the sticking point

Take Me Out

My pal -- and one of my favorite writers -- Nick has another great post up over at Yanksfan vs. Soxfan. The topic is random baseball players he likes or hates and the (personalized, emotion-based) reasons why. It's good reading, as always.

For me...

Likes

Tanyon Sturtze. He came to the Yankees with a 34-41 record. He only improved as far as mediocre, BUT... while Pedro was manhandling a 90-year old bench coach, Grand Tanyon was grappling with "bodybuilder" Gabe Kapler. And Sturtze was the starting pitcher in that very game! I'll always appreciate the guts he showed.

Torii Hunter. Is there any baseball fan who wouldn't want this guy on their fave team? And it's so much fun to watch/hear his interviews, he seems a genuinely good guy.

Jim Thome. This guy is a throwback. A nice guy. Drinks beer at his locker and claims to never lifts weights.

.
Hates

Curt Schilling. Quit trolling the freaking message boards, you narcissistic tool.

John McDonald. A player yelled "Ha!" or "I got it!" and made you miss a pop-up? Grow up. Ty Cobb used to fire a .22 pistol at infielders as he rounded the bases.

Crash Davis. What a smug, self-righteous bastard.

Also, why is it that all the players who PLAY the game the way it should be played (Jimmy Rollins, etc) do so quietly, while all the players who SAY they play the game the way it should be played (Josh Beckett, Paul LoDuca, Schilling, etc.) seem to deserve an ass-raping?

Taking The Piss

You know, sometimes I read back the stuff I've written on this here Sticking Point thing, and I wonder what the hell I was thinking. Sometimes, especially the Friday 10s, it reads like the minutes at a weekly geek meeting. It smells like a hundred acres of geek, recently crop-dusted with loser. I mean, really. Alternate B-sides? German-edition remasters of old UK punk singles? Muscling up to defend the rights of others?

Sometimes I read it all and think, I've got to be kidding. But I'm not. And yet, The Sticking Point is sitting here, waiting to be mocked. Parodied. Spoofed. Skewered. Lampooned. Sent up. Yarked.

OK, I made up that last one, but this is where you come in. I will happily print (nearly) any Spoof Sticking Point post sent to me. The email address is TSP2003@hotmail.com. They can be as long or as short as you like, and can be about any topic that's likely be handled on this site. (Please be sure to tell me how you'd like to be credited, as well.) I'd love to see what you've got, and share a laugh (at my own expense) with the 200-300 readers who stop by here every day.

Please. Send me some parody. I can take it.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: The New World from the album More Fun In The New World by X

Enter Sandman, Indeed

As much as I want to hate these lullaby tribute albums, they actually sound pretty good. The lullaby version of Radiohead's "No Surprises," is even damn good.

(Didn't know they existed until I saw a mention on Liza's cool and ever-evolving Copy, Right? mp3 site.)

(Why doesn't lullaby have a silent e at the end?)

.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: On The Face Of It from the album The Evens by Evens, The

Whoa, 'Mama! F10

My wife and I are totally thunderstruck by the kindness of ChicagoMama. Yesterday, we received a big box of amazing from her, filled with toys and other goodies for our boys (and for us!). Included among the gifts was even a DVD, and a note suggesting we let it get us through those hours when our days start in the middle of night. So, ChicagoMama isn't just super kind and uber-thoughtful, she also remembers what she reads on The Sticking Point and bestows gifts accordingly. Wow. Too, too nice.

Of course, the 'Mama and her family will be receiving a proper, formal (non-Internet) thank you, but I wanted to let everyone here know how she rolls. Thank you.

* * * *

I bought my first-ever entire "album" off the iTunes store yesterday. They'd sent me one of those update emails that mentioned full performances from Austin City Limits. I know some great acts have played there this year, like Cat Power, Jenny Lewis, and deadboy & the Elephantmen. Sure enough, they had an 11-track recording of deadboy that Fat Possum Records didn't even have listed, so I brought it all back home with a download. Ten bucks for eleven awesome songs. I've been listening to that one ALOT in the last 20 hours. (I think I like the live version of "Evil Friend" better than the version on the album.) I immediately burned a copy of these songs, so's the family and I can listen in the car this weekend.

* * * *

The 20th Time's a Charm, Dept: On Wednesday night, baby W's twentieth night at home in New York, he slept through the night for the very first time. This followed right on the heels of some particularly wakeful nights, so it came as quite a shock. Such a shock, in fact, that I spent much of that -- my first night to sleep straight through -- awake, waiting for the crying to come. It's like I'm shell-shocked.

Today's Friday 10, now with 30% less irritability.

01 Come On Now - Ramones: Pleasant Dreams is a really cool and often overlooked Ramones album. So good. I think if your collection consists of only the mandatory Ramones releases, those first four from '76 to '78, it's time to do a good thing for yourself. Get another one of their releases every six months or so. It'll take you about seven years to get to ¡Adios Amigos!, and you will have gotten an education for your brain and your earholes. Trust me, those albums you think are sub-par? Check 'em. Every second of the Ramones musical canon is worth hearing, early and often.

02 City Baby Attacked By Rats - GBH: Oh, these Birmingham guys are just hilarious, and not in a good way. In the early 80s, their name started showing up on jackets of local punks, so my friends and I checked them out. We saw them at the Ritz, and giggled our asses off through most of the show. They seemed so insincere. The band was copping all these hot "rock star" poses while struggling to find the right frets on their guitars. For years, we told anyone who asked that G.B.H. was "British slang for poser." All in all, though, as British "punk/metal" goes, they are twice as good as Exploited, and half as good as Discharge. "City Baby..." was their first single, I think. It's also on the debut album.

03 The Wait - The Pretenders: The great Pretenders. You probably know as much as I do (or more) about the Pretenders. Chrissie shows up in a lot of punk rock documentaries, and I think it surprises a lot of people to learn that she was there, then. Yes, she hung with the Pistols, Gen X, UK Subs, and the kids from Eater, worked at McLaren's Sex store, wrote for the NME, and was almost in a band that later became the Clash. Some righteous lineage, for sure. (And let's not forget she conceived a child with Ray Davies.) I KNOW you don't need me to tell you how amazing that first Pretenders record is, because you're probably already thinking that you'd like to pull it out and listen to it today. (If you're a fanatic like me, you already know that Rhino released a blown-out version of the debut, with 28 tracks, including some demos and alts. "The Wait" is a great song. Not one of the upper-tier, everyone's favorite tracks, but it oughta be. When you listen to the album later today, dig what James Honeyman-Scott is doing to that guitar on "The Wait." Sick!

04 Shanghai-A-Go-Go - Squirm: I only have a handful of Squirm songs, off singles and comps. They range from mediocre ("Shanghai A-Go-Go") to good ("Dead Girls Don't Say No," "Fuck You Brooke Shields"). The band were part of the very first wave of New York City Hardcore bands, along with Ism, Butch Lust and the Headlickers, and The Mob. This is going back to around '80-'81. The very first comp to capture the scene is the now legendary Big Apple: Rotten to the Core from 1982. Pretty tricky to find now. There's a very short writeup here.

05 Dildos, Bondage, and Toys - Artless Entanglements: A right, snappy song from a classic SST Records sampler called Chunks. Worth getting your hands on. It's got some major punk rock on it, including some songs by bands no one's ever heard of like Black Flag, Minutemen, and Descendents. Artless Entanglements, as it happens, is the one-off project of SST's resident knob-twiddler, Spot.

06 Candy Says - Velvet Underground: I don't know how to write about the Velvet Underground. Flat-out brilliant, and there I stall. This, as you know, is track one, side one of the great self-titled album.
By the way: If you're ever trolling the peer-to-peer directories looking for great music to steal, you might search for a deadboy & the Elephantmen version of this song. They'd play it live, and that's how you'll find it. The version I have is from a January 2004 show at the Renaissance in Lafayette. At the end, Dax says, "That's the Velvet Underground... sorta."

07 World Love - Magnetic Fields: I have never listened to the 69 Love Songs cd. But I've got all the songs on my iTunes, and they fall out of the sky like magic every now and then. I am sure this is one of my favorite albums of the last 10 years.

08 Step Aside - Sleater-Kinney: Hi, we're Sleater-Kinney and we broke up waaaaay before our music went bad. In fact, many say it was still getting better. We released seven not-good-but-great CDs. "Step Aside" is from One Beat. We hear that Tommy Himself is nuts for Corin's Rickenbacher.

09 Alice Springs - Liz Phair: Good old Liz Phair, huh? She still gets 'em out to the shows, still generates our interest with the new music, but nothing matches that Exile album.

