27 posts tagged “music”

Back almost two years ago, when we moved to this town, we moved with my parents, and some of our stuff got mixed in with theirs.  Due to a series of circumstances, they didn't unpack a lot of their stuff until just recently.  One of my things that had gone missing was my travel CD case with the CDs in it.  Since this was the CD case I carried around on trips and so forth, it was filled with some of my most favorite CDs.  I've been missing them sorely.

Finally, it was uncovered, but since we don't listen to CDs a lot at home (my son keeps ruining the CD players because he's 3 and he likes to do things by himself) and I'm hardly ever in the car, I hadn't had a chance to listen to most of the CDs yet.  Last Friday, though, I was driving my son back from tumbling class, and I thumbed through the case and pulled out Stevie Wonders' CD Innervisions.

And holy fuck.

God DAMN, that is a great album. 

How is this thing not required listening in school?  I realize that a lot of people still don't consider popular music as serious enough for inclusion in schools, but that's an attitude I personally find preposterous.  But let's not argue about that point right now. 

I don't really remember how I stumbled into buying Innervisions.  I mean, I knew Stevie Wonder mostly from "I Just Called to Say I Love You" and "Ebony and Ivory" which were easily two of my most hated songs of my childhood.  So, I don't know why I bought Innervisions based on that record (and honestly I have no idea how you get from the incredible genius of Innervisions to "I Just Called to Say I Love You"--I really have no idea because the two do not seem to be the products of the same mind).

Anyway, I'm not a music critic or in any qualified to really go into details of why it's so great.  I wish I were.  For me, writing about music is very much like dancing about architecture:  I know when something blows me away and I know when I like something (the two are not always necessarily the same thing--I like a lot of songs that don't really blow me away) but I can't usually explain it very well.

So, instead of explaining, I'm going to share, for the uninitiated.  This is my personal favorite song on the album:

 

However, this is the song that Obama clearly should have used as his campaign theme:

 

Man.  Despite some of the later sappiness, Stevie Wonder is a national hero, people.  He is a national hero.  If he had never produced another album after Innervisions, he would still be a national hero.  Isn't there some kind of medal we could give the man?

Lately, I've had trouble sleeping at night, and so on occasion I've found myself watching TV late at night, which usually means watching things I would never otherwise watch.  For example, the other night I wasted two hours of my life watching first an episode of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" and then "The Rachel Zoe Project."  Who the fuck are these people?  There is nothing at all real about any of them.  I did like how all the African-American housewives took care to note that there are just a lot more opportunities for African-Americans in Atlanta; I find that amusing since non-Southerners tend to associate the South with intractable racism.  And I've known some women vaguely like some of them, but really, if the focus of your day is how you look, you are not busy, you are not stressed, and you are very shallow and irritating to those of us who have things to do that do not involve makeup.  I don't mean disrespect to women who wear makeup, but seriously?  If that's your entire day?  You need to figure out something productive to do for society or else you need to stop wasting all that oxygen you insist on breathing.  I have to assume for the sake of my sanity that these are "reality" shows in name only and that nobody is actually like that...otherwise, my head will burst into flame.  Spontaneous combustion is so cool.

Anyway, then I also watched the final hour (thus, the final Top 20) of the Top 100 Hip Hop Songs of all time.  I think this was on VH1, which devotes large portions of its programming to such countdowns, apparently.  It was interesting viewing.  Several interesting things came to my attention during this hour:  1.  Whatever you might say or think about Kanye West and however much you might regret this, you can't really help but have a crush on him.  Or, I can't.  It isn't just the argyle, either, though I am a sucker for argyle.  2.  Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" was #1, as I think it should have been, but I thought this was interesting because I have been repeatedly told that liking Public Enemy is, like, so white.  OK, so I'm white, and I like Public Enemy because they're literate, articulate, and ferocious (I'm not trying to perpetuate the black-man-as-aggressive stereotype, but Public Enemy wrote some angry damn music, and with good reason).  I don't really get how that makes it "white" to like them.  Anyway, I was glad to see it at #1.

And the third thing, and I'm not entirely sure what to say about this, is that one of the songs (I think it was one by, um, Notorious BIG?  Maybe?  I was drowsy, and I wasn't familiar with the song, so I didn't pay it proper attention, I guess) led the commentators to make grandiose comments about how this rapper had worked his way into the national consciousness and how the song had, too.  Uhhhhhh...

