Sunday, January 30, 2011

Playlist: January 2011 in review

Playlist: January 2011 in review

First, the new songs and bands:

  • Sleater-Kinney – All Hands On The Bad One. Favorite songs: All Hands on the Bad One, You're No Rock 'N' Roll Fun, Leave You Behind, The Swimmer, Pompeii
  • The Gossip – Live in Liverpool. Favorite songs: Yr Mangled Heart, Don't Make Waves, Eyes Open, Standing in the Way of Control, Fire/Sign
  • Lou Reed – Walk On The Wild Side: The Best Of. Favorite songs: Wild Child, Sweet Jane (live), White Light/White Heat (live), Coney Island Baby,
    • from The Definitive Collection: The Blue Mask, Looking For Love
    • from Transformer: Vicious, Wagon Wheel
  • Elvis Costello – This Year's Model. Favorite songs: Pump It Up, No Action, Lipstick Vogue, The Beat, Radio, Radio
    • from Armed Forces. Favorite songs: Oliver's Army, Green Shirt, Senior Service
  • Plexi-3 – We Know Better 7” Favorite song: Stabbing Fantasies
  • White Mystery – White Mystery. Favorite songs: Power Glove, Switch It Off, Take A Walk
- A damned good month for new music. I knew next to nothing about Sleater-Kinney's music until I picked up All Hands at the library on a whim and stuck it in my car's CD player. It's been in there two weeks running now. I'm liking their occasionally wiry, interlocking guitars and autobiographical lyrics.

- Hardly anyone does live albums anymore, which bothers me because I think Live In Liverpool's an excellent overview of the band's catalog. The show finds them blending the newer, more danceable Standing In The Way Of Control songs with their older garage blooze material. The bonus DVD shows the band rocking full tilt, especially with the tirelessly energetic Beth Ditto jumping around onstage.

- Despite knowing “Walk On The Wild Side” since I could walk and listening to The Velvet Underground for years, I've never played much of Lou Reed's solo stuff. It's one of those strange instances where I know he's there, I know he's good, and I know I'd probably like him, but it never happened until now. It started with a Goodwill purchase of Best Of for $.50, which gave me those two live rendition's of “White Light/White Heat,” “Sweet Jane,” plus some of the songs above. I've always liked the original Velvets version of “White Light,” but I didn't love the song until I heard the live version. Oh boy, were Lou and the band rocking out on that one. The dueling guitars on it knock me out!

- Fans of garage rock will definitely like White Mystery. I caught them at The Cactus Club recently and they put on a good show. Raw, fuzzed out guitar, pounding drums, and howled vocals. Also, they wrote a song about the Vorpal sword from the “Jabberwocky” poem. Too cool.
The old classics:

  • D.O.A. - Take A Chance
  • The Byrds – Positively 4th St., Eight Miles High
  • Screeching Weasel – Hey Suburbia, Dingbat
  • Tacocat – Muffin Top, Bike Party
  • Drive-By Truckers – Guitar Man Upstairs, Zip City, Puttin' People On The Moon (live)
Play these songs in any order.

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