Just As A Crumb Of Bread Is Still Real Bread

Lil’ Markie “Diary Of An Unborn Child” – Oh man. Apparently this song has been going around for a while, but I just discovered it thanks to Eppy. It’s fucking insane. Basically, for the first three minutes, an adult affecting an obnoxious and creepy cartoon baby voice reads off diary entries during the first weeks of its life within its mother’s womb. If you’re unwilling to suspend disbelief, you’ll notice that this fetus is impossibly self aware, and has an amazing knowledge of medical science and the outside world. Anyway, around the three minute mark, the creepy fetus reveals that his mother has aborted him, and for the rest of the song, he mewls “why did you kill me, mommy?” and wonders what he may have grown up to become. It’s obviously meant to tug the heartstrings, but it just makes me laugh out loud. This could very well be the least effective piece of pro-life propaganda of all time. It may actually inspire you to become an abortionist.

The Four Skins “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Syphilis” – This was recorded by a group of physicians who were recording medical themed novelty versions of popular songs, making them the Weird Als of medicine. This one is set to the tune of “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas.” Charming. (Thanks to Eppy again!)

Finally, here’s some real pop for you.

Prince “Electric Chair” – This is one of my all time favorite Prince songs, but you probably don’t know it because it ended up on the otherwise lousy Batman soundtrack. I kid you not, this is one of his best songs ever. The lyrics in the chorus are just about perfect: “If a man is considered guilty 4 what goes on his mind / then give me the electric chair 4 all my future crimes, oh!” I dare you not to love that line.

SONIC YOUTH UPDATE!

Sonic Youth will be playing with Wilco in Central Park and in Washington, DC! Unfortunately, tonight’s Boston show and tomorrow’s Connecticut show were both cancelled.

You Don’t Even Know Who Liz Phair Is

Liz Phair “Rock Me” – It’s Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher’s summer pop anthem! I’m not crazy about the rest of Liz Phair’s new album, but this song is enough for me to forgive the relative blandness of the rest of the record. It seems like most of the negative reviews of the record come down to accusing Phair of desperately selling out and trying to be Sheryl Crow (or Avril Lavigne); but I think the album, and this song in particular, is pretty true to who she’s been from the start. The lyrics are classic Liz – frank and straightfoward, unafraid of admitting to desires that a lady might not want to admit to in polite society. So she likes to fuck her hot young guy; why should she be ashamed? It may as well be an episode of Sex And The City, with Sarah Jessica Parker going into a bad monologue about why it’s socially acceptable for older men to sleep with young women, yet when older women sleep with young men blah blah blah blah. Liz spares us the Carrie Bradshaw melodrama, and gives us a bunch of euphoric Foo Fighters-style pop hooks instead, because she’s definitely more of an unashamed Samantha Jones type.

This Is The Birth Of A Very Idea

Erlend Oye (w/ Prefuse 73) “Every Party (Has A Winner And A Loser)” – I adore the keyboard parts on this song, especially the one part that is more rhythmic than the others. I saw Erlend Oye play this song by himself with an acoustic guitar when he opened up for The Rapture and LCD Soundsystem, but it wasn’t anywhere near as great as this album arrangement. This is just about perfect for today’s weather too. (Here in New York, it is dark, and it won’t stop raining.)

Sister Nancy “Bom Bom” – I heard this song for the first time on Kelly’s fill-in for Donna Summer on WFMU from earlier in the week. It was just one of those things, I fell in love with it immediately. I loooooove the echo on her voice, and the bass line is just about perfect.

Break Up Coherence With A Cut-Cut-Cut Up Technique

Unrest “Hey London!”

Unrest “Folklore”

These are both for Eppy, who wanted to hear what Unrest sounded like after I favorably compared his band to them. “Folklore” is a cover of a James song, and it has some of my favorite lyrics ever. The funny thing, I’m not being too helpful here – the songs by his band that I think sound a bit like Unrest don’t really sound like either of these two songs, which I chose simply because I happen to love the both of them.

