Song of the Week 5/23/08

Ryan Adams - "Touch, Feel and Lose"



Note to self: DO NOT listen to this song if again you happen to be walking through a neighborhood you haven't been to in a while, and you haven't been there for strictly emotional reasons.

Sheeesh, that kind of sucked the wind out of my Friday.

Song of the Week 5/16/08

Mudcrutch - “Scare Easy”

I finally got around to picking up this new (well, I guess a reunion after 33 years isn’t that new) Tom Petty side project last week after hearing “Scare Easy” for the umpteenth time on WFUV. After one spin on the subway ride home, my initial suspicious were confirmed--this is the best Petty original in a decade. It’s catchy as hell, it has a great “let’s get this down on tape live here in our rehearsal space” sound, guitarist and fellow moonlighting Heartbreaker Mike Campbell plays the hell out of the solo and the chorus is one of Petty’s strongest in age. He sounds absolutely recharged, which I’m grateful for after seeing some average Heartbreakers performances over the past two tours.

I love how Petty snarls these lines in harmony with guitarist Tom Leadon on the chorus:

“I don’t scare easy
I don’t fall apart
When I’m under the gun
You can break my heart
And I ain’t gonna run
I don’t scare easy
For no one”

Mudcrutch is the band that Petty and Campbell (along with keyboardist Benmont Tench) were in before the Heartbreakers were born. I’m pretty sure this country-rock-slash- psychedelic sound would not have brought them a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career like the Heartbreakers. But unlike most of us who will never have that opportunity, Petty and company got to get back together with some old friends and see if that magic from long ago was still there.

BONUS: Here’s the official video:


And to prove the undeniable greatness that is named Mike Campbell, check out his solo in this live version from Santa Cruz last month.

Song of the Week 5/9/08

Michael Jackson - "Off the Wall"

No big statement behind this song--my co-worker Doug suggested I play songs that had "wall" in the title, and this was the first one I thought of. A couple hours later at happy hour, the only song I could make out over the din was "Off the Wall."

And I suppose the less comments I make about this song's performer the better.

Derby Day Party 5/3/08

(from left to right, Dick Swizzle and some cowboy)

I was once again honored to DJ at Michael Boyd's annual Derby Day Party. This was the first time at Union Hall, and the place is so big (and was way crowded) I'm sure much of the music got lost in space. But that didn't stop me from coming up with a set that was chock-filled with Derby-related material. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Chet Atkins and His Galloping Guitar - "Kentucky Derby"
Ryan Adams and The Cardinals - "Cold Roses"
The Rolling Stones - "Dead Flowers"
Wilco - "Casino Queen"
Beau Brummels - "Old Kentucky Home"
Oasis - "Cigarettes and Alcohol"
Elvis Presley - "Kentucky Rain"
Loretta Lynn - "Van Lear Rose"
The Hold Steady - "Chips Ahoy!"
The Flaming Lips - "Race for the Prize"
Mike Doughty - "The Gambler"
Pavement - "Kentucky Cocktail"
Dave Clark Five - "Catch Us If You Can"
The Smithereens - "Blood and Roses"
The Arcade Fire - "Keep The Car Running"
Big Star - "Back of a Car"
Echo and the Bunnymen - "Bring on the Dancing Horses"
R.E.M. - "Horse to Water"
Elvis Costello and the Attractions - "King Horse"
The Figgs - "Breaking Through These Gates"
Graham Parker - "High Horse"
Sonic Youth - "Bull in the Heather"
The Monkees - "All the King's Horses"
Nada Surf - "Whose Authority"
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - "You Got Lucky"
Nick Lowe - "Music for Money"
Social Distortion - "Bad Luck"
Dramarama - "Last Cigarette"
The Who - "You Better You Bet"
Count Basie - "Plenty of Money and You"
Ricky Nelson - "Sure Fire Bet"
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - "You and Me and the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight (Baby)"
Cake - "The Distance"
Old 97s - "King of All of the World"
Joboxers - "Just Got Lucky"
Devo - "Whip It"
Mates of State - "Along For the Ride"
The Kinks - "David Watts"
The Strokes - "Trying Your Luck"
Big Dipper - "Ron Klaus Wrecked His House"
Guided By Voices - "Bulldog Skin"
Xavier Cugat - "One Mint Julep"
The Backbeat Band - "Money (That's What I Want)"
Matthew Sweet - "Girlfriend"
Warren Zevon - "Lawyers, Guns and Money"
Psychedelic Furs - "All That Money Wants"
Big Audio Dynamite - "The Bottom Line"

