The Friday Five: March 23, 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:
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?
The Friday Five: March 16, 2012
8 Comments
jhallCORE
1) Bob Dylan – “Not Dark Yet” (Time Out Of Mind, 1997).
2) Branford Marsalis Quartet – “Hope” (Braggtown, 2006).
3) Tori Amos – “Rasberry Swirl” (From The Choirgirl Hotel, 1998).
4) Aimee Mann – “Medicine Wheel” (@#%&*! Smilers, 2008).
5) Everclear – “Sunflowers” (So Much For The Afterglow, 1997).
dslifton
“She’s Long Gone” – The Black Keys. I make fun of them a lot (I was particularly proud of calling them this generation’s Foghat), but I really don’t have a problem with them. This isn’t one of my favorite songs by them.
“Moulty” – The Barbarians. From the first Nuggets box. It’s got these spoken word verses, so it’s kind of like “Patches” crossed with “Hang On Sloopy.”It’s fun in the way that all the Nuggets are, but it’s still slight.”Critter” – Steel Panther. I loved their first album but this one isn’t as good. Maybe it’s just that the novelty wore off, I don’t know.
“No Reply” – The Beatles. Leave it to The Beatles to rescue a Friday Five.
“Ol’ Cannonball” – North Mississippi All-Stars. I love new folk music that sounds like it could have come from the 1940s.
Mike Duquette
1. Jimmy Eat World, “My Sundown”: every now and then I attempt to get closer to owning all of Universal’s Deluxe Edition sets. This was such an example; “The Middle” and “Sweetness” aside, I’m not sure I would’ve sprung for “Bleed American” otherwise. This was the closing track, as evidenced by its being six minutes long, with a minute of swirly, sorta-guitar feedback on each end of the track, a requisite of closing tracks of the era.
2. John Barry and His Orchestra, “Guitar Lament”: a minute of rhythmic acoustic from the soundtrack to “From Russia with Love,” one of my favorite James Bond films and accompanying soundtracks.
3. Angels & Airwaves, “Love Like Rockets”: from 2007’s “I-Empire,” which has A) a great album sleeve by artist Drew Struzan, one of my favorite artists, and B) the weirdest attempt by a Blink-182 member to sound like semi-emo U2.
4. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, “Refugee” (Live in Irvina, CA – 1983): from that Tom Petty live box set from a few years back, which was an incredible value when I bought it for $20.
5. “Weird Al” Yankovic, “Smells Like Nirvana”: Three minutes and forty-six seconds of giggles. Then I think about Al on last night’s “30 Rock,” and I laugh a little more.
KellyStitzel
“Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds from Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (2008). Such a great song from a really teriffic record.
“Dancin'” by Chris Isaak from Baja Sessions (1996). This is my favorite Chris Isaak song and this version just makes me melt. I like to listen to it on repeat when I’m sad and depressed.
“Damn Dog” by Manic Street Preachers from Generation Terrorists (1992). This is a cover of the song performed by Robin Johnson’s character in TIMES SQUARE. I love the original and this cover more than does it justice. Also, I think more bands should cover this song.
“Wow” by Kylie Minogue from X (2007). This is one of my favorite Kyle songs and it never fails to put me in a good mood.
“Malbu” by Hole from Celebrity Skin (1998). I haven’t heard this in years. I remember how disappointed I was with this album’s polished, pop sound because I’d loved Live Through This so much. When I listen to it now, I just kind of shrug and think, “this isn’t so bad.” Oh, Courtney. It’s such a shame you are such a disaster.
Blerd
Happy Friday; it’s almost beer time!
01: “Be OK” by Chrisette Michele feat. will.i.am: It’s pretty well known that I have a fair amount of contempt for will.i.am. Why? Because he’s not wholly untalented. Actually, there are plenty of songs written and produced by him that are quite good. Which makes it obvious that he’s aiming for the lowest common denominator with most of the Black Eyed Peas stuff. You have talent, dude. Use it! As for Chrisette Michele-I’m pretty ambivalent towards her. She has a nice voice-but her albums are wildly inconsistent, and that last one was crap on a cracker.
02: “Fifteen” by Taylor Swift: As whiny as Taylor can be, she writes a pretty good song. I dig this one.
03: “Black Like Me” by Spoon: I was late to this train. My first experience with Spoon came maybe four years ago, when they headlined a local radio show with Passion Pit and Phoenix supporting them. The other two bands were so good that a good chunk of the theater was gone halfway through Spoon’s rather perfunctory set-including me (I’d already watched their soundcheck-so I felt no compulsion to stick around.) Sometime after I started listening to their albums, and I was a little surprised that a band that made records so good was so shitty in a live setting.
04: “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” by Paul Simon: Hop on the bus, Gus.
05: “Four Years” by John McLaughlin: Two out of my five songs are about high school. Next year is my 20th reunion. God, I’m old.
Michael Parr
I agree with you on Chrisette’s last record, but those first two are my jam.
Dennis Corrigan
72 hours until Boss Time – so here’s my Springsteen flavored Friday Five:
1. “Seven Nights to Rock” from the River Show at MSG 11/08/09. Just an incredible show. First the River in entirety with all its rarities (yes, I’ve seen “Point Blank”) and then it was almost as if Bruce didn’t know how to end it, audibiling following the ending of the river. This cover of a Moon Mullican rockabilly song ended the first “encore” which was followed by Springsteen teaching the band how to do “Sweet Soul Music”. Sadly, it was the last full show the Big Man would do in NY. I saw this with some of the same guys I’ll be with in Boston Monday along with some of my new friends
2. “Life Itself”from Working on a Dream – on an album notable for its misses, this is one of my faves “so here’s one for the road, here’s one to your health, and one to life itself”
3. “Radio Nowhere” from London Calling Live in Hyde Park – ripped from the DVD, which might get played a time or two in the next couple of days
4. “Thunder Road” from the Hammersmith Odeon ’75 show. Can’t ever get tired of that first verse which also gave title to a certain on again/off again Springsteen blog. “show a little faith, there’s magic in the night”
5. “Born to Run” from Live/75-85. the Five will not let us down. “Tramps like us…”
Hope you hear something great this weekend!
Gbv40299
1. Elvis Costello – “Out Of Time” (The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook)
I’ve always felt Costello’s catalog could use a latter period “live” album, but the Spinning Songbook, although a great live concept, is not the ideal representation. This Stones’ cover is a highlight, though.
2. Carolina Chocolate Drops – “Country Girl” (Leaving Eden)
Years ago my ‘anything that rocks’ mantra may have precluded me from enjoying the Drops. With age comes wisdom, I suppose.
3. Charltans UK – “Weirdo” (Between 10th and 11th)
Coming up on the 20th anniversary of this release. Coincidently, had it on the player last week and had the sad feeling it hadn’t aged well. Or was that me?
4. Shooter Jennings – “The Black Dog” (Family Man)
I had hopes this was a Zeppelin cover. Waylon’s boy is not aging well, either.
5. Beck – “Lost Cause” (Sea Change)
I’m not happy that Beck seems content as a producer. Who’s with me?
GO CARDS!