Bad Cash Quartet - Amuse You

...and so we draw a close to Year Four of the Decade. As Year Five begins, my new direction is clear: mostly Swedish stuff from the late '90s that sounds kind of like Blink-182.

I hope everyone's cool with that.

Jerry Garcia - Eep Hour

Boat Club - Nowhere

Two dudes from Gothenburg with a yen to emulate Flesh + Blood-era Roxy. How can I resist this?

Available on Caught The Breeze.

Eggstone - The Dog

More from Eggstone. I feel like this one starts off inauspiciously, then gets ruling in a very '90s-anthem way on the chorus. Typically Eggstoneësque classy move with the surprise chord change into the bridge at 2:01.

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich - Hold Tight!

Laetitia Sadier - Un Soir, Un Chien

Oops... this is from a newish album so I probably shouldn't be posting it. I'll leave it up for a day and then take the link down. In the meantime, all are strenuously encouraged to buy the album. It's a winner!

New Viva show (#98) in archives.

Thanks again to all who contributed to the 1997 project. I ended up using only a handful of the picks (in truth, I had 40 of 60 minutes programmed before I asked for help!), but I listened to all and enjoyed them immensely.

Considering an all-acapella playlist. You know, Prelude: "After the Goldrush", Bobby McFerrin, Guillaume de Machaut, selections from that Bjork album, etc. Is there enough good acapella material out there to warrant such an endeavor? Let me know if you have ideas...

Eggstone - Taramasalata

Huge thanks to Ely at Songblague for the tip on this slice of labyrinthine pop. I feel an Eggstone phase coming on...

photo courtesy of RVK Across the USA

Eric Clapton: Black Summer Rain

Deerhoof - Polly Bee

Getting pumped for the big show at Poisson Rouge tonight: Deerhoof. A band who continue to expand the rock idiom both harmonically and melodically (as opposed to merely texturally and rhythmically). Tickets still available!

Meanwhile, the 1997 project rolls along. Keep sending me your suggestions for a playlist of all songs from 1997, the last year when everything was shiny and the world was perfect. Deadline is this Friday.

Beck - Deadweight (edit)

I'm working on an all-1997 playlist for Viva Radio. This is one of the signature jams I remember from that gleaming year. Please write in with further suggestions for the playlist. Any organized sound created and/or distributed in 1997 qualifies. Deadline is this Friday 10/15!

P.S. Enjoy the authentic digi-rot at 0:43.

Lifter Puller - Nassau Coliseum

Grateful Dead - Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo

Recorded "live" at Chicago's historic Auditorium Theatre, Thursday, May 12, 1977. I'm officially adding this number to the "great codas" thread started here.

John Lennon: Oh My Love

The Jam: Wasteland

Gerry Mulligan: Prelude in E Minor

Brazil meets Poland. And here's Freddy Chopin's original, completed in a deserted Carthusian monastery on Majorca while "wrestling with cold, damp and malnutrition as well as an old Majorcan cottage piano."

New Viva show (#97) in the archives.

In these metal ways, in these metal days

Brian Eno: No One Receiving

I bet if you ingested J.J. Cale's Crazy Mama and chased it with Spiritualized's All of My Tears you'd wake up the next morning still feeling pretty good.