Obama's Favorites Megapost

Okay, this is the last time I will milk Rolling Stone for a blog post for a little while, but in this week's issue, there is an extensive interview with Barack Obama in which he talks about the songs and artists that he likes...some tracks were mentioned specifically and some artists were just mentioned...here's what he likes:

Songs:

Bob Dylan -- Maggie's Farm
From Bring It All Back Home.

Bruce Springsteen -- The Rising
From the album of the same name.

The Rolling Stones -- Gimme Shelter
From the Let It Bleed album.

Artists: These are artists he mentions in the article but not the specific songs. The songs are of my choosing.

Bob Dylan: Obama reference the entire album Blood on the Tracks as one of his favorites...I've selected two songs from that.

Bob Dylan -- Buckets of Rain

Bob Dylan -- Shelter from the Storm
These two tracks are from Blood on the Tracks.

Aretha Franklin -- Chain of Fools [Live]
From Aretha in Paris.

Stevie Wonder: Obama is apparently a big Stevie fan and he mentioned five albums in the interview that come from the 70's.

Stevie Wonder -- Girl Blue
From Music Of My Mind

Stevie Wonder -- Big Brother
From Talking Book

Stevie Wonder -- Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years Away
From Fulfillingness' First Finale

Stevie Wonder -- Higher Ground
From Innervisions

Stevie Wonder -- Sir Duke
From Songs in the Key of Life

Earth Wind & Fire -- September
From their Greatest Hits collection.

Elton John -- I'm Still Standing

Elton John -- The Bitch is Back
Both tracks are from Greatest Hits 1970-2002.

John Coltrane -- Impressions [Live]
From the Live in Antibes 1965...which can be yours for only $1.78.

Miles Davis -- Directions
From The Cellar Door Sessions.

Miles Davis -- Salt Peanuts
From the Steamin' album.

Charlie Parker -- Koko
From The Talented Mr. Ripley Soundtrack.

Howlin' Wolf -- Killing Floor
From The Definitive Collection.

Sheryl Crow -- All I Wanna Do
From the Tuesday Night Music Club album.

Sheryl Crow -- D'Yer Mak'er [Led Zeppelin Cover]
From the Ecomium: A Tribute to Led Zeppelin album.

Jay-Z -- Big Pimpin'
From the MTV Unplugged album.

Jay-Z -- 99 Problems [Grey Album Version]

Keep Looking Up

There are a few things on TV that when I'm flipping around and I find it, I will watch all the way through...these include:

• any West Wing episode
• any episode of MythBusters
• any episode of The McLaughlin Group

and anytime Star Gazer, formerly known as Star Hustler, is on PBS.

For those not familiar with the Star Gazer/Star Hustler he is Jack Horkeimer who is the Executive Director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium at the Miami Science Museum. More impressive than the title however is the presentation of Star Hustler which incorporates fascinating astronomy news and updates with what can best be described as "amazing" video effects.

When I was a kid, my local PBS station would play Star Gazer/Star Hustler just before they signed off for the broadcast day and each episode would end with the Horkeimer's phrase "Keep Looking Up."

Here is an example of the older Star Hustler version of his show:



Simian Mobile Disco -- Hustler
From the Attack Decay Sustain Release album.

Jay-Z -- I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me) [Unplugged Version]
From the MTV Unplugged album...and although it doesn't have "Hustler" in the title, this song should be called "I'm A Hustler" for it's well known repeated sample.

Relevant Interview: Aaron Schroeder

This is the first in what will hopefully become a fairly regular thing here at YASR, the Relevant Interview. First up, Kenniwick, WA's favorite indie adopted son, Aaron Schroeder.

Aaron is a self described "avid reader" who also makes great music ranging from indie Americana to 60's pop...His 2nd album Black & Gold was finished recently and I have been lucky enough to have been enjoying it for the past couple of weeks. Aaron took the time to answer a few questions last week:

Q: My favorite song on the album is "Fake Crimes" can you talk a little bit about the writing of that song and its origins?

A: Musically, Fake Crimes is my attempt at stealing from Dan Bejar's "Thief" record - particularly the"Canadian lover/ don't demean yourself" track. I was hoping to create a song with a lot of momentum right from the beginning that kept building upon itself without the whole soft/loud-Kurt Cobain dynamic.Lyrically, the track is about a pair of lovers who stage a kidnapping. Near the end of the song, thenarrator offers to take a bullet in order to save the police from shooting his lover ("Since your body isworth more than mine/ They can aim their guns straight toward me"). To me, the lyrics are actually very tender and sweet.

Aaron Schroeder -- Fake Crimes

Q: Your bio has you living in Kennewick, WA...what is the musical scene like there?

A: There really isn't too much of a scene here - what you have is yours only because you've made it. I moved her two years ago and I didn't really step into anything resembling a scene, but now I have the most amazing friends who all happen to play music. It's definitely laid back, which allows us all to create and focus on good work, rather than losing track.

Q: How long was the recording process for Black & Gold? Did you have all the songs ready to roll or did you write in the studio?

A: We didn't actually do any of the recording in a "studio". It was all done in living rooms andbasements. What I do is create the demos which the band then sort of siphons through. Once we have a good batch of songs we're all excited about, various people will just play whatever they think sounds appropriate on each song. Cramer (the drummer/ main producer) then edits everything together and we all go back and forth fucking with levels until we're all satisfied.

Q: What are the most important albums of your summer?

A: I have started out the last few summers making a Belle & Sebastian mix CD which is always a wonderful thing to walk around town listening to. I do the same thing with my Jay-Z albums as well. I listen to the Byrds a lot in the summer. The first Phoenix album, particularly the track "Funky Squaredance" is a great summer song. There's also a buddy of mine who writes amazing songs named David Bello, I'd recommend him for some interesting summer music.

Q: I write about politics as well as music...what is your favorite politician/leader and why?

A: I've enjoyed both of Barack's books on both personal and political terms. I'm also very interested in thisnew Colbert running for President thing - I think it will be interesting to see how that pans out.

Black & Gold is out now and you can pick it up from Amazon here or directly from the artist here.