Seven Songs I'm into at the Moment.

Hey guys, so I obviously fucked up yesterday, my apologies. And I wish that I could say that I'm going to have a really thought out, in depth post, but I'm really, really tired. So you're going to get a list of seven songs I'm loving a lot right now. It's a really mixed bag, not in terms of quality, but genre.

The Flatlanders -- Tonight I'm Gonna Go Downtown

Featuring Smokey from The Big Lebowski, proto-alt-country (two modifiers ftw!) group The Flatlanders had little success initially, but after all three became prominent solo musicians, interest in their original band was rekindled. For all intents and purposes, their debut album More A Legend Than a Band was released in 1991 (their real debut was released only on a small run of 8-tracks after their single was a failure), and it is pure gold. This song features a dobro solo that makes me melt, gorgeous country vocals and a singing saw that gives it an otherworldly shimmer.

Ernest Tubb -- Thanks a Lot
Youtube

More Country. You can thank my roommate for both of these. I just heard this song for the first time an hour ago, but jesus christ, it's a gem. Straight up gold from the "Texas Troubadour" this song is remarkably simple (although it features incredible pedal steel and guitar interplay by Tubb's astounding backing band), but it's one that sticks with you for quite a bit. I have to confess, though, that I'm really a sucker for this old country shit. Makes me wanna pull up stakes and wander through the American Heartland, searching for meaning, finding real americans and educating them about the importance of gender neutral pronouns and the immorality of cheese.

Lynguistics -- Cunninlynguists

When I saw Cunninlynguists a month or two ago, it was absurdly under-attended, but this song got everyone in the half full house slamming their head and trying to learn the lyrics to this jam from the southern powerhouse's debut, Will Rap For Food. Kno Flips a Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto into one of my favorite beats ever, and Deacon rip the track apart with perfectly cadenced and entertaining battle raps about their greatness. Which is really his job, I could care less about what he's actually saying when Kno is behind the boards.

Venus -- Television

Really not a ton to say about this that hasn't been said a million times by people a lot smarter than me. I just recently got into Television's debut Marquee Moon, and it's full of great tracks, this one being my current favorite. I don't know if it's the perfectly interlaced guitar work or the call and response chorus, but this song can not be beat for me right now. That's really all I got. If you haven't heard this album, cop it immediately.

Gettin' Up -- Q-Tip

A Tribe Called Quest is my favorite rap group of all time, and responsible for two albums that would fit into my top 20 any day of the week, so it's no surprise that I can't get enough of the single from Q-Tip's latest, The Renaissance. It's exactly what people should be expecting from Q-Tip at this point, a deliciously jazzy beat, deceptively complex and extremely well constructed, with Tip's patented butter voice dripping all over everything. He's the boss, and that's all there is to it.

Dinosaur on the Ark -- Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit

This song is shamelessly and patently ridiculous. The lyrics are absurd, and the production is hyperbolic and insane. But it keeps reminding me of what Xgau said about Paul Simon's debut solo album "I've been saying nasty things about Simon since 1967, but this is the only thing to make make me positively happy in the first two weeks of February 1972". This song for me is joy incarnate, even despite it's melancholy lyrics, it's the most uplifting thing I've heard maybe all year. The project between Esau and Radioclit takes existing songs and makes them into jams for Esau to vocally shred all over, and it's called The Very Best. It's definitely worth checking out when you get some time to feel really, really good about yourself.

Van Dyke Parks -- All Golden

Van Dyke Parks is a fucking genius. Before Joanna and Ys, and before his cameo on Twin Peaks (Leo Johnson's lawyer, for those buffs out there), he was a Brian Wilson collaborator and commercially unsuccessful solo artist. Which is a shame, because his debut (incidentally one of the most expensive albums ever made), is an absolutely stunning accomplishment. Seamlessly mixing together every part of americana he can get his hands on, Parks creates a sound world of uncompromising vision. But it's still pop music, don't worry, he stuffs this album more full of hooks than I will be next weeks, when I apparently have two thanksgivings in two days (ah, the upsides of divorced parents).

Until next time, when hopefully I'll be on time.

---Dave