It’s just about that time, the end of the day on Friday, and that means it’s time for music. So this week for the Random Ten, I’ve chosen to start with John Legend’s “Ordinary People.” If you don’t know the song, it’s just fantastic and meaningful and beautiful. Also, a very talented friend and I start playing live together tomorrow night, and this is one of my favorite songs that we’re doing. So anyway, a little John Legend, then we hit the shuffle on the old iTunes, see where we are ten songs later, listen to some music, the end. More videos after the jump!
1. Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore – “My Wealth Comes To Me”
2. Drew Holcomb – “Sweetness”
3. White Rabbits – “Percussion Gun”
4. The Black Angels – “True Believers”
5. Trick Pony – “I’m Not Thinking Straight Anymore”
6. Led Zeppelin – “Stairway To Heaven”
7. Vinicius de Moraes & Quarteto em Cy – “Soneto Do Amor Total/Samba Em Preludio”
8. Emma Pollock – “Acid Test”
9. Incubus – “Deep Inside”
10. Eric Clapton – “Blue Eyes Blue”
It’s time for music, and as usual, I had no idea what song/s I was going to start with until just now. I’m in the middle of preparing setlists for, um, ten days from now when I start playing live in anticipation of releasing my own first record in the spring, and I’m not unveiling my own work until that time gets closer, so I’ve been focusing on well-chosen covers — songs that I love, but more than that, songs that I feel like I can get inside and actually do something with, outside that whole piano-bar mentality of “if I know the chords, I can sing it!” So, to get my head into the mental space of interpretation — I’ve been in composing mode for a long time — I’ve been listening to a lot of cover songs and their originals. One that I love lately is Neil Young’s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart,” and Saint Etienne’s very, very different cover of that same song, which I just adore. So let’s start with those, hit shuffle on the iTunes machine, see where we are ten songs later, listen to some music, yadda yadda, etc. More videos after the jump!
1. Kristin Hersh – “Juno” [orig. by Throwing Muses]
2. Tori Amos – “Sister Janet”
3. Trick Pony – “A Boy Like You”
4. John Doe – “Don’t Forget How Much I Love You”
5. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – “Optimist vs. The Silent Alarm (When The Saints Go Marching In)”
6. Lightspeed Champion – “Dry Lips”
7. Ricky Martin ft. Meja – “Private Emotion”
8. Princeton – “Stunner Shades In Heaven”
9. Jonny Lang – “Angel of Mercy”
10. Martha Wainwright – “Dis, Quand Reviendras-tu?” [Barbara cover]
Shut up about the Ricky Martin song, I like it. This is really a good mix, actually. Click on the ones I don’t post, too, especially the Princeton song.
Time for music, as it is Friday afternoon, and if you haven’t heard this, it is special. I have always loved the Flaming Lips. I, however, did not know that a couple years back they got together with Stardeath and White Dwarfs and did this ridiculously beautiful, epic cover of Madonna’s “Borderline.” Then somebody posted it on Facebook the other night with the description “WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!” attached to it, so I had to listen. I concur with that reaction. So we will start with that today, flick the switch on the iTunes shuffle, post the first ten random songs that come up, listen to some music, etc., etc. More videos after the jump!
1. Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta – “Summer Nights” (from Grease)
2. Tori Amos – “Happy Phantom”
3. Active Child – “Wilderness”
4. The Beach Boys – “Help Me, Rhonda”
5. Ray Charles – “Come Back”
6. Kenny Chesney – “I Remember”
7. Department of Eagles – “What Is Your Deal?”
8. The Byrds – “He Was A Friend Of Mine”
9. Coralie Clément – “Samba De Mon Coeur Qui Bat”
10. B.B. King – “The Thrill Is Gone”
It’s almost the weekend, so time to listen to music! I had no idea what I was going to start with this week until I checked my e-mail this morning and got this 4AD Session from St. Vincent. If you are not familiar with St. Vincent, AKA Annie Clark, get ready. She’s enchanting, and she has a new record out right now. The songs in this set are “Chloe in the Afternoon,” “Surgeon,” “Strange Mercy,” and “Year of the Tiger.” For more info on St. Vincent, and to get more of her music, click here. Then we hit shuffle, see where we are ten songs later, yadda yadda. More videos after the jump!
1. The Temptations – “My Girl”
2. Counting Crows – “All My Friends”
3. “Can You Feel The Love Tonight?” [from the original motion picture soundtrack The Lion King, performed by Joseph Williams, Sally Dworsky, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella and Kristie Edwards]
4. The Eagles – “Desperado”
5. Beastie Boys – “The Move”
6. Beastie Boys feat. Money Mark – “Dr. Lee, PhD”
7. Rush – “The Big Wheel”
8. Minus the Bear – “Throwin’ Shapes”
9. Abigail Washburn – “Bring Me My Queen”
10. Ben Lee – “Let Your Heart Decide It”
What a weird, weird shuffle that was. Beastie Boys and The Lion King, y’all.
Yay, so it is Friday afternoon, which means it’s time for music! Earlier this week, I was just sitting here working with my headphones on as usual, just letting the iTunes shuffle do its business. All of a sudden it seemed to hone in on all these songs from the late 60′s/early 70′s, those amazing songs from bands like Bread and The Carpenters that are just so foundational to our modern day musical lexicon. One of the songs that came up was Mama Cass Elliott doing “Dream A Little Dream Of Me,” and I’ve been listening to that a good bit ever since, so we’ll start with that song, hit shuffle on the iTunes, post some videos, listen to some music and whatnot. The clip of the Mama Cass song I’ve chosen is a fun little appearance on the Smothers Brothers show. More videos after the jump!
1. Mates of State – “Mistakes”
2. Department of Eagles – “No One Does It Like You”
3. Trisha Yearwood – “I Need You”
4. Dolly Parton – “True Blue”
5. A Perfect Circle – “Pet”
6. Garth Brooks – “Friends In Low Places”
7. Tapes ‘n Tapes – “Nightfall”
8. Deerhunter – “Activa”
9. Tori Amos – “Upside Down”
10. The Dandy Warhols – “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” [Bob Dylan cover]
What a great Random Ten. Dolly, Tori, and be sure to listen to the Mates of State song. They are one of my absolute favorite bands right now.
So it is time for music! Sorry about the light posting in the latter part of this week, as I have been in the middle of a move. Hopefully things are back to normal next week! For now, though, let’s listen to some hip tunes and stuff. Jeff Buckley is one of the artists I hold most dear, and having made a foray into recording last week myself, I have been drawing a lot of inspiration from him. It still kills me that he left us so soon. So this week, let’s start with a couple songs from the only record he ever released while he was alive, Grace, “Lover You Should Have Come Over” and “Lilac Wine.” I don’t know why, but those two are hitting me right now. So we listen to Jeff, hit shuffle on the iTunes machine, see where we end up ten songs later, etc., etc. More videos after the jump!
1. Sondre Lerche – “Side Two”
2. Beastie Boys – “Just A Test”
3. Dax Riggs – “Say Goodnight To The World”
4. The Beatles – “Golden Slumbers”
5. Deerhunter – “Heatherwood”
6. Portishead – “Half Day Closing”
7. The Black Angels – “Haunting at 1300 McKinley”
8. The Seldom Scene – “Walk With Him Again”
9. Van Morrison – “Baby Please Don’t Go”
10. Dispatch – “Open Up”
So, this is the space where we normally have music in the form of a Random Ten, and we are going to do that in a minute, but first, indulge me for a second. Most of you know me as a writer on all topics related to the fight for LGBT equality. What you probably don’t know is that that’s not the only writer hat I wear. I’m a pianist and singer, and I’m also a composer, and tomorrow night I’m going into the famous Ardent Studios to lay down the first demos for my first record, which will be released somewhere in the neighborhood of late winter/early spring of 2012. I’m in the latter days of writing the album, coming to the end of a process that, in some ways, started a year and a half ago, and in some ways has been building for twelve years. So, I’m terrified and nervous and excited and jittery and everything else, and I’m trying to get as much done as I can between now and tomorrow night so that I can be as “ready” as I possibly can be. So wish me luck and send some thoughts my way this weekend, that my voice doesn’t go or my fingers fall off or something like that.
So, since I’m recording at Ardent, I figure we should should start the Random Ten with somebody that recorded there long, long ago, a band from Memphis that, even though you may not be that familiar with them, has had more influence on the music you listen to than you’ll ever know. That band is Big Star. If you’ve never heard them, welcome to some of the greatest pop songs ever written. The picture above is what one of the studios at Ardent looked like in the 70′s when Big Star was recording there.
Anyway, after these songs, you know the drill. We hit shuffle on the iTunes, post the first ten songs that come up and then I go back to cramming for my session tomorrow night. More videos after the jump!
