Louis C.K. on the Election

Jim's Love Songs 1985

Not a lot of time for useless drivel today. Uncle Vernon pissed on a pile of clean clothes this morning as I watched. We killed him. That is all. Happy Halloween.

Here is a compilation of tunes by Jimmy Flemion, one half of the Frogs, called “Jim’s Love Songs 1985.” It has some real gems on it, including the wonderful “Hooray, Boo Hoo” and “Sick Hicks.” These are love songs for the fucked up. If you like the Frogs, and I hope you do, this one is a neat glimpse into their songwriting process. Enjoy.



Jim’s Love Songs 1985


1. Funhouse
2. Moon & Sun
3. Flower in her hand
4. She’s So Young #1
5. She’s So Young #2
6. Arrogant
7. That’s the Girl I Love
8. Megalomaniac
9. Time to Sleep
10. Goodbye
11. Let’s Smash the Clocks
12. Mr. Right
13. Tunnel of Love
14. Secrets of Love
15. Don’t Wake Up the Dead
16. It’s so Hard to Believe (That you love me)
17. Understand
18. Gypsy Drawl
19. You’re Lost
20. The Kennedy’s Killed Monroe
21. The Ocean Tide
22. Hooray, Boo Hoo
23. I Can’t Help But Fall in Love with You
24. Bite Down Hard
25. Sick Hicks


Download Jim's Love Songs 1985

MEOW MIX vol. 6 -- I say "Dirty Deeds," you say "Back in Black"

Our two cats, Vernon & Cheswick, were extremely hostile towards each other for the first few weeks. Gradually, they’ve become fast friends and have even taken up grooming the other, something that appears very gay. But we’re a tolerant people and have no problem with homosexuality human-wise or kitty-wise.

This is the sixth installment of the ridiculously named Meow Mix series. On the mix, you’ll find wonderful tracks from WIRE, Lightnin’ Hopkins (a favorite of the Swan Fungus blog), Tom Waits, The Handsome Family and Elliott Brood. Highlights include a blistering version of “Clouds” by the Jayhawks from a 1995 concert in New York. Elvis Costello performs an acoustic version of my favorite song from 89’s Spike called “God’s Comic.” I heard the Vermillion Sands tune “Mary” on WFMU the other day and really liked it. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan are on fire with “Fight Fire with Fire.” The best tracks, though, are “Buttons” by Shugo Tokumaru and “Top Drawer” by Man Man…both very unique and catchy.


MEOW MIX vol. 6



1. Everything is Broken (alternate) – Bob Dylan
2. Outdoor Miner – Wire
3. Miss You Know – Elliott Brood
4. The Woman Downstairs – The Handsome Family
5. Fight Fire with Fire – Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
6. Life I Used to Live – Lightnin’ Hopkins
7. Gin Soaked Boy – Tom Waits
8. Buttons – Shugo Tokumaru
9. Top Drawer – Man Man
10. Clouds (live) – The Jayhawks
11. Mary (demo) – Vermillion Sands
12. God’s Comic (acoustic live) – Elvis Costello


Download MEOW MIX vol. 6



As always, comments are welcomed, as are suggestions.

Ramsay Midwood @ Riverbend in Chattanooga 06-08-2003

Uncle Vernon has a tapeworm or he is just completely obsessed by his Nutro Complete Care Kitten Food (dry formula). Recently, he’s become over-affectionate at ridiculous hours of the morning (5am.), causing my girlfriend and I much consternation. Our attempts to remedy this behavior, including feeding them later in the evening, are not taking. Is it possible he has some sort of parasite that is feasting on his internal organs? Or, as many of my “friends” have already suggested, is he, simply, a “goddamn cat”?

Also, why do cat turds become cat toys after they’re rolled in litter? And would it be inappropriate, as a Halloween Prank, for me to take a poo in the litter box and let my girlfriend find it and, hopefully, be worried about the cats? No?


Today, we have a concert I recorded back in 2003 at the Riverbend Festival in Chattanooga. Ramsay Midwood, the eclectic Americana singer/songwriter, was touring in support of his excellent album “Shoot Out At the O.K. Chinese Restaurant.” I’m not sure Ramsay or his band expected the huge crowd that came to see them. Chattanooga’s local public radio affiliate, WUTC-FM, had been spinning the album for weeks and people seemed to really take to it.

This is a direct soundboard recording to DAT tape. The band is on point and Ramsay is in great spirits. Highlights include the “Shoot Out” stuff like “Monster Truck” and “Mohawk River.” The song “Monster Truck” is played twice because they ran out of material and us Chattanoogans just can’t enough of anything pertaining to big, over-sized, stupid trucks. My favorite songs, however, are “Jesus is #1” and “Prozac.” Ramsay is definitely an underrated songwriter/performer. Whatever happened to this guy anyway?



Ramsay Midwood
Riverbend Festival – Chattanooga, TN
06-08-2003


1. Chicago
2. Mohawk River
3. Rattlesnake
4. Monster Truck
5. I Feed My Monkey
6. I Saw the Light/Spinning’ on a Rock
7. Esther
8. Fisherman’s Friend
9. Reelin’ and a Rockin’
10. Jesus is #1
11. Prozac
12. Monster Truck (requested again)


Download Ramsay Midwood @ Riverbend

MEOW MIX vol. 5 -- Silver in the Stars, Gold in the Morning Sun

This is the 5th installment of the ridiculously titled “Meow Mix” series. Typically, I try to work hard to make the mix flow well. Otherwise, it would just be a random collection of songs. Believe it or not, there is a thought process behind the way the songs aligned.

Uncle Vernon is taking a break from music, or so he says. Instead, he’s apparently decided to replace quiet, contemplative listening time with a game called “Hide vomit in the least accessible place for humans to find it.” For example, yesterday we found it under the computer desk, conveniently near an air vent. Don’t tell me he didn’t plan that.

Anyway, what I’m saying is I work hard to arrange the tunes on the mixes, much like Vernon and his hiding of vomit.

This mix is more autumnal, I think, than the previous mixes. In Chattanooga, the temperature is still a balmy 80degrees on most days, but the colors of the leaves are an indication that Fall is here. And when Fall is here, I like to listen to acoustic ballads. Highlights on this edition include “Mississippi” by Bob Dylan (who knew he could write such good lyrics?), “One of Us Cannot Be Wrong,” a cover of a Leonard Cohen tune by Creston Spier’s of Harvey Milk. That one is gut-wrenchingly beautiful. We also have an incredibly catchy, although somewhat irrelevant, song from a band called Pretty & Nice…”Tora Tora Tora.” Finally, “Mingus Eyes” is a great tune by one of my favorites of all-time, Richard Thompson.

Enjoy and let me know if you like it. Tips on how to keep a cat from spite vomiting are welcome as well. I’ve read a few thumbtacks in the food bowl do wonders.


MEOW MIX vol. 5


1. Bicycle Built For Two – John Fahey
2. Mingus Eyes – Richard Thompson
3. I’m Just a Country Boy – Don Williams
4. Mississippi (unreleased) – Bob Dylan
5. One of Us Cannot Be Wrong (Cohen) – Harvey Milk
6. Oppressions Each –Brightblack Morning Light
7. Heavy Water/I’d Rather be Sleeping – Grouper
8. Moons and Cattails – Linda Perhacs
9. Faraway from Cars – Mercury Rev
10. The Gypsies Came Marching After – White Magic
11. Tora Tora Tora – Pretty & Nice
12. Something Fine (live) – Jackson Browne
13. My Little Kookenhaken (live) – Jonathan Richman
14. Old Lady & the Devil – Bill and Belle Reed


Download MEOW MIX vol. 5

Norman & Nancy Blake @ the Barking Legs 2004

Chattanoogans are lucky in a few ways. The first is that we’re nestled in the heart of Bluegrass music. I can’t tell you how many Bluegrass festivals, concerts and pickin’ parties I’ve been to during my seven year stay here. One of the legends of ‘pickin is Norman Blake. He and his wife, Nancy, live in Rising Fawn Ga., just a 20-minute drive from here over the state line. This means that, on occasion, the couple will leave the farm and perform a concert, most of the time at the Barking Legs Theater…the other reason Chattanoogans are lucky.

