Dr. Spock's Revenge

Click here to read about today’s nominee for Worst Mother of 2007. She apparently coached her children to act retarded so she could collect thousands in government aid.

This mom follows last year’s Mom of the Year candidate who was arrested after repeatedly forcing her son to stay in her car’s trunk while she went into a bar. It was her birthday, after all, and she gave him a sleeping bag and a pillow.

Feel free to submit any other 2007 nominations.

One-punch knockouts

Just trying to think of some of my favorite album-lead-off tracks. Stuff that just really launches an LP and sets the standard the others songs either have to match or surpass to be respected. Hip-hop albums run the risk of being underrepresented as the list grows because a lot of their lead-off tracks are sketches. And rules are rules (the rules are: no anthologies, no compilations, must be actual track 1, etc.). Feel free to add to the list.

So far I've got:
"Luv n' Haight" Sly and The Family Stone There's a Riot Goin' On
"Billy Jack" Curtis Mayfield There's No Place Like America Today
"Jimmy James" The Beastie Boys Check Your Head
"Race for the Prize" The Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin
"Excursions" Tribe Called Quest The Low End Theory
"Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" The Arcade Fire Funeral
"Gone" The Black Crowes Amorica
"Welcome to the Jungle" G'n'R Appetite for Destruction
"Thunder Road" Bruce Springsteen Born to Run
"I'm Bad" LL Cool J Bigger and Deffer
"Revolution" Los Lobos Colossal Head
"You are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son" Wolf Parade Apologies to the Queen Mary
"Exactly Where I'm At" Ween White Pepper
"And It Stoned Me" Van Morrison Moondance
"Singapore" Tom Waits Rain Dogs
"Mambo Sun" T.Rex Electric Warrior
"The Beast and Dragon, Adored" Spoon Gimme Fiction
"Love Having You Around" Stevie Wonder Music of My Mind
"Have You Seen My Baby?" Randy Newman 12 Songs
"Let Me Drown" Soundgarden Superunknown

Lucinda Williams West

I made a mistake before listening to West - I recently listened to Williams’ out-of-print self-titled Lucinda Williams. By comparison, West sounds like a tired collection of diary entries that you probably won’t listen to twice.

Of course it’s not fair to compare releases. What if she’s trying to do something different here? But the difference isn't enough. Her songs are still about bad relationships and faded memories. But this time, it’s just not nearly as beautiful, regardless of the song's pace.

As with her previous stuff, this record is about the lyrics, but very little about the music. Too bad, for the most part, the lyrics aren’t that interesting. Take, for instance, Wrapped my Head Around’s INXS-like (gravitate, love your mate) rhyme/talk sequence that really goes nowhere:
I can’t believe I believed you
When I found out where you at
A fallin’ out when you’re too much
Try to wrap my head around that.
All that would probably be OK, but not for over nine minutes.

There are a few good songs worth searching for:
Learning How to Live has a comfortable piano line in place of the normal blues guitar, a good illustration of the differences in this album and Car Wheels.
Lyrically, Unsuffer Me is exactly what you were looking for if you bought this record:
Take away the pain, unbruise my body, wash away my stain, anoint my head with your sweet kiss.
My joy is dead, I long for bliss. I long for knowledge whispered in my ear. Undo my logic, undo my fear, unsuffer me.

Presenting the news like my name was Huey Lewis

My 2 favorite stories of the day:
1) Man thankful he can't remember 16-story fall--He was drunk, of course. And he said that while he's thankful to be alive and he's become more contemplative about life, he doesn't know if he will drink less. That's the kind of stick-to-it-iveness I can get behind.

2) The brutal life of the kids who hit you up for magazine subscriptions--The kids on these traveling magazine crews apparently do a lot of drugs, have a lot of sex, and take a lot of ass-beatings when they don't meet their quotas. They're lucky to see any of the money they make. There are some positive magazine crew stories... but you know, we're building schools in Iraq, too.

Ditto on CNN

I clicked on the SI swimsuit photos for about 30 seconds last week at work to see Beyonce. But I panicked and shut it down until I got home. I even felt guilty looking at Jennifer Love's ample Hewitts on a cnn.com story today. But because there was more copy than photo, I think I got away with it.
To cool off, I made a list of new/newish music I need to check out before I can, in good conscience, post again.
Here it is:
the new Arcade Fire
the new CYHSY
Of Montreal
Menomena
The Besnard Lakes
Vietnam
Deerhunter
Rock Plaza Central
Oh No
The Good, the Bad & the Queen
Sparklehorse
Subtle
Lupe Fiasco
Li'l Cap'n Travis
the forthcoming Dr. Dog

I like lists.

Damn you CNN

It sure is getting more difficult not to click on SI's new swimsuit photos while I'm at work, which surely would find me in violation of some office policy I have yet to read. Shouldn't CNN's Web masters be banned for looking at those pages too? THEY MUST keep those teasers off CNN's Web page? Come On! I'm only human.

The End is Nigh

I don't know how this blog knows it's me, but I just logged on from work by only clicking "sign in". I didn't type in anything, but by god, this is Earwig2 alright!

