Happy last Monday in July, folks! August will be here at the end of the week, which means we’ve reached the time of year when I don’t have a paycheck coming in (why the school system still only does teacher paychecks over 11 months instead of 12 is beyond me). So, if anyone wanted to buy a book or a CD to help a guy out, now would definitely be the time!

1. Tom Lehrer, “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”: Man, Tom Lehrer died over the weekend. In other news, holy crap, Tom Lehrer was still alive. Go poison a pigeon in his honor.
2. The Move, “I Can Hear the Grass Grow”: It’s not hippy-drippy hearing the grass grow, it’s muscular, bottom-heavy rock hearing the grass grow. There is a difference.
3. Mission of Burma, “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver”: I came to this song through Moby, of all people. The album is from 1981, and sounds like it could’ve come out in 2005 or anytime in between.
4. Black Sabbath, “War Pigs”: I will forgive this song for rhyming “masses” with “masses,” because even though they are the same exact word, it’s a different meaning in each instance, and it doesn’t feel like Ozzy is rhyming a word with itself.
5. Big Country, “In A Big Country”: It’s pretty ballsy, naming your biggest hit after your band name, but Big Country manages to pull it off.
6. The Rolling Stones, “Let It Bleed”: There are just some things we can all agree that we need, including someone we can lean/bleed on. Mick Jagger knew it, and you know it.
7. Them, “Here Comes the Night”: It’s too loud and nervy to be wistful, too wistful to be punky, and too Van Morrison to ignore.
8. The Kinks, “Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy”: Everybody clap as fast as you can! No, faster!
9. Yael Naim, “New Soul”: Remember when this song was used in an ad for the iPod? Remember when there were dedicated music players, separate from our phones? Good times.
10. The Both, “No Sir”: I’m just a sucker for anything involving Aimee Mann. I’ve come to terms with it, as should you.