Wake Up and Go to Sleep

My old pal Vuthy would say to me, "Nick, you go out back, smoke fat one." I always hoped he wasn't talking about anatomy, and by his bleeding eyes it looks like I was right. "Hey you guy," Vuthy would say, pointing his boning knife at me. "Do I know you?"

It was early and the coffee hadn't kicked in yet and the lights in the fish plant were shuttering, making everything fuzzy. Things were not there, hard to get a hold of, like static.

Vuthy would spray me with scalding water and say, "Wake up and go to sleep. You're too slow, mister."

Thinking about waking up and going to sleep and not being able to figure out what music to listen to to do either, I present this playlist.

Ten Songs For Friday

Below are ten songs I couldn't have made it through the day without listening to. There are a few different genres and styles here and even if all of it isn't your bag after the first few notes, give it a chance.

Gang Starr - Code of the Streets

If you saw the 2007 film Freedom Writers with Denzel Washington (which I did not) you may recognize this song. That's not why I love it. The words climb the beat like a tree, ready to drop some crazy thoughts down. I've come to listen to a lot of Gang Starr in the past few months. Great stuff. Guru and DJ Premier kill this song.

Danger Doom - Sofa King

The flow of the lyrics bind together they way that old Nickelodeon Gak would get into the weave of your sweater at Christmas. MF Doom and Danger Mouse made this entire album with the Cartoon Network and the Adult Swim crew. From his success off The Grey Album (Beatles + Jay-Z) and after all of the attached lawsuits were quelled, Danger Mouse produced this album with innovation and dedication, combining cartoon voices with the rhymes that would pop through the mask of MF Doom. If you've never listened to it, explore the entire album from start to finish.

Wax Tailor - Que Sara

The album Hope & Sorrow is a fantastic mix of black and white voice clips mixed with the freshest ideas. Wax Tailor, a.k.a Jean-Christophe Le Saoût, is a Frenchman who does things with the English language that should be described in colors, not words.

Nobody - Wake Up and Smell the Millennium

Found on Pandora. Don't know much about them. Can't find much about them on the interwebs. Crank it up and let it fly. My head won't stop rocking to the beat while I listen.

Arctic Monkeys - Leave Before the Lights Come On

The story's been told over and again, and the song rings true as some people's lives. Like the inside track of your mind during the smokey hours at the end of the night. Last call coming up. All the way through the morning. Arctic Monkeys have had several successes and deserve many more. They need to be listened to in the rain with ass loads of clouds rolling overhead and a sneaking suspicion that things could go awry at any moment.

The White Stripes - Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground

From kicking the shit out of a guitar on Go It Alone with Beck to his newest collaboration The Dead Weather, Jack White can rock. More importantly, he knows how to. Bringing Loretta Lynn through with a hit album and touring/recording with three bands as well as doing solo sessions, collaborations and producing 14 albums, the man won't stop. The vast majority of music I've heard that he's been a part of has left me with pleasant feelings in my toes and eyebrows. Oh, yeah, and Meg White could drum the other arm off of Rick Allen.

Kings of Leon - Fans

I don't understand half of the crap coming out Caleb Followill's mouth and I don't care. These guys fucking rock, no bones about it. Guitar timed perfectly with drums and background vocals makes my spine go numb. The pull to crack a beer comes each time I hear them. Sex On Fire brought them up more to the mainstream, but their earlier stuff is just as good as the new album.

R.L. Burnside - Rollin' and Tumblin'

Blues. Southern blues. Mississippi. R.L.'s voice tugs at something in my chest that won't be named any time soon. If you can find an album, buy the album.

The Black Keys - The Flame

Their most recent album Attack & Release was another project of Danger Mouse and produced several good songs, but all of their previous stuff would kick that album's ass in a street fight. Dan Aeurbach and Patrick Carney are two guys from Ohio who play music like they bubbled up from the bayou and cross-pollinated with Zeppelin. The Big Comeup, Thickfreakness, Rubber Factory and Magic Potion are albums which must be sampled if this band moves you in any way. Lyrics heaped atop masterful guitar heaped atop raw percussion make this something I wish I was able to do.

Joe Cocker - Bye Bye Blackbird

Yeah - he sang the song they used for The Wonder Years - what of it? Joe Cocker could take a song, rip out its guts and sew it back up with such love that Mother Theresa would shed a tear. The background singers in this song weaken me. The guitar, the piano and Joe's voice just kill it. Bottom line, the best song to cover whatever kind of day you may be having.

Open Letter to Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles

Dear Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles,


For the first time in my life I have had the (dis)pleasure of entering Boston City Hall this morning. I have often driven by, curious if the bowels of your structure were as horrendous as the exterior. Many things have been said about the building since it was unvieled. Ugliest Building in the World. "What the hell is that?" Historic landmark.

I agree with the first two.


My reason for visiting City Hall was to secure a marriage license. Some said it would never happen, yet it shall. My lovely wife-to-be Carol joined me for the excursion. Upon entering the building I wondered how long I would be incarcerated. Dark concrete is the bones and the skin. Admittedly I only made it down to the Birth/Marriage/Parking portion of the building. I cannot speak for the seven floors I didn't visit. How can a building be so physically clean and dingy at the same time?

Your city structure makes me wonder about how things got to be this way. I wonder how you won the contest to build the damn thing in the first place. I wonder about the mental acuity of the judges of said contest. I wonder about Mayor Menino's plan to sell off the building and surrounding plaza (in the middle of f'n Government Center) and building a new City Hall in Southie (now suspended due to the kickass economy).

I have never built anything on par with what you have created. I am not attempting to drive your collective heads into the sand and tell you how children weep in fright when they look at what you've done. I am simply here to ask why.

As I've told a few friends who asked me about their new tattoos, "What made you think that was a good idea?"

Sincerely,

Nick Seagers

Currently reading Dexter Filkins' book The Forever War. If you need an objective look about what's been going on with the US occupations overseas, read this book. If you want to explore fantastic writing that you can feel, read this book. If you think that the US is right, read this book. If you think the US is wrong, read this book. If you like fuzzy bunny slippers, read this book. I don't care what the hell you think as long as you read this book.

Phelps -vs- Barry

There has been much hoopla over the past several months about Michael Phelps being photographed using a bong, or 'water pipe' as the media seems more comfortable with. Some have said he should be banned from competition for life, his sponsors nothing at all should happen to him. When a grown man relaxes using herbal means and gets caught, some people cannot wait to take him down a peg.

I'm not here to persuade anyone one way or the other. What I would like to do instead is invite you to hop into my time machine (just finished it last night after dinner) and travel back with me to all the way to a mystical era - the 1990's.

On January 18, 1990 Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr. was nabbed in an FBI sting operation at the Vista Hotel in Washington D.C. At the time he was the D.C. Mayor, a town with a slight amount of national clout. Videos of him smoking crack had the country fuming. Eventually he was convicted on a single misdemeanor count of possessing cocaine, knocked down from the original charge of ten counts of possession and three counts of felony perjury. Needless to say people seemed to have lost their trust in the man.

Then, in 1994, the populace of D.C. decided that crack wasn't so bad after all and reelected him. A year later he tested positive (the tests stemming from tax evasion charges) for marijuana and cocaine and was placed on probation. Sometime you pick a winner and sometimes you pick an ass.

Marion Barry was smoking one of the most addictive substances known to man while governing a quasi-important city that just happens to be the Capital of our nation and was given a second chance. My suggestion to all those who want to have Michael Phelps drawn and quartered over a bong hit is to chill out. Until you have freakish physical talent and are pictured on a Wheaties box, give him a break. And a lighter.