the ryPod

the rosebuds

2006-01-10T21:01:00.000-05:00

This is the only new CD I've purchased since the Blue Dog closed in June.

Blue Bird from Birds Make Good Neighbors
Boxcar from Birds Make Good Neighbors
Hold Hands and Fight from Birds Make Good Neighbors

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"The Beatles are totally overrated"

2005-11-11T16:23:00.000-05:00

I actually heard that at a bar last week. I was talking to some tattooed skeleton of a hardcore girl, feigning interest in her seven visible piercings and hoping to see more, when her male companion, mad about the ongoing flirtation, took drastic action. "Come Together" came on the jukebox; he looked up from his drink and stated defiantly, albeit out of nowhere, "The Beatles are totally overrated." I quickly went limp, stammered something about needing another drink, and stumbled off in shock.

Whoa, hey, King of Rock. You're out of your depth. So you don't like the late 60s hippie deal; that's fine. Neither do I, anymore. When someone says "The Beatles," everyone thinks peace, love & Apple Computers. Get over it. It's time you re-invented your perceptions.

Truth is, The Beatles were badass in the beginning. All-black, leather jacket-wearing, cigarette chain-smoking, savage rock & roll street punks. Okay, Paul was still a pussy. But John's early songs are pure pain. He's so jealous & bitter & angry at women for leaving and his mum for dying, it makes me want to cry. John doesn't want to hold your hand. John doesn't believe in yesterday. If you ever touch another man, John will hunt you down and kill you, bitch.

There's no way to counter the ignorance I met in the bar the other night. I can, however, rest easy knowing that that night was a fluke. It's the year 2005. The Beatles conversation is closed. I just had to show some Liverpool pride after that exchange. Here's four of John's early songs for your listening pain.

The Beatles - I'm A Loser | I'll Cry Instead | You Can't Do That | Run For Your Life

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Mudsugar Magazine

2005-11-09T12:21:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone,

I'm going to be cutting back on my ryPod posts, for a number of reasons.

The first is that my server is dead, and until I can get it fixed or afford a new one, I have no way of easily hosting the mass amounts of pictures and mp3s that the ryPod requires.

The foremost is that I was hired Monday as a contributing writer for Mudsugar Magazine, a culture webzine based out of Washington, D.C. I'll be doing features & reviews of independent music, comix, and film. And whatever other crazy notions my editor lets me run with.

The ryPod was my first public experiment in telling the truth. I will continue to update with music I know you absolutely have to hear. And this is still a forum to host my more personal and creative writing.

But the fact of the matter is, Mudsugar is paying me to do what I do here for free.
And I'm okay with that.

Love,
Ryan

HIPS Benefit & CD Release Show!

2005-11-04T11:35:00.000-05:00

If you live within 50 miles of DC, I have your Saturday night plans. The HIPS Compilation Release show is going to be insane crazy, driving miss daisy. The album, including tracks from Mates of State, Pash, and Mirah among others, is a benefit for Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive, a DC-based organization dedicated to helping female, male and transgendered sex workers lead healthier lives.

The music starts at nine at the Warehouse Next Door. Here are tracks from a few artists on the comp, who will also be playing this Saturday night. So come on out, people. Rock stars & prostitutes.

Pash - Having A Ball
Bellafea - Thorn Bird

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death in the family

2005-11-02T16:41:00.000-05:00

My long faithful PC died today at 4:41 p.m. It's been coughing and sputtering all week, hard disk spinning noisily out of control. Thankfully I backed up all my important files, though I may have just lost about 10 gigs of great rare music. I'm taking her to the doctor tomorrow, but not hoping for much. Without a dedicated server to host mp3s on, my posting will be sporadic at best until this is figured out. Many of my photo links are also broken, as they were hosted on the server. Sorry about that. You faithful listeners stay tuned.

Shuggie Otis

2005-11-02T10:08:00.000-05:00

I spent two years of my youth with no access to American news, television or music. When I got back I found I'd missed a lot - Chocolate Cream Oreos, Bush in the White House, and a little album called Kid A. I spent a whole day in Amoeba Music, catching up.

I bought Inspiration Information that same day, my first day back. Originally released in 1974, the album and it's creator disappeared for decades, until being re-released with a mess of hype on David Byrne's Luaka Bop label. Some reviewers called Shuggie Otis a musical genius on par with Coltrane or Hendrix. I'd say he's more along the lines of Curtis or Marvin. Regardless, I'll let the music speak for itself.

Shuggie Otis - Strawberry Letters 23
Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information

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Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

2005-10-31T12:24:00.000-05:00

Working a new job at the green restaurant across the street means I'm getting re-educated in Ragga/Dub. I said my hippie days were over, and now I spend 30 hours a week cooking organic food next to a picture of Bob Marley. The next soccer mom to ask "Oh, is that you?" is getting a handful of habaneros in her fish taco. The best part of the job is picking the music. Being the newest of six employees, I'm easing my way into their raggamuffin hearts with a healthy mix of grime, dancehall, and baile funk. Give me another week to get settled, then stop by for a steady diet of shoegaze & soup, served loud.

I brought Sharon Jones to my first day at work, and she hasn't left the 5-CD changer since. I didn't know anyone since the Godfather of Soul even made this music anymore. I want to see this band live more than anyone playing today.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - How Do I Let A Good Man Down?
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - This Land Is Your Land

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Young ladies, in my Mercedes

2005-10-26T12:22:00.000-05:00

I inherited a different taste in music from each of my older siblings. Ann and Paul in particular were two sides of a discoball. Ann gave me my guilty love for early 80s soul, cruising around town in her top-down convertible singing "Never too Much." Paul, on the other hand, considered my musical education strict business. His idea of babysitting was locking me in his room with two crates of records from the garage. The first time I saw the Sugar Hill logo, I was hooked. Then I dropped the needle on Superrappin'. Flash was on the beatbox.

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five- Superrappin'
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five- The Message

Bonus points to whomever can name everyone in the above picture. No googling.

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PASH - Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive

2005-10-21T10:50:00.000-05:00

Pash is a computer program for efficient, parallel, all-against-all comparison of very long DNA sequences. Pash is also Australian slang for a long kiss & cuddle: eg, Most teenagers go to drive-in theatres just to pash on. Merideth Munoz (vox/guitar/style) named her band after one of these things.

Pash sound like that time in college when your friends dragged you to the overcrowded sports club. You are waiting drinklessly four bodies from the bar, cold sober and gagging in a cloud of cologne, when the jock jams stop suddenly and the lights go even dimmer. A beautiful thing forms in the void that very instant—a dirty wall of electric guitar. Then another, followed fast by a steady foundation of high-hat and thumping bass. Just as you are turning around to watch the band build an NYC dive-bar out of thin air, your friend from Seattle, whom you miss dearly though you never call him, walks up, grinning, and hands you a beer.

Here is an exclusive Pash download, from the upcoming Exotic Fever release This is a Care Package. The compilation, graphically designed by yours truly and featuring music from Mates of State, Mirah and Murder by Death, among others, is a benefit for HIPS, a DC-based organization dedicated to helping sex workers lead healthier lives.

"Down" was recorded by Jason Caddell of the late Dismemberment Plan, and sounds fresh as a cold-cracked PBR. "Four Straight Days" is from Pash's first full-length, available from Dischord Records.

Pash - Down
Pash - Four Straight Days

In related news, who remembers Pets or Meat? POM ONLINE!

right-click, save target as | pre-order This is a Care Package from Exotic Fever

Veruca Salt wants it now, daddy.

2005-10-20T11:24:00.000-05:00

Did you forget about Veruca Salt? I sure did. Then I decided to make a mix for my niece, who was born in the 90s and thus missed them completely. So I got American Thighs, and wow. I forgot about Veruca Salt.

Only drugs can explain why I sold this album in middle school. It's everything I love about 90s rock. Slow-grinding, fuzzy guitars, pop-punk hooks and a girl driving the (unstoppable) bass. Please read the list that Stephen Walsh published over at McSweeney's.

WAYS ONE COULD, IN THEORY, FIGHT THE SEETHER

You remember Veruca Salt.

Veruca Salt - Seether | Spiderman '79 | Forsythia

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Cassette Jam 2K5: Cat Stevens + Toots & the Maytals

2005-10-19T05:35:00.000-05:00

I owe the inspiration for this post to Noz at Cocaine Blunts & Hip Hop Tapes, and Phillip at the MAKE: Blog. Noz said it the best, grammar or no:

In the mp3 blog press frenzy a lot of writers compared the phenomenon to making a mixtape and that's just not the case. As much as i love what technology has done for the dispersion of music...it will never come close to the hand to hand distribution of a really good pause/mixtape. it pains me to think that the youth of this and future generations will never know what it felt like to have to tape new songs off the radio if the album hadn't drop and you either couldn't find or afford the cassingle. They'll never fret over getting everything perfect on a mixtape for or about a girl you had a crush on, they won't know third generation hiss or cross their fingers in hopes that the drop outs won't be that bad after rerecording over a tape for the sixth time. They'll never shove tissue in the top of a wack retail tape to record some good shit, or have a song cut off at the end of the side and have to rush to flip over the tape to get the rest of it. ipod playlists are heartless beasts in comparision.

You're damn right they are. I've had my free iPod mini for two months now, and have yet to prance oblivious down the street with it. This is downtown Fredericksburg, for Lee's sake. I would feel ashamed, ruining some nice White family's Civil War re-enactment with my little white earplugs and my groovy black silhouette. Truth be told, the ryPod is currently plugged into my stereo via Matt's tape adapter, and I have no idea where the little white earplugs are.

The cd deck in that same shitty combo has been broken all year, so we've been leaning hard on our tapes & vinyl. Imagine my delight when Phillip linked this crazy collection of nearly every cassette tape ever made. Thank you, anonymous Japanese archivist, for the trip down Memorex Lane. Here are a few favorites to wash this morning's ~~soundtrack~~ flashback down with.

Alisha made me a mix in high school, covering one of these with rainbows & butterflies & stars. My first thought was "Fuji DR-I? What a classless bitch." I've been considered an asshole for about as long as I can remember - that's just my style. But I'd feel really blue if I didn't think you were going to forgive me.

Uh-huh, this my shit. Now if Alisha had given me her "specially picked good songs mix" on an XLII, we'd probably be conceiving little brown babies while listening to her tape, which would have retained a very high fidelity over the last decade, matched only by that of our fruitful hippie love marriage.

This beast is from the Seventies. Deven's mom gave me a sweet Deadleg on one of these. Mrs. Karvelas was on tour cooking for the band, and sat on the edge of the stage while Jerry sang "It Must Have Been The Roses" to her. That show was later released as Reckoning. I can't believe I'm listening to the Dead again.

Man all I know is that I have this tape somewhere. I don't remember what's on it, or where I got it. But just look at that shit, would you? It's like a little Trapper-Keeper for all your Human League B-sides.

So I dug around a while and found Alisha's tape. Here's a few choice cuts. See 'lish, at least I kept it this long. There's hope for us yet. "Trouble" is one of my favorite Cat Stevens songs. "Pressure Drop," I'm ashamed to say, is the only Toots song I've ever heard, unless you count "54-46," which I don't. Bad hippie.

Cat Stevens - Trouble
Toots & the Maytals - Pressure Drop

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Dolly Parton

2005-10-18T12:27:00.000-05:00

Everyone loves making fun of Dolly Parton. Ask most people my age what they know about Dolly and they'll say "um, she has big boobs." Truth be told, Dolly can write, sing and act circles around most of us put together. In addition to penning over forty top-ten singles, she's been nominated for a Grammy every year since 1969, winning seven. She was writing all of her own music and singing at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville at the age of thirteen.

Not only is Dolly a fabulous songwriter, but a shrewd businesswoman as well. At the outset of her stardom, she began to invest her earnings into her hometown of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, the current home of Dollywood, a bigger tourist draw than Graceland.

And have you heard her songs? "Don't Drop Out" is a classic girl-group tale about the benefits of staying in school. It sounds haunting, like a Phil Spector-produced girl-group from the early 1960s. Conversely, "Baby I'm Burning" is sheer countrypolitan disco magic (thanks to Matt at fluxblog).

This is not a joke. It's time we all gave Dolly a little fucking respect. Here is a quote to that end, from the Ladies' Home Journal, 1995:

"I'll be this way when I'm eighty, like Mae West. I may be on crutches, in a wheelchair or propped up on some old slantboard, but I'll have my high heels, my nails and makeup on, my hair'll be all poufed up and my boob'll still be hangin' out."

