Song of the Week 4/8/05 UPDATE

A few weeks ago I wrote the following lines in the Song of the Week entry about Josh Rouse's "It's the Nighttime":

"In the guise of my day job I interviewed him in 2000 about his second album, Home. I vaguely recall liking the disc, but I don't have it in my collection now. I think I may have given it away to a co-worker or (more likely) sold it on St. Mark's Place to feed one of my various addictions."

Now, dear reader, that mystery has been solved, as my friend April revealed to me over the weekend that I had given her that copy of Rouse's second album. She was even kind enough to ask if I wanted it back after five years, which of course I respectfully declined. Now if someone (cough, cough) made an illegal copy (cough, cough) of it at some point and it showed up mysteriously at my desk at work, I'd have no choice but to play it.

One more thought about "It's the Nighttime": I've had I-Tunes and my I-Pod since mid-March, and on Saturday I checked out what was the most played song on the I-Pod. You guessed it -- 22 times so far for "It’s the Nighttime." I do believe we have a contender for Single of the Year.

Song of the Week 5/27/05

They're GOOD bad news.

Rilo Kiley - "Portions for Foxes"

Thursday night I finally had my chance to see Rilo Kiley perform, and rarely has a show far exceeded my expectations as this one. The L.A. group's last album, More Adventurous, landed at number-four on last year's Top 20 list and is a tour de force of guitar-based pop. Singer-guitarist Jenny Lewis sounds like a dry political commentator, a heartbroken homewrecker and the leader of a '60s Phil Spector-produced girl group -- and that's just within the first five songs. I never expected Lewis to play all these roles live, and do it in such a forceful and -- yes, I'm a guy, so I have to say it -- incredibly sexy and seductive way. Lewis strutted around the Webster Hall stage like she knew she owned it. It was such a confident and powerful performance that I can't imagine Rilo Kiley not breaking through to a much bigger audience very soon (perhaps when they open Coldplay's U.S. tour later this summer).

Thursday night's performance of "Portions For Foxes," the second single from More Adventurous (which has gotten a recent push from their new label, Warner Brothers) was absolutely perfect and justified the 12 times I listened to the song this week. Lewis sings about someone that's bad for her, but she just can't shake. It's a topic many folks (including yours truly) can easily identify with. This verse and chorus always slays me:

"I know I'm alone if I'm with or without you
But just bein' around you offers me another form of relief
When the lonliness leads to bad dreams
And the bad dreams lead me to callin' you
And I call you and say..."C'MERE!"

And it's bad news
Baby I'm bad news
I'm just bad news, bad news, bad news"

Oh yeah, I know you're bad news Jenny, but I'm sure that wouldn't stop me or the other 599 tongues-a-wagging indie rock guys at Webster Hall from taking that phone call from you.

Trouser Press Issue 97 (a.k.a. A Friday Night of Rock) 5/20/05

So Friday night I teamed up with Trouser Press co-founder (and the guy that runs the office at my day job) Ira Robbins to spin a night of artists that the magazine covered from 1974 to 1984 at the lovely Magnetic Field in Brooklyn. Thanks again to all who showed up; hopefully we were popular enough that they'll invite us back. So what follows is the complete list of songs that we played:

The Bonzo Dog Band - “Intro and Outro”
The Bonzo Dog Band - “Trouser Press”
The Yardbirds - “Over Under Sideways Down”
The Troggs - “I Can Only Give You Everything”
Beau Brummels - “Laugh Laugh”
Rolling Stones - “In Another Land”
King Crimson - “21st Century Schizoid Man”
Status Quo - “Caroline”
Taste - “It’s Happened Before, It’ll Happen Again”
The Animals - “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”
T. Rex - “Children of the Revolution”
Dr. Feelgood - “Back in the Night”
Mott the Hoople - “Sweet Angeline”
Tom Robinson Band - “2-4-6-8 Motorway”
Bryan Ferry - “The ‘In’ Crowd”
Sparks - “Something for the Girl with Everything”
Brian Eno - “Driving Me Backwards”

999 - “Homicide”
The Replacements - “I Hate Music”
The Clash - “Tommy Gun”
New York Dolls - “Personality Crisis”
Dead Boys - “Sonic Reducer”
Dead Kennedys - “Too Drunk to Fuck”
Hoodoo Gurus - “I Want You Back”
Cheap Trick - “Southern Girls”
KISS - “Love Gun”
Sweet - “Ballroom Blitz”
Graham Parker and the Rumour - “Discovering Japan”
Joe Jackson - “I’m the Man”
Nick Lowe - “Maureen”
Elvis Costello and the Attractions - “I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down”
Dave Edmunds - “Let’s Talk About Us”
The Soft Boys - “Queen of Eyes”
Psychedelic Furs - “Dumb Waiters”
The Cure - “The Walk”
The Go-Go’s - “Turn to You”
Buzzcocks - “Orgasm Addict”
The Jam - “In the City”

Jeff Beck - “Plynth”
Sensational Alex Harvey Band - “Swampsnake”
Be Bop Deluxe - “Crying to the Sky”
Brian Tchaikovsky - “Girl of My Dreams”
Skids - “Into the Valley”
Flamin Groovies - “Shake Some Action”
Roxy Music - “Virginia Plain”
Kraftwerk - “Autobahn”
Damned - “I Feel Alright”
David Bowie - “Where Have All the Good Times Gone”
Elvis Costello and the Attractions - “Goon Squad”
The Who - “Heatwave”
Thane Russell - “Drop Everything and Run”
Cockney Rebel - “The Psychomodo”
Nektar - “Remember the Future”
The Clash - “Police and Thieves”
The Move - “Hello Suzie”
Mike Heron - “Call Me Diamond”

Rolling Stones - “Crazy Mama”
Ramones - “I Remember You”
The Pretenders - “Back on the Chain Gang”
The Tubes - “She’s a Beauty”
The Runaways - “Cherry Bomb”
Blondie - “Rip Her to Shreds”
Blotto - “I Wanna Be a Lifeguard”
The Who - “5:15”
Blue Oyster Cult - “Joan Crawford”
ELO - “Showdown”
Faces - “Stay With Me”
Alice Cooper - “Billion Dollar Babies”
T. Rex - “Jeepster”
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - “Change of Heart”
The Stray Cats - “Rock This Town”
Marshall Crenshaw - “Cynical Girl”
Split Endz - “I Got You”
The Plimsouls - “A Million Miles Away”
Talking Heads - “Take Me to the River”
J. Geils Band - “Love Stinks”
INXS - “Don’t Change”
Donnie Iris - “Ah Leah”
Sweet - “Fox on the Run”
David Bowie - “Life on Mars”
Rolling Stones - “Time Waits for No One”

Song of the Week 5/20/05

eels - "Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)"

As of Friday night I had no idea what the song of the week would be, and then I ran into my friend Rhett. He asked what I knew about the eels, and in our discussion he said he saw the band play on Last Call With Carson Daly, doing this quirky song with a chorus that went "hey man" or something like that. I told him the song was called "Hey Man" and it was on the eels excellent new double disc, Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. Then I realized that was the song I was humming the other day after hearing it on my usual new music reference, the World Cafe. Voila--a Song of the Week was born.

Co-Song of the Week 5/13/05

Austin's favorite utensil.

Weezer - "Tired of Sex"
Spoon - "Sister Jack"

I've never had a Co-Song of the Week before, but these two songs battled for my brain over the past seven days, so I figured, why not. It's my damn blog, I can do whatever the heck I like (except post MP3's I suppose).

I got tickets for Weezer a few weeks ago, and I've been playing their albums like mad in the Ipod for the past two weeks in anticipation of last night's show. During that same time I've also been thinking that now as I approach middle age, it's probably time to stop catching up on all the nookie I felt like I missed out on in my 20s. So when Weezer played "Tired of Sex" to open their show Thursday night, I yelled every word for what it was worth. (And I'm sure I scared my concert pal Moria--as well as many other kids much younger than me--standing near the sound board with my yelling and pogoing.) I could go on and on about Pinkerton's impact on me and the many messed up young adults who worship the album, but plenty of other folks have already done. I will say that its crazy, mixed up, self-loathing lyrics resonated with a self-loathing unconfident 26 year-old, and they still do to a much more confident, yet still incredibly self-loathing 35 year-old:

"I'm beat, beet red
ashamed of what I said
(What I said)

I'm sorry,
here I go
I know I'm a sinner
but I can't say no
(Say no)

Thursday night I'm makin' Denise
Friday night I'm makin' Sharise
Saturday night I'm making Louise
Oh, why can't I be making love come true?"

(Sigh.)

The lyrics in "Sister Jack" don't grab me like "Tired of Sex" (Heck, I don't even understand most of them.) But the oft-kilter rhthym hooked me the first time I heard it on the public radio show The World Cafe 2 weeks ago. That one spin convinced me I needed to get Spoon's new album, Gimmie Fiction, as soon as it came out on the 10th. I was pleasantly surprised to find an MP3 of the song the next day, and quickly got it onto the Ipod and listen to it almost everyday.

Somehow this week almost became "Sister Jack" overkill. I heard it Monday morning on on WFUV, and I was singing the song all day. Then I was invited to a listening party that night at a bar in the East Village, Hi-Fi, where I heard it the track two more times. The next day I bought Gimmie Fiction and was surprised to find there was a bonus disc with a demo verson of "Sister Jack." Later on Tuesday I went to one of my favorite MP3 blogs, Sixeyes, and they had posted yet another demo version of it. Wednesday night I heard it yet again on the World Cafe. So with all those signs, I had no choice but to also make it Song of the Week. I just hope these two tracks can co-exist peacefully on the same page.

Song of the Week 5/6/05

Oasis - "Lyla"

(Ooh, I figured out how to put a pic up!)

I haven't liked an Oasis single since 1997's "D'Ya Know What I Mean," so I must admit to being surprised that this has grown on me so much. Like most of Noel Gallagher's best songs, "Lyla" is a complete ripoff of someone else's work. The melody of the opening verse is a complete nick of the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man," and the rest of the song sounds like it was borrowed from The Who and Soundtrack of Our Lives. The thievery is besides the point--it's just good to have Oasis back is somewhat fighting form. Now we just need more outlandish Noel Gallagher interviews.

Song of the Week 4/29/05

Andrew Gold - "Lonely Boy"

This is quite possibly one of my favorite songs from the '70s.

It's also quite possibly one of the worst songs of the '70s.

When I was a kid, I loved this song, most likely because I was an only child raised in a small town with one traffic light. I had no friends anywhere near where I lived, so I spent all of my childhood by myself or thrown in with a bunch of adults in my house. When I went through my initial nostalgia for the '70s in 1990 and 1991, hosting a very popular show on my college station called Artists Only: The 70s, this song got played rather loud in the studio. And if you read the Song of the Week two weeks ago, you know I definitely considered myself a "Lonely Boy" back then.

The past two Fridays at work I played a bunch of '70s songs from ITunes to entertain me and my fellow co-workers, and "Lonely Boy" got stuck in everyone's heads at one point or another. And then I listened to it again last Saturday morning as I left a complete stranger's house after spending the night there (it's a LONG and bizarre story), and it seemed so appropriate that I started laughing out loud while walking down 2nd place in my beloved Brooklyn. Later that day I played it for my concert pal Moria after we saw The Shins and I had told the story of my crazy night. She had never heard the song, but I could tell by her head bobbing that its hookiness had snagged her, even if the song is three years older than her.

So you might be saying to yourself, "So why is it one of the worst songs of the 70s if you like it so much?" Here I ask you, dear reader, to take a glance at the lyrics:

He was born on a summer day,
1951
And with a slap of a hand he had landed
As an only son.

His mother and father said
What a lovely boy
We'll teach him what we learned,
Ah, yes, just what we learned.
We'll dress him up warmly
And we'll send him to school,
We'll teach him how to fight
To be nobody's fool

Oh, oh what a lonely boy,
Oh what a lonely boy,
Oh what a lonely boy.

In the summer of '53
His mother brought him a sister.
And she told him,
"We must attend to her needs,
She's so much younger than you."

Well he ran down the hall and he cried,
Oh how could his parents have lied?
When they said he was their only son,
He thought he was the only one…

Oh, oh what a lonely boy,
Oh what a lonely boy,
Oh what a lonely boy.

Goodbye mama!
Goodbye you!
Goodbye papa!
I'm pushing on through…

He left home on a winter day,
1969
And he hoped to find all the love
He had lost in that earlier time

Well, his sister grew up
And married a man,
He gave her a son,
Ah, yes, a lovely son.
They dressed him up warmly
They sent him to school,
They taught him how to fight,
To be nobody's fool…

Oh, oh what a lonely boy,
Oh what a lonely boy,
Oh what a lonely boy.

