ZENFORMATION PLAYLIST 2/15/06: Pimping Dad Flashbacks, More Queers, and the Impending German Invasion

1. Golden - A Girl Called Eddy, self-titled album (Anti, 2004)
The last track off this wonderfully soulful debut album from New Jersey-born Erin Moran. The album was produced by former Pulp guitarist Richard Hawley. Starting off this playlist with a song dedicated to a certain friend who just got out of rehab and I figure she needs somebody to send her a V-Day gift.

2. Magic 8 Ball - Cub, Heide Sez... Compilation (Lookout!, 1996)
[MP3]
Cub is one of those anomolies of punk music. An all-female trio from Vancouver, this band recorded a couple of albums for Mint and Lookout! Records in the 1990s, but I have no clue what happened to them. Just imagine a softer, less packaged sound than the likes of the Donnas. Formed in 1992 at the University of British Columbia's CITR 101.9 FM, one of the most important influential college radio stations in North America.

3. Punk Rock Girls - The Queers, Don't Back Down (Lookout!, 1996)
[Watch the Music Video ]
Lol...been playing a lot of the Queers lately. I think this is about the thousandth Queers track I've featured. What can I say? I'm a binge listener. Just wait until I get on my New York Dolls kick. Or Wu-Tang Clan. Or Slick Rick. Or...

4. All The Good Men - The Robocop Kraus, They Think They Are...(Epitaph, 2005)
[MP3]
Germany finally has a post-punk, past New Wave answer to the likes of Interpol. Actually, these Germans were so forward thinking that they invented the sound back when they formed in 1998. I heard some indie scenester bill this band as a "new" act. The Robocop Kraus actually have five albums under their belt, and are one of the biggest bands in Continental Europe. This album, which I think is the band's first official U.S. label release, hits stores Feb. 21.

Remember, if these guys blow up here in the States, you heard it here first...

5. Downtown Train - Tom Waits, Rain Dogs (Island, 1990)
One of my favorite Waits tunes, especially on a Wednesday morning. Reminds me of driving through St. Louis for some reason.

6. Little Wonder - David Bowie, Earthling (Arista, 1997)
Can't go wrong with a little Bowie on a hump day, either.

7. Superfly - Curtis Mayfield, motion picture soundtrack (Single 1972)
Curtis's falsetto is probably one of the most beautiful in the history of R&B. I grew up with this song and people who actually resembled the lead character of the film Superfly. This song always reminds me of some of the fathers of friends I grew up with. Black men with straightened hair, fly white suits and matching fedoras.

I must've heard this song a thousand times at one high school buddy's house. I remember listening to the whole soundtrack while droppin' bones (playing dominoes) and sippin' the gun (drinking 40s of Colt .45 malt liquor) with this same friend's dad on a hot Meherrin, Virginia, afternoon in their woodshed. He was one of the slickest players in the game - first guy in his family to be able to afford a Lincoln. He actually looked a lot like the title character from Superfly, minus the cocaine and the taste for prostitutes, of course.