Song of the Week 8/22/08

Ingrid Michaelson - "Be Ok"


It's not often I really connect with someone I interview. Ingrid Michaelson is one of the very few exceptions. I spoke with her last fall when her song "The Way I Am" was going up the charts and within minutes we were cracking each other up like old friends. She came by the day job this week to talk about her new single and upcoming EP called Be Ok, and within a minute we were bantering like a longtime morning drive show. I don't usually dig this kind of music, but knowing that there's such a cool person behind it somehow removes that barrier. "Be Ok" is wickedly catchy and is done in under 2:30, which plants it right in my wheelhouse. And part of the proceeds will go to Stand Up 2 Cancer. So basically you'd have to be an asshole not to dig this song, which you can check out a live version below recorded earlier this month.

Song of the Week 8/15/08

Wilco - "Walken"

This post is not brought to you by the makers of Crestor. Fuckers.

Anywhoo, Wilco.

In Brooklyn.

Outdoors.

With the horn section, The Total Pros, on 11 songs.

Fucking magnificient.

And this gem from Sky Blue Sky never sounded better. I hummed it the whole way home on the G train.

(There are no clips from the Brooklyn show, but this version from Lollapalooza is just as good.)

Song of the Week 8/8/08

Elvis Costello - "God's Comic"

I love hearing songs wildly out of context in a public place. The latest example? Today I walked in the Chipotle on 48th street, saw the line was wicked long, turned around and got five steps before I stopped and realized that "God's Comic" was playing. I actually laughed out loud before I walked back out onto the street.

And now I've had the damn song in my head all afternoon. It certainly was one of my favorites in the spring and summer of 1989 when I worked at my college station, which is kind of ironic (in the Alanis Morissette kind of way) for a guy who didn't believe in God then and still doesn't now.

Song of the Week 8/1/08

Old 97's - "Rollerskate Skinny"

I wish Old 97's had done more songs from Satellite Rides Friday night at Webster Hall. (And I wish they didn't do that horrible electric arrangement of "Question," but I've been wary of Rhett Miller's song and arrangement judgement for a few years now so I shouldn't have been surprised.) At least they did "Rollerskate Skinny," my second favorite song on the album. The way Miller screams the line "I believe in love, but it don't believe in meeeeee" has always slayed me.

Really, that re-arrangement of "Question" has almost ruined the song for me as much as the version Miller recorded for his crappy second solo album. Check it out for yourself: