Ultravox LCD Sounsystem Bowie

A buncha live videos. No theme. Just stream of consciousness connections...

This video is pretty special. So much synth. Ultravox - The Thin Wall



Vocals and synth-laden sounds remind me of... LCD Soundsystem, "Get Innocuous"



Granpa Bowie strikes my mind again with "Golden Years" too, I think. Goddam what fanaticism.

The Killing Moon, Stars, and the Sunder the Milky Way

A cosmic medley of songs.

The Killing Moon, Echo and the Bunny Men (1984). This song has been covered quite nicely by both Nouvelle Vague and Pavement.




Instant Karma!, John Lennon, (1970). Phil Spector produced and isn't it nice to see Yoko crocheting blindly?


Under the Milky Way, The Church (1988). Australians know how to do some cosmic music, huh? make sure to listen for the EBow solo at 2:22... and is that an eye in the egg? ewww.

New Romantic

Violens - descendents of New Romantic?


Basis of New Romantic, so devo, so funky. Spandau Ballet.





Japan - Ghosts - great synth and vibes



Grandaddy Bowie kills the scene.

Tomorrow Never Knows

Today I have been steeping in John Lennon and Brian Wilson. I have listened to Tomorrow Never Knows many times in a row now. The wikipedia page on this song talks about the interesting experimental procedures that were developed in the recording of this song, which apparently was never performed live because of the impossibility of repeating the song. Sounds like 2/3 of every Megachild song. Not that ours approach the greatness of the Beatles. Lyrical ifluences came from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is a really out there piece of literature and also the Leary et al. Psychedelic Experience.



The drum riff of "Tomorrow..." seems also to be repeated in the song "End of Music" by Ontario band Do Make Say Think (the riff converges on the Beatles riff a little after 3 minutes into the song).

I have been playing around with some vocal layering on Stair Bears (Bear Shoulders version). I go way off key and things break down in lots of places, but I think there are some interesting bits in it here and there. Working on my vibrato, but it would be awesome to hook up to a Leslie Cabinet like Lennon did. Plastic Soul, man, plastic soul.

I also recorded some things on my cellphone when I was attempting to fish. Then I chopped up some bits and rearranged and amplified and filtered some of it and added some vocal drone track. The song is called Moan You Snake Oil Salesman, a play off of a Blind Lemon Jefferson's song, "Black Snake Moan" and the anachronistic term for an exaggerator (sort of an abstract jab, I guess). I used a "helium voice" effect on one layer of vocal, which comes across sort of similar to the effect in "Tomorrow Never Knows" and the skipping crunchy static noise is similar to some of the stop that comes out in Do Make Say Think's label-mate Fly Pan Am. Here for example is Jeunesse Sonique.

REM - Crush with Eyeliner

I was just rocking out in the shower to the Megachild song Bannisters. I was thinking about how to lift this song back up... and then I started thinking about the early-mid nineties album Monster from R.E.M. This album provided ample anthems for my early high school years, although I remember that I ultimately traded the album with a friend in order to get my hands on Soundgarden's Superunknown. Although I still love that Soundgarden album (which also provides great anthems, especially "My Wave", which sticks in my head when I am surfing, and "Fell on Black Days" is a great song to sing along with on a long drive).

R.E.M. had already established themselves well before Monster, and some might even say that this album is not among their greatest works. It met with fairly great commercial success, as I remember, especially the single "What's the Frequency Kenneth?" Although there were a few mellow numbers on the album, there was a rocking fuzzy-reverbed & distorted guitar component that was characteristic of most of the album. "Crush with Eyeliner" is a song with a moderate tempo that exemplifies that guitar work, paired with some groovy bass work, and Michael Stipe's fun & bizarre lyrics.

I'm thinking that Bannisters could adopt a little bit of the sound from Monster, if our gear permits it.

Deerhunter Blog

The band deerhunter often leaves aural/visual goodies on their blog site. I really like the mix of music available for download you can get at this link. Esp. listen to the Beach Boys' Can't Wait Too Long (shows up about 42 minutes into the mix and finishes it up)

enjoy.

Energetic Crooning

To keep up with the different ideas around the song Stair Bears, here is a song from Arcade Fire. I like the persistent energy of this song, and I guess that the phrasing of my lyrics are largely substitutable for the melody of the song. It wouldn't be the first time that I write a song from the melody of another when its stuck in my head and I can't remember the lyrics of the original.

Keep the Car Running


Also, I mentioned in the earlier post that there was a vocal/keyboard refrain that was reminiscent of "Voices Carry".... it originally started as something a little bit more in the vein of Beach Boys, which has also been recaptured by bands like Animal Collective. Hear them croon with weird water/paper crinkling sound effects in this tune:

"College"

Obvious Connections. Black Moth Super Rainbow and the Velvet Underground

The end of "Stair Bears" turns into a synthed out, drummy, psychedelia fest, with vocals that are pretty Jim Morrison-y in yell mode.... the music is sort of like Black Moth Super Rainbow, but if we could regularly achieve such heights of synthed out drummy psychedelia fest, I would be... well... psyched.



The visuals at a BMSR show are reminiscent of Velvet Underground/Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable...

Strange Sources- Phil Collins, Hall & Oates, Iggy Pop

Simple bass lines. These could underlie the new Megachild song "Stair Bears". Stair Bears also has a nice keyboard refrain (it started as a crooning vocal refrain) that could give it another layer of hook. I think of it similar to the keyboard hook from a previous post by Slig.... "Voices Carry"

Phil Collins - Can't Hurry Love


Hall & Oates - Maneater


Iggy Pop - Lust for Life

Broken Social Scene and Jam Philosophy

Broken Social Scene provides hope and validity for the musical model that Megachild adopted. The band is composed of a rotating/shifting/fluid cast of men and women, often beardy scruffians of varying ages, and often teetering on the razor's edge of becoming overcrowded with sound.

Their songs seem to emerge from jams, which can tend to be... well... jammy. Often deliberately sticking with a riff for much, if not the entirety, of a song. They uncover the emotive core of their music readily, and to me evoke the robust realization of that nameless song you've been humming or singing inside for days and days.

I'm sure that the describes the creative process for a lot of bands, but it definitely seems to be one of the approachs of Megachild. Everyone has stored up their musical energy for a week or more and is ready to release. The best nights come when everyone has a musical idea to bring to the table and when everyone else clicks in to round out the sound.

Despite their tendency to jams, Broken Social Scene can deliver some tight sounds with pop hooks. Watch the embedded stuff below and follow links to get a sense of what their moods produce on a given evening.

The Ting Tings, Franz Ferdinand, and INXS

Just listened to the Ting Tings on World Cafe and enjoyed much of it. These songs are built with hooks, and while I like the wonky-naive chord of "Great DJ" (which sounds like something I would play), I really liked the surging rythym of "Shut Up and Let Me Go" the best. The surging hooky thing reminds me of "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand.

Add in some breathy Michael Hutchence vocals (see "Devil Inside" and "The One Thing") and some sensual botanical allusions (a la Poi Dog Pondering) and you've got the roots of Megachild's "Horehound Honey".

Muscles, Beck, Dan Deacon, and Brad Neely

Here are some songs with synth and falsetto. Megachild has worked on a synth-pop falsetto song called Disco Wooden Spatula. It has a nice guitar riff and absurd lyrics about dancing to the choice of kitchen utensil.

First up is Sweaty by Muscles. I just discovered this song this morning. I first listened to the Shazam remix version, which is set to a video that highlights the amazing elasticity of the human face.

Link:

As you may have noticed in this cheerleader-chant, bumping fuzz-synth melange, the lyrics are both naughty and saccharine. That combination comes across as simultaneously sexy & grody in that version, but comes off more purely fun and hilarious when sung in harmonious falsetto and doofus voice in the original track, featured in the poor quality video/audio below. A better version of the audio and a more professional review of the song is provided in the link below the video (so if you can sink up the audio in that link with the youtube video, it provides a slightly better listening/watching experience).



Pitchfork review with good audio

The Pitchfork Review mentions Midnite Vultures era Beck. It wasn't something that I thought of at first, but the connection is pretty obvious now. Midnite Vultures was a great album, displaying the fun side of Beck before he got all grown up and serious in his latest albums. I couldn't find a good video for "Get Real Paid", which is the track that is probably most similar to "Sweaty in its bumpin synthedness. But "Nicotine and Gravy has a similar vocal mix with falsetto and droning, esp. coming to fruition at 1:45. The video embedding has been disabled, so just follow the link. Note the Warhol and Japanese Pop influences in both this and "Sweaty" videos.

Beck - Nicotine and Gravy

I love when synth uses cat sounds. Some may say it is overdone, but just like with cowbell, there is always room for more "Kitty Synth". Kitty Synth may have reached its artistic peak in the work of Dan Deacon and his "Crystal Cat". I really don't want to say much more about this, I just want to let the art speak for itself.



I missed seeing Dan Deacon play at the Whitney Museum in NYC last winter, and I am very sad that I missed it. I also realized upon this listen that Dan sings "Gonna get my face on" which I realized is connected (and either descended from, ancestor to, or independently derived) to China, IL, a short animated series by the musically talented absurdist/warped cartoonist/humorist, Brad Neely. The character sings the words, "Gonna get her face on, gonna get her din-din, gonna get her shoe-shoes), let me tell you she was my world".

Tweedy Van Lee Roth Weiland

Megachild has a new song that has more alternative names (3) than the number of times it's been played (1). It is tentatively labeled Tweedy Van Lee Roth Weiland, but might preferably be called Forget About Me/Looking for Abuse (1 title or 2). The Tweedy Van.... etc. is a reference to the sounds, esp. vocal sounds that I hear in the song. Wilco's Jeff Tweedy songwriting style inspired some of the lyrics and phrasing, esp. some of his more "rockin" stuff from disc one of "Being There". I may post a version of the Megachild song when we record a sensible demo of it.

In the meantime, here are some videos of the influences that I hear in the song.

• Wilco's "Monday & Outtasite (outta mind)" finale from Lollapalooza 2008
  
• Wilco's "Monday", I Believe this is from "I am Trying to Break Your Heart" nice guitar solo after the wolf whistle around 2 minutes:
• Wilco's fairly cheesy video for "Outtasite (Outta Mind)

There are vocal nuances in the new Megachild song that are, I'm sad to say, like loungier David Lee Roth/Scott Weiland. This is a little sickening, but not surprising. Just the product of my immature influences I guess. Weiland was the vocalist for Stone Temple Pilots and evetually the totally sucky "super-group" Velvet Revolver... sorry if you like them, but I was such a high school fan of STP and now I think that Weiland is a total disgusting washup. Here are some pretty slimy videos from Van Halen and Stone Temple Pilots. Enjoy.

• Stone Temple Pilot's "Sex Type Thing" Video:
• Van Halen's "(Oh) Pretty Woman" from Diver Down:

Dr Dog - The Ark

Update: See correction below and in comments. Also, go listen to Dr. Dog on "Morning Becomes Eclectic"

Just discovered this song and video via NPR's World Cafe and the blog of Kanye West. The music is psychedelic and guitar parts remind me of some White Album Beatles "Happiness is a Warm Gun" and Pink Floyd "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" from Wish You Were Here.

In "The Ark", I really like the spastic growl of vocalist Scott McMicken (oops- see correction in the comments, thanks to Lindsay), in the refrain that occurs late in the song. The imagery of this video pretty out there; still trying to explain the role of the guys spitting the seeds. They seem to be guardians or something.

According to Dr. Dog's website, they have a penchant for diminished chords and 3-part harmonies. I am a fan of the harmonies, but I haven't a clue about the chords. I tried to do some wiki-learning about diminished chords, but my ignorance can not be penetrated even by this new information.

There's some similar elements in the song "Easy Beat" which is from one of Dr. Dog's earlier efforts. Still Beatles-y, but also a little more Beach Boys.

Dr. Dog "The Ark" from Adam kurland on Vimeo.

