What's The Connection? Slippery

Slippery is one of those words that sounds exactly like what it means. You know the feeling - you step somewhere you should not have, or you put your faith in someone who turned out to be exactly what the word implies, and there you are on the floor wondering how you got there. Happens to the best of us, sometimes on the same day. The Connection shares one track with a slipping post from a while back, same song, same version, showing up again like it owns the place. Watch your step.

What's The Connection? Slippery

01 Ambitious Lovers - Slippery

02 Kidz In The Hall, Masta Ace - Slippery Shoes

03 Staple Singers - Slippery People (Club Version)

04 Lauren Watkins with John Morgan - Slippery Slope

05 Funk Society - Slippery Slope

06 Tiptoes - Born Slippery

07 Talking Heads - Slippery People (12'' version)

08 Surprise Chef - Slippery Dip

09 Chicago Afrobeat Project - Slippery People

10 Karl Bryan & The Crystalites - Slippery

11 Ultrasonic Grand Prix featuring Little Barrie & Shawn Lee - Slippery When Chet

12 Commodores - Slippery When Wet

13 Doobie Brothers - Slippery St. Paul

14 Guthrie Govan - Wonderful Slippery Thing

15 Pink Floyd - Slippery Guitar

16 Stavely Makepeace - Slippery Rock 70's

17 Phabo featuring Destin Conrad - Slippery

18 Migos featuring Gucci Mane - Slippery

19 Angie Stone - Slippery Shoes

20 Mood II Swing - The Slippery Track

Slide Guitar 2

There is something about a slide that makes everything feel like it happened a long time ago, even when it didn't. This pick covers a lot of ground - Delta gospel grime, desert highways, devotional drone, slow cinematic burn - and the slide guitar set holds together better than that list probably suggests. Also part of the instruments series, if that means anything to you. What is your favorite Slide Guitar song?

Slide Guitar 2

18 Mississippi Fred McDowell - You Got To Move

19 Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - Like A Rock

20 Zac Brown Band - All Alright

21 Pink Floyd - High Hopes

22 Rory Gallagher - Want Ad Blues (AKA Wanted Blues)

23 George Thorogood And The Destroyers - Bad To The Bone

24 Bonnie Raitt - Give It Up Or Let Me Go

25 Derek Trucks Band - Sahib Teri Bandi-Maki Madni

26 Sonny Landreth - Congo Square

27 Ry Cooder - Paris, Texas

28 Richard Marx - Don't Mean Nothing

29 George Harrison - Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)

30 Led Zeppelin - In My Time Of Dying

31 Chris Rea - Road To Hell

Ambient House

I followed Brian Eno down the ambient rabbit hole back when Music For Airports came out, then kept following it through the EG and Obscure catalogs for years. When house producers started going that direction it felt like two things I already loved finding each other. When Ricki started talking about clouds I was done. That is probably why I ended up caring about this whole pick series and the rest of the house stuff at all.

Ambient House

01 The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds

02 Global Communication - 1431

03 Leftfield - Melt (Remastered)

04 The Future Sound Of London - Papua New Guinea  (Original 12' Version)

05 Aphex Twin - Xtal

06 808 State - Pacific State

07 Spacetime Continuum With Terence McKenna - Archaic Revival

08 Orbital - Belfast

09 Ultramarine - Hymn

Tech House

There is a school of thought that says you should be ready before you fire, and aim before that. I spent years not subscribing to it, which is how this whole house cleaning thing happened. You fire, you see where it lands, and that is how aim gets refined. This pick is in the same spirit. It went in the folder, it got pulled back out, some things got moved, and now it is what it is. The tech robot on the cover looks like he's figuring it out too.

Tech House

01 Oxia - Domino

02 Camelphat & Elderbrook - Cola (Club Mix)

03 Mark Knight & Funkagenda - Man With The Red Face (Original Club Mix)

04 DJ Polinate - Ready, Fire, Aim

05 Patrick Topping - Forget (Original Mix)

06 Fisher - Losing It

07 Shiba San - Okay (Original Mix)

08 Dubfire - Roadkill (Original Club Mix)

09 Green Velvet - Bigger Than Prince (Hot Since 82 Remix)

10 M.A.N.D.Y. Vs. Booka Shade - Body Language (Original Mix)

11 Azari & III - Hungry For The Power (Jamie Jones Ridge Street Remix)

Dave Alvin family

Most people have no idea that I am originally from Los Angeles, California. Although I did not know Dave Alvin or his brother or any of these associated bands in this pick from encounters in that area, it's hard to not cheer for that whole scene. I had a couple of times when I got to meet Dave Alvin (none in Southern California.) I did get to drink moonshine with him and a couple of the guys from X in Austin. That was probably the most fun, The other times were interviews. Anyway, this is not all of his projects and side projects, but it's a good sampling. And it does get the bulk of his most popular songs, if not always the version that was the most well known. It gives you something to search for. I put this in my Rockabilly section at home, but it's that and Roots and Americana all at once.

Dave Alvin family

01 Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women - California's Burning

02 Dave Alvin - King Of California

03 Dave Alvin & Peter Case - Monday Morning Blues

04 Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore - Downey To Lubbock

05 Dave Alvin - Harlan County Line

06 Canned Heat with Dave Alvin - Blind Owl

07 Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin - All By Myself

08 Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin - World's In A Bad Condition

09 The Third Mind - Journey In Satchidananda

10 The Blasters - Dark Night

11 Knitters - The Call Of The Wreckin Ball

12 The Blasters - I'm Shakin'

13 Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women - Marie Marie

14 X - 4th Of July

15 The Blasters - So Long Baby Goodbye

16 Dave Alvin & The Guilty Men - Out In California

17 Los Lobos featuring Dave Alvin - Somewhere In Time

18 The Pleasure Barons - Take A Letter Maria

19 The Blasters - American Music

What's The Connection? Holy 2

The word sounds different depending on who's singing it, and this volume has more range than it probably should. Rock, funk, art-pop, doom metal, and a Japanese all-female shred band all checked in, and the Connection holds up better than you'd expect from a word that's been claimed by everyone from the devout to the profane. The first holy one set a low bar, so this one had nowhere to go but up. It must be late or early, because I hate what I wrote here. Hopefully the music is better than what I came up with here.

What's The Connection? Holy 2

21 Bad Company - Holy Water

22 Scorpions - Unholy Alliance

23 David Axelrod - Holy Thursday

24 Dio - Holy Diver

25 Mike Bloomfield & Al Kooper - His Holy Modal Majesty

26 Tom Tom Club - Holy Water

27 Amy Winehouse - Some Unholy War

28 Headswim - Holy Ghost

29 Kiss - Unholy

30 Madonna - Holy Water

31 Prince - The Holy River

32 Sam Smith & Kim Petras - Unholy

33 Death In June - Holy Water

34 Ian Gillan & Tony Iommi - Holy Water

35 Lovebites - Holy War

Almost Gosple 2

Gospel's a wide tent and this one parks right at the edge of it. Some of these artists would probably argue they don't belong here, but they do. There's enough choir, enough conviction, and enough of that feeling you can't quite name to hold it all together. I had fun with this pick. I was looking around for a specific feel and sound that is almost gospel. Well, some of it probably is. If I thought it might fit in a tent with Debra Winger and Steve Martin, it was probably okay. If you know, you know. Faith optional, good ears required. Happy Birthday Mom.

Almost Gosple 2

19 Michael Jackson - Will You Be There

20 U2 featuring New Voices of Freedom - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

21 Dottie Peoples & The Peoples Choice Chorale - He's An On Time God

22 Sounds Of Blackness - Hold On (Change Is Comin')

23 Fred Hammond - No Weapon

24 Hezekiah Walker - Grateful

25 Kirk Franklin - Brighter Day

26 Ai Factory Song - Many Men

27 Lamp House - Because I Got High 

28 Replayd Music - Words I Saved For You

29 BeBe & CeCe Winans - Addictive Love

30 Lauren Daigle - You Say

31 Tobymac - Feel It

32 Marc Cohn - Walking In Memphis

33 Solomon Ray - Goodbye Temptation

34 Travis Greene - Intentional