I am yours and you are mine the way it should be

The Smithereens - A Girl Like You







Go ahead and call me cheesy for doing a show of love songs on Valentine's Day. The shoe fits. I couldn't help it. So I'm interrupting the "connected" theme this week for a group of my favorite tunes about love, requited and unrequited and all types in between. I must confess I am a sucker for more of the "Love Untold" type but I wanted to give equal airtime to the likes of "Another First Kiss" as well.

• Billy Bragg - The Fourteenth of February
• They Might Be Giants - Another First Kiss
• Yo La Tengo - You Can Have It All
• The Smithereens - A Girl Like You
• Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
• Beulah - Popular Mechanics For Lovers
• The Magnetic Fields - I Don't Believe You
• The Shins - Gone For Good
• Sloan - The Other Man
• Freedy Johnston - While I Wait for You
• Luka Bloom - I Need Love
• Jets to Brazil - In the Summer's When You Really Know
• The Wrens - 13 Months in 6 Minutes
• Bob Mould - See a Little Light
• The Rosebuds - Wishing for Kisses
• Paul Westerberg - Love Untold
• Sugar - Your Favorite Thing
• Eels - Jeannie's Diary
• Damian Jurado - I Can't Get Over You
• Dean & Britta - Night Nurse
• The Orange Peels - You're So Clever
• Camera Obscura - I Love My Jean
• The Pixies - La La Love You
• The Martinis - You Are the One
• Portastatic - Sweetness and Light
• Weezer - Falling for You
• The Smiths - I Want the One I Can't Have

If you make sure you're connected the writings on the wall

Stereo MCs - Connected

The theme for this installment of Battlestar Rock-tactica is somewhat of 6 degrees of separation type dealie. Bands and the bands that formed after break-ups plus side-projects, solo work and the like. You get the idea.

• Alan Sparhawk - Be Nice to People with Lice
• Low - In Metal
• The Retribution Gospel Choir - Breaker
• Mark Kozelek - What's Next to the Moon
• Red House Painters - New Jersey
• Sun Kil Moon - Tiny Cities Made of Ash
• Uncle Tupelo - Acuff-Rose
• Son Volt - Windfall
• Wilco - I'm A Wheel
• Billy Bragg & Wilco - Secret of the Sea
• Glenn Kotche - Reductions or Imitations
• The Autumn Defense - Canyon Arrow
• Jay Farrar - Like a Hurricane
• The Minus 5 - With a Gun
• Loose Fur - Stupid as the Sun
• Golden Smog - Pecan Pie
• Broken Social Scene - Cause = Time
• Stars - Romantic Comedy
• Metric - Patriarch on a Vespa
• Feist - Let it Die
• The Posies - Grant Hart
• Jon Auer - Four Letter Word
• Big Star - Hot Thing
• Ken Stringfellow - Reveal Love
• Bob Mould - Days of Rain
• Husker Du - Chartered Trips
• Sugar - Gee Angel
• The 6ths - He Didn't

Played every record that I own today

Eels - Only Thing I Care About

• Portastatic - Tremelo Chase
• Morrissey - On the Streets I Ran
• Frank Black- I'm Not Dead (I'm in Pittsburgh)
• Essex Green - Sin City
  

A trilogy of songs mentioning my beloved birthplace of Pittsburgh. Sadly none of them are too flattering. "Streets" proves my friend Matt's theory that Moz really hates the Burgh. Maybe someone threw an Iron City at him when The Smiths played the defunct Fulton Theater in 1986 instead of giving him gladiolas?

• The Wrens - They'll Need a Crane
• The Replacements - Message to the Boys
• Rhett Miller - Question
• Portastatic - I'm In Love (With Arthur Dove)

For the second year in a row Portastatic put out my favorite album of the year. Be Still Please is a fantastic blend of last year's rocking Bright Ideas and Mac's soundtrack work. Portastatic at the Warhol was the concert of the year for me too. Granted I didn't see many shows but even if I had it would be hard to top that one.

• Eels - Only Thing I Care About
• Muhammad Ali - Theme from "Ali and His Gang Vs. Mr. Tooth Decay"
• Merit - Nixon
• Robert Pollard - Supernatural Car Lover
• Mark Kozelek - Glenn Tipton
• Camera Obscura - Tears for Affairs
• Eef Barzeley - I Wasn't Really Drunk
• Band of Horses - The Funeral
• Johnny Cash - A Boy Names Sue (by request)
• The Elected - The Bank & Trust

If forced to pick a single favorite song of 2006 I think it would have to be "The Bank & Trust." I still remember hearing it for the first time on WARC when driving on the bridge back home from a trip to Giant Eagle. If I can pinpoint the first time I heard something it's usually a sign that it's pretty special.

• Tilly & The Wall - Bad Education
• The Killers - A Great Big Sleigh
• The Long Winters - Pushover
• Belle & Sebastian - The Blues Are Still Blue
• Dean & Britta - Words You Used to Say
• Great Lake Swimmers - See You On the Moon
• Islands - Rough Gem
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion

Can't say I've been impressed with the YYYs up to this point. I heard this almost a year ago and didn't know who it was and found it infectious. Maybe I was just biased due to all the hype about the band? It hasn't made me check out anything else for them but this is a killer single.

• Destroyer - Your Blood
• Her Space Holiday - Missed Medicine
• Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - The Charging Sky
• ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - Eight Days of Hell

Burn down the disco, hang the blessed dj

The Smiths - Panic

Wednesday night will mark my return to the airwaves after a long layoff. I'll be spinning records and pre-recorded music in other formats on WARC from 8 to 10 p.m. If you have requests you can IM during the show at warc903. I'm thinking tomorrow night I'll be playing some favorites from 2006. I'll try to have different themes each week. Any suggestions?