NOEXTEHO

This is my best-of-2007 list. I hate best of lists. My list only has one item:

Wire's "23 Years Too Late" (off the EP Read & Burn 03) is not just the best song of 2007, it's the best anything of 2007. Very little this year has brought me as much pleasure as this song. I love love love when a band that started before I was born can still make amazing music. The ominous, bass-y spoken word makes this song almost like a post-punk version of Thriller. Now that I think about it, that's a fairly apt comparison.

(FYI: The rest of the EP is alright, but this one song makes the purchase more than worth it. I hardly ever get to the other songs on the CD because I keep listening to this one over and over and over.)

If you, like me, think that the "Me And My Rhythmbox" scene is one of the greatest moments ever committed to film, you might also be interested in the soundtrack to Liquid Sky, the movie it's from. Well, it just so happens that Heino und Jerry have made yet another post of awesome music. I alternate between only liking that one song and loving the whole cheesy thing. Right now, I'm listening to that one song over and over and over until my train ride in the morning.

Maybe there are other sites like Passing By that randomly show a specific theme of videos, but this is the first I've found, so it's getting my respect. The theme of this site is videos that were shot out of moving vehicles. No more, no less. And I love it.

Already I half-regret posting this. But the smiling makes up for it...

Props to Josh for the link, btw. (My first credited source?)

Is it too late for me to jump on the Kissy Sell Out bandwagon? In NY time, probably. But whatever. This remix is awesome. I've been growing sick of remixes lately, but this one reminded me that a remix can be totally awesome, not merely a minor improvement on the lame original. This is a wonderful mixture of poppiness, chopped-up-ness, and electro-ness, with just the right ammount of dancey house-ness sprinkled on top. It almost makes me dance. Almost.

(But I promised I'm never dancing again, after a particularly embarrassing night, so nothing will ever actually make me dance. Mark my words.)

How come I've never heard this before?! How come my "friends who know about more music than I" have never mentioned this band to me? Was I just not listening to you, dear friends? Whatever the case, this is exactly what I wanted (needed?) to hear tonight, after gorging myself on loads of wine and beer and homemade, collective-made vegetarian food. What better way to get through a food coma than with some sort of psychedelic music. Sure, sure, psych is everywhere, we've heard loads of it.... but what makes this stand out to me is that it reminds me a lot of Television Personalities. I can't say quite why, it just does. And I like it. I now totally need to get the other albums. Damn.

If you really want, you can listen/download this one also, over at Heino Und Jerry's again. (I'll try not to let all my recommendations come from there, really.)

(And yes, the album cover is not quite the right album, but it's close.)

Thank you, Stephane Vigny, for making something I always wanted, but never knew I wanted.

...and it is good.



Honestly, this makes me sooooooo very happy!

Practically every version of this song is quite awesome, especially when its by the composer Jacques Brel himself, but this is my favorite, hands down. I don't know why. As I said in an earlier post, this song is at the top of my songs-I-wouldn't-mind-having-soundtrack-my-death-scene list (I blame HatChris for me having such a list, btw). I can even picture the scene: I'm laying on the ground, after having been violently shot or stabbed (no doubt I was trying to prevent some great tragedy... like Lincoln's assasination... or a lover's abduction), still and lifeless, in a puddle of my own blood. The camera is directly above, centered on my face, close up, spinning very slowly, and zooming out to reveal the whole scene, blood and bodies and shell casings and knives. Then on the "But if you stay..." bits, the camera swoops in for a close up on one of my eyes. On the next "If you go away..." bit, the camera does the slowly spinning and zooming out thing again. Repeat until song is done, then fade to white, or perhaps to a scene of a river. (Or something like that, at least. My cinematagraphic skills aren't the best.)

[To cleanse the palate of the psych-soul, or because I'm on a roll?]


It's true, Lee Marvin is fun to watch in movies. But who would have thought he'd be so fun to listen to? (Fine, I suppose you would, Mr. I've-Seen-The-Movie-This-Song-Is-From, but come on, some of us quit our jobs at the video store before we got to that one. Hell, I didn't even get all the way through the Kurosawa section...) Thanks to Mr. Marvin, I now have a new addition to my songs-I-wouldn't-mind-having-soundtrack-my-death-scene list. And let me say that this is tied for first place with Dusty Springfield's version of "Ne Me Quitte Pas/If You Go Away." Yes, it's that good. But a bit less dramatic.

Oh, and if it's still there, you can download it at Diddy Wah.

More psych-soul! This might be my favorite overall album of psych-soul... It's solid all the way through. I'm fairly certain they're related to Black Merda in some way, but I forget how.

