Thoughts on 2010, the "Renaissance Year"

Maybe you saw it coming, ye few dedicated souls who actually read this blog on a regular basis, or read it back when I actually bothered to post things that weren't just playlists for the radio show. Maybe there were clues, like THIS or THIS, but I have to say I did not see it coming. When I say "it", I'm referring to the fairly massive musical renaissance that occurred in my life this year. I went from barely wanting to hear anything new, not caring about most things other people were excited about, having a bad attitude about just about every new sort of "indie darling" band that came out, to, as things stand now, feeling like I'm more likely than not to enjoy most things coming out that people are excited about.

How did this happen, you ask? I know that doing the radio show had a great deal to do with it. It's like if you suddenly got a job putting together floral arrangements but had disliked most new kinds of flowers you had encountered over the last five or six years. Things would change REALLY fast. I think you'd learn to love flowers again, and you'd have things that became your favorites, or that you found new, unexpected beauty in. I started looking for flowers to make my little two-hour "arrangements" out of, and lo and behold, I found some really great stuff.

I think I have also finally escaped the shadow of my career in corporate music retail. And (my apologies if anyone I used to work with in those stores takes this personally...it's just how I feel) I have finally realized how toxic working there was to my ability to truly enjoy music. I didn't spend much time during the day there listening to anything I really cared about or enjoyed that much, usually (especially if it was new music) because I didn't want to associate that music with work (I wrote a whole blog entry about records I feel I sacrificed to the work god, but I can't seem to find that entry right now). So I sat through a lot of things that were just mediocre...records that I didn't hate, but didn't like enough to want to own and enjoy on my own time. Then, by the time I got out of work, I wanted to hear something I loved and had some sort of attachment to so badly that I would just listen to a bunch of older music on my iPod that I had loved for years. This was not a path to continued musical growth. And even though, in September of 2008, I officially quit my full-time management job in corporate music/movie retail, I was part-timing it at one of my old stores off and on for another year and a half-ish after that. I finally cut that tie for good in February of this year, and it has made a huge difference.

I also feel as though I'm finally starting to get some sort of grasp on how to organize my collection in iTunes, or am becoming more comfortable with the iTunes interface, feeling less irritated with it, etc. I still feel as though there's a better way to do it that I have yet to find, but it doesn't bother me as much as it used to. I also (very bravely, I think) deleted a whole bunch of older, more familiar music from my iPod last week, and dumped a ton of newer records (or newer records to me) on to it. Shuffle brings up a whole ton of stuff that is new and exciting now. It's fantastic.

So, there it is. A progress report on some of the issues I've discussed in this blog in the last couple of years. Hope that similar, awesome things are happening in your musical life...comment and share. More soon. This year I'm going to post a best records of the year entry, and then y'all can fight it out in the comments section.

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show Year-End Mixtape, 2010

Alright, kids. We made it! We made it to the end of this crazy year. I have a lot to say about the songs on this mixtape, so here goes...

SIDE 1:
HIDE IT AWAY-RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR
I started this year in an absolute musical drought. I was really feeling pretty awful about the fact that I hadn't really gotten excited about anything new in quite some time, and also that the new things I was hearing weren't exciting me at all. I started downloading free MP3s from places like Stereogum and Magnet, and this song was among the first ones I heard that actually gave me hope. It wasn't that it was really all that better than most of the other things I was hearing, rather I think it just hit me the right way. An appropriate start to the mixtape, then. The beginning of my own renaissance, right here.

DANCE YRSELF CLEAN-LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
Oh my goodness, where has this track been all my life? I love the low key intro that gives way to the full on danceathon...plus the lyrics are fantastic. I think LCD Soundsystem are quite emblematic of the way my ears have opened this year...I had previously dismissed James Murphy et al as uninteresting, simply because they weren't my usual electronic bag (Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, etc.). This record brings me to a warm, fuzzy place.

JERICHO-K.C. CLIFFORD
One of the best records of the year that you probably haven't heard. Am I biased? Maybe, but I think Mike Canter's review will tell you everything you need to know. Plus, being that I tour full time performing with K.C., this song (and all the others on "Orchid") was a very big part of my 2010.

COME ON BABY GRACE-BOSTON SPACESHIPS
Robert Pollard has released a lot of music in the last couple of years, but there are always some absolute diamonds in the pile if you're willing to dig for them. This one sticks out like a sore thumb...just one of the best damn rock songs released all year long. Exquisite.

ROCOCO-THE ARCADE FIRE
In a year full of surprises, this was one of the biggest ones for me personally. I did not expect to have an entire, self-contained mini-renaissance with the Arcade Fire. If any one band was emblematic of the coarseness I had developed with regard to the indie rock scene and its sacred cows, it was the Arcade Fire. I didn't think they were awful. I was just utterly convinced they were not anywhere NEAR as good as everyone thought they were. And then, thanks to an Amazon Daily Deal, I downloaded this album and, most unexpectedly, fell in love. Thanks, Arcade Fire.

I'M COMING THROUGH-CRAIG BETHELL
I have to thank my friend Brian Williams for this one. Back in January, K.C. and I were on tour on the east coast and drove through Richmond, VA, where Brian lives with his wife Jennifer. He gave me a mixtape (or CD, rather) to listen to in the car on the drive the next day, and this was on it. I was lukewarm at first, but got to the point where this has become one of my favorite tracks of the year (even though I believe it technically came out in 2009). I love the end where it trails off into a sort of "dialogue & piano duet"...

CANDLE IN THE WILLOW TREE-ROUND MOUNTAIN
This wasn't released in 2010, either, but I didn't hear it until this year. Robby & Char Rothschild, who comprise Round Mountain, are old friends of mine from college. Serendipitously, we all ended up at the Folk Alliance conference together in February, and I got to hear them perform for the first time in a dozen plus years. This is from their 2007 album "Truth & Darkness." It would be the first of several moments this year where I came back in touch with people from my past who are making amazing music...

SAY YES-SHADOW SHADOW SHADE
Okay, so this is one of a few instances on this mixtape where I'm totally in love with the song, but I have yet to purchase the full album. I plan to, once my Emusic rolls over next month! This song is so happy, it just kills me. Such a great single. Reminds me of the glory days of 120 Minutes on MTV...something I would have heard there. Innocence reclaimed! Fantastic.

MECHANICS & MATHEMATICS-VENUS HUM
I've been a Venus Hum fan from the beginning, and have the privilege of being friends with one of the members. Their new album came out in 2009, but I didn't manage to get my hands on it until this year. So glad I did. I think this song is incredible, and incredibly easy to relate to...

NATALIE (THE MICHAEL)-THE FIBS
Another track that wasn't released this year, but that I really only discovered this year. The Fibs toil in obscurity in Philadelphia, but have managed to put together some really great songs. Their future is in question at this point, but maybe if you all go crash their MySpace page they'll pull it together and make some more music.

NEW WAY BACK-GREEN CORN REVIVAL
What can I say about GCR that I haven't already said? Miraculously awesome fusion of country, new wave pop and a whole bunch of other things. Great record. Mind-blowing live performance. Great people. Go go go go get this record now. This was step one in becoming totally, completely enthralled with the local music scene in Oklahoma this year.

BEGINNING OF THE HEARTBREAK/DON'T DON'T-PETER GORDON & LOVE OF LIFE ORCHESTRA
This technically didn't come out in 2010, either, but was reissued this year. I could have just as easily included the 2010 redux of this track ("Another Heartbreak/Don't Don't (Redux)"), but it was about three minutes longer and I was already cramped for space! Peter was a teacher of mine in college, in addition to being a fantastic composer with lots of amazing music to his credit. I couldn't be prouder to say that. James Murphy and DFA records put out a great compilation of his late 70's dance oriented material this year. Go get it.

SIDE 2:
COME ALIVE (WAR OF THE ROSES)-JANELLE MONAE
Sheesh. This woman is amazing. The single most interesting female african-american artist of the last twenty years, at least. Some of you will shout heresy, I'm sure, but this record helped me come back to R&B and related music this year. I had been in a serious rock rut for a long time. Thank you, Janelle Monae. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

LOOKING FOR A DIAMOND-JARED LEKITES
This young Oklahoma gentleman also took me by surprise this year. In case you didn't catch my interview with him a couple of weeks ago, you can hear it again on the Mixtape Jones Radio Show on 12/28 and 1/2. His EP is an incredible, beautiful Brian Wilson-esque burst of creativity. Go get it.

DAGGERS-THE QUICK & EASY BOYS
These guys are a lot of fun. I love the way this song slowly builds to its climax. Big thumbs up.

SONGBIRD-K.C. CLIFFORD
Again, one of the best records of the year that you haven't heard. I put this song on here as well because, when K.C. and I are playing shows together, I sit out on this song, and I sit and watch/listen to her sing it from just a few feet away. It's the best part of the whole night for me. This song is so amazingly beautiful and poignant. One of my favorite songs in the world right now.

POCKETS-MON MONARCH
I was a Chuck E. Costa fan before he put together this group, and made an amazing new record with them. But I'm even more of a fan now. Most of the record isn't this poppy, but I couldn't resist this song and it's charms.

NOW THAT I'M OLDER-SUFJAN STEVENS
Another one of the biggest surprises of the year was Sufjan's amazing, dense, electronically infused album, "The Age of Adz." This isn't one of the more glitchy songs on the record by any means, but I felt like it fit in best with my mixtape, and with the mood of the year in some ways.

SAVE $-SHORTWAVE SUNSHINE
Gabriel Hays, of Shortwave Sunshine, is another guy I went to college with. It was truly a delight to me to see/hear that he had crafted such a fantastic record this year. Everything on this record has such taste...it's finely crafted at every turn. Highly recommended.

HOW I GOT OVER-THE ROOTS
The Roots finally released an album this year that I think all their fans can agree is really great. So many great tracks to choose from, but I went with this one because it will get stuck in your head for days.

SCISSOR RUNNER-JENNY & JOHNNY
I still don't have this whole record, either...again, Emusic...but this track refuses to wear out. Catchy, brilliant, clean, delightful duet vocals. Good on ya, Jenny & Johnny.

ONLY EXISTING FOOTAGE-THE EXTRA LENS
This is the only track on this mixtape that I feel like I could possibly regret later on...not because I don't think it's good, but I feel like I could potentially feel later that it wasn't a year-defining track for me. It's such an interesting song, though, because it pulls together a few disparate worlds for me. I spend so much time on the folk circuit in my work life, and I hear a lot of singers that sound like this, but the production arrangement is very indie rock...again, I feel like it's the type of record more people in the folk world should be making. Take risks, people!

BJO, PT. 2-WEIRD FILES.
Yes, this is me. My alter ego outside of Dr. Pants. Dr. Pants didn't release any new music this year (we're saving all that for 2011), but I did manage to squeeze out this bizarre little EP. Go buy it HERE.

SUPERFAST JELLYFISH-GORILLAZ
Oh Gorillaz, entertaining to the last. This song will remind me of being on the road this year...rocked in the car a whole bunch of times.

RUNAWAY-KANYE WEST
Holy crap. This the last of the "unexpected musical miracle" tracks...after "808s & Heartbreak" I wasn't expecting much from Kanye West. And then, lo and behold, he releases one of the best albums of the year. This album (and this song) is SO dark...it's a harrowing listening experience, at least for me, but it's cathartic on some level, and the music/production is so impressive. This song, in particular, is just so gorgeous. And a 4 minute, auto-tuned, wordless vocal outro???? I can scarcely think of another move as ballsy in recent memory that turns out as well. Bravo, Kanye, you social disaster.

AND THIS IS WHAT WE CALL PROGRESS-THE BESNARD LAKES
Next to "Orchid", this might be my favorite album of the year. The gentlemen on Sound Opinions refer to it as an album where "Brian Wilson meets My Bloody Valentine", and they couldn't be more right. It is as gorgeous as the Beach Boys, with a noise factor that is quite simply delicious. Put it on, lay back, relax, drift...

