Today is a bit of a failure to launch for me so I'm using this newsletter to construct a short playlist out of things that aren't available on streaming (to my knowledge). I really feel that music has a seasonal dimension. Springsteen for example: Darkness on the Edge of Town is a summer record, The River is for the dead of winter. Don't ask me to explain this. This morning was the first day that really felt autumnal; misty, a little rainy, cool, the leaves starting to go yellow and red.
The Bob Seger System - Lucifer
Bob Seger is our dad rock. Springsteen is for the east coast, Neil Young for the west, but Bob Seger is from Detroit. Pittsburgh isn't the Midwest, but Detroit is probably spiritually the most similar city. (Some autumn trivia, Pittsburgh and Detroit are the only cities in the USA where the night before Halloween is routinely called "devil's night.") If you only know Bob Seger from the Chevy commercials (WHOOOAA-OHH, LIKE A ROCK!) then you should be aware that Bob Seger fucking slaps. His earlier output with the Bob Seger System is particularly good -- a little more punk, a little more heavy psych, a little less classic rock.
Judee Sill - I'm Over
Tomorrow is Judee Sill's birthday, and I am considering writing a whole post about her. I've wanted to write an essay about her for a long time, who knows if I ever will. I don't know if I can do justice to Judee's work in just a few sentences, but to give you an idea: Laurel Canyon acid Christianity; suffering, redemption, rapture, and Bach. This song isn't the most representative or perfect encapsulation of her style (that would probably be her most famous song, "Jesus Was a Crossmaker") but I like the acoustic warmth of this song a lot.
Samhain - Archangel
I mean, duh. I love that Danzig himself pronounces it "sam-hane" (the proper Gaelic pronunciation is "sau-wen"). The Danzig/Misfits extended universe is a dangerous place to just muck about in -- there's a particular kind of sinister rockabilly vibe in some of the subculture -- but it's always been weird to me that Samhain isn't more popular. Archangel is definitely their best song, and for whatever reason, the least cringe (the least Deviantart-coded) video I could find is this live version.
Roky Erickson - Starry Eyes
The 13th Floor Elevators' Easter Everywhere is pure acid, pure autumn (are you noticing a theme?). Frontman Roky Erickson had a long, winding, and pretty tragic solo career post-Elevators (I was lucky to see him play a Halloween show in Austin before he died). This is (in my opinion) the best version of one of his most beautiful songs, and one of the most beautiful songs ever.
And finally, since leather weather is all about italo disco and smoking cigarettes, two italo classics that I am always sad not to be able to find on streaming. I don't know anything about these tracks and I kind of don't want to -- for some reason, I always want to lean in to the the mystification of the social and productive relations embedded in these records, probably to preserve their close association in my mind with the emotion of neon, dancing in a dark room, and, again, smoking cigarettes in the crisp night air.
Ry*No - Gigolo
Bizzy & Co - Avientate