(Annecdote: After doing a self-taught crash-course in all things funk, I attended the WFMU Record Fair, totally forgetting that awesome obscure funk is sort of 'rare' and 'highly sought after.' Whoops. At least I got some awesome 1950's country LPs for cheap.)

This reissue is probably what first got me into 'psychedelic soul.' Some of the slower soul bits aren't quite my thing, but holy shit... the funk/rock bits are amazing! If you and I ever find ourselves in a situation where you're trying to get me to sing along with something (for I've probably staunchly stated that I never sing along with songs), "Cynthy-Ruth" is the song you can break me with. Every time. Twice in a row. Three times in a row. It doesn't matter. It's too awesome.

Lately, when DJing, I discovered the amazing power of funk. Now, I've got some amazing disco stuff I can whip out for those times when people want to dance, but what if they don't want to dance? Well... that's where funk comes in. Funk will MAKE them dance. Its unavoidable. And when you've got something like this band - basically soul/funk with rock touches (I think the official genre is 'psychedelic soul') - it's even better. This band is a bit more 'soul' than 'psychedelic,' but that's ok because there's still plenty of funk to it.

And perhaps best of all, you can listen to and download the album over at Heino und Jerry's.

No, wait, even better: the title and album cover!

NSFW a bit...

I really want my Halloween to be exactly like this:

I'm trying to pump myself up for Halloween, since no one I know is pumped up. Lame. Anyway, these are super-Halloween-ish songs, like Monster Mash or Bela Lugosi's Dead, but they are quite how I want my Halloween to be tonight...










(BTW, if anyone has the movie "Cha Cha" (which features both Nina and Lene), I'll do almost anything for it! Contact me!)

(BTW2, why "haole?" Come on, Germans are definitely haole, right?)

At least I can be certain of the direction of this year's costume must take: stuff tied to my face.

(If you really really can't wait, just skip ahead to about 2:40)

Had I been into Roni Size/Photek/Dieselboy/etc instead of Nirvana/Misfits/Ministry/etc when I was in junior high, I surely would have taken drum lessons instead of guitar lessons.

Now I realize what could have been:

Overly inquisitive readers may have already noticed a tiny new section on this blog: the (recently re-christened) Auxiliary Feeds section. Its just over there, on the bottom of the left hand column, I think. It displays the last 5 items I tagged as music videos in my online bookmark collection. (Overly inquisitive and intrepid readers may discover even more secrets that section holds.)

Forget "the people," forget "the pizza," forget "the anonymity," forget "the grittiness." This right here is the real reason I love NYC:

I'm fairly certain this was made specifically for me. Godard + distorted electronic music?!

One of our local stations (WHOB 106.3 FM, The Bee!) would play some syndicated show from England where some guy (I can't remember who) would run through what was (I can only assume) at the top of the charts in England. I swear I heard the DNA remix of Tom's Diner waaaay before all of my friends... you know, like a week or two before.

M/A/R/R/S - Pump Up The Volume

1987: I never saw the video until probably the end of highschool, which is a shame, because I would have loved the song even more if I had seen it when I first heard the song.... (How could I mention this song without mentioning one of my favorite movies?)

The KLF - 3 a.m. Eternal (Live at the S.S.L.)

1991: That little two note synth thing (played on the phone in this video) brings me back, more than anything else in this one. Oh, also, this was the first time I realized just how cool that British winter jacket or rain coat look could be. (BONUS: check this out. It's Tammy Wynette making an appearance while The KLF played on TOTP. Ahh, those wacky Illuminati-fightin' techno bands!)

The Farm - Groovy Train

1990: Ahhh! Such jangly happy hippy techno! Yay! After all this, can you believe that I never heard The Happy Mondays until just a couple years ago? (PS- I sooooo wanted to be on that bus.)

Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner (DNA remix)

1990: Who knew I'd end up living a few blocks away from that diner for a little while a few years ago? Imagine my disappointment when I went inside and learned that they don't have this song on an unending loop blaring on the stereo!

Underworld - Cowgirl

1993(song)/2000(video): To this day, one of my very few regrets in life is not being in that crowd when the drums finally kick in around the 2:55 mark and everyone is bouncing and the lights are flashing so!
(BONUS: Underworld - Two Months Off... 2002: Not from my youth, but a similar vibe for sure, and I love the video.)
(DOUBLE BONUS: Gus Gus - David... 2003: Definitely not from my youth, but I love it and its definitely techno... reminiscent of all this stuff I've been talking about here.)
(TRIPLE BONUS!: Faithless - We Come 1... 2001: Oh, how stylish protest is! In all seriousness, this was the only good thing to come from Dido's success: I learned of this, her brother's band.)
(QUADRUPLE MEGA BONUS!!!!:
Paffendorf - Crazy Sexy Marvelous

THE MOST PERFECT TECHNO SONG/VIDEO EVER!!!!!!!!!!!
Whenever I enter a club (disclaimer: I don't) this is the song I'm always dancing to, no matter what the DJ plays.)

