Brainwaves

John Moe: I was walking around some of your instruments earlier, and I saw something called a "Brainwave Monitor."Elliot Bergman: Yes, this is one of our most unusual instrument and one of our most dangerous as well. It's some sort of quack medical device, and I found it at a thrift store for a couple dollars. It makes a shrieking sound when you plug it into an amplifier.It looks like a little guitar pedal, and you can plug in a diode that you would, theoretically, attach to your head and monitor what's happening in your mind. It's slowly transitioning from medical device to musical instrument.HereMP3: Nomo - Brainwaves (Live On Weekend America)

Dress Your Sons and Daughters In Neutral Colors and Pray

For about five years during my middle school and high school years, I took guitar lessons from Mario, an Italian guy in his late 20s whose fingers were each as wide my entire fist. He had a ponytail, that when let out, made him look like a heavy metal Shakespeare character. He was responsible for teaching me some guitar, but most importantly, he told me to buy some records that I would still take bullets for. Among them were Paul McCartney's Ram and Jellyfish's Bellybutton, which through Jason Falkner, led me to Brendan Benson shortly after.Not much point to this story, other than Benson's One Mississippi just came on my iTunes a few minutes ago, and much like Ram, Bellybutton, and Benson's second LP, Lapalco, it has got some of the most lyrically ridiculous yet enjoyable pop songs ever put on tape. Noiz.I need a pickup and I don't mean truck:MP3: Comments On Ram By John LennonMP3: Jellyfish - BellybuttonMP3: Brendan Benson - Bird's Eye ViewMP3: Brendan Benson - Jetlag

Crow Killer

Crow Killer: The Saga of Liver Eating Johnson is the book that inspired Jeremiah Johnson:

One May morning in 1847, Crow Indians killed and scalped John Johnston's pregnant wife; for many years thereafter, he killed and scalped Crow Indians. Then he ate their livers, raw.He ate them not for hunger's sake but upon principle - just what principle, his whole life's history may suggest. Other tribes than the Crows could arouse his anger; the Blackfeet indeed once shamed and mistreated him, their captive; but one tribe only did Johnston dreadfully humiliate. He was Dapiek Absaroka, the Killer of Crows.

You Got Me Down On My Knees

Most people would probably disagree with me, but the best Jayhawks record around is called Sound Of Lies. It's one of a handful albums that I became completely obsessed with while living in Colorado, so in honor of the Rocky Mountain vacation that I'm taking in two weeks, here's a little sugar for your tea.Blasting these in a Volvo station wagon while driving to Savers on Table Mesa and Broadway in Boulder is probably the best place to hear em. Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.MP3: Jayhawks - TroubleMP3: Jayhawks - Stick In The MudMP3: Jayhawks - Big Star

To Build A Fire

Day had broken cold and gray, exceedingly cold and gray, when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail and climbed the high earth-bank, where a dim and little-travelled trail led eastward through the fat spruce timberland. It was a steep bank, and he paused for breath at the top, excusing the act to himself by looking at his watch. It was nine o'clock. There was no sun nor hint of sun, though there was not a cloud in the sky. It was a clear day, and yet there seemed an intangible pall over the face of things, a subtle gloom that made the day dark, and that was due to the absence of sun. This fact did not worry the man. He was used to the lack of sun. It had been days since he had seen the sun, and he knew that a few more days must pass before that cheerful orb, due south, would just peep above the sky-line and dip immediately from view.- From Jack London's short story, To Build A Fire (1908)MP3: Witchcraft - Walk Between The Lines