Afterwork Breeze

2007-02-10T15:20:00.000-05:00

Well, I think I'm going to stop this here blog, which is barely a blog, and MOG. Because over there folks pretty much talk about music stuff, which is pretty much what I do here, and I think I'd do it more often if I knew I had to keep up with my fellow Moggers! But as my last Blogger act, I'm going to answer to Ms. Paula's "tag"! The deal is, I post 6 odd things about myself, and then "tag" 6 others to do the same, sending them the link to this page. I've only got 3 folks to tag so far, so I guess I'll add the other 3 gradually. (I certainly answered the "tag" gradually.) Anyways.

Six "odd" things about me:
1. I like to go to fast food restaurants by myself, and sit for a while and eat something bad for me, and read the New Yorker.
2. Almost every time I send an email, I go into my "sent" folder, and read the email I just sent.
3. I take country music, the high and the low of it, very seriously. My favorite TV show is "Opry Live," which I watch with rapture and wonderment.
4. I was made fun of in grade school sometimes...one thing that really stayed with me is in 6th grade some kids called me "Pointdexter." I remember the main kid who was doing this had an "I'm With Stupid" T-shirt that he wore, it seemed to me, every day. I don't feel so bad about it now.
5. I have a thing about Sanrio (the Hello Kitty company) characters, specifically the black googly-eyed cat Chococat. I collect Chococat items.
6. I saved and framed the announcement from my first "real" gig (at CBs Gallery). In the frame next to the listing I stuck an illustration that had accompanied a NY Times editorial about Chelsea Clinton, that showed a teenage girl looking wistfully out of a window. The things seemed to go together. The little collage has lived on top of my dresser since then.

Anyways, here's the MOG page...you can find me over there from now on!

2006-11-24T00:41:00.000-05:00

It's been requested that I blog about the CMAs. Well, I can, although the funny thing is, I didn't see them. I was coming back from L.A., and the plan landed just as they were ending. Of course, I immediately Googled on my Treo to see if there was any news. I was a bit sad that Big & Rich again did not win the Duo award, but I think one day they will. The Faith thing is weird...I just watched the video for the first time, if you can believe it...if you know me, you know that is my worst fear...that I will accidentally "broadcast" myself doing something mean or embarrassing. But I think she was joking with a bit of truth in it. The funny thing is, it led me to give Carrie Underwood another chance...I had listened to her when she first came on the scene and the stuff didn't really stick with me, but then after a conversation with a friend who loves her I hopped over to her site where you can quite easily listen to "Jesus Take the Wheel" and realized it is inspirational, beautiful, and quite well-written, and she sings the hell out of it. (Can't wait to do it in karaoke.) She also nails "Before He Cheats." Anyways.

2006-09-24T14:42:00.000-04:00

Hello. Still kind of reeling from Willie Nelson, Ryan Adams and Neko Case at the Hollywood Bowl on 9/10. First let me tell you what they were wearing. Willie was wearing jeans and a tucked-in T-shirt and braids. And of course the stripey macrame guitar strap. Ryan was wearing a tiny Batman T-shirt, jeans and light-brown motorcycle boots with a substantial heel. They looked good when he did this hopping backwards thing he does. Neko was wearing jeans and an incredibly dazzly royal-blue sequined cardigan with a satin bow that was supposed to close it, but she let the pieces of satin hang down to her knees and blow around in a romantic way. Also dangly earrings and a black camisole-ish thing. She was accompanied by one of my fave singers ever, Kelly Hogan, on backups, who looked sophisticated in a basic black blazer, top and pants.

