Monthly Archive

It’s been a long time coming, but they’re back! The Corals new album Roots And Echoes is set for release on the 6th of August, but you can listen to it in full over on Columbia Records. Personally, I’d rather hear the whole thing when I get my copy, but of course I couldn’t resist sneaking a peak … and it was good. Here’s a recent interview describing how the album came about.

Where the hell is Patrick Wolf?!?! I know the shortlist was announced almost two weeks ago but, yup, I’m still angry about this. Is the Mercury panel or whoever they are really trying to say that the Arctic Monkeys’ Favourite Worst Nightmare is more of an accomplishment than The Magic Position?! Oh, dear. I’ve said it before and, even through my irritation, I still even mean it - I have nothing against those Monkeys. But, dang, Patrick Wolf made an album unlike anything I have ever heard before (and far better than most things I have heard) and he’s not even shortlisted? I’m a fan of a bunch of the albums on the list, but none of them even come close to The Magic Position.

Wait a minute … Now that I’m thinking about it, where the hell is one of my other recent favorites, Pop Levi’s The Return To Form Black Magick Party?

I think we need a new prize, STAT.

   Patrick Wolf - Augustine
   Pop Levi - Dollar Bill Rock

It seems Joy Division is all the rage right now, what with the Ian Curtis biopic Control all set to wow music dorks everywhere and, as I noticed this morning while updating our Releases page, a new boxset of some kind coming out in September.

I didn’t know much about music history, especially things like post-punk, when I first heard Unknown Pleasures. It absolutely blew me away. It showed me that amazing things were hidden away in the past, musical treasures that ordinary MTV-watchers never heard about. And still now, nothing gives me goosebumps like “She’s Lost Control”. It is probably the single most haunting song ever recorded - all industrial echoes and empty pain. I didn’t know anything about Ian Curtis’ life and troubles when I first fell in love with it but even so, it felt like a kind of sadness that even Joy Division themselves couldn’t match on any of their other songs. Once you learn about the story of the song, the whole thing is unbearably tragic. Chris Ott, in his volume of the 33 1/3 series, Unknown Pleasures, writes:

["She's Lost Control"] was written about an epileptic woman who would often turn up at the Macclesfield Employment Exchange looking for work; when she stopped coming in, Curtis wrote the comparatively normal, descriptive lyrics about her, but as his own epilepsy took hold, the song grew to have awful implications, especially after he learned she’d died.

It’s true, the lyrics are basically simple and, on their own, don’t have nearly the same effect as when combined with that repetitive, slow bassline and those drums like a heartbeat, not to mention Ian Curtis’ deep drone that gives nothing away yet reveals everything. (Imagine it sung by someone with a more emotive singing style - it wouldn’t have half the power Ian Curtis gives it.) As heartbreaking as the song and its background are, it’s absolutely perfect.

   Joy Division - She’s Lost Control

At a magnificent 8 feet tall, 4 feet wide and 9.5 inches thick, last saturday Collinsville, Illinois aka home of the World’s Largest Ketchup Bottle (??) will probably make it into the Guinness Book Of Records with the World’s Largest Ketchup Packet. That’s a whole lotta Heinz.

   Stompin’ Tom Connors - The Ketchup Song

C.L. Smooth is a legend based on his collaboration with Pete Rock at the beginning of the 1990s (think “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)”). However, following the break up of the duo in 1995, Smooth sunk away into the musical background, releasing isolated tracks here and there and rarely even appearing as a guest on anything. In October 2006, he returned with the release of his first solo album, American Me.

The initial single was the title track, “American Me”, with “Smoke In The Air” as the b-side. Available for your review is the digital version of the “American Me”/”Smoke In The Air” vinyl 12 inch, which I downloaded more than a year ago but never really had a chance to properly listen to until recently. For those of you that remember enjoying Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, you shouldn’t be disappointed by the mature flow of one many wrote off after a decade in the musical shadows. For those of you new to C.L. Smooth, welcome. This is definitely not a man ready to be kicked to the curb, as the politically-colored “American Me” and the heavier “Smoke In The Air” aptly demonstrate.

Check it.

