Category Archives: Music

Music, National Blog Posting Month

Eleven songs for a gray and rainsome day

NaBloPoMo!

  1. Poor Boy, David Byrne and Brian Eno. This entire album is good for rainy days.
  2. Daddy Went Walkin’, Neil Young. Poppy asked to listen to “Old King” three times in a row in the car this morning. This one reminds me of that one. Probably because they both feature dogs.
  3. Blue Bayou, Linda Ronstadt. I love to sing along to this song. I am, however, surprised that I don’t hear howling dogs and screeching cats when I attempt that final note.
  4. Goodbye, So Long, Farewell, Music Together.
  5. That’s Right (You’re Not from Texas), Lyle Lovett. But Texas wants you anyway.
  6. Wonderful, Sam Cooke. I originally typed “cookie.” One-track mind.
  7. Night Sight, Air. I once saw Air filed as “Air, French Band” in a record store. Now I can’t think of the band as just “Air.”
  8. Zousan (Little Elephant), Elizabeth Mitchell. My iPod loves this song. It plays it at least once a day.
  9. You Don’t Know How It Feels, Tom Petty
  10. Be My Covering, Bebo Normal
  11. Yogurt Stand, Poppy. What, you’ve never heard “Yogurt Stand”? It’s the dance sensation that’s sweepin’ the nation. Not on my iPod (yet) but still awesome and heard frequently in my kitchen.

Yogurt stand
I really want to spin around
and it’s fun if I want to
and I love playing with “Another celebrated dancing bear”
and I love it so much
that I feel like spinning right now
‘Cmon and spin with me
wooo wooo woooo
If you wanna spin around
just ask a grown up
Alright!
Falling down, cha cha cha!

Music, National Blog Posting Month

Ten songs for cleaning the kitchen

3 Comments

These don’t really have anything to do with cleaning the kitchen, except that the iPod played them while I was cleaning. NaBloPoMo!

  1. Soma, The Strokes
  2. Wigwam, Bob Dylan
  3. Y Control, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
  4. Islands, Cat Power
  5. You’re in My Heart, Rod Stewart
  6. Zousan (Little Elephant), Elizabeth Mitchell
  7. This Little Light of Mine, Elizabeth Mitchell
  8. The Maker, Daniel Lanois
  9. Round and Round, Neil Young
  10. Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois, Sufjan Stevens

Also: I took a spinning class last night, and now it hurts to sit down.

Update: Now the iPod is playing “Keep on Loving You” by REO Speedwagon, which would have been a perfect kitchen-cleaning song because you can sing it like this: “I’m gonna keep on scrubbin’ yoooooooooouuuuuu, ’cause it’s the only thing I wanna dooooooo,” and so on. Which isn’t true but is fun.

Music

A sonic shoulder to cry on

3 Comments

There’s something magical about getting a new record album on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Yes, a record album. It feels so good to pull out the freshly pressed vinyl and drop it on the tuntable, hear that first little hiss as the needle touches down (“The Needle has landed,” as Neko Case says) and you’re wisked away to happy times. Anyway, as I pulled the cellophane wrapped LP from the cardboard mailer, Poppy wandered over and inquired — after extending birthday wishes to the cover subject — “What’s that?”

“It’s my new record. It’s a new Wilco album. Want to listen to it?”

However we didn’t listen to the LP right then — we had to run out to the hair cuttery for the gals, so we took along the CD that came with the LP and listened to the smaller, more compact version in the car on the way to the chop shop.

Since then, I have probably completed 15 listenings of the entire album (about 6 on the LP — and yes, I think it does sound richer than the CD). I think it might be their best album. Or let me put it another way that I think is more fitting and really a better compliment to them — it is as good as all their others.

“Wilco (the Album)” sort of represents a convergence of the sounds that I’ve heard on their tracks before, but this time it’s all melded together. The first song “Wilco (the song)” — a sonic reassurance to all their fans that regardless of who is out to get you, Wilco has your back — gets things started with a wink and a hug. And the album just goes from there.

Throughout the album, they sound like they are having fun, and the result is that I have fun listening to them having fun. It’s fun, but it’s also confident. This is the most assured Wilco I’ve heard, and while some may not like the produced feel of some of the tracks, there are spots throughout the record where anyone who has seen them live or knows their music well will be saying to themselves, “Man, I can’t imagine what Nils will do on THAT solo live!” or “Hey, that keyboard in the background reminds me of SummerTeeth.”

My favorite song (so far): “Bull Black Nova.” I love how it builds bewteen the frantic emotion of the words and the slightly piercing timbre of the guitar. Not to mention, it has what I think is one of the best repeated guitar riffs in their vast catalog of songs.

This is the kind of Wilco album that someone who has never bought a Wilco album could buy and get a nice taste for their different facets all in one dose. So support the economy — go buy a few copies and distribute to all your friends.

Are Times getting tough?
Are the roads you travel rough?
Have you had enough of the old?
Tired of being exposed to the cold?
Stare of your stereo
Put on your headphones before you explode