[Rob Babcock]

Any fans of Ani DiFranco here?  Depsite her being an indie icon & critics darling for a decade & a half, I'd never actually heard her music til a couple weeks ago.  After hearing tracks culled from half a dozen of her albums I'd say there's a lot to like.  It's not uniformly great, but the best is sublime.  Any suggestions as to which, say, three albums are most essential?

[MT POCKETS]

I have been a big fan of Ani Difranco since she played the Bar scene in my home town.
To my ears her best in order
To the Teeth
Not a Pretty Girl
Knucle Down
Just picked up her latest release but have not had time to listen yet.
Cheers,
Dave

[slev]

Little Plastic Castle & Revelling & Reckoning (double CD set) are very different but excellent.  R & R is one of my favorites among all of my CDs.  It's very eclectic and funny, and the arrangements include horns.

[sts9fan]

The problem with Ani right now imho is she is going too mellow. I like the Ani of old who had a band and rocked out. Little Plastic Castles I think is my favorite but it changes.

[R_burke]

Her newer stuff is more jazzy ala Joni and her early stuff is folk/punk.  I like it all, but my favorites are:

Not a pretty girl
Little plastic castles
Dilate

[Rob S.]

Definitely love "Living in Clip"  live album from '97  which has a nice assortment of songs of previous albums.  It spent quite a while in my CD rotation. 

Rob S.

[Wind Chaser]

My favorite "up up up up up up" - extremely creative and well recorded. 

Least favorite "evolve" - boring

Note: I haven't heard them all...

[boead]

White people are so scared of black people. 
They bulldoze out to the country, and put up houses on little loop-d-loop streets. 
And while America gets its heart cut right out of its chest
The Berlin wall still runs down main street separating east side from west. 
 
And nothing is stirring, not even a mouse
in the boarded up stores and the broken down houses
So they hang colorful banners off all the street lamps 
Just to prove they got no manners, no mercy, and no sense. 
 
And I wonder then what it will take for my city to rise. 
First we admit our mistakes and then we open our eyes. 
The ghost of old buildings are haunting parking lots 
in the city of good neighbors that history forgot. 
 
I remember the first time I saw someone lying on the cold street
I thought, I can't just walk past you, this can't just be true. 
But I learned by example to just keep moving my feet. 
It's amazing the things that we all learn to do. 
 
So we're led by denial like lambs to the slaughter
Serving empires of style and carbonated sugar water 
and the old farmroad's a four-lane 
That leads to the mall and my dreams are all guillotines waiting to fall
 
And I wonder then what it will take for my country to rise. 
First we admit our mistakes and then we open our eyes.
'til nation's last taker succumbs to one last dumb decision 
And America the beautiful is just one big subdivision.
 
~Ani DiFranco – Subdivision 
 

[boead]

I opened the fire door
to four lips
none of which were mine
kissing
tightened my belt around my hips
where your hands were missing
and stepped out into the cold
collar high
under the slate grey sky
the air was smoking and the streets were dry
and I wasn't joking when I said
Good Bye
magazine quality men talking on the corner
French, no less much less of them then us
so why do I feel like something's been rearranged?
you know, taken out of context I must seem so strange
killed a c ockroach so big
it left a puddle of pus on the wall
when you and I are lying in bed
you don't seem so tall
I'm singing now because my tear ducts are too tired
and my brain is disconnected but my heart is wired
I make such a good statistic
someone should study me now
somebody's got to be interested in how I feel
just 'cause I'm here
and I'm real
oh, how I miss
substituting the conclusion to confrontation with a kiss
and oh, how I miss
walking up to the edge and jumping in
like I could feel the future on your skin
I opened the fire door
to four lips
none of which were mine
kissing
 
I opened the fire door
 
 
~Ani DIFranco - Firedoor

[boead]

They were digging a new foudation in manhattan 
And they discovered a slave cemetary there 
May their souls rest easy 
Now that lynching is frowned upon 
And we’ve moved on to the electric chair 
And I wonder who’s gonna be president, tweedle dum or tweedle dummer?   
And who’s gonna have the big blockbuster box office this summer?   
Howabout we put up a wall between houses and the highway 
And you can go your way , and I can go my may 
 
Except all the radios agree with all the TVs 
And all the magazines agree with all the radios 
And I keep hearing that same damn song everywhere I go 
Maybe I should put a bucket over my head 
And a marshmallow in each ear 
And stumble around for another dumb- dumb waiting for another hit song to appear 
 
People used to make records 
As in a record of an event 
The event of people playing music in a room 
Now everything is cross-marketing 
Its about sunglasses and shoes or guns and drugs 
You choose 
We got it rehashed 
We got it half-assed 
We’re digging up all the graves 
And we’re spitting on the past 
And you can choose between the colors of the lipstick on the whores 
Cause we know the difference between the font of 20% more 
and the font of teriakiyi 
You tell me 
How does it...make you feel?   
 
