Record Recipes #47
Get behind the mule.
A selection of analog recommendations for your listening pleasure. Pulled from my personal collection. Today’s issue: grind away.
Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes. When I saw Violent Femmes play Coachella back in 2013, they were already a legacy act well past the height of the folk punk moment that birthed them. Their debut album is about as adolescent as it gets: emotional, restless, chaotic, and raring to go. Who among us didn’t connect with the frantic demands of Add it Up and Gimme the Car, especially those of us yoked to the productivity ethos of boomer parents who treated anything less than excellence as abject failure? Time marches, the feeling endures. Why the hell are we grinding so hard if we can’t have a little fun? Let me go on, etc. Gone Daddy Gone
Pixies - Come On, Pilgrim. From the first twanging notes of the opening track, this mini-album debut is all gas, no brake. Black Francis squeals Vamos and I’m already out the door. There was a day last week that had me context switching to the max; comedic commercial callback on the other side of town, virtual dramatic callback at home, coaching clientele in the evening, and tending to band admin and family drama in between. Look, I just want to get where I’m trying to go and be proud of how I got there. I’ve Been Tired
Tom Waits - Mule Variations. What do two alternative rock debuts have to do with mid-late career earthy Tom Waits? That grimy feeling of rolling up one’s sleeves and getting down into the dirt to make something grow. Turns out that never changes. You’ve got to get behind the mule in the morning and plow for someone to take notice and ask, “what’s he building in there?” Big in Japan
Keep listening.