Ain’t No Other Cats Got Love For Me

The Beatles Vs. Hip Hop – I found this gem back when I was downloading every mash-up that I could find on Audiogalaxy, and this remains one of the finest and most inspired bootlegs that I’ve ever heard. This was apparently made by a producer/DJ called Phofo, who produced the majority of the last MC Paul Barman album. The backing track for this song is “Flying” by The Beatles, and it starts off with a snippet from Method Man’s verse from “Tear It Up,” leading into the chorus of Busta Rhymes’s “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See,” and the rest is from DMX and Drag-On’s “No Love 4 Me.”

Rhianna “Word Love” – I discovered this one while randomly downloading songs on Soulseek. I have no idea why I chose to download this song, I suppose that I just liked the taste of the person who had this in their folder, and I just went for it. It’s all a blur. Anyway, I listened to this yesterday, and….swoooooooooooooooooon. It’s amazing! The melody is gorgeous, the feeling is joyous, the rhythm and bass is sublime. You need this song in your life.

Lumidee “Never Leave You (Uh Oh, Uh Oh!)” I sought this out based on the rather insistent recommendation of several of the writers from the Spizzazzz blog. The song is built on this extremely spare backing track consisting almost entirely of a percussion loop that sounds hypnotic, but also very active and physical. There’s just a hint of bass, and there is a “uh oh, uh oh” chant that almost rivals the one in Beyonce Knowles’s “Crazy In Love.” It’s beautiful and haunting, and it makes a strong case for minimalism in pop music.

Life And Death Are Just Things You Do When You’re Bored

John Cale “Fear Is A Man’s Best Friend” No, safe is a man’s best friend! SAAAAAFE is a man’s best friend!

Blur “Money Made Me Crazy” – In the tradition of “All Your Life,” “Get Out Of Cities,” “All We Want,” “Ultranol,” and “One Born Every Minute,” this is another Blur b-side that should’ve been an a-side. This one is taken from the recent “Out Of Time” single. It is definitely a little too goofy to fit in on the Think Tank album, “Crazy Beat” notwithstanding, but it probably is the most catchy and unabashedly pop song that Damon Albarn’s released since “19-2000” from the Gorillaz record.

The Way I Like It Is The Way It Is

Chicks On Speed (featuring Peaches) – “Guitar Anthem” – This is a song about a band that doesn’t play guitars. But they simulate guitar sounds. And they have a guest, who plays guitars, and plays a guitar (or a sample of a guitar?) on a song about not playing guitars. And there’s something about gaffer tape, too.

Flying Lizards “Sex Machine” – This is probably the coldest, most mechanical, deadpan, dispassionate cover version of a James Brown song that a bunch of postpunks could ever hope to come up with. It’s still kind of sexy, I think.

Hot And Fresh Out The Kitchen

R. Kelly “Ignition (Remix)” – I don’t need to say anything about this. It’s all right here – 100 Reasons Why “Ignition – Remix” Is So Damned Great.

I can’t stop listening to it!

Mrs. Munt Has Got It Going On

Thanks to Mrs. Munt from Queer Granny, Fluxblog has a new look. I hope that you like it.

Let’s celebrate with some new songs, shall we?

Fountains Of Wayne “Stacy’s Mom” – If you can believe it, this song is just as catchy and twice as cheesy as the New Pornographers song from the last entry. If you’re allergic to goofy power pop cheese, don’t bother with this. If you want a dorky, Weezer-like love song about a suburban Jersey guy’s girlfriend’s mom, you will probably end up playing this song over and over again. And singing along, too.

The Pop Group “Where There’s A Will” – This is taken from the Wild Dub (Dread meets Punk Rocker) compilation, and is definitely the best Pop Group song that I’ve ever heard. It sounds sort of like Mark E Smith at a disco, if that makes any sense. Or maybe: !!!, but way better.

Electrocute “Sugar Buzz” – This is a nice electro-pop song from a new band on the Emperor Norton label. There’s not much to say about it, really. They do a cover of Sexual Harassment’s “I Need A Freak” too, but I prefer this original song.

I just thought I’d mention that I’ve come to really like Hail To The Thief all the way through. It’s been adding up very slowly over the course of many weeks – I liked a little more than half of it right away, and I came to love “2+2=5” and “Go To Sleep” pretty soon after that. Last week I came to really like “I Will” and “Sit Down Stand Up,” and just last night I finally was in the right mood for “We Suck Young Blood” and “The Gloaming.” So there it is, one more really great Radiohead album.

We All Have Favorite Songs But We Don’t Know What Keys They’re In

The New Pornographers “Your Daddy Don’t Know” This is one of the three non-album New Pornographers tracks that have been released to date; it is taken from the Fubar soundtrack, and is a cover of the 80s Canadian powerpop band Toronto’s biggest hit. Neko Case sings lead, and it’s definitely one of her finest studio performances. I promise you that this song will be stuck in your head all day, so if you want to avoid that sort of thing, just don’t bother and move right along.

LCD Soundsystem “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House” (live) This is the excellent new LCD Soundsystem song that I mentioned in my post about their live show last week, as performed at the

Les Transmusicales de Rennes 2002 festival.

Fred Armisen as “Music Scholar Niles Covington” live at Maxwell’s, 12/3/2002. This is Saturday Night Live’s Fred Armisen performing a brief bit as a condescending music scholar, opening up for one of Yo La Tengo’s string of Hannukah shows. “Music defines our emotions – trip on that.”

Sharpen The Air That I Breathe

Lali Puna “Left Handed” – This isn’t a great depature from the formula of their previous recordings, but this time Valerie Trebeljahr’s breathy, heavily accented vocals are accompanied by very prominent guitars along with their typical downbeat electronica, making this sound something like electro shoegazer rock.

Sally Crewe and the Sudden Moves “Wake Up The Heroes” – Ah, perfect rock pop music! There’s almost nothing to say about this song other than that it’s short, it’s catchy, it has clever lyrics, and it probably sounds great on a car stereo. If you’re a fan of the two most recent Spoon albums, you really ought to check this out, not just because Crewe’s songwriting style is very similar to that of Britt Daniel’s, but Daniel and Jim Eno also recorded the album, lending the same raw/clean recording aesthetic of those albums to her songs. For more Sally Crewe mp3s, go here. I highly recommend “Forget It.”

Stark Reality “Junkman’s Song” – This is a selection from Stark Reality’s Discovers Hoagy Carmichael’s Music Shop, which has recently been rereleased after decades of obscurity. It was very difficult for me to select just one song from the record, so much of it is remarkable and fascinating. Stark Reality were essentially a psychedelic rock/funk/jazz fusion act, and part of what I find very interesting about them is how they were able to combine familiar elements of those three genres in fairly unpredictable ways, making them seem vaguely alien and peculiar in their new context. This particular song is one of the more psychedelic tracks from the album, and features some amazing distorted keyboard sounds.

Adam Green “Jessica” – This is Adam “Moldy Peaches” Green, who has suddenly become a much better singer on this Scott Walker-style ballad which imagines a pathetic, washed up older version of minor pop star Jessica Simpson. It’s more than a little mean spirited, but it’s somehow vaguely sympathetic, too.

But I Was There!

The Rapture/LCD Soundsystem show last night was fantastic. Here’s a quick summary:

The Rapture started off a little dull, playing five consecutive pre-Echoes songs, though “Out Of The Races And On To The Tracks” was played as the third song in the set, and I do like that one a lot. I’m not too crazy about the pre-Echoes Rapture material – it’s not bad, but it’s just nowhere near as exciting as their new material. “Olio” was played sixth in the set, and from there on it was almost all Echoes songs – “The Coming Of Spring,” “Heaven,” “Sister Savior,” “I Need Your Love,” and “House of Jealous Lovers.” After the brief encore break, they played another old song which I didn’t know the title of, and then closed with “Echoes.” They only played for about 50 minutes. “I Need Your Love” was played with a slightly different arrangement than the album version – the very house-y keyboard part was played with a different keyboard sound and was somewhat deemphasized, and the beat was a little slower too. It went over very well with the crowd, most of whom didn’t seem to know the Echoes songs other than “House Of Jealous Lovers” and the original guitar version of “Olio.” (“Olio” was played with the all-keyboard Echoes arrangement, by the way.)

The Rapture were very intense, but they weren’t nearly as impressive or as tight as LCD Soundsystem. Just going on the two singles that they’ve released so far, it seemed like they were just a very good novelty act/vanity project, but this is a real band, probably the best band out of all of the current Brooklyn/NYC groups. Seriously, once you all hear the new songs and/or see them live, you will be convinced, I promise. They played this one new song called “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House,” and I swear to God, I really wish that I could let you all hear the groove of this thing. In addition to that and two other new songs, they did “Beat Connection,” “Give It Up,” and “Losing My Edge.”

I really liked how just in the stage set-up, LCD Soundsystem makes their emphasis very obvious – the drummer is in the front on the right hand side of the stage, where most bands would put a guitarist, and on the left hand side they’ve got a huge bank of keyboards and samplers, plus more percussion. The bass player stayed in the back, and on the one song with guitar in it, the guitarist stayed in the back. The whole LCD Soundsystem arrangement makes so much sense to me, it’s hard to understand why it’s not more common. Why aren’t there more guitar-free bands playing rhythm-heavy rock with lots of keyboard noise?

I spoke to LCD Soundsystem’s leader/singer James Murphy (who looks like a cross between Pete & Pete’s Endless Mike and Six Feet Under’s Nate Fisher) when they were packing up, and he told me that they were planning on releasing two more singles in 2003, and that their album would be out in 2004. I’m very excited to hear more.

Love Is All My Crippled Soul Will Ever Need

Relaxed Muscle “Rod Of Iron” – This is a song from Jarvis Cocker’s new dark electropop project. It’s pretty good on its own, though it’s certainly not on the same level of quality as the last four Pulp albums. When you listen to the song, just picture Jarvis wearing a ridiculous Donnie Darko-style skeleton Halloween costume as he sings the lyrics.

The Rapture “Love Is All” – This is taken from The Rapture’s excellent (and as yet, not commercially released) new album Echoes. I’m very excited to be seeing the band play tonight, I really love every song on Echoes, and I’m hoping they play most, if not all of that record tonight. LCD Soundsystem is the support band, and I’m pretty excited to be seeing them too. I’ve been seeing the same headlining bands over and over for the past two years, it’ll be nice to see something new and unpredictable for a change of pace.

No Sleep Til Br0klyn

Thanks to Jacob from Barbelith, I’ve become obsessed with the music of the Br0klyn Beats label for the past three days. It’s all amazingly good, and it seems to be scratching an itch I didn’t even realize that I had. One of the things that I really love about most of the Br0klyn Beats artists is how they achieve a very elegant balance of dissonant rhythmic noise and actual pop/disco grooves. There’s a sense of compositional complexity, particularly in the work of Donna Summer, that I don’t find in a lot of other cut-up electronic music – the Br0klyn Beats folks seem genuinely interested in making songs rather than just soundscapes or experiments in harsh audio texture.

Nettle “The End Of Public Space” (from Brutal Police Menace)

Criterion “Honky Tonk Hits” (from the [sic] series)

DJ/Rupture “Rumbo Babylon” (from the [sic] series)

The Light Burns Bright In My Skull

Donna Summer “What You Truly Need” – This song is from Summer’s brilliantly titled new album This Needs To Be Your Style. It should be noted that this isn’t the disco diva Donna Summer, but the experimental electronic artist who does the Advanced D&D program on WFMU.

