Tinted Windows is probably not a supergroup you would’ve seen coming, but that doesn’t stop their debut album from being one of the most fun pop records to come down the pike in a while. Who’s in the band?, you might ask. Well, on drums there’s Bun E. Carlos, of legendary power-pop band Cheap Trick. On guitar, there’s James Iha, formerly of Smashing Pumpkins and A Perfect Circle. Your bassist is Adam Schlesinger, primary songwriter […]
Last weekend I was at a family get-together. Somewhere along the way MP3 players became a popular topic, which caused my dad to pose the immortal question, “Who the hell cares what’s on my iPod?” Now chances are pretty good if you’re reading a music blog you already know the answer to that, but pretending that you don’t since I can’t think of any other way to open this up: it’s because it allows you to know a person without actually knowing them.
For example, if your iPod is loaded with songs from Type O Negative, Burzum and Scandinavian death metal sensation Vordghackf, it means you have you several pentagrams carved into your arm, like to write overlong and half-racist internet dissertations on why “rap music” sucks, and it’s only a matter of time before you shoot up the post office you’re inevitably working for. If your iPod is loaded with songs from George Jones, Daddy Yankee and Godsmack, it means you’re going through a mid-life crisis and can’t decide whether you want to want to embrace a conservative adulthood or put up the façade that you’re twenty years-old again, ‘cos god forbid that you should accept your age and move on. Finally, if your iPod is loaded with nothing but Ani DiFranco, it means you’re one of those feminist types with a butch haircut, lots of beads and a huge ass (stolen courtesy of “That’s My Bush!”).
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If you haven’t been watching Bravo’s Flipping Out this summer, you should really start. It’s the kind of show that makes you really reassess just how crazy your boss might be, or just how degrading your job might be, or just how anal-retentive your partner or spouse might be. This reality show follows obsessive-compulsive (to the hundredth power) house-flipper Jeff Lewis and his crew of long-suffering assistants. In one of last season’s best episodes, Jeff had one of his assistants drive his cat to an appointment with an acupuncturist, and insisted that the assistant have a discussion with the cat on the way over to explain where they were going and what would happen there.   Jeff Lewis’s mindboggling demands and his perfectly timed, deadpan one-liners are the true star of this show; but the absurdist antics of his assistant Chris Elwood (a sometimes actor) sometimes threaten to steal the occasional scene.
This week, Chris Elwood drew his boss’s ire by wearing his iPod headphones all the time, which had everyone he ran into asking what he was listening to. It was one of those scary moments when I actually understood and (gulp) agreed with Lewis’s righteous indignation – it’s so… unprofessional! – but then, I wanted to know what Elwood was listening to too, and felt cheated when I didn’t find out. Then again, one could hardly fault Elwood for turning up the Tunes and tuning out his boss’s self-absorbed rants. If I were Elwood, I’d probably do the same.  And here, apparently, is what I’d be listening to:
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