the sticking point

The One Where Tommy Himself Soils Himself

The tour begins this August.

X is headlining.

Rollins Band is supporting.

Dates and venues haven't been booked yet.

.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Wytch's Sabbath by Wykked Wytch.

The Fall of Manchester

Don't worry, Manchester's fine. But that city's finest export, The Fall, is making its way back to the U.S. for a tour. You can get the dates and links to ticket purchase-points on the (now unofficial) Fall website here.

In New York, they'll play Knitting Factory on June 1 and at Brooklyn's great Southpaw on the following night. The Sticking Point will be there.

The More You Know...

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Clowns from the album Son of Sam I Am by Too Much Joy

Our Old Friend, The F10

It's back.

Pure, unadulterated, Friday 10.

01 Pirate Love - The Heartbreakers: There are three different versions of this Heartbreakers song on my iPod. The one I heard today is the best one, the one from the “lost mixes” edition of L.A.M.F. that came out a few years back. Check out “Pirate Love” if you can. It's simple and fun and stands as a great definition of the rock and roll sound. This is the sound of a bar band that only exists in your mind. Except Thunders and the Heartbreakers existed, they were out there. Amazing. The version of this song on L.A.M.F. is my favorite. There's a long and loose version on the Max's Kansas City album, but this is the one for me. There's a story told by Chris Musto (of the Oddballs) that at one show, Thunders was more in the mood to entertain than play, and he asked the audience to guess where he “ripped off” each of the songs from. This one, he claimed, was nicked from Bad Company.

02 Virginia Avenue - Tom Waits: I don't have to tell you anything about Tom Waits. You know he's genius. My earliest memory of him was watching him on SNL when I was a boy (and shouldn't have been up that late -- not even on a Saturday). Man, was I stunned. I didn't know what to make of this guy. He was sitting at a piano and smoking a cigarette while he played. His voice sounded to me like he'd swallowed poison. For some reason, I didn't change the channel over to wrestling on channel 9. I watched this Tom Waits guy sing his song about love or booze or the blues or all three and had enough sense in my stupid head to know that he was singing about something so real I couldn't even understand it yet.

“Virginia Avenue” is from Closing Time, one of the best in a huge catalog of great Waits albums. I listen to that CD all the time.

I just searched around the so-called Internet, and found that Waits was on SNL on April 9, 1977. I was ten years old. The host that night was Julian Bond. Who?

03 Three MCs and One DJ - Beastie Boys: I heard a live version from the Roskilde '98 bootleg StereoMic hooked me up with a couple years ago. I have about a dozen Beasties bootlegs and demos disks that I like, but this Roskilde show is amazing.

04 Pretty Vacant - Sex Pistols: I heard the demo version from Spunk. This collection is not hard to find and thoroughly worth having, as some of the tracks are actually far superior performances than the standard issue versions. You can get it bundled with the Bollocks disk, but it'll cost you. But why wouldn't you spend so much money on them? They are unwilling Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, for Christ's sake! Oh, and also? Read the Lydon autobiography. It's finally back in print and easy to find. I read it a couple months ago and loved it. He's got stories to tell and scores to settle. And he does. (Did -- it was written a while back.)

05 Under The Gun - Circle Jerks: Every genre has its four or five singers that just define the music, and Keith Morris is one of the standouts in L.A. punk. Amazing voice. Well, let's say amazing vocal performances. I've been listening to Golden Shower of Hits (which this song comes from) a lot lately. So many great songs on that one, ands it was probably the best CJ lineup in their history. Somewhere, in my shelves of vinyl there is an old SPIN (magazine) radio show with four vinyl sides of a Circle Jerks concert from 1986. I have to dig that out and burn it to CDR. I haven't heard it in about 15 years.

06 I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts - X: This is another song that appears on my iPod in about 4 different versions. This is the great one, from the More Fun in the New World record. What an amazing album; it's the one I usually tell folks new to the almighty X to begin with. “Make The Music Go Bang,” “Breathless,” “Devil Doll,” “True Love, Pt. 2,” “Bad Thoughts” -- who can't get their brains around all that great music?!
Today, I learned that John Doe is playing a show here in New York next week. I bought a ticket for it as fast as my Internet connection allowed.

07 Working for the Man - PJ Harvey: This is from her album To Bring You My Love. It's the only one of hers I have, but I've heard all the others. I think it's all great stuff, she's amazing, but there's something about the production work on TBYML that makes it my favorite.

