What I'm Listening To - Spring 2007

Okay kids, the Spring 2007 WILT is here, but we need to clear one thing up: There's a pervasive misconception among you WILTers that I have some idea of what's new and hip.
I don't.
With the exception of a small handful of tracks off of each album, most of the artists I throw up on these things are more obscure than your average Kuiper Belt cubewano. If you went up to your garden-variety Hot Topic hipster and started talking about most of the bands on these things, you'd get roughly the same expression that you'd get for discussing the same with your grandmom's roommate at the nursing home.
These bands may not be popular, but they are good. You're not gonna hear any of this stuff on the radio unless it's magic (not 'Magic103', I'm talkin' about real magic - with a 'k'). And that's just stupid talk.
Anyway, that's why I throw these things together every 3 months, because if I didn't you'd never get the opportunity to hear this stuff. And that would be a damned shame.

Thanx to The Girl for hand-modeling for the cover

Liner Notes:
1) Earl Weaver - Opening Tirade
from the radio show 'Manager's Corner' (exact date unknown)
Spring means baseball, and I can't thing of a better way to kick off this comp than with some words of wisdom from the game's greatest statesman. The Earl of Baltimore was never one to mince words, so you might have some strategic coughing to do if the kids are in the room.
2) Foetus - I Hate You All
from the 2006 album Damp
I've thrown up just about every J.G. Thirlwell side-project on previous WILTs (look for Wiseblood on the Summer comp), but (somehow) never got around to including a song from his flagship band, Foetus. Well, here you go - This has been one of my favorite bands for well over 15 years.
3) Electric Six - Pink Flamingos
from the 2006 album Switzerland
More degenerate rockin' from everybody's favorite Detroit ne’er-do-wells (excepting the Lions).
4) Greg Graffin - Don't Be Afraid to Run
from the 2006 album Cold as the Clay
I thought that the idea of having the lead singer of Bad Religion doing an American roots-music influenced solo-project sounded like a recipe for suck. Then I heard it - I was way off base.
5) All - Until I Say So
from the 1998 album Mass Nerder
I've been pimping Drag the River for the last few years, and (inevetably) someone will ask which singer is which. I decided that it'd be a good idea to put an All and Armchair Martian track back-to-back so y'all could hear for yourselves. I chose these two songs because they both were recycled as Drag the River songs (tracks 2 and 3 off of Chicken Demos). This track features Chad Price.
6) Armchair Martian - Not Fine
from the 1997 Self-Titled release
Okay, in the time since I had that brilliant idea, Drag the River disbanded (at least for the rest of this tour - Everything I've been able to find on the split has been incredibly vague). AM has been talking about getting back for awhile, and now it looks like a done deal. Become acquainted with your new favorite band. This track features Mr. Jon Snodgrass.
7) Bad Astronaut - Minus
from the 2006 album Twelve Small Steps, One Giant Disappointment
This was the last Bad Astronaut release. One of the founding members killed himself, and the rest of the band decided to pack it in after completing this one as a tribute. Due to those circumstances, this album is a lot darker than their earlier stuff, but damn is it good.
8) The Queers - Tangerine
from the 2007 album Munki Brain
Yes, The Queers are still around. They started to fade from the spotlight back in the 90's, but have still managed to crank out consistently good albums. This one was written by Ben Weasel for 'em.
9) M.O.T.O. - Midnight at the Guantanamo Room
from the 1994 EP Mind of a Child
"Everybody wants to play the guitar - Nobody wants to play the fish*." Brilliant.
If this band was a person, it could legally drink. Most bands would hang it up after toiling for over 20 years in obscurity. MOTO just plays more shows.
I'm kinda bummed that they're in the middle of a European tour this month. I had hoped to catch 'em (at least once) while I was back in IL.
10) Nerf Herder - I Want to Take You Out for Ice Cream
from the 2003 re-release of My EP (with bonus tracks)
I think that this song is incredibly romantic (which is why you should never date me). Great Spring song, and it gets extra-bonus points for mentioning baseball.
11) Me First & the Gimme Gimmes - Goodbye Earl
from the 2006 album Love Their Country
The boys from NOFX, Lagwagon, Swingin' Utters, and Foo Fighters take on the Dixie Chicks jukebox standard. Everybody wins, or loses, or whatever.
12) The Dwarves - Salt Lake City
from the 2004 album The Dwarves Must Die
This is why I love this band. They easily shift from pop-punk to thrash to scream-core to white-boy hip-hop. And that's all on one record.
This one's all bubblegum.
13) Naked Raygun - Treason
from the 1989 album Understand?
This one goes out to D-Chain, Hot Karl, G-Dub and the rest of the West Wing Runnin' Krew.
It looks like the NR guys are gonna be back for awhile, and have a new album in the pipe. Hopefully the new one will be better than Demohicans. Regardless, I'll see you all out at the NR HOB late show on the 27th.
14) The Methadones - Starry Eyes
from the 2006 album 21st Century Power Pop Riot
Danny Vapid and the rest of the Methadone boys crank out a killer cover of a Records song. This is taken from their latest (all covers) album.
15) Sonic Youth - Ca Plane Pour Moi
from the 1992 compilation Freedom of Choice
Wow! Two power-pop covers in a fucking row, who woulda thunk it?
They used a version of this song in a Pepsi commercial, and I drove myself crazy trying to place it. For some reason I was convinced that it was the Jim Carroll Band, but just couldn't find anything. That went on for weeks, but since the title is all jibber-jabber nonsense (Elise claims that it's "French", but I'm skeptical) I was at a dead end. Then all of a sudden I remembered this little known comp from the early 90's - Bingo. Score one for the record nerd.
This one was originally done by Plastic Bertrand, who may (or may not) be the ones in the Pepsi commercial.
16) Cecil - Super "Shoomin" Car
from the 2004 soundtrack for Shimotsuma Monogatari (Kamikaze Girls)
If you still haven't seen this movie, you're missing out - Hands down, the best movie I saw last year.
I'm still on a huge J-Pop kick. People love to hate pop music. Not just the crap boy-band pop music, but ALL pop music. I disagree. It's fucking easy to down-tune your guitar and wail out a pile of whiny drivel about how miserable you are, but it takes TALENT to put those lyrics to saccharine sweet dance music. Suck on that, emo kid.
17) The Raveonettes - Love Can Destroy Everything
from the 2003 album The Chain Gang of Love
I can't believe that I hadn't put this one into a mix before. I think that I was saving it, and then forgot about it.
For awhile, the Raveonettes, were the 'next big thing' and then went straight to the cut-out bin - You do one K-Mart commercial...
18) The Anniversary - Tu-Whitt Tu-Whoo
from the 2002 album Your Majesty
I'm using one this as a counter-point to the previous song. This is a truly great love song (which are hard as hell to find), even though I'm pretty sure that it's about trying to score a one-night stand.
19) Murder City Devils - 18 Wheels
from the 1998 album Empty Bottles, Broken Hearts
God, I love this song. Empty Bottles, Broken Hearts is easily the quintessential MCD record. If you don't own it already, you really should click on the link above and pick it up while Amazon is still hockin' it for under $9 - New. You won't be disappointed.
20) Firewater - Bourbon and Division
from the 1996 album Get Off the Cross, We Need the Wood for the Fire
I really wanted to include a track from Tod A's old band (Cop Shoot Cop) on this one, but none of them seemed to fit. This track fits perfectly, and is a damn fine song to boot.
21) Jason Webley - May Day
from the 2004 album Only Just Beginning
Once again, I had a different JW song in the mix for months. During the final cut, I was still way over in time, and had to cut something. I couldn't justify including a 6 minute track, so I went searching for a shorter track. By happy coincidence this one fit, and works better in the mix that my original.
22) Mark Linskey - Windfall
from the 2002 album Songs of Freedom
Mr. Mark from The Hudson Falcons covers a song from the Son Volt album 'Trace'. Good stuff.
I have a long post on the whole Uncle Tupelo/Son Volt/Wilco thing that I probably won't ever get around to doing, so for now all I'll say is that I've always liked this song.
23) Against Me! - Wagon Wheel
from the 2005 compilation Protect
Okay, here we go. I've been dreading writing this write-up. Hold on, the story here is fairly convoluted.
This song was originally done by the band Old Crow Medicine Show, but was credited to Bob Dylan. Why? Because the songwriter from OCMS lifted the chorus from a Dylan tune, and decided to just credit the whole thing to him rather than risk potential litigation. Then acoustic cow-punk darlings, Against Me!, decided to cover it for this benefit album.
Why go through all of that mess just for one song? Because it's fucking awesome. End.
24) Bob Dylan - See That My Grave is Kept Clean
from the 1962 Self-Titled release
I've always kinda dismissed Dylan as 'hippie shit', but recently I'd started to hear more of his early stuff on TV and in movies. I was forced to reconsider. I picked up his first 4 albums on a whim, and they've been in heavy rotation.
This one is off of his debut, and is an incredible piece of work. No wonder Cash loved him so much.
25) The .357 String Band - Shotdown
from the 2006 album Ghost Town
Milwaukee "Streetgrass" - Who woulda thought that could be any good?
Jimmy the Carney sent me out this CD to see if I'd be interested in helping these guys book some shows out here on the East Coast. By the time I got the CD, the singer had gotten himself thrown in jail - End of tour. I'm really digging these guys, and hoping that the singer gets paroled soon.
26) The Lillingtons - Stay Tuned
from the 2006 album The Too Late Show
It's hard finding good pop-punk nowadays. It's even harder finding good pop-punk bands that don't break-up after a couple of albums. These guys were 3 and out. This is off of their last one.
27) Screeching Weasel - Bottom of the 9th
from the 2000 album Teen Punks In Heat
The last comp started off with a Screeching weasel track that topped 5 minutes, so I figured that it was fitting that I end this one with a SW track that clocks in at under a minute. Plus, this track does a good job of capping off the half-assed baseball theme of this WILT.
Do 2 songs (both under 55 seconds and not really about the game) and one profanity-laced audio clip constitute a theme? I sez they do.
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You know you want it. There's only 50 of these things, and when they're gone - they're GONE.
Send your address (if I don't already have it) to dclies(at)gmail.com, and I'll send you out a CD - If I do have your address, you should still send in a request, so that these things aren't clogging up our nation's landfills like so many AOL mailer discs.
All this can be yours for the low, low, price of $0.00. I'm practically** givin' these things away. You'd better get on the boat quickly before I regain my senses and stop this insanity.

* bass
**read: literally