Back To Friday Random 10

In the next installment of my dive into the CD cabinet, this one is only semi-random, as I grabbed a few in specific. And it takes me more than a week to go through my stack of ten. But here it is, on Friday even!

• Goanna - "Solid Rock" (Spirit of Place [1982]) : Hey, it's a diggeridoo, so it must be Australian! These Aussie political rockers made a splash with this debut album and this classic 80s alt-rock hit. Lots of good songs on here, but they went on to release only one more CD (Oceana) and then folded when Shane Howard, the band's founder, bolted. Ah well, they left a great legacy of sound anyway.
• JJ Cale - "Call Me The Breeze" (Anyway The Wind Blows (Disc 1) [1997]) : Boogie rock pioneer Cale has some great songs and this 2 CD set is a pretty full collection of his "hits". Another Rhapsody Radio discovery, I'd keep hearing these little boogie woogie rock 'n' roll songs pop up and every time I'd check, it would be another Cale song. Two discs might be a little too much, as there isn't much variety, but still some good stuff here. This disc includes songs covered by other artists, most notably "Cocaine" by Eric Clapton.
• JJ Cale - "Wish I Had Me A Dollar" (Anyway The Wind Blows (Disc 2) [1997]) : Cale live, with a typically low key boogie woogie song. This disc has more favorites of mine, including "People Lie", "Devil in Disguise" and "Change Your Mind".
• The Go-Betweens - "Karen" (That Striped Sunlight Sound [2006]) : I've been able to listen a lot more to this great release of a 2005 live show in Brisbane done by the newly reconstituted Go-Betweens. It features original songwriters Robert Forster and the late, lamented, Grant McLennan in fine form. Even better, it is a double disc, with the second disc a DVD featuring a video of the very same show, as well as a very nice "songwriter's session" video featuring just Forster and McLennan playing guitar and talking about the Go-Betweens, songwriting and life. This song is a nice long concert ending 7+ minute rocker. While the group doesn't have the same lineup as 16 Lovers Lane, it's still a great CD as well as two spectacular videos. Grant, you'll be missed.
• Nick Drake - "Road" (Pink Moon [1972]) : The late, great Nick Drake came to recent attention when Volkswagen used the title track of this song in a wonderful commercial, but this is my favorite Nick Drake song. This is the only Drake CD I have and it is a haunting, acoustic album, and turned out to be his last. It is a dark, inward looking album, with lots of wistful and depressing songs, as he would soon die of an overdoes of pills. To this day, it isn't clear whether it was accidental or suicidal.
• Run On - "Road" (No Way [1997]) : Okay, I cheated here. After hearing the original, I had to go and get this CD from the case, as I actually heard this version first. It's an amazing cover from a wildly flexible band, which sadly folded after this CD, its second. Very Yo La Tengo-ish, with plenty of distortion, but the CD successfully careens all over the map, and this cover is evocative and sensitive. I can listen to this short masterpiece over and over and over again - under 2 minutes of sheer delight. I need to get their other CD.

  You can say the sun is shining if you really want to
  I can see the moon and it seems so clear
  You can take the road that takes you to the stars now
  I can take a road that'll see me through
  I can take a road that'll see me through.

  You can take a road that takes you to the stars now
  I can take a road that'll see me through
  I can take a road that'll see me through
  I can take a road that'll see me through.

• The The - "The Beat(en) Generation" (Mind Bomb [1989]) : My last The The CD. I really enjoyed their (well, his - Matt Johnson) first (Soul Mining), liked their second (Infected) and wasn't real crazy about this one, so I stopped.
• Laurie Anderson - "Baby Doll" (Strange Angels [1989]) : Very funny and funky CD. I love Laurie Anderson, and I'm disappointed we missed her when she was performing here last fall. Next time, fer sure. This is a funny song:

  I don't know about your brain-
  but mine is really bossy
  I come home from a day on the golf course
  and I find all these messages
  scribbled on wrinkled up scraps of paper
  And they say thing like:
  Why don't you get a real job?
  Or: You and what army?
  Or: Get a horse.
  And then I hear this voice
  comin from the back of my head Uh huh
  (Whoa-ho) Yep! It's my brain again
  And when my brain talks to me, he says:

  Take me out to the ballgame
  Take me out to the park
  Take me to the movies
  Cause I love to sit in the dark
  Take me to Tahiti
  Cause I love to be hot
  And take me out on the town tonight
  Cause I know the new hot spot. He says:

  Babydoll! Ooo oo oo Babydoll Ooo He says:
  Babydoll! I love it when you come when I call
  Babydoll! You don't have to talk I know it all
  Babydoll! Ooo oo oo Babydoll Ooo

• The Jeff Healy Band - "Confidence Man" (See The Light [1988]) : Some rocking rhythm and blues by the blind Canadian Jeff Healy, who plays his guitar flat on his lap. This is a great John Hiatt song and really perks things up on this hot Friday afternoon. I'm a roots blues and boogie woogie kinda guy, and there's a couple good ones here, including the instrumental "Nice Problem To Have", which really rocks.
• Richard Thompson - "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" (Rumor & Sigh [1991]) : Quite possibly my favorite story told in song. I quoted it in my Motorcycle entry, and it still remains a favorite. There's a couple of other good songs on here too, but it's weird that this song isn't on the three disc Thompson compilation I have, "Watching The Dark".

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Friday Mostly Random 10

Once again, I've wandered downstairs to pull out a random (and hopefully new) collection of CDs to rip to my MP3 players. But I'm going to start it with a couple of choice cuts before I move on to the random ones.

• She's the Car - "Vibeke" : I've been listening to this song a lot since I downloaded it a few weeks ago, after a mention on the Boston Phoenix's On The Download. What a rockin' great song! And I am totally blown away by the fact this "girlgroup" is comprised of four kids who aren't even 20 from my old stomping grounds, Derry NH. I don't know about you, but my creative output at the tender age of 18 was getting my English essay in on time. And for extra credit, I sometimes did it for my classmates. And here they are, with a long, intricate rock song, with powerful voices and confident music. I wish I had been able to break away and see them play locally earlier in the month. Now, I'll have to hold out until August 11 in Allston. Check out the review of the show here, also from the Phoenix. I haven't heard any of their other songs, but I think we can forgive them for working their way "from precious indie-pop to noisy rock", don't you?
• The Dresden Dolls - "Perfect Fit" (The Dresden Dolls [2003]) : After being completely wowed by their latest album, Yes, Virginia, their debut album shot to the top of my "To Buy" list. I finally picked it up a few weeks ago and I have to admit to being slightly disappointed in my first listen. It seemed to be a little more scattershot and unfocused, despite having the great Coin-Operated Boy on it (which my girls really enjoy too). So I had put it away a for a bit. Then the other day I was listening to my "New Stuff" radio station, with these groups on it:
  1. Beck
  2. Tiger Trap
  3. Tindersticks
  4. Mazzy Star
  5. Jeremy Enigk
  6. Air
  7. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
  8. Tegan and Sara
  9. The Dresden Dolls
  10. The National
  A fairly eclectic group which is probably hard for the software to pigeonhole. Here's what Rhapsody lists as "Similar Artists": Blues Explosion, Pavement, Automator, Saint Etienne, Ween, Sublime, Beastie Boys, Hayden, Sonic Youth, Rasputina, Stereolab, The Smiths, Violent Femmes, Spiritualized, Slowdive - interesting group. But this song came on that really hit a chord, and I cranked it up. Then I realized it was The Dresden Dolls and it was probably from the debut album (because I've listened to Yes, Virginia so often, I know the songs by heart). Sure enough, it was this song and man, it's great! And the CD even has a video of Girl Anachronism (another great song), means I have to rethink this CD entirely! Maybe I wasn't giving it a fair shake, as most of my listening was coming while in the car, and perhaps this isn't a "riding in the car" kind of CD. And speaking of missing something, I'm really bummed I missed Amanda Palmer at the Brattle the other night in her "Fuck The Back Row - A Night of Celluloid Vaudeville". You can read a story about it here. Looks like they are playing at the Hampton Beach (NH) Casino Ballroom July 4th but it's both sold out and I'm booked. Oh well...

And now, back to our regularly scheduled CD cabinet diving:

• Thompson Twins - "Hold Me Now" (Into The Gap [1984]) : Neither twins (or even a duo) nor Thompsons, this British trio was among my favorite synth-pop groups of the early 80s, with this song being perhaps the most perfect synth-pop song of the era, hitting number 3 on the US pop charts. And there are plenty more synth-pop classics on this CD, including "Doctor Doctor", "You Take Me Up" and "Day After Day". An important slice of 80s new wave music history, forever conflated in my mind with Tears For Fears, whose first two releases sandwiched this one.
• Single Gun Theory - "Words Written Backwards" ( Millions Like Stars in My Hands, Daggers in My Heart, Wage War [1991]) : Sort of a more pop sounding Dead Can Dance, this Australian group puts out some fine sounds. Somewhat low key, but with some interesting beats and nice lead singer. Hard to pick out just one song from this CD, as many of them are real good, but none of them are over-the-top great.
• Indio - "Hard Sun" (Big Harvest [1989]) : Talk about your one hit wonders! Indio, led by Canadian Gordon Peterson, hit it big on the indie airwaves with this smashing song, and he disappeared after this CD. You know, I 'm not sure I've ever listened to this CD all the way through. Heck, I may have never listened to any other song besides this one! But it's enough, as it is a great song. His voice is reminiscent of Bruce Cockburn's, and even the music has that same World-music feel to it. Maybe it is something in the Canadian water?

  when I walk beside her
  i am the better man
  when I look to leave her
  I always stagger back again
  once I built an ivory tower
  so I could worship from above
  and when I climbed down to be set free
  she took me in again

  there's a big
  a big hard sun
  beaten on the big people
  in the big hard world

  This album is mentioned in a cool article called 10 Great Albums That You've Never Heard. Oddly enough, I have another one (the Voice of the Beehive's Let It Bee - a great album), and we have a Texas album, although it may be a different one.

• Love and Rockets - "So Alive" (Love and Rockets [1989]) : the song that, somewhat ironically, marked the height of their popularity (peaking at number 3 on the charts) and the end of their creative impact. Ah well, it's a good way to go out, with this very T-Rex sounding song.
• Wang Chung - "City Of Angels" (To Live And Die In LA [1985]) : Great soundtrack to a frenetic, if often confusing and disjointed, William Friedkin film. Every time I hear this song, I clearly see the scene from the movie, with the counterfeit money getting set up and the presses running. Many good 80s synth-rock songs to be found on this soundtrack.
• Bob Dylan - "I Want You" (Blonde on Blonde [1966]) : A double album back in the day, now on a single CD, Blonde on Blonde covers nearly all the 60s Dylan country. This is one of the most accessible songs, and there's lots of stuff going on even in here. Speaking of CDs where it is hard to pick just one! How do you choose between such classics like "Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again", "Just Like A Woman", "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat", "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" and "Obviously 5 Believers"?
• Treat Her Right - "I Got A Gun" (Treat Her Right [1986]) : A Boston sensation in their day, Treat Her Right plays a bluesy rock that rocks the house. Saw them play a couple times live and the shows just blew you away. One of the members, Mark Sandman, went on to form Morphine, which was also a big local cult group, although I'm not familiar with their stuff. Sandman was to die of a heart attack on stage in Europe in 1999.
• Sleepy LaBeef - "Little Boy Sad" (I'll Never Lay My Guitar Down [1996]) : This CD I picked up at one his shows at the Seaside in Nantasket, and I've got his scrawl on it to prove it:-) I still like the Strange Things Happening CD best, but this one has got some good tracks too, including this one and the wondrously sly lyrics of "Sweet Thang", about a wandering man and his woman looking for him:

  I gave my baby all my money on payday
  'cept what little she don't know that I got.
  There's a cute little waitress at the corner cafe
  she seems to like me quite a lot.
  We were settin in the back booth havin a talk
  she was believing every word that I said.
  When the door flew open and Loretta walked in
  yellin loud enough to wake the dead.

