Shooflypie

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

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 ...

I was on the fence about whether I wanted to do one of these today, but it looks like I'm going ahead so here are today's ten... 1. All The Way/Hoodoo Gurus (5) - last played on 8/14/11 2. From Now On/Nada Surf (8) - last played on 6/4/16 3. Sleep Like a Baby Tonight/U2 (1) - still haven't bothered to download this whole (free) album 4. Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood/St. Vincent (10) - last played on 8/9/15 5. The Cabbage/Teenage Fanclub (7) - last played on 2/2/16 6. The Strangers/St. Vincent (9) - last played on 2/21/16 7. I'll Take It/Tom Adamson (9) - last played on 10/26/14 8. We End Up Together/The New Pornographers (18) - last played on 6/14/15 9. Girl In The War/Josh Ritter (12) - last played on 4/28/15 10. Sentimental Heart/She & Him (4) - last played on 11/22/15

It's the last Shuffle of the summer season - school starts back up on Wednesday. Of course, summer is actually still going on and the weather is certainly typical for August - my 4.75 mile run this morning was rough in the humidity. I do have a couple days off, which I will enjoy as much as I can. Anyway, it's already after 9:00, so I'd better get to today's ten... 1. Summer Dust/The Love Language (17) - last played on 6/20/13 2. Sweet Marie/Crooked Fingers (6) - last played on 10/24/12 3. Primary/Spoon (6) - last played on 6/21/15 4. Hallucinations/The Raveonettes (4) - last played on 11/23/14 5. Challengers/The New Pornographers (12) - last played on 1/27/15 6. No Snow On The Mountain/Nada Surf (16) - last played on 5/28/14 7. Vincent O'Brien/M. Ward (5) - last played on 3/18/13 8. The Magpie/Bishop Allen (5) - last played on 8/12/14 9. Break It/Reigning Sound (7) - last played on 5/19/13 10. Silver Leaf And Snowy Tears/Superchunk (13) - last played on ...

Today's shuffle focuses on The New Pornographers. I've been a fan ever since I grabbed Electric Version , their second album. All six of their albums are full of melodic power pop/pop music with multiple singers and songwriters (Carl Newman, Dan Bejar, and Neko Case being the most prominent members). If you don't know them, you should definitely check them out (as well as their side projects/solo albums). The play counts for the first three albums will be low as I only recently ripped them to iTunes. Rest assured, those songs have been played dozens of times. In fact, Twin Cinema is one of my favorite albums ever. I also listened to Brill Bruisers a bunch on Spotify before I got my own digital copy. Anyway, enough dissembling about play counts, I'm ready to listen to these songs... 1. From Blown Speakers (2) - from Electric Version 2. Moves (18) - from Together 3. Use It (2) - from Twin Cinema 4. Falling Through You Clothes (2) - from Twin Cinema 5. My Shepherd ...

It's a good thing the Super Bowl party I'm going to is next door because today's snowstorm means traveling much farther than that is a no go. My parents were supposed to come as well but they are snowed in and even had church cancelled this morning. As for the game itself, I'm more rooting against the Patriots than rooting for the Seahawks but I do hope it's at least competitive. I'm going to do something quite different today. Every Sunday I do this shuffle, I let the music run long after the first 10. Some days I might listen to 100 songs this way or more. So, in honor of Super Bowl XLIX I'm going to list the first 49 songs that pop up today. Crazy, yes, but why not... 1. Bartomelo And The Buzzing Of Bees/Ted Leo & The Pharmacists (16) - last played on 9/15/13 2. Let's Love/Matthew Sweet (7) - last played on 4/15/12 3. Karen/The National (1) - loaded onto iTunes some time in Dec. 2014 4. Black Hole/She & Him (9) - last played on 6/23/1...