08 Where Does It Lead? - Miriam Makeba: From The Magic of Miriam Makeba. She's one of those artists you wish you could go to college and major in. At least I do. The Pata Pata cd is great, as is Africa and Sangoma. Makeba was married to Hugh Masakela AND Stokely Carmichael. In 1959, she walked onstage for a guest appearance at a Harry Belafonte concert at Carnegie Hall, and the double album of the show won a Grammy. I can't say much more than to just write that I am in awe of her. Here's some info: http://zar.co.za/miriam.htm.

09 Nervous Breakdown - Keith Morris: Oh, yeah -- the sonic jihad of another Keith Morris vocal! This is the version that he did a few years ago, backed up by Rollins Band (Mother Superior) for the West Memphis 3 CD.

10 Let's Go - The Ramones: Pleasant Dreams, Too Tough To Die, and End of the Century are three incredibly underrated Ramones albums if you ask me. In the 80s, I listened to those three more than I listened to the classic first three. This song is from End of the Century, the album that people either love because the songs are amazing, or hate because Phil Specter produced it. Why was Joey Ramone a respected punk rock vocalist? Listen to “Let's Go.”

*          *          *
DIY: put your mp3 player of choice on “shuffle all songs,” and let us know the first 10 songs out the chute.

*          *          *

“Swiss Fudge Cookies, sudoko, and the Friday 10 are all I really need these days.”
-- Christine Baranski

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: “Make The Music Go Bang” from the album More Fun In The New World by X

Ten Thrillers, No Filler

01 Geek - Bettie Serveert: From Dust Bunnies. If you ever have the chance to see them live, do it. Don't hesitate. Trust me. BettieServeert.com has info.

02 Superpill - The Forty-Fives: I don't know much about the Forty-Fives, except: they are from Atlanta, and High Life High Volume is a good album with a great album cover. They have a page at myspace.com/thefortyfives.

03 Tribute - Tenacious D: “This is not the greatest song in the world, this is just a tribute to the greatest song in the world.” I have a lot of Tenacious D on iTunes. I like Jack Black. I worked with him, helping him memorize the lyrics to ACDC's “Back in Black” for a show. (He was performing it with Foo Fighters.) I've heard that he has been trying for a few years to get the Roky Erickson story made, so Jack Black is alright.

04 If I Can't Change Your Mind - Sugar: I learned something the other day -- that the Daily Show theme was written by Bob Mould and performed by They Might Be Giants. It's called “Dogs on Fire,” and I spent about a half hour Wednesday night trying to track it down in any form. No luck. If I can grow a pair of balls big enough, maybe I can email Mould Himself to ask about it. He's got a good website. “If I Can't Change Your Mind” came from the amazing Copper Blue CD. (But you knew that.)

05 This is Radio Clash - The Clash: This is one of the best 12“ singles you can find, because there are five versions of the song (including dubs), and they're all good. The one I heard today is from The Story of the Clash; I think it must be the single mix. This single came out the summer the Clash played the marathon booking at Bonds in NYC, and the Radio Clash video has a lot of the footage filmmaker Don Letts shot of that scene. He was planning a feature-length documentary called Clash on Broadway, but it never happened. Letts says much of the footage he shot has been lost. I'm staying hopefully cynical. This year is the 25th anniversary year of the Bonds shows, and I'm figuring something might ”turn up.“ It was, after all, twenty-five years later that Mick Jones found the London Calling demos that comprised the Sony Legacy edition of LC.

06 Bad Mouth - Fugazi: From 13 Songs.

07 Tension - The Minutemen: This is one of my favorite songs from The Punch Line. An incredible album; and what is it -- 15 songs in 20 minutes?

08 Deeper and Deeper - Sylvain Sylvain: From his self-titled first solo album that came out in 1979 on RCA. It has been out of print for a long time, so I was really thrilled to find a vinyl copy on eBay about a year and a half ago. It's the one with the classic ”14th Street Beat“ on it. It's always interesting to hear the stuff the Dolls did when they all splintered off into their next bands and solo projects. David Johansen did a lot of soul-influenced pop stuff, and Sylvain's record has bunch of Doo-Wop numbers, like this one. Really, only Thunders continued playing a style you could easily I.D. as post-NYDolls. Cool to know: Track one on the Syl Sylvain record is ”Teenage News.“ It dates back to the final days of the Dolls, and it's title almost became the name of a magazine. The editors went with ”Punk“ instead.

09 Romanticide - Combo Audio: This is from one of the CDRs I've burned of old vinyl. I have the single. I've seen this song pop up on a bunch of CD comps of ”80s“ or ”New Wave“ music, but I can't imagine too many people have the original 7”, with picture sleeve in near mint condition, and the free “Romanticide” sticker still in the plastic sleeve. I do.

