Politics, shmolitics. Before I signed on to the Swing State Project, my previous writing experience consisted almost entirely of my time spent as a music critic for an alternative weekly paper. And while I can say that I’ve very much enjoyed the jump from music to politics, the urge to consume and discuss new and old albums is impossible to kick. So, I wanna know: what albums have you been enjoying lately? Don’t be a stranger now.
Here’s what I’ve been listening to in the past seven days:
Billy Bragg & Wilco – “Mermaid Avenue” (1998, Elektra)
Elastica – s/t (1995, Deceptive)
Four Tops – “The Ultimate Collection” (1997, Motown)
The Kinks – “Face to Face” (1966, Pye/Reprise, r: 2004, Castle)
The Posies – “Failure” (1988, Popllama)
The Shins – “Wincing The Night Away” (2007, Sub Pop)
The Wailers – “Livewire!!! [’65-67]” (1999, Norton)
-Break the Chains&Landslide
Bon Jovi:
-Dead or Alive
Leonard Skinnard:
-Simple Man
-Freebird
The Animals:
-House of the Rising Sun
Bob Dylan:
-Tamborine Man
The Who:
-Teenage Wasteland
-Behind Blue Eyes
-Who are you?
Led Zepplin:
-Cashmere
The Foreigners:
-Hot Blooded
To name just a few of the songs I’ve been listening to lately.
The Smiths
The Cure
Modest Mouse
Muse
At The Drive-In
Sparta
The Decemberists
Mars Volta
The Shins
Voxtrot
and several others.
The new Norah Jones CD came out this past Tuesday, Not Too Late, and I can’t stop listening to it.
Went to a Roger Waters concert night before last and whoa did he blow us away. Been listening to Waters and Pink Floyd since.
Black ’47 Home of the Brave
Black ’47 Elvis Murphy’s Green Suede Shoes
Bright Eyes: Lifted: Or the Story is in the soil keep your ear to the ground
Great Big Sea: Road Rage
I am sure there is more but this is the stuff that I am listening to most often.
I bet NOBODY has ever heard of any of what I’m into…*
Jim Malcolm “Live at Glenfarg”
Pauline Scanlon “Hush”
Solas “Reunion” DVD (Does that count?)
Dervish “Midsummer Night”
Tim O’Brien “Traveler”
John Doyle “Wayward Son”
Old Blind Dogs “Play Live”
Peter Gabriel “Secret World” (*OK, maybe that one…)
Karan Casey “Distant Shore”
Pauline Scanlon “Red Colour Sun”
Bruce Cockburn “Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere”
I sometimes just put on Kasey Chambers or the Dixie Chicks.
And this week I bought John Mellencamp, after (bringing it full circle) hearing “Our Country” repeatedly at a John Edwards event.
I’m going to second the Voxtrot. Mostly Raised By Wolves, but I ripped all of them and then burned them all on to a CD-R. It’s probably gotten the most play out of any of my other CDs.
Other things:
Neutral Milk Hotel- On Avery Island
Decemberists- Crane Wife & Her Majesty
M. Ward- Post War
Jennifer O’Connor- Over the Mountain, Across the Valley and Back to the Stars [Saw her last night. She was great]
Shins- Wincing the Night Away [just got this today]
No matter what’s going on out there, I keep listening to Steely Dan’s _Pretzel Logic_, Donald Fagen’s solo album _The Nightfly_, Todd Rundgren’s bizarre and brilliant classic _A Wizard, A True Star_, Stevie Wonder’s _Songs in the Key of Life_, and Laura Nyro’s _Eli & The Thirteenth Confession_.
I am twenty-seven, which makes me the youngest aficionado of all of the aforementioned artists. But, hey, they’re the composers who inspired me to become a composer myself! (And, no, my parents did not expose me to those artists. My parents don’t know crap about music. I discovered it all on my own, listening to the radio, back before the big corporations took over all the radio stations . . . ahh, the good old days . . . )
According to iTunes, my recent played albums look like this:
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium
Badly Drawn Boy – Born in the UK
Ben Folds – Songs for Goldfish
Gorillaz – Self Titled AND Demon Days
Rob Thomas – Something to Be
Dave Matthews Band – Crash
Cake – All albums really
Don ‘t Die beofre I do, Rosenrott, etc.
name this song:
the cops all have wooden legs
and the dogs have rubber teeth..
the jails are made of tin
and you can walk right out of them
as soon as your are in.
…never change your socks,
and the little streams of alcohol come a trickling out the rocks.
I’m gonna go where there ain’t no snow
and the wind don’t blow….
where they hung the jerk
that invented work
You should know it.
The words you use should be your own
Don’t plagiarise or take “on loan”
There’s always someone, somewhere
With a big nose, who knows
Who’ll trip you up and laughs
When you fall
Who’ll trip you up and laugh
When you fall
I own and enjoy albums from all of those artists–with the exception of Voxtrot. Good taste!
Spoon, Grandaddy, David Bowie, the Clientele (great wintertime music),the Magnetic Fields, Captain Beefheart.
I’m sure the copyright for it is long expired, if that’s what you’re concerned about.
So let’s go where we’re wanted
And I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
But you lose
‘Cause weird lover Wilde is on mine
They have awesome new power-pop-rock from northern lads The Fratellis (amazing album is Costello Music) and The View. And as always, I’ve been listening to loads of OK Go. There’ll be a new OK Go video out this weekend, I hear, with Segways and pogo sticks.
Am likely older than a lot of you but here goes.
Cher – The Farewell Tour
The 5th Dimension – Greatest Hits on Earth
The Police – Synchonicity
Pet Shop Boys – Very & Discography
Queer as Folk – Soundtrack to Season #1
Electronic – Disappointed
New Order – Republic
Kate Bush – The Whole Story
Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense & True Stories
Carole King – Greatest Hits
Jethro Toll – Original Masters
Robert Miles – Dreamland
Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic
Jimmy Somerville – The Singles Collection
Alison Moyet – Essex
At least those are the CD boxes that are littering my cabinet because I have been too lazy recently to put them away, lol.
Lifetime – “Lifetime”
Beck – “The Information”
Beck – “Midnite Vultures”
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – “Acme”
Menomena – “Friend and Foe”
The Shins – “Wincing the Night Away” (<--- a great one, eh James?)