Fingertips

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.

While I am not alone concretely speaking–I have a devoted long-term partner as well as supportive friends and family members, near and far–I often feel pretty isolated. Some of that is the nature of being a writer, as well as someone who has always prized his solitude. That kind of aloneness I am used to and honestly don’t mind. The more troubling sense of isolation that gnaws at my psyche is cultural, and rooted, I’m pretty sure, in the technological “advances” that have been thrust upon us for the last 25 years or so. I feel so deeply removed from social media realities that I cannot comprehend the mindset that would have a person endlessly scrolling an Instagram feed (which–conveniently–has no end), hungry for whatever one goes there for. Neither can I fathom a daily consciousness that would priortize staring at a smartphone screen while, for instance, simultaneously walking down a sidewalk (or–I’ve seen this plenty of times–riding a bicycle). The seemingly simple solution is not to keep your phone quite so nearby at all time, but the device was purposefully designed to be grabbed and held and attended to, the physical world be damned.

As social media addiction has become the norm, with users mired in their own feeds, following an ever-striving, algorithmically-directed raft of micro-celebrities, my personal removal from social media’s trappings and machinations leaves me wondering what kind of overlooked and isolated world I am inhabiting. I understand that there are positive aspects to online activity but to me they don’t justify the widespread psychological and emotional devastation wreaked by unregulated tech companies sociopathically intent on maximizing user engagement. I don’t want to be a part of a world that has so widely abandoned thoughtfulness and nuance, not to mention kindness, compassion, and interpersonal bonhomie. But it’s kind of our world now so where does that leave me?

If you’re here perhaps you’re at least sometimes wondering the same thing. In any case, thanks for stopping by for another taste of this idiosyncratic world of mine, which is occasionally cute and always harmless.

Which this month sounds like this:

1. “Red Light Spells Danger” – Billy Ocean (single, 1977)
2. “Why Don’t You” – Squeeze (Trixies, 2026)
3. “Basement Apartment” – Sarah Harmer (You Were Here, 2000)
4. “Strait Old Line” – Split Enz (Conflicting Emotions, 1983)
5. “Come Tomorrow” – Patti Scialfa (Rumble Doll, 1993)
6. “Beggin'” – The Four Seasons (single, 1967)
7. “Joy” – Dry Cleaning (Secret Love, 2026)
8. “Echo” – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (Wrong Creatures, 2018)
9. “It Makes No Difference” – The Darling Buds (Crawdaddy, 1990)
10. “The Windjammer” – Grant Green (Green is Beautiful, 1970)
11. “Golden Lights” – The Smiths (b-side, 1986; Louder Than Bombs compilation, 1987)
12. “You Don’t Know Me” – Ben Folds (feat. Regina Spektor) (Way to Normal, 2008)
13. “All Cried Out” – Dusty Springfield (Dusty, 1964)
14. “Think About the People” – Osibisa (Osibisa, 1971)
15. “Flood” – Stella Donnelly (Flood, 2022)
16. “Walking in the Sun” – The Zombies (unreleased single, 1965)
17. “Cleopatra” – The Lumineers (Cleopatra, 2016)
18. “It’s Love” – Jill Scott (Who is Jill Scott? – Words and Sounds, Vol. 1, 2000)
19. “Chain Letter” – Todd Rundgren (Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren, 1971)
20. “Roam” – The B-52’s (Cosmic Thing, 1989)

Random notes:

* The semi-legendary British band Squeeze had their heyday from the late ’70s to the mid-’80s, even as their releases into the ’90s remained pretty darn good. After laying low for a couple of decades, the band’s songwriting core of Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford have cranked things up again over the last 10 years or so, releasing albums in 2015 and 2017 that largely flew under the radar. They return this year with a full concept album, about a fictional night club called Trixies, with an intriguing twist: Tilbrook and Difford wrote the entire thing when they were teenagers. They never recorded it in part because they didn’t think they were good enough musicians at the time to play what they had written. The whole album is a fun listen; “Why Don’t You” in particular has the sort of irresistible hook characteristic of their best creations.

