Tag: The Staves

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Pictures of Cats playlist

Jonathan Coulton is probably best known for his Thing a Week albums and songs like “Tom Cruise Crazy,” “First of May,” and “Skullcrusher Mountain.” All of those are fantastic, of course, but my all-time-favorite song by Coulton is from his Solid State album, “Pictures of Cats.” (Not a shock, I realize.)

Sir Wobbles, an orange cat, loafed on a black and white blanket.
Sir Wobbles invites you to enjoy “Pictures of Cats.”

It’s about something all-too-often relevant, but especially so last week: the need to seek out something soothing when the world is overtaken by bad news.

All at once, it fills up my feed
More bad news that I didn’t need
I can’t stop reading, but I wish that I didn’t know

Still too soon; there’s not much to say
They don’t know, but talk anyway
All of the pieces and none of the places they go

So I am looking at pictures of cats
I am looking at pictures of cats

As I said, especially relevant last week. If you’re reading this months or years from now, you might have trouble placing the bad news from last week from the bad news that’s happening all the time. It doesn’t matter, really.

The other thing that helps me, aside from looking at (or posting) pictures of cats, is to make playlists. So I’ve been working on a Pictures of Cats playlist; it’s incomplete, and I’m still tinkering with the track order. Currently features Coulton, Aimee Mann, The Staves, Tracy Chapman, Eliza Rickman, Gil Scott-Heron, Beth Orton, Johnny Cash, R.E.M., Leonard Cohen, Gurf Morlix, Gillian Welch, The Jayhawks, Jukebox the Ghost, and Mavis Staples.

It’s on YouTube Music because it’s the least-bad option for hosting such a thing, at least that I know of, that most people will be able to use. I sure miss sharing such things on cassette… Anyway, check it out, and make suggestions if you are so inclined.

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The Staves: Tired as Fuck (and a rant)

A few months ago, I stumbled on The Staves “Tired as Fuck,” and it’s been a go-to listen on YouTube, Spotify, etc. It’s got a great build – adding layers until it turns into a chorus of voices and blistering guitar and throbbing percussion.

Really, you should listen to it right now if you haven’t already.

And now, the rant… I really want to buy a copy of this, but it’s only available digitally. I can buy it via iTunes, or listen on Spotify and Apple Music. (Or YouTube.) Or I can buy it via Nonesuch as an MP3. (Presumably, I hope, at 320.) No CD, no vinyl, not even FLAC.

Maybe demand is no longer there, but I don’t want my only copy of music to be digital.

I recently went with a deal on Bandcamp to buy 200+ releases from Buckethead, and it was similar – no vinyl, no CD, just digital. At least in this case, Bandcamp offers FLAC so the music quality is as good as you get on CD, even if you don’t get the actual physical media. (And Bandcamp has a reasonably good archival experience, I can go back for my purchases anytime – at least as long as they remain in business. Which I hope is a long time.)

Similarly, one of my favorite scrappy Indie labels (Magnatune) stopped offering physical media a long time ago. They’re such an awesome outfit, I’m happy to subscribe and have access to their catalog, but… I’d really love to have physical copies of Ehren Starks’ catalog, and Ninety Pounds of Ugly‘s Richmond Motel Room 3. (Pity they’ve broken up.)

For folks who only want digital, that’s great – but I want a pristine, physical copy. Hell, I want something the artist or band can sign if I get the chance. Something that, assuming civilization survives, somebody might pick up in 100 years and listen to.