What do you know, more pictures of the cats....

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a new mix disc: Bean Counter Throwdown

First mix disc in over a year...

1. Doug Sheldon - Your Ma Said You Cried In Your Sleep Last Night (1961)
2. the Baseball Project - Ted Fucking Williams (Volume 1: Frozen Ropes And Dying Quails 2008)
3. Richard Lloyd - Fire Engine (Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson 1990)
4. the Insomniacs - Help! Murder! Police! (Out of It 1997)
5. the Damned - Fan Club (Damned Damned Damned 1977)
6. Linus Of Hollywood - I Enjoy Being A Boy (In Love With You) (Right to Chews (Bubblegum Classics Revisited)
7. Cookies - Chains (single 1962)
8. Al Stewart - Angry Bird (Sparks Of Ancient Light 2008)
9. the Greenberry Woods - Sentimental Role (Rapple Dapple 1994)
10. the Last Shadow Puppets - Separate And Ever Deadly (The Age Of The Understatement 2008)
11. Charles Senns - Dig Me A Crazy Record (single 1958)
12. Jordan Zevon - Just Do That (Insides Out 2008)
13. the Beatles - Anna (the Early Beatles 1965)
14. Merle Haggard - I'm Gonna Break Every Heart I Can (Strangers 1965)
15. D.A.D. - Sleeping My Day Away (No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims 1989)
16. the Fleshtones - Jet Set Fleshtones (Take a Good Look 2008)
17. the Kills - Alphabet Pony (Midnight Boom 2008)
18. Didjits - Evel Knievel (Hornet Pinata 1990)
19. Half Man Half Biscuit - Bad Losers On Yahoo! Chess (CSI Ambleside 2008)
20. the Jam - he Eton Rifles (Setting Sons 1979)
21. Cheap Trick - You Let a Lotta People Down (Cheap Trick 1997)
22. Crazyhead - What Gives You The Idea That You're So Amazing Baby? (Desert Orchid 1988)
23. David Bowie - Up the Hill Backwards (Scary Monsters 1980)
24. the Tights - It (Cherry Red: the Punk Singles Collection - late 70's)
25. the Boomtown Rats - (I Never Loved) Eva Braun (A Tonic for the Troops 1978)
26. Angst - Neil Armstrong (Angst EP 1983)
27. Was (Not Was) - the Party Broke Up (Born To Laugh At Tornados 1983)

Yet Even More Mix Disc Covers

Once again, here's another batch of old mix disc covers....

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This Get Smart  mix was the first vinyl transfer I did when I got a CD burner. I was able to fit both albums and the non LP tracks I had to fit almost to the second of how much music a CD-R holds.

the return of the cat pictures

 HANK THE CUDDLER: ABOVE: Hnak with Norma, BELOW LEFT: Hank and Norma  RIGHT: Hank with Blanche

All 4 cats together: l to r: Norma, Charlie Hodges, Hank, Blanche

pics around Chicago: the Belden-Stratford Apartment building (2006)

Here are some pictures from 2006 of the Belden-Stratford Apartment building in Lincoln Park. It's one of my favorite buildings in Chicago.

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even more sketchbook page action

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Some recent albums I've been digging

Here are a few recent purchases that I've been digging lately.


AC NEWMAN - Get Guilty (2009)
Very solid 2nd solo album from the New Pornographers/Zumpano front man. Newman writes great pop songs that are incredibly catchy without being obvious. As with his last solo record, it's the unique arrangements and odd instrumental flourishes that really put these songs over the top. As much as I like the New Porno records, I think his solo records, while not as immediate, are more consistent and get more play on my stereo.

PPP (fka Platinum Pied Pipers) - Abundance (2009)
Funk/Soul/R&B from Detroit with a big sound (horns, strings, lots of synths, rich female vocals, and a full band) and super production. I know nothing about these guys (the core is producer Waajeed and multi-instrumentalist Saadiq) other than that this record apparently sounds nothing like their past work, which was more Hip-Hop based. There's no rapping here - it's straight ahead R&B singing with some nice ballads and few strong mid tempo numbers. But what really hooked me are the half album's worth of danceable funk/pop songs that sound like a hybrid of Prince and Outkast (and occasionally Funkadelic). It's been a while since I've loved an R&B record all the way through as much as this one. If this doesn’t make my year end best of list in 12 months then it's been one of a year.

IAIN MATTHEWS - Tigers Will Survive (1971), If You Saw Thro' My Eyes (1971), and Journeys from Gospel Oak (1972)
I just recently discovered these early solo albums from former Fairport Convention singer Iain Matthews, but they've very quickly become favorites. His sweet voice works perfect with the material, which falls into the American country rock genre with a few hints at his British folk past, and at times straight ahead pop rock. There are traces of CSN&Y and some of these songs like they could have been the blueprint for the first few Eagles records. I also hear a little bit of the first few Band records, Flying Burrito Brothers, and even some Loudon Wainwright III on the few straight folk songs. In the mid 80's I bought his record of Jules Shear covers, which came out on Widham Hill and was produced with the same blandness of the Windham Hill's new age records. That's probably what kept me away from his other records for so long, but these albums are so damn strong I'm amazed that it took so long for me to finally connect with them.

EXPLORER's CLUB - Freedom Wind (2008)
I have a problem with reviews that compare albums to the Beach Boys, since most of the time the comparison is trivial or doesn't hold up at all. But in this instance, it's pretty damn obvious that late 60's Beach Boys is main reference point for this South Carolina band. The harmonies, the production, the instrumentation, the song style all point to Pet Sounds (in particular, but they touch on parts of the Beach Boys albums through Holland). On one hand, they could be a tribute band, but they manage to come up a collection of very strong songs and take the references into a very fresh sounding album. If you wished the Beach Boys made one more solid album in 1968 this could fill that void for you.

ANDREW BIRD - Noble Beast (2009)
I'm hit-and-miss with Andrew Bird's chamber pop, but since his last album had a few things I really dug I decided to roll the dice on this new one. Like everything he does - it SOUNDS great - mostly subtle, gorgeous pop songs with some eccentric instrumentation and delicate melodies. But at times he can be a bit precious for me and I wish a few songs were a bit more upbeat. Maybe I've just been too hyper lately to give in to his gentle delivery.

FIRES OF ROME - You Kingdom You (2009)
To be honest, the only reason I picked this up is because it was one of the first appealing releases of 2009 and after spending a month relistening to 2008 releases for my year end list I was itching for something brand new. I was pleasantly surprised to end up liking the whole damn thing. Musically they pull from a hodge-podge of genres including mid 70's glam, dance punk, early 80's new wave, and post punk - making for a very eclectic collection of songs. At one point it sounds like a glammy Shudder to Think and then suddenly it sounds like a more pop Les Savy Fav. I don't really know how to describe them since they’re all over the board, and I'm not sure I'll dig this as much in six months, but for now it's been a fun listen.