bruce springsteen

Playlist #277

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Happy Monday, folks! Summer is officially over; I’m back at school for teacher in-service this week, which means more meetings than you can shake a stick at (why do you shake a stick at something? I’ve never really understood that adage). Anyway, it’s Monday, so here’s a playlist.

  1. Hozier, “Too Sweet”: It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize this was a Hozier song. It’s good. Has a Mark Ronson feel to it.
  2. The Mountain Goats, “Candlebox”: The latest album from tMG is apparently a song cycle about 90s grunge artists and the alternative music movement of that time period, and this is an excellent example of what Darnielle and Company have cooked up. I dunno that I’d personally want to open for Candlebox for a summer tour, though if they asked I would probably still say “yes.” Not sure their audience is exactly my audience, mind you.
  3. Phoebe Bridgers, “As Above”: A new Phoebe Bridgers album is always cause for celebration. Most of the songs just sort of float by on this record, but this one stuck out in my mind pretty well.
  4. Lord Huron, “Love Like Ghosts”: Even after having listened to it obsessively for several months now, I still find myself coming back to the songs on Strange Trails. This is a great album opener.
  5. Huey Lewis and the News, “I Know What I Like”: I’m a sucker for Huey Lewis and the News. They sound like that band your dad tried to put together back in the mid-90s with his buddies from work, but they mostly sat around in the garage on Saturday nights drinking beers and playing old Lovin’ Spoonful covers. But that’s, like, not a bad thing.
  6. Ma Rainey, “See See the Rider”: One of the OGs singing a song that has come down through the decades until it ended up as 60s rock number.
  7. Sean Watkins, “Let It Fall”: I’m always going to be a sucker for this song. The vocals are plaintive, the guitar work is flawless, and it’s just really damn good.
  8. Blue Mountain, “Bloody 98”: The banjo solo in this song – a song I would deem very unlikely to have a banjo solo – is top-notch and just rips the roof off the building. Love it.
  9. Bruce Springsteen, “Ain’t Good Enough For You”: I always enjoy Bruce’s hard luck stories; this one is very tongue in cheek and far too much fun to be about a relationship you give more than half a damn about.
  10. Them, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”: One of the best Dylan covers out there. Can’t top it.

Playlist #269

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Happy Monday, folks! It’s officially summer (both in that the summer solstice occurred yesterday and I’m finally no longer in school), and that means most teachers are sitting curled up in a ball dissociating for a few days before they jump into whatever summer job they’re doing. I’m working at a summer camp that’s running out of Michelle’s school (though there is no official connection between the two other than the camp is using the Sycamore School’s location to host the camp). All that being said, here’s a playlist to set the mood.

  1. Roosevelt, “Everywhere”: It’s a Fleetwood Mac cover! That really doesn’t do anything all that different than the original. Which always makes me wonder, why cover a song if you’re not going to do anything different with it?
  2. Modest Mouse, “Missing The Boat”: That drum machine beat that kicks the song off always gets to me for some reason. I just really dig it.
  3. Margaret Glaspy, “Jesus, Etc.”: I’ve been compiling a list of songs I want played at my funeral, and this one currently tops that list. Ir’a just so forlorn and heartbroken that it fits perfectly for something like a funeral.
  4. The Mountain Goats, “Up The Wolves”: I like The Sunset Tree. As a transition between the boombox era of the band the fleshed out, full band that appears on Tallahassee and later records, it’s a neat look at how John Darnielle came to grips with working directly with other musicians. Also, it’s just a great song.
  5. The Avett Brothers, “Die Die Die”: Emotionalism remains my favorite Avett Brothers album, and songs like this one – with the harmonies and the stomping rhythm – help exemplify why.
  6. B.B. King, “The Thrill Is Gone”: You can’t beat the king of the blues, and this is hands-down his best song. I still marvel at the idea of adding strings to a blues song. It’s great.
  7. Bruce Springsteen, “Reason To Believe (Electric Nebraska)”: The electric Nebraska demos sound exactly what you think Nebraska would sound like if all the songs were played with bass and drums added in. That said, this song still hits right if you ask me. The rhythm section gives it some muscle and some menace.
  8. Genesis, “Man On The Corner”: I know Phil Collins Genesis is often dismissed as pop pablum, especially when you get to Invisible Touch, but I always really dug the stuff they did when he was the leader of the band. And this song shows that he could ask some big questions about the nature of society and how we treat one another. Also, it’s got a good hook.
  9. HAIM, “Now It’s Time”: Why not take a U2 Pop song (specifically, “Numb”) and reuse it to do something completely different?
  10. The Lemonheads, “Take It Easy”: Another cover to round things out. Again, doesn’t really do much of anything all that different from the original version, though at least Evan Dando’s voice is different enough from Glen Frey’s that it’s got that going for it.

