Project 2010: Back on the wagon

#1: So, on my theme of being a 15 year old girl, this song makes me smile:



#2: Phish with Alison Kraus is really delightful. Something I didn't know- Jonathan Frakes plays trumpet on the "Hoist" album.



#3: I've been having a hard time figuring out why I like Dashboard Confessional's first four albums so much and his last two less so. Tonight I have figured it out. There is just less injury. "If You Can't Leave It Be" is a pretty great example of the urgency that was around in those earlier albums.



That brings me to 2,954 of 7,193

Project 2010: Back to Work

So, I took a little over a week off of project 2010 to catch up with some podcasts and listen to some music that just suited my fancy. Now I'm back in the early I's.

#1: The Rooney song "I'm A Terrible Person" isn't the greatest song ever, but sometimes it just suits my mood- and maybe even describes some of my actions. Oh well.



#2: "I'm Amazed" by My Morning Jacket is perennially on any playlist I have made over the past couple of years.



#3: I love this song. It sounds like 1987.



#4: I feel like I got a lot of Wilco today- which is fantastic! Plus it's always nice to know Jeff Tweedy loves you. I think that might be a continuing theme of his music...


Right now on 2,916 of 7,193

Project 2010

#1: On Blink-182's eponymous album it is as if they actually found talent. They were fun and amusing before, but then this album is something different, and shows something different. "I Miss You" is what's making me thinking this.

#2: There were albums that I listened to a lot. I mean A LOT. Pretty constantly. Then after a couple a years I just stop listening to them totally, and can go for years without listening to it again. Incubus' Make Yourself is totally like that. I must have listened to that album 50-100 times over a couple years but haven't listened to it all the way through in years. Maybe on a big car trip.

#3: Guster's "I Spy" is great. I'm still not 100% sure what it's about. I think I know, but maybe it's what I want it to be. I do know that May parade is Gay parade live... This isn't a great version of it.



#4: Is there a place for someone like Harry Chapin in music today?

#5: Listened to three different versions of "I Want You" today. Couldn't help myself.

Project 2010

#1; I had no idea The Pretenders had a version of "I got you babe" with UB40. None. It's pretty terrible.

#2: Heard Noah and the Whale's "I have nothing." I'm still obsessed with this album. It's still depressing.

#3: On the other hand The White Stripes cover of "I don't know what to do with myself" is fantastic.

#4: Wow. 3 covers today. Phish doing "I kissed a girl" at SPAC last August. Hilarious but terrible.

#5: "I Love You, but Goodbye" by Longhorne Slim. Apparently this was on a Paste sampler. Really like the lyrics.

Project 2010

#1: The Early November is totally a band that I have listened to more of since I've started this project. I really seem to like them every time they come up. Today I listened to "I don't know how to say this."

#2: Ben Kweller just has such a unique voice. The second I start to hear him sing I totally know that it's him. Not a ton of people like that. Today I listened to "I don't know why." Not my favorite of his but still.

#3: R.E.M.'s Monster still sounds great. It has to be at least 15 years. Probably more. After "I don't sleep but I dream" I was startled when Star 69 didn't come on immediately afterward. Yet another odd thing about this project, I suppose.

#4: One of the things I like about Straylight Run is that sometimes you get Matt doing the vocals, sometimes his sister, and sometimes they sing together. There are a few bands where different songs have different lead vocalists (I listened to Out Of Time this weekend and forgot that on at least a couple of tracks Michael Stipes gave up the microphone). I think in a lot of cases this really works and lets the band expand their sound. I listened to "I don't want this anymore."

#5: Heard my favorite Conor Oberst song (solo, not Bright Eyes):



#6: Since I'm a sucker for war protest songs, I was all happy about Country Joe & the Fish singing "I feel like I'm fixing to die rag."

I'm on 2,746 of 7,178. Don't really feel like I'm getting closer to finishing.

Project 2010: Starting the I's!

#1: I really like Muse. I'm not sure why. I think it's maybe because they are one of a very few bands that still make music that could still be called Rock and Roll. Maybe not. Maybe it's just because they're music is interesting, and you can belt it out in a car.



#2: In 1996 my friend Rachel wore a Live T-shirt a lot this one particular summer. Not all the time, but it was a distinctive shirt, and pretty cool. Whenever I hear Live I think of her.



#3: I have way too many favorite R.E.M. songs, but any song with Superman is a winner. Really.



