The Click Wheel Five II

Now that everything's sorted on the new computer, meaning my entire music collection Available For The Very First Time from a single source, it's time for a new click-wheel five. I haven't done one for a while, because exercises like this can be overdone and become gratuitous mp3 dumps, but I'm in the mood. And for some strange reason I'd like to be embarrassed this time (this is so possible). Without further ado:

1. Modest Mouse - Wood Grain [mp3]
from Sad Sappy Sucker [buy]

From Sad Sappy Sucker, a collection we could've done without, here's an early Modest Mouse song. Thirty seconds made listenable by lines about "sharing our issues," being "totally dead," and little else. But is that not classic Brock?

2. The Hold Steady - Cattle and the Creeping Things (live on The Current) [mp3]
originally from Separation Sunday [buy]

Here's one I've mentioned before. Done acoustic here, I wonder if anyone can help me: is that a theremin singing in the background? Or a saw? Kind of a welcome addition anyway, this being one of the few tracks on Separation Sunday's that didn't stand out.

3. The Mountain Goats - Historiography [mp3]
from Bitter Melon Farm [buy]

Statistically, there should be a Mountain Goats song on almost every five-song shuffle I do. It's just Darnielle and a guitar, but it sounds real thick and sweet. A list of all he remembers: your warmth, your eyes, soft hands and soft rain. The quiet car, the dark and the coming sun, and I wish I could write like this. I remember an old girlfriend putting a Mountain Goats song on a cassette mix for my cassette-enabled car, called "Love Cuts The Strings." And how it frustrated me not knowing if it was a love song or a bitter send-off, with lines like "And then love pulled out the heavy artillery." It would take a long time and many more of Darnielle's love songs before I understood.

4. Wilderness - Arkless [mp3]
from Wilderness [buy]

At one point, Pitchfork was beta testing streaming radio (remember that?). I recall requesting from the man himself to hear Wilderness, whose first album they had recently praised. This, I believe, was the song played, and I absolutely hated it.

5. Spiritualized - Anything More [mp3]
from Let It Come Down [buy]

I learned about Spiritualized from a skate video featuring "Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space" in a crash montage. It was like nothing I'd heard before; it was as grand and infinite and heartbreakingly lonely as the abyss the title implied. "Anything More" is done well, too, swelling and sad. "Though my body gets tired/ My mind does it no favors at all/ And there's so little time/ To do something, something, anything more." I'll go ahead and say this reminds me of "Narcolepsy," from Ben Folds Five's oft-maligned swansong The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner, I think that's fair.

Well, that wasn't nearly as scandalous as I had hoped for. I'd call it solid though.

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Lurking through my links, I found this interesting post on the sociology of music blog titles.

I'm addicted to Project Runway, but the last two weeks' decisions have really upset me. Katherine's dress was cute, it was sporty and simple and just fine, whereas Angela's looked like space-trash. Anyway, it seems I agree with what seems to be the popular consensus around the blogodrome: cut Angela, show Michael.