Voting

I don't care who you vote for.

Exercise your right to choose.

Make your voice heard.

Or, as Diddy said, "vote or die."

Stand up for your rights, both nationally and locally. Don't stop voting at the top of the ticket. Go all the way down--down to the local initiatives and propositions.

Stand in line. Wait as long as it takes.

Having a say is made of a lot of awesome.

MTV Music

Are you one of those people who shakes a fist at the new video-free MTV or dreamily laments about a long-ago time where MTV's content wasn't full of fake-reality shows or bisexual internet sensations finding true love?

I don't suffer from the rage as much as most do, since I didn't have cable growing up. I don't actually remember a time when MTV-proper showed videos. MTV2, maybe. But not MTV.

Put those fists away and wake up! MTV has a website in beta called "MTV Music" that allows users to search for artists or songs or to browse the collection of videos. Now you can spend hours reliving your glory days.

My friends have found dead ends--Queen's "Crazy little thing called love" is one that comes to mind--but there are also a lot of obscure videos included that you might not immediately think of. It's a trade-off, I guess.

It's kind of awesome.

Checking in

I haven't posted here in quite a while.

I haven't forgotten about you, faithful readers! Okay, so it isn't like I have an army of readers or anything. But still...I owe the five of you that read this quality content and I have been lacking in producing the quality content that you deserve.

I feel like late Summer found me feeling kind of 'meh' about it all. I haven't seen any new movies in a while. I haven't read anything worth blogging about lately either.

The only fall premiers I've watched so far are the Sunday night animated shows on Fox. The Simpsons premiere was pretty good. I didn't care for Family Guy. But man...American Dad killed it!

I've been watching The Rachel Maddow Show almost every night. She's been pretty awesome, too. Her show is smart and funny. And even though she's unabashedly liberal, it's not so off-putting that you'd be in a rush to change the channel.

I am hoping that the arrival of Fall will find me with a lot of books to talk about and music to review.

In the meantime, how did you spend your Summer Vacation? Did you read anything good? See any good movies? Go to any good concerts? Listen to any good albums?

Rachel Maddow is made of awesome

I try not to discuss my politics on my blog and, until now, I think I've done a pretty good job of not showing my hand.

I fear that this post will blow that out of the water. So forgive me my partisan crowing for a minute, m'kay?

Tonight, at 9pm Eastern, Rachel Maddow's show premiers on MSNBC. And I, for one, couldn't be happier.

Maddow started her rise to television fame on Air America Radio. She started by reading the news and then moved on to serve as 1/3 of the show Unfiltered with Chuck D (yes, that Chuck D) and Lizz Winstead. Two weeks after that show was cancelled, Maddow got her own show on Air America.

Despite Air America's revolving door of hosts and shows (Morning Sedition, anyone?), Maddow has remained a fixture on the station. She is smart and funny and snarky. She isn't afraid to stick it to the Democrats as often as she sticks it to the Republicans and the fact that she starts her show with "news from Iraq and life during wartime" shows (at least in my mind) her commitment to supporting the troops even if she doesn't support the war.

Imagine my delight, then, when Maddow started showing up on MSNBC. She appeared as a guest on Keith Olbermann's Countdown show and took a place on the panel on David Gregory's Race for the White House.

As her role has grown on MSNBC, so has her fan base. MSNBC recognized that by offering her a show airing directly after Countdown.

I, for one, am rooting for Maddow. She's an insightful commentator and, well, a woman. How many of those do you see hosting in primetime on cable news?

"I’m a roustabout/And I’m bound to roust you out "

It's been up for nearly two weeks, but this post on Mike Doughty's blog has some great You Tube videos of him singing some stuff off the newest record with Scrap Livingston accompanying him on bass.

They are made of awesome, so you should definitely go check them out.

Doogie Howser needs a new pair of shoes...

...or, more accurately, he has shoes to give away.

Go watch Neil Patrick Harris' upcoming appearance on Sesame Street.

Remember when he was Doogie Howser, M.D.?

I totally do.

It's nice to see him all grown up and succeeding in Hollywood.

The Pioneer woman

I collect blogs. I read a lot of them. A lot.

I've been following Ree, the pioneer woman, for a while now. Her blog, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman, morphed into a full-blown website at some point in the past year.

Ree lives on a cattle ranch. She cooks and takes pictures and home schools her punks.

She is a-maz-ing.

You should go check her out, if you haven't already.

"Electric feel" by MGMT

I hate to be so meta that I have to talk about a specific song.

But I do.

I love the song "Electric feel."

If you've ever heard of MGMT, you know that their first single off the album Oracular Spectacular was "Time to pretend." It's okay, but it isn't the best song from the album.

I don't know if I could pick one, I loved this album so much.

But I do know that I love "Electric feel."

The biggest thing it's got going for it is the fact that it's sung in falsetto. Every "pop" song sung in falsetto has this certain....feel...about it. They all seem to be seductive. Creepy, sometimes, but seductive.

This song oozes seduction. And it's lounge lizard vibe kills me every time.

I can't not love it.

This just in: New feature on the sidebar

I decided to keep my at-work playlist in the sidebar. I also decided to list the albums by the week.

So, each week brings a new playlist...

If I'm adventurous, I might even rate them at the end of the week.

Don't hold your breath.

