Fingertips

With this new playlist, I also arrive to announce that it’s time for another Fingertips hiatus. I’ll be taking a few months off, so no more song reviews or playlists until (at least) February 2027. This time I’m leaving things potentially open-ended. I want to feel into what it’s like to relieve myself of all self-imposed tasks associated with running Fingertips. If I like how it feels the sabbatical may continue indefinitely, with perhaps the occasional playlist popping up from time to time.

Thanks to everyone out there reading this, in particular you long-term visitors (you know who you are), and anyone who has taken the time to send regards over the years.

See you down the road apiece. In the meantime, here’s a playlist to wrap things up:

1. “Don’t Look Back” – The Remains (The Remains, 1966)
2. “Haunted” – Phoebe Bridgers (Lost Weekend 2026)
3. “When the Angels Lift Our Eyelids in the Morning” – Devin Davis (The Sound the Hare Heard compilation, 2006)
4. “Right Here, Rignt Now” – Cassandra Wilson (Traveling Miles, 1999)
5. “I Follow You” – Melody’s Echo Chamber (Melody’s Echo Chamber, 2012)
6. “Memo From Turner” – Mick Jagger (Performance soundtrack, 1970)
7. “Don’t Go” – The Donkeys (single, 1980)
8. “Safe From Harm” – Massive Attack (feat. Shara Nelson) (Blue Lines, 1991)
9. “Le Lis” – Billy Cobham (Spectrum, 1973)
10. “What I Can’t Have” – Mod Lang (Borrowed Time, 2026)
11. “Light Enough To Travel” – The Be Good Tanyas (Blue Horse, 2000)
12. “The Impression That I Get” – The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (Let’s Face It, 1997)
13. “You Don’t Have to Cry” – Crosby, Stills & Nash (Crosby, Stills & Nash, 1969)
14. “When I’m Alone” – Rosa Mack (single, 2023)
15. “Little White Lie” – The Sinceros (The Sound of Sunbathing, 1979)
16. “Perish” – Brooke Waggoner (Originator, 2012)
17. “I Feel Possessed” – Crowded House (Temple of Low Men, 1988)
18. “Been a Long Time” – Betty Everett (single, 1969)
19. “Love Yourself” – The Boxer Rebellion (Ghost Alive, 2018)
20. “Little Sparrow” – Dolly Parton (Little Sparrow, 2001)

Random notes:

* I was shocked and saddened in early September by the death of the peerless singer/songwriter Cassandra Wilson, at the age of 70. Routinely identified as a jazz singer, she operated well outside the strict encasements of genre. Gifted with a remarkable alto and a distinctive ability to interpret wide-ranging material, Wilson caught my attention as she released a series of well-regarded solo albums in the ’90s, including the Grammy-winning 1995 album New Moon Daughter. “Right Here, Right Now” is a track from her self-produced Miles Davis tribute album Traveling Miles, Davis being one of Wilson’s abiding influences. The album contains a mix of songs written and/or performed by Davis, along with songs written for the album, including some instrumentals for which Wilson wrote new lyrics. Wilson co-wrote “Right Here, Right Now” with guitarist Marvin Sewell, who performed on most of the album’s tracks.

* Phoebe Bridgers is getting a lot of well-deserved love for her excellent 2026 release Lost Weekend, and I do encourage you to check it out. While the various singles have been getting all the attention, I found myself slayed by “Haunted,” a strummy acoustic track with a bluegrassy vibe and old-school melody that shows off Bridgers’ emotive, silvery voice at its best.

* The Sinceros were one of a gaggle of synth-based new wave bands that major record companies were eager to sign for a brief shining moment or two in the 1979 to 1982 range. The Cars’ indelible and hit-filled debut album became the model and the rationale; to make the connection clear, Columbia Records in the US altered the track listing on The Sinceros’ debut to lead with the overtly Cars-like “Take Me To Your Leader.” The somewehat less Cars-ish “Little White Lie,” smart and peppy, was always the one that stuck in my head. The band was fronted by guitarist Mark Kjeldsen, who also wrote most of the songs. He had first been in a previous band with Ron François and Bobby Irwin, bassist and drummer, the two of whom gained attention in 1978 performing on Lene Lovich’s Stateless album, a Stiff Records production. Keyboardist Don Snow (later in the band Squeeze) joined those two in a Stiff Records promotional tour, leading the three to reunite with Kjeldsen, become the Sinceros, and sign with Epic Records in the UK. Sadly, Kjeldsen died in 1992 of complications from AIDS.

