Shooflypie

This is our spring break week, which makes me happy. I do have things to do, the most important of which is continuing to work on my giant paper for college, but I also have the luxury of time. This morning we are going to see The Hunger Games , so I should get to today's ten... 1. Caucasian Blues/Jarvis Cocker (4) - last played on 8/29/10 2. Belvedere/Patterson Hood (3) - last played on 11/12/11 3. Call Me/Reigning Sound (5) - last played on 2/5/12 4. Like a Pearl/Portastatic (5) - last played on 3/11/11 5. Rococo/Arcade Fire (15) - last played on 3/11/12 6. Have You Ever Seen the Rain?/Creedence Clearwater Revival (3) - last played on 8/5/10 7. G Turns To D/Sloan (5) - last played on 2/5/12 8. 7/4 (Shoreline)/Broken Social Scene (5) - last played on 1/22/12 9. Sleep Tonight/Stars (2) - last played on 3/4/12 10. (Quicksilver Dreams of) Maria/Steve Earle (3) - last played on 3/4/12

Anyone who follows my Twitter feed (I'm @justinsteiner) know how excited I am for this Tuesday. Why? The new Shins album, Port of Morrow , comes out. It is their first album in 5 years and the first since James Mercer let go of his original bandmates. Mercer has certainly been hitting the media in the run-up to this album release - granting interviews, appearing on Saturday Night Live , streaming a show of NPR, and going on NPR's World Cafe to talk and play. I've been soaking up every ounce and each new song has made me excited to hear the whole record. The record is actually streaming at iTunes right now but I've held off, content to buy it on Tuesday and experience it as a whole on the day of release just like we all had to do in the old days. In the meantime, I've been listening to the previous three albums quite a bit. Oh, Inverted World (2001) - Their debut is justly celebrated and for a lot of fans remains the standard against which the other albums are jud...

I haven't written about books in a while but that doesn't mean I haven't been reading them. In fact, I'm still on pace to meet my goal of reading 52 this year, which makes me happy. Here's what I've been reading since early February... Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - I've read this novel before, of course. It's hard to go through  high school and then be an English major in college during two different decades and not have read it. Why reread it now? This novel ties into the large paper I am writing so I can graduate with an English degree in a couple months. I remembered quite a bit of the novel and found myself enjoying it all over again. I had forgotten the complete tonal shift of the novel when Tom Sawyer enters the scene; it was my least favorite part. Stay Awake by Dan Chaon - This is Chaon's first story collection in quite a while. I've read the previous one, Among the Missing , as well as his two subsequent novels. Th...

It's been over a month since I've had a post that wasn't a Sunday Shuffle. I do want to write about a few things, so hopefully I will get to them in the coming week,which is the last week of school before spring break. Speaking of spring, the weather this past week has been simply amazing, hasn't it? It's felt like late May or June. Anyway, let's see what pops up today... 1. Sunday's Pretty Icons/Belle and Sebastian (14) - Fear is no hole in which to hide 2. Waving Flags/British Sea Power (4) - You are astronomic gold (?) 3. Lover For A Friend/The Hoodoo Gurus (5) - I, I need a lover for a friend 4. Take My Hands, We're Free/Oakley Hall (4) - And the road is gone 5. 911/Delta Spirit (11) - Say good morning to my friends/oh my lord, it's 6 AM 6. Robbers/Cold War Kids (2) - Soaking, walking around the city after dark 7. Welfare Bread/King Khan And The Shrines (2) - Baby, there's something I can teach you 8. These Days Nothing But Sunshine/...

I hope everyone remembered to set their clocks ahead last night. It looks like we're in for some real spring-like temperatures this week, doesn't it? Spring break is only two weeks away. Anyway, I do have a lot I want to accomplish today, so let's go ahead and start today's ten... 1. Blue Day/Heartless Bastards (3) - last played on 8/1/10 2. Viennese Hangover/The Smithereens (9) - last played on 12/19/11 3. Beautiful Car/M. Ward (3) - last played on 2/26/12 4. Will You Return?/The Avett Brothers (4) - last played on 8/9/11 5. Rococo/Arcade Fire (14) - last played on 1/27/12 6. Remedy/The Black Crowes (7) - last played on 10/22/10 7. Rollin' Back/My Morning Jacket (4) - last played on 2/24/11 8. Black, Blue/The Avett Brothers (4) - last played on 10/16/11 9. 3000 Flowers/Destroyer (5) - last played on 11/20/11 10. Change My Life/Spoon (3) - last played on 8/20/11

Let's just get right to today's ten... 1. Water In Hell/Broken Social Scene (5) - last played on 12/27/10 2. Ransom Man/Delta Spirit (12) - last played on 7/10/11 3. The Suburbs (continued)/Arcade Fire (15) - last played on 1/28/12 4. Faberge Falls For Shuggie/Of Montreal (3) - last played on 8/6/10 5. Magazines/The Hold Steady (4) - last played on 9/11/11 6. I Swallowed a Dragonfly/Heartless Bastards (4) - last played on 8/7/11 7. I Can't Sleep/Sloan (13) - last played on 11/20/11 8. Half Right/Elliott Smith (3) - last played on 1/8/12 9. Took My Lady To Dinner/King Khan and The Shrines (2) - last played on 5/2/10 10. Farewell To the Pressure Kids/Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew (3) - last played on 11/12/10