Easter is not Easter for me without hearing this song.
When I was a kid, every single Easter without fail, my parents would cue up the record player, lower the needle, and Easter would begin. Objectively speaking, it’s a live performance of a hippie Christian tune (and quite celebratory; always makes me feel happy inside) but for me it’s also one of those tunes that I have no objectivity in listening to anymore because of all the memories wrapped up in 3 minutes.
My Easter eggs hidden throughout the house would always be half pink/half purple; my older sister would get pink/yellow, and my brother blue/green. It was the exact same every year as we embarked on our sugar-high quest and gnawed the ears off our chocolate bunnies.
Sugar High – Coyote Shivers (Empire Records soundtrack)
And as for the winning album cover art that goes with that first tune, check this out.
Mitch, who said… Have to go with 3rd Planet – shaken foundations, false gods, all the great things that make us one messed up species of primate! The whole album is brilliant though (you know that already, I bet) with thrown away thoughts and phrases reappearing as themes in other songs…
Kevin Dean, who said… ‘Tis a difficult task to pick a favorite MM song. I almost had a brain aneurysm. After a long scientific test i have concluded that The Devil’s Workday from Good News …. is my favorite. It’s almost an homage to Tom Waits with its weirdo rhythyms and vocal stylings. The lyrics border on psychotic. A few years ago I was working part-time in a kitchen. All of the weirdos in the kitchen loved said song. Most would probably find the track to be a throwaway from that album, but it really has stuck with me. After that i’d pick the lovely, simple “Gravity Rides Everything”.
MattC, who said… I would have said 3rd Planet without even having to think before I heard the song Florida off of this latest album. Great song for the car, as the weather is warming up.
Dirt – LPBME, who said… How about a cover…South of Heaven. Seems the boys are fans of Slayer and had to do a cover of their most “friendly song”. I certainly appreciate this cover as a look back at where we came from.
pen cap, who said… Medication off of an old 7″ but later on Building Something Out of Nothing. Isaac is great at the quiet-to-loud and slow-to-fast thing, but on this song his style fits the narrative better than on most MM songs. It actually sounds and feels like hope breaking through the anti-depressants. The jangly hopeful ear-candy part of the song is wedged between the low-key and surprinsingly intimate (medicated) lines. They’ve got songs that kick more ass, but this one does more than just sound good.
************************************************ If all the winners could please email me your mailing address, we’ll get those shipped. There were a total of thirty-something v.g. recommendations running the whole gamut. Here is what I am adding to my new “Readers’ Favorite Modest Mouse” playlist on my iPod, you may create the same and we can blissfully bob our heads in unison:
3rd Planet Dark Center of the Universe Float On Trucker’s Atlas Worms vs. Birds So Much Beauty in Dirt Shit Luck The Devil’s Workday Florida The World At Large Black Cadillacs The View Ocean Breathes Salty Blame It On The Tetons Never Ending Math Equation South of Heaven Doin’ The Cockroach Dashboard Talking Shit About A Pretty Sunset Parting of the Sensory Cowboy Dan Whenever You See Fit Bukowski Missed The Boat Stars Are Projectors Dramamine Out of Gas Baby Blue Sedan Workin’ On Leavin’ the Livin’ Medication
The subject line of this mini-post is a comment someone just left on the Tim Buckley video I uploaded on YouTube a while back. In the great fashion-choice-era of the late Sixties, Tim’s wearing tight tan corduroys; I never noticed how hilarious that thought makes the performance of an otherwise dang purdy song:
And I ripped the audio awhile back for a pal — may as well share here too since this is an ace version (better than the album version) of a great song.
Santa Barbara, California good-time jam band Animal Liberation Orchestra (ALO) is preparing to release their newest album on May 1st, their second on Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records label. Entitled Roses & Clover, it’s the follow-up to last year’s Fly Between Falls, and a short video is available showing the band in (and around) the studio during the making of the album: [Windows Media] [Quicktime]
This new track surprised me when it started, with the striking piano chords, the expansiveness of the Eagles, and the lyrics about Maria which made my thoughts flash briefly to the Counting Crows. I am very much looking forward to hearing the rest of this album (other tunes are described as “ukulele-led funk workout” and “sun-drenched reggae-tinged” tracks) if this is any indication:
A headlining U.S. tour with ALO kicks off on Cinco de Mayo at the San Francisco Fillmore.
And despite some crazy random APRIL snow showers today (?!) I am planning to head up to Denver tonight to see Peter & The Wolf at the Hi-Dive (with two great others, Saddle Creek’s Maria Taylor, and local Gregory Alan Isakov). My pal Dainon originally recommended Peter & The Wolf to me, and since then I have been wanting to catch his live show, which I hear is superb. This scratchy A.M. radio-goodness tune from him is pretty close to perfect:
Today I am very excited about this fantastic show from Damon Gough, aka the perpetually stocking-capped Badly Drawn Boy, at the Great American Music Hall (love it) in San Francisco from a few weeks ago. I was actually supposed to see BDB a few days prior to this show up in Boulder and I totally goofed it and went out of town that weekend instead. I felt like an absolute dolt when I remembered ex post facto, and after hearing this I am kicking myself anew.
This is a trademark extra-long, gorgeous set from a talented and multifaceted musician. If you haven’t become familiar with Badly Drawn Boy (who has this kind of childishly-odd emo moniker, but you can ignore that and just call him Damon if it makes it easier for you to give him the props he deserves) — this is your chance.
BDB music is complex and literate; finely-woven pop songs that incorporate acoustic guitar, piano, strings, harmonica, even some attempts at whistling. You may also remember that Gough also scored the film adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel About A Boy, and he includes three songs from that album in this set (including the wonderful “Silent Sigh”).
He has an impeccable ear for unforgettable melodies that get under my skin and etch themselves in my memory. They are the sort of dense, truthful songs that I could see soundtracking my life if I could play them on a loop to overlay my quotidian activities. I would feel much more meaningful with this stuff scoring my day. But as Damon sings in the bittersweet You Were Right, “songs are never quite the answer, just a soundtrack to a life that is over all too soon.”
As likely to insert a snippet of Springsteen (“Thunder Road” at the beginning of the lovely “Walk You Home Tonight”) as he is to check Journey (a perfect choice of a closing tune once the bar has closed and everyone really just wants to sing along), Gough’s musical influences traverse a wide and rich landscape.
This set is stuffed with gems and engaging conversation with Damon and the audience. Damon says that “this whole tour’s been one of the best tours I’ve ever been involved in,” and that he is dedicating his shows lately to his grandfather who passed away in March, as a celebration of his life. A celebration indeed, this is one of the loveliest shows I’ve listened to in a long time and it makes me wish I could keep my concert dates straight and not be so daft. Grrr.
BADLY DRAWN BOY Great American Music Hall San Francisco, March 23, 2007
I’ve been hearing about a few good Colorado artists lately, thanks to some pals in the know with gooood ears. Katie Herzig is from Boulder and spent eight years fronting the band Newcomers Home. Now she is solo and living in Nashville, and although she seems to have won a few bluegrass/country/americana songwriting contests, this particular song I want to feature today couldn’t be further from that.
It’s dense lo-fi bedroom electronica with Katie’s honeyed voice woven through, and if perchance I’ve turned you off with the talk of bluegrass and country, just give this a shot — you’ll like it:
Katie’s currently on the PASTE Magazine Songwriters’ Tour and the picture above is from when she opened for also-Coloradoans The Fray (wait, does that mean I saw her? Was that the show with Brandi Carlile? Aaah yes, I recall exploring the beverage tent with friends before the show. What a dolt. Sorry Katie).
Also definitely pop over to her MySpace and listen to “Sweeter Than This” from her newest album Weightless. That’s one place I hear a tinge more of the bluegrass in her voice, but more in the vein of the lovely SF band The Bittersweets and less dramatic than, say, Alison Krauss or someone like that. I like the unsettling melody that sounds like a tape running backwards, and the humming slide guitar. When I post the next installment of the Fuel Driving Mix, that tune will definitely be on it.
So the Chipmunks have possessed this post. The streaming feature doesn’t work (it’s all sped up, and oddly enough, Mick’s first words are “We’re gonna slow it down a little bit for you.”) but the downloaded mp3 should play just fine.
“He’s timeless — he’s probably twenty-five, but he seems like he’s twenty-five in 1972.” - Rolling Stone
I am happily on the music advisory panel for KBCO Radio up out of Boulder and was just taking their April survey of 4 songs they are thinking of adding. The last one was completely new to my ears (the other three I knew right away and liked) and so I Googled a bit of the lyrics to see who I was enjoying.
The name that came back to me was California singer-songwriter Brett Dennen. He’s from Oakdale, which is a tiny town I know in California whose greatest feature is either their rodeo I went to once (for real) or the Hershey factory on the way to Yosemite that makes the air smell really, really edible.
The funny thing is that when I also did a search on my gmail for Brett Dennen (because I knew I’d heard the name before), I got multiple results of emails from you readerfolk ranging back to last October telling me to take a listen to this guy. So okay, I give, and I should’ve given sooner. I can be stubborn sometimes. Kid has talent, music has verve, there is a unique voice here that I enjoy. It’s a expressive tenor that cracks and wavers, and makes your ears perk up and stop to take a closer listen. The music is generally acoustic guitar finger-picking-based but with underlying elements of understated funk and reggae that elevates these songs beyond sad-sap fare to something pretty catchy. I’ll admit I hear influence as widely ranging as Paul Simon, Ben Harper, Paolo Nutini, and Jack Johnson.
My only regret (petty, selfish woman) is that he just got tapped to open for John Mayer and I am now even farther from liking John Mayer than I was before, after reading Weiss’ slamdunk lampoon on him (“Yo, J, y’all“). But it’s definitely good for Brett to get the exposure. He’s got a slew of tour dates coming up, some with folks like Suzanne Vega and Damien Rice, and I hear very positive things about his live shows.
The rumors are true! Pearl Jam will headline this year’s Lollapalooza in Chicago on Sunday, August 5th. This is the band’s only scheduled U.S. date for 2007.
Low-priced Earlybird 3-day passes go on sale tomorrow morning at 7:00am CDT here. Get ‘em while the price is right – the cost for the weekend pass will increase on April 12 when the complete festival lineup is announced or when this initial allotment runs out.
No single day tickets will be available until further notice. Check with www.pearljam.com for updates. There are no exclusive Ten Club tickets available for this show.
Name: Heather Browne Location: Colorado, originally by way of California Giving context to the torrent since 2005.
"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel." —Hunter S. Thompson
Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.
Name: Heather Browne
