Larocque and Roll

Getting tired of writing the word “lullaby” May 13, 2008

It’s not really cool to admit it, but right now I’m listening to Yo-Yo Ma’s Bach Cello Suites, one of my all time favourite CDs - a desert island one, no less [1]. Right now, it’s the perfect music to listen to while I compose blog posts, edit and email pictures from a conference last week, and try and figure out where I’m staying when I go to Halifax this summer [2].

Speaking of music, this weekend while I was shopping for an appropriate gift for my nephew’s pirate-themed birthtism [3],[4] I came across a display for the Rockabye Baby CDs. To save you the trouble of opening the link, it’s a series of CDs for children featuring lullabies versions of popular songs from bands you might not expect to have great bedtime-appropriate music. I bought The Beatles Rockabye Baby for the library, and the general consensus was that we were disappointed they chose songs that lent themselves well to lullabies in the first place. Where’s Lullaby Helter Skelter? Lullaby I Am The Walrus? Lullaby Lovely Rita? Sheesh!

I was going to write about how when I saw the Rockabye Baby versions of the music of The Cure, I almost choked on my coffee - seriously? Lullaby Cure songs? [5] Is that kind of… depressing? And then I was going to mention that if I were going to get one for The Neph, it was between this and Lullaby Led Zepplin.

However, then I looked at the complete list of bands they cover - Metallica? U2? The Pixies? Nine Inch Nails? Tool? The Ramones? Queens of the Stone Age? DUDE. I’m not sure whether to run out and buy them all for The Neph or despair that some of the most hardcore bands of our times have been turned into sleepy-time music for babies [6].

What do you think?

[1] Someday, I may enumerate the other four in my top 5 desert island CDs, and how I got almost everyone in my office at the time to write down their top 5 desert island CDs on post-it notes, which I stuck on my monitor. That I got into trouble for “wasting time” goes without saying, and is one of the top 10 reasons I left that place - having fun and doing team building was strictly verboten.
[2] Now, if I were doing taxes, chatting online with my sister and cousin, and sending a Facebook message to The Furious Redhead about my day and how I suck at everything, I’d be listening to Arcade Fire or The New Pornographers because THAT’S HOW I ROLL.
[3] I only found out at almost the last minute that there was a theme, and it was pirates. For a one-year old.
[4] This weekend was not only his first birthday but also his baptism. Hence, birthday + baptism = birthtism. Let it never be said that we’re not creative in this family.
[5] I am sort of tickled by the fact they’ve turned The Cure’s Lullaby into a lullaby. It’s so self-referential!
[6] It’s not listed, but Lullaby Henry Rollins can’t be far off.

Tuneage, Part the Second April 3, 2008

This playlist actually had a theme (as opposed to the first one). This one was all about going back to school, and education in general. It was a bitch to narrow it down to just 20 songs, and then group them in some sort of order. Roughly speaking, it goes:

• Introductions
• the Alphabet
• Numbers (and then Economics)
• Biology
• History/Politics
• Language Studies
• Geography
• Home Economics
• Autoshop
• Class Dismissed!

~ Weezer - My Name Is Jonas: Can’t hear this one without remembering epic Guitar Hero weekend. [To me, for some reason, it sounds like a sea chanty.]

~ Blackalicious - Alphabet Aerobics: Frickin’ awesome. By the end, I want to collapse.

~ Look People - Five: Weirdest. Band. Ever. Not their weirdest song, though (that would be “Guido”) [Actually, “Guido” isn’t their weirdest song, but that was all I had room to write. Their weirdest song is somewhere between “I’m a Lousy Lover, I’m a Lousy Lay” and “Sunday Driver on a Saturday Night.” Sadly, I have neither of those songs in my collection.]

~ FemBots - Count Down Our Days: Was surprised to find they weren’t a techno group.

~ Carol Channing - Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend: No one does it like Carol! [I love this version - tres campy!]

~ The Dandy Warhols - All the Money or the Simple Life Honey: Love them in small doses - like this. [I think I only like three or four of their songs, but I like them a lot.]

~ King Cobb Steelie - Luckily I keep my feathers numbered for just such an emergency: Big Bird called. [It’s in my top ten most played songs, so you know it’s good.]

~ Modest Mouse - Worms Vs. Birds: A struggle even more epic than cats vs. dogs.