  Well, has anybody here seen my sweet thang
  I had a notion he'd be headed this way.
  When my sweet thang's out tom catting around
  He finds a sandbox like this to play.
  I want to tell all you barroom roses (2nd verse: barroom fluzzies)
  if my sweet thang does happen by.
  You'd better take my advise and if you blink more than twice
  You'd better have something in your eye.

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Flag Day Random 10

Still plugging away at the CD cabinet. I give up as far as making this a "Friday" random ten, though. I start on Friday with a stack of ten, but as I usually listen to the entire CD, it takes me several days to get through the stack. I wonder exactly how many CDs we have, really. Of course, I haven't been doing a good job of keeping track of which ones I've already ripped and which ones I haven't, which makes it all the more confusing. Maybe I should start putting stickers on the ones I've loaded.

I'm ripping these on a different computer, using Windows Media Player. I was using version 9, and having some problems with it. The most annoying problem was it wouldn't noticed when I inserted a new CD, even if I ejected the current CD from the player. So I "upgraded" to WMP 10. Still the same problem. Then I discovered the FAQ about it:

Q. Why does the CD audio playlist refresh only when I restart the Player, rather than when I insert a new CD?
A. Turning on the AutoPlay feature in Windows XP should resolve this issue. For information about AutoPlay, see Windows XP Help and Support.

Um, but I don't want to turn on Autoplay, for many and numerous reasons, plus I just don't like the computer doing something unless I tell it to do something. Every other music playing program I use doesn't seem to have a problem noticing a new CD. And just why the heck wouldn't they at least add a way to tell WMP to refresh its data? Would that be so darned difficult? Instead, I have to quit WMP and restart it. Argh! Anyway, on with the show...

• Little River Band - "Lady" (Sleeper Catcher [1978]) : We all have our guilty musical pleasures from times long ago and places far away, before we knew any better. I've talked about them before, and here's another one. I debated long and hard as to exactly which song to select from this CD. I could have gone with the opening number, "Shut Down Turn Off", which at least has some rockin' going on and wouldn't be such an easy target of derision. Or I could have gone with the No. 1 hit (first time for an Australian group), "Reminiscing". But no, I had to go with my first thought, the reason (I think - it's all dim in the mists of time now) I bought it to begin with, this romantic crooner of a song. Just keeping it honest between you and me! I played the album over and over when it first came out and this was probably one of the first transition CDs I bought. It was also the latent Australia-phile in me manifesting itself at a tender age, soon to be reinforced by films like Breaker Morant and Picnic at Hanging Rock. I loved reading the AllMusic Biography page of the band; as a high schooler living in the NH boondocks, I knew nothing about the group, but it turns out it was quite the "All Star" band in Australia, bringing together lots of popular names, including the wonderfully alliterative Beeb Birtle. By the way, a "Sleeper Catcher" is the guy who collects the bets left on the floor when playing "Two Up", the Australian national gambling game. Gabrielle and I actually got to play during our Australia trip, in the Adelaide casino. It is a participatory game, where one player is called into the ring and gets to flip the two coins and the rest of the bettors place bets on what's going to show up. You get a little paddle and need to flick it just so. Of course, Gabrielle was chosen to do it - pretty women always make for a better show! She did pretty well, after a few false starts. If you don't do it just so, they make you do it again.
• Screaming Blue Messiahs - "I Wanna Be A Flintstone" (Bikini Red [1987]) : Great rockin' CD here, led by this wild 'n' crazy song. Some incredibly driving guitar work by an important member of the "Whatever Happened to..." club. Right down to the last song, the 3/4 time "Waltz", this CD is a great ridin' with the windows down song machine.
• Juluka - "Spirit is the Journey" (Scatterlings [1982]) : An Afro-pop group from the early 80s. What a wonderful CD this one is - a forgotten classic from the back of the cabinet . They were more well known for the opening song of the CD, "Scatterlings of Africa", but this song is a wonderful paean to becoming a dad. This was the song I sang to myself after seeing the ultrasound of our oldest daughter for the first time, and it still brings a tear to me eye...

  I never knew I had one
  Till I saw yours shine
  Spilling from your laughter
  Sparkling in your eyes
  Sharing my confusion, sharing my surprise
  At finding part of me in you, alive
  ’cause nobody told me
  Spirit is the journey
  Body is the bus
  I am the driver
  From dust to dust
  Trying to be near you
  Searching for a way
  Listening to your life song
  Before it fades away
  We hold on, and when the story ends
  We hold on, we hold on.
  Spirit is the journey
  Body is the bus
  I am the driver from dust to dust

• Queen - "The Loser In The End" (Queen II [1974]) : Talking about Queen last week got me a-hankering for this CD, so I picked it up last week. Still a pretty solid listen. I love all the Roger Taylor songs on the first four discs, and this one is no exception. There is no mention at all on the CD of "Side White" and "Side Black", although I don't think there is any real change in the songs from one side to the other; not sure I can track down my vinyl version of this to figure out exactly where the split was. It must have been either after this song or the next one, "Ogre Battle". I find it ironic somehow that the album (and CD) made big deal out of "... and nobody played synthesizer...again", while the two remakes at the tail end of this CD make heavy use of them, especially the abominable "Seven Seas of Rhye" disco remake - ugh, it's horrible.
• Pink Floyd - "Welcome to the Machine" (Wish You Were Here [1975]) : The entire album was written as a tribute to founding member Syd Barret, and making it in the music business. There should be an SACD version of this one too, like the SACD I have of Dark Side of the Moon. This song especially would be way cool in surround sound. I love the lines from the next song, "Have A Cigar":

  Come in here, dear boy, have a cigar,you're gonna go far.
  You're gonna fly high, you're never gonna die, you're gonna make it if you try;they're gonna love you.
  Well I've always had a deep respect, and I mean that most sincerely.
  The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think.
  Oh by the way, which one's Pink?

• Lui Collins - "Wildflower Song" (Baptism of Fire [1985]) : A signed copy of this CD from one of my favorite folk singers. Many wonderful songs here; she sings some songs from excellent songwriters, including herself. There's a nice song written by Stan Rogers about competing and not winning in the Olympics, as well as a very funny Greg Brown tune. She has such a great voice and gives a really enjoyable show. Obviously someone who likes her work!
• Trial of the Bow - "Serpent" (Rite of Passage [1997]) : Sort of a Middle Eastern tinged Dead Can Dance, Trial of the Bow is an Australian (there's that country again!) group who make some great sounding instrumentals. This is a very lethargic, yet moody, piece. This whole CD is a good one to listen to while programming.
• The American Analog Set - "on the run's where i'm from" (the fun of watching fireworks [1996]) : One of my all-time favorite 'ZBC college radio station discoveries. When this CD first came out, this was a favorite song of mine. It's great, laid back, sort-of electronica, with some quiet vocals and a soothing Farfisa playing in the background. Wonderful stuff from this Austin, TX based band. Reading the AllMusic.com AmAnSet entry makes me want to pick up their follow-up sophomore effort, From Our Living Room To Yours. It's also funny how tastes can be different. This song isn't even one of their favorites, but I've often put this CD on just to listen to this one song. Oh well, there's no accounting for taste. At almost 10 minutes, this is quite the epic; exactly the sort of song that would never get airplay on a regular radio station.
• Sleepy LaBeef - "Stagger Lee" (Strange Things Happening [1994]) : They don't call Sleepy "The Human Jukebox" for nuthin'! He's been singing his style of wild 'n' woolly rockabilly for nearly 70 years and he's still going strong! What a live act he is, an imposing 6 feet seven inches tall, with an impossibly deep voice and just gives his all at every show. Springsteen himself could take lessons from this guy. He used to be based here in the Boston area, I think, but has since moved back South, although he still makes plenty of trips to the area. This song is a true standard, and he does it credit. I always ask for this at a show. I think in the interview I heard of his where I first heard of him, he said he know like 6,000 songs!
• The The - "Uncertain Smile (12" Remix)" (45 RPM : The Singles of The The [2002]) : I thought I was in heaven when I discovered this two CD set. One of my all-time favorite songs, "Uncertain Smile", in not just one but two new mixes - yee haw! With one of them a nearly 10 minute remix! And yet ... I ended up terribly disappointed, not just in the two remixes of "Uncertain Smile", but in the whole 2 CD set in general. The remixes feel like striving for either a top 40 hit (the first one, from CD 1) or some kind of dance club trance-rock (the second one). My absolute favorite part of "Uncertain Smile" is the long piano bit at the end, and here, in both songs, the piano is either removed completely or pushed way in the background, all for some kind of flute or clarinet or something playing instead. Yech. I was crushed, as I was looking for 5 minutes of piano from it, and instead I got bupkis.

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More Radiohead

Cool - here's some pictures, the complete set list and a complete recording of the Monday night Radiohead show I was at. And yes, it was definitely "There There" that was the multi-drum song.

bradley's almanac

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Radiohead

So I went to a Radiohead concert last night (the above picture is not from last night's concert, just a random Radiohead concert photo). Like the Coldplay concert I went to in April, this was driven by David K and, again much like Coldplay, I wasn't too familiar with their work. I listened to a few cuts and said yeah, why not?

The concert was at the Bank of America Pavilion (nee Harborlights) and is a great place to see a concert with a major caveat: the weather had better be nice. While it isn't an outdoor venue, it is, much like Great Woods (oops, The Tweeter Center), exposed on the sides to the elements. Gabrielle and I went to see the Finn Brothers there last summer and it was a beautiful night for a concert. DBK, on the other hand, went earlier in the spring, during our Noah's Ark Simulation Days, and froze his ass off and had to leave early.

I decided to take the T in, as Rhiannon's last U8 soccer practice for the season ended early enough. I drove down to the Wellington station, as the line from there to the closer Oak Grove stop is often down during the late night hours for construction, requiring a bus ride. Turns out it wasn't good enough but more on that later. The trip in was smooth. I almost forgot to change at Downtown Crossing for the Red Line over to South Station, where you pick up the new Silver Line buses. And I happened to meet DBK there as well. So we arrived right at 7:45, the scheduled meeting time, met the friend of his with the tickets and headed on in.

There were lots of signs and searches for digital cameras, but I don't think they were very effective, as there were plenty of them in evidence. But given the proliferation of camera phones (which were regularly popping up during the concert), I don't know why they care about digital images or what they think they can do about them.

A small group opened for them. Willy Mason played guitar, brought on someone to play violin and then a drummer. Interesting short show, as they finished up by about 8:30 or so. But not as good as the guy that opened for the Finn Brothers; Martin Sexton completely blew me away.

