Moving Day

I'm gonna start using different software to create this crap-tastic page, so it will have a different address. You can check out the ongoing tribulations of a Sox fan and get good/bad/obvious/willfully obscure music advice at my new address:
web.mac.com/jmmek/iweb. Enjoy.

Weekly Soundtrack

Oh, I fooled you! Check out the Soundtrack at my new, copyright-infringing site. Click the headline to be redirected, but, shhhh, don't let anyone know where you're going.

Weekly Soundtrack

A fucking brutal and sad holiday season this year, even though my daughter had a great time, which was really my only priority.

As you maybe can tell, I've been ignoring a lot of things lately, and this blog and music are only two of them. I can't even think of three songs to list, so this is a one-song soundtrack:

1. "I Shall Not Walk Alone" by The Blind Boys of Alabama...I'm not religious at all, so a gospel song (even one written by Ben Harper) might seem like a strange or even flippant choice. But this song is so peaceful and solemn, and the Blind Boys could sing a fucking Chinese menu and make it sound like Heaven, so I have played this to put myself at ease.

Peace, everyone, and it'll be better soon.

Weekly Soundtrack

Pernice Brothers Edition

Sometimes there's just nothing better than a sad song, and Joe Pernice and his little band have a better handle on a certain kind of urban wistfulness than any other artist working on the planet today. Not just breakup songs, but also ruminations about failure and loss of all sorts, they have an uncanny ability to find the core of sadness in a beautiful moment. You probably only know about them (if at all) from a song they had in a Sears (!?!) commercial, or from being around me while I couldn't stop talking about them. In a better world they would get played on radio stations you can actually hear without a police scanner.

1. "Judy" from Yours, Mine & Ours...A song about watching The Wizard of Oz while a loved one sleeps on the couch? You gotta be kidding me. Until he says "So let's pretend our lives will never end. Somehow. Someway." I can't listen to this song very often, because it just kills me.

2. "Zero Refills" from Live a Little...If Kevin Federline wrote this song I would say that he was a genius. I put a lot of emphasis on the lyrics, but the way they let the last chord of the chorus sustain is a perfect, beautiful touch.

3. "Cronulla Breakdown" from The World Won't End...this may be the best last-song-on-the-album since "Here Comes A Regular." Simple and lovely.

So Long, Suckers!

Three Bands That Must Be Forcibly Disbanded:

1. The Fray...am I the only one who thinks the Fray is the worst band of all time? They make Counting Crows (to whom they bear a passing resemblance) sound like the fucking Butthole Surfers. At least Adam Duritz can write a decent verse. In "How To Save A Life" they rhyme 'right' with 'right', 'best' with 'best', and 'thing' with 'everything.' Even my three-year-old daughter knows that is lazy songwriting.

2. Nickelback...they're Canadian, which is an immediate red flag, and the lead singer has the worst Jheri-curl/mullet in history. They had a fluke hit with "How You Remind Me" and they've been rewriting it ever since. The big mystery is, "Who likes them?" Do you know anyone who has any of their albums?

3. The Killers...I kinda dig "Mr. Brightside" but after that I don't get them at all. Hot Fuss is just Duran Duran B-sides, and while the new album is supposed to be Springsteen-style tales of Americana, they seemed like such poseurs on SNL that I thought they were fucking with me.