Day After Day #30: Wolf Like Me

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Wolf Like Me (2006)

In the early 2000s, the New York rock scene was happening: the Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem, the Walkmen, Interpol. Perhaps the best of the bands that emerged was TV on the Radio, founded by singer Tunde Adebimpe and guitarist-producer Dave Sitek. The band combined a lot of different influences, from Bad Brains to Pixies to Brian Eno to Wire, and played many different styles from art rock to shoegaze to post punk. And they kicked absolute ass live.

After an excellent debut EP and first album, the band released Return to Cookie Mountain in July 2006, which represented the band at its peak. There were plenty of guests on the album, including David Bowie, but this was a tour de force for TVOTR. Adebimpe and co-lead singer Kyp Malone were able to harness something haunting and primal in their harmonies while Sitek creates a multifaceted musical wall behind them full of a dense collection of sounds and layers. It's pretty intense stuff.

The absolute peak, however, was the brilliant "Wolf Like Me." Originally pegged to lead off the album (as a leaked early version had it), the song was pushed down to the #5 slot because honestly, it's so good everything else might have felt like a letdown. Instead, the album builds up to it, and then BOOM! "Wolf Like Me" launches in like a whirlwind, grabs you by the throat and never lets up.

"Got a curse I cannot lift/Shines when the sunset shifts/When the moon is round and full/Gotta bust that box, gotta gut that fish."

It's one of those songs that just gets you amped up from the get-go. I've never seen TVOTR live in person, but I'm sure when they played it, the crowd went nuts. I've watched a few live versions and Adebimpe's vocals ride above the din, even as the band flails away behind him. A tale of a werewolf/lothario, it's just an exhilarating experience. And the live performance they did on Letterman (see below) just amps it up even more. Incredible. Also, I witnessed Greg Dulli's Twilight Singers do a cool cover of the song when they toured that year (also below).

Return to Cookie Mountain was rightfully lauded by critics; SPIN named it their album of the year for 2006 and many other outlets put it in their top 10.

Sadly, the band hasn't been active in close to a decade. Bassist Gerard Smith died in 2011 after losing a battle with lung cancer. They released three more excellent albums, the last one being Seeds in 2014. But after a tour in the summer of 2015, it's been radio silence from TVOTR. Hopefully, they'll reunite someday. Until then, crank up "Wolf Like Me."

Ye Olde Hit Parade: Wolf Like Me

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

2006: TV On the Radio - Wolf Like Me

You remember 2006, don't you? Well, I guess it's all kind of a blur now. But it was the year that Dick Cheney shot a dude in the face and was so powerful that the victim apologized to him. James Brown, Gerald Ford and Saddam Hussein all died within a few days of each other at the end of the year. And the movie Borat introduced the fun-loving side of the country of Kazakhstan to the rest of the world.

Satellite radio had been around for a few years, but Sirius made a big push in '06 when Howard Stern made the jump from terrestrial radio. Back when I was at Webnoize in '01, my buddy Ric and I got a sneak preview of then still-to-be-launched XM (pretty sure it was XM and not Sirius, but I could be wrong); they had just set up the satellite repeaters around Boston and gave us a ride around the city listening to it. Anyhoo, Sirius and XM merged in '08 and are still at it, but I've never seen the need to pony up the dough for it. At the same time Stern was starting his satellite era, David Lee Roth began as his replacement but only lasted a few months before getting canceled.


No big changes in the work situation and the family was good. Both Deb and I were doing a lot of running early in the year as she ran the Boston Marathon and I did the Vermont City Marathon in May; I also ran the Chicago Marathon in the fall. For concerts, I saw Pearl Jam, Arctic Monkeys, Mission of Burma, Bloc Party, X/Rollins Band, Yo La Tengo, Iron Maiden (a work buddy got me back into them and we saw them at Agganis Arena...but were a bit bummed when they played their new album front to back), the Hold Steady, Frank Black, the Twilight Singers and the Hold Steady again while I was on a work trip in New Orleans.