Imogen Heap, or, Mrs. Dude doesn't like electronica

The Dude and I have notoriously different tastes in music sometimes. It's bizarre how much our tastes are either exactly the same or completely opposite.

It can, I think, be boiled down to the fact that The Dude is a music person and I am a lyrics person. Unfortunately, there are precious few times when those two aspects of an artist's work overlap.

My biggest complaint about electronica is that lyrics sometimes get tossed by the wayside in favor of cool musical flourishes. And, in my mind, that simply won't do. If, as an artist, you're more interested in music than lyrics, create instrumental music. No one will think less of you, I swear. Work it out, musically, and add some tracks with lyrics. At least, that way, you don't have to pretend that you care about creating something with lyrical integrity.

The Dude will tell you that sometime last summer, I went on a electronica buying-spree that consisted of me buying two of the albums that he's enjoyed immensely but that I haven't touched. One of them is Speak for yourself by Imogen Heap.

Two days ago, I was scrolling through Black Francis, my iPod, seeking out music that I haven't touched in a while. I wanted (nay, needed) to stop listening to the same three albums over and over again.

And then it happened.

I found Imogen Heap.

I like Speak for yourself. It's atmospheric and ethereal without veering off into the land of Bjork.

For the Bjork fans who might be offended by this statement, ask yourselves, is she not crazy musically-speaking? You know I'm right...

Heap seems to do the impossible--she blends interesting music with complex lyrics. I can listen to the entire album and not get grumpy that she's just mailing-it-in lyrically. And she gives me something interesting melodically.

Brilliant!

So, it turns out The Dude was right. Imogen Heap is something we can both agree on...

Kanye West doesn't care about festival goers

I went to Bonnaroo.

It was awesome.

I could tell you about how I was 20 feet away from Tegan and Sara or how I was 30 feet away from Jack Johnson.

I could tell you how Against Me! made me fall in love with rock and rage.

I could tell you how Drive-By Truckers' early morning wakeup call (It was 12:45 pm) made my heart pound.

I could tell you how Chris Rock made me laugh.

I could tell you how Metallica made me bang my head.

I could tell you how B.B. King wasn't as good as I'd imagine he would be.

I could tell you how Jack Johnson is perfect on a summer evening, as the sun is going down and the breeze is picking up just slightly.

I could tell you how Pearl Jam made me fall in love with them all over again.

But, I won't.

Instead, I'll tell you that what I learned from Bonnaroo is that Kanye West is, pardon my language, kind of a dick.

And how I'm never going to one of his shows again or buying any of his albums or supporting him in any way.

The Dude and I didn't stick around to see the Kanye West debacle. After Pearl Jam (who, by the way, only went over 45 minutes...), we caught a few minutes of Sigur Ros and a few minutes of Lupe Fiasco before trekking back the hour to Nashville.

When we arrived at the 'Roo on Sunday morning, nobody was talking about West's show. Nobody. I figured that that meant that it was either really good or really bad. It wasn't until the next day that I read the Spin story I linked to in the last paragraph.

I'm not sure who's fault it was that things turned out the way it did. And I don't think it was very nice of the artists who played the next day to call him out (I'm looking at you, Rogue Wave and Robert Randolph) without knowing the whole story either.

Then West puts this gem on his blog. I can understand his passion at wanting everyone to get their facts straight, but not once does he say "I'm really sorry that things ended up this way." If he had, I might've been able to retain some respect for him.

Instead, it was just more of the 'it's everyone else's fault! not mine!' we've come to expect from him. It's more finger pointing, more hating, more playing the victim.

More inflated ego.

As Chris Rock said, 'it takes a lot of Kanye injections...'

I can respect West's position--if you have something you do well, you want to the opportunity to do it. Putting West on at 7:45 opposite Jack Johnson was a bad idea for a lot of reasons, not the least of which (as West himself points out) is that you can't do a glow-in-the-dark show in the daylight.

I can also respect the fact that, as mad as they were, the audience had no right to damage West's equipment or his stage. If he is to be believed, the stage was so wet that he risked falling. Think about what a disaster that would've been...

But this whole refusal to take responsibility isn't sitting well with me. West says it's PJ's fault. West says it's Bonnaroo's fault. Bonnaroo refuses to issue a statement taking responsibility. Everyone is passing the buck.

West had the opportunity to mend fences and build bridges and yada, yada, yada. But he didn't. He couldn't be bothered. Bonnaroo simply didn't matter that much to him.

So, yeah...I'm kind of done with Kanye West for a while.

Two books I read recently, or, Mrs. Dude is lazy

I could write a separate post about each of these books. But I won't. And you can't make me.

1. Animal vegetable, miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

It took me all of May to read this book. I'm not sure if that speaks well of Kingsolver's ability to draw me into her story or poorly of her inability to keep me hooked. I enjoyed Kingsolver's story of moving her family from Tuscon to Virginia and, in the process, deciding to spend a year growing as much of their own food as possible and supplementing what they couldn't grow with locally produced food. Each chapter documents a month in her family's life, as each month presents different challenges for the family. Additionally, each chapter contains a short piece by Kingsolver's husband, a biologist, and her eldest daughter, a college student.

I enjoyed the book, but sometimes felt like Kingsolver was nagging me to make better decisions about my food consumption. If you enjoy the book, though, be sure to visit Kingsolver's website for more recipes and information.

2. Lock and key by Sarah Dessen

I love Dessen's writing, and this book is no exception. I will say, though, that it's not the best jumping-off point for those who have never read anything by her. What I love about Dessen's style is its lightness. She is more interested, it seems to me, in exploring the connections that people have rather than the issues they face. In this case, Dessen tries to do both and it doesn't work as smoothly as it could. Still, I found Ruby and her family to be engaging characters. And I was sad when the book ended. I did end up wishing that she'd spent more time working through the plot from the beginning instead of including so much exposition and then racing to finish the story. Overall, though, it was everything I'd anticipated it to be.

Vampire Weekend (by Vampire Weekend)

As a general rule, I'm not that into bands that are critics' darlings. It's not that I want to be a hipster who likes all the stuff that the critics don't like. It's that most of the time, I don't think the critics are right.

As I get older, though, I'm starting to learn that being opposed to critics' darlings means eating my words when I realize that they're actually pretty good.

I'm looking at you Against Me!, Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys, and more that I'm forgetting.

But don't worry, I'm sure The Dude will chime in with more that I've forgotten when he reads this.

Anyway, with our trip to Bonaroo fast approaching, I decided to start listening to the stuff we own by bands who are playing. My approach has been to take artists day-by-day as they'll appear on the lineup. Thurday has MGMT and Vampire Weekend appearing in the evening, so I pulled out the Vampire Weekend disc.

It's fun and quirky. I like it a lot.

No doubt you've heard their single "A-Punk" in heavy rotation on MTV, unless you don't watch MTV. But let's face it, you're as addicted to their America's Next Top Model reruns as I am so you do. Or what about The Paper? Or A Shot at Love 2: Electric Boogaloo?

No? Okay then...never mind.

Ahem.

Anyway, Vampire Weekend's major label debut is fun and channels both Graceland-era Paul Simon and Phantom Planet, you know...that band the kid from Rushmore is in?

Lyrically, it's pretty nimble, though I was glad that there were only 11 songs because it started to sound precious by the end. They don't move much past the experiences that twenty-somethings have, and their songs certainly aren't political. But, they also don't fall into the Maroon5 trap of being sugary sweet love ballads, either. It's just typical, normal, everyday stuff--like a song about a guy who's tasked with killing some vampires.

And sonically, the album shows that Vampire Weekend has a range beyond just a guitar, a bass, and a drum kit. I liked the range they showed.

The album is certainly worth a listen. It's fun, it's quirky, and it's short. So even if you hate it, you're not stuck listening to it for long!

WOXY's Modern Rock 500

I am kind of in love with WOXY. The few times that The Dude and I made our way into Ohio, we longed to get into range of WOXY because it reminded us (well, him really....) of the days when college rock radio stations ruled the world.

WOXY used to be a radio station in Cincinnati. Well, it still is if you have HD Radio.

Mostly, though, it has reinvented itself as a web-based radio station that plays modern rock with the kind of panache and flair you don't see these days in most terrestrial-based radio stations. Music like the kind that WOXY plays is usually reserved for satellite radio.

You can get WOXY in the "radio" portion of iTunes. It's listed under the "alternative" stations, I think.

Anyway, WOXY is having a Modern Rock 500 this weekend to coincide with the running of the Indy 500.

As an aside...I'm from Indianapolis and I've never been to the Indy 500. We used to kind of hide out until it was over since the town is kind of over-run with over-zealous racing fans.

If you consider yourself a fan of modern rock, you should try to catch some of WOXY's Modern Rock 500. It's awesome to hear a song and go 'oh! yeah! I remember that!'

So far I've done that with Big Country, Tom's Diner, and a ton more. Right now? Portishead.

So yeah, check it out.

The Spares in concert

If you're near any of the places that The Spares are playing this summer, I urge you to check them out.

You simply will not be disappointed.

I'd give you a money-back guarantee, but you wouldn't need it, so it would certainly be a waste of my time and yours.

Just go.

You know you want to.

From The Shamless Plug Department

Did you know that The Dude wrote a book?

He did.

It's finally seeing the light of day and I couldn't be prouder.

I watched him through the entire process. I saw him struggle and grow until he produced this amazing labor of love.

He always seemed excited to interview the players, no matter how overwhelmed he felt on any given day.

He was persistent, even when he was tired of writing.

He and Beatrice, our 15-pound calico cat who is madly in love with him, burned many a midnight oil as he crafted chapter after chapter and story after story.

And, at the end of it, he seemed pleased with his work and as in love with the stories as he was the day he started it.

This isn't so much a shameless plug to buy the book (though, you should do that if you want to) as it is a shameless plug for The Dude.

He is certainly one of Mrs. Dude's favoritest things...

Watermelon by Marian Keyes

I am a confessed "chick lit" addict.

I love reading stories about women who start out whiny women who are sad about being single or being dumped and end up living happily ever after, usually with a handsome fellow by their sides.

I know what you're probably going to say--it's unrealistic, it's not very feminist, it's boring, it's not quality writing--and I could care less.

It's fluff and I love it.

When I read Marian Keyes' book Watermelon, I was expecting more of the same. I've read Keyes' writing before, and while I often find her kind of long-winded, I always find her to be an engaging storyteller.

What I got, though, was a lovely story about a woman who ended up being more than she ever thought possible.

Claire, a 29-year-old Dubliner living in London, finds herself a single woman on the day she gives birth to her first child. James, her estranged husband, tells her he's been having an affair with another woman and that he'll "be in touch."

