better than ezra

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 #217: Summertime

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Happy Monday! It’s all officially summer now, what with the summer solstice occurring late last week, so let’s look at some of my favorite songs about summer and summer-related stuff.

  1. Don Henley, “Boys of Summer”: Did you know the Ataris did a cover of this song, only instead of a “Dead Head sticker on a Cadillac” it’s a “Black Flag sticker” on the Caddy? I’m pretty sure the Venn Diagram of people who drive Cadillacs and people who would put a Black Flag sticker on their car has zero overlap.
  2. Mungo Jerry, “In the Summertime”: It’s all loosey-goosey and jugbandy. Feels like the most casual, tossed-off thing in the world, which is perfect for summer. We’ll just ignore the bit about, “If her daddy’s rich, taker her out for a meal/If her daddy’s poor, just do what you feel,” which feels a little like Mungo Jerry and his ridiculous hair ought to be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.
  3. Sublime, “Doin’ Time”: Ever heard a ’90s alt-punk band borrow liberally from Gershwin? Well, you have now! And it actually works surprisingly well.
  4. Glen Phillips, “Winter Pays For Summer”: I rather like the idea that the reward for dealing with the season you don’t like is the season you do like. The winter, that is, pays for the summer, though in my case I think it works the opposite (I hate summer heat. I should escape to cooler climes, but I’m pretty locked-in here in Fairfax County).
  5. Wilco, “Summer Teeth”: Does the title make any sense? Does it matter if it does? Not even a little. This bright bite of poppy bubblegum is from the similarly-named album Summerteeth, which is likewise full of Brian Wilson-esque tunes to bop along to as a summer night stretches out before you.
  6. Better Than Ezra, “Summerhouse”: It’s about a summer house, but more accurately it’s about a murder that no one really seems to care about. So it goes.
  7. Iron & Wine, “Summer in Savannah”: From that weird, experimental period where Iron & Wine tried to pretend they weren’t an old-timey string band sort of thing and were just a bunch of synth nerds. You can be both, Sam Beam. You can be both.
  8. The Head and the Heart, “Summertime”: With enough reverb on the guitar for a Ventures solo and enough yearning to make Brian Wilson blush.
  9. The Beach Boys, “Fun, Fun, Fun”: We’ve already established that the Beach Boys were the quintessential band of summer, and “Fun, Fun, Fun” is one of their absolute best summertime tunes. Joyriding in a T-Bird? Saying you’re going to the library when you’re going out cruising? It’s such a time capsule of the early 1960s. I can just see Harrison Ford and Opie searching for the Wolfman while this song plays.
  10. Ray LaMontagne, “Summer Clouds”: A wistful, finger-picked ballad that feels like a Sunday morning in October kind of song, a longing remembrance of the past.

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 #131: My Alternative Heart

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Happy Monday, folks! Or as I like to call it, “Dear God, why did I think owning that many books was a good idea?” Moving is hard, y’all. But hey, I have a new book coming out Wednesday, and a new playlist featuring some great songs from the ’90s for you today, so it can’t be all bad, right?

  1. Eve 6, “Inside Out”: These guys were apparently barely out of high school when they recorded this album. Their Twitter feed is still pretty damn solid to this day.
  2. Better Than Ezra, “Desperately Wanting”: Still really digging on this song and it’s still a helluva lot of fun to play.
  3. Bush, “Everything Zen”: Why is this song so long? Why did it need to keep going on and on? I think that everything time I listen to the song. “Oh, it’s still happening? I thought this song would’ve been over after the first two and a half minutes.” But no. It goes on for a full four and a half minutes. Unbelievable.
  4. The Cranberries, “Zombie”: Still just one of the best anti-war songs I’ve ever heard.
  5. Everclear, “I Will Buy You A New Life”: I will maintain for the rest of my days that this guy just needs therapy rather than to write another song about how daddy didn’t love him or he was poor or whatever.
  6. Foo Fighters, “Monkey Wrench”: Nothing really gets your blood pumping like a Foo Fighters song.
  7. Gin Blossoms, “Found Out About You”: For the life of me, I will never understand how I did not instantly grasp this band with both hands when their first album came out. Why I waited until nearly three decades later to even begin to appreciate their stuff is a question for the ages.
  8. Semisonic, “California”: My wife said, “Oh, I’d forgotten they did this song.” I sang along to the course, with the weird (and weirdly unnecessary) pronunciation of “Californ-i-uh.”
  9. Spacehog, “In The Meantime”: Can we stop for a second and talk about how this band’s name is basically “Intergalactic Penis?” Because that is all I can ever think of when I see their name.
  10. Primitive Radio Gods, “Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand”: And the award for most awkward song title goes to…

Playlist #125

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Happy Monday! It’s a gorgeous day here in Northern Virginia, and it sounds like the weather will continue to be beautiful for the whole week. Too bad I have to spend it all inside teaching.

  1. Better Than Ezra, “Desperately Wanting”: I’ve been on a Better Than Ezra kick this past week for reasons I cannot even begin to explain. I think it’s because most of their songs are so easy to play on the guitar, which my cowboy chord heart really appreciates.
  2. The Record Company, “Control My Heart Blues”: I like these guys, though they suffer from the most generic band name I think I’ve ever heard. I mean, short of “The Band.”
  3. The National, “Laugh Track (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)”: Oh, look, the National surprise dropped a brand new album today. It’s very good, though this might be my favorite song on it.
  4. James Gang, “Funk No. 49”: I feel like, if you’re having to number the funks, you might have too much funk.
  5. John Hartford, “In Tall Buildings”: I refuse to live anywhere above the first floor from now on.
  6. John Prine, “Spanish Pipedream”: Comical stories of topless dancers telling you to go find Jesus aside, this song has always and will always be awesome. The Avett Brothers do a good cover of it, too.
  7. Kaiser Chiefs, “I Predict a Riot”: That’s right, I’m gonna riot if I don’t get what I want! Okay, maybe not riot, per se. Maybe just grumble and complain under my breath for a while.
  8. Langhorne Slim & The Law, “Put It Together”: I will never tire of this song. It just hits something primal in my soul and gets it all hyped up.
  9. Mark Knopfler, “Donegan’s Gone”: A skiffle-esque tribute to the guy who brought the musical form to the shores of Merry Ol’ England.
  10. Mike Doughty, “Fort Hood”: Best song that features the coda from the 5th Dimension’s “Age of Aquarius” as a chorus? Yes.

Playlist #123

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Happy Tuesday! We spent Labor Day going through our Dining Room in preparation for moving next month. It was a bear. Here’s some songs!

  1. Smash Mouth, “Walkin’ On The Sun”: The lead singer for this band died over the weekend. I think we can all agree that this one and “All Star” are both fun. I prefer this one of the two.
  2. Jimmy Buffett, “Margaritaville”: Jimmy Buffett also passed away over the weekend. “Margaritaville” might be the most obvious choice for a Buffett song, but it’s still one of my favorites (though it’s no “Cheeseburger in Paradise”).
  3. Hall & Oates, “You Make My Dreams (Come True)”: Heard this one at the diner during family dinner yesterday afternoon. It’s still a banger.
  4. Husker Du, “Sunshine Superman”: Who doesn’t love a hardcore cover of a Donovan song?
  5. Slowdive, “andalucia plays”: Just heard about these guys over the weekend. They’re pretty cool, in a shoegaze-y sort of way.
  6. Better Than Ezra, “At The Stars”: This song will never not be good to me.
  7. Pixies, “Where Is My Mind?”: The soft/loud dynamics of this band were trendsetting for a reason. This song rocks.
  8. Peter Gabriel, “Intruder”: You know that ’80s gated reverb drum sound? The one that dominated ’80s music? It starts with this song.
  9. Nina Simone, “Feeling Good”: The slow burn of this song, the build…it’s just so damn good.
  10. Merle Haggard, “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here And Drink”: Someone recently pointed out that country music from back in the day was all anti-authoritarian, anti-rules, pro-individuality, and contemporary country is all about licking authority’s boots. They’re not wrong.

Playlist #90

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Happy Monday, folks! As per usual, here’s a new playlist for your listening pleasure.

  1. Harry Styles, “Two Ghosts”: I think I might actually like Harry Styles? Is there a doctor I should see about this?
  2. Spoon, “I Can’t Give Everything Away”: The elusive piano-led Spoon song. It’s more downbeat than a lot of their stuff, but I like it.
  3. Jay Farrar, “Feel Free”: I’ve probably mentioned this before, but for the longest time I thought NPR stood for “Non-Profit Radio.” It does not.
  4. Louis Armstrong, “Mack The Knife”: As I said on Twitter the other day, there is no more baller moment in music than when Louis tosses it to himself for the trumpet solo at the end.
  5. Better Than Ezra, “At The Stars”: Always kinda feel like Better Than Ezra should’ve been bigger than they were, even though they’re really just a solid alternative band.
  6. Calexico, “Cumbia De Donde”: I really dig the way this band combines traditional Hispanic music with indie rock. It works really well.
  7. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Someday Never Comes”: Literally the only good song on Mardi Gras. But damn, what a song.
  8. Supertramp, “Goodbye Stranger”: Sorry, lady, I can’t be tied down. Gotta move on to the next chick. Real classy, guys.
  9. Santana, “The Game Of Love (Featuring Michelle Branch)”: Fun fact: the name “Branch” in Portuguese is “Branco,” so my wife’s name came up a lot in the Portuguese music press when this song came out. Strange but true.
  10. The Offspring, “The Kids Aren’t Alright”: 90s kids remember when these dudes were all the rage. I think the lead singer has a PhD? It’s weird.