John & Belle Have A Blog

Africa

The other day I heard a (terrible) song that sampled Toto's "Africa", which sent me on a little internet hunt, during the course of which I found this interesting article:

So when we were doing ‘Africa,’ I set up a bass drum, snare drum and a hi-hat, and [percussionist] Lenny Castro set up right in front of me with a conga. We looked at each other and just started playing the basic groove — the bass drum on 1, on the ‘and’ of 2 and 3. The backbeat is on 3, so it's a half-time feel, and it's 16th notes on the hi-hat. Lenny started playing a conga pattern. We played for five minutes on tape — no click, no nothing. We just played. And I was singing the bass line for ‘Africa’ in my mind, so we had a relative tempo.

“Lenny and I went into the booth and listened back to the five minutes of that same boring pattern,” Porcaro said. “We picked out the best two bars that we thought were grooving and we marked those two bars on tape. We made another mark four bars before those two bars. Lenny and I went back out; I had a cowbell, Lenny had a shaker. They gave us two new tracks and they gave us the cue when they saw the first mark go by, where Lenny and I started playing to get into the groove, so by the time that fifth bar came, which was the first bar of the two bars we marked as the cool bars we liked, we were locked, and we overdubbed shaker and cowbell. So there was bass drum, snare drum, hi-hat, two congas, a cowbell and a shaker. We went back in, cut the tape and made a one-bar tape loop that went 'round and 'round and 'round.

It's suggested that this was one of the first loops ever used in a pop song. The degree of care and studio wizardry that went into such an essentially vapid (yet great) song is extraordinary:

“We recorded 24-track with lots of slaves,” Paich continues. “We got it from Paul Simon, who I think was the first to do it. As soon as he did the rhythm track, he would put the master away so it wouldn't get worn down and you'd make another 24-track tape for vocals, one of guitars, et cetera, and we made a lot of those. By then, I had my first little 24-track studio [dubbed Hog Manner] at my house, which was a Trident flexi-mix console, two JBL 4311 speakers and two Ampex M1200s, and we messed around doing overdubs there. We were recording 30 ips, non-Dolby, if you can imagine! There was a Yamaha instrument called a GS1, a prototype for the DX7, which at that time was the new little digital synthesizer, so the kalimba sound you hear is that. And we used a CS80, which is very unique....

It was a time when we wanted to experiment a lot,” Lukather recalls. “We lived in the studio. It was before any of us were married and had kids, so we rented a Winnebago and had it in the parking lot at Sunset Sound so we didn't have to go home. We would record all day and all night and if anyone wanted to sleep, they could go into the Winnebago.”

Greg Ladanyi then came in to mix the album. “I think we used three 24-track machines for ‘Africa’ and ‘Rosanna,’ which was something a little bit ahead of its time,” he says. “We were at the Sound Factory. We had to mix ‘Africa’ in sections because the console wasn't big enough — it didn't have enough faders for the amount of tracks that were on the record. We had to mix sections and I had to edit the 2-track together to complete the mixes — the verses got mixed, the chorus would go by and then once the verses were mixed, we mixed the choruses and cut the choruses into the verses. The guys in the room were involved in moving faders because we had no automation on the console then. I would be mixing and I'd have Lukather on one side of the console and Paich or Porcaro on the other side of the console and we would do the rides all live. We kept doing the mixes over and over until we got the rides the way we wanted to hear them.

I think I've mentioned before that I know Heather Porcaro, who is...I thought she was Jeff Porcaro's daughter, but it says in the article he died in 1992, so it must be Joe Porcaro. She is a super-awesome person and a very talented musician in her own right. (Her grandfather was a jazz musician too, so it's a family thing.) I love the idea of all of them in the studio, bent over the faders, all nodding at each other: now, sliiiide. The funny thing is that I always assumed there was nothing but synth keyboards in there when there was actually a world of groovy percussion instruments and actual flute solos. All hail sleazy LA studio rock!

Confunkshun

I bet you haven't been listening to enough Confunkshun lately, have you? The song "Early Morning Sunshine", off 1980's "Spirit of Love" is one of my favorite funk/rare groove songs ever. No YouTube available, so you'll just have to enjoy "Too Tight" up in here. Pantsuits11!!!1ONE!

OMG this video is awesome. So much Bay area-specific greatness.

Divine Right

Which video do you like better:

this

Or

this.

?

It's enough to make me wish "Running Scared" wasn't a real movie. Like one of those "Sabotage" ones.

Friday Random Ten

Friday Random 10. Ten songs that come up on the ol'iTunes, no skipping past stuff you're embarrassed about.
1. The Orchard/Les Savy Fav
2. This Is a Recording 4 Living In a Fulltime Era (L.I.F.E.)/De La Soul
3. Goodbye Blue Sky/Pink Floyd
4. some Schütz motet recorded off an unknown LP
5. Kiss The Knife/Turbonegro
6. You Don't Want Me Anymore/Steel Breeze (now we see the depth of my commitment to the no-skipping policy)
7. Smash It Up/The Damned
8. Fly Like An Eagle/Steve Miller Band
9. The Gloaming (Softly Open Our Mouths In The Cold)/Radiohead
10. Inner Meet Me/The Beta Band
Bonus Track 11: Ooh Baby/Bo Diddley

My favorite Bo Diddley song is You Can't Judge a Book By Looking At The Cover. My dad does a great version.

Machine Gun Snare!!

So, hand foot and mouth disease, not really the worst thing ever. Everyone's pale, sniffling, and has a stomachache and a sore throat, but that's about it. Home is getting boring, though. I set the Thomas train set up in our new looong living room, that's been good. I'm sure halloween decorating will be modestly entertaining. Then we can make cupcakes. And then...I'm out of ideas. Except I better start sewing some costumes. Zoë's going to be Hermione Granger, that's easy. Violet wants to be one of our stray calico kittens (Fowler and Hisfahan.) I need a white leotard I can sew spots onto.

