Odds & ends

1) Where does he find all this stuff? Justin at Aquarium Drunkard has unearthed another Black Crowes lost album, this one even more rare: The Tall Sessions. Amazing. He puts my music-finding skills (skillz) to shame. GOOD stuff.

2) A nice little set of live songs to download here from Norwegian Sondre Lerche from 5/19/03.

3) The excellent Mr. Josh Ritter has announced some West Coast tour dates coming up in June. Mojo and Q Magazine both gave his new record The Animal Years 4 stars (April 11 release in the U.S.), and I still love the epic beauty in Thin Blue Flame.

4) This blog which looks startlingly identical to mine (but it’s not) has another new track by The Streets, “You Can’t Con an Honest Jon.” Yeah, I do not care for this song (but you might). Oh and it starts out loudly and abruptly, so don’t download it in your quiet cubicle at work and then go and embarrass yourself when it starts playing.

5) So I cannot listen to this without laughing, I just re-discovered it. It’s a Jerky Boys comedy track: “I hit your restaurant!” This was one of the CDs my husband brought into our first home together, and we used to laugh and laugh over this even though it is admittedly lowbrow and, well, The JERKY BOYS. But we would lay in bed at night in the dark, and one of us would be almost asleep and one of us would go, “Ohhhhhhhhhh,” (listen to 0:13 through 0:23 for reference). And then we’d just get the giggles all over again. Do you want to go to see The Lion King with me?

“Tarbash’s Cab Trouble” – Jerky Boys

6) Eagles of Death Metal continue to make me laugh (and you’re still rockin’ out to that track I posted last week, aren’t you? Don’t deny it, it’s okay). Even though this song is not as fabulous as the “I Like To Move in the Night,” here is the video for their song “I Want You So Hard“ (Quicktime required, or go here) Yep, that’s Dave Grohl and Jack Black in it. And I kinda wish I had a guitar that could do that.

7) Blog, Blog Me Do is a Beatles blog. Who knew there was still enough fresh information & news about the Beatles to post several times daily? But this blog has a lot of cool obscure stuff on there; memorabilia, news, concert chronology, etc.

8) This just in: Top Ten Worst Albums EVER
(according to The Independent, with their comments IN ALL CAPS)

*Duran Duran: Thank You (pictured) “DOWNRIGHT INSULTING”
*Spice Girls: Any of their solo albums “WRETCHED”
*Various Artists: Urban Renewal “WORSE THAN THE ORIGINAL”
*Lou Reed: Metal Machine Music “TOSS”
*Billy Idol: Cyberpunk “RISIBLE”
*Naomi Campbell: Baby Woman “GOBSMACKING HUBRIS”
*Kevin Rowland: My Beauty “HIDEOUSLY MAWKISH”
*Mick Jagger: Primitive Cool “SOULLESS FUNK-ROCK”
*Westlife: Allow Us to Be Frank “AN UNCALLED-FOR MAULING”
*Tin Machine: Tin Machine II “A DISASTER”

Um, to that list I think I would add this gem. Why was it made? WHY?!

9) Jennings makes me laugh. He says the following about yours truly in his post tonight on The Replacements (with some GREAT bootleg stuff you should download post haste): “One last: Heather, who has kicked every bloggers’ ass the past week or so, has more Replacements.” At least I kick something! Thank ya sir!

10) Pete Doherty continues to implode. No surprises there. I can’t figure out why everyone is still listening.

Finally, kids, today I surpassed 50,000 hits to this blog. I know some of you probably get that before your morning coffee, but that completely blows my mind — something I certainly never expected when I started this happy experiment a few months back. I am glad you all like hearing my thoughts about music as much as I like thinking them. Here’s to the next 50,000!