It take a lot for something to work its way into the national consciousness.  I mean, you're talking about a pretty big, pretty diverse country here, in a lot of ways.  What does it even mean to say that a song or a performer is in our national consciousness?  I mean, there are clearly artists you can make that argument about, but Notorious BIG is probably not one of them.  Public Enemy, probably--there'd be a good argument for that.  Run-DMC, maybe.  Snoop and Dre, quite possibly; I know there were years there where they were at the very least entirely unavoidable.  Ice-T has in some way because of "Cop Killer" and the controversy that went with it. 

And I think to me, that's the point.  If something is truly a part of our national consciousness, then that thing is unavoidable in some way.  Familiarity with it (not to say enjoyment of it, which is a separate thing) crosses subcultural lines, crosses generational lines, and it sticks around.  I mean, "Gin and Juice" is still, all these years later, as present as it ever was (I don't like Snoop Dogg at all, but I find that song utterly infectious and impossible to ever really be free of--I'd even go so far as to say I like that song, but that would violate all my principles as an anti-Snoop).  None of Public Enemy's songs were really quite that catchy, but "Fight the Power" still carries a relevant message delivered in a powerful way; it hasn't diminshed over the years.  Ditto "Straight Outta Compton."  These are songs and performers that have in some way worked themselves into the national consciousness.

But, frankly, I only ever heard of Notorious BIG, just like I've only ever heard of this Fifty Cent character.  I find their music not only forgettable but avoidable.  Perhaps it would be less avoidable if I lived in an urban area, but out here in the boonies, man, it hasn't entered our consciousness at all.  I only listen to Kanye because I saw him in argyle once and was intrigued.  I lived in the boonies when some of the other Top 20 hip hop songs came out, though, and I can attest that when a song is really unavoidable, it's unavoidable out here, too.  There was no escaping "Push it Real Good" or "Baby Got Back" or Run-DMC's classics, especially "Walk this Way" of course.  There was no escaping "Parents Just Don't Understand" either, but, sadly, that didn't make the Top 20, even though Will Smith's career has far surpassed Flavor Flav's at this point (I feel so bad for Flav every time I see "Flavor of Love" is on...please, someone, find the man some love and get him off that shitty show...he's Flavor Flav, for fuck's sake, shouldn't he have some dignity???)

In fact, I would go so far as to say that MC Hammer is more a part of our national consciousness than Notorious BIG ever was or will be. 

Anyway, I was reading an online music review site a while ago, too, that suggested the same thing about Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl."  That it was a part of the national consciousness.  I'm not sure how that could possibly be true, since I don't think I've ever even heard it, and I'm quite certain most of the people I talk to on a daily basis don't know that song, either.

This is all just to say that I think some people get overly inflated ideas about the importance and relevance of the music (and movies...and books) that they like.  Country music is still the biggest selling genre overall in America, and there are still more country music radio stations than any other genre.  You may not like that, but that's a fact.  I suppose that's why everybody is making "country" albums these days--Jessica Simpson, Kid Rock, even Snoop Dogg himself, that bastard.  Yet you don't see most country stars on the covers of People and Us, even though arguably more people know and listen to Kenny Chesney than to almost any other working American musical artist.  We who listen to country music don't sit around pontificating about how Kenny Chesney has worked himself into the national consciousness, although judging by sheer numbers, he has.  Garth Brooks certainly did; so did Johnny Cash, though most people only jumped on the bandwagon once Rick Rubin entered the picture.  There are others, of course:  Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn (at least at one point--she was on The Muppet Show once, for example...oh, and then she did do a mindblowingly great album with that fella from The White Stripes), Willie Nelson, The Dixie Chicks though unfortunately more for their politics than for their music...yet country music is really the one kind of music that the kind of people who make pronouncements about our culture don't seem to feel a need to take seriously, certainly not to the point where they would suggest country artists who have entered the national consciousness. 

Meh, anyway, fight the power, people.  Also, don't watch after-midnight television because it will bruise and batter your soul.  For the record, I'm not a big Kenny Chesney fan.  I like some of his songs, though, like the newish one he has out with The Wailers.

Let us hear the weirdest song from your music library.
Submitted by Hydranokaori.

Isn't that a little subjective?  What makes a song "weird"?  If I think a song is weird, that doesn't necessarily mean you think it's weird, does it?  And things that sounded weird 10 years ago don't necessarily sound unusual today.  Not to mention that some songs that are weird don't sound as weird as they actually are (for example, there's a Frank Black song--I think it's "Parry the Wind, High, Low" but I could be wrong) where in one segment he has the drummer playing in one time signature and the guitar in a different one.  I don't give it any thought, but if you really stop and think about it while you're listening, it does sound distinctly odd.  I think the drums are in 3/4 and the guitars are in 4/4...or maybe one of them is in the always-baffling 5/4.  I can't remember.  The point is, it's a weird thing to do to a song).

