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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 #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?

Playlist #167: Beach Party

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Happy Monday, folks. We’re at the beach this week with the Wife’s family, but I have a surprise! The new book comes out this week! That’s right, Hazzard Pay 7, The Armageddon Seed, will be available sometime this week (whenever it gets through the Amazon process, which should be today or tomorrow?). I’ll show you the cover tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s a playlist while I soak up some sun and splash around in the Atlantic.

  1. Alanis Morissette, “Head Over Feet (Acoustic Version)”: Mellower with age, as things tend to be.
  2. Soundgarden, “Burden In My Head”: The Lithium station on Sirius XM plays a lot of Soundgarden, and I’m kinda here for it, I think.
  3. Charley Pride, “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone”: Apparently, my grandfather only ever attended one concert in his life, and it was to see Charley Pride.
  4. Fleetwood Mac, “Seven Wonders”: I’ve developed a certain fondness for latter-day Fleetwood Mac.
  5. The Rolling Stones, “Not Fade Away”: I’m always slightly amazed at how ramshackle and almost chaotic this song is, like the band were barely keeping it together while they played it.
  6. Radiohead, “2+2=5”: On the other hand, you’ve got Radiohead, who even when they get into a heavy breakdown still feel completely in control of everything.
  7. Ben Harper & the Blind Boys of Alabama, “Well, Well, Well”: What’s that, someone doing a Dylan cover? It’s more likely than you’d think!
  8. Band of Horses, “General Specific”: I love this song for reasons I’ve never been able to fully articulate. It just seems so joyful.
  9. Uncle Tupelo, “Steal the Crumbs”: Meanwhile, this song just hits me right in the gut and tugs on the ol’ heartstrings.
  10. Wilco, “Say You Miss Me”: Speaking of the heartstrings, this one gets to me, too. Maybe I’m just more vulnerable to songs of love and loss right now.

Playlist #163

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Haaaaappy last Monday of the school year! School officially ends here in Fairfax County on Wednesday, and I for one am more than ready for Summer Break. Here are some songs to get us there.

  1. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Waiting For Tonight”: Heard this one late last week on Tom Petty Radio, and had forgotten the song even existed. Features one of the best lines ever sung, “And I’m wrestling with my overcoat/And I’m fighting with my thoughts.”
  2. Primal Scream, “Rocks”: Hadn’t really listened to these guys before, and while this song is pretty good, it wasn’t enough to get me interested in listening to any of their other stuff.
  3. Van Morrison, “Tupelo Honey”: It’s also Clyde’s birthday this week! Let’s listen to classic Van Morrison in his honor.
  4. Hank Williams, “Kaw-Liga”: My grandfather continues to kick around, though he’s currently in the hospital with pneumonia. But his spirits seem good, and he’s alert and responsive, so I’ll take those as good signs. This is one of his favorite Hank Williams songs, and one he used to sing to us when we were little.
  5. Wilco, “The Late Greats”: What is the greatest song most folks have never heard?
  6. Paul McCartney, “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man”: Great McCartney cover. Run Devil Run was such a good album.
  7. Linda Ronstadt, “When Will I Be Loved?”: Things don’t get much better than Linda Ronstadt singing this song.
  8. Sting, “We’ll Be Together”: The most 1980s song I could imagine, from the processed drum machine to the synth horns.
  9. Pink Floyd, “Fearless”: I’m weird in that I really dig the Pink Floyd album Meddle (it might even be my favorite of theirs). This song, right in the middle of things, is a good example of why it’s such a great collection of tunes.
  10. Alice Cooper, “School’s Out”: Of course it is. And good riddance until next school year, ya filthy animals!

Playlist #140

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Happy New Year, folks! It’s now 2024, which means…well, not a whole lot, on the blog side of things. The playlists will continue until morale improves. That said, here’s this week’s.

  1. Andrew Bird, “Auld Lang Syne”: How this went from a song sung when folks were being generally lauded to a song about the end of one year and the beginning of a new one is beyond me. Maybe someone should research that.
  2. Brian Fallon, “Forget Me Not”: I know I just featured this one a couple of weeks ago, but I really like this song and it’s basically been playing on repeat in my brain for those two weeks.
  3. Frank Turner, “The Gathering”: I always enjoy a Frank Turner rave-up, and one that features Jason Isbell? That’s just icing on the cake.
  4. The Horrible Crowes, “Mary Ann”: Maybe I just really like songs where Brian Fallon shouts someone’s name, okay?
  5. Huey Lewis & the News, “It’s All Right”: Even these guys, the whitest of white guys, know you clap on the two and the four. Get it together, white folks.
  6. Ingrid Michaelson, “Be OK”: I think we can all admit that 2023 was lousy for a whole lot of us. Here’s hoping we’ll all be okay in 2024.
  7. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Climb That Hill”: But it’s not enough to just be okay, is it? No, we want to reach the summit, achieve new heights, do great things. And we will. We just have to go out there and do it.
  8. Tom Waits, “Cold Cold Ground”: Read a thing last week that rated all of Tom Waits’ albums, and this one (Franks Wild Years, without an apostrophe because Tom Waits) was ranked mid-tier. Which is crazy to me, because any album that features this song is automatically top-tier if you ask me.
  9. Wilco, “Quiet Amplifier”: I find it hard to believe Jeff Tweedy has a quiet amplifier. I’ve seen Wilco in concert. He gets loud just like everyone else.
  10. Sting, “Brand New Day”: It is a brand new day, at the start of a brand new year. Make the best of it, folks.

Best Albums of 2023

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Ignore all of those other best-of lists you’ve seen around. This ain’t those. It is, however, my ten favorite albums from this year.

It was a tricky list to put together, if for no other reason than the fact that my sense of time has gotten all out of whack over the past few years. “Wasn’t that new Wallflowers album from early this year? Wait, it was 2021? What?” Or, “Oh, that new Taylor Swift album – not one of the re-records – was…no, that was last year. Damn.” I kinda had to scrabble around to find 10 albums I really liked.

And it shouldn’t have been that hard! Both the National and Josh Ritter had new albums out this year. Those are usually shoo-ins. But this year…eh. Neither of them really wowed me.

Anyway, here are ten albums that did wow me, in no particular order.

  1. boygenius, the record: I kinda low-key love this album. Three brilliant musicians coming together and just showing everyone how it ought to be done.
  2. Peter Gabriel, i/o: If an album takes twenty years to complete and comes out in not one, not two, but three slightly different mixes, you’d be understandably trepidatious about the album. But no, it’s really damn good. It’s vital and deep and rewards relistens.
  3. Wilco, Cousins: While not as essential as their best work, it’s more cohesive and concise than last year’s Cruel Country. Good, but also kinda forgettable.
  4. The Gaslight Anthem, History Books: A damn sight better than their last album, Get Hurt. It’s energetic and loud and exciting.
  5. Slowdive, everything is alive: I’m not usually one for shoegaze, but these songs are great. It’s slow and pensive and gets under your skin.
  6. New Pornographers, Continue as a Guest: I love the band, I hate the name. That will always be the case. But with A.C. Newman and Neko Case on the roster, you know the songs are going to be good and the vocals are going to be stellar. And they are.
  7. M. Ward, supernatural thing: M. Ward just cranks out good stuff whenever he decides to drop into the recording studio. Nothing spectacular or mind-altering, just really good songs that you can listen to over and over again.
  8. Noah Kahan, Stick Season: Vermont Hozier, as he’s apparently known, puts out some somber, low-key songs that stick to your brain and just burrow in.
  9. The Mountain Goats, Jenny From Thebes: I love me some Mountain Goats. This one is heavier on the piano and keyboards than previous entries, and the usage of horn sections and strings (freakin’ strings! On a Mountain Goats record!) add some new flair and textures to the always-excellent songwriting.
  10. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Weathervanes: I know I said this list isn’t in any particular order, but this is my absolute favorite album of the year. The more I listen to the work of Jason Isbell, the more I’m convinced he’s the best songwriter of the current generation. He creates characters and situations full of anger, fear, distrust, love, longing, a sense of loneliness, isolation, and rising above it all. All in a single record. Soaring choruses, thoughtful verses, and a band that is as simpatico as humanly possible just makes this one of the best records out there.

Playlist #133

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Happy Monday, folks! We’re closing in on Thanksgiving Break, a time when I won’t have to go to school for several days straight and will most likely wreck my sleep schedule. But so it goes! Here’s this week’s playlist for your listening pleasure.

  1. Noah Kahan and Hozier, “Northern Attitude”: So I was reading a thing that talked about Noah Kahan and referred to him as “Vermont Hozier,” and that piqued by interest. His style is different than Hozier’s, more earthy and folky. But I’m down with that. This is a duet he did with Hozier.
  2. Brian Fallon, “Forget Me Not”: I just love the way he shouts “Stacy!” at the beginning of each verse. Cracks me up every time.
  3. The Smashing Pumpkins, “Today”: I can only handle Billy Corrigan’s singing voice in small doses, but this song ain’t so bad.
  4. Iron & Wine, “Call It Dreaming”: The outro to this song reminds me very much of the Elton John song “Levon” for reasons I cannot really explain.
  5. Jackson Browne, “Downhill From Everywhere”: It’s a song about saving the oceans.
  6. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “A Thing About You”: I just love the energy of this song, and the guitar solo is one of the more raucous ones ever committed to Heartbreakers tape.
  7. Waxahatchee, “Sparks Fly”: I like how deceptively simple their songs are. There’s more detail and intricacy to them than it appears at first listen.
  8. Wilco, “I Might”: I feel like The Whole Love is an underrated Wilco album, if such things even exist. It’s not the first one I’ll reach for when I’m in a Wilco mood, but it’s definitely in the top five or six.
  9. Tom Waits, “16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six”: “Gonna whittle you into kindlin'” is just such a baller line.
  10. Sturgill Simpson, “Keep It Between The Lines”: I’ve liked everything I’ve ever heard by this guy, but A Sailor’s Guide to Earth is still his best, I think.

Playlist #117 – More Three-Song Runs

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Yeah, it’s Tuesday, but I forgot to post yesterday. Here are four more three-song runs that are all killer, no filler.

Run 1: The Beatles, “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Any Time At All,” and “I’ll Cry Instead” (from A Hard Day’s Night): The Beatles are obviously one of those bands where you could throw a dart at a board with all their albums listed on it and pick a random three song run and it’d be full of bangers. This is still one of my favorite Beatles albums, and these songs really hold up.

Run 2: Bob Dylan, “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” “She Belongs To Me,” and “Maggie’s Farm” (from Bringing It All Back Home): Again, much like the Beatles, many of Dylan’s albums are front-to-back amazing (we’ll ignore those born again albums in the late 70s/early 80s and most of what he did in the late 80s). These songs were a sonic manifesto in 1964, with Dylan going electric and tearing the roof off the place.

Run 3: Sting, “La Belle Dame Sans Regrets,” “Valparaiso,” and “Lithium Sunset” (from Mercury Falling): I’ll admit, I have a soft spot for the work of Sting, both solo and with the Police. Mercury Falling may be one of my favorite albums he’s released, and these three songs – the French “La Belle Dame Sans Regrets,” the sailor’s voyage of “Valparaiso,” and the country twang and pedal steel guitar of “Lithium Sunset” – are the closing three tracks on the album, and they serve as an excellent summation of what he was doing here.

Run 4: Wilco, “Muzzle Of Bees,” “Hummingbird,” and “Handshake Drugs” (from A Ghost Is Born): Possibly my favorite Wilco album, possibly tied with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. These songs are mellow and odd and a perfect summation of where Wilco was at this point in their career.

Playlist #114

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Happy Monday, and happy birthday to my lovely mother, who is [redacted] years old today!

  1. No Clue, “The Old Die Young”: A former student of mine’s band. They do straight-ahead, old school, hardcore punk. If that’s your jam, you’ll probably dig this song.
  2. M. Ward, “i can’t give everything away (feat. Jim James & Kelly Pratt)”: I dig the smokey, 3 AM at the dinner feel of this song, especially with that saxophone part.
  3. Shocking Blue, “Venus”: I prefer this original version to the Bananarama version from the 1980s. Big surprise, right?
  4. Shawn Colvin, “Sunny Came Home”: A surprisingly sprightly, countryish song that I find I enjoy more with each passing year.
  5. Wilco, “Unlikely Japan”: Companion to the Wilco song “Impossible Germany,” in that the lyrics to both songs reference both countries (“Impossible Germany, unlikely Japan”). Why is Japan unlikely? I dunno. Have you ever seen the sort of things they’ll sell you out of a vending machine? Place is nuts.
  6. The Beatles, “Things We Said Today”: I’m a sucker for mid-period Beatles songs. Anything from ’64 to about ’66 is just the sweet spot for me.
  7. Brian Fallon, “Among Other Foolish Things”: The guy writes some damn catchy songs, I have to give him that.
  8. Eklipse, “Cry Me A River”: This song sounds like some other song that I know, but I’ll be damned if I can remember what it reminds me of.
  9. Echo In The Canyon, “Never My Love (feat. Jakob Dylan & Norah Jones)”: Echo in the Canyon is still a loving mash note of a documentary to an entire style of pop-rock, and songs like this so faithfully maintain the style while deviating just enough to keep things interesting.
  10. Dolly Parton, “Seven Bridges Road”: Just load this right into my veins, I am in need of those harmonies.

Playlist #111

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Happy Monday, folks. It’s the last week of school finally, and all the kids (and teachers) are antsy to get the heck outta Dodge. Here’s a new playlist for ya.

  1. Jenny Lewis, “Joy’All”: Nothing Jenny Lewis has done since Rabbit Fur Coat has really grabbed me like that one album did. This song, off the album of the same title (pronounced “Joy y’all”) is good, but it feels too…by the numbers? It’s a retread of stuff she’s done better in the past.
  2. Foo Fighters, “Hearing Voices”: There was so much new music I was interested in released last week that I still haven’t listened to it all (I’m partway through this Foo Fighters album, for instance, and haven’t even started on Janelle Monae’s new one yet!). That said, this song – and, to some extent, the entire album – are all about the Foos dealing with the loss of longtime drummer Taylor Hawkins.
  3. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, “King Of Oklahoma”: I was probably predisposed to liking this song just given its title (and the fact that it’s a Jason Isbell song), but the fact that it rings true probably also helps.
  4. Hawksley Workman, “Ilfracombe”: Heard this in a store? Or on a TV show I was watching? I don’t recall, exactly, but it grabbed my attention at the time, and I kinda dig it. No, wait, it was on NPR. That’s it.
  5. Bob Dylan, “What Was It You Wanted”: Dylan recently released Shadow Kingdom, a sort of live-in-the-studio-reimagining of some of his classic songs featuring a backing band of several guitars, a bass, and an accordion. As an interpreter of other people’s songs and, of course, of his own, Dylan remains a fascinating study. These tracks are all stripped down and rebuilt from the ground up, using different melodies and rhythms that make them feel familiar and completely unfamiliar all at once. And they’re all mercifully short: no 40-verse versions of anything here.
  6. Rufus Wainwright, “Harvest (featuring Andrew Bird and Chris Stills)”: A beautiful rendition of a Neil Young classic. Wainwright lets his collaborators take the lead and offers some beautiful vocals of his own.
  7. 40 Watt Sun, “Behind My Eyes”: A song for when you want to slow everything way down and maybe take a nap.
  8. Wilco, “Whole Love”: I’ve started developing a taste for latter-day Wilco, which apparently includes this album that came out 12 years ago now somehow.
  9. Fun., “We Are Young (featuring Janelle Monae)”: See, I haven’t listened to her new album yet, but I still found a way to slip her onto the playlist this week anyway.
  10. Hank Williams, “You Win Again”: Hank knew how to write a tear-jerker, woe-is-me song.