Long Pauses

Category: Mix Tapes

  • 2008 Mix

    2008 Mix

    Side A

    1. “Moneda Sucia” by Flormaleva (opening title music from Liverpool)
    2. “Magick” by Ryan Adams & The Cardinals (from Cardinology)
    3. “Replica” by Beck (from Modern Guilt)
    4. “Jazz” by Esbjorn Svensson Trio (from Leucocyte)
    5. “Lassoo” by The Duke Spirit (from Neptune)
    6. “Strange Overtones” by David Byrne and Brian Eno (from Everything That Happens Will Happen Today)
    7. “Man Made Lake” by Calexico (from Carried to the Dust)
    8. “Betray” by Son Lux (from At War with Walls and Mazes)
    9. “Mississippi Goddam” (by Nina Simone from To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story)

    Side B

    1. “Only for a Moment” by Black Taj (from Beyonder)
    2. “We Call Upon the Author” by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (from DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!)
    3. “Gold for Bread” by Blitzen Trapper (from Furr)
    4. “Threads” by Portishead (from Third)
    5. “Blue Ridge Mountains” by Fleet Foxes (from Fleet Foxes)
    6. “Inside a Boy” by My Brightest Diamond (from A Thousand Shark’s Teeth)
    7. “De bonnes raisons” by Louis Garrel and Ludivine Sagnier (from the soundtrack of Love Songs)
    8. “Dreamin’ of You” by Bob Dylan (from Tell Tale Signs)
    9. “Eat Yourself” by Goldfrapp (from Seventh Tree)
    10. “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke

    If the Side A/Side B thing seems pretentious, there’s at least a little method to my (nostalgic) madness. See, ideally, one who listens to this mix will take a short break after Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam.” Frankly, I don’t know how anyone could hear that song and not need to stand up, walk around, pour a stiff drink, smoke a cigarette, something. Recorded live just a few days after the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., it’s as painful an expression of rage and sorrow and disillusionment as you’re ever likely to hear. The lyrics alone are enough to get me, but, goddam, listen to Nina’s voice when she sings (at 6:17):

    Why don’t you see it?
    Why don’t you feel it?
    I don’t know . . .
    I don’t know.

    Nina’s mourning Medgar Evers, four little girls, and, as she calls him, “the King of Love.” I won’t pretend I can empathize with her, and I don’t mean to strike a ridiculous pose of suffering (is there anything more insufferable from a wealthy white guy?), but I offer this recording as a summation of my myriad feelings about the George W. Bush era and about this strange and terrible place that I love and where I have chosen to make my home. To paraphrase another blogger, “If you hear this song and feel moved to tears, then you are a kindred spirit.” Actually, I’d be content to reduce this entire mix down to just three songs: “Mississippi Goddam,” “We Call Upon the Author,” and, for obvious reasons, “A Change is Gonna Come,” which is not a new song, of course, but which has become new in a new context.

    2008 is dead. Long live 2008.

    Long Pauses was inspired, years ago now, by a Denise Levertov poem that compares the act of writing to the existential adventure of composing of one’s life. “Making Peace” opens with the image of “A voice” calling out from the darkness, which I’ve always taken as an allusion to God; like Levertov in her later years, I still call myself a Christian, even if a somewhat unorthodox one. By Levertov’s calculus, “the poet” — whether a literal artist or, figuratively, an individual composing her life — is imbued with a creative imagination and the will to exercise it. We are holy potential. We are capable of great things, she suggests — “peace,” “justice,” “mutual aid” — if only we choose to shake our lives free of “the imagination of disaster.” It’s all a beautiful extended metaphor, culminating in this description of something like grace:

            A cadence of peace might balance its weight
    on that different fulcrum; peace, a presence,
    an energy field more intense than war,
    might pulse then,
    stanza by stanza into the world,
    each act of living
    one of its words, each word
    a vibration of light–facets
    of the forming crystal.

    Lovely. And still inspiring after all these years. But after listening to “We Call Upon the Author” twenty or thirty times, I’m tempted to start another blog that shifts Long Pauses 20 or 30 degrees on its axis — a site that is more profane and bitter and funny. I’d call it “Prolix!!!! Prolix!!!!” and it would be a kind of fiery Jeremiad. It would be considerably less lovely. In “We Call Upon the Author” Nick Cave also calls out to the Author/Creator but he finds one with a bit of an “imagination of disaster” problem Himself. There’s no vibrating lights or facets of forming crystals in Cave’s America. It’s a much more recognizable place: “rampant discrimination, mass poverty, third world debt, infectious disease, global inequality, and deepening socio-economic divisions.” Come on, Author, can’t you cut some of this shit? “Prolix! Prolix! Nothing a pair of scissors can’t fix!”

    In other sounds . . .

    I haven’t heard enough new music this year to justify putting together a Top 10, but the other 16 songs here represent a good deal of what I’ve been listening to. According to iTunes, “Inside a Boy” wins the “play count” race for the year, which seems about right. “Strange Overtones” is my favorite pop single (if it’s accurate to call a Byrne/Eno song a pop single) since Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You Been Gone.” “Magick” is a pretty great pop song, too — one of many on Cardinology, the tightest collection Ryan Adams has ever released. And “Dreamin’ of You” proves, to no one’s surprise, that Bob Dylan’s rejects and cutouts are golden.

    Beck, Son Lux, Portishead, and Goldfrapp all put out really good records that find crazy beauty in electronic noises. Calexico, along with new-comers Fleet Foxes and Blitzen Trapper, mined different veins of Americana and found some jewels. The Duke Spirit and Black Taj made two of the best guitar-driven rock albums I’ve heard in quite a while. And as a film guy, I also had to include two cuts from movies I loved this year: “Moneda Sucia,” Flormaleva’s surf-y opener from Lisandro Alonso’s Liverpool, and “De bonnes raisons,” Louis Garrel and Ludivine Sagnier’s pop-y duet that opens Christoph Honore’s Love Songs. Ah, Ludivine. Be still my beating heart.

    The much-coveted “Long Pauses Song of the Year Award” goes to “Premonition: I. Earth” by The Esbjorn Svennson Trio (E.S.T.), which wasn’t included in the mix because, at more than 17 minutes, it would have eaten up a fourth of the disc. I added “Jazz,” instead, which is a somewhat more traditional piano trio performance. “Premonition: I. Earth” is like something from another planet. E.S.T. was formed 15 years ago, and Svennson and drummer Magnus Ostrom played together even longer. You can hear that history in the precision and invention of their improvisations. I only wish I’d had a chance to see Svennson perform live.

    Top 10 Live Shows of 2008

    The ordering of this list is determined largely, I’ve realized, by where I was sitting and by the energy in the room. Sonic Youth is the only band that still makes me bounce around in a pit with kids half my age; Wilco, who are probably America’s Great Rock Band right now, put on an amazing performance, but I was too far away from it and spent too much of the night feeling like a spectator rather than a participant.

    1. Sonic Youth
    2. Tom Waits
    3. Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, and Buddy Miller
    4. My Brightest Diamond and Clare & The Reasons
    5. The Duke Spirit and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
    6. Lou Reed
    7. David Byrne
    8. Elvis Costello
    9. Iron & Wine and Blitzen Trapper
    10. Wilco and John Doe

    Send me your mailing address if you want a copy of the mix. I’d love to get something in return, but it’s not necessary.

  • 2007 Mix CD

    18 songs from 18 albums I enjoyed this year.

    1. “Split Needles” by The Shins from Wincing The Night Away
    2. “Spring And By Summer Fall” by Blonde Redhead from 23
    3. “Don’t You Evah” by Spoon from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
    4. “Go Places” by The New Pornographers from Challengers
    5. “Everybody Knows (Christmas lights version)” by Ryan Adams from Easy Tiger
    6. “Your Lips Are Red” by St. Vincent from Marry Me
    7. “Ballad Of A Thin Man” by Stephen Malkmus & The Million Dollar Bashers from I’m Not There (Original Soundtrack)
    8. “So You Say” by The Bird & The Bee from Please Clap Your Hands
    9. “Mistaken for Strangers” by The National from The Boxer
    10. “This Will Fall Away” by The Autumn Defense from The Autumn Defense
    11. “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” by Radiohead from In Rainbows
    12. “All the Way Down” by Oakley Hall from I’ll Follow You
    13. “The Nest” by Jose Gonzalez from In Our Nature
    14. “Impossible Germany” by Wilco from Sky Blue Sky
    15. “Grow Grow Grom” by PJ Harvey from White Chalk
    16. “Wonderful Witches” by Thurston Moore from Trees Outside The Academy
    17. “To the Country” by Laura Veirs from Saltbreakers
    18. “A Meaningful Moment Through A Meaning(less) Process” by Stars of the Lidfrom and Their Refinement of the Decline

  • Mix CD: It’s Beautiful Now

    A month or two ago, a guy at work invited me to join his “prayer meeting.” For those of you who’ve never ventured south of the Bible belt or who didn’t grow up Baptist, prayer meeting is where a good number of church folk spend their Wednesday evenings. It’s a time of fellowship and support and meditation (though in my experience most who attend would bristle at that word, meditation, which reaks of godless Eastern religion and, frankly, hippies). But anyway . . .

