Random Songs

Another issue of the Random 10, where I grab a bunch of CDs from my shelf, and rip some songs from them. I'm up to 208 tracks now, and still missing my MP3 player. This time, my list may even be cranked to 11.

• Pat Scott - "Today I Sing The Blues" (Mojo Mamas [2000]) : Recently I went to Chicago on a business trip and, of course, we had to hit some blues clubs. One night, we went to Blue Chicago, a very popular club and saw a very dynamic group, Willie Kent and the Gents, with a special guest singer Patricia Scott. They were so good, I went up and bought a CD. Turns out it was this one, a collection of female blues singers, and not one of Willie Kent, but still, there's some great songs on this, including this standout by the women we heard.
• Michelle Shocked - "Anchorage" (Short Sharp Shocked [1988]) : From her breakout sophomore album, this is the song I first heard from her. But she is an amazing talent, with a wide ranging set of musical tastes. I'd love to get the re-issue of this, which includes a second disc of even more goodies. She recent came out with three CDs all at the same time! One Mexican/Latin music, another of Walt Disney covers, and a third more "normal" CD!
• Goanna - "Every Passing Day" (Oceania [1984]) : One of my favorite alt-rock bands from the 80s, hailing from my favorite foreign country, Australia. More well known (if you could call it that) for their Spirit of Place CD, with the alt-rock hit Solid Rock (Sacred Ground) on it, this particular song is probably one of my top ten favorite songs of all time. I picked this CD up while we were visiting Australia (see some of my slides posted here on this blog), and it doesn't even show up on the AllMusic.com Goanna Discography!
• Peter Frampton - "Show me the Way" (Frampton Comes Alive! [1976]) : Okay, we all have our guilty pleasures from our teenage years, and this is one of mine, so stop snickering already! It remains the biggest selling live album of all time, a pretty miraculous thing considering he was virtually unknown before this album. This is a good song, but it pales in comparison to the nearly 15 minute epic, "Do You Feel Like We Do" found on disc 2, with one of the best guitar breaks of all time.
• Sarah Polley - "Courage" (The Sweet Hereafter Original Soundtrack [1997]) : I bought the DVD for this movie even before I owned a DVD player. A wonderfully complex film by Atom Egoyan, as well as a compelling book with a completely different focus by Russell Banks, the soundtrack had me go out and grab a CD by Mychael Danna, the composer. This song is a heartbreaking lament, echoing the themes of loss found in the story itself:

  Courage, my word
  It didn't come, it doesn't matter
  Courage, my word
  It didn't come, it doesn't matter
  Courage, couldn't come at a worse time.

  There's no simple explanation
  For anything important any of us do
  And yea the human tragedy
  Consists in the necessity
  Of living with the consequences
  Under pressure, under pressure.
  

• Peter Murphy - "Indigo Eyes" (Love Hysteria [1988]) : featuring two of my favorite 80s alt-rock songs, this and "Time Has Got Nothing To Do With It", the former lead singer of Bauhaus has some seriously catchy pop songs here.
• Dead Can Dance - "Rakim" (Toward The Within [1994]) : A great live album, we went to see them play the Berklee a few (probably many now...) years ago, and it was a wondrous thing. Sometimes, these electronica / fusion bands like DCD can rely too much on their machines and end up offering nothing special when you see them in concert (like how I felt after watching The Cranes in concert), but DCD put on a riveting audio/visual feast. And this CD does a good job of reflecting the energy of their performance, even without the eye candy (available as a video release too). Now I need to find a Region 1 copy of "El Niño de la luna", Lisa Gerrard's acting debut.
• The The - "Out of the Blue (Into the Fire)" (Infected [1986]) : Matt Johnson sings of being a bad boy - traveling and looking for some fun.

  Trying so hard to be myself, I'm turning into somebody else.

• And three from the previously mentioned Children of Nuggets:
  • The Stems - "She's Fine"
  • The Spongetones - "Maryanne"
  • The Times - "I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape"
  The first two of these songs are very retro sounding, almost 50s-ish. But they sure are alot of fun and great driving songs. The Times song is a very cute song about rescuing The Prisoner; real nice chorus. I been listening to the Nuggets CDs in my car, trying to get the most from them, and I'm enjoying them more and more. I recently RIPped a bunch of songs from this CD (the orange disc one), so it can't be all bad!

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