Claire doesn't know what to do or where to go, so she does the only think she can think of. She goes home to Dublin. She lives with her parents and her two sisters, wallowing in the sorrow of being a single woman and a woman dumped for someone else. Slowly, but surely, Claire surrenders to the calm that comes from realizing that life after great tragedy does go on.

I thought, per usual, that Keyes did a great job of assembling an interesting cast of characters. Each of the sisters is different from the others, but Keyes draws them as "real" people instead of just caricatures. Her writing breathes life into what could be a set of stereotypes--the recently dumped woman, the flighty narcissist, the hippie.

The plot doesn't seem to drag in this story as it sometimes does in Keyes' work. The book didn't feel too long, and the action didn't seem contrived or rushed in any way.

Overall, it was a good read that I enjoyed and would heartily recommend.

I wrote you a concert review in my head...

...but then I forgot to type it.

The Dude moved Heaven and Earth to get tickets to the sold-out Tegan and Sara show that was Sunday night.

It was fantastic.

Australian band An Horse was good. We saw two songs, so I didn't get that much of an impression of their music. They could rock and Kate, the lead vocalist, had a nice voice. I get the impression that they're a nice up-and-coming band with a bright future on the Indie scene, such as it is.

Tegan and Sara put on a fabulous show. I'd searched online for set lists to get an idea of what they'd been playing recently, but darn if they didn't decided that Sunday was the day to start tweaking their setlist. The new setlist didn't deviate much from what they'd been playing, but they did present it in a slightly different order.

They played mostly music from their last two albums, The Con and So Jealous. I wish they'd played more tracks from the album before So Jealous, If it was you, but they didn't. And that was okay.

The set list seemed thoughtfully re-arranged and both Tegan and Sara got a decent amount of face time. I was shocked at how much better their voices seemed live than on their albums. It was amazing! Songs that I thought fell flat on the albums soared in real life.

The between-song banter, which Tegan and Sara pride themselves on, was the only part that I struggled with. It didn't seem scripted, which was nice, but there were times that the unscripted real-ness left me feeling...something. It seemed awkward at times, I think.

So, yeah...good times. :)

Angels all over town by Luanne Rice

I read a lot of books by Maeve Binchy when I was younger. I was always transfixed on the way that she made everyday things seem charmed.

Wikipedia says that she is a "modern women's writer in the Jane Austen sense."

Nice one, Wikipedia.

I might not have understood what that meant is it weren't for LibriVox. But I already discussed LibriVox, and I feel like I'm already off-track.

I love how quaint and cozy Binchy's work always seemed, even when it was portraying the ugliness of modern life.

Reading Angels all over town was kind of like that. This novel was Rice's first, and I liked it better than the other one I read by her. After reading the reviews on Amazon, though, I realize that there are many who disagree with me.

In Angels all over town, we meet Una Cavan and her sisters. The Sisters Cavan have a close bond, though there relationship begins to change when Una's sister, Lily, marries a man who doesn't care much about the bond between sisters. Lily's husband thinks that the bond between husband and wife should trump the bond between family relations. And, since Lily is enamored with her husband's wealth and social status, she agrees.

Una, an actress, has struggles of her own that are unrelated to her relationship with her sisters. She has an inferiority complex about the fact that she's a soap opera actress. Throw in her insecurities about love and her propensity for seeing the undead and you've got more than Rice seems to be able to resolve in the 352 pages she has.

I liked this novel and was able to forgive the way in which everything seems to happen in a filmy mist. It's as if Una, our narrator, is standing outside of her life doing play-by-play. The characters end up feeling pretty flat, and the novel relies as much on ambiance as it does on content.

I think that if you're a fan of Rice's work that you might want to skip this one. It falls short of what you might be expecting. She's greener here than in later works (or at least I assume she is since I've only read one other book by her). She's heavy on atmosphere and theme and light on description. You know how writing teachers tell you to 'show, not tell'? Rice seems to break that Golden Rule, so it ends up feeling less like you're a part of the story and more like you're watching the story from the sidelines. Given Una's feelings, though, it works as a plot device.

I would heartily recommend this title to anyone looking to read a "women's fiction" story that isn't a full-blown Romance novel. There are certainly romantic elements, but romance isn't on Rice's plate just yet.

Librivox: How Mrs. Dude plans to read the classics

I wish I had the patience to read books that would make me a better, more culturally aware person.

I don't.

I read one or two pages and get bored.

Librivox has solved all of my problems, and they did it for free.

I could jump for joy.

Librivox is an initiative that has volunteers reading works of fiction and non-fiction that are currently in the public domain.

For a reasonably concise explanation of public domain,go here.

Chapters of works are read by volunteers and uploaded to the interwebs where anyone can download them. Users can search or browse the Librivox catalog and either download the file to their computers or subscribe to a book in iTunes in the form of a podcast.

I chose the "subscribe in iTunes" option and it was quick and painless. Each chapter is a separate podcast.

I am currently listening to Jane Austen's Persuasion.

Because the people reading the books are volunteers, you don't always have professional-sounding people reading to you. Sometimes I don't always like the voice of the person reading a chapter. Conversely, if you do like the voice of someone reading a chapter, there's no guarantee that person will be reading the next chapter. But, it's free, so I'm willing to deal with a bit of amateur-ness from the readers.

I'll start listing the books I read via Librivox, so that the two of you who might be interested can follow along at home.

I heartily recommend checking out Librivox and either listening or volunteering to read. Or, heck, go crazy and do both!

In which Mrs. Dude exposes her obsessive nature

When I find a band that I connect with, musically speaking, I get kind of obsessive. Okay...not kind of. Really.

Really obsessive.

It's just that I so rarely find music that I connect with. I like a particular song by this band or that artist, but I rarely find an artist or band whose music, as a whole, speaks to me.

When I find one, I obsess. I listen to the same songs over and over again.

It's like falling in love, I suppose. I want to surround myself with that music. I want to be enchanted, transported, rocked to the very core of my soul.

I want to find music that makes me never feel the same again.

I'm currently obsessing over Mike Doughty's music and also Tegan and Sara's music.

I have listened to Golden Delicious and If it was you so many times it's not even funny.

I am learning every word to every song. Not on purpose, to be one of those people who goes to a concert and sings every word of every song. I'm learning them as a side effect of immersing myself in the songs.

I can't explain why I'm drawn to either of these artists. I think it's their lyrical dexterity and earnestness.

Whatever the reason, I am a sad, lovesick fool.

Musically-speaking, that is.

Mrs. Dude's at-work playlist (4/24)

Tegan and Sara--It it was you
Jimmy Buffett--Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays
Soul Coughing--Irresistible bliss

From a Friend of Mrs. Dude

Go give my friend, My friend Katie, some love at her new blog The Mystery Shelf.

If you're into mysteries, it's shaping up to be made of awesome.

Mrs. Dude's at-work playlist (Mon., April 21)

R.E.M.--Accelerate
Mike Doughty--Rockity roll
Mandy Moore--Wild hope
Indigo Girls--Despite out differences

What? Mrs. Dude likes the interwebs, too?

So, I've spend so. much. time. writing about music that I'm sure that the three of you who read this blog have given up hope of my ever writing about other things.

Lame, right? Or, as my favorite Top Chef-testant, Lisa, would say "weak."

So, just for the three of you...I dug deep.

Actually, what really happened is that I was looking on the interwebs for gossip about Top Chef and I found this awesome blog.

Potato/po-tah-to, I guess.

Anyway, you should go read the stuff on this awesome blog I found called TiFaux.

First of all, the name is brilliant. The dude and I have this fake Tivo that we call TiFaux. Obviously we didn't make that name up, but I have no idea where it came from.

Second of all, these people are more obsessed with TV than I am which, truth be told, is kind of a big deal.

See...I like television. More specifically, I love reality television.

I am currently watching:
Top Chef
Rock of Love II
Rock the Cradle
America's Next Top Model
Step it up and dance
Celebrity Fit Club

Shows that never end:
Animal Cops/Precinct/Police
What Not to Wear

I have also watched:
Real World/Road Rules challenges
Project Runway
Rockstar: Supernova
Top Design
Shear Genius
High School Reunion

Noticeably absent from my list is American Idol. I don't watch it. It just doesn't excite me, you know?

I've wrestled with admitting my addiction to reality television. I didn't want you to think I was shallow, after all.

Oh, wait...this isn't a post about my addiction to reality television. This is a post about TiFaux.

So I found this site, TiFaux, which has links and essays and rantings. Basically, if I wrote exclusively about television, this would be the blog I would aspire to be like.

Mrs. Dude's at-work playlist (4/8)

R.E.M.: Accelerate
Tegan and Sara: The con
They Might be Giants: No!

Accelerate by R.E.M.

I've been too busy listening to this album to actually weigh in on it.

Funny, no?

Look, I know that R.E.M. has gotten a bad reputation after the last few albums. Reveal and Around the Sun weren't well-received. In fact, whatever the opposite of well-received is, that's how they were received. I know all of this.

R.E.M. has been my favorite band since the time between when Automatic for the People and Monster were released. I was a freshman in high school. And while my contemporaries were listening to bubble gum pop or grunge, I was falling in love with a College Rock icon. In fact, R.E.M. was alternative before there was even a name for that genre of music.

It is for this reason that I was willing to find the good in murky, muddy albums of the late 90s and early 00s. Up had its moments--it gave us "Walk Unafraid," after all. Reveal was unfocused, but had some great hooks. And I even found something to love about Around the Sun, with its dark melodies and jarring vocals.

It was rumored, though, that Accelerate was going to be a return to hard-charging straightforward rock songs. In fact, those who'd heard the record before its official release date dared to invoke the sacred name of Life's Rich Pageant.

After hearing all of that, it was hard to listen to Accelerate with an open mind. Instead, I had all of my hopes and dreams on this album. Having so much faith in something would surely leave me burned, right?

Nah.

It was totally awesome!

The album starts with the defiant track "Living Well is the Best Revenge," where Stipe's anger and wit are channeled into a single song, and continues thrilling until the fun would-be throwaway track "I'm gonna DJ," which proclaims "Death is pretty final/I'm collecting vinyl/I'm gonna DJ at the end of the world." I say "would-be" because though the track is short, it might actually be the best track on the album. It's concise, like a good poem, and has a ridiculously big hook.

What's not to like?

In between are songs that all clock in under 4 minutes and which convey the intensity of a band trying to rage against the dying of the light.