I read this interesting article about Syrian Jews in NYC and their harshly enforced intermarriage ban (basically, if you marry outside the community, even to a convert, you're anathema and your children can't even re-enter the fold.) As sometimes happens, the high costs of remaining in the community have made it very strong, and many community members are fantastically successful businessmen who share the wealth.  I was amused to read this:

The Cayre brothers, from one of the world’s richest families, according to Forbes magazine, got rich in the ’70s producing Latin music on the Salsoul label and then got much richer distributing videocassettes via Wal-Mart. Joseph Cayre was also among the major financiers behind the World Trade Center’s Larry Silverstein.

I'm very glad to hear that someone got crazy rich off of SalSoul records, one of the great labels of all time. Just as long as people like  Loleatta Holloway and Shep Pettibone aren't starving an an alley somewhere.

The Love

All the girls in the house are feeling a bit under the weather. Sad. I'm sitting here eating my hawker center dinner and listening to Fang Liu, "The Love of The Wei River". She makes me believe in the power of rock. You'll have to settle for "Moonlight in the Palace" [youtube].

Friday Saturday Random Ten

Random 10 is the lazy bloggers friend. We've got absolute honesty here at J&BB; no skipping past unsightly Whitesnake songs for us.
1. Brandy/Freddie McGregor
2. It's Only Life/Feelies
3. Assassins/Geto Boys (ouch!)
4. I'm Not a Punk/Descendents
5. Ali Ali Cherry/Maxi Kingdom (oh, this is a horrible Eurotrash song. iTunes, stop being such a little bitch. We are not at a foam party in Ibiza with 10,000 sunburned German people.)
6. Where Have I Known You Before/Return to Forever (ah, OK then)
7. All By Myself/Big Big Broonzy (w00t)
8. End of The Day (Simian)
9. Walking in Your Shadow/Train/Picadilly Circus by Uriah Heep/Juicy Lucy/Bob Downes (from this)
10. Witchita Lineman/Meters (I take it all back iTunes, I love you. Classic funk band doing Wichita Lineman...I'm sorry I ever doubted you.)

Everyone should buy The Meters' Rejuvenation and Struttin'. Look at this cover. Tell me you don't want some of this.

Bonus Random 11: Star Wars Theme/Meco (???!!!1!!!?)

She's Right About Mariah Carey, I Guess

You know what's still just a great mashup? Teen Spirit v. Bootylicious by Soul Wax. The way the opening "Beyoncé...can you handle this, Michelle, can you handle this..." swirls around over the unmistakeable opening riff of Smells Like Teen Spirit is wonderful. It's also amusing to me that people producing the songs of cheesy pop acts have reproduced the sound of a lot of good mashups from a few years ago: inappropriately heavy guitars with standard-issue technologically enhanced melisma, a la Stroke of Genie-us (the seminal Strokes/Christina Aguillera mashup). The guitars create the illusion of 'rocking' (much as the skinny tie and eye makeup of Avril Lavigne were stipulatively 'punky'.) Kelly Clarkson, I'm looking at you. It's just a testament to how this Camille Paglia column plumbs the abyssal depths of self-importance, borne along in the submersible USS Contrarian Idiocy, that this isn't even one of the ten most annoying things in the column:

The waning of art film has been just one of the bitter cultural disappointments that the baby-boom generation has had to endure [indeed, perhaps no generation in history has suffered as the boomers have--ed]. Rock music, which exploded in the artistic renaissance of the '60s and '70s, seems to have exhausted its formulas. At the moment, hip-hop and disco-derived dance music enjoy far greater prestige everywhere....

In general, aspiring young performers emerging from the bland white middle class in America seem to be having trouble expressing or controlling emotion, with its myriad of subtle gradations. Unless they hail from the gospel-rich South, they lack direct experience of the vocal authority and operatic dynamics that most young African-Americans automatically absorb from church. And then Mariah Carey, who has phenomenal natural range, has unfortunately spawned a girly epidemic of glossy, manufactured faux crescendos.

In contrast, I've been deeply impressed with the visceral intensity and exquisite poetic shadings of Kelly Clarkson's moody "Irvine," which Matt Drudge has been playing on his Sunday night radio show. Clarkson claims to have composed the song in 20 minutes while lying in despair on a bathroom floor after a concert. The spare live production, with its ascending changes and haunting ornamental guitar slides, is gorgeous. As long as music of this quality is being made, the American fine arts will revive.

How many things have gone wrong in this passage? From listening to Drudge's radio show, to facile ecstasies about black people and how they're so authentic and musical, to finding deep meaning in a Kelly Clarkson song, I can only say: damn, Camille, that was some pharmeceutical-grade sh#t right there.

Rubin00bz

Wow, the internet! What happened while I was gone? Hey, The Rubinoos are suing Avril Lavigne for ripping off I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend! Awesome! Take her for every cent, scrappy little Rubinoos guys. I'm back to thinking reading YouTube comments is like tapping into the mainline of pharmaceutical-grade moron:

o0ochyntiao0o: Robinoos' = CRAP!!
Avril = ROCKS!

This lawsuit is soo weak, 'cuz Avril has NEVER EVER EVER heard of this 70's band,and me neither .. Theres a 99% y'all never heard of this band, so suckitup, Roobinoos!

No, YOU suckitup, o0ochyntiaooo000.

Roger Hodgson: History's Greatest Monster

John was singing Supertramp to me earlier. No, children, this doesn't mean we're getting divorced...yet. Now I'm going to have The Logical Song stuck in my head for a week. Of course, then I had to see if there was a video on YouTube. You really need to watch till after the saxophone solo, when Hodgson starts belting "who I am...whoIYAM" in sucessively higher registers. The sax player is wearing truly ridiculous glasses that, well, actually I have a pair just like that but it's different. Anyway, the look he gives the camera before blowing into this little pipe-zizzy-mabobber is so stupendously irritating that I want to go back in time and kill my parents so it will cease to be the case that I ever saw him do that. It will be replayed in lurid blood-tones on my inner eyelids for many miserable nights. But you know what Aristotle says, even to God this one power is denied: to change what is past.

