The Ink-Stained Wretch

Chuffed

Just sitting on my ass, getting my Alton Brown fix, and the commercial comes on for Totino's pizza-flavored something or other. I'm not paying any attention, but there's something about the spot that's getting under my skin. Is it the music? Yeah, some spirited doot-dooting going on there. What is it? I Tivo back a few seconds. Weird, it sounds just like Irving.

Holy shit. This is even weirder than Radio Birdman and Big Star popping up in a car ad. It's leagues weirder than Nick Drake in that VW commercial.

So, nice going boys. I'm sure that some will say you've sold out, but I say you've arrived. Hope you can sleep with the stench of pizza sauce filling your nostrils.

Check it out:
Death in the Garden, Blood on the Flowers

Chillin' with Irving

Loving Irving's
new record, and most especially
Lovely, Just Like Her which shimmers like the Chills used to.

Well done, Lads.

Look What's Happened Down Here...

The stunning completeness of the destruction of New Orleans has captivated us for the last couple of days.



The New York Times Editorial on Bush's speech yesterday hits just the right note.



Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927", a sad, beautiful song. Buy it here and I'll donate all my affiliate love to the Red Cross, with a ten times match from my very deep, ink-stained pockets.

You say Mulatto, I say Mosquito, We Both Say Libido,

I take back everything I ever said about Paul Anka that wasn't, "This guy swings...hard."

I know I'm late to the party, but remember that I live in a bunker in an undisclosed location. Thanks to Lou for turning me on to this one.

If you haven't yet heard this, it ain't a joke. Swing arrangements of 80s pop tunes, including Smells Like Teen Spirit, Jump, and my personal fave, Wonderwall.
Okay and Black Hole Sun is pretty great, too.

The Shiver of Nostalgia

You know how there's always that one song or album that sums up a time in your life, maybe just a few months, but you hear it and you're back there? It may seem overly Proustian, but I've spent a fair amount of time looking back at my past through my music collection.

So, imagine my joy when the artist alert on iTunes came through to tell me that Nikki Sudden and Jacobites "Robespierre's Velvet Basement" has been rereleased.

I'm listening to it right now and damned if I'm not floating through Berlin, circa 1986, twenty-two years old, cold and lonely, hair cropped short, scared and cynical and so thin...

For some reason there are now 27 cuts on this disk, so clearly there has been some kind of previously unreleased action going on. The first 13 make up the record that I played over and over again for months on end, but I just bought 'em all. Let's see if I can manage to bliss myself right back to that little cold-water flat in Kreuzberg.

Simply Amazing (Song of the Day)

I had never seen the Postsecret site until today. I'm not sure I know what my darkest secret is, but it's infinitely soothing to know that so many people have similar thoughts...

And here's your musical accompanyment...the sweetest song in the world, "Watch the Sunrise" by Big Star...

Album of the Day - 4/11

With a shout out to Tom DeLay, a truly great American weighs in, "Good Old Boys" by Randy Newman.

"Louisiana 1927" remains one of my favorite songs, almost 20 years later...

Song of the Day - 4/8 - Hold 'em, Baby

So I was watching Has-Been Celebrity Deathmatch Extreme Makeover Poker the other night, 'cause my TiVo box told me to. My TiVo box runs my life and if it tells me to do something, Berkowitz-dog style, well then I listen to it. It has never steered me wrong, with the exception of the time it thought I would enjoy fourteen episodes of Carnivale at one time. I did not.

But in the middle of the lightning round of HBCDEMP, just as Dick York--or was it Dick Sargeant?--never mind, it was Norman Fell. Anyway, he was moving all-in with his cowboys against Tom Poston's nut flush draw, and scaring Charlotte Rae right out of the pot, and I flashed on my favorite poker song, Townes van Zandt's "Mr. Gold and Mr. Mud"

Song of the Day - 4/5

Feeling funky today. A lot of work, gotta deal with body shops and the usual hoo hah.

