Today’s Playlist Consists of…

Belly- King and Star
REM- Accelerate and Document
Jimmy Eat World- Bleed American
The Killers- Day & Age
Joe Jackson- Look Sharp!
John Wesley Harding- Why We Fight
Juliana Hatfield Three- Become What You Are and For The Birds EP
Regina Spektor- Begin to Hope (w/ Music Box bonus track)
Squeeze- Singles - 45's and Under collection
Television- Marquee Moon
Frente!- Marvin the Album

Just thought I’d share how awesome my musical Friday is going to be… Carry on…

Bonus Post!

So I'm sitting here on the eve of my vacation, the eve of a national holiday, the eve of the 25th day of the 12th month of the 2008th year of our calendar, the eve of well... It's Christmas Eve, OK, and I'm sitting here at the office just watching the time tick by, wishing someone had some sort of catastrophe I could help them with. Good or bad, it seems nothing is going wrong on this fine Christmas Eve, so I'm left to wallow in the slow-movingness of time spent at work.

For this reason, I have decided to churn out another useless and random blog post that isn't likely to entertain anyone other than me, but should at least be good to kill a little time. As far as subject matter goes, I'm all Holiday'd out, and I'm feeling a little claustrophobed by the whole state deal (but I promise I'll finish them up in 2009). So I think I'll do a quick accounting of some of the albums I have been listening to whist out and about on holiday shopping excursions.

Keep in mind, aside from the destinations reached, nothing about these albums has nothing to do with the holidays, which is one of the reasons I chose to listen to them. The other reason is that they are good.

That's right, sometimes I chose to listen to GOOD music... It's not ALL El DeBarge, Phish, and Tone Loc all the time churning through the OCKerouac speakers...

Actually, it's rarely, if ever any of the above, and if it is, it's because I'm tuned to the wrong XM station... It is good to see however that Senor DeBarge did team up with Master Loc... Perhaps they were not able to answer the musical question "Who's Johnny", but were able to determine that whomever he may be, he's infected with the Funky Cold Medina...

I have nothing humorous to say about Phish. I just wish they would go away.

Anyhoo, on to the music I HAVE been listening to. Normally, I stick with the random shuffle on my iPod, and allow it to decide if it's time for Opera, Industrial, Southern Rock, Classical, Vocal Standards, New Wave, Indie Rock, etc. There's just something about coupling Night on Bald Mountain with Soft Cell that leaves my heart all warm and convulsing... The thing about shopping is you keep going to one place, and then stopping, and then going to another place, and stopping, and each time you may or may not want to put your iPod in your pocket or lock it in the glove box instead of leaving it out and yada, yada, yada, so instead I was just surfing the sounds of XM/Sirius satellite radio, but I hit three stations in a row playing Coldplay and instead of veering off the road and speeding into the nearest tree I decided I'd be less likely to ruin anyone else's holiday if I just popped in one of my 'emergency stash' CD's I had stowed in the center divider.

Viola, REM's newest, Accelerate

Now if you've read my Georgia post, you already know my opinion of REM, and their most recent release. What I didn't mention at the time of that writing, and honestly didn't think about until just the other day as I was giving the album what must have been the 12th or 13th listen since buying it, is that the reason this whole disc works as opposed to just a few tracks isn't because it's got that over-arching-story feel of a classic prog-rock album, it's because the boys decided why make a song four minutes long when two and a half will do the trick?

I have absolutely nothing against epically long songs. As a matter of fact, two tracks that would likely crack my top-100 songs of all time are Genesis' twenty-two minute tome Supper's Ready and Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick which in it's entirety took two sides of an LP to get through (about 47 minutes all-told). However, I also appreciate the beauty and grace that it takes to leave your audience wanting more. Admittedly, on REM's last few pre-Accelerate releases I recall thinking. 'OK, when is this thing finally going to END', never a good sign when listening to an album, but this one gets the 'Wow, it's over already?' seal of approval.

For fans of past REM masterworks Green and Automatic for the People, if you've been afraid to chance the new one after getting burned by New Adventures in Hi-Fi, Reveal, Up, and Around the Sun, I urge you to go against your better judgement and give the buys for Athens another shot. They've finally gotten it right again.

I offer as proof, the album's third single and IMO catchiest tune, Man Sized Wreath

As good as this one is, man does not live by REM alone. So after making my way through the disc two times I had to move on. I tried to kick it back to XM, but they gave me Evanescence, and despite being the best Arkansas has to offer, they're not good enough to actually LISTEN to... I could have tried a different station, but I felt punishment needed to be doled upon my satellite radio, and what better way to punish an inanimate object than by not using it? Again, I suppose I could have wrapped my SUV around a power pole... That TOTALLY would have given the finger to my radio dial, but at what cost? at WHAT COST??