* Melody’s Echo Chamber is the performing name for the French musician Melody Prochet. Her self-titled debut was produced by Kevin Parker, of Tame Impala. There are four Melody’s Echo Chamber albums to date, most recently 2025’s Unclouded.

* The fact that they have named themselves after a song from Big Star’s Radio City album tells you a good bit about Mod Lang’s lineage and ambiance. Then again you are not wrong to hear a good helping of Beatleisms in the Detroit band’s crisp and capable “What I Can’t Have,” with its jangly guitar lines and intertwining vocals.

* The elusive Devin Davis has still just given us one proper solo album, 2005’s Lonely People of the World, Unite!. I only recently came across his contribution to the 2006 Kill Rock Stars compilation The Sound the Hare Heard, which is a terrfic gathering of demo recordings from the likes of Laura Veirs, Colin Meloy, and many others. Davis’ song leads the album off, memorably.

* And we close with a more blatant helping of bluegrass, via the late Dolly Parton and the title track to her well-regarded 2001 album Little Sparrow. I can’t claim to be any kind of Dolly expert, but I surely admired her musicianship and her moral center. If you’re at all curious about her path through life, I highly recommend the engaging 2019 podcast “Dolly Parton’s America,” from WNYC Studios.

Stories have been gaining traction lately about the music industry’s newest incarnation of payola, which here in the ’20s involves online influencers getting paid to promote specific albums and artists. As much as this is in fact happening, it strikes me as a “dog bites man” story. Ho fucking hum. What do you expect from the hyper-capitalist shit show that the web has become? Between the lack of fair regulation and the amoral clamoring for clicks that characterizes online behavior across the board, from corporations to everyday individuals, it’s no surprise that people are doing anything they can, technologically or otherwise, to make a buck, scruples be damned.

If you’re here, however, I’m hoping you can appreciate the different vibe and approach you’ll get on Fingertips. It is ever and always about the music, about what strikes my ears as worth sharing, above and beyond the clickings and followings and viral hype-mongering. Thanks for finding your way to this obscure patch of online humanity, and thanks as always for listening.

The latest mix:

1. “Me and the Boys” – NRBQ (Tiddlywinks, 1980)
2. “Lay Your Lazy Head” – Carrie Ashley Hill (single, 2013)
3. “X Offender” – Blondie (Blondie, 1976)
4. “Up the Bracket” – The Libertines (Up the Bracket, 2002)
5. “The Sound” – Leslie Spit Treeo (Don’t Cry Too Hard, 1990)
6. “Love Fell On Me” – Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston (Take Two, 1966)
7. “How Much I Lied” – Elvis Costello & The Attractions (Almost Blue, 1981)
8. “Nearby Parallel Universes” – Teddy Abrams (Preludes, 2025)
9. “On the Road to Find Out” – Cat Stevens (Tea for the Tillerman, 1970)
10. “Animal Instinct” – The Cranberries (Bury the Hatchet, 1999)
11. “Wide Awake in a Dream” – Vicki Anderson (single, 1966)
12. “To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge” – My Teenage Stride (Ears Like Golden Bats, 2006)
13. “Airport” – The Weather Station (single, 2025)
14. “I Want You Back” – Hoodoo Gurus (Stoneage Romeo, 1984)
15. “Back Where You Belong” – Sinéad O’Connor (The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep [Original Soundtrack], 2007)
16. “Sunday” – Sea Lemon (single, 2021)
17. “Spanish Bombs” – The Clash (London Calling, 1979)
18. “Love Hit Me” – The Orchids (single, 1963)
19. “(Nice Dream)” – Radiohead (The Bends, 1995)
20. “Summer’s End” – John Prine (The Tree of Forgiveness, 2018)

Random notes:

* While there’s no trace of her life as a singer/songwriter anywhere on her current web site, the set designer and prop stylist Carrie Ashley Hill is still a musician too, performing these days in the Brooklyn-based duo Chest High Fires, with her husband Jeff Burrall. “Lay Your Lazy Head” is a song from her solo past, and was featured here on Fingertips back in 2013.

