chris smither

Playlist #202

/ xeyeti / Leave a comment

Mondays just keep happening, don’t they? And on the heels of Daylight Saving Time starting up again, so I got to drive to work while it was still nighttime today. Woo. Here’s some songs.

  1. Jason Isbell, “Foxes in the Snow”: I knew that a solo acoustic album could be powerful and beautiful and heartbreaking, but Jason Isbell just keeps showing me how far you can take such a simple conceit. The title track here is bouncy and thoughtful and just absolutely perfect.
  2. The Goo Goo Dolls, “Sympathy”: I’m a sucker for strummy acoustic numbers, especially when they also feature a mandolin. Who knew the Goo Goo Dolls could deliver?
  3. The Flaming Lips, “Do You Realize??”: This song always makes me cry.
  4. Drive-By Truckers, “Carl Perkins’ Cadillac”: Carl Perkins didn’t need no Grammy, he just needed that Caddy.
  5. Phosphorescent, “Revelator”: I have finally discovered what I want my own musical sound to be, and it’s basically this.
  6. The Temptations, “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”: Watched a long-form video essay this weekend on “Progressive Soul,” which is classic Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Isaac Hayes, and – I’d argue – at least this particular track from The Temptations. It has the same emphasis on the groove and the rhythm section that those other Progressive Soul musicians had, and it’s a damn-good song.
  7. Hurray for the Riff Raff, “Pyramid Scheme”: Why do I feel like this could just be about MLM?
  8. Chris Smither, “Visions of Johanna”: You know me, I love a Dylan cover, and this one’s pretty solid.
  9. Van Morrison, “Once In a Blue Moon”: Late-period Van can still deliver when he wants to.
  10. Fleetwood Mac, “Seven Wonders”: I do have a soft spot for ’80s Mac. Is it as good as anything from Rumors or even Tusk? No. Is it still good, well-crafted pop-rock? Oh my, yes.

Playlist #194 and #195

/ xeyeti / Leave a comment

Happy Monday! It’s Martin Luther King, Jr, Day, and Inauguration Day. One of those is a cause for celebration, while the other is a cause for heavy drinking. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which one is which.

  1. The Refreshments, “Banditos”: I am embarrassed just how long I got the Refreshments and the Replacements confused. It was…far longer than I care to admit.
  2. Chris Smither, “Origin of Species”: A fantastic, farcical song mixing stories from the Bible with a winking nod to Charles Darwin and the double helix.
  3. Jason Isbell, “Super 8”: No one wants to die in a Super 8 Motel, Mr. Isbell. My wife won’t even set foot in one.
  4. Stevie Nicks, “Lighthouse”: Still love this song. It’s still a banger. I will not be accepting questions at this time.
  5. Tom Waits, “Goin’ Out West”: “I know karate and voodoo too” is a hell of a line.
  6. The Mountain Goats, “No Children”: We’ve talked about this one before, about how it’s my wife’s favorite Mountain Goats song and maybe I need to be concerned about that? Who knows.
  7. Michael Penn, “No Myth”: I dunno, maybe comparing yourself to Romeo and Heathcliff is not the flex you think it is.
  8. Big Red Machine, “Latter Days”: I like the album this song is from so much I picked it up on vinyl a couple of weeks ago. Great decision.
  9. Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”: About the only slice of ’80s music I can really stand, it’s a damn good song with a killer chorus.
  10. Franz Ferdinand, “Take Me Out”: It will never cease to amuse me that the band named after the dude whose assassination kicked off World War I released a single called “Take Me Out.” Just top-tier trolling.
  11. Jimmy Eat World, “The Middle”: Such an uplifting, shout-along song. And easy to play on the guitar to boot!
  12. Tracy Bonham, “Mother Mother”: A nice slice of ’90s nostalgia. Apparently the Wife hates her music? I was just as surprised as you are.
  13. Whiskeytown, “Jacksonville Skyline”: I know everyone was all about the authenticity of the cowpunk/alt-country movement in the early 2000s, but Whiskeytown’s country always felt like a coat Ryan Adams was wearing and took off as quickly as he could when he went solo.
  14. Wilco, “At Least That’s What You Said”: The snarling, Neil Young-esque guitar explosion that erupts about halfway through this song is giving me life.
  15. Diana Ross & the Supremes, “Reflections”: Sometimes, you just need a girl group singing close harmonies to get you through the day. This might be such a day.
  16. Edwyn Collins, “A Girl Like You”: Britpop, you say? Britpop? I’ll give you Britpop!
  17. Bob Dylan, “Mississippi”: For nothing else than I got the line “You can always come back but you can’t come back all the way” stuck in my head the other day.
  18. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “A Thing About You”: This has somehow become one of my favorite Tom Petty songs in recent years. Dunno how or why. I think I just like the breakneck pace of it and how I always imagine things almost tumble apart in the instrumental break but barely hold on.
  19. Calexico, “Beneath the City of Dreams”: I am a sucker for a good Calexico song, which really means any Calexico song. They’re all pretty damn good.
  20. Bill Small, “This Old House”: A dark tour through the empty halls of one’s life, or an empty house that used to be occupied by a loved one.