Instead, I decided to enjoy the fruits of some Internet research labor, and popped in the pre-Crows Adam Duritz offering with The Himalayans, She Likes The Weather.

Now it's no secret here at The Dance that I, your humble blog host with the humble blog most feels that the decade of the nineties is the absolute coolest. I love the fact that people felt the city of Seattle was relevant for a small fraction of time, that the Internet made a funky squealing sound after you heard it dialing a phone, and lest we forget, the 90's is the decade that made it acceptable to drink HUGE cups of coffee at all hours of the day or night without looking like you were jonesing for an AA meeting.

Why do I mention this? Because from the opening garage-twang guitar of Jaded, there's nothing so comforting to a 90's music fan as reliving what it meant to be and indie rocker in the pre-dawn years before MySpace music profiles. This CD is the musical equivalent of slipping on a pair of jean-shorts and wrapping myself in a flannel. It's also nice to look back with the benefit of hindsight and deconstruct why this group of gentlemen were able to through slight personnel alteration, develop into a marginally-successful, highly entertaining rock outfit while so many of their contemporaries are now slinging oversized cups of joe at the Gloria Jean's Starbucks Bean in malls across the country.

Honestly, if you take these tracks and subtract the ready-to-crack fragility of Duritz's vocals you're left with every club band you sat through on open mic night at the indie coffee house that's since been transformed into the 10,000th Gloria Jean's Starbucks Bean... Hey, at least the dude playing the acoustic guitar at those sets will know how to get to his new job... He used to play guitar there on Wednesday nights right before the poetry reading...

I don't have a YouTube link for this one, but I have something even better. I've attached the link to purchase this time capsule for yourself straight from the indie record label that initially pressed and distributed it, Tyrannosaurus Records. What could make you feel better about filching music off the Internet than using the same tool to throw some much-appreciated green backs at REAL people trying to bring great music into the lives of the rest of us.

As an added bonus, the radio interview spots between tracks will make you long for the days of campus radio. So few things in our modern lives remind us about what we have lost in just the recent past, one of those things is the extended college radio in-studio interview. I'm sure they're still going on, but as I touched upon earlier, that's not just how the new bands are getting their names out there. Why bother busing your equipment from town to town to talk to a local DJ who reached a few hundred listeners when you can put your MySpace link on UBL and reach the vast online empire?

We're all friends here, and as such I don't mind revealing that all the 90's nostalgia this album dredged up had put me in a Cherry Coloured Funk not even the Cocteau Twins could pull me out of. Sure, the holidays are all about remembering days of yore and all that, but memories can lead to regrets, and regrets can lead the therapy, and therapy costs money, money I'd prefer to spend on gifts... Ultimately, that lead me to find another way to sooth my aching nostalgia-gland, so I decided to pine instead for something ELSE I miss that unlike the 90's will return to me with the spring thaw, baseball.

More specifically this new CD I purchased, The Baseball Project Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails. tBP is a supergroup formed of REM'ers Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey, former Dream Syndicate front man Steve Wynn, who has also released some above-average solo recordings, and a solid beat-keeper on drums by the name of Linda Pitmon. Unfortunately, I know very little about Linda, but the fact she's involved in this venture makes her aces in my book.

So the band's goal is to use music to express their love of our nation's fading past time. I appreciate their efforts and applaud those who admit to loving the sport even if they are not musically talented, and it's certainly worth mentioning that this group DOES harbor their fair share of talent when it comes to expressing themselves through song. After all, they've crated the masterpiece Ted Fucking Williams...

This album ranged from idiosyncratic, to historical, to rocking, to down-right fun in a recipe that calls for just the right amount of every ingredient. For baseball fans as well as former-fans who have maybe soured on the game in the wake of PED scandals there is catharsis here amongst the ball yard memories, and some great stories of days gone by. If you get an opportunity to pick up this disc, which you TOTALLY should do, pay close attention to track 12, The Yankee Flipper, a great autobiographical tale about boozing it up at a New York bar with former MLB pitcher Black Jack McDowell. Don't take it from me though, this one has also garnered a spot on Allmusic's top albums of 2008 list...Click here to see the list

Now I'd never steer you wrong in an effort to pimp my favorite sport by trying to get you to buy an album by Bernie Williams or Scott Spezio, but this one is totally worth the price of admission, and there's no way that when it's over you'll be pissed that your team lost... Pick up a copy, you'll feel better amount yourself, and better about the fact that spring training is still two long months away. Clicken zie herein to purchase...

