My Soundtrack for the Evening Commute, February 18, 2008

The BilliPod served up a weird mix for me on my commute home today. Here's what the Shuffle dealt me (links and extras to be added later)...

"Rich Woman" by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss from the 2007 release, Raising Sand

Meat Loaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light".

"Trying Your Luck" from The Strokes' debut album.

A cover of "All You Need is Love" by Rogue Wave.

"Spiderwebs" by No Doubt.

"In a Little While" by U2, from Elevation 2001: Live from Boston

"Dance Like a Monkey" by the New York Dolls

"Flames Go Higher" by the Eagles of Death Metal

"Blues for Sister Someone" by Lenny Kravitz

Wallace Stevens, reading his poem "Bantams in Pine-Woods".

"White Christmas" by Zakk Wylde (from Merry Axemas,
Volume 2)

"Crapshoot" by Pearl Jam, live in Seattle, March 18, 2005. A year later, this song, in a slightly different form, appeared as "Comatose" on Pearl Jam's 2006 eponymous release.

"The Wind" by Billy Bob Thornton, from the Warren Zevon tribute album,
Enjoy Every Sandwich.

"Long Time Comin' " by Bruce Springsteen, off of Devils and Dust.

And the track that brought me home....

"Bedrock Anthem" by "Weird Al" Yankovic. Nice.

It's not often that the BilliPod throws me such an eclectic mix in which
every track is a winner.

Friday Five on Tuesday the Twenty-Fifth

I haven't done one of these in a while, and can't wait until Friday. So there.

In case you're just joining us, it's five random tracks off of the BilliPod.

1) "Across the Universe," the great Beatles tune, featuring Billie Joe Armstrong, Bono, Steven Tyler, Brian Wilson, Tim McGraw, Scott Weiland, Alicia Keys, Alison Krauss, Norah Jones, and Stevie Wonder, backed by members of Velvet Revolver. Snagged from the blog Music for Kids Who Can't Read Good.

According to wikipedia, this version is from the 2004 Grammy Awards ceremony in February 2005. The following week, a recording of the performance was released exclusively for purchase through the iTunes Music Store. All proceeds from the sale went to funds for victims of the 26 December 2004 Tsunami. Sales from the benefit release made it the fastest-selling download in iTunes history and allowed the song to peak at #22 on the Billboard singles chart. This version has a lyric change: "Nothing's gonna change my world" was changed to "Something's gonna change my world."

If you missed this the first time around, it's pretty impressive:



2)
"Everytime I Look for You" by blink-182, track 10 off their smash album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.




3)
"Baby, Please Don't Go" by John Lee Hooker, from his album Burning Hell. This old blues standard originally by Big Joe Williams has been covered by a ton of folks. On the BilliPod alone, I have versions by Big Joe, Bob Dylan, The Doors, Lightnin' Hopkins, Aerosmith, MC5, and Them (with Van Morrison).

Here, Listen: "Baby, Please Don't Go" (mp3) by Them, via Live Journal.

4)
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by The Black Crowes from the I Am Sam soundtrack.

and finally.....

5) "Everybody Getting High" from one of Mick Jagger's solo albums Goddess in the Doorway. I honestly think that this solo effort from Mick is better than most of the Rolling Stones' recent work. (Rebuttal, Melanie?)

Pearl Jam Shuffle

As I recover this morning from Sundance Head slaughtering Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" on American Idol last night, I'm going to do a Pearl Jam post to clear my sinuses.



So, today we have a special Pearl Jam shuffle. Which means most of you will want to skip this post entirely, I guess.

So, here, are the first five songs shuffled, using only the 853 Pearl Jam tracks on the BilliPod.



1) "Release," originally from the album Ten, but this particular track is from a batch I have labelled as "First Week Rehearsal Demos," circa 10/23/90.

Listen: "Release" (mp3) from their performance at Limelight in New York on April 12, 1992, courtesy of The Sky I Scrape



2) "I Am Mine," live at Madison Square Garden, July 8, 2003, also known as MSG1, one of the band's highest-regarded concerts. I attended my first Pearl Jam show the following night, aka MSG2. This was one of two singles from 2002's Riot Act

Here's them performing the song on The Late Show with David Letterman on November 14, 2002:



3) "Improv," also from the "First Week Rehearsal Demos". This track is an early incarnation of the concert staple "Yellow Ledbetter," which originally appeared as a b-side to "Jeremy."

Since this is one of the earliest versions, I'll give you a relatively decent recording of the last time they played "Ledbetter", in Honolulu on December 2, 2006:



Do take some time to watch, as lead guitarist Mike McCready throws a version of Jimi Hendrix' "Little Wing" into the mix.

4) "Sleight of Hand," the studio version, from the album "Binaural."