It was an amazing show, although they didn't do any songs together. FYI, Willie's new record is produced by Ryan and features his band the Cardinals. Neko was astounding; her beautiful voice filled the Bowl up to the brim. It was our first time seeing Ryan, and boy, did he live up to our expectations. The band was amazing, and Phil Lesh guested on bass for some of the songs and they did some Dead covers (see Ryan's set list). It was crazy seeing Willie...I kept looking at him going, "That's really him!" He did all the classics one after another, plus that vigilante-ish song he does with Toby Keith, "Beer for my Horses" (it was a #1 hit after all). There was a lady singing along a bit too much behind me, which was really OK except for when she did it during "Always on My Mind," which Willie was really imbuing with a lot of bittersweetness. Many of his family members were onstage. And then just a week later he got busted.

Anyways, please see the info re: our XXroads gig.

And Happy New Year. As Rabbi Burt said, "I'm still writing 5766 on my checks."

2006-08-22T22:53:00.000-04:00

Pretty consumed with Klaus Nomi...we learned about him on New York Noise (in fact we've seen stuff about him more than once on there so we started calling it "the Klaus Nomi channel") and then Netflixed this. His story was fascinating and sad, and there are many beautiful things about the DVD. It made me nostalgic for a New York I used to know, as well as one I did not know. Also, the DVD contains a recipe for a lime tart (Klaus was a serious baker) which the enterprising chefs in my home attempted with total success. It's on the DVD but here's somebody who tried it and put her efforts on YouTube.
Also totally loving the Dixie Bee Liners.

2006-06-25T21:25:00.000-04:00

Obsessed with Pandora.com. If you don't know about 'em, they create radio stations for you based on artists and songs that you like. They match music based on The Music Genome Project, a system they devised for breaking down music to hundreds of small, DNA-like elements. So, say you make a station based on an artist...you'll hear tons of stuff from that artist, not just hits but album tracks from all over his/her career, plus other similar artists. I have one station that's a mishmash of Ryan Adams, Kelly Willis and Neil Young, one called "Chanteusi" that's Jo Stafford and Doris Day, and a soul one based solely (soul-ly?) on Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. You can endlessly play with the stations, adding, subtracting, etc. Thank you to Sue for introducing me to them.
Speaking of Neil, I've always known I was going to have a Neil phase...I've known this since I was 5 or so and my Dad was into "Are You Ready for the Country." I've been waiting for the phase; it never quite came because I was always falling for things that were "easier." But here it is now, ushered in in part by the Heart of Gold movie. Amazing items: "Don't Let it Bring You Down" from 4-Way Street, and the Harvest Moon album, which it turns out I own (when you merge your CDs with someone else's, you're not always totally aware of what you have, and thus make discoveries in your own living room).
One more thing: S. recently mastered the soundtrack to Another Gay Movie. It is of course called Another Gay Soundtrack. It's totally great, with very disparate tracks blending together in a Garden-State-ish way. (I must say a few of the tracks are on the adults-only side.) There is this one song called "This is Love," by the band sELF. When this song comes on, I must dance; if I'm sitting down, I must do hand motions. There is also a Nancy Sinatra song made just for the film, this incredible song called "Fuego" that's in Spanish, and an astounding song called "See the Stars" by the Myrmidons which you can hear at their MySpace page. I'm sure I'll have more on this later. OK, bye.

2006-05-29T16:14:00.000-04:00

Wow, I'm blogging constantly. Anyway, the below post was written in a fit of optimism. It's not that I'm not optimistic anymore, it's just that now I've been through the gig and out the other side. But I think the idea of possibility still holds, but this is the angle I see it from: After reading Jen's Trynin's book, I'm thinking a lot about why people need to express themselves and how far to go with that...if you can make people happy and/or entertained with your work (including yourself), I think that's it. If you can make one person not bored or not depressed for five minutes, I think that's reason enough to do it. And that's the possibility to hold out for. You just have to not end up bored or depressed yourself. Or scared, but that one may be impossible to avoid. Of course, there are plenty of other ways to do this. But just as everyone speaks differently, everyone expresses themselves differently. Anyways. This is the most amazing video. It comes from Jammed On On, which is in itself amazing.

2006-05-22T18:00:00.000-04:00

A half hour after writing the below I got to the part of the book where David Geffen calls her and starts talking about Linda Ronstadt...