Looking at the old clock it seems that I've managed to kill off a chunk of time sharing these musical gems with you all, and I hope you will further explore and enjoy them as much as I have. After all, if you're trapped in your car this holiday season forced to chose between Christmas Wrapping and (Simply Having) A Wonderful Christmas Time, owning copies of these CD's may just save your life...

Again, thanks for dropping by, and have an amazing holiday and New Year celebration... I'll be back in 2009.

Inspired By Anger

OK, perhaps 'Anger' is kind of harsh... Maybe, 'Inspired by Rock-Snob Geekery to Disagree with Dissenting Opinions at All Costs' would be a more apt title... Either way, I'll take inspiration where I can get it, and this is just as good a source as any...

http://thephoenix.com/Supplements/2008/50States/

The attached link is kind of a train-wreck of what Boston area hipsters do when killing time at the local Starbucks. For the most part, I can 'grain of salt' this kind of stuff and remember that not everyone is as savvy as I am when it comes to musical taste... I continue on knowing that few are as full of themselves. That makes me feel better, and that is, after all, what REALLY matters.

Ummm... A Point! THAT'S what I'm missing here! Below is a break down of both the head-against-a-wall inducing errors, and the small handful of blind-squirrels-found-some-nuts descent choices of the whole list. Feel free to give each one a read, complete with the somewhat humorous and always snarky rationales behind them, but at the end of the day, I'm sure you'll agree that some, if not most of these are WAY off base.

As a result, I shall begin working on an epic post, not quite 0f 'Why The Grammy's Blow' proportions, but still, larger, and more researched than the average. It may take a few days, some teeth gnashing, a fair amount of gut wrenching guilt, and likely more than one mistake along the way, but I'm going to assemble my OWN 50 state list...

As an aside, I tend to not believe that artists are deserving of a spot on MY list just because they currently happen to be playing free shows in crappy Midwestern bars, so as a result, there will be NO 'best new band' by state. Instead, I'll go Best Band, Best Artist, and Honorable Mention, going to, in my opinion, the most under rated band or solo performer from the state.

But first, before I partake in my grand nationwide tour, it's time to lambaste others for their poor taste and obvious lack of effort...

Florida: Lynyrd Effing Skynyrd! Off the top of my head, I can't shoot out an alternate Florida band, but I guaran-damn-tee that I will research this to the ends of the earth until I find a suitable replacement... Lynyrd Skynyrd will never, EVER, be the best of anything, except perhaps the best example of why being spontaneously stricken deaf might not be so bad... Oh no, wait, that one goes to our NEXT misapplied entrant...

Delaware: George Thorogood... Yep... THAT one... I realize Delaware is a painfully small state that likely is not as rich in musical influences as say New York, California, Massachusetts, Washington... Well, probably anywhere except maybe Wyoming, but from where I'm standing, this guy couldn't even win Wyoming... Earlier on this very blog I opined about the grave mistakes we made as a people during the 80's when it came to what is actually entertaining. In many ways we have made up for those mistakes by learning from them. Please don't set back 20+ years of human development by reintroducing the youth of the nation to 'Bad To The Bone'. I'd go so far as to say that the Thorogood Crisis matches, if not EXCEEDS, Global Warming as the #1 threat to humanity by and large in the coming years. Only YOU can prevent drunken bar-room bravado...

New York: The list of 'misses' could go on and on until it occupies over 75 of the total 153 entrants on the list (They gave DC it's own list, a bold move representing the un-represented...) I fear if I break down every single error in detail, I'll overshadow the importance of this incredibly pathetic choice. As far as solo artists go, New York has got to be top-of-the-heap when it comes to potential suitors, especially since the list liberally chose the states in which performers ascended, as opposed to just where they were born. That being the case, two performers, lauded quite heavily in the sites comments section, Billy Joel and Paul Simon would both have made excellent, almost untouchable choices for the award... So naturally, they went with Mary J. Blige...

Ummm... WHAT!!?!

Perhaps the boys in Boston were just trying to prove they're 'Urban'... If that's the case, I could have let them slide with Biggie, or even Puffy but give me a break... If the Faboo Ms. MJB happens upon this little nugget whilst ego-surfing, I'm sure she would immediately call her publicist and ask how much it cost to get thrown onto the list... I'd go so far as to say that even Mama Blige, if she is still with us, would not agree that her daughter trumps Rhythm Simon or The Piano Man. I'm not one for Internet cliches, but this is definitively an EPIC FAIL...

