1. Pixies - Most of March I was in a van with Clearlake. So... "what i've been listening to lately" has been a lot of stuff that was agreed upon by a group of 5 people. in other words... the classics. There were quite a few nights where we jumped in the van after the show and listened to "Surfer Rosa" at ear-splitting levels.

2. Lifter Puller - Feeling sleepy one afternoon (I think the Athens to DC drive?) I put in "Soft Rock" disc #1 while everybody else was asleep. Slowly over the next 45 minutes each one of them sorta poked their head up and said "what is this... this is amazing." when disc #1 was over we switched over to "Fiestas + Fiascos". And they all freaked out about this song. I was happy.

3. Blur - The "hit". I think this was somewhere between Dallas and Athens.

4. My Bloody Valentine - Popped this one in from Boston to Ithaca... a beautiful afternoon in the hills with this as the soundtrack to the 7 hour drive.

5. Quasi - I think we played this early in the trip... maybe in Texas somewhere? To be honest, Clearlake like 'em more than i do, but this is a great song.

6. Billy Bragg - First getting on the highway from DC to Philly... everybody seemed kinda wrecked, and this was what i was craving. Sam stayed awake and sang along while the others slept.

7. Marvin Gaye - A nice cleanser. Pulled this one out a couple of times.

8. The Replacements - For some reason I was pleasantly surprised to find that Clearlake liked them. I thought they might just be too American or something. Listened to this very late after the Boston show and a party at some random house. Like 5 AM kinda late. yikes.

9. The Go-Betweens - I liked this one more than the boys. They were very curious about the way it was recorded, and couldn't tell if it was new or old.

10. U2 - Duh.

11. Paul Barman - Pulling into Athens after a 13 hour drive... I needed something to wake me and the kids up, and I decided that something stupid was absolutely in order. I'll admit... this damn song still makes me laugh 3 or 4 times. And it entertained the troops immensely.

12. Tom Waits - This was one of my favorite moments of the tour. Leaving Pat's Steaks at 4 AM, driving back to center city with a bunch of random people we had just met at Pat's (who had been at the show earlier)... skipped straight to track #10 and turned it WAY up. and Jason made up new slang terms for female genitalia ("the grassy knoll" and "squiggly" being two i remember, but i've forgotten all the really good ones.)

13. Tom Heinl - Tom Heinl was opening up for The Decemberists and Clearlake. A comedic genius + a great voice + a great songwriter = somebody that i could actually watch every night for two weeks. Really. This is hilarious. Apparently on the last night of the tour he improvised "I love... woody playing bass, jason's pretty face, toby on the can. And sam." brilliant. i'm sorry i missed it.

14. Husker Du - There's a long story here... So... in NYC at soundcheck Chris from The Decemberists plugs in his guitar and plays a couple of seconds of the riff from "Divide And Conquer." It sorta registers in my head, but I don't think anything of it. Then the next night in Boston he does the same thing. I walk up to the band and say "if you're going to play the riff, you have to play the song." They laugh and go "yeah, yeah." I'm like "No. I'm serious. You have to play the song." And they're like "we don't know it" and "nah." So i say to them, "You have to play the song. I'll give you $35 to play the song." They're all like "you're crazy" and "$35? why $35?" and I say "because that's what it's worth to me. $35. I will pay The Decemberists $35 to play 'Divide And Conquer'." I proceed to say that it's a good number that i picked because it's evenly divisable by 5 people and that they would each clear seven dollars in cold hard cash on the deal. They laugh and go back to soundchecking and i go back to setting up. Well... the next night in Ithaca was the last night I was out on the tour with them. Halfway through their show I go to Bernadette, their kick-ass merch lady, and get a bunch of fives and singles. I count out 5 piles of $7 each. I walk to the side of the stage. When they finish the next song I walk onstage, and silently walk up to each of them and hand them $7 and walk back off the stage. I stand there with my arms crossed. They all look at each other, shrug their shoulders and say "i guess we have to do this now, huh?". And they proceed to play an actually pretty damn good cover of Husker Du's "Divide And Conquer." Totally unrehearsed, and Jenny doesn't even know the song. She walks off stage to grab a tamborine, but then never re-joins the band as they are playing. Colin asks the crowd if anybody knows the song and literally like one guy says he does. Chris remarks that $7 pays his rent for a month in Portland, and they go back to their normal set. And I'm pretty happy about my $35 expenditure. and now that i told you that story... i need to tell you this one

15. The Magnetic Fields - So excited for these Town Hall shows. I hope I get to sit down and watch them for a bit. Haven't heard the new record yet...

16. The Thermals (01) - Holy shit they were great during "The Passion Of The Chris". My favorite two songs on the new album are #5 & #6, and then they went and played them back to back live. I was happy. So now you get them back to back, as well.

17. The Thermals (02) - Umm... i just said i was putting another Thermals song.

18. Eamon - I know I put this on here before, but... It fits with the tour motif... Every now and then on tour I would try to find an urban station, specifically looking for a jam. You know... Eamon, "Ignition", etc. Twice i found the last 10 seconds of ignition, and once the last like 3 seconds of "fuck it". Ah, well.