Other Musical Stuff From 2005

COMPILATIONS, REISSUES, ETC.

10) Bill Withers - Just As I Am (Columbia/Legacy)
All I knew about Bill Withers before this reissue crossed my desk was that he sang “Lean on Me” long before that one hit wonder Club Nouveau took it to number-one when I was in high school, and that he sang that theme to Kate and Allie. (Hey, when I was growing we only got a couple of channels in clearly, so I was forced to watch a lot of CBS crap. You think I actually liked the Dukes of Hazzard? Umm, okay, bad example.) Oh, and I also knew that “Ain’t No Sunshine,” the second track on Just As I Am, was probably one of the best breakup songs ever. So hearing the other 11 songs on this fine album came as something as a revelation. Withers wrote a series of great portraits of growing up in the South and what life was like in Harlem in the ’70s. And his rich voice is more than ably supported by producer/keyboardist Booker T. Jones (as in, and the MG’s) and guitarist Stephen Stills. Just As I Am was reissued as one of them newfangled DualDiscs, with one side a regular CD and the other a DVD. The DVD side includes a great documentary about the creation of the album, with Withers cutting down the interviewer Elvis Mitchell on just about every point the former New York Times film critic brings up. Those tense moments convinced me this new format is definitely worthwhile.

9) Rick Springfield - Written in Rock: Rick Springfield Anthology (RCA/Legacy)
Okay, hands up if you think this is the stupidest choice you’ve seen on this the list this year? One, two, three…106, 107…okay, I get it. Hands up those that don’t find it so crazy…………alright McEwan, you can put your hand down. Yes my peeps, I have spent time listening to two discs of Rick Springfield songs—and more than just once! What made me spin these discs (well, I’ll admit, the first disc got a lot more play than the second one, which features such non-winners as “Bop ’Til You Drop” and “Celebrate Youth”) wasn’t just those ubiquitous hits like “Jessie’s Girl,” “I’ve Done Everything For You” and “Don’t Talk to Strangers.” The deep album tracks on this collection, especially the pre-Working Class Dog material, are some pretty solid guitar-based pop songs. Springfield also wrote some of the most honest liner notes I’ve ever seen, especially when it comes to describing his film Hard to Hold: “I’m sorry, but that movie sucked. I know a lot of people liked it but in retrospect, maybe playing a musician wasn’t the best way to show off my acting chops.” I gotta give props to a man that will slam his own film in print. Okay, I gotta get back to singing along to “Affair of the Heart.”

8) Paul Westerberg - The Best of Besterberg (Rhino)
I almost chose to leave this album off of this list for this set’s one glaring omission: “Waiting for Somebody” isn’t on here! I mean, what gives? Is director Cameron Crowe trying to make sure that anyone who ends up discovering Westerberg’s post-Replacements catalog has to buy the Singles soundtrack (where “Somebody” first appeared in 1992)? It’s still the best song Minneapolis native has written in the past decade plus, and it still never fails to make me happy for those three minutes and 32 seconds. The kicker to this is reading the very end of Westerberg’s own track notes where he writes “Missing Songs”…and lists five songs that aren’t “Somebody!” He follows that up by writing, “I had the opportunity of input on which songs to include, but declined—seeing as I’ve been known to be wrong in the past.” Argh. Just another way this great man has aggravated me and many fans over the years. (I’d count 1/3 of the way-too-drunken show I saw this past May as a big chunk of that aggravation.) You might ask, “So with all that complaining, why did it make the list?” Well, any disc that has “Dyslexic Heart,” “Runaway Wind,” “Love Untold,” “Let the Bad Times Roll” and the best B-sides ever, “Seeing Her” and “Man Without Ties,” must be chock-full o’ goodness. Or in this case, bestness.

7) Fountains of Wayne - Out-Of-State Plates (Virgin)
For a group that’s released only three albums in their 10 year existence, it’s amazing that Fountains of Wayne had enough B-sides to fill up two discs. What’s even more surprising is the high quality of these supposed “throwaway tracks.” Each disc flows like the songs were all meant to go together, even though they were recorded at different points in the band’s career. Tracks like “I Know You Well” and “Kid Gloves” should have made the cut for one of their real albums, and why Adam Schlesinger, Chris Collingwood and company decided to not hold back the two new songs on the collection—“Maureen” and “The Girl I Can’t Forget”—boggles the mind. “Maureen,” the tale of being the male best friend of a girl who shares a little bit too much information, is just too damn funny to be placed on a stop-gap release. The lines “I know you think I'm just a friend/But can we please just put an end/To all the graphic imagery that you insist on feeding me” slay me—and at times is just a little too close for comfort. Add in witty liner notes, some choice covers (finally their version of “…Baby One More Time” that’s not of bootleg quality) and two great Christmas tunes, and you’ve got one of the best B-side compilations of recent memory.

6) Bob Dylan - No Direction Home: The Soundtrack - The Bootleg Series Volume 7 (Legacy/Columbia)
So when is a soundtrack not a soundtrack? When it’s a Bob Dylan project, nothing is bound to make sense. (I might just be saying that because I saw Masked and Anonymous on cable recently, and I was still confused.) Most the 28 tracks on this collection are not featured in the acclaimed Martin Scorsese film, or least the versions in the film are usually the standard album versions. The producers of the soundtrack wisely figured out that people didn’t need another Dylan best of (even though yet another compilation was released on November 15th), so they drew on rare live recordings and early takes of well known classics to make it yet another fine release in the Bootleg Series. This edition echoes the spirit of The Beatles’ Anthology series by revealing Dylan’s creative process during his mid-’60s peak. The alternate early takes of “Tombstone Blues,” “Highway 61 Revisited” and “Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again” show that Dylan wasn’t afraid to radically rearrange his material when searching for that perfect combination of wordplay and a messy cacophony of rock. Even though the live version of “Like a Rolling Stone” was previously released on the Bootleg Series Volume 4: Live 1966, hearing that fan yell “Judas” and Dylan’s venomous response (and commanding the band to “play fucking loud”) is worth listening to over and over again.

5) T. Rex - The T. Rex Wax Co. Singles: A’s and B’s 1972-1977 (Rhino)
I’ll admit that at the beginning of this year my knowledge of T. Rex was limited to the hits on Electric Warrior (“Get It On” and “Jeepster”) and the few songs played in that film from a few years back, Billy Elliott. Wow, I was missing out on some good music. These two discs collect almost all the essential tracks Marc Bolan and company recorded after Electric Warrior until his death in 1977. Yes, that song from that car commercial is here (“20th Century Boy”), as are some of the best songs produced in the glam rock heyday (“Telegram Sam,” “Metal Guru” and “Children of the Revolution”). What fascinates me most about this collection are the tracks that were the B-sides. The fact that songs as strong as “Cadilac,” “Satisfaction Pony” and “Solid Baby” never made it to albums seems, well, kind of crazy to me. I suppose it was a different time back then, where artists actually recorded good songs for B-sides (as opposed to offering up a live track or a remix like most acts today). The T. Rex Wax Co. Singles is great place to start for anyone looking to discover one of the most underrated (at least in the U.S) artists the ’70s produced.

4) Elvis Costello - King of America (Rhino)
I’ve been a big fan of all of Rhino’s reissues of the Costello catalog, yet this is the one I’ve always been waiting for. This is the only Costello disc to feature two of my Top 10 all-time Elvis songs (“Brilliant Mistake” and “I’ll Wear It Proudly”) and has always been my favorite album of his since I picked it up in the summer of 1989. This is my third different CD version of the album, which makes me hope that this is it for the reissues. (Yes, I’m talking to you Mr. MacManus.) The original Rykodisc reissue had a bonus disc of live material and some other extra tracks, but the Rhino edition blows it out of the water with a second disc of 21 bonus tracks. The highlights by far are the eight solo demos Costello recorded before bringing in the multiple casts of musicians featured on the final product (billed to The Costello Show). The raw angst in Costello’s voice in “I’ll Wear It Proudly” and “I Hope You’re Happy Now” (which ended up on his next album, Blood and Chocolate) leave no doubt that this was a man going through a bitter breakup, and we as listeners were all the better for it. The title of the leadoff track “Brilliant Mistake” has never been so appropriate.

3) Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run 30th Anniversary Edition (Columbia)
Here’s a tiny piece of advice: if any artist is going to do a reissue of one of their classic albums, and not include any unreleased songs or alternate takes, this is the way they should do it. Having a properly mastered for CD version of one of my Top 10 albums of all time is nice (it certainly sounds a whole more powerful and less hissy now), but the two DVDs that came in this box set are nothing short of extraordinary if you’re a Springsteen fan. Hammersmith Odeon, London 1975 is a two hour-plus tour de force of Springsteen and the classic E Street Band lineup at their ferocious best. How footage this good was left to languish in Springsteen’s vault is beyond me. This concert took place three months after Born to Run was released, so the six songs from that disc they play still have a freshness and a little bit a wild edge to them. I’m pretty sure that “Born to Run” and “She’s the One” were never played this fast again. The best part is finally having high quality renditions of the “Detroit Medley” and “Quarter to Three” and the beautiful solo version of “For You.” The other DVD in the set, Wings for Wheels, is a decent look at Springsteen in the studio at that time and is pretty entertaining to watch, especially when Springsteen listens to the playback of alternate takes of “Jungleland.” I swear he must have bite into a lemon before one of them plays. However, the best part of this DVD is the bonus footage of three songs from 1973. Springsteen and this smaller version (only one keyboardist, no second guitarist) of the E Street Band seem tentative on the first two songs, “Spirit in the Night” and “Wild Billy’s Circus Story,” and then shift into 5th gear when they break into “Thundercrack.” This version of the long lost gem—which was only released on the 1998 box set Tracks—is worth the money I paid for this box. With all that being said, I have one question: Why couldn’t we get to hear full versions of those alternate takes that made Bruce look as though he chewed on citrus fruit?

2) Wilco - Kicking Television: Live in Chicago (Nonesuch)
This release makes me think I might have the ability to project my will upon people—or at least upon Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. Back in June of 2004 when I saw the new six-piece lineup of Wilco (which I wrote about in the 15th annual Reynolds Top 20 List) for the first time at their Irving Plaza show, I was struck by how expansive the sound was and how much better Tweedy sounded doing these A Ghost Is Born songs than he did on the album itself. Halfway through the set I started thinking, “Someone’s gotta properly record this lineup—bootleg recordings aren’t going to be good enough.” I think that I mentioned the same thing to Tweedy when I interviewed him for the day job a couple weeks later, and I thought about it again in the fall of 2004 when I saw them at Radio City Music Hall. Somehow my thoughts got through, and the band booked a four night stand in their hometown of Chicago in May of this year to record. Listening through these 23 tracks over and over again lead me to the conclusion that they had four rather hot shows in the Windy City. From the 38 times Tweedy screams “nothing” in “Misunderstood” to the final soulful lament for peace in “Comment,” Kicking Television captures a great band at the height of their powers. I can’t wait to hear what this latest lineup does in the studio.

1) The Figgs - Continue to Enjoy The Figgs Volume One (Stomper Music)
After years of pleading from fans (and this author) The Figgs finally recorded a live album this year. And the best part? Look at the title above—it ends with Volume One, which means a Volume Two is on the way next year. Recorded over Labor Day weekend at guitarist Mike Gent’s Providence, Rhode Island home in front of friends and family, Continue to Enjoy the Figgs captures everything that makes a Figgs live show one of the only things that keeps me going on this planet. There’s a couple of previously unreleased songs (“Place Is Packed,” “Painted Panel Basement”), aggressive jamming within their tightly focused pop tunes (“Static,” “Inside the Disco”), shout outs to fellow bandmates as they’re about to blow the doors off some dump (Gent yells out “Come on Pete” just as the band is about to kick “Something’s Wrong” into hyperdrive) and little vocal improvs that can be damn funny (Gent stretching out the “eeeeee” at the end of “Simon Simone” is priceless). Continue to Enjoy The Figgs is essential for any Figgs fan, and is a great place to start for the uninitiated. And now pardon me, as I have to go listen to it for the fifth time today.

CONCERTS

10) Weezer - Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY 5/12
Relief. That was the one feeling I had when this show ended. I had listened to the new Weezer album, Make Believe, twice before this show and all I could think was, “Please, please, please, don’t do the entire new album.” Make Believe is easily the worst record in this band’s career, with only two bearable songs. Thankfully they only did five songs from Make Believe, and redeemed those poor selections by doing a few songs from Pinkerton. Those tracks got me pogoing, and then gave me the Achilles heel problem I’ve battled for most of the year. So thanks for that leg pain Weezer, it was worth it.

9) Juliana Hatfield - Maxwells, Hoboken, NJ 8/11
I think I wrote something like this last year about either her last album or her band show in New York, but I feel the need to repeat myself—Juliana Hatfield is a great guitar player. Now I don’t mean in the Eddie Van Halen/Yngwie Malmsteen vein. I’m talking about playing that isn’t technical perfect, but is perfect for the mood of certain songs. During this show Hatfield laid down solo after solo that zigged and zagged all over the place, at points almost falling apart before finally making its way back to solid ground. And with great support from the monster rhythm section of Ed Valauskas and Pete Caldes, how could she go wrong?

8) The Figgs - Southpaw, Brooklyn, NY 3/12
The first time The Figgs played at this venue in early 2003, it was packed, most people were drunk and raucous and screamed after every song and the band played great. The second time…eeeh, it wasn’t so hot. The crowd was snoozing, which robbed the guys of any energy. This show more than made up for that Xmas gig of 2003. And the fact I got five people who had never seen them before to go to the gig was an added bonus.

7) White Stripes/The Shins/Brendan Benson - Keyspan Park, Brooklyn, NY 9/24
By the time this early fall triple bill rolled around, I had already seen The Shins headline a sold out Webster Hall and Brendan Benson play for a few thousand at the annual Siren Festival at Coney Island. So the only unknown quantity in spending my hard earned entertainment dollars were Jack and Meg White, who I had never seen before. In retrospect, I can’t believe I ever doubted that they would be good. Jack White’s guitar was so loud and covered so much territory that I can’t ever imagine them needing a bass player or another guitarist live. And you know what? Meg White ain’t so bad herself. (And she’s kind of cute too, sexist pig that I am.) It was also apparent that playing on a bill with the Stripes inspired both opening acts to up their games. Brendan Benson played all of his most rocking songs and commented how much he enjoyed playing on the same bill as his friend (and sometime bandmate) Jack White. And The Shins could barely contain their glee at being on the same stage as the Stripes. It’s not like this group acts morose on stage, but keyboardist-bassist-guitarist Marty Crandall and bassist-guitarist Dave Hernandez jumped around just a little bit higher at this show. A great bill of indie rock at the home of the Brooklyn Cyclones—who could ask for anything more?

6) Rilo Kiley - Webster Hall, New York, NY 5/26
Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis is a goddess. She’s also one of the best front persons I have seen in recent years. She snarled, cooed and belted in all the right places during this set. I was excited about this show after it ended that I jumped up and down and my IPod flew out and landed at someone’s feet. So thank you Josh, and the mysterious woman, for realizing what had happened and retrieving it for me. And thank you Jenny Lewis, for just being you.

5) Bob Mould - Irving Plaza, New York, NY 10/5
The top 3 things about this concert:
1) Bob Mould played Hüsker Dü songs with a full band.
2) Bob Mould played Sugar songs with a full band.
3) Bob Mould played some solo stuff with a full band.
Do I need to write anymore about how great this night was? Or how meaningful it was to hear “Could You Be the One?” and “Makes No Sense at All” at ear-splitting rock band volume? If you’re a longtime reader, probably not. After Mould’s “retirement” of playing live shows with a live band in 1998, and his refusal to play either Hüsker or Sugar songs with any other bands, I never thought I’d get to see this happen. Yet I did. Amazing. This show was part of one of the greatest concert weeks of my whole life, which you’ll be able to read more about below.

4) Gravel Pit/Nada Surf - Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY 10/6
It had been four long years since The Gravel Pit had played in New York, and honestly, I never thought I would see them play again. I was okay with that—seeing the singer and recent New York transplant Jed Parish play solo shows and getting the occasional Gentlemen (the other 3/4 of the band) show down here was good enough for me. So when I found out they had signed on to open for their old touring pals Nada Surf (and were doing other shows in their hometowns of Boston and New Haven), I immediately bought a ticket and took the next day off work so I could thoroughly enjoy the night. I did worry that I might have psyched myself up too much for this show and I would end up disappointed. Thankfully, those fears were unfounded. For a group that had one rehearsal and two gigs under their belts, they sounded quite incredible. Parish’s voice blended effortlessly with muscular riffs that guitarist Lucky Jackson spun out song after song, while rhythm section of Ed Valauskas and Pete Caldes proved yet again that they are two of the best in the business. And the biggest surprise of the night? Nada Surf were damn good too. I hadn’t seen them since the “Popular” days, and they certainly have moved miles beyond that.

3) Soul Asylum - Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY 10/26
In this year where a good deal has been written about New Orleans, I left this show thinking that it was as close to a New Orleans style funeral as I would ever get. Perhaps that’s because singer-guitarist Dave Pirner moved there a few years ago, I’m not sure. The spirit of late bassist Karl Mueller weighed over this entire evening, yet not in a sad way. When Pirner said that this and every show the band played from now on would be dedicated to Mueller, people whooped and hollered and shouted out his name in joy. (And then in the case of me and my friend Mike, we got more beer.) Apparently Mueller himself picked his own replacement (pardon the pun) before his death, as ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson filled in more than capably. He, along with new drummer Michael Bland (who’s played with Paul Westerberg and Prince), propelled the band, giving Pirner and guitarist Dan Murphy more energy than I had seen in them since the pre-Grave Dancer’s Union days. The new material held up well amongst all the band’s hits, which makes me optimistic for the new album due out next spring. And as much as I don’t need to ever hear “Runaway Train” again, Pirner’s small gesture during it made it totally worthwhile. Just before Stinson stepped up to play the little solo bass lick just after the first chorus, Pirner looked up at the ceiling and pointed. It was a tiny moment, but it spoke volumes about his love for his fellow bandmate. Welcome back guys—I think Karl would be proud.

2) Electric Six - Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY 9/30
I’d probably write more about this show—which was amazing, don’t get me wrong—but I do have a hard time recalling the exact details of what songs they played. I do know they opened with “Dance Epidemic,” the Queen cover “Radio Ga Ga” had a lot of people clapping their hands in the air and that frontman Dick Valentine still has the best dancing moves this side of Usher. And of course, I do recall that I jumped up and down enough to reinjure my heel for like the fourth time this year. My friends Erik and Kat and I did drink a lot of beer before the show. However, all that beer was no match for the random shot that was given to me at one point by some folks who worked at Bowery and were there on their night off enjoying the gig. I felt a tap on my shoulder, and turned around with some girl saying, “Here, join us for a shot!” I asked her why, and she replied, “You look like you’re having so much fun that you deserve it.” So I stupidly slugged back the shot, not knowing it was the LSD of booze—tequila. I immediately followed that up with a beer (bought by the same folks that gave me the shot) in hopes of keeping my brain in once place. Alas, that was not to be, and that’s a story for another time.

1) The Figgs/Graham Parker & The Figgs - Knitting Factory, New York, NY 6/11
I’ve obviously seen many Figgs shows in my decade plus of being a fan and my more than five years of unofficially working for the guys. And I know that they can be their own harshest critics. So imagine how puzzled the look on my face was when all three of them agreed with me on one point after this gig—it was the best they had ever played with Graham Parker. And I’m not just talking about their set backing him; their opening set (with guest guitarist Brett Rosenberg) was just about as perfect a 45 minutes as you’ll ever see in music. That pace didn’t let up when they came back out with GP. Every note was in the right place, all the harmonies soared, the solos were immaculate and their enthusiasm on stage was met with an ecstatic response from a packed venue. If they tour together again, it’s going to be hard to top this night.

DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR

Spoon

Here’s a good sign of how swept up I became in Spoon’s music this year. In the space of four weeks, I went from only owning one song, “The Way We Get By” from the first The O.C. Mix, to having their entire catalog and some live bootleg tracks on my iTunes. Last year my friend Bill told me he was positive I would like their music, and I admit I didn’t really take him seriously. (Sorry about that Bill.) Then when I mentioned to him I had heard this great new song by them called “I Turn My Camera On,” he sent me a couple of MP3s, which got stuck in my head for a few days. Britt Daniel’s voice and the forceful, yet sparse drums were a combination I was powerless to resist. So I spent days looking on the ’net for other songs I could sample, and every track I found was better than the next. I was pleasantly surprised when I picked up their 2001 album Girls Can Tell and discovered that I already knew one song, “Everything Hits at Once,” from somewhere—WFUV perhaps? I’m still not sure. Of course, now that I own everything, I want them to make another album very soon so I can continue my Spoon fix.
Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention these discovery runner-ups: Brendan Benson, Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie, Josh Rouse and The Shins were all key parts of my musical resurgence this year.

REDISCOVERY OF THE YEAR

Little Feat

Long ago in the dark ages (a time historians now call the mid-to-late ’80s) I loved what kids today call “jam bands.” The Dead (who’ve I’ve mentioned in the past), The Allman Brothers Band and Little Feat were all in high rotation when I had wild hair and way too big of a moustache. Little Feat’s catalog was just being released on CD when I entered college, and I think five or six of my first 100 discs ended up being those reissues. Something about the slinky grooves and at-times bizarre lyrics from frontman Lowell George connected with me—perhaps it was because George had been in a band with Frank Zappa for a couple of years, who knows? And when the rest of the band reformed without the late George in 1987 and hit the road, I tried to see them as many times as possible, and gladly bought their first two reunion albums, Let it Roll and Representing the Mambo. Then after I graduated my tastes drifted away from Little Feat and the like, and I eventually sold off many of the band’s albums during various moves. Last year the amazing live album Waiting for Columbus was reissued, and listening to it made me remember why I liked them in the first place. Then one day at work I heard “Rock and Roll Doctor,” and immediately wanted to hear it again. So this year I have re-added three Little Feat albums to my collection, with all of them making it to the iPod. Now if I start talking about buying those Allman Brothers albums of the late ’70s, someone, please, stop me at all costs.

The Top 10 Visual Aids of 2005

10) Entourage (HBO)
This humorous look at a Hollywood star and his hysterical posse is worth watching week after week for just one reason—Jeremy Piven’s slimy agent Ari. Piven has always been better than most of the poorly written TV and movie roles he’s had over the years (PCU? Serendipity? Huh?) Finally he’s got some writing behind him that matches up to his acting prowess.

9) Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Touchstone)
I approached this film adaptation of Douglas Adams’ sci-fi humor classic with a wary eye. The book (in fact, the entire series) was a big part of my geeky adolescence, and I also enjoyed the BBC TV adaptation that ran on my local PBS station and the original radio play (which led to the book) that was aired weekends on the local NPR station. Thankfully this big screen version didn’t disappoint. Martin Freeman from the BBC version of The Office (which I found less funny the more I watched, so sue me) was perfect as Arthur Dent, and Sam Rockwell pretty much steals the movie as Zaphod Beetlebrox. It’s a shame Hitchhiker’s wasn’t a bigger hit, as I was looking forward to a sequel.

8) The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Universal)
Oh, my sides hurt after seeing this Steve Carell star-making vehicle. The scene where he gets his chest hair actually removed on camera is one of the funniest—and most painful—moments on film of this century. Watching Carell’s castmates like Paul Rudd and Seth Rogan wince with pain and then break into laughter that obviously was not planned during the waxing was worth the price of admission. And yelling out Kelly Clarkson’s name as a swear word was a great touch too. All in all, Virgin is a great mix of raunch and sweetness that Carell will have a hard time duplicating as his career moves ahead.

7) Bob Dylan: No Direction Home (PBS)
Gasp—something that aired on PBS made it to my list this year? What will all my right wing readers think of me? Wait, unless someone slips a copy under Rush’s door down the hall, I’m pretty sure that my audience won’t include Karl Rove. Sorry, got sidetracked there—I meant to talk about this almost four hour documentary that Martin Scorsese directed. Seeing Dylan talk concisely and clearly about his own life was even more shocking than when he wrote an autobiography. I wasn’t positive that everything Mr. Zimmerman was saying was actually the truth, yet I was inclined to believe him most of the time. The other surprising revelation in the documentary is how many TV shows Dylan appeared on when he was starting his career. These TV performances were so interesting that I wished the documentary had aired them in full instead of some of the yawn-inducing interviews. Oh, and seeing Joan Baez curse like a sailor a few times is one of the funniest things of this or any year.

6) Broken Flowers (Focus Features)
So one of my favorite actors ever (Bill Murray) teams up with one of my favorite directors ever (Jim Jarmusch)—there’s no way it could ever suck. Murray plays another variation on his “middle-aged man with a bag of regrets drifting through life” character he first perfected in Rushmore and Lost in Translation, which meshes perfectly with Jamusch’s storytelling style. The director also gets a great deal out of his supporting cast, as Jeffery Wright, Sharon Stone and Frances Conroy flesh out their characters in their brief snippets of on screen time. So question is this: will Murray every get an Oscar for his impressive body of work over the past 12 years (starting with Groundhog Day), or is he going to have to steal one from somebody who doesn’t deserve it? If I was Russell Crowe, Nicolas Cage or Robin Williams, I’d be locking up my statuette someplace safe.

5) Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking (PBS)
Double gasp—two programs from PBS in the same year? I bet you’re thinking, “He’s been drinking too much of that cheap can beer while writing this year—let’s get him some Guinness, that will snap him out of it.” I swear, I picked and wrote about of these PBS entries under the influence of nothing more than a couple of glasses of Diet Coke. I was a huge Sherlock Holmes fan as a kid, and I can look over at my bookshelf in the “D’s” and see my hardcover edition of The Complete Sherlock Holmes, which I read cover to cover twice as a teenager. This latest entry in the Holmes canon isn’t based upon one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, as writer Allan Cubbitt puts a decidedly modern spin on the proceedings with a killer who is a sexual predator. Rupert Everett—best known, I guess, for being that gay guy in that crappy movie with Madonna—was a great choice as Holmes. (Even though me and the two people I whom watched it with weren’t too sure it was Everett at first because he looked so different. I still think it was some sort of prosthetic nose, but I could be wrong.) Here’s hoping that Everett steps into this role again in the future.

4) The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)
Since Jon Stewart took over The Daily Show, it’s always been the most reliable place for satire and laugh-until-your-guts-hurt comedy on television. In 2000 and 2004 it was required viewing for anyone interested in the Presidential elections, but I’d dare say Stewart and his crew have been even better this year. With so many political footballs this year (the CIA leak and Scooter Libby, the choices for Supreme Court, the utter failure of government to see the Katrina disaster quickly) the show hasn’t had to resort to as many of those “let’s interview the crazy person with a crazy idea” pieces. Stewart’s incredulous attitude about the actions and policies of those in power (and even those left on the sidelines) has always been there, and has been sharpened each week as more idiocy occurs in Washington. And any time you can get a U.S Senator (John McCain) to joke about his own time being tortured to the torture on the show 24, you’ve got to be doing something right.

3) The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)
If I was Bill O’Reilly, I’d be thinking about a defamation of character lawsuit soon. This Daily Show spinoff hosted by Stephen Colbert perfectly skewers The O’Reilly Factor and many of the other singular talking head shows on the cable news networks. Colbert plays the know-it-all buffoon role to the hilt and rarely drops out of character. The show’s little features like the Threat Down (one night the #5 reason we were threatened was pirates) and The Word (which just basically craps all over O’Reilly’s Talking Points) are pure comic genius. And Colbert has definitely improved as an interviewer from his time guest hosting for Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. This man has made New York’s attorney general and the head of Hayden Planetarium both seem rather interesting.

2) Arrested Development (FOX)
FOX sucks. FOX sucks. FOX sucks. FOX sucks. FOX sucks. FOX sucks. FOX sucks. I can’t believe they canceled one of the greatest sitcoms to ever air. So I’ll say it again: FOX sucks. FOX sucks. FOX sucks. FOX sucks. FOX sucks. FOX sucks. FOX sucks. FOX sucks. Whew, I feel better. I will miss that Bluth family making me laugh each week. I’m holding out hope that some smart network or cable channel out there will pick it up once its run is done on FOX in January, but since it’s not a reality show or a rerun of a crime drama, I can’t imagine that anyone will.

1) Lost (ABC)
30 plus episodes into this show and I have one question for my fellow Lost watchers: is this one of the best dramas ever? Seriously, the amount of character development on this show hasn’t been done on a network drama in, well, ever. And considering how fast last season’s other breakout hit, Desperate Housewives, jumped the shark in record time in its second season, the fact Lost is still this good makes me think we could get a few more great seasons down the road.

Song of the Week 12/30/05

Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta - "Summer Nights"

Yes, something from Grease

And yes, I listened to it over 50 times so I could sing it at Live Band Karaoke with my co-host Michelle at Magnetic Field.

And yes, we kicked ass.

Best night of 2005. Too bad it took until December 30th for that to happen.

Song of the Week 12/23/05

Paul Westerberg - "Dyslexic Heart"

This gem from the Singles soundtrack was inescapable on Thursday as the transit strike trudged into its third day here in New York. I woke up at 6 a.m. to walk the hour plus to Alli's house, as she had the most valuable thing in NYC this week--a vehicle. This summer I had made her a disc with songs that all had heart in the title, and she grabbed it as we got into the truck. We heard it once on the two-and-half-hour drive in, and once on the three-hour-fifteen-minute drive back to Brooklyn. And then after I walked back home from her pad, I plopped down in my recliner, put on VH1 Classic, and there appeared the video, which stars a shirtless, writhing around on a dance floor pre-Entourage Jeremy Piven. (Piven had a bit role in Singles.)

Have I mentioned I'm happy to have the F Train back?

Song of the Week 12/16/05

John Hiatt - "Cry Love"

This Song of the Week is somewhat of a mystery to me. I heard it Friday on WFUV, and it jogged my memory that I sang along to it at home at some point this week. But when -- or why -- I have no idea. Was it played on Monday's episode of Arrested Development? Was it on the previous week's episode? Was it featured in some crappy movie I saw while flipping through the channels and cooking up my dinner? Could this be the onset of Alzheimer's?

In any case, it's a pretty great tune from a guy who has written his share of classics, and it's easily the best song on Hiatt's 1995 solid album Walk On. But damn, I wish I could remember when I heard it that first time this week.

Song of the Week 12/9/05

Ben Folds - "Annie Waits"

Somehow Ben Folds came up in conversation three times this week, which lead me to listening to Rockin' the Suburbs on the way into work Friday. Then Friday night at the Magnetic Field third anniversary party, Ben Folds music came on again, with "Annie Waits" leading me to play air piano at the bar. At least, I think that's what happened. I did a wee bit too much celebrating, I must admit...

Charlene's 80s Birthday Party 12/3/05

Thanks to all who came out to celebrate Charlene's birthday Saturday night at Magnetic Field. For those want to see what was played, or couldn't remember what was played, read below.

