Playlist #230

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Happy Monday, folks. I’ve been a bit down the past few days, which may or may not have affected my choice in music. Let’s take a look at the playlist and see.

  1. Glen Campbell, “Wichita Lineman”: Heard this song last night and it made me cry.
  2. Counting Crows, “Holiday in Spain”: The saddest song about being on holiday in Spain I’ve ever heard. I would assume being on holiday in Spain is a joyous occasion, not one so somber.
  3. Genesis, “No Reply At All”: One of the most upbeat songs about getting ghosted I’ve ever heard.
  4. case/lang/veirs, “Atomic Number”: How can a song ostensibly about the periodic table feel so sad? There’s just so much longing and loss in this song that I can’t help but love it.
  5. The National, “Afraid Of Everyone”: “You’re an oasis, darling, in my soul soul soul soul” on repeat in my brain for the rest of the day.
  6. Van Morrison, “Not Supposed To Break Down”: A Van cast off that’s better than most bands’ best song.
  7. Spoon, “Everything Hits At Once”: It sure does, It sure does.
  8. Hem, “The Part Where You Let Go”: I love this band. They’re one of my go-tos when I’m feeling down. Very cinematic and widescreen in the best possible ways.
  9. Wilco, “Handshake Drugs”: Four-chord songs are fun to play sometimes. I love playing this one.
  10. The Rolling Stones, “19th Nervous Breakdown”: I dunno if it’s the nineteenth one or not, but I do feel like I narrowly avoided a breakdown last night. Why’s the world so overwhelming right now?

Playlist #229

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Happy Monday, folks! Here’s this week’s playlist:

  1. Genesis, “Just a Job to Do”: The number of songs Phil Collins has written over the years about being a criminal just trying to do a (rather sinister) job is not a huge number, but it’s not a non-zero number, either. Was he secretly a hitman in the 1970s? Only he knows for sure.
  2. Margaret Glaspy, “These Days”: A lovely cover of the old Jackson Browne tune. It’s very sparse and slow, and I kinda dig it.
  3. Bruce Springsteen, “Born in the USA (Electric Nebraska)”: If Bruce had pursued this sound on Born in the USA rather than the athematic, keyboard-heavy style he used, maybe there’d have been fewer misunderstandings about what the song is actually about.
  4. The Cars, “Since You’re Gone”: Oh, 80s drum programming, never change.
  5. Andrew Bird, “Fake Palindromes”: This suprisingly uptempo song is so good, and apparently twenty years old now! Wow.
  6. Earth, Wind & Fire, “September”: No, it’s not the 21st of September, but Monday is the 22nd, so that’s too late. Therefore, have some EWF.
  7. The Shins, “Australia”: Is this song actually about the continent/island/country Australia? If so, what is it trying to tell us about it? I have no idea, but it’s a good song that I haven’t listened to in far too long.
  8. Veruca Salt, “Volcano Girls”: A 90s rock girl explosion of sound and energy, rather like a volcano.
  9. The National, “Terrible Love (Alternate Version)”: Still one of the best songs these guys have ever done, and the best version of the song.
  10. The Mystiqueros, “Good”: Back when I played with the group of musicians up in DC, this was one of the songs they played all the time. It’s a great song if you’ve got a group that can harmonize well.

Playlist #228

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Happy Monday, folks! Another week, another batch of tunes to get you started on the right foot.

  1. Hurray for the Riff Raff, “Alibi”: The ease with they toss off song after beautiful song never fails to impress me.
  2. Van Morrison, “Domino”: There are few performers alive who have as much energy as Van when he’s on.
  3. The Wallflowers, “Nearly Beloved”: Reckless runaway rhythm. This song always feels like it’s just on the verge of falling apart to me.
  4. Lord Huron, “Fool For Love”: A long-lost Springsteen song with more reverb than is strictly called for? Could be.
  5. Statler Brothers, “Flowers on the Wall”: Who doesn’t want to be smokin’ cigarettes and watchin’ Captain Kangaroo?
  6. Michgander, “Important (with Taylor Goldsmith)”: A beautiful piano ballad. I’ve loved everything this guy’s done.
  7. Leonard Cohen, “Anthem”: I’ve been thinking of Leonard Cohen songs all weekend. Dunno why. This one remains one of my absolute favorites, though.
  8. Stone Temple Pilots, “Interstate Love Song”: If you’re listening to this song while driving down the highway and suddenly find yourself doing 90 mph, don’t be surprised.
  9. Supertramp, “Goodbye Stranger”: Rick Davies, leader of the band Supertramp and singer of most of their hit songs, died over the weekend. I always enjoyed Supertramp. Stupid name, great band.
  10. Josh Ritter, “Galahad”: For some reason, I always imagine this song is about the Monty Python and the Holy Grail Sir Galahad, and it cracks me up.

