17 albums

there was a huge influx of new recordings for me in the early nineties that i'm not really quite sure how i ended up with. but i listened to them a lot.

people have been posting lists of 15 songs lately on social network sites, but i am far too shy to do anything like that. so here, in the confines of my own minuscule blogarium, is yet one more, except i totally added two songs at the end. and they're not songs, they're albums.

the verve - urban hymns. i still dig that record for some reason. lots of wah-wah.

aimee mann - whatever. classic jon brion-produced mann. jim keltner is killing it. jon's no slouch on 'i should have known'

starflyer 59 - leave here at stranger. a later record for me, but such good songs. great voice. in mono. jason martin makes great records.

catherine wheel - chrome. cranked, this thing still sounds amazing. and now gil norton produces dave grohl. weird.

xtc - skylarking. i got this in 89 or so. changed my life. a friend in college thought i should hear it.

michael penn - resigned. this record sounds huge. brendon o'brien is the man. lots of great ideas, hooks, playing, etc.

cocteau twins - four-calendar cafe. i was really into programming drums at this point. and i still love chorus pedals.

the grays - ro sham bo. another shade of jon brion and jason faulkner from further below. but the jb tunes are still my favorites.

elliott smith - either-or. i remember thinking, this sounds like my recordings. but these songs are amazing.

the finn brothers. their best collaborative effort hands down. tchad blake makes it all sound so good.

crowded house - woodface. another fine finn brother collaborative. 'four seasons in one day" is beautiful.

xtc - nonsuch. they're in top form here. 'that wave' - that guitar solo is incredible. dave gregory. genius.

the blue nile - hats. the voice to end all voices: paul buchanan. 'walk across the rooftops' is also amazingly sad.

jellyfish - spilt milk. the first real attempt i hear at a vintage sounding recording. jack joseph puig. my hat is off, sir.

teenage fanclub - a catholic education. 'every picture i paint' is stunning.

red kross - phaseshifter. they are bashing it out. loud and melodic. just great. chris smart gave me a copy of this. thanks chris!

curve - cuckoo. another wall of guitar type thing that i really enjoy. and girl singers. like the english band texas. great stuff.

the sundays - blind. her voice is so lovely. i saw them with 100 other people at the majestic. it was magical.

there are a few missing, but this made up a bulk of my listening at the time. and once i got an ADAT to record with at home around 95, i was in business. the business of trying to make records that sounded like these, but with little success at first. something had to change inside me for it to work. or it just got better over time. either way, i'm happier with how things are sounding now, but it's still…meh. it's still not rubber soul….

bye aunt bea

it seems somehow disingenuous to not mention any real deaths i might encounter in my life. death is a theme throughout most of what i write, in both song and blog form. when it really does come and visit me, i feel strangely guilty about not mentioning it to you, the reader of these rather sad, odd musings.

so below is a short account of my aunt's life. it's still all sinking in so i'm keeping it on the short side - which for me is still somewhere on the long side.

my mother's oldest sister died on tuesday, september 7, 2010 a little after 6 pm.

her name was beatrice fernandez.

i knew her when she lived in el paso. she was a schoolteacher most of her life, who never married and at one point, became a deaconess in the methodist church . she was born in hillsboro, texas in 1926. she retired to austin several years ago to be closer to their youngest sister, olga.

i was able to visit occasionally. but i just assumed she would be there for as long as i liked.

she developed stomach cancer two years ago and despite her skeptic doctors, it went into remission at some point.

but last week the cancer returned.

she was the most giving person i'd ever met. she could be strict, but she really loved people in this way that i've rarely witnessed; without judgement or prejudice, with true humility.

out last time together was sunday. she was awake, but groggy. she smiled when she saw her family around her.

i played her a few songs. 'living again' and 'alfie'.

she seemed completely at peace and happy to hear us in the room with her.

my brother said he had never heard me sing before. maybe he meant really up close like that.

i hadn't thought about it until he mentioned it.

each visit, i would pull up a chair to her bed and play a few songs and chat and thank her for everything that she'd done for me and my family.

but she could only muster a few words that day. they were mostly to thank someone in the room.

love seems to warp the way we experience things.

i only feel love coming from her still, just as when she was alive. and i will feel her love until i too am dead.

so in this way, we can live on; through the legacy of good or evil retained in the repercussions of our actions that can linger long after we are dead.

this seems like the most reasonable association i could make with a concept like heaven or hell.

and so, by associating these two things, i conclude my aunt is in heaven.

and death, as weighty and final as it is, cannot defeat love.

and i learned this from her.

thank you, aunt bea.

love,

joe