Archive for the 'Friday Random Ten' Category

Friday Random Ten: “vegans can overeat at the holidays too” edition

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Hugo Schwyzer
on November 16, 2007
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Two bonus tracks on this week’s FRT, because you won’t see another FRT until December. New stuff, old stuff, all good stuff. If you’ve never heard Melissa Ferrick, check her out. And though #5 is surely one of the greatest pop songs ever recorded, I have very happy — and very different — associations with tracks 2 and 6.

1. “The Lucky One”, Alison Krauss
2. “Burning Down One Side”, Robert Plant
3. “I Will Dream”, Emmylou Harris
4. “With Arms Outstretched”, Rilo Kiley
5. “Tiny Dancer”, Elton John
6. “Do Me Baby”, Prince
7. “Selwood Farm”, Bebo Norman
8. “Never Give Up”, Melissa Ferrick
9. “Movin’ Out”, Billy Joel
10. “When the Stars Go Blue”, Ryan Adams

Bonus Track: “Jesse James”, Bruce Springsteen
Bonus Track Two: “Go Leave”, Kate and Anna McGarrigle

Friday Random Ten: wriggling with joy for a three-day weekend

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Hugo Schwyzer
on November 9, 2007
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I’ll bet a Starbucks card or a PETA donation that none of my readers own each of the eleven artists here. I came to Rilo Kiley just within the past year, but most of these songs are old (or ageing) favorites. (I suppose #6 is the track that doesn’t fit.)

1. “Spectacular Views”, Rilo Kiley
2. “Your Life is Now”, John Mellencamp
3. “Martyrs and Thieves”, Jennifer Knapp
4. “The Weakness in Me”, Joan Armatrading
5. “The Wind and the Mountain”, Liz Phair
6. “Holy Diver”, Dio
7. “The Last Resort”, The Eagles
8. “Hurt Me Bad In a Real Good Way”, Patty Loveless
9. “Lie to Me”, Depeche Mode
10. “Better than You”, Terri Clark

Bonus Track: “Sunday Morning Coming Down”, Kris Kristofferson

Friday Random Ten: Songs with Long Titles Edition

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Hugo Schwyzer
on November 2, 2007
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Nothing else to post today: boxing, running, grading — and a trip to the dentist — will consume all available blogging time.

1. “Come Pick Me Up”, Ryan Adams
2. “If I Had A Hammer”, Sam Cooke
3. “House of the Rising Sun”, Be Good Tanyas
4. “Boys on the Radio”, Hole
5. “Breakin’ the Chains”, Dokken
6. “Colorado”, Stephen Stills and Manassas
7. “A Little Past Little Rock”, Lee Ann Womack
8. “Fifty Miles of Elbow Room”, Iris Dement
9. “Ease Your Feet in the Sea”, Belle and Sebastian
10. “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next”, Manic Street Preachers

Bonus Track: “I’ve Seen it All”, Bjork and Thom Yorke

Friday Random Ten: pray for rain edition

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Hugo Schwyzer
on October 26, 2007
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I didn’t plan both #7 and #9 to show up here, and no, there’s no Oedipal theme at work this week. Or is there? #4 was my favorite song of 1993, a widely-held opinion that year. I listened to #9 over and over again on the plane back from Britain last month; it made me happy. #10 is my current favorite “soothe-me” song, and #6 is heart-breaking.

1. “A Question of Lust”, Depeche Mode
2. “I’d Be Better Off in a Pine Box”, Doug Stone
3. “Heart of Gold”, the Kinks
4. “Runaway Train”, Soul Asylum
5. “Family”, Dar Williams
6. “Must Be Sinking Now”, Cheryl Wheeler
7. “Mother”, Tori Amos
8. “Summer, Highland Falls”, Billy Joel
9. “If You Want a Mother”, Gretchen Wilson
10. “Rockabye Dixie”, Abigail Washburn

Bonus Track: “Going Through the Motions”, Aimee Mann

Friday Random Ten: a touch of autumn melancholy

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Hugo Schwyzer
on October 19, 2007
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I’ve always liked The Innocence Mission, but only recently started downloading some of my favorites, two of which show up here. This is a softer, more melancholy Random Ten than I’ve had in a while, but all are wonderful songs… even #7, which is a fine tune to which to lift weights or box.

