• Rock,  Roots Rock

    Street Songs

    We’ve spent all this time building up our digital music libraries, so why not tinker around with them a bit and have some fun? Last week I explored tunes that clocked in at 2:28. This week, I take it to the streets.

    The exercise this week is to locate your street songs. I’m not talkin’ lanes, avenues, roads, courts, and the like. Nuh-uh. I’m talkin’ Streets.

    What’s more, I’m looking for songs that are simply names of Streets. “Oak Street”, “Main Street”, “This Street”, “That Street”. So that leaves out a lot of quality tunes obviously (“Positively 4th Street”, “Incident on 57th Street”, to name a couple). I’m interested to see what other “Street” gems are out there. So use the Search area of your favorite media player, look for some “___ Street” songs, and drop some into the comments.

    Me? I came up with 17 streets. Here are four of my tops…

    • Christian St. (mp3) – Marah | An ode to their hometown of Philadelphia, this is on Marah’s 2nd album, Kids in Philly. It’s my favorite Marah album – just bristling with life. I spent the better part of the year 2000 with this record.
    • Straylin Street Pete Droge | From Pete’s ’94 album, Necktie Second.
    • Great Jones Street Luna | Never owned any other Luna albums other than Bewitched, but this song is a soft stunner. They had me at Great.
    • Cherry Street – JJ Cale | From JJ’s latest, Roll On (a concept album about deodorant. Just kidding.).

    The Others…

    Alphabet Street – Prince
    Boogie Street – Leonard Cohen
    Dominick St. – Steve Earle
    Grafton Street – Nancy Griffith
    Grey Street – Dave Matthews Band
    Highway One Zero Street – Joe Strummer
    Lonely Street – Bap Kennedy
    Love Street – World Party
    Meadowlake Street – Ryan Adams
    Rain Street – The Pogues
    Shakedown Street – Grateful Dead
    Shouting Street – Joe Strummer
    South Street – The Orlons

  • Folk,  Indie

    New Pete Droge: The Droge & Summers Blend

    Pete Droge just added Volume One, a new EP by The Droge & Summers Blend, to his Puzzle Tree Online Store today. The EP is made up of 5 tracks, and you – the picky music consumer – have the option of paying what you want, a la Radiohead’s In Rainbows. I just picked up the digital download for the default price of $2.99, and they are well worth it. Head over to Pete’s store to listen to the tracks and download if you fancy. The EP is officially released later this month.

    The Summers in The Droge & Summers Blend refers to Elaine Summers, a Seattle area musician and artist who shares the vocals with Pete. They recorded the songs on nearby Vashon Island.

    I’ve been a fan of Pete’s since his debut, the Brendan O’Brien-produced Necktie Second, back in 1994. There’s just something about his vibe – relaxed, genuine, gentle – that has always sat quite well with me.

    Here’s one of the tracks – a happy-go-lucky, summery kind of tune…

    Listen: The Droge & Summers BlendTie the Knot (mp3)

    Name Your Price at Pete’s Puzzle Tree Store.

  • Acoustic,  Laid Back,  Rock n' Folk

    Pete Droge, Part 2

    Skywatching

    I like it when this happens. You know when you hear a great song for the first time, a tune that just connects with you? Where you have the innate ability to know that you’ll be listening to the song 5-10-15 years down the road? And for me, in this digital world, the kind of song that goes straight to the CD burner so you can carry it around with you, listen in the car, etc?

    I found that song of the moment yesterday. “Things Will Change and Go My Way”. Pete Droge. Song 6 on 2003’s Skywatching. Great tune, and a great album, and I can tell you this after owning the album for just over 24 hours.

    I’ll be reviewing Pete’s new album, Under the Waves, very soon. For now, travel back 3 years in time and put your ears to this gem.

    Pete Droge: Things Will Change and Go My Way (mp3) – buy Skywatching on eMusic, the United Musicians store, or from his web site.

  • Acoustic,  Laid Back

    Check out Pete Droge

    droge

    Thanks in part to a friendship with Mike McReady of Pearl Jam, Pete Droge secured a contract with American Records in the early 90’s, and released a fantastic album called ‘Necktie Second’ in 1994. The single that really caught my attention back then was “Sunspot Stopwatch”. With clever lyrics, and obviously influenced by Bob Dylan and Tom Petty, the tune sucked me in to Mr. Droge’s world, and led me to the debut album, which is great from start to finish.

    The song that made the biggest impact, “If You Don’t Love Me (I’ll Kill Myself)”, was featured on the soundtrack to Dumb and Dumber (YouTube clip). It’s pretty much the most electric and uptempo song of the album. But it’s the more relaxed, acoustically oriented tracks that are my favorites: “Faith in You”, “Fourth of July”, “Hardest Thing to Do”. The album is produced by Pearl Jam buddy and producer extraordinaire Brendan O’Brien, who also produced Springsteen’s ‘The Rising’ (always a Boss connection!), and Soundgarden and Neil Young and Stone Temple Pilots and on and on.

    Droge just released his fifth album, Under the Waves, last Tuesday. You can hear the album streaming on his web site or his Myspace page. I just picked up his fourth album, Skywatching, on eMusic, and am listening to it right now, and digging it immensely.

    So take a listen to this great tune from Droge’s debut, and show the fella some love by checking out his links below.

    Pete Droge: Sunspot Stopwatch (mp3) – from Necktie Second.

    Pete Droge Links
    : His Very Well Done Official Site | and everyone has to have their MySpace (except me! I will not succumb!)