Out To Breakfast with J Shifty Friday Playlist

I've been stalking Robert and Drake on their birthdays for the last couple years, so I decided to come clean this year and acknowledge the date of my own birth (yesterday).

Most appropriately, Lady Ribaldry and Schmaltzy Junior surprised me with a new set of Bose computer speakers to mark the occasion. Let's break them in with some well-recorded music for old men that stands up to high volume.

After the introductory bits, it's Roland Kirk with my favorite version of one of the finest melodies there is, Fats Waller's Jitterbug Waltz.

We've also got a couple songs from recently released albums that have made my hand, acting completely on its own, reach for the volume knob and rotate in a clockwise direction. I'm talking about Blue But Cool from Marah's Angels of Destruction! and the magnum opus Bright Lights from Black Mountain In The Future.

And, as one of the kids listening their way through Alex Ross' book The Rest Is Noise after finding it in their Christmas stocking, we've included the loud grooves of Alban Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra.

As we geezers are wont to say: Turn it up, dude.

Out to Breakfast with J Shifty Friday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Out to Breakfast with J Shifty Friday Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Happy Birthday Bubba - Ingrid DuMosch
Talk (Fats Waller) - Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Jitterbug Waltz - Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Blue But Cool - Marah
Three Pieces for Orchestra - Alban Berg
Bright Lights - Black Mountain

Fresh Catch Beat Friday Playlist

Today a fresh catch playlist of period beats, suitable for those snowbound and ancient enough to remember the days of WBRU before the advent of Coors Light-sponsored ski reports and other such goofiness.

Fresh Catch Beat Friday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Grinding Halt - The Cure
Watusi Rodeo - Guadalcanal Diary
Change - Killing Joke
Cavern - Liquid Liquid
Twist And Crawl - The English Beat

Fine Celebrity Playlist Acknowledgment Wednesday

I usually don't find much inspiration in the Rhapsody Celebrity playlists, but I've got to give a little credit where it's due. The Corinne Bailey Rae Celebrity Picks List [list, doesn't play] this month is pretty solid from top to bottom. It's got an emphasis on dark horse hits that run well together, something we strive for on the good days here at R&S Labs. In particular, I was happy to get pulled out from under my rock to hear the Isley Brothers version of "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight".

I've got to point it out, if only because it's the first celebrity list I've listened to more than once since the great My Morning Jacket classic [list, doesn't play] of 2005.

Salvation in the Slush Wednesday Playlist

So we got a few inches of snow overnight, which I got to start shoveling before sunrise this morning just as it turned to pissing rain. Luckily, after an hour of that I was rescued by my neighbor with the turbo-powered snowblower before I caught both the plague AND diphtheria. Good times.

Now that I'm dry and warmed up let's mark the occasion in playlist form, so I can look back on this day and laugh some time this summer.

Salvation in the Slush Wednesday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Neighbours - The Rolling Stones
Flood - Sebadoh
Snowblind - Black Sabbath
I Love A Rainy Night - Eddie Rabbitt
Black Sheets Of Rain - Bob Mould

Addendum: On that note, if you're reading this you've probably already done so, but if not, why not investigate the new Bob Mould record District Line [rhapsody.com page]? I'm still getting my head around it, but the fact I keep cueueing it up must mandate some kind of endorsement.

Fresh Catch Tuesday Playlist

There was a big batch of odd and interesting albums on the Rhapsody Just Added list last week.

Best album cover certainly goes to the Belmonts' Cigars, Acappella, Candy. The songs didn't drive me crazy start to finish, but this amalgam of My Sweet Lord, He's So Fine, kazoos, and sophisticated corporeal percussion is pretty flawless.

There were also two Chico Hamilton albums on the list (1958's Gongs East and 1959's Three Faces of Chico) that include some of the first recorded Eric Dolphy. On Three Faces of Chico, Mister Hamilton also sings: with the group, with his voice, and alone through the drum set. Interestingly, these albums also provide us with the second tracks in two weeks with a well-employed jazz cello (from Nate Gershman, in this case).

Fresh Catch Tuesday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Fresh Catch Tuesday Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

My Sweet Lord - The Belmonts
More Than You Know - Chico Hamilton
No Speak English, Man - Chico Hamilton

Year of the Rat Opera Playlist

The start of the Year of the Earth Rat is a most auspicious time to foist another playlist of Chinese Opera onto the world. Who wouldn't chew their way through a lead pipe to enjoy a golden cube of this fine, freaky cheese?

We'll start out to the south, with a couple fine tracks of Cantonese Opera featuring Wen Juefei (more about each at Foshan Museum and VisitGZ.com).

Next, we'll head on up to Beijing to hear from Mei Lanfang. Last fall, over a dozen volumes of the Classic Collection of Mei Lanfang came into the Rhapsody catalog. I won't claim to know more than wikipedia and News Guangdong tell me about this legendary gentleman, but that's plenty to get us started.

Gung Hay Fat Choy, kids.

Year of the Rat Opera Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Year of the Rat Opera Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Pearl Curtain Upside Down - Wen Juefei
Big Brother Yan Gets Married - Wen Juefei
Fen River Bend - Mei Lanfang
The Drunken Concubine - Mei Lanfeng

Monday Morning Quarterbackin'

Well, the Giants certainly outplayed the Patriots in that football game last night, but at least we got to see [myspace] a few Big Wheels and hear Fu Manchu, right?

Ah well. In brighter news, pitchers and catchers report for spring training next Thursday, Valentine's Day.

Mongoose - Fu Manchu [Rhapsody Online Link]

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

Today out to lunch, a spirited grit sandwich. It started when I was listening to this new Vandermark 5 record Beat Reader this week, and was wondering who played the screaming guitar bits at the five minute mark in the song Speedplay below. Well, of course, that's no guitar, it's cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm. And it's pretty freaking beautiful.

Let's roll that track around in our mouths with some kindred vintage(?) tracks from Bikini Kill and Minor Threat, a song from the punishing Behold... The Arctopus 2007 guilty pleasure Skullgrid, and another oddball from last year: Charlie Hunter and Bobby Previte welcoming John Medeski to their third outing as Groundtruther.

We'll head into Super Bowl Weekend with another track from Beat Reader that somehow harnesses the powers of Willie the Pimp, the Funky Drummer, and Mr. Bungle's Platypus within the first two minutes. And then things get kinda weird.

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Double Dare Ya - Bikini Kill
Speedplay (For Max Roach) - Vandermark 5
Of Cursed Womb - Behold... The Arctopus
Kingda Ka - Groundtruther
In My Eyes - Minor Threat
New Acrylic (For Andreas Gursky) - Vandermark 5