Cooked

RAWK SAWNG OF THE DAY: Jet – “Come On, Come On”

Stereophonics – “Rooftop”

Coldplay – “Everything’s Not Lost”

The Soundtrack of Our Lives – “Heading for a Breakdown”

Incubus – “Beware! Criminal!”

My wise comrade SG made a comment about Incubus while we were sitting in downtown Austin traffic listening to S.C.I.E.N.C.E. at SXSW 2008. He pointed out that Incubus got popular because they were a “movement” band that happened to be somewhat talented. Then they just turned into a really damn good band – period. They ditched the dreadlocks and got serious.

Ah, what a coincidence. The SG man himself just called me up. Here’s what he has to say about Incubus as of 9:55 p.m tonight: “I think those have been the most successful bands in history: The ones who come up with an original sound who push it as a movement more than a mainstream style, and then do whatever they want as far as songwriting and developing into songwriters for the rest of their careers…Once you have their attention, it’s all about how smart you are as a songwriter.” This song is a good example of that. Well said, Goldschmithey.

Wilco – “Reservations”

Of all the brilliant lines Tweedy has churned out over the years, this song has an opening verse that’s among the most honest and memorable any artist has ever written: “How can I convince you it’s me I don’t like / And not be so indifferent to the look in your eyes / When I’ve always been distant / and I’ve always told lies for love.”

Wilco – “Can’t Stand It”

LCD Soundsystem – “tired”

Eels – “World of Shit”

R.E.M. – “Exhuming McCarthy”

Guided By Voices – “Peep-Hole”

The Beta Band – “She’s The One”

Head Automatica – “Beating Hearts Baby”

Refused – “Protest Song ‘68″

Uncle Tupelo – “Grindstone”

Against Me! – “Mutiny on the Electronic Bay”

Spoon – “Jonathon Fisk”

Kula Shaker – “Shower Your Love”

This song should’ve been hugh. HUGH, I say! But it was too good. George Harrison must’ve loved it, either way.

Wilco – “Jesus, Etc.”

Merle Haggard – “Hungry Eyes”

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – “Need Some Air”

Ryan Adams – “1974″

Hum – “Why I Like The Robins”

Candlebox – “Simple Lessons”

I liked Candlebox’s second and third records a lot more than their debut – the one with all the singles you still hear on “alternative” radio. The bummer is my Lucy disc is so scratched that iTunes will only import this song. Oh well. At least iTunes managed to swallow Happy Pills, the band’s best and most under-appreciated album. If you like good songs of any kind, you’ll like that record – regardless of what you think of Candlebox.

Willie Nelson – “On The Road Again”

BEST BAND YOU’VE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD: The Tom Collins – “Cycles”

Ben Kweller – “Make It Up”

Breakdown: 27 songs, 4 places

My old pal David Cook has been bringing as much integrity to American Idol as that show’s ever seen for about three months now, but it’s just starting to sink in that the guy might actually win the thing. Crazy thought for those of us who’ve known David for years. He’ll be playing Tulsa’s new BOK Center this summer for the Idol tour and my gut tells me it’ll be a little bigger than than this Tulsa bar gig we put him on almost a year ago today when his solo record came out:

What a difference a year makes: Upside is broken up, Malan Darras is playing with a band called Born A Number and David’s hamming it up with Neil Diamond on FOX.

I finally gave in and voted for him this week. It was the first time I voted for a contestant on that blasted show, but I didn’t feel guilty about it at all. David’s the real deal, and he makes a mean whiskey-diet when he’s behind the bar! I think it’s safe to say he won’t be bartending again anytime soon. My liver is thankful for this, and my ears are pleased that a real singer is finally getting love at some place besides a smokey bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.

Digital domination

Ben Folds – “Fred Jones Part 2″

Bizarre way to start off the day. There’s a lot of doom and gloom talk in the newsroom I work in about “the future.” Cost-cutting. New missions. Solutions. Transformations. These are all corporate psycho-babble terms for layoffs and putting the veterans out to pasture and such. I shivered a little when this song about a guy getting fired from a paper started playing. I’ll just let some lyrics talk:

Fred sits alone at his desk in the dark
There’s an awkward young shadow that waits in the hall
He’s cleared all his things and he’s put them in boxes
Things that remind him: ‘Life has been good’
Twenty-five years
He’s worked at the paper
A man’s here to take him downstairs
And I’m sorry, Mr. Jones
It’s time
There was no party, there were no songs
‘Cause today’s just a day like the day that he started
No one is left here that knows his first name

Lucero -”What Else Would You Have Me Be?”

