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.

from Fun & Games to Get It Together

Day 546, Session 103:
When/Where: Tuesday December 18th - Running some Christmas related chores around the 'hood.
First song: Fun & Games by Barenaked Ladies
Last full song: Get It Together by Jackopierce
Progress: 1521-1546 of 5594
Total Songs Heard: 1234

First things first... let us all acknowledge the move from 'F' (last song: Future That Was) to 'G' (first song: G.O.D. which in this case stands for Good Old Days, but had an entirely different meaning in college when it was the wife's (then, the girlfriend's) BOX pledge name; and no, I'm not going to tell you what it stands for.)

Seems like I was in the 'F's forever. 193 songs isn't forever I guess, but considering it was still summer when the 'F's started and it was 3 days before winter when they ended, it certainly makes sense why it would seem that way. (Also, I still had a job when the 'F's started. In fact, the move that would eventually end with my quitting had just taken place.)

26 songs (most songs in a while) today but no giant I-have-to-write-about-this standout. Here's a Christmas sampler of music for your listening pleasure (no songs are Christmas related:)

Fun & Games - Barenaked Ladies
Is this a political protest song? Me thinks it is. I think this is one of the benefits BNL saw from releasing their Barenaked Ladies Are... cds on their own label. As much as I enjoy hearing a song about the complete boondoggle of a war we're totally stuck in right now, I can't imagine a major label would have given the ok to include such a song on a cd. The war in Iraq is another one of those things that I'm just not going to talk about here. But if you know how I feel about the completely corrupt and idiotic government that led us into this position, I think you can figure out how I feel about Iraq.

Fur Elise - Ludwig Van Beethoven
I taught myself how to play the main right hand part of this song. Unfortunately, I'm left hand stupid on the piano. I just don't understand chords. (I actually have the same problem with the guitar, which is why I continue to hesitate on signing up for banjo lessons.) Little known fact about me: I do everything right-handed except swing a baseball bat. Yep, I bat left-handed. Littler known fact: The only time I was able to hit 10 straight home runs in Wii Sports baseball, I did it hitting right-handed. Moral of the story, if I had switched to batting right-handed when I was a little kid, I probably would have been named in the Mitchell report last week.

Furry Old Lobster - Jonathan Coulton
This song is even more enjoyable if you have read John Hodgman's book. Oddly enough, after the song was released, an actual furry lobster was discovered. It's not the same lobster.

Gaelic Song - The Arrogant Worms
And the winner for best use of both strings and bits of the meow mix song goes to... this song. I'm sure if I spoke a Gaelic tongue this song would be even more moving.

Generator - Foo Fighters
This blogject very rarely rocks, so I thought it was important to point out a time when it does.

Get Back - The Beatles
When I was kid, I thought the first line of this song was, "Jojo was a man who thought he was a woman." This was in the days before I had heard of transvestites, so I thought this about the funniest opening line to a song ever. A man who thought he was a woman? That's just the sort of thing that will blow a 6 year-old's mind. Combine that with the later line (this one is real,)

Sweet Loretta Martin thought she was a woman
But she was another man

and I can honestly say that I didn't get this song at all, but I knew it was funny. Come to think of it, I still don't know what this song is about... except that it is not about trannies.

Get In The Car - Moxy Früvous
This one is a live recording from Canal Street Tavern in Dayton. I love every time I come across a track from that show, just wanted to share the love.

So that's about it. It's possible that this will be the last entry for a while (and yes, I'm happy to have ended up on song 1234.) The Wife and I head back to the family compounds for the holidays this weekend and I'm never sure if the computers back there are fully functional.

Merry Christmas to you and yours. Have a safe and happy new year. Thanks for your continued visits. See you again soon.

from Elbow Room to ELT

Day 390, Session 80:
When/Where: Tuesday July 17th - On the train and walking along Belmont and on the bus from work to home.
First song: Elbow Room by Sue Manchester
Last full song: ELT by Wilco
Progress: 1128-1142 of 5200
Total Songs Heard: 937

Hey now. Let's hear it for progress. After a 169 day lay-off it's time to get moving again. Since we were last together I'm going to estimate that I've added about 500 songs... a few new releases by old favorites (both B.L.A.M. releases from BNL,) several old releases that were found during the great flood cleanup (I haven't heard Little Earthquakes by Tori Amos since freshman year) and some fantastic new discoveries (say hello to The Avett Brothers.)

Also since my last listen, iTunes has again changed the way they treat the alphabet as far as song titles go. "A" now apparently comes before numbers which would change the whole title of the blog. Bah, I wish they'd just make up their mind. Or here's a crazy idea... let the user choose how they want alphabetical order settings to work (for example, I want "M" before "G"... fuck you G!) and then let them keep it that way. Wankers.

One I got past the iTunes garbage plugging back into the music was great. I've spent so much time with various podcasts in my ear that getting the complete musical experience (instead of just public radio types talking) was refreshing. That sense of refreshment lasted all of one song. Then, about 15 seconds into The Beatles doing Eleanor Rigby, refreshment turned to befuddlement.

I thought either my iPod, my headphones, or my head was broken. Everything sounded normal until they got to the start of the first verse. Then, all of the sudden, for reasons I can't explain, as Paul starts the verse the vocals cut out of my left ear and come up exclusively in my right. This lasted until the chorus, when voices returned to both ears, but different vocal parts came from each side. It was like The Beatles were standing around me singing the song, which was cool but also disorienting. Paul was always on my right no matter which way I turned.

Here, take a listen for yourself (headphones recommended for full effect):

Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles

So I guess my question is was it recorded this way on purpose, or do I just have a bum copy of "1?" (the greatest hits compilation) I don't suppose anyone out there has a copy of "Revolver" that can determine whether it sounds that way on the original album? Or if someone could at least listen to their copy of "1" to see if it does the same thing. Thanks.

Regardless, it was a good day. Music made the commute (which clocked in at almost an hour today, yuck) fly. I should try this more often.