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ACOUSTIC SUNDAY!

Well, my friends, my absence the past few days should be a clue as to just how busy I’ve been. I am desperately trying to get my data center built, so that I can get my ass back to Michigan, and back home. A funny little story. Friday, I’m on a design authority call with representatives from the customer, including their network engineer. He asked how I was doing, and I mentioned I was trying to build a data center out from bare tiles to completely cabled and fibered server racks, network racks and storage area networks all in 2 and a half week. His reply? “Who’s stupid fucking idea was that!”. I just left it at that, since the persons whose idea it was, the customers director of IT who escalated to get it built, was also on the call. I got a HUGE satisfaction out of that one!

So, from the comments the other day, I have some fellow IT workers out there. That’s good to know, and cheers to you all. It’s a tough business, and I don’t think most people know exactly the insane working conditions we suffer so that when you want to print that Word document, or send that email, or surf the internet, it all goes smoothly. The IT business, especially as you rise up the ranks, it just a tough, grueling business, where 18 hours days are not uncommon, and being home 3 weeks in a row is not all that unusual. The earliest I left the raised floor this past week was midnight.

One of the younger guys on my project asked me how I did it. I have no clue. I told him that IT tends to weed out the weak and those without the stamina to work super long hours. Not everyone can do what we do. Enjoy the music!

A DELAYED DOSE OF JACK UP MUSIC FOR YOU ALL

Check it out…I wanted to get this posted yesterday, and have something else completely cool for you all today, but the events of the past three days have kind of kicked my ass. More on that in a bit, because I REALLY need to vent. So, if you’re not interested in some severe ranting on my part over my job, I would read this paragraph and skip to the tunes. Like I said, I originally had this lined up for yesterday, but music never dies, and it never gets old, so one day won’t really matter, I don’t think. I have some more tunes based on the Jack FM format…I am seriously loving the freshness of it. At least for now, it’s keeping me sane for 20 minutes in the morning, and 20 at night.

Now on to my rant. Work of getting kind of completely out of hand, and today I’m pretty much going to put a stop to that today. It’s become apparent that the project managers in my company are content to allow me to take over the effective management of all areas of their projects, including resource management, ordering, priority setting, etc. I am an architect. My role is to provide a sound technical solution, and a map for them to integrate complex applications across the board. Instead, I have been doing so much project manager crap that I’m behind. Way behind. And I just had a come to Jesus meeting where I laid it all out, and told my lead PM that either he gets a team here tomorrow, or I go home.

So, hold on…I have to be in Boulder for yet a third week in a row, and the second weekend. No, my wife is not happy, and no, I am seriously not happy.

IT CAME FROM THE 90′S, UPDATE EDITION!

Today’s list is my update of one of my favorite blog series called “It Came From The Nineties” over at Can You See The Sunset On The South Side. The author of this blog, which, by the way, if one of my favorite reads, has a pretty good eye for talent, and usually posts outstanding stuff. A month ago, I did a 3 day series on what I thought was the best of…if you get a chance, I still recommend going over and visiting his blog.

Of today’s list, maybe the song that means the most to me is The Nixons’ Sister. It was a moderate hit in 1995, but the words really hit me pretty hard. In 1995, the relationship I was in had fallen apart, due to the distance between us…I was in Chicago, and she was in California. We were both going through pretty nasty divorces, and though we loved each other pretty dearly, the stress just tore us apart, and we went months without speaking to each other. I heard this song, and the words just kind of shot through me, and I realized that I was making a mistake I would never recover from by letter her go. I mailed her a copy of the song, and fortunately, she felt the same way. A few months later, with both our divorces complete, she moved to Chicago. A year later, we were married, and this December, it will be 12 great years. Never has a song made such a difference in my life.

JUST ANOTHER MELLOW MONDAY

Happy Monday, everyone out there in the internets. This weekend, I was away from home for the first time in years. Usually, my business trips end on Fridays…this time, it’s a full two weeks. I’m not ashamed to say that it’s damn lonely. See, this past week was my daughters 13th birthday. There’s nothing harder for me than to be away from my family, but when I have to miss something as important as my baby becoming a teenager…well, lets just say it’s completely fucked I was away.

So after just hanging out in Boulder, sleeping and relaxing, and trying to get caught up on my work. And preparing for the week ahead. I still have a tremendous amount of work to get done. I think we’re gonna thread the needle and pull off a miracle for this customer, but it’s going to come at a price, that’s for sure. I’m happy with the progress we made last week. By far this is going to be one of the biggest success of my career.

So, enjoy. I’m having a mellow day, just trying to maintain until I can get back home.

I DON’T KNOW JACK ABOUT MUSIC…OR DO I?

One of the nice things about traveling for business is that I sometimes find some great music stations on the radio. It’s rare, but when I find one, I get pretty jazzed. Well, my friends (as John McCain is so fond of saying), this week, I have found one, though it has a little twist, as you’ll see. First of all there is a Denver Station that calls itself Jack FM, and I gotta admit, they play one hell of a variety of songs. Not every song is great, or even a song I like. But unlike most stations, I can listen to 3 or 4 songs I really enjoy for everyone I don’t. Normal stations are lucky to have the reverse ratio.

Now for the controversy. I guess that Jack FM is a new type of format, or so says Wikipedia (who we all know is NEVER wrong!). The playlist creation is centralized, and market research driven. Their catalog of songs are, I guess, twice as large as other stations, and they are no where near as specific to one genre of music. Honestly, I find none of those things disturbing, and in fact, it’s a nice change. The stations (and there are several across the US, Canada, and now even in the UK), have no local programming. No DJ. No local voice to add that local touch. I guess that upsets people. To be honest, though, there are very few DJ’s I honestly care to listen to. The last one passed away a few years back (I hope your jamming your ass off up there, John Peel!). It’s all about the music…the other stuff is just fluff.

That brings me to today’s list. All the songs on the list are from a 2 hour period. Of course, I choose the ones I liked the most, and left off the clunkers like Neil Diamond and Kool and the Gang (apologies to those that like those two artists…I have nothing again em. Hell, I even dig the hell out of Neil once in a while.). But the stuff listed here is pretty typical of the range of styles, both in genre and in decades, that they play around the clock. Like I said, it works for me, and makes that drive to and from work a little more bearable. Enjoy!

MO’ MONEY, MO’ MONEY, MO

I watching Wall Street gradually melt into a big pile of goo the other day, wondering how much of my 401K actually exists anymore, which led me to wonder what it will be like to still be working at the age of 80. Hey, how bad an it be? Except for the fact I’ll need to take more naps, and change my adult diaper during breaks, it might be so bad. But watching all that chaos unfold just kind of reminded me of one thing…In Living Color! I’m pretty sure most people know it as the shows that launched the Wyans and that other douche, Jim Carey. And it launched the phrase “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Money, Mo’ Money!”

I thought it might be a hoot to come up with a list of songs with Money in the title, as a tribute to the innate greed of the average Wall Street CEO. I hope you enjoy the music…it’s about all I can afford to give out anymore!

A DAY OF PEEL SESSIONS

First, for everyone who commented about Mr. Sicks, a huge thanks. It really did make my wife feel a lot better reading them all, and for that, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. There are a lot of really great people in the world, and I’m lucky enough to have quite a few of them reading this blog.

Someone left a comment the other day about this blog having the influence of the great John Peel running through it. I take that as a high compliment, indeed. John Peel had the finest taste in music, and sadly, most people over here have no clue who he was, or what his influence on modern music is. Never let it be said that I am guilty of either of those. I’ve done numerous posts featuring the Peel sessions, but it’s been awhile, so I thought I would gather up some great tunes from Peel sessions, and pass them on to you all.

The thing I love best about the Peel session is that the songs all have a rough edge to it, yet not as rough as a live recording. I’m not a fan of live recordings…usually, I just don’t find the music as good. But the Peel session gives some of that live quality, while still keeping a bit of the studio polish. It’s just good stuff. Enjoy!

A MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO MR. SOCKS

I mentioned a few days ago that a stray cat had come to live on our back deck. We informally named him Mr. Socks. That him there in the picture. The rains of the past few days, along with the coming of fall, and eventually winter, spurred us on to take him to the vet this morning, to get him checked up, immunized and try to get him ready for winter.

My wife took him into the vets office this morning. An hour later, I got a call from her, and on the other end, I heard only sobbing. The vet had done a feline HIV test on the little guy, and the test came back positive. Further more, the vet said he was already pretty sick, and could not survive a winter. Unfortunately, it was time to make a very rough decision. Mr. Socks has been living on the back deck for two months now, and we honestly have grown extremly fond of the little guy. But this morning, we made the decision to put him at rest. It was hard, and it sucks, and it’s left a little bit of a hole in our home, but we just could not stand to watch the poor guy suffer, and gradually pass away. So it’s with more than a little sadness that today, we said goodbye to our little friend, Mr. Socks.

SONGS ABOUT CARS FOR A THOUSAND, PLEASE…

You can tell I’m going a little stir crazy. After three days of non-stop rain, this is the best title I can come up with. For some reason, I was sitting here playing some xBox, watching football, and generally trying to not be bored out of my skull, when somehow, the thought came into my head to try to come up with 10 songs that mention cars in their title. You know what? It wasn’t even close to being as hard as I thought it would be! Plus, I think I actually put a great list together to boot!

There’s something for everyone here…some old stuff from the 70’s (Adam and the Ants), to newer stuff (Arcade Fire), and everything in between. There goodies from the 80 and 90’s. If you can’t find a song you like in this list…then you must not like songs about cars. What the hell ever that means! Like I said, it’s been raining here for 3 straight days, and will be for another 3 it looks like.

Enjoy the car tunes!

MY WEEK OF AWESOME POST PUNK, DAY 4

Friday, at last. which also means the last day of my post punk posts. I hope you all enjoyed this half as much as I did. Post punk is, more than any other genre of music is my favorite, and this week of listening to tunes every evening to pick out the right one has been a blast.

On a more personal front, I think I mentioned the other day I fashioned myself a treadmill desk, and have been walking while I worked. Well, a little update on that whole deal. I’ve been averaging 3 miles a day, while “walking” at 1.3 miles an hour. So far, I’ve dropped 5 lbs. I haven’t changed my diet, haven’t done anything other than walking a little while I’m working. So far, it looks like it’s paying off. Enjoy the tunes, enjoy the weekend!

A NICE LITTLE ALTERNATIVE SUNDAY

I’m enjoying a nice little weekend after having a couple pretty stressful weeks. I smacked the hell out of some more golf balls at the driving range (very useful for burning off stress!), watched my Buckeyes barely beat Ohio University (WHY do they insist on scaring the crap out of me all the time!?!), took a nice little nap, hit some of those plastic practice balls around the yard. And that’s just Saturday. I’m hoping I can go indulge myself of my new habit again today, and play 9 or 18.

The music list today was inspired by the Batman Returns movie from like 10 years ago. I was listening to the radio and heard Kiss From A Rose. It struck me because I remember when the movie came out, Q101 was at the parking lot in Schaumburg, IL, right down the street from where I worked. If you came down there and answered a question, you could pull out an envelope that had a prize in it. I won a CD single of Kiss From A Rose (I still have it somewhere around here). The guy behind me? Yeah, well, he won front row tickets to a U2 concert. Such is life. Enjoy!

THE LIGHTER SIDE OF 90′S POP

So, I am stepping WAYYY outside my comfort zone on this post. Normally, I don’t post sugary pop music, but you know, I came across that Iron Man remake by Cardigans, and it just kind of came together. Thus, a post of some of the lighter tunes that came out of a decade that truly rocked (see my post from yesterday is you have any doubts that the 90’s rocked).

