Now It’s Time For Recess

It’s underrated classic rock day!

Alice Cooper “Public Animal #9” – This one is soooo fun! For the longest time, I always thought that Alice Cooper was just bad heavy metal, but as it turns out, he’s really great with the groovy pop rock. His best glam rock numbers are at least as good as the best Bowie material from the same period, and blows aways all of the New York Dolls and T Rex songs that I’ve ever heard. It buries Slade, for sure.

Grand Funk Railroad “Some Kind Of Wonderful” – Why did so many people hate this band so much? I guess that since their best records all came out during the height of the careers of some of the best artists in the history of rock and roll, their output pales in comparison; but Grand Funk did have some pretty good material. This song in particular is pretty irresistable – that chugging bassline, that melody, the earnest white soul vocals – this is just simple fun rock and roll. It makes me want to drink beer and dance like an idiot.

Nailed In The Stones By Derek Lowe

“Golf Nuts” – This is from last night’s episode of the Best Show On WFMU. I don’t want to give too much away about this one and spoil the best jokes, but the gist of it is that a guy calls in to tell Tom about some footage of a man getting hit in the crotch by a stray golfball that he’s found on the internet. It starts off sort of mundane, but as with the best Best Show skits, things eventually take a rather distressing turn.

Lit By Lots Of Glowworms

Chicks On Speed “Coventry” – This is one of the highlights of their great new record 99 Cents. The new album is just a huge leap foward from their previous work, with better lyrics, melodies, and arrangements. One thing that I really like about the album is that they are using that stuttering guitar-sample trick that’s been used on a lot of mainstream pop records over the past few years. Instrumentally, this song could easily be an Ashanti or J. Lo song. I’d like to see more indie/arty groups embrace mainstream pop production techniques. Why should only the mainstream folks sound so fresh and so clean?

Traffic “House For Everyone” – Steve Winwood has had a weird career. He starts off in the rocking British Invasion band the Spencer Davis Group, then does Traffic for a while, which begins as a whimsical psychedelic pop band before turning into a wanky jam fest. A decade later, he ends up somehow becoming an adult contemporary pop singer. In a way, his career arc makes him the ultimate stereotypical Baby Boomer; with groovy beginnings, an experimental period eventually leading to an incogruous complacency and bloated lameness, and finally ending up awash in a sea of nostalgia and irrelevance. Please remember him for when he was young and beautiful. This song comes from the best record of his career, Traffic’s first LP Mr. Fantasy, which is a damn great psychedelic album and well worth your time.

I’ve Found Ways Of Counting Out The Hours

Colder “Crazy Love” – As the Other Music website says, this really does sound like it could be an old Factory record. I’m very impressed by the whole Again album, it’s an excellent late-night headphones kind of record. Interpol : Joy Division :: Colder : Suicide, but it works. I recommend it.

Dressy Bessy “Blink Twice” – You know, songs like this really aren’t nearly as common as people usually think. The album this comes from is proof enough of that, with ten other somewhat similar songs that are all pretty great, but just don’t have it like this one does. Chirpy, peppy guitar pop is not easy, it only sounds that way. If it was easy, then most indie pop bands would have more than two or three good songs each, wouldn’t they?

You’re Living In A Fantasy World

Radiohead @ Madison Square Garden 10/10/2003

The Gloaming / There There / 2 + 2 = 5 / Where I End And You Begin / Exit Music (For A Film) / Talk Show Host / Myxomatosis / Paranoid Android / In Limbo / Sail To The Moon / Creep / Scatterbrain / Go To Sleep / Just / Idioteque / You And Whose Army? / Sit Down. Stand Up. // Lucky / The National Anthem / A Punchup At A Wedding / Street Spirit (Fade Out) // Airbag / No Surprises / Everything In Its Right Place

Suffice to say, I was really, really happy that they played “In Limbo.” I didn’t expect that at all. So now I’ve seen all of the Kid A album live except for “Treefingers,” which doesn’t quite count. That’s kinda awesome.

