Christmas came early this year

But now there's another whole year to wait for the actual movie. Crap.

BAW II: Electric Boogaloo

Seriously, what would I be doing these days without Spotify? Sure, the ads in between every third song are annoying, but the ability to immediately pull up just about any music I want to listen to is worth the inconvenience. Last night, catching up on All Songs Considered podcasts while I was at the gym, I heard two bands I wanted to check out: Grouplove and We Were Promised Jetpacks. So when I got home, I opened Spotify, searched both groups, added their latest albums to my playlist (Never Trust A Happy Song and In The Pit of the Stomach, if you're interested), and I had a soundtrack for today. So easy.

As for the music, I'm digging both albums for different reasons. Grouplove plays a tighter version of 90's psychedelica, like a less trippy Flaming Lips, and despite their album title, there's a raucous joy in their music. If you can listen to "Tongue-Tied" and not tap your feet, there's something wrong with you.

WWPJ, on the other hand, play that angular British rock made popular by Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, and Bloc Party, but they have the ability to reach a more expansive layer in their songs. Listen to the instrumental opening of "Act on Impulse" for an example.


Grouplove, "Tongue-Tied"


 We Were Promised Jetpacks, "Act on Impulse"

Bored at Work, part 1

Lots of downtime at my new job (briefly interrupted by periods of OHMYGOD GETITALLDONENOWNOWNOW), so I'm going to start posting about what I'm doing in all this dead time, mainly because it's more interesting and uses more brain function than hitting refresh on my Google Reader every two minutes.

I've been using Spotify quite a bit, and the nice thing about it (aside from being free, of course) is that it's exposed me to a lot of music I might not normally hear. Right now, I'm listening to Childish Gambino's Camp. Childish Gambino is better known as comedian Donald Glover of that show Community everyone keeps saying I should watch but still haven't gotten around to yet. As rap albums by actors go, this one's much better than I expected.

I'm also reading Daniel Wilson's Robopocalypse (a novel set in the near future that chronicles sentient robots taking over the world and trying to wipe out humanity) on my iPad. Oh, delicious irony. Sadly, it's not as good as I'd like it to be — it's a pale imitation of Max Brooks' World War Z, by way of The Terminator. Swapping the walking dead for killer robots is already a downgrade, but if you're telling your story as an oral history, it works a lot better if your characters have distinct voices, which is where this book fails for me. Everybody (soldiers, senators, a 14-year-old girl from Chicago, a 45-year-old roughneck from Texas) sounds exactly the same: dry, unemotional, and way too quick with the exposition. Still, there's enough promise in the premise that I'll finish it and hope it gets better before the end.

P’s & Q’s

In the category of unfinished business, I'm finally getting around to finishing my alphabet mixes. At this rate, I'm feeling a bit like Sufjan and his 50 States project. But hey, at least I have a realistic chance of finishing mine. After a 19-month delay, here’s P and Q:

1. Preservation… Aesop Rock & Del Tha Funky Homosapien
2. Paperback Writer… The Beatles
3. Please Don't Talk About Murder While I'm Eating… Ben Harper
4. Picture Book… Bill Lloyd & Tommy Womack
5. Perfect Games… The Broken West
6. Post Script… Finch
7. Pattern Skies… The Greenhornes
8. Party Pit… The Hold Steady
9. Permanent Hurt… John Hiatt
10. Pure… Lightning Seeds
11. Portland, Oregon… Loretta Lynn with Jack White
12. Postcard Of A Painting… Maxïmo Park
13. Piece Of Crap… Neil Young & Crazy Horse
14. People Got a Lotta Nerve… Neko Case
15. Pop Lie… Okkervil River
16. Portions For Foxes… Rilo Kiley
17. Paul Simon… The Russian Futurists
18. Prophet Of Doom… The Samples
19. Poison Lovers… Steve Earle
20. Panic… The Stills
21. Pure Juice… Summercamp
22. Pumping On Your Stereo… Supergrass
23. Pink Triangle… Weezer
24. Postcards From Hell… The Wood Brothers


1. Qué Onda Guero… Beck
2. Queen Of The World… The Bottle Rockets
3. Quattro (World Drifts In)… Calexico
4. Queen Of Charades… The Connells
5. Queen Of Hollywood… The Corrs
6. Queen Bitch… David Bowie
7. Quicksand… Dinosaur Jr
8. Quiet Houses… Fleet Foxes
9. Quiet Heart… The Go-Betweens
10. Quick Painless & Easy… Ivy
11. Quiet… John Mayer
12. Que Lindo Sueño… King Khan And The Shrines
13. Quiet As A Mouse… Margot & The Nuclear So And So's
14. Quiet Her… Matthew Sweet
15. Quannum World… Quannum MCs
16. Question… Rhett Miller
17. Quiet… Smashing Pumpkins
18. Queen Of Apology… The Sounds
19. QMS… T-Love
20. Quicksand… Travis