kathyp

I'm still burning through a couple itunes gift certificates. I found Paul Westerberg's "Be bad For Me," a song that was on a compilation of some sort years ago. I never found the album, so grabbing the song off itunes was a treat.

If I want to buy an album, I buy the album. I still like having the hard copy. Mainly I just use itunes to get a song or two that I like from an album I wouldn't buy otherwise.

I'm a binger, too. Let's see, in the past few months I've been on a Springsteen bender; had an on again, off again affair with Elliott Smith; practically OD'ed on the Ike Reilly Assassination; and rekindled a old love romance with Tom Waits.

I have weird, obsessive tendencies when it comes to music anyway. I must listen. I don't tire of things that easily.

There are a couple albums that so smack of the moment I first fell in love with them I don't listen to that often anymore. For fear of losing that.

Richard and Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights

Edit - Didn't see it in the first post. Greatest break-up album ever.

I have a ten-year-old stereo that still sounds pretty good. I'd like to use my iPod with it. I'm assuming this is possible with some sort of adapter dohicky. What do I need to get?

I use mine mainly for running. The shuffle uses a flash player rather than the traditional hard drive the classic iPod uses, so it's less likely to skip. The Nano uses the flash player, too, I believe.

The only downside is, obviously, no screen; ergo, you can't see what you're playing. (Or watch videos, though I really wouldn't want to watch videos on something slightly bigger than a chicklet.)

I think that I'm gonna start this:

Almost bought this the other day.

What O-man said.

 

(And Oceanman, I've been wondering - did you talk to some chick from Belleville during Andrew Bird's sound check at the KC show?)

 

I've been to lots of Wilco shows in lots of locations. What gets me is, there's nothing like their St. Louis shows. There's an energy in the crowds here that just isn't quite there at other shows, probably because the audience is loaded with Jeff's family, local friends, and people who've been fans from the very beginning.

 

I'd wondered if the passing of Jeff's mom might have something to do with the lack of St. Louis shows. She was always at the shows here, and was such a vocal supporter of all of his bands. It's gotta be hard to come back here and know someone integral is missing.

 

My guess is that the lack of local shows isn't necessarily a Wilco problem, but a venue problem. Like the letter said, there really isn't an appropriately-sized venue for them. Nevermind that the local venues have been in such flux over the past few years. I just looked at the current calender for The Pageant, the last venue Wilco played in St. Louis, and frankly, it sucks. Out of the the 30 scheduled shows, there are only two I'd bother to see. The place is becoming more of a comedy club than music venue. Wilco's not the only band that's skipped St. Louis a lot over the past two years. I've been disappointed that Springsteen and White Stripes come to mind.

 

It sucks, but hey. I got to see Wilco in Columbia, where I first fell in love with them and UT in college. I got to have a really fun weekend in KC that included hanging out with one of my oldest friends at the show. I'm getting to see them at the Ryman, which blows my mind. Yeah, it would be a lot easier if I could ride 15 minutes on the local train, catch the show, and be home and cozy in bed before 1 AM. But when they're not coming to St. Louis I get an excuse to travel and have experiences that go beyond the concert. Perhaps some of the local fans should give that a shot.

Word. We have one mid-sized rock club, a handful of smaller clubs, and then The Fox? There aren't many options around here.

Janice Erlbaum's Have You Seen Her, which I'm totally in love with. It shouldn't be out until February, but I scored a copy via LibraryThing's early reviewers program (sort of like Amazon's Vine, or whatever it's called).

Biggest Surprises:

Again, Ryan Adams

Ike Reilly Assassination

Rilo Kiley (Only because I was expecting it to be horrible on the level of an Ashley Simpson b-side.)

Biggest disappointments:

Lucinda Williams

New Pornographers (I think I listened to Challengers once

Amy Winehouse (don't get the hype)

Gogol Bordello (don't get the hype)

Jonathan Lethem's You Don't Love Me yet. (I so wanted to like this book -- especially considering it steals its title from both Roky Erickson and the Vulgar Boatman, but it reads like someone's bad NaNoWriMo novel.)

Interestingly enough, all those people who were defending the Lucinda album earlier in the year aren't here to defend it now. If we bring up the original thread lots of folks were saying it was some of the best stuff she had ever done (and would be on a best of list). I guess they finally came to their senses.

 

LouieB

I stayed very far away from that thread.

I've been a fan of Lucinda Williams for the last decade or more and West was her weakest so far -- in my opinion. Not only the lyrics, but her voice is totally shot.

Not necessarily from 2007 -

Love is a Mixtape by Rob Sheffield

JPod - Douglas Coupland

The Braindead Megaphone - George Saunders

The Exes - Pagan Kennedy (Better than Jonathan Lethem's You Don't Love Me Yet, as far as rock band fiction goes.)

Jesus Land -Julia Sheeres

Slackjaw - Jim Knipfel

My Happy Life - Lydia Millet

Vic Chesnutt

Second Clem Snide, Eleventh Dream Day (Freakwater is an offshoot, right?) and the Go-Betweens.

Do these have to be current bands?

Vulgar Boatmen

Green on Red

Long Ryders

Silos

Blue Rodeo

If you like Neko Case, how about Jolie Holland?

Not feeling the love for Superbad or Knocked Up.

I really liked the Joe Strummer documentary The Future is Unwritten. Um, I can't think of any other movies I saw in '07 that were actually released in '07. I'm waiting for the Simpsons movie to come out on DVD (Tuesday) and I want to see Juno and the Dylan bio.

This is a fairly boring top five:

1. Teddy Thompson - Upfront and Down Low

2. Bruce Springsteen - Magic

3. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

4. Elliott Smith - New Moon

5. Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger

Honorable mentions: Apples in Stereo, Mary Gauthier, Bettye LaVette, Betty Davis, Rilo Kiley, Linda Thompson, Patti Smith (but only "Midnight Rider")

Disappointment of the year: Lucinda Williams - West

I'm having trouble uploading a photo. The size is okay, and I was able to upload it on another board.

The Peter Bjorn and John song with the whistling that was played every five minutes this summer

Superbad

Eh.

I'm leaving my opinion at "eh" for now, as I'm not sure this is one of those movies everyone loves or everyone hates.

I've less listening to less music despite having more options. Mostly I listen to whatever's streaming out of my iTunes library, or one of the Last Fm stations. Like someone else mentioned, I do like having the artifact: I still buy cds; I rarely download music. (Everything in iTunes has been ripped from cds I own.)

I'd rather buy a cd than download and burn it to a cd (by the way, do people actually burn music to CDRs anymore?) because some of the cds I've burned didn't even last three years.

I'm kind of stuck in the middle. I'm buying a new iPod (my first, actually). Though I'm trying hard to justify the price given I don't listen to music "on the fly" all that much, I still want one.

A marathon of this season's America's Next Top Model on MTV.

I so want to read this.

Right now I'm juggling Douglas Coupland's JPod. something I've been meaning to read for about a year, and the short story collection by Miranda July that came out earlier this year.

I might need a couple hours...

(notice I didn't say "a couple of hours)

alot

lay/lie (I laid down on the bed.)

prolly (on teh internets)

teh internets

irregardless (NOT A WORD!)

liberry

It's (prolly) okay, but I hate "as per" as in "as per your post."

could of (I could of used proper English.)

tenant/tenet

its/it's

Outsider music, yes. I don't know much about outsider "visual" artists. IFC (or maybe Sundance) aired a documentary about Wild Man Fischer the other day. Interesting character, to say the least. The exploitation level is high, and that bothers me. Just because someone's in the throes of severe mental illness, that does not mean that he's an artist. (Sorry Wesley Willis fans.) I like Daniel Johnston. After hearing other people perform his songs (I can't stand his voice), you can't deny that he does have songwriting talent. And Roky Erickson, though I don't know if I'd really call him an outsider artist. Irwin Chusid wrote what's basically the primer on outsider music, Songs in the Key of Z.

I wrote something last night that I meant to post on my site, or here, or somewhere else and I couldn't do it. I have nothing really that I can add other than another "where I was" when it happened. (Home. Half asleep with an ER rerun humming in the background. I actually thought it was part of the show for a few moments.)

I didn't know anyone directly affected by 9-11, other than a few people I knew online and I got in contact with both of them early on. I watched some of this morning's re-airing of that day. I was struck by how (at least at first) eerily calm those reporters seemed.

Diet Coke Plus - Coke with some B vitamins sprinkled in.