SICKIE BOY-ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE VENUS 3
And then, one of my favorite artists in the world puts out a fantastic record, too. The third in a line of records with the Venus 3, Robyn is on a roll. This is one of the most fun tracks he's put out in a while, as well. This song, just like so many of the songs here, will always remind me of this year, and all the good things that came with it. Thanks, Robyn.

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 12/7/10

GOLDEN BOY-PRIMUS
RED-KING CRIMSON
LEARN THE LANGUAGE-MR. DREAM
I CAN'T PUT MY FINGER ON IT-WEEN
YOU'RE SO GREAT-BLUR
PARKING LOT BLUES (LIVE)-SATURDAY LOOKS GOOD TO ME
GOOD OLD GIRL-MARIAN CALL
MOTHER OF GOD-PATTY GRIFFIN
USED TO BE-VIOLENT FEMMES
THE WORLD AIN'T SLOWIN' DOWN-ELLIS PAUL
HEARTBREAKER-GIRLS
WHY-UNMARKED CARS
WHAT WE KNOW-SONIC YOUTH
PRETTY BUSY-REGAL DEGAL
LOS ANGELES-PHOSPHORESCENT
PARIS-LAURA MARIE
CATERWAUL-RYAN ADAMS
THE DRINKING SONG-MOXY FRUVOUS
NO SCRUBS-AVI WISNIA
A LITTLE COMMUNION-TOO YOUNG TO UNDERSTAND
NARROW WITH THE HALL-WOMEN
NEVER COME AROUND-LA SERA
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT-LUSH
SECRETS-HIGHLIGHTS
WATER-EGGSTONE
SURFIN' COW-THE DEAD MILKMEN
ROSE GOES TO YALE-JEFFERSON STARSHIP

Much more soon, kids. :)

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 11/30/10

This show will re-air Sunday, 12/5 at 5pm Central.

STOP ME IF YOU THINK YOU'VE HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE-THE SMITHS
1901-PHOENIX
THE BACK OF MY EYES-PORCELAIN RAFT
ROPE AN SUMMIT-JUNIP
VTA-OMAR RODRIGUEZ-LOPEZ & JOHN FRUSCIANTE
THE THING WITH FEATHERS-MAURA KENNEDY
RAT TRAP-ONE HUNDRED FLOWERS
OCEAN MAN-WEEN
LIZARD-THE MOPEDS
REVISIONIST HISTORY-PURPLE CHURCH
HORSES-BRAD YODER
GIVING UP THE GHOST-HOW GERMAN IT IS
SIFL & OLLY LULLABY-SIFL & OLLY
APPLY-GLASSER
INSECTS-WOODSMAN
STATUE WITH A WALKMAN (LIVE)-ROBYN HITCHCOCK
I'M TELLIN' YOU-TOO YOUNG TO UNDERSTAND
MANY WORLDS-GREEN CORN REVIVAL
DAYS I HAD WITH YOU-KINGS OF CONVENIENCE
DESTINY-KATHRYN HALLBERG
AGAVE-BOTANY
GLITTER FREEZE-GORILLAZ
HOW I GOT OVER-THE ROOTS
HALO BENDER-THE HALO BENDERS
LONDON LOVES-BLUR
THE LATE GREATS-WILCO

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 11/23/10

ALMOST READY-DINOSAUR JR.
GLITTER-NO AGE
JIMMY-ROBERT POLLARD
NEW YEAR-AVI WISNIA
HEDONIST-SHARON LANG
ANOTHER DAY AGAIN-THE SADIES
300 CLOUDS-NIGHTLANDS
ROLL PLYMOUTH ROCK-BRIAN WILSON
BRYAN SOMETIMES-VENUS HUM
SHE WAS A HOTEL DETECTIVE-THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
IF IT'S ALL IN MY HEAD-ALSTON DAVID
HALLOWED GROUND-VIOLENT FEMMES
YOUR POWERS ARE MAGIC-APACHE BEAT
TWENTY MILES-DEER TICK
NEW WAY TO LIVE-MAURA KENNEDY
SCISSOR RUNNER-JENNY AND JOHNNY
BABY LEE-TEENAGE FANCLUB
UNREQUITED LOVE SONG-JARED LEKITES
BETTER-TOO YOUNG TO UNDERSTAND
SINGING GRASS-WOVENHAND
SOUTHERN ACCENTS-JOHNNY CASH
HANDLE WITH CARE-SWEET LIGHTS
WHEN YOU WERE MINE-PRINCE
MANY MOONS-JANELLE MONAE
OODLES OF O'S-DE LA SOUL
PAPER PLANES-M.I.A.
YOU KNOW MY NAME (LOOK UP THE NUMBER)-THE BEATLES

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 11/16/10

PETER PIPER-RUN-D.M.C.
KNOW YOUR CHICKEN-CIBO MATTO
THEME FROM END GAMES-SCHIZOID CLUB
THROW YOUR FOOT-THE CURE
I'M AWARE-CLINIC
MIDLIFE CRISIS-FAITH NO MORE
LOOKING FOR LORELEI-WORLD RACKETEERING SQUAD
(I CAN'T GET NO) SATISFACTION-DEVO
DON'T WANT ANYBODY-JULIUS C
SUPERHUMANS-THE FLAMING LIPS
THE ROMAN SUN-BROTHERS YOUNG
FLOURESCENT LIGHTS-DANIEL WALCHER
HEAVY METAL LOVER-VINCENT MINOR
HILLBILLY DRUMMER GIRL-MONO PUFF
DECEMBER-CRAIG BETHELL
IT'S ALRIGHT MA (I'M ONLY BLEEDING)-BOB DYLAN
BOUND TO LOVE-JESS KLEIN
THAT'S THE WAY-LED ZEPPELIN
BATTLE OF BLAIR MOUNTAIN-LOUISE MOSRIE
CINDY'S THE HOSTESS-SIFL & OLLY
ROLLO-FRANK ZAPPA
CAMP O PHYSIQUE-CHEER-ACCIDENT
KING QUEEN-THE NELS CLINE SINGERS
PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY-SONIC YOUTH
HIP HUG-HER-BOOKER T. & THE MG'S
PARACHUTE PANTS-SUGAR FREE ALL-STARS
THE SAINT OF COBB COUNTY-ANDREW DELANEY
VIET NAM-MINUTEMEN
MILLEMILLENARY-COCTEAU TWINS

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 11/9/10

TEEN AGE RIOT-SONIC YOUTH
JANIE JONES-THE CLASH
LITTLE BROWN HAIRED GIRLS-FRANKIE ROSE & THE OUTS
BEWILDERBEAST-BADLY DRAWN BOY
MY HEART IS A DRUMMER-ALLO DARLIN'
RENO DAKOTA-MAGNETIC FIELDS
VERA FLEW THE COOP-MARIAN CALL
SUGAR SHACK-PHISH
DAGGERS-THE QUICK & EASY BOYS
FARMVILLE DREAM/THE GIRLS WILL ROCK-DR. PANTS
WE DANCE-PAVEMENT
MERLE HAGGARD T-SHIRT-BUFFALOFITZ
ENDLESS EYES-ALAIN JOHANNES
WHERE THE HELL IS BILL?-CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN
I AND LOVE AND YOU-THE AVETT BROTHERS
HOEING WEEDS SOWING SEEDS-THE RUSSIAN FUTURISTS
GIRLS & BOYS-BLUR
EXTENDED NICETIES-PETER GORDON & LOVE OF LIFE ORCHESTRA
BABY SNAKES-FRANK ZAPPA
SAVE $-SHORTWAVE SUNSHINE
YOUR FAVORITE THING-SUGAR
FINAL SONG-13 ORIGINAL COLONIES
DAYDREAMING-DARK DARK DARK
HOPE UNDER FIRE-K.C. CLIFFORD
BACK OF MY MIND-THE AUTUMN DEFENSE
CARRY THE ZERO-BUILT TO SPILL
I AM GOOD FORTUNE-MON MONARCH
VERIDIS QUO-DAFT PUNK

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 11/2/10

SPEED OF LIFE-DAVID BOWIE
INCURABLE-PIANO MAGIC
VESUVIUS-SUFJAN STEVENS
WYNONA'S BIG BROWN BEAVER-PRIMUS
INSTRUMENTAL-DOUG MARTSCH
STUART-THE DEAD MILKMEN
WHEN THE TIME COMES-JESS KLEIN
I CAN TOO-CHRISTINA MARTIN
HUMID AIR-THE MOANERS
FIVE-O-JAMES
BIZARRE LOVE TRIANGLE-NEW ORDER
LOVE LIKE GHOSTS-DIVE INDEX
I FOUND LOVE-SHIT ROBOT
BACH IS DEAD-THE RESIDENTS
ABANDONED BRIDGES-OWEN
RAILWAY SHOES-ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE EGYPTIANS
BALLAD OF A THIN MAN-BOB DYLAN
IF YOU WANT IT-ANTHONY DA COSTA
L'ORAGE-ROUND MOUNTAIN
SAD GIRL-MOXY FRUVOUS
LICENSES TO HIDE-THE POSIES
SIREN-REBECCA LOEBE
BLACK & WHITE-THE DB'S
TROUBLE STARING AT THE SUN-THE FIBS
BAD REPUTATION-JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS
MERCENARY-AMAZING LARRY
PRECIOUS STONE-PETE YORN
CLASSIC GIRL-JANE'S ADDICTION

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 10/26/10

BEETLEBUM-BLUR
JOINING A FAN CLUB-JELLYFISH
POGO-ETERNAL SUMMERS
REVIVAL-DEERHUNTER
I'M COMING THROUGH-CRAIG BETHELL
OUR BREADTH IS WIDER THAN OUR BERTH-EUTOPIAN ACCIDENT
THE COLOR THAT YOUR EYES CHANGED WITH THE COLOR OF YOUR HAIR-CARISSA'S WIERD
BOYSGIRLS-THE BLUE HIT
NASHVILLE-LIZ PHAIR
TRANSPARENCY IS THE NEW MYSTERY-MARNIE STERN
0-OMAR RODRIGUEZ-LOPEZ & JOHN FRUSCIANTE
WOKE UP THIS MORNING WITH MY MIND ON JESUS-DOUG MARTSCH
ONLY EXISTING FOOTAGE-THE EXTRA LENS
NON-PHOTO BLUE-PINBACK
LOOKING FOR A DIAMOND-JARED LEKITES
SWEET-LOVIN' MAN-MAGNETIC FIELDS
SAY YES-SHADOW SHADOW SHADE
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE-THE ERICKSONS
THE GLASS HARP-SILJE NES
NICK DRAKE-JENEE HALSTEAD
STYLO-GORILLAZ
SUZERAIN (A LETTER TO THE JUDGE)-NIGHTLANDS
GO DANCING-EUX AUTRES
JANE OF THE WAKING UNIVERSE-GUIDED BY VOICES
CLOUDS-THIRTEEN ORIGINAL COLONIES
THE TURNPIKE DOWN-THE LEMONHEADS
OKIE DOKIE-DAN DEACON
THE CRIMES-WEIRD FILES
FAT LENNY-WEEN
FREE FOUR-PINK FLOYD

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 10/19/10

THE SEEKER-THE WHO
WHAT EVER HAPPENED?-THE STROKES
THE BALLAD OF IAN CURTIS-LUKE DOUCET
THE AGE OF ADZ-SUFJAN STEVENS
BANANA-THE NELORIES
SLEEPWALKERS-THE HUNDRED IN THE HANDS
LITTLE RED WAGON-CHRIS O'BRIEN
THE WRONG IDEA-CHRIS THILE
HALO MARY-ROBYN HITCHCOCK
BE MINE-R.E.M.
CORNBREAD-SUGAR FREE ALL-STARS
2-1-75-POWERHOUSE SOUND
ARMED RESPONSE-TRANS AM
LOSER = WEED-THE RESIDENTS
CAROL THAT I KNOW-THE HUMAN STATUES
THE SEASON-MATT COSTA
WIZARD-SIFL & OLLY
THE OTHER ONES-THE HUSH NOW
ELECTRIC CAR BALLET-JARED LEKITES
THE ROMAN SUN-BROTHERS YOUNG
WATCH YOUR STEP-ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS
GIRL WITH A GUN-ANDREW DELANEY
UNDERTOW (EDIT)-WARPAINT
BEGINNING OF THE HEARTBREAK/DON'T DON'T-PETER GORDON & LOVE OF LIFE ORCHESTRA
INCURABLE-PIANO MAGIC
TRUE FAITH '94-NEW ORDER
STORY OF OUR OWN-K.C. CLIFFORD

