• Friday Five

    The Friday Five: March 30, 2012

    Friday Five

    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:

    “Every Day I Have the Blues” by Count Basie (from Verve Jazz Masters 2, 1994)

    You know, despite the title, this number swings like mad. I’m not sure I’d swing so hard if I had the blues everyday. Memphis Slim sure didn’t write it this way.

    “Got Me Under Pressure” by ZZ Top (from Greatest Hits, 1992)

    Driving beat; thumping bass line; Berry-esque boogie–yep, it’s a by-the-numbers ZZ Top hit.

    “Hot Thing (dub version)” by Prince (from 12″ Archive 2.0, 2001)

    Makes me long for the days when Prince would put out singles stuffed to the gills with b-sides and remixes.

    “Kit (What’s the Scoop)” by Slick Rick (from The Great Adventures of Slick Rick, 1988)

    Rick the Ruler! I wore out at least two copies of this cassette back in the day.

    “Dancing Nancies” Dave Matthews Band (from 1995-02-25: DMBLive: Lafayette College-Allan Kirby Field House, Easton, PA, 2010)

    This is a pretty subdued version of the DMB live staple.

    What’s on your shuffle today?

  • Ick's Pick

    Delta Spirit’s new one

    The new (self-titled) Delta Spirit album came out earlier this month, and it’s a good ‘un. It’s the southern California band’s third full length release, and is a departure of sorts from the more folk-based rock influences of their first two (excellent) albums.

    Plenty of hard driving rock n roll (“Money Saves”, “Empty House”, “Tear It Up”, “Tellin’ the Mind”); slow burners (“Home”, “Yamaha”) but also more electronic touches like “California,” a tune the band previewed before the release date that seemed to polarize a certain fan-base who wanted more of the same.

    Delta Spirit continues to evolve, and I’m excited to be along for the ride. Each of the eleven songs offers something unique and special, and with each listen, I find something new to like about each one.

    Here’s the just-released video for “California”, which captures alternative teen angst and confusion. In a way, I think of it as sort of a 21st century update to Tom Petty’s “Into the Great Wide Open” video.

    Since reading I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution, I’m a lot more aware of the director role in video making. This one was directed by Abteen Bagheri, a 22-yr old recent Stanford grad. Nice gig!

    Buy: Delta Spirit

  • Ick's Pick

    Brett Dennen, I like you

    Goodness gracious me, have you heard the latest Brett Dennen album? Loverboy has been out for a year, but it took me until just a couple weeks ago to hear a tune from it (“Little Cosmic Girl” on SiriusXM), which sent me scurrying to check it out.

    I’m all about the joyous and positive vibe of Brett’s latest record – and no song better captures it than “Dancing At A Funeral.”

    I recommend running – not walking – to buy this album. Or at least dial it up on your Rdio or Spotify or Mog or whatever you may be using in this spoiled rotten digital age we find ourselves in.

    Buy: Brett Dennen’s Loverboy (Amazon MP3 Exclusive Version)

  • Friday Five

    The Friday Five: March 23, 2012

    Friday Five

    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:

    Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug … today, I’m buzzing like a bumblebee. Here’s what is powering my flight:

    “V-2 Schneider” by David Bowie (from “Heroes”, 1977)

    “Recruting Sargeant” by Great Big Sea (from Play, 1997)

    “Window” by Mordred (from In This Life, 1991)

    “Dirty Diana” by Michael Jackson (from Bad, 1987)

    “So What” by Miles Davis Quintet (from The Unissued Japanese Concerts (disc 1: 1964-07-12: Tokyo, Japan), 2011)

    What’s on your shuffle today?

  • Friday Five

    The Friday Five: March 16, 2012

    Friday Five

    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:

    “Lemon Yellow” by Plasticene (from BASEketball, 1998)

    I have absolutely no recollection of this song. Clearly, there was no short supply of soundtrack fodder in the ’90s.

    “Rock in This Pocket (Song of David)” by Suzanne Vega (from 99.9 F°, 1992)

    I was duped into purchasing this record for the oh-so-catchy title track, and the even more efficient earworm, “Blood Makes Noise.” The juxtaposition of Vega’s folksy leaning against the pseudo-industrial production of Vega’s husband Mitchell Froom.

    “I Found a Girl” by The Valadiers (from The Complete Motown Singles, Volume 3: 1963, 2005)

    Motown’s first white vocal group, and they don’t even rate a Wikipedia page? Ain’t that a bitch.

    “Green Room” by Dig (from Dig, 1993)

    “All I really want to do is get high …” Well, it would appear that my shuffle is attempting to expose just how much bad ’90s music is lurking in the dark bowels of my library.

    “The Betrayer” by Kaki King (from Junior, 2010)

    I’m not going to lie: I preferred Miss King when she just played guitar.

    What’s on your shuffle today?

  • Friday Five

    The Friday Five: March 9, 2012

    Friday Five

    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:

    “Drown” by The Smashing Pumpkins (from Singles, 1992)

    By virtue of its inclusion on the Singles soundtrack this could be my favorite Smashing Pumpkins track. On second thought, that right probably belongs to the the album cut “Mayonnaise” from Siamese Dream, but I’d still place “Drown” at a close second.

    “Mishale” by Andru Donalds (from Andru Donalds, 1994)

    Okay, raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of Andru Donalds. I’m not going to lie, I’m astounded to find that this tune actually charted in Billboard’s Hot 100.

    “The Monster’s Heart” by The Damnwells (2009)

    During the recording of No One Listens to the Band Anymore, Alex Dezen opened the studio doors and gave the fans that pledged to fund the record access to the demos, outtakes and sketches from the proceedings. This is the early bones of “The Monster,” and is just as powerful in its quiet acoustic take.

    “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide” by ZZ Top (from Greatest Hits, 1992)

    Do you think that for a moment the boys in ZZ Top considered for a moment while writing all these blues infused tunes they’d serve as the soundtrack for shilling everything from automobiles to beer?

    “The Magic Number” by De La Soul (from The Best Of. 2003)

    Ending on a funky note, nice!

    What’s on your shuffle today?

  • Friday Five

    The Friday Five: March 2, 2012

    Friday Five

    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:

    “Nice Guys” by We Are Scientists (from Barbara, 2010)

    I love tripping over songs that I forgot about. Ironically, the music blogosphere completely forgot about We Are Scientists by the time this release came out, which is a damn shame as it contains some of their strongest songs.

    “The Stars of Track and Field” by Belle and Sebastian (from If You’re Feeling Sinister, 1996)

    Oh, the toothache! Now with 90% more trumpet!

    I kid, because I care. I stumbled onto Belle and Sebastian during my stint working at a record store in the mid-’90s. Yes, an actual record store.

    “Long Kiss Goodnight” by The Notorious B.I.G. (from Life After Death, 1997)

    Goddammit, Diddy is one annoying motherfucker.

    “Leave in Silence (longer)” by Depeche Mode (from A Broken Frame, 1982)

    Just lovely.

    “Granny” by Dave Matthews Band (from Warehouse 8, Volume 3, 2007)

    “Love! Baby!” Nothing like wrapping up another Friday Five with a little bit of love. To quote my friend Dennis, “Hope you all hear something good this weekend!”

    What’s on your shuffle today?