I won’t lie…sometimes I am a total puss when it comes to music…the oddest songs catch my ear, and these tunes all caught my ear for one reason or another. Take for instance the Mellisa Etheridge song. There’s two reasons for that. First, in the 90’s I was going to school to be an electrical engineer. (Yep, I’m an engineer by training that has always worked in IT) One of my better friends, and a member of my brutally efficient and totally genius study group was a lesbian who LOVED Etheridge. So she kind of got me hooked on her stuff for awhile. The second thing was the video for the song. For some reason I had a huge thing for Juliette Lewis. I’m a sucker for the freaks, and that girl I believe to be a super freak.

You’ll also notice Digital Underground and ask yourself “Has the Infonoistacrat gone totally insane?!?” Well, no. That’s my tribute to my old shipmates on the USS Coral Sea. We LOVED that damn song in 1990, the last year we were all together before we all left the Navy and went our separate ways.

Oh, and I just read that there may be a new Big Lebowski movie based on The Jesus character. I now officially have something to live for!

FOR THOSE THAT WANT TO ROCK….ENTER!!!

Yesterday was a brutally mid numbing day of dealing with a customer that won’t listen to reason, and insists on making demands based on inadequate or incomplete requirements. As an IT architect, I live and die by requirements, and the solutions I give to a customer is only as good as the requirements given to me. So I had a monster headache yesterday, and had a need to put together a list to bang my head to. Most of the tunes are from late 90’s and early 00’s, and are pretty much from that era when alternative started to turn into that nu-metal stuff. It’s all good, all aggressive, and all rockin’. Enjoy!

MORE GOTH FROM THE LATE 80′S EARLY 90′S

Yesterday, I took a look at the early days of goth, and how it pretty much was the off spring of the post punk and industrial scenes. Today I wanted to take a look at how goth evolved in the mid to late 80’s.

Like I said yesterday, goth is maybe the most misunderstood type of music there is. It’s NOT Marilyn Manson jumping around worshiping the devil. In fact, if you listen to most music from the 80’s labeled as goth, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell it from new wave. In fact, by the late 80’s, when hair bands ruled MTV and radio, new wave was pretty much played out, and all that was left from that scene was goth. Next to the college rock/American underground music scenes, the best music of the late 80’s came out of the goth scene. This list is one of the better ones I’ve done, of any genre. Like AJ said in the comments yesterday, there is just so much great music that came out of this scene that I could go on and on. Enjoy!

IT CAME FROM THE 90′S HOLIDAY WEEKEND, DAY 3

Last day of me weekend look at Can You See the Sunset From The South Side’s It Came From The Nineties series. I’ll be back tomorrow live. Enjoy the day off, if you got it!

IT CAME FROM THE 90′S HOLIDAY WEEKEND, DAY 2

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I’m hanging and doing my thing, what ever that thing actually is. On a lighter side, my wife’s son and I actually made it through Halo 3 on the xBox the other day. Yeah, I know, I’m a year late in this whole thing. But gaming is not something I get to do on a regular schedule, so I take it when I can get it. Peace!

IT CAME FROM THE 90′S HOLIDAY WEEKEND, DAY 1

Happy holiday weekend, everyone…the holiday designated to pacify the labor force in the US with one day off. Very gracious. But, you know, I’ll take it.

Today’s list is actually my “best of” of a series called “It Came From The Nineties” over at Can You See The Sunset On The South Side. The reason I love his series so much is that he steps out of the typical rock only lists, and included some seriously good tunes from other genre’s. Tunes I had long forgotten about. So over the next few days, I’ll be picking out some tunes I haven’t played here, or at least not played in a long while. Enjoy!

A MOST DECIDEDLY MELLOW MONDAY

Not really mellow today for any other reason than the past month has been crazy beyond what I could imagine. I’ve traveled far too much, gotten run down enough that my asthma has flown completely out of control and left me gasping for air most of the time. I had emotional up’s and even worse downs, and today, have to take my wife in for a “procedure”. She had a biopsy that was inconclusive, and “procedure” is a neat little medical term that really means we have to cut a little deeper, dig a little deeper, look a little harder. Non of that calms my nerves. of course. But I need a little mellow in my life right now…and I figure today is as good a time as any to start.

