Err… something’s been wrong with flickr and this is actually from last night but i couldn’t post it until now:

They were going to show Bueller at the park downtown tonight but it was raining so we just went over to Joel’s and ordered pizza. Watched the “evolution of dance” (from YouTube) first then moved on to the main feature. :) Now we’re sitting around Joel’s place watching absolutely hilarious videos on google and YouTube like the ricky gervais faux microsoft training videos and conan’s intro for the 2006 emmy’s and the famous exploding whale.

Uploaded by thesongboy on 29 Aug ‘06, 10.41pm CDT.

Well I spent most of the day hanging out with Kathryn today since it was her last day state-side for the next three months. As I write this she is on her way to Italy! Then I hit fizz again. (My usual monday night place - although I’ve decided I need to cut back a bit.) Somehow whenever Andy shows up backrubs magically start happening. (He’s the guy in the middle of the picture.)

Uploaded by thesongboy on 28 Aug ‘06, 11.10pm CDT.

Spent all of tonight at Buddy Guy’s listening to some great blues and celebrating Dawn’s birthday! This picture is the second act, The Lydia Warren Band from Boston. She played after an acoustic set from Devil in a Woodpile and before an amazing show from Mark Hummel. Right before the show I was putting a quarter in the meter by my truck and watched a car screech his tires and smash right into the parked car in front of mine. That was exciting. Yep, pretty amazing day.

Uploaded by thesongboy on 26 Aug ‘06, 10.15pm CDT.

I am so excited about the new music I’ve been discovering this month. Not just awesome music but some incredible lyrical work as well. Here’s a sneak preview… two songs I ran across tonight which I just added. One is about love and what it can do to us. The other is about a prostitute whom someone has unfortunately fallen in love with. That one really reminds me of an amazing Swedish movie I saw at the Chicago International Film Festival last year: Bang Bang Orangutang. By the way, major props once again to Dave Cusick’s Post Modern Rock Show… I download the show to my Shuffle and I discovered both of these songs as I was listening while driving home this morning.

Inside Out
by Solar Moon

last night he dreamt of angels
last night he dreamt of her–angelic
she is truly (like) an angel
she wears her beauty like wings
wrapped around his soul
this is what happens when you’re in love
love makes us
love invents us
love turns us
inside out
he has found a side he has never seen before
all light and silver and in-can-descence
the wings…
she has wings that he missed the first time around
he wants to fly (she already knows)
in her light(ness) he will learn to fly
but he will never be free
because love blooms
love grows
love wraps itself around a beating heart
and never lets go

Different
by New London Fire

She had to slip into her dress
but not before the smoke can clear her head.
While the worst she can confess
but the thoughts have left her mind.
Sometimes they never find their way.

Now she just turns to say
Please don’t wait for me today
things will not be different now.
They will lead the way into some forgotten space
where things will not be different now.

She’s just forgotten like
a ghost
and the worst thing that she could ever hear is
I think I love you dear
as she’s taking off her clothes
someday you’ll have to find a home.

Now she just turns to say
Please don’t wait for me today
things will not be different now.
They will lead the way into some forgotten space
where things will not be different now.

Words come and softly touch your smile.
They make their way into the space
where they’re dead and out of place.
Don’t believe me I have tried
but I am resting for a while.
I will look for you again.
Someday you’ll have to find a home
where you go I will appear.

Now she just turns to say
Please don’t wait for me today
things will not be different now.
They will lead the way into some forgotten space
where things will not be different now.

Favorite moment: sometime after midnight Joachim goes out there and starts dancing both Jenna AND Jen. This has the immediate effect of making all the rest of the guys in the room feel less manly since Joachim now has two ladies dancing with him. After a minute or so, Aris and I make eye contact, then make our way to the dance floor. And we each steal one of his follows simultaneously - leaving Joachim standing there without anyone to dance with. Hah! Amie walked over a second later and danced with Joachim. Then like three songs later there were about 5 of us dancing together, passing leads and follows all over the place. Yeah we got crazy last night. In public too.

Uploaded by thesongboy on 24 Aug ‘06, 11.21pm CDT.