First Lucero song I ever heard. Played a 30-second clip of it on iTunes and was hooked. Still my favorite song they’ve done.

The Fags – “Rockstar”

Big Star – “Thirteen”

Valve – “Part of the Catch Phrase”

What the hell happened to Casey Diiorio, anyway? I heard he was helping Zac Maloy engineer records, but that’s all I’ve heard. Ah, Google says he has a studio in Fort Worth. Cool. His old band (Valve, for those who don’t know) is one of my favorite DFW bands of all time. This song and “Upper West Coast” are legendary to a few dozen of us, I’m sure.

The Jayhawks – “The Eyes of SarahJane”

Head Automatica – “Lying Through Your Teeth”

Shuggie Otis – “Not Available”

Pete Yorn – “Committed” 

RAWK SAWNG OF THE DAY / BEST BAND YOU’VE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD: J Roddy Walston and The Business – “Rock and Roll the Second”

The night before SXSW 2008 kicked off, this band knocked us on our asses at Andy’s in Denton. I was drowning Amstels with caffeine king Matt Holmes downstairs when we decided to labor up the staircase to see who was making all the noise. We were met with what sounded and looked like Angus Young rocking great balls of fire with Jerry Lee Lewis. Two dozen faces were melted that night. Band name is hot, too.

Travis – “Safe”

Bush – “Letting the Cables Sleep”

Don’t hate.

Jeff Buckley – “New Year’s Prayer”

So good it’s scary. I don’t like listening to this song in the dark. Not one bit.

Sloan – “Step on it, Jean”

Paul McCartney – “Feet in the Clouds”

Breakdown:

14 songs

all during commute (dropped someone off at airport during rush hour. Idiotfest on the highway)

So I bought The Magpies CD at their gig Tuesday. Today I put it in the Powerbook, imported the songs and put the disc back in its sleeve. Then I stared at the sleeve for a few seconds, picked it up, stared at it some more and put it back down. Then I stared some more.  I sighed and dropped a depressed F-bomb when it hit me that I’ll probably never pick that disc up again. After years of resistance, I’ve been dominated by the digital revolution. The hundreds of CDs on the rack in the living room just collect dust. No use for them anymore. I really don’t know what to think about it. I mean, I once managed a damn CD store. I’ve had thousands of CDs manufactured for bands I’ve worked with. Sold them all across the country. Now it’s all obsolete. I’m reminded of the wise words of a hillbilly philosopher: “Tough titty, said the kitty, but the milk is still good!”

Attack of the singer-songwriters

Valve – “Forever More”

Lucero – “San Francisco”

A breezy, booze-stained night at SXSW 2008. Free beers everywhere. Whiskey, too. A sloppy crowd of tattooed cowpunk types was piling into the backyard amphitheater at Red Eyed Fly. Seemed like the perfect storm for my first Lucero live experience. I was pumped.

We dropped anchor in front of a pool of 24 oz. Lone Star beers and plowed through a few of those suckers before Lucero hit the stage (later, the bass player would literally hit the stage). I was nice and numb by the time Ben Nichols and Co. stumbled in, but I’d soon witness a staggering debacle of drunken chaos that would make every booze-fueled embarrassment of my short life seem like child’s play.

Nichols made it through about two songs (and took three shots) before his voice gave out. He knew it was gone, so he didn’t bother trying to sing. Just cracked an “I’m guilty, but I don’t care” smile and shook his head at the rest of the band. They found his sorry condition equally hilarious, even as the guitarist swayed back and forth like a seesaw and drooled. Yeah, drooled. What a mess of a man. The bass player knew he was in a worthless state and had propped himself up against the back wall of the stage as a precaution. But he’d still stumble forward from time to time for no apparent reason. Eventually, he fell face down. Twice. The drummer was actually pretty solid and was clearly the only remotely sober one of the group. Nichols couldn’t sing, but he managed to to tell the crowd at least half a dozen times that he’d been “drinking since two in the afternoon.” And then he’d take another shot and light another cigarette. Completely shameless. The trainwreck was twice as entertaining as the few moments they actually hit stride, for better or worse.

