Thursday Morning Music Shuffle – Paper in My Pocket Mix

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Last night was week 3 of 4 of the Kevn Kinney Residency at The 5 Spot in East Nashville. Each show has been unique and each show has been wonderful. Last night, Kinney was joined by Lydia Lunch (in what may or may not have been Ms. Lunch’s first Nashville appearance – she wasn’t sure). The combination/collaborations of Kinney’s songs with Lunch’s spoken word/poetry was different and brilliant. They were accompanied by Audley Freed on guitar and James Haggerty on upright bass. Definitely a one of a kind event.

“The Gay Day” by Atticus Floyd

We have another visit to Atticus Floyd’s album, Russell Stover Stole My Babbie. This is a mostly instrumental song (the track opens with a stuttered utterance of a single word). I am repeating the Neutral Milk Hotel cover video (in the Playlist below), because: a) it is a Neutral Milk Hotel Cover (and a good one) and b) because Atticus plays the singing saw on the song.

“Child Support Blues” by Adolphus Bell

I recently got a hold of some more music from the Music Maker Relief Foundation. In case you missed my previously posts, they are a great organization that helps support and preserve some of the living lesser know legends of Blues and roots music. Check them out. Adolphus Bell was a bluesman/one-man band. He passed away in 2013.

“Used and Abused” by Midnight Oil

Up next a track from Midnight Oil’s self-titled debut album which was recorded in 1977 and released in 1978. Because, why not?

“Whiskey Pick” by Lara Hope and the Ark-Tones

It never fails… first of all, I could not remember how I came to have this song on my playlist, and when I heard it, my first thought was – this is fantastic, David Horton (Popa Tune’s) needs to hear this, and then I did so research, and guess what – I got this song from him – on his Popakazooza Vol. 13 Mixtape. I should have known. You can’t get great music like this past the Popa very often. From their album, Luck Maker.

“Guilty of Myself” by Jesse and Noah

The first of two tracks today from Nashville brothers, Jesse and Noah from their album Driven Back. Look for a new song from them coming soon.

“Forever Valentine” by Dale Watson

A slow Country ballad from the latest Dale Watson album, Call Me Insane.

“You Satellite” by Wilco

Last week, Wilco, unexpectedly sent me a download link to their album – I assume because I am cool. What can I say, except that is Wilco!

“Weather Man” by Jesse and Noah

One more Jesse and Noah.

Now enjoy the video playlist…

VIDEO PLAYLIST

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Friday Morning Music Shuffle – Barefoot on the Dancefloor Mix

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Traversed snow and ice and cold to witness the birth of a new East Nashville musical happening at the Mad Donna’s Loft… a super-serious, super-cool songwriting thing (the name is still being bandied about), but who needs a name when you have Joe Fletcher, Brian Wright, and Darrin Bradbury playing their awesome songs to a small but dedicated audience of super-serious music fans (including some other great musicians). Here’s to many more of these happenings and much better weather for them. Hats off to the awesome Terry Rickards for making this thing happen…

Since I traversed the snow last night, I kind of had to do it this morning… guilty conscience if I said I couldn’t make it to work… but I had an awesome sound track for this slippery and frigid journey…

“Back on the Wagon” by Matt Prater

Another excellent song from Matt Prater’s latest album Tables and Chairs recorded in Mussel Shoals, Alabama.

“Made to be Broken” by Soul Asylum

The title track from Soul Asylum’s second album released in 1986 one of three releases for the band in that year…

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A brief instrumental partial title track from Scattered Moments of Connection. In lieu of this song, I included a video of the epic The Great Jester. Thirty seconds for like eleven minutes seemed like a fair trade off.

“Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down” by Bark

Tim and Susan Lee could have named their side project Tim Lee 2, but they went with Bark. This is from the debut Bark EP which is having it’s release celebrated (along with the new TL3 album 33 1/3 and the new album by Kevin Abernathy) with a triple release show at Scruffy City Hall in Knoxville this very night. This song is an R.L. Burnside cover.

“Revolution On the Rocks” by Gumball

A bit of 90s alternative rock from NYC, two of the members of Gumball were previously (and briefly) part of Dinosaur Jr. This was the lead track on the band’s 1994 third and final studio album called Revolution on Ice.

“Brand New Cadillac” by The Clash

From London Calling. This was a cover of a 1950s British Rock and Roll song by Vince Taylor.

“Crazy American” by Syd Straw

From Syd Straw’s 1989 solo debut, Surprise. Surprise is one of my favorite albums of all time.

“Train in Vain” by The Clash

Originally a hidden bonus track on London Calling (subtitled Stand By Me in the US because we Yanks were too dumb to handle a song whose name wasn’t the most repeated phrase). Also not called “Stand by Me” because everyone is too dumb to figure out it is not the Ben E. King song. Man I love this song!

“This…” by fIREHOSE

A mellow side of Watt, Hurley, and Crawford… from Ragin’ Full On.

“Blue Sky Mine” by Midnight Oil

The “sort of” title track to the 1990 album Blue Sky Mining.

“The Eye” by Brandi Carlile

An absolutely gorgeous song from Brandi Carlile’s album The Firewatcher’s Daughter which was released this past Tuesday.

“The Bedlam Express” by The Lucky Jukebox Brigade

An awesome rave-up and one of my favorite songs on Familiar Fevers. The source of today’s Shuffle subtitle.

“White Gardenias” by Justin Townes Earle

Finally, we close out the shuffle with a song from the 2014 album Single Mothers which was the predecessor to Justin Townes Earle’s latest album Absent Fathers.

VIDEO PLAYLIST

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Friday Morning Music Shuffle – The New L.A. Mix

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I have a three day weekend coming up, and so I am ready to blow this week out of the water. We have an awesome shuffle today. If you receive the No Depression e-mail newsletter, my work covering shows at 3rd and Lindsley gets a mention in the Notes from ND section. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and to all of you who have encouraged me throughout this journey. If you don’t subscribe to the No Depression E-mail or don’t have time to search through your inbox to find it, you can check it out here…

“Bother Me” by The Bell Hours

The second tune we’ve had from Denver band The Bell Hours. Their album is called Easy Weather. Check them out.

“Planet Claire” by B-52s

Planet Claire was the second single from The B-52s self-titled debut album (1979). The B-52s were part of the wave of bands that helped solidify Athens, GA’s place as a great music town.

“Forgotten Years” by Midnight Oil

Ignoring the uncomfortable truths of the past is not a viable option. From Blue Sky Mining (1990).

“Camp Pendleton” by Camper Van Beethoven

From the latest album (El Camino Real) by the legendary alternative rock band lead by David Lowery. The thing I love about this song is that it manages to sound fresh and current while staying true to CBV’s classic sound. Not an easy thing to do.

“Greetings from Nashville” by Jason and the Scorchers

A summation of Nashville in the 80s and hell probably still a pretty accurate look at Nashville today. “Somewhere Hank and Lefty are rolling in their graves…”

“The Riddle Song” by Forest Mountain Hymnal

It’s nice to have Forest Mountain Hymnal back in the shuffle. This Nashville couple always offer amazing traditional folk music – sometimes pretty, sometimes spooky… This song is the first from a project of music based upon the Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles. You can read more about the project called Dear Balladeer here. The first song is one of the better known songs they will record and has been recorded many times. This is a very lovely folk song.

“Emily” by Joe Nolan

Another cool song from my friend Joe Nolan from his forthcoming remastered version of Blue Turns Black.

“The Man I Was Before” by Christian Lopez Band

West Virginia’s Christian Lopez has garnered quite a bit of attention as of late including this song from his 2014 EP Pilot which appeared on the Noisetrade compilation The Best of What’s Next 2015. I realty dig this song.

“Nothing Comes Close” by Bill Lloyd

We close things out with another great song from Bill Lloyd’s classic album Feeling the Elephant. The video I found (included in the video playlist below) makes me remember his awesome band The December Boys and makes me nostalgic for the late, great Nashville street festival Summer Lights which brought people downtown at a time when people didn’t really want to come downtown except for work. The festival also always offered an amazing lineup of local and national artists.

VIDEO PLAYLIST

Monday Morning Music Shuffle – Move over Captain America Mix

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I would like to preface today’s shuffle by saying that a big pet peeve of mine are people of a certain age who loudly decry “music these days” and who pine for some different era. They usually “prove” their point by referencing some trendy pop act of today and offer up for comparisons sake some legend of a different era who has stood the test of time. It is not only the logic that is faulty, but such statements are a sign of laziness. There is a ton of great music being made “these days” – far more than even this music blogger than cover. So my advise to those who would rant in the manner mentioned above is either 1. Seek out music – there are far more ways to do this than there ever were or 2. Shut up and admit that you are unwilling to do so and that you prefer the music of your younger days.

All that being said, music has a special power to evoke… music which was an integral part of the formative years of our lives does hold a special place. It is in that spirit that I offer up today’s shuffle which a total throwback to my days of yore.

Count me among the legions who truly discovered Big Star and Alex Chilton thanks to The Replacements. This song comes from an Alex Chilton compilation which gave me a crash course in all things Chilton. It was originally on the legendary album Big Star’s Third/Sister Lovers.

“Bottle O’ Tears” by The Georgia Satellites

I know they are the Georgia Satellites, but I have always considered them a Nashville band. I first heard “Keep Your Hands to Yourself” on WRVU several months before it became an international hit song, and I first read about the band in the legendary Metro magazine. This comes from the 1989 album In The Land of Salvation and Sin. I have always considered that album an underrated classic or at least an under-heard classic.

“Shake That Thing” by The Georgia Satellites

Another great song from In the Land…. I think this song is about shaking something, but I’m not sure… Seriously, this is what Rock ‘n’ Roll is all about.

“Whoa!” by Soul Asylum

Soul Asylum released three albums in 1986. This was the first. A glorious loud and fast punk inspired ode to joy called Made to Be Broken.

“Six Gallon Pie” by Meat Puppets

An instrumental from their 1989 album Forbidden Places – this was a few years before Kurt Cobain and Nirvana helped make the band household names. I love this album, and it’s a good time to tell about the extremely hot and sweaty Meat Puppets’ show at 328 Performance Hall when the band took pity on the crowd of hot and sweat moshers and started handing out beers from the stage. So, I can say that one of the Kirkwood brothers gave me a beer. I know I’ve told this story many, many times, but if you give me a beer from the stage, I’ll tell the world about it, too. I’m easy that way.

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We have a pair of songs from the debut album, Big Lizard in Your Backyard, by everyone’s favorite punk brats. I guess I could always relate to The Dead Milkmen because I was a bit of a punk brat myself….

“Beach Song” by The Dead Milkmen

Who hates the beach? The Dead Milkmen hate the beach!

“King of the Mountain” by Midnight Oil

From their 1990 album, Blue Sky Mining. I’ve always loved this song. The interesting twist of time and circumstance is that these days, I get to see Midnight Oil bassist Bones Hillman just about every Friday in East Nashville helping the hold down the bottom for Tim Carroll.

“Caped Crusader” by Phranc

A song about a comic book based upon the life of Pope John Paul II from Phranc’s solo debut album Folksinger (1985). Phranc was previously a member of the band Catholic Discipline and the band appeared in the landmark film about the L.A. punk scene, The Decline of Western Civilization.

“King of Fools” by Social Distortion

The most recent release in today’s shuffle from the 1992 Social D album Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell. I dig just about every song on this album.

“Another Chance” by The Georgia Satellites

We shall close this shuffle with one of my favorite songs on In the Land of Salvation and Sin…. I think this song is a more elegant expression of the sentiment behind YOLO. 🙂

VIDEO PLAYLIST

Monday Morning Music Shuffle – Sno-Cone Mix

It’s all but officially summer. Temps are supposed to climb into the mid to upper 90s here this week, and I’m sure the humidity will ratchet up and few notches. Here in the South, we know it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity….

Reminders: The Band of the Month polling has begun – exercise your right to check out righteous music and pick your favorite’s here. (Voting continues until the end of the month, and this time you can come back and vote as often as you like).

Over the weekend, we offered the World Premier of the brand new promo video for our April Band of the Month – The Disappointment. The post which is here, also offered detailed to purchase and download the band’s latest release and provided details for checking out the band live in Brooklyn. Again – it is here.

Finally – Ear to the Ground’s favorite cartoonist (and an early and often influence on our tastes in music – as well as our partner-in-crime at a number of live shows in the late 80s and early 90s), Ron Ruelle has released a new book featuring the Sunday strips from his At the Zu/Darwin & Co. strips.

You can order the book here. And check out the dedication page!

One last thing before we get to the morning shuffle – Today is the 70th Birthday for the “Cute” Beatle (Paul McCartney) and another Paul (Weller) of The Jam & The Style Council, has released version of the Beatles’ Birthday which you can download today only on Amazon:

Tonight, we plan to load in a ton of songs into the mix, but before we did, we thought we should take a shuffle through some of the coolest songs in our archives.

Blue Sky Mine the sort-of title track to Midnight Oil’s 1990 album Blue Sky Mining found the Australian band and their politician/activist/environmentalist lead singer offering up a scathing indictment of the greed over people and the planet mentality, and doing so in an amazingly danceable format.

Don’t Be Cruel was recorded in the summer of 1956 in New York City buy a 21 year old singer from Tupelo, Mississippi named Elvis Aaron Presley. The song was written by Otis Blackwell. The Jordanaires sang back-up on the record. When my daughter was in 4th Grade, I helped chaperone a trip to Memphis which included a tour of Graceland and accompanying us on the field trip was the grandfather of one of my daughter’s classmates who happened to be Gordon Stoker – one of the original Jordanaires, how cool is that?

And finally, we have Free Man in Paris by Joni Mitchell from her classic 1974 album Court and Spark.

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Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil

Elvis Don’t Be Cruel Framed Record
This beautifully framed and matted record has been silverized and is presented along with an image of Elvis. High-quality components and hand-cut mats. Black metal frame measures 12″ X 16″. Limited edition of 5,000.Made in the United States

Court and Spark
Court and Spark isJoni Mitchell’s most overt attempt at making a hit record, full ofglossy production, catchy choruses, and even guest stars from everystratum of rock culture, high (Robbie Robertson) and low (Cheech andChong). The record was a smash, reaching number two on the charts inMarch of 1974, spawning three hit singles; Help Me, Free Man in Parisand Raised on Robbery and cementing Mitchell’s position as a commercialas well as an artistic force. Sean Nelson, a well known musician himself (Harvey Danger, the Long Winters), is particularly well equipped to understand all the elements that went into the making of this classic album, and he does so with clarity and wit.