Sharon Jones

Einstürzende Neubauten, “Stella Maris”

Ende Neu felt like a bit of a reset for the band, which makes some sense after one of the founding members departed. There’s a lot more things on here that you’d characterize as songs, even nice ones. That’s not to say that it’s conventional, just that the surface of it is pretty conventional. But as always, Neubauten is in the details, and it’s a good album after you dig in, although they’d get more comfortable in this new format on subsequent records.

Danny Brown, “Greatest Rapper Ever”

I love the hubris in naming the first track on your debut album “Greatest Rapper Ever”. It’s a little like the now forgotten Cinder Block naming their first LP Greatest Hits, something I think about a lot even though I’m probably the only person who ever thinks about Cinder Block. Including, likely, the members.

I’m sure other bands have done the same bit, but that one sticks with me.

STS, “All I Wanted Was A Caddy”

I’ve sung the praises of this record, but the STS and RJD2 colab from 2015 is such a gas. RJD2 is in great form, and STS is able to really bring it home on that platform. A really delightful record.

Sharon Jones, “Got a Thing On My Mind”

Hell yeah!

Lambchop, “The Daily Growl”

Lambchop’s Nixon was something of a breakthrough, gaining a lot of press attention and elevating the profile of the band. Their arrangements had been getting more and more elaborate, and Nixon is pretty busy (as Lambchop goes). So the question was, on their followup, would they keep going in that direction? No, as it turns out. Is A Woman is something of a retrenchment. The songs are pretty languid, and it’s clear at this point that Lambchop was going to just blaze their own path through music, being impossible to categorize but recognizable as just being themselves. From this album forward, Lambchop albums pretty much just always sound like Lambchop albums, and not a whole lot else.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, “Got A Thing On My Mind”

More from Miss Sharon Jones! This is the first proper song on the first Sharon Jones album, and my goodness, what a way to announce themselves. This is one of the albums that really got Daptone rolling, and it’s a great record.

The Nation of Ulysses, “Shakedown”

A thing that is pretty incredible about the Nation of Ulysses is that Ian Svenonius was able to keep up this kind of shredding vocals for any period of time. Impressive stuff!

Fuckin’ Christmas! YEAH! Gonna find some Christmas tunes for us today! Just going to pick some recent Christmas albums and take a random track from them. Ooh, bonus: PUP playing a Christmas adaptation of “Kids” with some puppets dancing around!

Calexico, “Seasonal Shift”

The title track from Calexico’s just released Christmas album, Calexico is a natural for making a lovely Christmas album. Everything this band does is beautiful, so it’s going to fit totally in with the season. I heartily endorse this record!

The Regrettes, “Hot”

The Regrettes’ debut record from 2017, Feel Your Feelings Fool!, is a delightful slab of garage rock. Like any good garage rock, it’s full of energy, hooks, and attitude. This kind of record is perpetually welcome as far as I’m concerned, and I really recommend it.

The Birthday Party, “Figure of Fun”

Groundbreaking post-punk band The Birthday Party, featuring a young Nick Cave, in a lot of ways set the template for noise rock. While there are plenty of bands after them that kind of sound like them, or tried to, there aren’t really any predecessors that I’m aware of. One of the truly inspirational bands in music history, at least for the kind of stuff I listen to.

Sharon Jones, “Make It Good To Me”

Fuck me, listen to that organ. I try and play a decent amount of soul around the kids, because it’s just such amazing music, and with luck, they’ll get the same appreciation of it. I try not to make a big deal about it, but my dad used to do the same thing, and it just kind of seeped into my brain. I’m trying the same approach, as it worked on me!

Good one today!

Queen, “The Prophet’s Song”

I’ve made the comparison before, but I don’t know if I’ve made it here or not: power metal is just Queen played fast. All the over-the-top theatrics and corn are there in spades. Sure, there are usually fewer elves in your average Queen song, and there are more wheedly-weedly solos in power metal, but nevertheless, they’re basically the same.

Sharon Jones, “Pick It Up, Lay It In The Cut”

The first Sharon Jones record was rawer than what would follow, which is A-OK by me. Not to say that all of her records aren’t great, but there’s something about the filthy sound of those drums that gets me going.

Barely got this done today.

Sharon Jones, “Natural Born Lover”

Look, I don’t think I’m a great writer, or even a good one, when it comes to music. Hell, I probably don’t really rise to “adequate”. My failing is that a lot of these entries are pretty shallow. I’m also unable to really evoke what it’s like to listen to these folks. Also, my comparisons are not great. And…

…hang on, let’s try this again. I’m saying that these mostly suck, but whatever, listen to this fucking song. Goddammit, this is some great shit.

Great stuff!

They Might Be Giants, “What Is A Shooting Star?”

You know, now that I’m doing this on a platform with a functional tagging system, I could have just tagged each of these entries with each band, and then I wouldn’t need the index. But we wouldn’t have the “previouslys” either, and I kind of like them? But this is also a hassle to maintain this. And, well, I don’t know if I want to convert everything over.