Secret Memory Cloud Flag (December 10th - 14th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Well, it's beginning to look a lot like Capitalism Christmas. You know what that means. It means I have to spend some Saturdays shopping for presents. It also means that my Top 10 for 2012 is not too far away. In actual fact, it will be next week. This isn't it though; this is a different list.

In preparation for refining my final Top 10 list, I have a few 2012 albums from Cloud Nothings, The Mountain Goats and Swans. Thanks to a recent Clay5 on Top 5 5th albums, I have Melissa Etheridge's fifth and probably best album. More Whiskeytown is here while I'm still reading the book. I've got the final installments for Dylan and the Stones. Pulling another selection from Kurt's top 50, I've got Black Flag. Finally, my Hip Hop taste buds will be tantalised with Wu-Block and Nas.

Check it out:

• Black Flag - My War
• Wu-Block - Wu-Block
• Nas - Illmatic
• Swans - The Seer
• The Mountain Goats - Transcendental Youth
• Melissa Etheridge - Your Little Secret
• The Rolling Stones - GRRR! (Disc Three)
• Bob Dylan - Bootleg Series Volume 3
• Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory
• Whiskeytown - Stranger's Almanac

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Beastie Boys
2. Whiskeytown
3. Bob Dylan
4. The Notorious B.I.G.
5. Beach Fossils

Song of the Week : The Knack - Good Girls Don't

I've been digging a little into Kurt Cobain's top 50 album list for the last few weeks. This week's selection was The Knack - Get The Knack. Everybody knows the monster hit My Sharona, but it was another song on the album that caught my eye. 

As a young and impressionable lad of about 7 or 8, I had a cassette tape (still have it) called Chipmunk Punk. It was The Chipmunks doing "punk" songs. Except they were all covers of new wave songs from Blondie, Queen, Tom Petty, Billy Joel, The Cars and others. At the time I had no idea who usually sang it, but my favourite track was Good Girls Don't. It was The Knack, and I have only just heard the original song now for the first time. 

Imagine my surprise when the real lyrics were... well, let's say "adult" and "colourful". Listen yourself and then have a look at the Chipmunk version on YouTube. 

Enjoy my shattered innocence! :)

Addio, Amici

Thanks for stopping by. Have the best couple of days off you can muster. Don't forget to check in next week for the Top 10 for 2012. There could well be a mixtape, but don't tell the DMCA.

Hasala malakim.

Check Smokey's Faithless Knack (December 3rd - 7th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Good evening tunesters. What's the good word? It's Friday night here, spilling into Saturday morning and I've just finished deciding what I'm going to listen to next week. This week has been a weird sort of a week in Australia. For a start, people in Perth are whining that there's too much cold and wind and rain, while people in Melbourne are convinced their car tyres will melt right off their cars. Introduction to the opposites, or what?! Anyway, music time. Let's see what will be keeping my ears company next week.

I have a little bit of Australian representation here with Urthboy and San Cisco. I'm currently reading Losering, a Story of Whiskeytown, and so I have Faithless Street as well as early Ryan Adams punk band, Patty Duke Syndrome. Disc twos for the Stones' GRRR! and Dylan's bootlegs are here, as is The Knack thanks again to Cobain's top 50. Natalie Merchant is here for mellow purposes and Radiohead bring a classic to the party. Lastly, the Beastie Boys fill a  spot I specifically left for Hip Hop.

Check it out:

• Urthboy - Smokey's Haunt
• San Cisco - San Cisco
• The Knack - Get The Knack
• Natalie Merchant - Ophelia
• Patty Duke Syndrome - Patty Duke Syndrome
• The Rolling Stones - Grrr! (Disc 2)
• Whiskeytown - Faithless Street
• Bob Dylan - Bootleg Series Volume 2
• Radiohead - The Bends
• Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Bob Dylan
2. DJ Shadow
3. The Rolling Stones
4. Soundgarden
5. Ben Folds

Song of the Week : Ben Folds & Nick Hornby - Picture Window

For some reason I thought Ben Folds was over-represented in my SOTW choices, but I can't find a single instance in the last 5 years. Either way, this song is something I mostly dig for Nick Hornby's part in it - the lyrics.

Picture Window is a little vignette into the life of what seems to be a Mother with a terminally sick child in hospital bed on New Year's Eve 2008. The room overlooks Parliament Hill through the picture window and the fireworks go off at midnight. But all the Mum can think is how pathetic it is to have such a pretty view from the room where her child is dying; and how she doesn't want to let go and enjoy herself.  

It really is like a sad short story written by a novelist in Hornby. The carefully chosen, sparse details paint the most vivid picture. I don't think many actual songwriters could do the same thing as well as Hornby has. The music is a simple enough piano riff pretty much throughout and a string section that swells over it like any good melodrama. The way Ben Folds delivers the melody is angry and desperate. And in the end when the Mum gives in and lets her spirits rise, the delivery mellows and sounds sad rather than frustrated.  

It's quite a powerful song and very well delivered. A lot of Ben Folds fans seem to have slept on this collaboration, but Hornby's words are amazing on every track. It would be great if more "proper" writers made rock songs. So enjoy this little story poem with a nice soundtrack. 

Adieu

It's Saturday afternoon now (oooh, magic) and I've just come back from the Maritime Museum in Fremantle. Along with a bunch of fascinating displays on everything from deep sea diving to the spice trade, Australia II was on show. For the non-nautical, that is the winning yacht from the 1983 America's Cup. I have to say, I was quite surprised at how humbled I felt standing beneath that sporting behemoth. Here's a happy snap.

That sail is around 40 feet high and Wikipedia says the sail area is 175 square metres. It's huge; as large as it's own place in Australian folklore. I really enjoyed seeing it. Get on down if you're in Perth.

That's all for this week. Be good, kids.

Hasala Malakim.

Notorious Civilian Shadow Gang GRRR! (November 26th - 30th)

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.

Another busy weekend ahead, so I'm cramming as much of this post in as I can tonight (Friday). I may well wait until late Saturday afternoon to post, when I'm not so tired and prone to stupid typos. 

To keep the stupid typos away next week at work, I've got a mix of quiet and rowdy, old and new(ish) and some stuff I haven't heard yet.  

Serving up the alterna-noise this week, I've got the new Soundgarden and an old Mazzy Star. Clay5 has inspired me to grab Ben Folds & Nick Hornby, while Kurt Cobain's 50 Favourite Albums list gives me Gang Of Four. Disc one from the 50th anniversary Stones compilation is here, as is the first volume of the Dylan bootleg series. For my Hip Hop fix I have DJ Shadow and the one BIG album I haven't heard. I don't know why, but I have been singing Crazy by Icehouse all week, so I grabbed their biggest classic. Finally, I added Wye Oak for a smattering of indie sound.

Check it out:

• Ben Folds & Nick Hornby - Lonely Avenue
• Soundgarden - King Animal
• Mazzy Star - She Hangs Brightly
• DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
• Gang of Four - Entertainment
• The Rolling Stones - GRRR! (Disc 1)
• The Notorious B.I.G.- Duets
• Bob Dylan - Bootleg Series Volume 1
• Wye Oak - Civilian
• Icehouse - Man Of Colours

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Wild Nothing
2. The Lemonheads
3. Michael Jackson
4. Us3
5. X

Song of the Week : Nada Surf - Teenage Dreams

In anticipation of the end of the year, which is flying towards us at a terrible speed, I've been going through my 2012 albums. One that was released relatively early and I haven't heard in a while is Nada Surf - The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy. It's an LP that probably won't make top 10, but could well sneak into top 20. I really dig that title though - like the universe does what it likes, no matter how much our Earth eggheads study and compartmentalise it. 

I was fairly certain I would have made this a song of the week already, but I did a search of all my old emails and it turns out I haven't. That's odd, because it's one of my favourite songs this year and probably the only track I listen to a lot from this album.

Teenage Dreams is an upbeat little gem with some nice fuzzy guitar and a catchy melody. I'm sure you understand why the line "moved to a tear by a subway break dancer" always catches my ear. 

If you're looking for a bit of inspiration to end the day with, you could do worse than this. It's never too late kids. Do it. Whatever it may be. 

Hüvasti, sõbrad

Thanks for stopping by. So here we are on Saturday afternoon after all. Almost Beer O'Clock and rather sticky and warm in Perth. Nothing for it but to partake in a frosty ale or two. 

