The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be to Calambre

"The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be"  Magnetic Fields  69 Love Songs
"Cada Beijo"  Bebel Gilberto  Bebel Gilberto
"Cade Voce?"  Bebel Gilberto  Momento
"Cadence To Arms"  Dropkick Murphys  Do or Die (2 versions)
"Cajun Moon"  Herbie Mann  What It Is! Funky Soul and Rare Grooves
"Cajun Song"  Gin Blossoms  New Miserable Experience
"Cajun Woman"  Fairport Convention  Unhalfbricking
"Cake Walking Babies from Home"  Clarence Williams' Blue Five  Rhapsodies In Black: Music and Words From the Harlem Renaissance
"Cala Boca, Menino"  Seu Jorge and Almaz  Seu Jorge and Almaz
"Calambre"  Astor Piazzola/John Arnold  Astor Piazzola Remixed


Today is my older son's eighteenth birthday.  When I was little older than he is now, Charles and I were working in western Massachusetts, and we had gone into Boston to meet my Aunt (who had flown in for a conference there).  I remember playing Unhalfbricking repeatedly on the drive back.  It is more than a little amazing to me that I am that same person.  When I was 18, 20, 25 . . . really right up until the day I found out I was going to be a father, I never conceived of being a dad.  Mostly because I never conceived of actually being anything.  I drifted in and out of college, taking classes, and as often as not failing them simply because I stopped going.  I went from crappy job to crappy  job, making enough money to pay the rent.  Due to the kindness of my friends and family, which I didn't deserve and seldom repaid, I got by, and this was enough.  It isn't that I didn't know what I wanted to do, I just really didn't want to do anything at all.

When I found out I was going to be a dad, everything changed.  I don't mean it changed overnight.  In many ways I am still just a slacker underachiever who needs to exert the utmost energy just to try to write a few hundred words here, and this is something I want to do.  But I did make an effort, and have continued to make the effort, to try to live my life more consciously and to work toward a goal.  That goal was at first, and remains, to care for my son.  In these eighteen years, that goal has grown to include my second son, Charles, and myself. Once this new person was coming, for whom I felt wholly responsible, it became clear that my life needed to matter.  I needed to be able to account to him, and eventually them, for all of my choices.

I am not trying to co-opt my son's birthday and majority.  He certainly stands well in his own right.  I am proud to have him not only as my son, but as one of my best friends.  I have spoken to him almost every day for the last eighteen years, even when we have been apart.  Every one of those conversations has been a joy.  I have often joked that it is my job to keep him alive until, well, today.  The reality is that most of the responsibility ended long ago, and now I talk to him because it is a pleasure all my own.  Of course I still try to inflict wisdom on him, and I will help when he needs it.  However, he is a young man who is clever and funny in his own right, and I look forward to sharing in his day much more than I try to shelter him from harm. I have tried over the years to share my values without imposing my views, to keep him safe, and allow him to grow. I am simply saying that when it comes time to say thank you, whatever I have given him, I owe him this: I was an ass before he and his brother came along, I like to think I am less so now.

I have the Dropkick Murphys because when my computer recently died I took over his, and inherited a bunch of his music as a result.

I have Bebel and Astor Piazzola because of Charles - she is the person most responsible for keeping me moving forward and helping me realize the goals I finally did come to have.

Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You to Baby Birch

"Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You"  Joan Baez  Roots of Led Zeppelin (Mojo)
"Babopbyeya"  Janelle Monae  The Archandroid
"Baby"  Bebel Gilberto  Bebel Gilberto
"Baby"  The Bird and The Bee  Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future
"Baby"  Cecilia Stalin/Koop  Waltz For Koop
"Baby's Arms"  Kurt Vile  Smoke Ring For My Halo
"Baby's Coming Back To Me"  Jarvis Cocker  Love Will Tear You Apart (Mojo)
"Baby's On Fire"  Brian Eno  Here Come The Warm Jets
"Baby Baby"  The Vibrators  No Thanks!  The 70s Punk Rebellion (Rhino)
"Baby Birch"  Joanna Newsom  Have One On Me


No, apparently Joanna Newsom does not have some sort of palsy - she just does that when she sings.

In fact, there is kind of a lot of theatrics in this set.  Janelle Monae contributes a show tune.  The Bird & The Bee are prone to hyperbole . . . really any time you say "baby" you are probably heading into dangerous territory lyrically.  You say "baby baby baby" and you may as well go ahead with the spoken word interlude about coming "to you out of the mist or into the fire" because it isn't getting any sappier (ditto for you Bebel - if you stick to Portuguese, we don't notice the treacle as much).  Eno sets that baby on fire (actually it is Fripp's guitar that reduces things to a pile of awesome ashes).

But let's about the Vibrators.  The lyrics are cliched and horrible enough (again "baby" x3 - I am declaring it a rule.  Much like shots, more than 2 'babies' and you are going to look stupid).  I am shocked the song isn't a stadium rock anthem.  That isn't the important thing though.  The important thing is . . . these Germans covered it!  That is 1991, btw.  Apparently reunification meant unprecedented, and revelatory, access to Cars videos.

Abba Zaba to About This Love

"Abba Zaba"  Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band  Safe As Milk
"Abducted"  Cults  Cults
"Abernant 84/87"  The Mekons  New York: On The Road 1986-1987
"Abigail, Belle of Kilronan"  Magnetic Fields  69 Love Songs, Disc 2
"Able Mable"  Mable John  The Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1959-1968
"Abominable Snowman in the Market"  Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers  The Best of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers
"About Face"  Grizzly Bear  Veckatamist
"About Her"  Malcolm McLaren  Kill Bill, Vol. 2 OST
"About Noon"  The Mar-Keys  The Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1959-1968
"About This Love"  Alejandro Escovedo  A Man Under The Influence


So I am going to try to pick this up again.  I don't really have a good excuse for not maintaining it.  I broke my shoulder and that took me down for a while, and then it just seemed hard to get back into the flow of it all.  Mostly it has just seemed like a hard thing to get back to somehow.  I am trying to figure out how to do it better so it seems a little more interesting to me and maybe to you (if any of you ever come back).  We will see - I was just having trouble staying engaged both with the writing and with the conceit.  So that said, I am going to try to get back into this, and hopefully get through the alphabet once more before the new year - which is only about 1/4 to 1/6 of where I had hoped to be.

I like this set because almost everyone on it is kind of off the beaten path.  Cults got a record deal based on songs they put together in their home and slapped up on Bandcamp.  The Mar-Keys were kids kicking around Satellite Records in Memphis and grew to be the house band for Stax-Volt.  Jonathan made a life choice to turn his back on the best set of Velvet Underground songs since Loaded in favor of a long and healthy career of ridiculous, slight, and ultimately very satisfying songs about Boston, baseball, snowmen and dancing in lesbian bars.

Really, everyone on this set ranges from "working musician" to "musical genius."  All right - not everyone.  Malcolm is somewhere between "huckster" and "visionary" (with some measure of "creepy old man/pedophile/monster," but we can wait to talk about Bow Wow Wow).  That said, he is at least partly responsible for the punk and post-punk revolutions, which provide a lasting mythology for all independent minded artists to this day.  And the song mashes up Bessie Smith and The Zombies so there can be only minimal hate.  Unless you are a French musician called Lancelot - you may have more hate - of course, I can't seem to find anything else about you, so you must rage without further linkage.

Distractions aside, the point is that this is a really great set - Stephen Merritt, Jon Langford, Alejandro . . . I guess this is as good a way as any to dive back into this.

007 (Shanty Town) to 13 de Maio

"007 (Shanty Town)"  Desmond Dekker and The Aces  The Harder They Come
"1-800 Ming"  Brothers Love Dubs/John Digweed  Global Underground: Los Angeles
"#1 Hit Song"  The Minutemen  Double Nickels On The Dime
"10 A.M. Automatic"  The Black Keys  Rubber Factory
"10,000 Years Behind My Mind"  Focus Three  Psych Out! (Mojo Disc)
"10:15 Saturday Night"  The Cure  Staring At The Sea: The Singles
"100 Days, 100 Nights"  Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings  100 Days, 100 Nights
"100% Of Nothing"  The Meat Puppets  Meat Puppets II
"11:59"  Blondie  Parallel Lines
"13 de Maio"  Caetano Veloso  Noites De Norte

I have been out of town for much of the past week, which really isn't an excuse given that the internet goes anywhere.  I did go to Athens, GA to see my older son play in an end-of-camp concert.  He played and/or sang covers of Deerhunter, Sonic Youth, Rage Against the Machine, and System Of A Down.  He also screamed his way through "Feel Good, Inc."  He withdrew his promise of "Super Stupid" ("specifically for you, dad") at the last minute.  The "rock band camp" is a phenomenon that is, without trying, a commentary on the state of popular music.  What started as a form of music specifically for youth, and terrifying to some adults, has now become a part of extra-curricular programming.  This is too broad a brush, obviously - there is still music that offends, and the wrong song could probably have parents complaining to the point of ending a program, I have no doubt.  Ignoring any broad social comment, the program my son attended was particularly great.

In fact, let me take this forum to sing my praises out to the zero readers I have.  Nuci's Space was established as a place to help "assist in the emotional, physical and professional well-being of musicians."  As a part of that mission, a few years ago they began a summer camp program to nurture young musicians.  The program has grown from one two-week session to two, and now includes a year-long after-school program.  My son's experience has been an uncategorized success.  The working musicians who come in as counselors for the camp are, to a body, experienced, involved, and interested in the youths' safety and well-being as well as in making them better musicians.  The songs are selected by the kids with input from the counselors, and range from well-known classic rock to obscure modern indy tracks.  The camp ends with a concert of eight bands, and all are of consistently high quality.  The camp seems focused on people who are serious about music as a career, and some of them have begun to perform locally.

Anyway.  This is our first Minutemen song, and a moment silence for D. Boon please.  Charles gives me a hard time because I may or may not bring up the fact that I saw them live before he died a little too often.  Sorry.  It can't be helped.  The Minutemen's talent and legend is so outsized compared to (and perhaps because of) their minimal output and the tradedy of D's death that sometimes I just have to mention it.  I have very few things in my life that pass for cool, so those that I have get played a lot.  (Fabulous Fox in Atlanta, Nov. 30, 1985 - opening for R.E.M. along with Jason & The Scorchers).  The car accident was less than a month later.

A quick quiz - who is/would be oldest?  Robert Plant, Keith Moon, Carlos Santana, or . . . Debbie Harry?  That is correct, the queen of new wave was born in 1945, and is older than each of those dinosaurs.  While younger than Pete Townshend, Ray Davies, and Jimmy Page (and all of the Beatles), she is also older than John Bonham and John Paul Jones.  This means absolutely nothing, just a curiosity I came across.  She was 5-10 years older than everyone else in Blondie.

Rubber Factory always feels like a transition album to me.  It feels like the Black Keys are trying to get out of the derivative blues-rock that got them going through their first two albums, but which was a somewhat limiting form.  This track is very much in the mold  of Thickfreakness but there is an effort to escape.  This process continued through Attack & Release as well as the BlakRok project, with Brothers being a validation of that effort - a fully-realized, mature album which is informed by what came before, but stands as its own creation.

So I am through the alphabet once.  A review to come in the next day or so, and then back to the A's.

Zam'dziko to Zimbabwe

"Zam'dziko"  The Very Best  The Warm Heart of Africa
"'Zat You, Santa Claus?"  Louis Armstrong  Verve Remixed Christmas
"Zebra"  The Magnetic Fields  69 Love Songs
"A Zed and 2 L's"  Fila Brazillia  Pure Chillout
"Zera A Reza"  Caetano Veloso  Noites Do Norte
"Zero"  Smashing Pumpkins  Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness
"Zero"  Yeah Yeah Yeahs  It's Blitz
"Zig Zag Wanderer"  Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band  Safe As Milk
"Ziggy Stardust"  David Bowie  The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars
"Zimbabwe"  Bob Marley  Songs Of Freedom [updated link b/c warner wiped out the last one - copyrant in future] 

  I don't know if it is naive to think music can effect any meaningful political change, or if I am just cynical and jaded at this point.  Not only did people like Bob Marley, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Fela Kuti think that they could be significant beyond mere entertainment, but apparently people who did not particularly like them agreed with them.  All of them were arrested or exiled.  Marley was shot.  Of course, Gil later became Brazil's minister of culture.  And Rhodesia actually did become Zimbabwe, so maybe I am cynical.  Whether any good comes from overtly political music, I guess no harm comes from it.

  One problem with political music is that it is inherently dated - at the very least the lyrics become outdated, so you had best hope the music sustains.    It is why something like "Joe Hill" seems like a museum piece.  The acoustic folk of the '60s (and agit-prop & hardcore later) is tied both musically and lyrically, into a specific time.   All that said, I think "Zimbabwe" holds up.  Maybe reggae is still a going concern.  Maybe Bob Marley is just better at it than most.  Maybe it is the music - you don't need a history degree (or even a wiki search on Rhodesia) to appreciate the rhythm.  It could be that there are enough vaguely stated universal truths in the song that it sustains (I particularly like the understated description of "overcome our little trouble").  Or maybe I just like Marley better than Joan Baez.

  Also - the guy in the "Zimbabwe" video (you can't miss him) who reminds me of this.

  More Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  Karen O gets a lot of press for being physically attractive, which may be unfortunate, because it is her voice and the hook-laden exciting music that make the band enjoyable.  The difference between the video here, and the one for "Y Control" make me worry that she might be reading the press clippings - much more focused on her (rather than the band or terrifying small children).  The bedazzled "KO" jacket is so extreme I assume it is a joke.

  Which may sum up every lyric ever written by Billy Corgan.  And yet Smashing Pumpkins' guitars are so wonderful, Billy's whining and self-absorption gets a pass most of the time.

Y'all Don't Wanna to Yank Me (Doodle)

"Y'all Don't Wanna"  Capone-N-Noriega  Heavy Hits Mixed By DJ Enuff
"Y Control"  Yeah Yeah Yeahs  Fever To Tell
"Y Tu Que Has Hecho?"  Buena Vista Social  Club  Buena Vista Social Club
"Y.M.C.A."  The Village People  Ultimate Disco 30th Anniversary Collection
"Ya Ya"  Art Blakey  Orgy In Rhythm, Vol. 1-2
"Yadnus" !!!  Live at KEXP, Vol. 4
"Yakety Yak"  The Coasters  Atlantic Rhythm & Blues 1947-74
"Yalira"  The Very Best  Warm Heart Of Africa
"Yamore"  Salif Keita  Moffou
"Yank Me (Doodle)"  The Barracudas  The Complete Stax/Volt Singles, 1959-68

  Once again I apologize for the long absence.  I broke my right arm being either stupid or awesome depending on who you ask.  (while there is not a one-to-one relationship, there seems to be a correlation between finding my injury more "awesome" than "stupid" and the presence of a y-chromosome in one's genetic makeup).  I have been down for about two months, but have reached a point resembling full mobility, at least full enough for typing and prattling on about music.

  For those of you who may have forgotten, or are just stumbling along this piece of self-absorption for the first time, the idea is that I am going through my ripped music collection 10 songs at a time, alphabetically, and blogging loosely about the music I encounter in each set.  While I was injured I started going back through the collection and finding links to videos of the songs I listened to.  These are not my uploads, and hopefully I can avoid C&D letters.  Some caveats about the videos - I am not always that concerned about getting the exact version of the song that I have listened to.  If mine is unavailable, or if there is something much more awesome out there, then I will link to something else.  Generally, if there is an official video I will use that, unless there is some other bit of fan art that is more exciting (see, kids' recital to "Galaxy" after a science class, although I will now cheat and give you this live version from "Thee Mr. Duran Show," complete with messy opening interview).  I then tend to look for live versions (Of which there are many - even while Steve Jobs continues to try to displace Lars as the most hated man in music).  After that, the only thing I try to avoid are the lazy "videos" that just slap up a photo of the album cover and play the song (in this set, I did use one of those for the Art Blakey song - there wasn't going to be anything else.   However, I used an odd remix by the Drapers for "Yakety Yak" rather than one of those, or one that was a slide-show of stills from "American Graffiti).  I am continuing to update the old posts with links as well.

I would point out here that !!! and Yeah Yeah Yeahs are in some kind of competition to create the more disturbing official video.  Despite the singing roadkill and the poorly dancing daughters of the corn for !!!, I would have to say Karen O & Co. win.

  We are about a week out from New York's legalization of gay marriage.  This comes too late for Jacques Morali, the producer behind The Village People, who died of AIDS in 1991, and for the leatherman, Glenn Hughes, who died of lung cancer in 2001 (and was interred in his leather).  However, the cowboy, Randy Jones, married his partner in 2004, stating presciently (but underestimating the public), "Its only a matter of time before the courts rule in favor of what is morally right and humanly decent."  The lawyer me believes they will probably have to renew those vows now in order for the marriage to be legally binding.  Victor Willis, the cop and frontman, was the only straight man in the original group, and made his way into the news this week for demanding an apology from Tracy Morgan for implying that the writer of "Y.M.C.A." (Willis) was gay.   Willis was apparently married to Claire Huxtable for a few years, and apparently was fighting drug abuse for 25 years, spending time in and out of jail, and being featured on "America's Most Wanted."  Since getting clean, he has apparently been fighting with the other village people.  On May 2 of this year he filed suit for more royalties from the other Village People (not his first suit against the band).  I love this website's then & now picture of Willis - it clearly shows the pages feelings.  The three other original members still go around as The Village People - the construction worker, David Hodo, who started as a roller-skating fire-eater and now apparently rescues stray animals in the Bronx, the soldier, Alex Briley, whose brother was the photographed "falling man" on 9/11/01, and without question the greatest of all Village People - the native american, Felipe Rose, who has embraced this all as strongly as Willis seems to have fought it, and whose website defies adjectives.