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 10/12/10

AMERICAN MUSIC-VIOLENT FEMMES
I'M FREE NOW-MORPHINE
IN THE BLACK-MARIAN CALL
HARD HAND TO HOLD-WILLY MASON
MISSISSIPPI-DAVE BECK
ELECTRIC MUSIC & THE SUMMER PEOPLE-BECK
LOW SELF-OPINION-ROLLINS BAND
TUNED MASS DAMPER-EL-P
MOON DELUXE-ANDREW CEDERMARK
TEARS ARE COOL-TEENAGE FANCLUB
PARIS-LAURA MARIE
MAGIC-BEN FOLDS FIVE
SCREENWRITER'S BLUES-SOUL COUGHING
BEWARE OF DARKNESS-GEORGE HARRISON
RED LIGHT RABBIT-THE QUICK & EASY BOYS
LOVE IS A DANGEROUS THING (LIVE)-TOMMY KEENE
FRI/END-THURSTON MOORE
HEY ABE LINCOLN-DR. PANTS
A GOOD JOB IS HARD TO FIND-THE FIBS
I FEEL FINITE-DIOS
EVIL WILL PREVAIL-THE FLAMING LIPS
JIG-SAW PUZZLE-THE WHO
WHEREVER YOU FIND IT-TREY ANASTASIO
I FOUND YOU-KIRSTEN JONES
RUN FROM THE GUN-DEAD CONFEDERATE
ALBERTO BALSALM-APHEX TWIN
CRY TO ME-SOLOMON BURKE
"IN CONCLUSION"-FRANK ZAPPA

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 10/5/10

Catching up, catching up...

THE GOOD LIFE-WEEZER
ALL AT ONCE (IT'S NOT IMPORTANT)-THE SECRET MACHINES
THE BREAKDOWN-SHORTWAVE SUNSHINE
WALK ALONE-THE ROOTS
WEISSENSEE-NEU!
SINISTER LOVE-VIERNES
THE DEVIL'S COACHMAN-ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE EGYPTIANS
PARASITE-NICK DRAKE
WILLIAM & SWEET MARY-ANDREW DELANEY
COLD WATER-TOM WAITS
SURVIVING A METHODOLOGY-CHEER-ACCIDENT
LEVEL FIVE-KING CRIMSON
ON WE MARCH-TRENT REZNOR & ATTICUS ROSS
BJO, PT. 2-WEIRD FILES
PT. 1-GREEN CORN REVIVAL
TOO MANY PEOPLE-PAUL & LINDA MCCARTNEY
I'LL STILL BE A GEEK AFTER NOBODY THINKS IT'S CHIC (THE NERD ANTHEM)-MARIAN CALL
DRIFTING, FALLING-THE OCEAN BLUE
COME ON BABY GRACE-BOSTON SPACESHIPS
TAKE YOUR MEDICINE-THE QUICK & EASY BOYS
CLOSED SESSION-INFECTIOUS GROOVES
BURY ME WITH IT-MODEST MOUSE
LA CIENEGA JUST SMILED-RYAN ADAMS
POCKETS-MON MONARCH
IAGO'S ESCAPE-PETER GORDON
OH THREE OH EIGHT MINIPOP-ESTHING
FLUFFY-WEEN

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 9/28/10

So I got behind again. My apologies.

SUNKEN TREASURE-WILCO
A MOMENTARY THING-JAIME MICHAELS
RESTORATION-THE ACORN
NESBITT'S LIME SODA SONG-NEGATIVLAND
ELECTRICIAN'S DAY-LIAM LYNCH
PACHUCO CADAVER-CAPTAIN BEEFHEART
MONTANA-JOHN LINNELL
OVER-NEW COLLISIONS
ECHOS MYRON-GUIDED BY VOICES
VIOLA-ARLAN FEILES
LITTLE BURST OF SUNSHINE-THE CAPSTAN SHAFTS
RUTABAGAS-MOJO NIXON & SKID ROPER
WALLS (CIRCUS)-TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS
WE ARE NOT ALONE-FRANK ZAPPA
CROPPED-NELS CLINE TRIO
JUST LIKE HONEY-THE JESUS & MARY CHAIN
LOVE DON'T NEED A REASON-THE BLACK
ANSWERS-MON MONARCH
LIFE AND HOW TO LIVE IT-R.E.M.
UNSUPERVISED, I HIT MY HEAD-MONO PUFF
SOMEONE TO BE LONELY WITH-BRAD YODER
IF YOU GO AWAY-ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE EGYPTIANS
POTENTIAL GOVANER-SQUAREPUSHER
MY CHARIOT-THE DEPRECIATION GUILD
VOICES INSIDE MY HEAD-THE POLICE
BRAVE MAN'S DEATH-J. RODDY WALSTON & THE BUSINESS
THE NAZARENE-JOE CROOKSTON
SPRAWL II-THE ARCADE FIRE
JERICHO-K.C. CLIFFORD
DESPERADOES UNDER THE EAVES-WARREN ZEVON

Top Songs of All Time??

(So, when you click on that title it takes you to a clip of High Fidelity. I tried to find the clip of when the journalist asks Rob on the phone what is top records are, but had to settle for the "side ones, track ones" discussion.)

So, a friend on Twitter today asked me what my top 10 songs of all time would be. And the truth is I don't really know. I think they'd be different tomorrow than today, and today they're probably different than yesterday. It depends on mood...and a whole crapload of other factors. What I also know is that I'm in a real state of flux in terms of listening and appreciation and all that right now (and have been for...a couple of years now), and that my favorite records are changing, or being added to...I am allowing for the possibility that new, wonderful things are out there waiting to be discovered, not only in the record store but in my own collection.

Having unloaded so many CDs in the last year or two has really allowed me to see the records I still have that deserve more attention. I am a hell of a lot prouder to show off my collection now than I ever have been, because I know that the stuff I have is worth owning. It has passed through some pretty rigorous sifting over the last 3-4 years. So I'm really looking forward to putting together a new list of top 100 songs some time soon. In the meantime, here's a list I made in 2008. It has issues, I know, but it should be posted here so that we can all compare when I make a new one:

A NOT EVEN REMOTELY DEFINITIVE, KIND OF JUST HOW I FEEL ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW (CIRCA 2008) LIST OF MY TOP 100 FAVORITE JAMS OF ALL TIME.

1. SOMETHING-THE BEATLES
2. WATERMELON IN EASTER HAY-FRANK ZAPPA
3. I SAW HER STANDING THERE-THE BEATLES
4. PURPLE TOUPEE-THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
5. TEN YEARS GONE-LED ZEPPELIN
6. NOWHERE MAN-THE BEATLES
7. EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE-THE POLICE
8. IT’S TRICKY-RUN-D.M.C.
9. BLISS/BILLY BREATHES-PHISH
10. FIND THE RIVER-R.E.M.
11. BIRDHOUSE IN YOUR SOUL-THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
12. THE OCEAN-LED ZEPPELIN
13. IN MY LIFE-THE BEATLES
14. ONE LONG PAIR OF EYES-ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE EGYPTIANS
15. OH! DARLING-THE BEATLES
16. NOT THE SAME-BEN FOLDS
17. GOLDEN SLUMBERS/CARRY THAT WEIGHT/THE END-THE BEATLES
18. TAKE THE SKINHEADS BOWLING-CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN
19. THE DRINKING SONG-MOXY FRUVOUS
20. BREAK MY STRIDE-MATTHEW WILDER
21. BEST IMITATION OF MYSELF-BEN FOLDS FIVE
22. I FOUGHT THE LAW-THE CLASH
23. SUPERMAN-R.E.M.
24. SO WHAT’CHA WANT-BEASTIE BOYS
25. VIBRATING-ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE EGYPTIANS
26. INCA ROADS-FRANK ZAPPA
27. BOOK OF LOVE-MAGNETIC FIELDS
28. REBA-PHISH
29. A MILLION TEARS-K.C. CLIFFORD
30. FAKE PLASTIC TREES-RADIOHEAD
31. DEATH OR GLORY-THE CLASH
32. THE LUCKIEST-BEN FOLDS
33. JIG-SAW PUZZLE-THE ROLLING STONES
34. ALBERTO BALSALM-APHEX TWIN
35. ME MYSELF & I-DE LA SOUL
36. SO CRUEL-U2
37. EVAPORATED-BEN FOLDS FIVE
38. ACCIDENTALLY LIKE A MARTYR-WARREN ZEVON
39. MOTHER OF GOD-PATTY GRIFFIN
40. ORANGE CRUSH-R.E.M.
41. IMAGINE-JOHN LENNON
42. VISIONS OF JOHANNA-BOB DYLAN
43. THE WISH SONG-K.C. CLIFFORD
44. THE ONLY LIVING BOY IN NEW YORK-SIMON & GARFUNKEL
45. RAIN-THE BEATLES
46. THE END OF THE TOUR-THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
47. IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT (AND I FEEL FINE)-R.E.M.
48. BRAIN DAMAGE/ECLIPSE-PINK FLOYD
49. WALLS (CIRCUS)-TOM PETTY
50. CHALK DUST TORTURE-PHISH
51. SIR DUKE-STEVIE WONDER
52. PEACHES EN REGALIA-FRANK ZAPPA
53. NOBODY’S FAULT BUT MINE-LED ZEPPELIN
54. GLASS-ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE EGYPTIANS
55. SWEETHEARTS-CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN
56. I AM A TREE-GUIDED BY VOICES
57. FORGIVENESS-PATTY GRIFFIN
58. MR. BROWNSTONE-GUNS N’ ROSES
59. STRAIGHT TO HELL-THE CLASH
60. SEARCHING FOR ANNIE-K.C. CLIFFORD
61. SHE SAID SHE SAID-THE BEATLES
62. THE BALLAD OF DOROTHY PARKER-PRINCE
63. SOMEONE SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT-ELTON JOHN
64. GOD ONLY KNOWS-THE BEACH BOYS
65. HEY NONNY NONNY-VIOLENT FEMMES
66. THE FRENCH INHALER (LIVE VERSION)-WARREN ZEVON
67. SHE’S AN ANGEL-THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
68. LEAVE-R.E.M.
69. SUCK MY KISS-RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
70. REGYPTIAN STRUT-FRANK ZAPPA
71. THE ENEMY-GUIDED BY VOICES
72. WHY DON’T WE DO IT IN THE ROAD?-THE BEATLES
73. WHITE KNUCKLES-ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS
74. PURPLE RAIN-PRINCE & THE REVOLUTION
75. (WHITE MAN) IN HAMMERSMITH PALAIS-THE CLASH
76. BABA O’RILEY-THE WHO
77. AMERICA-SIMON & GARFUNKEL
78. LINCTUS HOUSE-ROBYN HITCHCOCK
79. BLESSED RELIEF-FRANK ZAPPA
80. GOODBYE YELLOWBRICK ROAD-ELTON JOHN
81. A NEW CAREER IN A NEW TOWN-DAVID BOWIE
82. ALL THINGS MUST PASS-GEORGE HARRISON
83. IF I WAS YOUR GIRLFRIEND-PRINCE
84. TALKING IN YOUR SLEEP-THE ROMANTICS
85. FAITHFULLY-JOURNEY
86. POSSE’ ON BROADWAY-SIR MIX-A-LOT
87. UNDER PRESSURE-QUEEN & DAVID BOWIE
88. THREE DAYS-JANE’S ADDICTION
89. FISH HEADS-BARNES & BARNES
90. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET ME GET WHAT I WANT-THE SMITHS
91. SIGN O’ THE TIMES-PRINCE
92. WAKE UP TIME-TOM PETTY
93. DINOSAUR-KING CRIMSON
94. CHARMING-JONATHA BROOKE & THE STORY
95. THIS ONE-PAUL MCCARTNEY
96. SMOKIN’ BANANA PEELS-THE DEAD MILKMEN
97. (REACH OUT) I’LL BE THERE-THE FOUR TOPS
98. WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME-U2
99. PORK ROLL EGG & CHEESE-WEEN
100. SKATING AWAY ON THE THIN ICE OF THE NEW DAY-JETHRO TULL

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 9/21/10

Here's the playlist from last night's show. Featured an interview segment in the second half w/ Daniel Walcher, hence 3 of his songs in a row. :) Tune in this Sunday, 9/26, at 5pm if you missed it.

SON OF A GUN-NIRVANA
DIGGING FOR SOMETHING-SUPERCHUNK
SAFE EUROPEAN HOME-THE CLASH
HILLSIDE-ARNOLD
I CAN SEE THE PINES ARE DANCING-AA BONDY
MR. WRONG-CRACKER
THE BREAKERS (A FLOOD)-SHORTWAVE SUNSHINE
ISOLATION-JOHN LENNON
FROZEN ZOO-TERA MELOS
COME ON BABY GRACE-BOSTON SPACESHIPS
HORSES-BRAD YODER
SCISSOR RUNNER-JENNY & JOHNNY
MIRROR, MIRROR-UNICYCLE LOVES YOU
WILD SEX (IN THE WORKING CLASS)-OINGO BOINGO
DR. D-THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES
FLUORESCENT LIGHTS-DANIEL WALCHER
OLD MAN AT THE BAR-DANIEL WALCHER
WE KNOW WHERE YOU'RE GOING-DANIEL WALCHER
PUT THE MESSAGE IN THE BOX-WORLD PARTY
HOME-MEG HUTCHINSON
NOT THE SAME-BEN FOLDS
VILLA ROSIE-BLUR
HAPPINESS BURNS-TWO HOURS TRAFFIC
THE LOVE I'M SEARCHING FOR-THE RENTALS
VINCE LOMBARDI SERVICE CENTER-THE DEAD MILKMEN

Tune in next week for another two hours of awesome.

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 9/14/10

So, I hope everyone stuck it out for at least part of the marathon last night. If you want to see the playlist for the WHOLE marathon, go HERE.

Oh, and good news: SOON, all my posts here will also now be syndicated on doctorpants.com. I'll post the link to that when I have it. Now to business:

THE MESOPOTAMIANS-THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
HARDEST GEOMETRY PROBLEM IN THE WORLD-MARK MOTHERSBAUGH
THE AGE OF CALYPSO-GROCERIES
YYZ-RUSH
DIGITAL-JOY DIVISION
HIDE IT AWAY-RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR
3 LICKS-THE GROWN UPS
AT THE DRAWING BOARD-CHUCK E. COSTA
SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS-RICHARD & LINDA THOMPSON
MADELINE EVERY GIRL-CAMERON MCGILL & WHAT ARMY
LITTLE UMBRELLAS-FRANK ZAPPA
KNOW YOUR CHICKEN-CIBO MATTO
UPULAR-POGO
MORNING CORNERS-MOBILE WASH UNIT
HOLD ON TO ME-COWBOY JUNKIES
ATTA GIRL-K.C. CLIFFORD
GREEN AGAIN-J. WAGNER
PUSH-THE CURE
RASPBERRY BERET-HINDU LOVE GODS
IT ALL DEPENDS-DR. PANTS
TRANSATLANTICISM-DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
GLASS-KING MISSILE
SHUT EM DOWN-PUBLIC ENEMY
THE DRUM EZRA POUNDS-EUTOPIAN ACCIDENT
SPINETTE-ARP & ANTHONY MOORE
U.S. MUSTARD COMPANY-ROBERT POLLARD
CROOKED-JAIME MICHAELS
DUKE OF EARL-FRANK BLACK
PLAISTOW FLEX OUT-SQUAREPUSHER

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 9/7/10

THE EVIL CHILDREN-KING MISSILE
VIRGINIA REEL AROUND THE FOUNTAIN-HALO BENDERS
MOUTH TO MOUTH-FAITH NO MORE
FIVE LITTLE ROOMS-MENOMENA
BLESS THIS MESS-DAVID BAZAN
GOOD TO GET OUT-DEVON SPROULE
I HEART CALIFORNIA-ADMIRAL RADLEY
HONEYCHAIN-THROWING MUSES
(HAVE A HEART, BETTY) I'M NOT FIREPROOF-THE SOFT BOYS
THE STALLION PT. 5-WEEN
FRIDAY NIGHT, SATURDAY MORNING-THE SPECIALS
NATALIE (THE MICHAEL)-THE FIBS
HARD YEAR-STEVEN BACON
BELLY OF JUNE-HORSE FEATHERS
JESUS-THE VELVET UNDERGROUND
SWEETHEARTS-CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN
PARACHUTE PANTS-SUGAR FREE ALLSTARS
F.U.N.K.-PRINCE
BEATS TO THE RHYME-RUN-D.M.C.
WHERE IS MY MIND?-THE PIXIES
COUNTRY WIND-THE SHAMBLERS
FALL TOGETHER-WEEZER
CITY WITH NO CHILDREN-THE ARCADE FIRE
GO OUTSIDE-CULTS
BOYS CLIMBING SKULL-TEXTILE RANCH
AQUAMAN-GRANDPA GRIFFITH

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 8/31/10

Oops. This was supposed to go up 5 days ago. My apologies. Hope you listened to the show...we had a great interview with Green Corn Revival.

BANKROBBER-THE CLASH
THE GOOD THAT WON'T COME OUT-RILO KILEY
DUDE'S HOUSE-SIFL & OLLY
ROUND & ROUND-ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI
MOO MOO (MY HEART WON'T DIE)-THE GROWN UPS
MOTION OF ARIEL-THE LOUD FAMILY
AIKEA-GUINEA-COCTEAU TWINS
THE GHOST WHO WALKS-KAREN ELSON
DIRTY LITTLE SECRET-CARY COOPER
(UNTITLED) 1-DIRECTIONS IN MUSIC
I AM THE VOICE OF SARAH STRICKLAND'S RAGE-BRING BACK THE GUNS
PARTY WITH CHILDREN-RATATAT
I MET UP WITH THE KING-FIRST AID KIT
LEAVE-R.E.M.
NEW WAY BACK-GREEN CORN REVIVAL
MANY WORLDS-GREEN CORN REVIVAL
BLUE WATER-GREEN CORN REVIVAL
I LIKE FOOD-THE DESCENDENTS
THE INCREDIBLE MEDICINE SHOW-MOXY FRUVOUS
VIDEO-BEN FOLDS FIVE
OLD MAN AT THE BAR-DANIEL WALCHER
DOWN TO THE WATER-MAI BLOOMFIELD
SOFT SKIN-MOUNTAIN MAN
CUCKOLD'S ADMONITION-BUFFALOFITZ
COMANCHE-CAKE
(WHAT'S SO FUNNY 'BOUT) PEACE, LOVE & UNDERSTANDING-ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS

See y'all tomorrow night for the new show.

Okay, Sufjan Fans, Are You Ready For the GREATEST TEST OF YOUR LIFE??

Okay, so remember when I posted my blog about Sufjan Stevens'Illinois and how I had kind of gone sour on it once everyone started to constantly tell me how awesome it was? And remember when I talked about the Arcade Fire on my radio show a few weeks ago and talked about how I hadn't been a fan to speak of, and then their new album came out and it BLEW MY MIND?? Not only that, but remember how all the really big Arcade Fire fans were acting all jaded and disappointed in the album??

Another similar event is about to come to pass. I am sure of it.

Sufjan Stevens is about to release a new album, and from the description given to us on the InSound preorder listing (click above link to go read it), it sounds like Sufjan is about to take a little bit of a left turn in terms of his sound. Now, mind you, last year he released The BQE, which was mostly orchestral and instrumental, but I wouldn't be surprised if most Sufjan fans didn't sweat it, because it was a FILM SCORE. This album, however (titled The Age of Adz), is a full-fledged ALBUM OF SONGS WITH VOCALS, and is mostly electronic in nature (and not based in delightfully melancholy acoustic guitar and piano), from what the InSound description says.

Are you ready, folks? Are you ready to give liking this album a real, honest try? Are you ready to allow the guy to truly express himself and put something new into the world that he worked hard on and is proud of, without letting YOUR preconceived notions of what a Sufjan album SHOULD sound like get in the way??

Expectations are a bitch, folks. And I suggest you shed them quickly if you're gonna really allow this album to be heard the way it should.

But who am I to say? Ultimately this is all subjective. Maybe all the Sufjan fans are way more open than I think, and will happily approach anything he gives them with as little bias as they can muster. But it's not every day that an artist has to follow up a record that was named "Album of the Decade" by a respectable publication like Paste Magazine (R.I.P., BTW).

And you're either gonna be part of the "backlash", or you're not. It's probably a decision that must be made before you actually hear the record.

Oh, and if you think that I must hate the guy, you should really go back and read my Illinois entry, where I talk about the fact that it really IS a great album.

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 8/24/10

Sorry I'm a day late, folks.

PASS THE PLUGS-DE LA SOUL
THIS GIRL THAT I KNOW-BECK
POLITICAL SONG FOR MICHAEL JACKSON TO SING-MINUTEMEN
SCISSOR-THE LIARS
GLASS PRINTER-THE BESNARD LAKES
THE BACK OF MY MIND-THE LODGER
ARROW-KATHRYN CALDER
LANDMARK-KATE KLIM
LLOYD, I'M READY TO BE HEARTBROKEN-CAMERA OBSCURA
STRANGERS-THE KINKS
SWEET NATASHA-DR. PANTS
ARPEGGIATOR-FUGAZI
AHEAD-WIRE
AUTUMN SONG-STUART MOXHAM
CAROLINA-STEVEN BACON
IN THE AEROPLANE OVER THE SEA-NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL
SON OF A GUN-THE LA'S
I'M NOT DEAD-WORLD RACKETEERING SQUAD
BANNED (BY THE MAN)-SOMEONE STILL LOVES YOU BORIS YELTSIN
THE GHOST AT NUMBER ONE-JELLYFISH
LAND & SEA-REBECCA LOEBE
THANK YOU TIME GIRL-THE HUNGRY MOMENT
JUDAS-THE SHIMMIES
MARY-ALEXA WOODWARD
EXIT ROW-LIKE PIONEERS
AFTERNIGHT-TRANS AM
TITANIUM EXPOSE-SONIC YOUTH
WHAT LIGHT-WILCO
GENEROUS FRIENDS-K.C. CLIFFORD

Show re-airs this Sunday, 8/29 at 5pm central. Thanks for listening, everybody!

The Promise of Poison

Something about the music of our youth will always be different than music for the rest of our lives, I think. It doesn't really matter who you are, when you grew up, or what was popular at the time. Being of the age I am, though, means that the golden age of butt rock (hair metal, whatever you want to call it) occurred right smack in the middle of my middle school years, and I think this has particular resonance.

What is it about a song like Poison's "Nuthin' But a Good Time"? What part of that song, exactly, made the beginning of a fairly unremarkable junior high summer evening feel so full of...promise? And promise of what?? I can't really even put my finger on what I might have been hoping for. Hoping to...meet a girl? Meet a girl that...liked me? Have an adventure? This was probably the junior high/middle school version of what Poison might have been trying to convey...I wasn't going to have reckless, casual sex, or consume inordinate amounts of alcohol or some other substance. I mean, I didn't even do those things in high school or college. But something about the feel-good, party anthems of the 80's really could make the most boring, ordinary evening, even those spent within the confines of a buddy's house for a sleepover, seem incredibly full of possibility.

