A mix borne of a three hour phone conversation...
1) Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - It'll All Work Out
2) Bonnie Raitt - One Belief Away
3) The Weepies - Gotta Have You on World Cafe
4) Antony & the Johnsons - Frankenstein
5) Warren Zevon - Back in the High Life Again
6) Lyle Lovett - If I Needed You
7) Townes Van Zandt - Flyin' Shoes
8) Josh Ritter - In the Dark on World Cafe
9) The Little Willies - No Place to Fall
10) Jon Brion - Strings That Tie to You
11) Little Willie John - Need Your Love So Bad
12) Doris Troy - Just One Look
13) Chaka Khan - Love Me Still
14) Corinne Bailey Rae - Like a Star on KCRW
15) Jose Gonzales - Heartbeats video
16) Eva Cassidy - Time After Time
17) Ron Sexsmith - Gold in Them Hills
18) Van Morrison - Sweet Thing
19) Bob Dylan - Fourth Time Around
20) Billy Joel - Vienna
21) Death Cab for Cutie - I Will Follow You into the Dark live at Bonnaroo 2006
22) Nina Simone - I Shall Be Released

Two Discs for a ... well, a Two Day Weekend

Disc One
1) Adem - One in a Million
2) The Redwalls - Home
3) Bob Dylan - Hard Time in New York Town
4) Rod Stewart - Mama You Been on My Mind
5) Jackson Browne - Jamaica Say You Will
6) The Mountain Goats - Love Love Love
7) Peter & Gordon - A World Without Love
8) Andy Kim - Baby, I Love You
9) Lovin' Spoonful - Darling Be Home Soon
10) Manfred Mann - The Mighty Quinn
11) Blues Image - Ride Captain Ride Hysterical cover performed by the United States Navy Band
12) Rod Stewart & The Small Faces - Stay with Me
13) Loudon Wainwright III - Ingenue
14) Richard Thompson - Bee's Wing
15) Bonnie Raitt - I Ain't Blue
16) Beth Waters - Blue and White
17) Clem Snide - Moment in the Sun
18) Porcupine Tree - Lazarus
19) Pilate - Melt into the Walls
20) The Shore - Take What's Mine
21) Slow Runner - Break Your Mama's Back
22) Josh Ritter - In the Dark Live from the World Cafe

Disc Two
1) Bruce Hornsby - Set in Motion
2) Hot Hot Heat - Middle of Nowhere
3) Daniel Lanois - O Marie
4) Milosh - Couldn't Sleep
5) Mofro - Blackwater
6) Joni Mitchell - You Turn Me On I'm a Radio
7) The Foxymorons - Harvard Hands
8) Michael Zapruder - Little Ship Bluebell
9) The Long Winters - Pushover
10) Ben Kweller - Penny on the Track
11) Randy Coleman - Hey God
12) Jason Anderson - O, Jac!
13) Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band - I Got Love
14) Buddy Miles - Them Changes
15) Jackie Greene - So Hard to Find My Way
16) Tom Rush - Pallet on the Floor
17) Piers Faccini - Picture of You
18) Phil Ochs - When I'm Gone
19) Imogen Heap - Hallelujah Collect Them All!
20) Townes Van Zandt - You Are Not Needed Now

Just because every time I hear it, I very nearly cry...

Josh Ritter - Here at the Right Time
Josh Ritter - Here at the Right Time (Live on NPR)

Attention Nine to Fivers!

Looking to waste time at that crummy desk job you took purely for their awesome dental coverage? Perhaps your company has blocked Facebook, Friendster, MySpace, Hi5, and gosh, even Google!?

Well, look no further than Pandora. I love her box, her music box that is. This little tool allowed me to set up an online radio station focused on my favorite artists and songs. It's based on the Music Genome Project, a veritable 400 point inspection for each song to ensure the similarities really are there (I've been told this is because 399 points simply aren't enough to decipher between Bob and Jakob Dylan). And I'll say this. It certainly made my day go more quickly than any day before, and I have a feeling it will soon be the next site blocked at work. Ah well, I'll enjoy crazy Pandora while her box continues to spew mellifluous sonority.

Thank you to Pieter and Blake for bringing Pandora to my attention and saving my first week back at work.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMusic posted this little article about Sufjan Stevens.

Ever since he first entered my life in 2003, I wondered why I was the only one who wasn't flipping out about Mr. Stevens' music. I wondered what my problem was. Why were my friends and roommates tripping over themselves to see one of the seemingly endless string of his shows last summer? Why did everyone and their sister think the Fisher-Price orchestrations on "...Illinoise" were ubiquitously "amazing." I'm amazed so many people were able to use the exactly same word so many times completely oblivious to one another.

I'm just happy that I finally found an article to link to that could better express my confusion with the Sufjantastical craziness. Yes, a while back, I drew links to Sufjan's music as it was available through my friend Mike's page. I'll not lie: I was going for the fast, cheap blast of hits to this ol' blog. I won't say anything more. Please read.

Ok, one more thing, a friend of mine came to New York spouting off about the latest music craze to hit Chicago since Kanye got caught in someone's closet or since R Kelly made five beats a day for three summers. Yes, it was Sufjan. And when asked to describe Mr. Stevens' music, he could think of only one word: Sufjanesque. He went so far as to correct himself... "very Sufjanesque."

If I wasn't confused prior to, said friend certainly cemented this little blogger's confusion.

This song's been stuck in my head all day. Love this stuff.

New Music for a Nice Weekend

I spent Friday on the set of a new movie starring Vanessa Williams and Michael Boatman. I spent much of today walking around Central Park, running around Central Park, and cooling off around Central Park. It's a gorgeous day for some new music, and here's what I could come up with:

1) Belong – All Equal Now mp3
A sonic sweep to cleanse the palate.

2) Feist – Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming mp3
Christmas in July never sounded better.

3) Rachael Cantu – Hear My Laughter mp3
Hers is an angsty, yet very familiar sounding voice. It’s an oddly spellbinding song.

4) Page France – Chariot mp3
The drive of this song is the snare of Nau’s voice. “We will become a happy ending.”

5) Toots & The Maytals – Pressure Drop mp3
This is not the first time I’ve encountered this song, but it has certainly been the best. This is perfect for a summer toke, um talk in the park. The intensity of Toots’ voice is what I love most about his uncomplicated reggae.

6) Bishop Allen – The Same Fire mp3
I feel like a drive on the PCH. “I will burn through it all unharmed / for you / you’re so beautiful / Goddamn, you’re so beautiful.”

7) Pete Yorn – The Man (featuring Natalie Maines) mp3
What works here is the proof that when reigned into the role of backing vocal, this controversial chick can sound really good. I love this song’s lyrics.

8) Margie Joseph – It’s Growing mp3
This is Saturday’s contribution to the mix. It just feels like a soft cotton Saturday, complete with a put-your-feet-up rhythm section and a King-esque wailing guitar.

9) Arthur Conley – Rome (Wasn’t Built in a Day) mp3
Horns alone could’ve expressed this song’s “hold on, woman! Give me time!” message. Conley’s more famous for his homage song “Sweet Soul Music,” but it’s clear he didn’t need to pay tribute to the greats for he was great himself.

10) Alexi Murdoch – Breathe mp3
I attended a show Nic Harcourt presented at the CMJ Festival in the fall of ’04 when Mr. Murdoch was riding out the last ounces of his “Orange Sky” fame, and I remember writing down the lyrics to this song, “and the answer that you’re seeking… drives you further to confusion as you lose your sense of ground.” I then drew an arrow to “Billy Joel – Vienna,” which will, for my life, remain a song with an almost mantra quality. “Slow down, you crazy child” might as well be followed with, “breathe.”

11) The Long Winters – Stupid mp3
“New York will hum / the electric car has come.”

12) Jurassic 5 – Baby Please mp3
Is it possible that I’m outgrowing my love of Cut Chemist and the J5 boys? This is the closest I've come to a song I would say I like from their latest, and the sad fact is I think I simply enjoy the Al Green sample.

13) Justin Timberlake – Sexy Back mp3
It’s time.

14) Certainly, Sir – Red mp3
“Can’t get you out of my head…” Certainly, Sir!

15) Lily Allen – Littlest Things mp3
A late addition, I was inspired to include this track from wee English lass Lily Allen last night. Up late with a friend, hashing out what is quickly appearing to be the end of a big and important relationship with her boyfriend and the beginning of another big and important relationship with herself, we concluded the reminiscing is often the hardest part.

16) Nelly Furtado – All Good Things (featuring Chris Martin) mp3
Ever since Coldplay hit the Zeitgeist, it’s impossible for Chris Martin to do anything and let it to go unnoticed. Even songs his record label hope to sweep under their plush carpets somehow leak. It’s weird they wouldn’t allow this relatively harmless ditty to see the light.

17) Leo Kottke – Girl from the North Country mp3
I’ve all but become obsessed with Mr. Kottke’s music since seeing Days of Heaven.

18) David Ford – State of the Union mp3
A SXSW discovery for Columbia Records, this bloke from Sussex has shot his pen full of poison.

19) Wilco – No Poetry mp3
I had never heard this.

20) Johnny Cash – If You Could Read My Mind Love mp3
My favorite Gordon Lightfoot song as sung by my favorite man, may he rest in peace.

Happy 4th! Enjoy the holiday!

G Love & Jack Johnson - Holiday / Who Do You Love?

I've spent much of this weekend digging around on the internet for things I love. I found this clip, and it's not in the best shape, but it's one I think a lot of people would skip over if they saw all the other Stevie Wonder clips out there. I'd just had a coversation with my Uncle Larry about Bobby Darin this weekend, and I found this clip from a January 22, 1969 taping of The Kraft Music Hall Presents: The Sounds of the Sixties. This Tim Hardin song has been with me a long time. It's one of my favorites.

If you have time, you should also check out Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street, and if you have a lot of time, you should watch this twenty minute Ike and Tina Turner special. She really shows her originality, her undying need to perform. It's really powerful.

1) The Stooges - Gimme Danger mp3
2) Ted Leo - First to Finish & Last to Start (demo) mp3
3) The Long Winters - Ultimatum mp3
4) Rilo Kiley - With Arms Outstretched mp3
5) Wilco - I Shall Be Released mp3
6) Gram Parsons - In My Hour of Darkness mp3
7) Tim Buckley - Song to the Siren mp3
8) Jeff Buckley - Morning Theft mp3
9) Elizabeth Cotten - Washington Blues mp3
10) Ani DiFranco - You Had Time mp3
11) Sea Wolf - Black Dirt mp3
12) Matt Bauer & Jolie Holland - Carve It Out mp3
13) Joan Osborne - Spooky (live at KBCO) mp3
14) Regina Spektor - Field Below mp3
15) Roseanne & Johnny Cash - September When It Comes mp3
16) Johnny Cash - I See a Darkness mp3
17) Hockey Night - Renegades mp3
18) Leonard Cohen - Suzanne mp3
19) Keren Ann - Chelsea Hotel mp3
20) Sly & The Family Stone - Loose Booty mp3

Air Traffic

Check out this band recently signed to EMI. I'm hoping for good things from these 20-year-olds from Bournemouth, England.

