from Hero In Me to Hey Now Everybody

Day 646, Session 118:
When/Where: Thursday March 27th - Sitting around the house after an afternoon spent at Crate & Barrel (where we purchased neither a crate nor a barrel.)
First song: Hero In Me by Jeffrey Gaines
Last full song: Hey Now Everybody by They Might Be Giants
Progress: 1869-1880 of 5803
Total Songs Heard: 1516

Live blogging the way through some of the H's.

Hero In Me by Jeffrey Gaines is a remnant from high school. I found the cd during the process of moving into this house. There's nothing wrong with it, and I'm not going to delete it, but at the same time I probably would never have noticed if I hadn't found it.

Hero Of Canton (The Ballad of Jayne) by Adam Baldwin - My friend Ryno was the first one to tell me how awesome Firefly was. For some reason I didn't immediately run out and watch all I could. Before Firefly I would have considered myself a moderate Joss Whedon nerd. The Wife and I had watched Buffy, but never bothered to watch Angel. After Firefly, consuming more things Whedon has become more important. Angel is on the Netflix list... right after we finish Battlestar Galactica. Hero Of Canton is probably my favorite scene from all of Firefly.



Hesitating Beauty by Billy Bragg & Wilco - I gotta be honest, this song kinda washed over me without really gaining my attention. I do fully support the Mermaid Avenue releases.

Hey Everybody by Jonathan Coulton - Hey JoCo!

Hey Georgie by Wally Pleasant - I agree with pretty much all of the views expressed in this song. Unfortunately, the one-term president part didn't work out.

Hey Girl by O.A.R. - I used to like O.A.R., then I found out they all went to Ohio State. Now they can sit and spin as far as I'm concerned. I really dislike Ohio State. This causes some issues with The Wife because she grew up in C-bus cheering for OSU. In fact, she claims her dad graduated from there (although I'm not sure I believe her.) Columbus, Ohio is a nice enough town that is unfortunate in that the entire city's priorities are totally out of whack. If the president were to be shot during football season, there's a 98% chance the top story on the local news in Columbus that night would be about the battle for 3rd string quarterback, while the presidential shooting would be reduced to a footnote story they sneak in between the weather report and the going-to-commercial banter. To make matters worse, last night my beloved Dayton Flyers lost to the team from C-bus. That only makes me hate them more.

Hey Hey What Can I Do by Hootie & The Blowfish - Confession time... I like Hootie & The Blowfish. I know their first cd got overplayed to death, but with the distance of 10+ years I have to say I'm always pleased when they come up on the ole iPod.

Hey Jude by The Beatles - A few years ago my parents took us all to Vegas to see Paul McCartney play. I remember being absolutely amazed by the energy in the building and the energy he brought to the stage (he is over 60 after all. By the time I get to 60 I'll be lucky if I'm not using a rascal to get to the kitchen from the living room.) When I was in 3rd grade I bought one of the Truly Tasteless Jokes books... I think it was volume 3. I don't remember many of the 'jokes' but I remember this one:
Q: What will it take for The Beatles to reunite?
A: Another 3 bullets.
Truly tasteless indeed (not to mention out of date now.)

Hey Kind Friend by Indigo Girls - My friend Margaret saw the Indigo Girls walking around New Orleans once. She's right, you can tell it's them, even from the back.

Hey Ladies Night by djBC - Who doesn't like a well constructed mash-up? Actually I suppose plenty of people don't, but I'm not one of them.

Hey Man (Now You're Really Living) by Eels - Just Eels? Should I still call them the Eels even though the isn't part of the name? This song was on the soundtrack to some Judd Apatow project right? Also, am I the only one who in his head envisions Judd Apatow as looking just like Paul Rudd?

Hey Now Everybody by They Might Be Giants - A 5 second song's a good way to end the day.

