Entries categorized as “Friday MP3 Shuffle” 276 results

Mike Bennett writesiPod/MP3 Friday Shuffle — Happy Birthday Steven Drozd Edition

While so much attention is focused on lead singer Wayne Coyne (and he is the frontman, after all), when you want to know why the Flaming Lips are such a great band, you have to give a substantial amount of credit to Steven Drozd. Not only is he the lead guitarist for the band, but he plays many other instruments (sometimes switching from guitar to keyboard in mid-song when on stage). He has a great deal of responsibility for the texture and sound of the band. Moreover, he has managed to overcome a destructive heroin habit, poignantly chronicled in the documentary The Fearless Freaks, and the Lips solider on, still making great records (like 2009’s Embryonic). Let’s give Steven a birthday salute, by grabbing your iPod/MP3 player, hitting shuffle and sharing the first 10 tunes that come up.

1. The Fall — Bremen Nacht (The Frenz Experiment): Yet another fun number from the band’s first Brix Smith era. This song has a cool ping-ponging keyboard part that contrasts the steady drumming and sets up the slight melody. The whole structure is inherently catchy and despite the odd structure, it sounds poppy with a fairly peppy performance from Mark E. Smith.
2. Joe Pernice — Found a Little Baby (It Feels So Good When I Stop): This is from Joe’s first solo album, which serves as a soundtrack to his debut novel. The protagonist is a musician, so many songs come up in the book. The album is primarily covers, with one song from the fictional band of the protagonist. This gem is a gentle cover of Chicago’s very own Plush. It sounds like a Pernice Brothers tune, really.
3. Robbie Fulks — In Bristol Town One Bright Day (Couples in Trouble): This sounds like a British folk number with a bit of Southern blues underneath (of course, there is some sort of intersection between those styles). This comes from Robbie’s masterpiece, an album where he takes on a bunch of styles with an uncharacteristic seriousness and intensity. However, it’s never pretentious. Every song is a world unto itself with Fulks’ splendid vocals and incisive lyrics. Wish he could follow this up.
4. The Morells — I Can’t Dance (The Morells Anthology Live): Wow, I have a ton of Morells on my iPod due to this live compilation (four full shows). D. Clinton Thompson steps up to the microphone for a bouncy early ’60s R & B/beach music type of tune.
5. Dirty Looks — Accept Me (Dirty Looks): This Staten Island trio put out one of the all-time great debut albums on Stiff Records in 1980. This is mod-inflected power pop. Unlike the swoony nature of most power pop, the songs here are aggressive with razor sharp playing. Someone should get Ted Leo a copy of this album, as I could easily hear him covering a bunch of these tunes. This is one of the relatively lesser numbers on the album, but it still has a great hook.
6. The Zombies — I Got My Mojo Workin’ (Zombie Heaven): Although The Zombies are famous for their unique, often baroque, Brit pop sound, they started out as an R & B based beat group. And they were pretty darned good at that. This take on an old blues chestnut features Rod Argent on lead vocals, and he acquits himself very well.
7. Blow Pops — 7 Days With You (American Beauties): Milwaukee band led by Mike Jarvis, who now fronts the similar Lackloves. Jarvis specializes in ’60s styled pop that touches on the janglier side of the British Invasion and those it influenced. So a typical Blow Pops tune can conjure up The Beatles and The Byrds, along with lesser lights like The Beau Brummels and The Searchers. I can’t resist saying this — the Blow Pops are truly ear candy.
8. Three Dog Night — Black and White (Celebrate: The Three Dog Night Anthology): I guess rock critics will never go back and reassess Three Dog Night. But these guys had a gazillion hits in the ’70s, and most of them still sound great today. This compilation has some early songs and non-singles, but not enough to get an idea if this band could carry albums. But why should this matter? If you can release a couple fistfuls of great singles, doesn’t that make you a great band? I did how this song has a modified reggae rhythm.
9. The Adverts — Quickstep (Anthology): The early British punk band led by T.V. Smith flamed out after only two albums, but they made a real impact. The Adverts’ tunes are well constructed and owe a little less of a debt to older styles of rock than some other punk bands of the era. Indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised if some early U.S. post-punkers like Effigies and Wipers were fans. A typically explosive track.
10. J. Geils Band — Southside Shuffle (The J. Geils Band Anthology): One of the earlier tunes from this Boston band who went on to have surprising success during the new wave era. This is typical mid-tempo blues rock with a strong vocal by Peter Wolf. Their early studio stuff doesn’t fully capture how greasy and rocking they were.