I knew a strange person once who liked Supertramp. It came about like so: I met this cool girl from West Virginia at an archaeological dig in Cyprus. She went to a college in the Boston area but not Harvard or MIT, one of those other colleges. I think it's fair to say that she wasn't looking to rush right back to West Virgina. I went to stay with her and her boyfriend, a physics grad student at MIT, when I was visiting Harvard to decide about grad school. Viewed along one axis, he didn't rate such a hot girlfriend (and she was damn hot). Viewed from another perspecitve, he was a kind, reliable boyfriend who would get a good job somewhere other than West Virgina. He was playing Supertramp at their place, and he earnestly explained how he had gotten into them. You see, he was alphabetizing his CD's when he realized he didn't have any bands starting with the letter 'S', so he rushed out and picked up some Supertramp at random (this was before people knew about Asperger's, but in retrospect he really fits the bill). Imagine his surprise when they turned out to be so great!! At this point I felt that the price of exiting W.Va was getting a bit steep, but what do I know? I did help him out by suggesting bands starting with various underrepresented letters, since ideally there was meant to be rough parity with the proportion of English words starting with the various letters (so you can probably get by with just X and the Xray-Spex but are going to need a lot more 'S' bands.) And that's the story of how a high-functioning but modestly crazy person onced liked the band Supertramp, long ago.

Finally I should note that while reading YouTube comment threads is generally a swift way to lose all faith in humanity, I find myself agreeing with commenter chccazbnSS, who noted just one hour ago that "this song is gey!!! this shouldnt be put on youtube -.-!!"

Jump! Jump!

Until now, I had never read this Chuck Klosterman article listing THE TEN MOST ACCURATELY RATED ARTISTS IN ROCK HISTORY! (via Julian Sanchez, via Jim Henley. And thanks for posting it on your LiveJournal, random person!) It is awesome. Read it.

7. Tone Loc: Nobody really takes Tone Loc seriously, except for frivolous pop historians who like to credit him for making suburban white kids listen to rap music that was made by black people (as opposed to the Beastie Boys, who made white suburban kids listen to rap music that was made by other white people). This lukewarm historical significance strikes me as sensible. Neither of Mr. Loc’s hits are timeless, although “Wild Thing” samples Van Halen’s “Jamie’s Cryin’” (which I like to imagine is about M*A*S*H star Jamie Farr, had Corporal Klinger pursued sexual--reassignment surgery in an attempt to get a Section 8) and “Funky Cold Medina” samples “Christine Sixteen” (at a time when Kiss were making records like Hot in the Shade and nobody in America thought they were cool except for me and Rivers Cuomo). Those two songs were actually cowritten with Young MC, whose single “Bust a Move” is con-fusing for the following reason: Its last verse states, “Your best friend Harry / Has a brother Larry / In five days from now he’s gonna marry / He’s hopin’ you can make it there if you can / Cuz in the ceremony you’ll be the best man.” Now, why would anybody possibly be the best man in a wedding where the groom is their best friend’s brother? Why isn’t your best friend the best man in this ceremony? And who asks someone to be their best man a scant five days before they get married? This song is flawed. And while I realize the incongruities of “Bust a Move” have absolutely nothing to do with Tone Loc, the song somehow seems more central to Tone Loc’s iconography than his role in the movie Posse, which was the best movie about black cowboys I saw during the grunge era.

Hey, I thought KISS were cool then too! Slightly off-topic, I listened to Kriss Kross' "I missed the bus" today, and people stared at me on Jalan Merah Saga because I was laughing out loud like a big goofball as I waited for Galerie Cho Lon to open.

Hey, It's Friday: Friday Random Ten

Y'all know the rulez.
1. Dancing With Myself/Billy Idol (woo!)
2. Daylight/Bobby Womack (this is one of my favorite songs of all time)
3. Acts of Worship/Storm (this is off the Trance Atlantic 1 compilation, which is great but out of print, maybe...but you can buy it used. Contains Space Time Continuum's genuis "101 South of Heaven")
4. Solomon, Oratorio HWV 67: The Arrival of The Queen of Sheba/E. Power Biggs
5. Knockers/The Darkness (I love what you've done with your hair...)
6. Mexican Caravan/Butthole Surfers
7. Peter, Peter, Komm Zu Mir Zuruck!/Ute Lemper
8. Why Don't You Stay/Zodiacs
9. Beach Bunch/The High Llamas
10. Because You're Young/David Bowie
Bonus 11: Polka Dots and Moonbeams/Frank Sinatra (Frank's really poncing it up here, but I still love it.)

The Pool's In But The Patio Ain't Dry

The Rolling Stones album Tattoo You is so awesome. SO AWESOME! Sorry, I'm yelling. I've listenened to "Worried About You" 8 times today--and it's not enough. I'm going to listen to that again. Some Girls contains my single favorite later-period Stones song "Before They Make Me", but Tattoo You is the best later Stones album. It came out in 1981, too, making it strangely one of the best albums of that year even though all the other great albums released that year are punk rock (now I'm sure someone will come up with something else that I'll immediately recognize was great, like a funk or reggae album). We listened to this a lot when I was young. Casts off the disco affectation of Emotional Rescue, while retaining sinuous 70's funk underpinnings, and starts kicking your butt up and down the street with the power of rock, even when Mick Jagger is warbling all 5 minutes of the song in falsetto: suck it Prince! Also, I think Keith Richards was employing the newly developed "Raunch" pedal. (I don't think I've mentioned that you should listen to the song "Winter" off the less-than-stellar Goat's Head Soup, though I meant to. Searching for the putative post I found this old post which I quite like. I've had a blog for, like, a long time now. Odd to read stuff I'd completely forgotten about.)

Am I A Rock Person Or What The Hell Am I?

You guys aren't even going to believe me, but this song will rock your world. And I don't just mean, "rock your world, but in a Tin-Pan-Alley-derived way." I mean, straight up, using-the-power-of-rock rock your world. For many years my family had, on the fridge door, the plaintive quote which forms the title of this post, emblazoned across a black and white photo of Neil Diamond. Being a callow teen I thought it was ludicrous; how could Neil Diamond even think he might be a rock person? But then, one day in the El Cerrito, CA Thrift Town, I bought a copy of the live album Hot August Night, and listened to the version of "Cherry Cherry" that appears there. You all know I'm crazy, but I'm crazy like a fox that just wants you to listen to this incredible song so I CAN BLOW YOUR MIND. Only .99 through the magic of iTunes. You could be listening to it right now...pleeease.

UPDATE: also not to be missed is the photo on the album cover, in which Neil Diamond is so overcome with his own musky sensuality that he's moments from passing out in front of the entire crowd in the Greek.

Lucky Old Sun

Poor Belle had to go to the hospital for her asthma. Hope she doesn't have to stay too long. Send her your best wishes.

Pushing the girls home in the trolley, after visiting hours and a visit to the butterfly garden - nice hospitals we have here in Singapore - I see a poster for "Sunshine". This sounds like a very ridiculous movie, no? But earlier today, when I was trying to put Mei Mei down for her nap - no-go - at one point she comments: this is really nice music. The Sunday oldies radio was playing "Lucky Old Sun", the Frankie Laine version, I think it was. If you absolutely had to make a movie, the plot of which is eight astronauts heroically re-igniting the sun; and then you have the obligatory slow final sequence where the few burnt and frazzled and grizzled survivors are making their way home, you could do worse that pick "Lucky Old Sun" as the sentimental soundtrack fodder. Seems to me. I mean: if they just won't let you pick a better story.

Mei Mei also really liked "When Rock n' Roll Came To Trinidad", sung by someone-or-other. I think she especially liked the soft and non-rocking flutes.

UPDATE: Crikey. Belle has pleurisy. (I thought that was a myth.) It turns out Frankie Laine only died last month, and he once got in the Guinness Book of World Records for dancing for 145 days straight in a Depression-era marathon. And the tagline for Sunshine is: "If the sun dies, so do we." I think that has to be a contender for all-time worst. I mean, I'm pretty sure the tagline for Scarface wasn't, "If you suffer a fatal bullet wound, or wounds, you die." They came up with something better.

Echo

I have to say. This new Arcade Fire album sure sounds a lot like Echo and the Bunnymen. Ocean Rain. "The Killing Moon". Oh, a bunch of people already noticed. Just last night I was noticing that Modest Mouse with Johnny Marr - Modest Marr - sounds an awful lot like "Lovecats"-era Cure. Everythings coming up 80's. I fixed that by paying iTunes 99 cents and downloading "Don't Fear The Reaper". Sweet sweet cowbell take me away to where I want to be. (Not that I don't love Echo and the Bunnymen.)

And now. Back under that mountain of work.

Happy Birthday to Stuyvesant Wainwright II

Amanda weighs in on the whole disparate sexual desires thing. Also, Friday Random Ten, happy birthday to my grandad edition:
1. Intermission: Theme From 6th Grade Watercolor/Valient Thor
2. He's a Mighty Good Leader/Beck
3. ZYX/They Might Be Giants
4. Turbonegro hate The Kids/Turbonegro (ironically, Amanda also blogged about how Turbonegro are at SXSW today)
5. Provisional/Fugazi
6. Home of The Brave/Naked Raygun (what is up with iTunes' mood?)
7. Enjoy and Get It On/ZZ Top (this song is awesome, and totally relevant to the female desire question: "do she still have her fightin' gear/just one look is going to make it clear/ c-c-cuz she enjoy me, really enjoy gettin' it on")
8. My Brother Woody/Free Design
9. Theme/Descendents (OK, back to the punk rock we were feeling earlier)
10. Two Against Nature/Steely Dan
Bonus Track:
Synchro System/King Sunny Ade
That felt randomer than usual.

The High Dials

The High Dials are a great band and everybody should listen to them. You can just follow the link and hear for yourself but they sound quite a bit like Doves (link to lame-ass Flash-festooned site, sorry), and not totally unlike the High Llamas. They claim to be psychedelic/pop, but the drumming is too tight for that. Real psychedelic music like the Incredible String band or Syd Barrett sounds like either a) it's been cleverly written in 7/9 time or b) the musicians are so out of it that there's not actually any rhythym at all. Their myspace page has some downloads and tour info. It seems they don't have a record label right now, but can that be right? No, because the High Dials are totally airwolf. Y'all should go check it out and give them money or love or something. At least friend them.

When Arrows Don't Penetrate/Cupid Buys a Pistol

Happy Valentine's (happy happy Valentine's) Day, gentle readers. You should be listening to fine songs such as Outkast's "Happy Valentine's Day", or what may be my favorite soul song of all time, Sam Cooke's "Cupid" (I couldn't find a good YouTube link but you can listen to a short sample here). There's a great live version, too. The verses are not perhaps the best but the opening/chorus "Cupid, draw back your bow" part is so great that I get goosebumps. One of the things that's so nice about the iPod is that you can just play the same song over and over (and over and over). I remember when I was a kid  had a Walkman, on which I had to laboriously rewind to listen to a song the second time. I solved the problem on one mix tape by just recording Van Morrison's "Madame George" (from Astral Weeks) twice in a row at the start. It's one of my stepfather's favorite songs but I can't hold that against it, can I?

When It Hits

JBB readers take note: you can buy the first two Shoes albums (Present Tense and Tongue Twister) on iTunes for only $9.99! "When It Hits" is one of my favrorite songs ever. But why don't they have the re-release of 20/20's two LPs? The CD is out of print, but why should iTunes care about that? I really don't see what the barrier could be, and it's not as if the record company is making money off the pricey resales.

Won't You Eat My Sleazy Pancakes Just For Saintly Alphonso

Is it bad that this Onion article I Don't Make My Jukebox Selections For The Recognition speaks to me so clearly?

Say I open up with something fast and loud like Motörhead. Anyone could ride that out with Diamond Head or Iron Maiden. But not me: I'll do a complete pivot and play Nancy Sinatra's haunting duet with Lee Hazlewood, the psychedelic-era oddity "Some Velvet Morning," just when everybody's least expecting it. Bam. (Few people know this, but that "obscure track" happens to be on her greatest hits record.) Slam.

And I'll keep you guessing. I'll play a '70s one-hit wonder like Sammy Johns' "Chevy Van" right after some blistering DC hardcore from Minor Threat. I'll lay down some early New Orleans funk from The Meters just after surprising you with Public Enemy's collaboration with Anthrax. I'll go from mid-period Willie Nelson to early Funkadelic, and then plunge right into "Jump Into the Fire" by Harry Nillson. You won't know what hit you. You'll be thinking, "Who's the badass that programmed this mix? I want to buy that guy a drink!"

