05 Aug Matador Playlist 7/31/25

It’s Matador Playlist time once again, Gentle Reader(s), and I’m afraid I’m coming in a day late and a dollar short. It doesn’t happen often but every once in a while it does indeed happen—we get a dud evening. Well, this past Thursday was one of those rare occasions. Perhaps it had to do with the mojo being off kilter because the lovely Katia had taken the evening off. The lovely Carla was there to fill in, which she does most capably, but there’s something about the DJ Inky/Katia vibe that just has that special magic. The other factor was that a massive, slow moving storm parked itself over Santa Fe and everyone’s cell phone went apeshit with emergency flooding alerts. It was indeed quite the biblical deluge and more than sufficient to discourage most folks from venturing out into the dark, rainy streets of a Thursday evening. Can’t say as that I blame them. When it got around to midnight and the crowd was still decidedly sparse I decided to let discretion be the better part of valor and pack it in early. My abbreviated playlist appears below.

I was feeling a bit baffled as to what sort of a visual to stimulate your eyeballs with this week, but it occurred to me that I would offer up this lovely 1933 watercolor by the Ukranian/American artist Emil Armin. Armin was born in 1883 in what was then Austria/Hungary and moved to Ukraine as a boy. He emigrated to Chicago in 1905 and studied at that city’s storied Art Institute. He taught at the famous Hull House on the city’s Near West Side and traveled to Santa Fe in 1928. Armin produced a variety of oils, watercolors and prints during his time in New Mexico and this is one of them that I have recently acquired.

The scene depicted here is located approximately three blocks from Ye Olde Matador Bar & Lounge at the corner of what is now Water Street and Old Santa Fe Trail. The building on the left with the tower is the venerable La Fonda Hotel and the structure visible through the trees at right is a portion of the old Loretto Academy. The scene is largely the same today, 92 years later, though the lovely mansard roofed buildings of the Loretto Academy were torn down in the ’70s when the Inn at Loretto was constructed on the site (I worked at the Inn back in 1990-’92, my first job in Santa Fe). The Loretto Chapel, dating to 1878, is just out of sight to the right down Old Santa Fe Trail (then called College Avenue). This is one of the great things about Santa Fe—for all of the changes the city has seen over its five centuries of history, a scene like this is still instantly recognizable to anyone who knows the town well. Selling Santa Fe is Santa Fe’s primary business, so changes to the character of the historic portion of town are typically subject to intense scrutiny. The loss of the old Loretto Academy buildings was certainly one such change that more than a few people have come to rue, but the distinctive pueblo-style Inn at Loretto (now the Inn and Spa at Loretto) has since become an admired landmark in its own right.

So, you may well think to your Self, ‘Self, what does any of this have to do with a Matador Playlist?’ Absolutely NOTHING, that’s what! Drop me a line if you’d like your money back.

Abbreviated though it may be, HERE is the YouTube link for this week’s playlist. We’ll run it up the flagpole again next week and see if anybody salutes. Until then, Gentle Reader(s), vaya con dios.

Grammar of Life – Charles Bukowski
Velvet Underground – Jonathan Richman
I Can’t Stand It – the Velvet Underground
Have A Drink On Me – AC/DC
Volcano Girls – Veruca Salt
Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand
Hold That Thought – Brian Jonestown Massacre
Mercy – the Collins Kids
Tommy Gun – the Clash
Frozen (Widescreen remix) – Madonna
Radar Love – Golden Earring (request)
Hearing Jimmy Loud – Drive-By Truckers
Summer Wind – Frank Sinatra
I Like Fucking – Bikini Kill
Mr. Brightside – the Killers
She Sells Sanctuary – the Cult (request)
Fairies Wear Boots – Black Sabbath
Lovesick Blues – Hank Williams
Hold On – Alabama Shakes
This Fire – Franz Ferdinand
Shake – Otis Redding
Sixteen – Iggy Pop
What You Need – INXS
Do The Vampire – Superdrag
Lovesong – the Cure
Can’t Seem To Make You Mine – the Seeds
New Pony – the Dead Weather
Get Down Tonight – KC & the Sunshine Band
Demon To Lean On – Wavves
Torquay – the Fireballs
Concrete Jungle – Bob Marley & the Wailers
Steady As She Goes – the Raconteurs
(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love & Understanding – Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Fuck Forever – Babyshambles
Daddy – Die Antwoord
The Girl Can’t Help It – Little Richard
Nub – the Jesus Lizard
Chop Suey! – System of a Down
Queen Bitch – David Bowie
The Days of Wine and Roses – Dream Syndicate
Hit It and Quit It – Funkadelic
Interzone – Joy Division
Mother of God – Close Lobsters
Fiyo On The Bayou – the Meters
Hey, Good Lookin’ – Hank Williams
Burn It Down – Linkin Park
Go All The Way – the Raspberries
Pass That Dutch – Missy Elliott