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Playlist #267

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Happy Monday, folks! We’re well into June now, and school continues for…reasons? I’m not really sure anymore. But I’m getting stuff done and prepped for next year, so that’s good. Anyway, some coworkers and I are going to get together this week and next to play some music! Here’s our setlist.

  1. Santo & Johnny, “Sleepwalk”: It’s an instrumental that you’d probably recognize if you heard it. One of the guys I’m playing with plays pedal steel guitar, which makes this a perfect song for us.
  2. Iron & Wine and Calexico, “History of Lovers”: Some of these songs are ones I’ll sing, like this one. I tried to choose songs that were (A) easy to play and (B) could or did feature pedal steel in them already. This one fits both criteria! And it’s fun.
  3. Wilco, “Jesus, Etc.”: Another of my choices. I wanted a Wilco song, and had it narrowed down between this one and “California Stars.” Kinda tempted to ask if we can change it to “California Stars” now, though, ’cause it’s such a fun song.
  4. Bruce Springsteen, “Stolen Car”: Dunno how all my choices got shoved into the beginning of the set, but that’s okay (it’s probably just down to the way I searched them up on my phone when putting together the playlist). This one falls under the “easy to play” side of things, since it’s just a two-chord song (just G and C. Now you can figure out how to play it yourself. This is educational).
  5. The Eagles, “Take It Easy”: Not one of my picks, surprisingly enough, though one that I am clearly well aware of and already know how to play. I’ll do some backing vocals on it, though, although I’m not sure I can get as high as the “eaaasy” as I ought to. We’ll have to see.
  6. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, “Built To Last”: For some reason, my brain always thinks of this as “latter-day Tom Petty,” but it’s from the first half of his career. The ’90s was also only six years ago, as far as my brain is concerned, so ignore that. It’s another easy one to play, and I love playing it.
  7. Hank Williams, “Hey, Good Lookin'”: The last of my suggestions. If you’re looking for a good pedal steel song, you can’t go wrong with Hank.
  8. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Lodi”: My only challenge with this song is going to be hitting that key change for the last verse. I’ve never been able to pull off the key change. I’m gonna have to practice.
  9. Eric Clapton, “Lay Down Sally”: Another super-easy one to play, and it’s a lot of fun.
  10. The Band, “The Weight”: The biggest challenge with this one is going to be hitting those backing vocals and not sounding like a wounded cat.

Playlist #264

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Happy Monday, folks! After last week’s multiple fiascos, I’m hoping this week (which will feature the last time I see some of my students before graduation) will go smoother and with fewer towed cars. Let’s get into the playlist.

  1. Neil Young, “Walk On”: Among the many challenges I faced last week was trying to find a cover of this song that simply didn’t exist. I heard an alternate version of it on the Tonight’s the Night 50th Anniversary set, which somehow tricked my brain into thinking there was a cover I’d heard of it back in the late 90s/early 2000s and I just couldn’t remember who’d done the cover. Spent a few hours Thursday evening trying to figure it out, only to discover it was…the version I’d heard on Neil’s Decade collection back then. I Mandela Effect’d myself, I guess? I dunno. The song is a jam.
  2. Jack Johnson, “Taylor (4-Track)”: Speaking of songs I heard back in the late 90s, I had the MP3 of this song on my computer back in college and preferred this version to the album version that came out on Brushfire Fairytales, but I hadn’t been able to find this version of the song for more than 10 years and had despaired of ever hearing it again. Along comes Surfilmusic, a collection of soundtrack cuts and a bunch of early 4-track demos, this song among them. Made my weekend, let me tell you.
  3. Brian Fallon, “Better Before”: I knew Fallon (and the Gaslight Anthem) had some Bon Jovi in their musical DNA; it’s damn-near required for a Jersey band to have JBJ and the Boss in their musical make-up. But this is the Bon Jovi-est song the man’s ever recorded, and I kinda love it.
  4. Wilco, “Everyone Hides”: While a lot of Wilco’s newer music seems like it was designed to just wash over you in an acoustic hush, but some songs still stick out. Like this one. It’s got a very insistent rhythm and a neat guitar figure.
  5. Lazlo Bane, “Superman”: Have you watched the Scrubs revival? I was pleasantly surprised with how good it is. And the theme song – this song – still hits just right.
  6. Radiohead, “These Are My Twisted Words”: A glitchy, stuttering number, the sort of song that you hear and immediately recognize as peak Radiohead.
  7. Galaxie 500, “Isn’t It A Pity”: An elegiac 80s college rock take on the George Harrison classic. Whereas George’s version relied on the wall of sound wash of guitars and voices to carry the tune, Galaxie 500 strip it down to a single guitar, bass, and drum kit and prove the bones of the song are as solid as can be.
  8. The Fray, “Over My Head (Cable Car)”: Can you believe this song is more than 20 years old? I still think of them as a band that just came out! Am I just an Old now?
  9. Kate Wolf, “Across the Great Divide”: I love this song, I just hate the harmonica in it. I feel it undercuts the tone of the song.
  10. Violent Femmes, “American Music”: What could I possibly say about this song other than, if you don’t sing along, you’re not American.

Playlist #263

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Folks, it feels like today has been a whole month of Mondays dumped on me all at once. I don’t even wanna get into it. Here’s a playlist for y’all while I go sit in a corner and try not to plan murder.

  1. The Florida Mass Choir, “Storm Cloud Rising”: The song featured on the last couple of episodes of Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again, and I dug it. It’s very moody and atmospheric for a gospel song.
  2. Rage Against the Machine, “Sleep Now In Fire”: For when you need to feel a bit of rage in your soul, there really is no one better.
  3. Reel Big Fish, “Hungry Like the Wolf”: The best version of this song, hands down. It just needed those ska horns.
  4. Alannah Myles, “Black Velvet”: Apparently she didn’t start seeing a dime from this song until rather recently. And that is just absolute bull honkey.
  5. Roger McGuinn & Tom Petty, “King of the Hill”: I do love listening to the Tom Petty Sirius XM station, because his catalog is deep enough that I can still get surprised by a song I wasn’t really aware of like this one.
  6. Them, “I Can Only Give You Everything”: I also get to hear songs like this one on the Tom Petty station. There are so many songs by Them that I just don’t know, because their stuff just wasn’t widely available when I was a kid, and now I’m purposefully seeking it out because why the hell not?
  7. Wilco, “One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)”: I love the little repeated guitar figure in this song so much, I don’t even mind that the song is damn-near 10 minutes long.
  8. The Envy Corps, “Story Problem”: A friend I worked with back seventeen, eitghteen years ago introduced me to this song. I still love it.
  9. Frank Turner, “Get Better”: For when I need to try to feel more optimistic, which is challenging today.
  10. Soul Coughing, “Fully Retractable”: For when it is, in fact, fully retractable.

Playlist #260

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Happy Monday, folks! It’s a weird week here in Northern Virginia (they’re really all weird weeks, if we’re honest), with no school for me tomorrow due to a special election. Here’s a playlist to get us through it all.

  1. Massive Attack and Tom Waits, “Boots on the Ground”: A collaboration I didn’t know I want that uses a great extrapolation of “The Earth Died Screaming.” Love it and want more.
  2. Paul McCartney, “Rinse the Raindrops”: Realized over the weekend that McCartney went through a pretty experimental phase in the early 2000s. This song is 10 freakin’ minutes long and only features one verse, but it never sits still and never gets boring.
  3. Thundercat, “Anakin Learns His Fate”: Dude fuckin’ rips it on the bass and writes some of the smoothest jams I’ve heard in a long while. Also, he’s clearly more than a bit of a nerd.
  4. The Pauls, “Beyond Bourbon”: Buddy from work’s band doing an original song of theirs. It’s a cool little barroom weeper.
  5. Gillian Welch, “Red Clay Halo”: I’m an Okie. I know from red dirt. So does Gillian Welch, apparently.
  6. Sting, “When The Angels Fall”: I always felt like this song was a suitably epic way to end the Soul Cages album. I also think the song meant more to me (or felt like it did) when I was in college, when everything feels like it means something more than it probably really does.
  7. Wilco, “Jesus, Etc.”: Still one of my favorite songs off of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which remains one of the best albums of the past thirty or so years.
  8. Jars of Clay, “Grace”: I still go back to this album every so often, and everything from the way they structure the songs to the harmonies and instrumental solos gets me every time.
  9. Jimmy Reed, “Ain’t That Loving You Baby”: Sometimes, you just need a little dirty blues. Today is one of those times.
  10. Rilo Kiley, “I Never”: Hard to imagine this band would try to pull off some blue-eyed soul, but they do it anyway.

