E2TG 5/26/2021 - Sometimes you feel like a nut... - Meds Mix (Owl Doom Remix)

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You know the drill - I am running short on time and a ton of music to get to today.. or no further ado... 

Featured Friday Playlist recap Part 4 (songs 23-28):

23. "Flute In Da Hood" by Ambulance On Fire

First up, we have the opening track from the debut EP by this Lithuanian alternative electroacoustic folk duo.  A really fascinated release worthy of your attention.  

24. "Hole In My Heart" by The Low Countries

Next up, we have the lead track from a new EP from UK band The Low Countries - some really lovely UK folk pop with a murky back story and a great sound. 

25. "Mr. Wolf" by Hans Deville (feat. Andrew J. Davis)

Next up, we have the second single from the forthcoming Prophecies of the Lost (due out in August) from the lock-down album of the guitarist of the UK band King Prawn. Great stuff. 

26. "Infernal Heads" by CULT OF DOM KELLER

Latest single from the experimental rock group that formed in 2007. With elements of industrial and psych. I dig this.  

27. "I Better Run" by Napoleon (feat. Shane Told)

Next up, we have the new single from Toronto based alt-punk band Napoleon.  This track features Shane Told of Silverstein. Fast and noisy just the way I like it. 

28. "Moebius" by Trio Nilo

And, we close out this section of music with a new single from this Spanish progressive jazz - a wonderful instrumental track and a great way to take us out of the playlist for today. 

    Featured Friday Playlist

E2TG 4/28/2021 - Ah, Okay, I guess - Heaven Mix (Real Child Remix)

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So, here is where my head is at today... Thinking about things returning to some "new" normal or some "hybrid" normal.. I think it is important to say that a variety of feelings about all this is normal and complex and shifting feelings is normal, too.  I am happy for my musician friends who are beginning to see a return to what they love. At the same time, as I shared before, the current new normal is not something I am always comfortable with or really know how to navigate. My normal has not returned and likely will not return anytime soon.  I will adapt, but in the meantime, it is okay for me to be apprehensive and even frustrated.  

There are also a variety of more complex feelings which aren't directly related to live music.

On a somewhat related note, I, once again, have learned that sometimes the only way to get past an emotional block is to go through it.  (This is not, by the way, a substitute for professional help if that is needed).  But, for me, I sometimes have to just do something which I know will be good for me - even if a hundred voices provide excuses not to do it. It is a lesson I continue to learn and re-learn. 

Featured Friday Playlist recap Part 4 (songs 22-26):

22. "Persian Rug" by The Strange Days

First up, we have the new single from this London based gutter rock band. The band had been playing this song live for a year and half before recording it. A great lead-off to this segment of music. 

23. "So Long" by Sir Orfeo

Next up, we have the new single from this pastoral, lo-fi, indie folk band from Western Massachusetts. Their EP Millefleur is due out in June. Really wonderful song. 

24. "Floating" by Banana Chant

Next up, we have a track from the recently released second EP (Payingt off Student Loans) from this Miami based indie rock/funk/groove band. Check it out!

25. "Hold On" by Certain Animals

Next up, we have the first single from the forthcoming second album by this Dutch band who create fresh new music with a sixties and seventies vibe. Cool stuff. 

26. "Why Don't We" by Your Academy

And, we close things out for this segment of music with the lead track from the debut album from this new power pop band from Memphis which boasts and impressive pedigree which traces back to some of the great Memphis power pop bands of the past. 
 

    Featured Friday Playlist

Wild Wednesday Morning Shuffle - Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye Mix

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Continuing to have Texas on my mind.  If you want to help and are in Middle Tennessee - here is a local resource to consider.  https://www.cfmt.org/story/hurricane-harvey/

The so-called "Nashville Statement" does not represent the city I love.

I am disgusted daily by the behavior, actions, and words of the current occupant of the White House.

I am back after being sick yesterday.  I did take the down time to watch the 2016 documentary, Gimme Danger, about The Stooges (directed by one of my faves, Jim Jarmusch).  It brought me back to the feeling I had when I first encountered the music of The Stooges.  I think Fun House was the first album I heard, and it was one of those watershed musical moments for me.  It was interesting to see the kind of haphazard way the band came together and how the chemistry of all the pieces seemed to elevate the others.

