The Friday Five: February 24, 2012
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:
“Always and Forever” by Heatwave (from Can You Dig It? The ’70s Soul Experience, 2001)
During the nomination process for the recent Popdose 100: The Greatest Love Songs of All Time there were only a handful of tunes that I could’ve smacked myself for forgetting to include, this is one of them. I don’t know about you lot, but when I was growing up this tune was a staple of the high school dance.
“Tell Me (Go Go mix)” by Groove Theory (from Tell Me – The Remixes, 1995)
Here is one of the things that I love about doing the Friday Five: after doing a quick background check on Groove Theory I discovered that principal players Amel Larrieux and Bryce Wilson have reunited. There isn’t much in the way of details, but damn if that isn’t exciting news.
“Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?” by The Beatles (from The Beatles, 1968)
This one is a little less ‘Beatles’ and more ‘McCartney’, much in the same way “Julia” is more ‘Lennon.’
“Under the Cherry Moon” by Prince & The Revolution (from 1986-08-02: Madison Square Garden, New York, Ny, USA, 2012)
Okay, two things to discuss here:
This soundboard recording was recently unearthed and is nothing short of excellent. The band did two shows at the Garden to prep for the European tour, and these performances are fiery and loose. This one is well worth seeking out.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up the benefit gig that The Revolution —that’s right: Wendy, Lisa, Bobby, Mark, Dr. Fink and Dez!— performed at the legendary First Avenue in Minneapolis last weekend. The skinny motherfucker with the high voice didn’t show his face, but after listening to the tapes from the show he should be listening, and thinking about taking this band out on tour. Hell, they don’t even need him! Viva la Revolution!
“I Have Loved You Wrong” by The Swell Season (from Strict Joy, 2009)
Did you know that Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová made a second movie chronicling the recording of Strict Joy? I didn’t know this until earlier this week, and now it’s all I can do to try and find a way to see this film. If you haven’t watched the film Once, I cannot recommend it more. All that said, I hold hope that the duo will reconvene for another record in the near future.
What’s on your shuffle today?
The Friday Five: February 17, 2012
5 Comments
Phil
Counting Crows – “Have You Seen Me Lately?” (Recovering the Satellites, 1996)
Counting Crows seems to get a bad rap, but I have always loved these guys. OK, Adam Duritz can be a bit much at times, what with the hair and his fondness for completely rearranging vocal melodies, or lyrics, or even entire songs live. While I really like the energy of the album version, I think I prefer the acoustic version found on Across a Wire.
Anthrax – “Gung Ho” (The Greater of Two Evils, 2004)
Anthrax released this “live performance” reinterpretation of its early-period material with then vocalist John Bush. As if this sacrilege wasn’t enough—at least in the eyes of diehard fans who refused to acknowledge Bush-era Anthrax in the first place—the band fell headlong into drama of soap opera proportions that found them with a revolving door in the vocalist position: Bush, Joey Belladonna, Dan Nelson, Bush again, and now currently Belladonna. All that to say that while I love Bush-era Anthrax as well as Bush as a vocalist (especially fronting Armored Saint), I’m not a big fan of the versions found on TGOTE.
Switchfoot – “Dare You to Move” (The Beautiful Letdown, 2003)
While a very strong album in its own right, this disc was a bit of a letdown for me (har har har!) compared with my favorite of their releases New Way To Be Human, seeing the band move in a more radio-friendly sound that helped them break big outside the CCM market. This song is actually a repeat—albeit with a much better mix here—from the band’s previous album, Learning to Breathe, where it was by far the strongest and most accessible track.
Beatallica – “A Garage Dayz Nite” (A Garage Dayz Nite, 2001)
A Beatles/Metallica mashup by a band with a singer that does a very good James Hetfield impression? What’s not to like about that?!
Mae – “Someone Else’s Arms” (The Everglow, 2005)
I’m sure a band named after an acronym of a college course on the study of sensation, perception, emotion, and meaning in art and music is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it should be. Mae is big on hooks and pop sensibilities, and while some might dismiss them as an emo act based on a few of their songs, anyone who actually takes the time to listen would not be so quick to pigeonhole them as such.
Dennis Corrigan
It’s a staycation day
1. “Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)” by Otis Redding from the Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1959-1968 Vol. 6. Love the horns
2. “Every Man Oughta Have A Woman” by William Bell from the Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1959-1968 Vol. 9. Double checked to see if the shuffle was set correctly, but one of the many, many lesser known gems on this 9 CD set.
3. “As Long As I Have You” by Elvis Presley – The King Of Rock ‘n’ Roll: The Complete 50’s Masters. An alternate take featuring just Elvis and a piano. Before all the later crap, he had some voice and it’s on display here
4. “Sleepwalker” by the Kinks from Sleepwalker
5. “Come Calling (Her Song)” by Cowboy Junkies from Lay It Down. And right back to mellow with a companion song to an earlier track on the record “Come Calling (His Song)” this one far more elegiac. Speaking of great voices, Margo Timmins is in fine form on this.
Hope you hear something great this weekend.
jhallCORE
1) Bruce Springsteen — “Spare Parts” (Tunnel Of Love, 1987).
2) Paul Simon — “Kodachrome” (Concert In The Park, 1991).
3) Nirvana — “Heart-Shaped Box” (In Utero, 1993).
4) Sade — “Kiss Of Life” (Lovers Live, 2002).
5) Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden — “I’m Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life” (Jasmine, 2010).
Reverend Blerd
I don’t know that the world needs another Groove Theory album. The one album Amel and Bryce did was OK (aside from “Tell Me,” which is a fantastic song,) and Amel’s solo work has been uniformly excellent. Random fun fact: Amel Larrieux’s date for her high school prom? Questlove.
Moving on…
John Lennon- “You Are Here” (from “Mind Games”): Meh. Pleasant enough mid-Seventies easy listening. This could almost be a Paul McCartney song, ethereal harmonizing and all.
Chic- “Chic Mystique” (from “Chic-Ism”): From Nile and ‘Nard’s ill-advised comeback album, when they figured “hey, why should C&C Music Factory get props for ripping us off when we can rip off C&C Music Factory ripping us off?” I wonder what the cocaine budget for this album was.
David Byrne- “The Dream Police” (from “Rei Momo”): A little salsa-ish action going on here. Makes me want to put on a nice suit and dance with a lady who has a flower in her hair.
Brad Paisley-“I’m Still A Guy” (from “5th Guy”): I’m not the world’s biggest country fan, but this guy’s a fantastic songwriter, he has a great sense of humor, and he doesn’t appear to be a backwoods ass like a decent-sized chunk of country fans appears to be.
Seal-“Wedding Day” (from “System”): I bet he won’t be singing this one live anymore. Not only for the subject matter, but because Heidi actually duets with him on this song. It’s not as bad as one would expect from a song that contains Heidi Klum singing…
Anne
Saturday but I have not joined this in a while and so better late than never….
1. Surfer King, A.A. Bondy, album-Believers.
2. Bent, Matt Nathanson, album–When Everything Meant Everything
3. Good Coat, Rod Thomas, album–Good Coat
4. Lose You, Pete Yorn, album–Musicforthemorningafter
5. Two Kinds of Happiness, The Strokes, album–The Angles
Interesting, two songs I have not listened to that much and two songs from artists/bands that I use to listen to a lot but haven’t much lately. The only thing that is current in my usual mix is the first song.