Clang & Clatter

It’s Friday, I’m in love (with IckMusic’s Friday Five)!

Glen Phillips with Nickel Creek - “Let It Fall” (Live at the Red Light Cafe, Atlanta, GA, August, 1, 2003 at the Atlantis Music Conference)
Newgrass trio Nickel Creek joined former Toad the Wet Sprocket frontman Glen Phillips for the second set of this excellent live performance. They played acoustic versions of everything from TTWS, Glen Phillips, and Nickel Creek tunes to Randy Newman and Elliot Smith covers. “Let It Fall” is a track from Nickel Creek guitarist Sean Watkins’ debut solo album and is one of my favorite songs that Glen has ever lent his vocals to. If you’re interested, you can pick up the entire set at the Internet Archive’s live music archive.

Soasin - “Sleepers” (Saosin, 2006)
Melodic emo/screamo track from Saosin’s debut album. I know little of the band’s history other than a vocalist change that at one point seemed to polarize fans of the Newport Beach, CA post-hardcore outfit. Showy, excessive, dynamic, and emotional, the track is much too short at 2:51. But I like it.

The Cars - “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight” (The Cars, 1978)
I can remember a time back in the early- to mid-80s in my teens when I used to spin this vinyl at least once a week—back when I actually had the vinyl and a turntable. I have neither these days, but I do have these lovely 0s and 1s to listen to whenever I get the itch for some early Cars goodness. Their debut is still one of the best albums these guys ever released.

Hayseed Dixie - “Let’s Put the X in Sex” (Kiss My Grass: A Hillbilly Tribute to KISS, 2003)
I’ve always had this affinity for cover tunes—even more so these days since I discovered the Coverville podcast several years ago—and over the years I’ve amassed quite a few hokey covers of songs that I never really cared for in their original form. “Let’s Put the X in Sex” is once such song, and I would like to forget that one of my favorite bands of all time ever released it. As a matter of fact, I like to pretend that the KISS of Unmasked and onward is some impostor band that has the real Gene Simmons chained up in a dungeon someplace.

Queensrÿche - “Get a Life” (Hear in the Now Frontier, 1997)
HITNF was the last Queensrÿche album to feature guitarist and founding member Chris DeGarmo, and in my opinion, was the point where the band began a downward spiral they have yet to pull out of. While I liked quite a bit of the followup Q2K, they have released little since this album that I could really grab onto or identify with as a huge fan of their progressive metal beginnings of The Warning and their excellent 1982 EP.