Uh oh

Move over will.i.am, nothing says POTUS like a Jackson 5 mash-up:

(Also: who the hell thought "Hmm, cyan on brown, that's a winning colour combination!")

<i>Under the Blacklight</i>

I recently purchased Rilo Kiley's newest album, Under the Blacklight. After members of the band took some time off to pursue extracurricular projects, the gang is back with another great disc. The album is solid throughout, and features some stuff (e.g. "Silver Lining") reminiscent of Jenny Lewis's solo album, Rabbit Furcoat. It also has some excellent departures from their tried and true style, like "Breaking Up" and "15" (my personal favourite).

Highly recommended.

<i>Hot Fuss</i>

You know what's a good album? The Killers' debut, Hot Fuss. I know, I know, this is about as original as saying that Blonde on Blonde has some good tracks. But seriously, there are a number of extremely good tunes on this album.

A pair of brown eyes

At the moment I'm kicking it to some tunes by the Pogues, a choice inspired by a random playing of Dirty Old Town in the bar in Colorado last week. At the time we were drunk enough to sing along, including an Irish chap named Enda who had a really awesome voice (he also does good impersonations).

Nothing much else happening here in the Emerald Isle City, but I'm still in high spirits, so I've got that going for me. Need to make some plans for Paddy's day, though.

Rocky mountain high

For some reason yesterday I felt the strong need to listen to John Denver. I downloaded some tunes, and let me just say that "Rocky mountain high" is a pretty awesome track. I think the guy's got a really amazing voice, so shoot me. Best line in the song, though?

Friends around a campfire...everybody's hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh!

In related news: I'm incredibly psyched for my trip to Colorado in March.

Air guitar hero

iTunes just shuffled its way to Journey's Don't Stop Believing, which for me always brings to mind my 2004 Sox playoff mix. Seriously, though, is there any song which is induces as strong an urge to rock out and go nuts on the air guitar?

<i>Handle With Care</i>

I've accidentally accumulated three versions of the Traveling Wilburys' song Handle With Care: the original, a version featuring Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne from the George Harrison tribute concert and a recent cover by Rilo Kiley vocalist Jenny Lewis.

I think the tribute version is the least satisfying, because Tom Petty's vocal style is a little too drawly and whiny for the lead vocals. The Jenny Lewis version is actually pretty awesome, because she kicks up the tempo just a little bit, and I really like her voice in general. The only weak link in that version is that she has some dude named Ben Gibbard doing the Roy Orbison part ("I'm so tired of being lonely, I still have some love to give...") and he (A) sounds like a girl and (B) doesn't have Roy's velvet croon.

Anyway, this post doesn't really have any point, other than that song is pretty sweet.

Friday night and the lights are low

The hold music for the conference call I'm on is a muzak version of Dancing Queen. On endless loop. I've only been on it for 30 seconds and already I want to gouge my eyes out.

Bl&oslash;gosphere, tunes!

I want to buy some new tunes. The suggestion box is open for the next 24 hrs.

Half Conceals, Half Discloses

I've been listening to NPR on the web this morning while I putter around the house. Most of the time the time difference is a pain in the ass with respect to WBUR's programming (in the morning here I get the middle-of-the-night BBC programming on NPR, which is the last thing I need here). Today however was nice in that I got to listen to Only a Game, the weekly sports program which airs at 7AM on Saturday in Boston.

The last piece on today's program started with a news bit about a Canadian woman who was scheduled to sing the US and Canadian national anthems before an exhibition hockey game in Quebec last week. She started The Star Spangled Banner, forgot the words halfway through, apologized and started again, forgot the words again, left the ice to get a lyric sheet, then fell on her ass when she hurried back onto the ice. Evidently she gave up at this point and the game was played without either anthem.

The piece carried on with excerpts from other instances of people forgetting the words in mid-anthem at sporting events, concluding with one where a 13 year old girl was singing the anthem before an NBA game. She lost her way amidst FSK's obscenely complex syntax and faltered, then tried to continue but couldn't remember the words. Then the Trailblazers' head coach, Mo Cheeks (I'm not joking), walked over and started singing along where she left off in a horrendously off-key voice. As it turned out, he didn't quite have the words right either, so the 20,000 basketball fans all started singing (something which happens all to infrequently at sporting events these days). The little girl found her place again and finished with a flourish.

It was a classy thing to do by Mo (who recently got fired because the 'Blazers suck), and combined with the fact that I'm living here among the heathens, hearing it left me a little teary-eyed.

Lopez, Tunes!

I need some recommendations for contemporary tunes. My problem is that many of my favorite musical artists are no longer recording new music because they're old or dead. And I've never been one to really follow "pop" or even good music made by people who are still alive. Anyway, my point is that I'd like to experience the excitement I imagine people have when their favorite musicians release new stuff. And I got some Christmas $$$ on my iTunes Music Store account. And I want to spend it on new stuff. So: start suggesting!

Songlist Update

En route to Game 2 with my Pop. I used the magick of iTunes Music Store to make some key additions:

• An unfuxed version of Long Time


• Right Now


• My Town by Montgomery Gentry. See if you can guess the genre.


• Tessie

More Later.

Sox Rox

I just put together a Sox playlist in preparation for tonight's game. So far (what I could scrounge without access to any particularly huge libraries):

1. It's Been Such a Long Time, Boston. I needed one track from Boston and although I strongly considered More Than a Feeling, I thought this sentiment was more apropos. Furthermore, it kicks ass as a leadoff song on the playlist because it features like 5 minutes of instrumental intro before the lyrics actually start, leaving listeners frenetic with anticipation (much like Sox fans waiting for the World Series to get underway).


2. Welcome to the Jungle, Guns N Roses. Curt sometimes uses this as his introduction music. And by Curt I mean "Blood 'n Guts" Schilling, not "Instant Panic" Leskanic.


3. Don't Stop Believing, Journey. I wasn't able to Keep the Faith throughout the whole ALCS: I wanted to push Bellhorn in front of a train, I thought Dale Sveum would actually manage to blow the whole season, and I had a serious post-traumatic-stress episode when Francogrady put Pedro in during game 7. Hopefully this will get my attitude back in line.


4. Yeah! Usher. This is evidently Dave Roberts's at-bat song. I wouldn't know since he's had like 3 actual at-bats since we acquired him from LA. Then again, he was totally Claude when he was on the basepaths during games 4 & 5 of the ALCS, so I'll throw it in. Plus it will annoy LB.


5. Sweet Caroline, Neil Diamond. This song actually annoys the hell out of me, but it reminds me of Fenway, so it's a gimme.


6. Dream On, Aerosmith. Again I need to give a shoutout to the hometown crews. Plus it's another "on-message" song.


7. Black Betty, RamJam. This is the song that actually inspired me to put this list together. It's Timlin's burst-from-the-pen in a one run game with runners on 2nd and 3rd in the 8th music. I just really love it when this song starts thumpin and Timmy charges full speed from right field with his jacket in hand. I'm getting chills just thinking about it.


8. Man on the Silver Mountain, Rainbow. This is just a good track to represent the ASL which kept it real for two solid years of baseball appreciation. Plus Coors Light reminds me of baseball/sports in general.


9. Kryptonite, 3 Doors Down. This is VariTeX's long time batting song, and since he generally rox my sox, I'll toss this in for him.


10. I Won't Back Down, Tom Petty. Another rally-type song. Plus he's from Florida which means he must've been rooting against NY in last year's World Series. Or something.


11. Dirty Water, The Standells. 'Nuff said.

Notably absent are: any halfway decent salsa to represent all the brothers from the DomRep in the house, a not-shitty recording of Jump Around for Big Papi, Tessie (I need to burninate LB's Dropkick Murphy's CD and then promptly delete all the other tracks) and some shittooth country for Millar and Nixon.

Lopez, Tuuuuuuuuuuunes

Two discs arrived in the mail last night: Here Are The Sonics and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. They're both pretty hot, in completely different ways. The Love Below is especially rocking due to the wacky ways he mixes up different styles of music. My favorite so far is the random piano/drumbeat acoustic version of "My Favorite Things". Plus, there's random spoken word tracks mixed in (ala The Chronic) of which the best so far is definitely "God".

The French

Watched The Work of Directory Michel Gondry last night with Scott, Amrys and krobinso. His music videos are pretty amazing, especially "Star Guitar", "Come Into My World" and "Sugar Water". It really makes you wonder about the differences among various mainstream artists. There are clearly some musical groups who come back to Gondry again and again because his work is so brilliant (Björk, The Chemical Brothers, The White Stripes) whereas most pop musicians make the same crappy music video over and over again.

Also, if you ever get a chance to check out his video for "Je Danse Le Mia", don't pass it up.

Bad Art Ensemble

I went to the Plough and Stars last night to see "Bad Art Ensemble" (a People's Republik bartender is the frontman). The bar is a tiny joint with a heavily brogued bartendress who poured a fine pint and a blinking "HOT NUTS" dispenser on the wall. The band consisted of 8 dudes who looked like vagrants and whose performance modus operandi was to just fuck around and get drunk. In short, they were awesome.

The music was kind of a mix between Ska and They Might Be Giants. One song in particular reminded me of Istanbul (Not Constantinople). I'm not sure if the stuff they were performing was original music or covers of bands I've never heard of. Their repertoire included audience-request "Cops Are People Too", the theme from the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" and the "HOT NUTS" theme.

The band consisted of the following assorted members:

• The vocalist was about 5'3" and looked like a miniature Gonda (if that means anything to you). He had long scraggly hair and a scruffy beard and crooned into the mike while holding a pint of Guinness in his other hand. When he wasn't singing he just sort of chilled out in the corner and checked out this chick who was dancing near the band.


• The drummer displayed a number of tatoos and sported a blue wife-beater. During the middle of one number he just got up and went over to the bar to order another drink, keeping time the whole way with his drumsticks, and then sat back down at the drums and jumped right back in with the rest of the band.


• The trumpeter was definitely the most wasted of the group and was decked out in pseudo-intellectual blazer and long foofy scarf. By the end of the night he was clutching a glass of scotch in one hand and would occasionally toot out a few notes with his horn in the other hand.


• The guitarist and bassist were kind of hidden behind the drummer, and the guitarist had to get out of the way every time somebody wanted to use the men's room, since it was crammed behind the band. I think I'd characterize his vibe as "sheepish".


• The trombonist and saxophonist (is that a word?) both maintained a higher level of sobriety than the dude with the trumpet, probably because their instruments require both hands to play. The sax (which is a woodwind, by the way) had some pretty hot licks, and I really back the twangy sound the trombonist was laying down.


• The eighth dude arrived in the middle of the set, joined the band (while being mocked by the singer) and whipped out a pair of bongos which he proceededly to play feverishly. He looked exactly like Donny from The Big Lebowski and was totally rocking out (he occasionally went nuts and started wailing on a cowbell, using the bongos as his percussor).

All told I had a great time. Between the intimacy of the venue and the relaxed attitude of the band, I felt like I was hanging out in somebody's basement watching my friends jam (I do not have any friends who jam in basements, alas). The music was eclectic, but groovy, and the whole scene was pretty sweet.

Thanks to Ehren and Scott for suggesting the planz0r.