sonic youth

Playlist #259

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Happy Monday, folks! The weather here in Northern Virginia is heating up this week; we’ll be getting our first 90°+ days of the year this week (I know, Okies, y’all have already had days that hot, aren’t you special?). Anyway, here’s some songs to cool off to.

  1. Jeremy Messersmith, “Bridges”: I love this song for two things: (1) its chorus, which is depressingly sing-along, and (2) the line “I’ll break you like a promise,” which just hits right in the guts with the way it’s so tossed off all casual-like.
  2. Josh Ritter, “Getting Ready To Get Down”: The Bible College to Lesbian Pipeline should be discovered and somehow harnessed to create a vast amount of Subaru-and-carabiner-strengthened power that can be harnessed to solve, if not global hunger or something similar, at least get all the dogs adopted in your area.
  3. Bo Didley, “Who Do You Love”: It’s “whom,” actually, Mr. Didley. Just sayin’.
  4. Willie Nelson, “Come On Up To The House”: I have always kinda loved Willie Nelson as in interpreter of other people’s music, and his version of this Tom Waits song (with help from Sheryl Crow and at least one of his songs) really spotlights how good he is at it.
  5. Elvis Presley, “Run On”: Elvis in full-on gospel music I-ain’t-got-time-for-your-shenanigans mode.
  6. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Never Be You”: Even Tom Petty’s cast-offs are better than most other bands’ top songs. I will fight you on this.
  7. The Frames, “When Your Mind’s Made Up”: This song is almost 20 years old. Imma just go turn to dust now.
  8. Sonic Youth, “Teen Age Riot”: Of course, this one’s pushing 40, but doesn’t act a day over 18. Gotta love the energy.
  9. Gary Moore, “Parisienne Walkaways”: I was introduced to this one by Uncle Gert. He had me sing it for one of his “Family, Friends, and Me” collections a couple of years ago. How does it somehow feel more haunting now?
  10. Fleetwood Mac, “Storms”: Tusk is the Fleetwood Mac album that keeps giving. Sure, Rumors may have had more top singles on it and is revered as the end-all, be-all of Mac albums, but Tusk is a messy masterpiece all its own. And this quiet, powerful song is just one more reason why.

Playlist #168

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Happy Tuesday, folks! We’re back from the beach, and for once I did not get sunburned! Don’t forget that the new Eddie Hazzard book is now available on the ‘Zon.

  1. Foo Fighters, “Best Of You”: “I’ve got a confession to make”: I didn’t realize this song was over 20 years old. It somehow seems older? And yet somehow also timeless. David Grohl is a pretty good songwriter.
  2. Sonic Youth, “Teen Age Riot”: Never really got into noise rock when I was young and malleable, so it’s kind of strange that I started listening to them this week and didn’t hate it. Still don’t fully understand the genre, but that’s on me, not them.
  3. Bob Dylan, “Love Minus Zero/No Limit”: Dylan rarely writes straightforward love songs, and calling this one is maybe a bit of a stretch. It’s easier to decode than many of his other songs: “She doesn’t have to say she’s faithful/Yet she’s true like ice, like fire,” is a damn good line.
  4. Fleetwood Mac, “Silver Springs”: Man, the 1997 live version of this song is just gloriously mean. Stevie Nicks sings it directly to and at Lindsey Buckingham, a great big lyrical fuck you the likes of which you rarely get even in the best sad songs.
  5. Wilco, “Livid”: Wilco’s new EP is pretty good, if sadly short.
  6. Flying Burrito Brothers, “Dark End of the Street”: These guys were putting the country in country-rock well before that was even a genre.
  7. John Prine, “The Great Compromise”: I’m still discovering amazing songs written by this guy. He left us far too soon.
  8. The Shins, “Phantom Limb”: I kinda like the Shins still. They didn’t change my life, contrary to what the movie Garden State would have you believe, but they’re good.
  9. Violent Femmes, “American Music”: The snide condescension in the vocals on, well, all Violent Femmes songs sustains me in my dark moods.
  10. The Velvet Underground, “Rock & Roll”: Why does this song include a Bb6? What is the point of that damn chord other than to infuriate me when I try to play the song?