Author Archive

You’re The Fishy Queen

Starlight Mints “Submarine #3” – What do I say about this song that Eppy hasn’t already said, better than I probably could? He’s right on about the technical aspects of the song; but what endears this song to me is mostly how the guy sings “what can I do? what do we do?” and “if you pull me apart, don’t swallow my heart” with this kind of cheerful, well-adjusted resignation. He’s not miserable, but he doesn’t know what to do about this, and all he asks is that this girl doesn’t hurt him too badly. He knows what’s coming, he just wants mercy. (It is definitely possible that I’m projecting way to much on a song with a silly psychedelic aquatic theme.) Also: you’ve just gotta love how he sings the phrase “holy Shazam!” like a lovelorn Billy Batson in the first verse.

Tommy Roe “Dizzy” – Highly addictive bubblegum, basically. Pop song crack. Put it on repeat and let it melt your brain, in a good way.

An Accident Sits Down With You For Breakfast

Mekons “Now We Have The Bomb” It’s trivia time! Q: What do the Mekons have in common with the Wu-Tang Clan? A: The lyric “cash rules everything around me,” which is repeated a few times over in this song, which I believe may be an intentional reference to the Wu. Dollar dollar bill, y’all!

I wrote this about J-Lo’s “Baby I Love U” elsewhere:

That particular J-Lo song seems sort of creepy to me. It seems aimed specifically at emotionally needy, clingy people in the worst way – it doesn’t sound like she’s really in touch with reality when she sings it, or particularly cares about how the other person feels because she’s so wrapped up in her emotions and needs. So it seems to lack empathy while demanding it. (This is true of entirely too many songs.) It may be the most emotionally honest J-Lo song that I’ve heard, at least in terms of how I understand her personality. The rest of her big hits have a sentiment which comes across as totally disingenuous (“Jenny From The Block,” “I’m Real,” “My Love Don’t Cost A Thing”), but that one song sounds as though it could really be coming from a very real place within her. (Of course, I say this because I don’t like her public persona.)

Nothing’s Gonna Stop The Flow

Folk Implosion “Nothing Gonna Stop” – Don’t get me wrong, I like a fair few Sebadoh tunes, but I get the impression from the Kids soundtrack that Lou Barlow may really be a lot better off pretending to be other people. It would seem to me that to Barlow, a lot of the music he recorded for that record were just piss-takes to suit the characters and the vibe of the film, but I think it’s actually some of the most inspired music of his career. Whether or not a song like “Nothing Gonna Stop” was meant to be ironic is irrelevant – playing stylistic dress-up suited him well, and it would seem that most people would agree, considering that the man’s only real hit (“Natural One”) was a product of this soundtrack experiment. Judging by the musical sameness of the overwhelming majority of his arrangements, Barlow doesn’t seem like much of a risk-taker, and so pretending to be someone else was probably a very liberating thing, to get away from this monumental sense of artistic self that he had created through all of his other records. It’s too bad that he more or less returned to form after this experiment, even though it was by far the most successful record of his career.

Barlow’s written a lot better songs than “Nothing Gonna Stop” (at least a quarter of Harmacy and half of Bakesale, and that song “Flame” off of that final Sebadoh record are all better in terms of being well-written pop songs), it would be interesting to see how much better those songs could be if he was less uptight about keeping the arrangements focused on the classic guitar/bass/drums formula. Bob Pollard is the same way – here’s a guy who has literally written about a hundred of my favorite songs, but I still get frustrated by the fact that he almost never strays from that basic guitar/bass/drums arrangement, or even changes the emphasis of the instruments in that arrangement, as Barlow does on most of the Kids songs. Why just settle for writing great songs when you can play with how they sound, and play with how different sounds change what they mean and how they feel? It seems like a lot of folks just give up before getting to the really fun part.

Two more notes about the Kids soundtrack while I’m on it – I’ve always assumed that the emphasis on bass and drums on the record was Barlow’s attempt at mimicking hip hop, but it’s really amazing how similar a lot of the drums and bass parts sound as if they are outtakes from Can recording sessions. “Simean Groove” in particular may as well just have Damo Suzuki on guest vocals. (To be more accurate, this is more of a Silver Apples homage, though that didn’t become obvious to me until Jack pointed out that the verse lyrics to “Nothing Gonna Stop” are a string of Silver Apples song titles, and it suddenly occurred to me that a) the title “Simean Groove” is a direct reference to the name of the homemade instrument that the Silver Apples used on their recordings, and b) its beat is nearly indentical to that of the Silver Apples song “Lovefingers.” Thanks, Jack. I still think there’s a bit of Can there – the song still reminds me a bit of “Mushroom” from Can’s Tago Mago album.)

