5 posts tagged “country”

This one is By Request, one of my favorite cuts from the Jenny Lewis solo album, Rabbit Fur Coat.  This was actually the first song I'd heard, too -- on an LJ community, it was posted as a teaser, and, well, after hearing it, I really dug it.  Later, I heard the full record and was blown away.  My favorite cut is probably "Rise Up With Fists!!", but, well, almost everything on there is great.  (Oddly enough, the only track I'm more lukewarm on is the title track.)  There's a really great video for "Rise Up With Fists!!" too, which is definitely worth seeking out.  YouTube'll be your friend in this case.  Or maybe I'll post the video here.  I don't know!  But anyway, here's Born Secular, which is kind of like Born Slippy, only completely different.

I just got back from a Midnight Screening of Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill which had Tura Satana in attendance which was really really awesome.  However I haena posted an mp3 yet today.  I have decided to define today as "time between sleep cycles" since it is still technically tomorrow, but whatever.  Anyway, I listened to this album today.  The entire album kicked ass.  This song in particular.  Buy the record, get the song, whatever.  I'm gonna sleep.

Here's a real old one from someone whom probably no one here knows.  Henson Cargill was a bar singer, who was trying to make it big in Nashville.  He had a few singles and a few near-misses, but this one actually was a hit.  A pretty big hit, in fact.  And, also, his only hit.  The thing with this one is that the song was actually written for Johnny Cash to sing -- at the last moment, he decided not to cut it, and gave it to Henson Cargill, who did cut it, and went to No. 1 with it.  If I recall, Henson Cargill's still performing the occasional show, so you can go see him!  And you should -- he did a fine job with this wonderful song.

By the way, I've still got some VOX invites, so if you want one, shoot me an email.  If you can't find my email on here, here are some hints:  My username here is the same AT livejournal.com, where I am a paid member.  If you do go for this, and do it like an mp3 blog like I am, I'd really like to encourage y'all to put your notes here, like I do.  Hint Hint.

Here's a Chumbawamba song from the Swinging With Raymond LP.  It's one of my favorites from this album, though the entire record is really rather insanely good.  I am probably more fond of the "Love It" side, with the more quiet, country-ish stuff, which this is from, but the "Hate It" side is also very good (particularly "Ugh! Your Ugly Houses!" and "All Mixed Up") as well.  This actually reminds me a bit of Kirsty MacColl, and since she was absolutely brilliant, that's definitely a good thing.  Chumbawamba's (admittedly kinda doofy) politics have got them sort of unfairly maligned, as people don't really think of them as great pop songwriters and performers, which they really, truly are.  (I mean, man, even aside from this song, check out "Amnesia" ferchrissakes.)

This is one of my all-time favorite Kirsty MacColl songs, and oddly/angrily enough, it's not available on CD, since it's on her first record which has inexplicably never been issued on CD.  Stupid record labels not releasing good stuff.  This one is a great example of her brilliant sense of humor; the song is catchy and musically great, but lyrically, it's hilarious and just a little bit sad, too.

(By the way, the pictured album, Titanic Days, does NOT feature this song.  As I said, it's not available on CD.  However, Titantic Days IS an outstanding album, so if you pick that one up, you will NOT be disappointed.)