More stats and Caralee tops me

We've updated the stats page and when you check the page out you'll want to pay close attention to what happened on days 22 and 25. Caralee wrote a bit about her "Big" day on the 25th day of the 2006MIX Experiment now you can check it all out song for song.

We just heard some great stuff today including unanimous 5-star songs like Billie Jean, Bird On A Wire by The Fairport Convention, Birds And Ships from the original Mermaid Avenue album by Billy Bragg & Wilco.

I'm finding that each time I sit down to post to the blog I'm more inclined to write about the details of the experiment than I am to write about the actual music. This was not my intention but I guess it's due in part to the amount of work that goes into documenting all the listening. I'm going to work to find a better balance and try to devote more time to discussing the actual tunes.

I did want to mention that this past Saturday we met our friends Darla and Joe for a movie - the fantastic Good Night, And Good Luck, some indian food at Gaylords followed by a trip over to Madrone on Divis to see Bat Makumba. Had an excellent time and want to thank those two for spurring us into action. Hopefully we'll get out to see some more music soon. If you are in the Bay Area and like yourself some groovy Brazilian music then you should really check out Bat Makumba, great fun.

I'm bummed because Willie Nelson is in town for four nights this week at the Fillmore and I was unable to get any tix. After a slow concert year for us in 2005 I'm hoping that CL and I will get out to see more shows this year. I've noticed a lot of positive press lately for Film School and couldn't be happier about it. It's great to see a band stay true to their vision and find an audience that grows along with them. Hopefully they'll continue to reach more and more folks with each new release.

Yesterday was a big day. I awoke to a big scary dream, where a black bear was chasing after my cat and I. Luckily a black lab was there to protect us, because he was putting up a big fight. During our morning commute and after stepping off the train, I was comforted to see that the first dog we came across was a black lab. His coat was not sleek like dear Abby's used to be, but more fluffy...like a bear. What's this all mean? I don't know, but I was certainly giving big scores to the songs below.

Big River by Johnny cash (two versions played, live at San Quentin got a 4, Sun Years got the 5)
Then, I gave three 5 stars in a row...
Big Sky by the Kinks (with thoughts of Montana)
Big Ten-Inch Record Jackson w/Tiny Bradshaw Orchestra (sexy)
Big Time Woman by Leon Redbone (great beat for walking)

The evening ended with little music, but lots of fun with friends at the Oakland coliseum. We witnessed a big loss at the Warriors basketball game; the Dallas Mavericks took the win. At least we got through the 32 songs that start with "big", so I don't have to mention it anymore. Currently we're on song 940...quickly approaching the "blacks". Oh, just one more...that's BIG.

The "B's" and 700+ and counting

I'll be the first to admit my surprise that we're still going strong and nearing the completion of our third week in the 2006MIX Experiment. I thought by now we'd be bored of this, wanting to watch tv or a movie, CL would have heard one too many Pavement songs, or we'd have found some other project to take up.

The truth is, we're loving the experiment and all we're learning from it. In fact, just the other day Caralina handed a Pavement song four stars! This is truly going better than expected.

After our train ride and walk to work this morning we're just a few songs short of 750. The other night we made it through the completion of the "A" songs - over 500 in total. Although we were thrilled to hit the "B's" our first song, "B-boy Bouillabaisse" by the Beastie Boys, had us immediately longing for the "A's" or even the "punctuations". The songs 12:33 length was too much for either of us and we both gave it a 1 and moved on. It does have a sort of Abbey Road medly quality to it but too much of the song misses the mark.

We've been kicking around some ideas for new ways to compare the songs we're rating. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the ideas we've got and any new ideas you may have.
(keep in mind that these all use Song Titles as their foundation)
The Vs. Series: Which group of songs are better, those that contain the word "A" or the word "B"? i.e. "Good" vs. "Bad", "Love" vs. "Hate", "Walk" vs. "Run"
Time of the Season: Which season of the year is represented the best in song? i.e. Are the songs with "Autumn" or "Fall" in the title better than those with "Winter"?
City Soundtrack: Which cities have the best songs dedicated to them (or at least the city is in the song title)?

Look for these and other lists to be incorporated into the 2006MIX Experiment as we move along.

A quick note that's not 2006MIX related - We have a story in our latest issue (1/30/06) about Marc Weinstein and Amoeba Records - go ahead and check it out. Marc is a very nice guy, had the pleasure of meeting him at one of Amoeba's annual employee parties on Treasure Island.

We really like the SFist

A great entry today on the SFist and their just begun infatuation with their iPod. I think it's safe to say that CL and I can relate.

I would like to express my love and hate for a few songs that have played in the last couple days. We are reaching the end of the A's with great anticipation of what the B's might hold. The A's have been a wonderful ride. We have discovered that apples are a good fruit to sing about and autumn provides wonderful inspiration for some amazing songs.

Today we finished with the "Autumn" songs with high scores all around, only one 3 was given by me for Captain Beefheart's "Autumn's Child". Matt and I both gave 5 stars to "Autumn" by Mia Dio Todd and "Autumn Leaves" by Cannonball Atterley. I was surprised by the song length of the latter (11 minutes long). In order to achieve a 5 star rating from me, a song cannot be too repetitious and must hold my interest throughout. Atterley did that well. If you evey get the chance to see Mia Dio Todd in person. I highly recommend it. Matt introduced me to her on a total whim. He had heard about her through a friend and found that she was singing at Bimbo's one night...an impromtu date for us that introduced me to one of my favorite singers. Her voice is unlike anyone I have ever heard. It has somewhat of a vibrato aspect to it...simply beautiful and even more dramatic in person.

Yesterday, Matt and I both gave a 5 to Bebel Gilberto's "August Day Song". With her soothing voice and sultry mood, I personally felt like I might be walking through heaven. Unfortunately, I was only walking to work. Directly off of the train, I felt like the screaming guitar of "Atrocity Exhibition" by Joy Division might send me to the looney bin if I listened to it for too long. I should have skipped it in the early beginning, but there was a nice drum beat that kept me sane.

What's happening

We're now well into week 3 of the 2006MIX Experiment. I've got the day off today and that has helped me to find the time to come up with a solution to our stats problem. I will try to update the stats at least once a week and am still open to ideas/suggestions you may have on ways to improve the presentation of this information. You can always check our stats page by clicking the link on the left nav bar (as well as our bios, favorites, etc.)

I want to thank my friends Scott and Jim for helping me with the stats page issue.

An interesting trend has developed of late - CL is handing our more 5 star rating than I am, yet, her daily average rating has yet to eclipse mine. At the beginning of this process I wondered if her ratings would ever be higher than mine for a day. I still feel that this won't happen because with those 5's come a lot of 1's and 2's. Because most of the music being played is "mine" I'm more likely to enjoy the bulk of it (this does not apply to Neil Diamond and the Indigo Girls).

I'm starting a list of albums that are on the chopping blcok and will most likely be first to go at the conclusion of the experiment. The list so far skews heavily towards jazz and latin jazz. I'll post this list in another couple weeks or so.

Hoping to get some new photos added here before they become "old" photos. Look for an update on that page soon.

It's "All" over now

The end of Day 11 of the 2006MIX Experiment and we just trudged our way through the "Alls". Everything from "All Night Long" to "All Stripped Down" to "All Things Must Pass", and so they shall, into the "Almost"s. Between days 10 and 11 we heard 63 songs that started with the word "All".

The best (received 5's from both of us):
"All Night Diner" by Modest Mouse
"All of You" by Miles Davis
"All of Your Love" by Magic Sam
"All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers
"All Tomorrow's Parties" by The Velvet Underground

and the worst (lowest aggregate scores):
"All I Really Need Is You" by Neil Diamond
"All The Nations Airports" by Archers Of Loaf

We've topped the 441 mark and aim to pass 500 songs in the next couple days.

Week 2 is underway

We're into our second week of the 2006MIX and we got off to a good start on Sunday. We listened to 67 songs that day and another 16 on Monday. Now it's Tuesday night and we're blogging in real time with Bob Marley's "All In One" from African Herbsman. I'm going to give it a 5 and I have a feeling CL may follow suit.

Caralee and I walk to work together everday to and from the CalTrain station. Tonight after work I met her at her office building and she showed up with her headphones in place waiting for me to come with the iPod. I was afraid this experiment would drive her crazy, fortunately the reverse seems to be taking place. {Caralee gave Bob a 4, now it's Carl Perkins}

In fact, the other night at Brian and Adrienne's an amazing thing happened. We were asked what some of the top songs have been so far and Caralee started singing"A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall". This may not seem like much but Caralee does not, I mean flat out will not sing, not for me, not in the shower, just doesn't do it. So after singing a bit she says that the experiment is interesting because of how many songs are covered by various artists and how divergent each version can be. Her point was made by her mentioning the cover of "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" by Roxy Music. Brian then asked who the lead singer of that band is and Caralee nearly made me fall out of my chair when she quickly replied, Bryan Ferry. I mean this was huge, CL just sang a song in front of people and then was able to cull up the name of a musician right on cue. You'll have to take my word for it, this was a monumental night.

Of course for all the good that the experiment brings, it also brings lots of Pavement, and Caralee can't stand Pavement, they're playing right now. She's squirming. I'm giving it a 4, she's probably got a 1 queued up {oh, it's a 2}. Thankfully Pavement is followed by Magnetic Fields.

So far my favorite song has been by Otis Redding, "A Change Is Gonna Come".

Overdue weekend recap

We just finished our first week of the experiment and capped it all off with a great weekend. On Friday night we were invited to join our friends Brian and Adrienne at their house for dinner along with their baby girl Leah. During dinner we were asked about the experiment and whether it had begun, and if so, how it was going. The ensuing conversation uncovered a lot of interesting questions and raised some intriguing points about what may happen during the course of the 2006MIX Experiment.

Were it not for the wine we drank that night I might actually be able to remember enough of our discussion to share it with you. In any event, we expect to learn quite a bit as we go. After a great meal, (thanks again Brian, Adrienne, and Leah) and catching up with each other we turned on some music and actually had our first (of hopefully many) guest participants in the 2006MIX.

Here's what we heard and what everyone thought:

B A C M
A Lover's Question by Clyde McPhatter 4 3 4 4
A Maiden's Prayer by Willie Nelson 5 4 5 5
A Man And A Half by Wilson Pickett 4 3 4 4
A Man Has To Go Back To The Crossroads... by James Brown 2 2 2 2
A Man Needs A Maid 3 3 2 3
A Man Who Never Sees A Pretty Girl... by The Sea & Cake 3 1 3 3
A Message To Pretty by Love 5 4 5 5
A Midsummer's Night Scene by John's Children 3 4 4 4
A Mis Abuelos by Arturo Sandoval/Chick Corea/Poncho S. 5 4 4 3
A Mother by Herbaliser (Kruder & Dorfmeister) 2 2 3 2

So the two runaway favorites were from Willie Nelson and Love. Thanks to our first two guests, hope you guys can join us again.

Week 1 ended on Saturday and we got through 50 songs that day to finish at 269 songs for the week. If we can hit the 250 mark each week we should be in good shape. Hopefully we'll be able to keep up this pace.

I still haven't determined the best way to share the data from our spreadsheet. If anyone has a suggestion please let me know.

