04 Sep Matador Playlist 8/28/25 & Katrina + 20

Yes—I know: You can scarcely believe your luck, Gentle Reader(s), for here it is once again, that much beloved (if largely ignored) Mass of the Opiates, that Musical Balm in Gilead, the Cure for What Ails Thee—Ye Olde Matador Playlist. Yes indeed, it is that time once again and we—’we’ being pretty much the same thing as ‘I’—have a real doozy for you this week. Not that the preceding playlists were in any manner lacking for dooziness in their own right(s), but please allow me to pump myself up, to toot me own horn a bit, as it were. I feel as though I have earned it… sort of.

The date of this week’s playlist—August 28—is of significance as it is the day preceding the 20 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall near Buras, Louisiana, southwest of New Orleans in that strange intermediate realm where the delineation betwixt and between terra firma and water is nigh on indiscernible. I’m guessing we all have a pretty good recollection of what happened in the days that followed.

I wasn’t in New Orleans when the shitstorm came down and—thankfully—neither were my parents. I went to visit them in Wisconsin shortly after Katrina cleared through and there was that weird moment of near-grace when everyone collectively exhaled for a hot second and thought ‘Wow, that sucked—but we made it!’ Well, not quite. The levee walls on the Industrial Canal in the Lower Ninth and the 17th Street and London Avenue Canals in Lakeview and Gentilly were breached and the briny bowl in which most of the city resides began to fill to the rim. I watched it happening with my folks, live and in living color on CNN, and it was a damn tough thing to see. As Dubya and FEMA dithered and dathered I kept thinking to myself ‘Waita goddam minit—this is AMERICA, isn’t it?’ Innocent times.

I eventually went down to scope things out for myself in January of ’06, and the Commodore took me on an hours-long tour of the devastation—winding through the city and down into St. Bernard and Plaquemines. This was roughly 4 1/2 months after the levees broke and shit still looked like it had happened the day before. I took the photo at top on a solo excursion out towards the eerily vacant Lakefront part of town. The house in the picture backed up on the London Avenue Canal, right near the breach, and the water blew through the house, knocking out the front wall, and depositing untold tons of sand and silt along Carlson Drive. By the time I got there, the streets had been cleared of debris but that was about the extent of it. You can clearly see the high water mark spanning the front of the house, a bit over half way up the second story.

New Orleans has definitely made some significant steps to putting Katrina behind it, but it’ll never really be done with. It’ll always be with us as memory, as lesson, as warning, as scar tissue. As for myself, I’ll never forget the incredible destruction I witnessed and as native New Orleanian I’ve gotten used to living with one foot firmly in the past with the other pointing ahead towards an uncertain future. But then it’s the nature of all futures to be uncertain.

If you’re feeling up to it, you can venture back to the 10th anniversary of Katrina and dive into my four-part reexamination of the disaster which begins with Chocolate City Report, Part the First, from August 28, 2015.

Well alright then. On to other, more pleasant topics—specifically this week’s Matador Playlist. As always, the toons are enumerated below and the link to the Super Groovy Rockin’ YouTube manifestation thereof is available by clicking RIGHT HERE! (Go ahead and click the damn thing–you know you want to!). Enjoy, Gentle Reader(s).

P.S. – It’s Fiesta time in Old Santa Fe, so I have painstakingly translated the names of this week’s playlist artistes into Español. ¡Que Viva!

Grammar of Life – Charles Bukowski
Pretty Vacant – las Pistolas Sexo
Brown Eyed Handsome Man – Chuck Berry
Fame – David Bowie
Skin Graph – Silversun Recogidas
Love Supreme (Work Together) – Ron Gallo
What’s The Frequency Kenneth – R.E.M.
Ace of Spades – Motörcabeza
What A Cryin Shame – los Mavericks
Pushin’ Too Hard – las Semillas
Candy – Morfina
Transylvania Blues – Judios Platas
Still Ill – los Smiths
Faith – George Michael
Someone Else’s Heart – Elvis Costello
Sunshine Superman – Donovan
The Good Rebel – Noel Gallagher’s Pajaros de Alto Vuelos
Ooh Las Vegas – Gram Parsons
Ha Ha Ha – Flipper
Superstar – los Carpinteros
Manteca (Funky Lowlives Remix) – Dizzy Gillespie & Funky Lowlives
Warm Leatherette – el Normal
Girl I Love You – Ataque Masivo
The Crusher – las Novas
Future Starts Slow – los Muertes
Head On – la Jesus y Maria Cadena
I Got the Feeling – James Brown
Rapture – Blondie
Your Generation – Generación X
Anti-Pleasure Dissertation – Bikini Muerte
For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) – AC/DC
I’m Bored – Iggy Pop
Hell Bent for Leather – Judas Cura
You Really Wake Up the Love In Me – el Duke Espiritu
Morning Glory – Oasis
Right Place, Wrong Time – Médico Juan
Printhead – el Otoño
The Last High – los Dandy Warhols
Tom Sawyer – Prisa
Personality Crisis – New York Muñecas
Teenage – Perros d’Amour
Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick – Ian Dury y los Blockheads
Lithium – Nirvana
It’s No Fun Until They See You Cry – los Mugreexplosivos
Freak Scene – Dinosaurio Jr.
Where Am I? – Titulo Pelea (request)
Dancing Days – Led Zeppelin
I’m Afraid of Americans – David Bowie
Transmission – Alegria Departamento
Ready Teddy – Poco Ricardo
Almost Real – la Banda Rollins
Rock-n-Roll Victim – Muerte
Jolene (33 RPM) – Dolly Parton
Not Great Men – Banda de Quatro
How to Start a Band – Ft. Knox Cinco con Ian Svenonius
6’1” – Liz Phair
Switchblade – Lars Fredericksen y los Bastardos
Mrs. Robinson – los Limóncabezas
Up On The Sun – Marionettes de Carne
Que Pasaria – Rauw Alejandro y Conejito Malo (request)
Man-Size – PJ Harvey
Honey Bucket – los Melvins
Yo Oigo – Chica en Coma
Diggin in the Dirt – Peter Gabriel
Under My Thumb – los Piedras Pedaleo
I Don’t Wanna Hear It – Menor Amenaza
Listen to My Heart – los Ramones
Woodpecker Rock – Nat Couty
Sweet Dreams – Patsy Cline
Caitriona – Protomartyr
First It Giveth – Reinas de la Edad Piedra
Coffee Shop – Chiles Rojos Picantes
Dance Away – Roxy Musica
Close to Me – la Cura
Pedestrian At Best – Courtney Barnett
Bankrobber – el Choque
Rise Above – Chuck D y Henry Rollins
No Feelings – las Pistolas Sexo
Feel The Same – Matón
Soul Deep – los Boxtops
Concrete Jungle – Bob Marley y los Wailers
Smokestack Lightning – Huracanado Lobo
No Strong Enough – niñogenio
World Without Tears – Lucinda Williams
Buona Sera – Louis Prima
Happy Trails – Roy Rogers y Dale Evans
Taxi – Bryan Ferry