Category: music

I’m taking a break from slaving over JSP code to write this one. Shhhhh, don’t tell. I’ve been listening to a ton of new music lately, some from groups or artists I’d never heard of before. Now, I do live in a hole… underground, you know, where the critters are. That aside, I still try to get way out there and try out new stuff. Here are some fun albums you should go check out toute suite:

Josh Rouse: Dressed Up Like Nebraska

If you like REM, Morphine or Ben Folds’ non-ass-kicking songs, you’ll like Josh Rouse. Great lyrics, and some really heartbreaking songs. Good for wallowing.

Kirsty MacColl: Tropical Brainstorm

Ignore your first inclination to throw this in the “crap tropical” pile, and listen to it twice. See? Now you’re hooked too!! The brilliant lyrics are matched perfectly by seductively simple tunes and hide amazing layers of sounds. Great stuff.

The Gotan Project: La Revancha Del Tango

They’re not kidding around… this is some seductive tango goodness, with a little electronic edge. As addictive as it is haunting.

Orchestra Morphine & Twinemen: Live Boston, MA 10/23/03

Found this in the Apple Store. It’s raw, and not everything works like it should, but that’s part of the beauty of live music, right? The covers of Morphine’s old songs are beautiful, and hearing that sax again is totally worth it. Plus, it’s two hours of great live sets for \$10.

Badly Drawn Boy: The Hour of Bewilderbeast

OK, this one’s not so obscure, but I was in the dark. A wonderful cross between the Housemartins and Ben Folds – this is pop worth listening to. It’s fun, melancholy and all pulled off with a truckload of skill. Good, good, good stuff.

Luna: Bewitched

Groovy alterna-pop, with a hint of Dire Straits. Yeah, I know, that sounds stupid, but that’s what I thought of when I first heard them. Sneaky lyrics and simple but addictive hooks will have you tapping your feet for no good reason.

OK, now back to work… and to my cold… and then home to Jen’s cold… yeah, we’re all sick, and it’s FANTASTIC!!

I tried to follow up yesterday’s exercise with the opposite. The same rules apply except for the techno one, with one fudge. I honestly can’t remember putting Teardrop on a mix cd, but the way I love that song, I can’t believe it. Maybe I just never shared it with anyone.

A couple other things I realized while compiling this list:

• I don’t have a lot of depressing music in iTunes. I know I have more at home that I haven’t ripped yet, but it wasn’t handy to grab right this minute.

• A lot of stuff I thought was depressing really isn’t. Morphine? Except for a couple notable exceptions, they’re not depressing at all. The songs are sometimes, sexy, other times ironic or cynical, and sometimes just plain bouncy.

• Ben Folds and Phish both throw some great woe-is-me classics in between the happy poppy stuff. Evaporation on Whatever and Ever Amen is amazing, as is Dirt from Farmhouse

Here it is, a CD I whimsically call Depressed as Hal:

Taking a break this afternoon, I decided to create a happy mix CD (for no good reason, titled Happy Schmidt). I gave myself a couple rules:

• I couldn’t use any songs that I’ve put on another mix cd (that I could remember)

• no techno (electronica, trip hop, etc)

• avoid stuff I listen to all the time.

Here’s what I came up with:

updated I was listening to the CD in the car and realized that I Wanna Be A Witch, while really happy and bouncy, contains some profanity. This wouldn’t normally bother me, but the CD had to be Max-friendly too, so I’m making a new copy. I dropped that song, and added Rotten World Blues and That’s Not Really Funny, both by Eels. Good, jangly, rocky stuff.

I love it when I can pick out the songs used in commercials. You know that new Putnam commercial with the picture frame flying around the office? The commercial’s fairly forgettable, but the music isn’t. It’s from Lemon Jelly‘s great In The Bath, which is on their peachy-keen Lemonjelly.ky.

I have two of their albums, the one mentioned above, and Lost Horizons. I can’t recommend them highly enough. They’re loopy, happy, goofy fun. Definitely check them out.

I’ve been too tired to do much of anything. I think I’m worn out from all the travelling, and it doesn’t seem to matter how much sleep I get, I’m still tired. My birthday was fun. I’m twenty-nine now. Yep, so it goes.

I got a ton of new music in Austin, and I’ll tell you all about it some other time. For now, go buy Zero7‘s latest: When It Falls. It’s fantastic. An earlier album, Simple Things is also stellar. Why? It’s laid back trip hop with beautiful voices, gorgeous songs and great lyrics. Let it wash over you like a hot shower.

Oh, and go give Scott Andrew some money. Not only does he write beautiful songs, but he makes great yearbook picture faces too!