This show wasn’t as good as the previous night (particularly in the setlist department), and if I didn’t see the previous night’s set too, I probably would have much more negative feelings about the show overall.

I had pretty lousy seats last night. I was up on the 4th mezzanine parallel with the stage. The one good thing about this was that I could see what the band was doing with their instruments, which I couldn’t when I was looking straight on. There were some technical problems during “There There” which made that song almost impossible for me to enjoy. The bass was mixed way louder than the other instruments and was in the red on the higher notes of the bass line. This may have had something to do with my proximity to the speakers, but maybe not – this was not an issue during the rest of the set.

The audience was annoying again – I can’t understand why so many people insist on being loud during the quiet parts. The crowd pretty much wrecked “Exit Music” for me, which is lame because I really love that song. The need to scream during the quiet parts must be a narcissistic thing, right? It’s all about wanting to hear yourself, I think. There wasn’t as much IRCD last night, but the first thirty seconds or so of “Sit Down Stand Up” was met with a particularly heinous outbreak, with a majority of the audience clapping a rhythm at least three times the speed of the song. I think they were all clapping in time with a Minor Threat song or something.

I just couldn’t get into things too much last night. I didn’t start to feel the music until “Talk Show Host.” The only songs I really had any visceral experience with were “Myxomatosis,” “In Limbo,” “Creep,” “Just,” “Idioteque,” and “Sit Down Stand Up.” The rest I just sort of watched. I’m not sure if this was because I felt too far removed from the experience due to physical distance, or because I had been there last night, or if they just weren’t that hot that night. Probably all of it.

Still, not a bad show. I’m probably making it sound like I didn’t enjoy myself at all, which isn’t the case.

Funny Ha Ha, Funny How?

Radiohead @ Madison Square Garden 10/9/2003

2 + 2 = 5 / Sit Down. Stand Up. / Where I End And You Begin / Kid A / Backdrifts / Morning Bell / My Iron Lung / I Might Be Wrong / Lurgee / Sail To The Moon / Paranoid Android / A Punchup At A Wedding / Go To Sleep / The Gloaming / Idioteque / Fake Plastic Trees / There There // You And Whose Army? / The National Anthem (w/ Hunting Bears outro) / A Wolf At The Door / How To Disappear Completely /// Karma Police / True Love Waits / Everything In Its Right Place

Wow. I’m really lucky that I got to see this show, because it only confirms what I knew all along – that if I was to only see tonight’s show, I would never have seen “Kid A” and possibly “Backdrifts” too. So yeah, thank God. And thanks also to the nice guy who I ended up swapping tickets with, allowing him to sit next to his friend and me to have a much better floor seat.

It was a great Radiohead show. I’ve seen enough Radiohead shows now to know that they are pretty much the same every time – really great, very intense, but missing the necessary joycore ingredients to push things over the top. There was nothing in this show (except for the chorus of “Kid A”) that really felt transcendental to me, as “Life And How To Live It” was at the R.E.M. show from last week. But this is fine. Radiohead do what they do extremely well, and I loved the whole show just as much as any other Radiohead show that I’ve seen.

“Kid A” and “Backdrifts” were early highlights, and were pretty much as wonderful as I had hoped. “Where I End And You Begin” blew away every recording that I’ve ever heard of it away. Maybe it’s just the kind of song you just need to be there for, so you can actually feel the drums. Though it was interesting to see them play “Lurgee” from Pablo Honey, it didn’t fit in very well with the rest of the songs, and was a little boring for me. “The Gloaming” was really impressive live, particularly when Phil Selway’s drums kick in at the end. I’m not sure whether or not they were having technical problems or were improvising at the end of it – it just sort of fell apart, which doesn’t happen in any of the live recordings of the song that I have heard. Thom’s usual playful camera antics on “You And Whose Army?” were very funny, but riled the crowd a little too much – the audience was applauding and shouting so much through the first half that there were points when it became hard to hear the song.