Honorable/Questionable Mentions:

• Cathy Dennis - Touch Me (All Night Long) 1990: I was never too into it, and its kind of crap, but damn its so cheezy techno sexy!
• Neneh Cherry - Buffalo Stance 1988: Another so-so song by one of my boyhood crushes.
• Snap! - The Power 1990: I can't take this one anymore. But I used to love it.
• Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam 1989: Wow, that's a gaudy video.
• The Prodigy - Out of Space 1992: Me then: "Whoah!" Me now: "Whoah! It's The Firestarter with long hair dancing all silly!"
  

Finally, discovery of this song in 1997 just might be the reason (or one of the reasons) I will never truly get back into these late 80s and early 90s cheezy songs, except for maybe Underworld.

Addendum: Perhaps "dance" should have been used in place of every instance of "techno" in this post...

Underworld existed before I first heard of them in 1994. Take, for instance, this video of theirs from 1988:

from World Of Kane

"[Look] out for the RAF sign and don't forget your Wellies!"

The Blue Hole

Wait, did I ever post the baby panda sneezing? No? OK, good. Then, yes, this is the cutest video I'll ever post.

My favorite song from a trailer since the movie about Dean Reed (Red Elvis):

For some reason, zombies in prison make prison less scary.

This blog is now officially merged with Glazing Part 2 (pictures) and Represpect (videos). If you haven't done so already, feel free to peruse those to catch up. When you've looked at all that, you will then know everything that I know, in its entirety. No more updates will occur on those sites. This site is the ultimate survivor. Posts now have labels indicating which of the 4 main topics they belong under (music, video, image, notice).

Enjoy. Or don't. Whatever.

The gates are open. I posted one single, and already here comes another...

While I managed to get the album this was on (Ukeyeye, "reinterpretations" of older songs, distantly involving a ukelele, I think), I found most of the other songs disappointing, and none remotely reached the peak of the awesome mountain on which this song resides. I hold by my convictions that the original song which this covers was completely awesome well before Kill Bill. Yet, as awesome as the original was, this is hands-down my favorite version. Slow, sultry, spooky, sparse (and in French!).... how could it not be awesome? Also, it helps that it has an equally stark music video that I think convincingly looks to be from the 60s.

I am considering consolidating my blogs. I really like singularly-focused blogs. So each "great idea" for blogging that I have becomes its own blog. Needless to say, I update stuff so sparsely that it seems sort of silly. So, consolidation finally occurred to me today, as I updated one blog, then another, in rapid succession. Some could argue that I am "all about" lazy, so why then have I let an attempted aesthetic overrule laziness when it comes to blogging?

So, I ask you, dear (and possibly non-existent) reader: Should I consolidate Represpect, Non-Existent Temporary Holding, and Glazing Part 2 into one super-mega blog?

If you read this blog, I would really like to hear your opinion. Be anonymous, if you don't want me to know that you specifically are stalking me. I can handle it.

Finally! I've begun to find other slow metal bands that I like almost as much as Om and Sleep and SunnO)))!! Sure, Black Sabbath is great and all (well, certain albums, at least), but that only amuses me so much, and there's something about newer bands doing the sludge thing.... I don't know, maybe its just that the production is better?

Anyway, Electric Wizard was discovered by a day of reading EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE on Wikipedia. I now know everything, just like Jack Austin. Or perhaps I just skimmed every article linked from those three links atop this post. Either way, I got Come My Fanatics... and was very pleased. Where a lot of sludge metal, drone metal, and stoner metal has a lyricist I can not stand, Electric Wizard's guy works for me. Not too screaming, not too melodic. Quite monotonous actually, just the way I like it. And the music is heavy, crunchy, repetitious.

I haven't been into much new music lately, but older music I should have known about forever. Shocking Blue is one of those bands. I sort of knew about them already, after hearing a non-Banarama version of "Venus" I discovered it was by Shocking Blue. Then, again, after hearing a non-Nirvana version of "Love Buzz" I discovered it was by them as well. Finally, an unnamed friend who I discover a lot of my music through (now you see why he's unnamed... if I told you his name, you wouldn't need me! the horror!) played this amazing sorta-garage rock, sorta-psych, sorta-bluesy album, and right as I was about to ask him what it was, "Venus" came on. I realized instantly that Shocking Blue was awesome. Sort of like Jefferson Airplane, but more focused, I would say, and more awesome.

