25.4.10

Passions just like mine

A long time ago, I went to see a friend who was living in Santa Barbara at the time. I decided to head down there on my motorcycle and I took the scenic route, Highway 101 to Highway 1, if I remember correctly. It was roughly a 7 or 8 hour trip. I think around when I hit Monterey, The Smiths' Cemetry Gates somehow slipped into my head, I have no idea why. All I can remember from the ride, though, is me, my motorcycle, the highway...and that song in my head. All the way down to Santa Barbara. It could have been a worse song, I guess. It's just a little maddening after the first few hours.

The Smiths > Cemetry Gates

18.4.10

Road Trip Mix


In about a week, I'm going on a road/camping trip which will last two weeks. I think we're hitting seven national parks and driving roughly 3000 miles. I made a little mix to accompany me on the roads of the USA. Roughly two and a half hours of music and nearly 200mb. Some old stuff, some new, meticulously edited for flow; hopefully it works on some level. Click below the tracklist to grab it if you're interested. Enjoy and see you in a few weeks!

1. PARAN MAUM - Linda Linda
2. My Bloody Valentine - She Loves You No Less
3. The Primitives - All The Way Down (Beat Version)
4. that dog - Never Say Never
5. Old 97's - Timebomb
6. Nerves - Hanging On The Telephone
7. Nick Lowe - So It Goes
8. Big Audio Dynamite II - Rush
9. Laura Nyro - Jimmy Mack
10. Siouxsie & The Banshees - Cities In Dust
11. Daft Punk - Robot Rock
12. Perfume - Fushizen na Girl
13. Sambassadeur - That Town
14. Chocolat - Girls Talk
15. Curve - Coming Up Roses (Red Star Yellow Star Mix)
16. Caroline - Pink & Black
17. Akira Kosemura - Light Dance
18. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - The Mother
19. Death Cab For Cutie - A Movie Script Ending
20. Badly Drawn Boy - A Minor Incident
21. Parachutes - Your Stories
22. L.E.O. - Goodbye Innocence
23. The Hot Toddies - HTML
24. Babybird - Unloveable (Feat. Johnny Depp)
25. Monster Movie - From A Distance
26. Mogwai - I'm Jim Morrison I'm Dead
27. The Postmarks - No One Said This Would Be Easy
28. COLTEMONIKHA - sleeping girl
29. Karen O And The Kids - All Is Love
30. Mirah - Person Person
31. Amy Millan - I Will Follow You Into The Dark
32. Mayer Hawthorne - Make Her Mine
33. King Harvest - Dancing In The Moonlight
34. She & Him - Over It Over Again
35. Slowdive - When The Sun Hits
36. Takako Minekawa - Never/More (Sweet Trip Remix)
37. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Everybody Wants to Rule the World

>>click<<

9.4.10

Looking back, it seems so strange


I was having lunch, yesterday, in this place across the street from where I work. I like going in there late because it's usually empty and they usually have some anonymous classic rock radio station going. The cool thing about the music is it's not always the usual suspects that come to mind when you hear the phrase, "classic rock". Sometimes they're deeper cuts, and perhaps bands that you might have to go out of your way to find. I think you know what I mean.

So I'm sitting there and they bust out with Thin Lizzy's Cowboy Song, which I haven't heard in ages. It totally took me back to when I was a kid and I walked over to The Wherehouse (does anybody remember that chain of record stores?) to buy Thin Lizzy's The Boys Are Back In Town b/w Jailbreak on 7". I played that 45 to death, and I eventually picked up that Jailbreak album, which I loved. And those three tracks; The Boys Are Back In Town, Jailbreak and Cowboy Song were probably my favorites. I was slow to recognize the song at first, but I think I got a little emotional when I realized I was listening to Cowboy Song. Good thing the joint was empty.

Thin Lizzy > Cowboy Song

4.4.10

Vanessa


I'm gonna start with Vanessa, because this song was the one that gave me this idea.

I first came across Vanessa around 2002, I think, when I used to post on the Aimee Mann message board. We bonded over a Fiona Apple song called Never Is A Promise, specifically the "live on KCRW" version of the track (which I absolutely adore). You can find it on Volume 3 of KCRW's Rare on Air series, if you want to look for it.

Things around the message board got kinda weird, so I deleted all of my posts and decided to just live on the now-defunct Bowlie forum. I didn't feel particularly attached to the Aimee Mann community, and I spent way more time at Bowlie, anyways. Vanessa was the only person (on the Aimee board) I really liked, so I told her I was gonna bail, sent a Bowlie link to her and asked her to come along. To my surprise, she did and everything turned out pretty cool. We got to hang out more than a few times and we became pretty good friends. I'm fairly sure the pic above is from a Bowlie meet in New York in 2003. If it wasn't for this Fiona Apple track, we might not have chatted much at all.

Fiona Apple > Never Is A Promise (live KCRW)

Friends and Songs

I've been toying with this idea in my head. I want to post songs that remind me of friends/acquaintances, maybe a pic of the person if I have one. However, it's actually kinda hard to come up with concise ideas, like this song represents this person and that's that, mainly because most of the people I know are very much into music, think of the peeps in High Fidelity. And to make matters more confusing, they are into music that's all across the board and very difficult to pin down. So, I'm gonna give this a go, just because I think it'll be fun, and like most things around here, it's going to be very informal. Since I'm going strictly off my memory, I'll expect get little details wrong, like when I met someone or the bands they like. You've been forewarned. Thanks for reading and listening.