Retrophisch

The theme yesterday was “fire”

I mean to post this yesterday, but totally forgot…

Jonathan Wight asked how many covers of “Ring of Fire” one had in one’s iTunes library. For me, the answer is two: Joaquin Phoenix’s from the “Walk the Line” soundtrack, and the oldie but goodie from Social Distortion.

This led to the following random tracks being played after shuffling the results of a search in iTunes for “fire”:

1. “Ring of Fire” — Joaquin Phoenix, Walk The Line Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
2. “City of New Orleans” — Johnny Cash, Ring of Fire, Disc 2
3. “Consuming Fire” — Third Day, Offerings: A Worship Album
4. “Ring of Fire” — Social Distortion, Social Distortion
5. “Fire Woman (N.Y.C. Rock Mix)” — The Cult, Fire Woman EP (import)
6. “Far and Gone” — Day of Fire, Cut & Move
7. “Waiting” — Fireflight, The Healing of Harms
8. “Shine” — By The Tree, World On Fire
9. “Reborn” — Day of Fire, Cut & Move
10. “Wake Me” — Day of Fire, Cut & Move

Apparently, my copy of iTunes has a thing for the Man in Black and Day of Fire. I can live with that.

Today’s First 10 Shuffled Songs

1. “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” - Def Leppard, Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection
2. “The Big Chair” - Tears For Fears, Songs From The Big Chair
3. “Joe Bean” - Johnny Cash, At Folsom Prison
4. “Blue Train” - Johnny Cash, The Complete Sun Singles, Volume 2
5. “The Cross Has Said It All” - Matt Redman, The Friendship And The Fear
6. “It’s So Easy” - Harvest, 41 Will Come
7. “Call Back When I’m Honest” - The Almost, Southern Weather
8. “The Planets: Mars, The Bringer Of War (Conclusion)” - London Symphony Orchestra, Heavy Classix
9. “Flashpoint” - Whitecross, Triumphant Return
10. “Never Been Unloved” - Michael W. Smith, The Second Decade 1993-2003

As with yesterday, all links are to the Amazon MP3 store, with the exception of Heavy Classix, which is only available on CD.

Today’s First 10 Shuffled Songs

From earlier this morning, when I was in a music-listening mode:

1. “The Steward of Gondor (Featuring Billy Boyd)” — The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
   
2. “Flicker” — Audio Adrenaline, Some Kind of Zombie
   
3. “Invisible Sun” — The Police, Every Breath You Take: The Classics
   
4. “Dirty World” — The Traveling Wilburys, The Traveling Wilburys Collection
   
5. “I Hate Everything” — George Strait, 50 Number Ones, Disc 1
   
6. “Big Yellow Taxi” — Counting Crows, Hard Candy
   
7. “Before My Eyes” — Tesla, Five Man Acoustical Jam (Live)
   
8. “Least of These” — Justin Nevins, Nada One
   
9. “Hallowed” — Jennifer Knapp & Phil Keaggy, City on a Hill: Sing Alleluia
   
10. “Raise Him Up (Electric)” — Lost And Found, Something Different

All links are to the Amazon MP3 Downloads store, with the exception of Tesla’s Five Man Acoustical Jam, which is for the CD, as it’s not available as a download. Why Amazon over the iTunes Store? For a lot of songs, Amazon offers the same or better bit rate than iTunes, which means a better listening experience, and there’s absolutely no DRM on Amazon’s songs. This is the case only with certain songs, not all, on the iTunes Store. And I’ve just been buying more music of late from Amazon than from the iTunes Store…

At least there was no “Ebony and Ivory”

Phischmix

I’ve had this playlist since, well, since before there were playlists. It started as a mix CD I put together in the very early aughts, before the iPod was released. It has continued life as a playlist in iTunes, and I put it together today as a Mixwit mix to try out that service. Enjoy!

Unfortunately, the services which Mixwit uses to pull tracks didn’t have everything in my original “Phischmix”. Here’s the full playlist, with the missing songs in italics:

“Girlfriend” by Matthew Sweet
“Kryptonite” by 3 Doors Down
“Everything to Everyone” by Everclear
“My Hero” by the Foo Fighters
“Push” by Matchbox 20
“Closing Time” by Semisonic
“Man on the Moon” by R.E.M.
“Three Marlenas” by The Wallflowers
“Come On Eileen” by Save Ferris
“Walkin’ on the Sun” by Smash Mouth
“Fire Escape” by Fastball
“She’s So High” by Tal Bachman
“John Hughes 2000”by Menthol
“Heroes” by The Wallflowers

One of the little eye candy things I like about Mixwit is the fact that as you go through the playlist, the tape moves from one side of the cassette to the other, just as its analog predecessor does. It’s those little things developers pay attention to that make the whole experience.

Enjoy!

One Gallon Axe

This is fairly awesome.

Doesn’t that make you want to drink milk?

REM + Muppets = Furry, Happy Monsters

How can you go wrong when you mix REM and The Muppets?

Re: Your Brains

This is for my pal Nathan:

[Wave of the phin to Grant.]

Hey Jude

At least his version doesn’t go on forever.

With or Without You

My pal Dan turned me on to this fantastic cover of U2’s “With or Without You” by Japanese pop star Hikaru Utada:

Don’t fear: she may be speaking Japanese at the beginning of the clip, but she sings the song in English. It’s really good, a great arrangement, and awesome voice.

Christmas fun

I received this e-mail from a neighbor. It’s one of those things where you read their answers, then fill in your own and pass it on to the people you’d like to hear back from. Seeing as how while most of you will be getting ready for work or what-have-you this morning while I’m undergoing prep for surgery to get “unscrewed”, I won’t be in much of a blogging mood, and thought I’d leave this here for you to enjoy.

Please feel free to leave your own answers in the comments, or post to your own blog and link to it in the comments. Merry Christmas!

Welcome to the 2007 Holiday Edition of Getting to Know Your Friends! You know the drill. Don’t be a scrooge! Fill it out, pass it on, blah blah blah. I would love to hear your answers.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?

This time of year, I have to go with the nog. I can get hot chocolate any time.

2. Does Santa wrap the presents or just sit them under the tree?

Growing up, Santa just left stuff under the tree, or on the coach next to the tree, etc. Since then, he seems to have upgraded his process, as the gifts he leaves are now wrapped.

3. Colored or white lights?

I prefer white, though I do enjoy the colored lights when they’re done well.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?

Nope. I’m already kissing the person I want to kiss the most.

5. When do you put your decorations up?

We have no hard and fast rules on this one. The tree just went up this weekend, and the lights were put on last night.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?

Can I go with the nog again?

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?

The older gentlemen, Mr. Gridley, who lived next door to my grandparents, would dress as Santa and come over to hand out our presents when we did Christmas at their house. As a child, having Santa right there, handing you the presents he’d brought all the way from the North Pole? Incredible.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?

I’d have to check with my folks, but it was likely somewhere around ten or eleven years of age. I overheard some other boys talking about, and I confronted my parents with the information. They told me the truth, but swore me to secrecy, as my sister, five years younger than I, still believed.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?

That usually depends on where we might be, but generally, yes.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?

White lights, with ornaments from my childhood, plus some that were gifts from my mother-in-law, my mom, and my grandmothers. They’re pretty much all personal momentos of one sort or another. No tinsel or garland. Pretty simple, the way we like it.

11. Snow: Love it or hate it?

Love it, just because, growing up in south Louisiana, and now living in north Texas, we don’t see snow often.

12. Can you ice skate?

Nope. Heck, I barely remember how to roller skate!

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?

So many were favorites at so many different times of my life, I really couldn’t say.

14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you?

Spending time with the family. It’s great to see Christmas through the eyes of a child—my son—once again.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?

A tie between my grandmother’s chocolate pie, and my grandmother’s lemon pie. The tie is always broken by having a slice of each.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?

Watching my son open his presents on Christmas morning.

17. What is on top of your tree?

An angel.

18. Which do you like best giving or receiving?

Definitely the giving, though I won’t lie and say the receiving—especially when it’s something from my carefully assembled wish list—comes in a close second. Hey, at least I’m honest.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song?

I’m a sucker for a well done “What Child is This?”, and I also love “Joy To The World” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”.

20. Do you like candy canes?

To eat? Not really, but I don’t mind them otherwise.

21. What is your favorite Christmas movie?

Technically not a movie, but I love “A Charlie Brown Christmas”

Wave of Sorrow

Originally slated for inclusion on the Joshua Tree album twenty years ago, this song remained unfinished until just recently:

It can now be found on disc two of the 20th anniversary edition of Joshua Tree.

[Wave of the phin to the Fontosaurus.]

“The Star Spangled Banner”, in Baritone

Mark Lowry performs our national anthem as a baritone, with some “surprise” accompaniment:

(Via Lee via IM.)

My last five songs

Tom tagged me, asking I note the last five songs I’ve purchased. Since I don’t often purchase individual songs, my list will mostly contain my favorite songs from the last few CDs I’ve purchased.

