I've Lost that Lovin' Listening

Sometime in the last 2 years I have stopped needing music. I still crave specific songs occasionally, and when I'm borrowing a car and driving around, I do tend to scan the channels. But 98% of the time now when I want sound, I turn on NPR.

Combine this change with my past accumulation of obsolescent technology and a recent move, and you have...the great CD give away! See something you like? Contact me and I will send it to you (or, for Seattleites, bring it by the next time we hang). See something you gave me? Please don't take it personally that your musical offering did not make the cut and the soundtrack to "Follow that Bird" did. See something that I borrowed from you and forgot about? Sorry! Let me know.

In no order and spanning levels of time, space, fame, and quality:
Broken Social Scene, Bee Hives
The Turn-Ons, East
Drexel, Catch em while they're still alive
Rajini, Speak Truth '07
Beth Orton, Trailer Park and Daybreaker
Adam Sandler, What the hell happened to me?
The Gene Harris/Scott Hamilton Quintet, At Last
St. Germain, Tourist
Coldplay, Parachutes
Ridin' High (?)
Jay Jay Johanson, Antenna
Better than Ezra, Best Of
Henry Hanks, untitled?
Japanese HeepHop (?)
Bob Dylan, Greatest Hits Volume II
Mask Phantoms, The Spang Nut God Banner
Louis Armstrong, Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy
Danny Massure, What it Is
The Get Up Kids, Something to Write Home About
The Magnetic Fields, The Charm of the Highway Strip
Ms. Led, Afternoon in Central Park
Carole King, Tapestry
The Smashing Pumpkins, Tarantula
OK Go, Oh No
James Taylor, Greatest Hits
Nate Newcomer, Edgewater Alienation (featuring bonus "Freddie Got Fingered" DVD! Actually if you want this you can have it independently too).
Sarah McLachlan, Mirrorball
Band of Horses, Everything All the Time
M. Ward, Transfiguration of Vincent
MIA, Diplo Piracy Funds Terrorism 1611
Death Cab for Cutie, Transatlanticism and You Can Play These Songs With Chords
Morcheba, Sampler
Goo Goo Dolls, Before It's Too Late
The Beatles, White Album
Eagle-Eye Cherry, Feels so Right
Whit Press Presents: City to City, Seattle Reads New York
Buttersprites, Buttersprites
Reef Encounter, untitled?
Cowboy Junkies, Black Eyed Man
Can You Read this Boston?
Lou-Lou, Bad Puppy
Martin Sexton, Wonder Bar
My So-Called Life soundtrack (I know, I know, but it doesn't actually have the featured Buffalo Tom song...it has a different one)
Brown Bird and Justin Kennedy, untitled?
Cornershop, Handcream for a Generation
Marc Bolan and T. Rex, 20th Century Boy
Femi Kuti, Sampler
Moby, Play
Dateless, Demo
Kevin Barker, Currituck County

When The Cover Song is The First One You Hear

A few years ago, my brother made me a mix CD of people performing covers - Billy Corgan singing "Landslide," K.D. Lang singing "Joker," etc. My favorite was Toots and the Maytals doing "Country Roads." West Jamaica!

Another song I loved off of this album was Social Distortion's version of "Ring of Fire." I'd never heard Johnny Cash sing it, and when I did, out of a jukebox at a bar, I thought it was too slow and, well, kind of boring. The fact that I had made it to my mid-twenties without becoming familiar with Johnny Cash was seen by some friends as blasphemous in and of itself. But to not like "Ring of Fire"?

I know I'm not alone. My mother knew the Fifth Dimension's version of "Wedding Bell Blues" before she knew that Laura Nyro had done it first.

We all have first loves. But sometimes your first love isn't technically first.