#poi dog pondering

[kckatie]

Bonus Folk Friday track: Poi Dog Pondering - Living With the Dreaming Body

[strange-messengers]

Poi Dog Pondering with Susan Voelz and Frank Orrall, 3TEN club, February 17, 2023

[jimflanigan]

Forgotten One-Hit Wonder - Feeling Lucky?

Forgotten One-Hit Wonder – Feeling Lucky?

I’m taking a real deep dive on this one. This song did chart on Billboard back in 1997 and was nominated for a Grammy in 1998, but I’ll bet you have never heard it. It got some radio airplay in Chicago and the Midwest along with some MTV and VH1 exposure, but was largely ignored. You can also ignore it. If you do, you’ll be missing a tight, snappy, catchy pop tune that will threaten to take up…

[differenthead]

Volume 216

Listen to Different Head, Vol. 216: "A Matter of Degrees" (Jul. 16, 2022) byDifferent Head on hearthis.at

Download

0:00:00 — "A Matter of Degrees" by John Doe (1990)

0:04:54 — "Oh (No Sense At All)" by Thelonious Monster (1989)

0:08:08 — DJ

0:10:59 — "Have a Nice Life" by Rubber Bush (1988)

0:14:05 — "Every Eunuch Can" by Rubber Bush (1988)

0:16:45 — "My Rockin' Horse Has Died" by Swallow the Bird (1987)

0:19:46 — "Liz Beth" by Eleventh Dream Day (1987)

0:23:32 — DJ

0:27:36 — "Kick Out the Jams" by Bad Brains with Henry Rollins (1990)

0:30:35 — "Need Some" by Jerry's Kids (1989)

0:33:18 — "Weinerschnitzel" by Descendents (1981)

0:33:30 — "Talk Hard" (Live) by Stan Ridgway (1991)

0:36:45 — "Zoo Radio" (Edit) by Cosmo Jimmy (1990)

0:38:10 — DJ

0:42:26 — "Love Feels Good on Me" by Alexandra (1989)

0:46:06 — "Freedom of Speech" by Above the Law (1990)

0:50:22 — "Escape from Reality" by Positively Black (1989)

0:54:16 — "Saturday Night Style" by Mikey Dread (1979)

0:58:32 — "Pulling Touch" by Poi Dog Pondering (1989)

1:03:45 — DJ

1:08:45 — "Grow Wild" by Hugo Largo (1987)

1:12:11 — "Tell Me When It's Over" by The Dream Syndicate (1982)

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

Living with the Dreaming Body • Fall Upon Me • Postcard from a Dream (Toast and Jelly) • Pulling Touch • Sound of Water • Fact of Life • Circle Around the Sun • Aloha Honolulu • Wood Guitar • Falling

Spotify

[dustedmagazine]

Mint Mile — Roughrider (Comedy Minus One)

Photo by Patrick Masterson

Mint Mile has been an active concern for going on a decade now, but the build has been slow: Three promising EPs were finally followed by a sweeping full-length that dropped the week after the bottom dropped out on reality and the pandemic began. Ambertron was a grand triumph in a year that did its best to stifle such art, but its casual, communal air felt out of sync in a year where easy connection was impossible. Like time and those of us that survived, however, the band has moved on. Those changes are well processed and documented on the appropriately titled Roughrider.

The best place to start with Roughrider might be right at the end with “I Hope It’s Different.” The alt-country ensemble SIlkworm’s Tim Midyett has been writing for and helming with the steady assistance of bassist Matthew Barnhart, guitarist Justin Brown and drummer Jeff Panall is here led by Nina Nastasia on vocals instead — an acclaimed songwriter in her own right whose “That’s All There Is” Silkworm covered way back in 2003. Nastasia looks optimistically to what comes next as she sings “I hope it’s different / Not just another good time / Insulated by uncomfortable lies” set to the band’s twangy slow dance and given added flourish by Poi Dog Pondering’s Susan Voelz organization of the strings. It’s like opening a window and walking outside, the promise of fresh air and a new environment before you after Midyett’s scrawling shifts and meandering moods.

That doesn’t mean “I Hope It’s Different” is the best song here, exactly. Mint Mile has taken up the mantle of the kind of unspooling Americana Jason Molina used to excel at so well, which is a funny thing to say given Roughrider’s brevity relative to Ambertron. Even so, the band is firing on all cylinders here regardless of track length; “Interpretive Outlook” does every bit as much with its sub-three-minute runtime as “Brigadier” does pushing eight. The breadth of musicianship is on full display and Midyett’s songwriting expands or contracts to fit the music as needed; his roughened, unsparing delivery had me recalling early Jets to Brazil and Lucero.

But perhaps even more so than Ambertron, this is a record about community. To wit: The band shines brightest when the core four are accompanied, which is almost always. The fluid grace of Brown’s pedal steel guitar and Barnhart and Panall’s anchoring rhythm section never sounds better than when there’s just a little something extra — Susan Voelz’s violin, say, or Alison Chesley’s cello. I was disappointed to discover frequent associate Howard Draper did not bring back the “magic spackling thing” as a credit from Ambertron, but nevertheless, his piano, organ and lap steel guitar frequently add a magic touch where an otherwise strong song could’ve settled. There’s Corvair’s Heather Larimer lending vocal assistance on “Empty Island.” And for Silkworm fans, “Halocline” and “S c ent” each feature Joel R.L. Phelps on saxophone. You could write out the whole list of credits for how many contributors are worth noting and for how much they add to make such a satisfying record.

As with Ambertron, though, the best songs on Roughrider happen when Mint Mile piles on the people in a gradually growing jam that stretches the band’s legs. Mirroring “The Great Combine” and “Amberline,” “S c ent” and “Brigadier” probably started as simple singer-songwriter sketches but grew into enormous, swooning spins. MIdyett appropriately struggles on “Brigadier” to hit an attempt at his highest registers as he sings “Can’t overcome the life we made” while the strings skitter and Panall’s percussion finally brings the band to a crashing finish, where Draper’s pulsing, spirit-cleansing organ takes you out. It’s a real thing of beauty.

The whole album and band — really, we should be more generous and call them a collective — is a thing of beauty. Once again, Mint Mile has delivered music with weathered emotional complexity that retains an open-ended sense of optimism that, maybe from now on, the ride won’t be so rough. How easy it is to fall for that kind of burdened but unbeaten perspective.

Patrick Masterson

[sideshow-tornado]

17, 22, 26, 30 ❤️

17:A song that would sing a duet with on karaoke - Meatloaf’s “Paradise By the Dashboard Light” the dream would be to duet the song with Miss Piggy, but any good female singer I have chemistry with would also lovely.

22:A song that moves you forward - “From this Moment On” by Poi Dog Pondering usually does the trick. “Perfect Games” by The Broken West, “Rio” by Hey Marseilles

26:A song that makes you want to fall in love - “Forever and For Always” by Shania Twain. “Heartbeats” by José González, “Wolves” by Josh Ritter”, “Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing” by The Magnetic Fields, “All of Me” by John Legend, “Something” by The Beatles….

30:A song that reminds you of yourself - “Good Man” by King Straggler (fronted by character actor John Hawkes)

Thank you 😊

[mod2amaryllis]

whenever i get a song that's like "is this sans or frisk" i know it's doing something right

[asterlark]

🎶 i feel like you might like vance gilbert who i grew up listening to? if these teardrops had wings / icarus by night / jimmy falls in love are some of my faves of his. also i love poi dog pondering especially spending the day in the shirt that you wore and the watermelon song

oooh love this vibe!! very nostalgic and familiar even tho i didn't grow up on it

i'm gonna recommend you amos lee- specifically his self-titled album and the songs "arms of a woman" and "colors" :)

(send me a 🎵 and a song/artist rec, i'll listen and send one back!)

[dogencool]

Got tagged by @beastdyke​ to do a music list and now is when I remind everyone that I am obsessed with the 70s and that Rock Band games irreparably broke my taste in music as a child:

The B-52′s - There’s A Moon in The Sky (Called The Moon)

Cheap Trick - She’s Tight

Dead Kennedys - Police Truck

Electric Light Orchestra - Livin’ Thing

Helen Reddy - Angie Baby

Iron Maiden - The Trooper

Off Broadway - Full Moon Turn My Head Around

Poi Dog Pondering - That’s The Way Love Is

Prince - Little Red Corvette

Ramones - Bonzo Goes To Bitburg

I never want to put someone on the spot with tagging, but if you see this and want to do it, please do! You can say I tagged you or not, I’d just love to see others’ picks!

[etakeh]

@thedeviladvocatesme tagged me...and this is always a hard one because I have so many playlists. 

So I said fuck it and just...put it to my entire music collection. 

And my media player crashed.

Ooops.

But it’s back!

So prepare to laugh at me. My 10 songs that came up on shuffle

1. Requiem for the Lost Ones - Bleach soundtrack

2. So Lonely - The Police

3. Baghdad - Jesse Cook

4. Killer in the Home - Adam and the Ants

5. Thanksgiving - Poi Dog Pondering

6. Possum of the Grotto - Rasputina

7. Lullaby - The Cure

8. Romanesque - Buck-Tick

9. Nythod Cacwn - Super Furry Animals

10. Behind the Sun - RHCP

I’ll be honest, I did skip quite a few video game soundtrack/movie scores because y’all there’s a much higher number of those than anything else.