It's Wednesday, and I'm just going to jump right into the "Wild Wednesday Shuffle" now...

Wild Wednesday Morning Shuffle - 56 Trees Mix

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The truth about writing a daily blog for six plus years is that you have to do it sometimes when you just don't feel like it. I have only had one significant time of not posting regularly during the entire six years of the existence of E2TG, and that was due to some significant life circumstances which forced me to take a break - and even then I tried to make some periodic posts to keep things going.  The internet is littered with blogs of all kinds that just stopped at some point.  No final post - just stopped.  Chances are the blogger thought they would post again soon and it just never happened. I get it.  I had a blog before E2TG (not a music blog - actually I'm not sure what it was) I wrote in it periodically and then at some point, I just stopped and after a time I realized it was dead.

I don't know why I am writing all this except that the past couple of weeks have been pretty stressful on several different fronts and levels, and I haven't always felt like blogging, but I have kept on. I figure, I force myself to get up and go to work, I listen to music (pretty much a given) so why not write about it. Also, I know if I give into the temporary apathy or whatever you want to call it, then I will likely start making that a habit and then one day, I will realize that E2TG is dead.

I assume that at some point I will stop writing E2TG, but I hope when I do that it is intentional and that I will go out in a blaze of glory.  Anyway, that day is not today.

Meanwhile don't even get me started on the latest from the Twit in Chief.

It is Wednesday. A day when we open up the barn doors and let all our horses run free... or to put it another way, we shuffle up the entire Song list in my phone and see what happens.  We call it Wild Wednesday - because things sometimes get wild and because it is like a "wild card" - it may be anything.

Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Reflections Mix

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A lot of ground to cover....  as promised, I added a virtual ton of music to the playlist - 196 songs in all bringing the total before today's post of 471 songs - which I think is a record.

First off - you have to understand that Lou Reed tributes are not going to stop anytime soon.  His death seemed to affect people who make and listen to all kinds of music.  Today, we have a very special video offered as a tribute to Mr. Reed.  It's a cover of the Velvet Underground classic (aren't they all?) and one of my favorites (I know I say this about quite a few VU and Reed songs - but really I mean it) - "I'll Be Your Mirror" here performed by Richard Barone with the amazing Jane Scarpantoni on Cello from the 25th  Anniversary concert for one of the most lovely records ever made (Cool Blue Halo).  Richard Barone (Bongos) is offering up the song as a tribute to his late friend and influence.



Now - let's get to the shuffle.... we have a long one today - so join me after the JUMP

Monday Morning Music Shuffle - Adaptation Mix

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Here at E2TG we are all about adapting to circumstances beyond our control. Most of our best ideas were born out of necessity...

With my earphones still on the fritz (although I'm suspecting it may be the earphone jack - which would suck since I'm just 10 months or so into a two year contract...), I decided to make some changes.

The first part of today's mix came from a drive across town I took last night while the second part is from this morning's commute.  It all washes out, and we have 12 great songs for your enjoyment and edutainment.

Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - Nearly Perfect Mix

Convergence of everything good.... a perfect storm of wonderment...

 

 

Year of October at Douglas Corner 6/27/2013



Today is like a near perfect early October morning and here it is mid August!  The mix of songs that shuffled out of my MP3 player was almost as perfect as the weather.  I can't wait to bring it to you, and so I won't.


Be prepared - after the jump...

Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - Flood Warning Mix

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And the rains came down....

Buckets of rain...

Rain...

It's a rainy day in Nashville.  A good day for sleeping... a good die for a music shuffle (everyday...)


Music - after JUMP

Monday Morning Music Shuffle - Godard Mix

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Why Godard? Why not Godard? Plus today's mix includes a song which was on the soundtrack of an movie that was a remake of a Godard film...


This year has been incredibly busy and has left little time for reflection. It's been a great year for music - both in terms of great new music from "old" friends and great music from new friends.  I've done a massive overhaul of the Playlist from which the daily mixes are drawn.  As always  I will be adding new music as it comes to me, but I've stocked up the playlist with some of our favorites from 2013 so far...