The Mad Daddy – This is taken from WFMU’s Aircheck program from last summer. The Mad Daddy was an incredibly odd and unique DJ from Cleveland in the late 50s and early 60s who spoke only in manic, spontaneous rhyme. He was prone to outbursts of crazed cackling with severe reverb on his voice, and played the strangest rock and r&b that he could find. Apparently a new cd compiling several of his airchecks has been released recently, but I can’t seem to find any information about how to order a copy. If you know anything, please let me know.

An Evening With Stephen Malkmus

Oh, wow! Malkmus is the Onion AV Club interview this week! It’s exactly as good as I would expect it to be, too. He comes off as especially down to earth and humble in this interview, even more so than usual. Here’s a highlight:

O: Are you tired of hearing Trey Anastasio’s name come up in connection with yours?

SM: Not really, because it hasn’t come up lately. And I still haven’t crossed over into a jam-band thing. I don’t know what’s holding us back, because, like, Ween… Somehow, they have a jam-band following. We don’t really stretch it out that much yet. We still have a post-punk stick up our ass that makes it not a feel-good environment, entirely. I can’t help it. I mean, those bands are essentially feel-good, “Everything’s all right,” and “It’s easy being white and middle-class,” or something. And I don’t think it’s easy. [Laughs.] No matter what stratosphere you’re on. Like, Jack Johnson and Ben Harper and those guys, you know? My friend promoted their tour in Australia, and they just go down like gangbusters in Australia, those bands. It’s like a laid-back surfer clientele there, you know? The weather’s nice, so the music fits in perfect. I can see how it works, but… There’s stormy weather at our shows.

Getting Freaky With The Hot Tub Jets

You can dance to all of today’s mp3 selections.

The Knife “Is It Medicine” – Another wonderful song from The Knife, this one being considerably more aggressive than the lovely ballad “Heartbeats” which I featured a few weeks ago. The Knife’s album isn’t very consistent, but the five or six excellent songs on the record definitely make it a worthwhile acquisition.

Scissor Sisters “Backwoods” – Oh, what a perfect song! It starts out as the kind of wink-wink naughty funk pop that Beck used to do before he decided to become a full-time boring folk singer, and then it turns into (to my ears, anyway) a homage to Level 42’s “Something About You.” When is this record ever going to be commercially released? There are six songs on the record which would be massive pop radio hits if the world were a just place.

The Rogers Sisters “I Don’t Want To Have To Live And Die Like A Dog” – Environmentalist dance punk, how quaint! “It feels so 80s/or early 90s/to be political,” indeed. This is perhaps the closest anyone can come to sounding like Le Tigre without actually being Le Tigre. I don’t mean to sound negative – I really love this song, and I think that you should too.

Carol Douglas “Doctor’s Orders” – Extremely cute disco classic. This may actually be better suited to roller skating than dancing.

“Fish Is Always A Kickass Opening Subject For Any Show”

The Jicks “The Fisherman” (live in Chapel Hill, 2003) – Here it is, finally, courtesy of Hunter. It’s such a shame that this isn’t a Malkmus original, it makes me melt and swoon every time I hear it. The Jicks really ought to put together a proper covers album/ep.

For those of you visiting this site who are not Stephen Malkmus obsessives, you can check out this bizarre answering machine tape taken from an episode of the Audio Kitchen. I’m not sure what to say about it, other than that it is a particularly odd and disjointed answering machine tape unlike any other that I’ve heard. It sort of crosses the line from found audio into unintentional sound art.

Also: Nate is absolutely right – “Shannon Stone” by Go Home Productions is a must-hear. Their “Christmas On The Block,” “Dirrty Magic,” and “Daft Britney” boots are also fabulous.