There were some terrific albums out in '06, including the Arctic Monkeys' debut, the Hold Steady continuing their hot streak with their third straight great release, another excellent comeback record from Mission of Burma, a killer double album from Sloan and a terrific Twilight Singers album. But it was TV On the Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain and specifically the song "Wolf Like Me" that was the big one for me. Just a whirling dervish of a song that was simultaneously catchy and creepy. It was the sound of a band hitting its stride, combining killer instrumental chops with amazing vocals. 


Honorable mentions: Arctic Monkeys - "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor"; Arctic Monkeys - "Fake Tales of San Francisco"; Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - "Rise Up With Fists!!"; Robert Pollard - "Love is Stronger Than Witchcraft"; The Minus 5 - "Rifle Called Goodbye"; Ray Davies - "Things Are Gonna Change (The Morning After)"; Danko Jones - "Invisible"; Destroyer - "Your Blood"; Neko Case - "Star Witness"; Band of Horses - "The Funeral"; Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Gold Lion"; The Black Angels - "Sniper at the Gates of Heaven"; The Black Angels - "Bloodhounds on My Trail"; Built to Spill - "Goin' Against Your Mind"; Eagles of Death Metal - "I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)"; Drive-By Truckers - "Gravity's Gone"; Gnarls Barkley - "Crazy"; Pearl Jam - "World Wide Suicide"; The Raconteurs - "Steady As She Goes"; The Twilight Singers - "Bonnie Brae"; The Twilight Singers - "Forty Dollars"; Mission of Burma - "Spider's Web"; Mission of Burma - "2wice"; Frightened Rabbit - "Be Less Rude"; Sonic Youth - "Incinerate"; TV On the Radio - "Province"; Peter Bjorn & John - "Young Folks"; The Black Keys - "Your Touch"; Mastodon - "The Wolf Is Loose"; Yo La Tengo - "Mr. Tough"; Sloan - "Who Taught You to Live Like That?"; Sloan - "Ill-Placed Trust"; Beck - "Cellphone's Dead"; The Hold Steady - "Stuck Between Stations"; The Hold Steady - "Massive Nights"; The Blood Brothers - "Spit Shine Your Black Clouds"; The Tragically Hip - "The Lonely End of the Rink"; Jarvis Cocker - "Running the World"

Completely Conspicuous 281: The Outsiders

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Lewandowski as we discuss our status as outsider sports fans in the Boston area. Listen to the episode below or download it directly (right click and "save as").



Show notes:
- Recorded on a sweaty night in Beverly, Mass.
- Brian changed his standup name to Brian Gerard
- Experimented with different names
- We both grew up elsewhere and moved to New England
- Rooting for non-Boston teams
- Brian grew up in Buffalo, is a big Sabres and Bills fan
- We're used to our teams losing
- Buffalo also had an NBA team in the '70s
- Brian moved to Kentucky as a kid
- Jay moved to southeastern Washington state
- Nobody there knew what hockey was at the time
- Jay: Right after we moved away, a junior hockey team moved to the area
- Jay: Never a fan of the Montreal Canadiens
- The magic of Don Cherry
- Cherry was played by Jared Keeso in a couple of Canadian miniseries
- Brian roots for the Atlanta Braves because he lived there for a while
- Jay: Rooted for Red Sox to win World Series in '04
- Brian's not a fan of the Blue Jays' stadium
- Jay: Grew up going to Blue Jays games when they were a new expansion team
- Jays' farm team is now in Buffalo
- Remembering the Hartford Whalers
- Sabres lost in Stanley Cup finals to Philadelphia in 1975
- Jay: One of my favorite players was Buffalo star Gilbert Perreault
- Big heartbreak for Sabres fans was in '99
- Brett Hull scored Cup-winning goal for Dallas with his skate in the goal crease
- Against the rules but officials didn't overturn it
- Atlanta's attendance problem
- The Bills had four straight Super Bowl losses
- Lamenting lost Super Bowl bets
- Jay: Still stinging from Leafs' game 7 loss to Bruins last month
- Leafs' loss to LA in 1993 also a painful memory
- Blue Jays had some horrible chokes in '85 and '87
- Jay: Joe Carter's World Series-winning homer in '93 was probably my last great sports moment
- To be continued
- Bonehead of the Week


