The Music They Were Playing Really Blew My Mind

I’ve come to really love Kylie’s newest singles, “Love At First Sight” and “Come Into My World”, particularly the single remix of the former and the Fischerspooner remix of the latter. “Love At First Sight” is so deliriously happy and bouncey, I get so sucked up into it that I have to be really careful of where I listen to it on my headphones, because the chances of me looking really ridiculous while listening to the song is so high. This song is everything I could want from perky radio disco – it’s just perfect top to bottom. The album version is about 30% less perky and the beat drops out over a couple verses, and is generally inferior to the single mix I have, but it’s still pretty great.

The Fischerspooner reworking of “Come Into My World” is superior to the album version is just about every conceivable way – it’s very intense, and actually sort of rocks, it’s kind of like the best Nine Inch Nails songs (think: “Closer”, “Heresy”, “Into The Void”, “The Perfect Drug”), or Garbage if they were any good. I doubt this will be a hit in the US, it’s just a bit too dark for pop radio as it is right now; but it’s an amazing record and I highly recommend it, particularly if you liked “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” a lot or if you are a sullen stalker type. I haven’t heard any recent singles sound as convincingly desperate and creepy as when the song just explodes into fits of robotic sexual panting, heavily distorted keyboards which sound like overdriven guitars (or vice versa?) and Kylie repeating over and over, “I need your looooooove”. Great stuff.

We Played A Show And No One Came, We Came And Played It Just The Same

I actually bought a cd today, which is becoming increasingly rare (though in all honesty, that’s mostly because I have less and less money to spend, not so much because I’m spoiled by SoulSeek). I found a copy of a live Imperial Teen album that had just been released on the Digital Club Network label, something I didn’t even realize existed. I couldn’t say no to the record considering its low price tag, its excellent tracklisting, and the money burning a hole in my wallet. It’s a great setlist, very well chosen – it’s good to see that they are a band that seems to agree with me on which songs are its best, because there’s just too many bands out there who don’t seem to know what their own strengths are, the way I see it. The only thing I’d change about the setlist of this show would be that I would trade “Baloon” for “Water Boy”, but that’s a minor quibble. It was very good timing that I found this today because I just found out that tomorrow they will be playing a free show at the Virgin Megastore in Union Square, and I can finally see them live with a minimum of hassle. I’m hoping they play a similar setlist, or at least just play “The Beginning”. Oh, the joy it would bring me if they played “The Beginning”…

Every Minute Neverending Unrelenting All Around Us Without Pausing Endless Endless

I downloaded a few of the songs off the new Elf Power covers album, not so much because I particularly like Elf Power (they’ve never been one of my favorite Elephant 6 groups), but because as it turns out, Elf Power and I happen to share a few all-time favorite songs and I wanted to hear their take on them.

I’m not too thrilled with their version of Sonic Youth’s “Kotton Krown”, which they’ve remade as a chirpy twee pop ditty, with a particularly annoying female harmony vocal. I guess it’s okay if you like this sort of thing, but it grates on me and I can’t get over why they would cover the song but remove the beautiful main guitar riff and the best verse of the song. “New York City is forever kitty / I’m wasted in time and you’re never ready” – come on! That part of the song melts me to goo every time. Did they cut that verse because it was too provincial or something? Bah.

The version of the Buzzcock’s “Why Can’t I Touch It?” is better, and is very faithful to the original. Perhaps a little too faithful though; it sounds at best like a talented Buzzcocks tribute band, or the real thing on an uninspired take. Still, I love this song so much that even a second rate performance of the song is a joy to hear. A lot of people talk about the Buzzcocks, but I never see much talk about “Why Can’t I Touch It?” and “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays”, which baffles me because that’s got to be one of the best a-side/b-side singles of all time, certainly the best of that band’s career.

Finally, the song that gives the Elf Power album its title, the Tall Dwarfs’ “Nothing’s Gonna Happen”, is more what I want to hear from a cover of a song that I love – it’s urgent, faithful but not rote, it captures the essence of the original while retaining the personality of the band playing the song. This version is totally convincing, it hits me right in the gut, especially when he nails the “b! c! d! e! f! g! h! I think nothing’s gonna happen!” climax. If you love the Tall Dwarfs original, find this version. If you haven’t heard either, get on it.