Grab hold of your music shuffling device. Command it to play then five songs. Describe here those five songs to us, so that from you we may learn of them.
- Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Heaven (Kershaw Sessions). While most of the songs on this album were recorded on Andy Kershaw's radio show, this one was actually re-packaged from their "Gotta Let This Hen Out" record. Cheaters! Anyway... this is a nice little tune from Robyn's very early period, very poppy, very chipper and upbeat, very mid 80s.
- Copeland - The Day I Lost My Voice (The Suitcase Song). A delicate little sketch of a song. A wispy keyboard line and the sparest of drum tracks accent a high simple vocal melody. Sometimes there's harmony. It doesn't do a lot, and it's almost too sweet, but I like it. It's been sitting on my iPod for a couple of years now, and has slowly grown on me. I almost never think about it, but one day it came on and I realized I had memorized it - though I didn't know the name of the song or who it was from. And the band broke up last year. Alas.
- The New Pornographers - Use It. On the other hand, the verses in this song are just drums, a simple piano line and a simple vocal melody, too. But the New Pornographers don't do wispy and delicate. This song rocks. And then the chorus comes in, and everything goes to 11. One of my favorite NP songs.
- Beastie Boys - Something's Got To Give. Another live-band Beasties track! This one's a laid-back, funky, trippy thing - like a garage band doing a War impression. The video is all bomber footage and tanks and ruination. Good times.
- King Crimson - Matte Kudasai (alternate take). KC's prettiest song, by far. Even people who aren't fans of prog rock will like this one. It still has Belew's trademark animal noises (seagulls, this time) and Fripp's guitar parts are sick, but it's all in service of a soft, mellow and sweetly-lovesick vibe. Veddy nice. Veddy nice. The difference between this and the the original is in the guitar parts - Belew's howling infinite-sustain parts are slightly different from the original version, and Fripp gets a little extra bit.
Onward!
The only worthwhile thing to do on a Monday is to rock out with these tasty little morsals.
1. The Velvet Underground – Venus In Furs.
Perhaps their best track. I first heard it used in a tyre commercial back in the early 90’s – pre-Shazam and pre-home Internet connection – and had to phone one of my more musically knowledgeable friends to find out what it was. The strings on this song make my hair stand on end. And that first line of ‘Shiny shiny, shiny boots of leather’ just sets the scene. It’s dark, it’s druggy and it’s glorious.
2. Radiohead – Bangers and Mash.
This was an extra track recorded for the sessions that gave us the beautiful ‘In Rainbows’ album in 2007. It made it on the extra CD that they shipped with the ‘Discbox’ that suckers like me shelled out £40 for. The song is quite a rocky number and features Thom playing a mini drum kit which is mesmerising to watch and gives the song an extra kick. At the end of the song he looks absolutely knackered. Jonny Greenwood’s guitar playing is always worth a look. The song itself deals with being bitten a puking up the walls. Yum. By all accounts their new album is imminent and as one of their biggest fans I am going to POP when it does. It will be interesting to see how they release it after their ‘charity box’ download approach last time.
3. Kings of Leon – Use Somebody.
I was a very early fan of KOL and was extolling their virtues while everyone was getting very excited about The Strokes. I loved Caleb’s southern drawl and their grubby, dirt-under-the-fingernails rock tunes. They have since proved to a massive pull here in the UK – they couldn’t get arrested in the USA a few years ago, let alone sell any tunes. Anyway, they started honing their sound, added bigger production values and went on tour with U2 … who they sometimes try and emulate. This song is a stadium rcoker that is a bit too polished and predictable for my liking, but I’m still glad the boys from Tennessee have done good … even if they’ve probably peaked and will no doubt implode amongst addiction and recrimination.
4. The Soundtrack of Our Lives – Independent Luxury.
What a great (and underrated) band TSOOL are! They sound like everyone! Bit of Beatles, bit of Stones, bit soft rock, bit hard rock, bit indie. Saw them at Reading a few years ago and they mesmerised anyone lucky enough to be watching. This song (from their Behind The Music album) is pretty run-of-the-mill but contains enough quirks and dirty guitar to make it stand a little taller than other rock bands.
5. The Stranglers – Golden Brown.
It’s about heroin. You’ll have heard it before. It’s another one of those songs that came out when I was a boy and I kept hearing it coming out of my brothers bedroom (along with the pungent aroma of his ‘special’ cigarettes). It’s part of me now. Not sure whether my brother deserves thanks for it or not as it’s been played to death over the years but it’s a pretty good show for an ex-punk band that have produced some utter dross in the past.
What a lip-smacking selection of aural delicacies that was. Until the next time Cleekettes!
I love “Heaven”.
1. “The Ballad of Hollis Brown” by Mountain Station. Very early, uncertain take on a great song. The strong, desolate rhythm of this song just grabs me and focuses all my longing and sorrow. But man, it is not played very well in this recording.
2. “Filthy Bird” by Robyn Hitchcock, live, ’97. I don’t quite get this song — Feg fans seem to put it down a bit as Robyn “just trying to be political” without really knowing what he wants to say; I guess I could see the validity of that take. But it seems like it would be a great song if it just made a little more sense… This recording (like the album version) has Deni on fiddle, which is always fun to listen to.
3. “Sittin on top of the world”, Taj Mahal. This is a classic blues tune (and the original recording of it, by the Mississippi Sheiks, is better than any other version I’ve ever heard) — Taj Mahal has got a pretty solid track record of playing songs that I like a whole lot in versions that are ok, kind of fun, but don’t move me that much.
4. “Nobody’s Sweetheart”, Captain Sensible. Is this tune a standard? It sure sounds like one. Yes! A pop standard written in 1924 by Gus Kahn. I only know it in this version though, so can’t compare. Captain Sensible is having a whole lot of fun with the bouncy beat, the instrumentation (featuring kazoo!) is beautiful. Not crazy about the vocal though.
5. “Rain Dogs”, Tom Waits. I’m never sure what to make of Waits. Here he is singing about being a Rain Dog, in his characteristic husky baritone. It’s fun to listen to, understanding it is purely secondary.
Is this tune a standard? It sure sounds like one.
Leon Redbone did it in ’77 – i think that’s a kazoo in the background of his version, too. a kazoo or some kind of muted coronet-ish thing.
I was living Amish yesterday, waiting to watch the Super Bowl on tape and hoping to not hear who won (I didn’t, but the wrong team won even though the right team won, if you know what I mean) so I missed this. I heart Rob’s list, as usual.
1. David Bowie – Afraid of Americans
From Bowie’s late 90’s electronica/industrial fascination phase. I really liked the couple of albums he did around this time, but then I like that whole Nine Inch Nails thing he sorta gets going here. The video is great with Reznor and Bowie. Plus, I’m occasionally afraid of Americans and I am one which gives me something to ponder.
2. Frank Zappa – A Solo From Atlanta
This is the danger of doing the random thing on the home network with its 45,000 songs. I have basically everything by Zappa converted to flac or mp3 sitting on the external hard drives and since his discography is so huge I quite often come up with snippets like this, just a solo from a show. Not that there is anything wrong that, really, since Zappa was a seriously good guitarist. I think of all the things he is remembered for it is sad that his guitar playing isn’t among the top things.
3. Gary Numan – Radio Heart
Back in the 80’s when I became a synth-head Gary Numan was like the holy grail of obscure, weird, British new wave when I was a teen in Iowa. All anyone here knew was that Cars song but I and a friend had everything (I still do. I have two boxes of albums and 7 and 12 inch singles in the basement, some of them signed!). I remember liking this song because it was not a regular release but some single he put out with someone else and was IMPOSSIBLE to find in the States. All I had was the single but I had to have the album. Now that I do, as you can probably hear, it wasn’t worth the trouble. Really, really dated 80’s.
4. Boingo – Insanity
Oingo Boingo is a band I have probably seen more times than any other. I remember seeing them in Minneapolis the night before high school graduation, where we stayed over night and showed up the next day just in time to graduate (graduation night I missed all the parties to see (and interview!) Henry Rollins with 300 other punks). When I moved to Los Angeles we attended every Halloween show, a Boingo tradition. This song was from their last album, a stab at a grungier sound, though this song is orchestral and creepy, with the video adding to the creepiness. I miss them, they were a fantastic live band.
5. Sugar – The Act We Act
What a fantastic song from one of the best albums from the 90’s. I was a huge Husker Du fan, saw them several times living as I did just a few hours from Minneapolis. And the early years of Bob Mould solo were great as well. Sugar was probably the high point of that. It was such a good combination of power pop melodies and punk aesthetic, I remember thinking at the time that this was what perfect music was. I still do, sort of. It’s been so long since I heard Sugar that this is immediately going into the car for my commute (all 15 minutes of it).
I really enjoy doing this. Now off to watch all of cleek’s videos.