Birthday Albums

I am planning my 31st b-day party.  Man, is that weird.  Any-hoo, I am leaning toward an album covers theme.  You know, potentially having people dress like people on album covers or the whole cover or however they want to interpret the theme.  I looked up birthday album cover and found some pretty nifty ones (and a few that were down right horrifying.)

Used this one for my event cover picture on the book-face.  You just can't go wrong with Stevie.

Almost used this one.  I love the artist and it is just random and weird, much like having your 31st birthday party.  Side note:  I have a model kit of one of these monster dragsters that I picked up in a local hobby shop. I need to get on that.

Awwwww, love.

"HOLY CRAP! CAKE!" You know she would have been pissed if she didn't get one of those huge, pink, frosting flowers on her piece. (P.S. I hate frosting flowers.)

There is a wonderful fro, right there.  Nuff said.

This album cover is just excellent.  Bonus points cause it is also creepy.  Blech, that dude in red is looking at me!

I dig the pseudo, Peter Max-sque style.

You know what? Everydaze IS my birthday, Shitz Bubz!  And you are invited, Moe Sticky!

Thanks boys!

Whoa.  You only wish you were that hipster.

And.....................nightmare.

 

The Bird, Bee, Hall and Oates.

I am really digging the Bird and the Bee's tribute to Hall and Oates. The album is called, Interpreting the Masters Volume 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates, which implies to me that there are more masters they plan to interpret. Oooo, I'm excited for more!

Hall and Oats is one of my first favorite bands and probably one of the first albums that I listened to and loved from start to finish.  I vividly remember swinging on the swings with my portable boom box, listening to one of their tapes over and over.  My best friend and I even had made up dance moves for the song, "Private Eyes".  The moves mostly involved miming the different parts of the chorus, as you do with song lyrics when you are a kid, but we thought we were pretty cool.

I love the Bird and the Bee's unique take on the songs and I appreciate that they kept the music very much the same, but add a bit to modernize the songs and spice them up.  Inara George's voice is so sweet and sultry! I adore their version of Sara Smile. Can't get it out of my head!

Helplessness Blues

Very excited for the new Fleet Foxes album! However, I am not so happy that they are not coming any where near the cities so I won't get to see them on this tour. Maybe I will get lucky and they will come to Lollapalooza or Pitchfork, but I won't hold my breath.

Upon first listening to the new single of the same name of the album, I was not that thrown. I stayed with it and the song just got better and better and by the end I was completely sold. Dang, do they blow me away with their harmonies. I love songs that feel like multiple songs in one. Thank you Minnesota Public Radio for keeping me in the music loop, otherwise I might not have know about the new album this soo. You can listen to the single on Fleet Foxes' site.

http://www.fleetfoxes.com/helplessness-blues.html

Still can't believe how lucky I was that I got to see them at the 7th street entry. I could have reached out and wiped the sweat off Robin Pecknold's brow if I had wanted to.

The album Helplessness Blues comes out May 3rd.

More cds...I MEAN RECORDS!

Yeah, I keep calling them cds. And sometimes I call dvds tapes and the player the VCR. But I don't say WTF and OMG. So there.

Still not sure how I want to organize my records. So far I have been sort of dividing them into genres like hair bands, or folk/country.

Here is the second part of the list of my RECORDS! (Dang it, I almost typed CDs. What is wrong with me?!!)

(Obviously we are starting with my soundtracks then moving into 80s/90s and my only new-ish stuff, Bjork. Are you surprised?)

1. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (the cover is hanging on the wall)
2. Footloose
3. a Simple Minds single (from the Breakfast club sound track)
4. Heartbeat of the 80's
5. She's So Usual by Cyndi Lauper
6. Eat to the Beat by Blondie
7. Dream Police by Cheap Trick
8. In My Tribe by 10,000 Maniacs
9. Tonight by David Bowie
10. It's in Our Hands remix single by Bjork (and a couple DJs) (my favorite Bjork song)
    
11. Medulla by Bjork (this is the other album cover that is on the wall)
    

I'm still not done, I'll add more later.

So, I got about 120 78s from my mom's side of the family. One of her uncles, I think. There are a bunch of great names. Seem to be mostly from the 30's and 40's. Most of the other records I own are used so I have a bunch of dirty records but this is ridiculous. They are beyond filthy. I am also annoyed because, besides not wanting to play them until I clean them properly for fear of destroying my needle, my record player requires a special pulley to play 78s. Boo.

I did put one on to see what it sounded like. Obviously it was too slow to hear properly. The surface noise was really bad, I'm assuming from the filth. And they are so heavy. I wonder if they are made of shellac or celluloid. If they are celluloid "unbreakable" records that may also be adding to the loud surface noise.

This record habit was a bad idea, as I knew it would be. I want so badly to buy some fancy cleaning products and tools and the 78 rpm pulley right now! But, I have to be good and save my money... For now.

Records, Records, Records but not a drop to drink...

I am going to attempt to keep track of new music I acquire for my own benefit and that of anyone that is curious what music I have or don't have and need to get (I love being told what music I need, don't hesitate to add you two cents, please!)

I am going to start with Vinyl because I recent started a collection and I have less vinyl than I do CDs.

Went to National Record Store Day and got tons of fun records, a cd and a dvd.

Records:

1. Thriller by Michael Jackson (no album cover but only $1!)
2. Revolver by Beatles (same as above)
3. Homecoming by America ($1)
4. The American Graffiti Sound Track ($6, good stuff and I had too cause I already had "More of American Graffiti" at home so had to get the first)
5. Cyan by Three Dog Night ($1)
6. Teaser and the Firecat by Cat Stevens ($1, really good condition)
7. No Jacket Required by Phil Collins ($1)
8. Breakfast in America by Super Tramp ($1, I didn't know Super Tramp before, love them now)
9. Naked Eyes ($2)
10. Breakaway by Art Garfunkel ($1)
11. Summer Breeze by Seals and Croft ($1)
12. The Muppet Show 2 ($4 I love me some Muppets and I was excited it has Time in a Bottle, I loved that Muppet sketch growing up!)
13. Little Queen by Heart ($3)
14. Remember How Great Volume 2 ($1, oldies obviously)
15. Some Enchanted Evening by Blue Oyster Cult ($1 with no cover)
16. At the Speed of Sound by Wings ($3)

The CD was Tom Waits Franks Wild Years and the DVD was the Brak Show.

Haven't listened to all of it yet but so far I love the Super Tramp Album, I've listen to it a couple times. I can't take credit for this one, I almost passes it by and a new friend of mine told me to get it. Thank god. I knew many of the songs from one thing or another (I think movies, maybe?) but didn't know who did the songs I had heard. I am now a Super Tramp fan. Let me know what other Super Tramp albums I should get. (Doesn't Rob negatively call Ian a Super Tramp fan in High Fidelity?)


Also, here is the beginning of the list of the records that I got for Xmas from Megan, Andy and Brian (if you know the gift givers it will explain a lot):
Purple Rain
Bat Out of Hell
The Soft Parade
REO Speed Wagon 1970 to 1980
Leftoverture
Chicago 16
Chicago X
Santana
Van Halen II
More American Graffiti
(There are about 20+ more but I am going to bed! Will list the rest later.)