33 posts tagged “music”

I've got mixed feelings about this new Genius gadget iTunes has. You highlight a song from your library and iTunes creates a mix from the rest of your songs around the seed song's characteristics or something. Sometimes, it makes really good mixes, but others just come out of left field.

At any rate,here's the top of the set it just made from "Hang Fire" by the Stones:

B-Tel Records presents...

Geniusenoughmixtape

1. Hang Fire - The Rolling Stones
2. My Love - Wings
3. Mystery Train - Elvis Presley
4. So Far Away - Dire Straits
5. Gigantic - The Pixies
6. There Will Be A Light - Ben Harper & The Blind Boys of Alabama
7. White Riot - The Clash
8. Sleep Walk - Santo & Johnny
9. Jesus, Etc. - Wilco
10. Harvest Moon - Neil Young
11. Another Lonely Day - Ben Harper
12. Waiting On A Friend - The Rolling Stones
13. Under My Wheels - Alice Cooper

So what do you think? Genius? Not Genius? Genius-ish?

Well now I'm mixtape mad. Here's a quick mix of my ringtone songs:

B-Tel Records presents

Callmemixtape

1. Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves - Aretha & Annie (Heartswater's calling)
   
2. Maybe I'm Amazed - Paul McCartney (SLP's calling)
   
3. Get Right With God - Lucinda Williams (Tree's calling)
   
4. Redemption Songs - Bob Marley & The Wailers (LMH's calling)
   
5. Lean On Me - Bill Withers (PTM's calling)
6. Be - Common (who's calling?)
   

11:45am might be cutting it close, but technically it's still morning. Haven't put a mixtape up here for ages, so here you go:

B-Tel Records presents...

Goodmorningmixtape

1. The Ballad of Serenity - Joss Whedon
2. Take This Waltz - Leonard Cohen
   
3. I've Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) - Duke Ellington
4. It's So Bright - Everything But the Girl
5. Morning Has Broken - John Denver
6. Dance the Night Away - The Mavericks
7. Ashes - David Dondero
8. Wish I Could Shimmy (Like My Sister Kate) - Madeleine Peyroux
9. By Your Side - Sade
10. Chelsea Bridge - Duke Ellington
11. I Can Hear Music - The Beach Boys
    

I made this for Heartswater, but this time it goes out to Navelgazer:

What artist/band are you listening to the most right now? How did you discover him/her/them?

Living in a world without cable TV and only listening to NPR when I happen to be driving somewhere, I only found out yesterday that Bo Diddley has, as WDET host Jay says, "made his transition." Damn, man. The world is a little less bright and a little less warm without him around in it.

I honestly can't remember the first time I heard Bo Diddley, but I don't plan on there being a particular last time.

Today is just a lovely day. Work is really very caught up, and caught up is divine. Spring is going on; also divine.

And I've got a great B-Tel Records mix going in the background. I started with a bunch of songs off Mark Mothersbaugh's brilliant soundtrack for Rushmore, put 'em in my pandora thingy, and the hits are just streaming now. So, for your good days, here's a sampling:

1. Shake Our Tree - The Rosebuds
2. Instant Karma (We All Shine On) - John Lennon
3. A Flatline Blur - Kevin Devine
4. Don't Let Me Wait Too Long - George Harrison
5. I Am A Lonesome Hobo - Bob Dylan
6. Portobello Belle - Dire Straits
7. I Like It When She's Easy - Guy Forsyth
   

Mixtapegradremix

Disc One--Grad Skool Sux

1. Crackin' Up - Bo Diddley
2. Where Is My Mind? - The Pixies
3. Sick of You - The Muffs
4. Everywhere I Go - The Muffs
5. End of the Line - Traveling Willburies
6. You Can't Always Get What You Want - The Rolling Stones
7. Tell It To Me - Old Crow Medicine Show
8. Candy - Morphine
9. Take 'Em Away - Old Crow Medicine Show
10. Burn One Down - Ben Harper
11. Friend of the Devil - Grateful Dead

Disc Two--Grad Skool Hope

1. Heavy Metal Drummer - Wilco
2. Blue Eyes - Uncle Tupelo
3. A Break in the Clouds - Jayhawks
4. Touch the Hem of His Garment - Sam Cooke & the Soul Stirrers
5. Oh Mary, Don't You Weep - Sam Cooke & the Soul Stirrers
6. No Depression - Uncle Tupelo
7. Oh Happy Days - Aretha Franklin
8. Amazing Grace - Sam Cooke & the Soul Stirrers
9. Let's Do It Again - The Staple Singers
10. Beyond My Wildest Dreams - Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris
11. Just One Time - Mark Knopfler & Chet Atkins
12. Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be Will Be) - Sly & the Family Stone
13. The Middle - Jimmy Eat World
14. You Only Get What You Give - The New Radicals
    

I got nothing new to say. 3.5-ish weeks till the end of the term still means piles of reading, writing, teaching, grading, just like it always does. I'm still getting help I can't really believe from gracious friends like Heartswater. I'm still married to a really, really, fucking good guy. I haven't accidentally starved the cat. I'm just as worried and stressed as I usually am, just as sure it's all going to end up fine enough anyway.

Ok, one new thing: if I do make to and through the end of this term, I will have finished my coursework for my Master's, and only have the comprehensive exam to knock out before I get that damned piece of paper in my hand. That's a pretty sweet new thing.

Cruelest Month Mix-Tape

1. To the Dogs or Whoever - Josh Ritter
2. Ashes - David Dondero
3. I Can't Hold Myself in Line - John Doe
4. Guitar Town - Steve Earle
   
5. The Lines You Amend - Sloan
6. Looking For (The Heart of Saturday Night) - Madeleine Peyroux
7. Candy - Morphine
8. Summertime - Josh Rouse
9. You Look Like Rain - Morphine
10. When My Boy Walks Down The Street - The Magnetic Fields
11. Right Moves - Josh Ritter
12. We Are Going to Be Friends - White Stripes
13. The Stars Are My Chandelier - David Dondero
14. Hotel Yorba - White Stripes
15. Ripple - The Grateful Dead
    

Video:  Show us the first music video you ever saw on TV.

My best friend when I was little was this little freckled, red-headed kid from across the street. Owen and I played years away together--building forts, throwing snowballs at cars, riding bikes, playing baseball/basketball/kickball... He and his family were one of the coolest, bestest parts of my childhood, hands-down.

Among their many excellent habits and toys, O's family had cable, and they'd pretty much let us watch it undisturbed. So when MTV opened for biz in 1980, the summer I turned 8 and he turned 7, we were right there, on the couch, waiting for history to make itself. It was pretty sweet.

O died a few years ago, in a miserably random car accident. We'd largely lost touch by then, but according to his wonderful mama, he grew up to be the fine human being he had always been. Through their friendship, he and his family brought some light and warmth into my reasonably durm und strang childhood. Now that I've finally stumbled my way through more than a decade of Wrong Guys, and am miraculously married to SLP, I can really see how the precedent for this remarkable husband in my life was set by that remarkable friend I had, some years ago.

And so, this one goes out to a brave, curly-headed little girl and a dear, sweet, red-headed little boy, lazing in front of the TV on an endless summer's day:

As usual, I'm late in the game here. M.I.A. ain't hardly new music for the rest of the world, but I'm just now catching up, and falling in love: