Monday Morning Shuffle

A few things before we get started.

A. So, I'm starting piano lessons again and i'm ready to actually commit this time. I have far fewer distractions, a lot more time on my hands and with my new lifestyle changes, a few more dollars to spend towards an actual piano in my house to practice on. I'm making a CD of good piano tunes for Ashley, my friend and teacher, to transpose for me to play and practice. Playing a simplified version of Piano Man is a lot more fun than Mary Had a Little Lamb, trust me. So here's a brief synopsis of the CD i'm making for her:
1. Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond (a bar classic)
2. Piano Man - Billy Joel (another barroom classic)
3. Don't Stop Believing - Journey (after The Sopranos finale, this song will bring the house down)
4. The Luckiest - Ben Folds (for the ladies...)
5. Brothers On A Hotel Bed - Death Cab for Cutie (this song kills me, i could play the intro over and over)
6. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant - Billy Joel (one of my favorites)
7. Clocks - Coldplay (not my favorite band, but a good piano song)
8. Colorblind - Counting Crows (this song breaks hearts...)
9. Riders on the Storm - The Doors (i know it's a keyboard, but this song kicks ass.)
10. Something in The Way She Moves - James Taylor (not that i could do it justice...)
11. A Boy Named Sue - Johnny Cash (can't wait to sing along to this one)
12. Nightswimming - REM (just sounds good, even if nobody knows what it is)

Let me know if you have any suggestions. I'm definitely open to them.

B. There are 2 new shows coming out, one on Fox, one on NBC (i think) that are these karaoke shows in which the contestant wins by knowing the words to songs. They play the song, the person starts singing the words and then they turn the music off and the person keeps singing, or they're expected to say the next line. Why wasn't i informed that these shows were happening?!? Is there some kind of web site in which they look for contestants for these things that i don't know about? Did they identify me as a threat to their bank accounts and blacklist me? I WOULD DESTROY THESE SHOWS! I'm figuring out how to get on one of them as soon as i finish writing this.

On with the shuffle:
1. House of The Rising Sun - Bob Dylan
Is it possible to have a worse voice and still have the song sound amazing? I think no.
I mean, his voice just sounds awful, but it's so perfect at the same time. I've heard this song done a thousand different ways and by a thousand different voices and while i love The Doors' version, this one is really growing on me. I think that Dylan's voice just fits the rawness and pain of the context of this song. It sounds like the song you'd hear if you just jumped a train or were sitting around a campfire with some other downtrodden folk. It just sounds like it's from another time period altogether.

2. Captain Jack - Billy Joel
A terrific Billy Joel song about drugs and women and trying to be cool and all the stuff that make being a rock star so kickass. Is it just me or is this song the musical equivalent of Boogie Nights?

3. Stay or Leave - Dave Mathews, off of Some Devil
Some songs are inescapably connected to moments in our lives. Some good, some bad, it doesn't matter, but for those of us who view music as the soundtrack of our lives, you know what i'm talking about. It's almost symbiotic. There are songs the make me actually feel guilt, pain, happiness, goosebumps, etc. Interesting that music has this physiological affect on us...
Top 5 Songs that Completely Rip My Heart Out:
5. Brothers on a Hotel Bed - Death Cab
4. Rough Draft - Yellowcard
3. Mess - Ben Folds
2. Stay Or Leave - Dave Mathews
1. Colorblind - Counting Crows

