(Ok something I have to get off my chest right away. Do people who go to airports ever think for five seconds that they are going to airports and you know, might be asked to go through security? Is it that difficult to make your way through the line? Or listen to the guy saying that you have to take your coat off? And do people actually believe that by yelling at the clerk working at the gate that the plane will actually get there faster? Seriously, people really need to be a lot more zen when they travel around the holidays.)
As anyone who has been reading this obviously knows, I am a huge music geek. It has its plusses and its minuses. On one hand, I can talk about music with pretty much anyone on the planet and find one band or one genre that we are both fans of and that is pretty cool. On the other hand, anyone who looks over my cd collection will always find a couple of cds that they make them go, “Oh my God, I can’t believe that you listen to that?” And in some instances, then promptly break up with me.
That is one of the hazards of never throwing anything away. I’ve ended up with this massive cd collection that while impressive has a lot of cds that I haven’t listened to in years. A couple are classics that can’t be thrown away. I might not listen to The Joshua Tree on a regular basis but it has to stay in the collection. Others have apparently shown up in my collection and for the life of me I can not recall buying them. And in some instances, mainly the Paula Cole cd but a few others as well, I blame my old Canadian girlfriend. Because there is no way in the world that I would buy a Paula Cole cd for myself, right? I mean, seriously, how could I look at myself in the morning knowing that I have that sitting in my collection next to the Cowboy Junkies on purpose?
But recently I’ve decided that I should do something to make myself listen to all of this great music that is hidden away in my cd collection. Since everything that I own is in an excel spreadsheet (what did I say, I’m a music geek), all I need to do is run a simple random number generator and every week I select five cds at random to listen on my commute to work. Yeah, I have no shame in admitting this. It keeps me from having to listen to the same music over and over again (and trust me, take what you imagine KC radio would be like and make it worse. And then worse again. And still a little more. That’s what KC radio is like.) Anyway, here is what the computer has chosen for this week.
Jeff Buckley “Grace”: On the list of future blog postings, my examination of the life of Jeff Buckley and what his music has done for me is very high on my list of things to write. It will be posted sometime next month.
Cowboy Mouth “All You Need is Live”: A great live album from a great live band. The drummer is either the most upbeat, positive guy on the planet or he is freebasing Prozac. Still, as a music critic once said, “On a bad night, they are the best band that you have ever seen. On a good night, they’ll save your soul.”
Continental Drifters “Continental Drifters”: Another cool New Orleans band, featuring one of the Bangles. Not Susanna Hoffs, though. (Admittedly, I’m not sure how long anyone could take being a musician and being constantly asked, “Hey, weren’t you in the Bangles? Play Walk Like an Egyptian.”)
Waco Brothers “Electric Waco Chair”: The rowdiest country band formed by a bunch of former British punk rockers who tend to do shots of tequila between songs. Another band I’ll just have to write about one of these days.
Ryan Adams “Rock and Roll”: Has more talent than he knows what to do with. Has live shows that are either brilliant or a train wreck. Just remember, if you see him in concert you have to request “Summer of ‘69”. Trust me, he loves that request.
Those are the five for the week. I’ll post this on occasion, whenever I get an interesting random five or when I am really hard pressed to find something to write about. Which might make this a weekly feature but I’ll try not to.
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