Shuffle your songs. Describe the first five that come up, so that we may all learn of them.
- Sea And Cake - Jacking The Ball. First song, first album, once a Citibank commercial, and first song of the week for me. A great song, too. Those breezy African-inspired intertwining guitar/bass lines, Prekop's and Prewitt's easygoing vocals, McEntire's spiky drumming, ah.. Well done, iPod.
- Calexico - Cruel. A decent song. It sounds a bit like Live, until the horns come in and give it that little touch of Mexico that distinguishes all Calexico songs. Like the ending. iPod loves some Calexico.
- Death Cab For Cutie - Coney Island. "Everything was closed at Coney Island. But I could not help from smiling." Of course those are the lyrics. Bittersweet, hopeless melancholy - it's the Death Cab way! A nice little tune, though.
- Nod - Summer Sausage. This is one of my favorite Nod songs, but I can't find it anywhere on the web to share with you all. So, you'll just have to go buy the record - though it's pretty much impossible to find. Sigh.
- The Shins - The Past And Pending. Another of those great creepy minor key Shins songs. Acoustic guitar and trombone (? French Horn?), with a touch of clean electric guitar for accent after a while. I really miss the old Shins' sound.
See?
Now you do it.
Working from home today. No descriptions, just a playlist…
1. “I’ve Got a Heavy Date Tonight”, Stuff Smith Orchestra
2. “Hometown Blues”, Roane Co. Ramblers
3. “Someone’s been sleeping in my bed”, 100 Proof Aged in Soul
4. “King-Kong Frown”, Departure Lounge
5. Untitled instrumental, Bill Gessner
6. “Baby Blue”, Robyn Hitchcock & Heavy Friends
7. “I am a Lonesome Hobo”, Bob Dylan
8. “Can I Change My Mind?”, Tyrone Davis
9. “Red Rose Waltz”, Vassar Clemens
10. “Chasing a Buck”, Dick MacDonough
Last night Mountain Station recorded a pretty oddball medley that I’m fairly excited about — still needs some work, especially the second song, but it feels right…
How to Make a Baby Elephant Float by YLT, from Summer Sun. Just sort of a floaty song you’d expect to hear over a montage in a 60s film. I’m a sucker for the cheesy lyrics. If you’re a Serge Gainsbourg fan, you should listen to this. Really could be a yé yé record.
Monday Will Never Be the Same by Hüsker Dü from Zen Arcade. 52 seconds of not angry, not loud. What I always loved about Hüsker Dü was the way they made dense guitars melodic. This takes out all the guitars and is just a simple melody on a piano.
Mandolin Strum by REM, b-side of Everybody Hurts (which was on Automatic). Pete gets a mandolin and wants to play it, so they do this. If Michael had ever come up with lyrics they might have fleshed this one out some more.
Heat Wave by The Jam from Setting Sons. Of course a would be mod band would cover Martha and the Vandellas. Fun!
California Love by Tupac from All Eyez on Me. Everybody loves Tupac. The track hits your eardrum like a slug to the chest.
An ethereal unabashedly sappy love song, two instrumentals, a soul cover by white kids from London, and one of the seminal songs of the 90s. Not a bad mix. A little low key, but I haven’t been awake long, so it was nice to ease into the happy dancability of The Jam and Tupac.
Clocks went back. Rained all day. Drove home in the dark. Shit hitting the fan at work. Wishing I was on a beach.
1. Green Day – Jesus Of Suburbia
“I’m the son of rage and love.”. The best song to drive to, ever. The best song to play before hitting the town, ever. Punky, a little daft, NINE minutes long and with a production so polished you just can’t stop nodding your head. Green Day at their absolute peak.
2. The Doors – Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)
Drinking and having sex featured quite high on Jim Morrison’s list of ‘things to do today’. Not my favourite Doors song but there’s something about it all the same.
3. The Animals – We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
Takes a little while to get going but worth the wait. Really, really great vocal – ballsy rock from deep within. Great chorus too. I need to delve deeper into their back catalogue.
4. The Kinks – David Watts
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa. Who was this David Watts character anyway?
5. Radiohead – These Are My Twisted Words
Surprise 2009 release that many fans thought heralded a new EP (called ‘Wall Of Ice’ apparently – http://xkcd.com/86/). Ethereal guitars and bass – sounds like nothing off the preceding In Rainbows album nor anything like the tracks on The King Of Limbs. They should do more of this – slip songs out with no fuss and see if anyone finds them on BitTorrent.
I was expecting a tough week last Monday and it turned out OK which was a happy surprise. This week was meant to be easy but alas it seems to be dripping with hassle.
Oh yeh, happy Halloween. Got to take my daughter out trick-or-treating in the cold. Thanks for that America. :)
WRT The Animals, have you watched “O Lucky Man”? What a far out movie, and a spectacular soundtrack.
I like “Whiskey Bar” a lot but would rather hear Lotte Lenya singing than Morrisson…
here’s Bowie doing Whiskey Bar (with Belew on guitar)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz1ypTjChcA
David Watts in the same post where I already had one instance of The Jam doing a cover.
Microsoft can bite me. I think half of the problems I solve at work have to do with Office, Internet Explorer or some other batshit crazy thing Windows 7 does. Listen, Microsuck, at least stick to the standards you forced into acceptance!
/end rant
6 days until southern Turkey and 24C and sun….
1. Pulp – Common People
This song just rules. The album this is on is one of the first things my wife, then girlfriend, bought together. I was tempted to post the Shatner version of this because as good as this song is, the Shatnerized version may be even better.
2. David Sylvian – Alphabet Angel
Slow, short little nice bit of atmosphere from Mr. Sylvian. I’ve been a fan since his Japan days. Not always in the mood of course, but his thoughtful, mellow jazz inflected avant garde music hits just the right spots when you are in a melancholy mood.
3. John Grant – Where Dreams Go to Die
John Grant is one of my recent discoveries. He writes really nice melodies and like this a really beautiful song…that has some lyrics that are out of place, or odd. Sometimes funny sometimes just weird but always fascinating (like this, which once I hear it I sing it all day long.)
4. They Might Be Giants – Ana Ng
Oh wow, high school! God, I loved TMBG back in the day. So odd and nerdy and just awesome. A few years ago I met someone named Ana Ng. I was expecting her to be totally sick of hearing about this song but she had never heard it before! So I got to introduce the song Ana Ng to Ana Ng. And she liked it.
5. Fountains of Wayne – Stacy’s Mom
What an infectious little song. Pretty much all I ask from a good power-pop song is this.
Interesting set. I doubt I will do one next week while in Turkey (though you never know).
The orange is giving me headache.
They Might Be Giants – Ana Ng
yeah, that brings back memories.
memories of 120 Minutes, mostly.
Common People. *The* anthem of 1995.
Nice Hallowe’en theme btw.
Here is another shuffle from later on.
1. “Blue Harvest Blues”, Mississippi John Hurt. This piece could just about define Delta blues, it seems to me. Very sparse, elegant guitar, elemental lyric.
2. “Polska för Anders Sparf”, Barbara Lamb. Thin banshee violin. A very short piece, which is too bad because I want to listen to it longer.
3. “Gigolo Aunt”, The Soft Boys. Easily the most commercial of Syd Barrett’s post-Floyd compositions. I remember being excited to find out when I was going to college in Potsdam about a group called The Gigolo Aunts. No idea what became of them… I like Barrett performing this better than The Soft Boys.
4. “Big Black Mariah”, Tom Waits. Greatness.
5. “Jockey Full of Bourbon”, also Tom Waits. Also great. (This is the only Waits song that Mountain Station performs so probably the Waits song I know best.)
I have their GA’s Learn to Play Guitar EP. Nice and poppy. Had no idea about the Syd Barret connection.
Here is the album version, which is my favorite.
hmmm. and now i notice i don’t have “Barrett”