Shooflypie

I'm ready to put this feature on hiatus for a while, but I didn't want to end on #474 for now, which means I'm bringing back the "double issue" for today. The previous one was on Dec. 18 of last year. Normally, I do 20 songs on these editions, but since it's going away for a while, let's bump it to 25 today. Why not? 1. Price Tag/Sleater-Kinney (17) - last played on 3/24/17 2. The Indie Queens Are Waiting/Dan Mangan (5) - last played on 5/26/15 3. Ain't That Enough/Teenage Fanclub (31) - last played on 7/30/17 4. Dead Smile/Matthew Sweet (6) - last played on 9/10/17 5. Don't Need You/Alejandro Escovedo (4) - last played on 6/30/13 6. Jackson Cage (live)/Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (2) - last played on 1/25/16 7. Beast/Ex Hex (20) - last played on 8/3/17 8. Be Good/Tokyo Police Club (8) - last played on 11/3/16 9. Accidental Life/Teenage Fanclub (15) - last played on 11/24/17 10. The Good That Won't Come Out/Rilo Kiley (...

I am very much looking forward to a 2-day work week and to Thanksgiving with the family. I hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday. Let's get to today's ten... 1. Old To Begin/Pavement (13) - last played on 1/17/16 2. Brain Gallop/Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks (14) - last played on 10/23/15 3. Girls Like Status/The Hold Steady (6) - last played on 3/12/17 4. Everything Is Free/Gillian Welch (5) - last played on 3/25/12 5. The Heartbreak Rides/A.C. Newman (8) - last played on 6/5/16 6. Say Goodnight/Dean & Britta (7) - last played on 10/23/16 7. Debbie Downer/Courtney Barnett (18) - last played on 10/21/16 8. Coughing Up Blood/Marah (8) - last played on 4/10/15 9. He Doesn't Know Why/Fleet Foxes (8) - last played on 8/28/16 10. Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood/St. Vincent (11) - last played on 7/31/16

Don't have much to ramble on about today, so let's get right to today's ten... 1. Ret Liv Dead/Teenage Fanclub (14) - last played on 10/16/16 2. Tee Pees 1-12/Father John Misty (14) - last played on 4/5/15 3. Nighthawks/Two Hours Traffic (10) - last played on 7/25/17 4. My Mother Was A Chinese Trapeze Artist/The Decemeberists (14) - last played on 2/12/16 5. Auctioneer/The Broken West (12) - last played on 4/1/17 6. Fish/Wye Oak (18) - last played on 9/13/15 7. Coming To/Apex Manor (19) - last played on 1/29/17 8. Lisa (Esopus Magazine 2005)/The Prayers & Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers (4) - last played on 12/4/11 9. Plumb Line/Archers of Loaf (10) - last played on 12/3/11 10. Pick Me Up/Dinosaur Jr. (13) - last played on 6/24/17 Bonus 11. Penny and Jack/The Essex Green (13) - last played on 11/5/17 Bonus Bonus * "Lisa" isn't on Spotify, but it's a great song and I wanted you to be able to listen, so click here !

I wasn't sure if I was going to do an edition of the Shuffle today, in part because I left off last night halfway through The Breeders' Pod . I'm in a music group on Facebook and that album has been posted a few times lately...and since I'd never heard it, I figured it was past time. Unsurprisingly, I thought it was really good and will be listening to it more in the near future. Speaking of the near future, I hope to get a new Heavy Rotation done relatively soon. This afternoon we are going to see Thor:Ragnarok and I can't wait. It looked great from the first trailer and everything I've heard since has supported that fact. Maybe I'll get a review up at some point too. For now, though, I've rambled enough. Let's get to today's ten... 1. Whenever We Finish/Two Hours Traffic (6) - last played on 7/25/17 2. Get Out of Cities/Blur (3) - last played on 2/10/17 3. Brand New Start/Little Joy (8) - last played on 4/28/13 4. Half Right/Elliott S...

Hard to believe we're already at the end of October. The World Series is in full swing (pivotal Game 5 tonight!), the new batch of Stranger Things is here (I'm still trying to finish Daredevil Season 2), and Thor:Ragnarok comes out next weekend (looks like a ton of fun, doesn't it?). I'm behind on almost everything as usual (except for a few TV shows, like  The Good Place and The Flash ), but I'll never stop trying to catch up (2 years behind on The Great Albums podcast and 1 year behind on Spontaneanation). Let's get to today's ten (like we do almost every time)... 1. Tell Me What You See/The Beatles (5) - last played on 12/14/14 2. Black Hole/The Rosebuds (8) - last played on 2/21/16 3. Cemetery Guns/Fountains of Wayne (20) - last played on 10/20/16 4. Game Of Love/The Redwalls (4) - last played on 11/13/16 5. Long As I Can See the Light/Creedence Clearwater Revival (5) - last played on 2/28/16 6. Screwdriver/The White Stripes (12) - last play...