Pavement - The Hexx and Box Elder

Pavement was the best band I never heard of while I was in high school. I didn't discover them until my buddy back in college put some Pavement on a mix CD during my last year of college. "Spit on a Stranger" was the first cut from Terror Twilight, the last album that Pavement put out. It was still another couple of years before I started dutifully collecting the other Pavement studio albums. I know that I can still see Stephen Malkmus perform if I find myself in the right place at the right time with enough money in my pocket. But I have forever missed the energy of an early Pavement performance. After sticking to a nearly strictly Pavement diet about 4 years ago, I weaned myself for a little while and have just been revisiting again. Blah blah blah on to the songs...

"The Hexx" landed on Terror Twilight. Here's a live recording of part of that song so you can get a sense of the sort of "preppie/straight guys go slightly punk and obtuse" style that Pavement was bringing in the late season of their game. Unfortunately, you don't get some of the crisp guitar elements that show up in the album cut, which I included in the next video below.

Here's the studio album cut, check out the echo-y guitar calls around 2:20, and the spacy-bluesy solo that starts at 3:35. It descends into distorted, rocky arpeggiating... and it's great for some supreme mellow air guitar sessions.


The other song I want to throw up on here is Box Elder, MO. This is from the early end of Pavement. Quirky lyrics and phrasing were a Stephen Malkmus hallmark from the beginning, but Box Elder had pretty straightforward lyrical content and straightforward rockiness was the musical vessel of delivery. Although the recording posted here doesn't quite do it justice (it's from a DVD commemorating the 10th anniversary of the album Slanted Enchantment) you can probably pick up on the simple but effective, quasi-epic-anthemic arpeggios and the dissonant, but not distorted guitar harmonics, which have a surprisingly hooky rhythm. You can also watch the happy-go-lucky seated frolicking of the early drummer Gary Young, who was eventually asked to leave the band for his constant drunken shenanigans that caused disruptions to performances.


This acoustic performance of Malkmus at the Knitting Factory from a couple of years ago give you the lyrics a little more clearly, and give you sense of the less abstract side of his songwriting. The verbal concepts and messages are mostly direct, but the casual non-sequitir or abstract image slips in now and then, too. Now that I've annoyed myself with my analysis, here's the video.

Old Grimy Songs

Hi. This is Old Grimy, and I'll now be posting to On Songs, picking up not necessarily where Slig left off, but wherever it is that music emerges from my mind through my fingertips and onto an electronic page where you can read, watch, and hear.

Bye for now

I'm going to take a long vacation from this blog so I can work on a new blog on Long Island moths. Thanks for viewing! Bye!

suxxors

amazon.com informs me that products labeled suxxors are also labelled:

abominable (1), adoption (1), ambulance chase (1), ambulance chaser (1), an act of mcarthurism (1), and shutup jack (1), anti religous (1), arsewipe (1), attack mouse (1), attention monger (1), authors who did not win peabody award (1), bad (1), bad authors (1), bad parenting guide (1), bad person (1), bad read (1), bad writing (1), bastard (1), biased (1), biased lies lies propoganda (1), bigot (1), bill oreilly (1), blatant lies (1), blind (1), books that should be burned (1), boring (1), brianboitano (1), bs (1), bugger (1), bugger off (1), bullocks (1), bullpoo (1), burns well (1), calumny (1), censor (1), chicanery (1), childish (1), childish name calling (1), closed minded (1), clueless (1), concerned parent (1), coprolagnia (1), coward (1), crazed and libelous screed (1), cruel (1), crybaby (1), debar (1), debarred (1), deceit (1), defamation (1), diarrhea (1), disbar (1), disbarred (1), divisive (1), doubt (1), draw and quarter (1), dumb (1), ego rant (1), egoistic (1), egomaniac (1), egotistical maniac (1), even more blatant lies (1), evil (1), examples for youthanasia (1), expensive firewood (1), falsified information (1), fear (1), fearmonger (1), ferret cage liner (1), firewood (1), fool (1), foolish (1), fraud (1), freemason (1), fud (1),... and 3 more pages of descriptors.

Woo Hoo!

Over the weekend, Wigan tied Tottenham Hotspur 1-1! They are now in 13th place with 5 points and 4 teams between them and relegation. I think there are three games left in the season. They are not out of the woods yet, but it could be much worse.

My top 3 videos

I haven't actually seen a lot of videos, since we didn't have MTV at home when I was a teenager. Nevertheless, in the intervening years several videos have been influential to me. Here are what would be the top three:

(3) "Pour Some Sugar on Me" - Def Leppard. The song is forgettable (and the audio in the clip is not great) but what I like about this video is that it captures all of the fun and excitement of playing a live show, from the beginning set up and sound check to the show itself.



(2) "Sabotage" - Beastie Boys

These guys capture the essence of 70s cop shows and also something trenchant about the urban environment. The characters are supposed to be funny but they are spot on for the imagery they are conveying in the video.



(1) "Been Caught Stealin' " - Jane's Addiction

This is a deeply absurd and wonderful celebration of strangeness, and of course a really good song.

Woo Hoo!

Wigan played Chelsea to a 1-1 draw! A last minute goal by Wigan in stoppage time tied it! Chelsea is the second place team in the Premier League and this dealt a severe blow to their championship hopes. Wigan is now in 15th place, 6 points out of relegation territory. Go Latics!

Toto

One of the turn-of-the-decade bands that enjoyed huge popularity but perhaps has not aged particularly, in the staying power of their music, is Toto. The band produced some really hooky rock/pop, that seemed to be heavily flavored by the art-rock trend of the 70s (e.g. Yes, Genesis). At the same time, they had some of the stylings of power rock (e.g. Triumph, Kansas) without actually being too metallic (see e.g. the Tolkein-esque art on their 1st and 4th albums).

The first song I heard of theirs was the very pleasant "99" (1976)



Of course I had heard "Hold the Line" (1978; it was and still is ubiquitous on radio) before and not really known it was them.

They had monster hits in the 80s with the massively overplayed "Rosanna" (1982), the sweet pop song "Africa" (1982) and the less well known "Stranger in Town" (1984).

Overall, an interesting band that had success in both rock and pop radio formats that was absolutely a product of their time.