I hope you get a nice relaxing dose of your poison this weekend too.

Hasala malakim.

Playlist : November 28th - December 2nd, 2011

Hello and welcome to the Work Tunes that almost never was.

I recently had to let go of my 160Gb iPod Classic after a few good years of service. It actually still works, but it wouldn't connect to iTunes, so it made playlists a very hard thing to make during my lunch breaks as I'm used to. I'vbe got a new one now and I'm beginning the arduous task of filling it up again. But I have a list now, even though it was a little rushed.

Classic albums and artists are over represented, probably because they're the best thing to reach for when you don't know what you want. Luckily Spin came through with the December issue so I have some brand new tunes too. Thanks to a viewing of Rock The Bells, I grabbed Wu-Tang's classic 36 Chambers. I threw in some Iggy Pop to go with my recent obsession with Velvet Underground. I got so excited about the new The Roots LP coming soon that I hooked up an old one and that's about it.

Check it out:

• Wu-Tang Clan - Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers
• Bruce Springsteen - Tracks (Disc One)
• The Rolling Stones - Some Girls
• Bob Dylan - Bootleg Series 6 : Concert at Philharmonic Hall
• Melissa Etheridge - Breakdown
• Pixies - Surfer Rosa
• Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power
• James Brown - Live at the Apollo
• The Roots - The Tipping Point
• VA - Spin Magazine December

Top Five Artists Last Week

1. Mr Bungle
   
2. The Doors
3. KRS One & Marley Marl
4. Kathleen Edwards
5. The Deep Dark Woods

Song of the Week : Bob Dylan - I'll Keep It With Mine

Musically speaking, there has been a strangely coincidental Velvet Underground theme following me around. I happen to have chosen Beck's Record Club tribute to the Velvet Underground & Nico album for this week's list, but more than that I watched a doco on Sunday about Lillian Roxon who photographed and wrote about VU and also Bowie and Iggy Pop in the early days at Max's. I've also seen a bunch of people bagging out the Lou Reed / Metallica collaboration (and so I won't listen to it and sully my high opinion of Lou Reed). This all lead me to listening to lots of VU and checking out Nico's solo album Chelsea Girl on Songl. On it, she covers Bob Dylan - I'll Keep It With Mine.

There are only two versions of Dylan's original that I have heard. One is solo piano and it's called Bank Account Blues. The other is with a band on the Bootleg Series. Hearing Nico sing it in a slow droning monotone, reminded me how good Bob's Bootleg version was. It's a pretty catchy pop melody without the throw away lyrics. What's most enjoyable about this version though is that Dylan is playing it with the band during the Blonde On Blonde sessions for the first time. They haven't rehearsed it, they're throwing together the backing as they play. You hear the producer reassure Al Kooper on the organ to play what he was playing earlier and then Al starts up. Bob at the end of a verse asks the band, "Right?"

I find it a fascinating insight into how great songs are recorded. It's also frustrating that the song wasn't ever recorded properly. There are far too many songs that have been thrown away by great musicians that never made their own releases. I'm thinking about Springsteen never doing Because The Night, Paul Kelly giving Cake and the Candle to Kate Ceberano and Nico strangling the life out of this song.

This YouTube video is not the version from Bootleg Series Vol. 2, but it is an instrumental version with footage from Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas. But the song title link is the real deal. Enjoy!

Ya'll Come Back Now

To my American friends, I hope your Thanksgiving and Black Friday were exceptional. To those of here in Perth, how about this heat hey? To everybody else, thanks for stopping by.

Hasala malakim.

Playlist February 28th - March 4th, 2011

Howdy pardners, welcome to what may be the last Work Tunes.

After reading a blog about simplifying your life and finding more time for what you love, I realised that I could probably stop this blog and focus on Make Films Not Movies. Though I do enjoy talking music, I prefer movies and I’m not finding enough time to watch and review them.

There are other things I can cut out of my schedule though, so I have some decisions to make.In any case, for this week I’m listening to :

• Paul Kelly - The A to Z Recordings (Disc 7) : With just two more discs to go, I should probably make next week the last week for Work Tunes. Disc 6 of this epic box contained a humdinger of a ditty in Shane Warne. With a swinging summer horn and calypso rhythm, the track was a great bit of levity in a fairly serious set of songs. This disc features mostly S and T songs, including perhaps two of PKs best known in To Her Door and Sweet Guy.

