Wild Wednesday Morning Shuffle - Corn and Juice Mix

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Okay, I'm going to speak directly to the "both sides are equally bad" crowd. Although, I do not necessarily agree with your assessment; in normal times, I can at least respect your viewpoint. And, I am not afraid to say that I am not always happy with the decisions, policies, and practices of "my side".  However, I think to continue that line of argument under the current situation is disingenuous. I need to say that if you are only making this argument on certain single-issues - then your argument may be accurate but flawed.  For people of color, for people with disabilities (and those who care about them), for the LGBTQQIP2SAA community, for people with preexisting health issues, for basically anyone who is not part of the 1% - I can unequivocally say both sides are not equally bad. I have always disliked the two party system.  I would love to see few strong third parties to emerge. Unfortunately, it will not be easy because in many ways the two party system seems to be codified both in actual code and in the wiring of most Americans. I'm not saying it can't or won't change, but it will not be easy.  In the meantime, I really would love to see people of good conscience of all political stripes to step forward against the dangerous direction the current administration is taking this country.
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Despite still being tired from Monday night's late night, I headed out to $2 Tuesday at The 5 Spot. This weekly night - hosted by Derek Hoke with Tim Hibbs spinning tunes - is one of the best hangs in this town of great hangs.  $2 cover/$2 Yazoo pints and always great music.  Last night saw the $2 Tuesday debut of Jon Latham and his powerhouse band plus  Jacob Thomas Jr., host Derek Hoke, and The Royal Hounds.  All that and good hangs with good friends.  Can't be beat.

If you caught Jon Latham and company last night and were blown away, be sure to head back to The 5 Spot on May 10 when they will have a full set to spread out and rock your socks off. (Part of the E2TG Anniversary residency - all May long).


It's Wild Wednesday on the E2TG Shuffle.  All the songs... You know, sometimes Wild Wednesday produces an eclectic mix of music - covering widely diverse eras, genres, and geographic areas. Sometimes - not so much. I will let you decide for yourself which category today's shuffle fits.

Monday Morning Music Shuffle - Is That All? Mix

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Did you watch the Grammy Awards last night?  What'd you think?

Highlights for me:  Jack White, Mavis Staples and others in the Levon Helm tribute, Justin Timberlake and the Tennessee Boys, Bruno Mars and Sting but mostly when Damian and Ziggy Marley came on stage, The Lumineers and the Dave Brubeck tribute.  Overall, I was surprisingly pleased which much of the show.  I mean, you have to accept it for what it is, but compared to past shows I've endured, I thought there was a abundance of real musicians on the stage.  And, the audience seemed to be supporting all the music.  And Prince, just by his royal presence and his off-the-cuff statement that he loved the Goyte song which won for Record of the Year.  Not the mention, the utter star-struckedness of Goyte and Kimbra. 





  So, while it's easy to sit here and complain about all the bands and artists who deserved to be on that stage or at least nominated... At least the Grammy's seem to be trying... right?  Or do you disagree? I'd love to hear what you have to say.

We have a long shuffle, so let's get to it. After le Jump...

Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - Gold Rush Mix

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So much going on, and yet I find myself constantly pressed for time.  So here is a quick and dirty, non-complete run down of some things which have crossed my mind, my desk or my social media filters....

1. RIP Patty Andrews - the last surviving member of the Andrews Sisters.

2.  The Great American Novel have released a new single...

 

3. Couch by Couchwest is about a month and a half away.  Bands: Submit your videos to Couch by Couchwest - "Where the beer is cheaper and the only hipster is you."


After the jump; a shuffle:

Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - Swearing Off Mix

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I'm late and running short on time - so to the shuffle

Post Thanksgiving - Anti-Black Friday Video Post

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The Playlist:

Blackbird	Beatles
Rendezvous	Bruce Springsteen
We Want a Rock	They Might Be Giants
Watch Your Step	Elvis Costello and the Attractions
Who? You	China Woman
The Waiting	Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Hand-Me-Down Tune	The Avett Brothers
I Bruise Easily	Natasha Bedingfield
Cuyahoga (REM Cover)	The Decemberists
Poor Boy Blues	Bonepony

The Videos/Streams:

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Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Lucky Guy Mix

Before 1993 I only thought I knew what words like heady and transcendent and halcyon meant. In 1993, I experienced all of those feelings and many more.  It was a wild ride of a year which promised and delivered thrills beyond my wildest expectations.  August 28 of that year - 19 years ago today... well how can I explain that day?  Honestly, what I remember most is the laser sharp sense of purpose and direction, and the unwavering sense of doing what I was supposed to be doing.  It started with errands (vitally important errands), a beautifully simple ceremony, drinks, an awkward announcement, party planning, phone calls, the arrival of friends (who were not as surprised as we thought they should have been) and a blow-out of a party. Our Wedding Day... 19 years ago today...

