In light of the Biden/Palin debate tonight wherein Sarah Palin evaded any question of substance and was not held to answer for any false statements (neither by Biden nor by the moderator, Gwen Ifill); wherein Sarah Palin purported to know something about foreign policy while at the same time making ridiculous statements about it; wherein Sarah Palin showed no emotion whatsoever except to wink (!) at the audience, at the newscasters, and at her husband, even when Senator Biden choked up (as he often does) when talking about his dead wife and daughter; and, wherein Sarah Palin expressed a sincere desire to expand the legislative powers of the vice president, I am hereby forced to revert to childhood musical taste and curl up in a corner of my bedroom, rocking myself to sleep to the sounds of horrible, fluffy, 1970s love-pop. I'm sorry. Please forgive me in advance for inflicting it on you all. (But seriously, isn't that picture awesome!, who knew if you googled "bread" you'd get *that*?)

I loved the group, Bread. They sang all the love songs that 8 year old me wanted to believe defined love. Back then no one sang about "fucking" or "sex" or even "shoop"ing. "Make It With You" was explicit enough for 8 year old me. That's how people said it back then, "Do you wanna make it?" or "Did you make it last night?" It seems so odd now to think about that, so 70s! Anyway, if you've not heard Bread, you really should have some sugary sweet 70s love pop for your Friday groove, and get out there and Make It this weekend folks, xoxoxo

Make It With You, mp3 Bread, On The Waters ..... Buy it
It Don't Matter To Me, mp3 Bread, Bread ..... Buy it
If, mp3 Bread, Manna ..... Buy it

black heart today
she brings me spanish clemintine
i eat them by the waterside
throw the peels and taste the clean
how could i still feel so mean

take this meanness out of me

i got a black heart today
no amount of kindness can turn it the other way
even the dogs are tired of me
howling at the trees

take this meanness out of me

i got a black heart today

Black Heart Today mp3 Amy Ray Stag -- her first solo effort
buy it

Rodeo

She comes down to Georgia to dance across my kitchen floor,
Leavin’ black marks on linoleum, a country song on the radio.
I am just a rodeo calf with tender feet and sewn on horns and
Love is a kindness that I’ve never known before,
I’ve never known before.

She say’s “I’m bound to Carolina to join the kids in ‘Truth or Dare’.”
And she laughs and says its just a game when I tell her that I’m scared.
I am just a dog waitin’ at the kitchen door,
Love is a kindness that I’ve never known before,
I’ve never known before.

Make it last, make it stay
Can you hold on long enough to make this pay.

She said,” My daddy was a grifter and I was in my momma’s way,
So I drifted for a while, because I could not stand to stay.”
And she said, “Love is a kindness that I’ve never understood.”
I said, “I‘ll give it to you willingly, its something you deserve,
Its something you deserve.”

And I’ll make it last, I’ll make it stay.
If you can hold on long enough I can make this pay.

‘Cause I am just a calf with tender feet and sewn on horns,
Love is a prize waitin’ on her at the rodeo.

Rodeo mp3 Amy Ray Prom

buy it

Nope, that's not the song I've got for you tonight, psych!!!

Sometimes I sit in my living room and work, listening to music and yes, even with X amount of gigabites of music on my fuckpod I still find myself with nothing to listen to. Just like when I sit down to watch TV with 300 channels including HDTV there's not a darn thing on that I want to watch - ah the postmodern malaise.

So, on days like this I turn on one of the music channels so graciously offered me by my local cable company (no, not for a song, you shush over there in the peanut gallery). I started out today on "metal (uncensored)" but when they began a 20 minute block of Metallica I bailed and hit the "alternative (uncensored)" in time to catch some great tunes.

I looked up from my work to check out the title of a few songs--some to note what to look further into, some to chuckle to myself about what crap is out there for the unassuming masses. A love song caught my ear, it had a familiar sound, I placed it immediately but I'd never heard it before. Somehow the latest Smashing Pumpkins (well, 2007) had passed me by. "That's The Way (My Love Is)" is a great tune lyrically, a bit mysterious, sweetly sung though in that gentle, wistful way Billy Corgan does so well. And it just so happens to sum up how I'm feeling tonight, lucky you!

