skyrocket in flight

I woke up this morning in a great mood, and actually slept soundly for the first time in over a week. Which is probably a good thing because I think I’m gonna need whatever I can get in the next few days. I can’t put into words how excited I am to have 4 days in a row off. It’s pathetic, I was thinking about the last time I went 4 days in a row without working and it was Austin last summer. What the fuck? I think I’m due for a vacation, but sadly this won’t be it. Anyway, after I woke up I was trying to think of something to post on here (I can’t tell if I’m already running out of stuff to throw on here or if I’m just not being creative enough – or being too critical of the stuff I consider…huh) and I literally stumbled across a CD rack that I had completely forgotten was there. I immediately found 4 CDs that I had thrown a fit looking for just 3 months ago. So that was awesome. Pile that on to a short day and I’m all sorts of ready to party. Unfortunately, I’ve got the daunting task of crossing Pennsylvania to do so. The PA Turnpike and I have a rocky past. I’ve gotten about 10 speeding tickets on this road in the 60-odd times I’ve made that trip, and it truly is the most boring drive I’ve ever made. And sadly, being familiar with every inch of the trip does not make it any more enjoyable. Regardless, I’m still psyched to see some people I haven’t had a chance to spend time with in ages. So all in all, it should be a blast.

So I figured a nice little theme for the day could be road trips. Road trips can be absolutely horrendous or insanely fun; a large factor in determining which can be the soundtrack. It’s easy to get overambitious on a road trip and throw every song you like to sing and rock out with on a CD and roll, but it’s just not that easy. You get tired of that after awhile, especially at about the halfway point. You can’t throw on a bunch of slow songs because your ass’ll fall asleep and hit an RV with a Canadian family inside of it making smores and singing Cat Stevens songs. I always aim for something that will keep me interested enough to pay attention, but also something not so over the top that I don’t lose focus on the task at hand –namely, speeding- sprinkled with rock-jams to revive me. It should be sait that this is going to be mostly for night driving. Oh, there’s a difference in the mixes there, too. Night road trips are generally head-nodders. Day road trip mixes mostly focus on the jamz. Anyway that’s all for another day.

I’ve made 5 mixes for the drive, which should do us well enough for one way and the ipod for the way back. Plus, I’ll probably buy some stuff out there. Being that it’s Pittsburgh, though, I wanna throw some songs that make me think of there and appear on the mixes I just finished making. Now I gotta make 2 more for our gracious hosts. Damn. 2 of these tracks are kinda long so I had to YSI them again. Someday I’ll drop the $50 on upgrading my account with box.net.

The first song is from one of the CDs that I was so sure I’d lost, which pissed me off incredible because it’s of a really limited pressing and the only copies I had were on cassette. This is from a live show that they put on in Memphis that largely features funk, hip-hop, and a smattering of turntablism. This track is from Peanut Butter Wolf and will always make me think of driving around South Oakland. I don’t really know why but there you have it.

Dead End – Peanut Butter Wolf (YSI link)

I couldn't find this anywhere (so I'll probably post more of it later), but buy his first album here

In 2000, DJ Shadow released a full disc of recordings of high school funk and jazz bands. The result was Schoolhouse Funk and shocked everyone who thought they knew the limitations of high school bands. This song has an unusually long drum solo in it (something I normally abhor, but bear with me) but it totally comes back in full force and is forever in my mind associated with Scouring the streets between Craig and Bigelow for parking. Not the best association, but still it’s a great tune.

The Newborn Hippopotamus/Jazz Rock Machine – Schoolhouse Funk (YSI link)

Buy Schoolhouse Funk here

RJD2 is… good for long drives. And awesome. And he lives in Philly, so he’s super cool. This is a b-side from the “Horror” single.

“Bus Stop Bitties” – RJD2

Buy The Horror here

and here's a little Fourth of July treat for ya. buy it here. The pic above is what happens when you image google "afternoon delight" and I think it's awesome. Go to this guy's website for more like it.