Playlist #267

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Happy Monday, folks! We’re well into June now, and school continues for…reasons? I’m not really sure anymore. But I’m getting stuff done and prepped for next year, so that’s good. Anyway, some coworkers and I are going to get together this week and next to play some music! Here’s our setlist.

  1. Santo & Johnny, “Sleepwalk”: It’s an instrumental that you’d probably recognize if you heard it. One of the guys I’m playing with plays pedal steel guitar, which makes this a perfect song for us.
  2. Iron & Wine and Calexico, “History of Lovers”: Some of these songs are ones I’ll sing, like this one. I tried to choose songs that were (A) easy to play and (B) could or did feature pedal steel in them already. This one fits both criteria! And it’s fun.
  3. Wilco, “Jesus, Etc.”: Another of my choices. I wanted a Wilco song, and had it narrowed down between this one and “California Stars.” Kinda tempted to ask if we can change it to “California Stars” now, though, ’cause it’s such a fun song.
  4. Bruce Springsteen, “Stolen Car”: Dunno how all my choices got shoved into the beginning of the set, but that’s okay (it’s probably just down to the way I searched them up on my phone when putting together the playlist). This one falls under the “easy to play” side of things, since it’s just a two-chord song (just G and C. Now you can figure out how to play it yourself. This is educational).
  5. The Eagles, “Take It Easy”: Not one of my picks, surprisingly enough, though one that I am clearly well aware of and already know how to play. I’ll do some backing vocals on it, though, although I’m not sure I can get as high as the “eaaasy” as I ought to. We’ll have to see.
  6. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, “Built To Last”: For some reason, my brain always thinks of this as “latter-day Tom Petty,” but it’s from the first half of his career. The ’90s was also only six years ago, as far as my brain is concerned, so ignore that. It’s another easy one to play, and I love playing it.
  7. Hank Williams, “Hey, Good Lookin'”: The last of my suggestions. If you’re looking for a good pedal steel song, you can’t go wrong with Hank.
  8. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Lodi”: My only challenge with this song is going to be hitting that key change for the last verse. I’ve never been able to pull off the key change. I’m gonna have to practice.
  9. Eric Clapton, “Lay Down Sally”: Another super-easy one to play, and it’s a lot of fun.
  10. The Band, “The Weight”: The biggest challenge with this one is going to be hitting those backing vocals and not sounding like a wounded cat.

Playlist #256: The Setlist

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Happy Monday, folks! It’s my birthday this week. You can help me celebrate by listening to the new song I’ve got coming out this Friday, “When I Say Your Name, Only Silence Answers.” You can pre-save it on Spotify, if that’s your thing. For this week’s playlist, I’ve put together a setlist of covers I’d play if I were playing a show, because why not?

  1. Tom Waits, “Chocolate Jesus”: This is my “weird” song, though the guitar chords really aren’t that different from just about any other song on the list. But Waits’s stuff just always comes across as weirder. It is seasonally appropriate, at least.
  2. Langhorne Slim, “House of My Soul”: This one is just fun to play. I like songs that are fun to play.
  3. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Built to Last”: Tom Petty always writes such simple, heartfelt songs. It’s hard not to want to sing along with a Tom Petty song.
  4. Wilco, “Handshake Drugs”: I don’t know if I could tell you what a handshake drug is. Is it the kind that fits in your hand so you can exchange it when you shake hands with the dealer? Did I just crack the code on this twenty-something year-old song?
  5. Bruce Springsteen, “Stolen Car”: It’s only two chords, but that’s all the Boss needs to tell a heartbreaking story of survival and desperation.
  6. Led Zeppelin, “Hey Hey (What Can I Do)”: The Zeppelin song I can play. And play pretty well, I might add! Though I do struggle with the intro bit, which is tricky for a chord player like myself.
  7. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Who’ll Stop the Rain”: I love playing CCR songs. They’re just fun, and as I said earlier, I like playing fun songs.
  8. Hank Williams, “Move It On Over”: I have an affinity for this version that I never really had for the George Thorogood version.
  9. Bob Dylan, “Tell Ol’ Bill”: The latest in my long line of Dylan songs I will play over and over until my ears and fingers bleed.
  10. Gin Blossoms, “Pieces of the Night”: I feel everyone needs a ’90s song that can pull out of their back pocket on a spur of the moment, and this one’s mine.

Playlist #255

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Happy Monday, folks! We’ve got a three-hour early release due to a Death Storm headed our way this afternoon. How about some tunes to get us through the tornados?

  1. Bedouine, Hurray for the Riff Raff, and Waxahatchee, “Thirteen”: I swear, I think I have more covers of this song than just about any other. There’s something about it that just attracts musicians to it like honey. It is a fabulous song, mind, and every version I’ve ever heard of it is just different enough from each other and the original to be worth listening to. I guess Big Star is the Velvet Underground of power pop.
  2. Bruce Springsteen, “A Rainy Night In Soho”: A Pogues cover that makes Bruce Springsteen sound like Tom Waits. I can dig that.
  3. The Gray Charlies, “Nothing Matters”: Alright, lemme brag on my brother for a minute: Clyde has put together an EP of songs that are phenomenally crafted and expertly recorded. They sound remarkable. I wrote the lyrics for all of them, but don’t hold that against the band. This is the first single, available now, and I recommend you go give it a listen. It’s gorgeous!
  4. Gordon Lightfoot, “Sundown”: Canadian crooner compels compatriots to cease convening conveniently close to his casa.
  5. Lord Huron, “The Night We Met”: Apparently the song the band is most famous for, thanks to its inclusion in some teen drama on CW or something. I dunno, it’s a great song off a great album.
  6. Neko Case, “This Tornado Loves You”: Someone was asking me about the difference between a Tornado Watch and a Tornado Warning this morning, as we’ll be under at least one of those this afternoon. A Watch is when conditions are suited to the formation of a tornado, and a Warning is when tornados are imminent or possibly already making touchdown nearby. In either case, listen for the sirens and get someplace safe if you hear ’em.
  7. Jimi Hendrix, “The Wind Cries Mary”: There’s a chance of high winds even without tornados this afternoon, though I hear they’ve been downgraded from “hurricane-strength” to merely “Oklahoma breeze.”
  8. Tom Waits, “A Little Rain”: This was the sort of Tom Waits song I was talking about above when I was talking about that Bruce Springsteen song. It’s great.
  9. Calexico, “Not Even Stevie Nicks”: Man, not even Stevie Nicks? Not even her? Not even with all the scarves and diaphanous pieces of fabric draped across everything? Fuck.
  10. Stabbing Westward, “Violent Mood Swings”: If this doesn’t get your blood pumping, please check that you still have a pulse.

