Not to be glib about the catastrophe, but Katrina is really helping Randy Newman's album sales. He has two in the Amazon Top 100 at this moment. Best Of is #68 as of this writing.

Wait. Why?

"Louisiana 1927" is getting a lot of airplay. It was on the first hour of Morning Edition on Friday, then Newman opened the telethon with it tonight.

Ah. See, I rarely watch TV, and NEVER listen to the radio. Except when the asshole who sits next to me listens to his crap-rock station loudly, drowning out my reasonably volumed Cure.

They just played "Cherub Rock" by The Smashing Pumpkins on The Alternative. Considering that the only Smashing Pumpkins I own is their K-Tel cover of "Jackie Blue" I do have a fair number of their songs that I like to hear when they roll up. I like them in both their Big Rock Guitar mode, and their Ominous Pop Mode. Also, it sounded really good next to The Pixies "Dig for Fire/Alison."

They just played "Cherub Rock" by The Smashing Pumpkins on The Alternative

I hate the Smashing Pumpkins with a big Billy-Corgan's-ego size hate but I not so much I can't admit to loving Gish and Siamese Dream - they are both really fantastic albums. (But they're it!)

Now playing: I never use my iPod's "genre" function but to clean my house today and start packing for Winfield I made a smart playlist of just bluegrass and country.

So far:

Sweet Dreams - Emmylou Harris

I Want to Sing that Rock-n-Roll - Gillian Welch

Wrecking Ball - Old Crow Medicine Show

One of these Trains - New Grass Revival

You're Looking at Country - Loretta Lynn

Watch Me Fall - Uncle Tupelo (this shouldn't be in there tech. but for some reason all my UT is listed as "country")

One Hundred Years from Now - Wilco (my iPod loves Jeff Tweedy)

Have a Feast Here Tonight - Doc Watson and Bill Monroe

Barely Human - Robbie Fulks

Right Back Where I Started - Mike Ireland and Holler

Used to Call Me Baby - Split Lip Rayfield

Whiskey River - Willie Nelson

Sister Cry - The Jayhawks (also listed as country...so it's an imperfect method for getting genre mixes - but still)

Has anyone in this thread mentioned that iPods rock lately?

ETA: Huh. Did something on the board change as far as line breaks? I don't why I am getting a line in between those song titles. I didn't do anything different....

Used to Call Me Baby - Split Lip Rayfield

They just played "Cherub Rock" by The Smashing Pumpkins on The Alternative. Considering that the only Smashing Pumpkins I own is their K-Tel cover of "Jackie Blue" I do have a fair number of their songs that I like to hear when they roll up. I like them in both their Big Rock Guitar mode, and their Ominous Pop Mode.

I've never really known what to do with them. They're always lumped in with Nirvana and Soundgarden in "grunge," but they're as close to those to bands musically as well, Candlebox was. (Candlebox was very, very much loathed in Seattle.) They were very hit-and-miss musically, at least to me. Corgan's ego was always getting in the way. D'Arcy was cute, but there was that drug habit of hers.

Watch Me Fall - Uncle Tupelo (this shouldn't be in there tech. but for some reason all my UT is listed as "country")

Why not? They're "alt. country" after all. Their first album is the name of a magazine and a musical "movement."

Current listen: Year of Meteors by Laura Veirs. I'm undecided about it. Her songwriting is almost too grad school. But they're interesting songs.

Just saw Laura open for Sufjan Stevens. I like the songs and the arrangements, but the band was a bit rough around the edges -- like they hadn't played together for very long. Then I looked at the CD and realized that the same people on the CD are in her touring band. Still, recording a CD is very different from touring. I'll definitely check her out again if she comes back in a year or two.

Also, they reviewed her CD just this morning on NPR.

They did? I can't find it on the NPR site.

She's sounding a lot like Erin McKeown, honestly. They now share a producer -- Tucker Martine -- so that could explain the similarity.