Saturday Song Solipsism

Another edition of Songs That Randomly1 Played While I Was In My Meditation Pod. I’m not good with “Best Of” lists, as my taste are too mercurial to lock down, so these meditations will have to suffice…

  1. CalexicoCorona


    Convict Pool

    One of my favorite new(ish) discoveries, and not just because Calexico were chosen to be the house band for the Bob Dylan soundtrack album, I’m Not Here. This is a cover of a great Minutemen song, from their best album,


    Double Nickles on the Dime

    and just not any cover, but a conjunto-esque mariachi version with fiddle, horns, etc. that swings. Highly enjoyable.

  2. The DillardsLemon Chimes
    Where The Action Is!: Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968
    I love garage rock, love these Rhino compilations, though this song has more of a bluegrass vibe. Written by Dewey Martin, later of Buffalo Springfield. 2:37 seconds only – must have been released as a 45 single.
  3. Johann Sebastian BachBach Edition, Vol. 4 – Cantatas, Vol. 1 [Disc 3]
    Bach: Cantata #72, BWV 72, “Alles Nur Nach Gottes Willen” – Alles Nur Nach Gottes Willen- Ruth Holton, Sytse Buwalda, Etc.; Piet Jan Leusink: Netherlands Bach Collegium, Holland Boys Choir
    I bought a lot of new-to-me classical music last year, not least of which was the set this piece came from, The Complete Bach2- 155 CDs worth. Still haven’t finished playing the entire thing, much less converting all the discs to MP3.
  4. Green DayLast Of The American Girls
    21st Century Breakdown
    Don’t understand why this band is so celebrated. Singer’s voice is irritatingly thin3, and the music seems very paint-by-numbers. Boring, in other words.
  5. Nelson, WillieLaying My Burdens Down


    Naked Willie

    One of my favorite purchases in 2009 is this Willie Nelson album. Naked is not quite accurate description, Willie Nelson and long-time harmonica player Mickey Raphael just removed the schmaltzy strings and slick backup vocalists, and left vocal, bass, drum, and slinky jazzy guitar, remixing from the original multitrack tapes. Awesome in fact. Get a copy if you don’t have one.

  6. John BarryBoom
    Boom! Soundtrack
    As much as I love Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, haven’t yet managed to sit through this film.
  7. Jerry Jeff WalkerNorth Cumberland Blues
    Vanguard Visionaries – Jerry Jeff Walker
    Surprisingly good, funky blues-rock with a nicely insistent bass line. Let’s have another round…
  8. Terry Hall & MushtaqTen Eleven
    Music is your Radar
    part of an Uncut Magazine sampler put together by Damon Albarn celebrating Honest Jon’s Records. Terry Hall4 sings the chorus in English, Mushtaq5 sings the verse in Arabic6. Quite good in any case. I just ordered a copy of the album it came from, The Hour of Two Lights.
  9. Johann Sebastian BachToccata and Fugue in D Minor for Organ, BWV 565- Klemens Scnorr
    The 99 Most Essential Pieces of Classical Music
    thought this was the Ozzy Osbourne song, Mr. Crowley7at first, probably because I think it is nearly the same opening riff, plus lots of trills / triplets / whatever-they-are-called.
  10. 13th Floor ElevatorsThe Kingdom Of Heaven (Is Within You) (stereo edition)


    The Psychedelic Sound of the 13th Floor Elevators

    My birthday splurge was the limited edition remastered version of all extant 13th Floor Elevators songs in a beautiful box set. Austin garage rock legends,8 this song has, as most do, some weird stuff going on in the background, and ends with a patented Roky Erickson scream.

  11. K’naan15 Minutes Away


    Troubadour

    one of the weaker tracks on a pretty good album (blogged about here). Something about being broke, and getting money from Western Union, 15 minutes away. I prefer the more political-oriented songs, this song sounds like filler.

Footnotes:
  1. again using the iTunes smartplaylist, This Years Models; criteria – added to library this year, more than 4 plays, not played in last 19 days []
  2. blogged about it here []
  3. hey, I own every Bob Dylan album, and his voice is, shall we say, unique. So it isn’t just musicality that matters []
  4. of The Specials, et al []
  5. of Fun-Da-Mental []
  6. I think: album blurb says: In 2003, Hall collaborated with Mushtaq of Fun-Da-Mental on the album The Hour of Two Lights which contains contributions from a twelve-year-old Lebanese girl singer, a blind Algerian rapper, a Syrian flautist, Hebrew vocalists, a group of Polish gypsies and Damon Albarn. []
  7. a song about English occultist Aleister Crowley from Blizzard of Oz []
  8. influences include: LSD, Gurdjieff, the General Semantics of Alfred Korzybski, the psychedelic philosophy of Timothy Leary, Tantric meditation, you get the idea []

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