Memorial Day

Sorry about the lack of posts lately. The man is working me to the bone. Here are two tracks for this fine American holiday. The first is from the second most underrated songwriter in the US (the first being Chris Knight).

James McMurtry - Memorial Day.mp3
Buy: Childish Things (2005)

This song is a bit dated, but I think it still kicks fucking ass!

The Perceptionists - Memorial Day.mp3
Buy: Black Dialogue (2005)

Dharma Rockstar Station

Who's ready for a bazillion hours of Lost tonight? Me! I was bored at work the other day, so I dug out my mad photoshop skillz and made this:

At the Dharma Rockstar Station, we rock out! Or we sit around in our underwear, drink Dharma-issued whiskey, and listen to Iggy Pop, like Sawyer did in the season premiere, while lamenting the death of Juliet.

"I'm the runaway son of a nuclear A-bomb!!!"

Iggy and the Stooges - Search and Destroy.mp3
Buy: Raw Power (1973, Reissue Legacy Edition 2010)

May (or May Not) Feel Bad For You

The monthly comp from the forum users at AltCountryTab.ca. 

Download the zipped comp for one week only!

1. The Broken Family Band - "Give And Take"
Hello Love (2007)

2. Roky Erickson and Okkervil River - "Goodbye Sweet Dreams"
True Love Cast Out All Evil (2010)

3. Michael Schenker - "I Am Grateful"
Thank You, Vol 3 (2003)

4. Earl Scruggs, his kids, and The Byrds - "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere"
His Family and Friends (1972)
Comment: This album is one of my faves, but the DVD is a must have.

5. Country Gazette - Tried So Hard.mp3
From: Traitor In Our Midst (1972, out of print)
Comment: Good take on this Gene Clark song.

6. Jim and Jesse - "Roll Over Beethoven"
Berry Pickin' In The Country (1965)

7. The Sadies - "Postcards"
Darker Circles (2010)
Comment: My favorite from their new one, though all of the songs are exceptional.

8. The Fox Hunt - "I'll Drink Cheap"
Long Way to Go (2010)

9. Joe Pug - "Not So Sure"
Messenger (2010)
Comment: This song has been kicking my ass lately.

10. Martha Tilston - Rockpools.mp3
Buy: Lucy and the Wolves (2010)
Comment: I just discovered this purveyor of British folk with an absolutely gorgeous voice. This is my favorite song off of her new album.

11. Martha Tilston - "Wild Swimming"
Lucy and the Wolves (2010)
Comment: Another song from Tilston's new album, this one much darker.

12. John Moreland - Trust Funds.mp3
From (free download from MySpace): Rob's House Demos (2009)
Comment: This guy kinda reminds me of Tim Barry. Saw him open for Two Cow Garage.

13. John Moreland - "One More Headache"
First Demos (2006)

14. Andrew Anderson - Once Met a Girl.mp3
Buy: As Long as This Thing's Flying (2009)
Comment: Hardcore troubadour from Idaho that I saw as an opener a while back. Like the cut of his jib.

15. Andrew Anderson - "The Hawk"
As Long as This Thing's Flying (2009)

16. Merle Haggard - "Take Him Fishing"
All Gone Fishin' compilation (2006)
Comment: ACT fathers - you know what to do.

17. The Del-Vikings - "Whispering Bells"
Come Go With Me (1959)
Comment: Love that 1950's doo-wop. The Del-Vikings were a multiracial vocal group, pretty rare at the time.

18. Smiley Hobbs - "Train 45"
Classic Bluegrass From The Smithsonian Folkways (1956)
Comment: Album title says it best.

19. Deadstring Brothers - "Jones Street"
Deadstring Brothers (2003)
Comment: Stones copyists get it right.

20. Skye Paige and the Original Recipe - "Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong"
Whole Lotta Woman (2010)
Comment: Skye Paige is a kick ass local musician here in Charleston….great rockabilly-punk attitude…doesn’t take any shit especially from douchebag guys.

21. Prison Book Club - Heart of Lead.mp3
Buy: Required Reading (2009)
Comment: Another brilliant tune from John R. Miller of The Fox Hunt fame…this band will rock your socks off…get a chance to see them live and make sure you get them to do their cover of "Rock Salt and Nails" from Utah Phillips.

22. Prison Book Club - "Everything’s Fine"
Required Reading (2009)
Comment: Nothing like the first song off an EP that kicks you in the teeth from the get go…and nothing more fucking annoying than an artist’s “side project” that is so fucking good it makes you want to sell your guitar and start working a “real job” again.

23. Glossary - The Sweet Forever.mp3
Buy: Feral Fire (2010)

24. Glossary - "Bend With The Breeze"
Feral Fire (2010)
Comment: Forget all the BS you may have heard about this band not being worth a damn from certain members of this board. Their 6th album Feral Fire is fucking great and these 2 selections should put all the haters in their place. You know who you are bitches.

Music and Misery #6 - 5

Let's get back to the old misery list. From our friends at Forbes magazine, the 20 most miserable cities in the US. Don't worry folks, in fairness I have come up with my own list of Canadian misery which I will post after the US countdown.

6. Miami, Florida
Finally! A warm weather city on this list. Population 362,470 with a metro area (Miami-Dade County) of 5,414,712. Unemployment rate of 11.8%, the highest since 1975. Despite a huge condo/housing boom that peaked in 2005, in 2007 the housing market crashed and more than 23,000 condos were for sale and/or foreclosed. Foreclosures hit 7.2% of homes in 2009, 10th worst in the U.S. And people live far away from their jobs, with Miami being in the bottom 10% of cities when it comes to commute times. Forbes vaguely states that Miami has problems with violent crime, but none of the statistics that I can find have Miami in the top 10 of anything. Local corruption seems to run rampant: a quick Google search shows an article from today's Miami Herald about city commissioners resigning and being fired for using federal grant money for personal gain (Another Miami Corruption Mess). But hey, at least Florida has no personal state income tax.

Interesting useless piece of trivia: In 2004, the United Nations Development Program ranked Miami first in terms of percentage of residents born outside of the country it is located in (59%), followed by Toronto (50%). And yes, I fall into that 50%.

About this time last year I partied my ass off in South Beach, and had an incredible time. Loved it! Danced my ass off to some great Latin beats. I am not usually into this type of music, but Miami may lead the world in Latin/Caribbean music. Miami also has a tremendous electronica/dance scene, not to mention a thriving rap/hip-hop community.

I don't have a lot of Miami-based musicians in my personal collection, but disco was hot in Miami in the 70s. "Do a little dance, make a little love...."

KC and the Sunshine Band - Get Down Tonight.mp3
Buy: KC and the Sunshine Band (1975, reissued 2006)

No. 5 Flint, Michigan
Its gotta be rough being from a city where, when one does a Google search, the first thing that comes up is "hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz." Population 124,943, with a metro area of 443,883. A March 2010 unemployment rate of 16.9%, well above the national average of 9.7%. Flint used to thrive off of the automotive industry, with GM employing 80,000 workers at its peak in 1978, of which only 8,000 GM jobs remain. Flint native Michael Moore documented the fall of the auto industry in the 80s in the film Roger and Me, and by definition, anything associated with Michael Moore must be miserable. For 2008, the FBI reported that Flint was number one in the nation in total per capita violent crime for cities with a population between 100,000 and 250,000. The city of Flint is buying up and demolishing thousands of abandoned homes in order to curb crime and reduce city services to a level where the population can sustain it. The area received $25 million in stimulus funds from the federal government to help with the plan. There has been negative population growth since the 1970 census, with the city losing roughly 40% of its population in the last 40 years.

There are two bands from Flint that immediately jump out at me. One is new to me, and one is a classic.

Whitey Morgan and the 78s - Another Round.mp3
Buy: Honky Tonks and Cheap Motels (2008)

How many bad-ass country bands come out of Flint? This is a new one for me, and it kicks ass! They were recently signed to Bloodshot Records and will have a new album out in late summer 2010.

Grand Funk Railroad - Sin's a Good Man's Brother.mp3
Buy: Closer to Home (1970, reissued 2002)

The quintessential American Band!