Discography Year Two - Week 21

At the end of The Big Chill, a pleasant but pretty dramatically overrated film, it is revealed that Nick and Chloe (Alex's girlfriend) are going to stay in the house to do some work.  One of the characters (sorry, I can't remember which one) says, "There's a certain symmetry to that."  This is my odd way of announcing that Kevin Andrews is joining the Irrational League, the fantasy baseball league that we've been running for over twenty-five years (truthfully, I don't know if any of us know exactly when we started it).  We've suffered a loss, and GB is irreplaceable, but we are all blessed to have such an extraordinary community of great friends to lean on, but also to spend time with and enjoy. KA, like GB, is a great soul who, like all Right Thinking Individuals, loves baseball and music.  There's a certain symmetry to that. [Oh, and I told Kevin that when we fly into the Natti for the draft to mention mention fucking scrapple]

* * * * * THEME WEEK ANNOUNCEMENT * * * * *

From the Excellent Alice Neiley

For Week 23

Hello Music Enthusiasts! 

Because I know artistic appreciation runs through all our veins, I likely don't have to explain, or even express, the value of good T.V. and movies. Contrary to some of my writing/intellectual colleagues, I LOVE television and film, especially when it's good, but even sometimes when it's 'bad', whatever that really means. Like any piece of art, however, the quality of a good movie scene or television scene is complex. There's the acting, the script, the cinematography and...of course...there's the soundtrack--that specific, PERFECT song chosen to highlight a specific emotional moment. 

A few months ago, I discovered one of my favorite shows (either good or 'bad', depending on your affinity for nostalgia) was on Netflix: The Wonder Years. Back when I was in college and needed some warm and fuzzy TV support, it wasn't even on DVD, and in desperation I bought an illegal bootleg copy of entire series. Anyway, I digress. The Wonder Years appearing on Netflix was really exciting. Until it wasn't. 

Unfortunately, probably due to copyright issues, the soundtrack on Netflix is not the original! FOR SHAME. Without the original soundtrack, Netflix shouldn't have agreed to air the show. Now, the songs chosen to replace the original ones are objectively just fine, but once you know the perfection of the initial choices, those songs that highlight specific emotional moments the way no others can, anything else is a little nauseating...which brings me to the theme for Week 23. 

Choose a song that, without which, a movie or television scene would have been RUINED (or at least completely different). Choose a song that made a TV or film scene, made it exact in its truth, its humanness, its excitement...whatever. Then...knock yourselves out with the commentary. 

I already know which show holds the song (and scene) I'm choosing...take a wild guess. ;)

[editor's note: Cyndi Brandenburg is responsible for choosing the next theme week]

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Dave Wallace

Ride - Leave Them All Behind

 I've previously mentioned my affection for the shoegaze movement that came out of England in the early '90s, and one of my favorite shoegaze bands was Ride, who put out a couple of excellent albums around that time.  As with many bands from back then, they broke up after a brief period of modest success.  However, they reunited a few years ago and, last year, they put out a new album which is surprisingly good.  I've really been enjoying it, and I considered choosing a song from that album for my blog entry.  However, I wound up going with Leave Them All Behind, the lead track on their second album, and my favorite song by them.

Kevin Andrews

Ricky Lee Jones released Girl at Her Volcano, her third album — actually an EP with eight songs, in 1983. It’s mostly left-over studio tracks from previous sessions, some live songs and a few new studio tracks, most of these are covers. This was a transitional time for her after the success of her first two albums and the requisite touring and before moving to Paris to write new material.

There are some real gems here if Ricky is your thing, she’s not for everybody. She covers The Drifters Under the Boardwalk, and June Christie’s Something Cool which, to me, is a fascinating peek into the popular jazz song culture of the late 1950’s. The entire album is on the YouTube and is worth your time.

Given last week’s submission of Miles Davis’s My Funny Valentine and that Valentine’s Day is just a few weeks away, here is my favorite version from Girl at Her Volcano.

Cyndi Brandenburg

I know it has been a while since I contributed to the blog, and since for some reason I decided to binge-listen to Mazzy Star all morning, I am offering up this link to a live performance of Fade Into You from 1994.  I had never seen it before, which is weird, because I pretty much love everything about her and everything about that song. The cut-aways to all the other people around in the crowd are rather annoying, but when it's just her, it's excellent, and it sounds amazing either way. I'm excited to hear about the upcoming theme week.  It's good to remember that even when you are having a long day and the world seems bleak, there is always something more to look forward to.

Dave Mills

Cyndi, you've been binge-listening to Mazzy Star all morning? Did Bill bring back more edibles from Colorado, or what?

Whatever the motivation, Cyndi's contribution of her binge-listening content today inspires me to do the same, since it's been a very long while since I've contributed and I've got to kick-start the habit again somehow.

