Monday Morning Shuffle

The Monday Morning Shuffle is consistently becoming the Monday Afternoon Shuffle but for the sake of continuity we’ll just leave it that way. I apologize for the tardiness but I’m betting nobody really cares.

Anyway, I want to address a few of Courtney’s comments from my last post before we get to the shuffle.

First off, I know Courtney has seen the movie from which this blog’s name is derived and I bet if she watched that movie again she would figure out where Kathleen Turner Overdrive came from and it really has nothing to do with Taking Care of Business or the amount of Kathleen Turner movies they play in AZ.

Second, I appreciate and agree with everything she said. A CD is a book, the songs are the chapters, you can’t just listen to one or two songs and judge the whole album. I talked about this in an earlier post, about how all songs are on a CD in a specific order and some bands and some producers put an incredible amount of time and effort into deciding the order. I’ve always liked and appreciated albums that were put together correctly and recently (since the days I lived with Courtney in CO) have become almost fundamental in my quest for listening to albums in their entirety. I guess when I lived with Courtney I had a tendency to download partials CDs and base judgments on that. I’ve grown up a little since then and now am a very staunch believer in having the entire CD before I press play. Even if I downloaded it off of Kazaa (or Limewire, if you will). So my judgments on my posts last week and, as you’ll notice, quite a few of my statements on the Monday Morning Shuffles, are based on the entire albums versus just a few songs.

I said last week in my comments about Radiohead that they were one of the bands that I just missed. Completely. So yes, I missed a lot of context by not hearing OK Computer and whatever other albums came between. One of these days maybe I’ll have the chance to go back and really dive into Radiohead. The reason I wrote that post was for someone to challenge me to really dig into the groups I didn’t understand, and Courtney did exactly that. I never pretended to say that I have really studied any of those bands and could make a seriously educated deduction. The initial title of the post was going to be “Bands I Don’t Like” but while I was writing, I was listening to them and was really actually enjoying the music. So I had to seriously backtrack and re-evaluate my position. That’s the point of the blog, to get stuff out in the open, to air it out, and to learn about music and become a better music fan. I’m glad that is starting to happen.
Finally, I appreciate Sigur Ros and their roots and their influences and I think that just sitting there and listening and meditating and feeling their music would be an excellent and enjoyable experience. However, as I’ve said before, my favorite bands and favorite albums are ones that I can put on anytime, anywhere and enjoy without having to put away special time or special incense for. That’s never going to change, I don’t think, and that’s why Sigur Ros and some of the other bands I’ve named will never make my Top 5 list of all-time favorites, no matter how good they may be.

Thanks for your time, on with the shuffle.

1. Extracurricular – At The Drive-In, off of Relationship of Command
Before they blew the world away with the Mars Volta (and to a much, much lesser extent, with Sparta), At The Drive-In put out some pretty damn good hardcore screamo whatever label you want to call it. Extracurricular is second only to One-Armed Scissor as far as my favorite ATDI songs. It has a really catchy hook and beyond that, it just pretty much rages. The drums really drive this song along in a hectic, loud and borderline out-of-control kind of way, but they never cross that line into noise. Very few bands pull that off. I also really like the guitar riff that echoes through during the chorus. Let’s put it this way, if you’re really feeling Remy Zero right now, you probably won’t want to get into ATDI, but if you’re loving the new Tool, then ATDI might be a logical step. Great workout music, to say the least.

2. Heart of the City – Jay-Z, off of Jay-Z Unplugged
Remember last week when I said that some people really deserved unplugged albums and lately MTV had just sold them out (wait, am I really surprised???) to anyone with more than 5 minutes of stage experience. Well I failed to mention that Jay-Z was one of those that I really liked. Whether he deserved the shot or not could be argued (I would say Yes) but what Jay did was completely make the most out of his unplugged shot. And it’s not even so much him, as in, we know he can rap, he really doesn’t do anything special in his own performance. But what he does do is get the Roots band to back him up. I love the Roots, and I love the fact that it’s Hip Hop to a live band. They’re amazing musicians and I love that they make so much better music than anyone with turntables and a beta machine could ever dream of. And to have them backing up Jay-Z and playing his beats and adding nuances and layers to his music that blow his records out of the water, it just makes the whole album. When they open up with Izzo, well, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have goosebumps.

3. It’s Going Down – Blackalicious, off of Blazing Arrow
Blackalicious is one of my favorite hiphop groups ever. The lead MC Gift of Gab is one of the most talented rappers to never get played on the radio. Most know him from the Alphabet Aerobics track when he just rattles off rhymes using only words with the first letter of the alphabet, in order. It’s an impressive track to say the least but he has many more genius moments on the albums Nia and Blazing Arrow. My favorite track is the song “Release” which features vocals from Zach DeLa Rocha from Rage and of course my favorite poet in the world, Saul Williams. That song blows my mind. (I heard Gift’s solo stuff is also amazing.) One of my favorite Blackalicious moments happened when I would hang out and drink beers at Adam Pierce’s house in Tempe and he would put this record on (that’s right, vinyl). He had just the instrumental of the entire Blazing Arrow album, no lyrics, but it was just about the coolest fucking thing ever to chill out and talk while listening to. You can’t say that about too many rap albums.

4. Bedstuy Parade – Mos Def, off of The New Danger
Wow, this is turning into the underground hiphop shuffle today. Not that you could call Mos Def underground anymore but you can’t exactly say that his music is mainstream either. Mighty Mos is one of my favorite artists of all time but I can’t say that I really got into this CD. I love “Black on Both Sides” but this album just never caught me in the same way. I really appreciate what Mos tried to do on this album, he incorporated a bunch of different instruments and a lot of heavy guitar sounds and a lot of really atypical things that you wouldn’t hear on an album of this genre. And I appreciate his effort but it really didn’t work for me. It’s almost like he tried to be too different and use too many different time signatures and things. I don’t know. I’m hoping he gets back to basics on his next album. We’ll see.

5. Could Be Anything – The Eames Era, off of Grey’s Anatomy Soundtrack
My good friend Suzanne burned this soundtrack for me and as TV show soundtracks go, well it’s everything you’d expect. It has the token Postal Service, Rilo Kiley and Tegan and Sara songs, a little old school with Medeski, Martin and Wood, and a bunch of random cutesy tracks designed to make you feel like no matter how many bands you think you know, you’ll never know as much as whoever put that soundtrack together.

Alright, that’s enough for today. On Wednesday we’re going to have Championship Vinyl’s very first concert review. Yep, I finally made it out to see someone live for the first time in forever and I’m going to share about it. Stay tuned.