Maybe I don't have any weird songs in my collection.  Maybe that's the problem.  Maybe the task of finding a weird song is making me self-conscious.  Am I weird enough?  If my musical tastes are found to be unweird, will people still like me?  Is even mentioning Frank Black a sign of my age and secretly all the kids are laughing at me?  The burden of trying to be weird.

I have Camper van Beethoven singing about the day that Lassie went to the moon.  I have Los Amigos Invisibles singing a discofunk song about having a pimple on your nose.  I have a song called "Cowpunk" that apparently some people find odd and even off-putting.  I have the Reverend Horton Heat exhorting you to eat a thing that goes moo.  I have "Parry the Wind" for sure.  I have a song about mighty dwarves flying in the sky and fighting in the night.  I have an entire CD of solo accordion (hey, the accordion don't need no reason).  I have much music by famed weirdos Danny Barnes and Timothy Young.  The first time I saw Tim Young play live he was wearing sweat pants with cowboy boots and before the show he was standing by the bar muttering to himself.  Danny Barnes was the sort of lead guy in a kind of bluegrass band that consists primarily of Danny on banjo and other instruments plus Mark Rubin on tuba and acoustic badass bass and then a fiddler, which is probably weird, and then they did that Butthole Surfers song about Pee-Pee the sailor. 

How about "Auto Modown?"  Weird?  Or normal? 

Does any of that strike you as "weird"?  I am pretty sure it will strike many of you as "unlistenable."  There seems to be a low tolerance amongst the general public for banjo, fiddle, and nasal vocals.  Well, anyhow.

Oh, right.  I also have a prized copy of Crispin Glover singing about automanipulation.  I consider that entire album that he did to be very weird, but I like it.  I was trying to upload it for your edification, but Vox has declined to accept it.  I'm guessing that once Vox got a whiff of the opening line ("Women are sweet and girls are honey, but beat your meat and save your money") it decided this was not something it wanted any part of.  Maybe I should have tried the classic "Clowny Clown Clown" instead (from the same CD), but I'm tired now and going to bed, because yes, dammit, I am old. 

I spent the entire time I was trying to upload that song listening to Jane's Addiction and rifling through a portion of my CD collection that is sitting on the floor in the bedroom gathering dust.  It's an interesting monument, really.  I think I'm going to get rid of most of them.  I mean, I can't really even remember when the last time I listened to Melt Banana was...ages ago.  That's one of the advantages of moving overseas and putting everything you own into storage; if you lived without it for 3 years in Japan, then you can probably live without it now.  Anyone want a Melt Banana CD?

Recently there's a song on country radio--I know neither the title nor the "artist"--that mentions the singer's (or, more likely, writer's) 401(k), and I find myself repulsed by that.  To me, that is a sign of the degradation of country music, the takeover of my beloved genre by the aging Baby Boomers and other totally boring people.  A 401(k)?  You're supposed to die way before you take retirement, from all the years of honky-tonkin and fast women and stuff. 

*sigh*  And now this and this.  Rock has gone lame, too.  Of course, there was a time when rock and country were not quite so differentiated; listen to Johnny Cash's Sun recordings and Elvis Presley's and you'd be hard put to tell which were "country" and which were "rock."  So, I guess it makes sense.  The lameness is occurring in sync. 

And everyone knows punk is dead.  Dead, dead, dead.  Jazz is a wasted shell of its former self.

To hell with the whales.  Whole genres of our beloved and enchanting native music are dying, being eviscerated by whiny white guys who just want to do some cardio and maybe sip some mineral water before surfing the Internet.  DOES NO ONE CARE????*

So, great, that leaves us with Eminem yelping juvenile jokes about his pee-pee or whatever the fuck.

/wrists**

*Yeah, I know, just as there are still whales floating about and polluting our oceans, artists exist in all of these genres who are still rockin and dying young and shouting out great lyrics and all of it.  I know.  Please don't get all up in my face about whatever unknown rock band you listen to who is still so totally rocking and keeping it real.  I don't care.  I'm generalizing about genres here. 

This brings up an important question:  By what miracle is Keith Richards still alive?

**Yeah, I got that from you, Inci.  Enjoy.

What's your musical horoscope?  (Put your player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.) 

