aimee mann

Playlist #240: Covers!

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Happy Monday, folks! I’m probably somewhere between Northern Virginia and Orlando, Florida, as you read this. The Wife is presenting at an education conference, and I’m joining her for moral and logistical support (and for the opportunity to not work for a week). Here’s a list of covers that I’ve enjoyed recently.

  1. Aimee Mann, “Rainy Days and Mondays”: A Carpenters cover? In this economy? It actually works pretty damn well, I think. She updates it in a few subtle ways, but mostly sticks to the original for her version.
  2. Mavis Staples, “Everybody Needs Love”: I loved this song when I heard the Drive-By Truckers original, and I love Mavis Staples’s version almost as much. Her voice carries the right tone and quality for the tune, and belies the age the woman actually is. I love it.
  3. Marc Sibilia, “Bittersweet Symphony”: His cover utilizes the same symphonic sample as the Verve Pipe’s original, but everything built around that seems more subdued, more subtle. It’s good stuff.
  4. The Presidents of the United States of America, “Kick Out the Jams”: Gotta love a band gutsy enough to take on an MC5 song, especially this one, but they manage to pull it off with some nervy energy and chutzpah.
  5. Phoebe Bridgers, “It’ll All Work Out”: I didn’t think it would be possible to slow down this Tom Petty number, but she does. I do miss the mandolin from the original, though.
  6. Iron & Wine and Ben Bridwell, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”: A mellower, folkier version of the U2 classic.
  7. Margaret Glaspy, “Have You Ever Seen the Rain”: I needed a slow, beautiful cover of CCR today, didn’t you?
  8. Willie Nelson, “Don’t Give Up (feat. Sinead O’Connor)”: Willie’s voice has just become this weathered, worn thing that just keeps getting better for the songs he sings. Fits perfectly, and Sinead O’Connor is a great duet partner for him.
  9. Bob Seager, “New Coat of Paint”: Seager turns Tom Waits’s raucous, bluesy number into…well, it’s not ’80s blooze-rock, not quite, but it does take some of the subtlety and nuance out of things. It’s still a fun cover, though.
  10. Robert Plant & Allison Krauss, “Quattro (World Drifts In)”: Speaking of nuance and subtlety, Plant and Krauss manage to inject a little bit more into this Calexico number. I dig it almost as much as I love the original, and I really love the original.

Playlist #218

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Happy Monday, folks! Summer proceeds apace, and we have air conditioning again, thank God. I was not doing well in those higher temperatures we were experiencing last week, let me tell you. Anyway, here’s some songs.

  1. Bruce Springsteen, “Shut Out the Light”: Been slowly working my way through Tracks II the past few days, and I know it’s cliche at this point but holy crap, Bruce throws out entire albums he’s not completely satisfied with? Which makes me wonder what possessed him to release High Hopes (zing!).
  2. Wilco, “Hell is Chrome (Live)”: A new live Wilco set just dropped, but most of what it did was remind me that I really do not remember many Wilco songs after about Sky Blue Sky. These are good songs, expertly performed, but they all feel pretty damn ephemeral to me, just background noise as I go about my day. This song, from A Ghost is Born, still slaps, though.
  3. James McMurtry, “South Texas Lawman”: A new James McMurtry album is a cause for celebration. He does one about 9/11 and W on here, and even though that’s only about a quarter century late it still feels entirely too relevant given the current tensions in the Middle East with another country whose name starts with an “I.” But that’s not this song. This is a country rocker about a lawman who wants to retire to the beach.
  4. Murder by Death, “Believe”: These guys just hit that dopamine button in my brain and make me wanna pick up my guitar and just strum the hell out of a couple of songs.
  5. Better Than Ezra, “Desperately Wanting”: There’s more to this song than the chorus, but all you really want to sing is the chorus part. The band gets that. They keep the verses short.
  6. Adeem the Artist, “Cowards Together”: I wish more country artists had the guts to be as open about who they are as Adeem the Artist, the cast-iron pansexual who pens such beautiful songs about not wanting to fight.
  7. The Wallflowers, “It’s A Dream”: My brother dismisses Glad All Over as “the Wallflowers just trying to sound like the Clash, but we’ve already got the Clash at home,” but I think it plays enough with the usual Wallflowers formula to keep them fresh and interesting and it’s still one of my go-to driving albums.
  8. Jack Johnson, “Taylor”: I remember, back in college, hearing a solo acoustic demo of this song around the time his debut, Brushfire Fairytales, came out, and I loved it. The version included on On and On is still plenty good, mind you, but I’ve been sorely tempted to go digging and see if I can find that original version again.
  9. Counting Crows, “Untitled (Love Song)”: “Throw your arms around my neck” is actually a pretty good chorus, actually.
  10. Aimee Mann, “Columbus Avenue”: Aimee Mann makes me nostalgic for college. Not because I listened to her stuff in college – I was stick pretty deep in the Bob Dylan thing back then – but just the tone of it seems to evoke a nostalgia in me, and when I feel nostalgic, that’s the time I think of. I feel like I could walk the streets of Clarksville at midnight with this song on repeat on the discman and all would be, if not quite right with the world, at least bearable and acceptable.

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 #151: Women’s History Month

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Happy Monday, folks! A slightly chilly Monday as winter tries its damnedest to cling to life in its final week. Here are ten songs, all by some of my favorite female artists, in celebration of Women’s History Month.

  1. Waxahatchee, “War”: This song was stuck in my head for a good part of the weekend. Which would’ve been fine if I could’ve remembered the name of the song and who it was by, but I couldn’t. Then I remembered. ADHD is a bitch sometimes.
  2. Hurray for the Riff Raff, “Snake Planet (The Past Is Still Alive)”: So I’m, like, 90% sure Alynda Segarra is non-binary, but I’m still gonna count them for this list? They’ve got a good voice and are doing interesting things with Americana, so I dig ’em.
  3. Aimee Mann, “Stranger Into Starman”: Every time I try to come up with an Aimee Mann song to put on a playlist, this is always the first song that pops into my head. Is it her best song? No. Is it the most memorable? Probably not. Is it one that I absolutely love and will listen to over and over because I love it and I love her voice? Oh my, yes.
  4. Alabama Shakes, “Gimme All Your Love”: Damn, this woman’s voice. She could sing the phonebook and I’d be enthralled.
  5. Alison Krauss & Union Station, “Doesn’t Have To Be This Way”: I didn’t sleep well last night, and there’s the chance that listening to this song will put me back to sleep. But that’s okay, because it’s such a beautiful song to drift off to.
  6. Amanda Palmer & Friends, “Beds Are Burning”: Who doesn’t love an Australian cover? New Zealanders, that’s who.
  7. Aretha Franklin, “Respect”: When you mention the Queen’s name, you’d best put some respect on it.
  8. Dolly Parton, “Seven Bridges Road”: A perfect match of a voice and a song.
  9. Elastica, “Stutter”: Who doesn’t love surreptitious songs about erectile dysfunction?
  10. Nina Simone, “Feeling Good”: But damn, this woman had a voice that could make a dead man walk.

Playlist #104 – Two Years

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Happy Monday! Today marks two years since I started doing the playlist a week thing. In honor of that, I’ve decided to revisit the first playlist and pick new songs by those ten artists. Have I doomed myself by placing a one-hit wonder on that first list? Let’s find out!