Nostalgia

My top five favorite arcade video games from back in the day:



(1) Mr. Do

(2) Killer Komet (appears to have been an extremely rare game; could find nothing online about it)

(3) Xevious

(4) Front Line

(5) Time Pilot

Deep Thought of the Day

Ever since I became of age (and abandoned religion) the concept of worship always puzzled me. It seems to me that any entity that demands worship does not deserve to be worshipped. Think about it: what the hell kind of a person would demand to be worshipped?

The Tubes

The turn of the decade around 1980 was, for me, the most interesting time in pop and rock. The Tubes provide yet another great example. These guys were capable of producing both quintessential glam, as in the classic clip below of "White Punks on Dope" and supremely hooky rock/pop, as in their rock hit "Talk to Ya Later" (have to click on the link, the video was not able to be embedded). I guess interesting bands like the Tubes, if they occur at all today, are mostly in local scenes away from the national spotlight. Which is the way things appear to work these days.

Judas Potter

I'm not a huge fan of either but I like creative hybridizations. Not that this is that great but it's fun. It's amazing how tame JP sounds from this temporal distance. They were considered quite hard-edged in their early 80s heydey. But all manner of punk, speed metal, and industrial craziness outstripped the metal of that time in terms of dissonance, irreverence, and overall evilness. Enjoy...

Woo Hoo!

Wigan 2 Birmingham 0!

Wigan now has 34 points and is 15th place in the Premier League, 8 points out of relegation. Not many games left. Let's hope they stay safe.

Gardening at Night - R.E.M.

Here's a really good live version (pretty decent footage and sound), from 1984, of one R.E.M.'s many early strongly guitar driven tracks, off Chronic Town. I discovered them at about this time, when I was still in high school. Ironically, the local rock station (96 WCMF in Rochester) was playing "Pretty Persuasion" from the The Reckoning for a very short while, which was the first R.E.M. song I ever heard.

Not complaining

But spring hasn't been exactly balmy so far. Instead of getting warm air masses, we are getting slightly warmer cold air masses. This time of year we tend to get little one day tongues of warm air (often accompanied by rain) followed by big sweeping cold fronts from the northwest. Then it's chilly for a day or two and gradually warms until the next little warm front tongue laps at us. But hey, it was a mild winter with almost no snow. So we have nothing to complain about...

Pet Sematary - Ramones

Since this tune is banging around my head this morning, here it is. Great chord progression and vocal harmonies. The lead guitar lines are also very nice. It's actually a very sad song...

Hall & Oates

In the late 70s and 80s, Darryl Hall and John Oates mined the intersections between funk, soul, pop, and rock and produced a string of really great songs. Here are two of my favorites:

"Adult Education" (1983) starts with a great guitar riff and then goes very atmospheric in an anthem about post high school life. The rhythm guitar is excellent and driving throughout. The keyboards are used sparingly for crechendo, much like brass is used in funk/soul. Creative use of echoing vocal cheers (evoking the cheerleader motif) punctuate the rhythms.



"Method of Modern Love" (1984) brings the keyboards more up front and farms a deep mid-tempo groove. This song features great chord progressions and Hall's beautiful smooth, high tenor vocals. The layering of the keyboards is also very pleasing. The best part is the rally starting about two thirds through where the vocal goes hyper-active and riffs off both the backing vocal and the rhythm track. 80s pop at its best.

some art

for your pleasure...

But If You Go - M.C. 900 Ft. Jesus

A low key groove for your Thursday afternoon by the multi-talented Mark Griffin...

Back when U2 was good

[sorry no image, blogger is being temperamental tonight...]

In my opinion, U2 went downhill after The Unforgettable Fire (1984). Their early stuff was very edgy and punky and then this album came out as a set of vibrant pop anthems, expanding their sound. Problem is, they indulged in both their popularity and the softer side of their sound too much after that and really lost something that, as far as I've heard, they've never regained.

Here is the title track from that album. (Couldn't embed; disabled)

Going Under - Devo

When I was coming of age in the early 80s out in the suburban hinterlands, Devo and other new wave bands were admired by many of us nerds. At the time I hadn't been aware of Devo's role in the late 70s innovating in the punk idiom. In retrospect (I know a little more about punk these days than I did then), you can hear basic punk in a lot of their songs. "Going Under" (1981; from the album New Traditionalists) is probably my favorite Devo song. It takes a pretty simple, rhythmic sequence, sort of a rooted monotone rockabilly composition, and layers it with vocals and synth, building energy throughout the song. The synthesizers are pretty vital for the sound. But the punk resides in the energy and sense of abandon you can hear in the vocals and lyrics.

(this is just audio; the video is apparently only available via purchase)



Interestingly, this song was also used in the first season of Miami Vice:

Kid - the Pretenders

I may have blogged about them before, but it bears repeating. The Pretenders took deceptively simple rootsy rock in made it beautiful. Here's one of their prettiest early songs, "Kid" from 1979:

The Guns of Brixton - the Clash

This song, from 1979, was about the social and economic resentment in the UK (particularly the Brixton area of South London, where Clash bassist Paul Simonon, who wrote and sang the song, grew up). Brixton erupted in riots in the 80s. The raw reggae nature of the song reflects a stripped-down urban existence. I really like the rough, shambling rhythm track, with its "doink doink" effects. It's a song about a makeshift existence in a hostile and crumbling world. The poetics of discontent and survival...

image fun

I was having fun with this radar image of the recent tornado that hit Atlanta (from one of my favorite sites), so I thought I would post it.

Woo Hoo!

Wigan defeats Bolton 1-0! They are now 6 points out of relegation, in 12th place in the Premier League.

I will hopefully be able to drink again soon. I look forward to having one of these and watching some soccer then.



Cheers!

Happy Birthday to Me!

41 years on this Earth. 10+ of them married to the cutest girl in the world!
Still rockin'!!

Strange maps

Bilbo Baggins loved maps and so do I. If you ever wanted to geographically visualize all of the area codes in which Ludacris claims to have hoes, and lots of other arcana, this site is the place for you:

http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/

Little by Little - Robert Plant

Robert Plant's first three solo albums [Pictures at Eleven(1982), The Principle of Moments(1983), and Shaken 'n' Stirred (1985)] were masterpieces of atmospheric rock. They fused beautifully his strong vocals, Robbie Blunt's masterful lead guitars, mostly midtempo rhythms, and just enough hookage to get played on mainstream radio. He wasn't rehashing Zeppelin; he was exploring his own territory.

