Saturday, June 25, 2005

Saturday’s Playlist #2   This is my second weekly playlist of cool downloadable songs.  These songs have a jarring combination of upbeat tunes with downbeat lyrics.  I recommend them highly.  If you like the songs here, tell your friend.  If you’ve got more than one friend, heck, tell both of them.  Check out last Saturday’s list.  And come back next Saturday. Same bat time, same bat channel.   Sounds That Can Break Your Heart   1.  Skeleton Jar-Youth Group  For the record, this song was already on this week’s playlist before I saw them perform (a different song) on one of the late night talk shows Thursday.  They have a clever lyricist. 2.  Rough Dreams-Fingers Cut Megamachine  Good song, good band. 3.  Jetpack Blues-Polara  In earlier years, this band had a variety of sounds before settling in more recently to writing perfect pop tunes. 4.  Still Flat-Built to Spill  One of my favorite bands ever.  This song dates way back to their indie days, and their classic album, The Normal Years.  As far as I know, it's their only legal free download. 5.  Progress-Mission of Burma  When I finally saw Mission of Burma live a couple years ago, it was a religious experience; and not, say, a crucifixion...a good religious experience. 6.  Girlfriend is Worse-Ex Models  Just a fun song. 7.  Everybodys Girls-Dwarves  The punctuation error in the song title greatly disturbs me, but I include this song anyway. 8.  Get in the Car-Hail Social  A cool song from a cool new band. 9.  It's a Long Line (But it Moves Quickly)-The Mendoza Line  This is probably my favorite song by this band, and it's also the least country sounding.  Most of the time, they sound alt-country, but this has just a trace of that sound, and is 99% rock and roll. 10.  Name in Vain-Pods  Ben Deily, the singer/songwriter for this band, was the other songwriter in the Lemonheads early years.  I liked the songs he wrote about as well as Evan Dando's, so it was good to find Mr. Deily has a website now, and has some of his post-Lemonheads work available on CD and mp3. 11.  Hover Near Fame-The New Amsterdams  The NA used to be a side project of some of the Get Up Kids, but the Get Up Kids are dead, and the New Amsterdams live on, and really, that's just as it should be. 12.  Goodbye Goodbye-Medication  Appropriately titled for a last song on a play list, no? 8:36:51 AM    comment []

An Obscure Joke   I saw Bewitched today (a fun flick, I highly recommend it) and one of the previews was for the first movie to star Steve Carrell (you probably know him as one of America's premiere broadcast journalists; he used to work for The Daily Show), The Forty-Year-Old Virgin.  No word on whether it's autobiographical.  In one scene, Steve's character is seen reading a (fake) book called Sixty-Eight Ways to Make Love.  I'm pretty sure this is a reference to an old joke.  Here it is... A French guy tells an American there are sixty-seven ways to make love.  The American is shocked.  He says he's only tried one way.  Now it's the French guy's turn to be shocked.  He asks the American which way he's used.  The American says, "It's where the man gets on top of the woman."  "Sixty-eight!" the French guy exclaims. 2:33:40 AM    comment []