It's the middle of October and the middle of a 3-day weekend. I was trying to think of a way to have today's shuffle be the middle of the songs somehow, but decided it was more work than I wanted to do. So instead, let's just get to today's ten... 1. Saint John/Cold War Kids (3) - last played on 6/19/11 2. Last Night In Town/The Twilight Singers (10) - last played on 2/12/17 3. Cobra Tattoo/The Mountain Goats (4) - last played on 2/21/16 4. Stick Together/Eels (17) - last played on 8/20/17 5. They Killed John Henry/Justin Townes Earle (3) - last played on 1/27/13 6. The Ambassador/The Hold Steady (8) - last played on 9/24/17 7. Ghosts of Syllables/Admiral Radley (8) - last played on 8/7/16 8. Feud/Band Of Horses (16) - last played on 6/9/16 9. Flowing/Teenage Fanclub (16) - last played on 10/1/17 10. Two Of Us/The Beatles (4) - last played on 5/12/13

I have a busy day ahead, so I'm just going to get right to today's ten... 1. AT&T/Pavement (14) - last played on 7/24/16 2. Streetlights/Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (11) - last played on 3/15/17 3. The Government Darling/Spoon (12) - last played on 3/11/17 4. See My Way/Nude Beach (27) - last played on 9/27/17 5. Beach Baby/Bon Iver (4) - last played on 3/13/15 6. Radio/Teenage Fanclub (10) - last played on 10/15/16 7. With Or Without You/U2 (9) - last played on 12/18/16 8. Keep On Running/The Smithereens (11) - last played on 11/2/14 9. St. Apollonia/Beirut (5) - last played on 2/21/16 10. Got To Get You Into My Life/The Beatles (11) - last played on 1/29/17

It's hard to believe we're already the last Sunday in September, especially with how hot it has been around here for the last week plus. I have units planned deep into October, though, so it shouldn't be that hard for me to fathom. I think the rhythm of school from the teaching side is messing with me a bit. That's fine. Anyway, I hope you have had a good couple weeks since the last time I posted. Let's get to today's ten... 1. Sick File/Archers of Loaf (9) - last played on 12/9/12 2. Never Run Away/Kurt Vile (5) - last played on 7/23/15 3. Liquid In, Liquid Out/The Thermals (13) - last played on 6/18/17 4. Tell Me/Le Switch (6) - last played on 5/1/16 5. Living with the Masses/Sloan (23) - last played on 11/17/16 6. Gonna Break Into Your Heart/Earlimart (8) - last played on 4/15/13 7. Angela/Oakley Hall (4) - last played on 10/17/10 8. Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)/Squeeze (5) - last played on 7/10/16 9. Too Many Demons/I Love Math (6) - last pla...

I almost did a Sunday Sweet today, because it was a year ago today that Matthew Sweet played the Popcorn Fest. However, I don't have his great new album, Tomorrow Forever , digitally, so it seems silly to do one. Maybe when I get my own copy. So, today is just a normal episode of the Sunday Shuffle and it's time to get to today's ten... 1. Moves/The New Pornographers (20) - last played on 11/15/15 2. Blue/First Aid Kit (9) - last played on 3/14/15 3. Remember Last Time/Avi Buffalo (12) - last played on 1/31/16 4. The Curse/Josh Ritter (17) - last played on 2/5/17 5. New Light/Great Lake Swimmers (7) - last played on 2/24/13 6. Grave Architecture/Pavement (12) - last played on 6/13/15 7. I Like To Keep Myself In Pain/Kelly Hogan (17) - last played on 3/24/17 8. G N D N/Admiral Radley (9) - last played on 6/28/15 9. Time Spent in Los Angeles/Dawes (13) - last played on 5/1/16 10. The Darkest Part of the Night/Teenage Fanclub (1) - iTunes debut

I almost did a Sunday Sorrow today, because the new album from The National is out on Friday. I can't wait to hear Sleep Well Beast and I'm sure I'll be gorging on their music this week. The reason I decided to go with a regular episode was that I didn't want to post an entry titled Sunday Sorrow on this beautiful Sunday, especially since it's a three-day weekend. I hope you are enjoying your weekend and that your weather is as nice as we have here in NW Indiana. Let's get to today's ten... 1. The Descent/Bob Mould (46) - last played on 9/2/17 2. Saturday Nite/Blitzen Trapper (5) - last played on 3/5/15 3. I'm Gonna Getcha/Eli "Paperboy" Reed And The True Loves (5) - last played on 12/14/14 4. The Victory Choir/American Music Club (5) - last played on 12/27/15 5. Unhinged/The Drams (5) - last played on 10/4/15 6. Same Old Drag/Apples In Stereo (7) - last played on 2/22/15 7. The Love You Love/The Walkmen (19) - last played on 2/1/15 ...

