Ickmusic’s Friday Five: July 11, 2008
Its days like today that test the limits of my ability to stay focused on the work at hand. Its 77°F, 50% humidity, sunny and the great outdoors (not to mention the pool) is beckoning and I’m doing my best to block it out. Thankfully I’ve got the Friday Five to keep my attention focused for the next little bit. Last week we celebrated the fourth with a themed playlist and the Fivers represented with their patriotic best. And since the playlist concept seemed to really spark some interesting tracks, here’s a playlist for this Friday:
Match ANY of the following conditions
NAME contains Sunny
NAME contains Beautiful
NAME contains Warm
NAME contains Summer
NAME contains Day
NAME contains Weekend
This called up a staggering number of tracks for me to shuffle through!
For those who have not joined in the Five, here’s the scoop: … I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes and then show you my five with some words for each track.
Then it’s your turn! You can play along with the themed playlist or just share the first five of your shuffle, either way the fun is in playing musical voyeur for the day.
That said…
Here are this week’s tracks:
1. Zwan – Endless Summer (from Mary Star of the Sea)
One of the few Billy Corgan projects that I’ve truly enjoyed since Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Zwan had a purity to it that could clearly not be sustained with a maniac like Corgan at the helm. It’s a damned shame, really as I truly believe that the combined creative forces of Zwan could have really produced some amazing music together. I would also be remiss if I did not at least mention the beautiful foil of Paz Lenchantin. She somehow balanced Billy‘s nasal falsetto and made it nearly accessible.
2. The Beatles – Good Day Sunshine (from Revolver)
Pleasant, I suppose.
3. New Order – Blue Monday (from Retro)
While I can appreciate New Order (and even more so Joy Division) for the influence they have provided to countless bands that I enjoy, I’ve never really been a huge fan of their discography. I certainly enjoy all the hits to no end, but that’s about where it ends.
4. Prince & The Revolution – The Beautiful Ones (from Purple Finale)
From the final show of the Purple Rain tour (Orange Bowl, Miami: 7th April 1985), this is nothing short of astounding. The Revolution are as tight as ever and Prince provides a highly charged performance.
5. Flickerstick – Beautiful (from Welcoming Home the Astronauts)
One of my favorite records of the past decade, it kills me that these guys never made it the way they deserved. I suppose the dual curse of having been a reality show contest winner and releasing your major label debut on September 11th, 2001 really was too much to overcome. The band has persisted through some line up changes and can still be seen occasionally in and around the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.
Now, excuse me while I slip outside for a quick walk, yeah that’s it… Tag! You’re it!
11 Comments
whiteray
Well, got here early this week. It’s barely past noon on Friday.
1. “Sunny Road” by Emiliana Torrini from “Fisherman’s Woman,” 2004. All-Music Guide says she’s Icelandic, despite the name. A little like Bjork but more accessible. (And a better voice, but that’s just me.)
2. “Beautiful Brother of Mine” by Curtis Mayfield from “Roots,” 1971. It sounds like Curtis was getting ready for “Superfly” here. This is powerful stuff.
3. “Mary, Warm My Bed” by Mike D’Abo from “D’Abo,” 1970. A quick little number with some nice chord changes reminds me that D’Abo was a pretty good song-writer.
4. “Two Weeks Last Summer” by the Strawbs with Sandy Denny, possibly from the “All Our Own Work” sessions, 1968. Interesting piece, but Sandy was just warming up; her best work came with Fairport Convention.
5. “A Sunshine Day in My Mind” by the Siegel-Schwall Band from “Siegel-Schwall ’70,” 1970. A live droning blues workout that probably sounded better if you were there. I should probably delete this, but I think you all know how that goes.
Have a good melodic weekend, all!
ljhord
1. “All Summer Long” by Chris Rea.
2. “Sunny Side Of Heaven” by Fleetwood Mac.
3. “Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird)” by Chuck Jackson.
4. “Working For The Weekend” by Loverboy.
5. “Another Day” by Paul McCartney.
Steve
– “Summer of 69” – Bryan Adams – Great summer song from before he wussed out.
– “Hanging Around The Day – Pt 1” – The Polyphonic Spree – Love the Spree and their wacky 30 people singing at once bit. Though, I like Part 2 of the song better as Part 1 isn’t really anything.
