The Fabled Automatic

It was a rocky start for me and the most influential band of my generation.   OK, the most influential band ever .   The British invasion hit when I was in 7 th grade.   The Beatles were everywhere.   You couldn’t get away from Beatlemania no matter how hard you tried.   When it came to the interlopers from across the pond I personally preferred the edginess of the Kinks and the driving beats of the Dave Clark Five, but the Beatles so dominated the radio stations those bands could hardly get a song in edge-wise.   Strike One. The Fab Four pushed my beloved Beach Boys from the top of the charts.   Strike Two. But what really put me off was how the girls just swooned over them.   There I was, thirteen, just starting to notice (and be noticed by?) girls, and along comes this gang of Brits with their lilting accents and long hair. Was I getting noticed any more?   Not a chance.   How was a short, skinny, prepubescent teenager supposed to compete with Paul McCartney and John Lennon?

I worked hard on the best of 2011 post and thought it turned out pretty well. However, in the last few weeks I have been listening to one major oversight from that post. Death Cab For Cutie's Codes and Keys . Sonofabitch this is a good record. They are very sonic and 'deep' but this album is 100% accessible and really shows what DCFC is all about. Great lyrics, unique lead vocal and really interesting, progressive music. I love these guys, a huge new beacon on my radar. Check it out.

So I am looking for ways to keep us more on-task as far as posting to the blog.  We appreciate all of the great feedback we have received, but as my wife (author of a much better blog than this) reminds me, if you don't post often, they don't come to read.  You may have noticed our posts tend to be long and involved; that takes time and editing, especially for a perfectionist like myself.  In an effort to improve and to give you reason to visit more often,  we are going to try and post some shorter, easier to prepare/ digest stuff that catches our attention.  Here's one: Song of the Day (won't pretend it's going to be everyday, but you get the idea). One of the great things about my job is I can wear headphones about 75% of the time.  This= lots of tunes, and I often think "I should post about this". Today it's the record Evil Urges by My Morning Jacket.  This is the only thing I own by them, but they have been in my pipeline of bands-to-check-out fo