It's an Ultra-Lounge Christmas

Click to groove on an Ultra-Lounge Christmas Playlist on Rhapsody.

Tables Turn

iTunes played this Decibully song for me last night as I was walking to meet Mike and Dori at Barking Dog.

(Listen to Tables Turn on Last.fm or on Rhapsody)

It was still stuck in my head after I got back home, so I went looking for chords or tab since I really like the chord progression and guitar parts. Ended up spending an hour or so last night fumbling towards it.

All I did find online was lyrics, but all the ones I found were garbled, so here they are transcribed correctly, apparently for the first time. (It takes us monkeys a while to get things right, but we get round to it eventually.)

you packed your life up into boxes
and what didn't fit
you carried
and the heavy things, you left

the city loves you it gives you oxygen
and a little space
to be filled
with all the heavy things you make

CHORUS
i'm not wasting
loose change
‘cause i'm changing
falls without wings
i'm not waiting
on tables to turn
‘cause i'm turning
forgive me for all things

the mirror kisses like you once did
at first it's cold
but delicate
then it reflects much more

my focus now is on the closest things
since my glasses broke
someone else should drive
or i might not leave at all

CHORUS

BRIDGE

CHORUS

i'm not disapproving
if you got something to prove
well then prove it

we've got something
nothing else matters now does it
forgive me for all things

Lord, I'm Discouraged

No, I'm not discouraged. I'm actually happy! Happy about this news, at least: The Hold Steady's magnificent classic rock lament/homage "Lord I'm Discouraged" is available on Rhapsody now! (It wasn't the last time I raved about how good it is.)

Go listen.

Lord, I'm Discouraged by The Hold Steady

(Or if you'd rather YouTube than Rhapsody, I gotcha covered there too.)

That guitar solo completely channels rock. 

As always, the lyrics kill.

And the chorus builds to a crescendo, and the piano, it sounds like a carnival, and the microphone smells like a beer....

Go listen now. These are the disciples of St. Joe Strummer. 

Everything that Happens Will Happen Today

David Byrne and Brian Eno's new album isn't available on Rhapsody yet, but that's OK because you can stream the whole thing from their website. Heck you can stream it from my website!



I'm enjoying it quite a lot.

How to never run out of music to listen to

I finally updated my shortcuts page with links to the music sites I've been using. Now I'll surely be using them even more...

Rhapsody •  Last.fm  •  Pandora  •  Muxtape  •  HypeMachine  •  Critical Metrics  •  iLike  •  Internet Archive  •  Wolfgang's Vault  •  KEXP  •  KCRW •  Songbird  •  Paste  •  Rolling Stone •  Monitor Mix

I'm certain there are other great music sites out there I don't know about...what am I missing?

The Hold Steady!

Just got back from seeing The Hold Steady at the Capitol Hill Block Party. Great show! The sound wasn't perfect though - I do wish I could see them at First Avenue next week!

Here's a few selected awesome The Hold Steady songs: Dan's The Hold Steady Sampler on Rhapsody

Sadly, Rhapsody does not have Lord, I'm Discouraged (or as I think of it, "Excuses, and half-truths, and fortified wine") which MUST be listened to for the guitar solo, not to mention the heartbreaker story. So here it is on Last.fm.

Part of the joy of The Hold Steady is in the lyrics. Here's an example:

Slapped Actresses

Don’t drop little hints. I don’t want them to guess.
Don’t mention Tampa, they’ll just know all the rest.
Don’t mention bloodshed, don’t tell them it hurts.
Don’t say we saw angels, they’ll take us straight to the church.

Stuck Between Stations

She was a really cool kisser and she wasn’t all that strict of a Christian.
She was a damn good dancer but she wasn’t all that great of a girlfriend.
He likes the warm feeling but he’s tired of all the dehydration.
Most nights are crystal clear but tonight it’s like he’s stuck between stations --
On the radio.

The video for Stuck Between Stations has a laugh-out-loud funny at the end.

Even more Best of 2007 Rhapsody playlists

My friend Ryan is a major music buff, and every year he's put together his favorites as an Advent calendar, with a new song & review each day. 2007 version, 2005 version.

He also Rhapsodized our awesome local radio station's ( KEXP) best of list.

Paste Readers: more best albums of 2007

Inevitably, readers of Paste magazine wrote in to say "I can't believe you left ______ off your list of top albums of 2007!

Here's what they suggested:

Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight

Richard Thompson - Sweet Warrior

The Go! Team - Proof Of Youth

Beirut - Flying Club Cup

Romantica - America

Shout Out Louds - Our Ill Wills

Rickie Lee Jones - The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard

John Doe - A Year In The Wilderness

I'm listening now, and I like what I hear!

Rhapsody Playlist: Paste Readers: more best albums of 2007

Joe Henry is back!

Joe Henry has a new album out, Civilians. I've been liking it a lot. "Our Song" is a great track from it, starts out spotting Willy Mays in a Home Depot. Genuinely moving.

For some of Joe's older stuff, I love the albums Fuse and Short Man's Room. (You may have heard these in heavy rotation on my cd changer at Mac or on Madison.) "Monkey" and "Angels" are the first two songs from Fuse. He took his music sound in a totally different direction on this disc from where it'd been on his earlier records.

Short Man's Room is much more alt-country sounding; "Good Fortune" and "King's Highway" sound like The Jayhawks circa Hollywood Town Hall or Blue Earth. And they lyrics of the title track - well, the guy knows how to write.

More Joe factoids: he's been busy producing like a madman, and he's quite an excellent producer - see his Wikipedia entry for a partial discography (including Aimee Mann, Allan Touissant and Elvis Costello, and Loudon Wainwright III).

And his sister-in-law's surname is Ciccone. Yeah, she's even recorded one of his songs.

Click to listen on Rhapsody....

1. Our Song - Joe Henry
2. Monkey - Joe Henry
3. Angels - Joe Henry
4. Good Fortune - Joe Henry
5. Short Man's Room - Joe Henry
6. King's Highway - Joe Henry
7. Don't Tell Me - Madonna
8. Two Angels - The Jayhawks

How to not hate Rhapsody

I've been using the web version of Rhapsody all week. Aside from not syncing with a portable player, it actually works MUCH better than the Rhapsody fat client (which doesn't work on Mac OS X anyway). It does everything else I need Rhapsody to do for me - except act as a source for my Roku SoundBridge, drat!

And I haven't had ANY of the "ARrrg!! WTF?>> 'I hate Rhapsody, but it's worth $10 a month'" experience that I'd been having SO much with the fat client on Windows.

So, I suggest if you haven't recently, give the web version of Rhapsody a try.

This is on Firefox 2.0.4 on Mac OS X 10.4.9, btw.

(I should note that the main reason I use Rhapsody for subscription-based music is that a few of my friends who I share music recommendations with are addicted - if it wasn't for that I'd try a bunch of the others.)