This makes me insanely happy. Like Jon, I'm just freakin' honored to be in such company.

It's interesting for me to be publishing with music writers I read when I was 15 years old.

Current favorite alphabetical stretch of contrasting styles:

Swervedriver
Sylvester
Television Personalities
Temptations
10cc

Hec! I finally ripped that Western Swing box set that you rec'd and it is AMAZING. Whoo!

And Steph, while I'm thinking about it, finally, I loved the rest of Snake River. (Except for "How Soon Is Now?" which was covered much better by taTu.) Thanks!

Hec! I finally ripped that Western Swing box set that you rec'd and it is AMAZING. Whoo!

And such a deal too, huh? I love Western Swing, might be my favorite pre-rock American music. I had a big epiphany when I realized that Bill Haley and the Comets were really a small group Western Swing band (hence the accordion and steel guitar in their lineup).

And Steph, while I'm thinking about it, finally, I loved the rest of Snake River. (Except for "How Soon Is Now?" which was covered much better by taTu.) Thanks!

You're welcome! And on the "How Soon Is Now?" cover -- I'm amused by how many sets of the same song performed by different artists I have on my iTunes.

For instance:

Bird On A Wire -- Willie Nelson
Bird On A Wire -- Leonard Cohen

It's Your Thing -- The Isley Brothers
It's Your Thing -- Milli Vanilli (yeah, yeah -- save your mocking)

My Favorite Things -- John Coltrane
My Favorite Things -- The Sound Of Music SoundTrack

Smile -- Lyle Lovett
Smile -- Rickie Lee Jones

Some Kind Of Wonderful -- Soul Brothers
Some Kind Of Wonderful -- Joss Stone

Summer Wind -- Frank Sinatra
Summer Wind -- Lyle Lovett

...etc.

I'm amused by how many sets of the same song performed by different artists I have on my iTunes.

Heh, if you were a serious exotica type record hound in the 90s you became intimately acquainted with the notion of "standards" and why the "R" in A&R Guy stood for "Repetoire." A common game was making 90 minute tapes of the same song by different groups and different arrangements. The Big Three exotica songs - "Caravan" (originally a Duke Ellington hit), "Quiet Village" and "Tabooo" literally have hundreds of covers each.

Esquivel's the key figure for learning this mindset because his arrangements were so off-the-wall loopy you could begin to understand why anybody bothered doing the same songs over and over. It wasn't the song - it was the arrangement.

Yay! And I can make my bio even shorter if you want, Hec.

(I told one of my co-workers, re the bio-shortening e-mail, "that is probably the only time my name and Rick Moody's will appear in the same sentence.")

I am pleased to note that my essay "'Cells in One Body': Nation and Desire in the Early Work of T.S. Eliot" is scheduled to appear within a month of the new book, thus giving me a shot at being the Buffista with the most improbable bibliography for 2004.

ObMusic: The Decemberists "July, July!" I go back and forth on these guys, but how can you *not* like this song? It's catchy as hell, and it has lyrics like: "This is the story of the road that goes to my house / and what ghosts there do remain / And all the troughs that run the length and breadth of my house / And the chickens, how they rattle chicken chains." I crack up every single time I get to that line.

Oh, and covers. In grad school, my friend Mike and I talked about doing a mix that was all versions of "Working on a Building." I still think it was a good idea.

Are you working tomorrow, Misha? If not would you like to have lunch? Either near you or somewhere in the Slope. Lemme know. Congrats on the Eliot piece.

The talk about covers is even funnier in JilliLand, because the DJ at Goth Night last night decided to play an all-covers opening set.

I am working ALL THE TIME now, Joe! I just on Friday accepted a full-time gig with my freelance client of the last couple of months.

Want to do lunch in Soho?