OK, enough with the venom... There were some good choice on the list. Some of them seemingly obvious, going with The Beach Boys for California, REM and Ray Charles for Georgia, letting the people make the choice between Bob Dylan and Prince for Minnesota. All this proves is that at least one person on the staff of The Phoenix has actually listed to music at some point in their lifetime. Admittedly though, there were some great calls outside of the no-brainers...

Connecticut: They made the right choice going with Liz Phair as the top solo performer. It's too bad they then spent her half paragraph calling her a sell out... No matter, I can overlook reasoning, at least they made the right call. One commenter felt John Mayer would have been a better choice. They are wrong. Another commenter said 'what has john mayer given to this world besides headaches and diarrhea?' They are right. Huzzah, mattmatt... Huzzah indeed...

Idaho: I'm roughly as familiar with acts from Idaho as I am with the up-and-coming acts currently tooling around Baghdad. That being the case, I was taken aback at the opportunity to agree with their selection of Josh Ritter. I happened upon Mr. Ritter whist watching an episode of Letterman and was impressed enough to seek out his recordings. An A+ for Dave who's show also introduced me to one of my all time favorite Canadian rock ensembles, Metric. Kudos Mr. Letterman on a job well done and Kudos Phoenix for finding Idaho's hidden treasure... Hold on... I smell a new Huell Howser series in the making...

Texas: Is there a state that screams southern-fried-rock louder than Tejas? As a result, you'd expect the shit-kickingest of the bunch, perhaps, ZZ Top, to top the list of Texas rock royalty... I expected it, I expected to think 'ZZ Top (or some other ridiculous rock cliche)! Seriously! How lame!' Instead, just as I was about to shut down the whole list without giving the last eight entrants their just viewings, The Phoenix, pardon the allusion, rose from the ashes of it's own Blige-induced delirium and selected an unsung rock gem oft praised but less-oft listened to. A personal favorite, The 13th Floor Elevators... If you like psych-rock and are not familiar with Roky Erikson and the boys of the 13th floor, then do yourself a favor and pick up their The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. It'll rock the whammy bar clean off your particular axe of choice... If you are not a fan of 60's psychedelia, then go away, square...

Much like the badness, I shan't list all the goodness for fear it will dilute just how bad the overall badness really is. Look for yourself, for every slight twinge of joy, there's a kick-in-the-balls dose of pain. For every soft, soothing affirmation that you haven't slipped into your own personal Twilight Zone, there is a hip-for-hip's sake blues legend carted out like a 'History of Rock and/or Roll' text book. For example, and I promise, this'll be the last one, either Mississippi or Tennessee NEEDS to pay homage to The King. Personally, I am not a huge Elvis Presley fan... For my money he's the 2nd best recording artist named Elvis... However, I respect the awesome influential power that earned him the moniker King. I know music aficionados everywhere are scared of losing their geek cards if they speak ill of Robert Johnson or Aretha Franklin, and I don't mean to buck the hipster anti-establishment, but neither of them is Elvis Presley. There. I said it. He didn't write his own songs, and was a merely passing guitar player. In spite of that, he was the biggest musician of his era, and debatably the biggest solo musician of all time. If Michael Jackson is worthy of inclusion both as a member of The Jackson 5 AND as a solo artist (a cop-out I intend to remedy), than Elvis should have earned a nod in either his birth state, or the state where he made his name...

With that, the bitching and subsequent moaning is at an end. Next time, if the task doesn't kill me, look for MY list of Best Band, Best Solo Artist, and the new 3rd category Honorable Mention by state in my next gargantuan blog post... Google don't fail me now!!

Another Friday & What I'm Listening To

Welcome to another Friday... Just two more weeks of work before I head out to fabulous Las Vegas, NV meaning just 2 weeks and 4 days before I head back west, penniless, trading unspeakable acts for gas money to get home... In actuality, I consider myself a very 'responsible' gambler, if such an oxymoron can exist. I think it stems from the fact that I'm always positive I'm going to lose, so I never have that 'just one more bet and I'll make my money back' mentality. Instead I approach a Blackjack table thinking 'Can I afford to drop this hundred bucks in the next 20 minutes?' Typically the first day or two, that answer is always a hearty 'YES!' Usually by the 3rd day however, it's more like 'Maybe, but not as easily as I could afford to lose this $5 in a nickel slot...'

I typically return freed from whatever cash I had planned to lose, but no more than that, and once in a rare while, I come back with some cash left over, which usually ends up at the outlet mall at State Line... Regardless, a splendid time is guaranteed for all, and this year, CSD Julie and I will be following the trip with a follow up respite in the beautiful Santa Barbara wine country, because a proper Vegas vacation requires a 2nd vacation to recover...