In other “bootlegs never went away” news, the Beyonce Knowles Vs. James Brown mash-up on page 3 of DJ Crook Air’s Sounds page is well worth checking out, as is Dsico’s Britney Vs. Chic “Goodtime Girl.”

I Know I Said I’d Be Good, But They Dig It When I’m Bad

Prince and the Revolution “How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore / Let’s Pretend We’re Married / International Lover” (live in Syracuse, 3/30/1985 – The whole concert that this is taken from is fantastic, but I’m posting this medley for its interesting dynamic of Prince playing to the audience and holding back. Being a tease is a big part of his particular brand of showmanship, and that’s definitely on display here.

Alice Cooper “Clones (We’re All)” – As heard on last night’s Best Show On WFMU with Tom Scharpling, the first new episode in five weeks. This comes from one of Cooper’s lesser known albums, Flush The Fashion, but some of you might know the excellent cover version by The Smashing Pumpkins from the Aeroplane Flies High box set. I had never actually heard the original until last night; I had always assumed that Billy Corgan made his version synth-y and new wave-y because that was what he was into at the time, but as it turns out, the original was pretty damn synth-y itself. This song comes highly recommended if you’re a fan of The Cars.

True Human Victory

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention the Andrew WK quote from last week’s Entertainment Weekly! It is probably the greatest quote of an artist hyperbolically describing one’s own creation in all of recorded history, rivalled only by 60s era Stan Lee:

He describes his upcoming CD as “pure unadulterated triumph, unmitigated glory, absolute complete euphoria, melodic ecstacy, and true human victory.”

I’m sure he’s right!

Could This Be A Generation Gap?

Coyle & Sharpe “Mutant Zebra-Eel In Paint Store” – Coyle & Sharpe were a duo of man-on-the-street pranksters from the Bay Area in the 1960s who improvised deadpan put-ons with unsuspecting strangers and recorded the exchanges with hidden microphones. This selection is taken from their first album, The Absurd Imposters. It was sort of difficult to figure out which bit from the record to post here, but I ended up choosing this one because it is just so over the top in its ridiculousness. If you like this bit, I suggest that you buy a copy of the record, which is only available as a limited-edition cd-r rerelease on the Coyle & Sharpe website, which is run by the Sharpe family.

Neil Hamburger, Live In San Francisco 9/18/2000 – As opposed to his albums, this comedy set was recorded live with a real non-canned audience. It is sort of interesting to hear how Neil Hamburger goes down with an audience who seem to be mostly in on the joke, with at least one layer of irony removed, but with witless drunken shouting added. It’s not as funny, but it’s certainly worth listening to if you’re a fan. In this show, Neil is mixing in old classic routines from his albums with some material that would end up on his most recent album, Laugh Out Lord, including the worst Julia Roberts joke of all time.

The MSR Singers “I’m Just The Other Woman” (version 2) – This is the title track from one of MSR’s compilations of song-poems. If you’ve never heard of song-poems and don’t feel like following that link, I’ll explain: A few companies, one of them being MSR, used to advertise a deal in which a person could send in an original piece of poetry that session musicians would turn into a pop song. The results of these recordings are often ridiculous, but I think that this particular song is absolutely beautiful and poignant.

If You’re Out On The Road, Feeling Lonely And So Cold…

Check it out – an mp3 archive of every single song ever featured (or in some cases, prominently mentioned) on all three seasons of the Gilmore Girls. It is quite a nice selection of music, far better than anything else in prime time. If you’ve never seen the show and are wondering why Grant Lee Phillips/Grant Lee Buffalo comes up over and over again, you should know that Grant Lee Phillips is a frequent guest on the show as the town troubadour. If you’ve never heard Grant’s music, you really ought to check out the Grant Lee Buffalo songs available there, especially “Mockingbirds” and “It’s The Life.”

(Thanks to Alexfw!)