What I've Been Listening to...

Live at the Gaslight 1962
Originally uploaded by oldforest.

It's funny, but a long while has past since I've made time to really listen to music. Being a long time, chronic insomniac, listening to tunes(as well as reading) has been a welcome staple to the morning's wee hours. While this site is clearly devoted to Lily and her yet unborn younger sibling. I couldn't help myself, and post this completely unrelated, not even remotely tangential entry. I can't say precisely what inspired this latest music binge that I'm on. Perhaps, it was an e-mail from a friend asking what I thought of the two Bob Dylan cover CDs that were included as freebies with the September issues of Mojo ("Dylan Covered") and Uncut ("Highway 61 Revisited --Revisited") -- the release of the soundtrack of Scorsese's "No Direction Home" documentary has got me listening to more Dylan than I have since before I discovered punk rock in 10th grade -- or, perhaps the inspiration comes from re-reading Nick Hornby's collection of essays "Songbook". I've also cracked Rob Jovanovic's biography of Big Star.

What follows is my playlist of the moment:

1) Lots of early Dylan, including Live at the Gaslight, which evidently is sold only at Starbucks to the chagrin of other retailers.

2) The Caesars Paper Tiger which includes the tune "Jerk it Out" as heard in a recent iPod TV commercial.

3) Son Volt Okemah and the Melody of Riot. Their first studio album in seven years.

4) Buffalo Springfield Stampede, the never released 2nd album -- compiled for me by Rick Peabody, who at some point felt compelled to piece it together himself(he even unearthed the proposed cover art from who knows where). The way Rick's mind wraps around music and the written word is at least partially why we became friends I suspect.

5) Bright Eyes I'm Wide awake, It's Morning. Conor Oberst is this year's new Dylan.

6) Aimee Mann The Forgotten Arm.

7) Josh Rouse Nashville. For some reason, this reminds me of Big Star.

8) Neko Case The Tigers Have Spoken.

9) Hazeldine Double Back. Singer Tonya Lamm has a band on the side called Tres Chicas with my friend Lynn Blakey of Glory Fountain and Caitlin Cary formerly of Whiskeytown.

10) Alexi Murdoch Four Songs. "Orange Sky" was featured (yet again) on a TV commercial (you know you're getting old and decidedly unhip when you discover new tunes this way) for the Honda Element at some point.

11) Punk: Attitude --a documentary by Don Letts DVD(and airing on IFC). I know it doesn't exactly belong on this list, but I felt like mentioning it and it is music related.