I was pleasantly surprised to see that I hadn’t featured today’s randomly selected song on the blog months ago.
‘Walcott,’ the penultimate song on Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut, is such a brilliant and infectious burst of creative energy — and so emblematic of the band’s sound and appeal — that I was sure I’d posted it already.
I suppose it’s fitting that my first Random Weekend selection after a week dedicated to my favorite country artist would be from the only true country album I owned before becoming a fan.
Tim McGraw’s And the Dancehall Doctors is a great country record for people who don’t like country music. It has a nice pop sheen, impressive instrumentation, solid songcraft, even a cover of Elton John’s ‘Tiny Dancer.’
My routine for picking these Random Weekend selections is to fire up iTunes, close my eyes and click the ‘next’ button. I like to hear the lucky song before I see what it is, and to see how many seconds I’ll need to identify it.
When I heard the first guitar notes of today’s SOTD, I couldn’t help but smile. I knew instantly that I was listening to the opening track of Tift Merritt’s first album, Bramble Rose — the only CD in my collection that is signed by the artist who recorded it.
Elvis Costello’s many reissues have gotten a lot of play on these Random Weekends, with both good and mediocre results.
Today’s song, a sped-up — practically disco — version of ‘Town Cryer,’ the stately closing track of Imperial Bedroom, is definitely worth a listen. The contrast between this song and its official counterpart is hilariously extreme. This is so bad it’s good… or maybe it’s just good.
A tiny portion of my music collection — maybe half of one percent, tops — belongs to my wife.
She and I both enjoy a lot of the other music I own, but those are all albums I purchased. I can probably count on one hand the physical CDs she has purchased herself.
One of those is Dream Another Dream by Nuclear Valdez, the title track of which is today’s random selection.
Meet Me In Montauk 