05: This is America
Hey friends,
I'm back on the air this week after a fortnight break, and I'm excited to bring you new music from the Sea and Cake, Childish Gambino, Myke Bogan, the Internet, and MIKE, among others. I'll also bring you classics from Willie Nelson, Todd Rundgren, and a selection from Liz Phair's recently (officially) released demos.
TWO WEEKS AGO:
I last hosted my radio show on April 25th; there were a few more shenanigans with the second turntable abandoning groove mid-song, but I think I was mostly able to set the vibe I was going for, which was "everything's green in the spring." As an added bonus, my program was extra-long due to a schedule mixup, so I got to stick around until almost 2 am and really explore the theme of springtime music. I was relieved I had overprepared and brought way more than 2 hours of music, because I played almost every song I had lined up.
FIRST HOUR
SECOND HOUR
THIRD HOUR
FOURTH HOUR
PLAYLIST PART ONE
PLAYLIST PART TWO
APRIL 25, 2018
ANOTHER GREEN WORLD
David Bowie "A New Career in a New Town" [Low]
Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers "Springtime" [Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers]
Brenton Wood "Oogum Boogum Song" [Oogum Boogum]
Mac DeMarco "Salad Days" [Salad Days]
Nirvana "In Bloom" [Nevermind ]
XTC "Grass" [Skylarking]
New Order "Everything's Gone Green" [Substance]
Freescha "Blooms & Blossoms" [Kids Fill the Floor]
The Velvet Underground "Who Loves The Sun" [Loaded]
Billie Holiday "Some Other Spring" [Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday On Columbia (1933-1944)]
Saint Etienne "Spring" [Foxbase Alpha]
The American Analog Set "The Green Green Grass" [Set Free]
Chanti Darling "Casual (feat. The Last Artful, Dodgr)" [Casual (feat. The Last Artful, Dodgr)]
Prince "Nothing Compares 2 U" [Nothing Compares 2 U]
John Cale "Big White Cloud" [Vintage Violence]
Led Zeppelin "The Ocean" [Houses Of The Holy]
Nick Drake "Hazey Jane II" [Bryter Layter]
Simon & Garfunkel "April Come She Will" [Sounds Of Silence]
Joni Mitchell "Both Sides Now" [Clouds]
Blossom Dearie "It Might As Well Be Spring" [Blossom Dearie]
The Grace Period "Paris au Printemps" [Dynasty]
The Go-Betweens "Spring Rain" [Liberty Belle And The Black Diamond Express]
Little Wings "Light Green Leaves" [Light Green Leaves]
The Microphones "Karl Blau" [It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water]
Bobby Birdman "I Will Come Again" [Heart Caves]
The Zombies "Friends Of Mine" [Odessey And Oracle]
Eric's Trip "Spring" [Love Tara]
Guided By Voices "Glad Girls" [Isolation Drills]
Hayden "Rainy Saturday" [Us Alone]
Mitski "First Love / Late Spring" [Bury Me At Makeout Creek]
Tom Waits "You Can Never Hold Back Spring" [Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards]
CAN "I'm So Green" [Ege Bamyasi]
The Festivals "Green Grow The Lilacs" [The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 12B: 1972]
PART TWO
Biz Markie "Spring Again" [Biz's Baddest Beats: The Best Of Biz Markie]
Stevie B "Spring Love" [Best Of Stevie B]
The Beach Boys "Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring" [1967 - Sunshine Tomorrow]
Arthur Russell "Springfield" [Springfield]
Donna Summer "Spring Affair" [Four Seasons Of Love]
M83 "Run Into Flowers" [Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts]
Galaxie 500 "Flowers" [Today]
Tyler, The Creator "Where This Flower Blooms" [Flower Boy]
SWV "Rain" [Release Some Tension]
Charlie Parker "April In Paris" [The Genius Of Charlie Parker #2: April In Paris]
Strawberry Switchblade "Trees and Flowers - Extended Mix" [Strawberry Switchblade]
Ravyn Lenae "Right Of Spring" [Moon Shoes EP]
Lead Belly "Pretty Flowers In Your Backyard" [Leadbelly Vol. 3 1939-1947]
Nina Simone "It Might As Well Be Spring" [The Colpix Singles]
Jorge Ben "Mais Que Nada" [Bossa Nova]
Kitty "New Leaf" [Miami Garden Club]
Bill Callahan "Spring" [Dream River]
Ghostface Killah "Flowers [ft. Raekwon & Method Man]" [Pretty Toney (The Lost Tracks)]
Fruit Bats "Buffalo & Deer" [Echolocation]
Talkdemonic "Dusty Fluorescent/Wooden Shelves" [Beat Romantic]
Beachwood Sparks "Confusion Is Nothing New" [Once We Were Trees]
Neil Young "Big Time" [Broken Arrow]
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I had the pleasure of DJ'ing Tannery Bar (on the corner of NE 55th and Burnside) last week with my friend Nelson // DJ Muntz. We get to do this through Freeform Portland, and it's a lot of fun to play records for patrons. I try not to take it too personally when we clear the place out, often around 11 pm. I mean, who can stay late drinking on a Wednesday night? This time, the clearing-out happened when I played a short set of country music (Willie, "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," and Patsy), so Nelson gave me no small amount of trash talk for scaring people off. As is often the case at these things, when the place emptied out, we cranked the music louder and played for each other and the house staff. It seems like half the reason I go out at night (to shows, to host my radio program, to DJ) is to listen to music loudly. At my house, bedtime is 8 pm, and Ronda often goes to sleep once the girls are settled, as she has early mornings at work. The highlight was definitely Schoolboy Q's "Collard Greens," the one with the Kendrick feature. We had a fun conversation when a few of the house staff and customers wandered over to ask what we were playing, and how that's so much more polite and friendly than sticking your phone up in the air with a song identification app.
We rousted a crew to see the Top Dawg Entertainment Championship Tour in Ridgefield, WA on Sunday. I don't think I've ever seen an outdoor/festival show at a county fairgrounds, but it was an extremely pleasant way to spend a May evening. SZA was something else. I drunkenly declared to my pal that she's this generation's Diana Ross, to which he retorted that no, she was this generation's SZA. Her command, stage presence, and that voice were all on point. Kendrick Lamar was dynamite as well, and it is definitely an excellent experience to hear a stadium of thousands of people singing along to anthems like "Backseat Freestyle" or "Swimming Pools (Drank)." Sometimes, it just seems like such a deeply surreal cultural moment in the pocket I inhabit.
If you have not yet seen the video for Childish Gambino's "This is America," it is worth a watch, provided you are okay with some deeply disturbing imagery. You probably couldn't escape him on Saturday night, when Donald Glover pulled double duty on Saturday Night Live as the host and musical guest while releasing the video at the same time. I've watched the video several times now, and I can't shake some of the imagery and ideas loose from my noggin. There have been no shortage of articles that offer insight and criticism of Glover's work, and there seems to be a general clamor to crown him the anti-Kanye. I'm not sure about all that; I just think it was a layered video, rife with symbolism, and it has certainly given me pause in terms of my consumption of art created by black artists. Ta-Nehisi Coates' lovely, eloquent takedown of Kanye is also worth a read, in that vein.
One of my favorite shows on Freeform is STATIC + DISTANCE, hosted by Joshua Justice. Last week, he played a set of songs that served as an imaginary soundtrack to Cormac McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian. You can listen to the first hour here and the second hour here, or you can listen on Mixcloud here.
Excited to see the band Horse Feathers play this Friday at Revolution Hall. They have a record that came out last week called Appreciation. I have not yet listened to it from beginning to end, but I've heard several of the singles, and my impression is that my friends that dig modern country/soul like Nathaniel Rateliff or Leon Bridges are gonna love it.
The Liz Phair box set (Girly-sound to Guyville) came out on Friday, and I've been listening to that as much as time allows with small children a constant presence. It marks the fourth copy of Exile in Guyville in our home. Ronda and I each had cd copies before we met, and we couldn't choose between keeping hers (edited artwork, no skips) and mine (unedited artwork, definitely loved), so we kept both. I bought a used copy at Easy Street Records in Seattle for $10 in the mid-2000s. The real draw with the box set is the first commercial release of her demos, which were mysterious to me in the way that music could only be before the internet and file-sharing. I have mp3s of the demos, but they sounded terrible, and the vinyl pressing is pretty great. In my mind, Exile in Guyville definitely earned all of the accolades heaped on it over the years, and to me it remains a definitive insight into the mind of a woman at that time and place, and certainly helped me be a more empathetic person.
⁂
At preschool, the girls were excited to deliver flowers to neighbors for May Day.
Take care, friends.
Andy // DJ Mr. Mom
Portland, OR
05.09.2018