For Shits and Giggles

Facebook Made Me Do It

Truthfully, it was a friend of mine on Facebook.  We’ll just call him Wink Martindale.

Wink and I worked together as teenagers and recently got back in touch via the miracle of this whole internet fad.  And it turns out that I had a rather large impact on the musical aspect of his life.  Two of his top 10 rock albums of all time were attributed to me (i.e. I played them for him first).  And part of the deal is that I am now supposed to compose my own list.

Wink was challenged with 25 albums, but said it was supposed to be 15, and then he narrowed it down to 10.  Me?  I’m going with 25, in two separate entries.  And I am also copping out by including some “best of” discs.  This entry is very link intensive.  I strongly encourage you to free your mind and follow them.

10.  The Smiths “Louder Than Bombs”.  It pains me to choose a Smiths album that does not include “How Soon Is Now?”, but I had to.  The playlist dictates it.  “Shoplifters of the World”, “Panic”, “Asleep”, “Ask”, “Golden Lights”, “Hand in Glove”, “Sheila Take a Bow”…  wow.  Twenty-four songs on this disc.  The quantity plus quality make it irresistible.

9.  The Cure “Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me”.  “Why Can’t I Be You?” Good question, but a great song, especially the acoustic version (which I could not find a link to).  “Catch” is as poignant of a song as one could hope to write, and “Just Like Heaven” was an instant classic.  “Hot Hot Hot!!!” was not so bad, either.  I really wanted to cower and choose “Staring At the Sea:  the Singles” or even “Galore” as my Cure choice, but I am really trying to avoid greatest hit compilations.  (Except for #2, with good reason.)

8.  Echo & the Bunnymen “Songs to Learn and Sing”.  Tunes from this one were often found on the soundtracks of those classic 80’s movies, notably “Pretty In Pink” and “The Lost Boys” (doing a Doors cover), as well as an episode of “Miami Vice”.  But don’t let any of that scare you.  “Rescue” is as cool of a song as you will ever hear while  “The Killing Moon” and “Bring On the Dancing Horses” are equally enthralling.  This CD changed my music taste forever.  Ian McCullough is still my favorite singer of all time.

7.  Buffalo Tom “Big Red Letter Day”.  This one is a dark horse, as many of you probably have no idea who this band is.  Sad, really, as they are as polished and professional as any other band out there.  Plus, they have talent.  I wore out this CD, too.  Particularly, “Sodajerk” and “Anything That Way”.  “I’m Allowed”, “Would Not Be Denied”, and “My Responsibility” also got heavy hits from me.  Damn them for not having a better web presence!

6.  Pearl Jam “Vs”.  They shed their one-hit, Seattle flash-in-the-pan, grunge is the only way to go persona with this release.  While “10″ was deeper than many give it credit for, they were still shackled by Nirvana’s success.  Not after this one.  Right from the word “Go”, they changed the grunge image.  They were better, craftier musicians than the boys in Nirvana, though they probably owe their discovery to that trio.  Highlights for me are the beautiful “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town”, “Rats”, and – of course – “Daughter”.  But “Rearviewmirror” will always be my favorite song of theirs.

5.  Radiohead “The Bends”.  Start with “High and Dry” and all of its luster.  Add a dash of “Fake Plastic Trees” and its commentary on boob jobs, among other things.  (Oddly, I can sing that song.  I have a tape around here that proves it.)  And don’t we all have a yen for a “Nice Dream”?  Finish off this masterpiece with one of their greatest songs:  “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”.  Still, in my opinion, the best song they have ever recorded.

4.  R.E.M. “Life’s Rich Pageant”.  Every time I feel myself fluctuating about what my favorite R.E.M. disc is, I always find myself gravitating back to this one.  It has everything:  jangly guitar jamming on “I Believe” and “Just a Touch”, enviro-friendly ranting on “Fall On Me” and “Cuyahoga”, a lesson of our country’s brutal history in “Swan Swan H”, and one of my all-time favorite R.E.M. songs “Begin the Begin” (a tongue-in-cheek reference to Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine”.)

3.  The Weakerthans “Left & Leaving”.  This one would make it on the title track alone, one of the most poetic songs I have ever heard – a true eulogy for saying goodbye.  “Memory will rust and erode into lists of all that you gave me.  This blanket, some matches, this pain in my chest.  The best parts of lonely.”  The addition of “My Favorite Chords” only makes this CD more memorable.

2.  Teenage Fanclub “Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-Six Seconds”.  I first heard them in their early, grungy stage.  Songs like “Star Sign” and “The Concept” were cool.  Melodic, distortion guitar, a few riffs here and there.  But this CD showed their progression from emotional jamming to some of the most beautiful rock songs you will ever hear.  “Mellow Doubt” and “Planets” in particular.

