Music Diary Project, Day Two

Between 9-10 am, last.fm radio
The Mountain Goats - "There Will Be No Divorce"
Rufus Wainwright - "Not Ready to Love"
The Killers - "All These Things That I've Done"
The Monkess - "You Just May Be the One"

A lot of my music listening, especially in the morning, is background stuff: something to cut the silence while I'm checking email or going through my blog feeds. When I'm actually writing or working, I prefer the silence. My personal last.fm radio is a godsend when I'm away from the computer that stores most of my music, and being able to add songs to a playlist allows me to be a bit more adventurous without actually purchasing them. It functions largely as a glorified iPod shuffle, since they don't really have on-demand listening anymore. I say shuffle though I skip around a lot, so my playlist ends up being a bit more "groomed" than one would think. I've been listening to a lot of Mountain Goats lately (My goal is to write short stories the way John Darnielle writes songs), and The Killers' Hot Fuss is usually relegated to workout playlists. I once got into it with someone on a music forum defending the Killers as a really good mainstream rock band -- which they are, and there's nothing wrong with that. They have all the makings of a good, mainstream rock band: a super-cute lead frontman who sings everything with absolute conviction even when the lyrics are trite, great hooks that stick in your head for days, and just enough major label sheen.

In the grocery store this afternoon:
k.d. lang - "Constant Craving"
Aerosmith - "Walk This Way"

I wasn't going to include incidental shopping music (because I rarely pay that much attention to it), but I thought these two songs in tandem deserve mention, if only because it's a pretty good artistic leap from k.d. lang to Aerosmith.

At home, a few hours later:
Beth Ditto - EP
Gossip - "Standing in the Way of Control"
Grace Jones - "Art Groupie"

My cat will sit mesmerized, staring at the computer screen or stereo, whenever I play Grace Jones. I wish I knew what she was hearing. I'm almost tempted to google any studies on an animal's response to music, but even I'm not that much of a nerd.



I downloaded the new Beth Ditto EP this morning, so this was my first chance to listen to it. So far I like it -- a lot -- but I'm secretly glad she released an EP than a full album of dance tunes.

Nina Simone - "My Way"
Grace Jones - "Nightclubbing"
Nikka Costa - "Push & Pull"
Juanna Molina - "Dar (Que Dificil)

8 PM, RuPaul's Drag Race
Paula Abdul - "Straight Up"

Made exponentially better by being lip-synced by disrobing drag queens.