Playlist #95

Happy Monday Tuesday, everyone! I didn’t post yesterday because I was celebrating our President the way God intended: looking at mattress sales! Here’s a playlist for y’all.

  1. The Rolling Stones, “Flip The Switch”: Even on their latter-day albums (this one’s from back in 97, but that still feels very latter-day for the Stones), they could still be relied on to rip the doors off the joint on at least one song.
  2. Sigur Rós, “Untitled #3 (Samskeyti)”: I’d never listened to these guys before this weekend. They’re Icelandic, sing in a made-up language to avoid creating a single interpretation of the songs, and everything is very cosmic, very ethereal, rather ambient. I kinda dig it.
  3. Laser The Boy, “Overthrow Your Masters”: A song about being yourself and kicking ass in D&D. I can dig it.
  4. Echosmith, “Cool Kids”: I heard it while I was in a store the other day and I dug it.
  5. Talking Heads, “And She Was”: If you can’t start your work week with the Talking Heads, then what is the point of anything?
  6. Steve Earle, “The Saint Of Lost Causes”: Steve Earle covering one of his late son’s songs. Very excellent, and brings a tear to one’s eye.
  7. Rhiannon Giddens & Iron & Wine, “Forever Young”: A Bob Dylan cover? On a playlist put together by me? Who would’ve thought such a thing could happen?!
  8. REM, “Sweetness Follows”: Probably one of my absolute favorite REM songs. It’s just so damn good.
  9. Old Crow Medicine Show, “O Cumberland River”: Did you know they did songs other than “Wagon Wheel?” Well, now you do!
  10. Nirvana, “All Apologies (Home Demo)”: When they talk about “raw” recordings, this is the sort of thing they’re talking about. Messily played, terrible audio quality, but that vocal is already perfect. Just perfect.

Playlist #58: End of the School Year

It’s the last week of school finally. It’s been a difficult year, to say the least. But I keep posting new stuff on Patreon and I keep coming up with new playlists here.

  1. Alice Cooper, “School’s Out”: Yeah, of course this song was gonna be on here.
  2. The Mountain Goats, “Fall of the Star High School Running Back”: Who hasn’t gone from being the star player on the football team to selling acid to cops?
  3. Paul Simon, “Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard”: Ever have one of those troublemaker friends that your parents just couldn’t stand? Yeah, I did, too.
  4. Pearl Jam, “Education”: “I’m questioning my education.” Me too, Eddie. Me too.
  5. Sting, “History Will Teach Us Nothing”: I mean, maybe you just didn’t learn from your history class, Sting. Ever think it was you, not history?
  6. Sam Cooke, “(What A) Wonderful World”: I think I teach several Sam Cookes. “Don’t know much about history,” he sings. Yeah, my kids could sing that, too.
  7. Chuck Berry, “Schooldays”: “RIng, ring, goes the bell.”
  8. Nirvana, “School”: Kurt Cobain recognizes the need for recess and laments the lack of it in the modern educational schema.
  9. Belle & Sebastian, “We Rule The School”: The number of students in Belle & Sebastian who probably got beat up in high school on a daily basis is a nonzero number.
  10. Pink Floyd, “Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2”: The use of the double negative in the chorus indicates you do, in fact, need education, Mr. Floyd.