I'm down to six days! Random ten music thoughts:

1. Lydia Loveless will be coming back to MN on March 1, opening for the Hackensaw Boys (???) at the Cabooze.
2. I can't imagine I won't be there. I can't imagine you won't want to be there with me. Here's some more music, and a radio interview, to listen to.
3. EAR's birthday is Tuesday, and I'm taking her out on Sunday. It's my tradition to make her a mixdisc for her birthday, and I'm having a hard time putting one together. Probably because I just want to burn her a CD with 13 Lydia Loveless songs on it, only I don't think my wife would dig the cussing and excessive drinking.
4. I also typically make a mixdisc for her and my in-laws of my "Best of" the year pics that weren't on the summer mix, but I'm running up against the cussing problem again with Lydia and the Weeknd.
5. I'm way too obsessed, I want to name this baby girl "Lydia".
6. EAR says no to that because all she can think of is "Lydia the Tattooed Lady"
7. Lydia the pig looks like she could be a barista at Hard Times or some similar coffee joint.
8. Another of my fave-album releasing guitar-playing gurl singers from this past year, Tristen, will be at the Varsity Theater on May 7, opening for Justin Townes Earle.
9. I just cannot stop staring at Tristen's twitter avatar. If I knew this girl, she could wreck my life. I doubt I could say no to her, no matter the request. Hopefully that won't make things awkward for me at her merch table.
T. My mother told me that if she hadn't named me Adam, she was going to go for Tristan. Seriously? Holy crap, I'd be that much further out there, but I'd probably love "Charlatans at the Garden Gate" even more.

Ten random musical thoughts:

1. Lana Del Rey is this weekend’s musical guest on SNL. I’ll be watching. I’m scared, because her other televised appearances (from Europe via youtube) have been spotty, at best. If she tanks, she might become an over-culture punchline before her album is even released. I hope her major-label handlers have taken this into consideration, and prepped her like an American Idol finalist about to go on tour. Alternately, if she’s good, she might get too big too soon and end up like Katy Perry or something.

2. At first, I didn’t really like her newest single, “Born to Die”, but I tried it a few times and it grew on me. Now, if only her big-budget video would have spent its money on video-clip clearance for a legally acceptable video-as-tumblr cut&paste composition rather than cinematic production.

3. If you've got $300 laying around, you can have Bobby Bare Jr. write a song about whatever you want and four quarters.

4. Should we pool some money and get BBJ to write the official WGOM.org theme?

5. Black Dice have a new song that is free for you to stream or download. I think this is their poppiest tune yet, and I think it's great. Soundcloud says it has 9000 plays, and youtube 11000 views. I'm probably more than 1% of each.

6. I think I may be as excited to hear the new Black Dice album as I am the new Lana Del Rey.

7. I gotta back off the Lydia Loveless. I've got like 14 songs of hers I keep playing over and over and I'm getting burned out on them but still don't want to listen to anything else.

7. Parental Joy: driving around with 6yo HPR. He's bored with whatever music's playing (I think it was Lydia Loveless for the 8th straight time), so he asks for the guy that goes "weedle-weedle-weedle" (Only with a cute 6yo, missing two front teeth lisp). He means Colin Stetson!

8. So I put it in and skip forward to "Red Horse" (cos I know that's one of his favorites), and I hear HPR "singing" from the backseat on the parts of the song where Stetson vocalizes through his horn. HPR's sound is in between a growl and a grunt.

9. I'm pretty sure I had about ten random thoughts when I sat down to type.

T. If I had ten thoughts, I guess I lost a few.

B. Damn!!!

So, I'm all psyched to see Ha Ha Tonka have their First Ave mainroom debut tonight. But yesterday, I'm paging through the Onion and I see that So So Radio is playing at the Whole tonight, too. So it's like my favorite and second-favorite bands. I quick e-mail the lead singer of SSR to find out when they're playing. He said "About 9". HHT is opening for Robert Randolph and the doors open at 8pm, meaning they'll probably start at 9pm, too. Crud, I was hoping for a super night of: HHT show at First Ave, quick departure for the U of MN, and then SSR to cap it off.

Fitting that they'd play at the same time tonight, they're the only bands I care a lot about that like baseball. HHT are 3/4 big Cardinals fans (1/4 Royals fan). And SSR is at least 2/3 Brewers fans (the last third may be ambivalent). I had already committed myself to the HHT show.

However, the $5 cover to see SSR is a pretty good deal. You should go if you can. Here, stream their album. As a counterpoint, here's a little acoustic set from HHT.

Gah! I want to see both shows so bad!

Long awaited, my summer 2011 mix:

Perfect for little ears
1. Adele "Set Fire to the Rain"
2. WU LYF "Dirt"
3. Shakira f. El Cata "Rabiosa"
4. Tristen "Baby Drugs"
5. Battles "Ice Cream"
6. Katy B "Louder"
7. Hooray For Earth "No Love"
8. Ha Ha Tonka "1928"
9. Jonti "Firework Spraying Moon"
10. Fleet Foxes "Helplessness Blues"
11. Buraka Som Sistema "Hangover (BaBaBa) (Radio Edit)"
12. JKR70 presents Clay Hughes "Love I Gave You"
13. Dionne Bromfield f. Lil Twist "Foolin'"
14. EMA "Milkman"
15. LMFAO f. Lauren Bennet and Goon Rock "Party Rock Anthem (Radio Edit)"
16. Thurston Moore "Benediction"
17. Zammuto "YAY"
18. My Morning Jacket "Holdin On To Black Metal"
19. Chris Brown f. Benny Benassi "Beautiful People"
20. Beyoncé "End Of Time"

Dirty Addendum
1. The Weeknd "Wicked Games"
2. Beyoncé "Countdown"
3. Rihanna "Man Down"
4. Nicki Minaj f. Ester Dean "Super Bass"
5. Vybz Kartel "Go Go Wine"
6. Frank Ocean "Novacane"
7. Shabazz Palaces "Swerve... The reeping of all that is worthwhile (Noir not withstanding)"

See if you can tell which ones I've got dedicated to Chuck James in my heart.