The audience was annoying me a lot last night, mostly a small group of people immediately to my left. The guy standing right next to me was prone to hollering “WHOOOO!” loudly at mostly inappropriate times, such as every third measure of “Sail To The Moon.” Worse than that was the ridiculous rhythmic clapping that almost ruined some of the songs for me. Early on, some jackasses were doing it with “Kid A,” but that had nothing on the outbreak of Inappropriate Rhythmic Clapping Disease (IRCD) that struck the majority of the audience during “True Love Waits.” I just wanted to fucking kill, really. It just made no sense – the clapping didn’t suit the song at all, it’s a song that gains much of its beauty from the fact that it has no fucking percussion. I wish people would take a cue from the band – see, Phil isn’t drumming! This means NO PERCUSSION. Stop! They don’t want you do this, you’re wrecking the song and might make Thom fuck up because you’re all a bunch of shitty drummers. This happened in the beginning of “Everything In Its Right Place,” which, judging by the I Might Be Wrong live album and several live recordings which I’ve heard over the years, is a chronic sufferer of IRCD. IRCD just makes me so mad. I can understand singing along, that’s different. IRCD signals a total disrespect for the arrangements that the musicians have chosen, as well as a fundamental lack of consideration for the audience members who want to hear the performers and not a bunch of arhythmic clap-happy morons.

Anyway, I’m hoping that tonight’s crowd doesn’t have such a severe case of IRCD, and that they get around to playing “Myxomatosis,” “Airbag,” “Just,” “We Suck Young Blood,” and “Like Spinning Plates.”

PS – I forgot to mention that “A Wolf At The Door” is fucking amazing live. One of the best of the night, for sure.

Standing In The Shadows At The End Of My Bed

I’m very excited to be seeing Radiohead tonight. I’m sure that they will be fantastic no matter what (this will be my eighth Radiohead show and they’ve never let me down), the only thing is that I really hope is that between two shows, they get around to playing these two songs, which are both very dear to me.

Radiohead “Kid A” (live in Boston, 2003)

Radiohead “Backdrifts” (live in Boston, 2003)

C’mon, Radiohead. Play “Kid A” at Madison Square Garden! I’m probably the only person on earth whose favorite Radiohead song is “Kid A.” Humor me.

I’m kind of amazed that my throwaway comment about the Silver Jews elicited so many strident replies. Didn’t any of you have an opinion about the Squeeze songs? I was so excited to post those songs, and it seems like no one really cared. The world truly is cruel if David Berman can inspire such passion, while Difford & Tilbrook garner little more than benign indifference.

Catch A Star If You Can

In what seems to be part of an unconcious campaign to convince the readers of this blog that I’m a very lame man with terribly uncool tastes, today I’m offering an mp3 of Elton John’s “lost” disco single “Are You Ready For Love,” which has recently been reissued in the UK on Fatboy Slim’s Southern Fried label. The version here is the “Ashley Beedle Love And Protection mono edit,” which was recently created from Thom Bell’s original production from 1979. If you’re a fan of early Elton John (as I am) and into late 70s disco, particuraly of the leftfield Disco Not Disco variety (as I am), you’ll find a lot to love in this single. Actually, if you just love one or the other, you’ll probably dig this.

Oh my god, I’m fucking bouncing off the walls over here. Not only have Supergrass cancelled their opening act gig with Radiohead at MSG this week, but Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks have been hired to replace them, AND I now have tickets to see both shows. I’m so ridiculously happy right now.

It has now been made official that The Jicks are not opening for Radiohead at Madison Square Garden, and that Low will be the support act. This is lame. Low are a really boring band. This doesn’t take away from the excitement of seeing Radiohead twice, though. It’s going to be a challenge to stay awake through Low’s set, let me tell you.

I See Murals In Your Radio Static

I seem to be having some technical difficulties with the mp3s today… if you can’t download the songs right now, just check back later on.

Thanks to Gabriella, I now have two cd-rs jam-packed full of rare and out-of-print Squeeze material. I’ve been slowly going through it all, and I swear, I’m tempted to make this a special all-Squeeze week here on the blog, but I realize that most of you probably wouldn’t like that, so I’ll restrain myself. Today, however, we’re getting two sweet Squeeze rarities which are perfect for converting the lot of you Squeeze non-believers.

Squeeze “Squabs On The Forty Fab” – This medley of eight Squeeze singles (with two quick instrumental nods to a couple of album tracks) was the b-side of the 12″ single for “Labelled With Love.” It’s remarkable how well all of their classic early singles dovetail into one another, it sounds like it could just as well be one amazing super-song. The sequence of the medley goes like this: “Take Me, I’m Yours,” “Cool For Cats,” “Up The Junction,” “Is That Love?,” “Pulling Mussels (From The Shell),” “Separate Beds” (instrumental break), “Another Nail For My Heart,” “Slap & Tickle,” “Goodbye Girl,” and “Someone Else’s Heart” (instrumental break).

Squeeze “Vanity Fair” (Piano Version) – The East Side Story version of this Difford & Tilbrook classic is very nice, but it pales in comparison to this simpler, less schmaltzy solo piano arrangement which appeared on the b-side of the “If It’s Love” single.

And just for Gabriella, here’s Stephen Malkmus’s lost classic “Blue Arrangements”, which is taken from the otherwise dire Silver Jews album American Water. It’s really a shame that this song, which is among the finest songs Malkmus ever penned, had to end up on a Silver Jews record. At least he’s not with them anymore, and I’ll never have to buy another lousy record of lame David Berman songs to get a couple Malkmus gems.

Burn Bright Through The Night

R.E.M. @ Madison Square Garden, October 4th 2003

Finest Worksong / What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? / Driver 8 / Drive / Animal / Fall On Me / Daysleeper / Bad Day / The One I Love / World Leader Pretend / (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville [Mike Mills lead vocal] / The Great Beyond / Country Feedback / Losing My Religion / Find The River / She Just Wants To Be / Walk Unafraid / Man On The Moon // Life And How To Live It / NYC [Stipe solo on guitar, cover of the Interpol song] / Nightswimming / Final Straw / Imitation Of Life / Gardening At Night / It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Wow!

I definitely got my money’s worth last night. R.E.M. were really on, especially Michael Stipe, who had a very strong night on vocals. I say this mostly because if you’ve heard enough R.E.M. live shows, there are definitely a lot of shows where he struggles a bit. I didn’t get all of my requests, but I was extremely happy with what was played, and I enjoyed getting a lot of songs I wasn’t quite expecting, like “Driver 8,” “World Leader Pretend,” and “Gardening At Night.” “Drive” came off much better live in its Automatic For The People arrangement than I would have imagined, and though it’s never been particularly high on my list of favorites, I had a lot of fun with “Fall On Me.” “Animal” was a real revelation live – I’d heard some live versions of this one, but last night was the first time it really clicked with me.

“Country Feedback” was a very special surprise for me – I knew that it was frequently played on this tour, but I never really thought I’d get to see it, nor did I really think much about it in terms of songs that I wanted to see. It just hit me all at once when it came on that this was exactly the most perfect R.E.M. for me to hear this week. For most of this past week, its lyrics were my life.

Now, the big highlight of this show for me was “Life And How To Live It.” Oh my fucking God! It was just… perfect. I didn’t think I’d ever get to see this one, and it was better than I could have imagined. It was just a million times better than the album version; twice as fast and just amazingly, beautifully JOYCORE. I swear to God, it must have been four of the most joyful minutes I’ve ever experienced at a concert. The only thing in recent memory that comes close was seeing the New Pornographers perform “The Laws Have Changed” at the Bowery Ballroom. It was as though the song was mainlining government-grade Joycore while everyone on stage had just downed a half a bottle of Stoli Donut each, and the band were performing it on a stage in the Cotton Candy & Trampolines car of the Joycore Express, next stop ecstacy! It was just perfect. I’d do anything to get a recording of this. Please. Someone out there, help me!