~ Hot Hot Heat - Eyes Ears Mouth (Demo): 50,000 sounds played in tight formation at the right time. [The percussion on this song sounds complicated, but neat.]

~ Buck 65 - Kennedy Killed the Hat: More Buck 65? Why, yes - I think I will! [For whatever reason, I keep thinking there’s a Dr. Seuss reference in here, but there isn’t.]

~ Starkicker - Neil Armstrong: Hometown boys from early ’90’s. This was their 2nd biggest song. [I’m somehow distantly related to the drummer. Another useless fact: they were originally called blue.bottle.fly.]

~ Death from Above 1979 - Black History Month: The only song where crossing guards get to represent. [It’s amazing how much sound two guys can make. Also, really doesn’t have anything to do with Black History Month, in case you were wondering.]

~ Dimitri from Paris - sacre francais: Saw the video in a fever dream, and didn’t believe it at first. [It was kind of trippy and weird, so I thought I imagined it. Then I saw it again, and said, “oh.”]

~ Elliott Brood - Oh, Alberta: Alternate title: “All The Provinces, w/special guest, South Dakota”

~ Ocean Colour Scene - Hundred Mile City: This song makes me feel old and British. [Was this ever used in a Guy Ritchie movie? Because that’s what it makes me think of.]

~ Ron Sexsmith - Gold In Them Hills: ‘Nother hometown boy. Not the Mr. Paltrow version. [For the love of little green apples (heh), couldn’t remember Chris Martin’s name. There is a version of them dueting on this song.]

~ Zuul’s Evil Disco - Pancakes: ‘Nother obscure band. I blame Steve for this one, and so should you. [For visuals of the band, go here.]

~ Buck 65 - Country Cooking: Don’t listen if you’re hungry. Nothing is left out, even gnocchi.

~ Ministry - Jesus Built My Hot Rod: Ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long. Hee! [Admit it, it’s just fun to say!]

~ Van Halen - Hot for Teacher: What playlist about education would be complete without this song? [Sadly, I never had a hot teacher. Not even a hot student teacher.]

Tuneage, Part the First March 30, 2008

I finally got around to making “liner” notes for one of my playlists. To keep things concise, because I tend to get verbose from time to time, I did the notes in Twitter so I knew I’d have a limit to how much I could write.

Without further ado, here’s playlist #1.

~ Big Sugar - AAA Aardvark Hotel: Old skool rock/honky tonk. My fav Cnd. band during the 90’s

~ Buck 65 - Wicked And Weird: All road trips should be this carefree and aimless. [But with a better car!]

~ Sleater-Kinney - Entertain: What sarcasm and anger should always sound like. Done for love, not $$ [Not sure what I was getting at; perhaps that there’s a difference between making music for the love of it and making it for the money.]

~ Loud Lucy - Ticking: Still reminds me of high school. Should be listened to at max volume.

~ Sloan - She Says What She Means: Love love love Sloan. It’s hard to say the things you need to say. [It was also hard to pick one Sloan song.]

~ Average White Band - Pick Up the Pieces: Everyone needs to just get the funk out!

~ Joel Plaskett Emergency - Nowhere With You: Song about my Friday nights in the ‘Fax. [Not all of them - just the ones that ended at Pizza Corner at 2am.]

~ The Inbreds - You Will Know: Long lost jem of a band. My sis and I fought over this CD for years. [That’s the short story. The longer story is that I loved this CD, and I didn’t think she ever listened to it, so I “borrowed” it. Apparently, she noticed its absence and “borrowed” my Portishead CD until I gave The Inbreds back.]

~ Blur - There’s No Other Way: In battle of Blur vs. Oasis, I always side with Blur. Song from gr. 9 [As in, this was one of the songs that got me through the first year or two of high school and cemented my love of the Madchester scene when everyone else was listening to grunge.]

~ James - Sit Down: Another high school flashback. Quirky and an oasis from grunge music saturation.

~ Modest Mouse - Jesus Christ Was an Only Child: Simple but charming. Folksy and weird.

~ Mötley Crüe - Dr Feelgood: To be part of my posse, you must headbang to this song at max volume. [Hee. There’s a story about how this is the song that Karen and I bonded over on our way to my first staff retreat in Sault Ste. Marie when I worked in Sudbury. It’s long, and you’d need to see the flailing that accompanies the telling.]

