Monday Morning Shuffle

What a fun musical weekend. Last Thursday i decided that my computer needed a tune up and some routine maintenance. So i backed up all 20 gigs of music from my computer to my external hard drive and then deleted it. Yup, all 20 gigs, right off of my computer. That was a pretty scary "yes" button to click when the computer asked, "Are you sure you want to delete 'my music' and everything it contains?" But i went with it, confident that everything was backed up safely on the external drive. Well everything went smoothly until i tried to move all the music back onto my computer. You see, when i download music or someone sends me a CD, it is automatically saved to my external drive, then i drag it over to my computer, listen to it and then either keep it or delete it. The problem arose because as a result of this practice, i've ended up with somewhere near 30Gbs of music on the external and only room for 20Gb on my computer...so when i clicked and dragged it only copied about 2/3rds of the library back on my computer. From there i had to manually go through and delete some things (i have a lot of stand-up comedy and books on tape for road trip purposes) and then manually add in the other 1/3rd of my library until iTunes stopped shoving all those little exclamation points at me. It probably took about 10 hours collectively including the time it took to copy files over (the little ticker would say there were 4 minute remaining and then it would take 20...). So a lot of fun was had reorganizing and restructuring the folder, and also contemplating what music i have on my iTunes that i absolutely never listen to and can delete forever without even regretting. So that may have to be a blog post of its own...we'll call it, "Stuff I Deleted And Couldn't Care Less About." Could be fun, could start some fights, we'll see if i get to it.

Also, Courtney sent me a link to this web site today...it's a site where people can write in and report on things they've overheard other people say. Courtney lives in Brooklyn (Bitties in the BK Lounge!) so her favorite part of the site is "Overheard in New York" (they also have overheard in the office, overheard at the beach, etc.). Emo jokes never get old, so today's Overheard in New York post is hilarious. Find it here: Really, What Else is There to be Sad About?

Anyway, on with the shuffle:

1. Mississippi Queen - Mountain
This song has everything...a catchy hook, ripping guitar and a really really healthy dose of Cowbell...and that's what everyone needs, more cowbell.
I used to work in a warehouse packing boxes in high school and we either listened to conservative talk radio all day or sometimes i would switch it to the Classic Rock station just to preserve my sanity. Well this song, at the time, was pretty much played hourly. You've heard it, i know you have, you just don't know it. Download it and you'll be like, "Damn, Adam was right, i've definitely heard that song 50 times."
And one final note, who names their band "Mountain"??? There are no bands called River, or Tree, or Planet, so why Mountain? That's like having the balls to change your name from Gordon to Sting...oh wait.

2. Drunkship of Lanterns - The Mars Volta, off of De-Loused in the Comatorium
Norah Jones came on and i skipped it because after Mountain, i just needed something that would keep pace. I am NOT in a Norah mood at all right now. Moving on.
If i have to tell you anything about The Mars Volta, this CD or any detail of their amazingness then well, you're not a regular reader of the shuffle. I am pretty sure that everyone who reads this is aware of The Mars Volta and how good this CD is. I've recently gotten back into it and have been reminded how good it is. It's just 72 minutes of heart-pumping, thrashing, creative and explosive genius. This is really one of the best albums of the decade in my opinion just because of the chances they took in creating an album that didn't have any semblance of a mainstream single on it. This album has absolutely zero marketability to the common music listener and wow, what a concept, but that just doesn't happen at all anymore these days.
My only objection to it, and it seems they've gotten worse at this through subsequent albums, is the pointless ambient noise that breaks up the songs...i mean, stop making noise just for the sake of making noise. I like to think that i get music, i understand why bands and artists and producers do certain things but i've never understood the 4 minute interludes of kids playing on the playground intermixed with someone breaking wineglasses filled with cooking sherry, over an atonal and out of rhythm techno beat...i just don't get it. Please stop doing this. Frances the Mute was ruined by this and Tool's 10,000 days was borderline bad because of it as well. Please stop this immediately.

3. We Both Go Down Together - The Decemberists, off of Picaresque
My verdict is still out on The Decemberists. Some of their stuff is amazing...and some of it just sounds exactly the same. I like when they step out of the mold and use different tempos and sounds but their middle of the road tunes are kind of annoying. The guys voice kinda grates on me on their unadventurous songs. When they take a chance instrumentally, then it works. I don't know if that makes sense but i guess when i'm listening to the music more than the vocals then i don't notice how his voice makes me want to stab myself in the eardrum with a rusty spike. On the songs that aren't musically compelling, well i'm heading to construction sites to find bent rebar to hit myself in the skull with. Does that make more sense?

4. Burn - Ray LaMontagne, off of Trouble
See? This is what i meant last week about the Shuffle kinda getting boring. I've written about every single one of these bands before. Maybe it's my music collection that is getting boring, i don't know.
I chose not to skip this song because i have really been listening to Ray a lot more lately. He is coming up in the mainstream pretty fast these days and i wanted to make sure i had a good understanding of him before he wins a Grammy so i can make fun of all the people that will just be hearing him for the first time. Cuz i'm shallow like that.
Anyway, i'm not really sure about his voice sometimes. It is amazing but sometimes it sounds like he's trying too heard to emote certain feelings instead of just reaching back and whaling on the song. I'm not sure. Just like Decemberists, Andrew Bird, Iron & Wine and others, sometimes it sounds amazing and sometimes it sounds fabricated. All in all, i really like Ray LaMontagne though...if you haven't had a chance to pick him up, i highly suggest it.

5. Real - Lupe Fiasco, off of Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor
I haven't become attached to Lupe in the same ways that i became attached to Common, Kanye, Talib and Mos, but that doesn't mean he's not good. He is. His voice is definitely different. It's high for a rapper and he sounds like a little kid. but that almost gives it an endearing quality when he's on tracks with other big rappers that have that hip-hop growl perfected. He sounds like the little kid who is just flowing circles around the big boys.
He has a lot of interesting stuff to say in his lyrics, and you gotta love that his first big single was about skateboarding. He's kind of turned into the hardline Kanye. I mean, Kanye took some chances with his lyrics and the stuff he said in public, but he's kinda stepped back from that since then because he didn't like the heat and backlash that came with it. He's too mainstream to be saying stuff like that apparently and that's really too bad. That's one of the reasons i liked him. But Lupe is saying the same stuff (often over the same exact beats since they produce together) and not backing down from it.
If Lupe keeps it up, i'll be a fan. I think his voice and his Muslim background will keep him from ever becoming too mainstream. Too bad for him, great for us.
And just to close, why don't rappers from the Chi get more respect? Everyone is all New York this, Compton that, Dirty south this...there are a ton of really, really good artists from Chicago and you never hear anyone talk about it. Common, Kanye, Lupe, these are household names and all anyone can talk about is Crunk Juice and this is why i'm hot. Seriously, come on.

Alright, that's enough for today. This has been the easiest shuffle to write in a while. Thanks goes out to my iTunes for picking out some decent shit to talk about. Maybe that little deletion over the weekend changed it's attitude for a while.

You might hear from me this week again so check back. Have a good one.