Category: Listen

  • Mad Men: Teaching the World to Sing

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    It’s a TV show, it’s a playlist. Can you match the closing song with the episode? You can? Turn off the TV. There are lots of these. Not choosing favorites, but the first one below does make it through to “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”: Or just cut to the chase:

  • The Real Book, Vol. 1

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    Ever play jazz? Jazz ensemble in high school maybe? Then you’ve likely encountered The Real Book. Wikipedia backgrounds: An underground series of books transcribed and collated by students at Berklee College of Music during the 1970s. It got its name to distinguish it from the widely available fake books which printed only chords and lyrics of…

  • Life on Mars

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    It’s a book, it’s a playlist: The Martian, by Andy Weir, in which an astronaut is mistakenly left alone on Mars to fend for himself and has to summon all his MacGyver/Castaway-ish/sarcastic-quipping powers to survive sol after sol on the barren Red Planet. During down time (when, say, the H2 oxidizer has to replenish the…

  • Swearin’ to God

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    It’s a movie, it’s a playlist. Just watched “Jersey Boys” in pieces on cable. Once you settle in to not expecting the Scorcese movie it could’ve been, there’s amusement to be had there. The moment the band comes up with its name (via a bowling alley sign)…or with the title “Big Girls Don’t Cry” (watching…

  • Sounds Familiar: Chuck Berry v. The Beatles

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    New post series: Sounds Familiar. Homages, rip-offs, lawsuits, and the songs that have lived to tell. Exhibit A: Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me” and some Beatles tune you may know. From Wikipedia: In 1973, “Come Together” was the subject of a lawsuit brought against Lennon by Big Seven Music Corp. (owned by Morris Levy)…

  • Isolated: “Come Together” Comes Apart

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    Groovin’ up slowly, piece by piece: Vox: Keys here. Everything else linked from there. And here’s everything you wanted to know about the song @Wikipedia.

  • This is Grunge

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    What is such-and-such a time/place/scene in music? We’ll ask and answer from time to time. This is a quick ‘n’ easy one: What is grunge? This is grunge: A punk/heavy metal hybrid that emerged in Seattle during the late 1980s. Guitars were sludgy, lyrics typically angst-filled, shirts flannel, and authenticity valued above most else. The…

  • It’s a Book, It’s a Playlist: Everybody Loves Our Town, by Mark Yarm

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    It’s an oral history of grunge, it’s a playlist. Here are the Mark Yarm’s Seattle grunge essentials, dumped into Spotify for your time/space-travelling pleasure. The author’s complete list, without Spotify holes: 1. Mudhoney “Touch Me I’m Sick” 2. U-Men “They” 3. Green River “Ain’t Nothing to Do” 4. Soundgarden “Nothing to Say” 5. Nirvana “Love…

  • David Ruffin Isolated and More Isolated

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    David Ruffin knows you want to leave him, but refuses to let you go. With Temptations:   Not with:

  • Bonus Tracks: Talking Heads

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    Grabbed from each of the deluxe releases, plus the Once in a Lifetime box, plus the Bonus Outtakes and Rarities release (then pruned for repeats), here’re the collected Talking Heads bonus tracks as available this day in history via Spotify. Outraged that something got missed? Consider using the mantra offered in “Found of Job” (re…