1. “Once Bitten Twice Shy” — Great White
   Tried out the new Amazon MP3 store and got this. It’s the only Great White song I’ve ever liked, so why bother buying an entire album to get it?

2. “Disarray” — Lifehouse, Who We Are
   I really like the way this song kicks off the album.

3. “Every Man” — Casting Crowns, The Altar and The Door
   I love the reminder this song gives me that everyone needs the salvation God offers in His Son, no matter who they are.

4. “Dirty And Left Out” — The Almost, Southern Weather
   Because what’s a rock album without a ballad? And boy, have I felt this way at times.

5. “Long Live the King” — Aaron Shust, Whispered and Shouted
   Shust builds this song perfectly. I don’t usually associate the words “anthemic” and “fist-pumping” with worship music, but this one gets the blood moving.

I don’t really like “tagging” folks and propagating Internet memes—gee, I guess if I really feel that way, I should stop participating in them, shouldn’t I?—but I confess, I am curious as to the last five songs purchased by Brent, Nathan, Michael, Wes, and Raena. (If you don’t feel like blogging your response, lady and gents, feel free to leave it in the comments.)

Jeff Foxworthy on country music

[Wave of the phin to Dean Barnett for the pointer on HotAir.]

Headline you never thought you’d see

“Arctic Monkeys see slower sales for new album”

I guess they gave up trying to come up with Shakespeare.

Oh, but to love…

I’m not sure if there’s anything to the fact that as George Thorogood’s “Who Do You Love?” was playing, I came across Steve’s great poem, “my convenient social gospel”, but regardless, it’s a good poem. Thanks, Steve!

Patrik Stenberg

Earlier today Brian twittered about Patrik Stenberg’s “curious covers”, and I listened to them all. My favorites are “Break-up” and the “Rock Medley”.

BLT

I didn’t used to be one for custom ringtones on my mobile phone. When I got my Sony Ericsson T616 a few years back, the only additional ringtone I used on it, other than Sony Ericsson’s fairly nice included set, was a ring that sounded like an old telephone. But when that phone went belly up, I ended up with the Motorola V551 (since replaced by a V557). The ringtone selection that came with the Moto was anemic, and you can bet I wasn’t shelling out three bucks for ringtones from Cingular AT&T.

I’ve become one of those people who can’t stand the default rings on most phones, and for whatever reason it irks me when someone’s phone rings in public and you can instantly tell it’s a Nokia, or a Motorola, or they’re with Cingular AT&T, or Verizon, because they never bothered to change the default ring. And so many people don’t change the default ring, how do you ever know it’s your phone that’s ringing when you’re out in public?

But I digress. Yes, there are plenty of of free ringtones available online, but this time around I thought I would just make my own. One copy of iTunes, one copy of Audio Hijack, and voila!—instant custom ringtones. I only needed 22 seconds of any particular song, as that’s how long the Moto rings before it goes to voice mail.

The first song I ripped was The Who’s “Baba O’Riley”. The synthesizer at the beginning makes a great ringtone, and people always seem to look at me with a sense of wonderment when they see it’s my phone making that sound. They may not be able to place the music at first, but they know they’ve heard it somewhere before. This is my default ringer.

The other song I ripped was New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle”. This ringtone was applied to all of my wife’s numbers in my address book.

“Bizarre Love Triangle”?? Really, Chris?

Yes, I know it may sound odd to have a song so named be the default anthem for whenever your one and only beloved calls, but there’s a profound and sensible reason behind this.

Oh, this should be good.

Oh it is. You see, when I was in high school, I was a metalhead. Oh, I didn’t necessarily hang out with the metalhead crowd, but I was in to heavy metal and hard rock, with a little punk thrown in on the side. This was my big teenage rebellion; having grown up on a lot of classic country (some of which I still enjoy), along with Neil Diamond and other assorted light pop, I went a different direction, musically. This is nothing new; the kids who followed Elvis and The Beatles were rebelling against their parents’ choice of music, too.

My wife, on the other hand, was in to the “New Wave” stuff, the alternative stuff of the ’80s before it took on something of a grungification in the ’90s. One of the groups she followed was New Order.

After we met in college and began dating, I was gradually exposed to this world of music her high school years had been spent in, and out of all of that, there were a handful of songs by New Order that I could stand, and a couple I actually liked. “Bizarre Love Triangle” was by far my favorite New Order song. So because it was something from my wife’s past that I grew to like, thus becoming something we now share, and it has that cool opening to the song, that’s how it became the custom ringtone for when my wife calls me on my mobile.

Okay, okay. That’s pretty good.