Playlist #227

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Happy Labor Day, folks! True to form, I came down sick over the long weekend, and still feel like ten miles ofd rough road. But the content mines wait for no man! So, here’s a playlist.

  1. Shocking Blue, “Venus”: Shocking no one (even the color blue), I prefer this version to the ’80s cover. I know, who could have guessed?
  2. Spoon, “Guess I’m Fallin In Love”: It’s a new Spoon song. At this point, you know what they sound like, you know what their songs are gonna do. You either dig it or you don’t. I dig it.
  3. Lord Huron, “La Belle Fleur Sauvage”: I need me some more atmospheric Americana. This hits that spot and scratches that itch.
  4. Anna Nalick, “Breathe (2 AM)”: It’s a very Lilith Faire circa 1998 sorta song, except it came out in 2004.
  5. The Narcissist Cookbook, “vs the Heat Death of the Universe!”: Strummy guitars, soft/loud dynamics, and shout-along choruses? This just ticks all the boxes, doesn’t it?
  6. Sabrina Carpenter, “Manchild”: It’s a good song. As good as the stuff off her last album? Maybe not. But she’s taking aim at dudes who need to be taken down a peg or two, so I’m here for it.
  7. Cross-Eyed Yeti, “I Don’t Need You”: We released the original Cross-Eyed Yeti tape last week! It’s…very rough, but has a certain homespun charm. This is one of our better early songs, played way slower than it would be in subsequent years.
  8. Cory Branan, “When In Rome, When In Memphis”: Conflating Rome, Memphis, and Asbury Park may be one of the ballsiest moves I’ve ever heard of, but damn if the guy doesn’t have at least a little bit of a point.
  9. Tom Petty, “Down South”: The tail end of August has been downright pleasant, temperature-wise, which is quite unusual for Virginia. I’m sure we’ll pay for it during the month of September. But hey, that’s the challenge of living in the South.
  10. Van Morrison, “Meet Me In The Indian Summer”: We are officially at the end of the summer season with Labor Day’s arrival, reaching what is often called “Indian Summer,” y’racists. We’ll accept it from Van this one time, ’cause that dude’s pretty fuckin’ irascible.

New (Old) Release! Cross-Eyed Yeti: The Yellowstone Tape

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Happy Friday, folks! I have a surprise for you, an artifact of a bygone era when all we needed was an acoustic guitar and a whole mess of words.

We’re throwing it back to the year 2002, when Brother Clyde and I spent a summer in beautiful Yellowstone National Park. In between waiting tables and going on twenty-mile hikes, we sat down with a tape recorder in our dorm room and shouted some songs onto tape. Presented here, for the first time ever, are the liner notes for Two Okies, One Guitar: The Yellowstone Tape, the original Cross-Eyed Yeti recordings!

