This, aside from the They Might Be Giants post I did, will probably be the least cool song I'll ever put up. And that's saying a lot.
CAKE ~ Rock 'N' Roll Lifestyle (Woodman Edit)
I've been playing this one for years. It's a solid 80s r&b workhorse that basically never fails and makes everyone happy, a la Rock Steady or Let It Whip. Always!
I can't explain why it works, I think it has that Golden Triangle thing that fires off certain synapses in people's brains and suddenly they're like "oh yeah, I love hearing songs about people whose livelihoods are compromised by vicious, untrue rumors!"
What rumors, you ask? Why, merely these:
*Tina is a loose woman. We know so, because some guy went down on her.
*Rumors are started by the jealous people.
*Michael Jackson is gay, due to his ability to dance.
*The unnamed narrator himself physically looks like a rumor.
And, at the conclusion of this loosely-strung together diatribe, our man adopts a slightly overly-reactionary way to deal with rumors (write your congressman, tell him to enact a law that allows you to literally murder rumor-starters).
Timex Social Club ~ Rumors (12" Mix)
TRACK:
Wang Chung ~ Dancehall Days RMX (Victor Flores Edit)
IN ONE SENTENCE:
An all-time favorite slow-burner, effortlessly conjuring all the glam of the 80s without any of its corniness (even with that SNL sax solo!), with the best drum echo/production I've ever heard.
ANYTHING ELSE?
There's like 4 million versions of this song. Lamely enough I found out about this by playing Grand Theft Auto in one of those "I simply MUST have this song!" moments. Also, this version starts a little weird b/c on the 12 there's like 40 open bars at the beginning and I started recording it to get an 8 bar intro... not because I didn't know that Serato had cue points, but b/c when I used to play it out I would put a sticker to start there, and after taking it off it left such schmutz over the grooves that the opening doesn't play clean anymore.
I was DJing last Friday and the girl before me played this song, and then just when the drumbreak came in she faded it out and started another song -- I couldn't believe it! I like Different Class a lot and am only 30% on my His 'N' Hers, so I had definitely never heard this Pulp track before but even so I was like "you're cutting it off NOW? This is when it's getting amazing!" It's kind of Girlfriend In A Coma-y but way more overproduced because it's glammy glitzy Pulp. IRREGARDLESS I've been playing it a lot on my iTunes recently (btw- iTunes Genius more like iTunes Gayness) and when it comes to the drumbreak I turn it way up and just pound my fist in the air. You can ask my roommate, he's seen me do it no less than 3x today.
Pulp ~ Death Goes To The Disco
*plus it's on eBay right now on 12 but then I gotta ask the age old question of whether or not it's worth paying literally $30 just to get this one song. Mmmmmmm no.
Guest Entry By Kyle
hi folks, when i am not perusing facebook for inspirational quotations, i take the time to consider things.
Consider Boonghee:
"Boonghee is a new dance music that there is no specific rhythm to. It's a gathering of grooves. Boonghee is onomatopoeia. You feel it in your ass. Lead by the pillow-padded-mallet-hit deep bass resonance and high-pitched hand slaps of the Udu clay drum of West Africa, Boonghee Music is very circular and profound. Something like a phenomenon, and somewhat a mixture of minimal hip hop, Big Black hand drumming, and broken-beat, Boonghee Music is all organic, with no electronics, save for the recording apparatus. The colors atop the drums are vast and streaming and can come from any kind of instrument; primarily they are percussive. A few in the collection used for these recordings are dusun'goni, sintir, thumb pianos, harmonium, batajon, talking drums, dumbeks, and flutes. Bringing this music to life are two incredibly gifted drummer/percussionist /composers from Chicago that have been running together since they were 14. Adam Rudolph & Hamid Drake met in a drum shop on the East Side of Chicago and later took classes together with local A.ssociation for the A.dvancement of C.reative M.usicians elders." -easterndev.com
Hey who likes to dance to consistent rhythm anymore right? Thats our fathers dance music, gosh darnit! Thankfully these forward thinking souls are pushing the envelope of world music. Theyre bringing it to us! I mean I am sure WIRE magaizne is salivating for a blurb. From the fertile musical soils of Chicago, yet another antiseptic genre with a mission statement and direct claims to profundity sprouts into form. Its the Boonghee baby. Yes, you all have heard this correctly, Boonghee, not BONGhee, for i am sure these dear gentlemen have enough trouble shaking their image as filth encrusted, weed drained burn outs.*
*(Now if you think this commentary was provoked by a silly name without actually hearing said music and just an empty excercise in cyniscim, for shame, I dare say, and let the unsoiled reputation of the21gunsalute.blogspot.com be my witness. Upon further research these guys seem to be pretty stand-up, if tha_god Yusef Lateef rolls with them - well then sheeit.)
