Recently in Music Category

I'm listening to a playlist I made a while ago, "Maybe 2008 won't be like 2004." The mix of songs matches the mix of my emotions: one minute optimistic, the next minute despairing, the next minute simply really pissed off.

1. Don't Make Me a Target - Spoon
2. Yes We Can Can - the Pointer Sisters
3. War Pigs - Cake
4. 16 Military Wives - the Decembrists
5. Free World - Kirsty MacColl
6. Big Hollow Man - Danielle Dax (this one goes out to Sarah Palin!)
7. Mentira - Manu Chao (this one goes out to John McCain... and just about every Republican lying sack of s*** who has opened his or her mouth this election)
8. Peace Love & Understanding - Amy Rigby
9. Ride the Fence - the Coup (this one goes out to all you "undecided voters.")
   
10. The Revolution Starts Now - Steve Earle (a defiant anthem... and a reminder of the heartbreak last time)
11. It's a New Day - the Skull Snaps
12. There Won't Be Trumpets - Bernadette Peters (are we the ones we've been waiting for?)
13. Yes We Can (pass 3) - Tano Sokolow, ingenious mashup artist

If you hear a gentle crunching noise in the background... that's just me nibbling my nails down to the quick. Hoping for the best, trying to be braced for the worst...

(The toddler requests music thusly)

I've gotten to go to a fair number of concerts over the last couple years, including the Decembrists, Manu Chao, Hot Chip, Hot Hot Heat, Death Cab for Cutie, Charlie Hunter, Spoon, Nick Cave, the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival where I heard (if not saw) Elvis Costello and Gogol Bordello, and this week, Stereolab. I'm sure I forgot a couple more. Not bad for a mother, although most of the credit needs to go to my friend Edith, who keeps urging me to get out of the house and has an uncanny ability to score great tickets.

Next up: Charlie Hunter again, and Jonathan Richman...

Spotted on Andrewsullivan.com.

(The song is "I Don't Blame You" by Cat Power, off of You Are Free.)

The normally wonderful emusic posts a Sarah Palin-themed compilation.

So I came up with a suggested playlist of my own (which I posted in a review, but you have to be logged in to see). Please note that these are all REAL songs available on emusic.

"Lying" - Chain Link Fence
"Lying" - Michael Watts
"Lying" - Whitney and the Tales
"Lying" - Joanna De Seyne
"Lying" - Vince Falzone
"So Full Of Shit You're Poisonous" - The Horror

I mentioned that Katy Perry song a few days ago (not gonna link to the YouTube video; I'm not that cruel). But I keep hearing it on the radio, which gives me further opportunity to ponder what exactly it is that annoys me so much.

1. The singing. It's so unsubtle. She's shouting, and it's unpleasant. There was another song that came out about 15 years ago, also called "I Kissed a Girl", by Jill Sobule, and while I wasn't particularly fond of that one either (it was also overplayed), the singing was much sweeter, and it had some humor. Which brings me to...
2. The lyrics. "I kissed a girl and I liked it / The taste of her cherry chap stick / I kissed a girl just to try it / I hope my boyfriend don't mind it" HURLGHHHH. Makes the 1980s hit "Boom Boom Boom" ("Boom boom boom / Let's go back to my room / So we can do it all night / And you can make me feel right" seem downright subtle.
3. The message. It's 2008, people. Kissing a girl, even when done by another girl, is not shocking. Or it shouldn't be. "It's not what / Good girls do / Not how they should behave" Um, yeah. the "hee hee, I'm being naughty" message in the song is annoying at best.

Maybe I'm just a humorless old fart, but it makes me want to scrub my brain out with some good music. Like the Magnetic Fields.

Listening to La Grosse Radio, I heard track, a catchy little ditty by somebody named MoOt. Lyrically, it seems to detail the cab ride from hell, but the cheerful Beatles-ish music makes it sound fun...

Mother Jones published a list of songs that have been used to torture/interrogate detainees.

I bet former Rage Against the Machine band members unleashed a stream of unprintables when they heard they were on the list. Also, yet another example of people ignoring the real meaning of "Born in the USA".

And BARNEY? Sick.

While on the phone with a domain registrar (a month into the torturous process of transferring a website domain), this was their hold music...

She's awesome. Such facial expressions, not to mention the delivery of the lyrics...

and for comparison purposes, here's a link to Carol Burnett singing the same song.

Presenting my Muxtape mix. Quite a random assortment of songs; I'll probably change it.

12 songs, 45:18 minutes

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Finn Brothers - Eyes of the World
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Just Ice - Gangster of Hip-Hop Part 1
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Les Rita Mitsouko - Marcia Baila (English/French extended version)
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Kirsty MacColl - Free World
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Lee Fields - Let's Get A Groove On
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Chantay Savage - If You Believe (from Party Girl)
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Paul Simon - The Obvious Child (Remastered Album Version)
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Manu Chao - J'ai Besoin De La Lune
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Patti LuPone - I Like to Fuss
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Danielle Dax - Big Hollow Man
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Spoon - Don't Make Me a Target
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Belle and Sebastian - Legal Man