J's Indie/Rock Mayhem - 26th November 2008

[Ah, another year and another J's Indie/Rock Mayhem Thanksgiving Eve show. I do really enjoy having my show consistently land right next to a holiday - thank you, Wednesdays! The holidays are throwing off my year end/Christmas shows this year - there won't be an official Christmas music show this year. Sorry, fans of my always playing the David Bowie/Bing Crosby version of "Little Drummer Boy."

It's only two weeks until the J's Indie/Rock Top Singles of 2008 and only three weeks until the 7th Annual J's Indie/Rock Top 25 Albums of the Year. Still time to get your recommendations in for either one - what've been your favorite single songs and albums of this year? Leave it in the comments.

Now, while I'm drooling anticipating that canned cranberry sauce (you know it's real cranberry sauce when it still has the indentation of the can on it), onward.]

J's Indie/Rock Podcast: 26th November 2008 Show

Theme Song - Peaches - "Rock Show"
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Q-Tip - "Gettin' Up" [from the renaissance, his latest. every set tonight had a theme of thankfulness. this first one, admittedly, a little lame: thankful for good singles. oh, yeah. good one, j.]
Peter Bruntnell - "By the Time My Head Gets to Phoenix" [from normal for bridgewater. this was the first bruntnell song i ever heard and this album is a solid, roots rock winner. wonder what he's up to these days.]
the Gaslight Anthem - "Old White Lincoln" [from the '59 sound. is there a song on this record as good as the title track? eh. not really, but still good stuff.]
Teenage Fanclub - "Sparky's Dream" [from grand prix. this song hung in my head for years, despite me not knowing who it was. alternative radio used to play some good music.]
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Pavement - "The Killing Moon" [from brighten the corners - nicene creedence edition. this block i was thankful for awesome reissues. this is from the forthcoming reissue of pavement's fourth album, due out december 9th. this song originally appeared on the what's up matador compilation and the "major leagues" single. this is a favorite echo and the bunnymen song of mine, but pavement really does it justice.]
Joy Division - "Transmission" (live) [from unknown pleasures - collector's edition. both this album and closer got the deluxe reissue treatment this year - and about time. this one contains an enitre live show from the factory back in 1979. this was the set closer - a tremendous joy division song.]
the Replacements - "You're Getting Married" [from the re-issue of their 1982 EP stink. this is a paul westerberg solo demo of a song that never ended up on any album, but it definitely put paul's songwriting chops on display early. one of my favorite tracks from the slew of reissues this year.]
Warren Zevon - "Carmelita" (1974 demo) [from the reissue of his self-titled album. a friend told me on sunday, when talking about the g.g. allin documentary hated, that there is a rather moving moment of allin playing this song while sitting near/on a train track. i've never seen the film. anyone?]
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the Foreign Exchange - "Daykeeper" [from leave it all behind. i am also thankful for north carolina music. especially here in greensboro, but i here ended up playing NC music from elsewhere in the state. only half of the foreign exchange is from carolina, but that's good enough.]
the Rosebuds - "Another Way In" [from life like. this album is really, seriously good by the way. the rosebuds are one of indie rock's most consistent bands.]
the Strugglers - "Limerence" [from the latest rights. a band i haven't played nearly enough this year and that i will have to fix. this song is pretty perfect, as far as i'm concerned. if it were any longer, it would ruin its perfection. i told the band that.]
Megafaun - "Lazy Suicide" [from bury the square. one of the surprise north carolina bands that i saw by accident - opening for someone - who, i don't even remember. which shows you how overwhelmingly great megafaun was.]
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Arlo Guthrie - "Alice's Restaurant Masacree" [from alice's restaurant. you'll have to pardon my half-hatched attempt at comedy before the song, but the idea came to me in the shower as many great ideas do. the following is a quote from joe klein's excellent woody guthrie: a life. it deals with woody guthrie's last days in the hospital as he died from huntington's disease:

"One of the last things Woody Guthrie did before he died was to listen to a recording of his son Arlo singing a long, convoluted talking blues about how he'd been arrested for littering in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and how he'd parlayed that 'criminal record' into a means of dodging the draft and avoiding the war in Vietnam...

And as Woody listened to Arlo describing how he went to the draft board in New York and was 'injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and selected,' perhaps he heard an echo of his own timing and inflection...or maybe he was thinking back even farther than that, to Charley Edward Guthrie - his father - at the top of his game, entertaing the courthouse crowd down at Parson's drugstore in Okemah each morning with tall tales and patter...

Or maybe Woody wasn't thinking anything at all, maybe so many cells had died in his brain that he couldn't think very much anymore; maybe the smile that Harold Leventhal saw flickering as Woody listened to the record was just an atavistic twinge, an involuntary response - to a voice that was soothing and familiar, a voice that sounded like home"

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David Byrne and Brian Eno - "Strange Overtones" [from everything that happens will happen today. i'm thankful for great collaborations this year. anytime these two men work together, it creates something pretty unique and amazing.]
Crooked Fingers - "Your Control" [from forfeit / fortune. a duet with the amazing neko case. let's have more of this in the future, eric.]
Vic Chesnutt, Elf Power and the Amorphous Strums - "And How" [from dark developments. chesnutt has made a career out of collaborating with a whole mess of people and this is just his latest. he is an amazing songwriting.]
Dead Confederate - "Goner" [from wrecking ball. they didn't collaborate with anyone but each other on this. i just didn't have anything else to squeeze in here.]
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Greg Dulli - "The Killer" (live) [from live at triple door. i'm thankful for good live music. this is from greg's new solo live set, which works over mostly twilight singers material and some choice covers. it's a really low-key and gorgeous reading of some of his best work from the last five years. only available digitally.]
Paul Westerberg - "Left of the Dial" (live) [from a live performance on KFOG back during the eventually album promotion. the captains dead blog has the complete show (14 songs!) for you to download, so go check it out.]
the Reigning Sound - "You're Not as Pretty" [from time bomb high school. i am thankful for being alerted to bands i missed the first time 'round. aquarium drunkard introduced me to these guys a bit earlier this fall and i haven't been the same since.]
the Hold Steady - "Sequestered in Memphis" [from stay positive. and i'm just thankful for this song, period. man.]
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Cool Kids - "Mikey Rocks" [from the bake sale. my friend michael turned me onto these guys, well, last night. and i'm going to be paying them a lot more attention. good, good hip-hop.]
Men at Work - "Overkill" [from 1983's cargo. a really, really fantastic song that i honestly can't hear enough, either in this original version, colin hay's acoustic reworking from recent years or lazlo bane's excellent cover.]

That'll do it for this week. Happy Thanksgiving to you all and to all a good night. Go Panthers! and I'll see you next week. Take care.