  1. Bruce Springsteen, “Radio Nowhere”: Starting out strong with the Boss, so there’s plenty of songs to choose from. This is one of the few latter-day Springsteen songs that I truly enjoy, and it reminds me so much of a song I wrote (“Complete Control,” for those who are curious). I think my song predated his, but I also doubt he knew anything about my song because it only got released this year finally.
  2. Johnny Cash, “A Boy Named Sue”: You can’t go wrong with a song written by Shel Silverstein and sung by Johnny Cash.
  3. Dog’s Eye View, “Umbrella”: Here’s where I thought I’d screwed myself. I barely remembered that first Dog’s Eye View song, and was pretty sure they hadn’t done anything else of note. Having heard this song, I’m still not 100% sure they did, but it’s…not bad. It’s okay. Fairly forgettable mid-90s earnest singer-songwriter stuff.
  4. Bob Dylan, “High Water (For Charley Patton)”: I blame this song for sending me down a delta blues rabbit hole last week. I ended up listening to a lot of Robert Johnson and Charley Patton. And boy, can Patton holler, y’all.
  5. The Interrupters, “Raised By Wolves”: These guys are just too much damn fun. I could honestly have picked just about any song off any of their albums and it would’ve been a banger. The “Ah-wooooo”s in the chorus kill me every time.
  6. Madonna, “Vogue”: It’s easy finding other well-known, popular Madonna songs. Finding other well-known, popular Madonna songs that I can stand? Taller order. This one’s pretty good for dancing music, I guess.
  7. Phoebe Bridgers, “If We Make It Through December”: Very quiet song, piano driven. Vocals almost a hushed a whisper. The lyrical content – about the struggles of surviving winter and the dark months – is quite depressing, but I kinda dig it.
  8. Redbone, “Come And Get Your Love”: Sometimes picking a second song from a specific band is a no-brainer. This is one of those moments.
  9. Aimee Mann, “Stranger Into Starman”: I’m a sucker for Aimee Mann songs and songs about crossword puzzles, so this was an easy pick.
  10. Hem, “The Pills Stopped Working”: My pills all still work just fine, singer for the band Hem. Maybe you need to go see your doctor again and get your prescriptions checked. Have you been taking the pills consistently? Have dosage levels changed?

Playlist #78

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Wednesday is the new Monday, am I right?

  1. Vaydra, “Talk To God”: The new single from the lady who sings with my brother, except it’s not the band they’re in together but a different band she formed that plays psychedelia. It’s pretty good. Check ’em out.
  2. Jake Blount, “The Downward Road”: Heard this guy on a Vox video talking about the importance of the banjo in historically black music. The song itself is pretty cool, drawing from traditional African American folk music and contemporary rap and hip-hop. I dig it.
  3. Glen Campbell, “I’m Not Gonna Miss You”: Glen Campbell died in 2017 from Alzheimer’s, and he wrote and recorded this song just before that happened. It’s a stark look at what Alzheimer’s and dementia do to a person, erasing their personality and memories until there’s nothing left there. But it doesn’t really hurt them, it hurts the people around them who watch that person erode. It is one of my greatest fears that I’ll get dementia or Alzheimer’s and become a burden to those I love and not even know it.
  4. Rilo Kiley, “The Moneymaker”: I hadn’t listened to this album since the year it came out (which was . . . holy crap, 2007?!). This song holds up, I think, though the More Adventurous album is still my favorite of theirs.
  5. Stevie Ray Vaughn, “Pride and Joy”: Sometimes, you need some low-down, dirty, Texas blues (or “blooze”). This is one of those times.
  6. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Straight Into Darkness”: Tom Petty is one of those guys who, even when he put out a mediocre album, it still has great songs on it. ‘Cause a mediocre Tom Petty song is better than about 70% of everything that comes out.
  7. Aimee Mann, “Looking For Nothing”: If you told me the only musician I was allowed to listen to for the rest of my life was Aimee Mann, I would not be entirely disappointed with that. You could do much worse.
  8. Drive-By Truckers, “Everybody Needs Love”: They do.
  9. Brian Fallon, “If Your Prayers Don’t Get To Heaven”: This dude absolutely loves the early ’60s girl groups and doo-wop and I am freakin’ here for it, yo.
  10. Led Zeppelin, “Fool In The Rain”: I love the drumming on this one.

