I was looking online to download the legendary (yes, I said legendary, just be glad I didn't capitalize it) They Might Be Giants concert in Chicago from 6/27/92. It floats around in bootleg form and among Nerdus Cognizantus it's known as Dr Spock's Backup Band. It was recorded for radio, and if you've never heard it, the Johns step up their game considerably. Augmenting the already stellar band they had at that point with horns (a trick they would take to the studio when recording what I think is their best album John Henry), they blaze through a collection of hits, fan favorites, and Deep Album Cuts (for some reason capitalized) and the result is a gigantic nerdfest orgy of wonderful beautiful uplifting pop music that literally gave me shivers when I first heard it.
You can save your mocking words, internet!
If this is not your cup of tea (very possible) I suggest you move on down the line, I have plenty of BDP and Nas tracks on this blog for you to DL too (I have no BDP nor Nas tracks on this blog). If you, like me, heard this a long time ago and have been searching for it, here you go. I dug up my old tape of the show (Maxell Type II son!) and ripped it to my computer, then ran it through this program that minimizes tape hiss. I am nothing if not a conscientious nerd! TMBG never commercially released this, so I imagine it's kosher to put up, but if not someone holler at me and I'll take it down.
DR. SPOCK'S BACKUP BAND
Setlist:
Spider Intro
I Palindrome I
Twistin'
Particle Man
The Guitar
The Statue Got Me High
She's Actual Size
The Famous Polka
Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes
Whistling In The Dark
32 Footsteps
We Want A Rock
Birdhouse In Your Soul
Don't Let's Start
Dig My Grave
Istanbul
Kiss Me Son Of God
Your Racist Frioend
Frankenstein
Lie Still Little Bottle
Someone Keeps Moving My Chair
ps- I'm going on vacation til the 3rd, so posting might be spotty. 4AM Jess are you out there? More Pitbull posts please
The new Dept of Eagles album is getting crazy love from virtually every online Year's End list, mostly because the single No One Does It Like You is kind of a perfect beautiful pop song. Aside from cropping up on mixtapes and mash-ups it is now making several daily appearances IN MY MIND. Since Kyle so completely clowned me in the comments of the last entry, I will not post it here, but rather will post an earlier track by them that I also love:
Department of Eagles ~ Family Romance
Last night I took the train home all drunk. I realize that when I'm drunk all I want to listen to is super saturated ultra poppy pop, sort of like drinking condensed milk. Just give me the sweet warm sugar of vocal harmonies and if there are some shittily produced 90s guitars in there too then that's double good times. On the train ride home this is what I listened to:
GNR Don't Cry
GNFnR Knockin On Heaven's Door
Meat Loaf I Would Do Anything For Love
Mamas & Papas California Dreamin x5
Then this morning I was still a little drunk and listened to like 7 Queen songs. Anyways, it reminded me of an epic little jam called HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN.
Beatles OG
This is obviously the best song on the White Album. Even excluding the fact that the White Album is the Beatles' Tusk, this song is like 3 songs forced into one, and the whole thing's 2 and a half minutes. There is a high potential for karaoke eggsellence at the end, when you have the option of screeching "AND I FEEL MY FINGERS ON YOOO' TRIGGA!" omg I'm getting a rokes boner just thinking about it.
Breeders
The Breeders cover is pretty true to the original, with less saccharine Beatles harmony, replaced with Storve Albono's super dry drum production, but no less harrowing a listening experience.
BONUS SHITTY VERSIONS (of which there are many)
So the band of cretinous boobs known as Phish commit the unpardonable injustice of ruining a classic album as their tongue in cheek hilarious Halloween concerts. Here's a clip of Tree Anastajius shredding his sweet axe and floating away to Cloud City, and by shredding his sweet axe I mean masturbating and spilling his seed on his stomach, and by his stomach I mean your face and mine. I apologize in advance for linking to a live Phish video, I'm basically Phish-rolling you, but it's kind of worth it to see the grotesque tree troll that is Trey Ganjastageemo writhing like the snakeman he is in a completely unself-conscious manner.
