For All I Care Source Material Playlist

It's no secret I'm slightly fond of The Bad Plus. Their new album was released this week in Europe, where they just started a fall tour. For All I Care features vocalist Wendy Lewis on most of the tracks, all of which are covers. In addition to adding a voice, new elements include a venture into Roger Miller country and music from 20th century composers.

Since this album won't be released in the USA until February 2009, for now we'll have to make do with these samples from 7digital, monitor dimeadozen for any live fall recordings, and offer up this playlist of the source tracks in Rhapsody.

Long Distance Runaround packs the most into the sample snippet for my ears.

For All I Care Source Material Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

For All I Care Source Material Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Lithium - Nirvana
Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd
Fem (Etude No. 8) - Fredrik Ullen (Gyorgy Ligeti, comp.)
Radio Cure - Wilco
Long Distance Runaround - Yes
Semi-Simple Variations - Robert Taub (Milton Babbitt, comp.)
How Deep Is Your Love - Bee Gees
Barracuda - Heart
Lock, Stock and Teardrops - Roger Miller
Variation d'Apollon - Berliner Philharmoniker (Igor Stravinski, comp.)
Feeling Yourself Disintegrate - Flaming Lips

Addendum: To see how many "goodies" we can "festoon" this post with for the "special interests", here's a making-of short video (boy, I can't wait for November 5. Almost makes you don the tinfoil hat and wonder if the US release of this album was pushed out a few months to allow us all to potentially approach Barracuda without any confounding associations.)

Nerd Dance The Baseball Sunday Playlist

Well, I guess playlist hoodoo played no role in the outcome of game 6 of the ALCS. The Red Sox just plain won the game the old fashioned way. So for today, let's dance nerd style, invoke the voice of Suzy Creamcheese, and leave the baseball to the professionals.

No pressure, Jonny.

Nerd Dance The Baseball Sunday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Nerd Dance The Baseball Sunday Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Rounder - Pere Ubu
Nail - The Sugarcubes
Hello Teenage America - Meat Beat Manifesto
Groupmegroup - Liquid Liquid

Monday Morning Update:


Beautiful job, Rays. In an interesting historical side note, I feel several dozen orders of magnitude better than I did on this equivalent day five years ago [baseball-reference.com].

Red Sox Bumper Music 2008 Sampler Playlist

Once again, as an incantation to Lady Luck to help the local baseball squad stagger one more game into the post-season, we offer up a playlist of Red Sox radio broadcast bumper music.

Like last year, here's a partial playlist sampler of songs heard coming out of commercials during Boston Red Sox radio broadcasts this season. From spring training, when that godforsaken commercial for a Gloria Estefan show at Mohegan Sun played in EVERY inning break and pitching change for a freaking MONTH, to the Japan vacation, to the inevitable post-All Star Break skid, to these crisp October evenings of excitement and humiliation. Good times, indeed.

Hats off to Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, and Jon Lester in particular, who rewarded my transistor twisting game in and game out all year long.

As I noted last year, the playlist contains only the songs I could identify in the few seconds they played during the games I listened to. There are plenty of songs I couldn't place, and plenty of games I didn't hear.

Certainly the exorcised "Rays" have earned everything they've achieved in 2008, and I applaud them for it. But first, let's see if Daisuke Matsuzaka can Inspector Clouseau his way to one more victory tonight...

Friday Morning Update:


Well that was fascinating. Put the Phillies-Rays Swing State Series on hold for one more game, anyway. Now, what playlist hoodoo am I going to have to cook up to insure a win on Saturday?

Red Sox Bumper Music 2008 Sampler Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Red Sox Bumper Music 2008 Sampler Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Kiss - Prince
The Spirit Of Radio - Rush
Patty Lee - Les Savy Fav
Boom Boom - John Lee Hooker
Psycho Killer - Talking Heads
Pusherman - Curtis Mayfield
Hard To Handle - The Black Crowes
Three Little Birds - Bob Marley
Do Me! - Bell Biv Devoe
Jerry Was A Race Car Driver - Primus
Black Betty - Ram Jam
One - U2
Jessica - Allman Brothers
Too Many Puppies - Primus
Beat It - Michael Jackson
Foxey Lady - Jimi Hendrix Experience
Iron Man - Black Sabbath
Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Do It Again - Steely Dan
Centerfold - J Geils Band
Here I Come - The Roots
The Distance - Cake
Tighten Up Pt. 1 - Archie Bell And the Drells
A Message To You Rudy - The Specials
No I In Threesome - Interpol
Take On Me - A-Ha
Another One Bites The Dust - Queen

Unavailable in Rhapsody:

Ramble On - Led Zeppelin


P.S. The Album Warrantless Wiretap feed in the sidebar has been broken for a couple weeks. Apparently it's a "platform issue" and they're out for everybody who uses a Rhapsody song or album feed, with no clear fix date.

All you've really missed from my heavy rotation that hasn't been posted here yet are the big crop of Arthur Lyman remasters that came into Rhapsody recently, and the "new" Paul Heaton album The Cross Eyed Rambler (which rocks, and is not "Classical > 20th/21st Century > Electronic" music, no matter what the Rhapsody database thinks).

Morning Mystery, New Year Thursday Playlist

In the morning I usually listen to WHMP AM while getting washed up and such. Recently they put Jelly Belly from Medeski, Martin, and Wood's 1996 confection Shack-Man in heavy rotation as their bubbly but tense morning bumper music out of commercials. Take that, Renee Montagne!

Let's document that here in case it's been confounding anyone else's half-awake brain.

In related news, MMW play the music of John Zorn to good effect on the recent Tzadik release Zaebos: The Book of Angels volume 11. We'll round things out today with one piano and one organ track from that album. Some fine songs to help welcome in the start of the year 5769.


Morning Mystery, New Year Thursday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Morning Mystery, New Year Thursday Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Jelly Belly - Medeski, Martin, and Wood
Tutrusa'i
Ahaij

Fresh Catch Catchup Thursday Playlist

I try to keep up with the Rhapsody Just Added list as much as possible, but there's alot going on in there. The version in the Rhapsody software lists up to 1,000 albums, and seems to get updated two or three times a week. If you look at it through Rhapsody Online, frequently the list is over 3,000 albums long. Not even I can procrastinate that much.

So, here's some good news that slipped past me at some point since I last checked these artist pages. The catalogs of The Cramps, Circle Jerks, and Ian Dury have all been significantly rounded out at some point somewhat recently.

Fresh Catch Catchup Thursday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Fresh Catch Catchup Thursday Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

New Kind Of Kick - The Cramps
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll - Ian Dury & The Blockheads
Goo Goo Muck - The Cramps
Love Kills - Circle Jerks

Addendum: I found this Cramps picture on an mp3 blog post at Ear Wax Vibrations that just so happened to be serving up the original version of Goo Goo Muck by Ronnie Cook & The Gaylads. It's actually the first in a series of posts featuring source versions of songs recorded by the Cramps, and infinitely worth investigating. Thank you!

Dead Set On Wednesday Playlist

Of note, it looks like yesterday's thirtieth anniversary release marking the Grateful Dead's concerts at the pyramids at Giza is accompanied by a considerable rounding out of the rest of their catalog in Rhapsody (in regular and expanded versions). I'm not immune to such things.

"Rocking The Cradle - Egypt 1978" sounds pretty tepid for the most part so far, so here's a few other scattered tracks from the other albums as a welcoming committee.

Dead Set On Wednesday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Dead Set On Wednesday Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Greatest Story Ever Told - Grateful Dead
Pride of Cucamonga
Alabama Getaway
Loser