A new mix for the kids...

The same five cds have been stuck in my wife's car cd player for WAY too long. The kids like them and she is rarely driving without the kids.

But we have been steadily collecting a weird amalgam of songs that we think will break up the monotony so tonight a new mix cd is born!

It is virtually impossible to predict but usually how this goes down is we put 20 songs on a playlist and our son obsesses over three of them.

For about a year his favorite song was Slade's "Run Runaway." This past year his favorite song was sung by Dr. Octopus, the infamous Spiderman villain.

What will be the new favorites? Check back to find out!

1). Survivor - "Eye of the Tiger"

2). Michael Jackson - "Beat It"

3). The Beatles - "Two of Us"

4). Blind Melon - "No Rain"

5). Donovan - "Sunshine Superman"

6). Desmond Dekker - "Israelites"

7). Deee-Lite - "Groove Is In The Heart"

8). Hues Corporation - "Rock The Boat"

9). Jim Croce - "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"

10). Devo - "Whip It"

11). Pink - "Get The Party Started"

12). Michael Jackson - "Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)"

13). Men Without Hats - "The Safety Dance"

14). R.E.M. - "Superman"

15). Ram Jam - "Black Betty"

16). Rocky Sharpe - "Rama Lama Ding Dong"

17). Status Quo - "Pictures of Matchstick Men (Stereo Alternate Mix)"

18). Michael Jackson - "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough"

19). Chumbawamba - "Tubthumping"

20). Fatboy Slim - "Praise You"

Heavy on the Michael Jackson this time around for sure but that is partly because my wife and I could not agree and partly because my little daughter likes to shake her booty.

Another State of Mind

I was talking to a friend tonight who is teaching a class at Colombia College about Touring. I suppose it is for musicians who have never toured and want to make the most of it.

I took the opportunity to mention one of my favorite music documentaries, Another State of Mind. Turns out that he had not seen it and I pledged to loan him my copy.

This movie split my world open when I saw it on Night Flight on the USA Network late at night. I had not seen anything like this scene and it scared me and thrilled me in equal amounts.

Here is an excerpt. If you are at all interested in the beginnings of the hardcore punk scene I urge you to check this film out on Netflix or whatever.

33 1/3 looking for submissions...

So the popular 33 1/3 book series is doing an open call for book pitches.

It got me to thinking "What album's exploration do I think would make for an interesting read?"

So far, I have come up with David Bowie's Diamond Dogs (or Ziggy Stardust) or De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising.

What are your ideas?

As a teenager I crafted a screenplay to Diamond Dogs in my head. I would play it out like a noirish sci-fi movie behind my eyelids as I listened to the album.

Later in life I would develop a friendship with another music obsessive by the name of SD who wrote a short story inspired by the album during his formative years.

I never committed my screenplay to paper though, but lest you think I lacked the creative fire I must admit that I did write a short story based on this t-shirt...

I can't remember that much beyond the fact that it was a horror as social satire type plot. Society's fear of the misfit outcast would whip this swarm of vengeful rats into a killing frenzy.

Sadly this undoubted literary gem was written on an electric typewriter and lives on solely as a vague memory now.

I thought maybe if I could procure this t-shirt through an online marketplace maybe more details of this writing exercise would meander out from the fog of my adolescence.

Now I wish I had been a little more fastidious about keeping my old concert t-shirts. $159 bucks!?

That would be easy money, as opposed to all that research and writing those 33 1/3 books undoubtedly take. Ah well...

My list for 2011

I'd say it is fair to assume that very few music obsessive types are able to avoid the compulsion to make their end of the year list. I am not one of those rare few.

I will definitely have more to say about this phenomenon in the near future but I figured I should start with my favorite recordings that came out this past year. These are not in any hierarchical order.

Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise

Holy Other - With U

Iceage - New Brigade

Clams Casino - Rainforest EP and Instramentals

Wild Flag - self titled

Anna Calvi - self titled

Clive Tanaka y su orquesta - Jet Set Siempre 1*

Wounded Lion - IVXLCDM

Handsome Furs - Sound Kapital

White Hills - H-p1

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

Doomtree - No Kings

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust

Zomby - Dedication

Belong - Common Era

Yeah? Well, where is your list then?

"If you need a guy,

I gotta guy that repairs heat." -- Serengeti, "Perculators"

Thought of this lyric because my very introductory post earlier this evening was composed while waiting on Joe (from Airflow) to come and fix a gas leak leading to my furnace.

Serengeti took the Saturday Night Live Bears Superfans skit and developed a real, relatable persona. This isn't parody but it is injected with a lot of Chicago humor.

Be forewarned - it is also very catchy. So catchy you might find yourself smiling at the thought of it while handling a stressful situation like no heat on the first seriously cold night of winter.

My brother Ben introduced me to Serengeti's alter ego earlier this year and I remain greatly appreciative.

I will also be greatly appreciative to Joe (from Airflow) once my furnace is safe to run again.

Welcome to my (primarily) music blog. I figure it is probably best to just lay all my cards on the table: I have no manifesto that I want to inflict and I am not an expert in any micro-niche.

I just love music and I absorb a lot of it. I want to talk about what I find interesting. I want a new way to engage with the music collection that I am constantly curating. That is the originating purpose behind this.

Old stuff, new stuff - I like to take chances when I walk into record store and I walk into them often. I also like to get recommendations from others about what they really like so comments are very welcome.

Why Junk Drawer? I just like the catch-all, miscellaneous nature of it. We all have at least one space in our home that fills that purpose and what it contains probably says a lot about us. Most of us can not readily name all of the current contents of our junk drawer but it is still inherently part of how you engage with the world.

Apparently I am not the only one who thinks so.