I was thinking of an unrelated thing

Today, I have seven largely unrelated comments, in a numbered list.

1. The temperature around here has gotten really warm really quickly, but I'm not complaining. Well, okay, I'm complaining a little bit, because now it's at the stage when the blower in my car isn't always enough, but I can't keep the air conditioning on for long periods of time, either. Besides, I never know what it's going to be like from one day to another. With my luck, it's probably going to snow again next week.

2. It's weird when something you wrote a few years ago suddenly resurfaces on a livejournal community.

3. Yesterday was Frank Black's fortieth birthday, so happy belated birthday to him. Today is actually my dad's birthday. He's older than Frank, but I won't say by exactly how much. {g}

4. I stopped by a music store today, and their "upcoming releases" board has a section for stuff with no confirmed release date. One of the bands listed there is XTC. I have seen no evidence that XTC is working on an album, and a fair bit of evidence that the band isn't really a going concern at this point. I guess the last two Fuzzy Warbles CDs are still due to be released this year, but that store never carried any of the earlier volumes, so I tend to doubt that's what they're talking about? Is it just wishful thinking? A new greatest hits compilation that Virgin is putting out to milk the back catalog? I have no idea.

5. The same store had a copy of the Pixies' Alec Eiffel EP, which I might have been interested in if it hadn't cost $8, and I already had all the songs on it. It seems to me that, after a band releases a B-side collection, the only reason anyone would buy the individual EPs is for "Hey, look what I have! Cool, huh?" value, and I don't think that's worth $8 new, let alone used.

6. The "ask me questions" forward has been floating around as of late. I've already done that at least twice, but I might as well go ahead and do it again. Go ahead and ask me four questions. If you've already questioned me to your heart's content, though, don't feel obligated to do this. Of course, the last time I did this, I included a statement along the lines of "Everybody who reads this must ask me [x] questions," yet I would be willing to bet that some people read it and didn't ask any questions. But this time, I'm not even going to pretend that I'm ordering everybody to ask. Just do it if you want to.

7. I finished my taxes. Hooray! Let's just hope they're acceptable.

Name That Tune

zaph did this thing where he listed twenty artists, and people were supposed to guess his favorite songs. I'm going to try to do the same thing, although there are some where I haven't really picked a favorite song; and there are some where I HAVE picked a favorite, but I haven't necessarily told anybody else what it is. So I'm going to be pretty lenient here. In addition to favorite songs, I'm also going to add in my favorite album for each band or artist (which is generally an easier matter).

1. They Might Be Giants
2. XTC
3. Tori Amos
4. Pixies
5. Camper Van Beethoven
6. Laura Cantrell
7. Young Fresh Fellows
8. Hypnotic Clambake
9. Moxy Früvous
10. Frank Black
11. Neko Case
12. Minus 5
13. Tom Lehrer
14. Cracker
15. Posies

I tried to stick with artists where I know most, if not all, of the catalog, because I'm not sure it's fair to choose favorites when I'm still missing entire albums. Anyway, go ahead and guess.