MTV Dinner

My box of heat-and-eat vegetable curry came with a cd. Yes, my navratan korma came with accompaniment. A quick-cook dinner and music? I have to admit that that’s a selling point, even if we are talking traditional Indian music with wood flutes and hand drums. It’s true that the difecta of music and food, used as it was in this case for consumerism, is one that works on me. In part, it’s the cereal box effect: I will buy that because I will get a prize. But it’s also that I will buy this because I want the twinkling of chimes and reed instruments to make this curry food packet taste better. It’s something Chef Boyardee and Betty Crocker could learn from; after all, I had purchased an Indian equivalent of the boxed meal. In this vein, here’s a list of nonsensical pairings—read, nothing new here—but it is a short list of the more humorous convenience meals and their partner albums.

Salisbury Hamburger Helper and the Decemberists’ The Crane Wife
It seems a stretch I know, but to be fair, this entire post is a stretch. A quick search on the world’s most favored and simultaneously misguided search engine shows that hamburger dishes are popular in Japan. In fact, they date back to the Meiji period, which is a detail that brims with Asian authenticity and wiki-accuracy. And The Crane Wife? The same site explains this more obvious connection to a Japanese folktale.

Tuna Noodle Casserole Tuna Helper and Gregory Alan Isakov’s That Sea, The Gambler
Sing about the sea, eat the chicken of the sea. All is well. What’s more, eating anything with “tuna” and “helper” in the name is going to be a gamble, I don’t care how reassuring that gloved, four-fingered “helping hand” mascot claims to be.

SpaghettiOs and Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Both so silly. Both could be better! One comes in a can and one feels quite canned, but both are still so fun! And while I’m not entirely sure where the band’s name comes from, it seems to befit a meal with circular pasta, sodium-y tomato soup, and the occasional sliced frank. Hurray for the “underdog” of the canned meal!

Nerd Bird Field Trip: Westword Music Showcase

That's right, kiddos, the Nerd Birds are flying the coop! We're headed off to Westword Music Showcase, there to revel in the wonders of lots and lots and lots of cheap music. You can follow the debauchery on Twitter: twitter.com/davidcook

The Raincoats, a Post-Punk Masterpiece

Dear Jesus, why haven’t you listened to the debut album by the Raincoats??? It’s out of print, you say? It’s full of jarring vocals and equally jarring electric violins, you say? Well, I’m just hearing a bunch of excuses for passing up on one of the most underappreciated post-punk albums of the 70’s.

The Raincoats self-titled is full of fantastic vocal arrangements and the kind of ire and derision that apparently only the British were capable of in the late ‘70’s. Tune in for the fantastic, gender bending cover of the Kinks classic “Lola” and stick around for the anthemic blasts of “No Side to Fall In”, “Fairytale in the Supermarket” and “No Looking”. There are few songs that capture the joy and confusion of falling for someone quite like “In Love”. The fact that is in fact out of print (despite a reissue back in 2006) is really a crime against music lovers. The Raincoats are still touring and put out new music well into the 90’s, but I’ve never heard anything that quite matched the exuberance of this first release. Seriously, it’s out there so check it out.

Rock-a-bye Lullaby

Here's a top ten, short and listy, of the best songs to fall asleep to.

1. "Wildfires," The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, Josh Ritter. Most of Ritter's music reminds of saloon-style piano and whiskeyed lyrics, but "Wildfires" does stand as a subtle hush to the album's close.

2. "Green Gloves," Boxer, The National. Representing the best of rainy day sets, this one has great cadence balanced by the deepness of Matt Berninger's vocals, who let's not forget, is himself dreamy.

3. "Postures Bent," Beasts of Seasons, Laura Gibson. Gentle strumming and slightly crooked vocals make this a believable lullaby. Next thing we know Gibson will swaddle us and place a crown of daisies on our sweet little heads.

4. "Swing Low Sweet Chariot," Volume One, She & Him. Traditional? Yes. But any of this crew will tell you that Zooey Deschanel's version is well placed, well done, and sure to calm even the chirpiest of nerd birds into a restful mood.

5. "On Ho!," Noble Beast, Andrew Bird. No whistling or vocals in this one, just pure Suzuki method greatness. What's more, Bird's strong strides on the violin are known to transmit sleep spells.

6. "Only Four Seasons," You Can Tell Georgia, Joe Purdy. Purdy's melodic quality with piano accompaniment will make you wish there were more than four seasons either to sleep or to be sad--Purdy's got the blues.

7. "My Dear Acquaintance," My Dear Acquaintance, Regina Spektor. Sure it's a New Year's song, but I rarely stay awake for the ball drop anyway. Thanks to Regina Spektor, you won't either.

