iTunes Shuffle 9/27/13

1. Astronautalis - "Lift The Curse"
2. Blessed Feathers - "Stinging Nettle, Honeysuckle"
3. Strange Mangers - "Handmaids"
4. Big Head Todd & The Monsters - "Cashbox"
5. Cowboy Junkies - "Walkin' After Midnight" (Patsy Cline cover)
6. Beck - "Profanity Prayers" (acoustic)
7. Robert Plant & Alexis Korner - "Operator"
8. Cults - "Abducted"
9. Bob Cheevers - "All I Want From Memphis"
10. Fanfarlo - "Finish Line"

Every time I do this shuffle, I find at least one song I've never heard that I find absolutely breathtaking. This time it's the very first song, from Astronautalis. Close runners up are the song from Blessed Feathers, Fanfarlo, and the Cowboy Junkies' Patsy Cline cover.

Everyone who's drinking is already drunk or sleeping
Everyone who isn't is just too political to talk to
Another summer evening and the city's barely breathing
Just ain't the same
Just ain't the same without you

There ain't no magic in materials, magic's in our words
That we whisper in each others' ears to make diamonds out of dirt
There ain't no glory in the silken things, glory's in the hurt
And can split your skin from end to end down the center of the earth

There's poison words just gurgling
At the base of your throat
You swallow them back down

You and yours they bring me down
With nails their grudging hammer falls
Not meant for wedding gowns

And though we won't be there's memories I'll still keep

You're holding hands with some new girl
You braid her hair into curls
Because I set you free

I hope you plan to speak to her
In the sweetest honeysuckle words
Stinging nettle though I'll be

I'm sorry dear with all my heart
With tears I broke your fragile heart
I opened up your cage

I hope you're well and doing fine
And found a love as pure as mine
We're on a brand new page

It doesn't make sense to me
I'm not listening 
Whatever
You seem to be all right...

You got love in the cashbox, baby
Now give it to me
You got diamonds on the dresser,
Bring 'em on here you see
Didn't your momma tell ya, it's better to give than receive...

I stop to see a weeping willow
Crying on his pillow
Maybe he's crying for me
And as the skies turn gloomy
Night winds whisper to me
I'm lonesome as I can be

I go out walking after midnight
Out in the starlight
Just hoping you may be
Somewhere a-walking after midnight
Searching for me

Well you know how it looks
When you pull all your books from the table
And you stare into space
Trying to discern what to say now
And you wait at the light
And watch for a sign that you're breathing
'Cause you can't just live on air
And float to the ceiling

So many sad, sad, sad years, baby, but I've had a lot of fun
So many sad, sad, sad years, I've had my fun
But the day I met you, darling
All my troubles have begun...

I knew right then that I'd been abducted
I knew right then that he would be taking my heart
I knew right then no one was above him
I knew right then that he would be breaking my heart

He tore me apart because I really loved him
He took my heart away and left me to bleed out, bleed out
He broke my heart because I really loved him
He took it all away and left me to bleed out, bleed out

Just a cute little love song about loving someone in Memphis.

Last year was a good year, I beat myself to a bloody mess
But blue is the colour of the days I'm hoping for
What have you done to the mind you had
Out there somewhere is the finish line

iTunes Shuffle 9/20/13

1. Freelance Whales - "The Great Estates"
2. CSS ft. Ssion - "City Grrrl" (MEN Meets GRRRL RMX)
3. Belly - "Someone To Die For"
4. Paul McCartney & Wings - "Live And Let Die"
5. Micachu & The Shapes and the London Sinfonietta - "Everything"
6. Nirvana - "Something In The Way"
7. Das Racist ft. Despot - "Rooftop"
8. Tori Amos - "Beauty Queen" (live 6/5/05 Manchester, UK)
9. Pleyel: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 2, No. 3, Ben. 309: I. Adagio (John Holloway, violin)
10. The Clash - "Cheat"

All over the place. Freelance Whales is the kind of music I listen to in order to find peace. And the Micachu & The Shapes piece is absolutely astounding and mesmerizing.

We beg rebirth
to take us up
Parade our souls
out by the back gate
Some claw the ground
Some cut the air
Some warm the seas
But what will you be and when?

Something fun and dancy about not giving a shit.

Would you lay your body
Down on the tracks for her?
Stand on one tiptoe
In hell for her?
Don't you have someone
You'd die for?