* “Love Hit Me,” an early-’60s non-hit for a schoolgirl outfit called the Orchids, comes to us attached to two interesting bits of history. First, the song was written and produced by Shel Talmy, who produced a number of the era’s landmark singles, including “You Really Got Me” and “Waterloo Sunset” by the Kinks, “My Generation” by the Who, and “Friday On My Mind” by the Easybeats. Not a bad resume. Second, the song was featured on the British TV show “Juke Box Jury” on a week when the four Beatles comprised the panel of judges. Only Paul McCartney voted the song a “hit”; the other three deemed it a “miss.” I’m on Paul’s side, as pretty much usual.

* Almost Blue, the country music covers album sprung on an unsuspecting public by Elvis Costello and the Attractions in 1981, has stood up admirably over time. Frustrated with the lack of commercial success of his previous two (excellent) albums, Costello decided he just wanted to sing other people’s songs on his next release. As it turned out, Almost Blue, presaged his subsequent inclination to take any number of musical left turns over the years. But Costello was nothing if not passionate in his appreciation for the American genre. He worked with legendary country producer Billy Sherrill, and while the sessions were not without tension and disagreements, the album remains a curious but entertaining listen. I’ve always been partial to his affecting cover of this Gram Parsons song, “How Much I Lied.”

* Leslie Spit Treeo was a band from Toronto active in the ’90s. Their debut album, Don’t Cry Too Hard, for Capitol Records, got a toehold on alternative radio programs in the U.S. in 1990, but their three follow-up LPs, only two of which have a digital presence, didn’t make much impact. Lead singer Laura Hubert went on to a solo career singing jazz, vintage blues, and western swing. She recorded three albums in the ’00s and still performs in and around Toronto.

* Not sure how this came about, but the late, great Sinéad O’Connor was asked to contribute a song to the movie The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, a fantasy about the Loch Ness monster. The song would later appear on her 2012 album How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?–an album not available at this point on Spotify. I will listen to her sing just about anything. When she does those octave-apart harmonies with herself? My god.

* While we’re on the topic of Irish musicians, here also are the Cranberries. The popular band had faded a bit from their commercial peak by the time they released Bury the Hatchet, in 1999. Some might claim that their progression from the charming jangly/strummy rock of their first album to the weightier offerings of their next two releases cost them a certain amount of their audience. I wouldn’t disagree. And while the songs on Bury the Hatchet may not be quite as exquisite as those found on the debut, the lighter sound hits the ear like a refreshing breeze after the semi-dreariness of album number three in particular. “Animal Instinct” was a minor hit but was nowhere as ubiquitous as songs like “Linger” and “Dreams.”

* Vicki Anderson, born Myra Barnes, had two three-year stints in the mid-’60s and early ’70s as James Brown’s lead female vocalist; he was at one point quoted as saying that Anderson was the best singer he ever had in the James Brown Revue. She recorded more than two dozen singles, using both her birth name and her stage name, but never had a breakthrough hit. She remained active in the music industry until 1995; a number of her songs became Northern Soul staples over the years. She died in 2023 at the age of 83. On her “Wide Awake in a Dream” single, the song is listed as “traditional,” but an earlier version, recorded by Jerry Jackson in 1962, was credited to Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio. Crewe and Gaudio were best known for a series of hit songs written in the ’60s for the Four Seasons, including “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”

As my country gears up for a notable anniversary–we so like our round numbers, don’t we?–allow me to assure a troubled globe of civilized nations that many if not most of us Americans do not believe a savage fight in a metal cage to be either an appropriate or an enjoyable way to mark the occasion. Monumentally embarrassing, yes; morally and emotionally bankrupt, yes; symbolically terrifying, yes. Talk about watching an empire end. But this is what happens when capitalism is unrestrained and a criminal allowed to rise to power unchecked; and let us recognize that these two phenomena are intertwined. Here in the dark we await the nightmare’s end, longing for the better beginning that unfolds in its place.

