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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Belle & Sebastian "Song For Sunshine" - Belle & Sebastian have built their career on an uncanny knack for pastiche, slowly working through the 60s folk-rock canon and on through other familiar sounds of the 60s and 70s. Each new album from the band seems to be a small step forward along the pop timeline, and it's beginning to seem likely that the band might record a few grunge numbers around 2018, at which point the sound will be suitably old-timey enough for the group's sensibility. (There will also be a few baggy numbers on that album.) A majority of the forthcoming The Life Pursuit is spent in a nebulous late 70s mode, mainly fixating on the sort of light Thin Lizzy-ish glam that they started on with "I'm A Cuckoo" from the previous LP. "Song For Sunshine" is the most audacious track from the album, as it blatantly apes Parliament/Funkadelic and Stevie Wonder with very polarizing results. I think it's the best song on the record, and among the most enjoyable selections in their discography. But other people are already blasting it with their Hatorade hoses, and the thing only leaked this week. So approach with caution, and keep in mind that it's not exactly a proper representation of the album as a whole. (Click here for the official Belle & Sebastian website.)
Gus Gus "Bambi" - Poor "Bambi," marooned on an album full of so-so late 90s trip hop, cut off from the rest of the world for being the one song that feels timeless on a record that already feels dated despite only being six years old. This is Gus Gus' end-of-the-movie moment; a gorgeous vaseline-lensed love song complete with sci-fi romanticism and swelling strings. I reckon that it's at least equal in quality to some similar songs recorded by Bjork around the same time. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)
Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins "Born Secular" - In a recent interview, Bono claimed that his favorite music was about people either running to or away from God. This song seems frozen in place between the two, like a deer in His divine headlights. This is amazing stuff - I'd say that it's the best song Lewis has ever done, but I'm still pretty stuck on "I Never" from More Adventurous. The forthcoming LP is very good too, even the Travelling Wilburys song with Conor Oberst on guest vocals! I know that seems totally impossible, but it's true. (Click here for Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins' MySpace page.)
The Howling Hex "No Numbers" - The latest album from Neil Michael Hagerty floats by in a strange haze, like a half-forgotten dream buoyed to the memory by a handful of vivid details. This track in particular benefits from a liberal usage of reverb and trumpet, making the song sound like a field recording of Hagerty jamming on a subway platform. Sorry to bring Bono into this post a second time, but I'll be damned if it doesn't seem as though Hagerty is just about to start singing "One Tree Hill" every time he gets on the mic. (Click here to buy it from Drag City.)
Girls Aloud "Models" - Girls Aloud – British talent show pop girl group, yeah? Well, sure, but don't get it twisted. They are, in fact, one of the best rock acts in the world right now. I can understand why so many people would make the mistake of believing otherwise – in 2005, rock more often than not denotes a slavish devotion to guitars and the tedium of tradition, with most good acts working within the genre getting by on charm and chops rather than a mad rush of pop energy and invention. Basically, Girls Aloud are a pop rock act that have made the decision NOT to be mind-numbingly boring. They have some obvious peers in contemporary pop – Sugababes, Rachel Stevens, Annie, Kelly Clarkson – but I tend to believe that they are actually most similar to The New Pornographers, at least in terms of the effect that I get from listening to their albums. As with the New Pornographers' three LPs, Girls Aloud's Chemistry is on full blast from start to finish, even when they make time for the ballads. The craft is seamless; every track is nearly overflowing with hooks, and every moment is executed with scary precision without ever losing the spark of humanity. The songs give me exactly what I need, but keep me on my toes, often veering from conventional song structures ever so slightly without calling unnecessary attention to craft. As with any great pop art, it has a way of scrambling critical faculties with a manic surge of thrill power, and that's the kind of high that I wish I could have all of the time. (Click here to pre-order it from Amazon UK.)
The Sounds "24 Hours" - There's a similar sort of energy in this track, though it could stand to up its dosage of adrenaline and sugar. It took me four times to hear this song and realize that she wasn't actually singing "you fall in love, and then you lose your hair," which is disappointing, but probably better for the song's chances in terms of becoming an actual pop hit. Actually, can we find a way to get Kelly Clarkson to record this number for her next album? That would be so ideal. (Click here for the official Sounds website.)
Ed Shepp "Event To Remember" - Ah yes! It is now open season for holiday-themed recordings. Though the lyrics are focused on a "holiday in December," I'm sure that many of you will find several of Ed Shepp's suggestions on how to create a memorable turkey dinner to be very helpful if you're hosting a Thanksgiving feast tomorrow. (Click here to buy it from CD Baby, here for Ed Shepp's blog, and here for the archives of The Ed Shepp Radio Experiment.)
Comet Gain "The Punk Got Fucked" - As an alternative to holiday cheer, you can instead listen to this bile-fueled spoken word punk midlife crisis. Set to music that sounds vaguely like Can making fun of The Doors, David Feck rants bitterly about crushed expectations and lingering disappointments in a thick British accent until he collapses into a state of indecision and confusion. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)
Broadcast "Michael Agrammar" - My name is not Michael, but it's very common for people to think that it is. It's not far off from Matthew, I suppose, and it's a nice enough name, so I'm never very offended. (I mean, if people were accidentally calling me Mike or Mikey or Mickey, I might take some issue.) The only time I ever wish that my name was actually Michael is when I hear this song. Trish Keenan sings the name with a quiet grace and gentle authority - Michael could just as well be her child as it as a lover, a brother, or a best friend. Lyrically as well as musically, the track is intimate and woozy, like a disjointed half-asleep late night conversation set to song. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)
Judy Henske & Jerry Yester "Farewell Aldebaran" - How square are people now that any busker with a stupid beard gets to be called "freak folk" without having to actually sound as bizarre as this late 60s head-scratcher? The song begins as an urgent, theatrical lo-fi prog-folk thing (you could probably trick someone into believing that it's Guided By Voices at first), but halfway through, the vocals are put through some kind of extreme processing that makes it sound like the mic has been passed to an opera-loving Dalek. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)
My Project: Blue "Messed Up in the Heart" - Is this just how Canadians sing now? Was it like this all along, and no one ever really noticed? Or is it just the Canadians who write their own David Bowie songs? There's some lovely lead guitar in this track - it reminds of something rather specific, but I can't seem to place it. Any guesses? (Click here to buy it from My Project: Blue's official site.)
Busta Rhymes "Touch It" - Though this is hardly Busta Rhyme's finest hour as a lyricist (one "Wait" is enough for this year, thanks), this brilliant track from Swizz Beatz emphasizes his strengths as a vocalist, alternating between a slooooooooowed down Daft Punk sample and minimal, primal percussion. Excellent stuff, though I wish the lyrics were as good as everything else in the track. (Click here to buy it from DJ City.)
Nobody & Mystic Chords of Memory "Decisions, Decisions" - I always feel a little bit strange for enjoying so much music that is obviously designed to accompany drug usage when I myself do not take any drugs at all, unless you count over the counter headache and stomach medication. This song practically smells like marijuana smoke with its wispy flutes and mellow psychedelia, but thankfully music does not in fact have an odor, because I would have to crack open the windows or just turn it off. (I cannot find any site for this album, or a site selling it. The Rough Trade site for Mystic Chords of Memory is not particularly helpful, nor is the MySpace site for the frustratingly Google-proof Nobody.)
Times New Viking "Not High" - Midheaven says: TNV successfully skirt the current homogenization of the rock press pigeonhole. Neither are they new-weird-america, nor are they new-noise-underground. I suspect Times New Viking are at the forefront of a new, yet-to-be defined movement. It's only a matter of time though. And when that time comes I want to be there. My shrine needs a motherfuckin' name! I say: Isn't it clear what this is? It's nü-fi! It's so obvious to anyone who enjoys fuzzy, quasi-primitive, incoherent pop rock recorded on terrible, terrible equipment. (Click here to buy it from Midheaven.)
Jamie Lidell "Multiply (Gonzales Mix)" - Not a remix in the regular sense, but rather a new arrangement for a song which appears to be one of the most popular songs to be posted here in the past year judging by the comments box, emails, and conversations with people that I meet out and about. I definitely prefer this stripped-down version of the song, performed only with piano and vocals, accompanied by some light piano bar ambience. The faux-Otis Redding style of the original version was fine enough, but that's such a common affectation that it was easy for some people to mistake this tune for just another bland Joss Stone-ish coffee shop pop song. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)
Hand Fed Babies "The Fisherman Feels It" - Paraphrasing: Worrying about the End Times is for the lazy and idle! I'm not inclined to disagree. Gorgeous bass on this track, by the way. The whole thing sounds a bit like someone trying to make a screwed version of the Silver Apples with agitated vocals thrown in for a purposely jarring effect. (Click here to buy it from Hand Fed Babies' MySpace page.)
Sir Alice "L'Amour Made In Taiwan" - Over the weekend, my roommate and I watched Noah Baumbach's debut feature Kicking and Screaming (not the Will Ferrell soccer movie, btw), in part because of the fact that we both enjoyed his current movie, The Squid and the Whale. Despite what you may have heard, Kicking and Screaming is a pretty awful film, especially in terms of the 90s Indie Flick About Hyper-articulate Angsty Upper Class White 20somethings subgenre. As with many films of that type, a certain level of narcissistic identification is necessary for a person to develop any kind of sympathy for its relentlessly unlikeable characters, and though this is not always a sign of bad art, I think that one would have to be a wanker of epic proportions to relate to the toxic levels of clueless douchebaggery found in all of the film's protagonists. I actually feel quite relieved that this was clearly not a movie for me. Anyway, I mention this movie because, if nothing, it is a funny cultural artifact of the mid-90s, and as such, features some amusing cliches of the time. One of them being Friedrich, a black-clad, trenchcoat-wearing guy who just came back from a semester in Germany and has suddenly become an intense pseudo-Eurotrash hipster with a silly affected accent who has his eye on seducing Parker Posey. I imagine that Friedrich would really like this song, and I'm not sure if that's a positive or negative comment on its quality. (Click here to buy it from Soul Seduction.)
You Don't Have To Scream Because Your Ears Are Bleeding
This post is dedicated to the 13 year old version of me. He would've been thrilled to have both of these tracks.
Wayne Campbell & Garth Algar "Pain Cave" - There's a reason why I've never purchased Wayne's World on dvd - I'm holding out for a box set that would include both movies, all of the SNL skits, and both MTV specials. It's sort of shocking that this hypothetical set does not yet exist, but I hold out hope. To my knowledge, those MTV specials have not been aired in over a decade, but most anyone with any fondness for Wayne's World tends to have a vivid memory of this song. I hadn't heard this song for all of that time before yesterday, and I was vaguely surprised to realize how much of it was an obvious goof on Nirvana - back then, I think it only registered as a metal thing, even in spite of Garth shouting "eat your heart out, Nirvana!" over the bridge.(Click here for the website of a pair of Wayne and Garth lookalikes who are keeping the dream alive well over a decade after the heyday of Wayne's World.)
Pearl Jam "Hard To Imagine" - When I was a teen, I was very obsessed with Pearl Jam, a condition that was exacerbated by the intense fandom of many of my friends at school, some of whom had been buying cd bootlegs featuring unreleased songs that the band had been playing live. At that point, half of the fun of being a Pearl Jam fan was being amazed by how much excellent material the band was willing to relegate to b-sides and soundtracks, or just not release at all. I had a live version of "Hard To Imagine" dubbed to a cassette from my friend Steve's cd, and I would listen to it over and over again, totally baffled as to why the band would just abandon what was clearly one of their very best songs. I'd dub copies for friends, and talk it up with any Pearl Jam fan who would listen, totally confident that the band would put it out on their next record. Vitalogy came and went, and I rationalized - it just wasn't right for that record, it would obviously pop up later on. When the tracklisting for No Code was announced in Ice, I convinced myself and others that the song "Present Tense" HAD to be a retitled version of the song. I mean, isn't it obvious? The chorus is "things were different then, all is different now" - like, it's the present tense!!! But no. Though I liked No Code and still do, my interest in Pearl Jam fell off sharply around 1997, and has only dimmed with time.
A studio version of the song was finally released in 1998, tossed off to the soundtrack of an obscure movie called Chicago Cab. At that point, it was hard for me to muster much enthusiasm. I never bought the soundtrack, and eventually just downloaded it from Audiogalaxy. It's a lovely version of the song, though not quite everything it could have been. It still sounds lonely, nostalgic, and majestic, and the guitar at the beginning still evokes wet snow on the ground and the scent of smoke from wood burning stoves mixing with crisp air (probably just my sense memory from when I first heard the song, but whatever). I maintain after all of this time that it is certainly one of the best songs the band has ever written, and when I was looking at the band's recent setlists a few weeks ago, I couldn't help but to feel extremely jealous of the audiences who've seen them play it, as it has become a semi-regular song in their rotation following the release of their b-sides collection, Lost Dogs. I'm pretty sure that there was one show in Canada where they played this, "Breath," "I Got Shit," "Not For You," and "Release" all in the same set, something that would've totally blown my mind when I was sixteen. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)
