elliott smith

Playlist #234

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Happy Tuesday, folks. Yesterday was Diwali, a Hindu holiday, and one that FCPS takes off now. So naturally, I spent the day taking various individuals to the doctor – the cat, my wife – and doing laundry. So much laundry. Where did we even get all these clothes? Anyway, here’s some songs to get you through the week.

  1. The Dead South, “In Hell I’ll Be In Good Company”: Whistling and stand-up bass and a title that’s entirely too long? Yup, hits a lot of points on the checklist.
  2. The Bridge City Sinners, “St. James’ Infirmary”: I was unaware I needed to hear a version of “St. James’ Infirmary” with the word “fuck” in it. And now I know.
  3. Glass Animals, “Heat Waves”: A random student walked by while I was playing the guitar outside last Friday and asked me if I knew how to play this song. I did not, so I looked it up. Seems easy enough to play, if a bit of a challenge for me to sing.
  4. Holly Golightly, “My Get Back”: How had I never listened to Holly Golightly until now? This is some good stuff. Blues-inflected, rough around the edges in just the right way. I dig it.
  5. Jakob Dylan, “Lend A Hand”: Spent most of yesterday listening to Dylan’s Women + Country on repeat for whatever reason, and this song still grabs me by the lapels and shakes me.
  6. Radiohead, “There, There (Live)”: The live Hail to the Thief versions are all great, especially this one, but I’m a little disappointed that it doesn’t include “Drunken Punch Up At A Wedding.” Sad.
  7. George Harrison, “Stuck Inside A Cloud”: It still amazes me that Harrison was able to craft such beautiful, touching music while in the grips of cancer, dying from it. We need more folks like him.
  8. The Pixies, “Where Is My Head?”: So supposedly a Taylor Swift song sounds a lot like this song? And that’s a . . . bad thing? If she wants to become a Pixies cover act, I’d probably be okay with that.
  9. The Cranberries, “Salvation”: It’s a song where they basically chant “Salvation” in the chorus over and over again. Of course I love it.
  10. Elliott Smith, “Bottle Up And Explode!”: One of his best off XO, which is also his best album in my humble (and correct) opinion.

Playlist #225: Back to School Edition

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Happy Monday, folks! And welcome back to school, students. That’s right, the school year has officially begun in Northern Virginia, marking my 21st year as a teacher. Yup, my career will be old enough to drink this year. That’s terrifying. Let’s get to the playlist.

  1. The Calling, “Let The Day Begin”: As I’ve said in the past, this song is intimately linked in my mind with the start of the school day. It played on the classic rock station every morning right around the time I was headed to school, so it’s kinda irrevocably linked forever to me.
  2. Langhorne Slim, “The House of My Soul (You Light the Room)”: Love playing this song. It’s such a simple chord progression that he manages to squeeze a lot of energy and emotion out of.
  3. Radiohead, “Go To Sleep (Live)”: Live Radiohead is always a fun time, because I’m left wondering how they managed to get the song that appeared on the album (with all its blips and squiggles and beeps) to sound so good live.
  4. Golden Earring, “Twilight Zone”: Man, after spending several weeks not working, being back in the classroom feels more than a little like the Twilight Zone.
  5. The Beatles, “Yer Blues”: So John says, “If I ain’t dead already/Well, you know the reason why,” but do we? Do we really know the reason why, John? Because I don’t think we do.
  6. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Casa Dega”: Hearsay and secondhand information lead to heartbreak. Or Heartbreakers.
  7. Pink Floyd, “Pigs (Three Different Ones)”: The repeated “ha-ha, charade you are” line kills me every time. The very British pronunciation of charade (“sha-raad”) makes me giggle.
  8. Elliott Smith, “Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands”: Man, I haven’t listened to Elliott Smith in a while. I think fall is the best time to listen to him, and a revisiting of his discography is imminent.
  9. The Lemonheads, “Into Your Arms”: There are a few ’90s songs that are just there for that killer chorus (this one, the La’s “There She Goes,” REM’s “The One I Love,” Deep Blue Something’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”). Someday I’mma put together that playlist.
  10. Gin Blossoms, “Hey Jealousy”: Speaking of great ’90s songs…

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 #188: Name Dropper

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Happy Monday! It’s December, and the weather over the weekend turned decisively cold. I’m down with it, or would be if our thermostat was working and we could actually turn the heat on. Here’s a list of songs that reference other musicians in the lyrics.

