Music That Cooks: Our Thanksgiving Playlists

For this year’s Thanksgiving, I posed this question to our Stuck Between Stations co-conspirators: “What music are you thankful for, and what would you suggest eating with it?” The results are posted below, including my edible playlist and helpings of pot luck from Zoe Krylova, Scot Hacker, Christian Crumlish, Benoit Baald, and Dan Haig. Need more Thanksgiving cheer? Check the heartwarming stories of Johnny Thunders struggling with a frozen turkey and the Rickrolling of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Zoe Krylova’s picks

PJ Harvey: rare steak and a baked potato
Patti Smith: hot chicken curry
Devendra Banhart: venison stew and a chimay
Vetiver: salad of mixed greens and wildflowers, elderberry wine
Bjork: dim sum
Joni Mitchell: assorted crackers and exotic cheeses
Neil Young: ribs
Classical Indian music: samosas and chai
Sun Ra: dark chocolate and smoothies
Reggae: jerk chicken & fresh lemonade

P.J. Harvey, “When Under Ether”

Sun Ra, “Pink Elephants”

Scot Hacker’s Picks

Elizabeth Cotten: For doing Fahey before there was Fahey, for being a chick doing the real gospel blues, for doing sweet folk without getting all Joan Baez on our asses, for making me float. Listen here. Note: The video above doesn’t do Cotten justice – definitely check out the Smithsonian collection of her works for the full effect. Recommended eating: Goat curry with IPA.

Music of Indonesia, Vol. 20: Indonesian Guitars: For reminding that none of us have heard the end of what the guitar is or does, or how it sounds. There’s always more pineapple to suck the juice out of, one more finger to lick. For reminding that the delta between Daniel Johnston, Japanese koto, and Bill Harkelroad converges on the Indian Ocean. Listen here. Recommended eating: Chicken satay and limeade.

Elizabeth Cotten, “Freight Train”

Roger Moore’s picks

Nick Lowe, “Let’s Eat”: bangers and mash, Boddington’s Pub Ale
Fats Waller: “All That Meat and No Potatoes”: cassoulet, Chateauneuf-de-Pape
Nina Simone, “I Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl”: creme brulee, armagnac
Lee Perry, “Roast Fish and Cornbread”: escoveitch fish, Jamaican cornbread, Red Stripe
Ramones: “Everytime I Eat Vegetables it Makes Me Think of You”: Nathan’s hot dog, root beer
Amadou and Miriam, “Senegal Fast Food”: thebouidienne (fish stew), hibiscus juice
Hank Williams, “Jambalaya”: jambalaya, crawfish pie, file gumbo, Everclear
John Lennon, “Cold Turkey”: turkey sandwiches, black coffee, aspirin
Roches, “The Troubles”: strawberry-apricot pie, milk
eX-Girl, “The Tofu Song”: kobe beef, cold sake
Cafe Tacuba, “Raratonga”: cochinita pibil, Dos Equis Amber
Howlin’ Wolf, “300 Pounds of Joy”: barbecue, lemonade
Wilco, “Pot Kettle Black”: Chicago deep-dish pizza, Goose Island Ale
Billie Holiday, “All of Me”: fava beans, a nice chianti

Amadou and Miriam, “Senegal Fast Food”

eX-Girl, “The Tofu Song”

Nick Lowe, “Let’s Eat”

Christian Crumlish’s picks

Van Morrison: steak and kidney pie
Pavement: corn dogs
Emmylou Harris: hush puppies
Mike Watt: truck stop empanadas
Tom Waits: possum

Pavement, “Gold Soundz”

Mike Watt, “Big Train”

Benoit Baald’s pick

Guns n’ Roses: pu-thay [Editor’s note: we think this is an Asian dish, but Baald is unavailable for comment]

Dan Haig’s pick

Recommended listening: The stuff that’s somehow still coming out of my fingers.

Recommended eating: I find it very hard to eat and play at the same time. Sort of like walking and chewing gum, only much harder.

About Roger Moore

rocklobster3.JPGRoger Moore is a writer and musical obsessive who plays percussion instruments from around the world with an equal lack of dexterity. An environmental lawyer in his unplugged moments, he has written on subjects ranging from sustainable development practices to human rights and voting rights, as well as many music reviews. A native Chicagoan, Roger lives in Oakland, California with his wife Paula, who shares his Paul Weller fixation, and two young children, Amelia and Matthew, who enjoy dancing in circles to his Serge Gainsbourg records and falling asleep to his John Coltrane records.

Roger Moore’s Musical Timeline

1966. Dropped upside down on patio after oldest sister listened to “She Loves You” on the Beatles’ Saturday cartoon show. Ears have rung with the words “yeah, yeah, yeah” ever since.

1973. Memorized all 932 verses to Don McLean’s “American Pie.”

1975. Unsuccessfully lobbied to have “Louie Louie” named the official song of his grade school class. The teacher altered the lyrics of the winner, the Carpenters’ “I Won’t Last a Day Without You,” so that they referred to Jesus.

1977. After a trip to New Orleans, frequently broke drumheads attempting to mimic the style of the Meters’ Zigaboo Modeliste.

1979. In order to see Muddy Waters perform in Chicago, borrowed the birth certificate of a 27 year-old truck driver named Rocco.

1982. Published first music review, a glowing account of the Jam’s three-encore performance for the Chicago Reader. Reading the original, unedited piece would have taken longer than the concert itself.