Our song:

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The shuffle:

The Grimm Generation are friends with The Danbury Lie. The band got into contact with me after I named The Danbury Lie featured artists.  The first thing that struck me was the fact that they were heaping praise on the other band.  So, I checked them out.  And, I listened some more.  I don't want to say too much because I have a feeling I will be writing much more about this band. Suffice it to say, if you are familiar with The Grimm Generation, now is the time to rectify that situation.  The band's description as Post-Apocalyptic Pop gives a bit of hint to the passionate, juicy sound of this band. Oh hell, just take a look and listen:
 Our song today is Sometimes I'm Subtle (Sometimes I'm Drunk) from their album The Last Record Party.  Honestly, I'm in serious love with this band right now!

 
Here is The Grimm Generations' cover of Great Balls of Fire.

Next, we have a song about April 1, 1984.  I was in my senior year of high school, and Marvin Gaye was just one day shy of his 45th birthday when he was shot and killed during an argument with his father.  Day That Marvin Gaye Died is by the Avett Brothers from their 2004 release Mignonette. 

Man on Earth is a capital R Rock band from New York.  They've been around for a number of years and have played with a number of well-known artists. They released a new video for a song called Venus at the beginning of this month, and are about to embark on a tour which will bring them to Nashville.   The song we have today is an older one called The Great Discontent which we came across on a compilation called sorryeverybody.com vol. 1. from 2005.

Here is the band's newest video Venus.

The Alabama Shakes released Boys and Girls back in April, and it had proven to be a break-out moment for the boys and girls from Athens, Alabama.  We have  the joyful Hang Loose today. Sounds like good advice.

 

And finally, we have a song by a jazz saxophonist, composer and band leader Steve Mohacey.  In a small world moment, it turns out that my next door neighbor, who like Mr. Mohacey is a Army band guy, knows Steve Mohacey. Anyway, although we most feature a wide-variety of alternative, Americana indie rock music, we are always on the look-out for all kinds of cool tunes.  Da Boyz is a blisteringly cool jazz number.

Here is Steve Mohacey from his Army Band Days

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Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Tiger of Manhatten Mix

I'm currently reading Jonathan Lethem's rather trippy novel Chronic City (and yes the titular Chronic is what you think).  I'm a big Jonathan Lethem fan, and so far I'm enjoying the book, but I'm just about half way through - it's very long.  Anyway, there are lots of interesting occurrences and references in the book. The novel falls into the classification of what I like to call hyper-realism, which for me means a view of the world which is skewed from what most of us perceive as reality.

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We are in a daze, a haze, a maze

we are amazed

we meet an icon and are surprised

to find the truth behind

their facade

And then we are overtaken with joy

and laughter fills the air around our ears

We look around and fine ourselved

unimpressed

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Our list today features music added into the MP3 for the month of March - it's our last adds for March.

Here is today's list:

 

Dancing Daze is  from The Avett Brothers' 2006 album Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions  which was recorded in 10 days in early 2005.

 

"Mean" Joe Green comes from recent Band of the Week, Calicocat off of their 2011 set, Unnatural Oasis.

  Couldn't find a video of the band doing this song, so here is the classic Coca-Cola commercial of Mean Joe Greene.

 

The Way You Laugh is by Dawes off of Nothing is Wrong.

 

And finally, we have our brand new Band of the Week, Northbrook Garage with their song  So What.

