Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Every week we have a staffer, freelancer or friend-or-enemy of the Clog put their iTunes or iPod on shuffle and tell us about the first 10 songs that come up. The only rules: No skipping, no cheating and you don't need to be all music-critic-y about it. If you'd like to submit a 10-track mind of your own, contact Brian Howard at bhoward (at) citypaper (dot) net.
This week CP man of metal/Blistered in the Sunster Jesse Delaney digs through the digital crates.
1.) Superchunk, “The
Breadman,” Tossing Seeds (Singles 89-91)
It’s not
“Breadfan,” (or
Metallica’s cover) but “The Breadman”
rocks. With technology and production becoming less expensive, the DIY low-fi
sound is going the way of cassette tapes, except for bands that deliberately
affect the style.
2.) Ice T, “New Jack
Hustler,” O.G.: Original Gangsta
Ice T was at the top of his game with the
O.G. LP. He was tackling subjects in 1991 that are still
front and center in the American consciousness 17 years later (the “N” word,
prison reform, the “B” word, war with Iraq, cursing Bush). So Ice was either
ahead of his time or America hasn’t progressed very far. Something tells me the
November election will tell.
2a.) BBC Russian. Lesson
4, Page 10, Introducing Yourself.
Meenya zavoot, Jesse. Learning Russian with a
British accent’s great, but it has no place here. Skip.
3.) Audible, “Sound
Makes A Circle,” Sky Signal
This is just a really lovely song by one of Philly’s
finest.
4.) Live, “I Alone,”
Throwing Copper
I think my iPod is stuck on “’90s.” Woo! This nostalgia trip
is mixed with hometown pride. Sure they were from York County and only bought
houses near James Buchanan’s
Wheatland after this album took off, but I’ll
mostly remember Live as Public Affection playing all-age shows at the
Chameleon
in the Lanc. I think I still have a copy of
The Death of a Dictionary somewhere.
5.) The
Decemberists, “Shankill Butchers,” The Crane Wife
Boring, boring, boring. How can a song about maiming and
bloodshed be so mopey? I know I put this album on my
2006 “best of” list, but let
the Decemberists backlash begin!
This is
a song about maiming and bloodshed of Biblical proportions.
6.) Cat Power, “Willie,”
The Greatest
Contrast the power and emotion of Cat Power with the previous
yawn fest. Quiet can still rock. This song is delicate, yet packs a wallop.
7.) The Hold Steady,
“Your Little Hoodrat Friend,” Live at Lollapalooza 2006
Philly really dropped the ball when New Jersey
snatched our
music festival. Chicago, a major metropolis, throws a killer party each summer
when the Lollapalooza festival rolls into Grant Park. Why not us? I was in the
crowd with the
dancing kids in
2006 when Craig Finn dedicated “Hoodrat” to
Twins fans (I was not there in
2007 when he wore a Twins jersey). There’s
nothing like tying one on with the Hold Steady at 1 o’clock on a gorgeous
Sunday afternoon. Oh, by the way, methinks Craig protests too much: he totally
got with her.
8.) Ice Cube, “You
Can’t Fade Me/JD’s Gaffilin’,” AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted
Talk about a little hoodrat friend. Cube’s a master
storyteller, and this little slice of life drama resonates with verisimilitude,
particularly for the sound effect of the beer bottle breaking on the pavement.
“I dropped my brew and everything looked fuzzy/Not a baby by you, he
neighborhood hussy.” The tale has a happy ending for the raconteur (“The baby
came out, damn it was a life saver/Lookin’ like my next-door neighbor.”), not
so much for the bastard child.
9.) The Mountain
Goats, “Weekend in Western Illinois,” Full Force Galesburg
Dogs. The Mountain Goats. These are two of my favorite
things, so it’s only natural that a Mountain Goats song with these lyrics would
be one of my favorites: “And we love these dogs, that roll on the lawns here in
Galesburg.” The guitar and organ rustle gently through this song like a prairie
wind across a great expanse. I took this picture one weekend in Northern
Illinois at the 2006 Pitchfork Music Festival.
10.) Quasi, “White
Devil’s Dream,” Hot Shit
Politically-minded artists love adding kiss offs to
politicians to the end of songs, and this is a good one. Ministry’s scattershot
all-encompassing dismissal
“Stigmata” on
In Case You Didn’t Feel Like
Showing Up (Live) bests it for intensity, and Ice-T is more personal,
“Fuck Tipper Gore, Bush, and his cripple bitch” on “You Should’ve Killed Me
Last Year,” but the message here is pointed and socially astute. I wish Quasi
would tour outside the Pacific Northwest again.
11.) Mastodon, “I Am
Ahab,” Leviathan
Well, look what finally decided to show up: metal.
Staff Blog
That’s Original GangstER. My bad.