• Rolling Stones – Rolled Gold (Disc Two) : The second part of the Rolled Gold Best Of compilation features some of the Stones' meatier tracks including Sympathy For The Devil, Wild Horses and You Can't Always Get What You Want. There are more of the early 70s songs here than on Disc One, which had several very early tracks from when the Stones thought they were Mississippi Bluesmen. I prefer this side of the band.

• Dolorean - You Can't Win : After hearing the latest effort from Dolorean last week, I was reminded why I really dig this band. Simple chord progressions, quiet twang and thought out lyrics will always be high on my list of things-i-like-in-music. Dolorean does all of that so well.

• Digable Planets - Reachin (A New Refutation Of Time And Space) : Lately, the Native Tongues style of jazz beats and positive, conscious lyrics has been sounding pretty good to me. I flip out over Blowout Comb by Digable Planets, but this is another great album. If only they were still around. Maybe they could resurrect Black Star while they were at it.

• Thom Yorke - The Eraser : Last week, I slowly but surely became in awe of The King of Limbs, Radiohead's brand new release. One thing I liked about it is the layering of electronic sound, which is the same thing I like about The Eraser. The King of Limbs is superior to Thom Yorke's solo debut, in my opinion, but this is still worth a listen.

• Radiohead - OK Computer : A lot of listeners would agree that OK Computer is Radiohead's finest hour. It has made countless critics' lists of the best albums of all time, or of the 90s of the UK and so on. The critical response to The King of Limbs has been mixed, to be polite. I wanted to play this album this week to get a better gauge on the difference. I bleieve TKOL will someday get a little more love than it does now.

• Sonic Youth - Goo : Goo was Sonic Youth’s seventh release, but got them a good deal of attention from further mainstream than usual thanks to the Seattle ‘scene’ that broke around them. The album after this, Dirty, got even more. Though it was released in 1990, Goo contains much of the sound everybody went crazy for not long after. It is the start of a more cohesive, less experimental Sonic Youth sound and a decently fuzzy and rocking album. The biggest track on the album is Kool Thing. We of course all know how cool Kim Deal is, thanks to the Dandy Warhols.

• Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians - Ghost of a Dog : Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians' 1988 release Shooting Rubber Bands at the Stars has always been one of my personal favourites. I have only ever had a cassette copy of this, it's follow up, until recently when I bought the CD. Stand out tracks are the title track and the jaunty Black and Blue.

• A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm : More Native Tongues, which is good for what ails Hip Hop. This Tribe album has two of the groups few hits in Bonita Applebum and Can I Kick It? But you can't go past the smooth grooves of Youthful Expression and the played-for-comedy I Left My Wallet In El Segundo.

• Marcy Playground – Marcy Playground : Remember Sex and Candy? Yeah, me too! But that's about all I ever knew of Marcy Playground. So when I saw this CD on ebay for 1c, I thought "why not?" I haven't listened to it yet. Fingers crossed.

Regardless of whether I decide to give this blog away, I will be making a playlist every week. I may just blog here once a month a list of the albums I enjoyed most and try to review a movie a week for MFNM.

Thanks to those who come to read. If I’m here next week, I hope you will be too.

Ciao for now.

Playlist February 21st - 25th, 2011

Hey hey kids! What's news in your worlds?

Let's get right into the music shall we? This week I'm excited to be listening to the latest Dolorean release and I'm spinning a few albums that I recently bought on second hand vinyl. Apart from that, I address a shocking Grammys snub and name drop on a signed CD.

Here's what it all looks like:

• Dolorean - The Unfazed : After (happily) rediscovering Dolorean last week, I was going to spin their third album You Can't Win (2007). Coincidentally though, Dolorean happen to release a new album The Unfazed just this year. I have deliberately laid off listening to any of it until I play it this week. I did enjoy Not Exotic a lot last week though; so much so, I played it several times at work and at home. You can download the title track from The Unfazed for free on the Dolorean Store.