I've coupled it with another awesome tune from the ever-reliable (oh god, that's redundantly redundant!) Otis Redding, the ultimate source for love songs. It's a track I particularly like and not one that I think he's very very famous for, so enjoy! I love you MeatPocket, don't you ever underestimate that, baby. xoxox

That's The Way (My Love Is) mp3 The Smashing Pumpkins Zeitgeist buy it
That's How Strong My Love Is mp3 Otis Redding The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads buy it

August, 1993:

• For the first time, the public is allowed inside Buckingham Palace.
• Ong Teng Cheong becomes the first President of Singapore elected by the population.
• New York Yankees 4, Cleveland Indians 0, at Cleveland Stadium
• 6 months earlier the World Trade Center was bombed for the first time "when a car bomb was detonated below Tower One of the World Trade Center in New York City"
• Ace of Base was gearing up for their debut The Sign
• I Can't Help Falling In Love - UB40 - was the #1 song on Billboard's top 100
• Bjork's Debut er, debuts...still one of my favorite albums and I bought it when it first hit the shelves of my local record shop
• ditto with Violent Femmes, Add It Up (1981-1993)
  
• ditto with Queen Latifa, Black Reign, ( I didn't buy this one, but Meatpocket had this one in her arsenal, at the time I felt she was trying too hard, lol)
  
• a Tart and Meatpocket spend 4 hours in a bookstore discussing whether or not we should spend our futures together, at which point the shopclerk poked his head in and said, "oh just kiss her already and get it over with!"
  

So yeah, that's the origins of a 15-year-and-counting collaboration, folks. To say I wooed her with music is an understatement. I downright tested her with tunes, like in that scene in Diner where Levinson has his character Steve subject Elise, his fiance, to a football quiz before the marriage. I trained my little Meatpocket to recognize my music, to trace the transition from punk to post-punk to grunge. I quizzed her on the difference between The Violent Femmes, The Ramones, and The Smiths. The poor little Madonna fan didn't have a chance, really.

But I had to know if she could tolerate and come to love it/me, ya see. Would she be welcome in my world? I'm not ashamed to name my insecurities, I worried about it! There were real barriers between us, like the barriers between men and women in Levinson's Diner.

And well, music was my litmus test. She came from a world where life looked pretty easy: a happy family, loads of opportunities, well-traveled, well-educated, well-bred. In a word, she has very upper-class tastes and she came by them honestly. Luckily my sweetie had a bit of a working-class fetish.

We drove for hours in the countryside at night, just listening to music -- my music. Cassette after cassette was popped into the car player. I threw all the raw, basic, hard-edged and meaningful stuff I had at the time, asking with false bravado if she was sure she didn't mind the volume being up so high. Within a few days a mixtape appeared on my doorstep, love songs: Bonnie Raitt, Sweet Honey In The Rock, Aretha Franklin, Queen Latifa, Billy Holiday, Simon and Garfunkle, etc. Over the years, I learned to soften the edges on my soul with her love and her music, to let people in quicker, and deeper. She learned to not try so hard with mine, and just shake her booty to whatever beat she liked, deep down. Over the years we've learned to merge. We're still learning, it's a process.

If you want advice on how to make it to 15 years and keep going strong, how to be even better than when you first met, do two things:

1. Don't insist on being alike or having something in common, that's just bullshit.
2. Marry a woman who wants to be called Meatpocket and has the sex drive of a "working girl" with the breeding of a princess ;)

photo credit: jan_et_


Here's basically what I wooed my girl with back in '93, forgive me for the Mellencamp, it was 15 years ago, ok!? But they're all exactly not the kind of music a girl like Meatpocket was listening to at the time, I assure you.

So, welcome to the first ever Tart mixtape :) I'll give em to ya one by one and then zipped just in case you would like a single download :).... and uh yeah, if you do wish to listen to the whole thing, the order matters.

Add It Up, Violent Femmes, Add It Up (1981-1993) buy it
Pink Houses, John Mellencamp, Uh Huh buy it
Lola, The Kinks, Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One buy it
Whole Lotta Love, Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II buy it
Crazy On You, Heart, Dream Boat Annie buy it
Anarchy In The U.K, Sex Pistols, Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols buy it
Wargasm, Bricks Are Heavy buy it
Sex Type Thing, Stone Temple Pilots, Core buy it
Bad Reputation, Joan Jett, Bad Reputation, buy it
It's Different For Girls, Joe Jackson, I'm The Man buy it
I Love You, Steve Miller Band, Anthology buy it
Blue Sky, Allman Brothers, Allman Brothers - A Decade of hits 1969-1979 buy it
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, The Smiths, The Queen Is Dead, buy it
The Milkman of Human Kindness, Billy Bragg, Back To Basics, buy it
anniversary.zip