Nothing Rhymes with Eclectic*

I like the new Bruce Springsteen album. And I liked the folk thing he did like last year. Girls In Their Summer Clothes sounds like it almost could be a Magnetic Fields song, only the genders would be all confused and messed up in such a version. And Bruce’s version has sax…is there ever any sax in a MF song? And isn’t there a new MF album about to spring? In olden times I’d already have it, but things are different now. In the Congo.

And I know it’s not new new, but I also like the Elvis Perkins album. While You Were Sleeping is a great song. May Day is also a fun romp, with lyrics surreal and a great gritty reverbed guitar tone. And his voice is sorta Jeff Mangum-y.

The Robyn Hitchcock boxset has a few rare, fun, surprises, but mostly it’s the same old same old, and the remastering hasn’t revealed anything or even put much of a new sparkle on the old tunes. Hang on to those Rhino reisusses from ‘95, kids.

And I’m still quite enamored of Okkervil River.

And the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss thing is fantastic. Please read the letter that I wrote, indeed!

I wish Stuart Murdoch would write some new stuff that...you know, sounds like Stuart songs, not some 70s pastiche thing. Hell, at this point I'd take an album of Stevie songs, but that would be a 60s pastiche thing...so...maybe I'll just listen to Sinister a few more times.

And that John Vanderslice album is still getting a lot of airplay, and I’ve gone back and gotten his other stuff. He’s nice enough to give away whole albums of early stuff on his site. I think I read on his message board or somewhere that there was another, earlier version of Emerald City that was scrapped in favor of the live-tracked lofi-ish version that came out. I’d be curious to hear that, but I like how everything is a bit overdriven and just on the verge of breaking up, so a clean studio version may not have the same feel.

I haven’t spent enough time with The Winterpills to form a good opinion yet.

And I dug up Forever Changes, because I was always curious about Arthur Lee, ever since Robyn sort of wrote that song about him. And then I read that 33 1/3 Greatest Hits book and it had a section on him. What an odd cat he was.

Let’s see... Other new-ish music? Still like The Avett Brothers, hate the new Rilo Kiley, A Place to Bury Strangers is OK, KT is still another guilty pleasure too, though I don’t enjoy the new album as much as the last one. You can’t make fun of me for liking her. When she plays live she loops. How cool is that?

The surprise snow the other day? Wasn’t happy about that, especially since it quickly turned into a big old slushfest. And my ever-balding tires, but not quite bald enough to qualify for warranty replacement are worrying me, as is bacteria. Are bacteria? Is bacterium?

Who cares?

There’s a baby here at this Starbucks with a full diaper, with a heavily acidic scent to it. I think I’ll leave now.



* I guess apoplectic does?