1.  U2 “The Joshua Tree”.  This one ekes by The Unforgettable Fire for me, probably to the chagrin of die-hard U2 fans.  I know that the 3 major hits from this album got played to death on radio (even though “Where the Streets Have No Name” still gives me goosebumps), but it is the ancillary songs on this release that really make it for me.  Start with “Bullet the Blue Sky”, written while Bono was in Central America, and go through some absolute brilliance with “One Tree Hill”, “Red Hill Mining Town”, “Trip Through Your Wires”, and the haunting “Exit”.  Every song on this disc will stand the test of time.  (Red Hill is still one of my Top 5 U2 songs and the video linked to “Exit” was done by a film student while in college.  Not the official video, but it should be.  It is stunning.)  Crap!  I completely forgot the greatness of “Running To Stand Still”.  Like the over-played “With Or Without You”, this one is also about the dangers of drug addiction.  Think about the titles of both songs…  Oh, and “In God’s Country”.  Jeez.  We’ll never see another album like this one.  Mark my words.

Now I ask a few things.  First, critique my choices.  Especially if you took the time to sample some of the links.  Second, post your list in your blog and then include the link in the comments.  Or, if you do not have a blog, feel free to use the comments to publish your list.  Consider me curious.

Ramping Up For A Music Entry

For reasons you will soon learn, I am working on my personal Top 25 CDs of all time.  I am limiting myself to my formative music years (age 16 +) so you will not see discs like Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” or Led Zeppelin’s “II” (yes, that was “II”, not “IV”).

However, as I am wont to do, I started getting rather wordy.  I may end up breaking it up into two entries – the first being 10 to 1 and the second 25 to 11.  I might even add an honorable mention entry, too. Who knows?

The reason for this precursor is to get you ready to click some links.  Each disc I list will have at least one – and probably two or more – link(s) to videos of select songs from the album to accentuate my reasoning.  So if you are really interested, it could be a rather lengthy timewaste for you.

And on this blog, we are all about the timewaste.

The first entry will be posted this afternoon, so stand apprised.

Also, in the vein of full disclosure, I have started another blog that will mirror my music entries on this site.  So point your RSS feed readers to the following address to keep up with future music entries: http://leemermusic.wordpress.com/

Not everything I post on that site will make it on here, so you have been warned.

Curve it around… like a record.

2008 – The Year That Barack-ed!

Yes, it is several weeks late.  And yes, I did not post my annual letter to Santa.  But just stow any negative thoughts and revel in the 2008 recap…  or just sit there dreamily thinking about the Jonas Brothers.

Moments to remember: Getting my current job in May, Fredericksburg with the wife and boy on July 4th, the final move to the kick-ass house, getting Bodie (the best dog EVER) from the shelter, hanging out with JP (especially backstage at the Bodeans show at SXSW), the most unbelievable scallops ever at McCormick and Schmick’s (not to mention the crab tater tots!), buying “Champ” (our Jeep), garage sale Saturday mornings with the wife, seeing the bats at sunset for the first time, the “man room” in the garage that is like the Phonebooth II, a weekend here in Round Rock with cousin Hollie, some dude named Obama, and getting back in the habit of reading about 3-4 books a week.  Visits from old friends Ray and Mark around the holidays, though sadly not at the same time.

Moments to forget: The binge.  The slow, painful death of my laptop and all of its music, just waiting to be salvaged.  Hurricane Ike and the craziness at work that ensued.  Rats – giant maneating effers – at the previous address.  The brush with circus clowns that Coleton and I had in Wimberley onJuly 4.  (I’m surprised we made it out alive and unscarred.)  Palin-mania.  Ugh.

Music and sporting events: Our first Round Rock Express game, as Tommy Hunter put on a show.  The aforementioned BoDeans concert at SXSW.  Getting into the Airborne Toxic Event.

Things to look forward to in ‘09: Lots more music, like the Morrissey show I mention in the last entry and another show I will mention in the next.  Kayaking again, and maybe even buying our own canoe.  Hiking at Inks Lake.  A real vacation for a change.  Continued opportunities at work.  The Boy’s sister (The Girl?) moving here after graduation.  More visits from friends.  Finally finishing the front room so we can entertain at home.  A road trip to Houston to see the opening of Land of the Lost with family.

One word to sum up ‘08? Rationality.  (Ok, I used the dictionary game to choose a word because “Austintatious” seemed kind of cheesy.)

Fancy another?

How Soon Is Now? (Or April?)

Like the venerated frontman that the title above refers to, I am back.  Thanks to my old friend and musician JP, I am now the owner of a laptop again – so I plan on getting back into the writing habit.

My first entry upon return was going to be my 2008 recap, but that is going to have to wait because I have some exciting news…

I just won tickets on the radio to see Morrissey when he plays at the Bass Hall in Austin on April 12. I went bouncing into the house upon the end of the phone call to tell Dawn the news. She thought, based on my selection as Employee of the Year for my team at work, that I had just been promoted again.