The moments, a couple of years later, where an evening occurred that DID involve meeting a girl, or meeting a girl that liked me, or having an adventure (sneaking out of the house where the sleepover occurred being the most common one...this ended in a number of interesting ways over the course of a couple of years), were extremely delicious...delicious in the way that something you feel like you've been waiting for forever can only be. Perhaps the soundtrack to those evenings was more along the lines of the Beatles, Zeppelin or the Who, or even later on, perhaps R.E.M., They Might Be Giants or The Cure. But the echoes of Def Leppard and Great White reverberated through my mind, I think. No, I didn't meet a girl that night at my brother's baseball game in eighth grade, roaming the grounds of the baseball complex with the homies, but I did, two years later, on an adventurous evening with my friend Greg in the D.C. area. Maybe her love was like "Bad Medicine". Or not (more likely). I just knew that I was finally entering a realm of experience I had longed for throughout my adolescence.

Soundtrack for the composition of this blog entry:
NUTHIN' BUT A GOOD TIME-POISON
KISS ME DEADLY-LITA FORD
PHOTOGRAPH-DEF LEPPARD
ONCE BITTEN, TWICE SHY-GREAT WHITE
BAD MEDICINE-BON JOVI
DR. FEELGOOD-MOTLEY CRUE (this song actually hadn't even come out during my middle school years, but somebody on Twitter requested Motley Crue as I was blipping all this stuff, and this is my favorite Crue tune.)

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 8/17/10

Here's last night's playlist. The show will re-air this Sunday, 8/22, at 5pm central. Rock!!

I'M STRAIGHT-THE MODERN LOVERS
I AM A TREE-GUIDED BY VOICES
INVISIBLE-POSSUM DIXON
SLIP AWAY-KATHRYN CALDER
STRANGE WAY-ELLEN TIPPER
WHERE KNOCK IS OPEN WIDE-HIS NAME IS ALIVE
EQUILIBRIUM-MIKE DROHO & COMPASS ROSE
OUR BREADTH IS WIDER THAN OUR BERTH-EUTOPIAN ACCIDENT
GRAVITY-ALTAI ROCKETS
I'LL BE YOUR JONNY ON THE SPOT-WEEN
THAT HAT-PETER GORDON & LOVE OF LIFE ORCHESTRA
ATE OH ATER-ESTHING
I CAN'T FEEL-MATTHEW DEAR
BORED BEYOND OBLIVION-MONSTER MOVIE
SOON-MY BLOODY VALENTINE
DAYSLEEPER-LONGWAVE
CHEESECAKE TRUCK-KING MISSILE
BROKEN FACE-THE PIXIES
POST ACID-WAVVES
MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL-HUSKER DU
NEW WAY BACK-GREEN CORN REVIVAL
ANGEL DREAM NO. 4-TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS
DARKEST DAY-JENEE HALSTEAD
DON'T WANT NO FOO-FOO HAIRCUT ON MY HEAD-MOJO NIXON & SKID ROPER
CODDINGTOWN-PRIMUS
ANTHEM FOR THE EARNEST-THE BAD PLUS
TIME IS TIGHT-BOOKER T. & THE MG'S

See y'all next week.

The Mixtape Jones Radio Show, Playlist, 8/10/10

I could say this is the week that I'll post a real entry here, but it's not. Too much to do. Dr. Pants rehearsal tonight, gig Friday night, and pre-production on our new record tomorrow and Friday! Woot!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the show. As usual, it will rerun this coming Sunday, 8/15, at 5pm central.

DARE TO BE STUPID-WEIRD AL YANCOVIC
MY GUITAR WANTS TO KILL YOUR MAMA-FRANK ZAPPA & THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION
THE CRYSTAL CAT-DAN DEACON
STAY POSITIVE-THE HOLD STEADY
STATIONARY-BUSSES
BORN TO FLY-SARAH SAMPLE
MECHANICS & MATHEMATICS-VENUS HUM
SCALING-MU-ZIQ
I'M COMING THROUGH-CRAIG BETHELL
ROCOCO-THE ARCADE FIRE
PURPLE TOUPEE-THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
DESDEMONA-EGGSTONE
LOOKING FOR LORELEI-WORLD RACKETEERING SQUAD
BLOOD LIKE YOURS-CHRIS O'BRIEN
TAPE OP BLUES-PETER HOLSAPPLE & CHRIS STAMEY
WHERE WOULD WE GO?-RUSTY ANDERSON
BACK TO THE PLAYGROUND-KIRSTEN JONES
COME ALIVE (WAR OF THE ROSES)-JANELLE MONAE
CHEMICAL MARRIAGE-MR. BUNGLE
WE CAN FLY-LACHI
HOW WRONG YOU ARE-BOSTON SPACESHIPS
ANOTHER HEARTBREAK/DON'T DON'T (REDUX)-PETER GORDON & LOVE OF LIFE ORCHESTRA
GROUP AUTOGENICS I-THE BOOKS
CLOSING THEME-CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN
ANNIE HOLD ON-PHIL HENRY
FORTUNATE MAN-JIM PATTON & SHERRY BROKUS
5 AMERICAN 6 CANADIAN-SHADOWY MEN ON A SHADOWY PLANET
TWENTY YEARS LATER-PHISH

Word up. See you guys next week.

The Mixtape Jones Radio Hour, Playlist, 8/3/10

I promise I'll write an actual blog entry here some time soon, but for now, here's the playlist from last night's Mixtape Jones Radio Hour. Man, doing this show is fun. I hope you all are enjoying it.

DANCE YRSELF CLEAN-LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
IAMBIC 9 POETRY-SQUAREPUSHER
SEVEN LANGUAGES-CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN
HIT ME LIKE YOU DID THE FIRST TIME-THE FLAMING LIPS
ERICA'S WORD-GAME THEORY
FAKE TALKING HEADS SONG-LIAM LYNCH
SLEEP: THE LIGHT-THE FIBS
CANDLE IN THE WILLOW TREE-ROUND MOUNTAIN
PROPELLOR TIME-ROBYN HITCHCOCK
SLOW BURNING CRIMES-EAST HUNDRED
BJO, PT. 1-WEIRD FILES
FLOORED-THE NELS CLINE SINGERS
THE INCUMBENT-SOUL COUGHING
BRAND NEW SONG-ANDY GULLAHORN
SOLAR SYSTEM-VIGILANTES OF LOVE
HEY NONNY NONNY-VIOLENT FEMMES
METAL SPIDER WEBS-BLACK MOLD
ANOTHER JOURNEY BY TRAIN-THE CURE
PREPARE YOUR COFFIN-TORTOISE
JACK PALANCE-VAN DYKE PARKS
ROLL THE STONE AWAY-KIM RICHARDSON
A MILLION TEARS-K.C. CLIFFORD
WHAT'S IN THE BAG-THE FRENCH SEMESTER
THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD-WARREN ZEVON
WENDELL GEE-R.E.M.
FULL CIRCLE-CHARLOTTE HATHERLY
BABY, TAKE YOUR TEETH OUT-FRANK ZAPPA
I AM THE WALRUS-THE DEAD MILKMEN

The Mixtape Jones Radio Hour, Playlist, 7/27/10

Well, after a kink that held up the broadcast for approximately an our and 15 minutes or so, the first "official" episode of the Mixtape Jones Radio Hour aired tonight on Jivewired.com's Live365 channel. If you missed it, fear not, it will air again this Sunday evening from 5-7pm, so tune in. Meanwhile, to whet your appetite, here's what I played:

SMOKIN' BANANA PEELS-THE DEAD MILKMEN
4-APHEX TWIN
WEIRD LITTLE BOY-THE TOWER OF DUDES
I'M DEF-THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
I TRIED TO CRY-THE RESIDENTS
OPEN NIGHT-THE TWIN ATLAS
COUNTING & MEASURING-CHUCK E. COSTA
RADIO SONG-THE FELICE BROTHERS
BABY I-R.E.M.
DC WON'T DO YOU NO GOOD-WEEN
HIDE IT AWAY-RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR
ELECTRO SNAKE-RYAN ADAMS
KNOCK KNOCK-GOD TV
KENNY LOGGINS-DR. PANTS
ANTENNA-SONIC YOUTH
MONEY GROWS ON TREES-THE ERICKSONS
CAMERA LUCIDA-ROBIN GUTHRIE
BROKEN THINGS-K.C. CLIFFORD
BOBBY BANJO-THE CLUMSY LOVERS
MAGIC CARPET RIDER-THE HALO BENDERS
RHINESTONE EYES-GORILLAZ
LIGHT-PHISH
PRETTY (DEMO)-TOBIN SPROUT
NIGHT TIMES-SARA LOWES
TENGO TODO-CAFE TACUBA
RUNNING OUT OF TIME-MAI BLOOMFIELD
BLIND LOVE-GRANDPA GRIFFITH
WHEN MY TIME COMES-DAWES
AND THIS IS WHAT WE CALL PROGRESS-THE BESNARD LAKES
SICKIE BOY-ROBYN HITCHCOCK
ROCK & ROLL FRIENDS-SIFL & OLLY

IF YOU ARE A BAND/ARTIST, go to Jivewired.com and set up your EPK. It's a great alternative to the monopoly Sonicbids has enjoyed over the last few years. Once you do that, you can submit an MP3 for airplay consideration on my show. Can't wait to hear your stuff. Peace.

Talkin' That 1996-Style Ambiguity Blues

I wonder if we're all inclined to feel a connection to certain times in our past more than others. It seems obvious that the answer must be "yes" once I've said it. I know it's true for me...and particular parts of my past feel more prescient at certain times than others.

It's been a real "summer of 1996" time lately, and these are my theories as to why: K.C. and I just moved, so there's been a lot of manual labor going on (I stripped paint off houses as my summer job in 1996). Moving is/has been an emotional thing for me (I was in the turmoil/aftermath of a break-up in the summer of '96, questioning a lot of things, and also added a relationship with another girl to the mix, plus an unrequited pining for a third). It's summer now, and it's hot. Change seems to be in the air, as well...I feel like the way things have been for the last couple of years might not be the way they'll be in the near future, and that might ring some similar bells as the reality of heading into one's final year of college (as I was about to do in the summer of '96).

The music of that summer for me was diverse, compelling, and mostly not at all what those around me were listening to, with a couple of exceptions. Beck's "Odelay" was all the rage, and it was something I was raging to as well. Prince and Frank Zappa were probably my two most prominent obsessions of the moment, and I was rapidly expanding my collection of both, CD-wise. My brother had made me a mixtape of his favorite Warren Zevon songs, and I listened to it almost every day at work. The first Ben Folds Five album was out, and even though most of the world hadn't discovered them yet, I was already a fan for life.

Sometimes that summer seems like an impossible oasis surrounded by ridiculous awfulness. I would proceed, after it was over, to go back to college and get back together with the same girl/woman who I had broken up with, resigning myself to another two years of borderline misery with her (one of which would be spent married to her). After college, all my illusions about what my post-college days would really be like shattered into a million pieces, and it would take me a few years to recover. "Wake Up Time" by Tom Petty, from the "Wildflowers" album, felt prescient during that 1996 summer, but perhaps was even more so post-college.

I'm not entirely sure why I felt the need to blog about this here. It's only minimally related to music, but for me, everything is related to music. My life is much different now, but I think, right now, my life is more similar to the way it was that summer than at any point since. How? It's an emotional space, I suppose...but I don't think I could explain why I feel "like I did then" if I tried. I sent out a tweet earlier tonight that said, "Things are changing and I'm not sure into what, exactly. Maybe they're not and I just wish they were."

Truth is, I'm less sure of what I want now than I have been at any time in the last two years. Maybe that's why now is like that summer...there was so much ambiguity. And I bathed in it...swam in it every day, as I scraped paint, and listened to "Reckoning" by R.E.M., or "Lovesexy" by Prince, or one of a myriad of mixtapes (one in particular that began with "I Wanna Be Sedated" by the Ramones got spun almost as many times as the Zevon tape). The idea that I'm ambiguous about what I want right now will probably come as a surprise to most people reading it (at least, those who know me). But I am. And maybe that will all change in a week. But right now, I just want to put on some Zappa, some Zevon, some Beck, some Petty, have a few beers and soak in this. It seems like the only sensible course of action.