...this ever-changin' world
in which we live in
Makes you give in and cry
Say live and let die...

I don't believe in anything
So give me everything...

Underneath the bridge
The tarp has sprung a leak
And the animals I've trapped
Have all become my pets
And I'm living off of grass
And the drippings from the ceiling
But it's okay to eat fish
'Cause they don't have any feelings

Words. So many fun words. Das Racist rules.

she's a beauty queen
my sweet bean bag in the street
take it
down out to the laundry scene
don't know why she's in my head
can't figure what it is
but I lie again

How 'bout some nice classy-cal music?

I get violent when I'm fucked up
I get silent when I'm drugged up...

iTunes Shuffle 9/13/13

1. Lionel Richie - "All Night Long (All Night)"
2. Phish - "Faht"
3. Star & Micey - "Friend Again"
4. Paperclip People - "Throw"
5. Twin Sister - "All Around And Away We Go"
6. Denison Witmer - "How To Be Alone"
7. Radiohead - "Reckoner"
8. Foster The People - "Call It What You Want"
9. Throwing Muses - "Bluff / Blurry"
10. Amazing Baby - "Pump Yr Brakes"
11. Amazing Baby - "Bayonets"

This song makes me want to be on an island somewhere, and never come back.

An instrumental that somehow bridges from the first song back into real life.

When we get all alone
And all of the magic between us is gone
And you say we should quit
But I say no, 'cause you're my friend...

A really, really long, trance-inducing sort of electonic-y thing.

All around and away we go...
I'm smiling for two...

This is how you learn to be alone
Story of your life is mine to share
A pendulum that swings
You lost so many things
So you will always be the first to leave

You were not to blame for
Bittersweet detractors
Dare not speak his name
Did I cater to all you
All your needs?

We're locked up in ideas
We like to label everything
Well I'm just gonna do here what I gotta do here
'Cause I gotta keep myself free

I called your bluff...

You said you wouldn't leave me
But you left me alone
And now I sit here waiting for you, babe

You looking for a place to vent, you've been running on Jesus but it's not the same...

iTunes Shuffle 9/6/13

1. Foals - "Olympic Airways"
2. Pajama Club - "From A Friend To A Friend"
3. Admiral Radley - "I Heart California"
4. Dr. John & The Lower 911 - "Dream Warrior"
5. String Cheese Incident - "How Mountain Girls Can Love" (The Stanley Brothers cover)
6. Sufjan Stevens - "Happy Karma Christmas"
7. The Libertines - "Don't Look Back Into The Sun"
8. Beirut - "Scenic World"
9. Dr. Dog - "I Can't Fly"
10. Cale Parks - "Age Of Reform"

Well, this mix sure is odd. "Happy Karma Christmas" is a really good kind of break-up song, if you need that. Also, it's beautiful. Beirut's always great. The Dr. John song is stirring. Cale Parks is really pretty, and he makes pretty music. And other stuff.

Let's disappear till tomorrow...

the savior, is coming
the future, anonymous
the present, arriving
gift wrapped, from a friend to a friend...

This is just a song about hearting California.

"The dark, bluesy 'Dream Warrior' is a brilliantly-penned song with a deceptively understated soundtrack and pointed Dylanesque lyrics. John delivers his words with more venom than any half-dozen gangsta rappers, never getting angry but rather portraying a quiet rage against the injustices heaped upon New Orleans in the wake of Katrina. In his dreams, the singer fights against the hypocrisy that has left the city in ruins nearly three years after the storm."

Robert E. Lee
Stonewall Jackson
KKK is all back in action
So you tell your Miss Billie Holiday
Strange fruit good today...

Old bluegrass love song rendered well by the String Cheese Incident:

Would it have been best to forget you
Would it have been better for me
And if I could write off your intentions
Would you pretend you don't love me

And I wish you a happy karma Christmas
And I miss you my happy karma girl...

Don't look back into the sun
Now you know that the time has come
And they said it would never come for you...

The lights go on
The lights go off
When things don't feel right
I lie down like a tired dog
Licking his wounds in the shade

When I feel alive
I try to imagine a careless life
A scenic world where the sunsets are all
Breathtaking

I can't fly
Just look at me
It ain't even a goddamn possibility

Oh and I know that Saturdays, they are a bust
They're over when you wake up
And immediately you're drunk...

Pretty song, pretty man.