Dead Man's Bones - My Body's a Zombie For You

Just a great song... and a good way to kick off the first weekend of autumn...

Monsters of Folk - Say Please (Live)

At the risk of being redundant, here's the live performance from The Tonight Show that I referred to in the last entry. Looks like Will had a pretty good time banging on the drums...

Monsters of Folk - Say Please

The Monsters of Folk started out as the name of a tour that included Jim James, M. Ward, Coner Oberst and Mike Mogis a few years back. They decided to take their collaboration to the studio resulting in a new album that just came out last week. I haven't heard much of it but think this song is pretty strong.

The more exciting news for me is that they tapped Will Johnson to tour with them on drums. I've written about Will before on this blog. He heads up Centro-matic, South San Gabriel and also releases solo albums. I first met him around 2000 when we were both working on environmental cleanup projects at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island. I think our first conversation was sparked by a Superchunk T-shirt I was wearing. He went back to Texas and made music his full-time job shortly after that. A smart move considering he'll be appearing with these guys tonight on Conan O'Brien. Check it out!

Pearl Jam - The Fixer

Call me crazy but I really like this song... makes me smile.

The Jim Carroll Band - People Who Died

It's been one of those years for notable deaths. The news shows will have to devote a whole hour to their "celebrity passings of 2009" at the end of the year. I heard about Jim Carroll yesterday and then Patrick "nobody puts Baby in the corner" Swayze this morning. I opted to post Jim Carroll instead of a Dirty Dancing clip... RIP.

Josh Ritter - Here at the Right Time

In life we are met with the impossibility of chaos. We wind our way through day-to-day life hoping that our journey will lead somewhere or to someone. This song was played at a friend of mine's wedding and it really hammered home the importance of finding someone at the right time. Marty and Rae Ann, congratulations on your marriage and I know many happy years are ahead.

The Rolling Stones - Moonlight Mile

This is definitely in my top 5 as far as Rolling Stones songs go. It's one of Rae's favorites too so I figured now would be a good time to post it. We're leaving bright and early tomorrow morning for the land of nuptials. 4 days and counting...

How did Marky Mark become Marky Mark?

The answer is here, in the greatest thing ever recorded for eternity on video.

Death Cab for Cutie - Cath

Let's get one thing straight - I am not a fan of emo. That being said, there are some bands, songs, singers, that produce quality music. I don't think you have to embrace the whole ethos around this genre to appreciate some of what is produced. In some ways, isn't this just the extension of rock/pop for a different genereation? I am beginning to come around to Death Cab after a long standing stance against them.

The Lemonheads - Alison's Starting To Happen

Ahh.... the 90's. It's A Shame About Ray was the breakthrough album for The Lemonheads... the one that put Evan Dando on the cover of Tiger Beat and every other teen fan magazine. I think they're a pretty underrated band from that era, probably due to Dando's slacker-stoner-heartthrob image. All I know is he had/has a sweet voice and wrote great songs. They were also one of my earliest concert experiences. Lots of pogoing...

The Walkmen - On The Water

I guess it's been about a year since I bought this album (You and Me) and I'm still going back to it on a regular basis. Here's their new video for "On The Water," a song that didn't stand out at first but one that definitely grew on me after a few listens. The video fits the spooky vintage sound of the song well and gets me thinking about carving pumpkins, Watership Down, and hunting waskawy wabbits...

Songwriters

I remember the first time lyrics appealed to me that weren't directly political (i.e. not Dead Kennedys, Millions of Dead Cops, Reagan Youth, etc.). They were those of Dave Lowery of Cracker, whom I discovered before I knew Camper Van Beethoven. I wasn't much into the burgeoning "indie" scene growing up. I didn't like Sebadoh, I hated (still do) Pavement. Didn't like Weezer. (And besides, The Connells, whom I did like, should have gotten credit for starting emo, along with Rites of Spring.) But I was a huge Babes in Toyland fan, and so the first episode of 120 Minutes I ever saw was to see Kat Bjelland perform live. That episode also featured "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)" and I was hooked. From Cracker came Camper Van came REM came Afghan Whigs, Screaming Trees, Gumball, Half Japanese, and so on.

