Picks for July 2006

Music: "Uncle Rock Plays Well With Others." The second disc from my friend Robert Burke Warren, aka Uncle Rock, is so much fun. My seven year old and I had an Uncle Rock-fest last night and listened to the record three times straight through. If you have kids in the single-digits in your household, I highly recommend both Uncle Rock records. My fave songs off this new one are ‘Picnic in the Graveyard’ and "Rock and Roll Babysitter’. Your seven year old will love this, and you’ll be happy to find music for kids that doesn’t condescend.
       

Oh, I’ve been listening to a lot lately: Josh Ritter (‘The Animal Years’), Nick Drake, Tori Amos, Eva Cassidy….. yeah, you got it. I’m retro. Josh Ritter gives me hope for the future, however. What a great songwriter.

I’ve also enjoyed the new Pretenders boxed set (do you not think "Brass in Pocket" one of the greatest rock and roll songs ever, ever?) and I found Lori McKenna’s record, "Bittertown", to be really interesting. She is a superb lyricist. Radio Paradise on iTunes plays some GREAT music. What a pleasure to find that station.

Most of all this month, I have been humbled by how great Wilco is. I played a festival with them in Ottawa, and stayed to watch their set. Jeff Tweedy reminded me, before he went on, of Golden Smog’s cover of my song "Seven Year Ache". I had failed to connect the dots there.
  What a truly great band. They remind me of a post-modern version of The Band. I say that with the highest regard.
       
        Book: "The Afterlife", by Donald Antrim. It’s not what you think. This is a memoir of Antrim’s mother. More specifically, it’s a memoir of his life before and after his mother, and how he carries that mother—an alcoholic and breathtaking narcissist—around inside his psyche. He’s a wonderful writer; dark, funny, insightful, poetic. I really enjoyed this book.

Film: Can I recommend "An Inconvenient Truth" two months in a row? It’s that important.
          For sheer summer guilty pleasure, I loved "The Devil Wears Prada". I would actually go see a film of Meryl Streep sleeping, but this is so much fun. She is just fantastic. The movie is a great chick flick, not quite as good as "Bridget Jones", but it’ll do when the longing for chick flick-ness arises.

Favorite stop this summer: Paris. Mais oui. I stayed at the Relais Christine with two of my kids after the band and crew went back home, and we had the most lovely few days wandering around, eating at Laduree, going to the Cluny museum.

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