The trip I took this past week was very nice…as a father, especially a father that is watching the years go by way to fast, it was good to have both my baby girls in the same place at the same time. No matter how much time I have with them, it’s never going to be enough. While that makes me in a way sad, it’s also nice to see them both starting new, exciting and big chapters. My oldest start law school next week, and my youngest is now officially in junior high school, and will be a teenager next month. Both are turning into the fine women I had hoped they would be the first time I looked down in the crib at them.

So, there your go…my reasons for being mellow are numerous and varied. Some external and out of my control, some internal, made all the more vivid by introspective thought. Today’s list kind of reflects how I’m feeling. Enjoy!

MY MID-VACATION PLAYLIST

It’s the middle of my vacation, and even though I am writing this on Monday morning, I’m pretty sure by now I’m actually itching to get beck to work. What ever. I never claimed to be very bright. Like I said last week, when I’m at work, all I think about is vacation, and when I’m on vacation, all I think about is work. Such is my life.

No particular theme to today’s list, just some great music. Enjoy.

A LITTLE OLD, A LITTLE NEW IN MUSIC

I’m gone, of course, making the quick little 5 hour drive from my house in Michigan to my sisters place in Ohio. If I don’t get to any comments right away, please accept my apologies in advance. I’ll get to them, I promise.

Today, I thought I would do a little old and new music. Even though I listen mostly to 80’s and 90’s music, I do listen to some newer stuff. Not a lot, but I do listen. So enjoy a little old, and a little new!

MUSIC TO EASE YOUR CASE OF THE MONDAYS!

I flipped on Office Space this past weekend (thus the title of the post). I’ve seen the movie so many times I can nearly recite the lines. I don’t know anyone in my business (yes, I’m in IT, and believe it or not, I’ve seen companies that had TPS reports) who doesn’t feel the same way about the movie. So many things about the movie are real. The apartment I lived in in the Chicago suburbs (pre-marriage) looked exactly like the apartments that Peter lived in. I used to have a lovely cubicle just like his too. The cubicle is the single worst horror ever perpetrated on the human race. Nothing says soul-less worker drone like sticking people in little boxes. Now days, I work from home, and of course, I actually miss going to the office. Go figure.

So, today is the first day of my vacation, so I definitely do NOT have a case of the Mondays. I’ll be heading back to my roots, back to NE Ohio tomorrow. I’ve got my posts all lined up, so pretty much, I’m all set to go. Enjoy the tunes!

MUSIC WITH ATTITUDE, DAY 2

Happy Saturday! Officially my first day of vacation. Nine days with no work, and I honestly have no clue what I’m going to do with myself. That’s the terrible irony of being a type A person…when your working, you think of vacation, but then on vacation, all you think about is work.

Today’s playlist is a little less on the attitude scale, but still just as terrific. I’ve moved a little from the 70’s and early 80’s to more of a late 80’s early 90’s playlist today, and I think it’s almost as good. The Cure, Kraftwerk, Echo and Bowie…definitely some of my favs end up here today. So, here’s hoping the the weekend finds you happy, healthy, and listening to some great tunes. Enjoy!

INFONISTACRAT 2.0…NOW FORTIFIED WITH MORE ATTITUDE!

Ok, so first of all, where in the hell have I been in the past two weeks? Trust me, it’s a long and bizarre, and exhausting, story. Basically, I have been traveling for my job 25 out of the last 30 days, usually putting in 16 hours a day, and not only running my project, but also providing technical guidance and oversite to another account. I’ve been told to prepare a certification package for my next certification, which will enable my to advance to an executive level. The package is about 50 pages in length, and I have until October 1st to get it written and submitted.

My travels took me from Pittsburgh, PA, to Boulder, CO, home for a day, and then back to Pittsburgh. In the past two weeks, I’ve learned two things. First, that I really need to have this blog…as a creative outlet, a place to vent, and as an excuse to step back for an hour and listen to great music. The second thing I learned? Well, that lesson was in the form of an extremly nice surprise.

