Back in Black (Part 1)

Despite what you might have seen on the blog, or not seen, I haven't given up my quest to listen to all the songs in my iTunes library alphabetically. Let's start getting caught up. I have lots of artists whose name starts with Black.

Up first? Black Elk. These guys are way heavier than 90% of the music I listen to. I remember seeing these guys at the 2005 Total Fest. The one that was out on Ronan Street and saw the cops show up multiple times because bands were playing outside. That was also the weekend I discovered Sparks. Ahhhh, memories. For metal, these guys are pretty melodic, so they earn a pass in my book. The only album of theirs I have is "Always a Six, Never a Nine."

Then? Black Francis, who was the frontman for one of my favorite bands of all time, The Pixies. Most of his stuff is released under the name Frank Black, and I only have last year's Svn Fingers mini album from his Black Francis moniker. Most of the album isn't very good. But the track, "When they come to Murder Me," might have been my favorite rock song of 2008, so the album is worth picking up. I'm also a Charles Thompson (his real name) completist. Or more like aspiring completist, so not buying this wasn't an option for me.

Black Kids came next. I really like these guys. They might be my favorite of the pop/disco/punk wave bands that exist everywhere. When they first came out they were hyped by bloggers near and far, then sort of forgotten. I hear their catchy single "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You," everywhere. It was prominent in Nick and Nora's Infinate Playlist and tons of other movies. Their next album will be big for them. Either they'll make it, or fade into attention deficit obscurity, like so many bands that got big becuase of blog hype.

Now I'm going to get down to some serious studying. I'm taking an online class on Public Library Administration. It was hard at first to get back into the swing of doing homework on my days off, but now it seems normal again. Stay tuned for more from the "black hole" of my collection.