  As for the song itself (and the other hits), Willis has tried to say that it was not meant to be a gay anthem when he wrote it.  He is of course lying.  The lyrics are one long double-entendre, and the context only drives the point home, it doesn't create the issue.  In fact, hearing it now (and watching the video), it is astounding that there was not a quicker or more vehement backlash at the time.  Instead, it became a mainstay of not only dance clubs, but sports arenas.  Kind of amazing.

Still down

While I am not writing well (I am hoping to be two-handed by next week maybe), I have begun going back through the prior posts and linking to videos or copies of the songs if I can find them.  Did the first post tonight - the Jackson 5 appearance on Dick Clark is just awesome.

Technical Difficulties

I broke my right arm.  I will be back typing less inconsistently soon.

It is settled

  After long and careful consideration, I have landed on "Six-Sided Dice" as the permanent blog title.  I know this has nothing to do with music or anything I write about.  However, it is the greatest nerd litmus test ever.  What I mean is - if you take two of those little white or red cubes with dots all over them, and you hold them out to someone and ask, "what are these?"  You will get one of two answers.  Most folk are going to say, "dice."  But certain of us know that is far too vague, and we will inevitably narrow it down to "six-sided dice." 

  Y's tonight.

X Offender to Xylophone Track

"X Offender"  Blondie  No Thanks! The 70s Punk Rebellion
"X Rewrites 'El Paso'/Because I do"  X  Under The Big Black Sun
"X.Y.U."  The Smashing Pumpkins  Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness
"Xandinha"  Cesaria Evora  Cesaria
"Xplosion"  Outkast  Stankonia
"XR2"  M.I.A.  Kala
"Xxzcuzx Me"  Crystal Castles  Crystal Castles
"Xylophone Track"  Magnetic Fields  69 Love Songs

  So this is it for 'x' songs - eight tracks, and really one of them shouldn't even be here.  The X track is an out-take/cd-bonus that happens to start with the band name.

  I saw X live once on a recent reunion tour - 2005 or so, I think.  It was a great show, and Billy Zoom in particular has kept his chops.  D.J. is dead bald.  John Doe looks about the same - like he has been hanging around bars in SoCal for the last 25 years or so.  Exene still wears the same kind of thrift store mom dresses she was wearing in the early '80s, but instead of looking like a young punk in thrift store mom dresses, she just kind of looked like a mom.  I have seen the same thing, only worse, in late video performances from Debbie Harry and Mick Jagger - it is hard to pull off coquette at 50, and at nearly 70, whatever Mick is doing now is more than a little creepy.

  The best track of this set is the Outkast one, followed closely by M.I.A.

  No excuses for the delay.  I will do better.

Wack Wack to Wait 'Til We Get Home

"Wack Wack"  Young-Holt Trio  Beg, Scream, and Shout: The Big Ol' Box of '60s Soul
"Wading Through a Ventilator (live)"  The Soft Boys  A Can Of Bees
"Wagon Wheel"  Lou Reed  Transformer
"Wah Wah Man"  Young-Holt Unlimited  What It Is! Funky Soul and Rare Grooves
"Wail"  The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion  Now I Got Worry
"Wailing Wintry Wind"  Baroness  Red Album
"The Wait"  Chris Joss  You've Been Spiked
"The Wait"  Pretenders  No Thanks! The 70s Punk Rebellion
"The Wait"  Pretenders  Pretenders
"Wait 'Til We Get Home"  Lone Justice  Lone Justice

  After almost the whole alphabet, my past is starting to show through in the past couple sets.  Half of these songs are from my 1980s late adolescence.  Lou counts among these - there was a renaissance of interest in both VU and all things Reed at the time.  It could be argued that this was when the rest of the world finally caught on.

  Still not sure how I missed Jon Spencer before.  There are16 tacks on that album, so expect to hear that a few more times.

  Chrissie Hynde is from Akron.  She has a vegan restaurant here in town, and I have been a couple of times.  I think I find the premise behind a vegan restaurant to be the same as Dick's Last Resort.  Dick's is just more honest about the fact that you are paying to be insulted.  That said, they have the best patio in town, and some of their mixed drinks are very good.  I like to go there on St. Patrick's day because they won't serve Guinness, so we have the place mostly to ourselves.  "The Wait" is from the Pretender's punk past and the version on No Thanks! is the single version (b-side to "Stop Your Sobbing") and is not nearly as clean as the album version.  The bridge at about 1:30/1:50, leading into the guitar break, in particular is more urgent - just thumping bass and drums.

  I only own two songs from the Young-Holt Trio/Unlimited and here they are. 

V. Thirteen to Valley of Tears

"V. Thirteen"  Big Audio Dynamite  No. 10 Upping St.
"Vacation Time"  Chuck Berry
"Vai Viver A Vida"  Tania Maria  Jazz Lounge (Water Music)
"Valentine"  The Replacements  Pleased To Meet Me
"Valentine's Day"  Steve Earle  I Feel Alright
"Valerie"  Beausoleil  Beat The Retreat: Songs By Richard Thompson
"Valeurs Personelles"  Quincy Jones & Bill Cosby  The New Mixes, Vol. 1
"Valley Girl"  Frank Zappa  Like Omigod! The '80s Pop Culture Box
"Valley Hi!"  Stereolab  Chemical Chords
"Valley of Tears"  Fats Domino  Fats Domino Jukebox: 20 Greatest Hits The Way You Originally Heard Them

 "Good Morning Sinners"

  I was going to try out "Lord God King Bufu" from "Valley Girl" as a new title for the blog. but I think I like this one from "V. Thirteen" better.  It is (unlike "Electric Sheep") is at least tangentially tied to the music I listen to here.  So  . . . here we go.  Whether it takes or not, well . . . I promise nothing.

  At this point, "Valley Girl" and its commercial success fascinates me.  Like a lot of Zappa, it is laced with bitter social criticism.  Yet, somehow this was missed by the society as a whole and it became Zappa's only  top 40 hit and led a movement in wardrobe and speech pattern from which we have never fully recovered

  "V. Thirteen" is a song that has stuck in my head for over 20 years.  Even as Clash tunes move into classic old rock radio, B.A.D. is not extended the same courtesy.  This song was not played anywhere but inside me for at least ten years.  Nonetheless, when the opportunity to buy some CDs arose, No. 10 Upping St. was among those I had to have.  That is almost entirely because of this song.   Whether others think this is a "great" song is irrelevant.  Even though I went years without hearing it at all, this song compels me, resonates with me, takes me outside myself.  It strikes me in a way that I could go years without hearing it and still felt an urging to hear it again.  Some of this is admittedly tied to the place I was in my life when I first heard it.  The music is the other part of it.  I have never known all of the lyrics, but I think it is the droning guitar and the hook in the drums, as well as just the tone of Mick's voice that has hung in my brain for half my life.  The samples and the drum beat date it, but for me it does not matter.  This is a track I will take to my grave.

  A little over a year ago my father gave me the greatest gift he could.  He handed me all of his vinyl still in his possession.  Among 78s and LPs, and numerous others, this includes about 35-40 Chess and Checker 45s.  These are not just a collection of great music, but for me they connect me with my dad in a way that nothing else does.  My dad has always been the person I look to for advice and for moral guidance.  These records connect me to him before I was around.  They tell me that no matter how old he gets, my father was once (however briefly) cool.  It is kind of sad that the first of these songs is such a mediocre track.  The guitar break is fun, but for the most part it is just a song.  Not exactly "Maybelline."

  Similarly, it is unfortunate that this is the first 'Mats track to come by.  This is one of the most influential bands on my youth, and "Valentine" is from probably their last truly good album.  But it is not "Bastards of Young" or "Unsatisfied."  I have this ass-theory that to be a great band, I mean a legendary band that survives the vicissitudes of opinion through the years, the band must make three great albums.  I think the Replacements reach that number in an odd way.  They have two that are indisputable - Let It Be and Tim.  After that, I think it depends on who you are as to whether Pleased To Meet Me or Hootenany  is that third great record. 

  More tragedy.  I once owned nearly every Richard Thompson album released (Sunnyvista would be the exception through about 1994).  The passage of time means that he has released a great deal more music that I have not purchased, and that there has been an attrition of music in my collection, so that Beausoleil's cajun cover is the only version of "Valerie" I currently own.

U Ass Bank to Uma Menina

"U Ass Bank"  Lyrics Born  Later That Day . . . 
"U Can't Touch This"  MC Hammer  Whatever: The '90s Pop & Culture Box
"U Should Know Better"  Robyn  Body Talk, Pt. 2
"Ubangi Stomp"  Warren Smith  Rockin' Bones: 1950s Punk and Rockabilly
"Ugly"  Violent Femmes  Violent Femmes
"Uh Oh Plutonium"  Anne Waldman  In Their Own Voices: A Century of Recorded Poetry
"Uh, Zoom Zip"  Soul Coughing  Ruby Vroom
"Ultimate"  Gogol Bordello  Super Taranta!
"Um Segundo"  Bebel Gilberto  Momento
"Uma Menina"  Gogol Bordello  Trans-Continental Hustle

  A weird set of songs.  It is a strange day when the most approachable song is probably by Soul Coughing.

