NO DIGGING REQUIRED

This is a compilation I just mailed off to Prof. J in Atlanta.  I decided to forgo any kind of themes for this one and just stick to some plain ole good music.  Shake yo ass and enjoy.

No Digging Required

1. Mulatu Astatqe - Yegelle Tezeta
2. The Greenhornes - Too Much Sorrow
3. Dengue Fever - Tip My Canoe
4. Marion Black - Who Knows
5. Holly Golightly - My Love Is
6. Oscar Brown Jr. - The Snake
7. Electrelane - The Valleys
8. Loudon Wainwright III - The Swimming Song
9. Feist - Mushaboom
10. Kathy McCarty - Desperate Man Blues
11. Sharon Jones - This Land Is Your Land
12. Bill Withers - The Same Love That Made Me Laugh...
13. Antony & The Johnsons - Be My Husband
14. John Martyn - Glory Box
15. Gil Scott-Heron - Home Is Where the Hatred Is
16. Colonel Bagshot - Six Day War
17. Handsome Boy Modeling School  feat. Cat Power - I've Been Thinking
18. Enon - Murder Sounds
19. Gilbert O'Sullivan - Alone Again (Naturally)
20. Feist - Tout Doucement

ANSWER KEY:

#3 You can get dengue fever from a mosquito, get sick, and maybe hemorrhage and die. The band Dengue Fever, hailing from Los Angeles, won't make you hemorrhage, but they do make your ass shake.  Would you rather die from bleeding to death or death by ass shaking?  Let's assume you choose ass shaking, here are a few things you should know about the band.  They're different from your usual LA band, and different is good.  What might fall really close to being gimmicky actually succeeds in sounding completely unique and refreshing .  Most of the songs found on both their self-titled release and their latest release, Escape From the Dragon House are sung in Khmer, which is the official language of Cambodia.  So what's so unique about that?  Well the only Cambodian in the band is singer Chomm Nimol, the rest of the band consists of Americans who look like they've time traveled out of some 60's or 70's psychedelic band.  If you have a chance to see these guys perform, I highly suggest it.

#5  I think it's become my personal mission in life to spread the virtues of Golightly to the rest of the world.  When you think of Holly Golightly, you immediately think of Audrey Hepbern.  I don't.  Mickey Rooney forever ruined the movie, Breakfast At Tiffany's for me.  Watching someone do a yellow face impression that is so awfully racist, made it so difficult to watch, that I've never finished it all the way through.  This Holly Golightly (which happens to be her real name)comes from England.  She started out in the all girl garage band Thee Headcoatees, and eventually left the band to start her own solo career, and since then she's released what seems like a billion different albums.  With so many releases under her belt she's never really broken through to the American audiences.  Only the cool kids, like yourself, know about her.  Recently her song, There Is an End, was featured in the opening credits of the movie Broken Flowers. My Love Is comes from her 2004 release, Slowly But Surely.  Check out her official website to learn more about her, and she's also got a myspace page, where you can check out a couple song samples.

#6 Oscar Brown Jr., singer, songwriter, poet, playwright, poet, and civil activist, sadly passed away last May, but he left a kick ass musical legacy behind.  When I think of cool, I immediately think of an Oscar Brown song.  I particularly like The Snake because I'm a sucker for songs with a story.  You can read a very limiting biography at Allmusic. The Snake comes from an album containing two of his earlier releases, Tell It Like It Is and In a New Mood, which you can purchase here.

#7 I never really know how to explain what kind of band Electrelane is.  They're indie rock, but that's such a half ass descriptive label, that in the long run, doesn't doesn't mean anything. So hmm...I'll just describe this track.  It's a choral masterpiece backed by a drum beat.  Simple enough right?  They've transcribed portions of Siegried Sassoon's poem "The Old Huntsman" and arranged the music so it sounds like something you would hear in some kind of hipster church.  I think I would like the Polyphonic Spree if they were as moody as this bunch, instead of them being so damn cheerful and bouncing off the walls all the time.  You can find The Valleys off of their 2004 release, The Power Out.

#11 Sharon Jones is a soul powerhouse.  You don't hear too many people singing like her these days and what passes for soul now, is a pale imitation of what she can do.  She has a sound that is undeniably classic, and it's hard to believe that this record just came out last year.  This Land is Your Land, is of course a cover of the classic folk song by Woody Guthrie.  I remember being taught this song in elementary school, and I thought it was hokey as shit.  Then I heard Sharon Jones' version, and there's these last two verses of the song that I never knew existed.  They are a biting commentary on the whole, "separate but equal" issue.  This land, really isn't the huge melting pot we think it is, there's your side, and there's my side.  My land, and then there's this little spot for you, over there, far away enough so I can still keep my eye on you.  Anyway you can find this song in two places.  The first, and this one I highly recommend, is from Jones' last release, Naturally.  The second, is off of the Ubiquity compilation, Rewind 4, which also includes a soul version of the White Stripes, "Seven Nation Army," done by Nostalgia 77.

#18 I heart Enon.  This comes from their 2003 release, Hocus Pocus.  After five little music descriptions, I'm pooped.  Think Deerhoof, but not as crazy, more accessible, more cute, and more groovy.  Hocus Pocus was on my top ten that year.  Just listen to them, dammit.

Comments

[andren]

Gotta love Enon. I'm liking the blog BTW.

[Evandro]

Hi,

I've been looking fot this Colonel Bagshot track for ages, with no success. Would you please make it available somehow (upload, link, email)? I'd really appreciate that.

Thanks a lot in advance.
Evandro, Rio, Brazil.