* Osibisa was founded in London in the late ’60s by four musicians from West Africa and three from the Caribbean. “Think About the People” was the closing track on the 1971 self-titled debut album, which went to #11 on the UK chart. The album was produced by Tony Visconti and engineered by Roy Thomas Baker. Although many of the original members have died, the band lives on; its most recent album is 2021’s New Dawn. According to Wikipedia, “osibisa” means “criss-cross rhythms that explode with happiness,” and who am I to argue. (Thanks to James from “James Writes Stuff” for leading me to this one.)

* The lovely backing vocals heard on “Golden Lights” came from none other than the late great Kirsty MacColl. Kirsty also sang backup on “Ask,” and recorded a cover of “You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet Baby” on her 1989 album Kite. Interrelatedly, Johnny Marr co-wrote two songs with Kirsty on Kite, and later created the signature riff on her acclaimed single “Walking on Madison,” on 1991’s Electric Landlady.

* Flood (2022) is the second album from Australia’s Stella Donnelly, following her 2019 debut Beware of the Dogs. A third album, Love and Fortune, was released in November 2025.

* The Four Seasons’ “Beggin'” has had an extensive second life over the years, most likely propelled, initially, by the song’s inclusion in the popular Broadway jukebox musical Jersey Boys, in 2004. Next came a remix by a French DJ named Pilooski, which appeared on a Four Seasons compilation CD in 2007 and itself hit the charts in the UK. Later that same year, the Norwegian duo Madcon did their own version of the song, which became popular throughout Europe. Most recently, the Italian band Måneskin covered the song in 2017; when the band won the Eurovision contest in 2021, the song ended up going viral on TikTok and subsequently reached number one in nine countries and the top 10 in 15 others. The song has, furthermore, been covered in a variety of different languages. For all its permutations, I think there’s no topping the original, written by Four Seasons keyboardist Bob Gaudio and singer/songwriter Peggy Santiglia (under the pseudonym Peggy Farina).

* The Darling Buds released three albums during their original incarnation, dating from 1986 to 1993. Crawdaddy was the second. Their early history was that of yet another buzzy band that gained quick critical traction, signed to a major label, only to flame out due to commercial indifference. With a re-vamped lineup, but still featuring lead singer Andrea Lewis Jarvis, the band reactivated in the 2010s, and released an EP of new material in 2017. They appear to be actively playing gigs to this day.

January has come and gone, as it does. But talk about “bleak midwinter”: here in the Northeast US, Philadelphia specifically, we’ve been encrusted by great piles of snow that have refused, for weeks, to melt–unusual for a standard winter here, but logical enough given the ongoing Arctic cold, which may finally be relenting. Without conscious effort, this latest mix reflects a bit of the hunkering down we weather-bound folks have been doing–one part melancholy introspection, one part bittersweet determination. Don’t miss a magically effective segue from Blue Rodeo into Sinéad O’Connor, as they blend together on the exact same note. I’d like to say I planned that but it’s actually more fun to have stumbled into it. I actually do a fair amount of stumbling to craft these mixes; it’s all good.

On an unrelated note, pondering current events more generally, I can’t help remarking that I’ve been writing this blog for 22-plus years and barely put my name on it. Then again I’m neither an extravert nor a narcissist nor a monumentally insecure kleptocrat so what do I know? The mentality of requiring things to have one’s name on them, in any case, is entirely foreign to me. The man should be pitied for being such a faulty specimen of human being if he weren’t doing so much damage to our worthy institutions, stabilizing norms, and collective spirit. And yet I can’t arrive at pity at this point; despair and anger seem easier to land on.

Back to the music, here’s what you’re in for:

1. “None of This Will Matter When You Are Dead” – Club 8 (Seasonal Echoes, 2025)
2. “Til I Am Myself Again” – Blue Rodeo (Casino, 1990)
3. “It’s All Good” – Sinéad O’Connor (single, 2003)
4. “Throwing Stones” – Grateful Dead (In the Dark, 1987)
5. “I Saw You Blink” – Stornoway (Beachcomber’s Windowsill, 2010)
6. “Backlash” – Freddie Hubbard (Backlash, 1967)
7. “Quiet Eyes” – Sharon Van Etten (Past Lives soundtrack, 2023)
8. “Breakaway” – Gallagher and Lyle (Breakaway, 1976)
9. “TV Reality (The New Plague)” – Contramano (Unsatisfecho, 2007)
10. “Do You Wanna Hold Me” – Bow Wow Wow (When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going, 1983)
11. “I Can’t Hold On” – Lorraine Chandler (single, 1966)
12. “Just Two Girls” – Wolf Alice (The Clearing, 2025)
13. “I Looked Away” – Derek & the Dominos (Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, 1970)
14. “Oh Oh” – Shout Out Louds (Ease My Mind, 2017)
15. “In Indiana” – Brenda Kahn (Epiphany in Brooklyn, 1992)
16. “Europe After the Rain” – John Foxx (The Garden, 1981)
17. “Sidestepping” – Doris Henson (Give Me All Your Money, 2005)
18. “There’s No Way Out of Here” – David Gilmour (David Gilmour, 1978)
19. “Lights Out (Read My Lips)” – Katydids (Katydids, 1990)
20. “Walking Past the Graveyard, Not Breathing” – Hem (Departure and Farewell, 2013)

