WISHFUL THINKING

Listen to WISHFUL THINKING by The Knickerbockers.

Ran across this little gem the other day and thought, why don't I share it with you? Yes, you, sitting right there. This is from the same LP (the only LP, I believe) that spawned that perennial lost "Beatles" classic, Lies. This one is more of a lost Walker Brothers classic, if such a thing were possible.

You'll Never Walk Alone (But You'll Lose to Aston Villa)

Listen to YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE by Jerry Reed and Koko.

This year is shaping up quite a bit differently thus far isn't it? It does remind me of seasons past when Liverpool would finish very strongly and my Liverpool friends would spend most of their time bemoaning their awful August/September period which took them out of the running. Liverpool has had 4 or 5 seasons like that the last ten years.

SPLASH 1 (NOW I'M HOME)

Listen to SPLASH 1 (NOW I'M HOME) by The 13th Floor Elevators.

Since I had to go back into my backroom to fix the previous post, I thought I might as well share another tune here. I hope everybody's doing fine! I had a vacation beard about two hours ago, and now I don't. Now I'm home, indeed.

You'll Never Walk Alone (But You'll Lose to Tottenham)

Listen to YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE by J-League Supporters.

I wouldn't have posted today, except I knew I had one more of these songs already queued up.

Liverpool's loss was a bit of a surprise, and I feel bad for (soccer) John, but them's the breaks. I'm looking forward to seeing the highlights, but as I read somewhere, if you're sending on Voronin to rescue the points, you've got bigger problems than just one match. Anyway, time will tell when the next post here will be, but it certainly won't be for another week at least.

GOLDEN PHONE

Listen to GOLDEN PHONE by Micachu.

John here. I'm poking my head up to share a nice tune I heard recently in an advertisement for Brooklyn Bowl, which looks fantastic. Golden Phone is short and catchy, and that’s enough.

Photo: tree face.

This is becoming an alarming trend, but I have another excuse. My computer is officially zonked, so i can't upload more songs even if I wanted to. When it gets sorted out, I'll figure out what to do here next....

Until then, go to the beach!

LET ME TALK TO YOU

Listen to LET ME TALK TO YOU by Ray Price.

This has become one of my favorite country albums, bar none. I can't say it's among my favorite albums full stop, despite the bloggerly temptation to do so, but the songs have such depth and sophistication, at the same time it sounds so loose and un-self-conscious musically. If I was one of those blogs, I'd definitely post the entire album...

MUSICAWA SILT

Listen to MUSICAWA SILT by The Daktaris.

Hi all, we'll be getting back to regular programming soon enough, but I've been trying to enjoy patriotic festivities and also finish my (paid) work. Hope you all had as much fun as we did this weekend. Here's a funky number to tide you over. Also, you can go to our "radio station" on blip.fm and listen to hundreds of our picks there...

POP THE TRUNK

Listen to POP THE TRUNK by Real Live.

I've got a bit of a problem, in that I've almost run out OF songs to blog. My blogging technique this year has been to set aside half a day every month or so and just upload a ton of tunes I'd like to share. Once you do that, and tag them online, the blogging is really easy. But I haven't set aside that time for awhile, and it's finally caught up with me. So it might be another light week.

Anyway, metablogging is super boring, so here's the song.

Pop the Trunk is from Real Live's 1996 album "The Turnaround." This is what they call on the underground scene. And when you're on the underground hip hop scene, you can be hard to find. Especially if you have a google-proof name like "Real Live."

Fortunately, heads know about Real Live and plenty of people have talked about how great the record is. I heartily recommend the whole album, and this track in particular. As does Oh Word:

"The Passaic, New Jeruz native and disciple of Marley Marl known to the world as K-Def could not have chosen a more appropriate year than 1996 to drop his full-length collaboration with Larry-O. ... At the time many hip hop producers were content to mimic the booming orchestral beats of Buckwild or the instantly recognizable, whistle-clean pop ditties of Puff Daddy. K-Def and Larry-O stand out because they create smoldering, cinematic gangster symphonies as a matter of course, and this is evident in the frantic car chase of the title track and the dramatically funky "Pop The Trunk." Their music is spellbinding yet cohesive, their chemistry is rehearsed to perfection but feels unforced, and the overall vibe of Turnaround is cool and focused even though the music exudes bombast and the lyrics celebrate excess."

A bum is me

Just checking in. Been neglecting the blogs this week, but there's no issue (besides laziness)

Be back today, tomorrow, next week, whenever I get my act together!

THE MONKEY

Listen to THE MONKEY by Dave Bartholemew.

Here's one that so nearly made it onto this past Christmas CD (in fact, after typing that opener, I had to go back and make sure it WASN'T on the CD!). I had it on most of the time I was organizing songs, but at the very last minute decided to take it off, since I didn't feel like it fit well enough in the spot I was trying to fit it into. Even so, it's a cute, fun song. Last time we were up in Maine, for Amy's dad's birthday, I went into this gift shop of the lobster pound we were having lunch at, and totally and completely incongruously, the shop had a fairly huge collection of random and obscure CDs for sale. Groups I just had never heard of from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. I ended up getting about $80 worth of CDs, hoping for some gold. I got mostly not-gold, but The Monkey was on one of the comps, and it was an immediate hit in the car, when it came up on the trip home (around Hartford, IIRC). So that's the story of how I got the song. Afraid you'll have to google for any REAL info about it, as I am heading out now...

HERE'S WHERE YOU BELONG

Listen to HERE'S WHERE YOU BELONG by West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.

Third selection of three from this group. It's Sunday night, so no requirement to be expansive about it. But, while I'm here, Happy Father's Day, Dad!

PIECES

Listen to PIECES by The Stylistics.

I came across this exquisite bit of Philly Soul the other week. It's one of those songs you're sure you've heard before (and I'm sure you have), but for me personally I wasn't familiar with it. It's as gentle as a cool breeze, and now I'm wandering the internet looking for the album it came from. Why is it that everything recorded in 1972 sounds so damn good?

TRANSPARENT DAY

Listen to TRANSPARENT DAY by West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.

I kinda thought that anybody reading this blog would be familiar with the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, but maybe not. I know some of you heard this particular song up at (Not)Big Pink a year or two ago, but let me give the briefest of synopsis for the WCPAEB (as they're known among the cognoscenti. possibly).

They were a psych pop collective based in LA. The driving force behind the group was a guy named Bob Markley, who seemed to be a bit of a self-deluded asshole. He was from Oklahoma. Anyway, they had a fairly healthy rotation of members through their first three (and only essential) albums, including a lot of fringe and not fringe at all characters on the LA music scene (notably Hal Blaine & Van Dyke Parks, but then they played on everything).

Richie Unterberger calls them the most "average psychedelic band." Which kinda fits, as long as you realize the highs are extremely high and the lows are extremely low. Transparent Day is one of the highs.

TRACY HAD A HARD DAY SUNDAY

Listen to TRACY HAD A HARD DAY SUNDAY by West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.

I know how Tracy feels. Oh, I don't have it so bad. I feel a lot better than I did a few days ago, but I've got a lot of work left to be done before tomorrow, and I'm just struggling to keep my energy levels high enough to get it done. So normal service is just about resumed!

There should be more West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band on the internet, so I'm just doing my part.