presley.

12. 'You're Stronger Than Me' by Patsy Cline from '12 Greatest Hits'

Good god I'm tired of this lady. I bought this as the other side of the Hank Williams greatest hits coin and now I cringe at the sound of her voice.

13. 'There's A Higher Power' by The Louvin Brothers from 'Satan Is Real'

The Louvin Brothers were the biggest country gospel act in the country in the 1940's. They sang gorgeous prayerful psalms, uplifting positive music. Then one of the brothers became a bit more evangelical and felt he wasn't doing his duty as a Christian. When they turned in their next album, their record label blanched. 'SATAN IS REAL'??? That's what you want to call your album? Yes, indeed. And the cover art? Look it up if you get a chance. The Louvin Brothers stand in some sort of otherworldly landscape which is all on fire. Looming over them is a large cartoon of Satan, replete with pitchfork, horns, and forked tail. They were actually in a dump of old car tires which they LIT ON FIRE. The Brothers stand there in their perfect white suits and guitars singing in the face of the Devil. By the way, the Satan cutout was made by one of the Brothers.

14. 'Weird Summer' by Velvet Crush from 'Teenage Symphonies To God'

These retro rockers are from Providence, RI and I've always had a soft spot for them. It isn't undeserved but I'm not sure if I would care at all were they from Dayton or Wichita.

15. 'No Man's Woman' by Sinead O'Connor from 'Faith And Courage'

I was smack in the middle of a Virginia Woolf chapter that imagined the life of a creative woman in the 16th century, Shakespeare's sister. She goes mad with the impossibility of the time, the total suppression of her talent and ambition. The juxtaposition of Sinead O'Connor declaring herself independent of any man's influence or claim was very powerful. Imagine a woman in the time of Shakespeare reaching out to MILLIONS of people and tearing up a picture of The Pope. Phenomenal. I always loved her for that, her utter inability to censor herself, her willingness to be consumed by the very rage that drove her to create in the first place. Sinead O'Connor would have been one of those women Virginia Woolf conjures up, driven mad by the times in which she lived. Hell, Sinead is mad TODAY let alone 350 years ago.

16. 'Parameters' by Ani DiFranco from 'Knuckle Down'

Against a very subtle guitar figure, Ani DiFranco does almost a spoken word piece. I was bored instantly and stayed that way until the very last thing she said which I can't remember what it was.

17. 'Ol' Diamondback Sturgeon (Fisherman's Chronicles, Pt. 3)' by Primus from 'Pork Soda'

The Pt. 3 tells you this is part of a series and I find it to be a fascinating group of songs. This one is from the point of view of the fish. It feels like a fish, weightless and lithe, rolling and burbling. There is more melody than usual in a Primus song and the tune recalls the gentle motion of any body of water under a sparkling sun.

18. 'Neverending' by Damien Jurado & Gathered In Song from 'I Break Chairs'

Damien Jurado again and again I am on a beach in my home state with people I don't know well enough to feel completely comfortable around and therefore try too hard to impress and don't. I am part of the party but separate. I won't be part of a circle of friends for another 11 years.

19. 'Beggar's Bliss' by Luna from 'Pup Tent'

Didn't register.

20. 'Dance The Night Away' by Blue Oyster Cult from 'Agents of Fortune'

Whatever.

So I've come to the end of another bus trip to work. It is not a room of my own.

The Ice Coffee Freshman Debacle (For Larry On Account of Yesterday)

2008-07-29T10:17:00.000-07:00

I didn't have a cup of coffee until the summer after my senior year in high school. I may have had a sip of my dad's but my distaste was such that I never ventured past that initial shudder.

I'd been working at Belmont Fruit delivering fruits and vegetables to all the restaurants within a 20 mile radius. It was the ultimate summer job. Driving around a tourist beach town to all the places the hot local girls wore bathing suits when they weren't working and cute little waitress outfits when they were? Forget it. I have never loved a job more totally than I loved driving a van for Belmont Fruit.

We did have to be there real early though because some damn restaurants put vegetables in their omelets. That was a drawback. For most of the wholesale staff the solution was Bess Eaton coffee and lots of it. But like I said, I didn't drink coffee. No one I worked with could understand how I could possibly drive a van at 6AM with nothing but orange juice and powdered sugar from the top of a donut running through my veins.

Every morning someone would trudge across the street to the Bess Eaton and buy a wagon load of coffees and donuts. And one lonely orange juice for me.