Sugarcubes - “Birthday”
Killing Joke - “80s”
The Normal - “Warm Leatherette”
Gang of Four - “I Love a Man in Uniform”
Flying Lizards - “Money”
Malcom Mclaren - “Madam Butterfly”
The Dominatrix - “The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight”
Human League - “The Lebanon”
Depeche Mode - “Personal Jesus”
Tones on Tail - “Christine Says”
Soft Cell - “Memorabilia”
Pop Will Eat Itself - “Dig It”
Joy Division - “She’s Lost Control”
The The - “Infected”
Virgin Prunes - “Baby Turns Blue”
Zodiac Mindwarp - “Prime Mover”
Africa Bambaataa - “World Destruction”
The Cult - “She Sells Sanctuary”
Faith No More - “We Care a Lot”
Psychedelic Furs - “President Gas”
Violent Femmes - “Blister In the Sun”
The Cure - “Close to Me”
The Smiths - “How Soon Is Now”
Joboxers - “Just Got Lucky”
Haircut 100 - “Love Plus One”
Go-Gos - “Turn to You”
Julian Cope - “World Shut Your Mouth”
Young Fresh Fellows - “No One Really Knows”
Jim Carroll Band - “People Who Died”
Nik Kershaw - “Wouldn’t It Be Good”
Patti Smith - “People have the Power”
The Replacements - “Left of the Dial”
Black Flag - “Rise Above”
Husker Du - “Don’t Want to Know If You Are Lonely”
Ramones - “The KKK Took My Baby Away”
Hoodoo Gurus - “I Want You Back”
Dramarama - “Anything Anything”
Joe Strummer - “Love Kills”
Public Image Ltd. - “This Is Not a Love Song”
XTC - “Earn Enough For Us”
Charlie Sexton - “Beat’s So Lonely”
World Party - “Ship of Fools”
Missing Persons - “Walking in L.A.”
Lemonheads - “Luka”
Lords of the New Church - “Like a Virgin”
Circle Jerks - “Jerks on 45”
Primitives - “Way Behind Me”
Big Audio Dynamite - “E=MC2”
Thomas Dolby - “Hyperactive”
Talk Talk - “It’s My Life”
Devo - “Beautiful World”
Peter Murphy - “Cuts You Up”
New Order - “Love Vigilantes”
Pixies - “Where is My Mind?”
Iggy Pop - “I’m Bored”
The Pursuit of Happiness - “I’m An Adult Now”
Soul Asylum - “Sometime to Return”
R.E.M. - “Begin the Begin”
The Bears - “Fear Is Never Boring”
Stone Roses - “I Wanna Be Adored”
Talking Heads - “Slippery People”
Tears For Fears - “Broken/Head Over heels”
The Monroes - “What Do All the People Know?”
Echo & the Bunnymen - “Bring On the Dancing Horses”
Greg Kihn Band - “The Breakup Song”
Split Endz - “I Got You”
Robert Palmer - “Looking for Clues”
Jesus & Mary Chain - “Just Like Honey”
Bauhaus - “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”

Song of the Week 12/2/05

Guns N' Roses - "Sweet Child o' Mine"

Okay, this one will be quick: this was the last song done last night at Live Band Karaoke at Magnetic Field, with 18 people on stage by the end. Then when I walked into work today and as I made my way to our kitchen, I heard it blaring from the construction workers' radio. That's it.

Tri-Songs of the Week 11/25/05

Chris Whitley - “Big Sky Country”

Billy Paul - “Me and Mrs. Jones”

R.E.M. - “What’s the Frequency Kenneth?”

I know that it seems to defeat the purpose of a Song of the week when there are three of them, but I couldn’t write about this week without including all three. The first comes from a sad news story, the second brings back some funny memories, while the third is, well, just plain odd.

“Big Sky Country” is from Chris Whitley’s incredible 1991 debut, Living With the Law. I’ve written extensively about this album in 1991 and in the 10th anniversary edition of the Top 20, so I won’t rehash the story of the album and its meditative and healing powers. Whitley died Sunday night of terminal lung cancer at the age of 45, which is too damn young. Now Whitley had plenty of demons (his drug battles were certainly publicized throughout his career) so hearing that he didn’t die from an overdose was a surprise. Hopefully he’s a peace in the big sky country (if one does exist...which I’m inclined to think doesn’t).

On Tuesday I found out that my friend Chris, who I have known since my first days of college and lived with my senior year, was leaving the NYC area and taking a job in the Windy City, home of baseball’s World Champions. The sudden announcement was surprising, considering he would be in Chicago full-time FIVE days later. So as I walked to an impromptu going away party thrown by Chris’s co-workers, I listened to “Me and Mrs. Jones,” a soul classic is there ever was one. This was one of my favorite songs as a kid (even though I had no idea what Mr. Paul was talking about), and in 1991 I finally scored it on CD sampler from our friendly Rhino rep we dealt with at our college station, 92 WICB. Our sister station, 106 VIC, ran an annual 50 hour marathon for charity each spring. And in 1991 my roommate at the time Chris, and my sophomore year roommate Warren were chosen to host the event and be up for two days plus. The VIC airstaff would take turns engineering for the two folks hosting the marathon each year, and the previous year I worked the Saturday overnight. This year I choose the early Sunday a.m. shift since I would have to be on the air later that day hosting WICB’s Breakfast With The Beatles. The boundaries of the album rock format that VIC had at the time were always pushed on the marathon weekend, so I decided to bring in some of the cheesiest 70s songs I could find to give Chris and Warren an energy boost. At one point during the early morning shift, I started playing “Me and Mrs. Jones.” Somehow Chris gathered up enough energy to start singing along, and then he stood up and proceeded to belt out the song as if the original Mrs. Jones could hear him through our FM cable connection. It was magical, hysterical and ultimately, very memorable. Whenever I hear “Me and Mrs. Jones” I get a little smile and think of Chris. And Wednesday night when I stopped by one of my home away from home’s vegas, someone played it on the jukebox. And I sat there and raised a glass to Chris, and hoped that he and his family have a great time in Chicago.

Our last song ties into Chris’s departure as well. He was a producer for CBS News, and spent a lot of time working with Dan Rather. Mr. Rather showed up at the going away party, walked in, and realized that myself and Chris’s wife Jenna were the only people he didn’t know, so he decided to introduce himself to us and shook our hands, which I thought was kind of nice. Wednesday morning I get into work, pop on the WOXY Vintage stream and the first song that plays is “What’s the Frequency Kenneth,” which is of course titled after the infamous phrase a couple of hooligans yelled at Rather when they attacked him back in 1986. So, um, that was kind of weird hearing that tune.

Song of the Week 11/18/05

Guster & Ben Kweller - "I Hope Tomorrow is Like Today"

(Aww, the disco ball girl looks sad.)

This is one of my favorite songs on one of my favorite albums (Keep It Together) of the past five years. Friday night I saw an entire Guster set for the first time. And somehow I didn't punch any of the frat boys and sorority girls who mindlessly rambled and yelled when the band didn't do one of the songs from their first two albums. How a bunch of talented (and really nice) guys could get stuck with such numbskull, Abercrombie and Finch wearing fans is beyond me. It's like they don't want these guys to advance musically at all. I have a feeling the band (officially now a quartet) will piss off a lot of fans when they make a big leap forward with their next disc. And I hope some of those people go home and grow up.

But I digress. Ben came out and sang this song with them Friday night, capping off a good show. And I couldn't find a picture of them together, so I thought I'd post this picture of Moria the concert pal from her days as a Guster employee instead.

Song of the Week 11/11/05

Madonna - "Hung Up"

Damn, the lady might annoy me with the children's books and the faux English accent, but this is one damn catchy tune. And she still looks good in the video, which I think I saw five days in a row this week.

Song of the Week 11/4/05

eels - "I'm Going to Stop Pretending that I Didn't Break Your Heart"

eels frontman E writes great, moving songs that are perfect to listen to when you're not feeling that happy. And this track from Blinking Lights and Other Revelations is no exception.

And yes, I will stop.

Song of the Week 10/28/05

Soul Asylum - "Just Like Anyone"

Days later, and my mind is still reeling from the S.A. gig at Bowery Ballroom, with the new rhythm section of drummer Michael Bland and filling in the bass spot for the dearly departed Karl Mueller, the ex-Replacement Tommy Stinson. This was the best Soul Asylum show I had seen in 13 years. Stinson and Bland played as if they got paid the louder and faster they banged away, and Dave Pirner and Dan Murphy haven't looked this jazzed to be on a stage in a long, long time. The highlight had to be the guy standing next to me and my friend Mike yelling out "Just Like Anyone" at one point, and they ripped right into it. I high-fived that guy -- Eddie Trunk of VH1 Classic. Seems metal and Soul Asylum go together in that man's world.

21st Century Boy 10/21/05

Thanks to those whom came out for the second edition of 21st Century Boy at Magnetic Field. Looks like the next edition won't be until next year, but mark Saturday December 3rd in your datebooks, as I'll be spinning a chunk of obscure (and not-so-obscure) 80s material at the birthday party for one of Magentic Field's staff. And for those with beer-addled memories, here's the playlist:

The Decemberists - "We Both Go Down Together"
Loretta Lynn With Jack White - "Portland, Oregon"
Mike Doughty - "Looking at the World From the Bottom of a Well"
Kings of Leon - "California Waiting"
Guided by Voices - "Chasing Heather Crazy"
Spoon - "Sister Jack"
Steve Burns - "Mighty Little Man"
Flaming Lips - "Yoshimi Battles the Robots Part 1"
Clap You Hands Say Yeah - "Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away"
Joe Strummer - "Johnny Appleseed"
Elvis Costello - "45"
Dead 60s - "Riot Radio"
Franz Ferdinand - "Do You Want To"
Radiohead - "There There"
Modest Mouse - "Ocean Breathes Salty"
Queens of the Stone Age - "The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret"
The White Stripes - "Blue Orchid"
Josh Rouse - "Winter in the Hamptons"
Nada Surf - "Always Love"
Old 97's - "Rollerskate Skinny"
Ryan Adams - "Firecracker"
Brendan Benson - "Spit it Out"
Rufus Wainwright - "The One You Love"
Ben Folds - Annie Waits"
Guster - "Amsterdam"
Death Cab for Cutie - "Crooked Teeth"
Bright Eyes - "Road to Joy"
Electric Six - "Dance Epidemic"
Garbage - "Why Do You Love Me"
The Hives - "Main Offender"
New Pornographers - "Twin Cinema"
Weezer - "Keep Fishin'"
Ben Lee - "Catch My Disease"
Ben Kweller - "My Apartment"
Ringside - "Tired of Being Sorry"
Spinto Band - "Oh Mandy"
Wilco - "War on War"
Rhett Miller - "Our Love"
Mates of State - "Along for the Ride"
Rilo Kiley - "Go Ahead"
Pete Yorn - "Strange Condition"
Oasis - "Part of the Queue"
The Gentlemen - "Flame For Hire"
Bob Mould - "Circles"
Josh Rouse - "Love Vibration"
Elliott Smith - "L.A."
eels - "Saturday Morning"
Matthew Sweet - "So far"
Cake - "The Guitar Man"
Death Cab for Cutie - "Bad Reputation"
Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies - "Stand By Your Man"
Richard Thompson - "Oops I Did It Again"
Fountains of Wayne - "...Baby One More Time"
Ravonettes - "My Boyfriend's Back"
The Flaming Lips - "Bohemian Rhapsody"
Strokes - "Hard to Explain"
The Thrills - "Whatever Happened to Corey Haim?"
The Shins - "Know Your Onion!"
Doves - "There Goes the Fear"
The Gravel Pit - "Loved One"
Hot Hot Heat - "Middle of Nowhere"
Interpol - "NYC"
Aimee Mann - "Dear John"
OK Go - "Get Over It"
Ween - "Even If You Don't"
XTC - "Stupidly Happy"
Louis XIV - "A Letter to Dominique"
Spoon - "My Mathmatical Mind"
The Figgs - "Sit and Shake"
Billy Bragg and Wilco - "My Flying Saucer"
R.E.M. - "Imitation of Life"
Coldplay - "Don't Panic"
The Arcade Fire - "cold Wind"
The Coral - "Lizah"
Eisley - "I Wasn't Prepared"
PJ Harvey - "You Said Something"
Beck - "Lost Cause"
The Decemberists - "16 Military Wives"
The Postal Service - "The District Sleeps Tonight"
The White Stripes - "I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)"
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - "My Heart Is Broken"

Song of the Week 10/21/05

Carole King - "I Feel the Earth Move"

I spent some time at my aunt's house during my vacation, and to clean and paint the garage we listened to Tapestry two days in a row. And then as I was driving to the train station to head back, "I Feel the Earth Move" came on the radio. Selection closed, I thought.

