Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Silver And Gold (Day 95)

The Arcade Fire - "Neon Bible"
Television - "See No Evil"
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - "We Call Upon The Author"
Ryan Adams - "Don't Ask For The Water"
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - "Jungleland" (live)
Silver Jews - "Sometimes A Pony Gets Depressed"
Today's best song title, no? A weird one from Pavement pal David Berman's band off of 2005's Tanglewood Numbers I think this was the album where the band jumped the shark (or is it nuked the fridge?) for me. I think they even have a new album out that I've uncharacteristically totally ignored. American Water is the pinnacle.
Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs - "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"
Neil Young - "Families"
Neil Young - "Homegrown"
It's two-for-Tuesday (on Wednesday!). The iPod got a little Neil-happy this morning. "Families," is actually one of the better songs of Living With War, a record that suffers from being way too topical. Although with the state of the world hardly improving over the past year it doesn't look like it's going to really be out-of-date any time soon. And "Homegrown" closes the 1977 album American Stars 'n Bars. Here's your fun fact about that album (best known for the song "Like A Hurricane"): The cover was designed by actor Dean Stockwell. In case you're not familiar with it, this is what it looks like:


















Yes, that's a plastered Neil with his face pressed against the glass. And the woman with the red heels is producer David Briggs' girlfriend, Connie Moskos, who reveals, in Shakey: Neil Young's Biography, "They put me in some horrible dance-hall outfit. I called my mom. She said, 'Just tell me one thing – you have panties on.'" Good thing this album wasn't recorded in 2007 and the producer was dating Lindsay Lohan...
Tony Scherr - "While I Was Gone"
Joe Strummer - "Silver And Gold"
Papercuts - "Found Bird"
Kings Of Leon - "Black Thumbnail" (live)

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 13
Total minutes of music (approx.): 52
Song with the most previous plays: "Silver And Gold" - 11
How I Rate Today's Playlist (1-10): 5
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: It was pleasant and uneventful.

7 comments:

comoprozac said...

Absolutely. American Water was Berman's peak. However, you should check out the new record. It's not as good as AW, but it's a solid album. He's lost some edge and he's not lyrically as strong, but the album is more complete.

I'm sorry, but Neil Young has released some rather terrible record covers over the years.

Uncle E said...

Another great, varied list. I just re-listened to "Streetcore" the other day and Silver and Gold and especially his cover of Redmption Song are two bittersweet, but wonderful, recordings. Right up there with the best of the Clash.

Anonymous said...

I just caught up with the week of blogs and noticed that you listened to Nurse and Soldier on Tuesday. Is that Erica and Rob Thacher (of Onieda)? Didn't know they had a CD.

GE said...

Well, you know I love me some Neil, but I can't refute that, CP. I was trying to decide which one is the worst. Trans? Everybody's Rockin'? Re-ac-tor? (Notice they're all pretty bad albums too...) I think Are You Passionate? might be my least favorite. Uggh, so maudlin.

Yes, E. Those Mescaleros albums are pretty great.

And Nurse & Soldier totally is Erica and Rob, Anonymous. You can get their CD here.

pcup said...

weird - a neil day, but not his "silver and gold." well, maybe not that weird.

GE said...

P-Cup! I missed you, my bald friend. I didn't even make that connection. Actually, I haven't thought about/litsened to that album in a while. It's a good one though. What do you think?

pcup said...

it's pretty good - not bad. the main problem is that if you're in the mood for that kind of neil album, you're not going to reach for it.