Suzanne Vega - Calypso

Today's Hump Day Retro-Closet track is from Suzanne Vega who I love because she writes very intelligent literate songs. While attending college at Bernard College, she was a regular contributor to Jack Hardy's Monday night songwriters' group at the Cornelia Street Cafe and had some of her first songs published on Fast Folk anthology albums. In 1984, she received a major label recording contract, making her one of the first Fast Folk artists to break out on a major label.

Her self-titled debut album was released in 1985 and reached platinum status in the United Kingdom and got great reviews from critics. She then release Solitude Standing in 1987, which was a critical and commercial success with two hit singles, Luka and Tom's Diner. Luka was unique in that it was one of the first successful pop songs to really address child abuse. Tom's Diner was one of the first songs used in testing the MP3 format, making Vega the 'Mother of MP3'. Tom's Diner was released as an a cappella tune and also made into a dance track my UK's DNA.

Trivia: The diner shown in Seinfeld episodes is the Tom's Diner from the song.

Vega continues to record and release music, not for commercial success, but the songs that she wanted to write. Calypso is off the Solitude Standing release. Although Luka and Tom's Diner were the hits from this album, Calypso was always the song that I gravitated to when I was was listening to the album.

Dolores O'Riordan - Human Spirit

Former singer for the Irish group, The Cranberries, Dolores O'Riordan, took several years off after the band breakup in 2001, to take care of family affairs. In 2006, she went back to the studio to record a solo album.

During the time between 2001 and 2006, she was not musically inactive. In 2004, she teamed up with Italian artist, Zucchero and recorded 'Pure Love' for his album Zu & Co. The same year, she worked with composer Angelo Badalamenti on the Evilenko soundtrack, providing vocals on several tracks, including "Angels Go The Heaven", the movie theme. In 2005 she appeared on the Jam & Spoon's album Tripomatic Fairytales 3003 as a guest vocalist on the track "Mirror Lover". O'Riordan also made a cameo appearance in the Adam Sandler comedy Click, as a wedding singer performing an alternate version of The Cranberries' song "Linger", set to strings.

In 2006, she went into the studio to record her first solo album, Are You Listening. Human Spirit is a excellent tune of he debut solo release. Her second solo release, No Baggage, was release in August of this year.

Donovan Frankenreiter - Move By Yourself

Donavon Frankenreiter is a long-time friend of Jack Johnson, sharing music and surfing. As a teenager, he took up surfing in San Clemente, California, and was signed to a sponsorship deal with Billabong. This allowed him to travel which is where he met Johnson. He rented a room in North Shore, Oahu, Hawaii, from Jack Johnson's parents. They formed a strong surfer-musicians friendship which may be why they both have a similar sound.

His early music career is not as well known as he does not talk about it in interviews, so many believe he is fairly new He played in local bands, but in 1996 he began to seriously pursue a musical career when he formed the band Sunchild. He did not sing, but played lead guitar. They released two very hard to find albums.

In 2000, he went solo, recording a self-titled debut on Johnson's Brushfire records. Johnson produced and appears on the album. Frankenreiter has released 3 more albums, 2 EPs and a DVD since going solo. He has built up a large fan following around the world. His music has become more polished, but has never lost that free-spirit surfer feel that makes you want to just kick back relax, have a cold one and enjoy the tunes.

Move By Yourself is a perfect Frankenreiter tune off his 2006 release of the same name.

Dean & Britta - Night Nurse

Dean & Britta are the duo of Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips. They were both former member of Luna. Wareham was a founding member in 1992 and Britta joining in 2000 as a replacement bassist. In 2003, Wareham was working on a solo project when he heard Phillips demo tapes. He asked her to join him and they released L'Avventura as Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips.

After Luna broke up in 2005, Wareham and Phillips teamed up again and worked on several film scores and on a Luna documentary. Later, in 2006, they went back into the studio to record a follow up to L'Avventura. During the recording, they married and released the album under the shortened name, Dean & Britta.

Night Nurse is off their debut release L'Avventura.

