Tweedy first thing for second day in a row. Early-morning life is good.
Elvis Costello – “Cheap Reward”
Travis – “Last Train”
Guided By Voices – “Her Psychology Today”
RAWK SAWNG OF THE DAY: Killswitch Engage – “World Ablaze”
Didn’t make The Sword show at Conservatory tonight, but the after-the-fact realization that I got to rock Killswitch at the office while writing a story about a military base made me feel a little better.
Clearlake – “Far Away”
The Beatles – “Getting Better”
At the office today, we were in the middle of one of our daily doom and gloom e-mail chains about the future of journalism and our paper when “Getting Better” started playing through my headphones. I thought it was curious timing, so I told my colleagues about it. Posted these lyrics in the e-mail for what I thought would be a thought-provoking dose of irony:
It’s getting better all the time
I used to get mad at my school
The teacher’s that taught me weren’t cool
You’re holding me down
Filling me up with your rules
I’ve got to admit it’s getting better
A little better all the time
I have to admit it’s getting better
It’s getting better since you’ve been mine
Me used to be angry young man
Me hiding me head in the sand
You gave me the word
I finally heard
I’m doing the best that I can
I’ve got to admit it’s getting better
I used to be cruel to my woman I beat herand kept apart from the things that she loved
Man I was mean but I’m changing my scene
And I’m doing the best that I can
I admit it’s getting better
A little better all the time
Yes I admit it’s getting better
It’s getting better since you’ve been mine…
Instead, within seconds I was accused of being a woman-beater. While on deadline. Right – because when I think about The Beatles, I think about domestic abuse.
My co-workers because are quite possibly bigger smartasses than I am. This is why I enjoy them.
Creeper Lagoon – “Dead Man Saloon”
Golden Smog – “Another Fine Day”
TRB – “Part II (Radio Edit)”
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – “Blossom”
Cold War Kids – “Red Wine, Success!”
I’m dying to see what these guys come up with for their next record. And I’m dying to see them live. Here’s why:
Creedence Clearwater Revival - ”Long As I Can See The Light”
Creeper Lagoon – “Black Hole”
Jesse Malin – “Scars of Love”
The Soundtrack of Our Lives – “Believe I’ve Found”
Radiohead – “Planet Telex”
Doves – “Words”
BEST BAND YOU’VE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD: Varnaline – “Still Dream”
Spaced out alt-country. For fans of Wilco. Of course. From up north some place.
Everclear – “Heartspark Dollar Sign”
Red House Painters – “Smokey”
The Magpies – “Pick Up I’m Calling”
Wore my Magpies shirt for the first time today. To Wal-Mart. Classy.
Blue October – “Schizophrenia”
The Stills – “Fevered”
John Coltrane – “Equinox”
I was headed north on Classen a few minutes ago with the sunroof down and the sax came in. Coltrane, a breeze, and a bright moon is harmony. I pulled up in my driveway and kept the sunroof open for the rest of the song. Felt too good to stop without seeing it the whole way through, you know?
Bob Marley and the Wailers – “Roots, Rock, Reggae”
Starsailor – “Four to the Floor”
British, even though this song was produced by America’s favorite afro-maniacal murderer / producer: Phil Spector.
Minus The Bear – “Michio’s Death Drive”
The Used – “The Taste of Ink”
Dirty singer Bert got dirty with Ozzy’s Brit daughter.
Against Me! – “Rice And Bread”
Van Halen – “I’m The One”
Starsailor – “Talk Her Down”
Still British.
Radiohead – “Nude”
British.
Upside – “Something More”
The Beatles – “For No One”
Rumored to be British.
Built to Spill – “Don’t Try”
Clearlake – “Keep Smiling”
Bri-ish.
Billy Bragg and Wilco – “Stetson Kennedy”
Bragg is one the craggiest British wankers of all time. That’s why I like him so much. The guy’s got an album called England, Half English with a song called “Take Down the Union Jack,” fercrissake! Strangely, one of America’s best songwriters, Woody Guthrie, and the best American band of my generation, Wilco, are the meat on this song. Bragg’s just the sauce.
Lucero – “Coming Home”
Josh Rouse – “Sad Eyes”
Bernard Butler – “Smile”
British badass.
Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers – “Loco to Stay Sane”
Coldplay – “Everything’s Not Lost”
Best song these British bastards have ever done.
Jet – “Rip it Up”
Flickerstick – “All We Are is Gone”
Texans that wannabe British.
Built to Spill – “Broken Chairs”
Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Commotion”
Big Star – “Back of a Car”
Jet – “Shiny Magazine”
Breakdown:
23 songs
all during commute (assignments on opposite ends of city)
Not that it has anything to do with, well, anything, but Boddingtons is perhaps the tastiest beer on the planet. Boddingtons is British.
Bill O’Reilly might see this playlist and call me a treasonous ex-patriot. I’d pour Boddingtons on him and call him a bloody treasonous ex-patriot motherwanker.
The Thrills – “You Can’t Fool Old Friends With Limousines”
RAWK SAWNG OF THE DAY: Refused – “Refused Are Fuckin’ Dead”
Breakdown:
9 songs
3 during commute to work
6 at work
0 during commute home (cell phones are Satan)
We’ll save today’s BEST BAND YOU’VE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD for a band that didn’t make the iPod playlist, but kept my feet tappin’ all night at Belle Isle Brewery. Don’t take my word for it – come hear The Magpies with your own two ears next Tuesday, suckas! The Clevelandites will be in Oak Shitty again, this time at Speakeasy (Yes, it has a stage. Yes, it sounds better than Conservatory). If we’ve gotten around to actually “launching” this little blog experiment by then, you trendiest-of-trendy readers should invite all your friends and enemies for a night of some of the finest American songwriting, accordion playing and twangy rock and roll around. Goes good with Whiskeytown, Jerry Lee Lewis, beer, The Boss, Cash and the roots rock side of Rolling Stones. Try this opening line on for size: ”Here comes the night and I’m feeling like a pistol-whipped criminal.” Righteous! I told some folks in the bar that I’d die a happy man if I could listen to bands like The Magpies every night, and that wasn’t just the Belle Isle booze talking – I really meant it. Guess I could be in for an early death if they keep playing here so much. So it goes.
