Fluxblog is the very first MP3 Blog. It was founded by me, Matthew Perpetua, in 2002. You can subscribe to the RSS feed here, and peruse the FluxBlogRoll here.
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Katy Rose "Keeping It Together" - I suppose that Katy Rose owes her recording career due to the common record company tendency to flood the market with variations on a successful formula. In this case, V2 had a hunch that maybe the public liked Arvil Lavigne's cute-badass-rock girl image, but desired an "authentic" version that sounded like post-Celebrity Skin Courtney Love adapting the screenplay of Thirteen. (Not a surprise: Rose is actually on the soundtrack to that movie.)
Rose's music, particularly this import bonus track, is all about the fetishization of fucked-uptitude and psych-ward chic. I sincerely believe that this kind of lyrical message is deeply irresponsible when aimed at a target market of teenagers who are caught up in their heightened teen emotions and are often all too eager to self-diagnose and then act out on psychiatric disorders that seem dramatic and sexy. This is all blatant self-mythologizing; a deliberate attempt to glamorize serious problems. Rose's persona comes down to "I'm off my meds, don't you want to fuck me?" It plays into the despicable sexual fantasies of adults and the most selfdestructive impulses of teenagers. In sociological terms, this is all very gross.
That said, this is an excellent Modern Rock song. It's got just the right amount of menace to it without coming off heavy handed, and the chorus really goes for the teen rebellion anthem brass ring. Hole is the most obvious reference point in terms of style, but there's more to it than that. Rose's vocal delivery on the verses reminds me of Billy Corgan in his faux-goth Machina phase mixed in with bits of Shirley Manson. This sounds like music concieved in an echo chamber of mid-to-late 90s radio rock, and I have no doubt that it actually was given Rose's age and sensibilities. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)
Enon "The Nightmare of Atomic Men" - I love the title, it's so Silver Age! Enon are going for some kind of sci-fi funk sleaze thing on this song, and it's pretty successful on those terms if you aren't distracted by the indie cutesiness of the female vocals on the chorus. (I find it catchy and endearing, personally.) There are some excellent keyboard sounds on this track - I especially enjoy the string hits and the wet synth bass. (Click here to pre-order it from Insound.)
Hey Mike, this was just passed along to me by a member of the band. It's really, really good! I'm definitely posting something from it tomorrow. I won't tell you what it's like, I'll let you be surprised, but it's very joycore. Just be sure to listen to the songs from the 2004 album.
Whoa. I'm sitting here smiling my head off right now. I assume your reaction was, "This EXISTS?!?!" Sort of Beat Happening on ecstacy. That's AWESOME.
Yeah, "this exists?" was pretty much it. I'm still not sure how to describe this stuff. It's like imaginary music or something - the kind of hypothetical music that writers dream up but never actually exists. It has that strange "lost classic" sound to it, as though it was just unearthed from a time capsule from 1991.
Ah yes, very true. Like the made-up band on the pop radio station in Wes Anderson's version of Grand Theft Auto. (i.e., Grand Theft Auto: TWEE CITY).
Psapp "Rear Moth" - This could very well be the most romantic, elegant song in the world to feature the sound of a squeeze toy as punctuation to its rhythm. The singer's voice is close enough Laetitia Sadier to announce "RIYL: Stereolab, Electrelane, Pram," but this is more than just a surrogate for the Groop. There is something kind of magical about Psapp's record that I find difficult to articulate - it has Stereolab's exociticism and low key sexuality, but also a whimsy that seems somewhat precious and child-like. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)
Empire State Human "Digital City" - The travel brochures for both Digital City and Paradise City claim to have girls who are pretty residing within city limits, but I reckon that the girls in Digital City are a lot cuter. This is a shameless retro-80s pastiche, but it's solid stuff - if this was actually Duran Duran, it would be my favorite song in their discography. (Click here to visit the official Empire State Human site.)
Marijata "No Condition Is Permanent" - I want to think of this song as being optimistic, but that's not really it, is it? It's more about the solace that comes from knowing that nothing lasts forever, good or bad. It's a sentiment that can yield defeatism, or a faith in resistance and opposition. It's pretty clear to me that this is a song of faith and reassurance - who would ever bother to make music as intense, funky, and passionate as this to get across a sad sack message? This is a selection from the new volume in the excellent Ghana Soundz series, which collects Afrobeat, funk, and soul gems from Ghana in the 1970s. (Click here to buy it from Other Music.)
TTC "Ebisu Rendez-Vous" - I haven't been very fond of the French hip hop that I've heard in the past, but this is fantastic. Like the best non-American hip hop, this is not an attempt to ape popular US rap (new or old), but rather something different and distinctly European. This track is entirely comprised of spacey electronic robo-textures that evoke images of a sci-fi future as well as a peculiar mixture of languor and restlessness. (Click here to buy it from Ninja Tune.)
AK-MOMO "Greasy Spoon" - Okay, I think I have this figured out now: I dig nu-folk when the folky elements are recontextualized and obviously postmodern (like, say Cocorosie, or Stephen Malkmus and Mary Timony's appropriations of Ren-Faire Brit folk psychedelia), but whenever it seems that the artist is aiming for authenticity (Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart, etc, etc), I am turned off, big time. AK-MOMO fall into the postmodern camp, setting their beautiful lullabies to a distant backdrop of vintage optigans and melotrons that imply a nostalgic past. It's like the musical equivalent of Guy Maddin's vaseline-lensed movies (ie, The Saddest Music In The World), but less academic and more poignant. (Click here to buy it from Parasol.)
Relaxed Muscle "Sexualized" - I can't believe that I've never actually posted this song - in my mind, this is a big Fluxblog classic. (A direct result of putting it on so many mix cds, I suppose.) This is Jarvis Cocker's frantic, in-the-red anthem of sexual frustration. The character in the song sees sexuality in every facet of life and pop culture, but it is always inaccessable or forbidden, which drives him mad. The guitars are overheated and manic; the vocals convey a palpable anxiety and desperation. This is the sound of futile lust and horny impotence, and it fucking ROCKS. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)
Cadence Weapon "Oliver Square" - First line: "It's corrupt where I'm from, Edmonton." Really? I had no idea. My ignorance is revealed - the only things that I associate with the city of Edmonton are a gigantic mall, the Oilers, and cold weather. I know that I wouldn't normally expect excellent hip hop music to come from Edmonton, but here it is. The track is built around keyboard textures that sound like a funky malfunctioning Gameboy, but the main attraction is Cadence Weapon's solid flow and wordplay, which is sort of like a brainer, less bombastic version of Ludacris. (Click here for the official Cadence Weapon website.)
The Jealous Lovers "Fight For Survival" - This has a lot of the same "weird kids fucking around in their basement" appeal as the Moldy Peaches' first album, but with the folky elements replaced by lo-fi funk. The production values are very amateurish, resulting in a track in which all of the parts of the arrangement sound distanced from one another. The horns and percussion sound like field recordings, and seem as though they are meant to be heard as quotations in the context of the song. The bassline and the keyboards may as well have footnotes attached to them. The disjointed sound works for the Jealous Lovers, and goes a long way in distancing them from the colder, less organic sound of many of their post-Electroclash peers. (Click here to visit the official Jealous Lovers website.)
Fluxblog has been nominated for a Bloggie in the Best Entertainment Blog category. You can vote here. Thanks to everyone involved in nominating the site, I really appreciate it.
Does This Look Like A Facelift That Would Lie To You?
