TMC apologizes, fire ensues.

It's that time again for TMC... finals. We're a little disheveled and sadly have been slacking on the posts.

I read a sad bit of news in today's DCist though. Eastern Market was on fire early this morning and part of it has been destroyed. I haven't visited there yet in my time in DC, but I'm hoping it'll bounce back for summertime fun.

Photo from DCist

Kate Edit: To lift your spirits in this time of trouble, and to absolve the ladies of TMC (we were nowhere near the dumpster that started it all . . .), we present We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel. Buy the Billy Joel album Storm Front here.

Someone Still Loves You . . . Actually, THREE Someones

Especially your sweet sweet moves . . .

Fair and Imbalanced

. . . a pretty good description of the ladies of TMC? We tend to think so. In honor of, well, nothing at all, a political post.

1. Before you cast your vote in Novemeber, you should probably be aware that Barack Obama likes to wax poetic. The Guardian dug up a college journal of his, and this is what they found.

2. This will, inevitably make us seem to have a political bent . . . "where's the mockery of the other side?", you will say. we will say: "be quiet. don't question McSweeney's." Because we're lame like that.

3. The Living Room Candidate is an online exhibit of political ads from presidential candidates hosted by the Museum of the Moving Image. And its about 1000 times more interesting than that makes it sound. Seriously. Kennedy's jingle? Johnson's fatalistic Daisy ad? It's morning again in America? The bear whose existence is in doubt? Pure. Gold.

4. And finally, to redeem ourselves for all this, a song: The President's Dead by Okkervil River. Buy it on vinyl (the only option) here.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Having an odd, late, introspective moment earlier today, I thought of an strangely a propos episode of The West Wing. The whole thing is great - its called 20 Hours in America, check it out - but this scene is the cheesy-lovely-best.

The song is a cover of The Boomtown Rats' I Don't Like Mondays by Tori Amos. The story behind the song, as another blogger or two have noted, is also rather eerily appropriate.

I feel like this is a really lame moment on my part . . . but it doesnt make Aaron Sorkin or Bob Geldof any less sweet . . .

Buy the Tori Amos album Strange Little Girls here.

Page France regret

Ahh, I just read the DCist today and learned that I missed Page France, my favorite Christian-themed shameless pleasure! I'm kicking myself for not keeping a closer eye on the Black Cat acts, since I've become kind of pretentious in preferring the 9:30 club. I've learned my lesson.

Read what the DCist had to say here.

And listen to some amazingly cute indie (Christian-themed) pop while you're at it. I only mention that they're Christian, because it almost bothers me that Jesus lyrics are thrust in my face. Almost.

Download Page France - Jesus (live)
-Don't be turned off by the title. It's an amazing song.

I would post more, but I sadly bought their album on Itunes so the .m4p files won't work.

Ratatat... again

Someone commented in a previous entry that they didn't like Ratatat when they saw them live. I have to say that Ratatat is the first show in a long time, probably since Jenny Lewis, where I actually felt moved by the music. Yeah, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists are fun but unless he plays "Parallel or Together" or something, I'm not moved.

They played "Cherry" as the last song before the one-song encore. The song never really struck me before, but it does now. They had a projector screen behind them and during this song, it was blue-ish in color with raindrop-like dots spreading all over it. These are probably meaningless descriptions, so check out the video. "Cherry," especially in the last minute and a half, expresses how I feel about the end of this semester. That was really emo, but I'll bring shame to this blog for the sake of honesty.

Somewhere, Cheri Oteri and Will Ferrell Are Smiling . . .

Saving the whales springs to life!

The world is a strange and wonderful place . . . (but mostly just strange). There's a WHALE in New York City.

Also, Wholphin, the McSweeney's dvd/mag, has a new video by Nicholas Thorburn (of The Islands) of a killer whale who became a bit too human that's worth checking out. The band even has a sweet song inspired by the whale: Tsuxiit by The Islands. Buy The Islands album Return to the Sea here.

Edit: Also, if you have not yet seen the Will Ferrell video "The Landlord," take two minutes to make your life significantly better.

I'm randomly going to a Ratatat concert tonight. In honor, I give you these: Ratatat's "Get Em High (remix)" by Kanye West (also appropriate for upcoming 4/20, for those of you who are into that kind of thing. We at TMC neither encourage nor discourage it, according to the rules of Gtown radio) or... I was going to say buy it here, but I can't find it online. Nevertheless, I like this version a lot better than Kanye's, so give it a good listen.

Also check out an old favorite, "Crips" from Ratatat's first self-titled album or buy it here.

Word on the street is that Vol. 2 is out somewhere. I must attain a copy, possibly at tonight's show.

Don't forget everybody, mp3's expire after 7 days. Download them while you can.

Putting the Days to Bed . . .

Today is April the fourteenth . . . the anniversary of many violent acts with sweet names:
It's been 375 years since the Battle of Rain, which must have been the most soothing and rejuvenating of all battles (not that this is saying much), and 126 since the Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight - informative, but cumbersome. Actually today, to speak academically . . . sucks. Lincoln got shot. The Turks invaded Armenia, engaged in genocide. The Titanic sank. Lars Ullrich sued Napster and brought the evils of DRM upon us (this last one isn't great, but is only flippantly included in the list - we're insensitive, but not that insensitive).

Never fear though. With TMC, there's always a reason to celebrate . . . . today, its Avril 14th by Aphex Twin, yet another favorite from a Sofia Coppola soundtrack. Buy the Marie Antoinette soundtrack here.

. . . that said, songs in tune with the calendar (Gregorian calendar? Gregorian chant? Coincidence? We think not.) have long been an interest for the ladies of TMC (for a while there, we couldn't think of a Thursday song) . . . a mixtape might be in order. Some suggestions are below, feel free to add others via comments.

Monday: Manic Monday, I Hate Mondays, Monday Monday
Tuesday: Ruby Tuesday
Wednesday: Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.
Thursday: Blackouts on Thursday
Friday: It's Friday, I'm in Love
Saturday: Another Saturday Night, Same Old Saturday Night, It's Saturday Night, Saturday Morning, Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting
Sunday: Another Pleasant Valley Sunday, Sunday Morning
General: Everyday, Eight Days a Week, Hard Day's Night

04/13/07 Playlist

Third nipples, caved in chests, "that's so lesbian," and guest host/GU Class of '11 Emily Hayes... 'twas a fun show. As you can see from length of playlist, we got a little carried away with Mark Wahlberg's third nipple.

Also, I wore cowboy boots tonight and LIKED it. How do you like that? Check out Nice and Smooth's "Sometimes I Rhyme Slow" from this week's playlist or buy it here. Sweet, sweet rap that samples the guitar from Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car."

1. Amy Winehouse - Rehab
2. The Beatles - With a Little Help From My Friends
3. Skee Lo - I Wish
4. Sublime - Badfish
5. The Rolling Stones - I Just Want To Make Love To You
6. John Legend - Slow Dance
7. Devendra Banhart - The Beatles
8. Leonard Cohen - Chelsea Hotel No. 2
9. Nico - These Days
10. Citizen Cope - D'Artagnan's Theme
11. Azure Ray - Sleep
12. Queen - Bicycle Race
13. The Arbiters - Missing Sweet Love
14. Lesbians On Ecstasy - Mortified
15. Daryl Hall & John Oates - Rich Girl
16. Jefferson Airplane - Volunteers
17. Nice and Smooth - Sometimes I Rhyme Slow
18. Cake - Jolene

Dastardly DRM

I've been working hard on breaking the locks of Itunes' dastardly .m4p files and converting them to .m4a's or .mp3's, but I may have met my match. I thought I'd found the key with Noteburner, which works perfectly until it doesn't actually work at all. Also, the free trial only allows you to convert 3 minutes worth of a song. Hey, it would've worked for Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel No. 2."

What is DRM, you ask? DRM stands for digital rights management. It's why you can only play Itunes-purchased songs on five different machines (or give them to five different friends). I've always been prone to buying cds even though I simply planned to upload them to my computer. But this Itunes debacle with Kate's music (she buys lots off of Itunes) has really cemented by love for buying music on cds. But never fear, Steve Jobs of Apple as well as EMI have announced plans to sell DRM-free music starting in May.

So hold off until May to buy your music from Itunes and tune into our show tomorrow.

EDIT: Exciting new comment from Rachel, a real person that isn't even obligated by friendship to read the blog! She posted a link to a really illuminating article that explains the Apple/EMI change. Read it here. I've got a lot to learn.

Come In, Come In, Come In To My Room

A convergence of circumstances so powerful it actually NECESSITATES a post:
Over easter break Jess' very musically-minded uncle (he has the same speakers used by The Grateful Dead) called and asked her if she knew the song "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" by Leonard Cohen . . . luckily, thanks to Kate's creepy obsession with it (if it were a person, it would have a restraining order) she DID know the line about a certain indecent act . . .

