Rick Perstein enjoys the LNMC so I asked him to make a selection for the club. He's a jazz fan himself and sent this tune over immediately. Thanks Rick, I love your work. Your book, Nixonland is a truly remarkable accomplishment.

Go Herrbie go! Chameleon is one of his songs that I have put into my play book whenever I get a chance to perform live.

From a few years ago. Al Franken is still doing this fabulous schtick (Hey! Does this talent make him too elitist/educated to be Senator?) at fundraisers for his Senate campaign. Go Al!

SITE UPDATE: Harry Shearer, actor and comedian extraordinaire, will be here at C&L for a live chat on Friday, August 8th at 1:00 pm Eastern/10:00 am Pacific to discuss his latest satirical album Songs of the Bushmen.

My brother and sisters and I are inveterate listmakers with each other. Think of it as one endless High Fidelity Top 5 email chain--favorite movies, childhood memories, places to go on vacation, beaches, Broadway shows, books, etc. You name it, we've probably exchanged lists on it. I'm usually the spoilsport who says that I can't possibly narrow things down to just 5. My youngest sister started the Top 5 80's hit songs list, and once again, I complained how hard it was to narrow it down. But I buckled down and picked them. In no particular order, here are my 5:

Tenderness-General Public, In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel, Every Day I Write The Book - Elvis Costello, Steppin' Out - Joe Jackson and Graceland - Paul Simon.

There's at least 20 others I could have added in their place, but 20 years + later (sigh!) I will still stop and listen to each one of these songs and still love them as much.

So what's your 5?

Glenn Greenwald -- we've got your back! Lee Siegel -- we've got your number! Brian Turner -- we've got your book! And the Opinion Mill has got -- Sunday Bookchat!
Electronic Cerebrectomy: A lively rant on women and comedy.

Perrspectives: Top 10 Darrell Issa (R-CA) "Hall of Shame" Moments

Words of Power: Why work to save Darfur, Tibet, and Burma? Duh, because it's in our best interest.

Mock, Paper, Scissors: Erm, we report, you decide?

Citizen Crain: John McCain says he wishes they'd play more ABBA songs at his rallies. Not making that up.

I'm joining in to the music discussion that started over the weekend. The music world has changed incredibly in a short period of time, (technology, copyright laws, the Internet, etc...) so what's the big deal if bands let commercials use their music for a hefty fee? Back in "the day," it was the cool thing for a band to not "sell out" to the man, but as Amanda says: "That is so 20th Century." I still cringe a bit when I hear a Hendrix song on a commercial, but the times are a changin' and it has always been a struggle to make it in the music world.

What's sad is that the music industry knew that the dynamic was changing because of technology; file sharing in part was developed by them, but they sat on their hands because they DID NOT WANT to set a precedent. I'll have more on this later...

TOWER records went out of business and as expensive as a CD was, I still enjoyed browsing the store. Bands have huge costs to consider. A major tour takes a load of cash to pull off---now figure how hard it is for a lesser known band to do the same. When I toured with John Taylor (mostly for the House of Blues chain around the country) in the late 90's, Sixpence None the Richer opened for us. They were a great bunch of people and soon after they had a few hit songs, but they were just getting by...Duncan talks about supporting bands you like.

I find a lot of new music on TV these days. It seems like many more shows since Buffy are putting out compilation discs and featuring either new artists or old classics in their episodes...HOUSE, MD highlights some great music at the end of each episode most of the time..

Matt Yglesisas put together his: Ultimate Nineties Alt-Rock Playlist

Another end of year list. Favorite music is such a subjective thing that I'm at a lost as to how you could narrow it down. I have to thank Howie Klein for giving me the two most popular CDs in my house right now (Ray Sings, Basie Swings and John Coltrane: Fearless Leader). His gift has created jazz fans of my children, who are now discovering Sarah Vaughan, Tierney Sutton, Duke Ellington and Rosemary Clooney ). After years of Barney and Raffi CDs, that's the greatest gift of all.

Salon.com: My Favorite Things (includes exclusive downloads of music)

RollingStone: 100 Best Songs of the Year; 50 Best Albums of the Year

BBC: Sound of 2006: Top 10 Revisited

Metacritic: Top 10 Roundup

I've been posting a lot of videos when Hurricane Katrina hit and its aftermath. Donita Sparks has a wonderful post about NOLA trying to recover:

I really enjoyed Christy’s post on Monday regarding the state of affairs in New Orleans a year after Katrina, Her link to the amazing Arabi Wrecking Krewe and the video of the great work that they are doing there for local musicians I found very inspiring. I wanted to list a few more places to donate money to help out displaced musicians in one of our most musical of cities...read on

She put together a great collection of songs on iTunes. You should check it out.

Wild interview with Godsmack

Jane wrote a piece which includes a transcript of Godsmack's frontman/lyricist/producer Sully Erna being interviewed by Jay Babcock of Arthur Magazine. Jay wasn't too happy that some of Godsmack's music is being used for military recruiting.

Download | play -MP3 (explicit language)

Howie Klein outlines his history with Sully and writes:

"So here's Sully and Godsmack licensing songs to the military to use for their teenage recruitment programs and here's Jay who kind of thinks bands shouldn't be doing that. That's a call that had all the makings of an explosive situation. And the makings exploded....read on"

His 250 songs include country greats George Jones and Alan Jackson, but also My Sharona by the Knack. Mr Bush has an aide download music for him and listens to it while mountain biking, the New York Times reported. Rolling Stone journalist Joe Levy called the playlist "feel-good music. The Sex Pistols it's not." ...read on

I know you know the story. There's a funny question asking at the end of the article: " What should George Bush listen to on his iPod? Send us your comments on the form below"

(hat tip TB) Read the suggestions (they are pretty funny) then make a few here...

Carrie Underwood and Nikko Smith smoked on American Idol last night. I've found that the singers have been inconsistent this season, but Tuesday's show was by far the best. There were other very good performances as well, but I particularly liked these two.

Download | play -WMP

Download | play -QT

(please link post to http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/03/22.html#a2086)

Helping the contestants was the fact that they had to choose songs out of the Billboard Book of Number ONE Hits, which limited some of the poor song choices that had happened in earlier shows.

The outstanding rhythm section augmented by a full string section and terrific background singers really helped kick the singers into high gear. While the contestants may not be as unique as Fantasia was last year (William Hung need not apply) at least so far, I think this season holds great promise the rest of the way and may very well contain the best overall talent of any of the previous American Idol's.

(ps- Needed to take a break from politics and the lunatic fringe)