Song Titles, Before Editing for Language Efficiency and Clarity.

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Song Titles, Before Editing for Language Efficiency and Clarity.:

"'Up There, Where the Clouds Are, Is Lucy, With Her Precious Carbon-Based Gemstones That Required Extreme Pressure and Temperatures of More Than 2,192 Degrees Fahrenheit to Become What They Are'"

Take a moment to figure these out... and be thankful for the wise producers and engineers that helped smooth these titles out!

Currently on iTunes: Nick Drake Mix, "Five Leaves Left" to be specific

we're wired and ready

I finally caught up with the Wi-Fi revolution and got me one of them AirPort Cards. Yeah, this is about the coolest thing since Oregon Trail! ("You died of dysentery.") Watch out Al Gore... the internet isn't all yours anymore!

"meteorlogical therapy" posted by aaron o.

"At this point, I would recommend meteorological therapy."

from Aaron Otheim's Blog, Reflections

yeah, we've been having crazy weather. like the witches from Oz are duking it out. Aaron, you put it quite nicely....

Top 5 of the Day - Albums of All Time

Top 5 albums of all time, in approximate chronological order (see note following list)

• Automatic For The People, R.E.M.
• August and Everything After, Counting Crows
• Achtung Baby, U2
• Pet Sounds, Beach Boys
• Pink Moon, Nick Drake

Let it be known, that I owned the first 3 albums on cassette (early high school), that I didn't get into Pet Sounds until my junior year of college (I wrote a concert band arrangement of "Waiting For The Day"), and that I had never heard Nick Drake's music until 2003 when I was already out of college and working at Barnes & Noble (I bought all 3 full length albums and his biography the last week I worked there without ever hearing his music... all that I had read about him elsewhere, I knew that I was going to love his music).

All of these, and no Wilco, Patty Griffin, Ben Folds Five... you might say, "what's this world coming to?!?", to which I respond, "I just don't know..."

* Currently on iTunes: "Raining In Baltimore", Counting Crows; "The Late Greats", Wilco; "Orange Crush", R.E.M.

how did I miss this?!?

Okay, so I can't say I'm a Nick Drake fanatic, but there are few musicians that I would say I know better (both musically and biographically) than this British songwriter/guitarist who died only three albums into his career. But I missed an album (Made to Love Magic) of new material coming out?!?

I am still making my way through his biography by Nick Humphries, and I own all three of his studio releases. There is a fourth album, Way to Blue, which is an introduction to his music, that is worth skipping except for the 2 songs not found on other albums ("Time of No Reply" and "Black Eyed Dog", which you can just download at iTunes). Pink Moon is by far my favorite album, most likely becuase this was my first complete exposure to his music (you probably would recognize the title track from a Volkswagen commercial).

Somehow today, I stumbled across the fact that another album has been released of mostly previously unreleased material! How can it be?!? So now I have to save up my pennies to go and purchase another album to once again "complete my collection" of this brilliant artist. If you haven't checked Nick Drake out, be sure to start with Pink Moon, and follow it with Five Leaves Left and Bryter Later (which has "One of These Things First" on the Garden State Soundtrack). You will quickly hear how his style (vocally, instrumentally, and lyrically) has influenced Elliott Smith and R.E.M.

* For an article detailing the making of the new album, Made to Love Magic, read the press release at Robyn Frederick's site.