4. American Pie - Don McLean
Totally forgot this one on the piano mix CD. I'll have to add it to the 2nd one. This is a terrific bar and sing-a-long song that any decent barroom piano player (and really, that's all i aim to be) should know.
One summer in Wyoming, my mom, brother, sister and I went on a hike up to some lake. My mom promised that there would be fishing at the lake and that it wasn't far. My sister and her mounted their horses and took off down the trail. My brother and i, having refused to ever ride (horses smell, are a pain to take care of and miserable to ride if you have testicles...) so we strapped our fishing stuff to our backs and started walking. Eight miles later we caught up at the lake, fished for about 18 minutes before realizing that there were either no fish, or they didn't want what we had, and turned around and headed back down the trail. Well i don't know how many of you have walked 16 miles in one day (not to mention 8 uphill and 8 downhill) but there's not a whole lot you can do to avoid being uncomfortable at some point. Your socks get sweaty, you get blisters, the packs start to rub your back raw, your calves and toes start to hurt from walking downhill and accidentally kicking rocks...so you do what you can to pass the time and take your mind off it. Somehow i managed to bet my brother that between the two of us, we could put together every single word of this song in order..and so for a few hours on the way back to the truck we sang and sang and argued about whether the marching band refused to yield before or after jack flash sat on the candle stick...good times.

5. Let's Get High - Dr. Dre, off of Chronic 2001
Normally, i would skip this song...there's just not that much that can be said about it, and for one reason or another, i don't think this song really connects with the target audience of this blog...call me crazy.
Anyway, the reason it's being included is because there's a story behind it. Back in my senior year of high school, when i had a whole lot of jack shit to do, Danny Bogen and I would go run the bleachers or the track at Horizon at night. Inevitably, our parents realized we were at the school and logically could pick our brothers up from Marching Band practice since we were already there. So Danny and i would do our thing and then sit in the car listening to music, waiting for them. One night, there are about 30 other parents in the parking lot, all waiting for their kids and Danny grabs the Chronic 2001 cd...we're listening to it at a reasonable volume level and then this song comes on...for those of you who don't know, here are the lyrics to the first few lines of this song: "All the niggas and all these hoes is here/somebody here's gonna fuck." So what does Danny do as he sees Nole, Ron and Jack walking towards the parking lot? Of course he blasts it. I'm in my old Suburban, so Nole and Ron come running up, jump on the running boards and start rocking the shit out of my truck, thus directing even more attention to the complete vulgarity of the music we're playing ... and then come our little brothers, absolutely mortified at how we're acting in front of all the other kids and their parents. (Of course, we were the cool kids on campus, so we were actually making them cooler simply by being associated with us...) Makes me laugh every time.

Alright, have a great week. Enjoy music.

Monday Morning Shuffle

This is my first shuffle in a while where i've actually had pants on while writing it, so that's a plus (depending on how you look at it, i guess.) I'm at my new office and despite having thousands of things to do, i'm staying true to the Shuffle. For those of you who don't know, i started my own promotional marketing company and we just moved in to our brand new, 2 room office this morning. It beats writing on my couch at home, although i did enjoy being able to watch the 11 am sportcenter and eating Cheerio's for lunch. But eventually, all good laziness must come to an end and i'm happy to be back doing something meaningful with my existence. There was a lot of negativity in my life last week and i'm happy to be starting this week off with a better attitude and a little more hope for humanity. And it doesn't hurt that i already went and purchased a brand new 30gb iPod video that holds all of my songs (instead of having to delete something old before adding something new, as was the case with my now stolen iPod.) There is a silver lining to everything and in this case, it's a silver and black lining with a color screen. Now on with my life and on with the shuffle.

1. Space Cowboy - Steve Miller Band
Good god, for all the positivity i just spouted, this was not what i needed as the first song of the day... Didn't Nsync have a song called Space Cowboy as well? (Don't ask how i know that. Just shutup. Shut. Up.) Anyway, funny story about Steve Miller Band. Back in high school, Adam Mortemore and I went to see Tom Petty at America West Arena. Before Petty came on stage they announced that with your ticket stub from the Petty show, you could get into the Steve Miller Band/George Thoroughgood show the following week, for free. I'd never heard of a buy one, get one free concert ticket, but hey, we were going. So we got a big crew together and went out to Desert Sky Pavillion (and yes, i realize that both of the venues i've talked about have new names, but i will not bow to the corporate naming rights phenomenon. Chase Field will always be BOB, Invesco Field will always be Mile High, and America West Arena will never be US Airways Center and Blockbuster Desert Sky Pavilion will never be Cricket. That's just the way it is.) Well anyway, George Thoroughgood sucked and Steve "Guitar" Miller was a lot of fun. After the show we hung out in the parking lot with two 20+ year old ladies who must of thought that were 20+ year old guys (we were like 17 tops and we would be damned before we would have told them any different) and then on the drive home, with them driving next to us, they flashed us. Yes, at 17 we were excited to see boobies, and that's what i remember most.