Radiohead came on at 9, played until about 10:20, came out for a 20 minute first encore and then a 10 minute second encore (still wondering about those encores...) We had simply amazing seats; quite possibly, the best seats I've ever had for a real concert. About 15 rows back, but smack dab in the middle. I swear I made eye contact with the lead singer a couple of times. And we were definitely in the audio sweet spot - the bass buzzed your sternum from start to finish. Amazing sound, but of course real loud. I should have been warned though, when the guy with the tickets (a real Radiohead head who had gone the night before) pulled out a case with ear plugs.

So it was a good show. A lot of it reminded me of Coldplay. The lead singer looked and even sounded much like the Coldplay lead singer. The music had more of an edge, certainly, than the more radio friendly Coldplay sound. Not sure there's anything I could sit down and listen to with the girls like I could with Clocks or Speed of Sound from Coldplay. Not that that is a bad thing, of course. I thought it a little strange that the crowd seemed to react the same no matter what song was started up. Usually, the first few chords of a couple choice songs will send the crowd into a special frenzy. But in Radiohead's case, pretty much every song generated an enthusiastic roar. Probably just means the crowd really knew its Radiohead songs, even the new ones.

I guess I'm not a huge devotee of "twisted, skittering melodies and complicated, chorus-free rock songs" and falsetto singing voices, so I didn't rush out to buy a Radiohead CD, but it was still a solidly entertaining couple of hours. The light show wasn't in Coldplay's league, but it was still really good. The highlight of the show to me was when they wheeled out a couple of extra drum sets for the rhythm guitarist and the other guitarist/keyboard/toy player, so there were 3 drummers playing. Listening to some cuts today, I think it was There There from the latest album, Hail to the Thief.

The ride back was a drag, even if it was free. First was the crush for the Silver Line buses. We had to wait until the third bus, which wasn't too long a wait, maybe 15 minutes. Certainly better than cramming on like packed sardines in an earlier bus. Changes went pretty smoothly after that until I got to Haymarket, when I could barely make out something about "blurgle blurgle ... last stop blurgle blurgle ... Oak Grove". I got out, thinking it wasn't going any further, but then saw others still on board, so I got back on. Turns out, the next stop, North Station, was the last stop, and I needed to go back to Haymarket and pick up a bus from there. So instead of busing from Wellington to Oak Grove, the Orange Line was shut down from North Station to Oak Grove, but you had to catch the bus from the previous stop, Haymarket. Jeez, how complicated can you get! So I rode in the bus to Wellington and finally got home about 12:15. Not sure it was worth saving the $15 or so in parking to take the T.

Update: On The Download, the Boston Phoenix MP3 blog, as a set list and a link to the Phoenix review of the June 4 show (the night before we went): OTD Set List. I'm still pretty sure the multi-drum song was There There, although the review said the other guys were playing "tom-toms" in the previous evening's show. Upon further review, the two little drums they were playing are "tom-toms" - learn something new every day!

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June 2 Friday Random 10

Back at the Friday Random Ten. Well, at least I'm starting this on Friday. Who knows when I'll finish it!

• Queen - "You're My Best Friend (1991 Remix)" (Night At The Opera ) : What a crazy Queen fan I was, up to and including this album. Things got shaky after this, as they started producing their own stuff (the great Roy Thomas Baker, of The Cars fame produced this one). They started to become a hit machine and lost most of their creativity. The followup to this was Day at the Races (another Marx Brothers film), and it was moderately entertaining, but I never did like another CD by them. Queen I and Queen II (esp) were rock opera classics. I always thought it was cool that II had "Side White" and "Side Black". This is another CD I don't think I can pick just one song from, as each of them is great in its own way, including, of course, "Bohemian Rhapsody", which was #7 in the 'ZLX Top 500 (#1 being, of course, Stairway to Heaven):
  

  Rank	Artist	Song	Date
  1	Led Zeppelin	Stairway to Heaven	1971
  2	Rolling Stones	Satisfaction	1965
  3	Lynyrd Skynyrd	Free Bird	1974
  4	Pink Floyd	Time	1973
  5	Who	Won't Get Fooled Again	1971
  6	Beatles	Sgt. Pepper (Reprise)	1967
  7	Queen	Bohemian Rhapsody	1976
  8	Aerosmith	Dream On	1973
  9	Led Zeppelin	Whole Lotta Love	1970
  10	Derek & The Dominos	Layla	1972

• Toni Childs - "Don't Walk Away" (Union [1988]) : The CD was quite the critical darling when it came out, and is probably why I picked it up. Can't say as I've listened to it much over the years. This song was the one minor hit from it. Childs has an amazingly deep voice, and the CD shows remarkable musical range.
• China Crisis - "Red Letter Day" (Diary of a Hollow Horse [1989]) : My least favorite China Crisis CD, one where they turned into Steely Dan, probably due to Walter Becker producing (or over producing) it. I don't think I bought any more after this one. This song is a nice, jaunty number though.
• The Go-Betweens - "The Devil's Eye" (That Striped Sunlight Sound 2006) : I picked this up the other day, so I haven't watched the accompanying DVD yet, but I shall. This is a recording of a mostly acoustic show they did as the later reincarnation of The Go-Betweens. This is a great version of the final song on 16 Lovers Lane.
• The Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd - "Sea, Swallow Me" (The Moon and The Melodies [1986] ) : Bought during the height of my 4AD fixation. Nice music to program by, with some interesting rhythms, but not too challenging. I like the Cocteau Twins in small amounts if I'm paying any attention, and thus when they show up on various 4AD compilations, they come out best to my ears.
• Randy Newman = "Rider in the Rain" (Little Criminals [1977]) : What a brouhaha the signature song from this album (Short People) created among the humor-impaired out there. I remember WBZ even played a "censored" version of it. But this is a wonderfully wicked CD anyway, and on this song, he brings along his Eagles friends. "Take it, boys."
• Dead Can Dance - "Severance" (The Serpent's Egg [1988]) : Maybe my favorite DCD album, The Serpent's Egg has lots of great, typically atmospheric DCD songs, including this dirge.
• Huey Lewis and the News - "Tell Me A Little Lie" (Picture This [1982]) : Another great album from cut one to the last one. Straight forward, uncomplicated rock 'n' roll. They're called a great "bar band" and ain't that the truth. My girlfriend and I drove from NH to Providence RI to listen to them play, as they opened up for .38 Special. We left after they were done, as that's all we wanted to hear. This is a fun little ditty about not wanting to hear the truth.
• Led Zeppelin - "Fool In The Rain" (In Through The Out Door [1979]) : I was never a huge Zeppelin fan. But this song is probably one of my top five songs of all time. I just love the beats, and the break in the middle is amazing. A great song to drive down the highway with, and me and the girls have the air drums and guitars down pat for this song.
• Lush - "Nothing Natural" (Spooky [1992]) : I'm a huge fan of Lush's final CD, Lovelife, but it turns out it was a departure from their previous two CDs which featured a more dreamy sound. So this CD, their first full length one, doesn't really appeal to me the same as Lovelife. Still, some good stuff in here.

Technorati Tags: random+ten

Thursday Random 10

I figure I'd better get my "Friday" Random Ten from last week out there before Friday this week!

Back to the Friday Random Ten. I did finally get a 512mb sD card for my Lyra MP3 player, so I added some more songs. I wish I could convert all the MP3 files that I recorded via Rhapsody in one easy step, to smaller MP3 files, though. I played with a bunch of MP3 encoders, but none were easy enough for me to use. I think a simple 96k stereo recording would work just fine for an exercise "tape", which shrinks the files by half or more. And there is a setting in Rhapsody to convert to this when copying to my MP3 player, but I think it is only invoked if the original song is in a format the player doesn't support.

Anyway, back to my random walk down memory lane, where I pull out a handful of CDs from my CD case and cherry pick my favorite songs from them.

• Pink Floyd - "The Great Gig in the Sky" (Dark Side of the Moon [1973]) : Man oh man, the stories I could tell... I had a friend in high school who was a huge Pink Floyd fan. Had all their albums, played them incessantly. I liked them well enough, but this was the killer album of my high school years. I can't believe it was released 5 years before my graduation, as it was still an important album. It spent 1,350 weeks on The Billboard 200, 741 on the top 40 list. I also have the SACD version, which is really an amazing listening experience. I think I'm going to have to rip the entire CD, as I don't think it can be listened to standalone. This song gives me goosebumps whenever I hear it, with the plaintive wail of session singrt Clare Torry and Gilmour's slide guitar driving the song home. According to the review on Rhapsody, it's ironic that Syd Barret, the original creative force behind Pink Floyd, was kicked out, in part, because of a desire to add a female singer and saxophones...
• Patti Smith - "People Have The Power" (Dream of Life [1988]) : Rhapsody gives this a genre of "Old School Punk". Excellent, progressive rock with a political bent - my favorite combination.
• Fine Young Cannibals - "Johnny Come Home" (Fine Young Cannibals [1986]) : Combine the English Beat with a soulful singer, and you get FYC. This is their debut album and is chock full of great songs, including two versions each of "Johnny Come Home" and "Suspicious Minds", both great songs to add to my workout MP3 player. Listening to this CD for the first time in ages, I'm reminded of just how many solid songs are on it. "Funny How Love Is" also wants to be cranked to 11.
• Big Pig - "I Can't Breakaway" (Bonk [1990]) : Big splash made by a big percussion band from Australia. Remember Big Pig, with the leather aprons and pounding drums? Hit it big with this song, but then disappeared from the musical map. One of my girls' favorite songs.
• Richard Barone - "River to River" (Primal Dream [1990]) : Leader of one of my favorite New Wave guitar pop groups of the 80s, The Bongos, Barone's first solo CD, Cool Blue Halo is an all-time top favorite pick of mine, but this followup effort is seriously lacking in originality. This is probably one of the first times I've listened to this CD since I got it and was immediately unimpressed. This song comes closest to re-imagining The Bongos, who's Numbers with Wings ELP will be one of the first I'll do when I get my vinyl-to-CD effort going, as it has some incredible guitar pop. I see that The Bongos' first two albums were combined into one CD, but the only place I can find this CD (Half.com) is asking US$80 for it!
• Modern English - "Melt With You" (After The Snow [1983]) : A perfect slice of New Wave pop heaven. Hard to believe it never got higher than 76 on the Billboard charts, as it remains a song nearly everyone would recognize. This is probably the only song on the CD I've listened to, although the full CD gets some pretty good reviews.
• Stevie Ray Vaughn - "Ain't Gone 'n' Give Up On Love" (Soul to Soul [1985]) : Gone too soon, Stevie Ray was a giant among blues guitar players. I'll never forget one time my teen-aged sister came back from a Police concert. I asked her who opened for them. She said she didn't know but it was "some guy who played lots of guitar." Well, it turned out to be Stevie Ray, and I would have wanted to see him rather than the Police! I have a tape of a B.B. King blues special he was on and it is one of my most treasured possessions.
• Seal - "Crazy" (Just Say Anything [1991]) : Volume 5 of the Just Say Yes series of compilations, this one is actually pretty weak, as you can see by my pick of this Seal mega-hit as the sample from it. The only other interesting song is the low-key "That's Entertainment" cover by Morrissey, but I'll stick with the original, thank you very much. Even a Danielle Dax song isn't enough to rescue this disc from obscurity.
• Talk Talk - "Such A Shame" (It's My Life [1984]) : The group's second album, much more "power pop" than their later, more moody albums, one of which I've already talked about. This has some hook-laden songs, including their big hit, "It's My Life". This song is a solid addition to their canon.
• Kate Bush - "Sat in your lap" (The Dreaming [1982]) : the predecessor to Kate's smash hit album, Hounds of Love, The Dreaming is a solid, very Kate Bush-like album in itself. Her first time wearing the producer's hat, she really tries plenty of different styles and sounds. I love the pounding percussion in this song. There's plenty to like on this CD, including the mysterious CD cover, where she's passing some sort of ring lying on her tongue to her lover.

