Shooflypie

My plan for today, the last day of spring break, is to watch the NCAA tournament, the first game of the baseball season, and the season premiere of Game of Thrones ; to read more of John Scalzi's The Ghost Brigades ; and to listen to as much music as I can. Also, Happy Easter! 1. Hymn And Her/Earlimart (4) - last played on 1/27/13 2. Early Roman Kings/Bob Dylan (3) - last played on 1/8/13 3. Josephine/Slobberbone (4) - last played on 2/24/13 4. One For The Cutters/The Hold Steady (7) - last played on 6/24/12 5. If All Else Fails/My Morning Jacket (8) - last played on 2/17/13 6. No Regrets/King Khan And The Shrines (4) - last played on 8/28/11 7. Modesto Is Not That Sweet/The Hold Steady (5) - last played on 8/18/12 8. We Made a Mountain/The Mynabirds (11) - last played on 10/23/11 9. Taillights Fade/Buffalo Tom (13) - last played on 2/3/13 10. Strings/A.C. Newman (11) - last played on 1/1/13

It's the Sunday of spring break week. We aren't going anywhere but I am looking forward to a week of reading, listening to music, watching TV and movies, and just relaxing. Let's see what ten songs will start it off... 1. I'm Looking Through You/The Beatles (3) - last played on 3/18/12 2. Candy Cigarettes/Portastatic (7) - last played on 8/28/11 3. Brand New Start/Little Joy (6) - last played on 11/18/12 4. Skip Steps 1 & 3/Superchunk (15) - last played on 2/17/13 5. Bright Future/Bowerbirds (5) - last played on 7/15/11 6. Living The Dream/Sloan (8) - last played on 2/16/13 7. Dying Is Fine/Ra Ra Riot (2) - last played on 6/13/11 8. Farewell To the Pressure Kids/Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew (5) - last played on 9/30/12 9. Heart's Ease/Josh Ritter (6) - last played on 3/20/13 10. Country Song/Le Switch (10) - last played on 3/17/13

As I mentioned last week, I'm currently reading the 3rd book in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Storm of Swords . I'm doing it not only in anticipation of the 3rd season of Game of Thrones starting two weeks from tonight (apparently this book will get me through Season 4 as well) but also because I like the books. I haven't just been reading the novel, though, a practice I started out of necessity with the 1st book in 2011 when I had to read for college course work as well and then continued that summer with the 2nd book. I'm maybe 100 pages shy of being halfway and thought I would pause to talk about when I've been reading alongside... Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell - This is yet another big short story collection in a year of big story collections. While I liked Russell's debut novel, Swamplandia! , I liked her first collection St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves even more and was primed for this book. Th...

While I listen to a lot of music, these albums have been played quite a bit in the last three weeks or so... Alabama Shakes/Boys & Girls - The band was on SNL a few weeks back and not only ripped into "Hold On," the first and best song on this debut album, but also played a great new song. That's all it takes to send me back to an album and it's not like I hadn't already liked this last year - it just got a little lost in some of the other 2012 releases. These are good blues rock songs and Brittany Howard has a great voice. I do think their next album has a chance to be even better but this is well worth repeated listens, even beyond "Hold On." Atoms For Peace/Amok - This is the new band that features Thom Yorke (from Radiohead), Nigel Godrich (producer of Radiohead and other bands), Flea (bassist for Red Hot Chili Peppers), and Joey Waronker (drummer for a bunch of artists) but the sound is not much different than what you would expect a Y...

It's been about a month-and-a-half since I posted about something other than music, so I figured I was past due for another Mega-Post. I've decided to make it even more mega by including today's Sunday Shuffle, which didn't happen this morning due to that lost hour of time. Crazy, right? Sunday Shuffle #318 1. Bucket Brigade/Michael Penn (7) - last played on 12/8/12 2. Love Is Luck/The Walkmen (18) - last played on 2/5/13 3. Beer Commerical (Live)/Sugar (1) - debut 4. Explode And Make Up/Sugar (2) - last played on 12/30/12 5. It Looks Like Love/Josh Rouse (3) - last played on 10/24/10 6. Fluffy Lucy/Cracker (4) - last played on 6/28/11 7. Forced To Love/Broken Social Scene (5) - last played on 12/23/10 8. Beechwood Park/The Zombies (18) - last played on 10/31/12 9. I am Morris Townsend (No-Fi Transmission)/The Prayers & Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers (7) - last played on 7/8/12 10. First Few Desperate Hours/The Mountain Goats (6) - last played on 12/2/12...

I'm going on record right now that I do not want 6 inches or more of snow on Tuesday. Do something else, winter storm. 1. Archangel Tale/M. Ward (3) - last played on 4/29/12 2. Better Dead Than Lead/Ted Leo & The Pharmacists (12) - last played on 1/25/13 3. Infinite Arms/Band of Horses (22) - last played on 9/15/12 4. Genesis 30:3/The Mountain Goats (6) - last played on 11/1/11 5. Vice Rag/A.A. Bondy (3) - last played on 9/4/11 6. Punch And Judy/Elliott Smith (7) - last played on 3/1/13 7. Elvis Presley Blues/Gillian Welch (7) - last played on 4/8/12 8. Movin Away/My Morning Jacket (10) - last played on 12/21/11 9. June Showers/Superchunk (9) - last played on 11/21/12 10. Elevation/U2 (3) - last played on 8/19/12