– “Holiday in Cambodia” – The Dead Kennedys – From a chorus to punk? I guess it works, but not what I’d call a summer song though.
– “Celebrated Summer” – Husker Du – “New Day Rising” has to be one of the best punk rock albums ever. Bob Mould for president!
– “Last Day Of Our Acquaintance” – Sinead O’Connor – What a bummer of a song to end on. Oh well…
KathyB
All I got were “Day”s (even though I have 13 different songs called “Beautiful”). I’m really happy with the first two songs, and ho-hum about the rest:
1. “One Fine Day”—Jim Cuddy from “The Light That Guides You Home.” I’m a Blue Rodeo fanatic.
2. “The Ballad of Daykitty”—Lou Barlow from “Emoh”
3. “Pizza Day”—Aquabats from “Myths, Legends and Other Amazing Adventures, Vol. 2” I should get rid of this song and the next one, because I rated each of them only two stars, but I must have seen something in them to hang onto them.
4. “My Waking Days” by J. Tillman, Rated two stars, although I normally like this artist.
5. “Birthday” by Junior Boys from “Last Exit”
I do have a “sunny” for my sixth track.
Andrew
1. “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”–Elton John (Goodbye Yellowbrick Road)
2. “Holiday in Spain”–Counting Crows (Hard Candy)
3. “Happy Day”–Talking Heads (Talking Heads: 77)
4. “What a Day that Was”–Talking Heads (Stop Making Sense)
5. “100 Days, 100 Nights”–Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings (100 Days, 100 Nights)
Skittles
1. “Go Figure, Another Warm Day in Paradise” by Noise for Pretend from Happy You Near. This is a really great band from whose lead singer was finishing high school when this record was made. Highly recommend you check them out if you’ve never heard them.
2. “Most Beautiful” by Frente! from Marvin the Album. This album was a huge part of my high school life. I have fond memories of singing along to it with a carful of friends as we headed home after play practice. This isn’t necessarily one of my favorite tracks, but I do enjoy it.
3. “Holiday” by Madonna from You Can Dance. This is a remix, and a great one, at that. This song screams summer to me. I imagine she’ll probably keep it as part of her live shows for a long time.
4. “These Days” by Nico from The Royal Tenenbaums Soundtrack. Nico is hit or miss for me – sometimes I love her, sometimes she bugs the crap out of me. But I do love this song. It does remind me more of fall than summer…but, whatever.
5. “Warm Leatherette” by Normal from Just Can’t Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the 80s, Vol. 1. Interesting track. I can’t say I know much about the band Normal, and I don’t think I’ve listened to this song enough to have much to say about it.
Skittles
Oh, and Michael…I totally forgot about Flickerstick. I saw them live when they toured to support that album, and their “Bands on the Run” win. I met them after the show and they were really nice guys. I think I have a signed copy of the cd kicking around here somewhere.
Pete
317 songs came back, and 4 out of 5 turn out “beautiful”. Three of ‘em Prince-related.
1. “Beautiful Girl” by INXS from Welcome to Wherever You Are. There are some great tracks on this late INXS album, and this is one of them.
2. “Beautiful Beats” by Prince – a cool instrumental from the UK-issued Beautiful Experience EP.
3. “One Day I’m Gonna Be Somebody” by the Time, from What Time Is It? One of the quirky, and arguably not so great tracks, from this great album (which includes my fave, “777-9311”).
4. “Everything Beautiful Is Far Away” by Grandaddy, from Under the Western Freeway. Techy-space-indie-rock. I need Grandaddy in my life.
5. “Beautiful Strange” by Prince – the title says it all. One of his greatest non-official album tracks.
jazzmaster
Hey, Gavin’s Dad…
I know you were playing along on Friday… I SAW and HEARD your 5!
🙂
Maybe one too many Crown & DC’s before you hit ‘Submit’, huh?
Pete
Did someone fall off the Friday Five wagon?
Michael
Crown & Diet Coke? Oh Man…Did we have a wagon??
Some thoughts on the fives…
KathyB… The Aquabats are brilliant!
Steve… I agree, Bob Mould should be the President and Paul Westerberg the Vice President.
Andrew… “Holiday in Spain” was my number 6
Pete… Love the INXS tune!
Skittles… I’m officially jealous, Flickerstick is by far one of my favorite bands. I was wrecked when Cory left.