the national

Playlist #192 and #193: M’Shelby Mix Edition

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Happy…Monday? Wait, that can’t be right. Monday? Well, stranger things have happened other than me posting a playlist on time. For instance, today also happens to be my 18th Wedding Anniversary. Yay, our relationship is old enough to vote! Here’s a double playlist of some songs that I think my wife would love. I’ve been curating a playlist for her on my phone for years called M’Shelby Mix, and here’s the latest iteration.

  1. The Pixies, “Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf Mix)”: Probably the definitive version of this particular tune. Slowed down from the original, given a slight air of menace, and just a killer drum beat.
  2. Arcade Fire, “Intervention”: Gotta love the church organ.
  3. AC Newman, “Take On Me”: Newman doesn’t aim for quite the same glass-shattering falsetto in the chorus, but the slowed down, acoustic-driven version he turns in sounds just as good as anything a-ha ever did.
  4. Elliott Smith, “Baby Britain”: Favorite line is a toss-up between “We knocked another couple back/Dead soldiers lined up on the table/Still prepared for an attack/They didn’t know they’d been disabled” and “The light was on but it was dim/Revolver’s been turned over/And now it’s ready once again/The radio was playing “Crimson and Clover.”
  5. The Flaming Lips, “Free Radicals (A Hallucination of the Christmas Skeleton Pleading with a Suicide Bomber)”: A sneering indictment of Bush-era foreign policy.
  6. Rilo Kiley, “Does He Love You?”: A sordid tale of love triangles and whether or not he’d ever really leave his wife for you. Why would he, though?
  7. Phil Collins, “In the Air Tonight”: If there’s a better drum fill in existence, I don’t know about it. Oh, to be able to go back and hear this song for the first time.
  8. The National, “Slow Show”: Probably Michelle’s favorite song by the National. And it’s a banger. I love that guitar chord progression. Wish I could get my voice low enough to actually sing it.
  9. Josh Ritter, “Golden Age of Radio”: We both sing along at the top of our lungs when this song comes on. It might as well be part of our marriage vows.
  10. Iron & Wine, “Such Great Heights”: Postal Service cover done with such delicate heartache and beauty that you forget there’s another version of this song out there.
  11. The Four Tops, “Bernadette”: Shouted backing vocals are always fun.
  12. The Cure, “Just Like Heaven”: Given her adoration of stuff from the ’80s, it should come as no surprise that Michelle loves the Cure. I’ve grown to tolerate most of their stuff, though this song I really do actually enjoy.
  13. Tom Waits, “Hoist That Rag”: What can I say? Michelle likes pirates and pirate songs.
  14. They Might Be Giants, “She’s An Angel”: This song always makes me think of Michelle. I know she digs TMBG, and likes this song, but she said it couldn’t be our song because it’s too one-sided and doesn’t reflect her feelings for me. And, y’know, I get it. But it’s still a song that makes me think of her.
  15. Better Than Ezra, “Rosealia”: Michelle also really digs the ’90s, and especially Better Than Ezra. This one is another sing-along song.
  16. Pearl Jam, “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town”: Acoustic Pearl Jam? More entertaining and worthwhile than you might think!
  17. David Bowie, “Life On Mars”: Did you know he wrote this after Frank Sinatra didn’t accept some lyrics he wrote for “I Did It My Way”? It’s true! It’s why the two songs have such similar chord progressions.
  18. Weezer, “Say It Ain’t So”: Far better than that song about him hitting on a lesbian.
  19. Bruce Springsteen, “Candy’s Room”: Probably Michelle’s favorite Springsteen song. It’s got amazing drums and a beautiful piano line, so I get it.
  20. The Magnetic Fields, “Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing”: This is our song. We eloped and didn’t have a wedding reception, much to our chagrin, but if we did have one, this would’ve been the first song we danced to. We have a poster with the lyrics of it hanging up in our living room.

