http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20395222_20480928,00.htm...

Greetings from the USA - where Royal Wedding "Journalism" seems to be reaching new depths of insanity. Special Engilish recipes to eat with your viewing pleasure - chicken salad and walnut sandwiches????. So what would the Massive suggest as the perfect Royal celebration food and drink?

Oh - and check out the Kate doll tour of London photos - great great journalism!

Here it will be Sufjan Stevens Christmas Songs album - only downloaded this morning and the whole family (teenagers and Mom and Dad)are loving it as dinner is prepared. The usual Sufjan take on traditional and new songs - just seems to work. Tried moving to a Christmas mix with the Spector album and anything "Christmassy" thrown in - and I just got the call of - keep it on Sufjan!
So whats playing/played for the rest of the Massive?

This came up on the shuffle today - Richard Thompson from Dream Attic - his "pop" at Sting. A wonderful melody wrapped around a truly awful lyric. For one artist to be so - so - "nasty" about another just seeems plain wrong.

A sample -

And here comes Geordie went to buy a hat
Geordie says" my head wont fit in that"
Its so swollen, much to my surprise
They're all to small, theres nothing on my size

And here comes geordie acting in a play
He's no Gielgud or Olivier
Stiff as cardboard isnt it a drag
cant act his way out of a paper bag

Looking forward to the reply track on the next Sting album -"Jealous folk singers dont sell many records"

So I am a little jealous of the massive meet ups that seem to be getting more regular over there. Now the US is a big country so all of us meeting in a room above a pub seems a little unlikely - but - I was just wondering were the Americans are - perhaps when we are tavelling anyway we could make a connection for mini Massive meets.

So Americans - were are you? Detroit here.

So after reading the Bob Geldof article in the November 2010 issue - yeah it takes a long time to get here - I find myself on Sunday evening delving into the Boomtown Rats back catalogue.
Theres a couple of vinyl albums sitting in the basement - but I always felt a little ashamed - the perceived wisdom was that they had dated - they were "punk lite" - but damn it - theres some good stuff in there. Geldof had a great turn of phrase - very funny at times. Theres a couple of dubious moments (Banana Republic, Mondays, Clockwork) - but Rat Trap, Joeys on the Street Again, Looking After No 1 - they sound a new Hold Steady album (a good thing)

gave me the secret of happiness last night.
"Every morning we wake up and vacillate between gratitude and entitlement - chose gratitude".

That is all

So my 17 year old daughter and I are driving from Detroit Michigan to Columbia Missouri. Its a trip to visit prospective Universities.She's currently driving and I am blogging into a Blackberry as we drive across the seemingly never ending Illinois.
Its 22 hours of driving in total - but the wonderful part of the trip is how much we can connect musically. As I drive she DJ's on my iPod - I do the honors on her iPod whilst she drives.
Kings of Leon,Swell Season, Bright Eyes, She and Him, REM, joe Strummer, Avett Brothers, T Rex,White Stripes,even the Dixie Chicks - we both loved them all.
I tried her on the new Lloyd Cole album but failed to connect - his voice is "too good"
Highlight of the trip - both listenting to and loving Sufjan Stevens - Come on feel the Illinois album - as we drove across Illinois.

Anyway - greetings from Bluff City - only 8 more hours to home.

Any more classic road trip moments from the Massive?

I am sitting here listening through speakers that are 27 years old. The maybe cost me 200 pounds at the time - made by AR - they have moved to 7 different homes and crossed the Atlantic. They have been with 3 different "systems". Do speakers wear out? The grills look a little tatty but they sound fine so they are fine right?

I am a Springsteen fan - but I watched the Live in Hyde Park video last night and began wondering where did it all go wrong. Perhaps it is as a counterpoint to the Hammersmith 75 video that I had watched only a week earlier - but the E Street Band shows seem to have become a cliche ridden choreographed shout fest - devoid of any subtlety or emotion.

The band members spaced out over a stage the size of a football pitch - hamming it up, acting like the professionals they are - but no "connection". Nils Lofgren strumming an acoustic guitar in the middle of it all - surely the biggest waste of talent in rock!

Bruce goading the audience with grimaces at every chord -all the songs reduced to singalong anthems. I know the big festival thing requires big moves and big shapes - but it just seems to have become parody.

Encouraged by an empty wall in a new office and the suggestion of the banner to the right - I invested in a number of the vinyl frames. A good use of the old vinyl in the basement that is barely used - but what to frame? A suitable mix of "good" art and music you are still "proud" of. Only rule - no artist twice.

My selections:

Lloyd Cole - Rattlesnakes
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
Clash - London Calling!!
Costello - Imperial bedroom
Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God (best band photo ever)
Springsteen - BTR
Ian Dury - New Boots and Panties
World Party - Goodbye Jumbo
Talking Heads - Songs about Buildings and Food
Astec Camera - High Land Hard Rain
Prefab Sprout - Swoon

So over to the massive - frameworthy sleeve art.......

Remember the old days - pre iTunes, pre Spotify - if you needed a "mix" you carefully selected 5 albums for the CD changer to match your mood. An obsure selection to match the obvious - rock vs mellow - random but not too random.

Its Saturday night, the house to myself, a bottle of wine open and with the playlist shuffle I am listening to:

Richard Hawley - Trueloves Gutter
Kathleen Edwards - Failer
Radiohead - Hail To The Thief
Lifter Pull - Fiestas + Fiascos
My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves

and reading the latest January edition of Word Magazine which has just made it to these parts.

So the ultimate 5CD selection is............

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2009/11/15/2009-11-15_oop...

Bruce starts the gig at Auburn Hills Michigan on Friday night with a rousing "Hello Ohio" - apparently the mistake was repeated a couple more times before Steve put him right.

Hey - its a long tour - its a neighboring state - close enough! I particularly liked this article as it refers to Bruce as "the Born in the USA crooner" - surely similar territory as Hey Jude Hitmakers

I was lucky enough to see Loudon Wainwright III and Richard Thompson at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor Michigan last night.
Simple premise - acoustic - Loudon, both, interval, RT then both as encore.

I dont have much familariry with LW - a live album and a vague memory of the Jasper Carrott Show - in forty five minutes he played only one song I knew (a Joe henry cover) but every song was a cativating gem. Witty and cynical - a perfect blend. Onto a couple of songs together -including a bluesy Flypaper.

RT returned after the interval for rollicking acoustic set - the only surprise being NOT playing Beeswing.You forget just how good he is - not just the guitar playing but the tightly woven stories and the wicked turn of phrase.

The strange aspect - venue not even sold out. For a folk loving town like Ann Arbor - unusual.

I have been here before
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/ipod-moment

A repeat of the "moment" occured again yesterday - as I drive through Indianapolis - passing the downtown - from the iPod shuffle (16,000 plus) comes Joe Strummer with "INDIANAPOLIS !! - home of the gamma ray!!"
Not just the coincidence of of time, place and shuffle - but that I actually noticed.

This may have been done before - but this is too weird to not tell the world.
I live in Michigan - I was in Maryland today on business - happily listening to a 15 000 plus song shuffle on the iPod as i rush back to the airport in the rental car. As I drive into Baltimore - literally driving past the "You are entering..." sign - on comes Counting Crowes - Raining in Baltimore.
Not actually raining - but damn spooky.

of course, I am am sure other readers have similar iPod "moments"........