Well, we're still and here and hopefully you are, too. How about some seriously cool tunes to celebrate the continued existence of this world which is clearly broken but still capable of awesome beauty when it puts its mind to it.
Quick summary of voting in our Band of the Year Poll. Total Votes: 534 Currently leading: The Disappointment Skeletons in the Piano Currently 2nd: Skeletons in the Piano The Disappointment -7 Currently 3rd: The Great American Novel -31 Voting continues until 11:59:59 on December 30 cause even I am not music nerd enough to be checking results on New Years Eve* *okay actually I am, but I don't want you to know that.
So, the Black Keys played a secret show in Nashville and from I can tell people were racing around all over town to try see them. With my luck, I probably would have ended up at an Are You Randy show.*
*Obligatory Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist reference.
To the shuffle:
First up - It's Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers doing Black Bottom Stomp - from 1926.
Next, we have Nashville's own Darrell Scott from his 2008 release Modern Hymns with a Paul Simon cover: American Tune.
We seem to be all about The Joy of Painting this week, as we dig deeper into their Asterisk album with the song, My Personality
Finally, we have our second cover to the morning, this time it's Delta Spirit covering Tom Wait's for a Daytrotter Session. Come on Up to the House is from Wait's 1999 album Mule Variations.
Um or um - not sure what to say. I've found some words, and will be writing about the In-Store performance I saw yesterday...so stay tuned.
Today we have a quirkily awesome mix of music so let's get to it...
First up we have transplanted Nashvillian Eef Barzelay's band Clem Snide post-reunion effort The Ghost of Fashion (2010) and a track called Joan Jett of Arc which name drops Hall and Oates, John Mellencamp's Pink Houses and others to great effect and humor.
Next we have a track from the solo debut album, Resolutions by Dave Hause who has been a member of several Philadelphia-based bands over the years. We have the excellent lead track of the album, Time Will Tell is a raw and starkly, beautiful song.
Next up we have a cover, and it's a good one. Mitch Easter the producer was responsible for tons of my favorite music way back in my youth - R.E.M., his own band Let's Active, yesterday's Connells album we featured, Marshall Crenshaw, Pylon, Suzanne Vega, Game Theory ... deep breath. Here we have Mitch Easter the performer from the fairly recent Velvet Underground tribute CD American Velvet. His cover of The Black Angel's Death Song which was on the Velvet's first album The Velvet Underground and Nico. Easter's gentle Carolina twang adds a note of Southern Gothic charm to the dark and dissonant song.
Lou Reed John Cale and Nico Reuniting in 1972
(Couldn't find a video of Mitch Easter's version - so here's Beck's cover)
It seems like there is so much sadness (loss, transitions, illness) in the world and among my closer circle of friends. Sending out warm thoughts and love to the world, and I hope some rains on you if you need it.
Just found out last night that early Band of the Week and good friends of the blog, Inner City Elegance are calling it quits. I don't have any details, but we wish them well in whatever future endeavors those three guys take on. Here's a video of an acoustic version of one my favorite ICE songs, Never Let You Down.
RIP to Dick Clark, Levon Helm and Greg Ham (Men at Work)...
We begin with a cover song. It's Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate, Baseball Project) doing a lovely slow version of A Million Miles Away The Plimsouls' song and one of my all-time favcs... Wynn's version is on the must-have Peter Case tribute (A Case for Case)
(Albums containing the original and the cover)
(second video is Steve Wynn paying with Peter Case)
Our second song comes from San Francisco punk legends Flipper. It's Life is Cheap from their Generic Album.
And Finally, we close things out with I Wanna Be the One - some indie pop goodness from fun. - yeah the same band that does that We Are Young song.... This one's from their Aim and Ignite album.
The edge of town to the middle of the road... Night fell and somewhere a band was playing, "There Goes My Baby", and the singer wasn't very good, but he was perfect for the moment. You and I stared out into the distance and dreamed about a better day which secretly we never believed would come our way. But, there is a time for everything and season change and the world moves on. On a night, no unlike the other, I found myself down at the edge of town in the middle of the road, and somewhere a band was playing...
In the U.S., it's tax day - pushed back due to the 15th falling on a Sunday and yesterday being an obscure holiday in Washington D.C. So I could have subtitled this post, Tax Day Blues Mix or something... but I didn't.
We open up today's shuffle with a random discovery from the Noisetrade site. Joey English is a singer-songwriter from Knoxville, Tennessee. Today's track is called You Are On My Mind. Go to Noisetrade or use the link above to view his album on Amazon.
Here is a video of another Joey English song, Got to Go
Next up, we have a cover song. Sad Baby Wolf are from Albuquerque, New Mexico which includes a couple of ex-Shins. Here they do a cool cover of Neutral Milk Hotel's Everything Is the title track from the 1994 EP (link below).
Below is an other track New Survival Guide from Sad Baby Wolf
Song number three is from band, I've just been asked to given a listen to, so you get to go along for the ride with me. DRUNKSOULS are a Reggae-influenced Indie Rock band from Marselle, France. The have a relatively new album called Revolution and today we listen to Drifter Song the lead track from the album.
Here they are playing Drifter Song at Grand Auditorium du Palais des Festivals de Cannes at a benefit for African Reggae star TIKEN JAH FAKOLI.
Finally, we end up with our old friends The Dead Exs with another track from their Resurrection album. This one is called Angel from New Orleans. The Dead Exs are going to be part of the top secret project I am working to complete for Record Store Day. Stay tuned for more information about that.
Below is a The Dead Exs' contribution to this year's Couch by Couchwest.
Hey I'm running late with this, but let's get to it....
Wayne Kafka comes from Burnley in the UK. We've already featured a couple of tracks in our daily music shuffles and with each listen, I became more and more convinced that I needed to write some more about this gifted musician, songwriter and singer.
Kafka has a album out called Mysterious Skin which you can get a taste of via a download from Noisetrade:
And then you can go get the whole thing over at Amazon.
Kafka the artist makes passionate, intelligent and uplifting music. Mysterious Skin was produced by Mark Jones who has worked with Peter Gabriel, Black Grape and Blue Nile.
Kafka the man - blogs about important topics.
Oh and most importantly given the seriousness of the last two paragraphs, Kafka has an excellent sense of humor - a quality much needed in the world today.
And I'll end this with a clip of Kafka covering on my favorite Replacements songs:
