Trout Mask Paris...er...Paris Mask Replica?

I think Captain Beefheart is HAWT!

thanks, Markie!

Song of the Week, Special Edition: Hello Josephine!

Only about a week to go until...

Hello Josephine!










(this rare version brought to you by the killer and the king)

Song of the Week: Anywhere I Lay My Head

We're using the phrase "of the week" very loosely while we adjust to having a new baby, okay?! "Song of every 18 weeks or so" just doesn't sound as good.

There was a time a while back when I listened to so much Tom Waits that now when I hear him I feel like I've run into a great old friend and we're catching up on old times. I never seem to be able to get a word in edgewise, though, he does ramble on so! This song always makes my eyes mist up.

I promise to get back to the gnitter. I miss you, too! For now, though, accept this meager offering of a song...

Song of the week: Schooldays

Schooldays

Personally, I think a little Kate McGarrigle and/or Loudon Wainwright goes a long way. However, I can listen to their son Rufus Wainwright until the cows come home, and his sister Martha is no slouch, either. This is from a CD that features the whole fan-damily and several other relatives as well. It's a beautiful song by Loudon, featuring the McGarrigle Sisters and Rufus and Martha. Way better than Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road!

Song of the Week: Tonight You Belong to Me

I just remembered: I still love NRBQ!

This week is a dedication to Sharbles and Mokky Wikky. Sharbles because we always liked the sappy songs by the Q and Mokky because a long time ago we spent all afternoon with our noses in dusty used 45s at Hymie's Vintage Records looking for the original single by Patience and Prudence. NRBQs version is quite a bit less strangely spooky than the P and P version, so I'm going with this one. It's just so dang sweet...

Tonight You Belong To Me

My first sacrifice (baby, someday I'll make you feel guilty about this)

I think I have mentioned here on the gnitter just how much I LOVE Ray Davies, but do you, dear reader, really understand?!

My life would bear much less poetry, paranoia, beauty and humor if my brain didn't have a little detour into Mister Davies Neighborhood in it. I was just telling my dear husband this morning that I can't wait to play the Kinks all the time for our little fella when he's born. Come to find out (thanks to the Treehouse), Ray Davies will be playing here on April 4th, and at First Avenue, no less! Ray Davies at First Avenue

Now, this is one week after our baby is "scheduled" to join us here outside the womb, and it pains me to realize that I won't be able to go...would it be child abuse to take him to First Avenue a week after he's born? Am I a complete Pollyanna for thinking I'd want to, having just had a C-section?! If I'm truly honest, I get the feeling I won't care what the f*#k is going on in the outside world for a while once I have that little bean in my arms.

Song of the Week: I Wanna Pick You Up

I Wanna Pick You Up
Well, as a mother to be, this song appeals to me because it's a sweet song about a parent who is really enjoying playing with his new infant. As a lifelong sicko with a morbid sense of humor, this song appeals to me because I imagine crazy drug addicted Brian Wilson in his giant in-house sandbox clumsily trying to figure out how to be a father. In a documentary I saw about Mister Wilson, his ex-wife said she finally had to pack the kids up and leave when she caught him trying to give LSD to his toddlers to broaden their little horizons. Who knows, Wilson Phillips may have been a much better band if Wendy and Carnie had taken the magic carpet ride. Well, I told you I was a sicko. Anyway, it's a sweet song and it's funny when the chorus of clunky fathers comes in to sing along with Brian.

In other exciting SOW postings, you had better check out Miss Sharblina Gordon's truly transcendent and uplifting pick for this week, especially if you're having a crappy day (make it a Happy Day!)

Song of the Week: Come On

Come On
Remember this one, Sharbles? It's the one where Chuck's had a really bad day, his car's busted and he can't afford to check it and he wishes someone would come along and run into it and wreck it!
Just a good song about having a bad day. I am also posting it to quote Gob from Arrested Development, in protest of the show's cancellation. Gob's new favorite saying when in a difficult situation is "COME ON"!

PS-no comments about Chuck's rather unpleasant fetish will be tolerated! This is good clean fun, as Chuck Berry's music was meant to be! If you don't have any idea of what I'm talking about, count yourself among the fortunate.

Song of the Week: When the Fool Becomes the King

The Polyphonic Spree. What's not to love?! I just like the fact that there's this many people in the "band" and that they wear these robes! Beyond that, the group's leader Tim DeLaughter can evoke such emotion with his sweet (albeit somewhat hokey) voice, I was sold from the first minute I heard these guys (thanks Johnny E). The best elements of The Beatles and of Queen come through now and again, so like I said, what's not to love?! This is sort of a random sampling, you REALLY need to hear the whole body of work to appreciate them (you can find out more at their site, linked below). You really get the feeling that the Polyphonic Spree is not a band, so much as a way of life. And even though they refer to themselves as a "Family", they are, according to themselves, less of a cult than a "Broadway Revival". The message is so full of love, it will bring a wee tear to your cynical eye...

Warning: this file is gi-normous, the selected "piece" is 10 minutes long.
when the fool becomes the king by The Polyphonic Spree.

Song of the week is back! The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead

I've grown more and more fond of XTC in the last few years, I think they get better with age. I think their last couple of records (CDs, downloadable releases, WHATEVER) have been great. I heard this song on the radio today and it made me really happy, even though it's a little sad. It made me think of Paul Wellstone a little: "but he made too many enemies of the people who would keep us on our knees". Is it really so much to expect someone who's a politician to just be a good person? Now I guess I'm the mayor of simpleton for saying something as ridiculous as that! Anyway, here it is, The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead

Song of the Week: Mmmbop

Mmmbop...
What?! Don't you ever just want a big piece of Bubblicious? The Archies had one or two good songs, The Monkees had many...Granted, I have no idea what these young fellers are singin' about in this song, but I can tell that they FEEL it, maaan! Bottom Line: I have a weakness for Hanson, especially on a sunny day, blasting in my car. So sue me.

