RobertSpuhler.com

Friday (Wednesday?) Random - 3/12/08

Because for the next couple of weeks it's likely that the front page of this blog will be all March Madness-y, let me get oue of these out there...no skipping, etc.

Put It In the Air - Talib Kweli f. DJ Quik (from Quality)
Can You Rock It Like This - Run DMC (from Kings of Rock)
Goodnight and Go (live) - Imogen Heap (from ITunes EP)
Let the Good Times Roll - Stevie Wonder, Bono and Ray Charles (from Q's Jook Joint)
Mushaboom (Mocky mix) - Feist (from Open Season)
Mais Feliz [Monoaural remix] - Bebel Gilberto (from Tanto Tempo Remixes)
Precious Things - Tori Amos (from Little Earthquakes)
I Think of You - Ivy (from Long Distance)
I.C.U. - Goodie Mob (from Dirty South Classics)
Poor Wayfairing Stranger - Natalie Merchant (from The House Carpenter's Daughter)

Superlatives post-jump...

Friday (???) Random, 1/13/08

Hey, y'know what I haven't done for a while?

Go to ITunes. Go to "Party Shuffle." Write down the first ten songs that pop up.

1) Scenario (Young Nation rmx) - A Tribe Called Quest (from Revised Quest For the Seasoned Traveller)
2) Tranquilo - Bebel Gilberto (from Momento)
3) Sometimes Wanna Die - Joydrop (from Viberate)
4) Overture from Spamalot - Original Cast Recording
5) Move With Me (Dub) - Neneh Cherry (from Until the End of the World OST)
6) Fountain of Youth - The Nields (from Gotta Get Over Greta)
7) Monstarr - Bis (from The New Transistor Heroes)
8) English Summer Rain - Placebo (from Sleeping With Ghosts)
9) One Word - Velocity Girl (from Gilded Stars and Zealous Hearts)
10) Western Star - Frank Black and the Catholics (from Pistolero)

(superlatives after the jump)

Friday Random, 10/7/06

No skipping, rationalizing, crying, etc.

1) Rock With You - Brandy f/ Heavy D (from Q's Jook Joint)
2) Girl Inform Me - The Shins (from Oh Inverted World!)
3) The Show [live] - Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh (from The Art of Storytelling)
4) Do You Believe? - Joydrop (from Viberate)
5) Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad? - Prince (from The Hits)
6) Big Sky - Villa Rosie (from Everybody Rides)
7) Two Million - Bis (from Return to Central)
8) Fumbling Towards Ecstacy - Sarah McLachlan (from Fumbling Towards Ecstacy)
9) Twice as Long - Meghan Hayes (from Snow on the Waves)
10) God is a DJ - Faitherless (from Sunday 8 p.m.)

Overall thoughts: All over the map, but in a good way. I think.

Seen live: Villa Rosie, Bis, Sarah McLachlan, Meghan Hayes.

Favorite song: This week, it's God is a DJ, but it likely would be Fumbling Towards Ecstacy, the underrated gemon that album.

Least favorite: Two Million is pure album filler (on an album that didn't need any filler, too - shame).

Favorite album: I'm going with Return to Central, despite Two Million. The best of Bis here.

Friday Random, 9/29/06

1) I've Committed Murder [Gang Starr rmx] - Macy Gray f/ Mos Def (from Lyricists Lounge vol. 2)
2) Haiti - The Arcade Fire (from Funeral)
3) Live at the O.M.N.I. - Goodie Mob (from Soul Food)
4) Big Sky - Villa Rosie (from Everybody Rides)
5) The Absence of God - Rilo Kiley (from More Adventurous)
6) Player's Ball - OutKast (from Big Boi and Dre Present...)
7) Like Always - The Association (from Greatest Hits)
8) War Cry - Joe Strummer (from Grosse Pointe Blank [sndtrk])
9)  Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of - U2 (from All That You Can't Leave Behind)
10) Maybe an Angel - Heather Nova (from Oyster)

Overall thoughts: I like this mix a lot. It rescues a lot of tracks I don't listen to all that often anymore...the kind of songs you hear and say, "Why don't I listen to that song more often?" right before not listening to that song again for another 9-12 months.

Seen live: Goodie Mob, Villa Rosie, Rilo Kiley, U2, Heather Nova.

Favorite song: Player's Ball was the first OutKast song I heard, all the way back in 199...4? Maybe. I was at the Air Force Academy for basketball camp (so maybe '95?).

Least favorite: Stuck in a Moment... scared me, because it's very early on that album and my first thought was, "so much for U2 making decent music anymore." Cliche-riddled sap.

Favorite album: I can't tell you how many times I've listened to More Adventurous. Really an incredible album.

Favorite lyrics: "The absence of God will bring you comfort, baby. And planning's for the poor so let's pretend that we're rich. And I'm not my body or how I choose to destroy it. Folk singers sing songs for the working, baby; we're just recreation for all those doctors and lawyers. There's no relief for the bleeding heart 'cause they'll be losing bodies tonight.

And Rob says you love, love, love and then you die. I've watched him while sleeping and seen him crying with closed eyes.

And you're not happy but you're funny and I'm tripping over my joy but I just keep on getting up again. We could be daytime drunks if we wanted - we'd never get anything done that way baby. And we'd still be ruled by our dueling perspectives. And I'm not my perspective or the lies I'll tell you every time.

And Morgan says, maybe love won't let you down. All of your failures are training grounds, and just as your back's turned you'll be surprised, she says, as your solitude subsides.

And Mike, I'll teach you how to swim if you turn the bad in me into good again.

And I say there's trouble when everything is fine. The need to destroy things creeps up on me every time. Just as love's silhouette appears  I close my eyes and disappear tonight.

And something's got to change 'cause our love's the slowest moving train."

Friday Random, 9/22/06

No apologies, handwringing, excuses, class action lawsuits, etc...

1) Big Nick - Duke Ellington and John Coltrane (from Duke Ellington and John Coltrane)
2) Sweetest Thing - U2 (from Best of 1980-1990)
3) L-L-Love - Blondfire (from Live Session)
4) My Sister Rose - 10,000 Maniacs (from In My Tribe)
5) Chicago - Bis (from Return to Central)
6) Don't See Us - The Roots (from Things Fall Apart)
7) Bob Lind [The Only Way Is Down] - Pulp (from We Love Life)
8) Xanax and Wine - U2 (from Unreleased and Rare)
9) Miss Teen Wordpower - The New Pornographers (from Electric Version)
10) Fine - James (from Pleased to Meet You)

Overall thoughts: That's a great little mix there.  It's a rare random 10 that gives up so many danceable tracks.

Favorite song:  Chicago. This is Bis at its best - attitude combined with a rare (for them) technical brilliance. More of this and Bis could have really crossed over in America.

Favorite album: It's okay if you don't think that In My Tribe is the best album of the 1980s. That's fine. Everyone is allowed to be wrong on occasion.

Seen live: U2, 10,000 Maniacs, Bis, The Roots, New Pornographers, James.

Favorite lyrics: "I have no pride left, no, no there is nothing I'm trying to prove. No, I am a fuck-up,  just the same as you.  Oh, I guess this is where I fall apart, and I guess this is where the teardrops start, but I don't care 'cos I just fell in love again. And I'd had enough - well, far too much. I just fell down, could you please help me up?  'Cos if you help me maybe I could fall in love again." - Pulp, Bob Lind [The Only Way is Down]

Friday Random, 9/15/06

A week hiatus as I flew across the country. Now, for your listening pleasure...wait...make that my listening pleasure...whatever: No rationalizing, skipping, etc.

1) Destiny Calling - James (from Best of)
2) Mercy House - The Nields (from If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Now)
3) Little Girl Blue (Postal Service remix) - Nina Simone (from Verve Remixed 3)
4) Am I Worth You? - De La Soul (from AOI: Bionix)
5) Hey Pretty (Drive By 2001 mix) - Poe f. Mark Z. Danielewski (from Hey Pretty)
6) Falling Through Your Clothes - The New Pornographers (from Twin Cinema)
7) Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad? - Prince (from Hits)
8) Cada Beijo - Bebel Gilberto (from Bebel Gilberto)
9) We Don't Care - Kanye West (from College Dropout)
10) Funky Ride - Outkast (from Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik)

Overall thoughts: That's a fun little mix right there. Completely bizarre, but fun.

No, I DIDN'T Plan That: The Poe remix combined her original chorus with Danielewski - her brother - reading a passage from House of Leaves in lieu of the verses. See below for more.

Seen live: James, The Nields, De La Soul, The New Pornographers.

Favorite song: Destiny Calling is one of my favorite sendups of fame ever. One of the best James songs from the post-Laid era.

Least favorite: The blippy Postal Service sound just don't sound right with Simone providing the vocals. It's a failed  experiment. In fact, that pretty much goes for the entire "Verve Remixed" collection, as far as I'm concerned. These songs were classics the first time out, thanks.

Favorite lyrics: It's cheating, but I'll do it anyway. Here's the House of Leaves passage on Hey Pretty...

"Kyrie suggested we go for a drive in her new 2-door BMW coupe. In the parking lot, we slipped into her bucket seats. Kyrie took over from there.

At nearly 90 miles per hour she zipped us up to that windy edge known to some as Mullholland, that sinuous road running the ridge of the Santa Monica Mountains where she then proceeded to pump her vehicle in and out of turns sometimes dropping down to 50 miles per hour, only to immediately gun it back up to 90 again. Fast, slow, fast fast slow. Sometime a wide turn, sometimes a quick one. She preferred the tighter ones. The sharp controlled jerks, swinging left to right before driving back to the right only so she could do it all over again until after enough speed, and enough wind, and more distance than I had been prepared to expect, taking me to parts of the city I rarely think of and never visit, I heard her say:

Hey pretty
Don't you wanna take a ride with me?
Through my world

Hey pretty
Don't you wanna kick and slide
Through my world

Do you get the gist of the song now?

I can't remember the inane things I started babbling about then, I know it didn't really matter, she wasn't listening. She just yanked up on the emergency brake, dropped her seat back, and told me to lie on top of her. On top of those leather pants of hers, her hands immediately guiding mine over those soft, slightly oily folds. Positioning my fingers on the shiny metal tab, small and round, like a tear, then murmuring a murmur so inaudible that even though I could feel her lips tremble against my ear, she seemed far, far away.

Pinch it

she said, which I did, lightly, until she also said

Pull it

which I also did, gently parting the teeth, one at a time, down under and beneath, the longest unzipping of my life...

Hey pretty
Don't you wanna take a ride with me?
Through my world

Hey pretty
Don't you wanna kick and slide
Through my world

Hey pretty
My pretty baby
Rock it through my world (through my world)

Hey pretty (Hey pretty)
My pretty baby
Rock it through my world (my world)

We never even kissed, or looked into each other's eyes. Our lips just trespassed on those inner labyrinths hidden deep within our ears, filled them with the private music of wicked words. Hers in many languages. Mine in the off-color of my only tongue.

Too bad dark languages rarely survive.

Don't you want to take a ride with me?
Don't you want to take a ride with me?

Do you get the gist of the song now?

Friday Random, 9/1/06

Happy September!

More in a bit, but for now...something about songs, ITunes, rationalizing, something, something.

1) Metal Detector - They Might Be Giants (from Factory Showroom)
2) Get Up - Amel Larrieux (from Infinite Possibilities)
3) Young Pilgrims - The Shins (from Chutes Too Narrow)
4) I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For [Live] - U2 (from Communication)
5) Hold On To Me - Nina Gordon (from Tonight and the Rest of My Life)
6) Here To Stay - New Order (from International)
7) Lover's Rock - The Clash (from London Calling)
8) Rolling Down My Face - Amerie (from Touch)
9) Tsunami - Manic Street Preachers (from This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours)
10) Held Down - De La Soul (from AOI II: Bionix)

General thoughts: Nothing overly impressive here. No standouts. The definition of mediocre.

Seen live: They Might Be Giants, U2, Nina Gordon, De La Soul.

Favorite song: No one does conscious hip-hop quite like De La. Helped by post-Goodie Mob, pre-Gnarls Barkley Cee-Lo, Held Down is one of my favorite "message" hip-hop tracks ever.

Least favorite song: Amerie had (has?) so much, that listening to her resort to my-man-done-did-me-wrong R&B is painful.

Favorite album: If I don't pick London Calling, I will be eligible for execution in England.

Favorite lyrics:  "And when I'm watchin the news, and my daughter walks in and chooses to ask, 'Why were all those people on the floor sleepin', covered in red?' I told her that they were lookin for God, but found religion instead." - De La Soul, Held Down

Friday Random, 8/25/06

It's Friday. I'm random. And you know this ... maaaaaaaan.

Ahem.

1) Goodbye Sadness - Astrud Gilberto (from Compact Jazz)
2) Why Can't I Be You? - The Cure (from Greatest Hits)
3) 30 Days - Run DMC (from Run DMC)
4) Anything Can Happen - Wyclef Jean (from The Carnival)
5) Along Comes Mary - The Association (from Greatest Hits)
6) Fall in Love With Me - Tim Booth and Angelo Badalamenti (from Booth and the Bad Angel)
7) Come Take a Trip in My Airship - Natalie Merchant (from Retrospective)
8) Just Say Yes - The Cure (from Greatest Hits)
9) Man I Used to Be - K-os  (from Joyful Rebellion)
10) Ring the Bells - James (from Seven)

Overall thoughts: Some Cure repetition, but otherwise interesting. The Wyclef-to-Association jump is weird.

Seen live: Natalie Merchant, James. Tim Booth is the lead singer of James, so I've seen half of the Booth/Badalamenti team, and I've seen the Fugees live, but not Wyclef solo.

Favorite song: It's rare for me to really like a blatant, unrepentent love song, but Please Fall in Love With Me is tinged with enough sadness and desperation to make it acceptable and not too obvious in my book (what does that answer say about me?).

