I was a DJ for several years in college at a bar where there wasn’t dancing. Music simply provided a lively, entertaining environment. That was tremendously freeing because I didn’t have to play familiar music intended to get people dancing. The music choices could be lively, even if they were unusual; they just had to fit that night’s crowd. This became an early impetus for me seeking out great music far off the beaten path of popularity.
In recent years, I haven’t kept up on current music nearly as much. I tend to mine online sources for older, eclectic music that I may have missed With the internet and online music stores (particularly iTunes) this is much faster and cost-efficient than scouring cut-out bins used to be. In fact, I’ve characterized iTunes as bringing together two of my strongest passions – music and research – in a very seductive way.
Between iTunes, eMusic, Pandora, and Google (for searching lyrics snippets to find song titles), my iPod is filled with a wide variety of songs, many of them little-followed. I usually play these songs over and over for weeks listening for interesting lyrics, melodies, and chord progressions with a tolerance for repetition that drives my wife crazy.
Liz Phair certainly fits this category for me. When “Exile in Guyville” came out, I was already well into a career focus and didn’t get into her music much although I was aware of her. Rediscovering her now has put her early work into my heavy rotation.
In wrapping up Phair Weather Week, here’s a top 25 of these heavy rotation songs from the past year. Some artists and songs will be more familiar than others, but for me, they all have the musical elements I would have included in the mix back at the Brass Rail. (In fact today's post is dedicated to Don Reif, a good friend from back in the Rail days who I've reconnected with in the past month!) Enjoy the discovery process with this music!
- “Never Said” – Liz Phair (from Exile in Guyville)
- “All in a Day” - Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros (from Streetcore)
- “Vincent O'Brien” – M. Ward (from Transfiguration of Vincent)
- “Failure” – Ian Ball (from Who Goes There)
- “Glory Box” – Portishead (from Dummy)
- “Brand New Day” – Chris Duarte (from Love Is Greater Than Me)
- “Renegade Master” – Fatboy Slim (from The Fatboy Slim/Norman Cook Collection)
- “Alright” – Supergrass (from I Should Coco)
- “Euro-Trash Girl” – Cracker (from Greatest Hits Redux)
- “Ain’t That Good News” – Sam Cooke (from 30 Greatest Hits - Sam Cooke Portrait of a Legend 1951-1964 Remastered)
- “Don't Make Me Come over There and Love You” – George Strait (from George Strait)
- “Happy Woman Blues” – Lucinda Williams (from Happy Woman Blues)
- “Honky Tonk Part 2” – Bill Doggett (from The 50's - A Decade to Remember: Do You Wanna Dance)
- “Ice Cream / Basin Street Blues” – George Lewis (from At Club Hangover 1953, Vol. 2)
- “Not an Addict” - K's Choice (from 10: 1993 - 2003 Ten Years Of)
- “Wrong ‘Em Boyo” – The Clash (from London Calling)
- “Rehab” – Amy Winehouse (from Back to Black)
- “A Little Less Conversation - XL-Vis Remix” – King Junior (from A Little Less Conversation Remixes)
- “Casino Royale” – Herb Alpert (from Sounds Like)
- “Rule of Three” – The Lemonheads (from The Lemonheads)
- “The Cap’m” – They Might Be Giants (from The Else)
- “Georgia Buck” – The Carolina Chocolate Drops (from Dona Got a Ramblin’ Mind)
- “Brimful of Asha - Norman Cook Original Radio Edit Remix” – Cornershop – (from Digging In the Crates: 1998, Vol. 1 – EP)
- “How Great Thou Art” – David Jeremiah (from Live at Crossroads)
- “Locked Out” – Crowded House (from Recurring Dream - The Very Best of Crowded House)
2 comments:
Connected w/ this week's subject matter on a personal note, but interesting to note that a good number of your selections were (predominanetly late 80's through 90's) indie bands that had some early critical & commercial success but largely failed to continue with either. Most were faced with choices between commercially-based material that wasn't in line with their vision, continuing with the format that gained them recogniction in the qst place but risked them becoming formulaic, or evolution in directions that their core audiences might not undertsand or appreciate.
What is the strategic equivalent here?
The entrepreneur who can't move past startup mode?
The popular products or services company with a loyal following of customers with maturing lines?
The artists you listed (mostly) never got past this strategic decision point? What do we know from business strategy that could have helped them either stay critically relevant (the equivalent of a niche company) or commercially successful (the company with broad market appeal)?
My first thought was the line from The Big Chill - "Sometimes, you just have to let art flow over you."
But on second and third thought, I mustered some thoughts relative to your intriguing comments. Look for a post soon with some ideas on the strategy and branding implications of all these obscure bands that I enjoy. Thanks for commenting!
Mike
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