Sunday Random 20

Another Sunday, another questionable Bears game.

• "Phone Conversation Interlude" - L.A. Symphony. It's an interlude. 'Nuff said.
• "Worldwide" - Adam Again. One of my favorite songs from my favorite album of all time (scroll down), which I've bought several copies of. Starting with an acoustic intro and moving into full-on rock mode, and invoking the brutal killing of a Ladysmith Black Mambazo founder, Gene Eugene ponders a heartless world and, more importantly, a passive church: "Don't think I'll ever understand it / Don't think it matters if I do / 3 billion people in the world and I only know a few... But we all love that desert thunder / we put some stickers on our bumper / 3 billion nothings in the world and I only know a few... What about Headman Shabalala, does anybody care about justice / 3 billion people in the world and his Spirit weeps for all of us."
• "Monkeys at the Zoo" - Charlie Peacock (and Mike Roe). I've also talked about this record before. I keep wanting to think that it's a counterpart to The Choir's "Yellow-Haired Monkeys", about playing around with your kids, but Peacock's kids were all grown up by the time he wrote this. "If you were to dig deep in my soul / would you find Jesus / or a gaping hole... Getting kinda stuffy in here ... like monkeys in a zoo."
  
• "Symphony No. 29 in A Major, KV 201: Allegro moderato" - Alexander von Pitamic & Camerata Labacensis. Amadeus, Amadeus!
• "Karma Police" - Radiohead. By my estimation, their best record to date. I love the cross between experimentation (which wasn't happening so much before this record) and accessibility. And, it rocks.
• "I Don't Make It" - Deepspace 5. A story about a young, mature girl and her relationship with her parents after they find out she has cancer: "If I don't make it / I don't to cause you sorrow / please believe me, all we're promised's tomorrow / all we have to build on is yesterday / let's live for today... I don't want it all on me / trying my hardest not to cause you grief / trying to see the beauty in a fallen leaf."
  
• "We Can Work It Out" - The Beatles. And they did it!
• "How Long" - Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Because we can't talk about my music collection without referencing them twice!
• "I Want Candy" - Bow Wow Wow. "Candy on the beach / there's nothing better." It melts, silly.
• "City Scaping" - Deepspace 5. Hip-hop cocking about renewing your mind. A familiar theme for this collective.
  
• "Mr. Brownstone" - Guns N' Roses. I love three songs on Appetite for Destruction. I hate the rest. "Brownstone" is representative of the rest.
• "Hot Soft Light" - The Hold Steady. I don't get the hype around this band.
• "A New Family" - Colour Revolt. The New Living Colour? Maybe. I wish. Mopey music needs The Cure.
  
• "Terrible Mystery" - The Choir. From O How the Mighty Have Fallen. Which is funny, because this is actually a good album, though not nearly as good, methinks, as Circle Slide. The Choir excels in ethereal poetry-driven pop.
  
• "The Boogie Monster" - Gnarls Barkley. I'm getting sick and tired of talking about this record and band. If you don't own it yet, too bad on you. This song is about, oh, check out the "I Want Candy" quote above. Only much more gross.
  
• "Easy to Ignore" - Sixpence None the Richer. Their self-titled record was a work of melancholy and beautiful genius. Too bad all most people know of it is that poppy overplayed pre-teen fantasy movie soundtrack song, "Kiss Me". I guess they were right, they are easy to ignore. Too bad. Listen to the whole album as a cycle and light a candle.
  
• "Insult Like the Truth" - Charlie Peacock (and Friends ). "I run my ship aground on the sea of self-control... There's no fever like desire... There's no killer like convenience... There's no gunshot like conviction... There's no insult like the truth /There's no cancer like ambition / There's no cure like crucifixion. "
  
• "With the Tired Eyes of Faith" - Swirling Eddies. The Eddies were a sarcastic side-project of Christian "bad boy" Terry S. Taylor (also of Daniel Amos and the Lost Dogs) and assorted friends, some who played with other genius underground CCM bands that CCM didn't want to know existed (i.e., The Choir and Adam Again). Unlike most of their repetoire though, "Eyes" is a thoroughly sincere song that seems penned from Taylor's seeming mentor, Fredrick Buechner. "Glorious dregs" indeed.
  
• "Lover, You Should've Come Over" - Jeff Buckley. Late to this one's bandwagon, I know. But a great singer-songwriter. Voice is something else - but not in the same way that Dylan's or Tom Waits' are.
• "Doing Time" - MxPx. I remember being informed that it's not pronounced M-X-P-X, but M-P, the x's standing in for periods. I don't much care. But I'm starting to like these post-punk rawkers, as a type of early-era Beach Boys for the 90s teenager, singing about girls and angst, and ocassionally God. It's a minute and a half teenager in suburbia pop song.
  
• "Beautiful Day" - U2. Let it be known that I don't care much for any U2 in the new millenium.
• "Unsuccessful Dutch Missionary / Big Guns" - Swirling Eddies. So, a Dutch missionary goes into a remote village and tells the natives, in English, that he has "crossed the great waters and come in peace, Kimosabe". The next and final sound heard is a 'woosh' ending with a 'twanggg'. And then "Big Guns" begins. It was written in the height of televangelism and Cold War Reagonomics Against Heathenism. It could have been written now. "The dogs of war / drop a bomb on the White House lawn... We're gonna shed some blood / and spread the light / when we bring home the big guns tonight."