1. “I Shall Be Released”, The Band
2. “Crush in the Ghetto”, Jolie Holland
3. “Lonesome Valley”, Joan Baez
4. “Follow Me”, The Innocence Mission
5. “I Want a Broken Heart”, Derek Webb
6. “The First Cut is the Deepest”, Cat Stevens
7. “Civil War”, Guns n’ Roses
8. “I Wonder Where to Find You”, Merle Haggard
9. “Some Clear Joy is Coming”, Innocence Mission
10. “An Exception to the Rule”, Dwight Yoakam

Bonus Track: “One Tree Hill”, U2

Friday Random Ten: the chinchillas miss their nanny edition

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Hugo Schwyzer
on October 12, 2007
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#1 and #9 are classics. #5 is off a great early Prince album that was a mainstay of my high school cassette collection. I make no apologies for liking most of James Blunt, all of Rosie Thomas, and — yes, this one song by the Cover Girls, which brings back my misspent youth. The bonus track didn’t show up on my random party shuffle, but it’s one of my favorite songs off the best new Christian album of the year, IMHO.

1. “Handsome Molly”, Ralph Stanley
2. “The Story”, Brandi Carlile
3. “I’m on My Way”, Proclaimers
4. “All My Life”, Rosie Thomas
5. “Sister”, Prince
6. “Red Skies”, The Fixx
7. “Same Mistake”, James Blunt
8. “The Truth About You”, Rosanne Cash
9. “Meeting in the Air”, The Red City Ramblers
10. “Inside Outside”, The Cover Girls

Bonus Track: “There is a Reason”, Caedmon’s Call

Friday Random Ten: autumn here at last edition

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Hugo Schwyzer
on October 5, 2007
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I’ll have you know that though my wife downloaded #2, I’m unapologetic about liking it very much.

1. “It’s Not Happening”, Be Good Tanyas
2. “All Cried Out”, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam
3. “Summer’s Almost Gone”, Cheryl Wheeler
4. “Big City Nights”, Scorpions
5. “Firecracker”, Wailin’ Jennys
6. “Petals”, Hole
7. “Misguided Angel”, Cowboy Junkies
8. “Can You Hear Me Now”, Emmylou Harris
9. “Sounds of Loneliness”, Patty Loveless
10. “Must I Paint You a Picture”, Billy Bragg

Bonus Track: “A Change Is Gonna Come”, Sam Cooke

Saturday Night Random Ten

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Hugo Schwyzer
on September 29, 2007
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After a very busy and topsy-turvy week that saw us in three countries on three continents, we had a very relaxing Saturday at home today. I treated myself, and watched eight straight hours of college football, something I doubt I’ll have the time to do again this autumn. I felt decadent doing so, and I felt overjoyed after my Golden Bears won for the first time in Eugene, Oregon since I was a twenty-year old junior at Cal.

In honor of this fine victory, a late Friday Random Ten. Not much explanation needed, save that #2 appears because I recently downloaded my favorite national anthems (the old Soviet one; Haydn’s original tune from the Emperor’s Quartet for Austria; France, Israel, South Africa.)

1. “Stupid Boy”, Sarah Buxton
2. “The Soviet National Anthem”, the Red Army Chorus
3. “Who Knew”, Pink
4. “Come to Bed”, Gretchen Wilson
5. “I’ve Always Loved You”, Third Day
6. “Windfall”, Son Volt
7. “Dimbran”, Catatonia
8. “Talk to Me of Mendocino”, Kate and Anna McGarrigle
9. “Anyway”, Martina McBride
10. “Holiday Inn”, Elton John

Friday Random Ten: anticipating college football edition

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Hugo Schwyzer
on August 31, 2007
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1. “Forever in Blue Jeans”, Neil Diamond (yes, for real)
2. “Jamais”, Charlotte Gainsbourg
3. “Driftwood”, Travis
4. “If I Had a Boat”, Lyle Lovett
5. “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”, Bob Dylan
6. “Umbrella”, Rihanna
7. “Bad” (live version), U2
8. “End of the Party”, English Beat
9. “We’ll Sweep Out the Ashes in the Morning”, Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris
10. “Cum On Feel The Noize”, Quiet Riot

Bonus Track: “Jerusalem”, Steve Earle

Friday Random Ten: start of the semester edition

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Hugo Schwyzer
on August 24, 2007
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Old and new favorites here. Jackson Browne shows up twice, as he deserves. The Stephen Stills track is from another one of those great Seventies albums to which I have increasingly returned in recent years. It would not be a stretch to say that Hugo feels that popular music hit its twentieth-century zenith in the era framed between the Kent State shootings and the election of Jimmy Carter. Or perhaps it’s just because that’s the music I remember my baby-sitters played on the radio.

Next week, I’ll do my ten favorite Seventies albums. I know you can’t wait.

1. “Deliver Me”, Catie Curtis
2. “Rock Me On The Water”, Jackson Browne
3. “Swallow”, Wailin’ Jennys
4. “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man”, Prince
5. “Wedding Day” Rosie Thomas
6. “You’re Crazy”, Guns n’ Roses
7. “Queen of My Double Wide Trailer”, Sammy Kershaw
8. “So Begins the Task”, Stephen Stills (and Manassas)
9. “Celebrity Skin”, Hole
10. “That Girl Could Sing”, Jackson Browne

Bonus Track: “Let the Mystery Be”, Iris DeMent

Three favorite vegan places in Los Angeles — and the Saturday Random Ten

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Hugo Schwyzer
on August 11, 2007
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My current top three favorite places to get great vegan food in Los Angeles:

1. Rahel Ethiopian Veggie Cuisine, 1047 South Fairfax (in the heart of Little Ethiopia). If I had to spend the rest of my life subsisting on one kind of food, it would be Ethiopian. My wife and I are on the Westside a lot, and eat here at least two or three times a month for either lunch or dinner.

2. Madeleine’s Bistro, 18621 Ventura Blvd, Tarzana. It’s a schlep out to the deepest, darkest part of the West Valley, but it’s worth the drive. Easily the most elegant vegan restaurant in greater Los Angeles; lots of good vegan wines as well, or so my wife tells me. I just have a Virgil’s in a chilled glass. (And yes, thanks to the animal fats used to coat casks, not all wines are vegan.)

3. Fattys Cafe, 1627 Colorado Blvd, Eagle Rock. For those of us in Pasadena, this is much closer than the first two; it’s a quirky, fun place in the up-and-coming Eagle Rock district near Occidental College. Unlike my first two choices on this list, it’s not pure vegan at Fattys — but most dishes can be made “strictly vegan”, and they’ve got some really interesting things on the menu. We come here a lot.

All three restaurants are highly recommended.

And a day late, the Saturday Random Ten:

1. “Ain’t Talkin’ About Love”, Van Halen
2. “Someday, Someway”, Marshall Crenshaw
3. “Wreck of the Day”, Anna Nalick
4. “Mandolin Rain”, Bruce Hornsby and the Range
5. “Samson”, Regina Spektor
6. “Runaway Train”, Rosanne Cash
7. “The Cruel War”, Dolly Parton and Allison Krauss
8. “Up in Heaven” (Not Only Here), The Clash
9. “Oh my Sweet Carolina”, Ryan Adams
10. “Clear as a Bell”, Rosie Thomas

Bonus Track: “Tuesday’s Gone”, Lynyrd Skynyrd

Friday Random Ten: music for a working vacation

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Hugo Schwyzer
on August 3, 2007
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Some classics and some oddities here; #8 was a big hit when I was in sixth grade. While other kids were listening to KISS, I was into Helen Reddy. (This made me an understandable target for ridicule.) #3 is a great cover of the old Stephen Foster classic, Mare Winningham is a wonderful actress turned Jewish convert and folk singer, and #7 is my second favorite version of this oft-covered Haggard staple. (I like the Gram Parsons take even better.) And #10 is off everyone’s favorite Joni Mitchell album.