Song of the Week 10/14/05

Graham Parker & The Figgs - "If It Ever Stops Rainin'"



If it ever stops raining, I might actually be happy.

But I doubt it. Only beer and singing can cure me of my guilt and regret.

This track from Deepcut to Nowhere was a staple of the last two GP/Figgs tours, and a live version can be found on the official bootleg Live Cuts From Somewhere. It's definitely worth searching for.

Song of the Week 10/7/05

The Gravel Pit - "Unit Three"

(The Pit circa 2001)

I've written extensively in the past (2004, 2001, Trouser Press) about my late bloooming love for The Gravel Pit. So imagine how excited I was to see them play their first New York show in over four years on Thursday night. They were hand-picked by Nada Surf to open up one of their two sold out shows at the Bowery Ballroom, and Nada drummer Ira Elliot came out to introduce them. Even with only three gigs under their belts over the past three years, the Pit did not disappoint. I listened to Mass Avenue Freeze Out a few times during the week to get myself ready for this gig, so I was quite happy when singer Jed Parish told the crowd, "Here's another one from the overlooked Mass Avenue Freeze Out album," and they broke into "Unit Three." This song has become one of my favorites over these years of repeated listens, and this smoking live version did not disappoint. I for one hope that it's not the last time I get to see them play this song, and many others from their great catalog.

Song of the Week 9/30/05

Bob Dylan - "Like a Rolling Stone (Live 1966)"

This week PBS ran both parts of Martin Scorsese's Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home. Besides seeing Joan Baez drop the F-bomb repeatedly, the highlight had to be the recently rediscovered footage of Dylan and The Hawks (later The Band) just about to break into "Like a Rolling Stone" after someone in the audience yells "Judas." It's amazing to finally see see Dylan turn to the band and yell, "Play it fucking loud." 40 years later, that single statement still resonates (and still give me goosebumps).

Song of the Week 9/23/05

Mama Cass Elliot - "Make Your Own Kind of Music"

I love Lost. It's one of the best shows on TV in the past five years. The program doesn't usually use pop songs (well, because the people are stranded on an island with no power I imagine), but Wednesday night's season premiere used this song to perfect effect. And then the great Music For Robots had it up as an MP3 the next day. And now I can't stop listening to this song, which I knew first as a Paul Westerberg cover.

Song of the Week 9/16/05

Night Ranger - "Sister Christian"

There are times where I really look--or, more appropriately--listen intently to music anywhere I might be, trying to find that song that will pop up on my radar and announce itself as the Song of the Week. This week I was pretty sure it would end up being the Rolling Stones new single "Rough Justice" since I heard the song two mornings this week and I just got the new Stones disc A Bigger Bang. (And no, I have no idea if it's good. I haven't gotten the chance to spin it yet.)

But then Friday night, after yet another week that felt like a year, I sat down at a barstool at Great Lakes in my old haunt of 5th ave in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Within 15 minutes of getting a Rolling Rock, the jukebox cranked out "Sister Christian," and suddenly all the crap that has made the past two weeks hell melted away for those five minutes and two seconds. It's amazing how much healing power there is in cheesy nostalgia, especially in these lines:

"Sister Christian, there's so much in life
Don't you give it up before your time is due
It's true, it's true, yeah."

Um, those lyrics look really stupid in print. Hearing is much better than reading.

(Oh, and I didn't mention Boogie Nights once, so there.)

21st Century Boy 9/10/05

Thanks to all that came out for the very first 21st Century Boy night at Magnetic Field. I hope to do another night in late October. Stay tuned for details, and enjoy the playlist.

Spoon - “I Turn My Camera On”
Weezer - “Photograph”
New Pornographers - “Letter to an Occupant”
Old 97’s - “King of All of the World”
Wilco - “Heavy Metal Drummer”
Guided By Voices - “Glad Girls”
The Shins - “So Says I”
Art Brut - “Emily Kane”
Electric Six - “Danger! High Voltage”
Scissor Sisters - “Take Your Mama Out”
Doves - “Catch the Sun”
The Coral - “In The Morning”
Louis XIV - “Finding Out True Love Is Blind”
Joe Strummer - “Coma Girl”
Camper Van Beethoven - “51-7”
Modest Mouse - “Ocean Breathes Salty”
Juliana Hatfield - “Because We Love You”
The Gravel Pit - “Baby Gap”
The Gentlemen - “Let Us Know”
Oasis - “Lyla”
The White Stripes - “I Think I Smell a Rat”
R.E.M. - “Bad Day”
Green Day - “American Idiot”
Brendan Benson - “The Pledge”
Nouvelle Vogue - “I Melt With You”
Mike Doughty - “The Gambler”
Kevin Hearn and Thin Whistle - “War Pigs”
Local H - “Toxic”
The Darkness - “I Believe In a Thing Called Love”
Franz Ferdinand - “This Fire”
Death Cab For Cutie - “Soul Meets Body”
Nada Surf - “Do It Again”
Queens of the Stone Age - “No One Knows”
Soundtrack of Our Lives - “Sister Surround”
Kings of Leon - “The Bucket”
Bad Religion - “Los Angeles is Burning”
Cake - “Short Skirt/Long Jacket”
Rilo Kiley - “Potions For Foxes”
The Decemberists - “We Both Go Down Together”
Hot Hot Heat - “You Owe Me an IOU”
Electric Six - “Dance Epidemic”
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - “Is This Love”
The Thrills - “One Horse Town”
Rhett Miller - “Our Love
Ryan Adams - “Hallelujah”
Elliott Smith - “Son of Sam”
Josh Rouse - “Its the Nighttime”
The Strokes - “Under Control”
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - “Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away”
New Pornographers - “The Bleeding Heart Show”
Young Fresh Fellows - “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight”
Beck - “E Pro”
Mates of State - “Along For the Ride”
Of Montreal - “The Party’s Crashing Us”
Gorillaz - “Feel Good Inc.”
The Killers - “All These Things That I’ve Done”
PJ Harvey - “Good Fortune”
Green Day - “Holiday”
Bright Eyes - “Another Traveling Song”
Billy Bragg & Wilco - “Secret of the Sea”
Keane - “Somewhere Only We Know”
Weezer - “Hash Pipe”
The Figgs - “Something’s Wrong”
Son Volt - “Afterglow 61”
Beck - “Girl”
Postal Service - “Such Great Heights”
The Shins - “Caring is Creepy”
Belle and Sebastian - “Step Inside My Office, Baby”
Scissor Sisters - “Laura”
David Byrne - “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Live)”
Ted Leo - “Since You’ve Been Gone”
Spoon - “Everything Hits at Once”
Wilco - “Handshake Drugs”
The Redwalls - “Thank You”
Death Cab for Cutie - “The New Year”
The Decemberists - “Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect”
Spinto Band - “Oh Mandy”
Travis - “Sing”
Rhett Miller - “Come Around”
Radiohead - “Optimistic”
Doves - “Caught By the River”
Coldplay - “Don’t Panic”
The Thrills - “Not Enough Love in the World”

Song of the Week 9/9/05

Son Volt - “Afterglow 61”

I really enjoy it when albums that I dismiss on first listen come back and force me to like them. Son Volt’s Okemah and the Melody of Riot is one of those discs. My first time through I just didn’t like the new version of the band frontman Jay Farrar had assembled, and each song sounded like anything else the band had done, but better, on their debut on Trace.

Yet bit by bit this summer, songs from Okemah slowly won when over whenever I heard them on the radio or on my computer at work. And as I finally got around to reviewing the album for Trouser Press, I was completely won over, and “Afterglow 61” played a big part in that. It was the first track I heard on WFUV and thought, “Hey, is that from an old Son Volt album?” Yes, it is yet another Jay Farrar song about being behind the wheel. But damn, the guy knows how to mine that vein. And the songs rocks. I heard it four different times this week, not counting my subway listening as I did my final passes before finishing my review. I can’t wait to hear it when I’m behind the wheel again.

I Am Trying to DJ Your Heart

So I am DJ-ing again this Saturday. This time it's a solo gig, with a slightly different musical focus:

When: This Saturday 9/10 at 10:30 p.m. until 4:00 a.m. - FREE!

Where: Magnetic Field, 97 Atlantic Ave (at Henry), Brooklyn

What: 21ST CENTURY BOY!
DJ Steve Reynolds (that's me) gets nostalgic for the decade that's only half over -- the '00s! From Wilco to The White Stripes, Death Cab to The Decemberists, Spoon to Scissor Sisters, Ryan Adams to Rufus Wainwright, you'll hear the artists that have made the best music so far in this century.

Yes, that's right, music made when you were alive and dealing with mortgages, car payments, baby formula, ineffectual presidents (or in my case) acting like you're still 23. The more people that come out, the better chance I will have of getting to do this night again. So if you've never made the trip before, this Saturday is the time.

Thanks y'all.

Song of the Week 9/2/05

Bad Religion - "Los Angeles Is Burning"

I suppose if I had actually gotten a chance to listen to The College Dropout or Late Registration before the NBC telethon last night, the Song of the Week would have been a track from Kayne West just because of his bold, going way off the script rant, which left Mike Myers looking rather pale:

Amazing television; easily the most compelling thing I've seen on a live entertainment I've seen in years.