I have this tingly 'just got pwned' feeling. I've put almost all these songs on mixes before, and if I were in a bar with a jukebox with 'Chevy Van', The Meters and Public Enemy on it, well... For the sheer surprise factor I think I'll never top the time I was out with my brother at some Alexandria brew-pub full of off duty DC professionals. We were in an unusual frame of mind. His big ol' shiny eyes about fell out of his head when he heard the unmistakeable strains of St. Alphonso's Pancake Breakfast.

A Man After My Own Heart...With A Razor!

Via Hit and Run's Jesse Walker, an article in the NY Sun about the King of Texas Swing--Bob Wills. Great, great stuff; I urge all of you to go out and get some Bob Wills and HIs Texas Playboys (or even Lightcrust Doughboys). Plus more YouTube goodness, mmmm! Oooh, and what about Red Sovine!? Ernest Tubb? I love me some YouTube. Anyone know where I can get a costume like Red's got on...

Violently Sexist Rap Songs: Not Just Some Stuff Made Up By Orrin Hatch

Speaking of listening to unadvisable rap songs, it's when iTunes throws up a little something like the Geto Boys song Assassins that I question the wisdom of copying my bro's hard drive so indiscriminately. That stuff is just wrong. Of course, in the next moment he did me right with Maiden's Be Quick or Be Dead, so I shouldn't complain. Finally, that last lyrics site suggested that people interested in Iron Maiden lyrics might also be interested in Arcade Fire lyrics. This is in fact true, but...

UPDATE: it occurs to me that I don't actually know whether Orrin Hatch complains about violence in popular music. It just seems like the kind of thing he would do because he is a tedious, moralizing, prune-faced guy from Utah. This may reflect anti-Mormon prejudice on my part. Sorry, Mormon readers. Mormonism isn't really more crazy than other religions; it just seems more ridiculous and contingent because the founding events happened so recently. I think I saw some (white) Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses walking around an HDB complex the other day. I thought proseltyzing was agin' the law in Singapore?

Gabriel, move over to second trumpet

Damn. Maynard died. His manager: "Someone just said, 'Gabriel, move over to second trumpet.'" There's an old clip somewhere on the internets. Maynard blowing "Blow Gabriel Blow" with Ethel Merman singing. That'll clear up your earwax problem. But I can't find it now.

The Times They Are A'Changin' Back

I just noticed this funny Kip Manley post from a few weeks ago. He adds some color to a Rick Perlstein piece he links, "What Is Conservative Culture?" - which you should read as well. (I see as well that those who can get to the Smith Ballroom at Portland State University can meet Kip in the flesh - this weekend - at the 6th Annual Zine Symposium. Alas, geography forbids me to take up this offer.)

Adam Kotsko asks for some Jazz advice. I've posted about this before, but I have a weird weakness for the beyond good and evil trumpet-stylings of Maynard. I think he should dress up as Galactus. He plays that kind of jazz. And (via Crooks and Liars) I see that YouTube has this classic bit of TV footage - 22 year-old Maynard blowing the high notes with Kenton. And here is "Round About Midnight" (very nice). And this is great 70's stuff. (It's like the whole band is dressed as Gallagher.)

That Time of The iTunes

I had the idea to make a mix with songs for each month of the year, but I'm missing August and November. Any suggestions? iTunes can't search lyrics, maybe I'm blanking on some August or November-themed songs I already have. I think I'll winnow it to 2 per month, max.

1. January/Pilot
2. February Stars/Foo Fighters
3. Ides of March/Iron Maiden
4. April Depression/Superfortress
5. April Mornings/The Moore Brothers
6. April Showers/Some 20's Orchestra
7. April Fools/Rufus Wainwright
8. April Fool/Soul Asylum
9. April In Paris/Billie Holiday
10. One Vision of May/Murder City Devils
11. May Queen/Liz Phair
12. Cinco de Mayo/Liz Phair
13. June/Pete Yorn
14. June/Camper van Beethoven
15. 4th of July/Soundgarden
16. July Jones/The New Pornographers
17. September Song/Lindsay Buckingham
18. September/Earth Wind and Fire
19. September Gurls/Big Star
20. Theme From Hunt For Red October (yeah, scraping the bottom of the barrel here, but whatever)
21. December/Weezer (maybe any Decemberist song here too?)

Also, why do I have a Soul Asylum album? Did I give someone money for it? I used to want to start a band called Collective Soul Coughing Asylum. Oh well, I should really wonder why I have the theme from Hunt For Red October, cause that's just wrong. Belle review: teh suck, plus bogus Orthodox chanting.

Update: That Soul Asylum song isn't actually terrible. A straight-ahead piece of guitar rock with lame lyrics. It resembles a poorly produced Motley Crüe song, but there are worse things in the world. Like that Pilot song, ye gods.

Two-Year Old Candy Sample, Plus Young Blood

I never put iTunes on shuffle. But I did, and it flattered me by instantly coughing up my first (and only) experiment with Apple's GarageBand, from two years ago. "The Candy-Sampled Clone They Call Bassoonman" (MP3). I had almost forgotten.

In other musical news (drawing on the fine selection of new albums featured in our sidebar), here's a good free track for you. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, "Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood" (MP3). The guy does a good David Byrne.

To The Guy Who'd Throw A Party If He Knew Someone To Call

Theme song of the blogosphere. I can't believe I never heard this before.

You use a lot of garamond, Dylan dog.

Link.

I told you why I changed my mind

My iPod is happily loaded with recent purchases - see sidebar. They are working out nicely. The Richard Thompson cover of The Who's "A Legal Matter" (previously discussed in comments) is good, for example. But Mr. Thompson changes the lyrics. This happens all the time; singers must have their fun. But ... well, I'll give you the whole thing, indicating the change at the bottom.

