playlist

Playlist #200

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Happy Monday, folks. We’re almost to the end of February, which means next week is March: the month of my birth! That’s beside the point, though. Here’s some songs.

  1. Joel R.L. Phelps & The Downer Trio, “Lost Continent”: Heavier than my usual fare, I’ll be the first to admit. I blame John Darnielle for this one, as he’s the guy who was talking about this album on BlueSky the other day. I kinda love the idea that love is a lost continent. It’s a brilliant metaphor, I think.
  2. Role Model, “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out”: This one isn’t my fault, either. Poppier than usual, but with a bit of twang and slide guitar, and a sing-along chorus that is pretty damn infectious.
  3. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Room at the Top”: This is one of the most beautiful songs Tom Petty ever wrote, and it’s just heartbreaking as you get to that last verse. “Yeah, I keep doing those things on TV, I love you/Please love me, I’m not so bad/And I love you so.” And then the whole band kicks back in for that last chorus. Gets me every time.
  4. St. Vincent, “Broken Man”: St. Vincent does fantastical things with every new album, and I’m kinda here for it, honestly.
  5. David Gray, “A Clean Pair of Eyes”: I honestly can’t say why, but I really love David Gray’s Lost Songs collection. There’s just so much good stuff here.
  6. The Rolling Stones, “Honky Tonk Women”: Some days, you just need a little honky tonk in your life.
  7. Drive-By Truckers, “Everybody Needs Love”: Still one of the best songs the band has ever written, with such a simple message.
  8. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Someday Never Comes”: How John Fogerty could write such a heartbreaking song, I’ll never know.
  9. Bob Dylan, “Song To Woody”: How do you tell your hero they’re your hero?
  10. Mavis Staples, “Eyes on the Prize”: This woman has lived through so much, has sung so many amazing songs, and her version of this old tune still grabs me and holds my attention every time.

Playlist #199

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Happy Tuesday, everyone! As is my wont, I took yesterday off ’cause it was a federal holiday. Anyway, here’s this week’s playlist. Enjoy!

  1. Kendrick Lamar, “Not Like Us”: Yeah, I’m several months behind the zeitgeist on this one, but in my defense I’m usually several years behind, so this is progress for me. It’s also a damn good song and a textbook case of how to destroy a rival’s image. I know everyone harps on the “and it’s prob’ly a minoooooooor” line, and rightly so, but the bit about Drake being a colonizer are just….*chef’s kiss*
  2. Jesse Welles, “That Can’t Be Right”: You’ve possibly seen this dude, standing in a clearing on a stump, singing songs about the South in a raspy drawl reminiscent of John Fohgerty if he’d gargled sand and glass for a few hours before singin’. There’s humor and heart in it, and I dig that.
  3. Gregory Alan Isakov, “Sweet Heat Lightning”: Blame Clyde for this one. He insisted I needed to listen to this guy over the weekend after he first sent me a text slagging the guy for always playing the same chords at the same pace. And, yeah, some of the songs do sound a bit samey, but there’s also some very clever songwriting in there and the guy’s clearly found his groove.
  4. The La’s, “There She Goes”: After watching a video about the disastrous efforts to create their first (and only!) album, I had to go give it a listen. Sure, I was already well-aware of this song, which is all chorus repeated ad-infinitum, but the rest of the record (which the lead singer and songwriter has disavowed as not part of his vision) feels like ramshackle ’60s British Invasion pop, with all the jangle and three-part harmonies that implies.
  5. Vaydra, “Learning to Love”: It’s always good news when Kelly and company put out new music. They’ve cut back on the psychedelic touches that tinged their first LP, but her voice remains the driving force it’s always been.
  6. The Cranberries, “Ode to My Family”: Listened to their debut, No Need to Argue, last week, and it sounds…exactly like what you’d expect a Cranberries album to sound like. If you’ve heard “Zombie” or “Linger,” you’re already pretty familiar with their sonic palette. This is by no means a criticism, more an observation that they’d found their niche pretty quick.
  7. Wilco, “Handshake Drugs (11/13/03 Sear Sound-NYC Version)”: A Ghost Is Born remains one of my all-time favorite albums by any band ever, and I’m also down as a guy who loves listening to the iterative process of how the musical sausage gets made. Getting to hear early versions of the songs from this album is a treat, and also the reason I’m seriously considering dropping $150 on the 9-disc version they just released.
  8. Neko Case & Her Boyfriends, “The Virginian”: Early Neko Case is a strange beast. Her voice is as powerful and emotive as you’d expect, but the songwriting polish just isn’t there quite yet (in another song off this album, she rhymes “away” with…”away”). It’s also much more honky-tonk country than the strange alternative singer-songwriter stuff of more recent vintage.
  9. Phil Collins, “I Don’t Care Anymore”: A stark, angry kiss-off song from one of the most unassuming guys in pop, the guy who usually sang stuff like “Sussudio.” Very strange way to start an album.
  10. Tom Petty, “You Saw Me Comin'”: An outtake from the Wildflowers sessions, still one of the best periods of songwriting in Petty’s career.