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Dolly Parton - Don't Drop Out
Dolly Parton - Baby I'm Burning

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MashupMonday: (Dizzee Rascal + [New Order) + MIA]

2005-10-17T13:02:00.000-05:00

Today's hottest UK club sensations meet the number-one 12" single of all time. There's a great Kylie Minogue mash-up too, but I wanted to keep this colorful. Warmer...warmer...DISCO.

Blo Up - Blue Rascal
New Order - Blue Monday
Métamix - Bucky Monday

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Out of 5 - Themed Mixes

2005-10-16T14:02:00.000-05:00

I'm really digging this site, Out of 5. They do themed weekly mixes, with ten songs chosen by ten people. And the site design, also updated weekly, is fabulous. This week's theme has tracks from The Verve, John Lee Hooker, Paul Westerberg and more. Check these kids out.

www.outof5.com

SPIRIT WEEK Day Five: Joan Baez

2005-10-14T09:42:00.000-05:00

I'm all blogged out from yesterday's post. Joan Baez went to Paly. She grew up, dropped out and sang songs. She came back to Palo Alto and ate at my mom's gourmet deli a lot. For fans of Judy Collins, live Dylan, and high-pitched yelping soprano.

Joan Baez - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

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SPIRIT WEEK Day Four: The Grateful Dead

2005-10-13T12:11:00.000-05:00

I can't do written justice to my relationship with The Grateful Dead. No single memory captures those years of my life. The two years when they were the only band I listened to. Literally. Sure, I heard other music every now and then. But for my last two years of high school, the only tapes, records and CDs I chose to play were recordings of The Dead.

I could tell you about the time Deven and I took acid and PCP at Furthur Festival '96, where I spent most of the show believing I was a panther and growling at people who neared my lair.

Then there was the answering machine at Nick & Theo's house in Santa Cruz, which went something like this: "Hi, you've reached Jerry, Bobby, Phil, Pigpen, Mickey, Billy, Robert, TC, Donna, Keith, Nick and Theo. We're not here right now. In fact, we were never really here to begin with, so there's no point in leaving a *BEEP*."

This being Spirit Week, I should probably relate how every year we'd swear we weren't taking part in the rallies & races. But there's no such thing as a lonely stoner, so every year Aidan, Theo, Jesse and I would end up standing on a table in the middle of the pep rally with our mandolins and banjos, playing bluegrass covers of the Alma Mater. And "Friend of the Devil," of course.

How about the time we took acid before the talent show and got shut down for jamming to "Dark Star" twenty minutes past our time-slot? Jesse's guitar case was covering the kill switch, so they shut off the entire building's power to make us stop. "Ms. Wilson, I swear to GOD, it felt like we were up there five minutes!"

Too much man, too much, too much. But it is October, so I'll tell you what. Lemme hip you to this mean Vox organist, hella crazy, I mean this guy can play, and man he sucks a bottle of Southern Comfort like a C# harmonica. Yeah, you know who I mean, I'm talking about the nasty man himself, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. Let me tell you about the Halloween we went to see old Pig.

Pigpen died at 27 from a gastrointestinal hemorrhage, brought on by advanced cirrhosis of the liver. Pig grew up in Palo Alto, in fact, he and Bobby briefly attended our high school. Kevin heard he was buried in Alta Mesa Memorial Park, over by Kesey's VA hospital. So along with Theo, Deven and Ashley, we decided to pay him a visit.

Alta Mesa locks it's tall gates at sundown. But the wrought-iron only borders the cemetery on three sides. The fourth wall is a ten-foot high hedge that separates the back of the park from Foothill Expressway. We figured we'd park at Cow Hill, cross the highway on foot and break in through the hedge. We packed flashlights, forties, and blunts, with the plan to smoke & pour one out on Pigpen's grave, at midnight.

Halloween night came, and we were ready. Alta Mesa is a few minutes drive from my house. Those kids lived on the other side of town, so they picked me up in Kevin's van around eleven o'clock. We parked the van on the opposite shoulder from the cemetery. Being already a little drunk and extremely excited, we high-tailed it over the highway, held our breath and hit the hedge running.

Big mistake.

It was after midnight when we found a hole, barely deep enough to crawl through on our bellies. Ashley was bleeding through her tank top and we were all soaked in mud by the time we looked out on the moonlit graveyard. It was gorgeous. And enormous.

"Kev. Did you find out where exactly it is?"

This was usually the point in the misadventure where Theo flipped out and whipped someone with his chain-link belt until they cried. But none of us had done our homework, and it was a graveyard on Halloween. We split into two groups because Ashley refused to walk around alone. I would have done the same if she hadn't beat me to it.

Over the next few hours, we combed every headstone, footstone and mausoleum in the park. Up and down and around the perimeter, we double-checked, we checked each other's sections. We did one last lap as a group. The blunts had broken apart on the hedge, and what was left of the forties was warm and dirty. It was almost sunup, when Alta Mesa would open, so we left the cemetery, crawling on our hands and knees.

They dropped me off and I made straight for the shower. My parents were fast asleep until the pipes started running. As I rinsed off the night's failures, I couldn't stop wondering about Pig's grave. It had to be there. He was buried in Palo Alto. Kevin's uncle said so. When I got downstairs, my mom was making pancakes with apricot syrup. I wolfed down a stack, told her I was going to the library, and got on my bike. I was back at Alta Mesa in fifteen minutes, and the gates were open.

The caretaker saw me biking in and came out to meet me. He was a tall, older man with silver hair, dressed immaculately in a white shirt and skinny black tie. He looked me over for a second, then spoke:

"You must be here to see Ron."
"What?"
I was still on my bike.
"Hey that's alright, ol' Ron gets plenty of visitors. Most of them bring something though, roses or something."
"Oh."
I stared over his left shoulder, then at the ground.
"Some kids were walking around last night looking for him."
"What?"
"I said, some kids were walking around last night looking for him. Dunno how they got in, but they walked around for a while. "
"Oh."
"I sleep here, you know."
I nodded once and got off my bike.
"It's a shameful thing to do. That's why I lock the gates at night, you know. Sometimes the dead don't want to be disturbed."
I flipped my kickstand down.
"Anyways," he said, "I suppose you'll want to know where he is."