Music:
Fidlar - Cheap Beer
Eddie Spaghetti - The Value of Nothing
TV on the Radio - Will Do
Archers of Loaf - What Did You Expect?

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The Fidlar song is on the band's self-titled album on Mom & Pop Music. Download the song from Chromewaves.
The Eddie Spaghetti song is the track track of his new album The Value of Nothing on Bloodshot Records. Download the song for free at Soundcloud.
The TV on the Radio song is on the album Nine Types of Light on Interscope. Download the song for free at Epitonic.
The Archers of Loaf song is a bonus track on the reissue of Icky Mettle on Merge Records. Download the song for free at Epitonic.
 
The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 167: Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar

No guest on the podcast this week as I play a healthy assortment of rock music. Listen to the show below or download it directly (right click and "save as").



The show notes...

Music:

The Wrens - As I've Known

Mark Lanegan - Burning Jacob's Ladder

Okkervil River - Wake and Be Fine

The Henry Clay People - California Wildfire

TV On the Radio - Caffeinated Consciousness

The Kills - DNA

Bonehead of the Week

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The show is sponsored by Eastbay/Footlocker.com. Use the following codes to get athletic gear from Nike, Adidas, Asics and more. AFCOMP15 will get you 10% off any order of $50 at Eastbay.com, AFCOMP20 will get you 15% off any order of $75 at Eastbay.com and AFCOMPFL will get you 10% off any order of $50 or more at Footlocker.com.

The Wrens song is available at Epitonic.

The Okkervil River song is on the forthcoming album I am Very Far on Jagjaguwar Records. Download the song for free (in exchange for your e-mail address) at the band's website.

The Henry Clay People song is on the forthcoming EP This is a Desert on TBD Records. Download the song for free at Aquarium Drunkard.

The TV On the Radio song is on the forthcoming album Nine Types of Light on Interscope Records. Download the song for free (in exchange for your e-mail address) at the band's website.
The Kills song is on the forthcoming album Blood Pressures on Domino Records. Download the song for free (in exchange for your e-mail address) at the band's website.

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blogs Clicky Clicky and Keeping Some Dark Secrets. Additional music used in the show is by Me and Boris the Bull, which is the brainchild of the mighty Mark Campbell. Thanks to Bob Durling for the album art; find out more about his photography at his blog. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.

Mixology: Sonic Boomlet

Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes (or CDs) I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.

Sonic Boomlet (April 2007)

This was one of the last mixes I made for which I actually printed out the tracklist. I'm not sure exactly when I stopped doing so, but I guess my life got so busy that it was no longer a priority. Soon I was burning discs of the monthly iTunes playlists I made but just labeling them with simply the date and occasionally a name. After all, I had all the playlists in iTunes, or I did until I had to get my PC wiped clean of contaminants and I lost them all.

It reminds me of the cassettes I made back in the mid-80s. I used to write the song titles out in different colored markers...for a while until I just went with plain ol' blue or black pen ink. I even went through a phase when I'd decorate the inlay card with some cool picture I'd cut out from a magazine; of course, this would mean there would be no song information, but hey, it looked good.

I did the same thing with burned CDs, mixes and others, using interesting fonts for the artist names and album titles. I did it with this mix, using a cool font that I can't recall for the title. Again, this only lasted a short while.

Something always gets in the way, I suppose, and the frivolous leads to the practical. But no matter the look, fancy or boring, at least I've still got the music to recall a time when it was no big thing to spend some time on a mix CD.

