gts004 “insomnish”
01-01 Andrews Sisters – Well All Right (Tonight’s The Night) (1939)
— backed by Vic Schoen’s Orchestra, Decca release #2462. I just put some coffee on, but your lifestyle might run different.
01-02 Tim Armstrong & Skye Sweetnam – A Poet’s Life 03 – Into Action (2007)
— yes, Tim Armstrong of Rancid fame, and yes, Skye Sweetnam of Disney fame. An unlikely pairing making sweet noise, doing a ska dancehall anthem with surf guitar, it keeps getting unlikelier and unlikelier, but adds up to a fantastic song.
01-03 Tom Petty – TP&THB 01 – Rockin Around (With You) (1976)
— a true 01/01 great, years ago had an urge to collect tunes which were all the lead track of a band’s debut album. This a great example of “front foot forward” where a band always tries to lead with what they think (at the time) is their best song. Not every band has one of these, many don’t really hit their sound until the sophmore outing.
01-04 Ruth Brown – This Little Girls Gone Rockin (1958)
— love that squeak Ruth Brown gets into her voice at the high marks.
01-05 Basslovers United – Ghetto Superstar (2010)
— a tune just ripe for a pounding rave cover. Includes Carlprit, perhaps the most famous rapper out of Zimbabwe.
02-01 MC Jeffsky & Igor – Sndtrk 08 – Scotty Doesn’t Know (euro mix) (2004)
— a running gag in the excellent movie Euro Trip, sequel to the great comedy Road Trip, rare case where the sequel might even be better.
02-02 ABBA – Abba The Album 202 – Hole In Your Sole (1977)
— on vinyl it’s side 2 track 2 = “202”. If i remembered how many songs are on side 1, would number this in the modern CD fashion, but i don’t and not going to stop and go check now.
02-03 Man Man – Six Demon Bag 06 – Black Mission Goggles (2006)
— one of those albums without a single crappy tune, eventually will get them all played on this show. Has been compared (by me) to a metal band busting into a Tombstone bordello in 1878, holding a Colt to the player at the tinny piano’s head, and forcing him to play along.
02-04 Regina Spektor – Soviet Kitsch 07+08 – Whisper + Your Honor (2004)
— first part is Regina’s niece, commonly called “Whisper” because that’s what it functionally is, but the official title is “*****” [sic, not censored]. Leads to a fun romp, frozen pizza on purple cheekbones.
03-01 Fat Boy Slim – HBTGATS 05 – Ya Mama (Push The Tempo) (2000)
— a little longer than regular, here’s the vid version, because it fits my designs much better!
03-02 Jimmy Eat World – Invented 06 – Coffee And Cigarettes (2010)
— would be an unremarkable pop-rock tune, but there’s a guitar solo hidden in the middle, a short one and a simple one, but really hits the spot.
03-03 Thee Butchers Orchestra – Drag Me Twice 14 – Psycho Minute (2003)
— exactly as advertised.
03-04 Tom Mabe – Wakeup Call For Telemarketers – Hotel Call Insomnia (2003)
— he went to a convention of telemarketing professionals and checked into the hotel so he could bypass the front desk switchboard and call their rooms directly… at 3 in the morning.
03-05 Fratellis – Costello Music 05 – Chelsea Dagger (2006)
— a barn-burner of English punk pub music, an exploration of “what would’ve happened” if Elvis hadn’t gone soft (as in his later soft rock).
04-01 Hamell On Trial – Hard Rain Vol Two 01 – It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) (2002)
— from a sequel disc of Dylan covers, one of Mr. Zimmerman’s several tunes which just keeps being relevant, decade after decade. Hamell plays all the instruments here.
04-02 Above Envy – Revolution 01 – My Revolution (2012)
— there’s a great movie called Rebel Radio, but this one shows up in a different movie: “Radio Rebel”. Little remembered, made for TV, but punched well above its weight. The real star of the movie is the soundtrack, which was quite difficult to find. My copy was pre-owned by a library in Missouri.
04-03 Terrible Things – Revolution (2010)
— makes a good counterpoint to Hamell and Above Envy.
