SHUFFLIN ALONG 06 - We were run out on a rail / Fell from the wagon to the night train

BE-BOP-A-LULA by GENE VINCENT

It's really fun to listen to this song while you're out for a walk, because you can pretend to be a Nicholas Cage character on their way to do something cool.

KISS THE BOTTLE by JAWBREAKER

Funny sometimes how a song can simultaneously be the best and worst thing to hear while you're drinking. There are a lot of songs out there about substance abuse and/or alcoholism, and for my money this is one of the better ones. It's got a certain sincerity, and the emotional accuracy is striking to anyone who ever woke up on an unfamiliar floor or had to suffer through a "we all love you very much" type family talk. When you have one of those talks, you always end up with a stress headache behind your right eye without fail. This is a stress headache of a song. I like the bleary, exhausted sort of delivery. It feels real, and that's a good quality in art about real shit.

MANSION WORLD by DEADSY

I am often defensive about my Deadsy worship, and I think about Deadsy way more often than a sane person probably should. I think a big part of the appeal for me is the idea of a prep school goth "mansion world" where young intellectuals of privilage think deep thoughts and do philosophy; not just that it exists, but that I could be part of it. They made heavily Gary Numan influenced proggy nu-metal for sad Lit majors with gothic aspirations in 2002, and I check off every single one of those boxes. I dated this theatre girl who got into me after watching me perform the lead in one of those weird black box one-acts, and she supported my Deadsy fandom and bought me Deadsy swag before she left for a whole summer to sell textbooks as part of college program that probably got her into grad school. I spent that entire summer working in the dairy section of a small town Wal-Mart, chain smoking, and living in my parents' old vermin-infested house known to many as The Shack. I mainlined Deadsy that whole summer, and I fancied myself to be something similar to Morrisey in the Suedehead video when really I was living more like Ricky from Trailer Park Boys. I wanted to be a "I read James Joyce in a hayloft" kind of fella when I was really more about microwave burritos, ditch weed, and spite. In the end, Deadsy sold us a fantasy. But it's a still a cozy fantasy to me. Someday I'm gonna write that pesky novel.

BYE BYE BLACKBIRD by JULIE LONDON

Julie has an infamously pleasant, husky kind of voice. This is my aural comfort food. Her songs have this quality of situational perfection. There's really no bad time to put on some Julie London. Eating dinner? Julie. Going for an evening stroll? Julie. Sitting in a bar? Driving? Making out on the couch? Julie Julie Julie. There's a reason why her records can be tough to find and/or a bit pricey. All of her albums that I have heard are pretty faultless. I've never had a bad time listening to some Julie London.

SWEET 69 by BABES IN TOYLAND

I really like riot grrl music. That's probably a little weird, but there's this grit to it that I find irresistable. At its best, it feels kinda dangerous the way that punk rock, gangsta rap, and the delta blues probably did in their time. Good stuff always finds a way to bubble up out of the underground and find its level. The guitar on this track is so heavy and crunchy. It's like chewing on gravel which, I suppose, is the point. It also occurs to me when I listen to this band (also BIKINI KILL and HOLE, to be honest) is how little credit the riotgrrl scene seemed to get for influencing Nirvana/Kurt Cobain. It seems obvious to me in distant hindsight that Nirvana had way more in common with those bands than they did with something like Mudhoney, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and other "classic" grunge bands. When I think about Nirvana, I think about Melvins, Flipper, and riotgrrl stuff. Maybe it was the other way around? I don't know the scene politics of 30-ish years ago and I am just spitballing here. Maybe this is something that people already talked about in some grunge documentary that I missed. Anyway, this band kicks ass and I like their songs and I wish that this particular scene was even bigger than it was.