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Grant McLennan, 1958-2006

It's funny how life works.  I was working out at the Y yesterday and my shuffling MP3 player moved on to one of my all time favorite songs - "Clouds" by The Go-Betweens.  I've raved about the album, 16 Lovers Lane, before, and I realized I hadn't listened to it recently. So before heading out to hockey this morning, I dug through the disaster that is my desk and found the first CD from the dual CD package and listened to it on the drive this morning.  And still agree it is "simply breathtaking", as AllMusic.com says. Just some great all around stuff.

And it was in this very frame of mind that I was reading the paper this morning, as I ate my bagel.; Maybe once a week, or even less, I actually sit down to a breakfast with the paper, instead of just a quick glance at the sports pages.  And as I flipped through the paper, I glanced at the obits and there, at the top, was the sad announcement that Grant McLennan, one of the co-founders of The Go-Betweens, had died yesterday of an apparent heart attack at the all too young an age of 48.  He's the one who penned the "dark side of romance" songs for the Lovers Lane album, as he was fresh from his breakup with one of the other band members, while Robert Forster penned the more "upbeat on romance" songs, as he was just beginning with the other member of the group!

So maybe there was some kind of psychic vibe going on here. Ha!  But still, I think I'm going to have to flesh out my Go-Betweens collection, as 16 Lovers Lane remains my lone possession in their oeuvre.  Maybe I'll run out and get the recent DVD from them, That Striped Sunlight Sound.

allmusic ((( Grant McLennan bio )))

Grant McLennan, 48, singer and founder of Go-Betweens - The Boston Globe

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New Music Friday

No Random Ten today, for my weekly music posting. Instead, I'm going to do something like I did a few months ago; namely, talk about some recent CD purchases.

First, though, I like to rant a bit about a story I heard on NPR's Morning Edition the other day called iPods Edge Out Home Stereo Systems. The claim is made in the story that iPods are replacing the purchase of "high-end audio equipment", which is as ridiculous a claim as I've heard in a news story in a while. I can barely describe just how wrong that is.

First off, to me, "high end" audio equipment is a system that costs tens of thousands of dollars. You know the system - US$5,000 for the pre-amp alone, because of course they would buy pre-amp and the processor separately. The kinds reviewed in the audio magazines, that you and me would never consider. And these sorts of people, who throw around this kind of money on a true "high end" system, just aren't going to let a US$250 iPod replace it, no matter how "convenient" it might be.

And even at a lower price point, say the US$1,000 for a tuner/amp like I would consider, it just wouldn't pass muster. And I'm not talking about being some kind of audio snob. I'd put myself in the middle tier as far as that goes. I have a real nice Marantz amp and some amazing Phase Technology Teatro speakers, and I'm sure an iPod just wouldn't drive these speakers for crap.

And, most importantly, a real home audio system isn't just for CDs any more. In fact, my setup probably plays CDs only about 25% of the time. An audio system is the very heart of a home theater system. Without a nice amp and speakers, you lose half of the impact of a great DVD. And an iPod isn't going to replace that either. So basically, the story is a crock and I'm disappointed that NPR would stoop so low.

Anyway, back to the music. I took care of the neighbor's dog while they were out in the Midwest checking out colleges for their boys. Elkie wasn't the slightest bit of trouble. At 12 years old, she doesn't move very fast and is a very obedient dog. She gets along great with Spenser and it was nothing to go next door a couple of times a day and let her out to play. But they went above and beyond and gave me a couple of gift cards when they got back. One was for Fuddrucker's, the family restaurant. We went up there the other day and enjoyed a burger and fries.

And they also gave me a Best Buy gift card. So I went up to my local Best Buy and tried to spend it. I did get a SD memory card for my new MP3 player, as I have given up on ever getting the one from CompUSA. But I wasn't sure what else to buy. I didn't want a computer game, as Comcast Games on Demand provides me all the games I want or need. I wasn't looking for a DVD. So I prowled around the CD racks for a bit. And I got pretty depressed, as there just wasn't anything that interesting. Lots of mass market pop junk.

But then I figured this would be a good time to pick up one of the Beatles CDs I was talking about earlier. So I picked up Abbey Road, the last (recorded) Beatles album. Maybe I'll start working my way backward now.

And it is amazing just how many of these songs I've heard. I'm not sure I've ever heard the whole album, but just from the radio and the like, I'm pretty sure I've heard nearly all of these songs before. AllMusic.com has full reviews on every song! My favorites include Come Together, Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Carry That Weight, while the girls really enjoy Octopus's Garden. They're pretty familiar with the Beatles, as they got a Beatles for Kids CD a few years ago, where some big names in children's music each sing a Beatles song. A great CD and worthy of all its praise.

But that was it. I just couldn't bring myself to buy another CD there. But thank FSM for Newbury Comics, a local music chain with its heart in the music and not some mass market pablum. I've only bought a small handful of CDs of the past few months, but pretty much all of them have been from Newbury Comics. And I happened to pass by one of them, so I popped in. And walked out with two new CDs.

One of them was the Winterpills CD. I talked about the great song, Laughing, a few weeks ago, and it is still in heavy play here. And I'm glad to report the rest of the CD is just as solid as this song led me to believe. I would describe the music a either rock with a folkie touch, or folk with a rock touch.

This eponymous CD begins with a really good song, A Benediction. I really dig the bass line, played, I think, with a regular guitar and not necessarily a bass guitar. Very attractive chorus. And that great start is followed up with the aforementioned Laughing:

I started losing you
About the time you told me everyone knew
I felt under the strain
And through the rear-view mirror
watched you circle round the drain

Go back to all the places I know
I knock hard but no one's ever at home
Why does every brilliant color I'm shown
Want to bleed to gray
And I can't hear you laughing... any more
And I can't hear you laughing...

Other highlights to the CD include Cranky (about a disappointed woman), Found Weekend (I think it is sort of a still life in audio), and the final song, Looking Down (about being spurned by a lover). I'm bumming that I didn't make it out to see them last night at a local club. They were headlining a show at the Lizard Lounge, which meant they wouldn't be on stage until after 11:30. And as I have hockey at 6:30 on Friday morning, I just couldn't do it. If it had been tonight, I would have been there. But I'll keep a look out for their next show. Really good stuff.

And lastly, a CD that could very well be one of the best CDs I've ever listened to. It has been in heavy rotation ever since I picked it up earlier in the week. If you could wear out a CD, this one would be a mere nub of its original self. I am simply wild about Yes, Virginia by the Dresden Dolls. I carry it from my computer to my car and back, listening to pretty much every track. Wow!

This local duo of Amanda Palmer (singer, songwriter and piano player) and Brian Viglione (drummer) make some incredible sounds, filling the sound stage with pounding grand piano and ringing percussion. Each song has a distinct sound and the lyrics are dark and playful at the same time. I've heard it actually has made quite a splash on the national charts even. It is like 51 on the American charts, and number one on specialized charts like "Indie Rock" and the like. And I can definitely see why.

It's amazing how full a sound these two can make, and the first song, Sex Change, really brings this out. Amanda pounds on the keyboard and growls out the lyrics, while Brian really makes some booming percussion.

It is followed by Backstabber, yet another song showing just why you shouldn't cross a good songwriter! In the same vein as songs like Every Breath You Take(Sting stalking his ex-wife) and You're So Vain (Carly Simon ripping into Warren Beatty after being dumped), Amanda tells the unnamed target:

backstabber! hope grabber!
greedy little fit haver!
god, I feel for you, fool...
shit lover! off brusher!
jaded bitter joy crusher!
failure has made you so cruel...

rotten to the core
rotten to the core

Yeah, I think she's pissed. And then she gets seriously angry! Good stuff.

After Modern Moonlight (ragging on the commercial world), comes a real highlight, My Alcoholic Friends. A real bouncy number, hearkening back to the great Coin-Operated Boy from their first album. She's as hard on herself as she is on her partying friends, but the incredibly infectious sound belies any real disgust with drinking, as it sounds like the party is just too much fun.

After Delilah and Dirty Business (where it sounds like she's pissed about prying publicity hounds and hangers-on), comes (heh heh) the sly and dark First Orgasm which is about the first orgasm of the day. But it is a self-administered one, as she's "taking matters into her own hands" because she's not going to "look for love again". So this is more of a lonely call in the dark to see if "won't you hold me?". A song with many different layers and ways to read into it, and one that the lyrics could be sung in many different ways, and nuances abound. Rises way above the risque subject, for sure.

A few more songs about love, hate, social issues and, yes, more masturbating, lead up to the final song, Sing. I'd be shocked if this song doesn't penetrate the Top 40, but it is still a great song. I've hit replay on this song more times than I can count. Almost anthemic, it is amazing how much sound these two can generate. A very lyrical song with some nice singing by Amanda:

Sing for the bartender sing for the janitor sing
Sing for the cameras sing for the animals sing
Sing for the children shooting the children sing
Sing for the teachers who told you that you couldn't sing
Just sing

There is thing keeping everyone's lungs and lips locked
It is called fear and it's seeing a great renaissance
After the show you can not sing wherever you want
But for now lets all pretend that we're gonna get bombed
So sing

Wow, I just love this CD. The only drawback, and it is a minor one at that, is that the lyrics can sink to almost puerile. It could just be the effect she is aiming for, and/or just the way the "kids" talk these days, but the off-color language and descriptions can get a little tiring. But it is only a niggle and, while it probably won't be a CD I can trot out for the girls, it is still a special sounding CD. Now I have to get their first one!

Technorati Tags: dresden+dolls winterpills beatles music

Living in Oblivion Random Seventeen

I was listening to my Rhapsody radio station one day and heard a song I really liked. I think it was probably the Alternative History station, which plays new wave from the 80s, which I just can't resist. I'm not sure now even what song it was, but one thing lead to another and I discovered the existence of a series of CDs called Living in Oblivion, The 80's Greatest Hits volumes 1 through 5. They concentrate on alternative bands and songs and I found them quite fascinating. Then I saw that volume five even had one of my all time favorite songs, I Wanna Be A Cowboy by the immortal Boys Don't Cry, of course. And then I was hooked and had to get them.

Problem is, they are out of print, so I went searching. I found several of them on eBay, but they were going for too much money - US$20 or more each. A quick check on Half.com struck gold - someone was selling three of them (including the desired volume five) for only US$4 each! So I got all three shipped to me for less than US$20! Excellent!

So I've been listening to them over the past week. The selection is pretty hit or miss. Many of the songs are forgettable electronica like Perfect Way by Scritti Politti and others I barely remember. But on each of them there are three or four great songs, so thanks to the wonders of ripping, I should be able to create my own Living In Oblivion volume six. Here's what I'll put on it:

Volume 3

• Bananarama - "Cruel Summer" : According to Rhapsody, the "most successful British female act of all time". I wonder if that includes the Spice Girls?
• The Dream Academy - "Life In A Northern Town" : A fun little epic song, hearkening back to 60s psychedelia. I can picture the video even today.
• Timbuk 3 - "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" : What a fun tune! Listen to this once and the song rattles around your brain all day. In fact, I'll bet just reading this is going to infect your brain right now!
• Pole Cats - "Make A Circuit With Me" : Another incredibly infectious ditty, even faster and bouncier than Timbuk 3's song. A perfect song for cranking up loud and driving through a summer's night.
• Stray Cats - "Rock This Town" : The three man band that popularized the swing craze. Brian Setzer went out to form his own swing orchestra. I love swing music, and so do the girls.
• Talk Talk - "It's My Life" : I recently wrote about Talk Talk, and here they are again, this time with their one big "hit". I have this on the original CD too, somewhere.

