Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Song of the Week 3/22/13

Justin Timberlake - "Mirrors"



Yes, I was one of the close to a million people that bought The 20/20 Experience last week. I thought "Mirrors" sounded great on SNL and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and I dug Futuresex/Lovesounds, so this wasn't a guilty pleasure purchase. I finally was able to give it a spin on Friday, and while much of the album could have used a sturdy editor, it's still pretty good. And "Mirrors" is by far the best track.

What I didn't expect out of my early Friday evening at the office was to hear Rita Houston spin "Mirrors" as the opening track of her WFUV show The Whole Wide World. That was shocking, to say the least. But good music is good music and her show is pretty diverse -- and it sounded great going into Phoenix's "Entertainment."

Monday, March 18, 2013

Modern Needs 3/15/13

I had the awesome pleasure of guest DJing at Lee Greenfeld's Modern Needs Friday night at Last Exit on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. It's an all-vinyl event, which means I got to dig out some gems from the home catalog. Thanks so much to Lee for having me along for the ride and to the old Magnetic Field crew (and other friends) that spent their evening with us. Check out the playlist below.

(Please note: The two gaps below mark when Lee took over spinning tunes.)



T. Rex - “Jeepster”
Thin Lizzy - “Jailbreak”
Graham Parker and The Rumour - “Discovering Japan”
The Replacements - “Can’t Hardly Wait (Single Mix)”
Big Star - “Back of a Car”
Buffalo Tom - “Sodajerk”
Sugar - “Gee Angel”
The Godfathers - “Birth, School, Work, Death”
Nada Surf - “Blankest Year”
The Raspberries - “Go All the Way”
The Monkees - “Last Train to Clarksville”
Young Fresh Fellows - “Taco Wagon/Picture Book”
The Beach Boys - “Sail on Sailor”
World Party - “Ship of Fools”
The Motels - “Only the Lonely”
The Zombies - “This Will be Our Year”

Marshall Crenshaw - “Someday, Someway”
Billy Bragg - “Greetings From the New Brunette”
Big Country - “In a Big Country”
The Cars - “Magic”
Crowded House - “Something So Strong”
Duran Duran - “New Moon on Monday”
The Go-Gos - “This Town”
The Pretenders - “Back on the Chain Gang”
The Waitresses - “I Know What Boys Like”
The Tubes - “She’s a Beauty”
Talk Talk - “It’s My Life”
The Thompson Twins - “Hold Me Now”
Missing Persons - “Destination Unknown”
Social Distortion - “Ball and Chain”
Ramones - “I Just Want to Have Something to Do”

Black Flag - “TV Party”
Cheap Trick - “Dream Police”
The Smithereens - “Behind the Wall of Sleep”
The Knack - “My Sharona”
Billy Squier - “My Kinda Lover”
Men at Work - “Overkill”
The Replacements - “I’ll Be You”
Superchunk - “Learned to Surf”
The Figgs - “Ginger”
Elvis Costello and The Attractions - “I Hope You’re Happy Now”
Hoodoo Gurus - “Death Defying”
Madness - “It Must Be Love”
Haircut One Hundred - “Love Plus One”
Joe Jackson - “Fools In Love”
Split Enz - “Six Months in a Leaky Boat”
Blondie - “Rapture”
Talking Heads - “This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)
The Cure - “Why Can’t I Be You”
The Buggles - “Video Killed the Radio Star”
Urge Overkill - “Sister Havana”
Wilco - “ELT”
Pixies - “Here Comes Your Man”
The Soft Boys - “The Queen of Eyes”
Public Image Limited - “Seattle”
Squeeze - “Black Coffee in Bed”
The English Beat - “Janette”
Scruffy the Cat - “My Baby, She’s Alright”


Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Party Like It's 1999 3/9/13

I expected a big crowd, but never the biggest in Party Like It's 1999's history. I'm still amazed by it three days later. Here's the playlist from that fateful night:

Bad Religion – “A Walk”
Blink 182 – “Dammit”
Sugar – “A Good Idea”
Alice in Chains – “Them Bones”
Foo Fighters – “My Hero”
Metallica – “Enter Sandman”
Pearl Jam – “Daughter”
Oasis – “Don’t Look Back in Anger”
Radiohead – “Paranoid Android”
Dandy Warhols – “Not If You Were The Last Junkie on Earth”
Spacehog – “In the Meantime”
Edwyn Collins – “A Girl Like You”
Garbage – “Stupid Girl”
Jesus Jones – “Right Here, Right Now”
White Town – “Your Woman”
A3 – “Woke Up This Morning (Chosen One Mix)”
Moby featuring Gwen Stefani – “Southside”
Depeche Mode – “Personal Jesus”
Beck – “Loser”
Letters to Cleo – “Here and Now”
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – “The Impression That I Get”
Spin Doctors – “Two Princes”
No Doubt – “Just a Girl”
Alanis Morissette – “Ironic”
LFO – “Summer Girls”
Len – “Steal My Sunshine”
Blackstreet featuring Dr. Dre – “No Diggity”
Notorious B.I.G. – “Juicy”
2Pac and Dr. Dre – “California Love”
Ginuwine – “Pony”
Destiny’s Child – “Bills, Bills, Bills”
TLC – “No Scrubs”
Ace of Base – “The Sign”
CeCe Peniston – “Finally”
Janet Jackson – “Go Deep”
Color Me Badd – “I Wanna Sex You Up”
Mariah Carey – “Fantasy”
Montell Jordan – “This Is How We Do It”
Bell Biv Devoe – “Poison”
Kris Kross – “Jump”En Vogue – “Free Your Mind”
C and C Music Factory – “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)”
Quad City DJ’s – “C’mon N’ Ride It (The Train)”
La Bouche – “Be My Lover”
Culture Beat – “Mr. Vain”
Aqua – “Barbie Girl”
Spice Girls – “Wannabe”
Britney Spears – “…Baby One More Time”
N’Sync – “I Want You Back”
Backstreet Boys – “I Want It That Way”
Chumbawamba – “Tubthumping”
The Proclaimers – “I Wanna Be (500 Miles)”
Barenaked Ladies – “One Week”
Third Eye Blind – “Semi-Charmed Life”
Nirvana – “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
Beastie Boys – “Sabotage”
Green Day – “Basket Case”
Ricky Martin – “Living La Vida Loca”
Sir Mix A Lot – “Baby Got Back”
Naughty By Nature – “O.P.P.”
Onyx – “Slam”
Coolio featuring L.V. – “Gangsta’s Paradise”
Snoop Dogg – “Gin and Juice”
Skee-Lo – “I Wish”
Jay-Z – “Can I Get A…”
Eiffel 65 – “Blue (Da Be Dee)”
Robyn – “Show Me Love”
Jennifer Lopez – “If You Had My Love”
Janet Jackson – “Love Will Never Do (Without You)”
Warren G. and Nate Dogg – “Regulate”
En Vogue – “Don’t Let Go (Love)”
Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men – “One Sweet Day”
Duran Duran – “Ordinary World”
Seal – “Kiss From a Rose”

Saturday, March 09, 2013

Song of the Week 3/8/13

Duran Duran - "Save a Prayer"

On Thursday I was searching through Amazon's MP3 store for bargains. I came across the expanded edition of Rio for 5.99 and knew I had to buy it because it had the U.S. remixes of the title track and "Hungry Like the Wolf." I listened to the 29 tracks in the collection over the past two days and found myself comparing the album version of "Save a Prayer" and the Arena version that was a U.S. single (and the version I liked best as a teenager). This morning I put VH1 Classic on and wouldn't you know that they played the studio "Save a Prayer" video.

(They followed it up with the the's "This is the Day," which was *awesome*. I had no idea that Wix from Paul McCartney's band plays in the the. But there he is, jamming on the accordion.)

Here's the studio version:

Here's the live version that was a single in 1984:

Sunday, March 03, 2013

Song of the Week 3/1/13

Husker Du - "Hate Paper Doll"

I raved about the Copper Blue show the Bob Mould Band did last September in the 2012 RT20, but that didn't prepare me for how powerful the trio would be at Bowery Ballroom Tuesday night. They opened with five Copper Blue songs in a row, playing with an intensity that was stunning for a 52 year-old man. The highlight was the trio of songs they did from Husker Du's Flip Your Wig. I never thought I'd ever see Mould sing "Hate Paper Doll." And I never thought it could sound SO much better that the studio version. Just hearing the drums not sound like tin cans was a huge plus.

On Wednesday night SNL/Portlandia star Fred Armisen joined the band for that same trio of Flip Your Wig songs. This video captures just how great that block of tunes can sound on stage.