shot after shot, shot after shot

Another in my barrage of terrible music posts. Since it is Kelly week (why not?) I just spent about twenty minutes unsuccessfully attempting to change my voicemail message on my phone to the hook of this song:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/2040124c3fc92b/

Enjoy. I mean it.

my music collection exposed

I’m not quite sure why I’m doing this, but I feel the need. I want the world to know (okay, the three of you that might read this) exactly what the current contents of my (rather conservatively-sized) music library are. This is not a cry for help, or a plea for attention, this is just me exposing myself… err… my music collection. The good, the bad, the ugly. Guilty pleasures and all.

The Album Leaf – In A Safe Place
The Album Leaf – Into The Blue Again
The Appleseed Cast – Mare Vitalis
The Appleseed Cast – Two Conversations
Arcade Fire – Funeral *
Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
Band Of Horses – Everything All The Time
The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
Benjamin Gibbard – Home Volume Five
The Blood Brothers – Burn, Piano Island, Burn *
The Blood Brothers – Crimes
The Blood Brothers – Young Machetes
Blue Scholars – Blue Scholars
Brand New – The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me
Brandtson – Dial-In Sounds
Broken Social Scene – Broken Social Scene
Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It In People
Cam’ron – Purple Haze
Clipse – Hell Hath No Fury
Coldplay – A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Coldplay – Parachutes
Copeland – Beneath Medicine Tree
Copeland – In Motion
Counting Crows – August And Everything After
Damien Rice – O
Dashboard Confessional – The Swiss Army Romance
Death Cab For Cutie – Forbidden Love
Death Cab For Cutie – The Photo Album
Death Cab For Cutie – Plans
Death Cab For Cutie – Transatlantacism *
Death Cab For Cutie – We Have The Facts And We’re Voting Yes
Earlimart – Treble & Tremble
Elliott Smith – Either/Or
The Fall Of Troy – Ghost Ship
The Fugees – The Score
Grizzly Bear – Yellow House
Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days
Iron & Wine – The Shephard’s Dog
Jimmy Eat World – Clairty
Justin Timberlake – FutureSex/LoveSounds
Lucero – Tennessee
The Mars Volta – De-Loused In The Comatorium
Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On
Matt Pond PA – The Green Fury
Matt Pond PA – If You Want Blood
Matt Pond PA – The Nature Of Maps
Matt Pond PA – Several Arrows Later
Menomena – Friend And Foe
Mewithoutyou – Brother, Sister
Michael Jackson – Thriller
Nas – Illmatic
Nick Drake – Pink Moon
Norah Jones – Come Away With Me
Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
Owen – At Home With Owen
Owen – I Do Perceive
Owen – No Good For No One Now
Pedro The Lion – Control
Pedro The Lion – It’s Hard To Find A Friend
Peter And The Wolf – Lightness
The Postal Service – Give Up
Radiohead – OK Computer
Ratatat – Ratatat
Rocky Votolato – The Brag And Cuss
Rocky Votolato – Burning My Travels Clean *
Rocky Votolato – End Like This
Rocky Votolato – Light and Sound
Rocky Votolato- Makers
Rocky Votolato – Rocky Votolato
Rocky Votolato – Suicide Medicine
Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker
Sigur Ros – Takk
Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Spoon – Gimme Fiction
Stars – Set Yourself On Fire
Sufjan Stevens – The Avalanche
Sufjan Stevens – Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lakes State *
Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans
Swords – Metropolis
T.I. – King
T.I. – T.I. Vs T.I.P.
Third Eye Blind – Third Eye Blind
Thrice – The Illusion Of Safety
TV On The Radio – Return To Cookie Mountain
Waxwing – Nobody Can Take What Everybody Owns
Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Yann Tiersen – Amelie

*Denotes one of my five favorite records.

That’s it, really. This post really is that self-indulgent. I just want you to know what I listen to. That’s all.

Top 20 Albums I’ve Heard (however, when this post was originally created for another “list-blog” type of thing, I was struggling to come up with 20 albums that I actually thought were worthy, so, here it is — although, I do feel as though some of these ablums shouldn’t even belong here; Mercyful Fate, for instance, or, John Coltrane — I just suppose that my tastes have changed somewhat in the month or so from when this was originally created… I think that now, perhaps, I would replace Giant Steps with Yellow House; I don’t know what I’d do about Mercyful Fate, though… I should have more Morrissey; come to think of it, I need to listen to more Morrissey — have you fucking heard My Early Burglary Years!)

20.
19.
18.
17.
16.
15.
14.
13.
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09.
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02.
01.

another post?

Anything at all to bury that disgusting hamburger picture.

My good friend Ryan Smith plays songs under the moniker The Aviation Museum. His songs are, if nothing else, intriguing, and show a considerable talent for melody and arrangement. His first full-length record, And Ampersand, was recently mixed and mastered and is ready to be pressed. Listen to a few of his songs here: http://www.myspace.com/theaviationmuseum.

Enjoy the sunshine, kids.

welcome

By answering the following questions, which a reader of this weblog may or may not find him or herself asking, my intention with this introductory entry is to provide a bit of clarity as to what might go on here, and why.

Why is the url for this weblog northgarden.wordpress.com?

The three contributors to this weblog – Andy, Bryan, and myself, Matt – all happen to live in the same run-down apartment complex on a street named North Garden. I set this site up and really had no idea what the web address should be. Selecting a url representing the geographical commonality shared by the three of us seemed appropriate enough and relatively unrestricting.

Why doesn’t this weblog have a title? And furthermore, why not even a descriptive heading?

I couldn’t think of a title, so we don’t have one. And we’re okay with that. As far as a descriptive heading is concerned, I tried incorporating one, but with the limitations of the WordPress template being what they are such a tagline would have to overlay our header image. And we’re not okay with that.

Speaking of header images, why is yours of a child crying?

We like the image. We were aiming for something between offensive and endearing and I think we struck that balance. We also thought that such a picture accurately represented what the content of this weblog might end up becoming – whiny and/or offensive enough to, we hope, cause children to cry. We’ll see how we end up doing. We reserve the right to change our header image as often as we like, to images as ridiculous as we desire, simply because we might find doing so to be amusing.

Why do you keep using the word weblog? Don’t you realize that using that word so many times in this entry is repetitive?

I happen to have a pretty strong aversion to the sound and shape of many words, most of which contain the letter o. The abbreviated form of the word weblog – the b word – is one that strikes me as particularly ugly. It is also a word that carries a lot of implications with it, most of which I hope will not characterize the content of this particular webpage. And yes, I realize my overuse of the word weblog in this entry is repetitive. Thank you for noticing.

Okay, so what is your little “weblog” going to be about?

Well, we’ll see, I suppose. I intend on posting recommendations for books and records that I am enjoying, and the like. Andy will probably contribute his own opinions on art and culture, in addition to making fun of those less fortunate than himself. Bryan is less predictable, given his capricious nature. He’ll probably write at least one entry on beer, and at least a few on mental illnesses.

Who are you guys?

I’m Matt. Andy is my apartmentmate. Bryan is our neighbor.

When are we going to hear from those two?

Soon, I hope. Look forward to it.