3 Minutes, 49 Seconds

Sometimes things just dovetail. As I write, we're in the middle of a pleasantly mild spring, I've just finished compiling a list of the Top 100 Songs of the '70s, and I'm about to get married. Also, I've been listening to Dave Dill's independently-released CD, Follow the Summer . How do these four things relate? Well, Dill's CD is full of birds, flowers, sunshine, '70s inspired sounds, and love songs. Like I said, dovetailing. By now we're well into the 4th decade of songwriters who follow in the well-crafted, melodic footsteps of The Beach Boys and The Beatles. That means we have artists now who are inspired by other artists who were inspired by artists who were inspired by the compositions of Wilson, Lennon, and McCartney. I don't doubt that Dave Dill went right to the source, but his music also brings up allusions to many of these aforementioned inspirees. Since I have a serious love/hate relationship with the critical school of comparin...

If you haven't noticed, I started 2008 with a renewed commitment to posting regularly on 3 Minutes, 49 Seconds . If that has faltered in the last couple of weeks, it's only because my energies have been focused on the Top 100 Songs of the '70s list. Go look at it if you haven't already; I'll wait. Every year I make two mixes of songs that move me, one for each half of the year. The time has come to share the tracklisting for the first half of 2008 (I know, technically we haven't had 6 months yet, but humor me). The artwork you see to the right is courtesy of Sam Brown. Check his stuff out here . Take a look at the tracks that made it: 1. The B-52's - Hot Corner 2. The Old 97's - Dance With Me 3. Liam Finn - Energy Spent 4. Nada Surf - I Like What You Say 5. Chris Walla - Everybody Needs a Home 6. Kathleen Edwards - Oil Man's War 7. Tift Merritt - Another Country 8. Kid Dakota - Stars 9. The Republic Tigers - Weatherbeaten 10. Dave Dill - Never...

12 by... aims to summarize an artist's career in 12 songs. This one features... The most bizarre sequence of events ever to occur in my life happened like this. Circa 2001 a group of us met up at our friend Marilee's apartment in Minneapolis. We walked three or so blocks to a nearby coffee shop, where we had an exceedingly awkward encounter with her ex-boyfriend (did I mention her new boyfriend was with us?). As we walked back to her apartment, we spotted Art Alexakis and Craig Montoya of Everclear coming directly toward us. We exchanged a quick hello as we passed them on the sidewalk, and then all turned to each other in amazement. What were they doing there? They're not from the Twin Cities, and the area we were in wasn't close to any venue they might play. We didn't have any time to recover from that before we came upon the immediate aftermath of a car having driven directly into the corner of an apartment building. True story. Anyway, all of the interest I had ...

A couple of years ago, in response to a Pitchfork list of The 200 Greatest Songs of the '60s , I called on some friends to help me compile our own (newly redesigned and revised) Top 200 Songs of the '80s . A little while after that we repeated the feat, and produced the (also newly redesigned and revised) Top 200 Songs of the '90s . All the while, that last little missing decade has been waiting patiently for its turn in the spotlight. Well, '70s, your time has come! I think you'll be surprised at the depth and breadth of this maligned decade. God willing, I'll be posting 10 entries every day or two until the list is complete. Check it out and enjoy: Top 100 Songs of the '70s

Here's the drill: 12 songs to summarize an artist's career, in chronological order (of course). Week 17 It seems disrespectful to make this list, when a person has little excuse to not own all 5 proper Ben Folds albums. But, if you are determined to be frugal, you can't go wrong with these 12. And, yes, Brick is a great song; consider it a silently obvious #13. 1. Philosophy (from Ben Folds Five , 1995) Wow, right out of the gate you have to be impressed by that ivory-tickling. Phil Spector pioneered the wall of sound, but this is the wall of piano. And is that a sly paraphrase of Rhapsody In Blue that I hear? 2. Alice Childress (from Ben Folds Five , 1995) Before you ask about it, Alice Childress is a children's author who wrote A Hero Ain't Nothin' But A Sandwich. The selling point here is the harmony, as well as the rainy day contemplative air. 3. One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces (from Whatever and Ever Amen , 1996) Sadly, it's not really ab...