Friday Random Ten
Manu Chao "Infinita Tristeza" Proxima Estacion: Esparanza
Neil Young "Like a Hurricane" Decade
John Cale "Leaving It Up to You" Fragments of a Rainy Season
Talking Heads "Swamp" Stop Making Sense
Pere Ubu "Montana" Ray Gun Suitcase
Robbie Fulks "Godfrey" The Bottle Let Me Down: Songs for Bumpy Wagon Rides
Booker T. & the MG's "Groovin'" The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968
Passengers "Beach Sequence" Original Soundtracks 1
Dr. John with the Band "Such a Night" The Last Waltz
Dump "Hoe, Joe" I Can Hear Music
bonus
Elvis Costello & the Attractions "Tears Before Bedtime" Imperial Bedroom
Well, well. At last a random ten (+1) that truly represents. Not much new, but beyond that this showcases my two "classical" modes, the Young/Band pole and the Eno/Velvets pole. Plus one of my favorite Elvis cuts from my favorite Elvis album. Plus a creepy cut from the best least known children's album of all-time (but I don't have children, so judge for yourselves). Plus Hoboken at its most obscure; not only is Dump James McNew's solo band moniker (you know him as Yo La Tengo's bassist), Dump is also the only answer to the question, "Who has recorded a song named after a person George went to grad school with?"
Neil Young "Like a Hurricane" Decade
John Cale "Leaving It Up to You" Fragments of a Rainy Season
Talking Heads "Swamp" Stop Making Sense
Pere Ubu "Montana" Ray Gun Suitcase
Robbie Fulks "Godfrey" The Bottle Let Me Down: Songs for Bumpy Wagon Rides
Booker T. & the MG's "Groovin'" The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968
Passengers "Beach Sequence" Original Soundtracks 1
Dr. John with the Band "Such a Night" The Last Waltz
Dump "Hoe, Joe" I Can Hear Music
bonus
Elvis Costello & the Attractions "Tears Before Bedtime" Imperial Bedroom
Well, well. At last a random ten (+1) that truly represents. Not much new, but beyond that this showcases my two "classical" modes, the Young/Band pole and the Eno/Velvets pole. Plus one of my favorite Elvis cuts from my favorite Elvis album. Plus a creepy cut from the best least known children's album of all-time (but I don't have children, so judge for yourselves). Plus Hoboken at its most obscure; not only is Dump James McNew's solo band moniker (you know him as Yo La Tengo's bassist), Dump is also the only answer to the question, "Who has recorded a song named after a person George went to grad school with?"
Labels: random ten
posted by George at 8:19 AM
9 Comments:
I love Dr. John. I caught him in Detroit last year. His band starts playing the coolest funk groove for like 10 minutes. He comes strutting out on stage in a purple leisure suit and gnarled wooden cane in time with the music. He proceeds to join the funk groove by sitting in between a piano and a Hammond B-3, playing the piano with his right hand, the B-3 with his left, all while looking at the audience. Cool moment.
That does sound cool. Haven't seen him live myself.
Actually, of this week's list, my seen live people would be Neil Young, Talking Heads, John Cale, Pere Ubu, Costello & the Attractions, and I've seen McNew with Yo La Tengo and I saw Rick Danko with a band but not THE Band in a bar that was torn down to make 10 parking spaces. But no Dr. John.
Tarnation, "Gentle Creatures" Gentle Creatures
Sparklehorse, "Spirit Ditch" Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot
Leonard Cohen, "A Thousand Kisses Deep" Ten New Songs
Kristin Hersh, "Sundrops" Hips and Makers
Richard Buckner, "Figure" Devotion & Doubt
Idaho, "Come Back Home" Levitate
Mason Jennings, "Keepin it Real" Use Your Voice
Nina Nastasia, "Judy’s in the Sandbox" Dogs
Serge Gainsbourg, "Chez Les Yé-Yé" Initials SG
Lou Reed, "Busload of Faith" New York
Bonus: Cowboy Junkies, "Ooh Las Vegas" Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons
I haven't seen anybody on my list save Sparklehorse, as I mentioned last week. The Cowboy Junkies are playing in Baltimore on June 20 and Wilco is in nearby Columbia the following day, though, which is very tempting.
So which one is the children's album? I'd guess the one "for bumpy wagon rides" but "the bottle let me down" sounds like a song for mommy or daddy...
Dear Queen--
You guessed right. Here's some of the promo for the CD on the Bloodshot Records site: "Before you even know it, your little tyke is going to be all grown up and coming home with the latest record from Limp Bizkit or Puffy and you’ll be left wondering how many other ways you’ve failed them as a parent. Don’t let that happen. Instead, think of this as their musical 'Headstart' program. See you on the playground." To read more, go here.
Ahab--
I've been lucky to live in many places where people do shows, and Baltimore was one of them from 1980-84. I have many Merriwether Post memories (does it have a corporate name now?). Then I got to Baltimore for shows again when I suffered through the State College PA years, 1988-94.
Oh, and that Buckner album is still a fave.
It's still just the Merriweather Post Pavilion, George. That'd be a great place to see Wilco, don't you think? But I don't know if we'll make it down there.
Our paths crossed in 93-94 in State College, PA, where I was dating a PSU student. Were you teaching? I live about 2.25 hours away but spent a lot of weekends there. The student (now my wife) was doing a PhD in English. Not a great concert town, though we saw a few good things there -- Kathleen Battle w/Wynton Marsalis, the Roy Hargrove Quintet, a couple of other decent things. Old fool Gato Barbieri! Friends once roped us into seeing Tori Amos, who does nothing for me. You must have hated it there. I remember one decent restaurant that we'd go to -- Mario & Luigi's. I'm sure there were others we didn't know about. But it's no Santa Barbara.
I love Devotion + Doubt too, but do you have Dents and Shells? That may be my new favorite album of Buckner's.
Great, another CD to get. That's one Buckner I don't have. The hard part with him is he tends to get samey so it's never easy to know which ones to buy.
Yeah, I taught as a lecturer in the English dept at PSU those years. Did your wife teach writing as a TA then? I mentored many grad students over the years there.
It was not a good town for food. The one good thing was a sushi chef from NYC who moved out as his wife was a central Pennsylvanian and he'd do great sushi nights.
It was a so-so town for music, which was sad b/c it's a bitch to get to Pittsburgh or anywhere from there (not that I didn't do that). But one of my favorite concerts of all-time was there, when the local great record/CD store City Lights/ Modern Times four-walled the VFW hall and brought in Yo La Tengo on the Fakebook tour. Incredible show.
Manu Chau followed by "Like A Hurricane" makes it for me.
Plus Booker T! This is my favorite George Random 10 yet.
Yes, George, my wife was a TA at PSU. She wonders if you were the guy with the Down By Law poster in your cubicle. Is it really going on 15 years since those days? Incredible.
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