Quattro (World Drifts In) to Queen Elvis

"Quattro (World Drifts In)"  Calexico  Feast Of Wire
"Quay Cur"  The Fiery Furnaces  Blueberry Boat
"Que Lindo Sueno"  King Khan & The Shrines  The Supreme Genius of King Khan & The Shrines
"Que Pasa?"  Juanes  Mi Sangre
"Que Pasara"  Cafe Tacuba  Cuatro Caminos
"Quedateluna"  Devendra Banhart  Cripple Crow
"The Queen's Approach"  The Decemberists  The Hazards of Love
"The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing"  The Decemberists  The Hazards of Love
"Queen Bee"  Devendra Banhart  Cripple Crow
"Queen Elvis"  Robyn Hitchcock  Eye

  I was drinking a bottle of beer while listening to this set.  When I picked up the cap, on the inside it said, "almost."  I have no idea why, or almost what.  (Cabin Fever brown ale from New Holland Brewing.)

  Certain songs just end up on my running playlists all the time. [He runs.  He drinks craft brews.  He seems to have a lot of "world" music in his playlist.  I probably could be more cliched as a middle-aged liberal, but I am not really seeing how.   Oh yeah!  I could blog!]  "Quattro" shows up at the start of my runs because the 'hit the ground running' refrain is painfully obvious.  Other songs in heavy running rotation - "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues" by Eels ("goddamn right, it's a beautiful day"); "Uranium Rock" by The Cramps ("heading down the road and I ain't coming back"); and "Help, I'm Alive" by Metric ("my heart keeps beating like a hammer").  Because I am totally pathetic, most long runs also include Springsteen's "Thunder Road" and end with Bowie's "Heroes."

  We got the Juanes disc as a gift.  He is incredibly successful, holds numerous Latin Grammies, and is a deeply committed humanitarian and philanthropist.  What I have learned of him, he reads like a Columbian Bono.  That said (and perhaps like Bono at this point), I really don't think I like his music all that much.  As I said before, I don't sweat the translation much.  It is the music that makes a song and to that extent the voice is relevant - the words not so much.  When I listen to Juanes, I think "I wouldn't like this song in English.  I don't much like it in Spanish either."

  Unlike Cafe Tacuba - I can't understand a thing they say, but this song is selling exactly what I buy.  The guitars chug along, the drums thud, and the vocals are screamed as much as sung.  No need for a libretto to enjoy it.

  When I listen to Devendra Banhart, I think of that scene in Animal House when John Belushi breaks that guy's acoustic guitar into little pieces.