Aside from Barlow’s material on the record, it also includes the song “Good Morning, Captain” by Slint at the end, though it is not included in the film and has no obvious reason for being on the record in terms of lyrical theme. I imagine that Barlow just included the song because he liked it and wanted other people to hear it, which is a pretty cool thing considering that by doing this he makes it so that no one who owns this record should ever feel a need to buy an actual Slint record now that they own the single amazing song in their catalog. Nevertheless, as a teenage record buyer eager to buy “classic” records by bands I didn’t really know, I still went off and bought Spiderland. What a disappointment. Honestly, if you really like that song and want to hear more stuff like it, you’re probably way better off buying Red Medicine and End Hits by Fugazi. It’s a very similar kind of sound, and trust me, Fugazi never fails to deliver, and they never meander into lame “spooky” soundtrack music. However, if you’re really into Godspeed You Black Emperor, Mogwai, and the rest of the legion of gloomy soundtrack-y indie bands out there, then you’ll probably love Spiderland and think I’m an idiot. Yeah, well. Fine.

Call Me Up Whenever U Want 2 Grind

Silver Apples “You & I” – For those who don’t know, the Silver Apples were an NYC duo from the late 60s who paired elaborate homemade electronic instruments with live percussion and had a sound which I think to this day is still ahead of their time. “You And I” is from their second LP Contact, and it is their masterpiece, as far as I’m concerned. Few songs that I’ve encountered sound quite as frantic and nervous, or communicate a deep frustration with the circumstances of a busy life as effectively as this. There’s a real sadness to this song that is only made more poignant by the obvious rationalization and resignation of the lyrics – “you and I could love each other … life is full of important things, life is full of necessary things … and there just ain’t room for the little things” – the narrator has just given up on love entirely. He’s utterly hopeless. It’s a pretty tragic song.

The Foo Fighters “Darling Nikki” – According to the official Foo Fighters website, this was recorded during the sessions of their most recent album One By One, and it will probably end up being a b-side for one of their future singles. It’s a pretty good version of the song – it doesn’t touch the Prince original, but Dave Grohl pulls off a faithful version, and the rocking out at the end is very impressive without getting all “haw haw, we’re a rock band doing a pop song, let’s rock extra hard to overcompensate” about it.

Just Can’t Decide!

In the All Music Guide’s entry for Can, they list the following ‘tones’ which describe the band’s sound: Reflective, Fiery, Complex, Freewheeling, Playful, Rollicking, Gentle, Brash, Acerbic, Hypnotic, Quirky, Detached, Literate, Cerebral, Eerie. One can only assume that they did not include “adorable” because they were not familiar with “Turtles Have Short Legs”, from the relatively obscure Radio Waves album. It’s just so damn cute! It’s like Euro-hippie art rock for little kids.

Ice Cream Smoothe

Enon “Daughter In The House Of Fools” – This is a pleasant surprise! For a variety of reasons, not the least of which being the fact that I saw them play a live show in which they butchered their own songs, I had given up on Enon. If I’m being honest, I wasn’t crazy about the addition of the Asian girl to the line up – I liked John Schmersal just fine by himself on vocals. But this proves me wrong, and I’m very glad about that. This song is just fabulous; the melody is top shelf and the arrangement is inspired. All told, it’s exactly what I liked about all of other Enon songs I’ve ever loved. Now I’m fighting the desire to see them live, because I’d hate to see them botch this song the way they stumbled through “Conjugate The Verbs” when I saw them a few years ago. It’d break my heart.

I Understand The Sun, And I Don’t Go Out In The Sun

“The Specious Moment” – This is taken from the one of the old Audio Kitchen archives which is no longer available online. This is a homemade recording of a very mentally ill guy pretending to do his own radio station, which he sent to a local college radio station as a way of harassing them. The guy isn’t scary-crazy, but just far-out weird crazy. The drill bits ad is priceless, by the way. “Aww, fiddlesticks!”

“Taco Bell Romance” – Here’s another gem from the Audio Kitchen. This is an audio letter created by a lovesick young woman working for a Taco Bell somewhere in the south. She’s in love with some creep named Travis who is married but messing around with her while his wife is pregnant with a child he swears is not his own. It’s a slice of life, I suppose.

Hold On, I’m Hacking Into Your Computer

Today we have some selections from Matt Besser of the Upright Citizens Brigade‘s cd May I Help You (Dumbass). The story of the record goes like this: In 2000, Besser found his home phone number inundated with calls from people seeking technical support for free internet software given out for free at Costco and Barnes & Noble stores in Manhattan. The customer service hotline on the free cd-rom did not include a 1 before the area code (which was the area code for Houston), and so every call made that did not include the 1 dialed before the number went to his 212 number by default. Besser recieved these calls day and night for months on end, and he began to record himself playing pranks on these callers. In all of the calls, he pretends to actually be a tech support hotline, and with different characters and strategies, he fucks with the caller until they finally give up on him. One of the most amazing things about this record is how desperately the callers seem to want to believe that Besser’s characters are legitimate, no matter how ridiculous and over-the-top they may get. They just refuse to believe that they are being suckered, even when he’s doing the worst Jimmy Stewart and Bjork impressions imaginable.

Matt Besser “Lesbian Download”

Matt Besser “Car Wreck”

Matt Besser “Last Day On The Job”

Matt Besser “Jimmy Stewart”

Talk About Elvis’s Cock

Vanilla Bean – “Elvis Phone Sex” – This is another selection from the new Radio Archival Oddities compilation, which includes a full cd of airchecks from WFMU. This is a recording of the late Frank Balesteri, aka Vanilla Bean, dating back to the early 80s. I’m amazed that this ever got on the air, it breaks a host of FCC decency rules, and I can’t imagine that anyone on the station could get away with anything remotely like this now. In this clip, Balesteri calls up a phone sex hotline and messes around with the operator, who has one of the thickest Southern accents that I’ve ever heard. His frantic demands for this poor girl to talk about Elvis Presley are hilarious and become more absurd as the call progresses.

“Where’s Elvis now?”

“C’mon! That’s IMPORTANT to me!”

(This is obviously not work safe.)

Also: Hot on the heels of that Magneto Was Right t-shirt, Anti-Popper is offering a brand new Marxist/Britneyist design.

Cold As Ice Cream But Still As Sweet

Family Fodder “Sunday Girl” – This is great; it’s this catchy little new wave pop number, but it sounds as though the band tried every wacky studio idea that they could come up with, and ended up deciding to keep every one of them in the arrangement at once. The song was kind of surprising for me on first listen, and it becomes more endearing every subsequent time that I hear it, especially when the song completely falls apart at the end.

Gotta Have Some Of Your Attention

Billy Murray (as Bob Harris) “More Than This”

I would like to have the entire karaoke sequence from Lost In Translation tattooed on my soul. Especially the part with Scarlett Johansson in a pink wig singing “Brass In Pocket” with Bill Murray doing the “special” back up vocals, looking as though he’s going to start giggling at any moment, and only vaguely masking the fact that he totally means it.

You need to go see this movie. It’s beautiful, it’s funny, it’s got a lot of heart. It’s really well observed. If I say any more about it, I’ll just start gushing, and I need to keep up my ‘air of cool.’ Just go see it when it opens in your town, okay?

Also, you know that you want one of Anti-popper’s Magneto Was Right t-shirts. Go buy one.

We Were Partying When We Heard The News, And We’re All Pretty Depressed Right Now

Big Boi “The Rooster”– This is from the new Outkast album. I only just got the record, so I don’t have fully formed opinions about it just yet, but wow wow wow that Big Boi disc is great, he didn’t let me down at all. The Andre 3000 cd – hmmm. My first impression isn’t so good. I’ll be listening to this quite a lot for the next few weeks, so let’s see what happens.

The next two mp3s are taken from the new Radio Archival Oddities compilation put together by WFMU’s The Professor. They speak for themselves.

NYC radio – Turning The Radio Dial The Night John Lennon Died

Los Angeles radio – Turning The Radio Dial The Night John Lennon Died

Can someone explain to me why that one caller would want Lennon’s murderer’s name never to be made public? That doesn’t make much sense to me.

You Make The Wrong Things Right

Rachel Sweet “B-A-B-Y” – If someone ever asks you what a joycore love song is like, you need to play this song for them. It’s so giddy, it’s quite possibly even more crazy in love than Beyonce. This was Sweet’s biggest hit back in the late 70s on the Stiff label, when she was only 14 years old. It’s pretty amazing how confident and mature she sounds on this record for her age.

My friend Emily is awesome. Here she is hanging out with Carl Newman.

Something To Remember, Something To Forget

Quarks “I Walk” – I can’t tell you too much about Quarks. This is mostly because virtually everything written about them online is in German, and when I translate the pages, it always comes out to awkward prose that doesn’t make much sense.

For example:

The result sounds professional to in any case. German and English-language Songs with cleanly arranged sound of electronics. When first hearing one feels immediately automatically reminded of 2raumwohnung . But the quarks have already their own style from in-usual sounds without many Schnoerkel, clear woman voices and sensitively direct texts.

