Interesting story about the lead singer of the Vines who was diagnosed with Asperger's: [link]

Huh, sounds like part of the story of Hard Core Logo in real life. (During that tour, it's the drummer who has a psychotic break.)

Interesting story.

My office mate and I have been debating about whether Nick Sylvester's whole crash and burn (you can read all about it at gawker but the short story is: made up pieces of a story in the Village Voice, "fainted" outside his editor's office when he was confronted about it, got suspended, got asked to quit and removed from the masthead at pitchfork, all on the heels of a bizarre "prank" at an award show where instead of announcing an award he read a New Yorker article until he was dragged off the stage) is some kind of psychotic breakdown/illness or the result of being a stupid, immature prick.

I was voting pyschotic breakdown, co-worker says stupid prick. Either way you can't help but feel sorry for him because he just totally destroyed his journalism career over a dumb lifestyle piece.

And - I'm re-working my mix liner notes. Sorry for the delay. Should be sometime today.

Lisah! Your mix is wonderful. So good, in fact, that I forgive you for making me come up with a song other than "Punk Rock Girl" for the lyrics requirement! (It's the only one I could think of! Arrgh.)

Ooh, wait, do remixes/mashups count for the lyrics part?

oh my gosh! Thanks so much!

For Boucher (at least)...

From this music blog

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caption to photograph: "Steely Dan at the precise moment that they became slightly repulsed and deeply, distantly amused by even their own existence"

I've been listening to Gaucho a lot more lately and I'll be damned if it isn't one of the most interesting, funny, and complicated records I think I've ever heard. In this scheme, I will, of course, not be damned.

("The Dan" is really one of the worst band nicknames ever.) In service of "The Dan"'s greatness and in an effort to make them more "accessible" i.e. marketable to that coveted Under 35 and Earnestly Thoughtless demographic, I am pitching a concept to Rockstar Games (makers of the Grand Theft Auto series) for a Gaucho video game.

Bullet points include:

- Walter Becker is late for a session and boy, is Gary Katz angry! You have to find Becker in his hotel suite - which is ample - before MCA goes over budget on the hired session musicians; the MCA DollarClock in the upper-left hand corner will tell you exactly how much Becker's mischievious antics are costing the label. After five minutes, Becker starts blowing coke and the DollarClock accelerates exponentially. Is he under those magazines? Behind that shower curtain? On the move? Upon losing, an A&R man pats your balls with the back of his hand and buys you a Greyhound ticket back to Cincinnati. Becker sniggers.

- A "rhythm"-based section (a la Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero) wherein you discover an extremely tired and dejected Mark Knopfler alone in the studio, having just heard the final mix of "Time Out of Mind" and realizing that several hours of slaving under the fickle whims of Becker and Fagen were reduced to about seven seconds of bright guitar squiggle. You have to copy all of the "licks" rejected for the album; if you succeed, Fagen calls a car service for Knopfler, who sobs softly and erratically bleats "You know what? I like the ECM catalog! Yeah, the whole fuckin' thing! Not just Keith Jarrett!" Fagen looks away.

t tiptoes into the Music Thread, not my usual place to hang

Cool and awesome mix challenge, and excellent songs, lisah!

I have a challenge I'm wrestling with, between myself and another friend. Long Story Short: can anyone think of a song that evokes the Simpsons episode, "Homer The Great"? I don't want to use the actual song that's in the episode (the Stone Cutter song, la la, "who keeps the metric system down? we do! we do!"). I found a song from the musical Carousel, "Stone Cutters Cut it on Stone" but that's a little... musical theater-y for what I'm going for on the rest of the mix. It doesn't have to be a literal linear mapping, but it should be clear with a quick quote or liner note what ep I'm referencing and why... Anyway, I figured this might be a good place to ask advice, if anyone had any to give.

Thanks...

Nora, the first song that comes to my mind is Atom and His Package's "It's Hard To Be Happy (When You're Not Using the Metric System)" -- is that the kind of thing you're looking for? I can email it to you if you want it.

Meara, there's a Weakerthans' song called "Psalm For The Elks Lodge Last Call" which is about that same kind of men's society thing but a totally different tone to the Simpson's episode.

I am sending my mix to buffistarawk2 as I type. Long liner notes to follow.

My caveat with all my mixes: listen to it loud.

I think I am most excited about finishing so that I can focus on downloading and listening to lisa's. It looks awesome and has lots of new-to-me stuff - which I love.