jd mcpherson

Playlist #212

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Happy Monday, folks! The end of the school year always seems so far away, until suddenly it’s upon you. We’ve only got a few classes left with each of our cohorts, and then it’ll be summer time! In the meantime, I finally have physical CDs of the new album, Beard Situation, so hit me up if you want a copy of that. And now, on with the playlist!

  1. The Record Company, “So What’cha Want”: Did you ever want to hear the Beastie Boys as a blues jam? ‘Cause this is what that would sound like.
  2. The Lemonheads, “Sad Cinderella”: Nothing better than a Townes Van Zandt cover to get your Monday started off right. Or wrong. I don’t know you, I don’t know how you feel about Townes Van Zandt. I know how you should feel about his music. You should feel good knowing you yourself are not Townes Van Zandt and are, statistically, not nearly as fucked up as he was.
  3. Macy Gray, “Creep”: Macy Gray did a covers album, and if you’re wondering, “Do all the songs sound like I think they should sound by the lady who sang ‘I Try’?” well buddy, I’ve got some good news for you. This is a cover of the Radiohead song. Not the one by Stone Temple Pilots. Or TLC.
  4. Fiona Apple, “Pretrial (Let Her Go Home)”: A damn good song about a pressing topic: maybe we shouldn’t lock people up just because they can’t afford bail, then take away their children because they can’t get out of jail to go home because they can’t pay bail. Cash bail is a huge scam, is what I’m saying.
  5. Thom Yorke, “And It Rained All Night”: I like my Thom Yorke drone-y and paranoid.
  6. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Ways To Be Wicked”: Not a week goes by where I don’t think, “Man, I need to add [fill-in-the-blank-Tom-Petty-song] to a playlist!” This week, it’s this song.
  7. JD McPherson, “Signs And Signifiers”: Any ideas what kind of guitar is on the cover of this album? I wanna say it’s an Epiphone, but my knowledge of guitars from the 1950s and 1960s is sketchy at best.
  8. Jelly Roll Morton, “Black Bottom Stomp”: According to his own self-mythology, Jelly Roll Morton invented Jazz with this song. I don’t know how true that statement may be, but it’s a fun song. It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it.
  9. Watkins Family Hour, “Steal Your Heart Away”: A cover of a Lindsey Buckingham song and not, as I first kinda hoped, the Van Morrison song of the same name. Oh well. It’s still a beautiful string band ballad.
  10. The War On Drugs, “Living Proof”: An original, not a Bruce Springsteen cover. Though that is a cover I would now like to hear…

Playlist #179

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It’s another rainy, gray Monday here in Northern Virginia. But we’ve got some tunes and we’ve got a bit of caffeine in our systems, so let’s go!

  1. Kris Kristofferson, “The Best of All Possible Worlds”: I know four things about Kris Kristofferson, who passed away over the weekend. (1) He was pretty badass in the Blade movies. (2) He stood beside Sinead O’Connor at the Concert for Dylan’s 30th Anniversary in solidarity with the singer while the crowd booed her (she’d just torn up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live, like, a week earlier). (3) He once threatened to beat Toby Keith’s jingoist ass into the ground at a 9/11 benefit concert. (4) He was a damn good songwriter, and he’ll be missed.
  2. Jimmy Eat World, “The Middle”: Uplifting and danceable.
  3. Sabrina Carpenter, “Please Please Please”: Maybe I’m just showing my age here. Maybe this music isn’t for me, no matter how ELO-inflected the instrumentation may seem. But when did pop singers get so horny on main? I’m no prude, and I definitely don’t want to yuck someone else’s yum (especially since I think she’s pretty talented and a decent-enough songwriter), but I just don’t think I’m the target audience for this, and that’s okay.
  4. Chappell Roan, “Red Wine Supernova”: Speaking of pop singers I’m not the target audience for…
  5. Bruce Springsteen, “She Don’t Love Me Now”: A Springsteen cover of a Jesse Malin song? Yes, please! The sax solo fits perfectly.
  6. Billy Idol, “Bitter Taste”: A 21st century Billy Idol song that’s actually pretty good? It’s more likely than you’d think!
  7. The Gaslight Anthem, “Stay Lucky”: If ever there was a song that got the blood pumping while you speed down the highway doing way too many miles per hour over the speed limit, it was probably this one.
  8. Pearl Jam, “Hail Hail”: Maybe I’m just in a mood this morning and need to be pepped up, I dunno.
  9. Toad the Wet Sprocket, “Nightingale Song”: I love the harmonies on this song.
  10. JD McPherson, “The Phantom of New Rochelle”: A surfy rock instrumental from the Okie guitarist. Fun and reverby.

Playlist #101: Oklahoma for Spring Break

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Happy Monday, folks. As you read this, I’m heading toward my home state to visit family during Spring Break. Yeah, it’s a bit late, but that’s just when FCPS and the rest of Northern Virginia do it.

Anyway, there’s a number of absolutely fantastic musicians who call or called Oklahoma their home, too. Here’s a list of then of ’em and some of their songs.

  1. JJ Cale, “Clyde”: While I can’t see him pickin’ on a bass, I can see my brother barefoot on the porch pickin’ his guitar, so this one’s close enough.
  2. JD McPherson, “Crying’s Just A Thing You Do”: Apparently McPherson isn’t his own singer? He’s just the guitar player (as if anything this guy does on the guitar is “just” anything. He’s fantastic).
  3. Parker Millsap, “Other Arrangements”: These new Oklahoma musicians draw on styles and themes from the past but give them modern twists. I like it.
  4. The Flaming Lips, “Five Stop Mother Superior Rain”: From really early in the Lips’ career comes this number, which references a Jesus egg? I don’t know what that is, but the song is trippy and beautiful and fun to play on guitar.
  5. Woody Guthrie, “Pastures of Plenty”: One of the key touchstones of Oklahoma music and folk music in general.
  6. The Gap Band, “You Dropped A Bomb On Me”: Damn, that keyboard riff. That drum beat. Damn.
  7. The All-American Rejects, “Gives You Hell”: I’ve never listened to these guys. Dunno what I was expecting. It wasn’t this. Some MOR alternative rock that sounds designed by committee to be as non-offensive as possible. I expected this song to have more teeth.
  8. Gene Autry, “Back In The Saddle Again”: I prefer this version to the Aerosmith version.
  9. Barry McGuire, “Eve of Destruction”: I prefer the Turtles’ version of this song, but they’re not from Oklahoma. McGuire was, apparently.
  10. Roy Clark, “Yesterday When I Was Young”: You ever see this guy do pickin’ live? He was a monster on a flattop acoustic. Dude coulda put all those metalheads to absolute shame.