1/2008 Playlist

• Posted by Eric Reanimator January 31, 2008 - 552 views
  Each Month, I start a file in my iTunes that is a playlist for the tunes that catch my ear that month. I have been doing this since Feb of 2006, and each month I write a Mog post covering what I have been listening to each month… I am starting to post this write up in other spaces beyond my Mog (and if you are reading this somewhere besides Mog, you can find all the old ones at www.mog.com/iren)… cause I want to hit as many I-Balls as I can. As with any endeavor of this type this is an evolving form. For this month the new status quo (and I don’t have one of their songs for you this time around) is that I am going to include whole www addresses with each post (when available). I also want to apologies for any weird formatting stuff right here and now, I type this in MS word and then post it on these various message places, some of which have…w ell formatting issues…. Anyway for this month here is what caught my ear… Kansas by Velvet Hammer (http://mog.com/Iren/blog_post/134656) At the start of the year this gem of prog-hard rock was stuck in my brain, not only because it’s has an air of mystery and a reflective feel to it, just like the start of a new calendar cycle. It’s got the twinkling keyboard, and the angelic voice… yeah, I wrote about it at the start of the month, check the link above for more. Operation: Get The Hell Out Of Here by The Darkest Of The Hillside Thickets (http://www.thickets.net/) I have dug TDOTHT for a while, but sometimes they music has been so much of the same over and over, sure they have had great tunes before, but this time around I think that they have gotten the album right. I know that I did include Sleestack And Yeti on last months list, and I guess the inclusion of another tune just means that I have not yet stopped exploring the album Shadow out of Tim…. Oh and musically it’s hard-punky-rock with a melodic chaser.. Dark Sunday Evening by Roy And The Devil's Motorcycle (http://www.voodoorhythm.com/) I found this mp3 ages ago on the Voodoo Rhythm records website, and it attached it self to my brain this month, feeding off of my need for… I don’t know what, but I love the gruffness and energy of the track. It’s almost something that Steppenwolf should have recorded…. Not just because the band has the word Motorcycle in the name, but it’s also got that rumbling on the road boogie-swagger that the wolf was able to capture so perfectly… it’s like a droning road roar filled with energy that builds until it’s got to downshift into the wind and blast out across the sky… Just Like A Rose by Legal Weapon Speaking of swaggering, this tune has it in full, even if the production is to clean and to well done. I have always loved Legal Weapon and wish that more people would discover them. I don’t know exactly why it landed on this playlist, but it’s hear and for what ever period of time this past month I was into it. Big Electric Light by Tripwires (http://www.myspace.com/thetripwires) I’ve been enjoying the hell out of this very Big Star sounding slice of pubby folk power pop. It’s got a bit of the janggely guitar and that hooky chorus just have to sing along to. The song is on happy shinny sounding side, but seems to really have that dark Devo bite to it. You Wild Colorado by Johnny Cash As with a lot of artists that were around for a long long time, there is plenty of great tracks in Johnny Cash’s back catalog that have been overlooked and are deserving of rediscovery. Of all the tracks that I have on this playlist this is the one that I want each and every reader to make the choice to seek out and listen to. I found it because in the Entertainment Weekly 12/04 piece entitled Twelve CDs Mark Lanegan Says You've Gotta Get Lanegan said: JOHNNY CASH Orange Blossom Special 1965 (Columbia) ''It was one of the first albums I heard. My folks had it. It has one of his greatest originals, 'You Wild Colorado,' which, just under two minutes long, is a beautiful little tune” So I had to check it out. Cody's Dream by Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands (http://www.bloodshotrecords.com/album/markpickerel/352) Yes I know it’s shocking but the title track for the album I am most looking forward to this year made it onto this months playlist. I am excited about what I have heard from the album so far, this tune is more in line with the kind of Cowpunk that The Divine Horsemen played back in the mid-1980’s…. which is to say dusty stompin country rock… good stuff… and you can bet that I am going to have more to say about this album when I have it in my hands at the start of March. Plutonian Marmalade by Zolar X (http://www.myspace.com/zolarx ) I don’t know exactly what to say about Zolar X other than I like them… for the most part. They started out in the mid-70’s as a space-glam-pop band.. and I like this fun silly tune. It’s pretty meaningless, but has a charm and drive to it that is solid happy fun music.