Its time for the percolator. Curtis Jones was studying towards becoming a Chemical Engineer at the University of Illinois when he made this song on a $60 keyboard, a four track and a cheap drum machine. Curtis would then go on to work under the "Green Velvet" moniker and play a huge role in the house scene throughout the 90's. What's even better than the percolator is the percolator dance which sadly, not enough people know. Get you youtube on. More recently Mr Jones has become a born again Christian after a GHB and [...]

Songs about sleep or the lack of. "To sleep, perchance to dream - ay, there's the rub" - William Shakespeare, Hamlet Santo & Johnny: Sleepwalk - 3MB The Electric Prunes: I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night) - 5MB Little Feat: All That You Dream - 7MB Robert Wyatt: Heaps Of Sheeps - 8MB Kinks: I Go To Sleep - 4MB Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald: Dream [...]

What fun is it to have a blog if you can't help yourself? I just wanted to say that I am selling a big lot of CDs on eBa y that you might be interested in... Bloc Party -- Selfish Son From the I Still Remember single. Ben Folds Five -- Selfless, Cold, and Composed From the Whatever and Ever Amen album. Vampire Weekend -- I Stand Corrected From the Vampire Weekend album.

Considering it was Ben Folds Five's second release, Whatever and Ever Amen (specifically "One Angry Dwarf"), that caused my musical epiphany as a child, it's not surprising that I've fallen for The Bad Plus. Their similar set up (piano, bass, drums) may be the first indication of their similarities, but what caught my ear is the seamless integration of both jazz and rock; almost punk music. While there may be complicated rhythms and chord changes, there is a familiarity with every song. Though there are no lyrics, the semblance of a chorus still brings listeners back [...]

Thanks for the idea, Pablo Neruda . Happy Valentine's Day, folks. 20 Love Poems: Stevie Wonder - "My Cherie Amour": mp3 Jon Brion - "Meaningless": mp3 Neil Young - "Harvest Moon": mp3 The Microphones - "As Good As It Got (live)": mp3 Bob Dylan - "I Want You": mp3 Pavement - "Gold Soundz": mp3 The [...]

Roger Clemens ("pitcher") tends to an injured Derek Jeter ("catcher") I woke up early this morning to watch what I felt was a reasonable portion of the congressional hearing regarding the use of steroids in baseball, and chiefly Roger Clemens' assessment that his former trainer's statements about supposed steroid/human growth hormone use were lies. There was no way I felt like waking up at 6:30am this morning -- on my day off -- to watch the entire ESPN broadcast, but I watched from 9:00am until its conclusion, and read Jayson Stark's blog updates from [...]

1997 wasn't really all that long ago, except that to me it seems like a lifetime. 1997 sucked, in my opinion. At least it did in terms of my life. Musically it wasn't so bad. The contrast podcast tries to capture the best of it in this week's episode, the theme of which is, as you might have guessed, "1997." You can download and/or listen to it here . One of my favorite albums of [...]

In celebration of the return of the greatest thing to happen to the serial drama since, well, the serial drama. Tonight (ABC - 8/7C) the writer's strike, a lack of award shows, and TV's general lacklusterness will all be washed away when JJ Abrams bathes us in his directorial beauty. Who will be rescued? Will anyone be rescued? Who was in the casket? Where are Jack & Kate in that flash back/flash forward? Who is the "he" Kate was referring to? God, the questions! [mp3] Elliott Smith - [...]
"Go ahead you can Laugh all you want I got my philosophy Keeps my feet on the ground And I trust it like the ground..." -Ben Folds - "Philosophy" I've always admired the eternal optimists among you - those who look for the silver lining, walk on the sunny side of the street or always look ...

Christmas Eve Eve dinner is in the oven and there are no sports games on that I care about. Apparently local affiliates are not interested in airing either the Lakers / Knicks game or local whipping boys The Dolphins. What's left to do but to blog? And blog I will, as the Countdown to Xmas enters its third fabulous day with none other than Licorice Pizza guilty pleasure Christina Aguilera. I make no apologies for this and fully accept any criticism that is leveled at me. But again I say that any post featuring Christina consistently scores [...]
A girl I went to school with, who is a bit of a star-fucker, has been moping around all things rock 'n' roll since god was a boy. Mrs. Toad's boyfriend when she was 16/17 always used to make her feel bad about not being as 'cool' as this girl, because she was [...]
I am back, and I actually cannot think straight. Or even close to straight. I drove back from the festival all through the night and got a precious single hour's sleep this morning before work. My brain just isn't working. I was going to post this before I read Marcy's post about the album this came [...]

I'm only about ten years behind the times, but I figure better late than never, right? I just read Into Thin Air , the account of the tragedy that occured in 1996 on Mt. Everest when 12 climbers perished in a single climbing season. It's a really good book by journalist Jon Krakauer , who was on one of the expeditions that lost five members. It's very well written and full of tension and such even though you know the outcome. Very sad, too, as he looks back [...]

Photo by David Greenwald For many of us (not me! At least not yet...), it's back to school time. Which is reason enough for an end of summer mixtape, wouldn't you say? 1. Ben Folds Five - "Where's Summer B?": mp3 2. All Girl Summer Fun Band - "Brooklyn Phone Call": mp3 3. Ryan Adams - Nuclear (demo): mp3 4. The Field Mice - "September's Not So Far Away": mp3 5. [...]

Continuing with my love for all things Ben Folds... Ben Folds Five - Song For The Dumped (from Whatever And Ever Amen ) Ben Folds Five - Boxing (from Ben Folds Five )

I thought that I would unleash a myriad of songs today. Not all of the songs are sad, but they merely have a slower pace to them. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the music. Ben Folds Five - Smoke - Wonderfully sad lyrics performed by Ben and the gang. Tori Amos - Cooling - I saw her perform this song live and I was blown away. Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane - A Velvet Underground Cover. Dare I say that it is better than the original.(Pandora's [...]

Photo graciously borrowed from New York Magazine I am not at all ashamed to say that I have given my last two weeks over to reading the first 6 Harry Potter books. I am nearly finished with The Half-Blood Prince and almost ready to take on the final tome, The Deathly Hallows . (Needless, perhaps, to say, I waited in line outside Barnes & Noble to get it at midnight on Saturday.) When I say "not at all ashamed," it is for one reason and one [...]

Last night I went and saw SiCKO . What a great film. Regardless of whether you're a fan of Michael Moore or not (and I won't say either way), you have to admit that there are some real problems with the American health care system (unless of course you work for said health care system). If you've seen any of his other films, you'll recognize a lot of the same techniques: vintage film clips with bombastic background music, understated observations, statistics that seem hard to believe, [...]
Baltimore's annual Artscape summer festival exists in your town in a smaller form; you already know it well - reunited soul groups crooning midday to boomers feeding funnel cake to tots on their knees at picnic benches with industrial strength red and white tablecloths. America, fuck yeah. But a few new festivals spawned last year in Charm City to serve the tattooed, weird and beautiful masses: Altskape, a showcase for Artscape's beloved but banished art car exhibit, and Whartscape, two sweaty nights of spazzcore madness at Wham City's battered Copycat warehouse. [...]