The caretaker pointed me down the road to a dying tree I'd passed at least three times the night before. And sure enough, two rows in from the road, nine plots right of the tree, is a small rectangular slab, covered in flowers and beads and notes tied with ribbon. It wears a small steal-your-face inlayed in pearl, and the epitaph reads in capital letters:

PIGPEN WAS
AND IS NOW FOREVER
ONE OF THE
GRATEFUL DEAD

The Grateful Dead - Easy Wind
The Grateful Dead - China Doll

If you are a dead fan, these are old favorites. If you aren't, they are unlike any Grateful Dead you've heard before. "Easy Wind" is an old blues jam, sung by Pigpen. "China Doll" is sheer slow-build psychedelia...the resolution-to-major at 4:15 is like tantric sex after a sin.

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SPIRIT WEEK Day Three: Fleetwood Mac

2005-10-12T11:08:00.000-05:00

Okay, Fleetwood Mac didn't go to my high school. Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham went to my rival high school. They met during her senior year and immediately formed The Fritz Rabyne Memorial Band, earning moderate success opening up for Jimi and Janis throughout the late 60s. The couple got romantically involved soon after Fritz broke up in 1971. They dropped out of college, moved to LA, got mono and wrote a lot of songs together.

Here are what I consider the quintessential Lindsey and Stevie songs, respectively. You can hear the sleepy, mono-induced hours of fingerpicking practice evident on "Never Going Back Again." And "The Chain" is Stevie at her most dramatic occult stage. Both can be found, of course, on the only Fleetwood Mac album I own.

Fleetwood Mac - Never Going Back Again
Fleetwood Mac - The Chain

right-click, save target as | buy from Amazon | Vikings slaughter Bears

SPIRIT WEEK Day Two: Third Eye Blind

2005-10-11T10:24:00.000-05:00

I promise to never again post music I don't like. But it's Spirit Week, and so here you go - Stephan Jenkins, the lead singer of <gag> 3eb </vom> was friends with my sister Ann when they went to one of my high schools, class of '83. Ann still has all his albums and plays them out. I've only heard the hits, which I refuse to post. I heard these two songs are pretty popular though. Enjoy?

Third Eye Blind - Motorcycle Drive-By
Third Eye Blind - How's It Gonna Be?

right-click, save target as | buy at your own risk from Amazon

SPIRIT WEEK Day One: The Donnas

2005-10-10T02:11:00.000-05:00

The Donnas ruled my world. They were at Paly when I was a freshman, and the only all-girl band I'd ever seen. We were never friends - they were (sort of) cute senior girls in a punkrock band, and I was a freshman hippie boy with a hemp necklace and an afro. But somehow they never slipped under my radar. Maté and I went to shows at Palo Alto's teen center, The House, and they were playing. Dean gave me his tape-cassette label's comp, and they had a song. Deven and I climbed on his roof every weekend to watch Torry (Donna C.) sunbathe in her backyard, directly across the street. Finally I discovered The Ramones, and these girls suddenly made sense. By this time The Donnas were going to college, and I was putting "Get Rid Of That Girl" on every mixtape I made.

The first two albums (The Donnas and American Teenage Rock'n'roll Machine) are still the best. 1999's Get Skintight has a few good tracks, but nothing special. Personally, I think they fell off with 2001's Turn 21, an uninspired repeat of their previous efforts, sans talent. I had completely written them off after their disappointing 2002 major-label debut, Spend The Night. Then Matt came home from work last year with a copy of Gold Medal, and my faith was renewed. Everything about Gold Medal is fab, from the gorgeous James Jean cover art to the rockabilly-tinged title track. The Donnas have completely reinvented themselves with this album, adding lush instrumentation, inspired songwriting and dynamics (dynamics!?) to their previously flat formula. If you'd given up hope like me, you need to hear this record.

Rock'n'roll Machine | Get Rid Of That Girl | Hook It Up
Crush On Me | Too Bad About Your Girl | Gold Medal

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SPIRIT WEEK Intro: Freaks & Geeks

2005-10-09T12:01:00.000-05:00

October 3rd-7th was Spirit Week at Paly, my favorite of the four high schools I ostensibly attended. I should have gone to Gunn like all my siblings, but it was full and so I overflowed four miles across town. The daily bike ride was worth it. I had everything I could ever want: a photo lab thrice the size of MWC's, an award-winning yearbook/newspaper/tv show, and plenty of stoner friends. Paly has it's own Robotics team, for Jobs' sake. Opportunities abounded.

So I made a cheesy anti-war video with my friends Dean and Jon. We spliced atomic bomb footage with Hendrix playing the Star-Spangled Banner at Woodstock, then finished up with gory scenes from Vietnam set to "Happiness is a Warm Gun." We called it Proud to be an American, with a dramatic question mark fading in to punctuate the title. Pipilotti Rist, move over. For some reason our video production teacher, a wild grayhair hippie named Ron, wouldn't stop raving about it, wanted to send it to festivals, showed it to all his classes. Dean moved to Boston, I went to boarding school, and Jon is now the cover story of the Palo Alto Weekly, wrapping up a short film with his NYC-based film crew. In the article he credits our junior year video class as the reason he decided to pursue film.

Some of my friends call our hometown "Shallow Alto." I'm sorry they had such awful childhoods. While it's true that most Paly students drive better cars than their teachers, it's also true that more Nobel Prize winners come out of the Bay Area than anywhere in the country. We grew up in one of America's hotter cultural crucibles, and I, for one, am grateful. So in true Viking spirit, this week's music piracy project will be five of the more famous bands to come out of Paly High. But first check out these Spirit Week pictures and video, taken by my friend Nick's kid sister for the Webby Award-winning Paly Voice (Columbia College took a close second place). Good job, Nell.

Starting tomorrow we'll go backwards in time with some bands that walked my hallways. Today we explore those halls with the theme song from "Freaks & Geeks." The fictional McKinley High was loosely based on my alma mater; with the same open-air campus, gym uniforms, school colors and mascot. Freaks star James Franco graduated from Paly in 1996, the year I started. I tried desperately to find his yearbook photo, but all I got was this interview with his brother Davey, who admits to getting laid a lot.

Joan Jett - Bad Reputation

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you say love and it sounds so good

2005-10-07T10:25:00.000-05:00

This song sounds like slow sex in love. It's my favorite Slowdive track, when I'm in a good mood. When I'm not, "Dagger" usually does the trick. They need to reissue Pygmalion, cause I'm not spending £80 on eBay. Until then, you can pick up the still-ridiculously-overpriced 2 CD comp.