I told you why I changed my mind
I got bored by playing with time
I know you thought you had me nailed
But I've freed my head from your garden rails

Now it's a legal matter, baby
You got me on the run
It's a legal matter, baby
A legal matter from now on

My mind's lost in a household fog
Wedding gowns and catalogs
Kitchen furnishings and houses
Maternity clothes and baby's trousers

Now it's a legal matter, baby
Marryin's no fun
It's a legal matter, baby
A legal matter from now on

I told you why I changed my mind
I got bored by playing with time
I know you thought you had me nailed
Well, I've freed my head from your garden rails

Now it's a legal matter, baby
You got me on the run
It's a legal matter, baby
A legal matter from now on

You ain't the first and you ain't the last
I gain and lose my women fast
I never want to make them cry
I just get bored, don't ask me why

Just wanna keep doing all the dirty little things I do
And not work all day in an office just to bring my money back to you
Sorry, baby

Thompson modifies this to:

... immature little things I do
And not grow up and be responsible for someone truly wonderful like you

Thompson is singing in self-consciously loose fashion by that point, so there isn't any danger he's taking himself too seriously. Yet mayhap he is evincing a touch of over-concern that the audience will miss the point that the guy's a jerk. Not really a cool dude at all. I took that to be fairly obvious in the original.

The track on the album I really like is Tommy Keene's cover of "Tattoo". It's super twinkly. Tommy who? No, Who is the band. Tommy is the concept album. Vaudeville aside, google does not disappoint. I'm very sorry I can't tell you where to get the Who covers album, which was a freebie Mojo magazine thing. [Oh, crumbles, the mp3 link has expired. oh well.]

Friday Random Ten

1. Bring Back The Boston Rag/Steely Dan
2. Beautiful Child/Rufus Wainwright
3. Deadhead/The Teen Idles
4. Hedgehog/Luna
5. I'd Rather Be With You/Terry Callier
6. She(Misfits cover)/Murder City Devils
7. Jesus Is His Name/Sugarplastic
8. Mr. Pinnodmy's Dilemma/The Attack
9. Dim Lights/The Flying Burrito Brothers
10. Wildest Dreams/Asia
That was weird.
Bonus Track: Cum on Feel The Noize/Quiet Riot

Bonus Bonus Track because it's so very awesome: Rock Against Ass/Turbonegro. Why does Turbonegro hate the Kids? Why?

Why Was I Not Informed?

Why haven't I ever listened to Spirit's 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus until now? Rock me with a concept album one time, dudes.

It's Actually Saturday Friday Random Ten

round and round and round she goes...where she stops, nobody (except Ben Wolfson) knows!
1. Ecstasy/The Raspberries
2. The Man Who Couldn't Cry/Johnny Cash (bonus Wainwright connection points)
3. Captain/Ween
4. Beware of Darkness/George Harrison
5. Thor Is Like Immortal/The Fucking Champs
6. News of The World/The Jam
7. Moon Shadow/Pattie LaBelle (kick ass!)
8. Survival/Nightmares on Wax
9. Video Killed The Radio Star/The Buggles (?)
10. Freaks In The Pond/Thumb of The Maid

Crisp and Bracing!

Not really a bonus bonus track: The Ballad of El Duce/The Mentors

Long Lankin

Hey, what's with some hating on Steeleye Span? Steeleye Span is the greatest, and it makes especially great kids' music. I was raised on a steady diet myself. Kids like things that are creepy and inexplicable, hence my childhood love of Slovenly Peter, the unexpurgated Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen's Girl Who Trod On A Loaf. Long Lankin is especially good in this regard:
...
"Where's the master of the house?" says Long Lankin.
"He's 'way to London," says the nurse to him.
"Where's the lady of the house?" says Long Lankin.
"She's up in her chamber," says the nurse to him.
"Where's the baby of the house?" says Long Lankin.
"He's asleep in the cradle," says the nurse to him.
"We will pinch him, we will prick him,
we will stab him with a pin,
And the nurse shall hold the basin
for the blood all to run in."
So they pinched him and they pricked him,
then they stabbed him with a pin,
And the false nurse held the basin
for the blood all to run in.
"Lady, come down the stairs," says Long Lankin.
"How can I see in the dark?" she says unto him.
"You have silver mantles," says Long Lankin.
"Lady, come down the stairs by the light of them."
Down the stairs the lady came, thinking no harm
Lankin he stood ready to catch her in his arms.
There was blood all in the kitchen
There was blood all in the hall
There was blood all in the parlour
Where my lady she did fall
Now Long Lankin shall be hanged
from the gallows oh so high,
And the false nurse shall be burned
in the fire close by....

Wholesome fun for the whole family! I often sing the songs to my girls. And also, Maddy Prior's style of singing, clear as a silver bell and utterly lacking in the tremolo so perniciously favored by most sopranos, is teh shizznit.

Demon Lover

Zoë and I have been discussing dinosaurs and feathers and the likelihoods of different possibilities.

I think T-Rex is red. Because red is the color of DANGER!

Zoë's favorite song, these days, is "Demon Lover", off of Steeleye Span's Commoner's Crown. She can sing the chorus, winningly, with intermittent accuracy, as 4-years of age goes:

I'll show you where the white lilies grow
On the banks of Italy
I'll show you where the white fishes swim
At the bottom of the sea
Seven ships all on the sea
The eighth brought me to land
With four and twenty mariners
And music on every hand

She set her foot upon the ship
No mariners could behold
The sails were of the shining silk
The masts of beaten gold

That's the spirit!

Euclidean Literary Criticism

My earworm du jour is "Farewell Ride", off Beck's Guero. I've been listening to it for months, but somehow this one took months to burrow in. Nice Tom Waits-y chunkiness, plus pedal steel and signature soaring Beckish chorus. But the lyrics have induced in me - not a negative, but a distinctly Euclidean reaction:

Two white horses in a line
Two white horses in a line
Two white horses in a line
Carrying me to my burying ground

Some need diamonds, some need love
Some need cards, some need luck
Some need dollar bills lining their clothes
All I need is
All I need is

Two white horses in a line
Two white horses in a line
Two white horses in a line
Taking me for my farewell ride ...

But Euclid's first postulate teaches that any given two white horses define a line. A perhaps related lyrical conundrum from Fountains of Wayne, "Know You Well", off of Out of State Plates:

Out of the cold November
Still as a passport picture
Still as a passport picture
Still as a passport picture
Still as a passport picture

Is there a technical term for this device? Exemplifying a concept by citing an instance that no one would naturally hit on as exemplary, although it technically qualifies? So that the mind is provoked to consider what it would be to find this thing to be not just an example of that but a paradigm of that. Another example. Robert Musil: "As real as houses in the morning".

