Sunday, June 24, 2012

Sunday Random Ten (European Edition)

Okay, this time we've really been busy, as we'll explain below. 


Let's...Hit...Shuffle!



June 10
Vince Guaraldi - Star Song
Rosanne Cash - Motherless Children
The Rascals - Easy Rollin'
Crowded House - Pour Le Monde
(Tues am) Ike Reilly - God Damn Shame
(Wed am) The Lovin' Spoonful - Daydream
Spike Jones - Dance of the Hours
World Party - World Party
Meat Puppets (feat. Alison Scott) - Tomorrow Never Knows
The Baseball Project - Tony (Boston's Chosen Son)



Started this one on Sunday evening on a Moscow-to-Volgograd flight (which, to us, was really a late Sunday morning CDT) and, having a charming young Volgograd boy as a seatmate, we hit pause, had a nice chat with his quite good English skills, and finished it on Tuesday and Wednesday morning in a spartan Soviet-era Volgograd hotel that was not unlike the vibe of a northern Minnesota cabin. 


Interesting mix of tunes, from Guaraldi's Latin jazz (and if you only know his Charlie Brown Christmas album, you really need to hear more) to Doodles Weaver's reportage of the Indy 500 in Jones's 40s classic, to The Baseball Project's tribute to Tony Conigliaro.


June 17
The Coasters - Idol With the Golden Head
Duke Otherwise - Bananas?
Jonathan Rundman - A Better Place
The Temptations - Get Ready
The Animals - We Gotta Get Out of This Place
The Vicksburgs - Drive Faster
The Decemberists - California One/Youth and Beauty Brigade
Jonathan Rundman - A Farm in Minnesota
The Beatles - I'll Follow the Sun
The O'Jays - For the Love of Money



Did this ten on a Sunday evening in a London hotel room, so it's cool that some Animals and Fab Four popped up. (Sadly, we didn't make it to a certain crosswalk in St. John's Wood, but we did have our photo taken outside Waterloo Station.) 


June 24
Erik Brandt - Hanna Marie
This Train - A Million Years
Richard Thompson - Jerusalem on the Jukebox
Sanctus Real - These Things Take Time
Elvis Costello and The Attractions - Man Out of Time
Laura Nyro and Labelle - Spanish Harlem
Old 97's - Timebomb
Lost Dogs - Eleanor, It's Raining Now
The Beatles - The Ballad of John & Yoko
Tom Waits - Filipino Box Spring Hog

Did these back at TWDQ HQ this morning. Again, if you've never heard Laura Nyro and the then-little-known Labelle, you need to rectify that.


We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question ("Wouldn't it be nice to hear someone on this side of the pond, calling out tax dodgers as immoral?"), already in progress.



Sunday, June 03, 2012

Sunday Random 10 (x2)


Hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend! Been busy around TWDQ HQ, so we're a week behind again. Let's see what the little green Nano came up with this week.

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

05/27/2012
Arcade Fire - Sprawl I (Flatland)
The Clash - Clampdown
Billy Bragg - Lay Down Your Weary Tune
Rickie Lee Jones - The Moon is Made of Gold
Joe Henry - The World and All I Know
The Who - My Wife
Old 97's - Please Hold On While the Train is Moving
Feist - Caught a Long Wind
The Lovin' Spoonful - Lovin' You
The Kinks - Here Come the People in Grey

06/03/2012
Bonnie Raitt - God Only Knows
The Temptations - Cloud Nine
Ivy - The Conversation
Dolly Varden - Forgiven Now
Jonathan Rundman - Minneapolis
The Baseball Project - The Closer
Patty Griffin - Go Now
Tinted Windows - Nothing to Me
Rockpile - You Ain't Nothin' But Fine (Live)
Todd Rundgren - We Gotta Get You a Woman

Good week for Adam Schlesinger's side projects (Ivy, Tinted Windows). We also get Bonnie Raitt's nice Joe Henry cover and Jonathan Rundman's 19-second tribute to what would soon become his metro area of residence. We'll see if he ever leaves here. Also, we do not endorse some of the sentiments in Mr. Rundgren's first big hit. Smart women are even more fun, Todd.

Should be a good week for new tunes, with new Beach Boys, Rhett Miller, and Shawn Colvin discs due out, so we'll see if any of them show up in the shuffle.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question ("Amen. Wouldn't it be great if the media stopped referring to non-apology apologies as apologies?"), already in progress.