Let’s get our blood moving again, shall we?  Here in Indiana, there’s still the threat of snow and class 5 doom, but I imagine that you, Dear Reader, are enjoying a nice, sunny mimosa out on the veranda.  Unless you’re Isaac, in which case you’re boarding up your doors and windows to keep the sun from finding you and stealing your soul.  Ah, late-onset schizophrenia, it just wouldn’t be spring without you. 

As always, if you’re using Internet Explorer, this won’t work for you, and I don’t care.

Neutral Milk Hotel, “Holland 1945” from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

This song is pretty unstoppable, supported beautifully by every other fucking song on this album.  If you’re one of the two or three people left in the world who don’t know what an absolute masterpiece Aeroplane is, let this song be a lesson to you.  I’m pretty sure it’s about Anne Frank, and Jeff Mangum screams bloody murder at you for three minute and 12 seconds, while Jeremy Barnes literally destroys the world with his drums and rebuilds it again.  And horns.  There are horns.

Prince & Miles Davis, “Hot Thing” recorded on New Year’s Eve, 1987

Yes, this recording exists, and yes, they played “1999.”  There’s also a 14-minute version of “Purple Rain” where they interpolate the song with “Auld Lang Syne.”  Yes, it’s magical.  One of my favorite parts of this recording is that, apparently, Prince didn’t tell Miles what the cues were for key changes and so forth, and when Miles left the stage he said, “That little motherfucker tried to set me up!”  They were still friends though, just like they were still friends after Miles met Prince’s dad and said, “Now I know why that motherfucking son of yours is so crazy.” 

Pretty Girls Make Graves, “The Get A Way” from Good Health 

Dear PGMG, I am sorry you are not a band anymore.  I feel like I came to you too late, right after your next-to-last album, but I enjoyed our time together, and I hope you are doing OK.  You were very good, and I still like listening to your music.  

Grandaddy,  “Now It’s On” from Sumday

Grandaddy is also defunct, and were also very good, but I have to admit I’m kind of relieved they won’t be making anymore music together.  Grandaddy was one of about a handful of bands that I almost can’t listen to because their hooks are so good, and so attuned to my brainwaves, that I literally can’t sleep because they get stuck on repeat in my brain.  It’s a curse.  I am not joking.

The Hidden Cameras “Awoo” from Awoo 

If you watch the video, this is more a Halloween song, but I’ve been rediscovering it lately, and so it’s a spring song.  I have a soft spot for songs full of heartfelt nonsense (the epitome probably being “I Dig a Pony”) and the earnestness with which Joel Gibb sings “Awoooooooo” like it means something just does it for me.