10 Absence of God - Rilo Kiley: Is Jenny Lewis one of the best living American songwriters, male or female? Probably. I met her once and literally thanked her for writing "A Better Son/Daughter." I think I might have even done a totally dorky, I'm a mouth-breathing shut-in thing and asked her if I could hug her. Fuck you. I'm not ashamed. I hugged the woman who wrote "A Better Son/Daughter." This track, "Absence of God" is from the More Adventurous disk, which I think is fantastic, but even more amazing once you've heard the records that led up to it. Every Rilo Kiley release has taken a giant step forward. They've been making music for, what? Six years? And yet, they're already one of my all-time favorite bands. Check out what I listen to the most. The Rilos are rubbing weenies with acts like Black Flag, X, and Rollins Band.

* * *
Now do it yourself: Put your digital jukebox or mp3 player on "shuffle all songs." What are the first ten you hear?

* * *

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Patience from the album All Through a Life by Rites of Spring

Advanced Placement (November)

A random gathering of stuff I'm digging on lately.








* * *

Prior to this month, everything I knew about Christopher Titus could be summed up thusly: "Comedian... Looks like Bryan Adams had a kid with Nick Nolte... Didn't he have a TV show that I never watched?" But I've seen some of his work recently because I'm working on a Titus-related "thing," and now I'm a fan. (I'd say his material is not what I expected, if only I had preconceived notions.) Heavy backstory, heavy comedy; Titus is more storyteller than joke-slinger.

* * *

Even though the John Locke and people-at-the-beach plotlines were wrongfully, painfully absent from the first few episodes of Lost's new season, I'm still loving it. Separating the cast was inventive, and it is allowing for some nice new permutations of partnerships. I also appreciate the diminished reliance upon Jack to carry the action. (However, what's the story behind this week's "Fall Season Finale"? Don't bullshit me. The show is going on hold for a couple months. Calling this batch of shows a "Fall Season" is just a load of marketing crap.)

* * *

Last Monday, I went alone and was overwhelmed. On Tuesday, SO'C was my valet. On Wednesday, I went with SO'C again, but I had it mastered. I even knew

where to find the plasticware on my way out. The Whole Foods at the Time Warner Center has become my lunchtime "thing" lately. The food is good but costly. And it's always crowded. And it is unnervingly confusing among the aisles and paths and people clusters. And the food is costly, but it's good.

* * *

Months ago, Micken gifted me with a copy of Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. I picked it up a few weeks before the Korea trip and was immediately deep in it. I love Bryson's style and how easily he handles the involved, deep science of the subject is as fascinating as the topic itself. But, now... with the new baby home... it seems as though I'll still be ambling through this book for months to come.

* * *

The Huffington Post. The Huffer's been at it for a year and a half, but I've only just discovered this site. (Thanks to a lower third on the Bill Maher show.) It is one of only a very few sites I have to visit every day.

* * *

Between naps and babies and other books, I've been squeezing in reading a tiny book by Mark Polizzotti* on Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, so I've been listening to that record a lot. What an amazing piece of work it is. It's always been a favorite of mine, but the Polizzotti book ongs' phrasings, arrangements, backstories, and allusions. H61R might be the greatest album of the rock era.
*Polizzotti, the director of publications at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, is a weblogger.

* * *

Just as I was relieved to hear that NBC took Studio 60 off its kill list (because I love the show), Sorkin unfurls S60's two worst episodes. Don't know why they took a storyline out of the studio and to Pahrump, Nevada, but they did -- and the show became a big snore. For my money, you can't do any better than having the Matt Albie character in his office, writing sketches for the show-within-a-show. Maybe it's just my personal preference, because I can relate. If this show doesn't get fun and interesting again, and fast, it will hemorrhage its (already thin) viewership.

* * *

The Seth Rogan / Paul Rudd "Do you know how I know you're gay?" dialogues from 40 Year Old Virgin are all I want to hear these days. (If you close your eyes, you can enjoy them, here.)

* * *

Wire’s “Three-Girl Rhumba”; I'm particularly grooving on it's cool high-hat sound.