OK, I'll play along for a change.  This is my musical horoscope as given to me by the Windows Media Player, which is the closest I have to a shuffle player).  Bear in mind, the catalog of music in my PC is extremely limited at this time.  But, here goes.

1. Gretchen Wilson:  Redneck Woman 
2. Mudhoney:  Here Comes Sickness
3. Los Amigos Invisibles:  Asomacho (ummm...how did this even get in my computer?  I love the Amigos, but this particular selection is, um, well, you'd understand if you heard it)
4. American Music Club:  More Hopes and Dreams  (which is just beeps...seriously, just beeps.  I assume this has to do with the feeling I'm experiencing being in training for my new job.  Repetitive beeping about sums it up.  That's why I'm Voxing so much all of a sudden.)
5. Volumen:  Super Confident Guy  ("Look around and ask yourself who's got the badass shoes...")
6. American Music Club:  Apology for an Accident  (sweet mercy.  Two AMC songs?  This is going to be that kind of day, eh?  Hand over the Xanax.  Fuckin love this song, though.  "I'm an expert in all things that nature abhors..")
7. Brad Paisley:  Ticks (hahahahahahaha...one of these is not like the others!)
8. Volumen: Mighty Dwarves ("Flying in the sky!  Fighting in the night!"  I didn't really associate dwarves with airborne violence until I heard this song.  And I'm at a loss as to how this applies to me and my day.  I'm going to be attacked by flying dwarves?)
9. Depeche Mode:  Personal Jesus  (OK, this is becoming quite funny to me.)
10. Pixies:  Is She Weird?  (haha...but of course.  Of course she is.)

I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with this.  What does it all mean?  I do feel, in some strange way, that it came full circle.  In some very strange way.

What song do you wish would never show up on a karaoke list?

It must be said:  I love Prince, but I really wish no Prince song was ever in a karaoke list.  Because inevitably some hayseed white guy gets drunk enough that he thinks he can Prince.  You can't Prince, whiteboy.  Not even close.  No one wants to hear you get up and do some wack-ass, cracking high-pitched voice and entreat us to give you our extra time and our kiss.  Go, like, sing some ABBA or some shit and leave the Prince to the Prince.  Fuckin cracker.

Although, on the other hand, I could really do without ever hearing anyone sing "Dancing Queen" again, even ABBA themselves. 

Lately, for some reason, most of the music I've been listening to is from the past, from my teen years or thereabouts.  I don't know why.  Suddenly, though, I find myself thinking, "Hey, I want to listen to _____!" and fill in the blank with some song I haven't listened to in years and years.  Here are 5 of them that I've fixated on in the past couple of days:

1.  INXS "Need You Tonight"  Why did I never notice before how hot Michael Hutchence was in this video?  Maybe he was always hot.  I don't know.  I never really noticed it before, but now I'm kinda thinking I missed out on a pretty obvious teenage crush target.  But, like, those other INXS guys are kind of not so hot.  They should remain off screen.

2.  The Pursuit of Happiness "Cigarette Dangles"  Until I heard this song, I had no idea Canadians were sex fiends.  How happy I was to find this on the YouTube. 

3.  Scott Goddard "Cowpunk"  I couldn't find a video for this, which is probably just as well.  Let's see if we can find an mp3.  I have the CD somewhere, but...ah, I thought I had it, but it's failure.  Maybe I'll look for the CD tomorrow.  You can listen to it, if you're motivated, here.

4.  Soft Cell "Tainted Love"  I know, it's totally classic.  But I haven't heard it in forever, since back in my gay-clubbing days.  Um.  Don't tell my son about those days, eh?  Actually, maybe I should encourage him to hang out in the gay clubs.  That's where all the fun is.

5.  The Cure "Killing an Arab"  Yeah, sure, we were talking about The Cure a few days ago, and my man Itchy Dawg mentioned this song, so I suppose that's what made me want to listen to it again.  When you go through that phase when you first read The Stranger, I think you have to think this song is the coolest thing in the world.  Because when you read The Stranger, you are obviously deeper and darker and cooler and way more nihilistic than your companions.  You are too hip to continue referring to it by its English title--even though you cannot read French, you must refer to it as L'Etranger.  You, of course, are the only person who has ever read Camus. 

You're the DJ: what are the next five songs coming up after the break?

Well, it's classic night here in my basement, and it's time to RAWK dudes.  Oh, feedback, baby.  Turn it up!