“No, honey – even better! Morrissey! Live!”

All I had to do was be the seventh caller to KGSR while naming any other member of Morrissey’s old band The Smiths. Well, it does not take a genius to come up with the name of the great guitar player Johnny Marr, especially since I was right under my Smiths poster that Coleton bought me last year as I made the call.

Hell, Johnny is the brainchild behind the memorable guitar riff of the song that shares the title of this entry (minus the April reference), the riff that has made me hate the band Soho ever since I heard them rip it off. Johnny now plies his craft for Modest Mouse, purveyors of one of my current favorite songs “Missed the Boat”.

But even he is no Morrissey.

For those who may think they have never heard of him, the NFL has an ad campaign that features one of his songs (though it is not his voice on the commercials). “Everyday is like Sunday”, the ad sings, meaning gridiron, tough hits, touchdowns, and sacks. Of course, they leave out every other lyric, including:

This is the coastal town
That they forgot to close down
Armageddon – come armageddon!
Come, armageddon! come!

Or…

How I dearly wish I was not here
In the seaside town
…that they forgot to bomb
Come, come, come – nuclear bomb

Dark, depressing, depraved genius. Oddly, it always made me feel better when I was down.

So, yeah, it has been a good day for me. And this is just the beginning. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

Hello, world. I’ll be seeing more of you soon.

Genius 8.0 (Another Ignored Music Post)

Where have you been all my MP3 life, Mr. iTunes 8.0 Genius Playlist?

One of the perils of possessing almost 7000 MP3s (besides the wife complaining that the music collection slows down YouTube versions of Charlie Bit Me remakes on the laptop) is that something is always left out when making a mix CD.  It is as inevitable as sticky sleeping bags at summer camp.

Well, thanks to the latest version of iTunes, all of that pressure is now alleviated – from me, at least.  You’ll have to make up your own mind.

Have a song stuck in your mind that is in your iTunes library?  Just right click on it and select the genius option.  Suddenly a playlist is created based on that one song.  You can choose the number of songs in the playlist (from 25 to 100, in increments of 25) and refresh the list based on any new settings.  (That is my one beef with this newfangled option, by the way.  Since I am not an iPod owner and I burn CDs to listen to, I’d like a little more freedom in choosing how many songs are selected.  Most home-burned CDs can hold 18-20 songs so I’d like the options to be in increments of, say, 18 or so.  But that’s just low-rent me…)

My first foray into the genius realm was at the behest of my current favorite song:  Missed The Boat by Modest Mouse.  (Tangent:  I did not realize that the very great Johnny Marr, the man who played the incredibly kick-ass riff on How Soon Is Now? when he was with the Smiths, and then went on to play hypnotic tunes with The The, is now with Modest Mouse.  How did I miss that?)

Anyway, the 25 song playlist compiled by iTunes based on that one song blew my mind.  It might just be the best playlist I have ever seen.  Songs from Spoon, The Killers, The Shins, The Violent Femmes, Wilco, and others.

However, I’ll bet that I will top it eventually.  For example, right now I am listening to a genius playlist based on Teenage Fanclub’s Mellow Doubt.  So far, I have been treated to songs from The Weakerthans, Echo and the Bunnymen, and The Wedding Present.  Still to come are The Pixies, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Eels, and Robyn Hitchcock.

And, yes, I am leaving a lot of bands out when I choose those few to highlight.

I think I am going to be up all night.

Shit.

On A Lighter Note…

Some of you may know that my wife works in the admissions department of an institute that just happens to cater to the arts.  This institute also has an audio production program and the running joke around her office when someone inquires about that degree is that the prospective student always has the same answer when asked what they hope to obtain from that degree:

I want to make beats!

Forget all the other career paths such a degree can open up, from NASA to cryptogrophy.  It’s all about the beats to some.

So I have gotten used to her coming home with CDs that her students have given her, most littered with as many cuss words as possible with the requisite use of the “n” word over and over.  Last week, she came home with a CD from a student who goes by the name Paul C.  And, before she subjected me to the “music”, I told her that I had a feeling that this one would be more intellectual, more brainy.  Wanna know why?

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

Because that would make it a cerebral Paul C.

(Insert rim shot here.)

Also, I should mention that I actually liked this CD.  It kind of reminded me of Devo, black-style.  In that vein, I named a new genre of music:  Blevo.

I Might As Well Wear Panties

Ok, I admit it: I am an American Idol geek.

I’m not sure how this happened, either. Even after Kelly Clarkson won in season one (have you heard that she and I are from the same town?), I still somehow eluded the allure of, well, spares.

Until the last few years, that is.

Now I find myself tuning in whether I want to or not. And, true to the viewing public, I have some inadvertent hot sports opinions about the show. In fact, this may turn into a rant.

1) “Beatles Week” was cool… the first time. But the producers of the show were so happy that they had secured the rights to the Lennon/McCartney (and even the underrated Harrison) catalog that they drew from the well a week too long. Thank God that no one sang “Yellow Submarine”, though.

2) Mariah Carey? Really? Show me her tits, sure (or even better, Dolly Parton’s from the previous week), but don’t drag the TV viewing audience through her song catalog that bores me to tears.

3) Is there a number three?

4) I am so pissed – beyond pissed – that Michael Johns was voted off. Two weeks after he had what, to me, was the best performance I had ever seen on Idol (Dolly’s “It’s All Wrong, But It’s All Right”, though David Archuletta’s version of “Imagine” comes close), the hunky Australian was given the proverbial boot. Nothing short of shocking, if you ask me. All that proves is that too many retards have phone access.

5) Carly Smithson? Kinda hot… but enough with the sleeveless shirts. I think your husband’s tattoo shop is going to do fine without your shameless promoting.

6) Brooke, you are growing on me. And not like a wart.

7) Enough with the booing every time Simon gives feedback. Admit it: he is the only reason you watch the show.

Paula Abdul is so overly positive that the kiss of death is when she opens her critique with “You look great.” Girl, you know it’s true.

9) I’m really surprised that Jason Castro doesn’t open up a bag of Doritos after singing any of his pot-induced, ukulele warbles thanks to ganja munchies.

10) I’m still rooting for the underdog, Kristy Lee Cook, because she is a look alike for my cousin Hollie. (Truth be told, though, Hollie has a better voice. Really. Honest.)

11) I still contend that losing Idol opens more doors (Clarkson excluded because she was the first). I would rather finish number ten than win and be beholden to Fox and their “exclusivity” terms that are tantamount to slavedom.

So now, in true laziness blogdom fashion, here is the Michael Johns performance of the Dolly Parton song.

Love you.

An Obligatory Music Entry

I’ve pissed a lot of people off during the last week so now I’ve decided to put some final nails in the proverbial coffin by writing about, of all things, music.

I used to avoid this topic because many readers just don’t give a shit. However, I have now reached a point where I don’t care about the folks that stop by here just to see if I’m in jail yet. (The answer? YES. And the internet connection here is the shiznit.)

I have, at best estimate, three readers who actually care about my music opinions: Devin, Ed, and Cliff. This entry is for you guys because I made two mix CDs titled “Life In Austin”. Thirty-three songs that encapsulate life here in the hill country. Some are songs that I heard for the first time after the move, some are songs that I hear regularily on the greatness that is KGSR. The rest are songs that just remind me of Austin for whatever odd reason.

If you want any of the following songs emailed to you, you know how to reach me.

1. Everyday (The Bodeans)
2. Killing The Blues (Robert Plant and Allison Krauss)
3. Please Read The Letter (Robert Plant and Allison Krauss)
4. Snake Farm (Ray Wylie Hubbard)
5. (Nothing But) Flowers (Talking Heads)
6. Gone Gone Gone (Done moved On) (Robert Plant and Allison Krauss)
7. I’m Losing You (John Lennon on vocals, Cheap Trick rocking the instruments)
8. Read My Mind (The Killers)
9. Across The Universe (Robyn Hitchcock and Grant Lee Phillips covering the Beatles)
10. Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol)
11. Diablo Rojo (Rodrigo y Gabriella)
12. Everybody Knows (Ryan Adams)
13. New Shoes (Paolo Nutini)
14. Hot Blood (Lucinda Williams)
15. In Spite Of Ourselves (John Prine w/ Lucinda Williams)
16. Bedspring Kiss (Jellyfish)
17. The Way I Am (Ingrid Michaelson)
18. Girls In Their Summer Clothes (Bruce Springsteen)
19. I Will Follow You Into The Dark (Deathcab For Cutie)
20. 9 Crimes (Damien Rice)
21. Gotta Serve Somebody (Bob Dylan)
22. Back To Black (Amy Winehouse)
23. It’s Alright (Big Head Todd and the Monsters)
24. Hey There Delilah (Plain White T’s)
25. Don’t You Evah (Spoon)
26. Jenny Don’t Be (Hasty (Paolo Nutini)
27. Shut Your Eyes (Snow Patrol)
28. Big Machine (Velvet Revolver)
29. All These Things That I Have Done (The Killers)
30. Smile Like You Mean It (The Killers)
31. Fadeaway (The BoDeans)
32. Life During Wartime (Talking Heads)
33. Road To Nowhere (Talking Heads)

Top that playlist. I triple dog dare you.

Might Fadeaway…

Well, it only took me two weeks, but here is the last bit of video from our BoDeans jaunt. Enjoy, folks…