“Sunday Kind of Love” is probably my favorite right now. So let’s start with that, hit shuffle on the iTunes and listen to the first ten random songs that come up and stuff. More videos after the jump!
So long, Etta.
1. Big Head Todd & The Monsters – “Fortune Teller”
2. The Civil Wars – “Oh, Henry”
3. Béla Fleck – “Home Sweet Home”
4. Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians – “The Wheel”
5. Tori Amos – “The Needle And The Damage Done” [Neil Young cover]
6. Deer Tick – “The Dance Of Love”
7. Widespread Panic – “Party At Your Mama’s House”
8. Susie Hansen – “Frank Sinatra Cha Cha Cha”
9. Dax Riggs – “Say Goodnight to the World”
10. Tori Amos – “Icicle”
Lookie there, you all get two Random Ten’s this week, because I didn’t have time on Friday afternoon. So it’s technically the end of the holiday weekend for many people, so here’s your music post! Let’s start with Nina Simone, just because she’s been coming up a lot lately, and also she’d be really kind of pissed off if she saw how far we really are from achieving Dr. Martin Luther King’s dreams and goals. “Lilac Wine?” Yes. Then we hit shuffle on the iTunes, see where things are ten songs later, blah blah blah. More videos after the jump!
This was supposed to go up yesterday, but I am having massive internet outage problems and working on getting new service, etc., and I didn’t have time to post this before the coffee shop closed. Anyway, here is your Weekend Random Ten, one day late, and let’s see, we will start with…I dunno. Let’s see. How about The Civil Wars? Have I started with this song before? Probably. Do I care? No. They are incredible. Then we hit shuffle on the old iTunes, see where we are ten songs later, listen to some music and it’s already the weekend, so whatever. Ready, set, go!
1. No Age – “Teen Creeps”
2. Drive-By Truckers – “You Got Another”
3. J. Roddy Walston and the Business – “Full Growing Man”
4. Tori Amos – “Take To The Sky (Russia)”
5. The Depreciation Guild – “Trace”
6. Carolina Chocolate Drops – “Sourwood Mountain”
7. Japancakes – “Only Shallow” [My Bloody Valentine cover]
8. Stereolab – “Captain Easychord”
9. The Byrds – “Have You Seen Her Face”
10. Incubus – “Aqueous Transmission”
Okay, so music time, and I’m breaking my own rule for the Random Ten. Usually my rule is that the song we start with has to be IN my iTunes, therefore I hit “shuffle” off of that song, etc. This week, though, was the Kennedy Center Honors, and one of the people recognized was the great singer and actress Barbara Cook. The people they brought together to pay tribute to her were absolutely stunning, and this is one of the best eleven minutes of music I’ve seen and heard in ages. It’s all good, but let’s just say that Glenn Close is followed by Sutton Foster, who is followed by Patti LuPone, who is then followed by Audra McDonald. I have watched/listened to this about twelve times at this point and will likely listen many more times. So that, then shuffle on the iTunes, see where we are ten songs later, then Happy New Year and stuff. More videos after the jump!
1. Tori Amos – “Here. In My Head”
2. Tori Amos – “Sweet The Sting”
3. Carly Simon – “Coming Around Again/Itsy Bitsy Spider”
4. Messiaen: Catalogue d’oiseaux / Book 3 – 6. L’Alouette Lulu [performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard]
5. The Beach Boys – “Sloop John B”
6. Asobi Seksu – “Thursday”
7. Rage Against The Machine – “Freedom”
8. Emiliana Torrini – “Sunny Road”
9. The Beatles – “Carry That Weight”
10. St. Vincent – “Cruel”
It’s almost the weekend, so music time! I’m sort of throwing this one together, and I really didn’t take much time to think what I’d start with this week, but here is a Tori Amos song that is really special to me. “Roosterspur Bridge.” Just something about it. Then we hit shuffle on the old iTunes, see where we are ten songs later, etc., etc., and then it’s time for the weekend. More videos after the jump!