Playlist #242: Top 10 Albums of 2025

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Happy Monday, folks! We’ve reached that point in the year when bands stop releasing new music and the music critic turns his weary, bleary eyes toward compiling top lists. Top 10 albums! Top 25 albums! Top 100 albums of the year! In all the genres and styles one can imagine. I’m just gonna do a top ten. It’s not that I couldn’t find enough for a longer list, but I already do ten-song playlists, so why not stick with that? In no particular order, my top ten for the year are:

  1. Matt Berninger, Get Sunk: Solo album from the National’s singer. As I commented back when I first featured a song off this album on a playlist, it seems to feature all the momentum and forward motion that’s been missing from the past couple of National albums. Virtually a no-skip album.
  2. Mavis Staples, Sad and Beautiful World: She’s been trending more toward minimalism in her work the past couple of albums, and I kinda like it. Puts her amazing voice front and center. Her song selection skills remain top-notch, too.
  3. Snocaps, Snocaps: Feels very off the cuff and done for fun, which I’m always a big fan of. I like it when it sounds like the musicians had fun recording the music. And the two sisters at the heart of this group know how to write some killer songs.
  4. Jeff Tweedy, Twilight Override: We get it Jeff, you’ve got lots of songs in you. A triple album, though? That just screams “I’m gonna one-up Ryan Adams at something not gross.” But the songs are pretty uniformly good, even if a few of them feel more like song sketches and ideas rather than full-fledged complete songs.
  5. Jason Isbell, Foxes in the Snow: I’m not gonna call it his divorce album or his Blood on the Tracks, but there is something stark and sharp and beautiful in this voice and acoustic only set that really sucker punches you in the best way.
  6. Neko Case, Neon Gray Midnight Green: Any new Neko Case music is a cause for celebration, and this particular album sticks with you long after it’s finished playing. Nothing as immediate or obviously gripped as “Hold On, Hold On” here, but it’s still a strong album filled with the sort of gorgeous vocals and left field approaches Case has come to be known for.
  7. The Mountain Goats, Through the Fire Across From Peter Balkan: Trippy, dreamy titles aside, John Darnielle has described this one as the closest he’s ever come to writing a musical, and it still isn’t a concept album telling a coherent story as far as I can tell, but the songs are beautiful and obtuse and demand that you sit with the record and really listen.
  8. Lord Huron, The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1: Atmospheric and folky, like Tom Petty mixing spaghetti westerns with ’50s pulp sci-fi.
  9. Bruce Springsteen, Nebraska ’82: As archival releases go, this one is pretty great. Getting a look at what could have been with Nebraska, one of my favorite Bruce albums, is a fascinating exercise. Hearing the so-called Electric Versions was pretty cool and does ultimately support the myth that the original solo demos were the superior versions and ought to just be released as-is. The more recent live recordings of all the songs seemed a little superfluous to me, but more Bruce is never really a bad thing.
  10. Bob Dylan, Through the Open Window (The Bootleg Series, Volume 18): Speaking of archival releases, the latest in the long-running Bootleg Series digs into the absolute earliest Dylan recordings we’ve ever heard, and while you can definitely hear who he would become in the voice and the guitar playing, it’s very protean. Primordial, you might say. But the man found his footing in Greenwich Village quite quickly, and hearing some alternate takes on some of his earliest compositions and covers was a fun diversion. Someday, I’ll have to dive into the complete version of this collection, as the only version available on Apple Music was the two-disc Highlights selections.

Playlist #237: Wrecks

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Happy Monday, folks. We’ve got a short week this week, what with Veterans Day happening tomorrow, but we’ve also got a historically-based playlist for you today. Starting with:

  1. Gordon Lightfoot, “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”: Fifty years ago today, the Edmund Fitzgerald went down in Lake Superior, taking twenty-nine men with it. Lightfoot apparently wrote and recorded the song just a month later, and it was released in August of 1976, giving him the biggest hit of his career.
  2. Tom Petty, “You Wreck Me”: Is there a better Tom Petty album than Wildflowers? If so, I haven’t heard it (and neither, I’d assume, has anyone else, ’cause this is clearly his best album). That chorus is so good to sing along to.
  3. Pearl Jam, “Wreckage”: Pearl Jam’s latest studio album included this gem, an acoustic-based song that stands as one of the best they’ve written in the past fifteen, twenty years.
  4. Bruce Springsteen, “Wrecking Ball”: It’s a song about Giants Stadium in New Jersey. They were about to tear it down, and the Boss had to write a song in ode to it. It’s one of his better latter-day songs.
  5. George Harrison, “Wreck of the Hesperus”: Based on a Wordsworth poem about a shipwreck? Or a Procol Harum song of the same name? I dunno. It’s mostly George Harrison lamenting getting older, but still being able to rock out. It’s chock-full o’ puns, which is one of my favorite forms of song lyrics.
  6. Loose Fur, “Wreckroom”: Look, Loose Fur is weird. Just…really weird. But also nifty. Mostly weird.
  7. They Might Be Giants, “Wreck My Car”: Please do not wreck someone else’s car, even if they ask you to. That’s probably insurance fraud, and you don’t wanna be involved in that.
  8. Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs, “Wreckless Abandon”: Mike Campbell’s solo work is more workmanlike than anything he did with the Heartbreakers, but c’mon, not everyone is a songwriting dynamo like Tom Petty was.
  9. Emmylou Harris, “Wrecking Ball”: A different “Wrecking Ball” than the Bruce Springsteen one. It’s a beautiful song, though.
  10. Wreckless Eric, “Whole Wide World”: Featured to great effect in the movie Stranger than Fiction, it’s one of those three-chord garage rock songs that you can learn in two minutes and play all by yourself forever. We recommend turning the amplifier way up for this one.

Playlist #236

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Happy Monday, folks! I spent the weekend hanging out with visiting family, strummin’ guitars and eating to much food. As one does. Here’s some songs to get you through the week.

  1. Gin Blossoms, “Hey Jealousy”: My dad had heard of the Gin Blossoms, he said, but couldn’t place a song by them. This is probably their best-known song. If he’s heard any of them, it’s probably this one.
  2. Snocaps, “Cherry Hard Candy”: It’s the lady from Waxahatchee! And her sister! And a couple of dudes she’s been performing with for a while! But it’s also a whole new and different band! But hey, more Waxahatchee by any name is good for me.
  3. Enigma, “Return to Innocence”: I heard this song (from the Pure Moods CD, natch) while I was in a Wawa last night. It’s the one with the faux-Native chanting/singing in it. You know the one. You heard it in all the commercials they ran for that collection in the ’90s.
  4. Tom Petty, “You Saw Me Comin'”: Finding Wallflowers is a fascinating document to me. I was talking with my dad about it this weekend, along with all the other archival releases legacy acts like Dylan, Springsteen, and Neil Young have been cranking out in the past few years. I’ve always enjoyed the iterative process of songwriting, and would have loved to hear where Tom took this particular song that just sorta…went away.
  5. Iggy Pop, “Passenger”: A classic Iggy four-chord rocker from Lust for Life.
  6. Wilco, “Handshake Drugs”: I love playing this song on the guitar. I have since I first figured out how to play it. Sometimes, Jeff Tweedy and Co. create some simple, very effective songs.
  7. Bruce Springsteen, “Reason To Believe (Electric Nebraska)”: One of my favorite songs from Nebraska. Is the electric version really all that different? No, not really. Again, it’s really obvious in hindsight why Bruce went with the solo demo versions of all of these songs.
  8. Hank Williams, “Move It On Over”: I always loved the George Thorogood version of this song, and the Hank original remains completely awesome as well.
  9. The Eagles, “Tequila Sunrise”: Always a fun guitar song.
  10. The Bee Gees, “To Love Somebody”: Learned this one playing guitar with my dad this weekend. Good song.

Playlist #235: The Boss

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Happy Monday, folks! I was in a Bruce Springsteen mood over the weekend (thanks in large part to the release of Nebraska ’82), so here’s a list of ten of my favorite non-studio-album Bruce songs.

