Genius Playlist: Maybe Tonight

I was messing around with Apple's new Genius feature and to try it out, I asked it to come up with a playlist for Nicole Atkin's song Maybe Tonight.

I just realized this playlist changes as it goes so instead of listing it, I'm going to list the high lights and low lights so far ...

I started with: Maybe Tonight by Nicole Atkins off Neptune City in Country - Alt Country

Highlights:
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists in Rock - Hipster
The Pretenders in 80s/New Wave
Paul Westerberg in Rock - Indie/Alternative
Pixies in Rock - Indie/Alternative - I'm not a big huge Pixies fan but I think it's nifty that it came up here
Old 97's and Rhett Miller in Country - Alt Country - Since I was introduced to Nicole Atkins when she opened for Rhett Miller recently, this is extra fitting.
Sucked Out by Superdrag off Regretfully Yours in Rock - Indie/Alternative - I'd forgotten how awesome this song is! Yay 1996!
The Clash in Punk - See! My love of country AND punk totally makes sense!
Elvis Costello
Into Action by Tim Armstrong off A Poet's Life in Ska - Excellent Song. Well played Genius.
Neko Case - Obvious but enjoyable.
Motion City Soundtrack - Hells Yeah! Teeny Boppin' Pop-Punk meets self-proclaimed 'pop noir'! It's like cheese and wine ... perfect.
Dashboard Confessional - See above.
Billy Bragg
The Muffs - Yes yes yes.

Strange/Unexpected/Unsure:
San Francisco by Vanessa Carlton off Harmonium in Pop - It's true. I like Vanessa Carlton. Go ahead and judge.
Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want by The Smiths off Louder Than Bombs in Rock - Indie/Alternative - Those closest to me know my most hidden, shameful musical flaw - I don't really like the Smiths. However, in this context, they were quite nice.
Nellie McKay - A friend gave me this album years ago and, truth be told, I haven't listened to it much. I enjoyed her though and will probably take a few more listens.
Tegan and Sara - Tegan and Sara was a popular association for Genius. I got all my Tegan and Sara songs from a friend and really only ever listen to them on shuffle or now on this. It's not that I don't enjoy; it's just ... I don't know, perhaps on their own, it's too much hipster/indieness for me.

Not so much:
Fountains Of Wayne off Traffic and Weather in Rock - Indie/Alternative - A couple songs off this album came up and I felt the need to skip them everytime. I guess I don't like Fountains of Wayne so much - except "Leave the Biker," that song is freakin' awesome.

CD Reviews: The Loved Ones, Horrorpops, and Tim Armstrong

Some thoughts on recently purchased CDs:

The Loved Ones - Build & Burn

After listening to The Loved Ones new cd, Build & Burn, I missed the intense drive of Keep Your Heart which begins with pounding drums and an energy-filled yell. I think it's safe to say that The Loved Ones grew up ... at least a little.

On some level this is disappointing since I credit The Loved Ones and their song "Jane" to re-awakening my love of cheesy pop-punk and, in many ways, re-awakening myself. Nonetheless, after a few listens, I have come to really enjoy Build & Burn - and get its songs stuck in my head.

Despite the decrease in intensity, Build & Burn offers all the catchy-ness of Keep Your Heart. "Louisiana", a song about rebuilding New Orleans, is the first song that stuck in my head. It's gospel-esque repetition seems fitting for the subject and pulled me in immediately. After my obsessive singing of Louisiana, the next song to catch me was "Pretty Good Year". The catalyst for my love of this song, I believe, is the very good lyric: I'm reinventing happiness again. Amen.


The Horrorpops - Kiss Kiss Kill Kill

My first impression of The Horrorpops third album, Kiss Kiss Kill Kill, was that it was the link between The Horrorpop's more rockabilly and psychobilly first album, Hell Yeah, and their pop-punk influenced second album, Bring It On!: a little harder and more rockabilly than Bring It On! and more pop-punk-esque than Hell Yeah.

Like Build & Burn from The Loved Ones, I thought that Kiss Kiss Kill Kill lacked the drive of their previous album, Bring It On! After seeing them live, I realized that part of this was the use of one guitarist as a opposed to two. Especially live, some of the songs fell a little flat without another guitarist.

Regardless, this is a rocking album ... surely far more rock 'n roll than any of the popular punk bands out there. Patricia's voice, as usual, has the perfect tone, scratchiness, and volume for the music. I think she has one of the best rock n roll voices out their today.

Truthfully, my biggest beef with the album is some of the lyrics. For example, the second song on the album, "MissFit," has the line:

And I'm, I'm from the wrong side of town,
Now frown,
On top of that I'm female.

While I love and appreciate the sentiment of the lyric - the intersection of class and gender and the double prejudice that comes with it - I find that the word "female" stands out every time I hear it - and not in a good way. It's like reading a book and finding yourself correcting grammar and awkward sentences: distracting, to say the least.

This isn't an isolated incident either. There's the song "Copenhagen Refugee." Again, I relate to the theme of best friendships falling apart when one person moves forward in their life, even if it's in a direction that both desired. But, come on. Copenhagen Refugee?? That has to be one of the most 15-year-old-I-just-learned-about-punk-lame lyrics ever. Sorry but it's true.

However, the more I listen to the album the more I'm able to let the obnoxious lyrics go and enjoy the power of the music and appreciate the theme of the songs. Despite my bitchy, obsessive, nit-pickiness, I would definitely recommend this record.


