Find Me a Word That Rhymes

I've been preoccupied with this Pavement song today called "Spit on a Stranger." It's from my favorite ep of theirs of the same title. In particular there's a couplet of lines that I've been working over: "Honey, I'm a prize and you're a catch and we're a perfect match/Like two bitter strangers/Now I see the long and the short of it and I can make it last/I could spit on a stranger..." I don't know if it should make me feel gooey inside or just sad. Maybe both.


Another good track off that ep is called "Harness Your Hopes," which has some of the most ridiculous of their lyrics ("find me a word that rhymes with Pavement/and I will kill your parents/and roast them on a spit"). Makes me want to row a canoe for some reason...

District Line

T got me the new Bob Mould record (on vinyl, so yes I mean record) District Line as a present for my half-birthday yesterday. (note: only 181 shopping days until my birthday!) I've only listened to it once so far. It's sounding great. Reminds me of the Sugar days before Mould got so excited about electronic effects. I appreciate the fact that he wanted to explore new sounds but the electronics never seemed to be working in support of the songs. He was writing the same kinds of songs as before and then laying on the keyboard tracks. It was like cake with too much frosting. Is that a Patrikism? Anyway, on the new record Mould has the electronics working with the songs. It's sounding great. Here's a sample.

Davercize

No joke, I have a lot of vivid memories of seeing this video (and it's companion, "California Girls") on the forbidden MTV when I was a wee one. It might be my first memory of music.

I guess this explains my exploration of leopard print and vinyl red heels. Who are you blowing kisses to, Dave?

Living Life

Filmed at the Daniel Johnston last week, this song is the sweetest taste of bittersweet:


Never heard it before the show but it's that special kind of song that lingers bright in the heaven of memory.

ThankYou fro Being a Friend

Are TV Themes as cheerfully plainative like golden girls anymore?
I don't watch TV anymore.

I would sing this to all my friends, if they wouldn't disown me for doing so.

Beauregarde - Testify

A while back Emily C gave me a copy of an album that is one of the best things I've seen/heard in a long time. It's by Beauregarde. He was a pro wrestler in Portland, Oregon in the 60s and 70s. The record features future Wiper Greg Sage. I've been listening to it a lot lately. This video will give you the idea:




I have a soft spot in my heart for the wrestleRock (I wonder why?). So come on everybody do the hammerlock!

Garfield and the Theme from Taxi

I love this, a mash up of two great 70s icons. The Rhodes piano & flute are a super team that deserve an equally legendary status as Starsky & Hutch...or Garfield & Odie.

Won't Back Down

Everytime I walk through Target Center Skyways this week, they've had Tom Petty songs playing. Must be because he played the superbowl.

Today I had this song stuck in my head for the rest of my skywalk. I'm annoyed with a political situation at work, so it fit my mood perfectly.

Save Me

I was listening to 'Bachelor No. 2' by Aimee Mann last night but this morning, this song was in my head.



This is not even on the Batch2 album, but 'Save Me', off the Magnolia soundtrack, is her career knockout. The kind of song that once heard, ghostly follows all of the artist's work. Every element works: the beautiful Bob Dylan wandering melody with held back vocals, the subtle introduction of instruments and especially the spare Neil Young 'Heart of Gold' bass-bass-snare drums where the hi-hat really comes in at the chorus. For all the listening people do to Bob and Neil, not many use the tricks of spareness that really make them work. Not like this. Every track on 'Bachelor No. 2' works with a familiar classic intimacy, like this one.

Faster

I'm a pretty bad runner, the kind that likes to walk every second lap or so. I generally am almost unable to do it at all unless I have a really great record to keep time to while I'm trying to burn off that coconut cream tapioca pudding I had polished off a few hours earlier. My favorite running music right now is Les Savy Fav's Let's Be Friends. It's probably my favorite record of 2007. I remember seeing them at the St. Paul Student Center (i.e. Bailey Hall cafeteria) and they took all this stuff that was backstage (Christmas trees, American flag, podium) and integrated it into their show. The ending of the show was so catastrophic and ridiculous I felt weird for about a week afterwards. The first track off of Let's Be Friends, "Pots and Pans," is beautifully epic in the beginning, and has that kind of beat that makes you feel like you're out in the Nebraska countryside, running past farms and tractors and a big blue sky. "Patty Lee" is also another great running song and lots of male falsetto and nice guitar lines. I had a big crush on Seth Jabour for a long time, so sometimes while jogging and listening to "Patty Lee," I'd pretend I'm getting fit for my imaginary date with him. There are also a lot of bona fide fist-pumpers ("The Equestrian", "Raging in the Plague Age") to amp myself up to pass the speedwalkers in my way, leaving them in my dust. "Raging in the Plague Age" has one of the best teenage first-pumping anthem lyrics to it: "Draw up the drawbridge, draw down the blinds/everyone inside is getting high tonight/waiting for the plague to move on/no one's getting sober until the liquors all gone".

If you want to witness the mayhem of Les Savy Fav, check out this clip of them off of Conan O'Brien at the end of January: