Rest in Peace, Phife Dawg

You on point, Phife?
All the time, Tip.

"I am a Scientist," by Guided by Voices

My favorite song of the day. Looks like someone's been drinking. 

                                        

"Freak Scene," by Dinosaur Jr.

My Favorite Song of the Day: "Freak Scene," by Dinosaur Jr. And an emphatic Yes! Yes! Yes! to this live version.

"My Sister's Tiny Hands," by The Handsome Family. It's the song of the day

A haunting song in the vein of old Appalachia dark murder ballad folk wailing. I feel like I'm down in the dark deep valley, drenched in dew, trudging through the tall grass. Dodging snakes.

"Mahgeetah" by My Morning Jacket

No matter where I am, when I hear those opening invitations by beckoning Jim James, I am transported back to Fall 2003. A new transplant transplanted into Los Angeles. Still trying to force my roost to take hold. The album It Still Moves will always be the first amazing record released I bought as an infant Angeleno.

"Mahgeetah," My Morning Jacket. 2003

"Isabel" by Unrest. It's the Song of the Day

I am such a sucker for that drum beat. That ubiquitous early 90s Madchester-ish drumbeat. The album version, without the drums, is beautiful too. But like I said--give me that beat as a bed and I'll jump in.

"Isabel," by Unrest. 1993

"On Fire" by Sebadoh. It's the song of the day.

Haul

On January 19, I dropped by Freakbeat records in Sherman Oaks with my pal, Russ.

This was my haul.

Black Market Clash, by The Clash

I especially dig side 2. Their version of "Armageddon Time" is one of my all-time favorite white guy covers of Jamaican music.

Time for Tyner, by McCoy Tyner

Really imaginative live set. Visionary 1960s' jazzpiano playing here.


















We the Common, by Thao and the Get Down Stay Down

If you're not down with the Get Down Stay Down, then you bloody well need to be. 

Born on this day

Allen Toussaint was born today in 1938. A gentle, artistic, rhythmic soul that sprouted in New Orleans and was the brightest color on the palette of many musicians across many genres.

Toussaint wrote the horn charts and arrangements for the The Band's Last Waltz

And then there is this classic:

10 Tracks, David Bowie

The stars look very different today. Goodbye Starman.

Here are my ten favorite Bowie songs. No real surprises here.

"Space Oddity"

"Oh You Pretty Things"

"Life on Mars"

"Queen Bitch"

"Five Years"

"Moonage Daydream"

"Starman"

"Ziggy Stardust"

"Sound and Vision"

                                    

"Heroes"

                                

My Top 25 Most Favorite Tracks of 2015

25. "Friday I'm in Love," Yo La Tengo

24. "Should Have Known Better," Sufjan Stevens

23. "Random Name Generator, " Wilco

22. "Don't Wanna Fight," Alabama Shakes

21. "Big Dark Love," Murder by Death

20. "I Lost My Mind," Titus Andronicus

19. "The Party Line," Belle and Sebastian

18. "I Don't Mind," The Twerps

17. "Cream on Chrome," Ratatat

16. "The Legend of Chavo Guerrero," The Mountain Goats

15. "Miles from the Sea," Calexico

14. "Huarache Lights," Hot Chip

13. "What Part of Me," Low

12. "Big Decisions," My Morning Jacket

11. "Sagres," The Tallest Man on Earth

10. "No No No," Beirut

9. "Things Happen," Dawes

8. "Ong Ong," Blur

7. "Silhouettes," Viet Cong

6. "Can't Keep Checking My Phone," Unknown Mortal Orchestra

5. "Dream Lover," Destroyer

4. "Living Zoo," Built to Spill

3. "My Baby Don't Understand Me," Natalie Prass

2. "Pretty Pimpin," Kurt Vile

1. "Ground Walks with Time in a Box," Modest Mouse

My Top Ten Most Favorite Albums of 2015

10. Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, Belle and Sebastian

9. Untethered Moon, Built to Spill

8. Why Make Sense?, Hot Chip

7. B'lieve I'm Goin' Down..., Kurt Vile

6. Poison Season, Destroyer

5. The Waterfall, My Morning Jacket

4. Edge of the Sun, Calexico

3. Ones and Sixes, Low

2. The Magic Whip, Blur

1. Strangers to Ourselves, Modest Mouse 

The Song of the Day

Today's song of the day is dedicated to your inner child that is being suffocated by society.

