Once again, it was a very nice weekend, so you’re not getting much of a post today. Sorry to upset my 5 readers.

I went and saw Hot Fuzz today, which is the next movie from the people who brought you Shawn of the Dead. Very funny movie. I highly recommend it.

Anyway, even though the weekend was nice, this past week has been kind of dreary, so I’ve been watching a lot of tv. Oh, who am I kidding? I watch a lot of tv whether it’s nice out or not. Anyway, a game that I like to play is called “Name the band playing the background music for this commercial.” Erin doesn’t like this game very much. Mostly because the game goes a little like this:

Nick: Hey, guess who sings this song.

Erin: I don’t know.

Nick: That’s not a guess.

Erin: But I really don’t know, so I can’t guess…

Yeah, we stopped playing that game.

Anyway, music in commercials. Here’s a couple I can list off the top of my head.

• Peter Bjorn and John – Napster
• The Go! Team – Honda Civic
• The Apples In Stereo – Saturn Outlook (Sorry, can’t find the video)

There’s more than three commercials, but that’s all I can think of off of the top of my head. So why the influx of talented artists bombarding your living room? My best guess is that they’re cheaper and easier to work with. Or, maybe just cheaper.

Now I know what you’re thinking… “what sell outs! I can’t listen to somebody who pushes the Honda Civic into my living room!” Well, too bad. I personally love the Honda Civic. I also love The Go! Team. Combine those two things and you’ve got The Go! Civic. Or, The Honda Go! Civic Team. All I know, is that I’m voting “Get Up” for Prop One, “Smile” for Prop Two, and “Civic” for Prop Three.

I feel like playing that song, now. So, today’s song is Huddle Formation by The Go! Team. Whoo!!!

Apparently dogs aren’t as symmetrical as I once thought they were.

Wednesday was a surprise for me. Usually, I watch The Simpsons when I get home from work. It’s on Baltimore’s CW, which I get because apparently the one coming from down the street (literally) isn’t big enough for DirecTV’s local channels. I turned on the tv, pushed 14, and waited to see those yellow-hued characters. Instead, I got some show from the CW that I had never heard of. Apparently the last week in April was a good time to switch line-ups.

So what was I to do? Go outside? Read a book? Nah, I decided to find something else to watch. And something else to watch I did find! Soapnet (yeah, I know…) is showing old episodes of The O.C. It took me a couple of minutes to get past the fact that I was watching Soapnet, but after that I remembered why I enjoyed the show.

By the way, what’s a three-letter word for hilarious? D-A-D. That’s right.

While I was watching the O.C., I realized how it was a great outlet for indie rock. The Seth Cohen starter pack contains The Shins, Bright Eyes, and Death Cab for Cutie. It also contained The Goonies on DVD, but we’re not here to talk about movies. We’re here to talk about how fun it was to name the songs from the show. In today’s episode, Alkaline Trio was playing when people were trashing the Cohen residency during a major shindig. Aforementioned Death Cab and The Walkmen played shows at the local club (was it just called the Surf Shack?). It was the first time I realized that Ben Gibbard was kind of a funny looking individual.

The interesting thing about The O.C. is the combination of indie rock with a popular show. It’s like oil and water… night and day… Frenchmen and deodorant… Nate and a smooth face!!! It’s perplexing how it worked so well, but it did.

Today’s song is from a band whose style is about as quirky as the relationship between The O.C. and indie rock, The Mountain Goats. This band has put together as large a string of 4-star CDs as I’ve ever seen from an indie group on allmusic.com. This is a upbeat song about using music to block out bad times, in his case, an abusive father. Don’t let that ruin the song for you. It’s called Dance Music.

First of all, sorry about Monday’s post. I didn’t do a very good job of making my point. “I don’t like jam bands because they play too long… blah blah blah.” I’ll do a better job making my point next year, I guess.

I like the 25th of the month. Christmas falls on the 25th of December, my anniversary is the 25th of March, and Nate and Ruth’s anniversary is the 25th of June. It’s nice to know that Christmas is only 9 months away once my anniversary comes around.

Another reason why I enjoy the 25th (and the reason I’m writing this post) is that my eMusic tracks refresh on the 25th of each month. Every 25th, my available tracks refresh to 65 and I can download all sorts of fun stuff.

For those of you who don’t know what emusic.com is, it is an online music subscription service. From wikipedia, “As of March 2007, eMusic is the second largest online music store and has over 250,000 subscribers.” eMusic deals solely with independent labels and downloads are in MP3 format. It’s good stuff.

So what does today’s song have to do with eMusic? Well, that’s a funny story. When Menomena’s CD, Friend and Foe came out in January, I wanted to get it, but it wasn’t on eMusic. Was it at Best Buy? No, but you can’t really expect Best Buy to stock a CD that it might sell a couple of copies of if they’re lucky. I ended up buying it from bestbuy.com since I had a gift card and free shipping.

Anyway. This week, a 6-song EP from Menomena showed up on eMusic, containing three different versions of today’s song, Wet and Rusting.

But Nick, that wasn’t a funny story.

Yes, it was. Now it is time for you to laugh.

Last Friday was 4/20. For those of you who don’t know what that means, I guess wikipedia will once again be your savior. I’m not here to pass judgement, except for the people who called at 4:20 am my freshman year of college looking for my roommate. That was a jerk move, people who obviously don’t read my blog!

Anyway, if you made it to my P.S. in Friday’s post, you’d know that today is my day to rag on jam bands. Saturday was a late night, so I wouldn’t expect much from a Monday post. You’ll be lucky if I write in complete sandwiches. That’s right, I said sandwiches.

I’m not a huge fan of jam bands. The ability to stretch a two minute song into ten minutes doesn’t impress me. For those of you who have never lived on the male floor of a dorm, jam bands start their songs like a normal band, but then after a verse and a refrain, the song suddenly turns into a soloist and a background band who repeats the same phrase until the soloist is done. It gets boring pretty quickly.

I really don’t mind a band throwing in a jam song every once in a while. Jimmy Eat World ends Clarity with a sixteen-minute epic called Goodbye Sky Harbor. Technically the Mars Volta song I posted, Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt is a hybrid jam song.

Ok, not a great argument, but like I said, complete sandwiches.

Today’s song comes from Cold War Kids. They played lollapalooza last summer without having released a CD. A.C. Newman found that particularly amusing. Here’s Tell Me in the Morning.

Yeah, there’s a party this weekend, which I’m excited for. I won’t give out the details because I’m not sure how the hosts feel about being talked about on a semi-anonymous music blog.

When I throw a party, I like to control the music. Well, as much as I can, anyway. Typically, I’ll create my party playlist on my iPod and let it run on shuffle. Not always the best way of doing things, but it requires the least amount of concentration. I think that sometimes I put my wishes in front of the guests’ wishes as far as music is concerned. It’s the, “No, listen to this song, you’ll love it. And no, I don’t own any Christina Aguilera.”

If it’s music that I enjoy, I know that there will always be at least one person dancing to it. That’d be me.

Anyway, I’m kind of late with this post, so I’ll end it here. Today’s song is a fun party song from LCD Soundsystem’s first CD. Yes, they had a new one come out exactly a month ago, but I haven’t gotten around to picking it up. Here’s Daft Punk is Playing At My House.

P.S. How many people thought that I would take the 4/20 opportunity to rag on jam bands? That sounds like a good idea for Monday’s post.

Before I get on topic, I read this excellent article from the New York Times Magazine called “The Power of Green” about the importance of being environmentally conscious and why it would benefit the United States to lead the way in the global market. It should be online for free until the end of the week. I highly recommend it.

Why do we love the songs that we do? What is the reason that we gravitate towards a certain type of band? It’s different for different people, obviously. The appreciation of music is nothing more than an opinion. You may love all the clicks and beeps you hear when listening to Aphex Twin. I’d say, “Sorry, it’s not for me.” I may love the complexity of a band like Sunset Rubdown. You’d say, “How can you listen to this crap, you weirdo?” and I’d say, “Hey, no need for name-calling. Get out of my house. I’m hiring a different juggling clown for Erin’s birthday party.”

P.S. I’m thinking about getting a juggler for Erin’s birthday.

P.P.S. On second thought, no juggler.

I could go on and on in explaining what parts of music people might like. I think it would be best to explain why I choose a band. There’s actually not one specific thing that I look for. There’s a list of attributes that I try and look for:

• Lyrics
• Melody
• Beat
• Lead Singer’s Voice

None of these on their own will make or break a musical decision, but a combination of them will. Want an example? Sure. The first band that popped into my head was Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm. The melodies and beats are great on that CD. Combine it with decent lyrics and a distinctive voice from the lead singer and we’ve got a winner.

On the flip side of the coin, we’ll take The Blow’s Paper Television. It got some good reviews, so I decided to check it out. Well… didn’t like the lead singer’s voice and the beats were so-so. The lyrics were overshadowed by the lead singer’s voice and I don’t remember much of a melody.

On to today’s song. It’s from The Twilight Sad’s new album, Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters. Musically, it’s pretty solid. That being said, the main reason that I really like this album is that the lead singer is Scottish and leaves you with no question that he’s Scottish. A minute into today’s song, Cold Days from the Birdhouse, when the lead singer comes in and sings, “So you make it your own / But this is where your arm can’t go.” try to not smile. I dare you.

Ah, it’s been a nice weekend. The weather was nice enough that Erin and I actually managed to get some yard work done. That being said, it was a busy weekend and I’m tired.

So, the multiple CD dilemma, aka the “Middle CD Syndrome”. This happens when you buy multiple CDs either at the same time or within a short time range. More often than not, one of those CDs gets forgotten about.

This can be a problem.

Last month, I talked about going to the Electric Fetus (Whoo, Electric Fetus!!!) and buying four CDs. I’ve managed to listen to two out of the four regularly – Peter Bjorn and John and !!!. Sorry Josh Rouse and Modest Mouse… them’s the breaks.

Are these CDs the forgotten middle children of the Musicland family? Yes, most definitely. But why have they been chosen to be the perpetually ignored, slightly impish children of the family? Is it because they lack the musical fortitude to become leaders in the race for your attention? Sometimes. Other times, it’s just bad luck. I’ll give you an example:

I bought the new Brand New album, The Devil and God Are Raging Inside of Me in December. There are two reasons why it got ignored until mid-January.

1. At the time, I was compiling my best of 2006 list and listening to the best music that 2006 had to offer.
2. Their previous album, Deja Intendu was already on my iPod. Since their name was already in my artist list, I often forgot to listen to it.

Surprisingly, the second reason happens more than you would think. The first reason only happened in December of 2006. I can’t use that one as an excuse anymore.

To honor the middle child, today’s song is off of the Brand New album from above. Here’s The Archers’ Bows Have Broken.

Lollapalooza released the schedule for this year’s music festival Thursday and it’s stacked like the world’s best omelet bar. The kind with all the fixin’s. Don’t believe me? Here’s a list of bands that I want to see.

• Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
• Cold War Kids
• Daft Punk
• Electric Six
• The Hold Steady
• Interpol
• Jack’s Mannequin
• LCD Soundsystem
• Modest Mouse
• Motion City Soundtrack
• Muse
• My Morning Jacket
• Pearl Jam
• Peter Bjorn and John
• The Roots
• Silverchair
• Snow Patrol
• Spoon
• Tapes ‘N’ Tapes
• Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
• Tokyo Police Club
• TV on the Radio
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• !!!

Yum, omelets! Hopefully there’s some hash browns on the side! Check out the rest of the bands at lollapalooza.com.

Friday’s fun song is off of Clor’s 2005 self-titled release. Here’s Love + Pain.

Ok, I got everything back up and running. None of your comments are back up, but that’s ok.

My car’s key fab (that remote you use for locking and unlocking your car with) is having issues. I think that the battery is going out. Either way, it takes me more pushes than I want and I end up standing next to my car close enough to use the actual key, hitting my key fab like an idiot.

Exciting news! The lineup for this year’s lollapalooza comes out tomorrow! Rumor has it that Pearl Jam will be one of the headliners. That means there’s a decent chance that Scooter B will be there. Maybe my old roommate, too. Oh, and because the lineup comes out tomorrow, it means that today is the last day to get the tickets for whatever price they’re at now. At least that’s how it usually works.

Speaking of lollapalooza, emusic.com has picked up live recordings of many of the 2006 shows. Unfortunately, they’re not great quality, otherwise I would already have the shows from The Hold Steady and The Go! Team.

So, yeah. On Friday, I made a comment that it was difficult to pick a track from a CD to be the CD’s ambassador. Sometimes the issue is that the best track on a CD sounds nothing like the rest of the CD. Other times, the track I want to play has some non-PG content. Sometimes the track is just too darn long.

This week’s song falls under the second category above. !!! is a dance punk revival band. Oh, you prounce that Chk Chk Chk, if that makes sense. I think it does. I streamed this album on nme.com for a while before I was able to go pick it up in the cities. The problem with finding a song from this CD is that most of the songs are either too long, or have some strange moments that some of my loyal readers may not like. In the end, I chose what I consider the coolest song which just so happens to have some non-PG content. Oh, and it’s almost six minutes long. Oh well, them’s the breaks. Here’s Must Be The Moon off of Myth Takes.

I don’t know why, but whenever I think “happy Easter”, “hoppy Easter” takes over. It’s kind of like, “We fish you a hairy chris-moose, and a hippo new year.” Did I listen to too much Raffy as a kid? I guess so.

Anyway, I messed up the web page trying to set up a second web page for Erin. I was going to call it something like “Erin’s corner” or “I am so embarassed… he did not just write that!” or something like that.

I thought that I had copied and pasted some files over for her, but I must have moved them, so when I gave up on playing with this stuff on Friday, I deleted those folders, which also contained all of my website info. Oops. So, yeah. I’m updating the web page with previous posts used from facebook, which apparently is my savior in all of this.

So, to make ammends, I will play my favorite song from my favorite CD of 2006. So, while not my favorite song of 2006, it is what I consider my favorite song off of The Crane Wife by The Decemberists. It’s the opening track, The Crane Wife 3