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I once used Comfort Eagle to end a movie I made with my son and daughter, and as the credits rolled we got that super-duper bass line that runs through, and I will always always always associate that song with the end of that movie. Roll credits. Go. Very cool way to step out of the movie, folks. If I ever make a movie for public consumption, this might just be the way to end it.

Um, depending on the movie, of course.

Dance.

Comfort Eagle

Okay. When Mr. Shatner says "I Want You to Be You," he says it exactly as you would expect him to say it... and he has the chops to put you in your place while doing so. And when he says "well maybe not the capris," you lose the capris, dammit. This may be the highest of the high on all the Shatner albums (and this one was produced by Ben Folds, so it does exactly what it should be doing). He has become his own self-reflective empire, and that is exactly as he seems to like it. Nay, love it. Say no more. I shall say no more.

Except this.

Spit out the gum it doesn't work.

Ever hear anybody make fun of folks who take the ukulele seriously? Those folks obviously haven't heard James Hill turning in the goods on a classic like this one. Makes me proud to own a ukulele, even if I can't actually play it.

Bless you, Mr. Hill.

You say you wanted to hear Canon in D on Ukulele? Well here it is. And it's a fine version of it too. Maybe not what you want played at your wedding, but who am I to tell you what to play at your wedding? Honestly, you could do worse. And I rather think it's a heck of a lot more interesting to hear music that's been wrought to death by a kazillion musicians being played in an unusual way on unusual instruments rather than hear it one more time by folks dressed in tuxedoes. So this works for me. All the better for us.

I wouldn't have expected of myself, but this track has me singing really loud in the car, trying to match Ms. Welch's intensity and empathize with the ... problem, I suppose ... of being too long in the lowlands. Hell, I don't think I even know what that means, but Gillian Welch makes me feel what it means even if I don't know what it means, and that really knocks me on my ass, and I can't stop myself...

As you can imagine, I do get the looks from passersby. But I don't give a rat's. They've clearly been too long in the lowlands ... and don't even know it. Let them weep. You weep too.

Lowlands |

The best thing about "Busting Up a Starbucks" is, of course, it's about busting up a Starbucks, and I know you've wanted to bust up a Starbucks. Every time I go in that place and say, "I'd like a double twelve ounce latte, please," and they respond, "okay, that's a double tall latte," I feel like throwing a chair.

On second thought, maybe I better not throw the chair.

On third thought, the best thing about "Busting Up a Starbucks" is listening to Mike Doughty mispronounce Tukwila (and other assorted localities). I can't tell if he's mispronouncing them on purpose, or if he's doing it out of ignorance, or if he's doing it because he knows something that I don't... and that's tricky... how does he get away with that? It's all kind of wonderful, you know? Because if Maroon 5 or Ryan Adams or Beyoncé came in and did that, you would be pretty certain why.

Wonderfully outrageous and tricky songwriting... as usual.

Interesting primarily for its 80s appeal, this probably won't remain on my playlist for long, but it sure is fun to listen once in awhile and remember my bleached out hair and ridiculously narrow ties.

Bless those 80s, folks. And may you all have long lives and longer hair.

Sometimes a track just doesn't make sense. You don't know why you love it. You don't know why you want to listen to it over and over again. But it does something to you in your belly that you just know you are going to have to do something about. So you listen again. And again and again and again.

When "Perfect Scrambled Eggs" first arrived in the KUPS studios, I wore a groove in the record. I played it way too often, and people started to notice. "Stop playing that stupid song about scrabled eggs! It's not even a song, dammit!"

I didn't care. And I still don't. It still gets me when the instructional voice goes all sinister at the end.

Eggs are one of life's great delicacies. They deserve to be treated with respect. Right?

Eek. Right. Whatever you say.

Play it again.