--> Today's mix begins after the jump:

Pre-Shuffle:

* "Play With Your Toys Pt. 1" by The End Men

*"Ornamental" and "Grey Scale" by Let's Active (for Faye Hunter)

*"Breathless" by X (Jerry Lee Lewis (Otis Blackwell) cover - featured in the 1983 film Breathless which was a remake of a 1960 Jean-Luc Godard film)



Shuffle:

"Double Brahma" by Valued Customer from Kalpa (2013)

More sheer brilliance from these Toronto kids. "live for the present like a kid at christmas speaking in tongues my flow french kisses "

"By My Side" by Aaron and the Spell 

 

 

 

 

 



Some kick ass Philly Soul - check out these guys!

"Stained Glass Window" by Courier from Cathedrals of Color (2013)

 

A recent discovery.  A "big music" alternative band from Austin. 

 

 "Play With Your Toys Pt. II" by The End Men from Play With Your Toys (2013)

We close out today's set of music with Pt. II - we began with Pt. I. How appropriate*

The End Men have both their EP and this album up for Sale on their Bandcamp Page - at Name Your Price.  As always, I encourage you to 1. get this album and 2. as you are able, give generously.  The End Men have pre-announced a big announcement for September 1 and could use your support.   You can go back and read everything I've written about this band and this album.  The remain the number one most frequent tag on Ear to the Ground.

They also have a spiffy new website - check it out

PLAYLIST

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Friday Morning Music Shuffle - Yapping Dog Mix

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 Well - no school today - so back to my "summer" commute and a longer set of music...

Jump to get to it!

Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Out of the Starlight Inn Mix

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On a road... JWM 7/28/2013

Short on time - the music is next

Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle - Devil's Toolbox Mix

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 Good morning from cold and wet Nashville where we currently have flurries flying around (or as we call it, a blizzard).  Hope everyone had a lovely December 25th.  

Band of the Year voting took off over the long weekend. We currently stand at over 1,400 votes counted and The Disappointment holds about a 150 vote lead over second place Skeletons in the Piano.  Still time to vote (voting officially ends at 11:59:59 p.m. on Sunday December 30.  Any votes received after the cutoff will not be counted.   Vote here!

Today's shuffle after the jump:

Music Shuffle for a Thursday Afternoon Drive - Jail Guitar Doors Mix

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Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Easy Listenin' Mix

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Well congrats again to Walking for Pennies and Nena Anderson for being voted Bands of the Months for November/December combined.  Next, we turn our attention to the 2nd Annual Ear 2 the Ground Band of the Year Poll.  Throughout this year, we've had some epic battles for Band of the Month.  Who can forget the nail biting photo finish from January when the mighty, mighty MAKAR edged out The End Men, so the battle between South of Ramona and Sci-Fi Romance with the boys from Utah coming out on top.  Or the no-holds-bar Texas death match when Upstate NY band Skeletons in the Piano narrowing defeated Georgia's own Killing Kuddles.  Well, soon all of these bands and more of your favorite E2TG featured Artists will be pitted in a Battle Royale.  Remember, no biting, eye gouging or hitting below the belt.  And mostly remember, our main purpose is to have another opportunity to present some of the great music that has reached our ears this year. So keep it clean and have fun.

Before we jump into  the Band of the Year battle, we'll take a look back at our inaugural Band of the Year Poll.

But, now, we have a Morning Shuffle to present so, let's stop jibber jabbering and get to it... 
Shuffle after the jump...





MORNING SHUFFLE

I tend to  think of The Sea and Cake as Easy Listenin' Music for the cool kids.  And, I don't mean that in a bad way at all. There is an appeal to music that mellows you out.  It's why so many alternative boys and girls take guilty and secret pleasure in listening to the classic Easy Listenin' songs from the 70s.  The Sea and Cake provide the mellowness free of any guilt.  Up on the North Shore from 2011's The Moonlight Butterfly is a good introduction to the band.  

 

Former Drive By Trucker, Jason Isbell along with his fabulous band, the 400 Unit, are tearing it up on the Americana rock circuit.  In the shuffle today, we have a bonus track from the Deluxe edition of Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit album - a cover of Big Star's When My Baby's Beside Me which was on Number 1 Record.

