Music Post #5

New music this week (bold means that I like it so far; if it says nothing next to it, I probably haven't really listened enough to form an opinion yet):

• Black Moth Super Rainbow/The Octopus Project - The House of Apples and Eyeballs: This is 2 years old, but I just found it.  It's ok, although I think I like each of these bands separately better than together.
• Delta Spirit - Ode to Sunshine: I saw them live last week, opening for Dr. Dog.  I liked them a lot, perhaps even more than Dr. Dog.  The album lives up to the live performance so far.
• Dressy Bessy - Holler and Stomp: This is one that came recommended to me, and I can definitely see people enjoying it.  It's an odd mix of heavier guitars and annoying girl pop.  I'm not that impressed.
• Passion Pit - Chunk of Change: Pop/electronic - tons of energy.  I recommend it.
• Prkr - The Felt City: "synthpop" which is totally hit-or-miss for me.  I kind of like the song G.P.S. Kids, but the others are little to heavy on the synth.  Kind of electronic/pop rather than pop/electronic, if that makes sense.
• Joshua Radin - Simple Times: Joshua Radin is one of my guilty pleasures.  I'm not "supposed" to like it, but I don't care.  I do.  It's sweet and pretty and, sure, a little cheesy, but I still love it.
• South Side Stalkers - The Sound of Speed: isn't that album title awfully close to a certain Coldplay single from a few years ago?  I got it because it was compared to Belle & Sebastian and Mates of State.  And lately I've been loving Swedish pop.  So far, though, it's more cheesy and annoying than anything else.  I should have known when there was a song called "Ukelele Love Song" on the album...

Story # 9: Overheard Conversation

Overheard in the park tonight by a group of high school boys: So I never had sex on ecstasy until last week, and holy shit, man...

I feel like my high school experience was so sheltered. I'm not sure that is a bad thing.

Link

Um, yet another one. This one about passing gas from Dooce.com.

Link

This morning I hit snooze for only 1/2 hour.  Monday morning, it had been an hour.  One whole hour of 9 minute sleep intervals, interrupted by slams of my hand to the top of the clock.  When I was in college, my alarm was at the foot of my bed, rather than next to my head.  This was strategic in design, but not effective in practice.  I just became really good at sitting up and hitting snooze while still basically remaining asleep.  That way I would fall into bed and be back to my dreams as my head hit the pillow.

Today I read this post on one of my favorite time-killer websites.  And I realized why I love her blog so much.  She is just like me...

Thoughts by Dooce.com

*Also note that her current masthead reads: Musings of a Self-Absorbed Moron.

Music Post #4

More new music.  I think listening to new music needs to be my full-time job.  How does one get paid for that and not have to write music reviews?  Hmm...

• Brightback Morning Light - Motion to Rejoin
• The Broken West - Now or Heaven
• Kimya Dawson - Alphabutt: kids album where B is for butt and F is for fart - edit: the song Alphabutt is my kind of music - the rest of the CD is too child-ish - maybe it would different if I had kids, although I'm not sure I'd want them singing along to some of it...
• Ani DiFranco - Red Letter Year: eh.  I deleted it.
• Margot and the Nuclear So-and-Sos - The Daytrotter Sessions EP
• Parenthetical Girls - Entanglements
• Starfucker - Starfucker
• TV on the Radio - Dear Science: so far it lives up to the internet hype...

Story #8: Goodbyes

Why do people always stare at bad things?  Car accidents, bloody paper towels on sidewalks (yes, I'm serious), people crying and hugging as they say goodbye...  

K left today.  She is currently driving cross-country in a stuffed car to Providence, Rhode Island.  The last time I saw her car that stuffed was 2 years ago when she moved in, the first day I ever met her.  Today before she left, we went to breakfast, and she ran across the street to make a deposit at the bank.  I told A, her boyfriend, my other roommate, that I hoped she didn't cry because then I would lose it.  Well, we were both fine until the sidewalk, outside her packed car.  Then we both started crying.  And this man in an Oregon Ducks shirt, holding a giant camera, just kept staring at us.  I don't think I saw him ever turn away, although I clearly wasn't watching him the entire time.

So when I went to my car with my friend M, we discussed this staring man and how weird it was that he was watching my roommate and I cry on the sidewalk.  And then I made my friend take a picture of a bloody paper towel.  I am obviously a hypocrite.

Music Post #3

This one is not about recently obtained music, but party playlists. We had a going-away party for K tonight. She has relied on me for party mixes for the past 2 years. It's always tricky to time the music when it's not live, but I think after enough parties, I have gotten to a point where they turn out pretty successful - success measured by the number of people dancing - and then not leaving because the next song is too good to leave. So here was tonight's playlist. Note that I went back and re-played the 80s/90s mix that appears in the middle once people had been motivated to dance by the hip-hop. I never want to break the hip-hop out too early, but it always ends up being the music that motivates people to start dancing. So here's the list:

• Ratatat - Wildcat
• Say Hi - Northwestern Girls
• Islands - Where There's a Will There's a Way
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion
• Feist - 1234
• Pixies - Debaser
• Daedelus - Fair Weather Friends
• The Ting Tings - Great DJ
• Hot Chip - Over & Over
• The Gossip - Standing in the Way of Control
• Junior Boys - In the Morning
• of Montreal - Id Engager
• Fujiya & Miyagi - Collarbone
• The Outfield - Your Love
• Erasure - A Little Respect
• Cansei de Ser Sexy - Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above
• Justice - D.A.N.C.E.
• Daft Punk - Around the World/Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
• The Knife - Heartbeats
• MGMT - Kids
• Blur - Girls & Boys
• EMF - Unbelievable
• Estelle - American Boy (Feat. Kanye West)
• Akon - Wanna Be Startin Something
• Ace of Base - I Saw the Sign
• B-52s - Love Shack
• Salt-N-Pepa - Shoop
• Paula Abdul - Straight Up
• Cardigans - Love Fool
• Bell Biv Devoe - That Girl is Poison
• The Darkness - I Believe in a Thing Called Love
• Young MC - Bust a Move
• Ace of Base - Beautiful Life
• Deelite - Groove is in the Heart
• Architecture in Helsinki - Debbie
• Usher - Love in this Club
• Lil Jon and the Eastside Boys - Get Low (Feat. Ying Yang Twins)
• Ciara - 1 2 Step (Feat. Missy)
• Sir Mix-A-Lot - Jump on It
• Eric Prydz - Call on Me
• Girl Talk - Play Your Part (Pt. 1)
• Outkast - Hey Ya
• Black Eyed Peas - My Humps
• Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
• Justin Timberlake - My Love
• Jay Z - I Just Wanna Love Ya
• Enrique Iglesias - Don't Turn Off the Lights (um, this one was due to an earlier conversation between roommates)
• Wyclef Jean - Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)
• Usher - Yeah (Feat. Lil Jon & Ludacris)
• Kanye West - Stronger
• Nelly Furtado & Timbaland - Promiscuous
• Timbaland - Give it to Me
• Britney Spears - Toxic
• 50 Cent - In Da Club
• Timbaland - The Way I Are
• 50 Cent - Ayo Technology (Feat. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland)
• Destiny's Child - Say My Name
• Juvenile - Back that Ass Up
• Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.
• Groove Armada - I See You Baby
• Biz Markie - Just a Friend
• Beck - E-Pro
• The Notorious B.I.G. - Hypnotize
• The Roots - The Seed (2.0)
• Black Eyed Peas - The Request Line (Feat. Macy Gray)
• Bananarama - Venus