In celebration of my all-new peroxidecomics site and my release of issue #3, I'm throwing down jams and giving away free comics tonight at Trophy Bar. Guest DJing with me is Rok One, and we will be delivering fire. Come through!
I have no stories about growing up with this song, or any Back In Da Day reflections. All I know is that I really really like it, and also if you YT the video, he dances exactly like I would.
Al B Sure ~ Night And Day
Here's one of my favorite albums ever. Archie Bevins turned me on to this when I first moved to NY, and he would listen to it so often that he learned the French lyrics phonetically (not unlike the way in which he learned the Torah at his Bar Mitzvah). At first my appreciation for it was typically idiotic: "yo there's a Beatnuts AND a De La sample, son!!!" But soon that all fell to the wayside.
A lot can be said for Jean-Claude Vannier's arrangements -- they comprise 90% of the listening experience and are pretty much the reason Air and Jarvis Cocker and everyone else with ears jock this album so much. Plus Beck's "Paper Tiger" is the most blatant rip-off of the lead track I've ever heard.
But the core of this album's amazingness is Serge's personality as literally an insane maniac.
Here is a man who:
*lost his virginity as a teenager to a model in an all-black room in Salvador Dali's house
*told Whitney Houston in no unclear terms he wanted to fuck her on television (this is when Bobby Brown was still smashing away on congos like a rabid maniac I'm assuming)
*fucked Jane Birkin AND Brigitte Bardot
*didn't quit smoking or drinking after a doctor told him "look, if you don't stop smoking and drinking we're literally going to have to amputate your leg"
*had about seventeen hundred songs about piss/shit
*created a Tony Clifton-esque alter-ego for himself so he could both continue to write songs about piss/shit, and act like a drunken lout in interviews and be all "oh that was my alter-ego, it's Art stop hating"
*when he died, had throngs of weeping Frenchmen/women clogging the streets wailing in soul-shattering horror
*basically justified every positive and negative stereotype there ever was about the French
I don't really want to get too much into why else this album is so great, then this post will devolve into me saying shit like "I lose myself in Serge's impenetrable lyrics like a voyeur in a foreign land" etc. The point is, this album is essentially seduction in music form (but if you throw it on during sexy time I highly recommend taking out the Jane Birkin squealing like an infantile stuck pig track), which is all the more relevant if you consider what passes for seduction these days.
Serge Gainsbourg ~ Histoire De Melody Nelson
*via the fringe (no, not the fridge)
*anti-bonus: There's also a hideous 70s video for the album that you can YT but I really don't recommend it.
I don't know when it happened but I realized I can't handle "deep disco." I like what I've heard like "More I Get More I Want," but I really just like disco lite or something. Similar to how I prefer Baluchis Indian food even though it's totally white person Indian food. Actually I think that out of all the music I put up my favorite is still straight up pop music... Call me a sucker for the perfect 2 1/2 minute pop song on 45, that will always trump any house, disco or hip-hop song in my book. Anyways, here's 2 disco jams that I like a lot... they're not super rare or anything, but I heart them:
Unlimited Touch ~ Searching To Find The One
A good example of early 80s Prelude disco, it has that in-transition-from-analog-to-digital feel and the open riff always makes me bop up and down. The break is also siiiiiiiick.
