The Magnificent Seven

WELL WELL. When I got up and started writing this morning, it was grey and rainy and I thought, "Score!"

But now the sun's out and I'm bitterly resentful here in my solarium, taking my mid afternoon procrasto-break.
Then I see Will Dixon's talkin' about music.


Well.

Apparently we're back in big meme country. So Will went and tagged me with this idea:

“List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now.”

Right now my musical exposure is broken down into three sections:

1. What I listen to when I'm writing
2. What I listen to when I'm driving to and from set.
3. What I listen to when I'm procrastinating, or trying to get back my gumption.

So, here's my seven current listens -- in no particular order.


Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers "American Girl" I saw Tom Petty from wicked seats at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto a couple weeks ago. But to be honest, I'd been playing this song on the Ipod a lot before that. I've also recently watched the Bogdonovich "Running Down A Dream" documentary on the band. Why Petty? Well, probably because I'm old. Not even because I play Guitar Hero, cause I don't. I think it's that Petty and the Heartbreakers represent a pure, comfort food, rocksolid craftsmanship in all their songs that just appeals to me. People (including me) will go nuts over Bob Dylan's brilliance, but nobody in this day and age is going to ladle much praise on Petty's three chords and jangly guitar approach. But I loves me the jangly guitar. And they just released a new remastered Greatest Hits, and goddamn, seriously, how can you not love these songs?

American Girl is also one of my favorites because it's an anthem about doubt and desperation. That PLUS craftsmanship? Shit, son, that's all I you needed to say.


Robert Plant & Alison Krauss "Please Read The Letter" There's something so stately and beautiful about the reading of this song. I actually listen to this song, and sometimes the whole "Raising Sand" album, to help me focus before I get down to writing. I'm going to see this show too. Awesome.




Yazoo "Only You" I must admit, I smiled a bit when I heard that Vince Clark & Alison Moyet were getting back together and touring. This song, well. There's backstory to teenage heartbreak and wondering where you were going to end up and was anyone ever going to help fill that emptiness?

And then, the other night, after wrapping my episode, this song came up on the Ipod as I was bombing down the Lakeshore at 3am thinking, "Hey, this must be what driving drunk is like." I was pretty tired, and in hour 22 after getting up at 7 a.m. to finish my outline.

So I reduced speed. Considerably. And as the song unfolded I mused a bit on the years in between and what this song meant to me then, and how simple and plaintive it was. And in that way that you can only get when you're tired and thoughts come muddled, I think I realized that whatever else was going on, I could tell the fifteen year old me that the emptiness got filled -- but not in the way I'd ever thought. And so an old song takes on another color. Which is pretty cool, I guess.

Oh, and my cousin Ann Weadock were totally into these guys first. She lived in Belgium, you know. Well la-dee-dah.

Only You (1999 Mix)


Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings "I Just Dropped in to See What Condition My Condition Was In" If you only know this song from The Big Lebowski, you owe it to yourself to hear Sharon Jones funked up version. There's nothing about Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings that isn't cool. I've seen them three times now. Nothing will ever beat that first show at the Horseshoe, though. A full on soul review, the tightest horns around -- this is what I put on when I've spent too much time in the Herman Miller chair and the prescription has to be nothing less than a damned good ass shaking.

This single's on the Daptone singles collection #2, which you can buy on Itunes.




Bat for Lashes "What's a Girl To Do?" This comes courtesy of Mohan. Part Donnie Darko. Part gothic weirdness. I can't get enough of this damn song. Whole album's great, too.



Al Green "Lay it Down" Don't have a video for this one, but I defy anyone to not like this record. Old style soul meets ?uestlove and the Dap Kings Horns? Please. Just buy it and stop embarrassing yourself.

Here's a making of they have on YouTube.




Electric Six "Gay Bar" Occasionally when you're really busy, you have to return to the classics. And nothing is more classic (in Internet time, at least, which we all know is measured in days) than this. Oh, where do I start? Is it the whole Gay Lincoln motif? The simple and horrifying image that plays over the instrumental break in the middle? Or is the perfect, fucked up, 2006-era Bush weirdness of the terrified record company censoring the second verse: "I want to start a war....start a Nuclear War...in the gay bar, gay bar, gay bar..." Oh God, honey, don't mention the war!

Re-TARDED. I seriously play this song about once every couple days.




Okay, so supposedly the end of it is to tag other people. Greedy will manages to tag just about every other scribe I know. So I'll say, Diane Kristine, Brandon Laraby, Jill Golick, Brioux, Callaghan (I'm not going to link to his dead blog because it's just embarrassing) and then I'll tag a few people who don't blog but who I know show up here on occasion.

Walton and Mohan, you can lay down some shit in the comments if you like. There. Done.

Oh, and Happy Solstice, everybody!