I love traveling. I mean the actual, physical, transportation side of it. I feel like I’m moving forward, and at the same time, it’s an excuse to sit still (something I’m otherwise miserable at) and bang out a bunch of different stuffs. Best of all is the sheer volume of tuneage I can pack into my ears. Albums! Full-length, start-to-finish, epic long-players – my favorite way to listen to music. Mix in the romance of traveling, and the emotions of seeing and leaving people, and they tend to take on an added layer of significance. Between the ride to the airport, the lines, the gate wait, the flight, the baggage claim, and the ride home, there’s just no better time to indulge.

Yesterday’s line-up, start to finish, from DC to VA to NY to SF:

Cotton Jones Basket Ride – Paranoid Cocoon (perfect for that cold, pre-coffee dawn)
Wilco – A Ghost is Born (which I listen to almost every time I travel; more on this album later)
Wild Beasts – Two Dancers (more on this after Thursday’s show!!!)
Willie Nelson & Wynston Marsalis – Two Men with the Blues
President – Take Music
Panda Bear – Person Pitch
Lindstrom & Christabelle – Real Life is No Cool
Liars – Liars (so much better than I remembered!)
Mount Eerie, Julie Doiron, Fred Squire – Lost Wisdom
Scotland Yardstick (LA’s latest mix-up)
The Roots – Phrenology
…and for the final stretch into the city…
Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane

I could have gone all the way to China at that rate.