Michael Wycoff ~ You've Got It Coming
The Zhane sample guy makes other good songs!
*bonus!
Lorraine Johnson ~ The More I Get, More I Want
Starring my buddy Simon... for fans of Tim & Eric and having your mind melted.
So Mitch Hedburg's first posthumous CD was released recently... I've been a giant fan of his ever since I first heard him last year and I think I quote him at least once every other hour of every waking moment of my life. He rules, he's just a guy that tells jokes, and most of them are really simple which is why they always get me. Let's hope he pulls a 2Pac and releases a new one every year, as well as a Duets album, a Remix album, a movie with Nicholas Cage and a book of poetry.
Mitch Hedburg ~ Do You Believe In Gosh
*via Lucid Media
Speaking of Michna. His alter ego, Egg Foo Young, is DJing at the newest most awesome weekly ever tomorrow. Who the hell has a weekly these days? Oh we do. And we made a nice little promo mix for you. Guess which songs are mine?
Flashing Lights Mix
DJ Ayres + Nick Catchdubs + Jubilee
Funky Green Dogs - Fired Up (DJ Ayres "Pre Dave Nada" demo edit)
Maurice - This is Acid (Radio mix)
Salt n Pepa vs Wink - Push It Higher (DJ Ayres Crooklyn Clan mash)
Matty C - Sooo Real
Puzique - Don't Go
Dirty South and Axwell - Open Your Heart
Paul Johnson - Feel My MF Bass
Douster - This Shit (Jim Sharp 'This is That' remix)
Alan Braxe - Addicted
A-Trak - Say Whoa (Boys Noize Remix)
Henrik Schwarz, Ame & Dixon - D.P.O.M.B.
Lil Bo Tweak - Dub Be Good
Roland Clark & The Montanas - Music Talking (Fred Falke Remix)
Nacho Lovers - Acid Life (Eli Escobar Remix)
DJ Sega - Brighter Days
Christian Martin - Elephant Fight (Justin Martin's Jungle Remix)
Claude Von Stroke - Blow The Whistler (Hookerz & Blow Edit)
Jesse Rose & Sinden - Me Mobile (Duckbeats Ringtone Riddim)
Hijack - Party People
Human Resource - Dominator (Hostage Ravemix)
Lil Mama - No Music (Starkey Refix)
Bassbin Twins - Woppa
Rico Tubbs - Born To Bounce
Coki - Spongebob
Look at that young handsome man! I remember when he was younger and less handsome. Now he just looks like the dude from FYC. Things are shaping up for Michna, what with his Jandek 7" hoarding/drink ticket scamming finally going to something productive, ie making music.
A little while ago Ghostly International did a collabo with Adult Swim and they put out a compilation CD of electronic music that you can still download for free here. Michna's track "Triple Chrome Dipped" kicks off the CD, and you can also watch an animated video for it.
Anyways he sent me an advance of his new album "Magic Monday" and it's very good. Kind of an eclectic downtempo album sequenced like a mixtape but with many beat styles and little you got Michna'd surprises. The album is produced incredibly cleanly considering how many weird little unclean moments there are, plus of course we all know Michna plays trombone in ska bands so prepare yourselves for the brass. It's weird b/c there's been a few articles about the album, and I feel like none of the writers really "get it," they're all like "this is music for driving around at night to," which basically says nothing about it at all. I put it on while drawing the other night and listened to the whole thing like 5x and I still like it.
"Triple Chrome" is available for download on that Ghostly Swim link above, and I wanted to give away my favorite track "Bumper Car Masters" but Michna wants the push to go to the single and another track "Swiss Glide" so here you go:
Michna ~ Swiss Glide
ps- I'm going to sneak "Bumper Car Masters" into the imeem playlist so you guys can hear it
"THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING INDEPENDENT MUSIC"
TRACK:
Plunky & Oneness Of Juju ~ Every Way But Loose
IN ONE SENTENCE:
The chunkiest disco jam I've ever heard -- handclaps, epic bassline, drum-crazed breakdown, this one pretty much has it all.
