I'm Jordan Himelfarb and I will be taking care of Said The Gramophone for the next several months.

Is everything working?

Sean had to teach me how to use a computer last week, so that I would be able to do this. I don't want to speak for Sean, but I think it's safe to say that we were both shocked by my general ineptitude in the operation of the ordinateur.

If anyone notices any technical problems, please let me know and I will have one of my many capable friends (Dan Beirne) fix it.

There is also another area in which I hope that you, Sean's readers, will help me. Over the course of this week I'm going to post ten songs which hopefully will communicate my background as a music listener and the breadth of my taste. You might notice two things:

1) That it seems that many of these songs are not commiserate with Sean's taste; and
2) That most of these songs are old.

After this week I plan to keep as in line as possible with what I think Sean would like, while still only writing about songs I love. I also plan to post as many new songs as old ones, and it is in this respect that I hope you will help. I know significantly less contemporary music than Sean does and most new artists who excite me, I either found out about through (Joanna Newsom) or love slightly less than (The Arcade Fire) Sean. So, if you would like to hear more contemporary indie rock and less free-jazz and prog-rock, then I urge you to send me good songs. I'm excited about this aspect of the job, for despite my various incompetencies and lacunas of knowledge, I do love music. I spend a good part of my days playing, listening to, thinking and writing about music.

Talking Heads - "Stay Hungry"

Last night I dreamt that my friend Zach was telling me that the lyrics I write are "moronic." He used that word. It cut real deep. In my elaborate (and highly articulate) defence I referred to the lyrics of David Byrne and the power of this invocation was such that Zach immediately abandoned his position and my words were vindicated. Byrne's lyrics, grounded in mundane everyday life, obliquely hint at something more. Even if we can't agree on an interpretation, we all feel it (don't we?).

Stay Hungry may be more disco than is representative of the Talking Heads' oeuvre, but when, at 1:56, Brian Eno's impressionistic keyboard line emerges from the dueling disco guitars, it brings with it a perfect example of an obscure Byrne lyric. My friend Joel (typically)
is convinced the song is about sex.

Here's that rhythm again
Here's my shoulder blade
Here's the sound I made
Here's the picture I saved

Like a strobe lit memory of a sexual encounter. He actually seems kind of bashful about the picture he saved. [buy]

Wooden Stars - "Baby Barn"

If at first you think Baby Barn is ugly, listen closer. The verse is taut contained energy with electric guitars providing a clunky metallic framework busting open suddenly into the quickly ascending, surprisingly tender and even more surprisingly catchy chorus.

This song is from the Wooden Stars' first album, The Very Same. Though possibly harder to get into than subsequent albums, their debut is their most rewarding. Throughout The Very Same, the Stars do what they do best; berate us with an onslaught of nearly falling apart instruments and clumsy words and just when we're most confused, they reveal the answer which was submerged just beneath the surface the whole time: a gossamer image ("I can see your breath") and a clear melody.

Notably, I think they were, like, six years old when they recorded this (or, at least really young), adding a certain precocity to their question "How can I reconcile myself to die?" [order from label]

I, like the rest of you, will be missing Sean's writing and sage advice. I hope to provide something of the same service. Any advice at all would be much appreciated.

I would also like to thank Sean for this opportunity. In addition to having had the pleasure of reading his writing every day, I've been lucky enough to have him as a friend and worthy Scrabble opponent. Both he and his trusty traveling companion will be missed.