10 for 10

by InfotainMe

Thought we’d take a 10 minute break from politics. At this time of year, the rest of the media are gushing forth with tedious top 10 lists. So why should we be any different? These are my favorite 10 songs of ’10. Thus the title and all. Update your list accordingly…

I don’t always find 10 new songs. I am as likely to find songs that I’ve never heard of or rediscover something I haven’t listened to for years. As the year unfolds, the right song comes along at the right time. Or it doesn’t. I weighted the list toward the new stuff I heard though.

It’s possible you and I don’t have a single song in common. That wouldn’t surprise me at all. My main sources are a couple of radio stations and the internet. My favorite station is WXPN which originates from the University of Pennsylvania; second is WFUV from Fordham. On my daily drive to Pennington, FUV makes it to just about exit 9, and XPN covers the rest of the ride. Other than sports I rarely listen to commercial radio. So I don’t have a good sense of how commercial or uncommercial my tastes are.

Inclusion in the list, as mentioned, is a little arbitrary. If I had done this in spring, it would have included “The High Road by Broken Bells. Summer would have helped out “Cold Beverage” by G Love and Special Sauce or “Pala Tute” by the amazing Gogol Bordello. But I can’t say the cold December caused the inclusion of the lovely Fleet Foxes tune.

To the detriment of a few songs that were in fairly frequent rotation, I found Madison Avenue skulking around the InfoPod. I don’t know if any would have made it to the end, but TV ads eliminated “The Only Living Boy in New York” by Simon and Garfunkel, “Float On” by Modest Mouse, and “Season of the Witch” by Donovan. Don’t blame me, blame these bastards who keep sneaking in my house.

Some songs are tied to incidents or experiences with long tails… #5 was after a brutally long day. #2 was after a brutally long affair. #3 was for a new friend. Some songs barely edged out other songs, so I’ll include the runners up here and there.

The oldest song this year is from 1961, 3 are from 2010. To be honest, “Mustang Sally” , “Into the Mystic”, or “Bang a Gong” could sneak in there every year. And I can’t give a good reason why some others didn’t. So a few honorable mentions…

Bitch in Heat number. “Right Hand Man” by Joan Osborne. Not new, but re-discovered this year. Too often the bitch in heat is, you know, a guy bitch. This song doesn’t have the enveloping luxury of Etta James’s “At Last” It’s just pure physical lust. And this is the same woman who did the exquisite “Cathedrals.” So we could have an lively discussion about the church before wrecking the hotel room.

Get the Beat Out There Where Even the Rented White People Can Find It number. “Crying” by TV On the Radio. Or “It’s Not the Crime” by Tower of Power. If your feet don’t move, you may be dead.

Miraculous Cure number. The uber-soothing Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies doing “Sweet Jane”. Also near the top of this category “Healing Hands” (2010) by Brooklyn’s Citizen CopeFace it – you have 365 chances to have a low-down morning. You need one of these in the tool-kit. If you can’t even stand to hear a human voice, maybe “Travels” by Pat Metheny will get you to put the gun down.

And now, the 10 for 10.

#10. “Frankie’s Gun” the Felice Brothers (2008). They honed their sound in the NY Subway and it shows. I’m a sucker for this kind of rowdy, noisy stuff. It’s got an accordion solo and everything. There were a few others I could have chosen, notably “Burning On the Bowery” by Jesse Malin and the St. Marks Social Club and “Trashcan” by Delta Spirit.

#9. “Church of the Holy Spook” Shane Macgowan and the Popes (1994). I’m stubbornly, even argumentatively catholic. Friends often imply but don’t quite say that this is incompatible with being literate. Not if I say it isn’t.

I lost my mom in May. We re-enacted our rituals, both religious and social. They have their comforts. But what I love more than anything is this strange hymn-mumbling tribe we have convened here in America. It’s not easy to explain.

I do notice that a lot of us don’t really care a hoot for the grander ideas of the church. For instance, none of those catholics who broadcast the mayor’s tiff with father Vinny seemed to place any value on perhaps our greatest notion – the sanctity of a private conversation with a priest.

#8. “Month of May” Arcade Fire (2010). When I was a kid you never listened to your parents’ music. But I can’t get my sons to listen to their own generation to save my life. Albert King and John Lee Hooker – no problem. Arcade Fire – no way. The anxiety of this tune links back to the very fine “Keep the Car Running”. But I also hear that generational disappointment of early Springsteen. Wonder if Arcade Fire are disappointed in my sons…

#7. “White Winter Hymnal” Fleet Foxes (2008). Lovely. Reminds me of winters in the Midwest of my childhood. I have a large playlist called Sunday Morning on the InfoPod. This is the first song on it.

#6. “New Slang” The Shins (2001). Expect Broken Bells (James Mercer’s 2010 band) to get a pile of Grammy’s. After hearing “The High Road” once too often I actually started preferring “The Ghost Inside” more. Then came the Levi Pioneer Series with Mercer’s cover of “Goodbye Girl” being the best of the bunch for my money. “New Slang” is in the vein of the latter. What I like about Mercer is that he knows simple is better. Hope he doesn’t fall in love with the studio toys too much. One of the simplest songs I've ever heard, "Till I Hear From You" has few equals.

#5. “Runaround Sue” Dion and the Belmonts (1961). If I could sing like anyone, it might be Dion. It was the end of hideous, hot day in the world of work. Driving north on the Turnpike with this awful smell filling the car. I convinced myself that I must’ve left my Jack Russell in the car all day in my morning haste and pre-occupation and she was dead and decomposing. As I drove nearer the truck I’d been following I noticed the hooves sticking up out of the back. It was the dead deer clean-up guy. And then Dion came on… I knew I’d make it another day. Which is all you can ever ask of rock and roll.

#4. “Castanets” Alejandro Escovedo (2001). Romance and ambivalence, and a man who knows instead of a boy who thinks he knows. “I like her better when she walks away.” Hey, he said it, not me.

#3. “Weather With You” Crowded House (1991). I send GA tunes to check out from time to time. Not sure when I sent this one but it reminds her of me now. That’s good for at least a 3.

#2. “This Tornado Loves You” Neko Case (2009). Incident in a Brussels hotel. Ain’t talking about it. I do love Neko though. You can also find her with the New Pornographers. Say, we’re getting a little over-Canadian at this point. If I were more glib about it (which I hope to be one day), I could have gone with “Next Girl” by soulful white-boys the Black Keys. We’re also getting little overly soulful white-boyish at that point.

#1. “Everything” Roadside Graves (2010). I don’t have a link (see ITunes). It’s on an EP called “You Won’t Be Happy with Me.” I’ll keep it simple for ya. This is the best band there is.

Roadside Graves are from NJ. (They even have a song called “Jenny Jump”) Metuchen to be exact. Can’t say they remind me of anyone exactly. If I had to pick a band it would be The Band. Not in terms of sound, but atmosphere. Singer John Gleason’s voice has intriguing textures and will age well. The sound is more lush than you’d expect from a group pigeon-holed as “country rock”.

A number of the songs seem to be about being on the lam. The glorious “Liv Tyler” for one. “Jail” is about a couple’s last few hours before getting caught in a dragnet. It manages not only to be interesting, but, if possible, pretty.

“Far and Wide” is a timeless, wistful Irish jig. “Jesus Is a Friend of the Family” is a clever folky that interchanges Mary and Joseph and the lad with the neighbors. It’s a perfect song for Roadside Graves. The ordinary people in their songs stay ordinary, never rising to the archetypical status other singing storytellers secretly crave. But it doesn’t mean one of those ordinary people can’t turn out to be Jesus.

“Everything” was my introduction to the band, played by good ole Vin Scelsa late one night on FUV. It’s a simple song that slowly builds to a crescendo of guitars, piano, drums, voices, and finally strings to make a simple statement: you must accept responsibility for everything you do. What band would waste a crescendo on that message? Welcome to Roadside Graves.

They played at Maxwells this year and a number of times in NYC and NJ. Give them a listen. Before you know it you’ll be saying, “Jesus Christ, your pancakes are good” and you’ll get a “If we didn’t have to worry about money we’d be all right” bumper sticker.

Happy holidays, whichever ones you’re about.

And one last little number I hope to hear blasting out of Greaney HQ.

GA note:
Thank you, Info for the gift of music at a time of year to recall there's a world outside of Hoboken politics. And thanks for broadening our musical horizons; at least mine. As you know, the artists on my list of Top Ten are all dead: Ravel, Debussy, Satie, Saint-Saens... though I believe Philip Glass still walks amongst us. Yes, I'm sure he does. Or he's a strikingly mobile corpse.

So as we close out 2010, a personal thank you from me. The occasional song you sent always seemed to come at the right time in an often turbulent year. And there is nothing quite like music for lifting one's spirit.

Enjoy Info's selection, everyone.