When I travel, I usually scan the dial for a decent radio station. Usually, I end up frustrated, and end up plugging in my iPod. Well, I learned this week that Pittsburgh has maybe the best radio station that I’ve heard since the early days of Q101 in Chicago. The station, 91.3, sits at the end of the dial, and plays music so good it made my daily drive through the hills to and from work a pure pleasure. Honestly, this is like a college radio station on steroids. I would never have thought Pittsburgh could have such a great station. Today’s list is actually music that was played last week on 91.3. It’s a diverse list, but all good in my mind. The great thing is that you can listen to their site over the internet, and you can peruse their playlists. If just a perfect little radio station! Enjoy, and damn it’s nice to be back!

GREAT ALTERNATIVE MUSIC, AND NOTHING BUT!

By the time you all read this, I’ve suffered a long day of travel…drive to the airport in Michigan, fly to Atlanta, sit there for almost 3 hours, fly to Denver, and then drive an hour to my hotel. That was my Sunday. I hope you all had something a little less adventurous. But like always, I need to take some great music with me, so I have something to listen to while waiting in endless lines. That’s the roots of today’s list. Just something nice to listen while waiting in the security line.

I think I mentioned it awhile back, but lately, I’ve been on a pretty major PJ Harvey kick. I really didn’t pay much attention to her in the 90’s, outside of one or two songs, but as I’ve listened to more of her, I can honestly say I missed one hell of an artist in her prime. Easily some of the best music on the 90’s. If you, like me, missed out on her, I implore you to find a way to listen to more of her. I think you might like her range.

I also haven’t posted any Mark Lanegan in a while either…I actually have listened to him for awhile either. Same on that, for sure. The dude flat out has an incredible voice, and has been putting out great tunes since the late 80’s/early 90’s. So on the travel list he goes, along with a bunch of other great alternative tunes. Take a listen, and enjoy your Monday!

NOTHING BUT GREAT 90′S ALTERNATIVE, VOL. 2

Soooo….I went to see the Batman movie today. Really good movie, though not as dark as I thought it would be. Heath Ledger played Joker just the way I always thought it should be played…riding that fine line between sanity and insanity. Brilliant performance to be sure. I was also delighted to see that it was filmed in Chicago, my favorite city in the world. I was also surprised to see that part of the movie was filmed in a building I’ve worked in, back when I lived in Chicago. About half way though the movie, when they are holding the press conference at which Batman is supposed to turn himself in. That scene, and a few others, was filmed at 1 IBM Plaza. As soon as I saw it, I recognized it straight off. My wife was mightily impressed (NOT!). But the movie was great.

I am off again this week on another business trip…which sucks, mainly because I leave today, and get back very late Friday night. Then I have to turn around and leave again next Sunday. So, lots more bad hotel food, uncomfortable hotel beds, and long days, and lots more fun at the airport. Sometimes, I really wish it were possible to make a million bucks with a blog…I would so retire.

NOTHING BUT GREAT 90′S ALTERNATIVE!

I’ll tell you what the hardest part of writing a blog is. Hands down, it’s trying to figure out a title every day. In the past year, I’ve done something like 350 posts…that means I’ve had to come up with 350 snappy, eye catching, attention getting titles. Trust me, it’s ain’t easy. Sometimes I just want to switch over to generic titles like Monday’s Music, Tuesday’s Music, etc. Believe it or not, the title matters…on days when it’s overly generic, I do see a drop in traffic. So go figure.

Anyway, I’m still stuck in the 90’s, listening to some of that great, not so over played alternative. Just like every decade, the 90’s were filled with awesome music that never really got enough airtime back then. So, through the magic of the internet, these great tunes get a second chance at life. Please don’t turn your back on them. For just pennies a day, you can give a song a good home…oops, sorry, I got a little mixed up with that stupid TV commercial! Enjoy!

