Former Burqueño Jerry DeCicca is the singer, acoustic guitarist and songwriter for Columbus, Ohio-based folk rock band The Black Swans. DeCicca says that MP3s are a new concept to him, as he usually deals in vinyl, tapes and CDs: “I never had an iPod until I bought this dumb phone back in September so I could ‘communicate’ with ‘people’ from the road,” he explains. “My bandmate, who is 22 and knows these things, says that 477 songs isn’t a lot to carry in my pocket.” From that small, sonic pool, here are the first five songs that appeared.
Song Roulette
1) "Accidentally Like a Martyr" • Warren Zevon • Excitable Boy “In my mind, Zevon is the Lou Reed of a washed-out Los Angeles, and his first album on Elektra is my favorite. Dark, funny and sentimental with Beach Boys, Eagles and Buckingham/Nicks singing somewhere behind him.”
Song Roulette
2) "It’s So Easy (When You Know What You’re Doing)" • Ted Lucas • Ted Lucas “This is a pretty song from a solid, lost weirdo. Just reissued on the excellent Sebastian Speaks label run by the great guitar player William Tyler. You could sell soap with this song. Best sappy line: ‘And like the willow bending with the breeze / so we’re bending with each other’s needs.’ ”
Song Roulette
3) "Ain’t Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)" • Joe Tex • Ain’t Gonna Bump No More “So this isn’t my favorite Joe Tex song. I prefer his early, moralistic R&B to his later, scared, skinny-man disco. Still, you can’t not like a song about the hazards of the dance floor.”
Song Roulette
4) "Greensleeves" • Vertical Slit • Slit and Pre-Slit “This is a mangled standard by a mangled dude. Vertical Slit / V-3 / Jim Shephard deconstructed while trying to construct. The first time I saw him, people told me he liked The Fall a lot, but he sounded like a deranged, primitive Springsteen. This is from their earliest release.”
Song Roulette
5) "It Don’t Take but a Few Minutes" • Michael Hurley • Bootleg “This is from one of the many bootleg recordings I’ve bought off Hurley over the years. It’s a Chuck Berry song, and one you don’t hear so much. I love all of Michael’s songs and his covers. He’s a natural and one of the greatest songwriters alive.”