1982. Spat on just before seeing the Who on the first of their 23 farewell tours, after giving applause to the previous band, the Clash.

1984. Mom: “This sounds perky. What’s it called?” Roger: “ It’s ‘That’s When I Reach for My Revolver’ by Mission of Burma.”

1985. Wrote first review of an African recording, King Sunny Ade’s Synchro System. A reader induced to buy the album by this review wrote a letter to the editor, noting that “anyone wishing a copy of this record, played only once” should contact him.

1985. At a Replacements show in Boston, helped redirect a bewildered Bob Stinson to the stage, which Bob had temporarily confused with the ladies’ bathroom.

1986. Walked forty blocks through a near-hurricane wearing a garbage bag because the Feelies were playing a show at Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club.

1987. Foolishly asked Alex Chilton why he had just performed “Volare.” Answer: “Because I can.”

1988. Moved to Northern California and, at a large outdoor reggae festival, discovered what Bob Marley songs sound like when sung by naked hippies.

1991. Attempted to explain to Flavor-Flav of Public Enemy that the clock hanging from his neck was at least two hours fast.

1992. Under the pseudonym Dr. Smudge, produced and performed for the Underwear of the Gods anthology, recorded live at the North Oakland Rest Home for the Bewildered. Local earplug sales skyrocketed.

1993. Attended first-ever fashion show in Chicago because Liz Phair was the opening act. Declined the complimentary bottles of cologne and moisturizer.

1997. Almost missed appointment with eventual wedding band because Sleater-Kinney performed earlier at Berkeley’s 924 Gilman Street. Recovered hearing days later.

1997. After sharing a romantic evening with Paula listening to Caetano Veloso at San Francisco’s Masonic Auditorium, purchased a Portuguese phrasebook that remains unread.

1998. Learned why you do not yell “Free Bird” at Whiskeytown's Ryan Adams in a crowded theater.

1999. During an intense bout of flu, made guttural noises bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Throat Singers of Tuva.

2000. Compiled a retrospective of music in the nineties as a fellow at the Coolwater Center for Strategic Studies and Barbecue Hut.

2001. Listened as Kahil El’Zabar, in the middle of a harrowing and funny duet show with Billy Bang, lowered his voice and spoke of the need to think of the children, whom he was concerned might grow up “unhip.”

2002. During a performance of Wilco’s “Ashes of American Flags,” barely dodged ashes of Jeff Tweedy’s cigarette.

2002. Arrived at the Alta Bates maternity ward in Berkeley with a world trance anthology specially designed to soothe Paula during Amelia’s birth, filled with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, and assorted other Khans. The project proved to be irrelevant to the actual process of labor.

2003. Emceed a memorable memorial concert for our friend Matthew Sperry at San Francisco’s Victoria Theater featuring a lineup of his former collaborators, including improvised music all-stars Orchesperry, Pauline Oliveros, Red Hot Tchotchkes, the cast of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Tom Waits.

2003. Failed to persuade Ted Leo to seek the Democratic nomination for President.

2005. Prevented two-year old daughter Amelia from diving off the balcony during a performance of Pierre Dorge’s New Jungle Orchestra at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival.

2006. On a family camping trip in the Sierra Nevadas, experienced the advanced stage of psychosis that comes from listening to the thirtieth rendition of Raffi’s “Bananaphone” on the same road trip.

One thought on “Music That Cooks: Our Thanksgiving Playlists

  1. First let me say, this blog is GENIUS! :) these two men behind it will be famous writers/commentators on music matters one day…but that is my humble prediction (and very strong instinct!)

    SO: I’m sure all the writers-in are brilliant as well and I don’t want to be influenced…

    So, I will just think of my own combos before reading the others! ;)

    Right now, I have been listening to
    Ben HARPER on Jack’s Curious George soundtrack:
    I want to eat: coconut sorbet topped with fresh Hayden mango slices and sprinkled with cinnamon and shredded coconut. AND, sprinkled with ground flax seed. (got to stay healthy to the max! :)

    TOM petty: free falling, mary jane, won’t back down…all of it:
    I want POPCORN HOT fresh salty…organic.
    (and a dance party on the grass to accompany the eating of the popcorn) and lemonade. pink.

    Melissa Rapp: it is me, it’s true. And i do, sometimes, dare to put me in my own stereo. At which point, since I am finally releasing a 2005/6 recorded album….SO, I would say: let’s CELEBRATE! Chocolate banana cake made my own momma, with vanilla soy cream/dream…and fresh banana slices on to… and cinnamon (claro!) ;) and the sexiest red wine you can find to drink with that. AND champagne….but not Vueve…something BETTER and more honest. (this last bit is an inside joke, with myself… he he!)

    I am feisty today. This question is bringing it out of me!

    I would eat: PUMPKIN PIE made from an actual PUMPKIN and with that I would listen to:
    Kathleen Edwards, Jessie Baylin, or Meiko, by a warm fire place with someone holding me in their arms…and snow falling outside!

    I would put on Kate Nash and listen to “Foundations” (only)…the rest are not quite there…and I would get out Pixie sticks, and bang them against the table, then get out those giant cat’s tail plants that grow near my grandpa’s fish pond in the summer, that my grandma lucy, me, cousins, and aunts rocked out with in the kitchen that one wonderful magical evening when I was about 12 years old. The cat’s tails were microphones.
    The music…might have been AC/DC.

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