Also Tori Blamos does another unforgivable cover from her Strange Little Girls album. I can normally defend Tori Haymos but in this case I really can't. It's almost as bad as her cover of Stan.
that the drums from "Hold On" = the break from "Livin It Up (Friday Night)"
DUH
I have no idea what the story is with the record I'm putting up today. It's supposedly the Peter Black reel to reel mix from 1987 of David Byrne and Brian Eno's Jezebel Spirit, but I think that's disputable. What is not disputable is the pure fire hot ass-kickingosity of this version. The original LP version is much lauded for its early use of samples, insane loops etc which is true for the most part but guess what, My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts = a bad album. Sorry everyone who writes for a music magazine, blog, and British people, but it's true. 
Brian Eno by himself is rad. I like cross-dressing, lipstick-smearing glampires as much as the next guy, and his ambient stuff like Music For Airports is good, though I'd never actually listen to it. It's boring. Give me Lindsey Buckingham screeching like an insane maniac any day of the week. As for David Byrne, obvs he has a rad voice and is equally a weird dude, and shitting on Talking Heads is pretty much a fruitless endeavor. I have no idea how Talking Heads is not on Stuff White People Like, but it should be, right next to Radiohead and Ryan Adams.
Anyways here's the Peter Black version -- normally his edits/remixes are pretty solid and this one is no exception. The flipside of the record I burned this from looks like this which makes me think it might be a Harvey black cock edit? Everyone likes Harvey right? British people, are we cool now?
Brian Eno & David Byrne ~ Jezebel Spirit (Peter Black Mix)
I finally finished my Xmas shopping. I actually enjoy shopping for presents, because I like to spend money duh. In fact, the post-Buying Things cigarette is usually as satisfying as the Just Finished My Meal cigarette, way better than the Holy Shit That Guido Just Tried To Kick My Ass Even Though, Let's Be Perfectly Honest, He Could Snap Me In Half Like A Dry Twig Because I'm Literally One Half His Body Weight cigarette. Anyways, here's an Xmas present for you from the 21 Gun Salute, it's 3 songs that I like a lot and have just burned from vinyl. Here they are:
DAVID BROMBERG ~ SHARON (AKA the sample for Johnny Ryall)
Kyle called me out on trying to pawn this record off on him in the past, but the truth is I would never do that because I actually really like this song. In fact, looking at the cover made me realize that once I take down my Pink Wall I'm going to put up The Wall Of Hideous Jews, which will feature not only smiling David Bromberg, but also Bob Dylan, Woody Allen and Leonard Cohen (I still have to eBay a Lenny Kravitz record to fill out the rest).
KENNY DOPE ~ HITTIN THE BOTTLE
This was one of the first house records I ever got. Back then I had to have a clear and direct line of reasoning that somehow connected the house record to hip hop for me to buy it and convince myself I wasn't gay (because of course only gays listen to house). This track is super mellow and cocktail classy, and I was like "it's a Gil Scott-Heron sample! He may be a cokehead but he's definitely not gay!" (actual literal thoughts)
WILLIE COLON ~ SET FIRE TO ME (INFERNO DUB)
This song is so fucking smooth it makes me want to shave my body of all hair and then jump into a vat of moisturizer and then hang myself because I'm still not smooth enough. Plus it's a proto-house/Loft classic which always looks good on the resumé. Sorry it's a little crunchy but I got it for cheap in tha dolla crate.
MERRY XMAS HOMIES (3 track party pack)
*you need stuffit or winzip
I threw this together last week, it's a bunch of songs I've been listening to over the past few weeks...
IT REALLY MOVED ME
trax
Low Motion Disco :: The Low Murderer Is Out At Night (RMX)
Lindsey Buckingham :: Slow Dancing
Stevie Nicks :: Stand Back
Sam Taylor-Wood :: I'm In Love With A German Film Star (RMX)
Simian Mobile Disco :: I Got This Down RMX
Yazoo :: Situation (RMX)
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Darkness :: I Believe In A Thing Called Love
Wire :: I Am The Fly
Gang Of 4 :: I Love A Man In Uniform
Lisette Melendez :: Together Forever
Groove Armada :: Love Sweet Sound
Alexander Robotnick :: Problèmes D'Amour (Demo)
Juan Maclean = Good
1. I tend to like the melodies in their songs a lot, and the tracks sometimes are composed very densely. They can have lots of little things go on, like an Ewan Pearson rmx or a well-produced Ninja Tune song.
2. The OG Give Me Every Little Thing video is super-cruisey. Always a plus.
Juan Maclean = Bad
1. Their music is sometimes pretty boring. I don't need to hear 14 minutes of Dance With Me or Happy House.
Here's an oldie that I forgot about til Cosmo dropped it at WMC last year:
The Juan Maclean ~ Give Me Every Little Thing (Cajmere RMX)
I just started watching the documentary about the trainwreck that is Britney Spears' life. She is a prize mess. It's remarkably well done and very empathetic, most likely b/c it was put together by a non-MTV production staff. I was watching it here on the MTV site, but of course the show is broken down thus:
1:56 of contentetc etc
14 second ad for Britney's new fragrance
2:14 of content
14 second ad for Britney's new fragrance
00:56 of content
14 second ad for Britney's new fragrance
Ultimately the viewing effect is very disjointed, not just b/c you can only watch it in tiny chunks, but because the point of the whole show is to humanize her and be like "see? She's not crazy, it's just her life that's crazy -- this would happen to you too! She is just like anyone else who's thrown into an undealable-with situation!" So you're like "OK I'm watching Britney without make up, crying or joking around with her friend or doing some mundane task, I suppose she's a real human being after all," and then once that kind of sinks in you're suddenly smacked in the face with a quickly edited, 14 second highly stylized ad for Britney that basically says "HEY THERE MERE MORTAL! Want to be more like Britney Spears, noted Goddess? Well guess what YOU CAN'T! She is BEYOND you! Beyond art, beyond commerce, beyond EVERYTHING! The closest you could possibly hope to get to her is by buying her fragrance at Macy's!"
So, a little disjointed, message-wise.
Anyways, it's really fascinating. She talks a little about K Fed and JT or whatever but the best parts come when you realize she CAN'T GO ANYWHERE OR DO ANYTHING unless her Vin Diesel bodyguard has cleared it with security first. Plus, a hatchet-faced, time-ravaged Sarah Jessica Parker also makes a cameo:
Whoops that's Madonna LOL
Before he was the living embodiment of every negative stereotype people have about homosexuals, Elton John recorded this perfect song:
Elton John ~ Love Song
File under: twee, Donovan, Virginia Astley, Blackbird, dying of dysentery
I guess this is a 40 yr old rumour, but Stevie Nicks had roadies blow coke up her asshole so she wouldnt ruin her voice. I never heard that before, even tho it's in VH1s top 40 best rumors and all that. Anyway some kid online said thats called a "Stinky Freezer" which is awesome.
-quoth magic jesus
At one point in the evening, usually about 10 minutes after they announce last call, I start playing the most ridiculous songs ever. This is a combination of being drunk, not really caring, and wanting to get everyone the hell out of there so I can get paid/eat a cheeseburger/go to sleep. Oftentimes the songs are extremely literal. Sometimes they get played merely because they're awful pop songs from the 90s. Among the songs that fall under the category of Please Leave are the following:
2 Live Crew ~ Get The Fuck Out
ABBA ~ Thank You For The Music
Paul Young or H&O ~ Every Time You Go Away
Any Sinatra or Ella & Louie
Terry Jacks ~ Season In The Sun
Third Eye Blind ~ Jumper
Bon Jovi ~ Never Say Goodbye
B II M ~ End Of The Road
Tonic ~ If You Could Only See
Rancid ~ I Wanna Riot (y'heard it correct!)
Wilson Philips ~ Hold On
Phil Collins ~ pretty much anything
Gogol Bordello ~ Baro Foro
And finally, "Brooklyn" by Wizz, which I found as a 45 at 20th Century Music.