    Playlist #198

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    Happy Monday, folks! Looks like another round of snow is headed towards Northern Virginia this week, so I’m looking forward to a short week of work (and not administering the WIDA exam on Wednesday). Here’s some songs to get you through the snowy cold.

    1. The Weather Station, “Neon Signs”: You could describe this as folk/Americana, or alternative, or “cosmic Americana,” my preferred genre. However you describe it, it’s good. The instruments fade in and out, entwine with one another then break apart, and the lyrics float in from the middle of absolute nowhere like they’ve just blown in from the desert. Good stuff.
    2. Waxahatchee, “Mud”: New Waxahatchee means happy Charlie, even if it is just a single.
    3. Wilco, “Handshake Drugs”: The deluxe edition of A Ghost Is Born was released Friday, so of course I’ve already listened to it. I’m a little disappointed the so-called “Expanded Edition” only included a single extra disc of early versions of the songs instead of the 9-disc full version that is apparently available out there for the diehards (yeah, I’ll probably end up tracking that one down. I’m a sucker for the iterative nature of songwriting).
    4. Michgander, “Emotional”: I’ve dug this guy and his work since I first heard an EP of his several years ago, and his songwriting only gets stronger and his arrangements only get fuller as time goes by. Love it.
    5. Electric Light Orchestra, “The Bouncer”: A bonus song off the Time album, and one that has a bouncy, fun little beat and all the trademarks of Jeff Lynne production.
    6. Iron & Wine, “Call Your Boys”: I love the slide guitar work on this song. It’s subtle but effective, and the vocal melody is beautiful and sad.
    7. Jesse Malin, “She Don’t Love Me Now”: I think it’s the horn section in this song that gets me.
    8. Mark Knopfler, “Donnegan’s Gone”: A skiffle song about the guy who started the skiffle craze? Why not?
    9. The Gaslight Anthem, “Say I Won’t (Recognize)”: Early Gaslight Anthem is full of punch and power and longing and more hair grease than was used on the set of the movie Grease. James Dean would be proud.
    10. Jason Isbell, “Elephant”: Whenever I want to cry and feel absolutely beautiful misery, I put this song on. Works every time.

    Playlist #197

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    Happy Monday, folks! We finally made it through that nigh-unending January, sanity (mostly) intact. Here’s some songs to get us through the week.

    1. David Gray, “As I’m Leaving”: David Gray’s earlier stuff is much more striped down and folky. I kinda dig a lot of it, especially this piano ballad off the Lost Songs collection.
    2. You+Me, “From a Closet in Norway”: Maybe I’m just a sucker for acoustic-based folk-pop?
    3. Van Morrison, “Madame Joy”: This song is just so full of joy, it’s hard not to love. Van could rave it up sometimes.
    4. Wilco, “You Are My Face”: I love the breakdown in this song, where it totally changes tone and rhythm and becomes a completely different song for a couple of minutes. Great.
    5. Jackson Browne, “Downhill From Everywhere”: An actual environmental protest song, this time about the sea and how we’re all connected to it.
    6. Beck, “Lost Cause”: I know Sea Change is Beck’s big breakup album/Bob Dylan reference, and it’s good, and it sounds like he’s just being backed by the Flaming Lips the whole time (to the point that he took them out on tour as his opener and his backing band for the subsequent tour), but it does occasionally make me miss the whimsical, clearly-stoned-out-of-his-gourd Beck.
    7. Richard Thompson, “Beeswing”: Back on my folky acoustic bullshit, but it’s a damn good story song.
    8. George Harrison, “Not Guilty”: Solo George is the best George.
    9. The Gaslight Anthem, “Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts”: Early Gaslight Anthem, with the band showing they have a softer, more sensitive side.
    10. Aimee Mann, “Stranger Into Starman”: A subdued ender for this particular playlist, but a perpetual favorite. Aimee Mann somehow became one of my favorite artists over the past few years, and I’m not sad about that at all.

    Playlist #196

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    Happy Monday, folks! It’s the end of the 2nd quarter here in Northern Virginia, which means I’m officially halfway through my 20th school year. Yes, I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to get through high school, too. Here’s a playlist to get us through the week.

    1. David Gray, “Singing for the Pharaoh”: New David Gray always makes my heart happy. This time around, there’s an emphasis on electronic beats, swirling keyboards, and fingerpicked acoustic guitar, which is pretty classic David Gray circa White Ladder. Very fun.
    2. Bob Dylan, “Boots of Spanish Leather”: One of the absolute saddest songs Dylan ever penned. Just the narrator begging and pleading for his love not to leave, and the eventual resignation to it. Gorgeous and sad.
    3. Nanci Griffith, “Across the Great Divide”: A lovely cover of an old Kate Wolf tune that ditches the corny harmonica for fiddle.
    4. Tom Petty, “To Find a Friend (Live)”: Already one of my favorite songs on Wildflowers, this version (from the Wildflowers box set) is beautiful and heartfelt and bittersweet.
    5. The Rolling Stones, “Let It Bleed”: Classic-era Stones just hits different. You forget that they’re now barely-animated corpses trotting out retreads of their greatest tunes and styles.
    6. The Pretenders, “Don’t Get Me Wrong”: I love Chrissy Hinde and the Pretenders. They had such a hard edge to some of their stuff, and then there’s the vulnerable songs like this one that show they’re more than just punky rockers.
    7. Nouvelle Vague, “Ever Fallen In Love”: Who doesn’t love punk songs covered as though they were actually bossa nova songs?
    8. Dolly Parton, “Seven Bridges Road”: Dolly’s read on this old song is absolutely gorgeous and actually brought Jason Isbell to tears when he listened to her sing it live once.
    9. Cat Stevens, “Father and Son”: Okay, I have a soft spot for Cat Stevens songs. He’s a good sad sack songwriter, and I’m a sucker for that.
    10. America, “Ventura Highway”: If you’re listening to this song while driving, don’t be surprised when you look down at your speedometer and realize you’re doing at least twenty over the speed limit. It’s good cruising music.

    Playlist #194 and #195

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    Happy Monday! It’s Martin Luther King, Jr, Day, and Inauguration Day. One of those is a cause for celebration, while the other is a cause for heavy drinking. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which one is which.

