What the hell

have I been listening to? I'm sure you all want to know.

• Spoon - Gimme Fiction. As with all the other Spoon records, this has taken a long time to grow on me. Now, though, I see the true Spoon goodness in it's soul.
  
• Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine (the official one). The songs are basically the same as the bootleg version that went around earlier this year. But it's a little more polished and tweaked around the edges. Hard to say if I like it better or not, so I won't say. It's still good, either way.
  
• Robyn Hitchcock - Obliteration Pie. This is a Japanese import that collects a bunch of outtakes and various odds and ends. It has some fantastic bits (a live "Chinese Bones", for example) and some ridiculous bits ("Funky Town"). The good stuff makes up for the bad.
  
• Rush - Moving Pictures. Actually, I only listened to it once. I first bought my first copy of this when I was in 6th grade (on vinyl, '81 or '82). Then, it was the first CD I bought ('88). I sold the CD when Rush became un-cool ('9\1), but held onto the vinyl totally by accident (because all my LPs were hiding in my dad's storage space while I was at college). Fifteen years later, Friday night, I broke down in a moment of pure impulse and bought a copy of it from iTunes. I played it once to make sure I remembered it all. I did. It truly is a pinnacle of prog-rock. YYZ kicks the ass.
  
• Rolling Stones - Some Girls. Yeah man.
  
• Andrew Bird's Bowl Of Fire - The Swimming Hour. This is all over the place, musically, in a good way. The lyrics are clever and often dark. The whole thing is good, but the standout is "How Indiscreet", a raging 60's-ish soul rocker that I first thought must have been some criminally-overlooked Ray Charles tune.

OK, back to work (you, not me).