Playlist #188: Name Dropper

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Happy Monday! It’s December, and the weather over the weekend turned decisively cold. I’m down with it, or would be if our thermostat was working and we could actually turn the heat on. Here’s a list of songs that reference other musicians in the lyrics.

  1. Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Sweet Home Alabama”: “Well I heard Mr. Young sing about her/And I heard ol’ Neil put her down/Well I hope Neil Young will remember/A southern man don’t need him around anyhow.” Obvious digs at Neil Young’s songs “Alabama” and “Southern Man” aside, Young apparently agrees that “Southern Man” in particular maybe took things a little too far.
  2. The National, “So Far Around the Bend”: “You’ve been humming in a daze forever/praying for Pavement to get back together.” Leave it to a band like the National to name check Pavement in a song.
  3. The Replacements, “Alex Chilton”: It’s a whole song about Box Tops and Big Star singer Alex Chilton! And it’s awesome.
  4. The Animals, “Story of Bo Diddley”: Not just about Bo Diddley, but also a brief history of rock and roll and the British Invasion, complete with Beatles and Rolling Stones references. I could do without Eric Burden’s impressions of Bo Diddley and his entourage at the end, though.
  5. Elliott Smith, “Baby Britain”: “The light was on but it was dim/Revolver’s been turned over/And now it’s ready once again/The radio is playing ‘Crimson and Clover.'”
  6. Van Morrison, “Whatever Happened to PJ Proby?”: This one’s a three-for-one: the reference to American songwriter PJ Proby in the title, and further references to “Scott Walker” and “Screaming Lord Sutch”, all bizarre niche musicians from the 1960s.
  7. Counting Crows, “Monkey”: “Got nowhere but home to go/Got Ben Folds on my radio right now,” and now we know how I came to find out about Ben Folds.
  8. Taylor Swift, “The Tortured Poets Department”: While “You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith” only references one musician (Dylan Thomas is a poet, not a songwriter, rage against the dying of the light), the song also references Charlie Puth later (“We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist”), and I have it on good authority from my students that Charlie Puth is, indeed, a musician.
  9. Bob Dylan, “I Feel a Change Comin’ On”: “I’m listening to Billy Joe Shaver/And I’m reading James Joyce/Some people tell me/I’ve got the blood of the Lamb in my voice” is just such a perfect Dylan line.
  10. Semisonic, “Gone to the Movies”: “And it covers up the cars/And the Wallflowers CD ended half an hour ago.” This is just such a sad song, largely about the a guy who wants to go out looking for his lady but he can’t or won’t because it’s snowing like crazy out there and his car probably won’t start.

Playlist #185

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It’s a Tuesday, folks. Those’re like Mondays.

  1. Johnny Rivers, “Seventh Son”: I happen to like late ’50s/early ’60s swagger songs like this. “I can heal the sick/Raise the dead/Make the little girls talk out of their heads” is a pretty great claim.
  2. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, “Love Don’t”: This dude can holler, and this song is pretty damn great.
  3. Neko Case, “Hold On, Hold On”: I listened to this album (and especially this song) just about on repeat last week and almost bought a tenor guitar because of it.
  4. The National, “Sorrow”: The band once played this song for over six hours. It’s pretty amazing how the song evolved and shifted over that time.
  5. Billy Bragg & Wilco, “When The Roses Bloom Again”: It’s a fairly standard war story sort of thing, where a dying soldier tells the last person he sees to let his darling know he remained faithful to her, but it still tugs at the heartstrings.
  6. The Mountain Goats, “Going Invisible 2”: With its refrain of “I’m going to burn it all down today/Down today, okay?”, this song might just be my anthem for the month.
  7. Big Red Machine, “Phoenix (feat. Fleet Foxes and Anias Mitchell)”: A bouncy, folky burst of pop that offers a moment of respite in an otherwise gloomy world.
  8. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, “Home”: It takes chutzpah to sample Phil Collins, and even more to feature him prominently in the accompanying video, but it really works.
  9. Tom Waits, “Chocolate Jesus”: Not just for Easter anymore.
  10. James McMurtry, “Just Us Kids”: The older I get, the less I feel like I have everything in my life together. I get the feeling this was uncommon even a generation ago, but feels very common today. Why is that?

Playlist #184: Election Day

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Happy Monday, folks. Tomorrow is the day here in the United States: Election Day. Have you voted yet? You ought to. I’d tell you who I voted for and who I think you should vote for, but that seems crass. Besides, if you’ve talked with me or seen my comics from the past decade or so, you can probably guess how I voted. Anyway, here’s a playlist of songs to encourage you to vote!

  1. Radiohead, “Electioneering”: I definitely expect some shenanigans from at least one side of the aisle this year.
  2. Billy Bragg & Wilco, “Christ for President”: Could there be a better man for the job? No, there could not. Would be flip some tables? You bet your ass.
  3. The National, “Mr. November”: I kinda hoped they’d release an updated version of this called “Mrs. November” this year. Alas, it was not to be so.
  4. Molly Lewis, “Pantsuit Sasquatch”: An ode to former candidate Hillary Clinton, who after the 2016 election fucked off into the woods like the mythical Bigfoot, only wearing a pantsuit.
  5. Toad the Wet Sprocket, “Old Habits Die Hard”: I know this election cycle has flipped a lot of voters from one party to the other, or at least away from one slightly orangish candidate.
  6. The Byrds, “I Wanna Grow Up To Be A Politician”: No, guys, you really don’t.
  7. The Doubleclicks, “President Snakes, Part 1”: A president who is nothing but a bunch of snakes? Wouldn’t be the worst we’ve dealt with.
  8. Drive-By Truckers, “The President’s Penis Is Missing”: It very well might be, guys. It very well might be.
  9. Over the Rhine, “If A Song Could Be President”: I find it amusing that they name check Neil Young in this song, a famously Canadian songwriter.
  10. The Presidents of the United States of America, “Lump”: Like I wasn’t going to include a song from this band.

Playlist #171

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Happy Tuesday, folks! I’m back from Florida, and just in time if the weather is anything to go by. We had a lot of fun at Disney World, and I built me a lightsaber. Yes, I am a giant geek. Anyway, here’s a list of songs.

  1. Bikini Kill, “Rebel Girl”: I want to be in a band that plays this song live. It’s just so much fun.
  2. The National, “I Need My Girl”: I just love the guitar riff in this song. The whole song is just gorgeous and moody and perfect.
  3. Blondie, “Dreaming”: I always forget that Blondie were capable of this driving, powerful sort of song, not that disco-glammy “Heart of Glass” stuff all the time.
  4. Jack Johnson, “Flake”: When you leave the beach, but the beach don’t leave you.
  5. Extreme, “Hole Hearted”: The story is that the guitarist just got a 12-string acoustic and took it with him to the bathroom. When he came out, he’d written the chord structure for this song, and they did a quick demo of it that turned out better than any actual recording attempt they tried at a later date, so the version you hear on the album is that demo version. Wild.
  6. Soundgarden, “Burden in my Hand”: I heard this song about a half dozen times on Sirius XM over the course of a few weeks, so it’s stuck in my head. I dig it.
  7. Waxahatchee, “War”: I love how simple yet complex her songs are.
  8. U2, “Atomic City”: The chorus sounds almost note-for-note like “Call Me.” It’s weird.
  9. Echosmith, “Cool Kids”: I was not one of the cool kids in school. Ever. No one ever thought I was cool. My wife makes the argument that she thinks I’m cool now, but I know I’m even lamer now than I was back then. See previous statement about building a lightsaber at Disney World.
  10. Electric Light Orchestra, “So Serious”: Sure, by this point in the band’s history, they were really just ELO, there were no strings (except for the guitars, natch), and it’s mostly just Jeff Lynne accompanied by Jeff Lynne and Jeff Lynne, but the dude could write damn catchy songs.