Not a good kind of funky, so I'm turing it around on itself with "Sugar Craft" by Medeski, Martin and Wood.

Song of the Day - 4/4

In honor of our trip to see the poppies
,
here is "Free From the City" by the Poppy Family.

Note that I wanted to use "Holly Up on Poppy" by XTC, but there doesn't appear to be any XTC on the Apple Music Store. Why not?

Song of the Day - 4/1

My son started in with the April Fool-ery at 6 am, and I just don't have the will to continue with it. So consider this a straight post, unlike some other people I could mention.

But I'm writing a lot more lately, so this song seemed both on the nose and appropriate. "When I Write the Book" by Rockpile.

Song of the Day - 3/31

Heard this guy and thought, why is this voice so familiar. Oh, right, I heard it in a freaking car commercial (I think it's called "Ariel Ramirez"). Yikes. Still, this one is a great song, "Faithful Shooter" by Richard Buckner.

Song of the Day - 3/30

The summer creeps inexorably closer. Time to get the backyard ready for some serious barbequing. Here's an iMix set to cook by.

Song of the Day - 3/29

Today's song is a testament to sticktoitiveness. Petra Haden, daughter of the coolest white man on earth, Charlie Haden (spot him on this album cover if you can), spent something like four years recording a note-for-note remake of The Who Sells Out, but using only her voice. The result is singularly stunning. Check out "I Can See for Miles".

Song of the Day - 3/28

Spent a lovely weekend with the family, hence "I Know Love is All I Need" by the great Rodney Crowell. And yes, I am as pathetically sentimental as it would seem.

Song of the Day - 3/27

Happy Easter to all my goy'she friends! "Mr. Rabbit" by Paul Westerberg.

Song of the Day - 3/26

I'm not sure if we really will all be "Portions for Foxes", but I can't stop listening to this song. Rilo Kiley, folks.

And if you like this one, you can listen to entire albums on their site.

Song of the Day - 3/25

Another rebel song. "Johnny Law", by the criminally underappreciated Wayne "The Train" Hancock.

The rest of the songs are here.

Song of the Day - 3/24

Feeling old today. So here's the ultimate song about feeling old before your time. "Waterloo Sunset" by the Kinks.

Song of the Day - 3/23

I can't think of anything else to say. Every writer-ly impulse is being directed toward my thing in progress or a book proposal, or, mainly, work. So let's continue the dialogue this way:

Thinking alot about the whole Terri Shiavo thing. Anyone who has not been in the husband's shoes and had to make a decision to let someone go, well they can just sit their asses down and shut up.

Here's the most beautiful, terrible song I know, if only for the associations. "After You're Gone" by
Iris DeMent.

The rest of the songs are here.

Song of the Day - 3/22

Passionate declaration of sacred devotion or profane love song? You decide. The sublime "King of Carrot Flowers, Pts. 2&3" by Neutral Milk Hotel.

The rest of the songs are here.

Song of the Day - 3/21

I once made fun of this song, thinking it was beneath Richard Thompson's best. Now I realize it may be the greatest motorcycle rebel song ever written. "1952 Vincent Black Lightning", Ladies and Gentlemen.

See all the Songs.

The links require iTunes. Click the logo below to get it.

Song of the Day - 3/20

This one kills me, don't know exactly why. "Dance Me to the End of Love" by The Klezmer Conservatory Band. If you're not Jewish now, listen and you will be.

You can get an RSS feed of the Song of the Day Category here:

Song of the Day - 3/19

Today's stick-to-your ribs selection:

Knock Yourself Out by Jon Brion.

More Songs of the Day(s) here.

Song of the Day - 3/18

Consider it a public service, or perhaps a public nuissance. First in a series. Collect them all.

Today's song that I can't get out of my head is The Curious Thing About Leather by Irving. File under: Pop.

You can get an RSS feed of the Song of the Day Category here: