2008

Jul

i’m taking my horse mask, rain jacket, pet cat, and my...

#157: roxy music - mother of pearl (1976) don’t pay too much attention to the first two...

Jun

#157: chantal goya - tu m’as trop menti (from masculine, feminine trailer) (1966) some poor...

#156: chantal goya - le mysterieux voyage de marie-rose (1985?) oooooooooh boy. it turns out that...

#155: gorillaz - bill murray (2005) in celebration of his official new-found bachelorhood,...

#154: bill murray, the rza, the gza - delirium (from coffee and cigarettes) (2003) not to go...

#153: grandaddy - a.m. 180 (aka rocket like a hurricane) (1997) besides implicitly endorsing...

#152: irma thomas - it’s raining (1962) (from down by law, 1986) jim jarmusch, the man who can...

#151: tom zé - brigitte bardot (1973) listening to early-70s tropacalia and watching late-60s french...

image #38: that’s not an eye on the cover of tom...

#150: elvis presley - return to sender (1962) any musical number featured in a film called girls!...

#149: fatboy slim ft. david byrne & dizzee rascal - toejam (2008) first of all, music videos are...

#148: gillian welch & david rawlings - caleb meyer (1998) my sister, brother and i saw emmylou...

#147: the cure - the lovecats (1983) maybe it’s not as immediately cool as the cure’s...

#146: john lennon - crippled insisde (1971) speaking of phil spector, i think i’d rather...

truly, the greatest thing in the world happened to me just...

#145: lee dorsey - working in the coal mine (1966) lee dorsey, once a prize fighter named kid...

#144: r. kelly - trapped in the closet, chapter 15 (2007) NOT GUILTY! now i’m going to go...

#143: sigur ros - gobbledigook (2008) it’s a new sigur ros song! the video is (sort of) by the...

#142: nick cave & the bad seeds - stagger lee (1996) in 1959, when lloyd price went on american...

#141: yo la tengo - a teenager in love and everyday (1988) puppylove pop songs from 1957 and 1960...

#140: townes van zandt - pancho & lefty (1975) if i can go through life without ever knowing the...

#139: son house - death letter (1965) a man born exactly in the middle of 17 siblings—who...

#138: son house - john the revelator (1965) i was seriously going to do a highly emotional,...

“luckily, i didn’t have any failures, to be honest with you....”
— aby rosen, answering a...

#137: peaches - fuck the pain away (2000) i can’t listen to this song anymore without thinking...

#136: steve earle - mercenary song (1975/1981/1995) this is a song about the 1910s, filmed in the...

#135 pixies - here comes your man (1989) even if it’s a song about train-traveling winos who...

#134 guru guru - oxymoron (1972) tuesdays are good days for trippy-dippy bong-ready krautrock. look...

lil’ wayne - dr. carter (2008) lord jesus, it’s a leaked wayne song, and fucking...

image #37: lil wayne’s tha carter iii has been leaked...

#133: the marvelettes - please mr. postman (1962) the beatles’ version was the first thing i...

May

#132: the new pornographers - the slow descent into alcoholism (2000) why didn’t any of my...

image #37: if lou reed or tom waits wrote graffiti instead...

#131: lou reed and john cale - small town (1990) i just listened to that monument of 70s-era...

image #36: elvis costello in st. paul, 1982 if i had been...

#130: elvis costello - everyday i write the book (1983) setting aside the epic awesomeness of the...

tom petty & the heartbreakers - american girl (1978) i admit that there’s a supreme...

bob dylan - with god on our side (1963, newport folk festival) (excerpt) this memorial day, if you...

bonnie ‘prince’ billy - lay and love (2006) my girlfriend just bought me bonnie...

they might be giants - birdhouse in your soul (1990) for a song about a nightlight, this is an...

tom waits - innocent when you dream (1988) any man who writes a song as beautiful as this one (or...

japan - adolescent sex (1978) apropos of the greatest trial in the history of peeing on teenagers...

