kathyp

One of my favorite "less than a buck*" albums.

(*Truth: I paid $1.50 for mine.)

1. Nightswimming

2. Pretty Persuasion

3. I Believe

4. Time After Time

5. So. Central Rain

6. Fall On Me

7. Shaking Through

8. Radio Free Europe

9. Try Not To Breathe

10. Don't Go Back To Rockville

I like Reckoning lots

Walking On A Wire - Richard and Linda Thompson

She's Got You - Patsy Cline

Down To Zero - Joan Armatrading

C'est L'amour -

That version always bugged me.

Me too. (Ducks)

My favorite version is John Cale's from Fragments of a Rainy Season. Buckley's vocal histrionics always grated on me.

Alex Chilton - 2004 (I think. Could have been '05). Outdoor show + thunderstorm

Sleater-Kinney - 2005

I let someone convince me that a woman going to a concert alone was a) dangerous and b ) pretty sad. Stupid, I know, because I've done it before and never felt sad or pathetic. They broke up shortly after.

i like it more... and i REALLY liked Ash Wed

I finally got to listen to the new one properly, and I'm digging it. There are a lot of weird sounds -- slight dissonance -- going on in some of the tracks, but I like it. This, I'm sure, has been said before, but his voice reminds me of Jeff Mangum's from Neutral Milk Hotel.

The past two days, mostly:

The Elvis Perkins in Dearland album? I'm not sure I *like* it yet, but I am drawn to it -- if that makes sense. I really enjoyed Ash Wednesday, so I was looking forward to the new one. It's different. The influences are definitely more varied, less folk-rock.

Both better than I remembered

I've got the NPR stream of this playing right now. It's way to early to judge (and I'm still buying this Tuesday), but I'm not latching on to any song just yet. (It doesn't help that I can't see the titles.)

Lately it's been The Weepies, though I'm not sure they really qualify as a "guilty pleasure." Excessively girlish maybe.

4. Fox Confessor Brings The Flood and Blacklisted

I got my hands on a boatload of expired Portra (Kodak's pro/portrait film). Colors aren't bad, a little off maybe, but I upped the contrast in PS:

Me trying to be Annie Leibovitz or something:

I hate self portraits

I'll add to the love for Catcher In The Rye, a book that meant the world to me as a 14-year-old, but less so when I tried to re-read it in my twenties.

Others (which I hope haven't been mentioned yet):

The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing

Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Joan Didion

The End Of Alice - AM Homes

The Easter Parade - Richard Yates

Troubled Waters - Michael Hurley

Broken - Tift Merritt

Dpn't Come Close - Thea Gilmore

Miracel Drug - AC Newman

Sadly Beautiful - Replacements

Average Joe - Ron Sexsmith

La Cienega Just Smiled - Ryan Adams

I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Grandpaboy

Johnny Sunshine - Liz Phair

Everybody Move It - Teddy Thompson

Rattlesnake - Replacements

Drank Like A River - Whiskeytown

Can You Feel It? - Apples In Stereo

Nothing To No One - Paul Westerberg

Jackie, Dressed In Cobras - New Pornographers

The Angels Hung Around - Rilo Kiley

The Race Is On - Dave Edmunds

You Don't Love Me Yet - Vulgar Boatmen

Gone For Good - The Shins

Silver Lining - Rilo Kiley

Hate It Here - Wilco

Chatterton - Serge Gainsbourg

Inflammatory Writ - Joanna Newsom

I Wish I Was the Moon - Neko Case

Blaxk and White - dbs

Mostly I've been listening to one of my last.fm playlists, but this is what I got from my own iTunes library:

Moment In The Sun - Clem Snide

Raw Ramp - T-Rex

Hate It Here - Wilco

The Hunch - Hasil Adkins

Ol' 55 - Tom Waits

Wayfaring Stranger - Neko Case

This Is It _ Ryan Adams

The Train From Kansas City - The Shangri-Las

All About Me - Paul Westerberg

Tears of Gold - Ryan Adams

Dyslexic Heart - Paul Westerberg

The Last - The Replacements

You Don't Love Me Yet - Roky Erickson

Porchlight - Neko Case

California - Rufus Wainwright

Good Hearted Man - Tift Merritt

if I have high hopes for it being great, I'm typically disappointed on the first listen or two but usually come around to liking (or loving) it.

This was my problem with The Replacements' Let It Be. I'd heard Tim first, and had already fallen in love with it. But (and this was in the days before the reissues -- and the second set of reissues) Let It Be eluded me for some time until I scavenged a copy, and I was ultimately disappointed. Granted, I like it now better than Tim (and am fully aware of Tim's flaws, production-wise), but back then I wanted it to be this big, great... thing. And it sort of wasn't.

Back to the original question, I usually decide I like a record on the first or second listen. Unfair? Probably, but my livelihood doesn't depend on whether I "get" the latest Conor Oberst release or not. The exception is, a lot of times, the singer's voice. Something else has to draw me in if I can't stand the sound of the guy (or gal) singing. Mostly it's songwriting. (If you haven't guessed, I'm not a musician -- wicked guitar licks or a pounding bass line is usually lost on me.) Eef Barzely's voice grates on me, but the more I listen to his or Clem Snide's records, the more I warm to it, for example.

Sounds better in tandem than one would think:

I don't *think* this one has been mentioned yet, but Big Star's version of "Motel Blues" is pretty depressing.

Replacements - Tim Introduced me to my favorite band and songwriter.

Add me to the list. I don't know if I'd say Tim changed my life, but it definitely was my "gateway drug."

I probably need to listen to someone whose last name isn't Thompson -- at least for a little while -- but this album totally charmed me:

I am 100 pages into Infinite Jest right now and I could really use a pep talk. It's peppered with bits of genius on every page, clearly, but holy hell if this book isn't a complete mindfuck. I am guessing that I am right at the point where many folks throw in the towel.

I made it about that far before I gave up (and had to return it to the library). Finally, I just bought a copy and started over from page one.

I think I'm almost 100 pages in -- again. I haven't touched in months, though.

(This is, I think, the only book of his I haven't read, and I determined to finish it this year. Um, maybe.)