Another Monday. Will they never cease?
Shuffle up. Describe five.
- Vampire Weekend - Horchata. This whole album reminds me of last Christmas, because so many of these songs ended up on TV commercials. Not a bad song.
- The Cure - All Cats Are Grey. A cold, but hypnotic, drum track and just sketches of organ and piano. Takes two minutes for Smith to start singing his two verses, and then solo piano finishes it off. Very nice.
- U2 - Promenade. It's one of those atmospheric anthemic things from The Unforgettable Fire. I rather like this one, though. It's short: barely 2:30 long. And I'm glad they didn't stretch it any longer; it says what it has to say and gets out.
- Calexico - Woven Birds. Whispered vocals, skeletal arrangement, a touch of Mexican vibe, a creepy waltz. Reminds me of Cormac McCarthy novels.
- Paul Simon - Something So Right. Though it's not one of my favorites, I do enjoy listening to Simon sing it. The song itself is a bit too mid-70s smooth jazz/pop for me; reminds me of early Billy Joel or James Taylor. Still, I love Simon's voice no matter what he's singing about.
Take it away!
Monday is full of a stinking cold. Bleh.
1. Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights
“Heathcliff, it’s me Cathy, I’ve come home, I’m so cold, let me in your window”.
Brilliant song from Kate Bush who was about 18 when it was released (January 1978). The piano riff and the guitar riff near the end still give me the chills. An English rose and a superb voice. Tori Amos owes her a career. The song is of course about the Bronte novel of the same name.
2. The Bluetones – The Jub-Jub Bird
The ‘Tones second album, ‘Return To The Last Chance Saloon’ had a bit of a Mexican vibe to it – all one-horse towns, Tequlia and sombreros. It’s a great record – with everything tuned up to 10 – and I don’t think they released anything to match it after this and their debut. This song is well worth 4:30m of your time – who knows where it may lead.
3. Rilo Kiley – Silver Lining
From their last album ‘Under The Blacklight’ – they seem to have fallen apart now – and their most Fleetwood Mac sounding record by far. Jenny Lewis can do little wrong in my eyes but this isn’t a record I return to much. Not a bad song – her voice is always a pleasure to behold and it has a nice plinky-plonky guitar lining.
4. Suede – Trash
Stomping glam-inspired 90’s rocker from drug fiends Suede (or ‘The London Suede’ for any Americans). Tinny drums and a rasping guitar. Brett Anderson owes a lot to David Bowie which is no bad thing at all. Great track.
5. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
Possibly my fave Floyd track and one I can actually play myself from start to finish (people might even recognise what I’m playing!). Love the song, love the lyrics and love the sentiment (poor Syd).
Dear Science – please crack on with that cure for the common cold. Thanks.
One Simple Word – Material Issue, Freak City Soundtrack. I really wish I had had a chance to see these guys. Power pop is my favorite sub genre (as you might have guessed from my top ten picks). Everything these guys did made you want to dance and the lyrics were always catchy. In this song, the singer is begging to hear one simple word from his object of desire, but it’s not love. “Tell me that you hate me girl and I won’t go on loving you this way”.
Baba O’ Riley – The Who. An early experiment in algorithmically composed music that didn’t pan out. They got a great tune, but didn’t push the boundaries of machine composition. Somehow I feel like the longer post on this should have gone on (void) 10 years ago.
Piece of the Pie – Boom Crash Opera, These Here are Crazy Times. Can you call them one hit wonders if they didn’t actually have a hit? They got radio airplay with track one from this album, “Onionskin” (I worked at a CHR at the time, which is where I got this album). They sound like they really want to sound heavy, even a nice Southern Death Cult style growl/roar in the first verse, but you can’t buy it. Fellow Aussies Hoodoo Gurus managed to successfully walk the crunchy/poppy line and please a wide audience. While there’s nothing wrong with Boom Crash Opera, there’s just not a lot right about them either.
Home Cookin’ – Jr. Walker and the All Stars. Lyrically you go into this song expecting it to be man telling his woman that he wouldn’t have to be out at night looking around if he good metaphorical cooking at home. But no, he’s actually complaining about her burning the beans. In fact, she’s putting too much effort into fulfilling his other appetites, “Instead of study how you look/You oughta study yo’ mama’s cookbook”. It’s got a great groove and if it doesn’t cause your girlfriend to mutter throughout that he should fix his own damn dinner, it’s a fun spin.
You Better Move On – The Hollies. You can picture mods in a basement wearing those cool mod clothes, and dancing those cool mod dances while this plays. This one’s on the slow side, and it doesn’t just have a good beat, it’s almost nothing but beat. And of course a beat down for the snobby rich guy who wants to buy his girl. A great song for times of income inequality.
That is a cool Cure track. And that Suede song brings back so many memories. I’m not even the hugest power pop fan but those first two Material Issue albums are killer.
1. Gomez – Hamoa Beach
This band is so weird. I really like them, kind of rootsy and folky but modern at the same time and I would have never guessed in a million guesses that they were from England. I didn’t know the Brits did this kind of thing (though there seem to be more and more of this stuff coming out of there recently). This is a great song and I really like the version in the video.
(as an aside I am writing this on a little mini keyboard that is usually attached to our media PC. It looks like this: http://images.techtree.com/ttimages/story/105218_bundle.jpg It is a bit smaller but the bigger problem is that it is a US layout and I am used to Norwegain. So every single special key used to make links is in a totally different place. It is taking me forever to write this..so write it once without the link, copy it 4 times and paste in like a template!)
2. The Cure – Mint Car
Not the best Cure song ever. In fact their happy ones are usually the ones I like less. And this is post Disintigration Cure, which is really uneven at best. I don’t even own the album this is on, it appears on the best of Galore that I copied from a friend. Next.
3. The Swinging Erudites – Walk With an Erection
Seriously, Media Monkey? A parody of Walk Like an Egyptian. This got airplay on KROQ in Los Angeles when I was living there which is probably why I have it but I don’t remember even acquiring it at any point. Not really that funny and basically the same music as the original so barely worth listening to. NEXT.
4. Phish – A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing (Live)
I only have one thing by Phish, a live album my brother gave me. I pull it out from time to time when I am in a sort of jazz rock mood and interested in listening to some soloing, which is basically what this song and most Phish songs are, a set up for an epic solo. Not bad as far as that thing goes, just not normally my cup of tea. Let’s if Media Monkey can throw up another oddball….
5. The Psychedelic Furs – All That Money Wants
Redemption, of a sort. Not the best Furs, but a pretty damn good song. I’ve said before, I could listen to Richard Butler sing the phone book. I can’t get enough of his raspy voice and have always loved the Furs wall of sound.
That was weird. Almost the weekend!
I got a win7 box a few months ago and there’s one thing that drives me nuts. I use the US international keyboard so I can make £ and ç and ö and stuff easily. And almost every single day Windows has decided that’s not really what I want and switched the layout back to US. In fact I don’t remember even installing the US layout, yet it keeps switching. Grrr. Ubuntu doesn’t do that to me.
For your keyboard problem, why not just switch layouts in the OS and rearrange the keycaps if need be? Oops, just looked at the pic. Chiclet keys. You could still scrape the letters off and write the proper one on.
I always have problems with my laptops as they are purchased here with Norwegian keys but I install an English OS. Windows doesn’t know what to do with it and it usually takes weeks of tweeking it and resetting it to get it to work properly.
I should just use a different keyboard but I had the laptop sort of docked at the desktop LCD and needed a USB keyboard without crawling under the desk and unhooking the desktop’s or going up to the attic to get one. My wife makes fun of me that I will spend 20 minutes getting this thing to work rather than use 2 minutes to go upstairs.
The next song on random was Fugazi, which is much more like it!
Stuff Smith Orchestra: “I Hope Gabriel Likes My Music”. My favorite swing.
Xiao He: “If You Trust”. Pretty far-out Chinese traditional music played on guitar with effects and looping.
The Soft Boys: “Out of the Picture” (9/6/80, Maxwell’s). I’m always surprised to hear this as a Soft Boys tune, it’s one of the first Robyn Hitchcock tunes I ever knew. …This sounds (naturally) a lot like the solo version, with the addition of funky keyboards.
The Carter Family: “Western Hobo”. Sara yodeling!
Amy Winehouse: “You Know I’m No Good”.
Yo cleek, check yer mail. 20 clips for name that tune should be there.