Moving Megapost

So my move to Lawrence is upon me and consequently posting from me will be on hold for a while. Here is a Movin' Mix to keep you busy until I'm back to normal.

Supergrass -- Moving
From their self-titled album.

Butthole Surfers -- Moving to Florida
From the Left of the Dial collection.

Blur -- Movin' On
From their self-titled album.

The Byrds -- You Movin'
From the In the Beginning collection.

Beastie Boys -- Body Movin'
From Hello Nasty.

The Black Crowes -- Movin' On Down the Line
From the Warpaint album.

Moby -- God Moving Over the Face of the Water
From the I Like To Score album.

Yoko Ono -- I'm Moving On
From the Double Fantasy album.

Art Brut -- Moving to L.A.
From the Bang Bang Rock & Roll album.

The Warlocks -- Moving Mountains
From the Heavy Deavy Skull Lover album.

Deep Purple -- You Keep On Moving
From The Very Best of Deep Purple.

Wombats -- Moving to New York
From A Guide To Love, Loss and Desperation.

Red Album

Artist: Weezer
Album: Weezer (The Red Album)

Rating: Jimmy Carter

Having lived with the Red Album for a few days, I am thoroughly frustrated with it. It has one my favorite Weezer song since the Maladroit record's "Death and Destruction" and "Love Explosion" with "Pork and Beans." But it also has a serious battle on its hands for not just worst Weezer song to make its way onto an album but for worst songs of all-time. The two main offenders here are "Heart Songs" and "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived." I can't really bring myself to talk about "Heart Songs" it's so bad but "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" gives us nearly six minutes of crap-tastic entertainment to talk about. Let's start with the opening lyrics:

"You try to play it cool like you just don't care
But soon I'll be playin' in your underwear"

And I haven't mentioned that this is rapped by the way. This is the sort of rhyme scheme that I come up with when I try to write poetry...I guess I should stick to haikus.

Let's now move on to the full song title "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Quaker a Shaker Hymn). Here's an idea...let's write a 6-minute song essentially about sex [as a good 75% of Weezer songs are] and let's use a Shaker hymn as the backing meolody. In case you don't know, here are some facts about Shakers:

• they did not have sex, and instead adopted children to grow the congregation
• Shaker homes were segregated by sex
• They lived a communal lifestyle
• they made some pretty good furniture

I don't think a Shaker has ever uttered the words "I'm the Greatest Man That Ever Lived."

And I want to not that I'm not writing this because maybe it's cool to rip on Weezer. Weezer has probably shaped my life more than any other band...they are why I wear the glass frames that I do. I buy all their albums, no questions asked...what more could they want? I am just afraid I have come to expect too much from my favorite nerd band.

Let's leave this on a positive note...the best song on the album does not even come from Rivers Cuomo but instead guitarist Brian Bell with "Thought I Knew." I hope Weezer keep this up and take a more Blur-like attitude to sharing their lead singer duties.

Weezer -- Thought I Knew

Weezer -- Pork & Beans

Weezer -- The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)
Both tracks are from the Red Album.

Let's Try This Again

I'm not sure why these songs didn't show up on the Hype Machine so we will try it again...enjoy.

Badly Drawn Boy -- Soul Attitude

Devendra Banhart -- Heard Somebody Say

Blur -- Mr. Robinson's Quango (Live)

Lou Reed -- I Want To Boogie With You

R & R

I'll be blogging from an undisclosed location this weekend and next week for a little R & R before school starts again...I hope to post often but it probably won't be as much as usual...this should keep you satisfied for a little while:

Badly Drawn Boy -- Soul Attitude
From the Once Around the Block single

Devendra Banhart -- Heard Somebody Say
From the I Heard Somebody Say single

Blur -- Mr. Robinson's Quango (Live)
From the Live at Budokhan album

Lou Reed -- I Want To Boogie With You
From the The Bells album

Thoughts on Blur

You know, it is getting to the point where an outsider has to wonder is/was Britpop's 2nd greatest band, Blur, less than the sum of it's parts?

You have Damon Albarn putting out two great Gorillaz CDs and almost silently (at least here in the United States) you have Graham Coxon releasing a slew of solo CDs which are just as good (if not better) than some of the Blur albums...(Modern Life if Rubbish and 13, I'm looking at you...)

Graham Coxon -- Don't Believe Anything I Say

Buy all of Graham Coxon's solo albums here.

Real Time Blogging: Shuffle

I deleted everything off my mp3 player yesterday and was putting things back on but only got through A-F before it was kippy's time...so my real time blogging today won't have much variation...

1:22pm -- Beck "Where's It's At" -- My favorite song from Odelay and the beginning of the Beck "comeback" following "Loser"...has there been a song like it since?...not that I've found...even Beck doesn't sound like this anymore.

1:26pm -- The Darkness "Stuck in a Rut" -- This is from their 1st album and of course the Boston influence is front and center. "Stuck in a rut / stuck in a rut for eternity" Both songs so far have what could best be described as audio clips in the background that have little to nothing to do with the song except for setting the mood.

1:30pm -- Fall Out Boy "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More "Touch Me"" -- Giving your songs songs titles such as this sometimes fall into the trap of being better than the song itself. This is not the case.

1:32pm -- Blur "Theme From Retro" -- a largely instrumental track (minus the random Damon Albarn echos) from the Blur album...I will never forget my first introduction to Blur. I was 18 with my parent's on the last "family" vacation we would take together. We were in Wichita, Kansas and my sister and I were able to talk by Dad into tuning into the "alternative" station...which researching it today must have been FLY 92.7 and they played "Song 2." Years later and countless Blur EPs from eBay it is still one of my greatest musical "Ah Ha" moments.

1:36pm -- Doves "Last Broadcast" -- Not "The Doves" by the way, just "Doves"! I argue that "The Last Broadcast" is the greatest album of the 2000s thus far and that Doves taught Peter, Bjorn and John everything they know. Take that! I'm throwing seven different kinds of smoke!