122: All The Music That Fits

While packing and preparing to move to a new apartment, I did a Thoreau-ian "simplify, simplify" purge of my possessions. Part of that project is recycling Rolling Stone back issues from the 1980s. Since I bought the complete Rolling Stone 1967-2007 on DVD-ROM, technically I don't need ANY of those back issues clogging up my bookcases anymore. Rather than unilaterally toss 'em all out, I only discarded the issues which were too tattered to keep, and/or the issues I had scissored to ribbons during my teenage collage-making days.

After placing those issues aside, but before dropping them in the recycling bin, I leafed through the stack: about a dozen issues, all from 1985-1989. This quick skim inspired some MP3 purchases from that era (see below).

Another side-effect of packing? A slew of new music discoveries. Since I hardly ever hear new music on the radio, I tend to find new music on the RCN Music Choice channel: Adult Alternative. And when do I listen to this channel? When packing boxes!

1. "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" by Vampire Weekend is my wife's new ringtone.
2. "All Around the World Or The Myth of Fingerprints" [demo], Paul Simon
3. "On A Night Like This" Los Lobos (from the movie soundtrack Masked and Anonymous)
4. "Take The Joker & Run" Steve Miller Band: I found a special re-release of Miller's Fly Like An Eagle, which includes several outtakes, including this one. It's a early version of "Take The Money & Run", but the arrangement is exactly like "The Joker". It's really funny and odd to hear it like that!
5. "Waiting for a Miracle" Bruce Cockburn
6. "Real Love" Lucinda Williams
7. "Smoking Gun" Robert Cray Band
8. "Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters" Elton John (I just bought his album Honky Chateau, and re-discovered this great song.)
9. "People Got A Lotta Nerve" Neko Case
10. "Satellite" The Hooters
11. "Trashcan" Delta Spirit
12. "Lips Like Sugar" Echo & The Bunnymen
13. "The Big Bang Theory (Theme)" Live in Concert, Barenaked Ladies
14. "Mykonos" Fleet Foxes
15. "Hurt Feelings" Flight of the Conchords
16. "Folsom Prison Blues" Merle Haggard & The Strangers: I like putting together the faux badasses of FotC next to the faux badass of this song.
17. "I Know" [live] Pat McGee
18. "I Want to Make The World Turn Around" I had completely forgotten this Steve Miller Band song until I read a review of the LP in my old Rolling Stone magazine...
19. "Used To Be Bad" A completely ordinary blues duet between two old fogies: Paul McCartney & Steve Miller.
20. "Absolutely Still" Better Than Ezra
21. I liked "OK It's Alright With Me" the first few times I heard it, but Eric Hutchinson is starting to sound like a second rate Jamie Cullum or Maroon 5?
22. "Phantom Limb" The Shins