Time for a little clarification: this is basically the best song in the world. About a one night stand with Janis Joplin. By a sexy Canadian poet/songwriter. In a very very historically pleasing hotel. That, and it is sad, and sweet, and covered by the very best of people. We hope you'll agree. And excuse our hyperbole.

The liner notes for the album New Skin for the Old Ceremony (a pretty hot name, if you ask us) make its origin sound even more exotic: "I wrote this for an American singer who died a while ago. She used to stay at the Chelsea, too. I began it at a bar in a Polynesian restaurant in Miami in 1971 and finished it in Asmara, Ethiopia, just before the throne was overturned. Ron Cornelius helped me with a chord change in an earlier version." Really, who could resist oblique references to Hailie Selassie? Not us.

As for the #2 in the title, it is either to mark a mundane alternate version, or a sign of something much more pernicious.

And now for the workers in song . . .
1. The original: "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" by Leonard Cohen. Buy The Best of Leonard Cohen here.
2. The cover: "Chelsea Hotel (Live on the BBC)" by Regina Spektor. For other notable covers, try Josh Ritter or Rufus Wainwright. Buy any Regina Spektor album (take your pick . . . they are both excellent, but sadly, neither includes this song) here.
3. The takeoff: "The Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song" by Jeffrey Lewis. Jeffrey Lewis doesn't have a wonderful voice. Or much variation in his chord playing. But he does write funny, light, and lovely anti-folk. That, and he's a cartoonist. Which is pretty sweet. Buy the Jeffrey Lewis album The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane and Other Favorites here.

Jess EDIT: I too was excited to download "The Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song" but was dismayed when the song didn't work. DRM has won the fight, but we will win the war. As consolation, here is Rufus Wainwright's live cover or buy it here.

Kate EDIT: Forty million Frenchmen may not be wrong, but I certainly am. Jess is the golden god of technology around here. I am but a sham of a blogger and apologize for my inability to provide you with the Oral Sex you desire . . .

Devendra Banhart obsession permeating Econ notes

Apparently, I'm really obsessed with "At the Hop" by Devendra Banhart, because I keep writing the lyrics out in pretty cursive whenever I'm bored in class. So should anyone open my Econ Stat or I-Finance notes, they'll find emo cursive scrawled all over the place.

"Put me in your dry dream / Or put me in your wet / If you haven't yet." It's so sweetly sexual.


I have a weakness for simple, scribbly drawing imposed over film, so maybe that's why I like this video so much. There's also a lengthy sitar/guitar solo not found in the recorded version. I do like the recording better, but this is a nice change too.

I'm drowning in The Brothers Karamazov for now, so apologies for infrequent updates. Actually, at this very moment, I should be working on The Brothers Karamazov. Even though few people may have actually discovered the brilliance of Kate, future blogger extraordinaire, I'll pretend some have. And most importantly, frequent updates are supposedly one of the many keys to blogging success.

Let us know you're downloading. And get them while they're hot! Download links expire after only 7 days.

Buy Devendra Banhart's album Nino Roja here.

Nouns, Vol. 2 (People, Places, Things from TMC)

Quickly tying up loose ends . . . promise a fuller edit for later.

1. Norwegian Wood - lovely, but misunderstood . . . there is some speculation that the title is a play on "knowing she would," a change made to obscure from his then-wife references to affairs John Lennon may have been having. Looking for more semi plausible explanations? Try here.

2. Lupe Fiasco, whose "Kick Push" we played a few weeks ago, is impressive and surprising . . . he is a devout Muslim and does not drink or smoke - making him quite something in the music industry, let alone the rap world. . . even better, though? He has a college radio show too, broadcast from the Illinois Insititute of Technology in Chicago. While Lupe gives away skate gear . . . we can only WISH we were that cool.

Jess edit: Skateboarding is cool. A song about skateboarding is even cooler. Find me longboarding (or potentially eating shit) at Gtown.

Jess edit #2:
shazzer87 (9:49:00 PM): find me longboarding (or potentially eating shit) at gtown
shazzer87 (9:49:05 PM): seriously?
shazzer87 (9:49:09 PM): what does that even mean
.... it means falling, everyone. Falling.

Kate edit: Just to help my fellow ignoramuses out, a skateboarding dictionary.

Download "Kick Push" by Lupe Fiasco or buy his album here.

TV on the Radio . . . No, Seriously.

