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  • Best of 2013 mix cd’s (discs 1-3): a track listing

    Best of 2013 mix cd’s (discs 1-3): a track listing

    Every year, I design what ends up being a 6-cd best-of-the-previous-year mix: 3 discs in the spring, 3 more in early autumn. I have several friends who want all six, another several who like to receive samplings therefrom. They’re good mixes, and since I already need to type up track listings, I’ve taken to sharing them here, for you to explore in whatever way you might enjoy.

    I chose to let the first three discs be dominated by my 50 Favorite Albums list. The subsequent set will not be. All mix titles are lyrics from somewhere on the mix. Also, I’m completely cheating by including a 2011 Bad Lip Reading song on disc three. My reasons are that (1) I already had a Bad Lip Reading song on my 2011 mixes, (2) I didn’t hear this one til two years later, (3) it’s my mix and I’ll do what I want stop questioning me waaaah.

    With a Spoon, He’s Prancing to the Sound

    1. Vienna Teng, Level Up  3:54
    2. Jolly, Lucky  2:38
    3. Boats, O Jumbotron  3:22
    4. Frightened Rabbit, Woodpile  3:25
    5. Bye Bye Blackbirds, Like a Thief  4:53
    6. Manning, Decon(struction) Blues  3:44
    7. Statuesque, Out Crowd  3:05
    8. Hidden Masters, She Broke the Clock of the Long Now  4:39
    9. Adam Ant, Marrying the Gunner’s Daughter 4:36
    10. Kobo Town, Mr. Monday  3:29
    11. Streetlight Manifesto, If Only for Memories  5:28
    12. They Might Be Giants, Nanobots  2:46
    13. Cold Crows Dead, Deadheads  3:05
    14. Los Campesinos!, What Death Leaves Behind  3:38
    15. Xenia Rubinos, Los Mangopaunos  2:49
    16. Jack o’ the Clock, a Lot of People are Dead Wrong Most of the Time  5:06
    17. Cloud Cult, Sleepwalker  4:35
    18. Redwood Plan, Panic On  3:01
    19. Vampire Weekend, Diane Young  2:41
    20. Paul McCartney, On My Way to Work  3:43
    21. Babe the Blue Ox, Self-Evident  5:18

    a Treasure That was Fit for Fools

    1. Indelicates, Class  3:53
    2. Kanye West, I am a God  3:52
    3. dEUS, Girls Keep Drinking  3:48
    4. Ukandanz, Tezalegn Yetentu  3:24
    5. Magma, Tsai!  3:42
    6. Haken, Cockroach King  8:15
    7. Joan Armatrading, Tell Me  4:53
    8. Bob Wiseman, the Reform Party at Burning Man  4:29
    9. Half Past Four, Spin the Girl  2:46
    10. Birds and Buildings, the Dumb Fish  3:19
    11. Louis Logic, Look on the Blight Side  5:06
    12. Red Baraat, Private Dancers  4:20
    13. Polysics, Everybody Say No  3:14
    14. Dismemberment Plan, White Collar White Trash  3:35
    15. Lost World Band, Tongues of Flame II  2:54
    16. Throwing Muses, Sunray Venus  3:35
    17. New Model Army, Seven Times  3:24
    18. Robyn Hitchcock, Fix You  3:48
    19. Fear of Men, Ritual Confession  3:17
    20. Ford Pier, When We Were Poor  3:51

    Spastic Golden Toys

    1. Future of the Left, Singing of the Bonesaws  4:42
    2. Scaramanga Six, the Bristol Butcher  4:56
    3. Of Montreal, Hegira Emigre  4:03
    4. MGMT, Plenty of Girls in the Sea  3:05
    5. And So I Watch You from Afar, Big Thinks Do Remarkable  3:52
    6. Icona Pop, I Love It!  2:39
    7. Bad Lip Reading, Morning Dew  3:57
    8. Shad, Remember to Remember  4:36
    9. Liam Singer, O Endless Storm  3:15
    10. These New Puritans, Fragment Two  4:24
    11. Reign of Kindo, the Hero, the Saint, the Tyrant, and the Terrorist  4:40
    12. Youn Sun Nah, Momento Magico  5:32
    13. Kacey Musgraves, Merry Go ‘Round  3:29
    14. Uncluded, Delicate Cycle, 4:15
    15. Burning Hell, Amateur Rappers  4:30
    16. Front Bottoms, Everything I Own  3:44
    17. Colour Me Wednesday, Shut  3:21
    18. Jumbling Towers, At the Cashier’s Station  3:43
    19. Ylvis, the Fox  3:30
    20. Sean Nelson, Kicking Me Out of the Band  3:38

  • Bein’ Green…

    Bein’ Green…

    Spring has sprung here in Texas! It’s not that easy “Bein’ Green” when you have allergies!

    Fortunately, where we live in Texas, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of pollen, so my allergies aren’t flaring up too much at the moment. Still, I’m reminded of an old Muppets song about the color green. Why? Because the other day, I was listening to the many stylings of “Bein’ Green” on YouTube. I found some really good renditions of a great song. And it’s green here in Texas… or as green as it can get in a place where there are very few deciduous trees.


    The original “Bein’ Green” from 1969.

    There’s something very moving about the plain, melancholy way Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson) sings this sweet song about being sad about being ordinary. Done right, this song becomes extraordinary.


    Big Bird sings “Bein’ Green” at Jim Henson’s memorial service in May 1990.

    I cannot watch this rendition of “Bein’ Green” without crying. When Jim Henson suddenly died of pneumonia in May 1990, I felt like I’d lost an old friend. Big Bird singing this at Jim Henson’s memorial service is just so incredibly moving. I can tell that he’s about to cry.


    The lovely Sophie Milman sings her wistful jazzy version of “Bein’ Green” live…

    I love the way Sophie Milman sings this, explaining why this song means something to her. She’s come a long way from being a picked on kid to a beautiful jazz chanteuse.


    Of course, “Bein’ Green” is not always done in such a sad way.

    CeeLo Green sings with Kermit on The Voice. It’s poignant, but not a tear jerker. I think CeeLo’s church lady outfit helps keep the levity alive.


    The folks on Glee sang “Bein’ Green” too…

    I like Glee, but their songs sound a bit auto-tuned sometimes.


    I think this may be my favorite version of “Bein’ Green”.

    Ray Charles just kills this song. The first time I heard this version of it was on The Cosby Show, when Rudy Huxtable got in trouble for trying to wear a summer dress on a chilly day. I love watching Ray Charles sing this while he plays piano. He turns a sad song into something triumphant and magnificent.


    Shirley Horn’s tribute to Ray Charles…

    Shirley Horn’s jazzy version of “Bein’ Green” is poignant and lovely, with elegant, dramatic piano playing accompanying her rich, velvety voice. Listening to this version makes me wish I had stuck with piano lessons. I’d love to be able to play this the way Shirley Horn does.


    And here’s the version that made me decide to write about this song today…

    Van Morrison gives this song more of an upbeat styling, with funky guitars, swanky saxophone, and his own assertive voice. While this version of “Bein’ Green” is not quite as shattering as some of the other renditions, I still like it. In fact, I liked what Van Morrison did with this song so much that I went looking for the album it came from, which is now out of print. I ordered a used copy of Hard Nose The Highway after listening to several tracks on YouTube and determining I had to have it.

    I have myself also sung this song…


    I need to learn how to play piano… and lose lots of weight so I look good on camera. *Sigh*… It’s not easy bein’ green.

    I hope your green days of spring are just lovely. Remember all the ways green can be beautiful! Especially if you have good allergy meds.

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  • #40 album of 2013 – Of This & Other Worlds by Hidden Masters

    Artist: Hidden Masters

    Album: Of This & Other Worlds

    Of This and Other Worlds, the 2013 debut of Glasgow’s Hidden Masters, would have slipped nicely into some record label’s 1971 release schedule. Something like Love’s Forever Changes crossed with the Who Sell Out, with extra doses of Odessey and Hidden_MastersOracle vocal harmonies and the loudest Beatles and Thirteenth Floor Elevators riffs and mysticism, it is unembarrassed psychedelic retro, and it is *really good at it*. My ranking it at #40 serves only as a reminder, first, that all my rankings are compliments, and second, that if you care more about classic rock more than I do, you might rank it way, way higher.

    Opening track She Broke the Clock of the Long Now shows off quite a few of their tricks in 4:39: fierce-but-catchy flanged guitar, agile tempo changes, fast solos, sharply-composed vocal harmonies (behind the confident, smooth lead vocals of David Addison), a slowed-down spacey bridge. Into the Night Sky kicks off with rapid, perky folk-rock, works in Procol Harum organ, slows down into a drum/ piano/ wavery-bass workout (highlighted by more vocal harmonies), jumps back into double-time, then almost immediately delves into a-cappella, then tricky rhythm changes; seems ready to return to the slowed-down bit, but instead lets everyone stand aside for a proto-Black Sabbath guitar solo; jumps into spy-chase music; and winds back up at perky folk-rock. Perfume is, on average, slower and grander (it still shifts around a lot), and makes extra-sure you notice how good a drummer John Nicol is and how much he enjoys echo.

    See You in the Dark plays a Lovin’ Spoonful cheerfulness at extra velocity. Like Candy is a different side of Lovin’ Spoonful, their gentle bubblegum pop, done Hidden Masters style — which means it detours into something more like an Everly Brothers duet, perhaps if they’d been produced by someone tripping, and then into something a bit like the Archies trying to make Immigrant Song, then into clean-cut finger-snapping college a-cappella group in front of the Byrds’ instrumentalists or something. Grey Walls Grey brings the syncopation and the organ and even more enthusiastic harmonies than usual; Fall in Line, while on average rather dignified and stately, keeps bringing in new ideas for almost six full minutes. And none of the variation is in the show-off-ish Bohemian Rhapsody/ Mr. Roboto style; all the songs on Of This and Other Worlds can pass for standard first-wave psych-rock, until you make yourself wonder “How did we get here from *there*?”

    I can imagine someone having no interest in classic psychedelic pop-rock. I can imagine someone who *does* like classic psychedelic pop-rock finding it inherently ghoulish for a band of young men to never once draw on a single muse more recent than the first three Blue Oyster Cult albums. Still, either of those attitudes would be a pity. If you’re not stuck with either, then the Hidden Masters, within the chosen confines of those old forms, bring a surplus of abilities, fresh ideas, harmonies, and hooks into the open.

    – Brian Block

    To see the rest of our favorites, visit our Favorite Albums of 2013 page!

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