The Philly Playlist

This isn't necessarily an exhaustive list, but these are some tracks that played a memorable role in training. Jeff Magnum's vocals are more or less what a marathon should sound like: strong, raw, restrained. A soft focus race mantra naturally acquired an extra adjective. Lil Wayne's infectious flow found its way into my head on most of my marathon simulation runs. Alela and Girlyman were excellent pre-morning workout partners; Felix and Soul Asylum helped after work. And so on. There have been others, of course. Miles Davis is doing a heckuva job as I relax on this particular evening. But adding any more would threaten to freeze my hot soft focus.

Shit, I gotta eat, yeah, even though I ate/It ain't my birthday but I got my name on the cake.

Neutral Milk Hotel - King of Carrot Flowers Part I
The Hold Steady - Hot Soft Light
Birdman & Lil Wayne - Stuntin' Like My Daddy
Alela Diane - Crying Wolf
Felix Da Housecat - Do We Move Your World?
Jamie T - Sticks 'n' Stones
Soul Asylum - Cartoon
Girlyman - St. Peter's Bones

Playlist 11/2-11/08

As before, there are no themes intended other than What I Listened To This Week...

Track 1

Ted Hawkins - Bring It Home Daddy

Last week's obsession continued this week, and this is the song that started it all. A Sam Cooke fan can't help but notice titular similarities between this song and Bring It On Home To Me, and lyrical similarities between Ted's "you're my ice cream and I'm your candy" and Sam's "your the apple of my eye, you're cherry pie/oh you're cake and ice cream" from Nothing Can Change This Love. And since Ted remarked that Sam's voice "did something to me" when he got out of prison at 19, I can't help but wonder if he's joining Solomon Burke in riffing on the line. In Can't Nobody Love You, King Solomon explains, "Sam called you cake and ice cream, he called you cherry pie/Ray Charles called you his sunshine but you're the apple of my eye."

Derivatives aside, this was the song that perked my ears and made me notice Ted Hawkins. I'm so glad.

Tracks 2-4

Booker T. - She Breaks

This week's new obsession was Booker T. Jones' 2009 release, Potato Hole. The album features Booker T, best known for Green Onions (originally a B-side!) but also the legendary "resident piano player, later organ player" at Stax Records; his backing band on the album is the Drive-By Truckers, described along with The Hold Steady as the only currently touring bands that smile when they're on stage.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but the organ soothes the Truckers' gritty three-guitar-attack and it works beautifully. I wouldn't have been as surprised if I'd known that the Truckers had collaborated back in 2007 with The Great Lady of Soul, Bettye Lavette...

Bettye Lavette - I Still Want To Be Your Baby (Take Me Like I Am)

See. If I'd heard that I wouldn't have questioned for a moment whether it was a good idea to cover Andre 3000.

Booker T. - Hey Ya!

Really, wonderful. One reviewer put it best by saying this "makes the world safe for Hey Ya! again."

Track 5

The Big Pink - Dominoes

Ubiquitous and catchy. Rigorous standards here at the weekly playlist.

Track 6

P.O.S. - Low Light Low Life

It's the flight of the salesman/Death of the bumblebee.

Dance to the rhetoric.

Track 7

Girlyman - St. Peter's Bones

Girlyman, or, If Paul Simon Joined The Indigo Girls. Thank goodness John Dickerson's blog is back. He linked to a live performance of this song, and is now 2/2 in music recommendations after introducing me to The Avett Brothers earlier this year.

Track 8

Felix Da Housecat - Do We Move Your World?

Felix Da Housecat, or...Prince? So says TNC's wife. This track was a Song of the Day from The Current. Turns out it's the perfect song for making the transition from workday zone-out to interval workout zone.

Track 9

Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is The Move

I give their new album, Bitte Orca a thumbs-up, but barely. It remains to be seen whether this repairs the damage done to my hipster cred when I walked out of that Grizzly Bear concert. Pitchfork gave this album a 9.2 and wrote,

It's breezy without a hint of slightness, tuneful but with its fair share of tumult, concise and inventive and replayable and plain old fun.

Which, probably, is more or less verbatim what pops into anyone's head when they listen.