Listen: "Sleight of Hand" (mp3) live at the House of Blues in Orlando, April 12, 2003. Mp3 courtesy of The Sky I Scrape.

and lastly, in my self-indulgent Pearl Jam shuffling quintet:



5) "Who You Are," also the studio version, from No Code. This song was the lead single off the album. Here's a recently-added clip to YouTube that uses the song. Not sure what the video is about, but it's kind of cool.

Phriday Phive

Stuck home today, chillin' with an illin' kiddo, so I am shuffling the BilliTunes library for today's random quintet of interesting (I hope) tracks.

You're always welcome to drop a comment with your five, I'm always interested in other people's pods.

Let the games begin:


1) "Soma" from The Strokes debut album Is This It. If that cover art seems unfamiliar to you, it's because this is America, and we can't have our kids seeing such filth when we take them to Wal-Mart to buy ammo for our weapons. So, most of us Americans got this album art instead:


Aren't we lucky? Here's them performing it live:



2)



That's "Black Gold" by Soul Asylum. Great song.

Listen: "Black Gold" (mp3) by Soul Asylum, courtesy of Lil Mike's Last Known Thoughts & Random Revelations. There are more Soul Asylum songs at that link. Nice post on the band from August 2006.

3)



"The World Has Turned and Left Me Here" by Weezer, off their "blue" album.

The blog Neile's Life did a segment in September of "the 125 Albums that should be in your collection". This was #17, and the song can be heard here: "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here" (mp3), courtesy of Neilie's Life.



4) Ah, a classic:



"Blue Suede Shoes" by Carl Perkins.

Here's an old look:



And numero 5 to get you through the weekend:



"Moon Baby," the lead track from Godsmack's quadruple-platimum debut eponymous album.

Here's them performing the song at Woodstock '99. Viewer beware: he says some bad words.

Friday Five: BilliPod

Here we go again...the first five songs on the Pod via shuffle for your Friday afternoon:

1) Nice,
"No Sleep Till Brooklyn" by the Beastie Boys from...

...the album Licensed to Ill.

The guitar solo is played by Slayer guitarist Kerry King, who had also released an album produced by Rick Rubin in 1986 (Reign in Blood). The song also contains samples from "T.N.T." by AC/DC.

British comedian Tony Hawks recorded the song, "Stutter Rap (No Sleep 'Til Bedtime)" under the pseudonym of "Morris Minor and the Majors" as a send up of the Beastie Boys' then image.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Sleep_Till_Brooklyn"

Listen: "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" (mp3), courtesy of the blog Brooklyn Ski Club.

And here's the dated, yet still pretty funny, video:



2) How do we top the Beasties? Let's see.



Okay, the "Intro" to the Red Hot Chili Peppers' show from April 14, 2006, in London, broadcast on BBC Radio 1, from the King's Club. I ripped the concert from the great blog Ear Farm here. Alas, the tracks are no longer available from the blog, but it's a great site to visit regularly.

3) Here's a curveball:



"Creep" by TLC from the album Saturday Night Live - 25 Years of Musical Performances, Volume 2 Live.







Here's the performance in question, from May 6, 1995:



4) Next up we have:



"Baker Street" as covered by the Foo Fighters, originally by Gerry Rafferty. This was released as a B-Side to their 1998 single "My Hero". One of my favorite blogs (Yeah, I know, I have tons of favorites), Sweet Oblivion, talked about this track here.

And finally, #5:



"Orgasm Addict" by the Buzzcocks. Nice. I remember first seeing this song on the back of a record at a garage sale in Hawai'i in the early '80s. The single actually was released in 1977. The BBC refused to air it.

It's a great tune with funny lyrics.

Here's a "recent" video performance of the song from YouTube:

Tuesday Miscellany

Apparently, the Naked Brothers Band, is big news among the under 5-foot set. BillyBlog visits spiked yesterday to over 120 hits. Still small in blogosphere standards, but I still remember the days when I averaged 25. Still no calls for the girls from agents yet.


Since commencing in the Fall of 2005, The New York Times Magazine has run several serialized novels in their weekly issues. They started with Elmore Leonard, then Patricia Cornwell, then Scott Turow, then Michael Connelly. Anyway, last week the Connelly ended and the series resumed this week with Michael Chabon, one of my favorite writers. If you don't get the Times, you can read each chapter online every week here.

The power of BillyBlog is the bane of BillyBlog. The next chapter in the Great Chime Mystery may get murkier. If you google the phrase "new york wind chimes neighbor," this is the result. I guess the cat would be out of the bag and I may have some explaining to do. I've been objective though, and have not libeled or slandered anyone's good name. Calls to the FBI regarding wind chime abduction statistics have gone unanswered.

The BilliPod was acting up yesterday, freezing and seizing, heating up to an uncomfortable level for about thirty minutes, then "releasing" as if nothing had happened. It has made for some quiet train rides. Apple Customer Support recommended I "restore" the original settings to remedy this issue which, they warned me, would erase the iPod, and I would just have to re-sync with iTunes to get my music back. Of course, over 13,000+ songs took a bit of time to reload. Time will tell, but my service contract runs out in March and if BilliPod is going to go kaput, I'd rather it do so before then.

Most interesting song on the commute this morning: the cover of Kansas' "Carry on Wayward Son" by the Oak Ridge Boys. Quite a surprise. How did the Oak Ridge Boys get on BilliPod?


Granted, the Kansas tune holds a special place in my heart. On December 31, 1979, it was quite possibly my favorite song. Back then, I didn't have many records or tapes, so I had to rely on radio for most of my music.


I was living at 739 Hausten Street in Honolulu, and the radio station KIKI (pronounced kay-eye-kay-eye, not kee-kee) was doing a New Year's weekend top thousand songs of the Seventies, programmed to play #1 around midnight. I listened attentively, knowing that it would rank very high. The top 50 started, and I still had not heard it. I was a naive 12-year old whose record collection included Chic's "Le Freak" and Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" on 45s.

As the midnight hour approached, and the new decade was about to dawn, we entered the top 10. I worked myself into a fevered pitch. Still, no Kansas. Finally, they played #2 and were about to go into the new decade playing the #1 song of the Seventies. I was so excited. I had waited patiently all night for this moment.

The DJ came on and announced that this was the moment we had been waiting for. He said this was a perfect song that exemplified the decade and would carry us into the 1980's. I had my head close to the boombox as I waited to savor those first notes.....when the DJ announced, "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night.

I howled, yes literally howled, with disbelief.

"Jeremiah was a bullfrog..."

The 1980's began with me cursing a radio station and learning that life was just not fair, that radio stations were idiots, and that songs about bullfrogs had no business being on radio. It took me years, and I literally mean, years, before I understood how that song could have been number one and "Carry on Wayward Son," a song that only peaked at #11 on the Billboard pp singles chart in 1977, wasn't even considered among the best songs of the 70's.

How's that for a digression?

The Return of the Friday Five

I ran into BillyBlog reader Colin a couple weeks back in Los Angeles and he remarked that I hadn't done a random 5-song shuffle on the BilliPod lately. The last one was way back here, I think.

So here we go....

1) Great, I'll get slack for this, I'm sure. "Back to Dungaree High" by Queens of the Stone Age from the Turbonegro tribute album Alpha Motherfuckers. I was debating whether or not to mention the album title, but I am showing the album cover, so who's kidding who? I am not in the habit of censoring myself, and I am merely referring to a song on an album. Using symobols (#@!) wouldn't fool anyone. I apologize to anyone who may have been offended.

Anyway, Turbonegro is a legendary punk/thrash band hailing from Norway, Oslo to be more precise and Queens of the Stone Age do a nice little number on this song.

Listen: Turbonegro - The Age of Pamparius (mp3), courtesy of the blog Afterbirth of the Cool, who does a nice post on Turbonegro's 1998 album Apocalypse Dudes here.


2) Great. I see where this Friday Five is going. The next song is Rob Zombie's "Meet the Creeper (Brute Man and Wonder Girl Mix)" from the CD of greatest hits/remixes American Made Music to Strip By. Colin is very likely on the floor right now, laughing hysterically, as we share a funny story about the song "More Human than Human," by Rob's band White Zombie. Of course, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.


3) Ok, I just got a little more respectable. "Atlantic City" by Bruce Springsteen, from his 1982 solo album Nebraska.

Here's Bruce & Co. performing the song in 1985:




4) "Baby Please Don't Go," by Big Joe Williams from the Martin Scorcese documentary The Blues. This song has been recorded by Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, Them, Paul Butterfield and Paul Revere & the Raiders, Amboy Dukes(Ted Nugent), AC/DC, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Aerosmith, but Big Joe wrote it and did it first.

And through the wonder of YouTube, see him performing this, from 1963, playing the 9-string guitar. According to wikipedia:

Big Joe's guitar playing is decidedly in the Delta Blues style, and yet is unique. He played driving rhythm and virtuosic lead lines simultaneously, and sang over it all. He played with picks both on his thumb and index finger, plus his guitar was very heavily modified.

Williams added a rudimentary electric pick-up, whose wires coiled all over the top of his guitar. He also added three extra strings, creating unison pairs for the first and second courses and an octave pair for the fourth course.

Totally worth the three minutes to watch.




and last, but not least,

5) "Breaking Honey's Heart" by The Supersuckers, off their 2006 album Paid. I basically became familiar with this band through their association with, go figure, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam. Ed performed with them at The Showbox in Seattle in 2001. He worked with them on a cover of the punk band X's song "Poor Girl" for a benefit album for the West Memphis 3.

Feel free to add your Fabulous Friday Five in the comments section. Just grab an mp3 player, shuffle, and tell us the first five tracks that appear.

Tales of the BilliPod: What I Listened to on the Way to Work Today

I've done this before, and often fall back on it while I am swamped. Here is what I listened to on the way to work this morning:

First, before shuffling, a podcast from the New York Times Op-Ed Page, "The Education of Robert Kennedy" by columnist David Brooks. You have to be a subscriber of the Times to read it, or you can find it here. Worth a gander, especially if you are/were a big supporter of RFK.

Then we hit shuffle, and this is what came up. Shoot, I just shuffled past it. Let's see if I can remember. Only can come up with 7 of the 9 tracks. How embarassing. Anyway, here's the majority of what I listened to this morning:

"Indifference" by Pearl Jam, live in Boston on July 11, 2003. Considered one of the highlights of the 2003 "Riot Act" tour, the band endeavored to play every song they had performed on their '03 tour, all in one show. "Indifference," an amazing song in and of itself, was the finale to the 12-song "acoustic" portion of the 45-song marathon.

"Lolo Telethon" by Rap Reiplinger. An acquired taste, for sure, Rap was a Hawaii comedian who died tragically at the age of 33 in 1984. His album Poi Dog was a staple in everyone's home. The comedy is a bit dated and un-PC for 2006, but it still brings chuckles and rings true. This is from his "Greatest Hits" cd called Poi Dog With Crabs.

"Sly" by Herbie Hancock, from his amazing Head Hunters album.

"The Ball Poem" by John Berryman, from Poetry Speaks: Hear Great Poets Read Their Work from Tennyson to Plath, an amazing great book containing audio of nearly every major American poet reading his or her work.




"Garden," from Pearl Jam's Ten.

"Tiny Dancer" by Elton John, from Madman Across the Water

and "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC from their Live in Paris CD which is included in their Bonfire box set.

OniPodapaeia

I haven't done a fabulous five in a while from the BilliPod, so here we go. For those of you just tuning in, it's the first five songs appearing on Shuffle:

"Rock 'n' Roll Machine" by The Donnas, from American Teenage Rock-N-Roll Machine. Granted, this second album is very raw and juvenile, but it shows how this all-girl band from Palo Alto has grown from their early roots as a garage band.

I first heard about the Donnas via The New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones when the band released their album The Donnas Turn 21. Great power-pop rock. They have made a name for themselves with their catchy tunes and soundtrack covers.
Hop on over to their website
check out their video for their song "40 Boys in 40 Nights":



Next is . . . "Keep the Faith" by Bon Jovi, from Cross Road, their greatest hits CD. Not much to say about that one.

Here's the "Keep the Faith" video:



Next we have "Knockers" by The Darkness, from One Way Ticket to Hell . . . And Back. I first heard of The Darkness from the original soundtrack of School of Rock. You can hear a version of this track here, courtesy of Culture Bully. The Darkness are hard rock with some great power metal riffing. Well worth a listen if you are unfamiliar with them, check out their songs at their MySpace page here. The fourth song listed, "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" is typical of their tunage, with the "soaring falsetto" of lead singer Justin Hawkins poised to either hook you instantly or repel you forever.

Here's the Darkness performing "Knockers" on Top of the Pops:








Next we have "River Euphrates" by the Pixies, from Surfer Rosa. I first heard of the Pixies when I was writing for the college newspaper Arts section and had to review their breakthrough record Doolittle. The Pixies were instrumental influences in the rise of a little band called Nirvana.

Here's the Pixies performing "River Euphrates":



and lastly.......

"Thou Shalt Not Kill (In Memory of Dylan Thomas)" by Kenneth Rexroth, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the Cellar Jazz Quintet, from Poetry Readings in the Cellar. A review of the album on eMusic elaborates:

Recorded at the Cellar in 1957, this CD boasts Rexroth's angry, 21-minute rant "Thou Shalt Not Kill (In Memory of Dylan Thomas)" -- one of the most powerful, biting examples of beat poetry -- as well as three free-spirited offerings from Ferlinghetti: "Autobiography," "Junkman's Obbligato," and "The Statue of St. Francis." Rexroth and Ferlinghetti are both joined by an acoustic bop quintet, which proves to be an appropriate accompaniment for the poets' very stream-of-consciousness performances. Beat poetry is an acquired taste, but for those who do have a taste for it, Poetry Readings in the Cellar is among the most essential releases of its kind.

Here's a little Rexroth bonus, reading a poem about Sacco and Vanzetti:



So that's that for the five today. Thanks for stopping by BillyBlog!