The Bad Plus

So, the Bad Plus performed tonight in Norman, OK, as part of the annual Jazz in June Festival.

I'm gonna pause a moment and let that sink in, for those of you who need it.

The BAD PLUS. Certifiably, for those of us who like this sort of thing, the most inventive, exciting jazz group working today. One of the only mainstay jazz groups who still take the idea of moving jazz forward seriously, and who will always have a place in my heart because of it.

Watch this if you need an introduction to them:


Okay, so let's talk about this for a minute. This was a free festival, in Norman, OK. Yes, the University of Oklahoma is in Norman, so it's a college town, but this is also a free festival, so it attracted all sorts of folks who don't routinely listen to jazz, and if they do, they DEFINITELY don't listen to anything like the Bad Plus.

I sat on the grass with my friend Kyle and his friend Ben (who I'd also call my friend now, especially after he found $40 in my back seat I didn't know was there), and watched as the spectacle unfolded before me. People milled about, oblivious to the fact that there was even music going on. They talked, they got drunk. All ages of folks, too...there were little girls dancing that couldn't have been more than 4 years old. There were tweens and teens who actually paid attention. There were adults of every generation, even seventy-something couples sitting in their camp chairs and listening. There were ladies in their 50's to the left of the stage dancing to songs that changed meter, tempo and groove multiple times in the space of a minute (and were tonally challenging to boot). I guarantee you, most of these people had never heard anything like this before, and here so many of them were, "finding themselves unable to stop listening", as Kyle put it.

I have two things to say about this. One. It was a phenomenal, phenomenal performance. These guys might be the best musicians I've ever seen play, period. It pretty much comes down to Zappa Plays Zappa and these guys. Their mastery of what they do is unparalleled. All three of them have such a large musical vocabulary that nothing is beyond their reach in terms of their three instruments. They all compose pieces for the group, and all the pieces are flabbergastingly amazing. I feel blessed to be alive while they're performing, because, if there's any justice in the world, their work will live on long, long after they're dead. I hope, one day, I can tell some 20 year old whipper snapper that I got to see them play once.

Two. These guys have saved jazz as an art form. No, I'm not kidding. Once the bebop revolution occurred in jazz, the music ceased to be about the pop charts, or compromise. This was jazz's destiny; to be the first form of art music to emerge since the European classical tradition. Some time in the 70's, jazz became pop music again, and all through the 80's and 90's, many, many jazz players continued to push it in that direction. The Bad Plus came along, however, and decided to make jazz on their own terms, with a vocabulary that included the rock and roll tradition and the songs of its icons (see their covers of "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Iron Man", "Heart of Glass", "Tom Sawyer" to name a few), as well as the entire jazz vocabulary of the last century. The result is a music that is uncompromising, beautiful, challenging, and swingin'. It is the logical, true jazz of the 21st century, and tonight, in a park in Norman, Oklahoma, a thousand people heard it and reacted positively. All of us there witnessed a miracle, I'm pretty sure.

Listening to Phish, Making Dr. Pants

So, Phish are on tour again this summer. I will not get to see them...this is the continuing reality of living in Oklahoma, and Phish's staunch refusal to routinely never get anywhere near here. When the rumors of their Halloween festival occurring in Austin started flying around last year, I hardly even allowed myself to get excited, because I knew that it was not bloody likely.

I've downloaded one show from the tour so far, 6/18 from Hartford, CT. Set list is as follows:

Set 1:
Fee
Rift
Wolfman's Brother
Summer of '89
Foam
Possum
The Moma Dance
Julius
Reba
Cavern

Set 2:
Halley's Comet
Light
Billy Breathes
Tweezer
Theme From the Bottom
Harry Hood
Wading In the Velvet Sea
Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan

Encore:
Sleeping Monkey
Tweezer Reprise
Tweezer Reprise

No, that's not a typo. They played the same song twice in a row in the encore (it comes from a tradition where if the song "Tweezer" is played, it doesn't get played again during the tour until after "Tweezer Reprise" is played. This time, they played "Tweezer" twice, once on 6/13, and then again in this show, and didn't play a "Tweezer Reprise" in between. So they played two of 'em to catch up). I should say before I go any further, there are moments in this here concert recording that I have really enjoyed, namely "Possum" (surprisingly enough...it's not my favorite Phish song by any means and generally is kind of boring, but it had some really great guitar playing on it this time around) and "Harry Hood" (always a beautiful tune...I've loved it since I heard it for the first time on A Live One back in 1995). And how about the crowd singing on "Sleeping Monkey"? That's a good-sounding audience, right there.

I don't think downloading and listening to these shows really holds a candle to being there. Is it way less expensive? Sure. But I think the "warts and all" elements of the performances would be way more forgivable (or even unnoticeable) if I were there in person, rather than listening on headphones. I wonder if there's anything Trey can do to keep his voice in better shape...it was my hope that once he cleaned up from his days doing harder drugs that his live vocals would improve. He's not necessarily out of tune (much), but he generally sounds crackly and weak. Maybe his voice just isn't holding up over the long term, and there's nothing that can be done. Overall, though, I think they're playing really well, which is great.

I wonder, though, if my days of utter, wide-eyed fascination with Phish are over, though. I sit and listen to what they do, and I just want to go do it. Let me be clear: I don't want to BE in Phish, or BE Phish, I just want to go do Dr. Pants, and do it well. We won't ever be as skilled as Phish (although certainly we aspire to be better players than we are), and we probably won't ever have a following like them, either. But it's clear to me that there are a lot of moments listening to Phish that make me feel something along the lines of, "I'd sure enjoy playing right now a lot more than I'm enjoying listening." And I don't think this is due to Phish being lousy, or uninteresting, because I still think they're fantastic and worth paying attention to. But I spend a lot of moments making excuses about not taking that moment to work on what I do. And an excuse is just an excuse, nothing more. It's not a reason, or an explanation. The excuse exists because there is no other valid thing to fill its place. So I want to choose to do what I do more, write and record for Dr. Pants more, perform with Dr. Pants more...because we're worth it.

It's a discipline thing. My friend David, who K.C. and I just visited in St. Paul, is back to practicing piano for at least 45 minutes a day every day. I want that discipline. I want to play. I hope to update again soon, and say that I have played. Every day. We'll see.

25 Records That Mean Something to Me, #1

I wanted to do some blogging about some of my favorite records, and 25 seemed like a good number. So here’s the first in a series of 25. I’ll be doing entries about other stuff inbetween as well. I’ll try and keep each one relatively short…wish me luck.

The Cure-Disintegration

I figured I’d start with this one because I just purchased the recently-released 3-disc deluxe edition. I first heard the Cure when I was 14, and the first Cure record I bought was a cassette of “Standing On A Beach-The Singles” (titled “Staring At the Sea” if you purchased the CD version). “Standing” was a pretty good introduction to the band, since it contained every single they’d released up through 1986 or so. It made me a fan to some degree, but I really didn’t learn what it meant to truly love the Cure until I heard “Disintegration”. It had been about 6 or 8 months since my initial purchase, and I had heard just enough of the band’s 1989 opus at a youth group event to get really, REALLY excited about buying it.

This record, to me, is a 70-something minute demonstration of the word “atmosphere”. I think it applies in several different ways, one certainly being that the whole record has a vibe that’s as thick as molasses from start to finish. Also, though, I don’t think it’s an accident that it’s maybe the best rainy day record EVER…when there’s activity in the physical atmosphere, “Disintegration” gives plenty of corresponding atmosphere in the emotional sense. The composition, arranging and production are phenomenal…one of the things that’s always blown my mind about “Disintegration” is how on every song, every time you think they’ve finished adding parts to the mix, some new melody or motif comes in and takes the whole thing up another notch. Some characterize this record (and much of the Cure’s other music) as “depressing”, and I suppose that, emotionally, it’s definitely not an upper, but I think that short changes its value. It may bring you to a melancholy place, but sometimes that’s a place that we all need to go.

Thoughts About & Inspired By the Kerrville Folk Festival

The Kerrville Folk Festival is a difficult animal to explain to someone who’s never been. I say this at risk of becoming something I’m not, which is one of those people who elevate an event like Kerrville to some sort of divine status…the people that when you finally cave in and go, they look at you and say, “Yeah, it’s kind of commercial/sold-out now, it’s too bad you never got to come when it was cool.” Mind you, the remarkable thing about Kerrville is that it’s been going strong for 38 years, and anyone who was going to cry “sell-out” probably got that over with quite some time ago. The festival is what it is, and gradually evolves every year in subtle ways that are sometimes difficult to detect but are almost always positive.

So, having said this, I have thoughts about this year’s festival.

I am so grateful for all the great friends I made this year, all the friends I got to see again, and all the songwriters I got to hear (most of which qualify as friends now as well).

I am really grateful for all the inspiration Kerrville gave me this year, both in terms of working on becoming a better songwriter, and a better guitarist/instrumentalist (I have decided that I am going to get my mandolin back out and try to become less of a hack).

I’m happy to see a crop of New Folk (Kerrville’s annual songwriting contest) winners that are truly diverse and enjoyable. I mean, I’m sure this applies every year, but this year I was particularly impressed by the judges’ picks.

I am ready to see things get even more diverse at this festival. The folk world tends to be pretty insular, and I think it’s only going to hurt it in the long run. The music world is changing, though, and it’s going to be interesting how this affects Kerrville and the folk world in general. The younger generation (as in, 40 and under) should not be afraid of shaking things up. Start radio shows/podcasts on the internet. Play “folk” music, but play rock and r&b, too. Devote your shows to “good” music, and not to things that ultimately pay service to “radio formats” that are going the way of the dinosaur.

As I get closer to starting my radio show later this summer, I wonder a lot of things, but I wonder if I can have any impact at all on the folk world that I’ve become a part of through working with K.C. I’d love to see a real revolution in terms of the way music is approached, or at least, the way PRESENTING music is approached, both in a live context and a radio context.

I’m sure this segregating of music worlds is good for some things, and that there are people who get a lot out of it being this way (the house concert movement, for instance, wouldn’t have much momentum if it weren’t for the folk world and its attendant conferences/organizations/festivals. House concerts for rock & roll are completely impractical most of the time. I’d welcome any comments on how rock & roll can reinvent its presentation for the new era…ideas for presenting band-oriented music in contexts that don’t revolve around alcohol sales). Those people may suffer in some capacity if the walls start to break down. Maybe a complete demolition of those walls isn’t necessary, but making them a bit more porous is positive and probably inevitable.

Betty Soo’s mainstage debut at Kerrville this year was a riveting blur of Texas country, rock & roll, and sure, something that could be called folk music. Two Bob Dylan covers didn’t hurt, either. Of course, there are people in the folk world who would rather forget that Dylan ever went electric. It’s bizarre that I’m even writing a blog entry like this when ultimately the first cracks in the walls started appearing in 1965. You’d think, by now, the discussion would be over. But since it’s not, let’s discuss. Please comment, especially if you’re someone who attends Kerrville or Folk Alliance.

Collection Overhaul.

So, I recently tackled a reorganization, or, perhaps more accurately, a reassessment of my record/CD collection. I wanted to make it more focused, easier to navigate…it was as if I was living with a certain level of anxiety about my collection, and I wanted to see if I could reduce said anxiety at all. From whence originated this anxiety, you ask? To be honest, I’m really not entirely sure. I do know that a few weeks ago I was in New York and had the opportunity to look at and study my friend Kirk’s record/CD collection, and I was in awe of the efficiency of it. There was no fluff, no ephemera to speak of, only a really complete, admirable collection of music by artists that he genuinely cared about.

I set about duplicating this effect in my own collection once we arrived home. Most of my CDs have been living in our garage for the past couple of years…we didn’t really have room to store them in our current residence. I have spent most of the last five years or so reducing their number, a little bit at a time…they had reached a pretty massive balloon point sometime before K.C. and I got married. So in these past few years I have been sifting, sifting, sifting…weeding out things that I kept just for one song, or for the sake of completion, or for some sentimental reason that ultimately doesn’t hold up. I unloaded at least a hundred discs last fall so that I would be guaranteed the adequate funds to purchase the Beatles In Mono box set when it arrived. So the process was already in motion.