 

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Chronic City The acclaimed author of "Motherless Brooklyn" and "The Fortress of Solitude" returns with a roar with this gorgeous, searing portrayal of Manhattanites wrapped in their own delusions, desires, and lies. Chase Insteadman, a handsome, inoffensive fixture on Manhattan's social scene, lives off residuals earned as a child star on a beloved sitcom called "Martyr & Pesty." Chase owes his current social cachet to an ongoing tragedy much covered in the tabloids: His teenage sweetheart and fiancee, Janice Trumbull, is trapped by a layer of low-orbit mines on the International Space Station, from which she sends him rapturous and heartbreaking love letters. Like Janice, Chase is adrift, she in Earth's stratosphere, he in a vague routine punctuated by Upper East Side dinner parties. Into Chase's cloistered city enters Perkus Tooth, a wall-eyed free-range pop critic whose soaring conspiratorial riffs are fueled by high-grade marijuana, mammoth cheeseburgers, and a desperate ache for meaning. Perkus's countercultural savvy and voracious paranoia draw Chase into another Manhattan, where questions of what is real, what is fake, and who is complicit take on a life-shattering urgency. Along with Oona Laszlo, a self-loathing ghostwriter, and Richard Abneg, a hero of the Tompkins Square Park riot now working as a fixer for the billionaire mayor, Chase and Perkus attempt to unearth the answers to several mysteries that seem to offer that rarest of artifacts on an island where everything can be bought: Truth. Like Manhattan itself, Jonathan Lethem's masterpiece is beautiful and tawdry, tragic and forgiving, devastating and antic, a stand-in for the whole world and a place utterly unique.

Mean Joe Greene and the Steelers' front four This book is in Used condition

Fat Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Thorazine Mix

Welcome to the working week.  After a productive President's Day of studying Presidential trivia and decorating the President's Day shrub and taking part in at least six different President's Day parades, we are back at it for another, albeit short, week.

We first caught up with Taco Land back last year when they were our Band of the Week and went on to a fifth place finish in the Band of the Year competition. We've recently been able to add some more great music from the San Antonio based band's Heart of Texas album and today we feature Lost and Found. Taco Land, which is now the duo of Joseph Russell and Jerry Lafere, write and play smart and smooth indie rock.

 

Our second and fourth songs from today's shuffle comes from the 2006 album Four Thieves Gone - The Robbinsville Sessions by The Avett Brothers.  First up with have a cheerful little number The Lowering (A Sad Day in Greenvilletown).

Townes Van Zandt was a national treasure.  To say he was under appreciated in his lifetime is a gross understatement.  He suffered from a variety of mental health issues and substance abuse problems, and eventually, these problems slowed his once prolific musical output.  Today's song is the painfully fractured gem Sanitarium Blues which was released posthumously on the A Far Cry from Dead album.

 

We close it out with another song from The Avett Brothers' Four Thieves Gone album, this is one Matrimony. The Avett Brothers will be appearing at this years Bonnaroo festival.

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The Big Bang Theory Bazinga Zip Front Hoodie Retro pop art accompanies the slogan Sheldon has made famous on this Big Bang Theory Bazinga! zip front hoodie. The word bazinga is derived from the word zing which means to fool someone. Sheldon just made it more fun by adding a couple more syllables. Get in on it and make some mischief of your own in the Big Bang Theory Bazinga! Zip Front Hoodie. The Big Bang Theory Bazinga Zip Front Hoodie

Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - Pardon Me, Sir Mix

Sorry for there not being a music shuffle yesterday, but I was incarcerated indisposed or something like that,  but I'm back at it - albeit later than usual - today.

Rainy morning.  Once again, dealing with my play lists  being unavailable, but one cover did come up today.

I just finished watching "The Runaways" movie, and went digging around and came up with this gem or a cover.  Joan Jett covers The Minutemen er I mean Creedence Clearwater Revival's song Have You Ever Seen the Rain? from her Hit List album which also features a Door's Cover and a cover of The Sex Pistol's Pretty Vacant.

Next up is the late, great Etta James' classic song - At Last. Got me thinking about the parallels in the life of these two amazing women of  music.

Next we have The Avett Brothers with a song from the Four Thieves Gone called Left On Laura, Left on Lisa  which echoes the sentiment of the Nick Lowe song, All Men Are Liars.

And finally, come on you knew we couldn't let another day go by with another track from Band of Week alum's MAKAR's album Funeral Genius - So Slow is that song.

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Cherry Bomb (Digital Sheet Music) "By Joan Jett and The Runaways. For piano, voice, and guitar (chords only). Metal; Pop; Rock. 4 pages. Published by Hal Leonard - Digital Sheet Music"

20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Runaways In the grand tradition of {$the Velvet Underground}, {$the Stooges}, {$the MC5}, and {$the New York Dolls}, {$the Runaways} were a band who paid a steep price for being ahead of the curve. Their straight-ahead {\glam}-flavored {\hard rock} wasn't as music