Streets of Philadelphia

This past weekend, I re-watched Philadelphia AND visited Bruce Springsteen's hometown of Asbury Park. It's only appropriate then that I post "Streets of Philadelphia" by Bruce Springsteen. He wrote it for the 1993 film Philadelphia and later won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

I was only 6-years-old when "Streets of Philadelphia" came out, so its awesomeness only struck me recently. I think a lot of younger folks might be on the same boat.

Check out this cheesy video for "Streets of Philadelphia." Embedding is disabled for the original.

TMC Likes... Kenny Rogers?

With "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town," TMC thought we were just adding on to the long list of Cake songs we loved. We have since realized our affections should be directed elsewhere: to Kenny Rogers and The First Edition. Kenny wasn't the first to record"Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town", but his version is perhaps the most popular. It climbed the charts reaching #1 in the UK and #6 in the U.S.

Before today, TMC was more likely to make fun of Kenny Rogers than to praise him (see his 1985 performance in "We Are the World"). Now, we honor Rogers with his inclusion on this extremely high profile blog.

Here's Kenny Rogers' "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town" and below, Cake's rather faithful cover song that got us hooked in the first place.

Steve Martin, BAMF and Banjo-Player

If you're a celebrity, you can record an album at any time regardless of talent: see Paris Hilton and David Hasselhoff. But if you're Steve Martin, you can release a good album and play a mean banjo. You can also write best-selling novellas (Shopgirl) and a screenplay based on aforementioned novella. Steve Martin released an album in January 2009 called The Crow: New Songs for 5-String Banjo. So if you like yourself some good ol' Americana, check it out.

When I grow up, or more realistically when I grow older, I hope I can be a little bit like Steve Martin.

Here's a performance from 2007 featuring Steve Martin. Enjoy!

Local Natives cover "Cecilia"

Local Natives does what few bands are able to do with covers: they take a song you love and make you love it more. Here's Local Natives doing an amazingly fun backyard cover of Paul Simon's "Cecilia".

Enjoy! (via You Ain't No Picasso)

More Metric Love

Unfortunately for me (and fortunately for my wallet), 9:30 Club's 6/18 Metric show is sold out. However, I continue to indulge myself in Fantasies. The next track that's grabbed my attention is "Gimme Sympathy." At first, I thought it was a little over the top with it's Rolling Stones and Beatles references, but I am won over. Here's the official video for "Gimme Sympathy" and a pretty good acoustic version below.

If you haven't bought a Metric album before, go out and get Fantasies. There's an acoustic version of both "Gimme Sympathy" and "Help, I'm Alive" included on the album.

St. Vincent in the Park

Ages and ages ago, my parents went to Simon and Garfunkel's Concert in the Park - their first reunion, featuring an appearance by Ed Koch. I've spent most of my life a little bit impressed and a little bit jealous. Now that I'm back in Chicago, it is possible to go to a concert in the park - Millennium Park, that is - at least once a week.

The city sponsors free performances three or four nights a week in the Frank Gehry-designed Pritzker Concert Pavilion, which looks out over a big lawn and gardens. This past Monday, St. Vincent and Allà kicked off their New Music Mondays series, drawing a young cohort even further from the candelabra-wielding, Ravinia-going crowd of outdoor-music-goers than the usual Millennium Park fare. While a slight rain kept the lawn crowd down slightly, the seats and most of the grass pretty much ran the gamut of hipsterdom, from steampunk'd men to gamine, Urban-clad ladies. It was the kind of crowd that had me wondering if I'd see someone I followed on tumblr. Even with worn out Chucks and a Manhattan Portage bag, your faithful correspondent was way outgunned.

Allà (pronounced "Aiya") opened with long jams that occasionally veered towards a 1970's fusion jazz sound. Their songs and their performance as a whole were notably light on words, except for a slightly misplaced shout of "viva México!" from the lead singer. Since I'm a sucker for lyrics and stage banter, I wasn't quite won over. While Allà's borderline psychedelic music wasn't something I'd normally seek out, their biggest problem may have been the setting. The crowd had to have been the largest they'd played for, and in spite of its relative responsiveness to the music, the performers had not quite figured out how to translate their music to such a large, open venue. I suspect they would have seemed much less awkward indoors, or in a club.

St. Vincent - guitarist/singer Annie Clark's nom de pick - had no such problem. I first saw her the summer of 2007 at the Rock and Roll Hotel in DC, just after her first album, Marry Me, came out. This venue is on the smaller, darker end of the three major DC indie rock options, and, after a shouty opening set by Scout Niblett, St. Vincent really made the room work. A friend I dragged along to the show bought her album because he "felt like [he] had to after she'd made that much eye-contact" with him. Clark, who is now touring in support of her album Actor, didn't quite manage this level of intimacy, but still commanded the venue well, with her violinist and saxophonist (extra points for good use of brass) fanned out across the stage. In an interview I recently saw, she described her guitar playing as "violent and dirty." Not typically = my cup of tea, but the rough instrumentals balance nicely with Clark's resolutely bright voice. Even having introduced "The Party" as a sad song, she kept it from real bleakness with her vocals.

The set was nicely balanced between new and old material, beginning with "Marry Me John" and "Now, Now," a song of which I was very glad to be reminded. I admit that Monday was also my first time hearing "Actor Out of Work" and "Save Me From What I Want," both of which encouraged me to give Actor a proper listen. My favorite new song by far, however, was "Black Rainbow," something which I haven't been able to track down online.

The real treat of seeing St. Vincent at the Rock and Roll Hotel was hearing her perform "These Days," her signature encore and one of my top-ever songs - sadly I had to run out a bit early to catch a train, so I'm not sure if Millennium-Park-goers had the same pleasure.

Check out Allà on myspace (link above), and a smattering of St. Vincent below.

"Now Now" by St. Vincent from Marry Me
"These Days" by St. Vincent which possibly appeared on an EP called Paris Is Burning?
Buy Marry Me from Insound here.

Give Me Metric

There's still room for some pretty voices in rock 'n roll. See Emily Haines, the voice of Metric. I hear a ton about Beth Ditto (The Gossip) and even Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), but give me Emily Haines! Sometimes it's the juxtaposition of electro/rock/pop and a pretty mezzosoprano, rather than rock and more rock, that does it for me.

Here's "Help, I'm Alive" from Metric's latest album Fantasies and below, the song that first made me fall in love with Metric: "Calculation (Theme)."

Great Lake Swimmers and Honda

I found the Great Lake Swimmers' "See You on the Moon!" years ago on the You Ain't No Picasso blog. I included it on a cd mix I made for my toddler nephews, and now it has found new life in a Honda Insight commercial.

Emmy The Great = Great

TMC will be back with more frequent posts beginning Summer 2009. Get ready. In the mean time, Emmy The Great with an old favorite, "Canopies and Grapes."

We're Back... with "Pale Blue Eyes"

I am descending from the depths of academics to revive the Touch My Clickwheel blog. TMC will be back for a few more weeks of sweet online radio tunes, and I will be posting shows from past semesters online for your listening pleasure so stay tuned for updates.

In the mean time, here's "Pale Blue Eyes" by The Velvet Underground. "Pale Blue Eyes" is a Kate pick, which is only appropriate since she's the only blue-eyed member of TMC. It's a sleepy morning song and, for that reason, I am in love with it. I am also a sucker for simplicity in adjectives, and "Pale Blue Eyes" includes many. Mad, sad, angry, and happy. It takes nothing more to win me over.

Deleted Scenes on the Red Line

I was not aware of the Deleted Scenes until only just now, but they have combined two of my very favorite things: music and public transportation! I am quite won over.

Better yet, this performance is of endearingly folky guitar music, and in Washington, DC's very own Metro system. Makes the extra $0.35 seem worth not riding the Circulator, where spontaneous music is hardly ever performed. There is an especially nice moment when a man wearing Apple earbuds walks by just as the lyrics knock their lack of bass.