Other notes: “Drive” was dedicated to Al Franken, who requested it (though they play it every night), presumably because of the “Bush whacked” lyric. Michael’s solo rendition of Interpol’s “NYC” was really quite beautiful. He sang it very well, but only performed the “New York cares” and “turn on the bright lights…” parts of the song. Remember, Michael can barely play the guitar, so it was great to just get as much of the song as we could get before he gave up. Michael clearly loves New York City, and said so over and over, and related a few anecdotes about New York for the crowd. “Rockville” was dedicated to June Carter Cash. According to Michael, “World Leader Pretend” was the most requested song of the night, followed by “Find The River.” “Gardening At Night” was a request of Sparklehorse, who opened up the show. Michael sang a little bit of a Patti Smith song just before “World Leader Pretend,” but I’m not sure which one. For what it’s worth, this was the only show from this year to not include “Everybody Hurts.”

Dear R.E.M.,

When I see you play tomorrow night, would you mind playing the song “Feeling Gravity’s Pull”? I requested it on your website a few times, if that means anything to you. It’d also be cool if you guys did “Get Up.” And “Exhuming McCarthy.” And “So. Central Rain.” And “I Believe.” And “Life And How To Live It.” And “Pilgrimage.” And “Binky The Doormat” – oh forget it, I know that’s definitely not going to happen. I did figure out that since you rotate “Finest Worksong” and “Begin The Begin” every other show, I’m in for a “Finest Worksong” night, which is fantastic. Thanks.

Your fan,

Matthew

PS: It was really cool that you did “Get Up” on the Today Show just now. I was convinced that you’d do “Man On The Moon” for the umpteenth time.

Hammers For The Happy Couple

Kylie Minogue “Slow” – Kylie is back! Return Of The Queen! This is right up there with the best Kylie material, and it is a logical progression from the Fischerspooner remix of “Come Into My World.” It’s less ecstatic than most of the Fever songs, but not too far off from the moody intensity of “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.” Top notch electropop.

McLusky “Undress For Success” – Let me tell you, I love their song “Whiteliberalonwhiteliberalaction,” but most everything from their two albums hasn’t done much for me. This new single is much more like what I loved about that song, while moving the band foward in an appealing way. Superficially, it’s Guy Picciotto-like vocals mixed with circular, riffy Fall-esque guitars. Big Sunny D is probably otm for noting that it’s a bit like mid-90s Blur and Elastica too. Mmmm. Maybe it’s more like ’97 Blur-era Blur, though – this is more like “Chinese Bombs” or “M.O.R.” than anything on Parklife or The Great Escape.

When Swiveling That Hip Doesn’t Do The Trick

Thanks to Chris’s post about Tori Amos’s new best-of/compilation over on Do You Feel Loved?, I’ve been going back through my old Tori Amos records, basically checking to see how they hold up after I haven’t listened to them for at least a year and a half.

Tori Amos “In The Springtime Of His Voodoo” – This is my favorite track off of Boys For Pele, which I think is by far her finest record. It’s Amos at her weirdest, and at the peak of her powers as a songwriter. The songs from the first two albums may mean more to the type of fans who do so much to make Tori Amos something most sane people would like to keep a distance from, but Pele is where the real creativity and craft are let loose full force. If we’re comparing her to other piano-playing pop stars, I’d say it’s her Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It’s this defining burst of creativity that is experimental in style and masterful in substance, and slightly overwhelming too because there’s just so much of it. The unfortunate thing is while Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is widely regarded as Elton’s masterpiece, Boys For Pele is usually just cast off as being Tori’s “weird” long album.