Whoa, whoa, whoa,
Oh, oh what a lonely boy,
Oh what a lonely boy,
Oh what a lonely boy.

WOW--talk about some of the most self-pitying, navel gazing lyrics even put down in a song! It slams his parents, his sister and his nephew, all in the space of four minutes. I wonder what family gatherings were like after this song came out. Maybe that's why he followed it up with "Thank You For Being a Friend"--he probably needed to mend some bridges.

Song of the Week 4/22/05

The Shins - "So Says I"

I came WAY late to The Shins party. I, like many unhipsters, had never heard of them until Zack Braff's great little movie from last year, Garden State. That's not exactly true -- I had heard them on the film's soundtrack (which I got a promo copy of) long before I saw the movie. One Friday night last summer I was talking about movies and music with my friend Rhett, and he asked me if I had seen Garden State, because he thought it would be right up my alley. I told him I hadn't, but I did love the soundtrack. Then he started raving about The Shins, saying that their second album, Chutes Too Narrow, was even better than their first, Oh Inverted World, which supplied two songs to the Garden State soundtrack. So the next week he gave me a copy of Chutes and said I needed to listen to it. And damn if he wasn't right.

I forgot about the disc and the band until my fellow concert collaborator Moria sent out an email asking if anyone wanted to go see The Shins with her. Since I was going to get us Doves tickets, I figured it would be a good trade, and quickly agreed. So a few weeks ago I finally picked up Oh Inverted World, and loved it. And then I started listening to Chutes again, and the one song that always stuck in my head was "So Says I." There's a part where frontman James Mercer sings "Oooo whoooo ooooo" through a wall of distortion, and that little two seconds of the tune has been stuck in my head all week. I can't get enough of it. And tonight I look forward to seeing them for the first time -- and hopefully the crowd won't be filled with too many way-too-late-to-The-Shins-party-folks like me.

(Right clink the link at the top for a free MP3 of the song from Sub Pop. And if you like that, check out a great live version from Austin City Limits by right clicking here.)

Song of the Week 4/15/05

Graham Parker and the Shot - "Wake Up (Next to You)"

Last Saturday -- for the first time in my life -- I was able to walk to a wedding. My friends Jessica and Kevin were getting hitched right off of Brooklyn's beautiful Prospect Park, which is a 35-minute uphill walk from my abode. It was beautiful and sunny day, so I grabbed the Ipod and -- clad in my Thinker tie and black suit jacket -- and started walking. Since I was going to the nuptials of two friends that I love dearly, I decided I needed to listen to some happy songs about love. I chose a playlist called "Sappy Songs," which starts out with "Wake Up (Next to You)." This was the first song I ever heard from one of England's best songwriters of the past 30 years, Graham Parker.

The track, from Steady Nerves, was Parker's only Top 40 hit in the U-S, and I discovered it via the Top 40 station out of Albany, FLY 92. It wasn't until I got to college that I heard more from Parker's great catalog, such as "Local Girls" and "Discovering Japan" from Squeezing Out Sparks and "Fool's Gold" from Heat Treatment. But "Wake Up (Next to You)" was always my favorite tune -- until I ended up playing it repeatedly about a girl.

(Gee, that's a surprise.)

My sophomore year (1988) I met a girl named Sarah who lived in the same dorm as I did. She had a serious boyfriend who lived on my floor, and she always came down (maybe it was up?) to visit him. They ended up breaking up that spring because, well, she was crazy and VERY flirtatious. It drove this guy nuts.

Fast forward to the summer of 1989: I'm working at the college station, 92 WICB, for the entire summer, getting some really good radio experience. In July our transmitter got struck by lightning, throwing us off the air for just over three days. So I found myself with some time off the air, and Sarah happened to call me at the station to see if I wanted to get together. She was working in Ithaca, and while we'd kept in touch, we'd never really hung out. So that night we proceeded to go to the only bar that I could drink at in town, TJ Tuesdays. 5 dollar pitchers ruled at that joint, and she and I drank many of them. We proceeded to drive (we were stupid, I know) to my pad, and then head back to her place. After making out while watching Rattle and Hum, I admitted that I was exhausted (I got up three days a week at 5am to work that summer), so she told me to get into her bed and she would follow me in in a while. A few minutes later I heard her roommate come home from his job at Dominos. I lied there for a while listening to them chat, and finally passed out.

