Episode 34 - Beautiful Blasphemy
Heresy - Nine Inch Nails
Blasphemous Rumours - Depeche Mode
Dear God - XTC
Imagine - John Lennon
It's a Sin - Pet Shop Boys
Jesus He Knows Me - Genesis
God - Tori Amos
I am the Resurrection - The Stone Roses
Mary on a Cross - Ghost
God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind) - Randy Newman
Episode 33 - Summer Winding Down
I know, I've been slacking. There has just been a lot going on over the last few months, both really good stuff and some not so great stuff. When that happens, passion projects like this tend to fall a little (in this case, maybe more than a little) behind.
As you can see, I've themed this as "summer winding down". Don't look now, but the days are slowly getting shorter (we went from a 9:00pm sunset here to an 8:30pm sunset), things are starting to slow down as kids are back in school, and stores are already releasing pumpkin flavored shit. And in some stores, Christmas crap is already hitting the shelves.
So this playlist kind of represents that. These songs still have a bit of a rocking, loud vibe, but you can also detect a slightly slower beat, a slower pace, or a more mellow groove in the undertones.
In the next post, I'll probably be adding a link to a Tidal playlist. I've personally moved to Tidal for its caching isn't as buggy as Apple Music and the audio quality makes Spotify look like AM radio. Actually, almost everything is better than Spotify's audio quality.
How Long - Tove Lo
Save a Prayer - Duran Duran
Forever More - Moloko
Breathe Me - Sia
Talk Amoung Yourselves - Grand National
Gold for the Price of Silver - Kings of Convenience
Hold Your Hand - Paul Oakenfold
Champion - Warpaint
No Release - Rebecka Reinhard
Dakota - Stereophonics
Episode 32 - Anti-Country Music
During a company retreat in north Georgia (think 'Deliverance') some years ago, a sales person got pretty shitfaced and took control of the bluetooth speakers and played country music for hours.
And it was fucking horrible.
When I got back to Boston after that trip, I spent the following 2 weeks listening to metal/hard rock as a means to reset myself. I have a really low tolerance for country music. Country music is anger inducing.
Lately, country music has been playing in stores a lot. Like, a lot a lot, and it's been annoying. Annoying enough that even Leslie has been noticing and rolling her eyes.
So here's a 2024 version of my anti-country music playlist. Don't @ me because on this, I bite back.
Call Me Little Sunshine - Ghost
Peace Sells...But Who's Buying - Megadeth
Light - KMFDM
Murderous - Nitzer Ebb
Gentlemen - Afghan Whigs
N.W.O. - Ministry
Paranoid - Black Sabbath
E.vil N.ever D.ies - Overkill
Antisocial - Anthrax
Dr. Feelgood - Mötley Crüe
Episode 31 - Songs Mentioned in the Beastie Boys Book part 1
First, a quick announcement. The biggest hassle for this blog has been putting links to the individual songs on three platforms (Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube), so after some thought, I'm only going to link to the individual tracks to the songs on YouTube. I will still be linking to complete playlists for all three platforms and may be adding Tidal, since I've moved to that.
With that out of the way, let's begin.
I'm currently reading "Beastie Boys Book" and I really hope you're familiar with them. The first half of the book focuses on the late 70s to mid 80s and it's been great so far. It's very different than other books I've read in that chapters are written by different people. In the chapters by the two remaining members, you'll find small comments between them as they reconcile memories. If you're a Beastie Boys' fan or want to dive more into the late 70's/early 80's NYC punk scene, get this. If you're a Gen X NY'er, this book is nostalgia heaven. Cookie Puss, WPIX, Palladium, U68, and a host of others.
But I do have one small issue with the book and that is the authors speak to the reader and in doing that, they'll say something like "stop reading this book and Google this person right now" and most of these "go Google now" declarations pertain to songs that influenced them or were hits in the clubs.
For this playlist, I choose 10 random songs mentioned in the book, some I love, others were new to me. Of these songs, "Din Daa Daa" by George Kranz surprised me the most because the production value is insane. This song is going into the playlist I used to test hifi equipment as it has an amazing soundstage and depth, even in high quality earbuds.
So I'll be alternating between two themed playlists (top bands and "Beastie Boys Book") and a random.
The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight - Dominatrix
Hey! D.J. - World's Famous Supreme Team
Al-Naafyish (The Soul) - Hashim
Bela Lugosi's Dead - Bauhaus
Give Me Tonight - Shannon
Temptation - New Order
Shoot You Down - APB
White Horse - Laid Back
Din Daa Daa - George Kranz
Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don't Stop) - Man Parrish
Episode 30 - U2
Since episode 15 was an episode of cover songs, I originally intended to do another episode of cover songs. Sadly, most of the songs I wanted to feature are missing from different services. (And people are wondering why there is an uptick in pirating media).
As I was trying to think of a replacement playlist, a friend asked me if I was going to do a Pet Shop Boys playlist. Funny enough, I was planning on doing playlists for my favorite bands and PSB is one of my favorite bands.
But this isn't a Pet Shop Boys playlist. I want to save that playlist for when I roll out a new feature of the site that I'm working on. The new feature is inspired by this friend, so it seems fitting to do a PSB playlist when the feature is ready.
I decided to do U2 because I did want to feature Glasvegas' cover of U2's "Acrobat" when I was originally planning to do another round of cover songs. Additionally over the weekend, I picked up Bono's book "Surrender" new for insanely cheap, so U2 seemed fitting.
I know U2 is one of those divisive bands where people stand on either the side of love or hate, but I love them. "Acthung Baby" is probably one of my favorite albums of all time. Why didn't more songs from "Achtung Baby" make this list? Because I do think "Joshua Tree" produced the bigger hits, but "Achtung Baby" is an album I'll listen to from start to finish.
So welcome to a new sporadic series for Listen to this Song; 10 songs from 10 artists. First Lush and now U2.
Pride (In the Name of Love) - U2
Where the Streets Have No Name - U2
One - U2
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2
All I Want is You - U2
With or Without You - U2
Ultra Violet (Light My Way) - U2
Bullet the Blue Sky - U2
Until the End of The World - U2
I Will Follow - U2