    Our prayer meeting is held at Preservation Pub, which boasts a distinct advantage over most official houses of prayer in that it pours cheap pints of Guinness and Smithwicks. Also, it has a killer jukebox and a poster of Woodie Guthrie playing his “This Machine Kills Fascists” acoustic guitar. The Pub is on Market Square, just a few doors down from where Suttree goes to sell his fresh catch, and it feels good and old inside.

    So on most Wednesdays now I head straight from work to the Pub, where I meet up with an always-different assortment of interesting characters, many of whom have been meetin’ together like this for years. And then, a pint or four later, a small group of us grab our instruments and walk a few blocks to a downtown office, where we hack and sing our way through the Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Everly Brothers, The Band, and Pink Floyd songbooks. Last night I discovered, proudly, that I know every word to “Wish You Were Here” and can sing it, too.

    I made this mix for the other guys at prayer meeting, nearly all of whom are about a half-generation older than I am. We all grew up listening to the same music, though. They bought vinyl in the new releases bin; I saw the reunion tours. Roughly, the guidelines for the mix were:

    1. Music they’d like.
    2. Music released during the last five years.
    3. Music from albums that I could strongly recommend.

    I made a couple exceptions on guideline #2 but I think they’re justifiable. A friend listened to the mix and told me it sounded like an anthology of mellow songs of the ’70s, which I take as a mark of success. As usual, if you want a copy, send me your snail mail address (or leave a comment). I’d love something in return but it’s not expected.

    Side 1

    1. “Cold Roses” by Ryan Adams, from Cold Roses (2005)
    2. “So It Goes” by Anders Parker, from Tell It To the Dust (2004)
    3. “The Race is On Again” by Yo La Tengo, from I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass (2006)
    4. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Sufjan Stevens, from Seven Swans (2004)
    5. “Feel You Now” by The Autumn Defense, from The Autumn Defense (2007)
    6. “Tampa to Tulsa” by The Jayhawks, from Rainy Day Music (2003)
    7. “Theologians” by Wilco, from A Ghost is Born (2004)
    8. “Water Ban” by The Pernice Brothers, from Yours, Mine & Ours (2003)
    9. “Stacked Crooked” by The New Pornographers, from Twin Cinema (2005)

    Side 2

    10. “Living Proof” by Cat Power, from The Greatest (2006)
    11. “Glenn Tipton” by Sun Kil Moon, from Ghosts of the Great Highway (2003)
    12. “Roscoe” by Midlake, from The Trials of Van Occupanther (2006)
    13. “Effigy” by Uncle Tupelo, from 89/93: An Anthology (1993)
    14. “House Carpenter” by Oakley Hall, from Gypsum Strings (2006)
    15. “The Past and Pending” by The Shins, from Oh, Inverted World (2004)
    16. “Black Star” by Radiohead, from The Bends (1995)
    17. “Black Star” by Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, from Black Star EP (2004)
    18. “Broken Chair” by Luna, from Rendezvous (2005)

  • Mix: Needle Drops

    Mix: Needle Drops

    Ever since Mr. Blonde carved up that guy to the sound of Stealer Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle with You,” a certain brand of American “indie” cinema has been defined (and marketed) as much by its “needle drops” (the use of pre-existing music) as by its mode of production and distribution. Think “Sister Christian” in Boogie Nights, “Making Time” in Rushmore, and “The Seeker” in American Beauty. The practice hardly began with Quentin Tarantino and Zach Braff, of course. The American filmmakers of the ’60s and ’70s were/are especially good at it. “The End” in Apocalypse Now. “Layla” in Goodfellas. Assemble a small group of even casual film watchers, give them ten minutes, and I bet they could put together a list of a hundred more examples.

    This mix began with a single iTunes download. My all-time favorite needle drop accompanies my favorite sequence in what also happens to be my favorite film, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mirror. Midway through the film, Tarkovsky interjects a strange sequence in which a party of Spanish immigrants tell stories of the Civil War and bullfighting. (It’s all part of his on-going meditation on the meanings of nostalgia.) Tarkovsky augments their stories with found footage of Spaniards fleeing the war, building his montage to a crescendo with the sounds of frantic crowds and squealing trains and ending on a shot of a young, frightened girl who stares directly into the camera. And then silence. And a cut to more found footage — this time of early Soviet ballooners and a ticker-tape parade. I always cry at the precise moment Tarkovsky fades in the sound of Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater, No 12: Quando corpus.”

    So what we have here is a collection of some of my other favorite needle drops. Some are meaningful to me because of their placement in a film I adore (“The Rhythm of the Night” from Beau Travail, for example). Others are memorable only because they are unexpected surprises in an otherwise disappointing film (“You Know, You Know” is about the only thing I loved about Egoyan’s Where the Truth Lies.) Regardless, each of these songs/pieces is now inextricably bound in my memory to a particular scene and the emotions it evokes.

    1. “Golden Hair” by Slowdive
      Mysterious Skin (2004) dir. Gregg Araki
    2. “Safeway Cart” by Neil Young
      Beau Travail (1999) dir. Claire Denis
    3. “Die Walkure: Orchestervorspiel” by Richard Wagner
      Birth (2004) dir. Jonathan Glazer
    4. “I Put a Spell on You” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
      Stranger than Paradise (1984) dir. Jim Jarmusch
    5. “You Know, You Know” by Mahavishnu Orchestra
      Where the Truth Lies (2005) dir. Atom Egoyan
    6. “Trouble” by Cat Stevens
      Harold and Maude (1971) dir. Hal Ashby
    7. “Gayane Ballet Suite” by Aram Khachaturyan
      2001 (1968) dir. Stanley Kubrick
    8. “Snow” by The Innocence Mission
      In the Bathtub of the World (2001) dir. Caveh Zahedi
    9. Tunic (Song for Karen)” by Sonic Youth
      Irma Vep (1996) dir. Olivier Assayas
    10. “Heart of the Sunrise” by Yes
      Buffalo ’66 (1998) dir. Vincent Gallo
    11. “Once I Was” by Tim Buckley
      Coming Home (1978) dir. Hal Ashby
    12. “Coney Island Baby” by Lou Reed
      Vertical Ray of the Sun (2000) dir. Tran Anh Hung
    13. “Also Sprach Zarathustra” by Deodato
      Being There (1980) dir. Hal Ashby
    14. “Stabat Mater: Quando Corpus” by Giovanni Pergolesi
      Mirror (1975) dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
    15. “The Rhythm of the Night” by Corona
      Beau Travail (1999) dir. Claire Denis

  • A Session of Dance Music

    A few days ago, Joanna, displaying her typical grace and tact, informed me that my last mix CD sucked. “They all sound the same,” she told me. I’ve tried on many occasions since to explain to her that that particular collection of songs is actually quite diverse, that the “sameness” she hears is, in fact, coherence, and that coherence is what makes a good mix CD good.

    But rationality only goes so far in such discussions (it goes nowhere at all, truth be told), because what Joanna really meant was something closer in spirit to, “Your remarkably coherent mix CD sucks because I don’t like any of the songs on it — well, except for The Tindersticks track, which is pretty great but only in small doses, and, seriously, stop playing that Alice Cooper song or I’ll hurt you.”

    And, so, one of my goals with this latest mix, “A Session of Dance Music,” was to gather some songs that wouldn’t inspire Joanna to take sarcastic jabs at my piss-poor taste. We just got back from a long drive, during which we listened to the entire disc, and her opinion seems to hover somewhere in the “Well, at least it doesn’t suck” range. So mission accomplished, I guess.

    Really, though, this mix evolved a few nights ago, when a I turned off nearly all of the lights in my basement and spent two or three hours listening to songs that make me dance. By “dance,” I don’t mean that thing done by coordinated, un-self-conscious people when they hear Sam Cooke or Usher or Kool and the Gang. I mean that thing done by uncoordinated, deeply self-conscious people — people who feel more at ease, say, blogging or reading. Let’s face it: I spent two or three hours shuffling from side to side, playing air guitar, and, ahem, singing.

    The longest song on this mix (“Graveyard Shift”) clocks in at 4:45; nearly all of the rest come in under three-and-a-half minutes, which, to my mind, is just about the uppermost limit for a dance song. All but two or three have really nice melodies, and most are guitar-driven. They’re pop songs, though of a louder, noiser, and certainly less-sugar-ier variety, and I love them all.

