Radical Transparency

Saw those words next to this picture, and they changed everything.

I bet they'd have the same effect on a lot of seemingly unremarkable photography.

Not quite a song about gypsies. Close, though.

Thank you, Lauren, for the introduction.

Alabama Chicken is track 4 on Alabama Chicken. I like albums named after songs better than albums named after artists, unless the album named after the artist includes a song named after the artist. Wilco on Wilco by Wilco, for example. The only example?

Click here to download:

Alabama Chicken.mp3 (4000 KB)

I agonize over blog post titles. I'm pretty sure I'd have a hard time naming wordless songs.

Water Song is track 6 on Burgers.

Click here to download:

Water Song.mp3 (4962 KB)

Found this CD today after many months without it.

Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash.

A non-insignificant reason for my affinity for the three part title.

A Pair of Brown Eyes is track 5.

Click here to download:

A Pair of Brown Eyes.mp3 (4722 KB)

Got this song on a mix in December.  Listen to it all the time.  Still have no idea who's singing.  Think of it as the one and only Track 02.  Kinda like it that way.

Click here to download:

Track 02.mp3 (5179 KB)

One of the filmmakers explained this project to me a few weeks ago.  Sounded like part Monty Python and the Holy Grail, part Don Quixote, part This Is Spinal Tap, and part The Stupids Step Out. 

Note the exclamation point in the title.  Classy.

March 9, 2009 is the 12th anniversary of Christopher George Latore Wallace's death.  One of my friends told me last night that he'd be paying homage by listening to nothing but Biggie today.

I've always wondered why he named this song Juicy.  The song it samples has something do with it.  But I bet there's more to the story.  Anyone know anything?

Juicy is track 10 on Ready to Die.

Click here to download:

Juicy.mp3 (4722 KB)

Mentioned Hoots and Hellmouth on this blog yesterday.  Recorded a little video about them a few hours ago.  They're good.

I'm going to dance like a maniac the next time I see them live. 

Rattle These Bones is track 7 on Hoots and Hellmouth. 

I need to figure out what bands are thinking when they do the self titled thing.  It's weird.  Seems to me like a total missed opportunity.

Click here to download:

Rattle These Bones.mp3 (3983 KB)

Or, if you want a more hopeful title, He Gets to Sing Just Like a Bird.



I just watched The Last Waltz for the first time.  With my uncle Zach.  Who gave me the album when I was in high school.  And claims to have watched the movie at least 30 times.  But not at all for almost 30 years.

Stage Fright was my first Band love, so it goes on the main stage, but It Makes No Difference, Joni Mitchell's Coyote, and The Weight get links too.

I wrote about Dickensian villain Don Blankenship yesterday on A More Perfect Market, and, as usual, I watched 15-20 minutes of my day disappear as I struggled to title the post.

I went with Gotta Love the Man's Mustache, Though.

And it was kind of a stretch of a title, because, honestly, at first, I wasn't really all that impressed with his mustache.  I mean it was definitely exciting to see that he had one, exciting to know that he was not afraid to rock sculpted facial hair.  But, at a glance, the mustache really didn't look like anything special.

At a glance.

Look closer, however, and notice the attention to detail.  Dude clearly does some serious maintenance.  Perfect straight lines from the corners of the mouth to the nostrils.  Extraordinary symmetry.  A classic trapezoid.

And it is totally weird that I'm writing this and thinking this and look at blurry far away pictures of coal executives and assume.  But I'm convinced that these observations are not only truths but extremely important truths to acknowledge and spread.