Songs on Toast
Monday, February 27, 2012 at 11:17PM BY BRIAN CULLMAN
Painters always have great music playing. So do drug dealers, cinematographers, unemployed countesses, bartenders in loser bars, cello players and beekeepers. And maybe Werner Herzog and Phillipe Petit.
Everyone else? Not so much.
One of the reasons I started doing a weekly radio show was that it forced me out of my comfort zone. I need to fill 2 hours of airtime a week -- not all that much given how much music exists in the world, but I like to let more than half of each show consist of new music. Or music that's new to me.
The danger for most of us is that we get stuck in a particular time or genre. For most people it's that moment between college and A JOB!!! Check out someone's record (or CD or MP3 collection) and, that stray Adele or Buena Vista or Amy Winehouse album aside, you can date them, like rings around a tree, by all those Carole King, Phil Collins, Boney M and U2 albums, all those Keith Jarrett, Depeche Mode and Arctic Monkeys CDs, line them up and they'd stretch from here to the moon and most of the way back. So climb them like a ladder, if you like, or listen, if you must. But here are some alternatives, if you feel like slipping away from the familiar. Much of this music is available on eMusic (www.emusic.com). Some is available on Soundike (www.soundike.com - alarmingly cheap and surprisingly legal). And for some of it.... you're on your own.
Leonard Cohen - OLD IDEAS
How can an album about one's own impending mortality be so cheery, buoyant and fun to listen to. Go figure. His best new album in years.
Django Reinhardt - MUSETTE TO MAESTRO
He had no respect for his guitar. He rarely used a case. If a string broke, he played on 5 strings. If another string broke, he played on 4. If the guitar itself broke, he got another one. Like Jimi Hendrix, he was reaching past the instrument into something else, into somewhere else. Like Hendrix, he rarely played with musicians as good or as visionary as he was. It doesn't matter.
The Jaynettes - SALLY GO ROUND THE ROSES
Repeat after me..."The saddest thing in the whole wide world, see your baby with another girl."
Markos Vamvakaris - BAZOUKI PIONEER (1932 - 1940)
Howlin' Wolf goes to Greece, gets drunk, gets in trouble, decides to talk about it.
Craig Finn - MY NEW FRIEND JESUS
The leader of The Hold Steady. Can't stand The Hold Steady. Can't stop listening to Finn's solo cd, CLEAR HEART, FULL EYES. Surprisingly, this isn't a religious song. Not the way you'd think. Inspirational line: "It's hard to suck with Jesus in your band..."
SONGS ON TOAST on TAINT RADIO www.taintradio.org
Fridays 10pm - midnight (EST)
Sundays noon to 2pm (EST)
Songs on Toast #161 Playlist
Amen (7:35) - Leonard Cohen, Old Ideas
Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes - Jon Brion/Beck, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Master's Hands (2:48) - Charlotte Gainsbourg, IRM
La Bamba (3:38) - Milton Nascimento, Miltons
When I Am Called (4:07) - Shannon McNally, Western Ballad
Loving You (2:11) - Francoise Hardy, Messages Personnels
Maroko (Morocco) (3:05) - Markos Vamvakaris, Bouzouki Pioneer 1932-40
Leskoviqare (6:07) - Famille Lela de Permet, Polyphonies Vocales Et Instrumentales d'Albanie
Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup - Jean Sablon & Django Reinhardt, Musette To Maestro
Darkness (4:29) - Leonard Cohen, Old Ideas
Give Me One Reason (5:04) - Junior Wells, Come on in This House
Sportin' Life (3:47) - Dave Van Ronk, Somebody Else, Not Me
I Need A Hundred Dollars (3:02) - One String Sam, Roots Of Drone
Ellie Rae (3:53) - John Martyn, Sunday's Child
Ehad Mi Yodea (3:18) - Music From Putti, When I Wake Up
(Intro) (0:28) - Blanche, If We Can't Trust the Doctors
County Line (5:37) - Cass McCombs, Wit's End
Sweet Honesty (8:02) - John & Beverley Martyn, Stormbringer!
Sally Go Round The Roses (3:17) - The Jaynettes, 45
I Am A Pilgrim (3:22) - Aaron Neville, I Know I've Been Changed
New Friend Jesus (3:12) - Craig Finn, Clear Heart Full Eyes I
Thou Art Loosed (2:32) - Dry the River, Weights & Measures
Going Home (3:51) - Leonard Cohen, Old Ideas
7 Up Swing (2:29) - Abafana Flute Jive, Soul Safari Presents Township Jive & Kwela Jazz
Conch Ain't Got No Bone (2:35) - Blind Blake, Goombay Rock
Wayowaya (4:08) Menwar, Mauritius - Ile Maurice : Tambour Ravanne Drum
When You Are Wrong (2:24) The Techniques, Little Did You Know
Ce Sa Madinina (Biguine) (3:18) - Honoré Coppet, Cé ca Madinina
Pennywhistle - Django Reinhardt & Les Leiber Armed Forces Radio, 1945
Inhlizyiyo Yam (2:11) - Cowboy Superman & His Cowboy Sisters, Soul Safari Presents Township Jive