By 1987s See How We Are, Billy Zoom had departed from X and was replaced on the album by ex-Blaster Dave Alvin.  Alvin left shortly after that and was replaced by Tony Gilkyson for a subsequent tour.  See How We Are found the band fully embracing the emerging Americana/Alt-Country sound which had been hinted at in their earlier. (I contend that even their early punk days, Billy Zoom's rockabilly guitar style was a natural precursor to the later more explicitly countryesque sound). Today's shuffle contains When It Rains from See How We Are.

 

Could not find a video for When It Rains - here is an early version of the album's title track

We'll close out today's Morning Shuffle with a Classic from Hank Williams - Hey Good Lookin'.

 

Independence Day

Greetings all, I hope all my fellow Americans (I sound like the President don't I?) are having a great day.  Just a quick post to get things going:

Finally, I'll close out with an Independence Day announcement from Nashville's Best Radio Station:  Lightning 100:

Tuesday Music (I am very far away...)

Greetings.  I am not here.  I was here, but I no longer am... Here's some music that shaped me:

Friday Morning Music Shuffle - Camp Crystal Lake Mix

 The songs (not the recordings) in today's shuffle are an average of 44 years old.  Our set includes two classics from my youth and two recent covers of songs from before my youth.


Sex and Dying in High Society by X is from their debut Los Angeles.  "So you marry your daddy
with a different name"

Please Do Not Go by Violent Femmes from their eponymous debut. "Tell ya, man, I'm stuck on this lovely girl Of course to me, she mean all t' world"

Love in Vain performed here by our good friends You & Me is a cover of a 1937 Robert Johnson song which was also covered by The Stones on Let It Bleed.  "Well I followed her to the station
With a suitcase in my hand" 

The Ocean performed here by Laura Veirs and her husband Tucker Martine (as Mount Analog) is a cover of the Led Zeppelin song from House of the Holy. Trivia: Tucker Martine (like my friend Rex Silo moved from Nashville to Boulder, Colorado). "Singing in the sunshine, laughing in the rain.
Hitting on the moonshine, rocking in the brain."

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Bonus Music Shuffle - Institutional Mix

Had to walk to the bank at lunch time and wanted to share my soundtrack with you - just because


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Affiliated Links:

Mozipedia : The Encyclopedia of Morrissey and the Smiths No Synopsis Available

Live From Austin TX: Lucinda Williams A gifted songwriter and fiercely uncompromising artist, Lucinda Williams was beginning to earn a degree of commercial acceptance comparable to the critical acclaim she'd been receiving for years in 1998 with the release of her Grammy-winning album Car Whe

X (The Band) - The Unheard Music X was one of the finest and most widely acclaimed American rock bands of the 1980s. Rising out of the Los Angeles punk rock scene, X merged punk, rockabilly, blues, and country flavors into a revved-up sound that at once celebrated and deconstructed American pop culture, and the group's lyrics -- written by singer Exene Cervenka and bassist/vocalist John Doe -- used beat-influenced poetry to examine life along the margins in one of America's most privileged cities. X became a major draw in their hometown, and their first two independently released albums, Los Angeles and Wild Gift, each managed the then-remarkable feat of selling over 50,000 copies each. However, as the group's popularity steadily grew and they began to expand the boundaries of the underground music community, the band found themselves faced with the question of how to bring their sound to the mass audience without compromising their music (or their principles) in the process. The Unheard Music is a documentary that combines live footage of the band and interviews with the four members (as well as their friends and families) with surreal music videos and montages of newsreel footage and vintage television commercials which help to illustrate X's uphill struggle against the music industry. The year The Unheard Music was released, guitarist and founding member Billy Zoom left the band, and X soldiered on with guitarist Tony Gilkyson before calling it a day in 1988. However, the group briefly reunited with Gilkyson in 1993, recording two albums (one studio, one live), and in 1998, Billy Zoom made his long-awaited return to X's lineup for a series of enthusiastically received live dates. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - City of Electric Light Mix

words and music

music and words

songs and singers

singers and songs

i

am

simply

a

man

who

writes 

about words and music and singers and songs

the power of music to inspire and enthuse to infuse my spirit, my soul

again and again, i go to that well

and music comes through

place and time travel with a song, a band

take me back to a moments which no longer exist

and are no longer possible

do you remember?

ah - that song

you know the one

with music and words 

and words and music

A song shuffle for today as clouds and stray, straggling showers pelt down on our heads..

