Random Rules: Jon Wurster
The shuffler: Jon Wurster has played drums for many fine indie-rock outfits, most notably Superchunk. With that band mostly dormant, Wurster has found time to play with Robert Pollard, Ryan Adams, and Marah—and he's now on tour with The Mountain Goats. He's also half of the radio-comedy duo Scharpling & Wurster.
Neko Case, "Hold On, Hold On"
Jon Wurster: Classy lady, very funny. This is on Fox Confessor Brings The Flood. But it makes me think of "The Tigers Have Spoken" from the album of the same name, which is about a tiger in the circus… It's the saddest song I've ever heard. I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but the tiger dies at the end. I can't be in the same room as that song. Ever.
Morrissey, "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful"
JW: I love this song. He's a really funny lyricist. I think the bridge of this goes, "It should have been me / Everybody says so." I like the odd Smiths song, but for some reason, I like the solo stuff more. Especially that record Your Arsenal, which he did with Mick Ronson. It's a little more rockin'.
Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, "Mad Man"
JW: It's only on here because of the intro. It's this thing the band recorded at rehearsal: You hear a little bit of a song, and then you hear this super-loud knocking, and it's one of the guys' fathers. He's like, "I've been home for three hours, you guys are still playing?" And one of 'em goes, "Dad, it's our only time to practice!" And he says, "I don't come home from work to hear you dummies play, I come home to relax!" And then the guy in the band goes, "Now we're stopping."
Blue Öyster Cult, "E.T.I."
JW: One of my favorite bands, featuring the great chorus, "All praise / He's found the awful truth / Balthazar." I met the drummer; he came through Chapel Hill with his band The Brain Surgeons a couple years ago. I got him to sign a big cowbell for my friend who was getting married, because he played the cowbell on "Don't Fear The Reaper," like the SNL sketch. I was really nervous about it, because I didn't know if it was a sticking point with him. I even had a nightmare about it a couple of days before the show, but he was super-cool.