Thursday, April 8, 2010

FINALLY A NEW EPISODE!?





Here's the new loo-loo! A change in format, but even better content. No more blathering, just tunes arranged in a pleasing way. Instead of blathering, here's some writing!

1. John Bender - "31A4" - Cincinnati-based guy essentially self-released some weird, minimal synthesizer stuff like this in the early eighties. The only one I've been able to find is "I don't remember now," an outstanding collection of what I'd almost call "synth raggas" - these meditative, circular, hympotic little tunes that percolate for up to six or seven minutes at a time while Bender talks, sings, and intones various little mantras through copious amounts of tape echo. I heard about this in an old issue of "Option" magazine that I got when my friend Tim bought me the entire collection of "Option" (hundreds of issues!) as a present two years ago and was shocked to actually find it for download. In a world where rich white chicks are starting labels to re-release stuff like this, I wouldn't be surprised if someone pounced on this record with a deluxe reissue because it's truly just otherworldy and is unique even among the masses of "minimal wave" or "minimal synth" stuff from the era.

2. Silicon Teens - "T.V. Playtime" - one of only two originals on their essential-listening "Music for Parties," this has always struck me as a more whimsical version of "TVOD" (the b-side of the epochal "Warm Leatherette" single by Silicon Teen Daniel Miller under the name The Normal). Such a creepy little thing...

3. Laura Branigan - "Self Control" - I've developed the habit of falling asleep to my clock radio playing the local Adult Contemporary station's late-night programming. Somehow I made it through my entire life without ever hearing this song, and I heard it for the first time half-asleep and it was basically the greatest thing I've ever heard in my life; half dreaming, half-awake, hearing the perfectly witchy synth arpeggios and that chorus!

4. Nu Shooz - "I can't wait" - I could almost just write "see #3" here because I had an almost identical experience, except this one involved grabbing my phone to Shazam the hell out of this track to find out what it was. Weirdly, it turns out that my friends have had a Nu Shooz 12" framed on their wall for years as decorative art because it has a wacky cover. I thought I had heard that name somewhere! I've rapidly devoured this husband/wife band's entire catalogue; t it perfectly captures that late-eighties "let's get a drum machine and some orchestra hit samples, and your sister's friend Becky can kind of sing...LET'S MAKE SOME RECORDS!" zeitgest.

5. the Pointer Sisters - "Automatic" - My synth-friend Matt turned me on to this record ("Breakout") as the pinnacle of big-budget polysynth and LinnDrum production. I was all, "yeah, yeah, I've heard 'I'm so excited,' what's the big deal" but then I dug into it and the whole record is just ridiculously tight. Weirdly subversive and left-field at times, too ("...all I can manage to push from my lips is a string of obscenities"). Then...you guessed it, I realized they were constantly playing "Automatic" on late-night Adult Contemporary radio. So, this one links back to #4 and #3 too. I suggest listening in bed when you're barely awake for the full effect.

6. No Kids (ft. Fudge Elverum) - "Prisoner of Desire" - I have so blatantly, obscenely fallen in love with No Kids, aka Nick Krgovich. I'll tell you right now that he's the next Stephin Merritt, maybe - the guy just can't write a bad song, and should really be writing 70 or 80% of the next Beyonce and Alicia Keys records, but he's sort of stuck/sequestered in the Indie Rock scene so for now it's going to be more like "Bro from Sunset Rubdown covers him sometime or whatev." In No Kids, he basically just writes this snakey, intricate, gorgeous little R&B songs that sound like nothing else in the universe. "Fudge Elverum" here is, you guessed it, Mount Eerie himself. No Kids toured as the opener and then part of the Mount Eerie band on the fall '09 tour, and that's how I found out about them. We'll be hearing from him again before the end of the episode.

7. Laura Barrett - "Consumption" - Laura was the opener for the Magnetic Fields on their recent tour, so I saw her two nights in a row. The first night I was a little irritated with her overly NPR/McSweeney's/Neo-Sincerity Pweciousness Culture War schtick, especially the song "Robot Ponies" which was pure soul-sandpaper. But by the second night, I realized that I was kind of completely in love and willing to forgive all faults. She plays kalimba (think "thumb piano" or googolplex it) for the most part and writes witchy, mystical little songs like a spookier Joanna Newsom that might be reading Robert Anton Wilson and stuff. This song is my second-favorite. Go buy her record Victory Garden immediately.

8. Gigi - "Alone at the pier" - Surprise, this is Nick Krgovich again! (see #6) There's a long story behind this record, but the short version is that Nick and this other guy got some plate reverbs like the ones used on old Phil Spector-era recordings, then decided to use that as the impetus to make a whole record under the name Gigi, with a bunch of guests, capturing the vibe of that era. THE ENTIRE RECORD, Maintenant, IS COMPLETELY PHENOMENAL AND I LISTENED TO IT AND NOTHING ELSE FOR ABOUT TWO WEEKS STRAIGHT. Ahem. Singing here is Rose Melberg, formerly of Tiger Trap and the Softies, as well as her own solo career. For obvious reasons, she belongs to that rare category of human being that I could just listen to reading the phone book or takeout menus. There aren't enough hearts in the world.

9. Dub Narcotic Soundsystem - "Monkey hips and rice" - Just such a classic jam. Calvin Johnson is a near-religious figure in my life. I just love this song and found myself listening to it recently when it started to feel like spring around here...and then I realized how perfectly it fit into this mix.

10. Color me Badd - "All 4 Love" - Nothing wrong with that. Pop perfection.

11. Hunx and his Punx - "Gimmie gimmie back your love" - I have fallen in love with Hunx and his queer garage-punk fuzz. The video for this (search yewtube) is that weird breed of camp that just turns something in my brain into pink and green stars in the best way. A friend of mine summed this up as "Gay Reatard," and Hunx' proximity to Jay Reatard doesn't hurt at all when it comes to earning my unabashed adoration. The whole record (Gay Singles) is fuzzy pop perfection.

12. the Cramps - "Like a bad girl should" - I love the Cramps. Same song over and over for an entire career and who cares; it's always just right. Speaking of youtubeable videos, you need to hit this one up as soon as you're not at work and no one's around. It'll either rock your world (and that's Poison Ivy in '97! She was what, 55?!) or make you realize that, as another attendee at the party where I saw it playing a few weeks ago exclaimed, "I'm definitely not straight!"

13. Henrietta Collins & The Wife-Beating Child-Haters (Henry Rollins) - "Ex-Lion Tamer" (Wire cover) - One of two solo records that Rollins did between Black Flag and Rollins Band, this is a pretty straightforward cover of my favorite Wire song. For such a great song, and for one of Wire's more accessible and straightforward songs, it's always surprised me that there aren't more covers of this out there. It seems like you should be able to find 20 or 30. It should be a standard. Stay glued to your TV sets!