[on the docks in memphis, with a boombox, nodding out] [i may be a bird in a cage but at least it's your cage]

happy, happy, happy birthdays to

resmin and

estrella30, two of my most favorite people in the whole world. i am a lamer, and did not get my act together to make your stories, but i love you both to bits, to absolute bits, and i wish you the happiest, healthiest, most joyous years ahead. love love love.

i uploaded this for

febrile, but i thought some of you might like it, too: courtesy

revisionary originally, the old 97's, live @ the bijou theater, knoxville, tennessee; 07/09/1999. great track listing - all the classics, plus "house that used to be" and "salome" and a scorching version of "wish the worst", a couple of old school bluegrass covers, and a song called "valentine" that i'd never heard before, because i seem to have some holes in my acquisition of fight songs. zip file on sendspace; enjoy it!

hurricane ernesto's longest arms are pissing all the frak over the triangle today, to continue through the weekend, and i have been damp since i left the house this morning, even though i actually drove to campus today, trying to escape the rain. i love the rain when i am inside, wearing pajamas and napping with the window open just enough to smell the frog-smell, as the boy says, of the rain. i do not love the rain when my jeans are soaked from it, and my flip-flops go squish-squish whenever i walk. I DISAPPROVE, HURRICANE ERNESTO.

that said. thursday! i even remembered this time. top five albums for staying in bed and napping through a rainy day. or not napping. or not in bed. top five albums for a rainy, gloomy, lovely day. go.

my list:

1. birds flying away, mason jennings. this is not a quiet album, nor is it a particularly ... peaceful one. but it's somehow the album that my brain associates with staying inside and watching the rain from the porch. "train leaving grey", maybe. coming home and getting into bed/smiling in your sleep. you know.

2. rain dogs, tom waits. and not just because of the title. because it's a rain and whiskey sort of album.

3. down the river of golden dreams, okkervil river. lazy and slow, sweet and dreamy. the sort of album that you can doze to.

4. lines from old songs, which is a mix that missingm made for me during my first fall in chicago. i think this is probably, technically, cheating; i don't care. it's one of my all-time favorite rainy days discs.

5. more adventurous, rilo kiley. my favorite album to sleep to, lately.

OKAY, NOW YOU GO.

in other news, there's nothing quite like seeing an IP hit from your campus (and the LIBRARY DOMAIN) on your website, and freaking out, and going to your department's IP database to check it out, and realizing that ... it's your work computer. from when you were updating your website last week. *facepalm*

and in conclusion: OKAY, FINANCIAL AID OFFICE, YOU'VE ADJUSTED MY TUITION PAYMENTS APPROPRIATELY, COUGH UP MY SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS RIGHT FRAKKING NOW. *stages sit in for check*

July

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31 1

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

ooh, yoinking the show as we speak. oh, also, valentine is also on the second disc (of five songs) that sometimes comes with satellite rides.

as for albums, i am useless because i've been listening to single-artist playlists for months. this one time at band camp, however (...sorry. but really), a whole morning of rehearsal got rained out and we spent it listening to boys for pele, which turned out to be perfect. i thought about putting it on this past sunday when it rained buckets in ann arbor. oh, and want one by rufus wainwright was just the thing when i was stuck inside on a cold wet day in minneapolis once.

[link] [reply]

boys for pele is definitely the tori album for rainy days. i can absolutely 100% get behind that choice.

somehow i had never managed to hear "valentine" before! i feel completely deprived, that i've been a 97s fan for YEARS now and i haven't been able to spend them listening to this song.

[link] [parent] [reply]

1-5. Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morrissette. YOU LIVE, YOU LEARN. YOU LOVE, YOU LEARN. YOU CRY, YOU LEARN. YOU LOSE, YOU LEARN.

can't stop laughing at this.

*KISS KISS*

thank you, min baby!! MWAH!!

*love love love*

happy happy, nancakes. <3

1. Hold on Love by Azure Ray. Violins and soft songs. Great for lurking in bed while the rain falls.

2. True Love Waits by Christopher O'Riley. It's classical Radiohead. Great for when you want to wallow but don't want the full force of Radiohead themselves. (who I heart but you know, occasionally they can be a bit much for a little light wallowing)

3. In the Reins by Calexico and Iron & Wine. Because it's an ep of stories.

4. Grosse Point Blank soundtrack. Because it's happy and a comfort album.

5. Furnance Room Lullaby by Neko Case. It's strangely uplifting.

definitely that calexico & iron & wine album, and i associate the neko case disc with fall, with dry crunchy leaves and waiting for the bus in chicago, but i can see how it would be an excellent rainy day disc.

