I'm 100% stealing this from Algonad's recent FB post, but today's topic is "Best First Songs On An Album". Or however he phrased it.
Personally, I'd nominate "Birdhouse In Your Soul" except for the little problem of the opener on that album. Openers disqualify songs, I think.
So I'm going to go with "Born In The U.S.A." from Springsteen's Born In The U.S.A.. What you got? Also, list 10 random songs from your playlist if people still do that.
So the version of this song that I'm playing was not one that I was familiar with - it turns out, Mr. Bragg has done about a million and a half versions of this tune, and he's always adjusting them to fit the times and locations that he's singing in. I find that super cool. And it turns out, he's pretty darn good at making those adjustments work, and I dig it all.
Also, here's the version of the song that I know and love:
Thanks for tuning in this past week!
(2 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)
Loading... Another group I'm shocked we don't have any videos for.
(0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 10)Loading... So I kind of stumbled into my guest DJ week without a theme. And sometimes I feel like I've been running thin on FMD topics. So this is probably moving a bit too meta, but... this week's FMD topic for discussion is "what themes would be good for weeks of music, or FMD discussions?"!
I just love this song. That is all.
(2 votes, average: 7.50 out of 10)Loading... How have we never had an Ezra Furman song played in this joint? It's probably because his live stuff isn't nearly as good as his studio stuff. Looking around, I think this is an artist who absolutely needs the studio. But I enjoy a ton of his songs - he uses his voice in really creative, emotive ways. Plus he always seems to nail the use of the sax.
Anyway, here's a fun song with a reference to Dostoevsky, who I enjoy reading, so... enjoy!
(0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 10)Loading... Man I dig me some indie-pop/riot grrrl/garage punk stuff. I know that's a lot of categories, but I think this group ticks all those boxes. Plus the name is one of the best "-ettes" names you could come up with (Pipettes, Noisettes, etc.). Quick, fun, and sharp.
And since I was surprised to have not seen anything else from them on the site, here's a bonus video:
(4 votes, average: 8.50 out of 10)Loading... Jenny Lewis has gotten so much praise and attention over the years, and, on the strength of Rilo Kiley, rightfully so. But I never really liked all that much of her solo work, despite giving it plenty of chances. It seemed like she was skating by on reputation. I very much enjoy a lot of her latest album though. It definitely wasn't an instant hit for me, but it seems to have grown in depth.
I especially dig how this live performance captures the cavernous sound of the album version.
(2 votes, average: 9.50 out of 10)Loading... No particular theme to my week this year, just songs and artists I enjoy, and I want to throw some love their way. Leading off is Josh Ritter, who, frankly, consistently impresses me. Some of his stuff took me a couple listens, but then it all clicked and... dang. He's probably my favorite singer-songwriter at this point.
(5 votes, average: 8.60 out of 10)Loading... I think we've talked about this before, but yesterday's guitar conversation got me thinking a little more about what other instruments people played, wished they could play, etc.
I played trumpet all through high school. I actually recently picked it up again (not to learn, just, literally, picked it up and played it for like 3 minutes). It is amazing how my fingers still knew which positions to go to - muscle memory after all these years. At the same time, my embouchure was completely atrophied, and was only strong enough to barely squeak out the range of a single scale.
How about you? What did you play? What would you like to play? When was the last time you picked up an instrument you used to play?