  1. “Thundercrack”: This song always reminds me of “Rosalita.” It’s similarly-epic in scope and style, I feel, and features some great saxophone work from the Big Man.
  2. “Losin’ Kind”: I’d never heard this song before this weekend, but damn is it haunting and more than a little troubling. The whole narrative around Nebraska and the man lost in the woods period feels very real here.
  3. “Blood Brothers”: From the ’90s Greatest Hits collection, this sounds exactly like what you think a Bruce Springsteen song should sound like.
  4. “Rockaway the Days”: The Boss is a strong storyteller, as seen in this song where a dude gets in a bar fight and then wraps his car around a tree.
  5. “Follow That Dream”: From the recent Tracks II collection. Such a weird collection. Seven whole albums you recorded and never released? That’s a wild flex, Bruce.
  6. “Johnny Bye Bye”: Is this song just a retelling of “Johnny B. Goode”? I think this song is just a retelling of “Johnny B. Goode.”
  7. “Ain’t Good Enough for You”: Bruce has a lot of charisma, or “rizz” as the kids say these days. It’s hard to imagine someone rejecting him, but apparently it was a problem when he was younger? If this song is anything to go by, anyway.
  8. “From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)”: Just a jumped-up blues song that’s way too much fun to sing.
  9. “This Hard Land”: Another one of those Greatest Hits songs that just sounds like a quintessential Bruce song. It’s, like, the ur-material that all other Springsteen songs are extracted from.
  10. “Open All Night (Electric Nebraska)”: One of my absolute favorite songs off of Nebraska, only with drums and bass.

Playlist #231

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Happy Monday, folks. A lot of new music came out last week that I really dug, and I’m still going through it and listening. But hey, the playlist waits for no man, except sometimes me when I forget that it’s Monday and I have to post one of these.

  1. Neko Case, “Winchester Mansion of Sound”: Case’s music continues to grow and shift; she’s never content to just coast by on what she’s done before. This is probably one of my favorites off the new album.
  2. Jeff Tweedy, “Cry Baby Cry”: Dude dropped a triple album on Friday. That’s wild. This is not, unfortunately, a cover of the Beatles song of the same name, but it is, fortunately, quite a good song anyway. The whole album is pretty good, honestly, though I feel like some of the lyrics could’ve used a second pass.
  3. Amanda Shires, “The Details”: I have never been divorced, as I’m sure most folks know. That being said, this song sounds like what I imagine divorce feels like, and it makes me uncomfortable and more than a little voyeuristic, like I’m listening in on a couple in the final throes of the inevitable end.
  4. David Gray, “Kathleen”: Sometime in the past few years, Draw the Line somehow became my favorite David Gray album, and this one of my favorite songs off that album. I can’t adequately explain the why of either of those, so instead I just accept them and continue grooving to the album and this song in particular.
  5. Bruce Springsteen, “Reason to Believe”: I always enjoy the work of Bruce the Storyteller. Here, it’s a series of vignettes with a common theme: at the end of a hard day, when the world wears you down and tells you to just give up, folks still find a reason to go on.
  6. Andrew Bird, “So Much Wine, Merry Christmas”: I learned the lead break from this song a few months ago, and it’s a great joy to play.
  7. Buckingham Nicks, “Frozen Love”: This album has finally appeared on streaming, so it’s okay that I left my copy in Oklahoma with my dad back in April.
  8. Doechii, “Anxiety”: It uses that one Gotye song (you know the one, he only did the one) as a basis for a very different tune.
  9. The Presidents of the United States of America, “Kick Out the Jams”: Who doesn’t love an MC5 cover? It’s suitably quick and jagged, and I kinda love it.
  10. Iron & Wine and Ben Bridwell, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”: Speaking of covers, here’s Iron & Wine and the dude from Band of Horses doing an U2 cover. It sounds exactly how you think that will sound.