Day 20: May 31, 2005

Dead Can Dance, INTO THE LABYRINTH - DCD truly transports you to another place through their music. They mix up so many genres within one piece of music it's like a travelogue. Lisa Gerrard's eastern-european/middle-eastern vocalisings are worth the admission price.
unaired - AION, TOWARD THE WITHIN, SPIRITCHASER

Deep Purple, PERFECT STRANGERS - The 1980's re-union album. This is great 80's metal. Yeah, they ripped off "Kashmir" on the title-track, and yeah the lyrics are sub-stoopid; but the album really sounds and feels like a classic hard rock album.

Derek and the Dominoes, LAYLA AND OTHER LOVE SONGS - Aided by a visiting Duane Allman, Eric Clapton bares his soul and re-discovers his blues through a haze of Miami heroin. Probably one of the most stoned albums ever made (THERE'S a list someone should compile). Senseless triv: legend has it that the album, or parts of it, were mastered at the wrong speed. All that said, it is a landmark record and must-have for any collection.

Devo, GREATEST HITS - Yeah, well, what do you say about Devo? They made robotic pop for a generation of people raised on television and increasing automation. Obviously they were right about everything because they scored several hit singles. My son seemed to dig their version of "Satisfaction", especially with me singing along on the "baaabybabybabybabybabybabybaby....." part.

DiFranco, Ani, OUT OF RANGE - This is the album that brought me and my wife together, and is therefore partially responsible for our son even being here. When we first met, she didn't believe that I even knew who DiFranco was - so I quoted some lyrics and the rest is history. In her vast catalog, this remains, IMO, her best and most fully-formed album.
unaired - NOT A PRETTY GIRL, LITTLE PLASTIC CASTLES,UP UP UP UP UP, DILATE, LIVING IN CLIP, LIKE I SAID, PUDDLE DIVE, REVELLING/RECKONING, TO THE TEETH, NOT SO SOFT

It's these kinds of mixes that I had hoped for when we first thought of doing this. This was a perfect evening: the sun was setting as DCD spun their web around our living room, Deep Purple brought down the night, Eric Clapton and company put on a blues display leading into the later evening hours, DEVO had me doing that nerdy-bopping dance around the house, and we drank the last of our coffees as Ani DiFranco made ever-so-desperate phone calls from "The Diner." What a good night.