Sunday Shuffle #179/180 (Memorial Day Edition)

I'd started a Shuffle yesterday but it got messed up and I deleted the post in frustration. Luckily, this is a 3 day weekend and I'm going to take advantage and make it double. Why not?

1. My Shepherd/The New Pornographers (8)

2. Blue Line Swinger/Yo La Tengo (1)

3. My Favorite Year/Destroyer (2)

4. The Stars Just Blink For Us/Say Hi (1)

5. The Things You Don't See/Canasta (1)

6. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song/Fleet Foxes (1)

7. Land of the Freak/King Khan and The Shrines (1)

8. Song For Mary/Clem Snide (7)

9. Go to Sleep/The Avett Brothers (1)

10. God Rest My Soul/Dawes (5)

11. Keep the Car Running/Arcade Fire (1)

12. Here's Lookin At You, Kid/The Gaslight Anthem (2)

13. So Much Water/M. Ward (1)

14. No One Here Knows Jane/Warren Zanes (2)

15. Black River Killer/Blitzen Trapper (2)

16. Lucky Ones/Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew (1)

17. People Think They Know Me/Sloan (2)

18. Keep You Inside/Frankel (1)

19. You Can Always Count On Me (In The Worst Way)/Superchunk (1)

20. Can You Tell/Ra Ra Riot (1)

Widow Talk

Sometimes you need to find the right book at the right time. After finishing Cory Doctorow's Makers (which I liked), I had two more books out from the library. The problem was that neither one was appealing to me at that moment. I took them back to the library and checked out Jonathan Tropper's How to Talk to a Widower instead. I'd really enjoyed his most recent novel last year and decided to check out his previous work. It's a decision I'm glad I made.

We start the story about a year after Doug Parker has lost his wife and he is still deep in grief and has cut himself off from the world. The book deals with him coming back to life with the help of his messed-up family. It's funny, dark, sexy at times, and just good. I recommend it.

It was the 10th book I've read this year, which is my slowest pace in quite some time. I am taking a summer class, so I probably won't read with the same ferocity as last summer but I do hope to step things up a bit.

Sunday Shuffle #178

Another week and nothing else posted. Oh well. I still love doing these Sunday Shuffles, so here's another one...

1. She's A Mover/Big Star (5)

2. Shivers Down My Spine/King Khan And The Shrines (1)

3. Number One/Lightspeed Champion (1)

4. We Were Born The Mutants Again With Leafling/Of Montreal (1)

5. Smokin from Shootin/My Morning Jacket (1)

6. OK/Higgins (1)

7. Butch Cassidy/My Morning Jacket (1)

8. Coffee/Aesop Rock (2)

9. People In The Sky/Sloan (1)

10. Mountain/Lucero (1)

Sunday Shuffle #177

I'm off to a later start today due to chaperoning prom and post-prom with my wife last night. Lots of things to do around the house today as well, so we'll get to it. I do hope to post some non-Sunday Shuffles in the coming weeks, so don't give up on me completely.

1. You Are A Light/Pavement (1)

2. People Think They Know Me (1)

3. Your Own Cloud/Portastatic (1)

4. True Or False/Bishop Allen (1)

5. Violet Furs/The Whigs (1)

6. Break It/Reigning Sound (2)

7. Bright Future/Bowerbirds (1)

8. Backwards Walk/Frightened Rabbit (1)

9. Die, Die, Die/Dr. Dog (1)

10. Act Surprised/Superchunk (1)

Sunday Shuffle #176

It's the last weekend of my semester and I have a paper to write and a Spanish final to study for, so I'm going to jump right into today's ten...

1. Happiness Writes White/Harvey Danger (2)

2. Andiamo/The Twilight Singers (1)

3. Rampage/Blair (3)

4. Take Courage/Andrew Bird (3)

5. The Twist/Frightened Rabbit (1)

6. Nothing Left To Make Me Want To Stay/Sloan (1)

7. Dignity And Shame/Crooked Fingers (2)

8. No You're Not/Spoon (2)

9. Take My Love With You/Eli "Paperboy" Reed (2)

10. Bottled In Cork/Ted Leo & The Pharmacists (8)

Sunday Shuffle #175

It's the last Sunday in April already and I have just over a week left of my college semester. My last final is May 4, which is also a big music release day. I was thinking about taking the next day off anyway...I could spend the day listening to new music. We'll see. Meanwhile, here are today's ten...

1. Quiet as a Mouse/Margot & the Nuclear So & So's (1)

2. Martinis On The Roof/Superchunk (1)

3. I Need All the Friends I Can Get/Camera Obscura (1)

4. New Disaster/Elliott Smith (1)

5. Rhthm & Soul/Spoon (2)

6. Fortunate Son/Creedence Clearwater Revival (1)

7. Time Machine/Matthew Sweet (1)

8. Got It Bad/The Broken West (1)

9. Beautiful/Michael Penn (2)

10. Sunday Sounds/Apples In Stereo (2)

Heavy Rotation #9

I've spent a fair amount of my listening time over the last few weeks in shuffle mode, whether on the main computer or my iPod. I have, however, managed to listen to a few things a handful of times each...

AC/DC/Back in Black - I've never owned this album before but bought it on a whim with some birthday money. Sure, there's the awesome opening of "Hells Bells" and the flat-out great "You Shook Me All Night Long" but I'm digging the stuff I've never heard before like "What Do You Do For Money Honey" and "Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" (which I can't stop singing).

The Beatles/Rubber Soul - This is #1 or #2 on my list of favorite Beatles albums, depending on what day you ask me. Actually, since I've been listening to it a lot these past few weeks it would probably rank #1 right now. Why? How about some great John songs like "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)," "Nowhere Man," "Girl," and "Run For Your Life?"

Big Star/#1 Record/Radio City - The recent death of Alex Chilton had me diving back into this combo of the group's first two albums. Together, they are two of the best power pop albums ever recorded with song after great song.

The National/Alligator - They have a new album coming out in a few weeks, so I've been reacquainting myself with this one, their album before the last one. I'd forgotten just how awesome this one is, especially the five song set that closes the album - "All The Wine," "Abel," "The Geese of Beverly Road," "City Middle," and the raging "Mr. November." Listening to this also reminds me of my friend Mike (who blogged as Little Toy Robot), who recommended I check it out the first and only time we met face to face. Wish he were still around...