José González - Time To Send Someone Away

José González hails from Sweden (didn't see that one coming, did you?). He is of Argentine descent and his parents moved to Sweden 2 years before he was born. To continue the contradictions, although his current music is solo classical guitar with soft vocal melody, his prior musical groups were a hardcore punk band and a rock band.

He recorded his debut album, Veneer, in 2003 while still studying for a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Gothenburg. His PhD has been put on hold since his musical career has taken off.

Time To Send Someone Away is off his second full release, In Our Nature. González lyrics on In Our Nature were influenced by his reading of books like The God Delusion by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and Practical Ethics by ethicist Peter Singer.

Lizzie West - Dusty Turnaround

Lizzie West is a free spirit musician who's music represents her very well. She moved to London when she was 18 and after returning to America four years later she purchased her first guitar from a pawn shop in Nashville. Moving back to New York City, she began performing her songs on street corners, subways, and her sister's bar, the Stinger, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. After touring with the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band and Double Trouble in 2001, she caught the attention Warner Bros. Records and signed a multi-album recording deal. However, she only released her debut album on Warner Bros.

Her current work is called Midwestern Tumbleweed, a cabaret style musical show that is evolving along with her artist's coop initiative based in two houses, one in Columbia, Missouri and the other in New York.

Dusty Turnaround is off her excellent debut album, Holy Road. (although this version is from a Live From Studio M.

Yo La Tengo – Mr. Tough

Yo La Tengo has been called "the quintessential critics' band" and has a strong cult following. The band was formed in 1984 by husband/wife duo, guitarist Ira Kaplan and drummer Georgia Hubley and solidified into a trio with bassist James McNew. They love to explore and expand their music with each album; doing a full acoustic album covering songs from almost everybody, recording the instrumental score for eight short undersea documentaries by Jean Painlevé and even collaborating with Yoko Ono on the 2003 charity album Wig in a Box: Songs from and Inspired by Hedwig and the Angry Inch in support of the Harvey Milk High School.

Mr. Tough is a fun track off one my favorite album titles, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass.

Great Trivia: The name "Yo La Tengo" (Spanish for "I've got it!") came from a baseball anecdote. During the 1962 season, New York Mets center fielder Richie Ashburn and Venezuelan shortstop Elio Chacón found themselves colliding in the outfield. When Ashburn went for a catch, he would scream, "I got it! I got it!" only to run into Chacón, who spoke only Spanish. Ashburn learned to yell, "¡Yo la tengo! ¡Yo la tengo!" instead. In a later game, Ashburn happily saw Chacón backing off. He relaxed, positioned himself to catch the ball, and was instead run over by left fielder Frank Thomas, who understood no Spanish and had missed a team meeting that proposed using the words "¡Yo la tengo! as a way to avoid outfield collisions. After getting up, Thomas asked Ashburn, "What the heck is a Yellow Tango?".

Pink Martini - Let's Never Stop Falling In Love

Portland Oregon band Pink Martini is a difficult band to categorize. They blend genres of music such as Latin, lounge, classical, and jazzand their music has often been described as "vintage music". Band Leader, Thomas Lauderdale describes the band's sound as "music of the world without being world music. It's kind of like urban symphonic crossed with Cuban/Brazilian street Carnival parade, Breakfast at Tiffany's/United Nations kind of thing." Ok, got that?

However you describe their music, it is a wonderful listen. Their music has appeared in several film such as Nurse Betty and Mr. & Mrs. Smith; television shows such as The Sopranos and The West Wing. Their music is even the background/setup music for Microsoft's Windows Server 2003.

They released their debut album, Sympathique, in 1997 on their own label, Heinz Records, and sold over 1.3 million copies. It took seven years to release their follow up, Hang On Little Tomato, which starts with the track Let's Never Stop Falling In Love.

R.E.M. - Driver 8

R.E.M. is a one of a long line of great eclectic musical artists from Athens, GA (e.g. Indigo Girls and B-52's). The group began with a chance meeting at the record store where Peter Buck worked. Michael Stipe kept buying all the records that Buck was setting aside for himself and Buck wanted to know who was this guy who seemed to share his own musical tastes. They then met Mike Mills and Bill Berry and formed a band with no real plan on what they would do. Their first gig was a birthday party and they had to come up with a name, so settled on the name R.E.M., which Stipe pulled randomly from a dictionary.

