Weekly Soundtrack

1. "Staring In Her Eyes" by Richard Hell and the Voidoids...from the stunning intro to the killer solo, this has gotta be Robert Quine's finest moment. It might be the best non-Hendrix solo ever.
2. "Cortez the Killer" by Neil Young and Crazy Horse...I agonized over this or "Powderfinger."
3. "Powerderfinger" by Neil Young and Crazy Horse...why make things difficult for myself?

Who Needs Another Top 10 List?

A while ago I wrote that the Smiths wouldn't make my top 10 all-time bands, and ever since I've wondered what that list would look like. After pondering my collection and reminiscing about various musical crushes I've had ("Hello, Zwan!") I think my list would look something like this:


1. Television...only two proper studio albums in their heyday, but Marquee Moon is still my favorite album of all time. And to think that I hated it the first twenty times I listened to it.
2. R.E.M...I think I've said enough about these guys.
3. The Replacements...drunken romantics with their hearts on their sleeves. It's no stretch to say that I patterned a large chunk of my life after them.
4. The Beatles...when I was young and stupid I said they sucked, but I don't think it's an overstatement to call them the musical equivalent of Shakespeare in the sense that huge chunks of our culture don't exist without them.
5. The Rolling Stones...it's funny: twenty years ago I thought they were pretty old, but now looking back on those days, they seem kinda young.
6. Sonic Youth...I don't think I have anything of theirs after Dirty and that was 1992. So how can they be a favorite band if I don't follow them anymore? Good question. Here's the answer: Sister and Daydream Nation were so far beyond the cool threshold and rocked my socks so much, that they earn the band an unending reservoir of affection which totally overrides the fact that I'm not that interested in the new stuff.
7. The Clash...I'm shocked that I have them this low. If you ever meet me in a bar, don't get me started on these guys. I'll never stop talking.
8. The Pixies...I wasn't sure if they were gonna make it, but considering how much they rocked at a time when rock was in short supply, I guess I'd be a fool to leave them off.
9. Versus...I'll never convince you of their greatness, so let's just leave it at that.
10. Creedence Clearwater Revival...My mom played Chronicle endlessly when I was a kid and that's why I love my mom.


Honorable mention goes to the following bands without whom I'd simply be ectoplasm: New York Dolls, Buffalo Tom, The Stooges (how did they not make Top Ten?!?), Husker Du, Sex Pistols, Nirvana, Pavement, and They Might Be Giants.

Weekly Soundtrack

1. "Shore Leave" by Tom Waits...Somebody could write a book titled Uses of The Moon in Tom Waits Songs...
2. "If We Make It Through December" by Merle Haggard...If anybody wrote a song this good today I'd fucking keel over and die.
3. "Every Day You've Been Away" by Bebel Gilberto...We have our first repeat song. This song is so good and so strange. It sounds like a rehearsal take: the time wanders all over and her phrasing is bizarre and tentative in spots, but forget all that. It's so intimate and personal sounding, you almost want to be quiet so you don't disturb her.

Corrections, etc.

Let me say this: I wish I had a good excuse. When I said a little over a month ago that Varitek going down wouldn't kill the Sox I wish I had been drunk or on medication or suffering from amnesia. But I wasn't, and Varitek going down did kill the Sox because they brought in the useless Javy Lopez (who's probably still adjusting his sunglasses on his flight out of Logan after getting released this afternoon), and Mirabelli went thorough a stretch where he forgot how to call a decent game.

In all fairness to myself: Shilling got hurt, A-Gon got hurt, Manny got 'hurt', Ortiz had heart palpitations and Lester got cancer. That's a lot of fucking bad luck to throw on top of Varitek. Francona looks like someone shot his dog, and who can blame him: he's probably spent more time making hospital visits than he has figuring out which series of no-name pitchers he's gonna stitch together into a rotation.

I feel kind of bad for this team. I guess I never really thought they were that good, but they were in first place right up until the start of August. That fooled me into thinking they were better than they were. And so, in true Sox fashion, when it fell apart, I felt utterly deflated. And having the watershed series of the season come at home against the Yankees just seems like piling on. Why couldn't it have been the Twins who took 'em out?

I'll root for the Tigers for the rest of the season, I guess. But it feels weird to be shifting my focus to the Patriots so soon.