In other news, I can't describe how good it was to see you all last night.

Slowdive - Blue Skied An' Clear

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Capitals vs. Blue Jackets

2005-10-05T12:44:00.000-05:00

I'm going to my first hockey game today. It's gonna be sweet. I feel like hardcore hockey fans probably listen to Evanescence though. Personally, I'm getting pumped to Bon Scott. Nobody since has rocked like Bon. When he drowned in a pool of vomit, the official coroner's report stated "death by misadventure." So bring it Columbus. If you want blood...

AC/DC - T.N.T.
AC/DC - Thunderstruck
AC/DC - If You Want Blood (You Got It)

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UPDATE: We got there real early, and the first song over the loudspeakers was "Back in Black." The Caps won 3-2.

Donovan

2005-10-04T12:27:00.000-05:00

Every time I watch The Rules of Attraction I lust for the split-screen scene that follows Sean & Lauren, up early on a Saturday for their (cancelled) tutorial on the post-modern condition. And every time it comes, I tell myself to find the song that's playing and never let it go. But then Victor gets back from Europe and Paul dances with Dick and the movie is over and I'm way too high. I owe my life to David at music (for robots), who posted that beautiful tune a couple days ago. Ironically, the 1965 mono version he posted (also on the movie soundtrack) is not the version actually used in the film. That is the out-of-print 1969 stereo version, which I'm posting here, along with the more common recording. I've listened to each one about twenty times this morning. In the morning, when we rise.

Donovan - Colours (1969 Stereo Version)
Donovan - Colours (1965 Mono Version)

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Jill Scott

2005-10-03T13:09:00.000-05:00

If you enjoy good early 70s soul, you've probably heard of Jill Scott. She sings prose with a modern slant, over retro beats. Don't talk to me about "neo-soul." This is an old formula; Jill just took it home and made it better. Here is the single from her Y2K debut album, and her track from the fabulous The Roots Come Alive. Erykah Badu mangles the chorus on the album version of "You Got Me," written originally by Scott. Who is Mike Jones? Nigga please.

Jill Scott - A Long Walk
The Roots (ft. Jill Scott) - You Got Me

right-click, save target as | buy Jill and The Roots from Amazon

mirthday mix

2005-10-01T18:41:00.000-05:00

01 How Long? Out Hud
02 Lorelei The Cocteau Twins
03 Floating Julee Cruise
04 Don't Ask Why My Bloody Valentine
05 Candy Says (closet mix) The Velvet Underground
06 Unreleased Backgrounds The Beach Boys
07 Please Mr. Postman The Beatles
08 Little Stars The Jesus and Mary Chain
09 No Fun The Stooges
10 Party and Bullshit The Notorious B.I.G.
11 Cracked Actor David Bowie
12 Going Down The Stone Roses
13 Some Song Elliott Smith
14 Ride a White Swan T. Rex
15 Damaged Goods Gang of Four
16 Twilight The Raveonettes
17 Ghost Showers Ghostface Killah
18 When I Come Back Around Jamie Lidell
19 Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Daft Punk
20 The Ass Pharoahe Monch
total time: 68:08

Have a great year.

movie madness!

2005-09-30T13:50:00.000-05:00

We have more electronics running in this apartment than anyone I know, save maybe Andrew McAfee. His impressive power bill nurtures hungry reptilian lifeforms, whereas our circuits are dedicated for pure pleasure. What with the shortwave & drum machine & game systems alone, we're running the nominal wattage of a small city in India. You could care less. The point is this: last week I achieved my crowning technological feat to-date, when I wiped my old PC and turned it into an HTTP server, running Apache 2.0. This means just under 40 gigabytes of dedicated webspace in my bedroom. You should bookmark our portal, which for now links only to here and Myspace.

http://carolinestreet.zapto.org:818/

In celebration of this achievement, I give you my favorite music video. Because I can. Directed by Michel Gondry, "Around the World" is an essay on the universality of beat and movement, or in plainer terms, a global call for the common man to "shut up and dance, you skinny bitch."

Daft Punk - Around the World

right-click, save target as | buy from Amazon

tim fite

2005-09-29T12:11:00.000-05:00

From the NEWS: page of Tim Fite's website:

The official commercial release of Tim Fite's album "Gone Ain't Gone" is slated for September 13, 2005. Anyone interested in owning this recording will be able to purchase it at the store.

Three days ago in Wahoba, Michigan a tree fell across Old Lake Road, downing two power lines on it's way and crushing the roof of Gene Lahanski's powder blue panel truck. Old Lake Road was closed tuesday as a result, sending all traffic down Watershed Lane. When we asked Gene how it all happened, he said, "I'd been eyeballin' that spruce for some time now; planning on downin' her myself next week. I guess she got to sensing that, and just plum gave up on standin'. These trees are pretty sensitive."

Marie, you will really dig this. He writes like Dan Bern and sings like Isaac Brock on a codeine trip. John-Mike, Peter, and KatieB...likewise. And hell, you can come too.

Tim Fite - 45 Remedies
Time Fite - Away from the Snakes
Time Fite - No Good Here

right-click, save target as | buy from Amazon

if you have a band, send me your stuff

2005-09-28T13:37:00.000-05:00

It's been months since I sorted my overflowing blogloads folder. So I dug around today looking for something podworthy, and discovered two tracks that go great together. Doing my research online, I found out that Scarling. is actually Jessicka from Jack off Jill's new band. Who knew? Reason #72 I love doing this blog: it forces me to do my homework on bands that I was previously content to simply enjoy. And sometimes, that's interesting. I remember when Jack off Jill toured with Marilyn Manson. Now they sound like Kevin Shields molested Denali. What are we gonna call this, Nu-gaze?

Jack Off Jill - When I am Queen
Scarling. - Alexander the Burn Victim

(right-click and press "Save Target As" to download)
Click here to buy Jack off Jill from Amazon
Click here to buy Scarling. too.

if the shoe fits, burn it

2005-09-26T12:14:00.000-05:00

SPX kicked ass. I came back with a slight hangover, a suspicion confirmed, and a slew of mini-comics that I can't stop re-reading. I'll post some pretty pages if I have time, for alas, it's back to the keys for me.

