Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Summer. I've lived in the Midwest all my life and I cherish those few months when there's sunshine and everything is green. The problem is I'm having a hard time finding time to write. I began this blog last Fall as a way to make myself write on a regular basis. A couple weeks ago, I even started writing the introduction to a possible Sound Mind book. After 100 posts, I have a pretty good handle on how I want to format the book now. However, now that Summer is here my wife and kids are home all day, everyday. Gone are the days of having the house to myself for several hours at a time to write.
I am reminded of Franz Kafka, who I consider to be a kindred spirit. In his letters, he frequently complained about the difficulties of trying to be a writer. Early in his career, he had a government job and was also expected to help out with family businesses. He resented these drags on his time and at one point resorted to writing during the night while everyone else was asleep. Later, when he was considering marriage with Felice Bauer, he worried that family life and children would end his dreams of writing as a career. He did manage to dodge that bullet, but the bulk of his writing was unfinished and published posthumously. After his engagement to Felice was called off by her, he decided to quit his job and move from Prague to Berlin to focus on his writing. Then World War I broke out and he cancelled his plans.
Anyhow, that's how I'm starting to feel. I write my posts on a desktop that's plugged into a wall in our "office". I know, that's crazy talk. I don't have a laptop or tablet or anything portable, except a spiral notebook. I share the computer with my wife, who needs it for work purposes, which is limiting. When you factor in work, vacations, yard work and family time it doesn't leave much time for blog posting. I could write during the night, but my wife would get pissed off. The bottom line is I haven't worked on the book for two weeks and my posting has been sporadic at best. This will probably be the case all Summer, but I intend to find some time that I can still write on a semi-regular basis. Thanks in advance for your patience and I appreciate all the regular readers of Sound Mind. I have to go, my wife is nagging me about getting on the computer. Really, I'm not making it up for the post. Peace.
A Living Will For My Music Collection
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
100 Greatest Guided by Voices Song Titles
I've spent a considerable amount of time trying to come up with a good idea for my 100th post. Oddly enough, the topic I finally chose was my first idea. Among the other topics I kicked around were: 100 best songs by ex-Beatles, coming up with my own rock 'n' roll hall of fame and inventing 100 potential Bob Pollard song titles. Sadly, I could only come up with about 60 ex-Beatles songs without spending hours going through their deep cuts and I was too lazy to invent 100 Pollard song titles. In the near future, I'll probably do a post on ex-Beatles songs and my hall of fame, but today it's crazy GbV song titles. Hope you enjoy the list. It's in chronological order (to the best of my ability), not in order of greatness. Peace.
1) Hey Hey, Spaceman
2) Trap Soul Door
3) Squirmish Frontal Room
4) Crunch Pillow
5) Deathtrot and Warlock Riding A Rooster
6) At Odds With Dr. Genesis
7) Postal Blowfish
8) The Future Is In Eggs
9) Short On Posters
10) Blatant Doom Trap
11) Jar of Cardinals
12) Cool Off Kid Killowatt
13) Buzzards And Dreadful Crows
14) Smothered In Hugs
15) Gold Star For Robot Boy
16) Queen Of Cans And Jars
17) Kicker of Elves
18) Demons Are Real
19) Dayton, Ohio-19 Something and 5
20) My Thoughts Are A Gas
21) Optional Bases Opposed
22) 158 Years of Beautiful Sex
23) The Candyland Riots
24) Color of My Blade
25) Dodging Invisible Rays
26) Delayed Reaction Brats
27) The Who Vs. Porky Pig
28) The Ascended Master's Grogshop
29) Quality of Armor (sorry, I skipped Propeller and just realized it)
30) Metal Mothers
31) Exit Flagger
32) 14 Cheerleader Coldfront
33) Evil Speakers
34) Watch Me Jumpstart
35) Game of Pricks
36) Pimple Zoo
37) Big Chief Chinese Restaurant
38) My Valuable Hunting Knife
39) Blimps Go 90
40) Chicken Blows
41) My Son Cool
42) Cut-Out Witch
43) Burning Flag Birthday Suit
44) Bright Paper Werewolves
45) Your Name Is Wild
46) Underwater Explosions
47) Atom Eyes
48) The Old Grunt
49) Bulldog Skin
50) Not behind The Fighter Jet
51) The Finest Joke Is Upon Us
52) Jane Of The Waking Universe
53) Shocker In Gloomtown
54) Teenage FBI
55) Optical Hopscotch
56) Strumpet Eye
57) Much Better Mr. Buckles
58) Picture Me Big Time
59) Dragons Awake!