You tell me 
What’s ...real?   
And they say that alcoholics are always alcoholics 
Even when they’re as dry as my lips for years 
Even when they’re stranded on a small desert island 
With no place within 2,000 miles to buy beer 
And I wonder 
Is he different?   
Is he different?   
Has he changed? what’s he about? ... 
Or is he just a liar with nothing to lie about?   
 
Am I headed for the same brick wall 
Is there anything I can do
about anything at all?   
Except go back to that corner in manhattan 
And dig deeper, dig deeper this time 
Down beneath the impossible pain of our history 
Beneath unknown bones 
Beneath the bedrock of the mystery 
Beneath the sewage systems and the path drain 
Beneath the cobblestones and the water mains 
Beneath the traffic of friendships and street deals 
Beneath the screeching of kamikaze cab wheels 
Beneath everything I can think of to think about 
Beneath it all, beneath all get out 
Beneath the good and the kind and the stupid and the cruel 
There’s a fire just waiting for fuel 
 
There’s a fire just waiting for fuel
 
~Ani Difranco - Fuel

[boead]

I am looking for the holes
the holes in your jeans
because I want to know
are they worn out in the seat
or are they worn out in the knees
 
there are so many ways to wear
what we've got before it's gone
to make use of what is there
I don't wear anything I can't wipe my hands on
 
do your policies fit between the headlines
are they written in newsprint, are they distant
mine are crossing an empty parking lot
they are a woman walking home
at night
alone
they are six string that sing
and wood that hums against my hipbone
 
we can't afford to do anyone harm
because we owe them our lives
each breath is recycled from someone else's lungs
are enemies are the very air in disguise
 
you can talk a great philosophy
but if you can't be kind to people
every day
it doesn't mean that much to me
it's the little things you do
the little things you say
it's the love you give along the way
 
when we patch things up
they say a job well done
but when we ask why
where did the rips come from
they say we are subversive
and extreme, of course
we are just trying to track a problem to its source
 
because we know we can't sit back
and let people come to harm
we owe them our lives
each breath is recycled from someone else's lungs
our enemies are the very air
our enemies are the air
 
we are looking for the holes
the holes in your jeans
because we want to know
are they worn out in the seat
or are they worn out in the knees


~Ani DiFranco "Looking for the holes"

[woodsyi]

Sombody is in love with Ani.  aa aa 

BTW, she is really good live -- a lot of energy.

[R_burke]

Sombody is in love with Ani.  aa aa 

BTW, she is really good live -- a lot of energy.

She's also married to her bassist 

[boead]

Sombody is in love with Ani.  aa aa 

BTW, she is really good live -- a lot of energy.

She's also married to her bassist 

Not true. She was married to her sound engineer (Goat Boy) for a number of years but got a divorce, of course. Ani has commitment issues to both men and women.

She recently got pregnant with her current sound man, Mike Napolitano,  (she has a thing for sound men) and is due soon. She said she has no plans on getting married again.

I’m seeing her at the Beacon Theater (NYC) in a few weeks, I hope she can hold the little basted in till then.

[boead]

she was hungry
so hungry
she was trying to think clear
she kept opening the fridge door
staring at the mustard and the beer
 
then finally she went out into the rain
carrying her bicycle chain
 
and her feet were the pedals
while her appetite steered
 
and after that she just followed her nose
and fate is not just whose cooking smells good
but which way the wind blows
 
she lay down in her party dress
and never got up
 
needless to say she missed the party
she just got sad
then she got stuck
 
she was bending like something brittle
trying hard to bend
she was numb with the terrorof losing her best friend
 
we never see things changing
we only see them ending
 
and some vicious whispering voice kept saying
you have no choice
you have....
 