1. Pete Yorn – “Sense”
2. Rage Against The Machine – “People of the Sun”
3. Lee Ann Womack – “Why They Call It Falling”
4. The Black Angels – “True Believers”
5. Sondre Lerche – “Heartbeat Radio”
6. The Rolling Stones – “You Got the Silver”
7. The Seldom Scene – “If That’s The Way You Feel”
8. HEALTH – “Death +”
9. Daniel Johnston – “Freedom”
10. Los Campesinos! – “We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed”
Didn’t “Sense” come up a few weeks ago? Let’s listen to it again, as it is that good.
Well, well, well, it’s music time, and I used last week’s Random Ten to promote a band called Those Darlins, so I didn’t have a chance to also point out that last Saturday was the twentieth anniversary of one of the most important records of our time, Nirvana’s Nevermind. So I am pointing it out now! Let’s start with a couple songs from that — “Teen Spirit,” of course, and I’ve been really into “Lounge Act” lately — and then we’ll hit shuffle on the old iTunes jukebox, post the first ten songs that come up, listen to some music, etc. More videos after the jump!
1. The Chemical Brothers – “Galaxy Bounce”
2. Incubus – “Favorite Things”
3. The Postal Service – “We Will Become Silhouettes”
4. Leftover Salmon – “Euphoria”
5. Frankie Valli – “Grease” [from, um, Grease]
6. Leftover Salmon – “This Is The Time”
7. Pink Floyd – “When The Tigers Broke Free”
8. Jude – “George”
9. Bob Dylan – “Hurricane”
10. Cold War Kids – “Against Privacy”
What a weird, weird Random Ten. Oh well, play it as it lays.
Friday music time! This week we’re starting the Random Ten with a band I found out about last year and got to see live last weekend, called Those Darlins. The best way to describe them, really, is that they’re a really fun hybrid between country and punk. The three women in this band, Jessi, Kelley and Nikki Darlin, have one of the most unique sounds I’ve ever heard, and I fell in love the instant I heard them. So we’ll start with a few songs from the band, then hit shuffle on the iTunes machine, see where we are ten songs later, etc. More videos after the jump! [photograph of Those Darlins by Veta&Theo]
1. Jason Mraz – “The Remedy (I Won’t Worry)”
2. Phish – “Chalkdust Torture”
3. Foxy Shazam – “Drain You” [Nirvana cover]
4. The Crystal Method – “Wild, Sweet and Cool”
5. Pink Floyd – “Keep Talking”
6. Sam Bush – “Girl From the North Country” [Bob Dylan cover]
7. The Beatles – “Carry That Weight”
8. Widespread Panic – “Surprise Valley”
9. Brandi Carlile – “Shadow On The Wall”
10. John Vanderslice – “Too Much Time”
Yay, it’s almost the weekend, so it’s time for music! I do believe I’ve started the Random Ten with Abigail Washburn before, but I’m doing it again, because I had no idea when I woke up yesterday morning that I would be seeing her live and meeting her last night. Abigail Washburn is cool. She picked up a banjo sometime during college and fell in love with the music of Doc Watson, and before she knew it, she was being offered a record deal. This sort of upended her life plans at that point, as she was fluent in Mandarin, and was planning on moving to China to go to law school and live the rest of her life there. Instead she played music and ended up marrying the great banjo genius Béla Fleck. Oh, that was the other surprise of last night — Béla played with her. It was truly one of the greatest shows I’ve seen in the past several years and, though I was already a fan of both, I am even moreso today. So let’s listen to a couple of songs from Abigail, then you know the drill. Hit shuffle on the iTunes, see where we are ten songs later, listen to some music and then goodbye. More videos after the jump!
1. Sha-Na-Na – “Blue Moon” [fom Grease]
2. Britney Spears – “Breathe On Me”
3. Bon Iver – “Beth/Rest”
4. Brad Paisley – “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive”
5. Portishead – “Half Day Closing”
6. Phish – “Poor Heart”
7. The Sea and Cake – “The Argument”
8. Pete Yorn – “Sense”
9. Janet Jackson – “You Ain’t Right”
10. Jason Mraz – “Sleeping To Dream”
Um, this is a really good Random Ten, except for the embarrassing Britney Spears part. I have like five of her songs in my iTunes, I swear, and that’s it.
It’s just about that time, the end of the day on Friday, and that means it’s time for music. So this week for the Random Ten, I’ve chosen to start with John Legend’s “Ordinary People.” If you don’t know the song, it’s just fantastic and meaningful and beautiful. Also, a very talented friend and I start playing live together tomorrow night, and this is one of my favorite songs that we’re doing. So anyway, a little John Legend, then we hit the shuffle on the old iTunes, see where we are ten songs later, listen to some music, the end. More videos after the jump!
