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About Today’s Mix:

I apologize for the lateness on today’s Monday Mix – those darn real world responsibilities got in the way of ye olde blog, once again. Hopefully ya’ll did the right thing and amused your eardrums with the tasty Tragically Hip show that Kevin posted earlier!

This week’s mix again comes from my own personal collection. I put this one together at the end of last week, and really liked it to the point that I had to share it with all of my ATV friends. I’m guessing that you guys won’t mind, right? A few selections were inspired by my new pal Emma and her fantastic radio show The Occasional Detour, which you can hear Thursday mornings on WRUW-FM  from 8am-10am EST on the radio at 91.1 and online at wruw.org.

I’ll spare the gushing, because I’ve already hit Emma up to do a future Monday Morning Mix – wait for it and check out her radio show – it’s good stuff!

Enjoy the mix!

Mix Notes:

Download complete mix (link is good for one week only)

Bazil Donovan – “Little Ole Wine Drinker, Me”  – from Matinee

I’ve asked the man behind the bar for that jukebox
Cause the music takes me back to Tennessee
When they ask who’s that fool in the corner cryin’
I say, it’s little ole wine drinker me

A head scratcher right out of the gate, I know – Bazil Donovan is the bass player for Blue Rodeo, and for many years that was about all that I knew about Bazil.  When I met the band 12 years ago during their residency of shows at Massey Hall in Toronto, I discovered that Bazil was the unofficial historian in the group.  I spent some good time talking with him about the band, and also about specific shows.  Cool dude.

As far as I know, Bazil’s “singing career” started about 10 years ago when he began to step up to the mic to sing the occasional cover song – with this one and Shel Silverstein’s “I Got Stoned and I Missed It” being two of the most popular ones.  The band put out Palace of Gold in 2002, and I think that it was around this same time that co-band leader Greg Keelor’s father got sick, forcing Keelor to miss some shows.  The band played some rare gigs minus Greg during this period (including a great gig at the Beachland,) and Bazil started to sing “Stage Door,” originally sung by Greg on Palace of Gold, and recorded by Greg with The Sadies prior to that.  The crowd ate it up, and these days it’s rare to hear “Stage Door” without Bazil singing it.

I especially like it when it seems like Greg is spontaneously throwing Bazil into doing a song that was not on the setlist with a quick “we’re going to let Bazil Donovan sing a song” in front of the always prepared Donovan who seems clearly unprepared at the moment when this happens.  All of this is a long-winded way of saying that Blue Rodeo fans love it when Bazil sings, which made a solo album inevitable. Donovan eventually released Matinee, a delightful collection of country-leaning covers in 2008.  I especially like this one, which features some nice background vocals from BR’s Jim Cuddy.  Bazil btw is the closest thing you’ll ever see to Eeyore being in a band – you can’t help but like him.

Mudcrutch – “Scare Easy” – from Mudcrutch

When I first heard that Tom Petty was going back to do a record with his pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch, I’ll admit that I wasn’t very excited.  Who’s been sitting around waiting for a Mudcrutch album, and what’s it going to sound like?  Turns out, it sounds like Tom Petty – go figure!  For an album that I wasn’t looking forward to, I really ended up enjoying this – probably even more than Highway Companion.  I would have loved to have seen one of the Mudcrutch club shows, and hopefully I’ll get a chance either in person, or on DVD to do that.  While this album definitely sounds like Tom Petty, it’s at the same time different – perhaps this Mudcrutch album removed some of the potential pressures for Petty that normally come attached to with a usual Tom Petty recording project.

Tragically Hip – “Highway Girl” (live) – from Tragically Hip

Together, we were nothing but a menace.
Apart, we’re nothing but lonely

I’ve never been a big fan of the Hip, although I do really like Trouble At The Henhouse – “Gift Shop” in particular.  When my buddy Kevin recently shared a vintage Hip show with me from 1991, I was immediately drawn to “Highway Girl.”  I’ve always liked any song with a narrative story attached – see “Church of Logic, Sin and Love” by The Men.  “Highway Girl” originates on the band’s 1987 debut EP, and later became popular live with the attached “suicide rant” that you’ll hear – to the point that a live version was released that grabbed a lot of Canadian radio airplay.  Kevin posted the entire show that this track is sourced from earlier today, and you can grab that here.

Works Progress Administration – “Always Have My Love” – from Works Progress Administration

Cause I still see you as you are
Before the tears, beneath the scars
Kisses sweet and words so rough
You will always have my love

The rest of this album doesn’t quite measure up in my opinion, but I do love this one – it’s the best thing I’ve heard from Glen Phillips since Winter Pays For Summer.

