World Domination 3

This is a continuation of my World Domination series. See the previous ones for a description if you need one. I'm sure you will hear what this pick is all about as you listen to any of them. Not any specific part of the world, but there is a theme going through this. They are all danceable tracks. I'm not exactly looking for authenticity as if I was an archivist of music from around the world. I'm not, but I can listen to the beat and see if it moves my feet. Pretty much most all of this does. That it moves around the world is just the side connection.

World Domination 3

45 Tigerstyle & Sarbjeet Kaur & Billa Bakshi - Ay-Ha!

46 Alpha Blondy - Cocody Rock

47 Alaap (Channi Singh) - Bhabiye Ni Bhabiye

48 Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata

49 Manu Dibango - Soul Makossa (Original long Version)

50 AJ Harris and the Pink Tacos - Brisket Beats (Smokehouse Sonidero Mix)

51 Baaba Maal - Wango Arti

52 Bally Sagoo - Noorie

53 Kes - Savannah Grass

54 Fela Kuti - Water No Get Enemy

55 Thievery Corporation - Warning Shots

56 Celia Cruz - La Vida Es Un Carnaval

57 Manu Chao - Clandestino

58 Frey & Walz - Learing Centers (Somali mix)

59 Tinariwen - Sastanàqqàm

60 The Bhundu Boys - Hatisi Tose

Uninterrupted Silent Sustained Reading 2 (Authors)

If the first session of USSR was about the act of reading, this one is about the names on the spine. I still remember those hours in school where we all had to be quiet and at least pretend to read while the teachers took a breather. I still try to knock out at least one book a week, though the reading glasses make it a chore these days. This run gets heavy fast, moving from the Americana of Kerouac and Whitman into a dark basement with Sylvia Plath followed by a double-shot of Hemingway. That Blue Clocks Green track is the real jolt—it’s got a happy synth-pop rhythm, but the lyrics are essentially a suicide note. This Pick is for the next time you feel like digging through the library instead of the crates.

Uninterrupted Silent Sustained Reading 2 (Authors)

24 The Rolling Stones - Victor Hugo

25 10,000 Maniacs - Hey Jack Kerouac

26 Billy Bragg & Wilco - Walt Whitman's Niece

27 Graham Parker - Just Like Hermann Hesse

28 The Smiths - Shakespeare's Sister

29 The Pogues - Lorca's Novena

30 The Mountain Goats - Lovecraft In Brooklyn

31 Lou Reed - Edgar Allan Poe

32 Modest Mouse - Bukowski

33 Ryan Adams - Sylvia Plath

34 Kenny Chesney - Hemingway's Whiskey

35 Blue Clocks Green - Hemingway (12 Version)

36 Serge Gainsbourg - Baudelaire

37 James Brown - Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf

38 Blood, Sweat & Tears - The Modern Adventure Of Plato

39 Life In Exile - Ayn Rand

40 Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers - Hey Kafka

41 Steve Hackett - Jane Austen's Door

42 Golden Earring - Orwell's Year

43 Elton John - Oscar Wilde Gets Out

Happy Holi!

Happy Holi! Here's a crazy pick that is a lot like the chaos of all that color flying around. Interestingly, the acronym for the rainbow is usually ROYGBIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet), but in my school the honors class had a club and they called it Vibgyor. Somehow, I was in it. I ended up getting kicked out for being disruptive and smart alecky, which is actually a lot like the disruptive nature of the holiday itself. This is a Connection of songs that are just as disruptive, with a whole rainbow of flavors ending in the most Holi way I could think of.

Happy Holi!

01 Rolling Stones - She's A Rainbow

02 Leslie Gore - Sunshine, Lollipops And Rainbows

03 Bob Marley & the Wailers - Rainbow Country

04 The Box Tops - Neon Rainbow

05 Alan Jackson - Chasin' That Neon Rainbow

06 The Marshall Tucker Band - Searchin' For A Rainbow

07 Donna Summer - I'm A Rainbow

08 Salsoul Orchestra - Salsoul Rainbow

09 Katy Perry - Double Rainbow

10 Ke$ha - Rainbow

11 Kacey Musgraves - Rainbow

12 Gwen Stefani - Rainbow Connection

13 Ramones - She Talks To Rainbows

14 The B-52's - She Brakes For Rainbows

15 Man - Rainbow Eyes

16 Lemon's Chair - Vibgyor

17 Jimmy Fallon - Reading Rainbow

18 Israel IZ Kamakawiwo'ole - Over The Rainbow

19 A.R. Rahman - Rang De Basanti

What's The Connection? I Want To 1

This connection is sort of part of a series of Want connections. I Want To tell you more, but I think you will figure it out.  There are more of these songs to make another volume, but I am waiting for a short while. On my backstage area, I call this Want I To to keep it alphabetically in some order that makes sense for me. The cover of this one is similar to the other ones.

What's The Connection? I Want To 1

01 UB40 - All I Want To Do

02 Soft Boys - (I Want To Be An) Anglepoise Lamp

03 Johnny Cash - I Want To Go Home

04 Magazine - I Want To Burn Again

05 Elvis Costello - I Want To Vanish

06 Bill Withers - I Want To Spend The Night

07 Queen - I Want To Break Free

08 Eartha Kitt - I Want To Be Evil

09 Nina Hagen & Leipzig Big Band - I Want To Be Happy

10 Nazareth - I Want To (Do Everything)

11 Pet Shop Boys - I Want To Wake Up

12 Foreigner - I Want To Know What Love Is

13 Talking Heads - I Want To Live

14 Ultravox! - I Want To Be A Machine

15 Ohio Players - I Want To Be Free

16 John Denver - I Want To Live

17 Steve Miller Band - I Want To Make The World Turn Around

18 Toyah - I Want To Be Free

19 Eight To The Bar - I Want To Rock

What's The Connection? Talk 1

I was digging through some folders and kept tripping over the same word. There isn't a real connection here, it’s just twenty tracks where people are either talking or telling someone else to shut up. It’s a dead-on connection for the speakers, even if it's really just all talk in the end. You get everything from the art-school side like Brian Eno and Cabaret Voltaire to the straight-up radio noise of Salt 'n' Pepa and Toby Keith. If you want to keep the conversation going, I’ve got Some Kind Of Talk posted over at the other link.

What's The Connection? Talk 1

01 Brian Eno - Dead Finks Don't Talk

02 Cabaret Voltaire - Ghost Talk

03 Cheap Trick - You're All Talk

04 Paul Revere & the Raiders - Too Much Talk

05 Chocolate Watch Band - Let's Talk About Girls 

06 Tubes - Talk To Ya Later

07 Pretenders - Talk Of The Town

08 Earth, Wind & Fire - Let Me Talk

09 English Beat - Pato And Roger A Go Talk

10 Chris And Cosey - Talk To Me

11 Olivia Newton-John - Talk To Me

12 Gary Myrick And The Figures - She Talks In Stereo

13 Chris Isaak - Talk To Me

14 REM - Talk About The Passion

15 Prince - Ronnie, Talk to Russia

16 Salt 'n' Pepa - Let's Talk About Sex

17 Toby Keith - A Little Less Talk And A Lot More Action

18 Alisha - Baby Talk

19 Beach Boys - Talk To Me

20 Rihanna featuring Jay-Z - Talk That Talk

What's The Connection? Trouble Double

Here's another fun connection in the series: From classic blues heartache to dubstep drops and bubble-popping chaos, Every track here doubles down on 'Double Trouble' (or bubbles it up). Trouble comes in pairs... and ends with a burst! Funny how many songs with the same or nearly the same title are completely different. I added the Bubble variations at the end just for fun. I put Team Rocket on the cover since they are the epitome of Double Trouble in the Pokemon universe. Grab the playlist, crank it up, and let the double dose of trouble roll.

What's The Connection? Trouble Double

01 Big Bill Broonzy - Double Trouble

02 Otis Rush - Double Trouble

03 Elvis Presley - Double Trouble

04 Lynyrd Skynyrd - Double Trouble

05 Travis Tritt - Double Trouble

06 Cars - Double Trouble

07 Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Double Trouble

08 Public Image Limited - Double Trouble

09 Half Japanese - Double Trouble

10 Fourplay - Double Trouble

11 Sly & Robbie - Double Trouble

12 Mad Lion - Double Trouble

13 The Roots - Double Trouble

14 Diva - Double Trouble

15 Cluster Buster - 12 Gauge Double Trouble

16 Team Rocket - Double Trouble

17 Will Ferrell & My Marianne - Double Trouble

18 Book Of Love - Trouble In A Bubble

19 M.I.A. - Double Bubble Trouble

20 Cookie Monsta - Bubble Trouble

Moss 3

Three rounds in and the moss is still growing. I honestly thought I’d bottomed out the barrel with the last two, but the deeper I go into these sub-folders, the weirder the connections get. This session feels like the heaviest of the lot—moving from the sheer soul-power of Aretha and Ike & Tina to the raw basement noise of Reagan Youth without blinking. It’s a jagged, high-energy run through the Stones' catalog that trades the obvious radio edits for a bit more grit and some serious volume. This is my latest Pick for when the original versions just feel a little too safe and you need something that stays deep in the red. What does that drivel even mean? I think it means it may be a while before you get volume 4.

Moss 3

38 The Residents - Satisfaction

39 Scorpions - Start Me Up

40 Deep Purple - Paint It Black

41 Grand Funk Railroad - Gimme Shelter

42 Opium Jukebox - Brown Sugar

43 Ike & Tina Turner with The Ikettes - Honky Tonk Women

44 Reagan Youth - Rocks Off

45 Death Of Samantha - Salt Of The Earth

46 The Shop Assistants - Respectable

47 Deana Carter - Ruby Tuesday

48 The Pink Fairies - Street Fighting Man

49 Johnny Cash - No Expectations

50 The Ultra 5 - Off The Hook

51 Anakelly - Under My Thumb

52 Shake Keane with the Ivor Raymonde Orchestra - As Tears Go By

53 Jason & The Scorchers - 19th Nervous Breakdown

54 Etta James - Miss You

55 Aretha Franklin - You Can't Always Get What You Want