A Love Story in Four Acts

And we're off! The January CDs go in the mail first thing in the morning.

As I searched for a theme this year, I started by gathering the songs I most like and want to share. Turning that list of 72 songs over and over a couple themes start to emerge, not surprisingly the most prevalent theme is love (or lack thereof). Also not surprising in my collection, all of those songs are from the female voice. Despite that common threading, this method of assembly allows for some fantastically random song transitions. I am particularly proud of Rosemary Clooney dancing straight into Poe's Not a Virgin and Martha Davis's enchanting Trust Me crashing onto the rocks of Hesta Prynn's Can We Go Wrong. Since I am a procrastinator, most of you will receive this epic in early February, which I can claim was on purpose to capture some of that Valentine's Day spirit. I proudly present 20 glorious songs of A Love Story in four Acts.

Act I: The Dance
Wishful Thinking - The Ditty Bops. I discovered the Ditty Bops at Harbor Lights on the waterfront in Boston opening for Tori Amos. A fun start to any show including this one.

I Think I love You - Donora. The morning DJ at WYEP in Pittsburg is a close friend of mine and the source of any cool music in my collection including Pittsburg local gem Donora. If you like hula-hoops, check out the you tube video for this song.

What Do I Have to Do - The Donnas. I went to Ozzfest just to see The Donnas and I was glad I did. So much energy, so much anger and so much get over it! This is that i-want-to-get-closer-to-you-but-i-don't-want-to-let-my-guard-down-until-you-do part of the dance.

Bring Me Edelweiss - Edelweiss. Not exactly Rodgers and Hammerstein, but a fun one hit wonder about courtship. Was there really any other type of popular music in the 80's?

Reel Me In - Kim Richey. I met Kim in the Hampton Ballroom. She was opening for the Indigo Girls, but I went to see her as she was a friend of a friend. This song completely enraptured me that night and continues to. The louder the better, but a word of caution: unlike the rap songs that claim to have the deepest base, this one will actually test the low end of your stereo system.

I Could Have Danced All Night - Rosemary Clooney. With all due respect to Julie Andrews, this is my favorite version of this oft covered song from My Fair Lady.

Act II: Falling through Lust into Love
Not a Virgin - Poe. I think she said it all.

Stockings - Suzanne Vega. One of the greatest visuals ever comes form this song: "Do you know where friendship ends and passion does begin? It's between the binding of her stocking and her skin." You can imagine the entire story just from those two lines. The song tells of one of the Nine Objects of Desire, sonically one of the best albums ever made.

How Naked - The Blow. I am violating a rule somewhere by including a band that appeared on last year's submission, but this song perfectly captures the pivotal point of this act. Plus, it's The Blow.

In The Night - Jen Taranto. I stumbled upon Jen playing on the street in Downtown Crossing one day. She rolled her eyes when I asked her if she took requests. I asked for track 3. "Off of your CD" I explained, which instantly turned her into the happiest person I had ever seen. It must have been the first time someone requested one of her own songs. Track 3 is called "In The Night"

Shhh - Donora. Now I am violating another rule by including two tracks by the same band, but I really want you to get to know Donora. This song is that time when the rest of the world fades into the background all that matters is the one you love.

Will I - Rachel McCartney. This is the song I most wanted to share. Close your eyes and let Rachel take you deep into your own self. Will you listen?

Trust Me - The Motels. In that last moment of doubt, the one you love covers that last fear and reassures with an enchanting "Trust Me" The falling into love is complete.

Act III: The Dark Times
Can We Go Wrong? - Hesta Prynn. The doubts come back, can something right go wrong? Hesta became famous as part of the rap trio Northern State. I saw them open for Tegan and Sara at Berkley College of Music and was immediately a huge fan. This one is also a really cool video if you get the chance to Youtube it. Her cover of Pepper is worth a listen too.

Cool on Your Island - Y Kant Tori Read. The goddess, before she was. A rare 7" single of this song adorns a corner of my home office. At this point the relationship is definitely going wrong.

Wrap My Head Around That - Lucinda Williams. Now she is imploding, turning further into herself, into her pain and confusion trying to figure out where it all went wrong.

Brake of Your Car - Lennon. Wait? Why did you leave? Now I'm angry! Named after John Lennon (she spent most of 2008 defending a copy write lawsuit from Yoko), Lennon's first album was released on September 11, 2001. The world was a little distracted that day, so no one really noticed this one. Plus she hated the album and refused to promote it. But I like it anyway.

Act IV: Happily Ever After
I Know I Know I Know - Tegan and Sara. Let's skip all of the sappy make-up and I'll-change-I-promise songs and get to the good part - peaceful happy love, reassuring gestures and friendship.

On the Radio - Regina Spektor. Russian piano player who now hails from Brooklyn. She is definitely on the list of acts I would like to see live. I love those moments that you get to relive memories from the early days of the relationship - moments connected by music of course!

