Eric!!!

I was all set to go with a fascinating post about what I read this summer when I was blindsided by a whole new development! For those of you who don’t know Eric Norgaard, he is my oldest friend (with whom I am still on speaking terms), and writes a great, if often depressing, blog at:

http://assassinateyourpenguin.blogspot.com/

Among Eric’s many attractive qualities is that he is one of the biggest music fans that I have ever met. That is not to say that he is always right (we don’t exactly see eye to eye about certain psychedelic acts of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and early 90’s), but he tries, and his favorites are always worth listening too.

Actually, I can’t count the number of bands and songs that I have found & loved because of Eric, and many many many great musical experiences happened in his enthusiastic presence. We actually created one of the first remixes (of "Sandinista" by The Clash, still not acknowledged by the music press) when we were around 13 years old, and have been in various bands together with varying degrees of popularity, including The Sinister Men in Black, The Misses, and (briefly), The Squirt Bunnies. And there was no one better to go with to see The Clash, Paul Westerberg, Adam and the Ants, Oingo Boingo (he looks a little like Danny Elfman), and many others. He is a music guy & tends to score well on Facebook music quizzes.

So Eric posted his list of the top 133 (plus 11) songs of the decade, and you should stop whatever you’re doing right now and listen to every single one! In light of this new information, I will definitely have to make some additions to my pathetic list, and will be putting up the addendums as soon as I listen to them, and can decide whether "Milkshake" by Kellis is horrible or amazing!

Thanks a bunch to Eric for not making us wait too long for the list (I knew he couldn’t go too long without doing it!!), and for being such a great, musical, friend for all of these years!! I love you man!!