I’ve been on a mini-quest to create the perfect mix CD for Max. When we go out, we always listen to music, always have a CD in, and Max isn’t shy about expressing his opinion about what’s playing. So, for the past year, I’ve been making mix cd’s trying to find songs that he’s never heard before that he’ll flip over (and always leaving in some of his favorites from past cd’s). Here’s the latest version (he loves it so far):

1. Jerry Lews (not by Jerry Lewis) from Ska the Third Wave: Instrumentals

2. The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death by The Housemartins from the album of the same name as the song.

3. The Song From The Kill Bill Trailer: You know the one I mean.

4. La Unda from that Ska instrumentals album in \#1.

5. Sheep by The Housemartins from London 0 Hull 4

6. Back on the Train by Phish from Farmhouse

7. Hit the Road Jack by Mo’Horizons from Remember Tomorrow

8. You Keep it All In by The Beautiful South from Carry on Up The Charts

9. Cat Juide from that instrumental ska album

10. The Mango Song by Phish (running out of time, find your own albums)

11. Particle Man by TMBG

12. Back in Black covered by Living Colour

13. It’s The End Of The World As We Know It by You don’t know?

14. Hey Baby by No Doubt (Max loves them)

15. Deeply Dippy by Right Said Fred (their album is underrated. there’s some quality stuff on it)

16. Watermelon Man from the ska album

17. Woo Hoo from Kill Bill

18. Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by TMBG

19. If I Had A Boat by Lyle Lovett (I think this is the first song Max knew all the words to)

20. We Are Each Other by The Beautiful South

I don’t know why I like making him mix cd’s so much. I just do.

Michelle picked Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Sorry, but nope. The best albums of the nineties are…

• Lyle Lovett’s Joshua Judges Ruth: The album that made me listen to Country – Ok, I only ever listen to Lyle, but that counts, doesn’t it?

• Massive Attack‘s Mezzanine: How many other bands (that are still around, unlike the grungers who all traded in their flannel and went electonic) have been as copied as Massive Attack? How many bands, with such a small library of albums, have shown up in as many soundtracks over the last decade (Coldplay doesn’t count – yet)?

It’s so hard to pick two. My first inclination was to go with Morphine‘s Cure for Pain, but that’s just because I love it, not because it actually started anything. Pearl Jam and Soundgarden weren’t even the first grunge bands to hit it big.

How come nobody told me that Living Colour released a new album?? Huh? Two demerits for everyone who didn’t tell me.

The only person who doesn’t is Anil, who’s daily links feed informed me of the news… the rest of you, I can do without, thank you.

Oh yeah, there’s an interesting discussion on labels going on over at nonDependant. Really, there is.

While working this week, I’ve been trying to go back and listen to some of the 20 gigs of music on the uberMac I haven’t touched in a while. Here’s a quick recap of great bands and albums rediscovered:

• INXS: Listen Like Thieves – This album flat out rocks, Eighties style. Solid horn work, good beat, and punchy vocals. I really wish Michael Hutchence hadn’t killed himself. He had a perfect rock n’ roll voice. It’s hard to believe, but this album is even better than Kick, one of the first albums I ever bought with my own money.

• Thievery Corporation: DJ Kicks – This is laid-back lounging perfection. It makes me think of sweaty people dancing the tango slowly. A great album to throw on if you have a headache.

• Morphine: Yes – The band’s weirdest and rockinest album, this one takes some getting used to. The first song will get you on your feet, jumping around the room until you accidentally trip over a lamp and strangle yourself with the headphone cord. The end of the album stumbles into weirdness, like Marty Feldman after a three day bender… but the first two thirds more than makes up for it, right up until the weirdness (which starts with The Jury). The album ends up redeeming itself with the super-depressing Gone for Good, which was used in the movie Two Days in the Valley (it was actually good if you haven’t seen it – Jeff Daniels plays a depressed cop, and James Spader is creepy).

• Ben Folds Five: The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner – I don’t think any songs from this album ever made it to the radio, but it’s great. All the normal things to love about Ben Folds are there: great piano work, alternating pithey and touching lyrics, all wrapped up with a beautiful little bow. Overlooked, but worth listening to.

Oh, and one more time, please go check out nonDependant. I’ll cry if you don’t.

Right now, I can’t get over how old-school gorgeous Soul Coughing‘s Janine is. It reminds me of 50’s pop love songs, but with a modern twist that’s just wonderful. It brings back black and white memories of those dates I never wanted to end, driving home on empty streets with the smell of greasewood and mesquite in the air, lips tingling from kisses still fresh enough to taste and the smell of her perfume on my collar.

Thank God I married her…