Inspired by the Office "Desert Island"

In order to generate some group discussion and hopefully more postings.....i pose a question to you: If you were stranded on a desert island, what 3 albums would you bring with you? Another companion questions would be: If you could only take 3 albums from one band, what would they be? I don't know if i'm ready to commit to either question, so i'm just gonna give a list of some of my all time fav albums....

1. Ryan Adams - "Heartbreaker" - What can I say about Ryan Adams that you haven't already heard from me.....the man is a genius......i love sad music.......he is sad music......i love his voice.......busting out with emotion.......i love his arrangements.....sometimes sparse and sometimes lush and layered......i love his lyrics......i've definitely got a man-crush on him........this is considered to be his best cd.....very country......lots of harmonica......a few uptempo rockers and a few slow saddies.......check out "oh my sweet carolina" and "come pick me up" (considered two of his best songs).....i also really really love "call me on your way back home"

2. Ryan Adams - "Love is Hell" - probably my fav album of his......originally meant to be released as a complete album.....his label refused to release it......supposedly because it was too dark.....he went back to the studio and recorded what i consider his worst album (rock n' roll) and released it as well as love is hell in the form of 2 EPs........not country at all......this album is what i was talking about when i said awesome arrangements.......has the infamous wonderwall cover of sethandsummerslowdancinginhisroomfamewithherinahotreddress........has my fav released ryan adams song ("please do not let me go" - with some of my fav lines: "if the walls in the room could talk/i wonder to myself would they laugh/it's like some kind of jail beams of light/fall through the curtains onto the bed").......i also love "this house is not for sale" about a couple of ghosts haunting a house.......other goodies......"shadowlands" "avalanche" "world war 24" and "hotel chelsea nights"

3. Jimmy Eat World - "Clarity" - not as uptempo as bleed american which was the album that introduced JEW to most people (myself included)........."For me this is heaven" is one of my fav songs ever

4. Dave Matthews Band - "Before These Crowded Streets" - forget hating DMB and check out "the stone" and "the dreaming tree"........dreaming tree paints a really pretty picture

5. Radiohead - "OK Computer" - you know more about this album than i do.....it's awesome....and i don't usually like rocking/noisy stuff......and this is at parts rocky and noisy....but the noise fits the concept perfectly........

6. Outkast - "Aquemini" - my fav outkast album.......i think eric introduced me to this album after i had listened to stankonia..........i remember "aquemini" was in the stupid teenybopper version of othello........."da art of storytellin' (part ii)" is awesome......"the beat was very dirty and the vocals had distortion"........"chonkyfire" is my fav outkast song and its on this album

7. Dashboard Confessional - "So Impossible EP" - i was telling joanna about this album last week........it's the best 4 song concept ever........the 4 songs tell a full story about boy and girl......the first is about the guy wanting the girl to notice him........the second is the girl asking the guy to a party.....the third is about him getting ready and being nervous about the party.......the fourth is hands down.......which you've probably heard........but this is the original acoustic version (way better than the full band version of a later album)

8. Barenaked Ladies - "Rock Spectacle" - live cd.......perfect intro to the many musical styles of BNL......awesome lyrics....some of the best bands have super sad lyrics with upbeat music......BNL does this perfectly......forget about "one week" and give this album a try......check out "break your heart" and "when i fall"

i got 8 more albums.......but i'll do that later........

This Week's Fare

No Knife - Fire in the City of Automatons

I really loved this album at the pit, recently rediscovered it, and probably like it even more now. I guess I'd call it indie-pop? Just give it a listen; if you want a taste without getting the whole album, try the first track, "Academy Flight Song".



Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

If you don't have this album yet, find it somewhere because it is amazing. Also, buy it when it comes out March 20th if you feel like it.

Again, the Winter Band is denied a Grammy

I've probably showed this to everyone I know at some point, but I seriously can't get enough of it. Is there a way that I can rip the audio from a youtube video so that I can jam to this where ever i go?




Creepiest family EVER.

Late as usual... just like getting my pubes.

So, this was at least partially my idea, and then I totally forgot it existed; so I supposed its about time that I posted something. So here we go. I can't think of anything particularly enthralling that I've been listening to lately, so I'm going to play the put my whole mp3 player on random game, and list the first 10 songs that I think are worthy of mention/make me happy/aroused/nostalgic/annoyed. Enjoy!

1) Mos Def - Love, from the album Black on Both Sides. First song to come up, and its good. If you don't listen to Mos Def, give it a shot, you'll like. Probably the only black guy to ever say "abacus". Well, since the Moors.

2) The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory - Guided by Voices, from the album Bee Thousand. Second song to come up, and also very good. If you've never listened to them, they're in my opinion a precursor to such bands as Neutral Milk, Built to Spill and Modest Mouse... Modest Mouse even opened for them on ACL, the show, not the fest.

3) Missed the Friction - Self, from Subliminal Plastic Motives. Loved these guys in high school, and am always pleased when they come on the playlist. So far mp3 player is 3 for 3. Awesome.

4) Scarecrow - Beck. Kinda pointless to put Beck on here cause he's universally awesome. I'm just amazed at the random selection from 3000 songs being so good. 4/4... eventually a very shitty annoying song like Leather Boyz with Electric Toyz is going to have to pop in there. I hope.

Tangent -do you ever walk around and imgaine what peoples' genitals look like? I mean not in a sexual way or anything, and gender blind. Just like ,"Man, I bet he/she has some weird looking junk." And then you start to imagine everyone you see having disgusting genitals. The kind that make Cyrus's look normal. Snap!