  1. Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Sweet Home Alabama”: “Well I heard Mr. Young sing about her/And I heard ol’ Neil put her down/Well I hope Neil Young will remember/A southern man don’t need him around anyhow.” Obvious digs at Neil Young’s songs “Alabama” and “Southern Man” aside, Young apparently agrees that “Southern Man” in particular maybe took things a little too far.
  2. The National, “So Far Around the Bend”: “You’ve been humming in a daze forever/praying for Pavement to get back together.” Leave it to a band like the National to name check Pavement in a song.
  3. The Replacements, “Alex Chilton”: It’s a whole song about Box Tops and Big Star singer Alex Chilton! And it’s awesome.
  4. The Animals, “Story of Bo Diddley”: Not just about Bo Diddley, but also a brief history of rock and roll and the British Invasion, complete with Beatles and Rolling Stones references. I could do without Eric Burden’s impressions of Bo Diddley and his entourage at the end, though.
  5. Elliott Smith, “Baby Britain”: “The light was on but it was dim/Revolver’s been turned over/And now it’s ready once again/The radio is playing ‘Crimson and Clover.'”
  6. Van Morrison, “Whatever Happened to PJ Proby?”: This one’s a three-for-one: the reference to American songwriter PJ Proby in the title, and further references to “Scott Walker” and “Screaming Lord Sutch”, all bizarre niche musicians from the 1960s.
  7. Counting Crows, “Monkey”: “Got nowhere but home to go/Got Ben Folds on my radio right now,” and now we know how I came to find out about Ben Folds.
  8. Taylor Swift, “The Tortured Poets Department”: While “You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith” only references one musician (Dylan Thomas is a poet, not a songwriter, rage against the dying of the light), the song also references Charlie Puth later (“We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist”), and I have it on good authority from my students that Charlie Puth is, indeed, a musician.
  9. Bob Dylan, “I Feel a Change Comin’ On”: “I’m listening to Billy Joe Shaver/And I’m reading James Joyce/Some people tell me/I’ve got the blood of the Lamb in my voice” is just such a perfect Dylan line.
  10. Semisonic, “Gone to the Movies”: “And it covers up the cars/And the Wallflowers CD ended half an hour ago.” This is just such a sad song, largely about the a guy who wants to go out looking for his lady but he can’t or won’t because it’s snowing like crazy out there and his car probably won’t start.

Playlist #144

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Happy Monday! And a truly happy Monday it is, too, for I just did something I haven’t been able to do in three months: take a hot shower in my condo! Sure, it cost a ridiculous amount of money to get it all fixed, but it’s a small price to pay to have water above room temperature when I step into the shower.

  1. Rufus Wainwright, “Harvest”: The one that features Andrew Bird on violin and guest vocals! It’s such a beautiful and simple rendition of the Neil Young tune.
  2. k.d. lang, “Constant Craving”: I, too, hope to someday be disentangled enough from my ego to ignore proper punctuation and capitalization when writing my name. Until then, I stick to the capital letter at the start.
  3. Sinead O’Connor, “Nothing Compares 2 U”: We could all use a little Prince tune to get us moving today, I think.
  4. Alannah Myles, “Black Velvet”: This song is about Elvis, right? Pretty sure it’s about Elvis.
  5. The Eagles, “After the Thrill is Gone”: One of the sadder Eagles songs out there, and one where Don Henley only kinda over-sings.
  6. Elliott Smith, “Christian Brothers”: Elliott Smith sounds like he could and would fuck you up really bad in this song. It’s great.
  7. Frank Turner, “Get Better”: Just a reminder that things can always improve, you just have to let them.
  8. Iron & Wine, “About a Bruise”: One of Sam Beam’s goofier songs, probably, at least based on backing vocals.
  9. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, “Bomb. Repeat. Bomb.”: Explosive.
  10. 10,000 Maniacs, “These Are Days”: Such a soaring song. Very uplifting. A great way to start the week, I think.

Playlist #119

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Hey, folks! Sorry this is late, but time and house hunting make fools of us all.

  1. case/lang/viers, “Atomic Number”: Still a heartbreakingly beautiful song. These three women sing with so much soul and urgency that it’s hard not to fall in love with the song.
  2. Cat Stevens, “Father and Son”: What always cracks me up about this song is when Cat Stevens sings, “Look at me, I am old, but I’m happy,” and I’m just like, dude, you’re all of 22 when you recorded this song. I have t-shirts older than that.
  3. The Chicks, “Gaslighter”: I’m a sucker for a female empowerment song, especially one as rowdy and fun as this one.
  4. The Clash, “Rebel Waltz”: It’s an actual waltz from The Clash. It has a harpsichord in it.
  5. Courtney Barnett, “Pedestrian At Best”: “I think you’re a joke, but I don’t find you very funny” is one of the best put-downs since Dylan’s “Positively 4th Street.”
  6. Daniel Lanois, “Where Will I Be”: I like the murky atmosphere this guy develops in all his songs.
  7. Elliott Smith, “Oh Well, Okay”: If I can one day be half the singer, songwriter, or guitar player that Elliott Smith was, I will be able to die a happy man.
  8. Foo Fighters, “Cold Day In The Sun”: An acoustic Foo Fighters song? In this economy?
  9. Hem, “Great Houses of New York”: Every song by this band has a sweeping, panoramic, cinematic feel to it, and I love them.
  10. Huey Lewis & the News, “You Crack Me Up”: You know that band your dad always talked about making with his buddies, but it was really just an excuse to get together in the garage and drink some beer and jam on the weekends? That’s Huey Lewis & the News. And they remain glorious.

Playlist #53

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If I were a more clever person than I am, I’d have made this playlist all songs from the second album by bands. But alas, it’s a Monday morning, and cleverness can only take one so far. In other news, I did just drop the April song over on Patreon, which you should sign up for and follow me on for a song a month!

  1. Bill Small, “This Old House”: Where did I first hear this song? I think was at the Mansion on O Street, back when I was still playing there on Sundays. It’s a simple song with a nice gimmick (a house reminding the singer of all the times he had there but now the only reason to stay is gone).
  2. The Black Keys, “Unknown Brother”: I like the Black Keys. I know it’s kinda popular amongst certain music aficionados to pooh pooh them, but I always kinda liked their energy and songwriting.
  3. Radiohead, “Ill Wind”: I’m not as familiar with this song as I am with most of the songs I put on my playlists. And latter-day Radiohead is always kinda hit and miss for me anyway. But it’s an interesting song.
  4. Roy Orbison, “You Got It”: Roy Orbison + Jeff Lynne = stuff I will listen to on repeat.
  5. Elliott Smith, “Christian Brothers”: Did I originally put the Heatmiser version of this song on a playlist? Or was it this version? And why am I too lazy to comb through 52 other playlists to find the answer?
  6. Queen, “Fat Bottomed Girls”: They do indeed make the rockin’ world go ’round. More to the point, though, the first Queen CD I ever owned (an import from Hong Kong), a greatest hits collection, had the edited version of this song on it. The only difference between the two versions is there’s less Brian May guitar solo on the edited version. I ask you, dear reader, who in their right mind would want less Brian May guitar on a song? Not I. Not I.
  7. REM, “Nightswimming”: It’s just a beautiful song. Love the piano.
  8. David Gray, “What Am I Doing Wrong”: I’ve been listening to David Gray a lot this week, and digging through his older albums reveals a treasure trove of excellent songwriting (if not always excellent or interesting execution).
  9. Don Henley, “I Will Not Go Quietly”: Yeah, it’s another artist that it’s popular to shit on. I still like a lot of Henley’s stuff. He can be overbearing and preachy at times, but when he’s firing on all cylinders, he’s pretty great.
  10. Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors, “Ain’t Nobody Got It Easy”: My Grandma Betty has a saying: “Nothing’s Easy.” The way she says it, you can hear the capital letters in each word. This song kinda reminds me of that.

I’m currently almost 40,000 words into Book 7. It’s coming along and I’ve found my groove again! Maybe it’ll be finished by this summer? Fingers crossed!

Playlist #24: Dance Dance Revolution

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Happy Monday morning and Happy Indigenous Persons Day! Today, I feel like dancing.

  1. Elliott Smith, “XO (Waltz #2)”: “Here it is, the revenge to the tune/You’re no good” is just one of the best lines ever.
  2. Bruce Springsteen, “Dancing In The Dark”: Who doesn’t want to drag Courtney Cox up onto stage to dance with the Boss?
  3. ABBA, “Dancing Queen”: Oddly enough, not the first song I thought of when I came up with this theme.
  4. Frank Turner, “Four Simple Words”: This is the song that inspired the playlist. “I want to dance/I want to dance/I want lust and love and a smattering of romance/But I’m no good at dancing/But I have to do something.” C’mon, that’s a great chorus.
  5. Van Morrison, “Moondance”: Van has gotten progressively weirder and more irascible as he’s aged, but this song (and the whole album of the same name) remains solid gold.
  6. jeremy messersmith, “It’s Only Dancing”: Dude decided a couple of years ago to decenter his ego by no longer capitalizing his name, which…that’s not how proper nouns work, Jer. That’s not how they work at all. Still a good song, though.
  7. John Mellencamp, “Dance Naked”: Excellent advice, as long as nobody’s watching.
  8. Dire Straits, “Walk Of Life”: I’m pretty sure the walk of life is a dance. If it isn’t, it ought to be.
  9. Calexico, “Sunken Waltz”: Any excuse to include a Calexico song on a playlist is fine by me.
  10. Tom Waits, “Tom Traubert’s Blues”: Included due to the “Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda/You’ll go waltzing Matilda with me” in the chorus. It’s sad and sweet and touching and heartbreaking all at once.

Playlist #19

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Week three of the school year rattles on. Here’s some tunes to carry you through.

  1. Gin Blossoms, “Just South of Nowhere”: The Gin Blossoms have become one of my favorite bands from the 90s, and this is one of my favorites by them. Pre-New Miserable Experience.
  2. Electric Light Orchestra, “Daybreaker”: An instrumental from the Jeff Lynne-led band. It’s off of On the Third Day, where ELO really became ELO.
  3. Rhiannon Giddens, “Better Get It Right the First Time”: This woman can write a damn song, lemme tell you. She also plays a mean banjo, though that’s not present on this track. This is more of an old-school R&B number, with a rap break that actually really works well.
  4. Robert Earl Keen, “The Road Goes On Forever (Live)”: “The road goes on forever/and the party never ends,” he sings, and I’m still not sure if that’s a statement of undeniable fact or a plea to never let go.
  5. The Who, “The Seeker”: Any song that references the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Timothy Leary in the same verse is some kinda wonderful.
  6. Patti Smith, “Because The Night”: When Bruce Springsteen gives you an unfinished song, you take it and you rock it out. Patti Smith definitely did.
  7. Paul McCartney, “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”: Shortly after his first wife, Linda, passed away, Paul got into the studio with a bunch of buddies (including guitarist David Gilmore) to record a bunch of old 50s rockers and a few new tracks written in the same vein. They slap. They all slap. This one especially.
  8. Dawes, “That Western Skyline”: The first song off their first album is filled with so much promise. So much. Those Laurel Canyon harmonies are just perfect. The rest of the album – and honestly, everything they’ve put out since – feels like a failure of that promise.
  9. fun., “Some Nights”: Another band that falls flat right after their first song or two. Maybe what I expected from this song and what the band actually want to do are two very different things.
  10. Elliott Smith, “Either/Or”: It strikes me to this day that Elliott Smith died far too young. If I can be half – hell, even a quarter – of the guitar player or musician or songwriter that he was, I’d be perfectly happy with that.

Playlist #12

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It’s the Wife’s birthday this weekend, so this week’s playlist is all songs she likes!

  1. The Pixies, “Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf Mix)”: Preferred version of this song. Dunno why. But it feels suitably surf-y and UK-y.
  2. Arcade Fire, “Intervention”: I think it’s the organ that does it in this one. I do know that this is probably off her (and my) favorite Arcade Fire album, Neon Bible.
  3. AC Newman, “Take On Me”: A beautiful, slowed down cover of the a-ha classic, complete with the really high “in a day or twoooooooooooo”s.
  4. Elliott Smith, “Baby Britain”: I think the Wife was the one who introduced me to Elliott Smith. This song is great, if for no other reason than the fact that he references both Revolver and the song “Crimson and Clover.”
  5. The Cure, “Just Like Heaven”: I did not care much for the ’80s when I was a wee lad. The music felt overproduced, all artifice and no substance. I’ve since learned that I was not even close to 100% correct on that second point (the jury is still out on the first point). This song is really good, either way.
  6. Annie Lennox, “Walking On Broken Glass”: For a song about the torture of a love affair gone bad, this song is very upbeat and fun.
  7. The Flaming Lips, “Free Radicals”: “You think you’re radical/But you’re not so radical/In fact, you’re fanatical/Fanatical (Fuck!)” may be the best chorus of the twenty-first century.
  8. The National, “Slow Show”: Okay, no, it’s “I wanna hurry home to you/Put on a slow, dumb show for you and crack you up.”
  9. REM, “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville”: Why do I love songs where the first part of the title is in parentheses and why have I not written one yet? Oh, right, because it will never be anywhere near as good as this song.
  10. The Magnetic Fields, “Epitaph For My Heart”: I’m reasonably certain this is her favorite Magnetic Fields song. It’s the one she plays every time we listen to that band.