60) Tropical Robots
61) Avalanche Aminos
62) Do The Collapse
63) Fair Touching
64) Chasing Heather Crazy
65) The Brides Have Hit Glass
66) Christian Animation Torch Carriers
67) Everywhere With Helicopter
68) The Ids Are Alright
69) Father Sgt. Christmas Card
70) My Kind Of Soldier
71) I'll Replace You With Machines
72) Useless Inventions
73) The Main Street Wizards
74) Everybody Thinks I'm A Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking)
75) Girls Of Wild Strawberries
76) The Closets of Henry
77) Sing For Your Meat
78) Laundry & Lasers
79) Doughnut For a Snowman
80) The Unsinkable Fats Domino
81) Who Invented The Sun
82) How I Met My Mother
83) Cyclone Utilities
84) We Won't Apologize For The Human Race
85)Blue Babbleships Bay
86) Roll Of The Dice, Kick In The Head
87) Forever Until It Breaks
88) King Arthur The Red
89) The Military School Dance Dismissal
90) Skin To Skin Combat
91) She Lives In An Airport
92) Amorphous Surprise
93) Xeno Pariah
94) Trashcan Full Of Nails
95) Crybaby 4 Star Hotel
96) Biographer Seahorse
97) Taciturn Cave
98) P Melts Everything
99) Aquarian Hovercraft
100) Bingo Pool Hall of Blood
1) Hey Hey, Spaceman
2) Trap Soul Door
3) Squirmish Frontal Room
4) Crunch Pillow
5) Deathtrot and Warlock Riding A Rooster
6) At Odds With Dr. Genesis
7) Postal Blowfish
8) The Future Is In Eggs
9) Short On Posters
10) Blatant Doom Trap
11) Jar of Cardinals
12) Cool Off Kid Killowatt
13) Buzzards And Dreadful Crows
14) Smothered In Hugs
15) Gold Star For Robot Boy
16) Queen Of Cans And Jars
17) Kicker of Elves
18) Demons Are Real
19) Dayton, Ohio-19 Something and 5
20) My Thoughts Are A Gas
21) Optional Bases Opposed
22) 158 Years of Beautiful Sex
23) The Candyland Riots
24) Color of My Blade
25) Dodging Invisible Rays
26) Delayed Reaction Brats
27) The Who Vs. Porky Pig
28) The Ascended Master's Grogshop
29) Quality of Armor (sorry, I skipped Propeller and just realized it)
30) Metal Mothers
31) Exit Flagger
32) 14 Cheerleader Coldfront
33) Evil Speakers
34) Watch Me Jumpstart
35) Game of Pricks
36) Pimple Zoo
37) Big Chief Chinese Restaurant
38) My Valuable Hunting Knife
39) Blimps Go 90
40) Chicken Blows
41) My Son Cool
42) Cut-Out Witch
43) Burning Flag Birthday Suit
44) Bright Paper Werewolves
45) Your Name Is Wild
46) Underwater Explosions
47) Atom Eyes
48) The Old Grunt
49) Bulldog Skin
50) Not behind The Fighter Jet
51) The Finest Joke Is Upon Us
52) Jane Of The Waking Universe
53) Shocker In Gloomtown
54) Teenage FBI
55) Optical Hopscotch
56) Strumpet Eye
57) Much Better Mr. Buckles
58) Picture Me Big Time
59) Dragons Awake!