I can't remember the last time I had such a short span between Heavy Rotation posts. I am going to only talk about 4 albums and 1 EP, which might have something to do with it. My listening has been more scattershot and less concentrated than usual, which has a lot to do with this being my first year as a teacher. Still, I've listened to these albums quite a bit in the last 5 or so weeks and I wanted to get down some thoughts on them, especially with the big releases coming up in the next month or so. Stating the obvious here, but boy, do I love music! Middle Kids/Middle Kids EP - I first heard this band on KEXP (side note: I miss summer because I my schedule doesn't allow me to stream John in the Morning right now), specifically the song "Edge of Town." It begins it muted fashion, just some guitar and getting the melody established. It starts expanding as the song goes along, with a simple yet effective guitar solo almost 2 minutes in, then it pulls that great ...

Let's jump right to today's ten... 1. Furr/Blitzen Trapper (10) - last played on 2/28/16 2. Blue and Gold Print/Mates Of State (8) - last played on 5/29/16 3. Country Sad Ballad Man (Live Acoustic Version)/Blur (3) - last played on 4/13/15 4. Our Love Will Still Be There/Dean & Britta (6) - last played on 5/8/16 5. Most Messed Up/Old 97s (31) - last played on 8/9/17 6. Soon After Midnight/Bob Dylan (5) - last played on 7/1/15 7. Longform/The Dodos (3) - last played on 7/14/13 8. In the Eyes of My Friends (Live)/Sugar (3) - last played on 3/1/15 9. Bright Idea/Julie Ocean (4) - last played on 11/1/14 10. 3000 Flowers/Destroyer (10) - last played on 3/26/17

I almost did an edition of Sunday Surf this morning, because yesterday was frontman Matthew Caws' birthday. However, I figured 4 artist-centered Shuffles was enough for the time being. So, let's go classic this morning and get right to today's ten... 1. Cruel Summer/Superchunk (43) - last played on 7/23/17 2. Get Out the State/Spoon (12) - last played on 3/11/17 3. High And Lonesome/Eels (7) - last played on 3/3/13 4. Autoclave/The Mountain Goats (2) - last played on 4/12/15 5. The Party Line/Apex Manor (17) - last played on 5/1/16 6. I Can See Your Future/Belle & Sebastian (20) - last played on 2/21/16 7. What I Mean to You/Justin Townes Earle (9) - last played on 12/11/16 8. Rampage/Blair (9) - last played on 2/7/16 9. No Lucifer/British Sea Power (5) - last played on 9/27/15 10. A Side Wins/Sloan (22) - last played on 5/28/17

I wasn't sure what artist with which I would close out this July run of Sunday Shuffles, even as of Friday. Yesterday, however, I discovered that Teenage Fanclub's Songs From Northern Britain turned 20. I think 1997 was a great year for music (and have been thinking about a series of posts on that fact) and that album in particular is one of my favorites, which made a Fannies shuffle a no-brainer. I've had Here on CD for a while now, but my drive hasn't wanted to let me rip discs for a while; luckily, Amazon has the mp3 version on sale for $5.99, so I double-dipped. I do love it and have listened to it a ton, but this explains the non-existent iTunes playcounts for its songs. Surprisingly, my last Sunday Scots was 13 months ago, so I am ready to gorge on their music and I hope you are too... 1. Satan (14) - from Bandwagonesque 2. It's A Bad World (33) - from Songs From Northern Britain 3. Don't Hide (14) - from Man-Made 4. Slow Fade (15) - from Man-Made ...

I probably should have done this Superchunk shuffle last week, since that's when my call about the band made it on an episode of Rockin' the Suburbs, but it doesn't really matter. I last did one of these on July 19, 2015, so it's definitely time for another. Superchunk is one of my favorite bands and I've had three of their albums in my running playlist for a while (plus the two songs I talked about on the podcast). I hope we get an announcement of a new album very soon. Anyway, let's get to today's ten... 1. From The Curve (27) - from On the Mouth 2. You Can Always Count On Me (In The Worst Way) (25) - from Come Pick Me Up 3. Breaking Down (39) - from I Hate Music 4. Winter Games (31) - from Majesty Shredding 5. Smarter Hearts (19) - from Come Pick Me Up 6. Watery Hands (27) - from Indoor Living 7. Without Blinking (21) - from Foolish 8. Martinis On The Roof (20) - from Indoor Living 9. Act Surprised (16) - from Here's To Shutting Up 10. Slow...