The first stop on this random music train must begin at Pier 1. Yes. I work at Pier 1 on the weekends. No satellite radio for us. Piped in cds, that repeat. Over and Over. The good news is that whoever is making these little mixes likes music, albeit a little too much Mariah Carey. The author of these mixes can’t help that the cds are played for days on end.
And there I’m introduced to Fink. Blueberry Pancakes was the first song. Layered and lonely and awesome. “Sitting at the table where it all began for us…”
Turns out the rest of the Fink collection is rad too. I couldn’t figure out why Imeem’s random play kept sending me to random techno after the Fink playlist. Come to find out the dude is a DJ from Brighton (love that town) and has just recently discovered guitars and his own voice.
Tracks from the 2007 Distance and Time are supa. Add a little angst that comes with being British and not seeing a lot of sun…and you’ve got melodic, beat driven, radiohead inspired. Check it out.
Another band on my list for today: The Kills.
I checked out the playlist on imeem today. Really good. This band is simple and dirty and I like it. They don’t mess around with studio stuff. I saw them live back in the day. A girl on a stool with a guitar, a man with a drum machine and a bass. Nothing else needed.
The new album is called Midnight Boom. Driving, dark and melodic all at the same time. The band wants the concept of an album to catch on…as if it ever left me. (Still have a tape deck in the car.) But there’s is artwork that goes with it and a 20-page booklet. Too bad I’ll have to go to Best Buy to find it.
The Coral is one of the rare bands that’s dominated the UK charts in recent years without making that all-too-predictable blogger-driven splash on our side of the pond. Considering the track record Brit bands have had here lately (the over-hyped, one-and-done special) – it’s probably a good thing The Coral never caught on in America. Seems it gave them a chance to blossom into the band most people thought they’d become when they released this self-titled debut six years ago. To me, this album always sounded like some sea-shanty version of The Doors that was bizarre enough to freak you out to the point that it impressed the hell out of you.
The records between now and then haven’t lived up to the promise of the debut, but the band boasts that a new album on the way this year is the one they’ve wanted to make since they formed a decade ago. They say they’re all about the songs now and less about the frantic psycho-rock that had seemed to consume them lately. Sounds fine by me. The new single is damn impressive, and I wouldn’t have sought it out and heard it unless this old gem showed up in the playlist today. Woohoo!
Golden Smog – “Long Time Ago”
The Beatles – “Revolution 1″
U2 – “Red Hill Mining Town”
David Bowie – “Oh! You Pretty Things”
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – “Took Out a Loan”
Not a dull moment on this record. A diamond in what was mostly a rough rock year in 2007.
Breakdown:
9 songs
2 during commute to work
7 at work
0 during commute home
Dust Bowl 2008 hit the OKShitty metro today. I was too freaked out to listen to music on the way home because I couldn’t see the skyline. Guess that’s one reason to be glad I didn’t move to Los Angeles, where kids ask: “Mommy, why is the sky olive?”
To quote a regular customer at the record store where I once worked: “Listening to album tracks by The Beatles is like discovering your woman has another hole to stick it in.”
I’ll never forget that line no matter what degree of Alzheimer’s I suffer from or what type of anvil dents my skull.
Elvis Costello – “Tear Off Your Own Head”
The Clash – “Brand New Cadillac”
Blue October – “Into the Ocean”
Led Zeppelin – “No Quarter”
Jimmy Eat World – “Kill”
Injected – “Misunderstood”
And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – “Homage”
And You WIll Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – “Days of Being Wild”
Starlight Mints – “Pulling Out My Hair”
Flickerstick – “Catholic Scars and Chocolate Bars”
Ryan Adams – “The Drugs Are Not Working”
The Flaming Lips – “Free Radicals”
Radiohead – “Sulk”
This was once my favorite song. I tried to remember why this afternoon and failed. The Bends remains one of the ten best albums ever made, even if I’ve divorced “Sulk.”
Uncle Tupelo – “Grindstone”
Wilco – “Hummingbird (live)”
Didn’t care much for A Ghost is Born the first time I heard it. Or the second. Or third. I pretty much gave up on the album for about six months until I heard some bootlegs of the songs live. This was one of them, and it completely changed everything. Now I worship Ghost just as much as the rest of the Wilco catalog.
Led Zeppelin – “The Songs Remains the Same”
Clearly the best opening songs in the history of rock and roll. If you want to argue about it, I’ll sick the hounds on you.
Shuggie Otis – “Happy House”
Rewake – “Homeless Genius”
Stevie Wonder – “You’ve Got It Bad Girl”
Wilco – “I’m Always in Love”
The Fags – “Rockstar”
Paul McCartney – “Only Mama Knows”
Never cared much for Wings, but this song is what I wish they would’ve sounded like.
Golden Smog – “5-22-02″
Breakdown:
27 songs
8 during commute to work (had a morning assignment)
16 at work
3 during commute home
I spent most of the morning with a city sewer worker for a profile story. Once we got all the sewer chatter out of the way, we wound up talking tunes. It was refreshing to hear such a simple man talk so passionately about the music he’s loved his whole life. There wasn’t a bit of pretense or cynicism coming from this guy. He loves music unconditionally. Wish I knew more like him.