Mike Bennett writesiPod/MP3 Friday Shuffle — Happy Birthday Robert Earl Hughes Edition

Illinois has been the home of heavy rockers from Trouble to Big Black. But no one was heavier than Robert Earl Hughes, who for many years was listed as the heaviest man ever at…are you ready for this…1041 pounds. The behemoth of Baylis, in Pike County, Illinois, weighed 200 pounds at the age of six. Let’s honor this record setting Illinoisan in the only way we know — by grabbing your iPod/MP3 player, hitting shuffle and sharing the first 10 tunes.

1. The Spinners — The Rubberband Man (The Very Best of The Spinners): Silly and addictive ’70s soul-funk from the Detroit vocal group with the Philly sound. This song is so darned catchy. But whenever I hear it, it conjures up an image of The Captain and Tennille performing it on their old variety show, and the cutaways to The Captain (Darryl Dragon) wearing rainbow five-toed socks, stretching a rubberband between his toes and plucking away at it. I hope that show never makes it to DVD.
2. The Church — Almost With You (Under The Milky Way: The Best of The Church): I guess The Church is a one hit wonder (“Under the Milky Way”), but this Australian band is not as ephemeral as the one hit wonder tag usually implies. Indeed, they are still going strong with their blend of Byrds-y jangle and classic psychedelia. It’s an enduring sound that they do so well. This is more of a straight ahead jangler with a great acoustic guitar solo by Marty Willson-Piper.
3. The Chills — I Love My Leather Jacket (Kaleidoscope World): One of the quintessential Chills songs, and thus, one of the quintessential Kiwi indie rock songs. Like so much New Zealand music from the ’80s, the influence of The Velvet Underground looms large. Chills leader Martin Phillips brings a unique melodic sensibility to the bouncy drone pop, along with a low key vocal charm. This is a laid back anthem.
4. Myracle Brah — Action Reaction (Life on Planet Eartsnop): From the Brah’s classic debut, this is one of the 20 short, sharp shots of power pop perfection on this platter. The song works a Beatles/Badfinger styled riff with psychedelic undertones, keyed by a prominent bass line that the guitar seems to tether to. Andy Bopp doesn’t waste a note on this song, leaving one never more than 30 seconds away from a hook.
5. Pulp — Trees (We Love Life): The final Pulp album was appropriately produced by Scott Walker, one of the few artists with a firmer sense of the dramatic than Jarvis Cocker. However, the album only has a couple of songs that take it to the hilt. Instead, most of the album is measured. On this song, which was a single, the layers of acoustic guitars and keyboards create a sense of resignation as Cocker sings of how he should have seen that his heart was going to be broken. A lovely and sad record.
6. The Streets — Blinded By The Light (A Grand Don’t Come For Free): I suppose that it’s unfair to wonder if Mike Skinner can ever equal this album. On his second full length, he had perfected his blend of hip-hop with modern British minimalist dance sounds, and his tale of a geezer who has found a woman to love at the same time that he has lost 1,000 pounds is well rendered. This song has a pulse beat that Massive Attack might appreciate, while Skinner gets stuck in a club, waiting for his mates.
7. Missy Elliot — The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly) (Respect M.E.): This is not as earth shattering and innovative as Missy’s best work with Timbaland, but any song that uses Ann Peeble’s “I Can’t Stand the Rain” as the hook and lays down a mellow groove for Elliot to lay down her attitude has to be a good one.
8. Jawbox — Send Down (Novelty): Not as angular as later Jawbox, this is more of an explosive guitar number with J. Robbins singing just loud enough to be heard above the din. In some respects, this song manages a combination of melody and muscle in the rhythm guitar playing that is reminiscent of Mission Of Burma and Naked Raygun.
9. Loretta Lynn — Little Red Shoes (Van Lear Rose): Lynn frequently tells stories in concert with her band providing some musical accompaniment. Producer Jack White thought it would be cool for Loretta to record one of those stories. Hence, this song. There’s something remarkable about this, as Lynn is so conversational. This was an inspired decision by White and it makes a great album that much greater.
10. Rockpile — You Ain’t Nothin’ But Fine (Seconds Of Pleasure): The sole album by this long running band that featured both Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe is perhaps a step shy of classic, but the mix of Lowe’s pure pop and Edmunds’ ’50s rock mojo made for a fun LP. This is a pure rock ‘n’ roll song, Chuck Berry style. Some critics found the band too laid back, but their relaxed approach works because drummer Terry Williams really had a good sense of swing.