I decided that I would do artist-dedicated Sunday Shuffles for the rest of the month, because why not. I picked The Hold Steady this week after a brief conversation with a friend about Boys and Girls in America , which was covered on an episode of The Great Albums podcast. Plus, nothing like some rock and roll in the summertime, right? 1. Big Cig (6) - from Teeth Dreams 2. The Weekenders (18) - from Heaven Is Whenever 3. Cattle & The Creeping Things (15) - from Separation Sunday 4. Certain Songs (9) - from Almost Killed Me 5. Same Kooks (13) - from Boys and Girls in America 6. Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night (11) - from Separation Sunday 7. The Ambassador (6) - from Teeth Dreams 8. The Only Thing (6) - from Teeth Dreams 9. The Smidge (16) - from Heaven Is Whenever 10. On With The Business (8) - from Teeth Dreams

The last Sunday Spoon was only back in February, right before the new album came out, so why am I doing another one already? Well, this weekend saw the 10 anniversary of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga , which might be my favorite Spoon album, so I thought it would be good to celebrate the band today. In addition, I bought/downloaded the aforementioned new album, Hot Thoughts , last night so that I could have all of their music available today. I really like Hot Thoughts , but had only been listening via Spotify. All of that means Spoon gets their 4th edition of the Shuffle, which is the most by any artist. Before we get to today's ten, I want to quickly mention we are going to see Spider-Man: Homecoming this morning. Can't wait! 1. Hot Thoughts (2) - from Hot Thoughts 2. Who Makes Your Money (25) - from Transference 3. Staring at the Board (19) - from A Series of Sneaks 4. Cvantez (9) - from Telephono 5. Do I Have To Talk You Into It (2) - from Hot Thoughts 6. I Didn't Come Here t...

Hey, I managed to do 5 of these in June. I will be away from my computer next Sunday, however, so I'll wish you a great 4th of July weekend right now. I'm hoping to do a couple first half of 2017 posts this week, but we'll see. I did finish my Happy Endings slow binge and I have 4 episodes to go in Game of Thrones Season 2, but that's about it. I have been reading more, which could be one of those posts I mentioned. That's all the potential future, though. For now, let's get to today's ten... 1. Flawless/Superchunk (34) - last played on 5/1/17 2. Constructive Summer/The Hold Steady (9) - last played on 11/24/15 3. Wine, Women, and Song/Harvey Danger (11) - last played on 6/4/15 4. Velvet Roof/Buffalo Tom (19) - last played on 5/13/17 5. No Key, No Plan/Okkervil River (8) - last played on 8/21/16 6. (Straight Down To The) Bitter End/Yo La Tengo (5) - last played on 6/7/15 7. Lot 105/Blur (6) - last played on 4/29/15 8. My Revenge/Julie Ocean (11) ...

I'm not a good binger. Oh, I can binge a book, knocking down hundreds of pages in a day, but when it comes to TV...I can't do it. I love TV, always have, but I like to have some space between episodes of shows. Occasionally, I'll go two or three episodes of something in a row, but that's very very rare. Instead, I'm always on the slow binge, watching an episode a day or every other day or longer. Here are a few shows on I'm currently slow binging... Game of Thrones - When we cut our cable a couple years ago, one consequence was not being able to keep up with this show as it aired. We'd watched the first 4 seasons, but missed the last 2. However, our current package gives us HBO and that fact, combined with The Ringer coming out with a new podcast called Binge Mode focusing on GoT , has lead me to go back and watch the show again from the beginning before getting to the stuff I haven't seen. I've really enjoyed going back to the start; I had forgot...

It was extremely humid, but I started my day with a 4 mile run in 33:05. Not bad. You know what else isn't bad? Music. Let's get to today's ten... Oh, and Happy Father's Day to those of you to whom it applies! 1. Got Nuffin/Spoon (21) - last played on 3/11/17 2. Encyclopedia of Classic Takedowns/A.C. Newman (18) - last played on 11/13/16 3. Your Dreams Have Come True/Sloan (11) - last played on 11/15/16 4. Trip Through Your Wires/U2 (5) - last played on 2/12/17 5. Song for Myla Goldberg/The Decemberists (8) - last played on 4/4/15 6. Bitches In Tokyo/Stars (6) - last played on 2/7/16 7. Had/Portastatic (5) - last played on 11/22/15 8. Liquid In, Liquid Out/The Thermals (12) - last played on 1/15/17 9. Still Beating/Josh Ritter (8) - last played on 5/6/17 10. Neighbor/Band of Horses (31) - last played on 6/19/16

I posted a new Heavy Rotation yesterday, so if you haven't taken a look, please go back and do so. I also hope to get one or two non-music posts up this week, but we'll see how it goes. For now, let's do the second shuffle of June and get to today's ten... 1. Bloom/Radiohead (12) - last played on 11/15/15 2. I'll Be The One/Badfinger (2) - last played on 12/7/14 3. She Says What She Means/Sloan (21) - last played on 11/14/16 4. Concordia Military Club/The Rosebuds (4) - last played on 11/2/14 5. Sinisteria/Crooked Fingers (8) - last played on 1/30/16 6. Beginner's Luck/Eels (5) - last played on 2/20/16 7. Written In Reverse/Spoon (19) - last played on 1/19/17 8. Short Version/Wild Flag (14) - last played on 11/16/14 9. Poor Fool/Justin Townes Earle (3) - last played on 11/1/14 10. Main Man/T. Rex (9) - last played on 1/1/17

The last Heavy Rotation was way back in September, which is too long. I've definitely had albums that would qualify in the interim, but I'll just focus on the last month or so here. Charly Bliss/Guppy - This album was getting really good reviews, so I decided to check it out. I liked the music on the first listen, but wasn't sure if I could handle the lead singer's very high, sharp voice. On the second listen, I didn't notice the voice so much. On the third listen, I fell in love with it. Power pop always gets me in the end. "Percolator" starts everything off with its nervy guitar and solid bass line. "Westermarck" is more of a shuffle and has a great guitar solo. If you need an entry point, however, "Glitter" is a perfect choice, with a chorus that will sink its hooks deep into your brain. And if that isn't enough, "Ruby" sounds like a lost track from Weezer's Blue Album and it is glorious. Actually, if you like t...

And just like that, it's summer. 1. Somerville/Pernice Brothers (12) - last played on 10/23/16 2. The Re-arranger/Mates of State (4) - last played on 11/15/15 3. True Or False/Bishop Allen (8) - last played on 5/7/17 4. Losing Sleep/Bob Mould (20) - last played on 4/21/17 5. Shiny/The Decemberists (15) - last played on 2/12/16 6. The Other Man/Sloan (12) - last played on 11/15/16 7. Ingenue/Atoms For Peace (7) - last played on 12/5/13 8. Line By Line/The Walkmen (26) - last played on 11/7/15 9. Burn the Witch/Radiohead (8) - last played on 12/17/16 10. War Buddies/Harvey Danger (11) - last played on 8/14/16

It's been three weeks since the last one...huh. Well, let's get right to today's ten... 1. Tug on the Line/The Extra Lens (9) - last played on 1/10/16 2. Waterfall/Ex Hex (24) - last played on 4/19/17 3. See You/Dinosaur Jr. (17) - last played on 8/4/16 4. January Hymn/The Decemberists (16) - last played on 1/19/15 5. All Of My Days And All Of My Days Off/A.C. Newman (6) - last played on 8/19/14 6. Demon Days/Robert Forster (9) - last played on 11/29/15 7. Lost Boys/Two Hours Traffic (4) - last played on 2/8/15 8. Get Your Head Around It/Headlights (4) - last played on 8/5/12 9. Fakey Fake/Earlimart (11) - last played on 3/1/15 10. Modern Diet/The Redwalls (7) - last played on 4/10/15

I seem to have settled into an every other week schedule for this feature, which is fine. I'm in the home stretch of my student teaching (tomorrow is day 35 of 50) and hoping to get an interview or two soon. There are only 4 weeks left of school and this upcoming week is the only one that's a full 5 days (although I will be gone two of those to Camp Tecumseh with the 5th graders...and yes, that's an overnight trip). Hard to believe it will all be done in a month. That's enough about me, though, how are you? Good! What do you say we get to today's ten... 1. True Or False/Bishop Allen (7) - last played on 8/21/16 2. Tomorrow Morning/Bob Mould (19) - last played on 2/20/17 3. Stay Young, Go Dancing/Death Cab For Cutie (13) - last played on 11/15/13 4. You Are The Ocean/Phantogram (9) - last played on 1/29/17 5. I Gotta Know/Teenage Fanclub (22) - last played on 10/22/16 6. End Times/Eels (7) - last played on 12/11/16 7. Easy Morning Rebel/My Morning Jacke...

I ran 4 miles this morning, my 50th run of the year. I managed to average 8:18 a mile, which is basically my average for the year so far (8:19). So far, I've run once every 2.26 days and averaged 3.48 miles a run. Pretty good. The rest of my day will be busy with chores both inside and out, getting more schoolwork done, and hopefully squeezing in 2 episodes of Supergirl before they disappear from the CW app. Luckily, it should be a beautiful day and I do have some endorphins going, so I think I'm ready for it. I hope you enjoy your day and accomplish as much or as little as you want/need to! 1. Feral/Radiohead (12) - last played on 1/12/13 2. The Queen's Approach/The Decemberists (5) - last played on 11/20/14 3. Fangless/Sleater-Kinney (13) - last played on 2/28/16 4. Written Invitation/The Whigs (8) - last played on 2/14/16 5. Demons Are Real/Guided By Voices (10) - last played on 4/21/17 6. The Geese Of Beverly Road/The National (7) - last played on 7/31/16 7....

It finally feels like spring. I got my 4 miles in this morning, at an 8:16 average. I can watch baseball on my TV this afternoon. I've got schoolwork to do, but that's okay because I'm working towards what I want. I hope you have a great day. Let's get to today's ten... 1. Heartbreaker/The Walkmen (25) - last played on 9/18/16 2. I Guess I Remembered It Wrong/Superchunk (33) - last played on 2/20/17 3. Like A Hitman, Like A Dancer/A.C. Newman (12) - last played on 8/7/16 4. My Love Is Real/Divine Fits (26) - last played on 6/5/16 5. Slipping Husband/The National (14) - last played on 6/23/13 6. Show Yourself/Okkervil River (11) - last played on 6/26/12 7. I Lost You/Elvis Costello (11) - last played on 4/22/15 8. Guiding Star/Teenage Fanclub (12) - last played on 10/15/16 9. Damage/Yo La Tengo (5) - last played on 10/20/12 10. The Great Unknown/The Damnwells (12) - last played on 10/23/16

I've recently found myself listening to albums that came out 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 years ago. Here are some thoughts... The Broken West/I Can't Go On I'll Go On (2007) - "Down in the Valley" hooked me the first time I heard it streaming on KEXP. At the time, the band was still called The Brokedown, but that would soon change to due copyright issues; that's okay, I like The Broken West as a name better anyway. To get back to "Down in the Valley," what grabbed me were the ringing guitars, layered harmonies, and the organ that weaved in and out. And the lyrics, of course - "I had my feelings like the Dutchman has his gold/Deep in the canyon by the river that runs cold." Speaking of The Dutchman's Gold , that was the name of the EP that I learned had already been out and used my eMusic credits to grab it. "Down in the Valley" was the lead-off track, but there were six other great power pop songs and I was both in love and even...

Here I am at another anniversary-type number for the Sunday Shuffle. Hard to believe I've gotten up this high and that I've been doing this for over a decade. I've also been thinking I might get to here and then discontinue the shuffle, but now that I'm here...I at least want to hit 500, so I'll hang in for another year or so. I know a blog is such an old-fashioned thing at this point, but I am about to turn 46...you can draw your own conclusions. To celebrate, I am not only going to run for 20 songs today, but I've also changed the theme of my blog. I'd had the previous theme for a very long time and it felt like time for a change. It's currently a rainy early spring day (and I'm on spring break), so listening to some music and doing some reading sounds like the right thing to do. As always on these anniversary episodes, here's the history of the Sunday Shuffle... #1 - 8/27/06 #50 - 8/19/07 #100 - 7/27/08 #150 - 9/9/09 #200 - 10/17/10 ...

This week's shuffle is dedicated to the late, great Chuck Berry. 1. Minotaur/Cracker (6) - last played on 6/5/16 2. The First Song/Band of Horses (7) - last played on 6/4/16 3. Don't Tell Your Eyes/Joseph Arthur (6) - last played on 5/24/15 4. Honey Combed/Tweedy (6) - last played on 2/8/16 5. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere/Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs (3) - last played on 12/18/16 6. Imbecile Rages/Of Montreal (12) - last played on 9/19/14 7. Like a Real Smoothie/The Soft Boys (3) - last played on 11/1/11 8. Heart On A String/Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (9) - last played on 6/10/12 9. You'll Have to Go Sideways/The Soft Boys (10) - last played on 4/4/15 10. Some People Get Away/I Love Math (9) - last played on 1/17/16

