Five Songs for September

1. I Don't Want- Age Pryor and The Marvellous Medicine













This song comes from a fantastic movie by Taika Cohen that features Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords. An excellent film and an excellent soundtrack. In particular this song will always remind me of the first mix that I made for a new colleague within my first couple of weeks of school. This in addition to the fact that this soundtrack was one of the salvageable items from my Itunes after the hard drive crash of 2008 also means I've listened to it dozens of times in the last month.


2. Calling and Not Calling My Ex- Okkervil River




As it should be noted, I've been a fan of this band for quite some time. I had hoped to travel to Birmingham last week to see them, but due to the constraints of graduate school- I was unable. The entire album is brilliant, I do believe. The narratives of Okkervil River are stories that I find myself getting lost within. And then it just dawned on me, perhaps this is the nature of my musical taste now- I like the stories, the narratives.


3. Follow- Richie Havens


















I don't know how Richie Havens missed my radar, but I'm almost even more embarrassed to mention how I found out about Havens. Discovering on netflix that Time Life produced a series of History of Rock n' Roll dvds, I was immediately intrigued. Despite the fact there were times I felt ultimately disappointed by their choices and revisionist history of rock music- I must say, I'm ultimately happy that it was Time Life that introduced me to the music of Richie Havens.


4. Pledging My Time- Bob Dylan



















Perhaps I shouldn't follow up one folk song with another, but mid-September I was feeling awfully folk-y. Not to mention, I fucking love this picture of Dylan. I think just to spite Jason Bugg, I'm going to put one Bob Dylan song each month on my top five. Regardless, there is something about this song that reminds me of graduate school, the time here. Perhaps it is the first line about early morning and late at night. Now if only graduate school will also come through too.

"And if it don't work out, you'll be the first to know..."


5. Barcelona- Giulia Y Los Tellarini


















I absolutely adore Woody Allen. In addition to that, I adore Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson, and Penelope Cruz. So what could be better than all four of them involved in the same movie? I always find great humor in the way that Woody Allen movies are described..."his best movie in 20 years..." Did everyone forget about Match Point? What about the dozens of other films that he made? When I hear these sort of things, I always think about how even the worst movie by Woody Allen is categorically better than most of the crap that comes out and fills up the box offices. Regardless of where this film falls on the continuum of Allen's genius, I loved this film. And listening to the soundtrack reminds me even more of how much I loved it.