Even Better at the End of June

My intention was to make a Country Time Lemonade, soft and slow, sweet and summery, sundown Sunday compilation for my week at home. Well, Sunday was gorgeous, and here's what we listened to:

1) Nina Simone - I Shall Be Released
2) Leo Kottke & Doc Watson - The Last Steam Engine Train (from a live recording on A Prairie Home Companion)
3) Loose Fur - The Ruling Class
4) Johnny Cash - The City of New Orleans
5) Eva Cassidy - Time After Time
6) Matt Nathanson - Romeo & Juliet
7) Johnny Cash & Fiona Apple - Father & Son
8) The Beatles - When I'm Sixty Four
9) Old 97's - In the Satellite Rides a Star
10) Redbird - You Are the Everything
11) Hem - South Central Rain
12) Richard Julian - Love of Mine
13) Josh Ritter - The Bad Actress
14) Townes Van Zandt - Flyin' Shoes
15) KT Tunstall - Black Horse & The Cherry Tree (Live @ VH1.com)
16) Jackie Wilson - Please Tell Me Why
17) Otis Redding - I've Been Loving You Too Long
18) Lightinin' Hopkins - Found My Baby Crying
19) Muddy Waters - Walking Blues
20) Buddy Guy - Try to Quit You Baby
21) Ray LaMontagne - Trouble
22) Josh Ritter - Good Man

Thom Yorke - Black Swan

Awesome April Music

The compiling of songs for this mix began way back in April and has extended into June. You can see that I began by trying to stick only to new releases, relatively speaking, but as usual, I ended up fleshing it out by throwing in a bunch of discoveries and rediscoveries. I hope you like it.

1) Track a Tiger - Sound as Ever song
2) Ian Love - The Only Night song
3) The Eighteenth Day of May - Sir Casey Jones official site
4) Jolie Holland - Springtime Can Kill You song
5) Gnarls Barkley - Crazy song
6) Katharine Whalen - You Who official site
7) The Mountain Goats – Fall of the Star High School Running Back
8) Drive By Truckers – Sounds Better in the Song
9) Fleetwood Mac - Beautiful Child lyrics
10) Lyle Lovett – Her First Mistake
11) Julie Miller – All My Tears bio
12) Blur – Tender song
13) Lee Dorsey – Get Out of My Life, Woman info
14) John Prine – Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You into Heaven Anymore
15) The Band – The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
16) Percy Sledge – Out of Left Field
17) Smokey Robinson & the Miracles – I Second That Emotion
18) Bonnie “Prince” Billy – I See a Darkness song
19) Beck – Guess I’m Doing Fine live cut from VH1
20) Sufjan Stevens - Adlai Stevenson
21) Jon Brion - Creep (Live at Amoeba Records) video song

Music for a Rough Day

This mix has been a month or so in the making, but it's finally time, I think, to post it. Since finishing with school, losing the family I'd help to cultivate over the past couple years, I've been down. This is just some of the music I've listened to since finishing. And I might as well explain that I wanted to hear these songs as sung by their writers, even though someone else may have had more success singing the song.

1) Warren Zevon - Reconsider Me
2) Harry Nilsson - Gotta Get Up
3) Leon Russell - A Song for You
4) Billy Joel - Vienna
5) Fred Neil - Everybody's Talkin'
6) Elton John - Talking Old Soldiers
7) Townes Van Zandt - No Place to Fall
8) John Prine - Illegal Smile
9) Leonard Cohen - The Stranger Song
10) Jimmy Cliff - Many Rivers to Cross
11) Randy Newman - Real Emotional Girll
12) Paul Simon - American Tune
13) Wilco - Reservations
14) Josh Ritter - Here at the Right Time
15) Neil Young - Down by the River
16) Loudon Wainwright III - New Paint
17) Kris Kristofferson - Help Me Make It Through the Night
18) Jackson Browne & Warren Zevon - Hasten Down the Wind

So not all sad and lonely, but you can see where I was going.

Earlier this year, I posted a bit on the music used in the teaser trailer for Marie-Antoinette which made its debut to huge boos at Cannes. Thank you Blake for this review of the movie and the boos.

This mix is dedicated in part to my brother Ben, who this weekend is graduating from college.

