Can people stop dying, please?

Seriously.

I second smonster's speeding ticket recs, and add in "Hollywood Nights" by Bob Seger.

My slow mix is shaping up.

"Turn on Your Radio" Marc Cohn "Low Rising" The Swell Season "Tupelo Honey" Van Morrison "Trouble" Ray LaMontagne "Honky Tonk Moon" Randy Travis "Rollercoaster" M. Ward "Sideways" Citizen Cope "Let it Be Me" Ray LaMontagne "Harvest Moon" Neil Young "Be Be Your Love" Rachel Yamagata

Van Morrison's "Moondance" was flitting through my head off and on all day, and in a fit of desperation, I looked up a review of Strict Joy, and they made the VM comparison and it clicked!

I just did a quick search for Big Pig and then Ponk, and came back with a lot of porn results.

ah, that's because it's not spelled with a P...

Big Pig's Bonk is my favorite desert-island CD, and my go-to choice for when I want to rev it up and/or just sing at the top of my lungs along with the singer. They only had one semi-hit (on college radio back in 1988) in the US with "Breakaway" (which was played over the opening credits of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure), but I love pretty much every song on the cd. Their sound is really unique, with very driving rhythms (out of their seven members, five played percussion and/or drums) and loads of harmonica playing jazz and rock riffs layered on top. The lead female singer has a gorgeously strong voice, and the lead male vocals are equally terrific.

Unfortunately, they only released the one album internationally, and soon after their second album came out in Australia, they had disbanded.

ETA some links to songs:

Tin Drum (really hypnotic, link is for song only)

Hungry Town

Breakaway

From Slate: Animal Collective

How the art-pop-noise-rock-freak-folk-jam-band became the biggest indie act of the year.

In 2004, the art-pop-noise-rock-jam-band-freak-folk-whatzit act Animal Collective released Sung Tongs, a bewitching record full of loopy acoustic strumming, jarring harmonies, and electronic gurgles that would all periodically arrange into something resembling familiar songform, fall out of step, unspool outright, and edge back into partnership. Sung Tongs was a minor breakthrough, making the Brooklyn-via-Baltimore band's small but devoted following a little less small and a lot more devoted. Reviewing the record, Pitchfork noted, "musically, Animal Collective sound more 'pop' here than they ever have."

Ever since, critics have cast each new album from this ecstatically confounding band as a teasing tussle between the avant-garde and the accessible, with the latter steadily gaining ground. The Times called 2005's Feels "some of their lushest, most decipherable music so far." Rolling Stone said that 2007's Strawberry Jam flashed even "more shards of tune" than its predecessor. This year's Merriweather Post Pavilion has sold a remarkable 140,000 copies and recently topped year-end-best lists at Spin, Pitchfork, Entertainment Weekly, and the Times (where it came in at No. 2). Blender called it "their sunniest, most likeable record." Going by the blurbs alone, you might assume that, in a few years, Animal Collective will complete its career-long metamorphosis into ABBA.

More at the link....

Animal Collective is probably my favorite band at the moment.

For the speeding mix:

In the Wild by Hoodoo Gurus

My brother gave me files of Rolling Stone's Top 50 songs of the decade - and the files don't have artist info. I hate having to label after import and then I'll have to figure out dupes.

Does anyone have a link to that parody of Octopus' Garden that was posted a while back?

Ringo Wants to Sing More

thank-you!