2006-05-20T14:04:00.000-04:00

I'm reading Jen Trynin's book Everything I'm Cracked Up To Be, as she is going to be reading on Wednesday when I'm playing. It's very good and funny and also sad in parts. I'm also listening non-stop to this new Linda Ronstadt The Capitol Years CD, which is blowing my mind. Along with the fact that I'm gearing up for this gig, my mind is running and racing with all these thoughts of the various musical segments of my life: Singing along to Linda records while watching myself in my bedroom window at twilight, the leaves of the hedge outside slowly fading into me, scrawny in Dittos or Luv-its and a shirt with cats on it...going to see bands when I lived in the East Village, heading out into that same twilight, a little more confident, starting to do music but not really knowing what I was doing, seeing Jen at the Mercury Lounge at one of those shows where you're in the front row and your experience of it is pure and you're able to remember and be inspired by it for a long time...and now practicing in my suburban office, a tiny replica of my EV apartment, and the music is still there and doing it is easier and harder at the same time, then getting in the car and blaring those same Linda songs. "Rock me on the water, sister won't you soothe my fevered brow..." All the music was saying there was so much possibility, and there still is.

2006-04-22T13:20:00.000-04:00

The Mets are doing pretty well (although the second I started to get excited about this, they lost some games). In any case, David Wright has a blog, and it's very sweet and rather interesting.

Doing the Happy Ending reading series/musical thing; details here!

I've been listening to the new Rosanne Cash album, and it's really this whole little world you plunge into, which is her hipster introspective New York literary thing mashed together with the whole Johnny thing. It makes for a combination that fits right in with my own musical meanderings and taste. Plus throw in gals and their relationships with their folks, and you've got a powerful package.

2006-04-06T22:57:00.000-04:00

I finished another song....nice, right? It needs a name, though. I named it for someone who I'd like to remain anon, so what we're looking for is a three-syllable, interesting but not too interesting, man or woman's name. Let me know if you have any suggestions! Thanks! This song got written on a plane; it was one of those things where I had one idea, and absolutely forced myself to sit down and work on it, and then realized the theme was a lot like one of my other songs, and I took some of the lyrics and then steered the thing in another direction, and it just took off. It was one of those forcing things. Like forced flowers, which is something I'm always reading about but don't understand.

My new favorite site is Download.com. This is where I used to get shareware, on the rare occasion that I went looking for it. Now they have this nice music section. I have a page on there, and lots of other music that you may want to listen to resides there. Like, the whole Transamerica soundtrack is on there, and it's great! You can purchase, or just stream over and over again (as you know, my favorite thing to do). There is a very neat little player; and the playlists the editors have assembled are really very cool. I'm listening to one (can't figure out how to link to it) called "Theo's Playlist: Anti-Artists" that has Bettye Lavette, KT Tunstall, and Neko Case on it. Oh, and I found a cool Eleventh Dream Day song on one. I could go on. Just throw your favorite artists into their search and see what you find! I haven't even fully explored the functionality of it, and I think it does a lot more than I've done with it yet. Anyways.