60) Tropical Robots
61) Avalanche Aminos
62) Do The Collapse
63) Fair Touching
64) Chasing Heather Crazy
65) The Brides Have Hit Glass
66) Christian Animation Torch Carriers
67) Everywhere With Helicopter
68) The Ids Are Alright
69) Father Sgt. Christmas Card
70) My Kind Of Soldier
71) I'll Replace You With Machines
72) Useless Inventions
73) The Main Street Wizards
74) Everybody Thinks I'm A Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking)
75) Girls Of Wild Strawberries
76) The Closets of Henry
77) Sing For Your Meat
78) Laundry & Lasers
79) Doughnut For a Snowman
80) The Unsinkable Fats Domino
81) Who Invented The Sun
82) How I Met My Mother
83) Cyclone Utilities
84) We Won't Apologize For The Human Race
85)Blue Babbleships Bay
86) Roll Of The Dice, Kick In The Head
87) Forever Until It Breaks
88) King Arthur The Red
89) The Military School Dance Dismissal
90) Skin To Skin Combat
91) She Lives In An Airport
92) Amorphous Surprise
93) Xeno Pariah
94) Trashcan Full Of Nails
95) Crybaby 4 Star Hotel
96) Biographer Seahorse
97) Taciturn Cave
98) P Melts Everything
99) Aquarian Hovercraft
100) Bingo Pool Hall of Blood
Friday, June 21, 2013
Driving Songs
Yes, I'm still alive. I've been on vacation and we took a family road trip to the Hudson River Valley in New York state and Valley Forge, PA. The scenery was beautiful. It was miles and miles of long and winding roads through mountains and forests (and toll booths). The history was interesting. In addition to Valley Forge, we visited West Point and the site of the Battle of Ridgefield, CT, where my wife's ancestors fought during the American Revolution. The only drag was eating on the road, while trying to adhere to the Wheat Belly Diet, and traveling with a 6 and 8 year-old. Fortunately for my sanity, I brought a couple dozen CD's for the drive. When we travel, I'm responsible for picking the music. This is a task that I take seriously. I have to pick CD's that I like that aren't too strange for my wife's taste. Luckily, we do have quite a bit of overlap in musical taste, so it's not a huge problem. So I picked bands like Duran Duran, ELO, the Smithereens, U2, Led Zeppelin, the Go-Go's, the Cars, Better Than Ezra and Toad The Wet Sprocket. Much to my amazement, when I slipped in The Bends by Radiohead my wife loved it. Perhaps I need to push her musical boundaries more often. We also had the DVD of Paul McCartney and Wings Rock Show, which my kids had just given me for Father's Day. Between the CD's, the DVD and the radio, the two songs I heard the most on our trip were "Live And Let Die" and "Mr. Blue Sky".
Anyhow, the topic of this post is driving songs. There's nothing like a summer day driving with the windows down blasting the radio. One of the subliminal inspirations for this blog is Neil Peart's book, "Traveling Music" (2004). It chronicles a road trip he took in his BMW sports car listening to music and reflecting on his life. Among the artists he listened to were Sinatra, Miles Davis, Radiohead, Patsy Cline and Madonna. It struck a chord with me, because it reminded me of the road trip I took to Mackinac Island when I was so moved by The Flaming Lips "Do You Realize?" If you're interested in that story, read my post entitled "How Wayne Coyne Changed My Life". If you do a Google search for "best driving songs" you get about 71 million results. The obvious best driving songs would include "Born To Run", "Radar Love" and "I Get Around". For the purposes of this post, I'll stick to songs from the CD's I just took on my vacation. Maybe some day I'll do an actual top 10 driving songs list and add to the 71 million other lists. Oh by the way, my next post will be number 100 and I'm still trying to come up with something special to commemorate this milestone. Stay Tuned. Peace.
* Mr. Blue Sky- ELO
* Runnin' Down A Dream- Tom Petty
* Let's Go- The Cars
* Behind The Wall Of Sleep- The Smithereens
* Rolling- Better Than Ezra
* Vacation- The Go-Go's
* Band On The Run- Wings
* Beautiful Day- U2
* Got My Mind Set On You- George Harrison
* Your Love- The Outfield
* Lady Picture Show- Stone Temple Pilots
* Jet- Wings
* What I Like About You- The Romantics
* 867-5309- Tommy Tutone
* Red Barchetta- Rush
* Breakout- Foo Fighters
* Learn To Fly- Foo Fighters
* Sincerely, Me- Better Than Ezra
* Won't Back Down- Tom Petty
* Last Train To Clarksville- The Monkees
* Catch The Sun- Doves
Anyhow, the topic of this post is driving songs. There's nothing like a summer day driving with the windows down blasting the radio. One of the subliminal inspirations for this blog is Neil Peart's book, "Traveling Music" (2004). It chronicles a road trip he took in his BMW sports car listening to music and reflecting on his life. Among the artists he listened to were Sinatra, Miles Davis, Radiohead, Patsy Cline and Madonna. It struck a chord with me, because it reminded me of the road trip I took to Mackinac Island when I was so moved by The Flaming Lips "Do You Realize?" If you're interested in that story, read my post entitled "How Wayne Coyne Changed My Life". If you do a Google search for "best driving songs" you get about 71 million results. The obvious best driving songs would include "Born To Run", "Radar Love" and "I Get Around". For the purposes of this post, I'll stick to songs from the CD's I just took on my vacation. Maybe some day I'll do an actual top 10 driving songs list and add to the 71 million other lists. Oh by the way, my next post will be number 100 and I'm still trying to come up with something special to commemorate this milestone. Stay Tuned. Peace.
* Mr. Blue Sky- ELO
* Runnin' Down A Dream- Tom Petty
* Let's Go- The Cars
* Behind The Wall Of Sleep- The Smithereens
* Rolling- Better Than Ezra
* Vacation- The Go-Go's
* Band On The Run- Wings
* Beautiful Day- U2
* Got My Mind Set On You- George Harrison
* Your Love- The Outfield
* Lady Picture Show- Stone Temple Pilots
* Jet- Wings
* What I Like About You- The Romantics
* 867-5309- Tommy Tutone
* Red Barchetta- Rush
* Breakout- Foo Fighters
* Learn To Fly- Foo Fighters
* Sincerely, Me- Better Than Ezra
* Won't Back Down- Tom Petty
* Last Train To Clarksville- The Monkees
* Catch The Sun- Doves
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were responsible for one of the worst nights of my life. Well, I guess I was actually responsible, but I'm blaming Pink Floyd anyway. While I was at Central Michigan University, they had a movie night featuring The Wall. I loved the album, so I thought what the hell. None of my roommates or friends wanted to go, so I went by myself. So, I'm sitting in the auditorium waiting for the show to start when this stunning brunette and her friend sit next to me. The brunette, who's name I never asked, started asking me questions about the movie. Problem one was I didn't really know anything about the movie and problem two was I am pathologically shy. So, I babbled some crap about Roger Waters that I remembered from somewhere and started to watch the movie. A few minutes into the movie, she was leaning against my arm. Then a couple times during weird scenes she grabbed my arm. Unfortunately, I had zero self-confidence and made no move on her whatsoever. When it was over, all I said to her was "see ya later" and left. No name, No phone number. And the movie was horrible. I kicked myself for weeks.
Pink Floyd have always been a polarizing band for me. When I was younger, all I knew were the songs that received radio airplay. So, that was mainly stuff from Dark Side Of The Moon, The Wall and Wish You Were Here. As I got older, I read more about the band and they seemed to be a miserable collection of d-bags. The whole episode of replacing Syd Barrett with David Gilmour is one example. Syd did have problems and probably couldn't have continued in the band, but the way they did it was cold. They essentially just stopped picking him up for gigs and were never up front with him. However, I'm conflicted because Gilmour is one of my favorite guitarists and he was key to the Pink Floyd sound. He also tried to help Syd with his solo career. And it would be a gross understatement to call their eventual breakup acrimonious. I've watched several documentaries on Pink Floyd and in interviews they come off as self-important, upper-class jerks who slag on each other. But there is no denying their musical legacy is impressive.
Obviously, Dark Side of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and Piper At The Gates Of Dawn are all masterpieces. I would also recommend Animals. I don't own The Wall anymore, but it is a great album. I just can't stand listening to "Another Brick In The Wall, Pt 2" or "Young Lust" ever again. David Gilmour's first solo album is fantastic and features one of my favorite songs, "There's No Way Out Of Here". I also have a best of Syd Barrett CD. The songs show great promise, but they'd have been better had someone else performed them. It's sad because he could've been an amazing talent. Anyhow, let me finish with three lists that are Pink Floyd related. Peace.
Bands That Are Collections Of D-Bags
1) Metallica
2) Guns 'N' Roses
3) Van Halen / Hagar
4) Pink Floyd
5) KISS
Favorite Guitar Solos
1) Limelight- Alex Lifeson
2) Comfortably Numb- David Gilmour
3) Sweet Child O' Mine- Slash (yes, I despise G 'N' R, but this is an amazing solo)
Top Ten Favorite Pink Floyd Songs
1) Wish You Were Here
2) Comfortably Numb
3) Hey You
4) Brain Damage
5) Us And Them
6) Interstellar Overdrive
7) Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
8) Astronomy Domine
9) Arnold Layne
10) Pigs (Three Different Ones)
Pink Floyd have always been a polarizing band for me. When I was younger, all I knew were the songs that received radio airplay. So, that was mainly stuff from Dark Side Of The Moon, The Wall and Wish You Were Here. As I got older, I read more about the band and they seemed to be a miserable collection of d-bags. The whole episode of replacing Syd Barrett with David Gilmour is one example. Syd did have problems and probably couldn't have continued in the band, but the way they did it was cold. They essentially just stopped picking him up for gigs and were never up front with him. However, I'm conflicted because Gilmour is one of my favorite guitarists and he was key to the Pink Floyd sound. He also tried to help Syd with his solo career. And it would be a gross understatement to call their eventual breakup acrimonious. I've watched several documentaries on Pink Floyd and in interviews they come off as self-important, upper-class jerks who slag on each other. But there is no denying their musical legacy is impressive.
Obviously, Dark Side of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and Piper At The Gates Of Dawn are all masterpieces. I would also recommend Animals. I don't own The Wall anymore, but it is a great album. I just can't stand listening to "Another Brick In The Wall, Pt 2" or "Young Lust" ever again. David Gilmour's first solo album is fantastic and features one of my favorite songs, "There's No Way Out Of Here". I also have a best of Syd Barrett CD. The songs show great promise, but they'd have been better had someone else performed them. It's sad because he could've been an amazing talent. Anyhow, let me finish with three lists that are Pink Floyd related. Peace.
Bands That Are Collections Of D-Bags
1) Metallica
2) Guns 'N' Roses
3) Van Halen / Hagar
4) Pink Floyd
5) KISS
Favorite Guitar Solos
1) Limelight- Alex Lifeson
2) Comfortably Numb- David Gilmour
3) Sweet Child O' Mine- Slash (yes, I despise G 'N' R, but this is an amazing solo)
Top Ten Favorite Pink Floyd Songs
1) Wish You Were Here
2) Comfortably Numb
3) Hey You
4) Brain Damage
5) Us And Them
6) Interstellar Overdrive
7) Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
8) Astronomy Domine
9) Arnold Layne
10) Pigs (Three Different Ones)
Monday, June 10, 2013
Weezer: Blue Album
During my life, the evolution of how I've discovered music is as follows: radio, MTV, music mags, the internet. Weezer's Blue Album was the only time I was turned on to a CD by a kid. I was around 30 when a neighbor kid asked me if I liked Weezer. I loved the "Buddy Holly" video with Weezer edited into a Happy Days episode. However, I thought "Undone" and "Say It Ain't So" were plodding and boring, so I never bought the CD. He let me borrow his copy and I was converted. It was guitar rock written by insecure nerds. Rivers Cuomo sang about Dungeon Master guides and 12-sided die. He was paranoid about losing his girl to some jerky guy. In fact, the song "No One Else" continues a long tradition of songs with insecure protagonists trying to control a girl. It began with blues singers, continued with early rock (especially John Lennon) and on up to today. The chorus goes like this; "I want a girl who will laugh for no one else. When I'm away she puts her makeup on the shelf. When I'm away she never leaves the house. I want a girl who laughs for no one else".
Within the context of the album, I even liked "Undone" and "Say It Ain't So". One of the great rock lyrics of all-time is "If you want to destroy my sweater, hold this thread as I walk away". There really are no horrible songs on the Blue Album, except maybe "Surf Wax America". The line "you take your car to work, I'll take my board" is preposterous. That song is like a bad sitcom that the network places between two good sitcoms hoping people won't change the channel. But I love "In The Garage". I love "Holiday". I love "The World Has Turned And Left Me Here". I love how he sings My name is Jonas at the end of "My Name Is Jonas".
I know I'm kind of hipster-y, but I've never listened to Pinkerton. The only other Weezer CD I own is the Green Album. Like the Blue Album, it was produced by Ric Ocasek but it's just not as good. I only bought it because I like the song "Hash Pipe". I can't understand most of the lyrics, but I think he says "Trix are for kids" and rhymes hash pipe with either eyes wide, ass wide or ass wipe. Either way it's all good. I won't rehash Weezer's history, but as they became more famous their songs grew more out of touch with their nerd origins. I don't want to hear about them wanting to live in Beverly Hills. I don't want to watch videos with Muppets or the Playboy Mansion. I let myself get excited when they were going to release the Red Album. I hoped it might be a return to their old form. "Pork And Beans" soon dashed my hopes. I really don't need to listen to someone younger than me whine about getting old.
I hate to be that guy again, but I really don't like anything Weezer put out after the Blue Album. Therefore, I only recommend the Blue Album for my kids to check out. Maybe some day I'll get around to listening to Pinkerton and recommend that as well. Or maybe not. Peace.
Within the context of the album, I even liked "Undone" and "Say It Ain't So". One of the great rock lyrics of all-time is "If you want to destroy my sweater, hold this thread as I walk away". There really are no horrible songs on the Blue Album, except maybe "Surf Wax America". The line "you take your car to work, I'll take my board" is preposterous. That song is like a bad sitcom that the network places between two good sitcoms hoping people won't change the channel. But I love "In The Garage". I love "Holiday". I love "The World Has Turned And Left Me Here". I love how he sings My name is Jonas at the end of "My Name Is Jonas".
