two acts of random violence

1: I haven't had any brilliant ideas for songs to post lately, so I will resort to Ye Olde iTunes Party Shuffle for selections. My only rules are (a) I can't have posted the song already; (b) the song shouldn't have been downloaded from another mp3 blog in the first place; and (c) it shouldn't suck too badly. I am confident about the first two criteria; the last is, of course, out of my hands. For the surprise factor, I'll renew the shuffle list after each selection. Vanna, could you spin that wheel and see what tunes I verbally desecrate this evening?

Okay, first up is King Harvest's "Dancing in the Moonlight," a medium-sized hit (at least in my memory) from 1972 or so. I like the electric piano (izzat a Wurlitzer?) and the singer's got that Sweaty Rock Dude sort of voice, which contrasts a bit with the generally subdued music. I will presume the band named itself after the song by the Band - that seems apt enough.

Ouija board, ouija board...nope, sorry - no Morrissey today. Instead we have the Mitchells with "Stakeout." Thematically this song seems similar to John Vanderslice's "Continuation" (about the detectives). This is one of the first songs I heard by the Mitchells (courtesy Aaron from the wonderfully named Horn Farm Paste Mob) and is still one of my favorites of theirs. I like the guitar textures and chords and the way they blend, as well as the singer's vocal timbre.

Let's toss the dice again...it's Steve Forbert's version of "Starstruck," from the Kinks tribute album This Is Where I Belong. Forbert was New Dylan #3,795 back in the late '70s, and I think he's still best known for his early hit "Romeo's Tune." Some people are going to hit me on the head with some sort of blunt instrument, but...uh, I actually don't own The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. Looking at the track list, there's absolutely no reason on earth why I don't. But there remain mysterious lacunae in my collection...I blame sunspots. Or aliens. Or Queen Elizabeth II, the Trilateral Commission, and a consortium of disgruntled Maytag repairmen.

King Harvest "Dancing in the Moonlight"
The Mitchells "Stakeout"
Steve Forbert "Starstruck"

2: I went shopping for a pair of jeans today - and, while I'm sure this is extremely old news to people who either shop for jeans more frequently than I do or have given birth to kids who are now teenagers, apparently Levi's has discovered that somehow it can take a pair of jeans that look for all the world as if they've been worn for twenty years by a biker with standards of hygiene lower than the biker average, as well as a high incidence of leaping over barbed-wire fences ungracefully, and sell them as "vintage" and "lost and found" jeans for $50. This is excellent news for me, since I typically donate my thrashed-out clothing and write off the value as a charitable deduction. I will have to remember that now, clothes that I had previously deemed suitable only for rags are worth fifty bucks on the market. As it happens, I saw these jeans when they were left hanging on a hook in the try-on room, and as I was pulling them off the hook to examine them, one of the prefabricated rips caught on the doorhandle and tore apart even more. I should have charged the store ten bucks for adding value to their merchandise.