8. "Oscar Wilde (Acoustic)," Ordinary Riches, Company of Thieves. A contrast to the album's earlier and much zippier track, this one allows frontwoman Genevieve Schatz's voice to quietly break through the Oscar Wilde confrontation. Sounds like a fun dream.

9. "Marry Song," Cease to Begin, Band of Horses. This song just begs for a slow dance, or in this case, a slow slumber.

10. "Ignorant Boy," Citadel Band, Loney, Dear. You'll never feel more formally hummed to. Plus, Loney, Dear (aka Emil Svanangen) is from Sweden, and this fact has nothing to do with the degree to which the song makes us sleepy. Nevertheless, sweet dreams from Stockholm.

Record Store Day is tomorrow!

Record Store Day is an annual international celebration of independent record retailers. This year's festivities will take place April 18th at hundeds of stores across the country and dozens of stores in Colorado. Your favorite local record slingers will also be offering discounts, giveaways, DJ sets, in-store performances, and exclusive Record Store Day CD/DVD/Vinyl releases. It's a record store-lover's carnival. For an inside scoop on the action in D-Town, check out our quick run-down below:

Independent Records Denver
Live performances:
11am - DB & The Catastrophe
12pm - The Repercussions
1pm - Speakeasy Tiger
2pm - Heart Start Hero
3pm - Drew Danburry w/Desert Noises
4pm - Like Pianos Crashing
5pm - Mr. Verbal
6pm - Icarus Thump
7pm - Gloam
8pm - Improv

Also:
KTCL will be broadcasting live from the store 12-2 pm and Indie 101.5 will there from 6-8 pm.
The best part: Free food. Delicious Mezcal goodies, gelato samples and more.

Twist and Shout
20% off all used CDs, LPs and DVDs! Twist has invited a bunch of local organizations and business, like The Shoppe, Swallow Hill, The Tattered Cover, Denver Film Society, Dumb Friends League, Chipotle and others to join the party. KGNU, KUVO, Radio 1190, DJ A-What, and guest DJs from Meese will be spinning records throughout the day. Oh yeah, and Great Divide Brewery donated a keg.

Wax Trax
Well, I have no idea what Wax Trax is doing, because they don't have anything posted on their site and I am too lazy to call them. You should stop by and see for yourself.

Bart's CD Cellar (Boulder)
Bart's will be holding a sidewalk sale (a very wet and snowy one, I assume) with bargains like 2 for $4.18 CDs and buy 2 get 1 free used CDs and vinyl. They will also be having live performances:

1:00pm - Pete Wernick & Flexigrass
2:00pm - Alice Peacock
3:00pm - Giddyup Kitty
4:00pm - Radical Knitting Circle
5:00pm - The Culhanes
6:00pm - DJ Jens Irish

Angelo's
Take 10% off any $10+ purchase during record store day. Local rapper Julox will be performing at the Aurora store and both Aurora and Littleton will be giving out free tea. Yes, tea.

Don't miss out.

Two Nerd Birds with One Stone

Maybe it’s the direly downward dollar or all this pirate talk. It could also be that it’s officially a month into spring and the grass is pigment-less and the flowering trees have been thwarted by our once-a-winter snow. It might even be the realization that Denver is now stuck with once-a-winter snow. Needless to say, we all could use some happy music. But since searching for happy music often ends in the discovery of sad and angry music—such a tricky process—I suggest to you this practice. To find the quintessence of musical happy, that which sinks the pirates, fills the grass with green, and restores Colorado water levels all at once, you must first test the album while you clean. It’s the whistle-while-you-work phenomenon: happy music channels motion and productivity, it changes our mood, and it actually makes us cheery to the point that we’d do something as undesirable as scrubbing toilets. It seems the degree to which and the speed with which we clean is directly proportional to the level of musical happy. Yes, that’s it. Kate Nash, Bishop Allen, and Ben Kweller go with rubber gloves while Fleet Foxes, Stars, and MGMT do not. It’s sensible though unproven. Nevertheless, you’re sure to enjoy both a clean apartment and smiley music.

Putting the "rock" back in "rock-a-bye baby"

So I really like Paste. The magazine, not the sticky stuff that I'm constantly having to tell kids not to eat. I also really like children's books (hence the whole librarian thing) and indie rock (hence my whole skinny-boys-that-look-kinda-like-Ira-Glass thing). So when the music mag announced their first foray into the hairy, scary world of book publishing with An Indie Rock Alphabet Book, I kinda peed my pants a little.

This book is the alphabet the way we all wish we'd learned it, from Animal Collective to the Zombies, with the kind of delightfully snotty musical insight that could only come from Paste. With high-color, blocky illustrations, An Indie Rock Alphabet Book ensures that the reader understands that y comes before z, and that Yo La Tengo is the only noteworthy musical act to come out of Hoboken since Ol' Blue Eyes.

And at a mere $12.95, it's a lot cheaper than that music theory degree you aren't using.