lost highway

One of my favorite things Jeff ever said in an interview a few years ago was that it's his job to stay curious and that's the most important thing for him. I found that inspiring and decided in some ways it's part of my literal job, but more so part of my career as a professional life-liver, to stay curious. This is a really long-winded way of me saying that I really like Wilco following whatever twists their creative life takes. To me Schmilco might be a slightly lesser Wilco album, but I love that they followed that path to explore making a weird little intimate record. I'd take two more a

There's another Tweedy song on that soundtrack. We were moaning about how you can't buy them individually a while back. To get them you either have to spend the $10 or whatever for the whole soundtrack, or do something illegal.

Sometimes hating Trump gets boring. It's such a consistent feeling when you're trying to keep up with the news that it almost gets tiresome. It doesn't mean that I want to turn it around and like him, more like my emotional balance requires me to feel nothing towards him and leave my disapproval and criticism to be coldly cerebral, less visceral. I'm not a very hateful person, and that guy just exhausts my hate. Sometimes he's so shitty it's fascinating and funny, but mostly lately I just want him to be ruined and go away, and let us have really boring conversations about the mixed blessing

Whoa, Long After Dark came in on my queue. It is fucking fantastic. It pretty much hits all the spots I want to hear from the Heartbreakers. The first 4 tracks are pretty much perfect.

Agreed on Hard Promises. I think it's overlooked in Torpedoes' shadow. Haven't heard Long After Dark yet, other than the big hit. That's up in my library cue and you've made me more psyched to dive in. Seriously, Kings Road is at this sweet spot between garage, classic rock, punk, power-pop for me. Can't get enough of that song.

Also, I'm kind of struggling with Wildflowers and Full Moon Fever for a couple reasons. First of all, they both are like at least half "hits" to me. Maybe not on the charts, but iconic and well known. Is a song like "Good to be King" too obvious for my deep cuts playlist? Or "You're So Bad"? The second problem is this makes me think I subconsciously love the non-Hearbreakers records even more than the Heartbreakers ones, which must be some kind of sin.

Yeah, Hypnotic Eye has a great sound, and I enjoy as a whole but not too many standouts, except maybe Fault Lines. That seemed like a step forward for the Heartbreakers with a new groove, even though they kind of wear it out by the end of the song.

So as a father's day gift I bought my dad the Petty bio, and being my dad he read it in three days and then insisted I borrow it. Covers a lot of similar territory as the documentary, with a little more musing on the man's psychology and damage which feels darker now looking back from his death. On the bright side it's got me doing one of my seasonal discography evaluation's I tend to find myself doing with a career artist (Beatles, Guided By Voices, REM, Stones, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, some band called Wilco). Even though I grew up with Petty there were some gaping holes in my familiarity wi

Never heard! I'm going to download now. Thanks!

No, you're totally right. Those are the tunes that have that sound. The others are more flat, some might say 'slightly dark' but describing sound always makes us say silly things.

It's funny you picked "Nope" because it has kind of unique vocal production compared to the rest. The slap echo and doubling makes it sound kind of whimsical and Guided By Voices-ish to me. Suits the song. Most of the other stuff has a more 'uneffected' sound (not unaffected). They seemed to have really gone for a straight at the mic sound without a lot of extra gloss on it for the last few records. I think it sounds intimate, but I can see how some might hear it as sounding flat. Speaking of head colds, listen to 'I am Trying to Break Your Heart', that guy used to have some real sinus iss

I'm pretty sure they were produced in the same sessions and just didn't fit the sequence for Sukierae. Jeff is pretty damned prolific. There's a trove of hundreds of incomplete, and finished tunes sitting in the Loft right now.

Those greedy bastards made it so you can only buy the entire album on itunes, not just the Tweedy tracks. I remember thinking they sounded catchy when I watched that hilariously depressing movie.

Cool interview with what seems to be a very ex-patriated, English-rusty Jim O'Rourke about his new record Sleep Like It's Winter. https://www.stereogum.com/2007352/jim-orourke-interview-2018/franchises/interview/

Sounds like a kick ass place, and yet another reason to go back to western Mass!

"Your favorite president did nothing wrong." I feel like the writers from the Simpsons cooked up that one.

They have to decide, are they Trump supporters, or Republicans. At this point you can't be both in good faith.

I keep marveling at what Republican citizens are willing to put up with, and the amount of cognitive dissonance they can hold just to faithfully back a president. When fucking Paul Ryan says that Russians meddled in the election, when former head of the CIA calls Trump's behavior treasonous, when the Feds are indicting Russians and Trump staffers .... but STILL these Republican voters are cool with it. I never thought I'd say it, but where is Ronald Reagan when you need him?

So, just a little check in from the "How does this stuff all matter in everyday life?" front: My wife works for a tiny school district. Of their 4 aging elementary schools they passed a bond to replace 3 of the buildings. As to be expected, the construction budget has been very tight. Demolishing and rebuilding several two story schools is a pretty massive undertaking. Recent trade war escalations have added one million dollars to the cost of their project (which are nearing completion). That's a million bucks they didn't have all thanks to materials skyrocketing on account of the orange man

Maybe I'm just weak sauce, but White was my favorite. It was like half way between Mel Brooks and Ingmar Bergman.

I should be, but we haven't the cable package for it.

As a teacher on summer break I'm getting to all the art house flicks I never have time for (and my wife won't watch). So far the selections have been: Days of Heaven- awesome movie. Gorgeous cinematography counters the bleak story line. The Three Colors Trilogy- this french language trilogy is considered Polish director Kieslowski's opus. So far I've watched Red (I messed up the order cause I was thinking Red, White, Blue, like an American, and it's really Blue, White, Red). Red is a concise 90 minute drama with interesting characters, a subtle twist and some great thematic stuff you can mul

Nerdy sound guy observation: This is the first time I've seen where he's played acoustic 'plugged in' in years. He'd been doing the big mic in front of the guitar thing for a while. Probably not as practical out doors in the elements.

Funny side note. There have been a few times in my life where I forgot the personnel on a favorite jazz album and heard a solo and thought, 'Whoa, that guys is pushing things a little further out, maybe even annoying the frontman.' One of those times is a couple Coltrane solos on Miles' Kind of Blue. The other is Eric Dolphy on Oliver Nelson's Blues and the Abstract Truth.