Rascal - Don White. Another WERS find. This whole Live in Michigan album is fantastic, particularly if you have been married for a while, have kids or both. As a young adult, this song represents everything you never want to become, but as you get older you find a lot of attractive elements in these lyrics.

The disc was supposed to end with a Loretta Lynn song, but I ran out of room by 35 seconds:
This Old House - Loretta Lynn. Produced by Loretta fanboy Jack White who also sings backing vocals. This last song is about love that endures and is remembered long after the lovers.

Teaser

I’m already hard at work on the February CD. Here’s a bit of a teaser that should confound at least as much as it enlightens: my playlist includes not one, but two Hank Williams covers.

Eleventilicious 2012 - the Starting Line-up

January : Bill W.
February : Paul
March : Mike
April : Bill K.
May : Brett
June : Randy
July : Christina
August : Chuck
September : Ileana
October : Angela
November : Mary
December : Cynthia

Some Guidelines - an Encore!

These have been unabashedly copied and pasted from a previous CD club and are strictly suggestions. We can certainly add and subtract as we evolve:

I took a first pass on assigning months according to some early requests. Please feel free to work out any changes to the order among yourselves and I'll update the blog.

The name was something I came up with on the spur of the moment. I am open to other ideas, of course!

To be in the club, all you’ve got to do make one CD mix over the year when it’s your month and mail it out to the other eleven members. Four of us (Mary and I, and my brother Mike and his wife Ileana) are at two addresses, so most of you will only have to mail out nine CDs.

Try to make a cover for your CD. Do what you like with it. Be creative. Include song titles and artist names for every track, and provide track numbers.

Mark the CD itself with your name and your month, using a marker.

Mix up your mix CD. Think about the flow, the order it will be listened to. Do not copy a whole album, although you can use more than one song by an artist, if you like.

Mail your CD to the others in the group, postmarked by the 15th of your month. Of course, let us know if you’re running into any issues and we’ll work something out.

  

1.      Clem Snide - “Moment in the Sun”  This one streamed on my personal Pandora station back in March and I’ve been wearing it out since.  I like the way it builds from calm to frenetic.

2.      The Low Anthem - “To Ohio”  Love the harmonies from this Rhode Island indie folk-rock group. Something about this song I find mesmerizing.  For some reason, my mind wanders to the middle 1800’s when I hear this….don’t ask.

3.      Deer Tick - “Axe is Forever”  Not many of your compilation CD’s can boast about two consecutive Rhode Island bands, but this one can!  Love this bouncy, straight-forward, piano-laced rock song.

4.      Ford Turrell - “Ghost of Goodbye”  This song got one of the biggest positive reactions on the blog which is not typical of the widely unknown artists I post. Turrell is a young Nashville based singer-songwriter in the Ray Lamontagne mode.

5.      Bob Schneider - “Honeypot”  The latest from Austin’s Bob Schneider, my all-time personal favorite. Great, prolific composer of songs, great rock n roll voice, average guitarist that surrounds himself with Austin’s best studio musicians. His music contains elements of rock, folk, salsa, opera, rap, country, electronica. See him live with a full band, he will not disappoint.

6.      Middle Brother - “Middle Brother”  This band consists of three frontmen from other bands: Dawes, Delta Spirit and Deer Tick.  I rank this 2011 debut album as one of the best records of the year.

7.      The Wood Brothers – “Postcards From Hell”   A friend of mine turned me on to these guys back in July and I’m thankful he did.  Great folk rock band in a similar realm as The Avett Brothers. Check out the bass player Chris Wood’s first band too: Medeski Martin & Wood…perhaps the most innovative jazz-rock band I’ve ever heard.

8.      Drive-by Truckers – “Self Destructive Zones”   Yeah, I’m sure everyone knows who the Truckers are, but they are on the blog and they are such an important band from my perspective that I wanted them in this collection.  “Zones” stands up as one of my all-time favorites of theirs.

9.      Band of Horses – “Older”  This one I first heard on the Austin City Limits TV program. Their performance was one of the best I’d ever seen on that show.  Album was grammy nominated for what that’s worth.

10.   Dr. Dog – “Where’d All The Time Go?”   Philly-based band with a decent repertoire. This was another Pandora streaming discovery. But I just realized while writing this note that I had shared it online before I started the blog.  Oh well.  Still deserves a spot on this list being a song that has influenced me this year.

11.   Joe Purdy – “San Jose”  This one drew my favorite blog comment of the year: 3 chords + emotion = magic. Arkansas folk singer has many very good songs if you like this sort of thing.

12.   The Little Willies – “Roll On”  This is another one I’m sure many of you are familiar with. The Willies are Nora Jones’ studio and touring band.  They used to get together and play county standards just for fun…it turned into a band.

13.   The Jayhawks – “Up Above My Head”   Originally recorded for their 1992 album ‘Tomorrow the Green Grass,’ it was kept off the album due to its straight-forward gospel message.  It was released in 2011 when they issued a re-master. 

14.   Monsters of Folk – “Say Please”   Another ‘collaboration-group.’  This one features members of Brite Eyes, My Morning Jacket and also independent producer M. Ward. Highly acclaimed record and did get some decent college radio airplay.

15.   Amos Lee – “Flower”  Absolutely one of 2011’s best albums.  Everyone knows Amos now and good for him.  Beautiful  songwriting and a voice beyond comparison.

16.   G. Love & Special Sauce – “Honor and Harmony”  This one from Philly’s G. Love was recorded with the help of his buddy Donovan Frankenreiter.  Love the hip hop vocal attitude I sense in this bouncy little diddy.

17.   Nizlopi – “Helen”  This British band I also first heard by listening to my Pandora station (do you see a pattern at all?).  This sound is created by only two people. A guitarist who sings and a bass player who does the beat-boxing in place of percussion.

18.   Golden Smog – “Ill Fated”  Another ‘collaboration-group’ featuring members of Minneapolis-based bands: The Jayhawks, Wilco, Soul Asylum, The Replacements, Run Westy Run, The Honeydogs and Big Star.

19.   Young Fresh Fellows – “My Friend Ringo”   Not everything on the blog is from the modern era! This was a mid ‘80s tune from one of my favorites of that time period.  The Fellows were real pioneers in the Seattle music scene.

20.   Luna – “Anesthesia”    Any band that has members of the The Feelies in it is OK with me! An oldie but a goodie from New York’s Luna…love the pedal in the middle of the guitar solo!

Hope you enjoy my friends and have a safe, happy and healthy holiday season and 2012!

Dan

December

Hi Folks. 
Are you wondering about the December CD?
Are you surprised you haven't heard anything about it up to this point?
Who is Mr. December anyway? (humor me on that one).

Well rest easy people!
December's CD is put together...that is to say the artwork is done...the songs are picked and lined up...the liner notes are written. 
All I have to do is burn these puppies, assemble the parts and they are out the door.
You should have them before Christmas.

Just wanted to give you a heads up!
Thanks.
Dan

Pretend this is from Mike Mena....and that his picture is posted here.

Pretend this is really from Mike Mena as it really is, only he couldn't log on. He asked me to please post this for him and to let you know The November Eleventilicious Double A-Z Album is on its way. Before month end-even. Thanks!


From Mike:


The Eleventilicious Team has set the bar extremely high. As far as I know, I’m the only person in the group who was a paid talent scout with a record company. In spite of that credential, I was intimidated because of the high caliber of previous discs. Bravo! As I racked my brain for an appropriate theme, ideas were considered only to be discarded. Then, I came upon Music A to Z. It seemed simple and the songs flowed. A few of the acts I signed are represented here.

Adorable. I signed this band. They never broke it big but…
Blur- They were so talented and thought it was their job to torment me.
Caravan Palace- A recent discovery through KCRW.
Devotchka-Great name. Great band.
Everything But the Girl- this was one of their early, heart-wrenching recordings
Field Music-the guy who introduced me to Blur & Jesus Jones introduced them to me.
Gorillaz-Damon Albarn from Blur went on to form Gorillaz. I had the pleasure of working with guest vocalist Bobby Womack too.
The Hollies- Being my brother invited my participation, this one is for him.
The Irish Tenors- Yes, a weepy classic. Nothing bats top-notch song-writing.
Jesus Jones- My wife speaks French, Spanish & English. Yes, she’s an international bright young thing.
Kinks- Gotta love a song that mentions Donald Duck.
Lana Del Rey- Love the harp. Great lyrics too.
My Morning Jacket- I just say yes to the title of this song. “You Wanna Freak Out.”
Neil Young- It makes me think of a harvest and not the album.
Ozomatli- These guys are heroes in Los Angeles. Their live shows are a party.
Portishead- They got their groove on.
Question Mark & the Mysterians- Because I couldn’t bring myself to using Queen.
Radiohead- this song “High & Dry” is so gut-wrenching in a good way.
Shelby Lynne- “I Only Want To Be With You,” has been covered so many times, but not like this.
Tokyo Police Club- Great lyrics and great pop.
U2- My brother I share some terrific U2 memories
The Verve-Amazing opening chords.
Wilco-Terrific primitive pop.
Aside from Katy Perry, there are not many songs about the 4th of July. I worked with John Doe as well!
Yma Sumac- Couldn’t bring myself to using Yes and this loungey sound is cool.
Zuco 103- Brazil with a modern beat.

Thanks for listening!
Mike Mena