Continuing last week's theme of music I'd have never heard if not for (X), here's Submerge, a long broken-up band from Richmond, VA. Mandy turned me on to their album East, Meet West a few years ago, and it's as good now as it was then. The drummer and bassist, if I remember correctly, have since moved on to fame with Motion City Soundtrack. If you dig the latter you'll dig Submerge. Also, have some Daft Punk. You already like this song.

Submerge - If the Shoe Fits
Submerge - The Man Who Tricked Fate
Daft Punk - Face to Face

(right-click and press "Save Target As" to download)
click here to buy Daft Punk from Amazon
I have no idea where to get the Submerge stuff. Ask Richmond.

And thanks to Matt at Merchants of Soul for the link.

well, i was wrong again

2005-09-22T15:08:00.000-05:00

Can someone tell me how to discover incoming links without using trackbacks? I was surprised earlier to see the ryPod up on Banana Nutrament. So I poked around on Google (yeah i'm a self-promoter and a narcissist, you already knew that) and found out that another one of my favorite bloggers links to me as well! This is my first internet excursion (myspace bullshit aside) so I'm still a little taken aback when I see it actually working. Thanks as well to everyone at Teaching the Indie Kids to Dance Again and Pig in the Snow for the linkage.

yo who the fuck brought me this chocolate shit, man?

2005-09-22T14:04:00.000-05:00

First of all, thank you to whomever at Banana Nutrament gave me my first incoming link.
I read, dig and listen to you guys every day.

So Jacob got me thinking about what music I've heard that I came into 100% on my own. And there isn't much. Thus far I've come up with one thing - this Ali Hassan Kuban CD that I picked up randomly at Amoeba because I had extra cash and was in the mood for Nubian wedding danceparty music. Pretty much everything else I listen to has been pointed out to me in some way or another.

I form strong associations (conscious & otherwise) between music and people, which is why this blog meanders like it does. Examples, you say? Marie gave me this Gustav album about six months ago, and I still listen to it all the time. Thanks 're, you're pure gold. Pittman sent me "Random" around the same time. It makes me want to start my own danceclub, so I can hire myself as the DJ and play this song crushingly loud every Wednesday through Saturday night. If you dig these tracks as much as I did, make sure to thank those kids for the recommendation.

Gustav - Da, am Monopol
Lady Sovereign - Random (Menta Original Mix)

(right-click and press "save target as" to download)
click here to buy Gustav from Amazon Germany
bookmark this to buy Lady Sovereign's EP, dropping November 15

one from the vault

2005-09-19T19:36:00.000-05:00

N. used to tackle me into the wood chips after school and make me walk her home. One minute I was Dhalsim hurling inflated rubber fireballs at my friends, and the next my nose was tickling a stale footprint, ninety pounds of giggling girl on my back. My buddies asked no explanation for the strange phenomenon that led me away by hand, and I never had one to offer. That flying tackle would launch me out of my playground coliseum entirely, into an arena where punching the hardest didn't make you the best, and make-believe was a whole new kind of game.

Things went on their eleven-year old way. In the mornings I snuck in five more minutes, at lunch we traded X-Men cards, and after school N. and I would find new ways to touch each other without, well, touching each other. In the mornings I would nab my sister's stainless-steel snake ring, which N. wore proudly until P. got off work. Her mother rented an apartment up the hill, so we had four days a week to play until the sun went down. She spent the other three days with her father, whom I never saw, on the east side of town.

She was a pretty, good teacher. I learned from N. that losing at tag could mean far more than winning, when her hand on my elbow held me fast. She would hide where she was sure to be found and lose every one of the wrestling matches she started, resting only when I had her pinned and panting underneath me. I should have suspected something when she decided one day to win. We were in the guest bedroom arguing over which was the more useful superpower: Wolverine's titanium-alloy claws, or Zack Morris' "time-outs." I pointed out that Wolvie's claws were virtually indestructible, to which N. replied that Zack was cute and boxed me in the ear. The debate dissolved quickly into a flurry of left hooks and half-nelsons. Three short minutes later I was on my back and she was on top of me, pinning my legs with her shins and my arms with her knees. She leaned down close and whispered in a voice that reeked of daytime soap:

"Fuck me, Ryan. Fuck me now."

And then she kissed me. With her tongue. That was the day I learned that girls mature faster than boys. I waited until she was done, then squeaked that I should prolly be getting off the bed now, that it was almost dinner-time, and do you hear the phone ringing? N. climbed off and I slid away to the blacktop kickball kingdom I'd always known. My friends had no idea. N. and I fell apart after that; our passing brushes had lost their forbidden charm. Anyway, we most likely wouldn't have done it, if even we could have done it, and with that out of the way there were no more surprises. We went separate ways for middle school the next year, and it was over. The last I heard of N. she was coaching cheerleaders in Minneapolis.

that dog. - minneapolis

(right-click and press "save target as" to download)
click here to buy it from Amazon

yessuh mistah offissuh

2005-09-17T12:32:00.000-05:00

The worst part of getting pulled over by the cops is laughing at their stupid jokes. I can smile and nod and "yes sir" for hours, but everytime I let those pigs think they're clever I want to die. "Oh heheh, yessir. I probably could have hit 75 coming around that curve. Ha Ha." But acting has its benefits. I got stopped the other night doing 59 in a 35, without a license or registration, in a car that has been ticketed 37 times and summonsed twice. And I got off with a warning. I love America almost as much as you love my utter lack of shame.

Anyway, music. I never ever liked Bruce Springsteen until I heard "State Trooper" over the closing credits of The Sopranos. Turns out it's from the one Boss album I've heard interesting things about. The one that Rilo Kiley and the Dismemberment Plan sing praises of. I checked it out, and I like it a lot. It's all solo acoustic four-track recordings. Now I know why every aging sadster <cough>shane</cough> who secretly loves arena rock has told me to get this. Take your pansy album back to Japan, Phil. This is Born indie USA.

Bruce Springsteen - State Trooper

Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska

(right-click and press "save target as" to download)
click here to buy it from Amazon

i was so here first

2005-09-16T15:16:00.000-05:00

I wasn't planning to post this, but I've seen this song on three other mp3 blogs today, so what the hell. I don't know why they're all posting because I don't pay attention to shit...maybe because Ibrahim Ferrer died recently? Anyway, it's my responsibility as a music snob to say that I had this album eight years ago. So bite me, blogosphere.

Afro-Cuban All-Stars - Amor Verdadero

(right-click and press "save target as" to download)
click here to buy it from Amazon

sup bitches

2005-09-14T18:30:00.000-05:00

I'm home, and I've got a million things to do. I'm gonna keep bringin' that music, though I won't have time for words every day. It's Honor's birthday (wish her a good one), so I'm gonna go help her celebrate with drinks and some Cali greens. Oh yeah and I got a free iPod mini; this blog is no longer a pose.

On first listen, this sounds like some faggy european synth-pop. Upon closer inspection, that's exactly what it is. I LOVE it. You might not, but just in case:

Benjamin Diamond - Let's Get High (Alan Braxe Remix)

(right-click and press "save target as" to download)
click here to buy it from !K7

why do i always do this

2005-09-02T00:53:00.000-05:00

It's 2am, which means I need to start packing for my flight out of BWI in ten hours.
The 'pod will return in a week, one heart duly left.

details.

the chief is standing in the center

2005-08-31T02:01:00.000-05:00

I went to rehab for the first time in the summer of 1999. I had been failing drug tests in state-subsidized counseling for almost a year, but when the cops brought me home from "the bowling alley" at 2am, my parents finally took a stand.

So I did 50 days at a 28 day program in Yakima, Washington. The only other intake on the day I arrived was a burly Indian named Nick, from the Lummi Nation. I was a little brat who pushed my family too far. Nick was state-mandated for boosting cars that his brother chopped on the rez and sold to a fence in Seattle. We were sixteen.

The rehab circuit has a certain etiquette. Somehow, always, you stick close to the kids who have your intake date. Nick and I couldn't have come from more different places, but we were like the Brothers Dot & Feather. It makes no sense, but that shared homonym cemented our friendship. My parents grew up in farm villages in the south of India. Nick was descended from a Paloos Indian, Chief Wolf Necklace. He even wore a cheap stainless-steel wolf strung with blue and green plastic beads around his neck. We shared a dorm room with four white guys from Olympia. Nick and I ended up in Group III, which meant six hours a day of heavy duty counseling together. I learned things about Nick that I know have never left that room.

But we had plenty of fun too, taking the gallon challenge with a tray full of milk bottles in the cafeteria, getting the girls to flash us from their dorm across the compound, and playing every jail cell card game we could think of (or invent). And the music, man. Each room had a shitty analog clock/radio that caught one Top 40 station, and then only when the skies were clear.

93.5 KOZI played "Genie in a Bottle" almost as much as they played "I Want it That Way." For the first few days we played it cool. This was bad kids in Washington state in the 90s; everybody had a babysitter who knew a girl who used to play spin-the-baby-bottle with Kurt Cobain. But a teenage boy needs tunes, and Christina sounds a lot better when you're only allowed to talk to real girls (in pairs, with a supervisor, get those hands where I can see them) for an hour a day.

In our few moments of free time, we 2nd floor boys would shove Big Books in the doorjambs, flood the hall with pop radio, and ride the airwaves. One of the only times I saw Nick drop his Sitting Bull stoicism (outside of Group III) was on a blue sunny day. LaRon and I were in the hallway, working a mean harmony at the top of our lungs, when Nick popped into the doorway from nowhere. Shaking his shit like an injun Elvis, in perfect time for the chorus, he mimed "rubbing himself the right way" for the security cameras at the end of the row. We were dying. I still love that song.

Nick and I graduated our 28 day program on the same day, but stayed an extra three weeks on the strong suggestion of the management. Being done with the regular program gave us special privileges. We earned pocket change doing extra chores, and along with a few other post-grad kids, got to go on weekend day trips with the staff. My last Sunday trip, I bought a $15 frisbee that we tossed in the park until the sun was almost down.

I left the next morning. All the guys signed my frisbee and Big Book and ping-pong paddle, and I got to hug the girls goodbye. Nick just stood by the door, doing his silent native bit. I was walking out when he stopped me.

"Hey. I'll trade you my necklace for your frisbee."
I wish I could take back the look I gave him.
"Are you kidding, man? I bought this frisbee so I could have this frisbee. Get your own."
"No," he said. "I'll trade you my necklace for your frisbee."
He looked right at me and his face didn't move. And then I understood.

I wore Nick's wolf necklace every day for the next eight months. I stayed sober for five of those, then got kicked out of two houses and ran away from the third for a week to sniff crank on my girlfriend's couch. I got to boarding school on February 17th, 2000. They took the necklace away because it was a gift from an old friend, and old friends equal old habits. I made them promise to return it when I left, but faithful reader, you would see it hanging on my heart today if they ever did.

Skywave - Sixteen
Christina Aguilera - Genie in a Bottle

(right-click the link and press "Save Target As" to download)
Buy Echodrone from Paul Baker or John Fedowitz
Buy Xtina from Walmart, whatever.

hey, i like Olivia Tremor Control

2005-08-30T18:13:00.000-05:00

Lucy sticks it to the man.
(via largehearted boy)

this will happen fairly often

2005-08-30T09:25:00.000-05:00

Today's post is a short one, 'cause I have way too much to do. Thanks to everyone who sent me fabulous art already - you guys make me so proud! Keep those submissions coming.

In keeping with yesterday's theme, here's a song about working the corner, from a sex worker who might have never been discovered. Lady Day was arrested for prostitution at the age of fourteen, and got her first singing gig the very next year.

One day we were so hungry we could barely breathe. I started out the door. It was cold as all-hell and I walked from 145th to 133rd...going in every joint trying to find work...I stopped in the Log Cabin Club run by Jerry Preston...told him I was a dancer. He said to dance. I tried it. He said I stunk. I told him I could sing. He said sing. Over in the corner was an old guy playing the piano. He struck Trav'lin and I sang. The customers stopped drinking. They turned around and watched. The pianist...swung into Body and Soul. Jeez, you should have seen those people - all of them started crying. Preston came over, shook his head and said, "Kid, you win."

Billie Holiday - Blue Moon

(right-click and press "Save Target As" to download)
click here to buy from Amazon

a piece that speaks of sex & desperation

2005-08-29T10:30:00.000-05:00

I pushed my flight back to Friday, and unsafe sex was the cause of it all. Reader, I need your help. I'm designing a CD for Exotic Fever Records, and need original artwork for the liner notes. The CD, entitled "This is a Care Package," is a benefit compilation for HIPS, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping sex workers in Washington, DC lead safer, healthier lives. It was supposed to be done last October.