Random notes:

* The recent Wolf Alice record, The Clearing, is a winner all the way through. Give it a listen; I don’t think you’ll be sorry.

* I am miles away from being a Deadhead but I did want to honor the memory of Bob Weir, who died in January. “Throwing Stones,” a late-history Grateful Dead composition, is at once expansive and resolute, with Weir’s distinctive, breathy vocals front and center. The album it’s on, 1987’s In the Dark, was “unexpectedly popular,” according to Wikipedia, going double platinum in the U.S. It was their second-to-last studio album.

* Founded by singer Susie Hug and guitarist Adam Seymour, Katydids were a short-lived British band with an appealing vibe. They released two major-label albums and were dropped, splitting up shortly thereafter. The first album, represented here, was produced by none other than Nick Lowe. After a few solo efforts in the first decade of the 21st century, Hug got back together with the band for two EPs in 2014.

* Sinéad O’Connor had sung with Damien Dempsey, who wrote “It’s All Good,” on his version of the song, released in 2003 on his album Seize the Day. O’Connor’s indelible rendition was initially available that same year as a promotional single–and a free and legal MP3 at the time, as I recall; it then appeared among the rarities and one-offs collected on a compilation album entitled She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty, a two-disc set also released in 2003. The album is not available on Spotify so you won’t see it on the EPS master playlist. (But there are 2,094 other songs there you might want to spend some time with.)

* Speaking of a song not on Spotify, the original studio recording of Gallagher and Lyle’s “Breakaway” is also missing in action–as are all of the Scottish duo’s eight albums from their 1970s heyday. On the aforementioned Spotify master list I’ve subbed in a fairly similar live recording from 1977. The song, meanwhile, was much more well known at the time via Art Garfunkel–it was the title track to his 1975 album and a top-40 US hit. Sticklers may note that Garfunkel, whose version predated Gallagher and Lyle’s by a year, broke the title into two words for the song while retaining the one-word title for the album, for reasons lost to history.

* Sharon Van Etten was specifically approached by director Celine Song to write a song for the end credits to her movie Past Lives–a charming film if you haven’t seen. She collaborated with composer/engineer Zachary Dawes. The accompanying video evokes the movie’s warm wistfulness.

* John Foxx’s long and winding career, in and out of the music industry, began as a college student in the late ’60s. In 1974, as lead singer, he formed a band initially called Tiger Lily. After a few aborted name changes, they settled in 1976 on the name Ultravox and began to gain some renown, if not record sales, for their pioneering synth-rock sound. Foxx left the band in 1979, and while his former band went on to mainstream new wave success, he took a left turn into a variety of electronic-oriented projects both as a solo artist and in many different collaborations. He’s one of those musicians as beloved by a cult following as he is overlooked by the casual music fan. “Europe After the Rain” comes from his second solo album, in which you can still feel the connection to his Ultravox output.

* Contramano was a Brookln-based indie band in the 2000s who released two albums and more or less disappeared. But front man Pablo Cubarle, a multi-instrumentalist whose spiky cello lines are heard here in “TV Reality (A New Plague),” is still out there on the edge of the music world, posting the occasional demo. (Try his latest, posted this month: “Thom Yorke Says.”) He otherwise identifies himself these days as a freelance photo retoucher. “TV Reality” was originally featured here in 2007. In case you’re curious, the Spanish word contramano has no direct translation in English, but can be thought to mean “the wrong way” or “against traffic.”