Steely Dan Playlist

I don't know why I'm doing this. Don't know why I'm torturing myself. Few things make me so achingly nostalgic. So sad for lost youth. But here goes. A Steely Dan playlist .....

Doctor Wu ..... These days, this is where Steely Dan's music starts for me.

My Old School ..... Might as well just get out the old yearbook and inflict nostalgic memories of what once was. Remembering the old faces and places as I listen.

Rikki Don't Lose That Number ..... This is the one that now says, high school to me. And I don't think it actually received radio play until I was out of high school.

Deacon Blues ..... I wasn't much of a fan initially. But the album, 'Aja' grabbed my attention. By then I had some getting acquainted to do.

Dirty Work

Throw Back the Little Ones

Kid Charlemagne ..... "And I'm never going back to my old school."  It is more difficult than I would have ever thought.

Hey Nineteen ..... "Please take me along when you slide on down."

Only A Fool Would Say That

49th Parallel

Neil Swainson Quintet - '49th Parallel'

A recent vinyl reissue of this 1989 album arriving at my front door. I'm really loving when that happens.

I love the packaging on this record. Gatefold sleeve with liner notes and an interview. Just the way that it all is presented ..... catches my eye.

Previously unknown Jazz sounds. Neil Swainson is a bass player. Original songs except for one Joe Henderson cover. And there's a bonus download track to be found in the packaging.

It's amazing how there's always something old, especially with Jazz, that's exciting and unique to discover. That's new to one's ears.

Trumpeter Woody Shaw's final studio recording.

I do wish that they had kept the original 1989 album cover for this reissue. I would have purchased that upon first sighting, no song samples needed .....

London Jazz News Review

Ghost of David

'Ghost of David' by Damien Jurado.

You just might see his photo next to an entry in your dictionary for Indie singer/songwriter. Early stripped down Neil Young meets Nick Drake and Elliott Smith. 

Not my first Damien Jurado experience. I have at least a half dozen of his albums. Was feeling extreme frustration at the ongoing non-delivery of his latest and discovered this gem while messaging amazon support. So great things do sometimes arise from displeasure. And I've been assured that the initial frustration will ease by this coming Friday .... "at the latest." I'll likely play this album three or four times before then.

From 2000 on Sub Pop records. Usually an indication of quality. Beautiful melodies are to be found within!! 

On the song 'Paxil' he shows that he can switch direction and rock as well as anyone. Surrounding it are more acoustic sounds. 'Walk With Me' reminds of Neil Young's, 'Love in Mind.'

Mix-Tape For You, From A Life Of Listening

 If I could sit down and create s mix-tape tonight for you, wherever you are .....

• Steely Dan - My Old School ..... More than anything else, their music causes flashbacks to high school.
• Neil Young - Tell Me Why ..... I never tire of hearing this. You say, "Neil Young" and this is almost always the first song that comes to mind.
• Son Volt - Back Into Your World
• Bob Dylan - Precious Angel
• Tom Rush - River Song ..... I have this memory from fifteen or twenty years ago, of sitting in my car in a parking lot, waiting for my Mom to arrive for a lunch date and this song playing on my ipod.
• Mike Oldfield - Moonlight Shadow
• The Eagles - Peaceful Easy Feeling ..... Always been the first song that comes to mind when FM-Radio is mentioned.
• Gordon Lightfoot - Seven Island Suite ..... As goofy as it might sound, I used to visualize myself strumming along, adding an additional air acoustic guitar to the song.
• Warren Zevon - Accidently Like a Martyr ..... "We made mad love, shadow love, random love and abandoned love, accidently like a martyr." 

Gold Record

'Gold Record' by Bill Callahan.

I know next to nothing about Bill Callahan. He's a new voice for me that I stumbled across while perusing possibly Amazon or itunes, where he seems to be very popular.. A low key singer/songwriter that I've been trying to decide who he reminds me of. Maybe a cross between Bill Morrissey, Greg Brown and Tom Rush .... which certainly adds up to a good thing. More Bill Morrissey than the others.

This recording has just been released.

Pitchfork Review

Pieces Of A Man

Gil Scott-Heron - 'Pieces Of a Man'

A recent vinyl find of this 1971 recording.

I think my introduction to his music was forty years ago with the 'No Nukes' benefit concert compilation and his contribution, 'We Almost Lost Detroit.'

Great lyricist. 

All Music Guide Review

"I saw my daddy greet the mailman                          And I heard the mailman say                                "Now don't you take this letter to heart now Jimmy      Cause they've laid off nine others today"                  He didn't know what he was saying                          He could hardly understand                                    That he was only talking to                                  Pieces of a man."

Drive-by Playlist

Another Saturday playlist. Just because. Just stuff heard on the radio in hopes of hearing something new where I feel the need to investigate further  ..... 