Volume 4

• Wang Chung - "Dance Hall Days" : The archetypal "alternative dance hit". A pretty solid CD, really, and their scoring of the Friedkin To Live And Die In LA is brilliant.
• Dexy's Midnight Runners - "Come On Eileen" : If you're gonna have an 80s hits CD, you have to have this song on it, right?
• Tones On Tail - "Go" : I liked the follow up band Love And Rockets better, but this is a pretty good song.
• Wall of Voodoo - "Mexican Radio" : Another all time favorite. I have the EP (vinyl!) with a nice long version of this song on it.

There's also an off beat song by The Motels (who I really like) and some other true 80s hits that I'm not crazy about ("True" by Spandau Ballet and anything by The Fixx).

Volume 5

• Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - "Enola Gay" : OMD was one of my favorite groups through the 80s and this is one of their most popular songs. I'm always glad to add another OMD song to my collection.
• China Crisis - "King In A Catholic Style (Wake Up)" : A real pleasant surprise! I have several of their albums and never expected to see a song by them on an 80s collection, but this is a very typical jumpy song. We went and saw Simple Minds, oh so many years ago, and China Crisis opened for them. I came away from the concert much more impressed by China Crisis, as my collection can attest - three China Crisis CDs to zero Simple Minds CDs.
• The Fun Boy Three - "Our Lips Are Sealed" : A very different version of the Go-Gos hit, as it was co-written by one of the FB3 members and Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Gos. A much slower, darker version of the song. What a blast from the past this one was!
• Rubber Rodeo - "Souvenir" : A local group gone national, Rubber Rodeo was a quiet fav of mine during the 80s. I still have both their albums on vinyl. I wonder if either ever made it to CD? I need to take the time and turn some of my vinyl into CDs, especially ones like Rubber Rodeo's "Scenic Views" and, even more importantly, Private Lightning's only album, which I know isn't on CD.
• Divinyls - "Pleasure And Pain" : Another spectacular Aussie band, the Divinyls rock big time on this hit song.
• The Icicle Works - "Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)" : You'll recognize this song from the "whisper to a scream" part - not sure I even knew this was actually called "Birds Fly"!
• Boy's Don't Cry - "I Wanna Be A Cowboy" : A song I remember fondly from my alternative radio days during the 80s, but that I never owned. This was the song that pushed these CDs into must have territory, I have to admit. A true one hit wonder, but man, what a fun song.

So number five is the best one, but they are all fun slices of 80s alternative hits. They also come with some great liner notes, written with a cynical voice, a paragraph or so for each song. Like I said, many of them are forgettable stuff, but there's just enough great songs to make me want to go grab volumes one and two.

Technorati Tags: friday+random+ten random+10 music living+in+oblivion

Songs I Wish I Owned Friday Random Ten

These are some songs that I've heard from various sources and wish I actually owned them. Most of them I've heard via the Comcast Rhapsody player, so I can play selected songs 25 times a month. I hear them at first listening to the various "radio" stations, like Downtempo, Ambient and Indie Rock. Too cheap to spring for the "Premier" version, where I could play them as much as I wanted. Hopefully, I'll get around to buying the CD they are on, if at all possible!

Still getting used to my new MP3 player. I have to find some tool that will shrink my 256kb MP3s down to something like a 128 or even smaller, as I think the quality is lost via my $10 headphones anyway, and I could get a few more songs on it. I'm still awaiting my 512mb SD card for it. I picked one up from CompUSA for US$9.99, but it wasn't in stock, so I got a raincheck. Here it is, about two weeks later, and still no word. Sigh...

• Winterpills - "Laughing" (Winterpills [2005]) : A song I've been listening to over and over, via the Utne Media Player, and it's really great. UMP is a multimedia presentation from Utne magazine, which is an "alternative" magazine that I like quite a bit, and they review lots of offbeat bands and this offers a sampler of the songs from the reviews. Winterpills plays a sort of jangly folk rock (think Innocence Mission or Nick Drake) and hail from Northampton MA, so now here's another quasi-local group I'll have to keep an eye out for. This song has some great guitar rhythms.
• Hurdy Gurdy - "Tok Jons" (Prototyp [2005]) : Another UMP song, this one is pretty wild. It is a Swedish duo who are playing nothing but hurdy gurdy machines! You know, those cranked fiddles, often pictured with dancing monkeys. Too weird, but this song is really neat. Sounds vaguely like an electronica score or something, with a touch of bagpipes.
• The National - "Karen" (Alligator [2006]) : Nice, relentless drums and base guitar song, with some startingly explicit lyrics:

  Karen, I'm not taking sides
  I don't think I'll ever do that again
  I'll end up winning and I won't know why
  I'm really trying to shine here, I'm really trying
  You're changing clothes and closing windows on me all the time
  
  Well, whatever you do
  Listen, you better wait for me
  No, I wouldn't go out alone into America
  Whatever you do
  Listen, you better wait for me
  No, I wouldn't go out alone

• Uncle Kracker - "Drift Away" (No Stranger To Shame [2002]) : Uncle Kracker does a bang up job with one of my all time favorite pop songs. And yes, Dobie Gray does pitch in and help out.
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - "Shuffle Your Feet" (Howl [2005]) : stompin' sing along song here. One music site compared them to Winterpills, so I guess I'm not surprised I like this song.
• Beck - "Nobody's Fault But My Own" (Mutations [1998]) : Never really was much of a indie rock idol Beck fan, but this song is pretty good. Nice sitar work, and I love the chorus.
• Tegan and Sara - "Speak Slow" (So Jealous [2004]) : A very cute punk folk(!) Canadian sister duo, with high, almost squeaky voices. This song really rocks.
• Tindersticks - "My Sister" (Tindersticks (2nd) [1995]) : Interesting, quiet, spoken word "song", sort of like Leonard Cohen, with a little bit more music. An 8+ minute story.
• Mazzy Star - "I've Been Let Down" (Among My Swan [1996]) : Sort of country/folk song, very nice guitar strumming and the female lead singer has a wonderful voice.
• Air - "Alone in Kyoto" (Talkie Walkie [2004]) : I really enjoy Air, a French duo. Not danceable electronica, exactly, but ethereal synths combined with female vocals made for a pretty good debut CD, Moon Safari, which I have. This song is from their latest album and continues the electronica/trance/ambient pop music. It was originally a piece used in the movie Lost In Translation.

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Friday Random 10

More Friday Random Ten

I got my Spider CD in the mail last week, and I'm still bumming that I missed her at The Lily Pad. So let's start with a Spider song:

• Spider - "Midnight on the Nile" (This Way To Bitter Lake [2005]) : Another great folk song from this CD. She's got a nice, soft voice and the lyrics are clever and touching, with just enough other instrumentation besides guitar to really put it over the top.
• The Beatles - "When I'm Sixty Four" (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [1967]) : As one of the most beloved albums in rock history, obviously there's plenty to like here. The boys have finally branched out from singing Silly Little Love Songs of various kinds and start singing about life. This bouncy tune is a favorite, although I find it hard to shake the image of the bouncing baby from the Garp movie.
• Kate Bush - "Cloudbusting" (Hounds of Love [1985]) : Her US breakthrough album, with a few hits and an amazing video of this song starring Donald Southerland. I was already a big fan by the time this CD came out, thanks to a couple of krazy Kate fans where I worked at the time.
• The Jam - "That's Entertainment" (Compact Snap [1983]) : Kings of the UK 3 minute pop/punk song (think Replacements with a British accent), The Jam were wildly popular over there, but barely made a dent here. This is one of the CDs where I've almost never listened to the whole thing, concentrating on my two favorite Jam songs, this one and "A Town Called Malice". Compact Snap! is an early compilation of "hit" songs, so I suppose I should take a listen to the rest of this CD some day.
• Christopher Hogwood; Academy of Ancient Music - "Vivaldi's Four Seasons" (Antonio Vivaldi 12 concerts, Op. 8 [1983]) : I've always felt like a bit of a classical music dilettante when I say that Four Seasons is my favorite piece of classical music. I get the feeling it is too "popular" to be "serious", but this is really good. The Academy of Ancient Music plays on "contemporary" instruments and this CD sounds great. Hogwood was musical director for the local Handel and Haydn society, although I don't believe he is that active any more. And I've yet to go see a performance. Some day soon, thing to do #235,583,550... Hard not to conduct while this is playing!
• Love and Rockets - "Haunted When The Minutes Drag" (Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven [1985]) : My first introduction to the Bauhaus/Tones On Tail artists, I can still remember how exciting this CD was when it came out. Really different sound for me and I loved every track. This is a particularly epic song, clocking in at over 8 minutes, but a really great one even still. I also did try some of the earlier groups, but this CD pretty much was the peak, as even later efforts by L&R paled in comparison for me.
• Karacter - Guesthouse (MP3 from On The Download). As they mention in their article on the song, it hearkens back to the days of 80s electronica (think Flock of Seagulls, Gary Neuman, etc), but in a good way! It's a big (10mb), long song but pretty good nonetheless.
• The La's - "There She Goes" (Children of Nuggets, Vol. 2 2005) : What a great song! And what a musical ear Adrienne has! We were in the car and this song was playing, then the next song started. After a minute or so, she asked if I could put "back on the song before this one" - smart kid! My favorite from this volume of the four volume set, by far. Only ripped 3 other songs, and none of them approach this jangly, bouncy goodness.

Didn't quite have time for a full ten songs. Man, have I been busy! I have to go downstairs now and clean up a little. Our annual rotisserie baseball draft is here tomorrow, so I have to get setup.

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Coldplay Concert

So I had a good time at the Coldplay concert last night. I talked David into not leaving until about an hour before concert time, not taking into account rainy, weekday evening traffic :-( So we arrived about 15 minutes after Richard Ashcroft got started.

Ashcroft put on a pretty good show. I thought the rendition of Bittersweet Symphony was a rousing success. He dedicated it to "all the fawkers who aren't paying me money", harkening back to my post from the Freedom of Expression book. I would have played the small sampled sound in question isolated and loud. Although that might be too painful! He was on for about 45 minutes.

Coldplay was fun, and the light show was really really nice. I wasn't too familiar with too many of the songs, but the one I really did know ("Clocks") was really rocking. The lead singer sound like Bono, maybe a little too much. A very earnest group, but it was quite fun. Coldplay came on about 9pm, after about a 45 minute wait, and played for about an hour and a half. What is the history behind encores anyway? Why not just play the extra couple of songs and leave? Don't the groups always come out for another couple more?

Sound was a little mushy. Couldn't really understand too much of what was said. Getting out of the Verizon Wireless Center was a mess, taking a good half hour or more, although we could have saved ourselves some headache by moving over a lane and going north before going south. And I think had I been just a tad more familiar with where it was in Manchester, I could have directed David to some side roads, keeping us out of the mess entirely. But it has been awhile since I've been there, so I didn't feel comfortable trying out new directions.

