A Bird in the Hand

Flap your wings and cock-a-doodle-doo with joy! This week's Contrast Podcast is out today and the theme is "Chickens and Other Birds." Prepare yourself for a veritable flock of aural, avian delights. And there's not a genetically modified, battery hen of a track in sight - it's all free-range, corn-fed tuneage with plumeage.

Enough of my twittering. Fly on in to this wondrous dovecote, where KD Lang, The Cramps, Sufjan, and Bobby Darin all share a perch. You can do so directly here, or else you can sbscribe using this RSS (chicken)feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ContrastPodcast.

(00:00) Herbie Hancock - Bring down the birds
(00:53) Bobby Darin - A Nightingale sang in Berkley Sq.
Tim from The face of today

(03:51) The Trashmen - Surfin’ Bird
Ross from Just Gimme Indie Rock

(06:24) The Cramps - Chicken
Natalie from Mini-Obs

(08:35) The Bat Boys - OK Blue Jays
Lyle from Mentok the Mind-taker

(11:54) Buffalo Tom - Birdbrain
FiL from Pogoagogo

(15:43) Cake - Comfort Eagle
Tom from Other People’s Toys

(19:48) KD Lang - Bird on a wire
Marcy from Lost in your inbox

(24:40) Dead Kennedys - Chicken Farm
Bob from Gimme Tinnitus

(30:00) The Twilight Singers - That’s just how that bird sings
Alex from Totally true tales from Texas

(34:40) They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse in your soul
Jim from Quick before it melts

(38:54) Rachael Dadd & The Missing Scissors - Birds & Horses
Tim from FunFunFun

(43:10) Saves the Day - Nightingale
Andy from Circles of Concrete

(46:31) Weird Al Yankovic - I wanna new duck
Cindy from Adzuki Bean Stash

(50:02) Galactic - Funky bird
Deek Deekster from Pod of Funk

(55:13) Johnny Otis - Turkey Hop
ZB from So the wind won’t blow it all away

(58:38) Sufjan Stevens - The lord god bird
Tim The Daily Growl

Tim, our fine, feathered friend, is now soliciting contributions for the next three podcasts, so no excuses for not participating. Next week's theme is "Money, Money, Money," while the subsequent fortnight will be home to a two-part Christmas special (though I wager he'd take Hannukah and Kwanzaa trax as well). To find out how to participate, fly your tail feathers over here.

Though several tunes strutted their stuff and flashed their feathers in an attempt to woo me, it was Buffalo Tom's shrill screeching that won me over this week. However, also in the running were:

Lush - Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep (buy here for only $1.93!!)
Emma and Miki, the goddesses of shoegaze, turn this early 70s, proto-glam guano (remember Middle of the Road, anyone??) into sugar-spun gossamer. Recorded for the 1990 anti-poll tax album "Alvin Lives in Leeds."

Blackavar - Murder of Crows (buy here)
Please take your prozac before listening. A lovely, bleak, raw-voiced song off of the uneven eponymous album. And yes, I did post this a while back, but I'm happier now...

Hawkwind - Silver Machine (buy here)
It's got a bird in the group name, not the song title, which if we're being anal would have technically disqualified it. But it is a groovy, spacey, wibbler of a choon, so do come fly with a pre-Motorhead Lemmy. Factoid: The Sex Pistols opened with this number at their 2003 Crystal Palace reunion gig. It was actually quite wonderful...

You'll notice I have a photo of an owl up top. That's because they are my favourite birds, closely followed by ravens and crows. I'm not sure what it is about the nocturnal winged beasties that thrills me so, but thrill me they do. Actually, we're having a spot of bother at the moment with barred owls. You see, they've been attacking folks in nearby parks and woodlands. Yes, you read right, attacking. There have been signs up warning of the danger since August, but the owls were supposed to have ceased and desisted at the end of October. However, they still appear to be cranky; I just heard today of two new divebombing attacks in the neighbourhood. Scaaary stuff, but I still like them owls...

And finally, a power and weather update. Our electricity was off from 8AM to 8PM yesterday. While inconvenient, it was rather fun dining by candlelight and the kids thought it all a great adventure. Plus it was a good chance to chill (ho ho, how punny!) with Dearest Wife sans TV or computer distractions. This morning I figured the main roads were clear enough to drive on. However, I could not for the life of me get into the Pimpwagon - wet snow and minus nine temperatures had welded all the doors shut. So crowded bus it was. By this evening the car was cleared of snow and thawed of ice, so hopefully tomorrow will see me on the road again. Slow of speed and low of gear, methinks...

And so, to sleep, perchance to dream. Of owls. But not the bloodthirsty, blitzkrieg kind.