Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Love Makes the World Go Round



...instead of just making the big rock in space go round.

Johny Osbourne with Bunny Brown - Love Makes The World Go Round (mp3)

Buy at iTunes Music Store

About Us

This is about that time of year where we start to draw a collective blank. Distractions are flung at us from everywhere: do we have everything that we need for the holidays what do we need to finish at work they already have too much maybe we've been eating too much lately we hope she likes what we give her the economy sucks and we're so close to our limit and our jobs are not as secure as they were... ... ... ...stop.

And so, something random.

But still, something good.

And keep in mind, as the late David Foster Wallace might say: It's not about us.

Throwing Muses - Juno (mp3)

Monday, December 22, 2008

Boss Hog - Live on WFMU 12-20-2008

It seems like ages since those racy (Cristina Martinez, hello!!) Boss Hog videos were played on late-night MTV. And here's the band now, sounding as racy and unfiltered as ever, live in studio for Terre T's Cherry Blossom Clinic on WFMU.

Before you listen, a bit of history, from their web page:

Cristina Martinez and Jon Spencer met on the feast of Immaculate Conception in 1985 at a Jesus & Mary Chain show at the original 9:30 club in Washington, D.C...Boss Hog started in 1989 as a last minute fill in for a cancelled group at New York’s famed CBGB’s. Cristina assembled a group of rag-tag players to form the original all-star line up of Boss Hog. It included members of Pussy Galore, the Honeymoon Killers and Unsane. A constantly rotating cast of misunderstood misfits. Very angry, very volatile. The perfect medium to express their rage, their confusion, their sense of humor, their love of music...




Boss Hog - Trouble (Live, Cherry Blossom Clinic, 12-20-2008)(mp3)
Listen to the rest here.

And a racy vid:

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Top 10 of 2008.

1. Beck - Modern Guilt

As bleak and penetrating as it is groove-suffused, Modern Guilt is at its surface beat-heavy danceable psych pop, but at its heart, it's an exploration of spiritual emptiness set in a labyrinth of illusion and routine. It is an album of good music and hard questions.


2. TV On The Radio - Dear Science

Some of this year's most arousing rock and soul/funk sounds are herein, from this 'post-racial' college favorite.


3. Okkervil River - The Stand-Ins

A line in any of Will Sheff's songs says and implies more than most entire albums by ordinary songwriters. The Wrens' Charles Bissel allows for an added dimension and extra punch to their songs. The Stand-Ins proves that poetic rock isn't necessarily an oxymoron.


4. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

Raw, Reader, Raw!!!


5. The Kills - Midnight Boom

Listen to Midnight Boom.
Get a room.


6. The Raveonettes - Lust, Lust, Lust

Hands down the year's best road album. Too bad I have the wrong car for listening to this album - something like this would be more appropriate:



7. The Submarines - Honeysuckle Weeks

Suspiciously sunny, and at first listen, maybe too bright to be taken seriously. Confirmation: You, Me, & The Bourgeoisie was in an Apple commercial. But taken in the context of their marital reunion, it becomes just the substance that we need.


8. Vivian Girls

...which has more balls than the boys have.


9. The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely

Worth the price of the album just for the Zep-like vocal break in the title track. The rest of the album is a riot of riffs, licks, and hard luck drama. And though I didn't see them live, I heard them on the internet radio live, and I could swear that my computer started sweating.


10. R.E.M. - Murmur (Deluxe Editon) - Disc 2

I would have placed this at #1 if I weren't already cheating. I'm not blaspheming when I say that I'd rather listen to the live bonus disc than the remastered studio album, which many critics regard as both R.E.M.'s best album AND the best album, period, of the 1980's. This is a reminder that yes, they were that good.

The Daily Flashback: Sonic Youth - Drunken Butterfly (Live on Jools Holland, 1992)

Band of Susans - Too Late (Wire)(1989 Peel Session)



From 1989. Band of Susans, who do not exist on iTunes, were a noise guitar band with a tendency toward the epic. Here, though, is a live, tight Peel Session version of Too Late.

Band of Susans - Too Long (Wire)(1989 Peel Session)(mp3)

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The Daily Flashback: Q and Not U - Last show at Ft. Reno, Washington, DC

Okay, this didn't exactly happen ages ago, but it was sooo good, it's blogworthy, and I was there. I think I see myself up there near the front.

Kokolo - Girls on Film (Duran Duran)

Yes, it's the Duran Duran song. And yet, it's not.

Kokolo - Girls On Film (Duran Duran)(mp3)

Here's a golden little Wiki nugget:
Girls on Film was originally written by Andy Wickett, Duran Duran's previous singer before Simon Le Bon. The original demo of the song has a very peculiar sound that differs somewhat from the final album version recorded in 1981. When Wickett left the band, Duran Duran bought the song from him for £600 and made him sign a waiver removing his rights to the song.


From the Soul Shaker, Vol 5 compilation that I posted from yesterday.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Sara Lov - My Body Is A Cage (Arcade Fire)

Sara Lov, formerly of Devics, is doing her own thing nowadays, like this cover of Arcade Fire's My Body Is A Cage.



Download (.mov)
Listen to more on her myspace.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Long Winters concert film

The Long Winters have a limited edition concert film out, called Live at the Showbox, recorded in 2007, in support of their excellent album, Putting The Days To Bed.

Here are a few tracks from the DVD:

Scared Straight
Clouds
Cinnamon

Get the DVD here.

Monday, December 08, 2008

The Daily Flashback: Have you played Atari today?

How do you get the entire family together for an afternoon of interactive fun??!!!

Y La Bamba



A young lady keeping herself company, shooing the pain away with a song, a lone guitar, and a voice recorder.

Y La Bamba - Alida St. (mp3)

From Alida Street

Friday, December 05, 2008

The Daily Flashback: GH - Frisco sings "Lady of My Heart" to Felicia at their wedding



Here are some of the YouTube comments on this clip:

Why don't they have this on I Tunes?

I used to sing this song to my ex wife, just like this, and she had the same look in her eyes that Felicia did. I miss that look so much it hurts...even after a couple of years without her, I can't stop thinking about her...I'll always love her!

does any one have a clip when frisco sang to felicia while she was with colton back eposide 89?

Felicia is an Aztec Princess. That's why she is dressed that way.

Frisco & Felicia were the all time BEST supercouple ever!...

Aren't they all dead now?

So sweet. I'm gonna cry now. I loved Frisco and Felicia.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

The Daily Flashback: bis - This is Fake D.I.Y.

A classic that you might have forgotten about.

I am such a bore. I can't take it any more.



It's not easy knowing when to let go
When you want to hang on, when you write a bad song
So simple saying the things you believe
But no one knows what I mean. No one knows what I mean.

I am such a bore
I can't take it any more
But school's out forever
And I'm never gonna let it go. I'm never gonna let it go.


Dear Nora's songs are fleeting numbers, with unadorned electric guitar baring simple chords and melodies beside the heartbroken harmonies of bared adolescent pain. Cheers to that.

These three songs combined add up to just over five and a half minutes.

Dear Nora mp3s from Three States: Dear Nora Rarities 1997-2007:

Up On The Roof
When You Write A Bad Song
Second Hand