War Machine's 5

After being shamed about not contributing by others, I'm going to ignore the 10 things I need to do today before leaving work and try to type this as I listen to the songs come up.

One caveat, my ipod only has about 10 to 15 percent of my music library. It is a brand spanking new ipod touch that I use mostly to keep up with my shows on the bus. I have a couple of playlists on it that I cycle through while being the douche that checks his blackberry on the bus next to you.

I am War Machine no more, or probably more correctly, I am more War Machine now than I've ever been in my life.

With that, let's begin:

White Collar Boy
Belle and Sebastian

-This song comes from the album our leader burned for me, The Life Pursuit. It is the first Belle and Sebastian album I ever really listened to from beginning to end and I really love it. I can pop it in at any moment and feel better afterward. That said, the B&S discography is so massive I've always been too intimidated to become more well read in their work. Save it for later, I guess. As a social experiment, I gave this album to my brother (a Blue Collar Boy) and he described it as modern 60s music. I don't remember if he meant that as a good thing.

Bonnie and Clyde
Luna

-Crap. Can I skip this one? It's fine, I guess. But it's all in French and I'm still holding a grudge about their votes on Iraq at the UN. Sure, they were right, but the only thing worse than a smug frenchman is a smug frenchman who is dead right about the most important American foreign policy decision of the last 40 years.

Back to the song, my friend gave this song to me on a mixtape way, way back. On that mix was Johnny Cash's cover of Solitary Man. I wish I was listening to that right now. Maybe I should go back up to the Belle and Sebastian section and check my spelling.

As a side note, my ipod thinks this song is by Ben Lee. whatever happened to Ben Lee. Did he die or something?

Rio
Duran Duran

-So, my ipod thinks that Simple Minds sings this song. I'm going to have to look into that after our experiment. Clearly, something is awry.

This falls into the category of potentially embarrassing song, save for the fact that it still f-ing rocks. Plus, it has the advantage of being retro-chic to love again. I'm cool with synths and keytars coming back in a big way, but I can do without the sax solo toward the end.

On a side note, I nearly paid $80 for a vintage Duran Duran concert T on Melrose about a month back. It was too tight, even for me. I don't know why I would have done such a thing.

Washington D.C.
Magnetic Fields

-I'm loving my ipod for playing this song right now because it gives me a chance to tell the following story:

I went to the Magnetic Fields show in D.C. a couple of weeks ago with PopQuizKid. Great show, even though it was more of a performance than a show. Needless to say, you would expect them to play this song, but they hadn't planned to. In between the show-show and the forced encore that all bands are expected to do these days, (I'm hitting pause now, screw it, I want to get this story out) Claudia returned to stage under the instruction of General Merritt to stall while he did whatever geniuses do when they are being petulant. She asked the crowd what she could do to stall. Someone yelled "Washington D.C." She asked if we would like her to do an acapella version. We said, "Well, now that you mention it, since we are, in fact, in Washington D.C., maybe you should consider it," or rather "YEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

But she couldn't remember the words.

The crowd helped her a little, but still.

Anyway, love this song because of where I live. It's actually kind of a crappy song, by Magnetic Fields standards, anyway.

As a side note, my ipod correctly identified that the Magnetic Fields do indeed sing this song. Maybe it just needs some coffee.

Hitting play again.

Opening Up
Chromeo

-I caught these guys about a month or two ago and felt really old. Like I said, I'm supportive of synths and keytars coming back, and this band is proof that that is indeed the case. Well, at least in terms of the heavy synth. No keytars to speak of...yet.

Needless to say, this is probably my least favorite song on what I consider to be an awesome album. Such fun. I know it's not exactly high art, but it's high times.

The show was a great dance party, by the way. It was sold out and there wasn't a soul in the balcony at the 9:30 Club, if that means anything to you. Crowded and sweaty and dancey. The old comment is only because of how young their target audience appears to be. Lots of sideways baseball caps, headphones worn around the neck as accessories and plastic sunglasses indoors.

One of these youngsters spent most of the evening trying to hit on PopQuizKid. It was cute.

The end of this song has one of those afterludes, or whatever you call it when a song completely shifts gears and sounds like it is another song but it isn't. Chromeo loves those. I don't.

Afterward: the next song to come up was Breaking it Up, by Lykke Li, now there is somebody I'm really feeling right now. Missed her show a month ago, but it looks like she's coming back to town in January.

So there, nothing too embarrassing, other than my ipod's confusion over who sings what, but why should I be embarrassed about that. My supposedly "genius" ipod is the one who is retarded.