Shaken 'n' Stirred is probably the least appreciated of these albums but it has some great tracks. Here's the one that got the most airplay, "Little by Little":

latest band name idea

[idea from a discussion on atrios.blogspot.com quoting a right wing religious nut from somewhere...]

(semi) woo hoo!

Wigan played Arsenal today to a 0-0 draw! This was tough as Arsenal is currently on top of the Premier League. But they persevered through good defense and goalkeeping, with an assist from their gnarly home field. They gain another point to help them stave off relegation. There are now several teams between them and the bottom three (but only three points, so more points are definitely needed).

Since You're Gone - the Cars

The Cars brought new wave sensibility to mainstream American rock in the late 70s/early 80s. Their songs were simple, most following a standard pop formula, yet sophisticated, with an almost fragile fusion of synthesizer and guitar sounds, with understated rhythm tracks. The world Ric Ocasek and his bandmates portrayed in their songs was a hip, cynical, fast, plastic, suburban world, and, desolate as many of the songs made it seem, I wanted to live there.

"Since You're Gone" from Shake it Up (1981) perfectly exemplifies the Cars elegant songwriting. The video isn't much to look at, but the song takes a few uncomplicated parts, and weaves a complex, compelling pop song.

Fog

As many of my friends who visit this blog know, I'm taking a bunch of medications these days in an attempt to put a nasty autoimmune disease into remission. The good news is that things seem to be going well and I might be off most of the drugs in less than a month. But I have always been the kind of person who does not like taking drugs. In my adult life, I learned to appreciate Tylenol in taking the edge off of the pain of having colds/flu, but that's about it. Decongestants and other stuff I avoid. Some days in this medication regime I don't have a heck of a lot of energy and my head rather feels as if it is in a slight fog. Trying to work on these days is a bit of a chore but I've been laboring through it. I probably should do more personal research on my illness, as I am a biologist and should be able to understand it deeply. But to be honest I'm a little afraid of this. The disease is now something I have a personal relationship with, and it will be with me for the rest of my life. I'm not sure how much I want to demystify it at this point. Perhaps down the road when it seems like it is more behind me, if all goes well...

MSG

This article in today's NY Times points out that MSG not only has gotten a bad rap over the years (no medical evidence indicating that it is harmful to health in normal concentrations) but also that it has creeped into our food both at restaurants and in many processed foods under different names. I grew up eating Campbell's soups, which are delicious and have (probably lots of) MSG. Also, all kinds of chip snacks have it, including Doritos, which have one of the most addictive tastes in the universe. So I guess the bottom line is, don't worry about MSG: it makes food taste really good and it's not bad for us.

Unless of course you are talking about The Notorious MSG, who are dangerously funny:

more Morrissey

Thinking about this some more, I would even propose that Morrissey is the Elvis of our time. Notorious, iconic, decadent, controversial. Here's my absolute favorite of his: "Piccadilly Palare" (1990), an absolute genius pop song. It's apparently about male prostitution, but the lyrics (below) are fairly cryptic.



Off the rails I was and
Off the rails
I was happy to stay
GET OUT OF MY WAY
On the rack I was
Easy meat, and a reasonably good buy
A reasonably good buy

The Piccadilly palare
Was just silly slang
Between me and the boys in my gang
"So Bona to Vada. Oh you
You're lovely eek and
You're lovely riah"

We plied an ancient trade
Where we threw all life's
Instructions away
Exchanging lies and digs (my way)
Cause in a belted coat
Oh, I secretly knew
That I hadn't a clue

(No, no. No, no, no. You can't get there that way. Follow me...)

The Piccadilly palare
Was just silly slang
Between me and the boys in my gang
Exchanging palare
You wouldn't understand
Good sons like you
Never do.

So why do you smile
When you think about Earl's Court ?
But you cry when you think of all
The battles you've fought (and lost) ?
It may all end tomorrow
Or it could go on forever
In which case I'm doomed
It could go on forever
In which case I'm doomed

Some Morrissey

Last of the Famous International Playboys. One of my favorites. Great chord progressions and melodies, especially in the verse. Morrissey is over the top in a lot of ways (especially off stage) but musically he's an original.

Let's hear it for the Latics!

Wigan played Manchester City to a 0-0 draw! This gives them a point and puts them into 14th place in the Premier League. All points are good at this point to keep them away from relegation.

Getting through winter

Yesterday (and today) was very frigid. I grew up in Western NY and lived for a while in Madison, WI. Winters seemed interminable in these places. (They are a little better here on the island.) I've recently been listening to tapes of various bands I've been in. My therapy during winters was to write songs and poems about them. It helped to take some of the power of the cold and dark away. Here are the lyrics of one such song, called "Lithotripper" (named after a service called "Lithotripter" provided by a local hospital; we never found out what this was, actually).

I taste you like nothing
Hundredth hour of the same old dream
Nothing feels like yesterday
Hundred dollars thrown away

[ch]
Dark snowflakes
Make snowbanks
Ice recedes
And we bleed
This freezing
So easy
Spring will bring
Some different thing

Drank this beer like waterfalls
Dark and lonely Saturdays
Brilliant incoherent stories
One more writer blown away

[ch]

Winter just means rotting
Feed the mushrooms sending spores
Fossils smile in stones somewhere
Stones corrode on distant shores

I see you in stairways
Finally you grace my door
Finally we share the sunrise
Finally the wind is warm

Damaged Goods - Gang of Four

Leeds UK's Gang of Four worked the temporal seam between punk and the genres that came after that which were classified under the rubric "post-punk". "Damaged Goods", an early single from 1978, displays their strongly punkish beginnings. They would later incorporate funk, reggae, and technopop into the 80s, during which time they influenced a lot of bands.

(sorry neither the sound nor the video is great in this live footage from 1979; but it's the best one Youtube had to offer)

[A commenter corrects me - this is from a 1980 show. Thanks!]

