Songs One-Hundred Sixteen to Eighteen

A while back, mrdardy wrote that I should know Postal Service because the band was featured on the OC. Dear reader, I do not watch the OC. I barely have time for my TIVO'd 8th & Ocean (Oh, Vinci, will you never learn?). Plus, I only watch two pre-10 pm shows (The Office and Amazing Race) because my children do not fall asleep before 10. Notice I did not say, "do not go to bed," because they actually go to bed around 8:30. But, bed does not equal sleep. And, while it is remarkably cute to peek in on one's daughter expecting her to be asleep, only to find her wearing her light-up Minnie ears so that she can practice her letters in her dark room, it does put a damper on one's ability to do much else. Even when there's absolute silence upstairs, I will often find not a sleeping son but a son at work on a jigsaw puzzle . . . in the near dark. Somehow, our children inherited my type-A qualities and my husband's nocturnal tendencies, which will likely benefit their future employers immensely (uber workers for the flat world). Ah, but back to the OC, iTunes now has the official OC mix, from which the next two songs are drawn. Song 116 is Diefenbach's "Favourite Friend." How could I not download an "ou-favourite" song? This is has a vaguely Duran Duran feeling, something like Duran crossed with that band that did that song from the car commercial about the guy break dancing outside a diner (you know what song I mean). An okay tune. Song 117 is "Shuffle Your Feet" by the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. I actually became aware of the BRMC because they were on the reverse cover of an issue of Fader featuring Outkast (I was using it in a chapter on buzz marketing). This is quasi-60's folk, complete with harmonica and tambourine, and sing-a-longs. It's catchy, but you can really tell this is a "club" and not a gang. Maybe it's the tambourines. Song 118 is "Dimension" by Wolfmother, late of the recent SXSW buzz machine. It's currently a free(bird) download on iTunes. Man, download this song, slap on the big white headphones, turn on the black light, and chill whilst waiting for The Midnight Special to come on. Wolfmother is this side of the Darkness in that I think they're full on post-serious 70s rockers, with at least one white-guy 'fro. And, on their site, you can also hear a song called (I kind you not) "The White Unicorn." I so want to watch Dazed and Confused now.

247 to go.

Songs One-Hundred Fourteen and Fifteen

Ah, a day off. By off, I, of course, mean that I took the kids to school, ran to the grocery store, cleaned the house, worked on the book, and then--finally--had some "me" time to watch several TIVO'd 8th & Oceans (best non-reality reality show ever!) and Gilmore Girlses. I'm also keeping an eye on an auction for a Coach briefcase. I really thought I had worked through my lust for this bag by going to the Coach store and breathing in the uber-expensive leather, but then this week, I attended a coupla days of meetings with our mayor and espied her Coach briefcase. The exact one I have always wanted. Now, like a moth to a flame, I've fallen off the Coach-wagon. Well, we'll see what develops. So, before throwing the ol' flank steak on the George Foreman, I wanted to start catching up on some tunes. Song 114 is "Nature Anthem" by Grandaddy, which I think is also on the Commercial iMix. It's a sway in your seat celebration of all things groovy. The singer would like "to walk up the side of the mountain," which I did once in Wales--quite invigorating. The song kind of accumulates activities throughout, perhaps making it a great campfire singalong. This is truly hypothetical as I am philosophically opposed to camping--though I think my grandaddy was a camper. The song is fun and fresh. Song 115 is "Bang, Bang to the Rock and Roll" by Gabin. This has a rev'd up, quasi-continental feel. Did you ever notice that almost every song with "rock and roll" in the title is from not-America? Gabin is an Italian conglomerate--though not one involving any distaff Agnellis as far as I can tell. I can picture people dancing to this whilst either clapping or snapping. The drums themselves have an artificial clap to them. The song is processed and big headphone-cool.

I also wanted to stop to pause. Now that I've listened to songs by over 100 artists, I find that a few have really stuck with me. One is the Weepies, "World Spins Madly On." I recently made it through a few trying meetings by replaying it over in my mind. I would definitely buy more of their stuff. Music really is wonderfully powerful.

250 to go.

One-Hundred Thirteen

It's super-quiet at the ol' Homestead. The children are napping and my husband ran in to work to finish a project, so it's just me deciding which cookbook to pick up to plan Sunday dinner. The day is sunny and warm, so I'm thinking Giada de Laurentiis will win out. I can't believe she actually eats, but her recipes are certainly delicious. This is a lazy Sunday, sans cupcakes and Chronicles, and while perusing the NYT this morning, I learned that in Germany, I would be a Rabenmutter: their lovely term for a woman who leaves her children to return to work. I would have been depressed if my latest issue of Cookie hadn't also arrived yesterday--full of lovely consumables that showed me why I'm working, well that and the whole "I have my own identity, intellect, and esteem, bucko" factor. No wonder I don't own any German cookbooks. So, there! In the spirit of all things anachronistic and oppressive, today's song is Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoff's cover of "Run to Me." Ms. Hoff's voice has always been squeezed into vintage-y uses, so this seems a natural. I have to confess to being unfamiliar with Mr. Sweet's work outside of the Austin Powers movies. (Though, my husband did once proclaim his hatred of Mr. Sweet because he had better seats--two row up--than we did at an Elvis/Brodsky concert, yet looked disaffected and thus undeserving of said seats.) This is almost a simulacra-cover--so close to the original, as I remember it, as to be either almost pointless or the thing itself. But, I do love me that thick production, much in evidence here, and it sounds pretty.

252 to go.