All posts by Lance

About Lance

Lance is an online product developer and content producer based in Austin, TX. He enjoys bourbon, tacos, cocktails, tater tots, live music, karaoke and is hoping one day to run into Sasquatch or a UFO. Or a UFO flown by a Sasquatch.

Shuffle: Little Stereo + Kicking

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Soft Machine
Soft Machine

“Little Stereo”
by Teddybears (ft. Daddy Boastin)
from the album Soft Machine
2007
Buy the album on Amazon

Car therapy, it’s a thing. Windows down, music playing just a little too loud, driving just a little too fast, and with shuffle determining your fate.

I was deep in a funk this morning, feeling down on myself for a shitty show, being sick for weeks on end and general nonsense at the office.  And then I got hit with a one-two punch of pure joy.  Having a great song come up on a shuffle is the best.  Experiencing a completely unrelated, yet equally great track right on its heels is the jam.  And when all of that happens in a car where you can sing as loud as you want, off-key, out-of-time and with all the wrong lyrics rolling off of your tongue, that’s car therapy.

Continue reading Shuffle: Little Stereo + Kicking →

Album of the Month: Gish

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Gish

Gish
by Smashing Pumpkins
1991
Buy the reissue on Amazon

If I’m ever put on the spot with one of those “top ten albums of all time” questions, without hesitation, I’ll name Gish and then I’ll stumble around for while and name off albums that happen to be on high rotation at the time of the inquiry.  But Gish is always there.  In my mind it’s timeless and that has a lot of to with the lyrics. I don’t understand any of them. Continue reading Album of the Month: Gish →

November Five-Star Shuffle: “Go With The Flow”

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Songs for the Deaf
Songs for the Deaf

“Go With The Flow”
by Queens of the Stone Age
from the album Songs for the Deaf
2002
Buy the album on Amazon

Definitely a best song ever.  “Go With The Flow” will remain on the five-star playlist for a long, long time.  The music video is a gorgeous piece of work, but even without its automotive theme driving home the point, this song would be a windows-down, blasting-across-the-asphalt song.   Continue reading November Five-Star Shuffle: “Go With The Flow” →

November Five-Star Shuffle: “Solid”

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Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia

“Solid”
by the Dandy Warhols
from the album Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
2000
Buy the album on Amazon

It was bound to happen sooner or later, but I reached a five-star song on shuffle that I’m demoting after having listened to it again.  Not to say “Solid” isn’t a good song,  but I definitely gave it a bonus star just because I wanted to remember it as the theme song to the television series Undeclared.  If you haven’t seen the show, Undeclared is a Judd Apatow produced comedy set during the freshman year of college.  There are only a handful of episodes so it’s definitely worth cruising through on a binge weekend.  Plus it features Seth Rogen before he was super popular, and Charlie Hunnam before he was a Son of Anarchy.

Continue reading November Five-Star Shuffle: “Solid” →

November Five-Star Shuffle: “The New Fuck You”

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Ghetto Blaster EP
Ghetto Blaster EP

“The New Fuck You”
by Street Sweeper Social Club
from the EP Ghetto Blaster
2010
Buy the EP on Amazon

Here’s a secret about blogs: you can both write posts ahead of time and have them post in the future, or you can backdate late posts to make you look like you’re on top of your shit.  My intent with this post was to do the former… knock out a couple of posts in one night to hit my minimum of two a week so I could take my time on the monthly entry, but then this song came up on shuffle and Boots and Tom wouldn’t let me front… so here it comes two posts back-to-back.  Oh shit… “Balloon” by Catherine Wheel just came up while I was writing this graph.  Thank god I already wrote about it, otherwise I wouldn’t sleep tonight… whiskey is delicious.

Continue reading November Five-Star Shuffle: “The New Fuck You” →

November Five-Star Shuffle: “I Can See Clearly Now”

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Grosse Pointe Blank
Grosse Pointe Blank

“I Can See Clearly Now”
by Johnny Nash
from the Grosse Pointe Blank Soundtrack
1972
Buy the album on Amazon

Okay, so this came on shuffle and I was “Oh man, I might have rated this too high… riding the way from a great film.”  Then I also thought, “This is unfortunate, I just reviewed the album.”  But fuck it.  This is a magnificent song.  I’m a few drinks in.  I still stand by that statement.  I wasn’t in a great mood when I started playback, but within fifteen seconds this song had changed my mood.  That, my friends, is the power of music.  The power to change your mood from bad to good, or from sad to glad, from peaceful to menacing or even from flaccid to erect.  You know I’m right.  Whiskey is delicious.

Continue reading November Five-Star Shuffle: “I Can See Clearly Now” →

November Five-Star Shuffle: “High Speed Changer”

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Driver not Included
Driver Not Included

“High Speed Changer”
by Orange 9mm
from the album Driver Not Included
1995
Buy the album on Amazon

Oh sweet, I was hoping some Orange 9mm might crop up during this month.  I first heard these guys on a CMJ sampler when they were on their final album – Pretend I’m Human.  That album  is  great, but definitely on the more experimental side.  When I told a co-worked about this new band I had discovered, he quickly schooled me on their earlier albums.  Good call.

Continue reading November Five-Star Shuffle: “High Speed Changer” →

November Five-Star Shuffle: “Cherub Rock”

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Siamese Dream
Siamese Dream

“Cherub Rock”
by Smashing Pumpkins
from the album Siamese Dream
1993
Buy the album on Amazon

Having a Smashing Pumpkins song pop up on one of my five-star shuffles is a sure bet, particularly if it’s from the first two albums.   I was so excited when the “Cherub Rock” video debuted as I was one step closer to listening to their new album.  Their debut, Gish was and still is one of my favorite albums of all times and this new track didn’t disappoint, me at least.  The record company wanted “Today” as the first single, but Corgan strong-armed them into releasing this as the first track.  I’m glad they did – it gave me a little time to adjust to thought of my darling band becoming huge.  You could feel the shift about to happen with the Pumpkins.   Continue reading November Five-Star Shuffle: “Cherub Rock” →

MVA 101: “Lucas With the Lid Off”

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Lucascentric
Lucascentric

“Lucas With The Lid Off”
by Lucas
from the album Lucascentric
1994
Buy the album on Amazon

Music videoswere my primary form of music discovery back in the day.  Whether it was falling in love with metal bands watching “Dial MTV” or  learning about Madchester music on “120 Minutes,” I got more new music exposure via the boob tube than the boom box.

Most of the videos were cheesy, boring or both, full of concert footage, lip-synced performances or weirdly stretched-out, Vaseline-coated imagery.  But every once and awhile, music videos would stumble upon greatness and I think it’s time we called some of these out, particularly since nothing in the past 10 years is probably even watchable. Continue reading MVA 101: “Lucas With the Lid Off” →

November Five-Star Shuffle: “Somebody to Shove”

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Grave Dancers Union
Grave Dancers Union

“Somebody to Shove”
by Soul Asylum
from the album Grave Dancers Union
1992
Buy the album on Amazon

Soul Asylum is one of those bands that I never normally think about; they don’t really orbit in my 90s universe of music.  But occasionally a song of theirs will come up on the local 90s station or Pandora/Spotify/iTunes and I gotta give it up to them.  They’ve got some great tunes, and this is definitely one of them. Continue reading November Five-Star Shuffle: “Somebody to Shove” →