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Michael Bennett writes

Friday iPod/MP3 Shuffle -- Happy Birthday Phil Lynott Edition

He was the charismatic black Irishman who melded Irish folk music with hard rock, sometimes sprinkling in some Van Morrison, yielding the indelible classic, “The Boys Are Back In Town”. If you ever see a video of Thin Lizzy, one thing is obvious — Phil Lynott was a rock star. While U.S. success was fleeting, Lynott fronted the band known for its dual lead guitars, cranking out dozens upon dozens of great songs and top notch albums like Jailbreak, Live And Dangerous and Black Rose (A Rock Legend). When punk and new wave came blasting out, Lynott didn’t run and hide. He rubbed shoulders with them, paying tribute on the tune “Back in ’79” (from his first solo album) and working with Midge Ure of Ultravox. Today, you can hear other bands influenced by Thin Lizzy, such as Ted Leo + Pharmacists (check out “Timourous Me”, which is pure Lizzy homage, though Ted claims otherwise). Let’s pay tribute to the great Phil Lynott on his birthday by grabbing the ol’ iPod/MP3 player, hitting shuffle, and sharing the first 10 tunes that come up.

  1. Jawbox — Send Down (Novelty): A number from the second Jawbox album, which found the band starting to really define its angular post-punk sound. This tune isn’t as intricately constructed as later song and has more of an early emo anthem vibe. In that respect, it plays a little bit closer to a Naked Raygun song. J. Robbins has a powerful enough voice to pull it off.
  2. Neil Finn — Souvenir (Try Whistling This): Finn’s first solo album did a great job of building on what he had been doing with Crowded House. This means Finn continued to pen superb sophisticated pop songs with layered instrumentation, articulate lyrics and melodies on par with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Andy Partridge and Robyn Hitchcock. This song has a neat structure, using synthesized strings in the verses to play static parts to build tension, released by a jangly guitar that kicks the chorus in. The song has many parts to it, and they flow together seamlessly.
  3. The Sights — Talk To You (Are You Green?): These Detroit area garage rockers came in early during the wave of revivalists — i.e., right around the time of the The White Stripes. The band see-sawed between riffy proto-punk and cheerful Kinks-y pop tunes. On this song, both sides are on display. Which is very cool.
  4. Mott The Hoople — Momma’s Little Jewel (All The Young Dudes): A mid-tempo track with a little barroom piano added to the mix. This song sounds like a more playful version of Free.
  5. Big Dipper — Wet Weekend (Supercluster: The Big Dipper Anthology): A spin off of the likeminded Kansas post-punk pop band The Embarrassment, Big Dipper specialized in catchy rock tunes that were just a little bit askew. The lyrics often were a bit off-beat and the rhythms and melodies had little wrinkles that indicated they came from a post-Velvet Underground/Big Star world, rather than a more mainstream perspective. This is a very typical song, with a bouncy rhythm and a strong lead guitar line throughout the entire track, building up to a big chorus. This is the essence of ’80s college radio.
  6. Kitchens of Distinction — In a Cave (Love Is Hell): The Kitchens, on their first album, hadn’t fully fleshed out their big dramatic rock sound, but it was already pretty big. This is a slow burner of a song with ample helpings of the reverbing My Bloody Valentine-ish guitar work that was their trademark. Unlike MBV, the Kitchens had a much more spacious song, which was needed so vocalist Patrick Fitzgerald could have room to emote. These guys were lumped in with the shoegazer movement, for good reason, but they had the most vocal personality by far.
  7. The Guess Who — Baby’s Birthday (Shakin’ All Over): Before this Winnepeg, Canada band became stars for hits like “American Women”, they were a pretty typical ’60s rock band. They had a garage rock phase, but even during that period, they tried on all sorts of styles. This is a jangly rock tune that sounds somewhat like a Mike Nesmith Monkees’ tune. Randy Bachman’s twangy guitar sounds great.
  8. The Jam — Strange Town (Direction, Reaction, Creation): A fantastic tune that combines a Motown rhythm with a classic Brit pop tune. This is one of those songs that clearly inspired bands like Blur, The Smiths, The Stone Roses and others. Paul Weller at his best.
  9. All — Sugar and Spice (Allroy Sez): After Milo left The Descendents, Bill Stevenson formed the similar All. The first All album is an outstanding pop-punk record, chock full of great songs. Moreover, the playing, especially in the rhythm section, is really creative, giving the songs a unique stamp. This song is a warning about a girl who is going to break a friend’s heart. It has a dramatic, ominous feel to it, and has a super cool middle eight where the song breaks down to a whisper before slamming into the urgent chorus.
  10. Watermelon Men — Seven Years (Children of Nuggets): If someone hasn’t put together a compilation of this ’80s Swedish garage band, they should. The Watermelon Men really captured the feel of the original era of garage bands, with better fidelity. This song is one of those doomy folk-psych garage tunes.

Posted on August 20, 2010 • Permalink • 6 Comments

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What They're Saying

Craig Reptile, on Aug 20, 06:14 AM, wrote:

1. Citizens Here and Abroad— “Accelerator”
2. The Damned— “Help”
3. Moby— “Hope Is Gone”
4. Los Crudos— “Migra Violencia”
5. Lily Allen— “Not Big”
6. Guided By Voices— “Hey, Hey, Spaceman”
7. Arthur & Friends— “Poetry Club”
8. Daft Punk— “Funk Ad”
9. The Magnetic Fields— “I Don’t Know What To Say”
10. Shapes and Sizes— “Sing Them Songs”

DJMOOG1, on Aug 20, 07:48 AM, wrote:

1. Cris Joss – Waves Of Love (You’ve Been Spiked)
2. The Sweet – Cover Girl (Action:The Sweet Anthology)
3. Cicada – Metropolis (Roulette)
4. The Black Hollies – Can’t Stop These Tears (From Falling) – Softly Towards The Light
5. Saint Etienne – The Process (Continental-Deluxe Edition)
6. Orbital Ft. Allison Goldfrapp – Are We Here(Who Are They?) – Orbital20
7. Royksopp – The Drug (Senior)
8. Candy Claws – Hiding (Hidden Lands)
9. Wondermints – On The Run (Mind If We Make Love To You?)
10. Nouvelle Vague – Just Can’t Get Enough – Live KCRW 2005

DJ Mike Scales, on Aug 20, 07:59 AM, wrote:

Listened to Thin Lizzy’s “Showdown” on my commute (before I shuffled)!! It was in my head the second I woke up this morning…

1. Suffocation – Misconceived (Suffocation)
2. Common – Punch Drunk Love (Universal Mind Control)
3. Mos Def – Life In Marvelous Times (The Ecstatic)
4. Krisiun – Summon (AssassiNation)
5. Misery Index – Ruling Class Canceled (Traitors)
6. Toxic Holocaust – City Of A Million Graves (An Overdose of Death)
7. The Jesus Lizard – The Skull Of A German (Shot)
8. Declaime – Hungry (Fonk)
9. Outkast – Church (Speakerboxxx)
10. Converge – Effigy (Axe To Fall)

Wow, some great metal selections!! My iPod must know I’m going to Slayer, Megadeth & Testament tonight at UIC Pavilion! \m/

scott mck, on Aug 20, 08:43 AM, wrote:

1. Koop – Baby (Waltz For Koop)
2. Camera Obscura – Razzle Dazzle Rose (Let’s Get Out Of This Country)
3. Ellen Allien & Apparat – Bubbles (Orchestra of Bubbles)
4. The Replacements – Don’t Ask Why (Sorry Ma, I Forgot To Take Out the Trash)
5. The House Of Love – Love In A Car (The House Of Love)
6. Morrissey – Southpaw (Southpaw Grammar)
7. The Smiths – The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (The Smiths)
8. The Rentals – Friends Of P. (Return of the Rentals)
9. Bob Mould – Brasilia Crossed With Trenton (Workbook)
10. David Bowie – Looking For Water (Reality)

Billy K., on Aug 20, 09:11 AM, wrote:

1. The Decemberists — The Infanta (Picaresque): Remember when the Decemberists were just an insular group of nerdy musicians who read too many books? And then they got super popular? Yeah, how’d that happen again?
2. The Del-Vetts — Last Time Around (Nuggets): What I love about box sets like Nuggets is that you don’t have to come prepared with the band bio to appreciate a 3-minute rocket like this one. But I might just look it up anyway…
3. The Beatles — A Day in the Life (Love): I’m still not sure how I feel about the Beatles’ mash-up album. Okay, I think it was done by George Martin’s son or something, and it sounds great, but 20 years from now will it be anything more than a quick cash-in on the post-Girl Talk remix culture of the ’00s? This track does play it refreshingly straight, however.
4. The Magnetic Fields — In an Operetta (i): Are the Magnetic Fields the indie pop version of Ween? The longer they keep putting out records, the more they offer up little genre studies like these, and there’s no denying the sense of humor. Less campy, maybe.
5. The Who — Behind Blue Eyes (Then and Now): Man, I thought this song was badass as hell when I was in high school. Remember when Fred Durst and the guy from the Goo Goo Dolls covered it at the televised 9/11 benefit? That was gross.
6. PJ Harvey — Kamikaze (Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea): Widely passed over on initial release for being too polished for a PJ Harvey album, Stories has since become one of her discography’s crown jewels. Fantastic stuff.
7. Broken Social Scene — Capture the Flag (You Forgot it in People): It’s just an intro, I know, but suddenly I’m back in 2003 and discovering independent music for the first time and my head is exploding.
8. The Most Serene Republic — You’re a Loose Cannon McArthur… But You Get the Job Done (Underwater Cinematographer): Oh man. The first non-Broken Social Scene-related band to be signed to Arts & Crafts. I reviewed this for my college newspaper. A bit precious, but I remember really liking it at the time. This would have been a recommended track.
9. Esquivel — Mucha Muchacha (Space Age Bachelor Pad Music): “Me Muchacho. You Muchacha. You know, like me Tarzan, you Jane.” Mildly offensive? Sure. But that comes with the territory when you’re talking 1960s lounge-exotica. Incidentally, my dad loved this album when I played it for him — said it reminded him of Las Vegas.
10. Aesop Rock — Boombox (Labor Days): I picked this up in high school around the time I figured out there was more to hip hop than what’d I’d heard on the radio during the reign of Puff Daddy. Nearly a decade later, Aes would probably be proud to know he served as my gateway drug to the wider world of rap.

Clarence E., on Aug 20, 09:33 AM, wrote:

1. Mozart – IV. Offertorium No. 2 Hostias (Requiem)
2. INXS – All the Voices (The Swing) Even though “Kick” blew up worldwide, I still think this was a musically underrated New Wave/pop band that was overshadowed by Michael Hutchence’s celebrity and bizarre death.
3. Andrew Bird – Heretics (Armchair Apocrypha)
4. Stereolab – Lock-Groove Lullaby (Transient Random Noise-Bursts with Announcements)
5. Tony Frucella Quintet – Foo’s (Beebop Spoken Here)
6. John Lennon – Instant Karma (Imagine)
7. Mance Lipscomb – Ella Speed (Blues Masters Vol. 3)
8. America – Tin Man (Holiday)
9. Christopher Cross – Sailing (Christopher Cross) Still one of the most beautiful songs ever produced, IMO.
10. Freddy McGragor – Bobby Babylon (Studio One Rockers)

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