I like between two and four songs on Bitte Orca. This is one of them. I'm not sure if it's "brainy," but it's interesting.

Bad Guys Acting Crazy

Last night we hit up the opera house because we could think of nothing better. I went in just quoting lines from the irresistible Oscar Wilde.

Jack: I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays. You can’t go anywhere without meeting clever people. The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few fools left.

I woke up deep in Hostile, Massachusetts.

He said: Hey my name is Corey. and I'm really into hardcore. People call me hard Corey. Don't you hate these clever people and all these clever people parties?

But I could tell when they were lying. It looked just like overacting.

Gwendolen: True. In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing.

The Hold Steady - Hostile, Mass.

Playlist 10/26-11/1

In an effort to blog with some regularity, I'm going to try posting weekly playlists. Nothing too fancy, just whatever I've been listening to for the past week. For example:

Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen - Wine Do Yer Stuff

I heard Commander Cody on American Routes playing Beat Me Daddy, Eight To The Bar, which is a fantastic tune (link is to the hit version by the Andrews Sisters) and made me wonder why I couldn't name more of his songs.

Turns out I can. He's the guy that does Hot Rod Lincoln, who I'd previously filed-away as Not Johnny Cash. I listened to his Lost In The Ozone album all week, but I'm posting this one because the chorus makes me laugh. Three calls - "Wine!" - to get the subject's attention, then the understated, syncopated directive. Sublime.

Arlo Guthrie - Hobo's Lullaby

The one song I can reliably finger-pick. My Dad used to play this for me; I gifted it this week to a guitar-playing father-to-be. Which involved a lot of re-listening and playing.

The Beatles - I've Just Seen A Face

I'm working on a Beatles-related Audio Project and last weekend I decided to revisit Revolver. And I decided I shouldn't revisit Revolver without revisiting Rubber Soul. Ten years ago I probably would have listed Revolver as my favorite Beatles record. This week I've listened to each six times back-to-back trying to decide.

This song in particular caught my ear because, for some reason, it reminded me of a faster version of The Boxer. This comparison works best if you haven't listened to The Boxer in a long while. My main rationale is that the way Paul McCartney trails-off at the end of each verse with "hmms" or "di-dis" or, of course, "li-lis" is similar to Paul Simon's chorus.

Riffing on coincidence now: I've Just Seen a Face is about a wonderful fleeting encounter with a very special woman. The point of greatest similarity in The Boxer - where Paul Simon trails-off with "li-li-li..." - comes after this line:

Asking only workman's wages I come looking for a job, but I get no offers/Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue/I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome I took some comfort there.

I'm sure that,

Had it been another day [he] might have looked the other way and [he'd] have never been aware but as it is [he'll] dream of her tonight.

Li-li-li.

Knaan - America

K'naan filled my April '09 soundtrack, but he showed-up this week to help pass the time as I drove my Somali and Oromo runners to their Sectional meet. They were trapped, which meant I got a translation: "He's talking about a girl, a really pretty girl...he can't find no girl like that in America."

The season's over.

Breakestra - Family Rap

I like Chali 2na. He's in this song and that last one, too.

The Mountain Goats - Genesis 3:23

This song entered my world last Friday despite my best efforts to avoid it. But The Current featured it as their Song of the Day, so I was basically trapped. I listened and thought, oh, I bet that Genesis verse is something about getting kicked out of Eden. Yep.

There are basically two reasons I listen to The Mountain Goats. One is that by listening I am given many more opportunities than I would otherwise encounter to deploy the phrase, "Goat it up, baby!" The other is that Craig Finn name checks the band in Girls Like Status. ("Song number three on John's last CD" or "Song number three on The Sunset Tree.") So I've given them just enough chances that I like just enough of their songs to justify downloading The Life Of The World To Come after grudgingly liking this track.

Judgment reserved for now, but I can't help feeling the same kind of recoil I felt when I heard about David Plotz's "Hey! I just read the Bible!" book.

Ted Hawkins - I Gave Up All I Had

This week's real prize discovery. I'm excited to fill this space with Ted Hawkins tunes for weeks to come. And since I'm anticipating lots of Ted Hawkins I'll keep my commentary short. For now. His wiki bio is worth a read, though.