10 The Right Profile - The Clash: From London Calling, of course. Their producer, Guy Stevens brought a Montgomery Clift biography into the studio and encouraged the band to read it. They wrote this song. The story: after Clift was in a car accident which cause permanent damage to his face, the actor was only shot “in right profile.”

“The Sticking Point's Friday 10 has gotten me through some of the freakiest, most trying times in my life. Sometimes, I think I need [the Friday 10] to live.” -- Greta Scacchi

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Now you do it. Put your mp3 player of choice on “shuffle all songs”; let us know the first 10 songs you hear.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: “Garden” from the album Perverted by Language by Fall, The

“I've Been Through Many Times In Which I Thought I Might Lose It / The Only Thing To Save Me -- Has Always Been Music”

While clicking through some of my favorite sites recently, I found a really cool entry on Fifty Quid Bloke. Instead of doing the trite year-end countdown thing, the FQB simply -- and passionately -- wrote about the 30 songs he most enjoyed listening to this year. Here, I borrow this great idea, but with one less for the money -- just 29. (Please visit the Bloke's site, but not just yet... his looks and reads better than mine, and I'm afraid you won't come back.)

So, here are the 29 songs I most enjoyed listening to in 2005. I think I may have a stunted taste in music.

Hittin' On Nothing
Detroit Cobras, Mink Rat or Rabbit
I sort of did the full-on fan boy thing with the Cobras these past couple years. I just rounded up all the disks I could find. “Hittin' On Nothing” got my attention from the get-go. It's a revved-up version of the Irma Thomas hit, and Rachel Nagy's vocal is just balls. Total confidence. This is one of only a couple songs that I would listen to a few times in a row.

Revenge
Black Flag, The First Four Years
Rise Above
Black Flag, Damaged
I listened to a lot of the pre-Rollins Black Flag stuff this year. First Four Years and Everything Went Black, especially. That music really holds up.

Laughing At You
Detroit Cobras, Life, Love and Leaving
What a vocal. For my money, Rachel Nagy's got the sexiest, toughest voice around. (I've never heard the original, by a group called the Guardinias. I can't find anything about them online.

History Lesson Part II
Minutemen, Ballot Result
Well, I'm getting older. Nostalgic. No apologies from me. When D. Boon says “the punk rock changed our lives,” I know what that means. Goddamn. What if? What if there was no Ramones? What if there were no Clash or Devo? What, then, would the knuckleheads have called me (derisively) in high school and middle school? What if I'd never heard X, Black Flag, or the Misfits? Don't want to think about it, because that music formed me. It helped chisel away at what I wasn't, until who I was emerged... with a stupid grin on my face.
Yeah, whatever. I'm getting older, not wiser; and plenty more nostalgic. But still, “this is Bob Dylan to me.”

Call of the Wreckin Ball
The Knitters, Poor Little Critter on the Road

Someone Like You (demo)
X (The Knitters), Beyond & Back: The X Anthology
I came to the Knitters party a little late, admittedly. But what I lacked in foresight I made up for in passion. I listened to more Knitters stuff this year than The Stooges, Sex Pistols, and Nirvana combined. I was lucky to see them play a scalding show at Irving Plaza back in August. DJ Bonebrake is the shit.

Bessa
Tilly and the Wall, Wild Like Children
I listened to Wild Like Children a lot, and I think I played this song most of all. I love these Tilly kids. They're wrapping up work on their next record, and I can't wait to hear it.

Night of the Living Dead
Tilly and the Wall, Wild Like Children
 This was immediately my favorite track on the album. It's a rave-up; I've been at some gigs where they brought the house down with this one.

Papillon
Rilo Kiley, Initial Friend (EP)
I listen to these earliest songs, and I'm struck by just how great their songwriting was and how confidently they played, even early on. This EP is a third version of the first two -- self-titled -- EPs. There's info and tracklists here. Pretty hard-to-find stuff, but if you're into the illegal download kinda thing, you should be able to gather up all these tracks from some kind, sharing Rilo fans out there.

Pata Pata
Miriam Makeba, Miriam Makeba
For sheer exuberance, nothing tops it. The piano line is simple and powerful, and Makeba does this scream/shriek thing about two minutes in that blows me away.

Room 8 (L)
Rilo Kiley, Austin TX 08.09.03 (bootleg)
As far as I know, they've never recorded this song. They played it now and then on the '03 and '04 tours. This performance has Matt Ward sitting in on guitar.