I managed to cull another hundred discs or so out of the collection, some of which I ripped into mp3 format and stored on a data disc, others I cut off like an unwanted parasite. There were things that I felt sure I would always want to have around that I felt no need to own anymore. There were things that had some value to me at one time that were nothing but nostalgia now. It should also be mentioned that many, many songs that I know I have in CD quality format on my “Soundtrack to My Life” series could be jettisoned, especially if they came from albums that I wasn’t really excited about overall, OR from “greatest hits” collections. With a couple of exceptions, I will rarely, if EVER, have any interest in listening to a “greatest hits” disc from start to finish, so I figure that having access to the songs that actually mean something to me in mp3 format is enough.

I culled a few things from my vinyl collection, too, though it is a much smaller body of material, so it doesn’t have as much chaff to separate. I traded in all this material for other records, mostly vinyl, and I love the fact that I didn’t get nearly as much back as I gave up. That’s part of the point; I am reducing the amount that I own, to be more focused, less overwhelmed, so it doesn’t bother me a lick that I traded in around 100 records and got back a dozen. Considering that vinyl is more expensive and the going rate for used CDs gets lower every day, I’m happy with that.

Still, the only frontier I haven’t officially invaded yet is my iTunes. My iTunes is still the one place where I feel I lack focus, intent, and organization…part of this being due to the fact that the “master playlist” feature is still something I dislike (you know, the big playlist at the top of the left-hand column just called “Music”). I don’t WANT a place where all the music on my hard drive sits in a list all together…I want to put it in specific places, playlists, folders, whatever, and have that be the ONLY SPOT WHERE IT LIVES.

From there, it gets more complicated. I start to see my iTunes as a pointless, haphazard mix…I wonder what purpose it really serves in the grand scheme of things. I mean, I know that my iPod can’t be beat in terms of portability, but that hasn’t stopped me from bringing a wallet of CDs on the road with us every time we go recently. As I move further and further away from a world where the iTunes on shuffle is a preferred method of listening, iTunes starts to seem more and more like some sort of albatross that I have been misguided into keeping around my neck. For so long I just wanted to get to a place where I felt like I had my iPod & iTunes situated in such a way that I didn’t want to constantly change them all the time…but ultimately I felt like that led to stagnancy, not a more complete experience of the music I had placed in them. I mean, I have been making conscious choices to enjoy whole records on my iPod as opposed to putting the thing on shuffle all the time, but part of me wonders if I shouldn’t just remove any free-floating tracks that aren’t attached to an entire album, at least for the moment. For that matter, maybe I should do the same thing to my iTunes. Am I moving in the opposite direction from the dominant listening culture? Am I showing my true dinosaur skin? What if I just delete everything in my iTunes and start over?? I guess, ultimately, iTunes has become a storage method for music for me, and I don’t want it to BE that; I want it to be a listening platform. In that scenario, I feel a great need to evaluate and overhaul the CONTENT contained within.

I would welcome any comments on this.

My First Guest Post!

Hey, the first guest post I've ever done on someone else's blog just got published. CLICK HERE to read it! I'm excited...it's a bit broader in focus than what I usually write here, and it's...um...not so shiny in tone. But I hope you enjoy it!

Record Store Day

So, as I sit here giving my Sonic Youth "EVOL" limited edition pink vinyl its inaugural spin, I figure this would be a good moment to talk about Record Store Day this year.

I'm sure some of you have already written off Record Store Day as some sort of bullshit geek phenomenon, and if you're the kind of person who thinks in terms of "bullshit geek phenomenon" and other similar phrases, I'm willing to bet that attitude is right for you. For me, however, I can't help but get giddy when I think about Record Store Day. There are so many things about it that I find exciting, and as I tell you about my Record Store Day experience this year, I'll try and illustrate those elements.

Before I continue, I should probably explain a bit more what Record Store Day is. It's a day to celebrate independent record stores, but HOW this is done is key. Many artists and labels, to commemorate this occasion each year, have started releasing exclusive, limited edition records and CDs that will ONLY be available through participating independent record stores on Record Store Day. It's basically a guarantee that the indie record shops will have a banner day that day, sales-wise, and it's quite the alluring occasion for geeky record collectors like myself to get out there and grab some things that have been released in a sort of "one time only" fashion. I mean, giddy. GIDDY I TELL YOU!

Some time towards the end of March it dawned on me that I was not going to be home on Record Store Day this year...in other words, I was going to be on tour with K.C. I suddenly felt disheartened; I desperately wanted to be a part of the occasion, because independent record stores are a special breed these days...they specifically exist to keep the tradition of collecting and enjoying music in a physical format (whether LP or CD) alive. Many would regard this as pointless at this juncture in history, but I don't think it's ever been more important. Anyway, I digress. What I was leading to was that I wasn't going to be home (meaning I would not be able to make my purchases at my beloved local shop, Guestroom Records)...and that, to participate in Record Store Day, I would have to figure out where I would be on that day and try and find a store in the area.

I wound up at Redscroll Records in Wallingford, CT. It was about a 15-20 minute drive from where we were staying (with some lovely, lovely folks named Mike & Kelly Stuper), and since we had plenty of time that morning to do what we wished before we drove to Boston, I was able to arrive at Redscroll in time to get in line for the day's exclusives.

The line was way longer than I expected. I was probably about 10 or 12 people back, and this was at about 9:50 am (the store was opening at 10, 2 hours before its normal opening time). It should be noted that, at this point, everyone in line except one person was male. Several cars drove by while we were waiting for the store to open, the drivers of which slowed down, rolled down their windows and asked us what was going on. They seemed disappointed to find out it was just "Record Store Day". Again, like I said earlier, it's not for everyone.

I had sincere hopes that there would not be enough people in front of me that wanted the main thing I came for: a blue vinyl limited edition reissue of R.E.M.'s debut EP. Turns out my hope was in vain, as when I finally was able to enter the store and approach the spot on the front counter where all the Record Store Day exclusives were merchandised, there were no R.E.M. records to be found. Copies of both the limited edition Sonic Youth vinyl reissues remained, however ("EVOL" and "Confusion Is Sex"), so I grabbed those, poked around the store for a few more minutes and then checked out. I was lucky I got in when I did...by the time I entered the store, the line had gotten much, MUCH longer behind me. I got a bitchin' Record Store Day tote bag for my purchases that had all sorts of swag in it, too.

I started scheming on the drive back about people in other time zones that might be able to pick up an R.E.M. disc for me, and by the time I arrived back in Southington, CT, I was trying to work out an arrangement with a couple of them. Turns out I didn't have to, because my awesome friend Bruce Chandler from Austin sent me a text telling me that he had seen my forlorn tweet on the subject, so he had picked me up a copy. Radness. I have to wait to pick it up from him when we go to the Kerrville Folk Festival in May, but that's okay. Delayed gratification is still gratification.

After I arrived back in Southington, Kelly made us the most delightful breakfast, and I basked in the glow of the whole experience. Maybe you're a car fanatic and you look forward to the classic and custom car show every year...maybe you are a basketball fanatic and March Madness is your favorite annual event. Record Store Day is quickly becoming a favorite day of the year for me, because the independent record stores, the stores that really make an effort to keep the excitement of physical music (and independent music) alive, have a day to celebrate and be celebrated. We geeks could not be any more proud to go out and be a part of this special occasion.

Duff McKagan Joins Jane's Addiction

2 things to start out:

1. I am not writing this post to bring you the news of Duff McKagan joining Jane's Addiction. If you are geeky enough to read this blog, you probably already know about it. If you don't, just google it.

2. In the interest of full disclosure, I am way more of a Jane's Addiction fan than I am a Guns N' Roses fan. I enjoy some Guns N' Roses, and I definitely enjoyed them very much in my junior high years. But Jane's will always win out for me.

So, were you shocked by this news? Are you the kind of Jane's Addiction devotee and old school alterna-groupie that finds the idea of a member of GN'R playing with Jane's Addiction distasteful and indicative of some sort of (ugh) "sell-out"? Do you question Duff McKagan's abilities as a musician and bass player, at least to the extent that he might possibly be able to fill the (extremely) able shoes of Eric Avery?

You may have an argument on the last point. Before I get to my argument about the former point, I have to say that, despite the fact that Duff McKagan is obviously a skilled bass player and can hold his own in most rock contexts, the music of Jane's Addiction (especially that of "Ritual De Lo Habitual") can be twisty stuff, and Eric Avery's bass playing on that record in particular is formidable. I will be interested to see if Duff can hang with some "Three Days" or the razor sharp turns and angles of "Ain't No Right". Now, I'm sure some of you GN'R enthusiasts will no doubt bring up latter day Guns N' Roses epics such as "Estranged", "Coma" and (of course who could forget) "November Rain" in terms of whether Duff can hang with learning songs of a more long-form nature. Those songs did have their own complex elements (to a degree), but "Three Days" they are NOT. "Three Days" is a TRUE musical masterpiece of the original alternative era, and shows all four members of Jane's Addiction at their absolute peak. Duff should consider himself lucky to even play the tune once. We'll see how he does.

And now to the former point.

It didn't take me long, after I received the news of Duff's new gig, to settle into a gentle resignation somewhere along the lines of "well yeah, okay." First of all, it's 2010, and we're talking about two bands who, for better or worse, started their careers the better part of 25 years ago. Time itself should allow us to move to a place of acceptance with this, but just in case it doesn't for you, let's go a bit deeper.

GN'R and Jane's are both from Los Angeles, and both formed around the same time. Both bands made aggressive, subversive music, at least for the time. Both had iconic lead vocalists that sang in high pitched squeals. There is probably an argument that they were the two most significant hard rock bands of the late 80's (hold on, hold on, HOLD ON!! YES, Jane's Addiction are a HARD ROCK BAND. Their music rocks. It's heavy and aggressive. Do not play like this is a misnomer). Not only that, these two bands, I would argue, were essentially two sides of the same coin. The drug-fueled Los Angeles underbelly was an essential part of both bands' mythology...neither one of them would have been what they were without it. I think these bands took essentially the same ideas and style and respectively delivered it to two different segments of the population. If you were a disillusioned, angry teenager in the late 80's who was desperate for some aggressive music that spoke to you and wasn't like everything else, Jane's Addiction was the band for you. If you were a disillusioned, angry teenager in the late 80's who was desperate for some aggressive music that spoke to you and you didn't necessarily live in the most metropolitan of places, Guns N' Roses probably ended up being your band. Maybe you were a GN'R fan and ended up discovering Jane's a few years later when you got to high school (like me). Maybe you really liked the fact that Dave Navarro was willing to essentially shred (after a fashion, at least), but that Jane's could still be cool.

Which brings me to another point. There were punk rockers who couldn't stand Jane's because of Navarro's guitar playing. I remember driving around with a friend and friend-of-said-friend in high school, with the friend-of-friend's Husker Du cassette in the stereo, and he said that Jane's would be so much better if Dave Navarro didn't take a "cheesy-ass, Poison-Motley Crue solo" every chance he got. I see his issue, but I also think it's extremely short-sighted to compare Dave Navarro's guitar playing to that of C.C. DeVille (maybe the biggest example of all-style-no-substance guitar playing of the entire butt rock era). Navarro possesses a style which is almost as (if not at least as) iconic as Slash's. The guy was a monster, at least at that point in his career, and his tone and style were as instantly recognizable as that of Slash. Neither one of them has done much playing of note in the last fifteen years or so, but from about 1987-1993 or 4, you could not fade either one of them.