Velvet Crush – “Time Wraps Around You” – from Teenage Symphonies to God

Looking back
Then you find
Learning that
It’s time to leave the past behind
You know it’s alright…..

Sometimes all you have to hear is one song from a band to change your entire opinion on them.  “Time Wraps Around You” was that song from Velvet Crush, nearly 20 years after it was released, and when I heard it I very quickly had to acquire Teenage Symphonies from God, the should-be legendary album on which “Time” originates.  I’ve tried getting into Velvet Crush in the past, and apparently I never heard the right tune until now.

I heard “Time” on Emma’s radio show for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and eagerly awaited the song recap to find out who the artist was so that I could go out and buy it.  You might know Velvet Crush, even if you don’t think you know Velvet Crush – they’ve been Matthew Sweet’s live backing band for years – what a perfect match!

Wonderwheel – “Five Minutes Away” – from Wonderwheel

Here’s another one that I heard for the first time on Emma’s radio show.  I liked it, but couldn’t peg why I liked it so much.  I got the artist name, and when I Google’d the band name, one of the first reviews that came up made comparisons to The Rembrandts.  YES!  That’s it!  I had to hear the rest of the album.  Purchased.  If The Rembrandts aren’t going to make music, at least there’s the occasional band that sounds a lot like them!

Dennis Diken and Bell Sound – “Standing In That Line” – from Late Music

From the brand new album project released by Smithereens drummer Dennis Diken – I can’t say enough good things about this album!  As previously expressed, this album is a must for Beach Boys fans and power pop fans alike.  I really like this song, and when I first heard it, it really reminded me of the next song on this mix.  This is actually one of a couple of songs on the disc that aren’t sung by Diken – his partner Pete DiBella takes the lead vocal on this one.

The Beach Boys – “Surf’s Up” from Surf’s Up

This is without a doubt, on my list of top 3 favorite Beach Boys songs.  Raised on a Beach Boys diet that included the standards like “Surfin’ USA,” “California Girls,” “Good Vibrations,” etc, I was FLOORED when I first heard this one as a young teenager.  You hear this song, and you start to realize why people are so fanatical about The Beach Boys.  Originally slated for the aborted Smile project with Brian singing, the track later was re-recorded in 1971 with a new lead vocal from Carl Wilson over the original instrumental tracks.  I became a really huge Carl Wilson fan after hearing his vocals on this track.  What an amazing singer.  Vinyl hounds will be interested to know that Surf’s Up recently was reissued on vinyl!!

Paul Carrack – “Don’t Shed A Tear” – from One Good Reason

Speaking of amazing singers – this track was one of the first things that I heard from Paul Carrack – I’d heard “Silent Running” by Mike and the Mechanics previously, but wouldn’t make the connection that it was Carrack right away.  After eventually hearing Carrack’s vocals on another Mechanics track – “The Living Years” – I started to dig into everything that he had done with various bands and projects through the years.  Still one of my favorite vocalists.  This isn’t my favorite Carrack track, but it’s one that’s been in my head recently – various 80’s songs always seem to populate my head!

Newton Faulkner – “Dream Catch Me” – from Hand Built By Robots

There’s a place I go
When I’m alone
Do anything I want
Be anyone I wanna be

An accidental artist discovery – a friend and I went to the Grog Shop to see an artist – Jessie Baylin – that we’d heard good things about.  After Baylin played, we decided to stick around to see Newton Faulkner, and I was very impressed by the English singer/songwriter, who played a ballsy 2 hour set acoustically with all of the same power that a band normally brings to the same situation.  His gimmick was a solo acoustic performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” but Faulkner needed no gimmicks that night at the Grog.  I bought Hand Built By Robots the next day, and it ended up being one of my favorite albums of last year.  I was still getting used to being back on my own, and the place that Newton sings about in “Dream Catch Me” was a place that I knew well – who doesn’t want to be somewhere where they can “be anything they want?”

Bruce Hornsby – “Invisible” – from Levitate

One of the things that Hornsby does best, is to occasionally capture the feeling of being awkward in song, and from looking at Hornsby you can guess that he might have some early experience in that area.  With his success, I’d say that Hornsby got the last laugh with any detractors that he might have run into growing up.  I’ll be seeing Hornsby this weekend in Pittsburgh with The Noisemakers – my first full band Hornsby show since 1994 – can’t wait!  This track comes off of Bruce’s brand new album Levitate – another winning addition to the Hornsby catalog.

Peter Gabriel – “Here Comes The Flood” – from Shaking The Tree

When the night shows
the signals grow on radios

One of my favorite PG songs ever – the original album version on Peter Gabriel goes against the sparse vision that Gabriel had in mind for the song.  He eventually recut the song in the way that he intended for the world to hear it, and that’s the version that you’ll find on Shaking The Tree.  Personally, the song made great impact with me – in November of 2002, I found myself suddenly unemployed going into the Thanksgiving holiday.  On the day that I walked out of the radio station where I no longer would be employed, I had a copy of the brand new McCartney double live album, and previously purchased tickets to see Gabriel that night at the Gund.  For my money, there’s no better way to inaugurate a period of unemployment.  The version of “Here Comes The Flood” on that night at the Gund brought goosebumps, and I get those same goosebumps every time that I hear this version of “Flood.”

Lemonheads – “I Just Can’t Take Anymore” (Gram Parsons cover) – from Varshons

When I heard that Evan Dando had a covers album in the works, I was relatively unexcited.  Having just engineered one of the best comeback albums under the Lemonheads banner, I was much more excited about the new studio album that I’d heard was in the works – an album that I hoped would keep the streak of good coming from Dando and the ‘Heads.  As nonplussed as I was about this album, I had to hear it of course, and it finds a place as one of my favorite albums released this year.  But Evan, let’s have that new studio album now, please?

Nada Surf – Blizzard of ’77 (live acoustic)

This comes from an acoustic show that I grabbed via Heather at I Am Fuel, You Are Friends.  This show was the burning fuse that led me towards acquiring the entire Nada Surf catalog.  How was I not a fan of this band previously?  Lesson learned, quickly!  Sadly, the show download is no longer available via Heather’s site, but you can read a fantastic Nada interview still – perhaps I’ll post the full show audio here one of these days.

Ben Folds – Landed (live) – originally from Songs for Silverman

I didn’t like the Songs for Silverman disc when I first heard it.  It took a special hotel ballroom concert with Folds on solo piano to bring me back around for a second look at Silverman.  On that evening, he played a solo version of “Landed” that was mesmerizing.  For the next week after that show, I listened to “Landed” and the Silverman album again and again.  I saw Ben a little bit later on this same touring cycle in Ann Arbor for a show that was apparently planned in advance as the night that Ben would play everything Matt could ever possibly want to hear in one show.  Thanks Ben!

Sarah McLachlan – Vox (live) – from Mirrorball

Sarah’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy is still damn close to a desert island disc in my world, and those that share my appreciation for that disc are destined to be friends of mine for life.  I first heard Sarah via a live radio broadcast from the Empire Concert Club here in Cleveland while she was touring for Solace, her sophomore album.  Often, it’s hard not to get sucked into the energy and enthusiasm that McLachlan projects while performing, no matter what the subject matter is.  “Vox,” from McLachlan’s debut Touch, is a perfect example of a song from Sarah that is simply radiant, and also is one of my favorite early McLachlan jams (along with “Into The Fire.”)

Billy Joel – Scenes from an Italian Restaurant (live) – from Live at C.W. Post

A bottle of red, a bottle of white,
Whatever kind of mood you’re in tonight
I’ll meet you anytime you want
In our Italian restaurant.

Another staple jukebox must-play for me – this live version offers perfect example for why Billy Joel is a legend.  I still get goosebumps every time I hear Joel’s spoken introduction for this song.  Listen, and imagine being in the audience that evening, hearing this future classic.

Bryan Adams – Room Service (live) – from Live in Lisbon

Still a knock on the door makes me nervous
I think I’ll see you standing there – but no
It’s only room service – yeah room service

This particular track is one of my favorite tracks to come from Bryan Adams in the past few years, specifically this acoustic version.  At the time that Room Service was released, Adams was supposed to issue (import only) an acoustic version of the album as well, which never came to pass – hearing this version makes me wish that he would have followed through.  I think and hope that Bryan might have one more great album inside waiting to come out – “Open Road” was a step in the right direction.

And as long as we’re talking Bryan Adams, it’s mandatory that I should point you in the direction of some good reading material from this one time that my girlfriend Annie gave the assignment to one of her fellow writers to spin BA’s newest album 11 – a mind numbing 11 times in a row to review it.  Apparently, she has a dark side and likes to torture people with Bryan Adams.  Who knew?

My favorite part of the review?  Right here:

5:51 p.m. Eleventh listen, track 4. “Are you sure you want to move ‘Bryan Adams — Oxygen’ to the Recycle Bin?” Yes.

Classic.

P.S. – who wants to buy me the deluxe edition of 11 with the bonus live DVD?