A Better Son/Daughter
Rilo Kiley, The Execution of All Things 
As always. The all-time favorites never go away.

Do You Realize??
Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots 
This one sort of switched gears for me this year. I used to hear it as a love song, but now it sounds like a life lesson. Maybe becoming a father last December started me looking for life lessons in pop songs.

No Values
Hank III, Rise Above - 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three  
I love this guy. I read somewhere that he often includes a Black Flag song in his live sets, so he was a natural for the WM3 record.

Phobias
L.A.L., #1 USA
What if the Kinks and the Velvet Underground were one day forced to collaborate? It might sound... a little... like this. I dig the chugging rhythm and the paraphrased “Victoria” melody.

Teenagers From Mars
The Misfits, The Misfits 
Another one of my all-time favorites. I'll probably never stop listening to this.

Breakaway
Detroit Cobras, Mink Rat or Rabbit 

Always
Rilo Kiley, Take Offs and Landings 
Somewhere around August, I realized I couldn't get enough of this song.

So Long It's Been Good To Know Yuh
X, Live at the Whiskey A Go-Go on the Fabulous Sunset Strip
I've been sort of OD'ing on this song of late. I have about four different versions of it (including a John Doe/Dan Zanes duet) and I've been playing them all. Sometimes I put the disk in my son's little CD boombox so I can listen to it over and over again, while giving the appearance that I'm just playing it for H. 

She Said
The Cramps, Off The Bone 
This is a cover of an old Hasil Adkins song that I rediscovered this summer. Lux Interior is the only singer who can do it justice.

Daddy Sang Bass
Johnny Cash, Complete Live at San Quentin 
This is a simple -- and great -- song. It was a crowd pleaser in 2005, if the “crowd” was baby H. Like goofballs, his mommy and I would sing the chorus parts to him (“Daddy sang bass... mommy sang tenor...”)... and he'd laugh. Silly. Sue us.

Bite
See
Break
Kleptones, A Night at the Hip Hopera
I burned a lot of copies of this for friends this year. Everyone dug it. Look, I'm about the least likely guy to listen to mash-ups, but this collection of Queen-meets-rap is godlike. I think Eric Kleptone took the mp3s off the net, but his website is a logical place to start your search.

Stop And Go
Lisa Loeb and Liz Mitchell, from the TV special NOGGIN: Move to the Music
Where did this gem come from? Don't care. For the last 12 months, it has made my son smile and dance every time it comes on. When Liz and Lisa sing “stretch,” and we first saw H throw his arms in the air, we were practically apoplectic with joy and pride. (Confession: I've never been a Lisa Loeb fan, In fact, 'round these parts, if you or what you do can be described as “Loebish” or “Loebishness” -- you're persona non grata.)

Yip Roc Heresy
Slim Gaillard, Laughing in Rhythm
This guy brought the mac vouty! Info here.

Sister Kate (I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My)
Ditty Bops, The Ditty Bops
My wife? She hates this song. Hates it. I don't know what her big problem is with it. What's not to like? It's Ragtime-ish, with a little Western swing and a jazzy vocal thrown in. The Ditty Bops are what Squirrel Nut Zippers would be if they had a little fun and some sex appeal.

Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side
Magnetic Fields (Stephen Merritt), 69 Love Songs / Pieces of April 
I listened to so much Magnetic Fields stuff this year, once I convinced my pal Jake that I did indeed want to borrow and burn all three disks of 69 Love Songs. He thought I was nuts. The first time I heard “Luckiest Guy” was on the superb Pieces of April soundtrack.

[posted with ecto]

F10, 12.23.05

“Funny thing about weekends when you're unemployed... they don't mean quite so much. 'Cept ya get to hang out with your workin' friends.” -- Primus, “Spegetti Western”

Today, a no-nonsense F10, the final one for 2005.

01 All Shook Down - Replacements: Alright, even diehard fanboys like me know that the Don't Tell a Soul album was a crock. Westerberg's songwriting was subpar, and the band's hearts weren't in it. The follow-up, All Shook Down, still feels like a Westerberg album, and there's at least there's a full side of good songs. The first six songs are really good, and the duet with Johnette Napolitano on “My Little Problem” is hot snot. I was never crazy about this title cut, but you've got to love that vocal. It sounds accidental, as if PW is smoking a cigarette and talk-singing some freshly written lyrics to himself. 

02 When Love Turns Around - Buzzcocks: This is from the live Paris: Encore Du Pain disk. Amazing. There is not a bad second on any Buzzcocks record. Try and find one.