I don't know the details of the delay, but the CD went off to mastering last week, and I just got the bands' original art in the mail. See, each band on the album gets their own page in the liner notes. Most of them submitted their own art, but three bands asked me to do it for them. I consider this a very important project, and now that the wheels are turning, I want to finish the design as quickly as I can.

I'm going to do Mates of State's art myself, because they're my hometown heroes. But I don't have time to do the other two, as well as layout, design, and the cover. I still need art for Murder by Death and Mirah. So I'm coming to you.

If you would like your name and art to be on a pretty sweet CD, representing a good cause and some kick-ass bands, get it to me by this Thursday (Sept. 1st) morning. Mail it to 818B Caroline Street, Fredericksburg VA, 22401. IM it to proposition86. E-mail it to ryanoceros@gmail.com. Whatever. The only requirements are these: if you are emailing me a file, it needs to be at least 5x5 inches at 300dpi, CMYK color, in .pdf, .psd, or .tif (Mac LZW Compression) format. The image needs to be uncluttered enough to leave room for a few sentences describing the band, song, and other information in the liner notes.

I can't bust our collective nut too soon by giving you any tracks from the comp, but rest assured it will rock yr condom off. Here's a sexually (in)appropriate Mirah song, and an old Yeah Yeah Yeah's track that has nothing to do with this comp, but says "art" in the title. Save a ho from extinction. Send me your stuff.

Mirah - La Familia
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Art Star

(right-click and press "save target as" to download)
click here to buy Mirah from Amazon
click here to buy the YYYs from Amazon

a recipe for a black hole

2005-08-28T09:51:00.000-05:00

I'm flying back to California tomorrow to be split down the middle. 2,890 miles and a lifestyle left from the only place I've remained longer than two years. Go ahead and laugh; I always said this town was killing me and I couldn't wait to get gone, but now I just don't know what to do. I feel like my life lacks forward momentum, you know? I don't want to work in restaurants anymore and my days are increasingly aimless. Here are the options I see thus far:

Stay in Fred - I'm going to be around anyway, while I settle my affairs and look for someone to take over my half of the lease. All my friends are here, and my sister Ann is a day's drive north in Boston. I've gotten used to a small town, and will miss the intimacy and sense of community somewhere else. But I've always been a city mouse, and I need better reasons than "it feels good" to stick around here.

Go Home - San Francisco is hands-down my favorite city in the country. Stanford, where my parents live, is 30 miles down the peninsula. I would be able to spend time with my mother, who has been battling endometrial cancer for the last 742 days. She has asked me to do what I want, regardless of her situation, which spurs a whole different conversation about guilt & duty that I'd rather not get into here. Living with my parents, I could save up towards moving to SF, the #1 most expensive city in the country. On the other hand, living at home is living at home, and we all know how quickly that gets old. I haven't lived there since 1999; all my old friends are gone, and I have no connections outside of my family.

Roam - Though maybe not the smartest move, this is what I do best. Pick a town, pack it up, and go go go. I love starting over, and these post-grad blues are the perfect soundtrack. My cousin Janu offered me her efficiency in New York (2nd & Houston, $1300/m), which would rule. I still think DC kind of sucks, but I could be happy there with all the city-stuff to do, and being close to Fredericksburg. Then there's Philly, Seattle, Barcelona, Bangalore...I want it all and I can have it. Survival is my specialty.

So that's my damage. I promise not to let my hot & heavy infatuation with the west sway me too far, even though she is the prettiest girl in the world. If I'm not back on the 7th, I probably eloped with Strawberry Hill and am raising our hippie love child in a cardboard lean-to on Ocean Beach.

Here's two songs about California that might help to illustrate the way(s) I feel. Gillian Welch is possibly my favorite living female vocalist. And this Biggie song samples the track I posted yesterday, with additional vocals from Zapp. So in fact, does "California Love" by 2Pac and Dre. Everything's coming full circle.

The Notorious B.I.G. - Going Back to Cali
Gillian Welch - Revelator

(right-click the link and press "Save Target As" to download)
click here to buy Biggie from Amazon
click here to buy Gillian from Amazon

Zapp & Roger Troutman

2005-08-27T18:36:00.000-05:00

Before I was born, my older siblings used to clear out the living room and throw dance parties for all their friends. I'm talking 1977 - 1981, when Ann and Paul were in high school. I'm talking some of the best funk & soul ever made. They'd push all the furniture into my parents' room and get down while my mom read in bed and my dad did math problems on the butcher block in the bathroom. I missed all of this, so growing up I'd spend hours poring over boxes of dusty vinyl in the garage and imagining my family young & hip. This album caught my eye, and the first song was disco magic. Of all the badass funk jams the 80s turned out, I was convinced this was The One. The soundtrack to everything cool. The song that made sexy things happen. Paul had the 12" single and beat my ass when he came home and caught me trying to scratch it on my unscratchable turntable. Can we please have a Studio54 party? Frza, where you at?

Zapp & Roger - More Bounce to the Ounce

(right-click the link and press "save target as" to download)
click here to buy it from Amazon

Ceci n'est pas un blog

2005-08-27T11:31:00.000-05:00

Music criticism is a crock of shit. Like I told my arch-nemesis at CMJ last year, I have a low tolerance for anyone writing about music. Art, literature, theater, movies - these are all worthy subjects. While obviously open to interpretation, the symbols these arts contain hold a semblance of objective meaning. Words and pictures are necessarily representations, of ideas and objects. A picture of a girl can be a million different things to a million different people, but it's still a picture of a girl. Go ahead and have an opinion; write about the girl, what she's doing, the way she looks and makes you feel. But please, leave my music alone.

Because it is my music, and no one else's. Every note I hear belongs to me, to the way I hear it, that specific soundtrack for roadtrips and dancing and the first time I kissed her. Music is wholly subjective. It does not represent or stand for anything else; music simply is. There is no loss, no gap between the representation and the thing itself. As Walter Pater famously said, "All art aspires to the condition of music."

That being said, this is not a music blog. I'm not going to review tracks or spoonfeed anyone my "enlightened opinions" a la Pitchfork. I'm going to write about the people and things I love, and give you free music that I can't live without. You've probably heard these songs before, and that's one reason we're friends. But if you haven't, you really should.

And that's why I'm here.