#4: Wilco's "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" has already become a classic in my head. I don't know what an aquarium drinker is, but I assume I am one.

#5: "I and Love and You" by The Avett Brothers. Find it. Listen to it. Love it.

I'm on 2,699 of 7,132

Project 2010

#1: I'm surprised more people don't know about The Go! Team. They are an incredibly fun band. I first saw them live about 5 years ago at a festival outside of Cleveland that was the Thursday before Lollapalooza. They grabbed a bunch of bands that were on their way to Chicago for the weekend and it was a great line-up and a lot of fun. For some reason it wasn't really successful, which is too bad.

The Go! Team's live show was full of energy and everyone in the audience was dancing and seemed to really be enjoying themselves. Ladyflash is just superhuman in my mind, in terms of how much she puts into her performance. This is all my way of saying that today I heard "Huddle Formation" which made me want to go out for a run.

This is just a clip at them performing at Lolla in 2008 (I was actually there). The sound is Terrible, but watch her move!



Here is "Huddle Formation."


#2: The Killers album "Day and Age" took me a while to warm up to. I loved their first two albums, but this just seemed totally different, until I realized it was just an all out dance album. "Human" isn't my favorite, but it's still pretty good.



#3: Sharon Jones is amazing. Her voice is killer. I love it.

#4: Bob Dylan's "Hurricane" is a pretty catchy song about social injustice. But long. Really long.

Project 2010

#1: For some reason I consider anything that R.E.M. did after "Monster" to be late R.E.M. Ridiculous, I know, but really at that point R.E.M. stayed great but much of the world seemed to have lost track of them. This is all my way of saying "Hope" off of "Up" is great. I love it. Unfortunately I couldn't find a version to embed, so you'll just have to trust me on this.

#2: "Horchata" by Vampire Weekend. Horchata is non-alcoholic. Gotta be honest, makes the song less fun for me, but like all Vampire Weekend songs I'm not 100% sure what this song is really about.



#3: Nothing is more fun than getting through a totally random 9 second track in the middle of everything else. Here it is for your enjoyment:



#4: Today I've been hearing a lot of Beck. Apparently he likes writing song titles that start with the letter H. The sentence "I'm the enchanting wizard of rhythm" is pretty great.

#5: And I've been hearing even more R.E.M. I'm up to maybe four R.E.M. songs so far. Scratch that. I'm up to five. Really. Almost half of an R.E.M. album at this point. And nothing from before "New Adventures in Hi-Fi." Crazy.

#6: I think I've talked about how much I love Snow Patrol when just one random song of theirs comes on. Can't really explain it. Today was "How to be Dead." I think I just enjoy how this song feels like it is building and building until it... well doesn't quite explode, but it does go somewhere.



Today I made it to 2654 of 7,132. The newest album on my ipod is The National's "Boxer." It's really great but again I'm super late to the game. The new Paste Magazine Sampler should be getting on my ipod pretty soon, and I can't wait for that.

Project 2010: another numbered list

#1: Weezer's "Heart." Not sure if it's really a good song, but it's definitely an interesting song about music. I recommend a listen.

#2: I think Jose Gonzalez's cover of "Heartbeats" is better than the original. I also love this ad that uses is. Sorry, I know, commercialism is bad. But still (watch in higher quality if you can):



#3: The song whereby I fell in love with Wilco:



#4: A Phish song I will never get tired of:



#5: The more I listen to the Girls album, the more I like it. His voice is really great.

#6: 3 great Help songs in a row- "Help Me Rhonda" by The Beach Boys, "Help Me" by Joni Mitchell, and "Help" by The Beatles. Hooray!

I'm on 2,273 of 7,115

Project 2010: numbered list

#1: Somehow I have Rihanna's "Hatin On the Club" on my iPod. I have exactly zero idea how it got there. Also- not very catchy. And at 4:30 it's at least a minute too long.

#2: Poe's entire "Haunted" album is really interesting. Especially because it's tied to one of my favorite books, House of Leaves.

#3: Listening to "Have a Day" by The Polyphonic Spree reminded me that they are still on the short lists of bands (can you really even call them a band?) that I have yet to see.

#4: Over a year later I am still in love with Fleet Foxes:


#5: Every time Sufjan Stevens comes on I get really excited. Today was "He Woke Me Up Again." It's strange to me that it feels like so few people know about Sufjan. Among my good friends we are pretty cultish, but I say his name in front of other people and they have never heard of him. Oh well.

I'm on 2,432 of 7,115

Project 2010

Right now I'm at 2,366 of 7,088.