~ Soul Coughing - Screenwriters Blues: Amanda Bishop, debating bud, where are you? You gave me this! [Amanda was a friend of mine from my high school years as a model UN debater; she went to a different high school, but we always hung out at competitions with a couple of other people. One day we were hanging out at her house, and she played this CD of a band she thought were teh bomb - and she was right, they were. This is the song that always reminds me of her.]

~ Zildo Ildo - Workin’ Class Blues: A secret band who were not-so-secretly awesome. [They were one of those bands you had to know someone who knew someone in the band to have every heard of them - it was through Julie’s ex that I knew them. Back in the Napster years, I would get really excited messages from people wanting to know how I’d heard of them.]

~ Wonderstuff - Closer To Fine: WAY better than the original. This is what it should sound like. [It’s a song about disillusionment, and should be sung by someone who can pull of the pissed-off sound, which Miles Hunt always could.]

~ Alanis Morissette - So Pure: I dare you not to dance or be happy listening to this song.

Guelph and back: a musical journey March 26, 2007

Wow - it’s been forever since I posted a playlist. Bear with me as I try to remember how to do this. It’s a short playlist, fortunately.

~ House of Pain, Shamrocks and Shenanigans (Butch Vig Mix) - You know that scene in Formula 51, where Samuel L. Jackson’s character is driving away from the warehouse he’s just blown up? This is the song that’s playing. And it’s a kick-ass St. Patrick’s Day song (definitely not traditional.) Plus, “shenanigans” is a word that just doesn’t get used enough these days.

~ Jesse Dangerously, Righteous Badass (Fancy’s 45s Mix) - I first heard this one on a CBC Radio 3 podcast, and was charmed. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment I decided I loved it, but it was somewhere between the line “badder than the Necronomicon” and the mention of his resemblance to Hacksaw Jim Duggan (oh, the flashbacks to the Saturday afternoons of my childhood, watching wrestling with my dad).

~ Apollo Sunshine, Magnolia - This is one of many songs added to my cart that I can’t remember why I added it in the first place. Ultimately, it’s not important because it’s a great little song - there’s layers on layers of sound carefully pieced together in 3/4 time. (It also makes me think I should do a playlist of songs about flora, except that the only songs on it would be this one and Sarah Harmer’s Oleander. I’ll get back to you about this.)

~ Tiga, 3 Weeks (12″ Mix) - A very fine break-up song. And you can shake your booty to it.

~ John Frusciante, Omission - Every time this song starts, I think it’s Jane’s Addiction. It’s also the one I skip every other time around.

~ Electronic, Get the Message - A song from my high school days. I have fond memories of this one, let me tell you. What those memories are… well, that’s a different story. Let’s just say I can vividly recall parts of the mid-1990’s when I hear it.

~ Prodigy, Spitfire - Loud and raucous. Good for a chase scene or a beatdown scene in a movie. Also skipped every other time around.

~ Tiga, You Gonna Want Me - Despite the poor grammar, it’s another fine booty shaking song, with the added bonus of the keen vocal stylings of Jake Shears (of the Scissor Sisters.)

~ Busta Rhymes, Touch It - I’m not at all fond of the lyrics. The reason I downloaded it is because it has an interesting beat, and I could use it to practice some of the smaller, more controlled moves we learn in bellydancing. That is, if I ever get around to going back.

~ Brazillian Girls, Jique - Different-sounding. Not recommended for driving, especially on the 401 in moderately heavy traffic, because it feels right for a stunt-driving attempt. Which, because I am always a careful and considerate driver, I didn’t do. No siree.

I also spent considerable time listening to Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black, which is just phenomenal. It’s brassy and tough and honest, and she’s got an incredible voice.

And on the last few trips I’ve taken, I’ve taken a few podcasts to break up the monotony. This time out, I had a various episodes of CBC Radio 3, Savage Love, and the official Grey’s Anatomy podcast.

I’m not fast, but I’m slow February 14, 2007

Yesterday I was having a conversation with someone about bands that were popular when I was in university, and I completely blanked on the name of the duo who released an album called “Kombinator” which had several catchy tracks on it. I knew there was an ostrich and a cornfield on the cover, but that was it.