Anyway, not to bring the conversation back down to a sophomoric level after C.'s right-on rant about the lack of leadership in this seemingly godforsaken country, but I'm starting to wonder if the only way to get through these terrible times is to drink and/or otherwise elevate your mind. Meditation might be a healthier means or doing so. But for now, I think I'll drink. I'm afraid that the course of the nation and the world has already been set. I can protest war; I can stand in front of a Salvation Army kettle and ring a bell at x-mas; I can write letters to my senator about genocide in the Sudan; I can avoid driving through mud puddles and splashing old people and invalids on the sidewalk. But what does it all matter? We have a short time on this planet, and it may be a lot shorter than we think. So why not have a little fun? All I really want to do is watch movies, listen to music, have some beer, cook some food, read books, do crosswords, blog a little, and occasionally get laid. And right now, it takes all of my efforts to make that last thing happen. I don't have a lot of energy left for caring about things.

Disgraceful

I’m only seeing two bad choices being debated about Iraq: 1) put the clamps on the budget and pull out and 2) let’s see if the surge will work.

This is ridiculous. Neither of these choices is acceptable. Thousands of lives are at stake as is the future of many countries and the only options we’re left with is quit or keep losing. The lack of leadership and vision of Bush and Cheney are to blame, not the Sunnis, not the Shiites, not Iran, not the insurgents and, yikes, not the terrorists. If we hadn’t waged this unnecessary war, our country wouldn’t be forced to witness this awful exercise and be subjected our lawmakers' pandering to our worn-out conscience. Of course this is the beginning of the end – the end of what? – and it’s shameful.

It’s going to be a long time before our country can recover from this. Let’s just hope there aren’t any more wars started for anyone’s pipe dream/grand vision or for oil. But, in the meantime, we get to hear about catastrophe and hyperbole from our "lawmakers" scraping the bowl of this mess for the sake of their political futures.

Everybody's working for the weekend

Here's what some folks in my office (including me) have been rockin' this week:
Curtis Mayfield
Wolfmother
MC5
The Isley Brothers
The Sword
Lou Donaldson
Ghostface
MMJ
and...
Dramarama?

Hmmm... Sure. Why not?
Much better than, say, Loverboy.

Zykos free MP3s

Go here to discover Zykos, a band out of Austin, if you haven't already. They have 4 songs in the media player that you can download (look for the Download link under each song title). Three of these are unreleased 2007 demos and the other is from 06. The first track is great... don't be fooled by vocals that sound like Kings of Leon, nothing against KOL.
Make sure to rename the tracks when you save them.
There's some more info on them in the new Austin Chronicle.

Firedoglake in NY Times

There's a great article in the NY Times about Firedoglake's coverage of the Libby trial. You can find it here. It's a great blog. I've included a link to the right along with the growing list of links. It's a great example of the new journalism (firedoglake, not our list of links).

Oh, so Lonelyland

Yes, my friend, you will receive some flak for your love of this sap. He needs a hug.

Kickoff

To comment on the previous postings, Southern Man is a great song, Skynyrd has a whole lotta bad shit (but goddamn, I love Tuesday's Gone), and you know the type of crush a relatively young yet quickly aging guy might have for a middle-aged, craggy, haggard, foul-mouthed, rode-hard-and-put-away-wet redneck lady? That's what I've got for Lucinda Williams. I'd drive my car wheels down her gravel road any day. And she gives the impression that it's seriously gravelly down there for her.

I'm listening to the latest Bob Schneider, who is a guilty pleasure. I've always tried to hate him because when I was in college, he was known for getting wasted and nailing hot freshman chicks in Austin. And there none leftover for me. But some of his songs are catchy and some are rockin'. Some of this new stuff sounds a bit dated to me. Which in turn makes me feel a bit younger. So if I get slammed for digging his music, I'm not going to defend myself. It's indefensible. But go to hell.

Lucinda Williams West

I'm looking forward to checking out the new Lucinda Williams record, titled West. I think I attached a link to an overly gushy review in the Austin American-Statesman.

I do agree that she's one of the most talented - if not the most talented - songwriters making music that matters today. The sad thing is that the future of songwriters is looking pretty bleak, especially those that can reach a broad audience.

John Mayer and Jack Johnson? Puhleese.

Sorry Southern Man

It's cold and cloudy here in Dallas, perfect weather for some Neil Young. I really dig Standing on the Beach, Walk On is a great song. But, after listening to Southern Man, I'm convinced that song is crap. It's a melodramatic joke. I just don't see how it got the airplay it did.

On the opposite side of that argument, I listened to some Skynyrd yesterday. Once in my top 5 all time rock bands, I'm starting to seriously reconsider. They have some great songs, for sure. But, man, they fall flat a lot. And what's with Ronnie Van Vandt's whistling? God, that's annoying.

Get the Party Started

OK
Looks like we're set to start this thing. Not sure yet exactly what we'll be talking about, but most likely the same topics we waste countless hours emailing about at work. Music, politics, movies and the daily grind.
Geez that list is short and sad.