Shuffle em up. Five songs. Describe em.
- CCR - Who'll Stop The Rain. Like that odd little harmony they do at the very end of the chorus. "Who'll stop the raaaiiin..." I always forget that I have this, let alone that it's on my iPod.
- Benny Goodman Trio - At Sundown. A nice little clarinet tune. Don't recall ever hearing it before, though I certainly have, since I've played this record many times before. Should I call it "forgettable" ? Seems harsh.
- Leon Redbone - Polly Wolly Doodle. A favorite of mine since this album came out... when I was 4. Cause what 4 year old wouldn't like this song?
- Guided By Voices - Apology In Advance. At two and a half minutes, this is nearly an epic by GBV standards. Not as catchy as some GBV songs, and rather cleanly produced. Must be a later one.
- Dirty Projectors - Temecula Sunrise. Starts out with some tastefully plucked guitar and it sounds like it's going to be a sweet little folksong. Quickly, though, the guitar's rhythm starts to break down, and it ends up in a twisting, hiccuping loop. By the time it gets to the titular chorus, the guitar has become a Frippish cluster of quick notes. There's a simple steady drum beat, but I think that's there just to confuse the listener, since nothing seems to be paying much attention to it. A little tough for 7:45AM.
Now you do it.
Public Enemy – Don’t Believe the Hype
Coming right on the heels of “Bring The Noise”, two tracks in and It Takes A Nation… has already paid for itself. PE’s sound got more sophisticated over the next two albums, but I still hold this one in high regard. I dig the way Chuck D relies on internal rhyme, so his verses never get boring. Plus, so many memorable lines: “Don’t tell me that you understand until you hear the man.” “All the jealous punks can’t stop the dunk.” “Some say I’m negative, but they’re not positive.”
U2 – I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Overplayed? Sure. It merits it. I’m not a real big U2 fan but I can’t deny the power of the Joshua Tree album, even if it suffers a bit from much-of-a-muchness among its tracks.
James Horner – Sneakers Main Title
Never saw the movie. Cool interplay of textures in this piece, with the vocals and the soprano saxophone dancing together over a floor of percussion and strings.
KMFDM – Revolution
There was a time when I used to mosh at industrial clubs, to KMFDM and Ministry and NIN Skinny Puppy and well, I got tired of hurting myself. This track is relatively low-key, so risk of injury is reduced.
Train – Latin Interlude
Some between-songs wankery from a live album. I’m sure this was fun if you were actually there.
Live Your Life Punk – Party Ben. One of my favorite mashups. Party Ben does consistently high quality stuff. I’d like to see him do a live set sometime.
Gold and Silver – Toots and the Maytals. The one thing that keeps me singing is the delusional belief that one day I will open my mouth and out will come Toots Hibbert’s voice. Still waiting.
Zoo Music Girl – The Birthday Party. I thought my days of not being among the oldest fellas at a show were over. I thought that until I went to a Grinderman show last year. Everyone was in their 50s!I am reborn! A friend recently told me Nick Cave is a preacher’s son. Ahh, yes. Of course.
Plorum Regina – Medieval Song. Wow, the youtube version is way better than the one on my ipod. Medieval music is a lot more like what we listen to these days than the intervening 400yrs or so of art music.
The Flaming Gong – Chavez. This song aint on youtube, so enjoy their lovely Unreal is Here instead. The last great grunge guitar band of the 90s. (yes, I know they are really mathrock or post-punk or whatever. trouble me not with your arbitrary categories!)
Oh, that’s “Polorum” Regina. Not Plorum. Queen of the Poles. Zimi Piwo!
It all makes sense now!
Getting pretty tired of work politics today.
Tom Petty – A Face In The Crowd
Back in the early 90s some slightly-older friends of mine were raving about an album called ‘Full Moon Fever’ by an artist I’d never heard of. I bought it, liked it very much but it’s still the only Tom Petty album I own. This is a gentle acoustic-led number that is a real grower and takes me right back to 1992 or so.
The Cure – Friday I’m In Love
What’s not to like? What a great song. I must listen to more of this band as they were very influential on many people around me back in the day. I knew people that lived and breathed this band, some obsessively so. Great jangly sound too – is there a Rickenbacker in there somewhere?
The Raveonettes – New York Was Great
From their 2003 album ‘Chain Gang Of Love’ which must be the tinniest sounding album ever recorded. Seriously, it sounds like it was recorded in a giant can of Coca-Cola. Interesting sound in an unoffensive indie-guitar way but I soon got bored of an entire album of songs all recorded in the same key by studio engineers who couldn’t leave the treble controls alone!
Placebo – Nancy Boy
Naughty indie rockers in shock attempt to shock with vaguely sexual lyrics! On Top of the Pops! Outrageous. They still have a cult following in the UK and can always pull in decent-sized crowds but this was probably their biggest hit. I expect they are still at it. Spunky.
Duran Duran – Girls on Film
Doesn’t sound as good as it did in 1981 but it kicked off a meteoric career for this band, especially in the UK where they were MASSIVE. There is an infamous uncut video for this song which featured boobs and plastic knickers. I wasn’t a big fan but I do own a Best Of and the songs are forever ingrained thanks to near-constant airplay throughout the 80s.
Enjoy!
Oh FFS. Cleek!!! Please can you fix my malformed link mate?
not only can i, but i
willdid!I must listen to more of this band
agreed.
just go get the “Starting At The Sea” collection. it goes from 79-85, so it doesn’t have anything from their really big albums (Kiss Me, Disintegration or Wish – the first two of which you should definitely check out. and if you like “Friday…”, you might like Wish, too). but, all their early singles are awesome.
Didn’t have time to write up descriptions as it was playing but this was about as fine a shuffled set as I could ask for last night:
“Color Blind”, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly
“Lost Boy Blues”, Palmer McAbee
“Caribou”, The Pixies
“Buster Voodoo”, Rodrigo y Gabriela
“Cold Turkey”, The Soft Boys