NELSON RIDDLE ORCHESTRA . . . . . Route 66 Theme (opening theme) . . . . . Route 66 and Other Great TV Themes/More Hit TV Themes
PJ HARVEY . . . . . Black Hearted Love . . . . . A Woman A Man Walked By
MISSION OF BURMA . . . . . Falling . . . . . Onoffon
IT HUGS BACK . . . . . Now & Again . . . . . Inside Your Guitar
GUIDED BY VOICES . . . . . Fair Touching . . . . . Isolation Drills
EDDIE & THE HOT RODS . . . . . Do Anything You Wanna Do . . . . . Teenage Kicks
PAUL WELLER . . . . . A Bullet For Everyone . . . . . Illumination [Limited Edition w/ Bonus DVD]
MARK PICKEREL AND HIS PRAYING HANDS . . . . . Cody’s Dream . . . . . Cody's Dream
DAVID BOWIE . . . . . The Jean Genie . . . . . Aladdin Sane - 30th Anniversary Edition

CLEM SNIDE . . . . . Beard Of Bees . . . . . Hungry Bird
JOSH RITTER . . . . . Come And Find Me . . . . . Golden Age of Radio
DONOVAN . . . . . Colours . . . . . Donovan's Greatest Hits
GRIZZLY BEAR . . . . . Deep Blue Sea . . . . . Dark Was the Night
THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS . . . . . Myriad Harbour . . . . . Challengers
JOHN CALE . . . . . Things . . . . . Hobo Sapiens
M. WARD . . . . . Stars Of Leo . . . . . Hold Time
WILCO . . . . . Muzzle Of Bees . . . . . A Ghost Is Born

GENERATION X . . . . . Ready Steady Go . . . . . Perfect Hits 1975-1981
THE KINKS . . . . . Top Of The Pops . . . . . Lola versus Powerman and the Money-Go-Round, Part One
RANDY NEWMAN . . . . . Lonely At The Top . . . . . Sail Away
ELVIS PERKINS . . . . . Send My Fond Regards To Lonelyville . . . . . Elvis Perkins in Dearland
JOSEPH ARTHUR . . . . . Morning Cup . . . . . Could We Survive (Dig)
CAT STEVENS . . . . . On The Road To Find Out . . . . . Tea for the Tillerman
DEVOTCHKA . . . . . New World . . . . . A Mad and Faithful Telling

BO DIDDLEY . . . . . You Can’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover . . . . . The Story of Bo Diddley: The Very Best of Bo Diddley
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS . . . . . Every Day I Write The Book . . . . . Punch the Clock
THE MONOTONES . . . . . The Book Of Love . . . . . The Best of Chess Rock & Roll, Vol. 2
SPOON . . . . . The Book I Write . . . . . Stranger Than Fiction
CALEXICO . . . . . Writer’s Holiday . . . . . Carried to Dust
MINIBAR . . . . . Holiday From Myself . . . . . Road Movies
THE BEATLES . . . . . Magical Mystery Tour . . . . . Magical Mystery Tour
VAMPIRE WEEKEND . . . . . Walcott . . . . . Vampire Weekend
SPARKS . . . . . This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us . . . . . Kimono My House
THE CAESARS . . . . . In Orbit . . . . . Strawberry Weed

This show got off to a brooding start with a track from PJ Harvey's latest disc; her music at times brings up Mission of Burma for me, and they injected an energy boost that pretty much remained throughout the set. So we had a new one from It Hugs Back, who are all about the guitars and therefore fed nicely into Guided By Voices. An old favorite from the late '70s by Eddie and the Hot Rods was followed by Paul Weller expressing some anger, as he has been known to do on occasion in his career. I find the guitar rhythm on that one is similar to the title track from last year's disc by Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands, and that tune also has a bit of David Bowie in it, which is why we ended up there.

A lovely but sad tune from Clem Snide began this section and led to some early Josh Ritter that has a beautiful, flowing feel, much like the Donovan tune that followed. A new one from Grizzly Bear introduced a bit of melancholy, but only for a moment, as the New Pornographers added a lighter touch that was maintained by John Cale and then M. Ward, with one of the few tracks from his new disc that hadn't yet made it into the semi-weekly mix. At the end was Wilco, with a tune that brought us full circle through both its mood and its title.

Whenever there's a tune that's running around my head I can usually trace it to something I've recently read, seen or heard. Sometimes, however, songs just appear out of thin air, as was the case with the Generation X tune about an old British pop music TV show that began this set. That led to the Kinks singing about the experience of watching a record climb the charts, which in turn brought Randy Newman's take on what it's like after you've hit it big. That state of mind is probably not the same Lonelyville that Elvis Perkins is singing about on his new disc, but the tunes seemed to work pretty well back to back. There's a rhythmic strumming at the base of the Elvis Perkins tune that brought to mind Joseph Arthur from one of the four EPs he put out last year, and both tracks can be heard in the old Cat Stevens song that followed. Finishing it off was DeVotchKa, with what's turned out to be my favorite track from last year's very appealing disc.

I recently had a chance to see Cadillac Records, which I liked, but I couldn't help noticing how many Chess artists weren't mentioned at all in the story it told. I'm guessing they could only fit as many people as they did into a normal length film, but clearly there were some pretty important names missing. One for sure was Bo Diddley, and the track that kicked off this final section sent us down something of a literary path, at least for the opening portion. So we had Elvis Costello & the Attractions with an alternate, more stripped-down version of one his more poppy numbers, the Monotones with their big hit from 1958 and Spoon with one that can be found on the Stranger Than Fiction soundtrack. From there a bit of hitting the road slowly worked its way into the theme, starting with Calexico taking a break from the rigors of writing, Minibar taking a break from themselves and the Beatles adding some magic to the mix. Then it was Vampire Weekend with a great rollicking track about beating feet from Cape Cod for New Jersey, which conjured up an old Sparks tune about a potential showdown if one party doesn't leave, and then it was on to the Caesars leaving the planet altogether (metaphorically speaking, of course).

Here's another one from Vampire Weekend