I know I'm kind of hipster-y, but I've never listened to Pinkerton. The only other Weezer CD I own is the Green Album. Like the Blue Album, it was produced by Ric Ocasek but it's just not as good. I only bought it because I like the song "Hash Pipe". I can't understand most of the lyrics, but I think he says "Trix are for kids" and rhymes hash pipe with either eyes wide, ass wide or ass wipe. Either way it's all good. I won't rehash Weezer's history, but as they became more famous their songs grew more out of touch with their nerd origins. I don't want to hear about them wanting to live in Beverly Hills. I don't want to watch videos with Muppets or the Playboy Mansion. I let myself get excited when they were going to release the Red Album. I hoped it might be a return to their old form. "Pork And Beans" soon dashed my hopes. I really don't need to listen to someone younger than me whine about getting old.
I hate to be that guy again, but I really don't like anything Weezer put out after the Blue Album. Therefore, I only recommend the Blue Album for my kids to check out. Maybe some day I'll get around to listening to Pinkerton and recommend that as well. Or maybe not. Peace.
Friday, June 7, 2013
Soundtracks
I'm not really a movie person and I detest musicals, so there aren't many soundtracks in my music collection. And movie scores...forget it. The only movie score I have is from Yellow Submarine and I never listen to the actual score, just the Beatles' songs. I have a couple co-workers who are all about movie scores. They love Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, John Williams, Ennio what's his face and zzzzzzz...sorry, I nodded off just then.
When we were kids, the only records my sister bought were either by heartthrobs (Shaun Cassidy and Andy Gibb) or soundtracks, such as Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Flashdance. Even my wife has a bunch of soundtrack albums. She has The Spy Who Shagged Me, because she loves Mike Myers and it has a Madonna song. She has the soundtrack to The Saint, because she loved Val Kilmer and it has some good songs. She has Grease and Xanadu because she was a girl during the height of Olivia Newton-John mania. She also has The Sound of Music and O Brother, Where Art Thou? for reasons I don't even want to know. When I inherited the record collections that inspired this blog, they were full of Broadway musical soundtrack albums, like The Music Man and My Fair Lady. We even sell a considerable amount of them at work, so apparently I'm the one with the problem.
The number of soundtracks I have depends on your definition of a soundtrack. For example, I have the "soundtracks" for The Life Of Brian and Monty Python And The Holy Grail, but they're really just collections of the best bits from the movies. I also have Ziggy Stardust, but I consider that more of a live album than a movie soundtrack. So, not counting those, I have five soundtracks. Here they are in no particular order, along with the reasons I have them. Peace.
1) BackBeat- I bought this, because I enjoyed the movie about the early days of The Beatles. There really aren't any good recordings of this period, so this was a decent substitute. Even though it doesn't sound much like The Beatles, it was an all-star band of indie rockers: Dave Grohl. Mike Mills. Greg Dulli. Thurston Moore. Dave Pirner.
2) Wedding Crashers- I only bought this because it had the yet unreleased song "Mr. Ambulance Driver" by The Flaming Lips, which wasn't that great. I do love the song "Sister jack" by Spoon, though. I've probably only listened to the whole CD twice.
3) Christmas On Mars- This is the soundtrack to the long rumored Flaming Lips movie that was filmed in Wayne Coyne's backyard. I have never managed to watch the whole movie and have only listened to the soundtrack once. Maybe I'll take another crack at it one of these days.
4) The Kids Are Alright- It's The Who! And the photo on the cover is awesome.
5) FM- This is the only inherited soundtrack album that I kept. I've never seen the whole movie, but it's classic 70's and reminds me of WKRP in Cincinnati. The album featured the title track by Steely Dan and "Breakdown" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It's a great soundtrack, other than The Eagles and James Taylor.
When we were kids, the only records my sister bought were either by heartthrobs (Shaun Cassidy and Andy Gibb) or soundtracks, such as Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Flashdance. Even my wife has a bunch of soundtrack albums. She has The Spy Who Shagged Me, because she loves Mike Myers and it has a Madonna song. She has the soundtrack to The Saint, because she loved Val Kilmer and it has some good songs. She has Grease and Xanadu because she was a girl during the height of Olivia Newton-John mania. She also has The Sound of Music and O Brother, Where Art Thou? for reasons I don't even want to know. When I inherited the record collections that inspired this blog, they were full of Broadway musical soundtrack albums, like The Music Man and My Fair Lady. We even sell a considerable amount of them at work, so apparently I'm the one with the problem.
The number of soundtracks I have depends on your definition of a soundtrack. For example, I have the "soundtracks" for The Life Of Brian and Monty Python And The Holy Grail, but they're really just collections of the best bits from the movies. I also have Ziggy Stardust, but I consider that more of a live album than a movie soundtrack. So, not counting those, I have five soundtracks. Here they are in no particular order, along with the reasons I have them. Peace.
