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We Wear The Same Clothes Cos We Feel The Same

Squeeze “End Of A Century” – Squeeze recorded and released this cover of the classic Blur single fairly quickly after the original itself was released back in 1995. It’s a lovely version of a great song, simple as that. I’m particularly happy with this version because Squeeze amend the line “goodnight tv, you’re all made up and you look like me” to just “goodnight tv.” That “you’re all made up…” part is just too clunky and obvious, and it’s melodically messy too.

This is going to be the last normal Fluxblog entry for a little while – until next Tuesday, to be precise. I’m going to be going away for a week, and in the meantime, about two dozen guest hosts will be filling in and keeping this blog up and running. It’s going to be a bit of a free-for-all, but in a good way. I’d like for it to be something like when in bad movies and sitcoms, the parents go away and the kids throw a crazy house party. I hope you all have a fun time with it.

I’m The Kind Of Cat Who Always Gets His Bird

Playgroup “Number One” – It’s disco day at Fluxblog. I want to be your number one, kids. Oooh yeah. Oooh yeah, yeah. You want the best? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Carrie Lucas “Career Girl” – All my independent women, throw them hands up at me. All my money making women, throw them hands up at me. Someone needs to sample this song’s bassline.

It Makes Me Weep To See People On The Dancefloor Falling Asleep

Jake Slazenger “Supafunk” – Jake Slazenger = Mike Paradinas = µ-Ziq. This is basically one long, spacey funk organ instrumental. If I had my own talk show, I’d consider having this be my theme song. It’d be either this, or the Reuben Wilson recording of “Hold On, I’m Comin’!”

Wagon Christ “Bend Over” – Wagon Christ = Plug = Luke Vibert = Amen Andrews. This is a somewhat funky number from his Musipal album, which I definitely recommend if you want more of the same.

Cylob “Rewind (DMX Krew remix)” – Cylob = just Cylob, as far as I know. Once again, I must let the people who are allergic to novelty dance pop know that this is fact novelty dance pop, because I don’t want to be liable for any severe reactions. I can’t afford to be sued right now. For everyone else, it’s a computer/robot rapping about being a DJ. Love it.

We’re Closer Now Than Light Years To Go.

I really wish that the R.E.M. show that I am seeing in October would come sooner; I’ve been into R.E.M. more right now than I have been for about four years. I needed the break – sometimes it really helps to move away from things so that they can feel fresh again later on.

R.E.M. “Find The River” (live in 1995, from the film Road Movie) – This is one of the most beautiful songs that I know. This version features a slightly different arrangement than usual, with a viola playing the part which is played with an oboe on the studio recording or by an organ on most live performances.

R.E.M. “So. Central Rain” (live in 2001, for MTV Unplugged 2.0) – This plaintive, spare version of the early R.E.M. classic was recorded for the band’s second appearance on MTV Unplugged, but I don’t believe it was ever actually aired on television. The entire 17-song performance is fairly easy to find online, and I highly recommend it. There are some really nice performances in that show, including a similarly solemn and stark reading of “The One I Love,” along with “Cuyahoga,” “Electrolite,” “Sad Professor,” and another pretty version of “Find The River.”

Spend Spend Borrow Borrow

Over the past two weeks on WFMU’s Aircheck program, The Professor has presented a two-hour Bob Lassiter retrospective. For me, this clip of Bob verbally eviscerating a clueless neoconservative teenager was one of the highlights. The best part is when Lassiter cuts into the kid after he bafflingly supports the elimination of all federal funding for education without seeming to have any clue about what federal funding for education actually means, and what would happen if it didn’t exist. If you’ve ever wondered what conservative talk radio would sound like in reverse, you need to check this out.

Slow Down The Machine

Michel Polnareff “Fame a la Mode” – Michel Polnareff was one of the great French pop songwriters of the 60s and 70s, and this is his English-language glam pop masterpiece. There’s something very elegant about this song, the way it glides from upbeat orchestral pop to sweeping and yearning ballad, the way it sounds effortless and smooth. Classic stuff.

Dub Narcotic Sound System “Fuck Shit Up” – Spraypaint the walls, trash the halls. Hit the sauce, shoot your boss. Fuck shit up. Do it punk. Do it cool – fuck the rules. Make it fucked-up. Make it fucked-up.

This song is self-explanatory.

Live Out All The Romance

Squeeze “Someone Else’s Bell” – Why did I ignore Squeeze for so long? I’ve always loved “Tempted,” “Cool For Cats,” and “Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)” (which as a child, I thought was “Pulling Muscles For Michelle”), but I never bothered with checking out the rest of Squeeze’s music until just recently. “Someone Else’s Bell” is a highlight from the East Side Story LP, which I’ve been listening to quite a bit over the past few days. If you’re into lyrical pop rock like Elvis Costello, Spoon, Sally Crewe, and Joe Jackson, this is music for you.

Avenue D w/ Cazwell “Sex That I Need” – If you can’t handle novelty dance records, you might want to pass this one over. These are the girls who gave us the excellent “Do I Look Like A Slut?” last year, and this time they are joined by raunchy gay rapper Cazwell. Please be advised that the rhymes in this song are of the over-the-top xxx variety, and that if you’re at work, it may not be the best idea to play this at your desk.

There’s Still Only One Of Me

The Lonesome Organist “One Of Me” – The Lonesome Organist is Jeremy Jacobsen, a one-man-band in the most literal sense of the phrase when he performs live. He plays a wide variety of instruments (often simultaneously) and covers a surpisingly diverse range of musical genres. This particular song finds Mr. Jacobsen harmonizing with himself as a one-man a cappella doo-wop group.

The Section “The National Anthem” – This is taken from the new string quartet tribute to Radiohead record by The Section, who previously recorded their own version of OK Computer in its entirety. I’m very fond of this arrangement of “The National Anthem,” particularly the approximation of the atonal horn sounds towards the end of the song.

I Like Wearing Slippers When It’s Raiiiiining

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, July 18th, Prospect Park, Brooklyn

Need Your Love (Status Quo cover)/ Jo Jo’s Jacket / Animal Midnight / Vanessa From Queens / Witch Mountain Bridge / Dark Wave / Phantasies / new song or unidentified cover / Mama/ Grab It And Gone / Us / Vague Space / Old Jerry (!!!) / Jenny & The Ess Dog // 1% Of One / (aborted cover that I didn’t quite recognize with John on vocals/guitar and SM on drums) / Take Five (Dave Brubeck Quartet cover, brief tease) / 100 Years From Now – Dance The Night Away (Byrds cover with Van Halen tag, John guitar/vocals, SM drums) / Can’t Get You Out Of My Head (Kylie Minogue cover, Mike Clark vocals/keyboards, John on drums, SM and Joanna have left the stage)

It rained very, very hard during 85% of this show. Luckily, I had an umbrella, but so did most of the people in front of me, so it was hard to see the show through all of the umbrellas. Since this was a free concert, there were entirely too many people chatting during the songs, which really grated on my nerves. There was this one group of obnoxious girls right in front of me who would not SHUT THE FUCK UP during the instrumental sections of “Witch Mountain Bridge,” and I nearly snapped on them, but I managed to move over a bit away from them, so even if they were still audible they weren’t overpowering the music so much. My big thrill of the night came when they played “Old Jerry.” The part when the song breaks down towards the end (‘the walls are jagged and expanding’) was one of those wonderful you-had-to-be-there concert moments, with the house lights shining on the crowd as the rain finally stopped. It was like a collective sigh of relief, and it just felt so right. I had been waiting a long time to see “Old Jerry” live, and it ended up being an extra special thing, so I went home soggy and happy.

Blur, July 17th, Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City

Ambulance / Beetlebum / Girls & Boys / Badhead / Gene By Gene / For Tomorrow / Sweet Song / Morroccan People’s Revolutionary Bowls Club / Tender / Caravan / Out Of Time / Crazy Beat / Brothers & Sisters / To The End / Song 2 / Trimm Trabb / Battery In Your Leg / The Universal (!!!) // Popscene / On The Way To The Club / We’ve Got A File On You / This Is A Low

Facts And Figures That Never Add Up Anyway

Today I’m going to share some songs by a few artists who I’ve already featured in recent weeks.

The Fall “Theme From Sparta FC” – I admit it, as great as “Susan Vs. Youthclub” is, I definitely picked the wrong song to post from the forthcoming Country On The Click. I owe it to you to give you this song, if just to give you better incentive to camp out in front of your local record store the day before the album is officially released.

Fountains Of Wayne “Hey Julie” – I wouldn’t say that I picked the ‘wrong’ song from Welcome Interstate Managers when I posted “Stacy’s Mom”, but I would like to take this opportunity to show a different side of the band and give you another reason to check out the album if you haven’t already. This is just a sweet little song about a guy who comes home from his awful day job to spend time with his girlfriend, and how she is the only thing getting him through the day.