Repair shop three blocks from my house in the Puerto Rican part of Chicago. They replaced my cat converter, mufflers, and tailpipe for almost half of what midas wanted for just the muffler. (Don’t ask, don’t tell where those parts came from…) It was a little shady though… they guy was absolutely convinced that my cat converter needed replacing because the warranty was up on it. Sheesh. He’s like… “well WHY would they ONLY warranty it for 8 years if it lasts longer than that?” And he talked with a persistent thick accent so you couldn’t really argue with him. But I was like… hey, he’s going to do it all for $180 and everyone else wants $300 not including the cat… what the hell - as long as it passed the emmissions test i don’t care. So I now have a new [universal] cat converter on my truck too. And it passed emmissions - so I’m legal to drive my rusted-out truck for two more years!!

Uploaded by thesongboy on 24 Aug ‘06, 12.11pm CDT.

Just finished taking my final exam for my second summer class at DePaul! Finally free!

And in honor of that (and having a little free time tonight) I’m finally posting my playlist that I finished waaaaay back at the end of last month. So here it is:

Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken - Camera Obscura - Let’s Get Out of This Country (2006)
Fit But You Know It - The Streets - A Grand Don’t Come for Free (2004)
Little Violin - What Four - What Four (2006)
Home - Marc Broussard - Carencro (2004)
Blue Skies - Young Republic - Modern Plays (2006)
Samson - Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope (2006)
Disco Bean - Turnbull A.C’s - Part Man, Part Machine (2006)
I Wish I Knew - Derek Trucks Band - Songlines (2006)
Related - The 77s - A Golden Field of Radioactive Crows (2001)
Wade in the Water - Eva Cassidy - Songbird (1998)
Wild Horses (Rolling Stones) - Charlotte Martin - On Your Shore (2004)
Tell the Lie - The BellRays - Have a Little Faith (2006)
When I Come Back Around - Jamie Lidell - Multiply Additions (2006)
Make A Choice - Dylan Donkin - Soft Energy (2004)
Why Does the Sun Shine? - They Might Be Giants - Why Does the Sun Shine (1994)
A Happiness - All Things Bright And Beautiful - Love & Affection (2003)

So what’s so special about these songs? Because anyone can make a playlist. But this is so much more than that. This is a collection of aural and poetic jewels that I have labored for hours to find.

To kick it all off we have Camera Obscura from Glasgow (Scotland). To quote Pitchfork: “Camera Obscura can simultaneously evoke a wedding, a funeral, and a 1970s game show theme; the organ overture of Lloyd, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken encapsulates this tincture of celebration, sadness, and a dash of winning schmaltz.” This song is actually an answer to British singer Lloyd Cole’s 1984 hit “Are you ready to be heartbroken?” I pretty much heard this song once and loved it immediately.

Next up is British rapper Mike Skinner, a.k.a. The Streets. Ironicly I first heard Skinner like years ago while living in Lansing - long before I was looking for awesome music like this. The Impact (awesome radio station) had his 2002 UK hit “Let’s Push Things Forward” in regular rotation. Well this song - “Fit But Don’t You Know It” - continues the legacy of highly entertaining, quality music. He actually has a new album out now but I liked this song so much I wanted to include it instead of his newer material. Skinner was even in Chicago not too long ago - he headlined at the Intonation Music Festival.

What Four is one of those bands that totally surprised me. This band from Chicago’s north suburbs has a solid mixture of rock, jazz, classical, soul, and funk influences - and I totally dig it. In this song you can hear it in the jazzy piano licks and how they play with the time signature. So I was floored when I realized that these four guys are all still in high school. Keep your eyes on these boys. Marc Broussard is old school for me but I thought I’d throw him in. My sister and brother-in-law bought me his CD like two years ago or so. I do have to admit that this is really the only song in his CD that I’m crazy about. But having said that, this song is downright amazing. Now since I just mentioned a band full of high-schoolers, it’s fitting to go right to The Young Republic. I was first introduced to these guys through their Lounge Act at Cincinnati-based WOXY. Basically they’re all students at Berklee College of Music in Boston who decided to form a self-described “indie-orchestral-folk-rock” band. The band was formed in fall of 2004, and its short history has been eventful: Members have been replaced, three albums have been released and they have gone on a national tour in a homemade trailer. Music is recorded after school wherever they can find space to play. How can you beat that?

Now moving on to the world of amazing female vocalists we have Regina Spektor. She was born in Moscow in 1980 but moved with her family to the Bronx in NYC when she was 9. With a voice that would charm the devil she covers the spectrum from jazz to folk. This song especially entranced me (although there’s another version with only piano and vocals that I like better, but it wasn’t on iTunes).

