Hi all:

So February's disc is finally on its way. I'm really sorry it's not February anymore, but perhaps the disc will bring some nostalgic February memories back into your humdrum March routine. I neglected to mention when I proposed "The Flying Monkeys" as a prospective name for our club that I am in fact so fascinated by flying monkeys that I have a tattoo of one. But I'm thinking of changing it in honor of our group.
What do you think?

Here's the track info for the CD:

1. Barbecutie
Sparks

• This past summer, for some reason, was summer of Sparks. This song, like a worn-down charcoal briquette you find in the backyard after all the snow has melted, was left over.
  

2. Take Five
Kashmere Stage Band

• Between 1968 and 1975, Kashmere High School in Houston had an award-winning stage band that would dazzle the competition in platform shoes and crushed-velvet suits. I love this all-black high-school band's funked-out version of Dave Brubeck's anthem to hip-time-signatured cosmopolitan cool.
  

3. Book Of The Month
Lovage

• "You are the griddle, I am the meat": I guess it's kind of the same song as "Barbecutie," but with a different tone. I'm a big fan of Mike Patton side projects, but given everything he's done that's like saying "I like music." This one kills me.
  

4. Sunset Road
Béla Fleck & Flecktones

• This song reminds me of my little brother. He got disturbingly into jam bands for a little while in his turbulent adolescence, but this was a nice offshoot of it all.
  

5. Underwater
All-Time Quarterback

• Well, it's not exactly a Postal Service song, but I'm doing my part. All-Time Quarterback is Ben Gibbard's solo project, recorded straight to Walkman with toy instruments. I like my low-fi really, really low.
  

6. NYC-25
The Olivia Tremor Control

• Oh, Elephant 6! How to pick just one song from one band among them all?
• http://www.elephant6.com/bands.html
  

7. Ziggy Stardust
Seu Jorge

• When Seu Jorge started singing Bowie covers in The Life Aquatic, all of a sudden I couldn't pay attention to the movie anymore. I just wanted to get out of there and go buy the soundtrack. What I actually found was the "studio sessions" album, which has none of the score and a bunch of songs that didn't make it into the movie. Five stars!
  

8. My Pal Foot Foot
The Shaggs

• When my dog was a puppy, her feet were so enormous in proportion to the rest of her that they formed the basis of most of her nicknames: babyfoot, mudfoot, grabby-foot, and, inevitably, foot foot. So not only is this song kind of about Lulu, but its melodic and rhythmic attributes remind me of how I always imagined her actual thought processes might work.
  

9. Baby Gonna Leave Me
Tom Waits

• Tom Waits is like an iron rod running straight through my life and keeping everything more or less in line. I have to admit that some of the more recent "banging on stuff with other stuff" songs are distracting; if you're trying to do anything else, a random crash or bang will make you forget what it was. But this song is a nice mix of driving rhythm and noise, and gosh darn it, he's practically beatboxing!
  

10. The Model
Big Black

• I had a mix tape in high school that I used to listen to over and over again in the dark in bed at night, hating the world. It was taped off the local college radio station, and it was very cool and punk rock. This song was on it, right before "cunt tease" by Pussy Galore. Recently I did a big ipod-contents-swap with a friend of mine and lo and behold, there I was right back in high school when I heard this one.
  

11. Farmer John
Neil Young & Crazy Horse

• The Magnolia Rifles, a band of kids with whom I went to college, did an amazing cover of this song. For a long time I would make everybody mad by swearing it was the only Neil Young song worth a listen.
  

12. Campfire
Komeda

• Swedish pop!
  

13. Everything Reminds Me Of My Dog
Jane Siberry

• Um, because it does.
  

14. When You Sleep
Cake

• Haven't you always wondered?
  

15. Province
TV On The Radio

• This is currently the song I need to hear a few times each day or I don't know what I'd do. Oh, and fairly often I also have to watch the video: http://www.ifilm.com/video/2818751
  

16. Madness
Deltron 3030

• People don't make concept albums often enough anymore. This one takes place in 3030 in a world run amok. Plus, Deltron 3030 is a supergroup. People don't gather together into supergroups often enough anymore.
  

17. Indagine Su Un Cittadino Al Di Sopra Di Ogni Sospetto
Kid Sundance

• This is from an album of lovely remixes of Ennio Morricone songs from various movie soundtracks. Some are simply atmospheric, but I think the weird beats help this one stand on its own.
  

18. All My Little Words
The Magnetic Fields

• Just in case you broke up with anyone recently.
  

19. Adeus Maria Fulo (Good-bye Maria Fulo)
Os Mutantes

• Who was Maria Fulo? Where did she go? If she came back, would everything be all candy buttons, playful puppies, and carefree hijinks again?
  

20. Rouge A Levres
S.F.

• Off the same epic ipod-contents-swap. I have no idea who these people are, I don't really speak French (though I do know that "rouge a levres" is lipstick, since it's important to know the word for lipstick in every language), and I couldn't find any info on this song. It's a beautiful mystery.
  

21. Llorando (Crying)
Rebekah del Rio

• Sometimes I make everyone mad by saying the same kinds of things about David Lynch as I used to about Neil Young. But the scene featuring this song in Mulholland Drive, like "Farmer John," is totally and completely an exception to the rule.
  

Enjoy!

Beth