New York, I love you but you're bringing me down

I mean it, New York. You're bringing me down. Of course I love reading your magazine, even if the trust fund smarm that saturates the real estate sections trickles out into the other articles on occasion. I really enjoyed everything you said about James Murphy and thanks to a little blurb in your magazine, I now listen to the Young Knives. Graphically, the magazine is fantastic and I always get a big kick out of the weekly approval matrix.

(click to view entire chart)

Except this week, that is. Honestly, New York, I am totally okay with you throwing the King of Queens on the lowbrow side of the charts. I mean, let's be real, Doug Heffernan is no Shakespeare. What burns me up is their location outside of the "brilliant" area, while the Gilmore Girls are placed smack dab in brilliance. Are you serious? Not cool, New York, not cool at all. Those girls could out chitchat a methfreak. Way to pick that over the hometown hero Doug Heffernan and his hilariously senile father in law.


I also noticed the other day that Jeff Tweedy strumming "I'm the man who loves you" by himself sounds a lot like Ani DiFranco's strumming "Fire Door". I'm not inferring he's jacking her song, it's just interesting how different the tune sounds without the rest of the band.

"I'm the Man who Loves You" by Jeff Tweedy

"Fire Door" by Ani DiFranco

The new Lauryn Hill track is not at all what I was expecting it to sound like. I really like it though, kind of in the same way I like the Counting Crows song from Shrek 2. Maybe I'm just saying that because they're both soundtrack songs for CGI kids' movies. Maybe I just love CGI kids' movies.

"Lose Myself" by Lauryn Hill

"Accidentally In Love" by Counting Crows

New Wilco... or the story is in the soil, keep your ear to the ground

So I heard some new wilco today, just like every other schmuck with a blog. I like the new guitar sounds going on, I'm guessing this is the result of guitarist Nels Cline joining the band. There's also some really cool organ going on in the track "You are My Face". The tracks are fairly mellow though, and not that it's a bad thing, it just doesn't sound like what I would've expected. The last Bright Eyes EP actually sounds more like what I'd expect the new Wilco to sound like.

"Stray Dog Freedom" by Bright Eyes

"You Are My Face" by Wilco

The Intimate Times? Outta sight, my man!

So today, I'm strolling around at my job, singing to myself, and thinking about how Wilco created what I think to be the greatest rock and roll song of the post-rock and roll era (Outtasite, Outta Mind). Lo and behold, when I get home and check the news items in my google reader, I see that this guy has posted a whole shitload of unreleased songs from Jeff Tweedy's solo shows and from Wilco shows. I just started listening to this minutes ago, so I don't have much critical anaylsis at this point, just fanboy fawning. So far these ones have grabbed me.

"Is That The Thanks I Get" by Jeff Tweedy

"Walken" by Wilco

and since I mentioned it, the greatest Rock and Roll song written since the mid-late 70s.

"Outtasite, Outta Mind" by Wilco

Hi, How Are You?

Today is gonna be a good day, Silent Bob. Why's that, you ask? Because shortly after I rolled out of bed, I saw that there was a package for me.

No, not that kind of package. The kind of package that contained my new Daniel Johnston T Shirt

as well as his CD Continued Story + Hi, How Are You, The Unfinished Album. If you've never heard of Daniel Johnston, then I would highly recommend checking out the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. See for most of Johnston's adult life, he's suffered from serious mental illness, which has repeatedly forced him in and out of hospitalization. So since he's crazy, obviously he's a wonderful musician. Well not exactly. If I sat here and said that this CD is great, I'd be lying to you. Johnston doesn't have the greatest voice in the world and he's not the most talented instrumentalist either. A lot of his songs, not all, still manage to come out beautifully however, I think mostly due to the emotion in Johnston's simple melodies. Truth be told, there's not too much I can say about this guy, except that I'm glad I saw the documentary and now know who he is. So I'll just go and share a couple of my favorite tracks from this composite of two albums.

"Girls" by Daniel Johnston
"Desperate Man Blues" by Daniel Johnston
"Walking the Cow" by Daniel Johnston

I can also share a track I really like that's not on this CD.

"I had lost my mind" by Daniel Johnston

And a song that Beck and Wilco both covered.

"True Love Will Find You in the End" by Daniel Johnston
"True Love Will Find You in the End" by Wilco
"True Love Will Find You in the End" by Beck

Mitch Clem!

I was reading through old NN2S (yes... use the shorthand, get pretentious on em) strips today and I came across this one and thought it'd be appropriate to share here. If you don't know Mitch Clem, he is a funny man who used to draw Nothing Nice to Say, currently draws San Antonio Rock City and Kittens!, he writes Coffee Achievers, and he was one of the creative forces behind the tidbit of awesome that is Joe & Monkey. A lot of his humor revolves around punk rock, mostly jawbreaker, so I enjoy it. Hopefully you folks at home enjoy it too.

rockin and a rollin

So all summer, I was supposed to be working on an independent study in Spanish, and I left it all for today, a whole courseload of work, so I'm gonna make this quick. Anyways, I was listening to music while I did some work, and a Wilco song came on. It then occured to me I've never talked about how much I love Wilco. Years ago, a friend of mine left a CD in my car that they were supposed to have burned for a friend. That friend never got that CD and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot entered my music collection. About a year later, I picked up Being There. I think I prefer them when their sound leans more towards country than indie rock, but I'm pretty much always down with their rock and roll.

"Outtasite, Outta Mind" (Live) by Jeff Tweedy

Wilco's frontman Jeff Tweedy has released some live recordings of him doing Wilco stuff and other stuff and there's a lot of fun energy in these recordings.

"Red Eyed and Blue" by Wilco

This song kind of reminds me of "Stay" by Jackson Browne?? I mean, it's sort of a stretch, but just the way he says "we got solid state technology..." triggers something in my memory. Great songs, both of em.

peace!