I had worked there for almost 3 years before someone made a mistake in the order and brought me a big iced coffee instead. I was just about to head out on what we called a 'run', a route of deliveries that would take me down to Galilee and the Block Island Ferry before swinging back up through the breakfast joints in Narragansett. I'd be on the road for a couple of hours at least. There was no time to switch the order and I'd already paid so I figured I'd just down the donut with a bit of iced coffee.

THIS WAS THE FIRST CUP OF COFFEE I'D EVER HAD AND IT WAS AN ACCIDENT. Looking back on it I feel as if I'd gone to the doctor to get a tetanus shot and on some sort of sick whim he'd dosed me with morphine.

I'd stopped for a refill before the end of that run. By the end of the week, OJ was no longer part of my routine. Remember, I wasn't drinking it to wake up as so many of my cohorts were, I'd simply been suckered into the enjoyment of a giant tub of sugar and cream with a touch of bitter java.

I worked upwards of 65 hours a week that summer, the last summer I'd spend as a child. I barely gave a thought to college even though it was right around the corner. Suddenly there wasn't a corner and I was living in a dorm a mile away from my parents house and going to a history class at 8 every Monday Wednesday and Friday.

Somewhere around the first Tuesday something terrible started to happen. I was sitting in some class and some unseen power was stabbing my brain with poisoned ice picks. I thought to lie down in my bunk bed between classes and wound up skipping one of the few classes I would skip in my entire college career. I always thought if you just showed up and listened you'd barely have to do any studying. I was right.

The afternoon of my first Tuesday in college dragged on with me slowly writhing away in scratchy sheets a few feet above the ground trying to dislodge the giant stone that had fallen from the sky and crushed my skull.

I had a brain tumor. I had migraines that would leave me a vegetable.

Something about the word vegetable struck a distant dim chord deep within the torture chamber that now constituted the lobes of my brain.

Vegetables. Oh my head I'm dying. Fruit. I'll have to drop out of college and ride a blue bus with a helmet on my head. Work. Still the clouds hung and the pain battered my thought process into incomprehensibility.

Then, as if in a piece of religious propaganda, light poured forth from the heavens in the form of a coherent thought, more of an image than a thought...a giant Styrofoam cup filled and refilled with iced coffee over and over again to the tune of several LITERS of caffeine per day...

...GONE INADVERTENTLY COLD TURKEY BECAUSE I ONLY DRINK ICED COFFEE AT WORK.

I sent someone to Bess Eaton to bring me an iced coffee, it could have been 11PM by this point, I didn't care I needed my fix.

I can't help but wonder what I'm addicted to right now that I am unaware of, what string pulls my leg up independent from my wishes, what my aches and pains really stem from, and how I can wrest control of the marionette myself and I.

The Power of Positive Winking

2008-07-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

So no iPod today...drove my car. Which poses quite a problem as I face the blog. What the hell am I supposed to say? I could leave it blank, which would disappoint my sisters and Larry and my cousin and maybe Melody if she isn't too busy and my folks, but the whole thrust of a blog is to PUT YOURSELF OUT THERE. Even if barely anyone is paying attention.

I could write about the music I listened to this weekend, Dwight Yoakam's 'A Long Way Home' while I did the dishes, Elvis Costello's 'King of America' while chilling and reading 'Then We Came To The End' by Joshua Ferris, both of which are pure joy to sing along with. In college I used to do work out listening to 'King of America', forcing myself to sing along in addition to whatever exercise I was doing. His singing on that is incredible.

I could write about finally seeing 'Knocked Up', watching it twice, once alone and once with Melody, laughing, crying, cheering. What is up with Apatow? Seriously, someone needs to elect that guy President. At the very least the country would be a huge hit and funny.

I could write about how much I miss Cashel while he vacations in Maine with his GrandpaMike, but at the same time how proud I am of him for taking it in stride and enjoying himself. Tough kid.

But now I've already written about all of those things, what now?

In fact, what now is the overriding question of the moment for me in almost every aspect of my life. Which, depending on the time of day you catch me, is either really exciting or terrifying. As I write this I feel a tug of both, with terrifying feeling unsure of itself and barely grasping me and really exciting has a nice hold on the end of my shirt.

What now?

WHAT NOW?

If you throw a comma in there it becomes aggressive...

What, now?

Actually, not aggressive, but tentative! Which is really at the bottom of a question like that anyways. In many ways it is a question I already know the answer to. Posing it out loud is more of a mission statement than a query.