"I Don't Wanna Grow Up," Tom Waits, 1992

Happy Birthday, Tom Waits!

Celebrate genius.

Haul

On Saturday, 11/28, I dropped into Atomic Records in Burbank with Russ. This was my haul.

"Status," by Eric Dolphy

Double album issue of avant-garde breaking bop jazz artistry. 

"Ridin' Shotgun," Dub Narcotic Sound System

I was not prepared for how funky Calvin Johnson could get. This was a fun(ky) surprise.

"Double Barrel," Dave and Ansel Collins. 1971

I was looking for their version of "That Girl." Silky smooth soul-reggae soup. But it's not on youtube? Well, here's their biggest hit instead.

Can you dig it?

Rest in peace, Allen Toussaint

I hope you're listening to old records and eating shrimp po-boys in heaven. I hope we all get to.

After three spins: "Stuff Like That There," by Yo La Tengo

After a long delay, I am finally writing about this album...

To understand and to appreciate Stuff Like That There fully, you have to connect it to Yo La Tengo's Fakebook, from 25 years ago. They even have said this is the 25 year anniversary follow-up to it.

I fell in love with Facebook, 18 years ago, when I picked up a copy while out with one friends before taking a quick road trip to San Diego. I convinced Nick and Mark to let me play Facebook, the entire ride that night. I don't think they got the album the way I got it. I was immediately hooked by the pedal steel, the countrified-folk-indie. The vibe. It set me out on a quest to find the original versions of all this fabulous covers. Over the years, Fakebook, remained one of my own personal cult-classic-ish albums.

To learn that Yo La Tengo were recording a follow-up of sorts? I was all in. Immediately.

Stuff Like That There is a nice, warm, comforting album. It's an album that I can cuddle with in a warm cabin somewhere. It's almost entirely acoustic. It sound the way watercolor landscapes look. It is nostalgia inducing. It is conversation starting. Or, even better, when conversation goes quiet, this album stands in and saves all from the silence.

One definite conversation starter is their version of The Cure's "Friday I'm in Love." So unexpected! So happy to hear this! It's exactly what a cover should be--paying respect to a song you admire by not recording an identical version. But instead to take the song, and reinterpret it to fit your own steez. Your own vibe.

Perhaps that's what is best about Facebook and Stuff Like That There. These are covers. But they are Yo La Tengo songs still. Even the Yo La Tengo originals are reinterpreted. But they are STILL Yo La Tengo songs. A prime example is the rethinking and reworking of their classic track "The Ballad of Red Buckets." It does the original from the album Electr-o-pura justice. And it fits into Stuff Like That There so well, it's almost like it it could not exist anywhere else.

One last piece of beauty I would like to mention here: Hank Williams' "I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry." Georgia's gentle delivery and her interesting pace of delivery bring a new sentiment to this song entirely. There's a feeling of resignation now rather than yearning. Reverb rich guitar lines add color to this art piece.

This album would be paired perfectly with a mug of hot chocolate.

Haul

A few Saturdays ago, I stopped in CD Trader in Tarzana, and this was my haul.

"Let My Children Hear Music," Charles Mingus

"In a New Setting," Milt Jackson

"Into My Arms," Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, 1997

"I don't believe in an interventionist God

But I know, darling, that you do

But if I did I would kneel down and ask Him

Not to intervene when it came to you

Not to touch a hair on your head

To leave you as you are

And if He felt He had to direct you

Then direct you into my arms"

This is a song of pure beauty. There is no other way to describe it. Nick's trademark baritone voice is as soft as it could ever be. And direct. Has there ever been a more direct opening line? Only a genius like Nick Cave could craft a line that shoots down every flimsy connection between religion and sappy love songs in the pop music cannon. Hey, I don't believe God's job is to bring you and I together... But just in case it is...