* * *

Daniel J. Levitin has written a book that I haven't read and don't own, but articles he's written for various magazines and the book's accompanying website, Your Brain On Music, is endlessly fascinating. Levitin is a producer, audio engineer, musician, and neuroscientist whose work explains what makes music appeal to the human brain. I've seen passages on how musicians violate listeners' expectations regargding pitch, such as in The Beatles' "Something," where the melody plays the same note - the tonic - for the song's first six notes. Says Levitin, when George Harrison comes off the tonic, he hits the least likely note in the scale, the leading note. This turns upside down a listener's usual frame of reference, wherein melodies are composed of different notes. (McCartney holds a single pitch for the first seven notes of "You Never Give Me Your Money," and Antonio Carlos Jobim's "One Note Samba" is well... the ultimate example of this violation of standards.) This stuff is a music geek's (read: Tommy Himself) dream.

* * *

"I've got something for you to hear" my wife said one morning. She started the show Weeds on the DVR, and Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice's version of “Little Boxes” started playing. Within an hour, I'd burned it to disk and put it on the iTunes. Great song, and their version in particular is amazing.

* * *

Like cologne, valentines, or a heart-lung machine, I'm pretty sure the "What Would Henry Rollins Do?" T-shirt is NOT something one buys for oneself, so I’m waiting for a package to surprise me in the mail. In the meantime, I'll just keep looking at that graphic and chuckling.

I'm still waiting.

* * *

Why am I such a sucker to the allure of any website that generates something? Following on the heels of Fake Name Generator, Church Sign Generator, Band Name Generator, Shakespearean Insult Generator and the like, is Cassette Generator, the most useless of them all, and yet… I was at it like Shaq to a lavender suit. (Thanks to pal Tim for sending me the link.)

.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Stop, I'm Already Dead from the album We Are Night Sky by Deadboy & the Elephantmen

Meme Work

I found this meme on ChicagoMama today. Thought I'd give it a shot, too.

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
"I didn't have those gray hairs last week."

2. How much cash do you have on you?
$11.33

3. What's a word that rhymes with “DOOR?”
SPORE. (For some reason, I have had in my head the line from Ghostbusters: "I collect mold, spores, and fungus.")

4. Favorite planet?
This one? (Least favorite: Planet Hollywood.)

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?
My wife's older sister's husband.

6. What is your favorite ringtone on your phone?
"Los Angeles," by X

7. What shirt are you wearing?
Navy-check pattern buttondown by J. Crew. It's got persistent sweat stains inside the collar. And I am wearing a Black Flag T underneath.

8. Do you “label” yourself?
Yes. And the label is four feet long.

9. Name the brand of your shoes you're currently wearing.
Biltrite? Or is that just who makes the sole? These are pretty generic black wingtips.

10. Bright or Dark Room?
Dark. Getting darker every second.

11. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?
I enjoy her weblog, but don't read it often enough. I think her musical taste reminds me of Brian Last Stop's.

12. What does your watch look like?
It looks like a Swiss Army Watch by Swiss Army.

13. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Whining. And hoping for just 20 consecutive minutes of sleep.

14. What did your last text message you received on your cell say?
Why would it be my last?! What do you know that you're not telling me?! (My most recent message read thusly: "Sheff to Tigers.")

15. Where is your nearest 7-11?
About 300-400 feet from my building.

16. What's a word that you say a lot?
"Great." Everything I like is "great." Even spectacular things.

17. Who told you he/she loved you last?
S.

18. Last furry thing you touched?
That's personal.

19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days?
One. Caffeine. Vitamins and herbal supplements, but no other medications or drugs.

20. How many rolls of film do you need developed?
Zero.

21. Favorite age you have been so far?
Four was real good. No school. No work. I was unaware of the world's evils. "Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It)" by Daddy Dewdrop was on the radio all the time.

22. Your worst enemy?
Attention Deficit Disorder.

23. What is your current desktop picture?
A most amazing photo of my wife and our oldest son. They are lying side by side, she is kissing his head. It's an action shot. It's beautiful and exudes love, like photos John and Yoko used to take of each other.

24. What was the last thing you said to someone?
"I'll talk to you in a bit."

25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be?
Give me the money. Why fly?

26. Do you like someone?
Are we eleven?

27. The last song you listened to...?
Voodoo Child (Slight Return) by Jimi Hendrix Experience

28. What time of day were you born?
15:24.

29. What's your favorite number?
18

30. Where did you live in 1987?
Yonkers, N.Y.

31. Are you jealous of anyone?
Yes.

32. Is anyone jealous of you?
I hope so.

33. Where were you when 9/11 happened?
First, in bed in Brooklyn, NY; then sobbing on my rooftop deck.

34. What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
Blame myself.

35. Do you consider yourself kind?
Yes.

36. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?
My next will be on the in-side of my right lower leg.

37. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
Korean.

38. Would you move for the person you loved?
From one city or country to another, yes. From the couch to the door to pay the delivery guy, maybe.

39. Are you touchy-feely?
No. But I have a hard time NOT kissing my 2-year old son's head and neck.

40. What's your life motto?
"I Don't Have One." It's a stupid motto, but the woman who begs for quarters on Court Street always understood me.

41. Name three things that you have on you at all times.
Wallet, wedding ring, tattoos.

42. What's your favorite town/city?
So many: London, Seoul, San Gimignano, Philly, Toronto, Providence, Indianapolis, Chicago.

43. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
Lunch: turkey burger deluxe (with cheddar), Met-Rx protein drink, slice of marble pound cake.

44. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?
Around 2002, to my sister-in-law staying in Pennsylvania.

45. Can you change the oil on a car?
No. But I know how to get it changed.

46. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her?
That she was overweight and living in Florida. I believe the story, however, to be apocryphal.

47. How far back do you know your ancestry?
I know I had great grandparents. (Or: "spectacular" grandparents.)

48. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy?
Sorry. As I am not a dandy, I do not dress "fancy."

49. Does anything hurt on your body right now?
My nerves.

50. Have you been burned by love?
Of course. But getting burned by hate is worse, every time.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: God Only Knows from the album Pet Sounds by Beach Boys, The

Our Third Pet Can Go F*ck Himself

Today, while doing what I do every Saturday afternoon -- Google searching for nude photos of Jeanne Zelasko -- I found something even more sickly seductive. The "personal web page" of her husband, sports anchor Curt Sandoval. It is simple and it's cheesy, in a "look at me, publishing on the InterWeb" / Koolgrrrl's Guide To Life!!! sort of way.

My favorite line: "Two of our three pets fit the sports theme."

Also? C-Sand is the kind of guy who writes "would of." As in, "...they would of gone broke..."

Really? Would they of?

Awesome.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Catch Me Now I'm Falling (Original Extended Edit) from the album Low Budget by Kinks, The

He Is a Genius, We Are Not

Maddox is still the best, and he proves it here.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Buck Dance Rhythm from the album Vout For Voutoreenees by Gaillard, Slim

Foursome? I Hardly Know 'Em!

I don't know why, I don't know why, I don't know WHY I haven't shared this news on here yet, but here it is: I'm going to be a dad again. Or still, but to a whole 'nother person. Though H is oblivious to his mom and dad's excitement, he will soon be a big brother. And by "soon," I mean sometime between this July and October, the whole Sticking Point family will be heading back to Korea for to bring home our newest addition.

We don't know "boy or girl?" yet, and we pretty much don't care one way or the other. I just hope the baby is at least half as charming and sweet as H, and sleeps twice as much as he did as an infant.

Does anyone have any tips on handling 15+ hours of travel time, most of it spent sitting in coach with a spirited young boy of about 26 months old?

.

Here's this week's Friday 10.

01 Joey - Concrete Blonde: This is a song a lot of people like, apparently. Every time it came on in my old office, people would walk by and give me an emphatic "Grrreeeat song!" I love Concrete Blonde. Great voice on Johnette Napolitano, and she wrote a lot of songs that -- wisely -- allowed her to air out her pipes. They never really got the critical acclaim or the huge sales they deserved, but there were a hell of a lot of good songs on those first three albums. I lost sight of their ship after that, but I know Napolitano is still making music with or without the band. They seem like the kind of band that will forever turn up on compilations; I wonder if there's a good official release of their outtakes, alternates, and demos -- it might be worth a listen.
My Memory's Not Gone Yet Dept.: I always remember she had a short sharp quote once; when asked about recording her duet with Paul Westerberg on "My Little Problem," she just said, "He had bad breath."
Fazed had a really good interview with Johnette N here.

