Phil's Phriday Picks

It’s August 30th 2019.

The first new Tool album in 13 years is out today.

That is all.

Happy Friday! Most people associate my musical tastes with the outer fringes of rock and jazz, but the fact of the matter is I was raised in a house that played almost exclusively country music.

So I have an affinity for the more traditionalist 70s/80s country sound. The Texas band Midland, who put out their new album today, is a modern band that is cut from the George Strait / Dwight Yoakam cloth…so it is right up my alley!

Maybe yours as well?

Bonus: their excellent cover of the Jerry Reed tune East Bound And Down that they released last year.

This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, when more than 400,000 fans convened at Max Yasgur’s farm near Bethel, New York, for a music festival that would come to define not only the era, but the entire ethos of music festivals to come. A mammoth 38-CD/1-Blu-ray “Definitive Archive” called Back to the Garden was released recently to considerable acclaim, but until you can get your hands ears on that, here’s a Spotify playlist of the proceedings.

Today is the last day working with the UM interns, so I feel it would be apt to share my “Goodbye” playlist.

I made this for my team when I left Johns Hopkins Medicine to work for Harvard Library last summer.

The director of the Marketing and Communications team there noted that I included “Dirty Work” by Steely Dan on the playlist, but I wouldn’t read too much into that.

Anyways, farewell to the interns!

In 1975-76, during a break from touring with the Grateful Dead, Mickey Hart assembled the percussion group Diga Rhythm Band. Here is there only album, which is pretty awesome.

You can hear Jerry Garcia’s guitar within the heady rhythms. Tabla player Zakir Hussain ended up continuing to collaborate with Mickey Hart through the decades as part of Planet Drum.

Alert Deadheads will also note that the song “Happiness is Drumming” was later given lyrics by Robert Hunter and became the live favorite Fire On The Mountain.

It’s Friday! Let’s party to the loudest dance band I ever witnessed….Lightning Bolt!!

Since everyone (including the Houghton Library!) is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing this week, its only proper that I highlight Brian Eno’s excellent “Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks” album from 1983 (which not coincidentally was also released today in an expanded edition!).

Cheer-Accident is one of my favorite bands.

Hailing from Chicago, they are part of an underground Avant/Progressive rock scene that’s been having relative levels of success since the 90s.

They are putting out a new album and going on tour next month…Boston date! August 12th at some place called ‘Once’ in Somerville

Introducing Lemon is my favorite album from the band. Released in 2003, back when I was part of the aforementioned avant/prog scene in Chicago. I probably saw them in concert dozens of times in that era.

I also remember right before this album was released, drummer Thymme Jones played the thing for me on his car stereo after a show at maximum volume. After sitting silently for an hour plus being blown away he asked “What’d you think?” I was speechless.

Enough babbling! Cheer-Accident’s masterpiece: Introducing Lemon!!

I’m in rome.

Since I’m heading to Italy next week, it feels appropriate to revisit the Mike Patton (Faith No More / Mr. Bungle / Fantomas etc) record Mondo Cane today.

Amazing covers of ‘50s & ‘60s Italian pop songs with a 40 piece orchestra!

Bellissimo!

BONUS: Mr. Bungle’s excellent album California turns 20 years old, so let’s revisit that masterpiece as well

BONUS #2 (Since I there will be no Phil’s Phriday Picks for the next two weeks!): I’m celebrating the fact that my all-time favorite band, King Crimson, has finally been releasing their albums on Spotify!
So, I’d like to highlight their excellent 2003 album The Power To Believe, which features the “double duo” lineup of Fripp / Gunn / Mastelotto / Belew. Mathy and aggressive progressive rock, just how I like it. Newly remastered for maximum impact!