I awoke at 6am and discovered I had slept alone all night. Puzzled, I got up and went to the bathroom -- and saw Sarah was in bed with her roommate, and it was obvious both of them were naked. I pissed, got the hell out of there and drove home. We were back on the air later that afternoon, which was my normal shift on a Friday. My fourth song of the day was "Wake Up (Next to You)," which I sarcastically dedicated to Sarah. I didn't see her again for the rest of the summer.

When school was just day away from starting at the end of August, I moved into my new on-campus apartment. That first night I discovered that my downstairs neighbor was none other than Sarah. When I bumped into her, I took the high road, asking her how her new boyfriend Jason (the roommate) was and how the rest of the summer went, and just trying to be cordial. The rest of that semester I rarely saw her, but we would be pleasant, even friendly to one another, which was fine with me since I had already found another woman to be fixated upon.

I stayed at the on-campus apartment during winter break of 1990-91 to work once again at the radio station, and surprisingly Sarah stayed as well to work at her off-campus job. We ended up hanging out evenings she was off, since we were the only two people in our entire apartment building that break. And -- you guessed it -- we ended up making out many of those nights, but she would always stop just before sex because she didn't want to cheat on her boyfriend. So about every third morning I would play "Wake Up (Next to You)" either in extreme frustration or total bliss -- I wasn't sure then what I was feeling, and I'm sure as heck not sure now. After that break ended, I never played the song again on air.

In the fall of 1996 The Figgs signed on to back Graham Parker on tour, so as a primer I went out and bought the two-disc Rhino collection Passion Is No Ordinary Word, and there was "Wake Up (Next to You)" on disc two. All the weird feelings I had associated with the song had melted away over those five years, and now it was just another great mushy song from my misspent high school days. So when I was putting together a playlist in I Tunes of "Sappy Songs," it seemed only appropriate for it to kick it off. I listened to the song twice while walking to Jessica and Kevin's wedding, which put me in a good mind set for what ended up being a great ceremony and an even better reception. (And for me, a man that believes marriage is a sham, to say that is pretty amazing.) And once again, WFUV read my mind, as the first song I heard the Monday after the wedding was "Wake Up (Next to You)."

Steady Nerves and Passion is No Ordinary Word are both out of print, but the song does appear, along with 19 other great tracks, on The Ultimate Collection, which you can still order online. So snatch it up, you won't regret it. (Well, unless you end up playing it over and over because you keep getting dissed by the same girl, then you might want to break the disc in half. Just don't blame me if that does indeed happen.)

Song of the Week 4/8/05

Josh Rouse - "It's the Nighttime"

It's not often that one person's love for a certain artist is so strong that one would be compelled to go see that artist without owning a single piece of music from their catalog. Heck, I've tried for almost a decade to get people to see The Figgs using my my persuasive power, and in some case, alcohol bribery. Whenever I've succeeded, I feel like it's an amzing achievement.

Now I'm not sure how my fellow Brooklyn to Midtown commuter Moria feels about having done just that (somehow I'm sure I will find out after this post), but it was her pure love of Josh Rouse's music that directly led me to my activity for this evening--seeing Josh Rouse perform at Irving Plaza.

Now I have seen the man in the past--as a matter of fact, in the guise of my day job I interviewed him in 2000 about his second album, Home. I vaguely recall liking the disc, but I don't have it in my collection now. I think I may have given it away to a co-worker or (more likely) sold it on St. Mark's Place to feed one of my various addictions. What I do remember about the interview is that Rouse was big into cooking, and we spent the last third of the interview chatting about cooking and the recipes he listed on his site.

Fast forward to January 2005: I've known Moria for just over a month, and its already apparent to me that we have one of those very rare person-to-person music connections that come around just a few times in a person's life. I can count the number of people I've had this bond with on just one hand. (Check the 1999 Reynolds Top 20 List for those other folks.) Since Moria and I click on this level, I figure I should check out whatever she raves about, as there's a 90% chance I'm going to like it.

So in one of our numerous email conversations she mentioned that she saw Josh Rouse on the street in Brooklyn, and how much she loves his music. A couple of days later I got a copy of Nashville, Rouse's new album, and I immediately burned a copy because I know she needed this disc fast, just like an old booze hound needs his first drink of the day at 8:00 a.m. I also decided that I should give this album more than my patented "Listen For Two Songs And Then Eject It Rapidly, Mumbling Disgustedly Under My Breath 'This Disc Sucks'" treatment.

And here's the thing with Nashville--it doesn't suck. Rouse's diverse tales of heartbreak (some likely inspired by his 2004 divorce) are catchy yet uncomfortable in how close they cut to the bone in nailing failed relationships. I always thought of Nashville (the city) as a place where sadness thrived in music--and was commercially successful as the same time. Alas, most of America won't hear this disc as much as they would, say, the latest from Kenny Chesney, but that's the topic for a whole other site, nay, book.

So to get back to the Song of the Week, ever since I decided in late March that I should go see Rouse play based on the one disc that I owned, I found myself drawn to "It's the Nighttime." The entire track is masterful, but what reeled me in is when the last chorus rolls around. Rouse harmonizes with himself on the final line, "It's the nighttime baby/Don't let go of my love." But when he sings "love" this time, he streches the syllable out, and squeezes all the heartbreak out of it by singing "looooooooooooooovvvvvvvvvvveeeee." (Gosh, that looks stupid in print.) I listened to this song everyday on my way to work this week, and I heard it twice on WFUV, as if they wanted to put an exclamation point on my story.

So thanks WFUV, and thanks to Moria for giving me a music passion transfusion that a cranky old man definitely needed.

Song of the Week 4/1/05

R.E.M. - "World Leader Pretend"

They say death comes in threes (The Pope, Mitch Hedberg, that feeding tube lady). Sometimes that works for the Song of the Week as well:

1) I spent my Sunday afternoon going through the DVD's that are part of each reissue of R.E.M.'s Warner Bros. catalog. The last one I watched was Green, which not only has the album remixed in surround sound but also includes three songs from Tourfilm, the concert movie shot at the end of their extensive 1989 tour. One was a clip for "World Leader Pretend," a song which the group deemed so important in 1988 that they included the lyrics on the album sleeve, which was a first for Michael "Mr. Mumbles" Stipe.

2) Tuesday morning I woke up to WFUV playing "World Leader Pretend."

3) I read some MP3 blog (which I would link to, but I can't remember which one it was) on Wednesday which mentioned a new EP from a band called (wait for it...) World Leader Pretend...who just so happen to have an album coming out on (wait for it again...) Warner Bros. (On that blog I listened to one track called "Bang Theory" that was pretty damn good. and I look forward to hearing more from them.)

Wow, that's pretty freaky when I see all of it put together on the page. I hope it doesn't happen with this song next week.

Song of the Week 3/25/05

Supertramp - "Take the Long Way Home"

It's not often that a co-worker points out the Song of the Week to me, but I must credit my next door cube neighbor Doug for saying on Thursday of this week, "Haven't we heard this song every day this week?" He was correct--for some reason, the programming computer at the local NYC classic rocker Q104.3 must have had a glitch. It's not often that you hear the same song four days in the row in the daytime on a classic-based radio station. The computer or the program director or music director should be able to catch that it ran in the same daypart that many days in one week. In the world of classic rock radio programming, that is a no-no.

As if that repeated exposure wasn't enough, I heard "Take the Long Way Home" at a crucial point in a trip upstate on Friday. My friend Heather had the use of a van for a week, so I bribed her to take me up to my aunt's house to pick up a recliner and a bed frame. (I thrive on the hand-me-downs of my aunt--I would be eating on paper plates and using plastic forks without getting her rejects.) Since the van had no working stereo, I brought the Ipod and a little portable speaker system that ran off the headphone output. The trip up turned out ot be hellish, as it took two hours just to get from my abode in Brooklyn to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Somewhere around there "Take the Long Way Home" came up one of of the two lengthy playlists I created for the trip. Oh that song never seemed more appropriate than that moment.

Song of the Week 3/18/05

The Mars Volta - "The Widow"

This track from the group's second album, Frances the Mute, has been played for weeks upon end here in New York on our alt rock station, K-Rock. It was pretty much background noise until the begining of this week, when Cedric Bixler's voice cut through my haze as I was thinking about how crappy the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies would be. (And oh, it was.) Then the next three days I think I heard every single time K-Rock played the song during the day. Finally I broke down and made the single version of this song my first I-Tunes purchase for the I-Pod. Who doesn't like Tex-Mex progressive rock?

