Friday Music

Here we go again:

and I have been watching HBO’s The Wire on DVD, and have been very impressed. A complex and compelling crime drama set in Baltimore — the main theme is a Tom Waits gospel-infused blues song. Each season, it is performed by a different artist (apparently Season Two features Waits’ original version). The first season, which we just got finished watching, uses this version: Blind Boys of Alabama – “Way Down In The Hole.”

Speaking of great music on HBO series, a couple of weeks ago, The Sopranos closed with this number, which really grabbed my attention and led me on a quest to track it down. Turns out that it’s a UK punk-scene track from 1980: John Cooper Clarke – “Evidently Chickentown.”

Tori Amos has a brand new album coming out, American Doll Posse. The first single has hit the net, and I like it. It’s moved away from the god-awful “adult easy listening” sound of her recent work, and back to the more Kate-Bush-esque sound that I’ve always liked from her: Tori Amos – “Bouncing Off Clouds.”

Here’s a track that I was introduced to by earlier this week. I like it quite a bit. It’s a new UK group (named after a political science book from the 1930s), and this is their debut single: The Strange Death of Liberal England – “A Day Another Day.”

Another UK group, albeit one that I just discovered. I’ll fully admit to being lured into listening to this track on the basis of its title alone: The Clientele – “Bookshop Casanova.”

The Irish community in NY is very political, especially with regards to Irish Republicanism. It’s not unusual to see “26+6=1” bumper stickers, or hear “A Nation Once Again” being sung in the crowd during the Saint Patrick’s Day parade (a song which I remember my grandmother singing on more than one occasion). NYC is also the home of hip-hop. “Fenian” is a slur for an Irish republican, somewhere near to the “N-word” in power. Which brings us to this track, a rebellious reclamation of the word, performed by the side-project of one of the members of NYC-area band Black 47. Seanchai & the Unity Squad – “Fenians.”

Lastly, a wonderfully geeky mash-up of the Chemical Brothers “Galvanize” and John Williams’ “Imperial March” — PartyBen – “Galvanize The Empire.”

There ya go.