Category Archives: Tunes

Albums I Did NOT Buy in 20062007 [doh!].

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But am now planning on at least checking out due to their proliferance on other people’s year-end lists (or specific comments on the lists of people whose other choices I am down with, even where they differ from me). (Largehearted Boy has a huge list of links to people’s lists. Fun, fun!)

  • Bat for Lashes “Fur & Gold”
  • Burial “Untrue”
  • Justice “[cross]”
  • The Field “From Here We Go Sublime” (‘quiet is the new loud’ / minimal techno)
  • Animal Collective “Strawberry Jam”
  • Jens Lekman “Night Falls Over Kortedala”
  • Smashing Pumpkins “Zeigeist”
  • Bowerbirds “Hymns for a Dark Horse”
  • White Rabbits “Fort Nightly”
  • Clorox Girls “J’aime Les Filles”
  • Caribou “Andorra”
  • Mavis Staples “We’ll Never Turn Back”
  • Jarvis Cocker “Jarvis”
  • Miranda Lambert “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”
  • Avett Brothers “Emotionalism”
  • The Perishers “Victorius”
  • The Octopus Project “Hello, Avalanche”
  • Akron/Family “Rise Above”
  • Moonbabies “Moonbabies at the Ballroom”
  • Franklel (Michael Orendy) “Lullaby for the Passerby”
  • Lucy Wainwright Roche “8 Songs”
  • Wintersleep “Welcome to the Night”
  • The Cobbs “The Deathcapades”
  • Vampire Weekend
  • Au Revoir Simone

Already bought based on others’ lists:
Brother Ali “The Undisputed Truth” (like it!)
Albums/Bands for which I cannot even comprehend the hype (and I’ve even seen these acts live):
Battles
St. Vincent
Deerhunter
Surprising Comments:
One review referred to Ben Harper’s “Lifeline” as “tepid.” (But another had it #1.) You know I don’t think there’s anything tepid about that boy.
Hilarious reviews:
This dude’s take on Rufus Wainwright’s “Judy Does Carniegie Hall” is hilarious.
The comment that “Young Folks” made whistling cool again. “And we mean cool as in annoying.”
Great way to start a year-end list:
We’re already at the end of another godforsaken year…

Selected Sampler Singles – Paste #36

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New (to me) Songs/Artists I’m Diggin:
“A Sunday Smile” Beirut (1)
“Goes Around” Rockfour
“The Ritz” Office
“Eyes Like a Levee” Johnny Irion (2)
“Snakebit” Mary Gauthier
“Rise” (acoustic) Will Dailey
“You’re a Wolf” Sea Wolf (3)
“Civil Twilight” the Weatherthans
New (4) Songs by Old Friends:
“Scar That Never Heals” Jeremy Fisher (5)
“One Crowded Hour” Augie March (6)
“Time Is a Lion” Joe Henry
from Paste #36.
1-Old news, right? People kept mentioning Beirut to me but I never got
around to checking him out.
2-Wow! Love it!
3-Rambles along, I like how it picks up toward the end.
4-Or new when the magazine came out…months ago! 🙂
5-Got this ages ago from Fuel/Friends. Love it.
6-Australians, picked up an older album of theirs on Mariko’s and my trip.

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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Making: A second Curious George quilt as well as another stripe-y baby quilt. Yadda yadda.
Reading: Short stories by infamous blogger Tod Golberg: “Simplify”. They’re good. As witty and sarcastic as you would have guessed, but more tender than I expected.
Watching: Catching up on TV I was too lazy to watch last week (you know, the ones I don’t HAVE to watch that night when I get home: DS$, Reaper, Gossip Girl), season two of How I Met Your Mother after Michelle got me totally addicted and we whipped through all of Season 1 while she was here, and re(re)watching earlier episodes from the current seasons of Bones and FNL. New (random) episode of The Closer on tonight! Yay! Really want to see both August Rush and Juno (opens tomorrow!) this week.
Listening: To the new Radiohead “In Rainbows”. Yes, I broke down and bought it after Paul said it’s all he’s listened to in two weeks and then it started popping up on everyone’s year-end lists. I haven’t listened to Radiohead in YEARS but I do find this “listenable” which is more than I could say for their last few albums. Also finally bought Augie March “Moo, You Bloody Choir” (it was out in Australia when we went but I had bought an older album instead at the time) and Brother Ali “The Undisputed Truth” (yay! needed some new rap).

In Concert: Over the Rhine

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This is the second time I’ve gone to Over the Rhine’s “Holiday” concert. Always a good choice for this time of year. Great blues-y laidback sounds. Sometimes contemplative, sometimes sassy and upbeat. Great new instrumental piece dedicated to Charles Schulz (in the Vince Guaraldi tradition).

In Concert: Griffin House

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I’ve mentioned Griffin House a few times in the past (here or here), so I was psyched to find he was opening for Over the Rhine the other night.

Better than I could have possibly imagined. A little less twangy in person than some of the stuff on the albums: more “songwriter” or folk-pop than country. Gorgeous sounds, great lyrics accompanied by an adorable smirk on the funny ones, nice stage presence. Cool sense of family and history and heartache and comfort. Really, really enjoyable.

And did I mention he’s H-O-T, hot. Yum.

p.s. yes I did run into him in the lobby and yes I did touch his arm and tell him he was lucky he played my favorite song as his encore or I would have… “Killed me?” he said. “Gone out of my mind!” I replied. 😉

Current Favorite Single

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The cover of Bob Dylan’s “Going to Acapulco” by Jim James and Calexico.

The Richard Gere sections of “I’m Not There” were my least favorite parts…except for the performance of this song which was both beautiful and mesmerizing. Don’t think it’s what I want played at my funeral, but I am loving it a lot.

Oh right, I never even told you I went to that movie. Ah well. NOW YOU KNOW.