Monday Afternoon Shuffle

I totally had the whole fucking thing written this morning and my pain-in-the-ass computer went apeshit and closed all the Explorer windows (yea, yea, i know Mac fans. I should have a powerbook with firefox. I get it. Now one of you pony up the 3k i'll need for it or shut the hell up about it eh?) So anyway, i decided to start over. This morning's wasn't that good anyway. Also, in a related note, i should have learned my lesson and be writing this in a Word .doc so if something crashes it'll auto save and i won't lose the whole thing right? Well guess who is a slow learner? You guessed it. Me. So if this thing crashes again and i lose another shuffle just click over to Everything is A-OK and you'll see that Today's Sign Of The Apocalypse is a youtube clip of me rampaging down the streets killing everything in my path. Should be fun.

On with the shuffle, part II. (Side note...because i've been doing the shuffle for a couple of months now, it is getting increasingly difficult for the shuffle to pick music and bands i've never talked about before...You'd think with 5k songs, it wouldn't be possible but color me surprised, it is. So i'll be skipping forward a little more than normal and trying to find some shit i can actually talk about. It shouldn't really matter and you'd probably never even notice, i just wanted to let you know.)

1. Sullivan Street - Counting Crows, off of August And Everything After
This is one of the greatest albums ever and i challenge anyone who thinks otherwise to a fight to the death. Seriously, i'll ruin you.

This album is great because it is kind of a melancholy little mix of songs but the lyrics and songwriting is incredible. What gets me the most is that this is the single greatest example of the importance of song order that i've ever encountered. They just did a perfect job. The CD starts off with a mix of happy and sad and then gets pretty damn sad for 4 -5 songs before bringing this total feeling of catharsis in A Murder of One to end the disk. It's my favorite CD to listen to from beginning to end and even if i'm not paying attention to it, i can still feel it affect my moods as we go through it. Does anyone else feel that way about this album or is this just one of those that caught me?

2. Song For Holly - Esthero
This song came off of the "Chill Mix" that Erika discovered in high school. It's still, without a doubt, one of the best mixes ever and i'll just go ahead and damn the repercussion for saying this, but it's one of the best sex CDs ever. Seriously, if all you married and sexually active people reading this want some music to get busy to, just let me know and i'll copy it for you. My response to this CD is almost pavlovian at this point. (And if you're smart enough to understand that reference then you're probably smart enough for me to not have to explain the rest of it.)
This song is definitely before its time as well considering the mix of rock and techno beats. It wouldn't even bat an eye today. The girl's voice is cool too. Kind of a pre-Radiohead Imogen Heap, if you will.

3. Walk - Snuff, off of Survival of the Fattest
I've talked about this album before. My cousin left it in my CD player when i was seriously like 12 or something and it was my first taste of Punk music. I had no idea who NOFX or No Use For A Name were until this CD (and i would argue till much, much later, because we didn't have these fancy computers then that you could plug a CD in and it would tell you who it was yet. God, how awful.). Anyway this song definitely jolted me out of my Chill Mix nostalgia in a hurry. It is punk in every sense of the word, from the poor vocals to the stereotypical punk drum beat. Great stuff. Also, this is becoming kind of the Erika edition of the shuffle, because she loved the "Pants are Falling Down" song from this album. Let's move on.

4. Laugh Before You Grin - Lydia, off of This December; It's One More and I'm Free
I really like Lydia, or rather, i really wish i really liked Lydia. I mean, i do like them. The female vocals are incredible, haunting, inspiring, goose-bump inducing and all the rest, but i just can't get into Leighton's vocals. I kinda feel bad saying this because the kid almost died on their last tour, but the whispering just doesn't work for me (See: John Mayer, Iron & Wine). All the same, i really actually do love this song. And my previous comment was meant more towards the album as a whole than just this song.
Ok, never mind all that i've said. They're great and i can't wait until they're famous and i can tell people that they're from Arizona and i loved them way back when.

5. Skin is, My - Andrew Bird, off of Andrew Bird and The Mysterious Production of Eggs
Apparently his new CD is amazing and if someone has it, go ahead and give it to me now.
(Just to complete the Erika references in this shuffle, Andrew Bird is on Righteous Babe Records, Ani DiFranco's label.... Seriously, what's up with this?)
Anyway, i love this song and so far i'm a big fan of Andrew's. The guitar work is impeccable, the vocals good, the lyrics innovative enough to keep me interested. Count me as a fan and get me his new CD.

Alright, that's far more shuffle than i'm used to writing in a day. Hopefully this one will work (knocking on wood til my knuckles bleed...)