In session

Let's hear it for the session men. The best ones find a way to make their mark. Their voices sneak into your consciousness even while wrapped up in other people's music. The rest wear ponytails and/or goatees.

Chances are, if you like Talking Heads' Speaking In Tongues album, you're already a fan of Wally Baradou. He was quite the session butterfly throughout the '80s, so I'm sure he's planted some tasty licks in a diverse number of ears. We're going HAM on Wally today, rocking a generous three jams from his classy solo work. Here's to it.

Wally Baradou - Canyons
Wally Baradou - Endless Race
Wally Baradou - Chief Inspector

Who's that on my radio?

Happy MLK Day. Hopefully, you're enjoying a day off, appreciating the gift of your civil rights. And on a much shallower level—albeit one full of easy, immediate pleasures—hope you appreciate this excellent power pop nugget. Thanks to Mark Prindle for making me aware of these guys' existence. No mean feat. Apparently, the pinnacle of their stardom involved a spot on MTV's New Years Ball to usher in 1983. We all have dreams.

The Producers - She Sheila

Blues run the game

Here's one from the "busted luck folk singer" files. From being badly burned in a classroom fire to a subsequent life of depression, despair, and poverty, Jackson Frank seemed to have had enough sorrows to fill a vast catalog. Instead, he made a hauntingly pretty debut (songs later covered by folkies and non-folkies, apparently) and that's about it. From the comfortable vantage point of the listener, that's all there needs to be. I'm sure, however, that his life would've been a lot better had he been a more prolific man. Sad sad sad.

Jackson C. Frank - Blues Run The Game

Franco Italo

Amid all the gloom about the euro zone meltdown, I think it's helpful to focus on what really unites the continent — namely an appreciation for Italo Disco. Here is a French variety, well-suited to the strutting lifestyle of your dreams.

Le Club - Un Fait D' Hivers

The language of cop shows

Moving from fantastical realms to the real world of tight pants and hot pavement, we look to some guys who clearly had their fingers on the pulse of their day. But then, a listener of yesterday's post now has me wondering if it's really so easy to distinguish between the escape and reality (strokes imaginary beard). At least, ridiculous taste in album cover art is common to both worlds.

Rhythm Heritage - Language Of Love

Hackery

The fabled high-flying guitarist's solo debut is an oft-mocked venture. Usually, for good reason, given their propensity to be full of all the crappy ideas the band had previously stifled. But it would be just plain mean-spirited to throw snickers in Steve Hackett's direction for his first effort, even if its songs are titled after...umm...tarot cards, and even if the cover art a little too closely telegraphs the kind of soundworld on offer.

Most folks who hang around this space know that Songblague has lots of good feeling toward even the most tasteless of prog-rock efforts. Partly for nostalgic reasons, and partly because there's actually a lot to like in excess. This track hits all those notes. What charms me most is how it plays like a nice guy trying to get all sinister and prove that Peter Gabriel wasn't the only one in Genesis who had weird ideas (i.e. dark mellotron "choir" move at 1:53). Hackett just wasn't as savvy about assembling them. However awkwardly, it does sound like a respectable nightmare. And it does its genre proud by ignoring just about anything to do with the 1975 of consensus reality.

Steve Hackett - A Tower Struck Down

Can't chop down a symmetry

You can almost see the in the stairwell at the Canadian food co-op where a young Jane Siberry probably pinned up her ad looking for a New Wave band to execute her proggy/coffee house aesthetic. Or that's how it looks in my most reductionist moments. In reality, I dig this stuff just as shamelessly as I do Kate Bush. This is the nerdy version of that more flamboyant allure. And I am especially loyal to it, since I refuse to follow the muse of Siberry's late career. But this is squarely in that other '80s I sometimes believe I can will into popular memory.

Jane Siberry - Symmetry (The Way Things Have To Be)

The lift stops between two floors

You'd think a Brian Eno/John Cale collaboration would've ended up on the right side of the supergroup train(wreck)tracks. Yet their full-length collaboration Wrong Way Up is a dreadfully bland stab at pop that rightfully was not very popular. The '80s weren't really either of their decades, so I suppose they deserve a pass. On the bright side, it yielded this track, which hits the sweet spot of minimal beauty. It almost seems to float. A nice soft conclusion to a week that didn't really get out of neutral.

Brian Eno & John Cale - Cordoba

Waterfalls of light

Something always stopped me from being an actual Throwing Muses fan. It wasn't the peer pressure of seeing their CD spines running through friends' record collections when they were '90s alt rock staples. It wasn't necessarily that I couldn't really relate to what Kristin Hersh was trying to get across about her troubled head. I dunno. Maybe it'll click one day, although that time has probably passed. This song, however, was always a fave. Can't beat those sparkly arpeggios and the even more sparkly crescendo at 2:08.

Throwing Muses - Flood

Everything is fantasy

Just a few days into 2012 and I'm already completely sick of having to greet everyone with "happy new year!" I'm going to temporarily revolt by denying not just the future, but also the recent past. A little Television Personalities music should help with that trick. Dan Treacy knew a thing or two about escaping his own time. Clearly, the 1981 in his head looked nothing like the 1981 outside the window.

Television Personalities - World of Pauline Lewis

A seething, crumpled, teeming sky

Staycation is over. I couldn't have asked for a better one — somehow both super-productive and super-mellow at once. Super. Anyway, back in the saddle. I realize I've already flaked by skipping the first day of the year (hey, banks are closed too). Let me make it up to you with a get-one-free, baby.

If 2012 is going to be a year of apocalyptic undertones — courtesy of both Mayan calendar kitsch and the prospect of a Republican presidency — let the 'blague year begin with this sense of unease. I recently went back to my man Arto's series of wacked samba albums, beginning in the mid-'90s. The first is the best. And this first track is just a stunner of atmosphere both lovely and ominous, abetted by a curious team of Brian Eno and twin #1 from Blonde Redhead. The other one is a graceful lilt, with the usual great lyrics and Ryuichi Sakamoto adding some classiness on the keys. Happy New Year. Now get back to work.

Arto Lindsay - 4 Skies
Arto Lindsay - Child Prodigy

3rd annual Songblague mixtape!

Year-end roundup time again. And this time I'm indulging myself and stretching things out to a luxurious 30-song span. No double album configuration this year. This one is a straight, linear fly-through of 2011 postings. The usual caveats apply — these aren't necessarily my favorites of the year, this is one story among millions, very few of these songs actually came out this year. But I've been pretty happy about my decisions lately, and I hope you enjoy the ones right here. Happy pre-New Year!

Laurie Anderson - Excellent Birds
Karla Bonoff - Somebody's Eyes
Dirty Beaches - Lord Knows Best
Kissing The Pink - All For You
Grovesnor - Taxi From The Airport
Vince Guaraldi - Oaxaca
Lush - Desire Lines
Yo La Tengo - Fog Over Frisco
Dylan Ettinger - Penguin Point
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Up Jumped The Devil
Be Bop Deluxe - Orphans Of Babylon
The Stranglers - Nice n' Sleazy
Aztec Camera - We Could Send Letters
Erroll Garner - Body And Soul
Anna Calvi - Blackout
Peter Hammill - Breakthrough
Ennio Morricone - Il Grande Silenzio (Restless)
The Sound - Golden Soldiers
Hot Cold - I Can Hear Your Voice
Tuxedomoon - Atlantis
Inoyama Land - Glass Chaim
Martin Newell - Julie Profumo
Sorcerer - The Dream
Tall Dwarves - Starry Eyed and Wooly Brained
Tom Waits - Never Let Go
Thin Lizzy - We Will Be Strong
Yasauaki Shimizu - Semitori No Hi
We The People - In The Past
Heaven & Earth - Feel The Spirit
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Marty's Song

Bungled Xmas

Christmas/Chanukah/Solstice songs abound. And so many good folks are making excellent seasonal mixtapes. I really can't compete. And besides, I'm in a period of deep concentration with my own stuff. So, before I split for the year, here's a crazy one that's (in)appropriate for any season. A warning – don't be in mid-coffee sip at 1:18. And do listen all the way through; you want to earn those presents.

I'm fixing to have another year-end roundup mix around New Years. New posts will recommence on Jan 2. Happy happiness!

Mr. Bungle - Merry Go Bye Bye

Heavenly earth

I'd say the holiday season could use a little groovy, pastoral psych-folk. Surely there's a kitchen in a rural place where someone is preparing festive food and blasting these tracks. I'm not sure if these ladies are from an actual canyon, but that's where they're filed in my brain's library. You can practically see the spliff smoke emanating from the engineer's lips.

Heaven & Earth - Jenny
Heaven & Earth - Feel The Spirit

Stirring strings

Some more sweet, unhurried waves of sound from a fine guitarist, however unfortunately named. But there's no juicing with this McGuire. Maybe it's because I'm so ensconced in my own digital recording fun, but I can't help smile out loud at a track-yourself-to-your-own-delight situation like this. Some may say it's vanity, but who can't be happy with a world that lets us be our own orchestras.

Mark McGuire - When You're Somewhere

Naptime

I'm not usually the napping kind. My clock doesn't work that way. But there are times when I just can't muster the synaptic quorum to keep the lights on. And I submit. The trouble with the afternoon power-down is the disorientation that follows and then moves to sabotage what's left of the waking day. Dizziness mixed with mania, stuck in a kind of mental hurry-up-and-wait. No fun, but sometimes necessary. Of course, if naptime could just feel like this tune, I'd have no complaints at all.

Robert Fripp & Brian Eno - Evening Star

French frost

Things are starting to settle into that Christmastime feel. And I admit I'm happy to be fitting myself into a cozy mental frame. Which means the contrary part of my mind wants to conjure up creepy, unsettled sounds. This one is wintery alright, albeit more in a nuclear variety. And serves to remind that the French can also set their faces grimly to an ashen sky.

Trisomie 21 - The Fairylike Show

Library ghosts

Some more Simon Reynolds-inspired ghost nostalgia. You don't need to have been raised on British educational television to have an old part of your brain snapped to rapt attention by this jam.

The Advisory Circle - Everyday Hazards

What the heck

Tim Hecker's sketches are more beautiful than many people's masterworks. I could live in his echoes for days without food or engagement of the other senses. That's some ambition. Let's start with a minute and a half and go from there. I think he and I accidentally wrote the same melody. Debating whether or not to sue.

Tim Hecker - Sketch 6

Gone with a rock promoter

Sticking with fond feelings for the '90s. Last Splash came on during a night drive recently, and I got a bit of that old driving-around-rocking feeling from high school days past. Very nice indeed even now that I'm double that tender age. This tune in particular has a burnt, slightly baked quality that I quite enjoy. I'm not really sure the part with the big drums is necessary. But then, it was the '90s and who can fuss with bands that crushed on crunchy guitars.

The Breeders - No Aloha

Color me babe

Having just read Retromania, I'm finding that a lot of music I enjoyed in the '00s now feels tainted with the brush of nostalgia. Or worse, an anemic lack of forward-facing inspiration. Which now makes me look fondly on stuff in the '90s that may have been a bit cringe-worthy, but at least took risks.

Babe The Blue Ox was one band that acquitted themselves quite well in that decade. They just suffered from a lack of hype and boosterism in the Brooklyn of their heyday (hard to imagine such a thing now). Anyway, they rocked with heart, good humor, and some nice Beefheartian rhythmic shenanigans. This track captures all of that.

Babe The Blue Ox - Rube Goldberg

Metamorphoses

Nick Cave has done a lot to mellow over the hellfire punk image of his raucous youth in recent ears. To me, a lot of the "mature" work has been a yawn. But his soundtracks with late-arriving Bad Seed Warren Ellis (The Assassination of Jesse James, The Proposition, The Road) have been just stunning.

For some reason, the duo's excellent score for the equally excellent recent (and surprisingly acrobatic) staging of The Metamorphosis has not been given a proper release. But fear not, for Songblague has done the legwork and tracked down these beautiful cues, which open and close the show. If you don't get a bit misty-eyed, you may not be a real human being.

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - Marty's Song
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - The Water Song

Claustrophobia

Your dreams are haunted by claustrophobic landscapes. The city closes in around you, and you find yourself running for daylight and yet also compelled to caterwaul with oxygen you really can't afford to waste. The camera pans out and your narrative eye suddenly recognizes that the scene is all made of Lego. Here's a good song to listen to you as you contemplate what's wrong with your life.

Zoo-Z - Skylines

So pretty in the city of industry

There are lots of times when texture is everything, and I'm often happy to wile away the hours rubbing musical contours over my ears. Then there's sweet guitar pop, with its equally sublime pleasures.

Oranger - Crooked in the Weird of the Catacombs

Mob rule

Good to be back in New York. A week+ in the land of tango, succulent lomo, reversed moons, and 'relaxed' schedules had me itching to return to a landscape of jagged, if decidedly non-Andean, musicality. These cats are definitely scratching that itch. Maybe a little too hard.

Frank Sumatra & the Mob - The Story So Far