I can’t remember with whom I was having the conversation, but if it was you, I finally just remembered the band name - The Inbreds.

Ta-da!

(Oh, and today was St. Valentine’s Day. I got a heart shaped cookie at work and a cute heart shaped box from my mother.)

Seasonally appropriate February 4, 2007

It’s hard to imagine that just two days ago, I was wandering from the MTCC to another building nearby without a jacket, mittens, or scarf without being cold. Now that I’m home in North Bay, and the weather has finally started being seasonally appropriate, I can’t imagine not wearing a hat, scarf, handwarmers and mittens just to walk to my car. Tonight it’s -22 and dropping - so cold that the snow squeaks when you walk on it.

The other seasonally appropriate occurance was the considerable snowfall we had between my leaving Tuesday and my arriving home last night, which was somewhere in the neighbourhood of two or more feet. I had to dig my poor little car out of a considerable snowbank when I got back to the train/bus station. And this was on top of the snow we already had.

So! The conference! I’m sure you’re waiting with baited breath to hear how it went, since I was not so much writing about it while I was there. I’d have to say that this was one of the better OLA conferences I’ve been to in recent years. I went to many excellent sessions, and only walked out of one which was largely irrelevant to my interestes (in addition to being not at all what I hoped it would be.) If I were to list all the people I met and want to extend greetings to, I’d be here until tomorrow - suffice to say, if we talked, I’d just like to say “HI!” and I look forward to emailing/speaking/meeting with you over the next little while.

The biggest problem with these conferences is that I always come away with a million ideas which I’d like to implement (A wiki for the employee manual? Sure! A blog for my department to publicize our recent aquisitions? Very necessary! Genealogy podcasting? Why aren’t we already doing that!) However, I feel like Cinderella - I can work on a plan for these things, but only when I’ve finished the library stats for this month, and the January vacation/overtime logs for the department, and writing the scripts for the virtual library project, and the other hundered or so things that crop up on a daily basis.

I love my job, and the administrivia is just part of the job. I just need to manage my time better. And be more organized.

* * *

The night before I left, I downloaded some iTunes-y goodness to listen to while on the train. Regina Spektor’s “Begin to Hope” got heavy airplay - most noteably, “Fidelity,” “Samson,” and “20 Years of Snow.” And I’m sort of embarrased to admit how many times in a row I listed to Mika’s “Grace Kelly” - it’s just that perky and infectious and fun.

Low Res January 3, 2007

Now it is the new year, and the time for making resolutions. I don’t normally make resolutions for a few reasons:

• I am already perfect and need no further improvement (Yeah, I couldn’t keep a straight face typing that either…)
• I would rather do the things that need to be done without announcing them to the world. If I need to tell people about it, it’s because I should already be doing it.
• I’m so lazy that I know I’d break them within a week, so better not to start at all.

However, I hit upon a perfect compromise this morning while getting ready for work - I’ll combine a resolution list with my favourite pasttime - making a random playlist! So, hitting “random play” on my iTunes, here’s what my resolutions for this year are:

Resolution #1: Paul Simon, Late in the Evening
Go out more often, hang out with friends more often, and go to bed later.

Resolution #2: Etta James, At Last
Maybe this year, I’ll get lucky in the romance department. My finger’s aren’t crossed and I’m not holding my breath, though.

Resolution #3: Rufus Wainwright, Across the Universe
Travel! See the world! Or at least, go to the funky bookstore across the street.

Resolution #4: The New Pornographers, Letter from an Occupant
Stay on top of my correspondence, and send more letters and email to people.

Resolution #5: White Stripes, Seven Nation Army
Get passionate about a cause, and support the hell out of it.

Resolution #6: Great Big Sea, I’se the B’y
Woo! The CLA conference is in St. John’s this year! Look out George Street, here I come!

Resolution #7: Cake, Stickshifts and Safetybelts
Start saving for a new car. The Old Green Girl is holding up well, but for how much longer remains to be seen.

Resolution #8: Thrush Hermit, The Day We Hit the Coast
Also? Start saving for that trip back to Halifax you keep threatening to take!

Resolution #9: Wonderstuff, Size of a Cow
Is that a hint that I should start taking better care of my diet? If it is, could you have picked a kinder way of telling me so?