Playlist #157

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Happy Monday, folks! I hope everyone is doing well, and that folks out in Oklahoma weren’t hit too hard by all that weather over the weekend. It looks like the city of Sulphur got beaten up pretty badly, though.

  1. Uncle Tupelo, “Steal the Crumbs”: Went through an Uncle Tupelo kick late last week, especially their final record, Anodyne. Such a good album, and Jeff Tweedy really starts to find his voice as a songwriter. But Jay Farrar is still the frontman of this band, and this song is a good example of why.
  2. Simon & Garfunkel, “Kathy’s Song”: I’m constantly amazed by what these two could do with just their voices and a single acoustic guitar.
  3. Bob Dylan, “Seven Curses”: A simple tale of a horse thief condemned to death and his daughter, whose only path to freeing him is to sleep with the crooked, sleezy judge. Who, of course, does not free her father, but has him hanged instead. She puts one hell of a curse on him for it, too: “That one doctor cannot save him/That two healers cannot heal him/And that three eyes cannot see him/That four ears cannot hear him/That five walls cannot hide him/That six diggers cannot bury him/And that seven deaths shall never kill him.”
  4. Glen Phillips, “Train Wreck”: Glen Phillips sometimes comes across as a master of songs that are depressing as all hell and very, very bittersweet.
  5. The Head and the Heart, “Rivers and Roads”: The harmonies on this one are pretty nice.
  6. Jackson Browne, “Fountains of Sorrow”: Another one of those bittersweet songs about loss of love and innocence that just feels like a nostalgic gut punch.
  7. Moxy Fruvous, “My Poor Generation”: I always wish these guys had gotten just a little bigger, had stayed together just a little bit longer, and maybe released another album or two. It was awful, coming in right at the end of their time together, getting to hear all the cool stuff they’d done and slowly realizing that, hey, that’s it, there will be no more.
  8. REM, “Sweetness Follows”: I could not for the life of me tell you what this song is about, though it always feels like an elegy to me.
  9. The National, “Lucky You”: Probably the first great song written by these guys. It’s perfect, no notes.
  10. John Prine, “The Late John Garfield Blues”: Damn, but this man wrote simple songs about complicated things. Or maybe complicated songs about simple things? A little of both?

Playlist #154 – Eclipse Music

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Happy Monday and happy eclipse day, folks. The moon is gonna pass in front of the sun today, freak a buncha people out, and maybe signal mankind’s final doom and destruction? At least the weather is nice here for it, where we’ll only get 80% occlusion instead of the totality that they’ll see in, say, Cleveland. Of course, you’d have to be in Cleveland for that, so…tossup?

  1. Bonnie Tyler, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”: Let’s go ahead and get the most obvious one out of the way first. Yes, this is gonna be on everyone’s eclipse playlist. Yes, it is very, very obvious. It’s still a good song, though.
  2. Pink Floyd, “Brain Damage/Eclipse”: The other most obvious choice. Well, half of it is, anyway. But I feel like you can’t really play “Eclipse” without first playing “Brain Damage.” It’s like playing “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” without playing “The Happiest Days of Our Lives.” Y’know, I’m starting to think this is a specific Pink Floyd issue…
  3. Bruce Springsteen, “Darkness on the Edge of Town”: Now, we get into some less obvious tracks. Yes, it’s more of a sunset, metaphorical darkness in the Springsteen song, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have also applied to a total solar eclipse. Springsteen’s songs are multifaceted, I tell ya!
  4. David Gray, “Red Moon”: While the occluded sun is the obvious star of the day (pun definitely intended), let’s not forget the one who’s making it all possible: the moon!
  5. U2, “Staring at the Sun”: Let us say a quick prayer for all the optometrists who will be seeing folks over the next few weeks who are complaining about not being able to see a damn thing ’cause they literally stared at the sun without any protection or forethought.
  6. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Straight Into Darkness”: Again, a more metaphorical darkness than what we’re really dealing with during the eclipse, but do you know how rarely eclipses are the subject of songwriting? There’s not a lot out there, is what I’m saying, so you take what you can get, especially if it’s a kickass Tom Petty song.
  7. The Police, “Invisible Sun”: Replaced a previous Police song on the list, “Darkness,” because I think this song is way funnier to have on the list.
  8. The National, “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness”: Well, get ready, system, ’cause in certain parts of North America this afternoon for about three minutes, you’ll be able to dream!
  9. George Harrison, “Beware of Darkness”: Some folks do think the eclipse is an ominous omen (is that just saying an omen-like omen? I feel like it might be. I don’t care. I’m leaving it in) of ill things to come. I think George Harrison just wanted a nightlight left on so he could find his way to the bathroom.
  10. Bob Seger, “Sunspot Baby”: I think Bob Seger is a criminally-underrated songwriter who’s built like the Platonic ideal of “Dad Bod” and just put together the best bar band you’ve ever heard. And did you know that sunspots are cool enough that water vapor can exist in them? Isn’t that wild?

