Numerically speaking, the potential unique #ThematicStatic themes are infinite — and don’t threaten me with a good time (a good time being coming up with the most obscure sh*t and challenging you listeners to request tunes that fit the mix). Anyway, you always deliver. The last two weeks felt like a softball in comparison, so many tunes existing with numbers in the titles. I couldn’t fit all requests into the consecutive two, hour-long shows, but I do think the final track lists are ACE. One might even say 💯?
Listen back (👇🏼) to the February 2 and 9 #ThematicStatic shows and get your requests in this week on Twitter or Instagram @WNXPNashville.
#ThematicStatic Playlist – 2/2/23
Blonde Redhead – “23″ – Katy and Grace asked for this, which I happily included instead of Taylor’s “22.” (Another time, perhaps!)
Bakar – “1st Time” – Dunkman, slam dunk here.
Radiohead – “15 Steps” – Katharine and Patrick both asked for this In Rainbows cut. (Side note: how much did YOU pay when Radiohead said “pay what you want” for this digital album some 12 years ago? What a time.)
Feist – “1234” – A perfect counting tune requested by Katy.
Coolio – “1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New)” – When I saw Joseph had requested this late ’90s hip-hop gem, I knew I had to juxtapose it with Feist. What a joy. R.I.P. Coolio.
Toots & The Maytals – “54-46 That’s My Number” – Nekos with the deep cut! R.I.P. Toots Hibbert.
Catfish And The Bottlemen – “7” – Lansing asked for this British band’s catchy single-digit song title.
The Strokes – “12:51” – The first “time on the clock” song to fit this theme, but not the only!
King Princess – “1950” – Good one, Meghan!
Built to Spill – “Carry The Zero” – This takes the cake. Kayb, thanks for making it an official request because I love to play this song loudly and often, anyway.
Wilson Pickett – “634-5789” – This isn’t the phone number song you thought I’d play, is it? But this one rules. Holly in Kentucky made the request. (Matt, we’ll play you “867-5309” another day, when you least expect it!)
Caroline Polachek – “BILLIONS” – Pat loves Polachek and I know this because I’ve seen him perform in the artist’s tour t-shirt! This new song off her brand new Desire, I Want to Turn into You fit the theme and the choir-like vocals at the end (“I’ve never felt so close to you”) sounded positively heavenly on 91.ONE.
Silk Sonic – “777” – Wooooooo!
#ThematicStatic Playlist – 2/9/23
Lou Bega – “Mambo No. 5” – Justin Barney requested this publicly and maybe ironically, but I showed him, didn’t I? Bless yourself and show someone under the age of 25 how the world used to be.
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes – “40 Day Dream” – I’m sorry I can’t find who requested this, but I hope you — and all of you — enjoyed hearing it.
Sudan Archives – “#513” – Cincinnati area code love commemorated in Sudan Archives’ fabulous Natural Brown Prom Queen record.
Beach Bunny ft. Tegan & Sara – “Cloud 9” – This newest version of the song requested by our friends at Fenix ft. a new nonbinary verse for all the loverrrrrs:
But when they love me, I feel like I’m floating
“Cloud 9”
When they call me pretty, I feel like somebody
Even when we fade eventually, I’m nothing
You will always be my favorite form of loving
Prince – “1999” – Classic, requested by Kevin.
Sjowgren- “Seventeen” – Rachel at WPLN revived this one for us!
Ben Folds Five – “One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces” – Hey to one of several darling Patricks contributing to Thematic Static regularly, thanks for giving me the reason to import and hand-bleep the “bullshit” out of this one, the rollicking opening track on 1997 record Whatever And Ever Amen.
Jason Isbell – “24 Frames” – Emily asked for this guy, another local legend.
Kendrick Lamar – “N95” – Keelie reminded me of a very COVID-era use of numbers in a song title, from Lamar’s Grammy Award-winning Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers.
Nena – “99 Luftballons” – German pop gone mainstream, translated as “99 Red Balloons,” this 1983 international hit just sounds good on the radio.
Radiohead – “2+2=5” – What. A. Vibe. Plenty of Iraq War rage was funneled into the eruptive first song on 2003 rock record Hail to the Thief. The math might be wrong but the tone is alllll right.
Liz Phair- “6’1” – Exile in Guyville has Phair taking the stance of a woman on the street passing a former paramour and retaliating, if only in her head. She said in Rolling Stone it was about “standing up to the guy.”
Love – “7 and 7 Is” – This is a wonderful example of our greater “hive mind” making for a dynamic themed set. LOVED pulling Love into the library, and got multiple comments about this one after airing. Thanks, Rhythm Bullies on Instagram, for evoking the ’60’s psychedelia of L.A. in a song that fit the theme!
Beabadoobee – “10:36” – She didn’t play this one, but “Bea” did grace our Sonic Cathedral last year before her new record featuring this song — finished at the time in the title — was released. Watch the session here!
Rayland Baxter – “2009” – This Mac Miller tune is covered by the Nashville artist who recently released his own record, If I Were A Butterfly, which was our #RecordoftheWeek in December.