'cause when I look at you I squint
you are that beautiful
and my pussy is a tractor
and this is a tractor pull
 
and I am haunted
by my illicit exquisite dream
but I can't really wake up
so I just drift in between
 
thinking the glass is half-empty
and thinking it's not quite full
 
the pouring rain is no place for a bicycle ride
try to hit the brakes and you slide
slide
slide
slide
 
 
~Ani DiFranco - Slide

[sts9fan]

yeah my girlfriend refers to her bassist as her "boy toy"

[boead]

coming of age during the plague
of reagan and bush
watching capitalism gun down democracy
it had this funny effect on me
i guess
 
i am cancer
i am HIV
and i'm down at the blue jesus
blue cross hospital
just lookin' up from my pillow
feeling blessed
 
and the mighty multinationals
have monopolized the oxygen
so it's as easy as breathing
for us all to participate
 
yes they're buying and selling
off shares of air
and you know it's all around you
but it's hard to point and say "there"
so you just sit on your hands
and quietly contemplate
 
your next bold move
the next thing you're gonna need to prove
to yourself
 
what a waste of thumbs that are opposable
to make machines that are disposable
and sell them to seagulls flying in circles
around one big right wing
 
yes, the left wing was broken long ago
by the slingshot of cointelpro
and now it's so hard to have faith in
anything
 
especially your next bold move
or the next thing you're gonna need to prove
to yourself
 
you want to track each trickle
back to its source
and then scream up the faucet
'til your face is hoarse
cuz you're surrounded by a world's worth
of things you just can't excuse
 
but you've got the hard cough of a chain smoker
and you're at the arctic circle playing strip poker
and it's getting colder and colder
everytime you lose
 
so go ahead
make your next bold move
tell us
what's the next thing you're gonna need to prove
to yourself
 
 
~Ani - Your Next Bold Move

[boead]

death
has been your lover
he has brought you
the edges of your life
and now you are looking over
and all we can say is
it's gonna be all right
and I am looking forward
to looking back on these days
when on every corner
someone holds a sign
that says I'm homeless
I'm hungry and
I have AIDS
 
how will they define our generation
in the coming decades
who will tell the story
and what will they say?
will they say the victims
were thought of as criminals
while the guilty sat on high
deciding their fate
ticking off statistics in their spare time
tell me,
which is the crime?
 
may you never test positive
pregnancy
HIV
may you never be the receptacle of blame
may you never be the scapegoat
for a whole
world full of shame
may you never be fighting for your life
and at the same time
have to fight for your name
 
there are too few who open both eyes
we sit back in our easy chairs
and we try to sympathize
whether from the point of a needle or
the edge of our beds
we too, like too many others,
could be dead
our actions
will define us
before a single definition can be said
yeah, so what if god is testing us
what if that's true
what are you going to do
what is the answer
to you
 
 
~ Ani DiFranco

[Rob Babcock]

I'm back in SF today, so I just hit BB & picked up half a dozen Ani CD's, plus a couple Bright Eyes discs I've been meaning to get.

[boead]

I got pulled over in west Texas
so they could look inside my car
he said are you an american citizen
I said
yes sir
so far
they made sure I wasn't smuggling
someone in from Mexico
someone willing to settle for america
'cause there's nowhere else to go
 
and every state line
there's a new set of laws
and every police man
comes equipped with extended claws
there's a thousand shades of white
and a thousand shades of black
but the same rule always applies
smile pretty, and watch your back
 
I broke down in Louisiana
and I had to thumb a ride
got in the first car that pulled over
you can't be picky in the middle of the night
he said
baby, do you like to fool around
baby, do you like to be touched
I said
maybe some other time
f**k you very much
 
and every state line
there's a new set of laws
and every police man
comes equipped with extended claws
there's a thousand shades of white
and a thousand shades of black
but the same rule always applies
smile pretty, and watch your back
 
I'm in the middle of alabama
they stare at me where ever I go
I don't think they like my haircut
I don't think they like my clothes
I can't wait to get back to New York City
where at least when I walk down the street
nobody ever hesitates
to tell me exactly what they think of me
 
and every state line
there's a new set of laws
and every police man
comes equipped with extended claws
there's a thousand shades of white
and a thousand shades of black
but the same rule always applies
smile pretty, and watch your back
 
a little town in pennsylvania
there was snow on the ground
a parked in an empty lot
where there was no one else around
but I guess I was taking up too much space
as I was trying to get some sleep
'cause an officer came by anyway
and told me I had to leave
 
and every state line
there's a new set of laws
and every police man
comes equipped with extended claws
there's a thousand shades of white
and a thousand shades of black
but the same rule always applies
smile pretty, and watch your back
 
~Ani DiFranco - Every State Line