03 Sweet Thing - Rufus (feat. Chaka Khan): In 1973, my family and two others made a holiday season trip to Miami. From New York. By car. I was six. Wild ride, great trip, and it was the first time I heard Rufus, as they're first album was on the radio a bit that year. They were a bit more rock then than in later years, when Chaka Khan began to emerge as an uncontainable voice. It's from the Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan album.

04 Redundant - Green Day: From Nimrod. Man, I used to hate Green Day. Didn't get the first record, didn't get Dookie, didn't get the second one. I'd written them off as a third-rate Buzzcocks rip-off, whose lead singer had the worst British affectation I'd ever heard. Then, something happened. Around the time I was working in London, I started listening some more, and ended up buying everything. I still buy their stuff. They're good guys, and they know their music.

05 The Observer - Flaming Lips: This isn't so much a song as it is a... soundscape. Eeesh. I hate using new agey, marketing words like that, but the Wayne and the Lips make some of the most listenable and interesting music out there. This is from the perfect Soft Bulletin disk, but nearly everything they've released is worth a listen. Like Zaireeka, a set of 4 CDs meant to be heard simultaneously. I've got it, but I've never gotten around to doing the full-on, four disk thing. Probably because, uh... where am I going to find three other geeks like me to press “play” on my cue?

06 No Compromise - Rhino 39: Fifty-four seconds of punk rock from Rhino 39, a mid-seventies punk band from Long Beach. Pretty hard to find stuff, but this songs on the Dangerhouse Volume 2: Give Me A Little Pain comp. Tip: pick up anything you find on the amazing Dangerhouse label.

07 Hang Em High - Booker T & the MGs: Right on. There's a great cover of this song on the Diver Down album. Booker T & the MGs were THE Stax band, and they're still unbeatable. This one's on a ton of comps and greatest hits collections, you can find it anywhere, but check out the Soul Limbo CD.

08 Heroin - Velvet Underground: From Velvet Underground & Nico. Great backstory: Lou Reed wrote this pre-VU, when he was still a freelance songwriter for Pickwick Records. In 1964. Can you imagine the stones on that kid, writing such a song for a label in 1964?!

09 Those Damn Blue Collar Tweekers - Primus: (From Sailing the Seas of Cheese) Another band that was hand-delivered to me by my pal MicKen. We've been friends for a few months over 20 years, and he's turned me on to some of the best music I've ever heard. He's musically curious like me, so he's always thrown stuff my way. Some of it I love (Living Colour, Walt Mink, Rites of Spring, Squirrel Bait), and some of it I can't get to (Chris Whitley, Self) but I always appreciate the challenge of these new sounds. When MicKen starts talking up some artist, I listen. It gets a little weird sometimes when he asks me a month later if I ever checked out the _____ album he told me about, and I reply yes -- plus, I bought the back catalog, the new one, the singles box set, a bootleg of demos, and I read the biography. Like I said, I can be a diehard fanboy sometimes. An idiotic, completist diehard fanboy.

10 One Way Out - Allman Brothers: Yeah. So? It's an Elmore James classic, and the A-Bros do it right. This is from the Almost Famous soundtrack.

DIY: Put your digital jukebox or mp3 player on “shuffle all songs,” and tell us the first ten to come out.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: “Get Revenge” from the album The Stains by Stains, The

Separation Anxiety

I spent most of this week dreading the eight daily hours in the office. Layoffs were coming, they were rumored to be massive and deep, and I kind of figured that my position would be on the bubble. I could barely eat, I could hardly sleep, and my stomach felt like a bagful of scalding nickels. I spent the days behind my desk, with one eye on the computer and the other on the door, lest any bearer of bad news should enter.

Well, it happened. I got laid off yesterday. Officially, my “position is being eliminated,” and I have to go with it.

My boss really couldn't have handled things any better than he did. He was upfront; he said all the right (and kind) things, and his tone was sensitive to what he figured I'd be feeling. He did it right and I appreciated that. My company's HR department put together a severance package that will keep my family financially, medically, and dentally sound for a little while. I actually left the building yesterday feeling much much better than when I walked in. I felt relieved. Relieved to finally know my fate -- I fucking hate surprises -- and relieved of the tumult in the pit of my stomach.

This morning I sat for coffee with S as she fed H his breakfast, then the three of us took our dog out for a walk and smirked at some of the gaudy riche houses on the other side of the neighborhood. It was nice.

