Song of the Week 6/25/10

Bee Gees - "More Than a Woman"

Saturday night I felt compelled, for no particular reason, to listen to some Bee Gees hits. I always get a special thrill out of walking through my borough listening to the Gibb brothers sing. I had their songs percolating in my brain when I went to sleep and when I woke up Sunday morning. And then on Sunday afternoon, while I was doing a little work in the air conditioned environment of my office, "More Than a Woman" came on.

So I had to find a clip on YouTube. They did a pretty good job of it in 1997:

Song of the Week 6/18/10

B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore - "Airplanes"

I heard this song in an Old Navy the other day while buying a pair of pants. I was singing along to the chorus by the time it was over. This might be my summer jam, 2010 edition.

Song of the Week 6/11/10

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - "I Should Have Known It"

The first time I heard the first single from Petty and company's new album Mojo, I was not happy. I even wrote on my Twitter, "Uh-oh--TP w/o hooks? Not good." Where was the classic Petty chorus that I would want to sing at the top of my lungs while driving my car with the windows down? I just didn't hear anything that would stick with me.

Then I finally watched their performance on the season finale of Saturday Night Live.



Holy shit, I was wrong. EVERYTHING about the song is a hook. Mike Campbell and Scott Thurston's intertwined guitar lines, Steve Ferrone's Bonhamesque thump, Petty's venomous vocal. Fuck me, it's all fantastic. I even recorded the SNL performance to put it my iTunes, just so I could relive that adrenaline rush again and again. I can't wait to see the Heartbreakers rip into it at the Garden next month.

U.S. vs. England 6/12/10

This was about as last minute of a themed DJ stint I’ve done. I got the call yesterday to spin at The Bell House in between World Cup matches -- specifically before the U.S. versus England match. So I scrambled to come up with enough acts from both sides to make it work. I think it turned out rather well. See what rock bands battled it out to a draw below.

The Beach Boys - “Wouldn’t It be Nice”
The Beatles - “A Hard Day’s Night”
Ramones - “Beat on the Brat”
Sex Pistols - “God Save the Queen”
Guided by Voices - “Glad Girls”
The Who - “I Can see For Miles”
Big Star - “September Gurls”
Oasis - “Rock n Roll Star”
Beck - “New Pollution”
Bloc Party - “Helicopter”
Wilco - “War on War”
Radiohead - “My Iron Lung”
Black Flag - “TV Party”
Black Sabbath - “Paranoid”
Queens of the Stone Age - “No One Knows”
Queen - “Tie Your Mother Down”
Van Halen - “(Oh) Pretty Woman”
The Darkness - “I Believe In a Thing Called Love”
Kiss - “King of the Night Time World”
The Kinks - “Destroyer”
Dio - “Rainbow in the Dark”
Def Leppard - “Photograph”
Joe Walsh - “Walk Away”
Joe Jackson - “Look Sharp”
The Shins - “So Says I”
Blur - “Parklife”
Talking Heads - “Once in a Lifetime”
English Beat - “Save It for Later”
Cheap Trick - “I Want You to Want Me”
Buzzcocks - “Ever Fallen in Love”
Devo - “Whip It”
The Stone Roses - “She Bangs the Drums”
Dinosaur Jr. - “Just Like Heaven”
The Cure - “Why Can’t I Be You”
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - “Don’t Do Me Like That”
Tom Jones - “It’s Not Unusual”
Elvis Presley - “Burning Love”
Elvis Costello & The Attractions - “Oliver’s Army”
The Smithereens - “Behind the Wall of Sleep”
The Smiths - “Panic”
Husker Du - “Could You be the One?”
The Clash - “Julie’s Been Working for the Drug Squad”
The J. Geils Band - “Love Stinks”
The Rolling Stones - “Rocks Off”
Superdrag - “Sucked Out”
Supertramp - “Breakfast in America”

Song of the Week 6/4/10

Guster - "What You Call Love"

I'd be disclosing this fact later in the year on the RT20 albums list, but I might as well spill the beans early. I've been hired to write the bio for the new Guster album. It's a great album, maybe their best. I actually feel more pressure doing this bio because it's so great. And "What You Call Love" is the track that's been stuck in my head since I first listened to the album 10 days ago. It starts with a ukelele playing and builds into a masterful pop song that reminds me of the Beach Boys in spots and Jellyfish in others. Oh goodness I can't wait for people to hear it. Expect it on any mixes I make from September on.

Gee, I hope I don't mess up their bio.

PS: I wrote this on my iPhone on the Amtrak back to the city. I needed to do something so I didn't kill the idiots in this car.

Song of the Week 5/28/10

Tom Petty - "Time to Move On"



Tom always knows the right thing to say. It seems like its' been that way for 25 years of my life. How does he do that?

"It's time to move on, time to get going
What lies ahead, I have no way of knowing
But under my feet, baby, grass is growing
It's time to move on, it's time to get going

Broken skyline, movin' through the airport
She's an honest defector
Conscientious objector
Now her own protector

Broken skyline, which way to love land
Which way to something better
Which way to forgiveness
Which way do I go

It's time to move on, time to get going
What lies ahead, I have no way of knowing
But under my feet, baby, grass is growing
It's time to move on, it's time to get going

Sometime later, getting the words wrong
Wasting the meaning and losing the rhyme
Nauseous adrenaline
Like breakin' up a dogfight
Like a deer in the headlights
Frozen in real time
I'm losing my mind

It's time to move on, time to get going
What lies ahead, I have no way of knowing
But under my feet, baby, grass is growing
It's time to move on, it's time to get going

It's time to move on, time to get going
What lies ahead, I have no way of knowing
But under my feet, baby, grass is growing
It's time to move on, it's time to get going

It's time to move on, it's time to get going"

Song of the Week 5/21/10

LCD Soundsystem - "I Can Change"

The new LCD Soundsytem album is pretty good. It might not been on the same level as Sound of Silver, but it's a worthy follow-up. My favorite track is "I Can Change," which bears more than a passing resemblance to Eurythmics "Love is a Stranger." The last line in the second chorus--"I can change if it helps you fall in love"--is something I can totally identify with at this point in my life. Alas, its something I didn't do enough.

BONUS: Here's a live version of "I Can Change"...



...and here's that Eurythmics song.

Song of the Week 5/14/10

The Figgs - "A One Man Fiasco"

One of my favorite shows of 2010 when it's all said and done will be The Figgs show at Fontana's in Chinatown on May 14th. It was an early 45 minute set, so they decided to just play their new album The Man Who Fights Himself in order. I had seen all of the songs live in the past four years since their last album Follow Jean Through the Sea, but it was fun hearing them all bunched together like that.

Before the show singer-guitarist Mike Gent told me that his uncle had died and he'd have to travel up to Troy in the morning for the funeral. During the show, just before "A One Man Fiasco," Gent told the crowd about his uncle and asked everyone to raise their glasses in honor of him. And every single person did. It was a very moving sight. And then when Gent got to the third verse, I got a huge lump in my throat.

"Maybe some sleep, will bring a little peace.
The saddest thing I've ever seen.
Family will come, and eventually
All will have to leave."

It was the most emotional moment I've had at a Figgs show in probably a decade. "A One Man Fiasco" is the centerpiece of a very strong album, and is a song I have a feeling I'll keep going back to for years and years.

BONUS: Here are the Figgs playing it two nights later in Philadelphia.

RT 20 Podcast 33: Brian Cogan, Part 2

Whoa, sorry for the delay in posting part 2. What kind of radio station are we running around here anyways?

Oh, right.

You can check out Brian and his band The In Crowd Saturday night at Union Hall in Brooklyn opening up for my beloved Figgs.

To download this podcast or stream it, click here. To have your iTunes automatically download each new podcast, click here.

Song of the Week 5/7/10

Aerosmith - "What It Takes"

Weird things can happen with music. Case in point is this SOTW.

Spring 1990: My roommate Hank and I have a party in our garden apartment on the IC campus. We're drinking with our friends, spinning different albums. "What It Takes" comes on, and in a fit of drunken stupidity, I turn around and decide I needed to lipsynch it to the nearest woman. That happens to be my friend Lisa, who is a native of New Hampshire. I give a devastating performance that I am sure all of my friends that were at the party can still recall to this day. Heck, it became a running gag for many, many years after that initial Steven Tyler impression.

Spring 2010: I'm in a car riding around (wait for it) New Hampshire, listening to WZLX out of Boston play a rock block of Aerosmith. For some reason Allison (also a New Hampshire native) mentions that "What It Takes" is one of her favorite Aerosmith songs. Stunned, I tell her that its one of mine as well and explain the story above. I added that the song was kind of obscure and it would be doubtful that any radio station played it these days. She disagreed, saying that it wasn't that obscure. The next day another Aerosmith block comes on WZLX, and I'll be damned if they don't play "What It Takes." (Alas, Allison was not as excited as me, especially when I turned up the station to a volume that would deafen most normal people.)

BONUS: I had totally forgotten there were two videos made for this song.

Here's the initial "in the studio" version:


And here's the "concept" version:

Col. Boyd's Derby Day Party 5/1/10

For the fifth year in a row I had the pleasure of DJ-ing at Col. Boyd’s annual Derby Day Party. There was no theme in this year’s selections, just a bunch of tunes I wanted to play since the last time I DJ’ed. Here’s what you may or may not have heard on a day for mudders in Churchill Downs.

Chet Atkins - “Kentucky Derby”
Ricky Nelson - “Sure Fire Bet”
Beau Brummels - “My Old Kentucky Home”
Elvis Presley - “Kentucky Rain”
The Rolling Stones - “Dead Flowers”
Bobby Darin - “Beyond the Sea”
Bob and Earl - “Harlem Shuffle”
The Beach Boys - “Wouldn’t It be Nice”
Badfinger - “Come and Get It”
The Association - “Windy”
Paul Revere and The Raiders - “Kicks”
The Grass Roots - “Temptation Eyes”
The Flirtations - “Nothing But a Heartache”
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - “More Love”
The Isley Brothers - “Summer Breeze”
The Four Tops - “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got)”
The Three Degrees - “When Will I See You Again”
Cliff Richard - “Devil Woman”
J. Geils Band - “Musta Got Lost”
Rod Stewart - “Every Picture Tells a Story”
ELO - “Mr. Blue Sky”
The Faces - “Ooh La La”
Gary U.S. Bonds - “This Little Girl”
Doobie Brothers - “Minute by Minute”
Grizzly Bear featuring Michael McDonald - “While You Wait for the Others”
Wilco - “Heavy Metal Drummer”
Brendan Benson - “A Whole Lot Better”
Delta Spirit - “Trashcan”
Death Cab For Cutie - “Long Division”
The Detroit Cobras - “Hot Dog”
Electric Six - “Gay Bar”
Guided by Voices - “Girls of Wild Strawberries”
Fleet Foxes - “He Doesn’t Know Why”
The Hold Steady - “My Little Hoodrat Friend”
Phoenix - “Lisztomania”
Elliott Smith - “Son of Sam”
The Strokes - “Bard to Explain”
The Arctic Monkeys - “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor”
Mumford & Sons - “Little Lion Man”
Matthew Sweet - “Girlfriend”
Adam Ant - “Wonderful”
Beck - “Devil’s Haircut”
Belly - “Feed the Tree”
Blur - “Parklife”
The Flaming Lips - “Race for the Prize”
Fountains of Wayne - “Denise”
Foo Fighters - “Monkey Wrench”
Harvey Danger - “Flagpole Sitta”
The Knack - “my Sharona”
Yes - “Owner of a Lonely heart”
Billy Squier - “In the Dark”
Asia - “Heat of the Moment”
Dramarama - “Anything, Anything”
Berlin - “No More Words”
Howard Jones - “Things Can Only Get Better”
Matthew Wilder - “Break My Stride”
ABC - “The Look of Love”
The Outfield - “Your Love”
The Clash - “Rock the Casbah”
Kim Wilde - “Kids in America”
Gary Numan - “Cars”
Duran Duran - “Girls on Film”
The English Beat - “Mirror in the Bathroom”
Men at Work - “Who Can It be Now”
Madness - “Our House”
Big Country - “In a Big Country”
Tears for Fears - “Shout”
Toto - “Roseanna”
REO Speedwagon - “Keep on Loving You”
Motley Crue - “Home Sweet Home”

Song of the Week 4/28/10

Wilson Phillips - "Hold On"

My friend Jodie and I have had a long time bond over the delivery of humor. Specifically, the concept of doing anything to make a joke work or to keep it going forward long past a sensible expiration date. We've adhered to that motto for 15 years now, to varying degrees of success. Sometime my efforts have paid off in big laughs; others...ah, not so much.

I guess that preamble (or ramble) is part of my explanation of why on Derby Day I stood on stage at the Bell House while the band played and took a picture of two great ladies singing this song:



The exact reasons of 1) how I convinced the band to play the song and 2) how I ended up dating the awesome and beautiful woman on the left because of her posting the "Hold On" video on my Facebook page are better explained in person. Let me just say this--this cheesy #1 hit from 1990 has certainly been rehabilitated in my mind.

(Postscript--days after I posted this, I got dumped. Ain't life a bitch?)

Song of the Week 4/23/10

E.L.O. - "Telephone Line"



Before our gig the other night at Bar Nine, we got a little surprise--we had an opening act. Fortunately, Volunteers were very excellent. Their originals were quirky and catchy pop numbers, so their cover of E.L.O.'s "Telephone Line" fit in nicely. And they hit most of the high notes. That is an achievement. After hearing the studio version on CBS-FM this weekend, I knew I had a poptastic SOTW.

Song of the Week 4/16/10

Motley Crue - "Home Sweet Home"



If you've seen Hot Tub Time Machine, you know why this had to be SOTW after I laughed my ass off Friday night. Just outstanding.

RT 20 Podcast 32: Brian Cogan, Part 1

This week's guest Brian Cogan is a multitalented man--he's a professor, an author, a musician and--rather unfortunately this year--a fellow Mets fan.

To download this podcast or stream it, click here. To have your iTunes automatically download each new podcast, click here.

Song of the Week 4/9/10

LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends"

Welcome back, James Murphy and company. We missed you. We'd forgotten just how amazing Sound of Silver was three years ago and how explosive those songs could be live. Thank you for tearing the roof off of the Music Hall of Williamsburg Thursday and Webster Hall Monday with "All My Friends."

Signed,

New York

Song of the Week 4/2/10

Wilco - "Thank You Friends"

It's kind of a cheat to repeat (ooooh, I'm a poet) a song I just did two weeks ago, but seeing Wilco perform this Big Star song Saturday night at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, New Jersey was such a tremendous joy (John Stiratt and Pat Sansone on lead vocals everybody!) and a great tribute that it had to be done.

The always great NYCTaper.com was at the Wellmont on Friday night to capture the first night of the back to back dates. He's posted that entire show and an MP3 of "Thank You Friends" right here.

Song of the Week 3/26/10

Nada Surf - "What Is Your Secret"



I wanted to write pages upon pages about the joy that Nada Surf brought to my life last week when they did Let Go and The Weight is a Gift in their entirety over back to back nights at Bowery Ballroom and The Bell House. But this week has f-ing sucked and that part of my brain isn't coming around for a bit, me thinks. So I'll just say the Weight night was the better of the two and I chose "What is Your Secret" just because of the obvious joy The Long Winters' John Roderick got from replicating his incredible backing vocals from the album in a live setting. Such fun.

Thanks Matthew, Ira, Daniel and to all the musicians that helped them bring these albums to life. It was, no doubt, two of the best nights of my year.

Song of the Week 3/19/10

Big Star - "Thank You Friends"

I was going to write a lengthy post about the passing of Big Star's Alex Chilton. But what I said in the podcast seemed to sum it all up. "Thank You Friends" is the song I went back to a few times in the past 5 days.

I also thought Paul Westerberg (in the New York Times) and Tommy Stinson (in Philadelphia Weekly) had some great things to say about their late friend and inspiration.



Goodbye Alex. Thank you for the many songs that have meant so much to me over the past 20 years.

RT 20 Podcast 31: Alex Chilton RIP

The passing of Alex Chilton yesterday hit me pretty hard. I'll have an essay up over the weekend when I can process it all. Until then, here is a podcast that pays tribute to one of my all-time favorites.

To download this podcast or stream it, click here. To have your iTunes automatically download each new podcast, click here.