ZENFORMATION PLAYLIST 1/25/06: Playlists Return for the New Year

Getting my ass kicked from both sides this week, so deep, meaningful posts had to end up on the chopping block. Will return to regular posting sometime Friday. Until then, here's a sampling of the tunes that have been sustaining the ZenFo Pro Sanity during one hell of a week.

1. Girl from Oklahoma - Junior Brown, Guit With It, (Curb, 1993)
Junior Brown, master and inventor of the guit-steel, is perhaps one of the most underrated country musicians of the last few decades. An Austin staple, the guy channels Jimmie Rodgers and borrows a bit of the old Muleskinner Blues progression on this track.

2. Dear Ivan - Jimmy Dean, Greatest Hits, (Columbia/Legacy re-issue)
You know, for some reason this song always reminds me of eating pork brains and eggs, biscuits and sausage gravy, and fried scrapple in Willis Family Resturant in Meherrin, Virginia after nearly drinking myself into a coma when I was 16. I guess I must've first heard this song on their old juke box while eating and trying to convince a friend of mine that this white waitress with the Confederate Flag tattoo was, yeah, probably not interested in his "sexual chocolate."

One of the greatest Cold War protest songs ever recorded, and, well, I can't even think of anything but eating a 30,000-calorie breakfast while trying to purge my system of about a half-gallon of hard liquor.

3. Everywhere - Billy Bragg, Don't Try This at Home, 1991
One of the most elegant ballads ever written about the true cost of war. I spent a part of my evening talking to a Defense contractor just back from Iraq, a woman who risked her life simply to make money and to provide for her 17-year old daughter. Regardless of my political views on the war in Iraq, and for that matter the nature of war itself, this song is a simple reminder that no issue is ever as simple when it comes to warfare. It is as complex and as diverse as the societies behind conflicts.

4. Seneca Falls - The Distillers, Sing Sing Death House
There aren't enough punk songs dedicated to the 1848 Women's Rights Convention. Note to Emo girl who told me this week that she only wanted to graduate from college, get married and make babies, and not worry about a career...I have no objection to women choosing to be homemakers, but if that's your only ambition, well, no wonder you're listening to crappy music and the guys you want to date don't take you seriously. Dressing like a punker doesn't cut it - you'll just end up a soccermom version of Sid and Nancy, a slave to the Establishment who trades independence for comfort.

5. Tired Out - Buck 65, Bootleg version
Dedicated to Canadians who had to endure perhaps the most annoyingly worthless government change in that country's history. The drum loop Buck (right) uses behind this track may offer some return to chill while yet another minority government primps and preens like a drunken rooster.

6. Black and Brown - P-Love
You know, there's nothing like a well-orchestrated electronica peice over a cup of coffee to get the day started properly.

7. Roses from my Friends - Ben Harper
This is dedicated to a friend who just ended a rather long and painful six-year relationship to her partner. Strength is measured, always, in the ability to make the tough decisions when they need to be made.

8. Love in Fear - The Constantines
For some reason, this band reminds me of a lo-fi version of the Police.

9. Born to Kill - The Damned (Live bootleg)
Now this gets the blood flowing. Who says there's anything wrong with stage diving off your couch in your underwear? Baby-boomers often complain that they're getting to old to do such things; Gen-Y often displays all the energy and excitement of C-SPAN at concerts, moping rather than moshing the night away.

Stagedive from your couch every once and a while. In your underwear. Trust me. You'll feel better.