Friday Five

The Friday Five: December 18, 2009

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Friday Five : ˈfrī-(ˌ)dā,-dē ˈfīv : On the sixth day of every week I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes and share my five and drop a little knowledge and insight for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes we have 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:

Ani DiFranco – “Hell Yeah” (from Out of Range, 1994)

It’s been a while since an artist has appeared two weeks in a row. I lost touch with Ani somewhere after Revelling/Reckoning, but never lost love for her frank and beautiful songs. Out of Range was a record that came along at a turning point in my life, providing solace within its reflective songs.

Richard Hell & The Voidoids – “Love Comes In Spurts” (mp3) (from Blank Generation, 1977)

My memory of this song is tied entirely to the 1990 film “Pump Up the Volume”. I remember spending weekends at my friend’s house and watching marathons of it over and over.

Ugly Kid Joe – “Cats in the Cradle” (mp3) (from America’s Least Wanted, 1992)

I’ll admit to having this album primarily for the track “Everything About You”. When Tesla took their take on the Five Man Electrical Band track “Signs” all the way to number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, it became customary for the pop metal acts of the day to include a slightly obscure folk song in lieu of a power ballad. Ugly Kid Joe topped Tesla by taking the Harry Chapin classic all the way to number six.

Radiohead – “Karma Police” (from OK Computer, 1997)

This record took nearly 10 years to connect with me. When released in 1997, I was far too preoccupied with the Third Wave Ska and Indie Rock bands of the day to be bothered with Radiohead. I came back to the record after hearing the brilliant Kid A and now consider it to be one of my favorite records of all time.

U2 – “Get on Your Boots” (from No Line on the Horizon, 2009)

Every time I hear this track I can’t help but think it’s just a sub-par version of The Escape Club track “Wild, Wild West”. This release was disappointing to me, more for its lack of the caliber of songwriting that I’ve come to expect than anything else.

I showed you mine, what is on your five?

5 Comments

  • Anne

    I have to admit, I really like today’s 5.

    1. “Alternative to Love” Brendan Benson, “Alternative to Love” 2005.
    2. “Come Back to Me” Sarah Borges & the Broken Singles, “Diamonds in the Dark” 2007.
    3. “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow” Dean Martin. Classi!
    4. “Different Sound” Teddybears, “Soft Machine” 2006.
    5. “Arizona” Kings of Leon, “Because of the Times” 2007.

  • Tammy

    1. “Flamenco’s Fuckin’ Easy” – Murder By Death
    2. “The 3 R’s” – Jack Johnson
    3. “Not Fair” – Lily Allen
    4. “(Always Be My) Sunshine” – Jay-Z feat. Babyface & Foxy Brown
    5. “Explode” – Uh Huh Her

    🙂

  • EightE1

    Bracing for a blizzard with …

    Black Sabbath, “Neon Knights.” Heaven and Hell Sabbath is as good as any hard rock ever. The perfect combination of riffage, rhythm section, and metal vocal. Get well soon, Ronnie James Dio.

    Led Zeppelin, “Houses of the Holy.” From Physical Graffiti, my fave Zeppelin record. Of course, after I say all those nice things about Sabbath, the shuffle brings up THE greatest hard rock band ever. A little one-upmanship, purely by the luck of the shuffle. The shuffle is all-powerful. This is good hip-shakin’ music, while the Sabbath track is more head-bangin’ stuff. Oh, and I can never spell “graffiti” correctly on the first try.

    Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Skeletons.” I really need to give It’s Blitz! a closer listen. Too many people whose opinions I respect have a very high opinion of the record. Which makes me think, appropos of little, of U2 winning the Rolling Stone critics’ album of the year for No Line on the Horizon. Such mediocrity could only be rewarded in the pages of Rolling Stone. That magazine is such a fucking joke — who’s Jann Wenner kissing up to this week? It’s like when they gave Mick Jagger’s Goddess in the Doorway five stars, and fired the writer who refused to write it up in Us magazine as the classic that Wenner insisted it was. Fuck Jann Wenner. Not really. Just … he’s a joke, and so is anything he touches (RS, Us, the RnR Hall of Fame). Yet I keep reading. Go figure. But anyway, this Yeah Yeah Yeah’s track is pretty good.

    AC/DC, “Carry Me Home.” This is Bon Scott stuff from the Backtracks box. Scott could cram more clever double-entendres into a single song than Nikki Sixx has written in his fucking LIFE. This track is built on a more primitive riff than most of the band’s songs, but it kicks ass, as much of their work does. Check out my review of the box in Popdose: http://popdose.com/cd-review-acdc-backtracks/

    .38 Special, “You Keep Runnin’ Away.” Cool country-rock from Special Forces, the same album that had “Caught Up in You” on it. My mother saw that album cover sitting on my stereo (I was, like, 12), and voiced her disapproval. Like she’d never seen a painting of a woman’s ass in cutoff shorts before. I mean, shit, I think Norman Rockwell even painted stuff like that from time to time. Wouldn’t that be hilarious? To find a cache of unpublished Norman Rockwell paintings of women’s asses? Anyway, Jim Peterik co-wrote this song; I like just about everything he did in this period.

  • Pete

    1. Tom Petty – “Square One”(Highway Companion, 2006)

    2. Bruce Springsteen – “Dry Lightning” (Brixton Night, 1996)

    3. Amy Rigby – “The Leader” (The Sandinista Project, 2007) – cool collection, recommended: http://www.amazon.com/Sandinista-Project-Various-Artists/dp/B000OZ2CVG

    4. Miles Davis & the Modern Jazz Giants (Miles Davis & the Modern Jazz Giants, 1954) – Nice lineup: Miles Davis – Trumpet, Milt Jackson – Vibraphone, Thelonious Monk – Piano, Percy Heath – Bass, Kenny Clarke – drums

    5. Whiskeytown – “Luxury Liner” (Stranger’s Almanac, 1997)

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