godthedog

didn't fraser also do vocals for the 80s cover of tim buckley's "song to the siren"? that's just creepy.

i like this game. "obviously 5 believers"/"sad-eyed lady of the lowlands." funny, high energy blues number that sounds like it was thrown off in about ten minutes, followed immediately by its total opposite.

if 'bringing it all back home' only had "subterranean homesick blues" and all of side 2, it would win in a landslide. as it stands, i'll take 'blonde on blonde'. that's one durable-as-shit record.

did you take one of atkinson's shitty summer classes at NYU or something?

it's all over now, baby blue

i think the only whinier bitches in the world than the arcade fire are the kids who whine and bitch about the arcade fire.

listening to prince at 45 rpm feels like having your brain shot into deep space. especially "batdance."

anglophilia day. the animals - the singles, vol. 1 'the train kept rollin' (sony compilation), disc 2 blur - blur rolling stones - beggars banquet derek and the dominos - layla and other assorted love songs pulp - different class

there will never be another kanye west. kanye is the greatest thief of white music who ever lived.

oops.

i'm not really sure yet, but i think i kind of like them. i thought they were monotonous when they first blew up, but franz ferdinand have made me a lot more open to beat-heavy, retroish, 'play every song the same way' bands. as far as that goes, they seem pretty good, but franz ferdinand they are not.

except for bowie, this was "raid my girlfriend's cd collection because i'm bored with my own taste" day. twilight singers - blackberry belle bjork - homogenic david bowie - hunky dory brian wilson - smile george michael - faith elastica - elastica the streets - original pirate material the strokes - is this it greg dulli continues to amaze me by being really good but totally unmemorable for making all his songs sound exactly the same. the elastica is really good, like if you sped up 'american thighs' enough to last 30 minutes.

add to that bjork's 'vespertine'.

to me the definitive example is michael jackson's 'invincible'. fantastic first 4 tracks, & everything up till "speechless" or so is solid. then from "2000 watts" on, everything is a terrible idea. if it were the 80s, he just could've released that first 40 minutes and had a hit.

pretty uneven poppy album overall, i think. not that any of the songs are bad per se, but it doesn't seem done with a whole lot of fire or conviction. he made essentially the same super-safe choices as any pussified classic-band-member-turned-solo (see winwood, steve; mccartney, paul). he can just make it work better because he's a better songwriter. the guitars have no rawness or bite, and there's WAY too much strings & piano on everything. lennon does a lot of his guttural raspy screaming (which i'm a huge fan of), but all the sounds around it just castrate the effect; he sounded like he meant it more singing "please mister postman" than he does on "how do you sleep" or "i don't wanna be a soldier." that said, "jealous guy" is one of the best melodies he ever wrote and still gives me chills.

david bowie - 'low' iggy pop - 'lust for life' john cale - 'fear' 'lost highway' soundtrack today ended up being "david bowie friends network" day.

my friend in delaware had 2 extra tickets to the pearl jam show in camden, NJ, and invited my girlfriend and me to go with him. so now, if i'm ever asked the question, "Why would you want to take a road trip to the most dangerous city in america?" i can say: "To see pearl jam." they're still a good live show, and they've still got a rabid following that sings along with EVERYTHING (even the new songs), but there weren't any great moments. like the new album, solid but not memorable. they evidently have a lot of faith in their new material, as they played more than half the new album live. "life wasted" was a good opening number, and "come home" was a good slowdown number. the rest was eddie's muffled screaming over ballsy cruncy guitar chords that i don't really remember. eddie, for being in his mid-40s, looks fantastic. his voice is still in fine form and he's got a ton of energy. matt cameron looks like a college freshman. the rest of the band, especially mike mccready, looks like your friend's dad. you know the one, the guy with the good taste in music but the creepy skin and the bad haircut. they wandered off in too many places. in the words of my girlfriend, "almost wanky enough to be a jam band." i like it when they do it a few times, for a big balls-out ending and such, but their jamming probably took up almost a third of the show. worth the drive and the time, but i'm glad i didn't pay for tickets.

five favorite songs i listened to or thought about today: david bowie - "always crashing in the same car" sam cooke - "a change is gonna come" radiohead - "kinetic" lucinda williams - "jackson" the clash - "london calling"

favorite songs: 1. bonnie tyler - "total eclipse of the heart" 2. journey - "open arms" 3. heart - "alone" 4. REO speedwagon - "keep on loving you" 5. damn yankees - "high enough"

not albums you LEARN not to listen to all the way through after finding that large parts of them suck (eg., 'hail to the thief'), but albums where you've never gotten to that learning point for one reason or another. i've set out 3 or 4 times to listen to ol' dirty bastard's 'return to the 36 chambers' all the way through, but i've never maintained enough interest to keep going past track 10 or so. i don't think i've ever heard disc 2 of 'sign o' the times' all the way through. i've heard every track on it, mostly in bits and pieces after learning i would never sit down and listen to it from beginning to end. to this day, i have no idea what the last 2 or 3 tracks on the avalanches' 'since i left you' sound like. i suspect they sound almost exactly like the first 15.

today's at-work selection, in descending order of how well they kept me awake. and with my favorite song from each, instead of pictures. sam cooke - live at the harlem square club (twisting the night away) tom petty - wildflowers (wake up time) beatles - past masters (day tripper) ray charles - greatest hits (unchain my heart) van morrison - astral weeks (the way young lovers do) flaming lips - yoshimi battles the pink robots (are you a hypnotist) franz ferdinand - you could have it so much better (whatever the first song is) nas - illmatic (ny state of mind) afghan whigs - gentlemen (fountain and fairfax)

the suns were basically a 3 1/2-man team in the playoffs last year. they may have had only 6 good pieces this year, but they were damn good pieces. except for jones & house, everybody stepped up and had at least one monster game when one was needed. what they lacked this year more than anything else was a guy they could rely on to have a big game every night; for every hot night bell/diaw/thomas/barbosa/marion had, he'd have 2 or 3 off nights. even nash had long stretches where he couldn't do much. amare doesn't have to control the flow of the offense, he just has to be there to put a solid 20+ in every night and ease the pressure, just be enough of a threat to make sure the supporting players get the open looks when the "take a 3-point shot every 4 seconds" style isn't working. if d'antoni can get him to play smart, it'll be almost impossible to stop a diaw/stoudemire/marion front court. nash i think will probably hold up for another 2 years at this pace. the championship won't be theirs to lose, but they'll be more dangerous than they've been in a very long time.

the ween list: 1. the pod 2. the mollusk 3. godweensatan: the oneness 4. chocolate & cheese 5. quebec 6. white pepper 7. 12 golden country greats 8. pure guava aside from 'the mollusk', you could probably put all their really worthwhile tracks from the last 10 years on to one short album. i think i'll do it right now. 1. it's gonna be a long night (quebec) 2. happy colored marbles (quebec) 3. zoloft (quebec) 4. if you could save yourself (quebec) 5. the argus (quebec) 6. powder blue (12 golden country greats) 7. even if you don't (white pepper) 8. ice castles (white pepper) 9. back to basom (white pepper) 10. stroker ace (white pepper)

five favorite albums i just recently "got": 1. gza - liquid swords 2. iggy pop - lust for life 3. franz ferdinand - s/t 4. lucinda williams - sweet old world 5. bob dylan - the freewheelin'

the lucinda williams albums that i've heard: 1. car wheels on a gravel road 2. sweet old world 3. world without tears pearl jam: 1. no code 2. ten 3. vitalogy 4. pearl jam 5. binaural 6. yield 7. riot act some van morrison: 1. tupelo honey 2. astral weeks 3. moondance