LOOKING FOR THE FUCKING FLOWERS

Gladiola Dialog

Amberglo
Antique rose
Aztec gold
Blue beauty

Blue symphony
Bombay
Bridal veil
Calliope

Candy cane
Carved ivory
Creation
Daydream
Devotion

Elegance
Emerald
Empire yellow
Eventide
Flamenco

Grand illusion
Isle of fire
Majestic star
Meteorite

Midnight moon
Nectarine
Obsession

Opaline
Painted lips
Peachy keen
Phantom

Rare jewel
Red alert
Red dandy

Regal robe
Saxony
Sheer poetry

Smokestack
Solar flare
Summer rose
Tall dark blue
Top honor

True love
Violence
Visual arts

FAUNING HISSER

You know how I can tell that Hissing Fauna is a genius album? It basically ends with 1/4 of a Pink Floyd song (Labyrinthian Pomp), 3/4 of a Franz Ferdinand song (She's a Rejecter), and about 1/3 of a Cure song (We Were Born the Mutants Again With Leafling), yet still manages to be brilliant.

Winning!

THE SILENCE OF ICE

Next in our series of Broadcast/of Montreal connections: the reference to “Valerie and Her Week of Wonders” from St. Exquisite's Confession.

"Valerie" is a very weird Czech film from 1970, which led to a very beautiful Broadcast song from Haha Sound.

Here's two great tastes that taste great together...

AT HOME HE'S A TOURIST

You know what's the perfect soundtrack for when you put in an offer on a house you really love, only to get outbid by someone else? Entertainment!

And I was listening me to some Gang of Four today...

FEARNLEY, FINER, STACY, RANKEN, HUNT, CHEVRON, WOODS

I'm going to forgo praising Shane for being ambulatory, relatively coherent, and well, alive.

Instead: All hail the Pogues (the band)! I mean, those old buggers are furious, maudlin, and festive, and can change course at the drop of a die.

Can they be sloppy, and fall out of sync just as easily? Well fuck yes, but they're kind of predicated on that, you know...

I THOUGHT OF TOMORROW

If you had told me 20 years ago that on St. Patrick's Day 2009 I'd be suiting up for my third original-lineup Pogues' show in four years, I would have called you daft.

So glory be to god for improbabilities and shit...

TODAY’S THE DAY THE BE@RBRICKS HAVE THEIR DISCO

I finally figured out a suitable place to put my electronic disco ball.

It hovers in the corner of my desk, spinning like a fabulous planet. The motor groans like a fish-tank filter.

And now my Be@rbricks and their friends have a reason to cross the bridge into Brooklyn.

Currypanman and Kappa Anpanman stand in their dance cages and survey the crowd. Crystal Jelly Be@r downrocks like a mutha. Escher Be@r and Blue Gumby Girl do the robot in mirror form. Qee Keychain Bear checks out their moves, while Saw the Movie Be@r goes full-on Manero.

Brothers and sisters, how deep is your love?

THE LETTER

OK, Post Alpha-Bits no longer resemble letters for shit.

They should call it Post Ankhs 'n Twigs, which is a fairer description of what ends up in your bowl.

Man, if America can't recapture its cereal-making magic, it is a doomed empire for certain...

MOODS THAT TAKE ME

Finally took the time to watch Once over the weekend. (Full disclosure: I used the closed captioning.)

It was agreeably slight.

I mean, I enjoyed it, but I didn't cry a lick. And I get misty watching the fecking roller derby.

But that scene where they perform Falling Slowly? I've watched that a couple of times each day since.

Damn, that is one fine Oscar-winning song right there...

CHOCOLATE

Got a new cell phone last month, and expanded my ringtone options. Here’s my current list, along with the segment of each song that plays:

Surrender, Cheap Trick

Mommy’s alright, daddy’s alright
They just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender
But don’t give yourself away…



Gronlandic Edit, of Montreal

I guess it would be nice
To give my heart to a god
But which one, which one do I choose?
All the churches filled with losers
Psycho or confused…



Connection, The Rolling Stones

Connection
I just can’t make no connection
But all I want to do
Is to get back to you.
Everything is going in the wrong direction…



Papercuts, Broadcast

You can’t pretend ‘cause I can see
You’re not the boy you used to be
Trust me with a secret you can’t keep.
I watch your eyes they shift with doubt
So every night when stars come out
I try to read your personality…



King of Carrot Flowers, Part 1, Neutral Milk Hotel

When you were young you were the king of carrot flowers
And how you built a tower tumbling through the trees
In holy rattlesnakes that fell all around your feet...



Did You See the Words, Animal Collective

Do the elderly couples still kiss and hug and grab their big wrinkly skin so tough wrinkly wrink wrink wrinkly rough...



So give me a call sometime. I probably won’t answer, but give me a call…

PITCHER THIS

Genuine Saberhagens are exceedingly rare. Dear Catastrophe Waitress could be one. Maybe Peace and Love.

Now you might think initially that The Beatles' white album is a Saberhagen. But it's not.

The white album is actually a Phil Niekro.

That is, it gets by on a gimmick pitch, and is just as likely to win as it is to lose. It is revered out of proportion to its quality, and earns esteem for its sheer length.

Damn that knuckler...

CRAZY WAY OF LOVING

My buddy brain coral posited the other day that only every other track on Merriweather Post Pavillion is strong.

I call this kind of album a Saberhagen, in honor of former MLB pitcher Bret Saberhagen. He had a knack at the beginning of his career for doing poorly in even-numbered years while excelling in the odd ones:

1984: 10-11
1985: 20-6
1986: 7-12
1987: 18-10
1988: 14-16
1989: 23-6
1990: 5-9
1991: 13-8

Man, there’s something damn near poetic/heroic about that pattern…