Not All Music is Driving Music.

Due to a series of misadventures, yesterday I found myself in the car by myself for 7 hours. And I did a lot of music listening. The following are not new songs, but rather great classics that I rediscovered, with the exception of the last one, which I never really appreciated until I was alone in my car in the middle of nowhere on an endless drive. I was in sort of a fall state of mind - the weather has suddenly turned crisp and sweater-worthy, which I love. It's actually my favorite season. Anyway, I wasn't really thinking about anything in particular, but I also was in a more serious musical mood than upbeat pop or hip-hop. And isn't music always about mood? Especially when driving.

"What the Snowman Learned About Love" by Stars. I first fell in love with this song 2 years ago. It was during a winter drive in Vermont. I was in a pickup truck with my brother, and it was an endless January vision out the window. It's kinda trippy, but also just plain pretty, and while you kind of have to be in the mood for it to fully appreciate it, I still never get sick of it.

P.S. this clip is from a ski movie, Long Story Short, but it was the only decent version I could find.

"Down on the River by the Sugar Plant" by Mike Doughty. Sorry it's not a real video, but at least the song is good quality. My relationship with Mike Doughty began freshman year of college, when I was introduced to his music by my friend Alyssa, whom I met first semester while studying abroad in France. She played "Rising Sign" while a bunch of us were watching the Visualizer on her ghetto Dell laptop, bored from hours on a coach bus touring Bourgogne and slightly stoned after a few hits of crappy hash. Oh, college. Oh, Europe.

"Heaven Adores You" by Earlimart. When this song came on shuffle last night, I shivered because the guy's voice reminded me so much of Elliott Smith. It turns out this whole album, Treble & Tremble (2004), is a tribute to E.S., whose chronic depression/ tortured genius misery ended in suicide by stabbing in '03. To me this song is one of those "soundtrack to my life" songs... It seems like it should be the background music to the closing scene of a deep and meaningful movie or something. The most melancholy of the three songs here, it's good for contemplating, ruminating and zoning out.

Happy listening.