Wild Wednesday Morning Shuffle - Icing on the Cake Mix

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Look, there are a lot of music blogs and music sites. There is even another one called Ear to the Ground (but we don't talk about that around here).  One thing I learned from all those business classes I look, is that you have to find your niche. Here at E2TG, the niche I have carved out is playing mixes of songs that no one else is or would play.  Sometimes that means mixing up genres and styles and eras of music that generally do not get along to well.  My philosophy is that music all springs from the same source and that it (and we) are all connected - however remotely.

To put it another way, here is a pretty wild ass mix of songs that you will not see in the post on any other site (guaranteed or your money back)...

Friday Morning Music Shuffle - Another Planet Mix

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Sad to hear the news yesterday that Billy Zoom the legendary guitarist of Los Angeles band X was diagnosed with bladder cancer.  Happy, though, to report that a GoFundMe campaign to help him out has almost been completely funded after just one day.  If you want to help push it over the top, here is
the link.
We reached the end of another work week, and we have a pretty interesting shuffle to close things out...

By the way, a couple of songs in the shuffle today prompt me to issue the reminder that I repeat every so often.  Each morning's shuffle is randomly selected by my music player from a Playlist that I create and maintain. 

Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle - Bobbin' and Pretendin' Mix

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 So lot's on my mind, but anyway, I had a great walk in accompanied by some cool music, and I wanted to share that music with you - because that is what I do:



 The Morning gets under way with a recent Featured Artist from Knoxville Tennessee. It's Tim Lee 3 with the song Long Way to the Ground from their 2010 double album Raucous Americanus.

It's amazing and disturbing how often the next song seems incredibly timely.  Politics sometimes bore me, but I feel like a hypocrite talking to some people and not speaking out against the madness I hear coming from their mouths and their keyboards....

 Your Racist Friend is one of the many classic tracks on They Might Be Giant's excellent third album - 1990s, Flood.

 

For the final two songs of today's mix, the shuffle machine takes us to the American West with a pair of songs from LA artists who were pioneers in the punk and alt-rock/Americana movement.  

Dave Alvin (ex-Blasters and ex-X) released West of the West in 2006 which was his tribute to California roots music.  Included on the album was his cover of Merle Haggard's 1985 song, Kern River.  I swear I could listen to Dave Alvin's amazing vocals all day long.

(Here's Dave doing another River song)

(and here's Merle's version)

 

We close out the shuffle with Dave Alvin's one-time bandmate, John Doe of X, with a track from his 1990 solo debut Meet John Doe with the achingly beautiful It's Only Love.

 

(I couldn't find a video for It's Only Love... so as a bonus treat - here's Doe covering The Replacement's classic Here Comes a Regular)