Song of the Week: Get Him Back

Fiona Apple. As my dear partner says, she definitely seems to fall into the "In Praise of Difficult Women" category. One of those who is probably high-maintenance, but worth it. I have to admit that when she first popped up I lumped her in with the Tori Amos and Alannis Morisette crowd unfairly (if you love those guys, don't be offended, they just don't flip my wig). She's much more painfully honest and at the same time somewhat painfully mean like our beloved Chrissie Hynde but with some serious composing chops. Plus she has a beautiful voice. My husband stumbled upon her last winter when there was a real controversy surrounding a record that she had recorded but that Sony wouldn't release---"Free Fiona" websites and petitions were all over the place and one rabid fan had the unreleased album (named "Extraordinary Machine") in its entirety available for download, so we grabbed it to see what all the hoo-ha was about. Both of us got addicted to it very quickly and it has been in heavy rotation here since! It was hard to pick one song to put up here, and I wound up going with a lighter, poppy number, Get Him Back. The album has since been re-recorded and released by Sony. We bought it, and though it's a little hard to get used to after listening to the first recordings 900 times, I'm liking it more every time I hear it. This track is from the unreleased version. Anyhoo, take a bite of the Apple, if you wanna, we think she's worth it...

Song of the Week: Autumn Almanac

Oh, there will be many Kinks songs featured on the Song of the Week. There's a Kinks song for every occasion. The Song of the Week could be ALL Kinks songs, as far as I'm concerned, but my more sensible side says that it may be better to spread them out over time. Suffice it to say that I am a fan, a student, a disciple of Mr. Raymond Douglas Davies*, and that is an understatement.
So, anyway, I was thinking of what a perfect and beautiful Fall day it was here in Minne-scrapolis today, and what song I could post as the best theme for perfect Fall days, and, well, here it is...

Autumn Almanac

*Who else would pen this rhyme "Oh, my poor rheumatic back, yes yes yes, it's my autumn almanac"?

Song of the Week: Everybody Knows

Mister Leonard Cohen













Everybody Knows
"Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows"

...and, well, it just goes on from there...Sound familiar?

Song of the Week: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

(FSA photo of a breadline during the Depression)

Bittersweet Bing. What a great song! Also eerily timely, when you see these news stories about soldiers coming back from Iraq to find their families living on canned food donations collected by the Boy Scouts.

Oh, we'll all be singing it again soon enough. We can't seem to stop these looters in the Whitehouse from completely bankrupting this country (both fiscally and ethically), so you may as well learn the words now!


Bing Crosby singing Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

Song of the Week: Day After Day

I woke up this morning and this song was in my head for no particular reason. I hadn't heard it in a long time and upon listening to it, I thought it sounded great, so I'm sharing it with you.
In 1980, us tomboy-ish music fanatic girls just didn't have all that many, um, "role models" to read about in Creem Magazine. Sure there were some, but I was 12 years old and at the time Patti Smith talked too much about bodily functions for my liking and the GoGo's were too girly and goofy. I first saw the Pretenders on Saturday Night Live, must have been shortly after their first record came out. I listened to Pretenders and Pretenders II until they were literally worn out and I had to buy new copies. Chrissie Hynde was the coolest thing ever to me back then! Just look at those boots! Not too long after Pretenders II came out half the band died and things changed some musically. But y'know, I still think she's pretty cool and I still always check in and find the gems when she puts out a new record---there's always one or two. Viva la Chrissie!

Day After Day

Song of the Week: The Street Parade

I love the Clash. What do you expect, I'm 37 years old and I hated the "popular kids" in junior high. I also think that Sandinista gets better with age, which is somewhat surprising considering how topical it was in 1980. The Street Parade is kind of a sleeper song, but I've always really liked it. Hope you do, too.

Song of the Week: Stardust

From Wiki: Hoagland Howard "Hoagy" Carmichael was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. He is best known for writing "Stardust" (1927), which has been called the most-recorded American song ever written.

And there's a reason why it's been recorded so much. Here's Hoagy himself singing it and accompanying himself on piano.

Song of the Week: My Head is My Only House Unless It Rains

Hard to pick one Captain Beefheart song but who says I can't pick ten more down the line? This is a nice love song for ya...

My Head is My Only House Unless it Rains

Song of the Week: The Thoughtless Kind

A nice, honest song about friendship. John Cale: Whatta cute little Welshman! And such a smarty, too. Here's a beautiful song for you and your friends, never ever turn your back on them...







The Thoughtless Kind
If you grow tired of the friends you make
In case you mean to say something else
Say they were the best of times you ever had
The best of times were the thoughtless kind

We dress conservatively at the best of times
Prefer the shadows to the bright lights in the eyes
Of the ones we love, the bright lights in the eyes of the ones we love
What we see, what we imagine, the eyes tell us nothing
The bright lights in the eyes of the one we love will tell us nothing
Like the scars of imagination, the scars of imagination
The bright lights in the eyes of the ones we love will tell us nothing
Except that you're the thoughtless kind

So if you grow tired of the friends you make
Never ever turn your back on them
Say they were the best of times you ever had
The best of times were the thoughtless kind

link to his site