Least favorite: Both Cure songs are from the Greatest Hits album that features a disc of acoustic new recordings of old songs. Why Can't I Be You? without the horn section or synth is kinda crap.

Favorite non-Natalie Greatest Hits album: Seven contains several of my favorite James songs, That'll have to do - not a lot of spectacular full-lengths here.

Favorite lyrics: Both sets from Please Fall in Love With Me ...

"Drift with me upon an endless sea - we are divine in the realm of these senses. Every move has been subterfuge while we pretend that we really don't care."

"Lost your mind, well don't you think its time to swim away from the safety of these beaches. Trust the tides, they know which way to flow and don't you long to flow so far. Moved in waves we've never felt before 'til we are floating way out deep. Please fall in love with me."

Friday Random, 8/18/06

It's Friday, so it's time to break out Ye Olde ITunes (which, for some odd reason, turned British this week). No skipping, rationalizing, etc.

1) The Perfect Kiss - New Order (from International)
2) Ambicion Eterna - Thievery Corporation (from The Cosmic Game)
3) Falling Down - Tim Booth (from Bone)
4) I N I - Amel Larrieux (from Infinite Possibilities)
5) You're Such a Wire - Frank Black and the Catholics (from Pistolero)
6) Do You Feel Loved - U2 (from Pop)
7) You Can't Tell How Much Suffering - James (from James)
8) For You - The Elected (from Sun, Sun, Sun [bonus CD])
9) Plasticine - Placebo (from Sleeping With Ghosts)
10) Discotheque - Stargazer Lily (from Lights on, Let's Go)

Overall thoughts: Random, random, random. Really all over the place - and not in a good way this time.

Seen live: U2, James.

Seen live, kinda: Frank Black is the lead singer of the Pixies and Tim Booth is the lead singer of James. I've seen both bands live. The Elected, meanwhile, is the side project of Rilo Kiley frontman Blake Sennett. I've seen them live, but I spent more time staring at the band's frontwoman, Jenny Lewis.

Favorite song: Plasticine just barely edges out You're Such a Wire. Sleeping With Ghosts is an entirely underrated album in the Placebo catalogue.

Least favorite song: Okay, so I like Blue Monday and Bizarre Love Triangle. But evidentally there are other New Order songs. Those I don't like as much.

Favorite album: James has Sit Down, and therefore wins by a lot.

Memory trigger:  Pop was released in March of 1997. I remember going to one of those record company "release parties" at a Tower or something to get it at midnight. I got on the bus, listened to about half of it on the way home, then immediately ... loaned it to an  "old friend," because the copy she had won from a radio station had not come in yet (she's a huge U2 fan, while I was a moderate fan who found himself becoming a bigger one for ... um ... some reason). To be 18, in "love" and stupid again...

Favorite lyrics - "I told you to fuck off, and you did. Then like a leftover I lost my lid. My karma killed my dogma, my ego killed my id, when I told you to fuck off and you did." - Stargazer Lily, Discotheque (hey, it's not all Shakespeare)

Friday Random, 8/11/06

1) Kill Yr Boyfriend - Bis (from Play Some Real Songs)
2) Finish Your Collapse and Stay for Breakfast - Broken Social Scene (from Broken Social Scene)
3) Parkdale  - Metric (from Grow Up and Blow Away)
4) Mis-shapes - Pulp (from Different Class)
5) Touch the Sky - Kanye West (from Late Registration)
6) Plenty - Sarah McLachlan (from Fumbling Towards Ecstacy)
7) Blue  Monk - Thelonious Monk (from Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane)
8) Romance - R.E.M. (from Eponymous)
9) Somebody's Got to Do It - The Roots (from The Tipping Point)
10) Flying Past the Windows - Jill Sobule (unreleased demo)

Overall thoughts: I like this mix well enough. Nothing really stands out in either direction - a good writing/background mix.

Seen live: Bis, Broken Social Scene, Metric, Sarah McLachlan, The Roots, Jill Sobule.

Favorite song: Technically no one is supposed to have a copy of Parkdale - Interscope (I think) shelved the album after completion and was never released. So take that, RIAA.

Least favorite: Ummm....Plenty? I find myself skipping both that and Finish Your Collapse the most often, even though they're both perfectly acceptable songs.

Favorite album: I've said it before, I'll say it again: Different Class is the best album of the 1990s.

Favorite lyrics:  "We almost forgot every building is a shop, every person is a shopper. Finally it almost seemed we almost forgot every building is a shop, every person is a shopper. Finally it almost seemed we moved out of the searchlight, passed under the moonlight, moved out of the searchlight. Open up and spend the night in Parkdale." - Metric, Parkdale