    If you want a copy, drop me an email. As usual, I’d prefer to make it a swap but don’t mind sending out a few gimmes. (Oh, and I apologize to the two or three of you who still haven’t received the last mix. Send me a reminder, and I’ll drop both in the mail for you.)

    1. “The Cigarette Girl from the Future” by Beauty Pill
    2. “I Don’t Wanna Go Down to the Basement” by The Ramones
    3. “Mr. Soul” by Buffalo Springfield
    4. “Free” by Cat Power
    5. “What Difference Does It Make?” by The Smiths
    6. “Stroll On” by The Yardbirds
    7. “Cinema Style” by Black Taj
    8. “Start!” by The Jam
    9. “Kool Thing” by Sonic Youth
    10. “Hey Gyp” by The Animals
    11. “It’s Alright for You” by The Police
    12. “Wave of Mutilation (U.K. Surf)” by The Pixies
    13. “Bathsheba Smiles” by Richard Thompson
    14. “Graveyard Shift” by Uncle Tupelo
    15. “One Time Too Many” by PJ Harvey
    16. “Little Miss Strange” by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
    17. “Moral Kiosk” by R.E.M.
    18. “The Laws Have Changed” by The New Pornographers
    19. “There She Goes Again” by The Velvet Underground
    20. “Hateful” by The Clash
    21. “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division
    22. “The Good Ones” by The Kills
    23. “Sometimes I Remember” by The Pernice Brothers

  • Silence (and a New Mix)

    Silence (and a New Mix)

    The following is my first contribution to a mix CD swap that was organized by some friends. If you want a copy, send me your mailing address. I’d love to get a mix in return, but it’s not required.

    I had two main goals with this mix. First, I decided to divide it evenly between older and newer music. There’s always a jump of at least 15 years from tune to tune. But I also wanted the mix to be coherent, so I was looking for a tone that could maybe be described as “Songs that might actually sound better if they were played on an old, hissing record player.”

    Actually, I guess I also had a third goal: Like a Wes Anderson or Cameron Crowe soundtrack, I wanted to see if a good mix could help rediscover some kitsch-free relevance in “classic rock.” At one point, I gave myself the challenge of successfully integrating a Permanent Waves-era Rush song. No luck. The one song that didn’t make the final cut but that I really wanted to include is Hall and Oates’ “Sarah Smiles,” which, imo, is one of the most beautiful pop songs of the last thirty years.

    1. “Silence” by The Autumn Defense
    2. “Back of a Car” by Big Star
    3. “So It Goes” by Anders Parker
    4. “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” (S&G cover) by Aretha Franklin
    5. “The Eyes of Sarah Jane” by The Jayhawks
    6. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” by David Bowie
    7. “I Will Internalize” by Martha Wainwright
    8. “Amelia” by Joni Mitchell
    9. “Nowhere Near” by Yo La Tengo
    10. “Ibiza Bar” by Pink Floyd
    11. “Bathtime” by Tindersticks
    12. “Generation Landslide” by Alice Cooper
    13. “Southern Belle” by Elliott Smith
    14. “Into White” by Cat Stevens
    15. “Great Waves” by Dirty Three with Cat Power
    16. “Ten Years Gone” by Led Zeppelin
    17. “Jesus Christ Was an Only Child” by Sun Kil Moon
    18. “Girl from the North Country” by Bob Dylan
    19. “The Shadowlands” by Ryan Adams
  • Everything is Copasetic, Now

    Everything is Copasetic, Now

    At Girish’s request, I’ve pasted together a mix of music that features the Fender Rhodes. If you want a copy, send me your snail mail address. (For the record, I’m going by ear here, so it’s possible that what I’m hearing on a few of these tracks is actually a Wurlitzer. Liner notes are surprisingly useless in this regard.)

    • “She’s Gone” by Hall and Oates
    • “Celebration Suite, Pt. 2” by Return to Forever
    • “Niki Hoeky” by Aretha Franklin
    • “Two Trains” by Little Feat
    • “No Quarter” by Led Zeppelin
    • “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy” by Elton John
    • “Nanook Rubs It” by Frank Zappa
    • “Living for the City” by Stevie Wonder
    • “Humdrum” by Peter Gabriel
    • “Fainting in Coils” by Bruford
    • “Babylon Sisters” by Steely Dan
    • “Midnight Rider” by Gregg Allman
    • “Breakdown” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
    • “Do You Feel Like We Do” by Peter Frampton
    • “Tombigbee” by Tori Amos
    • “Nowhere Again” by The Secret Machines

    It’s a fairly eclectic mix, I think. I did my best to pull from several genres:

    Pop: “She’s Gone” and “Breakdown” have been played to death over the years, but they’re still perfect pop songs. (“Sarah Smiles” is even better, but, alas, no Rhodes.) “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy,” as I’ve said before, is a not-too-guilty favorite.