2006-03-19T15:29:00.000-05:00

Blogging about mix CDs is one of my favorite things to do. So, the one we made Friday was a mix of great live tunes to go with our entry in a cake-decorating contest. The cake's theme was "rock show" and featured a truly lifelike pipecleaner band (complete with glitter pipe-cleaners, a magenta feather wrapped around the lead singer's neck, and a purple pom-pom wig on the guitarist), a gummy audience on a green-frosting lawn, and huge black stacks (computer speakers) blaring the "Cake Mix." The cake won second place in the "Most Original" category. The funniest thing was how lots of people were, like, hanging out by our cake, listening to it. Anyways, here are the tracks:
1. Rock and Roll All Night, KISS, from KISS Alive! (the last song on that album).
2. Hello There, from Cheap Trick's At Budokan (the first song on that album).
3. Ziggy Stardust, from the movie by that same name (which I wasn't really aware of, but this version rocks so hugely).
4. Jumpin' Jack Flash, from the Stones' Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out (which was one of the cassettes of my Dad's that I played a lot in grade school).
5. The Cowboy Song by Thin Lizzy, which I think would be really fun to cover! It's from Live and Dangerous. (I hear Paula's a big TL fan...)
6. Summertime Blues, the Who, from Live at Leeds. Yikes!
7. I Don't Know, by Ozzy, from Tribute. Ozzy was always a sentimental guy, the experts tell me.
We used this site to help us a bit. One thing that was kinda disappointing was that we couldn't find a good live Janis Joplin tune (the rule was that all the singers had to be someone who would wear a boa)...I wish I could have thought of other females for this purpose. You also may note we didn't have Frampton on there, as the clip we heard on iTunes of "Do You Feel..." just didn't sound all that compelling, and was too long. Also, the live Queen we found sounded like it just wasn't Freddie's best night. Anything else we missed?

2006-02-27T21:59:00.000-05:00

Well, it's almost March 1 and I only finished 2 songs of the 5 I wanted to. I think this is pretty good considering my usual pace, and the fact that at least 5 more are more majorly in the works than they would have been ordinarily. Anyways, here's to the 2 done ones, "Light Blue Love" and "Hang Out with me Tonight."

Thank you, Not Lame, for the lovely things you said re: LOMB. You are great.

So, S. has this theory, which is that you can tell if a song is really special, if you imagine Merv Griffin singing it. (I will add, on the Merv Griffin show, on that very set, in a gray suit, with the band off to the side, and a live studio audience, and Totie Fields and Anthony Newley are that night's guests, and it's 1975.) It's the rare song which will still hold up. Try it with any song you know. Bless S., he thinks "Be a Man" will hold up in this instance. We weren't so sure about S. Crow's "If It Makes You Happy," just because there's something about Sheryl's performance that really makes that song as wonderful as it is. Many Beatles songs will work (and you can bet Merv did them.) LCD Soundsystem's "Disco Infiltrator"? It's a great song, for sure, but I don't know if Merv could pull it off.

2006-02-17T22:12:00.000-05:00

There is some music that is thrilling me. KT Tunstall's "Under the Weather" (watch the video; it has an excellent vintage trailer in it!). Ryan Adams' "29" (listen to this plus the whole album here ). DCFC's "Soul Meets Body" (listen to this, and also the great song "Crooked Teeth" at their My Space page). Just one DCFC thought: I understand I'm coming pretty late to them, and it's one of those instances where they got poppier, but that's find by me; I guess I first heard it on WNTI, soaring (borrowing a word from the song) through country roads at 7:15 a.m., and that will make you see the thoughtful side of anything. (Oh, also, if you go to the My Space page, turn off the video playing in the lower half of the page, otherwise it will play the video and the song at the same time.) It's funny, as I write this, I'm listening to the DCFC My Space page, and S. is downstairs listening to the Ryan "29" page. Oh, and a KT thought: the record has this glossy, airy English vibe where something can be very poppy but the absolute height of coolness at the same time (perhaps the Beatles invented that?). Anything to say re: Ryan? No, he just continues to amaze. I so want to see him live now.

2006-02-02T22:13:00.000-05:00

It's almost Grammy time, and then it will be Oscar time. I have, like many people, a crazed love of awards shows, mostly because I just love to see what people wear and say and do, and I do kind of like the pomp of it. I know, I know, say what you will. But some artists are just very rewarding on awards shows; for example, Alison Krauss will usually roll her eyes at the camera or something goofy, and then the next minute go out and sing and look totally hot in a see-through dress, and then the next minute win Female Vocalist of the Year or something. (That would be on the CMAs, which I know are not even on a lot of people's awards show radar, but loom large on mine.) If you like podcasts, there's a very funny one going now for NPR's All Songs Considered, with hilarious and blunt chatting re: the Grammys.
P.S., finished "Hang Out With Me Tonight." Yay. Now working on a song tentatively titled "Word Problem," about difficulty, well, um..."Just spit it out, Rebecca." Difficulty getting my point across sometimes. It's kind of a geeky title, but it may just be a lyric, not a title.

2006-01-18T21:04:00.000-05:00

Well, thanks to reader encouragement on the title, I was somehow inspired to work on the song "Hang Out With Me Tonight," and it truly is almost done! I remember now how I got myself to write lots of songs when I first started doing it...I really, really had to say something; I was desperate to explain something or to just get it out there. (Isn't it crazy that I had to remind myself of that? And I've had to do it over and over, too.) Kind of like how some people feel about blogging, probably. So, here's one of the sort of dark lines from the song: "From this sweet little spot/we can see a lot/and let's hope/we can enjoy it/after all of things we've been through." That's probably the darkest line...it's an uplifting song, I swear!
I've been listening to a lot of radio...WNTI in Hackettstown is a station that I love; many's the time they've accompanied me on a morning drive through trees and twisty roads. Also WBGO, right in the heart of Newark, is often the only thing that will let me chill. Both have contributed to the Coolifying of NJ for me.
Saw Walk the Line finally, and the best part of the whole thing are the performance scenes, where they're singing together, and it's that thing where they know they sound great together and they're just totally getting it right, and of course falling in love. I also agree with the lady walking out of the theater behind us who said, "I loved her outfits!"

2006-01-03T22:29:00.000-05:00

So, to reiterate, the March 5 are the 5 songs that I said I'd write by March. I think I know what they will be. Of course, these could be supplanted at any time by better ones.
1. Wake Up Crying
2. Light Blue Love (done; one line might be adjusted)
3. Afterwork Breeze
4. Hang Out with Me Tonight
5. I Thought My Secret Was You
So, OK!
The last one is no more than a title and and idea.
There are more ideas should these fail.
When you look at it this way, that you're really going to try to make something out of the idea, each idea seems viable.
Imagine having attempted to make a song out of every single scrap of everything, every note scribbled on a post-it with now-fuzzy adhesive that's stuck in a drawer. Having exhausted everything might actually be good. The big trick is, if you're working on something and it's coming out bad, pulling out and retrying, putting aside the bad jacket you put around the good idea.

2005-12-13T23:44:00.000-05:00

The only musical things that I did this week were 1. Cut my fingernails 2. Make a compilation CD of "songs of faith" for a Christmas gift. That was really fun; here's what's on it:
1. Come to Jesus, Mindy Smith
2. Daniel Prayed, Patty Loveless
3. All My Tears, Julie Miller
4. Down to the River to Pray, Alison Krauss (from "Oh, Brother" soundtrack)
5. Swing Down Chariot, Rufus & Chaka
6. Stubborn, Lee Ann Womack
7. Get Right With God, Lucinda Williams
8. People Get Ready, Aretha Franklin
9. Angel Doves, Mindy Smith
10. You are the Light, Lone Justice
11. Oh Happy Day, Edwin Hawkins Singers
12. Why Me Lord, Johnny Cash
13. Live This Life, Big & Rich
I could easily make another one of these.

Also today I discovered the song "Casey's Last Ride" by Kris Kristofferson. I heard a bluegrass version by the Country Gentleman on the Bluegrass Radio station over at CMT.com. This has got to be one of the saddest songs ever, ever, ever. Read the insanely sad lyrics. Apparently Emmylou Harris has covered this; I did not even know this. Some quick Googling also turned up this cool record label that has put out a very interesting looking Kristofferson tribute.

2005-12-06T12:56:00.000-05:00

Progress! "Wake Up Crying" is, I'd say, 25% done, and I like it. I'm trying as I always do to make it something someone else could sing; this intention is usually felled by my tendency to put some kind of weird, neurotic line in the song that would make Lee Ann Womack say, "Hmmm. That's kinda creepy." I have to say the most fun musical part of my week was playing along with the R. Adams Cold Roses CD, for an hour, with S., having a wonderful time. I will tell you, Ryan Adams likes B minor. A lot. The songs aren't super-hard, but they're super-good, which makes you all the more jealous of him! Anyways, I count this Ryan-session as musical progress too. And it felt great.

