thom yorke

Playlist #212

/ xeyeti / Leave a comment

Happy Monday, folks! The end of the school year always seems so far away, until suddenly it’s upon you. We’ve only got a few classes left with each of our cohorts, and then it’ll be summer time! In the meantime, I finally have physical CDs of the new album, Beard Situation, so hit me up if you want a copy of that. And now, on with the playlist!

  1. The Record Company, “So What’cha Want”: Did you ever want to hear the Beastie Boys as a blues jam? ‘Cause this is what that would sound like.
  2. The Lemonheads, “Sad Cinderella”: Nothing better than a Townes Van Zandt cover to get your Monday started off right. Or wrong. I don’t know you, I don’t know how you feel about Townes Van Zandt. I know how you should feel about his music. You should feel good knowing you yourself are not Townes Van Zandt and are, statistically, not nearly as fucked up as he was.
  3. Macy Gray, “Creep”: Macy Gray did a covers album, and if you’re wondering, “Do all the songs sound like I think they should sound by the lady who sang ‘I Try’?” well buddy, I’ve got some good news for you. This is a cover of the Radiohead song. Not the one by Stone Temple Pilots. Or TLC.
  4. Fiona Apple, “Pretrial (Let Her Go Home)”: A damn good song about a pressing topic: maybe we shouldn’t lock people up just because they can’t afford bail, then take away their children because they can’t get out of jail to go home because they can’t pay bail. Cash bail is a huge scam, is what I’m saying.
  5. Thom Yorke, “And It Rained All Night”: I like my Thom Yorke drone-y and paranoid.
  6. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Ways To Be Wicked”: Not a week goes by where I don’t think, “Man, I need to add [fill-in-the-blank-Tom-Petty-song] to a playlist!” This week, it’s this song.
  7. JD McPherson, “Signs And Signifiers”: Any ideas what kind of guitar is on the cover of this album? I wanna say it’s an Epiphone, but my knowledge of guitars from the 1950s and 1960s is sketchy at best.
  8. Jelly Roll Morton, “Black Bottom Stomp”: According to his own self-mythology, Jelly Roll Morton invented Jazz with this song. I don’t know how true that statement may be, but it’s a fun song. It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it.
  9. Watkins Family Hour, “Steal Your Heart Away”: A cover of a Lindsey Buckingham song and not, as I first kinda hoped, the Van Morrison song of the same name. Oh well. It’s still a beautiful string band ballad.
  10. The War On Drugs, “Living Proof”: An original, not a Bruce Springsteen cover. Though that is a cover I would now like to hear…

Playlist #149

/ xeyeti / Leave a comment

Happy Monday, folks. We’re into March now, which means my birthday is coming up (and what better way to celebrate than to buy one of my books or listen to one of my albums?). Anyway, here’s this week’s playlist.

  1. Hurray for the Riff Raff, “Colossus of Roads”: I probably made a mistake listening to this album first of all of their albums, because none of the rest of their stuff sounds like this. It’s folky and country and Americana and mostly acoustic, and it makes me want to put more slide guitar in my own songs.
  2. Big Star, “Thirteen”: No song has ever encapsulated what it feels like to be a teenager better than this.
  3. Paula Cole, “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone”: Where, indeed?
  4. Phil Collins, “The Roof is Leaking”: Possibly the best song about cold homesteaders the 1980s ever produced.
  5. Rhiannon Giddens and Iron & Wine, “Forever Young”: Who loves a Bob Dylan cover? Iron & Wine loves a Bob Dylan cover. And Rhiannon Giddens. And me.
  6. Rob Thomas, “Streetcorner Symphony”: I will be the first to admit that Rob Thomas does not create what you would call “good” music. It is disposable and forgettable. It adds nothing to one’s life. But damn, while the song is playing, it is everything you ever wanted a song to be.
  7. Shannon McNally, “Bring It On Home”: What can I say, I like it when I hear covers of old blues standards.
  8. Thom Yorke, “And It Rained All Night”: Do you ever get the feeling that maybe all of Thom Yorke’s problems could be solved if he just got a little bit more sun?
  9. The Yardbirds, “For Your Love”: Yeah, it’s a Yardbirds song without a guitar solo, which feels a bit like blasphemy, but it’s still a damn good song.
  10. Waxahatchee, “Oxbow”: Hey, they have a new album coming out this year, don’t they? I’mma listen to that.

Playlist #134

/ xeyeti / Leave a comment

Happy Thanksgiving Week, everyone! Well, to everyone except those of you who don’t have to go to work this week. You guys suck.

  1. Iron & Wine, “About A Bruise”: Started listening to the live album Who Can See Forever this morning, and it’s pretty damn solid. The version of “About A Bruise” from that one is excellent, but so is the the original studio recording from Beast Epic, which I’ve included here.
  2. Elvis Costello, “Blame It On Cain”: We seem to forget, because he just seems like an amiable old fart nowadays, but Costello was a firebrand and a troublemaker back in the day, and this song is a good reminder of that.
  3. Dolly Parton, “Long As I Can See The Light (Featuring John Fogerty)”: Dolly finally released her long-threatened rock’n’roll album, Rockstar. It’s alright. There are some great tracks on there (like this one and her rendition of “Purple Rain”), though most of it feels too slick and over-produced for my tastes.
  4. Them, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”: Who doesn’t love a Bob Dylan cover first thing in the morning? Nazis, that’s who.
  5. Thom Yorke, “And It Rained All Night”: Thom Yorke’s first solo album, The Eraser, is weird. It’s all electronic squiggles and squelches and super-processed drum loops and for some reason I can’t stop listening to this particular track from it.
  6. Townes Van Zandt, “Racing In The Streets”: I always like hearing Townes interpret someone else’s song. This Bruce Springsteen cover is a good example of why.
  7. XTC, “Senses Working Overtime”: I just love the transitions between verse and chorus on this song.
  8. Leo Sayer, “More Than I Can Say”: 70s soft rock called, and it said, “Whoa, whoa, yay, yay.”
  9. Kenny Wayne Shepherd, “Everything Is Broken”: Two Dylan covers on one playlist? Is he mad? Doesn’t he know what horrors that might unleash?
  10. Kendrick Lamar, “DNA.”: This one is just on here to throw you off at the end of the playlist and get you ready for your racist uncle at Thanksgiving Dinner telling you everything was better before they came to the US.