In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Music to Grade Papers By

Lauren

I’m still bitter about losing all those lesson plans, so I’m grading papers with the full playlist loaded, FRT style. The last few songs were so unusually cool that I thought I’d share. Please, no commentary on the startling drop in my writing abilities.

Jenny Toomey and Calexico – Tempting
I so love Toomey’s voice. Despite the lounge feel on this album, her voice maintains a rock n’ roll veneer.

Black Mountain – Don’t Run Our Hearts Around
Anything Stephen McBean touches turns to gold. Every time I listen to this album I love it more, in part because of the occasional vocals by Amber Webber. Great new epic.

Pere Ubu – Humor Me
Something about this track is so aloof — the clapping? the keyboard? But after setting up this song with severe distance, a sudden, serious, and totally awesome guitar solo kicks in. Yeah.

And have I mentioned that I’ve been digging T-Rex of late?
T-Rex – 20th Century Boy
T-Rex – Cosmic Dancer

Grant Lee Buffalo – Mockingbirds
Grant Lee Buffalo – Mighty Joe Moon
Much of this album aches for an imagined America. I am surprised this artist isn’t better known among the IMS crew, or for that matter, people who are interested in alt-country and Southern-esque music, and holds up rather well considering it was released during the days of Alice in Chains and STP.

Marisa – Christine
This vintage French ditty is mind-bendingly sexy and cute.

And now is when I bang my head on the desk for my students and grading there/their/they’re papers.

UPDATE
I can’t believe I forgot my newest favorite protest song: Devendra Banhart – Heard Somebody Say. So simple and so pretty.

UPDATE 2
C’mon, people. If I’m going to offer free mp3s, at least let me know what you think.

29 thoughts on Music to Grade Papers By

  2. Thank you for the music to write papers by. Marisa, by Christine, is my favorite. I also love the songs by Jenny Toomey and Devendra Banhart.

    I wasn’t so wild about Pere Ubu – the guitar solo was good, but I didn’t like the rest of it so much.

    Thanks!

  4. IMF? IMS! Though I think that I revealed that I own a CBGBs shirt disqualifies me permanently from being a good IMS. Anyway, thanks for the Grant Lee Buffalo tunes–haven’t heard that shit in awhile. And yeah, it’s because I’m mentally trying to block those years from my life.

  7. i think you and i are kindred musical spirits.

    these are some of my favorites, plus i’ve been going through a T-Rex phase for a while now. Thanks for the links!

  9. C’mon, people. If I’m going to offer free mp3s, at least let me know what you think.

    I’ve gotten used to people just downloading and running from my music posts. Public service. I haven’t listened to these yet, but as soon as I get home. Thanks!

  10. Lauren, I love them!

    I listened to them all, but I can’t figure out how to save them onto my computer. Any suggestions?

    I like the Devendra Banhart song the best.

  12. No, PC. Ah, I HATE Macs! When I right click, it says “Save this link as,” not “save file as.” No worries, I’ll ask a computer nerd friend. (Neil, are you reading this?)

  15. I must be hardcore. I use the standard single button mouse with my ibook. You have to get used the keyboard strokes, such as ctrl + click and clicking “Download linked file”.

    And if you hate such superior computers (minus the somewhat quirky command line interface) so much, why do you own one? 🙂

  16. Ugh, I don’t own one. I would rather die in a gutter in LA in a puddle of my own vomit wearing denim shorts, a fur hat and tevas with wool socks than own a Mac (and yes, that is the worst death I can think of). No offense to you Mac-lovers.

  22. It really is difficult for some people to learn a few extra keystrokes in conjunction with the single-button mouse. Possibly congenital.

  23. Well, I’m a long-time Mac user, and I can bring myself to admit that the one-button mouse is an ill-advised Jobs fetish, the trumph of style over ergonomics.

    I have an Evil Empire optical trackball with 4 buttons and a scroll wheel. Saves my wrists. One-button mice suck ass.

  24. As a long time Emacs user, I guess I find the use of the control, option, and alt keys as natural extension of the keyboard (and in the case of Apple’s OS, the mouse). So I don’t really see the point about ergonomics. And honestly I’ve found trackballs units to be cute space-saving pieces of shit.

    I could use a multibutton mouse, but occasionally I only use the trackpad/single button combo, and a reliance on anything else would cause some awkwardness.

    (For anyone learning OS X, should buy this book.)

  25. I loved the Jenny Toomey track and the Marisa song. I also loved, loved, loved the T-Rex songs. I hadn’t heard any of these artists before, so thank you for broadening my musical horizons…or something. Heh.

  26. So I don’t really see the point about ergonomics.

    Too bad I didn’t meet you fifteen years ago. You could have just told me that the searing pain I was feeling radiating up my right arm from figertips to shoulder blade, which I though was the result of being at the keyboard and mouse for about twelve hours a day at work, didn’t actually exist.

    Unfortunately, I had to get rid of it by using a cute space-saving piece of shit instead. At the time, I imagined it worked in about a month. How foolish of me.

  27. How foolish of me.

    No. Maybe it’s me. I’ve tried several times already to get my mouse to suck ass, but I can’t seem to get it to follow through. Defective, maybe?

  28. Grant Lee Buffalo–a perfect example of a band who made one record–the one these two songs are from–that was unreal; just great, start to finish, and then never quite got to that height again. Mighty Joe Moon is terrific. The title song is one of the most evocative pieces of rock music I’ve ever heard. The music perfectly sums up the lyric…

    Really liked the JT/Calexico. Have been listening to the Iron & Wine/Calexico CD recently; also very, very good.

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