So today I'm going to focus on the now instead of the what.

And look forward to the iPod tomorrow so I don't have to dredge this hooey up again!

Wink, wink.

Lightning In A Bottle

2008-07-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

Having fallen asleep before 9PM last night I was rather groggy as I made my way out of the apartment. I've lost my prescription sunglasses so the sun makes me blink and stagger. All in all I felt like a prisoner just out of solitary confinement, all herky jerky and unable to walk too well, still more used to talking to myself than to anyone else.

Thank God for The Clash.

1. 'Four Horsemen' by The Clash from 'London Calling'

I hadn't had coffee yet but by the time this song was over I was damn well awake. Has any band ever aimed higher? And hit their mark? I don't think so. The Beatles come to mind but they came along at a time when no one expected anything from young men with guitars...they had the element of surprise. The Clash? Saving the world with rock and roll? By the time they hit the scene, the business had calcified to the point that misbehavior was fine as long as you kept your hair long and stayed stoned. But to throw a giant middle finger up? To say the old ways are over ours are the new and you old fuckers better get used to it? And to have the songs to back all that up? Holy moly.

2. 'Cap In Hand' by The Proclaimers from 'Sunshine On Leith'

All anyone ever remembers of these guys is 'I Would Walk 500 Miles' which is fine but they are so much more than that. This is one of the bounciest, toe-tappiest, sing-alongiest songs of protest and revolt that you will ever hear. It is all the more frightening for how accommodating it is to the ear.

'I can't understand why we let someone else rule our land/Cap in hand'

Add the intense accent and 'land' and 'hand' rhyme. That's another great thing about these guys...they deliberately include their native accents in their singing.

3. 'Revolution' by The Beatles from 'Past Masters Volume 2'

Ah, the iPod is on a THEME kick! Three political pop songs in a row to set the morning off! I don't think I'll even bother to try to articulate anything about this song. Really, what else is there to say?

4. 'It Only Hurts When I Cry' by Dwight Yoakam from 'dwightyaokamacoustic.net'

He's okay folks, as long as he doesn't think about her, think about anything related to her, smell anything that reminds him of her, eat anything they used to eat together, hear a song they liked, see a chair she sat in at his house, look at the TV he had to buy after she threw a camera at him into the last one, watch the scratch on his arm slowly fade that she gave him as she stormed out, hear about the new guy she's seeing after he offered her everything, he's okay folks, as long as he doesn't think about her.

5. 'Utah' by John Linnell from 'State Songs'

To John Linnell, places are like people. You have relationships with them even if they are abstract ideas. 'Utah' he keeps forgetting...as in I forget 'you-tah'. The accordion pumps a tuneful ditty but he simply can't remember Utah.

6. 'Take This Longing' by Leonard Cohen from 'The Best Of'

Don't get me wrong, I love Leonard Cohen. I even like some of his recent stuff. But there is something slippery at the heart of what he does, perhaps something a bit untrue. It is such simple material that it would be boring without a little deception. I'm not sure what I'm driving at but I get the sense that Leonard is putting on an act. You hear all about how he's a cook for a Buddhist guru and lives in a room with only a cot and he doesn't even have a guitar up there but when you realize that he's married to a movie star and has a house in Malibu something else is going on. And like I said, thank God because if his acoustic warblings were only to be taken at face value none of us would even know who Leonard Cohen is.

7. 'Hide Nor Hair' by Ray Charles from 'His Greatest Hits, Vol.1'

Who are these stupid women who keep running off and leaving Ray Charles? Um, lady, you are dating RAY CHARLES. Stop leaving him without any warning or note or nothing. Would you have run out on Mozart with some doctor with fresh hands? I don't think so. Tighten your shit up and stay with Ray.

8. 'Vibrate' by Outkast from 'The Love Below'

Experimental is the best word to describe what these freaks do. I am a bit surprised that they've had such mainstream success because their music is BIZARRE. Like art student-did-too-many-drugs-and-got-it-together-just-in-time-for-the-thesis bizarre. Like God on the 8th day fucking around bizarre. That kind of bizarre.

9. 'Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)' by Arcade Fire from 'Funeral'

I think Henry James stinks. I have read 'The Turn Of The Screw' several times in order to be sure. Why would I read a book I dislike more than once? Well, because I am often WRONG. But I've now completely accepted the fact that Henry James is not for me. What author do you think I would compare Arcade Fire to?