In any case, with all the horrible images I saw this week from the Big Easy (as well as seeing how distraught it made my friend and NOLA native Heather), the aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina and the absolutely pitiful response from our government dominated my thinking (and everyone else's, obviously). This week I also downloaded a few Bad Religion albums I did not own already, including 2004's The Empire Strikes First. "Los Angeles Is Burning" is an amazing track about the California wildfires of 2003, yet somehow the song's lyrics resonated with all the horrible things our friends in that grand old city were going through:

"This is not a test
Of the emergency broadcast system
Where Malibu fires and radio towers
Conspire to dance again
And I cannot believe the media Mecca
They're only trying to peddle reality,
Catch it on prime time, story at nine
The whole world is going insane"

Here's hoping New Orleans rebounds like my adopted hometown has over the past four years.


P.S. I wrote this post while listening to The College Dropout--it really is as good as everybody says.

Song of the Week 8/26/05

Rob Dickinson - "My Name Is Love"

The Catherine Wheel were yet another one of those English bands whose talent never quite matched up to commercial success in America. The band's been split up for five years, and finally singer-guitarist Dickinson has returned to the music scene with a solo album, Fresh Wine for the Horses. "My Name Is Love" is the lead single, and as I listened to the album this week to prep for my Dickinson interview (for my day job), this gorgeous chorus kept getting stuck in my head. Dickinson and his old bandmates always had the knack for making songs with a huge hooks, and "My Name Is Love" follows in that tradition. And not many people could pull off writing a great song about a conversation with an emotion.

Welcome back, Rob, Anglophiles have missed ya.

Trouser Press Issue 99 Playlist 8/20/05

Thanks to all that came out to see myself and Ira at TP 99 Saturday night. I'll be dj-ing solo at the Field on 9/10, doing a night called 21st Century Boy. Yes, only music from this century. Should be fun. Here's the playlist:

Bonzo Dog Band - “Death Cab for Cutie”
Jason & the Scorchers - “Absolutely Sweet Marie”
John Otway - “Racing Cars (Jet Spotter of the Track)”
Tenpole Tudor - “Three Bells in a Row”
The Fleshtones - “Right Side of a Good Thing”
Style Council - “My Ever Changing Moods”
ABBA - “Suzy Hangaround”
Danielle Dax - “Yummer-Yummer Man”
Snakefinger - “Beatnik Party”
Queen - “Keep Yourself Alive”
T. Rex - “Solid Gold/Easy Action”
Lyres - “Help You Ann”
R.E.M. - “Radio Free Europe”
Fingerprintz - “Bulletproof Heart”
Undertones - “Hypnotized”
Chelsea - “Many Rivers to Cross”
Prince - “When You Were Mine”
Paley Brothers - “Ecstasy”
David Bowie - “Drive-In Saturday”
The Teardrop Explodes - “When I Dream”

Slade - “Run Runaway”
Dave Edmunds - “Slipping Away”
Nick Lowe - “I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass”
Graham Parker - “I Want You Back”
Elvis Costello & the Attractions - “Accidents Will Happen”
Blondie - “Accidents Never Happen”
Sparks & Jane Wiedlin - “Cool Places”
The Pretenders - “Show Me”
The Clash - “Know Your Rights”
The Replacements - “Color Me Impressed”
Minutemen - “This Ain’t No Picnic”
Husker Du - “Sunshine Superman”
Dead Kennedys - “We’ve Got a Bigger Problem Now”
Ramones - “The KKK Took My Baby Away”
Cheap Trick - “I Can’t Take It”

Yaz - “Don’t Go”
Jam - “The Modern World”
XTC - “Radios in Motion”
English Beat - “Mirror in the Bathroom”
Wire - “Mannequin”
ATV - “Action Time Vision”
New York Dolls - “Bad Detective”
Holly and the Italians - “Do You Say Love”
Status Quo - "Down Down”
Eddie and the Hot Rods - “Do Anything You Wanna Do”
Generation X - “Promises”
The Clash - “Safe European Home”
Husker Du - “Flip Your Wig”
Gang of Four - “I Love a Man in Uniform”
Human League - “Things That Dreams Are Made Of”
Gary Numan - “Cars”
New Order - “Blue Monday”
Pylon - “Beep”
B-52’s - “Throw That Beat in the Garbage Can”
Peter Gabriel - “Schock der Affen”
Stiff Little Fingers - “Suspect Device”
Joe Jackson - “Jack, You're Dead”
Keith Moon - “Don’t Worry Baby”

Romeo Void - “A Girl In Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing)”
Echo & the Bunnymen - “Bring on the Dancing Horses”
Duran Duran - “Is There Something I Should Know”
Hoodoo Gurus - “I Want You Back”
Pete Townshend - “Rough Boys”
The Who - “Eminence Front”
Rolling Stones - “Hang Fire”
Rolling Stones - “When the Whip Comes Down”
Dire Straits - “Tunnel of Love”
The Cars - “It’s All I Can Do”
Devo - “Beautiful World”
Men at Work - “Overkill”
Meat Puppets - “Lake of Fire”
XTC - “Scissor Man”
Iggy Pop - “China Girl”
KISS - “God of Thunder”
Sweet - “Love Is Like Oxygen”
Kinks - “Low Budget”
Jeff Beck - “Freeway Jam”
Alice Cooper - “Elected”
Pete Shelley - “Homosapien”
Soft Boys - “Underwater Moonlight”
Madness - “It Must Be Love”
Talking Heads - “This Must be the Place (Naïve Melody)”
ELO - “Telephone Line”
David Bowie - “Moonage Daydream”
Elvis Costello - “Allison”

Song of the Week 8/19/05

Dire Straits - "Tunnel of Love"

Last week in the mail I received the 20th anniversary edition of Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms. It’s of them newfangled dualdiscs, with the CD on one side and a DVD surround sound mix on the other. Alas, the day I got it I couldn’t listen to it as I had impacted wax in one ear, making me virtually half deaf. After a great ear-cleaning trip (thanks Dr. Lee) I found my hearing dramatically improved, and I couldn’t wait to play to as much music as possible. As I listened to Brothers in Arms at my desk, I found myself wondering why Making Movies, Mark Knopfler and company’s 1980 classic, wasn’t given the same high end treatment. Almost any Dire Straits fan will point to that album as the high point in the band’s career. (Heck, I even wrote about it at length a few years ago, so I won’t rehash what I did then.)

So on my Friday commute to happy hour, back to Brooklyn for food, and home after numerous beers, I ended up listening to Making Movies almost twice in its entirety. And with my “new” ears, “Tunnel of Love” sounded almost as fresh as the day I first borrowed the vinyl of Making Movies from a high school buddy. From the intro of Rogers and Hammerstein’s “The Carousel Waltz” played by Making Movies’ guest MVP, E Street Band keyboardist Roy Bittan, to the intricate Knopfler guitarwork that makes up the last two minutes of the track, “Tunnel of Love” surpasses the typical pop song in every way. Knopfler’s lyrics weave a tale of a long lost love with cinematic images of an unnamed Spanish city, a sprawling carnival and a musician weary of life on the road. How this track is not played by classic rock stations that continue to spin “Money for Nothing” still amazes me.

I ended up playing “Tunnel of Love” at Trouser Press 99 Saturday night, and I had two different people come up to me and say how great it was to hear the song. So for once, the Song of the Week entertained someone else as well.

Song of the Week 8/12/05

Juliana Hatfield - "What a Life"


Damn, this is a great song, even a decade later. The leadoff track from 1995's Only Everything was a regular staple of the CD player in my first apartment in Brooklyn. Thursday night I saw Miss Hatfield play at Maxwell's in Hoboken, backed by my friends Ed and Pete from The Gravel Pit and The Gentlemen. The entire show was great, but this song rocked especially hard. And I loved how she almost screamed these lyrics:

"Messy stringy pathetic hopeless, dredgy stringy pathetic hopeless"

Hatfield's new album, Made in China, is yet another good one--and contains the best artist written bio I have ever read. Check it out here.

Song of the Week 8/5/05

Coldplay - "Fix You"


I know, I know--Coldplay is so summer 2002. And I really think that the band's latest album, X&Y, is completely inferior to A Rush of Blood to the Head. And I also know that right around the 761st time everyone heard "Clocks" they wanted to choke the living crap out of singer/whiner Chris Martin.

That being said, the second single from X&Y, "Fix You," is the only song on the album that captures what made me like Coldplay so much in the first place. Everywhere I turned last week I heard the song; it forced its way on here, and it wasn't going to give up until I wrote about it.

In this track the lyrics aren't so over-the-top earnest like the rest of X&Y. It's just a gorgeous ballad about wanting to help a person you like (girlfriend, family member, whomever) in any way you can, even though you know there's absolutely nothing you can do at all. I've felt that way in the past, and I've had that feeling overcome me rather recently. It's that feeling of helplessness in the face of someone else's problems that just might overwhelm them. It's a feeling that (at least in my emotionally stunted way) only a song can accurately convey. And even though the person that I think could use this song will never read these words, I feel compelled to put them up here, just in case:

"When you try your best, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse
When the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you"

"High up above or down below
When you too in love to let it go
If you never try you'll never know
Just watch and learn
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you"

"Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down you face and I...
Tears stream down your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your face and I..."

"Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you"

Next week, I swear, it will be something infinitely more hipper.

Or maybe something from Hall and Oates, who knows?

Song of the Week 7/29/05

Aimee Mann - "I Should've Known"

I liked Aimee Mann for many years--until she wouldn't shut up about being screwed over by two different labels just as the Magnolia soundtrack was released in 1999. There's nothing like reading story after story about an artist whining about the record industry to piss me off to no end. Considering Mann had been a signed artist for almost 15 years at that point, it was amazing that she didn't realize that the record industry was always about screwing the artist over. Her attitude of "How dare this happen to me" just pissed me off. And it made me pretty much never listen to her work again.

Tuesday morning I woke up humming a song, and realized that it was Mann's "I Should've Known." In 1993 I couldn't get enough of that song and Mann's solo debut Whatever. Jon Brion's everything and the kitchen sink production paired up with Mann's insightful and slightly sarcastic lyrics made for a great combo to my ears. I remember my friend Jocelyn (who worked for Imago, Mann's label at the time) being shocked when I told her I loved the album, and I also kind of had the hots for Mann.

Now I'm not sure why "I Should've Known" popped into my head. I have softened my stance on Mann since she doesn't talk about getting screwed over any more. Her latest album The Forgotten Arm is the first she's released since the Magnolia soundtrack that I acutally like, so maybe my brain was digging out some gems from the past. I ended up listening to the track twice on the subway to get my fix. And then, perhaps, WOXY.com's Vintage Channel tapped into my brain as well. I started listening to this stream on Thursday, and one of the first songs I heard was "I Should've Known." God bless the power of the internet.

One last thought: the chorus of "I Should've Known" features one of my favorite writing tricks in a song. Mann starts it by singing, "I should've known," then pauses, and then Mann and Brion's multitracked voices go "dot dot dot," then Mann continues "It was coming down to this." Where else could one get a musical ellipses?