  My niece is a baton twirler, and she goes to these competitions all over the country.  My experience is that there are two kinds of music at these competitions.  At one, they play the same John Philip Sousa song on an eight-hour loop.  At the other, they play incredibly upbeat, headache-y electronica.  Some years ago, I began making mixes for my niece of music I thought she should use for her twirling.  These songs have been consistently inappropriate in one form or another.  I like the Robyn track for this purpose - it is particularly good because it would fit the up-tempo dance motif, but the lyrics would make her judges cringe in horror ("even the Vatican knows better than to fuck with me.")

  "Stop!  Hammer time!"  Is this how the '90s say Loverboy?  It is always nice to hear "Superfreak" though.

  "Ugly" wasn't originally on Violent Femmes.  It was released as a 12" with "Gimme The Car."  These are two pieces of vinyl I still own.  (as a vinyl aside - I just got a copy of Shaft that I have to rip)

  I think Gogol Bordello is a New York-based gypsy version of Southern Culture on the Skids.  I mean that in a very good way.  Despite getting lost in the act at times, both bands are musically sound first, which separates them from mere gimmick.  They ride the edge of complete parody most of the time, but like Rick Miller in SCOTS, Eugene keeps them from slipping over.

  Given the events of the past week, listening to "Uh Oh Plutonium" is a strange and sad experience.  What was an odd period piece from the Reagan 80s becomes cruel, comically insensitive anachronism.  Anne Waldman is a contemporary of Allen Ginsberg and other beats.  This song sounds like someone's bad idea to capitalize on the odd commercial success of Laurie Anderson's "O Superman" by slapping a synth track behind her poetry.  (I have nothing beyond timeline to support that, but it is a blog - so snarky theories pulled wholly from my ass are par for the course)

T.C.B. or T.Y.A. to Tainted Love

"T.C.B. or T.Y.A."  Bobby Patterson  Beg, Scream, & Shout: The Big Ol' Box of '60s Soul
"Ta Det Lugnt"  Dungen  Ta Det Lugnt
"Taal Zaman"  Transglobal Underground  International Times
"Table Tennis"  Flying Lotus  Cosmogramma
"Tack Ska Ni Ha"  Dungen  Ta Det Lugnt
"Taco Wagon"  Dick Dale & the Del-Tones  The King of the Surf Guitar: The Best of Dick Dale
"Tailspin"  Walter "Wolfman" Washington  Doctors, Professors, Kings & Queens: The Big Ol' Box of New Orleans
"'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do"  Bessie Smith  The Collection
"'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do"  Billie Holiday  Billy Holiday's Greatest Hits
"Tainted Love"  Gloria Jones  Beg, Scream & Shout: The Big Ol' Box of '60s Soul

  In addition to one of the truly great screams in music to open the track, "T.C.B. or T.Y.A." always reminds me of Charles and some of the less stable periods in our relationship.  I have not always been the portrait of professionalism and responsibility I am now, and sometimes this would . . . strain our relationship.  Starting in October 2001, I had an extended period of unemployment.  This is a time I describe as "sorting myself out," and Charles considers "clinical depression."  Regardless, by 2003 it was clear that I either "Take Care of Business or Turn Myself Around."  So . . . law school, and here we are now.

  Dungen was Charles' find.  I like these tracks a great deal, and apparently it is 1969 in Sweden.

  I am trying to sort out if the title of the Dick Dale track, given the song's Mexican influences, is blatantly racist or simply echos a particular image.  Probably the former.

  Bessie Smith's version of "'Tain't Nobody's Business . . ."  is a mono recording of just her and piano accompaniment.  Considerably less produced than Billie Holiday's.  It is all the more impressive for it.  Her voice just carries the song.  She simply seizes the listener and pushes them into the song.  Despite the almost casual quality of the recording, her voice comes through as an instrument that simply cannot be ignored.  I am saying this in the context of one of my favorite Billie Holiday songs, and I have the same experience comparing her version of "Gimme A Pig Foot . . . " to Nina Simone's, and that is a quintessential Nina track for me.  Bessie Smith might be from a different world.

  I had a house party once, and "Tainted Love" came on.  I overheard a discussion among some of my friends that made it clear that they had no idea that Soft Cell's version (it'll be there when we get back around to the T's) was not the original.  Given my self-imposed criteria, that might make that the perfect cover song.  A song that was not well known to the public, an interpretation that brought the song back into the popular lexicon, and an interpretation that made it the covering artists' "own."  It fits this criteria in abundance.  (Gloria Jones, among other things, was Marc Bolan's girlfriend - I have no way to fit this in elementally, but find it a fun fact I want to share).

S.I.B. (Swelling Itching Brain) to Sad Eyed Girl of the Lowlands

"S.I.B. (Swelling Itching Brain)"  Devo  Greatest Misses
"S.K.J."  Milt Jackson  Goodbye
"S.U.V."  Mem Shannon & The Membership  Doctors, Professors, Kings & Queens: The Big Ol' Box of New Orleans
"Sabali"  Amadou & Mariam  Welcome to Mali
"Sabor a Mi"  Los Lobos  Just Another Band From East L.A.
"Sacu Tu Mujer"  Tito Puente & His Orchestra  Dance Mania 
"Sack O' Woe"  The Mar-Keys  The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968
"Sacre Francais"  Dimitri from Paris  Pink Panther's Penthouse Party
"Sacred Attention"  Sebadoh  Bubble & Scrape
"Sad Eyed Girl of the Lowlands"  Bob Dylan  Blonde on Blonde

  The weekend was hectic, and I apologize to you readers for being away from the blog over the weekend.  I don't have enough readers to be alienating them with my absence.  I hope you will find it possible to forgive me, and I will try to stick to boring you with my writing.

  Charles and I hosted a Mardi Gras-themed  house party on Saturday night.  Coupling that with the Mem Shannon song, and that today actually is Mardi Gras, let me point you to WWOZ and especially DJ Soul Sister on Saturdays, 8-10 NOLA time. 

   Compared to U2 and REM, I am probably on the other side of Devo.  I admit, despite being from right near their home town, that my first exposure to them was "Whip It."  I feel like I have to justify myself as someone who doesn't think of them as a one-hit wonder.  "NO! Really!  I like Devo, honest. Are we not men?  Please believe me . . ."  Again, completely stupid.

  Of course, my first exposure to Tito Puente is a line from the movie Stripes, and the Senor Burns song from the Simpsons.  In fact, most of these bands I came to late.  Tito Puente, Devo, Milt Jackson and Bob Dylan this is a matter of age.  With Sebadoh . . . just a failure of character on my part.

  The Los Lobos track is an old Alvaro Carrillo song that has been covered by numerous artists - almost none of them American.

  There are pages and pages of criticism and interpretation of "Sad Eyed Girl of the Lowlands."  What I know - it goes on for a really long time.

Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) to Radio Free Europe

"Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)"  Florence + The Machine  Lungs
"Rabbit In Your Headlights (3D Mix - Reverse Light)"  UNKLE  Chillout 04
"Race For The Prize"  The Flaming Lips  The Soft Bulletin
"Race For The Prize (remix)"  The Flaming Lips  The Soft Bulletin
"Rachel"  Sleigh Bells  Treats
"Radiation Vibe"  Fountains of Wayne  Whatever!  The '90s Pop & Culture Box
"Radio Cure"  Wilco  Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
"Radio Daze"  The Roots  How I Got Over
"Radio Free Europe"  R.E.M.  Murmur
"Radio Free Europe (Live)"  R.E.M.  Reckoning (deluxe edition)

I figure there are certain things that a certain subculture feels, with virtually no justification, belong to them.  When that thing gets found out by a broader audience, those early fans feel resentment, and maybe betrayal.  There is probably some misplaced sense of superiority - words like "phony" and "poseur" get thrown around.  I recognize the stupidity of it, but it doesn't change the fact I have never owned an R.E.M. album later than Fables nor a U2 album after War (although I think I saw the latter on the Joshua Tree tour).  I know - totally ridiculous.  I am sure I own a lot of music that is considerably worse than "Everybody Hurts" but on a purely emotional level, it just feels like a different band.  No justification for it - just straight stupidity.  The live version (from a concert in Chicago, 1984) may not have sucked at the time, but the recording is total shit - nigh unlistenable.

What the hell is a Fountain of Wayne?  Apparently it is a fountain store in Wayne, New Jersey.  For that matter, what is a radiation vibe? Ah well - maybe "Stacy's Mom" will be in Rhino's '00s Pop & Culture Box when they get around to it.

Sleigh Bells is one of those bands that my girlfriend (who apparently is named "Charles") and I disagree about vehemently.  For Charles they elicit a near-physical revulsion.  For me, they are the best thing I have heard in five years - the kind of band that makes me regret living in flyover country.

So apparently Wilco has left Warner again.  Honest to god, for reals this time, we promise.  They have left Nonesuch and started their own label, to be distributed by Anti-, an affiliate of Epitaph, which is a part of the Alternative Distribution Alliance, which is 95% owned by  . . . oh for fuck's sake!