• Angie McMahon - Keeping Time ..... Sounds a little like The Pretenders to my aged ears.
• White Stripes - 300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues ..... I'm reminded of Bob Dylan now. 'Tom Thumbs Blues' to be specific.
• The Sea and Cake - Harps
• Land of Talk - Weight of the Weekend *****
• Kingsley Ibeneche - My Freedom
• The Black Keys - Run Right Back
• Sault - Over
• Leon Bridges - Sweeter
• Love - Skid
• Gorillaz - Aries *****
• Daniel Romano - A Rat Without a Tail ..... Geez, I sure hope that's not the true inspiration behind the song.
• Elephant Stone - Motherless Child (Love's Not For War)
• SASAMI - Not The Time
• The Decemberists - This Is Why We Fight
• Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - 40 Day Dream

The Clean

'Getaway' by The Clean.

A vinyl find!! Indie Rock.

A new band for me, discovered in the wake of my record store closing and the resulting increase in  research for new sounds. I just can't physically stumble onto new things like usual. Discovering that there is something exciting about finding new music on your doorstep.

Incredible cover art, which is also on display inside the gatefold and individual record sleeves. (It's a double LP with a bonus cd.) Eye catching cover art has become a huge purchasing factor for me these days.

Frenzy

In the wake of my local record store of choice's closing, I've gone on a feeding frenzy of searching and buying in an attempt to upgrade my collection. At the same time, I've been guilty of binge viewing of all these YouTube Vinyl Community videos, (The "VC"), which have resulted in placing depraved ideas in my head. Things I don't have and that I really should have if I ever aspire to truly hold my head up high and look incredibly hip and cool in The VC. Not to forget whoever comes across this collection in the days after I depart this world. Because I still want to look cool even after passing.

So I've been all over Amazon, armed with ideas and at the same time cleaning up on local going out of business bargains and even a spur of the moment road trip to my long ago college town where when passing by their downtown record store thought to myself; "Why not?"  Saving money being the only con I could think of, I strapped on my face mask and ventured inside.

So now for the first time, I have some Iggy Pop & The Stooges, The Fugs, The Fall, The Bats, Eyelids, The Standells, Filthy Friends, 9 Below Zero, Manfred Man BBC Recordings and much more in my collection. And I've also been on the focused mission of a completist to acquire all Elbow recordings and get more Bill Frisell Jazz guitar sounds.

I've even thumbed through the one dollar bins .... until now an aspect of record collecting that I've always avoided, not so much out of extreme snobbery (well maybe a little of that) but more the fact that they always seem to be in boxes on the floor and I have a thing about bending over and/or getting on my knees in public places, but this waist level search resulting in a good condition David Blue original vinyl find from 1973 with the endlessly cool Asylum Records platter label which I first came across in my teenage years as an early era Jackson Browne and Eagles fanatic and a few years later, Warren Zevon. Surely I couldn't pass that up. I'm pretty sure that would have been one of those 'mortal sins' I've always tried to veer away from since hearing of them in my Catholic grade school days.

And this is just the beginning it seems because I'm an incredible nerd and an addict and never truly satisfied and even after occasional bouts of gazing upon the clutter and wondering if all this is getting out of control, the mood quickly fades and transitions into withdrawal pains which in my case is generally a period of one or two days of abstinence before said pains kick in.

Late Night Frenzy

Just another late night hour (or two) with OPB Music Radio .....

• Best Coast - Boyfriend
• Cloud Cult - Chemicals Collide
• No Aloha - In Your Car
• RAC - Passion
• Caveman - Thankful
• Kyle Craft - Of Lucky Hand
• Eleanor Friedberger - He Didn't Mention His Mother
• Deerhoof - Future Teenage Cave Artists
• The Good The Bad and the Queen - The Poison Tree
• Margaret Glaspy - Stay With Me
• Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart
• Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Faded In the Morning
• Caroline Rose - Feel the Way I Want 

Little Fictions

'Little Fictions' by Elbow. 

One of those great music collecting moments when you discover a band or musician who is new to your ears but who has actually been around for twenty years and has a sizeable catalogue of recordings already released. But then you wonder why it took you so damn long to make the discovery. First heard late at night on Oregon Public Broadcasting Radio, initially thinking, 'Hey new Peter Gabriel music!! Wrong once again though!! Helping now to keep me busy during this pandemic, purchasing their music in various physical formats. 

Short But Great OPB Radio Playlist

• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Bad Brood *****
• The National - Conversation 16
• Elbow - The Delayed 3:15  ..... I keep mistaking Elbow's lead singer for Peter Gabriel. I'm sure that Guy Garvey will enjoy reading that. But hey!! It kept me listening the first time. It sent me on a voyage of discovery.
• Julien Baker - Something
• The Decemberists - Make You Better ..... And their from Oregon!!!