A very fine day, indeed.

Originally, I thought I’d take this post to review some of the albums from February that I listened to. While looking through the albums I picked up this last month, I found a strange coincidence. Five of them came out on January 23rd. I know what you’re saying, “But blog-i-mi-writing guy, I thought Januarily came beefur Febermatoo.” Well, my blog wasn’t up and running before then, so too bad. I’m going to give short grades to these albums and talk about the February albums on Friday instead.

Here’s a quick rundown of the January 23rd albums:

The Earlies – The Enemy Chorus. Grade: C

The album starts off well enough, but drags on, which is why ‘hynotic’ is a word used to describe it.

Kristin Hersh – Learn to Sing Like a Star. Grade: B-

Kristin Hersh’s vocals are smokey and her music makes Erin angry, but I get bored around track 5 and want to move on to a new album.

Menomena – Friend and Foe. Grade: B-

I bought this from bestbuy.com since it wasn’t going to be sold in Rochester any time soon. B- because it chooses experimental over melodic too often for my tastes.

Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? Grade: A

A break-up album that will keep you dancing and singing along.

The Shins – Wincing the Night Away. Grade: B+

If you enjoyed Oh, Inverted World more than Chutes Too Narrow, then you’ll enjoy this album, too.

Today’s song is from my top-rated album of January 23rd, Of Montreal’s Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? Here’s Suffer for Fashion.

…Please stop snowing.

I don’t mean that. I love the snow, especially compared to the freezing rain we got most of Saturday, but Sunday was a rough day.

I went out around 9:15 on Sunday morning to shovel, and finished around 10:30 or so. Not bad, huh? Well, technically I had a little help from the neighbor, who came over and helped with his snow blower. He did the sidewalk and the end of the driveway (pre-plow). I came inside and put up more drywall and then got ready to watch the Badgers take on Ohio State. Only problem… channel 3 was off the air. Now, I was already under the impression that letting a bunch of Iowegians try and run a TV station was a bad idea, but I didn’t realize how bad of an idea it was. I’m not going to rant on channel 3 now. Maybe one day, I’ll just spout off all of the things annoying me.

Sidebar – sorry, Angela. This means no rant against the RIAA today.

Erin and I went to my parents’ place to watch the game. When we got home, the plow had come through and left a four-foot pile of snow at the end of our driveway. While shoveling the second time, I came up with a great idea for a post involving the fact that Erin and I are a one-shovel family. The kind you only read about in National Geographic. Unfortunately, while it was Erin’s turn to shovel, I went into the garage and tried to decide whether or not I could shovel with a rake and noticed that we had a second shovel on the wall… right next to the first shovel. Ouch.

So, after I figured that out, we both got to work on the driveway as a team. Here’s the results. As you can see, it’s still lightly snowing. I’ll probably be shoveling the rest of the week.

As I was shoveling, I thought of songs that I would listen to if I were ever officially snowed in. Something nice to listen to while laying on a bear-skin rug in front of a blazing fire sipping hot chocolate. I could be naked if it helps drive the image home (and I know it does). I chose Carla Bruni, the Italian supermodel who sings in French. It’s internationalicious! Here’s Le Toi Du Moi and La Dernière Minute.

Hey there guys and gals. It’s time for another Friday Fun Song!

Today’s song is from the album, Thunder, Lightning, Strike. That’s right, it’s The Go! Team!!! Here’s The Power Is On.

I read an article in the New York Times today called Hip-Hop Outlaw (Industry Version). Being an outlaw is the image most hip-hop artists are going for, right? Well, not really. Different kind of legal trouble. Here’s the rundown… on January 16th, police (along with the local RIAA representative) raided a recording studio in Atlanta run by a set of DJ’s known as the Aphilliates. They collected, amongst other things, recording equipment and over 25,000 CDs. Why? These DJ’s were creating mixtapes – compilations of hip-hop that typically follows a theme and is “hosted” by a rapper.

The majority of music on a mixtape is recorded without permission by the copyright owner, typically remixes of popular songs. It’s essentially an underground advertisement for upcoming releases by the host rappers. Once the CDs are cut, they’re distributed to local record stores that can sell them for less than a typical CD. What makes this story interesting? The RIAA and mixtape creators have a wink-wink relationship where unreleased tracks are “leaked” to DJ’s to put onto mixtapes. The people who gave them the content to be pirated are the same people who were behind arresting them.

I don’t really feel like passing judgement here. It’s out of my realm of knowledge and my hatred of the RIAA may cloud my decision making. Instead, I’ll talk to you about my random experiences with mixtapes.

The first happened at the Mall of America in 1998. For whatever reason, a group of choir people were at the mall before heading to Chanhassen for the dinner theater, err… before heading up to cage fighting. Yeah, lucky that cage was between us and them or those cage fighters would have been cruisin for a bruisin, if you know what I mean! Anyway, I was sitting on a bench at the mall and a guy walked up to me and wanted to know if I was interested in purchasing some local music. I declined. Yeah, I know. Boring story, but it’s interesting to me to realize that I’ve known about hip-hop mixtapes since then. The other experience was actually my brother, but it’s a funny story.

We were at Monday’s, which is the Irish bar on State Street known for strong drinks, and Chris went to the bathroom. In the bathroom, he was approached by a guy wanting to sell him a mixtape. No, Chris wasn’t peeing at the time. So what did Chris do? He made the guy rap for him before he bought the mixtape. Hilarious. The CD was really bad.

Today’s song is the closest thing to a mixtape that I own. It is actually a remix CD by Ratatat, who are a “band” of two DJ’s that spin beats and guitar riffs to make them sound like a band actually playing instruments. Here’s their remix of Jay-Z’s Sunshine.

Today, I’ll let you in on the ugly truth about the Friday fun post.

People, this post is not meant to necessarily please your fun-song craving. If you find a song fun… well, that’s just icing on the cake for me. Ok, it’s not that self-centered, but I do have a certain sadistic trait (see the picture on the right) that involves playing music that I find hilarious that others might not appreciate as much as me. It’s like the time my brother played Natasha Bedingfield’s These Words over and over in his car so he could sing “I love you I love you I love yoooouu!” over and over again. (There were other people in the car… he wasn’t doing this for my direct attention)

Today’s song could fall into that category. I enjoy the song. Erin can vouch for that. For about a week, I played this song in the bathroom in the mornings and bounced around while she stared, wondering where all this energy comes from at 7 am. It is kind of a strange song that’s not meant to be taken seriously. It’s here for you to bounce around to.

Ladies and Gentleman, I give you Supersystem – Defcon.

First of all, before I write this, I’d like to wish everyone a happy Valentine’s Day, especially my beautiful wife. I don’t know how you put up with my weirdness. I love you.

Now, we wait until my brother is done dry-heaving…

Wait for it…

Ok, on to today’s post!

In trying to find a song ready-made for Valentine’s Day, I realized that the typical love song is not a part of the indie rocker’s musical vocabulary. In fact, simple love songs are few and far between. However, it is not at all surprising to find songs about love lost. These indie rockers have no problem emoting their broken hearts, but when it comes to telling a girl how they feel, they lose their voice and stutter like a freshman at a homecoming dance.

So, what, were these the guys in grade school who didn’t get any valentines? Opening the box hung from their desk produced heartbreak every February 14th like Ralph until Lisa choo-choo-chose him? Maybe. Then again, maybe they got plenty of valentines, but decided that they enjoyed the neck of a guitar to the neck of the cute blond in third period U.S. History.

Then again, it could be that sad songs are more acceptable to both men and women. Whether that’s true or not, go to an indie concert and you’ll see a whole lot of dudes.

Sidebar – majoring in engineering is very similar to going to an indie rock concert, only with more equations.

Anyway, whatever the reason, it was difficult to pick today’s song, so I picked three. Each brings something different to the table in terms of love songs. The first is the acoustic version of I’ll Catch You by The Get Up Kids. The second is Leap Year by PlusMinus (or +/-, I’m not sure). The final is You’re the Inspiration by Chicago because it rules and is part of the best DS game ever, Elite Beat Agents!!!

Who is willing to pay for radio? Doesn’t make much sense, does it? Why pay for something you get for free right now? I understand the cable tv argument. People thought paying for tv was crazy and now people are willing to pay $100 a month for the stuff.

I think radio is different. To me, radio is something to pass the time in the car. A place I can sing my lungs out while ignoring people staring at me. I rarely listen to the radio at home, which, coincidentally, is a place I can sing my lungs out while ignoring Erin staring at me. Mr Ipod rules the music playing in this house.

But Nick, doesn’t your wife have an XM radio receiver in her car?

True, but it is because of this that I’ve learned XM is not for me. A lot of channels are nice, but I’m more likely to find a song I like on The Current (89.3 for those in Rochester/Twin Cities, or streamed here) than on XM. But hey, it allows me to sing along to Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn just about every time I’m in the car (it’s currently beating The Fray – How To Save a Life as Nick’s most-heard XM song while in Erin’s car).

I’ve also learned that I could never have an XM radio receiver in my car. I would be the most dangerous man on the road outside of Scooter B on the east side of Silver Lake (sorry, Scooter). Navigating through the channels trying to find something I like takes way too much concentration. I might as well be reading a book while driving.

Oh well, enough complaining about XM. Erin enjoys it, so that’s a good enough reason to own it. On to today’s song.

Today’s song is the second track from Muse’s latest album Black Holes and Revelations. It’s called Starlight. This was probably my favorite song of last year. Tension and release, over and over again. The lyrics, “Hold you in my arms, I just wanted to hold you in my arms” don’t seem all that special until you hear them sung by Matthew Bellamy. Yeah, you’ll have to find that out for yourself.

I’d like to start a tradition of a Friday fun song. I don’t know if I have enough fun songs to pull this off, but we’ll start it now. This week’s Friday fun song is Talk To Me, Dance With Me by Hot Hot Heat.

If you like the song, check out more of Hot Hot Heat on their MySpace page.

Yep. That’s right. I left work yesterday to find my car frozen to the ground. Ok, not quite. Snow had melted and run down the back of my car, making an icicle from my muffler to the ground. It was a little more than an inch thick! Nutso. The broken stalactite is still hanging off of the back of my car.

Sidebar – I really wanted to type “It was more than an inch in diameter!” but backed off so I wouldn’t sound so nerdy. You people are censoring me already! Yeah, I also didn’t help myself by using the word stalactite, but you can only push a man so far…

Anyway, on to today’s song!

Slight unintentional theme to today’s song. Today’s song is On a Freezing Chicago Street by Margot & the Nuclear So And So’s. When I was on the fence about creating an MP3 blog, this album pushed me over the edge. I had it playing in my car for three weeks straight and it would still be the first CD I picked on my iPod. A story about love lost and what could have been put forth in such a way that you don’t end up sad listening to it. Ignoring the lyrics, you probably wouldn’t notice what you’re listening to.

But don’t ignore the lyrics! There are some great, personal lyrics on this album. The above song is about remembering the night of a breakup and deciding that it’s hopeless to try and win her back. Yeah, depressing, I know, but put forth in such an honest way, that it’s hard to not love it!

And if you do love, it don’t hesitate to support the artist and buy the album from amazon.com or your local record store.

It’s an old question: “If you were stuck on a desert island with only one piece of music, what would it be?” BBC Radio 4 has a program called Desert Island Discs that asks for eight pieces of music. It’s been on the air since 1942, so it’s a fairly popular topic. Me? I’m going to pick a single song, since it fits what I’m trying to do with this blog.

Do you pick your favorite song? It makes sense. You’ve got a song that you’ve listened to a thousand times before. You haven’t gotten sick of it yet, but then again, you could be stuck singing Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto for the rest of your life.

Sidebar – how many people would actually pick Mr. Roboto to bring with them on a desert island? I’d like to see those guys in a police line-up.

Do you pick a challenging song? You know, the one your music-geek friend says you should listen to, but you find too weird? It changed his life, man!!! Maybe, with all the time on your hands, you would be able to appreciate it, and, once you learned to appreciate it, realize that it changed your life, too, man.

Me? It’s hard to say. A part of me would love to bring along some Chicago. Hard to Say I’m Sorry or You’re the Inspiration. “After all that we’ve been through, I will make it up to you. I promise to!” Hard not to sing along to that. And, with the Greatest Hits, 1982-1989 version, you get an added horn section at the end.

Speaking of Chicago, when I was younger (ten or so) my parents had tickets to go and see Chicago in concert. The night that they were supposed to go, my brother and I were chasing my sister around the basement and she took a corner to hard, banging her head on the corner of some furniture, which needed stitches. My parents had to give up their tickets. We sure were jerkbags back then. Back to the question…

I’m choosing Oasis – Wonderwall. The opening riff is classic. Back when Britpop was popular for about 15 minutes in the 90’s, you couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing this song. I’m serious! KROC has always had the theory, “For every four songs we play, three of them should be the same.” Combine the opening riff with the nasally voice of Liam Gallagher and you’ve got classic written all over! Recently, I took a trip to Madison, and created a playlist on my iPod to listen to in the car. It was good music to listen to, but the only song to stop conversation was Wonderwall.

I said may-baeeeeeeee, yowe gonna be the one that saves maayyeee. And after aaaallll. Yowe my wondahwaaaaalll.

My first post! Sweet!