Wide Eyed And Open Mouthed

Clor “Love And Pain (James Ford Remix)” – Can you believe this band rejected this remix? I don’t know what the original version sounds like, but I almost don’t want to find out since I can’t imagine a rock-band arrangement coming close to the giddy heights of this dance mix. I can keep an open mind, but the nagging doubt remains. (Click here for the official Clor website.)

William Onyeabor “Better Change Your Mind” – Every time William Onyeabor asks a political superpower (as of 1978, anyway) “do you ever think this world is yours?,” he punctuates the rhetorical question with a dismissive “eh” which is invested with a mix of disappointment, frustration, and muted vitriol. This epic psychedelic/afrobeat jam fills in the gaps between many contradicting thoughts and feelings, as it acknowledges on several levels the complexity of the situation that it addresses lyrically. (Click here to buy it from the Giant Step store.)

I Gave All Of My Money Away

Mahjongg “Vaxination” – This song seems as though the members of Mahjongg could not settle on which new wave band they wanted to sound like, so they opted to be all of them simultaneously. The chorus sounds almost like three or four different Human League songs being played at once, with the vocals passing each other diagonally. It’s a minor miracle that this song manages to be as catchy and cohesive as it is. (Click here to buy it from the Dim Mak store.)

Alan Astor “Dragons and Beasts” – Should it be a cause for concern that Alan Astor can be so straight-faced and convincing when he sings a song with lyrics expressing paranoia about dragons? Should it be even more distressing that the song in question is actually kinda sexy? (Click here to buy it from Alan Astor.)

Also: I will be interviewed today on NPR’s Talk of the Nation about halfway through the 3 o’clock hour, New York time. The interview will be live, so hopefully I will not stammer and um too much. Check the NPR website for local stations carrying the show, or NPR stations broadcasting the show online. (An archive of the program is here.)

For visitors arriving as a result of the NPR interview, here are links to the three blogs that I mentioned on the air – Music For Robots, The Tofu Hut, and Benn Loxo Du Taccu, which is the African music blog with the title that I could barely pronounce.

Not Yet Gorgeous Girls

Metronomy “Trick or Treatz” – Metronomy takes the basic lyrical conceit of Ciara’s “Goodies” and goths it up for Halloween with a moody yet thumping track that may as well be a house remix of an Interpol song. The vocals have a clipped, distorted quality that sound almost as though they were recorded via walkie talkie, which creates a feeling of detachment and distance that only makes the song seem more lovelorn and yearning. (Click here to buy it from Holiphonic.)

Populous (featuring Dose One) “My Winter Vacation” – This track seems to drift by, feeling less like a proper pop song and more like a half-remembered lucid dream. I’ve listened to this song several times in the past few days, and I know that there are vocals, but with the exception of a few lyrical fragments, they mostly recede into the background as I focus more on the greater sensation of bliss and contentment of the song as a whole. (Click here to buy it from Boomkat.)

An Echo In My Head

Robyn “Be Mine” – In this anthem of unrequited love, Robyn absolutely nails that sobering moment when one realizes that they will never have the one that they want. In its heady rush of mixed emotions, the song manages to be both understated and histrionic, allowing small moments of muted jealousy and genuine goodwill to fall convincingly between choruses of grief-stricken emoting. The song glides along a backdrop of (I think) synthesized strings and electronic beats, sounding almost like the halfway point between Kylie and “Eleanor Rigby.” (Click here for the official Robyn website.)

A Song About How You Came Along

Nathalie Nordnes “Join Me In The Park” – Sometimes I am reminded of the high depression/suicide rate in Scandinavian countries, and it surprises me a little bit because in terms of the Scandinavian pop culture that I come in contact with, it always seems like that part of the world is some kind of twee wonderland. Is this tweeness a coping mechanism? Are the depressed people made to feel worse by the standard of joy and beauty in their popular culture? Are they just sad that they aren’t being invited out to the park with girls like Nathalie Nordnes? Do they not hear happy strings in their heads as they walk down the streets? On a scale of one to ten, how clueless am I about Scandinavian culture? (Probably a 4 if 10 is the most informed.) (Click here for the official Nathalie Nordnes site.)

33hz “Crazy All The Time” – I’d like to think that this is more Phoenix and less Jamiroquai, but I might just be kidding myself. Either way, this is a fine bit of smooth, super-clean white boy r+b. I think that these guys are going for more of a Hall & Oates kind of thing, but they end up sounding more like outtakes from that last Justin Timberlake album, which is good enough for me. Enjoy it now before it inevitably ends up in Target commercials or whatever. (Click here for the official 33hz site.)

Keep That Plague From Spreading

Half-Handed Cloud “Let’s Go Javelin!/Ezekiel Bread” – Like their peers in the Danielson Famile and Soul-Junk, Half-Handed Cloud specialize in a sort of twee hippie Christian music that is so odd and non-didactic that agnostic listeners might not even notice the non-secular themes unless they are up on their Old Testamest iconography. The first verse of “Ezekiel Bread” quotes a recipe from the Book Of Ezekiel almost verbatim. This bread is proof to Ezekiel that God provides all the nourishment that humans need, even if He insists that you cook it with your own excrement. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Halcali “Girgiri Surf Rider (Half Rider Mix)” – This song is gleefully noncommital in regards to genre, skipping around to any affect that works at the moment without ever seeming selfconcious or ostentatious. I don’t speak Japanese, so I have no idea what’s going on in the lyrics aside for a few stray phrases in English and the words “surf rider” in the title, but if someone told me that this was a jingle for candies or something like that, I’d probably believe them. (Click here to buy it from CD Japan and here for the Halicali blog.)

All Those Dirty Looks

Louis XIV “Finding Out True Love Is Blind” – Since Louis XIV market themselves as another one of those “REAL rock and roll” bands, and as such will mostly be written up by people beholden to that bad boy mystique, it seems rather unlikely that any of their press will call them out on the tossed-off sexism and casual racism in this song. Just to be clear, I don’t think that there is anything wrong with lust, and I’m not about to get all Laura Mulvey on you and go on about the “male gaze,” but the lyrics in this song cross a line from flirtatiousness to insulting, hyper-objectified misogyny.

The song wants to be the rock and roll equivalent of Raekwon’s “Ice Cream” or maybe a dirtier version of David Lee Roth’s cover of “California Girls,” but it seems more like some smarmy guy at the bar hitting on every woman that walks by, believing himself to be a rakish scoundral when he’s really just a desperate creep. If this song was intended to be sung from a character’s point of view, it would be a brilliant parody, but given the band’s general aesthetic (hot naked chicks are all over their website and album packaging – all skinny white girls, mind you, even though this song pays lip service to variety) and that the lyrics are written from the perspective of a travelling rock band, it just comes across as overcompensation from a band that seems a little too eager to prove their sexuality.

Nevertheless, this is a well crafted rock song; significantly better than the overwhelming majority of their competition in the nu-sleaze rock game. It’s not hard to imagine this tune working like a charm and getting the band laid every day of the week on tour – even if you ignore the lyrics, the song is all sexual tension and strutting confidence. I think that any persona of confidence is a construct to some degree, but not everyone is so transparent in promoting their own myth. (Click here to pre-order it from Insound. The band is playing a show tonight with Tommy Sunshine at Sin-é in NYC.)

A Night On The Town

Junior Senior “Itch U Can’t Skratch” – I love that Junior Senior extend the inclusiveness of their twee party music to people like Bigfoot. Even in spite of that one Beastie Boys video, I can’t imagine that Bigfoot gets out much. He’s probably very insecure about his body, you know? He’s exactly the type of person who needs a happy song that specifically asks him to dance. Come on out of the woods, Bigfoot! It’s time to party. It won’t be a coffee & cake affair, Junior Senior are going to have a DJ and dancing, pizza, chips, soda, everything! (Click here to buy it from Vibrashop.)

Banner Barbados “Since You Caught My Eye” – It’s such a cliche to say stuff like this, but this is like the best bubblegum pop song that the Velvet Underground never wrote. As immediate and loveable as this song is, it’s here as the result of a coin flip – there’s another more intense and romantic song called “My Dirty Secret Is A Divine Dilemma” on the same demo that is equally great. Lucky for you, both songs are available as mp3s on the band’s website. This is a very impressive and fully formed debut; surely some clever label will snap these people up soon. (Click here for the Banner Bardbados website.)

Elsewhere: Teaching The Indie Kids has the utterly essential Kidz Bop version of Modest Mouse’s “Float On.” It’s highly addictive, and arguably superior to the original in the sense that the song is a lot more fun with extremely enthusiastic children singing along and shouting “YEAH!” and “ALRIGHT!” after lines like “I backed my car into a cop car the other day” and “a fake Jamaican took every last dime with that scam.”

You Don’t Nomi

Klaus Nomi “Nomi Song” – Like many documentaries, The Nomi Song suffers for having to make up for a dearth of footage with an overabundance of anecdotal interviews in order for the film to hold together as a historical narrative. The editing is often quite sadistic. The director cuts away from riveting footage of Nomi’s performances for no apparent reason, often just to show some old acquaintance redundantly telling the viewer how strange and brilliant he was. By far, the archival footage of Nomi in action is the best reason to see this movie. Nomi was a living, breathing work of art with a unique, fully formed aesthetic. When the film simply shows him in his series of stunning costumes singing opera, baking pies, on stage as a new wave performance artist, appearing on Saturday Night Live with David Bowie, or just working his robot-alien shtick for the camera, it’s difficult not to be amazed by the beauty of Nomi’s affectations. Since his story is rather brief and slight to begin with, an ideal version of this film would communicate the necessary historical information via minimal narration and allow the viewer to engage with the images of Nomi with only limited mediation. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Sinistri “Black Vamp #1” – This is from an album that sounds like thousands of false starts strung together into awkward, anxious grooves. Throw in some despondent murmurs and a few atonal howls, and it would sound like the lost Jandek funk album. (Click here to buy it from Ear-Rational.)

Something To Shout About

Panico (featuring Crazy Girl) “Transpiralo” – Following the deluge of post-DFA punk-funkers, it’s been hard for me to listen to that sort of music without either feeling very cynical or totally uninspired by the work of half-assed imitators. But this…this is special. This is intense, highly potent stuff. Unlike many of their Anglo peers, there’s nothing stale or monochromatic about Panico. Their music is crackling with manic energy and sexual urgency; full of noise freak-outs, Latin rhythms, and lewd come-ons. The record basically sounds like it wants to fuck you. (Click here to buy it from Tigersushi.)

Kano “Brown Eyes” – UK grime, with Kanye-style pitched-up samples and disingenuous lyrics about romance and love. I love it that so many of the big names in UK hip hop are coming out with these great accessable singles. I don’t think it will be enough to push any of them (except for maybe Lady Sovereign, who could have a great novelty hit with “Random”) into the US mainstream, but I’m sure that it will help build an audience over here. There’s definitely room enough in the hip hop market for a non-lame “alternative”, right? (Click here to visit the official Kano website.)

Smothered In Time

A Frames “Flies” – At first, I thought of the new A Frames record as being the work of a decent “local band” with potential, but after spending some time with the record, I’ve come around to their subtle charms. It’s a lot like what happened for me with Interpol – I discovered that their music was almost ideal to listen to while reading and doing mindless errands because the consistent mood and dynamics never distracted me too much from my task. I know that this may seem like faint praise, but I appreciate music that can function in this way as a matter of practicality. As a result of doing this site, I have become fairly ruthless in how I process records by unfamiliar artists, so it’s a pleasant surprise to me that I can still take my time with some records. The A Frames certainly have their faults – mainly, I would prefer them to either be artier or poppier, because their middle ground seems like an awkward compromise – but at their best, they are both plodding and graceful, and pull off an aesthetic than many less bands never quite nail. (Click here to buy it from Sub Pop.)

The Gays “Fire To Feed (WASTER electro remix 2) – I’m generally not that fond of downpitched vocals outside of “screwed” rap records, but the trick works on this song. The vocals sound both woozy and wild, which is a good match for the track, which feels like a halfway point between goth and acid. The synth washes at the end as especially great, as is the sudden return of the vocals after the fake-out ending. (Click here to buy it from Pinprick Records.)

Tell Me, Are We Having Fun?

The Howling Hex “Pair Back Up Mass With” – This Howling Hex album would seem to prove my hunch that Neil Hagerty is at his best when he has a female foil. Weird War and his solo albums were alright, but his music goes down much easier when his incredible dudeness is diluted by some femininity. This new woman on vocals (I can’t seem to find her name anywhere) is a far cry from Hagerty’s guttural Royal Trux partner, Jennifer Herrema – she’s considerably more femme, and often sings with a slight drawl that compliments his space-boogie guitar playing rather well. At times, her diction seems odd and forced, as though she’s singing the words off of cue cards. It sounds rather like some disembodied country singer performing song-poems from the great beyond. (Click here to buy it from Drag City.)

Bertine Zetlitz “Fake Your Beauty” – Two not-so-shocking facts about this song: 1) It’s from Norway and 2) it’s from an album called Rollerskating. (Possibly the most appropriately titled album of the year thus far.) If you’re allergic to Europop or early 80s disco, please avoid. Otherwise, this is a very good time. (Click here to visit the official Bertine Zetlitz website.)

Elsewhere: Sean Michaels has returned as the regular writer of Said The Gramophone.

I Sure Hope That’s It

Fiona Apple “Used To Love (rough mix, radio rip)” – At first, it seemed like a cynical attempt to recreate Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot buzz, but after all this time, it’s pretty clear that Sony’s refusal to release Fiona Apple’s third album is the real deal. In a purely abstract way, I understand where the label is coming from – rap and mainstream pop acts are the easy money, and it would take a bit of clever marketing (read: effort) to make the most of Fiona’s album. But they are being shortsighted – if anything is obvious now, it’s that her fanbase has not abandoned her, but have instead become more devoted; rather like what happened with Weezer between their second and third records. Fiona Apple’s appeal is surprisingly broad, and spread out through various pop constituencies, and could easily grow beyond that, but it would require a bit of clever marketing to reach out to all of these different people, and this is obviously what Sony has no interest in doing. This has nothing to do with the accessability of the music – if they could sell a million copies of When The Pawn Hits… (which had no crossover radio hits a la “Criminal” and “Sleep To Dream”), they can at least get this album up to gold certification on the strength of her core fanbase.

Of the five songs which have leaked from the record, this rough mix of “Used To Love” is the most familiar, as it stays closest to the sound of her previous album. Other songs flirt with cabaret and musical theatre, but in a subtle, natural way which is rather unlike the shrill, faux-precocious approach of her younger contemporary, Nellie McKay. Apple’s music still packs an emotional punch, but her lyrics and melodies have grown more mature and understated as she ages, hinting at even greater possibilities if only she were given the chance to record and release more material.

If you enjoy this music, you ought to contact Sony and let them know that you want to buy this album. Corporations only understand numbers, and you should be counted. (Click here to visit the Free Fiona website.)

Elsewhere: Eugene Mirman plays the part of M.I.A. in Aziz Ansari’s comedy routine, Aziz, Will You Be My Valentine? (heart) M.I.A.

You Got This Thing That Follows Me Around

Babes in Toyland – “Bruise Violet”

There came a time, when I was maybe 13-and-a-half or so, that Courtney Love just wasn’t angry enough for me. The way that I felt towards those people I used to call friends, and those girls in the locker room with the Green Day patches on their L.L. Bean bags, and my mom, and my teachers… even Pretty on the Inside was too nice.

Then I discovered Babes in Toyland.

“Bruise Violet,” from their 1992 Reprise album Fontanelle, is ostensibly about singer Kat Bjelland’s ex-friend Courtney (conspiracy theories abound as to whether Hole’s “Violet” was a response song), but anybody who has ever been wronged can relate. When those guitars stab and that rhythm swings and Kat screeches, “YOU FUCKING BITCH, WELL I HOPE YOUR INSIDES ROT,” we’re all bratty adolescents who think the world owes us everything.

When I hear Avril Lavigne or Evanescence or whatever, it makes me happy. Because I know that some 13-and-a-half-year-old girl is banging her head against a wall somewhere, and that music is making her feel better. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Babes In Toyland – “Dust Cake Boy”

If “Bruise Violet” is too tame for you, check out this track, from the first Babes album, 1990’s Spanking Machine on Twin/Tone. Having grown up on stuff like this, I hear bands like Wolf Eyes and think “whatever, pussies.” (Click here to buy it from Insound.)

Amy Phillips is a freelance music geek who lives in Brooklyn, NY. She writes for such publications as the Village Voice, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Blender, Tracks, Willamette Weeek, Kitty Magik, Decibel and Seattle Weekly as well as her blog, More In The Monitor.

Step Right On The Beat

Love Is All “Felt Tip” – The lyrics are strange and obscure, but even in spite of that, this is certainly one of the most romantic songs that I’ve ever posted on this site. It’s like one moment of intimacy stretched out over a pretty feedback drone (think “With Or Without You” without the bombast, and with Kate Bush on vocals), with a lovely, hopeful bass figure on the outro. (Click here to buy it from Rough Trade.)

Lismore “Pour Un Ancien Ami” – This sounds like female-fronted early 90s Euro-indie rock (let’s say Sleeper or Lush, for example) encased in a block of ice. Either that, or the song equivalent of this drawing that my man John Cei Douglas drew the other day. Chilly but sweet, like music sorbet. (Click here to buy it from Tonevendor.)

There’s No Escaping From The Soul Inside

Downtown “Nowhere To Hide” – The melody and general feeling of this song is very late 60s/early 70s (think Todd Rundgren or the first few solo albums by The Beatles), but the textures and effects scream “late 90s/early 00s.” The result is a song that feels closer to Oasis’ numerous rewrites of “Hey Jude” than the Beatles, and more like Phoenix than old AM radio. This is not a problem for me. I have a soft spot for that slick late 90s sound (I am certain that it will one day be fetishized by nostalgic collectors, musicians, and engineers from my age group), and so this track ends up feeling twice as mellow and comforting as it would already. (Click here to visit the official Downtown website.)

zZz “Lucy” – Dutch keyboard sleaze! I’m very glad that someone out there thought that it was a good idea to mix ? and the Mysterians organ rock with GVSB smarm and a dash of electro. For most of the song, the singer seems to be wandering around in the vincinity of the microphone muttering something about a girl named Lucy, but once the chorus kicks in, he slips into “drunken crooner” mode and the rest of the tune plays out like a heartfelt but somewhat inept karaoke session. Lucy! Lucy! Lucy! (Click here to visit the official zZz website.)

I Was Dreaming When I Wrote This

Shifty Rydoz “1999” – No, not a Prince cover.This is a flashback alllll the waaaay back to the year 1999, when Shifty Rydoz was just starting out and almost no one outside of the scene was taking UK hip hop seriously. There’s a great bit of the old “hip hop’s not a fad!” meme in the lyrics (“back then they said this was just a phase”), which seems kinda quaint given hip hop’s current pop cultural hegemony in the US and increasingly, around the world. (Click here to buy it from UK Record Shop.)

Vitalic “My Friend Dario” – Okay, so now we know what Ladytron or Chicks On Speed would sound like if they channeled ZZ Top. Pretty great, actually! I feel like I should be playing some kind of car racing video game while I listen to it, though. (Click here to visit the official Vitalic website.)

Craftsmen Of Intensity

The DJ night at Funhouse was a let down. There was a good turnout about evenly divided between regulars and friends/acquaintances, but it was spoiled for me by a terrible soundsystem that was never allowed to be louder than a blasting clock radio. No volume, no bass, no movement of any kind. Eh.

The Silures “21 Ghosts” / M.I.A. “10 Dollar” / Funk Cruel “#2” / Gene Serene & John Downfall “U Want Me” / LCD Soundsystem “Disco Infiltrator” / Annie “Chewing Gum” / Lo-Fi-FNK “Unighted” / Fox & Wolf “Youth Alcoholic” / Fox “S-s-single Bed” / Morningwood “Take Off Your Clothes” / Shrag “Punk Grammar” / Futon “Gay Boy” / The Chap “Oozing Emotion” / Amerie “1 Thing (remix with Royce)” / Lady Sovereign “Random” / Puffy “Asia No Junshin (Malcolm McLaren remix)” / Basement Jaxx “Oh My Gosh” / Dead Prez “Hell Yeah (Pistol Pete remix)” / Portabella “Covered In Punk” / Johnny Boy “You Are The Generation… (remix)” / Plastic Operator “Folder” / Erasure “Stop” / Cristina “What’s A Girl To Do?” / United State of Electronica “La Discoteca” / Out Hud “It’s For You” / Gwen Stefani “What You Waiting For?” / Blues Explosion “Mars, Arizona (DFA mix)”

Tom Scharpling & Andy Earles “Angry Mr. Bungle Fan (part three)”

Pierced Girl: What is this?

Me: It’s Gwen Stefani.

Pierced Girl: This is shit.

Me: Well, ah…

Pierced Girl: You should play some Mr. Bungle.

Me: (silent exasperation)

(Click here for the official Best Show On WFMU website and here for Andy Earles’ site. Happy birthday, Tom!)

Be Thankful Every Day For Everything And Pray

Bonde Do Vinho “Mexe, Remexe” – If anyone can provide information about this extremely high energy hip hop/Baile funk hybrid, please let me know. All I know about this record is that it is credited to a Brazillian group called “Funk Cruel” (which might not even be the real name); that the album is apparently titled “10;” and that it seems to be of fairly recent vintage. The entire record is pretty hot, I would love to know more about this.

This just in from reader Lovefoxxx:

the name of this group is “bonde do vinho” there are few funk carioca’s group that goes after “bonde”, like “bonde das tchutchucas” (tchuchuca is like a hot-ass-lolita-chick) all that started was “bonde do tigrão” (bonde is like a train…) who even made some tunes after nelly’s beats! then “MC serginho e Lacraia” came… Lacraia is this ugly ass queer who ain’t a tranny… but dress as woman and dance with small shirts shakin’ the ass…

(Click here to hear more from Bonde Do Vinho.)

Robert Pollard “Dancing Girls and Dancing Men” (Removed at the request of the owner.) – There aren’t many surprises on Robert Pollard’s first post-Guided By Voices album From A Compound Eye, but then again, bear in mind that it was recorded while GBV still existed last year. For the most part, this record is business as usual for Pollard, though in the context of his discography, the songs are more similar to the material on Not In My Airforce, Waved Out, and Kid Marine than anything from the past few GBV records. The sequencing of the album is erratic and seemingly random, going back and forth between samey riff rockers and meandering psych-folk numbers, with an occasional brief poppy tune to lighten the tone. The good news is that Pollard is still making baby steps towards broadening his musical palette by adding more strings and keyboards to the arrangements, but it’s all so frustratingly tentative and cautious. Pollard seriously needs to work with an arranger who is not within his established pool of yes men; someone who will force him to try new things even if it seems scary to him at first.

“Dancing Girls and Dancing Men” is as close to an upbeat dance rock tune as you’re going to get from Bob Pollard. It’s a fine tune, though the vocals could stand to be a lot perkier. It sounds almost as though he was trying to write his own Strokes song, which is actually a very likely scenario for a guy who got his start writing his own Beatles songs as a kid. (Click here to visit the official Robert Pollard website.)

As Sensitive As A Dying Philosopher

Bill Morrison – Excerpts from the Balloon Man: “Sometimes When I’m Low”/”Leftover Turkey”/”Popped Blue Balloon Moods”/”Smog Doesn’t Help” – Bill Morrison is a legend in the world of Southern California public access broadcasting, which is another way of saying that I’ve never heard of this guy before in my life. These are excerpts from a series of recordings that Morrison made in 1971 with the intention of syndicating them as a series of forty minute-long radio programs, but no station in the country would touch them. That’s not much of a surprise given the intense strangeness of the content. In his persona as the Balloon Man he indulged in brief, surreal rants about life, death, sex, and philosophy while blowing up balloons and wearing a “balloonskin coat” made out of popped balloons, “each with its own story.” Morrison vacillates wildly between moments of thoughtful lucidity and unhinged mania, and is just as capable of insight and hilarity on either end of that spectrum. (Click here to buy it from Sharpeworld.)

Romvelope “Huw And Me” – It’s a bit strange to me that I’ve never enjoyed video games, but I tend to like so much contemporary music that sounds like cut-up arcade soundtracks. I’m not one of those people who wants to listen to rock bands play Nintendo music, you know? I usually find that music very annoying in or out of context, actually. Anyway, the first person to correctly identify the language that this guy is rapping in gets a No-Prize. There are a few recognizable English words here and there, but the rest of it sounds only vaguely familiar to me. (Click here to buy it from Post Everything.)