3 posts tagged “england”

Frank Chickens is another one of those bands that I tend to really sing the praises of that not a lot of people know about.  Granted, in the US, they have had a grand total of one release -- and that's a remix 12".  D'oh.  In the UK, they're considered a novelty one-hit wonder, though they were actually pretty Residential and experimental.  The main member of the band, Kazuko Hohki's actually had quite a bit of outside success in the UK -- she's hosted TV shows, put on plays, shows, monologues, written books, and all sortsa stuff.  She's also got a couple of solo albums out, but they're kind of hard to find.  This is from the remix CD version of my favorite Frank Chickens album, Club Monkey -- though the original mix is superior.  Not much is different on this particular cut, though, so that's always good.  It's a cool, sad little song with a italian tag -- "O cane!  O cane mi amore!  Mangia me, ah per favore" -- or, "Oh dog!  Oh Dog, my love -- please eat me!"  It makes more sense in the song and when combined with the full narrative of Club Monkey.  It's also just a wicked awesome song.

Here's a Chumbawamba song from the Swinging With Raymond LP.  It's one of my favorites from this album, though the entire record is really rather insanely good.  I am probably more fond of the "Love It" side, with the more quiet, country-ish stuff, which this is from, but the "Hate It" side is also very good (particularly "Ugh! Your Ugly Houses!" and "All Mixed Up") as well.  This actually reminds me a bit of Kirsty MacColl, and since she was absolutely brilliant, that's definitely a good thing.  Chumbawamba's (admittedly kinda doofy) politics have got them sort of unfairly maligned, as people don't really think of them as great pop songwriters and performers, which they really, truly are.  (I mean, man, even aside from this song, check out "Amnesia" ferchrissakes.)

This is one of my all-time favorite Kirsty MacColl songs, and oddly/angrily enough, it's not available on CD, since it's on her first record which has inexplicably never been issued on CD.  Stupid record labels not releasing good stuff.  This one is a great example of her brilliant sense of humor; the song is catchy and musically great, but lyrically, it's hilarious and just a little bit sad, too.

(By the way, the pictured album, Titanic Days, does NOT feature this song.  As I said, it's not available on CD.  However, Titantic Days IS an outstanding album, so if you pick that one up, you will NOT be disappointed.)