1. Mates of State – “Change”
2. Bob Dylan – “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”
3. Matt Morris – “Live Forever”
4. Tori Amos – “Liquid Diamonds”
5. The Beatles – “Because”
6. Brandi Carlile – “Us Again”
7. Christine Kane – “She Don’t Like Roses”
8. Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Breaking The Girl”
9. Lisa Hannigan – “An Ocean And A Rock”
10. Miles Kurosky – “The World Won’t Last The Night”
Short week, therefore Friday music shuffle comes on Wednesday afternoon. Last week I started the Random Ten with one of the songs another singer, Lee Taylor, and I played this weekend at our first gig together, John Legend’s “Ordinary People,” which, if you haven’t heard it, is incredible, so go back and check it out. This week I was planning to start with another incredibly beautiful, magical song by My Brightest Diamond, called “Inside A Boy,” which has been a favorite of mine since it came out, and I still am going to start with that. But I realized that it was a perfect pairing, like a perfect wine, with another song that Lee and I play — indeed, it’s the first song that came together almost immediately the first time we rehearsed it, and may end up being our recurring set closer, at least for a while — and that’s “Nature Boy,” one of the finest songs ever written. I’ve chosen the Sarah Vaughan version, because I like it. So My Brightest Diamond, Sarah Vaughan, then we hit shuffle on the old iTunes jukebox and see where things end up ten songs later, listen to music, yadda yadda, then gobble gobble. More videos after the jump!
1. Pink Floyd – “On The Turning Away”
2. Ricardo Villalobos – “Easy Lee”
3. Junkyardmen ft. Mose Vinson – “What Is Your Life”
4. Pat Green – “Southbound 35″
5. Tori Amos – “Hey Jupiter”
6. The Seldom Scene – “Take Him In”
7. Kaki King – “So Much For So Little”
8. Daddy Mack Blues Band ft. Billy Gibson – “You Really Got Me” [The Kinks cover]
9. Green Day -“Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)”
10. OK Go – “I Want You So Bad I Can’t Breathe”
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”
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.
Tori Amos is doing promo interviews for her new record Night of Hunters, and in her talk with PrideSource, she addressed a few topics we deal with quite frequently around here.
On legislation banning marriage for gays and lesbians in North Carolina:
If anybody calls themselves a Christian, I don’t see how you can ban consenting adults. I just don’t understand how you can see yourself as Christian and have no compassion for another person’s path. It goes against the Christ-like energy and light that I was brought up with.
My mother and father, they’re both Southern, have opened up, especially my dad. He had to really stretch as a Methodist minister, but he’s embraced the idea that gay people deserve rights. I’m really proud of him that, as a Methodist minister, he was able to make that shift and see that he did need to see it differently.
He took me to a gay bar when I was 13. He’s come a long way, so let’s put it that way. So I think there’s hope for people who are judgmental, but what they have to say themselves is, how can they call themselves a Christian and then insist that gay people don’t have the right to be married? Then gay people shouldn’t have to pay taxes in the state of Carolina!
On bullied gay teens and teen suicide:
[I]t is the end of the world to them. When you are being bullied because of who you are, the shame of that is so great that it does seem like the end of the world and like they’re not accepted in this world – and they’re not being accepted by part of this world. And yet, the people that are not accepting them and bullying them call themselves Christian, and that is a lie. You are not a Christian if you treat people like that. I don’t care what office you’re running for. You just are not. That is not the definition of walking the Christ-like path.
When artists say it’s not the end of the world, I don’t know if that’s the approach. I think the approach is acknowledging what they’re feeling and hopefully creating a space where people feeling bullied can go to.
This next election, it’s so important the gay community become very aware of what’s going on and be very proactive about your rights as human beings. The fact that gay people are not treated as if they’re human beings by some of these people who are running for office, it’s barbaric. Whatever you think I am, I would like to be in a society where we’re enlightened, and I just find it all very primitive and that we’re regressing mentally.
She knows what she’s talking about.
Here’s my [current] favorite song from her new record. Go buy it.