1) Merry Clayton - Yes
2) Howard Jones - Everlasting Love
3) Howard Jones - No One is to Blame
4) Howard Jones - Things Can Only Get Better
5) Matthew Wilder - Break My Stride
6) Boy Meets Girl - Waiting for a Star to Fall
7) Paul Young - I Want to Know What Love Is
8) Eric Carmen - Hungry Eyes
9) Eric Carmen - Make Me Lose Control
10) The Raspberries - Go All the Way
11) Badfinger - No Matter What
12) Badfinger - Baby Blue
13) Badfinger - Day After Day
14) Corey Hart - Never Surrender
15) Corey Hart - I Wear My Sunglasses at Night
16) Animotion - Room to Move
17) Animotion - Obsession
18) Go West - King of Wishful Thinking
19) Go West - Faithful
This happens to me all the time. I find my musical fixes are based on seasonal needs. That is, with weather changes, as my mind shifts gears, my musical taste morphs. This time last year, I was really getting into one of the songs in this mix, Howard Jones' "No One is to Blame." Here it is, spring again, and my HoJo fix grows. The best way to describe this week's collection of songs is as more of a historical list than a beginning to end cohesive playlist.

After Dirty Dancing alone in my shoebox apartment for much of last week, I watched Dirty Dancing Live in Concert, a live performance of the music from the film which toured in 1988, and I found myself on the edge of my couch. The footage was so dated, so silly, and it showed what a phenomenon D Squared had become in this country.

I vividly remember the car trips to Wichita, Kansas that year with my brother, the perpetual backseat DJ, asking dad to "Weewind! 'Hungwy Eyes!'"

You see, my chubby, chubby, little brother was under the impression that Eric Carmen's massively successful single "Hungry Eyes," was about a man obessesed with sweets, as he was; a chocoholic from a young age, my brother'd stuff any sugary concoction into his ruddy cheeks with sweeping fistfuls, his babyfat arms like crescents blithely swinging through bags of Hershey's Kisses or Nestle Tollhouse Morsels.

I've tangented from the oh so wonderful Dirty Dancing Live in Concert. In it, Mr. Carmen, ever the diva, fits the role well. It's clear he's looking past the fact he is a burnt out former frontman for a respected pack of rockers, The Raspberries. It's clear he's upset he'll be known as much for crafting a song from a movie as he would one that could stand on its own, like his other massive solo hit, "All By Myself." What isn't clear is why he looks like a bloated, valium-addicted, Long Island housewife. For some reason, he opted for blown out bottle blond lion's mane, smoky eye shadow, burgundy blush, and the tiger print gold lame' evening jacket. His blanched tapered jeans, black leotard, skinny suspenders, and what look like white lace-up Keds, all fitting about two sizes too small, make him look more like Streisand than Springsteen.

His look so startled me that I found myself researching the man as only I can. I learned about his breaking into music with his Mentor, Ohio buddies, helming the steering wheel on the crash-friendly Raspberries. His move to California to become one of the early eighties best songwriters (mostly known for his soundtrack help; see Footloose and Dirty Dancing).

And then I expanded, looking for sounds that immitated Carmen, contemporaries, finding the following music suited a certain nostalgia I had for heavily produced songs of the latter day new wave saints. Badfinger made its way in becoming one of the Raspberries major chart competitors. Badfinger was the only successful band to come out of the Apple Records debaucle them Beatles put together.

As for Boy Meets Girl, let's just say, they rule. Without them, there'd be no Whitney Houston. That's right. No Whitney. And without "Waiting for a Star to Fall" there'd be no title sequence to Three Men and a Little Lady, at least not one I'd remember.

Animotion was fronted in its final days by Cynthia Rhodes, the blonde dancer/actress in Double D who played Penny Johnson, the would be dancer extraordinaire if not for her fated run-in with Robbie "I Get My Thing Stuck in Other Things" Gould. Oh yeah, and she's Mrs. Richard Marx. Chicagoans just call her Mrs. Dick Marx.

This mix was solidified when, while shaving at school, we in the men's lounge had an impromptu dance party to "Never Surrender" complete with fist pumping and towel snaps. My Quebecois amigo, Conrad, confirmed that Corey Hart, Canada's pride and joy, now lives in the Bahamas with his wife and kids. Rough life you Canadians lead.

Oh yeah, and there's Matthew Wilder AKA Matthew Weiner, the one time consumate ladies' man and now he who lays claim to unearthing the talent of No Doubt. Love. Angel. Music. Baby.
We all know.

For 100 points and the game, what two films mentioned here are related by director? What is his name? For the Big Ben Jammin' bonus point: How did he die?

A rare move for me, I'm posting this mix before I've had a chance to listen to it from beginning to end. I had to remove Bill Withers' cover of "Let It Be" due to length constraints, but this mix is relatively representative of the kind of time I've been having lately. It's all over the place.

1) James Taylor - Oh Baby, Don't You Loose Your Lip on Me
2) The Hollies - Jesus Was a Crossmaker
3) Jimmy Castor Bunch - It's Just Begun
4) Mickey & Sylvia - Love is Strange
5) Otis Redding - Try a Little Tenderness
6) John Prine - Angel from Montgomery
7) Neil Young & The Band - Helpless (Live at the Last Waltz)
8) Townes Van Zandt - My Proud Mountains
9) Kathleen Edwards - Away
10) Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - It'll All Work Out
11) Hem - Night Like a River
12) Low - Nowhere Man
13) Josh Ritter - Kathleen
14) Josh Ritter - Snow is Gone
15) The Marshall Tucker Band - Can't You See
16) I Nine - Same in Any Language
17) Jon Brion - Strings That Tie to You (It's in there. Trust me.)
18) Leonard Cohen - Sisters of Mercy
19) Solomon Burke - Cry to Me
20) Rachael Yamagata - Jesus Was a Crossmaker
21) Elton John - Ballad of a Well-Known Gun

I suppose it's impossible to miss that my mixes take their inspiration from films, friends, and funk (Don't ask about that last one).

This week, I'd like to thank two pretty terrible movies: Elizabethtown and Dirty Dancing. Don't get me wrong: I love D Squared. I love it only for its soundtrack and imagery. Elizabethtown's only redeeming quality is the ten or so seconds of the lush landscape of the heartland which steal away from the over-indulgent amount of screen time given to the face of Mr. Orlando Bloom, a Kentucky native, I believe. Oh that, and the twelve dozen or so "Dad Rock" songs Cameron Crowe manages to elbow into each of his films. I'm a sucker for dad rock, and this film which tries to be about fathers and sons - apparently, among other things - delves deep into many of the dad rock trappings: Tom Petty, early Elton John, and of course The Concretes.

I'm kidding, of course, but then again, so is this movie. Right? This was just some silly inside joke on the part of Crowe and his cronies as if to say, "Watch this.... No really! Ha, ha! We're going to convince you guys this is actually our second sub-par follow-up to Almost Famous, and you're going to buy tickets. And the movie will blow chunks, and then we'll all sit around, drinking Ale 8 One, and have a hard, heartful laugh." I'm still waitin' on the beverage, Crowe. You owe me.

As for my friends: Erin and Mike are to thank for a few of these selections. Both are a constant source of amusement. Erin seems to think that Mandy Moore and I have similar taste in music. Admittedly, I check the iTunes "Celebrity Playlists" every Tuesday. I was impressed with Miss Moore's selections. She seems to be rather level-headed lately, considering.... As for Michael, some people just have good taste. Monsieur Tres Simple is one such person. Merci, Mike.

Until next time, a bien tot.

Stream Neil Young's new album, "Living with War."

Sufjan Stevens

I've culled some hard-to-find tracks of Mr. Stevens from Mike's blog. His does with one what I try to do with two.

Enjoy. And thanks, Mike.

Sufjan Stevens - Dear Mr. Supercomputer
Sufjan Stevens - The Star-Spangled Banner (Live at the Bluebird Theatre)
Sufjan Stevens - Adlai Stevenson
Sufjan Stevens - Chicago (Acoustic)
Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day