Check out DC's (admittedly more lo-fi) answer to the Black Cab sessions below:



Listen to more Deleted Scenes on MySpace.

And just because the subway might be a good way for a good man to go down:
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters by Elton John
Buy Honky Chateau here.

Proof that Foreign McDonalds' are Best...

Pharrell throws down in a Paris MacDo, trying to Charm his way into the lunch menu when they are only serving breakfast....

Don't love that I found this on Perez Hilton, but it is a pretty great, if questionably spontaneous, performance. Maybe this is the new I'm lovin' it? Cos I am.
EDIT: Embedding is questionably working right now... so link to it here.

Lykke Li featuring Drake and Mickey Factz

Although she looks perilously Olsen-like here, for some reason, the ladies of Touch My Clickwheel can't seem to get enough of Lykke Li. In a very Scandi show - even by our standards - featuring Sweden's Shout Out Louds and Norwegian Erlend Oye's The Whitest Boy Alive, she is still a stand out.

When the wrong (read: original) version of "Little Bit" made it onto the playlist, we promised to correct our error.

Find Little Bit by Lykke Li feat. Drake and Mickey Factz here.
Buy Youth Novels here.
And, if you really really must, check out the Swedish national anthem here.

We're Baaaaaaaaack!

TMC friends and lovers, get ready.

After weeks of technical difficulties, school vacations, etc., Touch My Clickwheel will return to the radio full force. Be sure to check out WGTB tonight from 8-10. Expect music from some of our favorite Swedes and French(wo)men, a new mashup, and discussion of the geographic anomaly that is Los Angeles.

As a thank you for your patience in the first part of this semester, check out this radiolicious classic from Van Morrison - one of Lauren and my faves while rocking out in southern Colorado last week.

MP3(senduit): Caravan by Van Morrison. Buy Moondance from Insound here.

Berry Gordy is a Musical Genius: Part 2,057

The much more prolific and in-the-know music bloggers over at am.fm.pm recently posted a pretty great Motown story I hadn't heard before:

The same day that The Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" hit number one in 1965, Columbia Records, the Tops' former label, re-released "Ain't That Love" in an effort to ride Motown's coattails to the top of the charts.

Naturally, Berry Gordy was furious. Reaching out to the songwriting crew Holland-Dozier-Holland, Berry decreed that a new Four Tops single was to be released in one day's time. Their solution: reversing "I Can't Help Myself" with the same chord progressions in tact. By the time evening fell, the Tops had recorded the track, now titled "It's The Same Old Song". By 3pm the following day, 1500 singles were in the hands of DJs across the country.

One of pop music's great dodges.

Find the full post - and a fun Four Tops/Kings of Leon mashup - here.

Some Cool Jazz

In honor of our Wednesday jazz test, I give you one of the more enjoyable pieces we've gone over: Dave Brubeck Quartet's "Blue Rondo A La Turk."

Not much to say, but just give it a listen and then perhaps go discover some more jazz. Stay away from Charlie Parker and bebop, friends. It hurts the ears.

Posting Posters

The Ladies of TMC have found their greatest success right here on the World Wide Web, thanks to all of you fine people. Since we are entering our last semester as college radio djs, however, we thought we'd try a new strategy... promoting ourselves at Georgetown. If you have any great, witty ideas, we'd love to exploit them for our own good. Till then we'll be scraping together some money for an epic Kinko's run.

Mashup of the Year

TMC is always looking for the next great mashup - check out Jess' post on the Eddie Money vs. the Ting Tings below. For a long time now, my personal favorite mashers have been The Arbiters, a LA-based dj trio responsible for the first mashup I really liked - "Sure Side of Fame" - and my long-time ringtone - "Missing Sweet Love".

Unfortunately they haven't put out much new that I've been able to find in quite a while, and I've been looking to fill the gap. I think DJ Earworm may have finally filled the bill. He really got me with his Beyoncé vs. Tom Petty "If I Were a Free Fallin' Boy", and I'm a sucker for his cleverly themed songs. Check out his tour-de-force "United State of Pop 2008" here, a mash of the year's most popular songs that somehow manages not to feel too forced. Other pluses: his website is definitely a notch above your average MySpaceMusic account, and! he posts mp3s of all of his work.



Listen for more of DJ Earworm on TMC and suggest some new mashing virtuosos for us to check out....

"Sure Side of Fame" by The Arbiters

"If I Were a Free-Fallin' Boy" by DJ Earworm

Usually this is where we'd encourage you to go out and buy albums if you like the tracks... but I don't know that you could buy from these guys if you tried. Instead, we guess you could hire them to dj your next hipster event.

Oren Lavie's "Her Morning Elegance"

We are alive and kicking at TMC, but I have been busy. Hence, no posting...

I've seen some visitors via StatCounter, so here's something to tide you over. Perhaps you've heard Oren Lavie before in the commercial for the classy Chevy Malibu or at your local coffee shop. He's multi-talented: a singer, songwriter, playwright, and theater director from Israel. Now in New York, he's made it big with this stop animation video for "Her Morning Elegance."

I won't say that all stop-motion videos are hits, but... a good song with stop-animation is gold. Also, I love beds. I love lying in beds. And I love covers. TMC co-host, Kate, would agree. Enjoy!

The Ting Tings and Eddie Money

I was watching The L Word and heard the guitar intro of what I thought would be Eddie Money's "Baby Hold On." Instead, it was The Ting Tings' "Great DJ." I liked "Shut Up and Let Me Go" but not enough to look further into The Ting Tings', but "Great DJ" has got me curious. Here's "Great DJ" and Eddie Money's "Baby Hold On" for some reference of where The Ting Tings' got their chords from.

Check out this mashup of the two graciously hosted by Popbytes from mashup artist Party Ben.

TMC Likes You Better When...

... you're naked. Ida Marie scored a hit in the UK with her pop punk song, "I Like You Better When You're Naked." Her voice reminds me of Brody Dalle's of The Distillers. It's good to see a girl (that's not Katy Perry) with a strong, rock 'n roll voice. Here's "I Like You Better When You're Naked" and also The Distillers' "Drain the Blood" for old times' sake.

Crystal Castles

I'm currently obsessed with "Love Theme" from St. Elmo's Fire, but I don't think people would enjoy that. Instead, I'll post my other obsession: "Untrust Us" by Crystal Castles. They're a Toronto-based band consisting of a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist... so... fun, dancey, electronic music.

Some of their music reminds me a little of the 8-bit electronica of Sweden's Adventure Kid. The vocals are a bit indescribable. A bit androgynous, heavy with effects.

Dance your hearts out, friends. It's been a long week.

Bon Iver Blood Bank EP

Bon Iver is set to release his Blood Blank EP on January 20th. This follows his debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, topping numerous Best of 2008 lists. If you didn't like For Emma, Forever Ago, you probably won't love the EP. But if you did, check it out. It's the same heart-wrenching melancholy that we've come to expect from Bon Iver. Here's "Blood Bank."



Head over to Aquarium Drunkard to download "Blood Bank".

Matt and Kim

The Touch My Clickwheel blog has dissolved somewhat, so I offer my apologies to the few remaining loyalists out there. I was terrible at posting the podcasts for the last few weeks of the show.

Depending on how things go this semester, I will try to hop back on the bandwagon. Until then, you can check out the Gitnerblog, where I sometimes post music. Unfortunately or fortunately, you'll have to deal with posts about non-music things.

Check out Matt and Kim's "Daylight." I'm usually wary of two-piece bands, but "Daylight" has me hooked. Warning: their debut album doesn't have the most polished sound, but it's just a ton of fun. They're from Brooklyn, NY and are about to release their second album Grand on January 20. Still, there's not a lot of places for a two-piece to go in terms of sound. So... let's see if I tire of Matt and Kim.

You can head to Green Label Sound to download it for free or catch them on tour with the likes of Cut Copy.