Only took about three songs for us to proclaim Lucero the Drunkest Band of All Time. That’s a dubious distinction considering the folks I was with at the show. Until then, the Drunkest Band of All Time title was held by The Feds thanks to a show they put on a few years back that we all attended. It ended with a droning encore that included no actual songs but was highlighted by Matt Wright playing his guitar with the penis of a Bowling For Soup roadie who had wandered onstage.

We stumbled out of the venue midway through the Lucero set (but not until one of my comrades smoked some hash with an attorney in plain view of 500 people – ah, Austin) and saw the Ludo clan on the street. We mobbed them, and I mumbled some hogwash about Wilco to Tim Convy (fellow Wilco obsessive and Ludo Moog man). That’s pretty much the last thing I remember about the Lucero show, aside from hijacking my buddy’s Ford Contour and driving to Jack in the Box to order ten tacos at 4:30 a.m.

Thanks, Lucero. See you in Arkansas on May 1.

Fugazi – “Suggestion”

Smashing Pumpkins – “Luna”

Doves – “A House”

Head Automatica – “Please, Please, Please (Young Hollywood)”

Jesse Malin – “Lucinda”

Tom Waits – “So It Goes”

Glassjaw – “Trailer Park Jesus”

George Harrison – “Thanks for the Pepperoni”

Head Automatica – “Laughing at You”

Lots of Daryl Palumbo in the shuffle today…

Pete Yorn – “Just Another”

It’s 11:12 a.m. and I want metal. I get Pete Yorn instead. I get a Pete Yorn song I hate. Not wise to deprive a man of his metal, you pansy anti-metal iPod. Grow balls.

Josh Rouse – “Carolina”

Damnit to hell! I’m in no mood to listen to a song that begins: “Down in Tennessee / sits a girl alone.” I love this song, just can’t stomach it right now. But I’ll suffer through it; maybe I’ll calm down.

Damnit again: “In the Nashville sky / sits a diamond bright.” Fuck that nonsense. Next.

Jeff Buckley – “Back in N.Y.C.”

Singer-songwriter invasion 2008. Oh well. At least this song has some nuts to it.

The Thrills – “Saturday Night”

Attention all Affliction-shirt-wearing, Jagerbombing dudebros: “Broken beer bottles / thrown like American footballs / Hey, it’s just jocks high on hormones / Is this what they call hate on a Saturday night?” Yes, yes it is.

Social Distortion – “Ring of Fire”

Pearl Jam – “Glorified G”

AC/DC – “You Shook Me All Night Long”

Minus the Bear – “Pig War”

Mastodon – “Bladecatcher”

Finally. 1:40 p.m. is the best moment of the day thus far. Metal makes me happy when I’m stuck at the little gray desk in the big black tower.

AC/DC – “Back in Black”

Blue October – “You Make Me Smile”

Big Star – “In The Street”

The Jayhawks – “Smile”

Danny Grady – “Stay Gold”

Yet another D Grady song that’ll never see the light of day. Depressing. One of the best songs I’ve heard in the past year, and I’m one of a dozen people who has heard it. Not right.

Kill Radio – “Raised on Whip Cream”

Rose Hill Drive – “Off to the Games”

Little League Hero – “The Trick”

LLH’s last show ever is this weekend. I’ve been going to way too many “last shows” lately, it seems.

Starsailor – “At the End of a Show”

Okkervil River – “Missing Children”

Band of Horses – “Is There A Ghost”

Breakdown:

30 songs

2 during commute to work

26 at work

4 during commute home

There are four dead people (that I know of) in this playlist. Two died of cancer, one drowned in a river and the other drowned in booze. On that note, I’m off for a night of second-hand smoking, swimming and heavy drinking. A moron once told me the only way to beat death is at his own game. Apparently, I listened.