If you've been reading Ear to the Ground for any length of time and ever wondered about the subtitles for each shuffle (like Passion Fruit and Holy Bread Mix* today), I thought I would provide a little historical context.
When I started writing Ear to the Ground (May 2011), there was a local blog that posted a news round up post almost every day, and each one was titles something like News Roundup (probably not that but you get the idea) - something edition. I thought it would be cool as a homage to that site** to add subtitles to my daily shuffle. I actually used the word "edition" before I changed it to the more music oriented "mix".
These often obscure or even meaningless subtitles are derived from a variety of sources: Current Events, events from my life, overheard phrases, and sometimes they even have something to do with the music contained in that days shuffle.
* As I wrote this, I realized the unintentional humor of Holy Bread Mix (which I suppose could be used in a Holy Bread Machine.
** Homage is just a fancy way of saying blatant ripoff, right?
Anyway, I have had fun this week using part of lyrics of some of the more well known songs in each day's shuffle as the source of the subtitle.
Anyway, no extra charge for all that useful information. Let's shuffle....
"She Bangs the Drums" by The Stone Roses
"Dancing With Tears in My Eyes" (Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly) cover) by X
"The Sun in California" by The Autumn Defense
"Trece Leches" by The Plum Magnetic
"Misfit" by Britain.
"Crying in the Rain" by The Everly Brothers
"Final Wild Son" by The Long Ryders
"Cadillac Desert" by William Tyler
"We No Who U R" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
NOTES
Nice combination of songs of different eras and styles.
What was and what could have been.... The Stone Roses....
To save you the time and trauma, the Ke$ha song is not a cover of either the Lead Belly original, the X cover or the unrelated Ultravox song.
To give my younger readers some perspective of how weird it is growing older: Wilco spinoff band The Autumn Defense have been together longer than X had at the time I first become familiar with their music.
In my initial contact about The Plum Magnetic, one of the "similar to" bands mentioned was Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, and it is really noticeable in today's track. Good funky, jazzy grooves. The band is from my Dad's hometown, by the way.
Britain. (yes the period is part of his name) is a young (I mean really young - not The Foresters young, but young) Indie Hip-Hop artist from the outskirts of Nashville. As noted in the lyrics of song featured today, he doesn't fit the profile of a hip hop artist, but he got the rhymes. He is also a budding Reality TV star. As a fellow misfit, I can appreciate this song.
The world lost an amazing voice earlier this month with the passing of Phil Everly. Phil along with his brother Don produced some of the best and most enduring harmonies in modern era music. The Everly Brothers' influence is widespread and also enduring.
If I had been cooler and lived in California during the middle part of the 1980s, I think I would have been at least a stalker of the whole Paisley Underground scene. As it was, I was just a huge fan of a lot of the music that came out of it. The Long Ryders were among my favorites. The band recently reunited for their first L.A. gig in something like 27 years (for a benefit concert that also featured a reunion of another favorite of mine from that time - The Unforgiven.) Today's track is the opening song on the band's classic Native Sons album.
William Tyler is one of Nashville's biggest musical assets, and I'm really glad the rest of the universe seems to be catching on to his music. This is a great instrumental track of a Merge Records compilation from last year.
William Tyler from Grimey's Record Store Day 2012 when he played with JEFF the Brotherhood and Caitlin Rose.
One can never go wrong by closing out a shuffle and a week with a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song. This one is from his highly regarded 2013 album - Push the Sky Away.
WATCH
SHOP
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