whiskeytown

Playlist #194 and #195

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Happy Monday! It’s Martin Luther King, Jr, Day, and Inauguration Day. One of those is a cause for celebration, while the other is a cause for heavy drinking. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which one is which.

  1. The Refreshments, “Banditos”: I am embarrassed just how long I got the Refreshments and the Replacements confused. It was…far longer than I care to admit.
  2. Chris Smither, “Origin of Species”: A fantastic, farcical song mixing stories from the Bible with a winking nod to Charles Darwin and the double helix.
  3. Jason Isbell, “Super 8”: No one wants to die in a Super 8 Motel, Mr. Isbell. My wife won’t even set foot in one.
  4. Stevie Nicks, “Lighthouse”: Still love this song. It’s still a banger. I will not be accepting questions at this time.
  5. Tom Waits, “Goin’ Out West”: “I know karate and voodoo too” is a hell of a line.
  6. The Mountain Goats, “No Children”: We’ve talked about this one before, about how it’s my wife’s favorite Mountain Goats song and maybe I need to be concerned about that? Who knows.
  7. Michael Penn, “No Myth”: I dunno, maybe comparing yourself to Romeo and Heathcliff is not the flex you think it is.
  8. Big Red Machine, “Latter Days”: I like the album this song is from so much I picked it up on vinyl a couple of weeks ago. Great decision.
  9. Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”: About the only slice of ’80s music I can really stand, it’s a damn good song with a killer chorus.
  10. Franz Ferdinand, “Take Me Out”: It will never cease to amuse me that the band named after the dude whose assassination kicked off World War I released a single called “Take Me Out.” Just top-tier trolling.
  11. Jimmy Eat World, “The Middle”: Such an uplifting, shout-along song. And easy to play on the guitar to boot!
  12. Tracy Bonham, “Mother Mother”: A nice slice of ’90s nostalgia. Apparently the Wife hates her music? I was just as surprised as you are.
  13. Whiskeytown, “Jacksonville Skyline”: I know everyone was all about the authenticity of the cowpunk/alt-country movement in the early 2000s, but Whiskeytown’s country always felt like a coat Ryan Adams was wearing and took off as quickly as he could when he went solo.
  14. Wilco, “At Least That’s What You Said”: The snarling, Neil Young-esque guitar explosion that erupts about halfway through this song is giving me life.
  15. Diana Ross & the Supremes, “Reflections”: Sometimes, you just need a girl group singing close harmonies to get you through the day. This might be such a day.
  16. Edwyn Collins, “A Girl Like You”: Britpop, you say? Britpop? I’ll give you Britpop!
  17. Bob Dylan, “Mississippi”: For nothing else than I got the line “You can always come back but you can’t come back all the way” stuck in my head the other day.
  18. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “A Thing About You”: This has somehow become one of my favorite Tom Petty songs in recent years. Dunno how or why. I think I just like the breakneck pace of it and how I always imagine things almost tumble apart in the instrumental break but barely hold on.
  19. Calexico, “Beneath the City of Dreams”: I am a sucker for a good Calexico song, which really means any Calexico song. They’re all pretty damn good.
  20. Bill Small, “This Old House”: A dark tour through the empty halls of one’s life, or an empty house that used to be occupied by a loved one.

Playlist #50

/ xeyeti / Leave a comment

Happy Monday, folks. I’m back at work after a lovely and relaxing Spring Break. Over the break, I worked on the next song for Patreon, which you should join if you haven’t already. Anyway, here’s this week’s playlist:

  1. Pink Floyd, “Hey, Hey, Rise Up (featuring Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Boombox)”: A song recorded in conjunction with Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk, who cut short his American tour with his band Boombox to go back and fight against the Russians. The lyrics are from an old anti-war song from 1914 called, “Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow.”
  2. Whiskeytown, “Jacksonville Skyline”: The more I listen to Ryan Adams’ lyrics, the more I realize the dude doesn’t really write coherent stories. What the hell is a “hopeless streetlight,” anyway?
  3. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, “Alabama Pines”: The loneliness and isolation this song’s narrator goes through is palpable, and the little details – like the only liquor store on the north side of town – add the perfect amount of realism and sincerity to the song.
  4. Mott the Hoople, “All the Young Dudes”: A David Bowie song in all but name. He produced their album and wrote this particular song.
  5. Neko Case, “Hold On, Hold On”: “In the end I was the mean girl/Or somebody’s in-between girl.”
  6. Norah Jones, “Creepin’ In”: Did you know Norah Jones recorded a song where she dueted with Dolly Parton? She did. It’s this song. It’s fun.
  7. Paul Revere & the Raiders, “Kicks”: I originally heard this song when it was covered by the Monkees, of all bands, on an old greatest hits tape my mom had. It’s a damn fine song.
  8. Tonic, “If You Could Only See”: The ’90s called, and it said you can have this song. They overplayed it already, thanks.
  9. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Straight Into Darkness”: Yeah, the album Straight Into Darkness isn’t the most essential Tom Petty release. Most of the songs are inconsequential and nowhere near the heights of Damn the Torpedoes or even Hard Promises. But even mediocre Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers can still kick the crap outta most other bands on their best days.
  10. Soul Coughing, “16 Horses”: I would love to write a song like this someday. I’d love to be able to play a song like this someday.