Joey Cape
photo by Athena Lonsdale

here's Joey Cape's (Lagwagon) self-isolation playlist

With the coronavirus pandemic keeping many of us home a lot more, we’ve been asking artists to make us playlists of the music they’ve been listening to in isolation, and this one comes from Lagwagon / Bad Astronaut frontman and solo artist Joey Cape. Joey says:

For the past two weeks I have been self-isolated with my dog “Mochi.” Upon returning home from tour, I came straight to an airport hotel. It is in no way exciting. Just like anywhere else, it is now a deserted part of town and the bars and restaurants are shut. Music playlists and the occasional dog walk are helpful. I have kept different playlists on various music platforms for years; they serve whatever mood I happen to be in. In this case, the lonely kind.

This list is the first 20 of my Spotify “faves” playlist. I love all of these songs. I pass time adding to the list and fine-tuning the sequence. The full playlist is well over 300 songs now. The current top 20 are songs that seem to bring me the most pleasure while drinking coffee in the morning or throughout the day when I can no longer read or binge-watch the many series I missed along the way. I wonder what it will sound like two months from now.

His current top 20 includes songs by Love, The Byrds, Belle & Sebastian, Neutral Milk Hotel, Guided by Voices, XTC, Teenage Fanclub, Nick Cave, Echo & the Bunnymen, Grandaddy, Elliott Smith, Lou Reed, and more. It’s a pretty awesome playlist and you can listen to it right here:

Always See Your Face – Love
Running For So Long (House A Home) – Parker Ainsworth
Better Be Home Soon – Crowded House
My Back Pages – The Byrds
Sleep The Clock Around – Belle & Sebastian
Sunrise, Sunset – Perry Como
Where’d All The Time Go? – Dr. Dog
Holland, 1945 – Neutral Milk Hotel
Hold On Hope – Guided By Voices
Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead – XTC
Greens and Blues – Pixies
Planets – Teenage Fanclub
Where The Wild Roses Grow – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
The Killing Moon – Echo & The Bunnymen
Other Side – Lame Drivers
He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s The Pilot – Grandaddy
Et Si Tu Existais Pas – Joe Dassin
Ballad Of Big Nothing – Elliott Smith
In My Life – The Beatles
Perfect Day – Lou Reed

And because we could all use a little live music in our lives, watch this Joey Cape concert film from 2010: