35 Of My Favorite Songs From 2009

I'll be playing these this weekend on my radio show (1234 More More More) on WOXY.com. Tune in at 2pm eastern this Saturday 12/19.

Something In The Way - Best Coast
Swans - Camera Obscura
Battle Of The Bands - The Aquarium
Forever - Love of Diagrams
Like a Hitman, Like A Dancer - A.C. Newman
Always On - Casper Bangs
Tomorrow's Gone Tonight - Tommy Keene
Running Family - Cale Parks
Unpronounceable Name - Chain and the Gang
The Atlantic Ocean - Richard Swift
Oh No, Baby Don't - Bye!
Tattoo - Wye Oak
Change of Heart - El Perro Del Mar
Grow - Le Loup
Gloomy Monday Morning - The Black Hollies
Two-Headed Coin - Obits
Poised And Ready - Brendan Benson
Dream City - Free Energy
Sawdust Man - Ben Kweller
It Ain't Gonna Save Me - Jay Reatard
Come Saturday - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
Beat In Hell - The Points
Over There - Brilliant Colors
When We Were Alive - The Thermals
Blade Of Grass - Swing Youth
Madagascar - Lake
Things That We Do - Rose Melberg
To The Quick - Roofwalkers
All The Pleasures Of The World - The Crayon Fields
Hey Boy - The Magic Kids
Consolation Prize - Julie Doiron
If I Were You - John Paul Keith & the One Four Fives
Steve Don't Party No More - The Mean Jeans
I Got A Lot (New New New) - Mika Miko
Red Light Love - Those Darlins

The Rutles - With A Girl Like You

One of my favorite songs from The Rutles -- that album actually has some really great songs on it.

The Dolls on THE BEAT!!!

This is a great clip of a rare Northern Soul gem -- The Dolls (outta Waco, TX) from 1966 on Loma Records. The clip is from a show caled The Beat!!! which ran for a brief period in early'66. I believe it was from Nashville and was hosted by Bill "Hoss" Allen, a legendary local DJ, an awesome presence and a surprisingly good dancer -- all of this in spite of seeming a little bit like a bad guy from Oliver Stone's "JFK." You can find this show on DVD now and I've been working my way through it disc by disc and I've been deeply appreciating the footage from folks like Esther Phillips, Joe Tex and southpaw guitarist Barbara Lynn. The Dolls, as you'll see below, are the true favorite for me so far.

Captain 20

Speaking of local television, I'm psyched to see this movie. DVD soon, I hope?



When we were planning what turned out to be the lone Georgie James video, the original script called for three actors to play television executives who were going to basically be tinkering with and ultimately destroying our Georgie James variety show. I contacted Captain 20 (aka Dick Dyszel) to see if he'd be in it and he was interested, but ultimately our budget plummeted and we had to re-script the entire video. Would've been great. Actually, now that I think of it, when we were recording the GJ album, the idea came up that there was going to be this minute-long faux interview in the middle of the record that would gradually devolve into total nonsense and would essentially be a laundry list of D.C. references (i.e. Jim Vance, Ollie's Trolley, Captain 20, Jhoon Rhee, The Sports Machine etc.). I guess I can see how that might not have sat well with the otherwise polished vibe of that record, though, so I can't blame us for cutting the idea.

Cherry People

I had seen that a modern band (The School) had scooped me on my plan to do a cover of The Left Banke's "And Suddenly," a great, overlooked song from their fairly small body of work. Although the Left Banke's version wasn't a hit, the Cherry People came back a year later and were able to find a minor hit with it. While the Left Banke's version is a bit more blue eyed soul in the Spiral Starecase vein, Cherry People's take on it leans more towards the style of Curt Boettcher's productions (i.e. The Association) ... and besides, Cherry People were from D.C., so I'm partial. Anyway, I recently found a clip of Cherry People's "And Suddenly" being played on a teen dance show from Ohio and it was as if I had special ordered it. Great song, local programming, awkward dancing ... all of my favorites!

The Beat: Rock N Roll Girl

In my top 5 for all songs of any type ever, period. Sure, they're lip-synching here, but c'mon it's the Bandstand! I met Paul Collins when I was 5 years old at a radio dinner that my Dad took me and my brother, too (my Dad was in radio). So, there's a photo of me, my dad, my bro, a couple of radio dudes and Paul Collins chilling at a table circa '81 and it's pretty sweet. In the meantime, here's the Bandstand clip:

Modernettes

A classic! And with the Streisand spelling!

Hank Locklin

Skeeter Davis

Me And My Arrow

Books I Read in 2008

As the subject suggests, here are the books I read in 2008. I think I liked most of them, especially Spitz's Beatles book. I like keeping track of the books I read 'cause I think I might forget some of them, really. Also, I like looking back and reminding myself of the friends and family that I borrowed books from over the course of the year (Michael, Scott, Merideth, Mom and Dad) -- as well that old book-lending friend the D.C. Library system. It's also interesting to me to remember what I was doing when I was reading each book, which I'm fairly well able to place. Some places were good, others bad. I guess it's just a different way to reflect on the year. Anyway, here's the list:

“Nickel And Dimed” - Barbara Ehrenreich
“Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life” - Steve Martin
“Breaking Back” - James Blake
“Murder At The Watergate” - Margaret Truman
“Jim Brown: The Fierce Life Of An American Hero” - Mike Freeman
“Echo Park” - Michael Connelly
“The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy” - Jonn Christian and William Turner
“The Beatles” - Bob Spitz
“It’s Not Easy Bein’ Me” - Rodney Dangerfield
“Nine Innings” - Daniel Okrent
“The No Asshole Rule” - Robert Sutton
“Crime Beat” - Michael Connelly
“Murder At The Pentagon” - Margaret Truman
“Murder On The Potomac” - Margaret Truman
“Mr. Tambourine Man: The Life and Legacy of The Byrds’ Gene Clark” - John Einarson
“Since Then” - David Crosby and Carl Gottlie
“The Notorious Byrd Brothers” - Ric Menck
“Nightline: History in the Making and the Making of Television” - Ted Koppel
“The White Book” - Ken Mansfield
“Thunderstruck” - Erik Larson
“Rumsfeld” - Andrew Cockburn
“The One Percent Doctrine” - Ron Suskind
“Brave New World” - Aldous Huxley
“4 Way Street: The Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Reader” - Dave Zimmer
“Roy Orbison: Invention Of An Alternative Rock Masculinity” - Peter Lehman
“Gotcha Capitalism” - Bob Sullivan
“Blackwater” - Jeremy Scahill
“The Turnaround” - George Pelecanos
“The Tommy Keene Handbook” - Geoff Cabin
“Simple Prosperity” - David Wann
“In Utero (33 1/3) - Gillian G. Gaar
“The Professor And The Madman” - Simon Winchester
“Buzzcocks: The Complete History” - Tony McGartland
“Catch A Wave” - Peter Ames Carlin
“Queens Noir” - edited by Robert Knightly
“Black Maps” - Peter Spiegelman
“Las Vegas Noir” - edited by Jaret Keene
“Act Of Creation” - Stephen Schlesinger
“America’s Splendid Little Wars” - Peter Huchthausen
“The Stepford Wives” - Ira Levin
“Decade Of Nightmares” - Philip Jenkins

Favorite songs of 2008

Jared at 5acts.com asked me to submit a list of my favorite songs from 2008. I gave him 15 and here they are, with a few others that I forgot to add:

Elvis Costello - American Gangster Time
Kelley Stoltz - When You Forget
Sloan - Cheap Champagne
Mountain High - St. John Bouvier
John Paul Keith And the One Four Fives - Lookin' For A Thrill
French Kicks - Abandon
El Perro Del Mar - Somebody's Baby
Julie Ocean - At The Appointed Hour
School Of Language - Rockist Pt. 1
The Week That Was - Scratch The Surface
Headlights - Market Girl
The Points - No Girl
Cale Parks - Some Sew, Some Find
Stereolab - Self Portrait With Electric Brain
Lake - The Places We'll Go
Edie Sedgwick - Sissy Spacek
Friendly Foes - Wild (Once In A While)
Edward Rogers - You Haven't Been Where I've Been
Gentleman Jesse - If I Can See You (You're Too Close To Me)

Nobody Bothers Me

D.C. people: Anyone remember this? I still quote this commercial (circa '82?). And what a tune! Lofgren, who knew?