Hungarian rock group Omega was another tough one for me to get Pandora to play. In addition to their song “seeds” being buried deep within a station, some of their albums are linked with a different artist with the name Omega. While Pandora has separated some albums under Omega (Hungary) a significant amount remain under the un-country delineated artist. Even if I seeded a particular song from one of those records, I would only get Latin-style hip-hop/rap. Nothing against that style, but I was on a mission. I eventually created a new station of Omega-only song links ,https://www.pandora.com/station/128387775899650908, and had to remove any songs that were not specifically attributed to “Omega (Hungary).” Only then did the sweet sounds that I remembered from back in my teen years begin to emanate from my speakers. Check out “Eltakart világ” (Just a Bloom) on this week’s playlist. (I have also reached out to Pandora support in hopes they may rectify the issue.)
Whilst playing-in-wait for Omega, I heard Pink Floyd’s “Summer ‘68” (Beach Boys? Chicago?) along with some deep tracks from Sinéad O’Connor, Os Mutantes, Gilberto Gil, Ruthie Foster, Kraan, Off Broadway and Elliott Sharp (an artist that was new to me) and have added representative selections to the playlist.

A significant portion of the playlist was helped along by the diligence of Kris LoPresto WTF 1520 (A recent conversation Marc Maron had with Thurston Moore) Playlist
Full Kris LoPresto WTF 1520 companion list

I picked a few items off that list to enhance my ever-expanding musical knowledge base.

Took a loooong time, but the Head East tracks started coming after I created a new Pandora station.

I had a good selection of their songs seeded in my HorsHawkHatHanHelm station, but after about a week of steadily listening to that station, I never managed to get it to play anything beyond some version of Never Been Any Reason.
I did get a good amount of Horslips – an Irish band which really stylistically covered a lot of ground. Summer’s Most Wanted Girl leads off the playlist and has them sounding somewhat like Roxy Music or Sparks. Juliana Hatfield was also well represented with everything from Blake Babies to some of her cover work – Olivia Newton-John’s “Deeper Than the Night” made the cut.
And I made some space for Hawkwind’s “Kiss of the Velvet Whip.” (I should write more about the seminal psychedelic rock outfit – maybe in a later posting.)

I pulled the Head East tracks out of the previously mentioned station along with the Nick Heyward tracks as he was getting no love either. The new station “HeadHeyward” initially gave me a good deal of NH’s tracks (also Haircut 100, Aztec Camera, Split Enz & Squeeze), but it wasn’t playing Head East. Instead I was offered Aerosmith, Bad Company, Angel, Thin Lizzy, Boston etc. – which was fine, but I was on a quest. Finally the breakthrough came with a latter day track from 2013’s ”Raise a Little Hell” – not a preferred track, but I gave it the thumbs up and that seemed to get the ball rolling. Got a couple of tracks from 1977’s Gettin’ Lucky (playlist includes “Show Me I’m Alive”) and I was sated when I heard Get Up and Enjoy Yourself from their 4th, eponymously-titled record from 1978..

Tweets this week led me to include a track from Agitation Free’s “Malesch” (1972), Big Big Train’s latest “The Likes of Us” and Iron and Wine’s collaboration with Fiona Apple “All In Good Time”

You may also find:
a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers track from their debut
Tracks from Dressy Bessy, Liz Phair & Susan Werner (another Philly Folk Fest Fave) which I assume were played as similar tracks to the Juliana Hatfield ones I had seeded
Billie Holiday, Charlie Haden, Freddie Hubbard & Allan Holdsworth representing the “H” stations
The Mountain Goats’ “Until I Am Whole” (WTF Podcast episode #366 with John Darnielle)

I succeeded in getting Pandora to play some Kayak. I had heard previously that their lead writer Ton Scherpenzeel had done some work writing music for Dutch theater so it shouldn’t have been a surprise that the first track I heard from them on this particular quest, Larger than Life, sounded very much like a showtune. From 2014, long after their heyday, I liked it more than I thought I would. After getting a classic from 1975’s Royal bed bouncer, “If This Is Your Welcome,” and another decent latter day track, “Anywhere But Here,” I set my Pandora sights on Head East.

Broadway became a theme for this week of musical discovery as my wife and I ended up in New York city, at our daughter’s behest, to see Hadestown (Wednesday, 2/28/24 matinee). Of special interest to me was watching Ani DiFranco take on the role of Persephone. I believe I was biased by a memory of an exciting performance of hers at the Philadelphia Folk Fest (maybe 2003? Ani DiFranco – Shy (2003 Philly Folk Fest)). Initially I wanted more of her crazy energy – it finally kicked in after intermission with her performance of “Our Lady of the Underground.” I thoroughly enjoyed the show – with all of the instrumentalists on stage, it felt very organic.

My Wife and I attended Hamilton the night before which was really an amazing theatrical experience. It was very moving and the cast was very convincing – of special notice was Tamar Greene in the role of George Washington. I would have been satisfied if it were just he and Jennie Harney-Fleming (Angelica Schuyler) performing a show – both standouts in a very strong cast. I’ve included Tamar Greene’s “Soaring” in the Spotify playlist, but it doesn’t fully do justice to his vocal talent. For Jennie Harney-Fleming, I found a track she appeared on with Carvens Lissaint, “Can We Be Free.”
I’ve ended this week’s playlist with Labrador by Aimee Mann which she performed on episode of 363 of the WTF podcast. She has been a favorite artist of mine since her days in Til Tuesday.