ANYTHING ELSE?
There's a Larry Levan mix of it too, that American Athlete and Beat Electric put up on their sites. In a rare instance of Larry Levan snubbing, I prefer the OG version.
I just burned a few records to mp3 yesterday so I thought I'd throw one up here... It's the radio mix of "Carhoppers" by Positive K that as far as I know was only on the 12. It's the one with the Best Of My Love sample (aka greatest overplayed song ever), and outshines by far the clunky weighed-down album version. Actually I was thinking that I'm alone in this but I'll also go on record as liking the remix for Special Ed's The Mission over the OG too. Y'heard it correct!!!
Anyways I could find almost no information on Positve K except of course from Stretch Armstrong's entry about him which I found pretty interesting. That, plus this dude "HeRBaN LyRiX" who put up Positive K's album on his site. Reading through the description that "HeRBaN LyRiX" wrote I realized that dude straight up plagiarized his description from... Wikipedia. After a little research, I found out it's a little more embarrassing than that:
HeRBaN LyRiX:
I`m not sure if Positive K is (or was at the time) a 5 %`er, but his debut album definitely had a balance of Gods & Earths themes blended in with some GaNGSTa~iSM & PoP~CuLTuRe based moments.
Wikipedia:
His debut full-length, released on Island Records, balanced Nation of Gods and Earths themes with gangsta-isms and more pop-based moments.
Andy Kellman, from Allmusic:
His debut full-length, released on Island subsidiary 4th & Broadway, balanced Nation of Islam themes with gangsta-isms and more pop-based moments.
Um... so I guess it's safe to say that Positive K's full-length apparently balanced Nation of Islam themes with gangsta-isms and some more pop-based moments?
Yeesh (unless HeRBaN LyRiX is actually himself Andy Kellman)
Every time I think of Fiona Apple this is what I think:
There's this like really beautiful young bride, like 22 or something and she marries this Wall Street guy and lives in his gigantic mansion all day long, pursuing her various pretentious pursuits (poetry, piano, spending his entire paycheck on pretty clothes) while the guy is out all day making money and cheating on her. Every day she sits in the enormous parlor of their mansion, getting loaded on really good wine, getting drunker and angrier and stewing on her sorry lot in life. By the time he gets home she hits him on some "I know you're cheating on me YOU BASTARD let me smell your dick why did I ever get married to you in the first place YOU RUINED MY LIFE I HATE YOU I need another $5000 for shoes tomorrow YOU THINK YOU'RE SO FUCKING SMART" type shit, then collapses into a trembling, weeping wreck.
Every single Fiona Apple song is basically from the point of view of this person.
Here's the OG version of Extraordinary Machine, the one that was produced by Jon Brion. Jon Brion doesn't generally really do much from what I can gather -- he did the When The Pawn album which is really good and put out a solo album of dense Beatlesy piano pop, and I think I read somewhere that he had a weekly gig at some LA bar where he just plays covers all night long. Sounds like someone's not living up to their potential! He also did music for a bunch of Paul Thomas Anderson films (including Punch Drunk Love who stars the chick he was going out/broke up with).
Anyways, this album was supposed to be her bigtime follow up but the label was all "where's the single, we're not putting this out, time to call up one of Dr Dre's ghost producers MIKE MOTHAFUCKIN ELIZONDO (???) to put some hip hop shine to these nonsensical maudlin weepy ballads!" and of course shelved the album indefinitely. Not unlike Pinkerton or Feeler, this album became a rallying point for extremely nerdy and annoying Fiona Apple fans for a long time afterwards.
In any event, I like it. I still think When The Pawn is a better album, but you can just buy that on iTunes, and a bunch of songs on this version are way different than the official one (except for the title track and I think one other one):
Fiona Apple ~ Extraordinary Machine (OG Jon Brion version)
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