An aural supplement, episode 5

Running Time: 58:14 | File Size 54 MB
Download: .mp3
To subscribe to this podcast: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ARockeyHomeCompanionPodcast

It's May and the thoughts of those around the Rockey home turn to those of fancy. Three is the magic number, but I hear the good Lord gives no more than we can handle. So kiss your mama and fire up the blinky, it's another day trippin' episode of your friendly interweb DJ e-spinnin' tunes both old and new for the very few who was askin'.

1. De La Soul “The Magic Number”
2. Le Switch “Tongue Tied ”
3. Feist “1234”
4. A Tribe Called Quest “Jazz (We've Got)”
5. The Kinks “Village Green”
6. Meiko Kaji “Urami Bushi”
7. Garrison Keillor & Jearlyn Steele “Coffee Jingle”
8. Howard Tate “8 Days on the Road”
9. Neko Case “Things That Scare Me”
10. Shirtless Biddles “Mamie”
11. Young MC “Know How”
12. Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 “Day Tripper”
13. Groucho Marx “Excellent Chances”
14. Arcade Fire “Intervention”
15. X “The New World”
16. Bobby Fuller Four “I Fought the Law”
17. Wilco “Hate It Here”
18. The Who “Two Thousand Years”

Tomorrow the blue sky

Wilco return with their sixth studio album, Sky Blue Sky.

The mother load

This photo of my mother and I has always been a favorite of mine. I don't necessarily know why. I find myself staring into the eyes of that little being wondering what it must have been like for my mother to hold her first born child. Did she wonder even then what would become of this tiny life whom she carried inside her body for months? I'm sure there were plenty of times later in life when she longed for those days when she could just wrap me up and hold me in her arms. I spent lunch this mother's day around my grandmother's dining room table with my brother and my wife. I've been fortunate to have some amazing women in my life who have loved me and who have taught me to love: My mother, my wife, my grandmother who suffers through her alzheimer's inflicted husband, my grandmother whose passionate faith and love for her family have not been dampened by death, my mother-in-law. Where would I be without these women? I'd be nowhere... and I'd be there without clean underwear.

Here's to you moms!

Download:
MP3: Paul Simon :: Mother and Child Reunion
MP3: The White Stripes :: I Want to be the Boy to Warm Your Mother's Heart
MP3: Gillian Welch :: I Had a Real Good Mother and Father
MP3: Ben Harper & The Blind Boys of Alabama :: Mother Pray

The fly cassanova

I was recently digging through the archives in search of tracks for inclusion on the next volume of If Awesome Were a Compact Disc. It gave me the long overdue opportunity to revisit the quintessential hip-hop album of my youth, Stone Cold Rhymin' by Marvin Young (aka Young MC).

Somewhere between my 8th grade and freshman year in high school, I had dubbed a copy of Stone Cold from my friend Eric's cassette tape of the album. During a day when misogynistic lyrics and gangsta rap were becoming the preferred listening of midwestern white boys, the infectious grooves of songs like 'I Come Off,' 'Roll with the Punches' and the radio hit 'Bust a Move' helped protect my innocence and kept me young (pun very much intended). Young's lyrics were fun and often a bit goofy ("with the funky fresh rhymes comin' outta my gizzard,") but they rolled across 70's funk samples and bass lines provided by the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea in such a way that would have my head bobbing long after the groove was over. I would often show off my own skills by reciting the album's 50 second track "Fastest Rhyme" for friends. I'd like to say it won over quite a few ladies. I'd like to say it, but the claim really wouldn't hold much water.

Though he won a Grammy for his hit "Bust a Move" and co-wrote hits such as "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina" for Tone Loc, Young MC never really produced anything of acclaim after the success of Stone Cold Rhymin'. Seventeen years later, I'm listening to this gem from my youth over and over in my car and I'm unashamed of the funky fresh rhymes coming out of my own gizzard. I am ashamed however that I just typed that sentence.

Do you like penguins?

My wife and I spent Sunday evening catching up with our friend Elisa on the southside of Broad Ripple. We spent a good deal of our time together taking advantage of the beautiful Spring weather while talking about ice cream, enjoying ice cream and talking about enjoying ice cream all before I passed out on Elisa's couch... not from the ice cream, mind you, but from the sheer lack of sleep the previous night before opening up shop at the S*Bux that morning.

While chilling out, maxing, relaxing all cool with the girls outside the Dairy Queen, Elisa shared a story with us about a trip that the school her sister teaches at took to the aquarium in Chicago. When the class was through with their visit and boarded the bus to return to school, several students began giggling at a young teenage boy with autism as his ever-present backpack began sloshing back and forth. Upon hearing the commotion from the back of the bus, one of the teachers apprehended the backpack to investigate. What do you suppose this teacher found in the boys backpack? Nothing but a small penguin. I don't know what I was expecting to be in that backpack, but I'll tell you a penguin wasn't even in my top five guesses. All I can say is 'bravo!' I've never heard of a young boy with autism kidnapping a penguin from an aquarium before. Maybe I just don't get out much. Anyways, it just goes to show that people are mad about penguins. I suspect that the young lad was trying to rescue the tiny penguin in hopes that he might return to his arctic homeland and lead his brethren in a dance what might restore peace and harmony to the planet earth.