The quarks will surely have a meaning for the German electronics music also in the future. But to it more experiments and innovations will have to belong. It does not hand evenly to have and produce these in often cloned variants completely few samples.

Right. I get the gist of it, I guess, but it’s not very helpful. As you may have gleaned from this excerpt, they are just a very good German electro-pop group. The record is very solid, I had some difficulty choosing which song to post here – I nearly went for the ballad “How Can You Say You Love Me?,” but “I Walk” is the single and probably the most immediately likeable song from the LP. (Thank to K for the tip!)

Mandy Moore “One Way Or Another” – This is from her upcoming Coverage album. You’d think it would just be lame karaoke, but it’s actually really exciting and super pop, and rocks harder than most every other faux-new wave rock band currently going. It’s very cute in how it’s going for breathy-sexy but ends up kinda ironic-spunky instead, which is about exactly right. For a person Mandy’s age (or my age, for that matter) this is just another radio song that you might remember from being a kid, and then you grow up a bit and notice that the lyrics are suddenly relevant to you, giving it a new life. This recording sort of captures that rush of enjoying the type of song a little kid would like (and for whom the lyrics may as well be about hide-and-seek), and having that kind of ‘ah-ha!’ moment where you get the song on an adult level. To put things over the top, just as it starts, you hear the drummer say “1, 2, c’mon Mandy!” How can you not love that?

Some May Call It A Loophole, I Call It An “Opportunity Clause”

Here’s another classic from the Best Show On WFMU.

Roderick J. Martinez, Esq. – A lawyer calls in to inform Tom that he is being sued by The Band’s Robbie Robertson, but it turns out that the lawyer is in fact a highly ambitious scam artist with a bizarre and complicated scheme which involves elaborate costumes, “com-drama-edy,” and “high school law students.”

A Foot Without A Sock

Richard Thompson “Tempted” – Eppy wrote about Richard Thompson’s new 1000 Years Of Popular Music album a few weeks ago, and this cover of the Squeeze classic comes from that record.

Thompson explains his project: “The idea for this project came from Playboy Magazine – I was asked by submit a list, in late 1999, of the ten greatest songs of the Millenium. Hah! I thought, hypocrites – they don’t mean millennium, they mean twenty years – I’ll call their bluff and do a real thousand-year selection. My list was similar to the choices here on this CD, starting in about 1068, and winding slowly up to 2001.”

Ish Marquez “When The Sun Goes Down” – This is just beautiful, isn’t it? Ish Marquez is in with the Anti-Folk crowd, and this song comes from the 2002 Balloon Heaven compilation. I don’t know too much else about Marquez, I only found out about this song over the weekend, it was played on Monica Lynch’s show on WFMU.

I Smell Platinum! I Smell Platinum, Triple Platinum, Quadruple Platinum!

The Jicks “In The Club / Jenny & The Ess Dog (piano ballad version) – This is taken from a Jicks show from this past summer in Toronto. They’re just fucking around, but it’s really amusing. Unfortunately, it isn’t a full version of 50 Cent’s “In The Club,” but it’s close enough for me. The piano ballad version of “Jenny” was played fairly often on the last headlining Jicks tour, and this is the best recording I’ve acquired so far, though it’s very messy. Added bonus: for quite possibly the first time ever, we get some extra commentary from Trey the dog. “My mind is small, I’m a dog, my mind is small.” And then Malkmus starts woofing.

Just One Near-Perfect Thing

Belle & Sebastian “If She Wants Me” – I suppose that the one thing that Belle & Sebastian does really, really well is sounding cozy. They are the musical manifestation of sweater-weather, and so it isn’t surprising that the majority of their fans are students – on some level, I think most everyone associates them with school, or at least the time of year when one would be in school. Of course, all of the references to teenage sexuality, books, and athletics throughout their catalog surely helps to drive home the “B&S = school” thing. Anyway, I know that it is easy to dislike the band for their preciousness, but I still find it hard to imagine why some people would hate them so much since I associate them with coziness. In my mind, it seems like having a strong negative reaction to Belle & Sebastian is like hating comfortable clothing and preferring swelteringly hot weather to crisp, temperate autumn/fall days – I just can’t relate. Who doesn’t want to be cozy?

The problem with the new Belle & Sebastian album Dear Catastrophe Waitress is that it doesn’t feel cozy often enough. This is not the fault of the Trevor Horn’s production (it’s fine – the songs sound clean but not too ‘produced’, he gets it exactly right for the most part), and it’s not because of the lackluster songwriting talents of the non-Stuart Murdoch members of the group (Isobel Campbell left the band, so we don’t have to deal with her amateurish songs and thin singing voice anymore, and the other girl only sings half of one song). Most of the songs are pretty good, actually, and even the weakest songs have likeable qualities. This record isn’t much like the previous proper B&S album, on which one third of it was among the best work they’d ever recorded, another third was boring, and the remaining songs were so awful that they were nearly unlistenable.* Consistency surely counts for something, right?

Either way, this album just doesn’t feel right to me. It’s missing something, and for want of a better term, I’ll call it the Cozy Effect. All of the early Belle & Sebastian records have Cozy Effect, especially the best songs. The Cozy Effect makes me want to put on a sweater, rake some leaves, read books in the park on an overcast day, and want to have a crush on some stranger just for the fun of it. One of my best musical memories is essentially the Cozy Effect at full blast – I’m riding home on a Metro North train after a day of school, staring out at the rain while listening to “The Rollercoaster Ride” and pining for a girl that I had no chance with. I have no idea why I remember that so vividly – it’s so insignificant, but I suppose that it was just so right that it’ll always remember it, at least when I think of that song or of the band in general. I suspect that maybe it’s just me, and that perhaps all of these new songs are fully capable of having the Cozy Effect on other people, especially people who are still teenagers. I hope they do, anyway. I don’t mind being more or less over them and deriving most of my joy from their music from nostalgia. It’d be sadder if they just lost their spark.

However, “If She Wants Me” is the major exception on Dear Catastrophe Waitress. I love this song. It’s definitely got the Cozy Effect, no question about it. Like most of the best B&S tunes, it’s a fey approximation of Motown/Northern Soul. Stuart Murdoch’s voice sounds beautiful on this, the melody flatters the character of his voice rather well, especially when he reaches for those high notes. Basically, if this isn’t the single for the album, the label is out of their minds.

* If you were curious, I’d sort it out like this. The best: “Women’s Realm,” “Don’t Leave The Light On, Baby,” “The Chalet Lines,” and “The Wrong Girl.” The unlistenable: “Beyond The Sunrise,” “Waiting For The Moon To Rise,” and “Family Tree.” The rest is all boring or middling. I should say that I like “Women’s Realm” significantly more than the other three good songs I mentioned.

Say Goodbye To That Blood, Nas!

Andrew Broder “The Takeover” – This is taken from the Modern Hits EP, which is a collection of recent hip hop singles with new backing tracks written and performed by Andrew Broder, aka Fog. Broder’s arrangements tend to change the character of the songs in significant ways. For example, his track for Nas’s “One Mic” is lighter and far more mellow than the intense original version, making it sound more like a gentle prayer than a frantic plea. The track succeeds or fails based mostly on how you want to understand the song. For me, the song loses all of its tension and drama, which I suspect was at least half of the point of the song.

This version of Jay-Z’s “The Takeover” is more successful, mostly because it plays up the menace of the original and adds a creepy piano part which sounds straight out of a scary b-movie. It doesn’t sound better than the original, but it does make Jay sound a little crazier. I’m reminded of that one bit from the Best Show On WFMU’s “Bruce Willis” skit where Bruce tells Tom Scharpling that he’s going to “haunt” him, and that he’s “going to be on (him) forever, never letting (him) rest, ever. ” This version of the “The Takeover” sounds just like that! “Watch your back son, because you’re gonna get cut down!” Jay-Z’s IN THE CAR!!!

You Knew That They Would Get Theirs In The End

Basement Jaxx “Plug It In” – Here it is, the song (from the album) that everybody’s talking about. I really love it, but I’m not quite as ecstatic as some people are. I’d write a bit more about, but Eppy beat me to it, so just read what he wrote. He’s a smart guy. (By the way, as of this writing, I’m starting to think that I prefer “Right Here’s The Spot,” so I recommend seeking that out on your favorite p2p if you want some more.)

Andrew WK “Free Jumps” – I haven’t taken to much of the new AWK album just yet, but I loved this one right away. It’s got that trademark “plink-plink-plink-plink” piano part with the big shout-along chorus and 90210-ish lead guitar, so it’s basically everything I want from an Andrew WK song, just with a slightly different melody. For fun, just think of a Parklife-era Blur covering this song – it’s not very hard to imagine! (Read that as a compliment, please.)

Stazi “How Sleazy Do You Want It?” – Good question. How sleazy do you want it? Maybe slightly sleazier. Perhaps they could do a remix of this with Peaches or something. This, like the Dog Ruff song from last week, is from the Northern Electronic compilation.