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Friday Random 10 - Online and More edition

I've been doing that MP3 thing lately, downloading various (purportedly legal) MP3s. There's a cool blog from The Boston Phoenix (the local alternative rag) called OTD (On The Download), which highlights various Boston-area bands and their MP3s and streaming songs. I've come across some pretty good stuff, and I thought I'd share it for today, to start off the Random 10:

• Dresden Dolls - "Sing" (Yes, Virginia [2006]) : Coming out next month, this CD will go to the top of my want list, just as their self-titled debut album has. A duo (piano & drums) who play something of a cross between goth rock and 1930s Weirmacht cabaret music, some good stuff there. I particularly like Coin Operated Boy. Amanda Palmer, lead singer, songwriter and piano player, maintains a cool blog at Dresden Dolls Diary.
• Spider - "Don't Be Afraid, I've Just Come To Say Goodbye" (The Way to Bitter Lake [2005]) : In that way of the web, once I started clicking here and there, I came across Spider. Spider is Jane Herships, and this is some good stuff (shoutout to rbally for the pointer). Folkie, with some great lyrics. She's playing locally at a few spots over the next couple of weeks, so I'll have to make some time to see her.

  and should I beware
  your nights and your mares

• *AM Stereo - "Drink Club" (Can't[2006]) : nice pounding jangly rock. There's a few more linked here.
• The Lot Six - "Strange Pains" : another cool indie rock song from OTD.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled ripping. I got my new MP3 the other day from Woot and so I'll give that a try.

• Sully - "Ethyl" (I have much to report [1998]) : essentially their debut album, this Canadian group is very reminiscent of, say, This Mortal Coil or the Cocteau Twins. This CD is another one of those I have no idea why I picked it up, or even when. There must have been a song that I enjoyed enough via WZBC (the Boston College radio station) to make me pick it up, but I have no idea which one. None of them sound distinctive enough, although this is one pretty song. It's funny how my musical tastes have changed over the years; in some ways, they've "regressed". When I was college age (many years ago in a galaxy far far away), I hated the local college radio stations, because I didn't recognize any of the songs. Now, that's the best feature of them, because "big" radio stations play the same old crap, over and over. If it isn't the exact same song, it's one of a dozen tiny variations on it. Boring Boring Boring. Now I listen exclusively to college stations like WZBC, WERS (Emerson College - great reggae show in the afternoon), and WMBR (MIT), although mostly 'ZBC. I used to be a WFNX listener, a bigger alternative radio station from The Boston Phoenix, the alternative weekly here in the Boston area. But they've regressed into mostly headbanging, macho rock crap that I can't take for very long. It's alternative mainstream Boring Boring Boring. I do listen to the "Leftover Lunch" show, which is an oldies radio show for us 80s and 90s indie rock fans.
• Bruce Springsteen - "Cover Me" (Born In The USA [1984]) : once again, the CD cabinet yields up a treasure trove of inconsistencies. One entry, I'm lamenting boring Mainstream Rock, and the very next one I'm espousing the virtues of one of its icons, Born In The USA! But at least it is hardworking, despairing Mainstream Rock, and not some lollipop crap, eh? And he certainly rocked the house when we saw him play at Fenway Pahk a few years ago. In connection with the above entry, he played my college in the late 70s, before he had hit iconic status. My friends there were neatly split into two camps. One was agog that the mighty Springsteen was playing there, while the others thought him already passe. Myself, I never saw the attraction back then, although I can see it now. This CD coughed up seven Top Ten songs, and this one rocks the hardest.
• Beatles - "Help!" (Help! [1965]) : From big to biggest! If I was forced to pick one Beatles song to take with me, I think it would be this one. I'm not sure why exactly, but I find the lyrics and vocals snappy, and the beat irresistible. A later song on this CD, "I've Just Seen a Face", is a very similar song, with quick singing and fast guitars.
• Sam Phillips - "Out of Time" (Indescribable Wow [1988]) : What a wonderful album! Sam Phillips' major label debut (she spent several years as a Christian music star, if you can believe it), this CD has all kinds of great songs. The way I heard it, famed producer T. Bone Burnett went into the record company offices, totally hungover, threw the demo tape down, said "You gotta hear this", and collapsed on the couch. Soon thereafter, Virgin Records signed her and Burnett married her! She's got a great, plaintive voice, with lots of emotion. Interesting sounds going on here; some call it "Beatle-esque", especially late Beatles. I stopped buying her stuff after the second (Cruel Inventions) for no particular reason, besides I just stopped buying CDs in general. But reading more about her later stuff on AllMusic.com makes me want to run out and pick up a couple of her newer CDs.
• Swans - "God Damn The Sun" (The Burning World [1989]) : Perhaps my first 'zbc inspired purchase. I just love this song, with its combination of dark lyrics, overarching guitar and the lead singer's impossibly deep voice. It's a song with a much more upbeat sound than the lyrics would indicate, always a favorite feature of mine:

  When, when we were young
  We had no history
  So nothing to lose
  Meant we could choose
  Choose what we wanted then
  Without any fear
  Or thought of revenge
  But then you grew old
  And I lost my ambition
  So I gained an addiction
  To drink and depression
  (They are mine
  My only true friends
  And I'll keep them with me
  Until the very end)

  One of the few songs I've ever called in as a request even. Several of the other songs on this CD are pretty damn good too, including their cover of Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home".
• Depeche Mode - "Stripped" (Black Celebration [1986]) : Perhaps the archetypal arena synth-rock group and one of their top CDs, they are not entirely my style but I love this song. When they press the right buttons for me (like this song and "Personal Jesus"), I can't get enough of it.

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Friday Random 10

More adventures from the CD Cabinet. I still haven't found my MP3 player, so I picked up a new one from Woot, some cheapo RCA ones for only US$44, including shipping, so how bad could it be?

1. Birdsongs of the Mesozoic - "Scenes from A..." (Sonic Geology [1988]) - A local instrumental electronica group, some even call it avant-garde chamber music. This CD is a collection of their first 3 albums. A discussion on the medfordmass mailing list on local musicians reminded of them, as the boyfriend of one of the members of the group is a Medfordite. It's good to hear they are still around. I went to see them probably 15 years ago. This lineup includes Boston rocker legends Roger Miller (no, not that one, silly!) and Martin Swope.
2. Talk Talk - "I Believe In You" (Spirit of Eden [1988]) - hmm, seems like 1988 is the year for this batch of CDs, eh? Talk Talk was an influential art rock group, with this CD an amazing collection of moody, emotional, spare music. Talk Talk is most known for their indie hit It's My Life from their second album of the same title (I have that one too). There's only 6 songs on the entire CD, with the shortest clocking in at over 5 minutes and the longest, the opening track The Rainbow, clocking in at 9:05. Hard to pick just one. I don't think I have their final album, Laughing Stock, released a couple of years later, but given the raves on AllMusic.com, I think I'll have to add this to my Want list.

   Tell me how I fear it
   I buy prejudice for my health
   Is it worth so much when you taste it
   Enough there ain't enough hidden hurt
   A time to sell yourself
   A time for passing

   Spirit

   How long

3. Steroid Maximus - "Life in the Greenhouse Effect" (Quilombo [1991]) - a side project of Aussie JG Thirlwell, better "known" as foetus, with a simply amazing discography. Truly bizarre stuff, lots of noise, feedback but more rhythm here than normal, with a big orchestral sound. This track has some huge drums. I think I heard some of it while watching Kill Bill, Vol. 1 last night, although I don't see it on the IMDB soundtrack listing.
4. Ennio Morricone - "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" (Film Music Volume 1 [1987]) - A collection of the master film music maker's best; some great and memorable songs, including this one. I'll bet most could probably name it in 3 notes, especially if whistled. My high school English teacher, who pushed me as hard as any teacher I ever had, all for my benefit (hi Mr. Densmore!), said this was the best film score of all time, and I find it hard to disagree. Also one of my favorite movies of all time, too. Oddly enough, Kill Bill, Vol. 1 does have an Ennio Morricone song.
5. Morrisey - "Suedehead" (Viva Hate [1988]) - Another '88 release! Morrissey's first, after his breakup with Johny Marr and the dissolution of The Smiths. I only really got into The Smiths by the time of their last album, Strangeways Heres We Come - a wonderfully quirky album, one of my favorites. I love the dichotomy of Morrissey's bleak lyrics and Johnny Marr's poppy guitar. Viva Hate was okay, but not nearly as strong as Strangeways. This song has some nice, petulant, typically Morrissey lyrics:

   Why do you come here
   When you know it makes things hard for me?
   When you know, oh
   Why do you come?

   It was because
   Everything that I did
   I wrote it down
   On the wall

6. Bangles - "Walk Like An Egyptian" (Different Light [1986]) - One of the best female rock groups of the 80s, nearly in the Go-Go's class, albeit in a much lighter vein. Oddly enough, one of the Bangles, Vicki Peterson, filled in as lead singer for the Go-Go's a few years later. Lots of great pop on this CD. I picked this song for my girls, who just love to do the walk. Listening to this CD now reinforces the feeling that it is a true guilty pleasure, with lots of happy, frothy-light tunes, making the feet bounce. Hey, not so bad for a sunny, warming Friday afternoon, right?
7. The Alarm - "Sold Me Down The River" (Change. [1989]) - ooo, more late-80s pop rock! The Alarm's big US hit, this is one great toe-tappin' song! I'm not even sure I've ever listened to any of the other songs. But this one is worth it.
8. George Winston - "" (December [1982]) - back to the instrumental side of things, with this wonderful collection of piano solos, the album that put "new age" music on the map. AllMusic.com calls it "[t]he mother of all solo instrumental albums". I used to be a huge Windam Hill Records fan, although I can't say as I've bought any in quite some time. Just checked the Windham Hill web site, and right there on the front they are talking about "... 24 years after he began to record what is now recognized as his signature style of melodic folk piano", in regards to his latest release, Montana. Other favorite Windham Hill artists included Mark Isham, Janice Ian and Liz Story. Wow, does listening to this bring back memories. I'll bet it hasn't been played in 10 years! Wonder what my girls, budding piano players both, will think of it?
9. AC/DC - "Hell's Bells" (Back in Black [1980]) - nice segue! Hard to tell what order they will come out of the CD cabinet in, but going from George Winston to the Young brothers is quite a shock to the system! This is Brian Johnson's debut effort with this Aussie (yup, my Australia lovin' ways continue...) band, after Bon Scott drank too much and keeled over. Lots of great anthem rock songs, one of the top rock albums of all time, with the best song being "You Shook Me All Night Long", but this is another solid rocker, as is the title track. Heck, listening to this now, man there's lots of great headbangin' goin' on here. All this air guitar is wearing my arms out! I might have to go downstairs and pop this onto the big stereo and see how it feels Real Loud.
10. The Beatles - "Please Please Me" (Please Please Me [1963]) - I am not a huge Beatles fan. I only have a couple of their CDs, like this one and Sgt. Pepper, and have never listened to any of their later albums all the way through. I probably should though. I like their early stuff, for its infectious bounce and effortless simplicity. But I do need to try and expand my horizons a bit, and listen to some of their later work, beginning with Rubber Soul.

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Short Friday Playlist

Short list for today, as I've been really crunched for time. I tended to put on the CDs and let them play through, rather than picking and choosing ahead of time.