1. If You're Feeling Sinister - Belle and Sebastian

2. Rites of Passage - the Indigo Girls

3. Utopia Parkway - Fountains of Wayne

4. Purple Rain - Prince

5. Graceland - Paul Simon

see, graceland, that's the sunniest album i can think of - which i guess is part of its appeal on rainy days? but rhythm of the saints was always my rainy day paul simon album, no matter what. :)

We're getting Ernesto tomorrow, just in time for the long weekend. At least it's like 15-20 degrees cooler than it has been. I'll settle for that, I suppose.

1) Rainy Day Music by the Jayhawks - I really wish that wasn't the title, because now I feel cheesy, but it's really, really good for sitting on the couch on a quiet day and reading, which is what I like to do when it rains.

2) Rain Dogs by Tom Waits - God, now I really do feel cheesy, but seriously. Everything you said about it and more. Perfect music.

3) The soundtrack to Unstrung Heroes - This was a very quirky little movie that came out about 10 years ago, starring Michael Richards (Kramer from Seinfeld) as some little kid's crazy uncle, and it has the most beautiful, offbeat, jangly, strange, instrumental soundrack. I love it. It's good quiet music.

4) Appalachian Waltz by Yo Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Mark O'Connor - lovely, bluegrassy, informal string trio arrangements of classical music performed by virtuosos of the cello, upright bass, and fiddle, respectively. gorgeous.

5) Artist's Choice: Best of by the Earl Scruggs Revue - I find that rainy days are good days for bluegrass, and this is my favorite group. They played in the late 60's and early 70's and were heavily influenced by Bob Dylan and the folk and hippie movements, and the music is great. Nobody plays the banjo like Earl.

mmmmmm, as far as instrumental goes, yes, that's good for rainy days (i for one love the quieter bits of the battlestar galactica scores) - i've been starting to collect instrumental scores recently and i'll definitely have to track that one down in the near future.

this is a top five list i can get behind.

01. live at luther college, dave matthews and tim meadows. during one of my lowest points in high school, i woke up on my best friend's couch and his father was waiting for me with breakfast, and playing this cd. it doesn't hurt to hear it anymore, thankfully, because it's almost always in my head when i wake up to rain.
02. transatlanticism, death cab for cutie. i think my brain associates lying in bed, listening to the rain, with being heartbroken. mostly because that's how it tends to happen to me; it happened to this album once, but it was already the default emo indie rock album of my soul.
03. stompingrounds, joe purdy. i blame my knowledge of this artist entirely on mckay (which is sort of hard for me, i can't lie), but i wouldn't give him up for anything. songs about rain! not ironically, an artist i think you would enjoy quite a bit; melodic acoustic guitar and that soft southern rocker boy voice i know you like. if you've never heard him and you're interested, i uploaded this to that place we don't talk about, back in march.
04. dreamt for light years in the belly of a mountain, sparklehorse. also known as the album i have not been able to stop listening to for over a week now. it is lovely, in a trippy, sometimes we smoke a lot of herb and watch the water patterns on the patio door way.
05. the world won't end, pernice brothers. it's hard to be true / i'm still in love with you. my heart.

i really need to get that joe purdy album from mckay, it's true - i keep hearing fantastic things about him, and i know nothing about him aside from the one track that was used on lost in the first season.

actually, i think i probably need that sparklehorse album, too. if you could hook an alien up with that shit and all, you know.

wrt: joe purdy: emailed.

detroit called up the pitcher from the tarheels this week! or, you know, if we hang out at arby's long enough, the carolina baseball team might show up.

got the email; thx, lt. col. you are, as always, my favorite.

I've got Fight Songs at home -- you want I should send you "Valentine?" It's one of those songs for "Ouch" playlists, but it's pretty and it's acoustic and it's Murry, and what else do you need?

This Top Five is making me sleepy. In a good way.

5. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours. Although I've known every song for years, it has only been recently that I've figured out how brilliant it really is.

4. Ella. Oh, my, Miss Ella. So long as it doesn't get too brassy and swingin', it's like sitting down in front of a fireplace and drinking honeyed hot tea.

3. Woody Guthrie. It can be any of the Woody Guthrie I own. No commentary to add. It's just perfect.

2. Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits. If only for the line, "And the moon rose over an open field...."

