3 exceptions to rules

The Smashing Pumpkins - We Only Come Out at Night http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHSPVNbF5lY

I was avoiding my landlord last Tuesday. Just don't like the guy. I didn't want alcohol so I looked for a coffee shop. The first coffee shop that I stumbled upon still open at 8:30pm was a christian focused coffee shop. I bought a soy and caramel concoction I'd had before. The place features art from local and regional artists in a gallery upstairs and it's free, so I go there sometimes. This experience was different. It was like night and day. Unless you proselytize I don't have a problem with people who believe in some form of religion. This is doubly true because I was choosing to go where these people were, but most of the people there that night were jerks. I was grunted at by the barista. I got the sense he didn't want to be serving me. maybe he had a terrible day. If that wasn't the reason he just should have come out and said "I don't like something about you." I kept getting mean-mugged by either some of the the dozen people in bible study being held in an open corner of the bookstore portion or the handful of retirees that were also present. Getting leered at happens periodically but it generally happens much less here in L-town, I guess the christian coffee shop was an exception to that generality. Whatever it was, I left after I'd finished half my drink.


Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals - In the Colors http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZwZDEMORtY

This was the first song I heard today. My favorite albums have some form of a timeline for lack of a better describing word or phrase. A few tracks will build up to a point, one or two will reach/describe that point and the rest will return the album to a sense of equilibrium. The whole of an album in my opinion should be more than the sum of it's parts. Ben Harper and the IC's have never been too focused about an album's musical layout. What I mean is that on their records a really fast-paced loud track will come before a slow crooning one, a really happy song will come before a really depressing track. With most other bands or groups, the lack of structure in an album pisses me off. Ben Harper and the IC's are an exception to that rule. The whole album called Lifeline is worth buying. There is no real sense of 'first this, then that" in it's track order, but what is there is really pleasant. In the Colors is a low-key song that makes me take a step back and exhale. Most tracks on this album help with that, the subject matter of the speak readily to an often-sleepy 20-something.


Litmus test of the week

The Ramones - I Want to be Sedated http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMD7Ezp3gWc

Screw The Monster Mash or other common Halloween tracks. This is the song that reminds me of Halloween the most. It does it in October only. If I hear it any other month, it is one of many rad tracks by the Ramones. They helped define punk music in America and didn't give a fuck what anyone thought in the process. If your girlfriend/significant other/hopefully either; can rock out to this during Halloween or any other time of the year, my only thought on the matter is an English fox-hunting term Tally-Ho! (Go for it).