My brain's been working overtime on a) the book, b) my contributions to the next High Hat, and c) my job (where they pay me to think about things! and write about them, too).

With all that ruminating and cogitating and such, I haven't had much time for y'all, my beloved blog readers. I've been toying a bit with the idea of adding mp3s for download if and when time exists for that. Until then, though, here's today's iPod Random Rules Palm Reading.

1. Jad Fair & Yo La Tengo - "Dedicated Thespian Has Teeth Pulled to Play Newborn Baby In High School Play" (Strange But True). YLT sounding like Mission of Burma, Jad Fair sounding like Jad Fair, this is a great tune, one of the best from their tabloid-inspired collaboration Strange But True.
2. Pão com Manteiga - "Virgem de Andrômeda" (Pão com Manteiga). One of many downloads from the wonderful Brazilian Nuggets site. This is a trippy instrumental, nothing too special as far as psychedelia goes, but pleasant, anyway.
3. Hüsker Dü - "Terms of Psychic Warfare" (New Day Rising). One of my favorite Grant Hart tunes, full of pure pop, crazy loud distorted guitars, and one of Greg Norton's best basslines. If you haven't heard this, well, you're probably not a Hüsker Dü fan.
4. Young People - "El Paso" (War Prayers). More distorto-rock! The guitar tones are droning and loud, the drumbeat simple and direct, and the vocalist seems to think she's singing a country song (it doesn't hurt that her voice is lovely and tinged with a Southern accent).
5. The Hang-Ups - "Waltz" (He's After Me). I always think songs by these guys are Go-Betweens b-sides until the vocalist comes in. Sometimes the illusion continues until the chorus. Gorgeous power-pop, perhaps not as complex as the Go-Betweens, but great stuff, anyway.
6. Camper Van Beethoven - "All Her Favorite Fruit" (Key Lime Pie). This song makes me so emotional. It sounds like 1990, graduating high school and heading off to college, falling in love, drinking cheap beer, and hanging out with your friends for what may be the last time. "We dream our dreams and sing our songs of the fecundity of life and love." Can you feel your heart break?
7. Piri - "As Incriveis Peripécias de Danilo" (Vocês Querem Mate?). Another Brazilian Nugget. The percussion is mighty, but the flute solo grates.
8. Richard & Linda Thompson - "The Gas Almost Works" (Strange Affair). A Celtic-style instrumental dominated by accordion and soprano sax. 'Sokay.
9. Yo La Tengo - "Tears Are In Your Eyes" (...and then nothing turned itself inside-out). Beautiful and melancholy. I don't think Ira and Georgia have ever harmonized better.
10. Mike Watt and the Black Gang Crew - "No One Says Old Man (To The Old Man)" (December 9, 1997, from corndogs.org). Another beautiful, sad song. Joe Baiza's guitar is touching and semi-abstract throughout, more tender than you'd expect from the guy who drove Saccharine Trust and Universal Congress Of.