Playlist #132

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Happy beginning of November, folks! The days are shorter, the nights are longer, and the sun sets at 5:00 now. These tunes ought to keep you going through the darkness, though.

  1. Golden Earring, “Twilight Zone”: I guess I’d never really thought much about the chorus to this song, but holy crap did I apparently not know, like, any of it. “It’s just like steppin’ into the Twilight Zone/This is a madhouse, feels like bein’ cloned/My beacon’s been moved under moon and star/Where am I to go now that I’ve gone too far?” Like, I had never in my life parsed even half of those lyrics. This song is just wild, man.
  2. The Beatles, “Now And Then”: Anyone with even a passing interest in my writings or who I am as a person knows that the Beatles are my all-time favorite band. Sure, it’s a cliché, but when your father is a Boomer, you have to expect things like this. And this is billed as the “final” Beatles song. Well, the last one made featuring original work from all four Beatles, I’m sure. And it’s not bad! Like “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love,” it was made using an old demo Lennon made that the other three built around, but they had to use Peter Jackson’s AI unmixer to isolate Lennon’s vocals on the track. The result is that he comes through real clear, more so than on the two Anthology songs. Is it the best Beatles song? No, far from it. Is it still pretty damn good? Yes.
  3. The Rolling Stones, “Bite My Head Off”: Everything old is new again. The Stones put out a new album (only their second or so of the 21st century?), and it’s not bad. It’s not essential, but they left that behind decades ago and are mostly coasting on cool factor now. And that’s okay. If I were in the Rolling Stones, I’d be coasting by on having written some of the best damn rock’n’roll songs of all time, too, by the time I hit my 80s. Not working on new material. This one features Paul and Ringo from the Beatles, even! Pauls’ bass riff at the end is nasty stuff, and I love it.
  4. P!nk, “Who Knew”: Why does she spell her name with an exclamation point? I have no answer. But I kinda dig this song anyway.
  5. Semisonic, “Only Empathy”: Semisonic always hits a bright, warm spot in my heart, and their new album positively glows with energy and love. I particularly like this song.
  6. Tom Petty, “There Goes Angela (Dream Away)”: I always have a place in my heart for Tom Petty music, especially from the Wildflowers/She’s the One era. This particular demo/home recording is simple and gorgeous.
  7. Josh Ritter, “Getting Ready To Get Down”: If I understand the lyrics to this one correctly (and I’ll be the first to admit that my literary analysis skills have waned over the years), I’m pretty sure this is the story of a young woman who discovers she’s a lesbian, gets sent to Bible college, and comes back even more lesbian. Hey, even some of those “little Bible college[s] in Missouri” will teach you something about the world if you’re not careful!
  8. Cory Branan, “When In Rome, When In Memphis”: I absolutely love the chorus and coda to this song. “When I go, I ghost” is just a great lyric.
  9. The National, “Wake Up Your Saints”: High Violet is still the best the National album and even its outtakes and bonus tracks prove that.
  10. Bob Dylan, “False Prophet”: For a while there, I was concerned that Dylan had lost a step or two. I mean, I get one album of Sinatra covers, but three? And one of them was a freakin’ triple album? That seems excessive. But Rough and Rowdy Ways was a fun album full of the Dylan lyricism and in-jokes I’ve come to expect from the man, and I just have to stand in awe that even as he eases into his 80s he’s still releasing exciting and interesting new stuff. The Stones could probably take a tip or two.