Speaking of penguins, I saw this parody of Dora the Explorer on Saturday Night Live again on Saturday evening. If you've ever been subjected to numerous episodes of Miss Dora, you'll no doubt find this cartoon as hilarious as my wife and I did.

Funkin' up the bean cup

On Saturday night, Flying J & The Pilots performed with two thirds of Shirtless Biddles at The Bean Cup Coffee Shop in Indianapolis. This was the first time the Biddles and Pilots shared a venue and we are looking forward to this collision of acoustic musical acts happening often in the future. For those of you who missed it, your next chance to catch the Pilots and Biddles together will be at The Strange Brew Coffee Shop in Greenwood, Indiana on June 29th, 2007. Be thar!

Pilots, beans and biddles

Another night of booty-shakin' soul-awakin' musical frivolity is on the horizon. Flying J & the Pilots will be joining Shirtless Biddles at The Bean Cup (8908 South Saint Peter Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46227) this Saturday, April 28th at 7pm. The Bean Cup is a new coffee shop just north of the Greenwood Park Mall off of County Line Road. Saint Peter Street sits right between the Sparkling Image car wash and the building previously occupied by Guitars & More.

If you happen to be in the area, hop on over and support some local musicians and a new locally owned coffee house.

Download
MP3: Flying J & the Pilots :: Thru and Thru
MP3: Shirtless Biddles :: Mamie

An aural supplement, episode 4

Running Time: 1:00:41 | File Size 56 MB
Download: .mp3
To subscribe to this podcast: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ARockeyHomeCompanionPodcast

Flowin' like a harpoon daily and nightly is expected around the Rockey home. This week your host takes you on a tour with the super ghetto british spy pimp on a quest for revenge across the spaghetti midwest at the end of the summer of love. Stare into the eyes of the Diamond and lose yourself. Grrrrowl.

1. Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass “Casino Royale Theme”
2. Neil Diamond “We”
3. The Avett Brothers “Will You Return?”
4. Brandi Carlile “The Story”
5. Neil Young “A Man Needs a Maid/Heart of Gold Suite”
6. Gob Iron “Silicosis Blues”
7. James Brown “Down and Out in New York City”
8. T.Rex “Planet Queen (Acoustic Version)”
9. 16 Horsepower “Single Girl”
10. Bill Mallonee “After All This Dust Settles Down”
11. Ben Kweller “Penny on a Train Track”
12. Ben Harper “Show Me a Little Shame”
13. Steve Martin “Hostages”
14. Charlie Feathers “Can't Hardly Stand It”
15. Ani DiFranco “Subconscious”
16. The Kingston Trio “Greenback Dollar”
17. The Greenhornes w/ Holly Golightly “There is an End”

It started with a bean

It started with young boy and his dream to take Karate... not from the Y, but from a good school. That boy was Daniel LaRusso, his school was a small Okinawan named Miyagi and it is the greatest music sharing club ever known. My brother Jeremy and I--along with every other 2o-something/ 30-something man--have often found common ground in recalling the tales of these and other underdog characters from the films of our childhood. When off-hand phrases such as "Don't know, first time," and "Look at the chicken, he's wild!" are spoken among those who know of their original context, a bond is shared between the parties which unfamiliar bystanders simply cannot understand.

The songs of these films are an important piece of this tapestry of nostalgia. Though often horribly trite, these songs are enjoyed endlessly by those who recall their visual counterparts from these moments in cinematic mediocrity. They have become a shared piece of history among those who have found themselves on the edge of their seat and fighting back tears as they root for Daniel LaRusso, Rocky Balboa and Scott Howard for the thirty-second time as if it were the first. Here's to the underdog!

Many of these songs have spawned a music sharing club affectionately referred to as "If Awesome Were a Compact Disc" among my Starbucks brethren. We have found a commonality beyond the coffee bean which employs us in the music of our past. It has come to serve as a shared thread linking us to one anothers' histories. And to think, it all started with a bean. The coffee bean, you may ponder? Perhaps. Or was it rather Joe 'Bean' Esposito?

Shovel-faced

Spring unfolds in blooming tulips, budding trees, and warm air with surprising cool winds which greet the unsuspecting pedestrian like a cold shovel to the face.

Now it's time for cake

This will most probably change the course of the rest of your day.

My tiny human-like left arm

It was twenty seven years ago today that this goofy lookin' kid to my left decided to keep my childhood from ever getting too peaceful and quiet.

Happy birthday Jeremy, you little wild-eyed rascal.

An aural supplement, episode 3

Running Time: 1:04:46 | File Size 59 MB
Download: .mp3
To subscribe to this podcast: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ARockeyHomeCompanionPodcast

This episode, Joel tries to be best because he's only a man and a man's got to learn to take it. He tries to believe though the goin' gets rough, but he's gotta be tough to make it. History repeats itself. Try and you succeed. Never doubt that your the one and you can have your dreams...

1. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel”
2. R.E.M. “Cuyahoga”
3. Sufjan Stevens “Chicago”
4. Three Dog Night “Shambala”
5. Wilco “Shake It Off”
6. K-OS “Sunday Morning”
7. Chuck & Mac “Powerful Love”
8. Pixies “Caribou”
9. The Amps “Full on Idle”
10. Frank Black & The Catholics “California Bound”
11. Guided by Voices “Jane of the Waking Universe”
12. Son Volt “Adrenaline & Heresy”
13. Flying J & The Pilots “Dust (early demo)"
14. The Rolling Stones “2000 Man"