Monday Morning Shuffle

First off, did anyone go to Coachella? If so, this space is yours to write a review or a little recap of your experience. I'm always open to guest bloggers so if you're interested, write me at adammack.wright@gmail.com.

I really want to go next year but inevitably i'll look at the ticket prices and the logistics of getting there and the fact that i'd be watching some of my favorite bands with 180,000 other people and decide it's not my scene. I am sad that i missed this though.

Last week i ended up with strep throat. I could barely swallow for a week, let alone eat, so that was a ton of fun. I got some antibiotics and started feeling better by Saturday, almost a week later. It was pretty awful. Anyway, i kinda have this routine on Sunday nights to order Chinese food and catch up on all of my DVRed shows. Well last night i ordered from a new place just to try something new. Well imagine my surprise when i wake up this morning, not to my alarm clock, but to an overwhelming (and inevitably unstoppable...) desire to throw up . Yup, so i may be on my way to food poisoning now...let's hope it passes quickly. I can't catch a break lately.

Let's try and get through the shuffle before this gets any worse.

1. Thick As A Brick - Jethro Tull
A pretty good start to the morning. A few weeks ago i talked about the Dispatch song "Walk With You" and the fact that it had this low-register flute part that i loved. Well every Jethro Tull song sounds like that. I'm not sure any other band in history was incorporated the flute into their songs as often and as successfully as Jethro Tull and it gave every song such a unique sound. Their sound is unmistakable and enjoyable.

2. Make It A Part - Further Seems Forever, off of Hide Nothing
This CD turned out really really well considering this was the third reincarnation of FSF. It's much less screamy than its predecessors and actually went for much more of a rock and roll sound (power chords, big drums, powerful vocalist) than an emo sound (punk-inspired drums and guitar hooks, high vocal harmonies, screaming).
That being said, this CD runs together. You can listen to the entire thing without paying a ton of attention and you would be hard pressed to notice any huge difference from song to song. Another knock on this CD would be that it is only 9 songs long. They added 3-4 acoustic tracks on the end but it's just acoustic versions of the song on the CD. Kinda lame.

3. Black Queen - Stephen Stills
This is a live song of Stills by himself. He is introduced and comes out on stage and begins to tell a story about an old black man that worked at a store by his house where he grew up and how this guy would sit out back after work and play the blues on his guitar. And not just because he knew how to play guitar or liked that genre of music, but for the real reason that blues music exists...because the guy actually had the blues.
So Stills is playing this opening blues riff and something must have happened in the audience because you can hear a bunch of people laughing in the audience...he keeps jamming on this guitar riff but stops singing for a few bars, until the laughing dies down. When the audience is completely quiet he says, "One thing...the blues ain't....is funny..." in rhythm with the music and just keeps on jamming through the song. The rest of the audience roars in applause as he puts these people in their place. Top notch.

4. Big Balls - AC/DC
This is one of the best Bon Scott-era AC/DC songs in existence and one of the best double-entendres to every be placed in heavy rotation on FM radio in history.
"Some balls are held for charity/And some for fancy dress/But when they're held for pleasure/They're the balls that I like best/My balls are always bouncing/To the left and to the right/It's my belief that my big balls/Should be held every night."
Can you imagine them playing this on the radio today? Not if Clear Channel has anything to say about it.

5. Capital H - Motion City Soundtrack, off of I Am The Movie
I've talked about Motion City before and it's weird that they came on the shuffle today because i spent most of yesterday listening to their two albums.
The Moog keyboard really became the defining sound on this album and is probably the best on this song. And it's just a 2 minute, 52 second sprint to the finish line. This is a top-10 driving song of all time and is just top-notch fun from the drums to the guitar to the fact that the lyrics make absolutely no friggin sense at all. Good times.

Alright, that's enough for today. I'm off to lay down or throw up, i can't tell which.