Quattro (World Drifts In) to Queen Elvis

"Quattro (World Drifts In)"  Calexico  Feast Of Wire
"Quay Cur"  The Fiery Furnaces  Blueberry Boat
"Que Lindo Sueno"  King Khan & The Shrines  The Supreme Genius of King Khan & The Shrines
"Que Pasa?"  Juanes  Mi Sangre
"Que Pasara"  Cafe Tacuba  Cuatro Caminos
"Quedateluna"  Devendra Banhart  Cripple Crow
"The Queen's Approach"  The Decemberists  The Hazards of Love
"The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing"  The Decemberists  The Hazards of Love
"Queen Bee"  Devendra Banhart  Cripple Crow
"Queen Elvis"  Robyn Hitchcock  Eye

  I was drinking a bottle of beer while listening to this set.  When I picked up the cap, on the inside it said, "almost."  I have no idea why, or almost what.  (Cabin Fever brown ale from New Holland Brewing.)

  Certain songs just end up on my running playlists all the time. [He runs.  He drinks craft brews.  He seems to have a lot of "world" music in his playlist.  I probably could be more cliched as a middle-aged liberal, but I am not really seeing how.   Oh yeah!  I could blog!]  "Quattro" shows up at the start of my runs because the 'hit the ground running' refrain is painfully obvious.  Other songs in heavy running rotation - "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues" by Eels ("goddamn right, it's a beautiful day"); "Uranium Rock" by The Cramps ("heading down the road and I ain't coming back"); and "Help, I'm Alive" by Metric ("my heart keeps beating like a hammer").  Because I am totally pathetic, most long runs also include Springsteen's "Thunder Road" and end with Bowie's "Heroes."

  We got the Juanes disc as a gift.  He is incredibly successful, holds numerous Latin Grammies, and is a deeply committed humanitarian and philanthropist.  What I have learned of him, he reads like a Columbian Bono.  That said (and perhaps like Bono at this point), I really don't think I like his music all that much.  As I said before, I don't sweat the translation much.  It is the music that makes a song and to that extent the voice is relevant - the words not so much.  When I listen to Juanes, I think "I wouldn't like this song in English.  I don't much like it in Spanish either."

  Unlike Cafe Tacuba - I can't understand a thing they say, but this song is selling exactly what I buy.  The guitars chug along, the drums thud, and the vocals are screamed as much as sung.  No need for a libretto to enjoy it.

  When I listen to Devendra Banhart, I think of that scene in Animal House when John Belushi breaks that guy's acoustic guitar into little pieces.

P-Funk to Pai Joao

"P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)"  Parliament  Mothership Connection
"P.E. Squad/Doo Doo Chasers [Instrumental]"  Funkadelic  One Nation Under A Groove
"Pablo Picasso"  The Modern Lovers  Modern Lovers
"Pac-Man Fever"  Buckner & Garcia  Like Omigod! The '80s Pop Culture Box
"Pachuko Hop"  Chuck Higgins  Brown-Eyed Soul: The Sound of East L.A.
"Pack Up"  Lyrics Born  Later That Day . . .
"Packing Blankets"  Eels  Daisies Of The Galaxy
"Pagan Angel And A Borrowed Car"  Iron & Wine  The Shepherd's Dog
"Pagan Poetry"  Bjork  Vespertine
"Pai Joao"  Seu Jorge and Almaz  Seu Jorge and Almaz

  Some songs take you to a particular place and time.  "P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)" is in a car with my girlfriend at Summit Mall in the late 1980s - I think I had just gotten Mothership Connection on cassette.  I bought Mothership Connection without having heard any Parliament before.  George Clinton and P-Funk kept showing up in things I would read, and so I bought it.  This song was a watershed for me.  I am not claiming some Neo-like "take the red pill" moment.  In retrospect though, the world got different - my musical palette became more expansive.  Before buying this album, everything came through the Beatles/Elvis/Velvet Underground.  After Parliament, I could go backwards to Stax, forward into P.E., it gave license to whole new vistas.  It directly introduced me to phenomenal musicians like Bernie Worrell, Maceo Parker, Michael Hampton, and of course Bootsie Collins.  (The great Eddie Hazel is not on either of these albums - we'll have to wait for Maggotbrain).  "Chocolate-coated, freaky, and habit-forming" indeed.

  My first exposure to "Pablo Picasso" was the Repo Man soundtrack.  The songs I remember from that movie are a cover of this, and a really slowed down, lounge-y version of "When The Shit Hits The Fan" by the Circle Jerks.  I have seen Jonathan Richman a few times in my life, and I saw him play this once - I want to say it was a second (of three) encores at a club in Atlanta in probably 1985-86.  I tried to find the name of the club, but it might be gone.

  On the other end of the spectrum, even though it apparently peaked at #9 on Billboard's charts, I have absolutely no recollection of ever hearing "Pac-Man Fever" before tonight.  I think I am worse for the experience.

  In fact, back-to-back here we get the wonderful and the awful of Rhino.  Their need to preserve excrement like "Pac-Man Fever" has to be forgiven when they hand out gems like "Pachuko Hop," a squonking sax instrumental that never charted even when it came out almost 50 years ago.

O'Appalachia to O Seu Olhar

"O'Appalachia"  Baroness  Red Album
"O'er Hell and Hide"  Baroness  Blue Record
"O-O-H Child"  Nina Simone/Nickodemos  Remixed & Reimagined
"O Caminho"  Bebel Gilberto  Bebel Gilberto
"O Day"  Bessie Jones  Southern Journey, Vol. 1: Voices From The American South
"O Death"  Tangle Eye  Alan Lomax's Southern Journey Remixed
"O Estrangiero"  Caetano Veloso  Brazil Classics:  Beleza Tropical Vol. 2
"O Green World"  Gorillaz  Demon Days 
"O My Soul"  Big Star  Radio City
"O Seu Olhar"  Arnaldo Antunes  Brazil Classics:  Beleza Tropical Vol. 2

  With the exception of some cartoon characters from England, this entire set is from south of the Mason-Dixon Line.  (admittedly, this is not how one usually thinks of Brazil, but it is certainly true).

 I might be too old for Baroness.  My girlfriend has absolutely no patience for it.  In fact, one evening when I got home from work, she had been going through some of the new music I had gotten, and I was greeted with, "So . . . Baroness . . ."  That was really all that needed to be said.  I like it at times.  I don't find it that far removed from something like The Mars Volta or King Crimson (also guitar bands that wear on my girlfriend).  I think it is the growling metal vocals that give me pause.

  The Tangle Eye album is the best, most-focused and most successfully realized remix set I have.  (Girl Talk might rival, but he is more a mash-up artist).  I think a part of it is that the songs they chose were mostly a capella work, so the instrumentation is not replacing something, which often creates a disjunction.  The instrumentation here is also done by studio musicians - this is not to decry electronic music.  However, in this case, using Alan  Lomax's field recordings, the analog works better with the source material.  Also, because the music here is relatively obscure, the remix is not stomping on some more well-known work (see "O-O-H Child").

  Gorillaz is the best fake band ever.  They beat the Monkees because Noodle arrived by FedEx - more Mary Poppins than Mike Nesmith.  Yes, Steam gets played by every sports team in America, but they were a one-hit fake wonder.  Gorillaz has released three quality full-lengths (not counting The Fall which just came out last Christmas). 

  The inordinate number of Brazilian tracks in this set has to do with Portuguese.  The definite article is "O" so these three songs all start "The."  While iTunes strips that in English, it doesn't do so here.  (The same thing happened in reverse with "A Habibi Ouajee T'Allel Allaiya" - neither iTunes nor I know Arabic well enough to know whether that initial "A" should have been stripped as an indefinite article or not).  I don't usually sweat the translation much - if the music works it works and knowing what is being said is mostly gravy.  However, Caetano Veloso name-checks Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, so I was curious.  It is because they, like love, are blind.  In the same verse he references "the albino Hermeto" whom I had never of before.  Hermeto apparently once belonged to a group called "Brazilian Octopus."  More will need to be found out about that.

N***as Bleed to Naima's Love Song

"N***as Bleed"  Notorious B.I.G.  Greatest Hits
"N.W.O."  Ministry  Whatever: The '90s Pop and Culture Box
"Nada Valgo Sin Tu Amor"  Juanes  Mi Sangre  (live and studio versions)
"Nadine"  Mos Def  Cadillac Records Original Soundtrack (7.11.11 - link is Chuck Berry)
"Nadir's Big Chance"  Peter Hammill  The Roots of the Sex Pistols (Mojo Disc)
"Nail Clinic"  Pavement  Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
"Naima"  John Coltrane  Giant Steps
"Naima's Love Song"  Betty Carter  Verve Unmixed 2
"Naima's Love Song"  Betty Carter/DJ Spinna  Verve Remixed 2

  Steve Jobs should be happy with me; this is the second time I have run off to the iTunes store after a cover version clued me to the fact that I didn't own the original of some song.  In this case Mos Def (in a disturbingly misguided casting choice) singing Chuck Berry's "Nadine." 