• Sukay - "Tierra De Vicuñas" (Cumbre (The Summit) [1990]) : I was on a business trip to Seattle a few years ago (once again, probably more than I care to imagine, actually!), and I stopped to listen to a group playing music outside of Pike Market, a very cool place in central Seattle. It was Andean music, with pipes and classical guitar and the like. I really enjoyed their music, so I picked up this CD. Some really cool instrumental pieces here. This one opens the CD and is, like most of the others, pretty upbeat and exciting.
• The Silencers - "A Letter From St. Paul" (A Letter From St. Paul [1987]) : Quite possibly my all time favorite album, certainly in my Top Ten, as every track is wonderful, culminating in this mysterious letter from a psychotic woman living in St. Paul Minnesota.
• Mike Oldfield - "Family Man" (Five Miles Out [1982]) : Another one of my favorite artists. Most know him from "Tubular Bells", used as the theme from The Exorcist (even if the director later said he would have used Tangerine Dream instead if he had heard their music then), but he has a large body of art, including multimedia and movies, that deserve a bigger audience. This CD is an example, including a couple of nice long arrangements, as well as this song, later turned into a hit by Hall and Oates.
• Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares - "Svatba" (Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares [1987?]) : The Womens Choir of Bulgaria brings their haunting voices to an early 4AD CD. Nice music to put on when your concentrating on something else, as the emotions come through irregardless of the language barrier or your level of concentration. We saw them in concert many years ago, and I even still have the shirt.
• The Chills - "Male Monster From The Id" (Soft Bomb [1992]) : From a CD I don't remember why I bought it, but am sure glad I did. An excellent power pop group, hailing from New Zealand, The Chills put out some dynamite records. Unfortunately, I showed up late to the party, as this was one of their final CDs, and by all accounts their weakest. Still, it's got some nice jangly pop songs, including this one.

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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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Friday music

As part of my Christmas present, I bought myself Children Of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The Second Psychedelic Era 1976-1995, a 4 CD collection from Rhino Records, a sort of sequel to the Lenny Kaye's seminal Nuggets, which celebrated the "garage rock" of the 60s. This massive set includes songs from The Cramps, The Smithereens, The Chills, Julian Cope, etc. It's a real impressive package - four very pretty CDs, along with a 50 page or so full color booklet, describing each song, the genre, etc.

But I have to admit, so far I'm a little disappointed. I was hoping for more "power pop", but these songs don't really seem to have the hooks that reach out and grab me. So far, most of the songs I like from the CDs are songs I already have, or are by artists I already know. I haven't yet run into a song that made me stop what I was doing and investigate further, which surprises me. After reading the booklet, I thought there'd be lots of lost treasures (or "nuggets", shall we say), but they haven't surfaced yet. Here's some notes on the CDs so far.

CD#3 :
 "Unguarded Moment" - The Church : Great Aussie band, I have this CD,
    their debut album Of Skins and Heart.
 "Sunspots" - Julian Cope : He sounds like The Stranglers!
 "Hindu Gods Of Love" - Lipstick Killers : My favorite "driving guitars"
   song on this set so far.
 "Pink Frost" - The Chills : I own Soft Bomb, but this
   is a pretty solid song too.

CD#4 :
 "Like Wow - Wipeout!" - The HooDoo Gurus : A favorite Aussie band of mine
   from the 80s
 "Getting Out Of Hand" - Bangs (good early Bangles song)
 "You're My Loving Way" - The Aardvarks (minimal surf pop, practically)
 "Cheated and Lied" - The Vipers : Interesting, old sounding pop songs.

You can read an excellent full review on this big set here on AllMusic.com.

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Friday Random 10 - CDs

For today's Random 10, I went downstairs and grabbed a random 10 CDs from the shelf and will rip a few songs from each, picking one from each for today's list.

• Peter Gabriel - "Shock The Monkey" (Security [1982]) : Former Genesis member, this is the album just before his huge breakout So, but this song was a pretty big hit for Gabriel. Very strange album cover that proudly proclaims "FULL DIGITAL RECORDING". Woo Hoo!
• Single Gun Theory - "From A Million Miles" (Like Stars in My Hand [1991]) : Cool, blue Australian new wave group, in the Dead Can Dance / Cocteau Twins mold. Lots of catchy music, perhaps a little too detached, but still good to listen to.
• Sonny Boy Williamson - "Don't Start Me Talking" (Down and Out Blues [1959]) : I love dem blues, and Sonny Boy is a classic icon. Old fashioned, almost bebop, harmonica/piano/guitar blues.
• They Might Be Giants - "Birdhouse in Your Soul" (Flood [1990]) : What a great record from one of the quirkiest bands around, these local boys are still making great records. Their major label debut, with lots of short poppy and funny songs (someone moved your chair? getting a rock?), it is a CD still in heavy rotation here. I could rip every song from this.
• Bob Dylan - "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35" (Blonde on Blonde [1966]) : Not much you can say about this guy that hasn't already been said a million times before. This double album is an early classic, with plenty of sophisticated lyrics (and some not so much, like this one's "Everyone must get stoned...":-), musical styles galore and enough weirdness for a dozen albums. Definitely one to be listened to over and over.
• Lush - "Single Girl" (Lovelife [1996]) : One of my favorite albums over the last 10 years or so, this cut is actually from a 4 song promo disc I got from WZBC, the Boston College radio station, when I contributed to a fund raiser. This song is great for air guitar; a definite 'crank it up' when riding in the car. Really good guitar riff.
• Loudon Wainwright III - "Whatever Happened to Us" (A Live One [1979]) : What a funny, cynical songwriter, and this CD is some of his best stuff. I've seen him live a few times myself, and he is quite a kick! How about this description of a relationship imploding:

  Why you broke my proverbial heart
  We used to be in love but now we are in hate
  You used to say I came too early
  But it was you who came too late
  Boy meets girl & they give it a whirl
  And the very next thing you know
  She thinks he's nuts & he hates her guts
  Then the bad blood starts to flow

• The Jesus and Mary Chain - "Head On" (Best of MTV's 120 Minutes, Vol. 2 [1991]) : Great rock'n'roll song from a great compilation of alternative rock bands from the 80s. Never Mind The Mainstream... was a popular "alternative" show on MTV, and this CD really rocks. I dare you to keep your feet still during this song! And there are plenty more here too.
• Depeche Mode - "Everything Counts [Bomb Beyond the Yalu Mix]" (Just Say Mao: Volume III of Just Say Yes [1989]) : Another one of Sire's "Just Say Yes" samplers, this one has a some good songs, although fewer that caught my ears than the others. Really different mix for this Depeche Mode hit; more instrumental and synths. Interesting quote from AllMusic in the Vol 2 review:

  Granted, the various volumes in the Just Say Yes series do sound like the final death cry of '80s rock, but there's a very good reason for that: They were the final death cry of '80s rock.

• Al Stewart - "Song on the Radio" (Time Passages [1978]) : Glasgow folk / pop singer's great follow up to his smash hit Year of the Cat, this one too has some great stories, all told by his wonderfully mellow voice. This song rocks out little more than the more well-known title track. A great 6 minute story.

  Cause you and me baby
  I saw you there
  Straight away I knew
  There's really no hiding
  I'll tell you right now
  What we're gonna do
  We'll go collecting the days
  Putting the moments away
  You're on my mind like a
  Song on the Radio

  I don't know what it was that was painful
  But sometimes it's there in your face
  There are times when you just look disdainful
  Of the human race
  Ah, but then on the wings of emotion
  We circle each other in flight
  Till together we roll like the ocean
  In its bed at night
  

There, I've added a few more songs to my hard drive; I'm up to 180 songs. Still no sign of my MP3 player, though:-(

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Not Random Today

Today isn't a random ten for listening. I bought two CDs last week, one I've been wanting for awhile and one newly released, and I've been listening to those two quite a bit since then. So I'm doing a complete play through of the two for today's "Random 10".

First up is the one I've been wanting for awhile - 16 Lovers Lane by The Go-Betweens. I picked up the "Extended" version, which is remastered, adds 3 video tracks and adds a second disc of even more music.

If I had to pick a genre of music as my favorite, it would be music like the Go-Betweens do so well. Maybe you'd call it "Power Pop", or "New Wave Rock", whatever. Famous practitioners that I like include The Cure, The Smiths, The Police. Other not so famous ones include Swans, Hoodoo Gurus, The Cranes, and Yo La Tengo. Great hooks, impeccable craftsmanship, and intelligent lyrics are all common to these bands. And while I've been a fan of this genre forever, and a Australia-phile from way back, I'm have to admit to having never heard of The Go-Betweens before about six months ago.

I've been using Rhapsody.com as an online radio station for quite some time, because both my former ISP (Speakeasy.net) and my current ISP (Comcast) have it as a free perk. It's great to listen to music sans commercials and talk, and I hear lots of cool groups I've never heard of before. Another cool thing you can do is to set up your own radio stations, and it plays music based upon your choices. You can either listen to a radio station based upon a particular artist, or set up your own by giving it up to 10 artists. It matches up the songs and plays a selection from their pretty vast library from these and similiar artists. For instance, I have a station called "Power Pop" that has:

My "Power Pop" Rhapsody radio station
• Yo La Tengo
• The The
• The Smithereens
• Mission of Burma
• Hoodoo Gurus
• The Chills
• James
• The Go-Betweens
• A3
• Silencers

Well, I think it was while I was listening to their shortlived New Zealand Pop radio station, when this song kept showing up that I absolutely adored. It turned out to be "Clouds" by The Go-Betweens. Further research showed it came from an album considered by many to be one of the seminal albums of the 1980s, described using words like "superb", "breathtaking" and "nothing less than searing", by "[a]rguably Australia's greatest pop group ever". Not sure how I missed these guys, but with words of praise like that, it immediately went to the top of my extensive "Want to Buy" list.

And it is as good as advertised. One brilliant track after another. One of those CDs that I find hard to pick just a couple songs to rip. They had a minor alt-radio hit with the song Streets of Your Town and that is certainly highlight of the CD, along with the aforementioned Clouds. I guess the band members were going through some messy inter-band romances, very much like Fleetwood Mac during their Rumors recording session. And so the songs alternate between highs and lows of romance in a wonderfully intricate manner, all backed with great rhythms and solid guitar playing, along with Amanda Brown's intriguing backing vocals and violin playing.

The music videos are good too. There are three, including two versions (Australian and US) for Streets of Your Town and one for Was There Anything I Could Do?, another winner from the album, about a lover leaving him and going 'round the bend:

She went out with her paint box
Paints the chapel blue
She went out with her matchsticks
Torched a carwash too

And the bonus second disc has even more sonic goodness. The remixed singles version of the album opener, Love Goes On! really rocks, and then there are several nearly finished songs, some demos, and a live song. This is one great CD and one that will get played alot in the future. I'm going to really give it some credit and listen to it on the stereo system tonight. 100 watts of clean Marantz sound, going through some serious Phase Technology Teatro 7.5 speakers.

Blue air I crave, blue air I breathe
They once chopped my heart the way you chop a tree.
Told to equate achievement with pain
I took their top prize and paid them back with rain.

Visions of blue
I'm angry I'm wise and you.
You're under cloudy skies.

My new purchase is the latest from the wünderkind, Kate Bush. Her story is simply amazing, and I've been hook on Kate ever since her first album, Kick Inside. I had a co-worker who was an true Kate Bush fanatic, who knew and did everything Kate. Still does, I guess!-)

Her music is often a translucent passageway to another world, intimate and warm. Her Cloudbusting song, and the accompanying video, is a true classic. I saw on AllMusic that Cloudbusting, the 12in version, was released on a cool sounding 4 disc set called Back to the 80's: The Long Versions, which is unfortunately out of print and hard to find. A real stickler for production, Aerial, a two disc release, is her first CD in over ten years, and is well worth the wait.

