Shuffle em up!
Five, describe!
- The Postal Service - Brand New Colony. The songs from this record have really grown on me over the years. I never feel that I need to listen to the record, but when I hear a song in a shuffle like this, or in the background of a TV show, or on radio, I'm like "Hey, that album is better than I thought when I first got it!"
- Modern Lovers - Girlfriend. By coincidence, I've been keeping a mental list of songs that spell out their title in the chorus (Bay City Rollers "Saturday Night", The Cure "Fire In Cairo", etc.). And here's another one. My lucky day.
- Bob Dylan - Just Like A Woman (live). This is the acoustic version from the 'Bootleg Series'. Back when he could, and wanted to, sing. Very nice.
- The Harbours Band - Koma Mosi. It's from the excellent Nigerian 'Highlife' collection. But, instead of the hard, rocking, funky groove that most of the songs on that collection have, this one has a laid-back vibe, sounds almost Caribbean.
- Mos Def - Rock And Roll. The iPod only wants to play the first 15 seconds of this. So... I'll just assume the other 5:00 are super awesome and that you're a sap for not buying the album immediately.
Dig it, daddy-o?
Tangentially related: Spell It Out
John Lee Hooker – I Put My Trust In You
While the backing track is a very straightforward blues progression, what really makes an impression on me here is how untethered from the rhythm Hooker’s vocals are. He obviously knows where the changes are, but he sings his lines somewhere in between them.
Nice lead in to Chess label-mate:
Chuck Berry – Rock and Roll Music
Four instruments, no solos, no shouting, and not really that fast. I will forever love (and in all honesty, prefer) John Lennon’s tour-de-force remake, but Chuck is still the man, laying the foundations of R&R that made everything else to come possible.
The Drifters – The Bells of St. Mary’s
Hey Clyde McPhatter and company, love you guys, but this is dull. Maybe it would go down better on a quiet yuletide eve, but right now it’s just not doing it for me.
Gloria Estefan – Yo No Cambiaria
A very nice, stripped-down production, featuring a relaxing yet busy double-layer of guitar thanks to both Jose Feliciano and Juantio Marquez.
Vivaldi – Sonata in G Minor RV 42, III Allegro (Eliot Fisk)*
Originally scored for cello, I wouldn’t know it from this arrangement, which sounds perfectly at home on the guitar.
* Yes, that’s a MySpace link. Did you know they still exist?
that reminds me: i need to buy me some John Lee Hooker.
Complication by The Monks. The Monks are sort of like The Fugs, except more interesting arrangements because more voices. This song is a revelation and I don’t listen to it often enough.
Driving Aloud/Radio Storm by Robyn Hitchcock. A not very good performance plus crappy production of a fantastic song (this is the one from Live at the Cambridge Folk Fest.) Sort of a quintessential Hitchcock lyric with a great beat; but I can only fantasize about the greatness of the beat when I am listening to this recording.
Dolana Dolana by Mustafa Özkent Ve Orkestras?. Turkish Funk. Good times, plus a stunning graphic.
View From Below by the Minus 5. This is a record that I didn’t think too much of when I got it, and it hasn’t really grown on me much. Not actively bad though, I can totally stand listening to a song off it.
Don’t Ease Me In by the Grateful Dead. The Dead trying to do Chuck Berry. A bit innocuous, not much to it. Fun solo.
Dolana Dolana’s link did not come through: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21AT2x0w6CI