02 Lady Godiva's Operation - Velvet Underground: From the White Light White Heat album. They were OK, I guess. No Yellowcard, but OK. I got a lot of Velvet Underground on me between 1987 and 1993. I had a TDK SA-100 cassette of VU stuff that I had with me in all towns at all times. I remember once I was in Arlington, Virginia and got invited to some girl's house for a party. I put my cassette in the stereo and some fingers went in some ears. People asked me "Who is this?!" Can you believe it? I told them it was demo recordings of the new direction the Sugarcubes were going in. Boy, were they bummed. Tears fell into their red plastic beer cups.

03 The Move - Beastie Boys: The other night, StereoMic was playing a Beastie Boys bootleg from a Manchester show in 2004, and I was like yo I just gotta have that. Good show, great sound. Hopefully I can get my hands on a CDR of it soon. This version of "The Move" is the one from the Hello Nasty album, the one you've heard plenty of times, with the cool harpsichord part and that fun sample from Los Ångeles Negros. (Most of whose stuff isn't hard to find. I have had 20 Exitos Originales de los Ångeles Negros for about 15 years and dig it. Weird coincidence: I was listening to it yesterday in the office. I just looked at Amazon, and they don't have that one, but there are plenty of comps of the Negros other exitos out there.)

04 Parades Go By - Magnetic Fields: Last week, TSP friend and reader Nick got the Magnetic Fields' "Asleep and Dreaming" on his Friday 10 and wrote that Stephin Merritt is the "best lyricist today." For quality, consistency, and quantity -- it is hard to argue with that. I have a lot of Merritt's work -- the 6ths stuff, the Pieces of April soundtrack, some stray mp3s, and the complete 69 Love Songs set that pal Jake turned me onto a few years ago. This is all fine music, so complex it sounds simple. Merritt makes songs that make you run, not walk, to the CD burner to put on mixes for your friends. "Parades" and "Asleep" are both on 69 Love Songs.
Not Just That, But... Dept.: Nick doesn't just enjoy great music, he also writes great stuff for the YanksFan vs. SoxFan site. And this was a key week to be reading that. Here's a typically sharp entry he wrote recently.

05 Sunrise Sunset - Miriam Makeba: This is from the Magic of Makeba CD. I have written plenty on TSP over the years about my love for Makeba, but this is not one of my preferred tracks. I'm not a big fan of her recording of more contemporary Western stuff. It just seems like a waste of genius to me. "Sunrise Sunset" is a good enough song, for what it is, but when Makeba puts her voice on it, it's like getting Aretha Franklin, Diamanda Galas, and the Three Tenors in for a McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It" recording session. I read somewhere that the Magic of Makeba record included pop songs (and songs she sings in Yiddish) in part as an effect of the Beatles' changing the face of music. By that time, she -- with her dynamic voice, who sang predominantly African Xhosa tribal songs in the native language -- was getting pushed to the fringes of the recording industry. So, I guess it's the 1960s equivalent of when the Kinks tried disco with "Wish I Could Fly Like Superman," or that entire Matrix-formulated self-titled Liz Phair album: more a sign of current trends than a step forward for the artist. On this record, she sort of sidestepped the South African material and slummed it with lesser songs. Regardless, Magic of Makeba still has one of my all-time faves of hers, "Oxgam."

06 Mother Mary - Eels: I don't know much about the Eels. OK, nothing. I know this song was put on a very thoughtful mixed CD made for me and Mrs. Sticking Point by Brian Last Stop called "The Year 1 Mix." If I remember properly, it was given to us to kick off our first year as parents and all of the songs are suited to that thematic purpose. I've got to say... I don't dig this Eels track. It's a little blah for my tastes, but hey, can't look a gift horse in the mouth, and that's why the track is still in my iTunes. I don't like many of the same artists and bands as Brian does, but I admire that he's got such confidence in his musical taste. If he wants to listen to ten consecutive songs by Def Leppard, Beach Boys, Pat Benatar, David Bowie, Guns N Roses, Public Enemy, Toad The Wet Sprocket, Ramones, Naked Eyes, and Bjork, and you don't like it? -- Fuck you, it's your problem, not his. Right on. (But when he asked me this year to put the first two Stooges records on CDR for him, I thought, alright -- now we're getting somewhere.) Look at that -- I wrote an Eels entry on a Friday 10!