      C.L. Smooth - American Me (American Me 12″)
      C.L. Smooth - Smoke In The Air (American Me 12″)

Visit the official C.L. Smooth site to hear more.

The Great Danger are from Brighton and got together almost a whole year ago. They’re so new their fontanelles are probably still squidgy and not grown together yet. They have a fresh post-grungey sound that has absolutely nothing to do with them Nickelbacks and 3 Doors Downs. They actually sound like a British version of Pixies, but even at their angriest they’re youthful and endearing.

The songs on their MySpace are as exciting as they are raw, so I can’t wait to hear what they sound like when their skull has had some time to harden! But I really hope they don’t polish/grow up too much. Here’s two out of the three songs they have up for grabs. Both heavily feature oh-oh-ohs, but it’s all good.

   The Great Danger - Pretty Pretty
   The Great Danger - Oh

Can you people believe that Tamboosh has never heard “The Humpty Dance”, Digital Underground’s 1989 #11 hit? This is for her…

According to the Wikipedia, Digital Underground supposedly started as a black power-y group, but took “a more whimsical direction, that of an updated Parliament-Funkadelic for the hip-hop audience” after Public Enemy became popular. Humpty Hump was the stage name of Edward G. Humphreys, a rapper who had suffered severe burns in a kitchen fire and wore that fake nose to cover it up. Except that he was really just Shock-G in disguise and on-stage diversions would allow him to switch from one to the other during performances.

“The Humpty Dance” isn’t really Digital Underground’s best song (”Doowutchyalike”, “Same Song”, and “Kiss You Back” are all classics), but featuring the classic lines “I get stoopid, I shoot an arrow like Cupid / I use a word that don’t mean nothin’, like looptid”, it sure is the silliest.

   Digital Underground - The Humpty Dance

I’ve enjoyed checking out the charts in different countries in a previous edition of Those Zany Charts … so I thought I’d do it again. This time I wanted to see what’s climbed to the top of a few of the South American charts the past few weeks.

Now, if you’re a gringo you’d be forgiven if you thought South American charts meant Shakira and an Iglesias or two. You would not, however, be forgiven if you thought it still meant this:

“Shopping Mall” (a video clip del año 1983). Though, to be fair, Menudo did churn through something like a record or more between 1977 and 1994, so if you couldn’t help yourself because they were too stone cold awesome (or ubiquitous) to avoid, well, okay then.

Today, I’m after something more recent and ultra-hip. The cutting edge of the South American charts. So, what’s out there as recent chart toppers?

#1 Brazil - Natiruts, “Natiruts Reggae Power” (21 de Julio 2007)

Latin Reggae. I’m not a huge fan of smooth, contemporary reggae. It brings back painful memories of Big Mountain. “Natiruts Reggae Power” is a surprisingly chill song to be a number and is dangerously close to jam rock. This was the best video I could find - a live performance. (And, yes, before someone posts a snarky comment … I know they speak Portuguese in Brasil and 21 de Julio 2007 may not be the way you word that.)

#1 Argentina - Shakira, “Las de la intuición” (13 de Julio 2007)

Oh my God, I shot my eye out! It’s Shakira! See, our preconceived notions are true. I knew it! South Americans really do listen to Shakira. Her voice. The purple hair. The ever so slightly Depeche Mode-y beat. Very mesmerizing. Damn, she’s cool.

#1 Peru - Tony Dize and Ken-Y, “Quizas” (22 de Julio 2007)

Okay, the soundtrack of this video is actually Tony Dize and Ken-Y, but the two goofballs are absolutely not Tony Dize and Ken-Y. However, I thought this version was vastly superior to the original and much more entertaining. These two guys have almost as much fun watching themselves in their television as they do performing. Goofball #1 (on the right) checks every time an important hand gesture is required. I swear he even makes adjustments mid-gesture. That’s dedication. And this is the YouTube generation.

#1 Chile - Daddy Yankee ft. Fergie, “Impacto” (19 de Julio 2007)

Nice! Some reggaeton makes it to one of the charts I checked. I don’t even want to smack Fergie in this remix version. Somehow she fits with reggaeton. Or at least one of reggaeton’s biggest stars. The concept of this video, if you end up having trouble figuring it out: Daddy Yankee and Fergie go around the world making it impacto.

And that concludes another edition of Those Zany Charts …

Out.

I thought doing Soundtrack Day this week would be easy. But as it turns out, spending many weeks unpacking, sorting, organizing, re-organizing, and sleeping while listening to barely any music (sad but true) doesn’t make for really good music-related anecdotes. Hmm.

However, I have managed to pick up a bunch of albums that I’d been looking forward to. That little stack is seriously all I’ve listened to for ages. It goes without saying that Icky Thump is my favorite recent release. Taking that whole album out of the running, here’s my favorite tracks from the stack so far:

   Ryan Adams - Pearls On A String
   Blanche - I Can’t Sit Down
   Interpol - All Fired Up

Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” is a cute and catchy song, but the lyrics are not so great. And by not so great I mean really really really reallyreallyreally bad. Then why? Why would you want to brag about the fact that you inspired these words, let alone sue the girl for stealing them from you?? Which is exactly what The Rubinoos did. As you may have heard they’re suing everybody’s favorite Canadian faux-rebel pop princess because they claim “Girlfriend” resembles their song “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” (not to be confused with The Ramones’ “I Wanna Be your Boyfriend”, for god’s sake).

   The Rubinoos - I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend

After listening to the song all I have to say is, are they freaking kidding me with this?!? SO the chorus sounds a bit like Avril’s, but as long as they haven’t bought the rights to the line ‘Hey (hey) You (you)’ I don’t think they have even a smidge of a case. Avril’s crack team of lawyers pointed out that The Rolling Stones used the line lightyears before either of them came on the scene and you don’t hear them crying about it.

   The Rolling Stones - Get Off Of My Cloud

Let’s not forget Billy Ocean’s awesome use of the words in “Get Outta My Dreams (Get Into My Car)”, which - being a child of the eighties - is the first song that pops into my head when I think of the hey you line.

   Billy Ocean - Get Outta My Dreams (Get Into My Car)

Well, whatever the outcome I guess The Rubinoos win because before all this hoopla I had never, ever even heard of them. Not even a little bit.

This song was the Swedish band Whale’s one and only alternative hit in 1993 and it was an instant Classic to me. When I was thirteen, I was reading some teenmag and MTV alternative nation, or whatever it was called, was on in the background. That show was always one big heap of noise to me, because I mostly listened to whatever was in the charts. Ugh, this sounds like the opening sentences of Diary Of An Indie Girl: How I Broke Free From My Pop Loving Shackles, but don’t get me wrong I love pop music. Especially pop music from the early nineties! I was just not aware that there was this whole other world of weird bands outside the charts who made unusual, but no less wonderful music. Anyway, this song caught my ear thanks to that creepy little girl voice that sings the most disturbing lyrics I had ever heard, and what sounded like a rabid pack of men belting out the chorus. When I looked up from my magazine I wasn’t sure what kind of sick, freak show I was looking at - that video is trippy as frick - but I was surprised that I liked it a lot. Now, I’m still not sure what it’s about, but it is one of the most exciting songs I’ve ever heard.

   Whale - Hobo Humpin’ Slobo Babe

Here’s the video. If you’ve never seen it before I should probably warn you about the freaky, armpit licking and aluminum ass spanking with a lollipop that goes on in it …

Like most 8 year old girls in the eighties, I didn’t just want to be a Bangle, oh no, I wanted to be Susanna Hoffs! I wanted to wake up one magical manic monday, walk like an Egyptian, while writhing in the sand holding my eternal flame with my beautiful, teased, curly, eighties hair. About two years ago when HMV had one of their mega sales and Bean asked me if there was anything she could add to her order for me, I had her pick up the Best Of The Bangles. I was so excited, but once I had it I never really listened to it.

I came across it again the other day and they are still as wonderfully poppy as ever, though I think this is not exactly an official greatest hits album. The booklet doesn’t give any information about the songs and it doesn’t have every hit of theirs, so no “Walking Down Your Street” or “Hazy Shade Of Winter”. The latter is probably excluded because it’s a Simon and Garfunkel original and that might have cost a pretty penny to put on there. It may not be perfect but it was cheap and it has all my favorite songs!