1) BackBeat- I bought this, because I enjoyed the movie about the early days of The Beatles. There really aren't any good recordings of this period, so this was a decent substitute. Even though it doesn't sound much like The Beatles, it was an all-star band of indie rockers: Dave Grohl. Mike Mills. Greg Dulli. Thurston Moore. Dave Pirner.
2) Wedding Crashers- I only bought this because it had the yet unreleased song "Mr. Ambulance Driver" by The Flaming Lips, which wasn't that great. I do love the song "Sister jack" by Spoon, though. I've probably only listened to the whole CD twice.
3) Christmas On Mars- This is the soundtrack to the long rumored Flaming Lips movie that was filmed in Wayne Coyne's backyard. I have never managed to watch the whole movie and have only listened to the soundtrack once. Maybe I'll take another crack at it one of these days.
4) The Kids Are Alright- It's The Who! And the photo on the cover is awesome.
5) FM- This is the only inherited soundtrack album that I kept. I've never seen the whole movie, but it's classic 70's and reminds me of WKRP in Cincinnati. The album featured the title track by Steely Dan and "Breakdown" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It's a great soundtrack, other than The Eagles and James Taylor.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Superchunk And Merge Records
I think I can say, without fear of contradiction, that the two most important people in the history of indie rock are Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance. To make my case, I present Exhibit A: they are the founding members of Superchunk and Exhibit B: they are the founders of Merge Records.
Mac and Laura began Merge Records in 1990 to release music by their band Superchunk. Their first album featured the indie classic "Slack Motherfucker". It's an anthem for those of us who've come up through minimum wage retail jobs having to work with jerks. It includes the line, "I'm working, but I'm not working for you!" They followed this up with their classic album No Pocky For Kitty. The band was dormant for most of the 2000's while McCaughan focused on his other project, Portastatic. In 2010, they returned with the fantastic release, Majesty Shredding. The highlights here are "Digging For Something" and "Crossed Wires". The band made hilarious videos for each of these songs. "Digging For Something" has McCaughan reuniting Superchunk with all new members. When the rest of the band discovers what he's up to they go to the show and take over by the end of the song. In the video for "Crossed Wires", Ballance puts a camera on her cat and lets it out. We see cat's eye footage of her cat drinking and puking and knifing people and much more. At the end the cat returns and Ballance is disgusted by the footage. It's a riot. Superchunk have a new album coming out, but unfortunately Ballance won't be touring with them due to a hearing problem.
I don't really need to make a case for Merge Records. The releases speak for themselves. If you check your CD shelves (or mp3 playlists) it's likely you have some of them. Arcade Fire. Archers Of Loaf. The Clean. Dinosaur Jr. David Kilgour. Bob Mould. The Mountain Goats. Neutral Milk Hotel. Robert Pollard. Redd Kross. Spoon. Teenage Fanclub. Telekinesis. They are reissuing All Hail West Texas by The Mountain Goats in July, which is awesome news. I will be buying that and posting about it. The label also has several buzzed about albums out now, such as, Mikal Cronin's MC II, the latest She & Him, Eleanor Friedberger's Personal Record and Telekinesis' Dormarion. Superchunk's new album, I Hate Music, comes out August 20th. Since I'm on the subject of record labels, here's my list of favorite labels as of this posting. Peace.
* Merge Records
* Matador Records
* Carpark Records
* Wichita Recordings
* Flying Nun
* 4AD
* Yep Roc
* Creation
* Warner
* Fat Possum
Mac and Laura began Merge Records in 1990 to release music by their band Superchunk. Their first album featured the indie classic "Slack Motherfucker". It's an anthem for those of us who've come up through minimum wage retail jobs having to work with jerks. It includes the line, "I'm working, but I'm not working for you!" They followed this up with their classic album No Pocky For Kitty. The band was dormant for most of the 2000's while McCaughan focused on his other project, Portastatic. In 2010, they returned with the fantastic release, Majesty Shredding. The highlights here are "Digging For Something" and "Crossed Wires". The band made hilarious videos for each of these songs. "Digging For Something" has McCaughan reuniting Superchunk with all new members. When the rest of the band discovers what he's up to they go to the show and take over by the end of the song. In the video for "Crossed Wires", Ballance puts a camera on her cat and lets it out. We see cat's eye footage of her cat drinking and puking and knifing people and much more. At the end the cat returns and Ballance is disgusted by the footage. It's a riot. Superchunk have a new album coming out, but unfortunately Ballance won't be touring with them due to a hearing problem.