07 Naked Dutch Painter - Stew: It starts, "The naked Dutch painter in the kitchen does not want to fuck you / She's got 17 boyfriends and an 8 o'clock class to get to" and just gets better from there. Years ago, I read a small write-up about Stew in a magazine, and it sounded like my kind of thing so I went right out to Amazon website and bought the Naked Dutch Painter disk. (And yet, somehow I got a promo copy -- weird.) It's a gem and I treasure it. Highly recommended. Stew is what you'd hear if Randy Newman were jazzy and Captain Beefheart were lounge-y. He's pop music like Burt Bacharach is pop music. Stew is the leader of a group you've probably heard of called The Negro Problem (or "TNP" in some far too sensitive magazines and newspapers). Some of the Naked Dutch Painter album was recorded live at the AlterKnit Lounge in Hollywood and the rest was done down in Panorama City. The players are of blue ribbon heritage: bass player Heidi Rodewald was in Wednesday Week and The Novaks; pianist Morley Bartnoff of Burning Sensations, Cosmo Topper, and Dramarama plays on a few songs on the album, as do the great drummers Nelson Bragg (Cosmo Topper, Brian Wilson's band) and Blondie-man Clem Burke. (See, now? In all the time you wasted reading that, you could have already bought the Naked Dutch Painter disk!) Go to negroproblem.com to get "lifted," as they say.

08 Me Heart is Livin' in the Sixties Still - Saw Doctors: From the All The Way From Tuam disk, their best album IMO. You've probably noticed that I get a lot of Saw Doctors house calls on my Friday 10s. I have about four dozen Saw Docs songs on the iTunes. I dig them. I can't vouch for much of the last couple years-worth of their music as it's missed me, but the first four albums and the Sing A Powerful Song comp that Shamtown released to introduce the band in the U.S., are well worth your time. And, as I've mentioned before, if you've ever got 20 bucks in your pocket and a couple hours free, go find a Saw Doctors concert. Amazing.
Minor Lifelong Dream Dept.: One day, I've got to see them play in Ireland.

09 Wild Thing - X: The version I heard was the 7" single edit. I also have a 12" that has a longer fade-in and sustain on the opening note, a repeated verse and chorus, and an extended solo break. That one's a "wasty" one; this is the better version if you ask me. Short and to the point like a Karate chop to the windpipe. I remember when "Wild Thing" came out (it was first on the soundtrack of a Charlie Sheen baseball movie), I thought I could finally get more of my friends listening to the almighty X. They make this song really hard to dislike. A cover of the Troggs' song (but you knew that when you woke up this morning), I'd say "Wild Thing" has made its way around pop culture. How about the fact that the year it was written (1966, by Chip Taylor -- a Yonkers, NY boy) it appeared on five (5!) different albums by five different acts? (Do you think that'd happen today? Do you think Rihanna or Yellowcard are gonna be that gregarious? Fuck no, they're not.) It's been in countless movies as a kind of a signifier song; you know, when the director uses the music as shorthand for describing a character or the mood of a scene. (See also: "Bone, Bad to the.") You've heard it in the Sheen movie, and because of that movie a handful of self-important MLB relief pitchers have adopted the X version as their entrance themes; and it was the song Jimi was playing when he set his guitar on fire at the Monterey Pop in 1967. If you told me "Wild Thing" was playing when Bobby Kennedy got shot, I'd believe it; that song is the Forrest Gump of rock and roll.

10 Don't Lay It On Me - Paybacks: Do I get the Paybacks every week? That's alright by me. Great band, great rock and roll voice on Wendy Case, as I have written so many times already. Before the Paybacks, she was in a band called Ten High that released one record called Party Store. There's a song on it that Case co-wrote with Kim Fowley ("Sins of the Family"), which reminds me that when I saw the Paybacks live at a festival on Randall's Island a couple years ago, Fowley introduced them. I just got Party Store used off Amazon for $2.56. Can't wait to hear it; when it gets here, I'll let you know how it is. By the way, it's phenomenal that the Paybacks show up on these Friday 10s with such regularity. I have only six of their songs on the iPod. Out of 5,554 songs, that's 1%.

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Now... you! Put your mp3 player or digital jukebox on "shuffle all songs," and tell us the first ten songs you hear. (Idiot fanboy annotations are optional.)

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Hey Man, Nice Shot

Sticking Point pal “Shotsnap” has a new photoblog on Flickr. Amazing stuff. Check it out here.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: “Good Times Roll (Rude Boy Outtake)” from the album Rude Boy - The Director's Cut  by Clash, The