I listen to most of my music via Spotify these days, though I will buy mp3 albums when the price is decent and I have some spare cash. That means I'm able to listen to way more albums than I used to and I'm able to try new artists that I never would have gotten around to in the old days. There was a lot of great music in 2014 and here are 10 albums that I loved... 1. Spoon/They Want My Soul - This is Spoon's sixth straight fantastic album and might actually be my favorite. That's hard to do 8 albums into a career. I don't know if the 4 years off the band had in between albums or if maybe Britt Daniel's time in Divine Fits contributed to the greatness of these 10 songs but something did. From the opening rock of "Rent I Pay" to the spacey, synth sound of "Inside Out" to the sunny sounding "Do You" to the whistling on "Knock Knock Knock," there is so much to be found here. In fact, I'm playing this album while I write...

Every month brings new pop culture goodies to enjoy. Here is what I'm most looking forward to this month... The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman (8/5) - This is the final book in Grossman's Magicians trilogy. I liked The Magicians and loved The Magician King the first time around...that's right, I've decided to reread this series in anticipation of the new volume. I don't reread very often; in fact, the last time I reread a series like this was right before the final Harry Potter book was published 7 years ago. I'm finding my reading of the first book has changed my perception of it but that's probably a different post. Spoon/They Want My Soul (8/5) - Spoon is one of my favorite bands, so it's not a surprise I'm excited to listen to this album (you can stream it on iTunes right now but that's not my favorite option). I've liked the 3 songs that have surfaced so far - the classic stomp of "Rent I Pay," the sunny pop of ...

I hadn't used the shuffle function on my iTunes in a long time but last Sunday I felt like doing it again. It was fun. So, this week I thought I'd do it again and actually turn it into a blog post. Here are today's ten... 1. April the 14th Part 1/Gillian Welch (4) - last played on 3/10/13 2. What Jail Is Like/The Afghan Whigs (18) - last played on 2/23/13 3. Billie Jean/Michael Jackson (1) - debut * 4. Butterfingers/Gentleman Jesse (7) - last played on 2/16/14 5. Failsafe/The New Pornographers (10) - last played on 2/18/14 6. Supercar/Centro-Matic (5) - last played on 6/10/12 7. 1234/Feist (59) - last played on 3/20/12 ** 8. Dignity And Shame/Crooked Fingers (8) - last played on 3/3/13 9. The Everthere/Elbow (5) - last played on 9/23/12 10. Two Hearts Beat As One/U2 (2) - last played on 1/2/12 * I normally don't play the songs my wife loaded on but this really hit the spot today ** My wife had this on one of her playlists, which is why the total play numb...

It's been about a month since I put up the last one but this covers the period from then up until the last week or so, when some new albums have started to take over... Mikal Cronin/MCII - This album starts out with some tinkling piano then some acoustic guitar then a sharp lyric wedded to a melody that will stick with you before finally bringing on the guitar fuzz. How great is that? Even greater is that the rest of the songs employ those tools (plus some saxophone here, some strings there, and a couple Ty Segall guitar solos on top) to create an album that you don't want to miss. I just can't get enough. Ivan & Alyosha/All The Times We Had - I used to think that this band did dance pop music ala MGMT. I was incorrect in my assumption. Instead, they are purveyors of pure pop music, descending from The Beatles as all such bands do. So, we get hummable melodies and harmonies and ballads and rock songs and lyrics that rise above the banal. And, like good albums ...

I know my day will end with the Bears and Texans tonight. Before that we will be shopping for a new refrigerator and I will be doing the usual cleaning and laundry chores. I'm also hoping to watch Quantum of Solace so I'll be ready to see Skyfall next weekend. What does your day look like? 1. Black Hole/The Rosebuds (6) - last played on 10/23/11 2. The Watchmen/Deep Sea Diver (9) - last played on 11/1/12 3. Keep On Thinkin'/Sloan (9) - last played on 6/8/12 4. The Rabbit, The Bat & The Reindeer/Dr. Dog (5) - last played on 6/24/12 5. Finish Your Collapse And Stay For Breakfast/Broken Social Scene (4) - last played on 8/4/12 6. Big Difference/Tokyo Police Club (13) - last played on 3/25/12 7. Hotel Illness/The Black Crowes (6) - last played on 7/1/12 8. Lord I've Been Changed/Tom Waits (2) - last played on 11/20/11 9. Love Won't Leave You A Song/Reigning Sound (4) - last played on 10/21/12 10. Daughters Of Sorrow/The New Pornographers (13) ...