11 Feb Matador Playlist 1/28/16

An election year in the U.S. of A.: A depressing scenario even in the most favorable of circumstances. Election years are the ones when all the crazies not only come tumbling of the American political closet but then parade about waving their crazy banners and proclaiming an alarming assortment of mind-bending agendas to the bafflement and horror of not only their more levelheaded countrymen but the world at large. It’s like spending four years peeping through the curtains at your mildly alarming neighbors only to find them rallying in the front yard one morning, heavily armed and proclaiming allegiance to vague, deranged notions regarding the Second Amendment, ‘Winning,’ racist immigration policies and returning America to some imaginary pre-liberal paradise. Broadcast news of any sort becomes treacherous terrain: You’re casually flipping through the channels one day when suddenly—blasta from the pasta!—there’s none other than Sarah Palin, draped in some sort of Tea Party chain mail and screeching out a largely incoherent endorsement of Dumb Donald Trump. You’re not sure whether to laugh, cry or run screaming into the streets. Even DDT hisself is looking mildly alarmed and baffled. (To Ms. Palin’s credit, she gamely trotted out in front of the cameras to deliver her endorsement shortly after her daughter Bristol was knocked up again and her son Track was arrested for drunken assault—doing a great job there, mom!) What to do, what to do? The obvious thing is to pull the curtains tightly shut, restrict your viewing to Downton Abbey and Netflix, turn up BBC Radio 4 slightly louder than usual, consider taking up a new hobby (prayer), and hunker down until election day. Then there is also, as R. Crumb suggests, Despair. Not easy to discern the difference sometimes.

 

As I have suggested previously, in lieu of prayer, a cockeyed faith in the core decency and common sense of the larger American electorate might offer an alternative. One might also hold out hope that a passing black hole will take pity on us all and swallow up the entire mess before November 8. Along those same lines, it was announced today that the first concrete evidence of gravitational waves—actual ripples in the fabric of time-space—was detected and recorded last September by the international LIGO project. Any minute now I’m expecting Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz to denounce gravitational waves as a pinko conspiracy being foisted on honest, hard-working Americans by a diabolical cabal of pointy-headed, same-sex marriage supporting, socialist, anti-gun rights, pro-choice, Islamist illegal immigrants. It seems improbable that Dumb Donald will denounce gravitational waves as then he might have to pretend that he has some sort of idea who Einstein was and what the Theory of Relativity is. Einstein—that’s the guy who owns the bagel shop, right?

 

And speaking of Despair and BBC 4, I might suggest this report from the New Hampshire primary by native son P.J. O’Rourke. Both amusing and horrifying, as one might expect. Then there’s the folks at Funny or Die and their hilarious 50-minute Dumb Donald movie featuring a very convincing Johnny Depp. I’m not a huge Depp fan but I must say that this may well be his finest work since What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.

 

Meanwhile, back on the home front, Your Humble Narrator is recently returned from a most enjoyable week in New York, which accounts for the lack of a 2/4/16 playlist. The 1/28/16 playlist lurks below and the 1/21/16 playlist, well, it doesn’t exist. It was one of the deadest nights in the history of Matador dead nights and it was decided that discretion would be the better part of valor. With Brother Phil’s acquiescence I admitted defeat, wrapped things up shortly after midnight, and made an early evening of it. Tonight will hopefully find things back in form and I shall report back to you, Gentle Reader(s), with a thrilling new 2/11/16 playlist ne’er long these days. In the meantime, keep an eye on the Digital photographs page of this site for some of the fruits of my labors in Gotham.

 

 

Grammar of Life – Charles Bukowski
Fallen Snow (The Teenagers Remix) – Au Revoir Simone
Rock Lobster – B-52’s (para El Oso)
Soul Craft – Bad Brains
Ready To Start – Arcade Fire
Outside – David Bowie
Wheels – The Flying Burrito Brothers
Cry, Cry, Cry – The Flatliners
Dedicated Follower of Fashion – the Kinks
What’s Left of the Flag – Flogging Molly
Down By the Water – PJ Harvey
I Don’t Wanna – the Von Bondies
When You’re Smiling/The Sheik of Araby – Louis Prima
Skills To Pay the Bills – Beastie Boys
For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) – AC/DC
One Wing – Wilco
The Well and the Lighthouse – Arcade Fire
The Look of Love, Pt. 1 – ABC
We Are the One – the Avengers
Supertoys – Autolux
52 Girls – B-52’s
Long Snake Moan – PJ Harvey
8 Dead Boys – Babyshambles
Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man – Grinderman
8-Ball Deluxe – 7 Year Bitch
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap – AC/DC
Sorrow – Bad Religion
Nothing At All – the Waco Brothers
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere – Neil Young
Black Tie White Noise – David Bowie
Wild Thing – the Troggs
Hot Rod Lincoln – Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
The Museum of Broken Relationships – Veruca Salt
Ask – the Smiths
Born In A UFO – David Bowie
Pure And Easy (live) – the Who
Muffin Man – Frank Zappa
Loose – the Stooges
I Wanna Meet Dave Grohl – Wavves
I Wanna Be Sedated – the Ramones
Look Back In Anger – David Bowie
Love Shack – the B-52’s
Another Life – Rollins Band
Sabotage – Beastie Boys
No Language In Our Lungs – XTC
Other Side of This Life – Jefferson Airplane (R.I.P. Paul Kantner)
Fascination – David Bowie
Mexican Radio – Wall of Voodoo
Hanging Tree – Queens of the Stone Age
Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice) – the Clash
Suedehead – Morrissey
What We All Want – Gang of Four
Houses of the Holy – Led Zeppelin
Cruel – St. Vincent
Making Time – Creation
Let’s Dance – David Bowie
Neat Neat Neat – the Damned
Waterloo Sunset – the Kinks
Nearly Lost You – Screaming Trees
Amphetamine Blue – Vibrators
Roadhouse Blues – the Doors
Head On – the Jesus and Mary Chain
So Alive – Love and Rockets
La Grange – ZZ Top
Johnny Hit and Run Pauline – X
Evil Hoodoo – the Seeds
Let’s Go – the Cars
Twenty Four Hours – Joy Division
Join Together – the Who
Streets of Bakersfield – Dwight Yoakam (para El Sicario)
Garbageman – the Cramps
Blue Jean – David Bowie
Floor of the Ocean – Mark Lanegan Band
Hologram – Urinals
World Without Tears – Lucinda Williams
Buona Sera – Louis Prima
Happy Trails – Roy Rogers & Dale Evans (feat. Trigger on Cantilevered Autoharp)
Taxi – Bryan Ferry