Ben Folds "All U Can Eat"

You know what I can't quite reconcile?

I feel pretty disgusted by the whole Black Friday insanity of our consumer culture, and am very, very put off that some businesses tried to get a jump on Christmas (which is still a month away!) by opening on Thanksgiving.

I reject participating in any of it.

On the other hand, I am not opposed to having a large, lavish meal on Thanksgiving.

Why is one okay in my mind, but not the other?

Isn't it all, as Ben Folds sings about, just crass consumption?


Hear the song on Youtube.

Johnny Cash "Thanksgiving Prayer"

Happy Thanksgiving from Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman! 

(And also Johnny Cash) 

((And me!))


Hear the song on Youtube.

The JB's "Pass The Peas"

Of all the dishes that I look forward to preparing, and eating, on Thanksgiving, I'd have to say that Peas are pretty low on the list. 

Not that I dislike them.  Just . . . they're peas.  Who cares?

BUT, if I'm looking for something to keep things grooving in the kitchen as I juggle the pots and pans and mixers and hot plates . . . well, bring on the JBs and Pass The Peas . . .




Hear the song on Youtube.

Paul Simon "Slip Slidin' Away"

One great source for battling the seasonal slowdown, is the reissue pile.  Sometimes.

Sometimes the reissue of classic albums contain "bonus" content that is pretty weak.  But sometimes there is a little bit of treasure buried there.

Paul Simon recently collected all his solo albums into one box.  And each album has a few demo or live versions of the songs therein.

The label helpfully put all these alternate versions on one disc for promotional purposes, and though not every cut is radio ready, some of these stripped down take are a great listen and give you a new appreciation for the old songs.

I found about 7 cuts that are worth some limited airplay, bundled them up in a "packet" and they will cycle through the playlist at the speed that just one song might.  So it's not heavy airplay, but the songs are so well-known that there's no need to build familiarity as if it were a new artist or new cut.

Instead, the friendly, loveable sound of Paul Simon provides a little bit of an anchor to a time when the playlist could start to tilt toward the unfamiliar.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Eddie Murphy "Boogie In Your Butt"

Another story popping up multiple times on my Facebook feed is this one about the old Columbia Record And Tapes Club.  It's worth a read.

I had forgotten about the thing, completely.  But those ads used to be ubiquitous.

Perhaps the only worse deal that someone actually joining the Columbia Record Club, was the one I somehow roped my cousin into.

The deal was something like, "You can get 11 records for a penny."

But in the fine print you found out: you had to buy a certain number of albums at an overprice, AND they would send you a new album every month and make you pay for it unless you sent them a refusal saying you DIDN'T want it.

Because the number of albums you initially got was an odd number, I proposed to my cousin Christine that I'd give her the penny, and only take 5 of the albums and she could have 6.  But in the fine print: she had to be the one to sign up for the account, leaving her on the hook for the payments and the refusals.

These 30 years later, she still speaks to me.  But it was a pretty shitty deal to foist upon a family member.  Sorry cousin!


Lousy deals aside, it may surprise you to know that the Columbia Record And Tape club was not so much a musical influence on me, as it was a comedic influence.  I got my first comedy albums this way, including "The Best Of Bill Cosby" and Eddie Murphy's debut "Eddie Murphy."

As recently as today, I was appropriating material from the Eddie Murphy album.

(He does this brilliant thing where he asks an audience member who'd been hit by a car, "Where did you get hit?" and when the person responds with the street, Murphy gets a big laugh from the audience by saying that he meant where "on your body" did you get hit.  It's brilliant because it works in reverse---if the person had answered with a body part, he could have said "I meant where in town did you get hit?")

And the albums weren't without their occasional musical moment, like this timeless classic, Boogie In Your Butt."


Hear the song on Youtube.

Semisonic "Chemistry"

Here's another Weekend Post:
After yesterday's horror, it's good to return to the more understated late 90s/2000s, where stripes and glasses and choker-things were the wild accessories.

"All About Chemistry" ended up being Semisonic's final record, which was disappointing, because I think, like Fountains Of Wayne, there was a breakthrough hit somewhere in their future, that would have opened up an audience to a treasure trove of great catalogue songs.



Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are fun to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

Trip Shakespeare "Bachelorette"

Here's another Weekend Post:
After writing about Dan Wilson earlier this week, I thought I'd make the weekend posts about his two former bands.

As the kids would say, OMG!

I had never seen this video before.

With the hair and the "rocking out lip-syncing" this is such an 80s video.  And it totally reminds me of that movie with Hugh Grant where he's the songwriter and they flash back to his 80s hits.  Except I'm not sure they were joking in this video.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are fun to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

John Forster "Entering Marion"

If someone posts a video on Facebook and I see it in my feed, I don't usually click on it, unless I'm just killing time.

But if I see that same video posted multiple times by multiple people, I figure it's worth checking out.

And that's how I came across the video below, which explains, in a regionally/appropriately profane way, how to correctly pronounce just a few of the ridiculously mis-pronounceable town names in Massachusetts.

That brought up these two songs, that are much funnier if you're from here, but still work if you're not.

Former mvy News Director Toby Wilson introduced me to "Entering Marion" years ago.  And Dana Edelman and his son now live on the Vineyard.

Enjoy.  And put it in your Facebook feed several times if you want me to click on it.


Hear "How To Properly Say Massachusetts Town Names" on Youtube.


Hear Dana Edelman's "Massachusetts Song" here (I can't embed it here).





Hear a live version the song on Youtube.

Dan Wilson "Disappearing"

Sometimes it is such a relief to hear a good song.

Dan Wilson is one of those artists that I personally love.  But none of his work has ever really fit on MVY.  Or fit snugly, anyway.

His 80s and 90s bands---Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic---were a little too pop for the MVY world.

And when Semisonic's  early-2000s "All About Chemistry" album didn't really break through, commercially, the band went on hold and it seemed like maybe Wilson's considerable song-crafting talents could have slide into obscurity.

Thankfully, he developed into an incredible co-writer and producer, reaching the highest highs in the last decade while co-writing and producing Grammy winning smash hits for The Dixie Chicks and Adele.

He's also worked with Jason Mraz, Mike Doughty, Taylor Swift and Rachel Yamagata, among other artists who can deliver a strong song with a pop sheen.

But listening to a song like Adele's "Someone Like You," even if you feel like that song is too much of a "pop hit," your ears would have to be broken to miss the fact that it is an incredibly well-constructed song, with an instantly memorable melody, with lyrics that pack an emotional wallop.

He could make a song that would fit on MVY.

And he did.

I haven't even dug into what "Disappearing" might be about, or plumbed the details of the melody and the arrangement.  I have the feeling that the depth of the song will unfold for me in the coming weeks of listening.  But I didn't have to think too hard about adding it to MVY's rotation.

I only had to hear the song once, to love it.

And that, if anything, is the mark of a Dan Wilson tune.   


Hear the song on Youtube.

Lady Gaga "Applause"

My wife and I were waiting to meet some friends at a bar this weekend.  While our friends were extricating themselves from a different party to come join us, my wife and I had some time to sit in the bar, talk and listen.

We talked about serious things.  We talked about light things.  We talked about Christmas.  We talked about the kids.

The usual.

A local band was getting set up at one of end of the barroom.  But in the meantime, the PA system was rotating through a bevy of current pop hits.

I don't listen to too much pop music by choice.  I don't hate it necessarily.  It's just not my taste.

But I DO hear a least a sample of what's current, via my wife and kids.

While they don't like everything---they are discriminating---they like enough to make me feel like I am connected to the pop world so that I know who Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are, or what the fox say.

Some fun song would come on the PA and my wife would start grooving in her chair, a smile breaking out on her face.  It wouldn't necessarily stop the conversation or anything.  It was just a part of the scene and the mood.

Our friends showed up right around the time the band started playing.

The band's selections tended toward the heavier, moodier stuff, and both my wife and I noted a marked change from what the vibe in the room had been.

"What were they playing before?"

"Oh, you know, Pop stuff," I said.  "Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars and such."

My wife started cracking up.

"No they didn't."

Really?  I thought they did.

But no.  She ran through the 10 or so artists we HAD heard.  But Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars were not among them.

Basically, what she was calling me out on, was that to me, there isn't really any difference between hearing Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, and hearing Fun and Katy Perry and Justin Timberlake (whose songs we DID hear).

Admittedly, unless I have heard the song a few dozen times (via my wife), then sometimes hearing songs from these artists is like trying to tell squirrels apart.


Hear "Applause" on Youtube.


Hear "Locked Out Of Heaven" on Youtube.


Hear "Roar" on Youtube.