by

Song of the Day #930: ‘She’s Really Daddy Feelgood’ – Stew

The year 2000 marked the release of Stew’s first solo album, or rather the first album Stew released under his own name rather than his band’s.

Guest Host is different from the first two Negro Problem albums… less hectic, less all over the place. It’s more of a smooth soul album, with some jazzy elements thrown in for good measure.

It’s also damn good, probably the best thing he’d recorded to that point. Entertainment Weekly called it the best album of the year, a fact that somehow escaped me at the time.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #929: ‘Bleed’ – The Negro Problem

Stew’s second album, also released as a Negro Problem record, was 1999’s Joys and Concerns. While Post Minstrel Syndrome was a grab bag of the songs the band had played over several years leading to its release, Joys and Concerns is a more cohesive album.

With a nod to the days of vinyl, the album is broken into sides, with the first six songs labeled “Joys” and the last six “Concerns.” I don’t see a real thematic difference in the songs on each half of the record, however. In fact, one of the “Concerns” songs is just a faster-paced version of the “Joys” song ‘Comikbuchland’ (which I featured on the blog two and a half years ago).

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #928: ‘Heidegger in Harlem’ – The Negro Problem

It’s been nearly two months since I’ve done an artist-based theme week. The first of 2011 belongs to Stew, a little-known singer-songwriter whose chops put him up there with just about anybody.

Stew (the stage name of Mark Stewart) has released six full-length CDs, sometimes under the name Stew and sometimes with his band, The Negro Problem. However, the members of The Negro Problem also play on his solo records, so the distinction is really more about the kind of music he’s releasing than the performers in the lineup.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #927: ‘I Almost Had a Weakness’ – Elvis Costello

Befitting its chamber music orchestration, The Juliet Letters contains quite a few sad songs. But Costello does find room for a couple of funny ones.

Among those is ‘I Almost Had a Weakness,’ a caustic letter from a dying aunt to the suddenly sycophantic relatives who would lay claim to her fortune.

I’ve often wondered what the songs from this album would sound like done in a more traditional fashion, with, say, The Attractions backing Costello instead of The Brodsky Quartet. I assume he’s played at least a few of these songs in concert over the years, but I don’t own any of those recordings.

Continue reading →

by

The Ghost of Top Ten Lists Past: Part Two (2005-2009)

Earlier in the month I took a look back at my top ten lists from the first half of the last decade. Today I’ll finish the job.

My biggest takeaway from the earlier exercise was that lighter fare — comedies and family films — tended to have more staying power than dramatic films. The exceptions tended to sit at the top of my lists and for the most part remain there now. But the slots from five to ten would likely see a lot of turnover were I to re-rank those years today.

So let’s dive in and see if the trend continues.

Continue reading →