Playlist #128

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Happy Monday, or Indigenous People’s Day as we call it around here. If you wanna celebrate that Columbus guy, go get lost in the spice aisle at the Kroger.

  1. Wreckx-n-Effect, “Rump Shaker”: My wife was not familiar with this song, somehow. Even I know this song, and I spent the 90s in a virginal haze of video games and Pink Floyd music.
  2. The National, “Terrible Love (Alternate Version)”: I prefer this version because the drums are better than the original.
  3. The Mountain Goats, “This Year”: Never not good.
  4. David Gray, “Stella the Artist”: Somehow, over the years, Hold the Line became my favorite David Gray album. I know there aren’t too many people with a favorite David Gray album, but I have one. It’s Hold the Line.
  5. Richard Thompson, “Beeswing”: Just such a beautiful song.
  6. Glen Phillips, “Everything Matters”: A heartfelt love song that encourages me on dark days.
  7. Van Morrison, “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven)”: The rave up we deserve. If more Van Morrison songs were like this, the world would be better.
  8. Murder By Death, “Creep”: You just have to listen to this one to full appreciate it. It’s not the Radiohead “Creep,” and it’s not the Stone Temple Pilots “Creep.” No, it’s the other one. The one you wouldn’t think a crusty-sounding white dude would sing.
  9. Moxy Fruvous, “Greatest Man in America”: Who doesn’t love a song that just gives the middle finger to Rush Limbaugh? Fuck that dude, even if he is dead already.
  10. The Who, “A Quick One, While He’s Away”: If I asked for an orchestra, and the suits told me no, I’d probably have just sung the word “cello” instead of hiring a cellist out of my own pocket, too.

Playlist #125

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Happy Monday! It’s a gorgeous day here in Northern Virginia, and it sounds like the weather will continue to be beautiful for the whole week. Too bad I have to spend it all inside teaching.

  1. Better Than Ezra, “Desperately Wanting”: I’ve been on a Better Than Ezra kick this past week for reasons I cannot even begin to explain. I think it’s because most of their songs are so easy to play on the guitar, which my cowboy chord heart really appreciates.
  2. The Record Company, “Control My Heart Blues”: I like these guys, though they suffer from the most generic band name I think I’ve ever heard. I mean, short of “The Band.”
  3. The National, “Laugh Track (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)”: Oh, look, the National surprise dropped a brand new album today. It’s very good, though this might be my favorite song on it.
  4. James Gang, “Funk No. 49”: I feel like, if you’re having to number the funks, you might have too much funk.
  5. John Hartford, “In Tall Buildings”: I refuse to live anywhere above the first floor from now on.
  6. John Prine, “Spanish Pipedream”: Comical stories of topless dancers telling you to go find Jesus aside, this song has always and will always be awesome. The Avett Brothers do a good cover of it, too.
  7. Kaiser Chiefs, “I Predict a Riot”: That’s right, I’m gonna riot if I don’t get what I want! Okay, maybe not riot, per se. Maybe just grumble and complain under my breath for a while.
  8. Langhorne Slim & The Law, “Put It Together”: I will never tire of this song. It just hits something primal in my soul and gets it all hyped up.
  9. Mark Knopfler, “Donegan’s Gone”: A skiffle-esque tribute to the guy who brought the musical form to the shores of Merry Ol’ England.
  10. Mike Doughty, “Fort Hood”: Best song that features the coda from the 5th Dimension’s “Age of Aquarius” as a chorus? Yes.