Tag: yolatengo

New mix: Exfiltration Radio: tinsel covered Christmas blues

“Cold War Christmas, 1960,” from Shorpy.com

It’s time for more Christmas craziness, so break out the eggnog, put up your feet, close that window that’s blowing open, and enjoy! Big range this time, with tracks from Yo La Tengo, Low and Jane Siberry joining the expected bits of old blues and funk.

The tunes:

  1. The Last Month Of The Year – Vera Hall Ward (Where Will You Be Christmas Day?)
  2. Getting Ready for Christmas Day – Paul Simon (So Beautiful or So What)
  3. A Groovy Christmas and New Year (Kojo Donkoh) – Houghas Sorowonko (A Groovy Christmas and New Year (Kojo Donkoh))
  4. It’s Christmas Time – Yo La Tengo (Merry Christmas From Yo La Tengo)
  5. Christmas In Jail – Ain’t That A Pain – Leroy Carr (Where Will You Be Christmas Day?)
  6. When It’s Christmas Time on the Range – Bob Wills (Lit Up Like A Christmas Tree II: The Eggnog Is Spiked)
  7. To Heck With Ole Santa Claus – Loretta Lynn (Lit Up Like A Christmas Tree – A Vintage Holiday Mixtape)
  8. The Christmas Blues – Bob Dylan (Christmas In the Heart)
  9. Santa’s Got A Bag O’ Soul – Soul Saints Orchestra (Lit Up Like A Christmas Tree II: The Eggnog Is Spiked)
  10. Merry Christmas Baby – Bootsy Collins (Christmas Is 4 Ever)
  11. Xmas Done Got Funky – Jimmy Jules & Nuclear Soul System (Santa’s Funk & Soul Christmas Party Vol.1-3)
  12. Christmas on Riverside Drive – August Darnell (A Christmas Record)
  13. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Dread Zeppelin (Presents)
  14. Go Where I Send Thee – Fred Waring & The Pennsylvanians (The Sounds of Christmas)
  15. Some Hearts (at Christmas Time) – Low (Some Hearts (at Christmas Time))
  16. Like a Snowman – Tracey Thorn (Tinsel and Lights)
  17. Are You Burning, Little Candle? – Jane Siberry (New York Trilogy III: Child (Music For The Christmas Season))
  18. Sherburne – Alabama Sacred Harp Singers (Where Will You Be Christmas Day?)
  19. Merry Christmas – A Festival of Village Carols, Grenoside (English Village Carols: Traditional Christmas Carolling from the Southern Pennines)

Christmas comes but once a year, but when it does, it brings good cheer.

Listen…

Friday bootleg time

An assortment of selections from Doom and Gloom from the Tomb that I’ve been meaning to check out for a while. In reverse chronological order (of posting, not of recording).

Sonic Youth, Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, North Carolina, August 5, 2000 – falling neatly in between the first show I saw of theirs and the next two, squarely in the middle of their NYC Ghosts and Flowers period. Be ready for beat poetry.

Pharoah Sanders – Festival de Jazz de Nice, Nice, France, July 18, 1971  – Live Pharoah? Yes please.

Bill Evans Trio – Pescara Festival, Italy, July 18, 1969 / Vara Studio, Hilversum, Holland; March 26, 1969 – two live Bill Evans dates that sound worth checking out.

Yo La Tengo Does Dylan  – of course they do. Curious about the cover of “I’ll Keep It With Mine,” which is on the short list of Dylan songs that I’d consider singing in public.

Leonard Cohen – The Paris Theatre, London, March 20, 1968 – OMG.

New mix: Happy time

The aftermath of a big flood feels like the right time to publish my first mix in about six months. Happy time is one part of a two part mix. This time, I might not ever get around to part two, because it’s the downside of this mix, and I’m enjoying the happy side too much.

Track list:

  1. Finest Worksong (Mutual Drum Horn Mix) – R.E.M. (Eponymous)
  2. Reena – Sonic Youth (Rather Ripped)
  3. Moby Octopad – Yo La Tengo (I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One)
  4. Scared Straight – The Long Winters (When I Pretend To Fall)
  5. Hot Pants Road – The J.B.’s (Pass the Peas: The Best of the J.B.’s)
  6. I’ll Take You There – The Staple Singers (Best of the Staple Singers)
  7. Helicopter – M. Ward (Transfiguration Of Vincent)
  8. Beautiful – Paul Simon (Surprise)
  9. Cello Song – Nick Drake (Five Leaves Left)
  10. It’s Not the Only Way to Feel Happy – Field Music (Field Music)
  11. Thirteen – Big Star (#1 Record – Radio City)
  12. Hopefully – My Morning Jacket (At Dawn)
  13. Fistful Of Love – Antony and the Johnsons (I Am A Bird Now)
  14. No Man in the World – Tindersticks (Can Our Love…)
  15. Happy Time – Tim Buckley (Morning Glory: The Tim Buckley Anthology)
  16. People Got a Lotta Nerve – Neko Case (Middle Cyclone (Bonus Track Version))
  17. Sweet Thing – Van Morrison (Astral Weeks)
  18. Number Two – Pernice Brothers (Yours, Mine and Ours)

Commentary: Did R.E.M. record “Finest Worksong” with the horns in mind, or was it a cynical touch by some producer when it was time to release the single? It reads as a brilliant move, though, 22 years later. I’m of two minds about “Reena”–such a simple song for Sonic Youth–but the fact that I can’t get it out of my head two years on settles it for me. Ditto “Moby Octopad”, which is less a song than an extended riff, but no less brilliant for that.

“Scared Straight,” on the other hand, is a song, and a flipping brilliant one. And the horns alone are worth the price of admission. The horns also provide a great segue into “Hot Pants Road,” which makes a very nice segue into “I’ll Take You There.” A nice little singer songwriter set–“Helicopter,” Paul Simon’s “Beautiful,” “Cello Song”–follows, before we get into the psychosexual set of “Thirteen,” “It’s Not the Only Way To Feel Happy,” “Hopefully,” and “Fistful of Love” (and only Lou Reed could set up that song).

And then the last set. I won’t say anything about it, except that “Sweet Thing” may be the greatest single song ever. How was it that I missed out on Astral Weeks for all this time?

(Update: now on Art of the Mix.)