A Really Ragged Notion That They'd Return Tuesday Playlist

Earlier this year, I was morbid, pale, and ready to book myself in at the YWCA when the meager Smiths offerings that were in Rhapsody mostly disappeared.

But now it's a sunny day, so let's go where we're wanted, and I'll meet you at the Play All button for The Deluxe Edition of this The Sound Of The Smiths compilation.

Just the thing to listen to while driving back to the old house on Thursday to savor the flavor of murder.

I could go on like this, but already a nation turns its back and gags.

Here's a short playlist of some highlights.

A Really Ragged Notion That They'd Return Tuesday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

A Really Ragged Notion That They'd Return Tuesday Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Nowhere Fast
Back To The Old House
Barbarism Begins At Home [7" Version]
Meat Is Murder [Live at Oxford Apollo 18/3/85]

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

Today out to lunch, a sampler of syncopated gems that have come into Rhapsody in recent months.

There's a solid representative from the big heap of Arthur Lyman remasters we obsessed about recently. The Winner's Circle, the album today's track comes from, is one of the most consistent. On Broadway is also a standout.

Then a fine example of what Señor Coconut is capable of, from this week's Just Added list.

Bobby Valentin does it slowly and perfectly.

And added earlier this summer, Cornell Dupree folds the Trolley Song into Slip Slidin' Away for some reason, but it all works out alright.

Happy Friday, folks!

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

With A Little Help From My Friends - Arthur Lyman
White Horse - Señor Coconut
Borinquen Yo Te Canto - Bobby Valentin
Slip Slidin' Away - Cornell Dupree

Voraciously Alternate Wednesday Playlist

So I listened to set II of 2/20/93 yesterday, the centerpiece of the "Phish At The Roxy" eight-disc release. And I was transported back, not to the show I didn't attend, but to the hubbub about that show on my first Home On The Web, rec.music.phish.

Of course, most of the things that make that set so remarkable appeal pretty exclusively to nerds who obsessed over every set list, in-joke, song tease, and recitation of Kung. I absolutely don't blame the majority of humans who have nothing but baffled disdain for the music of this band and the people who enjoy it. But for the happily afflicted, this set remains a delicious Rosetta Stone of improvisational breakneck chop suey.

Back in those neolithic days of the Internets, sharing music meant checking in on USENET and organizing or joining a tape tree. Or arranging a generous blanks and postage deal. Or using rec.music.phish to identify like-minded local individuals and hosting taping parties. It was a golden age of income for the Maxell Corporation and a nascent offering from the US Postal Service called Priority Mail.

And the kids of today wantonly slosh dozens of gigabytes of HD-quality concert video up and down the pipes, complaining bitterly when an audio spectral analysis reveals someone performed some minor tinkering with a recording before seeding.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

The Reba and Harry Hood from the set in question are still not streamable in Rhapsody, so for today's playlist purposes we'll just highlight the middle segment.

Voraciously Alternate Wednesday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Voraciously Alternate Wednesday Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Glide
Mike's Song
I Am Hydrogen
Weekapaug Groove
Fast Enough For You

Friday Maddow Decade Playlist

Now, I'm NOT saying Rachel Maddow has made a pact with Satan, but her ratings have stayed up weeks after Election Day. And of course, I've been trying to manufacture some playlist excuse to post this picture of her throwing the horns.

So, as another notable Massachusetts transplant once said, "If I can't mosh to it, it's not my revolution."

Friday Maddow Decade Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Friday Maddow Decade Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Goddess - Vincent Price
Conversation With A Cop - Fanny
Time Zones - Negativland
Fame And Fortune - Mission Of Burma

Fresh Catch Tuesday Playlist

Today just a fine, mellow fresh catch trio of tracks that have been surfacing in the Mixer with some regularity recently.

Fresh Catch Tuesday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Fresh Catch Tuesday Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

It Don't Matter To Me - Bread

Roll Um Easy - Little Feat

Aisumassen (I'm Sorry) - John Lennon

Shelf Browsing Fresh Catch Playlist

Before modern technological marvels like Rhapsody existed, I made most of my more serendipitous musical discoveries in the neglected "media" rooms of our nation's libraries.

From the walls of jazz vinyl in the Brookline Public Library where I first heard gritty chunks of Get Up With It and Naked City right next to fluffier bits like Kai and JJ. To the recorded lecture archives of my alma mater that provided the exclusive Kurt Vonnegut, Anne Sexton, and William S. Burroughs sound clips that peppered many a classic mix tape. To oddball kindred gems like Ry Cooder's Crossroads soundtrack and Volume 1 of the Asch Recordings.

I dare say aimlessly browsing the stacks of any library is one of my favorite human activities, and that's certainly linked to my obsession with the Rhapsody catalog.

Shelf Browsing Fresh Catch Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Shelf Browsing Fresh Catch Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Somebody's Callin' My Name - Ry Cooder
Moses Smote The Waters - The Thrasher Wonders
Where Could I Go But To The Lord? - Sister Ernestine Washington with Buck Johnson
Lonesome Train - Sonny Terry
Willie Brown Blues - Ry Cooder

Schmaltzy Went A-Courtin' Friday Playlist

When Lady Ribaldry and I were courting, we often drove in to work together listening to the morning jazz show on WHRB. And there was one DJ who tended to throw alot of Anthony Braxton into the mix. And one of the things that helped me fall hard for Lady Ribaldry was witnessing her absolute revulsion for Anthony Braxton. We would be gabbing about this or that, and suddenly she would realize there was some kind of squonky nonsense screaming from the car speakers and punch over to Loren and Wally or some such thing. It was adorable, is what it was.

Is that wrong? To love a woman in part for the things that drive her absolutely bugfuck crazy? I sure hope not.

A couple other things in that category are the voices of Doug Martsch and Paul Barman. Who can blame her. And yet, what is that woman thinking?

Here's a track from each of those individuals, to mark our sixth wedding anniversary this weekend.

Of note, this great Anthony Braxton album Beyond Quantum from this year is misfiled in Rhapsody. Figure it out, numbnuts. I'm sure fans of free jazz and classical music make up a microscopic percentage of the subscribership, but these things might get more listens if they were slotted correctly. At least split it from "Milford Graves Anthony Braxton" to two separate artist names...

Schmaltzy Went A-Courtin' Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Schmaltzy Went A-Courtin' Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Third Meeting - Anthony Braxton, Milford Graves, William Parker
MTV Get off the Air, Pt. 2 - MC Paul Barman
The Weather - Built To Spill

Death Takes A Holiday Playlist

I just got back from a two-day vacation for a weekend class on Death and Dying in Chinese Medicine with the incomparable Jeffrey Yuen. Perfectly scheduled for illumination between Halloween and the day of reckoning for the American presidency. Around and with the subject matter, it was great to trod the sidewalks of Nonantum like a tourist, wander the autumn banks of the Charles, and linger over lunch at Tommy Doyle's pub.

Here's a little playlist travelogue postcard.

Death Takes A Holiday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Death Takes A Holiday Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Halloween - Kirsty MacColl
Strange Boat - The Waterboys
Death Is Not The End - Bob Dylan
Collecting The Soul - Qin Zhongying