Playlist #256: The Setlist

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Happy Monday, folks! It’s my birthday this week. You can help me celebrate by listening to the new song I’ve got coming out this Friday, “When I Say Your Name, Only Silence Answers.” You can pre-save it on Spotify, if that’s your thing. For this week’s playlist, I’ve put together a setlist of covers I’d play if I were playing a show, because why not?

  1. Tom Waits, “Chocolate Jesus”: This is my “weird” song, though the guitar chords really aren’t that different from just about any other song on the list. But Waits’s stuff just always comes across as weirder. It is seasonally appropriate, at least.
  2. Langhorne Slim, “House of My Soul”: This one is just fun to play. I like songs that are fun to play.
  3. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Built to Last”: Tom Petty always writes such simple, heartfelt songs. It’s hard not to want to sing along with a Tom Petty song.
  4. Wilco, “Handshake Drugs”: I don’t know if I could tell you what a handshake drug is. Is it the kind that fits in your hand so you can exchange it when you shake hands with the dealer? Did I just crack the code on this twenty-something year-old song?
  5. Bruce Springsteen, “Stolen Car”: It’s only two chords, but that’s all the Boss needs to tell a heartbreaking story of survival and desperation.
  6. Led Zeppelin, “Hey Hey (What Can I Do)”: The Zeppelin song I can play. And play pretty well, I might add! Though I do struggle with the intro bit, which is tricky for a chord player like myself.
  7. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Who’ll Stop the Rain”: I love playing CCR songs. They’re just fun, and as I said earlier, I like playing fun songs.
  8. Hank Williams, “Move It On Over”: I have an affinity for this version that I never really had for the George Thorogood version.
  9. Bob Dylan, “Tell Ol’ Bill”: The latest in my long line of Dylan songs I will play over and over until my ears and fingers bleed.
  10. Gin Blossoms, “Pieces of the Night”: I feel everyone needs a ’90s song that can pull out of their back pocket on a spur of the moment, and this one’s mine.

Playlist #251

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Happy Tuesday, everyone! Here’s a new playlist for ya.

  1. Ellie van Amerongen, “august”: Doing a duet with yourself is challenging. Doing one with yourself after two or three years on testosterone must be damn-near impossible, yet they pull it off. And it’s a Taylor Swift cover.
  2. Khatumu, “exposure therapy”: I remain impressed with every new song I hear by this singer-songwriter. This song does not change that.
  3. The Gaslight Anthem, “Biloxi Parish”: I’m not quite sure how or when Handwritten became my favorite Gaslight Anthem album, but it did and it is and this song probably plays at least a small part in that result.
  4. Daniel Johnston, “Life In Vain”: Could he sing? Not really. Was he much of an instrumentalist? No more than I am. Could he write a hell of a good song, was he a songwriter’s songwriter? You bet your ass.
  5. Wilco, “Theologians”: Theologians are often accused of not knowing anything, and I don’t really feel like that’s their fault. I mean, they chose the profession, sure, but that hardly seems like their fault. That’s just what you do with the third son. It’s not like they’ve got any land or title left to inherit.
  6. The Avett Brothers, “Ain’t No Man”: I do on occasion enjoy me some Avett Brothers. And this song in particular is fun and a little bit goofy, but I’m okay with that. If you can’t laugh at yourself, you’re taking things way too seriously.
  7. Charlie Sexton and Shannon McNally, “Nothing Mysterious”: Technically sorta a Christmas song? But their duet is fantastic and they really do make it feel quite universal.
  8. The Association, “Never My Love”: I do like love songs, though I’m crap at writing them myself. This is one of the best.
  9. Uncle Tupelo, “Steal The Crumbs”: I really feel like Uncle Tupelo hit their stride with Anodyne. It really is too bad they broke up afterwards.
  10. Moxy Fruvous, “My Poor Generation”: I always enjoy listening to Moxy Fruvous, and every time I hear one of their songs it makes me wonder why I don’t listen to them more often anymore.

Playlist #236

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Happy Monday, folks! I spent the weekend hanging out with visiting family, strummin’ guitars and eating to much food. As one does. Here’s some songs to get you through the week.

  1. Gin Blossoms, “Hey Jealousy”: My dad had heard of the Gin Blossoms, he said, but couldn’t place a song by them. This is probably their best-known song. If he’s heard any of them, it’s probably this one.
  2. Snocaps, “Cherry Hard Candy”: It’s the lady from Waxahatchee! And her sister! And a couple of dudes she’s been performing with for a while! But it’s also a whole new and different band! But hey, more Waxahatchee by any name is good for me.
  3. Enigma, “Return to Innocence”: I heard this song (from the Pure Moods CD, natch) while I was in a Wawa last night. It’s the one with the faux-Native chanting/singing in it. You know the one. You heard it in all the commercials they ran for that collection in the ’90s.
  4. Tom Petty, “You Saw Me Comin'”: Finding Wallflowers is a fascinating document to me. I was talking with my dad about it this weekend, along with all the other archival releases legacy acts like Dylan, Springsteen, and Neil Young have been cranking out in the past few years. I’ve always enjoyed the iterative process of songwriting, and would have loved to hear where Tom took this particular song that just sorta…went away.
  5. Iggy Pop, “Passenger”: A classic Iggy four-chord rocker from Lust for Life.
  6. Wilco, “Handshake Drugs”: I love playing this song on the guitar. I have since I first figured out how to play it. Sometimes, Jeff Tweedy and Co. create some simple, very effective songs.
  7. Bruce Springsteen, “Reason To Believe (Electric Nebraska)”: One of my favorite songs from Nebraska. Is the electric version really all that different? No, not really. Again, it’s really obvious in hindsight why Bruce went with the solo demo versions of all of these songs.
  8. Hank Williams, “Move It On Over”: I always loved the George Thorogood version of this song, and the Hank original remains completely awesome as well.
  9. The Eagles, “Tequila Sunrise”: Always a fun guitar song.
  10. The Bee Gees, “To Love Somebody”: Learned this one playing guitar with my dad this weekend. Good song.

Playlist #230

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Happy Monday, folks. I’ve been a bit down the past few days, which may or may not have affected my choice in music. Let’s take a look at the playlist and see.

  1. Glen Campbell, “Wichita Lineman”: Heard this song last night and it made me cry.
  2. Counting Crows, “Holiday in Spain”: The saddest song about being on holiday in Spain I’ve ever heard. I would assume being on holiday in Spain is a joyous occasion, not one so somber.
  3. Genesis, “No Reply At All”: One of the most upbeat songs about getting ghosted I’ve ever heard.
  4. case/lang/veirs, “Atomic Number”: How can a song ostensibly about the periodic table feel so sad? There’s just so much longing and loss in this song that I can’t help but love it.
  5. The National, “Afraid Of Everyone”: “You’re an oasis, darling, in my soul soul soul soul” on repeat in my brain for the rest of the day.
  6. Van Morrison, “Not Supposed To Break Down”: A Van cast off that’s better than most bands’ best song.
  7. Spoon, “Everything Hits At Once”: It sure does, It sure does.
  8. Hem, “The Part Where You Let Go”: I love this band. They’re one of my go-tos when I’m feeling down. Very cinematic and widescreen in the best possible ways.
  9. Wilco, “Handshake Drugs”: Four-chord songs are fun to play sometimes. I love playing this one.
  10. The Rolling Stones, “19th Nervous Breakdown”: I dunno if it’s the nineteenth one or not, but I do feel like I narrowly avoided a breakdown last night. Why’s the world so overwhelming right now?

Playlist #224

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Happy Monday, folks. We’re up bright and early today because it’s the first day of teacher in-service week, when they see if they can crush the desire to teach out of us via the medium of meetings. We’ll see if they succeed this year or not.

  1. The Wallflowers, “Some Flowers Bloom Dead”: One of the first Wallflowers songs I tried to learn (after “One Headlight,” of course). The chords are easy enough, as I recall, though I don’t think I ever sang it very well. That has never stopped me from singing a song, though.
  2. Neil Young, “Harvest Moon”: Speaking of songs I don’t sing well, I kinda love this one. It’s a simple love song, but it just sounds so beautiful.
  3. Fleetwood Mac, “Seven Wonders”: ’80s Mac just hits different.
  4. Glen Phillips, “Men Just Leave”: I still love how stripped down and countryish that first Glen Phillips solo album is. Even almost 25 years later, it’s still very immediate and evocative.
  5. Van Morrison, “Once In A Blue Moon”: Mid-2000s Van is a strange beast, taking elements from all the other versions of him that are out there and amalgamating them into something that still feels relevant, joyful, and vital.
  6. The Raconteurs, “Carolina Drama”: Sometimes you’re the preacher man, and sometimes you’re the milkman.
  7. The Band, “Acadian Driftwood”: It’s always interesting hearing about the treatment of Native Americans/Indigenous Americans/First People (depending on where and who you are) in places like Canada, though a lot of it still boils down to, “Same shit, different government.”
  8. Wilco, “Summer Teeth”: A perfect encapsulation of the wanning days of summer.
  9. Old 97s, “Every Night Is Friday Night (Without You)”: Gotta love a shout-along song from these guys. It’s always fun.
  10. The Decemberists, “Sons & Daughters”: It’s so rare that you hear a song sung in the round in this day and age, but they manage to pull it off.

Playlist #218

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Happy Monday, folks! Summer proceeds apace, and we have air conditioning again, thank God. I was not doing well in those higher temperatures we were experiencing last week, let me tell you. Anyway, here’s some songs.

  1. Bruce Springsteen, “Shut Out the Light”: Been slowly working my way through Tracks II the past few days, and I know it’s cliche at this point but holy crap, Bruce throws out entire albums he’s not completely satisfied with? Which makes me wonder what possessed him to release High Hopes (zing!).
  2. Wilco, “Hell is Chrome (Live)”: A new live Wilco set just dropped, but most of what it did was remind me that I really do not remember many Wilco songs after about Sky Blue Sky. These are good songs, expertly performed, but they all feel pretty damn ephemeral to me, just background noise as I go about my day. This song, from A Ghost is Born, still slaps, though.
  3. James McMurtry, “South Texas Lawman”: A new James McMurtry album is a cause for celebration. He does one about 9/11 and W on here, and even though that’s only about a quarter century late it still feels entirely too relevant given the current tensions in the Middle East with another country whose name starts with an “I.” But that’s not this song. This is a country rocker about a lawman who wants to retire to the beach.
  4. Murder by Death, “Believe”: These guys just hit that dopamine button in my brain and make me wanna pick up my guitar and just strum the hell out of a couple of songs.
  5. Better Than Ezra, “Desperately Wanting”: There’s more to this song than the chorus, but all you really want to sing is the chorus part. The band gets that. They keep the verses short.
  6. Adeem the Artist, “Cowards Together”: I wish more country artists had the guts to be as open about who they are as Adeem the Artist, the cast-iron pansexual who pens such beautiful songs about not wanting to fight.
  7. The Wallflowers, “It’s A Dream”: My brother dismisses Glad All Over as “the Wallflowers just trying to sound like the Clash, but we’ve already got the Clash at home,” but I think it plays enough with the usual Wallflowers formula to keep them fresh and interesting and it’s still one of my go-to driving albums.
  8. Jack Johnson, “Taylor”: I remember, back in college, hearing a solo acoustic demo of this song around the time his debut, Brushfire Fairytales, came out, and I loved it. The version included on On and On is still plenty good, mind you, but I’ve been sorely tempted to go digging and see if I can find that original version again.
  9. Counting Crows, “Untitled (Love Song)”: “Throw your arms around my neck” is actually a pretty good chorus, actually.
  10. Aimee Mann, “Columbus Avenue”: Aimee Mann makes me nostalgic for college. Not because I listened to her stuff in college – I was stick pretty deep in the Bob Dylan thing back then – but just the tone of it seems to evoke a nostalgia in me, and when I feel nostalgic, that’s the time I think of. I feel like I could walk the streets of Clarksville at midnight with this song on repeat on the discman and all would be, if not quite right with the world, at least bearable and acceptable.