Later, I hit the gym like a freight train and found three years of psychotherapy in a pair of 60-pound dumbbells. It felt so good to get back with the iron. I missed that so much. Doubly satisfying is the fact that I really like the gym in my new neighborhood. Little by little, the gloomy murk of Forest Hills is parting, and I can see a little light.
 
Today's Friday 10 is three floors. The free-weights and squat rack are upstairs. 

01 My Goodness- X: Did I tell you that last week's X show was unbelievable? Maybe it's due to the emotionally draining weeks I'd been through, but standing there at Roseland, seeing and hearing the Almighty ones play was... moving. I got choked up a number of times. It was fucking religious for me. And have you seen any reviews of the show? I haven't. A blogger friend sent me a photo he took, and we promised each other we'd share the setlist or a review if we find one. Goddamn, it's hard to Google that band. X. You've got to throw in a handful of other keywords. “My Goodness” came off the Live at the Whiskey CD.

02 Ffun - Con Funk Shun: This is a 45 I've had since I was about nine years old. I didn't know until many years later that the song is this Memphis group's tribute to the Atlanta dazz band Brick. I don't have a lot of Con Funk Shun stuff, but I like whatever I've heard. Theirs is good soul stuff, and worth digging up if you're into that Ohio Players / Parliament / Jimmy Castor stuff.

03 Commando - Ramones: From It's Alive. H has a Ramones T-shirt that features a slight rewording of this song's lyric: “First Rule -- Be Nice To Mommy.”

04 Orchid - Black Sabbath: I don't know if I have more than a few dozen instrumentals on my iTunes. This one's hot shit. The Master of Reality album was the first Sabbath I ever owned, and I only got it because my sister's boyfriend gave it to her when it came out and she hated it. She chucked it my way and I've never been the same since. There are a couple different printings of Master floating around. My original vinyl has the album title in black on the cover, while later pressings and CD versions have it printed in easier-to-read grey. I... am... a... geek.

05 Here We Go - Shelter: I think I first heard this on a CMJ comp that used to come out with the New Music Monthly magazine. (Does that still exist anymore?) I liked the song, bought their disk. Just like the labels hope. No sweat. The lead singer of Shelter is none other than hardcore Krishna Ray Cappo -- from Youth of Today. What a band that was! Those guys were part of the late first-wave straight edge scene, made great music, and all moved on to other bands where they'd make even more solid and challenging music. Check out Youth of Today info here. “Here We Go” is my favorite song on the Mantra album.

06 Right Now! - Zeros: That the Zeros were called “the Mexican Ramones” tells you everything you need to know about them. They were right there in the pocket in L.A. in 1976, playing alongside all those bands you know and love. Ever hear the Muffs' “Beat Your Heart Out”? That's a Zeros song. They broke up in 1981, but get back together every now and then to record and tour. This song is actually from 1999, on Right Now! The Don't Push Me Around comp is worth checking out, too.

07 Intergalactic (Colleone/Webb Mix) - Beastie Boys: A fun remix from their Blow-Up Factor 12“. I don't know who, what, or where re: Colleone/Webb.

08 Yvonne - Saw Doctors: I like a ton of Saw Doctors songs. This isn't one of them. (That's what ”shuffle all songs“ gets you sometimes.) Why is it on my iTunes? Because it's off their blazing second album, All The Way From Tuam. That thing starts with ”Green and Red of Mayo,“ ends with ”Never Mind The Strangers,“ and is loaded with great songs in between. (”Yvonne“ aside.) 

09 Joy - Lucinda Williams: I've been listening to her Car Wheels on a Gravel Road CD continually for nearly seven years now. It got me through some shit times back then, and it still sounds as focused and pure to me now. What a perfect record that is. I've seen her play live a couple times and I own a couple bootlegs. If you don't have Car Wheels -- get it; and if you ever see Lucinda's name on an ad in the music section of your city's free paper -- buy tickets ASAP. She brings it.

10 My Fallen Words - Bettie Serveert: It was my pal Rob who turned me on to this band. It must have been about '95 or '96. I remember, we were talking about our mutual admiration for Luna, and he said he'd also been listening to a lot of Bettie Serveert. ”They take me to a special place,“ he said. This song is from years later, from their impeccable Private Suit album. Check them out live -- they smoke.

Today's F10 included some of the best live acts you'll ever see. I've never seen the Zeros or Con Funk Shun, but the other eight? Whoa. Do it yourself now: Put your mp3 player or digi-jukebox software on ”shuffle all songs,“ and tell us what the first ten out the chute are.