The Barking Legs is an intimate, 120 capacity venue in a less-than favorable area of the city. I’ve volunteered (…speaking as myself, not the cat this time) there for years. I encourage seeing a show there if you’re ever in the area. The show posted below still stands out in my mind, as it was the first time I’d heard Norman perform live.

This concert from 2004 is loaded with highlights: Notable performances include the hilarious “The Bragging Song,” a beautiful rendition of “All the Good Times Are Over,” and, of course, “Big Rock Candy Mountain” and “You Are My Sunshine” from the Grammy winning “O Brother Where Art Thou” movie soundtrack.

Good stuff. A true legend.


Norman & Nancy Blake
Barking Legs Theatre, Chattanooga TN
01-09-2004

Part 1

1. Katy Kline
2. All the Good Times Are Over
3. The Battleship of Maine
4. Precious Moments
5. The Old Grey Mare Come Tearing Out the Wilderness
6. Sweet Freedom
7. The Bragging Song
8. I Loved You Better Than You Knew
9. Ms. Forbes Farewell
10. Flower From the Fields of Alabama



Part 2

1. stage banter
2. The Fate of Talmadge Osborne
3. Dixie Cowboy
4. Big Rock Candy Mountain
5. You Are My Sunshine
6. Meet Me In the Shadow of the Pines
7. Camp Meeting On the Fourth of July
8. The Fiddler’s Dram -→ Whiskey Before Breakfast
9. Coleman’s March
10. Little Log Hut in the Lane
11. We’re Climbing Jacob’s Ladder
12. The Sunny Side of Life
13. The Hobo’s Last Ride
14. E: Cannonball


Download Part 1
Download Part 2


Comments and Feedback are/is always welcome.

Chris Smither: Chattanooga, TN 06-08-2002

Vernon’s Brother, Cheswick, won’t eat and has some sort of stomach bug that produces foul, green-colored diarrhea. He also likes to pee in my piles of dirty clothes. Oh, and vomit. He likes to vomit too. Otherwise, he’s a beautiful, healthy, growing, lovely little cat.

I have for you today a wonderful concert from 2002 recorded at Chattanooga’s “fun” Riverbend Festival. This is an annual event that takes place on the banks of the Tennessee River. Overall, there are five different stages hosting acts as varied as ZZTop, New Order, The Ohio Players, Vince Gill etc. My favorite stage happens to be “Tennessee Valley Credit Union” stage, formerly the “Amsouth” stage, under the Walnut St. Bridge. I’ve seen some wonderful acoustic acts there, but my favorite will always be this solo-acoustic blues set from Chris Smither.

Chris Smither is a blinding blues guitarist. He’s got some songwriting chops to boot. Highlights of this excellent sounding show include a cover of Robert Johnson’s “Dust My Broom,” Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row” & “Statesboro Blues” by Blind Willie McTell. However, the whole set really shines.

I was a sophomore in college in 2002. I think this was the first time I REALLY enjoyed the blues.



Chris Smither (Solo)
Riverbend Festival, Chattanooga TN.
06-08-2002


1. Hold On
2. Dust My Broom
3. No Love Today
4. Confirmation
5. Love You Like a Man
6. Can’t Shake the Blues
7. Get a Better One
8. Rock n’ Roll Doctor (Little Feat)
9. Drive You Home Again
10. Crash on the Levee, down in the flood (Dylan)
11. Lola
12. Statesboro Blues (Blind Willie McTell
13. Live As I’ll Ever Be
14. Hey Hey Hey
15. Desolation Row (Dylan)
16. Link of Chain
17. Magnolia (J.J. Cale)


Download Chris Smither in Chattanooga

T. Thompson/M. Wainwright -- We Can Work it Out

I liked this. Two of my favorite offspring of musical talent.

Meow Mix Vol. 4 -- It Feels Like Heaven ... kitty heaven.

Uncle Vernon is going through a weird, existential phase at the moment I type this. You see, this past weekend we expanded our family by exactly one more feline, a male longhaired, distant or direct cousin or sibling of Vernon. We named him “Cheswick,” for the character in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Vernon, as you can imagine, is displeased and perplexed. It didn’t help that “Chezzie” came with a vicious infestation of the fleas.

(Pictures are forthcoming. Of Chezzie, not the fleas.)

Vernon’s dissatisfaction with the weekend has provoked much listening, on his part, to the Replacements. Paul Westerberg, and his catalogue, is apparently a BIG DEAL in the world of cats. I've read, though, about how cats go through a rather "human" teenage angst period. I thought he was just having a bad day, but after consuming a bottle of 12-year-old George Dickel and stealing the family’s supply of marijuana (how does he light up with those kitty paws?) we’d had enough. He kept repeating, “I’m so Unsatisfied” until we had to lock him in the bathroom. Cheswick seems completely ambivalent to the whole situation. I’m hoping the situation works itself out.

Dear cat lovers, will you please tell me what type of kitten food you use? I’m not exactly made of money (that would be weird, especially if it were coins…heavy) and cat food isn’t cheap. What’s the best bang for the buck? I’m leaning toward a dry food called Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care Indoor Kitten Food. It seems to be getting the best reviews. Suggestions?

Also, do cats…well, kittens….need to eat EVERY day? It seems a bit excessive to feed them so much.


The following is the best Meow Mix yet. The first track is just wicked cool guitar music from a compilation album called “Group inerane: Guitars from Agadez (Music from Niger).” Other highlights include a new track from Dungen, a classic “autumn” tune from Robyn Hitchcock & a really catchy song from Bill Fay. Vernon insisted I include some Replacements. Is it any surprise he chose “Sixteen Blue” from Let it be? And let it be known, Prefab Sprout is anything but “cool,” but I really like that song and I think you will too.


Meow Mix Vol. 4

1. Kuni Majagani – V/A (Group Inerane)
2. Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March – The Box Tops
3. Ghost Town Blues – Prefab Sprout
4. Aguas De marco – Antonio Carlos Jobim & Elis Regina
5. Maleras Finest – Dungen
6. Autumn is Your Last Chance – Robyn Hitchcock
7. 90101-51-I – Autechre
8. Heaven – Pere Ubu
9. I Fall in Love Too Easily – Chet Baker
10. The Sun – Mirah
11. I’ll Cry Alone – Flamin’ Groovies
12. Rocky Road – Alabama Sacred Harp Singers
13. Maudy La Lune – Bill Fay
14. Sixteen Blue (alternate outtake) – The Replacements


Download Meow MIX Vol. 4


Enjoy. Feedback is requested. Let me know if you like the mix.

Tim Easton @ the Tivoli Theatre in Chattanooga.

Today, we have a short, acoustic set from Tim Easton. It was recorded in 2003 at Chattanooga’s historic Tivoli Theatre. Tim was opening up for John Hiatt. The crowd was hooked on Tim from the first note. His gruff voice meshed with the guitar perfectly, and he ain’t too shabby on the harp either. The standout track for me is “just to be next to you, “ a song my girlfriend at the time particularly enjoyed. I got to see Tim about a year later at a benefit for the Lula Lake Land Trust, but this concert completely blows that one out of the water…ha…lake…water…puns.

The quality is superb. I don’t know if I’ve got a better sounding bootleg. This is highly recommended. I think you’ll like what you hear.


Sorry the tracklist is a bit of a mess. It shouldn’t be that hard to figure it out though. You guys are computer savvy intellectuals and what not...



Tim Easton @ Tivoli Theatre 8/9/03
Chattanooga, TN


1. Intro/I’m Lonely, Please Come Home
2. Poor Poor LA
3. “Harmonica Song”
4. Lexington Jail
5. Just to Be Next To You
6. Carry Me
7. Baltimore
8. I Was Taken By You
9. Don’t Walk Alone
10. Don’t Walk Alone (unplugged)


Download Tim Easton @ the Tivoli