I'm mostly recommending this grime EP based on 2 songs: "Keep Up" and "Axiom". "Keep Up" has this real nice thing where it works the tension from pauses into the song. Not a lot, mind you, just a few times. When added to the weird up-and-down of both the music and the lyrics, its almost makes me think of a grime version of Busta Rhymes' "Gimmee Some More"...

"Axiom" is an even faster song than "Keep Up," and that's part of the appeal. Weird beats that speed up and slow down, all while Durrty keeps pace, to weird effect. This is my pump-up song for when I've listened to Lips 2 Da Floor too many times. Actually, now that I'm listening to it again, this one might actually be more like that Busta Rhymes song. Whatever.

(BONUS! "Axiom" is available for download! For now, at least.)

I don't normally post about a single song, but this is a special circumstance. I already posted the video on my videoblogthing (Represpect), so if you read that you've probably heard/seen this song already....

Enough build up. The band is Tokyo Jihen, and it is basically a vessel for the singer, Shiina Ringo. This song is an energetic, garage rock-influenced romp. A few feelings that pop in my head while listening: ska, 5.6.7.8's, surf, garage, awesome, yeah yeah yeahs. But really, it is quite something else. The singer's cute growl is amazing and is certainly what makes the song. I'm fairly positive that this is how the character Gogo Yubari from Kill Bill would sound if she started a singing career. You know, the Japanese school girl with a ball-and-chain weapon?

Unfortunately, this song is not yet from an album. Apparently a single exists with the song, but its too new and obscure for me to find anywhere, practically. So, until someone is kind enough to hook me up with an MP3 of it, the only place I know to hear the song is this YouTube link.

As the subtitle states, this compilation is about the "The Rise of the Independent Music Industry After Punk." Pretty much every song is great, and if you're like me and haven't already heard all the bands on here, this will provide a great jumping off point for more exploration. Oh, and in case the "Independent Music Industry" bit is scaring you into thinking you're getting a disc of Blind Mellon and Violent Femmes, you can sleep safe... it's mostly 1970s/early 1980s British post-punk or post-post-punk, not cheesy American early 1990s "Indie." Thank god.
(By the way, you can rarely go wrong with a release on the Soul Jazz label. They're usually (always?) compilations, sure, but they're great compilations! Unless, of course, you already have all the stuff they're compiling.)

Because it was just sitting there, already open (I swear!), I decided to see what the new Nine Inch Nails album sounds like. I was surprised with it, as was this cute girl who may or may not have agreed just because she was flirting with me (I can't tell). It's not Downward Spiral, but it did not embarrass me the way some NIN albums have, and it held my attention all the way to the end. I'll have to listen to it some more to decide whether or not I actually like it, but on first listen, I'm pleased, and I may have to learn some new NIN songs to help me relive junior high. (By the way, the new Avril Lavigne does not get my recommendation, even though my friend wrote an stunning argument for her being the epitome of punk, where irony and non-irony meld into a higher plane of existence.)

(This might be disgustingly lazy, but whatever.....)
See my previous post about Pop Levi, except imagine that there are more songs and that they're all still totally awesome.

INSTANTANEOUS UPDATE:
Oh wait. I actually did not say much of anything about the music last time. Well, I don't get it. I can't explain it. Not because its so weird and freaky. Nah. It's just pop songs, but they sound awesome, like they could have been made back in 1968 or '71 or something. The singing sounds a little like T.Rex, in a way, but less annoying, I think. And the music is just awesome. Even when its not super upbeat, its still happy (but not too much) and funky. Thats the main thing: funkiness. Not 'funk' but 'funky' (...and I mean that in its positive connotation, not its original negative connotation. For the negative connotation, see: "Damn! You're breath is funky!")

I remember having heard of Matt Shadetek before, although I thought (misread?) that it was Shadtek (with no 'E'). Anyway, I had no clue what it was about. Well, good thing I'm curious. This CD is some awesome hiphop stuff. Lots of MCs, lots of electro hip hop beats. Some MCs sound British, others American, and others Jamaican. Its a real nice mixture, and an awesome CD all the way from start to finish. You could honestly start on any song on the album and think "whoah. sweet." Well, assuming you like awesome electro hip hop, that is.