HAPPY BRITPOP MONDAY

I thought I would pop out a little serious 90’s Britpop on this fine, fine Monday morning. It’s good to be home, and it’s good to be listening to the sweet sound of 90’s England. Last week was a brutal long week, and the weekend was way too short. I didn’t post, because I was busy trying to catch up on my damn sleep. I have this week to recharge my batteries, and then August kicks in. From now until the end of August, I’ll be traveling 4 of the weeks. Just the peculiarity of business, I guess.

In the mean time, I got some Drugstore for those of you who love dream pop. And whats better than one dream pop song? Three of course. Love Spit Love and Boo Radleys make it a hat trick! Give it a listen, and enjoy some great 90’s stuff you wouldn’t hear very often on the radio back in the day! Just sit back, and enjoy the day. By the way, I’m coming up on the first birthday of this thing (sorry, I hate the word blog, even though that’s what this is, I guess), and I gotta figure out something special. Or not. Since I’ll be in Boulder, CO, I may just head to the Left Hand Brewing Company, and celebrate. If you’re in the area, and want to join me, let me know! Enjoy!

A LITTLE ALTERNATIVE TRAVELIN’ MUSIC, PLEASE!

I am on my way home, and note a second too soon. Usually, travel doesn’t bug me much, but this week has been long and brutal trip. First of all, I had to stay in a hotel that I usually don’t stay in. Only it’s under renovation. So much so, that the other day, there was no front desk, only a folding table with a computer on top. Everything is torn up. And don’t get me started on the breakfasts.

On top of that, there seems to be no highways in the greater Pittsburgh area, so all to get anywhere, you drive on overcrowded 2 lane roads. So a 15 mile drive is a 30 minute ordeal. But, I AM ON MY WAY HOME! And that means only one thing…I need some great tunes to get me started!

If you ignore the rest of today’s list, you have to check out Red Red Meat. Honestly, this is a band I haven’t thought about in a decade, at least since I left Chicago. But listening to them brought back some great memories, and reminded me why I used to listen to them. Somewhere along the line, I lost everything I ever had by them. Shame. Now I gotta order em up from Amazon, I suppose! Enjoy!

MUSIC FROM THE EMPIRE RECORDS SOUNDTRACK

Ok, so yesterday was bad. Really bad. The post had some music that I wouldn’t otherwise touch with a 50 foot pole in it. But I promise today to make up for it with some pretty sweet tunes from the mid-90’s.

You can be forgive if you never saw Empire Records in the theaters….hell, I wasn’t even aware of the movie until I saw it on some cable movie channel. The movie itself wasn’t what I would call stellar, although it did have a pretty stellar cast. Having done some IT work for a rather large chain of record stores in Chicago at about that time, I can also tell you that it was somewhat accurate in how record stores are run. Anyway, while the movie was a bomb, the soundtrack was, in my opinion, stellar. So, here are my 10 favs from that soundtrack. If you’ve been a reader for a while, Edwin Collins and Gin Blossoms have been posted before, but it’s been a long time, so they get another day in the sunlight. But the rest, it’s a first time. Pay especial attention to the Martinis tune…the Martinis are Joey Santiago’s band. Joey, you might recall, is the guitarist from the Pixies, and know how to shred every ounce of noise out of a guitar.

As for me…day 2 of my class, and that means more powdered eggs, bad sausage patties and stale bagels at the hotel breakfast bar. Oh my, I’m livin’ large my friends….livin’ large! Enjoy!

SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS’ GREATEST HITS

I’m off today to Pittsburgh, but I thought I would post a little musical whimsy today. If your like me, you looked forward to Saturday morning. First, you didn’t go to school, but even better was cartoons. I can remember watching Saturday morning cartoons well into my teens. In fact, I think it wasn’t until I got my first weekend job at age 16 that I stopped watching altogether.

These songs come from an album put together in the mid-90’s, and features some serious talent take a little time for some not so serious fun. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find all the songs from the album. I’ll make you all a deal though. If you’ll point me to the missing songs, I’ll post em here. Enjoy!

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