Los Angeles is the stunning debut by punk legends - X. John Doe, Exene Cervenka, DJ Bonebrake and Billy Zoom.  Sugarlight is one of the songs on that album that paints a dark yet powerful tableau of a place and time which I never knew and never will experience, but which I can emotionally connect with via the music.

<----check out Los Angeles by X on Amazon

They Might Be Giants have been making great music for a long, long time. They have a distinctive and interesting sound. Join Us came out last year. Can't Keep Johnny Down from that album has a delicious hook and that classic TMBG sound.
<-----check out Join Us by TMBG on Amazon

Old Devil Moon is a song from the 1947 musical Finean's Rainbow. Here it is performed by the legendary Lena Horne. The Moon is a powerful symbol and source of myth. Lunacy.


<--------check out this Lena Horne album on Amazon


The  idea transporting Homer's Odyssey from the ancient world to the Great Depression Era Southern United States and infusing it with American Roots music seemed/seems ridiculous until you realize it is the Coen Brother involved with T-Bone Burnett in charge of the music.  O Brother, Where Art Thou?  The signature song from the film was written in the early 20th Century (if not earlier). Dan Tyminski from Alison Krauss' band Union Station handles the vocals on I am a Man of Constant Sorrow.

  <-------check out the Deluxe Edition of the O Brother, Where Are Thou? Soundtrack on Amazon.

I Believe in You was a hit for country music singer Don Williams in 1980.  About 28 years later, Nashville based alternative rock band, Lambchop recorded a cover of the song and put it on their OH (ohio) album. Kurt Wagner plays it pretty straight on this stripped down version of the song.

<------check out OH (ohio) by Lambchop on Amazon

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Old Devil Moon " Christopher] Fowler repeatedly challenges the reader to redraw the boundaries between innocence and malevolence, rationality and paranoia. His strength lies in the way he unveils the darker side of the ordinary."-"Guardian" A geologist trapped in a town without water is lured into a desperate escape plan. A boy plans a murder in an eerie funfair. A cop witnesses an inexplicable plague of madness. A teenager learns a deadly trick with his cell phone. Christopher Fowler's tenth collection of uniquely disturbing short stories contains the blackest humor and the darkest fears. Christopher Fowler is the author of twelve novels, including the Bryant & May series. He lives in London.

Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times A giant of American music opens the book on his wrenching professional and personal journeys, paying tribute to the vanishing Appalachian culture that gave him his voice. He was there at the beginning of bluegrass. Yet his music, forged in the remote hills and hollows of Southwest Virginia, has even deeper roots. In "Man of Constant Sorrow," Dr. Ralph Stanley gives a surprisingly candid look back on his long and incredible career as the patriarch of old-time mountain music. Marked by Dr. Ralph Stanleyas banjo picking, his brother Carteras guitar playing, and their haunting and distinctive harmonies, the Stanley Brothers began their career in 1946 and blessed the world of bluegrass with hundreds of classic songs, including aWhite Dove, a aRank Stranger, a and what has become Dr. Ralphas signature song, aMan of Constant Sorrow.a Carter died in 1966 after years of alcohol abuse, but Dr. Ralph Stanley carried on and is still at the top of his game, playing to audiences across the country today at age eighty-one. Rarely giving interviews, he now grants fans the book they have been waiting for, filled with frank recollections, from his boyhood of dire poverty in the Appalachian coalfields to his early musical success with his brother, to years of hard traveling on the road with the Clinch Mountain Boys, to the recent, jubilant revival of a sound he helped create. The story of how a musical art now popular around the world was crafted by two brothers from a dying mountain culture, "Man of Constant Sorrow" captures a life harmonized with equal measures of tragedy and triumph.