”The Friday 10 and that Harry Potter movie are, like, my top two things for 2005. For those year-end list things.“ -- Madeleine Stowe

 
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[posted with ecto]

What Narcissism Sounds Like

Here are the Top 40 Most Played Songs on my iPod/iTunes (since 12/04).

01. Hittin' On Nothing - Detroit Cobras
02. Bessa - Tilly and the Wall
03. Revenge - Black Flag
04. Call of the Wreckin' Ball - The Knitters
05. Nights of the Living Dead - Tilly and the Wall
06. History Lesson Part II - Minutemen
07. Papillon - Rilo Kiley
08. Fix Me - Black Flag
09. Pata Pata - Miriam Makeba
10. Love and War (11/11/46) - Rilo Kiley

11. Rise Above - Black Flag
12. Spray Paint - Black Flag
13. Do You Realize?? - The Flaming Lips
14. Room 8 - Rilo Kiley [live in Austin, TX 8/9/03]
15. Portions for Foxes - Rilo Kiley
16. A Better Son/Daughter - Rilo Kiley
17. 12:51 - The Strokes
18. I Don't Wanna Grow Up - Tom Waits
19. I've Had It - Black Flag
20. Harmony in My Head - Buzzcocks

21. Mighty K.C. - For Squirrels
22. Never Understand - Jesus and Mary Chain
23. With You (A Wedding Song) - John Kelly
24. Teenagers From Mars - Misfits
25. Life Fades Away - Roy Orbison
26. Thirsty and Miserable - Black Flag
27. Boredom - Buzzcocks
28. Daddy Sang Bass - Johnny Cash
29. Rudie Can't Fail - The Clash
30. Cyanide - The Lurkers

31. Fell Down The Stairs - Tilly and the Wall
32. 4th of July - X
33. Tangled Up In Blue - Bob Dylan
34. Yip Roc Heresy - Slim Gaillard
35. Stop & Go - Lisa Loeb and Liz Mitchell
36. Hop Around - Dee Dee Ramone
37. It's A Hit - Rilo Kiley
38. Always - Rilo Kiley [live Purchase, NY 1/21/04]
39. Shine - Rollins Band
40. Solitary Confinement - The Weirdos

On iTunes right now: “Keep Hanging On” from the album Flip Your Wig by Hüsker Dü

[posted with ecto]

Solipsist

I found this questionnaire/template on Incarcerated Uterus. Though things like this are phenomenally narcissistic and scary to me, they're also right in my anal-retentive, OCD wheelhouse, so I'll play.

Warning: the following contains graphic examples of solipsism, unmitigated self-absorption, and unchecked ego. DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU.

Ten Years Ago: I was going back and forth to London, writing promos for western movies* airing on Saudi satellite TV. I was in great leg-shape, racing mountain bikes competitively. (Best finish: 9th at a race called the "Jack Rabbit Run" in Connecticut.) I was a contributing writer for a comedian who had his own weekly live show on cable. I don't remember much about 1995, really, except I wasn't very happy and I began listening to Green Day.

* That's not Westerns, the genre, but western, as in movies made by studios in that hemisphere. Stuff like this.

Five Years Ago: I was a newlywed. My wife and I lived in an enormous apartment in Brooklyn: two floors, one-and-a-half baths, two living rooms, huge master bedroom, office, two wet bars, built-in bookshelves, and a private rooftop deck. Our landlord ran and edited a socialist magazine and (true to his politics) charged us MUCH LESS rent than he could have.

It was from that rooftop deck that I watched the horrifying scene on 9/11. I saw people falling or jumping, watched the facade peel off with a sick sound a split second before the first tower collapsed... and that vantage point still frames my nightmares. For days after, we gathered up victims' personal effects (calendar pages, business cards) that had blown across the East River and onto our deck.

(The socialist landlord came to his capitalist senses in 2002, when his accountant/lawyer told him he was bleeding money and informed him how much he could get for our apartment. When the S.L. proposed an 18% rent hike, Mrs. Sticking Point and I bailed. To Boerum Hell.)

One Year Ago: My wife and I were fresh off the home study portion of the adoption process, and were days away from getting even more fingerprints done for INS. We were working on a project together, and though we watched it get scaled back from a million-dollar-live-from-Vegas-event to a puny ENG clip show, I was having a blast collaborating with her again. I was enjoying the old Pussy Ranch weblog. The Sticking Point itself looked like this.

