Reach out for that hand - 10/26 show

Since I've taken to naming my playlists for a line from the first song I play, I've been avoiding playing the Cocteau Twins as my first song. This week, I forgot. The Cocteau Twins lyrics are usually a combination of indecypherable syllables ("sah-bo-sah-tah-tah-tah") and nonsense phrases ("sugar hiccups on cheerios"); "Carolyn's Fingers" seems to be entirely the former (though I did find a web page purporting to have the lyrics to this song). I was introduced to the Cocteau Twins in high school, when my sister gave me a copy of Lonely is an Eyesore, a sort of sampler from the label 4AD. The Cocteau Twins are represented by the song "Crushed", and I liked it a lot. (The same album introduced me to the Wolfgang Press and Dead Can Dance, bands whose albums I later bought, and who I've played on my show.) "Carolyn's Fingers" came out when I was in high school, and features arpeggio-like vocal that I remember my friend Eleanor describing as "root toot toot". It's also a standout track on Blue Bell Knoll, and really a standout track in the Cocteau Twins whole career (though perhaps not truly indicative of their sound, in the way "How Soon Is Now" is not indicative of the Smiths' sound).

While in Italy I picked up one CD. I didn't go music shopping, as I had in France (and even Spain). I have no faith that I'd find anything worthwhile. I have no fondness for Italian pop, though truth be told, I have no particular fondness for French pop either (though it's come a long way since the 80's). I am sure that there are good Italian rock bands out there, but I think it would take more time than I'd like to find it. (For French music, I know a decent music store in Paris, and more importantly, I can get recommendations from my Parisian friend Graziella.)

In any event, this is a long wind up to saying that I bought one CD in Italy, and the music isn't even Italian. It's Gypsy music — or more properly, Roma music. I was in Piazza Santa Croce, and a couple of men were playing music, so I sat a little and listened. One man played a double bass, and the other a very large dulcimer. Dulcimer playing is impressive to watch, because it's done with two little hammers on a sea of strings; it's rather like a doing away with the piano keyboard, opening the lid, and hitting the strings directly. One wonders how they hit the right notes, while playing so quickly, though perhaps it's no harder than piano. In any event, I was inspired to buy a CD. Two were available — one of international classics ("La Vie en Rose", "Volare", etc.), and the other of Roma music. The group, and the CD, are awkwardly named Gruppo Romm Dracula's. The CD features dulcimer and bass, plus accordion and violin. I chose a track featuring virtuoso dulcimer and some accordion, though no violin. As you might expect, it's a great up-tempo number (from a CD of great up-tempo numbers). There's always a risk to buying a CD off the street; what if it's not good? What if you never listen to it? It's not returnable. In any event, in this case I'm happy with my choice.

I don't really know enough to write intelligently about Wesley Willis, but he was really a unique case. He was a street musician and street person in Chicago (he died a few years ago); a mentally ill man whose raw, quirky music somehow grabbed the attention of the punk scene. "I'm Sorry that I Got Fat" features a real backing band with funky bass and syncopated, punkish drumming. The theme? It's all about how Willis gained weight while eating too many hamburgers. "I'm sorry that I got fat | I'm sorry that I got fat | I'm sorry that I got fat | I will try to slim down." For all the quirkiness of the lyrics, though, Willis seems to be completely earnest — he's odd by nature, and it's not a clever pose.

Sometimes I think I don't play enough Laurie Anderson. I started today's track, "Born, Never Asked," and got a call from regular caller Pete thanking me for the selection, and I told him I thought maybe I didn't play her enough. Then I got another call (just after my shift ended, while I was refiling CDs) from a listener requesting "more Laurie Anderson!" So I guess some people agree with me, and I think I'll try to fit in a track a week for a while. (I could easily play a track a week for a year without repeating, and play a good track every time.) Anderson has been a favorite of mine since I discovered her in roughly the mid-80's. "Born, Never Asked" is an early track that, instead of having sung or spoken-sung lyrics, begins with a short poem that is followed by a trance-like rhythmic instrumental. It's not a really standout track; it's the sort of rich track you find while digging deeper into an album. Laurie Anderson has a lot of tracks like that.

artist	song	album	label
The Cocteau Twins	Carolyn's Fingers	Blue Bell Knoll	4AD
The Smiths	Handsome Devil	Hatful of Hollow	Sire
The Super Furry Animals	Ysbeidiau Heulog	Mwng	Rhapsody
*Siouxsie	Loveless	Mantaray	Decca
*Miss Alex White & the Red Orchestra	Future Talk	Space & Time	In the Red
Wesley Willis	I'm Sorry that I Got Fat	Greatest Hits	Alternative Tentacles
Hugh Reed and the Velvet Underpants	Car Nicked	Take a Walk on the Clydeside	self-released
*Devendra Banhart	Tonada Yanomamista	Smokey Rolls down Thunder Mountain	XL
*Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings	When the Other Foot Drops, Uncle	100 Days 100 Nights	Daptone
The Smoking Popes	Stormy Weather	The Party's Over	Double Zero
The Judybats	Wasting Time	Pain Makes You Beautiful	Sire
David Bowie	V-2 Schneider	Heroes	Virgin
Tanya Donelly	Landspeed Song	Lovesongs for Underdogs	Reprise
Ben Folds Five	Smoke	Whatever and Ever Amen	Epic
*The Sadies	Anna Leigh	New Season	Yep Roc
Tom Waits	The Heart of Saturday Night	The Heart of Saturday Night	Asylum
The Mountain Goats	Sinaloan Milk Snake Song	Zopilote Machine	3 Beads of Sweat
Rufus Wainwright	Little Sister	Want Two	Geffen
*Beirut	bonus track, #12	The Flying Club Cup	Ba Da Bing!
*The Go! Team	I Never Needed It Now So Much	Proof of Youth	Sub Pop
Le Tigre	Viz	The Island	Universal/Strummer
Gruppo Romm Dracula's	Samba Dracula's	Gruppo Romm Dracula's	Romm
*Black Francis	Your Mouth into Mine	Bluefinger	Cooking Vinyl
Troubled Hubble	Nancy	Penturbia	Latest Flame Records
Os Mutantes	Não vá se perder por aí	Mutantes	Polydor
*Patrick Watson	The Great Escape	Close to Paradise	Secret City
Andrew Bird	Measuring Cups	The Mysterious Production of Eggs	Righteous Babe
Laurie Anderson	Born Never Asked	Talk Normal (Anthology)	Rhino
*Tunng	Hands	Good Arrows	Thrill Jockey

Labels: music, playlists

posted by Tony at 12:20 PM