10. 'Pow' by The Beastie Boys from 'Check Your Head'

If you took someone who had never heard of The Beastie Boys and you played 'Fight For Your Right (To Party)' and then played them this instrumental track, I don't think they would in a million years say it was the same band. But it is. Liking The Beastie Boys is like raising an unruly wild child. You know that when he gets older he'll excel at something but until then you have to put up with the magic marker on the walls and the oatmeal in the toaster. That's just how it is. And, let's face it, it's fun to draw on the walls.

11. 'My Imaginary Friend' by The Divine Comedy from 'Absent Friends'

I have got to get more of The Divine Comedy. How this guy isn't a MAJOR star world wide I'll never know. Actually, let me guess...cerebral literate pop rock with theatrical tendencies and lush arrangements? Right, now I know why.

12. 'I'm Leavin' Now' by Johnny Cash from 'American III: Solitary Man'

That's only Merle Haggard singing harmony. That's just Johnny Cash on his deathbed. Well, ok, maybe not quite his deathbed but pretty close. If he was Mt. Rushmore as a kid he's Everest now.

13. 'Round And Round' by Aerosmith from 'Toys In The Attic'

It is easy to forget how good these guys can be. They turned into such a commodity and never had that unimpeded access to critical acclaim but they were a sick band in the 1970's. This song is RELENTLESS. AND tuneful. Not an easy mix. They are like Coldplay to Zeppelin's Radiohead. It isn't fair that they came around right at the same time but that's just the luck of the draw.

14. 'Cassavetes' by Fugazi from 'In On The Kill Taker'

This is as close to a dance track as Fugazi ever got. The fact that it is about the underground filmmaker who was determined to rip the mask off of the genial mask of the American personality only makes its danceability that much more extreme.

15. 'Who'll Stop The Rain' by Creedence Clearwater Revival from 'Chronicle, Vol. 1'

CCR makes me think of Swamp Thing. A monster from the depths come forth to seek revenge against the system that had wronged it, to pass judgment on the powers that be that banished it to the muck and mire. Oh, yeah, and to rock your socks off.

16. 'Right On Time' by Red Hot Chili Peppers from 'Californication'

This song seems like too much wiring stuffed into a tiny stereo blasting several punk songs at once. There aren't too many bands out there that you can identify right away and The Peppers are one of them. However on this song it takes a while, which I think is cool. They don't seem to be satisfied with themselves, they seem to be searching for the best possible expression of any particular idea.

17. 'Dirt In The Ground' by Tom Waits from 'Bone Machine'

As I've said before, this album vaults me back to a time when I wasn't fatigued instantly by the sound of Mr. Waits' voice. He was the darling of the music world this year and perhaps that is why he has spent the last 20 years delving farther and farther into the margins of his sound. I think the most revolutionary thing he could do at this point is something smack in the middle of the mainstream. He won't.

18. 'Waitress In The Sky' by The Replacements from 'Tim'

'A sign says 'Thank You Very Much For Not Smoking'/My own sign says 'I'm sorry I'm smokin''

This could be the epitaph on the gravestone of The Replacements. This mean-spirited little dollop of misogyny is REALLY fun to sing along with, and when taken with 'Little Mascara' ('All you ever wanted was someone to take care of ya/All you're ever losin' is a little mascara') gives you the two sides of the same worthless coin that these guys flipped into some bum's hat instead of laughing all the way to the bank.

19. 'Tombstone' by The Pogues from 'Peace and Love'

I've never been to Dublin as an adult. I don't drink pint after pint and I don't smoke cigarettes anymore. I break out in hives when I wear wool. I'm apolitical. When I hear The Pogues I'm ready for Guinness, Gauloises, an Irish knit sweater and a tidy little gun fight with the English.

20. 'Complainte du Progres' by Bernard Lavilliers from 'Boris Vian et ses interpretes'

Somehow this works even though I laugh at French music. This song doesn't expect you to do anything BUT giggle.

21. 'Life Is But A Dream' by The Harptones from 'GoodFellas (Soundtrack)'

I'm about to go to France. I've got Lyme's Disease. I'm pretty much confined to bed. I watch 'GoodFellas' and 'Crimes and Misdemeanors' over and over and over and over and over. It's a wonder my parents didn't have me committed. Which when they let me go to France they pretty much did.

It is Friday. I'll see you Monday morning.