Not going to tag anyone because I’m chickenshit, but I’d really love to see the results of anyone who sees this.

[kckatie]

Tonight’s Folk Friday earworm: Poi Dog Pondering - Postcard from a Dream (Toast and Jelly)

[unloneliest]

the watermelon song by poi dog pondering will always be one of the most romantic songs of all time to me

[lalaloobzy]

🎶✨️when u get this u have to put 5 songs u actually listen to, publish. Then, send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers ✨

Ooo ok, here's 5 random comfort songs of mine

Pure - Lightning Seeds

Last Night I Nearly Died - Duke Special

And Dream of Sheep - Kate Bush

Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel

Everybody's Trying - Poi Dog Pondering

[petnews2day]

Poi Dog Pondering returning to RiverEdge Park in Aurora this summer – Chicago Tribune

New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/umVPj

Poi Dog Pondering returning to RiverEdge Park in Aurora this summer – Chicago Tribune

Poi Dog Pondering returns Aug. 26 to RiverEdge Park in Aurora for an outdoor show. A news release describes the band as having “defied categorization for over 30 years with their genre-bending sound that blends rock, folk, jazz and world music into a unique sonic tapestry.” The show is at 8 p.m. Early bird discount […]

See full article at https://petn.ws/umVPj #DogNews

[jswdmb1]

That's The Way Love Is

"Love is leaving without reason

Feelings change just like seasons

And no, nothing's the same

There's no use in pretending

I can hide the pain"

Poi Dog Pondering (Ten City cover)

Getting married brings with it a lot of logistical things that you don’t really think about before you do it.  Some are fun, like buying a house or planning a honeymoon, while others, like deciding how finances will work, may end things before it even gets started.  Then, there is the stuff that is mundane but sometimes perplexing.  For me, the most awkward of these tasks was figuring out what I would call my mother-in-law and father-in-law.  I didn’t know them very long before I proposed, so not much protocol had been established.  We were casual about things, so “Mr. & Mrs. Cecchini” didn’t work, and neither did “Mom & Dad” (I already had those).  I settled the matter by not referring to them as anything.  If I couldn’t speak to them directly, I would ask my wife to ask her mom or dad for whatever I needed.  It came up more rarely than you would think, so this was a good temporary solution.

Having children relatively shortly after the wedding gave me an out.  They were now “Meme and Grandpa,” which stuck for a while, especially when the kids were young.  Then, a few years ago, we got some bad news.  My mother-in-law was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, an uncommon form of dementia.  Its effects are quick and devastating, and she passed away just a few months later at the all too young age of 70.  It was especially tough to take because my dad had died just six months before she passed, so my family’s life was in quite a bit of disarray.  In addition to grieving, we needed to now support two widowed parents.  It certainly put the worry of how to address my father-in-law on the back burner.

This is where my wife, Sarah, comes in and shows the world what it means to love your parents unconditionally.  Through tireless efforts, she found him a wonderful home with an organization called Senior Home Sharing (https://www.seniorhomesharing.org).  You can check out their website to see what they do in more detail, but briefly, they are a home for independent seniors who need help adjusting to life on their own but don’t need assistance with day-to-day activities.  They provide room, board, and a sense of community that is hard to replicate.  We found that out when Sarah’s dad moved in with us for a few months during COVID.  We were happy to have him, but we have an old house with many stairs, which is not great for someone with mobility issues.  We were also busy most days with work, school, and life stuff that left him in his room a lot with the TV.  Senior Home Sharing allowed him to grow a bit beyond his normal zone, and it was then that the relationship between him and me changed.

Based on the timing of my dad’s death, it would have been easy to just say to Mike, “hey, you need someone, and I need a dad, so let’s make a deal,” but it doesn’t work that way.  Once a parent passes away, there is no replacement, regardless of how good or bad your relationship was with them. But, I did have a void in my life, and so did he, so it made sense that we could find a way to help each other.  We didn’t necessarily become best buds hanging out every night at the bar (neither of us drank, so that wouldn’t have made sense anyway).  Still, we connected more than before, especially when he lived with us.  

