Category: music

friday night special

I enjoy the unreleased songs. More specifically, I enjoy the "unofficially available" songs like Morrissey's "Sweetie Pie" and "I'm Playing Easy to Get." I got a few of these unreleased gems tonight and thought I'd share. The stripped-down version of "Sweetie Pie" is great. "Striptease With a Difference" is fantastic. "Oh Phoney" is pretty funny. Morrissey and the Smiths have been one of my favorites since I first discovered them in 1986.

Enjoy.

 

I'm Playing Easy to Get

Sweetie Pie

Striptease With A Difference

Oh Phoney

 

a super rare treat

Y'all know I'm a huge Counting Crows fan. Well, today I managed to find a super duper rare MP3 demo of an unreleased song, "Barely Out of Tuesday." Or should I say a clean-sounding non-concert version. It's just Adam Duritz on piano and his voice. It's by far my favorite song. If you use the You Tubes, you'll find a recording of the concert version in which he tells the story of how the song was written, but there seem to be only two recordings of this song. That makes it special.

It's special for other reasons too. Anyway, after years of searching for this song, I thought I'd share it. 

 

Barely Out Of Tuesday 1

For me, it doesn't get much better than that. 

 

live from daryl’s house

Y'all know I love some Hall & Oates. I love them so much that if I were Oprah, I'd give them away on the Favorite Things episode. Not their CDs, the guys.

Anyoates, did you know that every month Daryl Hall makes a web show from his house with different bands and cooking and airs it on his site? He even had my favorite, Sharon Jones on. I need a music/cooking show. For real.

Check it out Live From Daryl's House. 


http://www.livefromdarylshouse.com/flowplayer.commercial-3.1.1.swf
 

tunes you need Tuesday: Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings

Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings are my new favorite band. If you like Amy Winehouse, you'll like this group. They've only been around for 10 years, but sound like they're straight out of 1968.

Listen to "100 Days, 100 Nights."

 

What did I tell you? 1968. I love this so much that I LURVE it. 

And I love "I Learned the Hard Way" even more.

 

I'm dedicating "What if We All Stopped Paying Taxes" to my fellow Americans. When I run for President this will be my theme song.

 

Finally, remember last week when I said Tunes You Need Tuesday would feature the last line of the break-up letter I posted? Get ready. The last line of the letter was "I got better things to do than remember you." I read on Best Week Ever that a member of the Dap Kings read the letter and wrote the song, "Better Things." 

 

Now, that's fantastical. Keep doing what you're doing Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. Y'all rock.

lemonheads kind of day

It's been a Lemonheads kind of day. The band, not the candy. I love this band. Yes, I've written about them before, but humor me.

I first heard of The Lemonheads in Sassy Magazine when I read about the fantastic Evan Dando. I knew this was music I'd like and bought Lick without hearing a single song on it. Shortly after that I saw The Lemonheads on 120 Minutes on MTV and heard more about them. I still think The Lemonheads had something that no other band then did. They weren't just pop, definitely not grunge — they were doing their own thing and doing it well. 

"Confetti" is my favorite Lemonheads song. One of my favorite songs period. I like this version a lot.

 

Another favorite, "If I Could Talk I'd Tell You."

 

"Into Your Arms" is one of their more well known songs. This is a particularly good performance. And Evan Dando's hair looks particularly nice. 

 

And just for fun, Lemonheads doing "Luka" by Suzanne Vega. This was on the 1989 album, Lick. I can't remember when I bought that album, I'm thinking it was 1991, but I know I bought their '92 and '93 albums on the day those were released (because that's the kind of person I am). The Lemonheads made a lot of good music in the 1990's. "Luka" was one of the first covers I heard that I thought was better than the original. The video is also pretty great. Evan sitting next to a television. 

 

a rare treat

One of my favorites, "Kid Things," which was tucked away on This Desert Life as a hidden track after "St. Robinson and His Cadillac Dreams" appears on the limited edition official bootleg Face the Promise Land and I thought I'd share it with y'all because I'm feeling generous today.  That was the biggest run-on sentence that has ever appeared on this blog.  Another mission accomplished, people.

 

 

music for a gray monday

It's been awhile since I posted a Counting Crows song and since this is a gray day in Louisiana it seemed like a good day for "Good Time."  It has nothing to do with the weather or Louisiana — it actually mentions Texas, but my logic makes sense to me, so I'm going with it.

 

What would make more sense on a day like today would be posting "Miami" because it mentions the weather and New Orleans.  But I don't know of a version that feels right for today, maybe an acoustic version where the band is pretty perfect, maybe Immy is wearing a USPS shirt and Dan and Adam smile at the end — of course I can find that.  

 

Yeah, that's pretty perfect.

songs for saturday

Here are a few beautiful songs from Elliott Smith for your Saturday night.  Up first is "Somebody That I Used to Know," a lovely short song of disappointment and bitterness, but happy and upbeat.

 

I had tender feelings that you made hard,
But it's your heart, not mine, that's scarred.
So when I go home, I'll be happy to go –
You're just somebody that I used to know.

You don't need my help anymore,
It's all now to you, there ain't no before,
Now that you're big enough to run your own show,
You're just somebody that I used to know.

I watched you deal in a dying day,
And throw a living past away,
So you can be sure that you're in control,
You're just somebody that I used to know.

I know you don't think you did me wrong,
And I can't stay this mad for long,
Keeping ahold of what you just let go –
You're just somebody that I used to know.

 

And a great performance of "Waltz #2 (XO)" from Later with Jools Holland — a great British show for music. Probably my favorite Smith song.    

 

First the mic then a half cigarette
Singing 'Cathy's Clown'
That's the man she's married to now
That's the girl that he takes around town

She appears composed, so she is, I suppose
Who can really tell?
She shows no emotion at all
Stares into space like a dead china doll

I'm never gonna know you now
But I'm gonna love you anyhow

Now she's done and they're calling someone
Such a familiar name
I'm so glad that my memory's remote
Cause I'm doing just fine hour to hour, note to note

Here it is, the revenge to the tune
"You're no good,
You're no good you're no good you're no good"
Can't you tell that it's well understood

I'm never gonna know you now
But I'm gonna love you anyhow

I'm here today and expected to stay on and on and on
I'm tired
I'm tired

Looking out on the substitute scene
Still going strong
XO, Mom
It's ok, it's alright, nothing's wrong

Tell Mr. Man with impossible plans to just leave me alone
In the place where I make no mistakes
In the place where I have what it takes

I'm never gonna know you now
But I'm gonna love you anyhow
I'm never gonna know you now
But I'm gonna love you anyhow
I'm never gonna know you now
But I'm gonna love you anyhow 

 

As I've written before, Smith was an immensely talented songwriter.  I can't say enough about his writing.  It helped that his voice was a beautiful companion to his lyrics and guitar.  "Sweet Adeline" is another favorite.  If you don't have Smith on your iPod you need to get some.  I give you permission to leave the blog and go to iTunes right now.  Go ahead.  More later.