Also I found this old song called "Feather Duster" on my computer; I'd totally forgotten about it. It's not bad; might make it into the March 5.

2005-11-28T21:15:00.000-05:00

Well, this worked...not. I haven't been here in a month, and no songs were finished. More were started, which is I guess good, but they're all scattered about in saved messages and memos on various phones, and interrupting journal entries, and need to be gathered up. Also, it's bananas how easy it is to not blog. I will now run around picking up the bits of The Scattered Songs:
1. Song about that thing where you have a very meaningful dinner or lunch in a restaurant with someone, and then you stand up to leave and you've forgetten where you were, and you look around at everyone and are like, why are they all acting normally? I wrote a bunch of actual lyrics to this in my journal.
2. Song called "Wake Up Crying"...it's basically self-explanatory but it has a line "you're the mastermind of me" or something like that. Part of the tune of this is one of the saved messages.
3. I just tried to listen to the other saved song-message, and ended up deleting it. I think I know what it was, though...part of the namesake song of this blog...let me see if I remember it...yup, got it. Just a little scrap of tune, but it's still lodged in there.
A tricky business, this.

There is another sort of musical thing happening. We're working on a video for "Land of My Baby." It will have cats and clouds and water in it.

I'll be setting up some gigs for the spring. I'm looking for interesting places to play in New Jersey, in addition to the usual spots.

I'm also signing up for Pure Volume.

2005-10-24T21:40:00.000-04:00

Well, this worked, sort of. I kept thinking, oh, I haven't posted for a while, but I can't until I work on that song some more, because I told the blog I would! So I sat down to attempt to finish it, and I think I might have. I repeated the first verse at the end, which I don't like to do (I think I've only ever done that once before) but it sort of works here. The song's called "Light Blue Love" and it's about a flighty summer romance, and it originated so totally during the time of Exile in Guyville, and now kind of picks up where Liz picked up again at "It's Sweet." Here's the first verse, and imagine it with what I've always called "My Chords." (A descending progression found in, for example, "Tears of a Clown" and Three Dog Night's "Shambala"; I should really make a list of songs with "My Chords." I described them in a long-ago journal as the sound of someone crawling towards, then away, then towards, then away from you.)

Hold my hand but don't overdo it
Take my heart but don't listen to it
Give me some of your light blue love
Love me like a cloud going by let me lie here
With my eyes shut

Wherever it may have come from, when I play it I feel that movement that a song needs to stay alive with me. It needs a little more polishing and then we'll see. I've polished and then tossed before. I've got ideas for the other four songs, but in my typical fashion I feel like I gotta finish this one before moving on, but I'm going to force myself to get over that.

I'm going to spend some time listening to this radio station!

2005-10-15T09:08:00.000-04:00

So, last night I sat down to finish this very old song, "Light Blue Love." I dunno, it's kind of an 80s title, but the whole song hinges around it so I don't think it can be changed. The chords are kinda 90s, but they're fun and it's fun to play. Turns out all it needs is a bridge and an ending, so I'm trying to drag it into the present day musically and thematically with these parts, which may or may not end up being awkward. I think I've got the bridge, it just needs some more words, and I don't think the ending will be hard. What was giving me musical energy, oddly, was the Angels' home run towards the end of last night's game. They ended up losing, but maybe it was a combination of the nice LA night (it was a rainy NJ night); Cabrera's 2-run homer that pushed me over the edge into fandom; and Mike Scioscia having dated Belinda Carlisle, thus giving off Go-Go vibes. Plus of course the fact that I'd promised the blogworld that I'd do it!

2005-10-11T23:09:00.000-04:00

Now I'm actually going to do what I meant to do when I started this thing, and publicly announce that I want to write 5 new songs, so that I have to do it.