Ain't it amazing...
we're still going strong. This morning we finished up with 21 songs, which start with the word "ain't". My favorite (5 star song) was Aretha Franklin's "Ain't No Way" and least favorites (1 star songs) were Dead Boys' punk rock song "Ain't Nothing To Do" and Jane's Addition's "Ain't No Right". As you may begin to notice with my reviews, I am not one for punk rock, heavy metal, and rap. I've done a little reading about Dead Boys today on the internet and it only confirms that they are not my type of band. I do not need to see Stiv Bators pull bologna off his shirt, wipe his nose with it, and eat it. Nor do I need to see him pour beer down his pants. If you would like to see the Dead Boys do such things, go right ahead and buy their DVD "Live at CBGB'S 1977". I'll stick with the soulful classics, which I gave 4 stars...
"Ain't Misbehavin" - Leon Redbone
"Ain't No More Cane" - Bob Dylan & the band
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" - Marvin Gaye
"Ain't No Telling" - Jimi Hendrix
"Ain't Nobody Home" - B.B. King
"Ain't That a Kick in the Head" - Dean Martin
"Ain't That a Shame" - Fats Domino
"Ain't That Love" - Ray Charles
"Ain't That too Much" - Gene Vincent

week 2 - day 9

Ain't it amazing...
we're still going strong. This morning we finished up with 21 songs, which start with the word "ain't". My favorite (5 star song) was Aretha Franklin's "Ain't No Way" and least favorites (1 star songs) were Dead Boys' punk rock song "Ain't Nothing To Do" and Jane's Addition's "Ain't No Right". As you may begin to notice with my reviews, I am not one for punk rock, heavy metal, and rap. I've done a little reading about Dead Boys today on the internet and it only confirms that they are not my type of band. I do not need to see Stiv Bators pull bologna off his shirt, wipe his nose with it, and eat it. Nor do I need to see him pour beer down his pants. If you would like to see the Dead Boys do such things, go right ahead and buy their DVD "Live at CBGB'S 1977". I'll stick with the soulful classics, which I gave 4 stars...
"Ain't Misbehavin" - Leon Redbone
"Ain't No More Cane" - Bob Dylan & the band
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" - Marvin Gaye
"Ain't No Telling" - Jimi Hendrix
"Ain't Nobody Home" - B.B. King
"Ain't That a Kick in the Head" - Dean Martin
"Ain't That a Shame" - Fats Domino
"Ain't That Love" - Ray Charles
"Ain't That too Much" - Gene Vincent

Day 5

Caralee here...finally blogging for you over my lunch hour. I would like to say how much I am enjoying this experiment. Yesterday and today were the first two days in which Matt and I listened together while walking from the train station to work. I've seen a few people smile at us in passing, as they see us linked together by headphone wires. Listening to Luna's "23 Minutes to Brussels" and Johnny Cash's "25 Minutes to go" certainly put a bounce in my step yesterday. They received a rating of 5 and 4 respectively. Today, I gave my highest score to Chris Issak's beautiful vocals in "5:15". It may not be his best, but the lyrics spoke to me and brought up memories of us: rushing to catch the train. Luckily, today we had no problem catching it, but yesterday was another story. We were scampering to make it; good thing it was late. As far as the low scoring songs, Giant Sand's "1972" and Dr. Octogan's "1977" received 1's yesterday. Today I haven't been nearly as annoyed. These song's received 2's: Beastie Boy's "3-minute rule", Pere Ubu's "30 seconds over Tokyo", Dr. Octogan's "3000", Gories' "48 hours", Pavement's "5-4 Vocal", and PJ Harvey's "50ft Queenie". I was suprised to find out that Pavement has another version of "5-4" called "5-4=Unity". It does not have any screaming vocals, which makes it so much better. I gave it a 4. As the evening approaches, I am looking forward to listening to the end of the numbers, as we walk to a show of Cirque de Soliel. Hopefully we'll be into the A's by the end of the night.