They recorded their first song, Radio Free Europe, which became an underground college hit. Buck's arpeggiated guitar playing and Stipe's mumbling unclear vocals created a unique sound. They toured extensively in the early 80's and built up a large college radio following with a string of college hit releases: Murmur, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction showed their musical development.

Each release saw Stipe's vocals become clearer and the songs more polished and they finally 'made it' when the song, The One I Love, off their Document release, reached #2 in 1987.

Their sound has changed a lot over the years, but I always seem to gravitate back to those first 3 albums and marvel at how good their un-polished and raw sound was.

So today's Hump Day Retro-Closet track is Driver 8 off their 3rd full release, 1985's Fables of the Reconstruction.

Rusted Root - Dance In The Middle

Pittsburgh based, Rusted Root, burst on to the scene in 1992 with the single Send Me On My Way off their second album When I Woke. A working touring band, they traveled extensively to support their albums, releasing 5 albums in 10 years. Although still occasionally touring, the band members went their separate ways and pursued solo projects. Drummer Jim Donovan has released five highly acclaimed solo CDs as well as four instructional drumming CDs and became a full-time instructor of music at Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania.

Rusted Root recently returned to the studio in released their 6th studio album, Stereo Rodeo which contains the track Dance In The Middle.

Lucinda Williams - If Wishes Were Horses

Lucinda Williams born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, is the daughter of poet and literature professor who worked as a visiting professor in Mexico and different parts of the American South before settling at the University of Arkansas. Williams started writing when she was 6 years old, was playing guitar at 12 and had her first live performance in Mexico City at 17, as part a duo with her friend.

She release her first albums (traditional country and blues) in 1978 and 1980, to little success. It was the song 'Passionate Kisses' off her 1988 self-title release that was covered by Mary Chapin Carpenter in 1994 that began her climb to fame. She got a Grammy for Best Country Song for the song in 1994. Her 1998 release, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, is her most successful release to date and she garnered another Grammy for it. She has continued to release albums to critical acclaim, but not the same commercial success although she did get a 3rd Grammy for Best Female Rock Performance for her single, Get Right With God.

If Wishes Were Horses is off her latest release, Little Honey.

Interesting Note: In the fall of 2007, Williams announced an unprecedented series of shows in Los Angeles and New York. Playing five nights in each city, it was the first time a major artist would perform her entire catalog on consecutive nights. These albums include the self titled Lucinda Williams, Sweet Old World, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Essence, and World Without Tears. Since these shows, other artists have imitated this idea in different variations, but to date no else has accomplished this exact feat. Each night also featured a second set with special guest stars.

Golden Smog - Ill Fated

Golden Smog is a loosely connected group of musicians comprised, at various times, of members of Soul Asylum, The Replacements, Wilco, The Jayhawks, Run Westy Run, The Honeydogs and Big Star. Golden Smog's lineup has often changed, but relative constants who appear on all the recordings are guitarists Kraig Johnson (Run Westy Run), Dan Murphy (Soul Asylum) and Gary Louris (The Jayhawks), along with bassist Marc Perlman (The Jayhawks).

Their beginnings are a bit fuzzy due to their evolving nature. But it is said they debuted in January 1987, when a band billed as 'The Take It To The Limit Band' played an (almost) all-Eagles cover show at the Uptown Bar in Minneapolis. This band consisted of Dan Murphy and Dave Pirner (both of Soul Asylum), Jim Boquist (later of Son Volt), and Martin Zellar (Gear Daddies). The show ended with a cover of then Bangles hit song "Walk Like an Egyptian." This same group later played a Rolling Stones-themed show in 1989 under the band name "Her Satanic Majesty's Paycheck."

They finally appeared under the name Golden Smog in 1989 in Minneapolis and released their first album, an EP called On Golden Smog, in 1992.

The group took their name from the name of a Flintstones character, which, in turn, was a parody of singer Mel Tormé's nickname (The Velvet Fog).

Ill Fated is off their 1995 recording, Down By The Old Mainstream.

