13 | Brent L. Smith Pipe Dreams on Pico
A Far West Soundtrack
Brent L. Smith, author of Pipe Dreams on Pico, was asked to select 13 songs. He created a soundtrack perfect for the darkness of a late summer night with the asphalt still steaming and sizzling.
Listen to it all here and read his words below.
"Singapore" Tom Waits
I was drinking at Big Nose Kate's Saloon and there was awful, monotonous modern country music coming out of the jukebox. So I got up and put this song on and it literally broke the brains of the locals. I got a taste of how squares must've reacted to early rock 'n' roll. I don't think it's that strange of a song, but maybe I'm just strange.
"Get On Home" The Mason Family
A real feelgood ditty from the Manson Gang. I have this fantasy 60s Spahn Ranch sitcom that goes on in my head when I hear this song. Perfect for opening credits—Squeaky Fromme looks up from cleaning her shotgun and turns toward the camera, smiling, as her name appears at the bottom of the screen...
"No Tears" Tuxedomoon
The most underrated new wave band, too experimental for airwaves, real gods of novelty. I play Tuxedomoon for days and never get bored.
"Family Tree" Ethel Cain
From one of the best albums so far in the 21st century. Granted, the bar's not that high, but in a single, loaded DIY album, Cain managed to capture the beautiful, rotten, haunted American spirit better than any current big label act has or will.
"What A Way To Die" The Pleasure Seekers
Perfectly encapsulates everything good about American garage rock. Toe-to-toe with "Louie Louie."
"Princess of Poetry" The Conscious Daughters
The early 90s were a charged time in L.A. hip hop, and yeah yeah yeah NWA still gets a lot of play, but The Conscious Daughters don't. There's poetry here. And in 2024 it can still pack any dancefloor.
"Angel Fire" Damon Edge
A few years after divorcing his wife—the French model, actress, and musician Fabienne Shine—Edge died brokenhearted and alone in his Redondo Beach apartment in 1995. Damon Edge deserves more love.
"Harmonizer" Ty Segall
Ty's prolific output is crystallized in this play-all-the-way-through album. If radio had any decency in this day and age, Ty would've gotten at least three singles on the airwaves when this was released.
"I'm Shakin'" Little Willie John
"So, I'm 'noy-vous' / An' I'm shakin'..." Later covered by honkies like The Blasters and Jack White, no other rendition can touch this seminal single. And since Black music back then was so often relegated solely to the "R&B" tag, I consider this a pure rock 'n' roll classic.
"Psycho" Eddie Noack
I don't know how country music lost its outlaw edge or its dark gallows humor, but Americans today choose to listen to the dreck on the radio rather than kick their boots up and sip beer to old darlings like Eddie Noack.
"Garbage" Tyler the Creator
Strangely aligned with Eddie Noack, this single brings a morbid hilarity to rap that I like even more than early Eminem. It's also universally known since it was written for the soundtrack of GTA V (the great satirical work of my generation).
"Immaterial Girl" Marci
Why this self-titled 2022 album didn't get more play is criminal. It took me meeting the artist herself at a wild all-nite party in Beachwood Canyon to get familiar with her music. You shouldn't have to work so hard. It's not too late to make this your poolside summer anthem. Reminiscent of MJ's Off the Wall (how many people can say that?) Marci brings her own style to this timeless sound. It's everything pop should be.
"Epizootics!" Scott Walker
Turned on to me by friend Kansas Bowling, Walker once described this song as a Hawaiian nightmare, something I never thought I needed until I heard it. There's a lot more to it than that, and you can only hear it to know it. But jump right in, as it's liable to put you in a fun and murky trance.