Shooflypie

Nada Surf released their seventh studio album, You Know Who You Are , two weeks ago. I've been a fan of the band since Let Go in 2002 and was really looking forward to the new one so much so that I listened to their music a lot in the days before that release. As part of that process, I ripped their CDs into iTunes so I could play everything I owned; I only had their last album, 2012's The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy , as a digital release. That all goes to explaining the play count disparity between songs from different albums and why play counts are so low for an album like The Weight Is A Gift (from 2005), which is one of my favorite albums. I might as well mention their other two albums that might appear on today's shuffle - Lucky from 2008 and If I Had A Hi-Fi from 2010, which is a covers record. If you don't know the band, you owe it to yourself to listen along at some point this week via my Spotify playlist, or just start with Let Go and work your way...

This song came to mind this week for two reasons: 1. This band, one of my favorites, has been posting pictures and video of themselves in the studio working on their 11th album this week. 2. Thursday was St. Patrick's Day and the first graders were all about hunting for leprechauns and four leaf clovers at recess. That means this week's song can be nothing other than... "Four Leaf Clover" by Old 97s Too Far To Care was not my first Old 97s album, but it was my second. I started with Fight Songs in 1999, loved it, and immediately went back to pick up TFTC , which had come out in 1997. Turned out I loved TFTC even more, to the point where it's one of my all-time favorite albums. "Four Leaf Clover" is the last song on the album and takes it out on a great note. It starts with a bit of feedback and then Philip Peeples brings in a pounding drum attack. After a strum of an electric guitar, Murry Hammond comes in with a fantastic bass line. The s...

I hope everyone remembered to move their clocks ahead last night (and checked out my second Saturday Song post!). I thought I would get into the spirit of springing forward with today's shuffle, so I'm going to post the second 10 songs that come up...springing past the normal "today's ten." Why not? 11. Punch of Love/Jay Gonzalez (12) - last played on 9/27/15 12. The Government Darling/Spoon (9) - last played on 2/18/16 13. Love To A Monster/Okkervil River (13) - last played on 12/13/15 14. I Should Have Known/Foo Fighters (34) - last played on 2/19/16 15. Miss Teen Wordpower/The New Pornographers (3) - last played on 6/14/15 16. In Line/Sharon Van Etten (8) - last played on 9/1/13 17. Said The People/Dinosaur Jr. (16) - last played on 2/12/16 18. Mansions of Los Feliz/Eels (6) - last played on 1/10/16 19. Drop Me Off/Pela (5) - last played on 8/26/12 20. Just Because/Earlimart (10) - last played on 2/28/16

I've realized something important about this new feature...it's going to be difficult to decide what song to write about each week. There are so many great songs, so how do I go about narrowing it down? As it happens, today (or yesterday, depending on which website you look at) is the 25th anniversary of the release of Out of Time , and learning that fact this morning made for an easy decision... "Me In Honey" by R.E.M. I knew a little about R.E.M. before 1991. I sang along on the radio to "The One I Love" in 1987 and again to "Stand" in 1988, but that was as far as I took it. In 1991, though, I was starting to branch out and try new music and "Losing My Religion" was all over the radio, so I bought my first R.E.M. album. It was not my last, to be sure. Speaking of last, the band has always had a way with album closers. Think "Wendell Gee" from Fables of the Reconstruction , "Electrolite" from New Adventures in Hi-...

Here's what I've been mostly listening to for the last month or so... Foo Fighters/Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace and Sonic Highways - The Foos were featured in my last Heavy Rotation way back in October and I suggested then that they would appear in future editions. Obviously, I was right. My Foo resurgence continued with the TV version of Sonic Highways , which I got for Christmas, and watching those episodes did not make me sick of the songs. In fact, I only wanted to listen to them more, especially opener "Something From Nothing," which is played in every episode. The song is Foo Fighters in a nutshell - quiet opening, pounding drums, power chords, a solid melody, a guitar solo, and lyrics that might not make total sense but sound good when you're singing along. That combination totally works for me right now and Sonic Highways delivers in spades - from the snarl of "The Feast and the Famine" (track #2) to the epic sweep of "I Am A Riv...

The Heavy Rotation that I thought would get posted during the week ran up against my schoolwork. I was able to get most of the rest of it written yesterday, however, so I should go up this week. In the meantime, I hope you checked out my first Saturday Song post; if not, please check it out. If anyone has any feedback, please offer it up via the comments or Facebook or Twitter. As always, you can listen along to the Shuffle each week over on Spotify. I'm seeing Bob Mould two months from today...wonder if he'll make it in today's ten... 1. Why Do You Have To Put A Date On Everything/Superchunk (20) - last played on 7/9/15 2. Talk on Indolence/The Avett Brothers (4) - last played on 3/14/15 3. Cheer It On/Tokyo Police Club (6) - last played on 11/3/14 4. Green Arrow/Yo La Tengo (3) - last played on 11/13/11 5. Truth Lies Low/The Drams (4) - last played on 7/19/11 6. Strange Mercy/St. Vincent (13) - last played on 12/20/15 7. This Is How It Always Starts/Grandaddy (6...

The idea for this new feature has been around for at least a couple years; I almost started in a few different times and then just...didn't. So, why start now? The blog has been fairly stagnant for a long while now and I want to get back to some actual writing. I do still enjoy doing the Sunday Shuffle, but that format doesn't lend itself to talking about the songs. There are so many great songs out there and I want to focus on one song a week, to tell you why I love it. I'm sure I will cover songs almost everyone knows and songs that only a handful of you know. Either way, I want to share my passion for music in another format. I will create a Spotify playlist to house every song that gets featured here, so that you can listen along if you're so inclined. Okay, let's get to our first song... "Mary Jane's Last Dance" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers It was the era (the early 90s) when bands would put out a greatest hits album and include newly-re...