1st day of spring musical blowout

A funny thing happened after I added an e-mail address to the blog. I started getting occasional e-mails. I did appreciate the invitation I received to one of the SXSW parties. I'm not sure what I was supposed to do with the information about the new National Lampoon movie, but I'm glad they were thinking of me.

The best e-mail I've gotten so far is from Derek. Derek is a fellow Josh Joplin fan who, has had a heck of a time trying to find the two early Josh Joplin Band releases. ("Projector Head" and "Boxing Nostalgic") As previously mentioned, I was lucky enough to find a copy of "Projector Head" online for a reasonable price. When I talked to Josh he definitely encouraged me to find copies of those early cds for download instead of paying $30+. Wait a second... I have one of those cds and can put it online! (for a limited time)

Early Josh Joplin

The file linked above contains all of "Projector Head" as well as the 3 songs I've been able to track down from "Boxing Nostalgic" (Boxing Nostalgic, Waffle House Homecoming, and Smile.) Enjoy. Then when you're done enjoying head over to Josh's website to see when he'll be playing somewhere near you. Then go see him in concert.

To celebrate the first day of spring and the fact that we've recently passed the 1500 song mark I've also reactivated the files for the First 1000 Songs Mix that I put together back when 1000 songs were done.

First 1000 Mix Disc 1 - Original Post and Track Listing

First 1000 Mix Disc 2 - Original Post and Track Listing

Enjoy all the music and the end to this long, dark, cold winter. Here in Chicago we're celebrating arrival of Spring by forecasting 3-6 inches of snow tomorrow.

from Here Comes The Brides to Hernando's Hideaway

Day 633, Session 117:
When/Where: Friday March 14th - Back and forth to the post office.
First song: Here Comes The Brides by Various Artists
Last full song: Hernando's Hideaway by Billy May's Rico Mamba Orchestra
Progress: 1871-1879 of 5807
Total Songs Heard: 1504

As I believed I've mentioned, space on the ole iPod is somewhat at a premium at this point. Depending on the podcast situation I'm often finding myself under 100 mbs of space left. As such, I am going to go ahead and delete Here Comes The Brides. I feel safe doing so because I've already been to a wedding in Seattle (thanks Becky & Rich.) If I hadn't ever been to a wedding in Seattle, then I suppose it would be important to keep a song about women getting married there... you know in case I ended up dj-ing or officiating the ceremony.

Apparently, this song was the theme for a show about women who were imported into the roughest wild west town of them all (Seattle) after the civil war left the east coast devoid of men. Sounds a little too much like human trafficking too me, but apparently it was a big hit for one season before getting canceled after its second season. This theme song was added in the second season. I can't understand how it didn't work out. How could anyone turn off a show after this rousing opening?

Here Comes The Brides - The New Establishment and Hugo Montenegro

Deleted (but saved here for posterity.)

The Seattle wedding I attended was great. It took place on a boat that had been converted into a... well... a boat, but a boat that stayed docked and instead of going out on the water, you just have parties on the edge of the water.

It was a touching ceremony. At various points several different people were holding back tears. The bride held back tears during her vows. The groom held back tears when he saw the bride getting worked up. Joey and I held back tears when, in the middle of the ceremony, a shirtless guy in a motorboat came puttering by to see why all the fancy dressed folks were standing on the deck of a boat that wasn't going anywhere. Truly a fun time. Plus, any time I'm holding a beer in one hand and a bubble gun in the other during the ceremony, I'm calling it a successful wedding.

from Hello Hello Hello to Here And Now

Day 631, Session 116:
When/Where: Wednesday March 12th - Running (not literally) around the neighborhood catching up on chores
First song: Hello Hello Hello by The XYZ Affair
Last full song: Here And Now by Del Amitri
Progress: 1862-1877 of 5814 (skipped one podcast)
Total Songs Heard: 1495

Sweet Jesus Beverly, I believe winter may finally be giving up its icy grip on Chicago. Yesterday, for the first time in forever, I was able to go outside for an extended period without wearing a coat. Man that was refreshing.