“in ‘don’t you say no’ he reminds a woman that he...”
— the nyt on r. kelly’s...

mississippi fred mcdowell - john henry (1962?) besides the fact that he’s playing with a...

image #35: jens lekman maple leaves ep this is the opposite...

jens lekman - black cab (2003) sludgy, slick, stormy days in new york like this one are sad, but...

the notorious b.i.g. - juicy (1994) this one goes out to my mother, patti, who turns 58 today (but...

the fall - mr. pharmacist (1986) why does rap get all the attention for epic celebrations of drug...

gregory isaacs - tune in (1987) mr. isaacs, the cool ruler, the lonely lover, wants to meet you at...

image #34: ebenezer obey and his international brothers the...

chief commander ebenezer obey - olowo laiye mo (1968) on the downside, this video looks like it was...

spoon - don’t you evah (2008) a corollary to the do i like indie rock? test is the do i like...

new pornographers - all the old showstoppers (2007, london) holy cow, i just came up with the most...

iris dement - sweet is the melody (1995) this is the prettiest song every written. iris dement makes...

john prine and iris demend - in spite of ourselves (1999, nyc)john prine—who spent the late...

image #33: r.e.m.’s chronic town ep (1982) a good...

r.e.m. - radio free europe (1983, letterman) elvis costello had radio radio and radio sweetheart,...

jonathan richman & the modern lovers - new england (top of the pops, 1978) you wouldn’t...

photo #14: ray price & lil’ wayne speaking of...

ray price - crazy arms (1956) for some reason i spent about an hour today reading about dark side of...

photo #13: ray price is that a banana on his arm or is...

ray price - i’ll be there (1957) the spectacular’s week-long hiatus is over, and...

Apr

lil’ wayne - a milli (2008) here’s a hiatus from the hiatus: the best hip-hop song...

hiatus!

for a week! whoa!

broken social scene - lover’s spit (2002) there’s just nothing like overdramatic...

blackalicious - alphabet aerobics (1999) blackalicious’ m.c. is called gift of gab, and, sure,...

in today’s paper! last week i forgot to mention my...

prince - kiss (1986) for a 5’2”-tall vegan from minneapolis who became a jehovah’s...

good album cover #18: prince (1979).

charles and ray eames - powers of ten (1977) this isn’t a music video as much as it is the...

album cover #17: jimi hendrix experience electric ladyland....

jimi hendrix - the wind cries mary (1967, stockholm) he never played a false guitar note, but...

the knife - heartbeats (2006, sweden) artiness is great, and even the creepiest kinds of artiness...

a beautiful painting i made #3: hey, whoa, i made another...

a beautiful painting i made, #2: i wrote about beck and...

beck - debra (1999, germany) it’s 73 degrees and sunny in new york city this afternoon. you...

u2 - i will follow (1981, bbc) is it brave to dislike u2? i thought i was boldly going out on a limb...

david bowie - drive in saturday (1973) “gee, it’s late, let’s go to bed,” is...

album cover #16 - here’s little richard here’s...

little richard - send me some loving (1964, uk) women’s week is over, but kazu, joanna and jd...

blonde redhead - top ranking (2007) before i heard blonde redhead, i knew that their albums had...

album cover #15: grandmaster flash & the furious...

le tigre - deceptacon (1999) sunniness has finally been rainbow-sprinkled around new york city!...

blondie - the tide is high (1980) without standing up or taking a break or anything, i spent two...

patti smith - gloria (1976) it’s officially women’s week at the spectacular. all women!...

i was going to put up a time magazine cover of aretha...

aretha franklin - i never loved a man the way i loved you (1967) the encyclopedia uses coloratura...

aretha franklin - baby i love you (1967) there are few people on earth who can be transfixing while...

miriam makeba - qongqothwane (the click song) (1966, sweden) before snoop dogg and pharrell...

grandaddy - nature anthem (2004) writing about all those nazis and their stiff arms and stiff heils...

album cover #14: neutral milk hotel’s in the aeroplane...

the flaming lips - bad days (1995) hair was longer in the 90s, breath smellier, torn jeans more...

gilberto gil & os mutantes - domingo no parque (1967) in my observer column today, i wrote about...

album cover #13: gilberto gil - frevo rasgado (1968) from my...

harry nilsson - walk right back/cathy’s clown/let the good times roll (1971, bbc) oh, harry!...

Mar

photo #12: serge gainsbourg will fucking kill...

serge gainsbourg - ce mortel ennui (1964) whenever guys like serge gainsbourg or, say, me walk up a...