The Replacements - Hangin' Downtown: From the first full length release, Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out The Trash, this is sometimes a fun fallback for me to hear the roots of the greatest band in the world ever and ever. For a first album from an, at the time, rough punk band, this is really a great release.

Chris Stamey / Peter Holsapple - Taken: For a very long time, Mavericks was my favorite album ever. Post dB's, Chris and Peter got together for a first collaborative release in many years. The tracks range from quietly psychedelic to downright mellow, but mostly they are very enjoyable.

Tom Waits - The Black Rider: One of the sillier purchases I ever made was a small metal banner advertising Tom Waits' Black Rider Broadway show. Silly in that it was fairly expensive given it is just a small piece of metal, but neat in that it is a great picture of Tom looking all painted and weird(er). For the music, the Black Rider is entertaining enough, albeit not really on the level of most of his releases at the time.

The Replacements - I.O.U.: I'm liking the iPod's mood today. From Pleased to Meet Me, this is much tighter from the band than the previous shuffle play song, but equally as good.

Cranium - You Pretend That You Depend But Now You Are, Are You Visible: If you want to talk about strange bands, this is the one for you. I forget who I saw them open for years ago, but they were just wacky and I couldn't pass up buying the CD. There is a song somewhere in all the frantic noisy playing, and you can try explaining that to your neighbors when they complain and tell you to turn it down.

The Dead Milkmen - Smokin' Banana Peels: If you buy the EP of this song, the liner notes give very detailed directions as how to spoke banana peels...just FYI.

Hum - Dreamboat: I started chatting with a college radio DJ on IM about this album, Downward is Heavenward, when he played a tune from the CD recently. I was talking about seeing the geek-band on this tour and how they had purchased so many lights for the tour that, rumor has it, they couldn't fit all their gear into the tour van. He, in turned, remembered hearing this, what he called, one of the best indie releases ever when he was something like 12 years old and very innocently pointed out how old I must be to have seen Hum live. I'm not sure I made the connection; this is the last release I ever bought for my Victrola, since then it has been all 8-Tracks.

The Byrds - Here Without You: Interesting closure to the random eight as it was this song, covered by Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple on the Mavericks CD discussed above, that played a big part in me purchasing old Byrds music trying to like the grey hippies.

Marillion - She Chameleon: A slow, organ driven haunting tune from the second full length album of the creepy prog band.

Philemon Arthur & The Dung - Dyngan Rinner I Takt: A cheaply recorded, crazy collection of sounds and weird vocals...in other words, a typical Dung song.

X-Ray Spex - Identity: Good to get some beat into the random eight, waking up the morning with a horn-driven punk song.

Pigalle - La Goutte d'Or: A French punk-ish band brought to my attention as one of the band members was the supporting actor in Cemetery Man (Dellamorte Dellamore).

Those Bastard Souls - What Am I Gonna Do Now: A collection of 90's musicians started as a solo side project by David Shouse of The Grifters. The songs have a certain Beatles feel to them; they released two full length recordings but the first, Twentieth Century Chemical, is by far the most interesting and engaging.

Sonic Youth - Junkie's Promise: From the Washing Machine release which may be the last one I really, really liked. Washing Machine is a great package from beginning to end, but this song, with a typical off-tune, noisy SY feel, also stands well on its own.

Sonic Youth - Chapel Hill: I just realized last night that there are SO MANY Sonic Youth songs on the iPod that it is not even surprising to me that two would play back-to-back on shuffle play. This is from the Dirty release, a much more popish album from the early 90's that, like Goo, takes a lot of criticism. Personally, I like how Sonic Youth has evolved over the years. I haven't always like every CD, but I like that they experiment and expand their sound while keeping a definite edge to their songs.

The Boomtown Rats - Me and Howard Hughes: Closing out another random eight of old music with a fun track from my high school days.

Material Issue - Funny Feeling: Bouncy pop starting off the morning.

Dead Milkmen - Bad Party: Pretty silly song, even by the Milkmen's standards.

Marillion - The Web: In many ways this was the metaphoric song for the band. Appearing on their first full length album, this track summed up the misery of the early songs and was referenced often during the jagged breakup of the band's lead singer, Fish, from the rest. In retrospect, it all seems kinda silly now. Mostly it is just a good song from my favorite album of the band.

Lou Barlow - Open Door War: Another pretty basic lo-fi track, with out-of-place clipped screaming, from the early days of Barlows four-track recordings.

Cut Copy - Going Nowhere (Whitey Remix): The next-to-last track from the FabricLive.29 release that is a fun, bouncy, and slightly off-tune way to close out the recording.

Marillion - Lavender: A cheesy song from the Misplaced Childhood concept album.

Junkie XL - Merlange: Pretty good song from the Saturday Teenage Kick album.

Radio 4 - Enemies Like This: Title track from one of the better power rock bands producing music today. I first saw Radio 4 open for Poster Children a number of years ago and have been happy they have continued to release CDs since then. They are a super fun band to see live; they were very tight even as an opening act back then.

It was a great weekend to see the wooded ground completely blue and purple.

Oleg Kostrow, Supersonic Future - In Three Hands (V Tri Ruki): Another fun track from the Moscow: The Sex, The City, The Music compilation. A bit slow yet bouncy, this compliments the CD's rather diverse collection nicely.

The Paper Chase - The Most Important Part of Your Body: A typically dismal song from a fun band who never met a minor chord they didn't like.

Steve Westfield & The Slow Band - Reject Me First: From the release of the same name, this was released during the height of "lo-fi" music. Featuring Lou Barlow on one track (which was what caught my eye years ago when I first bought it), Steve Westfield isn't quite as subtle as Sebadoh was at the time, but the songs are very well constructed and typically entertaining.

The Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps: Has anybody ever heard of this song before?

Voivod - Meteor: From the Negatron album, an aggressive thrash song at a very good period on Voivod's history.

Boredoms - Eeedoms: Been a while for the Boredoms on the random eight. The Chocolate Synthesizer release, which hosts this track, is particularly annoying at times, and this track full of trumpet-ie goodness is not an exception. But, I like annoying, and the Boredoms, so it all works well.

Tom Waits - Rain Dogs: A great track from one of my favorite musicians. From the Frank's Wild Years trilogy, this is really Waits in his prime.

Deerhoof - Running Thoughts: Been a while for Deerhoof on the random eight as well. This is another math-beat engaging track with interesting progressions and stray sounds that all mix well together. Deerhoof falls into a short list of bands who I look forward to new releases from these days.

From our annual trip to see the blossoms downtown last week.

We were visiting the Big Cats area at the National Zoo this past Friday when the clouds opened up and poured on us. Amazingly poured. Nicole were the only two people in the entire big cat area, it was raining so hard.

If you have ever been at the National Zoo, or by the big cats, you know the words "only two people" are rarely said.

One tiger braved the rain for his breakfast, and together we were granted a treat for standing in the unpleasant weather.