    Classic Rock: It’s hard to be a piano player when you really want to be a rock star. John Paul Jones’s electric piano on “No Quarter” is almost as cool as Jimmy Page’s Gibson. I put “Do You Feel Like We Do” at the end of the CD so you can skip it more easily, but I really do love Bob Mayo’s solo (around the 4 minute mark).

    Southern Rock: This version of “Midnight Rider” is from one of Gregg Allman’s solo albums, with Chuck Leavell’s keyboard covering the Dickie Betts parts. “Two Trains” is among Lowell George’s best songs. And Billy Payne’s playing is typically tasteful.

    Progressive/Fusion: I limited myself to two tracks in this genre, knowing that few people share my love of 70s fusion and progressive rock. Bill Bruford (of Yes and King Crimson fame) had a great band in the late-70s that featured Jeff Berlin, Allan Holdsworth, and Dave Stewart. Stewart’s playing on “Fainting in Coils” is inspiring. Return to Forever was a fusion supergroup, with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Al DiMeola, and Lenny White joining up for the album No Mystery. That’s where I grabbed “Celebration Suite, Pt. 2.”

    Soul: I was tempted to include Aretha’s cover of “Eleanor Rigby” from Live at the Fillmore West, but went with “Niki Hoeky” instead, if for no other reason than to hear her sing the line that gives this post its title. The Rhodes makes Aretha’s rhythm section. Stevie Wonder tended to use the Rhodes for his sweeter, more melodic pop songs; his funkier tunes, like “Higher Ground” and “Superstition,” were all about the Clavinet. “Living for the City” meets those two styles somewhere in the middle.

    Hard to Classify: No one shows off the melodic possibilities of the Rhodes like Donald Fagen. “Babylon Sisters” is one of about twenty Steely Dan songs that could have made the mix. “Humdrum,” from Peter Gabriel’s first solo album, is just a beautiful, beautiful song. And Zappa . . . well, “Nanook Rubs It” is great fun, and you get George Duke on keyboards, to boot.

    Epilogue: I had planned to choose only songs that were recorded from, say, 1968 to 1978 but decided to throw in two songs by current acts that are using vintage keyboards. Tori Amos brought along a couple on her last tour (see the Welcome to Sunny Florida concert DVD) and used what appears to be an 88-key Rhodes on “Tombigbee.” I don’t own The Secret Machines album, but I stopped in my tracks every time I caught the video for “Nowhere Again” on MTV. Brandon Curtis’s Rhodes is filtered, fuzzed, and distorted beyond recognition, and god bless him for it.

  • Little Feat Mix

    Little Feat Mix

    Let me make this point perfectly clear: Little Feat is the great unsung American rock and roll band. The July mix is a collection of songs from their golden period — roughly 1972 – 1978 — the years when founder Lowell George was at his peak. I’ve deliberately omitted a few staples, including their most famous numbers “Dixie Chicken,” “Oh Atlanta,” and “Willin’,” so that I could dig a bit deeper into the catalog.

    “Easy to Slip” — The opening cut of Sailin’ Shoes (1972), the Feat’s second album and their last as a four-piece. Singer/songwriter/slide-guitar-genius George and bassist Roy Estrada formed the band after leaving the Mothers of Invention. They were joined by pianist Billy Payne and drummer Richie Hayward, both of whom continue to tour and record with the ’90s incarnation of the Feat. “Easy to Slip” is just a perfect opener.

    “Two Trains” — From Dixie Chicken (1973), which introduced the classic Feat lineup. Estrada left to rejoin the Mothers and was replaced by Kenny Gradney, who was joined in the rhythm section by percussionist Sam Clayton. Paul Barerre, another top-notch singer and songwriter, also added a second guitar to the sound. A nice display of George’s trademark slide playing, “Two Trains” was later reworked for his first solo album, Thanks I’ll Eat It Here (1979).

    “The Fan” — Feats Don’t Fail Me Now (1974) is far and away my favorite of their studio albums. The main thing to know about Little Feat is that Hayward, Gradney, and Clayton consistently created the fattest pocket ever enjoyed by a rock and roll band. Gradney is that selfless bass player that every great band needs — seldom flashy but always teeth-rattling.

    “All That You Dream” — By the time they made The Last Record Album (1975), Barerre and Payne were beginning to contribute more of the songwriting. If I could step into a wayback machine to see Lowell George sing just one Little Feat song, I might choose Barerre’s “All That You Dream” — just so I could tip my head back and sing the opening line at the top of my lungs, “I’ve been down, but not like this before.” More songs should open with the chorus.

    “Got No Shadow” — One of the first of Payne’s Feat tunes (1972), it also might be his best. “Got No Shadow” is probably my favorite cut from Sailin’ Shoes.

    “Juliette” — Dixie Chicken is most known for the Bourbon Street boogie-woogie of the title track, but most of the album sounds more like “Juliette,” which is just a beautiful song. I love the production of this album. It’s warmer and a bit cloudier than anything you’ll get today. Even on CD, you can practically hear the record needle pop.

    “Day or Night” — George is credited for only two of the nine songs on Time Loves a Hero (1977). By the end of the ’70s, most of his time was devoted to other “recreational” pursuits (which would lead to his death a few years later). The Feat’s sound changed accordingly. Hero features Michael McDonald and Skunk Baxter on a few tracks — evidence that, like the Doobies, Little Feat became slightly Steely Dan-ified during this period. It works on “Day or Night.”

    “Time Loves a Hero” — Little Feat does Jimmy Buffett? Not my favorite track, but it’s such a great singalong chorus, and I like the bassline.

    “Cold, Cold Cold” — A great antidote to the uber-production of “Hero,” “Cold” is Lowell George in concentrated form. This song shows up again at the end of Feats Don’t Fail Me Now. On the Live at Rockpalast DVD, you can listen to a running commentary with Payne, Barerre, and George’s widow. Her response to “Cold, Cold Cold” is classic. It couldn’t have been easy to hear her husband sing, “That woman was freezing, freezing cold.”

    “On Your Way Down” — I could listen to this song every day for the rest of my life. Written by Allen Toussaint, “On Your Way Down” was just made for George’s voice, which never sounded better.

    “Roll Um Easy” — Lowell George and an acoustic guitar. What I wouldn’t give for a chance to sit alone in a room with that voice.

    “Skin It Back” — I had planned to only include songs with George on lead vocal, but Barerre sounds so good here. I’ve been known to break into this song at odd moments. And once I get started . . . “Well, I’m waiting for something to take place, something to take me away from this place, round city to city, town to town, runnin’ around in the shoes of a clown, and that desperate . . .”

    “Day at the Dog Races” — I just had to include this one. The story goes that “Dog Races” was written during those long hours when the rest of the band was waiting for George to show up for rehearsals. What began as an impromptu jam grew into one of Little Feat’s few instrumentals. The 12-minute definitive version is now available on the remastered 2-disc Waiting for Columbus, but this studio version from Time Loves a Hero proves, I think, that they were capable of music as harmonically and rhythmically interesting as anything that Return to Forever and Weather Report were doing in the late-70s. Plus, how good is Billy Payne? He’s Rick Wakeman with a soul.

    “Mercenary Territory” — If you don’t own a Little Feat album, just go buy the newest release of Waiting for Columbus (1978), which is without a doubt the greatest live rock album ever, Live at Leeds be damned. “Mercenary Territory” is relatively bland for the first two minutes, but then it changes gear, switching into a groovy walking bassline and Lowell George slide solo. When Lenny Pickett from Tower of Power unleashes his sax solo, all hell breaks lose. As he’s climbing into ridiculously high notes, notice how George is trailing him with his slide. If it don’t make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, then you ain’t breathin’.

    “Spanish Moon” — Little Feat, at their best, make you feel like you’re walking through the French Quarter, and this live version of “Spanish Moon” does that better than any other single track I can think of.

    “Fool Yourself” — Consider it a coda.

  • A Mid-’80s Mix

    A Mid-’80s Mix

    Between roughly April 1987 (a month before my 15th birthday) and June 1988 (a month after my 16th), I did all of the following:

    • Traveled to Europe, where I had my first real crush.
    • Received an electric razor as an unexpected present from the folks.
    • Made my one failed attempt at traditional high school popularity (J.V. football).
    • Attended my first arena rock concert (Rush’s A Show of Hands Tour)
    • Got my first real job (“sandwich artist” at Subway)
    • Began blowing all of my money on audio equipment (including my first CD player).
    • Attended my first stadium rock concert (Pink Floyd’s Delicate Sound of Thunder Tour).
    • Got my driver’s license.

