December 23, 2005
Holiday Non-Random Non-Audited Musical Tenner
I've subjected everybody to a fair amount of crap with these Friday. Here's ten songs that I would rate a 9 or 10, purely subjectively rather than using the Official Blue Book Guide to Musical Coolness or the oracular pronouncements of insufferable music snobs:
(1) That Ain't the Way To Do It (Pinetop Perkins): Austin's very own nonagenarian ivory-tickler does a bit of Bob Wills-style Western swing. Just listen.
(2) Keep a-Knockin' (The Flamin' Groovies): Well, I wish I had the Little Richard original, but this roots-rock cover from the late 60s does just fine, down to replicating the rat-a-tat-tat drum intro also used more famously by John Bonham in Led Zeppelin's Rock and Roll.
(3) Beat The Clock (Sparks): Just absolutely insane, like somebody plunged a hypo full of adrenaline into the heart of techno, except it was made about 15 years before techno was an operative term. It's good to know that these two absolutely unique brothers are still making music.
(4) Short Double Latté (Combustible Edison): Something about that Farfisa organ doubled with a xylophone, assuming that that's what those two sounds are. A history of lounge compressed into 2 minutes, 18 seconds.
(5) Panama (Van Halen): Everybody needs to feel like they're 12 years old, wearing unsightly yellow-earmuff headphones. Come on, people, it rocks. No crappy synths on this one, and you can visualize Diamond Dave flying across the stage.
(6) Clockwork Orange Theme (Wendy Carlos): Not the dirge-like one that plays over the opening shot, but the more sprightly one that plays as Alex is walking back home after a night of ultraviolence for the first time. Creepy as hell.
(7) I Count The Tears (The Drifters): One of the best voices in the history of pop music, Ben E. King, singing the words of one of the best songwriters in the history of pop music, Doc Pomus.
(8) Country Pie (Bob Dylan): Probably the most un-Dylanlike song in all of existence, except for maybe Jokerman, which is why I love listening to it. I also like the live version performed by The Nice (with Keith Emerson) which blends the song with the first movement of the sixth Brandenburg Concerto. It was a different time.
(9) Kyberneticka Babicka Pt. 1 (Stereolab) A recent, more experimental song of theirs. Impossible to describe this wordless song, except that the special effects make it sound like a note is being sustained for four-and-a-half minutes. Through in some looped psychedelia and Pet Sounds baroque instrumentation, and you've got a winner.
(10) Pictures of Matchstick Men (Camper van Beethoven) This may have been one of their more conventional songs, if doing a fiddle-heavy cover of a long-forgotten psychedelic masterpiece by Status Quo is considered conventional (their recent album-wide cover of Fleetwood Mac's Tusk is weirder). However, it rocks. ROCKS!
No Christmas music! I heard enough of that in 3.8 seconds of that overstock.com commercial. Funk dat!
Word on (5), (6) and especially (10).
On the Wendy Carlos tip, while "Timesteps" rules, I've been loving the TRON soundtrack more than I can possibly express. "TRON Scherzo" is just completely demented.
Also on that tip check out some Isao Tomita, especially Firebird, and, if you can find it (I recommend some kind of illegal mechanism) his soundtrack to ""Catastrophe: 1999"
I'm amazed anybody still listens to Combustible Edison. I always put them in this little early-90s-boston-lounge-scene box, and forget that they were actually pretty big. Good, too.
What was with that lounge thing? Where'd it come from? Where'd it go? It feels ghostly and ancient to me, now.
Posted by: Sifu Tweety at December 22, 2005 11:56 PMYou said it, the relatively OK Dj at my wedding had a personal request for Panama from a good friend of mine, and she busted out this like 8 minute live version with all this Dave talking in the middle, boy was that a crowd killer. I'm all "Dear God, please let the riff start again" and then when it did, it was awesome, and I was thankful, being the only one left on the dance floor.
Posted by: Pinko Punko at December 23, 2005 02:35 AM1) "Hand of Doom" Black Sabbath- Song about overdosing, now that's Christmas music! 10/10
2) "Ain't Wasting Time- No More"- The Allman Brothers- I like it, but I was happier with the tone of the above. I'm stuck at work today. 6/10
3) "Opera Singer" Cake- Love this band. 8/10
4) "Wrapping Paper" Cream- Appropriate but it sucks ass. Skipped in fact. 1/10
5) "Suite Judy Blue Eyes" Crosby, Stills and Nash- I really have to get my wife her own iPod. 4/10
6) "Tomorrow's Dream" Black Sabbath- Yes. Yes. Yes. This Rocks! 8/10
7) "Fell on Black Days" Soundgarden- No. No. No. Don't stop a rockin'! 6/10
8) "Galaxy 500" The Rev. Horton Heat- It may not be air-conditioned but it rocks! 8/10
9) "Keep Away" Godsmack- More my mood this mornig. 7/10
10) "Devil Without a Cause" Kid Rock- I'm embarrassed, but see Norbiz I said I'd own up. 3' 9" with a 10' dick is pretty funny though. 3/10
Bonus- Not exactly random as I queued it up first thing this morning on my drive in but "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!" "Killing in the Name" Rage Against the Machine. 10/10
Sometimes the "whooshes" in Panama are too much for me and I start laughing. One should not laugh during a rock song. One should be compelled to kick holes thru walls.
Posted by: Horatio at December 23, 2005 09:22 AMI'm listening (again) to pal Dr. Frank's (Mr. T Experience) "Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba," or whatever it's called, this minute, myself. Relatively cheery, for me.
Merry happy.
Posted by: Gary Farber at December 23, 2005 12:04 PMIncidentally, I'm a vote against white on block. It's almost unbearably unreadable, which is, you know, why you don't see it in most books or magazines.
Because it's mostly unreadable.
Just another vote, albeit with slight experience in grhapics, not that you'd know from my own blog, or that I should talk. But there's actual science behind why many folks have a problem with it.
Just saying, and as usual, I probably shouldn't. No harm intended.
Posted by: Gary Farber at December 23, 2005 12:10 PMI got the Ladies Man album...I like the duet with Madeleine Peyroux(He's Got Me Going)...
Posted by: BigBuddhaPuppy at December 23, 2005 12:36 PMLove the Camper (I think Key Lime Pie is really underrated) and the Combustible Edison (although for me, the quintessential CE tune is Breakfast at Denny's, partly because of the pun in the title).
To make up for the woeful absence of Christmas music in your list, here's my all holiday non-random list:
Timbuk3 - All I Want for Christmas (Is World Peace)
Spinal Tap - Christmas with the Devil
Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)
The Moonglows - Hey Santa Claus
Material - It's a Holiday
Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin'
Granville Williams Orchestra - Santa Claus Is Skaing to Town
Cristina - Things Fall Apart
The Roches - We Three Kings
August Darnell - Christmas on Riverside Drive
Chris Isaak - Christmas on TV
James White - Christmas with Satan
(7) I Count The Tears (The Drifters): One of the best voices in the history of pop music, Ben E. King, singing the words of one of the best songwriters in the history of pop music, Doc Pomus.
Hm. Yeah. I'm going to filesteal this tonight.
Posted by: Gavin M. at December 23, 2005 05:01 PMMany of these music references escape me, but as I surfed over from another blog, I must say the holidays have become pretty controversial - You may have heard that S. McClellan got some grief. What did Bush say to him. Stop by GI and read it. You may laugh, you may not. We shall see.
Posted by: Gotham Image at December 26, 2005 09:20 PM