Shooflypie

I'm eating Count Chocula as I start today's shuffle. Yes, I am a 44 year-old man. Cue the music! 1. Midnight Surprise: My Time Spend Down the Lavender Bridge/Oh God, Really//Lightspeed Champion (6) - last played on 8/26/12 2. Unison Falling Into Harmony/Great Lake Swimmers (6) - last played on 3/24/13 3. All My Love/American Music Club (9) - last played on 12/21/14 4. The Part of Him/Drive-By Truckers (8) - last played on 8/9/15 5. You Gotta Dance (with Who You Came to the Dance With)/The Hold Steady (9) - last played on 5/10/15 6. For Your Heart/Divine Fits (20) - last played on 1/18/14 7. Dead Great Town/Bowery Boy Blue (8) - last played on 10/19/14 8. Ticket To Ride/The Beatles (5) - last played on 8/9/15 9. Flaming Wreck/Pernice Brothers (12) - last played on 4/5/15 10. Unhinged/The Drams (4) - last played on 9/28/14

Another Sunday of starting this but not knowing when I'm going to finish. Going for a run in short order and then I have an in-service for swimming lessons at noon plus all the usual Sunday chores. Really, it would be a day not to bother but I feel like doing one. And so, on to today's ten... 1. Ain't That the Way/Divine Fits (24) - last played on 5/3/15 2. Laissez-faire/Telekinesis (13) - last played on 11/3/14 3. Banging Camp/The Hold Steady (12) - last played on 5/9/15 4. (Even If You Die On The) Ocean/Saturday Looks Good To Me (7) - last played on 5/27/13 5. She Tows The Line/Crooked Fingers (11) - last played on 12/10/12 6. Woman/Joseph Arthur (4) - last played on 6/27/10 7. Stay With Me/Ryan Adams (8) - last played on 5/23/15 8. Gotta Get Up/Harry Nilsson (5) - last played on 3/19/15 9. Don't You Believe a Word/Sloan (11) - last played on 11/26/14 10. After All The Roads Have Lead to Nowhere (Live)/Sugar (1) - debut

As I start typing, I have just over 6 hours until I can finally see the new Avengers movie. I've been staying off of Twitter for days so I don't get inadvertently spoiled. I really hope it's good. So, today's shuffle is as much a distraction for me as anything else. Oh, and with today's edition I've now done a year's worth of Sunday Shuffles. Wow. 1. Don't You Wanna Come Out/The Redwalls (6) - last played on 3/9/15 2. Hoover Dam (Live)/Sugar (1) - bonus material from the Copper Blue reissue 3. Pretty Bird/Jenny Lewis (6) - last played on 3/14/15 4. Lion's Teeth/The Mountain Goats (2) - last played on 4/8/15 5. Ain't That the Way/Divine Fits (23) - last played on 3/23/15 6. Complicated Man/Rhett Miller (10) - last played on 9/1/13 7. Underwater Moonlight (Early Version)/The Soft Boys (4) - last played on 3/3/13 8. Two Seats Gold Reserve/Centro-Matic (6) - last played on 4/14/13 9. Bright Ideas/Portastatic (1) - from the alb...

Heading into the home stretch of the school year - only three 5 day weeks and three 4 day weeks left to go. I was up late helping to disassemble prom last night but got about 6 hours of sleep, so as long as I turn in early tonight, I should be alright. I still have to go to the grocery store and clean the house and I certainly want to watch the hour-long Baseball Tonight in a couple hours, so I'm going to start this while I finish my orange juice and finish it when I finish it (of course, you'll have no way of knowing how long that gap is, will you?). Anyway, here are today's ten... 1. What You Want It To Be/Sugar (3) - last played on 2/3/13 2. I Don't Wanna Go There/Dinosaur Jr. (14) - last played on 8/6/12 3. Tugboat/Portastatic (4) - last played on 3/3/13 4. Crimson Skies/The Budos Band (7) - last played on 6/27/11 5. Shady Lane/Pavement (11) - last played on 4/21/13 6. Mellotron 2/Apples In Stereo (5) - last played on 3/17/13 7. My Love Is Real/Divine Fits (...

At this point, I'm almost completely digital when it comes to music. Yes, I did buy a handful of CDs this year but I don't expect to anymore going forward. While I do still play CDs in the car, I will just as often plug in my iPhone and listen to a podcast or an album I have only in mp3 format. I was also able to listen to a wider variety of music this year thanks to Spotify. Here's what I liked the most... 1. Ben Kweller/Go Fly A Kite - This is an album I've seen on exactly no best-of lists but it's the album I listened to the most this year and with good reason - it's full of great power pop. It's the album I was hoping for after his self-titled album back in 2006 ( Changing Horses , while good, didn't quite fulfill that need). It has 11 songs that are a ton of fun to sing along to and I sang along plenty. 2. The Shins/Port of Morrow - A lot of critics shrugged their shoulders at this album but I think it's more a case of group critical backl...

My pop culture consumption has slowed considerably over the past few weeks, what with school in full swing and swimming lessons running once again plus football games (my son is in the marching band this year) and the Popcorn Festival. Obviously, I haven't been talking about what I've managed to consume so I thought I'd do some quick hits here... FOUR SIXTHS I finally bought a copy of the 4th volume of Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four run, which is titled "Three" because one of the FF dies within. Now this is a story I've known the outcome of for quite a while but that didn't change how much I enjoyed these issues. Hickman's character work is strong, not just with the FF but others who are pulled into the story, from the arrogance and confident flirting of Namor to the enigmatic Galactus and the fearful but dangerous Doom. The issue where Ben Grimm takes the potion the kids of the Future Foundation created to help him return to human form was...

I know we're already a week into August but I mention a few things I'm looking forward to this month... Crackpot Palace by Jeffrey Ford - Ford is one of my favorite writers and his three previous story collections are all fantastic. I don't think I've read many of the stories collected here and I can't wait to sink my teeth into them. (8/14) One Last Thing Before I Go by Jonathan Tropper - Tropper's last novel, This Is Where I Leave You , was one of my favorite books of the year back in 2010 and I have high hopes for this one as well. Tropper is funny and full of heart. (8/21) Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks - This novel is from the point of view of a child's imaginary friend and that concept is enough to make me want to read it. (8/21) It Girl & The Atomics by Jamie S. Rich and Mike Norton - I was a big fan of Mike Allred's Madman Comics back in the 90s but I lost the thread with the series and its subsequent incarnations...