Sit and Listen

DR: Ryan Adams released his umpteenth album, Ryan Adams, last week and JB and I felt like it was a perfect time to finally throw together our all-time top ten Ryan Adams song list. We’ve sort of collaborated on lists before, but never the same list, so this is going to be interesting. We did a little pre-work, each of us nominating songs to be considered. The point of that exercise was basically to help me brush up on the catalog – I’m not as well versed in anything after Love is Hell, which means depending on how this list shapes up, I might not even be remotely qualified to be having this conversation. Naturally, this means I’m going to lean heavily toward the Whiskeytown / Heartbreaker / Gold eras, while JB will help balance us out with the later stuff. This should be fun. Without further ado, let’s get started. I planned to kick things off with number ten, but I really need JB to set the tone for this list, otherwise it’s going to get out of hand really quick.

JB: Well, I truly intend to set the tone, but not in the way you think. Instead of giving you number 10, I am going to give you a couple that just missed the cut for me. Now keep in mind, with this type of back and forth we may not get everything out of our top 10, but it should be a little more representative and even involve a bit of strategery. The most difficult cut for me came in the form of Adams’ disarming cover of Oasis’ classic ‘Wonderwall’. Including this track may have been a form of cheating, but in this case it would have been worth it. Adams does so well to change the tone and highlight the amazing range in his vocal talent. This was a tough cut for me. Also missing the cut for me: ‘Two’, ‘Born Into a Light’, ‘Faithless Street’, and ‘Firecracker’. I never thought ‘Firecracker’ would miss the cut, but that should just whet your appetite for what’s to come.

DB: Not exactly what I was going for, but you did at least set the tone, so I’ll take it. I’m with you, ‘Firecracker’ was just outside the cut for me, but one of your other cuts is in my Top 10 so we’ll just have to see how this shapes up. Okay, let’s get this thing started.

10. ‘Nuclear’, Demolition
Did any of the critics actually like Demolition? I loved it, but it also came just as my Ryan Adams fandomonium was hitting its stride. Adams himself wasn’t a fan, though it had more to do with how the album was put together than the tracks themselves. Other personal faves include ‘Cry on Demand’ and ‘Desire’, and one more that I hope appears later in this list (that is, if I didn’t inadvertently eliminate it from the list with this pick.)

9. ‘Let it Ride’, Cold Roses (Disc 2)
His debut effort with the band the Cardinals. The band was formed informally in 2001 with JP Bowersock who he met through his neighbor. This double album is beyond solid and really brings Adams back to his alt-country roots, which I love as you will quickly be able to deduce from my contributions to this list. I fear this selection will leave one of my Whiskeytown favorites out in the cold, but that is the nature of this type of exchange so I will ‘Let it Ride’. In the end Cold Roses is too good an album to not have a selection on this list.

8. ‘Excuse me While I Break My Own Heart’, Strangers Almanac
Our first and unapologetically not our last Whiskeytown era track. This track somehow eluded my running list of Adams favorites over the years. It re-entered my consciousness while researching for this list and I just can’t believe I’ve been missing it all these years. Adams draws me in with a higher percentage of his moody, slower stuff, but I love this bit of uptempo goodness from him (ahem, them).

7. ‘When Stars go Blue’, Gold
This is the toughest call of them all in this format. It is safely in my Top 10, but I am afraid this is going to bump out some I had higher on my list. However, I think it makes sense on this list for many reasons. It is without a doubt his most commercially successful song, even though that success does not involve him on vocals, see Bono, Tim McGraw or Haley. I think this song is probably the best representation of Adams as a songwriter with its country pop sound. It also speaks to his greatness as a songwriter that he could write something that has been adapted so wonderfully by a disparate group of artists.

6. ‘Two’, Easy Tiger
Serendipitously, this song lands exactly where I wanted it, though it takes some of the luster off the shine knowing it was cut from your final ten. I went back and forth between putting this song and ‘Hallelujah’ from Demolition here, but this is clearly too high of a spot for ‘Hallelujah’ (which really belongs at 10 in a tie with ‘Nuclear’). The thing about ‘Two’ and the reason I had to put it here is that it’s my favorite song of anything Adams has released since Rock ‘n Roll. That alone doesn’t make it a top ten lock – it’s also one of the catchiest hooks, both in lyrics and melody, that Adams has produced in his prolific career. That makes it the kind of song that stays with you long after a listen and pops up from time to time in your mind whether you’ve heard it recently or not.

5. ‘To Be Young (is to be sad)’, Heartbreaker
The first entry (though I am sure not the last) from Adams’ debut solo effort. Written after a bad break up (ironically spelling the end of Whiskeytown), the album contains the highs and lows of someone dealing with heartbreak. ‘To be Young …’ is probably the highpoint tonally and my favorite up-tempo Adams song. The guitar riffs (and copious quantities of drugs) on this song carry you away and for that brief 3 minutes make you forget whats her name (I like to think it’s Parker Posey).

4. ‘Don’t Be Sad’, Pneumonia (Whiskeytown)
I struggled a lot with this pick. I originally had a second Gold track slotted for this spot, but weighing your feelings of ‘Don’t Be Sad’ gave me pause and forced me to reconsider. Gold is probably, from top to bottom, Adams’ most impressive work, but it doesn’t have the single that stands above anything that will make this top five. ‘Don’t Be Sad’ is a classic Adams fast moving ballad; a simple song with relatively few lyrics. But the depth contained in those few lyrics gets a lot of mileage out of the less than three and a half minute runtime.

3. ‘Hallelujah’, Demolition
Not sure I would have ever guessed two tracks from the jam session that became Demolition would make it on this list, but ‘Hallelujah’ is the type of Ryan Adams track I love the most, with its folky sound and country twang. It may not be how Adams views himself, but I think it is him at his best in part because it draws so strongly from his roots as a boy from eastern North Carolina (roots we share in common). As with a lot of his music, the lyrics center on who he is and who he wants to be, and that is something to which we all can relate. All in all, this is just a masterclass and while it is not my #1, at this point, we are splitting hairs.

2. ‘Oh My Sweet Carolina’, Heartbreaker
Ryan Adams. North Carolina. His home state. My home state. Need I say more? I’m a homer in the worst way and despite my best efforts at denial I can’t escape it. Ignoring that, I love this song and its beautiful simplicity. Earlier this year, I was reminded just how subtly powerful Adams’ vocals are when I watched a video of him performing a cover of ‘Neutron Dance’ at Code Conference. When I listen to ‘Carolina’ carefully enough, it amazes me how much you can get a similar sense of that power in such a quiet song. ‘Carolina’ is the ultimate achievement in songwriting, composition, and performance and belongs in the conversation of Adams masterpieces.

1. ‘Sit and Listen to the Rain’, Pneumonia (Whiskeytown)
JB: It was always going to be this song. In reality, this was a competition for second and while our personal list varied quite dramatically in some cases, this is the one we both agreed on. As I said earlier, Ryan Adams struggles with who he is, where he is from and what all that means. He is the boy who grew up in Jacksonville, NC, but he is also the man who burned the midnight oil in New York City, and the man who turned over a new leaf in Los Angeles. He has always longed to be somewhere else and be someone else, as he rifs, “Sit around, dream away the place I’m from.” It seems ironic that this journey has brought us home. The song that longs for the future, but was written at home. As you read this list and enjoy the sounds, it’s home that makes us who we are and shapes our future. It is all these places that makes Ryan Adams who he is, and while he has certainly burned bright I am just thankful he isn’t done writing his ‘Wonderwall’.

DR: Well said, JB. My appreciation for the song is probably a little more superficial, but no less significant. When I first heard ‘Sit and Listen to the Rain’ I knew immediately it had a permanent place in my all-time rotation. ‘Sit and Listen …’ is my go to song when I want to let my mind wander off and ponder; when I want to remember; when I want to dream. The best part for me through the years, whether real or imagined, is having this vision of Ryan Adams sitting on a porch somewhere in North Carolina writing this song. And so, sometimes when it rains, I’ll walk out to our front porch, sit, listen and wonder if that’s what he was feeling.

Photo Credit: Laura Musselman (via Flickr)

Benicio Del Toro as The Collector in Guardians of the Galaxy

Introducing … The Collector

Music group Spoon released a new album recently, and through various podcasts and blog posts, JB & I were separately introduced to this group who just released their eighth album. This kind of reminds me of that time last year when I was introduced to The National by a flood of locally-sourced tweets popping up on my timeline the night they played Red Hat Amphitheater, but I digress.

Anyway, in the midst of us sharing our newfound enthusiasm, lo and behold, we find out fellow NW contributor and longtime friend DG has been a fan of Spoon for years. Not only that, he has all of their albums. This prompted me to dub DG The Collector because this isn't the first time we've “discovered” a new band or artist and then find out that DG has their entire archive – not only does he collect, but he keeps his nuggets of joy all to himself.

