SUNDAY SHUFFLE #137

It's not been a good week - my back seized up on me Tuesday morning and I spent a good portion of time on the floor unable to move without excruciating pain. It's gotten better as the week has gone along but I missed the last few days of school and couldn't even play cornhole at a birthday party yesterday. At least we had a great time in Baltimore and Washington D.C. for my cousin's wedding last weekend. So, I'm using the Sunday Shuffle as some comfort food this morning and I'm okay with that.

1. She's A Rejecter/Of Montreal (7)
2. Take A Rake/Centro-Matic (9)
3. Quito/The Mountain Goats (17)
4. Sex On Fire/Kings of Leon (8)
5. An Apology/Canasta (12)
6. The Next Messiah/Jenny Lewis (12)
7. Jezebel/Two Hours Traffic (15)
8. Dark Leaves Form a Thread/Destroyer (7)
9. Oh, Take Me Back/M. Ward (6)
10. And Your Bird Can Sing/Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs (2)

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #135

Today's shuffle is going to be a double issue for two reasons - today is my 38th birthday and this will be the last Sunday Shuffle for an indeterminate amount of time (more on that later). So, let's celebrate with a bunch of music...

1. Too Much to Hide/Joseph Arthur (12)
2. Weary Arms/Crooked Fingers (3)
3. Capturing Moods/Rilo Kiley (3)
4. Long As I Can See the Light/Creedence Clearwater Revival (5)
5. Slow Down Chicago/Canasta (9)
6. Jaipur/The Mountain Goats (14)
7. Time Left For Love/Shout Out Louds (8)
8. Sleep Sunshine/The Whigs (15)
9. Whatever (Folk Song In C)/Elliott Smith (12)
10. Flying High Again/Sloan (17)
11. Old Time Lovin'/Al Green (3)
12. Blood Bank/Bon Iver (5)
13. Nevermind The Phonecalls/Earlimart (12)
14. Forget Myself/Elbow (11)
15. Jigsaw/Mates Of State (6)
16. Idylls Of The King/The Mountain Goats (19)
17. Claws Tracking/Spoon (4)
18. Angela/Oakley Hall (4)
19. [Untitled Track]/The Black Keys (11)
20. Souls Like the Wheels/The Avett Brothers (5)
21. Act Of The Apostle/Belle and Sebastian (12)
22. A Sunday Smile/Beirut (4)
23. Pick Me Up/Dinosaur Jr. (10)
24. Flume/Bon Iver (9)
25. Manitoba/Tapes 'n Tapes (9)

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #121

Christmas break is finally here at the Steiner household; my wife was supposed to be in school the next two days but they were just called off due to the bitter cold (-2 right now) and the chance of a bunch of snow on Tuesday. My brother is flying in on Tuesday and I hope his flight can come in on time and that it doesn't take hours and hours to get him picked up. Other than that, there is a bunch of reading and watching and listening in my immediate future. Oh, and a lot of eating. I do plan on doing some year-end wrap-up posts and then hope to start fresh in 2009. Of course, there is still one more Sunday Shuffle left in 2008 after today. Speaking of today, here's the music...

1. Valerie/Crooked Fingers (2)
2. Poke/Frightened Rabbit (11)
3. Letter From Belgium/The Mountain Goats (18)
4. Open The Door/British Sea Power (4)
5. Spaghetti Western/Hoodoo Gurus (3)
6. Remnants/My Morning Jacket (5)
7. Acid Tongue/Jenny Lewis (6)
8. You Are Free/Mates of State (4)
9. Sugar Never Tasted So Good/The White Stripes (13)
10. Aly, Walk With Me/The Raveonettes (6)

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #116

I did tons of Algebra yesterday and have all of my chores done today, except for the laundry (and that's in progress). On my immediate agenda is the Bears/Packers game and trying to relax because it's going to be a crazy dash until Thanksgiving from here on out. Anyway, here's today's ten...

