WARMER MIXTAPES #879 | by Jenny Parrott (Shotgun Party) and Vaughn Walters (Eagleize It) of Loves It
SIDE A | by Vaughn Walters
1. Blaze Foley | Clay Pigeons
I love Texas Folk and Country Music, and this is probably my favorite song of all of them. Blaze hits it so hard and I believe every single word. If it's late at night and a mellow Jam Session, this is my current favorite song to play.
2. Nirvana | Aneurysm
Maybe before finding Nirvana, I wanted to buy Boyz 2 Men Records or something like that. I love how this song takes so long to build in the Intro and then drops into the half time Breakdown. Probably my favorite Nirvana song. My sister hates Nirvana, but knows every word to every song from me blaring it so much when we both lived with my folks.
3. Shovels And Rope | The Hardest Thing (Cary Ann Hearst Cover)
Ugh, just go listen to this song if you've never heard it. I've never heard a better song by someone I know personally. But then know is probably an overstatement. The correct term is probably closer to super-mega-fanboy or possibly stalker. Here, I'll make it easy for you.
4. Bruce Springsteen | My Hometown
I could list a number of Bruce songs on this top ten. Hell, a top ten of Springsteen would even be difficult. I used to listen to this song, and the whole Born In The U.S.A. album on repeat with my dad when we went to the Dirt Track races around West Virginia when I was a kid. Then I rediscovered Springsteen as an adult, and dug deep into his first seven or so albums. While lots of folks would dismiss Born In The USA as Overproduced, it remains one of my very favorite Springsteen albums. I love every single song on it. I played this one with a band one time, in the only time I've ever played in my hometown of Macomber. I was really excited to play it and hyped it up in my mind about how awesome it was going to be to sing My Hometown in my hometown (song-heit, yaaaaah), but it just kinda fell flat. LOL.
5. Guy Clark | Desperados Waiting On A Train
Old No. 1 is basically a perfect album, in my mind. And then there's that line, Come on, Jack, that son of a bitch is coming. Nobody can swear better than Guy Clark. Sorry, Weezy, it's true.
6. Leonard Cohen | Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye
I fell in Love with a girl for a long time, and then the falling out of Love process also took a long time. So I moved to Ireland and I remember laying in my bed in Salthill, my feet were so fucked up I could barely walk, the pissing cold of the Winter rain around Galway Bay penetrated deep into my bones, was completely broke, jobless, directionless, listening to this song on repeat on my Discman, and wondering what the hell I was doing there and what I was going to do next. I love many Leonard Cohen songs, but this one hit me the hardest. Your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm. I couldn't get that image out of my head.
7. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band | Against The Wind
Heartland Rock is becoming my favorite genre, and I think it has something to do with turning 30 and being from small town America and able to relate somehow to every character that Seger and Springsteen (and to a lesser extent Mellencamp and Bon Jovi) ever spin out. Against The Wind to me is about getting older, but still believing that you can totally kick ass. I carry two cans of Coors Light in my Tour van at all times, so just in case I ever meet Bob Seger, I can drink a can of Coors with him.
8. The Eagles | Peaceful Easy Feeling
Look, I could go on a crusade about the Eagles (and anyone who knows me personally has probably heard me do just this) and how even though they have sold more Records than anybody ever, they are still essentially Artistically Underrated. Everyone loves to shit on the Eagles. But I am here to say that they are the best damn band I've ever listened to. I have learned more from the Eagles than any band (except possibly the Beach Boys). This song is them in all of their non-Rocking glory. When they decided to Rock (aka - Joe Walsh era), they basically sucked. When they were just hanging out, partying with Ronstadt, smoking mucho doobers, playing some Chill songs, they were the Best Band of All Time. And this one is the epitome of that. Great song, great arrangement, great harmonies... Oh, and by the way, fuck the Big Lebowski!
9. Hazel Dickens | West Virginia, My Home
This is the Love song for my home state that I wish I had written. But then again if I had written it I probably would have added some sort of Melodramatic overly Sentimental crap, and she on the other hand just nails it so perfectly. I often feel exactly what this song describes, and I know a lot of other folks from West Virginia who I'm sure feel the same way.
10. Steve Earle | The Devil's Right Hand
I toured with a band for about three years, and I feel like this song was one of the Soundtrack songs for us, and I will forever associate it with some of the crazier times of that band. If I think about this song, I'm transported back into the back of the van, piss drunk at SXSW, gear falling down all over me, might have been a bike in there, drinking Vodka shots with friends from Minnesota, going to Sam's Town Point for a disaster of a show. Then I also think of the first time we toured up to NY, and we're driving around Brooklyn, probably lost, not giving a shit, this song blaring. I'm sitting on the floor, can't see a damn thing, having such a great time, not caring about anything in the world, so stoked to be hanging out and playing Music and partying in New York with some of my best buds.
+11. NOFX | Linoleum
This is my favorite NOFX song, and we have been singing it in Loves It most nights of the past couple of years of touring. "Possessions never meant anything to me... Well, that's not true... I've got a bed, and a guitar and dog named Bob (Boxie) who pisses on my floor. So I play 200 shows per year and singing this song every night feels good. It's like, sure, I don't have a damn thing, I work harder than I've ever worked in my life, I make very little money, I live in a van, BUT I get to hang out with the woman I Love, play Music nearly every night, and I have more Freedom, Live a cooler Life, set My Own Rules, and have seen more of this Earth and met more fantastic beautiful people than I ever thought possible. By the way, Boxie doesn't actually piss on the floor though. She is a good mutt.
+12. Lucinda Williams | Something About What Happens When We Talk
Fell in Love to this song. The whole Sweet Old World album. Gurf Morlix's Guitar playing is my favorite.
SIDE B | by Jenny Parrott
1. Sam Cooke | Good Times
Sam is my favorite All Time singer, and when he sings about getting his buzz and his party on, all my cares melt away and I feel like I've been drinking fancy cocktails with Sam for hours. His Phrasing and Enthusiasm in his voice make you believe hes ready for his break, and that he's really savoring the opportunity to Sing and party his troubles away.
2. Björk | Pagan Poetry
When I was in my late teens I had my own used truck with 250,000 miles on it. I would drive around New Haven CT, and Poughkeepsie NY, places I lived, listening to my favorite singers and vocalising along with no witnesses. In my nighttime wanderings I would wail along to the Music, learning how to hit the high notes, sad notes, etc. of my favorite singers. At the end of this song she repeats he makes me want to hurt myself and that phrase is very urgent and almost violent, and a great release to Shout/Sing from your old truck.
3. Frankie Lymon | Goody Goody (Ted Wallace & His Swing Kings Cover)
This 11 year old motherfucker wrote, sang, danced and entertained at a level I will never reach, and he passed at only 25. This song has fantastic Melody which he sings flawlessly, and it's a great satisfying tale of Romantic Revenge and watching someone get theirs. There is a Live Video of him doing a little dance on National TV that always blows my mind. He also wrote Why Do Fools Fall In Love before he was a teenager.
4. Nina Simone | Ain't Got No - I Got Life (James Rado, Gerome Ragni and Hair Original Cast Cover)
Nina Simone is in the same category for me as Björk, meaning I listened to her obsessively in my late teens while driving around in my truck. Her singing abilities are unfathomable, singing along with her Slow pieces is almost as hard as singing with Ella Fitzgerald's. But her moaning mournful Voice is like no other, and her spins on Old Classics are exciting. This song I learned by watching videos of her performing at The Black Woodstock aka Harlem Renaissance Festival and it's especially moving when you consider the Civil Rights context she sings it in.
5. Sublime | Get Ready
This is a Reggae type Pop song about smoking Weed that I loved when I was an especially young teenager and have come to re-Love as an adult. Bradley Noel is singing about who's gonna call the cops on him and his band for having fun, and the heavy Bass line and Schreetching Guitar Sounds totally emulate a party behind interrupted by Police sirens. In my youth I dont remember why I liked this song, but it's fun to Love it again as Marijuana is becoming more decriminalized, and because every time I'm super grouchy, this song winds ME DOWN!!!
6. Brennen Leigh | Sleeping With The Devil
This song is about Addiction, making mistakes, Loss and Guilt, and I love it. The Singing is fantastic and the story is true, sad and so honestly delivered. This song sounds like it was written because the soul of the writer depended on it, plus Flaco Jimenez plays Accordion on it.
7. The Defibulators | Pay For That Money
I love this song by Brooklyn band the Defibulators. Erin B is one of the best singers I've ever heard, her Phrasing is so unique and her voice is downright sexy. This song is one on an album filled with poignant discussions of Debt, Heartbreak, Drink, Religion and other issues facing my generation. The hook will stay with you for months!
8. Carrie Anne Hearst | The Hardest Thing
This heartbreaking Waltz got crooned along to 1000's of times in my old shack I lived in in Austin. I first heard this artist (Female Lead Singer for Shovels And Rope) on the PA at a club in Chattanooga TN and I've been intrigued ever since. The heartbreak and undertaking on this song are so real, that's why it works everyone up. And the Singing can't be beat!
9. Claude Debussy | La Mer (Performed by Cleveland Orchestra, Conductor: Vladimir Ashkenazy)
The first time I listened to this piece I was 20 and driving across the country for the first time in a borrowed truck (my old beater wouldn't make it). I was meeting my first Love and drove through the Night and watched the Sun come up listening to the Music rising and soaring. I was sick with no sleep, Nervousness, Love and Hunger (I had only been eating apples and water) and even though the relationship turned out to be a disaster, this piece has always symbolized Romantic and Endless Possibility.
10. Hank Williams | Settin' The Woods On Fire
Someone Instant Messaged me links of his Music when I was 20. Having never heard Classic Country Sounds before, I stopped everything I was doing and my eyes filled with tears. Upon hearing more I went to my Music nerd roommate and asked have you heard of this before?, repeating the question to most of my friends. I secretly felt betrayed that people had known about this joy and never let me in on it. I got every Hank track I could find and had a thoroughly satisfying Hank party for months.
Want to start out by saying that it is bizarre that I don't have any Beach Boys or Townes Van Zandt or Willie Nelson on here, but I couldn't pick just one song of any of theirs, so I decided to pick none of them and to say that I could pick just about any song from any of their catalog and substitute it in for any of these songs and feel pretty good about it. Maybe except Amusement Park USA by the Beach Boys. That one sucks.
1. Blaze Foley | Clay Pigeons
I love Texas Folk and Country Music, and this is probably my favorite song of all of them. Blaze hits it so hard and I believe every single word. If it's late at night and a mellow Jam Session, this is my current favorite song to play.
2. Nirvana | Aneurysm
Maybe before finding Nirvana, I wanted to buy Boyz 2 Men Records or something like that. I love how this song takes so long to build in the Intro and then drops into the half time Breakdown. Probably my favorite Nirvana song. My sister hates Nirvana, but knows every word to every song from me blaring it so much when we both lived with my folks.
3. Shovels And Rope | The Hardest Thing (Cary Ann Hearst Cover)
Ugh, just go listen to this song if you've never heard it. I've never heard a better song by someone I know personally. But then know is probably an overstatement. The correct term is probably closer to super-mega-fanboy or possibly stalker. Here, I'll make it easy for you.
4. Bruce Springsteen | My Hometown
I could list a number of Bruce songs on this top ten. Hell, a top ten of Springsteen would even be difficult. I used to listen to this song, and the whole Born In The U.S.A. album on repeat with my dad when we went to the Dirt Track races around West Virginia when I was a kid. Then I rediscovered Springsteen as an adult, and dug deep into his first seven or so albums. While lots of folks would dismiss Born In The USA as Overproduced, it remains one of my very favorite Springsteen albums. I love every single song on it. I played this one with a band one time, in the only time I've ever played in my hometown of Macomber. I was really excited to play it and hyped it up in my mind about how awesome it was going to be to sing My Hometown in my hometown (song-heit, yaaaaah), but it just kinda fell flat. LOL.
