Monday Morning Shuffle

Sorry about last week. I was in Vegas all week and had more internet connection on my phone than through my computer and as much as i love the shuffle, i wasn't hammering that thing out on my phone.

So, after a small break, here we go:
1. Military Madness - Stephen Stills Graham Nash, off of Crosby, Stills and Nash Box Set
After seeing the list of protest songs discussed by Kevo and Nole not too long ago, i mentally made my own list. Since they did such a good job, i really didn't feel the need to include my own. (although this is what a quick, off-the-top-of-my-head list have looked like:
1. Public Enemy - Fight the Power
2. Crosby, Stills and Nash - Ohio
3. Bruce Springsteen - Maggie's Farm
4. Fortunate Son - Credence Clearwater Revival
5. Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name)
But this is a great song by Stephen Stills and it feels pretty autobiographical. He sings about military madness killing his country, his dad fighting in the war, moving to Europe to escape it, etc. C, S, N and Y (as in Young, Neil) sang often of the issues of their times including racial issues and war. They were highly controversial at the time but obviously accepted by those in the antiwar movement and now regarded as one of the best bands of their time. (Dixie Chicks anyone?)
The more things change, the more they really stay the same i guess.

2. Who Rocks the House - Jurassic 5
Courtney recently suggested that after getting into De La Soul that she had less respect for what J5 has done over the last 10 years. I wonder if anyone feels this way? I won't take away from what J5 has done because they have never claimed to be this completely original sound and they've always done a great job of paying homage to their influences and predecessors in their songs. Anyone want to take a stab at this?

3. Get By - Talib Kweli, off of Quality
This may be my favorite Kweli song of all time. Just a popping beat, sweet vocals and really moving and inspiring lyrics. My favorite: "We go through episodes too, like Attack of the Clones"
My favorite memory of this song was when it came on in Chris Perry's garage one night in college while we were all playing beer pong. We're dancing, singing, yelling back and forth at each other about the game and, of course, drinking heavily and CP realized that the theme of this song is to "get by" a day without smoking, drinking, using some substance or behavior to artificially alter your reality, etc. Behold the hypocrisy of the suburban white youth right? Oh well.

4. Don't Tell and We Won't Ask - Thrice, off of Artist in The Ambulance
My favorite completely random line of this song: "If you're a smart kid, never work without your gloves. If you're a smart kid, you'll stay the hell away from love." I can just see them on the tour bus writing this...
Dustin: Ok, what rhymes with love....above? shove? Come on guys, help me. How about glove? Can we make that work? Will anyone notice? Do smart kids really work with gloves? Help me damnit!

Still, this was like a defining song of my Sophomore/Junior years of college. And this CD was just so good. And the liner notes were as cool as any CD this side of Tool. So that was good too.

5. Swollen Summer - The Bravery
This song came on my iPod the other day and i consciously remember wondering what i would write if it ever came on the shuffle...
I picked this CD up from the wonderful Suzanne, who let me raid her laptop at Virgo to the tune of about 650 songs. I had heard The Bravery on a video game and i got somewhat annoyed with it over the course of 15,000 listens but it still was one of the better tunes on the game. The CD is equally as poppy and sugary as the song from the video game but it is catchy and does have a decent ring to it. I'm not sure i could ever listen to the whole thing straight through but it's one of those songs that comes on during a shuffle session and i find myself nodding my head and saying, "Man, I should really listen to this whole CD sometime." And i never do. That speaks volumes about their sound and how much i'd like it, i feel.

Alright, back to work. I don't know if anyone uses Microsoft Outlook but it pops up these little task reminders for me and there are like 52 popping up right now. Yikes.

Monday Morning Shuffle

First off, who wants to go to Coachella with me this year? Now, read this. NOW, who wants to go to Coachella with me? That's what i thought. How excited are you on a scale of 1-10? (1 being Laura, and 10 being Ron)

1. Love You More Than Life - Neutral Milk Hotel
When i mentioned a while back that i didn't really care for certain bands (or more accurately, certain sounds), my friend Courtney suggested quite a few bands for me to listen to. Most of these have the same exact sound that i was complaining about but still, i took Courtney's word for it. Courtney has always liked music like this and has been stone-cold emo before they even invented the term for it. So i downloaded a ton of this stuff and tried to put it all in order and see if anything checked out well. And of all the bands she suggested, i've probably listened to Neutral Milk Hotel the least, so i'm not really comfortable passing judgement on it just yet. This recording sounds like he recorded it in his living room in 1984. It's really unclear and sounds a lot like a demo version, and maybe i downloaded the demo version, there's no way of knowing until someone sends me the actual CD. So i'll reserve total judgement on it but yeah, this is exactly the type of band i normally complain about. Kinda slow, kinda meandering without a real purpose and the recording/guys voice has this grainy, bored, Iron & Wine-like quality about it, which i'm a huge fan of...not.
Let's move on.

2. Here Comes my Girl - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
I've already told a few Tom Petty stories here (both on December 11th, which you'll find here) so i'll spare you another one even though there really isn't a ton to talk about with this song. It's the prototypical Tom Petty song. And if you don't know what that means, check out the 4 minute mark in this clip:


3. Carnival Town - Norah Jones, off of Feels Like Home
So far the shuffle is o for 3 in songs that get me up and ready to go on a Monday Morning. This really doesn't bode well.
Until Norah comes out with her 3rd CD and hopefully redeems herself, I can't really say anything new about her. So this is what i said about her last time: "Her voice is a warm blanket, or hot chocolate, or a fire in the fireplace or a second glass of red wine or a Crown and water. Ok, maybe the last one’s just for me but seriously, you know what I’m saying. Norah is that warm tingly feeling in your belly. And that’s all I have to say about that."

4. Jurass Finish First - Jurassic 5
I just realized that i've been doing the shuffle since September and this is the first time we've had J5 on it since October 16th. Man time really flies. This song is one of my favorite J5 songs. It just has a good beat and that classic Jurassic sound. And i think my favorite part is when the song is over and they have answering machine recordings of one of the guy's parents talking about his career choice. His dad comes on and says that his kid was always stealing his Al Green records and singing and dancing in his room and he's really proud of his son and the guys he's in the band with and that he always knew he'd do something with music. And then his mom comes on and says, "Where are you boy? You out rapping? That's all you do. Rappin, rappin, rappin. You need to go out and get you a job, boy." HAHA. High comedy.

5. Pictures of Me - Eliot Smith, off of Either/Or
Man, the first 4 of 5 songs on this Monday morning have been depressing enough to make me want to stab myself in the chest with a kitchen knife... (too soon?)
This is actually the most upbeat Smith song i've ever heard, and i actually even like it a little bit. Wow, who would have thought?

Alright, i'm towing this rusty thing off to the garage. Sorry about the lack of quality today, but hey, don't blame me, blame iTunes.

In honor of the Dustin Kensrue CD coming out tomorrow (despite the fact that i've been listening to it and loving it for over a month now. Thanks CP!) i think i'm going to write a review of it for Wednesday. So look for more than one post this week for the first time in a while. Hope everyone has a good Monday.