The other day, I posted a rag tag collection of music called Fine, Fine Music. I kind of liked that so I decided to do it again. Song sometimes enter my head – either through hearing an old song on the radio, reading a mention, or just a random, unexplained earworm. Over the past few days, I have been collecting some of these as they pass through, and I created the video playlist which will be posted below.
I was going to just post without comment, but well, you know me (or you don’t…) so… just quick, self-indulgent observations:
1. “Boys Don’t Cry” by The Cure (I’ve had a thing for this song for a long time. I am a fan of The Cure (mostly early period stuff), and this song in particular has always spoken to me.
SXSW 2014 Lou Reed Tribute: My close personal Facebook friend, Richard Barone and Alejandro Escovedo put together a Lou Reed Tribute show at SXSW which was not only truly epic, but which also highlighted the width and depth and breadth of the man’s music. Video’s from that show have begun to surface so us schleps who couldn’t be there can witness the glory. I posted three here,
2. “White Light White Heat” by the forementioned Mr. Barone and Mr. Escovedo and featuring their legendary house band which included Lenny Kaye, Clem Burke, and others.
3. “Satellite of Love” by Spandau Ballet (always one of my favorite Lou Reed songs – I even wrote a short story borrowing the title. Again demonstrating the impact…. I started trying to imagine what music today would be like if The Velvet Underground and Lou Reed had never existed… truth is, I couldn’t even imagine – or don’t want to… Spandau Ballet sound great, too.)
4. “Run, Run, Run” by The Black Lips (another favorite song of mine. Great band and a great cover).
end of Lou Reed tribute videos
5. “Poolside” by Webb Wilder (so I’ve been seeing Webb Wilder posting on Facebook quite a bit recently. Which made me think back to the days when the Webb Wilder credo was plastered across my back on a regular basis.)
6. “Hopeful” by Spencer Livingston (Spencer Livingston is in a group called The Alternates which was one of the first bands featured on E2TG. He put out a solo record last year, and I wanted to add one of his songs which shows off his incredible voice and great songwriting.)
7. “Where Were You Hiding When the Storm Broke?” by The Alarm (I’m not sure what brought this to my mind. I was a big Alarm fan back in the day. I don’t know how many times I listened to the whole Declaration album. Urgent, passionate, and ooh that hair!)
8. “Gloria” by U2 (believe it or not, but I was kind of a late bloomer when it came to music. Some friends were talking about U2 all the time, and I didn’t know anything about them. Then I saw this video, and I was hooked.)
9. “One Time, One Night” by Los Lobos (always dug this song)
10. “The Conductor Wore Black” by Rank and File (Alejandro Escovedo was in this band along with the Kinman brothers. This was the part of the “movement” from punk to alt-country. Somebody called it cowpunk, but I never did.)
11. “Just Friends” by Beat Rodeo (I was introduced to quite a bit of music – including Beat Rodeo featuring my close personal Facebook friend Steve Almaas – thanks to IRS Records Presents The Cutting Edge on MTV – when the M stood for music.)
12. “How to Rob a Bank” by Those Mockingbirds (Those Mockingbirds were the band that first got me connected to some of the great music being made in the New Jersey and New York areas these days. They’ve gotten some good responses to this video, and I want them to get more – so check it out!)
13. “Watusi Rodeo” by Guadalcanal Diary (Another band I originally “discovered” on MTV back in the day. A became a big fan and got to see them live a couple of times.)
14. “Fade Away” by Bodeans (I don’t know how many times I saw Bodeans live back in those heady days of youth. The vocals and sound always blew me away. Someone had posted about the Robbie Robertson album and I remember Sammy’s contribution to the song “Somewhere Down the Crazy River”)
15. “Jesus Everyday” by Treat Her Right (The late Mark Sandman was in this band before he was in Morphine. I got to see them live. This song is one my favorites.)
16. “Dead Letters” by Sealight (Originally when I started writing Ear to the Ground, I decided I wasn’t going to “review” albums. I would feature music, comment on it, but for some reason I didn’t think I could write a decent review. I guess I thought there was a magic key that I didn’t possess. Then, Sealight went and mailed me a copy of their then new CD from France… this was the very first CD I got as a blogger, and I felt I “owed” them a review. I ended up writing about this incredibly moving and atmospheric album – just writing my feelings and observations as I listened. I don’t know if it was a “real” review or if any of the “reviews” I’ve written sense possess that elusive magic review key, but the fact was that the music inspired me, and so review or not, I felt what I wrote was real and true.)
17. “Appetite” by The Grimm Generation (Another E2TG favorite – and a new song. When I interviewed this band I understood that we had very similar musical tastes and came from the same time in music, and it all made sense why I connected so much with their music. That and the fact that they are freakin’ brilliant!)
18. “Get Into My Car” (Billy Ocean cover) by GWAR (RIP Dave Brockie. GWAR made music for a long time and were so over the top and wild and crazy… I don’t know who else would mash-up this Billy Ocean song with (NO SPOILER) the way they did here.)
19. “Election Year Blues” by Miss Shevaughn and Yuma Wray (in anticipation of this past Tuesday’s show here in Nashville, I watched this video from the last time they were here. They did this song again and if anything it sounded better)
20. acoustic blowout – The Minutemen (Punk rock changed by life. I was remembering an acoustic performance from The Cutting Edge, but I found this instead. D. Boon has been gone almost thirty years, but his legacy lives on. The Minutemen changed my life)
21. “Ghosts” by The Jam (This is one of favorite songs of all time…. it got into my head yesterday, so I added it to this playlist.)
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,”script”,”twitter-wjs”);https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js
–>
E2TG: MUSIC/WORDS 