04-04 Cocteau Twins – Four Calendar Cafe 10 – Pur (1993)
— one of my triple plays, have the album on cassette, CD and vinyl. Prefer their early stuff, but 4CC is the best of the later Cocteau Twins.
… and later at the Green Room After Party …
05-01 Primus – Brown Album 09 – Bob’s Party Time Lounge (1997)
— sound effects at the start make it perfect for my purposes.
05-02 Pink – Missundaztood 04 – Get The Party Started (2001)
— when released, they had to replace “ass” with “ends” but we’ve evolved somewhat in 20 years. Hopefully. Proud of the transition, the Primus tune ends with someone laughing, and this one starts with Pink laughing.
05-03 Lou & Peter Berryman – The Pink One 10 – Insomnia (2003)
— hilarious, and comes off an album named just right to segue here.
05-04 Puccini – Madama Pappano – Non Lo Sapete Insomnia (1904)
— the debut of Madame Butterfly was a disaster. Panned by critics, and history’s 2nd-most notorious “wardrobe malfunction” occurred when some rigging lifted the soprano’s kimono up, revealing her pregnant tummy, prompting cat-calls from the audience: “There’s the little Toscanini!” referring to her scandalously rumored affair with superstar conductor Arturo Toscanini. Took Puccini 6 months to get it produced again (outside of Italy this time), and he had to re-write it twice over 3 years before it became the opera masterpiece we know today.
05-05 Bobby Lewis – Tossin’ And Turnin’ (1960)
— after folk and opera, this cleanses the palate well.
05-06 Beastie Boys – Licensed To Ill 08 – No Sleep Till Brooklyn (1986)
— one of the albums which changed music forever, this song has always been my favorite. Also follows the previous tune nicely, Bobby Lewis ran away from home in Michigan in 1939, though he landed in Harlem, not Brooklyn.
05-07 Kylesa – Static Tensions 02 – Insomnia For Months (2009)
— nice Southern Rock metal, pounding one out for the theme. You’re not hearing double, the band has two drummers. In fact, ala Spinal Tap, Kylesa went through 8 drummers in 9 years.
06-01 Joe Ely – Musta Notta Gotta Lotta 01 – Musta Notta Gotta Lotta (1981)
— the ghost of Jerry Lee Lewis haunts those fingers.
06-02 Faithless – Insomnia 211 – Not Enuff Love (2001)
— a much deeper band than their couple tunes which got airplay, this album is a good entry point. In this case, the band’s on-theme 2009 “greatest hits” compilation has this as track #11 on CD 2 = “211”, am not going to explain track numbering from here on, you’ll figure it out. Tune doesn’t fit this week’s theme, but the comp’s title allows me to reach, and putting more Faithless out there is a stretch always willing to make.
06-03 Mike Candys & Jack Holiday – Insomnia (Monday 2 Friday Remix) (2011)
— original version from 2009 made these Swiss guys the darlings of the annual orgy that happens in Ibiza, which is likely to go bonkers in 2022, after 2 years of thwarted hedonism gets un-pent-up. Of note, Mike Candys has also worked with Carlprit, who we heard in the first set.
06-04 David Hole – Outside Looking In 10 – Insomniac (2001)
— as solid as blues rock comes.
06-05 The Originals – Sleepless Hours (1958)
— yeah the opening is reminiscent of “Tequila” but if you’re left with a lingering sense of “I know that tune”, the saxophone solo is lifted from Gene Autry’s “Here Comes Santa Claus”.
06-06 Go Gos – RTTVOTGG 109 – Let’s Have A Party (1981)
— recorded live at Palos Verdes High School in December of 1981, presumably the Winter Formal Dance. The Go-Go’s, like most bands, started small. Heck, one of the Beatles first gigs was in a back yard playing a cousin’s graduation party.
06-07 Pink – Greatest Hits So Far 15 – Raise Your Glass (2010)
— a decade later, the intellectual successor to Pink’s “Get The Party Started” shows her maturation and Alicia is still at it today. A real rare example of class and talent.
06-08 Toy Dolls – Living La Vida Loca (2000)
— one of the best cover tunes ever, and worth staying up all this time! Now go to sleep.