Musically the day started with The XYZ Affair. To the best of my knowledge, the musical version of The XYZ Affair has nothing to do with the late 18th-century diplomatic imbroglio between the U.S.A. and France. I found the XYZ Affair after watching this video on the You Tubes:

I like this particular song, All My Friends, quite a bit. I decided to investigate more XYZ Affair after seeing this video. If you grew up at the same time I did, you also loved Double Dare and Marc Summers. The idea of Marc Summers keeping green slime in his fridge at home immediately endeared this band to me. If you'd like to discover some XYZ Affair for yourself, check out their website.

Then there was Hello, Dolly!

It was April 3rd, 1992. It was a Friday. I was 16. It was the night of my first real date. Yes, I was 16 and it was my first date. Why, you may ask, did it take until I was 16 to have a first date? There are a few reasons: 1) Have you seen me? I look pretty much the same now as I did then, only without the beard (which is to say, like a dweeb. For some reason the girls didn't go for the dweeb look.) B) It would be much more effective for the rule of threes if I had a solid B in place here, but I'm having trouble thinking of one so I'll move directly onto... III) There was only one girl I wanted to date.

The problem with reason III is that while the girl and I were very close friends, she was consistently dating people who weren't me. In fact, I had just about given up on the girl. Around Christmas she had been boyfriend free and we started spending a lot of time together and I took the plunge and asked her out... and she said no. Then around my birthday I tried again... and she said no. At that point I had just enough pride to tell her that I wasn't going to ask her out again. Of course since I still wanted to go out with her, this made the relationship a little awkward over the next month until finally I told her that I needed to break up with her as a friend.

About a week later she asked me out. Her sister drove. Two other friends were there too. I spent the whole show trying to figure out exactly how I had ended up there and hoping my hand didn't start sweating too much while holding hers. It wasn't really just the two of us until after the show. "Mysteriously" after the show everyone else disappeared for a little. She was sitting on a window ledge. I was standing next to her. I remember thinking, "So, here we are," as she leaned over and we kissed for the first time. My first kiss. (did I mention I was 16?!?) I had been waiting for it for 4 years. It was totally worth it.

I don't remember a damn thing about the show itself, but when I heard Hello, Dolly!, all the rest came rushing back.

Turns out there is an advantage to having a severely limited dating history. All the important individual moments stay within reach in my swiss cheese brain.

Hello, Dolly! - Bobby Darin

from Heaven to Hello City

Day 624, Session 115:
When/Where: Wednesday March 5th - "Liveblogging" through some afternoon chores
First song: Heaven (Live) by The Swimmers
Last full song: Hello City (Live) by Barenaked Ladies
Progress: 1857-1867 of 5831
Total Songs Heard: 1480

Back after a few days of recovering from my totally whack-a-do Saturday night. I'm efforting to live blog my way through today's tunes... so until the Last Full Song section above is filled in, feel free to check back to see what I can write with less than the space of a song to think about it.

2:16 - Heaven (Live) by The Swimmers - "Heaven is the town we grew up, all our friends around..." A great little tune from The Swimmers who coincidentally are from the town where I grew up, Philadelphia. I think a lot of people would be disappointed if heaven ended up being the town where they grew up. Not me. I like where I grew up, and liked that period of my life. I wouldn't mind trying it again with some of the wisdom I've gained since leaving. The Swimmers first full length cd came out yesterday. I'll be taking a listen at some point.

2:20 - Heaven Alive by Oceansize - The last of the short run of heaven related songs. Unfortunately it's at the bottom of the list which would go like this: 1. Heaven by The Swimmers 2. Heaven by Warrant (still a surprisingly good song) 3. Heaven by Better Than Ezra 4. Heaven Alive.

2:26 - Heavy Metal Drummer (Live) by Wilco - Chicago's Wilco recently completed a 5 night "residence" at the Riviera Theater here in town. The cool thing about being in Chicago is that Wilco will come here and play 5 nights in a row. The not cool thing is that everyone in Chicago LOVES Wilco, which makes it practically impossible to get tickets, even if they're here for 5 straight nights. Luckily, Heather over at Fuel Friends had it covered with a link to a live recording of night 5. I suggest you get over there soon and check it out before it disappears.

2:33 - Heavy Metal Drummer by Wilco - The album version, also awesome.

2:37 - Heist by Ben Folds - From the soundtrack to the movie "Over The Hedge" which was a passable film on its own merits that was pushed into the enjoyable realm for me due the fact that Ben Folds was heavily featured on the soundtrack. It's currently in rotation on HBO and the animation looks pretty sweet in HD. Don't go out of your way to watch it or anything, but if it happens to be on and you can't get to the remote you shouldn't have to poke your eyes out.

2:40 - Helicopters by Barenaked Ladies - Back in my radio days we were invited to a special preview of the Dayton Air Show (which is a really big deal around Dayton.) My two morning show co-hosts and I were each given a ride in one of three stunt helicopters that would be flying during the show. Just being in a helicopter was quite an experience. Then they started doing their formation flying. Weaving in and out of the other two copters was quite an exhilarating experience. I watched the scariest stunt from the safety of my copter, one of the other guys went way up in the air then killed the engine and free fell. During the fall the engine restarted and the copter started hovering safely again after falling about 90% of the way to the ground. It probably would have taken me 20 minutes to locate my stomach after a trick like that. I'm pretty sure the pilots did it 10 times that day.

2:45 - Hell by Squirrel Nut Zippers - I took too long typing that helicopter story and now don't have time to say anything about this song. Except to say that for such opposite concepts, the words Heaven and Hell are pretty close to each other alphabetically.

2:49 - Hell Is Chrome by Wilco - Figures... right after writing about how much everyone in Chicago loves Wilco, I immediately come to another Wilco song. Actually, to be honest, I didn't love this cd (A Ghost Is Born) nearly as much as I loved Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I've owned A Ghost Is Born since it first came out and this is probably only the 3rd or 4th time I've heard this song.

2:54 - Hello by Oasis - I very much enjoyed Oasis when What's The Story Morning Glory came out. I realize they were criticized for sounding too much like The Beatles, but... well... what's so bad about that? The Beatles were awesome, but the only thing time they're getting back together is for a heavenly reunion tour once Paul dies. Of course, unlike The Beatles, Oasis has done very little for me outside of one cd.

2:58 - Hello City by Barenaked Ladies - Track one of Barenaked Ladies first cd Gordon. I was hooked immediately. Apparently Hello City refers to Halifax, Nova Scotia. My favorite line: "Hello City, you've found an enemy in me." I don't think I have any enemy cities. I mean sure, I hate all the sports teams from New York, but now that my sister lives there I can't exactly hate the city.

3:01 - Hello City (Live) by Barenaked Ladies - Same song live from the Rock Spectacle cd.

Ok, got to wrap it up here for now as I've got another project I need to start working on.

Holy Fraking Schnitzel

So... I just sang Ebony and Ivory (I was horrible btw, but I'm not exactly caring about that at the moment) with Josh Joplin after he and Garrison Starr joined us for karaoke after their concert at Schubas tonight.

Were I an actual professional blogger type, I guess I would have come up with some sort of interview questions to ask them about their fantastic music.

Instead, I spent the whole time they were in our presence totally marking out and trying to figure out exactly how the evening's turn of events had turned from awesome (their show in the first place) to epic.

Anywho, if they should read this (since I gave them the blog address as part of my bugging them,) Josh, Garrison, thanks so much for coming out with us. The show was great enough, the after hours was even better. We look forward to seeing you both back in Chicago again soon. I will try to find a better song.

For everyone else, I encourage you again to check out Josh Joplin and to get on board with Garrison Starr as well.