Good old Beck. Can't go wrong with Scientology! Did you know that when you interview Beck you are definitely, 100%, not allowed to discuss scientology with him? Boooooo. Let's ask him questions about Sea Change instead! Or about Guero (AKA Odelay Part 2: Time To Please The Masses)! Amidst all the "evolution of Beck into a serious artist" hoopla I often forget that Midnite Vultures and Odelay are in fact brilliant albums. Yeah you heard me correctly! I am basically a writer for Rolling Stone magazine right now! Obvs my boner for Odelay is a direct extension of my love for anything Dust Brothers related (I literally have the Fight Club soundtrack on vinyl as well as the totally unnecessary remixes EP), so imagine my semi-surprise when I rediscovered this remix in my shelves the other day... It's a Dust Bros version of Where It's At with the Freedom horns, which as we all know are genetically hardwired to make everyone happy:
Beck ~ Where It's At (Mike Simpson RMX)
To continue my record purging diary entries, here are some of my random 7"s that make me swoon/writhe in embarrassment:
5 YES 5 DIFFERENT PRESSINGS OF TUSK
FOUNTAINS OF GAYNE STACY'S MOM
The only reason I have this is because Archie Bevins, years ago, delivered an over the top screed as to why this was like the most subversive and perfect pop song of the new millenium (excuse me, Willenium), and that we all should give Fountains of Gayne a closer listen because they really do have much to share re: the hotness of Stacy's mom.
GREEN JELLY 3 LITTLE PIGS
Everyone remembers the amazingness of the video, as well as the band's little kerfuffle with the Jell-O corporation. What you may not remember, however, was the album this single was taken from. Does anyone else remember Electric Harley House (Of Love)? No? I'm betting that even Green Jelly does not remember.
HALL & OATES KISS ON MY LIST
This pressing is an import, which is cheating, but whatevs. This single gets the spotlight one because Kiss On My List was the song that completely converted me 100% to H&O, and two because my mainest man Hall is rocking the star of David tatt on his arm (while smoking!). Oates on the other hand, is merely being short and furious.
LOL & TOTES ~ Kiss On My List
KELLY CLARKSON SINCE U BEEN GONE
I think Mojo or Q wrote that no matter what Beyonce ever does, she'll never top Crazy In Love. That's the same thing with Since U Been Gone. This song was literally my anthem for like a year. Archie Bevins told me the story behind this song was something like:
Max Martin (noted uber-producer) in a record store
MAX MARTIN: I need to listen to some new music, get in touch with the kids etc.
(The Strokes "Last Nite" plays over the record store speakers)
MAX MARTIN: This sounds pretty cool, except these guys clearly have no balls and are afraid to rock out. I will do something like this, except I have testicles.
Cut to: Since U Been Gone existing in the world
Didn't see you there, I was just sitting here LITERALLY GETTING CHILLS WHILE WATCHING THIS AGAIN.
B/W
ps- You can't front on Andrew Gold. He's still getting fat off Golden Girls money.
pps- You are more than welcome to front on 4 Non Blondes, but Linda Perry is still living off Get The Party Started money.
I was DJing on Friday and a cute girl requested this. I didn't have it, so I downloaded it. It's good!
Friendly Fires ~ Paris (Aeroplane RMX)
*via discodust
Fleetwood Mac is TOURING.
info
(no Christine McVie tho)
OBVS I'm very very late on this one. Even though Eli blogged about it a long time ago (and I actually DL'd it and never even listened to it), Lloyd put it on a mix CD, and James Stacher played it at his BBQ (and I even asked "What is this record"), I didn't actually LISTEN TO IT listen to it until a few days ago, after I DL'd the Mancuso Presents the Loft CDs. Jeez, inexcusable!
This track is like Record Collecting 201:
101 - everything you've always liked/heard in a club or on the radio/remember from a movie/remember from a TV show
201 - everything a DJ you really like has ever recorded/remixed/comp'd/put on a mixtape
301 - shitting on everything
What can I say, sometimes things just slip through the cracks. I didn't even know Kid Cudi did that humongor song until like the other day too. And on Saturday I went to an AZN club in goddam Midtown for Christ's sake.
JAH WOBBLE plus those other dudes ~ How Much Are They?
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