Here’s my top 5 of the Best Of The Bangles :

   5. The Bangles - Eternal Flame

A bit played out, thanks to Atomic Kitten’s horrific rendition and Classic FM radio, but when it first came out I was memerized. This was the song that started the Susanna Hoffs fascination.

   4. The Bangles - In Your Room

This was not a big hit, but it’s so catchy and perfectly eighties that I can practically smell the hairspray. Don’t ask me why, but I think Ryan Adams could do a killer version of this song.

   3. The Bangles - Manic Monday

The astute Allen Lulu pointed out that Prince did not write Manic Monday especially for The Bangles. Siiiigh fine, I finally did my homework and learned that he had actually written it for a girl group he helped create, Apollonia 6. He lost interest in that group and presented the song to The Bangles because he was rumored to have had a big, fat, glamorous, eighties, pop crush on Susanna Hoffs. Psh, he recycles songs to pick up chicks. Isn’t that just typical.

   2. The Bangles - James

This is definitely their most underrated song! I love the combination of fifties girl group vocals with their familiar eighties sound.

   1. The Bangles - Walk Like An Egyptian

I can’t imagine any other song taking the lead, because I still get a flutter when I hear the opening rattle. They made walking like an Egyptian cool. Ok maybe not cool, but the move finally became a dance. Favorite line: When the buzzer rings (oh whey oh) they’re walking like an Egyp-sheean.

Okay, I’m just going to blurt it out … Plans-&-Apologies-are-not-a-new-band! I might even catch hell from the Bean and Tamboosh for breaking New Band Day rules. But, there, it’s done … It’s too late to turn back … So let’s move on already! Damn. (Bygones.)

In my defense, Plans & Apologies are new to me. And, I’ll wager you a 0.79 GBP or 0.99 cent iTunes voucher they’re new to at least 98.27% or more of you out there. (Seriously, they’ve got just 2748 MySpace profile views, including mine.) What’s more, they’re a testament to will-we-ever-make-money PR and the power of silly publicity emails written by goofy dorks to garner attention in the snatch-n-grab world of the Intertubes.

In honor of British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s stepping down, Plans & Apologies gave advance views of the video and the single “Mel Gibson’s IRAQ!”, part of a double a-side - together with Meetoo - due for release in September from Pandaz Pop and Exercise1 Records.

Enjoy the video? Then use the Intertubes to download the track itself:

   Plans & Apologies - Mel Gibson’s IRAQ

If you likes what you hear, you can download their earlier albums for FREE at the Pandaz Pop site. Yes, for free. Meaning, for no monies. This is part of my complicated rationalization for considering them a new band. They seem to make no money. They offer their older albums for free. They haven’t really broken out yet.

If for some reason you don’t like downloads, you can also catch a listen in the Pandaz Pop MySpace zone.

We heard that some really awesome people in the States are hosting Buffy The Vampire Slayer Once More With Feeling singalongs, like they do with The Rocky Horror Picture Show. We love Buffy. And we really love the Buffy musical. Pretty please, awesome people, bring your event across the pond.

Grr, arg.

   Cast Of Buffy - Walk Through The Fire
   Cast Of Buffy - I’ve Got A Theory / Bunnies / If We’re Together

Find out more about the tour and those behind it at Buffy Musical On The Big Screen.

Since Tamboosh is with us in the land of no internet this week, we had to go old-school and buy a copy of Music Week (the UK version of Billboard). We thought it would be an easy way to check out this week’s UK charts and share our witty comments with you, gentle readers.

We were sadly mistaken. Is there anyone out there that actually understands these charts? Please explain the difference between the Official UK Singles Chart, the Hit 40 UK, the Commercial Pop Top 30, and the Cool Cuts Chart. Doesn’t it sound like those are all the same thing? Some of them have the exact same songs, though in a different order, and the others have different songs altogether. Nowhere in our copy of Music Week (that we could find, at least) does it explain what these charts represent.

We spent at least an hour trying to figure what it all means and gave up feeling completely lost. In total, Music Week contains 38 different charts. Some make perfect sense - TV and Radio Airplay Charts, Urban / Jazz / Classical / etc. Charts - but others are lost on us. If downloads now count toward the Singles Chart, why do we also have separate Top 30 Physical Singles and Top 20 Downloads charts? What are we supposed to learn about physical singles vs. downloads from these lists? Also, why is there yet another chart for European downloads but no other European-based charts anywhere? These are only a sample of our many questions.