This afternoon, I've been listening to David + David's 1986 album, Boomtown. My college roommate and I found a cassette of this album in a used music shop in 1989. It caught our eyes because we were both named David. People referred to us as Dave Squared. We insisted on Dave to the Second Power, as that just sounds better. Anyway, we bought the album without knowing anything about it other than the obvious name connection. Luckily enough, the music was actually good. David + David were David Baerwalds and David Ricketts, two LA studio musicians who came together for this album, which is, to date, their only output. There were rumors of a 30-year reunion album in 2016, but so far, I haven't seen anything. But, happily, I was rummaging through the LP shelves at Resource on Pine Street a few weeks back, and there was Boomtown in gloriously unscratched vinyl. What more could you want for $1? I hadn't listened to the album for years, the cassette being long gone. So I've had the LP cranked this afternoon, fondly revisiting my sophomore year of college. Here's a track that I had totally forgotten, but which came back instantly as one of the coolest tracks on the album. Give a listen:

Alice Neiley

My post is late this week, too! I had entirely something else in mind yesterday, and had planned to write it up when I got home last night, but on my drive, I listened to an episode of the Malcolm Gladwell podcast, Revisionist History. It was Episode 6 from Season 2, about the 'invisible emotional line' between people who listen to country music and people who listen to rock music. To be honest, other than interviews with the amazing country music writer Bobby Braddock, I thought Gladwell's whole theory was rather bogus and entirely unsubstantiated, but I'll leave that to you all to decide for yourselves if you choose to listen to it. However, there was one line I LOVED, that I think rings really true about what makes a sad song sad enough to induce tears. Gladwell said: 'it's where heartbreak and specificity meet.' Oh my, what an accurate line. He's only talking in terms of lyrics, which is part of my disagreement with his theory --  some songs are entirely tear-inducing simply by the specificity of an instrumental solo (french horn in Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now;), or the timbre of someone's voice (Randy Newman's in 'Losing You').

With that in mind, my song choice this week is "Conversations with a Ghost" by Ellis Paul -- the version where Patty Griffin duets with him. It embodies Gladwell's line no matter which way you slice it, or...perhaps more accurately...when you slice the line both ways. The lyrics are devastatingly specific -- "Have you been to the races?/Did you take my mother/Is your sister in braces?" -- and there's Ellis Paul's breathy, pebbly voice, and then Patty Griffin's voice enters over the top like a gorgeous, sharp-winged, bird. I mean...can you get any better? Or sadder? I'm crying right now. Where heartbreak and specificity meet, indeed. Sigh. 

Phillip Seiler

Everything But the Girl

Only Living Boy in New York

If you are going to do a cover and you choose one of the most influential acts in music, you had better bring it. Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt absolutely do in this luscious cover of Simon and Garfunkel's Only Living Boy in New York. Paul Simon's unsubtle but earnest song to his partner Garfunkel has always struck me as one of the more beautiful pieces of music about feeling alone and isolated. Tracey and Ben do just enough to make this song their own without spoiling its simple message and melody. I know we go back and forth on the value of music videos on this blog but in this case, I think they again do a masterful piece of design by providing just enough visual support to amplify the song without distracting from it. "Here I am" we scream out to the universe but so often that is just the message in our head, never spoken aloud, and what we actually say to the world may be nothing at all. 

"I get the news I need on the weather report

I can gather all the news I need on the weather report"

The rest really is just noise, isn't it.

Kathy Seiler

Citizen Cope ft. Carlos Santana – Sideways

I’m a fan of collaborations and Carlos Santana has done some good ones. This song is a collaboration between Citizen Cope and Santana. I like some of Cope’s music, but not all of it. He’s got a blues edge but I’m not quite sure how to categorize his music, although iTunes calls him “Rock.”  He’s come to perform locally but I never felt quite strongly enough to go see him in concert. I get a little annoyed at slurred words in songs, and he’s hard to understand at times. But I like this particular song a lot, particularly when I’m in need of some “chill” music after a long week.

Dave Kelley

"Lover's Spat"  Lydia Loveless

"So don't go running around naked by the side of the road

Honey, you look ridiculous

with that cut on your eye

and your dick hanging out."

This verse alone justifies the inclusion of "Lover's Spat" on the blog IMHO.  It is also just a fantastic tune by one of my current favorite Americana artists.  Loveless hails from Ohio's own capital Columbus.  Despite that and the fact that she used to regularly open for the Drive By Truckers, I have never seen her live.  Damn, I need to fix that in 2018.  Her first album was produced by the great Cincinnati musician David Rhodes Brown who currently plays in Nate and Miranda's favorite band 500 miles to Memphis.  One critic has said that her music is marked by its "utter lack of bullshit".  I would totally agree.  She weds country, Americana, and rock with a punk sensibility.  If you are not familiar with her, I encourage you to check her out.

Gary Scudder

The Cranberries, Sunday

For some reason that passing of Dolores O'Riordan hit me really hard.  It made me go back and listen to a lot of early Cranberries, and I'd forgotten how much I loved their first couple albums.  They, especially Everybody Else Is Doing It, Why Can't We?, are the soundtrack of a particularly insane part of my life.  I can remember almost wearing out the tape of the album on a road trip from Atlanta to Memphis (which DK remembers all too well).  Few songs express the helpless/hopeless nature of love better than Sunday or Linger.