The latest mix:

1. “Shrine” – The Dambuilders (Encendedor, 1994)
2. “That’s Where I Belong” – Paul Simon (You’re The One, 2000)
3. “Love Will Set You Free” – Carrie Cleveland (Looking Up, 1980)
4. “Bricks and Wedges” – Emma Harner (single, 2024)
5. “I’m in Disgrace” – The Kinks (Schoolboys in Disgrace, 1975)
6. “Teeo” – Vadoinmessico (single, 2011)
7. “Transparent Day” – The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band (Part One, 1967)
8. “Forget About It” – Alison Krauss (Forget About It, 1999)
9. “The Other Days” – Sally Shapiro (The Other Days EP, 2025)
10. “Every Word Means No” – Let’s Active (Afoot EP, 1983)
11. “Glitter in Their Eyes” – Patti Smith (Gung Ho, 2000)
12. “Chain Reaction” – The Crusaders (Chain Reaction, 1975)
13. “Tell Me the Truth” – Midnight Oil (Earth and Sun and Moon, 1993)
14. “The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs” – Wye Oak (The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs, 2018)
15. “Wreck of the Hesperus” – Procol Harum (A Salty Dog, 1969)
16. “Empire” – Carsie Blanton (After the Revolution 2024)
17. “Trail of Tears” – Guadalcanal Diary (Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man, 1984)
18. “Remember Me” – Fleetwood Mac (Penguin, 1973)
19. “Dans le noir” – Juniore (single, 2013)
20. “The Late Greats” – Wilco (A Ghost is Born, 2004)

Random notes:

* Like an untold number of ’90s bands, the Boston-based Dambuilders–active originally from 1989 to 1998–have re-formed with a few of the original members; two newly recorded songs were released in April of this year. Musicians in the band’s heyday included Dave Derby, who later formed Gramercy Arms (featured here in 2008) and Joan Wasser, who went on to perform as Joan As Police Woman (featured here in 2011), and who remains active and compelling. (The latest JAPW release is 2024’s Lemons, Limes and Orchids.) “Shrine,” meanwhile, is the Dambuilders’ most well-known track; a re-recorded version is one of the two songs the band released this year. This is the original.

* Emma Harner, Nebraska born, is a singer/songwriter who labels the somewhat intricate guitar music she favors “math folk.” “Bricks and Wedges” is a stand-alone single she released in 2024. Her first full-length album, Evening Star, came out in April. Attending the Berklee School of Music, she is now based in Boston. The terminally online might know her from her TikTok videos but, call me quirky, I like full songs traditionally recorded.

* Someone should probably make a movie about Bob Markley, founder of the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. Son of an oil industry executive in Oklahoma, Markley graduated from law school but had his eyes on a career in music. After hosting a local music show on Tulsa television, Markley, thanks to family money, moved to a mansion in Beverly Hills and began ingratiating himself with musicians in the local scene. After hosting a party at which the Yardbirds performed, he grew determined to join a band, largely as a way to attract girls, according to those who were there. But he was legally and musically astute enough to form a band inspired in part by the then relatively unknown Velvet Underground, give himself a lot of songwriting credit (even when he wasn’t the writer), and have a short run of major-label releases before things petered out. “Transparent Day” is a track from the band’s second album, Part One, released on Reprise Records in 1967.

* The Kinks are my all-time favorite band; this is now their ninth appearance in an Eclectic Playlist Series mix. They offer a catalog that is far from perfect, but I would contend that there is not one mediocre-to-bad Kinks album that doesn’t include a worthy gem or two (or three). There’s something in Ray Davies sense of songcraft and in his vocal presence that appeals deep in my psyche. Schoolboys in Disgrace was the last in a series of albums recorded for RCA that presented as album-long concepts, and for all its shortcomings it also contains my #1 favorite Kinks song, “No More Looking Back” (previously featured in EPS 2.04 back in 2015), as well as the hooky “I’m in Disgrace.” This band is so much more than their early stompers (“You Really Got Me,” et al); for an idiosyncratic overview of their best work, check out my Spotify playlist and see for yourself.

* A seemingly light-hearted addendum to Wilco’s prickliest album, “The Late Greats” charms with its humor-masked profundity and undeniable if idiosyncratic groove. I recently heard it on the radio (take that, Jeff Tweedy) and am happy to recycle it here. So good you won’t ever know.