Playlist #167: Beach Party

Happy Monday, folks. We’re at the beach this week with the Wife’s family, but I have a surprise! The new book comes out this week! That’s right, Hazzard Pay 7, The Armageddon Seed, will be available sometime this week (whenever it gets through the Amazon process, which should be today or tomorrow?). I’ll show you the cover tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s a playlist while I soak up some sun and splash around in the Atlantic.

  1. Alanis Morissette, “Head Over Feet (Acoustic Version)”: Mellower with age, as things tend to be.
  2. Soundgarden, “Burden In My Head”: The Lithium station on Sirius XM plays a lot of Soundgarden, and I’m kinda here for it, I think.
  3. Charley Pride, “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone”: Apparently, my grandfather only ever attended one concert in his life, and it was to see Charley Pride.
  4. Fleetwood Mac, “Seven Wonders”: I’ve developed a certain fondness for latter-day Fleetwood Mac.
  5. The Rolling Stones, “Not Fade Away”: I’m always slightly amazed at how ramshackle and almost chaotic this song is, like the band were barely keeping it together while they played it.
  6. Radiohead, “2+2=5”: On the other hand, you’ve got Radiohead, who even when they get into a heavy breakdown still feel completely in control of everything.
  7. Ben Harper & the Blind Boys of Alabama, “Well, Well, Well”: What’s that, someone doing a Dylan cover? It’s more likely than you’d think!
  8. Band of Horses, “General Specific”: I love this song for reasons I’ve never been able to fully articulate. It just seems so joyful.
  9. Uncle Tupelo, “Steal the Crumbs”: Meanwhile, this song just hits me right in the gut and tugs on the ol’ heartstrings.
  10. Wilco, “Say You Miss Me”: Speaking of the heartstrings, this one gets to me, too. Maybe I’m just more vulnerable to songs of love and loss right now.

Playlist #82: Give Thanks!

Happy Monday, everyone! It’s a short week here, as Thanksgiving is this Thursday. A two-day work week? How will I ever survive? With a new, Thanksgiving-inspired playlist, that’s how!

  1. Neil Young, “Harvest Moon”: What is Thanksgiving if not a harvest festival? One without sacrifice to the harvest gods, that’s what. And you can’t tell me that’s right. The old gods grow hungry and angry. Hangry old gods. Don’t ignore them this year, I beg you.
  2. Alanis Morissette, “Thank U”: I’m not 100% sure why Alanis is thanking India and disillusionment, or quite what she’s thanking them for, exactly, but it’s a good song anyway.
  3. Wilco, “The Thanks I Get”: Yeah, this one was just featured a few weeks ago on another one of my playlists. It still slaps. What else do you want?
  4. Dido, “Thank You”: Remember when this song was everywhere for, like, a month in 1999? Man, turn of the millennium was a weird time. We were all pretty sure society itself was gonna collapse when January 1, 2000 rolled around, so we just listened to damn-near anything.
  5. Glen Phillips, “Thankful”: I always really enjoy Glen Phillips songs. They’re quirky and catchy and I just really dig them, okay?
  6. John Mellencamp, “Thank You”: I was listening to Mellencamp for most of the weekend (the newly-released extended version of Scarecrow, which is alright), so it only seemed appropriate to include one of his tunes on this list. Thematically appropriate, too.
  7. The National, “Sailors In Your Mouth”: It’s a Thanksgiving song, I swear.
  8. The Flaming Lips, “Thank You Jack White (For the Fiber-Optic Jesus)”: It’s truly, deeply weird, as all good Flaming Lips songs are.
  9. The Beatles, “Thank You Girl”: Sure, this is less about giving thanks in the traditional Thanksgiving sense of the word, and more “thanks for the sex stuff, lady friend.”
  10. The Band, “King Harvest (Has Surely Come)”: And to round things out, here’s another song about harvesting. I’m pretty sure King Harvest is some sort of simulacrum, a wicker and cornhusk concoction – or maybe even abomination – brought to life to bring the horror of the new harvest straight to you.