Friiiiiday Random Ten

1. Moonchild Including The Dream and The Illusion/King Crimson
2. There Goes The Fear/Doves
3. Tripping Out/Curtis Mayfield
4. What In The World/David Bowie
5. Don't Take Everybody To Be Your Friend/Joseph Spence (from Real Bahamas, which I cannot possibly recommend enough. The little hairs on your arm will stand up when you hear "I Bid You Goodnight, by Edith Pinder et al. (there's a Windows Media sample at the link.) Especially if you only know it from the Incredible String Band version, called A Very Cellular Song. There's a sample available from this too, and it's great, in a hippie way. I can hear my mom's teeth grinding all the way from America, because she loathes and abominates the Incredible String Band, for various reasons.))
6. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)/Pink Floyd
7. The Pointer Sisters/ Going Down Slowly
8. Kokomo/The Beach Boys (?!!!?????!)
9. Lucky Lisp/Morrissey
10. Girl Inform Me/The Shins

Wow, that really was random. Bonus Track 11: Feelin' Satisfied/Boston. Yeah, baby. Feel the power of RAWK! "You know it's now or never, take a chance on rock-n-roll!!" [cue handclaps made with wooden blocks, quadruple tracked vocals, and some blazing guitars!] I'm not just "pretending" to "like" Boston in an "ironic" way people. I actually fucking love Boston.

But why is Kokomo, one of the worst songs ever, lurking like a deadly serpent in my iTunes, ready to strike at any time? Yet I feel a strange reluctance to trash it. What if I wish to use it to illustrate a point sometime? In that spirit, I link to a great pandagon thread nominating Oasis' Wonderwalls as the worst song of all time. (But they're just doing that to piss jedmunds off.) Controversy rages in the comments, but this guy nails it:

Friday Random Ten: What's On The Little Computer Edition?

Just this week Zoë was complaining about this computer, "but there's NO SPEAKERS!!" Luckily, I can read. This is like a "what might have been" playlist. Well, you can sort of hear it.

1. The Wife Of The Soldier/Steeleye Span
2. California Dreaming/Me First And The Gimme Gimmes
3. Glittering Girl/The Who
4. Wild World/Jimmy Cliff
5. Can't Help Thinking About Me/David Bowie
6. Tornado of Souls/Megadeth
7. Lonely In Your Nightmare/Duran Duran
8. Non Coeur S'ouvre a ta Voix/Saint-Saens
9. Electricity/Midnight Star
10. Ni Batteri/Sigur Ros

When You Finished, Choke It/'Cause I Want To Smoke It

I think we should all draw a libertarian moral from these wise lyrics via Ry Cooder (on Chicken Skin Music) (also, if you don't listen to Ry right now you are a fool. My dad is an amazing 12-string bottleneck slide blues guitarist, which has given me a unique perspective on the sheer genius of Ry Cooder. F'realz.):

Can't Get It Out of My Head

Got the new Fountains of Wayne album for X-Mas; now I've caught two earworms off it. "Maureen", little powerpop ditty. And their grunged out live cover of ELO's "Can't Get It Out of My Head". But some of the songs are sort of sappy.

Speaking of mining 70's gold, we're listening to a lot of Darkness these days. Urge Overkill have gotta be saying: we were a decade too soon. To make matters worse, the Darkness snagged the hook for "Sister Havana" - give or take a note - in "Get Your Hands Off My Woman" . (I couldn't figure out what the lyrics were until I checked online: " Octoped, you've got six hands too many/And you can't keep them to yourself" Ooooh. PZ Myers would love it it.)

Presumably you've seen that Darkness video. For that matter, the Fountains of Wayne video is good too. The David Hasselhoff video is only so-so.

Every Mother's Son

Is Poly Styrene really still a Hari Krishna? Whatever, she's amazing. Also, can I put this album on my notional wish list?

You'll Have To Go Sideways

Robyn Hitchcock in the Guardian. Never knew he was in the new Manchurian Candidate. I used to be a big Soft Boys fan. Underwater Moonlight is, like, the best album of 1980.

Mendooozzaaaa!

K-Lo just quoted the Clash song "White Man in Hammersmith Palais". That's so wrong. SO. WRONG. Seriously, this weird pain just started behind my eye. Make her stop. Was there no apposite Wham! lyric?

Breaking News: David Brooks Making Lazy, Slap-Dash Assumptions; Penning Trite, Innacurate Columns

You really have to go read this Slate article eviscerating Bobo Brooks. Seriously, I think he woke up this morning, went to the bathroom, and was like, "I didn't used to have an asshole there. Is that new"?

Problem: Brooks' first example of "French rap lyrics today" is, well, 13 years old. The song in question, "Brigitte (Femme du Flic)" appeared on the 1992 album Pourqoui Tant de Haine, by the long defunct duo Ministère A.M.E.R. (The group's rappers, Passi and Stormy Bugsy, have gone on to successful solo careers.) Moreover, Brooks' research seems to consist of reading two articles in conservative-identified American periodicals. I suspect that Brooks' source is Theodore Dalrymple's article, "The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris," which appeared in the Autumn 2002 edition of the City Journal. Dalrymple provides the exact translation that Brooks cites as "Bitter Minstry's … best-known lyric"—though the lyric is not so well-known that (based on a Google search) anyone else appears to have ever translated it into English.

Now there's nothing wrong with Brooks using Dalrymple's translation, or even relying on his ideas. But isn't Brooks implying some broader knowledge of the topic at hand? Look again at his citation: "Most of the lyrics can't be reprinted in this newspaper, but you can get a sense of them from, say, a snippet from a song from Bitter Ministry." That "say" suggests that Brooks has any number of examples at his fingertips. The truth is, it's probably one of only two French rap lyrics he's ever heard—or, rather, read. The other he cites is the invective of "Mr. R," who, needless to say, the French know as Monsieur R. And lo and behold, a quick Google search turns up "France's Homegrown Gangstas," from the Sept. 28, 2005, issue of the Weekly Standard (where Brooks is an editor), which features the exact same English translation of lyrics from Monsieur R's "Fransse."