Alas, more on that in the coming weeks. For the time being, I have here-and-now excitement to discuss. I just downloaded some new tunes for the iPod! Granted, this is far more exciting for me than it is for anyone else, but I'm jazzed, and really that's all that matters... Below is a breakdown of the new editions... Alas, there is no New Edition to be found...

• The Cure- The 2004 self titled release from Robert Smith and the boys. I have yet to give it much of a listen, but from what I can tell it holds on to some of the darkness of Bloodflowers without being nearly as ethereal and, I hate to say it, boring... I was not a fan of the prior release, and was concerned when they followed it up with a new Greatest Hits, and then B-Sides collection, that we had heard the last new Cure releases, at least for a good long while. That explains why it's taken me almost 4 years to give this one a shot. Ultimately though, I'm optimistic that this will be a return to some of the great dark quiet albums of the past like Disintegration and The Head on the Door.
• Gyrate- The 1980 release by Athens, GA band Pylon. I did a write up on Athens GA Inside/Out a few days back, and discovered that there were some releases that I was woefully ignorant of. This one coming well before the film was made, is chock full of rocking dance tunes reminiscent of Patti Smith or early Joan Jett... At least, that's what it reminds me of after a cursory listen. Once I've fully digested this one, I'll probably head over the Pylon website and pick up Gyrate Plus! Their 2007 release.
• Little Creatures- This well known Talking Heads album is not one I just purchased. I've actually had it for the better part of a year, and embarrassingly enough, kind of forgot I bought it... I got it right around the same time I got She's Like The Weather by The Himalayans, Adam Durtiz's pre-Counting Crows band, and I've been wearing that CD out, so impressed that anything else I picked up in the same time frame just kind of faded into the background. Anyhow, I've decided that while I'm not ready to remove The Himalayans from my playlist, I should give the Heads a chance to be heard...
• Marquee Moon- Another forgotten purchase of the same week as Little Creatures, Television's Marquee Moon is an album I'd been wanting to buy and listen to for a long time, but kept forgetting about... That makes it all the more sad and shameful that once I did finally buy it, I STILL forgot about it, relegating it to my iTunes playlist, but never dropping it on the the Pod... I've listened to the title track a few times, and really dig the way it seems to melt 80's pop rock with 70's epic prog styling.. A song with a catchy chorus that ALSO runs 11 minutes long? Sign me up!! I guess it's about time to give the rest of the album a shot.
• Runaway Boys: A Retrospective- This 25 track Stray Cats hits collection is the equivalent of a great thriller novel... I know it's not the most 'intellectual' piece out there, but it's enjoyable, it's easy to listen to, and it doesn't require my complete attention. Not to say that Setzer and the boys aren't talented musicians with a story to tell, but the Cats just have a style that works so much better as peppy pop gap fillers than 'sit and listen' music. There's far from anything wrong with that... It's a GOOD thing...
• Shine On- Yesterday's post in which I discuss my horrible addiction to all things both music, and trivia related touched upon a weak spot in my music library. I have been listening to and enjoying Jet's Get Born for a few years now, but had not delved deeper into their catalog. As I mentioned in my comments section, I would have to rectify this concern by giving Shine On a shot. From what I've heard so far, it's not quite as hard edged as a lot of the stuff on Get Born is, although maybe I just haven't caught those tracks yet, I'm shuffling back and forth between about 20 different albums, but the softer songs that have played have definitely held my attention and still had a 'rock song' feel, even with their less-than-pulse-pounding tempo. At this rate I'm going to have to pick up their Dirty Sweet EP that started their career, and wait patiently for their 3rd long play being released some time between now and mid next year...

I'm also still digesting the new Elvis Costello, Momofuku, The Counting Crows Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, REM's Accelerate, Josh Ritter's The Historical Conquest of Josh Ritter, and right this second I'm listening to perhaps one of the greatest piece of poetry and music ever committed to tape, William Shatner's take on Pulp's 'Common People'. Not only is 'The Shat' driving home the spoken-word power of a rage-against-the-aristocracy anthem, but it also contains the hard edged return of 80's under-rated Brit singer-songwriter Joe Jackson playing a mean axe and adding some vocal harmony to Shat's harshly real deadpan. I know I sound like I'm mocking, but seriously, this track rules... There's an SNL live performance on YouTube that's well worth a watch...

That does it for me. I'll be back Monday with tales of suspense and intrigue from the weekend...