So, its been over a month since I did a top ten list of songs. For those of caught in the rut of pop culture, break out and find a new genre. You will thank yourself for it, since now you will have fodder to fill Top 10 lists with. The genre I would like to discuss today is alt-country. This isn't really a new genre, but it basically combines alternative songwriting with subtle undertones of the blues, bluegrass, country-western, and southern rock. It is NOT country music in the Hank Williams sense of the word. There are no songs about barbeque stains or double-wide trailers. So here is the quintessential list of the top 10 alt-country songs, in no particular order. While I of course do not condone file-stealing services, do your own thing:

1.) Blue Eyes - Uncle Tupelo
2.) *My Sweet Carolina - Ryan Adams
3.) Drown - Son Volt
4.) California Stars - Wilco
5.) This Side - Nickel Creek
6.) I'm Gonna Make You Love Me - The Jayhawks
7.) *The Ballad of Carol Lynn - Whiskeytown
8.) Rex's Blues - Kelly Willis and Jay Farrar
9.) Dead Promises - Jay Farrar
10.) *Windfall - Son Volt

*- if I had to recommend three for a real taste, try these three.
posted by Rich at 1:58 PM Comments

 
Wow, so its not going to be as easy to post to this as frequently as I had imagined. My semester continues to kick my behind daily. This afternoon I spent four hours writing a pig latin translator. I'll make sure to post it as an applet here when its done. Lets just say "y-whay are-ay ey-thay aking-may us-ay earn-lay is-thay?" I am also on a project with Wachovia Bank, which I can't talk much about, except to say that the client is very difficult, obstinant, and obtuse. It is taking much more of my time than it is supposed to, and I am starting to resent the project for this. It does take the place of writing a masters thesis, so I wasn't expecting a barrel of monkeys, but come on!

In other news, I went skiing on Saturday as part of the graduate student assembly ski trip. It was about 50 or 60 degrees below zero, but the good news was that the snow was perfect. I saw an interesting statistic on the news last night. In the entire year of 2002, the Pittsburgh area got 15.7 inches of snow. Year to date 2003, we already have 29.6 inches of snow. It literally snows EVERY DAY. I wish I could hibernate.
posted by Rich at 10:14 PM Comments