    1. The Refreshments, “Banditos”: I am embarrassed just how long I got the Refreshments and the Replacements confused. It was…far longer than I care to admit.
    2. Chris Smither, “Origin of Species”: A fantastic, farcical song mixing stories from the Bible with a winking nod to Charles Darwin and the double helix.
    3. Jason Isbell, “Super 8”: No one wants to die in a Super 8 Motel, Mr. Isbell. My wife won’t even set foot in one.
    4. Stevie Nicks, “Lighthouse”: Still love this song. It’s still a banger. I will not be accepting questions at this time.
    5. Tom Waits, “Goin’ Out West”: “I know karate and voodoo too” is a hell of a line.
    6. The Mountain Goats, “No Children”: We’ve talked about this one before, about how it’s my wife’s favorite Mountain Goats song and maybe I need to be concerned about that? Who knows.
    7. Michael Penn, “No Myth”: I dunno, maybe comparing yourself to Romeo and Heathcliff is not the flex you think it is.
    8. Big Red Machine, “Latter Days”: I like the album this song is from so much I picked it up on vinyl a couple of weeks ago. Great decision.
    9. Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”: About the only slice of ’80s music I can really stand, it’s a damn good song with a killer chorus.
    10. Franz Ferdinand, “Take Me Out”: It will never cease to amuse me that the band named after the dude whose assassination kicked off World War I released a single called “Take Me Out.” Just top-tier trolling.
    11. Jimmy Eat World, “The Middle”: Such an uplifting, shout-along song. And easy to play on the guitar to boot!
    12. Tracy Bonham, “Mother Mother”: A nice slice of ’90s nostalgia. Apparently the Wife hates her music? I was just as surprised as you are.
    13. Whiskeytown, “Jacksonville Skyline”: I know everyone was all about the authenticity of the cowpunk/alt-country movement in the early 2000s, but Whiskeytown’s country always felt like a coat Ryan Adams was wearing and took off as quickly as he could when he went solo.
    14. Wilco, “At Least That’s What You Said”: The snarling, Neil Young-esque guitar explosion that erupts about halfway through this song is giving me life.
    15. Diana Ross & the Supremes, “Reflections”: Sometimes, you just need a girl group singing close harmonies to get you through the day. This might be such a day.
    16. Edwyn Collins, “A Girl Like You”: Britpop, you say? Britpop? I’ll give you Britpop!
    17. Bob Dylan, “Mississippi”: For nothing else than I got the line “You can always come back but you can’t come back all the way” stuck in my head the other day.
    18. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “A Thing About You”: This has somehow become one of my favorite Tom Petty songs in recent years. Dunno how or why. I think I just like the breakneck pace of it and how I always imagine things almost tumble apart in the instrumental break but barely hold on.
    19. Calexico, “Beneath the City of Dreams”: I am a sucker for a good Calexico song, which really means any Calexico song. They’re all pretty damn good.
    20. Bill Small, “This Old House”: A dark tour through the empty halls of one’s life, or an empty house that used to be occupied by a loved one.

    Playlist #192 and #193: M’Shelby Mix Edition

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    Happy…Monday? Wait, that can’t be right. Monday? Well, stranger things have happened other than me posting a playlist on time. For instance, today also happens to be my 18th Wedding Anniversary. Yay, our relationship is old enough to vote! Here’s a double playlist of some songs that I think my wife would love. I’ve been curating a playlist for her on my phone for years called M’Shelby Mix, and here’s the latest iteration.

    1. The Pixies, “Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf Mix)”: Probably the definitive version of this particular tune. Slowed down from the original, given a slight air of menace, and just a killer drum beat.
    2. Arcade Fire, “Intervention”: Gotta love the church organ.
    3. AC Newman, “Take On Me”: Newman doesn’t aim for quite the same glass-shattering falsetto in the chorus, but the slowed down, acoustic-driven version he turns in sounds just as good as anything a-ha ever did.
    4. Elliott Smith, “Baby Britain”: Favorite line is a toss-up between “We knocked another couple back/Dead soldiers lined up on the table/Still prepared for an attack/They didn’t know they’d been disabled” and “The light was on but it was dim/Revolver’s been turned over/And now it’s ready once again/The radio was playing “Crimson and Clover.”
    5. The Flaming Lips, “Free Radicals (A Hallucination of the Christmas Skeleton Pleading with a Suicide Bomber)”: A sneering indictment of Bush-era foreign policy.
    6. Rilo Kiley, “Does He Love You?”: A sordid tale of love triangles and whether or not he’d ever really leave his wife for you. Why would he, though?
    7. Phil Collins, “In the Air Tonight”: If there’s a better drum fill in existence, I don’t know about it. Oh, to be able to go back and hear this song for the first time.
    8. The National, “Slow Show”: Probably Michelle’s favorite song by the National. And it’s a banger. I love that guitar chord progression. Wish I could get my voice low enough to actually sing it.
    9. Josh Ritter, “Golden Age of Radio”: We both sing along at the top of our lungs when this song comes on. It might as well be part of our marriage vows.
    10. Iron & Wine, “Such Great Heights”: Postal Service cover done with such delicate heartache and beauty that you forget there’s another version of this song out there.
    11. The Four Tops, “Bernadette”: Shouted backing vocals are always fun.
    12. The Cure, “Just Like Heaven”: Given her adoration of stuff from the ’80s, it should come as no surprise that Michelle loves the Cure. I’ve grown to tolerate most of their stuff, though this song I really do actually enjoy.
    13. Tom Waits, “Hoist That Rag”: What can I say? Michelle likes pirates and pirate songs.
    14. They Might Be Giants, “She’s An Angel”: This song always makes me think of Michelle. I know she digs TMBG, and likes this song, but she said it couldn’t be our song because it’s too one-sided and doesn’t reflect her feelings for me. And, y’know, I get it. But it’s still a song that makes me think of her.
    15. Better Than Ezra, “Rosealia”: Michelle also really digs the ’90s, and especially Better Than Ezra. This one is another sing-along song.
    16. Pearl Jam, “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town”: Acoustic Pearl Jam? More entertaining and worthwhile than you might think!
    17. David Bowie, “Life On Mars”: Did you know he wrote this after Frank Sinatra didn’t accept some lyrics he wrote for “I Did It My Way”? It’s true! It’s why the two songs have such similar chord progressions.
    18. Weezer, “Say It Ain’t So”: Far better than that song about him hitting on a lesbian.
    19. Bruce Springsteen, “Candy’s Room”: Probably Michelle’s favorite Springsteen song. It’s got amazing drums and a beautiful piano line, so I get it.
    20. The Magnetic Fields, “Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing”: This is our song. We eloped and didn’t have a wedding reception, much to our chagrin, but if we did have one, this would’ve been the first song we danced to. We have a poster with the lyrics of it hanging up in our living room.

    Playlist #191

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    I’m not dead, just on extended break.

    It’s a snow week here in Northern Virginia, where we were supposed to start back to school on Monday but are still sitting here at home as of today, Wednesday, because we got about 7″ or 8″ of snow. The previous two weeks were because of Winter Break, and sometimes I want to take a week or two off.

    1. Fleetwood Mac, “Never Going Back Again”: Too on the nose? I’m sure we’ll return to the school building at some point, but probably not this week.
    2. Chris Smithers, “Leave the Light On”: I watched a video of this guy playing this song live the other day, and I swear if I didn’t know how playing the guitar works, I’d think he was just running his hands up and down the neck at random and making some of the most beautiful music I’d ever heard.
    3. The Refreshments, “Banditos”: I cannot tell you how long I got these guys and the Replacements mixed up. It was an embarrassingly long time.
    4. Cracker, “Low”: Yes, I was hitting the ’90s nostalgia pretty hard over the break, why do you ask?
    5. David Rawlings, “Cumberland Gap”: David Rawlings with a full band? It’s more likely than you’d think!
    6. Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros, “Johnny Appleseed”: Joe Strummer being very Joe Strummer. The backing band are pretty good, though, and Joe’s not completely off his nut on this one, so I’ll give it a listen.
    7. Matthew Sweet, “Girlfriend”: I mentioned how I was hitting the ’90s nostalgia this past few weeks kinda hard, right? Because it was possibly harder than that, even.
    8. Better Than Ezra, “Desperately Wanting”: Oh, now we’re just getting down to “Songs Charlie likes to play on the guitar,” aren’t we? It’s actually a pretty good place to be.
    9. Melissa Ethridge, “Come To My Window”: At one point, while listening to the playlist that a lot of these songs were originally on (titled “Circa 199X”), my wife turned and asked me, “Is this just a playlist of songs that were popular in 1998?” To which I replied, “I’m pretty sure it isn’t. The Matthew Sweet song was from, like, ’91.” She remained unconvinced.
    10. Willie Nelson, “Pretty Paper”: I added a couple of new songs to my Christmas playlist this season. This was one of them, a beautiful song that fills the heart and mind with images of simpler times. Unlike that damn Lumineers cover of the song. That thing can rot in the deepest bowels of hell.

    Playlist #190

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    Happy Monday, folks. It’s the last week of school for the calendar year before we’re off until after the start of the new year. I, for one, am ready for that break. In the meantime, these are the songs that are keeping me going.

    1. Rilo Kiley, “More Adventurous”: Was just thinking about this song last night, and suddenly I’m in a Rilo Kiley mood and want to go back and re-listen to their entire catalog. There are worse problems to have.
    2. Lucinda Williams, “Rebels”: Lucinda Williams released a Tom Petty covers album a few years ago, and it sounds…well, exactly like what you think a Lucinda Williams covering Tom Petty album would sound like. Which is not a bad thing.
    3. Elvis Costello, “Less Than Zero”: Why is this man so spiky all the time? What is he trying to prove? That he feels stuff just as much as the punk rockers, even though he looks more like Buddy Holly? Man, I dunno, but he writes damn good songs.
    4. Van Morrison, “Steal My Heart Away”: Down the Road continues to be a banger of an album, even 22 years later.
    5. 10,000 Maniacs, “Trouble Me”: Can Natalie Merchant do anything wrong, musically? I’m not sure she can.
    6. Cake, “Never There”: I still admire their effort to bring back the donkey call in every song. I may do that on my next album.
    7. Doc Watson, “Beaumont Rag”: Just some pickin’ an’ grinnin’.
    8. Peter Gabriel, “I Have the Touch”: Just the nervous energy of this song has me thinking he smoked two packs of cigarettes and drank about a gallon of coffee before he sat down to write and record it.
    9. Pearl Jam, “Given to Fly”: I dunno why, but I kinda appreciate Pearl Jam’s chiller, more subdued moments now that I’m older. Is this what it means to age gracefully? Do you stop wanting to kick out the jams?
    10. MC5, “Kick Out the Jams”: No, I can still kick them out. It’s all good. Haven’t aged too much yet.

    Playlist #189

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    Happy Monday! I survived being sick all last week (yesterday, I still didn’t have much of a voice, and every about fourth word was just a wheezy silence), missed going to what turned out to be a fun wedding up in New York, and actually caught up a bit on sleep? That last one can’t be right.

    1. Waxahatchee, “Crimes of the Heart”: Spent a good chunk of the weekend just listening to Waxahatchee’s Tigers Blood, and I really dig the almost primitive simplicity of the three chord structure she tends to use on her songs. Also, makes it really easy to play along!
    2. Hurray for the Riff Raff, “Buffalo”: I’m down for any song that seeks to examine, however tangentially, the Plains’ Indians’ hunting of the buffalo.
    3. Cassandra Jenkins, “Petco”: Can you find transcendence in the eyes of a lizard behind glass at a pet store? It’s more likely than you think thanks to drugsTM!
    4. Joel Adam Russell, “Knock the Boy Out of You”: A simple country song about toxic masculinity and calling out the asinine behavior of so-called “alpha males.”
    5. Tom Petty, “You Saw Me Comin'”: An unreleased Wildflowers outtake that is easily good enough to be on the album proper.
    6. Yo La Tengo, “Pass the Hatchett, I Think I’m Goodkind”: A mostly-instrumental tune with a great groove and a sinister vibe.
    7. Neko Case, “Dirty Knife”: Speaking of vibes, Neko Case remains brilliant at crafting them, and this song is a great example.
    8. Hank Williams III, “Atlantic City”: Trying real hard to outdo grandpa’s wild ways, Hank III takes a rip-roaring turn through Springsteen’s song about need and hunger.
    9. Linda Ronstadt, “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”: This woman takes a great song and turns it into a stone-cold classic.
    10. Lizzo, “About Damn Time”: I need this kind of jumped-up energy to get me through today.