Stipe, Buck, and Mills are political, satirical, and seem desperate to prove that though they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, their place in the music scene is not that of the retired elder statesmen of Alternative Rock. R.E.M. is, despite the past few albums, proving itself to be a thriving band with something relevant to say to those willing to listen.

The album lacked some of the polish that previous albums have had, and the rough-around-the-edges quality is what makes it so good. The whole album feels urgent, and that urgency is what makes it good.

In short, Accelerate met my ridiculously high expectations. It restored my faith in the future of R.E.M. It's as if the band members awakened from a slumber, not content to rest on their past accomplishments.

And, you know what? That's fine by me.

Mrs. Dude's at-work playlist 3/27 and 28

March 27:
Modest Mouse: The Moon and Antarctica

March 28:
Mike Doughty: Golden Delicious
Regina Spektor: Begin to hope

Mike Doughty at The Gargoyle--3/27 **revised**

I was reading the paper yesterday evening and saw that Mike Doughty was going to be playing later that evening at The Gargoyle later that evening. The show was a reasonable $15 and I was desperate to see Doughty in concert. So, in a very un-Mrs. Dudelike turn of events, I decided to go.

I'm glad I did.

The Gargoyle was an awesome, though poorly ventilated, venue. It was small enough to be intimate but big enough to give everyone room to push toward the stage. But, after dancing for an hour, my legs hurt from the tile floor.

Doughty seemed genuinely into the crowd, putting out an awesome vibe. He could've copped an attitude since The Gargoyle is a student-run venue on a University campus and there were maybe 200 people there. Instead, he seemed genuinely interested in putting on a killer show. He had an ease on stage and mastered the art of between-song banter. For me, this was the best part of the show and Doughty interacted with an energy and interest like I've never seen before. A close second might be Steve Poltz.

Doughty played songs from all of his solo albums, hitting his Haughty Melodic stuff pretty hard. But he also played songs from his Soul Coughing days. Highlights for me were the songs:

Soft serve
Busting up a Starbucks
I hear the bells
Ft. Hood
I wrote a song about your car
Tremendous brunettes

and a rousing version of Firetruck at the audience's insistence.

I was amused at how many people weren't singing along until he got to "I hear the bells," at which point they broke into song. I attributed this to the fact that a large portion of the audience was college-aged (which makes sense, as The Gargoyle is a student-run club and the show was free for Washington University students) and probably knew the song from it's appearance in a pivotal scene in the television show Veronica Mars. The age of the audience also led to me overhearing a college-aged girl say "I can't believe there are so many people here who are my parents' age."

Man...I felt old.

Opening for Doughty was funky fresh rock band The Panderers. A band on Doughty's label, Snack Bar, the Panderers were a mix of alt-country and neo-soul and reminded me a lot of Better Than Ezra, Steve Poltz, and Doughty himself. Catchy and fun, the music was fabulous and the drummer, bass player, and keyboardist returned to the stage to back Doughty. They only have an EPs-worth of material, so their set was short but each song was carefully crafted and performed with energy.

We were provided with a bizarre treat before The Panderers came on. The drummer, bass player, and keyboardist for both The Panderers and Mike Doughty's backing band came out dressed in funny hats and fake facial hair. They played wordless prog-ish music, including a song where the bassist read from a Euclidean Geometry book. The audience wasn't sure if the performance was a joke or for real, but the music was good, so I wasn't sure it mattered.

Overall, the evening was well worth the money I paid.

P.S.--Go read Alex's review of the show. He was nice enough to show me some link love so I want to return the favor. Also? He had a lot of the same views on the evening that I did.

Mrs. Dude's at-work playlist--3/26

Mike Doughty: Haughty Melodic (I didn't make it all the way through the album yesterday, so it was what popped up when I turned on my iPod)

Glen Phillips: Mr. Lemons

Kay Hanley: Cherry Marmalade

Just 'cause

"Slain by the words I lack/My world is bursting sappy music"
--Madeline and Nine by Mike Doughty

Mrs. Dude's at-work playlist--3/25

Counting Crows: Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings
Dixie Chicks: Taking the Long Way
Mike Doughty: Haughty Melodic

Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings by Counting Crows

There's a song by the band Fall Out Boy called "Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends" that includes the couplet:

"Strike us like matches, cause everyone deserves the flames
We only do it for the scars and stories, not the fame"

In the end, Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings seems to be about Adam Duritz's attempt to find himself and his "real friends" amid the "sham friends" that come with his Rock and Roll lifestyle.

Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings is a two-disc concept album. One disc, Saturday Nights, is full of plugged in rock, crunch guitars, and sin soaked melodies. Sunday Mornings, on the other hand, is an introspective-feeling album full of the regrets that come with a hangover and the realization that you've woken up alone.

One is supposed to listen to both albums back-to-back, I've read, to feel the full effect of the album.

I bought my copy on iTunes, so the transition from Saturday Night to Sunday Morning seemed all the starker. My mind was still trying to recover from the amped up, driving melody of "Cowboys" when the haunting song "Washington Square" demanded my full attention.

Most of my favorite songs came from the Saturday Nights portion of the album. "Sundays" was dance-able with a big hook. "Cowboys" reeked of a desperation and need that I haven't seen from Counting Crows since...well, ever.