1. Fault Lines/The Mountain Goats (13)
2. Destroyer/Crooked Fingers (1)
3. Give 'Em All a Big Fat Lip/The Whigs (10)
4. Last Time in Love/Sloan (17)
5. Alone (demo)/Wilco (12)
6. Cupid's Trick/Elliott Smith (16)
7. Free Radicals Lament/Oakley Hall (4)
8. Of Evil/For Evil/South San Gabriel (3)
9. Cold Snap/Harvey Danger (12)
10. The President's Dead/Okkervil River (28)

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #115

Lots to do today (including watching the Bears try and take out the undefeated Titans), so I'm just going to get to the music...

1. Reservations (demo)/Wilco (10)
2. writing snippet: Cream and Bastards Rule/Harvey Danger (8)
3. Set in Motion/Sloan (17)
4. Slow West Vultures/The Mountain Goats (13)
5. Twenty-Four/Centro-Matic (6)
6. Black Satin/The Raveonettes (5)
7. I'm Not Mad Enough/The Clientele (8)
8. Blue In Yr Eye/Amy Millan (9)
9. Shake And Pop/Nick Lowe (6)
10. Branches/Midlake (7)

OCTOBER 2008 ROUNDUP

Suddenly, there's two months left in the year. On Thursday we were exactly 4 weeks from Thanksgiving, 8 weeks from Christmas, and 9 weeks from 2009. Crazy. Well, let's get to rounding up...

I read 1.6 books in October, bringing my total for the year to 43.6. Why is it .6? Well, I'm about 60% done with Sideways in Crime (I also read Lord Tophet). I hit last weekend hoping to get it finished by last night or at least today but I realized there was no way with my schedule. So, I switched to reading a trade and I'll dive back into the book today. I hate that my book reading has slowed down so much (this is my lowest book total this year) but there's not a whole lot that can be done. I am still ahead of pace for 48 books on the year. Last year I read 6 books in October and had read 35 on the year.

I read 19 stories in October, bringing my total on the year to 199. Those stories came from the Aug. issues of Asimov's and F&SF, as well as the afore-mentioned Sideways in Crime. Last October I read 12 stories and had read 157 on the year.

I read 4 comics in October, 3 trades (The Walking Dead Vol. 7: The Calm Before, Immortal Iron Fist Vol. 2: The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven, and Ex Machina Vol. 7: Ex Cathedra) and 1 single issue (FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF 3 WORLDS #2), which brings my total for the year to 79 comics (31 trades). Last year I didn't read any comics in October and was holding steady at 109 comics read (23 trades).

I downloaded 7 CDs and 1 song in October, bringing my total to 74 discs and 9 songs. I'll cover the eMusic downloads in a separate post - the other CD was the new Mountain Goats EP, Satanic Messiah, and the song was "The Kingdom" by John Vanderslice. Last October I got or downloaded 8 CDs and had reached a total of 90 for the year.

I didn't see any movies in October and my total for the year is holding at 7. I didn't see any movies last October but my total was 14 for the year at that point.

And we're done.

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #106

This week I layer in the third of my jobs, teaching swimming lessons once again. So I will be working at the elementary school every day from 8:30 to 3:15, going to school four nights a week, and now teaching swimming two nights a week plus Saturday mornings. The good news is I don't need to learn anything about teaching swimming since I've been doing it for so many years. The bad news is my time is going to get tighter but that's what I signed up for. It'll be fine.

Now I'll shut up and give you some songs...

1. Gang Bang Suicide/Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew (7)
2. Pre-Crimson/Apples In Stereo (9)
3. Most People Are DJs/The Hold Steady (13)
4. Faust Arp/Radiohead (19)
5. Somebody Changed/The Clientele (7)
6. Song From Debby's Stairs/M. Ward (7)
7. Fox Confessor Brings The Flood/Neko Case (5)
8. What Happened.../Grandaddy (12)
9. Baboon/The Mountain Goats (10)
10. I Wish I Was/The Twilight Singers (13)

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #100

I can't believe I've done 100 of these things already. What's scarier is that this is my 518th post, which means Sunday Shuffle makes up 19.3% of my total blog posts. I guess that shouldn't be too big of a shock, especially since I've been posting very sparsely of late. I had been toying with stopping this feature once I got to 100 or even stopping the blog for a while, but I'm going to keep going and let whatever happens happen. It's one of my Sunday rituals (along with Sports Reporters and Baseball Tonight half of the year) and I enjoy it too much to let it go. You know what, let's make today's a double too...