Here's a recent live performance of Cracker doing my favorite song off their s/t debut, Dr. Bernice.

Matt & Kim - Daylight

There seems to be a noticeable trend going on right now with the use of music in TV commercials. Remember when Nike would pay top dollar to tap into the Beatles catalog? Their advertising budget probably paid for a whole wing of the Neverland Ranch. These days it seems like newer and lesser known bands are getting those royalty checks and their music ends up getting just as much promotion as the corporate product. How many people new about Feist before "1234" was used by iPod? The trend makes all kinds of sense. I've gotta believe that it's cheaper on the advertising budgets to buy the rights to a song from some indie rock kids instead of an established classic rock band, and you don't have to be too savvy to find these songs with the prominence of satellite radio and the Internet. I don't blame these bands for taking advantage of the opportunity either. Jeff Tweedy will probably put his kids through college with that check from Volkswagen...

The latest example I could think of are these two kids from Brooklyn hitting the big time thanks to an infectious song and America's thirst for numbness in the form of a sweet summer drink. Here's the video followed by the actual commercial...




Man, I want a Mojito now...

Portastatic - Noisy Night (XX Merge)

"Noisy Night" is the ultimate summer song, with lyrics referencing "summer currents" and "yellow bug lights" and "the dog days when the attic gets warm." It was a fitting song for XX Merge in late July. It was at least 90 degrees under that tent and Clay and I were sipping on mint julep snow cones.

This song is from the album Summer of The Shark, which is a reference to the summer before 9/11. Remember when the news was all about shark attacks, not because there was an inordinate amount of them but because there was nothing else to report on? How quickly things can change... I think this album summed up post-9/11 sentiments better than any other I've heard, and that includes Springsteen's The Rising. The Boss takes a lot of his cues from gospel on that album and eulogizes heroic firemen. Mac's approach is a little more subtle on Summer of the Shark. He paints images of catfish "swimming through tires at the bottom of the Hudson," not fully aware of the chaos at the surface. He addresses that day more directly in the song "In The Lines," where the narrator is trying to find a friend who may be gone: "Did you get lost or did our calls just cross in the lines? I hear some are going through but not my calls to you, but I'll keep trying."

Everything is still seems simple on "Noisy Night" though. Brokaw's reporting on shark attacks, the president's on vacation and Mac's singing about "lingering too long against the hood of your car." Bliss...

Bruce Springsteen - Reason to Believe

After watching the Bills last night, is there "Reasong to Believe?"

Kings of Convenience - Mrs Cold

Nothing like a little Norwegian Indie / folk from Kings of Convenience to help get some writing done. Maybe one day I will come out with my dissertation mix.

Band of Horses - The Funeral

Just a lazy Saturday afternoon. Trying to get some work done. I think this is about right.

Simple Minds - Don't You Forget About Me

If you were alive at all during the 80s, there is no way you could escape the reach of John Hughes' work. He brought to the big screen a new, suburban teen angst. You felt like these were the kids you went to school with. His movies provided endless quotes for me and my friends and we will continue say them, only with a little tinge of nostalgia since the end of an era has arrived.

Fight the Power - Public Enemy

I hereby dedicate this song to a certain utility company that keeps North Carolina lit up. Chuck D, I hear ya. (On a side note, it is very interesting to think of this song as having it 20th anniversary this year. Have we moved past these issues? Have we regressed? Did the beer at the White House serve as an interesting reminder?)

Guided By Voices - A Salty Salute

What's your favorite opening track? I'm not sure if this is my favorite but I've been singing it in my head a lot lately. It's just a great drunken sing along song. It's nice and short, opens with a dragging bass line, and finishes with the lyric: "The club is open!" I included both the album version (Alien Lanes) and an impromptu GBV reunion performance at a picnic in Ohio. That's how a non-instrument playing lead singer should perform, with a beer in one hand and a wiffle ball bat in the other...