1. “Rocket Queen”, Guns n’ Roses
2. “Angel from Montgomery”, John Prine
3. “Hard Times”, Eastmountainsouth
4. “Bittersweet”, Big Head Todd and the Monsters
5. “The World to Come”, Mare Winningham
6. “To Love Somebody”, the Flying Burrito Brothers
7. “Sing me Back Home”, David Allen Coe & Merle Haggard
8. “Keep On Singing”, Helen Reddy
9. “Martyrs and Thieves”, Jennifer Knapp
10. “Carey”, Joni Mitchell

Bonus Track: “The Ghosts of Cable Street”, The Men they Couldn’t Hang

Friday Random Ten: music for a restless taper

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Hugo Schwyzer
on July 20, 2007
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My wife and I share a great love for Mahalia, though #3 is the only song I have on my Itunes (it’s my favorite.) In the 1990s, I listened to Liz Phair constantly, and now don’t seem to do so as much, but my fondness isn’t entirely gone. #4 was on the radio a lot when I first came back to Christ and gave up a host of destructive behaviors, and it was a signature song for that first year of recovery. #1 and #9 are, as I’ve mentioned before, favorite theme songs from an earlier time, when the behaviors I gave up in the late ’90s were what sustained me. And of course, if you’ve never heard of the Wailin’ Jennys or the Weepies or my newest discovery, Sarah Buxton, check them out.

1. “Don’t Follow”, Alice in Chains
2. “World Spins Madly On”, The Weepies
3. “Thy Will Be Done”, Mahalia Jackson
4. “Your Life is Now”, John Mellencamp
5. “Leap of Innocence”, Liz Phair
6. “Darling Nikki”, Prince
7. “My Antonia”, Emmylou Harris and Dave Matthews
8. “The Mighty Quinn”, Ian and Sylvia
9. “I’ve Loved These Days”, Billy Joel
10. “Firecracker”, Wailin’ Jennys

Bonus Track: “Stupid Boy”, Sarah Buxton

Friday Random Ten: “overtrained and with a cold to boot” edition

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Hugo Schwyzer
on July 13, 2007
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Aimee Mann and the McGarrigles don’t show up often enough on FRTs, and two lovely tracks from each are here. You can’t have been 13 in 1980, as I was — desperately insecure and hormonal — and not love track #4. And I play the “Hair” soundtrack more often than that from any other musical, even more than “Jesus Christ Superstar.” And I continue to fall for Rosie Thomas.

1. “Video”, Aimee Mann
2. “Past the Point of Rescue”, Hal Ketcham
3. “Rockstar”, Third Day
4. “Love Stinks”, J. Geils
5. “Let the Sunshine In”, Hair Soundtrack
6. “My Old Friend the Blues”, Steve Earle
7. “Talk to Me of Mendocino”, Kate and Anna McGarrigle
8. “For a Dancer”, Jackson Browne
9. “Since You’ve Been Around”, Rosie Thomas
10. “Two Pink Lines”, Eric Church

Bonus Track One: “This Flight Tonight”, Joni Mitchell
Bonus Track Two: “Good Ole Boys Like Me”, Don Williams

Friday Random Ten: music to rest the joints to

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Hugo Schwyzer
on June 29, 2007
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I’ve got the longest run of the season coming up on Sunday, and can begin a gradual taper next week. These old bones need the rest.

Don’t read too much into my great fondness for #1. #5 is my favorite Eagles track, #3 is from one of those folk groups whose records my mother played for me when I was small, and they’re thus permanently part of my consciousness. #7 includes a line I thought immensely profound when I was nineteen: “we’re too young to reason, too grown up to dream.” (Now, it seems silly, but that’s what a couple of decades will do for ya.) #8 is from a local Pasadena artist whose work I’ve long admired. The Paul Colman Trio are a fairly obscure Christian band from Australia; I caught them opening for Third Day a few years back and they stole the show.

1. “Damn, I Wish I was Your Lover”, Sophie B. Hawkins
2. “Uncle John’s Band”, Indigo Girls
3. “Keep On the Sunny Side”, Ian and Sylvia
4. “Echo Park”, Joseph Arthur
5. “The Last Resort”, the Eagles
6. “Jealousy”, Natalie Merchant
7. “Slave to Love”, Bryan Ferry
8. “Fire and Rain”, Michelle Bloom
9. “Run”, Paul Colman Trio
10. “Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down”, Uncle Tupelo

Bonus Track: “The One Who Knows”, Alison Krauss and Dar Williams