Taylor Savvy "Treat Him Like A Lady (Sometimes)" - I never realized how much Taylor Savvy sounded like John Mayer until I heard this song. It's all in the voice, of course (though Savvy isn't quite as reedy or affected as Mayer), because this track sounds a lot more lite FM/boy-band than acoustic Starbucks rock. It makes a lot of sense for Savvy to play up any similarities to Mayer, whether it is intentional or not, given that his whole act is about subverting his pretty boy looks and smooth pop with peculiar lyrics and his Justin Timberlake-meets-Chippendales stage show. If Savvy is going to send up the music made by men to seduce women, John Mayer is an excellent contemporary reference point. Bonus points: Savvy's lyrical advice in this song (basically, you should treat men with tenderness and affection sometimes) seems like something that Mayer would actually write, given the level of humor and self-awareness that he displayed on his recent VH1 special. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)
Roots Manuva "Colossal Insight (Jammer & Mizz Beatz Remix)" - Though Roots Manuva is not quite as extreme as many of his UK hip hop contempories, it would be difficult to confuse his music with any current American rap artists. His vocal flow is fluid and somewhat conventional, but his tracks are often cold and trebly in a way which is obviously influenced by European electronic artists, whereas American electronic hip hop beats come out of the funk tradition and tend to emphasize warmer low-end frequencies. This track is particularly indebted to modern American r&b (especially on the chorus), but sounds as though it was programmed by a person immersed in Europop and UK Garage. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)
Elsewhere: This realvideo clip of Joan Rivers interviewing Alia "Maeby" Shawkat and Michael "George-Michael" Cera on the red carpet at the Golden Globes is priceless. Shawkat and Cera are clearly uncomfortable in the situation but play to their comedic strengths while Rivers seems more than ever like a batty old lady. Make sure that you watch the entire clip, because those last few seconds are hilarious. Also worth checking out, though not quite as funny, is this clip of Rivers interviewing "old friend" Jessica Walter, who she introduces as being Barbara Walters.
Also: Fluxblog appears briefly in an MTV News story about Music For Robots and a band of teenagers from Brooklyn called The Hysterics. I recommend the song by their frontman Oliver Ignatius on the MFR site - it's very catchy and sounds a lot like Elliott Smith's jauntier tunes.
Basement Jaxx "Oh My Gosh" - I don't know who this singer is, but she's fantastic. Even as an instrumental, this song would be sexy and sassy, but this girl puts it over the top without coming off as hammy or overly affected. This single is taken from the forthcoming Basement Jaxx greatest hits compilation, which in a purely de facto it-has-every-great-Jaxx-song-except-for-"Cish Cash" sort of way promises to be among the year's best releases. (Click here to visit the official Basement Jaxx site.)
Chica + The Folder "I'll Come Running" - When dealing with source material as strong as this Eno song, there is a limit to how badly things can go. Luckily, this is a very inspired cover version, as it recasts the song's narrator as an Eastern European woman, and renders the music entirely with cool, serene digital tones. (Click here to buy it from Hausmusik.)
Mutronium "I'm All Over You" - As the northeastern United States settles into a deep freeze, it's probably a good idea to break out some summery pop for the sake of escapism. This song is an excellent Cars pastiche complimented by some noisy lead guitar straight out of the Joey Santiago playbook and dynamic programmed percussion that flirts with Big Beat, but remains grounded in contemporary power pop. In terms of pop-rock music, this is the song to beat in 2005. (Mutronium is an unsigned band. If you would like to contact the band, please email mutronium @ hotmail.com)
Benny Sings "Little Donna" - I suppose that a lot of my extreme fondness for this song is a direct result of growing up listening to lite FM radio. Like Phoenix, Benny Sings is unironic about this sort of pop music, and write and perform their material with considerable skill and intelligence. Unlike Phoenix, modern pop sounds are kept to a minimum, so songs like "Little Donna" could possibly pass for an actual AM radio hit from the 70s to most laypersons. Be warned - this song is insanely catchy. I feel like I'm never going to get this song out of my head, and I don't really mind. (Click here to pre-order it from Dox Records.)
Au Revoir Simone "And Sleep Al Mar" - It's actually kind of refreshing to hear something as creepy and lecherous as this song come from an all-girl band. There's no shortage of songs about older men desiring sexy young boys and girls, but good luck making a top ten list of songs sung from an adult female perspective about lust for teenage boys. This song is considerably darker than Au Revoir Simone's previous material, but the band doesn't overdo it, keeping the sinister vibe fairly subtle and cinematic rather than over-the-top and theatrical. It's rather like a feminine version of Thom Yorke's piano-based songs on the last two Radiohead albums. (Click here to visit the official Au Revoir Simone site.)
Architecture In Helsinki "Do The Whirlwind" - Though I normally use the word "joycore" as an adjective these days, this song would fit into a hypothetical genre of the same name rather comfortably along with recent music by the likes of United State Of Electronica and The Go! Team. "Do The Whirlwind" sounds like a direct descendent of the Tom Tom Club's classic "Genius Of Love" not just in its floaty, low-key funk, but also in how it employs cutesy vocals to deliver deceptively heavy lyrics. (Click here to buy it from Remote Control.)
