Category: Music

And, it’s actually done on Friday…

1. “K.C. Blues” – Charlie Parker – Bird: The Original Recordings of Charlie Parker
2. “Fame Throwa” – Pavement* – Slanted & Enchanted
3. “Ready OK” – Spent – Songs of Drinking and Rebellion
4. “Blue Chaise” – The American Analog Set* – From Our Living Room to Yours
5. “Gooseneck Problem” – Yo La Tengo* – Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo
6. “Send a Picture of Mother” – Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison
7. “My Weakness” – Moby* – Play
8. “Smile” – Elastica – Elastica
9. “Suggestion” – Fugazi* – 13 Songs
10. “Standing in the Shower… Thinking” – Jane’s Addiction – Nothing’s Shocking

*’s by the ones I’ve seen live.

So there.

Or, rather, here:

1. “Bulldog Front” – Fugazi* – 13 Songs 
2. “Sangria Wine” – Jerry Jeff Walker* – Great Gonzos
3. “19th Nervous Breakdown” – Rolling Stones – Hot Rocks
4. “Break Charmer” – Cujo – Trip Hop & Jazz Vol. 3
5. “…Meets His Maker” – DJ Shadow – The Private Press
6. “Countess from Hong Kong (Demo)” – Velvet Underground – Peel Slowly and See
7. “I Want to Talk About You” – John Coltrane – Live at Birdland
8. “The Messenger” – Ray Wylie Hubbard – KGSR Broadcasts Vol. 6
9. “Improv 3” – Earl Harvin Trio* – Unincorporated
10. “Oleo (alt take)” – Grant Green – The Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark
11. “Elements of Style” – Paul Newman – Frames per Second

The *’s by the ones I’ve seen live reveal my catholic (lower case) tastes in music, particularly the first two.

My first club show was at the Rocket in Providence, RI. A buddy and I had gone up from Newport one Sunday to catch Newport’s own Verbal Assault. Opening for Verbal Assault were G.O.D., Operation Ivy, and Ian MacKaye’s new outfit – Fugazi – playing one of their earliest shows. I still remember the sheer intensity of  “Suggestion” and “Waiting Room” and how they just blew whole crowd away.

Later that year, I moved to Texas and began to dig the Texas music. One summer, while shooting video for a summer camp in Marble Falls, Jerry Jeff showed up and played a set in the chow hall. His daughter was a camper there. A year earlier, I had worked as a PA on one of his videos: “Hill Country Rain.” You can’t love the hill country without loving Jerry Jeff’s tunes.

There are other interesting things to accompany the hard core to country opening. Grant Green, for instance. Would that I could play guitar the way he did.

In case you care…

1. “Cannonball” – Soulive* – Doin’ Something
2. “Drive” – REM* – Automatic for the People
3. “La Grange” – ZZ Top – Tres Hombres
4. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” – The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
5. “Concierto de Aranjuez” – Miles Davis – Sketches of Spain
6. “Tuff Boyz” – Sonic Youth* – Goo (Deluxe Edition)
7. “Camarillo Brillo” – Frank Zappa – Over-nite Sensation
8. “Ice Cream Jeep” – Calexico* – Spoke
9. “Serenade for the Renegade” – est – Strange Place for Snow
10. “Cumberland Blues” – Grateful Dead* – Workingman’s Dead
11. “The Whales Are Coming and Boy Are They Pissed” – The Mermen* – Live at the Haunted House

*’s by the ones I’ve seen live

I just realized I hit ‘save’ instead of ‘publish’ on this yesterday. Oh well, a day late, no songs short, and some really interesting guitarists in this mix.

*’s by the ones I’ve seen live…

1. “Subterranean Homesick Alien” – Radiohead – OK Computer
2. “Drunken Butterfly” – Sonic Youth* – Dirty
3. “Loretta’s Scars” – Pavement* – Slanted & Enchanted
4. “Moron” – The Dead Milkmen* – Eat Your Paisley
5. “Outta Hand” – Dinosaur Jr* – Without a Sound
6. “The Lost City of Refuge” – …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead – Worlds Apart
7. “Animal Farm” – John Scofield – Überjam
8. “(Take a) Beetle to the Badlands – The Slip* – Angels Come on Time
9. “Hoverin'” – The Amps – Pacer
10. “Unchained” – Willie Nelson* & Johnny Cash – VH1 Storytellers

OK Computer is probably my favorite album of the ’90s.

In ’92, I saw Pavement open for Sonic Youth at Liberty Lunch. They were probably supporting the albums listed here and probably played those songs. It wasn’t a great night for SY (three attempts at “Sugar Kane,” three busted strings), but Pavement, a band I’d never before heard, was a revelation.

I don’t know how many times I saw the Dead Milkmen at Liberty Lunch, but I never missed one of their shows from ’89-’93. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more consistently fun act.

Dinosaur Jr fits right in with SY and Pavement for brilliant guitar weirdness.  I finally got to see them last year.

If I was ten years younger, I’d probably never miss a Trail of Dead show. But, I’m not so I buy the CDs and pretend I’m cool. I am, however, just the right age for someone like Scofield and I do like him.

The Slip was a great ACL Fest discovery from a few years back. The Amps were Kim Deal’s post-Breeders low-fi experiment, and for my money, more interesting.

Willie & Cash. That would have been cool to see.

Another Friday, another ten, except that it’s eleven with *’s by the ones I’ve seen live…

1. “Riff Raff” – Helle’s Belles* – We Salute You
2. “Never Here” – Elastica – Elastica
3. “Stepping Into Tomorrow” – Donald Byrd – Stepping Into Tomorrow
4. “Foreign Exchange” – The Burnside Project – The Networks, The Circuits, The Streams, The Harmonies
5. “Wilson (Live)” – Phish* – A Live One
6. “Merry Christmas from the Family” – Robert Earl Keen – KGSR Broadcasts Vol. 6
7. “What We Did Last Summer” – Eighty Mile Beach – Om Lounge
8. “Sanctuary” – Miles Davis – Black Beauty: At Fillmore West
9. “Lose Control” – Missy Elliott – The Cookbook
10. “Oran” – Cal Tjader – Soul Burst
11. “Autumn Sweater” – Tortoise* – A Lazarus Taxon

This one opens with Hell’s Belles, my cousin’s killer all female AC/DC tribute band. I’ve seen them twice and both times, well, they rocked and I saluted them. I wrote about their shows at Stubb’s and Antone’s (links go to my posts) and hope they come back to Austin soon.

Donald Byrd flies off in the third track reminding me why I have all his electric albums, and we close with Tortoise, a band I saw at ACL Fest a few years ago and would love to see again. Based on the members of that band and all the other bands they’re in (Gastr Del Soul, The Sea and Cake, Chicago Underground Trio, Isotope 217) I suspect the Chicago music scene must be something to behold.

Continuing last week’s tradition of looking in wikipedia for today’s musical anniversaries, I find that Ron Carter was born in 1937. Carter played bass in Miles’ second quintet, the better of the two, in my opinion, though he fled when Miles discovered electricity and told jazz to go funk itself.

Ten with *’s by the ones I’ve seen live followed by a value-added Friday Random Ten feature…

1. “Dead (Live)” – Pixies* – Death to The Pixies
2. “Man with a Gun” – Jerry Harrison* – Casual Gods
3. “Turn it Out” – Soulive* – Soulive
4. “Spring Song” – The Fence Sitters – Mission to Mars
5. “Flat Backin'” – Brother Jack McDuff – Moon Rappin’
6. “Castles Made of Sand” – The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Axis: Bold as Love
7. “19” – Paul Hardcastle – Living in Oblivion: The 80’s Greates Hits
8. “Biological” – Air – Talkie Walkie
9. “Samba de Orpheus” – Vince Guaraldi – Greatest Hits
10. “Agent Orange” – Depeche Mode – Music for the Masses

“19” takes me by surprise. Suddenly, it’s the ’80s and I’m following my mom around a K-Mart in Rhode Island hearing this song and wondering when “Money for Nothing” will cycle through again. I guess that’s kind of how it goes when you dump every CD onto your ipod. I didn’t even know I had it. I wonder what else lurks among the bytes.

 And for a music history bonus via Wikipedia, on this day in…

• 1810 Beethoven composed “Für Elise” so that Schroeder would have something to do while Lucy Van Pelt made eyes at him
• 1932 Casey Kasem was born while a special long distance dedication from dad to mom played
• 1948 Kate Peirson was born in a loveshack under a moon in the sky (called the moon)
• 1951 Ace Frehley was born snowblind in a New York groove

This is a hip – and on one track tragic – little set. Cowboy Junkies’ Waltz Across America appears for the second week in a row. It’s a cool little CD that we picked up when we saw them last year. Margo Timmins even signed it for us.