• Paul Kelly - The A - Z Recordings (Disc Six) : Disc Six in Paul Kelly's not-even-complete A - Z catalogue contains the fictional reflective South of Germany, the tent boxing tale Rally Round the Drum and the reverent ballad Shane Warne. It's a mark of the man's brilliance that he can release a box set of 100 very solid songs and still have lots left in the bag.

• Guru - Jazzmatazz Vol. 1 : Because Guru was horribly snubbed during the Grammy Awards memorial segment, I'm listening to Jazzmatazz. Personally, I think it's a little foul of the music industry to ignorantly neglect to mention the death of a pioneer in a musical genre that has dominated it's sales for the last 15 or more years. In the words of the great Chuck D, another rap pioneer, "Who gives a fuck about a God damn Grammy?".

• Gully Platoon - The Great Divide : Mr Tirren Staaf aka Pegz recently held an impromptu Twitter competition to guess which 70s rock band bass player his name was inspired by. I guessed right (Tiran Porter of the Doobie Brothers btw) and was sent three signed CDs. One of them was this 2009 Gully Platoon release. I haven't heard it yet and wasn't even aware it existed, despite being a massive fan of Pegz' solo stuff. I expect good things.

• Rolling Stones - Rolled Gold (Disc One) : I've been going on about getting some Rolling Stones vinyl for a while now. Last Sunday, I found this double LP compilation at the Melville Markets and snapped it up. It’s jam packed with Stones classics from As Tears Go By to Wild Horses. So jam packed, in fact, that I'm going to split it up and bring in disc two next week.

• Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career : I first checked out Camera Obscura on the recommendation of Sarah Silverman. They are a melancholic, sweetly-crooning three piece Scottish band formed in 1996. My Maudlin Career was released in 2009 and is their newest release. Standout tracks are definitely Careless Love and Away With Murder.

• Josh Rouse - Home : Josh Rouse has for some time been my overall top artist on last.fm. Partly that probably has something to do with how well his music suits the whole family (and so he gets a good spin on the weekend as well as during the week), but it's also indicative of how many really enjoyable albums he has cranked out. This one is one of the best. Hey Porcupine, Laughter, Parts and Accessories and Afraid To Fail are all outstanding.

• Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan : Another Melville Markets vinyl purchase. I bought this CD when I first got into Dylan in the mid 90s. This is the album that features the monumental Blowin' In The Wind, Hard Rain's a'Gonna Fall and Masters of War. I haven't played my record yet, but I am looking forward to it. This will tide me over.
  

• U2 - The Joshua Tree : Along with Leonard Cohen - Songs Of Love and Hate, this is the last of the vinyl I bought on Sunday (not counting Miss 4's gatefold copy of Thriller). Like much of the world, Joshua Tree was when I really got into U2. With massively popular hits like Where The Streets Have No Name and Pride (In The Name Of Love), it was touring this album that led to Rattle and Hum and U2's subsequent rocket through the stratosphere of fame and fortune.

• Radiohead - The King of Limbs : The latest release from the UK rock Gods has already received mixed responses across the Interwebs with some calling it 'gorgeous' and others unimpressed. A lot of the unimpressed seem to be those upset that it wasn't free like In Rainbows, but I haven't heard it yet so I'll reserve judgement.

*Puts on Molly Meldrum hat* Do yourself a favour and check Dolorean out. Their Not Exotic and You Can't Win albums are excellent.

Until next week, may you have the music in you. Peace.

Playlist - February 7th - 11th, 2011

Hello and welcome to Work Tunes. What's shaking cats?

This week I've got some classic rock, a little bit of a sunshiney beach set, an alt-country favourite and a mix of songs Spin thinks were great from 2010. I've also made a mixtape of obscure old school tunes inspired by Nas.

Here's what it all looks like:

• Bright Eyes - The People's Key : I heard this latest Bright Eyes release last week via NPR. Their review of the set said it was the greatest Bright Eyes album ever. On first listen, I would have to disagree and say that I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning is still the best. I thought I would give this one another listen to see if it grows on me.

• The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed : After blipping the great, rollicking track Song For Keith by Ryan Adams (who hung out and got drunk with Richards himself when they were at the same recording studio), I decided I was going to buy some Stones on vinyl. Nothing after 1979 or before 1967 though. This is from 1969 and includes the well-known Stones tracks Honky Tonk Woman and You Can't Always Get What You Want.

