Wilco's "Monday" came on at our party today, and I was surprised. I hadn't heard Being There in a long time. It sounded brash, invigorating. Things I hadn't associated with Wilco in, also, a long time.

The horns, as always, had something to do with it.

I can hear thunder outside.

I've noticed that the more personal entries (like singles reviews) on NYLPM seem to get fewer comments than the others - often none at all. This seems wrong since more seems to go into the personal entries.

The reviewer quotes lyrics to "Time Bomb" but leaves out the crucial repeated "I".

"Teenage angst has paid off well, now I'm bored and old."

Hmm.

So, that mix from the seventh:

I love every track on it, but hearing the Stevie Wonder come up repeatedly made me notice that I love it a little less than I thought. Maybe it makes me happier in the context of Innervisions.

The usual thing where I hear the beginning of the next song on an album felt foregrounded, probably because consistently frustrated by the next song on the mix not being the next one on its original album (except for the two doubles). It felt much stronger, though, for albums I've owned longer.

I was perfectly happy to skip the Mouse on Mars and Gastr del Sol tracks when I didn't feel like hearing something with less motion to it (often when walking). This despite their being tracks I would normally prefer to hear if I was playing their original albums while walking.

It never before occurred to me that there are guitars on "Protection".

So I made another quick mix, on CD again.

1. Metronomic Underground - Stereolab
2. S. Carter - Jay-Z (should say "unfortunately featuring Amil")
3. I Want U - Basement Jaxx
4. Drunk Butterfly - Sonic Youth
5. Soul Power (Black Jungle) - Wu-Tang Clan (featuring Flavor Flav)
6. Fifteen - Beta Band
7. 8pt Agenda - Herbaliser feat. Latryx
8. The End of You - Sleater-Kinney
9. Magnificent Seventies - American Analog Set
10. Come and Get Me - Jay-Z
11. I'll Come Running - Brian Eno
12. All the World is Green - Tom Waits
13. 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong - Mogwai
14. Back and Forth - The Dismemberment Plan

I meant to use "Snoopy Track" and not "S. Carter", which I don't really like, so that kind of disappoints me. Also, I didn't think as carefully about the flow from track to track here - I threw on a bunch of tracks I thought I would like to have, and then organized them to minimize the damage I'd done. Aside from the Jay-Z thing it flows OK, but I could do better.

I deliberately put the Basement Jaxx next to the Sonic Youth because I thought they had a similar sort of drive to them. Imagine my surprise when, last night while looking for a CD to put on, I heard a song in my head that turned out to be some wonderful combination of the two. Fuck bootlegs, I can do that shit in my head!

Listening to Murray Street the other day, I realized that one reason I would never call it a "return to form" is that I don't think Sonic Youth ever stopped being able to write catchy (er catchier? relatively?) songs. Based on what? The feeling that whenever they're doing something that's not a "catchy song", it's exactly because they don't want to.

Interestingly, I think I have this idea about Stereolab, too, perhaps, only it works differently with them because the catchy/fucked up divide doesn't carve up their catalog in the same way.

I love U-God's verse on Soul Power (Black Jungle):

Yo, yo
Line Cadillacs to blocks, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx
Jukebox records, flatfooted cops
Get automatic systematic jumpin in your socks
Mama's apple pie in the park hopscotch
Reunited on the radio, Wu-Tang superb
In the sprinklers girls double-dutchin on the curb
Sinatra, the pop the Jackson 5 recordings
Uptown Saturday, "Cotton Came to Harlem"
Ringmaster circus was, Bailey and Barnum
Crack a Coca-Cola, summer heat was my boredom
Dr. J before Jordan, Al Green on the organ
When Rerun did the dance, the whole world saw him
The blackout fears, Foxxy Brown, Pam Grier
Ford motor gear, your life and times queer
"Smokey the Bear", Burt Reynolds gray hair
Throw 'em some gems, throw up your fists and say yeah, it's

I don't feel up to doing scansion though.