I'm going to do a bit of a "spring forward" edition this morning, which means I'm going to skip over the first song that pops up and start with the second. I think I'll keep doing that throughout, so you get all the even numbered songs, #2 - #20. Why not? 2. Bechamel/Pernice Brothers (16) - last played on 5/15/15 4. Red Hill Mining Town/U2 (5) - last played on 3/13/16 6. Late-Century Dream/Superchunk (18) - last played on 11/18/15 8. Your Weather/Dinosaur Jr. (19) - last played on 8/3/16 10. Centre For Holy Wars/The New Pornographers (2) - last played on 1/27/15 12. Girls and Boys (Pet Shop Boys 12" Remix)/Blur (3) - last played on 2/28/16 14. Hard To Find/The National (25) - last played on 2/12/17 16. Metal School/Spoon (17) - last played on 1/20/17 18. I'm in Love (With Arthur Dove)/Portastatic (8) - last played on 7/29/16 20. Simple X/Andrew Bird (4) - last played on 5/1/16

The Shins have a new album, Heartworms , coming out this Friday. Surprisingly, it is only their 5th album (the first one, Oh, Inverted World , came out in 2001). While doing an artist-oriented Sunday Shuffle is nothing new for me, the process today will be very different. I have their 4 albums on CD and have never ripped them to my iTunes. So, I'm going to use a random number generator to select from the 42 songs, with "Caring Is Creepy" being #1 and "Port of Morrow" being #42. There won't be any play counts, because I have no idea other than I've listened to these discs many, many times, particularly Chutes Too Narrow and Wincing The Night Away . Hopefully, the distribution is good, but we'll see once we get to today's ten... 1. Pink Bullets - from Chutes Too Narrow 2. Young Pilgrims - from Chutes Too Narrow 3. The Celibate Life - from Oh, Inverted World 4. Phantom Limb - from Wincing The Night Away 5. So Says I - from Chutes Too Narrow ...

Friday saw the release of new albums by Ryan Adams and Strand of Oaks, among others. It also put us a week away from the new Old 97s and a month away from the new Spoon album, Hot Thoughts . My Old 97s catalog is mainly on CD, which doesn't lend itself to a shuffle very well. On the other hand, I've already done 2 Sunday Spoons (the last being 6/21/15) and since I'm very much anticipating the afore-mentioned album, today seems perfect for doing a third. So, let's get to it... 1. Is Love Forever? (20) - from Transference 2. Who Makes Your Money (24) - from Transference 3. Loss Leaders (15) - from Soft Effects 4. No You're Not (19) - from A Series of Sneaks 5. Reservations (17) - from A Series of Sneaks 6. Dismember (11) - from Telephono 7. All I Got Is Me (10) - b-side to "Don't You Evah" 8. The Mystery Zone (23) - from Transference 9. Chloroform (16) - from A Series of Sneaks 10. Got Nuffin (6) - single version

I had a big Super Bowl shuffle post I was working on last week, trying something new too, and...I didn't get it finished before the game started, so I just deleted it. Oh well. Let's get to today's ten... 1. If I Wanted Someone/Dawes (14) - last played on 4/4/15 2. Trip Through Your Wires/U2 (4) - last played on 4/1/12 3. Jackie/The New Pornographers (4) - last played on 11/13/16 4. Low Key/Tweedy (7) - last played on 3/23/16 5. Happiness Burns/Two Hours Traffic (5) - last played on 10/2/16 6. Insolence/Shearwater (13) - last played on 3/30/16 7. Black Like Me/Spoon (23) - last played on 1/21/17 8. I'll Still Be True/Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings (15) - last played on 11/19/16 9. January Wedding/The Avett Brothers (12) - last played on 10/23/16 10. Platform Blues/Pavement (14) - last played on 7/24/16

Seems silly to do one of these today, but music has always been a big part of who I am. Music is something to be shared, something that can bring us together. We need that right now. We are all different, but we should be able to find common ground. Sure, a song is a small thing, but those small things add up. If you listen to this mix, I hope you find a song that you like, that brings you joy. Here are today's ten... 1. Hands Up Baby/Camera Obscura (3) - last played on 3/13/16 2. Loss Leaders/Spoon (12) - last played on 5/22/16 3. Picking Up Too Fast/Centro-Matic (6) - last played on 6/28/15 4. Let It Be/The Beatles (6) - last played on 5/3/15 5. I Won't Back Down/Tom Petty (1) - I've listened to this hundreds of times on CD 6. Summer Is The Champion/Laura Veirs (5) - last played on 12/29/10 7. Maternity Ward/Art Brut (12) - last played on 1/4/15 8. I'll Be Your Key/The Jayhawks (9) - last played on 12/21/16 9. Farewell To the Pressure Kids/Broke...