#1 with a bullet, surprise, surprise: Bob Dylan, Blood On the Tracks. It starts with "Tangled Up In Blue" and ends with "Shelter From the Storm" and "Buckets of Rain." God, just thinking about napping on my couch listening to this album of a rainy afternoon has put my shoulders down.

oh, yes, please - it seems to be the only track i'm missing from fight songs, so i suspect that it just got accidentally deleted at some point in moving from computer to computer. whenever you have a moment, i'd love to get the album version of "valentine".

... now i want to bail out of work early and go home and nap on the couch with blood on the tracks on the stereo. man. yes, PERFECT.

Napping music!

1. I napped my way through freshman year in college to Sheppard Moons by Enya. So cheesy, but very sleep-inducing.

2. Anything by Innocence Mission, but particularly Befriended, which I napped all of the year prior to grad school by, Birds of my Neighborhood and particularly Now the Day is Over which is their album of lullaby covers.

3. Rabbit Songs by Hem - Sally Ellyson is the queen of lullabies. She got the gig with Hem when the guys heard a tape of lullabies she had made.

4. Our Endless Numbered Days by Iron and Wine - just lovely.

5. If we can include mixes, than an old mix tape I made my freshman year in college from my roommate's staggering CD collection of "Calming peaceful music" which I used later when I was a camp counselor to get a cabin full of girls to sleep and which I think I still have around somewhere. It's full of Joni Mitchell and old Sarah McLachlan and Simon and Garfunkle and 60s protest songs.

I love, love, love Hem. Rabbit Songs is a brilliant album. I first heard them when they did a free show for wxpn's Sleepy Hollow program a few years ago.

sometime soon you'll have to hook me up with some innocence mission; i've heard good stuff about them.

also, can i say? i really, really would rather not be at work today. i would rather be home napping.

Come nap in the collab! I won't tell! You can curl up under my desk and if anyone asks, I'll just say you're fixing the hard drive!

Beth Orton-Central Reservation.
I would especially recommend this album for "Stolen Car" and "Central Reservation (Than Again)". Her voice soothes me yet it also compells you to listen as you fall asleep.

Wilco-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
(well, obviously, except for "Heavy Metal Drummer" but you can skip that song). The somborous tone of this album is just very sleep-inducing. I'd forgotten how gorgeous this album was until I recently ordered a new copy for myself. So fecking gorgeous. My favorites are "Reservations" and "I am Trying to Break Your Heart"

Over the Rhine-Good Dog, Bad Dog
Among my favorite albums of all time. Karin's voice will lull you to sleep with her gorgeous tones but also comfort you in a way. I highly recommend the songs "Latter Days" and "Etcectera Whatever"

Hem-Rabbit Songs
Their sound reminds me a bit of over the Rhine. In fact, they recently toured with them. This album is perfect from end to end especially the songs "Half Acre" and "When I was Drinking". I really hope to see them as they tour in support of a new album this fall.

can't think of a fifth.

"i am trying to break your heart" makes me want to stay in bed for daaays. i'm not wild about the rest of the album, it hasn't held up for me the way i'd have liked it to, but oh, that track, that track is perfect rain music.

okay i don't know because it's a beautiful day here and my music mode is OMFG the finals of summer. though i would say that "red right ankle" is a pretty good song to give a rainy revival, maybe "oceanside", etc. hedwig and the angry inch, too. and in a way the dandy warhol's welcome to the monkey house, actually in a perfect way. when we saw the flaming lips on monday, it was raining, and that was pretty good, too.

AHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

remember to breathe, e. just remember to keep breathing.

and if it rains, go out and dance in it.

Yesterday, on the first day of classes, I woke up to college radio.

And it was Mason Jennings "Be Here Now". You've rambled on and on about him, but that was the very first time I ever went ...swoon. It was a perfect First Day song.

oh, oh, i'm so glad you went swoon! mason is always my best beloved, and it really is a perfect first day song.

I ventured out in the pouring rain to ask the cashier's office whyfor they had not sent me something I need for my loan money, and then had to walk someplace totally different to find out why financial aid didn't have my money yet. I want that five grand, please thanks (amount I'll receive post-tuition). And then it'll be three grand, because we are getting ourselves a precious, precious MacBook.

But! Despite the pay period having ended before classes started, the first check for my assistantship is in my soggy hands.

(I empathize, in other words.)