1.  Sonic Youth, "Catholic Block" 
2.  Jane's Addiction, "Had a Dad"
3.  The Pixies, "Is She Weird?"
4.  NIN, "Get Down, Make Love"
5.  Mudhoney, "Here Comes Sickness"

What a fun trip down memory lane.  Ah, now you know exactly how I wasted my youth.  I remember the first time my parents made the mistake of asking me to play some NIN for them--my mom couldn't comment at all, and my dad could only come up with, "Boy, he sure uses the F-word a lot, doesn't he?"  Yeah, dad, he's subtle that way.  Thank god they never heard "Closer."  I think my mom would be forced to commit hara-kiri upon hearing such things.

Hey, it's time for a commercial, but stick around.  When I come back, I think we'll rock some Cypress Hill and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meme of sorts--the idea was stolen from Jack, but I've changed it a bit to suit me.

List seven songs you are (were) into right now (at the time period in question). No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now (were really enjoying then).  *I mostly went with albums, I guess, because that's mostly how I remember them, not just one song by a band, but such and such an album. If it's not italicized, then I mean the song.  Why am I saying this?  It's not like it matters.

Newest Acquisitions (last 6 months, give or take)

1. Brad Paisley - Time Well Wasted
   
2. Josh Turner - Your Man
   
3. Elvis Costello - My Aim is True (I lost this CD in Japan and just recently reacquired it).
   
4. Marty Stuart - Badlands
   
5. Johnny Cash - The Sun Recordings
   
6. Masters of Reality - self-titled first album (another re-acquisition)
   
7. Prince - um, the album that has "Sexy M.F." and "7" on it.  Whatever it's called.
   

Childhood (1980-1988)

1. Pat Benatar - Hit Me with Your Best Shot
   
2. Jerry Jeff Walker - Sangria Wine
   
3. Hank Williams, Jr. - Country Boy Can Survive
   
4. Madonna - Get Into the Groove
   
5. Prince - When Doves Cry
   
6. Guns n Roses - Welcome to the Jungle (a song to which I still remember all the lyrics, God help me)
   
7. Talking Heads - Burning Down the House
   

High School (1989-1992)

1. Steve Earle - Guitar Town
   
2. Dwight Yoakam - Guitars, Cadillacs
   
3. Clint Black - Better Man
   
4. Garth Brooks - The Dance
   
5. Metallica - Master of Puppets (yeah, I know, it was already old by then, but this is when I first started listening to it)
   
6. Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine (this is nearly all I listened to in the first half of 1992)
   
7. Nirvana - Nevermind (pretty much all I listened to in the second half of 1992--well, that and NIN)

Early College Years (1992-1994)

1. Violent Femmes - Kiss Off (and all the other Femmes as well, it's just I think of that song the most, I guess)
   
2. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (naturally)
3. Primus - Pork Soda
4. NIN - Broken and The Downward Spiral
5. The Spent Poets - self-titled?  I think.  Damn, I had totally forgotten about them.  They sang about Virginia Woolf and Walt Whitman and such.  Good lyrics.  I wonder if I still have that CD around somewhere.
   
6. Consolidated - The Myth of Rock
   
7. Soundgarden - Power Child
8. And of course, Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana--and Mudhoney (Here Come Sickness!) and Screaming Trees and name a fucking Seattle band, and I loved them, except Queensryche or however you fucking spell that--fuck!  they had a gratuitous umlaut, too, didn't they? Bastards.  Anyway.  Yay Seattle. 
   

Later, Married College Years (Missoula:  1995-2001)

1. Volumen - everything.  You guys already know.
2. Sonic Youth - Sister (I know it was old, but I think it's still my favorite album by them)
3. The Pixies and Frank Black.  I guess if I had to pick two songs that I think of most in this era, they might be "Is She Weird?" and "Brackish Boy." 
   
4. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
5. Bill Frisell - Bill Frisell Quartet
6. Los Amigos Invisibles - The New Sound of the Venezuelan Gozadera.
7. Morphine - all of it. 
   

Shit, that's leaving out American Music Club, the Bad Livers, the Rev. Horton Heat, Bob Dylan, the fucking AC/DC and Led Zep that my husband used to play all the time and I HATED, the Dixie Chicks, all the other local bands I used to love like Humpy and Fireballs of Freedom, the Minutemen, Lucinda Williams, Beck, Cream, Drink Me, more Steve Earle, etc.--I dunno, but I felt pretty strongly about all of that music.  My life was pretty much immersed in music.  The husband played guitar and was obsessed with music, and then all the going out to Jay's and other bars to see live shows.  Sigh.  Good shit.  All good.