I don't really need to make a case for Merge Records. The releases speak for themselves. If you check your CD shelves (or mp3 playlists) it's likely you have some of them. Arcade Fire. Archers Of Loaf. The Clean. Dinosaur Jr. David Kilgour. Bob Mould. The Mountain Goats. Neutral Milk Hotel. Robert Pollard. Redd Kross. Spoon. Teenage Fanclub. Telekinesis. They are reissuing All Hail West Texas by The Mountain Goats in July, which is awesome news. I will be buying that and posting about it. The label also has several buzzed about albums out now, such as, Mikal Cronin's MC II, the latest She & Him, Eleanor Friedberger's Personal Record and Telekinesis' Dormarion. Superchunk's new album, I Hate Music, comes out August 20th. Since I'm on the subject of record labels, here's my list of favorite labels as of this posting. Peace.
* Merge Records
* Matador Records
* Carpark Records
* Wichita Recordings
* Flying Nun
* 4AD
* Yep Roc
* Creation
* Warner
* Fat Possum
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Hi, My Name's Tom And I'm A Musical Sexist
This morning my wife asked me to play some upbeat music while we cleaned the house. And by "we" I mean "she" since I'm sitting here writing a post. So, I went to the CD shelf looking for a fun listen. As I scanned the shelves, one of my wife's CD's caught my eye. I'm not sure why I noticed it today, because it's always been there and I've never thought of listening to it before. The CD in question is the Go-Go's Greatest. I loved the Go-Go's when I was in high school. Our pep band played "We Got The Beat" at the basketball games. I even had the hots for the blonde guitarist (everyone else I knew was into Jane Wiedlin). That got me thinking about my wife's CD collection. Other than Crowded House, Counting Crows and Better Than Ezra, it's mostly comprised of female artists. Madonna. Go-Go's. Sarah McLachlan. Dido. Annie Lennox. Nelly Furtado.
In contrast, my collection is entirely dudes, except an old Bangles album, Kate and Cindy of the B-52's and a bunch of indie bands with female bassists. Speaking of which, this would be a good time for my list of favorite female bassists from indie bands.
1) Kim Deal- Pixies
2) Nikki Monniger- Silversun Pickups
3) Laura Ballance- Superchunk
4) Mariko Doi- Yuck
5) Kim Gordon- Sonic Youth
Then I remembered a conversation with a friend of mine back in Detroit. I was talking to her about some bands and suddenly she asked, "Don't you ever listen to any bands with girls?" Then she pointed out that one of the bands I was on about sounded just like Sleater-Kinney and asked me why I don't listen to them. I was a little taken aback and didn't have a good answer. The only female indie band that I liked was Veruca Salt, but I didn't actually own anything by them. In an attempt to expose me to girl bands, she loaned me a CD by Dressy Bessy. Probably not the best choice, plus only the singer was a girl.
I'm not sure why I'm so averse to female artists, but it's quite clear that I am. I can't stand Courtney Love or Joanna Newsom or Neko Case or Feist or pretty much anyone. I guess that makes me a musical sexist. Part of me feels bad about it, but I like what I like. It's not like I haven't heard plenty of female artists. Between in-store plays at work and WRUW I'm actually overwhelmed. At least I still love the Go-Go's. Peace.
In contrast, my collection is entirely dudes, except an old Bangles album, Kate and Cindy of the B-52's and a bunch of indie bands with female bassists. Speaking of which, this would be a good time for my list of favorite female bassists from indie bands.
1) Kim Deal- Pixies
2) Nikki Monniger- Silversun Pickups
3) Laura Ballance- Superchunk
4) Mariko Doi- Yuck
5) Kim Gordon- Sonic Youth
Then I remembered a conversation with a friend of mine back in Detroit. I was talking to her about some bands and suddenly she asked, "Don't you ever listen to any bands with girls?" Then she pointed out that one of the bands I was on about sounded just like Sleater-Kinney and asked me why I don't listen to them. I was a little taken aback and didn't have a good answer. The only female indie band that I liked was Veruca Salt, but I didn't actually own anything by them. In an attempt to expose me to girl bands, she loaned me a CD by Dressy Bessy. Probably not the best choice, plus only the singer was a girl.
I'm not sure why I'm so averse to female artists, but it's quite clear that I am. I can't stand Courtney Love or Joanna Newsom or Neko Case or Feist or pretty much anyone. I guess that makes me a musical sexist. Part of me feels bad about it, but I like what I like. It's not like I haven't heard plenty of female artists. Between in-store plays at work and WRUW I'm actually overwhelmed. At least I still love the Go-Go's. Peace.
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