The lone standout on the Sunday Mornings album, for me, was "When I dream of Michaelangelo." It starts with the line "I don't like you, but you wanna be my friend" and doesn't stop until the last chord. Duritz and co. evoke images brought forth in Recovering the Satellites' song "Angels of the Silence" with the line "I dream of Michaelangelo when I'm lying in my bed." It's copied word-for-word from the earlier track. It's an interesting play on their part and, strangely, it works.

Overall, it was an ambitious album. If I could take Saturday Night and leave Sunday Morning, I would. The band seems to be at it's best when it's rocking, and the stripped down tracks just don't work for me.

Mrs. Dude's at-work playlist--3/24/08

Tegan and Sara: The con
Tegan and Sara: So jealous
R.E.M.: Life's rich pageant
Our Lady Peace: Happiness is not a fish that you can catch

Slanted and Enchanted by Pavement

I've only known the band Pavement from their single "Cut your hair." Well, that and the cover they did of "No more kings" on the album School House Rock Rocks!. So when the iTunes store had Pavement's first album, Slanted and Enchanted, on sale I was kind of sad. I wanted the one with "Cut your hair" on it!

But, I knew that there was a Pavement void in my album collection that needed to be filled, so I went ahead and bought Slanted and Enchanted.

I've been listening to it pretty much non-stop for almost a week, it's that good.

According to the Wikipedia entry for the album, Slanted and Enchanted was pretty influential in the 1990s rock scene. I can see how this is true and realize, in retrospect that, as a self-proclaimed flannel-head, it isn't an album I can afford to be without.

Slanted and Enchanted is full of witty lyrics, crunchy guitars, and a lo-fi sound that makes it charming. It is everything that slacker rock was supposed to be and it's done really, really well.

In my opinion, a good album should be so tightly put together that you feel like it's effortless even though you know that it took a lot of work to make it happen. As a listener, though, you shouldn't be able to see the cracks. This album is like that and, thus, I recommend it.

Spook Country by William Gibson

One of the reasons that I love reading Gibson's work is that he creates worlds that I don't entirely understand but he presents them to me in ways that totally make sense.

I fell in love with Gibson's writing in my undergraduate Postmodern American Fiction class. I read Idoru and it was, I'm pretty certain, the only book in that class that I finished. On my own time, I devoured the rest of his writing and have squealed with delight every time that he puts out a new book.

Amazon.com's page on Spook Country points out that as time has caught up with Gibson's version of the future, he has taken to writing about the here-and-now. This is something that had been rolling around in my brain, but not something I'd pieced together into an actual theory. It was nice to have my hunch validated.

Spook Country serves as a sequel of sorts to Gibson's previous novel, Pattern Recognition, in that one of the main characters shows up.Hubertus Bigend, founder of Big Ant, makes an appearance in this novel as the publisher of a yet-to-be-founded magazine.

Gibson attempts, in this novel, to weave together three separate narratives. Sometimes this device works, bringing the characters in each story closer together and then pulling them apart again. I think it's a fascinating narrative technique, but one that can fall apart quite easily. The problem with having three stories and three story's worth of characters is that no one really gets fleshed out into a "real" character. Gibson is guilty of this, but I can't help but think this is on purpose. I kept thinking that Gibson wants you to see these characters' outlines, but never really see them completely.

Overall, I thought that Gibson gave his audience a good (and suspenseful) story about what it means to live in our modern world with it's push and pull from reality to virtuality and back again.

It's not Gibson's best work, especially as a companion to Pattern Recognition, but it does offer some interesting ideas and it stuck with me long after I finished it.

Brighter than Creation's Dark by Drive-By Truckers

I loved A blessing and a curse, DBT's previous album. I listened to it obsessively for a while and was quite self-congratulatory about being into the whole "alt country" thing.

The album was strong, both musically and lyrically, and I ended up feeling like no matter how many times I listened to the album, I'd always find something new. And really, isn't what makes and album good it's ability to reveal something new about itself each time you listen to it?

Understandably, I dragged my feet when it came time to listen to DBT's newest album, Brighter Than Creation's Dark. I worried about how the band would recover from Jason Isbell's departure. I worried about how having Shonna Tucker singing more songs would affect the balance of the album. Mostly, though, I worried that I wouldn't like it.

And, on first listen, I didn't.

It started out rocky for me, when I started listening to it. Where was my "Feb. 14?" Where was my strong guitar? Instead, I get "Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife," haunting in it's lyrics and much lighter than what I expected from an opening track.

I had to fight my urge to turn the album off and give DBT the respect of listening to the entire thing before passing judgment.

I'm glad I did.

The album, though not as good as their previous work, was memorable and haunting. Much darker than their last album, Brighter than Creation's Dark was painted with a musical palate of black, dark grey, and deep purple.

This isn't to say that there isn't some rock on the album. There are songs with hard edges and crunchy guitar chords. But they are mixed with lighter, wispy, more ephemeral songs. Ultimately a good mix, I think.

Sleep through the static by Jack Johnson

I've noticed that I've been blogging a lot about music lately. I think it's because I am currently in a phase where I'm reading many more magazines than books. I'll try to remedy that and be more varied in my favorite things.

Anyway...

Jack Johnson has been an acquired taste for me. I never really liked his laid-back surfer-style of music. His songs always seemed a little "sleepy" and directionless for my taste. I need strong, lyrically-driven music, and Johnson always seemed like he was just along for the ride so-to-speak and going where the music took him.

The Dude enjoys his music, though, so little by little Johnson has worn me down.

Sleep through the Static takes Johnson in a different direction. It features songs that have electric guitar and which are politically minded, both new ventures for Johnson. He also recorded this album on the mainland in a Green studio.

There are a lot of critics who thought that Sleep through the Static wasn't a radical enough departure for Johnson, but I think it's actually what I liked most about the album. Johnson has a great voice that doesn't deserve to get buried under layers of crunchy guitar. And, ultimately, that doesn't seem to be what Johnson is "about" anyway. But the move from goofy songs like "Bubble toes" to more darker, more mindful songs like "Sleep through the Static" show his ability to mature as a musician without leaving his history behind.

August and Everything After by Counting Crows

I think that Adam Duritz is a supremely talented lyricist. The Dude loves Elvis Costello with an unseemly passion. He says that Costello is a ridiculously talented lyricist. I feel the same way about Duritz. He can turn a phrase like nobody's business. And even though he writes about the same themes over and over and over again, he always finds a new way to present them so that you don't feel like you've heard it all before.

August and Everything After, released in 1993, was Counting Crows major label debut. It has a more "alt country" feel than any of their other albums, I always think, with songs like "Rain King" featuring a more jangly guitar sound.

Though it's not my favorite album in their catalog, it does have a lot of solid songs, showing both the band's technical proficiency and Duritz's song writing capabilities. And with songs that hold up over 15 years, it hasn't come and gone like many other bands' first albums.

New music a-go-go!

Two very promising developments on the New Music Front...

The Counting Crows released a single, "You can't count on me," in advance of a new album called Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings. It is lovely, jangly rock with emotionally bare lyrics--which is to say Counting Crows at their very best. The band hasn't strayed very far from their "signature sound" over the years, but that is, in my humblest of opinions, a good thing.

R.E.M.'s single "Supernatural Superserious" (try saying that ten times fast, right?) can also be heard, in advance of their album Accelerate which, like The Dude's book, has a release date of April 1, 2008. The single seems closer to early R.E.M. (read: Document or Life's Rich Pageant) than their last release, Around the Sun. This should please die-hard fans. I love what R.E.M. has done in the past few years as they try to find their post-Bill Berry sound, but I'm also glad that they seem to be going back to the formula that works best for them--guitar driven, politically minded rock 'n' roll.

Love is mix tape by Rob Sheffield

I've seen Rob Sheffield on many of those VH1 shows where they count down the top 100 or 50 of some genre of song. My favorite of those, of course, is the Top Soft Rock songs. But I digress...

Sheffield wrote and amazing book called Love is a mix tape: life and loss, one song at a time. It's this book about about falling in love and learning to lose love the most graceful way one can. It's about music and how music colors memories. It's about mix tapes and the 90s. Mostly, it's achingly perfect in tone and in execution.

It reminded me of Nick Hornby's High Fidelty for all of the right reasons. I fell in love with Renee and Rob and their relationship in much the same way that I fell in love with Hornby's Rob. And when I finished reading Sheffield's book, I handed it to my husband. I can only hope he enjoys it as much as I did.

Year in review! the music edition...

Hooray!

Apparently my previous post about Coverville was my 100th post. If I were a grocery store and that entry was a customer, it'd win a free ham or something.

Anyway...

The Dude and I collaborated on our respective top picks in music lists.

Because I am lazy, and because I wanted to give The Dude some linky love, go visit his blog and read the list.

Go ahead...I'll wait. But remember to come back when you're done!

What are you still doing here? Go!

Okay, so you've read it. You should know that the headline comes from my favorite Futurama episode ever.

What did you think? Did you think we were spot on?

What was your favorite album of 2007?

Leave me a comment and expose me to some new (and awesome) music, y'all!

Coverville

Coverville is an awesome podcast, especially if you love cover songs. And I really, really love cover songs.

As near as I can tell from the information on the Coverville website, the show is hosted, recorded, and produced by a single person out of his home in Colorado. I was floored when I read that, because I was sure that this was a big-budget show produced by a public radio station.

Each episode has a theme. Sometimes it's topical--like Halloween. Sometimes it's by artist--like the show that features covers of songs by Sting.

Mostly, though, it's made of awesome.

Go check it out. And since it's independently run, maybe toss a couple of dollars their way.

Erin McKeown...again.

I learned about Erin McKeown last year with the release of her album Sing you sinners. I didn't buy that album but, instead, bought her earlier album We will become like birds.

Her voice is sweet with a hint of smokey and sultry. Her style is rock meets rockabilly meets folk and she's as at home singing standards as she is singing her own music.

I am hooked on her newest album, a live album called Lafayette.

My favorite track? "Thanks for the Boogie Ride" from Sing you sinners.

It's worth taking a moment to listen to her stuff.

Happy New Year!

*cue the noisemakers*

Wait...what? New Year's Day was a week ago?

I figure that I should post some New Year's resolutions for this blog, since I feel like I've gotten off track.

1. Review every book I read, movie I watch, or album I listen to.
2. Add more links to websites I enjoy and bloggers who rock my world.

Wow...that was lame.

Anyway, I have two books under my belt already, so I'll get reviews up either today or tomorrow.

And I still owe y'all a "best of" list musically speaking. The Dude and I talked about doing a "he said"/"she said" list. We'll see...