If you notice the time of this posting you’ll notice it’s rather on the early side for a day in which I don’t have to be at work due to the Thanksgiving holiday. I was awakened at 6:15 this morning to the sounds of helicopters circling and hovering outside my window. An escaped convict? Horrible accident on 400? No. Black Friday. The “busiest shopping day of the year.” The helicopters were news choppers, hovering over Lenox Mall and Phipps Plaza, covering the masses of people below converging on the local Mecca of commercialism. I’m reminded of the overhead shots of the shopping mall in the remake of “Dawn Of The Dead”. It’s early, and I’m rambling. Let’s get on with it, shall we?

My final random music list of my 20’s - dare I stretch it to 30? I dare. I promise nothing. Coffee is good. Inspire me, caffeine…

1) System Of A Down - “Suite-Pee”

When I was at UGA, my buddy Kevin (who was working as a rep for Sony at the time) and I got to go to the now-defunct Cotton Club in Atlanta for a double-bill show with two relatively unknown bands: System Of A Down and Incubus. System didn’t play - the singer was having throat problems or was pissed off about American involvement in (insert backass insignificant country here) or something. Kev and I did get to kick the bass player and DJ from Incubus’s asses in pool, though. So that was fun.

2) Cake - “Cool Blue Reason”

My bro Chuk took me to see Cake at the Roxy one year - for my birthday. I wanna say it was my 25th? Or was that my 26th? Or was that Soundgarden?

3) Daryle Singletary - “You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet”

Ah, the legendary Daryle Singletary (file under: How’d This Get Here?) - I suppose I could adopt this as my mantra for my blossoming music career, maturing into a more disciplined guitar player and more experienced songwriter, but that’d be gay.

4) Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals - “The Drugs Don’t Work (Live)”

I love Ben. This is a great cover of Richard Ashcroft’s (lead singer of the Verve, who did “Bittersweet Symphony” and then got sued because the strings part in that song was ripped off from a Rolling Stones tune and they hardly got any money for it and the money they did get [especially the dough from Nike] they gave to charity) best song. Ashcroft had to edit the lyrics before it could be released - the original goes, “The drugs don’t work, they just make me worse” - the safe-for-radio edit? “The drugs don’t work, they just make you worse.” Yeah, I don’t get it either.

5) Dan Rather - “Election Night 2000″

A collection of Rather’s nonsensical quips from the controversial evening in the Presidential election. Dan Rather: he makes hokey, nonsensical blathering entertaining.

6) The Rolling Stones - “Pretty Beat Up”

How I feel. Happy Birthday to me. Ugh.

7) Interpol - “Roland”

If you don’t like Interpol, you’re stupid. I know this because every online “indie” magazine told me so.

8) Radiohead - “Lewis (Mistreated)”

The one band I haven’t seen live that I really really really want to see. U2’s great; I love U2. But they’re not the best band in the world. Sorry, Bono.

9) Collective Soul - “She Said”

The A.T.L.’s own. Not a great band, but they can lay claim to one thing: supposedly they have had more songs in regular rotation at the same time on radio stations nationwide than any other band. Thanks to my buddy Jonathan, I can’t hear this anymore without thinking he’s singing “Like chicken and shrimp-fried rice, she said…”

10) Stevie Wonder - “Overjoyed”

The two greatest things Stevie Wonder ever did? 1) “Superstition” and 2) the SNL camera commercial. If you’ve never seen it, find it. Watch it. Laugh. Blind people are HI-larious!

Stretching this to 30 might’ve been a bad idea… Must… fight… urge… to… delete… this… stupid… post… eeergghh…

11) Rancid - “Warsaw”

Rancid frickin’ rocks my nuts off. They kick Green Day’s ass. Very very hard. With steel-toed boots. They’re one of the reasons I’m the bitter cynical pissed-off dork I am today. Oy.

12) Dido - “Thank You”

Love me some Die-doh, man.

13) Tori Amos - “Little Drummer Boy”

Something here just doesn’t feel right - like if Cat Stevens covered “Hava Nagila” ¹ or something. (Is there a porn star named “TearMe Anus”? That’d be hella awesome.)

14) Andrey and Victor - “The Entertainer”

These two guys came from Eastern Europe, setttled down at UGA, and proceeded to collectively blow the minds of a lot of people. Victor (cello) was actually better and had more cello-cred worldwide than any of his music professors at UGA. Andrey (violin) dated Luci for a while, and if they had had kids those kids would have been able to play any instrument with their minds alone 30 seconds removed from the birth canal ².

15) U2 - “Running To Stand Still”

One of U2’s best hymns - not a song, a hymn.

16) Paul Simon - “Still Crazy After All These Years”

Apropos.

17) Beastie Boys - “That’s It, That’s All”

I’d like to preface this by saying I freakin’ love the Beastie Boys… but their latest album is ass. Pure ass. You’re not a fan of Bush and American foreign policy. We get it. In fact we got it after the first track. For the love all that is holy, can we please get back to “You got a boomin’ system but it’s kickin’ out doo-doo / You think it’s chocolate milk but it’s watered-down Yoo-hoo”? Thanks.

18) Ben Harper - “The Woman In You”

Our first repeat performer this glorious morn. No one’s even going to read this far. I could just type “balls” over and over again and no one would notice. Balls. Balls balls balls. Ballsballsballsballs.

19) Neil Young - “The Old Laughing Lady”

Neil Young’s a legend - I won’t deny that. But dude, maybe it’s just me and my old age talking here, but all his songs sound exactly the same ³.

20) Billy Pilgrim - “She Gets Away With It”

At the risk of sounding sensitive, emotional, or some crap, Billy Pilgrim was always there for me on my stereo - from 15ish to today. Or in other words, half my life. Damn. Half my life. Damn.

21) Uncle Tupelo - “Effigy”

Um… yeah.

22) Beastie Boys - “I Don’t Know”

“I Don’t Know” is right. As in, I don’t know why I’m doing this.

23) Kristian Bush - “Out Of The City”

Kristian was in Billy Pilgrim. Now he’s in Sugarland, one of the most popular country bands around now. I’m still wondering how that happened.

24) John Prine - “Grandpa Was A Carpenter”

Awesome song. Awesome, awesome, awesome song. His grandpa voted for Eisenhower because Lincoln won the war. Logic be damned - more people should vote like that.

OK, I’m gonna stop at 24. 24’s significant because that’s when I *cough* became a man. At least I think so, the details are kinda fuzzy.

Georgia/Georgia Tech preview prayer to come…

DAve

¹ I don’t know if this is spelled right - I don’t speak Jew.

² My apologies to Luci for mentioning her birth canal.

³ I’ve never used the superscript tag before. Wheeeee.