Song of the Week 7/22/05

Joni Mitchell -- "California"



I must admit, I don't think I'd heard this track from Mitchell's classic 1971 album Blue in at least 15 years--and then I heard it twice in 18 hours. The first time was while I was hanging out with a couple of special folks (well, one of them was a dog, but Scout seems very human-like) and having one of my best Brooklyn nights of the year. The second time came as I was listening to WFUV stuck in traffic on the West Side Highway in Manhattan. For those few minutes, the traffic didn't seem so bad at all. Thanks Joni, for being part of a great week.

Trouser Press Issue 98 7/16/05

Thanks to all that came by to see myself and Ira Robbins spin tunes for Trouser Press Issue 98 at Magnetic Field in Brooklyn on Saturday night. We hope to do another night again soon. Here's our playlist:

The Who - “Summertime Blues”
Bad Manners - “Lip Up Fatty”
Big Country - “Fields of Fire”
The Specials - “Gangsters”
The Cars - “Bye Bye Love”
Nice - “America”
Killing Joke - “80s”
Dead Boys - “Sonic Reducer”
Sonic Youth - “Eric’s Trip”
Fast - “Hawaii”
Dictators - “Stay With Me”
Sparks - “Girl From Germany”
Buzzcocks - “Love You More”
The Who - “Heatwave”
Rubinoos - “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”
Bonzo Dog Band - “Mickey’s Son and Daughter”

The Jam - “Going Underground”
The Clash - “London’s Burning”
Plastic Bertrand - “Ca Plane Pour Moi”
Devo - “Uncontrollable Urge”
Ramones - “53rd & 3rd”
Damned - “Neat Neat Neat”
PIL - “Public Image”
Undertones - “Teenage Kicks”
Soft Boys - “Rock and Roll Toilet”
Elvis Costello & the Attractions - “The Beat”
The Go-Gos - “We Got the Beat”
Blondie - “Kung Fu Girls”
Greg Kihn Band - “The Breakup Song”
Joe Jackson - “Happy Loving Couples”
Graham Parker and the Rumour - “Hold Back the Night”
Joboxers - “Just Got Lucky”
Cheap Trick - “Dream Police”
Dead Kennedys - “Police Truck”
The Replacements - “Something to Du”
Young Fresh Fellows - “Rock and Roll Pest Control”

Neu - “Fur Immer”
Spaceman 3 - “Take Me to the Other Side”
Hawkwind - “Masters of the Universe”
David Bowie - “Rebel Rebel”
Time Zone - “World Destruction”
Amon Duul II - “Pigman”
Sex Pistols - “God Save the Queen Symphony”
Sweet - “Six Teens”
Eurythmics - “English Summer”
The Residents - “Satisfaction”
Skids - “Sweet Suburbia”
Members - “Sound of the Suburbs”
Tenpole Tudor - “Throwing the Baby Out With the Bathwater”
Pink Fairies - “I Wish I Was a Girl”
John Otway - “Beware of the Flowers (Cause They're Gonna Get You Yeah)”
Madness - “One Step Beyond”
New Order - “Love Vigilantes”
Holly and the Italians - “Youth Coup”
U2 - “Bad (Live)”
Bryan Ferry - “The 'In' Crowd”

Utopia - “One World”
Dave Edmunds - “I Knew the Bride”
T Rex - “20th Century Boy”
Rolling Stones - “Hand of Fate”
Alice Cooper - “Be My Lover”
KISS - “Do You Love Me”
Iggy Pop - “I’m Bored”
Modern Lovers - “Pablo Picasso”
Blue Oyster Cult - “Godzilla”
The Who - “The Seeker”
ELO - “Mr. Blue Sky”
Fleetwood Mac - “Think About Me”
Peter Gabriel - “I Don’t Remember”
King Crimson - “Neal and Jack and Me”
The Pretenders - “Stop Your Sobbing”
The Kinks - “Living on a Thin Line”
Men at Work - “Be Good Johnny”
Patti Smith - “Frederick”
Hoodoo Gurus - “My Girl”
Madness - “It Must Be Love”
Pete Townshend - “Let My Love Open the Door"
Talking Heads - “Love> Building on Fire”
XTC - “Love on a Farmboy’s Wages”
Graham Parker and the Rumour - “Love Gets You Twisted”
Marshall Crenshaw - “Someday, Someway”

Song of the Week 7/15/05

Madness - "It Must Be Love"

One thing I love about having I-Tunes is that it allows you to search through your entire library by keyword. I have created some great mixes for the bar just by stringing together songs that have "Dog," "World" and all types of fruits in the song titles. I also made a mix where each song had "Love" in the title. One of those tunes was "It Must Be Love," and I had forgotten how great that track was. While it was hit in the U-K in 1982, it was the follow-up to "Our House" here in the States in 1983 and was one of those gems that the Top 40 station I listened to only played at night. Why, I have no idea.

After listening to this "Love" mix over and over on the Ipod, I decided I would play "It Must Be Love" during Saturday night's Trouser Press night at Magnetic Field. It sounded great at 2:30 in the A.M., and definitely captured my happy mood. But what clinched it as the Song of the Week was seeing the video come at at 5:45 on VH1 Classic. I apologize to my downstairs neighbors for cranking it up that loud, but it's not often that I'm giddy, ya know?

Song of the Week 7/8/05

Grateful Dead - "Hell in a Bucket"

Sometimes the old hippie in me comes out, what can I say?

Perhaps this should be called Video of the Week, since I somehow caught this clip on VH1 Classic three times over the week. I had totally forgotten how horrible this video was. I mean, Bob Weir is dressed in a yellow tank top with a purple suit jacket. And he rides down a street in the back of a Cadilliac with a duck:

I mean, what were they thinking? Nonethless, "Hell in a Bucket" has always been one of my favorite Dead songs. Whenever they opened a show with this galloping rocker, I knew that we were probably in for a good night. (Sometimes it didn't even matter if there were songs playing at a show for a good night!) Even today, if this song comes up on the classic rock station here in town (or on VH1 Classic) I will turn it up more than enough to annoy my co-workers.

I had a feeling that a Dead song would make it this week, since on the 5th of July I listened to a new live Dead disc called Truckin' Up to Buffalo, July 4th 1989. That was the first Dead show I ever saw (after a couple years of only being able to score tickets to Jerry Garcia Band shows). My biggest memory of the whole night was that it rained so hard for so long, my hat shrunk before the show was over. Damn cotton. And now I at least have more of a memory than that ill-fitting fishing hat .

And here's another shot I love from the video, where Weir sings the line "I can't think of a place that's more perfect/Or a person as perfect as you" and points right at Jerry Garcia:







That's a moment that is just perfect.

Song of the Week 7/1/05

Gorillaz - "Feed Good Inc."









This one was easy--I saw this video every single night on MTV Hits when I got home after work. I mean, it was the first video every time I turned that channel on.

Freaky.

(I would write more, but I'm fried from Live 8. Perhaps I will expand this entry in the future.)

Song of the Week 6/24/05

Eisley - "I Wasn't Prepared"

















Over the two and a half years I've been doing the Song of the Week, no track has just missed the cut as much as this one. I've listened to both recordings of it many times for over two years, yet another song would always seem to raise its head up above it. After listening to it each day last week in anticipation of their show Friday night at Bowery Ballroom, I decided its time had come.

I first heard "I Wasn't Prepared" when it appeared on Eisley's debut EP, 2003's Laughing City. At the time I thought the piano-driven song was a nice and intriguing ballad, good enough to make it onto a mix of new stuff I made for a trip up to Boston in the fall of that year. I was pretty sure it was a sad song, most likely about lost love, even though I couldn't figure out what the heck the lyrics were about. Yet something seemed to be missing from the song, something I couldn't quite put my finger on.

The second time I heard it was this February when Eisley's full-length debut, Room Noises, was released. After one listen, I knew what was missing in its original recording--some road experience. In this version the playing was more confident, the harmonies between the two female singers were up from great to absolutely spine-tingling and the overall production finally matched the quality of the song. Quite simply, this new version of "I Wasn't Prepared" knocked me out. Of course, I had no idea how inexperienced the band was to begin with. As I read the bio that came with the disc, I was stunned to find out that these two great voices came from 20-year-old guitarist Sherri Dupree and 16-year-old keyboardist Stacy Dupree. So that's what they sounded a bit more experienced two years later.

The whole Eisley story is truly fascinating: The Tyler, Texas band consists of four siblings (along with one close friend) who were home-schooled by their parents; the group got off the ground when the other guitar-playing sister Chauntelle at the age of 14 (she's now 22) discovered Radiohead's OK Computer; the band played their first gigs in Christian bookstores; and they took their name from a space port in the original Star Wars. It's amazing to me that more music magazines haven't written about how crazy it is that this band got discovered by Coldplay's management and got signed to a major label.

Back at the end of March Moria the concert pal and I went to see Eisley open for New Found Glory at that hell hole Webster Hall. I must admit I was nervous going in because I thought the Dupree girls' harmonies were somehow manufactured in the studio. After one song, I knew that wasn't the case. And when they did "I Wasn't Prepared," I got another surprise--these two traded off verses during the song. And oh, they sang it so well and sounded so sad I was genuinely moved. (And then genuinely felt like a dirty old man thinking how young they are.)

Friday the concert pal and I checked out Eisley's first headline show in New York, and once again "I Wasn't Prepared" was the highlight of the set. And yet, even after all the times I have listened to the album version (31 times by my Itunes count) and the original EP version, I still don't understand these lyrics:

"Oh, when the day is blue
I'll sit here wondering about you
and how the pollen fell
All around your face in strange yellow patterns

But, I wasn't prepared for this
Oh, I wasn't prepared for this

When the morning came
The bees flew down and
Wrapped themselves around me
and that's when i spoke the word
To have them trace your face for me in pollen

But, I wasn't prepared for this
Oh, I wasn't prepared for this

Come, come back to me, my, my darling
Come, come back to me, my, my darling

I wasn't prepared for this
Oh, I wasn't prepared for this

When the day is blue
I'll sit here wondering about you"

They're sad--that's obvious. So was the subject of the song taken away by bees? Are these two young girls afraid of bees? Aren't these girls a bit young to be writing such great songs? And why do I like a band that I am old enough (seriously) to be their father? I wasn't prepared to feel this old.

Song of the Week 4/1/05 UPDATE

So this is odd, no doubt about it.

R.E.M.'s "World Leader Pretend" was Song of the Week over two months ago, and I wrote about how there was a new band called World Leader Pretend releasing an EP on R.E.M.'s long-time label, Warner Bros. Over the past few weeks I've been hearing some really good cuts from World Leader Pretend on the World Cafe and on the best internet station out there, WOXY.