Ooooooooowwww. That had to hurt. Him, Tierney...and the only women columnist on the Times editorial page is Maureen Dowd? They could have Belle Waring for much less money, too. Much less. Of course, with the new TimeSelect thing no one would read my stuff anymore, so it's a trade-off...

Frrrrriday Random 10!

Boy, I sure have been slack on the blogging lately Friday Random Ten:

1. Tripping Out/Curtis Mayfield (?!)
2. Pulsewidth/Aphex Twin
3. Cairo/Santo and Johnny
4. O Girlfriend/Weezer
5. I Almost Forgot/Matthew Sweet
6. Get Ready (12'' mix)/Delroy Wilson (From Darker Than Blue: Soul From Jamtown 1973-1980, which you whould definitely buy. It's got a reggae cover of Randy Newman's Baltimore!)
7. The Night Hank Williams Came To Town/Johnny Cash
8. Delphium/Aphex Twin (iTunes gets into these moods, you know)
9. Underwater/Sugarplastic
10. Wind Up (Quad Version)/Jethro Tull

Well, that was weird. Not a lot of flow.

You Got Me Tripping Out

Do you guys think that during the taping of the Curtis Mayfield song "Tripping Out" there was a dude in the sound booth putting his finger into the side of his cheek and then popping it out? On the back-beat, for the whole song? It sure fucking sounds like it.

I Will Look Repulsive While I Mangle My Guitar

Hey, y'all should go see my sister be in a video! (Click on the Renee Heartfelt one. It takes like 1,000,000 years to load, but it's worth it if you want to see some blurry pix of my sister. She's, um, the hot chick in the video, but you knew that.)

There's a cheesy atom bomb explosion
All the big groups use
Atomic light will shine
Through an old venetian blind
Making patterns on your face,
Then it cuts to outer space
With its billions & billions &
Billions & billions and
Be in my video
Darling, every night
Everyone in cable-land
Will say you're 'outa-site'
You can show your legs
While you're getting in the car, then
I will look repulsive
While I mangle my guitar

Frank Zappa--Be In My Video

It's Still Friday on The West Coast of America Friday Random 10

Well, for me it's more of the 2:30 in the afternoon on Saturday Friday Random 10, but we'll just let that slide.

1. Teen Age Riot/Sonic Youth
2. Aretha, Sing One For Me/George Jackson (from Hi Times: Hi Records the R&B Years, which I recommend highly)
3. Ain't No Room/The Vines
4. In The Yacht/The High Llamas
5. You Could Be Born Again/The Free Design
6. The Groove EP (Vocal Mix)/Astrojazz
7. Where It's At/Beck
8. Before They Make Me Run/The Rolling Stones; strangely enough this might just be my favorite Stones song. Certainly one of the all-time greats, with that sweet, sweet can't really-sing Keith vocals thing happening (just like in Torn and Frayed). "I wasn't looking real good but I was feeling real well." Truer words.
9. Count Five or Six/Cornelius
10. In Amber/Love as Laughter. A good band, my friend Daniel sent me the CD recently, because he's so great. Plus, they're as featured on the OC. You might think that's a deal-killer, but just think, the Guided By Voices song Teenage FBI was on Buffy, right? Right?

Friday Random 10

God, the temptation to massage these things is just overwhelming. I will remain pure, even if an Oingo Boingo song comes on (that's John's, btw.)

1. Reader Meets Author/Morrissey, 9/10
2. Dia 36/Os Mutantes, 7/10, Os Mutantes can't go wrong
3. Let Me Take You Home Tonight/Boston, 5/10; it's teh rock
4. Intergalacticthrowdown/Nightmares on Wax 4/10, let's all mellow out at Ibiza
5. Wash The Rain/The Bees, 7/10
6. Grumpus/Lambchop 4/10, not bad; let's simmer down
7. Moogie/Earnest Saint Laurent 6/10, moogtastic
8. Baby Blue/Badfinger, 8/10, this song totally rocks
9. Kitchen/The Lemonheads 3/10, some weak power pop. Did I even tell you I stood in line to buy dope with Evan Dando one time? At the Laundromat? And Courtney Love was there?Shit, this song is still weak.
10. Take Care/Big Star, 10/10; don't fuck with Third-Sister-Lovers. It doesn't get any better.

Total: 6.3.

UPDATE: the next song was Beck's "Girl"; 10,000 bonus points! Out of the park.

Moment of Levity: Extra-Random Sunday Random Ten

1. Narc/Interpol
2. Never Going Back Again/Fleetwood Mac
3. Teenage Head/Flamin' Groovies
4. Young, Gifted and Black/Bob and Marcia (The Trojan Story)
5. Detroit Rock City/Kiss
6. Why Don't You Love Me/Hank Williams
7. The Exorcist/Hellacopters
8. Going Back to Cali/LL Cool J
9. Compared to What/Roberta Flack
10. Ah Singapore/Shonen Knife (?!)

Friday Random Ten

It's always tough to be honest here, but let's hit the ff button...
1. Beats To The Rhyme/Run-DMC
2. Why Can't You Be Nicer To Me/The White Stripes
3. Horse Tears/Goldfrapp
4. Lifeforms/The Future Sound Of London
5. Moogie/Ernest Saint Laurent
6. The Shrine of St. Cecilia/The Harptones
7. London/The Smiths
8. That's Life/Frank Sinatra
9. Have A Drink On Me/AC/DC
10. Turn Blue/Iggy Pop
Hey, that wasn't so bad. The Sister Double Happiness song didn't turn up till 11, so it didn't count.

Jah Is I Guiding Star

While I'm on the whole recommending things tip, "Jah Is I Guiding Star" by Tappa Zukie & The Aggrovators is a fine song. Also, "Ask", by The Smiths. Thanks, iTunes.

But I've Got These Amazing Sunglasses

Do you want to read about Bono being a total f%#ing prat? Yeah, you do. Editorial comments by Colby Cosh:

We were offered $23 million for just the music to "Where the Streets Have No Name." We thought we could do a lot of good with that money. Give it away. But if a show is a little off, and there's a hole, that's the one song we can guarantee that God will walk through the room as soon as we play it. [Too bad for the Sudanese orphans and whatnot, but we've got a career to think about.]