As I mentioned in the WYFP diary, I'm spending tonight (and probably a big chunk of tomorrow) putting together some bookcases and shelving over a thousand books. It's a major project, and the kind of thing I can only do with the help of some good music. I'll tell you what I'm listening to if you share with me what you're currently enjoying.
ight now I'm listening to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco. I'm rediscovering plenty of CD's that had been in storage for the last couple years, and this is one of them. I've also preferred Son Volt to Wilco, and Uncle Tupelo to both the spinoff bands, but this is still an excellent album.
Just before that I had listened to something I hadn't heard in a couple years, but still sounded as if I just played it yesterday for the first time yet had memorized: Horses by Patti Smith. It's from the box set of all her albums that was released in the late 90's, and the bonus track is My Generation with the album's producer, John Cale. It reminded me of Tuesday night hanging out with Trapper John and his wife, when she put "European Son" on the jukebox and explained how her "life was saved by/rock and roll." Surely the first time I've ever heard "European Son" in a bar, and probably a good reason to listen to White Light, White Heat next.
Speaking of Trapper John, he assailed the music I had on the in car today, but he may have had a point. Two years after most other hipsters, I finally got around to purchasing American Idiot by Green Day. Trapper John said "those guys have blood on their hands" for inspiring a bunch of dreck like Blink 182. Valid point. And while I really like a few of the songs on the album--especially American Idiot--I have to say I agree with him that the album is overrated.
Not overrated--at least based on the recommendations of a friend--is the Neko Case live album recorded at Austin City Limits. I'm a big fan of hers--I think I have all her albums--and loved her when I saw her open for Nick Cave a few years back. Now I need to see her as a headliner, because the live album is stunning.
I've also been listening a lot to the new Belle and Sebastian album, which is the best kind of ear candy. I'm starting to really get in to Debussy, and bought Le Mer the other night. At the other end of the spectrum, this morning I woke up to Big Mama Thornton. I like the early Elvis Presley stuff even though he ripped off most of it, but in many cases he made the originals better. But Elvis' "Hound Dog" isn't half as good as Big Mama Thornton's.
I'm also listening to some Dead Can Dance, and I went about two days of listening to little other than Wayne Shorter. I haven't liked Patty Griffin's recent albums as much as Flaming Red or Living with Ghosts, but on the first listen through, I liked her new one. Other recent listens were to Mary Margaret O'Hara's Miss America, Issac Hayes' Black Moses, and I'm looking forward to listening to another CD I bought the other night, a collection of labor songs from Folkways records.
So, what's caught your musical fancy of late?