“In The Springtime Of His Voodoo,” like a lot of the best songs from the album, sounds as though she is channeling Led Zeppelin. She nails the lusty vocals, the clever song structures, the heavy blues and folk influences. If you transpose the piano lines from “…Voodoo,” “Professional Widow,” “Little Amsterdam,” and “Blood Roses” to heavy metal guitar, you’ll find that you get something nearly as great as anything off of Houses Of The Holy or Physical Graffiti. Though I could do without the smugness of the “honey, we’re recovering Christians” line, I’ll adore that opening bit where she sets the scene before realizing that “I’m quite sure I’m in the wrong song…” forever.

Tori Amos “She’s Your Cocaine” – If we’re judging Amos’s career as it stands right now, it would seem that From The Choir Girl Hotel is the end of her run of great records. (I’m not such a big fan of her first two records, Little Earthquakes and Under The Pink, but I’ll definitely concede their status as classics.) It’s something of a logical conclusion following Boys For Pele, since it continues with her experimentation with arrangement and writing songs on something other than a piano. Too much of the album already sounds a little dated to me – the treatments on the guitars and drums in particular scream “late 90s alt-rock/trip hop,” and I can’t help but wonder how this will sound much later on when it may seem more quaint and old-fashioned rather than five-minutes-ago. It’s not that bad, it could be a lot worse, but whenever I hear post-Pele Amos, I’m almost always fixated on the production and engineering since most of her last three records are somewhat lacking in solid tunes and sound very same-y to me.

“She’s Your Cocaine” is the Tori Amos version of a stomping glam number, right down to the lyrics about gender-bending. This sort of thing is usually rote and tedious when other folks try it, but since Tori is basically bat-shit insane, most obvious influences get filtered through her mind and end up coming out sounding sort of strange and reconfigured (see: above paragraph referring to Led Zeppelin), which is exactly what I think a good artist should do with their influences. As with “…Voodoo,” there’s one great amusing lyric in this one – “I”m writing good checks / you sign “Prince Of Darkness” / try “Squire Of Dimness” / please don’t help me with this!”

He Leaves Behind Him A Thousand Laughs

Nirvana “Everybody Loves The Clown” – No, this is not Kurt Cobain’s Nirvana, but the British psychedelic band from the ’60s. I think that the most amazing thing about this song is that it so perfectly captures the grotesque happiness and unintentional creepiness of clowns. It’s just a little too happy sounding, you know? The adult voice in the right speaker sounds sort of crazed, and the child’s voice sounds slightly detached, as if s/he were singing under duress. It’s a very unique combination of joyous pop and the mildly unnerving and vaguely sinister. (For Deric!)

Okay. Here’s a question for all of you who like to post comments: Do you think Andre 3000 realized how ridiculous, overindulgent and unnecessary the drum and bass cover of “My Favorite Things” on The Love Below was, but included it anyway because he has an agenda to push, or perhaps more perversely, he wanted to have a song on the record that would put off and confuse a lot of the audience? I think Eppy’s on to something here:

…Andre seems to have, on this album, done a nice job of solving the problem of audience and race that sent Prince spinning into the art-jazz abyss of late–albeit an abyss that’s well-deserved, since we’ll still be figuring out his 80’s output in 20 years, most likely. But from what I understand of the Prince mythos, he began rebelling against his almost universal pop appeal (exemplified, perhaps, by the lack of any bass in some of his best songs) by making what he perceived as “black” music, first with the Black album and now more or less continually with NEWS etc. But Andre has, I think, figured out a way around this, one that’s actually rooted in Outkast’s appeal: genre-hopping/melding. And one of the genres he’s aiming toward is Coltrane-y jazz, but if this album is any indication, he wants to fuck with it and mix it with other shit. And that’s not white or black but just musical. It’s interesting, anyway.

What do you think?

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.