the shins

Playlist #275

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Happy Monday! I’m back from the beach, a little more tanned and a little less rested than I’d prefer. But that’s okay, because being chronically exhausted is just part of my brand. Here’s a playlist.

  1. Steve Miller Band, “Mercury Blues”: My dad (whose birthday is tomorrow; happy birthday, dad!) owns a early-60s Mercury Comet. It’s his current fixer-upper, the car he is working on restoring from basically the ground up. The song is a banger.
  2. Stone Temple Pilots, “Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart”: By this point (1996), Stone Temple Pilots and many of their grunge peers had already abandoned the grunge label for a broader alternative approach. It pays off in spades here.
  3. The Heavy Heavy, “Go Down River”: The latest in my “heard it in a restaurant” playlist does not really disappoint. It’s a country song, as far as I can tell, but a pretty decent one.
  4. Noah Kahan, “The Great Divide”: Another “hear it in a restaurant” tune. It’s not bad. Is it as good as any of the better songs off Stick Season? Eh. It’s good, but not exactly great. Hard to really put my finger on it.
  5. Jeremie Albino, “Across The Hall”: Guy reminds me a lot of John Fullbright, and that’s a style and musician we could use a lot more of, I think.
  6. The Shins, “Gone For Good”: The world needs more songs with pedal steel and a plot about divorce and leaving your wedding band on the train tracks for the train to flatten. It’s just a fact.
  7. The White Stripes, “The Denial Twist”: You know things will get interesting if (1) Bob Dylan or (2) Jack White gets behind a piano for a song. This does not mean I endorse the whole “I’m going to spend the whole concert at the piano” Bob Dylan we’ve seen over the past decade or so.
  8. Portugal. The Man, “Once Was One”: I think it’s about evolution? I dunno, there’s a line in the chorus about monkeys, and I can’t really get past that for whatever reason.
  9. The Coral, “Dreaming Of You”: I watched the hell out of Scrubs back in the day, and have enjoyed what I’ve seen of the latest revival season. I still remember this song pretty much verbatim from back then. Thanks, Scurbs.
  10. Blur, “Song 2”: I have this thing I do where I recite the lyrics to this song as if I were reading a Shakespearean sonnet, all slow and sonorous and full of self-import. The “whoo-hoo”s are my favorite part. The Wife absolutely hates this and rarely lets me get that far before she shuts it down.

Playlist #229

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Happy Monday, folks! Here’s this week’s playlist:

  1. Genesis, “Just a Job to Do”: The number of songs Phil Collins has written over the years about being a criminal just trying to do a (rather sinister) job is not a huge number, but it’s not a non-zero number, either. Was he secretly a hitman in the 1970s? Only he knows for sure.
  2. Margaret Glaspy, “These Days”: A lovely cover of the old Jackson Browne tune. It’s very sparse and slow, and I kinda dig it.
  3. Bruce Springsteen, “Born in the USA (Electric Nebraska)”: If Bruce had pursued this sound on Born in the USA rather than the athematic, keyboard-heavy style he used, maybe there’d have been fewer misunderstandings about what the song is actually about.
  4. The Cars, “Since You’re Gone”: Oh, 80s drum programming, never change.
  5. Andrew Bird, “Fake Palindromes”: This suprisingly uptempo song is so good, and apparently twenty years old now! Wow.
  6. Earth, Wind & Fire, “September”: No, it’s not the 21st of September, but Monday is the 22nd, so that’s too late. Therefore, have some EWF.
  7. The Shins, “Australia”: Is this song actually about the continent/island/country Australia? If so, what is it trying to tell us about it? I have no idea, but it’s a good song that I haven’t listened to in far too long.
  8. Veruca Salt, “Volcano Girls”: A 90s rock girl explosion of sound and energy, rather like a volcano.
  9. The National, “Terrible Love (Alternate Version)”: Still one of the best songs these guys have ever done, and the best version of the song.
  10. The Mystiqueros, “Good”: Back when I played with the group of musicians up in DC, this was one of the songs they played all the time. It’s a great song if you’ve got a group that can harmonize well.

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?