See? I told you. Now, you’ve read this far, and you’re probably wondering why the heck I’m bothering to tell you all of this. Here’s the payoff:

I’ve been using BLT as my wife’s ringtone for coming up on a couple of years now. Yesterday, in the Pilot on the way to the little phisch’s karate class, my phone rings. “Bizarre Love Triangle” begins to play, and the from the back seat, without any input from me whatsoever, the little phisch cries out, “It’s Mommy calling!!”

This morning, my wife is taking the little phisch to school, and on the radio, what song should happen to come on? You guessed it. At this point the little phisch cries out, “It’s Daddy’s phone!!”

Kids have amazing minds.

Fat Tuesday

“Fat Tuesday” by The Friendly Indians is most apropos today.

Check out some of their other songs on their music page.

Jumping on the Bandwagon

Bandwagon, going live in two days, is an iTunes backup for Mac users. They’re offering free one-year subscriptions if you blog about them, and like Eric, I can be a cheap date.

Happy Birthday, Brent!

Wishing a joyous and loving birthday for you, my friend. As I stated in my comment to your post, I shall celebrate with some Lost And Found and by starting This Beautiful Mess.

See you at lunch. :D

Well, there’s something you don’t see every day

Raise your hand if you’ve ever seen an entire church moving down the road. Put your hands down; I don’t mean the whole congregation cruising caravan-style. I’m talking about the entire church building.

Well, thanks to the technological miracles of time-lapse photography and YouTube, now you can say you have:

A wave of the phin to Dethroner, and I have to agree with Joel that the video’s soundtrack totally makes it.

Recent additions to ye olde iTunes library

• “If Everyone Cared” - Nickelback
• “The Funeral” - Band of Horses - due to Buzz’s mix
• “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (Demo) - Greg Laswell
• “On the Third Day” - Michael Olson - freebie download on the iTunes Store until 1/30/07
• “Where the Streets Have No Name” - Chris Tomlin - because I love a good U2 cover
• “Blessed Be Your Name” (Acoustic Bonus Track) - Matt Redman - his latest album is great
• “Ashes” - Embrace - because it’s stuck in my head from all of those Catch & Release trailers on the telly

All song and artist links are to the iTunes Store.

You’ll almost forget it was a Cyndi Lauper song

I am mesmerized by Greg Laswell’s version of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (iTunes Store link). (And my thanks to my wife for the iTunes gift card!)

Today’s Shuffle

I haven’t done this in a while, so here are the first ten songs played in shuffle mode today.

1. “Suspicious Minds” - Elvis Presley, Elvis 30 #1 Hits
2. “It’s Over” - The Goo Goo Dolls, Gutterflower
3. “Hollyann” - Boston, Third Stage
4. “Tell The World” - Ratt, Ratt & Roll 81-91
5. “Road of the Righteous” - Dropkick Murphys, The Singles Collection
6. “Million Dollar Man” - Kutless, Hearts Of The Innocent
7. “Take California” - Propellerheads, Decksandrumsandrockandroll
8. “Forever” - Chris Tomlin, I Could Sing of Your Love Forever 2 (Studio Disc)
9. “A Boy Named Sue” - Johnny Cash, Complete Live At San Quentin
10. “You’re Not Alone” - Amy Grant, Heart in Motion

Bonus song
11. “Further On Up The Road” - Johnny Cash, American V: A Hundred Highways

As usual, individual songs link to the iTunes Store, where as albums link on Amazon.

A buggy musical

If you’ve ever wondered what Panic co-founder Cabel Sasser sounds like when he’s singing, you can find out from viewing the hilarious Buggy Saints Row: The Musical. (Caution: Some adult language in the songs.)

[Wave of the phin to John.]

O Holy Night

A little while ago, I finished watching “The Christmas Show” episode of Studio 60. The show closes with an awesome performance by New Orleans musicians who are supported by the Tipitina’s Foundation. The group performs one of my favorite Christmas songs, “O Holy Night”, and you can still snag a MP3 from Studio 60’s music page.

Derek Webb

On September 25th this year, our church hosted a concert by Derek Webb, of Caedmon’s Call fame, along with his wife, Sandra McCracken.

Derek Webb, accompanied by his wife, Sandra McCracken.

I had a good seat (thanks, Samantha!), and took a few shots of the couple as they performed, plus of the good-sized crowd before the concert, and in between sets.

Beyond his lyrical abilities, one of the things I admire about Derek is his desire to simply get the message of God’s love out there. At one point during his set, he remarked how he was going to freak out all the lawyers and record executives by telling all of us to share his music with whomever we wanted to. Earlier this year, he had even gone so far as to put his latest album, Mockingbird, online as a free download. He says it was a very successful experiment.