I found the UK-based Turnbull A.C’s entirely by accident. I was actually looking for Cincinnati-based The Turnbull AC’s because I’m totally in love with their song Ghost Town Land. Unfortunately I couldn’t get that song without buying the whole album (which I can’t afford this summer) but the UK electronic band had some good free tracks on their myspace page. So you get the UK electronic band instead of the Cinci rock band. Don’t worry, they’re both excellent!

Now I am forever indebted to my swing and blues dancing friend Jason Young for introducing me to the Derek Trucks Band. It was about 4am or something after a party at Joachim’s place and he started playing some of his favorite blues music while Tessa, Joachim, and I were all falling asleep on the couch. Then this song came on. And we’re all like… “that’s money.” And I got the song from him so I could put it in the mix. Speaking of bands I found through my friends, The 77s are the same case. I was first introduced to them by my old roommate in Lansing, Josh Arritt. This is another one of those songs I heard once and fell totally in love with. Solid rock sound with strong rhythms underneath it.

Back in the world of amazing female vocalists, Eva Cassidy is another artist I was first exposed to through The Impact in East Lansing. She has actually become rather well-known although it never happened until after she died of cancer. This version of her covering Wade in the Water is a great blues-dancing song! And then we have Charlotte Martin covering the Rolling Stones song Wild Horses. She has an absolutely stunning, incredible voice. And I love the lyrics to this song.

And now… one of my absolute FAVORITE bands on the mix: The BellRays. These guys were featured on KEXP’s “Music That Matters” podcast vol #20. But I don’t just like this song - I love every single song on their CD. You can listen to their music on their website - go check it out. They are the perfect blend of grungy rock and motown-reminiscent soul. And they give each song it’s own unique personality and sound. Amazing. I can’t stop raving about these guys.

I first heard Jamie Lidell on an episode of 75 minutes. This remix of one of his previously released songs is an awesome electro backdrop with convincing soul vocals. And I first heard Maui (Hawaii) based Dylan Donkin on Dave Cusick’s Post-Modern Rock Show (July 14). This song makes me want to kick back on the beach and relax. Makes me wish I was in Hawaii too. And winding things down we’ve got a song from world-famous They Might Be Giants. Seems obligitory that I include one of their songs in a mix at some point, and this song is a great one to put on there. Dave Cusick actually had this on one of his shows and I felt inspired so I stuck it here on my mix too.

Last, but far from least, we have a song that I really like from All Things Bright And Beautiful. I am indebted again to Josh Arritt for pointing this out to me. In fact I first saw this song just as poetry when Josh blogged the lyrics. I was back home a month ago or so and stopped by for Mark’s moving-to-california party. And around 4am or something, Josh played the record for me. This ambient, haunting album released on Northern Records is basically the heart of Lee Bozeman in musical form. Bozeman has spent the past decade as the front-man for rock band Luxury before taking on this solo project. And this project is entrancing. Seemed like the perfect song to wrap up the mix.

Have a great night and enjoy all of the incredible music God has given us!

Seize life! Eat bread with gusto, drink wine with a robust heart. Oh yes - God takes pleasure in your pleasure! Dress festively every morning. Don’t skimp on colors and scarves. Relish life with the spouse you love each and every day of your precarious life. Each day is God’s gift. It’s all you get in exchange for the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of each one!

Tonight Fizz was awesome as usual! I think it’s getting better every week. I keep seeing more familiar faces - including some new people moving to chicago who I knew from other places.

Uploaded by thesongboy on 14 Aug ‘06, 11.07pm CDT.

A few of us met up before Fizz tonight for some Turkish dinner. This place turned out to be a bit more than we bargained for… complete with the rugs, pillows, and hookah. And a sneaky, devious waiter who had it in for the girls.

Uploaded by thesongboy on 14 Aug ‘06, 9.52pm CDT.

This intergalactic space destroyer which I built is en route to Kathryn’s Pirate Vacation Island to save it from Robin Hood’s evil arrow-laden forces of carnage and annihilation. This is what happens when you are stranded in the suburbs for an afternoon with no escape. Havoc, invalidation, liquidation, loss, massacre, murder, overthrow, ravaging, ruin, sacking, shattering, slaughter, slaying, subjugation, subversion, undoing, and wreckage.

Uploaded by thesongboy on 13 Aug ‘06, 9.57pm CDT.