Monday Morning Shuffle

Welcome to the 3rd installment of Monday Morning Shuffle. And in other news, if anyone would like to start training for the PF Changs Rock and Roll half marathon with me, it'll be a great way to get exposed to some great music, and not a bad way to lose 20 lbs. I'm starting today, who's with me?


1. Baba O’Reilly – Pearl Jam live
This song, originally by the Who, is one of Pearl Jam’s favorite covers to play live. I saw them do it in high school at Desert Sky (Now Cricket) Pavilion. It had rained all day and was still raining when the concert started. We went anyway and took Hefty bags with us to keep dry. We cut arm and neck holes and stood there looking like the California Raisins waiting for the rain to stop. It cleared up and Eddie Vedder walked on stage and said, “The only reason we scheduled a tour through Arizona was to get out of the fucking rain.” And then they blew into a thrashing version of Evenflow that sent the muddy grass into a turmoil and cast the voices of this throng of people into the desert sky. Suffice to say it was an amazing concert and one of my favorites of all time. Luckily for us, Pearl Jam released a series of double-disk live albums and this song and all others are pretty damn easy to find live. Check them out, or better yet, go see Pearl Jam live if you have an opportunity. Even after all these years, you won’t be disappointed.

2. Ideas vs. Protocol – Rajiv Patel from The Retaliation for What They’ve Done to Us.
I get the feeling that every song coming up on this space is a great one and that I’m just completely suckling every song by every artist that comes up. That isn’t completely the case, I just really like music and I don’t have a ton of songs on my iTunes that I don’t like. The Retaliation for What They’ve Done to Us is a CD but it’s also a side project from the band Before Braille, one of the best Mesa/Tempe local bands around. Rajiv is their supremely talented guitarist and he has been apart of a ton of tremendous side and solo projects. Ideas vs. Protocol is just one song of 6 songs but it’s one of those CDs that just flows from song to song. They’re all interconnected and move seamlessly from song to song. In actuality this is a 27-minute instrumental rock opera that only gets messed up because the CD has to break in between tracks. They performed this act, if you want to call it that, only once at the Mesa Women’s Center in front of about 40 people. Nobody really knew what to expect but there were a lot of musicians and artists in the crowd with their jaws hanging open during the performance. Then, as soon as the music ended and after the applause had died down, people just turned around and said, “I’m going home to write songs.” Or “I’m going home to paint.” And I don’t know if it’s as inspirational listening to it on the CD but it is still damn good. And to be honest, if you want a 30-minute workout, plug this thing in, and work along with the beat of it. If you’re anything like me, the lows and the highs will coincide with your heart rate. And just because I like this CD so much, and because it’s probably hard to get, I’d be more than happy to burn it or IM it to anyone interested.

3. Callin’ Baton Rouge – Garth Brooks on The Hits
One of the greatest karaoke songs of all time. And one of the only country songs I like. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I love Garth. I spent more than a few drunken nights with my good friend Danny playing Madden and singing Garth at the top of our lungs. Good stuff.

4. One of Them – Jurassic 5 on Power in Numbers
A semi-decent song on a pretty good album. Highlights include What’s Golden, High Fidelity and I Am Somebody. And since I don’t really have anything else to say about that, Charlie 2Na is the most laid-back dude on the planet. When I saw them in Denver, he walks out on stage and in his trademark low voice, says “Deeeeennnnnnvvvvvveeeeerrrrr Cooooooollllllooorrrrraaddddooooo.” And he was wearing sweat pants and slippers. Quality.

5. Hey Leonardo – Blessid Union of Souls on Walking Off the Buzz
You just can’t deny BUOS. At all. They’re one of the most underrated pop acts of the mid- to late-nineties. They defined my Senior Prom, taught us about how love can overcome all kinds of things, including racist fathers and they articulated some pretty serious adolescent thoughts for those who took the time to listen. And all that was culminated by seeing them in concert at the Chandler Ostrich Festival, one of Arizona’s truly great venues. HA. If you have the CD, and I know you do, give it a play soon. You won’t regret it.

That’ll do it for this week’s shuffle. I think we’ll probably see me dig deep into the record collection for a special little treat on Wednesday.