Friday Random 10, 4/20

The shuffle generated interesting results this week.

1. Apothecary Hymns, "The Marigold". Apothecary Hymns sounding extremely Tull-like. Good stuff.
2. Mogwai, "Katrien". Mogwai is simply brilliant: one of the greatest post-rock groups out there. I keep getting more of their stuff, and I haven't heard a single bit that I didn't absolutely love. This one starts off nice and mellow, and builds into some more intense fuzz, and then settles back again. Overall, it's got a mostly relaxed mood to it. Typical Mogwai - aka fantastic.
3. Marillion, "Thankyou Whoever you Are". A very uninspired track from the latest album from Marilion.
4. Darol Anger's Republic of Strings, "Chain of Fools". Darol and friends doing a cool fiddle-heavy take on the classic song.
5. David Shifrin, "Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet" by Ellen Zwilich. 20th century classical chamber music focusing on the brilliant playing of my favorite clarinetist, David Shifrin. Shifrin is an absolutely wonderful clarinetist, and he seems most enthusiastic when playing modern music.
6. Bach, "Erkenne Mich, Mein Hueter" from "St. Matthew's Passion". I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll wind up saying it again. I think Back was the greatest composer who ever lived, and the St. Matthews Passion is my favorite of his works. This is just a little slice of perfection.
7. Jonathan Coulton, "Todd the T1000". Jonathon Coulton is a geek songwriter
   who I think is fantastic. Coulton writes catchy pop tunes with very geeky lyrics based on science, math, and SF: "Todd the T1000 Scares me, and I don't think he knows I have a right to exist; and he's sits in my favorite chair, and dares me, and when I look over he's making a fist one finger at a time."
8. Hugh Blumenfeld, "Hands and Feet". Hugh is a singer/songwriter/college professor who I've met several times at folk music festivals. He writes amazing songs, with incredible lyrics. This song is typical of his songwriting - dark, beautiful, amazing lyrics.
9. Moxy Fruvous, "Bed and Breakfast". A song from Moxy Fruvous's second full-length album. Personally, I think this album is vastly under-rated by fans. Musically, it's the best thing they ever did. Lyrically, it's not as funny as some of their others stuff, but it's definitely got its moments of humor.
10. Trout Fishing in America, "I Get Ideas". Talking about funny music... Trout is a folk/bluegrass duo that does albums of music for adults, and albums of music for kids. A lot of the kids stuff is hysterically funny, like this one: "I see a jar of peanut butter, and it's time to wash my hair... Something weird comes over me, I get ideas." And musically, all of their songs are great.