Putting The I in Migas

If its not a rhapsody, well it will just have to do...

An old friend of mine recently dropped her job, kidnapped her sister and set out on the open road. Traveling with little more than a working vehicle, a digital camera and a vague notion of where they'll sleep that night the two are making there way across the US. 

Music and long drives are like peas and carrots, so I figured I'd whip up a quick mix tape and email it over to them.  Considering I was choosing from the limited selection of music on my work laptop I was shocked at how much I liked the mix. Still it was missing something, and from there I couldn't help but think it needed some liner notes to be fully appreciated.  

My afternoon was ruined.

I clearly couldn't e-mail these notes to them.  It would have freaked them out. 

So I brought to migas.  For your listening enjoyment or fodder to mock, have at it: "Trip to Cleveland:  Road Daze Fall 2009 BFF"  along with some song notes, a couple good pieces of trivia and every overblown rock cliche this side of "sun drenched california psych pop"

Download zip file here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/999987/No%20Trip%20to%20Cleveland.zip

Mendocino (1969)- San Antonio native Doug Sahm was originally signed to cash in on the popularity of british invasion bands. The marketing wizards came up with the name The Sir Douglas Quintet to give these Texans an air of aristocracy to match their regal sound. Sahm and the other blokes in the band headed to San Francisco in 1966, where for the only time in the city's history it was a cultural center, creating something on par with its physical beauty.  Even though SDQ was a center piece in the creation of the scene, Texas was never far from Sahm's heart and he returned to Texas in 1969.   But to show that it was nothing personal, Sahm penned this love letter to his adopted city.  Its hard to find a better example of the window between garage rock and psycadelic sounds.

Second Hand News (1970) This under-appreciated album opener provides a refreshing balance to the played to death tracks off of Rumors. Along with the jaunty acoustic guitar work and dynamic harmonies News stands alone atop an all too short list of catchy, not so subtle pop songs that address the mysteries and power of cunnilingus. 

40 Dogs Romeo and Juliet (2009) Austin native Bob Schneider has been ready to break it big for the past twenty years. Since his excellent Lonelyland the hardest working man on the third coast has been cultivating a sound that might best be described as what Jack Johnson would sound like if he wasn't so terrible. This latest single is more conservative than his previous efforts but brings it home with a snappy, fun, summer groove that makes you unashamedly crank up the volume, roll down the windows and get dirty to some good adult oriented rock.

40 Day Dream (2009) I was lucky enough to catch Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros during south by southwest. I left impressed and convinced that I had discovered something new. I soon learned that Columbus had already found them, and I was an old man.  Nonetheless, 40 day dream captures the organic, join the band, no shower no problem, hippie energy of the outfit.

Kick Drum Heart (2009)The Avett Brothers have caught some flack from fans for this faux lo-fi, new wavey cut on the otherwise sonically rich I and Love and You. I guess I can see that, but fuck it- the song makes me want to dance.

Borderline (2009) The Flaming Lips give this dance-hall classic a shot of ketamine chased with cough syrup. The hazy verses and droned out climaxes lead to Wayne Coyne's echo hall chorus and almost adds gravitas to what Madonna made sound like bubble gum.

Abandoned Love (1975)Widely bootlegged and revered by Dylan hardcores it took ten years for this song to surface on an official Dylan recording. Recorded in 1975 as his first marriage dissolved, this chestnut is as well written and fresh sounding as any of the material released while Dylan was busy inventing rock and roll a decade earlier.

Use Yr Love- (2007) KT Perry's classy cover of the Outfield 80's classic tale of guy who turns to a young impressionable girl for comfort while his current steady is out of town. Working with epic lines like "don't you know I like my girls a little bit older" Perry adds her own twist to this wholesome family favorite. Surprising fact: Along with their chosen handle, The Outfield expressed their love for america's pasttime in several different tracks.  The kicker?  They're limey's. 

The Man Behind the Drums (2009) Like the Grateful Dead, the ardor of Robert Earl Keen's hardcore fans results in him being dismissed by tastemakers.  But along with the glory of binge drinking, white hatted southern frat boys are right about this guy. REK is a serious songwriter who doesn't let that get in the way of having a great time. On this tribute to Levon Helm, Keen falls short of besting the Drive by Truckers's "Danko/Manuel" in the quest for the best song about The Band, but that's stiff competition and Man Behind the Drums serves as a worthy companion piece.

Midnight at the Movies(2009): Justin Townes Earle is able to play old time texas swing and not-nashville country music with an authenticity that so many alt-country bands feign. At least I think so, without a reference point I can only rely on the way his voice on this track melts me. The lyrics drip like honey through a light Texas-waltz and makes a lonesome activity turned casual encounter sound as American an outing as attending a high school football game.

Sugar (2009) : I know very little about Birmingham Alabama's Vulture Whale. Along with their btown brethren, The Dexateens, this band was recommended by the good folks over the Adios Lounge. Now there is a blog worthy of your eyeballs. Though postings have slowed, the recommendations and in depth studies of artists both new and old have been driving my music purchases for over a year now. So when Lounge Chief Proprietor LD raved that Sugar was what "pop music should sound like" I knew I had a safe bet.

Mother and Child Reunion (2007) Good piece of trivia. Paul Simon got the name for this song at a chinese restaurant where the menu featured an egg and chicken dish called the Mother and Child Reunion. I love that story.  But its only once and a while that you get shown the light in the strangest of places. The Morning Bendersfound their in a more familiar place- They set up a four track in their bedroom, recorded some of their favorite songs on whatever instruments were available and posted them on-line. This might be the best of "The Bedroom Covers" but its worth downloading here and judging for yourself.

Rhapsody (2001):While Alejandro Escovedo was awarded "Artist of the 90's" by No Depression in 1996, he created saved some of his best work for this 2001 release. I'm not sure if Rhapsody is the best song to post, but it has the rare quality of sounding familiar on the first listen but not derivative. For you fans of political miscellany  When informed that his rocker "Castanets" was on the jogging mix of President George Bush, Escavedo decided to stop playing the crowd favorite live.

Kingpin (1996):The opener at the first Wilco concert I saw has been my favorite Tweedy song ever since. Bob Egan's peddle steel makes its way inside of your body, slides under your spirits and wiggles them right on up to the top. .

The Weight- The best cover of the best song out there. Enjoy.

Tex Mex Mile (2009)- God bless the Gourds. The ever brilliant Kevin Russell captures the fun, slightly sloppy, irreverent essence of Americana at its finest. Originally titled the "Tex Mex, Tattoo Pakistani Package Mile" Russell turns the shady legal and illegal commerce between hookers, hippies and other undesirables into a romantic and joyous depiction of a South Austin that had changed long before I arrived.  Much like the South Congress streetwalkers described here, the Gourds "ain't good looking but they got that freaky style".

Lost in the Rain in Juarez, It's Eastertime Too

Let's do a brief overview and a quick test and then move on.

Since I last posted (chronological order)

• My sister-in-law delivered a godchild
• Some good friends got married
• The government tested the diversified business approach by buying some car companies Hopefully this is the first step and they'll be able to wield to the same acumen in the healthcare field.
• California crumbled into the sea
• My former roommate got married, pregnant and moved to broke California
• Famous people died
• My best friend brought home a son. 

And I am positive that you, my dear readers, have been continuing in your quest.  You've undoubtably kept the course and kept fighting the good fight, holding onto the world by the shortest and curliests of hairs.   edited per suggestion of one of my dear readers.

Never one to slack, I too have been busy.  Though less than prolific on the blog front I've spent the hottest summer on record mastering keyboard shortcuts, researching the seedy underbelly of conveniences store politics and staring at a blank tv screen while dreaming of what could have been. 

So that's that.  Real posts to return at some point.  In the meantime, this poorly constructed filler just a means to test new functionality.  Type pad tells me that this mp3 will play inline.  Try it out.

Download Bob Dylan (w_Doug Sahm) - Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues

Editors note:  This doesn't play inline.  I'm working on it but just because it opens like it was 1999 doesn't mean it should be ignored.  Sahm sings the last and best verse in the third verse slot before singing the first verse last.  When the song is over he offers a mawkish intro to the most famous person still alive and mumbles about something. 

v

Narrow Mind Clydes, Suckers

A couple months back MTV put their entire library of videos on line Somehow I couldn't find "Deeper Shade of Soul" online but its about the only thing that works on Boxee right now.  I think this is my favorite video of all time.

Without wikipedia I would have never known that they're a Dutch outfit.

The song is pretty great, but how many rap videos take place in empty pools surrounded with skateboarders.  Also the DJ is wearing a Charlie Brown t-shirt and the MC, a t-shirt from the U. Can't complain about that.  Pretty decent write up on the album as a whole from allmusic.com.

Might be worth an ebay search.

Kicking Television

With the roommate moving out and the economy crumbling to the sea I took it upon myself to make an economical adult decision and cancel my cable service.  A tech savy friend of mine explain to me how with appletv, an external harddrive and boxee I could access everything I wanted to watch on demand. The new rig would cost me about 300 dollars and with my cable bill right at $100 a month the math meant that I'd have saved 500 dollars by the time I needed to get back on the grid for college football. 

Boxee was the wildcard and essential to success.  AppleTv is a wonderful device, but without adding software you're just giving iTunes prime real estate on your tv set. And Guatama aside, Steve jobs gets paid.  The rub in this is that ATV is a small box designed to be a closed system, so in order to download Boxee you need to remotely enter ATV through another computer. Boxee is linux based so if you run windows you'll need to download Putty just to simulate the shell secure connection of a linux operating system.  If I've lost you in there you're not alone, I have no idea what any of this means, but I'm starting to think with a two hours and access to a message board I could clone a sheep.  With that unsupported confidenced I copy and pasted away on my trusty dell. The next thing I knew my tv was taking me inside the matrix, and then boom, nothing and appletv rebooted. Dancing.  With boxee in place I could run torrents to view big love on demand, watch hulu in high def and run all the music on my harddrive through my stereo*.  My living room was now the future.

By the second day it became obvious that my logic hadn't been this flawed since the time I tried to argue a $200 speeding ticket by explaining to a cop that the school zone signs were blocked by all of the yellow buses.  Even though I'm sure I'll get over having missed Conan's final episode, the Oscars and a State of the Union, I vastly underestimated the value of live television.

Sadly, its the company i miss and not the programming.  Breakfast and Matt Lauer for fifteen minutes is a good start to a world of opportunities, without the moving pictures you're just a 31 year old in polar bear boxers and black socks with a bowl of dry cornflakes and some lactose issues.  The mindless relaxation that comes with finding a Road Rules marathon on a sunday afternoon evaporates by the time you fire up the apple tv and download something to watch.  And the serendiptous feeling of joy when you happen to join Shawshank with forty minutes left is not replaced by infinite, commercial free movies at your finger tips.

Not all is lost though.  If nothing else it's a nice talking point for friends and family.  This past weekend I spent twenty minutes explaining to my father how the hole thing worked.  He couldn't follow but was thoroughly impressed with my ingenuity and wanted to see it in action.  Immediately he asked if he could watch fox news: ever the proud son, I scrolled through the options and selected view all podcasts.  After thoroughly searching that list I returned to the main menu.  From here I used the tiny remote control scroll wheel to type fox news in the search bar.  The tv screen showed that it was buffering, and buffering and the presto, Dad was watching Katie Couric interview Captain Sully in grainy pixilated high definition.

Lest I forget about  the cost savings and ability to access the internet on your tv. For example,  yesterday, after returning from a long day at the office I prepared to watch last Friday's episode of the brilliant friday night lights.  I went to the Hulu option and was greeted by a message saying that in order to maintain the opportunity to make deals in the future, Boxee was observing Hulu's wishes to remove the program from their services.  This was a setback.  Hulu has the most free, quality content online.  However, I could easily watch something that wasn't owned by NBCUniversal or Fox.  So I went to the download site and picked up the entire first season of "Life on Mars", a subpar drama with Christofer Maltasante.  In twenty minutes I was watching my first episode and it had only cost me thirty nine dollars.  Patience is a virtue and I was rewarded for my virtuous efforts two episodes in when I realized that I didn't like "Life on Mars" and I should cross it off my list of a possible Big Love substitute. 