1. The Windows on the World/American Music Club (8)
2. Black Buttons/Portastatic (15)
3. the sun fell on you (ps 119:82)/The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers (26)
4. Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down (live)/Jeff Tweedy (3)
5. Elvis, I Don't Love You Anymore/Harvey Danger (8)
6. Psalm/M. Ward (7)
7. Pretty Girl from San Diego/The Avett Brothers (4)
8. Meat Is Murder/Shout Out Louds (6)
9. Ella's Arms/Warren Zanes (11)
10. I Fought Piranhas/The White Stripes (10)
11. All My Banks/The Whigs (11)
12. Fakey Fake/Earlimart (11)
13. Slow Show (Daytrotter session)/The National (5)
14. Metal School/Spoon (5)
15. Quito/The Mountain Goats (16)
16. London Bridges/Josh Rouse (7)
17. First Few Desparate Hours/The Mountain Goats (13)
18. Stop Breathin/Pavement (6)
19. It's Now/Imperial Teen (6)
20. Last Year's Rain Didn't Fall Quite So Hard/The Twilight Sad (5)

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #84

It was over 60 degrees yesterday and is supposed to be even nicer today. Thank goodness spring has finally arrived!

1. Chips Ahoy/The Hold Steady (27)
2. Fear City/Elliott Smith (8)
3. Totally Free/Elk City (8)
4. Slow Show (live)/The National (3)
5. Wild West Love Song/Marah (5)
6. The Way The Lazy Do/Dr. Dog (3)
7. Strong Boy/Brendan Benson (16)
8. The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton/The Mountain Goats (10)
9. Hot Soft Light/The Hold Steady (23)
10. The Garden at Night/The Clientele (7)

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #78

It's the Oscar-edition of Sunday Shuffle, which means...well, nothing. While I did see more movies in the theater last year than I have in a long long time, I still didn't see anything up for the main categories tonight. No No Country For Old Men. No Juno. The only category I'm truly up on is Animated Feature - I saw two of the three nominees! Still, I'm going to watch (and read during long sections of the broadcast as well). Right now? Ten songs, coming at ya...

1. Bottom of the World/Tom Waits (6)
2. Satellite/TV On The Radio (11)
3. Penpals/Sloan (10)
4. The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton/The Mountain Goats (9)
5. I Understand/Sloan (15)
6. Non-Pythagorean Composition 3/Apples In Stereo (9)
7. Roscoe/Midlake (10)
8. You Know What It's About/Sloan (11)
9. South America/Shout Out Louds (7)
10. You and Me/Archers of Loaf (10)

HEAVY ROTATION #2

Once again, in lieu of writing actual music reviews I thought I'd quickly mention what I can't stop listening to of late. I've had plans to institute a "Midweek Music Review" but haven't quite done it. There's always next week!

Earlimart/Mentor Tormentor
Band of Horses/Cease To Begin
The Mountain Goats/All Hail West Texas

Get your hands on 'em!

eMUSIC ROUND TWENTY-ONE

My subscription rolled over on Sunday, so it's time to mention what I grabbed in October...

The Mountain Goats/All Hail West Texas - Let my Mountain Goats obsession continue!

Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew/Spirit If... - This is like the BSS record I have - some really good stuff and some stuff that makes me say "eh." I can live with that.

Pavement/Slanted & Enchanted - Can you believe this is my first Pavement? Yeah, I don't know how I missed them the first time around either.

Saturday Looks Good To Me/Fill Up the Room - For some reason, I had thought this was an emo band. It's not. They write great pop songs with a bit of a 60s sound.

Sloan/Twice Removed - It was time to pick up another Sloan. This is my third and there will be more.