The Ink-Stained Wretch http://emmanate.org/wretch/ Industrial-Strength Codswallop en-us krudman@emmanate.org Copyright 2007 2006-12-27T23:49:07-08:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Chuffed http://emmanate.org/wretch/archives/000156.html 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... 156@http://emmanate.org/wretch/ 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

]]> Song of the Day 2006-12-27T23:49:07-08:00 Chillin' with Irving http://emmanate.org/wretch/archives/000144.html Loving Irving's new record, and most especially Lovely, Just Like Her which shimmers like the Chills used to. Well done, Lads.... 144@http://emmanate.org/wretch/ Loving Irving's
new record, and most especially
Lovely, Just Like Her which shimmers like the Chills used to.

Well done, Lads.

]]> Song of the Day 2006-07-14T12:23:12-08:00 Look What's Happened Down Here... http://emmanate.org/wretch/archives/000118.html 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.... 118@http://emmanate.org/wretch/ 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.




Louisiana 1927


]]> Song of the Day 2005-09-01T09:44:39-08:00 You say Mulatto, I say Mosquito, We Both Say Libido, http://emmanate.org/wretch/archives/000114.html 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... 114@http://emmanate.org/wretch/ I take back everything I ever said about Paul Anka that wasn't, "This guy swings...hard."


Rock Swings



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.

]]> Song of the Day 2005-07-29T07:32:05-08:00 The Shiver of Nostalgia http://emmanate.org/wretch/archives/000092.html 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... 92@http://emmanate.org/wretch/ 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.


Robespierre's Velvet Basement

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.

]]> Song of the Day 2005-05-27T08:12:48-08:00 Simply Amazing (Song of the Day) http://emmanate.org/wretch/archives/000083.html 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... 83@http://emmanate.org/wretch/ 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...


Watch the Sunrise

]]> Song of the Day 2005-04-29T10:41:38-08:00 Album of the Day - 4/11 http://emmanate.org/wretch/archives/000079.html 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...... 79@http://emmanate.org/wretch/ 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...


Good Old Boys

]]> Song of the Day 2005-04-11T08:25:50-08:00 Song of the Day - 4/8 - Hold 'em, Baby http://emmanate.org/wretch/archives/000077.html 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... 77@http://emmanate.org/wretch/ 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"


Mr. Gold and Mr. Mud

]]> Song of the Day 2005-04-08T07:46:14-08:00 Song of the Day - 4/5 http://emmanate.org/wretch/archives/000076.html 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.... 76@http://emmanate.org/wretch/ 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.


Sugar Craft

]]> Song of the Day 2005-04-05T09:00:31-08:00 Song of the Day - 4/4 http://emmanate.org/wretch/archives/000074.html 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... 74@http://emmanate.org/wretch/ In honor of our trip to see the poppies
,
here is "Free From the City" by the Poppy Family.


Free from the City

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 2005-04-04T08:26:12-08:00 Song of the Day - 4/1 http://emmanate.org/wretch/archives/000073.html 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... 73@http://emmanate.org/wretch/ 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.


When I Write the Book

]]> Song of the Day 2005-04-01T14:53:08-08:00 Song of the Day - 3/31 http://emmanate.org/wretch/archives/000072.html 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.... 72@http://emmanate.org/wretch/ 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.


Faithful Shooter

]]> Song of the Day 2005-03-31T08:59:42-08:00 Song of the Day - 3/30 http://emmanate.org/wretch/archives/000070.html The summer creeps inexorably closer. Time to get the backyard ready for some serious barbequing. Here's an iMix set to cook by.... 70@http://emmanate.org/wretch/ The summer creeps inexorably closer. Time to get the backyard ready for some serious barbequing. Here's an iMix set to cook by.

icon

]]> Song of the Day 2005-03-30T11:00:36-08:00 Song of the Day - 3/29 http://emmanate.org/wretch/archives/000069.html 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... 69@http://emmanate.org/wretch/ 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".


I Can See for Miles

]]> Song of the Day 2005-03-29T10:35:58-08:00 Song of the Day - 3/28 http://emmanate.org/wretch/archives/000068.html 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.... 68@http://emmanate.org/wretch/ 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.


I Know Love is All I Need

]]> Song of the Day 2005-03-28T09:49:12-08:00