2. Two Points for Honesty - Guster
Guster is hugely underrated and one of the only bands from that college rock, Dispatch, OAR, backwards white hat, midwest type rock genre that is still surviving. I've always liked them and i definitely love this song. For such a happy band, this song is pretty angry. But the first line is, "If that's all you will be, you'll be a waste of time." And maybe this song hits home for me too because the second line is something like "You've dreamed a thousand dreams, none seem to stick in your mind." And that line pretty much describes me and the last 5-8 years of my life in all of its ADD glory. Something to be proud of right there.

3. (Let it be noted that another Steve Miller Band song came up in this spot and i just hit next as i shook my head with disgust. 4,278 songs and i get 2 Steve Millers in the first 5. Unbelievable.)
Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama - I Shall Not Walk Alone, off of Live at the Apollo
Today's shuffle should be called the 6 degrees of concerts i've been to. So at the aforementioned Tom Petty concert, the opener was the Blind Boys of Alabama, who by far were one of the most entertaining and enjoyable openers i've ever seen. I think i've written about that show before, so i won't go into huge detail, but these guys are actually blind and they'll get up in the middle of the show and start walking around the stage and the poor bass player will literally have to stop playing and go follow them around the stage making sure they don't trip or fall of the stage. It's high comedy. But anyway, even being as white as i am, i would have loved, LOVED, to be at this show, at the Apollo. This whole CD is magnificent and about as soulful as humanly possible. Ben Harper's low voice combined with the Southern Baptist Church choir feel of the Blind Boys is a juxtaposition for the ages. Please let me send you this CD. Just ask. I'm begging you to let me share it.

4. Angel from Montgomery - Dave Mathews Band
This is a cover that DMB does live and although the recording quality sucks, it's a good song. It originally by John Prine but Bonnie Rait did it as well. The other cool aspect of this song is that Dave only sings the chorus. It's actually the violin player singing, which i think has only happened on a few live songs. (Additionally, an IMDB.com search shows that Toby Keith is starring in a movie this year called Angel from Montgomery. Maybe they'll have a free screening of it at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill in Las Vegas. What's next from Toby? A fragrance perhaps? Everyone else has one. How about "Freedom Ain't Free" Eau Du Toillette by Toby Keith - An aromatic yet rugged mixture of Bud Light, Axle grease from a Chevy Truck and a hint of blood from wounded American soldiers. What an asshole.)

5. Table for Glasses - Jimmy Eat World, off of Clarity
People obsess over Clarity like they obsess over Radiohead. And don't get me wrong, i like the album, but I like others better. I have to be in the right mood to listen to Clarity and as we all know, i can never really love a CD unless i can listen to it anytime, anywhere and in any mood. This is a CD that i'll let play when it comes on and when it's over, i'll always remark to myself that it's a really beautiful album and that i really enjoyed listening to it, but i can't actually remember stopping what i was doing and paying specific attention to the details of the music. And i think this scene from High Fidelity pretty much articulates what i mean (and is pretty much a microcasm of this entire blog, including the Monday mix tape reference, me being physically unable to post the Monday MORNING shuffle before noon and my wierd feelings for "sad bastard music."):
[Rob turns off Barry's tape]
Barry: OK, buddy, uh, I was just tryin' to cheer us up so go ahead. Put on some old sad bastard music, see if I care.
Rob: I don't wanna hear old sad bastard music, Barry, I just want something I can ignore.
Barry: Here's the thing. I made that tape special for today. My special Monday morning for *you*... special.
Rob: Well, it's fuckin' Monday afternoon! You should get out of bed earlier!

Ha ha. Perfect. Love you guys.
Have a good day.