Show #279--4/24/11

Baby Let’s Play House—Arthur Gunter

Pretty Thing—Steve Miller Band

Eggs Over Easy—Martina Sorbara

Stamp—The Rural Alberta Advantage

Swift Coin—Land of Talk

Second Song—TV on the Radio

Rope—Foo Fighters

Angry Chair—Alice in Chains

Unluck—James Blake

I Could Give You (a Mirror)—Eurythmics

Take Me With U—Prince and the Revolution

Can’t Wait to See You—Eurogliders

Gentle Hum—The Finn Brothers

Hour 2—Billboard Hot 100 Spotlight:  April 25, 1986

Da hits from 25 years ago, jumping around the Hot 100 in Sunday Sampler style.  Featuring music from: The Bangles, Bourgeois Tagg, Greg Kihn Band, INXS, Janet Jackson, Nu Shooz, Robert Palmer, and more.

Show #278--4/17/11

T.O.R.N.A.D.O—The Go! Team

Stylo—Gorillaz (feat. Mos Def & Bobby Womack)

Machismo—Gomez

You—Abra Moore

We’re on Our Way—Chris Hodge

Carnival—Burning Airlines

Bootstraps—Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives

Oh Well—Fleetwood Mac

The Wind Cries Mary—Jimi Hendrix Experience

Sincerely Jasper—Jasper & the Prodigal Sons

The Words That Maketh Murder—PJ Harvey

You See Everything—Low

Hour 2—Singing About Dancing

Swayin’ to the Music (Slow Dancin’)—Johnny Rivers

Slow Dancing Don’t Turn Me On—The Addrisi Brothers

Blame it on the Boogie—The Jacksons  

Ain’t Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)—Joe Tex

I Got Ants in My Pants (and I Want to Dance)—James Brown

Boogie Nights—Heatwave

Dance Away—Roxy Music

Instant Club Hit (You’ll Dance to Anything)—The Dead Milkmen

Dancing in the Street—Martha & the Vandellas

I Gotta Dance to Keep from Crying—The Miracles

Nobody But Me—The Human Beinz

Let Her Dance—The Bobby Fuller Four

Save the Last Dance for Me—The Drifters

Dance Tonight—Paul McCartney

Land of 1000 Dances—Cannibal & the Headhunters

Show #277--4/10/11

We Will All Go Together When We Go—Tom Lehrer

Shake ‘Em on Down—Mississippi Fred McDowell

Hats Off to (Roy) Harper—Led Zeppelin

China Girl—Roy Harper

A Million Years—Alexander

Candlelighter Man—Fanny

Thunder and Lightning—Chi Coltrane

The Mama Papa—Plants and Animals

More Than You—Laki Mera

Better Than Nothing—Jennifer Trynin

I Do Not Play No Rock ‘n’ Roll—Dangerman

Library of Congress National Recording Registry 2011 Selections

Hour 2—You Don’t Know Me, I Don’t Know You

You Don’t Know Me—Ray Charles

Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out—Nina Simone

Who Was That Man?—Nick Lowe

Walk on By—Leroy Van Dyke

Daylight Stranger—Gary Puckett & the Union Gap

Take Time to Know Her—Percy Sledge

Danger! She’s a Stranger—The Five Stairsteps

People Are Strange—The Doors

She is Still a Mystery—The Lovin’ Spoonful

Beautiful People—Melanie

The Stranger—Billy Joel

Stranger in My Home Town—Foghat

Eyes of a Stranger—The Payola$

No One Here Knows Jane—Warren Zanes

Stranger to Himself—Traffic 

My name is Fred McDowell. They call me Miss'ippi Fred McDowell. But it, my home's in Ro[ss]ville Tennessee. But it don' make any different, it soun' good to me. I seem like I'm at home in there when I'm in Miss'ippi? An' I do not play no rock'an'roll y'all. I jus' play jus' straight an' natchel blue? An' whenever you get somebody, y'know, want to plo:w for you, just call for Fred McDowell, yeh. I wa[s] raised on the farm, y'unnerstan'? Now only way you can rock Fred, you have to put him in a rocking chair, or either lay me down, y'unnerstan, yeh. Heh, that's my type of rockin', yeh heh heh. [plays a line]

An' my type of blue? I play it with a bottleneck? I first got this style from a beef bone, y' understan' me. Rib wha' come out of a steak? My uncle, when I was a small boy in the country. He ground this bone down, and filed it with a file, and put 't'on his little fi[ae]nger. But I play't on my ri[ae]ng finger, y' understan'? An' nis a- dis here bottleneck sound better'n the bone, cause you get more clar- clear sound outa it. [plays a chord]

An' I, I would like for you to, you- who's never listen to me. [Come] over here an' buy one of the tape, a album, anything. I like for, I like for you to listen at what I'm saying. I'd make the guitar say what I say, y'understan'. [plays line] If I say 'Our Father'? it'll say 'Our Father'. [chord] If I give out a hymn? it'll say it. [chord] If I play '[A]mazin' Grace'? it'll si[ae]ng that too. [plays line] Now that's my style, what you hear me doing there. [plays line] I hope y'all like it, who's never git it.

Show #276--4/3/11

Plastic People—The Mothers of Invention

The World Ain’t Round It’s Square—The Savages

Cry—The Cyrkle

Aberdeen—Cage the Elephant

Howlin’ for You—The Black Keys

$300—Soul Coughing

Under Bridges and Overpasses—Modern Skirts

You Never Had it So Good—RJD2

K is for Kelson—Bibio

Me and Baby Brother—War

Old Dirt Road—John Lennon

Touching Down—Therapies Son

Little Marriage—Lia Ices

Be My Wife—David Bowie

Hour 2—Coffee, Incidentally

Quirky themes continue:  Coffee in the lyrics, if not in the title (except for the last track):

Intergalactic—Beastie Boys

Everyday is a Winding Road—Sheryl Crow

Meet Virginia—Train

I Don’t Sleep, I Dream—R.E.M.

I’ve Found Someone of My Own—The Free Movement

Halley’s Waitress—Fountains of Wayne

Tom’s Diner—Suzanne Vega

Drivin’ My Life Away—Eddie Rabbitt

King of Anything—Sara Bareilles

Is She Really Going Out With Him?—Joe Jackson

Girl Inform Me—The Shins

You’re So Vain—Carly Simon

Speeding Cars—Imogen Heap

Black Coffee in Bed—Squeeze 

Show #275--3/27/11

Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey—Fats Domino

Heart of Steel—Galactic

Louisiana Blues—Clifton Chenier

Spiral Dance—Keith Jarrett

Wrong Side of the Moon—Squeeze

Birds Fly Away—Theresa Andersson

Jaded—Aerosmith

Greater Times on the Wayside/The River by the Garden—Zeus

Walk This World—Heather Nova

The Wilhelm Scream—James Blake

Gently—Spandau Ballet

Easy Lie—The Golden Boots

Hour 2—Simon & Garfunkel: Bridge Over Troubled Water (radio documentary)

Show #274--3/20/11

The Golden Age—The Asteroids Galaxy Tour

Official Secrets—M

Burn the City—Little Insects

Them That Do Nothing—Field Music

Whirring—The Joy Formidable

Peace One—Mahavishnu John McLaughlin

Carry—Ryan Montbleau Band

Carrying the Wet Wood—Maps & Atlases

Lock and Key—The Whispertown 2000

16 Days—Whiskeytown

Man of Devotion—Fools Garden

Conceived—Beth Orton

Hour 2—Parlor Game:   "The ____________s"

“Parlor Game” is a term I use when I come upon an idea for a theme that goes beyond simple explanation and into realms of obscurity that generally pleases the host most of all (only more so than usual this week).

So, as explanations go: In recent weeks, I’ve listened to enough music from groups that have one-word plurals as their names that it kind of stuck out to me, and I wondered if I would be able to assemble an hour’s worth of these groups. Not groups that follow the template “The _______s,” as there are millions of those, but just that one-word plural. 

Turns out…I was able to. It seems a more modern phenomenon, though there are a small number of older, familiar groups on tap tonight as well.

It’s probably best seen (heard) as just another mix, but there’s your explanation. These are the groups that made tonight’s mix (there are, of course, more; perhaps you know some yourself):  

Stay with Me—Faces

Put Us Back Together Right—Headlights

Too Late—Shoes

Arrow Through Me—Wings

Instant Weight Loss—Sparks

Just Got Lucky—JoBoxers

The Sugar Society—Cinwaves

Leyendecker—Battles

I am Trying—Greenskeepers

I See it Coming—Guards

Glow—Callers

King of the Beach—WAVVES

Bizness—tUnE-yArDs

What Remains—Foals 

Show #273--3/13/11

Banned (By the Man)—Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin

Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out)—The Hombres

Ain’t Gonna Rest (Till I Get You)—The Five Stairsteps

Run, Run, Run—Sly & the Family Stone

I See the Light—The Five Americans

Beginning to See the Light—The Velvet Underground

China Steps—Women

Sky Saw—Brian Eno

Come Back—J. Geils Band

Tears—The Phenomenal Handclap Band

Cry if You Want—The Who

All the Colors of the Dark—Grails

Behold a Marvel in the Darkness—Deerhoof

Hour 2—’72 Soul Review

Troglodyte (Cave Man)—The Jimmy Castor Bunch
I Gotcha—Joe Tex

Afro Strut—The Nite-Liters

Use Me—Bill Withers

King Heroin—James Brown

Starting All Over Again—Mel and Tim

Superfly—Curtis Mayfield

Why Can’t We Live Together—Timmy Thomas

In the Rain—The Dramatics

Way Back Home—Junior Walker & the All-Stars

Work to Do—The Isley Brothers

Rip Off—Laura Lee

Look What You Done for Me—Al Green

Keeper of the Castle—The Four Tops

Back Stabbers—The O’Jays

People Make the World Go Round—The Stylistics

 

Show #272--3/6/11

Night After Night—Conductor

It Ain’t None of Your Business—Missing Persons

Bizness—tUnE-yArDs

Pack Up—Eliza Doolittle

The Words That Maketh Murder—PJ Harvey

Bumpin’ Rap Tapes—Japanther

Think About Me—The Tubes

WHALE—Yellow Ostrich

Badaboom—Tapes ‘n Tapes

Don’t Always Look at the Rain—Howard Jones

Deadzy—John Scofield

Place in My Heart—Taylor McFerrin (feat. RYAT)

Mexico—The Soft Pack

Morning Sun—Robbie Williams

Hour 2—The Originals

Tonight, famous songs whose original versions were not hits (OK, save one, and not in this country, anyway); you may not have ever heard these, or perhaps not in a while. 

I’ve Got My Mind Set on You—James Ray

Suspicion—Elvis Presley

Everybody’s Talkin’—Fred Neil

All Along the Watchtower—Bob Dylan

Aquarius—Ronald Dyson (from “Hair” Original Cast)

Woodstock—Joni Mitchell (Live fromCelebration at Big Sur)

My Sweet Lord—Billy Preston

Sentimental Lady—Fleetwood Mac

Poor Poor Pitiful Me—Warren Zevon

Love is the Answer—Utopia

Family Man—Mike Oldfield

Blinded by the Light—Bruce Springsteen