The ladies of TMC may not have sweet sweet hair, or status as mildly pretentious indie heroes, but looking at the March 30th playlist it seems like we may have had more of a theme than we originally thought . . . between "Wolf Like Me;" the Happy Days theme song; Cake's version of "Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps" (which in another incarnation is the theme for the British/better version of Coupling); and the Beach Boys - who memorably appeared on Full House - the breakout show for their one-time drummer John Stamos, we were very Aaron Spelling.

TV is rife with the awkward and the uncomfortable . . . Carson Daly trying to be amusing, Tom Cruise giving interviews, obscene near-death sequences on Grey's Anatomy, Rosie O'Donnell feuding with Donald Trump . . . and much of the rest of the world, Connie Chung "singing" . . . sometimes even so much so that it jumps the shark. Perhaps not so off track for TMC after all . . .

Edit: Now for a bit more commercialized fun . . . several current advertisements have really fantastic background tracks . . . if you're tempted by their commercial clips, find the full versions here:

"Half Acre" by Hem shows up in a Liberty Mutual commercial.
Buy the album Rabbit Songs by Hem here.

"I Think I Need a New Heart" by the Magnetic Fields is in a Caesar (we think) dog food commercial.
Buy the album 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields here.

Edit #2: Older, but perhaps sweetest of all, as the commercial itself is enough to make you wish heaven were nothing but bouncy balls, is a Sony Bravia Ad featuring a cover of The Knife's "Heartbeats" by Jose Gonzalez.
Buy the album Veneer by Jose Gonazalez here.

almost an mp3 blog...

I'm testing this out. Download "Ultimatum" by The Long Winters who sadly (because we missed it) played at the Rock 'n Roll Hotel in DC. We at Touch My Clickwheel will one day conquer that venue. Until then... TOUCH MY CLICKWHEEL IS AN MP3 blog!!

Edit: I'm kind of ridiculously excited about this, even though, potentially, no one will take advantage of this greatness. But I'll definitely add mp3s throughout the summer and next year while I'm fortunately or unfortunately in the UK for study abroad. I love you all.

Buy The Long Winters album Putting the Days To Bed here.

03/30/07 Playlist

The theme for this week... no theme. But conversation soon centered on Lauren's vomiting problems. She threw up in the library, burst many a blood vessel in and around her eyes, and had a trip to the ER. I, apparently Lauren's friend, learned of these events during the show. Basically, this means that I don't see Lauren each week until our show. So appreciate Touch My Clickwheel as the weekly reunion of two D6 friends... separated East and West by different dormitories.

Also, this playlist was soooo fun. Still fake working on making this an mp3 blog. But this will probably not happen for a while.

1. Happy Days Theme song
2. Dressy Bessy – The Things That You Say That You Do
3. Cake – Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps
4. Desree – You Gotta Be
5. Dave Matthews Band – Say Goodbye
6. The Beach Boys – Don’t Worry Baby
7. Jens Lekman – Black Cab
8. Bubba Sparxxx – Back in the Mud
9. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – The Sons of Cain
10. TV on the Radio – Wolf Like Me
11. Elliot Smith – Miss Misery
12. Fiona Apple – Never Is A Promise
13. Rilo Kiley – With Arms Outstretched
14. Slightly Stoopid – Sweet Honey
15. The Beatles – Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
16. Regina Spektor – Düsseldorf
17. The Long Winters – Ultimatum
18. Vitamin C – Smile
19. Weezer – El Scorcho
20. Hot Chocolate – You Sexy Thing

03/23/07 Playlist

Our topic... awkward encounters. Songs 9-12 reflect the most awkward encounter ever experienced in which I may or may not have threatened suicide on air. We're still recovering from this one. Sorry for the late post (for the two people that read this). I am now either Lauren or just excessively busy with my self-centered life.

1. The Shins – Australia
2. George Michael – Faith
3. Apples in Stereo – Same Old Drag
4. Lupe Fiasco – Kick Push
5. Jackson Browne – Take It Easy (live)
6. Devendra Banhart – At The Hop
7. Beck – Lost Cause
8. Snow Patrol – Chocolate
9. Rilo Kiley – Pictures of Success
10. Patty Griffin – Moses
11. Pearl Jam – Last Kiss
12. The Decemberists – The Engine Driver
13. Blink 182 – Going Away To College
14. Belle & Sebastian – The Blues Are Still Blue
15. Madonna – Beautiful Stranger
16. Marvin Gaye – Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)
17. The Arbiters – Sure Side of Fame
18. The Futureheads – Meantime
19. The Boy Least Likely To – Hugging My Grudge
20. Ramatou Diakite – Gembi
21. Smash Mouth - Padrino