Song of the Week 3/11/05

Tears For Fears - "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"

Yet again, VH1 Classic inspires another entry. I saw the video on Monday, heard it on the local Hot AC station on Wednesday, which then inspired me to put Songs From the Big Chair on the new gadget of the house, the 60 gig Ipod. Damn, how did I ever live without this thing?

Song of the Week 3/4/05

Queen - "Somebody to Love"

I'm not even that big a fan of this track (I prefer "Tie Your Mother Down" or "Get Down, Make Love"), but when you hear a classic rock song six times in the same week over one video channel and two different radio stations, you gotta go with what had fate has dealt you. And I must ask, why are Brian May and Roger Taylor touring with Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers? As a colleague of mine said (and I paraphrase here) "Why replace one of the most effiminate frontman with one of the most macho frontman?"

Song of the Week 2/25/05

The Rolling Stones - “Loving Cup”

I have been on a huge Stones kick over the past month. I’ve listened to lots of Stones music over the years since I first got a disc player in 1987, but nothing as intense as the past four weeks. It all started when I got the new album from The Gentlemen. Brass City Band features some of the best Stone-inspired tunes I’ve heard in ages, especially “Flame for Hire” and “No Need to Leave,” both of which remind me of tracks I had heard years ago from the Stones 1976 album Black and Blue. Never having owned the album, I found myself compelled to buy it during a visit to Tower Records one night. Listening to “Hand of Fate” and “Memory Motel” made me want to listen to Sticky Fingers, which for some reason I didn’t have anymore. So one night at J&R I bought Sticky Fingers and -- just because it was on sale -- Goat Head’s Soup. And then I heard “Tops” (or maybe it was “Heaven”) from Tattoo You at the bar, so I had to listen to that album again.

All of this quality Stones time led me to make a Stones mix for the bar during the week. And just to be different, I put together 16 of their more mellow songs, like “Memory Motel,” “Winter,” “Moonlight Mile” and “Loving Cup.” On Friday I was meeting someone for drinks at the International Bar in the East Village, and before they showed up the jukebox went silent. So I grabbed a couple of bucks from my wallet and decided to play some songs from Exile on Main Street. I meant to play “Shake Your Hips,” but somehow goofed and played “Loving Cup,” which I already heard twice that day while giving my Stones mix a test spin. No big deal, I thought, I still enjoy that song. The person I was meeting showed up, and 20 minutes into our coversation someone went over the jukebox to play some songs…and played “Loving Cup.” And then 30 minutes later, “Loving Cup” was played again. And toward the end of our time at the bar, someone else played it too. And all I could think was, “Has there ever been a more obvious candidate for Song of the Week.” I would think not.

Song of the Week 2/18/05

Willie Nelson - “Always on My Mind”

“Always on My Mind” is the first song I ever heard from Willie Nelson, and for some reason it connected with the 12 year old Steve in the Spring of 1982. I certainly wasn’t old enough to understand the meaning behind it -- I just liked Nelson’s voice. The song’s meaning has obviously became apparent to me over the years, and since I got the song on CD about six years ago, I break it out at least twice a year. Last Saturday I was at Great Lakes (the bar I have referred to numerous times in Top 20 List writings) having a couple of Rolling Rocks when the jukebox went silent. That’s my cue to dump in some dough. I picked “Always on My Mind” to close out my 12 song set, and after my tunes were done I went down the street to the Loki Lounge to visit some friends that work there. I wasn’t there more than five minutes when “Always on My Mind” came on, but this time it was the 1988 Pet Shop Boys version. These weird musical occurrences usually happen to me in threes, so I wasn’t at all surprised when I got my mail at the office on Monday and found a copy of a new Willie Nelson compilation called Songs. And of course, the first song I played was “Always on My Mind.” I wouldn’t endorse a purchase of Songs, as it’s a subpar Nelson collection (too many duets for my liking). But if you really need “Always on My Mind” and his take on The Muppet Movie’s “Rainbow Connection,” this is the one to get.

Song of the Week 2/11/05

The Gentlemen - “Flame For Hire”

Life always gets better when The Gentlemen release a new album. Their third disc, Brass City Band, takes a slightly different tack than the hard rock bluster of Ladies and Gentlemen or Blondes Prefer the Gentlemen. The guys from Boston explore more of their love of the Faces and Rolling Stones this time, with the Stones worship never more apparent on “No Need to Leave” and “Flame for Hire.” Starting out with a riff that Keith Richards probably has a patent on, “Flame” would fit snugly on It’s Only Rock and Roll or Black and Blue. I just couldn’t stop playing this song over and over this week, even though I’m not sure what the lyrics mean in the slightest (except for the part about clearing snow off the porch). You can get this album now through the band’s website.
[If you’d like a FREE MP3 of the song, right click on the title above and hit Save Target As.]

Song of the Week 2/4/05

Van Halen - "Intruder"/"Oh Pretty Woman"

I love how a song can tie a whole week together. Monday night while cooking dinner I had the greatest channel ever on -- VH1 Classic. During their All Request Hour they played the entire "Pretty Woman" video, which includes the lengthy instrumental intro "Intruder." Then Friday I was listening to Q104.3, the classic rock station here in New York. They do a contest every weekday called "The 3 at 3," in which listeners have to guess what links the three songs together. The last song in "The 3 at 3?" "Intruder"/"Oh Pretty Woman," of course.

This medley appears on my favorite Van Halen album, Diver Down. I was having a discussion with a co-worker Wednesday night about how this album shouldn't even exist, considering the bizarre track listing (5 covers?!?). I do believe that my thoughts on this album will require an entirely separate entry. Look for it within the next week or so.

Song of the Week 1/28/05

Frank Zappa - “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow”/”Nanook Rubs It”/”St. Alphonzo’s Pancake Breakfast”/”Father O’Blivion”

Ah, the first serious snowfall of the winter is always a wondrous time, especially if you’ve lived all your life in the Northeast. There’s always that initial burst of anticipation; the weather geeks get all excited about a “big winter event” and the TV stations go wall-to-wall with “Snow Team Coverage.” And finally when it starts falling, one can’t help but want to stand outside and watch it fall, erasing any evidence of garbage strewn across the sidewalks across New York. The storm that socked NYC on the 22nd was a sight to behold -- within two hours almost four inches of the stuff piled up on my front porch. It was the perfect night to go traipsing through the drifts and drink like a pack of St. Bernards had discovered us in the highest elevation of the Himalayas.

Alas, that initial rush always ends with the snow turning muddy from the sand on the streets -- and in the case of my neighborhood -- turning yellow in spots because of the numerous cats that roam free like they own the place. So as I attempted to tread to work two days after the storm (and having to walk 16 extra blocks because the train my neighborhood was not running), listening to this medley that opens Zappa’s 1974 album Apostrophe’ seemed perfect music to mush to:

“Dreamed I was an Eskimo
Frozen wind began to blow
Under my boots and around my toes
The frost that bit the ground below
It was a hundred degrees below zero... “

“And my mama cried
And my mama cried
Nanook, a-no-no
Nanook, a-no-no
Don't be a naughty Eskimo
Save your money, don't go to the show”

“Well I turned around and I said ‘Oh, oh’ Oh
Well I turned around and I said ‘Oh, oh’ Oh
Well I turned around and I said ‘Ho, Ho’
And the northern lights commenced to glow
And she said, with a tear in her eye
‘Watch out where the huskies go, and don't you eat that yellow snow’
‘Watch out where the huskies go, and don't you eat that yellow snow’”
(C) 1974 Munchkin Music

While the opening of the album lends itself to wintertime, there’s something else that makes it one of my quintessential snowstorm albums. I grasped the genius of this tale about Eskimo revenge and the power of urine-treated snow during the very first winter break I spent away from home. My friend Dave and I worked at the college station in Ithaca during the winter of 1988-89 and shared an apartment we borrowed from one of our friends. During one of those cold nights in that tiny garden apartment, he played me the disc that contained both Apostrophe’ and the 1973 album Overnite Sensation. This shit was dirty, funny, stupid, smart and had a great groove all at the same time -- and it was perfect for the brutal Central New York winter we had to trudge through everyday. And with our big coats, we probably looked just like Nanook. Except I never picked up the yellow snow, even in self defense.