Tim Armstrong - A Poet's Life


It seems that more and more I find myself having "God I'm old" moments. Often these occur when I find out about a band or album way after it's come out. Discovering that Tim Armstrong had put out a solo album was one of those moments.

In my own defense (and in an attempt to make myself feel better), I haven't bought a Rancid album in years and I haven't really been into one since ...And Out Come the Wolves. Everything since then has just seemed like the same old, same old.

This made me pretty excited that Tim was doing something new. Apparently, he started making songs available to download for free while fans waited for the new Rancid album. Fans responded so positively to the songs, especially "No Action", that he decided to release the songs as a solo album.

The album, A Poet's Life, is like a reggae version of Operation Ivy. Tim's husky, smoker's voice lends a rock n roll-ness to the reggae music. Combined with female vocals on "No Action," it stands heads above the other songs.

A Poet's Life didn't knock my socks off but it is the perfect album far chilling (preferably with a cold beer) after a long, grueling day.

Who hearts Pink? I heart Pink!

I believe Pink has been listening to a lot of Freddie Mercury lately. There are certain moments in her new album, I'm Not Dead, that caused me to furrow my brow and rewind in case I'd heard wrong. First, it was the chorus to the title track, I'm Not Dead: "I'm not dead just floating." The punctuated, tentative high pitch of the delivery screamed Freddie Mercury to me but then I thought maybe I was just crazy. On comes "'Cuz I Can" with high pitched faux-Classical style backing vocals that include "Ice Cream Ice Cream We All Want Ice Cream" and "Ruff Ruff Ruff" (which was preceded by the line "I'm trying to school you dog." Now I know I'm not crazy ... and I know I freakin' ♥heart♥ Pink.

My love of Pink is not new it's true but I really thought I had gotten over it. I came reluctantly to Mizunderstood. At the time I saw Pink as another R&B Britney wanna-be ... with cooler hair. But the more I learned about her - the fact that she actually skateboarded - and the more songs that came off Mizunderstood, the more I was hooked. It's catchy shit y'all ... and more importantly, the lyrics had a sense of integrity that no one was getting from Britney or Christina or Jessica Simpson. "Everyday I fight a war against the mirror" - hello? what teenager girl hasn't?

Then Pink came out with Try This - which was partially produced and written by none other than Mr. Hot Influential Punk Rocker with a Chipped Tooth, Tim Armstrong. I could hear the Tim Armstrong influence in the ska guitar strums on "Last to Know" and the rock beat (and rockness) on many of the other songs. That really solidified things for me. Pink freakin' knew who Tim Armstrong was! And wanted to work with him! (Something tells me that Baby Face - owner of her record label - wasn't standing in line to work with Tim Armstrong.) Plus she was dating MotoCrosser Carrie Hart. All this added up to cool in my book. And I got myself and many a friend through break ups with "Walk Away."

But then Pink disappeared and aside from the occasional listen to "Walk Away" on Break-Up mixes I'd made for others , I didn't really notice. At one point, I think I saw the video for her first single off I'm Not Dead, "Stupid Girls," and heard the first booty shaking beats and thought "ugg." Then I saw a live performance of "Dear Mr. President" on Fuse and it was amazing. "What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?" Who hasn't asked that question? (Besides Dubya of course) However, the straw that broke the camel's back was, while standing in line at the grocery store, hearing a familiar catchy song ("Who Knew") and realizing that Pink was singing it. That was it. Three strikes, I'm hooked so I bought the record off iTunes.

The first thing I noticed when the songs downloaded was that "Dear Mr. President" featured the Indigo Girls. The Indigo Girls. How amazingly awesome is that? In fact, on Pink's Official MySpace page she lists the Indigo Girls as an influence ... as well as Bad Religion!

I accidentally had my iPod on shuffle for my first listen to I'm Not Dead and the first song to come on was "I Have Seen the Rain" featuring none other than her father! She introduces the song by saying her father brought it back from Vietnam and it was the first song she learned how to sing and harmonize with. See? Awesome.

I gave "Stupid Girls" another try too and it surprised me. It's beat is booty-shakingly catchy - which I can handle some of the time - but it's the lyrics that were so pleasantly unexpected. It half parodizes the Paris Hilton-esque female celebrity ("They travel in packs of two or three with their itsy bitsy doggies and teeny weeny tees") and expresses a desire for something better ("Outcasts and girls with ambition that's what I want to see.") And the video is hilarious! Seriously, though, it gives me hope to see celebrities - especially celebrities who are speaking directly to young girls - expressing their political beliefs in general and these particular beliefs.

Mostly, I give Pink a lot of credit for honestly expressing relationship issues from a female perspective. Too often us ladies are the spoken too not speaking. A while ago I had a conversation with a friend and it turned to the politics of our relationships with liberal (and awesome) guys. She related an incident in which they went out to a club and her guy pointed out a girl dressed to the nines. He said he hated girls like that because they never talked to him. She looked at him quizzically, "She's just here to have a good time with her friends." Perhaps Pink says it best in her song "U + Ur Hand:"

I'm not here for your entertainment
You don't really want to mess with me tonight
Just stop and take a second
I was fine before you walked into my life
Cause you know it's over
Before it began
Keep your drink just give me the money
It's just you and your hand tonight

Amen to that.

After listening to the whole album I really felt a kinship with Pink. I wanted to go out and have a drink with her ... even though I'm pretty sure that she could drink me under the table.* So who ♥hearts♥ Pink? Me!



*Note: This is not a good litmus test for electing a president ...