But that punk rocker would have taken this moment, the moment where Duff from GN'R joins Jane's Addiction, as the moment where we should swear them off forever, and call them what they really are: butt rockers trying to masquerade as something cooler. For me, the proof will always be in the pudding: "Ritual De Lo Habitual" is probably one of the 10 best albums of the 90's, and it is certainly a way more compelling listen than either of the "Use Your Illusion" records. "Appetite For Destruction" vs. "Nothing's Shocking"? I will leave that one up to you. I'm sure many of you will say that they shouldn't even be considered on the same plane, but I think at this point in history we can see that's a shortsighted judgment, especially now that both bands have put out records in the new millennium that absolutely failed to live up to the legacies of their early work.

But maybe it's not for any of us to decide. If I can, I'm gonna take in a Jane's show and see what my ears think.

No Mixtapes??

So, I have been putting pressure on myself lately to get a new mixtape up here on the blog, and I've really been feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of attempting such a thing. I didn't really know why...until I had a breakthrough this evening.

The musical renaissance I've been experiencing the last month or so has been great. The truth is that I am enjoying listening to albums ALL THE WAY THROUGH more than I have in a long time, maybe the better part of a couple of years. Not only would it be counter-intuitive to force myself to listen in a format that I am not currently drawn to, but the truth is that so much of this renaissance is about discovery, and getting to know new music (music that's NEW to me. Lots of catalog stuff that I've never checked out, plus newer stuff). And I've never been any good at putting music on a mixtape if it wasn't something that I had built up some attachment to. I am slowly building up attachments to some of the things that I've been grooving to for a few months, but I've got a long way to go.

This is one reason why I'm so excited about doing the radio show...I can use it to get to know records better, a song at a time. I mean, it's a little bit like making a mixtape every week, but it doesn't have to be quite as cohesive. The compilation tape rules are something that I take fairly seriously (at least, MY version of them), and so I am looking forward to creating some mixtapes later this year that are, shall we say, inspired by my radio show. The show will be as much about discovery for me as it is for you, the listener (I hope).

Meanwhile, it's records, records, records around this house. Vinyl, CD, MP3, whatever. A lot of it is scrobbling to my Last.fm account, so go check out what's been on the box. The vinyl, unfortunately, does not scrobble, but that's okay.

One last thought...mixtapes, for me, can be all about dwelling on the past. If I make a mixtape with a bunch of songs that have meaning for me, but that meaning is mired in things of the past, how can I ever expect to live in the present? The present, finally, is filled with things that I'm excited about, and I think the music, and my level of enjoyment of it, is connected to that. I have lamented on this blog about the idea that music seemed so much more exciting when I was younger, that getting to know new records was easier then, that I was feeling like a curmudgeon in my present state...but the truth is that I can't get excited about the soundtrack to my current life (or making the soundtrack to my life current, as opposed to rehashing that of the past) unless I'm EXCITED about my CURRENT LIFE ITSELF.

Go back and read that sentence again. I'll type it again so you can: ...the truth is that I can't get excited about the soundtrack to my current life (or making the soundtrack to my life current, as opposed to rehashing that of the past) unless I'm EXCITED about my CURRENT LIFE ITSELF. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

JiveWired.com EPK Review

So, there's a new website/social-musical network about to launch called JiveWired.com. (In the interest of full disclosure, I am going to have a radio show on their online radio network, called The Mixtape Jones Radio Hour.) Mike, the fearless creator and founder of JiveWired, asked me to go ahead and throw up an EPK for Dr. Pants, and I did. Now I'm gonna tell you what I think of it.

First of all, let's get the elephant in the room out of the way; the word EPK probably has an iffy connotation to it these days, thanks to Sonicbids. Sonicbids is a controversial thing amongst musicians currently...everyone has an opinion. I personally am not so fond of Sonicbids, and I'm glad, REALLY GLAD, to see someone else step into the game. There are all sorts of rumors flying around about what Sonicbids has and has not done, as well as some pretty infuriating statements that have been made by Sonicbids' founder at conferences, etc. (I've been personally privy to some of these), but I don't think that Sonicbids or what they've created was necessarily a bad idea. It's just not at its best right now, and hasn't been for a while. JiveWired will hopefully contribute to a more healthy marketplace in terms of EPKs, festival submissions, etc.

The JiveWired EPK appears to cover most of the ground necessary to a good EPK. The style/look is very clean and very approachable...there are no design elements that I take issue with in any way. The interface is very user-friendly (if you've ever set up a page for your band at any other sort of music networking site, setup will be a breeze for you), and, even though the site is still in beta testing, I experienced no issues or errors while uploading my content (this may seem fussy, but errors cost time, and time as an independent musician is ALWAYS at a premium).

I like that there's a discography, because that emphasizes the amount of actual MUSIC an artist has MADE, instead of how many dates they've played, etc. If you can't actually make a record, or several, I'm probably not interested in going to hear you play anyway (it's a culture thing...we need to do whatever we can to emphasize creativity in the culture, and not the infinite recycling of old models...cover bands, nostalgia tours, etc.). I also like the usability of the calendar feature, in that you just click on the date of the gig you want to enter and then just fill in the info. It REALLY helps prevent inadvertently entering incorrect dates for your shows. I do wonder, however, if there's any chance JiveWired will consider working with ArtistData or Reverb Nation (I'd prefer ArtistData) to enable uploading of a CSV file to fill out calendar dates (again, time is at a premium, and anything that can be done to reduce the number of sites upon which we have to fill out our calendars is a GOOD THING). If you don't know what I'm talking about, basically ArtistData not only syndicates your dates you enter on their site to your Facebook fan page, MySpace page, etc., it also currently enables you to quickly download a CSV file of all your tour dates and upload it to Sonicbids in a couple of clicks.

I like that the profile allows influences to be listed for each individual band member. Dr. Pants is a diverse little group of guys, and we actually don't have a lot in common in terms of our listening habits. We do, however, each have a lot of respect for where the others are coming from, and that's part of what makes the band work. I think it's cool to be able to list that, for me, Guided By Voices or Frank Zappa are an influence, but for Kenneth it's Van Halen, for Dustin it's Sufjan Stevens, and for Aaron it's Grand Funk Railroad. And for all of us, to some degree, it's Weezer (we do have a little common ground).

I do worry a bit that the EPK is sort of all on one page. I mean, there is a download option, of course, so I don't really know that anyone seriously considering booking you for a gig will do anything but that, but if not, are they going to scroll down through the bio and everything else to get to the music? Yes, there's a shortcut to it on the menu to the left, so maybe I should stop my worrying. I made a promise that I'd give an honest review, though, so that's what I'm doing. (Thumbs Up!)

Overall, I think Mike and the guys at JiveWired have done a good job. I don't know that they've necessarily reinvented the wheel here, but I don't know that it's asking to be completely reinvented. I do know, however, that the EPK market definitely needs competition, and that Sonicbids has gotten big enough that it needs to be chipped away at a bit. I think (although I'm not completely sure) that JiveWired's pricing will be a bit more affordable than Sonicbids, and that you will also get a free submission to one of the JiveWired radio shows (including mine, The Mixtape Jones Radio Hour) with your EPK setup. My show is going to (probably) be the most diverse show starting out, and will cover a lot of musical ground, so I wholeheartedly recommend that you send a submission my way (unless you are metal, really radio-friendly rock or pop, or mainstream rap...there will be other shows that work better for you).

Hope this review helps you, if you're considering posting an EPK. I'd say give JiveWired a chance.

The Stax Museum & My Own Personal Renaissance

So, this last weekend K.C. and I went to Hot Springs, AR and Memphis, TN to perform. We performed in Hot Springs on Thursday and our Memphis gig wasn't until Saturday night, so we arrived in Memphis a day early to spend some time with our fabulous friend, Cindy. She had asked what we wanted to do or see in Memphis, and the only touristy thing I wanted to do was see the Stax museum.

If you don't know what Stax Records is, or who was on the label, PLEASE click the title of this entry and go check out the Stax museum website, or just Wikipedia that shit. Because you NEED to know. Otis Redding, Booker T. & the MG's, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Aretha Franklin, Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers...the face of 60's rough edged soul (as opposed to the extremely clean sound of Motown) and the sound of smooth 70's R&B and funk, Stax changed music forever. Their indelible contribution to pop music history is a beacon of awesome amongst the pop music mediocrity offered by the mainstream these days.

The museum is fantastic...it details how soul music came about as a mixture of blues, country and gospel, and how, without the gospel tradition, there would have been no soul, no R&B music. It talks about the raceless, colorless view that the Stax Records employees and artists employed in their business--the staff of the label contained blacks and whites, and the musicians were both black and white as well. A video in the museum also talks about how, after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, things were never the same--it was as if an illusion had been shattered, and the company never felt the same after that.

It's quite challenging for me to explain what I felt walking through the exhibits. I felt privileged to be there, and so full of emotion when confronted with the powerful nature of what Stax meant not only to music, but to civil rights, to the culture in which it found itself in the 60's. This music REALLY MEANS SOMETHING, and I don't think its value can be overestimated. I was close to tears multiple times walking through the museum, and when we left my heart was so full I feared it might burst at any moment.

It just so happens that this experience coincides with a bit of a renaissance musically for me...it kind of ties into what I was talking about in my entry a few weeks ago when I talked about my friend Kyle playing songs off his iPod to me in the car (Adjusting My Bad Attitude...). I'm having a definite renaissance in terms of my listening, and I think it really ties in with an improvement in my emotional and spiritual well-being. I feel better, I'm happier, and so I'm enjoying music MORE, which makes me feel even better, and happier, so I enjoy the music EVEN MORE, which makes me feel better, and happier...It's an upward spiral that I am doing my best to foster.

I am hoping that this leads to a greater renaissance in terms of my creativity as well, but I'm not quite there yet. I have a couple of projects I need to see to their end (like getting out the Weird Files EP that has been sitting in the can for well over a year), and I think that will enable to me to think clearly and engage future creative projects (like the next Dr. Pants album!!) HEAD ON.

The Stax museum was INSPIRING. It is one of a number of inspiring experiences I've had lately, and I am truly grateful for that. I also want to say how grateful I am to still be doing music full time as K.C.'s husband, guitarist and business partner, and that I don't think any of the rest of this would be possible without that reality.

I hope to have a mixtape or two to post within the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, go find something new and exciting to listen to.

The Subjective Cool

What is "cool" to you? More specifically, what is "cool" when it comes to music? Is cool something that you feel you aren't, because you don't like the things that everyone else seems to? Or is cool something else, something more personal, something that describes that which touches you, or blows your mind, or gets under your skin (in a good way)?

I find that "cool" to me ultimately means some variation on that last one. At least, when I am willing to let go of some of the bullshit foisted on me by the world at large, that's what "cool" means. I'll tell you a story. When I was very young, a small child, no one ever told me that "cool" really meant some sort of status quo in regards to fashion, art, entertainment, culture, etc. "Cool" to me just seemed to mean "that which you get excited about, or that which excites YOU." Not anyone else, just you. "Cool", for me, was always something subjective (the truth is that the other cool is subjective, too, but no one wants you to know that. It's a secret they never tell you, you have to find out for yourself). The clothes I wanted to wear? Cool. The toys I wanted to play with? Cool. The music I wanted to listen to? Cool. At some point around age 12, the world around me started to inform me that it strongly disagreed with my assessment of these things. This stressed me out for a few years, but then I pretty much adjusted.

Maybe "cool" doesn't mean this for you, but it does for me. The coolest moments are the ones in which I find something that I feel like I've always been looking for, or something that feels like it was made for me. It's how I felt when I first heard the Beatles as a kid, or when I first read Douglas Adams. It was absolutely how I felt when I began really getting into Frank Zappa in college. Like this whole world was opening up, begging me to come sit in it. I didn't have to be anything else other than what I truly was in there, and that, by God, was COOL. The people who expect/desire us to conform to some sort of cultural or behavioral rubric in order to fit into some larger, cultural definition of "cool" could learn a thing or two from the things that truly touch us and work their way into our lives. Those things, those pieces of music, art, literature, whatever, don't expect anything of us other than to come to them as we are. It is no coincidence that people find the spiritual in these things, because they share this characteristic with the divine. Find the things that you truly connect with, without having to change yourself. That's cool, but it's a billion times more, too.