Mix Musings: Fabuteck in the tete, part 2

Part two of S—'s play mix. For part one and an explanation of the track headers, click here. Things got a lot worse before they got better as far as the trivia-test aspect went, but she charitably threw me a few bones toward the end, so I made out alright.

1. M. Ward, "To Go Home"
   Johnston
   2006

Clearly included for the benefit of our fearless leader, a big Johnston fan.

This whole exercise is beginning to highlight for me the fact that I simply don't listen to enough music. Ward falls into the crowded category of artists on this mix I've read about and never actually heard. I was about to write something along the lines of "maybe I spend too much time listening to processed-sugar-teen-pop," but we all know that's like, not possible. The answer is clearly "more", not "different". Maybe I ought to get me one of them iPod thingies all the kids are running around with these days. Get the hell off my lawn.

Heard it? No.
Own it? No.
Like it? It's fine, I guess. I think there was a time I used to dig on this sort of stuff, but now I lean more towards bigger or weirder sounds. This is just an average folk-rock combo chugging along averagely. They're good enough at it I suppose, but generally speaking if something doesn't get my butt shakin', my head bangin' or my brain melting, I get easily distracted. There are exceptions, of course. There always are.

2. Django Reinhardt [Les Paul], "Georgia On My Mind"
   ca. 1936

ALRIGHT! Now this is more my speed. I think this came out when I was in high school, or like... the war. The Good War.

My first guess was Les Paul when I hear the opening guitar solo but no, it's Reinhardt. Man, he really shreds, and it goes on for over a minute.

I've always hated the idea that older music is automatically better, but I think I'm turning into one of those old curmudgeons. It's not that I don't like music today, I like a lot of it. There was plenty of mediocre tripe clogging record stores fifty years ago as well, but most of it's gone now, washed away by time, and what's left are the classics. Time is a brutally effective aesthetic filter, n'est-ce pas?

Heard it? No.
Own it? Do not.
Like it? Oh mais oui. The guitar solo alone makes this one of my favourites on the mix.

3. ?

Absolutely stumped. No idea who or what this is. They sound British, recent vintage, that's all I can tell.

Rhythm section's pretty strong, but the guitarist really needs to step it up a bit more. Needs to listen to Parklife a few times, really. Coxon could always paint all manner of elaborate riffs across the backdrop without ever threatening to take over the song.

Heard it? No.
Own it? No.
Like it? Pleasant, though not especially distinguished.

4. ?

Again, stumped. Twice in a row. This is getting pathetic. I don't know any of these songs. Which, in a way is good, because I'm hearing all this new music, which is the whole point of a mixtape, right? But for God's sake I have a great deal of pride at stake here, and this is turning into quite an eye-opener.

Anyway, this sounds like a relic from about 1965 which, given the contents of the rest of this mix, means it was probably recorded some time last week. Actually, this one may be authentically old, a guess based entirely on the brevity of the intro; generally speaking, a newer retro act would have dragged it out for a few bars, but back in the day they used to get right down to business. Other than that I have nothing to guess.

Oh, and I think they're British. But I could be wrong.

Heard it? No sir.
Own it? No ma'am.
Like it? I do, rather. Nice little first-wave British Invasion vibe going on here. I like the "bababum-bum-bum"s especially. They're kind of silly in a Herman's Hermits sort of way, but the song doesn't last long enough for them to get cloying.

5. Pas/Cal, "I Wanna Take You Out in Your Holiday Sweater"
   2003

I figured it out, but I still have no idea who these guys are. I've never been a fan of the whole twee-pop thing, and this is no exception.

Heard it? No.
Own it? And no.
Like it? Cute enough if that's your thing I suppose, but I'm just into stuff that's a little more obnoxious.

6. Electric Light Orchestra, "Livin' Thing"
   Lynne; p: Lynne/Clark [Lynne]
   A New World Record [Olé ELO], Jet [Columbia¹], 1976

Ah, ELO. Due for a critical reappraisal, methinks, and perhaps they'll get it in the wake of Stylus's head-scratching choice of them as the inaugural inductees into their rather confusing Hall of Fame pantheon². I've always thought of ELO as a band with a great sound and not many great songs, but on the other hand I've never given them much time. I tried when that Stylus article posted and just wasn't that into it.

Still, of the few songs by them I've always liked this one's certainly up there. I've always had a soft spot for massive overproduction, particularly when it involves gobs of wildly unnecessary string sections, and this tracks got 'em in spades.

Heard it? Yes.
Own it? On a best-of cassette, I think.
Like it? You betcha.

7. Brian Jonestown Massacre
   Newcombe

The funniest thing about that movie DiG! is all the testimonials from people talking about what an unheralded genius Anton Newcombe is, but if he's ever written a single above-average, let alone great (or even good), song, I have yet to hear it. He strikes me as little more than a remarkably prolific hack with an ego the size of Oklahoma. This sounds like all of his half-assed output: tossed off and half-baked.

I was unable to confirm that this actually is the BJM, and have no interest in sifting through their monstrous catalogue to find out, but suffice to say that if it's not then it's some BJM knockoff, in which case they're even worse.

Heard it? It sounds familiar; if it's in DiG!, then yes. On the other hand, if you've heard one of BJM's "songs", you've heard most of them.
Own it? Pass.
Like it? Guess.

8. Monty Python, "Sit On My Face"
   Idle/Parr-Davies [Monty Python]
   Monty Pyton's Contractual Obligation Album [The Monty Python Matching Tie & Handkerchief], 1980³

Fuck YEAH! My inner nerd is dancing with joy right now. Dancing with joy, reciting entire scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail and emphatically not getting laid. All while laughing his ass off.

This one falls into the category of mixtape classics, those ninety-second-or-less kneeslappers you'd always throw at the end of a side when there's no room for a full song. Good for a laugh every time the tape plays.⁴ Top ten mixtape classics, in no particular order:

• Bad Brains, "Pay to Cum"

Hard to believe this was once like the fastest song imaginable. The rhythm still sounds absolutely relentless with that skipped half-beat at the end of the fourth measure in the main riff. I read that this used to be a pretty standard audition song for early-80s hardcore bands; if the singer could sing fast enough to pull it off, he was in.
• The Minutemen, "Ack Ack Ack"

Classic. Basically just a sixty-second build to nothing.
• The Art of Noise, "Snapshot"

Best appropriation of the "Baba O'Riley" riff ever.
• Bikini Kill, "In Accordance to Natural Law"

Second-best appropriation of the "Baba O'Riley" riff. Also well-worth hearing at half speed if you've got the seven-inch.
• They Might Be Giants, "Minimum Wage"

Nerd-pop at its most gut-bustingly lush. I'm not gonna say there's never been a bad song with a whipcrack sample, I'm just saying I haven't heard it yet.
• God Is My Co-Pilot, "Su Vot² Esta Su Voz"

Let me just say I know someone who's never laughed harder in his life as when he listened to this song on acid about a dozen times in a row. Anything beyond that and I plead the fifth.
• De La Soul, "A Little Bit of Soap", "Can U Keep a Secret", "Take it Off"

3 Feet High and Rising had some of my favourite fragment songs of hiphop's golden age. Any one of these still gets a laugh to this day; the dated fashion references in "Take" only add layers to the humour.
• Any song from the Dwarves' Blood Guts & Pussy album

Besides having one of the greatest titles and album covers of all time, this one's just loaded with mixtape classics. Just about every song is under two minutes, and all of them rock. The finest of an unstoppable bunch includes "Back Seat of My Car", "Drug Store", "Skin-Poppin' Slut" and "Motherfucker". But really, you can't go wrong with any of 'em.

What ever happened to the Dwarves, anyway? They may still be around, but they were never the same after Sub Pop dropped them for faking the lead guitarist's death. Ah well.

• Napalm Death, "You Suffer"

Closed out my own mix with this one, one of the greatest songs ever recorded because not only is it one second long, but within that sliver of time lurks an actual song. It has a beginning and an end (in that they start playing and quickly stop again) and two lines of lyrics, which go as follows:

You suffer!
But why?

And really, isn't that what life's all about? Flipper⁵ used to take at least six minutes to say the same thing.
• Monty Python, "Sit On My Face"

If you've ever been able to parse the penultimate line of the lyrics, you've got one up on me.

Heard it? Oh yeah.
Own it? On more than one cassette, I think. Store-bought cassettes, not mixtapes. Nerd power!
Like it? You better believe it baby.

9. Elvis Presley, "Don't Be Cruel"
   Blackwell [Axton]; p: Sholes [Phillips]
   (single, b/w "Hound Dog"), RCA [Sun], 1956

Seeing as I just finished Guralnick's biography, I'm a little embarrassed that I mistook this for a Sun cut, but had I known it was RCA I totally would have got Steve Sholes as the producer. And hey, I got the b-side (or, in this case aa-side) right, so that's worth half a bonus point, right?

What else can one say about this number? The King didn't record a single less-than-terrific song in '56, and this one holds up as one of the best of an unstoppable bunch. Thank God it's not the Cheap Trick cover.⁶

Heard it? Hell yeah.
Own it? Believe it or not, I may not have the original version anywhere, but I know I've got several live versions.
Like it? And how.

10. Madness, "House of Fun"
    Stiff [Two-Tone], 1982

The nutty boys! Love 'em! I'm also a bit embarrassed for getting the label wrong on this one, as I just read that Simon Reynolds book earlier this year, but hey, I've gotta save a few brain cells for school.

Worth noting that the boys' rendition of "One Step Beyond" barely missed the cut for my own mix. Can't go wrong with any of the old singles, really. Great video, too. I love the goofy choreography in all those old Madness videos.

Heard it? Hell yeah.
Own it? No, but it's on Rhapsody.
Like it? If you don't like it check y'pulse.

In conclusion...

Solid mix. Holds together pretty well from one song to the next for the most part, at least until the end, when there's a palpable sense of "running out of space, gotta get this one on somewhere!". Like all the best mixtapes. More than half the songs I'd never heard before, and several of those were by acts I'd been meaning to check out, so bonus points there.

As for the no-tracklist challenge, I think I did pretty well, considering my advanced age and all. I don't think I got a single one from this decade, which should tell you something right there. Oh wait, I got the Art Brut one. And I think I counted three absolute stumps. But it's the game that counts, not the results.

When my wife and I were first dating I made her a mixtape without a tracklist, the idea being that if she really liked a song she could ask me what it was and we'd, like, talk about music. Yeah, I was lame, so what, she married me, so who's laughing now? Anyway, she was pissed, thought it was a dumb idea and just wanted to know what the songs were, not talk about them.⁷ We still talk about music sometimes, though. Or at least I do. She just smiles politely and pretends to listen.

Tangents & Clarifications

1. I'm pretty sure Columbia was distributing Jet in those days, so I should get partial credit for this. [Return]
2. The pedestal has since been expanded to include Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and the Boredoms, to give you an idea of the aesthetic at work here. Or lack thereof. [Return]
3. The song probably dates from an earlier year, but that's the year of the first album to include it, so I'm counting my guess as correct, even though I got the album wrong. [Return]
4. It just occured to me that there's a whole generation of kids now who've neither heard nor made a mixtape. Hell, the really young ones probably don't even bother burning CDs anymore, they just email each other iTunes playlists or something. Lost charms of the tape: two side-openers/-closers, difficulty of skipping a track, gradual sonic deterioration... Those were the days... [Return]
5. Irrelevant trivia note: I dated Flipper bassist Will Shatter's cousin in college. So there. [Return]
6. Of course, S— may not have been born yet during during that insufferable video's run of MTV ubiquity, but anyone my age will certainly groan at the memory of that stupid remote control gimmick before the last chorus. See? [Return]
7. Interesting little I-should-have-known-even-then note: I put Yo La Tengo's "Sugarcube" near the beginning of the tape, a surefire winning move. I mean, you could never go wrong putting Yo La Tengo on a mixtape for a girl. To my shock and disappointment, she thought it was kind of cheesy(?!?). A few cuts later was the Fall's "Free Range", a risky move for a girl mix^a, but she recognised it right away and said she loved the Fall. I mean, should there have been any question after that? [Return]
1. Not that that ever stopped me; I always believed, and still believe, that the best mixtapes are the ones you make for yourself first and foremost, and anyone else can take it or leave it. This may be a small step toward explaining my long run of lousy luck with girls, but why dwell on the past?

Mix Musings: Fabuteck in the tete, part 1

You know that bit in the Bible about throwing bread in the water? I made a mix for the cast of the show and received three mixes in the space of 48 hours. Which gives me plenty to listen to and an excuse to write on this thing again. I'll go through them one by one over the next I don't know how long, starting with the one I got first (and, I suspect, the most carefully thought-out).

So S— made a mix for the show as well but didn't give me a track list with my copy, daring me to figure it out for myself. I love a good challenge, so here's my take on the first ten tracks; second half to follow later this week. The format of the headers is as follows:

[track#]. [artist], "[title]"
[songwriter]; p: [producer]
[album title], [label], [year]

Anything in bold is stuff I knew without having to look it up; if I guessed wrong, my original guess is in brackets following the correct information. I didn't bother looking up everything on every track, mind you, just checked my answers and threw in a few more relevant data. And yes, I am showing off. Or thought I was, until I got past the first few tracks and S— began schooling me.

Oh, and there are no tracks, excepts or links posted; I don't have the storage space for mp3s and besides, if anyone really wants to hear one of these I'm sure they'll be resourceful enough to find them.

And no, I have no idea what the title means. On with the show...