  1. “Subterranean Dylan”: As the name suggests, we were aiming for a “Subterranean Homesick Blues” style of song, with way more words per verse than was recommended and way faster guitar than was advisable. I’ve never been particularly happy with the chorus, which will be a recurring theme for this collection.
  2. “Utopia Joe”: I still love this song. When our old drummer suggested the song needed a bridge, Clyde just played the verse chords, only with a slightly changed strum pattern. It worked.
  3. “Philosopher King”: When I was just the singer/lyricist, I never really worried about things like “verse length” and “resolution.” This song has since proven to me why such things are important, as each verse is about two lines too long for the chord progression and it always ends up feeling wonky.
  4. “The Twelve Lines That Didn’t Work”: Typically, I don’t write love songs. I feel silly when I do. This is the first of several that appear on this collection, and…it’s not bad. It’s love gone bad, though. There’s desperation in there, and longing, and a sense that this thing is going to fall apart very, very soon.
  5. “Weight And Consequence”: Probably the strongest song on here, lyrically-speaking. Like many of our early songs, the chord progression is kinda repetitive, and the verses go on far too long, but it features probably our best performances.
  6. “The Things That Brought Me Here”: Clyde has never been happy with this one, especially in regards to the way I sing that very first line (I screwed it up so many times, trying to come in before the guitar starts and making sure it’s at the right tempo). It’s another love song, I think. Hard to say, as with so many of the songs I write.
  7. “Ode To Cock Rock”: Clyde and I are known to be rather…goofy sometimes (see “Country Joe” further down). We also like to jump around to different genres. So, this is our ode to hair metal. It features the infamous “mouth riff,” courtesy of Clyde, a sort of demented guitar solo replacement that only become more elaborate in live performances. Also of note: I cannot sing like a hair metal vocalist. That becomes evident from the very first line of the song.
  8. “Dancing With A Chick”: The only song I have nothing to do with. This one is all the brainchild of Clyde and our youngest brother, Scott. The true version will feature an instrument called the fish. It will be our finest hour.
  9. “Clyde’s Blues”: Our finest hour. Or three and a half minutes. It all started with that little riff at the beginning, and me trying my damnedest to sound like a 60-year-old black man born in the Mississippi Delta in 1903. I…do not sound anything like that. But the song is good. We’ve fiddled with it several times over the years, and have enjoyed every single version of the song we’ve ever recorded.
  10. “I Don’t Need You”: Another highlight. In hindsight, placing these two songs back-to-back was maybe not our best idea, pacing-wise. But hey, it is what it is. We always bust it out whenever we get together, and he even recorded a version of it with his band Family Familiar back in 2022.
  11. “Never Knew Joy”: Another love song, this one more traditional than a lot of our others. Trying to hit that note at the end of the chorus – “Warmth like the breath of God” – damn near killed me.
  12. “I Dig Chicks”: Did you know that the chords to “La Bamba” can be used by just anyone? It’s just G, C, and D. You can’t copyright that!
  13. “The Folk Singer’s Blues”: Sometimes I get contemplative (I know, shocker). And sometimes, those contemplations come out in the form of lyrics. This is another song that’s got way too many words in way too many verses, but Clyde’s guitar riffs are awesome.
  14. “Desolate Country”: Sometimes, you gotta write songs about home. And this is my first song about home. Oklahoma always strikes me as a strange, almost barren place, Rather…desolate, if you will. It also features Clyde singing! That doesn’t happen very often, and maybe you can spot a couple of the reasons why in this one.
  15. “Country Joe (Hidden Track)”: If you couldn’t figure out why Clyde shouldn’t sing in the last song, this one should sinch it. A goof on our own song? Why the hell not! “Country Joe” is the dark sibling of “Utopia Joe,” whose heaven lies beside him. Her name is Greta. She likes corn.
  16. “Desolate Humming (Hidden Track)”: “Desolate Country,” but it’s all hummed instead of sung. Because why not?

Playlist #226

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Happy Monday, folks! I spent the weekend bouncing between anxiety, a deep well of sadness, and blinding, incandescent rage. Why? No idea. But let’s listen to some music to soothe the soul.

  1. The Mountain Goats, “The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton”: Early Mountain Goats, while lacking the polish and full band of later releases, is the best Mountain Goats. And this is the best of early Mountain Goats, for the inclusion of the “Hail Satan” near the end if nothing else.
  2. Gov’t Mule, “John the Revelator”: Who knew I’d like Gov’t Mule? Probably a number of people knew this, and they just refused to tell me. I’m disappointed in all of you.
  3. Cassandra Jenkins, “Only Relaxation”: Relaxing, piano-based Americana to soothe the weary soul.
  4. Joy Division, “She’s Lost Control”: And then some new wave, because I like to create those whiplash effects.
  5. Woody Guthrie, “Deportee (Woody’s Home Tape)”: Not for nothin’, but Abrego Kilmar Garcia was immediately detained by ICE again just this morning in Baltimore. They couldn’t even let this dude spend a whole 48 hours out of custody before they just had to grab him again.
  6. Margaret Glaspy, “Jesus, Etc. (Feat. Norah Jones)”: I do love me a Wilco cover.
  7. Josh Ritter, “The Curse”: The saddest song about a mummy coming back to life and then sapping the life energy out of the Egyptologist who found his tomb.
  8. William Elliott Whitmore, “Diggin’ My Grave”: You’ll hear the banjo differently after this song, and that ain’t a bad thing.
  9. The Strumbrellas, “Spirits”: Strummy guitars, shout-along chorus, nifty little piano interlude? Yeah, it’s got all those. Good stuff.
  10. Fleetwood Mac, “Rhiannon”: Do I really need to talk about this song? I can’t imagine that none of you out there in the world haven’t heard this song already.

Playlist #225: Back to School Edition

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Happy Monday, folks! And welcome back to school, students. That’s right, the school year has officially begun in Northern Virginia, marking my 21st year as a teacher. Yup, my career will be old enough to drink this year. That’s terrifying. Let’s get to the playlist.

  1. The Calling, “Let The Day Begin”: As I’ve said in the past, this song is intimately linked in my mind with the start of the school day. It played on the classic rock station every morning right around the time I was headed to school, so it’s kinda irrevocably linked forever to me.
  2. Langhorne Slim, “The House of My Soul (You Light the Room)”: Love playing this song. It’s such a simple chord progression that he manages to squeeze a lot of energy and emotion out of.
  3. Radiohead, “Go To Sleep (Live)”: Live Radiohead is always a fun time, because I’m left wondering how they managed to get the song that appeared on the album (with all its blips and squiggles and beeps) to sound so good live.
  4. Golden Earring, “Twilight Zone”: Man, after spending several weeks not working, being back in the classroom feels more than a little like the Twilight Zone.
  5. The Beatles, “Yer Blues”: So John says, “If I ain’t dead already/Well, you know the reason why,” but do we? Do we really know the reason why, John? Because I don’t think we do.
  6. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Casa Dega”: Hearsay and secondhand information lead to heartbreak. Or Heartbreakers.
  7. Pink Floyd, “Pigs (Three Different Ones)”: The repeated “ha-ha, charade you are” line kills me every time. The very British pronunciation of charade (“sha-raad”) makes me giggle.
  8. Elliott Smith, “Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands”: Man, I haven’t listened to Elliott Smith in a while. I think fall is the best time to listen to him, and a revisiting of his discography is imminent.
  9. The Lemonheads, “Into Your Arms”: There are a few ’90s songs that are just there for that killer chorus (this one, the La’s “There She Goes,” REM’s “The One I Love,” Deep Blue Something’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”). Someday I’mma put together that playlist.
  10. Gin Blossoms, “Hey Jealousy”: Speaking of great ’90s songs…

Playlist #224

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Happy Monday, folks. We’re up bright and early today because it’s the first day of teacher in-service week, when they see if they can crush the desire to teach out of us via the medium of meetings. We’ll see if they succeed this year or not.

  1. The Wallflowers, “Some Flowers Bloom Dead”: One of the first Wallflowers songs I tried to learn (after “One Headlight,” of course). The chords are easy enough, as I recall, though I don’t think I ever sang it very well. That has never stopped me from singing a song, though.
  2. Neil Young, “Harvest Moon”: Speaking of songs I don’t sing well, I kinda love this one. It’s a simple love song, but it just sounds so beautiful.
  3. Fleetwood Mac, “Seven Wonders”: ’80s Mac just hits different.
  4. Glen Phillips, “Men Just Leave”: I still love how stripped down and countryish that first Glen Phillips solo album is. Even almost 25 years later, it’s still very immediate and evocative.
  5. Van Morrison, “Once In A Blue Moon”: Mid-2000s Van is a strange beast, taking elements from all the other versions of him that are out there and amalgamating them into something that still feels relevant, joyful, and vital.
  6. The Raconteurs, “Carolina Drama”: Sometimes you’re the preacher man, and sometimes you’re the milkman.
  7. The Band, “Acadian Driftwood”: It’s always interesting hearing about the treatment of Native Americans/Indigenous Americans/First People (depending on where and who you are) in places like Canada, though a lot of it still boils down to, “Same shit, different government.”
  8. Wilco, “Summer Teeth”: A perfect encapsulation of the wanning days of summer.
  9. Old 97s, “Every Night Is Friday Night (Without You)”: Gotta love a shout-along song from these guys. It’s always fun.
  10. The Decemberists, “Sons & Daughters”: It’s so rare that you hear a song sung in the round in this day and age, but they manage to pull it off.

Playlist #223: Tom Waits

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Happy Tuesday, folks! It’s August now, and I have to go back to work next week. Boo. In the meantime, I’ve been listening to a lot of Tom Waits the past couple of days. I figure he’s got several modes, or characters, that he plays in his songs: there’s the junkyard carnival barker, full of weird friends and weirder situations; there’s the jazzy hipster who read Kerouac a few too many times and always wears a damn trilby, regardless of whether it goes with his outfit or not; and there’s the hopeless romantic crooner, sitting at his piano and crying softly into his beer. That last one is the one I’ve been focusing on, and here’s ten of his best.

  1. “(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night”: As good an ode to driving the main drag with your best girl in the seat by your side as any Bruce Springsteen ever wrote. But, whereas the Boss’s odes to the road are always desperate, hopeful paeans to escape and freedom, Tom Waits’ version seems more subdued, more realistic. Monday’s gonna come back around all too soon, so you might as well enjoy the drive and the pool hall while you can.
  2. “I Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love With You”: Early tune (from his debut, Closing Time) lamenting how easy it is to fall in infatuation with someone at first sight, and how often such things go disastrously wrong (at least for Tom).
  3. “Tom Traubert’s Blues”: It feels like the cinematic opener for some stage musical. Ane the chorus lifts directly from the old song “Waltzing Matilda” to gorgeous effect.
  4. Shiver Me Timbers”: Who knew a song about being a pirate could be so affecting?
  5. “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis”: The best fake-out in musical history: she’s not married, there is no baby, she’s actually in jail and needs to borrow money. Brutal and heartbreaking.
  6. “Hold On”: Probably one of the more optimistic songs in Tom Waits’s catalog.
  7. “Ol’ 55”: Let’s just forget the Eagles’ cover of this one. It doesn’t have a patch on the original ode to a car.
  8. “Jersey Girl”: The best Bruce Springsteen song he never wrote, to the point that folks often think it is a Bruce song and he’s even covered it live on several occasions.
  9. “No One Knows I’m Gone”: A dark meditation on being alone and unnoticed.
  10. “Please Call Me, Baby”: A simple love song, which Waits can drop in the middle of all the carnival japery and found-instrument weirdness like it’s no big deal. Y’know, just a perfect encapsulation of a relationship from out of nowhere, like you do.

Playlist #222

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Happy last Monday in July, folks! August will be here at the end of the week, which means we’ve reached the time of year when I don’t have a paycheck coming in (why the school system still only does teacher paychecks over 11 months instead of 12 is beyond me). So, if anyone wanted to buy a book or a CD to help a guy out, now would definitely be the time!

  1. Tom Lehrer, “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”: Man, Tom Lehrer died over the weekend. In other news, holy crap, Tom Lehrer was still alive. Go poison a pigeon in his honor.
  2. The Move, “I Can Hear the Grass Grow”: It’s not hippy-drippy hearing the grass grow, it’s muscular, bottom-heavy rock hearing the grass grow. There is a difference.
  3. Mission of Burma, “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver”: I came to this song through Moby, of all people. The album is from 1981, and sounds like it could’ve come out in 2005 or anytime in between.
  4. Black Sabbath, “War Pigs”: I will forgive this song for rhyming “masses” with “masses,” because even though they are the same exact word, it’s a different meaning in each instance, and it doesn’t feel like Ozzy is rhyming a word with itself.
  5. Big Country, “In A Big Country”: It’s pretty ballsy, naming your biggest hit after your band name, but Big Country manages to pull it off.
  6. The Rolling Stones, “Let It Bleed”: There are just some things we can all agree that we need, including someone we can lean/bleed on. Mick Jagger knew it, and you know it.
  7. Them, “Here Comes the Night”: It’s too loud and nervy to be wistful, too wistful to be punky, and too Van Morrison to ignore.
  8. The Kinks, “Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy”: Everybody clap as fast as you can! No, faster!
  9. Yael Naim, “New Soul”: Remember when this song was used in an ad for the iPod? Remember when there were dedicated music players, separate from our phones? Good times.
  10. The Both, “No Sir”: I’m just a sucker for anything involving Aimee Mann. I’ve come to terms with it, as should you.