![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Friday A.M. Insomnia Random Ten
Nov. 24th, 2006 08:31 amNo reason to be up, but been up for an hour, trying to go back to sleep with no success. So lemme get my Friday blog responsibilities out of the way, as two cats bug me, wanting attention (especially Hooker, who's plopped himself behind my left elbow on the lukewarm radiator, occasionally dragging a paw of claws across my arm, demanding an ear scratch, making his quiet wheezy-purr sound).
1. "Ode to Divorce" - Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch
Not my favorite RS (that would be "Back of a Truck," best song I've heard in years), but good. It always takes her a moment to get over my learned response reaction to female piano-playing singer/songwriters (mild nausea, which makes no sense, as I like some Tori Amos and all the Fiona Apple I've heard). She's real good, and at some point that realization kicks in when her lyrics, or singing, or arrangements just go someplace special. Here she finally cuts loose vocally, and a cello comes in, and she's got me.
2. "Already There" - Bell - Perfect Math
My old friend Vanessa's band from Seattle; their one minor regional radio hit. Good song that somehow reminds me of both "Pretty Vacant" and "King's Lead Hat" (which, knowing V, would not be an unlikely combination for her to be influenced by here). I miss Vanessa, who I last saw around '98 when Bell toured to NYC to promote this EP, but I miss this band almost as much.
3. "Toi L'ami" - Richard Anthony - Foreign Language Fun, Vol. 1
"All My Loving" en français. Cute, pleasant, with a completely out-of-place "country-sounding" guitar solo.
4. "Along Came Jones" - The Coasters - Atlantic Rhythm & Blues vol. 4 1957-1961
Love love love The Coasters, but I'm not sure what the metaphor is here (if there IS one, but given Lieber & Stoller's penchant for hiding deep meanings in simple-sounding "comedy" songs, there's GOTTA be one . . .). If I had more of my favorite Coasters songs, I probably wouldn't have this one on the iTunes, but someone lifted my 2-disc Coasters collection from me a few years ago at the theatre I was living/working at -- the best Coasters collection ever assembled, now out of print, dammit -- and I'm stuck with just the handful of tracks I have on other R&B/doo-wop comps.
5. "Highway Toes" - Christopher Guest - The Best of The National Lampoon Radio Hour
Guest viciously parodying James Taylor, live from National Lampoon's Lemmings. At first I thought it was real James Taylor and steeled myself for annoyance (even before Guest does his perfect imitation, they've got the musical intro down perfectly - John Belushi on bass and Chevy Chase on drums, interestingly enough). I know I have some Taylor on the iTunes, I think because I listened to a couple that I did in fact like as a random respite from the large amounts of loud violent guitar-based rock and roll on here, but Taylor's another singer/songwriter I've had to get over feeling immediately "icky" about.
6. "Everybody's Laughing" - The Spaniels - The Doo-Wop Box III, Disk 1: "The Hits"
Ah, lovely doo-wop. Great song, great vocal, great rhythm. Simple. Not a classic. But good.
7. "Davy the Fat Boy" - Randy Newman - Guilty: 30 Years Of Randy Newman: The Studio Recordings
I used to like this song a lot more, but it's nice hearing it again after a few years. Last song on Newman's first album, with an overdone Van Dyke Parks arrangement. Nasty and cutting.
8. "World Before Columbus" - Suzanne Vega - Nine Objects of Desire
A favorite song from a favorite album (the one where I finally felt Vega got everything right). This love song was "spoiled" a bit for me on finding out it's written for her child -- there's so few actual good not-so-sappy man/woman love songs out there (desire songs, sure, lust songs, oh yeah, real love songs not to make you vomit? not so much) -- but you don't have to read it that way. Hard to not do that though, once you know who she wrote it for. Oops, sorry.
One of the best-damned produced albums there is. Mitchell Froom, married to Vega at the time (very much a "post-marriage-and-first-child" album), responsible for that. Their previous record, 99.9 F°, was a bit overdone - Froom seemed to be a little too enamored of the odd sounds he got from working with all the Tom Waits band alumni on Elvis Costello's Spike. Much simpler and appropriate here, with some of the best piano and drum sounds I've ever heard on record.
9."Old Kentucky Home" - The Beau Brummels - Triangle
Woah, haven't heard this one yet - downloaded the album, liking the band. It IS the Randy Newman song, for gods sake. Great version. Kind of at a strange, hysterical pitch, but good. Short, too. Did they cut a verse?
10. "Uninhabited Man (live)" - Richard Thompson - Live from Austin, TX
Recent, unfamiliar, okay-but-not-great song from one of my favorite singer-songwriter-guitarists. Don't know it so well. Frankly, sounds like a lot of other stuff of his I like better. Oh, right, there it is, the bridge is different and really good. That's right. That's what saves this one. Nice drumming.
Pleasant start to the day. A relaxing, singer/songwriter day, I guess . . .
1. "Ode to Divorce" - Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch
Not my favorite RS (that would be "Back of a Truck," best song I've heard in years), but good. It always takes her a moment to get over my learned response reaction to female piano-playing singer/songwriters (mild nausea, which makes no sense, as I like some Tori Amos and all the Fiona Apple I've heard). She's real good, and at some point that realization kicks in when her lyrics, or singing, or arrangements just go someplace special. Here she finally cuts loose vocally, and a cello comes in, and she's got me.
2. "Already There" - Bell - Perfect Math
My old friend Vanessa's band from Seattle; their one minor regional radio hit. Good song that somehow reminds me of both "Pretty Vacant" and "King's Lead Hat" (which, knowing V, would not be an unlikely combination for her to be influenced by here). I miss Vanessa, who I last saw around '98 when Bell toured to NYC to promote this EP, but I miss this band almost as much.
3. "Toi L'ami" - Richard Anthony - Foreign Language Fun, Vol. 1
"All My Loving" en français. Cute, pleasant, with a completely out-of-place "country-sounding" guitar solo.
4. "Along Came Jones" - The Coasters - Atlantic Rhythm & Blues vol. 4 1957-1961
Love love love The Coasters, but I'm not sure what the metaphor is here (if there IS one, but given Lieber & Stoller's penchant for hiding deep meanings in simple-sounding "comedy" songs, there's GOTTA be one . . .). If I had more of my favorite Coasters songs, I probably wouldn't have this one on the iTunes, but someone lifted my 2-disc Coasters collection from me a few years ago at the theatre I was living/working at -- the best Coasters collection ever assembled, now out of print, dammit -- and I'm stuck with just the handful of tracks I have on other R&B/doo-wop comps.
5. "Highway Toes" - Christopher Guest - The Best of The National Lampoon Radio Hour
Guest viciously parodying James Taylor, live from National Lampoon's Lemmings. At first I thought it was real James Taylor and steeled myself for annoyance (even before Guest does his perfect imitation, they've got the musical intro down perfectly - John Belushi on bass and Chevy Chase on drums, interestingly enough). I know I have some Taylor on the iTunes, I think because I listened to a couple that I did in fact like as a random respite from the large amounts of loud violent guitar-based rock and roll on here, but Taylor's another singer/songwriter I've had to get over feeling immediately "icky" about.
6. "Everybody's Laughing" - The Spaniels - The Doo-Wop Box III, Disk 1: "The Hits"
Ah, lovely doo-wop. Great song, great vocal, great rhythm. Simple. Not a classic. But good.
7. "Davy the Fat Boy" - Randy Newman - Guilty: 30 Years Of Randy Newman: The Studio Recordings
I used to like this song a lot more, but it's nice hearing it again after a few years. Last song on Newman's first album, with an overdone Van Dyke Parks arrangement. Nasty and cutting.
8. "World Before Columbus" - Suzanne Vega - Nine Objects of Desire
A favorite song from a favorite album (the one where I finally felt Vega got everything right). This love song was "spoiled" a bit for me on finding out it's written for her child -- there's so few actual good not-so-sappy man/woman love songs out there (desire songs, sure, lust songs, oh yeah, real love songs not to make you vomit? not so much) -- but you don't have to read it that way. Hard to not do that though, once you know who she wrote it for. Oops, sorry.
One of the best-damned produced albums there is. Mitchell Froom, married to Vega at the time (very much a "post-marriage-and-first-child" album), responsible for that. Their previous record, 99.9 F°, was a bit overdone - Froom seemed to be a little too enamored of the odd sounds he got from working with all the Tom Waits band alumni on Elvis Costello's Spike. Much simpler and appropriate here, with some of the best piano and drum sounds I've ever heard on record.
9."Old Kentucky Home" - The Beau Brummels - Triangle
Woah, haven't heard this one yet - downloaded the album, liking the band. It IS the Randy Newman song, for gods sake. Great version. Kind of at a strange, hysterical pitch, but good. Short, too. Did they cut a verse?
10. "Uninhabited Man (live)" - Richard Thompson - Live from Austin, TX
Recent, unfamiliar, okay-but-not-great song from one of my favorite singer-songwriter-guitarists. Don't know it so well. Frankly, sounds like a lot of other stuff of his I like better. Oh, right, there it is, the bridge is different and really good. That's right. That's what saves this one. Nice drumming.
Pleasant start to the day. A relaxing, singer/songwriter day, I guess . . .