  Naima was John Coltrane's wife's middle name.  The Betty Carter song is from a 1992 album of hers, and puts her words over pianist John Hicks' composition, which is named not for Coltrane's wife, but for Hicks' daughter. The remix replaces the acoustic jazz with electronic instrumentation and so the original composition is all but lost.  Carter's vocals tend to track the bass-line, so all is not lost, but the remix becomes a bland mid-tempo electronica dance tune that seems to run on too long.

  Peter Hammill was a founding member of Van der Graaf Generator.  This alone would make him awesome, since this is one of the truly great band names in the history of rock.  This song predates and anticipates punk.  I have this track because several years ago, Mojo magazine began attaching a different mix disc  with each issue (each around some theme).  These cds (despite being a hit-and-miss grab bag) have become the highlight of the magazine at this point.  While the articles tend to read like a British Rolling Stone with their fixation on classic old rockers.  Every cover seems to be of an aged performer from the 60s and 70s (although on the subscription inserts, the covers are different, and include more recent artists, so I have this fear that the dinosaur covers are strictly for the American issue.  If this is true it makes me sad that this is how the U.S. is perceived).  The cds and record reviews have brought a number of new artists to my attention, however.

  Biggie had a great voice.

M'Lady to Madan

"M'Lady"  Sly and The Family Stone  Greatest Hits
"M.I.A."  7 Year Bitch  Whatever: The '90s Pop and Culture Box
"Ma Jaiye Oni"  King Sunny Ade  Juju Music
"Machete"  Moby  Play
"Machine Gun"  Portishead  Third
"Mad Man Blues"  Cedric Burnside and Lightnin' Malcolm  2 Man Wrecking Crew
"Madelena"  Gilberto Gil  Brazil Classics: Beleza Tropical, Vol. 2
"Madame George"  Van Morrison  Astral Weeks
"Madame Van Damme"  Lightspeed Champion  Life Is Sweet!  Nice To Meet You
"Madan"  Salif Keita  Moffou

   A couple of things.  I am going to change the name of the blog.  "Electric Sheep" was always something of a space-holder.  It is just a nerd dog-whistle, and the "uncanny94" in the URL serves that purpose as well as anything.  While I think "Electric Sheep" might work as a metaphor/critique for the recorded music industry, there are a lot of electric sheep on the web right now, including this collaborative art project.  So I am currently considering new titles for the blog (the URL won't change).  If anyone happens to stumble across this and have a brilliant idea, I would love to hear it.

  Additionally, I am now halfway through the alphabet.  While I am running a little behind my proposed pace of 4 posts per week (I am running closer to three per week on average, and that is due to sometimes week-long absences), I have largely stuck with it.  I am figuring I might let some more people know about this. Right now, I have told exactly three people about this, so if anyone else is regularly returning - I thank you.  I am going to clue in some more friends and associates, and we will see if anyone else wants to partake of this particular pretension of mine.

  "M.I.A." is a riot grrl song about the death of Mia Zapata of The Gits.  It is on the parallel '90s rhino box to Like Omigod!  Unlike that '80s set though, there seems to be a merger of "alternative" and "mainstream."  While Rhino saw fit to produce two parallel '80s collections (Left of the Dial is the '80s indie set - we will get to it), after Nevermind the distinction between "pop" and "alternative" was blurred and the '90s saw a move back and forth.  This is born out by Rhino's retrospective - the collection of songs include insanity like Cibo Matto and this 7 Year Bitch song alongside "Whoomp! (There It Is)" and "I'm Too Sexy."  I figure this is both good and bad.  On the upside, artists similar to those I knew and loved throughout the '80s finally got the respect and the financial gain that they justly deserved.  On the other hand, "alternative" became a much more static form, pigeon-holed by a marketing machine that had previously ignored it.  I recognize my own arrogance, and some of this might be whining at the loss of what had been "mine" to the broader, plebeian masses, but mostly it is a sense that something broad and creative has been constrained and controlled.  Not to worry - when one outlet for creativity shuts down (in this case the "alternative" network of college stations and indie halls in the '80s), a new one opens (the rise of Internet radio, podcasts, and other electronic, direct-to-user outlets).

  Gilberto Gil is one of the more fascinating people I have come across doing this.  Starting as a musician in the 1960s, he created Tropicalia as not only a musical style, but a cultural and political tool (my shallow perusal would draw parallels to Fela's Afro-beat, right down to the jail time).  He became involved in environmental issues and politically active.  In 2003, he became Brazil's Minister of Culture.  He has been a proponent of creative commons.  After leaving political office, he returned to music.  Here is a link to his entire 2008 album via Wired magazine.

  Astral Weeks is one of the more perfect albums ever recorded.  Any track off it is compelling - it immediately engages the listener and keeps him/her listening until its conclusion.  It is not a singles collection, but a song-cycle in the truest sense.  The album is so of a piece, it is difficult to take any one track and listen to it without feeling like the rest of it is missing.  That said, this 10-minute ballad about a drag-queen is as beautiful as any romantic love song ever written.

L'Arena to La Bas

"L'Arena"  Ennio Morricone  Kill Bill Soundtrack Vol. 2
"L'Estat"  Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti  Before Today
"L'Hotel Particulier [Extrait de BOF Melody Nelson]"  Serge Gainsbourg  Histoire de Melody Nelson
"L'Oranguta"  Pepe & The Bottle Blondes  Late Night Betty
"L'Via L'Viaquez"  The Mars Volta  Frances The Mute
"L-O-V-E (Love)"  Al Green  Greatest Hits
"L.E.S. Artistes"  Santigold  Santogold
"La-La (Means I Love You)"  The Delfonics  Beg, Scream, and Shout: The Big Ol' Box of '60s Soul
"La Bamba"  Los Lobos  Just Another Band From East L.A.: A Collection
"La Bas"  Sternklang  Jazz Lounge [Water Music]

  Sometimes these sets have a theme that extends beyond the alphabet.  Others, as here, the songs are disparate and the shifts between them can be jarring.  Of course, the shift between most other songs and The Mars Volta is going to be jarring.

  This is more what I think of when I think of as a Morricone song.  The slow rise from low drums and strings to these huge horn breaks, and sweeping vocals at the crescendo.  The whistle at the start, the individual guitar notes . . . there is an anticipation generated at the start of this song that builds and ultimately is rewarded by the sounds of victory at the end.  The song tells a story on its own, that is mirrored in the movie scene it plays behind.  Originally from a 1968 film with Jack Palance as the villain (as an aside, Palance's character is named "Curly," which is the same name his character had in the 1991 comedy City Slickers - I assume that was intentional.  The other fun tidbit I learned was that Palance's real name was "Volodymyr Palahniuk"), Quentin Tarantino co-opts it for Kill Bill when the Bride is escaping from an early grave.

  Despite most of the French is lost on me, Serge Gainsbourg's decadence is almost palpable in the music of this album.  I mean that in a good way. 

  Between the time I first purchased "L.E.S. Artistes" as a single, and the time I got the album, the artist's name had changed.  Apparently Santi White was being threatened with suit by an infomercial jeweler named Santo Gold, so she changed the "o" to an "i" and drove on.  I found this song through, of all places, Perez Hilton - he had a link to video.

  It seems wrong that I had two copies of Los Lobos' version of "La Bamba" but did not own Ritchie Valens'.  That has now been corrected. (as a rule I am not going through the same song twice just because it is on two different albums - "La Bamba" is also on Rhino's Like Omigod! box.  Different versions by the same artist I will listen through - although when we get to Elvis' complete comeback special we might have to make some exceptions - 6 different versions of "Blue Christmas" might be a bit much).   In the vein of "Cabbage Head" and "Gallow's Pole" this is a folk song that was brought into rock & roll by Valens.  Los Lobos' version is a cover of Valens', but it was done for the Valens' biopic of the same name.

  Sternklang is a Norwegian group that, like Outsized, has very little web presence.  I did find their myspace page, which offers up some other songs and a video.  I also found their record label's homepage, but it doesn't appear to have been updated in two years.

Kada Manja to Kashmir

"Kada Manja"  The Very Best  Warm Heart of Africa
"Kalakuta Show"  Gift of Gab/Lateef/Mix Master Mike  Red Hot + Riot: The Music and Spirit of Fela Kuti
"Kaleid"  Boxcutter  Glyphic
"Kamera"  Wilco  Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
"Kamikaze"  PJ Harvey  Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
"Kamphopo"  The Very Best  Warm Heart of Africa
"Kansas City Man Blues"  Clarence Williams' Blue Five  Rhapsodies In Black: Music and Words From the Harlem Renaissance [6.10.11 - link is to a later version by a different lineup - Sidney Bichet is the constant]
"Karma"  Outsized  Buddha-Bar, Vol IV
"Karma Chameleon"  Culture Club  Like Omigod! The '80s Pop Culture Box
"Kashmir"  Led Zeppelin  Physical Graffiti

  The 80s Pop Culture Box is an artifact of a 1980s that was not mine.  As near as I can tell, it is put together with a kitschy, self-aware eye of nostalgia for folks looking back fondly on the foolhardiness of leg warmers and tiny paisleys.  So at its worst, it is a reminder of the hell that was my high school life.  At its best, it is a collection of guilty pleasures.  Culture Club is really neither.  My feelings about Boy George generally amount to, "Huh.  So there was that."  I don't resent this song for existing ("Heartbeat" by Don Johnson, which I have promised myself not to skip when it comes around in this list).  I also don't have to justify my fondness for it to my peers ("Walking On Sunshine" by Katrina and The Waves - its great, and you are wrong).  Like many artists, it was Boy George's world for a moment, and then he was gone.  Well, not gone.  Just not allowed on reality tv.  He does guest on the Antony & The Johnsons song, "You Are My Sister."