Song of the Week 5/2/08

Wilco - Jesus, Etc.



I heard this song every single day this week--twice in bars, once at random on my iPod and twice on WFUV at totally different times of the day. I love how it's become such a sing-a-long over the past seven years. (The above clip is from Wilco's great five night run in Chicago this past February.)

Song of the Week 4/25/08

Big Dipper - "Ron Klaus Wrecked His House"



Another year, another great reunion from Boston. This time it's Big Dipper, who I stupidly missed when they played at The Haunt in Ithaca 18 years ago. The always great Merge Records somehow concvinced the quartet to do an anothlogy of their indie work and to do three reunion shows to promote it. These guys looked a whole lot older, but played just as well (and as loud, my left ear thinks) as they did back in the day. The next to last song in Friday's set at Brooklyn's Southpaw was their "hit," "Ron Klaus Wrecked His House." The chorus to this song is a fucking monster. It would get stuck in my head in college, and it's still stuck in my head a few days after the show. One can only hope we don't have to wait another 18 years for a Big Dipper show.

BONUS: NYC taper was also there and documented the entire show, and you can hear the joy these guys felt in every note.

Song of the Week 4/18/08

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)"



Goodbye Danny. You will be missed by hundreds of thousands of people. The Boardwalk is a little darker today.

Pardon the cliche, but pictures (or videos) are worth a thousand more words than I could muster up about how much Springsteen and the E Street Band's music has meant to me the past 25 years, or how much love everyone in that band felt for Danny.

Here's video of the 1975 Hammersmith Odeon performance I linked to:


The last time Danny played it with his dear friends, in Indianapolis on March 20th:


Bonus: The scene when Danny left the band last fall in Boston:


A great clip of the entire band watching Danny solo on "Kitty's Back" that night.


Because I can never watch this clip enough, the best "Kitty's Back" since the 1970s, from Late Night with Conan O'Brien.


And finally, watch this 1978 clip at about 8 minutes in. Danny does a blistering solo on "Prove It All Night." Wow.

Song o the Week 4/11/08

Nada Surf - "Do It Again"

Gosh, I had a whole truckload of fun at Nada Surf Friday night. I was a bit worried about how my body would hold up over a three hour show (Superdrag co-headlined), but I felt perfectly fine all night. (Well, except for the occasionally garlic nan burp. And the fact that the sound at Terminal 5 is NOT meant for rock shows. No freaking way).

I went with Moria the concert pal, and we were convinced that the show was made better by these three kids (it was an all ages show, they might have been 21) who knew every single word--even the songs from the great new disc Lucky--and danced around and took pictures like they were having the time of their young lives. Heck, they probably were having the time of their lives. Their enthusiasm was infectious and made me enjoy a show that under normal circumstances wouldn't make it onto my Top 10 concerts for the year. An added bonus was how they pissed off this snooty couple in front of us. They both looked as if they swallowed a box of sour balls. Screw them if they can't have fun.

"Do It Again" was the song I sang loudest all night. (Which seems to be a pattern, if you scroll down a bit here.) These words, which I've probably pumped my fist to at least 100 times on the subway, took on a special meaning for me that night after the past few weeks:

“Maybe this weight was a gift
Like I had to see what I could lift
I spend all my energy
Walking upright.”

BONUS: Here's Nada Surf from Friday night at Terminal 5, doing the song I always associate with the concert pal.