When I cancelled my services from Time Warner the operator was eager to intice me to stay by presenting me with sweet sounding.  She read directly from a script and offered me reduced rates and other spoils.    These 20th century tactics might work on the rest of their backbone-free luddite customers, but I declined. I understand computers, have access to the internet and am blessed with the skill set to overcome the short comings inherent in new technologies.  I am sure she could sense my superiority through the phone (I only wish I had conducted the call on a VOip network) when she posed the question "What are you going to do for TV".  My sarcastic and demeaning "I'll find away to make it through" had a simple yet obvious subtext, "I'm going to spend way more money each month watching crap I could care less about.  Technology, friends, will save us all.

It Doesn't Matter What they Say

Awful about posting of late.  Just awful.  Excuses are futile and lame.  There has been time, there has been motivation, and there have even been ideas.  But there hasn’t been any production.  If you’re feeling betrayed my dear readers, I understand and I don’t begrudge.  I’ve failed you.  I will save the apologies, because I’ll fail you again, it’s the easiest thing to do.  But if you’re still with me, thanks, I’m not sure I’m worthy of your loyalty but I’ll take what I can get in this mixed up existence.

Quick tidbit from on a busy day in the cube.

This past weekend  my parents visited the little city and spoiled me with nights on the town and hardware for homestead repairs.  On the way back from dropping them off at the airport I was left with some surplus lettuce burning a hole in my pocket.  So I figured I’d indulge and consume at Breakaway Records on E 5th street.  

I spend most of my time and record dollars at End of an Earon S 1st.  It’s close to my home and though the staff is as savvy as the most arrogant music snob, they are the nicest most, approachable and non judgmental folks on the planet.  They have a new vinyl selection that parallels Waterloo Records, will special order new releases and also stock a great selection of Used Jazz.  They specialize in the real out there psych and punk that people in the know go crazy over.  And while their more known recordings section is better than adequate, I have been in enough of late that once I get through the new arrivals I know most of the inventory.

On the other hand, I haven’t spent much time in Breakawayso it offers new treasures with each visit. I heard about the place from an ad on Craigslist right after I bought the turntable.  I went the following Friday hoping to walk away with a couple keepers but left with more than forty records for less than sixty dollars.  It was enough to hit the ground running on my collection.  Since then I’ve been back a few times and from what I gather the place is owned by two friends.  They’re young guys, with taste that runs the mainstream to esoteric.  While they don’t stock any new pressings or re-issues they have an amazing selection that they keep fresh and up to date with the records you want but can never find.  The staff yearns for the question is “what’s good that I haven’t heard.”and if asked, they’ll dive into the stacks and pull tons of stuff with detailed reviews, artists influences and commentary on the physical shape of each individual disc.  Almost self consciously they’ll even knock a couple bucks off any record they suggest at the register. 

All of this extraneous commentary is just a means to delay the mountains of work I have and tell you that on Sunday I was greeted with a bunch of great records from the recently arrived pile.  Instantly I had eight or nine classics in my hand.  Legit stuff like Rain Dogs (doesn’t ever stay on the shelves for long), “There’s a Riot going On” early pressing in good shape and even a mono “Blonde on Blonde” (way out of my price range).  But there was one record in the pile that made me wish I was in a less personal store.  I decided that no matter the momentary embarrassment,  at 1.99 it was going home with me.  I edited my other choices to five and stepped to the register with trepidation.  When the clerk got to the Go Go’s “Beauty and the Beat”I said something to the effect of “it’s for my little sister” to which he replied. “Are you kidding me, keep it.  That record is amazing front to back.  I even heard little Stevie mentioned “smidmarks on my heart” as a garage classic the other day.”

This was the reassurance I needed to pass the information on to what’s left of my faithful readership.  I played it that evening for a friend and she confirmed, it plays great top to bottom .  It’s not going to be a mainstay but nor will it become a novelty piece, or regulated to the spot in the bottom of the closet next to my Gilmore Girls complete series.  It’s just a good pop record, and there seem to be more of those from 1981 then there have been in the whole run of the uh ohs.  I don’t suggest you drop everything and go pick it up but If there is a moral here, it’s that its time for me to discount grossly overpriced context.  Hush the inner cynic and get to the heart of the matter.  Little Stevie doesn't doubt his instincts, following his heart got him on the radio, in the E-Street band and on the Sopranos (actually the Sopranos probably took him for his brass balls and his word, which he doesn't break for noone). The other takeaway, of course, being that at my core, I am a twelve year old girl.