Echo Beach - Martha and the Muffins

One of the great new-wave pop bands of the late 70s-early 80s was Toronto's Martha and the Muffins. You just don't hear sounds like this any more. The great low but light vocals of Martha Johnson, backed by a solid band of rockers, a healthy dose of sax (which was common in pop then and virtually absent these days). They are fun to listen to and, as in this video of their biggest hit "Echo Beach" (1980), fun to watch:

Wonderland - Big Country

Scotland's Big Country was one of my favorite bands of the 80s. They had great beats, a soulful, bagpipe-like lead guitar sound, and earnest songwriting and vocals from Stuart Adamson, who tragically committed suicide in in 2001. My favorite album of theirs is Steeltown, but here's probably their best single song, "Wonderland"

Woo Hoo!

Wigan beat Derby County 2-0! Of course, Derby is at the bottom of the Premier League. Well, the three points will help Wigan avoid being relegated along with Derby.

Cartoon Network suckage

Tonight I discovered that there's a mini-subculture of video rants on Youtube about how Cartoon Network sucks. Here's one:



I disagree with this guy about the reasons why CN sucks. I expect their shows for kids (i.e. during the day and up until 10 or so in the evening) to suck. But for me, what sucks the last few years is their adoption of completely awful Williams Street shows and the relegation of most anime to really late at night. He's also wrong about One Piece, which I find to be a very fun, interesting, and endlessly creative anime series. Nevertheless, I agree that CN has gone downhill in recent years.

Also found on the same page as this video is this, which is really funny (F U Baltimore!!)

Promised You a Miracle - Simple Minds

One of my major influences was Simple Minds. I originally discovered them like just about anybody in the US, via "Don't You Forget About Me" (1985), which they did for the movie "Breakfast Club" but IIRC they did not like (and is not on any of their albums). This led me to purchase the album "New Gold Dream 81-84" (1982) which is an immaculate collection of synth/rhythm oriented pop. One of the hits off that album was "Promised You a Miracle". Here is a lip-sync of the studio version, with Jim Kerr and the band looking very much the pretty boys:



In contrast, here is a (probably later) live version of the song, with the band in full arena mode.



The sound of Simple Minds went through a bunch of incarnations, from very edgy synth-punk at the beginning, through very smooth (danceable in many tracks) pop, exemplified by "New Gold Dream 81-84" to the U2 envy years after the "Once Upon a Time" (1985), in which they were filling arenas around the world (but never quite achieving U2 type success. As with many bands, the earlier stuff is more interesting. The peak for me was the "New Gold Gream" LP.

From 1987

Some live 'Til Tuesday for your Tuesday. This is a pretty difficult song (Aimee's demanding vocal lines, rich harmonies, layered keyboards and guitars) that they carry off quite well live. Interesting to see after hearing only the study version of this track all these years...

Cattle and Cane - the Go Betweens

While we're talking about Australian bands, there's always the Go-Betweens, one of my favorites. They had that catchy but contemplative, semi-dejected sound that the Church has also cultivated very successfully. Here's one of their hits, "Cattle and Cane". Possibly the most popular song ever done in 11/4 time. (that's right, count the beats, there are 11 per measure).

Send Me An Angel - Real Life

I bought the 45 of the original version of this song, by Australian band Real Life, which came out in 1983. The song was re-released in 1989 and much later remixed in a number of incarnations by a latter day version of the band. The original is still the best. It captures both the edgy new wave pop sound of the time, with synths and electronic drums, as well as the very strong gothic flavor. I had never seen the video before. It's a fun medieval interpretation which hits on the gothic aspects. This is a great song for the introverted, unrequited teenage lover inside all of us.

Autonomy

Driving to work this morning, I was ruminating on various conscious and subconscious obsessions of mine during childhood/young adulthood. A major one was autonomy. That is, the ability to move free in the world. The object that triggered this memory was seeing a driver education car passing in the other lane. Getting a driver's license was a major way to gain autonomy. But my yearning for a semblance of autonomy manifested itself in even more abstract ways than this. For example, I remember being obsessed with obtaining lead figures (i.e. miniature figures representing characters/monsters, but we only ever called them "lead figures"; they were made of lead) during my early D&D playing days. Not obtaining a huge collection of them. Just having them at all. This allowed a representation of my characters in D&D playing space. Also, this creeped into my love of arcade video games. In a video game, a representation of you could move freely, controlled by you. The most basic example that typically springs to my mind is the ship in the Asteroids game, which could move anywhere on the board using some basic (but somewhat difficult to master) controls. I remember these yearnings/images of autnomy even invading my dreams at the time. Now that I am a more or less fully autonomous adult, and have been for some time, it's curious to remember those old feelings. Adult autonomy came so gradually, that these feelings of limitation and weakness seemed to have disappeared without my really noticing that they had gone.

Lyrics

Another song lyric from the other night...

Nothing in Particular

Stack four rocks if you can
If your vibe is right
You can

Feel the earth
Feel the air
Be between them perfectly

Be the cold
The lines on the map
Tracing nothing in particular

[ch]
Nothing in particular
Vibrate with the train going by
Nothing in particular
Climb out of town into sky

Something in particular
Forms a snowflake
Forms her shape

Flickers like an alien message
Footprints in fog
Kisses in the weeds

You dwindle to a line
Haunted in too much time
Too well defined

[ch]
Nothing in particular
Back yards on film
Only back there
Where no one is

Singapore Rice Noodles of the Month

From Szechuan Garden in Port Jefferson Station NY. Very meaty. Nice delayed spiciness. Quite fresh and authentic.

Some Lyrics

Megachild came up with a few new songs the other night, even in the absence of our lead singer, who was off on unspecified business of some kind. The lyrics were hastily penned by yours truly. Here's one:

Meer Stroma [Mary Ann in the Mud]

One thing was for sure
The horizon ran around
I was floating in the sky
I was raining on the ground

She was dancing in my hand
A blind ballet
But if I ever closed my fingers
She would disappear like mist

[ch]
Follow her through history
Follow me falling through

Back in those days
My hands were made of clay
I would throw perfect jars
Holding nothing but me

She might as well have been wild
I knew nothing but the room
Between my eyes
Between then and now

[ch]
Circle around, she leads you
Through the field, the only thing real

Story of her life
I could just about make up
Her myth would spread like fire
Like ice in April

But the clock slid off the wall
We all grew into dust
Crawled into wrinkles on her lips
Twinkles in a wheelchair frown

[ch]...

Leave It - Yes

Yes was very successful at injecting the progressive rock agenda into the mainstream. Their success peaked with the 1983 album 90125, which was crafted to inundate radio (including Top 40) and sell in droves. The most experimental of the songs that got airtime was "Leave It". Here's the live video version, with the art-metal track "Cinema" grafted onto the front:

late night

crap, Wigan lost to Sunderland 2-0. They're only one point out of the relegation zone.

Here's some Talk Talk for the late night...



apparently the video is from a German TV show, There's informational stuff in German across the bottom as an added bonus,,,

Some Bootsy...

...for your funky Wednesday.

A Win

Woo Hoo! Wigan beat West Ham yesterday 1-0! For the moment, they are out of the relegation zone.

To celebrate, here is the song "She's Got The Looks" by the Wigan band Audiorush

Perfection

If there is a perfect vocalist, I think it's Sade. I've had a thing for her music for a long time. Not enough O's in Smooooooth to describe her voice. And she has a penchant for producing songs with the most amazing jazz-pop atmosphere.
Here's "Nothing Can Come Between Us" (lip synced to the studio version, but gives a good indication of the instrumentation for her live shows, which must be truly amazing...)

The Outfield

Mix a little Men at Work with a little American arena rock (say Journey or REO Speedwagon) and you get the apparently baseball-obsessed UK rockers The Outfield. (sorry, the vid is not embeddable). I always found their songs to be catchy and quite listenable.

Songs

There must be various sort of internal definitions, to musicians and more specifically, songwriters, as to what defines a song. It might be a melody, or a certain organization of stanzas (verse chorus bridge etc.). But to me a song, at least a pop/rock song, is largely a chord progression, or a series of chord progressions. Chord progressions provide both the hooks and a lot of the narrative content of songs. This is not to say that every song with the same chord progression is the same song. Certainly a great deal of variety has been produced using similar chord progressions (e.g. "stock" chord progressions like 1-4-5, and relative-minor-4-5 type progressions). Blues is largely centered around a very universal and limited set of chord progressions (which is why I prefer rock as a more free form arena of expression).

[Drat, Wigan lost its most recent match, 1-0, to Middlesbrough, a higher ranked Premier League team. Now they are in the bottom three of the Premier League, and hence in danger of dropping down to the lower league next season. Hopefully they can get some more wins soon.]

A Fascination

I've had a growing fascination for several things British lately. Firstly, we watched four episodes of Eastenders on PBS last weekend. It's a soap with people with messed up lives and relationships, but the atmosphere is actually quite charming. It would be great to have a community centered around a pub that you go to every night. Next, we discovered the British version of Project Runway, called Project Catwalk, on Youtube. British design aesthetics are a little bit different in a way that is hard to describe. It's fun to watch. Finally, I've decided to start to follow English Premier League Football. I needed to pick a team that isn't very good, so I chose Wigan (Wigan Athletic F.C.), who apparently recently entered the Premier League from the The Football League in 2005. They only have five wins this season and are near the bottom. They have cool blue and white jerseys. We'll be upgrading our cable service soon, so maybe I'll be able to catch some Premier League games on the telly.

Creationism in America

Yes it's ridiculous that when polled, a large plurality of Americans profess to not "believe in" evolution. In my view, I don't think most of these people have really thought about it (most of these folks probably don't spend time reflecting on much in their lives). These are not all biblical-literalist fundies; probably less than half of them are. These are people whose kids get a pretty standard (albeit probably evolution-poor) science education in public schools and are exposed via educational activities to plenty of either explicit or strongly implicit evolutionary content, e,g, dinosaurs and other aspects of the history of life on Earth in museums, on TV, and in school.

Students who go on to a college level education will get, at most colleges and universities, a modern evolution-based background in biology. Biological careers will require many courses that have a strong evolutionary component. And this component is getting stronger.

America will probably continue to be a mosaic of modern and unenlightened views on this issue, as it is for many social issues. But as long as we keep the unenlightened views out of our public education (many states need to do a better job of this) and away from influencing science policy at the state and federal levels, the supposed widespread hold of creationist views is not a threat to this country, only to the career prospects of those who hold them, if they care. Hopefully the next presidential administration will purge US science policy of much of the unscientific right wing contamination of the current administration.

Isopleiotropy and Allopleiotropy

And now for a rare science post. My laboratory studies genetic correlations between traits. Such correlations can be caused by pleiotropic genes, which are genes that affect more than one phenotype. Recently, I thought of classifying these pleiotropies into two different types. If the two traits are very similar, or essentially the same trait, such that you would expect them to utilize essentially the same set or a very similar set of genes, just at different times and places during development, then these traits are hereby be defined as isopleiotropic. On the other hand, if the traits are quite different and would not be expected to involve the same genes (but nevertheless they do), then these traits are hereby be defined allopleiotropic.

An example of isopleiotropic traits would be legs on different segments of an arthropod or eye spots on different parts of a butterfly wing. An example of allopleiotropic traits would be pigmentation and phototactic behavior in Drosophila, both of which are known to require tan, ebony, and several other genes.

How Can I Refuse? - Heart

This is a really solid pop song from an established rock band that was at the time (1982) breaking it big in the Top 40. It doesn't have the really strong guitar and vocal work from earlier classic rock songs like "Magic Man" (1976) and "Barracuda" (1977) that the band was known for, but it still captures their essential sound. The chord progressions work really well and the transitions are seamless. Rock-flavored pop at its best.

Rock Evolution

My fellow Long Island music blogger Kenosha Kid has a fun phylogenetic tree of rock as he sees it, posted on his blog. There are some inside jokes here, many of which can be eventually deciphered by reading the Powerpop blog, where some have been disparaging the Velvet Underground lately.