Resolution #10: Tito Puentes, Mambo Gozon
Take some kind of dance lesson again - someone teaches Latin ballroom and bellydancing here in the city, so I should track her down.

Anyone else have any interesting resolutions?

A very special open letter to Galaxie TraditionalHoliday* December 8, 2006

* FYI - TraditionalHoliday is the station on my satellite dish which plays Christmas music non-stop.

Dear Programers of Galaxie TraditionalHoliday,

Thank you for helping me get in the holiday spirit this year. You’ve played a lovely selection of holiday music so far, and I’ve had it on in the background every day for the past few days. I’m now full of the holiday spirit, yo. However, I have a few comments I’d like to throw your way:

Roger Whitaker - you play him three to four times every hour. I haven’t heard him at all in over 20 years, and yet now I’ve heard him at least 20 times in the past 7 days. That’s way too many times.

Why do you insist on playing the same song three times in a row? Granted, it’s by three different artists, but really? I had no idea there were that many ways to interpret “Little Drummer Boy.” (I should mention one of these interpretations is by Kenny G. And that’s one interpretation that didn’t need to be made in the first place. At all.)

Could you please tell Neil Diamond to take it down a notch? I’m afraid he’s going to be overcome with emotion every time you play his version of “Silent Night.” Not to mention that he’s going to hurt himself one of these days with his enthusiastic belting of “O Holy Night.”

I’m not a big Sarah McLachan fan, but her version of “What Child is This?” that you played this afternoon was perfectly lovely. Kudos!

Why no “Fairytale in New York”? That’s my signal - the first time I hear it played in December is when I know the holidays have started. Yet you persist in not playing it - does Shane McGowan’s slurred delivery and Kirsty McColl’s sharp responses bother you?

And, why no John Denver and the Muppets? Why no “The Restroom Door Said ‘Gentlemen’”? No “Walkin’ ‘Round in Women’s Underwear”? “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer”? Do you fear the novelty Christmas song?

Anyways, thanks and have a pleasant holiday!
r.

(I swear to god - as I was writing this, they played Roger Whitaker and followed it up with Neil Diamond.)

The Pogues November 30, 2004

Michael Schaub remembers the Pogues at Bookslut.

I love the Pogues, especially their cover of the Rolling Stone’s Honky Tonk Women, and their version of Wild Rover they did with Soldat Louis. For me, the Christmas season doesn’t start until I hear Fairytale in New York on the radio. I was disappointed when Shane MacGowan left the band, and wasn’t fond of his new project, Shane MacGowan and the Popes.

A (sort of) reunion would be cool.

Get happy now, damn it! November 13, 2004

Okay, so things are a little less distressing now. I suppose the pot of coffee I’m drinking is part of it.

At any rate, Jessica (of Ultratart) posted a list of songs she can’t possibly be unhapping listening to. Looking over the list, it seems like a good idea.

• Brass in Pockets - The Pretenders
• Every Inambition - The Trews
• Go - The Apples in Stereo
• No for the 13th Time/Size of a Cow - The Wonderstuff
• De Rhum, Des Femme - Soldat Louis
• Margaritaville - Jimmy Buffet (I can’t sing worth a damn, but it’s so liberating to wail away to the chorus. “WastiIiin’ awaaAAayyY agaAAIin in MAAArrgaritaAAVilLLLL!” Pick a key - any key! - and sing along!)
• Honky Tonk Women - Rolling Stones
• Excursion Around the Bay - Great Big Sea
• Five - Look People
• Radiation Vibe - Fountains of Wayne
• Tug on the Line - Tommy James and the Shondells
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
• Montgomery Angel - Leslie Spit Tree-o
• Home for a Rest - Spirit of the West (admit it - this was your theme song in university, right?)
• Oye Como Va - Tito Puentes
• Dancing Queen - ABBA
• Le Lys Vert - La Bottine Souriante and The Chieftans
• Northern Lites - Super Furry Animals
• Get Up - Starkicker
• Walkin’ on Sunshine - Katrina and the Waves
• Lovely Rita - The Beatles
• I’m An Old Cowhand - Harry Connick Jr.
• Blue Heaven - The Pogues
• I Love Rock And Roll - Joan Jett
• Groovy Train - The Farm
• April Fool - Rufus Wainwright