• VA - Spin Best of 2010 : I have a subscription to Spin magazine and Rolling Stone via Zinio on my iPad. The coolest thing about music magazines has always been the free CDs. A bit hard when you get a digital copy right? Wrong! Spin included a download code for redemption on the US iTunes store to get a bunch of tracks they considered the best of 2010. And here they are. I'm pleased with the inclusion of Boyfriend by Best Coast after their album Crazy For You was among my favourites all year.

• Josh Rouse - El Turista : After growing up on the coast all my life, I have only really now discovered a love of the beach. That might have something to do with taking my girls for a swim rather than chasing seals and going squid-jigging in rock pools around Point Peron, or walking across to Penguin Island on the Safety Bay sandbank as was the usual go when I was young. Either way, we've been going to the beach for a swim every morning on the weekends and I'm loving it. This album is a set of Spanish language/themed songs that sound like a beach in Spain.

• Ryan Adams - Gold : It's been some time since I listened to this album. It remains one of my very favourites. I am looking to get some vinyl by Ryan Adams/Whiskeytown soon and this is high on the wish list. I like the set for the quietly emotional La Cienega Just Smiled and the love letter to NYC in New York, New York. By now everyone knows that the film clip for that song is just Ryan Adams playing guitar by the river with the Twin Towers in the background and was filmed on September 7th, 2001.

• REM - Eponymous : For years I only had a cassette version of this LP that I got from Record Finder in Fremantle during a phase I went through of wanting everything REM had ever done pre-Monster. Now I have purchased the CD and this is it. Eponymous is the first Greatest Hits album for REM and was released by IRS Records in 1988 just before the band signed to Warner Brothers for Green. There are rare and previously unreleased tracks on here which make it well worth owning if you're a fan.

• Missy Elliott - This Is Not A Test : Missy Elliott tricked me, damn it. I emerged from a haze of grunge followed by a massive folk stage to rediscover rap. What was around when I emerged, besides The Marshall Mathers LP was Missy's brilliantly funky Pass That Dutch. That made me check this album out and through it get turned onto Jay-Z via the conscious and hard Wake Up. I also found Let It Bump to be deliriously groovy. So of course I went and got Missy's backlog expecting more of the same great tracks... Tricked me big time. Fake R&B bulltish. Still love this one though.

• Mixtape - Where Are They Now? : Hearing the news that Kool Herc was desperately ill and couldn't afford to pay his doctors bills, and also listening to Nas’ Where Are The Now? got me thinking about some of the old school heroes who dropped off the radar long ago. Nas’ great track says: Rap is like a ghost town, real mystic / Like these folks never existed / They the reason that rap became addictive / Play their CD or wax and get lifted. So that’s what I’m doing. I’ve made a mixtape of some of the artists Nas mentions and some he doesn't, and I've put the Nas track on the front. There are some rare and classic tracks here, and you can grab them yourself from the title link above. A full track list is included in the zip file, but some highlights include Biz Markie, The Skinny Boys, Spoonie Gee, the 12" version of Young MC's Principal's Office and C.I.A. who were the first group to feature Dr Dre and Ice Cube.

• Paul Kelly - The A - Z Recordings (Disc Four) : Compared with the first two discs from this eight disc box, I found disc three last week a let down. Not because the tracks weren't great, but because the one or two songs I didn't already know didn't amaze me. Still, the familiar songs are all fantastic, so who am I to whine. With songs as great as I Can't Believe We Were Married and Leaps and Bounds, I'm sure Disc Four will wipe that smug smirk right off my hating face :)

• Bob Dylan - Masterpieces : Last week I realised that in 1997, while I had a record player that needed a belt, I bought a Bob Dylan compilation on vinyl. I had never played it until just the other day. I was so impressed with 1997 coreyj, that I need to buy him a beer. This is the 3 Disc Masterpieces I bought on CD that first got me into his Bobness. From this set of classic Dylan, I obsessed over everything pre-Slow Train Coming and most things post. If you're a casual fan of the man - get this now.
  

Until next week, don't get hung up; stay cool.

Respect and best hopes to the people of Egypt. I wish for you the fair and democratic society you're fighting for and so richly deserve.

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." - Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr