In lieu of the sketches of delicious cheeses I was going to offer up today, or some drawings of Polaroids (how extraordrinarily shameless post-90’s meta-narcissicistic can you get: I am drawing pictures of photographs I took of myself), and because lists are the ultimately form of do-nothingness, I’m just going to talk about the music I have been jumping up and down to for the past six months: My favorite things.
This is the first year I’ve kept a running list, and what’s on it has surprised me—because some of the things that I loved a few months ago seem like they’ve been around for years (did At War with the Mystics really just come out in April??). Turning to the ever-useful Gorjus Media post, I’ll select only the choicest morsels, as always with the caveat of “it ain’t new, but it’s new to me.”
Top 22 Songs of the First Half of 2006 (in no order whatsoever)
Neil Young, “Living With War.”
The Gossip, “Standing in the Way of Control.”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Cheated Hearts.”
George Harrison, “What Is Life.”
The Ark, “One of Us Is Gonna Die Young.”
Flaming Lips, “Free Radicals.”
The Gants “My Baby Don’t Care.”
The Jayhawks, “Blue.”
Rainer Maria, “Terrified.”
Pretty Girls Make Graves, “Parade.”
Bonnie Tyler, “It’s a Heartache.”
Pretenders, “Mystery Achievement.”
Band of Horses, “The Funeral.”
VHS or BETA, “Forever.”
X-Ray Spex, “Identity.”
Tegan & Sara, “You Wouldn’t Like Me.”
Bruce Springsteen, “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day” (Live in Glendale Arizona, 2005).
The Gossip, “Standing in the Way of Control.”
Mountain Goats, “This Year.”
Vic Chesnutt, “Isadora Duncan.”
Bruce Springsteen, “Oh, Mary, Don’t You Weep.”
Concrete Blonde, “Someday?”
Yours?
CDs of the summer (I can’t remember what I listened to in January!):
Everything by Graham Parker, especially more recent stuff like “Your Country”. For some reason, I’ve gotten obsessed with Graham Parker this summer!
Tapes’n’Tapes – The Loon
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Camera Obscura – Let’s Get Out of this Country
Thanks for the list – now to check what’s on eMusic!
I dig that Camera Obscura record, Roland. And thanks, gorj, for lodging “It’s a Heartache” in my head for the rest of the day. Just, thanks a lot.
Thanks to my iPod, which I had for almost a year before I discovered what it did, I listen to the same three songs over and over, songs that I loved in previous lives: “Are You Ready for the Fallout?” by Fastball, “I Don’t Want to Get Over You” by the Magnetic Fields, and “Cruel to be Kind” by Nick Lowe. Oh, and “Young Turks,” which I just downloaded.
kc gave me a swank-ass iPod for my birthday this summer. so it’s kind of changed my listening habits from listening to whole cds in the car, to scrolling through snippets of ear candy.
i have thorgoughly enjoyed these albums in their entirety, thouh:
boris “pink”
v/a “panama!”
witch s/t
iPod one-hit wonders:
giant drag “this isn’t it”
ladyhawk “my old jacknife”
camera obscura “lloyd, i’m ready to be heartbroken”
camera obscura “let’s get out of this country”
thermals “a pillar of salt”
(once the rest of this album arrives in the mail, i’m hoping it’s gonna be a full-fledged VW summer rocker. but for now, i just listen to this mp3 over and over and over and over)
nice list.
just for the summer:
grateful dead “box of rain”
neil young “everybody knows this is nowhere”
ac newman “better than most”
sleater-kinney “jumpers” (really all of The Woods)
super xx man “collecting rocks”
Crazy – Gnarls Barkley
Who I am Hates Who I’ve Been – Reliant K
No Children – Mountain Goats
hmm…kreepily,
Do You Wanna Touch – Gary Glitter
and
Couldn’t Get it Right – Climax Blues Band
There Must be 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover – Paul Simon
The Waiting Line – Zero 7
Stars—”Ageless Beauty”
The Decemberists—”Engine Driver”
Manowar—”Wheels of Fire”
Sonic Youth—”Incinerate”
Neil Young—”Why do I Keep Fuckin’ Up?”
Mastodon—”I am Ahab”
Vaselines—”Son of a Gun”
off topic, but a list of plural wjords that make me smiley:
cheeses
lettuces (this one prob is #1)
grasses (esp when used in conjunction with the adj ‘long’)
protuberances
plural words that make me unsmiley (all of which became painfully apparent to me listening to npr after the latest brit terrorist plot foiling):
lotions
creams
liquids
gels