Disc One is a collection of "domestic" songs, with her waxing poetic and beautifully over everything from her son, the number pi and even a washing machine. It must be an incredible freedom to have the ability to express yourself in song. I would surely love to write an elegiac to my daughters that is 10% of the heartfelt beauty she expresses in Bertie. And on the flip side, it must be quite a release to be able to really dig at a person like Sting did when he wrote Every Breathe You Take about his ex-girlfriend!

Bertie

Sweet kisses
Three wishes
Lovely Bertie

You bring me so much joy
And then you bring me
More Joy

Mrs. Bartolozzi

And all your shirts and jeans and things
And put them in the new washing machine
Washing machine
Washing machine
I watched them go 'round and 'round
My blouse wrapping itself in your trousers
Oh the waves are going out
My skirt floating up around my waist

Disc Two is a full story arc, covering a Day In The Life, as it were. From early morning (Prelude) til late at night (Nocturn), it once again brings out the beauty in everyday life. Her voice is a breathtaking instrument, and the arrangements are impeccable. All in all, another winner, and one that will bear repeated listening, and is also looking for the full stereo treatment, as I've listened to each of my new CDs only on my computer and in the car. I sometimes will put on the stereo downstairs while I am working, and just crank the volume to 11.

It's good to get two winners. Recently, my CD purchases have been disappointing. Despite the ability to play songs directly from the CD on Rhapsody, I still haven't really enjoyed the entire discs from most of my recent purchases, just enjoying the cut I bought it for. But these two (really four!) CDs are enjoyable from start to finish.

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Friday Random 10

Well, the ripping is up to 128 tracks. And I'm sure my MP3 player is around here somewhere.

1. Four Piece Suit - "Bombasteroid" (Matinee Idylls) : more swingin' goodness from the local boys.
2. The Smiths - "How Soon Is Now?" (Newbury Comics: The Early Years) : I love the way The Smiths use depressed lyrics with poppy music. Their Strangeways Here We Come is one of my all time favorite albums.
3. The Church - "The Unguarded Moment" (Of Skins and Heart) : a favorite 80s New Wave song. I'm not sure I've ever listened to the entire album, just love this song.
4. Bob Dylan - "Tangled Up In Blue" (Blood On The Tracks) : the best song on one of the best albums of all time. Some amazingly intricate rhyming goes on in this song, as with Simple Twist Of Fate. Each of the songs on this album is a story in itself. Turn it up!

   I had a job in the great north woods
   Working as a cook for a spell
   But I never did like it all that much
   And one day the ax just fell.
   So I drifted down to New Orleans
   Where I happened to be employed
   Workin' for a while on a fishin' boat
   Right outside of Delacroix.
   But all the while I was alone
   The past was close behind,
   I seen a lot of women
   But she never escaped my mind, and I just grew
   Tangled up in blue.
   
   She was workin' in a topless place
   And I stopped in for a beer,
   I just kept lookin' at the side of her face
   In the spotlight so clear.
   And later on as the crowd thinned out
   I's just about to do the same,
   She was standing there in back of my chair
   Said to me, "Don't I know your name?"
   I muttered somethin' underneath my breath,
   She studied the lines on my face.
   I must admit I felt a little uneasy
   When she bent down to tie the laces of my shoe,
   Tangled up in blue.

5. Depeche Mode - "Personal Jesus (Kazan Cathedral Mix)" (Just Say Da) : Not my favorite mix of this song, but the only one I own, as part of the Just Say Yes series. A longer instrumental version of this toe-tapping 80s hit. No idea what it means!
6. Frou Frou - "It's good to be in love" (Details) : Another smooth vocal from Imogene, with a clever beat. Most every track on this CD is solid.
7. Richard Barone - "Love Is A Wind That Scream" (Cool Blue Halo) : Wondefult live album by the former lead of The Bongos, this is my favorite original song. He does several great covers, along with an eclectic version of The Bongos hit, Numbers with Wings.
8. Dead Can Dance - "Indus" (Spirit Chaser) : I've been a huge DCD fan since their first album, back in the heyday of 4AD Records. Back in my wild and carefree single days, I used to pick up just about everything from their catalog, reveling in the wonder of it all.And Dead Can Dance remain a real favorite. My girls really enjoy the strange sounds Lisa & Brendan can generate, and yet dig the rhythms too.
9. Queen - "She Makes Me So" (Sheer Heart Attack ) : My favorite track from this CD. I wore this album out, back in the vinyl days. And the rhythmic stomping in this love song just slays me.
10. Cruel Sea - "Seems Twice" (The Honeymoon Is Over) : instrumental time from the blues-rooted Aussie band. You know, I'm not even sure why, when or where I picked this CD up, but it sure has some great songs on it.

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Friday Random 10

I'm up to 104 ripped tracks on my hard drive. I still don't know where my MP3 player is thougt :-(

1. Gordon Lightfoot - "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" (Summertime) : as my friend Mark told me, it was the 30^th anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald's sinking yesterday, so I promptly went over to Rhapsody and bought myself a copy (from the Gord's Gold 2 cd) for US$0.99. Many years ago, Mark and I went to see Gordon Lightfoot at an outdoor concert, only to have him be a no show. It was still a pretty good show, with the late Steve Goodman headlining the terrific show. I enjoy Lightfoot's Gord's Gold (which doesn't have Wreck) , even if I am disappointed they removed "Affair On 8th Avenue" from the vinyl(!) version. Didn't realize there was so much echo in the song.
   


2. Yo La Tengo - "Autumn Sweater" (Prisoners of Love, disc 2) : I've become a huge Yo La Tengo fan, and this is a favorite song. I like their "softer" stuff, not so much the jangly guitar side, but these folks really explore lots of territory, and this 3 disk collection (including the bonus disc) has a great sampling of this vastly underrated band.


3. Four Piece Suit - "El Nino" (Matinee Idylls) : Cool local swing band, plays lots of fun stuff; you can hear some of their songs on Sex in the City. This one is a beach song.


4. The English Beat - "Twist and Crawl" (Newbury Comics: The Early Years) : jumpin' early ska beat. The feets be dancin' right now!


5. Midnight Oil - "Arctic World" (Diesel And Dust) : Aussie band well known for its political stance; D n D is a great album with a conscience, with the hit Beds Are Burning leading the charge.


6. Frou Frou - "Let Go" (Details) : Another solid effort from Imogen & Guy, from an all-around excellent album - "beauty in the breakdown..."


7. Randy Newman - "Short People" (Lonely At The Top) : Anyone remember what a controversy this song created when it came out? I remember the superstation WBZ-AM playing a "censored" version of this wonderfully kicky and sarcastic song. And Little Criminals is a great album from top to bottom, too.


8. Queen - "Killer Queen" (Sheer Heart Attack) : I was a Queen groupie, at least until they hit it big. Their first two albums are very interesting exercises in "art rock", telling cool stories. This was their first popular effort and has lots of great cuts. It's produced by Roy Thomas Baker (of The Cars producing fame), who was still able to reign in their excesses, a process he continued in their real break out effort, Night At The Opera. Once he left, I lost interest in them, as their efforts strained to become FM radio hits, with no soul.


9. The The - "Uncertain Smile" (Soul Mining) : One of my all-time favorite songs. I was disappointed with the remastered efforts found on the 45 RPM singles collection. Matt Johnson downplayed my favorite part, the long piano solo, in favor of flutes and the like. Oh well, I'll stick with this version.
   

   
   A howling wind blows the litter as the rain flows,
   As street lamps pour orange colored shapes through your windows,
   a broken soul stares from a pair of watering eyes,
   uncertain emotions force an uncertain smile...
   

   
   


10. The Cure - "The Perfect Girl" (Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me) : Great double album from the kings of depression rock. This song is a bit perky for them, although Robert is talking about a "strange girl":
    

    
    you're such a strange girl
    i think you come from another world
    you're such a strange girl
    i really don't understand a word
    

    , so for him a strange girl is a perfect girl, I guess.

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Friday Random 10

My Friday Random 10 of songs I've ripped to my hard drive so far:

1. Gang of Four - "Anthrax" (Newbury Comics: The Early Years): Pounding base line is featured in this classic punk song from this compilation cd. Generally not a fan of distorted, squeaking guitars, but the base rescues it for me.
2. Frou Frou - "Psychobabble" (Details) : One of my favorite albums of all time; lots of great songs and this one has some cool lyrics as she tries to dump an old lover:

   Do just what I tell you
   And no one will get hurt
   Don't come any closer
   'Cause I dunno how long I can hold my heart in two
   

3. Richard Barone - "Tangled In Your Web" (Cool Blue Halo : Front man for the short-lived and greatly missed Bongos, this is his first solo album, and this is my favorite song from it (even more than his version, heavy with cello(!) of the Bongos hit "Numbers With Wings")
4. Primal Scream - "Loaded" (Just Say Da) : From yet another compilation, from a Sire series, Just Say Yes, this is number IV. Probably my favorite of the series. This should probably be titled "I Don't Want To Lose Your Love" - lots of sampled bits in it.
5. The Sisters of Mercy - "More" (Vision Thing): kings of goth rock, this album has lots of great cuts and some serious politics. An anthem for the Gordon Geckos of the 80s, all 8:23 of it:

   Learning to cry for fun and profit
   I’m not done yet
   Counterfeit dollars or the english zloty
   Anything I can get
   

6. Big Audio Dynamite - "Around The Girl In 80 Ways" (Megatop Pheonix) : Mick Jones' post-Clash group, some poppy songs on this album, very much in the Clash Combat Rock mode. Light stuff, but still good listening.
7. Randy Newman - "Mama Told Me Not To Come" (Lonely At The Top) : one of my favorite sarcastic song writers (right up there with Loudon Wainwright), this version is better than 3 Dog Night's later cover.
8. Dinah Washington - "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby" (Ultra-Lounge 15) : nice torch song from a solid lounge song collection.
9. Ofra Haza - "Wish Me Luck (Karamazov Mix)" (Just Say Da) : popular 80s Israeli singer, she put out some great dance numbers and this is my fav. Nice Laurie Anderson sample

   This is how you can be walking and falling at the same time

10. The The - "This Is The Day" (Soul Mining) : Another one of my favorite albums from the 80s, Matt Johnson's first effort at the tender age of 18 still knocks me out. Already he's pining for a life gone awry!

For music information, I really like the AMG AllMusic Guide. Tons of information on bands, songs, reviews, links - great way to investigate new sounds!

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Friday Random 10

I finally have enough music ripped from my CDs to do a real Random Ten for Friday. I bring up a handful of CDs, rip a few songs from each and continue on. So far, Frou Frou and Yo La Tengo, and Queen have the most songs in my library. 86 songs so far. Now if I can only find my MP3 player to put them on it!

• Must Be Dreaming - Frou Frou
• Brighton Rock - Queen
• Political Science - Randy Newman
• Ribbons - The Sisters of Mercy
• (The System Of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather - The Alan Parsons Project
• Go Ahead And Burn - Four Piece Suit
• Beds Are Burning - Midnight Oil
• Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
• Papa Won't Leave You, Henry - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
• Just Like Heaven - The Cure

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