Dark Meat

The annual Dark Meat Christmas show is upon us, coming as it does every year around this time. I’ve managed to dig up a pretty good selection of downer xmas music this time, repeating very little from previous years. Just goes to show there’s a limitless supply of Christmas culture.

* Residents – Lightning
* Spinal Tap – Christmas With The Devil
* The Tinkertones – The Christmas Sound
* Residents – Santa Dog (Fire)
* Johnathan Coulton – Christmas Is Interesting
* Candypants – The Happiest Time of the Year
* Bobbie Harper – Please Santa
* Al Russell – I Don’t Want To Be Alone For Christmas
* The Madison Elementary Children’s Choir – We Care About You
* Sparks – Thank God It’s Not Christmas
* June Christy – The Merriest

Here’s where to buy Strike’s Merry Kitschmas CD. Okay, that’s my good deed for the holidays.

 

 DM178 [37:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (248)

Avast, ye hearties! Hoist yourself aboard the podcast this week for a look at sea travel, above and below the surface. (Description not too precious, I hope – if it is, please don’t make me walk the plank. Yaaaaaaaaarrr.) Enjoy these songs – they’re all nicely written with strong hooks.

* Procol Harum – A Salty Dog
* Residents – Ships A’Goin’ Down
* TMBG – Cowtown
* Papas Fritas – Words To Sing
* Me First and the Gimme Gimmes – Come Sail Away
* Ani Di Franco – Little Plastic Castles
* Sugarplastic – Underwater
* Barnes & Barnes – Fish Heads
* Donavan – Atlantis

 

 DM057 [32:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (251)

You might find yourself doing a little shopping this month – Dark Meat provides a soundtrack for the weary purchaser. Don’t forget to pick up lots of booze and aspirin!

* Joe Jackson – $50 Love Affair
* Stan Ridgway – Salesman
* David Bowie – Try Some, Buy Some
* Fountains of Wayne – Bright Future in Sales
* Spinal Tap – Gimme Some Money
* Basement Jaxx Featuring Siouxie Sioux – Cish Cash
* Dave Frishberg – $7.50 Once A Week
* Tom Waits – Step Right Up

 

 DM177 [34:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (311)

A trip through one of the smallest towns in California (it’s actually not a town, it’s a “Census Designated Place”) occasions this show about small towns.

* Martin Denny – Quiet Village
* ELO – Down Home Town
* Joe Jackson – Home Town
* Tom Waits – In the Neighborhood
* Jonathan Coulton – Brookline (Demo)
* Barry Grey Orchestra – Four Feathers Falls
* Stan Ridgway – Roadblock
* Hedwig and the Angry Inch – Wicked Little Town
* Frank Sinatra – Watertown

 

 DM176 [34:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (240)

I am currently unattached. In the last month three of my friends broke up with their mates. Everybody I know is alone! If you’re alone too, just know that you’re not alone. I mean… look, never mind. Deal with it. Maybe these songs will help.

* Residents – Loneliness
* Joe Jackson – Solo (So Low)
* Beck – Go It Alone
* Loudon Wainright III – Living Alone
* David Bowie – The Loneliest Guy
* John C. Reilly – Mr. Cellophane
* Stan Ridgway – Walkin’ Home Alone
* Johnny Cash – I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
* They Might Be Giants – A Self Called Nowhere

BTW, an extra-special shout out for Loudon Wainright III’s Last Man On Earth. If you like this show, you are probably his target audience and you should definitely check it out.

 

 DM175 [34:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (233)

Rock music is great, isn’t it? But any time something gets popular, the big tent inevitably admits a few people you’d rather weren’t. These are the songs that give Rock ‘n’ Roll a bad name.

Warning: By the end of this show you may hate me, Rock and Roll, music itself, or any combination of these things.

* Dilater – Street
* The Brothers Four – Revolution
* Joe Pesci – Got To Get You Into My Life
* Sebastian Cabot – Like A Rolling Stone
* Barry Gray Orchestra – I’ve Got Something To Shout About
* Lucky Penny – Babes and Bombs
* The Shaggs – Things I Wonder
* Free Design – I Found Love
* April Stevens – I Want A Lip
* Barry Gray Orchestra – This Is The Twist
* Jamie Cullum – Wind Cries Mary
* Hayseed Dixie – You Shook Me All Night Long

 

 DM174 [36:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (222)

Hey, the show IS called Music For Depressives – why not play a handful of sad songs now and then eh? Plus it’s getting cold and all hope is draining out of the world. If not now, when? And if not us, who?

* The Who – Melancholia
* Leonard Cohen – Famous Blue Raincoat
* Simon And Garfunkel – The Dangling Conversation
* Don Maclean – Crying
* Combustible Edison – Cry Me A River
* BeBop Deluxe – Crying To The Sky
* Cowsills – A Time For Remembrance
* Dilator – Stranger In The House
* American Music Club – Goodbye To Love
* Beatles – I’m Down

 

 DM173 [35:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (239)

The creepy sound of the night… it’s our fourth annual Halloween show! No real theme this year aside from a serious attempt to weird you out. May I suggest an endless loop at your party?

* Bernard Hermann – The Nightmare
* Residents – The Electricutioner
* William Shatner – Mr. Tambourine Man
* Portal Soundtrack – Still Alive
* Devo – Shrivel Up
* Spinal Tap – Rock and Roll Nightmare
* They Might Be Giants – Cage and Aquarium
* Richard Cheese – Insane in the Brain
* Residents – God’s Magic Finger
* Laurie Anderson – From The Air
* Love – My Little Red Book

 

 DM172 [35:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (275)

It’s all indies this week, as I work through my guilt about violating the RIAA rules. Listen to great but unheralded music, and go onto iTunes and buy a few of these will ya?

* Song of the Sinking Woman – Revolving Doris
* Do Whatever – Scooters
* Goldfish and Cigarettes – Rich Grant
* Paragon of Mediocrity – Andrew Podos Orchestra
* All I Want is Misery – Selters
* Oil and Water – Withdrawal
* Chiron Beta Prime – Jonathan Coulton

 

 DM056 [30:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (256)

For the incredibly tiny number of my subscribers across the Pacific, a show about the East. Okay, it was just going to be about China until I realized that I have few China-based songs, then it was about China and Japan but I finally had to throw in a Vietnam tune as well. Sosumi.

* Graham Parker – Discovering Japan
* The Bird and The Bee – Love Letter To Japan
* The Vapors – Turning Japanese
* Pizzicato Five – The Girl From Ipanema
* Japan – Ghosts
* OMD – Enola Gay
* Residents – Japanese Watercolor
* Paul Hardcastle – Nineteen
* David Bowie – China Girl

 

 DM171 [33:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (276)