Yesterday: It was my morning to "sleep in," which means my wife got up with H. I scored an extra 45 minutes before they came in and woke me up. I got to work around my usual time. A pal at the office joked that my hair had "extra body." My man Jake made the awesome recommendation that I put some of the 150-300 less-important CDs in my collection into binders. That way I could regain some much-needed space for the good stuff. As it is right now, our ceiling-to-floor CD shelving system is creeping down our 15-foot hallway and into the bedroom. We had no internet connections when I arrived home; the telephone service tech at Time Warner Cable gave me some bad advice, which I followed, even though I knew it was bad advice. Next, our wireless network was entirely lost. After about a half hour of pissing, moaning, and mild panic as I fiddled with all the settings, it returned. It was one of those freakish computer-related things that sometimes fix themselves. (See also: "TV reception, it fixed itself!")

Today: It was my morning to get up with H. After his bottle, he sat next to me on the couch watching Sesame Street. He sat still for almost eight whole minutes! I loved it when he began laughing at something Ernie was doing; H giggled, then looked up at me, as if to say, "Isn't that funny?" I love when he shares stuff like that with me. I came in to work 20 minutes earlier than usual to find that the celebrity-related project failure I'd been sweating overnight was not as bad as I thought. The star is pissed at his publicist and pissed at his movie studio, but may still consider the project I'm working on. For lunch, I ignored recent blood test results (my "bad" cholesterol is a tad high) and had my usual -- double turkey burger on a kaiser roll -- anyway. Then I found this questionnaire on Incarcerated Uterus.

Five Snacks I Enjoy: Cashews and/or pistachios. Ben & Jerry's Karamel Sutra ice cream (but only because they no longer make Concession Obsession). Tuna on a kaiser with extra mayo (it IS a snack!). Chocolate chip cookies from the cafeteria at work. Pirate's Booty. That was a struggle. I'm really not a "snacker." I've only had two of those items in the past three months.

I Know Most Lyrics By These Five Bands: The Clash, Replacements, Rolling Stones, Rilo Kiley, Luna.

Five Things I Would Do With $1,000,000: Buy a house in Cooperstown, NY. Set up college funds for my son and my nieces and nephew. Open a small music store. Install a batting cage at the house in Cooperstown. Get these. (I never said these were the first five things I'd do.)

Five Locations I Would Run Away To: Biras Creek, Cooperstown, Cape Cod, San Gimignano, Coolangatta.

Five Bad Habits I Have: Just five? Audible gas. Pausing to acknowledge said gas. Short attention span means I often ask, "Wait, could you start over?" Inflexible when it comes to sticking to a plan. Surliness.

Five Things I Really Like Doing: Staying at home. Listening to music. Working out. Reading. Counting things. (Do I sound like a party or what?!)

Five Things I Would Never Wear: denim shorts, any novelty T-shirt, penny loafers, a vest, underwear.

Five TV Shows I Like: The Office (U.S. version), 30 Days, Scrubs, Newsradio, NY1 News All Morning.

Five Movies I Like: Apocalypse Now, Dog Day Afternoon, Yojimbo, Magnolia, The Good Girl.

Five Famous People I Would Like To Meet: (and hopefully, they Google themselves and will make this happen.) Keith Morris, David Cross, Norman Mailer, David Johansen, Chuck D.

Five Biggest (Current) Joys: Waking up with my family, the look on H's face when I enter his nursery in the morning, walking around my amazing neighborhood, H's laugh, playing with H and his new foamy Yankees ball.

Five Favorite Toys: iPod, FutureSonics EM3s, Audacity software, iBook, the foamy Yankees ball I bought H in Cape Cod.

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Listening: "Insight" from Unknown Pleasures, by Joy Division.

When I Dream, I Dream in GEEK

Last night, I dreamed that I kissed Kim Gordon. (She didn't look like Kim Gordon, though. She looked like this.) We were on a staircase and I asked her to sing a song for me. It sounded beautiful. I was moved. I told her I loved her. Then I kissed her.

Then I saw Thurston Moore, who told me which Sonic Youth albums were his favorites, and the meanings behind all the songs.

Later, I saw Ian MacKaye, and I was afraid to talk to him, but hoped he'd ask me what kind of music I like.

If I were awake, I could have bored myself back to sleep.

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Listening: "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" from Crossing The Red Sea with the Adverts, by The Adverts.

Nerd Alert!

Make that an old nerd.

In order to stay awake while watching I <3 Huckabees the other night, I kept the iBook on my lap and let the A.D.D. take over.

At one point during a particularly long Dustin Hoffman monologue (I soon figured out that none of what Hoffman's or Lily Tomlin's characters said was worth attention) I thought I wanted to know more about the group Stories and their song "Brother Louie." I found a cool link with plenty of info here.