I still have my weekend house-cleaning chores to do and I need to get some more work done on my schoolwork. Also, the football games start at 2:00, so I'm going to get right to today's ten... 1. When I Was Young/Nada Surf (26) - last played on 4/6/16 2. Some Boys/Death Cab For Cutie (18) - last played on 4/21/15 3. Lines In The Suit/Spoon (5) - last played on 5/21/16 4. Calling All Doctors (alternate version)/Telekinesis (10) - last played on 11/16/14 5. Cowboy Song/Blur (2) - last played on 6/30/13 6. Press/Superchunk (27) - last played on 1/11/17 7. Silver Clouds/Bowerbirds (4) - last played on 2/23/14 8. Wave/Alejandro Escovedo (3) - last played on 2/18/12 9. Thirteen/Big Star (17) - last played on 6/29/16 10. For Annabelle/Band of Horses (30) - last played on 6/19/16

This is the second shuffle I've done today. I tried something new for the first one - using a Spotify playlist I've been adding to since the start of the year of every song or album I chose to play. It was up over 300 songs over more than 20 albums and at least as many single songs. I used shuffle mode for the playlist...and got 5 songs from one album, 3 from another, and 2 from a third. Not what I was looking for, so I scrapped it. I'll have to go back to the drawing board with ways of incorporating Spotify into the Shuffle every week. Alternatively, I may just aim for 450 of these and call it done for a while, maybe combined with trying to make more playlists again. We'll see. For now, let's get to the second version of today's ten... 1. Fleeting One/First Aid Kit (7) - last played on 12/26/15 2. It Was A Beautiful Car/M. Ward (8) - last played on 5/22/16 3. Think For Yourself/The Beatles (5) - last played on 3/9/16 4. Beautiful Beat/Nada Surf (9) - l...

I talked about how I've gotten very behind on my pop culture consumption in the end of year posts I managed to get written. One good thing about a new year is that it wipes my slate clean and I can start counting books and comics and so forth anew. Last year I managed to read only 46 books and 248 comics. I know it sounds absurd to lament that fact, but both totals are way down from 2015. However, I'm currently on pace to read 73 books and 502 comics this year. I'm well aware that won't happen, but it's fun to look at my pace for the year this early on and dream. Anyway, one reason I ran out of steam on my year-end posts was having to come up with new content about most items. To combat that fact, I want to write more about what I'm consuming when I'm doing it. So, here's the first brick in this year's wall (I hope it's not just a pile of bricks)... Last Year by Robert Charles Wilson - Even though I got a half dozen new books at Christmas, I ...

I wish I had "American Girl" in my iTunes, because it would be perfect for today's shuffle. Why? The titular girl stands on the balcony watching cars go by on 441 like waves crashing on the beach. Hi, giant music nerd here. I was talking last Sunday about being unsure of the future of the Sunday Shuffle, but I had a good idea early in the week about how I could start incorporating what I listen to on Spotify. I'm not quite ready to do it today, but next week looks like it will be the day. I know I petered out on the rest of my best of 2016 lists, but I went back to school on Wednesday and that was that. I do want to try to write more about my pop culture intake and was going to yesterday, but my schoolwork and the NFL playoffs got in the way. Maybe I can get something up later today or in the next few days. We'll see. I think that's all the business I needed to talk about, so let's get to today's ten... 1. Embassy Row/The Broken West (10) - las...

I decided today that I did want to put some effort into more 2016 wrap-up posts after all. My music thoughts will be in two parts - this list of my 20 favorite albums and a post that accompanies my best-of playlist that will go up on Spotify. I normally do just a top ten list, but I've listened to so much good music this year that I wanted to expand the list. I love music and I want to share that love; hopefully, my few words on each might encourage you to check some of them out... 1. Drive-By Truckers/American Band - I've been a fan of the DBTs for over a decade, so a new album is a no-brainer. This one, however, is their strongest since Brighter Than Creation's Dark in 2008. I think they were energized by the political writing they did for this album, responding to the seemingly endless shootings of African Americans and other gun violence with some powerful songs like "What It Means" and "Ramon Casiano." Not every song is political; Mike Cooley gi...

I ran out of steam on my 2016 best-of lists and I don't feel like spending today writing them. I do need to do a better job of writing about things in the moment. For example, there were so many albums I loved last year that it would have been impossible to say things about most of them. I did try to write reviews for most of the books I read, but they were posted on my Goodreads account and then linked to my Facebook and Twitter. I'm sure I've said this at the beginning of many years and we'll see how well I do. As for the Sunday Shuffle, I don't know how much longer I'll continue it. #450 sounds like a nice place to stop if I decide to do so. Then again, #500 sounds even cooler. The problem is that my iTunes only represents a fraction of what I listen to in a given week. Maybe I bring back the Sunday Sculpt once or twice a month. Maybe I try to put together a new playlist every month as well. I guess I'll just have to see where I go with all of it. For...