Tangent PS - Does the song This is How We Do It - Montel Jordan ever make you think of Westlake teenagers playing lacrosse in board shorts by their parents' giant pool? Me neither...

5) The Last High - Dandy Warhols, from Welcome to the Monkey House. When I was fourteen at a warehouse music, I was torn between buying their album that was out at the time with the song Heroin is so Passe or whatever its called, and Blink 182 Dude Ranch. I went with Blink. I guess I've come full circle... good song, good album.

6) Sailor Song - Regina Spektor, from Soviet Kitsch. I can't say enough good things about her, and I'd have to imagine everyone listens already; but if not, you should start. I'd have a crush on her if she wasn't such a Jew. Maybe I can just get her to sing into a sock... (you know what I'm talking about, and if you don't, who are you?)

7) Go Junior, Go Senior - Junior Senior (duh). Another one of those that probably doesn't need to be posted, but I'm stickin with what the player gives me, and I still like it. And still no Pretty Boy Floyd. Junior Senior will make you want to dance even if you just watched your dog get hit by a semi.

8) When You're Thrown - The Thermals, from Fuckin' A (See Regina Spektor, minus the Jew judgement.) One of my favorite bands forever, lo-fi just like Guided By Voices. I didn't see them recently because I was broke... bummer.

9) Open Arms - Journey. Hey, there we go! Finally something horrible. What was that asshat's name that DJ made live with us Cyrus? All he listened to was Journey and he thought it was amazing that we knew girls? Shit... I can't remember right now, but that guy sucked fat balls. I can still hear him asking me to turn the TV down all summer at 10pm, when I had the volume at such a low level I had to strain to hear it. I'm sure he's working for the GOP somewhere now...

10) Bonus Track - Ol Dirty Bastard, from Nigga Please. I couldn't have imagined a better closing song for my list. He ends the song talking about a girl sticking her tongue all up in his ass, classic. I should remember that he existed for when I get asked, "If you could have lunch with three people, living or dead...?"

Thus concludes my listing, and my fouth Lone Star. I'm going to go make Scot run around the block five times and then stick it in his sweaty mangina, cause baby I like it rawwwwwwww.

Love,

Eric

Science of Sleep

watch it....it's awesome.....i liked it more than eternal sunshine........i totally identified with the way the main character is crazy and full of self doubt and fantasies.......and i know for a fact a few of you out there are the same way......plus gael garcia bernal is awesome........now onwards to the tunes:

Bloc Party - "Pioneers" - i know they just came out with a new album, but i haven't gotten it yet, and i was listening to the old one, and this song is awesome.....simple cool lyrics......i group them together in my head with interpol and JEW because i think all of those bands do a great job of layering simple individual guitar lines over each other to make a great sound; ps - some band called Tunng also did a cover of this song that was in an episode of the OC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52jWkrfjakk (bloc party version)

Mary J. Blige - "Be Without You" - up for a grammy....typical R&B love song....total guilty pleasure

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QAN7NOqXX4

Gomez - "How We Operate" - DJ introduced me to them......as i understand it they have multiple lead singers in the band......upon a little research on wikipedia....i just learned that they won the mercury prize in '98 which is a british music prize....... the list of nominees each year is a good place to discover new bands: here's an example of some from the past to prove my point (arctic monkeys, muse, coldplay, MIA, franz ferdinand, the coral, doves, portishead)
here's the list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Music_Prize
anyway this song rocks......and it has banjo!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK-S70zfMw0

The Shins - Album "Wincing the Night Away" - the album is good; if you've heard and enjoyed their other two albums, you'll like it.........i don't find the album very original which is disappointing, but i like their old stuff so much that it's not that disappointing

while listening to Australia, Phantom Limb (1st single), and Red Rabbits I had the distinct feeling that i had heard this song or part of this song before - it almost sounds like they're ripping themselves off......but i guess that's the price a band pays for having a unique sound - all their songs sound different from other bands, but similar to each other.........Sea Legs is original sounding, but not in a way that i particularly enjoyed..........Turn on Me is my favorite song on the album by far, i love the repetition..........Black Waves and Spilt Needles and Girl Sailor are good tracks that are semi-new sounding

Warren Haynes - "Lucky" - cover version of the radiohead song on OK Computer...........warren haynes is a guitar/vocalist of Gov't Mule and Allman Brothers Band.......if you like his voice at all on this cover, check out The Deep End vols. 1 and 2......there's a great story behind these albums........basically their bass player in Gov't Mule died: "The inspiration was really not knowing how to continue forward. When Woody passed away, we were in the middle of preparing for what would be the next Gov't Mule record anyway. We didn't know how to continue that process - we didn't want to start auditioning bass players to try to find a permanent replacement. So the idea came about that all of our favorite bass players might be too busy to join the band, or even do a whole tour, but maybe they wouldn't be too busy to do one song. All these guys are different from each other, and the array of influences really covers the whole gamut, but they're all people who influenced us, especially Woody. They are all people who found their way into his playing."
some of the bass players on the album are from bands such as: red hot chili peppers, who, phish, allman brothers, metallica, dave matthews band, p-funk all stars, primus - all good peeps

Sufjan Stevens - "They Are Night Zombies! They Are Neighbors!......" - no arguments....listen to it......it's on the album called Illinoise

The Special Guests

These guys are pretty laid back rocksteady, in the style of The Stingers ATX. Get 3 free songs from 3Hive.