So we gave up trying to make sense of it all. Instead of analyzing this week’s vast array of charts, here’s some songs we like that each appear on multiple lists.

   The White Stripes - Icky Thump

The White Stripes’ “Icky Thump” is #25 on the Official UK Singles Chart, #9 on the Top 20 Downloads (but does not appear on the Top 30 Physical Singles or the Hit 40 UK), and #2 on the Top 10 Indie Singles. It’s #15 on the Top 20 European Downloads and #4 (a new entry!) on the Top 20 Realtones list. Icky Thump is #1 on the Top 10 Indie Albums chart but #4 (down from last week’s top spot) on the Official UK Albums chart.

   Jack Penate - Torn On The Platform

Jack Penate is a new entry on the Top 30 Physical Singles list (#7), the Top 20 Downloads (#17), the Hit 40 UK (#7), Top 10 Indie Singles (#1, taking the White Stripes down a notch from last week). But “Torn On The Platform” has already spent two weeks on the Official UK Singles Chart (#7 this week).

   The Enemy - Had Enough

The Enemy, having risen from #51 to #4 during their two weeks’ on the Official UK Singles Chart, are this week’s Highest Climber! They’re also #4 on the Hit 40 UK and #3 on the Top 30 Physical Singles. But downloaders are apparently indifferent to The Enemy, since they’re nowhere to be found on the Top 20 Downloads.

   Rihanna ft. Jay-Z - Umbrella

Rihanna and the not-so-much retired Jay-Z are #1 on nearly all the lists we don’t understand (Top 20 Downloads, Top 20 Realtones, Top 20 European Downloads, Hit 40 UK). However, they’re at a measly #19 on the Commercial Pop Top 30 (dropped from #10) and #2 on both the Physical Singles and Urban Top 30 lists. They’ve also made it to #3 on the Year So Far: Top 20 Singles chart.

In conclusion … we don’t understand.

Following a suggestion from the Bean, my run-in with Soundtrack Day today recalls the first album I can remember buying. Well, actually, the first album I can remember asking my parents to buy for me and and another album I recall listening to an awful lot for an 11- and 12-year-old.

First, Quiet Riot’s history-making 1983 mega-album Metal Health. History-making because it was the first metal album to top the Billboard Album Chart and first to have a single in the Top 5 of the Singles Chart (the “Cum On Feel The Noize” Slade cover). Mega-album because it was multi-platinum and really marked the launch of metal in the early-1980s. Dude, it’s a classic and a number of the tracks still rock hard to this day! (Devil Horns! Yeah!)

And, second, oh, yes, 1983 was a good year for rock. Udo Dirkschneider’s Accept - a dark and vaguely absurd Teutonic bridge between early speed metal songs by various groups and the later speed metal genre. I hadn’t listened to Balls To The Wall in yonks and (Devil Horns!) “Balls To The Wall” really throbs (weak pun intended). Heavy, grinding, weird. Excellent.

The soundtrack of 1983 and 1984! (Devil Horns!)

   Quiet Riot - Cum On Feel The Noize
   Quiet Riot - Metal Health (Bang Your Head)
   Accept - Balls To The Wall

The last few weeks have been pretty exciting, what with new offerings from The White Stripes, Ryan Adams, Blanche, Two Gallants - and probably a whole bunch of stuff I’ve missed without any internets. And it’ll get even better when Our Love To Admire comes out a week from today. In honor of that, here’s - in my humble opinion - Interpol’s very best song (so far, at least). So good it was an instant classic, “NYC” is a song that sounds best when you just sit still and listen. It fills me with a deep sadness that comes from nowhere but it’s calm and soothing at the same time. I can’t claim to have any idea what “subway, she is a porno” means, but I don’t really want to know. Paul Banks’ lyrics are completely bizarre and I think they’re like any art - they mean something different to each of us that love them.

So enjoy this, and join my Our Love To Admire countdown (7 days … ).

   Interpol - NYC