I only found out recently that at one point early in their lives, James and Todd Rundgren were roommates. t /O.o

That certainly looks like a young Rick James on bass, too.

More likely Greg Reeves.

I just got in from a gig tonight, and (yet again) am not up to uploading my mix (tomorrow, I promise). However, my liner notes follow.

Hayden/Corwood Buffista RR 2006

My first attempt was overcome by Richard Thompson choices, so I pulled them out and just made two mixes, one regular and one all-RT, all the time.

1. The first song you'd put on a mix tape for somebody you were attracted to
• Replacements – “Kiss Me On The Bus”
• R & L T – “A Heart Needs A Home”
• I put the Replacements song in the first place on the first Valentine’s tape I ever made the girl who is now my wife. The Richard & Linda Thompson song, of course, is even more of a “you gotta know for sure before using” kinda song.

2. A song that makes you think of BTVS that was never used on the show
• Champale – “Hard to be Easy”
• RT – “The Calvary Cross”
• The Champale track has that kind of languid sorrow that the BTVS staff loved in their music. The RT track is just sublime. I’d prefer the album version for the show, but didn’t have enough room on the mix for both album and live versions.

3. Cross-genre cover song (such as a soul musician covering a country song)
• Richard Buckner – “Here”
• RT – “Ça Plane Pour Moi”
• Buckner is doing Pavement’s greatest song from their first album. RT is doing a French punk song by Plastic Bertrand.

4. Quotes another song, either in the music or words – bonus points if by the same artist
• Last Exit – “Catch As Catch Can”
• RT – “Two Left Feet”
• The Last Exit track steals the bassline whole from Can’s “Halleluwah.” The band, incidentally, featured Sonny Sharrock on guitar, Bill Laswell on bass, Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums, and Peter (Fucking) Brötzmann on sax. RT’s “Two Left Feet” quotes Jackie Wilson and Fats Waller in the lyrics and 3-4 different ancient Irish reels in the music.

5. Makes you want to get high, drunk, or, if it's your druthers, dizzy & giddy from spinning around in circles
• The Moles – “What’s The New Mary Jane”
• RT – “The Calvary Cross” (same as 2)
• The Moles song tries to imagine what the lost Beatles track of the same name might sound like (and since it has subsequently been released, we can say, boy, are they wrong), but their version kicks the Fab Four’s up one side of a rabbit hole and down the other. When the solo really gets going on this version of Calvary Cross, I swear that I’m on drugs.

6. Features a great bridge
• The Kinks – “Victoria”
• RT – “Rockin’ In Rhythm”
• The Kinks track features one of my all-time favorite bridges. Land of hope and Gloria, indeed. Bridges aren’t RT’s strong suit, and I eventually had to go to his cover of a Duke Ellington song to find a truly inspiring one.

7. A song released the year you turned 21 (you didn't have to know about it then)
• Guided By Voices – “Expecting Brainchild”
• R & L T – “A Heart Needs A Home” (Same as 1)
• From my least favorite GBV album Vampire On Titus (released 1993), this track is one of the best available. The RT song was released originally in 1972 (the year I was born), but this version came out in 1993 on the Watching The Dark collection, his only release of the year.

8. A song dedicated to your nemesis (or who you imagine your nemesis to be)
• K. McCarty – “Hate Song”
• RT – “God Loves A Drunk”
• McCarty does a lovely Daniel Johnston kiss-off/drunken party. RT does a sober kiss-off of those who look down on drunken revelry. I don’t know much about my nemesis, but I’m sure he or she hates alcohol.

9. A song about committing a crime
• Viktor Vaughn – “Modern Day Mugging”
• RT – “Man In Need”
• MF Doom as Viktor Vaughn gives us mugging, geek-style. The narrator of “Man In Need” abandons his family and friends gleefully, like the bastard deadbeat dad he is.

10. A song from a tribute or charity album
• X – “Shoot Out The Lights”
• Plainsong – “Galway To Graceland”
• Two Richard Thompson tracks! Two! From different tribute albums!

11. A song with a year in the title
• John Cale – “Paris 1919”
• RT – “1952 Vincent Black (continued...)

( continues...) Lightning”
• The Cale song is so beautiful. I was very happy to shoehorn it in. The RT song is sublime.

12. A song about traveling
• The Fall – “I’m Going To Spain”
• RT – “When I Get To The Border”
• Hey, this Fall track is a cover of a Eurovision winner! Awesome! And the RT song is a metaphor, but traveling is definitely involved.

13. A song that does not feature a guitar or a piano as the main instrument
• Eric Matthews – “Poisons Will Pass Me”
• RT - “Mary and Joseph”
• I love this Eric Matthews song, a chamber-pop extravaganza where you can hear the man decide that his music is just too lovely for another verse. The RT track is ok, but it’s one of his best not featuring guitar as the main instrument.

14. A song by a band that you could have, but didn't, write about for Lost in The Grooves.
• Armand Schaubroeck – “Ratfucker”
• The GP’s – “Saturday Rolling Around”
• If I hadn’t been sure that William Ham would write about Schaubroeck, I would have pitched one of the guy’s albums. Or maybe all, I dunno. He’s like 1977 Lou Reed times 10, except no one has ever heard of him. As great as Ratfucker is, his concept album about the forbidden love between a priest and a nun (I Came To Visit But Decided To Stay) is even better. The GP’s was a mostly neglected one-off project with Richard Thompson and Ralph McTell doing mostly folk, country, and rockabilly covers. This is the only original on the set, a RT song from Sunnyvista.

15. An upbeat song about a sad thing.
• Mekons – "Beaten and Broken"
• RT - "Man In Need"
• Mekons! Richard Thompson! This is too easy.

16. Midnight driving in the rain music.
• Eric Matthews – “Poisons Will Pass Me” (same as 13)
• RT – “Calvary Cross” (Same as 2)
• The message: when driving in the rain at midnight, I either want to hear sad chamber-pop or insane guitar.

17. More cowbell: A song containing that essential instrument
• Pavement – “Silence Kit”
• R & L T – “Layla”
• “Silence Kit” is from Pavement’s incredible second album. “Layla” is the only RT track I could find with cowbell (appearing in the pre-chorus).

18. A song that reminds you of your first love
• Lee & Nancy – “Sundown, Sundown”
• Fairport Convention – “The Ballad of Easy Rider”
• Besides Dylan, my first love loved Nancy Sinatra. I didn’t get Lee & Nancy until much later, but she got ‘em just fine back then. We also watched Easy Rider together for the first time. Perhaps because of their many Dylan covers, Sandy Denny of Fairport just reminds me of my first love.

19. A song that references some kind of technology
• Spoon – “Car Radio”
• RT – “Alexander Graham Bell”
• The Spoon song is one of their first that sounds like Spoon, from their second album. The RT track is a contribution to a kids’ album that never saw the light of day.

20. A song with a chorus that compels you to sing along or that you cannot not dance to
• Lyrics Born – “I’m Just Raw”
• RT – “Tear Stained Letter”
• The Lyrics Born was one of my favorite tracks of 2005. Any boast that ends with “goshdarnit, people like me” is a-ok in my book, yessirree bob. The RT is irresistible and features another jawbreaking solo.

21. A song that starts with a bassline
• Minutemen – “The Politics of Time”
• RT – “She Steers By Lightning”
• One of my favorite free-jazz/Beefheart-weird Minutemen tracks, “The Politics of Time” is one of Mike Watt’s 324 crowning achievements as a songwriter. The RT track is ok, but it’s the only one I could find that starts with a bassline.

22. A song that relates to science
• Talking Heads – “Electricity (Drugs)”
• RT – “Alexander Graham Bell” (same as 19)
• The TH song is from The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads, the greatest live album ever released. The RT song you’ve already heard about.

23. A song you sing (or would sing) to your pet and/or child
• Neil Young – “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”
• R & L T – “A Heart Needs A Home”
• Sang both of these just last night, as a matter of fact.

24. A song that haunts you
• The Band – “Whispering (continued...)

( continues...) Pines”
• R & L T – “The Great Valerio”
• What can I say? These are two of the most haunting songs ever recorded.

25. A song that you would sing to yourself if you were ever in a dire situation and needed it to keep going
• Hüsker Dü – “Celebrated Summer” (same as 27)
• RT – “God Loves A Drunk” (same as 8)
• This is an interesting category that I could not rise to. I cut my original inadequate choices for time. The songs I chose: why not?

26. A song by a band with an awful name
• Suddenly, Tammy! – “Lamp”
• Plainsong – “From Galway To Graceland” (same as 10)
• Two rather lame band names. The choices for the RT part of the mix were rather limited, but Plainsong is just kinda blah.

27. A song that even when you know it's time to LEAVE the BAR someone can put on the jukebox to make you stay
• Hüsker Dü – “Celebrated Summer”
• R & L T – “Wall of Death”
• Not much to say here.

Moooom! Corwood is bogarting all the Richard Thompson!

Moooom! Corwood is bogarting all the Richard Thompson!

I know! Thanks God I found another song with a year in the title besides 1995 Vincent Black Lightning! (Really I had to find a new one when I realized I only had the album that contains that song on cassette.)

Moooom! Corwood is bogarting all the Richard Thompson!

Aw, there's still plenty!

Erinaceous, there was a big pockets in formalwear debate in Natter yesterday.

JZ "Natter 43: I Love My Dead Gay Whale Crosspost." Mar 9, 2006 1:53:09 pm PST

Gorillaz tickets just went on sale for five NYC shows at the Apollo, April 2-6. I can't justify the expense, but if you want em, get em now. They'll likely sell out quickly: [link]