It could be old ones that I already started but just need finishing, or starting some anew.

Er, I'll let you know how it's going. I'm going to give myself a rough deadline of...6 months from now? That would be March-ish.

Any advice you have to offer would be helpful.

2005-10-01T15:58:00.000-04:00

Besides fuelling, aiding and abetting my love for country music, CMT.com is good way to hear new stuff. Their Listening Parties section streams whole albums; you can not only hear the new Toby Keith, if you are so inclined, but you can also hear less mainstream artists like Kathleen Edwards (country-rock) and Adrienne Young (country-bluegrass). They also have "artist programmed" radio stations which can be very interesting; I don't know how much input the artist actually has, but I do know that I discovered the Ziggy Marley song "Beautiful Day" on the Jessi Colter station! I listened to the new Gretchen Wilson there, but I only had to do so once, because some nice folks picked it up for me at Wal-Mart yesterday, and I was leaping about, because it included a special bonus CD ("5-Mo-Fo-Ya") with some live tracks and miscellany. Fave song on the new album so far is "One Bud Wiser": "I'm one Bud wiser/than I was a minute ago/I found an equalizer/that makes his memory a no-show." Oh, and there's a bonus track of the old standard "Good Morning Heartache," which she nails. Love ya, Gretch.

2005-09-25T19:44:00.000-04:00

We went to a New Jersey record fair today. We bought vinyl because it sounds so great at our cabin; that's where we're slowly moving all vinyl to. (It's cool because it's like discovering those albums all over again, something I'm always hoping to find ways to do. I so wish I could somehow do this with my cassettes, but I think they are on their way to the grave. Oh, and we almost bought an 8-track at a garage sale today too, but that's another story.) We got: "Getz/Gilberto," "The Complete Art Tatum Piano Discoveries," "Curtis Mayfield: His Early Years with the Impressions," Ray Charles' "Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music," and Joni's "Mingus" which I'd just never gotten around to. But we can't play 'em right now because we aren't up there where the turntable is. One of the greatest things my mom ever said to me was when we were in England in the 80s, and I had bought this Marshall Crenshaw 45 ("Cynical Girl" b/w "You're My Favorite Waste of Time") but of course I couldn't play it 'till I got home, and she said "I know if you could play that with your teeth, you would."

2005-09-18T15:07:00.000-04:00

Currently blaring Ryan Adams' "Cold Roses." Yikes! It's kind of insane, but amazing. Like "Blonde on Blonde" + Big Star's "Radio City." Anyways, I had a lovely morning drive with it playing today, as I went to the ShopRite, and filled up at the Busy Bee. It's 79 degrees both inside and outside and very sunny. The other CD splurge of this week was LCD Soundsystem, which we would have never known about if it wasn't for this TV show, which you should make every effort to watch.

2005-09-15T21:15:00.000-04:00

I've been blogged about! Morgan posted this...

...and Eric posted this.

Thank you, guys!

This could so easily turn into a Kelly Clarkson fan-blog: Kelly did a great job, although ill, with the Ray LaMontagne song "Shelter" on Saturday's big MTV, etc. Katrina telethon. I remember first hearing Ray on my friend's car stereo in a hotel parking lot in Danvers, MA. (Although I must say, there certainly are a lot of songs by that name. A great Lone Justice song comes to mind.) You can check it out here -- go to "React Now" and then also download some of the other performances. I highly recommend Green Day's and Beck's.

I just signed up for CD Baby's digital distribution service.

2005-09-09T00:43:00.000-04:00

Hello there.

The above title comes from an as-yet unfinished song. Here's the bridge. There are verses, but they're pretty bad.

And when I'm walking around
The pressure points me to the ground
Oh little afterwork breeze
pick me up and set me down
To a place where no one knows me
Or cares what I do
I wanna be reborn on you

Help rebuild this New Orleans radio station.

Go Kelly! Go Kelly!