    The March mix is a collection of songs that now leave me paralyzed with nostalgia. As best as I can remember, these are the some of the more important songs that accompanied my life that year, when everything, it seemed, was so painfully important. This one could easily have grown to a 2- or 3-disc set. Conspicuously absent are: Peter Gabriel, Sting, King Crimson, INXS, The Police, Robert Plant, The Clash, Yes, Roger Waters, Indigo Girls, Howard Jones, Led Zeppelin, and Boston (yes, Boston).

    • “Litany (Life Goes On)” by Guadalcanal Diary
    • “Pretty in Pink” by The Psychedelic Furs
    • “Subdivisions (Live)” by Rush
    • “Medicine Show” by Big Audio Dynamite
    • “Never Let Me Down Again” by Depeche Mode
    • “Dear God” by XTC
    • “Welcome to the Occupation” by R.E.M.
    • “Abacab” by Genesis
    • “It’s Over” by Level 42
    • “One Slip” by Pink Floyd
    • “Just Another Day” by Oingo Boingo
    • “Cool for Cats” by Squeeze
    • “If I Should Fall from Grace with God” by The Pogues
    • “Another Tricky Day” by The Who
    • “Give Blood” by Pete Townshend
    • “The Working Hour” by Tears for Fears
    • “Bullet the Blue Sky” by U2
  • February Mix

    February Mix

    • “How It Should Be (Sha Sha)” Ben Kweller
    • “Sister Cry” The Jayhawks
    • “Mata Hari Dress” Marlee MacLeod
    • “Two Knights and Maidens” Crash Test Dummies
    • “Pyramid Song” Radiohead
    • “Rest of Yesterday” Alana Davis
    • “The Way We Get By” Spoon
    • “Indian Summer Breakdown” Varnaline
    • “There She Goes Again” The Velvet Underground
    • “Moving” Supergrass
    • “It’s Alright, Baby” Komeda
    • “Bitterblue” Cat Stevens
    • “A Common Disaster” Cowboy Junkies
    • “Aunt Avis” Widespread Panic and Vic Chesnutt
    • “Crumbs” Jonatha Brooke
    • “Uninhabited Man” Richard Thompson
    • “California” by Phantom Planet
    • “The Past and Pending” The Shins
    • “Why I Lied” Mychael Danna (The Sweet Hereafter)
  • January Mix

    January Mix

    With the purchse of our new computer, we have entered the 21st century with all its new-fangled technology. Which is why it was only yesterday — after deciding to take the day off or risk my head exploding from the tedium that is my day job — that I was able to finally go digging through my music collection in search of a mix CD. Soon after I finished (four hours after I began), I flipped on the tube and caught a commercial for the upcoming “broadcast television premiere” of High Fidelity. Where’s Alanis Morissette when you need her?

    So in the interest of . . . well, I can’t actually think of a reason that this would be of interest to anyone, but here’s the playlist:

    • “Getting Married” Sam Phillips
    • “This Mess We’re In” P.J. Harvey
    • “Try Not To Breathe” R.E.M.
    • “I’ve Seen It All” Bjork
    • “God Rest His Soul” The 31st of February *
    • “Widow’s Walk” Suzanne Vega
    • “I Need You Like a Drug” They Eat Their Own
    • “Faces in Disguise” Sunny Day Real Estate
    • “Northern Sky” Nick Drake
    • “North Dakota” Lyle Lovett
    • “Mount Washington” Beth Orton
    • “Past the Mission” Tori Amos
    • “Round the Bend” Beck
    • “Into the Mystic” Van Morrison
    • “5&1/2 Minute Hallway” Poe
    • “No Way Out” Peter Gabriel
    • “love is more thicker than forget” The Story

    “North Dakota,” which has always been one of my favorite songs, was a last-second replacement for “One More Colour” by Sarah Polley and Mychael Danna (from The Sweet Hereafter soundtrack), and I’m starting to regret the move. I needed something a little more up-tempo to get from Nick Drake to Beth Orton. All in all, a great little collection, though. I’ve always had a thing for driving around by myself on those first warm days of spring, preferably around dusk and with the windows down. This CD will make a great companion for those trips.

    Feel free to pass along your favorite mixes. I’m always looking for good music.

    * The 31st of February was an early incarnation of the Allman Brothers. “God Rest His Soul” can be found on the first disc of their Dreams boxset.