marshall tucker band

Playlist #268

/ xeyeti / Leave a comment

Happy Monday, folks! The end of the school year is finally nigh; Wednesday is the last day of classes here in Northern Virginia, and it couldn’t have come any sooner. Of course, summer job starts next week, but it should be fun and fulfilling. Anyway, here’s a list of songs to get us through this partial week of classes and on into the sunny summer days.

  1. The Beach Boys, “All Summer Long”: Is there any band more connected with summer than the Beach Boys? I don’t think so. Every one of their songs just cries out “summer!” to me. And this is a pretty darn good summer song to me.
  2. Michigander, “Better”: I always like how full of hope this guy’s songs are. He fully acknowledges that life is often difficult at best and godawful at worst, but things can improve. Things can get better. And I think we all need to hear that sometimes.
  3. Marshall Tucker Band, “Fire On The Mountain”: There’s something about songs like this – deep-fried southern country rock with a hint of gothic undertones – that just tickles a particular need I have.
  4. Death Cab For Cutie, “The Flavor of Metal”: If you told me that I’d be listening to (and enjoying!) a new Death Cab For Cutie album in the Year of Our Lord 2026, I’d think you were smokin’ crack. But here we are.
  5. Harlem Shakes, “Strictly Game”: This is an upbeat, tap your toes and scream along to the chorus sort of song, perfect for that Monday morning pick-me-up.
  6. The Pretenders, “Middle Of The Road”: Chrissy Hinde remains one of the best rock vocalists in the biz. I will not be taking questions on this at this time.
  7. George Harrison, “Don’t Let Me Wait Too Long”: I feel like Wednesday afternoon may never arrive. George Harrison gets it.
  8. Lucero, “On My Way Downtown”: I don’t know that, in my entire life, I have ever really made my way downtown for much of any reason. I tend to avoid the downtown areas of most cities unless it can’t be avoided. I certainly don’t go looking for bars downtown.
  9. Pearl Jam, “World Wide Suicide”: It’s just a sonic slap to the face, just the thing to wake you up and get you fired up on a Monday morning.
  10. The Ventures, “Pipeline”: Who doesn’t love instrumental surfer music? I’ll always dig the amount of reverb they’re able to plaster over everything; I aspire to that level of drenched reverby goodness.

Playlist #262

/ xeyeti / Leave a comment

Happy Monday, and May the 4th be with you! And all my Lutheran friends say, “And also with you.” Here’s a playlist.

  1. Pat McGee Band, “Bookends”: A student introduced me to this band last week. Pretty solid singer-songwriter stuff.
  2. Nocturnne, “Proximity”: A DIY singer-songwriter (I have a thing for that style) writing exactly what you think a 20-something singer-songwriter would write. It’s not bad, but I’m not sure it’s really speaking to me.
  3. Old 97s, “Timebomb”: A ripsnorter of a song, it explodes out of the gate and blew little grad school Charlie’s mind back in the early 2000s. It remains awesome.
  4. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes, “Man On Fire”: Let us cast our minds back to the far-flung year 2012, when Stomp-Clap-Hey! ruled the airwaves and a band with such an unwieldy name could come to prominence. And then let’s never speak of it again.
  5. The Elected, “It Was Love”: This song (and this band more in general) gives me hope that there’s an audience out there for someone whose voice is weak like mine.
  6. Elton John, “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”: Elton John just makes you feel things sometimes, y’know?
  7. Ram Jam, “Black Betty”: Bam-ba-lam.
  8. Molly Hatchet, “Flirtin’ With Disaster”: Somehow this turned into a Southern Rock playlist without me even trying. But if you don’t find yourself doing 90 down the highway with this song blasting out the windows, there’s something wrong with you and you might be clinically dead.
  9. Marshall Tucker Band, “Can’t You See”: If there is a sadder Southern Rock song out there, I don’t know it, because most rock songs don’t encourage you to “crawl inside and die” in a hole in the wall or jump off the tallest mountain in Georgia (a state totally known for its tall mountains).
  10. The Dandy Warhols, “Minnesoter”: My favorite song about being someone from Minnesota? I’m not sure that’s actually what it’s about. I’m not sure the guy who wrote it is entirely sure what it’s about.