Last night I went to see Dark New Day and to hang with my friend Jim. He's Dark New Day's publicist and was in town from L.A. for a couple of days to handle some press things with them. (Full disclosure: I am one of those "press things," as I am interviewing them later today for work.) Jim works for Warner Bros and...(wait for it)...I discovered is also World Leader Pretend's publicist. I told him that I wrote about the band's EP two months ago, and he told me their full length album was due out next week. I thought to myself, "Cool, another good record to look forward to in the mail."

Flash forward to this morning: I step out of the shower, and what song do I hear on WFUV? Yup, "World Leader Pretend."

I told you it was kind of odd.

Song of the Week 6/17/05

Soul Asylum - "Sometime to Return"

Karl rocks, at Rock for Karl

In my “day job” as a “music journalist” I’ve had to write a few obituaries for rock musicians that have died before their time was up. I’ve finished most of them pretty easily, perhaps with the occasional joke or two (because we’re sarcastic bastards in the media ya know) before moving on to write about the latest dumb shit Fred Durst or The Offspring or Dave Matthews Band did that day.

But once in a while I end up having to write about a musician that’s gone too early (George Harrison, Elliott Smith, 3/4 of the Ramones) whose songs have played a large part in my life. That’s the case with Karl Mueller of Soul Asylum. Mueller died Friday morning at the age of 41 (or 42, depending on whose obit you believe) after a year-long battle with throat cancer.

I only met Mueller once, at a post-show meet-and-greet in Syracuse in early 1993. He seemed to be the least likely “rock star” in the room. He sat there on a couch, pretty much minding his business and letting Dan Murphy and Dave Pirner deal with the small group of fans in the dressing room (there was less than 10 of us, as this was many months before “Runaway Train”). He seemed happier than anyone in the room, content with the memory of a great show they had just played, and the cold beer currently in his hand.

I saw Soul Asylum seven times in my life, and all but one were great shows. Pirner would always flail around with his guitar somewhere down around his knees. Murphy would lay down blistering lead licks and some of the most passionate backing vocals any man could muster. Drummer Grant Young (and later on, Sterling Campbell) would bash away on the drums. And in the middle of it all, holding it together, was Karl Mueller. He wasn’t flashy, but didn’t need to be. His steady playing held things together when the group would do a 10 minute medley of 70s covers or a blistering 90 second version of a Descendents song.

Now you might be wondering why I would waste all this space (and paper, as this was written in my little notebook while drinking a few beers at one of my Brooklyn haunts) on a bass player from a 90s one-hit wonder. Well my friends, Soul Asylum had a life before “Runaway Train” saturated the airwaves and pictures of missing kids became a staple on M-T-V. Soul Asylum rocked, oh they rocked hard, they rocked recklessly and they knew how to make a song that would cause you to scream the chorus at the top of your lungs and pump your fist as if nothing else mattered at that exact moment. So allow me to indulge you with the story of my discovery of one of Minneapolis’ finest acts.

In the summer of 1989 I worked at my FM college station, 92 WICB. The station was kept on 365 days a year because the powers that be thought it was good P.R., so a small staff of students was hired each summer to run the station. When that summer began I knew only about 15% of the “modern rock” that the station had in its library, but I got to hear a bunch of great new albums that first month of being on air six days a week -- Bob Mould’s Workbook, The Pixies' Doolittle, Love and Rockets' self-titled album and Adrian Belew’s Mr. Music Head were all in heavy rotation, and all of them were brand new artists to me. Included in heavy rotation that summer was the Lost Angels soundtrack, which included a new Soul Asylum cut called “Just Plain Evil.” After my first couple of spins of the (gasp!) vinyl I wasn’t that impressed. However, one 92sday (when we played double shots) I grabbed the Soul Asylum album called Hang Time at random and played a song called “Sometime to Return.” I was dumbfounded. How had I missed a song this great? Words fail me when I try to sum up how much this song rocked my world that one late June afternoon 16 years ago. From the low rumble of Mueller’s bass and Murphy and Pirner’s cranked-to-1100 guitars to the words that make no sense most of the time (“Throw away your calendar/And saddle up your salamander”) this song, at that moment, crystallized everything I felt was good about music that summer -- and pretty much for the rest of my life. And Friday night after writing up Mueller's obit, I listened to “Sometime to Return” over and over again, trying to make sense of life, and those lyrics.

People my age (35.6) are getting used to losing some of our older greats (how long will the entry be when Neil Young goes to the harvest in the sky, I wonder), but losing Karl Mueller at such a young age seems like a crime. I think the respect and love that his fellow musicians felt was best summed up by Bob Mould, who reunited with his ex-Hüsker Dü bandmate Grant Hart at a Minneapolis benefit last fall to defray Mueller’s medical costs. Mould told Billboard just last week about the two-song reunion, “Grant got my cell number somehow that afternoon and called me. I said, ‘Sure. This cause is bigger than anything.’”

And how can you not miss a guy that would agree to be slathered in clam dip for an EP cover:



R.I.P. Karl -- we hope your time here brought as much joy to you as it did to us.

Song of the Week 6/10/05

Spoon - “My Mathematical Mind”



Have I mentioned that the new Spoon album, Gimme Fiction, is one of the best of this year? Oh wait, I did right here. This week I got my first chance to see Austin’s best export since that famous public T-V show, and they certainly didn’t disappoint. Britt Daniel and company blazed through a set of tight, muscular songs that were great exercises in the old cliché “less is more.” In another band’s hands, songs like “Sister Jack” or “The Way We Get By” would have a lot more flourishes and instruments added on top. But Spoon have learned to break down all their songs to the bare essentials -- one great riff (either on piano or a lone guitar) matched up with great drumming and a perfect use of various percussion.

I spent every commute this week listening to Spoon albums, adding 1998’s A Series of Sneaks to the I-Pod when it came in from Amazon on Monday and playing 2002’s Kill the Moonlight at work repeatedly before Wednesday’s show after picking it up on a record shopping adventure Tuesday night. And while I played those two as much as possible, I kept coming back to Gimme Fiction, particularly “My Mathematical Mind.” A five minute song with no chorus that sounds like the same eight seconds of piano and guitar interplay over and over doesn’t seem to be a winning combination for a song, yet these guys somehow make it work. It's as if the band decided that getting the song down to its essential elements required dropping out that last chord that would bring a natural resolution at the end. Spoon closed their main set with it Wednesday night, a perfect placement for a tune that doesn’t seem to end -- I believe it stops because it’s too tense to continue.

Matthew Perpetua of the great Fluxblog was at the same show, and he and I must have been on the same wavelength Thursday morning as he wrote a great piece about the song as well. He also posted a live version of the song from Willie Nelson’s Songs for Tsunami Relief: Austin to South Asia benefit album, which is worth picking up. And have you bought Gimme Fiction yet? What the heck are you waiting for?

Song of the Week 6/3/05

Graham Parker and The Figgs - "Dislocated Life"

"Dislocated Life" is one of the many fine tracks on Songs of No Consequence, the first studio effort from Graham Parker and the Figgs. I've written many, many times about The Figgs over the past 11 years, so I think I'll let G.P. himself tell the story about how this album came to be:

Thoughts of Chairman Parker

"Dislocated Life" was the first track that grabbed me on the album, and Friday night at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey G.P. and The Figgs (with added guitarist Brett Rosenberg, who G.P. called "the Figg du jour") played an absolutely killer version of the song that brought yells from the crowd before it was even done. That's pretty good for a tune which the majority of the audience had never heard before. Songs of No Consequence is in stores tomorrow, and I encourage everyone that likes bitter and cutting lyrics matched up with some great power-pop to buy it.

And if you're in the New York area, G.P. and the Figgs will be at the Knitting Factory Saturday night. Show starts at 7pm. I'll be the guy up front, rocking out.

RT20 Special Report: Music on the Brain

I read a fascinating piece in the New York Times on Tuesday. It discussed how researchers had begun to pinpoint where, as the headline said, "New Love Sears the Brain." Discovering that a specific part of my brain--one that was completely separate from the part that controls the desire for sex--had caused me such intense pain over the years made me want to grab a sledgehammer, crack open my own coconut and extract that tiny section of brain matter.

But besides inspiring the desire to make myself a vegetable, the article got me pondering about other parts of my brain--specifically the ones that control this all-consuming passion for music I've had most of my life. So I did a little research, and came up with the following diagram:


I’ve identified the 22 parts of the brain that deal with my musical pursuits. Here is what each of these numbers on the diagram mean:

1) Matsdate - Inspires devotion to drunken musicians from Minneapolis.

2) Beatlegotta - The first area to develop in the brain pursues short hooky songs.

3) Discothalamus - Another area that develops early taste for dance music, which goes away as a person gets older, only to come back with a vengeance in the late 20s.

4) Mouldulla Oblongata - Inspires devotion to gay Minneapolis singer-songwriters.

5) Posterior Figgsa - This part of the brain controls an almost psychotic devotion to bands from upstate New York.

6) Brain Jam - Located near the bottom of the brain, this portion of the brain causes the love of neo-hippie rock, but stops growing at the age of 19 and shrinks over time.

7) Vedder Plexus - Controls the obsessive collection of all things Pearl Jam-related.

8) Dylanbellum - Inspires devotion to the world greatest songwriter from Minneapolis, even through his born-again albums.

9) Cerebral Wilco Fluid - This fluid needs to be replaced before the release of albums by bands based in Chicago.

10) Pettytuitary Gland - A small gland where all the words to "American Girl" are stored.

11) Quadro Fossa - A very mysterious part of the brain, it controls how much a person likes rock operas by British bands.

12) Cuomo Chasm - The junction where all the power-pop loving parts of the brain meet.

13) Asylum Region - Inspires devotion to Minneapolis rockers who date famous actresses.

14) Gravel Tissue - Controls how much one listens to bands from New Haven.

15) Come On Come On Callosum - This fiber deep in the brain enables one to sing all the words to Cheap Trick's first three albums.

16) Hawk Cord - Connects the brain to the rest of the body, and alt-country bands from Minneapolis.

17) Fresh Fellows Fossa - The obsessive part of the brain, which focuses on singles and compilations of Seattle bands.

18) Buffalo Ganglia - A small part of the brain that likes drinking and trios from Boston.

19) Private Eyes Optic Chasm - Another nerve area that connects to the eyes, which allows a person to see Philadelphia blue-eyed soul.

20) Costello Nerves - This part of the optic nerve makes one wear geeky glasses and like smart-ass lyrics.

21) The Neilstem - Linked to a love of quirky Canadian singer-songwriters

22) Zappa Tentorium - This flap of tissue keeps lyrics like "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" away from other, more serious parts of the brain.

So there you have it. Next week, maybe I can figure out the other half of my brain that likes beer and baseball.