Liz Phair “Jeremy Engle” – I just found this song yesterday. It’s not from Liz Phair’s new album, but from a special bonus ep which you can access from a secret site that you can enter if you’ve bought the official cd. Or, um, if you have access to a p2p system. While the Liz Phair album itself is a mostly bland and forgettable affair, this song is definitely what most people would recognize as being pretty classic old-school Liz Phair material. The song is a portrait of a guy from a Communist family living in a rent-controlled apartment on the Upper West Side. It is rich with nuance and details, and set to an appealing melody and arrangement that isn’t far off from the best material from White Chocolate Space Egg. Liz Phair isn’t dead, people.

All This Time With No Desire

ESG “My Love For You” – This is one of my favorite dance records. “My Love For You” is taken from the import compilation ESG – A South Bronx Story, which I assure you, is worth every penny. It probably won’t ever be available as a domestic US release because of some complicated legal mess with their original label 99 Records. It’s a real shame, since some of the best punk-funk hybrid records ever were released on the label, and it would be a great thing if those records were made cheaper and more accessable for American audiences.

Shooby Taylor “Stout Hearted Men” – A partial transcript: HAW! BAW! SCHLAW! SLAWDOOBY! RAW! SCHLAW! SCHLAW! POPPY! POPPY! POPPY! POPPY! POPPY! POPPY! POPPY! POPPY! Shooby Taylor is the weirdest, and perhaps the greatest, scat singer of all time. At very least, he is the most enthusiastic and original. If this song does not bring joy to your heart, there is no hope for you. This song is taken from Irwin Chusid’s Songs In the Key Of Z compilation.

Air Miami “Airplane Rider” – This is from Mark Robinson and Bridget Cross’s post-Unrest band, which really isn’t much different from Unrest aside from being a bit more peppy. Soon I will be an airplane rider. You can consider that “foreshadowing.” Go!

Five Hundred To The Biggest Booty In Here

Gold Chains “Rock The Parti” – Imagine this as the anthem of a grand joycore army who decimate everything in their path which refuses to succumb to the delirious ecstacy of all that is joycore. Who rocks the parti? We rock the parti. Everybody rocks at the joycore parti. This one goes out to Flyboy and the whole It Came From The Sea crew.

R. Kelly “Feelin’ On Yo Booty (Remix) – What remix is this? Tell me, what remix is this? Feelin’ on yo booty! This may be hard to imagine, but this may actually surpass “Ignition (Remix).” When R Kelly starts singing “booooo-oooo-ty, booo-ooo-ooty!” at the end, it’s sublime. But when he loses his shit and starts singing “boo-booga-booga-booga-booga-booga-booga-booga-oooty” at the 2:51 mark, the song enters this bizarre realm of idiot-savant genius which is uniquely R Kelly’s domain. So much booty!

Warning: This song is insanely catchy. It will be stuck in your head for days. Approach with caution.

“The Laws Have Changed” Video = Joycore Manifesto?

“Come and return to the world. Indulge yourself until pleasure sickens you. Then you will be near me.”

I think it very well may be my new favorite music video. On one hand, it’s this clever narrative about a St. Anthony-style ascetic being brought into an idealized sexy Western youth culture, and on the other, it’s just a bunch of cute mod people dancing.

Break The Twelve-String Acoustic To Pieces For Firewood

It’s Scott Miller day here at Fluxblog. Miller is one of the great, criminally underrated songwriters of the 80s and 90s. Miller enjoyed some minor degree of college radio success during the 80s with his first band Game Theory, but has been sinking deeper into obscurity with each passing release. He has recently retired from music and broke up his second band, the Loud Family, mainly due to frustration in finding an audience for his music. For some reason, Miller’s music is something of a hard sell because his music tends to be too strange, wordy, obtuse, and erudite for mainstream audiences; and on the other hand, his music is often too polished, glossy, and clean to appeal to many indie rock fans. Miller, in finding some kind of middle ground between intellectual artiness and a slick pop sensibility ends up becoming less accessable than far more severe music. But please do give Miller a chance – no powerpop fan should be without at least a couple of his records in their collection.

Game Theory “Nine Lives To Rigel Five” – from Distortion, 1984.

Loud Family “Inverness” – from Plants And Birds And Rocks And Things, 1993.

Loud Family “Sodium Laureth Sulfate” – from Interbabe Concern, 1996.

Loud Family “Businessmen Are Okay” – from Days For Days, 1998.

Loud Family “720 Times Happier Than The Unjust Man” – from Attractive Nuisance, 2000.

Come True – It’s Only Divine Right-ah!

The New Pornographers, July 12 2003, Bowery Ballroom, New York City:

The New Face Of Zero And One / Miss Teen Wordpower / The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism / The Electric Version / From Blown Speakers / Chump Change / All For Swinging You Around / The End Of Medicine / July Jones / Mass Romantic / Jackie / The Laws Have Changed / It’s Only Divine Right / Letter From An Occupant // encore 1: The Fake Headlines / To Wild Homes / The Body Says No // encore 2: Testament To Youth In Verse / Mystery Hours / Action // encore 3: When I Was A Baby / Centre For Holy Wars

This show is definitely going down in my personal hall of fame as one of the best shows that I’ve ever seen, not just because of the consistently energetic performance and the insane level of fun that I had at the show with my friends, but because…I wrote the setlist. And they used it.

Let me explain.

On the train ride down to Manhattan, I passed a few minutes of my time by writing up a mock setlist of what I would play that night if I were the New Pornographers. When I was at the show with Emily and Todd, we decided as a joke to put the fake setlist in front of Carl Newman’s monitor before the band hit the stage. We never thought that he’d be so amused to see that an audience member had made up a setlist for them that they’d decide to actually play it through. To be more clear, they played the main set that I had written out (everything up to “Letter From An Occupant”), and took requests for the three (!) sets of encores. “The Fake Headlines” and “Testament To Youth In Verse” were included in the encore on my fake setlist, but the rest of the encore songs were not.

The show was so damned tight, I could probably list off 80% of the show as being highlights. “July Jones” was particularly strong, and I’m very proud of how the string of three showstoppers in a row at the end of main set worked out.

If anyone out there can hook me up with a recording of this show, I will do my best to repay you somehow. I still can’t believe they actually played my fake setlist. How fucking joycore is that?

(Those of you who may be unfamiliar with The New Pornographers should check out their Matador site, where they are streaming the entire Electric Version album, and have a few mp3s available to download.)

They Don’t Speak For Us

Time Zone “World Destruction” – Here we have Afrika Bambaataa and John Lydon, rapping and sneering very prescient lyrics about world crisis in 1984 over a heavy old school beat, with atonal guitar feedback and some excellent recurring synth lines for accompaniment. Sample lyrics:

Countries are fighting in chemical warfare. Not giving a damn about the people who live. Nostradamus predicts the coming of the Antichrist. Hey, look out, the third world nations are on the rise. The Democratic-Communist Relationship, won’t stand in the way of the Islamic force. The CIA is looking for other detectives. The KGB is smarter than you think. Brainwash mentalities to control the system. Using TV and movies – religions of course. Yes, the world is heading for destruction.

Well, they tried to warn us.

Fans of the Sopranos might remember this song from the first episode of the fourth season of the series. (Special thanks to Nikon!)

Radiohead “No Surprises” (live at Electric Lady Studios for Morning Becomes Eclectic) – This is from a session that Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood recorded with Nigel Godrich in Manhattan one month ago. It’s a very beautiful rendition of the song, stripped down to its lullaby essence. I think that they should perform the song live with this arrangement more often.

I’ll Play My La-La Shit For You Anytime

Velocity Girl “Pop Loser” – It was actually sort of hard selecting a single Velocity Girl song to post here today. I came awfully close to picking one of their more shoegazer-y numbers from Copacetic, but instead chose “Pop Loser” because a) it probably represents Velocity Girl more as a band, since they ended up being more of a bubblegum indiepop group, and b) the cutesy lyrics and light tone are very indicative of a particular strain of American early 90s indie rock that I have a special fondness and nostalgia for. I am now old enough to realize that I will probably always have an inordinate level of affection for early 90s indie pop, but I’m not complaining about that – there are certainly far worse things to romanticize.

Barbara Manning “Mark E. Smith & Brix” – File under: more early 90s indie guitar pop, but a bit artier than Velocity Girl. Excellent use of repetitive guitar motif and spare percussion on this song, by the way.

April Stevens “Teach Me Tiger” – In context, April Stevens is sort of like the Lil’ Kim of the late ’50s. This single was banned for being too sexual at the time, which is pretty funny since it basically sounds like Eartha Kitt singing at a luau. I guess that was apparently way too hott for some people back then. It’s campy, it’s kitschy, and you’ve got to love it. Unless your heart is made of stone, that is. If your heart is made of stone, you may just want to put on The Album Leaf or Sepultura or something like that.

I’m Leaking Pure White Noise

The Breeders “London Song” – This is for Emily. This selection comes from last year’s very underrated Title TK album, which to me, is at least as good as any other album the band has ever produced. To me, “London Song” is the single best song that Kim Deal has ever written, if just for the bridge where she’s singing “I thought I’d know better, I thought I’d knoooooooow…” over this simple, perfect rolling bassline. This is what I wrote about this song (and the Title TK album) on this blog last year:

On the way home, I finally got around to listening to The Breeder’s Title TK in its entirety and in its intended sequence (well, actually I listened to “London Song” twice over, so maybe not). I can understand why some Breeders fans are let down by this record, but I like it. Having never been anything more than a casual fan of Kim Deal, I don’t have any great expectations for her or her bands. As of this writing, I’m fairly convinced that Title TK is the most consistent non-Pixies record she’s ever been involved in creating. Don’t get me wrong – I really like a lot of older Breeders/Amps songs, it’s just that the records have always struck me as terribly uneven. I think that it would be easy for someone to get an impression of unevenness from a casual listen to this new album (I know I did at first), but when listening to the record last night, completely exhausted, it seemed to make a lot more sense.

Every song on the record sounds like it is in a drunken/stoned stupor, some songs having a better composure than others. “London Song” is definitely my favorite song on this album, I can’t help but love how wobbly and dizzy the song feels with it’s awkward stops and starts, it’s sweet melodic refrains, and its confused, incoherant lyrics. “I’m leaking pure white noise.” “There’s something to believe.” “I thought I’d know better.” “Misery’s fun, I’m kissing everyone. I’ve got to hold my tongue.” Most of the lyrics on this album come off as quietly mumbled nonsequitors, the half-formed ideas of someone who is stumbling around after partying way too hard, Andrew WK-style. Like I said, the whole album feels this way, like it’s either sloppy-lampshade-on-head-screaming-“wooooo!” drunk (“Huffer”, “London Song”, “Little Fury” “Full On Idle”), or about to pass out (“Off You”, “Forced To Drive”, “Put On A Side”). It’s not hard to imagine that this is what it feels like to be a Deal sister given their respective biographies. All in all, it’s a good, weird little record; and certainly a lot more interesting than most people are giving it credit for being.

I Will Hire The Assassin Just To Kill The Time

It is just too fucking hot in New York. I barely want to do anything. These two songs for today were selected because they both (for reasons I can’t quite explain) evoke the feeling of air conditioning for me.

Jonathan Fire Eater “This Is My Room” – This is taken from their Wolf Songs For Lambs album, which I believe to be one of the great ‘lost classics’ of the 1990s. This album was buried by its own press/industry hype and the band broke up shortly after its release due to a combination of inter-band strife, drug abuse, and record company hassles. The hype was not unwarranted – the people who praised this album and the band back in the mid-90s were on the money in terms of the music’s quality, even if they massively overestimated their commercial appeal.

Pharrell Williams w/ Jay-Z “Frontin'” – This is from the forthcoming The Neptunes Present…Clones record. I love how crisp and clean this song sounds, it is very slick and smooth without sounding too dull or austere. I’m assuming that this song has more than a couple samples in it, because I swear I recognize some of these keyboard/bass parts, though I can’t quite place them. All told, this is pretty typical of the best Pharrell/Neptunes music.

Nobody Loaned Them An Old Caboose

To celebrate this most patriotic of days, I give you Byron MacGregor’s “Americans.” This is the work of a bored Canadian radio news anchor in 1974, who read this nagging, strident, and occasionally wildly ill-informed pro-America rant over an instrumental version of “America The Beautiful,” and somehow found himself with a number one single. I suppose we should all count our blessings that at least the people of Fox News and conservative talk radio aren’t scoring chart hits with hyper-jingoistic spoken-word harangues today. Just imagine a nightmare world in which Ann Coulter has the most popular song in the country…

Slow Motion Break Up

If you weren’t already aware, The Audio Kitchen has returned to the on-air schedule of WFMU for the summer. The Audio Kitchen is a weekly hour-long program in which The Professor plays found amateur audio. This season, The Professor has been crafting theme episodes from his immense collection of found sound. Last week it was an all-children program, next week it’s going to be a collection of music demo tapes, and this week we were treated to an entire episode of romantic audio letters and lover’s conversations documented on tape. By far, the most interesting part of the episode for me was this series of conversation snippets captured on the answering machine of a man named Frank, which seems to document the slow dissolution of his relationship with a woman named Beth. It’s mostly interesting because of Frank’s creepy behavior – he often speaks with an obnoxious affected tone of voice (“daaarling”), acts extremely bored and distant, rants about Swanson pot pies, and clearly has no regard for the feelings of this poor, clingy girl who obviously is still in love with him for some bizarre reason. I defy you to listen to this without wanting to slap Frank.