5. Guy Clark | Desperados Waiting On A Train
Old No. 1 is basically a perfect album, in my mind. And then there's that line, Come on, Jack, that son of a bitch is coming. Nobody can swear better than Guy Clark. Sorry, Weezy, it's true.
6. Leonard Cohen | Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye
I fell in Love with a girl for a long time, and then the falling out of Love process also took a long time. So I moved to Ireland and I remember laying in my bed in Salthill, my feet were so fucked up I could barely walk, the pissing cold of the Winter rain around Galway Bay penetrated deep into my bones, was completely broke, jobless, directionless, listening to this song on repeat on my Discman, and wondering what the hell I was doing there and what I was going to do next. I love many Leonard Cohen songs, but this one hit me the hardest. Your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm. I couldn't get that image out of my head.
7. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band | Against The Wind
Heartland Rock is becoming my favorite genre, and I think it has something to do with turning 30 and being from small town America and able to relate somehow to every character that Seger and Springsteen (and to a lesser extent Mellencamp and Bon Jovi) ever spin out. Against The Wind to me is about getting older, but still believing that you can totally kick ass. I carry two cans of Coors Light in my Tour van at all times, so just in case I ever meet Bob Seger, I can drink a can of Coors with him.
8. The Eagles | Peaceful Easy Feeling
Look, I could go on a crusade about the Eagles (and anyone who knows me personally has probably heard me do just this) and how even though they have sold more Records than anybody ever, they are still essentially Artistically Underrated. Everyone loves to shit on the Eagles. But I am here to say that they are the best damn band I've ever listened to. I have learned more from the Eagles than any band (except possibly the Beach Boys). This song is them in all of their non-Rocking glory. When they decided to Rock (aka - Joe Walsh era), they basically sucked. When they were just hanging out, partying with Ronstadt, smoking mucho doobers, playing some Chill songs, they were the Best Band of All Time. And this one is the epitome of that. Great song, great arrangement, great harmonies... Oh, and by the way, fuck the Big Lebowski!
9. Hazel Dickens | West Virginia, My Home
This is the Love song for my home state that I wish I had written. But then again if I had written it I probably would have added some sort of Melodramatic overly Sentimental crap, and she on the other hand just nails it so perfectly. I often feel exactly what this song describes, and I know a lot of other folks from West Virginia who I'm sure feel the same way.
10. Steve Earle | The Devil's Right Hand
I toured with a band for about three years, and I feel like this song was one of the Soundtrack songs for us, and I will forever associate it with some of the crazier times of that band. If I think about this song, I'm transported back into the back of the van, piss drunk at SXSW, gear falling down all over me, might have been a bike in there, drinking Vodka shots with friends from Minnesota, going to Sam's Town Point for a disaster of a show. Then I also think of the first time we toured up to NY, and we're driving around Brooklyn, probably lost, not giving a shit, this song blaring. I'm sitting on the floor, can't see a damn thing, having such a great time, not caring about anything in the world, so stoked to be hanging out and playing Music and partying in New York with some of my best buds.
+11. NOFX | Linoleum
This is my favorite NOFX song, and we have been singing it in Loves It most nights of the past couple of years of touring. "Possessions never meant anything to me... Well, that's not true... I've got a bed, and a guitar and dog named Bob (Boxie) who pisses on my floor. So I play 200 shows per year and singing this song every night feels good. It's like, sure, I don't have a damn thing, I work harder than I've ever worked in my life, I make very little money, I live in a van, BUT I get to hang out with the woman I Love, play Music nearly every night, and I have more Freedom, Live a cooler Life, set My Own Rules, and have seen more of this Earth and met more fantastic beautiful people than I ever thought possible. By the way, Boxie doesn't actually piss on the floor though. She is a good mutt.
+12. Lucinda Williams | Something About What Happens When We Talk
Fell in Love to this song. The whole Sweet Old World album. Gurf Morlix's Guitar playing is my favorite.
1. Sam Cooke | Good Times
Sam is my favorite All Time singer, and when he sings about getting his buzz and his party on, all my cares melt away and I feel like I've been drinking fancy cocktails with Sam for hours. His Phrasing and Enthusiasm in his voice make you believe hes ready for his break, and that he's really savoring the opportunity to Sing and party his troubles away.
2. Björk | Pagan Poetry
When I was in my late teens I had my own used truck with 250,000 miles on it. I would drive around New Haven CT, and Poughkeepsie NY, places I lived, listening to my favorite singers and vocalising along with no witnesses. In my nighttime wanderings I would wail along to the Music, learning how to hit the high notes, sad notes, etc. of my favorite singers. At the end of this song she repeats he makes me want to hurt myself and that phrase is very urgent and almost violent, and a great release to Shout/Sing from your old truck.
3. Frankie Lymon | Goody Goody (Ted Wallace & His Swing Kings Cover)
This 11 year old motherfucker wrote, sang, danced and entertained at a level I will never reach, and he passed at only 25. This song has fantastic Melody which he sings flawlessly, and it's a great satisfying tale of Romantic Revenge and watching someone get theirs. There is a Live Video of him doing a little dance on National TV that always blows my mind. He also wrote Why Do Fools Fall In Love before he was a teenager.
4. Nina Simone | Ain't Got No - I Got Life (James Rado, Gerome Ragni and Hair Original Cast Cover)
Nina Simone is in the same category for me as Björk, meaning I listened to her obsessively in my late teens while driving around in my truck. Her singing abilities are unfathomable, singing along with her Slow pieces is almost as hard as singing with Ella Fitzgerald's. But her moaning mournful Voice is like no other, and her spins on Old Classics are exciting. This song I learned by watching videos of her performing at The Black Woodstock aka Harlem Renaissance Festival and it's especially moving when you consider the Civil Rights context she sings it in.
5. Sublime | Get Ready
This is a Reggae type Pop song about smoking Weed that I loved when I was an especially young teenager and have come to re-Love as an adult. Bradley Noel is singing about who's gonna call the cops on him and his band for having fun, and the heavy Bass line and Schreetching Guitar Sounds totally emulate a party behind interrupted by Police sirens. In my youth I dont remember why I liked this song, but it's fun to Love it again as Marijuana is becoming more decriminalized, and because every time I'm super grouchy, this song winds ME DOWN!!!
6. Brennen Leigh | Sleeping With The Devil
This song is about Addiction, making mistakes, Loss and Guilt, and I love it. The Singing is fantastic and the story is true, sad and so honestly delivered. This song sounds like it was written because the soul of the writer depended on it, plus Flaco Jimenez plays Accordion on it.
7. The Defibulators | Pay For That Money
I love this song by Brooklyn band the Defibulators. Erin B is one of the best singers I've ever heard, her Phrasing is so unique and her voice is downright sexy. This song is one on an album filled with poignant discussions of Debt, Heartbreak, Drink, Religion and other issues facing my generation. The hook will stay with you for months!
8. Carrie Anne Hearst | The Hardest Thing
This heartbreaking Waltz got crooned along to 1000's of times in my old shack I lived in in Austin. I first heard this artist (Female Lead Singer for Shovels And Rope) on the PA at a club in Chattanooga TN and I've been intrigued ever since. The heartbreak and undertaking on this song are so real, that's why it works everyone up. And the Singing can't be beat!
9. Claude Debussy | La Mer (Performed by Cleveland Orchestra, Conductor: Vladimir Ashkenazy)
The first time I listened to this piece I was 20 and driving across the country for the first time in a borrowed truck (my old beater wouldn't make it). I was meeting my first Love and drove through the Night and watched the Sun come up listening to the Music rising and soaring. I was sick with no sleep, Nervousness, Love and Hunger (I had only been eating apples and water) and even though the relationship turned out to be a disaster, this piece has always symbolized Romantic and Endless Possibility.
10. Hank Williams | Settin' The Woods On Fire
Someone Instant Messaged me links of his Music when I was 20. Having never heard Classic Country Sounds before, I stopped everything I was doing and my eyes filled with tears. Upon hearing more I went to my Music nerd roommate and asked have you heard of this before?, repeating the question to most of my friends. I secretly felt betrayed that people had known about this joy and never let me in on it. I got every Hank track I could find and had a thoroughly satisfying Hank party for months.