So, I've been listening to a lot of music, and many times the experience has been quite disjointed with totally different styles of song coming one after the other with nothing in common but the fact that their titles are in alphabetical order.

During this process, every once and a while something like this will come up:



and it becomes strikingly clear how amazing The Beatles really are. Especially when the next song is something that may or may not be in German and is definitely lousy by Len.

Random Comment

I'm loving this. Streaming free for another few days.

Project 2010: Name Check

So, for the first time I actually heard a certain lyric correctly, and it floored me. Every time I hear Snow Patrol I always think "who is this? I really like it..."

So, imagine my surprise when I heard "Hands Open" name check Sufjan Stevens. Crazy.



Obviously, I have made it to the H's,. I'm at 2,336 of 7,088. So, a third of the way there....

Weird Statement of the Day

I can't say that the Beach Boys are underrated, but I do think they are under listened to.

Project 2010

I'm starting out the day at 2,090 of 7,005.

And I'm wondering how many of my songs are at their heart just really bitter. For example The All-American Rejects "Gives You Hell."



Also, I have "Go Your Own Way" on my iPod three times. Three!

I don't even know what that's about.

Project 2010: Girls

So I was taking a little break from Project 2010 and blogging for a bit while I caught up on some stuff that I put on my iPod (the newer Shout Out Louds album, some Super 400, The Rentals) as well as some podcasts. Then today I continued down the list of songs and have been delighted.

It is as if every song that starts with Girls is fantastic. Here's what I mean:

"The Girl's Distracted" is my favorite Saturday Looks Good To Me song:


Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend" will get me every time, and I kind of can't believe that it was 1991:



"Girls and Boys" by Blur. Do I even need to comment?


One of my favorite summer songs- Beck's "Girl."




That's all.

Project 2010: Day 92

Another day of some progress. Here is a quick list of some highlights.

Elliot Smith's "Fond Farewell."



Straylight Run's "For The Best>"



Buffalo Springfield "For What It's Worth."



Dashboard Confessional "For You To Notice."



Magic Numbers "Forever Lost."

Project 2010: Day 91

OK, so done with the Firsts and heading through the rest of the F's. I hit 1,827 of 6,892. Here are some of today's highlights:

Here's The Streets "Fit But Don't You Know It." Maybe I'm obsessing over this song right now because I've been watching Skins like crazy lately, or maybe it's because it's a a great song. You be the judge.



Also Today I got a little distracted by listening to Natalie Merchant's new album:. It's delightful.

"Float On" by Modest Mouse always improves my mood, and makes me want to move, it's also part of one of my favorite 4 song progressions on any album, ever:



I haven't given Travis the love that they deserve. Today I listened to "Flowers In the Window."



Bon Iver's Flume ended up on any mix tape that I made last year:

Project 2010: Day 90 - Firsts

Wow. 90 days of listening to my iPod in order of song title, yet I'm only on the F's. Oh well. Here are some comments on some things that I've listened to today, which brought me deep into the "Firsts".

I'll spare you the R.E.M. "Finest Worksong," but that doesn't mean I didn't love listening to it.

"Fire and Rain" is one of those songs that I thought I liked more than I actually like. It's always longer than I think it is, and slower than I think it's going to be. See for yourself:



On the other hand "Fire Island, AK" by The Long Winters gets better every time. Also the lead singer of The Long Winters has been hanging with John Hodgeman, which makes him even cooler in my nerdy mind.



Fireworks is one of my favorite Animal Collective songs that isn't on Merriweather.



I have posted this video before because it is maybe my favorite video in the history of the world to go with a song that I am in love with. Hooray for Bright Eyes!



And yet another song I love came up today- again, I know I've posted about Noah and the Whale before, but today was actually "First Days of Spring" day, which it totally is. Apt. Although I'm not going through a horrifying break up at the moment. Here's hoping!

Project 2010: zooming through the F's

So I've been going through the F's at a pretty decent clip. I'm at 1,766 of 6,870. Yesterday I spent the entire day listening to 90 Dashboard Confessional songs in preparation for a show I'm going to in a couple of weeks.

I really enjoyed Fields Of Coal by And You Will Know Us... I couldn't find anything decent to embed so follow the link.

Classic Beastie Boys always makes me feel like I'm back in middle school again- in the best possible way.



Honestly, they won't change your life:



Is it just me or does Yeasayer sound a bit like Rusted Root?



probably just me.