Playlist #52

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This marks the one-year anniversary of me starting this playlist project. It’s kept me writing here for the whole year, which I like. I’ve even gotten back into working on Novel #7 (I’m well-past the halfway point, I think).

For this playlist, I thought about doing a retrospective, selecting my favorite songs from other playlists. But I decided against that. I’ll do another post later this week where I examine the playlists as a whole, looking at who got played the most and how many songs I repeated (I think just one? I’m not sure, but I’ll find out!).

Anyway, remember there’s the Patreon. I’m about to post April’s song. I’m pretty proud of it. Anyway, without further ado, here’s this week’s playlist:

  1. Dr. Dog, “Lonesome”: I love the guitar in this one. Pretty sure it’s a dobro or resonator.
  2. Andrew Bird, “Atomized”: Andrew Bird has a new album coming out this summer. I’m stoked. If this song is any indication, it’ll be a great one.
  3. Jorge Orozco, “Gran Vals”: Orignally composed by Francisco Tarrega, this is the song that Nokia got its ringtone from. It’s a very pretty song.
  4. Langhorne Slim & the Law, “Put It Together”: I’m a sucker for a shout-along chorus.
  5. The Doubleclicks, “This Is My Jam”: I like jam. Who doesn’t like jam? Commies, that’s who.
  6. Dolly Parton, “Jolene”: This is the slowed down version, the one from the 45 played at 33 1/3 RPM. It’s haunting.
  7. Aimee Mann, “Phoenix”: What is it about the way Aimme Mann writes and plays songs that just captivates me? I just love everything about her sound.
  8. Sam Cooke, “A Change Is Gonna Come”: Some days, you just need to let Sam take you home.
  9. Santana, “Evil Ways”: The way they add the, “baby,” to the end of certain lines in this song amuses me to no end.
  10. Bob Dylan, “Paths Of Victory”: My love for Dylan is no secret at this point. Someday, I’ll figure out an arrangement of this song for the guitar (rather than the piano he plays in this version). Until then, I’ll just have to sit and marvel at how well that man puts words together.

Playlist #1

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I’ve started creating weekly playlists, ten songs each. Trying not to repeat artists from week to week or on a playlist. Don’t want to replicate songs from week to week. Here’s last week’s playlist.

  1. Bruce Springsteen, “Ain’t Good Enough For You”: Uptempo and fun, a joyful bop to start us off.
  2. Johnny Cash, “Out Among the Stars”: Could anyone other than Johnny Cash write such a cheerful, uplifting song about a kid committing suicide by cop? No, they could not. And that chorus is awesome.
  3. Dog’s Eye View, “Everything Falls Apart”: You could have told me this song could have been written and performed by any of a few dozen guitar-based alternative rock groups from the ’90s and I would have believed you. It is so completely generic that you could replace the lyrics with gibberish and folks would still bounce around to it.
  4. Bob Dylan, “Positively Fourth Street”: The meanest kiss-off song in the business, even sixty or so years later. No one lays down a sick burn like a scorned Dylan.
  5. The Interrupters, “She’s Kerosene”: Who doesn’t like a little skank in their music? Commies, that’s who.
  6. Madonna, “Like a Prayer”: Remember how controversial this song and video were back in the ’80s? All those burning crosses and the Black Jesus! It’s a damn good song, though.
  7. Phoebe Bridgers, “Kyoto”: I dunno, I like the keyboards.
  8. Redbone, “We Were All Wounded at Wounded Knee”: Native American band telling it like it is.
  9. Aimee Mann, “Great Beyond”: I absolutely adore the work of Aimee Mann and I’m kicking myself for the “no back to back songs from the same musician/band” rule I established for myself already.
  10. Hem, “Great Houses of New York”: Every song by this band feels like it belongs with a film. It’s all very cinematic. This song is no exception, except it’s exceptionally amazing. Like all of Hem’s work.