Friday Playlist

Between wrapping up the first pass through my Apple Music library, doing some work on my Favorite Songs of the Year list, and other random stuff, I didn’t spend as much time listening to newer music as I normally do this week. So a blend of the new and old.

“Hinge” – VILLANELLE
Is this a Nirvana tribute band? The band is led by Gene Gallagher, son of Liam. And he was obviously influenced more by Kurt Cobain than his dad. If someone sounded this much like Oasis I bet Liam would have some thoughts.

“Here Come The Rugby Boys” – The Just Joans
I can’t decide if this is the greatest song ever, or the worst.

“Normal Today” – Hannah Jadagu
A real nice piece of indie pop.

“This Hotel Room” – King Hannah
And this is a gorgeous song regardless of genre.

“Up Against The Wall” – Peter Bjorn and John
And this is just a freaking great song.

“Tunnel of Love” – Bruce Springsteen
November is the month I always try to listen to Tunnel of Love a couple times. It fits the mood of the month well now that the sun disappears shortly after 5:00 PM, and I bought my first copy of it on cassette in November 1987. As I was listening to it this week I realized that I likely played it at some point while we were driving east as we moved from San Leandro, CA back to Kansas City, which we did this same week of 1987. Great album, great song.

“I Wanna Be Adored” – The Stone Roses
Gary “Mani” Mounfield died this week. He played bass in The Stone Roses, and was a massive part of their sound. In fact, lead singer Ian Brown credited Mani as being the element that brought the band’s sound together. He’s right there in the epic slow fade up in this track. After TSR split, he joined Primal Scream for some of their most notable albums.

“Swastika Eyes” – Primal Scream
Hey, this is one of the PS songs Mani played on! I decided to include it because of the bullshit news that dropped yesterday about the United States Coast Guard no longer classifying swastikas as hate symbols. Even if you are a fuckhead that doesn’t believe in the Holocaust or thinks Hitler had some good ideas or whatever, THE UNITED STATES FOUGHT A GOD DAMN WAR AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT THAT USED THE SWASTIKA AS ITS OFFICIAL SYMBOL. It was our most glorious moment as a nation. And now a branch of the US fucking military has decided it does not represent hate? How does this even come up? Does some captain want to fly a swastika flag on his ship? Or are there just a lot of fuckwits in the Guard with swastika tattoos?

Every day I think the world can’t get any more broken, and every day someone finds a way to prove me wrong.

**EDIT** Apparently someone with a functioning brain realized this was an awful mistake and the Coast Guard has decided that swastikas are, in fact, symbols of hate.

“Scared Of Fear” – Pearl Jam
I was scrolling around to find a video for this week and came across this, from the band’s appearance on Howard Stern’s show just before Dark Matter was released. I love the mix on this, you can really hear both guitars. Stone Gossard’s rhythm guitar has a very Boston-like sound.