Post-Divorce, Post-Uni (2001-2006--much of that time was spent across the sea)
*remarried in 2005, but this husband cares not at all about music--it's all just background noise to him

1. Miki Dozan - Lifetime Respect
   
2. Moomin - Triple M
3. DJ Krush - Milight
4. Elvis Presley - Rhythm & Country
5. Foreign Legion - Kidnapper Van
6. Elvis Costello - My Aim is True and This Year's Model
7. XTC - Skylarking
   

Well, that's all fine.  The only stuff I don't really listen to anymore is the Pat Benatar song and the Consolidated.  Maybe I should--maybe Pat Benatar isn't just for children who have no idea what she's talking about.  I still love most of this shit, and so you can see how difficult it is to decide what I should listen to at any given time.  I stopped listening to country radio for a long time, but I always listened to my old country.  Now if I listen to the radio it's always country (because what the hell is this shit that passes for "alternative," now?  Fucking posers), but when I put on a CD, it's as likely to be Morphine or an Elvis or something as it is to be Brad Paisley.  Mmmm, music.  Music is yummy.

Yes, by the way, that does mean that I still have both Purple Rain and Appetite for Destruction in my collection, along with some nice, vintage Duran Duran (regrettably perhaps, I do not still own a copy of Slippery When Wet, but I can still sing every word of "Livin on a Prayer" which I feel is my duty as an American).  Why not?

Do you own all the albums of any particular musical artist or group? Who?
Submitted by dutterman.

Well, back when I was married to Mr. GinBaby the First, we had complete collections by any number of artists.  He was a fanatical CD collector.  When my student loan check would come in (which coincided nicely with the time that our local shop was having their huge sale), off he would run to purchase box sets and armloads of CDs.  By the time we split up, we had in the neighborhood of 800 CDs (bear in mind that we sold many that he didn't like, too). 

Sadly, when I told him I was leaving him, the ugly monster Avarice reared its head, and he kept nearly all the CDs.  I had to remind him of those that had been mine before we met and/or had been given to me as gifts during our marriage.  He tried to keep my Mark Lanegan CD, the fucker.  Is there no love?

Anyway, my CD collection is now much diminished.  I have not devoted the funds to reacquiring most of those CDs, since I have been busy drinking myself into a stupor and traipsing all over the globe.  Thanks to the miracles of the Internet, though, the situation is improving now at very little cost.  Ahem.

I do have complete collections of a few artists, though.  Most of those artists are artists whose output was limited.  For example, I have every Jody Grind album ever made, to my knowledge.  Sadly, I believe they only made two albums before half their band died in a car wreck.  This is still my favorite song from them:

I also have every Volumen album that exists, so far as I know.  I even have most of their former projects and side projects, including my cherished cassette (cassette!) of Poor White Trash.  I will continue to purchase every Volumen album and Volumen side-project album until there are no more to buy.  I also have a lot of their T-shirts.  I know I've put lots of Volumen music on here before, but what the hey?  Let's have another, or even two.  "Mighty Dwarves" is particularly special during their live shows.

I have every Steve Earle album that I know of, and again I will continue to buy them even if he starts putting out albums filled with nothing but beeps and static, such is my love for Steve Earle.  "Guitar Town" is the song that started the obsession.

I have nearly every Los Amigos Invisibles album, too, and it is only a matter of time before I get the one I don't have.  Here's a favorite couple of songs from them.  "El Barro" cracks me up, man.

Oh, and of course, I have all the Morphine albums that there were.  I miss Mark Sandman.  I even have the Treat Her Right album, and it's brilliant.  God, I'm so glad I got to see Morphine once before Sandman keeled over.  I get the feeling he's sitting up in purgatory, smoking a cigarette and drinking whiskey.  Listening to Morphine makes me want a cigarette and a whiskey.  Mmm, whiskey.  Anyway, here's a smoky Morphine song or two:

Yeah, but of course, Mr. Ex-GinBaby could have added Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, The Police, Bill Frisell, maybe John Zorn/Naked City, The Pixies/Frank Black, Sonic Youth, and a bunch of others to this list.  Dammit.  Well, at least I got out with my sanity...maybe.  I still have a reasonable collection of all that stuff, and a nearly complete Pixies and SY collection.  Here's a Frank Black song, you know, for the road.  The astute among you will recognize a line from this song as a tagline on this blog.  Cheers.