Song o' the Day

[Mr MidFi]

Hey, it's Friday, ain't it?

I just wandered back to the darkened lair of Larry the Graphic Designer to consult on a project, and he had an oldie/goodie cranked that I hadn't heard in years. "Tin Pan Alley" from Stevie Ray Vaughn's Couldn't Stand the Weather disc.

Wow, that really sounded good. A slow and soulful blues jam, with up-close-and-personal guitar licks...each note strung together like flaming pearls against a black velvet backdrop. Forgot how much I liked that one.

Well, that's my usual stroll down memory lane. Who has an indie hipster selection to balance things out? Or, for that matter, an even better selection from your wild and misspent youth?

[nobody]

How about KLF - Elvis on the Radio, Steel Guitar in My Soul...

drifted off to sleep last night with this playing and trudged to work this morning with it easing me awake...

[Slosh]

Speaking of Stevie Ray Vaughan I just recently watched the Live at the El Macambo DVD for the first time in a whore's age. Everyone should be required to see this particular performance of "Texas Flood" at least once before they die (and the rest of the concert ain't exactly shabby either). Couldn't Stand The Weather has always been my favorite of his, mostly for the title track, and his cover of "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" is better than Jimi's, IMO.

But my FSOTD is The Decemberists' "The Engine Driver". No wait, it's "We Both Go Down Together". Hmmm . . . . but "The Bagman's Gambit" is damn good too. Can't I just have a FAOTD?

[ForeverAutumn]

My song of the day is Pheadra's Meadow from the new Blue Rodeo disk. There is something about this song...it's kind of slow and weepy, a celtic folk tune with whispers of Mark Knopfler. The harmonies, tin whistle, minor key changes give it a haunting quality. A fantastic tune by any standards, IMO.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

My song of the day is Cupid's Trick, one of the rockers from Elliott Smith o-so-excellent album Either/Or, what a great album this is. Everytime I put it on, which is still pretty often a couple of years later, I am amazed at why this is the only Elliott Smith album I have. Every song on it is great, and I could have picked any of them for my SOD. The album just ended, as strongly as it started, I think I'm going to have to break the "24-hour rule" and cue up side one again.

I did have his latest in my hands last time I was record shopping, but put it back. If anyone has an opinion on where I should go next in his catalog, feel free to suggest...

[mad rhetorik]

Well.. my pick would probably have to be "Without MSG I Am Nothing" (McLusky). That snaky, buzzing riff and weird chorus ("Everywhere I look there's a darkness") are serious earworms.

[MindGoneHaywire]

Beck--Girl. Nick Cave-type words over a very simple but very interesting, pop (sorta Beatles/Beach Boys-esque) tune.

[Stone]

My song of the day is Cupid's Trick, one of the rockers from Elliott Smith o-so-excellent album Either/Or, what a great album this is. Everytime I put it on, which is still pretty often a couple of years later, I am amazed at why this is the only Elliott Smith album I have. Every song on it is great, and I could have picked any of them for my SOD. The album just ended, as strongly as it started, I think I'm going to have to break the "24-hour rule" and cue up side one again.

I did have his latest in my hands last time I was record shopping, but put it back. If anyone has an opinion on where I should go next in his catalog, feel free to suggest...

I still consider either/or to be his best but you really should get XO and From a Basement On the Hill. Both just great albums. Then, if you want more, pick up his first two, Roman Candle and self-titled, and save Figure 8 for last. All of them are worth having if you ask me, but for me they range from about a 9.5 (either/or) down to about a 7.5 (Figure 8) on the P'fork scale.

[Stone]

My SOTD is "Where the Devil Don't Stay" by the Drive-By Truckers. I have a CD-R copy of The Dirty South that has been staying in my car, and I popped it in today. From the opening riff of this song it has my full attention. A great southern rock song, with cool lyrics like:

Back in the thirties when the dust bowl dried
And the woods in Alabama didn't see no light
My Daddy played poker by a hard wood fire
Squeezing all his luck from a hot copper wire
Scrap like a wildcat fights till the end
Trap a wildcat and take his skin
Deal from the bottom, put the ace in the hole
One hand on the jug but you never do know

Son come running
Better come quick
This rotgut moonshine is making me sick
Your Mama called the law and they're gonna take me away
Down so far even the Devil won't stay

Where I call to the Lord with all my soul
I can hear him rattling the chains on the door
He couldn't get in, I could see he tried
Through the shadows of the cage around the forty watt light

[newtrix1]

Hey, it's Friday, ain't it?...

...Or, for that matter, an even better selection from your wild and misspent youth?

I guess "Dodo/Lurker" by Genesis definitely falls into the 'misspent youth' catagory. Curently playing (in shuffle mode ) in my carousel player are:

1) Joy Division - Permanent
2) Hector Zazou - Sahara Blue (giving it one more spin before sending out to Mike)
3) The Who - Who Are You (MFSL)
4) Genesis - Abacab
5) The Convocation of... - Pyramid Technology (or is it vice-versa? This one needs to be LOUD!)

[-Jar-]

my song of the day is a song I heard yesterday on college radio by DAN MELCHIOR's BROKE REVIEW. Anyone ever heard these guys? Ok, I only heard one song, but it's one of the best alt-country garage-rockers I've heard since Soul Asylum's "Sometime To Return" from 1988's HANG TIME. Anyoo, I'll be seeking out some material by this band. I guess this guy used to play with Billy Childish, but I don't know much about him either.

good stuff! http://www.brokereview.com

-jar

[Davey]

I'll go with one I've mentioned before around here, although not in the FSOTD thread. I used it on my Monkey Bones comp, which I was playing this morning while getting ready for work. It was competing against the best of Shania Twain in the other room, but the last song I remember and the one that has followed me around all day like a hangover is "Cash 22" by the Flaming Stars. Feels like he stole it from me, it's that good. Or that bad

If I had all the money I'd spent on you (Max croons over a clattering background of snares and castanets)
I'd spend it on you...
What else could I do...?

Kind of a Nick Cave sound without the death and religious doom lyrics. Someone else said about it, "Decharne wanders through an intriguingly noirish world of tongue-in-cheek sleaziness." I like that

[Dusty Chalk]

Well, it's into Saturday at this point, but I gotta give props to D&B demon Matt Elliott (no relation...that I know of), and the final track on the album, Drinking Songs, "The Maid We Messed". It's a flowing D&B epic that doesn't hint at its own majesty at the beginning, it just builds and grows and gets more and more intense, and somewhere between the middle and the end, I am rendered a mindless slack-jawed drooling barbituate victim (in other words, it blows my mind).

[Davey]

Curently playing (in shuffle mode ) in my carousel player are:

2) Hector Zazou - Sahara Blue (giving it one more spin before sending out to Mike)
5) The Convocation of... - Pyramid Technology (or is it vice-versa? This one needs to be LOUD!)

Funny thing Rick, I'm playing some music on my computer right now with WMP and have the songs sorted alphabetically and selected "Recognize" from The Convocation Of... since I haven't heard that one in a while and just by coincidence the next thing up is the leadoff track from Sahara Blue because I have that album on my computer right now since I made you a copy. Soon as "I'll Strangle You" started I remembered reading somewhere that you had just mentioned those two albums so had to look it up



Hope there's nothing else showing that's too embarrassing in the window, but it looks like mostly the usual stuff.

[-Jar-]

Davey, How do you like that Media Player (10 I think?) I didn't like it.. I had it for a while but switched back to 9.. I just couldn't get used to the way it handled the playlists.. are there any big advantages that I might have missed?

-jar

[ForeverAutumn]

My song of the day is Pheadra's Meadow from the new Blue Rodeo disk. There is something about this song...it's kind of slow and weepy, a celtic folk tune with whispers of Mark Knopfler. The harmonies, tin whistle, minor key changes give it a haunting quality. A fantastic tune by any standards, IMO.

So we're driving around this afternoon, shopping and stuff, and I'm playing the new Blue Rodeo in the car so Hubby can hear it and Pheadra's Meadow is playing, and Hubby says, "gee, this is a really boring song, eh?".

So, I guess when I say it's a fantastic tune by any standards, what I really mean is that it's a fantastic tune by my standards. Because...after all...you either see things my way or the wrong way.

[Davey]

Davey, How do you like that Media Player (10 I think?) I didn't like it.. I had it for a while but switched back to 9.. I just couldn't get used to the way it handled the playlists.. are there any big advantages that I might have missed?

-jar

Oh sorry, didn't see this before. I don't really use it that much so no big deal for me. I do like the way it gathered up all my music files and lets me sort them different ways and displays album and artist info. Kind of handy. Before I had to remember where things were, but not anymore. Guess I'm closer to their computer music moron design model

But seriously I don't really know what all the design updates are. I think I downloaded the new version because the old one wasn't recognizing that some of my discs are HDCD encoded.

[KEXPMF]

I am VERY MUCH liking the new Beck cd, "Guero". I hear that some reviews are comparing it to "Odelay" and saying it's not as good. It would be hard for anything to top "Odelay" IMO. All I know is that I'm VERY HAPPY with "Guero".

Initially, I was very into "E-Pro", it was totally stuck in my head.
But now I'm very into "Que Onda Guero" (just TRY not to get that stuck in your head), and "Scarecrow".
I played them both at my last DJ gig. Heads bobbing everywhere.
I saw that J likes "Girl". Yep, another great one. I'm trying not to burn myself out on "Que Onda Guero" but it's tough to stop playing it over and over

My other new favorite song is Out Hud's "It's For You".

Last Thursday, I went to check out a bi-weekly "Shoegazer Night" at small local bar. One of the guest DJs was the singer from Mercury Rev. Turns out he's a GREAT DJ!!
Mark Gardner from Ride was also in the bar, enjoying the tunes. I'd say that's a successful "Shoegazer Night"