Mike Bennett writesiPod/MP3 Friday Shuffle — Happy Birthday John Fogerty Edition

For a few years in the ’60s, John Fogerty created a legacy. His mix of blues and country and the swampy vibe he added to it, along with a classic lyrical sensibility, resulted in quintessentially American music. But Fogerty was no flag waver — he commented on the Vietnam War with songs like “Fortunate Son” and “Who’ll Stop the Rain”. He also filled pages in the Great American Songbook, creating a wedding staple with “Proud Mary”. And Fogerty is still performing today, with his equally distinctive voice and guitar playing. Let’s salute Mr. Fogerty by grabbing your iPod/MP3 player, hitting shuffle and sharing the first 10 tunes.

1. Ed Kuepper — Nothing Changes In My House (The Butterfly Net):  Kuepper, the original guitarist for The Saints, left the band after the third album and stuck out to play intelligent high energy rock with The Laughing Clowns and The Aints.  When Kuepper is solo, the music is usually acoustic guitar centered and fits somewhere between The Go-Betweens and, oddly enough, the ’80s work of The Saints (led by singer Chris Bailey).  Kuepper is simply good at what he does.  This is a bouncy little number.
2. Syd Barrett — Baby Lemonade (The Best of Syd Barrett):  The L.A. band who ultimately backed Arthur Lee in the latter day incarnation of Love was named after this song.  This is excellent psychedelic pop that is in line with Barrett’s classic Pink Floyd singles like “Arthur Layne” and “See Emily Play”.  Barrett’s amelodic vocals were a big influence on Robyn Hitchcock.  On this song, I can also hear where Brian Eno might have picked up an idea or two.
3. Sly & The Family Stone – I Cannot Make It (The Essential Sly & The Family Stone):  Not only was Sly Stone a father of funk, but he also was an amazing pop writer with a great ear for melody.  This song balances strong melodic passages that could have come from a Four Tops song with rocking proto-funk, punctuated by horns.  So many things go into the mix on this track.
4. Silvery — Revolving Sleepy Signs (Thunderer and Excelsior):  With the circus-style organ, this song sounds made for a fairground.  When it hits the chorus, it sounds a bit like an old Supergrass track.  This is fine over-the-top Brit pop which fell on deaf ears a couple of years.  I hope they stick it out.
5. Jason & The Scorchers — Broken Whiskey Glass (Reckless Country Soul):  Original version of song that ended up on the band’s debut album.  This song skips the slow weepy country intro verse and goes right to the rocking country.  The sophisitication of the song, especially the melodic twist out of the chorus, comes through loud and clear, despite the low quality of the recording.
6. Elvis Costello & The Attractions — Chemistry Class (Armed Forces):  Boy, was Elvis on a roll early in his career.  On his third album, he and Nick Lowe went with a more ornate pop direction, and Elvis whipped up songs that were perfect for the concept.  This song views romance as fraught with danger, and Elvis plays on chemistry terms as much as he can, and also slips in a reference to Hitler.  Yes, he was an angry young man.
7. The Damned — Looking At You (Machine Gun Etiquette):  An energetic, ramshackle cover of a great MC5 tune (I played the original single version of it last week on my show on CHIRP Radio).  The band loosens up the arrangement a bit to allow for more guitar theatrics and to give it a feel akin to Damned winners like “Ignite”.  I presume this was, at some point, a staple of their live shows.
8. Montage — I Shall Call Her Mary (Montage):  After The Left Banke broke, Michael Brown formed Montage.  He purveyed the same style of baroque pop that he used to pen classics like “Walk Away Renee” and “Pretty Ballerina”.  Perhaps the music was a tad less ornate, but there are still stylish piano parts and stacked harmony vocals and dramatic touches everywhere.  Hard to believe this didn’t succeed.
9. Bob Dylan & The Band — Going To Acapulco (The Basement Tapes):  I love this album, as Bob and The Band are clearly just having a great time writing songs steeped in blues, folk and Americana, but still connected to rock.  Robbie Robertson takes the lead on this song, which certainly would have fit in on one The Band’s early albums.  Garth Hudson’s organ embellishes this perfectly.
10. Los Campesinos! — Death To Los Campesinos! (Hold On Now Youngster…):  This is classic British indie pop, pumped up with tons of sugar and caffiene.  The underlying song is solid and relatively catchy, but nothing amazing.  However, the playing and performance take it up two or three notches, between the great vocals to the hopped up rhythm section to the active guitars.  One heck of a production.