1. Talking Heads, "Heaven"
   Byrne; p: ? [Eno]
   ? [Fear of Music, Sire, 1979]

When I was in high school I rented a copy of Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense from the local video store. After watching it, I hooked the VCR up to the stereo and taped the movie, so that I could walk around and listen to it on my Walkman. My favourite number was always the second one, a version of "Heaven" sung as a duet by David Byrne and Tina Weymouth. At the time, I didn't really appreciate the alarmingly bleak subtext of the lyrics, I just thought the voices sounded pretty on the chorus. I've always been a sucker for sappy ballads, I guess.

This is not the version from Stop Making Sense. Nor is it the version from Fear of Music. I have no idea whence this comes. Based on the sound of the recording, the tone of Byrne's voice, the hurried tempo and the half-time arrangement in the chorus, my guess is that it's an early demo, a snapshot of what the song sounded like before Brian Eno got ahold of it. But as for the source, I'm stumped. It's not on the Heads' 2003 box set, it's not on Rhino's 2006 Bonus Rarities & Outtakes, and I don't know where else to look. There's an outside shot that this could be a cover version by a band that sounds a lot like the Heads, but I doubt it.

Heard it? Not this version, but I know the song well enough.
Own it? I have Fear of Music, if that counts.
Like it? Not as much as the album and acoustic versions at first, but it's grown on me with a few listens, especially the coda. Bonus points to the compiler for the rare alternate version, always a winning mixtape move.

2. Sam Cooke, "I'll Come Running Back to You"
   Cooke
   Specialty, 1958

I've never heard this song in my life, but I knew after the first few lines it was Cooke. What a voice. Apparently something of a hit for Specialty in '58, but doesn't make the cut for the majority of Cooke's multitude of best-ofs. Can't see why; it's delightfully breezy, with just the right hint of melancholy to carry the down-but-not-out tone of the lyrics.

Heard it? Never.
Own it? Nope.
Like it? Indeed.

3. The Magnetic Fields, "Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits"
   Merritt; p: Merritt
   69 Love Songs, Merge

Hmmm, I don't know this song, but why is my hand instinctively balling up into a fist of its own accord? Why, it must be Stephen Merritt with yet another musical dare to punch him in the face. While I find much to admire in Merritt's work (prolificacy, individualism, omnivorous genre-sampling, literary pretention), and don't buy for a second the ridiculous charges of racism that have been leveled against him for his musical tastes, I have little interest in listening to his music. I can't explain why other than to say that he simply annoys the shit out of me. He seems to write songs about fucking exclusively for an audience of nerdy white people who don't fuck. Yuck. I mean really, can you picture anyone actually having sex to this music? Well, I dunno, people get into all kinds of nutty stuff, so whom am I to judge?

Heard it? Probably not, though I have seen him live a couple times, so I may just not remember it.
Own it? No thank you.
Like it? While I admire the raunchy lyrics, I've never cared much for the cheap Casio aesthetic of this particular strain of indie rock.

4. Art Brut, "My Little Brother"
   ? [Argos/Art Brut]; p: ?
   Bang Bang Rock &[n'] Roll, Fierce Panda, 2005

Ah yes, the mighty Art Brut, and yes, I really did know their UK label without having to look it up.¹

I think most of my feelings about the Brut have been adequately covered, but this particular song brings to mind a rumour I heard recently that Brut frontman Eddie Argos is in fact the elder brother of noted rock n' roll trainwreck Pete Doherty, late of the notorious Libertines and arguably England's most famous crack addict, and that this song is about Doherty. I'd like to take this opportunity to go on record as saying that I'm not buying it, any more than I buy Drummond and Cauty's claim that they "created" Doherty.

Heard it? Hell yeah.
Own it? Actually, no; it's on Rhapsody, so no need.
Like it? Love it. I might've gone with "Formed a Band" if it were my mix, but it's not, is it?

5. Sondre Lerche, "Two Way Monologue"
   2004

Never heard the song, no idea who this guy is. How did I figure it out, you ask? I have my ways.

My first guess at the accent was Scottish, but lo and behold he's Norwegian; shows what I know. So he's this singer-songwriter guy, and quite a wordy little chap indeed. Five winding minutes of jumbled non sequiturs, some of them no doubt elaborate metaphors, others perhaps just an English-as-a-second-language thing. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt most of the time as he seems to know what he's doing, but he lost me well before the bit about Michael Landon. The overarching theme appears to be the difficulty of communicating effectively with one's parents which, combined with the arcane wordplay, makes it a natural for dorm-room dissection.

Heard it? Never.
Own it? Nope.
Like it? Not bad. The production is strong enough to keep things interesting without getting in the way of the lyrics. Not something I'd go out of my way to listen to, but I can appreciate its strengths. Curious to see whether I find myself drawn back to this one in the coming weeks.

