extra crazy on top

I finally got a subscription to netflix for the summer. My queue includes a mix of Jean Seberg, film noir, foreign movies, and one Albert Brooks comedy.

I'm also excited to see The Shield Around the K: The Story of K Records. I really admire the whole philosophy and aesthetic of K Records and its founder Calvin Johnson. Calvin is basically a god of indie rock. Not only did he found K Records and work on the fanzine that eventually became Sub Pop, he also formed Beat Happening, created an International Pop Underground, and helped Built To Spill, Modest Mouse, and Beck get their starts (among others.)

The Halo Benders - Don't Touch My Bikini
Halo Benders is Calvin's collaboration with Doug Martsch of Built To Spill.
It usually leans more toward Beat Happening than Built To Spill. Calvin's baritone mixes with Martsch's higher vocals to form a perfect sweet and sour effect. Don't Touch My Bikini is an instantly likable, retro dance number with really weird wordplay ("go to heaven, go to paris/7-11, roger maris?") It will always be funny when Calvin sings the titular lyric, followed by "Looking is free but touching's going to cost you something."

Heavenly - C is a Heavenly Option
A much sweeter duet between Calvin and Heavenly's Amelia Fletcher. Sadly, this was my "jam" all last April; I couldn't stop listening to it. It's that great. The lyrics are multiple choice and involve several relationship problems ("my boyfriend has no fashion sense.") It works really well with the duet style. Kind of uplifting, a good philosophy, perfect for K Records.
I would let this song be in the musical of my life.

Beat Happening - Cast A Shadow
Classic Beat Happening song. Simple Velvet-style drums and guitar combo with Calvin asking for "shadows of your protection." Often covered, most Beat Happening songs were pretty simple yet undeniably catchy and charismatic.

The cliche embedded youtube clip. One of my favorites. Beat Happening performing Black Candy at some weird public access show:


Also, Calvin made a mixtape for Tokion FM that can be found here.

Me=Terrible Blogger

Sometimes I feel like this blog isn't mine. I feel like I have a responsibility to the public to post good music even if I have nothing interesting to say. I guess I'm going to shut up sometimes and just post songs. I'll probably update more that way but with less substance. Is that better?

SO
what you need to know: Mark Robinson of Unrest and Air Miami is pretty much great.

Air Miami -
World Cup Fever makes me want to play soccer and score a goal with my head. Kind of dumb catchy song.

Unrest -
Yes She Is My Skinhead Girl is pretty frank. "I want to meet you. I want to fuck you all the time." Probably their best song. I guess Nirvana covered it once? Despite popular opinion, it is not about Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta.

Six Layer Cake is one of the first songs I would put on a numbers mix-CD. Not Numb3rs, numbers. It is from their best album Perfect Teeth, a CD I found in a local bargain bin like three years ago. Best bargain find ever. Except for the Steve Albini produced Fred Schneider solo album. What do you think they talked about in the studio? Love Shack? Surfer Rosa? Natalie Portman?

I write more when I try to write nothing than when I try to write something.

SSLYBY on OC

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin comes from my hometown, Springfield, MO. Rumors have been flying about their recent tour: robbery? Fred Savage? Phil Dickey involved in a pyrotechnic accident? (That rumor turned out to be Metallica's James Hetfield, in 1992.) Tonight their song "Oregon Girl" will be played on The OC. Hopefully during one of three scenarios:

1. Ryan punches someone.
2. Julie tries to redeem herself for her past mistakes.
3. Sandy waxes his eyebrows.

Here's a song from their self-released EP, it's a Mommyhead's cover:

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Accident

OC totally stole my idea. This is SSLYBY playing on a talk show I had to do for a terrible media class about a year ago. We didn't even have a CD player for the shoot so we had to drive a truck into the studio and use its player. If Boris Yeltsin didn't come, some girl was going to have her boyfriend's band, Two Finger Tease, come and play. The show was worse than Magic Johnson's talk show, and everyone hated it. Especially Phil:



Be SSLYBY's friend on myspace and buy Broom. Fred Savage likes it!

There's something going wrong around here.

I was talking about Joe Jackson at work the other day and it reminded me of how great his first album was. He's a classically trained musician who adopted the new wave style for his debut record "Look Sharp!" back in 1979. The album is most famous for the new wave hit "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" a perfect song for any self-important, romantic adolescent. What guy hasn't looked at a couple and thought, "I'm so much better than that jock?"

The majority of the album explores similar lyrical territory in catchy new wave pop. Not unlike Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson was an intelligent, frustrated teenager who wrote snappy punk rock for the lonely set. The year Gang of Four were attacking capitalism and The Clash were warning us of nuclear errors, Joe Jackson just wanted to sing about happy couples and gorillas.

The opening track sets a pretty high standard for the rest of the album. It opens with a scrappy guitar lick, followed by a running bass, and some of Jackson's most affecting lyrics. It's kind of strange to open a poppy new wave album with such a desperate, hopeless song, but amazing none the less.
One More Time

This is the song I always almost want to listen to at dance parties, but I'm afraid the piano break at 1:51 would just confuse everybody. Pure seventies strut and attitude, Joe Jackson at his most confident and sarcastic. The line "Check your watch and wallet now" always pumps me up for some reason.
Look Sharp!

Joe Jackson hates couples and so should you.
Happy Loving Couples

Sorry if EZArchive is being sluggish. Buy Look Sharp here.
Right, that's enough.

I'm in love, what's that song?

Name-checked by The Replacements, covered by everyone (Elliot Smith, Wilco, The Decemberists, Teenage Fanclub, etc.), and one of the most influential bands in all indie rock, Big Star perfectly captured various elements of pop past (The Beatles, The Byrds, and The Who) and combined them to create a stong prototype for the future. Unfortunately, they're probably best known for the song "In The Street" which was covered by Cheap Trick for the That 70's Show's theme song. I also recently heard their song "I'm In Love With A Girl" on a commercial.

Lead singer Alex Chilton is a pop genius, and one of the original cynical romantics in power pop. He best captured the feeling of adolescent romance in his own lazy kind of way. For me, lines like "I love you, well, never mind" and "I like love, but, I don't know" effortlessly depict the insecurity of teenage feelings in a simple, concise way.

That said, Chilton's probably insane. My favorite Big Star annecdote comes from the recording of Third/Sister Lovers when Chilton purposely sabotaged a possible single by using a basketball for a snare drum.

Here's some tracks from Radio City:

Way Out West
You Get What You Deserve
September Gurls

I strongly recommend #1 Record/Radio City, their first two studio albums on one CD.

New Les Savy Fav

I'm not sure if I should post this. If it makes someone mad then I'll take it down as soon as I can. In fact, I'm only going to put this song up for a couple of days so get it while it's hot. It's from Plagues & Snakes, their new Austrailian Tour single. I like the first track, it's pretty calming. It kind of reminds me of Fugazi's I'm So Tired, just an interesting piano-based song.

About the single, Tim Harrington says, “It’s like two songs that are classic, but it’s lost the point. Like, what’s the point of doing two songs now? 45’s are doomed with mp3’s and all this stuff, but it’s such a great number - just natural two, it’s not as arty as three and not as fancy as one, which is so lonely. Two is interesting and cryptic.”

Les Savy Fav - When You Wake Up a Snake

You can download the single at emusic.

i have seen all your movies

Busy busy busy. I just got back from Chicago and St. Louis, and I'm going to Kansas City and Seattle next week (Dallas and Chicago too, to change planes.) The short version of the story is I'm going to see Belle and Sebastian twice in two weeks.

I caught myself singing this song out loud the other day so I thought it was worth posting. They're called Oh No! Oh My! after a song by The Robot Ate Me. They changed their name from the Jolly Rogers because they claimed there were too many bands with the Jolly Rogers moniker. I wonder who would win in a fight between Hey Hey My My and Oh No! Oh My! (Not to mention insane Philly band Man Man and bedroom electro act Mylo.)

Anyway, they remind me of Of Montreal as well as other current synth-pop groups like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah or Spinto Band. Visit their website, it's a pirate map. They're selling two CDRs of their work for two dollars, and they should have an actual manufactured release sometime soon.

Oh No! Oh My! - I Have No Sister