Crystal Blue Persuasion, Tommy James and the Shondells
Beautiful Girl, INXS
Devotion, Indigo Girls
You Angel You, Bob Dylan
Lo and Behold, James Taylor
Everyday, Dave Matthews Band
Can I say it again? I miss Michael Hutchence.
Wednesday, February 27, 2002
Listening to:
Nomads Indians Saints, one of my favorite Indigo Girls albums. This one lacks the showiness of Rites of Passage and the experimental characteristics of Come On Now Social, but it's so special to me. "Watershed," "Keeper of My Heart," "You and Me of the 10,000 Wars," and "World Falls" are such awesome, amazing songs. And that's not all, there are several others on this album that are just as good.
Did you know the IGs have a new album coming out on March 12? Check out the details here.
Wednesday, February 20, 2002
Love this inteview with the Pet Shop Boys. Their new album, Release, is due out next month.
This made me laugh:
Certainly, the Pet Shop Boys remain alone with their pioneering blend of house and hip-hop and a willingness to tackle with wit subjects as diverse as adultery, consumerism and the homoeroticism of trucking (one track on their new album even imagines that Eminem is gay).
The song about Eminem that they're referring to is called "The Night I Fell in Love." I've been playing it a lot lately.
Sunday, February 17, 2002
Listening to:
Under the Table and Dreaming, DMB World in My Head: Party, my mix Greatest Hits Vol. 1, Backstreet Boys
It's one of those Jump in the Line kind of days today... um, three times in the car on the way home from the mall.
Saturday, February 16, 2002
Happy Valentine's Day!
For Valentine's day I tried something new this year. I made a mix on an 8cm CD-R. These tiny little CDs are so cute, but I'd never worked with them before -- I didn't even know for sure if they'd play in a regular CD player. Turns out they work great in any player (or computer CD drive) that has the small inner circle set into the tray. (You can't use them in the kind of players where they slip into a slot, though.)
So, these pocket CD-Rs hold 24 minutes of music. I just wanted to send a little love out to my girlfriends, and this turned out to be the perfect length for my holiday mix this year. I used songs that were kinda sorta love songs, but mostly with a little twist.
Girlfriend by Susie
1. Girlfriend, *NSYNC 2. The Night I Fell in Love, Pet Shop Boys 3. Hey, Good Lookin', Hank Williams, Sr. 4. Thirteen, Big Star 5. Seasons of Love, Cast of RENT with Stevie Wonder 6. Thank You, Dido
I love how this little mix turned out. These little discs are so adorable. They were perfect for my adorable friends.
Monday, February 11, 2002
Over the weekend...
Saturday, driving around in the sunshine, we listened to Duran Duran Decade, that greatest hits record they released a few years before their actual, official greatest hits record. It's a great album -- sends me right back to the eighties on a bullet train.
Then... driving home Saturday night in the dark, it was The Wonder. Love that mix. Crimson and Clover, swooooon.
Friday, February 08, 2002
Success!
I am back in business: the burner is working. I ended up buying Stomp's Click 'N' Burn, since the Roxio software doesn't work with my new burner. I still haven't figured out how to use it as well as I could the Roxio, but I made a mix today and it worked fine. So that's a great first step.
I think the Eminem/NSYNC fever has finally broken. I'm still listening to both of them -- a lot -- but I've started wanting and listening to other stuff again in the last week or so. Besides Boston and the Smashing Pumpkins (which I wrote about earlier this week), I've been listening to Indigo Girls (Nomads Indians Saints), R.E.M. (Automatic for the People), and a couple of my own mixes.
I like this new mix I did. It's just a little trifle for Valentine's day, but I think it's cool and fun. I'll post it here after I send it out to the grrls. :-)
Wednesday, February 06, 2002
Oh, Yeah...
Today I'm listening to the Smashing Pumpkins' Greatest Hits, which I got for Christmas. It's a great collection. The first disk, Rotten Apples, has a bunch of their hits and other important album tracks. The second disk, Judas O, is mostly b-sides and rarities. The whole set rocks.
Listening to this CD reminds me of what a great band Smashing Pumpkins was (were?). Billy Corgan is obviously a musical genius, in my opinion, but the whole band was just so strong, so solid. It was like they picked up where glam left off and remade it for the 1990s.
And it doesn't even matter what anyone thinks or thought of the band -- this music is so good, it speaks for itself. Just listen to "1979," "Disarm," or "Bullet with Butterfly Wings." These songs stack up just fine to anything anyone is doing today.
I ran across a used copy of this CD a month or so ago and picked it up for a friend, because I knew that this was the first album she had ever bought, back in the good old vinyl days. I thought she might get a kick out of having it on CD. But before I sent it off to her, I played it myself. I was floored. I knew every single song -- and I had never heard the album before in my life. But all the songs on this record have been played for years on classic rock radio stations, and I guess my hard-core dedication to 96 Rock in Atlanta must have paid off. Because I knew every damn song.
So, last night when I saw another copy of it at the used CD store, I snatched it up for myself. And I am loving it today. It's just an incredible record, such a great blend of heavy rock and melodies. Gorgeous guitar, amazing vocals, and it just makes you want to get in the car and drive. And smile.
Monday, February 04, 2002
Driving home from New York City late Saturday night, headed north on the Merritt, I was playing The Mystery. It's still one of my favorite mixes, two years after I originally made it in February 2000. Crossing the Sikorsky bridge after midnight, I was singing along to Paul McCartney's Maybe I'm Amazed, thinking just how much I love that song and the others on this disk.
I'm thinking of a couple of new mixes just lately. I've been musing on a Friday party mix since before Christmas. Now I also have an idea for a valentine's day mix for all my wonderful girlfriends -- not sure if that will work out or not, with the new computer issues we've been facing recently. Well, if it happens, it happens.
The latest issue is that my new CD burner is not supported by the Roxio deluxe software I've been using for the last year or so. Why? I don't know. It's just not. So now I have to find some other software I like for burning CDs... any suggestions? I have Music Match but I really want something more functional.
Friday, February 01, 2002
I've been listening to a great mix by Sonal, Sea of Neon. It was inspired by the Rufus Wainwright song "California," and it's just a kick-ass mix. The songs create a perfect mood. I love it.
Check it out:
Drinking in LA - Bran Van 3000 LA Song - Beth Hart How to Fight Loneliness - Wilco Southern California Wants to Be Western New York - Dar Williams California Dreamin' - The Mamas and the Papas Do You Know the Way to San Jose? - Dionne Warwick Go West - Liz Phair 1979 - Smashing Pumpkins Desert Rose - Sting with Cheb Mami Malibu - Hole California - Rufus Wainwright Rattlesnakes - Tori Amos Faster, Faster - Bree Sharp Film Noir - Carly Simon Camera One - Josh Joplin Group Imitation of Life - R.E.M. San Andreas Fault - Natalie Merchant Charm Attack - Leona Naess Still in Hollywood - Concrete Blonde There Goes the Neighborhood - Sheryl Crow
I feel like a tool -- I had written this up as an entry on Tuesday, but I haven't really been able to access Blogger well for the last few days, so it never got posted. And in the meantime, Sonal wrote some very nice stuff about some of my mixes on her page. That, despite the fact that I still owe her the last two World in my Heads, and new copies of the first three, etc. Coming soon, I promise!
For Valentine's day I tried something new this year. I made a mix on an 8cm CD-R. These tiny little CDs are so cute, but I'd never worked with them before -- I didn't even know for sure if they'd play in a regular CD player. Turns out they work great in any player (or computer CD drive) that has the small inner circle set into the tray. (You can't use them in the kind of players where they slip into a slot, though.)