  When I listen to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, there are only two conclusions that can be reached.  First, that the whole decision to drop Wilco because of this album was contrived and simply done to generate publicity (the album was eventually released by Nonesuch, which is distributed by the same Warner Bros. who dropped it from Reprise).  Second, that Warner is populated by deaf people.  There is really no other reasonable explanation.

  This Boxcutter track is more upbeat, and less droning and drug-induced, but it is still not exactly danceable, and prone to the odd conversation-destroying blurt.

  I can find almost nothing about Outsized anywhere on the internet.  I know that the bigger name is David Visan as the DJ putting the Buddha Bar set together, but you would think something about the actual artist would exist somewhere.  One 2008 album on essential media, Blindfolded.  No reviews.  Essential Media barely has a web presence.  It is more of a mystery than a compelling song at this point - who is this band?

  "When it comes to making out, whenever possible, put on side one of Led Zeppelin IV."  It probably makes me of a particular age, but that line from Fast Times At Ridgemont High, and the ensuing debate - was this a goof, or meant as a blunder by the character - whenever I hear "Kashmir."  Sad but true.

J Dub to Jacksonville

"J Dub"  Boxcutter  Glyphic
"J.B. Shout"  Fred Wesley & The J.B.'s  Funky Good Time: The Anthology
"Ja Funmi"  King Sunny Ade  Juju Music
"Jabuticaba"  Bebel Gilberto  Bebel Gilberto
"Jackie, Dressed In Cobras"   The New Pornographers  Twin Cinemas
"Jackpot"  The English Beat  Can't Stop It
"Jackrabbits"  Joanna Newsom  Have One On Me
"Jackson"  Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash  At Folsom Prison [6/8/11 - link is to San Quentin, not Folsom]
"Jackson"  Lucinda Williams  Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
"Jacksonville"  Sufjan Stevens  Illinois

  The Super Bowl happened yesterday, and that has nothing to do with the songs in this set (except in the sense that none of these artists have ever performed at a Super Bowl - James Brown was in the halftime in 1997, but not the J.B.'s).  However, I had a couple of music-related thoughts about that event.

  I have invested some space here discussing the value of a cover song, and a cover discussion of sorts broke out over the national anthem.  Christina Aguilera is being pilloried for her performance.  While the biggest part of this is certainly due to her failing to get all of the words right, a recurring theme among some bloggers and critics is that she didn't "sing it right" regardless of the lyrics.  The idea is that this song has only one "proper" reading, and any attempt to make it one's own is sacrilege - that it is somehow a song that cannot be covered.  This, of course, is bullshit.  The idea that the national anthem has only one true reading is ridiculous.  Like a cover of any other song, the artist has to bring his/her own voice the song.  Jimi Hendrix's version of this song is a sacrilege?  Well - perhaps, and perhaps that was the intent.  But Whitney Houston's Super Bowl version is revered, and it bears little resemblance to the way the average person would sing this song (I would also note that Whitney prerecorded her version - less chance of the kind of response Christina is receiving).  At Super Bowls alone, about 40 different artists have performed this song.  It is inconceivable that performers as diverse as Aaron Neville, Garth Brooks, and the Backstreet Boys would sing any song in exactly the same manner (or that you would expect them to).  As with any cover, there are certainly good versions and bad versions, but to say that there is a "right" version is inane.

  The list of performers linked above (both of the national anthem singers and of the halftime shows) is a fascinating piece of history.  It documents the growth of the Super Bowl from a football championship in the 1960s to the television-driven media event it is today. As the Super Bowl became bigger, the list serves to track fluctuations of popular opinion.  The first two games (and Super Bowl IX) featured marching bands.  The last instrumental performance of the anthem was 1988 - by Herb Alpert.  While the seventies started to see national names performing the anthem, there were still performers like The Colgate Thirteen (1979), and Phyllis Kelly (1978).  The former is an a capella group from Colgate University, and the latter is from what is now University of Louisiana - Monroe (she may have been the same Phyllis Kelly who was Miss Louisiana 1978, but that Phyllis Kelly apparently is from Southeastern Louisiana University).  Since the mid- to late-1980s, the anthem has become a part of the Super Bowl hype machine, and now serves as a history of the most popular music of a particular time.  Because the anthem is a pretty demanding song (not just in its arrangement, but in the expectations laid upon the singer), this list is more conservative than the halftime performers [which I am not sure they have ever gotten right], and rewards those the public views as not merely popular, but a substantial vocal talent.  However, the list is not without its questionable decisions (Garth Brooks?  Billy Joel twice!!).  The sole exception to the list of popular entertainers is 2005, when there was a retrenching after Janet Jackson's halftime boobsplosion, and the combined military choirs sang the anthem. 

  Anyway.  Things actually related to this set, in no particular order:

• A Jabuticaba is a South American fruit tree that produces grape-like fruit.  The trees sometimes are used for Bonsai.
• "Jackson" is one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs, and it is stronger here than the studio version.  June Carter is absolutely growling through her verses, and it is one of the highlights of one my cliched "desert island" albums.  I also enjoy the banter at the start, particularly when June says, "I'm glad to be back in Folsom!" 
• The Lucinda Williams song is not a cover, just shares a name.
• I like the Boxcutter track, but I am wracking  my brain to find a context in which it would be appropriate.  The most obvious answer is no longer relevant to me.  Maybe background for a quiet party - like all back to my place after the bar - but it has some intrusive squonks.  I could see driving, but it drones, and late at night that could be dangerous..  It could work if you need to clear a dance floor after last call.

I'd Rather Dance With You to I'll Be Faithful

"I'd Rather Dance With You"  Kings Of Convenience  Riot on an Empty Street
"I'd Rather Go Blind"  Beyonce  Cadillac Records Original Soundtrack
"I'd Rather Go Blind"  Etta James  Gold Collection
"I'd Still Choose You"  Al Green  I Can't Stop
"I'd Write A Letter"  Al Green  I Can't Stop
"I'll Always Have Faith In You"  Carla Thomas  The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968
"I'll Be Around"  Bobby Bare, Jr.  Live at KEXP, Vol. 1
"I'll Be Around"  Cee-Lo (feat. Timbaland)  Cee-Lo Green  . . .  Is The Soul Machine
"I'll Be Around"  The Spinners  Atlantic Rhythm & Blues  1947-1974
"I'll Be Faithful"  Dusty Springfield  Dusty In Memphis

  Just by coincidence, this set seems to focus on regional labels and sounds - the Chicago blues of Chess/Checker, the Philly soul of The Spinners, Atlanta's "Dirty South," and the Memphis soul of Stax and Hi (Dusty clearly, and intentionally, fits in here).

  I was looking at Hi Records webpage, and it reads like a younger sibling looking for validation.  As the home of Al Green and Ann Peebles, the label certainly does not have to apologize to anyone.  Nonetheless, the history on its website makes constant reference to Stax/Volt and justifies its place in Memphis Soul by comparison to that label.  It name-checks Al Jackson, Jr., Booker T. and The MG's and at one point flatly states that Stax had moved on in the seventies, seeking a broader range of artists, and leaving Hi as "the keeper of the flame for real Memphis soul." 

  The Al Green songs here are both from his 2003 return to the Hi soul sound for Blue Note.  The songs work in the way a good movie sequel works.  They recall the sounds of Green's best early work.  His voice is still amazing - he and Aaron Neville could do an album reading court opinions, and it would be among the best things ever recorded - and the arrangements hearken to "Can't Get Next To You" and "Tired Of Being Alone."    However, like most sequels, ultimately your know that the original work is better.

  Carla Thomas' song here is from just before that alleged departure by Stax from Memphis soul for a broader seventies base, and the growth of Stax as a song-making enterprise by this point is evident.  The house band, the production, and Carla's voice all exude confidence.  Even during the spoken-word interlude in the middle of this ballad (the sort of thing I tend to hate), the keyboard fills are compelling.

  It is hard to call what Beyonce offers here as a cover - at least the same criticisms don't apply.  Since she was portraying Etta James in a biopic about Chess Records, it seems appropriate that she try to do something that was true to the original, as opposed to making something more completely her own - perhaps homage is a better word than cover.  Both Beyonce's  and Etta's live version here demonstrate the singer's powerhouse voices, and Beyonce holds her own quite well.  

