tied to the pier, 01 | 05

So, boy is this ever late. So is February’s, but I’ll post that tomorrow, and then, as a bonus, I’ll post a new phrenology I made up of songs from my time in Chicago. OK. So, here goes. If you care about such things, sorry for the delay.

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Sister Havana - Urge Overkill, Saturation

"...Every day is like a vacation with you..."

Moonage Daydream - David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Flying home from Xmas w/Kel’s family in Florida. Sitting on your ass in the ever-awful and vomit-scented Atlanta airport. Connecting flight’s in a half-hour, she’s checking mail, you opt for rocking out. Still thinking about Five Years or whatever the KD thing is, and it stuck around, "Put you raygun to my head," going over and over.

Great Story - Craig Moorhead. I think it was just on his site as a free track. Now I can’t find it. Craig?

For the Xmas holiday, you wiped your ipod of anything you were comfortable with, except Bowie and Pixies. Otherwise, you had nothing to listen to but new stuff, or at least, alien stuff, unheard and unlearned stuff. There was a Craig folder of the one-off tracks he’d pump out to his site only, and that stayed on the iPod. So you’re working on the QotSA pitch in Florida, sitting outside in the abnormally warm weather, and writing at 3, 4 in the morning. It’s late. It’s early. And Queens of the Stone Age need their video treatments, by god.

And then this comes on and, oh, man. That whistling bit just gums the works right up the next month or so.

Also, any song with the line “I once got Kane Hodder’s autograph,” is awesome.

Bite - The Kleptones, A Night at the Hip-Hopera

Some Wu-Tang book comes out and you go through a little mini-Wu fit. JLove hooks you us with Liquid Swords and Cuban Lynx; Xtop gives the ODB disc. Hey, Dir-tay. Baby I got your money, don’t you wor-ray.

Nevertheless - The Brian Jonestown Massacre

“Please play by the rules,” over and over again. Newcombe sounds wrecked and haunted. Play it one more time. Louder.

The Book of Love - The Magnetic Fields, 69 Love Songs, vol. 1

Anybody ever give you a gift so great you had absolutely no way to express your gratitude for it? In fact, you have no words left at all?

S.O.F.T. - Elastica, Elastica

Going up to work in the office one night this drops in from nowhere. Although bits like “Did the devil say to you/You can make it through/I'll take you to the top/And now that you're heaven bent/And it pays the rent/ Is it hard to stop?” certainly seems to answer the question, doesn’t it?

So this was maybe about Coke, then.

Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty, Who the fuck cares what Gerry Rafferty’s record was called?

You’ve started making dinner, or at least helping to make dinner, with Kel most nights. It’s good, it’s fun. A little time together to just shoot the shit and make one another laugh for no good reason. Also: to make pudding. Talking about songs that Mike should cover. This was a suggestion but, once out of the box, it stuck for a couple-three days. Xtop saved me with the Rafferty hook-up.

Hang On Little Tomato - Pink Martini, Hang On Little Tomato

Pink Martini show with the KC Symphony, Sat. Jan 22. Not as great as the first one, but you guys loiter in line and say hi to China Forbes afterwards, so, you know, there’s that.

Tattoo - Petra Haden, Petra Haden Sings....

Actually, it was the standard Who version, but shortly into February, Xtop passes along Petra Haden’s mouth music jamstravaganza so you put that version here instead of what actually was stuck. Anyway.

You get the idea to put together a Chicago phrenology; Tattoo is the first song that comes to mind.

Dog Got A Bone - Beta Band, The Three E.P.s

Driving home from dinner at Red Snapper in the snow. Kel’s the copilot and iPod jockey. Drive slow, don’t push it. An SUV laps you, and later, runs off the road.