There should be a law

I came away from my wife’s company’s Christmas “holiday” party Thursday night with this thought: There should be a law against skinny blonde white women singing “Respect”.

The more I think about it, there should be a law against anyone singing “Respect” except Aretha. Ain’t nothin’ like the real thing, baby.

Don’t Change

I’m not sure what external or internal stimuli prompted it, but “Don’t Change” (iTunes Store link) by INXS popped in to my head about an hour ago. I’ve been listening to it repeatedly since.

The last time I heard this song was when I took my beloved to the INXS concert in July. The band closed the encore with it.

Yesterday’s shuffle first ten

Kicked on ye olde iTunes in shuffle mode yesterday morning, to give myself some background music while I commenced writing this year’s novel. What’s funny is that I had earlier finished the chapter on the beauty and apparent oddities of the iPod’s shuffle mode in Steven Levy’s The Perfect Thing, his book devoted to the little white wonder from Apple.

Part of the chapter was devoted to the randomness of shuffle mode, the mathematics behind it, and how when true randomness is really at work, we begin to believe it’s not really so random at all. Like say when people notice their iPod—and here I’ll also throw in the iTunes application itself—seemingly playing a lot of the same type of music in a row. Such it was this morning, when I had an all-mellow mix.

As before, songs are linked to the iTunes Store, albums to Amazon.

1. “Never Say Goodbye” - Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
2. “September Skies” - The Brian Setzer Orchestra - The Brian Setzer Orchestra
3. “Yellow Ledbetter” - Pearl Jam - Jeremy
4. “Flesh for Fantasy” - Billy Idol - Greatest Hits
5. “DJ Culture” - Pet Shop Boys - Discography
6. “If I Leave This World Tomorrow” - Glenn Kaiser - Spontaneous Combustion (I’ve always loved Kaiser’s voice, and think his blues work is so much better than when he fronted Resurrection Band/Rez)
7. “Understand Your Man” - Johnny Cash - Unearthed, Vol. 1 - Who’s Gonna Cry
8. “Last In Love” - George Strait - Pure Country
9. “Your Presence” - By the Tree - These Days
10. “(Now and Then There’s) A Fool Such As I” - Elvis Presley - Elvis 30 #1 Hits
    and a bonus, because I like the song so much:
11. “Loved and Forgiven” - Lost Dogs - Gift Horse

Today’s shuffle first ten

Hit the shuffle button in iTunes this morning, and here are the first ten songs to play. Podcasts and audiobook chapters were ignored with help from the forward button. Song links go to the iTunes Store, album links go to Amazon.

1. “Soldiers Under Command” - Stryper, Soldiers Under Command
2. “Heaven Is a 4 Letter Word” - Bad English, Bad English
3. “Already Gone” - The Eagles, Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975
4. “Party” - Boston, Don’t Look Back
5. “Come, Now Is The Time to Worship” - Noel Richards, I Could Sing of Your Love Forever
6. “Do You Hear What I Hear” - Out of Eden, City On a Hill: It’s Christmas Time (When you shuffle your entire iTunes library, invariably you’ll get a Christmas tune or two.)
7. “Weather the Storm” - Michael James, Closer to the Fire
8. “Partita No. 3 For Violin: Menuets 1 And 2” - Baby Needs Baroque
9. “Bring the Rain” - MercyMe, Coming Up to Breathe
10. “I’ve Got to Use My Imagination” - Glady Knight & The Pips, Forrest Gump: The Soundtrack

So what are you listening to today?

The Friendly Indians

I learned of The Friendly Indians earlier this year, after watching and becoming a fan of the USA show Psych. The Injuns, as they call themselves, are responsible for the show’s theme song, I Know You Know, which can only be downloaded (direct link to MP3) from the band’s web site. This is true of any music by The Friendly Indians; you won’t find them on the iTunes Music Store.

They offer several songs for download, eleven in total, though you’ll have to hunt their site for one in particular. Nearly half of the available songs are from their most recent disc, Pure Genius, which is the only one currently for sale.

I picked up subtle vibes throughout some of the songs which reminded me of Paul Westerberg and The Replacements, with a little Better Than Ezra, too. “Fat Tuesday” was most evocative of the latter, seeing as how BTE is from New Orleans, and the Injuns’ song is about the most party-filled day of the year in the Big Easy. “Pump Room”, and “Just This Side of Insincere” are among my personal favorites, as well as “Vancouver”.

If you’re in Orange County, the band’s home base, be sure to catch a live show. The rest of us will have to live off the provided downloads, and for now, the sole CD for sale. The band’s fun, the songs toe-tapping, and neither disappoint.