I’m a big fan of history and old tv shows, so I enjoyed flipping on a WWII documentary or an old episode of Hawaii 5-0 and hanging out with him.   I would pester him with questions along the way, as I do to everyone, and he humored me by listening to my schtick, which made me quite happy.  At this point, I thought we were less like father/son-in-law and more like a couple of roommates who were very different but could find some common ground to enjoy each other’s company.  It was during this time that I started calling him Mike (his given name is Joseph, but everyone called him by his middle name, Michael or “Mike”).  After all those years of avoiding the topic, we finally progressed to a real adult relationship where we called each other by first names and didn’t worry about the customs or logistics around it.   It created something unique that I began to appreciate as time passed, even when Mike occasionally frustrated me with this, that, or whatever (as most roommates do).  But ultimately, he was such a good guy that any issues were quickly resolved, and we moved forward.

This became more difficult a year ago when Mike's serious health issues became critical.  Mike lived a hard life, which took a toll on his body.  I won’t go into details, but let’s just say that doctors seeing him for the first time on one of his many trips to the hospital would go bug-eyed looking at his chart.  To his credit, Mike was one of the toughest SOBs I have ever met.  He was in on separate occasions for kidney failure, chest pains, a minor stroke, and a broken hip, among other ailments, and he bounced back each and every time.  On several occasions, I left the hospital sure I would never see him again.  Then two days later, I’d go back, and he would be sitting up eating lunch and asking about his truck.  It perplexed even the medical staff when they would go to release him.  They would recommend hospice one day, and the following have to figure out a rehab plan for him (which he would eventually complete successfully).  With my macabre sense of humor, I couldn’t help but start calling him “Lazarus.” Mike never took himself very seriously, so he got a good laugh at that one when I finally told him.  But it was a compliment as I have never seen such a resolve to persevere through pain and suffering. 

While we were pleased to see him return from these trips, we knew they were taking their toll.  He eventually had to move to a skilled nursing home as his care became more than even an assisted living arrangement could provide.  On the visits my wife and I made over the past few weeks, we could see that he was deteriorating, and the suffering was getting hard to watch.  He had constant nausea and couldn’t hold any food down, which was startling given his big appetite in his younger days (legend has it that he was once asked to leave an all-you-can-eat buffet because he had run them out of fried chicken).  A couple of days ago, I went on a solo visit to drop some things off and see how he was doing.  I could tell right away that he was in some real pain.  

My usual job on visits to Mike was always to be a bit of a court jester, and there was no way I was letting him down now.  On a visit a couple of weeks prior, I came in the room and saw he was watching Yo MTV Raps!  There are not many sure things in life, but I was absolutely certain that Mike was not a big fan of ’90s hip-hop videos.  I asked what was up with that, and he said it had been on for a few days, and he indeed was not a fan.  He was having some trouble cognitively, and the smart TV provided a challenge, which accounted for the issue.  After a good chuckle, I went through his TV, hid all but a few channels, and left with MeTV on.  I figured that would always have something okay on it.  When I came in on this last visit, I saw MeTV had on an A-Team episode.  It was one where the gang gets involved in solving some sort of art heist racket that I found far-fetched but still entertaining.  I asked him if this was better than Yo MTV Raps!  And got a smile out of him.  We also agreed there is zero point in disagreeing with B.A. Baracus, but it seems to keep happening anyway. That got another smile, and with that, my job was done.  

As I was leaving, an episode of MASH came on.  Mike always thought it was funny that I was obsessed with that show (I can’t explain it – but I have watched every episode at least 10 times).  I told him I felt okay leaving him because he was in the good hands of Hawkeye and Col. Potter.  It wasn’t my best material, but it got the point across.   When I got home, I filled Sarah in on the visit.  I suggested that his condition had progressed to a new level, and we needed to find ways to make him more comfortable.  We never got the chance.  The call came at 7;00 the following day that he was back in the hospital and that Sarah should come quickly.  She held his hand as he passed later that morning.  It was peaceful, and it mercifully put an end to his suffering.  Mike used every ounce of his strength to live and never gave up.  He deserved this dignified ending with the most important person in his life right at his side.  

When you think about death, it’s an awful and beautiful moment at precisely the same time.  It’s something bewildering yet offers proof that this life is more than the mundane things we worry about, like what we will call our in-laws.  My time with Mike also taught me never to assume anything about anyone until you really know them.  Otherwise, you could be missing out on some great stuff.  In my case, I never would have had the opportunity to get to know the purest human being I had ever met.  At fifty years old, I thought I was done learning, but Mike has given me a gift.  He has shown me that love is hiding everywhere.  It’s just not always obvious.  But when things line up right, and you keep your mind open, a beautiful relationship comes when you least expect it. I will be forever grateful to Joseph Michael Cecchini for teaching me that lesson. Rest peacefully, my friend.