Mike Bennett writesiPod/MP3 Friday Shuffle — Happy Birthday Kevin Shields Edition

The weather is getting warmer and the spring is bringing big thunderstorms. Which brings to mind the music of My Bloody Valentine, who mixed warm fluid undercurrents with ear shattering volume to create a tremendously influential sound. The main architect of that sound was (is?) Kevin Shields. The man who inspired tons of shoegazers and guitar players in general deserves a shuffle-riffic celebration. So grab your iPod or MP3 player, hit shuffle, and share the first 10 songs that come up.

1. Brian Eno & John Cale — The River (Wrong Way Up): A collaboration between two renaissance men yields a really smart pop record. This album highlights the places where their respective genius intersects, and had this come out as either a John Cale or Brian Eno solo record, it would have sounded consistent with their individual bodies of work. This is a nifty, spacious song with a bit of a Western feel, primarily utilizing electronic instruments.
2. Mano Negra — Indios de Barcelona (Puta’s Fever): These guys, led by Manu Chao, were godfathers of the rock en espanol movement, even though they were French. Chao was of Basque origin, however, and he and his mates cheerfully blended rock ‘n’ roll, ska, traditional ethnic music, folk, rap and anything else in their radar screen into high energy music. This song has military horns and crazy percussion and is a highlight of their incredible second album.
3. Eleventh Dream Day — Southern Pacific (Prairie School Freakout): The great Chicago band topped off their debut full length by tipping the ol’ hat to a big influence, Mr. Neil Young. But they weren’t content to go with a standard. Instead, they went with the sole single pulled from Neil’s Reactor album. It’s a train song with a chugging riff. Eleventh Dream Day’s version is looser and adds a paranoid edge to the more straightforward original. An outstanding cover.
4. Poor Luther’s Bones — Devil’s Broth (Next To Nowhere): A Pennsylvania band who moves from roots music to Tom Waits oddball stylings to wicked psychedelia from album to album. This is from a psych-blues work, with nasty guitar and sleazy vocals. Great stuff.
5. Micachu — Vulture (Jewellry): The opening track from the fantastic 2009 debut album from Mica Lewis, a/k/a Micachu. She apparently learned a lot from the current British electronic scene, which accounts for the way she cuts and pastes sounds. But the dissonant song structures and odd shifts also owe a lot to classic post-punk. And she manages to twist these concoctions into catchy tunes. Can’t wait for the follow up.
6. Los Bravos — Coca Cola jingle (Things Go Better With Coke): The Spanish beat group who had a #2 smash with “Black Is Black” sold their souls to do an ad for Coke.
7. Jim Basnight — Tonight (Yellow Pills Volume 3): Basnight led The Moberlys, a Seattle power pop outfit, and since then has led the Rockingtons and done his own solo thing. His music is best compared to The Plimsouls and Tom Petty. It mines great ’60s and ’70s sources and is played with tons of passion. A cult figure in the Pacific Northwest.
8. Nat King Cole and Dean Martin — Open Up The Doghouse (The Nat King Cole Story): Cole was so effortlessly cool, a naturally swinging singer and pianist, whose mix of jazz, pop and blues was perfect for the post-war era. Of course, add Dean Martin to the mix and the cool factor goes off the charts. On this number, Nat and Dean trade stories about screwing up with their ladies and ending up in the you know where. Not sure about Nat saying that you need to treat women “rough” and “slap ‘em” to show them who’s boss.
9. ABBA — Super Trouper (Gold): Not one of there mega gigantic worldwide hits, just an international hit. Overall, not as melodically rewarding as the best ABBA singles, but the vocal arrangements are fantastic, making a decent chorus sound much more special.
10. Foghat — Stone Blue (Stone Blue): The last rocking hit single for the British boogie band. Foghat was a pretty limited band, but they eventually got to a point where you could count on them to whip up two or three really catchy rock ‘n’ roll numbers (three or four if they had the sense to throw in a Chuck Berry or Bo Diddley cover). This song has some pretty cool bottleneck guitar leads.

