September 7th: Albums that feature a female vocalist who the chooser finds attractive.

I think it’s fair to say that both Josh and I are not having the best of days. We need something that will perk us up. Solution: Thinking about hot talented musicians.

Only 4 picks tonight, because we closed for a private party early.

Pick #1
Album: Youth Novels
Artist: Lykke Li
Year: 2008
Whose pick: Ben’s
Comments by Ben: I’ve almost flown to both Seattle and Austin to see Lykke Li. Who doesn’t love a quirky cute Swede? Lame people. That’s who.

Pick #2
Album: Infinity Within
Artist: Deee-Lite
Year: 1992
Whose pick: Josh’s
Comments by Josh: Eccentric NY trio fronted by the fabulous Lady Kier. It’s the sweetness of apple juice kissing mixed with some bleeps and beats from a 90’s fax orgy. All the rubber lovers dig it.

Pick #3
Album: The Bird and the Bee
Artist: The Bird and the Bee
Year: 2007
Whose pick: Ben’s
Comments by Ben: This band seems to be qualifying for a lot of these lists…. In any case, Inara George is unfortunately married to the dude who director Dewey Cox and has done some other stuff that's marginally famous. Inara's bandmate, Greg Kurstin, is marginally famous as well having produced the like of Kylie Minogue, Beck and other people you'd recognize. They're curiously on Blue Note, the famous jazz label.

Pick #4
Album: Uh Huh Her
Artist: PJ Harvey
Year: 2004
Whose pick: Josh’s
Comments by Josh: Ah, PJ Harvey.. what can I say? Lyrics as bold and assertive as any male rocker.. sex appeal on par with Mick Jagger. Gruff, dirty, and intellectual. That's my rock chick.
Comments by Ben: I have to admit, when i saw "Down By the Water" when i was a kid, i thought she was hot. However, i have to say, she would not super high on my list....

August 31st: Albums titles featuring Amounts and Approximations: The No Numbers Edition

Pick #1
Album: The Big Lebowski soundtrack
Artist: various artists
Year: 1998
Whose pick: Danielle’s
Comments by Ben: iTunes crashed yet again, letting us only listen to a few tracks. Bummer.

Pick # 2
Album: All the Time
Artist: The Ropers
Year: 1995
Whose pick: Josh’s
Comments by Josh: Washington, DC area Janglepop. I had a boss whose friend was the bassist. Yep.
Comments by Ben: Again, iTunes failed, about 3 tracks in. Now switching to my iPod.

Pick # 3
Album: Isn’t Anything
Artist: My Bloody Valentine
Year: 1988
Whose pick: Ben’s
Comments by Ben: A preview of what was to come: Loveless.


Pick #4
Album: Full Sunken Breaks
Artist: Kid Spatula
Year: 2000
Whose pick: Josh’s
Comments by Josh: I wasn’t at all familiar with Kid Spatula previous to this selection. However, I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the breaks and blips this album contained. Consider me sunked.

Pick #5
Album: Double Figure
Artist: Plaid
Year: 2001
Whose pick: Ben’s
Comments by Ben: According to Wikipedia, “Plaid” comes from the Welsh word for “party”. Goodtimes. (And since our selection is limited to my iPod, we’re accepting “Double” as fulfilling this theme.)

Pick #6
Album: One Too Many Hearts
Artist: The Bird and the Bee
Year: 2008
Whose pick: Josh’s
Comments by Ben: One is a number, yes, but “Many” isn’t! So, hah!

Pick #7
Album: Totally Flossed Out
Artist: The Cool Kids
Year: 2008
Whose pick: Ben’s
Comments by Ben: Fun indie-ish hip-hop, and also one of the last things on my iPod that fits this theme. On to Josh's laptop

Pick #8
Album: The Complete Adventures of The Style Council [Disc 1]
Artist: The Style Council
Year: 1998
Whose pick: Josh’s
Comments by Josh: Paul Weller’s attempt to alienate the mod-punks with slick, Motown-influenced pop after dissolving The Jam. I played just a few tracks, as some of TSC’s experiments are a little dated. Nobody wants to hear white brits rap about Thatcher. Not even me.

Pick #9
Album: Teenager of the Year
Artist: Frank Black
Year: 1994
Whose pick: Ben’s
Comments by Ben: I’ve listened to this album only once before, and I thought it was okay. That feeling hasn't really changed too much. Those are my only thoughts.

Pick #10
Album: More Songs About Buildings And Food
Artist: Talking Heads
Year: 1978
Whose pick: Josh’s
Comments by Tina Weymouth: “When we were making this album I remembered this stupid discussion we had about titles for the last album. At that time I said, 'What are we gonna call an album that's just about buildings and food?' And Chris said, 'You call it more songs about buildings and food.’”

August 24th: Artists that start with "The"

We were originally going to go with a theme of all male bands with one word names, but unfortunately Simplify Media and our entire iTunes is jacked up. Josh had picked the album by Squeeze, East Side Story, to start off this theme, but during it we switched it to my iPod. Lost story short, we started a new theme, which is in the title of this post.

Pick #1
Album: Oracular Spectacular
Artist: MGMT
Year: 2008
Whose pick: Ben's
Comments by Ben: At the time we switched over to my iPod, we were still on the first theme, but i justified this pick for the current theme also by saying MGMT used to be called The Management. This album is okay, but "Electric Feel" is AMAZING.

Pick #2
Album: Pod
Artist: The Breeders
Year: 1990
Whose pick: Josh's
Comments by Josh: Love the Deal sisters. Love them.

Pick #3
Album: The Good, the Bad and the Queen
Artist: The Good, the Bad and the Queen
Year: 2007
Whose pick: Ben's
Comments by Ben: Again, i get away with a technicality. While most people list this album as being by "The Good, the Bad and the Queen", in actuality, the band is unnamed. Wikipedia says it's a studio album by "Damon Albarn, Tony Allen, Paul Simonon, and Simon Tong", for whatever that's worth.

Pick #4
Album: Lust Lust Lust
Artist: The Raveonettes
Year: 2007
Whose pick: Josh's
Comments by Josh: The album title speaks volumes. Its not enough to say lust just once.

Pick #5
Album: A Mouthful
Artist: The Dø
Year: 2008
Whose pick: Ben's
Comments by Ben: French dude and Finnish chick. What's not to love?

Pick #6
Album: Distortion
Artist: The Magnetic Fields
Year: 2008
Whose pick: Josh's
Comments by Josh: Chamber-pop for the modern indie crowd.

Pick #7
Album: Okie Dokie It's The Orb on Kompakt
Artist: The Orb
Year: 2005
Whose pick: Ben's
Comments by Ben: Everything on Kompakt records is excellent.

Pick #8
Albums: The Bird and the Bee, One Too Many Hearts, and Please Clap Your Hands
Artist: The Bird and the Bee
Years: 2007, 2008, and 2007, respectively.
Whose pick: Josh's
Comments by Ben: While this was Josh's pick, he was confined to the limits of my iPod. And though we support Simplify Media, we're a little pissed at it tonight. And also pissed the Octane music hard drive has failed. In any case, i think this band rules.

The first few months...

So Josh and I attempted to go as far back as we could to remember themes and albums we've done so far, but failed pretty severely.

We remembered a decent amount from last Sunday though.

August 17th: Albums must have either a color or a number in the title. Band name doesn't matter. We actually remembered a few of these....

• Public Image Ltd. – Second Edition -> Ben pick
  
• Aimee Mann – Bachelor No. 2 -> Josh pick
  
• Weezer – Weezer (Blue Album) -> Ben
• Frank Black – Bluefinger -> Josh
  
• Neko Case – Blacklisted -> Ben
• The Cardigans - First Band on the Moon -> Ben

There were some more, but we can't remember. Other previous themes were...

• Artist must be a band that had or has two or more members in a previous band.
• Solo albums where the artist was in a band AFTER the release of the solo album. (For the record, i picked Björk's 1977 debut album from when she was like 11 or something, and felt really good about myself)
• Artists from Scandinavia
• One syllable band names