Obscurity of the Week – Call Florence Pow
Well, obscure to me anyway. Are you in the mood for two minutes and forty-one seconds of weirdness? I came across the dynamically odd duo Call Florence Pow a few weeks back, once again courtesy of Radio Paradise. Based out of NYC, they’re made up of two fellows: Brian Jacobs and David Tobias. You can read their bio on All Music.
Odd. And a great name to boot.
Call Florence Pow: Preparation for Battle
Check out their only release on Amazon.
Southside Takes You Home
For those of you who picked up the new Springsteen CD, Devils & Dust, you’ve heard “All the Way Home”, a song written by Bruce of course, but that first appeared on Southside Johnny‘s 1991 album ‘Better Days’ [Buy it here].
For those that have heard both versions, you know that the arrangements are drastically different. Southside’s version is a slowed down acoustic, more tender plea. Bruce played this acoustically at my very first live Bruce experience in September ’92 (at the World Music Theater outside of Chicago), and it blew me away. So when I saw the song listed on the track list for Devils & Dust, I got excited. Little did I know, Bruce reworked it in a major way, with a driving beat, a sitar, tambora, electric sarangi, among other things (Rolling Stone magazine compares it to ‘Street Fighting Man’, which I still don’t see). I love the new version, mind you, but still wish he would’ve stayed more true to the original arrangement. BUT, Brendan O’Brien produced his album, not me…. they could’ve at least asked…
So here’s the original from Southside, with backing vocals, and “various assorted keyboards and guitars” courtesy of the Boss.
Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes: All the Way Home
Flashback: Wild Horses (no not that one)
I recently pulled out an old mix tape from my younger days, and heard this song. I was 16-17 when I heard it, and really enjoyed it, and still do after all these years. Now I’m no Gino Vannelli nut, in fact, I couldn’t name you another GV song, but this one is light and cool with those brush drum sticks laying it down.
The song starts off, “As the sun goes down on the Arizona plain and the wind rustles by like a runaway train, a hey hey, it’s beautiful thing…” Must’ve been what led me to Arizona years later. Besides that, it’s another one of those teen angst/ love songs that I loved so much as a kid. If anyone else has heard this, say aye.
Gino Vanelli: Wild Horses [Buy]
Howlin at the Apple Tree with Wolfmother
Okay, I’m admittedly way too mellow lately. So let’s kick the weekend off with a barnstormin’ aggressive number from Wolfmother.
Play this one a few times, then praise and curse it at the same time as it sticks in your head for the entire weekend.
Take that.
Wolfmother: Apple Tree [buy their EP].
Photo credit: pitpony.photography, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Gone Fishin
A deep, smooth, and throaty selection for you tonight. One of the best albums I own is Chris Rea‘s ‘Auberge’ [Amazon]. It has some great love songs on there: “Heaven”, “Sing a Song of Love to Me”, and “The Mention of Your Name”. But thrown among these great ballads is “Gone Fishing”, a beautiful song with a melancholy edge. “You ain’t ever gonna be happy, any time, any way…So I’m gone fishin’, and I’m going today.”
You tell her Chris.
Jeez, my sensitive side’s comin’ out this week. What the…
Chris Rea: Gone Fishin’
Bottle Rockin’
So have you ever seen the movie Bottle Rocket? It came out in 1996, was written by Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson, and stars Owen and his brother Luke. Excellent movie. It featured a song called “Alone Again Or” performed by a band called Love.
Well, Calexico did their own version of the tune, adding their southwestern zest to it. Suffice it to say, it has seen plenty of rotation in my morning and afternoon commute.
Arriba! Buy Calexico’s musica aqui.
Calexico: Alone Again Or
Prine Time – Long Monday
I don’t mean to bring everyone down with a song called “Long Monday” at the very end of the weekend, but since I’m experiencing a Springsteen hangover from last night’s great show, and I’ve been wanting to showcase a tune off of John Prine’s brand new release, ‘Fair & Square’ [Buy it Here], well, it’s just right.
Though nothing in John Prine’s catalog has ever matched ‘The Missing Years‘ for me, this is a great CD, full of John’s witty & and often hilarious lyrics (e.g. “I felt about as welcome as a Wal-Mart superstore”), and laid back acoustic tunes.
“Long Monday” includes harmonies from Mindy Smith, who I know little about, but I’m about to jump into her web site. In a nutshell, she’s a country-folk songstress from Nashville whose debut album came out last year. Anyhow, yep, another week begins, take it away, John.
John Prine: Long Monday