6. "Balinese"
   Beard/Gibbons/Hill [Gibbons]

Okay, I'm officially stumped. I know the song, of course, and love that there's a little vintage ZZTop in the mix, but can find no record of anyone having released a cover of it. It's got sort of a white-album-era Beatles sound to the production and to the singer's Lennon-esque voice, but I'm assuming it's of a far more recent vintage. I graciously concede.

Heard it? Not this version.
Own it? Ditto.
Like it? Like it? It's a ZZTop tune! What's not to like?

7. The Black Keys, "Midnight in Her Eyes"
   Thickfreakness, 2003

I heard the Black Keys for the first time ever like two weeks ago and was surprised to find that I liked it. Based on what I'd read I expected a minstrel show along the lines of John Spencer, but instead found something far more... I hate to use the word "authentic" because (a) I find the notion of authenticity in music repellent², and (b) that would imply that they sound like John Lee Hooker or something, and they don't, they sound rather like an actual American blues-based arena rock band from the 1970s.

Ditto this track. When I first heard it I just assumed it was some long-forgotten 70s hairbags like Black Oak Arkansas or some such. Actually, that's not true. After the first few chords I thought it was Donovan's "Season of the Witch," a notion which was quickly dispelled as the rest of the song kicked in and I moved on to trying to figure out whether it was Grand Funk Railroad or Gentle Giant. But no, it's the Black Keys, sounding quite authentically like some inauthentic 70s blooze rawk. Bang on.

Heard it? Nope.
Own it? Nope.
Like it? I rather do, as a matter of fact, backhanded though the comments above may seem. I mean, I kind of like Foghat. Tight groove, solid riff, low-key vibe; the vocalist overdoes the mumbly-mumbly routine a bit, but his voice is pleasantly warm and growly enough.

8. The Walkmen [Bob Dylan], "Louisiana"
   Walkmen [Dylan]; p: ?
   A Hundred Miles Off [The Basement Tapes], Record Collection [Columbia], 2006 [1967]

For the first time since starting to work my way through this thing, I am thoroughly embarrassed. I was completely fooled into thinking this was an old Dylan track, most likely from the Big Pink tapes with the Band. Maybe not on the official album (what can I say, it was an educated guess), but at least buried somewhere in the complete sessions. The real giveaway should have been the vocal reaches in the chorus, the only place the singer really diverges from sounding so much like Bob.

These last three tracks seem to be pointing towards an interesting trend within the mix as a whole: newer bands going to great trouble to sound old. Or, if you must, to sound "authentic". Mind you, this is all curated by someone who slagged me off for putting the Pipettes on a mix.

Heard it? Nada.
Own it? Nolo.
Like it? Cute, but ultimately disposable. A track like this can't help but raise the obvious question, why not just listen to Blonde on Blonde?

9. Lions in the Street, "Mine Ain't Yours"
   2006 [2005]

Not wishing to be fooled yet again, I heard the sound of 70s AOR, immediately assumed it to be yet another recent retro act, and guess what? It's still not as old as I thought it was.

This sounds exactly like a lot of other bands from both yesterday and today. Which is not to say bad, mind you, just fairly undistinguished; nothing really sets this particular act apart from their hordes of sweaty, bellbottomed peers. Next.

Heard it? No.
Own it? Uh-uh.
Like it? I wouldn't change the station if it came on the radio, but I doubt I'd notice if I never heard it again. Draw your own conclusions.

10. The Unicorns, "Sea Ghost"
    2003

I read about the Unicorns a while back and gave Who Will Cut Our Hair a listen but couldn't get into it. In hindsight I have no recollection why; too cute, perhaps. Anyway, I didn't recognise the track. After digging on the initial flute solo, I was immediately turned off when the band kicked in with yet another variation on that same old retro-garagey guitar rock sound, but was immediately drawn back in by a whole mess of left turns throughout the arrangement. It's always nice (and sadly rare) to hear a band that's figured out how to write songs that are simultaneously adventurous and compact. Like, say, the Futureheads. Or Swell Maps. The Unicorns are a bit more accessible than that, but their restless spirit still shines through.

Heard it? Apparently.
Own it? Nope.
Like it? Quite a bit, actually, and I plan on going back and giving the album a few more listens.

Tangents & Clarifications

1. How did I know it? Because I sent them a demo. Seriously. [Return]
2. In more ways than one, i.e., the idea that older automatically equals better, as well as the notion that ripping off old styles must be done with any degree of reverence. Sure there are times when I can do without the irony, but just as many if not many more when a snicker-at-your-idols sort of irreverence is both welcome and warranted. [Return]