Episode 32 - Anti-Country Music
During a company retreat in north Georgia (think 'Deliverance') some years ago, a sales person got pretty shitfaced and took control of the bluetooth speakers and played country music for hours.
And it was fucking horrible.
When I got back to Boston after that trip, I spent the following 2 weeks listening to metal/hard rock as a means to reset myself. I have a really low tolerance for country music. Country music is anger inducing.
Lately, country music has been playing in stores a lot. Like, a lot a lot, and it's been annoying. Annoying enough that even Leslie has been noticing and rolling her eyes.
So here's a 2024 version of my anti-country music playlist. Don't @ me because on this, I bite back.
Call Me Little Sunshine - Ghost
Peace Sells...But Who's Buying - Megadeth
Light - KMFDM
Murderous - Nitzer Ebb
Gentlemen - Afghan Whigs
N.W.O. - Ministry
Paranoid - Black Sabbath
E.vil N.ever D.ies - Overkill
Antisocial - Anthrax
Dr. Feelgood - Mötley Crüe
Episode 31 - Songs Mentioned in the Beastie Boys Book part 1
First, a quick announcement. The biggest hassle for this blog has been putting links to the individual songs on three platforms (Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube), so after some thought, I'm only going to link to the individual tracks to the songs on YouTube. I will still be linking to complete playlists for all three platforms and may be adding Tidal, since I've moved to that.
With that out of the way, let's begin.
I'm currently reading "Beastie Boys Book" and I really hope you're familiar with them. The first half of the book focuses on the late 70s to mid 80s and it's been great so far. It's very different than other books I've read in that chapters are written by different people. In the chapters by the two remaining members, you'll find small comments between them as they reconcile memories. If you're a Beastie Boys' fan or want to dive more into the late 70's/early 80's NYC punk scene, get this. If you're a Gen X NY'er, this book is nostalgia heaven. Cookie Puss, WPIX, Palladium, U68, and a host of others.
But I do have one small issue with the book and that is the authors speak to the reader and in doing that, they'll say something like "stop reading this book and Google this person right now" and most of these "go Google now" declarations pertain to songs that influenced them or were hits in the clubs.
For this playlist, I choose 10 random songs mentioned in the book, some I love, others were new to me. Of these songs, "Din Daa Daa" by George Kranz surprised me the most because the production value is insane. This song is going into the playlist I used to test hifi equipment as it has an amazing soundstage and depth, even in high quality earbuds.
So I'll be alternating between two themed playlists (top bands and "Beastie Boys Book") and a random.
The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight - Dominatrix
Hey! D.J. - World's Famous Supreme Team
Al-Naafyish (The Soul) - Hashim
Bela Lugosi's Dead - Bauhaus
Give Me Tonight - Shannon
Temptation - New Order
Shoot You Down - APB
White Horse - Laid Back
Din Daa Daa - George Kranz
Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don't Stop) - Man Parrish
Episode 30 - U2
Since episode 15 was an episode of cover songs, I originally intended to do another episode of cover songs. Sadly, most of the songs I wanted to feature are missing from different services. (And people are wondering why there is an uptick in pirating media).
As I was trying to think of a replacement playlist, a friend asked me if I was going to do a Pet Shop Boys playlist. Funny enough, I was planning on doing playlists for my favorite bands and PSB is one of my favorite bands.
But this isn't a Pet Shop Boys playlist. I want to save that playlist for when I roll out a new feature of the site that I'm working on. The new feature is inspired by this friend, so it seems fitting to do a PSB playlist when the feature is ready.
I decided to do U2 because I did want to feature Glasvegas' cover of U2's "Acrobat" when I was originally planning to do another round of cover songs. Additionally over the weekend, I picked up Bono's book "Surrender" new for insanely cheap, so U2 seemed fitting.
I know U2 is one of those divisive bands where people stand on either the side of love or hate, but I love them. "Acthung Baby" is probably one of my favorite albums of all time. Why didn't more songs from "Achtung Baby" make this list? Because I do think "Joshua Tree" produced the bigger hits, but "Achtung Baby" is an album I'll listen to from start to finish.
So welcome to a new sporadic series for Listen to this Song; 10 songs from 10 artists. First Lush and now U2.
Pride (In the Name of Love) - U2
Where the Streets Have No Name - U2
One - U2
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2
All I Want is You - U2
With or Without You - U2
Ultra Violet (Light My Way) - U2
Bullet the Blue Sky - U2
Until the End of The World - U2
I Will Follow - U2
Episode 29 - Coding
This wasn't my original intended playlist, but given that I've been studying a bit lately on new dev approaches, a small sampling of what I gravitate towards when coding seemed somewhat appropriate. Of the bands here, I feel like most people will raise an eye to The KLF and Skrillex. Listen, The KLF are fucking gods. Seriously. Read up on them or watch the YouTube documentary titled "The KLF: Beyond The Band That Burnt £1,000,000" by Trash Theory. The KLF were a band who existed to just push the boundaries and blur the line between music, art, decency, and taste and I love them for it. Their album "The White Room" is sensational and definitely paved the way for most of the other artist in this playlist to even exist.
Skrillex... look, I know dubstep isn't everyone's cup of tea, but honestly, I enjoy his stuff and I especially enjoy it when I'm in a good coding groove.
On a side note, I have to say I'm considering dropping Apple Music from the playlists. Over time, Apple Music is becoming an unusable POS. For my own personal stuff, I'm migrating to Tidal, but I can't see the majority of people using Tidal as it's more geared towards audiophiles than the casual listener.
3AM Eternal (Live at the S.S.L.) - The KLF
Finished Symphony - Hybrid
Original - Leftfield
Xpander (Edit) - Sasha
Pressure - Sunscreem
Silver Screen (Shower Scene) - Felix da Housecat
The Longest Road (Downtempo Mix) - Morgan Page
Moses - 808 State
She's My Pusher - The Crystal Method
Breakn' a Sweat - Skrillex
Episode 28 - Shazam
Decided to pick some random songs from my Shazam backlog. Because of that, it's a little more eclectic than usual. I did re-arrange the song listing to hopefully flow better, but no guarantee. These are songs I like and I feel the need to say that because I do use Shazam a lot to track shit that I don't even want to hear (Justin Bieber and Bob Dylan for example).
"In Your Eyes" by Jessie Ware has a vibe like it's an obscure late 90s/early 00s trip-hop/pop song featured in an indie movie and same goes for "Dub In Ya Mind". Marcus Layton's cover of Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy" continues my trend of really enjoying dance artists covering classic songs. It's definitely a weakness for me.
Of the songs on this playlist, "Medusa" disappoints me in that I originally used Shazam thinking someone was trying to bring back darkwave, but it turns out the song is from 1986. Even worse, it was released by 4AD and I feel like that's an embarrasing lack of knowledge for me.
No genre of music hits me harder than the Blues. Time stops, my foot taps, and my head might as well be a slow-ass bobble head. For me, it's the definitive American genre. It was a surprise when I Shazam'd (I don't know how else to describe the act) "Sweet Thang" and found out it was Shuggie Otis. I had only known him for "Strawberry Letter 23" previously.
Lastly, "What Was It You Wanted" by Bettye LaVetta was heard when I was demoing speakers. It sounds good on headphones, but it really opens up on a great sound system. There are some songs that are engineered in such a way that headphones just don't do them justice and this is one of them.
In Your Eyes - Jessie Ware
Dub in Ya Mind - Afterlife
Eye for An Eye - Rina Sawayama
Smalltown Boy - Marcus Layton
Luna (Moon of Claiming) - Cemeteries
Close to the Clouds - Art School Girlfriend
Medusa - Clan of Xymox
When My Day Comes - Buddy Guy
Sweet Thang - Shuggie Otis
What Was It You Wanted - Bettye LaVette