Bomb. Repeat. Bomb. - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Death or Life We Want You - The Dears
No Cars Go - Arcade Fire
This is All I Came to Do - Dinosaur Jr.
No Backbone - Lemonheads
Creeping Up the Backstairs - The Fratellis
Hunting for Witches - Bloc Party
Brianstorm - Arctic Monkeys
Everything is Average Nowadays - Kaiser Chiefs
Dashboard - Modest Mouse
Gronlandic Edit - Of Montreal
Spit Shine Your Black Clouds - Blood Brothers
Kreative Kontrol - Hot Snakes
We've Come So Far (To Be Here Today) - Radio Birdman
Province - TV On the Radio
Fiery Crash - Andrew Bird
Impossible Germany - Wilco
The Kids Don't Get It - The Tragically Hip
Before the End of the Race - Sloan


All I came to do:


Province:

Completely Conspicuous Episode 69: Don't Call It a Comeback

Now that I've finally got my computer working properly again, it was time to record the first podcast of 2009. Visit the CompCon page to hear it in streaming audio or download it directly here (right click and "save as").

The show notes...

Topics:
- The art of the comeback
- Infomercials
- Pinhead of the Week

Music:
- TV On the Radio - Dancing Choose (Prefuse 73 remix)
- Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Bomb. Repeat. Bomb. (1954)
- Delta Spirit - Trashcan
- Ten Kens - Bearfight

Promo:
- New England Podcasting.

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes and Podcast Pickle podcast directories. Subscribe and write a review!

The TV On the Radio song is on the deluxe version of their album Dear Science on Interscope Records. The Ted Leo and the Pharmacists song is on their album Living With the Living on Touch and Go Records. Both songs are courtesy of RCRDLBL, where you can find out more and download the tracks.

The Delta Spirit song is on the album Ode to Sunshine on Rounder Records. The Ten Kens song is on their self-titled album on Fat Cat UK Records. Both songs are courtesy were provided by IODA Promonet:

Delta Spirit
"Trashcan" (mp3)
from "Ode to Sunshine"
(Rounder Records)

More On This Album



Ten Kens
"Bearfight" (mp3)
from "Ten Kens"
(Fat Cat Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic Delivery
Buy at Rhapsody
Buy at Napster
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Puretracks
Buy at GroupieTunes
Buy at mTraks
More On This Album



The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog. Additional music used in the show is by Me and Boris the Bull, which is the brainchild of Mark Campbell.

Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.

Completely Conspicuous, Episode 22: Take This Job and Shove It

Hot off the Interweb for your listening pleasure, it's the latest episode of CC. Download it directly here (right click and "save as").

Ze shownotes...

Topics:
- The decline in job satisfaction
- Social networking sites
- The lost art of the live album
- March Madness!
- Outstanding Press Release
- Genius Marketing Move
- Pinhead of the Week

Music:
- Broken Social Scene - Fire Eye'd Boy
- TV On the Radio - Staring at the Sun

Promos:
- Phedippidations' Boston Marathon coverage. Find out more here.
- New England Podcasting. Find out more here.

Completely Conspicuous is now available through the iTunes, Yahoo Podcasts and Podcast Pickle podcast directories. Subscribe and write a review!

Broken Social Scene's self-titled album is on Arts and Crafts Records; find out more here. The song was provided by IODA Promonet; find out more here.

Download "Fire Eye'd Boy" (mp3)
from "Broken Social Scene"
by Broken Social Scene
Arts & Crafts

• Buy at eMusic
• Buy at Napster

More On This Album


The song from TV On the Radio is on the band's Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes album on Touch and Go Records; find out more here. It was provided by the Podsafe Music Network; visit here for more info.

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine Clicky Clicky music blog. And the incidental music used in the show was "Clibopb (Fosco Groove)" by Me and Boris the Bull. Find out more about Me and Boris the Bull here.

Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production.