They Might Be Giants, "Destination Moon"

One final word of tribute to man's desire to touch the face of the moon: "Destination Moon," a They Might Be Giants tune from the underappreciated John Henry album. The LP, edgier and less whimsical than previous TMBG efforts, returned the duo from the near-mainstream to their unique spot on the pop fringe (Ween and Flaming Lips are neighbors, but they don't visit much anymore). And the song, typical for John & John, is both evocative and inscrutable: it's based on the space-travel film inspired by Heinlein, but that doesn't explain its backwards-recursive refrain, nor why its subject's leg is revealed to be withered at the end. (Of the song, not the leg.)

So enjoy the tune, and enjoy the notion of space travel as man's unrelenting urge to go further. But ignore the Simpsons visuals of the YouTube clip I've provided above; they're not useful. A better fan vid would have turned for inspiration to The Adventures of Tintin. Or Wallace & Gromit. Or the moon movie that inspired Smashing Pumpkins' greatest video.

Liz Phair, "Whip-Smart"

Someday I'll tell the story of how "Supernova" - and more precisely, the line "and you fuck like a volcano" - was instrumental in my falling head over heels in love with someone. (Unrequited, as usual.) For now I just want to say that when they do the double dutch, that's them dancing.

Grant Lee Buffalo, "Mockingbirds"

There are some days when it feels kind of pointless to maintain a music blog. When a vice presidential candidate deems it "gotcha journalism" when she's called out for not knowing shit about anything national or global in scope. (Yes, Ms. Palin. You don't know shit. Get the fuck off the stage before you hurt America irreperably.) When the Dow endures its largest single-day point loss as a near-direct result of GOPers throwing a fit of pique over Nancy Pelosi speaking unkind truth to unkind power. When the Chinese dilute their milk products with a substance that sickens if not kills thousands (and successfully kept that fact hushed throughout their PR campaign of an Olympics). When Robert Mugabe still mystifyingly is permitted to remain in power in a land where he murders his own people (c'mon, tell me how long before Tsvangirai is murdered too).

Some days this stuff hits harder than others and it becomes difficult to extol the virtues of sunshine pop. So I'll just post something I was listening to a lot in the darker days of 1995-96, though it came out in late '94: some intricate lyrical craft hidden behind an overly college-artsy video (Anton Corbijn would later do far better work than this). Grant Lee Buffalo's Mighty Joe Moon remains one of my favorite albums of the decade, and "Mockingbirds" is a primary reason why.