Thank you for the music! I have the Decemberists running through my head, bits and pieces of various songs, so that'll have to be my answer. One day I'll be accustommed enough to being surrounded with music that I can answer your top five questions. Today is not that day, but it's a start.

the worst part, the WORST PART, is that even when they release my money? the cashier's office won't CALL ME when they've cut the check. i just have to keep showing up until they have it. ARGH, BUREAUCRACY. carleton spoiled me. i knew every adminsitrative secretary by name; when i had an issue with multiple departments communicating, i went to the secretary i knew best and she dealt with it for me. at carolina, nobody gives a shit about me but me! v. frustrating to acclimate to.

but i am glad that YOU got your money. <3

1. Joan Baez, Baez Sings Dylan - It is a comp album of the best from Any Day Now, Farewell Angelina and other albums where she covered Dylan. Such a beautiful voice and a perfect lazy afternoon napping album.
2. James Taylor, Greatest Hits - By the time the album gets to Steamroller (the only uptempo song on the album) I'm already long asleep.
3. Various Artists, Badlands - I tend to get too caught up in actual Bruce albums for actual napping. But this is a track for track cover album of Nebraska with Son Volt, Ben Harper, Hank III and others taking cracks at tracks. The covers are consistently wonderful and it has a few covers that surpass the originals. Beautiful.
4. Various Artists, Return of the Grievous Angel - Gram cover album. Gram's voice has this desperation to its loneliness that makes it almost impossible for Gram to be background music. But this album is full of amazingly beautiful Gram covers that take the edge off of Gram's pain a little while still keeping them as pure and beautiful songs.
5. Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Ten From Little Worlds - The full Little Worlds box CD-set is a little too jam-bandy for me but with these 10 selctions the reigns are pulled in just enough that the result is an album that manages to be both tight and free and is just fantastic and calming.

oh, yes, oh, the gram covers album. YES. excellent call.

badlands is on my to-buy list, as soon as finaid coughs up my money. i BET it's great for rainy days, yes.

Oh, yes, Tom Waits definitely. And it's almost too sunny here to think of rainy day music, but:
Gillian Welch, Soul Journey - nice and quiet and grounded.
Catherine Wheel, Chrome - not really sleepy music, but kind of dreamy?
Bach's Cello Suites, perf. by Yo-Yo Ma
REM, New Adventures in Hi-Fi - hmm, between this and the Gillian Welch, I guess I like road music for staying inside in the rain. Dusty, weary road music.
And I want to say Leonard Cohen, but I'm lame and have his best of, not any actual albums; but maybe I can count that as 1/2 answer, and for the other 1/2, a mix made by my roommate's supercool father, with Wilco and the Jayhawks and Sinead O'Connor and John Lennon and more.

if it helps, leonard cohen's more best of was totally one of my rainy day albums all through college; i think that best of albums can absolutely be counted in this - sometimes the original albums just don't give like a good collection does, you know?

Yay! Leonard Cohen's More Best of is totally also good rainy day music.

i can't front, i also used to get stoned and lie on the floor listening to cohen live in college. it was EVEN BETTER when it was raining. *recovering stoner*

i actually just re-acquired more best of a couple of months ago, when

quicknow gave me her copy; i loaned mine to someone senior year at carleton and never got it back. i never really how GOOD that album was, so much better than a best of has the right to be, until i didn't have it anymore.

- The Jayhawks - 'Rainy Day Music' (of course...)

- Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man - 'Out of Season' (so, so gorgeous - download the whole album here (http://chibisangst.multiply.com/music/item/302))

- The White Birch - 'Come Up for Air' (they're from Norway, download 'Your Spain' here (http://thewhitebirch.one.no/audio/TheWhiteBirch-YourSpain.mp3))

- The Black Heart Procession - anything, except maybe not 'Amore del Tropico' (download 'Your Church is Red' here (http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=EBBDE2D01CCB7412))

- Midnight Choir - 'Amsterdam Stranded' (another Norwegian band, download 'October 8' here (http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=057BFE3A43AE8BE1))

They're all perfect for napping, drinking tea on rainy days, etc. :)

god, that beth gibbons & rustin man album - YES. and speaking of beth, dummy totally should have been on my list. i can't believe i forgot it.

thank you for the music! most appreciated. :)

I always used to break out Morphine on actually gray and rainy days in Seattle. Out here in Ann Arbor, the rain is to spontaneous and short lived for me to have developed any new rain accompaniments.