This Week and More: May 28, 2012

Tonight, YACHT plays One Eyed Jacks. Here's a Spotify playlist with music from the week and more.
1. "The Doorway" - Pierced Arrows: Playing tonight at Siberia.
2. "Better Off Dead" - The Wipers: Classic and too often overlooked American punk from Portland.
3. "(I'm) Out of It" - The Nomads: Great Swedish garage punk (who I thought of because they do a great version of "Better Off Dead" on Powerstrip.
4. "Sixteen Saltines" - Jack White: from Blunderbuss. I have yet to pay attention much past this point in the album.
5. "E=MC2" (12" remix) - Big Audio Dynamite: From the second disc of the Legacy Edition of This is Big Audio Dynamite, which I skipped when it came out. Now I love how this version opens up the dubwise bass.
 6. "Freaking Out" - Toro Y Moi: Cool, contemporary/retro funk & the title track from last year's EP.

7. "Mama Used to Say" - Junior: Retro funk inspired by "Freaking Out."
8. "Banana Ripple" - Junior Boys: I have a soft spot for this electropop duo since they're from Hamilton, Ontario, where I lived for 10-plus years. But not while they were together.
9. "I'll Be Your Mirror" - YACHT: Playing One Eyed Jacks tonight.
10. "Ne Dis Pas (Girl Don't Tell Me)" - Souvenir: A lovely French Beach Boys cover from Caroline Now, an album of well-chosen Beach Boys covers including "I Wanna Pick You Up" by Alex Chilton.
11. "Credit in the Straight World" - Young Marble Giants: An obsession when I DJ'ed at CFMU in Hamilton.
12. "Listen to My Heels" - Theresa Andersson. From her new Street Parade album, which is really smart and more playful than is immediately obvious.
13. "Wild" - Beach House: Each time I listen to a track or three from Bloom, I think I need to spend more time with this album.
14. "Hold Me Close" - Flux Pavilion: Playing the Republic Wednesday.
15. Step - Kid Sister w/ Estelle: People loved or hated Kid Sister's Ultraviolet. The middle of the album gets thin for me, and I knew "Pro Nails" too well when the album came out to still get excited about it, but the first third of album's great fun.
16. "Ripe" - GIVERS: I wanted to see if I still like this album as much as I did when it came out. I do.
17. Aboulaguine Akaline - Bombino: A highlight from this year's Jazz Fest, along with Seun Kuti.
18. Too Many People - Paul McCartney: Maybe the first album I bought (Ram) and the first Fab Macca album on Spotify. I'm very pleasantly surprised at how good and eccentric it sounds.

(Coming soon: MySpiltMilk.com)

My Kind of Merry Christmas

"Christmas songs have to be joyous, even if for all the wrong reasons," John Waters told me in 2004. "They have to be amazing.” I've let that be my guiding logic when I collect Christmas songs for CDs, playlists on Spotify, or this, this year's downloadable Christmas mixtape. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas.

1. O Come All Ye Faithful - Julian Koster's Singin Saw

2. Hey Guys! It's Christmas Time - Sufjan Stevens
3. Happy Sound's Christmas - Happy Sound
4. This Christmas Day - Don Rich
5. I'm Your Christmas Friend - James Brown
6. Black Christmas - The Harlem Children's Chorus
7. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear - Lew Charles
8. Little Drummer Boy - Ellis Marsalis
9. Santa's North Pole Band - Line Material
10. Run Rudolph Run - Keith Richards
11. Welcome Christmas - from How the Grinch Stole Christmas
12. The Christmas Song - Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66
13. Deck the Halls - Mirror Image
14. Love for Christmas - the Ebbonaires
15. Funky Funky Christmas - New Kids on the Block
16. It's Christmas Every Day - Hank Thompson
17. Blue Christmas - Tommy Wills
18. Joy to the World - St. Amanita
19. I'll Be Home for Christmas - Wayne King and His Orchestra
20. You're All I Want for Christmas - Brook Benton
21. Good King Wenceslas - John Fahey
22. It Doesn't Often Snow on Christmas - Pet Shop Boys
23. Marshmallow World - Darlene Love
24. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Andre Kostelanetz
25. (It's a) Happy Holiday - The Shells
26. Be There for Christmas - Ledisi
27. Jingle Bells - Marcus Roberts
28. The Christmas Polka - Jim Reeves
29. Merry Christmas, Everybody - Stompin' Tom Connors
30. I'll Be Home for Christmas - Al Green
31. Santa Doesn't Cop Out on Dope - Sonic Youth

For those who like a more active Christmas celebration, Kat and I will once again lead the third annual Caroling Pub Crawl at 7 p.m., December 13 leaving from The Kingpin (1307 Lyons St.). We hope you'll join us, and as is the case every year, talent is optional.

The Rich at Play

What's wrong with Mick Jagger's Superheavy? I'll start and end by questioning the imagination that went into it. Over at Spotify, I posted a playlist of an alternative version of the album - songs by the same name but by other artists before Jagger, etc. The process took all of nine minutes.