Well we will have that no more. As part of the expansion of the content on Notably Worthless, I'm going to start checking in with DG on a regular basis, specifically to find out who he's figuratively spinning in iTunes or wherever else. We'll start with this, an email exchange ported to blog form. JB was listening in – err, reading in, that is – and his comments are included throughout.

So, DG, who have you been spinning most recently?

His initial response is a random link without explanation. I ask if that’s his answer, rambling between the two of us ensues until finally I press …

So, Dan, who you be spinning lately?

DG: Well so awkward question, last thing I bought was the ‘Guardians…’ soundtrack which ain’t exactly new.

Doesn’t have to be new, necessarily. If you care to elaborate on that, feel free. Otherwise, carry on with something new.

DG: Oh, Black Keys then. Got into them on the last album and really enjoying the current. ‘Little Black Submarines’ and ‘Fever’ are two tracks that amazingly for someone with my attention span I have yet to find the overplayed point on.

JB: They are also kid approved. At least my kid, that is.

DG: Also I heard Tom Petty's new album the other day, want to hear more.

On the Ryan Adams video, is this some type of Chris Gaines thing of him parodying Meat Loaf?

JB: Well, either way so happy to have him back in my life.

DG: I feel that's a pretty weak lead single, I'm not saying I'd skip it if it played after the lead single on an album but not sure it makes me want to go out and buy it as a single or album (yeah I'm kidding myself like I won't buy his album either way).

JB: It honestly amazes me there is an album of his I don’t own.

The conversation devolves from there, somehow getting on the topics of Mandy Moore, Avril Lavigne and the Nickelback guy, and so much much much more. I had to try to get us back on track.

Wow, Petty's back? JB and I were actually talking about the Traveling Wilburys a couple of weeks ago. I think there was a period where that's pretty much all we listened to on family road trips. Has there been anything like that in recent memory? A "supergroup" of sorts with that much talent?

DG: Way to date yourself, though that probably is the last "supergroup" of widely recognizable musicians that gets anywhere close. There is a lot of things that call themselves "supergroups" in that they are made up of members of other successful groups… Tired Pony with the lead singer of Snow Patrol and Zoey Deschanel is one but I don't know that they're that well known, Broken Bells with DJ Dangermouse and the lead singer of the Shins and the Postal Service which had Death Cab for Cutie's lead singer and other people most haven't heard of but are pretty successful producers. I think part of it is the atomization/increasing genrefication of music, there's not really as many universally recognized artists outside of pop and it's fairly common there for folks to feature others. Who would be of the universally recognizable stature of most of the Wilburies now?

Also, Spoon is headlining Hopscotch Festival Friday Sept. 5th.

You make a fair point about the lack of similarly recognizable figures. If you tried to put a group like that together today, you’re probably talking about a supergroup made up of Bono, Chris Martin, Beyonce, and Eminem.

Speaking of The Shins, have you heard any of the tracks from soundtrack rainmaker Zach Braff’s Kickstarter funded movie Wish I Was Here? He told Rolling Stone he set out to mix things up a bit this time around, seeking more original content and even personally commissioning a new track from The Shins. I have their song ‘So Now What’ and the song from the movie trailer (‘Hero’, by Family of the Year) in my everyday playlist and it seems like he’s succeeded again in single-handedly changing the shape of my recent downloads.

JB: Zach Braff sucks.

DG: NPR First Listen: Shovels and Rope Swimmin Time (now available for purchase on iTunes)

DR: Well, I don't think we could pick a better way to wrap up this month's interview. It's been a pleasure, gentlemen. I look forward to checking in with you next month!

Photo: © Copyright 2014 Marvel Entertainment

I Am Watching

Anyone who knows me could predict that my unblinking eyes will be glued to the screen tomorrow watching Apple’s latest media event, this one shaping up to be one of their biggest in a long long time. Tim Cook’s proclamations of upcoming new product categories have teased us enough and it’s time for Apple to start cashing some of those proverbial checks that his mouth’s been writing. Can you tell I’m excited?

What I’m not excited about however, is my ridiculous penchant for all things Apple and yet another electronic device to distract and hoard my attention. A new iPhone is a foregone conclusion in my cache of technical wares but I’ve been wearing the same watch for almost ten years now – it isn’t exactly something I’ve been itching to replace. If Apple announces an iWatch that fulfills everything I want, well I am in trouble.

Even if it falls short, I am not certain I will have the fortitude to resist. After all, my current watch is almost ten years old! Let’s just hope whatever is announced is less than extraordinary.

Pumpkin Donuts

The Harbingers of Autumn

In my neck of the woods, Labor Day has long marked the end of summer. But now, in the midst of the Great Coffee Comeback, purveyors of some of the nation’s favorite coffee and coffee accouterments now hold the responsibility of signaling the early start to fall. That’s right, there is no more substantial indicator that fall is near than the press releases announcing the return of the Pumpkin Spice latte (or ‘PSL’ as it is commonly referred) and the return of the pumpkin doughnut at Dunkin Donuts.

Ahh, the pumpkin doughnut, that pumpkinny sweet fried dough, glazed confection of autumnal perfection. Though I must confess that I am already familiar and enchanted with its sugary charms, I contend that it still qualifies as something I don’t need to know I like. Doughnuts aren’t a particular weakness of mine; I can easily down two faster than I can blink twice, but barely a bite into a third, I’m dizzy with sugar-induced queasiness. That said, two doughnuts in a blink isn’t exactly the healthiest snack and that’s why pumpkin doughnuts are my #TIDNTKIL nominee for the week.

Being

“You need to build an ability to just be yourself and not be doing something. That’s what the phones are taking away, is the ability to just sit there. That’s being a person. ”

Beach Weekend

I love the beach. And while I certainly wouldn’t mind being closer, I appreciate that Wrightsville Beach is only two hours away down a wide open highway. That short distance makes Wrightsville a de facto destination for me and my wife when we need a short getaway or a long weekend at the beach. Naturally, we’ve picked up a few favorite spots over the years. After visiting a few weeks ago and then again last weekend, I decided it was time to document the tried and true routine that serves as the backdrop of almost every trip.

We usually make it into town around lunch time or a little after, and the first day we like to stop by South Beach Grill for lunch on our way to the beach. Overall I’d say the food is pretty decent – definitely unique and more than you’d expect from what you see on the outside. We love sitting out on the covered patio. The view of the adjacent thoroughfare isn’t ideal, but the road noise as terrible as you’d think and there’s a decent view of the sound and marshes that really shines if you happen to be dining during sundown.

The next stop for us is usually the beach. Wrightsville Beach has a pretty expansive beachfront – plenty of room even on busy days when limited parking helps control the crowd more than anything else. And the water speaks for itself. Last weekend, I was neck deep in the water and I could still see my feet.

After a couple of hours on the beach, we’re ready to check-in to our hotel, shower, then head out for dinner, leading us to perhaps the most polarizing recommendation: Oceanic. Oceanic is your typical popular destination restaurant; you know the type of place where if you told a local you were going there they would condescendingly roll their eyes or patronizingly tell you, “oh yeah it’s … good”. Here’s the thing – Oceanic, much like the name implies, has a monopoly on the best ocean view or pier dining experience in Wrightsville Beach. Even if you have to settle for a window seat inside, the view is fantastic and is worth whatever opinion you have of the food. Much like South Beach Grill, the food is decent. I won’t promise you the meal of your life, but if you like eating on a pier or outside in general, the outdoor seating at Oceanic is worth waiting for.

I’ve never been a nightlife guy, though occasionally, my wife and I will venture out to a cocktail bar for drinks. On one of our trips last year, we spent an evening in nearby downtown Wilmington and had some drinks at Manna Ave. Like anyone else these days, I’m into bourbon and I enjoyed the bourbon cocktails on the menu. Manna Ave also happens to be the bar that introduced me to my everyday bourbon, Eagle Rare.

With most of our trips ending late Sunday morning, our stop on the way out of town is Sweet & Savory. A friend of mine who grew up in Wilmington mentioned it to me a few years ago and it’s been a staple of our weekend getaways ever since. I love the omelettes, usually something southwest or veggie in nature. One time they had a special southwest themed omelette featuring black beans that changed the way I look at breakfast menus and black beans. Timing is everything, as there’s typically a wait, but I don’t think we’ve waited much longer than 20 minutes during the last couple of visits.

That’s a weekend trip to Wilmington/Wrightsville Beach for us in a nutshell. I’m terrible about falling into a routine and hitting up the same spots – especially when it’s a place I only visit a few times a year – so I’m sure there are ton of classic gems I’m overlooking. Not only that, the area is growing like crazy and probably spawning new and interesting spots to check out.