A report on 2006MIX Experiment Day 2

Day 2 was nearly a wash with the big Buckeyes game on and Caralina having to take our cat to the vet hospital. The cat is okay and the Bucks stomped on Notre Dame so all is well. We sat down to listen to some music at the end of the night and heard some really good stuff.

CL really dug songs from icons Van Morrison, Aretha Franklin, and Elvis. I was into more legends - The Clash, Billie Holiday, Van Morrison. My average song rating went up to 3.68 from a 3.5 on Day 1 and CL's went from a 3.44 to a 3.53. So all in all Day 2 produced better songs than Day 1.

Our favorite songs for the day were:
(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
(Nothing But) Flowers
(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay
(Straight To Your Heart) Like A Cannonball

After two days we haven't skipped any songs.

Changes and Buckeyes!

Before getting to the changes, I've got to say how fired up I am about the Buckeyes win today. Look for big things from OSU next year as well.

Now back to the music. After just one day I realized that the format I had in mind for this blog is simply not going to work. I've got to find a better way to record and subsequently present to you our takes on the songs. The problem is that I'm not very tech savvy. What would work best is to publicize the spreadsheet we're using to track all the ratings and stats. I believe I can do this in Excel but have to look into how to best incorporate into the blog. In the meantime I'll give you an update on where we stand now.

After day 3 we've listened to a total of 89 songs. We're going to have to improve on this if we want to complete the experiment by Thanksgiving. Only one song has been skipped so far - Caralee didn't much care for 1,000 X by Face To Face at 6:49AM this morning. In fact, the entire morning wasn't to her liking as she handed out ratings of 4, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, skip, 1, and 2 to the early morning set that started with 007 (Shanty Town) by Desmond Dekker and ended with 10 Dollar by M.I.A. During that same stretch I gave the songs a 4, 5, 4, 3, 4, 4, NA, 4, and 4.

The songs b/t D.D. and M.I.A. were:
0078h by M83
01 by Babyland
1 2 Many by Common
1% by Janes Addiction
1% Of One by Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
1,000 X by Face To Face
10 by Blonde Redhead

Tonight things got better with CL giving out 5 star ratings to Tom Waits, Spoon, Shout Out Louds, and Richard Thompson. She is also developing an early leader for least favorite band of the week - Wire. She said tonight that 12 x U makes her anxious and when the song started she groaned, "Not another Wire song".

I was happy to hear Richard Thompson as well, we both love his song 1952 Vincent Black Lightning. A favorite Cure song was in the mix tonight and of course there was Wire, who I absolutely love.

The Kickoff Is Finally Here

Happy New Years! I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday and that you've received lots of new music. In my stocking I got a $25 gift card for the iTunes store. Today was my first chance to put it to use. These songs were the last to be added to the iPod before we began the experiment:
I Predict a Riot- Kaiser Chiefs
All These Things That I've Done- The Killers
Sweet Child O' Mine- Guns N' Roses
Mo Money Mo Problems- (Featuring Mase & Puff Daddy) The Notorious B.I.G.
West End Girls- Pet Shop Boys
Shot By Both Sides- Magazine
Academy Fight Song- Mission of Burma
Homeless Club Kids- My Favorite
Such Great Heights- The Postal Service
Dreams Never End- New Order
They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)- Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
Call Me the Breeze- J.J. Cale
After Midnight- J.J. Cale
Cocaine- J.J. Cale
Bring on the Night- The Police
Sing Sing Sing (With a Swing)- Benny Goodman
Undercover of the Night- The Rolling Stones
Cowboy Movie- David Crosby
Spellbinder- Gabor Szabo
Between Something and Nothing- The Ocean Blue
Black Metallic- Catherine Wheel
Acid- Mad Cobra
Murder She Wrote- Chaka Demus & Pliers
I Put a Spell on You- Screamin' Jay Hawkins
I Got a Man- Positive K

So now we have made it - the launch of the 2006MIX Experiment. After adding these songs, taking the cat to the vet, and generally cleaning up the house we finally found some time to listen to some music.

