Welcome to another installment of Monday Start Your iPod-equivalent!
Shuffle, describe the first five.
Like so:
- Adrian Belew - I Wish I Knew. This is a slight little sketch of a song - four words, five guitar notes, an electronic drum track. I wouldn't have been surprised to hear Thom Yorke singing over it.
- The Cars - Since You're Gone. Man, these guys could sure write a pop song. The thing is just bristling with hooks. It's not even close to my favorite Cars song, but still, its genius can't be denied.
- The Sea And Cake - Weekend. I though this was a Broken Social Scene song, until the vocals started. It's that uptempo jammin-on-a-single-chord + electronics thing that BSS does. Not bad. I dig that video: upstate NY represent.
- Digable Planets - Where I'm From. I'm loving this album, these days. I have a feeling it's gonna do well in this upcoming Top 100 list. There was something in the air in 92-94 - all the hip-hop albums that I really like came out in those three years.
- Elmore James - Find My Kinda Woman. Well, if you like one Elmore James song, you'll like them all. But what a great guitar tone!
Now, you do it!
“Since You’re Gone” has one of my favorite rhythm mix-ups in pop music. That stick-clicking at the beginning always gets my foot tapping on the wrong beat.
Joan Osborne – St Teresa
Osborne has a cool voice, able to belt without peeling the paint. The instrumentation on this one is a good complement, full but not overloaded.
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – This Summer’s Been Good From the Start
The two things I like best about Gorky’s are (1) when they play psycho psychedelic, and (2) when they sing all in Welsh. This song has neither. It doesn’t suck, but it’s not what I paid for.
L. v. Beethoven – Cello Sonata #1 in F, II. Allegro (Lynn Harrell & Vladimir Ashkenazy)
This is from a very young Beethoven, still in his Classical period, but it’s beautifully rich and varied. One music critic pointed out that these sonatas are not only a great showcase for the cello, but they demand a good performance of the pianist as well, rather than just a standard-fare, get-out-of-the-way accompaniment.
Patsy Cline – Back in Baby’s Arms
I swear this came up in a recent shuffle, but I looked back and didn’t find it. Love Patsy Cline, don’t love the background scoring. And I’m not sure why, because it has the same flavor as Buddy Holly’s “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore.”
Jazz Jamaica – Double Barrel
JJ are basically the Skatalites with far better recording production, and that works just fine for me.
I don’t care if The Cars can be cheesy or considered lame 80’s or whatever. They wrote some fantastic little songs.
Short because apparently we are still in the holidays and have no time at all lately.
1. The Hooters – All You Zombies
Not a bad song. Better than their other hit, And We Danced, which just gives me a Huey Lewis vibe. One of the guys who wrote this song wrote One of Us by Joan Osborne.
2. Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains – Jackalope
The video is not this song but it is the weirdness that was this little supergroup consisting of Les Claypool, Bernie Worrell, Buckethead and Brain on drums. Somehow it works.
3. Pixies – Broken Face
Nice short little shard of Pixies from their best album.
4. Dave Matthews Band – Granny
Old school DMB, a song recorded for their first album but has never appeared on a studio album. A happy one.
5. Gary Numan – The Fall
My old 80’s synth hero with a song from his latest album, showing that he still has something left in the tank and doing his best Nine Inch Nails impression.
Watching the Steelers – Broncos on DVR and haven’t heard the winner yet. It’s tied with 3 minutes left…
Puckett Blues, by Riley Puckett. Sweet, sweet proto-St. Louis Blues sound.
Adam and Eve, by Tommie Bradley. Raunchy and raucous.
I’m a Boy, by The Who. Iconic.
Wax Doll, Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians. This one starts out really great but sort of goes on for too long.
James Bond Doors, The Vestibules. Giggle.
How about a random 10? I’m in a random 10 kind of mood.
1. PJ Harvey – Happy and Bleeding
2. The Dead Weather – I Cut Like a Buffalo
3. Talking Heads – Air
4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Yeah! New York
5. Kings of Leon – Mary
6. Radiohead – Staircase
7. Elbow – The Birds
8. The Cure – 10:15 Saturday Night
9. Muse – Assassin
10. Portishead – Hunter
And as a bonus here’s some polydactyl kittens!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-16474354