1. “Audio Boxing” – Isotope 217 – The Unstable Molecule
2. “Play Hurt” – The American Analog Set* – Set Free
3. “The Drowning Man Knows His God” – The Mermen* – A Glorious Lethal Euphoria
4. “Run” – New Order* – Technique
5. “Good Friday (Live)” – Cowboy Junkies* – Waltz Across America
6. “Letter from Home” – DJ Shadow – The Private Press
7. “I Want an Alien for Christmas” – Fountains of Wayne – Out-of-State Plates
8. “Tuff Gnarl” – Sonic Youth* – Sister
9. “Save the Planet” – The Tragically Hip* – Phantom Power
10. “Teknikal Illprovisation” – Sonic Youth* – Demonlover: Bande Originale du Film

*’s by the ones I’ve seen live

And on this Friday, made especially good by not having school today, the first ten off the ‘pod…

1. “Houses in Motion” – Talking Heads – The Name of this Band is Talking Heads
2. “Sorrow” – Pink Floyd – A Momentary Lapse of Reason
3. “I’m in Great Shape/I Wanna Be Around/Workshop” – Brian Wilson – Smile
4. “Five Room Love Story (Live)” – Cowboy Junkies – Waltz Across America
5. “Windfall” – Son Volt – Trace
6. “Feel So Bad” – Lightnin’ Hopkins – Blues Kingpins
7. “Antiquity” – Chicago Underground Trio – Flamethrower
8. “I Love Her All the Time” – Sonic Youth – Bad Moon Rising
9. “Sing a Simple Song” – The Meters – The Meters
10. “Open Country Joy” – Mahavishnu Orchestra – Birds of Fire

That is an eclectic set to say the least.

The Talking Heads tune at the start comes from my all time favorite live album. It covers the Heads from their post-punk minimalism through the expanded Remain in Light version of the band, which is still one of the most intriguing and thrilling musical adventures I’ve ever listened to. I had The Name of this Band… on tape for years and years. And years. Every time I went to a record store, I checked to see if it was out on CD, but no luck.

Few people I knew had heard it, and by 2004, the tape was getting pretty run down. The one day, lo, I saw it at the record store, not just on CD, but remastered and full of extra tracks from the Remain in Light days. The best parts, of course, are “Born Under Punches,” “Crosseyed and Painless,” and the ominous “Psycho Killer” that opens disc two. This was a band at the height of its powers and sometimes it seems the world is still catching up.

A very cool set…

1. “Stagger” – Underworld – Second Toughest in the Infants
2. “Georgia vs. Yo La Tengo” – Yo La Tengo* – Summer Sun
3. “Shiny, Shiny Pimpmobile” – East River Pipe – The Gasoline Age
4. “Cactus” – Pixies* – Surfer Rosa
5. “Blindshore” – 7% Solution – All About Satellites and Spaceships
6. “All Apologies” – Nirvana* – In Utero
7. “My Enemy” – The Afghan Whigs – Black Love
8. “Green Light” – Sonic Youth* – Live at the Continental Club in Austin, TX
9. “Shakedown Street” – Grateful Dead* – Shakedown Street
10. “99 Red Balloons” – 7 Seconds* – Scream Real Loud (Live)
11. “The Ballad of Mike Scovil” – The Fence Sitters – Mission to Mars
12. “The Kindness of Strangers” – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Murder Ballads

Well, that’s twelve, but it was a good set.

*’s by the artists I’ve seen live

And, now for today’s ten…

1. “Save Me” – Aimee Mann – KGSR Broadcasts Vol. 11
2. “Country Death Song” – Violent Femmes – Hallowed Ground
3. “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise” – Miles Davis – In Person: Saturday Night at the Blackhawk
4. “Charles III” – Charles Earland – Funk Fantastique
5. “Lose Control” – Missy Elliott – The Cookbook
6. “Groover” – Funki Porcini – Triphop & Jazz Vol. 3
7. “El Condor Pasa (If I Could)” – Simon & Garfunkel – Greatest Hits
8. “Seven Skies” – Erik Truffaz – The Walk of the Giant Turtle
9. “Desert Song” – Stanley Clarke – School Days
10. “Changer” – Stereolab – ABC Music-Radio 1 Sessions

I love “Save Me,” and this version is wonderful. It’s jarring leading into that Femmes tune, though, about a guy who kills his young daughter in the spooky “Country Death Song.”

I used see the Violent Femmes pretty regularly when I was in college. Great shows. It was a fascinating thing to hear Gordon Gano imploring the crowd to go to church  before launching into this or “Add It Up,” on which he usually let the audience sing the “fuck”‘s. And then they’d play “Jesus Walking on the Water.”

Everyone always bought and knew the first album, but Hallowed Ground was a fascinating look at one man’s love/hate relationship with religion, or perhaps I should describe it as the diference between religion and faith. And then, of course, there’s that crazy jam in the middle of “Black Girls.”

From there, the set, while good, kind of drifts off into the world of long jams and improv. “Charles III,” though is pretty smokin’, but I wasn’t really paying attention as I was looking forward to putting on Hallowed Ground after not having listened to it in ages. Those reminders are the magic of the ipod.