Los Lobos - It Didn't Even Bring Me Down [ buy ] Los Lobos was an inspired choice for the new (and consistently top shelf) Doug Sahm tribute, Keep Your Soul . Both acts tap into a similar cross-section of rock-based mex-americana. So much so, their cover of the BobbyBlandtastic "It Didn't Even Bring Me Down" stays faithful to the SDQ arrangement heard on Mendocino (1969), yet sounds exactly like the kind of song you'd expect Dave [...]
The Scientists - Swampland ( buy ) Antipodean rockers the Scientists were grunge precursors both in sound and looks. They recorded many a great song in their early eighties heydays, but Swampland just has to be the best of them all. "In my heart there´s a place called swampland... nine parts water, one part sand." No worries, mate.
Louie and the Lovers - Rise [ buy ] I've been in Lovers Land since this intriguing anthology rumor came across my desk. Sounds too good to be true. Rise is a rare and revered LP, produced by Doug Sahm, that became a pioneering piece of Cali-Mexican Rock: a growingly addictive mix of Tex-Mex and pop with some CCR flavor. If this upcoming anthology is for real, I recommend all readers here to ready their wallets.
The Four Tops – 7 Rooms Of Gloom ( buy ) This Holland-Dozier-Holland tune was one of the great melodramatic soul hits of 1967. It's the story of a poor guy stuck alone in his bungalow after his lady left and turned his dreams "into dust." It was later covered by Blondie and Pat Benatar, but I always thought it would make a good country weeper.
Guy Clark's first record contains this gem about the fleeting connection between two loners who get drunk and have a one-night stand. In the morning they straddle the awkward line between avoidance and grace, their desperation and vulnerability all too apparent once the booze has worn off. "They shot the breeze quite cavalier to the boiling of the pot/ and sang the instant coffee blues and never fired a shot." Guy Clark - Instant Coffee Blues
Howdy folks, and gather round. This is Brian from Big Rock Candy Mountain reporting in from the concrete fields of Chicago. We're probably best known for our old-timey Country and Blues fixation, but for our first post here in Paradise we figgered we'd get a little contemporary with our favorite song of the past few years, from one of the best damn Rock'n'Roll bands in the land, John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives . Straight outta Memphis, the band mix the keening wail of pedal steel with a Replacements-meets-The Oblivians bar bash grittiness. "Lookin' [...]
Elvis Costello: I Want You I love those moments when the iPod is on shuffle and something comes up that you didn't even realize you had. That happened today with this song, which comes at the very end of the Elvis Costello best-of album I've got. The collection is 20+ songs, and I've just realized that I seldom make it all the way to the end. According to my iTunes library I've heard this song a number of times, but I didn't really hear it until today. And it's genius.
Syd Barrett - Late Night ( buy ) ... will always be a very special thing to me. Now I don´t know about you, but my pick for a fave Syd Barrett song changes literally every time I listen to his small but o so rich oeuvre. At the moment it´s Late Night , the closing track of his first solo album. Those vulnerable vocals way up front and that swirling guitar in the background... Makes you wonder what could have been, if the Madcap just hadn´t taken that one [...]
photo by Sean MacGowan Jack O'Fire - Own-Up Time [ buy ] Jack O'Fire were four Austin punks throwing down the hardcore blues. Led by guitarist/lord high fixer, Tim Kerr , and singer/harmonica player, Walter Daniels, the band reconciled the two disparate genres into a frothing cauldron of lo-fi soul music. JoF's greatness manifested itself in the ability to cover Howlin' Wolf, Blind Willie McTell, The Sonics, Joy Division, and in this particular case, Small Faces, and make it all sound like part of [...]
Leon Russell – A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall ( buy ) Leon Russell , who the All Music Guide calls "the ultimate rock & roll session man," is best know for his work as a sideman for Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones. But he's also got a really nice catalog of LPs released under his own name, which tend to get overlooked. My favorite is Leon Russell and the Shelter People , which features two great Dylan covers (and a total of five if you count the bonus tracks, which are [...]
The title-track of Grady Tate's 1970 my-woman-left-me record is a real bummer. The poor man goes home to an empty house every night, eats t.v. dinners standing up, drinks milk from the carton, because "why dirty up a cup?" An excerpt from the liner notes is an apt summation of the tone of the album: Grady sings of bewitchery. Of bitchery. Of last night. Of lost hope. Grady Tate - After The Long Drive Home
Jerry Jeff Walker - The First Showboat There's that overjoyous point you get to when you really love an artist - collecting every prime record and dusting off every last gem - that's also kind of sad. It's wonderful and round to hear it all, but there's nothing left to discover! Well, I'm nearly there with my new pal Jerry Jeff, and reeling in those new familiar sounds. Walker's Collectibles only got 3 Stars from Allmusic, which influenced my tardiness in picking it up, but I'm already in love. 3-star [...]
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Too Much Time ( buy ) And here´s your Captain speaking. Don Van Vliet rhymes old stale beans with a can of sardines and eat crackers and dream and gets away with it. Gloriously.
The Dillards - Reason To Believe ( buy ) Following up on the previous post, here's another wistful Tim Hardin composition. It's The Dillards performing Hardin's second most famous song. It comes from their 1968 LP Wheatstraw Suite , one of the notable progressive bluegrass albums of the 1960s.
In 1964, Donovan recorded a handful of demos for his first record label, Pye Records. The tunes, including this Tim Hardin cover, were not intended for public release and were shelved until Donovan selected a couple of the tracks to appear on his 1992 boxset, Troubadour: The Definitive Collection 1964-1976 . He later went on to release a complete record of those early demos called Sixty Four in 2004. Donovan- London Town
Here is Merle Haggard covering one of his heroes, Jimmie Rodgers . Lefty also does a real nice cover of this one. With apologies to Hank and George, Jimmie-to-Lefty-to-Merle does a pretty nice job describing the evolution of country music in the 20th Century. Merle Haggard - My Rough And Rowdy Ways ( buy ) I may be rough, I may wild, I may be tough, but that's just my style...
Little Feat - On Your Way Down ( buy ) ... you might meet up on your way down. When the mighty Feat hits that groove it never fails to bring a big fat grin too my face. Especially when Lowell´s got his fingers in the socket. Rock trivia fact: Feat foreman Lowell George usually used a sparkplug-puller for a slide. On Your Way Down was written by New Orleans maestro Allen Toussaint btw.
Sister Double Happiness - Heart And Mind [ buy ] "Well, Gary Floyd and all his pals, Are gonna come on down to the roundaround, They're gonna shoot all day." --Butthole Surfers, "Gary Floyd" Sister Double Happiness was founded by a couple of Dicks. No, not like that. The Dicks were one of Austin's primordial punk bands ( "Hate The Police" anyone???), but after their breakup and a move to San Francisco, drummer Lynn Perko and singer Gary Floyd founded SDH. Gone were [...]
Roy Lichtenstein "Sunrise" (1965) Rising Sons Featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder - 11th Street Overcrossing These guys don't really know who they are. They'll go from psych and 60s to the throwback blues stuff that Taj would later do. Just can't believe it's from 65-66. Anyways, my groove of the week.
The Lovin' Spoonful: Darling Be Home Soon It's nice to be back in the fold, as it were—posting alongside many of my favorite bloggers here. I have memories of staying up late into the night with my old college roommates, just trading songs back and forth—"have you heard this?" "you have to hear this!" It's a feeling worth recapturing. I'm looking forward to turning you all on—and being turned on—to new favorite songs.
Groover's Paradise
Avicii – Two Million
Scissor Sisters’ “Baby Come Home” Video: Watch The Band Get Animated
Yellow Magic Orchestra edit from Chrome Canyon
Beck – I Just Started Hating Some People Today