Single Gun Theory

Great collagist electronica band from Australia whom I've enjoyed since my grad school days, thanks again to college radio. Here's "Fall", from 1994 (they don't seem to have released much in the past decade, so I don't know if they are still together):

Sesame Street

If you're my age, you grew up with Sesame Street. Vintage 70s Sesame Street. This was a multicultural, quite urban, experience, which made it exotic to this kid who was growing up in the semi-rural suburbs of Rochester, NY. It was a microcosm of progressivism of the 70s which at that time had a temporary foothold in mainstream pop culture (which largely disappeared in the 80s/Reagan era; much of it was explicitly repudiated, and still is, by political conservatives). This song about the subway encapsulates a lot of the Sesame Street experience pretty well:

Face Dances Part II - Pete Townshend

This is a terrific keyboard driven song. Most of it is in 5/4 time. The album All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes is really great, probably his best work.

This video is one of the first I ever saw on MTV. It consists of Pete waking up, doing morning grooming, interspersed with clips of old puppets and dolls with moving facial parts. And then after the song ends, he prepares breakfast (humorously) while the soundtrack has him talking about the album and his work as a solo artist and life in general.

Saturday Jam

Some dudes jamming with guitar, bass, synthesizers, lots of drums, and an Indian banjo (bulbul tarang). They even appear to have a guy mixing their sound nodding the whole time.

Singapore Rice Noodles of the Month

From the Tea Garden restaurant in Port Jefferson Station, NY. Everything was really fresh with just the right oiliness. They captured a great smokiness in their wok as well, which is rare. Definitely one of the best SCMFs around.

Genius of Love - Tom Tom Club

Speaking of greatness, this is one of the all time great pop dance tunes. For a mid-tempo piece it's amazingly popular (always gets people out on the floor, in my DJ experience). The catchiness of the song stems from a few things: very solid yet simple dance rhythm track, the synthesizer licks, the high vocal harmonies in a very hooky chord progression. The song is both sexy and childish. It is kind of analogous to the child-like speaking voice adopted by urban women in Taiwan, which is considered stylish and sophisticated. There seems to be some kind of universal charm to such cuteness. The video is also an arty animated classic.

Eminence Front - The Who

One of the great mid-tempo rock grooves of all time...

Drop The Pilot - Joan Armatrading

One of the great things about the 80s was the huge variety of pop and rock that you could hear on US radio. This disappeared starting in the 90s and is totally gone now. American commercial radio is now a bland, worthless wasteland.

Joan Armatrading has been a legendary rocker in the UK since the early 70s. Her amazing song "Drop the Pilot" (1983) got some airplay in the US in both the rock and pop formats. I highly recommend checking out her other stuff as well (some is available on Itunes).

Negativland- NEU!

Here's some contemplative kraut-rock for your chilly Monday. This sound is one of the aesthetic precursors of industrial music (as well as a lot of 80s new wave; NEU! shared heritage and personnel with their contemporaries Kraftwerk). This particular song (from 1971) was the nominal inspiration for the American tape loop-sample artists of the same name.

Industrial III

Then of course, there's Nitzer Ebb. Other than Nine Inch Nails, which completely cracked the mainstream rock bubble in their heyday, and Ministry, which carried banners for both industrial and goth for quite a while, NE probably achieved the greatest early success for industrial music in the US, although it seemed brief. "Join in the Chant" from 1987 was ubiquitous for a while. It doesn't stand up to time as well as a lot of the other industrial stuff, in my opinion.

Industrial II

Here's another one of my favorite industrial tunes: "Worlock" by Skinny Puppy. It's a live video but the track is pretty much the studio version. The visuals of the live show are pretty impressive, depicting a lot of the post-apocalyptic industrial aesthetic. The synth-string washes in the chorus of the song are extremely beautiful.

Industrial

I'm not a huge fan of the genre but I also haven't studied it extensively. It was a staple on college radio from the mid 80s thru mid 90s and still echoes in various places today. Here is one of my favorite industrial tracks, "Quite Unusual" by Front 242. The two chord progression (major to a relative minor) is probably the reason why it stuck with me. The video is quirky and interesting, capturing a nice swath of industrial atmosphere.

On the Border - Al Stewart

Here's some Al Stewart for your Tuesday. Rock from the mid-late 70s that still goes a long way today.

Stop Draggin' My Heart Around - Tom Petty & Stevie Nicks

This is a song that has been massively and continuously overplayed on a number of different radio formats, from rock to top 40 to adult. But for me it never gets old. It's that good a song. Really simple construction. Contrasts two distinctive rock vocal styles, with some great unconventional harmonies. And the instrumentation perfectly blends keyboard and guitar work, as in all of the best of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' work, a band that was turning out the best rock and roll in America in the late 70s and early 80s.

Globus Haw

This is a product that Mrs. Slig bought recently at our local Asian grocery. I have no idea what it is (she ate them all). Some kind of dried fruit snack that she likes. But I think Globus Haw would be an excellent band name.

Tom's Diner - Suzanne Vega

Suzanne Vega, in addition to having one of the best names of any singer songwriter, has made some amazing and varied music over the years, from folk to pop to rock. One of the most interesting things she made, and one of her biggest hits, was "Tom's Diner", an a capella slice of melancholy urban life. I couldn't find a Youtube video of the original studio cut of this song, but here is a very interesting performance that she did on Second Life (a place I find not a little creepy, but that is a topic for another day).



Of course, the most played and familiar version of this song, which places the original song atop a very nice house rhythm track, was the version by DNA, which was eventually released in cooperation with SV.



Finally, an extremely delightful parody of both the song and the classic TV show I Dream of Jeannie, was done by Marilyn E Whitelaw & Mark Davis (one of a number of remakes that were compiled on an album called Tom's Album):

Last 10 plays on the ipod

"Good Things" - the BoDeans
"Nothing Natural" - Lush
"Strange Fruit" - Catherine Wheel
"Don't Be My Enemy" - Wang Chung
"Lithotripper" - U-Pump
"Budapest by Blimp" - Thomas Dolby
"Candy" - Talk Talk
"Stop Me if You Think That You've Heard This One Before" - the Smiths
"What's in Your Mind" - Mexico 70
"Unsatisfaction" - Men Without Hats