Grant Lee Buffalo - My, My, My

Former members of the Los Angeles based band, Shiva Burlesque, Grant-Lee Phillips, Paul Kimble and Joey Peters fromed Grant Lee Buffalo. They had a very American sound with elements of old-fashioned country music. Many of their songs had a political and social aspects to their lyrics. They tackled issued like the the Waco siege, the murder of Yoshihiro Hattori and the Oklahoma City bombing.

My, My, My is off their 1998 release Jubilee. After the release, the band broke up and Phillips continued to pursue a solo career.

Poi Dog Pondering - Catacombs

Poi Dog Pondering has changed a lot over the years. One thing has not changed, though, they continue to remain eclectic. They do not have a 'sound' like other bands, but are a broad mixture of musical influences. Vocalist/guitarist Frank Orrall is the driving force behind the band which has changed musicians since they originally formed in Waikiki in 1986. Even problems with their record label forced them to create their own label, Plate.tec.tonic. But the continued to release music and tour.

Catacombs is off their 1995 release Pomegranate, an album of great diverse pop songs, ballads and dance tunes. After several years off, Poi Dog released the album 7 in 2008.

Björk – Isobel

Bottom line. Either you like Björk or you don't. There's not really any middle ground. I am a big Björk fan from her days with the Sugarcubes. She has such a unique voice that can go from whisper to wail in 2 seconds.

Described as Avant-Pop, Björk has continued to interpret the music in her own unique style, releasing many excellent solo albums after leaving the Sugarcubes.
Isobel, off her Post album displays Björk's range..

Breaks Co-Op - The Otherside

New Zealand band, Breaks Co-Op, released their first album in 1997. After that, band members Zane Lowe and Hamish Clark both left New Zealand to pursue other interested.
In 2004, they reunited, wrote new material and released their second album, The Sound Inside, which produced the song The Otherside, which was a #1 hit and Song of the Year in New Zealand. The band relocated to the UK and released the album on parlophone records.

Shivaree - Goodnight Moon

Shivaree took their name from a noisy mock serenade for newlyweds. Originating in the San Fernando valley, Shivaree is made up of Ambrosia Parsley (vocals), Danny McGough (keyboard), and Duke McVinnie (guitar). While McGough and McVinnie had a prior musical background touring and playing with many artists, Ambrosia, left home at age 13 to travel the county and pursue her love of music before meeting up with McGough and McVinnie.

They gain their inspiration from primarily Southern ideas and memes, and cite William Faulkner as an influence. Goodnight Moon, off their I Oughtta Give You a Shot in the Head for Making Me Live in This Dump debut release, is also included as the ending credits in Kill Bill 2 and a few Dawson Creek episodes.

Cary Brothers - Ride

Listen on imeem.com <-- What's this?

Cary Brothers has used quite a unique method to reach his listeners. In 2004, he hit upon an idea for connecting with potential listeners by providing a free, downloadable "song of the week," that would allow fans to send him feedback on what they liked and what, for them, could use some retooling.

His college friendship with actor Zach Braff gave him the opportunity to air his music on the TV show Scrubs and the Braff written and produced movie Garden State.

Ride is off his 2005 EP Waiting for Your Letter.

Chester French - She Loves Everybody

Full Track on imeem. <-- What's this?

Chester French took their name from the Lincoln Memorial sculptor Daniel Chester French. Why, I have no idea.

Vocalist/songwriter D.A. Wallach and multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Maxwell Drummey met while freshmen at Harvard. She Loves Everybody is off their album Love The Future, which they completed and released in the spring of 2007 at the same time they graduated from Harvard.

Cibo Matto - Spoon

Cibo Matto (italian for 'food madness') is two Japanese-born women who both came to New York separately, met and formed the band. They blend several styles together to create music with a great groove. Both come from strong music backgrounds with Yuka Honda as a one-time member of Brooklyn Funk Essentials and Miho Hatori as a member of the Japanese rap group, Kimidori. They eventually went their own ways with Hatori teaming up with Gorillaz and Honda doing some producing.

Spoon off their 1999 release, Stereo Type A has an awesome groove. Cibo Matto has musical help from the likes of Sean Lennon and John Medeski and Billy Martin of Medeski, Martin & Wood.