Remember that we're listening to the 10,408 songs on our iPod in alphabetical order by song title. So without further procrastination - the first song of the 2006MIX Experiment was:

'Cause I Love You by Johnny Cash from disc 1 of the Love, God, Murder box.

I gave this simple, touching love song 3 stars, Caralee on the other hand felt that this song was a great way to get started and she gave it 5 stars. Here is how the rest of the evening went:

'Cause I Love You 1:46 Johnny Cash "Love, God, Murder [Disc 1]" 5 3
'Cross The Breeze 7:00 Sonic Youth Daydream Nation 2 4
'Round Midnight 3:47 Charlie Parker Yardbird Suite: The Ultimate Charlie Parker (Disc 2) 4 3
'Round Midnight 5:36 Herbie Hancock The Herbie Hancock Box (Disc 1) 3 5
'round Midnight 3:38 Joe Pass Virtuoso 5 2
'Round Midnight 5:54 Miles Davis 'Round About Midnight 4 4
'Round Midnight 4:13 Thelonious Monk Monk's Blues 5 5
"Diddley Daddy" 2:29 Bo Diddley Bo Diddley/Go Bo Diddley 3 2
"Diddy Wah Diddy" 2:31 Bo Diddley Bo Diddley/Go Bo Diddley 4 3
"Do You Speak English?" 0:40 Portastatic Looking For Leonard 5 3
"My Two Nads (Dad Reprise)" 4:43 Out Hud S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D. 3 3
"Pepe" 2:02 Duane Eddy Twang Thang The Duane Eddy Anthology 2 3
"Say Boss Man" 2:33 Bo Diddley Bo Diddley/Go Bo Diddley 2 2
"Yep!" 2:11 Duane Eddy Twang Thang The Duane Eddy Anthology 2 2
$1000 Wedding 5:02 Gram Parsons G.P. / Grievous Angel 1 3
(Back Home Again in) Indiana 5:27 Louis Armstrong Lets Do It Best of the Verve Years 4 3
(Carter Girls Intro) Kneeling Drunkard's Plea 3:27 June Carter Cash Wildwood Flower 4 3
(Crazy For You But) Not That Crazy 2:18 The Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs Vol. 2 3 4
(Do Not Feed The) Oyster 4:49 Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks Pig Lib 4 4
(Don't Go Back To) Rockville 4:33 R.E.M. Reckoning 5 4
(Don't Worry) If There's A Hell Below We're All Gonna Go 7:45 Curtis Mayfield Get Down In The Funky Groove 4 4
(False Start) Come Back My Darling 0:30 Girl Satchmo Duke Reid's Treasure Chest (Disc 2) 3 1
(Ghost) Riders In The Sky 6:13 Willie Nelson & Johnny Cash Storytellers [Live] 5 5
(Hats Off To) Bert Jansch 10:03 Mushroom Glazed Popems 4 5
(Heavy Breathing) On The Telephone 1:40 Marmoset Today It's You 3 3
(Hep-Hep!) The Jumpin' Jive 2:48 Cab Calloway Cruisin' With Cab 4 5
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 3:44 The Rolling Stones Big Hits: High Tide And Green Grass 4 5
(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea 3:10 Elvis Costello This Year's Model (Disc 1) 3 3
(I Got A) Catholic Block 3:26 Sonic Youth Sister 1 5
(I Love To Play Your Piano) Let Me Bang Your Box 2:44 The Toppers With Orchestra Risque Rhythm: Nasty '50s R&B 4 2
(I Want To Be A) Better Man 3:00 The Ethiopians Train To Skaville 2 3 4
(I Want To Live On An) Abstract Plain 2:19 Frank Black Teenager Of The Year 2 4
(If You Cry) True Love, True Love 2:23 The Drifters Golden Hits 3 5
(Intro) 1:36 Sigur Rós Ágætis Byrjun 4 3