shawn mullins

Playlist #152 – Talk Singin’

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Happy birthday to me! And happy Wednesday, I guess. I’m currently in the heart of Oklahoma, visiting family. Anyway, here’s a playlist of songs that feature talk singing.

1. Bob Dylan, “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues”: A tongue in cheek look at the very real John Birch Society, an anti-communist group back in the ‘60s that was more than a little paranoid.

2. Beck, “Loser”: “In the time of chimpanzees, I was a monkey.” If that doesn’t speak to your soul, you probably weren’t in your teens in the ‘90s.

3. Butthole Surfers, “Pepper”: I’m not really sure what this song is about. A group of friends who all die horrible deaths? Maybe. Random word association? Far more likely.

4. Cake, “Never There”: The band that made the donkey call cool again.

5. Shawn Mullins, “Lullaby”: “She’d be a whole lot prettier if she’d smile once in a while” just comes off real creepy, Shawn. Maybe…maybe don’t say things like that in a song, yeah?

6. Soul Coughing, “Blame”: Sampling and bass & drums and repetitive lyrics, oh my.

7. Arlo Guthrie, “Alice’s Restaurant Massacre”: An 18 minute epic that tells the story of Thanksgiving, littering, getting drafted, and getting out of being drafted by telling the psychiatrist you can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant and then just walking out.

8. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, “Bomb. Repeat. Bomb.”: A raucous, punky song that rips.

9. Van Morrison, “And the Healing has Begun”: The featured spoken-word section really makes the song drag, but it’s still a fun tune.

10. Harry Nilsson, “Everybody’s Talkin’”: There’s no talk-singing in this song, but the title sure fits.

Playlist #57: ’90s Dance Party!

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Happy Monday Tuesday, everyone! I was off yesterday for Memorial Day here in the US, so here’s this week’s playlist. It’s sponsored by the fact that the Wife and I watched the new Kids in the Hall season, which was quite good (and featured far more old man dong than I anticipated). You can also support me on Patreon, where I just released May’s new song!

  1. Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet, “Having An Average Weekend”: The theme song from Kids in the Hall! Still slaps.
  2. Primitive Radio Gods, “Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand”: The song title is too long, there’s no more time to say anything else about this song! Other than it features a B.B. King sample.
  3. Shawn Mullins, “Lullaby”: This song was completely inescapable for like a month in 1998. Looking back, one has to wonder why. Was it the novelty of the spoken-word verses, or the Inside Baseball nature of the way it pokes at Hollywood? Or did we just not have high expectations for music in 1998? I think it’s maybe that one.
  4. Polaris, “Hey Sandy”: For a hot minute, I thought about making this playlist 100% great TV show theme songs from the ’90s, but it was really just this one and the one from KITH that I had for that list.
  5. Wilco, “A Shot In The Arm”: Wilco put out a new album last week! It’s pretty good. Here’s another pretty good Wilco song from over 20 years ago.
  6. Matchbox Twenty, “Mad Season”: Why do I enjoy listening to Matchbox Twenty so much? They’re so middle of the road, tailor made inoffensive that it’s hard not to enjoy their stuff, I guess.
  7. Barenaked Ladies, “It’s All Been Done”: Damn, that chorus gets really, really high at the end. I can never sing it right.
  8. Ben Folds Five, “Kate”: “She plays Wipeout on the drums/The squirrels and the birds come/Gather round and sing the guitar,” the song begins. And only gets better from there.
  9. Foo Fighters, “Everlong”: Have I included this song on a playlist already? Probably. It’s still so damn good.
  10. Gin Blossoms, “Hold Me Down”: Why have I come to love the Gin Blossoms so much? Is it this song specifically, or New Miserable Experience in general? I can’t say for certain.