Thank god I listened to this merely on the basis of "oh, look. a new Kill Rock Stars release" instead of reading reviews first. The reviews of this album keep mentioning that Marnie is a totally awesome guitar player who can shred as well as Steve Vai. Uggg. What could possibly turn me off more than that? Reviews like that do not describe this album accurately at all. OK, so there is guitar on this album. But the sound of the guitar (and whatever else makes music on this album) is so crazy and perfectly dischordant that its semi-reminiscent of Lightning Bolt, musically at least. Combine that with the almost-but-not-quite-pop song structures, and combine that with her singing/shouting somewhere between Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill. Now thats more like it. So, I'd say that is is definitely like Lightning Bolt + Yeah Yeah Yeahs + Bikini Kill + Kill Rock Stars (if I had to say it in one sentence).

When I first saw the title, I thought to myself "oh great... more '8 bit' electronic music crap" but then I listened to the album. They're covering Kraftwerk songs! And they're doing it (arguably) better than Kraftwerk! Awesome! If you are like me and have ever been a little disappointed by the blandness of some of Kraftwerks bigger hits, this is just what you need. If only this was what the original songs sounded like....
[By the way, I just learned that early early Kraftwerk albums are amazingly rocking and awesome! Their first album, Kraftwerk 1 (or just Kraftwerk) sounds like a lost Can or NEU! album. All krautrock psych droningness.... ah! And it makes some sense, since one of the NEU! guys was in Kraftwerk at this stage in their career. But check it out. Its so completely different than "We Are The Robots" and "Autobahn" style Kraftwerk.]

The first TTC album was a pretty awesome mixture of rap and cool/weird electronics. This one takes the same elements, but fuses them together much much tighter. The electronics have now become solidly funky beats to back the rhymes. If anyone speaks French, you'll have to let me know if the verses are as awesome as the beats. They sure sound pretty sweet, but who knows what it means.... it could all be able shooting dice and selling crack. I doubt it, though, because the beats are way too good for that.

I really didn't want to post about a Pitchfork favorite, but, the truth is that it is really good. I keep finding myself listening to it more and more lately. And it truly is a very unique sounding album. Often, you can pick out the influences, and yet what is being produced sounds nothing like the influences at all. I think the two most dominant influences are post-punk and Swedish indie-pop. And what is made sounds like both and neither at the same time. Damn. Please forgive me, but I have to say (for the first time ever) that this album is "a breath of fresh air" in the indie world. Due to legal issues, the only thing further that I'm allowed to say is: I really like this album.

Another CD I was disinterested in at first. I assumed this was bad techno, like a Paul Oakenfold or something. But no! Its simply a compilation of awesome awesome jazzy soul and soulful jazz that I've never heard of before! I'm not a huge soul-head (read: I don't go out collecting obscure bits of expensive vinyl) but I'm glad Giles Peterson is, so he can feed me primers like this. The funky country-soul cover of "Higher Ground" alone is worth getting this CD. (On the subject of obscure soul, though, also check out the Eccentric Soul series on Numero.)

I remember reading about this at some point and not thinking it was worth investigating. Then, I saw a music video for the title track somewhere. Wow. Its poppy, and fairly polished, but its still good. And the video! Wow. Its weird and retro and futuristic at the same time. And sexy. And all those phrases can describe the music as well. And it works. I could see this stuff going on the radio, even. But it'd definitely be one of those songs where you think to yourself "Whoah... sometimes pop music is good!" And damn funky, too. Maybe groovy would be a better word, actually.

Another work where words like "epic" and "tension" can be applied. But this one can also use the word "metal"..... It's the Melvins! A band so many people have told me so much about, and yet I sort of always hated them. Then one day, I heard a slow, heavy, instrumental piece of theirs (I forget what album it was off of) and I realized "Hey! Nice!" I listened to a bunch of their albums, and liked parts/bulks of some of them, but never a whole entire album (except maybe Houdini)..... then they released this album. This album is amazing! It's got so much heaviness, but also slow bits, and almost poppier bits, too. Shit. It's great. I would say that this album ranks up there with Boris' Akuma No Uta for most cohessive use of lots of different musical styles. (a side note: Boris is named after a Melvins song, and heavily influenced by them as well.)

Hey you! Are you still into epic long instrumentals that build oh-so-nicely to amazing crescendos? Yeah, I thought you might be. Well, I recommend this to you, then. It starts of sounding quite like some contempo-classical string piece, and, after quite a while, it slowly builds and brings in things like drums and guitars and crazy tension. I'm not always in the mood for both parts, but right now, I'm totally digging the string part. Totally.