The Friday Five - January 7, 2011

After a couple of weeks of missing my Friday update, I am pleased to be back on the iPod shuffle for the inaugural edition of 2011.

Your Creation – Souljah Fyah, Souljah Fyah

A mainstay on the Edmonton music scene, this locally grown reggae extravaganza are nationally recognized for good reason: they’re fantastic.  I’ve seen them play live in town more than a few times, but the one that sticks out is when I went to see them with my ex-sister-in-law.  It was the first time we had gone out together on our own, but we both had a thing for music more than the rest of the family, so it was a good gig-watching match.  The lead singer of the band, Janaya “Sista J” Ellis, was full blown pregnant at the time…up there on stage singing and jamming away with this huge belly out in front of her.  I remember it was around Christmas time; we had gone up to the merch table to buy CD’s and the band had run out.  So they created a sign up list for those that wanted one sent to them.  We both signed up and plunked down our ten bucks.  The next week, trudging through the quiet snow of the Holiday Season, there was Sista J coming to my house to hand deliver a signed copy of the CD.  Merry Chrsitmas.   

Criminal – Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP

I’ll spare you the history lesson on our white boy rapper.  I gotta be honest…for years I just couldn’t take the guy seriously.  Being an avoider of radio and all things like that, I had never actually heard any of his music until he was about 3 or 4 albums deep.  But while I had friends at the time who were into him, I just could not get over 1. His name (M&M?  Are you kidding me?) 2.his hair (I think dudes that bleach their hair blonde..well, you know) 3. White-boy rapper.  Similar to my stance on the Beastie Boys at the time, we were fresh off fiascos like Vanilla Ice and other jokes.  I thought Mr. Mathers was just another one of “those”.  Not the first time I was wrong.

Love Buzz – Nirvana, Bleach

I guess this could be considered the only single that was released from this album, which is Nirvana’s first.  As the story goes, Cobain felt pressured to write songs that fit into Seattle’s emerging “grunge” scene, which the record label was favoring.  Subsequently, Kurt didn’t really like the songs much and apparently wrote most of the lyrics for the songs the night before recording them.  Listening to them now, it’s pretty evident that he was pissed off while writing them.  It’s kind of a slow and heavy album, but it in the annals of time still a good one.

Jolene – The White Stripes, Under Great White Northern Lights

This is a live cover of the Dolly Parton classic.  Terrific song.  Julie’s best friend is named Jolene, who now lives in Chicago.  Somehow she brings a real elegance to the name and makes it seem as much of a timeless classic as Ruby.  I think under normal circumstances, it might be considered the Billy Bob of female monikers, but not in her case.  When Julie and I were in New Orleans, we were talking to a dude on the street who had a puppy; when Julie heard the puppy’s name was Jolene, she was elated!  During this past summer when our pal was back here visiting, we were all having a great time over some beers at the Empress.  In the half-drunken conversation, Julie and I promised that if we ever had a daughter, we would name her Jolene.  Well, we just found out a few weeks ago that we’re pregnant.  Hhmmm…Jolene, huh?  What middle name goes well with that?

Don’t Explain – Cat Power, Jukebox

This is from the second album of cover songs that Cat Power has released.  It’s originally a Billie Holiday song, but has been much covered in the past by the likes of Nina Simone, Etta James & Diana Ross.  Cat brings her simple and sparse sound to it and does pretty well, especially in the vein of leaving it jazz…for my money, at least.  I’m not a huge fan of hers, but I keep thinking I have to give her more of a shot and listen to a wider breadth of her stuff.  It has, however, given me the affirmation that it’s “okay” to make an album of covers.  Thank God.