   Indeed, there are notably strong vocals throughout this set - Beyonce, Etta, Carla, Dusty, Al Green,and Phillipe Wynne.  The Norwegians bring their harmonies, and Cee-lo and Timbaland's growl through their rap.  Along with Bobby Bare, Jr.'s contribution there is not really a bad song in this set.

A Habibi Ouajee T'Allel Allaiya to Half

"A Habibi Ouajee T'Allel Allaiya"  Master Musicians of Jajouka  Manifestation: Axiom Collection II
"Had To Make You Mine"  Cheap Trick  The Essential Cheap Trick
"Haditha"  Me'Shell Ndegeocello  The World Has Made Me The Man Of My Dreams
"Hair"  P.J. Harvey  Dry
"Hairspray"  Rachel Sweet  Hairspray Original Soundtrack
"Hairy Trees"  Goldfrapp  Black Cherry
"Haiti"  Arcade Fire  Funeral
"Haitian Divorce"  Steely Dan  Steely Dan's Greatest Hits
"Halah"  Mazzy Star  She Hangs Brightly
"Half"  Soundgarden  Superunknown

   While I have described this as a reaction and not a review, most of my comments about this set amount to critiques - so it goes.

   So I have a two-cd set of the "essential" Cheap Trick.  I am not sure that a second disc or the adjective can be completely justified.  There are Cheap Trick songs that make me happy to hear almost any time I hear them.  The best of them stands up with the best of almost anyone, but that body of work is not nearly as deep as, say, Prince or Talking Heads.  Even at that, I don't know if there is something such as an "essential" Cheap Trick song.  All right, "I Want You To Want Me,"  but beyond that . . .

  Which makes them at least one song better than Steely Dan.  I am not sure how it is I have a collection of the Dan.  I am sure this is the girlfriend's.  I think I have mellowed to Steely Dan over the years, but I am still not what could be called a fan. 

  Enough hate.  If we are throwing around the word "essential," Funeral is an album that fills a void that didn't exist before Arcade Fire made it.  It is immediately engaging and continually listenable.  I have played it  through numerous times, and haven't grown tired of it.  Similarly, when I am listening to the collection on a random mix as background music, a song will catch my ear and draw me out of whatever else I am doing and engage me.  Frequently it is a song off Funeral.

  Hairspray was not just an entree to the world of Jon Watters, but through this soundtrack, it opened up a set of obscure 60s dance and soul songs.  In particular, "I'm Blue" was the first Ike & Tina song I ever heard and "Nothing Takes The Place of You" is a ballad that stands as one of my favorite love songs of all time.  This title track summons both Watters' camp and the music that he pays homage to throughout the movie.

  Hope Sandoval does not sound like other people, and that has value. 

Gabriel to The Game

"Gabriel"  Lamb  Ultra Chilled , Vol. 4
"Gabriel's Oboe"  Ennio Morricone  Film Music By Ennio Morricone
"Galang"  M.I.A.  Live at KEXP, Vol. 2
"Galapogos"  Smashing Pumpkins  Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
"Galaxy"  War  The Best of War & More
"Galaxy In Janaki"  Flying Lotus  Cosmogramma
"Galley Slave"  Southern Culture On The Skids  Dirt Track Date
"Gallow's Pole"  Led Zeppelin  Led Zeppelin III (Zep "videos" boring stills - link to live Page & Plant)
"Galway Races"  Paddy Reilly  40 Irish Drinking Songs
"The Game"  Love And Rockets  Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven

  This is probably my least favorite set of songs so far.  "Gabriel" was 85% a find, Flying Lotus bears more listening, and there are strong, if already-known tracks from M.I.A. and Zeppelin.  However, for the most part these are weaker tracks from most of the other albums and artists here.  (And there is an Irish drinking song in the mix.)


  On more than one occasion, I have put on a song and within five seconds of it starting my girlfriend began screaming, "what the hell is this shit?"  I am reminded of this because the Lamb song is very good in the middle, but it starts with just her (Louise Rhodes) singing.  I don't dislike her vocals, but I think I hate the lyrics and it takes some effort to wait until the music kicks in.  The same thing happens at the end, the music tapers off and she is gratingly chanting about "my angel Gabriel."  But ignoring the ends of this song, I could listen to the middle quite a bit.

  My favorite thing I learned while researching  these songs is that Flying Lotus started out doing bumper beats for Adult Swim.

   I remember playing "Gallow's Pole" once in the 1980s and a friend of mine commented that he had never heard a song used to tell a story in so direct a manner.  This is another interpretation of a "traditional" song.  Leadbelly is credited with popularizing it around 1939.  I currently own a version of it (titled "Hangman Tree") by Almeda Riddle, as well as a remix of that same version by Tangle Eye.  Not to get ahead of myself, but these three side-by-side are excellent examples of different artists taking the same song and making it "their own."  The three versions are all radically different, and each is deeply engaging in its own way.

  As I said, most of the other tracks are not wonderful.  The Morricone track (from The Mission) sounds like film music to me (which is not true of all Morricone songs).  The Pumpkins song is just a song.  Neither of them is horrible, I am just not rushing to listen to them again.  Southern Culture plays an instrumental with chanting and moaning in between the guitar breaks.  I may be a SCOTS apologist.  I have seen them live several times, and find that dismissing them as gimmicky is a disservice to their talent both as songwriters and musicians.  Rick Miller in particular is a talented guitarist.  However, even I recognize that sometimes they put the gimmick too far ahead of the song, especially if the gimmick doesn't work.  This is the case here.  The Love & Rockets song embodies all the bad about that band, with none of the good - their moody pretensions are not balanced by either the pop hooks of L&R's better work or the force of personality that Bauhaus and Peter Murphy brought - it is droning and dull, with irredeemably horrible lyrics.  "Galaxy" is a later War single presumably thrown on to this collection in order to fill it out (or to try to justify their later work as on a par with "Why Can't We Be Friends?" and "Low Rider").  At least they have the honesty to put the "and more" in the compilation title.

F*** You to Faces and Names

"F*** You"  Lily Allen  It's Not Me, It's You
"F*ck Hodges [Don't Know Nothin JH Mix B]"  Jason Hodges/Mark Farina  Live At Om
"F*cking Boyfriend"  The Bird & The Bee  The Bird & The Bee
"Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)"  Otis Redding  The Complete Stax/Volt Singles, 1959-1968
"Fa-Ce-La"  The Feelies  Left Of The Dial: Dispatches From The 80s Underground
"Fables Of Faubus"  Charles Mingus  Mingus Ah Um
"Fabricoh"  Archers Of Loaf  Vee Vee
"Face It"  Ed Robinson  What It Is! Funky Soul and Rare Grooves
"Face to Face/Short Circuit"  Daft Punk  Alive 2007
"Faces and Names"  John Cale & Lou Reed  Songs For Drella

   Our first collection of songs about fucking.  None of them are actually about sex, but it is such a great word with so many wonderful uses, some folk just find it irresistible.  Of course the artists here, or their producers, balked at actually writing the word in the title.  They all say it with reckless abandon - Lily Allen and Inara George both give it a lilting cheer incongruous to the excoriation in the lyric itself.


  My older son hates Lily Allen, and I fall a little in his esteem every time he hears one of her songs come out of my speakers.  I can see how she could annoy, but I find her amusing.  My son won't budge, and holds this is a moral failing.

   There are a handful or artists that make me cry nearly every time I hear them.  When I hear "Beautiful Boy" or "Watching The Wheels" by John Lennon I think about the hope in those songs and how shortly after they were released he was killed, and suddenly I am weeping.  There is a point in "Little Wing" when I am overcome by the feeling that I am standing in the presence of something greater than myself.  For both those reasons, just thinking about an Otis Redding song makes me cry. 

   Now seems a good time to sing the praises of Rhino Records.  From 50s rock & roll, through  60s soul, 70s funk and punk, 80s indie music, as well as "pop culture" boxes from both the 80s and 90s, Rhino has provided my collection with literally hundreds of songs.  The two songs on Rhino boxes here are representative.  "Face It" is the b-side to a 1971 cover of "Temptation's 'Bout To Get Me"  The artist has almost no internet presence at all.  Wiki brings up nothing.  Allmusic has only cursory and incomplete references to a discography.  The 45 itself was not listed on an Atco discography, and is selling for $100 on eBay, yet here is Rhino, giving Ed Robinson the same stage as brighter lights such as Cyril Neville, Rufus Thomas, and Little Richard. The Feelies and "Fa Ce-la" are better known than that, particularly to people of a certain age (approximately mine), but Rhino helps to keep those alt bands of my adolescence from being drowned out by an 80s "revival" that embraces the same bands that kept them off the radio the first time around.  Rhino traffics in nostalgia and marginalia, yes.  But it is nostalgia and marginalia that consistently speaks directly to me.  (Of course I recognize that they play both sides of the table - they are currently peddling remastered copies of Van Halen's 1984 and ZZ Top's Eliminator, and they are the also the only reason I have a copy of "Working For The Weekend.")