Mike Bennett writesiPod/MP3 Friday Shuffle — Happy Birthday David Byrne Edition

A Rhode Island art school student who led one of the most successful bands of the post-punk era, a man who exposed the United States to great sounds from Brazil, a composer who continues to explore with his music, a guy who recorded a landmark innovative album with Brian Eno and followed it up with a brilliant art-pop collaboration — that’s David Byrne, a renaissance man beyond compare. While his solo career couldn’t equal the Talking Heads, Byrne’s solo work has only burnished his considerable legacy. Let’s celebrate David’s birthday by grabbing your iPod/MP3 player, hitting shuffle and sharing the first ten songs that come u

1. Hawksley Workman — Is This What You Call Love? (Los Manlicious): This album was originally intended as a tour only release, but it made a good rocking alternative to the mellower Between The Beautifuls. Workman mixes buzzy, slashing guitars with kind of a new wave funk feel on this upbeat number. This sounds tossed off, but Workman’s toss offs are better than most people’s A material.
2. The Jesus Lizard — A Tale Of Two Women (Blue): Typical later day Lizard — chugging mid-tempo rock with plenty of room for David Yow to rant and for the guitars to criss-cross and slash, before resolving itself into a surprisingly melodic chorus. This band started great and pretty much stayed that way.
3. The Who — Bargain (Who’s Next): If I’m going to listen to The Who, I’m going to grab Sell Out or Quadrophenia, but it’s hard to deny that Who’s Next is a classic rock album that really lives up to its billing, full of larger than life songs. I never need to hear the whole thing, but hearing an awesome track like this is always great on shuffle.
4. Wilco — Hate It Here (Sky Blue Sky): A lot of Wilco fans who are all about Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born are not fond of this album. Regardless of what you think of those two albums (and I think they are overrated), I think with Ghost, Wilco had gone as far as they could with the ultra-experimental stuff. So heading back to just focusing on the songs and the emotional content was the best idea. This is a total ’70s throwback tune, played just right. Not the best song on the album, but it works.
5. Flop — Parasite (Flop & The Fall of the Mopsqueezer): A cool grunge-era power pop band from the Seattle area. Rusty Willoughby (also of Pure Joy) was the leader of this band. He had a thin voice that somehow worked, even when the guitars are way up in the mix. This song has Buzzcocks and early (darker) Cheap Trick vibes, though it’s not as hooky as most Flop material.
6. Tommy Keene — Your Heart Beats Alone (Ten Years After): This is one of my favorite Tommy Keene albums. It was this cult power pop legend’s first album of original material since he had been dropped by Geffen and he had clearly stockpiled a lot of top drawer material. His songs are invariably mid-tempo and usual are full of big guitars supporting melancholy melodies with Tommy’s reedy voice up front. This is a quieter mid-tempo song and it goes down real easy.
7. Linus Of Hollywood — Good Sounds (Your Favorite Record): Linus used to lead the pop-punk band Size 14 (who had a minor hit with “Clare Danes Poster”), but came into his own doing retro soft-pop records that conjured up memories of Harry Nilsson, The Beach Boys, Spanky and Our Gang and Margo Guryan. This is the quasi-title cut and this song is bursting with a sunny melody and a cool backing vocal arrangement. This music is so decidedly unhip that it is ridiculously cool.
8. Todd Rundgren — All The Children Sing (Hermit Of Mink Hollow): Todd went off the deep end years ago, whether it was CD-Rom interactive B.S. or doing his old songs in a bossa nova style. But whenever he’s decided to do a pure pop album, he has hit a home run. This late ’70s effort spawned the hit “Can We Still Be Friends?”, and there’s more brilliant songwriting where that came from. This is a perky number with an odd feel to it — something about the Todd does everything in the studio thing that makes this both happy and haunting at the same time.
9. The Beatles — I’ll Be Back (A Hard Day’s Night): A splendid John Lennon song. This downcast tune seems to draw from Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers, and maybe even Roy Orbison, but adds a Latin accent that makes the song so distinctive. This has a bit of a folk rock vibe too, going a step beyond what The Searchers were doing at that time.
10. The Morells — Double Shot of My Baby’s Love (The Morells Anthology Live): The Swinging Medallions’ classic is tailor made for the great roadhouse band from Springfield, Missouri. Bouncy inane fun.