Lyrics to Live By

I end my show with this song sometimes.

For Pete's Sake (Closing Theme)
by Peter Tork and Joseph Richards

Love is understanding,
Don't you know that this is true.
Love is understanding,
It's in everything we do.

In this generation,
In this lovin' time,
In this generation,
We will make the world shine.

We were born to love one another
This is something we all need.
We were born to love one another
We must be what we're goin' to be
And what we have to be is free.

Love is understanding, we gotta be free
Love is understanding, we gotta be free

We're #1, Sort Of

Walt, who's going to be covering my show on Tuesday, has a new blog for his Thursday morning show, College Music 101: Now and Then. He says he's going to feature either cover songs or Halloween music on Tuesday. Check out his blog and vote for your preference!

This week, 91.1 WRVU Nashville was chosen "best radio station" by the Nashville Scene. I believe readers actually chose Lightning 100.

Playlist for Wednesday, 11 a.m.- 12 p.m.

Here's what I played today while filling in for Cowboy Anton and the second half of his excellent "Music City USA" program. He's a real lover of the country classics. I tried to play some alt-country in keeping with the theme.

• Silver Jews "The Farmer's Hotel" Tanglewood Numbers
  
• Grayson Wray "Shine Shine" Medieval Skyscraper
  
• Pale Saints "Kinky Love" online download
  
• Johnny Cash "I Walk the Line" The Very Best of the Sun Years
  
• Silver Jews "The Poor, the Fair and the Good" Tanglewood Numbers
  
• Holla Copter "St. Paul, Minnesota" online download
  
• Tom House "Crawling With Creeps" The Last Desperate Man
  
• Second Thoughts "Love Song" Second Thoughts
  
• Paul Burch "Electricity" Last of My Kind
  
• Silver Jews "How Can I Love You If You Won't Lie Down" Tanglewood Numbers
  
• Lambchop "Butcher Boy" Nixon
  
• Linda Ronstadt "Willin" Heart Like a Wheel
  
• Bob Dylan "Lay Lady Lay" Nashville Skyline
  
• Buffalo Springfield "Expecting to Fly" Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas soundtrack
  
• The Cure "The 13th" Galore

Radio Show Wednesday from 11 a.m.-12 p.m.

I'll be picking up the second hour of Cowboy Anton's show, "Music City USA," tomorrow at www.wrvu.org and on your radio dial at 91.1 FM. Cowboy Anton usually plays country, and you know what that means: I'm gonna play the Silver Jews! Tune in from 11 a.m.-12 p.m.

No Show Today

Due to station maintenance, there was no Alphabet today...sigh...next week Walt from College Music 101 will be subbing for me while I'm out of town.

Sing Me a Story: "The Farmer's Hotel"

The first song that caught my ear from the Silver Jews’ new album, Tanglewood Numbers, was “The Farmer’s Hotel.” Why, I cannot say. I guess in the end we must be who we are. It was the music that got me to begin with—the soaring, singing Steve Malkmus guitar, echoed by an understated, ethereal female voice; the whistling that would be spooky if it weren’t perfect in setting a surreal but folksy mood; the jangly, ghostly piano by my fellow UU and keyboardist to the stars, Tony Crow; and again, the guitar, picking up the whistling and combining all the elements to create a backdrop for David Berman’s story, a newly twisted traditional tale of the stranger who finds himself in the frightening midst of someone else’s freaky “normal.” Is it a ghost story? A provegetarian piece? What’s the significance of the town’s name, “Goshen”? Is it Goshen, CT (that's somewhere near NY, right), or is it the land of Goshen, where the Hebrews lived in Egypt prior to their enslavement? Is Goshen a metaphor for a generic, fundamentalist hicksville? Or for seclusion from the mainstream of the world? Or for religion vs. the secular (you don’t get much more secular than “New York”)? And furthermore, what did he see at the end of the hall?

I don’t know, and I'm good with that. The mystery is what I love about the songs of a poet. You can find as much meaning as you dig for, whether it’s really there or not.

Other favorite story songs: “Butcher Boy” by Lambchop (from the album Nixon), “Honeymoon Suite” by Suzanne Vega (from Nine Objects of Desire), and you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave (midi version!).

Wow, I didn’t realize the SJ were mainstream enough to have a page on www.cmt.com!

Silver Jews Reviews

There's a good article about the Silver Jews in this week's Nashville Scene.

Paste magazine gives Tanglewood Numbers four out of five stars. I love Paste because it comes with awesome CD and DVD samplers. In the Oct/Nov issue, the DVD includes videos from The Magic Numbers, The Pixies, New Order (from 1988), a bunch of people I never heard of, a totally creepy one from Orenda Fink, and Internet sensation "A Million Ways" by OK Go--not to mention a whole bunch of short films from HypeFest 2005. Plus movie and video game previews.

The more I listen to the new Silver Jews album, the more I like it.

Playlist for Saturday, October 22, 2005

Here's what I played today when I subbed for Kristen's 11 a.m.-12 p.m. show.

• Grayson Wray "Tell Me Your Secret" Medieval Skyscraper
• Silver Jews "The Farmer's Hotel" Tanglewood Numbers
• The Shortwave Set "Better Than Bad" online download
• The Cure "Let's Go to Bed" Japanese Whispers
• Silver Jews "Punks in the Beerlight" Tanglewood Numbers
• Maximo Park "Limassol" A Certain Trigger
• White Rose Movement "Alsatian" online download
• Silver Jews "The Poor, The Fair and The Good" Tanglewood Numbers
• The Beatles "Dig a Pony" Anthology 3
• Jeffrey Lewis "Alphabet" It's the Ones Who've Cracked That the Light Shines Through
• Silver Jews "There Is a Place" Tanglewood Numbers
• Danielson Famile "Cutest Lil Dragon" online download
• The Monkees "For Pete's Sake (Closing Theme)" Greatest Hits

Coming soon: My excruciatingly detailed thoughts on "The Farmer's Hotel" from Tanglewood Numbers, the brand-spankin' new album by the Silver Jews.

I Love You to the Max

Wow, it's the new Alphabet blog! How exciting! Eventually we'll have playlist postings, links to bands and music, my inane ramblings about the Silver Jews, and lots more--stay tuned!

P.S.--If anyone knows how to get rid of those little gray bars to the left and right of my header, please let me know!