Super Bowl Sunday 2010 – Geaux Saints, Who Are You, hey it’s the theme song from CSI!
Feb 7th
Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone! I’ve donned my Cafe du Monde t-shirt and am ready to cheer on the New Orleans Saints later this afternoon. I’ll be thrilled if they win, but something tells me Peyton and the his Colts are going to come out on top. I hope I’m wrong.
Of course, I’ll be paying close attention to the halftime entertainment, which this year comes in the form of The Who. Original members Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are joined by drummer (and Ringo’s son) Zak Starkey and bass player Pino Palladino. The spectacle and scale of Super Bowl Halftime is always interesting – and having some of my musical heroes involved the past few years – Bruce, Prince, Petty – has made it even more surreal. This year, a generation of younger people will collectively say: “Dude! These guys are doing the song from CSI!!”
You won’t be hearing “Eminence Front” today, but I have to say – it’s my favorite Who song. Enjoy yourselves today, don’t drink too much, yada yada yada…
Go Saints!
The Friday Five: February 5, 2010
Feb 5th
Friday Five : \’frī-(,)dā,-dē ‘fīv\ : On the sixth day of every week, I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes, then share the first five tracks and thought for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, occasionally we’ll have a guest, but most of the time it’s just me. The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up your media player of choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments.
The Five:
This week’s shuffle served as a soundtrack to what has turned out to be an insanely busy morning; here are the first five tracks to hit my ears. This week’s Five was followed up by Episode 6 of The Popdose Podcast, which I highly recommend everyone making time to listen to.
“Scar Tissue” by Red Hot Chili Peppers (from Californication, 1999)
“Skeletons” by Stevie Wonder (from Characters, 1987)
“Out All Night” by The Pietasters (from Willis, 1997)
“Bleeding” by Flickerstick (from Tarantula, 2003)
“Last” by Nine Inch Nails (from Broken, 1992)
What is playing as your soundtrack today?
Ick’s Radio Daze: 99.5 – Denver’s The Mountain
Feb 2nd
Kathy B. is back for her second Radio Daze installment. Here’s her hour (plus) with The Mountain-ain-ain-ain! You can check out all of the Radio Daze pieces here.- Pete
Station: 99.5 FM KQMT
Format: Classic Rock
Type: Terrestrial (Denver, CO)
Slogan: “Ninety-nine five The Mountain, A Mountain of Classics”
Date / Time: Jan. 29th, 2010 / 12:16-1:10pm MST
Commercials: 8.5 minutes
Streaming Online? Yes (www.995themountain.com)
Hot Dude on Home Page of Web Site? Some rotating images in the upper left include Bono and the Police. I’d place all four of them in the 75th percentile of “attractive people.” But no traditional hot-looking guy.
Hot Chick? The closest thing is a Haitian relief video with Michelle Obama. Somehow I don’t think she’s on their home page as a token “hot chick.” (But yes, she is. And I’m straight.)
DJ: Mike Casey, then Robbie Knight
Favorite Song: Talking Heads — “Life During Wartime”
Least Favorite Song: I refuse to answer this on the grounds that I may incriminate myself. 
Song List:
The Rolling Stones — “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”
The Eagles — “Those Shoes”
The Tubes — “She’s a Beauty”
The Ramones — “Rock & Roll High School”
Talking Heads — “Life During Wartime”
Heart — “Even It Up”
Elvis Costello — “Pump It Up”
Led Zeppelin — “The Ocean”
Queen — “Somebody to Love”
Pink Floyd — “Time”
U2 & B.B. King — “When Love Comes to Town”
Comments: I first started listening at 10:45 am, in the middle of their “Commercial-free from 9 to noon” block. As I was compiling the playlist, I realized that not only was it commercial-free, it was DJ-free as well, which made me wonder if it’s a nationally pre-programmed block that goes out to a bunch of different radio stations across the country. Granted, all of the songs were ones that most people older than 15 don’t need to have identified for them (and the more you’re over that age, the less you need them identified)*. But it made me wonder if I could pick a radio station at random from say, Duluth, look at their program list, and find the exact same block of songs in the same sequence.
So I decided to pick a different hour of programming, in the interest of fairness. At 12:16, after a five-minute block of commercials, they started their daily “Barrel of Monkeys” feature, in which listeners call in and request songs — the catch being that each song title needs to start with the last letter of the previous song title. Apparently they had ended with U2’s “New Year’s Day” the day before. The Ramones and Led Zeppelin songs were “Wild Cards” that they threw in because I guess they didn’t want too many songs beginning with the same letters so close together. Five more minutes of commercials and the “normal programming” started with Queen.
The previous hour had been cookie-cutter classic rock, so it was kind of nice to hear a few curves thrown during the request hour (it’s been a while since I heard the Tubes or a deep Eagles track). But it still kind of left me with a “meh” feeling. There wasn’t anything that I found extremely offensive, but neither was there something that made me smile just hearing it come on. It’s all kind of in that middle ground of “I don’t really like any of this all that much, but I don’t really hate it either.” On a scale of 1 to 5, everything comes in between 2.75 and 3.25.
*In case anybody’s interested, this is what was played in the hour and a half leading up to the “Barrel of Monkeys”:
Santana — “She’s Not There”
Foreigner — “Hot Blooded”
Steely Dan — “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”
The Pretenders — “I’ll Stand by You”
Genesis — “That’s All”
Jimi Hendrix — “Fire”
John Mellencamp — “Cherry Bomb”
The Police — “Spirits in the Material World”
Styx — “Fooling Yourself”
Eric Clapton — “Tears in Heaven”
Supertramp — “Bloody Well Right”
The Clash — “Should I Stay or Should I Go”
The Rolling Stones — “Beast of Burden”
The Allman Brothers — “Blue Sky”
Stevie Nicks — “Edge of Seventeen”
Talking Heads — “And She Was”
Billy Joel — “My Life”
Aerosmith — “Dream On”
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers — “Don’t Come Around Here No More”
The Cars — “Moving in Stereo”
Leave The Window Open
Feb 2nd
Add Chuck Prophet to the “I Should Have Listened To By Now” List. I know very little about this man. I just know that I’ve heard his name over the years, and heard his music here and there. Given that the words “singer/songwriter” and “roots” are often associated with his name, you’d think I’d have explored his music by now.
But I haven’t.
Luckily, Sirius-XM’s The Loft – my most frequently listened to station of late (after Howard) – has been pushing some great new music my way. Today, after devouring the #4 Chile Relleno / cheese enchilada combo at Los Favoritos, I was on my way back to work when I heard this cool little nugget of coolness from Prophet.
It’s the closing song of his latest album, Let Freedom Ring!, and it resonated with me in a Tom Petty / Greg Brown sort of way. Cool tune.
Here’s the stream from Lala…
Buy Let Freedom Ring!
The Friday Five: January 29, 2010
Jan 29th
Friday Five : \’frī-(,)dā,-dē ‘fīv\ : On the sixth day of every week, I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes, then share the first five tracks and thought for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, occasionally we’ll have a guest, but most of the time it’s just me. The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up your media player of choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments.
The Five:
“So Into You” by Shudder to Think (from Pony Express Record, 1994)
Bringing post-hardcore though pop colored glasses, Shudder to Think brought something different to the oversaturated, grunge-fueled alternative scene in ‘94. A cover of the 1977 hit by Atlanta Rhythm Section, the track is angular and tense; singer Craig Wedren croons in a devilish falsetto taking the track in a darker direction than the original.
“Hot for Teacher” by Van Halen (from 1984, 1984)
Like many burgeoning guitarists of the day, I spent months dissecting the legato tapped intro of this classic. I was convinced that somehow, Eddie Van Halen was in possession of extra digits on each of his hands to be able to play the impressive passage. All this before the tune even kicks off into its school-boy crush inspired shuffle. While many will point to his signature cadenza, “Eruption,” as his finest moment, I have to point to this track as the defining track of the David Lee Roth era.
“Fool in the Rain” by Led Zeppelin (from In Through the Out Door, 1979)
I may have mentioned it here before; I am not a huge Led Zeppelin fan. This is immediately apparent when I say that “Fool in the Rain” — possibly the least “Zeppelin” tune in the band’s oeuvre — is my favorite tune by the band. From the slow shuffle, building up to the samba breakdown and Jimmy Page’s super-processed octave guitar solo, the song has long been on my “desert island” list.
“Pink Cashmere” by Prince (from The Hits/The B-Sides, 1993)
His Purple Badness shows up for a second week in the number four slot. “Pink Cashmere” was one of three ‘new’ tracks included on The Hits/The B-Sides, and by far the most solid of the bunch. Recorded during around the time of Lovesexy, the song bears only a passing resemblance to the other tracks recorded during that cycle. As the story goes, Prince wrote this track for his special woman of the moment, to whom he presented with a rather expensive custom pink cashmere and black mink coat.
“If 6 Was 9” by The Jimi Hendrix Experience (from Axis: Bold as Love, 1968)
The shuffle has hit the trifecta this week. Starting with Eddie, followed by Prince, and closing with Jimi; three of my favorite guitarists turn in appearances on this week’s Friday Five. The psychedelic blues-rock jam of “If 6 Was 9″ is a truly a headphone masterpiece. If you doubt this, grab your favorite set of cans — and those earbuds do not count — and click on the little blue arrow above.
What’s on your shuffle today?
The Silver Seas in Chateau Revenge!
Jan 28th
Occasionally, a record will simply jump out of the speakers and demand that you just stop and listen. I had one of those moments late last year when my musical soul-brother Jason Hare introduced me to The Silver Seas. Since that time, the group’s release High Society has been on a nearly constant loop — so much so, I’m pretty sure I could recite the entire record a scant 3 months later. So you can imagine how much I’m anticipating the band’s new release Chateau Revenge!, due in April. The band delivered this little taste, featuring the track “Candy,” to introduce the concept of the record. Stay tuned to Ickmusic for a full review of the record in the coming weeks.
The Silver Seas promo from The Silver Seas on Vimeo.
I highly recommend picking up the band’s 2006 release High Society.
Pilgrim
Jan 27th
Cover Art: Tony Fitzpatrick
I still have a bad taste in my mouth from this week’s Radio Daze piece, so I’ve been doing my best to reverse the damage with – ya know – real music. And it gets no more genuine than Steve Earle. I finally dug out this CD a couple of months ago after a few years of accidental hibernation. In 1998, Steve joined forces with bluegrass icons The Del McCoury Band to release The Mountain, a fantastic collection of bluegrass tunes that range from down & dirty songs about life in the mines, the Civil War and train ridin’, to the downright sublime.
The album wraps up with “Pilgrim”, which falls into the latter category: 5 minutes and 28 seconds of beauty, affirmation, and faith. The surrounding cast of characters in this tune ain’t too shabby either. Joining Steve on harmonies in this song: Emmylou Harris, Sam Bush, Kathy Chiavola, Tim O’Brien, Gillian Welch, and Dave Rawlings (who I just featured a couple weeks ago). On mandolin? Sam Bush. Dobro? Jerry Douglas.
Busy studio in Nashville that day. Anyhow, this is just a work of beauty. Not to mention the whole album is tremendous. So here…
Steve Earle & the Del McCoury Band – Pilgrim (mp3)
Pick up The Mountain
Ick’s Radio Daze: Puttin’ on the Hitz – 101.5 JamZ
Jan 25th
Every week I pick a radio station and listen in for an hour, documenting the experience – for better or worse – just for you.
It’s Ick’s Radio Daze. Click here to see all of the Radio Daze posts together.
Station: 101.5 (KZON)
Format: Top Hits
Type: Terrestrial (Phoenix, AZ)
Slogan: 101.5 JamZ
Date / Time: Jan. 25th, 2010 / 9-10pm MST
Commercials: 7 mins
Hot Chick on Home Page of Web Site? Yes. Beyonce. Britney. Mariah.
DJ: Sugabear
Favorite Song: I don’t even really care for the song, but “Empire State of Mind” beat out the hour of trash I just put myself through.
Least Favorite Song: “Whatcha Say” – Jason Derulo
Song List:
Young Money feat. Lloyd – “Bedrock”
Lady Gaga – “Bad Romance”
Jason Derulo – Whatcha Say
Orianthi – “According to You”
Lil Wayne – “Lollipop”
Britney Spears – “3”
Lady Gaga feat. Beyonce – “Telephone”
Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys – “Empire State of Mind”
Ke$ha – “Tik Tok”
New Boys feat. Ray J. – “Tie Me Down”
Drake – “Best I Ever Had”
David Guetta feat. Akon – “Sexy Chick”
Jay Sean feat. Lil Jon & Sean Paul – “Do You Remember”
T.I. – “Whatever You Like”
Comments:
I’m getting old.
Good Lord thank God that’s over. To think this station used to mean something to me. I mentioned a few weeks back that KZON used to be AAA, and it helped introduce me to Steve Earle and Bruce Cockburn, among many others. Well that format went kaput in the mid to late 90’s, and I’m not even sure how many format changes it’s gone through since. But in 2010, it’s a station owned by CBS Radio, locked (down) and loaded to bombard you with the hitz of day. Its demographic is the tween & teen market, something I haven’t been a part of for 20 years now.
When the very first lyrics I heard were: “You can call me Mr. Flintstone, I can make your bedrock”, I knew I was in for a long hour. Thanks Young Money.
One lasting impression from this hour: A-u-t-o-t-u-n-e. Holy modulation batman, does anyone in pop music not use autotune?? It was everywhere! For complete and utter Autotune Hell, listen to “Whatcha Say” by Jason Derulo. Really sad that autotune has turned into the rule instead of the exception. Blechh.
This was a very long hour for me, folks. Yeah, I’m showing my age. I’ll turn 40 this year. I’m the “old guy” now to the kids who listen to this station. But I cannot imagine coming of age listening to this stuff – formulaic to the extreme, lacking emotion, and any semblance of soul. The subject matter is unimaginative, simplistic, and completely vapid – and this is the music that kids will look back to 20 years from now with the same nostalgia I have looking back to Prince, Run-DMC, hell, even Samantha Fox and the like?
Granted, it could be a generational thing, but I honestly feel like something really bad – something irreversible – is happening in popular music. Painful. Just painful. I weep for pop music today.
Sunday’s Grammys should be a hoot. Yeahhh, I’ll be watching. *shakes head*
Hope for Haiti Now
Jan 23rd
Like many of you, I sat down and took in the two hours of Hope for Haiti Now last night – a music-based benefit organized by overall good guy George Clooney. It was broadcast on most TV and cable networks. This will shock you, but Fox News did not – I repeat, DID NOT – broadcast the show last night. That is completely surprising to – well – nobody.
Well, those Fox News watching fu–tards missed out on some pretty cool moments last night. If you could make it through the awkward celebrity phone conversations with the general public, you saw the likes of Bono, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Bono, Mary J. Blige, Coldplay, Jennifer Hudson, Dave Matthews and Neil Young, Sting, Shakira, and of course the Boss (and many others).
All of the performances can be purchased on iTunes or Amazon.
Here’s a look at my favorite moments from the evening:
5. Bruce Springsteen – “We Shall Overcome”
This classic spiritual was covered by Bruce on his 2006 Seeger Sessions record. Last night, Bruce brought out his backup singers, along with Charles Giordano on accordion and Curt Ramm on trumpet.
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4. Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris – “Hallelujah”
I was pleasantly surprised by this. As covers of this Leonard Cohen song go, Jeff Buckley’s stands firmly above the rest. But Justin and Matt last night were spot on with their harmonies, and brought out the true beauty in the song – which is more of a lover’s lament than a song about hope, strength, and inspiration (the general theme of the night). I was most impressed by Matt Morris’s vocals.
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3. Shakira – “I’ll Stand By You”
This song is one of my favorite Pretenders tunes, and Shakira nailed it, in my opinion. Of course, my opinion may have been different if she looked like Tiny Tim, but visually and aurally, it was fantastic – especially with the Roots backing her up.
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2. Sting w/ the Roots – “Driven to Tears”
What a great version this was. The full, lush arrangement – Sting on acoustic surrounded by the Roots. Questlove, drummer for the Roots, mentioned on Twitter that he was really looking forward to this performance because he’s practiced drums to the Police since he was a kid.
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1. Wyclef Jean – “Rivers of Babylon” > Haitian traditional
I’m a big fan of “Rivers of Babylon”, a song written by the Melodians in 1972, and covered by many, including Steve Earle. But when Wyclef shifted gears and launched into the percussive blast of his native Haiti, it was like a load being lifted from our shoulders. He sang in English and his native creole, sang about strength in the face of adversity, sang even about Anderson Cooper and CNN. It was a perfect ending to the night.
The Friday Five: January 22, 2010
Jan 22nd
Friday Five : \’frī-(,)dā,-dē ‘fīv\ : On the sixth day of every week, I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes, then share the first five tracks and thought for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, occasionally we’ll have a guest, but most of the time it’s just me. The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up your media player of choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments.
Editor’s Note: The nightmare of recovering my hard drive continues, so I’m still relying on my iPod to provide the shuffle. Hopefully I’ll be back up and running by next week’s Friday Five. – Michael
The Five:
1. “Buddy Holly” by Weezer (from Weezer, 1994)
My 11-year old son absolutely loves Weezer, so much so that he’s taken to belting out “Say it Ain’t So,” spontaneously.
2. “Each Year” by Ra Ra Riot (from The Rhumb Line, 2008)
I never get tired of hearing this record. With any luck, we’ll get something new from the band in the next year.
3. “WWXII” by The Damnwells (from One Great Century, 2009)
A somber view of the secondhand victims of war, the refrain of this song stings like nails; “We don’t feel no shame / And we don’t take the blame / Men on TV tell me there’s no other way / We’ve got to take mama’s baby away.”
4. “I Love U in Me” by Prince (from The Hits/The B-Sides, 1993)
One of the most beautifully dirty tunes in the Prince’s catalog.
5. “Black” by Pearl Jam (from Ten, 1992)
I finally purchased 2008’s “Legacy Edition” of Ten just before the holidays, and found myself wrapped back up in the impact of this set of songs had on my life and “Black” is definitely a high point of that.
What’s on your shuffle today?
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